A bombed-out Israeli bus brought to Berkeley as part of a rally to address “global terrorism” drew hundreds of spectators to Martin Luther King Jr. Park Sunday. It also drew protesters who called the display propagandistic, one-sided and anathema to peace. 

The factions at the event exchanged heated words and a few moments of violence. 

Sponsored by the Israeli Action Committee of the East Bay, the bus was on display for most of the afternoon while various speakers addressed a crowd on the lawn behind the city offices. Across the street, protesters gathered in front of the Old City Hall.  

“It does not reflect the situation [in the Middle East], it only shows one side,” said Ayman Badr, gesturing to the burnt hulk of the bus. Around Badr, protesters waved Palestinian flags and shouted at supporters of the event who waved Israeli flags and gathered at the edge of the park to shout back. 

Badr held a sign with a gruesome picture of a disfigured Palestinian woman that read “this used to be a woman.” He said the bus rally only focused on the Israeli death toll. 

“We need this to show that it happens to Palestinians as well,” he said. “I am against killing innocent people,” referring to deaths on both sides.  

“I felt it was important to bring the bus here because many people in Berkeley are blasé about terror,” said Dan Kilman, a San Francisco resident. “Many people don’t think it can happen here.” 

A few yards away from Badr, hundreds of protesters gathered in a silent vigil, holding signs with the names and pictures of Palestinian children killed in the conflict. According to Barbara Lubin, the director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, the vigil was meant to show that people on both sides of the conflict are dying. 

“We are here because we mourn the loss of all children and we thought it was important to bring their names and sometimes pictures because they are the ones that are invisible,” she said.  

Although MECA requested that people participating in the vigil restrain from engaging with people at the event, Lubin said she understood why some of the protesters decided to speak up. 

“They are kids, they are Palestinians, it’s their families who have felt the brutality of the occupation,” she said. “We welcome them on this side of the street.” 

While protesters kept to their side of the street during the majority of the event, a small group gathered at one corner of the park to confront the people waving Israeli and American flags. A yelling match ensued but Berkeley police broke it up and protesters crossed back.  

Later in the afternoon, another small group of protesters with Palestinian flags marched towards the bus rally. They were immediately confronted, while the Berkeley police rushed to get between the two sides. Several people again engaged in yelling matches, and at one point punches were thrown. 

The police wrestled a 14-year-old wearing a kaffiyeh—a traditional checkered scarf worn in the Middle East—to the ground and handcuffed him. They also handcuffed one of the event supporters who wore a kippah, a traditional Jewish religious hat. Both were taken to the police station.  

Small arguments continued throughout the rest of the event but police did not interfere. 

Susanne DeWitt said she was happy the event had a good turnout. Concerning the protesters, she said she was ignoring them. 

“How silly can you be, even in Berkeley,” she said, criticizing what she said was the inability of the protesters to understand that the real meaning of the event was to protest “global terrorism.” 

“I’m sick of children being killed on both sides,” said Liana Hail, from Santa Cruz. “But I believe that Israel has the right to exist.” 

She held a sign which read “Some Palestinians Are Terrorists.”  

Jim Hutcheson, the director of the Jerusalem Connection (formerly known as Christians for Israel) which owns the bus, said he expected the protest. He also criticized the protesters’ argument by claiming that there “is no such thing as a Palestinian people.” 

By 3:30 p.m., most people had dissipated. A group of the protesters waited next to the rear gate of the police station to receive the boy who had been handcuffed during the confrontation. When he finally came out, his friends greeted him with hugs. According to the boy, the police did not charge him with anything. 

Nadine Ghammache, who participated in the silent vigil, walked away still shocked by the display. 

“It’s dishonest,” she said. “Because if they are really concerned about peace, they would also bring uprooted [Palestinian] olive trees. Can they even bring a bulldozed home? What is so painful is that people are being caught in that one-sidedness. It keeps all the groups caught in a cycle of violence.” 

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Plans for the $120 million Memorial Stadium renovation moved a small step closer to realization Friday with the deadline for UC Berkeley’s call for submittal of qualifications from architectural firms. 

Six architectural firms arrived in time for consideration, said Tom Lollini, assistant vice chancellor for physical and environmental planning for capital projects. 

“We’ll be screening the submittals and making a short list of candidates who we’ll bring out and walk around the site and then schedule interviews sometime in the next two to four weeks,” he said. 

The 81-year-old structure, designed by architect John Galen Howard, sits in Strawberry Canyon directly over the Hayward fault, and thus demands extensive retrofitting to match the power of anticipated earthquakes. 

Asked if the retrofitted California Memorial Stadium would include permanent night television lighting, Lollini said, “Our hope is not only to make the venue attractive to fans of a Class I football team, but also to make it attractive to television.” 

It was the first acknowledgment that the university has not given up on its desire to install the lighting since community opposition forced it to rule out such lights nearly five years ago. 

Television lighting is a hot button issue for residents of Panoramic Hill, who have twice mounted successful challenges to earlier proposals to install permanent lighting. 

When asked for comment on Lollini’s remark, Panoramic neighborhood activist Janice Thomas responded, “Can you just say she fainted and didn’t respond? That the normally verbose advocate for her neighborhood was rendered speechless?” 

The architect selected will work with the San Francisco office of Studios Architecture, an international firm with offices in London and Paris which has been retained as the master architect on overall stadium planning.  

The new firm will draw up the construction budget, prepare the schematics and construction schedule, and make certain that adverse impacts are minimized. Lollini said the extent of the stadium project is still unsettled, pending the raising of the necessary construction funds. 

While the request for architectural qualifications estimated the project cost at $120 million, the university has also floated a figure of $140 million “and more.” 

The university plans to raise most of the cash from alumni devoted to the Golden Bears. It recently raised enough to guarantee Coach Jeff Tedford’s five-year, $1.5 million annual salary contract. 

Millions more have been raised for the stadium.  

Janice Thomas’ battle against stadium lighting began in 1999, when the university filed a categorical exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act, claiming the installation of 282 television lights constituted an accessory structure added on to an existing building. 

Organized as Neighbors of Memorial Stadium, Thomas and her allies hired attorney Brian Gaffney, who submitted a brief that successfully challenged the university’s move and led to a withdrawal of the exemption. 

The following year the school came back with an environmental impact statement checklist and a historic structure report on the stadium itself. A large turnout of angry neighbors at the following meeting led the school to say they were dropping the permanent lighting and had begun investigating the possibility of installing retractable lighting. 

Several months later the university sent neighbors a letter declaring their intent to abandon the project altogether. 

“Permanent lighting is completely unnecessary if they’re only going to use it at night and late afternoons only two or three times a year,” said Thomas. “It also makes me wonder what else they’d be doing at the stadium.” 

Thomas also objects to the failure of the university’s recently released Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) to address the stadium as a whole. “It would be nice if we could look at the stadium project as a whole—the retrofit, the intensification of use and the funding sources,” she said. 

The stadium itself would be fitted with luxury suites for corporate and wealthy fans along with new weight and locker room facilities. One proposal floated by the university last year calls for adding facilities for Boalt Hall law school, the Haas School of Business and a conference center in the retrofitted stadium. 

The discovery of Lollini’s Request for Qualifications for a stadium architect angered Berkeley city councilmembers, who shared Thomas’s outrage that the stadium hadn’t been thoroughly addressed in the LRDP. 

Mayor Tom Bates singled out the stadium RFQ in last Tuesday’s State of the City address, saying it was an example of the university’s failure to detail known projects in the long-range plan document. Bates and councilmembers plan to attend the UC Regents’ Building and Maintenance Commission today (Tuesday) in San Francisco to voice concerns over the LRDP.e

The dispute between Berkeley High School and Berkeley Alternative High School escalated last week, with principals of the respective schools differing sharply over which administration was responsible for the problem. 

The disagreement, which has been simmering in the background for more than a year and is now being mediated by BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence, centers around charges that BAHS students are being excluded from BHS extracurricular activities. Early last week, at a standing-room-only parent-student meeting at BAHS called by BAHS Principal Alex Palau and attended by Lawrence, several BAHS parents blasted BHS Principal Jim Slemp for not being present, and for being the cause of the problem. 

BAHS students say that the ban began as early as last school year, when a 2003-04 BHS cheerleader was told that she would not be able to come back on the squad this year because she was a BAHS student. Other BAHS students said they were turned away from tryouts this fall to participate in the BHS Spirit Week events. The ban also includes the BHS junior and senior prom (where BAHS students can go, but only as dates of BHS students), but does not include—at least for this year—the June graduation exercises at the Greek Theater. 

Late last week, during his State of the School address to the Berkeley High PTSA, Slemp responded to the charges, saying that he had implemented a ban on BAHS student participation in “our activities” because “we do not get any support or any funds from Berkeley Alternative High School” to deal with what he called “a dangerous situation.” 

Answering a written query from the floor following his address, Slemp charged that the BAHS administration and staff created the problem by “sending bunches of kids over to us without supervision. We don’t know who these students are. They don’t listen to us.” He said that while “we have not said that [the ban] is an absolute,” he said he was issuing a “challenge” to the BAHS administration to correct the problem. 

Apprised of Slemp’s comments by telephone, BAHS principal Palau at first said quietly “wow,” and then flatly denied that BAHS students have been sent to BHS extracurricular activities without supervision. “My staff—including myself, my school safety officer, or my counselors—always participate and help to supervise,” he said. 

Palau said that if Berkeley High had knowledge of specific instances where Berkeley Alternative students had caused trouble at BHS activities “these should have been documented and my office should have been notified.” He said that he knew of no such documentation or notification. 

Noting that funds for student activities are available from the state and district “for all students in the district,” Palau also noted that while he had been aware of “some concerns” by the BHS administration about BAHS student participation, he had never been formally notified that a ban was going to be put in place. 

He said that BAHS parents were “fairly indignant” about the situation. 

At last week’s BAHS meeting, parents sharply questioned Superintendent Lawrence about the source of Slemp’s safety concerns. Several parents charged that BAHS was being discriminated against because it is a predominantly African-American and Latino school, and that it had once been—though it is no longer—the high school’s repository for students with truancy or discipline problems. 

“We’re moving back into segregation,” one parent said, questioning why BAHS was being treated differently from Berkeley High’s Communications Arts and Science school and Community Partnership Academy, the two small schools that operate on the BHS campus. 

Another parent said that other parents should not listen to what she called Slemp’s “hypocritical statements,” saying that while the BHS principal was barring BAHS students from participating in activities to cheer for the BHS sports teams, “he comes down here and gets students from our school to play on his sports teams to make the ‘Big House’ look good.” 

BAHS staff confirmed that two BAHS students played on the BHS football team this year, one on varsity and one on junior varsity. Both were allowed to play the whole football season this year. 

Palau told participants at last week’s meeting that the dispute was really part of a larger debate going on in the district about two competing visions for Berkeley Alternative High School. 

“One vision is that we will continue moving towards a small school model, where students voluntarily attend because they believe they can learn better in our environment,” he said. “Another vision returns us to a time when we identified problem students at Berkeley High and moved them over here, voluntarily or involuntarily.” 

Palau said that he obviously preferred the small school model, and would work to continue to implement it. 

In keeping with Lawrence’s move to mediate the dispute, Palau said by telephone this week that he has already picked a committee from BAHS to meet with their counterparts at BHS. At last week’s school board meeting, Lawrence said that a meeting would be set up with Berkeley High’s Activities director and assistant principal in charge of activities. 

D

Local city councilmembers and state Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) gathered in Cotati Friday to discuss the impact of casinos on their communities and consider a proposed statewide initiative that would impose a moratorium on new gambling pal aces. 

Among those attending was newly elected Richmond City Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin. 

Friday’s meeting was called by Frank Egger of Fairfax—California’s longest serving councilmember, now serving his tenth four-year term—and Sebastopol Councilmemb er Linda Kelley. 

Egger plans to be in San Pablo Saturday to attend a four-hour casino meeting called by Assemblymember Loni Hancock. 

Friday’s meeting was attended by 14 people, most of them elected officials from the North Bay. The group has scheduled a second meeting on Feb. 11. 

“All of them were concerned that mega-urban casinos would overwhelm their communities,” said Egger. “They’re exempt from sales tax, from transient occupancy tax, from income tax and from gross receipts taxes. The only taxes they’r e legally obligated to pay are taxes on employee wages.” 

Egger took issues with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s compact with tribes requiring they pay a quarter of net revenues to the state, contrasting it with Nevada, which taxes a quarter of gross revenues. 

“So we’re only getting 25 percent of twenty percent,” he said 

Egger drafted the Casino Moratorium Initiative, dubbed the California Indian Gambling Casino Moratorium and Planning Act of 2005. 

Its two key provisions are a five-year moratorium on all new tribal casinos unless authorized by a statewide election, and the creation of a 21-member California Indian Gambling Casino and Planning Commission. 

The proposed commission would hold statewide hearings and prepare a California Indian Gambling Plan f or presentation to the Legislature and governor no later that Dec. 31, 2010. 

The commission would make recommendations for the creation of a state gambling regulatory agency to replace the current California Gambling Commission and which would have final say over forwarding casino applications to the governor. 

Egger said some local lawmakers have been anxious about acknowledging their opposition to casino because of the potential impact of gambling industry donations on elections. 

“When I ran for the A ssembly in 2000, I had no money but I did have the support of David Brower, the Sierra Club and others,” Egger said. “When I was approached by a tribe that expressed interest in supporting me, I figured it was about work I’d done in support of Indian fishing rights. But it turned out they wanted my support for a casino proposal.” 

Egger said the proposed Point Molate casino and resort complex in Richmond, with its major auditorium for leading bands and performers, could pose serious problems both for the East Bay and Marin County. 

“If you think traffic on the San Rafael Bridge is bad now, just wait until there’s a casino. There’ll be day and night traffic,” he said. 

The casino site is located at the last I-580 exit in Richmond at the base of the bridge. 

On Dec. 1, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the state had conducted only one audit in the last two years of the 28 tribal casinos which have agreed to pay a portion of their profits to the state. All Native American casinos are required to send annual audits to the National Indian Gaming Commission, but that agency is barred from sharing the audits with states. 

While gambling experts told the paper that slot machines in successful casinos net between $300 and $600 daily, the money paid to the California Special Distribution Fund indicated an average take of $275. Skimming of casino winnings has been a favorite enterprise of organized crime, almost inevitable without rigorous auditing and enforcement, according to Joe Yablonsky, FBI Special Agent of Charge in Nevada in the early 1980s when the last of the old-line mobsters were evicted from the casinos.  

Hancock’s upcoming meeting, “Urban Casinos: Gambling with our Future?,” runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in San Pablo at the Knox Center for Performing Arts at Contra Costa Community College [entrance at El Portal Drive and Castro Street]. 

Currently plans for four East Bay casinos are in the offing. The Sugar Bowl Casino planned for unincorporated North Richmond is furthest along, with Be rkeley developer James D. Levine’s plans for Point Molate close behind. 

Plans for a massive expansion of Casino San Pablo, a card room already owned by the Lytton Rancheria band of Pomos, have been temporarily stalled, due to the efforts of foes of a pro posed casino pact which Gov. Schwarzenegger signed. 

Members of the California Senate Governmental Organization Committee posed skeptical questions of tribe leaders when they held a hearing on the governor’s proposal on Jan. 12. 

Schwarzenegger’s proposal would give the state a fourth of the casino’s winnings, estimated at a $155 annual boost to state revenues. Last week’s hearing is the first of several that would be held before the proposal is presented to legislators for approval. 

A day before the Sac ramento hearings, Oakland City Councilmembers voted down a proposal by the Lower Lake Rancheria—Koi Nation tribe of Pomos to build a casino off Hegenberger near Oakland International Airport. 

Five councilmembers said they feared the traffic and social co nsequences of the casino, while two others, including one supporter, abstained from the vote.  

Egger said he became particularly alarmed when he mapped the development of casinos along a corridor along U.S. 101 from Laytonville in the north through Marin County and on through 580 over the San Rafael Bridge to San Pablo. 

“When you look at the map, you see a casino every 15 to 18 miles, with the exception of Marin County,” he said. “It’s like one long strip, except you have to drive from casino to casino.” 

In his newest budget plan, Schwarzenegger unveiled plans that would nearly double the staffing for the existing state gambling commission, and add more staff for the gambling division of the state Attorney General’s office, as well as significantly boo st the budgets for both.

Wired Magazine founder Louis Rossetto got his wish Thursday when Zoning Adjustments Board members gave him final approval for an addition to his mother’s recently landmarked cottage. 

The board also approved a University Avenue project by developer John Gordon that would allow him to demolish and replace one dwelling and convert seven other units into offices as part of a complex that will include two restaurants. 

Rossetto’s building, a redwood-sided cottage at 1650 La Vereda Trail designed by noted architect William Wurster, was the subject of a lengthy battle that began when neighbors filed a landmarking application after ZAB had already voted its approval of Rossetto’s initial expansion plans. 

The City Council upheld the appeal and sent the proposal to the Landmarks Preservation Commission where often-heated testimony was followed by adoption of landmark status for the structure. Rossetto then submitted a new plan which left the original structure intact and added two new bedrooms in a separate, nearly mirror-image clone separated from the original by a breezeway. 

Landmarks commissioners approved the design in December, and Rossetto and his attorney, Rena Rickles, brought the new plans to ZAB Thursday night. 

“This application has been scrutinized, micromanaged and looked at from all ends,” Rickles said. “I ask you to approve it exactly as designed because any change would send it back to the landmarks commission.” 

“Please let a frail 87-year-old woman have a bedroom so she can be near her grandchildren,” urged Rossetto, who had said the renovations were needed so that his mother wouldn’t have to climb stairs to the bedroom and would have an extra bedroom for a caretaker. 

Only one voice was raised in opposition. Joan Seear of the Daley’s Scenic Park Neighborhood Group said the approval process “was flawed, with so much chagrin and frustration felt by everyone.” 

Seear urged that city permits “should be flagged for all potential resources,” a move now being considered by the Planning Commission. 

When it came time for a vote, only ZAB member Carrie Sprague voted to oppose the project. 

University Avenue complex 

Board members unanimously approved Gordon’s plans to transform his property at 1952-60 University Ave. into an office and retail complex with two new restaurants with indoor seating and a common outdoor dining area at the site of the complex’s current parking area. 

Gordon bought the property in 2003, the same year the two buildings at the front of the property were declared Structures of Merit by the LPC. 

The site originally housed a nursery, but later owners brought in a collection of seven cottages built between 1880 and 1920, adding storefronts to the two buildings fronting University. 

Gordon’s plan’s call for demolishing one cottage—a dilapidated cottage at the southwest corner of the project—and raising the upper stories of three others atop new commercial structures, 

Another new single-story structure at the southeast corner of the site would house the complex’s only residence, for a caretaker/gardener. An existing rose garden along the northeast interior fence would be enlarged. 

The project won’t replace the seven parking spaces that will be lost or the seven dwelling units, which will be transformed into office spaces. Several ZAB members lamented that they couldn’t asses the project for a long-proposed but never-enacted parking trust fund, but nonetheless cast their votes for Gordon’s project. 

ZAB also gave the first of three approvals needed before the landmarked Howard Automobile building at 2140 Durant Ave. is converted into a Buddhist seminary, institute and book store. 

After the mitigated negative declaration issued Thursday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) must approve plans for a two-story addition at the rear of the building and ZAB then must issue a use permit to allow construction.B

The City Council Tuesday is scheduled to vote on a plan to reduce auto lanes on a major North Berkeley traffic corridor, but not before residents get their chance to sound off on the proposal. 

Marin Avenue, stretching from the hills to the bay, is the preferred route for many North Berkeley residents to reach I-80. Under a plan backed by Albany and Berkeley officials, the avenue would be reduced from four traffic lanes to two, with bicycle lanes on each side and a center turning lane. 

After a seven-year drive from avenue neighbors in Albany to slow traffic on Marin—the primary access route for two elementary schools—the Albany City Council in October approved the plan. 

Berkeley’s City Council was asked to follow last month. However, amid dozens of e-mails from opponents of the project stating they hadn’t received notice of the plan, the council called for the public hearing first with a vote on the plan to follow. 

Regardless of Berkeley’s decision, Albany will proceed with the project, re-striping Marin from Stannage Avenue to the Berkeley border at Tulare Avenue. If Berkeley joins in, the project would extend four blocks further east to The Alameda. The change would be evaluated after a one-year trial period. 

Berkeley has spent $11,600 on the project’s environmental report and plans to seek grant money for the $30,000 needed to re-stripe the street if the council approves the project. 

At a Transportation Commission public hearing last October, 16 residents split on the plan. Supporters insisted that cars now drive too fast on the avenue, making it unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists, while opponents charged that reducing car lanes would bottleneck traffic during rush hour, spilling cars onto side streets, and increase air pollution from the added stop- and-go traffic.  

Currently, cars travel an average of 31 mph on the avenue, which is zoned for 25 mph, according to a report from the city’s transportation consultants, Fehr & Pierce. The firm also found that from 2001 through 2003, there were 114 collisions on the section of the avenue included in the plan, comparable to the statewide average of similar avenues. 

Fehr and Pierce concluded that the average rush-hour trip down Marin would increase by about 80 seconds with the reduced lanes, and average speed would be reduced to 26 mph. This result, the report suggested, would not be enough of a disincentive to push motorists onto side-streets. 

In other matters, the council is expected to approve an official city response to UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan. The council has voted to sue the university if it doesn’t address its concerns over its plan to build 2.2 million-square-feet of new academic and administrative space, 2,600 new dorm beds and up to 2,300 new parking spaces over the next 15 years.  

The city is demanding more details about specific construction projects and stronger efforts to lessen environmental and financial impacts on the city. Tuesday morning, the council will voice its opposition at a meeting of the UC Regents’ Committee on Grounds and Buildings in San Francisco. 

The council is scheduled to vote on an appeal of the permits for the nine-story, 149-unit Seagate building, approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board. Last week, the council held over the vote on the building slated for Center Street, just west of Shattuck Avenue. 

The appellants are arguing that city staff erred in awarding additional floors based on bonuses for including arts space and affordable units. They also questioned the developer’s intention to outfit the affordable units with fewer amenities. 

After receiving approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the ZAB, the Ed Roberts Campus proposal comes before the council Tuesday. The council will vote whether to grant the air rights at the Ashby BART Station, on the east side of Adeline Street, to the project. The center will house a consortium of disability rights and training organizations. 

The council is also set to become the first city to endorse the Kyoto Protocol, calling for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The United States is one of four industrialized nations—Australia, Monaco and Lichtenstein are the others—not to sign the accord. 

By endorsing the protocol, the city would pledge to keep emissions of greenhouse gases within levels called for under the protocol and lobby other cities to do the same. 

Berkeley-based KyotoUSA is leading the drive to get cities to endorse the protocol. Information about the organization can be found at www.kyotousa.org.›

New state laws mandate that California public schools must be “clean, safe, and functional,” and that all students be supplied with textbooks and other instructional materials and taught by qualified teachers.  

While these are admirable goals, not nearly enough funds have been allocated to meet them, Associate Alameda County School Superintendent Carlene Naylor told the Alameda County Board of Education last week. 

