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Jakob Schiller:
          Ying Lee has been nominated to the Berkeley Public Library’s Board of Trustees..
Jakob Schiller: Ying Lee has been nominated to the Berkeley Public Library’s Board of Trustees..
 

News

Longtime Berkeley Activist Looks To Take on Library Controversies By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday March 22, 2005

Facing growing anger from residents and librarians over plans to lay off workers and implement tracking devices on materials, the Berkeley Public Library Board of Trustees has selected a veteran of local political battles to join its ranks. 

If approved by the City Council Tuesday, Ying Lee, 73, a former councilmember and legislative aide to Ron Dellums and Barbara Lee, will join the library board. 

“I know the library is in a vulnerable situation and I thought this might be the last chance I get to do something useful,” Lee said. She would join the five-member board in place of Jorge Garcia, whose second four-year term expired last week. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that he hoped that Lee, as the only progressive activist on the board, could influence her colleagues. 

Lee said she is opposed to the board’s decision last year to install radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs) on the library’s 500,000 volume collection. RFIDs are expected to make checkout more efficient, but opponents fear that they could be used by government authorities to track patrons. 

“I made it clear to them in my interview that I didn’t believe in tracking library checkouts,” Lee said. “There is no reason for Berkeley to be on the cutting edge of technology in library systems.” 

Board President Laura Anderson said the board was planning to schedule a community meeting on RFID and proposed layoffs before the next board meeting April 12, but she added that she didn’t foresee the board reversing course on RFID after already approving a $500,000 loan to pay for the technology. 

“There’s no way RFID is not coming to the library,” she said. 

Lee said she didn’t know enough to comment on Library Director Jackie Griffin’s budget balancing plan to reorganize library operations and lay off workers. The library faces a $850,000 shortfall next year. 

Griffin’s proposal has met fierce resistance from employees, who at the past board meeting, attended by Lee, blasted Griffin for not including them in the reorganization plan. 

“I was saddened by the depth of unhappiness of staff who spoke at the meeting,” Lee said. 

Jane Scantlebury, a reference librarian, hoped Lee’s appointment would bode well for employees. “I know she’ll listen to us,” she said. 

Anderson said Lee’s experience with tough community issues separated her from a field of seven candidates. 

“We all felt like she was of the community and had a lot of experience working with the community,” Anderson said. “That’s something we’re finding all of us need some skill at.” 

Lee said she owed a debt to public libraries. Upon her arrival in the United States as a 13-year-old immigrant from China, Lee spent most of her first summer in the San Francisco Public Library learning English. She came to Berkeley as a college student in 1951 and stayed to teach in social science in Berkeley schools for 19 years. While still a teacher, Lee was elected to the City Council on the progressive slate, serving from 1973 through 1977. 

In 1980 she left teaching to take a job with Congressman Ron Dellums, and in 1993 she followed Dellums to Washington D.C., where she also served his successor Barbara Lee, before returning to Berkeley in 2000. 

Back in Berkeley, Lee volunteered at the library and directed a local health care agency while continuing her work as a peace activist. Then in 2002, she left public life to help care for her newborn grandson. 

Lee said she was content with retirement, but that friends urged her to apply for the library board. 

“I know it’s a difficult situation, but I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “If it’s not challenging why would I want to be on the board. There are so many other things one can do with one’s time.” 


Teachers’ Union Cries Foul Over District Mailings By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday March 22, 2005

The Berkeley Federation of Teachers filed an unfair labor practice charge against the school district last week, demanding that the district hand over its master list of student addresses so the union could give parents its side of the ongoing labor stalemate. 

The teachers’ union, which is locked in a two-year contract dispute with the district, also claims that the PTA leaders have blocked them from airing their positions on the PTA’s e-mail distribution lists. 

Over the past month Superintendent Michele Lawrence and School Board President Nancy Riddle have used the district’s master address list to send mailings outlining the district’s position on labor negotiations. 

“They’re trying to dominate the information airways,” said BFT President Barry Fike. “We don’t have a quarrel with the district’s right to communicate its negotiating perspective, but we do think it’s unfair that they have denied us the same opportunity.”  

Berkeley teachers have been without a contract since 2003. In protest, last month teachers stopped doing work not specified in their contract. The tactic has meant no homework and fewer extracurricular activities for some Berkeley students. 

If the state Public Employee Labor Relations Board rules in favor of the teachers, it could compel the district to provide the listing. However, knowing that a decision likely won’t come for several months, Fike said the district had little incentive to heed the union’s demand. 

“They know that by the time the labor board rules on this, the issue could be moot,” he said. Fike also charged that the district mailings contained outdated facts on teacher salaries and distorted the district’s budget. 

Mark Coplan, district public information officer, said BUSD did not intend to provide the mailing list. 

“My understanding is that it is privileged information only available to the district,” he said. 

The teachers’ complaint is a novel one, said Joseph Grodin, a former State Supreme Court Judge and a labor law professor at Hastings School of Law. He said federal law grants a union the right to information to enable it to bargain effectively, but that the law has traditionally applied to data on issues like safety or drug testing, not parent addressees. 

“My guess is that there is no precedent and that the labor board will have to decide if the legal principal should be extended as a matter of fairness,” Grodin said. 

Coplan added he did not know how much the mailings cost or which fund the district billed for the distribution. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence was in mediation talks with the union Monday afternoon and unavailable for comment. 

During the dispute both sides have been hesitant to detail their proposals. Coplan said Monday he understood that the district’s latest offer included a 1.2 percent raise in teacher salaries for the next school year. 

Fike said that in light of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to increase education by 4 percent next year, he believed neighboring districts would agree to raises of 3 to 4 percent. 

“We just want to keep pace,” Fike said. 

After finding themselves near the bottom of the Bay Area pay scale, Berkeley teachers signed a contract in 2000 that guaranteed they would be paid the median of selected neighboring districts when the contract expired in 2003. Since then Berkeley teachers have not received raises. However the district maintains that since it has had to pay for soaring employee health benefit costs over the past two years, teachers have received additional value since the contract expired. 

Other local unions have in the past filed unfair labor practice complaint as a pretext for calling a strike, but Fike said the teachers had no plans to walk out on their jobs. 

“We’re trying to do everything possible to avoid a strike,” he said. “That is not our motivation in any way.” 

The last teacher strike in Berkeley was in 1975, said School Board Director Terry Doran, a former Berkeley teacher. Doran said that both district mailings came with the full consent of the school board. 

The BFT is also fuming about its access to school e-trees—electronic mailing lists that distribute school news to parents. Fike said that until the weekend, PTA leaders had allowed the district to broadcast its position on the e-trees, while denying the union equal access. 

“E-trees were told by leadership not to send out teacher perspectives,” Fike said.  

PTA Council President Roia Ferezares said that while some school e-trees did circulate the district’s statements, she ordered them to stop after receiving complaints from Fike. She added that she then disseminated district and union perspectives on the dispute and sent it to five PTA presidents giving them the option to post the information.  

So far two schools have agreed to do so, she said. 

The Berkeley High School e-tree, the district’s most widely read, has not posted perspectives from either side, said Janet Huseby, e-tree co-coordinator.  

“We made it a policy not to publish political notices,” she said. “It would have just opened a can of worms.”›


Modest Turnout For SF Rally on Iraq War’s 2nd Anniversary By JUDITH SCHERR

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

Thousands marched in San Francisco Saturday on the second anniversary of the war in Iraq, beating drums, chanting slogans and carrying signs to deliver a message to the Bush administration that U.S. aggression and occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Haiti destabilizes the world and wastes tax dollars that should serve human needs. 

“Bring the troops home,” San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano called to the crowd in Dolores Park, before the march to Civic Center. “Bring them home to healthcare, bring them home to jobs.” 

Students from UC Berkeley and San Francisco State not only want to bring the troops home, they want to keep military recruiters off of high school and college campuses. Holding signs that read “Military recruiters lie/our children die” and “College not combat,” students organizing against military recruiters held a pre-march rally at the 16th Street BART Station.  

“We have 1,000 signatures to get the recruiters off campus,” said Kelly Osmundson, a second-year history and peace and conflict major at UC Berkeley and a member of the campus Stop the War Coalition. The students say that because the university doesn’t allow discrimination against gays and lesbians—and the military does not permit open homosexuals within its ranks—recruiters are violating university nondiscrimination policy by recruiting on campus. 

Catherine Siskron, a Berkeley resident, teaches Russian at San Francisco State and supports the students. “Funds are being spent on war and killing, not on education,” she said. 

Fewer people showed up to Saturday’s march sponsored by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition—between 6,000 and 7,000 according to KPFA’s Larry Benksy—than at the one-year anniversary march, where an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 protesters came out. Similar rallies around the world, including one in London that drew 45,000 to100,000, were smaller this year than last.  

While some attributed the poor San Francisco showing to drizzly weather, others said it was because people are demoralized by the re-election of George W. Bush. 

“I think there’s a general feeling of helplessness,” said James Vann, an Oakland peace and housing activist, noting that only “hard-core” protesters like himself tend to demonstrate when political conditions are so adverse. “I can’t acquiesce quietly to what’s being carried out.” 

Labor activists were visible at Saturday’s event, with the San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, South Bay and Monterey Bay labor councils, the Million Worker March, and the California Nurses’ Association supporting the demonstration. 

Trent Willis, of ILWU Local 10, among the labor speakers at the Civic Center rally, touted his union for having opposed the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, refusing to unload cargo from ships from apartheid South Africa and opposing the war and occupation of Iraq. In recognition of the war anniversary, he said, “Local 10 is not working the port of Oakland or the Port of San Francisco today.” 

Protesters with religious ties came out to preach the message that the right wing doesn’t have a monopoly on moral values. 

“It’s important to bring an alternative faith perspective,” said Sara Steen, who marched with about two dozen fellow students from the Pacific School of Religion. Letters on her bright green shirt spelled out her belief: “Walking with Jesus/Working for Peace.” 

While the event was marked by contemplation of the more than 1,500 U.S. soldiers dead and an unknown number of Iraqi fighters and civilians killed, humor was not absent: street theater featured Rice, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al, portrayed as members in the Abu-Ghraib Fraternity from Torture University. Signs and banners targeted the president: “Bush’s third term, 25 years to life”; “Practice Compassionate Impeachment.” And one protester asked the question: “Who would Jesus Bomb?” 

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party marched, including the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club and the Progressive Democrats of America. Despite Democrats voting with Republicans last week for the House bill that will give another $81 billion to the war, Judy Bertlesen, a Berkeley resident and Wellstone co-chair, pointed to the ascendancy of anti-war candidate Howard Dean to head the Democratic National Committee, indicating a shift towards a peace perspective within the party. (One hundred sixty-two Democrats, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, voted for the war funding; Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, joined 39 Democrats in opposition.) 

Many of the rally speakers looked beyond Iraq to condemn U.S. foreign policy more broadly. Eyad Kishawi from the Free Palestine Alliance criticized the U.S. role in the attempted overthrow of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, the “kidnapping” of Haiti’s democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, “two years of carnage in Iraq” and “57 years of apartheid in Palestine.” 

Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee said the Bush administration was trying to impose a new colonialism on Haiti as in Palestine and Iraq. 

“At stake is (the U.S.) global hegemony,” he said. 

Counter-demonstrators, carrying Israeli and American flags and signs that read “Free Israel” and “What if Blaming Israel was not an Option,” gathered across the street from the Civic Center rally platform. According to their spokesperson, Dan Kliman, of San Francisco Voice for Israel, some members of his organization support the war and others oppose it. The group came to the rally, he said, to oppose ANSWER’s “co-optation” of the anti-war movement, turning it into an anti-Israel platform.  

On the rally stage nearby, Barbara Lubin, of the Berkeley-based Middle East Children’s Alliance, praised ANSWER for including speakers who addressed conditions in the many parts of the world where people suffer from U.S. support of occupation and war. 

“We are not going to stand for the fact that we are laying off teachers and closing schools, while funds are sent to Israel to kill Palestinian children,” Lubin said.o


Battle Rages Over Library System’s Future By AL WINSLOW

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

Gene Bernardi of Berkeleyans Organized for Library Defense said she was collecting signatures against automation of the library’s main branch in front of the main doors recently when she was ordered away from the library. 

According to Bernardi—whose account was confirmed by the ABC Security guard involved—the guard came out and said she was on “library property” and would have to move to the sidewalk. Bernardi refused and the guard threatened to call the police. A police car did arrive but Bernardi had relocated to the sidewalk. 

Two weeks ago, the Peace and Justice Commission declined to condemn the small radio tracking devices being installed in all the libraries materials. 

Lee Tien, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based watchdog group, told the commission that the devices now in Berkeley’s library books are similar to those that government spy agencies intend to use for long-range tracking, placing them, for example, in visas carried around by foreign visitors. 

“This is a technology that could usher in an age of surveillance,” Tien said. 

Mark Marrow, library general services manager, told the commission that the devices as installed can only track a book a few feet as it goes through a checkout reader. A resolution against the devices failed to pass with five yes votes, five no votes, one abstention, and three absences.  

Library employees have complained about a variety of issues at the library, including the automation check out system, proposed layoffs and sagging employee spirits. 

“In 34 years…I’ve never seen morale so low or the staff so angry,” said library employee Anne-Marie Miller told the trustees. 

Reference librarian Andrea Moss told Library Director Jackie Griffin, “We don’t know how to have a conversation with you and we need to.” 

While the debate continues, library employees are pasting the tracking tags on the library’s books, videos, compact discs, records and tapes. 

Joseph Alvarez, a library aide for seven years, said Griffin announced at a recent staff meeting that 200,000 of the library’s estimated 500,000 books and other materials have been tagged so far. 

Alvarez said a sense of depression pervades the staff at the main library downtown. 

“People are just beat and (management) contradicts itself in many ways,” he said. “First we’re told there are going to be layoffs and then we’re told there aren’t going to be.” 

A common sight at the library is two employees checking out materials at the main desk while a line of waiting patrons stretches into an adjoining room. Alvarez said Griffin wants to automate the library “and you know who gets squeezed when that happens.” 

Griffin was unavailable for comment for this article. According to the City Charter, the library director is answerable only to the five library trustees. The trustees are appointed by the City Council which can remove them only by a majority vote. 

Bernardi was back at her post outside the library late last week. Not every one who signed her petition cared only about the tacking devices. 

“The petition should be to have the library stay open later and on Sunday,” said Rinaldo Pelegrino, who had a small child strapped to his side. He said the library is rarely open when a working parent has time to go there.  

“The reduced hours are a disservice to the community,” he said. 


Middle School Girls Experiment With Math and Science By FRED DODSWORTH

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

Three hundred and fifty-seven local middle school girls, 50 adults and 130 volunteers showed up at the 29th annual Expanding Your Horizons math and science conference for girls, held on the Mills College campus, last Saturday. 

Nary a boy was in sight and the enthusiasm for hands-on scientific experimentation was infectious. 

Part of a national program based at Mills College, Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) encourages middle school girls to discover the excitement of scientific discovery and the career opportunities available to women in science-related fields like math, technology, engineering and medicine. Last year over 28,000 girls attended EYH events across the country.  

Karen Chang, 26, a graduate student at UC Berkeley, was one of 12 chemistry graduate student volunteers working with a class full of girls signed up for “Colorful Chemistry.”  

With great enthusiasm Chang schooled the assembled girls in proper lab technique while warning them of dangerous chemicals and the possibility of explosive chemical reactions.  

“I love explosions,” Chang told the wide-eyed girls as her fellow graduate students poured clear colorless chemicals into beakers, concocting Cal’s colors: blue and gold. She then poured two more clear colorless liquids into a larger beaker and stirred it while the liquid transformed into an opaque black then back to transparent clear and then back to black in an infinite and enchanting cycle.  

“It’s a really good way to get them exposed to science,” Chang said later. “A lot of times chemistry is given this negative attitude, negative reputation as being harmful for the earth and it’s bad for us. We often don’t see the good side of chemistry. It’s fun and exciting and people can learn that too. I think this is great. These activities are fun.”  

In an hour-and-half hands-on class, the girls learned how to make polymers and “super” bouncy balls, bronze coat pennies, recognize chemical components by their fire-oxidized color qualities, flash freeze compounds and numerous other common chemical processes used in manufacturing million of chemical compounds. Best of all, their instructors were all women only a decade older than the middle schoolers.  

With a streak of pink dyed into her long blonde hair, Lynn Trahey, 24, a graduate student in material chemistry at UC Berkeley, has been volunteering at Expand Your Horizon events for the last three years.  

“I always have a really good feeling at the end of the day,” Trahey said. “It’s not that much work and the girls always get really excited. I feel like if they get excited they may carry this with them further on. I didn’t get turned on to science until I was in high school where I had a teacher who had lots of fun experiments.” 

Trahey said she thinks it’s important for young women to see female role models in their lives.  

“A lot of schools don’t have female professors,” Trahey said. “So you can’t project yourself into that role. I think a lot of women don’t apply to grad school because you don’t see examples of women in the positions that you would acquire after a graduate degree. The role models need to be there for undergraduates. I’d like to be a female professor so that female chemistry students can see me and say, ‘Ahh! I’d like to do that too.’”  

One such inspired young lady in attendance was Cassy Muscer, 13, from Julia Morgan School for Girls on the Mills Campus.  

“I went here last year and I really liked it,” Cassy said. “I just think it’s really fun. I learned a lot about a lot of different things like how to set up battery circuits and about genes and stuff. It was really fun.”  

She said she plans to take more math and science classes and hopes to become a marine biologist.  

Teaching math to girls at Julia Morgan, Liz Gibbs Campbell said, she sees first hand the issues many young women face when they consider science classes.  

“In middle school, in particular, girls get subliminal messages from adults in their lives and other people and media, that math isn’t something that girls do,” said Gibbs Campbell. “It’s not an appealing subject area or thing for them to pursue in their lives. I just really want to be a strong advocate for girls and for how math can be fun and interesting.” 

Gibbs Campbell taught a class on architectural drafting on Saturday.  