The requirements are a result of the August 2004 settlement of the landmark Eliezer Williams v. State of California lawsuit. 

“Obviously, this settlement was not put together by anyone who works in the real school world,” said Jacki Fox Ruby, a county school boardmember. 

The class action, filed in 2000 by a group of California parents backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, among others, claimed that the state failed to provide poor and underprivileged students with equal educational opportunities. The administration of former Gov. Gray Davis fought the lawsuit for three years, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger settled it. 

The settlement agreement and its enacting legislation requires that districts throughout the state provide necessary instructional materials to all students, maintain facilities in “good repair” at low-performing schools, and ensure that all classes have properly credentialed teachers. Among other terms of the settlement, parents are to be notified that they have the right to file complaints with their respective districts if they find any conditions in their schools in violation of the settlement agreement. 

The settlement and legislation gives added responsibility to county school superintendents to oversee local districts to make sure the terms of the settlement agreement are met. 

But at last week’s meeting, Alameda County School Superintendent Sheila Jordan and county school board members grumbled that the time given by the legislature to inspect schools, and the funds allocated to correct problems, was far from adequate. 

The Williams lawsuit legislation provided $5 million a year, for the next three years, to be spent throughout the state. 

As a result, beginning this year, county superintendents must annually produce a “state of the schools” report on schools ranking on the low end of the state Academic Performance Index (API). This year one BUSD school, Rosa Parks Environmental Science, was on that list, along with 62 Oakland schools and two Emeryville schools 

In addition, beginning in 2005-06, county superintendents must visit all of the low-performing schools in the first month of the school year to determine compliance with the settlement. The settlement also requires the county school districts to provide textbooks and other instructional materials to students if the local districts fail to comply with state law. 

The settlement legislation also set up an emergency facilities repairs account to fund “unforeseeable emergency needs” such as gas leaks, power failures, or pest infestations. 

Superintendent Jordan said her office was studying its responsibilities under the settlement. A report of the impact of the settlement on county district’s budget is scheduled be presented to the board at its Feb. 8 meeting.

Berkeley’s Design Review Committee will get their first look at plans for the David Brower Center Thursday night. 

The project, to be built at the site of the city parking lot at Fulton Street between Allston Way and Kittredge Street, will feature 97 affordable housing units and 31,700 square feet of office space for environmental groups, a 7,000-square-foot conference center, a restaurant and 8,500 square feet for retail sales built above a 145-space, four-level underground parking garage. 

Also on the agenda is a look at revised plans for Prince Hall Arms, a four-story 42-unit senior citizen residential building with street-front commercial at 3132 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Committee members rejected the building’s color scheme and the proposed use of sheet metal siding at their Dec. 16 meeting. 

The panel will also look at plans for additions of office space to a building at 2107 Dwight Way and a remodeling of a commercial and office building at 1640-1650 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in Workshop B of the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

—Richard Brenneman

At the moment that President George Bush takes the oath of office Thursday, at 9 a.m. Pacific time, Artists and Writers for Peace are calling on people to gather at BART Plaza in downtown Berkeley, and in 14 cities around the country, to read the Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again.” 

Participants for the Berkeley gathering at the corner of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue will include former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass and Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Darryl Moore. 

After everyone assembled reads the poem in unison, participants can read the poem individually. Later musicians and poets will be invited to read and sing original works of protest. 

Bonnie Hughes, a Berkeley Civic Arts Commissioner, is organizing the event and working to spread it across the nation. So far, protest organizers in 14 cities including Omaha and Philadelphia, have agreed to read the poem aloud as the president takes the oath of office. 

“Let America Be America Again” was first published in 1936. 

For more information, or for a copy of the poem, see http://artistsandwritersforpeace.org/index.html. 

—Matthew Artz

Last November’s election remade one-third of the nine-member City Council, but it is only starting to impact Berkeley’s 45 council-appointed citizen boards and commissions. 

The three new city councilmembers, Darryl Moore, Laurie Capitelli and Max Anderson, have moved quickly to either retain or replace their predecessor’s appointees to the most influential commissions—Planning, Police Review, Landmarks Preservation and the Zoning Adjustment Board—while most vacancies in other commissions remain unfilled. 

Councilmember Anderson has the toughest task ahead. After appointing Transportation Commission Chair Rob Wrenn to the Planning Commission, Paralegal Jonathan Wafer to the Police Review Commission (PRC), and local business owner Sam Dykes to the Loan Administration Board, Anderson still faces 12 vacant commission seats, many of which were left unfilled by his predecessor Maudelle Shirek. 

Moore has seven vacancies to fill after appointing Raudel Wilson, a Mechanics Bank executive and the President of the Downtown Berkeley Association, to the ZAB; Sara Shumer, a retired professor of political theory to Planning; Sharon Kidd, his former opponent for his City Council seat, to Police Review; and Deborah Spaulding to the Citizen’s Budget Commission.  

Laurie Capitelli, who was left with a nearly full roster of commissioners from his predecessor Miriam Hawley, has four commission vacancies to fill after appointing Sherry Smith, president of the Berkeley League of Women Voters, to Police Review and Rick Judd, a land use attorney, to fill his former seat on the ZAB. 

In all, 73 commission seats remain vacant, according to the most recent tally from the city clerk’s office released this month.  

Vacant commission seats can hamper oversight of public money. The Energy Commission, for instance, which is listed in the city clerk’s roster as having only five of its nine seats filled, manages $338,000 in federal grants for home safety and repair. 

Other commissions with numerous seats to be filled include the Fire Safety Commission and the Commission On Labor, which have four vacancies and the Commission on Disabilities and the Homeless Commission which have three vacancies. 

The new councilmembers reported receiving many applications for possible appointments to the ZAB, but no interest for several other commissions. 

“We’re just going to have to beat the bushes,” said Councilmember Anderson who plans to fill his commission vacancies within the next few weeks. 

For the Planning Commission, which studies and advises the council on land use issues, Anderson tabbed Rob Wrenn, who he said would restore balance to the commission and give greater weight to neighborhood concerns. 

Wrenn, who resigned from the Planning Commission last summer to avoid serving his full eight-year term and being precluded from returning, said he would focus on completing a land use plan for the neighborhoods directly south of the UC Berkeley campus.  

Anderson also picked Jonathan Wafer, who he said was the grandson of Berkeley’s first African American Police Officer, to serve as his PRC commissioner. Wafer replaces Jackie DeBose, who resigned after the election. Anderson said he expected Wafer would, “defend the rights of citizens to be free of police excess while being fair to the police.” 

Anderson also said he planned to retain Jesse Anthony as his ZAB Commissioner. Anthony, like DeBose was a close friend of former councilmember Maudelle Shirek, whom Anderson defeated in November. He said Anthony, who usually votes to approve use permits for new buildings, had done a credible job, and praised the work of the commission and staff. 

Capitelli, a former ZAB member, selected Rick Judd, a land use lawyer from the Oakland firm Goldfarb & Lipman, from a pool of viable candidates. Judd’s legal background appealed to Capitelli, who hoped his appointment could help the ZAB better understand legal scenarios in which state laws conflict with city laws. 

Asked about how Judd might vote on controversial projects, Capitelli, who more often than not supported new construction, replied that Judd, “seemed like someone who would approach things in an even-handed way.” 

Capitelli had similar praise for Sherry Smith, who replaces outgoing Lucienne Sanchez-Resnik at the Police Review Commission. Noting the commission’s traditionally contentious relationship with the police department, Capitelli said he hoped Smith, a newcomer to police issues, could ease tensions. 

Capitelli also said he planned to retain Landmarks Preservation Commissioner James Samuels and that Planning Commissioner David Tabb would determine this spring if he wished to remain on the commission. 

Councilmember Moore said he picked Sara Shumer for the Planning Commission because she was “analytical and not ideological.”  

Moore said he became acquainted with his ZAB appointment Raudel Wilson from Rotary Club activities. “I find him to be very conscientious and easy to work with,” said Moore who added that Wilson’s Latino heritage also appealed to him. 

Wilson, in an interview last week, said that he likes most of the new buildings constructed over the past decade and he agrees with most ZAB decisions, including its approval for the nine-story Seagate Building slated to rise on Center Street. 

Moore also replaced former Police Review Commission Chair Jon Sternberg, one of the commission’s more activist members, with his Election Day opponent Sharon Kidd. Kidd has volunteer as the Youth Intervention Specialist for the Oakland Police Department for the past nine years. 

Moore complimented Sternberg, but said he opted for Kidd because she resides in his district and would increase minority membership on the commission›

Second-year Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp presented an ambitious eight-goal program to the school PTSA Thursday night, telling parents and teachers in a “State of the School” address that he is dedicated to raising academic scores for all BHS students and eliminating the achievement gap between social and racial groups. 

“Just getting all of our students to graduate is not enough,” Slemp said. “We want to make sure each of our students leaves with the possibility of attending a four-year college. We don’t want them to merely graduate to a job of flipping burgers.” 

Following the presentation, PTSA president Barbara Coleman said her reaction was “positive and favorable. I think he’s great. He’s committed to the children at Berkeley High.” 

Slemp came to Berkeley High in the summer of 2003 during a period of rapid principal turnover. When he was hired, Slemp was the fifth BHS principal in six years, with his predecessor—Patty Christa—lasting less than a month before resigning. 

On Thursday night, Slemp’s clear aim was to project the impression that those days of administrative turmoil were over, and long gone. The bulk of the address dealt with academic matters. 

“My personal goal,” he said, “is that every student at Berkeley High take at least one AP class.” 

He said that a proposal for restructuring of the school’s academic choice program would soon be presented to the school board. Saying that some students were coming into the high school reading at the second or third grade level, he proposed an accelerated reading class for ninth-graders in that situation, taken separately from their regular English class.  

He said that the school is looking at revising its daily class schedule “not this fall but the following fall” for the purpose of “increasing the daily student/teacher contact. Fifty minutes of class time just doesn’t give enough time for extensive instruction.”  

Saying that “we are cheating seniors” by leaving many of them with little to do in their twelfth year, he said he was going to propose raising the graduating requirement from 220 credits to 230. 

“Some of this,” he added with a smile, “will make for an interesting discussion.” 

Slemp emphasized that these changes were going to take a while, and the school had to focus on long-term commitment to change. 

“Improvement of student achievement is not going to happen in one or two years,” he said. 

Among the remaining goals, the principal pledged to: 

• Provide a safe environment at the school. One reform, Slemp said, would be that administration and staff plans to “respond rapidly and effectively to what has before been considered as minor infractions. There’s a tendency to let things go by saying, ‘Oh, those boys are just horsing around.’ But a lot of times, that’s the type of activity that leads to more serious problems. We want to intervene before those problems develop.” 

• Continue to reduce truancy. Slemp said that attendance has improved from 88-89 percent when he took over to 93-94 percent today. 

• Integrate the special education department with the rest of the school. “Isolating special ed is against the law and morally wrong,” he said. “All of our kids are all of our kids.” 

He said that one reform he has already instituted has been to include the school’s special education supervisor as part of his administrative team. “In the past,” he said, “the supervisor merely reported directly to the district, which left a situation where special ed was handled ‘over there,’ separate from the rest of the school.” 

• Continue to improve the high school facility, including custodial and maintenance care. “The buildings still don’t meet my white glove test,” he said, “but the school is looking better than it used to.” 

He announced that the C Building would be remodeled over the summer break, with new floors, lighting, student lockers, and ceilings, and a complete repainting, and promised that the job would be finished in time for school reopening in the fall. 

“I have nightmares that we’ll miss the deadline,” he said, “but everybody assures me that it will be done.” He also said that the South of Bancroft Master Plan—dealing with all of the facilities in that area of the schoolgrounds—will be ready for release to the public next week, and for presentation to the Board of Education shortly afterward. 

At the end of the presentation, in response to a written request from the audience to “please stay at Berkeley High,” the principal said he was committed to the school, saying that “when I came here last year, I refused to say that I was going to stay forever. Remember all the principals that left? They all said that they were going to stay, so it seemed to me that this was a jinx. But I’m here, and you’ve got me.” 

The reading of the “please stay” comment brought general applause from the audience. 

›

Berkeley High School will take a step towards building its small schools program Wednesday night when the Board of Education considers a proposal for the new BHS School of Social Justice and Ecology. 

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at Old City Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Way downtown. 

If approved, the School of Social Justice and Ecology would be scheduled to open in fall 2005 with 56 freshman and growing to a 250-student program by the fall of 2007. It will join the Communications Arts and Science and Community Partnership Academy, small schools already in place at Berkeley High. The board will consider the Arts and Humanities Academy at its Feb. 2 meeting. 

BHS Principal Jim Slemp said that it will “probably take one or two more” small schools beyond those four to reach the board’s goal of half the school’s students attending small schools. 

In other action at Wednesday’s meeting, the board will consider approval of a Surplus Facilities Committee to look into the sale or long-term lease of the former Hillside School, closed in 1983. In 1990 the district determined that the property was unsafe for reopening because it sits on a portion of the Hayward fault. 

The board will also hear a report on the district’s special education program, scheduled for 8 p.m.?

Berkeley could be in for a red hot debate over the future of the fireplace. 

Four years after the City Council outlawed high-polluting wood stoves and fireplace inserts in restaurants and all new construction, the Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC) is considering an ordinance that could make the use of some fireplaces illegal. 

“The old law didn’t do anything to combat air pollution,” said LA Wood, a CEAC Commissioner and the driving force behind the move to regulate fireplaces in the city.  

He wants the commission to hold a public hearing on the issue by March and ultimately recommend that the council ban the use of all open fireplaces and allow wood burning only in fireplaces that have stoves or inserts certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Berkeley Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy said that strict fireplace guidelines could be appropriate in cases when a chimney was positioned to blow smoke near a neighbor’s windows, but was less convinced that Berkeley needed to outlaw all non EPA-compliant fireplaces. 

“It seems a little bit difficult to justify it if the air quality readings don’t justify it,” he said. 

If the council adopts Wood’s proposal, Berkeley would join Sebastopol, Santa Rosa and Marin County as Bay Area jurisdictions that restrict fireplace use to follow EPA guidelines. The other jurisdictions have outlawed non-EPA-approved inserts or stoves, but still permit wood burning in open fireplaces.  

Considered by many a symbol of rustic comfort, the fireplace, although no longer a primary source for home heating, remains one of the region’s prime winter-time polluters. In the Bay Area, wood burning from fireplaces and other sources accounts for one-third of dioxin, a toxic compound, and contains cancer-causing substances such as benzene and formaldehyde, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD).  

Wood smoke also produces inhalable particulate matter—tiny particles that can measure less than one micron in diameter (one human hair has a diameter of between 40 and 120 microns) and can become lodged in the lungs contributing to lung diseases and cancer. 

Sufferers from asthma, emphysema and heart disease are more prone to particulate air pollution. Children and elderly people are especially vulnerable, according to the district. 

During winter months, wood burning accounts for roughly 30 percent of PM 2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns) in the air, second only to auto exhaust, said David Fairley, a BAAQMD statistician. 

Winter is the season for weather patterns that trap pollutants. High pressure systems that sit stationary during colder months create a layer of warm air that blocks colder air near the ground, preventing particulate matter from escaping until wind and rain arrive. Berkeley’s location directly across from the Golden Gate means that the city is less likely than valleys to experience the stagnant weather patterns that trap pollutants. 

The air district doesn’t have monitors within Berkeley city limits, but nearby readings show the East Bay enjoys relatively clean air year round. Since 2002, Downtown Oakland has had an average PM 2.5 reading of 16 microns per cubic meter—far lower than the federal pollution threshold of 150 and the state threshold of 50. 

However, residents living beside prolific woodburners often breath dirtier air.  

“In places like the East Bay where regional air quality is generally good, wood smoke tends to be a highly localized problem,” said Michael Lipsett, public health physician with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. He said he has received numerous complaints about wood burning from residents in the East Bay hills. 

“It can be just one house or one block that gets the brunt of it,” he said. 

Aftim Saba, a North Berkeley resident, said his family has suffered from being directly adjacent to a neighbor’s chimney. The neighbor’s constant wood fires blew smoke directly into his home, he said, until last year when he hired a private inspector who found that the neighbor had built the fireplace without a city permit. 

“We were like prisoners in our own house; we couldn’t open any windows from November through April,” said Saba, adding that he and his children suffered respiratory illnesses from exposure to the smoke. 

Other jurisdictions have tried to cut down on wood smoke without requiring that residents switch to hi-tech fireplaces. 

In the San Joaquin Valley, which is more prone to weather patterns that trap particulate matter, the regional air board last year enacted regulations instituting no-burn days when particulate matter readings surpassed EPA thresholds. It also limited the number of fireplaces in new development lots and required home buyers to upgrade or disable their fireplaces. 

So far this winter, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has called three no-burn days, said Kelly Malay, the board’s senior education representative. 

In the Seattle area, since 1989, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has had the authority to call a burn ban whenever the level of particulate matter hits 60 microns per cubic meter. Amy Fowler, an air resource specialist for the board, said it calls burn bans about once a year. 

Around Seattle, average air visibility has improved from 49 miles to 69 miles since 1989—a 40 percent increase that air agency spokesperson Mike Schultz said was partially due to the no-burn laws. 

Closer to home, Eric Stevenson, Air Monitoring Manager for the Bay Area air board said that particulate matter readings appeared to have dropped in Santa Rosa since the city required EPA-certified wood stoves and fireplace inserts in 2002.  

While a standard fire place emits between 50 to 75 micrograms of particulate mater, EPA-certified stoves and inserts emit an average of about four micrograms. 

Depending on the model, Potter said, a clean burning fireplace costs about $2,500 to buy and install. The cleanest and most popular of the EPA-certified devices is a gas-powered imitation log insert. 

Santa Rosa is the only Bay Area city whose ban on wood has taken effect, and the city has not actively enforced the law, said City Planner Joel Galbraith.  

Commissioner Wood said he would like to see Berkeley’s building inspection division enforce a ban. 

While Santa Rosa hasn’t experienced much opposition to its law, Berkeley residents opposed a ban on non-compliant inserts and stoves when the council last considered regulating fireplaces three years ago. 

“I can’t see them passing it,” said Elmer Grossman, a retired physician and a former CEAC member who helped draft the city’s current ordinance. “Look at the last election. You couldn’t get voters to tax themselves for basic services, they’re not going to pay $1,000 to upgrade their fireplace.” 

f

Unionized grocery workers from around northern California gathered Friday at the Oakland Hilton to announce plans to escalate their fight against three major grocery chains if the stores do not agree to protect health care and other union benefits. 

The announcement came just as the workers’ old contract expired. That contract prevented workers from calling for a boycott or going on strike. But now that it has expired, workers said they can, and will, do whatever it takes to win a fair contract.  

The th ree different stores that could be affected include Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger. All three had the option of continuing the contract until a new contract was signed but all refused, according to the union. 

“After more than four months [of contract neg otiations], the employers have made no movement in their economic bargaining,” said Ron Lind, a spokesperson for the eight United Food and Commercial Worker (UFCW) union locals that are part of the contract. He called the stores ‘health care offers “unwor kable” and “unacceptable.” 

The deadline for the stores to acknowledge the union’s demands is Jan. 24. 

According to Lind, the health care proposal that the stores have offered would make health care unaffordable for many employees. Currently, employees d o not pay for health insurance. Under the initial contract offer from the stores, employees would have paid as much as 20 percent of the premium cost. Workers would also have covered increases in premiums, which have risen sharply for the past several yea rs. 

“We have been committed and we remain committed to working out a contract at the bargaining table,” said Jennifer Webber, the director of public affairs for Safeway’s northern California division. “What happens at the parking lots does not impact what happens at the bargaining table,” she added, in reference to the rally. 

The union also announced that it would expand their campaign to Albertsons stores because of what it said was Albertsons “aggressive stance at the bargaining table.” Up until now, the union has only been targeting Safeway, asking shoppers to sign cards pledging to support the union in the event of a boycott or a strike. 

Another sticking point for the union has been the stores’ proposal for wages. According to the union, the latest offer from the stores includes a two-tier wage system that divides new and current employees. New food clerks, for example would start at $8.45, instead of around $9.45, an hour. They would top out at $17, instead of the current $21.16, an hour. It would also take new employees five times longer to reach the top of the job classification. 

“In my time at Safeway, I have been able to buy a house and put my daughter through college,” said Debra Talcott, a worker who spoke at the rally. “However, those days may be over.” 

Several of the employees said they were ready to go on strike. They did not seem to be daunted by the almost five-month strike that consumed southern California grocery stores last year. 

When asked what she thought of the possibility of a strike, Deborah Chesbrough, a 15-year employee at the Safeway in Menlo Park said, “I would be out there with my kids, although I know it is a last resort.” 

TOO MUCH CREDIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Responding to Jane Stillwater’s recent letters on George Bush (which I have appreciated very much). I think she credits him with too much rationality in calling him an actor. As I see it, an actor is intentionally performing a role, whereas George Bush has told us that God is guiding him. No doubt Karl Rove advises him to mention this infrequently, this being, at present, a secular state. 

Whether psychopath or sociopath, Mr. Bush appears to be unaware of and untroubled by reality. We must bend every effort to derail his scheme to destroy Social Security (by borrowing billions for privatization) thus making our deficit as huge as he can. 

Jane, I hope you are joining us in our Hands Off Social Security demonstration in San Francisco on Tuesday, Jan. 18 around noon (for information go to graypanthersberk@aol.com) Also take part in the huge write Congress campaign on Feb. 2 and 3. Let’s help the young workers see through the lies Bush and Cheney are using to arouse fears for their old age. Social Security will be there for them, if it is left alone now. 

Dorothy Headley 

• 

ELECTION COVERAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I feel moved to try to respond to Jane Stillwater’s letter of Jan. 7-10. She reports that she has told many people that the election was fraudulent, and people don’t seem to believe it and don’t want to talk about it. 

I’m guessing that most people do not accept a shocking statement like that unless it is backed up by media coverage. There was virtually no coverage in the mainstream U.S. press about massive electoral aberrations (over 400,000 citizen incident reports nationally). The Daily Planet did better than other papers on this subject. I believe that the election result is based on fraud. I believe this because of many detailed studies posted on the Internet, and because I met with many others who had studied the evidence and were involved with me in trying to encourage Sen. Barbara Boxer to challenge the result of the election. 

Too bad that Jane Stillwater didn’t come to demonstrations with us. She could also have gone to a well-attended program about the election at Herbst Hall Jan. 4. Emily Levy, who helped Richard Hayes Phillips (see below) analyze the Ohio vote, received a standing ovation when she stated that, even setting aside the untold numbers of Democratic votes blocked by illegal suppression tactics employed by Ohio elections officials (such as deliberately providing too few voting machines in Democratic precincts so that long lines and wait times turned voters away, deliberately issuing false information about voting locations, making false threats of jail for small infractions if persons turned up to vote)—precinct-level analysis of votes incorrectly attributed to Bush or improperly diverted from Kerry, demonstrates that Kerry received more votes in Ohio than Bush, and therefore won Ohio’s 20 electoral votes and thus the presidency.    

In Ukraine, I am guessing that they have free media. The gap the Ukranian press reported between the exit polls and the “official” vote results were not believable, so Ukranians came out in droves to protest the theft of their election. They insisted on and got a revote! In our U.S. election, the exit polls at poll closing showed Kerry winning over Bush by about 3 percent, but the officially reported results claimed just the opposite, that Bush beat Kerry by 3 percent. This overnight “red shift” of approximately 6 million votes has never been acknowledged, let alone explained, by the mainstream U.S. press. 

The same kind of exit poll discrepancy that that U.S. government said proved electoral theft in Ukraine existed here in the U.S. elections too. 

The difference is that the U.S. news media refused to report evidence of electoral fraud and voter suppression, other than to ridicule the notion that any had occurred. 

With the mainstream press party to the deception, will the United States ever again have an honest election? 

For examples of electoral fraud evidence not being reported in the press, see the depositions of professors Phillips, Baiman, and Lange at www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/990. 

Julia Craig 

• 

SOCIAL SECURITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his inauguration speech the president will surely present a compelling dramatization of the Social Security system’s imminent “crisis” and how privatization will come to the rescue. As he does, it may help to remember facts. There are many. Here’s one: George W. was not alive in 1935 when Social Security was born and not one of his supporters will be alive to benefit from much less to answer for the consequences of privatization. People not yet born will. They’ll be buried in red ink. How will they name a thousand trillion, a “1” followed by 15 zeros?  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

h

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas›

My friend Taffy invited me to visit her in New York. She and her friends sent me a round trip ticket to the East Coast including a jaunt to Jamaica, to a resort where you walk around without clothes and pay for drinks with beads. I’m not much of a nudist but I’m big on accepting gifts with no strings attached. 

I told Taffy I’d come, without clothes or money, or my identity. Then I explained my theft problems. She said she would have me, even though someone with my I.D. was running stop lights in Vallejo, and I would have to rush back to the West Coast after the Caribbean vacation to prove to a judge that I was not the black woman with blonde hair and gold teeth in the cream-colored Jaguar. What I didn’t tell Taffy was that besides arriving sans cash or clothes, I’d land at Kennedy with one item: the flu. 

I didn’t tell her this because I didn’t know I had it until I stepped off the plane and dissolved into the passenger seat of her Suburu. I lay there prone all the way to Westchester County. When we pulled in front of her house in White Plains, I crawled up the stairs and collapsed into a bed in her guest room. I didn’t get up for the next eight days.  

Between sweats of biblical magnitude, I had plenty of time to think about my identity problem. I wished that the Vallejo woman had taken the flu from me along with my passport and credit cards. I wished she hadn’t tried to buy a car in my name in San Francisco, but I was grateful that she wasn’t able to do so because, despite the fact that she now owned most of my M.O., she still couldn’t prove she had the proper credit.  

While sweating I dreamt that people were chasing me and I had no face. Weird things happen when you combine influenza with identity theft. I don’t recommend it. 

Meanwhile, Taffy was crossing things off the list of activities she’d planned. No visits to the Whitney or MOMA. No ice skating, shopping at Loehmann’s or a trip to see a Broadway play. No hikes in the snow-covered woods, no swimming at the health club, no corned beef-on-rye at the 2nd Avenue Deli. Instead of having a pedicure together, Taffy took me to her doctor. She wasn’t feeling well either, so it was a double date.  

The Scarsdale doc didn’t bother to take my temperature. He listened to my list of complaints and said, “You’ve got the flu. Rest. Drink plenty of liquids. It will go away soon.” But when he heard Taffy’s symptoms, he jumped into action. He gave her a bag of medicines and prescriptions. She drove home, took a pill, and fell into bed. The next morning she wound up in the hospital, where she stayed for three days.  

In the meantime I got better. I made a list of things we could do when Taffy recovered. I wrote down kayaking in Long Island Sound. We had done this together the year before. Taffy had bundled me up in long underwear and all-weather gear, set me inside a little red kayak and told me to paddle east. The Sound was covered in ice which she instructed me to break through. I asked if this activity might be dangerous. 

She said no; I complied. I always do what Taffy tells me. See above for reference to nude trip to Jamaica.  

When Taffy got out of the hospital I showed her my list. “We’re not going kayaking,” she said. “Why not?” I asked. “Because I found out it’s unsafe to paddle in ice.” “Oh great,” I said. “Now you tell me.” “Shut up,” she replied. “You show up here with no identity and the flu, what do you know about anything?” “You’re right,” I said. “Point me in the direction of Jamaica. Maybe a good sunburn on my private parts will knock some sense into me.”  

“Probably not,” said Taffy. “But what the hell, you definitely have nothing to lose.” 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Peter Levitt’s defense of the proposed Seagate Building (Letters, Daily Planet, Jan. 14) doesn’t hold water. This structure should not receive City Council approval and should not be built. 

The proposal clearly violates the Downto wn Plan by trying to jam a nine-story building onto a block of Center Street that’s zoned for five. It violates the spirit, if not the letter, of its two-floor “affordable housing” bonus by ghettoizing its affordable units on lower floors. And it should c ertainly not be built as a condo palace (Mr. Levitt’s preference). 

But the fishiest thing about Seagate washed up in your Jan. 14 news story: City staff first granted the developers a two-floor “arts bonus,” based on some promised theater space. Then the y granted an “affordable housing” bonus of 25 percent—which state law requires—based on the resulting seven floors. 

But compounding bonuses like this was a procedural mistake. First, the City Council has never formally enacted an “arts bonus.” Second, the promised theater space never received a required use permit. So the affordability bonus should have been 25 percent of five floors—that is, one additional floor. 

Even if the compounding were valid, staff’ s arithmetic would be off. Twenty-five percent of seven floors isn’t two floors (which staff granted). It’s 1.75 floors, which is what they should have granted. 

(Anyone who’s seen the great movie Being John Malkovich knows how much architectural creativity such fractional floors can unleash.) 

City C ouncilmembers should undo staff’s multiple errors by rejecting Seagate. Dam it. 

Marcia Lau 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There are a lot of reasons for community opposition to the Seagate project as it is now proposed. Here is one of them: 

The city works fo r us, the residents of Berkeley who elect our officials and pay the taxes. The city does not work for the developers. It’s awfully generous of the Planning Department staff to void the Downtown Plan in order to maximize the developer’s profits, but that’s not their job. Their job is to ensure that developments conform to existing regulations and plans and to provide the residents (current and future) with appropriate, legal housing and business development. As far as I know, our city government didn’t tur n into a subsidiary of Darryl de Tienne’s company (the developer of the Seagate project) over the winter break, so it should still be answerable to the people, not the developers. 

Ignoring the Downtown Plan’s very clear height limits shows the Planning D epartment’s (and apparently some of the City Council’s) contempt for the people they’re hired to serve. I hope our elected officials send the flawed Seagate proposal back to the Zoning Adjustments Board for serious revision. 

Jesse Townley 

›t

The recent dust-up about reconfiguring Marin Avenue to make it safer for pedestrians has all the elements of a classic Berkeley political tempest in a teapot. A couple of op-ed articles in this paper asserted that the Marin Avenue reconfiguration is a scheme by bicyclists to disrupt motor traffic. 

Until recently the Marin Avenue project was only barely on the radar for cycling advocates. We are much more concerned, for example, with the state of Milvia Street in the downtown area. But it is instructive to see how quickly opponents of the Marin project identified bicyclists as the villains of the reconfiguration by stealth. 

Bicyclists make good targets when motorists feel frustrated and disempowered. Even in Berkeley many citizens assume that an automobile is the usual mode of transportation. Often when we want to pick up a box of screws at the hardware store, we grab the car keys and head out the door. We think about the store, and we think about the screws, but we don’t think about the car at all. 

The congestion in Berkeley concerns motorists and cyclists alike. In practice, bicycling activists are not interested in preventing people from driving. So, what is it that bicyclists and bicycling activists want? What are our goals? 

Many of us own cars and drive when it’s appropriate. But we are determined to use bicycles whenever possible. We don’t do it because we hate cars or drivers. We have adjusted our concept of what the appropriate use of a car should be. For a number of reasons we have decided to make driving our second choice. In a city where many of us live within three miles of our destination traveling by bicycle need not be an idealistic fantasy. In practice it is often more convenient to use a bike than a car. 

From reduction of air pollution to the savings on gasoline, there are lots of benefits to making a bicycle the primary choice for transportation. We cyclists have the opportunity to talk to our neighbors as we ride by. We don’t we get frustrated when we can’t find a parking place within feet of our destination. Nor do we expect to get downtown in five minutes. We have learned to allow decent amounts of time for things. 

The Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition believes that many people can use a bicycle for some trips and will experience some of the benefits. Our organization was founded almost 10 years ago and has over 400 paying members. Our goal is to create conditions that will make riding a bicycle as a means of everyday transportation more attractive to growing numbers of people. Among many other activities, BFBC has offered regular classes in safe bicycling skills that highlight the rules of the road and respect for the law. We teach people to stop at stop signs and traffic lights. We are aware that bicyclists must be ambassadors for good behavior. 

We’re interested in making Berkeley’s transportation infrastructure work well for everyone. This is not an easy task. Especially in Berkeley it is very hard to find universally pleasing solutions. In our efforts to make a constructive contribution to the public dialogue, we participate in the Transportation Commission. But in fact only three of the nine commissioners are regular cyclists. Only two transportation commissioners are members of the Commission’s bicycle subcommittee. 

By bicycling instead of driving we reduce congestion, making it easier for cars to get through town. It’s actually in motorists’ interests to encourage more people to ride bikes. 

At this point cars and motorcycles account for more than 60 percent of the traffic. Transit users account for 18 percent of all commute traffic. Pedestrians make up another 15 percent and bicyclists are about 6 percent of the traffic, which is much higher than the statewide average of 1 percent. When more people get out of their cars and walk or ride, walking and bicycling become safer, because motorists get used to looking out for them. So, not surprisingly, Berkeley is, by far, the safest place to walk or bike in California. 

It’s easy to see why the media have focused their attention on the more flamboyant aspects of bicycle activism like Critical Mass. It’s a way to tap into the commonly experienced frustration of being in a car, stuck in traffic. But it doesn’t really give anyone information about the work bicycle activists do to make streets safe and less stressful for everyone. 

We all benefit from sharing the resources of our public streets. Our dream in the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition is to see bicycles become a part of the scenery, the way they are in Holland, Japan, or Germany. Bicycles are not just toys for little kids in OshKosh and bigger kids in Lycra and spandex. 

For information about BFBC go to www.BFBC.org. For information about how cyclists and walkers create safer streets, see www.tsc.berkeley.edu/html/newsletter/Spring04/syntax.html. 

Emma Gilbride and Phil Morton are co-chairs of the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition.

The City of Berkeley is being asked to extend and ratify a plan for Marin Avenue reconfiguration that will have a very large impact on Berkeley traffic patterns and safety. This plan was cooked up by the City of Albany with some input from Berkeley’s traffic and planning staff and support from Berkeley’s bike lobby. As I outlined in a communication of October, 2004, there is no public record of the Berkeley City Council ever really endorsing this plan or authorizing Berkeley city staff to participate in its formation. Only on Oct. 21, 2004 was this plan, already a done deal in Albany, submitted to Berkeley’s Transportation Commission (fondly known in some quarters as the Bike Commission) where it was, unsurprisingly, ratified. Now we are to finally have a full public airing of this matter in Berkeley, at a Jan. 18 public hearing. 

I and many other Berkeley residents are deeply troubled by the Marin Avenue reconfiguration. Why are we troubled? 

We are emphatically not troubled by any thoughtful and democratic effort to curtail speeding and improve safety on Marin Avenue. It is simply not clear that, given all the variables, the proposed plan is the smartest way to achieve this safety while maintaining the viability of Marin Avenue as a key arterial. 

We are troubled by Albany’s lack of neighborliness and reciprocity in high-handedly curtailing the use of its streets by Berkeley automobiles and commuters. Do not Albany residents benefit hugely from their proximity to Berkeley? Do they not use our fine public library system gratis? Do they not send their homeless and special needs residents over the border for our excellent services? Do they not clog up our streets with their autos when there are football games or concerts to attend? Do they not allow mega-stores on our borders that bring traffic to Berkeley streets but tax benefits to Albany? And so on. Albany often behaves as a mini-Piedmont or faux-Orinda. Lucky Albanians, at least they have public officials who look after their interests. 

We are troubled by the failure of our own city officials to consult with us in a timely and democratic manner. 

We are troubled by the existence of a Berkeley fifth column of transportation planners and bike enthusiasts who, behind our backs, helped create a “fact on the ground” which is now very hard to reassess and undo. 

We are tired of Berkeley always being asked, in the name of some greater good, to make sacrifices that effectively enable others to avoid their fair share of the burden. This is true with respect to services for the needy, affordable housing, and UC expansion, to name just a few areas. The Marin Avenue reconfiguration is yet one more instance where Berkeley residents are left holding the bag. 

So what can be done at this late date?  

I ask our City Council to clearly speak out and act on behalf of its own citizenry. The council should reject the plan to reconfigure the four or so blocks of Marin Avenue that are within our city limits. The council should refuse to contribute any further funds or staff to the Albany reconfiguration project. The council should ask Albany’s outside funders (the Bay Area Air Quality Management District) to withhold all funding until this matter is satisfactorily resolved. The council should reject a negative declaration and ask for a full CEQA environmental impact report for the entire project. The council should ask our traffic planners to expeditiously come up with a safety plan for Marin Avenue that best meets our own diverse traffic needs. The council should pursue legal and political action against the City of Albany. This action could include, if necessary, a lawsuit demanding that Albany undertake a full EIR for the Marin Avenue reconfiguration. 

It’s time for Berkeley leaders to represent Berkeley interests. A good start has been made in our refreshingly tough stance with respect to UC expansion. If we can stand up to UC, we can certainly take on the City of Albany. 

Barbara Gilbert is a civic activist and former District 5 Council candidate.

Among the myriad qualities that distinguish Mozart from all other composers is his dramatic sense. Others may be inventive, ingenious, clever at writing melodies, but few have his intrinsic understanding of drama. 

Among jazz musicians, this quality is best exemplified by Louis Armstrong. So many Louis Armstrong recordings begin with what seem like acceptable improvised solos by his sideplayers until the curtains part and Pops steps forward to play a solo that is not only lyrical, crafted, imaginative and virtuosic, but also crackling with drama.  

Likewise, although Mozart excelled at every form of composition in a way that no other composer ever has, he found his center in opera, musical drama. Music for him, vocal or instrumental, involved the emotions and the interplay of personality, whether clashing or congenial. 

For Mozart, every instrument had a personality, especially when these instruments were played by his friends, students, patrons and associates.  

Until he was 9 years old, he would grow pale when the trumpet was played solo in his presence. Whether this was because it suggested Mars’ call to arms or Gabriel’s last trump of doom is unknown, but its timbre evoked a synaesthetic psychological response in the musical prodigy.  

Most of his compositions, like those of Duke Ellington, were conceived with the talents, limitations and humours of specific performers in mind.  

For their second concert of the season, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, under the direction of Michael Morgan, will be performing three of Mozart’s most dramatic masterpieces, all composed in June and July of 1788: Symphony No. 39 in E flat major (K. 543), the Adagio and Fugue in C minor for Strings (K. 546), and Symphony No. 40 in G minor (K. 550).  

About two weeks after completing these pieces, Mozart entered the opening bars of his final symphony, No. 41 (K. 551), the Jupiter, into his Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke, his autograph thematic catalogue of his compositions.  

In other words, during a six-week period, after the failure of Don Giovanni in Vienna, during the time that his infant daughter died, while composing half a dozen other pieces including the Adagio and Fugue, he carried these three symphonies around in his head and then wrote them down one after the other in fully orchestrated versions.  

Not only would that be difficult in itself, but these are the greatest symphonies of the 18th century and among the greatest pieces of music ever composed. The contrapuntal final movement of the Jupiter, which the OEBS performed a few years ago, is usually singled out for particular excellence, but all three symphonies are magnificent from beginning to end.  

Among other aspects, the three together encapsulate the progression from the full flowering of the classical to the first seeds of the romantic whose ripened ears were to be reaped by Beethoven. Listening to them in sequence is like hearing Charlie Parker’s passage from swing to bop on his Jazz at the Philharmonic recording of “Lady Be Good.” 

The most esoteric piece of the evening is the Adagio and Fugue, which, like Symphony No. 40, is in a minor key. This work is often, and with no evidence, linked with Mozart’s freemasonic compositions.  

He became a mason in 1784 followed shortly thereafter by Haydn and his own father. This was the same benchmark year he began keeping the Verzeichnis. The fugue was actually written in 1783 for two pianos (K. 426) and then refashioned in 1788 for strings with the addition of an introductory adagio. In it, he delights to tremble on the brink of discord.  

Although it has no real Masonic link or content, its exquisitely strange, powerful, modernistic harmonies and dark mood suggest the movement of an inexorable fate. We are reminded of Marvell’s words: “But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.” 

All of these old warhorses have been heard frequently in the Bay Area during the last few years in performances conducted by, among others, Neville Marriner and George Cleve. It doesn’t matter.  

Under Michael Morgan’s inspired direction, “age cannot wither nor custom stale” their “infinite variety.” Whether you favor the flying terpsichore of the minuets, the rollicking finale of the 39th or the opening of the 40th, which begins stately and plump like Joyce’s Ulysses, there is not a moment in these great works that is devoid of delight and surprise yet always with an undertone of poignancy.  

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 (1998) featuring OEBS co-concertmasters Terrie Baune and Dawn Harms.  

The highly regarded Ms. Chen was born in 1953 in Guangzhou, China, and is a graduate of the Central Conservatory of Beijing. She has lived and worked in the United States since 1986. In her compositions, she may combine traditional Chinese instruments like the pipa and erhu or the Chinese pentatonic scale with the Western orchestra.  

This will be the West Coast premiere of her Romance, which incorporates as the first of its two movements her earlier Romance of Hsiao and Ch’in. It has been described as bright and cheerful and, in its contemporaneity and texture, provides a nice contrast to the rest of the program.

TUESDAY, JAN. 18 

CHILDREN 

“Peter and the Wolf” presented by The Fratello Marionettes at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

FILM 

Japanese Experimental Fim & Video at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Temple Grandin, celebrated animal advocate, introduces “Animals in Translation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Kermit Lynch on “Inspiring Thirst: Vintage Selections from the Kermit Lynch Wine Brochure” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Marilyn Sewell and Sandy Boucher discuss “Breaking Free” a collection of personal essays by women in the second half of their lives, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Central Library, Shattuck and Kittredge Streets. 981-6151. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Rady Craig Trio, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Chris Botti, contemporary jazz trumpeter, at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Also on Wed. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19 

FILM 

Film 50: History of Cinema at 3 p.m. and “The Most Dangerous Game” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nicole Galland reads from “The Fool’s Tale” an historical novel set in 12th century Wales, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Sandra Gilbert reads from her new collection of poems, “Belongings” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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. 

Café Poetry hosted by Richard Moore, aka Paradise Freejahlove, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

Peau de Chagrin at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Trouser, The Art Ghetto, Burke at 8:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $4. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 20 

THEATER 

"Bridge & Tunnel" workshop performances by Sarah Jones at 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. through Feb. 20 at Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $30-$40. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “Greed” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Phyllis Whetstone Taper reads from her novel of a 1927 California summer, “On Kelsey Creek” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Malcolm Gladwell describes “Blink: Thin-Slicing, Snap Judgements, and the Power of Thinking Without Thinking” at 7:30 p.m. at at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series with featured readers Jan Steckel and Hew Wolff at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Suzy & Maggie Roche at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

David K. Matthews, solo piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Bobby Hutcherson All-Stars, with Nicholas Payton, James Spaulding, George Cables, Dwyne Burno and Lewis Nash at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JAN. 21 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Seduced” by Sam Shepard opens at 8 p.m. at the Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and runs Fri. and Sat. through Feb. 19. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

"Bridge & Tunnel" workshop performances by Sarah Jones at 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. through Feb. 20 at Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $30-$40. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “The Mousetrap” Agatha Christie’s classic mystery Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Feb. 19 at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $10-$15. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

FILM 

“Operation Free Mohawk: A Retrospective” Video installation and performance by Pete Kuzov and Edie Tsong at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Community Media, 2239 MLK, Jr. Way. Cost is $5-$15. 848-2288. www.betv.org 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “The Crowd” at 7 p.m., “Sunrise” at 9 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Indie Film Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ward Churchill talks about “Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland East Bay Symphony, mostly Mozart at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway. 625-8497. www.oebs.org 

Peking Acrobats at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Los Cenzontles at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Lecture and demonstration at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hali Hammer singer/songwriter at 7:30 p.m. at Fellowship Café, Cedar and Bonita Sts. A donation of $5-10 is requested. 

Jamie Laval & Hans York, Celtic fiddle and guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Real Thom Thunder, Lucy at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10-$15. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Rulers, El Faye at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Clairdee & The Ken French Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Monkey Knife Fight, original funk-jazz, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

All You Can Eat, Challenger, Gift of Goats, Abi Yos Yos at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Bobby Hutcherson All-Stars, with Nicholas Payton, James Spaulding, George Cables, Dwyne Burno and Lewis Nash at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JAN. 22 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri, traditional and original Latin American music, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Salon at the Giorgi “Mood Swings” a black-light puppet show, at 2 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. at Ashby. 848-1228. 

FILM 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “Heaven’s Gate” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

“Mathematics of Change” with Josh Kornbluth at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. tickets are $18-$30. 848-0237, ext. 110.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse featuring Patrick Fitzgerald, pianist at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Admission is free. 527-9753. 

The Kids of the Dayton Tribune present the newest issue of “The Dayton Tribune,” a youth written and edited magazine, at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com  

Redmond O’Hanlon describes life on a fishing boat in “Trawler” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Four Seasons Concerts presents the Gryphon Piano Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Calvin Simmons Theater, 10 Tenth St., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35. 601-7919. www.fourseasonsconcerts.com 

Ivan Ilic, piano, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St., between Bancroft and Durant. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http://trinitychamberconcerts.com 

American Bach Soloists perform J.S. Bach’s early cantatas at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. 415-621-7900. www.americanbach.org  

Peking Acrobats at 2 and 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Ras Midas and the Bridge and Root Awakning, roots rock reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Blue and Tan, electro-acid-jazz funk at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Oak, Ash & Thorn, a capella, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Annual Pat Parker Tribute and Celebration at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Bad Habittz, Sequenced Mindset, World Wide Sickness, metal, hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Extensions Jazz Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com  

Crater, The Nels Cline Singers with Ben Goldberg at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Arlington Houston Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Mike Park, Colossal, Dan Potthast, Short Round, Shinabu at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 23 

CHILDREN 

Ralph’s World Full Band Show at 3 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $15. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Salvador Donkey,” an exhibition of recent drawings and paintings by Michael Dooley and Kathleen Henderson from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. 841-6500.  