“The numbers of women in architecture are still a very small percentage compared to the fact that women are supposed to be equal nowadays,” she noted. “That’s why I chose the workshop I’m giving today. To show girls architecture is a field women can enter and become successful.” 

Natalie Edelman, 11, a sixth grade student at Chadbourne Elementary School in Fremont, came with her mother, Jill Walker, an electrical engineer. While her daughter explored the solar system, mom attended a class on preparing parents for the financial burdens of college.  

“I learned a tremendous amount about how different things like savings can affect your (child’s) financial aid,” Walker said. “I learned that sometimes savings can hurt you. It was definitely worth my time.”  

Natty Siegel, 11, a sixth grade student from Berkeley, was eager to talk about her class on building robotic bugs  

“I did the electronic bugs and it was really fun,” Siegel said. “The first part of the class we learned all about the science of it, like the atoms and stuff. They taught us about circuits and it wasn’t super easy so it did challenge you.”  

 

For more information about Expanding Your Horizons and the schedule of programs available to for middle school girls search go to www.expandingyourhorizons.org. 

 

 


Woman Recovering After Slashing Says She is Fortunate to Be Alive By MATTHEW ART

Tuesday March 22, 2005

The 75-year-old woman whose throat was slashed with a butcher knife while walking outside the Berkeley Rose Garden last week said she is on her way to a full recovery. 

“I’m doing quite well and my voice is back,” said the grandmother of seven, who wished not to reveal her name. 

On Friday police arrested a 16-year-old Oakland woman on attempted murder in connection with the incident. Police would not give the identity of the suspect because she is a juvenile. 

“I’m immensely relieved that she’s in custody,” the woman said Monday. 

She recounted the ordeal as she rested Monday at her north Berkeley home, a few blocks from the site where she was assaulted. 

She said she was walking home Wednesday with her husband, also 75, from a UC Berkeley cinema class when two women approached her from the opposite direction. 

“One of them just grabbed me around the neck and attacked me out of the blue,” she said. “I was astonished. At first I didn’t realize I had been stabbed, but then I saw the blood spurting out.” 

She said the slasher released her and continued walking south on Euclid Avenue. She called for her husband who had been walking behind her. 

“I yelled at him to come and then realized I should probably be lying down so I went down on the sidewalk and started yelling, ‘help, help.”  

The two women fled in a BMW convertible, according to police. 

The attack left the victim with “a long slash,” but the knife struck a bone in her throat that doctors told her might have shielded her from a life-threatening injury. 

“I was extremely fortunate,” she said. “It missed my trachea, my esophagus and any major arteries.” 

After being rushed to Highland Hospital, she remained in intensive care for two days with a breathing tube inserted into her throat. 

The attacker did not say a word or reach for her purse, the woman said. 

The person who accompanied the attacker has been identified, but will not be charged, said Berkeley Police Public Information Officer Joe Okies. 

Okies declined to discuss possible motives. 

Councilmember Betty Olds, who lives near the Rose Garden, said she understood from talking to authorities that the incident was not gang related and that the car was not stolen.  

“It looks like she was deranged,” Olds said.  

The victim, who works part time at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, said she was raised in Berkeley and although she was shaken by what happened, it hasn’t soured her on her neighborhood. 

“I was shocked that something like this could happen to anyone in Berkeley,” she said. “But I think north Berkeley is a wonderful place to live and I’m not leaving.”  


Council to Hear Report on City’s High Asthma Rate By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday March 22, 2005

An alarming report on asthma in Berkeley and Oakland will be front and center at this Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting 

Berkeley children are hospitalized for asthma at twice the rate of the state average and African Americans are more than four times as likely to be hospitalized for the respiratory illness as other Berkeley residents, according to a 2004 report from the Oakland Berkeley Asthma Coalition. The data for the report came from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. 

“As a community we need to talk about what we’re going to do about this,” said Berkeley Public Health Officer Dr. Poki Namkung, who will present the report’s findings to the council.  

Also on the agenda for Tuesday, the council will once again consider how to spend $3.4 million in unanticipated property tax revenue and Fire Chief Debra Pryor will detail a Fire Department proposal to cut service without eliminating one of the city’s two ladder trucks. 

Last week, for the second time, the council held off on supporting a recommendation from City Manager Phil Kamlarz to dedicate the money for a new police dispatch system, the city’s lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents over the UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan, street repairs and a match for a solar bond fund. 

Several councilmembers have been hesitant to dedicate the money so early in the budget process, when the city is facing a general fund shortfall of $8.9 million. 

“The city manager is still trying to ram through the $3.4 million,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who wants to hold off the allocation until the council finalizes the budget in June. 

Kamlarz has recommended that the extra revenue not go to pay for recurring programs, because he fears that would only delay tough budget cuts. At last week’s meeting, Councilmember Laurie Capitelli backed Kamlarz. 

“I’m not spending this to pay for recurring costs,” he said. “I think that it’s delaying the inevitable.” 

Also, the council will consider a proposal from the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission to give it more say in the distribution of funding to local nonprofits. The commission charged that last year the council found more money for local nonprofits, but didn’t seek the commission’s input in choosing which groups received extra allocations. 

 

Oakland/Berkeley Asthma 

Hospitalization Report 

Findings: 

• From 1999 to 2001 there were over 7,400 hospitalizations due to asthma in Alameda County, an average of 2,500 per year. 

• In Oakland and Berkeley during the same period, there were more than 4,100 hospitalizations with direct charges totaling over $13 million. 

• Hospitalization rates for Oakland children are four times higher than for all California children; for Berkeley children they are 2.5 times higher. 

• Over half of the Oakland/Berkeley residents hospitalized for asthma are children below the age of 15. 

• African-American hospitalization rates are about four times higher than that of the general population. 

• While asthma hospitalization rates have declined slightly in Alameda County over a five-year period, rates have increased significantly in some high risk neighborhoods in East and West Oakland. 

• Over 16 percent of Oakland and Berkeley residents under age 25 hospitalized for asthma have more than one hospital stay for asthma in the same year. 

—Oakland Berkeley Asthma Coalition


Ghosts Keep Tourists Away From Phuket By PUENG VONGS

Pacific News Service
Tuesday March 22, 2005

PATONG BEACH, Phuket, Thailand—Some three months after the tsunami waves invaded its shores, Phuket’s most popular beaches are haunted by ghosts, locals say.  

Stretches of white sand here are mostly deserted in the height of the hot season, even though many coastal areas have been rebuilt. Fears of spirits are keeping Thais away. One visitor is even said to have captured the image of a spirit on a cell phone camera and circulated the photo via the Internet.  

Thais have believed in the spirit world and animism since ancient times, when higher beings were thought to control natural phenomenon such as rain and trees. These beliefs became intertwined with Buddhism, which spread throughout the kingdom, and were passed down through the generations.  

Many Thais say the souls of some of the 5,300 persons who perished on Thailand’s southern shores are still looking for answers. Some say that “pieeh,” or ghosts, can be seen swimming along the beaches at night. A tuk tuk driver said one evening he stopped to pick up passengers only to find there was no one there. Even a multi-denominational gathering of more than 100 Buddhist and Muslim leaders to “purify” the island did not quell the strong belief that the resort area is haunted.  

The fear of ghosts has greatly hurt an island heavily dependent on tourism, which generates roughly $2.5 billion a year. The steepest drop in tourism since the tsunami has been visits by domestic visitors, which declined by almost half.  

Kanda Tetanonsakul, a Thai-born, United Kingdom-educated art director for a Bangkok-based French fashion magazine, says it will be five to 10 years before she returns to one of her favorite vacation spots. “My coworker just got back from Phuket and told me of how a spirit followed her home,” she says.  

It’s not just Thais who fear unruly spirits, but also other Asians. After the Bali bombing, tourists from countries like Korea, China and Japan were very slow to return, also due to fears of spirits, says Chris Tan of Sea Tours in Bangkok. “Two years later, the Asian market is still not the same,” Tan says.  

Nantawan Kosai, an 18-year Phuket resident, says the superstitions are nonsense and only hurt the residents who depend on the tourism business now more than ever as they try to rebuild their homes and livelihoods. Kosai says she knows the tuk tuk driver who began the rumor that he saw ghosts. “He said that for attention,” she says.  

Following the tsunami, many residents have also been fighting their own demons. “They have become more religious and blame themselves for the disaster,” Kosai says. “They think it was brought on by misdeeds like greed.”  

In the past decade, development on Phuket multiplied ten-fold. Hotels, restaurants and umbrella stands sit in practically every scenic nook and cranny. In some areas dozens of establishments that challenged the shoreline were wiped out by the tsunami in a blink. Many small proprietors say they have learned their lesson. The Thai government has also promised to curtail development in ecologically sensitive areas.  

Western media has also done its share of perpetuating misconceptions and myths that have hurt the island, Thais here say. It failed to adequately distinguish the damage in Phuket from other, much more heavily damaged sites in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.  

“Major news networks would mention the damage in Phuket but show coverage in Aceh,” Tan says. Phuket sustained only a fraction of the 163,000 deaths in Aceh. Mainstream media also failed to explain enough that much of the damage on the island was distant from Phuket’s main beaches. As a result, coverage lead many to believe the entire island was leveled. Major news agencies also reported a high threat of epidemics and contaminated food and water that never materialized.  

Despite all of the fears and rumors, many are slowly starting to return to Phuket. Occupancy rates on the island’s 50,000 hotel rooms have crept up from 10 percent in January to 30 percent in February. Many are repeat visitors from the West who have a relationship with the island and also those who want to help, including a large number of intrepid Americans.  

Americans like Mickey Howley have been traveling to Phuket en masse to help rebuild the island. Howley and several hundred other volunteers at a camp in Khao Lak are rebuilding homes and schools. He says they are teaching many families who lost breadwinners sustainable living skills such as English and Western cooking techniques.  

“Over 80 percent of families here lost a relative, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from anyone’s face,” he says. Thais’ resiliency is “such a positive influence on anyone who comes here.” 

In a heartening shift from the heavy anti-American sentiment in neighboring countries, Americans are heralded almost everywhere on the island and have helped reconstruct an image of tourists seen by some locals as careless with the island and the culture. Together, Americans and Thais may be creating new stories and legacies.›


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday March 22, 2005

WORK TO RULE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to concur with the BUSD student director . Our son is being affected academically by the union’s work to rule. The teachers are now in the very unenviable position of being restricted from assisting the ve ry students they are intent on educating. Fortunately we can afford to send our son to a private tutor, many I fear can not. Surely there must be a better bargaining chip then putting the students at risk. I especially feel for the kids who will be taking the SAT II and AP tests this spring. 

Although I am unhappy with the size of our son’s classes, the district and the community have taken measures to reduce class sizes starting in 2005-06. 

BUSD Board President Nancy Riddle’s March 7 letter to the commu nity stated that Berkeley teachers receive an above average salary and benefits package. Further, teachers with the district since 2002 have received average increases in their take home pay of 2.5 percent annually due to step and column raises. Is this c orrect? 

Margie Gurdziel 

 

• 

DERBY STREET FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I had to go deep into my flat files to find my Site Master Plan for the area of Carleton, Martin Luther King Jr. (Grove Street), Ward and Milvia streets. The purpose of the Master Plan was to unify the development of the new Adult Education Center and the Early Learning Center for the BUSD. I proposed the closure of Derby which is shown on my plan dated March 31, 1972. Closing Derby Street is not a new idea, the baseball field on the s ite is new. 

Too, it is my experience (37 years) that when weak design plans are proposed, approvals are difficult. (As you know I am prepared to sue for proper field orientation relating to baseball field design.) 

Richard Splenda 

Richard Splenda & Associates 

Landscape Architects,  

Park Planners 

• 

A VIBRANT TOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Regarding Jerry Landis’ March 15 letter, as someone who lived at Gilman and Sixth for 10 years, I can safely say that I received no subsidy from Berkeley property owners for my rent. I can also safely say that my landlord did not receive a subsidy from Berkeley property owners for my rent, although he would’ve loved to get one! 

My ability to live cheaply thanks to the shack-like nature of our house meant that I could con tribute to Berkeley’s cultural and social life, which is one major reason why we all live here and love it. For instance, I could work at Uprisings Bakery, a collective which provided delicious and nutritious organic bread to the Bay Area for more than 20 years, as well as work as a paratransit driver for grassroots disability-friendly companies like Vantastic Wheelchair Transportation and as a personal attendant for Easy Does It Disability Assistance (this was years before I ended up running the latter non-profit). Culturally, I was able to dedicate more volunteer hours to KALX, UC Berkeley’s nationally known free-form radio station and to 924 Gilman, Berkeley’s internationally known alternative music landmark. This latter non-profit launched such local success stories as Green Day and Rancid, as well as record label Lookout Records. All three of these entities are still wholly or in part based in Berkeley, which means their sales taxes, business taxes, and property taxes are giving back to the city even now. 

Should artists move somewhere else cheaper? Only if we want to live in a husk of a town, with nothing but imported culture to sustain us. I don’t want to live in a shopping center, I want to live in a vibrant, diverse community. 

Jesse Townley 

• 

HUM AN RIGHTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was concerned about a comment made by Jane Litman, a commissioner on the Peace and Justice City Commission Monday night, March 7. Ann Fagan Ginger had compiled a book regarding human rights violations and sought endorse ment from Peace and Justice to go to City Council for an endorsement. Jane Litman’s comment was that rape was not a violation of the human rights of a woman. She admitted that it was a crime but did not consider it a human rights violation. Perhaps she ha s never been raped and hasn’t experienced someone close to her being raped or she might see the matter differently. I am surprised that she, a rabbi from Temple Beth-El, would express publicly so callous a regard for women around the world who have been raped and are threatened by rape as a matter of war and dismissal of their human dignity and rights not to be violated as women. Consider the wholesale rape of Muslim women in the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Were their human rights not violated? Where was Jane’s solidarity with other women less privileged than herself on the eve of International Women’s Day? I wonder.  

Nancy Delaney 

 

• 

PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Congratulations to the Berkeley Public Library staff members who had the courage to speak out to the Board of Library Trustees at their March meeting. Their statements about the low morale and lack of responsiveness of top management confirm what several have told me privately. I wasn’t surprised to hear that Director Jackie Griffin is hard to communicate with. I have written her two letters in the past three or four months. It took her two months to respond to the first and that came only after I publicly complained about her responsiveness at the January trustee meeting. I waited for three weeks for some comment on a second letter until I finally phoned her office. Her secretary promised me a return call once she returned from a meeting. Of course, she never called. A day later I received a two-sentence response in the mail to my thre e page letter. It is apparently a pattern she follows as staff members have told me that other patrons have written her about their concerns and have received no responses from her. Her claim to your reporter of “open e-mail dialogue” is doubtful. She may be willing to receive comments but obviously feels no obligation to respond. Apparently Griffin does not see herself as a public servant. 

I have also written two letters to the Chair of the Board of Trustees about Griffin’s behavior and again have recei ved no response. 

What is the nature of the Library Board of Trustees? We know they are not elected by popular vote. They are appointees of the City Council. Is it their belief that they are only responsible to those who appointed them and the public be d amned? Seeing they are apparently in charge of the library’s budget and have hiring responsibilities, at least for top management, it might do them well to remember that ultimately the citizens and taxpayers of Berkeley are their bosses. I suggested in my letters that it would be wise to visit the libraries that are their charge and talk to staff members. If they had done so, it would not have come as a surprise that morale was so low. Their behavior, on the other hand, seems to indicate that they take their marching orders from Jackie Griffin, rather than vice-versa. If this is the case, how does the public go about impeaching them? 

The unwillingness of Jackie Griffin and the board to address the major points regarding RFID made in the article by Peter Warfield and Lee Tien (issue of March 4-7) indicates either ignorance or arrogance. Perhaps the issues raised by Warfield and Tien are too complex for Griffin and the Board to understand. Clearly Griffin is obsessed with RFID. It’s up to the Board to exam ine the program objectively and that means listening to all sides. The unwillingness of the Board to allow union representatives scheduled time at meetings, forcing them to make their points in the two minutes allowed during public comments, further erode s public confidence in their fairness and ability to manage this institution during a time of crisis. Listening only to Griffin’s cronies gives them only one side of the argument. Their attitude is much like listening only to Bush appointees opinions on Bush’s so-called Social Security reforms. When will the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees get out from under Griffin’s thumb? 

Don McKay 

 

• 

GOVERNATOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Does the Governator get a lunch break? 

Also, I wonder if he and his family have a good health plan and well-funded schools for their kids. 

Ruth Bird  

 

• 

BUSD LAWSUIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A thorough reading of the article “BUSD Settles Discrimination Lawsuit” (March 18-21) begs the question, “Were these students ever expelled in th e first place, or was an informal agreement made by the students and families to attend an alternative school?” The latter is hardly unusual, especially for BHS students. The irony in this alleged discrimination case, is that we are likely to see more formal expulsion processes with less flexible outcomes and communication with the families involved. 

I was one of these young adults who attended an informal conference some 30 years ago because of chronic truancy. Sure, this system failed me in many ways, but the informality and personalized approach was less upsetting and we developed a reasonable way for me to obtain a diploma. I attended the morning continuation program, worked in the afternoons, received credits from evening adult school, and graduated early. These choices moved me closer to functioning adulthood rather then staying connected with teen culture with all its excesses and excuses. 

For many years BUSD has been an unaccountable system and out of compliance with standard practices in student services. However, the current administration and school board has done more in the past two years to institute the necessary reforms and should be supported and encouraged to complete the task. I fear this current settlement only lined some attorneys’ pocket, fueled misplaced perceptions about discriminatory practices, did little to improve compliance with due process or address the lack of alternative placement needed for students with behavior problems. 

Laura Menard 

 

• 

W. GOES TO SESAME STREET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner the other day and over dessert, I started talking with a woman who taught kindergarten. “The teachers at our school are now required to teach a unit entitled ‘Patriotism’ to their 5-year-old students,” she told me bitterly, “and the book we are required to use has nothing to do with patriotism. It is nothing more than a shamelessly blatant commercial for George W. Bush.” 