FILM 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “The Shop Around the Corner” at 5 p.m. and “Shampoo” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“How Photography and Film Shaped Memory of the Vietnam War” at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. in conjunction with the exhibit “California and the Vietnam Era.” 238-2200. www.museum.ca.org 

Sister Helen Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking,” will introduce her new book, “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions” at 7 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose. St. Tickets are $10-$12. Benefits Pace e Bene and KPFA. www.kpfa.org 

Poetry Flash with Beverly Burch and Jeanne Wagner at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Renée Fleming, soprano, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$72. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Bandworks featuring local youth bands at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Art of the Trio with Taylor Eigsti at 4:30 at the Jazz- 

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

Ronny Cox, singer-songwriter cowboy, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Odd Shaped Case, Balkan music brunch, at 10 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, JAN. 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Celebrating African-American Artists with Disabilities” Exhibition opens at NIAD Art Center at 551 23rd St., near Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through Feb. 25. 620-0290. www.niad.org 

“The People and the Book” Paintings and rare books from the collection of the Magnes Museum opens at 2911 Russell St. www.magnes.org 

FILM 

Seeing through the Screen: Buddhism and Film at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Page to Stage, a conversation with playwright Charles L. Mee and director Les Waters at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Ronald C. White, Jr. examines “The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jane Anne Staw and other writers describe “Unstuck: A Supportive and Practical Guide to Working Through Writer’s Block” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express with Garrett Murphy from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Songwriters Symposium at 8:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Big Belly Blues Band at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JAN. 25 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Serving the People - Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party Photographs” opens at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. and runs to March 19. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

“The Art of Living Black” Ninth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition opens at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through March 20. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Dublin Carol” the Aurora Theater production which opens Jan. 28, will be discussed at 1 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bandworks featuring talented youth musicians at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The McKassons, fiddling and piano in the Scottish tradition, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50- $16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Carlos Oliveira and Harvey Wainapel at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

McCoy Tyner wiith Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $25-$35. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

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

The taxonomists have been at it again, but this time they’ve done something that makes intuitive sense. Every couple of years the American Ornithological Union comes out with a supplement to its checklist of North American birds, with name and status changes. 

And birders often wince at the results: either “lumps”—two or more species merged into a single species—that reduce their life-list totals, or “splits” that produce lookalike new species almost impossible to separate in the field. There are always rumors in advance of the new supplement: Is this the year they’ll split the fox sparrows? Finally lump the northwestern crow? Bring back the Harlan’s hawk? 

This year the ornithological powers-that-be decided to break up the Canada goose. They used to recognize 11 subspecies within this common and widespread species, ranging in size from the big honkers to dinky mallard-sized forms. (What’s a subspecies? Basically a population that’s physically distinctive in some way but not so much so that it can’t interbreed with neighboring populations. It’s a slippery category, and some taxonomists would like to scrap it altogether. Often the difference between species and subspecies status is a judgment call. Is the island scrub-jay of Santa Cruz Island, which never has the opportunity to interbreed with the mainland western scrub-jay because neither form will fly across the Santa Barbara Channel, a “good” species? The AOU says so, based on differences in size and plumage and genetic distance. And this kind of thing matters, since subspecies—like the northern spotted owl—can be given protected status under federal and state endangered species laws). 

Back to those geese, though. After the split, seven of the larger subspecies are still known collectively as the Canada goose; four of the smaller subspecies now comprise the cackling goose species. 

The former Aleutian Canada goose, one of the few endangered species that has recovered sufficiently to be downlisted, is now the Aleutian cackling goose. And the subspecies that used to be called the cackling Canada goose, or cackling goose for short? David Allen Sibley, the field identification maven, is calling it the cackling cackling goose. I hope this doesn’t catch on. 

For California birders, it’s easy enough to tell the two species apart. 

A cackling goose in a flock of Canadas stands out like I would among the Golden State Warriors. Its head shape is distinctive: rounder, with a stubbier bill. Aleutian cackling geese, which turn up in the Bay Area during their migrations between their Arctic breeding sites and their wintering grounds in the San Joaquin Valley, are further distinguished by a white ring at the base of their black necks. 

(Cackling cackling geese used to winter in California as well, but most now stop off in Oregon). And there’s a vocal difference: Canadas, AKA honkers, honk; cacklers cackle. Where identification gets tricky is in the Central Flyway, where the winter ranges of the lesser Canada goose and the Richardson’s cackling goose overlap. But that’s not our problem. 

Birders and goose hunters have been aware of the different size categories of “Canada” geese for a long time. Why did it take the ornithological establishment so long to catch up? It seems that what prompted the split was a genetic study mainly focused not on the North American geese, but on their relatives—living and extinct—in Hawaii. 

If you’ve ever visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, you’ve seen the signs exhorting you not to feed or run over the nene—the only living Hawaiian goose species, and the state bird. (I spent a nene-less morning in the park; my only nene turned up at the Big Island Country Club on the Kona side, on the 12th hole, near the water hazard. Geese love golf courses—all that short grass, ready for cropping. Golfers, however, do not love geese). Palaeontologists have also found remains of extinct geese on Maui and the Big Island. The latter species, four times the size of the nene, was apparently flightless, with a massive tortoise-like beak that it must have used to feed on tougher vegetation than grass.  

To sort out the evolutionary relationships among the Hawaiian geese and their possible North American ancestors, scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Oxford, and Boston University compared samples of mitochondrial DNA, the stuff we all—geese and humans—inherit from our mothers. 

Since it seems unaffected by natural selection and accumulates mutations at a predictable rate, mt DNA is a handy tool for identifying evolutionary next of kin and determining when different lineages diverged. Their study included the living nene, the extinct giant Hawaii goose and the Maui goose, five Canada goose subspecies (two large, three small), and the barnacle goose of northern Europe, a bird that was once considered edible during Lent because of the folk belief that it was the mature stage of the gooseneck barnacle. 

The results? All three of the Hawaiian goose species appear to be the descendants of a single founding population of large Canada geese that reached the islands about 890,000 years ago. On the older islands, the grazing/browsing niche was already occupied by oversized flightless ducks, the moa-nalos. But when the Big Island formed some 400,000 years later, that niche was wide open, and the giant Hawaii goose took advantage of it.  

The scientists also found a deep divide between the large-Canada and small-Canada lineages, and a close relationship between the small Canada geese and the barnacle goose. They concluded that the “Canada goose” was actually a taxonomic grab bag, containing at least two distinct species. And the AOU followed up on that with this year’s revision.  

So those birders who keep life lists, and who had seen one or more of the small-Canada subspecies now separated as the cackling goose, got to add a new species without a trip to Attu, or even Point Reyes. Think of it as an ornithological stock split. (The smart money is keeping an eye on the warbling vireo.) 

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TUESDAY, JAN. 18 

Bird Walk in Wildcat Canyon Meet at 7:30 a.m. at the end of Rifle Range Road to look for birds of the forest and creek-side. 525-2233. 

Tilden Mini-Rangers Join us for an active afternoon of nature study, conservation, and rambling through woods and waters. Dress to get dirty; bring a healthy snack to share. Girls and boys ages 8-12, unaccompanied by their parents. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $6-$8. Reservations required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley Garden Club “Care and Culture of Orchids,” potting demonstration, orchids for show and sale, by Sue Fordyce, grower at Orchids Ranch. Meeting at 1 p.m., program at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-4374. 

Great Snowshoe Destinations in California Slide presentation at 7 p.m. with Michael White, author of Wilderness Press guidebooks at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Marin Avenue Reconfiguration Public Hearing at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 981-7062. 

Fitness Tests for people 50 and over from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Free. You will receive personalized scores and tips on how to maintain or improve your fitness. 981-5367. 

School Age Storytime for ages 5 and up at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext.17.  

Brainstormer Weekly Pub Quiz every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Pyramid Alehouse Brewery, 901 Gilman St. 528-9880. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Advance sign-up needed, 594-5165.  

Get Organized for the New Year, with Eve Abbott, author and personal productivity consultant, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., 526-7512.  

“Getting Along with Your Adult Children” a participatory workshop at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $35-$40. 848-0327, ext. 110. www.brjcc.org 

“Tu B, Shuvat: A Meeting Point between Cyclical and Linear Time” with Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0327, ext. 110. www.brjcc.org 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “O.J., Peterson and The Death Penalty” 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. 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Streets every Tuesday from 3 to 6 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. 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 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19 

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. 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $3-$5. Registration required. 525-2233. 

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

Grizzly Peak Cyclists at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2268 Cedar St. David Milne Smith, Ph.D., adventurer, author, and leadership trainer, will speak about “The Aging Athlete: How To Turn Each Moment into an Adventure.” 527-0450. 

“The Doors” Oliver Stone film of Jim Morrison’s self destruction at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, $5 donations accepted. 393-5685. 

Health and Sexuality for the Mature Woman A lecturesponsored by the Alexander Foundation at 6:15 p.m. at the Claremont Resort, 41 Tunnel Rd. Cost is $10-$15. 527-3010. www.afwh.org/about/claremontlectures.htm 

Artify Ashby Muralist Group meets every Wed. from 5 to 8 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, to plan a new mural. New artists are welcome. Call Bonnie at 704-0803. 

Tap Into It Jazz and Rhythm Tap classes at Montclair Recreation Center, 6300 Moraga Ave., Oakland. Experienced at 6:30 p.m., beginners at 7:30 p.m. 482-7812. 

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 

Stitch ‘n Bitch Bring your knitting, crocheting and other handcrafts from 6 to 9 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

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. Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JAN. 20 

Inauguration Protest “Let America Be America Again” at 9 a.m. at the Downtown Berkeley BART Station. The rally to read the Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again” will start at the very moment the oath of office is being administered in Washington D.C. Everyone will have an opportunity to join in. www.artistsandwritersforpeace.org 

“Stop the War: Fight the Right” on GW’s inaguration at 5 p.m. at Civic Center, San Francisco. 415-821-6545. www.internationalanswer.org, www.actionsf.org 

“The Future of Energy: Transitioning from Fossil Fuels to Renewables” A panel discussion moderated by former PUC Commissioner Loretta Lynch at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5-$15, sliding scale. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley City Club Anniversary Events from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. including tours of the historic Julia Morgan building and dinner. Cost is $15-$25. For reservations call 848-7800. 

Simplicity Forum on “Removing Anxiety to Simplify Your Life” at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 526-6596. www.simpleliving.net 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping in Berkeley Public schools at 3 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

WriterCoach Connection Volunteer Training Help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. To register call 524-2319. Other Trainings on Feb. 9, 16, Mar. 8, 15. www.writercoachconnection.org 

Montclair Safety & Improvement Council Public Meeting at 7 p.m. at the Montera Middle School, 5555 Ascot Dr. Presentations include Emergency Preparedness, Crime Prevention, Pedestrian & Traffic Safety, and Beautification. www.montclairsic.org 

“Krill: Constant Currency in the Fluctuating Oceanic Economy” with Dr. Baldo Marinovic at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museum.ca.org 

FRIDAY, JAN. 21 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Ludmilla Kutsak on “The Fabergé Egg.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival Fri. through Sun. on Mare Island in Vallejo, celebrating the annual migration along the Pacific Flyway of hawks, shorebirds, ducks and geese and even monarch butterflies. 707-649-WING(9464) www.sfbayflywayfestival.com 

“Until When...” a documentary by and about Palestinians, refugees in their own land, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Dr. Jess Ghannam, one of the film’s producers, will answer questions. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Parent Equity Forum: “Leading My Child to Excellence and Equity” with Enid Lee, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Alameda County Office of Education, 313 W. Winton Ave., Room 142, Hayward. Free to parents in Alameda County. 670-4163. www.acoe.k12.ca.us 

Family Literacy Night Celebrate Dr. King’s Dream with Daaimah Waqia reading her book “A Different Kind of Beautiful,” at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. 665-3271. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

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

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

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

SATURDAY, JAN. 22 

Dog Walk for Mud Puppies Bring your canine friend for a hike along South Park Drive. Bring a leash and baggies. Meet at 2 p.m. at the closed gate at the bottom of the South Park Drive near Botanic Garden. 525-2233. 

Ohlone Dog Park Clean-Up from 10 a.m. to noon at Grant St. and Hearst Ave. Sponsored by the Ohone Dog Park Assoc. www.ohlonedogpark.org 

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. 

Pt. Molate Walk with Berkeley Path Wanderers Explore Richmond’s historic and surprisingly wild Pt. Molate, with beaches, native grasslands, and a former Chinese fishing community, whaling station, and the world’s largest winery. Meet at 10 a.m. Take the Pt. Molate exit from I-580 (last exit before Richmond Bridge). Where the road divides in three, take the middle road; in about a mile park at the abandoned visitors center on the right, across from very large buildings. Easy walk, but dress for cold, wind, or rain. Bring water; lunch may be purchased at the diner at quaint San Pablo Yacht Harbor. 549-2908. zemeralds@aol.com 

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

Rose Pruning at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Emergency Response Training Class on “Responding to Terrorism” from 9 a.m. to noon at the Public Safety building, 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. To register call 981-5606. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

“Playing to Learn” An educational conference on floor time and drama therapy with Barbara Kalmanson, Ph.D. and Charla Cunningham, RDT, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $135, some scholarships available. 845-8542. www.juliamorgan.org 

Celebrate Jewish Earth Day Tu B'Shvat Seder led by Rabbi Michael Lerner from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1027 Cragmont Ave. Please bring a main course vegetarian dish to share with 12-14 people. RSVP required, 528-6250. 

Auditions for the San Francisco Boys Chorus from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Interstake Center, 4780 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. To schedule an audition call 415-861-7464. 

Pre-School Storytime for ages 3-5 at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext.17.  

SUNDAY, JAN. 23 

Dynamite History Walk Explore Pt. Pinole’s explosive and peaceful past on this flat, easy-paced walk from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reservations required. 525-2233. 

Feeder for Feathered Friends Learn to make different feeders to hang in your garden for over-wintering birds. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Winter Blooms!” Free garden tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park at 2 pm. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

War Tax Resistance Information Find out more about this form of conscientious objection. Potluck and discussion at 4 p.m., basic information about war tax resistance at 5 p.m. at 2311 Russell St. Donations accepted, not required. 843-9877.  

Sister Helen Prejean, author of “Dead Man Walking,” will introduce her new book, “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions” at 7 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose. St. Tickets are $10-$12. Benfits Pace e Bene and KPFA. www.kpfa.org 

“Another World Is Possible” a documentary of the 2002 World Social Forum along with protest films documenting the last two years of resistance in the Bay Area. From 3 to 5 p.m. at the Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Free. 601-8000. www.picturepubpizza.com/special-events/sunday_salon.html 

“A Beautiful Blend: Mixed Race in America” a documentary about Swirl, a national organization providing support to mixed race people, at 3 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Cybersalon, with Jay Harman, founder and CEO of PAX Scientific on “Alternative Energy,” from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar, between Spruce and Arch. Cost is $10. 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Bob Byrne on “Longchenpa: Master of the Nyingma Lineage” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Personal Theology Seminar with Cathleen Cox Burneo on “Jesus, A Peasant with Attitude” at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

MONDAY, JAN. 24 

Tea and Hike 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 

“A Conversation about Creeks and Culverted Creeks” hosted by the Friends of Strawberry Creek from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Central Library Community Meeting Room. jennifermaryphd@hotmail.com or caroleschem@hotmail.com 

“Service Learning and the Development of Volunteerism in Chile” with Sebastián Zulueta, director of the Service Learning Center at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, at noon in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. 642-2088. 

“At the Wizard’s Table: Shaman’s Altars in Peru” lecture and slide show by Douglas Sharon, director of the Phoebe Hearst Museum, at 3:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, Chapel Room 6, 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8201. 

Berkeley High School Site Council meets from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the school library. On the agenda are a report on recycling and a proposal by the Academic Choice Program. bhs.berkeleypta.org/ssc  

Tu B,Shvat Seder with Rabbi Yehuda Ferris with song and stories at 7:30 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. Cost is $8-$10. 540-5824. 

El Cerrrito Library Book Club meets to discuss “Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier at 7 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512. www.ccclib.org 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets at 9:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122. 

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

ONGOING 

Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League is looking for girls in grades 1-8 to play girls softball. Season runs March 5-June 4. Scholarships available. To register call 869-4277.  

Youth Speaks Winter Workshops in writing and spoken word begin Jan. 24 in Berkeley and Oakland. For more information call 415-255-9035. www.youthspeaks.org 

“Half Pint Library” Book Drive Donate children’s books to benefit Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland. Donations accepted at 1849 Solano Ave. through March 31. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Jan. 18, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Jan. 18, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housingauthority   

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Jan. 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Jan. 19, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 981-7550. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation?

For members of the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church on Ashby Avenue, the best way to celebrate the upcoming anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is to take action and continue his legacy, instead of just reminiscing about it.  

Accordingly, the church organized a three-day event addressing women’s rights. They chose that theme, event organizers said, because church members saw it as one the most pressing social justice issues today. 

“I think it’s time to have a new perspective on how we can take Dr. King’s dream and make it more relevant for all of us,” said Jackie DeBose, one of the organizers. “What better way to recognize women and their struggle than to do it around the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the epitome of struggle and liberation?”  

Included in the event, which runs from Saturday through Monday at the church, is a panel of guest lectures, two prayer services and a liturgical dance workshop. 

The AME Church has had its own struggles with women’s rights, DeBose said, but is gaining ground, electing its first woman bishop in 2000. St. Paul in Berkeley has always had women leaders, she said. 

The upcoming event was organized by the church’s Women’s Missionary Society, which also runs programs for the local community and participates in events around the world. Two members recently traveled to Mozambique to donate birthing kits to communities where babies were being born in unsanitary conditions. 

The public is welcome at the weekend church events. Organizers are especially encouraging people to attend the Saturday dance workshop showcasing what is emerging as the newest form of worship at the church. 

The dancers, all women, range in age from 2 to 60. For Faye Combs, an older participant, the dance is one of her favorite ways to express herself in church. It’s also good exercise. 

“I don’t dance as well as some of the younger members but I do a little something something,” she said. 

The panel on Sunday morning, called “What Would Martin Think of Women Today,” features several African-American women clergy, as well as Ka’Dijah Brown, a 13-year-old church member, who will address issues concerning young women today. 

Other events in Berkeley include what Rabbi Ferenc Raj said is at least the fifth time that Congregation Beth El and the McGee Avenue Baptist Church will be celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. together.  

On Sunday, both groups will participate in a service at the McGee Avenue Baptist Church where participants will pay tribute to King and discuss his relationship to the Jewish community. Afterwards, there will be a potluck with traditional food cooked by members of both Beth El and the Baptist Church. Both events are open to the public. 

Also, a musical tribute to Dr. King will be held at the Calvin Simmons Theater and a celebration with Vukani Mawethu at Ashkenaz. For times and dates for all the events, or for more information, see the Arts and Berkeley This Week calendars in today’s issue. 

Mayor Tom Bates chastised UC Berkeley on Tuesday over recent revelations that it has set January deadlines for architects to submit qualifications to renovate Memorial Stadium and build a new academic building for its business and law schools. 

In a public address before the City Council meeting, the mayor questioned why the projects weren’t detailed in the university’s final Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), released last week. 

“Come on,” Bates said. “To be fair they have to tell us what their projects are going to be and how much they are going to cost.” 

Bates’ speech came a day after the council voted 6-0 (Olds, Maio and Anderson were not present) to sue the university if it refused to address the city’s concerns over the plan. Designed to guide university development through 2020, the plan projects 2.2 million square feet of new academic and administrative space, but only identifies one project—the 100,000-square-foot Tien Center For East Asian Studies. 

At its regular meeting, the council declined to discuss the university’s plan further. In other matters, it postponed a vote on an appeal of the nine-story Seagate Building, approved by the Zoning Adjustment Board, and denied an appeal to a condominium project the ZAB approved for the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. and Dwight ways. 

City officials fear UC Berkeley’s long range plan would give it free rein to build on city streets without environmental review and make residents pay for the increased demand on municipal services. They have demanded that the university either describe planned developments or agree to subject major projects to strict environmental review.  

News of the university’s proposals to rebuild Memorial Stadium, a $120 million project which it hopes to begin after the 2005 football season ends in November, and to construct a building at the southeast edge of campus, estimated to cost between $100 and $200 million, affirmed city suspicions that university officials were withholding details about future development from the long range plan. 

In a letter to Regents’ Chair Gerald Parsky urging him to postpone a vote on the plan, Bates wrote, “After five years of developing a ‘master plan, preliminary programming and design studies,’ and with football season ending in less than 11 months, I find it hard to believe that the university cannot be more transparent and forthcoming...”  

Twenty-two state legislators, at the urging of Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), have signed a letter also urging Parsky to hold over the vote to certify the plan’s environmental impact report scheduled for Jan. 20—two weeks after UC Berkeley released the 1,300 word document. 

In addition to the new administration space, the university’s plan projects 2,600 new dorm beds and up to 2,300 new parking spaces. 

Seagate Building 

Although the majority of councilmembers expressed support for the project, the council voted 7-2 (Olds and Wozniak, no) to hold over the appeal to the Seagate Building one week at the request of Councilmember Dona Spring. 

Spring feared that the city was offering too many concessions to the developer Darrell de Tienne. She questioned why city staff had allowed him to build a nine-story building on a street zoned for five stories and to designate less desirable units for low income tenants. 

“This sets a bad precedent for future developers to claim economic necessity,” she said. 

The Seagate building planned for Center Street between Shattuck Avenue and Milvia Street would contain 149 apartments, theater space leased to the Berkeley Repertory Theater, retail space and 160 underground parking spaces on three subterranean levels. 

To help de Tienne maximize profit, the Zoning Adjustment Board approved concentrating the 23 low income units, required under Berkeley housing law, on floors two through seven and in locations that were smaller, had poorer views, and less light exposure and less access to open space. Low income units were also disproportionately one-bedroom apartments. 

Responding to concerns about tenant equity, Housing Director Steve Barton told the council that the project is billed as a luxury building. “These are going to be the nicest [affordable] units in Berkeley,” he said. 

The building’s height remained a point of contention. To allow the building to rise nine stories, the city granted Seagate two extra floors as a bonus for including arts space and a 25 percent bonus as part of a state law requiring a additional space for including affordable units in the project. 

In calculating the 25 percent bonus for affordable housing, city officials included the two extra floors granted for the arts space, thereby giving the developer 25 percent of seven floors instead of five floors. City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said that since the developer hadn’t needed a separate permit for the arts space, the two additional floors given for the cultural use counted as part of the base project. 

However, the city’s zoning ordinance does require that theaters receive a use permit. 

“[The staff] clearly didn’t want to do a use permit for the theater because it would have made it a five story building,” said Gene Poschman, a former planning commissioner, who worked on the appeal of the project. 

Poschman calculated that for the 12,067 square feet of ground floor theater space, de Tienne received 53,543 square feet in bonus space. “That’s a hell of a deal,” he said. 

In other maters, the council voted to oppose the establishment of the Low Lake Rancheria-Koi Nation Casino proposed to rise near the Oakland Airport. The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs will have the final say over the casino proposal. 

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In the wake of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to renege on last year’s education funding agreement, Berkeley education leaders were united on one conclusion: If the governor gets his way, the financial impact on Berkeley public schools will not be good. 

There was disagreement, however, on the best way to respond. 

Last January, Schwarzenegger announced the funding agreement with the Education Coalition, an unofficial partnership of various statewide education organizations, including the state PTA, the state school board association, and teachers and service employees unions. Under the agreement, the coalition accepted cuts in constitutionally guaranteed Proposition 98 funding in 2004-05 in return for restoration of that funding in 2005-6 and beyond. 

But following a State of the State address where he declared that “last year, we worked together to avert a [budget] crisis; this year we must address its causes” and calling the state’s education system a “disaster,” Schwarzenegger proposed last week that the Prop. 98 cuts—amounting to some $2 billion statewide—be made permanent. In addition, the governor proposed shifting more of the burden of teacher pension funding from the state to local boards of education. If the Legislature didn’t agree, the governor proposed to bring the matter to California’s voters in November. 

Representatives of the California Federation of Teachers and the California School Boards Association, among other educational groups, met this week to discuss the possible impact of the governor’s proposals, as well as to plan strategy. On Thursday, BUSD Deputy Superintendent Glenston Thompson was at a Sacramento meeting, in part to gather details on Schwarzenegger’s plans. 

At the School Board Associations meeting on Wednesday, State Senate President Don Perata (D-Oakland) told participants that it is not likely that the state Legislature will agree to Schwarzenegger’s proposals. 

“Even if we wanted to, it would be almost impossible to fully discuss what the governor wants in the short time frame that we’re being allowed,” Perata said. “I think the real idea all along was for him to get these things on the ballot.” 

Perata added that he would fight to protect the education funds. “If the governor is declaring war on education, then I’m ready for that,” he said. 

In a telephone interview, Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Barry Fike said that while it is too soon to know what the possible effects of the proposed education cuts and funding shifts might mean, “from the teachers’ perspective, it certainly wouldn’t be positive. This is a wholesale, significant change.” 

Saying that it was a “fair assessment” to characterize the governor’s actions as an attempt to force local school boards to cut benefits to teachers, Fike said that the Berkeley Unified School District “already has a pretty big burden on pensions. Teachers put in 8.25 percent of our check and the district contributes a matching amount. For the state all of a sudden to pull the rug out from the portion that they have carried so far is a huge issue.” 

Fike added that “the governor’s agenda is above and beyond just an assault on local school districts and teachers’ pension benefits. It’s really an attack on labor in general all across the state. It parallels what the Bush administration is trying to do with Social Security.” 

Fike, who sits on the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) executive council, promised that reaction from teachers’ unions would be swift and unified. 

“For labor to be able to survive all this, we’re really going to have to come out strong,” he said. “We’re mustering our forces and figuring out all the different ways we are going to fight this. I’m pretty confident that the CFT is going to be pretty solidly united along with the California Teachers Association (CTA). They aren’t always united on every single issue, but I’m sure they will be on this one.” 

One response, Fike said, will be for the CFT and CTA to send teams of lobbyists to Sacramento to urge lawmakers to reject the governor’s education plans. And if the governor chooses to put his measures to the voters in November, Fike said that labor unions may do likewise. 

“One thing that we’re obviously talking about doing here in response is not to just be on the defensive—although we certainly are going to have to do that—but also be proactive and take the offense. If there are going to be all kinds of initiatives on the ballot this coming November, we don’t just want to be running around telling people to vote no on this and no on that. We want to be asking people to vote yes on some of our ideas, as well.” 

In addition, Fike said that the BFT is forming an action committee which will be meeting soon to plan local teacher strategies to fight the governor’s plans. “I’ve been fielding calls all day from agitated Berkeley teachers, asking what they can do on a local level,” he said. 

But while Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Michele Lawrence agreed with the teachers’ union leader that Schwarzenegger’s proposed education cuts “would have a significant effect on Berkeley Unified,” she disagreed that the old style of lobbying would be of help. 

“Yes, you can lobby,” Lawrence said. “Typically that’s what has happened in these types of circumstances. That’s what went on last year when the deal was cut with the Education Coalition. There was incredible momentum that was generated from communities who were concerned about the proposed cuts in education. And so we could lobby our parents and get people going up to Sacramento.” 

But Lawrence said that such lobbying is becoming less and less effective. “That kind of marching on Sacramento and waving your flag doesn’t seem to be getting the results that we would like any longer,” she said. “It has helped in public relations to get the taxpayers to support particular bond measures, because the lobbying effort talking about what desperate straits we are in has filtered back into the community and generated a sympathy with the taxpayer. But I don’t see it changing the behaviors of legislators.” 

She added that pulling together the Education Coalition to work out another deal with the governor is also not in the cards. 

“Clearly after now being slapped in the face by the governor, that isn’t a strategy that will get us anywhere,” she said. “In backing off that agreement, the governor has shut the door to that easy bringing people together collaboratively. So it’s yet to be decided what the response of the education community should be and is likely to be. That’s something that is still being worked out.” 

Meanwhile, according to the superintendent, the potential financial effect of the governor’s proposed cuts on Berkeley’s school district will be difficult, but not devastating. 

“Most of the educational community around the state was anticipating the restored Proposition 98 monies coming in based upon the deal made with the governor. Berkeley wasn’t,” she said. “I have just made it a practice not to anticipate revenues coming from the state. I don’t put it in the budget until I see the dollars. Our budgets are always based upon what we know we have, and I didn’t know that we had the restored money.” 

à

Facing an estimated $1 million shortfall, library officials Wednesday presented their board of trustees with a restructuring plan that calls for laying off between 11 and 13 employees and centralizing teen-service librarians in the main branch. 

If approved by the board and the City Council, the library, which has 157 full and part-time employees, would be the only city department to suffer layoffs. 

“There’s no realistic way to cut $1 million from a $13 million budget without letting people go,” Library Director Jackie Griffin said. 

The cuts would take effect July 1.  

Griffin attributed the library’s deficit to soaring pension contributions that this year are estimated to cost 21 percent of each employee’s salary. To plug a $600,000 deficit last year, when pension contributions amounted to 11.3 percent of salaries, the library closed its doors on Sundays and reduced hours during the week.  

High pension rates, caused by new union contracts and consecutive years of poor stock returns for the state retirement fund, have also plunged the city into a deficit. While Berkeley has been promised a state refund from vehicle license fees in two years to help balance its budget, Griffin said the library has no recourse this year other than to cut workers.  

“We live and die on the tax and right now we’re dying on it,” Griffin said.  

In November voters defeated an 18 percent library tax hike that would have restored hours and prevented layoffs. Griffin said the proposal presented Wednesday should keep the library’s budget balanced through 2008—the next year she would consider asking residents for a tax hike. 

Currently the library receives no city funding outside the library tax, although if it chose to, the city could allocate money to cover the library’s shortfall. 

Librarians and union officials faulted the director for not allowing more employee input to the plan and targeting primarily lower-level positions for elimination. 

“This was done pretty much in isolation,” said Claudia Morrow, a children’s librarian. “That’s not the way the library used to operate.”  

Morrow, who said her job is secure, said many librarians were taken aback at the reality of losing the ballot initiative and now facing layoffs. 

“It’s been a rude awakening for us,” she said. “We’ve had such incredible support from the community in the past.” 

Anes Lewis-Partridge, field director for SEIU, Local 535, which represents Berkeley library workers, charged that Griffin had added a managerial position in the midst of cutting workers and dismissed the union’s offer to take voluntary time off and reduce work schedules to save jobs.  

Griffin insisted that new managerial classifications didn’t represent new spending because they were converted from discontinued positions, and that neither cost saving measure the union proposed would affect the library’s bottom line enough money to spare jobs. She added that reducing the work week from 40 hours to 37.5 hours, as the union proposed, could hamper the library’s ability to hire new personnel.  

The restructuring plan calls for eliminating positions held by 31 employees, replacing them with 22 new positions, most of which will be filled by current staff now holding the eliminated positions. 

Lower ranking library aides and library assistants would account for about two-thirds of the cuts. Griffin said those job classifications, which perform mainly clerical duties, will be less useful as the library this summer completes installing Radio Frequency Tracking Devices (RFIDs) on its materials.  

The devices, which cost the library $650,000, are anticipated to boost self-check-out rates from 15 percent to around 90 percent. Griffin also hopes the technology will cut down on workers’ compensation claims, mostly for repetitive motion injuries that she said have cost the city $1 million over the past five years. 

“We need a workforce that can be more flexible and serve people in different ways,” Griffin said. 

The library is proposing to use money from salary savings to train lower level employees in house for new positions. However, Griffin added that the library has not determined how it would chose which employees facing layoffs will be selected to receive the training. 

If the trustees and council adopt the plan, the Claremont Branch would lose roughly one position, the West Branch would roughly three positions, because of changes to its literacy program, the South Branch would lose one position and the North Branch would lose roughly 2.5 positions.  

Several Berkeley High students attended the meeting to voice their opposition to a proposal to lay off one teen-service librarian and shift the remaining three from local branches to the central library. 

“It’s nice to know I can go to any library in the city and know there is a teen librarian there,” said Ariana Cortesi, a Berkeley High sophomore who participates in a teen play reading program at the north branch. 

At the trustees’ request, the union is scheduled to present its proposals to save money at the next meeting on Jan. 26. Griffin has requested that the trustees approve the plan by March so that it can go before the City Council as part of the overall budget to be approved in June.  

The library tax revenue for the coming year is unknown. The City Council can base the tax either on an increase to the Bay Area Consumer Price Index (CPI) or California Personal Income Growth. The city has asked the library to structure the budget assuming a 2 percent increase in the CPI. However in recent years the personal growth indicator has far outstripped CPI allowing the council to approve larger increases in the tax. Last year the library tax rose 13.9 percent.e

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission gave their blessings Monday to the Ed Roberts Center, a starkly modern building planned for the western entrance of the South Berkeley BART station. 

In a lengthy session preceding the vote, commissioners blasted city Housing Director Tim Stroshane for presenting the issue only after the city Zoning Adjustments Board had voted authorization to build the project. 

The center will house a consortium of disability rights and training organizations, and because some of the building funds come from federal coffers, the city has to demonstrate that building the facility won’t adversely impact structures or a district that might qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. 

That requirement is spelled out in Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. 

The center’s proposed location at 3075 Adeline St. is in the heart of a district built at the start of the last century when the area became a hub for street car lines. Many of the structures are built in the Colonial Revival Style that became popular after the Spanish-American War. 

A nearby building, the Webb Block at the southwest corner of Ashby Avenue and Adeline Street, had been landmarked by the commission in December, and other structures in the area are cited on a state list of buildings that may be eligible for the National Register. 

Monday night’s hearing was prompted by a Nov. 17 letter to Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks from state Historic Preservation Officer Milford Wayne Donaldson, roasting the city for failure to respond a letter sent to Stroshane 13 months earlier asking for specifics about the project and its surrounding area. 

That Oct. 21, 2003 letter from Donaldson’s predecessor, Knox Mellon, notified Stroshane that “At this point, I cannot concur with the city that the Ed Roberts Center will have no impact on historic resources.” 

Mellon also faulted the city’s designated area of potential effects for the project and urged Stroshane to consult with the landmarks panel and the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

All the commissioners made clear their disappointment with city staff’s handling of the state agency’s concerns—most particularly Stroshane’s failure to bring them into the process well before the project came up for ZAB’s approval. Many also voiced frustration with Stroshane’s written submissions to the commission. 

“I was really, really disappointed at the lack of information in the packet,” said Lesley Emmington. “I was really surprised not to find something as basic as a map. There are some pictures of some things, not of others,” she said, 

“The information wasn’t comprehensive,” added Commissioner Carrie Olson. “This is very out of the ordinary. Very disappointing.” 

“Didn’t the State Office of Historic Preservation ask that the Landmarks Preservation Commission be a consulting body?” asked Patricia Dacey, a commissioner. 

“Yes,” said Stroshane. 

“It seems the first step is to identify and document the historic resources and determine their elegibility” for the register, said Jill Korte, commission chair. “I’m having difficulty understanding how we as a commission can accomplish that tonight.” 

“How do we define the area of potential effect? Is there an official standard? You defined it more broadly than” Page & Turnbull Inc., the architectural consultants hired by the center. 

“It’s not like a legal property definition,” said Stroshane. 

“The language about a historical district defines quite a formidable process in itself. I don’t think it’s possible in a short period,” said James Samuels, the newest commissioner. 

“What I’m having difficulty getting my head around is what kind of effects it could have on buildings. I’m having a hard time understanding,” said Commissioner Aran Kaufer. “I’m really eager to hear from the public.” 

Monday’s meet drew a large turnout of center supporters, including Zona Roberts, the mother of center namesake Ed. She became a disability rights advocate after her son was stricken with polio at age 14 and went on to become a counselor for Berkeley’s Center for Independent Living—which her son ran for years—and for UC Berkeley’s Physically Disabled Students’ Program. 

Ed Roberts is credited as the founder of the independent living movement, and had become a world-renowned figure by the time of his death nine years ago. He served as director of the California Department of Rehabilitation for eight years and won numerous awards, including a MacArthur grant. 

Residents of a nearby apartment praised the project. Other neighbors and BAHA activists, including President Wendy Markel, said they had no objections to the center’s location; their issue was the architecture, a glass-fronted curvilinear design many compared to an airport terminal. 

The design, they said, was too strong a contrast with the historic structures in the area, both the nearby residences and the potential landmarks immediately to the north along Adeline Street. 

Architect Bill Leddy defended the design, citing it as an example of universal architecture, fully accessible to the disabled and welcoming to all in stark contrast to the dark, closed institutions where the disabled had been warehoused throughout much of American history. 

The design impressed commissioners, too. And when it came time of vote on a statement declaring the project wouldn’t have negative impacts on the neighborhood, only Emmington, a BAHA employee, voted no. Two other commissioners, Korte and Dacey, abstained. ?

San Mateo developer Dan Deibel has yielded to critics of his proposed condo and commercial project for the 700 block of University Avenue and agreed to more testing for archaeological artifacts at the site. 

As a result, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Monday voted to postpone two scheduled hearings on landmark applications for two properties scheduled for demolition at the site. 

Preservation advocate Gale Garcia has submitted proposals to landmark Brennan’s Irish Pub at 720 University and the building on the other half of the block housing Celia’s Restaurant at 2040 Fourth St. 

During hearings in December, amateur historian Richard Schwartz and UC Berkeley archaeology Professor Ken Lightfoot reported that Deibel had only performed one of two promised tests at the site, which the two suspect may contain remains of the Berkeley Shellmound. 

Both said that Deibel had promised to conduct a second, more detailed core drilling if the first, limited test failed to find any traces of artifacts and Native American remains. 

Both said that the initial cores were conducted at a shallower depth than promised, a contention denied by one of Deibel’s consultants. 

After consulting with Lightfoot, Deibel agreed to conduct more extensive and deeper corings, and promised to present the results to commissioners at the Feb. 7 meeting.  

Reinforcing Schwartz’s contention that shellmound remains might be found at the site, LPC member Carrie Olson presented her colleagues Monday with copies of a panoramic photo taken in the late 1890s showing University Avenue bisecting the shellmound. 

She also presented an 1852 map of Strawberry Creek, showing the stream curving to the south of where the mound appears in the photo.

Berkeley Planning Commissioners Wednesday voted to give developer Avi Nevo their tentative approval of his plans to convert two apartment projects into condominiums. 

One project, a 74-dwelling/four-commercial-unit four-story at 2131 Durant St., is currently under construction, while construction has yet to begin at the second, a 29-dwelling/four-commercial-unit four-story at 1809 Shattuck Ave. 

But the largest part of Wednesday’s meeting was consumed by an often-intense discussion of the city’s handling of potential landmarks. 

By the time the meeting ended, no one had any doubt that Chair Harry Pollack wasn’t a fan of the city Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). 

The LPC spent four years formulating proposed changes to city ordinances to allow would-be developers and remodelers to determine whether their properties merited landmarking before, rather than after, they launched into the complex process of applying for city permits. 

Under the current system, anyone who spends the 20 to 40 hours it typically takes to research and write a landmarking application can file the document right up until the Zoning Adjustments Board issues the final construction permits. 

The proposal drafted by the commission is designed to front-load eligibility issues, eliminating delays in later stages of projects. 

But Pollack found fault with a proposed provision that he declared “a striking and extraordinary attempt to increase the purview of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.” 

The provision would place all demolitions of, and exterior alterations to, structures 50-year-old and more on the LPC agenda when the initial application was filed. 

“This creates additional conflicts between the Zoning Adjustments Board and the LPC,” Pollack declared. 

When LPC member Carrie Olson attempted to explain, Pollack refused to let her speak. Reached Thursday afternoon, Olson said that Pollack was simply wrong when he attributed the proposal to an LPC power-grab attempt. 

“Nothing could be further from the truth. What we’re trying to do is clear up the process so that when someone comes in for a permit they can get an early determination that will clear the way for the Permit Streamlining Act,” she said. “It was never the intention to cause a bottleneck at the front end.” 

Olson said her commission’s original intent was to create a list that applicants could check to see if their building had landmarking potential. 

She praised a motion by Planning Commission David Stoloff to have city staff draft alternative language that wouldn’t have all projects involving older structures sent to the LPC. 

Olson did get to speak when Planning Commissioner Susan Wengraf asked her why the commission didn’t create districts that would alert city staff to potential landmarks. 

“Each landmark application takes 20 to 40 hours to do, and we just don’t have the staff to do it,” she said. 

The recent Sisterna Historic District was created by neighbors, who did all the research and filed the application. The same is true of the just-proposed Panoramic National Historic District, Olson said. [See pages 12-13.] 

“All of Santa Barbara is a historic district,” she added. 

Pollack then stopped Wengraf from posing further questions. 

Pollack also said he wanted to make ZAB superior to the landmarks panel, so that the LPC would recommend but ZAB would hold the decision-making power. 

“Why say ZAB is superior to landmarks?” said commissioner Sarah Shumer. “To me, they should be co-equal. They have very different foci. ZAB’s focus is broader, but I’m not sure it’s inclusive the way the City Council is.” 

“The LPC has very special concerns, and I’m loathe to make it inferior to ZAB,” said Stoloff. 

Commissioner David Tabb backed Pollack, saying that concurrent jurisdiction “normally delays the process considerably from the point of view of the applicant.” 

“I don’t think we’re going to come up with anything better,” said Commissioner Helen Burke. 

By the time the hearing ended, the commission had covered only a few of Pollack’s suggestions, leaving plenty more to cover when they reconvene in two weeks. 

The panel did approve the LPC recommendation to place all proposed demolitions of older structure on the landmarks agenda, overriding Pollack, Stoloff and Tabb by a 5-3 vote. 

A scheduled hearing and workshop on plans for the proposed new Berkeley Bowl and Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue heard limited testimony and was ultimately rescheduled for Feb. 9 at the request of Bowl owner Glen Yasuda, who was unable to attend.

Berkeley schools will apparently see the effects of the passage of Measure B sooner than expected. 

When voters passed the school supplementary fund measure last November, it was anticipated that the class size reduction portion of the money would be spent in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years. 

“It would be extremely disruptive to children to reduce class sizes mid-year and transfer them to other teachers,” BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence wrote this week in a message to the BUSD Board of Directors in announcing why teaching personnel additions were not anticipated this winter and spring. “Further, recruitment of teachers in such a short time was not practical.” 

On Wednesday night, however, Lawrence told boardmembers that an immediate partial implementation of the Measure B monies was possible in the district’s library program. 

The board agreed, approving at its regular meeting an increase in the hours of elementary school library media technicians. The increased hours will begin in February, and are scheduled to run through the end of the 2006-07 school year. 

School Board Vice President Terry Doran said that it was “exciting to see things increasing in the district, rather than decreasing.” 

In other action at Wednesday’s meeting, the board informally announced support for a resolution of the student participation dispute between Berkeley High School and Berkeley Alternative High School. 

On Monday night, after a heated meeting with BAHS staff, parents, and students about concerns that BAHS students were being excluded from BHS extracurricular activities, Lawrence said that she would mediate a meeting between representatives of the two schools. 

Doran, who—along with fellow Board Director Shirley Issel—attended the Monday meeting, said at Wednesday’s Board meeting that “the intensity of feeling demonstrated by participants at that meeting emphasizes that we need to analyze the relationship between the two schools.” 

Director John Selawsky said that the two schools “need to work out the shared protocols of events and proms.” Meanwhile, though Lawrence said that the participation dispute needs immediate attention and resolution, she is also preparing for a longer-range discussion with the board as to “the role the alternative high school plays.” 

Lawrence said that she was currently reviewing documents on the evolution of BAHS “to see if their relationship with Berkeley High was board-approved over the years, or if it is something that just evolved.” 

The board also voted, on the recommendation of district staff, to hold off on the addition of lights to the east parking lot at Franklin Adult School. The $150,000 proposal was part of a modification to the district’s facilities plan, but BUSD Director of Facilities Lew Jones said that the utilization of the two parking lots at the school should be studied over the next year before the board decides whether or not to proceed with the lights. 

Director Doran told Board members that the lights had the support of the Adult School’s site committee, but his motion to include the lights in the budget failed for lack of a second.

On Jan. 6, a soldier from Afghanistan’s nascent national army was killed, along with two assailants, when troops were sent in to eradicate an opium field in Uruzgan province. The central government of President Hamid Karzai recognizes that these could prove the opening shots of a new opium war. A month earlier, on Dec. 11, Karzai’s finance minister, Ashraf Ghani, published an op-ed piece in the New York Times, “Where Democracy’s Greatest Enemy Is a Flower,” pleading for international support for crop-substitution programs. Opium is the key to power for Afghanistan’s warlords, who still control much of the country.  

It would be impolitic for Karzai’s government to remind his U.S. underwriters of Washington’s own complicity in creating this reality. The apparent December suicide of Gary Webb, the journalist responsible for the “Dark Alliance” sensation in the San Jose Mercury News in 1996, sparked at least a brief media recollection of the contra-cocaine claims of the Reagan era. That a CIA-backed rebel army was also turning to the drug trade at that same time in Afghanistan seems almost entirely forgotten.  

Webb’s controversial series documented the links between the CIA-spawned “contra” guerrilla army in Nicaragua and a top California cocaine ring. The series was met by a campaign to discredit it by major media, which relentlessly trumpeted its real flaws. But whatever Webb’s failings, the Nicaraguan counter-revolution was a major player in the 1980s coke boom. In 1989, the congress of Nicaragua’s neighbor Costa Rica permanently barred Lt. Col. Oliver North, ex-National Security Advisor John Poindexter, the U.S. ambassador and CIA station chief from the country’s territory, finding that their contra re-supply operation had doubled as a cocaine ring. Such disturbing realities were forgotten as Webb’s work was dismissed as “conspiracy theory.”  

Even more forgotten is that the contra-coke connection was mirrored in an Afghan mujahedeen-heroin connection. Just as the CIA groomed an army of right-wing exiles to destabilize revolutionary Nicaragua, the agency turned to Islamic insurgents to drive Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Once again, the CIA proxy army turned to the drug trade to boost its war chest. And while Nicaragua has seen some reconciliation since the 1980s, Afghanistan is still violently divided—and under U.S. occupation.  