Since when did our George become so afraid of his ratings in the polls that he has to stoop to propagandizing kindergarteners? Is the Bush cartel that desperate? What will they do next? Start brainwashing toddlers? 

I can see it all now—George Bush guest stars on Sesame Street! “Which character do you think he would pla y?” asked my friend Jan. 

“Bush wouldn’t play any of the characters,” I replied. “He would just boss everybody around, steal Ernie’s rubber ducky, kick Oscar the Grouch out of his garbage can, take away PBS’s educational funding, teach Maria how to torture prisoners, deport Luis and Zoe, introduce Gordon to the wonders of election fraud, expose the Cookie Monster to mercury poisoning, take away Susan’s voting rights, send Burt off to Iraq without body armor, jail the Snuffaluffagus for being a threat to national security, take Big Bird off the endangered species list, try to hook Kermit the Frog up with Jeff Gannon and napalm Elmo.”  

Jane Stillwater 

 

• 

BIODIESEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the new owner of an old MZB (1977!) with a diesel engine, I am lo oking to convert MY biodiesel usage to pure veggie oil use. EYE (lookin’ at ya Berkeley) would never, ever consider going back to petroleum. And do you know why? Yes, you guessed it: because the occurring toxins resulting from such usage is harmful to the health of the living body, including mine—and I ride around town every single day on a bicycle. I can’t roll my windows up and pretend it’s okay to be spewing because I can’t smell the fumes. I do not only smell them but cough them out of me, involuntari ly. 

Besides which, the conversion is not difficult or expensive and used oil can be acquired and filtered at an even lower cost than buying the oil new. Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine to use vegetable oil. The diesel engine is not meant to use petroleum (as if anything really is). Maybe that’s why burning diesel petroleum smells so bad. 

Iris Crider 

 

• 

CRIME REPORT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Richard Brenneman is more of a problem that just a Police Blotter contaminator. 

What’s with this guy anyhow? I take the Chronicle’s and Daily Cal’s versions of the Rose Garden slashing as actuality. Brenneman says both attackers slashed the victim’s throat and that the police said they were “treating as [sic] a homicide,” although he notes that the woman was then alive in the hospital. It appears that Richard is not just a mucker-up of police blotters but can’t even handle a simple crime story. 

Ray Chamberlin 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The quote should have read “...we are treating this as an attempted homicide.” 

 

• 

WHA T THE UNIVERSITY GIVETH...IT TOOKETH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Steven Finacom (“University Contributes Much to Public Life,” March 18-21) argues that UC gave land to Berkeley to widen Bancroft Way west of Barrow Lane (behind Sproul Hall). Ignoring that it w ould, of course, be in UC’s interests to have a sufficiently wide street fronting its most popular entrance, Steve forgot to tell you that UC took all of that land beginning in the 1920s. There was once a bustling community of shops and houses between Bancroft and Allston Way west of Barrow Lane—yes, that path that winds west from Sather Gate following the south bank of Strawberry Creek was Allston Way! Barrow Lane was named by Henry and Jennie Barrow who owned the Alta Vista Apartments that stood on the northeast corner of Bancroft and Telegraph, when Telegraph ran up to Sather Gate. My father (UC ’38) was appalled that the business strip between Bancroft and Sather Gate was gone by 1962 when I entered UC—the soda shop and everything! But he didn’t know the worst—how UC bought the Alta Vista in condemnation proceedings, got the city inspector to declare the building unfit and evicted everyone in December 1944. Happy Holidays and welcome Sproul Hall! Steve was reminded of this in a recent meeting, but cho se not to share it in his attempt to bolster UC’s image. 

Jerry Sulliger 

 

• 

WHERE’S THE SACRIFICE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The lead story in the March 18-21 Daily Planet (“Council to Decide Cuts to Programs, Positions”) states: “City employees will also be asked to sacrifice. The city is budgeting zero raises for its unionized employees for two years after their current contracts expire.” 

As context for the foregoing statements, consider the opening lines of the Sept. 24, 2002 Planet article, “City, union s reach deal”: “After months of negotiations, Berkeley has reached a tentative six-year contract with its four municipal labor unions representing 60 percent of the city’s work force, city and union leaders said Monday. When final, the 1,119 union members who range from secretaries to engineers will get 28.5 percent raises over six years—nearly as high as the 31.5 percent increase awarded to police officers last year.” 

In light of these terms, will somebody explain how “budgeting zero raises for…unionize d employees for two years after their current contracts expire” is asking City of Berkeley staff “to sacrifice”? 

Zelda Bronstein 

 

• 

TEACHERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a recent article in your paper, Michele Lawrence does admit that California teachers ar e the highest paid in the United States but then finds a way to lower them to number 32 with adjusted cost of living index. All of us living in the Bay Area are subject to these same economic conditions. But there are some conditions which are exclusive t o teachers. Let’s put a teachers salary in perspective.  

A teacher is contracted to work seven hours a day. A normal work day is eight hours. A teacher gets one “free” period and a lunch period included within that seven-hour day. Most workers get no “fr ee” period and do not get paid for lunch. A teacher works for a “school” year of approximately 180 days. A normal worker works a standard year of approximately 240 days. The normal worker works a least 600 more hours per year than a teacher. You can think of that as 75 eight-hour days or 15 weeks or nearly four months. 

If a teacher worked a standard year instead of the radically reduced school year and received the California teachers average daily salary, the $56,000 becomes $80,000 per year. Even a fir st year teacher with no experience would make $50,000 per year. Add to this salary the very generous health and retirement benefits (which threaten to bankrupt many school districts) and you begin to wonder why teachers are considered overworked and under paid. 

In 1960 there were 35 million students and 1.35 million teachers. Today there are 47 million students and the number of teachers has doubled to 2.7 million. There has also been an explosion of administrators so little more than half the staff are t eachers. America is number two in the world in the cost of education per student, but is not first in teacher salaries. The teachers are correct, there is plenty of money for education but it is being spent poorly. 

Michael Larrick 

 

• 

TERRIE SCHIAVO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Republicans ram through another one at the midnight hour, on Palm Sunday no less. The Republican controlled Congress trumped state’s rights and family issues in voting to overturn Florida Courts in the Terrie Schiavo case.  

Ideology , religion and politics is driving the Terrie Schiavo debate. Republicans are trampling on the Constitution and Congress has descended to playing judge, jury, doctor and God in this case. Conflict of interest, hypocrisy and diversion sum up the latest GOP i nvasion into family matters. 

Republicans at the hearing kept saying they would be judged on how they treat the least of us. The bill was for ‘one lone soul’. Where was Republican compassion as the took away food support from 660,000 children and pregnant women in the latest budget?  

President Bush rushed back from his Crawford ranch to sign the Schiavo bill. Would he do the same to help out the millions of poor, elderly and vulnerable who are affected by draconian cuts in his latest budget? 

Ron Lowe 

Nev ada City 

 

• 

READ-IN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We in Berkeley think we have library problems, but down in Salinas in Monterey County the City Council has voted to CLOSE all three public libraries, including the John Steinbeck and the Cesar Chavez, in April f or budget reasons. 

Several organizations are planning an emergency 24-hour Read-In to call Californians’ attention to this deplorable situation in a community so desperately needing books and libraries.  

The Read-In at the Cesar Chavez Library will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 2 and continue until 1 p.m. Sunday, April 3. Then we will join the Cesar Chavez Holiday Celebration in town. 

Celebrate your love of books by coming to Salinas to read from a favorite book. Bring a sleeping bag. Several celebrity authors will be joining us. We are calling on the governor to bring his family and read from his wife’s children’s book. We hope he will be able to implement a solution to the closings. 

Car caravans are planned from all over the state. E-mail sam@bayareacodepink.com or call 524-2776, and check out a website: www.codepinkalert.org or www.savesalinas libraries.org.  

Sponsors: United Farm Workers of America, AFL/CIO; Salinas Action League; Code Pink:Women for Peace; La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE); Global Exchange, Vote! The Citizenship Project. 

Corrine Goldstick 

 

• 

SIDESHOWS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor misses one critical point about sideshows. Allen-Taylor claims that the sideshows began at Pak ‘n’ Save and Eastmont mall. These may have been the first sideshows, but it does not follow that the current incarnation has anything to do with the previous one. There is an obvious difference between burning rubber in a parking lot, and doing donuts in the middle of an intersect ion and I doubt that the people who found both fun and pride in doing the former are currently engaged in the latter. All movements are a product of the fragile environment that created them. In the beginning, this environment helps weed out those who are not serious enough to respect whatever’s going on, and instead endanger its existence with reckless behavior. You can see this with punks or hip-hop--once vibrant movements limited to in-circles and word of mouth, now both a bottom-feeders paradise prone to become vehicles for violence and lowest common denominator thinking. Once sideshows were forced out of the parking lots, they became something altogether different, and in my opinion, something that embodies everything wrong with our culture--reckless disregard for the welfare of others, crass materialism and a lemming-mentality. The mistake comes in even calling these free-for-alls sideshows in the first place. Let sideshows rest in peace and the memory of their heyday be their eulogy; like many, that moment in history is over. 

Omar Silva 

 

• 

BERKELEY EDUCATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve been a volunteer teacher of Basic English at the Berkeley Adult School for three and a half years. Previously I taught at two leading colleges in the Northeast. 

I’m able to recognize high-quality teaching technique when I encounter it. Among the teachers I’ve observed here, it is high. For the community’s sake it ought to stay high and not be threatened. 

I’ve come to know my pupils, too. Most of them are sharply aware that they need education and most try hard to get it. Research keeps proving that teacher quality is the major determining factor in their learning success. Or failure. 

Berkeley teachers have now been struggling for nearly two full years for a fair C.O.L. adjustment, health benefits, and class size shifts—without a contract. 

They’ve worked far beyond the times for which they are paid, to make sure they continue to maintain their high-quality teaching. 

Now at last, more funds are coming to the Board of Education. The bad news: none of the money is reaching the teachers. 

Outraged? Who wouldn’t be? 

A teachers’ strike is a public horror. Especially with the world’s finest public university right up the street, we’re much to civilized a community to endure such a disaster. 

To keep Berkeley education Berkeley education, let’s give our teachers the gentle little lift they deserve. 

John Griffin 

 

UNIVERSITY AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As along time homeowner on Berkeley Way, I am very interested in the recent developments on University Avenue. I have tried to keep myself informed regarding the Strategic Plan and zoning regulations, as well as individual projects, which is a bit daunting. 

The recent City Council approval of the Satellite Homes project revealed one of my many confusions surrounding the intent of the council and the Planning Department. I know the concept of “nodes,” which I understand to be intersections located on a major transit corridor, within the boundaries of which large buildings are permitted. I believe the nodes on University Avenue are the intersections of Chestnut, Acton and California Streets and the area near the West Branch Library. However, Satellite Homes is on University and Sacramento, not a node. The Tune Up Masters project is on McGee, not a node. I’ve heard of a planned project on the northwest corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, not a node. All three of these projects are large buildings, taller than allowed by current zoning. What is the purpose of designating nodes if other intersections also have large buildings? 

Is it because these three buildings are to be the only tall ones on their intersections, with the other three corners left within the zoning provisions? 

Is it expected that nodes will have large buildings on all four corners? What happens to existing buildings? Will Andronico’s market at Acton Street disappear to be replaced by a tall building? What are the parameters of a node? Can a replacement building go all the way through to Addison Street, as Andronico’s does? If Ledger’s is replaced by a large building, can it also incorporate the current vacant lot behind Ledger’s, going all the way though to Berkeley Way? How about the lot across the street, on the northeast corner of Acton and University? The property from University to Berkeley Way is also owned by the same family; can they utilize the entire property for one large building that goes corner to corner? 

If two or three large buildings join the existing Acton Courtyard at that intersection will they also be built with reduced parking facilities? I’ve heard that the rationale of placing large buildings on the University Avenue transit corridor is to discourage the ownership of cars and increase the use of public transit. Will nearby neighborhoods be inundated by the vehicles of building residents who don’t have on-site parking? 

What about Chestnut Street? It dead-ends into University Avenue at the former site of the Berkeley Adult School, so there are two corners. Does that make the school property eligible for large development projects? Just the part within a specified distance from Chestnut Street or the entire block, through to Addison Street? What if the owner of the auto repair shop at Chestnut Street wants to continue with his business rather than replacing it with a large apartment complex? I recall discussion during the close down of the Tune Up Masters business indicating that the council would like to eliminate all auto-related businesses on University Avenue, but what will it do to accomplish this goal? I have gone to my auto repair shop for many years and I imagine that there are many loyal patrons of the Chestnut Street shop who would not want to have to find another reliable place to take their cars. 

Do policies on these issues exist, or will decisions be made on a case-by-case basis by the Planning Commission, Zoning Adjustment Board and City Council as each project is proposed? How much neighborhood notification will be involved for each decision? 

I imagine I am not alone in being concerned about the possibilities of developments along University Avenue. I wish I felt more confident that decisions will be fair to current residents of the area. 

Honor Thompson 

o



Wearing the Right Clothes for Class, Bayview and Rococo Risqué By SUSAN PARKER Column

Tuesday March 22, 2005

In September I wrote a column about how my friend Corrie desperately wanted to buy a sweatshirt at San Francisco State University’s bookstore but she couldn’t find one that satisfied her sense of fashion. Well, I’m happy to report that after a long search she has finally found the gray, zippered hoodie she was looking for.  

Despite the $45 price tag and the big black letters, I kind of understood Corrie’s need and affection for the hoodie, but it came as a surprise to me when a favorite teacher at State decided to buy the same sweatshirt.  

Brian Thorstenson was on his way to the bookstore in a retail therapy kind of mood when I ran into him on campus several weeks ago. “I’m cold,” he said. “Plus I don’t really like what I’m wearing today. I need something spiffier, don’t you think?” 

“I don’t know,” I said. In jeans and a plaid shirt, Brian looked exactly as he always does, skinny and casual. “What are you thinking about getting?” I asked. 

“A zippered, hooded, green sweatshirt that says San Francisco State on the front. They’re adorable.” 

“Get out of town,” I said. “My friend Corrie just bought one in gray.” 

“Does she look marvelous?” 

“Yes, I believe she does.” 

“Well then, I guess I better hurry and get one before they sell out.” 

I followed Brian into the store.  

Last semester I took a class from Brian in which we read several plays, went to see them performed, discussed the written and live versions, and then attempted to mimic the style of the playwrights by creating scenes using their work as our guides. It was a wonderful experience, not just because of the material, but because Brian is warm, generous and funny. 

In a room full of fifty or so undergraduate and graduate students, ranging in age from 18 to 52, Brian was able to create an atmosphere full of analytical thought and enthusiastic dialogue—not an easy thing to do, considering that most of the students came to class after work tired and hungry. The class ran from 7 p.m. until 10. Many of us didn’t get home until after 11, and at least one young kid drove straight from campus to the UPS center in Petaluma where he loaded and unloaded boxes from midnight to 8 a.m. Yet, despite the late hour and the hard seats, we attended week after week, interested in hearing what Brian had to say, anxious to share our opinions with one another.  

So there I was in the bookstore, looking through racks and racks of sweatshirts, wondering if I should buy one just so that I could be more like Brian. 

“Here it is!” he shouted, pressing a green sweatshirt against his chest and looking into a mirror. “What do you think? Is it groovy, or what? 

“Totally,” I said. “If I buy one for myself and promise to wear it every day, will you let me into your theater class next semester?” 

“Honey, it doesn’t work like that,” said Brian. “But I’ll tell you what. Buy yourself a ticket to Rococo Risqué. It’s a must see and I swear you’ll have a fabulous experience.”  

I did just that and I was not disappointed. Rococo Risqué OSU, the Hope Show, is an ensemble-driven cabaret-style performance blending vaudeville, burlesque, oleos and comedia dell’arte in a contemporary setting. Andrew Sisters-style singing, almost-nude dancers, a live band, and a Statue of Liberty-clad actress entertain with exuberant energy and spirited political satire.  

The extravaganza took place at the Danzhaus, an interesting venue located where the sidewalk ends in San Francisco’s Bayview warehouse district, right next to a junkyard housing a vicious-sounding guard dog behind a chain link, barbwire-topped fence. Wear a hoodie-style sweatshirt and you’ll fit right in with the crowd, the performers, and the neighborhood. You can get one at the SFSU bookstore, or anywhere on Telegraph Avenue.  

 

The Red Gate Performance Collective plans to put on Rococo Risqué again sometime this spring. Look for an announcement on their website at: www.rococrisque.com. 


Police Blotter By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday March 22, 2005

Elmwood Attack 

A man walking down Stuart Street at College Avenue early Sunday morning was confronted by three male juveniles, one who was wielding a metal bar, said BPD Police Public Information Officer Joe Okies. The boys demanded his belongings and grabbed his camera before fleeing the area. 

 

Fight in South Berkeley  

Police responded to a fight between two women Sunday, Officer Okies said. A 22-year-old took most of the blows, but although police identified the other combatant, she was not charged. 

 

San Pablo Robbery 

A man walking near San Pablo Avenue and Cedar Street Sunday was confronted by a man claiming to be carrying a gun, Okies said. Not taking any chances, the victim handed over his wallet. 

 

BART Beatdown 

A 22-year-old woman walking near the North Berkeley Bart Station was punched and kicked to the ground by three juvenile girls on Saturday evening, Okies said. Despite being outnumbered, the victim held on to her purse and the three young attackers fled north on California Street. 

 

 

 


Reflections on the Baby Track and the Tenure Track By CAROL POLSGROVE News Analysis

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

In the wake of the flap over the Harvard president’s comments about women in science, the University of California Berkeley has thrown a spotlight on efforts by two of its own to explain why men still outnumber women on the tenure track of university faculties.  

Crunching numbers from two large data sets, two UCB researchers, Mary Ann Mason, dean of the graduate division, and Marc Goulden, principal analyst for the division, have concluded that “women may be more successful in obtaining academic careers if they forgo or delay marriage and childbirth.” 

Thus, many women who want marriages and children may get Ph.D.s (as they’re doing now in numbers about equal to men’s), but either teach part-time or not at all. 

The researchers’ findings sent my thoughts scrambling back over my checkered career. 

How well I remember my favorite graduate professor wagging his cigar at me and telling me to think twice before I tried to get pregnant when I was about to write a master’s thesis. I took his advice, completed my Ph.D., got a divorce, climbed onto the tenure track in Kentucky and stayed there for four years before I decided there was more to life than that and headed for California. 

I spent the next dozen years writing, editing, and, when I needed money, teaching on and off in the Bay Area in what Mason and Goulden call the “second tier”—part-time or full-time but temporary jobs. Then, finally, at the age of 41, I had a baby, and, suddenly (in a reverse of their findings) tenure-track teaching looked more attractive—the best way for a single mom to pay the bills. 

It isn’t easy for someone who has stepped off the tenure track to get back on, but I was lucky. The School of Journalism that hired me needed someone with recent journalism experience, and I had it. 

It was a gamble, for the school and for me, but things turned out fine—I got tenure, then promotion to full professor in time to pay my daughter’s college bills. If the odds were against that happening, as Mason and Goulden’s research suggests, then I bucked the odds. 

But I had a lot of help along the way, the kind of family-friendly help Mason and Goulden would like to see all professors have. I had a decent salary and a reasonable teaching load—two courses a semester, standard at research universities but not at “teaching” universities like San Jose State University, where I taught four courses a semester. 

I had research support that meant I did not need to teach every summer and could meet the writing expectations of my university. I had a reduced load one semester for research. I had research funds to travel to archives. My daughter went to a good child care center provided by the university.  

Not all universities provide that kind of support, though I suspect they may need to provide more of it in the future. 

When I retire in a few years, so will about half of my colleagues in the School of Journalism where I teach. A similar scenario will play out across the country. We baby boomers who have occupied a disproportionate number of faculty lines for so long are about to leave the scene. 

The challenge of filling that many jobs will be enormous. Universities will not be able to afford to lose either women or men who see commitment to university life as inconsistent with raising children.  

 

Carol Polsgrove, a professor of journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington, is author of Divided Minds: Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement and It Wasn’t Pretty, Folks, But Didn’t We Have Fun? Surviving the Sixties with Esquire’s Harold Hayes. 

 

For more on the UCB study, see www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2005/03/10_gap.shtml. 


To Gain Upper Hand, Democrats Must Play the Fear Card By BOB BURNETT News Analysis

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

Since the presidential election, Democrats have been challenged to go back to the basics, to remember their core values. As the process continues there is agreement on basic principles of social justice and on key ethical standards. For example, the vast majority of Democrats do not believe that the ends justify the means; unlike Republicans, they do not feel that it is okay to do anything to win. Because of these scruples, Democrats face a conundrum with regards to the tactical use of fear: How to talk to voters about the very real dangers facing America. The challenge for the Democratic leadership is to tell the truth about the perils America faces, and, yet, provide a message of hope, to reason with voters, not scare them. 

Fear played a huge role in the 2004 presidential contest. Republicans warned that the U.S. was going to incur another terrorist attack, and argued that only President Bush had the strength required to guide us through such horrors. They accompanied this assertion with a no-holds-barred assault on John Kerry’s character. Who can forget the infamous “Swift-Boat” ads, or Zell Miller’s speech at the Republican convention implying that Kerry was unfit for command? This strategy worked; in the last days of the election, key swing voters moved to Bush because of their fear regarding national security. 

To gain perspective on how Democrats might effectively play the fear card, it is helpful to consider five different calamities that might beset America in the next four years—ruling out totally random events such as an invasion by aliens or Ann Coulter becoming president.  

The most obvious peril is another terrorist attack on the United States, which would inflict horrendous casualties, traumatize the populace and deal a severe blow to the economy. It would also demonstrate that the Bush administration has not done enough to bolster real homeland security. 

A related, but less obvious, threat is an Al Qaeda strike on overseas petroleum resources. For example, an attack on the mammoth Saudi oil refinery at Ras Tanura would drastically reduce world oil supplies, and have a devastating impact on our economy. Here again, the Bush administration has been negligent because it has done nothing to prepare us for this eventuality. 

The third peril is that of a severe recession brought on by the shifting winds of geo-politics. American interest rates stay low because, to a huge extent, allies, such as China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, finance our debt. If one of these countries decided to quit buying our treasuries, or to simply demand prevailing rates, interest rates would spike upward, triggering an economic downturn. The Bush administration has refused to consider this problem, causing one foreign economist to complain, “There’s nobody home on economic policy in America.” 

The fourth threat is that presented by rapid climate change. If present trends continue, Americans will experience increasingly savage weather: vast ice storms, hurricanes, droughts, and floods. This continued onslaught will surely impact the economy; imagine, for example, if arctic temperatures persisted in New York for months, rather than weeks. The Bush administration pretends that this problem does not exist. 

Finally, Americans are in peril from the next great pandemic, whether a new strain of influenza, SARS, or some monstrous hybrid created by ill-advised biological research. In addition to the death and trauma this would cause, our economy would certainly be devastated. Once again, the Bush administration has done little to prepare the country for such an eventuality; in fact, they have weakened our public health services. 

The thread that unites these five scenarios is our brittle economy, the product of the Bush administration’s warped policy perspective. The cornerstone of their domestic agenda is tax cuts. Their foreign policy is based upon military intervention. However, global diplomacy exists within three, inter-connected spheres: military, financial, and social—those dealing with common concerns such as epidemics, immigration, and climate change. The Bush administration focuses exclusively on military policy and, thereby, ignores the financial and social spheres in the mistaken belief that what goes on in one area does not impact the others. For example, they assume that China will remain our benefactor, economically, even if we intervene militarily in their conflict with Taiwan. Following this line of reasoning the administration has ignored all potential calamities except a direct attack. 

This is terribly flawed thinking. Whatever the form of the disaster that strikes us, America will be thrown into financial turmoil, suffer the worst depression in modern times. 

Yet, it is not inevitable that another national catastrophe would sink our economy. For example, when precipitous climate change begins to wreak major havoc, our economy might be structured so that it would “bend” but not break. In order for this to be true, steps would have to be taken now to bolster our economic infrastructure, to make America more resilient by, for example, drastically reducing our use of carbon-based fuels and incentivizing use of renewable resources such as wind and biomass. 

Sadly this has not been an objective of the Bush administration, which, instead of regarding the American economy as a vital national resource which must be bolstered, treats it as an infinite piggy bank. This cavalier attitude not only sets a dreadful example for the American consumer, who already is much too eager to go into debt, it has also made our economy perilously fragile. 

A number of factors contribute to this frailty: The United States is a debtor nation. Our standard of living is dependent on artificially low interest rates and gasoline prices. Many citizens have no savings and, in fact, are only a paycheck or two away from homelessness. (Most citizens are in peril if someone in their family suffers a catastrophic illness.) Our infrastructure is decaying and many essential services cannot handle their current caseloads, much less the demands of a major emergency. 

Ironically, the Bush administration touts itself as having kept America strong. The sober truth is that their domestic and foreign policies have severely weakened us, made us more vulnerable. 

The ineptness of the Bush administration has created an opportunity for Democrats. In order to capitalize on this, they need to play the fear card. When they do, Democratic leaders need both to tell the truth about the hard times ahead, and to present a sensible economic plan - a proposal for a resilient America. This should be a plan that recognizes the perils that confront us, and meets them head on with domestic policies that reduce our debt, rebuild the infrastructure, and restrict our reliance on carbon-based fuels. The same plan should propose a foreign policy that recognizes that there are three spheres of international diplomacy, and America must take the lead in each—rather than restrict its interest solely to hegemony, a policy of militant unilateralism. Finally, this plan must appeal to our tradition of standing shoulder to shoulder for the common good; it must provide a message of hope based upon the recognition that Americans can overcome any calamity if we all work together. 

 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and activist. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net. 

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Celebrating California Women Who Made ‘Herstory’ By HELEN RIPPIER WHEELER

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

“History is written by winners... and the bad witch is old.”  

—Child, interviewed on PBS program, “The Goddess Remembered”  

 

 

March is Women’s History Month. Why a celebration of the history of women in particular? It’s an annual recognition that recorded history still omits the history of females, and that when something is noted about them, it is often distorted.  

Circa 1968, linguists, sociologists and feminists began pointing out that traditional history often ignores 50 percent of the population or misrepresents women’s achievements. The word history is from the Greek root for the concepts of inquiring, knowing, learning. Herstory was coined to emphasize that women’s lives, deeds and participation in human affairs have been neglected or undervalued in standard history books and official documents. In 1981, Congress declared a national Women’s History Week, following lobbying by the Women’s History Project. By 1987, the week had turned into a month. 

March can be a time for reexamining and celebrating the wide range of females’ contributions and achievements. Consider California herstory. How many of these California heroes can you identify?  

1. California’s first woman lawyer, she was active in women’s rights, social welfare and politics.  

2. The owner and editor of the West Coast’s oldest black newspaper, the California Eagle, who, in l912, seeing no black workers on a visit to the County Hospital, appealed to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, which agreed to hire if she sent qualified women; she continued to pressure, and 10 years later the first black secretary and nurses were hired. 

3. She silently absorbed countless ancestral epic sagas told by her mother, Brave Orchid, and other California Chinese who influenced her Stockton childhood and her best-selling memoir.  

4. She grew up in Whittier, lived in France and Marin County, where her book on aging, Sister Age, was written when she was 75, well known as a gourmet-author.  

5. Although regarded as an “office worker” by some and never named Carillonist, she began ringing the University of California, Berkeley’s Sather Tower bells in l923 and continued until her retirement 50 years later.  

6. She is an award-winning Berkeley author born in the Mission, published in a variety of genres, the author of 10 novels, including Confessions of Madame Psyche (American Book Award, 1987) and five plays, including Dear Master (Bay Area Critics Circle Award, 1991).  

7. This economist lectured on labor and social policy and wrote stories until she met Jane Addams at the California Women’s Congress in 1895 and was inspired to write the classic Women and Economics, since published in seven languages.  

8. When it was rumored that women were being mistreated at the City Hospital, this San Francisco Examiner journalist threw herself in front of a truck; taken to the hospital by horse cart, her resulting expose caused reforms. (See answers, page 19.) 

American presidents, governors and mayors have waffled in proclaiming recognition of National Women’s History Month and of International Women’s Day, annually celebrated worldwide on March 8. 

Its American origins may date back to 1857, when 40,000 American women textile factory workers protested sweat-shop conditions. In March 1908 thousands of women garment workers, many of them socialists and immigrants, took to the streets of Manhattan’s lower East Side, demanding the right to vote and an end to sweatshops and child labor. Late on Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire led to 146 deaths, mostly young Jewish and Italian women; it came to be known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, and the two men who owned and operated the unsafe Manhattan building were acquitted.  

A group of American women struggling for women’s rights had attended a conference of the Socialist International in Copenhagen in 1910 and requested passage of a resolution supporting the working women of the United States. The Party responded by creating a Women’s Day to demonstrate in favor of woman suffrage. 

German socialist Clara Zetkin put forth a resolution to internationalize Women’s Day, first celebrated on March 19, 1911 in Germany and Austria. March 8, 1917 signified one of the most important events in the overthrow of Tsarist Russia; in St. Petersburg, thousands of women organized and demonstrated.  

With the advent of World War I, many nations stopped celebrating Women’s Day, but in the United States, antiwar demands were added, and, in 1916, American women called it International Women’s Day. Observance of International Women’s Day waned until it was revived by American feminists following the rebirth of the contemporary Women’s Movement in the 1960s.  

The year 2005 marks the tenth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing, which mobilized the global women’s movement into strategic alliances and collective power that resulted in commitment of participating nations to the advancement of women as outlined in its “Platform for Action.” The decennial Fifth World Conference on Women would have been held in 2005, but it is not to be. The United States has still not reaffirmed the United Nations Platform of Action on Women’s Rights. 

Women have always served their compatriots as part of their nations’ military. They have volunteered and spied, been conscripted, and served in combat and as prisoners of war. The account of 12th Century B.C. Deborah is told in “Judges,” chapters 4 and 5; she is an unusual biblical figure because of her evident command over the male leaders of the tribe at the battle of Taanach. The first woman sea captain recorded was fifth Century B.C. Greek Artemisia of Halicarnassus.  

In 1782 Massachusetts school teacher Deborah Sampson (1760-1827) enlisted as “Robert Shurtleff” in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. She sustained sword and musket wounds from several skirmishes until her identity was discovered and she was discharged from the army. Congress awarded her a small pension for her services. 

She published an account of her experiences, The Female Review, in 1797. Sarah Edwards (1841-98) left her Canadian home at fifteen to enlist as a man in the Union army at the outbreak of the Civil War. As an aged widow without income, she “confessed” in order to receive a government pension.  

In 1942 Congress passed a bill introduced by Representative Edith Nourse Rogers, establishing the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. Its passage had been stalled until after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Later, the word “auxiliary” was dropped, and thousands of women who enlisted received full U.S. Army benefits. 

The WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) became an official part of the Navy. Duties ranged from clerical staff to flight instructors. In 1947 Congress passed the Army-Navy Nurse Act, providing nurses permanent commissioned officer status in the U.S. military. Until then, they could achieve relative rank, but not the pay and benefits of full officer’s rank.  

Air Force officer Jeanne Marjorie Holm, born in 1921, joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant the following year. By the end of World War II she was a captain in charge of a women’s training regiment. She rejoined the services in 1948 and was transferred to the Air Force, advancing to the rank of major-general in 1973. She is a strong supporter of women’s rights, a member of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and founder and first chair of Women in Government. Aviator and business executive Jacqueline Cochran (1910-80) left her foster home and went to work at an early age. By 1935 she had a pilot’s license and her own cosmetics firm. She was the first woman to pilot a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean (1941). During World War II she served in the British Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying planes across the English Channel. 

After the United States entered World War II, she led the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots—the WASP, for which she received the Distinguished Service Medal (1945). She was responsible for training thousands of women and their testing and piloting transport and fighter planes. On May 18, 1953, flying an F-86 Sabre jet, Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier.  

The WASPs were women who were U.S. civilian pilots under contract to the U.S. Army who served as test pilots, ran target missions providing training for antiaircraft gunners, and ferried new aircraft to embarkation points in North America. Chinese American Hazel Ying Lee (1912-1944) of Oregon, already a skilled pilot, volunteered, trained, served and died as a WASP. 

She was one of 132 WASPs selected to fly the faster high-powered fighter planes, or “pursuit aircraft.” She was the last of the 38 WASPs killed in the line of duty. The families of those killed were responsible for paying to transport their remains and belongings. Despite the need for the WASPs and their outstanding record, Congress refused to make the WASP part of the regular military forces and dismissed the women in 1944. WASPs were accorded military status in 1979.  

During World War II, many American civilian women served as homemakers, prisoners-of-war, volunteers, and defense plant workers—the Rosies. 

Typical jobs available outside the home to American women in the 1930s—when they could get work—had been domestic, shop girl, waitress and cook. Depression Era women were often forced to give up their own interests and goals. Tillie Lerner Olsen, for example, was a promising writer in her youth, but marriage, care of four children, and need to earn a living stopped her writing. Many years later that situation spurred her to write Silences, published in 1978. 

An unprecedented demand for new workers was suddenly created by the United States’ entry into World War II. Women were asked to work outside as well as inside of the home. The media called on them to “Do the job he left behind.” The Rosie the Riveter persona was created, although not all women became riveters. They earned money, joined unions, and found new benefits in being in the labor force. Minority women for the first time entered major industrial plants. 

The women who got factory jobs worked in welding, machining, building aircraft, and on tanks. They were employed in armament factories doing jobs once held by men who had been drafted or volunteered into the military. Women were soon shown to have better motor skills than men (attributed to needle work) and were assigned work with wire fuses on bombs and filling metal casings with gunpowder. Despite safety precautions, many of these women were permanently disabled and some lost their lives. 

With the opportunity to demonstrate that they were as capable as men, they did “men’s work” so well that production levels rose. As the war continued, greater numbers of women began to take control of their lives. More than six million women took over for men in these occupations. And worldwide, women were learning factory skills, and they worked as journalists, drivers, farmers, mail delivery personnel, garbage collectors, builders, and mechanics. 

Notions of what was proper for women changed rapidly. But when the war was over and the Rosies wanted to stay on their jobs, the American economy and way of life no longer welcomed them. They were out of their place. 

In 1944 the average woman’s salary was $31.21 a week for her labor, while the men who remained on the home front averaged $54.65 a week. The women became accustomed to the overalls, uniforms, slacks and bandanas or snoods and continued to wear them in public. As the War drew to an end and GIs returned, these clothes were considered unfeminine. For a while, it had been a time when women were no longer forced into roles society created for them. They became free to create their own lives and sense of self, moving in the direction of sex/gender equity. 

Women workers’ increasing presence—they outnumbered men three to one in the labor force—and influence threatened many of the men who were still in the work force and who responded with harassment and discrimination that continued after the war. They had problems with the idea of women as wage laborers. The Rosie the Riveter recruitment poster had encouraged women to join the workforce by portraying their heretofore hidden strengths and by promoting power and pride.  

Connie Field at Berkeley’s Clarity Productions produced the 1980 motion picture The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. It garnered a long list of awards, for it differs from other documentaries depicting war workers. We see and listen as women workers delineate their lives before, during and after their World War II employment outside the home for wages. 

Molly Haskell in Ms. Magazine described it as “The best film on working women” she had seen. And yet this Rosie is not in local video collections. In 2001 the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historic Park was founded in Richmond. A permanent visitors’ center in the old Ford Plant is planned to open in 2009. Comparable projects have included the Manzanar National Historic Site, Boston’s African American National Historic Site, and the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, New York.  