Moreover, the contra war was small potatoes compared to the Afghan campaign, which never received nearly as much media exposure. All told, the CIA sunk some $450 million into the contras, compared with over $2 billion for mujahedeen.  

In a 1988 series for the Philadelphia Inquirer, “The CIA’s Leaking Pipeline,” Tim Weiner found that weapons for the Afghan resistance were being diverted to the armies of opium lords. The CIA admitted one of every five dollars in war material bound for the mujahedeen “disappeared.” It was during the mujahedeen war that the Afghan-Pakistan “Golden Crescent” overtook Southeast Asia’s “Golden Triangle” as the top source of global heroin.  

This didn’t slow down the Reagan administration. Following a 1986 bid by CIA director William Casey, Congress approved Pentagon advisors and hundreds of Stinger missiles for the mujahedeen.  

Support for the mujahedeen led directly to the emergence of Al Qaeda. In 1984, Osama bin Laden arrived in Peshawar, the Pakistan border city then serving as the mujahedeen’s staging area, and trans-shipment point for their heroin. It was there he established his Maktab al-Khidmat (”services center”), or MAK, a clearinghouse for mujahedeen volunteers from the Arab world, where they were armed, indoctrinated and dispatched to the front. CIA money flowed into the MAK through Pakistan’s secret service. Osama assumed command of the MAK in 1989, the same year the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan. He quickly transformed the MAK into his Al Qaeda network of trained terrorists.  

Given the extreme Islamic fundamentalist ideology of the mujahedeen, it was only logical that they would turn their guns on their erstwhile American underwriters after the Russians were driven out. When the Taliban took power in 1996, pledging to restore order after years of war, Afghanistan became a staging ground for global terrorist operations—culminating in 9-11, and the U.S.-led occupation that continues today. 

Now “liberated” Afghanistan has become again the world’s top heroin producer, supplying an estimated 90 percent of the global market, according to the United Nations, which monitors world production via satellite. Opium cultivation has in fact skyrocketed since the fall of the puritanical Taliban, which had effectively if briefly suppressed the trade. Growers have repeatedly opened fire on government workers sent to eradicate their fields. Any effort by President Karzai to challenge the opium economy could antagonize the warlords and plunge the country back into civil war, making Bush’s victory in this ravaged land a Pyrrhic one.  

America will be dealing with the legacy of Afghanistan’s Dark Alliance for years to come. It is sad that Gary Webb’s passing has prompted more dismissive condescension than serious grappling.  

DOESN’T GET IT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Bob Burnett, in his Dec. 28 article “Campaign 2008,” still does not get it. He fails to mention the obvious fact that President Bush won re-election because he supports the marriage amendment and Sen. Kerry does not. Eleven more states voted for referendums to declare that marriage is only between a man and a woman, and there is not now, and never has been, any right of a person to marry a person of the same sex. If two persons of the same sex live together we do not have to give them the endorsement or approval of their relationship that either governmental or social recognition implies. I do not want to have the right to marry a person of the same sex as I, and nobody else should have such a right, because all persons should have exactly the same rights and no person or persons should have any special rights. The Democrats will stay in the minority until they understand and accept this. Besides, President Bush and Congress and most of the country support the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rule in the military services, and that ought to be the rule everywhere. 

Charles J. Blue, Sr. 

Albany 

• 

UC LONG RANGE PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

As a citizen of Berkeley, the revised version of the 2020 UC LRDP gives me great concern.  

First, the cost of building structured parking is at least $30,000 per space for above-ground, and at least $40,000 for underground parking. UC Berkeley doesn’t raise enough money from parking fees to cover the cost of the planned 1,800-plus-500 new parking spaces. Unrealistic planning, it would seem. 

What is really worrisome, however, is the cost this plan represents for the City of Berkeley. Already in deficit and cutting millions of dollars from current services, how will the city pay for the infrastructure necessary to support the construction planned by UC? How will the COB cover the cost of sidewalk, roads and signalized intersections for its own plans, let alone those of UC? 

With all the new students, staff, housing and traffic, more traffic and parking enforcement will be needed. Who will pay for these services? What will happen without these services, if there is no money to cover these costs? Maybe this plan goes too far. 

While UC Berkeley claims to have adequate programs in place to encourage use of alternative transportation modes (it doesn’t), mention isn’t made showing how it will mitigate the planned increase in traffic in the city. UC Berkeley doesn’t have a plan to promote alternatives beyond what it is currently doing, which obviously, according to the university, won’t be adequate. 

In fact, UC Berkeley doesn’t have a mitigation plan at all. 

UC Berkeley should develop its own Transportation Im-provement Plan, and Pedestrian Improvement Plan, and should fund improvements necessary to make alternative transportation and walking to campus safe, accessible and comfortable, thereby encouraging these modes, reducing traffic congestion, and being a responsible member of the community. 

UC Berkeley should be leading the way in encouraging their sizable staff to use alternative modes. Some large employers pay employees a stipend of $100 per month for use with any alternative modes they wish. UC Berkeley should, again, lead the way in this regard.  

It is feasible for no increase in traffic, and certainly no increase in single occupancy vehicles (SOV) to result from UC Berkeley’s 2020 LRDP. But what does UC Berkeley say? That an increase in a mode switch from alternatives to automobile travel is inevitable. This is ill-informed and unconscionable in a time when global warming has become a real and present concern in every day life. 

Mayor Tom Bates certainly did the right thing by opposing this revised version of the LRDP. We should all back him on his position, since we will all be losers if the plan goes through as written. 

UC Berkeley’s LRDP will diminish the quality of life in Berkeley. The university appears to want to take over more land within city boundaries, while continuing without any fiscal or environmental responsibility. It is quite clear that this represents poor stewardship, spoiling their own nest. 

Marcy Greenhut 

• 

A NEW YEAR’S WISH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I joined the generous multitudes of Berkeley’s voters last November in supporting a significant tax increase for our public schools. This tax increase is larger than all the city tax measures which were defeated. I hope that our community’s generosity and support will be appreciated and reciprocated by the Berkeley Unified School District in the form of greater cooperation with the community, concern and interest in the community’s needs, a broader welcome for community participation, and adherence to prior agreements made with the city. 

I live in West Berkeley, near Washington Elementary School. Washington School is a Measure Y park. As a Measure Y park, Washington’s school yard is to be open to the community to use whenever school is not in session. Unfortunately, BUSD has taken on the practice of locking the gates, especially during holiday weekends, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas holiday. We, who live in West Berkeley, lack open space. There are no large parks, there are no greenways. What is available are schoolyards. Keeping the Washington schoolyard open is a promise that BUSD made many years ago. It is a promise, which BUSD needs to keep. 

There are other Measure Y schools, but keeping the schoolyards open is something BUSD needs to do, not only for Measure Y schools, but for all schools. Schools are a community institution. For the 60 percent of us who do not have children in schools, schoolyards are a small way in which we can enjoy what our substantial tax dollars are paying for. 

I enjoy walking in my neighborhood, which I do daily. I enjoy sitting in the schoolyard and watching children play. And it pains me to watch the disappointed faces of young children as they rattle the locked gate. 

On another note, I recently learned that BUSD is planning to make changes in Washington’s and perhaps other schools’ schoolyards as part of the Measure AA bond money. However, the community was not informed of any meetings to discuss such changes. No signs were posted at the school yard. Nothing was mailed to neighbors. Nothing was publicized in the newspaper. Recently, BUSD took out one of the basketball courts at Willard, also without inviting any community participation, nor informing us of the proposal, until after it was done. Unfortunately, that basketball court was one of only a few in south Berkeley, and it’s now sorely missed. 

BUSD: Your community includes everyone who is paying your bills, not just the students who attend your schools. I have lived for 32 years near Washington School. I urge you involve all neighbors and the community in any playground changes you are contemplating. You have now fenced off the grassy area for over six months, and the pond area has been dilapidated and fenced off for over eight years. Our schoolyards are very important to our neighborhood, and we would like to be involved in any changes. And most importantly, keep the schoolyard gates open. 

Sally Reyes 

• 

DOWNTOWN’S FRIENDS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

In your article about the objections to the Seagate Building being built downtown you give extensive coverage to the “Friends of Downtown Berkeley.” What does it mean to be a friend of downtown Berkeley? Some of the “Friends of Downtown” specific complaints about the Seagate Building underscore pressing issues for downtown and Berkeley as a whole.  

The downtown plan called for a push to increase the profile of the arts district, as if on its own it would solve all downtown’s problems. We need to also push the profile of movie screens and clubs, ice rink and sports centers (the CAL stadium), shopping, business large and small. The “Friends” complain that the Seagate’s proposed three levels of parking are too much. The developers plan to build more parking than is required for their tenants. And the problem is…? They should be applauded. Extra parking downtown, underground, could be a solution for any new building downtown. It should be required just as low income housing is required.  

How vital and viable is our downtown? It may not be economically sound to plan a revitalization of downtown and then just stomp your feet and say I don’t like cars. If we don’t want cars in our downtown but we do want the people cars carry we should provide for parking at the periphery of town with frequent shuttles in. In addition, more parking underground with easier access would work too. Perhaps one day, with the right kind of incentives, these three levels will be filled with electric and alternative vehicles. And, yes, we should make it easier to use public transportation too. But simply making it impossible to park downtown will not encourage the kind of active and vital economic and cultural downtown that Berkeley deserves. The “Friends of Downtown” also complain about the proposed height of the Seagate building. Our downtown is already a node of density but the “Friends of Downtown” want to limit the addition of a 14-story building next to an existing one. One might argue that a cluster of taller buildings is a natural evolution of a downtown and an environmentally ethical solution to the pressure for more housing. There already is a plan to increase housing downtown why not reduce sprawl too. 

Finally, the “Friends” complain that the lower floors of the Seagate building would house lower income apartments and smaller apartments. They complain that this is discriminatory. Nonsense. Inclusion of these units is excellent public policy and needs to be applauded. My only complaint about this building is that these units are not available for purchase. Another housing need in our community is opportunity for middle income individuals or lower income families to purchase anything in Berkeley. But I think the plan at the Seagate for higher floor units with better views and higher rents to subsidize lower rent units makes sense. Supply and demand, public policy goals for lower income housing all intertwine here to the make the whole work, and makes our community better and richer.  

The downtown plan has not yet gone far enough. We need to support the full vision. We have new stages but the movies theaters are not re-investing. The ice skating rink is on the brink. The university is one of our biggest resources but town and gown relations are strained. The natural tensions between development and preservation are perhaps failing in an untenable stasis. 

The plan needs to bring people back to our streets. We are not yet there. The “Friends of Downtown” might just be one minority group speaking about what what should be the majority’s playground. 

Peter Levitt 

• 

AMUSEMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Tee hee hee! I want to thank Charles Siegel (Letters, Daily Planet, Jan. 11-13) for providing some much-needed amusement, since running my “hate campaign against buses” is a pretty humorless job. But as they say, somebody has to do it.  

Seriously, however, I ride buses frequently and obviously they are a necessary and useful part of the urban environment. But the truth is, although improving, they are still hard on the eyes, ears, and nose. Nonetheless, I was unkind to buses and I hope I didn’t hurt any of their tender little feelings. 

Since we’re talking intimately about buses, however, I admit that I do not find 60-foot long buses pedestrian-friendly. Many other places in the world use flexible, non-monopolistic systems of smaller buses or vans, and we might rethink our own bus system. And the new buses with multi-level seating are apparently not intended for people with walkers, strollers, or bags of groceries—to say nothing of the frail and non-acrobatic. But back to BRT: Remember, a merely “enhanced” bus service will achieve two thirds of the ridership gain of BRT at only one fourth the cost—with no damage to local traffic flow or to nearby neighborhoods. On some things, I regret, AC Transit seems to have its headlights up its exhaust pipes.  

As for the charge that I am only concerned about my own neighborhood, it is the constipation of Telegraph Avenue that disturbs me. A secondary concern is about traffic in Willard Neighborhood south of me, because Willard, unlike its barricaded neighbors on its right and left, has not so assiduously protected its own back yard.  

As for myself, when I wrote my commentary, I didn’t think that BRT would cause much additional traffic near me. But now that you draw my attention to it, I realize that BRT would send thousands more cars in my direction—and I’d also completely forgotten about the massive loss of trees and parking. Uh-oh, now what shall I do? Does this mean that since I am affected by BRT, I must remain silent or be a NIMBY? Or maybe I actually have to support BRT, because the more we Berkeleyans hurt ourselves, the better it is for the planet.  

Sorry, but I don’t buy it. The World Health Organization states: “Good health and well being require a clean and harmonious environment in which physical, physiological, social and aesthetic factors are all given their due importance. The environment should be regarded as a resource for improving living conditions and increasing well being.” The neighborhood environment is where we spend most of our lives. So I support everyone’s pursuit of a healthy and livable neighborhood, Mr. Siegel, and I’m sure you do, too.  

Sharon Hudson 

• 

BUSH THE ACTOR 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

For years now, I’ve been waiting for George Bush to hesitate, to show some shame or remorse. 

“We have brought freedom and democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq,” says George. I keep waiting for him to break down and cry at the tragic untruth of this statement—or even to laugh at this joke—but he never does. Could he be a male Stepford Wife? 

Half the nation hates George Bush—yet on TV, he is perky, actually perky. He’s like a political version of June Cleaver! How can a man bomb 10,000 civilians one day and glad-hand church ladies the next?  How does he do it?   

He’s an actor. 

Here’s an example: Bush gets up in front of the TV cameras and badmouths frivolous lawsuits. AND he sues a rental car company for damages in one of his daughters’ fender-bender where no one was hurt. Can’t he see the contradiction? 

Example two: He speaks to America about “Clean Air” but the reality is that America’s air is now polluted, putrefied and cancerous thanks to George Bush. 

Example three: “Our economy is booming!” sez George, just as the value of the dollar drops through the basement floor. 

Example four: Bush gets in front of the cameras and plays the role of President like he is the star of West Wing or something but, in actuality, unimpeachable documentation in New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, etc. shows that Bush only “won” the 2004 election by use of massive vote fraud. Plus accurate exit polls clearly indicate that Kerry won.   

How does Bush keep up this charade? How does he live with himself? Easy. He is an actor. Leonardo DiCaprio, in real life, is NOT Howard Hughes.  He hangs up that persona when he walks off the set. It’s the same with George Bush. 

When we watch Bush glad-handing women and children on TV -- and Karl Rove makes sure that we see this benign image 24/7 (You can’t even turn on the TV and not see Big Brother George)—and then wonder at the terrible disconnect between what we see and what we get, please remember that our George is an actor. 

Like when O.J. Simpson was the kindly spokesperson for Hertz rent-a-car, Bush is now the kindly spokesperson for America.  And, like Simpson, Americans have found Bush “not guilty” of what he does off-camera. 

With George Bush, reality doesn’t matter.  It’s all an act. 

PS:  Sometimes I think that having to watch Bush on TV 24/7 is Karl Rove’s way of torturing American dissidents.  And his diabolical plan is working too!  You want me to confess to supporting the Bill of Rights or being fond of the Sixth Commandment?  I’ll talk!  ”Ask me anything!  I’ll name names!  Only, please!  No more George Bush!” 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

STATE OF PALESTINE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

On Jan. 4 you chose to republish your senseless and vile cartoon of a Jewish-American flag buried in the back of a poor “State of Palestine.” It is senseless, because it impossible to understand by what mechanism the U.S. has killed Palestinian statehood. President Clinton spent more time with Yassir Arafat than any other head of state in a ceaseless, though ultimately futile, attempt to help the Palestinians toward statehood. The U.S. is the largest single donor to the United Nations Palestinian refugee organization (UNRWA). Now that Arafat is dead, there is palpable breath of life in the peace process, proving what almost everyone involved has known for a long time, that Arafat was the main obstacle to the peaceful emergence of a Palestinian state. But your cartoon transcends the senseless and enters the world of the vile, because by replacing the 50 stars of the American flag with a single Jewish Star of David, the Daily Planet is repeating the old canard that the Jews somehow control the country, or the banks, or the world (choose your favorite form of hate). Stalin’s secret police made this villainy infamous when they first forged and published The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purports to be the minutes of a meeting of rabbis out to control the world. The Daily Planet might just as well republish that fine piece of propaganda in full instead of your cartoon to the same effect. 

John Gertz 

• 

BIGOTRY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

When there is the slightest doubt, most of us who have worked as journalists like to believe the best about those who don the mantle of the publisher, supposedly to better inform the populace. Correspondingly, although I was appalled when Becky O’Malley ran a cartoon several months ago depicting a Palestinian impaled by and American flag with the Star of David on it, I wanted to believe that O’Malley simply was one of the ignorant 10 percent who associate the Star of David with only the State of Israel rather than the Jewish people.  

Sure, Hitler and the Third Reich correlated the six pointed star with anyone of Jewish heritage in utilizing it as a symbol of everything the German fascists found evil in the world. Today, the Arab press does the same.  

But nevermind that nine of 10 people you might ask on a Berkeley street would first and foremost associate the Star of David with Jews rather than Israel; I harbored hope against hope that O’Malley printed the cartoon simply because she is that tenth person who more guilty of ignorance than anti-Semitism. 

Alas, O’Malley marked the end of the news year (Dec. 31) with a rationalization of printing the cartoon and in the Jan.4-6 edition, republished the cartoon giving it prominence at the very top of the page. She did this despite the earlier outpouring of letters, e-mails and phone calls from both the Jewish community and many outside of it who found the cartoon profoundly offensive when it was first published. 

It saddens me to conclude that despite the hurt and anger this odious image inflicted upon so many of her readers, that O’Malley would both justify and reissue cartoonist DeFreitas’ toxic age-old message of “international Jewish conspiracy.” In retrospect, I have no problems with those who sought to have advertisers desist from giving their money to the BDP for it is now crystalline that O’Malley is little more than a Merchant of Hate and by extension, her publication a promulgation of the worst sort of bigotry. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

MORE ON PALESTINE CARTOON 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I was saddened, though not surprised, to see that Mr. DeFreitas selected his cartoon depicting the field of the American flag filled with Jewish Stars of David and placing the great blame for the Palestinians’ plight on the American government which, according to the cartoon, simply does Israel’s bidding. In the wake of the original publication, your paper received many letters alleging anti-Semitism, a claim Mr. DeFreitas rejected. A statement from the website of the Free Palestine Now! organization at Virginia Commonwealth University comments on this very type of cartoon: www.studentorg.vcu.edu/fpn/mission.html. 

Since the beginning of the second Intifada those objecting to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state have obfuscated their true goal by describing themselves and their allies as peace activists and progressives. I thank Mr. DeFreitas, however, for finally clarifying the paper’s position. His commentary explains that the cartoon expresses his opposition to any Israeli policy that would “permanently bar displaced Palestinians from ever returning to their homes.” This full right of return, of course, and the concomitant eviction of Israelis from property once owned by Palestinians, would signal the end of Israel as a Jewish state. Mr. DeFreitas does not stand alone. Barbara Lubin, whose views this paper has championed, supports this position, as does the organization ANSWER, which views Israel as simply illegitimate, ab initio. Mr. Arafat, too, was an adherent, praising martyrs who died for its realization. 

While you have every right and even obligation to provide readers with your solution to the Palestinians’ plight, support for that solution—as opposed to the compromise proposed by President Clinton and the Saudis in January 2001—is not a prescription for lasting peace. Instead, unyielding support for the right of return simply stokes the irredentist dreams of Palestinians and implies support for any means used to realize them.  

Thom Seaton 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The letter writers continue to distort the cartoonist’s views. The artist supports Israel’s right to exist, but reserves the right to criticize that nation’s government, as he would any other. The use of the Star of David as a symbol for Israel begins with Israel’s decision to place that symbol on its national flag. DeFreitas’s explanation and defense of the cartoon (“From the Cartoonist,” April 23, 2004) is available in the Daily Planet’s archive at www.berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas ›

It is always interesting to see the great fits of outrage that flow in recent years from the camp of my liberal-progressive-Democrat friends whenever there is some revelation of a moral transgression of a prominent conservative. First there was Bill Bennett and his gambling binges, then Rush Limbaugh and his prescription drug habit, and Bill O’Reilly and his sexual harassment of a Fox News employee. Now comes Armstrong Williams, the conservative commentator, who admits accepting a quarter of a million in public dollars from the Bush Administration to promote the president’s education law. In a column, Williams calls this “an obvious conflict of interests.” 

Yes, but not much of a surprise. To me, in any event. 

Some years ago, in that period in the early 1980s when Republicans briefly took control of the U.S. Senate, black South Carolinians held demonstrations around the state in protest of Senate Judiciary Chair Strom Thurmond’s plans to kill the Voting Rights Act. (For those of you who don’t remember, most Southern blacks were barred from voting—much less holding office—until Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.) Looking for a black voice-any black voice-to speak against the demonstrations, a local newspaper found the young Mr. Williams, a South Carolina native and resident, who pronounced something to the effect that the demonstrators “looked foolish” out there marching around in a circle in the hot sun. 

What readers might not have known at the time was that while Mr. Williams might have honestly held those beliefs, he had some financial incentives for making them public—Mr. Williams had served as an intern in the senator’s office and, if I recall correctly, his father had been a long-time Thurmond employee. 

But the problem with doing more than merely pointing out such transgressions is that in making too much of a deal of them, you appear to buy into the conservative spin that conservatives are presumed to be more moral than the rest of us, merely because they say they are. 

Which, like they say down in Charleston, ain’t necessarily so. 

Still, one must give conservatives—particularly conservative Christians—A’s for persistence and creative effort to impose their views upon the rest of us on the theory that they are getting instructions from on high. 

The most recent one—of many—comes from the good people of the Cobb County (Georgia) Board of Education, who ordered that stickers be placed on the cover of biology textbooks to inform the students that “This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.’’ 

This is no three-school district at the fork of a creek, by the way. The Atlanta suburb school district is responsible for more than 100,000 students, making it the second largest school system in Georgia and among the 30th largest in the United States. 

A federal judge—Clarence Cooper—this week ordered the stickers removed, ruling that “By denigrating evolution, the school board appears to be endorsing the well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof, even though the sticker does not specifically reference any alternative theories.’’ 

The theory of evolution—based upon Charles Darwin’s ideas on the origins of species—is, in fact, religion-neutral, neither advocating the existence of the guiding hand of a God in creation, nor eliminating that possibility. The mainstream Christian child—whose beliefs are so affirmed in many ways throughout American society—can easily hold the belief that the collection of assembled bones from australopithecus to homo erectus is merely the recorded evidence of God’s work on earth, all intended, all inevitable, all set out by prior plan. 

That, apparently, is not enough for many of our evangelical Christian friends, who are convinced that not only must that Christian child be free to draw that conclusion, but it is the duty of God’s advocates to do their best to make sure that all the rest of us draw it as well. 

Falling back on another old theory—that of the goose and the golden egg—they ought to take more care to leave well enough alone. 

Christians have it extraordinarily good in America, which has for its entire lifetime operated under pro-Christian national and state governments that have allowed mainstream Christians—and even many of their more unorthodox brethren—to go about their business without undue interference. That the national Constitution under the First Amendment requires that the government remain neutral in religious affairs is what has led to American Christian freedom and flowering, not to its stifling. 