Today we hear about men and some women having “issues” with women doing certain jobs. The war had allowed women to get “out of the house” and “out of hand.” The liberated woman (the actual term took 20 years to surface) threatened traditional marriage and family life.  

 

ANSWERS 

1. Clara Shortridge Foltz (1848-1934) 

2. Charlotta Bass (1880-1969) 

4. Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher (1908-1990) 

5. Margaret Murdock (l894-l985) 

6. Dorothy Calvetti Bryant (1930- )  

7. Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman (1860-1935) 

8. Winifred Sweet Black Bonfils /”Annie Laurie” (1863 - 1936) 

 

 

Helen Rippier Wheeler is a feminist and Berkeley resident who has taught Women Studies. From 1973-93 she ran Womanhood Media, a consulting firm. She earned her B.A. is from Barnard College, M.A. in human development from the University of Chicago, and her M.S. and doctorate from Columbia University. In 1984 she was a visiting scholar in Women Studies in Japan. 

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Soliciting Suggestions For City’s Pedestrian Safety Plan By WENDY ALFSEN Commentary

Tuesday March 22, 2005

On a sunny afternoon last month, a vehicle struck resident John Wang while he walked in the crosswalk across Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Addison in Central Berkeley. Unconscious at the scene and requiring several days’ hospitalization, Mr. Wang lost weeks of work and is still in a neck brace. He continues in physical therapy in hopes that his neck fracture will heal. Meanwhile, with considerable pain in his shoulders, neck and back, he fears that arm numbness and paralysis are permanent. 

Walking home on Addison Street after doing an errand downtown, Mr. Wang was hit while crossing MLK. He waited until cars had stopped before he entered the crosswalk. After crossing three of four lanes, where cars yielded the right of way, a fourth vehicle that Mr. Wang couldn’t see coming failed to stop. Due to the severity of the impact, John Wang lost consciousness for a considerable period, waking up to paramedics preparing to take him to the ambulance. 

John Wang wishes the City would do more to encourage careful driving. He wonders if drivers get tickets only for speeding and not for injuring other people. “Arresting drivers who seriously injure pedestrians is something the City can do right away that will make a big difference in how people drive,” Mr. Wang insisted. 

He explained that the pedestrian crash experience involves trauma, pain and often long term difficulties. A serious pedestrian injury crash even impacts the pedestrian’s whole family and sometimes community, while the driver has only individual conscience and continues life with no interruption. The driver’s family and community must be engaged in confronting the horrific violence and damage resulting from the driver’s conduct in causing a serious pedestrian injury. 

John said, “As a driver I feel that the person driving a vehicle must always have control and be able to stop in time.” 

MLK and Addison is a frequently used walking route where serious injuries regularly occur. Last year a walk inventory recommended safety improvements to this intersection. 

If you know of pedestrian injuries or dangerous walking conditions in Berkeley, please let Walk&Roll Berkeley know at wrb@americawalks.org or 883-9725. Walk&Roll Berkeley is working to make sure all such information is included in the city’s upcoming Pedestrian Plan as we prioritize needed improvements for Berkeley.  

 

Wendy Alfsen is the coordinator for Walk&Roll Berkeley.


An Attempt to Get Answers Regarding The Governor’s Education Budget By AMY YAMASHIRO Commentary

Tuesday March 22, 2005

As a member of the Berkeley Unified School District community, I recently received a letter from Superintendent Michele Lawrence explaining the situation with teacher contract negotiations, facts about BUSD’s financial situation, and the proposed state budget as it relates to education. We were asked to contact the governor’s office to express our feelings about the proposed budget, so I did. 

I called the number provided, chose “hotline topic,” waited for a while, then was connected to a real person. Regina was obviously less than thrilled to be speaking with someone criticizing the budget proposal. We spoke for a few minutes as I tried to cover the topics raised in the superintendent’s letter, and her replies were mostly limited to a couple of stock phrases, regardless of my questions and then responses to her repeated phrases. It basically ran something like this: 

“I’m calling to express my displeasure at how the new budget takes money away from districts and to ask that the governor fulfill his promise to restore funds that were borrowed from education last year.” 

“There are no cuts in the education budget.”  

“But if the money was borrowed from education and never gets repaid, that’s the same as a cut, isn’t it?” 

“There are no cuts in the education budget.” 

“Why is it then that the governor’s budget moves responsibility for STRS from the state to the district? It’s a removal of money from the state budget, isn’t it?” 

“There are no cuts in the education budget. Have you even read the proposal? It actually adds money to education.” She gave me the website.  

`Still on the phone with her, I typed it in, followed a couple of links, and said (OK, a little triumphantly) “See, right here, it says the responsibility for STRS is being moved from the state to the districts. Why is that?” 

Click. She hung up on me. 

I called back, waited, then the phone was picked up and immediately hung up without a greeting. Hmmm. 

I called back, waited again (lots of time to look over the online budget), and spoke with John, who apologized for Regina, was similarly unable to help me out, but didn’t hang up on me. He repeated the stock phrases, then transferred me to Joe, the “education guy.” 

Joe was also quite apologetic, and tried to answer my questions more fully. At my first mention of STRS, he tried to transfer me to the retirement plans person, but I managed to keep him on the line. Among other things, we discussed a few of the stock phrases that had come up.  

“Money has been added to education—it’s the governor’s number one priority and is over half the budget.” Joe stated a few times that the education budget had increased and that it was now over 60 percent of the overall budget . . . so I interrupted him to ask why the graphic on the website’s summary charts put K-12 education spending at 32.3 percent and higher education spending at 11.5 percent for a total of 43.8 percent. He navigated there, then sent me to another page (major program areas; K thru 12 education) showing that $61.1 billion would be spent on schools. Um, last time I checked, billions of dollars don’t equal percentage points. Then Joe said I’d have to talk directly to the finance department to find out why the figures on the website didn’t match the one he had.  

“There are no cuts in the education budget.” He explained that no areas had received actual cuts, and that the amount given to districts had increased by $362 per student. He wouldn’t talk about STRS, so I asked about the monies that had been “borrowed” and not returned—$1.5 million for 2004-5 and 2005-6 for a total of $3 million taken from districts. He tried to explain that the additional revenues being given to school districts ($1.8 million for Berkeley in 2005-6) would cover that. So then I quoted from the superintendent’s letter that “. . . we will lose other revenue [Berkeley] received this year from the state or county, such as lottery funds, mandated reimbursements and interest income; a total loss of $572,000. . . increased medical and required benefits for all employees are estimated to be $468,000. . . STRS . . . will cost $700,000” so the additional revenues will roughly break even with the new expenses. I asked him if he were to receive a $50/week raise which happened to be tied to an additional $100/week in new mandatory taxes, would he consider that a pay raise or a pay cut? He chuckled and said he could see my point, but agreed that it was all just political semantics. 

“All of the money is going straight into classrooms.” When I asked about teacher salaries, I was told that all of the new monies being provided by the state budget were earmarked for classrooms—direct student use. I remarked that the teacher is the one most important thing in the classroom for impacting student learning. He chuckled and agreed with me again, then clarified that the monies are for supplies and changed topic.  

So, I still have the same concerns and questions I did before talking with Joe, but at least he didn’t hang up on me. He also gave me a number to bypass the automated system next time.  

I understand now why more people don’t call their elected representatives. I felt that although I called to express concerns, my voice is not being heard where it differs from the message the governor’s office is working to promote. But I still encourage others to call, in hope that staffers might begin to realize that for voters to believe the promoted message that “the governor’s number one priority is education,” we need to see actual progress being made, not money being shuffled around to play the political semantics game. 

 

Amy Yamashiro is a member of the Cragmont Elementary School Parent-Teacher Association.:


New Leaf: A Different Perspective By DIETMAR LORENZ Commentary

Tuesday March 22, 2005

Your recent article about the New Leaf Gallery’s move out of its Berkeley location unfairly puts the blame on “development pressures”. Not only did the article contain a number of inaccurate statements, but also the overall picture that you painted does not describe what is happening and leaves your readers with the wrong impression. As the architects working with Carl Lasagna, the property owner, we feel the need to respond. 

It is not true that New Leaf had been “notified” six months ago. We have been working in good faith for two years with New Leaf to design a mixed-use project around the heart of their wonderful garden and to provide them with the indoor gallery space they desired, and we are disappointed that they have now decided to move to downtown San Francisco. The landlord encouraged the gallery to stay and was willing to work the plans around their needs, at the expense of the development potential of his property. As New Leaf wanted to reduce their overhead, we suggested one or two small storefront businesses on the site to keep the rent affordable. Our design schemes would also have encouraged pedestrian activity and added more diversity to the neighborhood. 

Before hiring our firm the landlord offered the New Leaf Gallery to stay in the existing space in its current condition, but asked for a longer-term lease agreement. The gallery declined the offer, but was open to the prospect of a development that would give them an indoor facility on the site. The overall plan included the option to move into another building across the street during construction. New Leaf uttered concerns about a temporary relocation during construction, which may have been the main reason for them to disengage from the process. However, they also mentioned the changing nature of their business, becoming increasingly Internet based. The landlord would have liked to preserve the garden gallery, but it is New Leaf that decided to trade it for an indoor gallery in San Francisco. After your article was published, Brigitte of New Leaf agreed it was misleading to imply that they were forced out and acknowledged the planning effort to shape the project around their gallery. In the end, relocating to San Francisco made more sense as a business decision for the New Leaf Gallery. 

The Lasagna family was among the founders of the Westbrae Neighborhood, going back almost a century. Carl Lasagna is a local resident and feels the responsibility to maintain and improve the property and to serve the neighborhood at large. The Westbrae Neighborhood Commercial District, as it is designated in the Berkeley Zoning Code, is intended to “Provide locations for uses supplying convenience goods and services for residents of the immediate area.” Although many neighbors, including us, enjoyed the beautifully crafted outdoor gallery, others weren’t even aware of it, due to the introverted nature of the business. With the gallery moving away to San Francisco, the focus should be on what the future may hold for the site. It is part of a larger effort to invigorate the small commercial area along Gilman Street. Our firm has been working closely with the Ohlone Greenway Team, including the late Karl Linn, Berkeley Parks and Recreation and Carl Lasagna to build a small public plaza at the intersection of the Ohlone Bike path and Gilman Street, in the heart of the Westbrae Neighborhood. We would like to see a lively street scene with businesses that cater to the needs of the community. 

 

Dietmar Lorenz is an architect with DSA Architects in Berkeley.Ã


Exhibits Celebrate City Fire And Police Departments By STEVEN FINACOM

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

Berkeley didn’t always have a city-run Fire Department or professional police force. Back in the late 19th century, when the community was still a small town, volunteer fire companies and elected town marshals provided basic protection.  

All that changed about a century ago. Today, the origins, notable events, and histories of Berkeley’s fire and police departments are being told in consecutive exhibits at the Berkeley History Center.  

The exhibit on the Fire Department closes this coming Saturday. An exhibit on the Police Department opens with a special event from 3-5 p.m. April 10.  

Both exhibits are organized by the Berkeley Historical Society, working in cooperation with the fire and police departments and private collectors and historians. 

Berkeley’s first volunteer company—known as Beacon Number One—formed around 1877, a year before the town formally incorporated. In 1882, after fires destroyed three West Berkeley buildings in quick succession, several volunteer companies were reorganized. 

Two decades later, volunteer fire protection no longer seemed sufficient for the growing community. A city-run Fire Department with paid staff was created in 1904, and a Police Department in 1905.  

James Kenney, who had been chief of the local volunteer fire companies since 1896, was appointed Berkeley’s first paid fire chief in 1904. Kenney, who later died at the scene of a fire, is memorialized by James Kenney Park in West Berkeley. 

 

Fire Department History 

The current Fire Department exhibit at the Berkeley History Center contains a fine array of materials. There are pictures of the old volunteer fire companies, complete with their horse drawn engines and wooden fire houses, and artifacts of early days of Berkeley firefighting including old helmets, badges, and even an early alarm box.  

In the days before widespread telephone service, fires and other emergencies were often reported by citizens activating alarm boxes that stood at strategic intersections throughout the city. The local newspaper, the Berkeley Gazette, regularly published a list of locations of the alarm boxes.  

There’s also a display of photographs of early fire houses, some gone completely, others replaced by newer buildings at the same locations. Examining these photos you may be struck, as I was, with the different standards of public architecture in decades past.  

Berkeley, it’s clear, once made a credible effort to design fire stations and other public buildings to harmonize with the character of their surroundings.  

No chunky, concrete-block, industrial-style edifices then. Here you’ll see photographs of old firehouses that look more like handsome family homes. 

A rare survivor, the old Hose Company 7 station building at 2911 Claremont just up the street from Ashby Avenue, now houses an art gallery. There’s a photograph in the exhibit of this circa 1914 building in its early fire-fighting days. 

The exhibit also provides vivid vignettes of notable local fires and disasters.  

One panel profiles Berkeley’s devastating 1923 fire, which leveled dozens of blocks and nearly 600 buildings on the northside. A map outlines in red the perimeter of the wind-driven fire, marking the buildings burned and showing how the destruction reached the edge of downtown Berkeley. There are also large, wide-angle, photo panoramas of the fire ruins. 

Two collages of color photographs provide glimpses into dozens of more recent disasters, from the 1991 Berkeley hills firestorm to traffic accidents and residential and commercial fires.  

Although the collage images are a bit jumbled and don’t have extensive captions, there are some very evocative items if you look through them carefully.  

For example, one picture was taken inside a white-painted kitchen, meal preparation in evidence, in a residence on Regent Street. The room is tranquil, but the view through the window above the sink is like a glimpse into a volcano. The visible wall of the building next door is completely covered in flames.  

Other elements of the exhibit include drawings by local school children, videotapes of the 1923 and 1991 firestorm disasters, and a smoke-stained Tunnel Road street sign from the edge of the 1991 fire. 

 

Police Department Centennial 

After the Fire Department exhibit closes, there’s a two week hiatus followed by the April 10 opening of an exhibit on the centennial of the Berkeley Police Department. Retired Berkeley Police Sergeant Michael Holland is expected to speak at the opening reception. 

Any Berkeley resident who assumes that everything innovative about Berkeley stems from the 1960s or later will be surprised to see some of the elements of this exhibit.  

Led by August Vollmer, who served first as elected Town Marshal, then as appointed police chief, Berkeley’s Police Department was a pioneering institution.  

Vollmer, whose services as a consultant on law enforcement came to be in demand nationwide, revolutionized police work. He emphasized professionalism, sought police officers with good educations, and worked with the university on the establishment of a school of criminology. 

He recruited the first woman and first African-American officers to the local police force, installed radios in police cars, experimented with lie detectors and was, even by today’s standards, a progressive force; for example, he became a prominent opponent of the death penalty. 

Chief Vollmer and his Berkeley Police Department were even the heroes of an early fictionalized crime thriller series on film, Officer 444. 

A half century after his department was established, the aged Vollmer, in declining health, shot himself; organized to the end, he first asked his housekeeper to call the police. 

Today, 50 years after his death, Vollmer is largely forgotten in Berkeley, quite unjustly so. The exhibit should bring renewed attention to him, as well as the Berkeley Police Department as a whole. 

 

Steven Finacom is a boardmember of the Berkeley Historical Society. 

 

The Berkeley Fire Department Centennial exhibit closes March 26. The Berkeley Police: Innovators for A Century exhibit opens April 10 with a reception from 3-5 p.m. 

The Berkeley History Center is located at 1931 Center Street, in the Veteran’s Memorial Building. 

The exhibits are open 1-4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Admission is free, wheelchair accessible. Closed March 27 through April 10 for exhibit change.  

For more details, call 848-0181 or see www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc. 

 

?


Arts Calendar

Tuesday March 22, 2005

TUESDAY, MARCH 22 

THEATER 

The Shotgun Players Theatre Lab, “Monster in the Dark” Mon. and Tues. at 8 p.m. through March 29, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. at MLK. Tickets are $10. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Karsten Huer describes “Walking in the Big Wild: From Yellowstone to the Yukon on the Grizzly Bears’ Trail” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Teada at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50- $17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jug Free America, Pinebox Boys, Toshio Hirano, darkgrass and cowboy, at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174. www.storkcluboakland.com 

Peter Barshay Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Lee Simpson Band, Americana, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Tomasz Stanko Quartet at 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23 

CHILDREN 

Berkeley Youth Arts Festival Emerson First Graders perform an original musical inspired by “Where the Wild Things Are” at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Deborah Santana describes “Space Between the Stars” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Andrew Schelling reads from “Erotic Love Poems from India: A Translation of the Amarnshataka” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Whole Note Reading Series presents Judy Wells and Dale Jensen at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave. 549-9093. 

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 www.starryplough.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Jazz Gala with the BHS Jazz Ensemble, Lab Band and small combos, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Rep Theater. Tickets are $25-$75. 527-8245. www.berkeleyhighjazz.org 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with In Black and White, music by Jorge Liderman at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Music of Holy Week An organ concert at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

Ned Boynton Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Salsa Caliente All Stars at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Chris Smither, country blues tradition, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Keiko Matsui at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, MARCH 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Seen, Not Spoken” artwork by Bentley High School students and artists with disabilities, reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at NIAD Art Center, 551 23rd St. Richmond. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

FILM 

Edgar G. Ulmer: “Green Fields” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Laughlin discusses “A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Stanley Crawford reads from his new novel “Petroleum Man” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Ellen O’Donnell and Marvin Hiemstra followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. For information call 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jewish Music Festival Purim Matinee with members of Shtreiml at 1:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$15. www.brjcc.org 

Adama, Purim party at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Shtreiml, klezmer musicians, at 1:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$15. 415-276-1511. www.brjcc.org 

“The Secret Life of Banjos” with Jody Stecher and Bill Evans at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Moekestra, Brian Kenney Fresno at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082 www.starryplough.com 

Meli at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Husbands, Turpentine Brothers at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174. www.storkcluboakland.com 

Gene Bertoncini, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

FRIDAY, MARCH 25 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “For Better or Worse” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through April 24. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Central Works, “Enemy Combatant” at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Performances are Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. through March 26. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Shotgun Players “The Just” by Albert Camus. Thurs.- Sun. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. through April 10. Tickets are sliding scale $10-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Un-Scripted Theater Company “You Bet Your Improvisor!” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through March 26 at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.unscripted.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Temptations of the Brush” Works by Lisa Bruce, Jeanne La Deaux, Centa Theresa. Reception at 5 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228. www.giorgigallery.com 

“David and Goliath” works by M. Sawyer Atkinson. Reception at 6:30 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. 843-2787. 

FILM 

Edgar G. Ulmer: “Detour” at 7:30 p.m. “Man From X” at 9:15 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Christian McBride Quartet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $18-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Tomorrow is Today” dance and martial arts by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company at 7:30 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $5-$20. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Native Elements, Dr. Masseuse, Sandfly, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Alam A. Khan, sarode player, performs North Indian classical music with tabla player Debopriyo Sarkar, at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $15-$25. 701-1787. www.hillsideclub.org/concert  

Dougie MacLean, contemporary folk from Scotland at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Houston Jones at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Audrye Session, Serene Lakes, Minmae, indie rock at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Suffokate at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174. www.storkcluboakland.com 

Three Piece Combo, Mitch Marcus, Young Fine Rabbit at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Kitty Rose, tradtitional country originals, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Danny Caron Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jared Karol & Mike Jung at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Sour Mash Jug Hug Band, Folk This! at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St.. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Keiko Matsui at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, MARCH 26 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Dreaming Mind, The Conscious Mind” a collaborative exhibition between NIAD Art Center and JFK Univ. School of Holistic Studies at 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd flr. Reception for the artists from 5 to 8 p.m. Exhibition runs to Mar. 31. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 649-0499. 

“Lexicon of Memory” two and three dimensional works by Lynn Orlando. Reception at 7 p.m. at Nexus Gallery, 2701 8th. St. Also on Sun. from 2 to 8 p.m. and Mon. from 6 to 10 p.m. 847-2744.  

FILM 

Edgar G. Ulmer: “Ruthless” at 7 p.m. and “Moon Over Harlem” at 9:05 p.m.at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse with singer/songwriter Kim Rea and guitarist Joe Lococo at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Free. Berkeley Art Center. 527-9753. 

Poets for Peace poetry reading featuring Joyce Jenkins, Ilya Kaminsky, David Reid, and Sam Witt at 8 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

“Composing for Two Pianos” with Jorge Liderman at 7 p.m. at Musical Offering, Bancroft at College. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman, piano at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$62. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Tomorrow is Today” dance and martial arts by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company at 7:30 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $5-$20. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Nanette McGuiness, soprano, at noon at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $10-$50. 848-1228. 

Gaucho, Gypsy Jazz at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

The Conscious Cabaret “Twas the Night Before Easter and all through the house...” with Errol & Rochelle Alicia Strider at 8 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Cost is $15-$25. 528-8844. unityberkeley.org 

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

Klez-X, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Georges Lammam Ensemble, classical and popular Arabic music at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Proceeds provide scholarships for youth in the West Bank village of Dier Ibzi’a, outside Ramallah. Cost is $20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Shortie, Super Model Suicide, Downshift, rock, emo, punk, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6-$8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Tartufi, Continuous Peasent at 9 p.m. at 21 Grand, 449B 23rd St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$10, benefit for Rachel Kasa.  

The Art Lande Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz 

school.com  

Lae with Brown, hip hop pop, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Japanese Girl Pop Punk, The Freak Accident, Titan Go Kings at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Infection, Singularity at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174.  

Meli at 7 and 9 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $5. 597-0795. 

Paul & Sheila Smith Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Resist & Exist, Takaru, Gather at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MARCH 27 

CHILDREN 

Jewish Songs for Children, with Gary Lapow, at 11 a.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. www.brjcc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Les Anderson and Tobey Kaplan at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chamber Music Sundaes with members and friends of the SF Symphony at 3:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$19. 415-584-5946. www.chambermusicsundaes.org 

Clare Hedin, singer/songwriter, part of the series “Offerings” at 7 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Suggested donation $10. 213-3122. 

Hebrew Hip-Hop, performances and workshops from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $7-$24. 415-276-1511. www.brjcc.org 

Sarah Manning Quartet at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Paul Thorn at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, MARCH 28 

THEATER 

The Shotgun Players Theatre Lab, “Monster in the Dark” Mon. and Tues. at 8 p.m. through March 29, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. at MLK. Tickets are $10. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

“A Single Woman” The life, times and fortitude of the first US Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. 587-3228. http://ncmdr.org/singlewoman 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Small Paintings” by John King at North Berkeley Frame & Gallery, 1744 Shattuck Ave. through May 21. 549-0428. 

FILM 

Buddhism and Film: “Tokyo Story” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Adam Mansbach reads from his new novel “Angry White Boy” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“Sephardic Music” with Judith Cohen at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $13-$17. 415-276-1511. www.brjcc.org 

Poetry Express Theme night “mothers and sisters” 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 

Trovatore, traditional Italian songs, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Hot Club of San Francisco at 2 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, MARCH 29 

THEATER 

The Shotgun Players Theatre Lab, “Monster in the Dark” Mon. and Tues. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. at MLK. Tickets are $10. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

An Evening in Honor of Thomas Flanagan at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jeff McGowan describes “Major Conflict: One Gay Man’s Life in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Military” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

The Whole Note Poetry Series with Eugene David and John Rowe at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Music for Tsunami Relief with David Grisman, Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum, Geoff Muldaur and others at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50- $25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bill Jackman & Terry Hilliard at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198. ª


On My Bamboo Pole After Kerry Lost By NANCE WOGAN Poem

Tuesday March 22, 2005

So I go 

On my bamboo pole 

Over to the Kaiser doctor 

On Howe Street 

To renew my handicap sticker. 

 

“No way lady 

You can walk: 

But you can’t talk 

A good enough line” 

This new doc says, 

O lawyers, come to my rescue 

Come John Edwards, 

Come speak for me here in Oakland. 

 

I stick on—on my bamboo pole 

Over to Piedmont Ave. 

And reward my bitters 

With some fine Quan Yin tea 

At L’AMYX—the monkey tea bar, 

 

A flashback to the Wednesday 

After Kerry went down that Tuesday 

Comes with a hot golden sip: 

 

My Sufi water aerobics teacher, 

In his dark red turban and wild music 

Stayed under a wide beach umbrella, 

While the rain rained down on all of us 

Sad swimmers dancing beneath him 

In the chlorine waters. 

 

The sky over the pool an abstract of dark grays 

One streak of bright blue 

By a corner roof. 

 

Some speak of a move to Canada, 

To Prince Edward’s Island 

Where ocean tides are warm; 

Some of Costa Rica. 

 

The flashback ends. 

So does the tea. 

 

I stick on home 

On my bamboo pole 

And think about China 

And swimming in the China Sea. 

 

—Nance Wogan


Curious Connection Between Squirrels, Madness, Royalty By JOE EATON

Special to the Planet
Tuesday March 22, 2005

I keep being reminded that the universe, as either the geneticist J. B. S. Haldane or the astronomer Arthur Eddington (or both) said, is not only stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine. And I’m not talking about superstring theory or quantum weirdness here. This is about plain old biology, and the unexpected link between the eastern fox squirrels in my yard and the unfortunate George III of England. It’s not breaking news—the basic facts have been known for quite a while—but it’s just too strange to be left alone with. 

If you saw the 1994 film The Madness of King George, you know the story: verbal tics, erratic behavior (although it’s not in the movie, he had long conversations with trees in the royal gardens), wild lunges at the ladies-in-waiting, brutal treatment regimens, restraints, and so on. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the king’s illness was retrospectively diagnosed by the psychiatrists Ida MacAlpine and Richard Hunter as porphyria, a hereditary disease caused by a chemical defect in the production of hemoglobin. Apart from the psychiatric manifestations, other symptoms—all apparently present in George III’s case—include hypersensitivity to light, abdominal pain, paralysis of the limbs, and urine the color of port wine. The king was part of a line of royal porphyria victims that included Mary Queen of Scots, James I, Anne, his son George IV, his daughter Princess Charlotte, and Frederick the Great of Prussia. I don’t know whether the Windsors have been affected, but they have enough problems of their own.  

The latest twist in the saga of the mad king involves a sample of his hair that surfaced recently among the collections of a London museum. The hair proved to be loaded with arsenic, 300 times the toxic level. Medical detectives concluded that George had ingested the stuff in a popular eighteenth-century nostrum called James’s powders, which contained a compound of antimony and arsenic—and that the buildup of arsenic triggered and aggravated the porphyric attacks. George Washington used it, too, but in smaller doses. 

But what about the squirrels? Eastern fox squirrels seem ubiquitous in Berkeley. They’re not from here; their home range is east of the Mississippi, from which they were introduced to the Bay Area and other parts of California. I haven’t been able to trace the exact origins of the Bay Area population, but the ones in Los Angeles were brought in from Tennessee or thereabouts around 1904 by Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans at the Sawtelle Veteran’s Home—either as pets or as ingredients for the classic Southern dish Brunswick stew. Which is a fate I’ve often wished on the squirrels that raid my bird feeders or dig up the Calochortus bulbs. 

Eastern fox squirrels (so called to distinguish them from the Nayarit fox squirrel of southern Arizona and Mexico) are pretty typical tree squirrels, except for one thing: their bones are pink. Under ultraviolet light, the bones of eastern fox squirrels fluoresce brilliant red.  

In the 1930s, a medical researcher named William J. Turner was looking for possible animal models for human porphyria. Somehow he heard about the fox squirrel and its oddly colored bones. “Although the farmers of Pennsylvania have long known that the bones of the fox-squirrel are red,” Turner wrote in 1937, “it has entirely escaped scientific investigation.” He confirmed the presence of the pigment uroporphyrin I in the squirrels’ systems. Turner, who appears to have been a methodical man, looked at thousands of small mammal skeletons for other examples and found a few pinkish chipmunk remains, but nothing comparable to the fox squirrel situation. He also noted reports of red bones in fetal mammals, including rats, guinea pigs, and rabbits, with the deposit of uroporphyrin I somehow being switched off before birth. 

No one seems to have done anything with the fox squirrel-porphyria connection until the work of Ephraim Levin at Johns Hopkins and Vagn Flyger at the University of Maryland in the 1970s. Their paper explicitly linked the squirrels’ condition with hereditary porphyria in humans and cattle. One common factor was a low level of an enzyme called uroporphyrinogen III cosynthetase, essential to the conversion of porphyrins to hemoglobin, in the red blood cells of fox squirrels and porphyric humans. Levin and Flyger found that eastern gray squirrels, close relatives of eastern fox squirrels, had higher and more stable concentrations of the enzyme. 

But sciurine porphyria, as the researchers called it, doesn’t seem to be a pathological condition. There was no trace of the anemia or skin lesions common to human and bovine subjects with congenital porphyria. And fox squirrels don’t seem sensitive to light; Levin and Flyger pointed out that they’re more active during daylight hours than nonporphyric gray squirrels. They didn’t discuss psychiatric symptoms; if a fox squirrel was demented, I’m not sure how you could tell. The phenomenon seemed to be species-wide and most likely hereditary; although diet or other environmental variables were not ruled out, fox squirrels and gray squirrels eat pretty much the same mix of nuts, fruit, and grain, with the occasional egg or nestling bird. 

Levin and Flyger speculated that somewhere in the 25-million-year history of tree squirrels, a mutation occurred in the fox squirrel line that changed the way their enzymes worked. The condition may have persisted because it was somehow favorable to the squirrels, as sickle-cell trait was to humans in regions with endemic malaria (although it looks like a dominant rather than recessive trait). Or it may have been neutral in its effect and therefore invisible to the process of natural selection, or linked to another trait that was selected for. As far I as can determine, that question remains unanswered. And no one has exhumed George III to see if his royal bones fluoresce red.


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday March 22, 2005

TUESDAY, MARCH 22 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7:30 a.m. opposite the Pony Ride to celebrate “gloomy winter’s now awa” with Robert Tannahill. 525-2233. 

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

“Climbing Mt. Shasta” a slide presentation with Tim Keating at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Argosy University Information Sessions for degree programs in Psychology, Education and Business at 6 p.m. at 999-A Canal Blvd., Point Richmond. To RSVP or for directions to the school, call 215-0277. 

“Forgetfulness: Is It Normal Aging or Alzheimer’s?” with Brian C. Richardson, M.D. at 4 p.m. at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 104, Albany. To register call 558-7800. 

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. 

Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at Dzalandhara Buddhist Center, in Berkeley. Donations accepted. For directions call 559-8183. 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Carl Arnault will show slides of the world’s coral reefs at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long every Tues. from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. All ages welcome. 524-9122. 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23 

Military Recruitment Teach-In for Berkeley High students, 2nd through 5th periods in the Little Theater. For more information go to BHS Room C324. Sponsored by CAS Social Action Committee. 

Great Decisions 2005: “Widening Poverty Gap” with Prof. David Levine, Haas School of Business, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. Cost is $5. For information and reservations call 526-2925. 

Honoring Rosie’s Sisters-Women Veterans During Women's History Month Gray Panthers celebrate women who served during WWII, Korea, the Spanish Civil War, and any time. At 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

“Unlocking Horns: Healing & Forgiveness in Burundi” with David Niyonzima at 7:15 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 524-4112. 

Martial Arts Demonstration for children and teens with John Burn and students of Berkeley Cuong Nhu Karate-The Rohai Dojo at 4:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, West Branch, 1125 University Ave. at San Pablo. 981-6270. 

AARP Free Tax Assistance for taxpayers with middle and low incomes, with special attention to those 60 years and older. From 12:15 to 4:15 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Appointments must be made in advance. 526-3720, ext. 5. 

“Who Bombed Judi Bari?” documentary at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. Donation of $5 requested.  

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. 548-9840. 

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. 

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, MARCH 24 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park to look for birds of the Bible. 525-2233. 

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

Bird Walk along the Martin Luther King Shoreline to see marsh birds at 3:30 p.m. For information call 525-2233. 

“Raptor Winged Migration” a lecture and photo presentation with Don Jedlovec, East Bay Regional Parks, on the Lower Klamath Flyway at 7 p.m. in the Marian Zimmer Auditorium, Oakland Zoo. Cost is $8-$10. 632-9525, ext. 142. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Golden Gate Audubon “Saving the Wild Cheetah” at 7:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, between Solano and Marin. Dr. Laurie Marker will give an illustrated presentation on her 30-year effort to save the wild cheetah. Meeting is free and accessible. 843-2222. ggas@goldengateaudubon.org 

”The Future of Food” A film on genetically engineered foods at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. 

Community Budget Workshop with City staff on the two-year City budget cycle which begins July 1, at 7 p.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 981-7004.  

Berkeley Retired Teachers Assoc. General Meeting at 1 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Topic for this meeting is “Health Issues.” 

“Building the Bond Between Cops and Kids” A Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Social fundraiser for the Berkeley Boosters PAL at 6 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $100. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyboosters.org 

Tsunami Relief for Small Businesses in Sri Lanka A slide presentation and discussion at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Benefit for SecondAid. 525-9533. 

Older People United A discussion and support group for elders over 75 at 1:30 p.m. at the Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

“Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others” at 7 p.m. at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 104, Albany. To register call 558-7800. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Classrooms A/B. Meeting is accessible and open to the public, with time for public comment. 967-4003. 

Celebrate Purim With Chabad at 7 p.m. at Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4-$8. Reservations required. 540-5824. 

FRIDAY, MARCH 25 

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

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Michael Perlman on “International Finance and You.” 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. 

Shivas Irons Society Golf Tournament at 11 a.m. at Tilden Park Golf Course. Cost is $90, benefits Tilden Golf Academy. 918-2983. www.shivasjournal.org/catalog 

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” a small group meeting weekly at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center to sing for fun and practice, mostly 16th century harmony. 655-8863, 843-7610. dann@netwiz.net 

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

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

SATURDAY, MARCH 26 

Holiday Egg Coloring We’ll collect eggs from the chickens and do some creative decorating. For ages 7 to 11 years, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $3, registration reuired. 525-2233. 

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

Drawing and Painting California Wildflowers A two-day workshop with Dr. Linda Ann Vorobik, botanist and artist. Open to students of all levels. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at the Visitor Center, Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $110 members/$125 nonmembers. 845-4116. 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Urban Nature Hike A 5-mile hike from El Cerrito to Berkeley with Susan Schwartz. Meet at 10 a.m. at the El Cerrito Plaza BART. Wear layers and shoes with good traction, and bring water and lunch. 848-9358. f5creeks@aol.com 

Introduction to Permaculture Covering the philosophy, ethics and principals of permaculture for your garden from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Oakland Permaculture Institute, 2135 E. 28th St. Oakland. Cost is $10-$15. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Know Your Rights Training Learn what your rights are and how to watch the police effectively and safely, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Copwatch, 2022 Blake St. Free. 548-0425. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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, MARCH 27 

Early Morning Egg Hunt Learn where the amphibians have hidden their eggs, and learn about the life cycle of frogs and salamanders. From 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center. Cost is $5, registration required. 525-2233. 

The Little Farm’s Sheep Celebrate the spring with a visit to see our lambs, discover lots of eggs, pet a bunny and find out what all this has to do with Easter. From 1 to 3 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Town Meeting on Counter-Military Recruitment and Contientious Objection Options at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Suggested donation $5-$10. 524-6064. 

Berkeley City Club free tours from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Anarchist Theory Conference from 10 am. to 5 p.m. at Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sliding scale $1-$10. www.sfbay-anarchists.org 

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 

MONDAY, MARCH 28 

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

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 

“The Transformation of Transnational Migration in Ecuador” with David Kyle at noon in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“The Jewish-American World of Philip Roth” a discussion of “American Pastoral,” facilitated by Laura Bernell at at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 848-0237, ext. 110. 