While other religions are allowed, of course, our official acceptance is less tolerant. 

For many years, American politicians equated the practice of religion with attendance at church, and it is only relatively recently that the phrase “or synagogue” has been generally added, as an acknowledgement of the Jewish brethren amongst us. But when was the last time you heard an American politician urge Americans to attend the church, or synagogue, or the mosque of their choice? (Mosque being the designation of the Muslim house of worship.) And that leaves out such transgressions as President Bush—at the start of the invasion of Iraq—referring to it as a “crusade,” a phrase which might have some bad memories for our Muslim friends, who recall that the last time that name was given to a military operation, it signaled an attempt by Christian soldiers to take the Holy Land from the hands of the Saracens. 

It gets worse for the non-Abrahamic in our midst. Wicca and Ifa are two of the older religions of the world, predating Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by many thousands of years. But their practitioners in America are subject to intolerance and ridicule so regular that we hardly notice it—the broom-riding witch of black hat and pointed nose is our national symbol of evil, after all, and when we want to pronounce something ridiculous, we equate it with voodoo. 

I once met an old South Carolina man who told me that his view of God was like a light brighter than the sun-we could only look at it indirectly, and so our attempts to describe it were at best, imperfect. Religion—humanity’s various interpretations of God’s ways and intents-were always going to be imperfect and from various points of view, he said, because folks could only once in a while get a quick view of the light before either blinking or going blind. Since no-one could see the full God, he concluded, no-one could tell which interpretation was closest to being right. We could all only do the best we could, and leave it at that. 

In such a world, our conservative Christian friends might be moral, or they might be not, but they hold no special claim to a crown. Faith is judged by acts and acts alone, that old South Carolina man would say, thus ending the sermon, again. 

?

(Names have been changed to prevent me from embarrassing and being therewith scorned by my otherwise adoring children.) 

“Who won the game?” a buddy of my 10-year-old son asks. “They beat us by one point.” Jason responds. (In fact, they lost by 10.) 

“This was our first loss of the season,” he explains. (Not.) “Our last game, I scored the winning point!” he brags. (What? Where was I?) 

While driving home I admonish him, “Jason, you didn’t lose by one point. Why did you say that?” 

He laughs. “I don’t know,” he shrugs. 

A single comment made by a sportscaster during the summer Olympics coverage really stuck with me and I recall it now. “What is sports without winning?” It was a declaration, not a question. And the answer to be inferred was “nothing”. 

I recently attended a Cal basketball game and was distracted from the players by the intensity of their coaches. Their faces twisted, eyes flashing, fists raised to match the volume of their voices. They were screaming, livid. As a Cal student in the ‘70s, I attended few games but I do remember them being fun, full of good natured rivalry. During this game, each time the other team went to the foul line Cal fans and cheerleaders not only waved their hands to distract the shooter but they also made an eerie howling sound that my teenage daughter found amusing and I felt to be quite rude. 

“It’s just team spirit!” Liana insisted. Perhaps the definition of “fun” has changed along with that of “dating”, “good study habits” and ”a clean bedroom” but that’s another story. 

One thing that hasn’t changed is the identification of fans with their team players. In fact, both the emotional and physical boundaries between them appear to be thinning, as evidenced by the recent NBA debacle in which both fans and players assaulted each other.  

This blurring of boundaries begins at an early age. When my son and his friends play sports video games I hear them declaring; “I’m Jerry Rice!” “Well, I’m Terrell Owens!” “I just made a touchdown!” “Watch me tackle this guy. I got him!” They even dance around the room, mimicking the buffoonish antics of too many of these athlete/entertainers. 

These days, young sports fans have new, complex issues to deal with. 

When the news media reported the suspected use of steroids among professional athletes, I asked my son what he thought of it all. “Bad.” he stated. “Well, do you think Barry Bonds should keep his records?” I asked. “Yeah. He’s a great player,” Jason said. “But, if he took steroids,” I prodded, “that means he cheated to make himself stronger. What would you think of him if he did that?” “Stupid.” “Why?” (I have to dig a little deeper with this kid.) “Because he probably could have done it without that stuff.” Perhaps. “So,” I continued, “if he did take steroids, do you think he should keep his records?“ Jason looked worried. “I don’t know,” he answered. “What’s wrong?” I pushed. “I feel stupid, too.” “Why?” “For believing in him,” he said. 

Recently and much to my dismay, Jason and his friends have acquired a huge interest in wrestling. He has a play ring and several wrestling figures who body slam and headlock each other on a daily basis. I dislike violence in any guise and I tell him so. “Don’t worry,” he assures me. “No one’s really getting hurt. Everybody knows wrestling’s fake!” 

I take Jason to the park and we toss the football back and forth. I love the spin and twirl of it, the feel of the cone shaped bit of leather as it leaves my fingertips, like an arrow gliding through the air. I share this with Jason and he gets it. I feel swell and for now, this is all there is. And it’s enough. 

¿

Spat Takes Nasty Turn 

A couple’s argument inside a moving car took a dangerous turn just before 1:30 Monday morning when the male driver opened his female companion’s door and threw her out of the moving car along the 2200 block of San Pablo Avenue. 

Berkeley Fire Department paramedics rushed the woman to a local hospital for treatment of her injuries, and police busted the 39-year-old driver on a felony charge of battery with serious bodily injury, said Berkeley police spokesperson Joe Okies. 

I saw, iPod, I stole 

A music-loving bandit spotted a pedestrian absorbed in the tunes streaming from his iPod near the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street Monday noon and decided he wanted the device for himself. 

After strong-arming the expensive item away from its owner, the speedy teen fled. 

Spousal Abuse 

Seventeen minutes later, Berkeley police arrested a 43-year-old woman on charges of spousal abuse and corporal injury to a cohabitant after they were summoned to a residence in the 2000 block of Delaware Avenue. 

Knife-Wielder Sought 

Police arrived at a home in the 1500 block of Sacramento Street at 6:15 p.m. Monday, where the occupant told officers that during an argument with a visitor, the man brandished a kitchen knife at him when asked to leave. The visitor eventually dropped the knife and fled, and officers have yet to make an arrest. 

Hot Goods, Burglar Tools 

Police arrested a 26-year-old man on charges of possession of stolen property and burglary tools at 3:21 Tuesday morning after they stopped to question him outside the Steam Works in the 2100 block of Fourth Street. A records check yielded an additional charge of probation violation, said Officer Okies. 

Arco Heist 

A middle-aged man claiming to have a gun in his pocket robbed the Arco Station at 833 University Ave. about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. After handing over the contents of the till, the station clerk pursued the robber on foot, losing him before officers arrived. 

Assault by Auto 

Police are seeking three teenage girls who were in the car that tried to run down a pedestrian near the corner of Sacramento Street and Alcatraz Avenue just before 5:30 Wednesday afternoon. 

The would-be victim ran after the car, losing it near the corner of 65th and Dover streets.

Firefighters rushed to the vacant home at 2828 Fulton St. Monday evening for the second time in as many weeks. 

When they arrived at 7 p.m., they found a small fire in the unlocked garage, where furniture and other household goods were stored. 

After the flames were quickly extinguished, investigators estimated structural damage at $2,000 and damages to contents were placed at $1,500. 

“We’re treating it as a suspicious fire because a week-and-a-half earlier, someone tossed a lit flare through the living room window and started a small fire,” said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth.

Brian Edwards-Tiekert and Carol Spooner cover many of the issues regarding the recent Staff Local Station Board (LSB) election at KPFA. However, to really understand what the LSB did you must know some pertinent facts that Brian Edwards-Tiekert left out of his article on the LSB decision.  

The first thing that needs to be addressed is Edwards-Tiekert’s point that the staff turnout was the second highest in Pacifica’s five stations. However, this statistic only has meaning if every voter received a ballot. If they chose not to vote that is their right. Ballot return numbers mean nothing if a significant number of voters didn’t receive a ballot, which is the case here.  

Among those that didn’t get ballots were Miguel Molina and Solange Echevarria, both staff candidates. Because of numerous complaints of staff not getting ballots, the Local Election Committee (LEC) voted unanimously to ask that the staff election be redone with first class mail. Third class mail had been used in November to mail the ballots out despite the fact that the Pacifica National Board Election Committee had recommended first class mail. Kenny Mostern, the National Election Supervisor (NES), agreed to redo the staff election but never did redo it, despite the fact that it could have been done quickly and inexpensively. There were approximately 220 ballots to be mailed. Below are two e-mails regarding this issue. Brian refers to Brian Johns, the Local Election Supervisor. Nicole Milner is Chair of the LEC. Max and Mary are members of the LEC and LSB members. 

Dear Solange,  

At the election committee’s Nov. 30 meeting, we made a strong recommendation that the staff ballots go out again immediately, because so many ballots had still not been received by staff. Brian Johns, the LEC, was present at that meeting and agreed to speak with Kenny Mostern the NES to make the case. Kenny agreed within a day or so to send out new ballots immediately first class. We don’t know what happened in the interim. This has been a very difficult process all around, and we more than hope it will be vastly improved in the future. Our committee is doing all it can to analyze the various issues and we will make our own report.  

Nicole Milner 

Mary, 

Thanks for providing this information. As it stands, Kenny has agreed to redoing the staff election. It looks like we’ll have TruBallot reprint ballots on  

Monday. You, Max, and others can help us distribute them. Then, we’ll have a recount (on a date yet to be scheduled). So —absent a few details—this  

looks like a go.  

Brian 

It was a very complicated situation, where it is known that one staff seat on the board could be changed by the number of ballots not received by staff candidates. The NES left without redoing the botched Staff Election as agreed. So the LSB held up seating the new staff members until it was cleared up.  

The election uses the Single Transferable Voting method to insure that one group with a majority doesn’t get all the seats, it is proportional representation. By the past elections and what is known of the KPFA staff, the Miguel Molina/Solange Echevarria group had enough support to get one of three seats if the election was done right. It wasn’t, since neither Miguel Molina or Solange Echevarria received a ballot and their votes would have changed the outcome. Some have raised the issue that Miguel Molina and Solange Echevarria didn’t try hard enough to get a ballot. I don’t think that we want subjective criteria for voting unless we want to go back to 1950 Mississippi and poll taxes and literacy tests. Here is what Solange said about that in her Formal Complaint: 

On a personal note, I telephoned Brian Johns on several occasions in the weeks leading to the election and left message after message that I had not received a ballot and that there were serious issues regarding the election. I never got a call back until after the election. 

It is not as simple as Brian Edwards-Tiekert would like you to believe. If Democracy was Derailed at KPFA it was with the staff election needing to be redone and not being redone as agreed. The staff election could be redone with first class mail in two weeks for a few hundred dollars. Why is Brian Edwards-Tiekert not concerned with this denial of democracy?  

Richard Phelps is a KPFA Local Station Board listener representative.Ù

Kudos to Superintendent Michele Lawrence, Shirley Issel and Terry Doran of the Berkeley School Board, and City Councilmember Darryl Moore for attending the packed Berkeley Alternative High School Meeting Jan. 10, where they heard touching stories of seniors who have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their young lives to make it to their last year of high school. Worried parents, passionate students, and some outraged adults gave much heartfelt testimony to a sympathetic Michele Lawrence about their very real concerns. 

Alternative High School and Independent Study students, who share a campus a few blocks from Berkeley High School, have worked hard to survive and thrive in school, expecting to graduate at the Greek Theatre graduation ceremony, attend junior and senior prom, have access to needed services on BHS campus, and be welcomed to attend rallies, games and have other opportunities that are available to their peers at BHS. 

When one senior told of his heartbreaking path, from being abandoned, homeless, and escaping from foster “care” (not) to live with his elderly and ill grandmother, to becoming a straight-A student at AHS, expecting to graduate on the Greek Theatre stage even though he’d never seen it, there were few dry eyes among the listeners who could feel the pain this courageous young man was projecting. There are about 30 2005 graduating seniors at AHS, each with a moving and triumphant story of courage, and determination to complete high school in spite of any odds against their success. There are many more students coming down this long, hard road who should not in the future face barriers to educational opportunities and social intercourse with peers. 

We must not allow any group of students to again be segregated and isolated from opportunities available to their peers, as has happened recently when AHS students were not allowed to attend a function they should have been able to participate in at BHS. It is not fair to come to AHS, or IS, asking for gifted students to contribute to successes in our community and at BHS, such as at sports or music, while telling them they cannot have treatment equal to that given to BHS students. 

We need to make sure that all assets and opportunities for any students of BHS are available to all students of AHS and IS. There should be no discrimination, isolation, or prejudiced treatment of any group of students, regardless of their economic status, or any other criteria. The audience heard that some students of AHS and IS actually attend some classes at BHS but are not welcomed there in many ways because of their official status of enrollment at AHS or IS. 

No specific group should be singled out as undeserving of sharing in the opportunities, resources, and recognition that BHS students have. We all have a responsibility to see that all children in Berkeley have every possible chance to succeed, and are equally rewarded for their hard earned achievements. 

When we pay taxes in Berkeley that go to the school district there is no box that we check that says to be sure to disregard youth that are not in the upper socio-economic strata; no box to check that says if you are having a rough time in life we want our tax dollars used to kick you when you are down and desperately trying to climb up to a better life. As adults we have a responsibility to see that every student gets every chance, every reward, and every opportunity that they have worked so very hard for, and deserve. No student should be left out. 

There must not be segregation of Alternative High Students, Independent Study students, and Berkeley High students, from each other, or from the resources and assets of the community that should be helping all of our high school students. We need to equally share all resources among all of our children—who must depend on the good judgment of adults to ensure they are fairly treated. Not separate but equal. Not segregated. Not discriminated against. But integrated and having equal opportunity to be educated and succeed. 

Hans Barnum is a Berkeley Youth Commissioner and an Independent Study student. 

Thai Garlic Restaurant 

2042 University Ave.665-6005. 

Thai Garlic restaurant, on University Aveune between Shattuck Avenue and Milvia Street, was launched by alumni of the popular Hua Hin Thai restaurant (at Bancroft Way and Fulton, with the big yellow e lephant out front). Hua Hin fans will feel right at home when they notice the colorful and extensive menu, delicious food, tasty and affordable house wines, and friendly and efficient service. 

Southeast Asian restaurants have opened and closed on Univer sity Avenue’s top three blocks with alarming speed over the last year. This one really deserves to stay around, and could use a bit more traffic. Its owners picked a storefront on the same block as landmarks like the venerable Plearn Thai, Tibet Café, and the former UC Theater. That wasn’t empty bravado: Thai Garlic is in the same world-class league. 

—Michael Katz››

Sandwiched between the two UC Berkeley campuses and Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve is a narrow wedge of hillside marked by narrow one-lane roads threading through some of Berkeley’s most distinguished houses, including the creations of Frank Lloyd Wright, Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck and William Wurster. 

And if two residents of Panoramic Hill have their way, their neighborhood will become a federal historic district, a proposal endorsed Monday by Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

In a 62-page application submitted to the state Office of Historic Preservation, Janice Thomas and Fredrica Drotos single out 61 homes for specific designation, including Thomas’s own 1911 home at 37 Mosswood Road, designed by noted Berkeley architect Walter H. Ratcliff. 

The next step comes Feb. 4, when the State Historic Resources Commission considers the application during a meeting in Bakersfield. 

Maryln Lortie, historian with the state office, is optimist about approval: “In my 20 years with the office, this is one of the nicest residential districts I’ve ever seen. It has all of the stars of California architecture, everyone from Maybeck to William Wurster. It’s really quite beautiful.” 

Lortie said state approval is highly likely, as is the final step—acceptance by the federal Keeper of the National Register, who typically responds within 45 days. 

“We have a really good track record in winning approvals,” Lortie said. 

When landmarks commissioners were informed of the proposal this week, one mused, “I wonder if there’s a hidden agenda behind this.” 

“Isn’t there always?” quipped another. 

And Janice Thomas is the first to agree. 

“Take a look at the university’s latest Long Range Development Plan, Volume IIIA, page 9-1.8, second paragraph, where it talks about historic resources. In the tables listing representative conditions, our neighborhood isn’t identified as having any historic resources,” she said. “We should at least be mentioned. 

“So much for accuracy and thoroughness.” 

Hillside neighbors have had ongoing battles with the university and hope that national recognition will give them added leverage against UC intrusions. 

Thomas and other neighbors stopped a 1999 effort to install permanent television lights at UC Memorial Stadium, winning their victory on the grounds that the proposal would adversely impact the historic resources embodied in the homes on the hillside. 

A second try by the school was rejected last year on the same grounds. 

At the same time of UC’s first try for lights, neighbors were disturbed at the construction of new housing on the slope that was starkly out of character with the others. 

“On one property we went to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and we were told we would have more influence of designs for new projects if we formed a historic district,” she said. 

Berkeley has four local historic districts, all created by the city Landmarks Commission, with the newest being the West Berkeley Sisterna Tract, created last spring. The others are the Delaware Street District, between Page and Fifth streets; La Loma Park District; and the Civic Center Historic District, which is also on the National Register of Historic Places. 

If the National Park Service chooses to add the Panoramic neighborhood to the national list, it will become the first Berkeley residential neighborhood to be granted national historic status. 

Panoramic neighbors held preliminary meetings two years ago to begin the process, and Thomas and Drotos began the actual work last spring. 

Asked what it took to create the detailed report, Thomas laughed. “I try not to think about it,” she said, “probably thousands of hours and I don’t know how much money.” 

Approval would yield several benefits for homeowners, Lortie said, ranging from protections detailed in the California Environmental Quality Act to federal tax credits for owners who rent or lease their property. 

But for Thomas and her allies, the biggest advantage would be the district’s enhanced ability to stave off their biggest, most powerful neighbor, the University of California.›

Workers assemble the last of the scaffolding that now encloses the entire western and southern walls of the Gaia Building. Though representatives of developer Patrick Kennedy declined to state the reason for the recent work, tenants have reported more leaks in a structure that has been partially stripped of stucco. The stucco has been replaced at least three times in the last two years.

FRIDAY, JAN. 14 

THEATER 

“The Bright River” written and performed by Tim Barsky and the Everyday Ensemble at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. through Jan. 16. Tickets are $12-$35 available from A Traveling Jewish Theater, 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

FILM 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “Shanghai Express” at 7 p.m. and “Only Angels Have Wings” at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Page to Stage, a conversation with playwright Tony Kushner and director Tony Taccone at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

James D’Allesandro reads from “1906: A Novel” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Dance Production 2005” Berkeley High’s dance performance, choreographed by students, at 8 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston Way, on the BHS Campus. Also on Sat. Tickets are $5-$10.  

The Pacific Collegium “From Advent to Epiphany” at 8 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$18. 415-392-4400. www.pacificcollegium.org 

Songwriters in the Round Monica Pasqual, Sonya Hunter and Emily Bezar at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

Wake the Dead at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Kathy Kallick Band, bluegrass and originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761.  

Captured! by Robots at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886.  

The Phenomenauts, Freak Accident, Left Alone at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Cathi Walkup Quintet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

DJ & Brook, jazz trio, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Plays Monk at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Groovie Ghoulies, Jason Webley, Teenage Harlots at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Poncho Sanchez Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JAN. 15 

CHILDREN  

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

EXHIBITIONS 

“Emerging Masters” an exhibition showcasing eight Masters of Fine Art students from San Jose State University. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at 1717D 4th St. 525-4101. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

Addison Street Windows Gallery Anti-Bullying Art and Essays by Berkeley Middle School students opens and runs through Feb. 25. 981-7546. 

“Becomming Free” works by Lowell Brook. Reception from 2 to 5 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. 

FILM 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “Pierrot le Fou” at 6:30 p.m. and “The Shining” at 8:40 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Autumn Stephens, editor, and eight other local authors will read from their new book “Roar Softly and Carry A Great Lipstick” a 7 p.m. at A Great Good Place for Books, 6120 La Salle Ave., Montclair. 339-8210. 

Juried Annual at Pro Arts Artist Talks at 1 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second Street, Oakland. 763-4361. www.proartsgallery.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jon Raskin, solo saxophone, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St., between Bancroft and Durant. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http://trinitychamberconcerts.com 

“Music for the King of Prussia” performed by The Novello Quartet at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. at Garber. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Fingertight, Unjust, hard rock, at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886.  

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

Loose Wig Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bob Franke, singer-songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Vanessa Lowe & Bug Eyed Sprite at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 

Montuno Groove Dance at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

The Art of the Trio with the Dred Scott Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

The Mercury Dimes, The Earl White Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Gini Wilson “Chamberjazz” at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Gravy Train, Clorox Girls, Two Gallants, Red Tape Apocalips at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 16 

EXHIBITIONS 

Salon at the Giorgi Designers Bill Bowers and Mark Phillips show their wearable art at 2 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. at Ashby. 848-1228. 

FILM 

Screenagers: Seventh Annual High School Film and Video Festival at 12:30 and 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “My Man Godfrey” at 5:30 p.m. and “Sullivan’s Travels” at 7:25 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Addison Street Poetry Reading in celebration of the new anthology with Robert Hass and other Berkeley poets at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Rep., 2025 Addison St. RSVP to 549-3564, ext. 316.  

Poetry Flash with Laurie Glover and Yosefa Raz at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“In the Name of Love” A musical tribute honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at 7:30 p.m. at Calvin Simmons Theaater, 10 Tenth St. Tickets are $6-$22. 866-468-3399. www.ticketweb.com 

Richard Goode, piano, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$56. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Organ Music with Ron McKean playing Buxtehude, Scheidt, Sweelinck and Bach at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 658-3298. 

Sean Hayes and Black Bird Stitches at 1 p.m. at Mama Buzz Cafe, 2318 Telegraph.  

Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration with Vukani Mawethu at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rebeca Mauleón Quartet at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band, Italian songs & opera from 2 to 5 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Eric Thompson & Henry Kaiser, roots music guitars, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Banjo for Brunch with Liam Carey at 10 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, JAN. 17 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PlayGround, readings by emerging playwrights, at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $15. 415-704-3177. www.PlayGround-sf.org 

Richard Walker describes “The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express, Other People’s Poems theme night from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trovatore, traditional Italian songs at 6 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Songwriters Symposium at 8:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Faye Carol sings a MLK Birthday Celebration at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JAN. 18 

CHILDREN 

“Peter and the Wolf” presented by The Fratello Marionettes at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

FILM 

Japanese Experimental Fim & Video at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Temple Grandin, celebrated animal advocate, introduces “Animals in Translation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Kermit Lynch on “Inspiring Thirst: Vintage Selections from the Kermit Lynch Wine Brochure” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Marilyn Sewell and Sandy Boucher discuss “Breaking Free” a collection of personal essays by women in the second half of their lives, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Central Library, Shattuck and Kittredge Streets. 981-6151. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Rady Craig Trio, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Chris Botti, contemporary jazz trumpeter, at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Also on Wed. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19 

FILM 

Film 50: History of Cinema at 3 p.m. and “The Most Dangerous Game” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nicole Galland reads from “The Fool’s Tale” an historical novel set in 12th century Wales, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Sandra Gilbert reads from her new collection of poems, “Belongings” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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. 