“Discover France Another Way” a slide show with Jackie Grandchamps at 7 p.m. at Changemakers Bookstore for Women, 6536 Telegraph Ave. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 9:45 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. Cost is $2.50 with refreshments. 524-9122. 

“Critical Viewing” an ongoing group that examines the craft(iness) of short film, TV drama, and commercials. Free. co-sponsored by the Berkeley Adult School and BRJCC. New members always welcome. Mon. from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthening at 2 p.m. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

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

TUESDAY, MARCH 29 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7:30 a.m. at Island picnic site to look for the birds of the Botanic Garden. 525-2233. 

“Sacred Mountains: A Pilgrimage tin Yosemite and Tibet” a slide presentation with Chris Bessonette and Joanna Cooke at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Eat in Season” for National Nutrition month with cooking demonstrations at 3:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

“Invisible Children: The Effect of the Sudanese Civil War on Children” with UCB Prof. Darren Zook at 6:15 p.m. at the FSM Cafe at Moffitt Library, UC Campus. fsm-info@library.berkeley.edu 

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

Sing-A-Long every Tues. from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. All ages welcome. 524-9122. 

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. 

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. 

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

Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at Dzalandhara Buddhist Center, in Berkeley. Donations accepted. For directions call 559-8183. 

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

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. 

ONGOING 

United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Program provides free tax assistance now through early April to families that earned less than $36,000 in 2004. To find a free tax site near you, call 1-800-358-8832 or visit www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org. 

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

Spring Break Program for Children offered by the City’s Recreational Division, March 28-April 1, for children ages 5-12, at the Frances Albrier Community Center, 2800 Park St. For information call 981-6640. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues. Mar. 22, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Budget Review Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7041. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/budget 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/civicarts 

Disaster Council meets Wed. Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Mar. 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs. Mar. 24, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning ª


City Halts Use of Pure Biodiesel Fuel, Citing Build-Up of Bacteria Mold By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday March 18, 2005
Jakob Schiller:
               
              Tracy Hill, who drives a street sweeper for the City of Berkeley, re-fuels his truck Wednesday afternoon at the city transfer station, while Joe Smith, who drives a trash truck, prepares to go out on his route.
Jakob Schiller: Tracy Hill, who drives a street sweeper for the City of Berkeley, re-fuels his truck Wednesday afternoon at the city transfer station, while Joe Smith, who drives a trash truck, prepares to go out on his route.

Responding to the engine failure of two city trucks last year, city leaders in January scrapped its two-year-old program to power its fleet of nearly 200 trucks entirely on a derivative of vegetable oil. 

The move, Public Works Director Renee Cardinaux said, came after consultant Randall Von Weder determined bacteria mold found in the cleaner burning fuel had clogged engine filters and fuel injection pipes. 

Von Weder, of Point Richmond-based CytoCulture, said despite the city’s troubles with biodiesel, he never recommended that the city return to diesel, and said the best solution would be for the city use a 50-50 blend of biodiesel and a clean burning regular diesel. 

In January 2003 Berkeley won much acclaim by becoming the first U.S. city to convert its fleet to 100 percent biodiesel, which emits 50 percent fewer cancer and asthma-causing particulate emissions than regular diesel oil. Last year the federal Environmental Protection Agency awarded Berkeley the Environmental Award for Outstanding Achievement for the program. 

But after smooth sailing for the first year, Cardinaux said the city started receiving fuel of degraded quality from its vendor Golden Gate Petroleum. 

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get a biodiesel fuel recently that is consistently clean,” Cardinaux said. Presently, he added, the city has returned to using a blend of 80 percent diesel and 20 percent biodiesel. 

For next year, Cardinaux has proposed switching the city’s fleet to ultra-low sulfur diesel, a move he said would save the city $160,000 on fuel cost as compared to 100 percent biodiesel. 

Any switch away from biodiesel would meet opposition from the Ecology Center, which has operated the city’s recycling program with trucks powered on 100 percent biodiesel since 2001. 

“We’re still committed to it,” said David Williamson, the center’s assistant director. 

Because the Ecology Center uses the same pump as the city, Williamson said that its trucks are now also running on a blend of mostly regular diesel. 

Biodiesel and ultra-low sulfur diesel each have their deficiencies, said Mark Jacobson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. He said biodiesel emits up to 10 percent more nitrogen oxide, which produces ozone and contributes to smog, while ultra-low sulfur emits more hydrocarbons which contribute to global warming and have been shown to cause cancer. 

“The bottom line is that they’re both polluters,” he said. 

Ultra-low sulfur’s competitive advantage comes both from its lower price and its support from the California Air Resources Board. Next year all commercial diesel pumps in the state will have to switch to the fuel, said CARB spokesperson Gennet Paauwe.  

Biodiesel will still be permitted for sale and use in California, she added, but institutional users like Berkeley will run the risk of a penalty if their biodiesel doesn’t meet ultra-low sulfur emission standards. 

“If we find consistent problems with an individual fleet, the owner will get slapped with a fine,” she said. 

Because of biodiesel’s higher nitrogen oxide emissions, Paauwe said, the CARB still doesn’t distinguish biodiesel from regular diesel. 

Algae-like bacteria that have sidelined Berkeley trucks also live in regular diesel fuel, Williamson said, but are more common in biodiesel. 

“Since biodiesel is so close to vegetable oil, the microbes just eat it,” he said. 

Since converting to biodiesel, city trucks have experienced high instances of sludge build-up under their engine valves and fungus growth affecting fuel pumps, said Ed Silva, the city’s senior equipment supervisor. He added that the two trucks to experience engine failure were 18-wheel hauling rigs and that the city has had to upgrade the fuel line systems in its garbage trucks to make them impermeable to the corrosive effects of the fuel. 

“We never had these problems when we were using regular diesel,” Silva said. 

Williamson said the Ecology Center recently had trouble with one of its recycling trucks attributable to biodiesel bacteria growth. Williamson though said the Ecology Center still favored biodiesel, because unlike ultra-low sulfur the fuel is not refined nor does it require energy to be extracted from the earth. 

Von Wedel, Berkeley’s biodiesel consultant, said that bigger city trucks had experienced problems with 100 percent biodiesel and that the fuel appeared to decompose a lot of their rubber components. He attributed the problems to a lack of quality fuel and the overall youth of the industry. Although European cities use biodiesel, he said, Berkeley was the first city worldwide to use the fuel for its entire fleet.  

Golden Gate Petroleum Operations Manager Claude Brown said his company was working to address Berkeley’s concerns, but contended that biodiesel sold to the city was top quality. He said the city’s problem could stem from the presence of water in their storage tanks, which promotes algae growth. 

Since Berkeley became the first city to go 100 percent biodiesel, two cities, Telluride, Colo. and Coconut Creek, Fla. have followed suit, said Jenna Higgins of the National Biodiesel Board. 

¨


Council to Decide Cuts To Programs, Positions By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday March 18, 2005

Berkeley’s era of budget deficits could be over by 2009, City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the City Council Tuesday. But to get out of the red, which the city has been in since 2003, Kamlarz is proposing a litany of cuts this year to close an $8.9 million deficit. 

If the council approves Kamlarz’s recommendations, city residents can expect fewer school crossing guards, no winter pool access, fewer youth recreation programs, reduced fire service, monthly closures at City Hall, and fewer citizen boards and commissions. Nonprofits will face 10 percent cuts in city funds. 

City employees will also will be asked to sacrifice. The city is budgeting zero raises for its unionized employees for two years after their current contracts expire. 

“This all hinges on controlling our labor costs,” Kamlarz said. 

Seniors’ programs were left untouched in the budget plan due mainly to a city proposal to start a case management program that would receive $300,000 in Medi-Cal reimbursements. 

Berkeley’s budget plunged into deficits three years ago as stagnant revenues failed to keep pace with rising employee benefit costs. Under the city manager’s revised budget forecast, Berkeley faces structural deficits of $8.9 million for fiscal year 2006, which would decrease to $1.6 million in 2007, $1.3 million in 2008 and $0 in 2009 under his recommended cuts. The council must pass a balanced budget, and is scheduled to vote on a final plan in June, before the new fiscal year begins in July. 

The city will have an extra $3.4 million to spend this year from higher than anticipated property taxes. Kamlarz recommended the council dedicate the money to several projects, including $2.4 million for a new computer dispatch system, but councilmembers delayed a vote on that until next week.  

“I don’t see why we have to allocate this money tonight,” Councilmember Darryl Moore said. 

Kamlarz has been insistent that the council not use the money to reduce this year’s deficit because he believes that will only mean delaying hard cuts to future years. 

The council voted Tuesday to set aside $100,000 to move ahead with a plan to put the city, not PG&E, in charge of buying its energy.  

Kamlarz’s plan assumes that the housing market will remain strong, local business revenue will stabilize, pension costs will level off and that federal and state aid will hold steady. The projections, which Kamlarz said “weren’t all conservative,” drew concern from Councilmember Laurie Capitelli. 

“It looks like we’re using spit and chewing gum to hold this together,” he said. 

The city is already facing the potential loss of up to $4.2 million in funding from the proposed elimination of a federal urban development program and next year will lose McKevitt Volvo, one of its top sales tax generators. 

Berkeley’s $8.9 million deficit for 2006 is comprised of a $7.5 million gap in the general fund and a combined $1.4 million shortfall in funds for street light repair, parking meter oversight and paramedic services. Most of the savings will come from shrinking the city’s work force. Kamlarz proposed eliminating 84 full-time positions—most of which are vacant—that will comprise 77 percent of budget cuts over the next two years 

The city limited cuts to the city attorney’s office, Planning, Transportation, and the Office of Economic Development, Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna said, because they are seen as necessary to manage the council’s top priority projects. 

Kamlarz also announced that the Police Review Commission will not face cuts this year after commissioners warned that they could not afford to lose another staff person. 

On school crossing guards, Kamlarz backed off his initial recommendation to eliminate the program entirely. Instead he is calling to cut city funding from $256,000 to $103,000. The plan, he said, will mean that some city schools located on relatively quiet streets won’t have any crossing guards.  

To save $1.1 million on employee overtime costs, the Fire Department is proposing to rotate engine and truck company closures throughout the year. The plan gives the department more flexibility than taking one of its ladder trucks out of operation, said Chief Debra Pryor. 

For the first time, Berkeley swimmers might have to leave the city to find an open pool next winter. All three city pools are scheduled to be closed from Oct. 1 through April 15 because the city can’t afford the estimated $92,000 to keep any one pool open, said Parks and Recreation Director Marc Seleznow. 

Seleznow also proposed that the city scale back an after school program at Willard Middle School, raise fees for recreation programs and eliminate a program to drive kids home from the Young Adult Project. 

“We are truly a no-frills operation at this point,” Seleznow told the council. 

Kamlarz is also recommending that the city eliminate two of the city’s 45 citizen commissions—Disaster and Solid Waste—and scale back meeting frequencies for 26 others. The move would relieve city employees of 5,412 annual hours spent staffing the commissions. 

Additionally, he is proposing cutting an animal control officer from the Berkeley shelter, which drew the ire of a couple of councilmembers. Concerned that the move would force the shelter to close its doors one day a week, councilmembers Betty Olds and Dona Spring proposed cutting the shelter’s volunteer coordinator instead. 

 

 

l


BUSD Settles Discrimination Lawsuit By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday March 18, 2005

The Berkeley Unified School District settled a potentially embarrassing expulsion discrimination class action lawsuit this week, leaving Superintendent Michele Lawrence “pleased that we could reach an agreement” and plaintiffs’ representatives praising Lawrence and the district’s cooperation. 

The Stanford Law School’s Youth Education Law Clinic, the San Francisco-based Legal Services for Children organization, and Pillsbury Winthrop law firm joined together to file the lawsuit last August in federal district court in San Francisco. 

The lawsuit alleged that school district discriminated against an unknown number of African-American and Latino students by expelling them from school without a state-mandated hearing. Superintendent Lawrence, Director of Student Services Gerald Herrick, and the five members of the Berkeley School Board were all named as defendants. 

Three Berkeley High School students—Juan Muñoz, Summer McNeil, and Yarman Smith—were named plaintiffs in the lawsuit. 

Under a consent decree agreed to by the parties, but not yet ratified by the federal judge assigned to the case, Berkeley Unified will conduct affirmative outreach to identify students expelled from the district during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years without an expulsion hearing, and students who were placed in alternative programs or excluded from school for more than 5 consecutive days or 20 cumulative days during those two years. 

“If any student or their parent feels these actions were taken against them without due process,” Lawrence said in a telephone interview, “the district will conduct an investigation into the merits of their claims.” 

The consent decree provides a mechanism to redress the grievances of any students who are found to be improperly expelled or transferred out of regular school programs during the two-year period, and sets up a three year court-supervised monitoring process to make sure the district complies. Among the remedies listed in the decree are reinstatement to school and tutoring to compensate for lost time. The agreement calls for the establishment of a Students’ Rights Monitoring Committee to periodically review the district’s actions called for in the settlement. 

The agreement also contains a provision that the decree “is not and never shall be considered an admission of any fault, error, or wrongdoing” by the district. 

Plaintiffs’ representatives refused to speculate on how many students might be affected by the decree. Lawrence said she expected the number “will be very small.” 

The mother of student plaintiff Yarman Smith, Lagertha Smith, said in a prepared statement that she was “very pleased with the settlement because it not only affects my son, but it will prevent other students from being mistreated in the future. Being involved in this lawsuit has given my son more self esteem, since he was empowered to stand up for his rights.” 

“To Superintendent Lawrence’s credit, the Berkeley School district recognizes that students are entitled to due process,” Bill Koski, director of the Stanford Youth and Education Law Clinic, said in a prepared statement. “The agreement…shows that the District is committed to ensuring that students will no longer be wrongfully excluded from Berkeley schools.” 

In a later interview, Koski praised the three student plaintiffs “for having the courage to lend their names to the lawsuit,” as well as “commending” Lawrence for the actions of the district once the lawsuit was filed. “Every time we identified a student who was wrongfully excluded, the district moved forward immediately to offer them a place back in school,” Koski said. 

Lawrence said that lack of paperwork during student reassignment caused many of the district’s problems during the lawsuit. 

“In many cases, the staff believed that they had an agreement with the parents to move the students to another school,” she said, “but we got sloppy, and didn’t put it in writing.” 

The superintendent said that in most cases, transfers from regular school programs to such programs as the Berkeley Alternative High School or the county-run continuation school were beneficial to the students. 

“The staff did what they thought was in the best interest of the students,” Lawrence said. “What they did wrong was to cut corners.” 

B


School District Releases Contract Negotiation Details; Union Objects By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday March 18, 2005

After several weeks in which both sides maintained silence about contract mediation, the Berkeley Unified School District abruptly changed tactics this week, providing partial information on its latest offer to the Berkeley Federation of Teachers in an e-mail news release. 

BFT officials immediately labeled the district’s decision to go public “counterproductive and dangerous.” 

The exchange of public statements came a day after district and union representatives held a Tuesday bargaining session in their two-year-old contract dispute, and as teachers entered their third week of a “work to rule” job action. 

Negotiations are being conducted through a state-appointed mediator. Berkeley teachers have been working under their old contract since it expired two years ago. 

Another mediation session is scheduled for Monday. Meanwhile, the union’s executive committee met on Thursday for the first time in a month to evaluate its “work to rule” action and to discuss possible further plans. 

Up until this week, both the district and the union have confined their public statements and printed handouts to analyses of the district’s budget and comparisons of teacher salaries, but have steered clear of talking about what was actually being offered in the contract negotiations, and what was being refused. 

But in an e-mail released to the press entitled “Negotiations Update,” the district announced that it had offered “increases [to] all teachers’ salaries despite the need to cut the budget in order to do so,” as well as additional salary increases to veteran teachers and stipends for counselors and speech pathologists, increases in the district’s monetary contribution to medical benefits, and dental coverage for “many hourly teachers who are currently without [such] coverage.” 

The district provided no dollar figures or percentage increases in the e-mail release. 

“The board and superintendent believe they moved as far as they can without jeopardizing the solvency of the district or cutting critical programs,” the release concluded, and added that “the union has not accepted the district’s offer.” 

BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence said in a telephone interview that the district decided to release its proposal details “because our community has been critical of the fact that they have not been kept in the loop in regards to what has been going on in mediation. Because so many of our children are being affected by the ‘work to rule’ action, it seemed prudent that we let the community know that the school district is doing everything they can short of bankruptcy to put an end to this contract dispute.” 

At a Monday evening meeting at Longfellow Middle School called by the Berkeley PTA to provide information on the contract dispute, several parents expressed frustration at not knowing what was happening in the negotiations. 

After first hearing that the district was considering releasing negotiation details, BFT President Barry Fike spoke cautiously in a telephone interview, saying that “there were a lot of things going back and forth during the negotiation session, some of them in writing, some of them as verbal proposals. It wasn’t anything remarkably different coming from either side that hasn’t been heard in previous sessions.” 

But Fike said that he was reluctant to talk further about the negotiations since “in order to make it work, people have to be sensitive in not disclosing too much,” only saying that the union had yet to “cost out” the district’s salary increase proposal. 

“We’re still running the numbers,” he added. 

A day after receiving the district’s release, the BFT position had significantly hardened. 

“When the district goes public with proposals in the midst of highly sensitive mediation sessions, they can’t help but paint themselves into a corner and reduce opportunities for flexible solutions at the table,” the BFT release said. “It may be that the district’s negotiations team just momentarily lost their cool in releasing this information or it may be that their misguided strategy is to try to end mediation and push for a strike.” 

The BFT release said that the district’s salary increase proposal “does nothing to reverse Berkeley’s plummeting teacher compensation level rankings and keep our salaries competitive in either the short or long term.” 

The statement called the district proposal to increase veteran teacher pay “a thinly veiled attempt to try to divide teachers by offering larger salary increases to just a few of us” that “mysteriously appeared out of nowhere for the first time at the end of the day last Tuesday.” 