Café Poetry hosted by Richard Moore, aka Paradise Freejahlove, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

Peau de Chagrin at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Trouser, The Art Ghetto, Burke at 8:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $4. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 20 

THEATER 

"Bridge & Tunnel" workshop performances by Sarah Jones at 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. through Feb. 20 at Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $30-$40. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “Greed” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Phyllis Whetstone Taper reads from her novel of a 1927 California summer, “On Kelsey Creek” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Malcolm Gladwell describes “Blink: Thin-Slicing, Snap Judgements, and the Power of Thinking Without Thinking” at 7:30 p.m. at at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series with featured readers Jan Steckel and Hew Wolff at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Suzy & Maggie Roche at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

David K. Matthews, solo piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Bobby Hutcherson All-Stars, with Nicholas Payton, James Spaulding, George Cables, Dwyne Burno and Lewis Nash at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JAN. 21 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Seduced” by Sam Shepard opens at 8 p.m. at the Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and runs Fri. and Sat. through Feb. 19. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

"Bridge & Tunnel" workshop performances by Sarah Jones at 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. through Feb. 20 at Berkeley Repertory Theater’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $30-$40. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “The Mousetrap” Agatha Christie’s classic mystery Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Feb. 19 at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $10-$15. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

FILM 

“Operation Free Mohawk: A Retrospective” Video installation and performance by Pete Kuzov and Edie Tsong at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Community Media, 2239 MLK, Jr. Way. Cost is $5-$15. 848-2288. www.betv.org 

David Thomson History of Hollywood: “The Crowd” at 7 p.m., “Sunrise” at 9 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Indie Film Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ward Churchill talks about “Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland East Bay Symphony, mostly Mozart at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway. 625-8497. www.oebs.org 

Peking Acrobats at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Los Cenzontles at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Lecture and demonstration at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hali Hammer singer/songwriter at 7:30 p.m. at Fellowship Café, Cedar and Bonita Sts. A donation of $5-10 is requested. 

Jamie Laval & Hans York, Celtic fiddle and guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Real Thom Thunder, Lucy at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10-$15. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Rulers, El Faye at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Clairdee & The Ken French Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Monkey Knife Fight, original funk-jazz, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

All You Can Eat, Challenger, Gift of Goats, Abi Yos Yos at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Bobby Hutcherson All-Stars, with Nicholas Payton, James Spaulding, George Cables, Dwyne Burno and Lewis Nash at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

In a genre of architecture where squat and boxy seem perpetually in vogue, Cragmont Elementary School is a resplendent, 45,000-square-foot, $8 million exception. Nested into a hillside on Regal Road, Cragmont frames views of San Francisco Bay.  

Between the bay and the hillside, however, sits San Pablo Park, a neighborhood that is home to most of Cragmont’s African American and Latino pupils. Nearly half of the school’s 450 students are from these two demographic groups. Forty percent of the students are white, and many live in the school’s surrounding neighborhood where the median household income is roughly three times that of San Pablo Park. 

“People say it’s the school for rich people up on the hill,” third-term PTA president Ann Williams, said regretfully. Williams’ son Henry is a Cragmont third-grader.  

While many parents, like Williams, volunteer regularly in classrooms, attendance at monthly PTA meetings has steadily waned. Almost entirely absent are Cragmont’s African American and Latino parents. 

Clearly it’s harder for working-class parents to make time for PTA, but the problem is generally seen as more complex.  

“The issues the PTA addresses really are not the same issues that concern our kids,” said Vikki Davis, an African American mother who served with Williams as PTA co-president while her son attended Cragmont. “Our issues are, why are our kids failing, the disciplinary problems at the school.” 

Williams said her pet projects this year will be fixing the acoustics in the lunchroom where after-school meetings are held and getting more balls and Hula-Hoops on the playground. 

She said she regrets that Cragmont’s agenda centers on “upper-middle-class white people’s interests. That’s what it’s going to be if that’s who shows up.” Neither woman knows how to solve this dilemma. An experiment with holding every other PTA meeting near San Pablo Park failed to draw a more diverse crowd.  

Jason Lustig, Cragmont’s principal for eight years, said he wants to get more African American and Latino parents involved in the school. But at the same time, he said, research shows that the diversity of parents involved in an elementary school does not greatly affect its student achievement.  

He also said that Cragmont made significant leaps in the Academic Performance Index because of minority students’ improvement.  

Davis, however, said that minorities’ API improvement should be viewed relative to the entire student body. While it’s narrowing from past years, there was still a significant gap between white and African American scores at Cragmont in 2003. And Hispanic and Latino students’ scores actually decreased slightly from the previous year.  

Such a discrepancy, said Davis, is a problem for everyone. “Do you think your child is doing well in the classroom when other children are not doing well? And what social message is that sending them?” she asked. 

Williams said, in response to the issue, “The school feels they’ve addressed it, [that] the basics are covered—we have diversity, we have programs for this, programs for that.” 

Seated one afternoon at a café on Shattuck Avenue, Williams describes Cragmont’s annual African American Heritage Festival, an elaborate night-time event with exceptional parent attendance. “That evening is so culturally encouraging—to everyone,” she said. “There is so much culture to mine in our schools and our community.” 

Cragmont, Williams said, still has room to grow. “But I feel, there’s a deeper experience possible.” 

“I think Ann finally got it, because we really became friends,” Davis said. “And if we get one person at a time to ‘get it,’ that means a lot to me.” 

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

FRIDAY, JAN. 14 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Robert Ashmore on “The Unspoken and Unsayable in Chinese Poetry and Philosophy.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

The Owl Told Me Join us for an evening of owl exploration. Listen and learn to call for the Great Horned Owl as they woo their mates. At 6 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. Fee is $5-$7, reservations required. 525-2233. 

“Visual History of the Albany Shoreline” Photographs and maps of cattle ranching, dynamite factories, horseracing, military operations, dumps, art, and wildlife on display at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. 

“Torture: the CIA and the White House” with Jennifer Harbury, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee Stop Torture Campaign and Bob Kearney, Associate Director, ACLU of Northern California, at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Road, Kensington. Donation $5. 525-0302.  

Inspiration Point Hike with Solo Sierrans Meet at 4 p.m. in the parking lot off Wild Cat Canyon Rd. Optional dinner in Orinda after the hike. Please call Phyllis at 525-2299 to confirm time. Rain cancels. 

Radio Camp Build an FM trasmitter and learn the fundamentals of micropower broadcasting in this 4-day workshop in Oakland. Class runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Cost is $150-$200 sliding scale. For information and to register call 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

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

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride meets at the Berkeley BART the second Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 15 

“Winter Blooms!” Free garden tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden. Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Help Bring Back the Wild Join the Bayshore Stewards as we 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 install native plants along the marsh edge and help create habitat for endangered species. We provide tools, gloves, rain gear and refreshments, and instruction on planting. Heavy rain will cancel the event. For more information call Elizabeth 231-9566. 

Green Design for Everyday People We will discuss the process of green design and how we all can have beautiful living and working spaces that are not toxic to ourselves or our environment. Topics will include cleaners, paints, sealers, furnishings, flooring, energy efficient systems and products. Bring a rough plan of your space if possible. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

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

Junior Ranger Aide Training in the afternoon at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. For more information call 525-2233. 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 2727 College Ave.  

California Writers Club, Berkeley Branch meets from 10 a.m. to noon at Barnes and Noble, Jack London Square, Oakland. The speaker will be literary agent Ted Weinstein talking about the business of writing. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

Winter Color in the Garden at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Historical and Botanical Tour of Chapel of the Chimes, a Julia Morgan landmark, every third Sunday at 10 a.m. at 4499 Piedmont Ave. at Pleasant Valley. Reservations required. 228-3207. www.chapelofthechimes.com  

“Women on the Move” a three day workshop commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and exploring his message for women of faith. Sat. - Mon. at the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2024 Ashby Ave. Cost is $20. 658-0817. 

Pre-School Storytime for ages 3-5 at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext.17.  

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, JAN. 16 

Winter Flowers on the Ridge Explore a fragile ecosystem on this 3 mile hike. Meet at 10 a.m. at the staging area at the end of Coach Drive, El Sobrante. For ages 10 and up. 525-2233. 

Our Neighbors, The Mountain Lions Is it a puma, panther, cougar or mountain lion? Learn how to make hiking safe and fun if you are lucky enough to see a big cat. At 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Community Peace Labyrinth, on blacktop next to the gardens at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. Enter by the dirt road on Derby. Free. Wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377.  

Adult CPR Certification and Standard First Aid Class from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Training Room, Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth St., entrance on Carleton St. Cost is $70 per person, $10 will benefit the homeless animals at BEBHS, $60 will go to ER PLUS for the instruction. 845-7735, ext. 19. 

Interfaith Celebration of Martin Luther King with Congregation Beth El and McGee Avenue Baptist Church from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St., at McGee. Please bring food to share along with a card explaining what your dish is, where it is from and its cultural or historical significance. 848-3988, ext. 15. 

“Faith-Based Activity During the Vietnam War” at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. in conjunction with the exhibit “California and the Vietnam Era.” 238-2200. www.museum.ca.org 

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

Finding Yourself in Rhythm A TaKeTiNa Rhythm Workshop from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Ashkenaz back dance studio, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $25-$45 sliding scale. 650-493-8046. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “The Tibetan World Peace Ceremony at Bodh Gaya, India” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Personal Theology Seminar with Ron Nakasone on “The Indigenous Religions of Okinawa” at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

“Humanistic Judaism 101” with Marcia Grossman at 10 a.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Donation $5. info@kolhadash.org 

MONDAY, JAN. 17 

New Era, New Politics Walking Tour of African American history in Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the African American Museum, 659 14th St., Oakland. Free. Tour lasts two hours. 238-3234. 

Living the Dream Intergenerational Activities at 10 a.m. and at 11:30 a.m. at the deFremery Recreation Center, 1651 Adeline St. Free, but reservations requested. 238-7739. 

Embracing the Dream of Peace A health, jobs and peace fair at the Calvin Simmons Ballroom, Oakland Marriott City Center from noon to 6 p.m. 548-4040, ext. 357. www.embracingthedream.org 

Multicultural Peace Celebration and Rally from 10 a.m. to noon at the ILWU Warehouse Local #6 Hall, 99 Hegenberger Rd. at Pardee. Celebration includes speakers, youth poets, singers and dancers. 638-0365.  

“Unbossed and Unbought” a film on the life of Shirley Chisholm at 1 p.m. at the African American Museum, 659 14th St. 637-0200. www.oaklandlibrary.org 

Martin Luther King Day for Children Make a dream collage with African textiles from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 9:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. Cost is $2.50 with refreshments. 524-9122. 

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthening at 2 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

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

TUESDAY, JAN. 18 

Bird Walk in Wildcat Canyon Meet at 7:30 a.m. at the end of Rifle Range Road to look for birds of the forest and creek-side. 525-2233. 

Tilden Mini-Rangers Join us for an active afternoon of nature study, conservation, and rambling through woods and waters. Dress to get dirty; bring a healthy snack to share. Girls and boys ages 8-12, unaccompanied by their parents. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $6-$8. Reservations required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley Garden Club “Care and Culture of Orchids,” potting demonstration, orchids for show and sale, by Sue Fordyce, grower at Orchids Ranch. Meeting at 1 p.m., program at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-4374. 

Great Snowshoe Destinations in California Slide presentation at 7 p.m. with Michael White, author of Wilderness Press guidebooks at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Marin Avenue Reconfiguration Public Hearing at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 981-7062. 

Fitness Tests for people 50 and over from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Free. You will receive personalized scores and tips on how to maintain or improve your fitness. 981-5367. 

School Age Storytime for ages 5 and up at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext.17.  

Brainstormer Weekly Pub Quiz every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Pyramid Alehouse Brewery, 901 Gilman St. 528-9880. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Advance sign-up needed, 594-5165.  

Get Organized for the New Year, with Eve Abbott, author and personal productivity consultant, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., 526-7512.  

“Getting Along with Your Adult Children” a participatory workshop at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $35-$40. 848-0327, ext. 110. www.brjcc.org 

“Tu B, Shuvat: A Meeting Point between Cyclical and Linear Time” with Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0327, ext. 110. www.brjcc.org 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “O.J., Peterson and The Death Penalty” 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. 

Organic Produce at low prices sold at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon Streets every Tuesday from 3 to 6 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. 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 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19 

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. 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $3-$5. Registration required. 525-2233. 

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

Grizzly Peak Cyclists at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2268 Cedar St. David Milne Smith, Ph.D., adventurer, author, and leadership trainer, will speak about “The Aging Athlete: How To Turn Each Moment into an Adventure.” 527-0450. 

“The Doors” Oliver Stone film of Jim Morrison’s self destruction at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, $5 donations accepted. 393-5685. 

Health and Sexuality for the Mature Woman A lecturesponsored by the Alexander Foundation at 6:15 p.m. at the Claremont Resort, 41 Tunnel Rd. Cost is $10-$15. 527-3010. www.afwh.org/about/claremontlectures.htm 

Tap Into It Jazz and Rhythm Tap classes at Montclair Recreation Center, 6300 Moraga Ave., Oakland. Experienced at 6:30 p.m., beginners at 7:30 p.m. 482-7812. 

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 

Stitch ‘n Bitch Bring your knitting, crocheting and other handcrafts from 6 to 9 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

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. Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JAN. 20 

Inauguration Protest “Let America Be America Again” at 9 a.m. at the Downtown Berkeley BART Station. The rally to read the Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again” will start at the very moment the oath of office is being administered in Washington D.C. Everyone will have an opportunity to join in. www.artistsandwritersforpeace.org 

“Stop the War: Fight the Right” on GW’s inaguration at 5 p.m. at Civic Center, San Francisco. 415-821-6545. www.internationalanswer.org, www.actionsf.org 

“The Future of Energy: Transitioning from Fossil Fuels to Renewables” A panel discussion moderated by former PUC Commissioner Loretta Lynch at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5-$15, sliding scale. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley City Club Anniversary Events from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. including tours of the historic Julia Morgan building and dinner. Cost is $15-$25. For reservations call 848-7800. 

Simplicity Forum on “Removing Anxiety to Simplify Your Life” at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 526-6596. www.simpleliving.net 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping in Berkeley Public schools at 3 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

WriterCoach Connection Volunteer Training Help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. To register call 524-2319. Other Trainings on Feb. 9, 16, Mar. 8, 15. www.writercoachconnection.org 

Montclair Safety & Improvement Council Public Meeting at 7 p.m. at the Montera Middle School, 5555 Ascot Dr. Presentations include Emergency Preparedness, Crime Prevention, Pedestrian & Traffic Safety, and Beautification. www.montclairsic.org 

“Krill: Constant Currency in the Fluctuating Oceanic Economy” with Dr. Baldo Marinovic at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museum.ca.org 

ONGOING 

Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League is looking for girls in grades 1-8 to play girls softball. Season runs March 5-June 4. Scholarships available. To register call 869-4277. www.abgsl.org  

Youth Speaks Winter Workshops in writing and spoken word begin Jan. 24 in Berkeley and Oakland. For more information call 415-255-9035. www.youthspeaks.org 

“Half Pint Library” Book Drive Donate children’s books to benefit Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland. Donations accepted at 1849 Solano Ave. through March 31. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Jan. 18, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Jan. 18, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housingauthority   

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Jan. 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Jan. 19, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 981-7550. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Jan. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation

UC Berkeley’s latest long range development plan has been much criticized, and rightly so, by Berkeley’s civic responsibles. City officials have prepared a cogent criticism of the university’s plans, both disclosed and undisclosed, which is about to be taken up this week by UC’s Board of Regents. If past performance is any indication of future behavior, the Regents are unlikely to give the city much consideration. In the past, they have arrogantly asserted their right under the state constitution to do as they please, and there’s no reason to think they’ll change now. Chains are being rattled, lawsuits are being threatened, and it might all make some difference, but since the city has a history of backing down in confrontations with the mighty U, the Regents are probably not very worried. 

Lost in the discussion of UC’s upcoming building boom is a major enterprise which is barely mentioned in the Long Range Development Plan Environmental Impact Report. Late in 2003 Mayor Bates announced with pride that UC was planning a hotel-conference center for downtown Berkeley. After some preliminary skirmishes over turf, the city’s Planning Commission, with the City Council’s blessing, convened a task force to study the proposal. One of its conclusions: “The proposed new hotel and conference center and the relocation of the UC museums could give a significant boost to the downtown economy and add nearly $1 million per year to direct city revenues….Local businesses would benefit from these additional visitors.” 

The Brookings Institution issued a report this week which addresses such conclusions, Space Available: The Realities of Convention Centers as Economic Development Strategy. Based on its findings, it is clear that before the City of Berkeley gives its blessing to any convention center project the real economic costs and benefits of such projects should be carefully re-examined.  

The author, Heywood Sanders, a professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio, notes that “to cities, the lure of the convention business has long been the prospect of visitors emptying their wallets on meals, lodging, and entertainment, helping to rejuvenate ailing downtowns.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  

But the conclusion of Sanders’ study is not so rosy. He finds that “the overall convention marketplace is declining in a manner that suggests that a recovery or turnaround is unlikely to yield much increased business for any given community, contrary to repeated industry projections. Moreover this decline began prior to the disruptions of 9-11 and is exacerbated by advances in communications technology. Currently, overall attendance at the 200 largest tradeshow events languishes at 1993 levels.” He warns that “this analysis should give local leaders pause as they consider calls for ever more public investment into the convention business.” 

Berkeley’s Task Force authors showed some awareness of potential problems with the project in their report, saying that “new development can create additional costs for the city” and “University acquisition of additional property in the area would decrease city revenues if UC does not pay the equivalent of property and related taxes, assessments, and fees.” They warned that “the City Council should closely consider the impacts and costs of these projects, as well as potential associated revenue sources, in order to maximize their net economic benefits.” 

The city’s demands for a full environmental impact report should not be limited to the impact of the university projects currently included in the LRDP. The LRDP should be expanded to reflect the full cumulative impact of all university-generated development which is planned for the greater Berkeley area, including the convention center project.  

Carpenter and Company, UC’s chosen hotel developer, is due to submit a proposal in March. The City of Berkeley in the meantime needs to do its own up-to-date economic analysis of the real costs and benefits of a project like this, using the findings of the Brookings Institution study. As funding for local government continues to shrink, Berkeley can’t afford to base its future on the pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by promised by the university.  

—Becky O’Malley 



Democracy in action can be pretty disappointing. It hardly seems like four years ago that a few hardy souls from greater Berkeley rounded up our raggedy old winter clothes and jumped on a Southwest flight to Washington to protest George W. Bush’s usurpation of the presidency when he’d clearly lost the 2000 election. While we were there, we thought we were making a brave showing with our clever banners, even though the weather was abominable. Much to our chagrin, when we got home we discovered that no one who’d been watching the televised inauguration had seen us, or even heard about the protest. When we saw Fahrenheit 9-11 this year, many in the theater were surprised to see the 2000 inaugural protest footage which Michael Moore included, since it never made it to home TV. 

We didn’t know then how much worse things were going to get in this country during Bush’s reign. We didn’t imagine anything like the USA Patriot Act, the invasion of Iraq or Abu Ghraib. And we aren’t going to protest this inauguration, because we know it won’t do much good. Many believe this election was stolen, but few think that protests will change the result. 

Even here in Berkeley, a city that voted 90 percent against Bush, democracy continues to have its disappointments. This week’s e-mail has been full of angry protests from citizens who worked for years to produce Berkeley’s latest General Plan and the Downtown Plan that preceded it. They believe, and rightly so, that the huge Seagate luxury condominium complex which has been approved for Addison Street directly violates the policies which were painfully hammered out when those plans were adopted. They say that the purportedly factual representations made by city staff to support the developer are fraught with deliberate deception. Even worse, they’re pretty sure, after last Tuesday’s council meeting, that the elected councilmembers, both old and new (with the exception of Dona Spring), will be turning a blind eye to the irregularities in the process by which the building was approved. It’s the Gaia Building all over again: bonus floors allocated for faux art space and sub-par affordable units—a winning formula. Without, of course, the environmental review supposedly mandated by the California Environmental Quality Act. And the mayor and councilmembers, some of whom voted to approve Gaia, frankly don’t give a damn. They’re expected to reject Friends of Downtown Berkeley’s appeal to the Zoning Adjustment Board’s decision next Tuesday. Citizens who have participated in the planning process in good faith are deeply discouraged to see yet again that the City of Berkeley Department of Planning and Development can ignore both the law and democratically decided public policy and get away with it.  

We’d like to believe that in a democracy the power of the press to reveal the truth will make us free. But we know better. The irregularities in the national election, the last one and this one, have been revealed, even in the last-to-get-the-word mainstream press. The shenanigans which built Gaia have been well documented, at least in the Planet, both under the present owners and in the previous incarnation. But the same things happen again and again.  

The courts, although much weakened by the Supreme Court’s shameful performance in the last presidential election, still hold out a bit of hope. In Ohio right now the Green Party and others are trying a legal challenge to election law violations. Here in Berkeley, it’s becoming clear that the last remaining way to challenge the Planning Department’s continued flouting of law and policy will be a well-planned legal challenge, supported by enough funding to reach the appeals court, since trial courts rarely understand the California Environmental Quality Act. Such an effort, backed by the ACLU, defeated the most disgraceful parts of Berkeley’s anti-panhandling law which violated the First Amendment. That law was backed by some so-called progressives, including the current mayor, as well as by conservatives, but it was overturned in court nonetheless.  

Real progress, on any front, comes slowly if at all. The best part of our unsuccessful protest at the first Bush inauguration was hooking up with seven busloads of Detroit NAACP members who had ridden all night to get to Washington. We happened on their vociferous contingent by accident, after being disappointed earlier by the disorganized white liberals like us trying to get together at Dupont Circle. We were delighted to see the organization logos on their hats and sweatshirts, since we’d worked with the Detroit NAACP in the civil rights and anti-war movements in the ‘60s. I mentioned that to two fellow demonstrators, Joyce and Grace, 60-ish grandmothers like me, and we discovered that we'd all three marched down Woodward Avenue in Detroit with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1963. They grabbed my arms, one on each side, and we formed a rousing if off-key trio singing old protest songs for the rest of the march. All of us, I think, were cheered on that nasty drizzly day by remembering the very real accomplishments of our generation. When we started out, housing and schools in Michigan were largely segregated, and at least now that's illegal, there and in most of the rest of the country.  

At the time of Dr. King’s birthday, we are reminded that it’s taken pretty much our whole adult lifetime, now approaching 50 years, and the lifetimes of many who preceded us, to achieve the modest goal of ending state-sponsored segregation in the United States. Not to achieve true integration, or full equality of opportunity, certainly not real affirmative action or reparations for past injustice—all of those challenges still lie ahead.  

And now we have another unjust war on our hands, and another dubious election. In the context of all these big problems, little things like trying to ensure democratic process even on the local level might seem trivial. But if democracy is to survive and thrive, it needs to be nurtured and protected, all the time and everywhere. Citizens have a right to expect that democratically enacted laws will be followed, even by the City of Berkeley.  

—Becky O’Malley 

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