The BFT also said that the statement that the district offered to increase its monetary contribution to medical benefits was “simply not true.” 

Fike said in a telephone interview he did not think the union and the district were anywhere near that point of having negotiations break down. 

“If we were, it would be up to the mediator to decide that,” he said. 

At that point, the dispute would go to a three-person fact finding panel which would make a settlement recommendation. 

“If either side rejected that recommendation, the district would give us what is called its ‘last final offer,’ and the union would vote either to accept or bring the matter to our members for a strike vote,” he said. “From our point of view, getting to that point would be a worst-case scenario. That’s why we’re doing our darndest to come up with solutions now, to try to settle this in mediation.” 

 

 

¨


Neighbors Win Settlement From Le Chateau By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday March 18, 2005

Fifteen South Campus neighbors have won a $67,500 judgment against Le Chateau, a UC Berkeley student co-op they blame for years of strewn trash, late night noise and a plague of vermin. 

In a ruling issued Tuesday Berkeley Small Claims Court Judge Jon Rantzman wrote, the student co-op association “has permitted the growth of a rogue mentality” at Le Chateau. 

Rantzman awarded 12 of the 22 plaintiffs in the case the maximum damage award of $5,000 for, among other things, “the loss of the right to quiet enjoyment.” Three plaintiffs received smaller awards and five plaintiffs who did not testify received nothing. 

“I’m overjoyed to have some sort of resolution reached after all these years,” said Michelle Pellegrin, who lives just north of 82-person student cooperative located in three buildings at the corner of Hillegass and Parker streets. 

“It’s great to have a verdict from the court that they need to change,” she added. 

Le Chateau is reputed to be the most raucous student co-op operated by the student-run University Students’ Cooperative Association. 

USCA General Manager George Proper said his board had not yet decided whether it would appeal the ruling to Alameda County Superior Court. Monetary damages from small claims court are typically hard to collect, but Proper said the UCSA, with an annual budget of $8 million, planned to pay the plaintiffs should the ruling stand. 

“In one format or another, it’s going to result in higher rents,” he said. Currently all student co-op residents pay $2,586 a semester for their rooms. 

The ruling again raises questions about the future of Le Chateau. Last semester, the UCSA board rejected proposals to change its demographics to better fit into the surrounding neighborhood. Proposals included graduate student housing or all female housing. 

“The board will probably reconsider those alternatives, probably with enthusiasm,” Proper said. 

Le Chateau co-manager Ian Latta said the co-op would oppose any change to its use and said that it has done much to reform itself. “There’s such a gulf between the house’s reputation and what it is really like,” he said. “We’re walking on tiptoes most of the time.” 

Le Chateau neighbors charged that from 2001 through 2004 they were subject to ever-present noise including breaking glass, amplified rock bands, loud music, power saws and wild swimming pool parties, according to court records. They also attributed a neighborhood rat problem to the co-op, saying that rats had “so many places for nesting.” 

The neighbors’ claims were backed by a 44-page correspondence from the Berkeley Police Department, outlining calls for service to Le Chateau. In 2003, the BPD received 77 calls for service to Le Chateau compared to 28 for UCSA’s Cloyne Court, seven for Lothlorien and four for The Convent, other student co-ops.  

In his report to the court, BPD officer Steve Rego recalled a visit to the house: “I saw marijuana ‘bong’ pipes in plain view on a table...The overall cleanliness of the house was deplorable...There were piles of garbage stacked all over the place. There were empty bottles and cans left littered throughout.” 

The neighbors hired Oakland-based Neighborhood Solutions to handle their case. Recently the company won a nuisance case for neighbors against a homeowner at Ninth Street and Allston Way. 

Despite the legal action, neighbors and co-op residents agreed that a 2003 agreement between Le Chateau and neighbors had improved conditions. Under the plan, Le Chateau has moved its pool table and social room to the basement and reserved its back building for quiet study. The house also doesn’t hold parties and co-op managers have given their cell phone numbers to neighbors to issue complaints. 

Latta said he receives about two complaint calls a month, all from Pellegrin. “We’ve been working really hard with neighbors to enforce our contract,” he said. “We’re being good neighbors.” 

George Lewinsky, the lead plaintiff in the case, however, said that previously improved conduct at the house ended when different student managers took over. He reiterated the neighbor’s request that the UCSA install a permanent manager and assume greater responsibility for the house. 

“Now it’s up to them to figure out how they want to manage this thing so it’s not a nuisance to neighbors,” he said. “As long as it’s quiet and kept clean, we don’t care what they do.” 

+


District Attorney Won’t Prosecute McCullough By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday March 18, 2005

Patrick McCullough, the Oakland man who shot a 16-year-old boy in the arm during a fight outside his house last month, will not face criminal charges, Assistant District Attorney James Lee said Wednesday. 

“We are unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Patrick McCullough did not act in self-defense when he fired his weapon striking Melvin McHenry,” Lee wrote in a prepared statement. 

Furthermore, Lee said since McCullough was on his own property during the incident, he couldn’t file charges on weapons possession. 

McHenry will also not be charged, though some neighbors demanded that he face assault charges for attacking McCullough. 

The Feb. 18 incident caused a firestorm in McCullough’s North Oakland neighborhood, where McCullough is a member of a citizen anti-crime group that works closely with Oakland police. According to McCullough, McHenry, backed by 14 other youths, called him a snitch, attacked him and then asked his friend for a pistol before McCullough reached for his. 

Ivan Golde, McHenry’s attorney, insisted that McCullough instigated the incident and that McHenry never reached for a gun. 

“Basically the DA’s office threw its hands up because it’s a politically unpopular case,” Golde said. He added that McHenry planned to press ahead with a civil case against McCullough. 

Fearing for McCullough’s safety after the incident, Oakland officials have agreed to let McCullough out of his shared equity mortgage with the city for his house at 59th Street and Shattuck Avenue as long as he stays in Oakland. Under terms of the mortgage, McCullough stood to lose a share of the equity in his house if he sold it before 2014.  

McCullough could not be reached for comment by press time. 

 


Pair Slashes Woman’s Throat In Rose Garden Attack By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday March 18, 2005

Two young women slashed the throat of a 75-year-old Berkeley woman Wednesday evening as she and her husband strolled along Euclid Avenue past the Berkeley Rose Gardens. 

Though the victim is expected to recover, “there is no indication that it was a robbery or attempted robbery and we are treating as a homicide,” said Berkeley Police spokesperson Office Joe Okies. 

According to Sgt. Howard Nonoguchi of the BPD Homicide detail, the victim didn’t know the suspects, who walked directly up to her and slashed her throat without uttering a word at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday. 

The pair then fled in a light blue BMW M3 convertible. 

“The random and violent nature of this attack” are of great concern to police, said the homicide detective. “We are aggressively investigating this case to identify the people responsible for this attempted homicide.” 

The suspects are described as two women between the ages of 17 and 29. The knife was wielded by a thinly built black-haired African American woman 5’5” to 5’10” tall. She was wearing gray sweats, said Officer Okies. 

The second suspect was described as thinly built of indeterminate ethnicity with brown hair approximately five inches shorter than her companion. 

Their victim was rushed to Highland Hospital, where she remains under treatment. 

The attack “seems to be totally random,” said Okies. 

Detectives are asking anyone with information on the attack to calls the homicide detail at 981-5741 or e-mail police@ci.berkeley.ca.us. Callers may remain anonymous, Okies said. 

Police will hold an informational meeting on the attack next Thursday at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Oxford Elementary School, 1130 Oxford St.›


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday March 18, 2005

Rock Attack 

Police are seeking the heavyset fellow who lobbed a rock at the head of a 34-year-old pedestrian near the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Dwight Way about 12:25 p.m. Monday. 

Though the rock connected with its intended target, the victim was not seriously injured. 

 

Going Batty 

A 19-year-old man called police to report that two fellows armed with a bat—or maybe a pipe—had confronted him near the corner of Ninth Street and Bancroft Way about 5:58 p.m. Monday. He fled before things got worse. 

 

Stabs Mate 

Police arrested a 42-year-old Bonar Street resident on charges of spousal abuse and assault with a deadly weapon after he inflicted a minor knife wound during the course of a fracas. The victim refused medical attention, said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

 

Hoodie Hoods 

A pair of young men clad in hoodies and other dark garb threatened grievous bodily harm unless a 20-year-old pedestrian walking along the 1900 block of Milvia Street forked over his cash early Tuesday afternoon. 

Instead, the intended victim darted into a nearby building and called police while the erstwhile robbers departed for safer turf. 

 

Leaf It Alone 

A distraught resident of the 100 block of Parkside Drive called police just before 8 a.m. Wednesday to report that a fellow in a dark SUV had just slashed off some of the branches of a much-favored tree and departed with them. 

By the time police arrived, the thief had branched out. 

 

Kicker Cuffed 

Police arrested a 22-year-old man on a charges of assault with serious bodily injury Wednesday night after he kicked a 25-year-old man in the head during the course of a fight in the 2500 block of Telegraph Avenue, said Officer Okies.›


Downtown BART Plaza Earmarked for Redesign By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday March 18, 2005

City officials have issued a formal call for a consultant to help reshape the streetscape and traffic flow around the Berkeley BART Plaza. 

The project is a joint effort of the city, the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) with the help of a grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). 

“There are a number of ideas out there, and we are seeking to engage a planner who will integrate them into one design,” said Peter Hillier, assistant city manager for transportation. 

“Redesign of the existing BART rotunda has to be part of the project,” said Hillier. “BART wants it, as do we.” 

The circular structure at the southwest corner of Center Street and University Avenue sits across the plaza from the Power Bar Building, one of two existing high-rises at the intersection. 

The plan will also incorporate a third high-rise planned at the intersection, the proposed UC Berkeley hotel and accompanying convention center and museums’ complex. 

A fourth high-rise is planned to rise nearby, the nine-story Seagate building a half-block west on Center Street. 

The city’s Request for Proposals sets a maximum expenditure of $90,000 for a design that will improve bus, taxi, paratransit, bicycle and pedestrian flow in the city center, focused on the area immediately surrounding the Downtown BART station. 

The city issued the request on March 9 and applications are due by April 12, with the City Council slated to award the contract on May 11. The final plan will be expected within the following year. 

Citing the increasing central city population density spurred by the city’s “smart growth and transportation policies” as a primary reason for the plan, the proposal also takes note of the other projects that could further increase pressures on the existing infrastructure, including: 

• AC Transit’s planned northern terminus for its Bus Rapid Transit system now in development. 

• The UC Berkeley hotel complex. 

• Potential closure of Center Street between Shattuck and Oxford Street to accommodate the daylighting of Strawberry Creek. 

• Additional downtown residential development. 

• Further intrusion of the university into the city center. 

Hillier also said the designer would look into proposals to open one of the two unidirectional lanes of Shattuck Avenue on either side of Shattuck Square to two-lane traffic. 

Designers would work with the city, BART, AC Transit, UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as a group of engineers, planning and landscape architects, safety experts and staff from the various transit agencies, to formulate a plan to send to the City Council. 

“Before now, there’s been no mechanism to bring all these concerns into focus and relate them one to another,” Hillier said. 

The proposal calls for creation of a citizen advisory committee drawn from the Downtown Berkeley Association, property owners, arts and cultural groups, business owners, street vendors, neighborhood residents and young people to assist the project and conduct a public outreach program. 

The whole process will be carried out under the supervision of the city Office of Transportation. 

Once the design is completed, the next question is funding. 

“The city has a $5 million placeholder with the state regional transportation funding,” Hillier said, “and the city is putting in a proposal for a $600,000 or so Housing Improvement Grant,” funds awarded based on the number of affordable housing units in the city. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get additional funding beyond that.”?


State Releases API Scores And School Rankings By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday March 18, 2005

Berkeley Unified School District Academic Performance Index (API) scores released this week by the California Department of Education contained “no surprises,” according to BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence, and show that district schools continue their placement in the mid-to-top level among California schools. 

The Berkeley scores were part of the Education Department’s annual report comparing test scores in more than 8,000 California schools. 

“I was really pleased,” Lawrence said. “It shows we’re doing a pretty decent job despite incredible odds.” 

The API compiles state test scores in a range from 200 to 1,000, with a score of 800 or more considered excellent. The API comparison also lists how schools rank statewide, as well as compared to demographically similar schools, with a rating of 1-10, with 10 being the highest. 

Three Berkeley elementary schools—Jefferson, Emerson, and John Muir—scored above 800. Six other schools—Cragmont, Malcolm X, Oxford, Thousand Oaks, and Whittier elementaries and King Middle School—scored between 750 and 800. Four Berkeley schools—Cragmont, Emerson, Jefferson, and John Muir—scored either 8 or 9 when compared to other schools statewide, and two Berkeley schools—Longfellow Middle School and John Muir—scored 10 when compared to schools with similar demographics. 

Two Berkeley schools performed poorly. Both Leconte Elementary, with a rating of 4, and Rosa Parks Elementary, with a rating of 3, ranked below the midway point when compared with schools statewide. Parks also ranked at the bottom when compared with schools of similar demographics. 

Schools were not listed in the report if less than 95 percent of their students took the state achievement test. 

 


Rep. Lee Leads Fight To Disinvest in Sudan By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday March 18, 2005

California lawmakers took action against the genocide in Darfur Wednesday, aided by three East Bay teenagers who read written testimony submitted by U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee. 

Afterwards, the Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security passed legislation that calls on the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) to divest from stocks of firms that do business in the Sudan. 

Lee’s testimony was read by Natalia Casella, 16, of Berkeley, Veronica Gutierrez, 17, of Oakland, and Laura Byrne, 15, of Richmond. 

According to Rep. Lee’s office, CalPERS holds $7.5 billion in investments in firms doing business in Sudan. 

Similar legislation was adopted last month in New Jersey and other measures are working their through the legislative process in Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois and Arizona. 

In 1986, California led the way in divestment in the apartheid South Africa, and by the time the regime was voted out eight years later, 113 state, county and local governments had followed suit. 

Because California has the largest public employee pension fund in the nation, the Assembly action carries special weight. 

In her written testimony, Rep. Lee recalled her own visits to camps housing refugees from the North African violence. 

“I witnessed first-hand the depths of the human suffering; I saw the missing limbs, and I looked in the eyes of the girls who had been raped,” she said. 

“The experience only strengthened my conviction that we must take every action to end the ongoing genocide in Darfur. And it only strengthened my conviction that we need to go beyond diplomacy to end the killing.”


State, Federal Casino Measures Advance By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday March 18, 2005

Three new measures designed to control the spread of casinos took forward steps this week, including one federal law and two proposed amendments to the California Constitution. 

The federal measure, which was debated Thursday in the House Resources Committee, is the brainchild of U.S. Rep Richard Pombo, chair of the House Resources Committee. His 6th District includes the southwest portion of San Joaquin County and parts of Contra Costa and Alameda counties. 

Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan attended Thursday’s hearing to testify about the impact of casinos on her city and the East Bay. 

Pombo’s proposal would restrict off-reservation casinos to “Indian Economic Opportunity Zones,” restricted to a maximum of two per state. 

Pombo’s bill doesn’t stop the construction of new casinos, and multiple tribes could concentrate their new gambling ventures into what some critics have called “mini-Las Vegases.” 

In California, two proposed constitutional amendments calling for a moratorium on new casino construction are in the works, one jointly sponsored by Bay Area Assemblymembers Joe Nation and Loni Hancock, and the other by a collection of local elected officials spearheaded by Fairfax City Councilmember Frank Eggers. 

Both proposals call for creation of special task forces to examine gambling related issues during the moratorium. 

Nation’s amendment would bar the governor from concluding any new tribal gambling compacts until January 2008 and inaugurate a 13-member commission to examine issues of local governmental control, social and economic impacts and the possible consolidation of several tribes into one casino operation. 

“Instead of 10 casinos spread through the Bay Area, there might be only a couple,” Nation said. “One tribe with a proposal contacted me and said they would be willing to consolidation operations with other tribes.” 

The Nation-Hancock measure is presently in the Assembly Rules Committee. Once the proposal passes muster in the requisite committees, it will come before both house of the state Legislature, where it must receive a two-thirds endorsement by both houses before it can be sent on to the voters for the final decision. 

In Washington, House Resources Committee Press Secretary Jennifer Zuccarelli said Pombo’s proposed legislation had been spurred by numerous complaints from local officials as well as long-established tribes concerned about casino proposals by out-of-area tribal groups. 

“Local communities are telling us they never anticipated having casinos because they had no reservations in the area, but now tribes are coming in from out of state,” she said. “They’re telling us that they stayed on their homeland and played by the rules, yet now tribes with no history in the area are setting up casinos by promising fees to local governments.” 

Pombo’s concern is that while the Indian Gaming Act specifically precluded taxing tribal casinos, out-of-area tribes are paying a percentage of revenues in exchange for local government acquiescence to their gambling plan. 

Zuccarelli said Pombo’s proposal would stop tribes moving across state lines to create casinos, while allowing the Secretary of the Interior to designate two Economic Development Gaming Zones in each state, one on tribal land and one a so-called “fee” zone. 

The measure would allow multiple tribal casinos in each zone, creating so-called mini-Las Vegases. 

“There would be no limit on the numbers of casinos in each zone,” Zuccarelli said. 

However, a fee zone could be created only with the endorsement of tribes and communities within a 200-mile radius of the site. 

Armando Viramontes, the member of Loni Hancock’s staff who has been handling casino issues for the Assemblymember, said that while the approval requirement should effectively limit the zones to rural areas of the state, Hancock solidly opposes the creation of mini-Las Vegases anywhere in California. 

Eggers unveiled the latest version of his proposed amendment Thursday, which calls for a five-year casino moratorium with an extension of up to three more years. 

His measure calls for creation of the California Tribal Casino Planning Commission, which would prepare a California Tribal Casino Gambling Casino Plan to be presented to the governor and state Legislature by the end of 2010.


Berkeley Program Up for Award BY MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday March 18, 2005

Berkeley’s program that allows city employees and residents to share city cars was named as one of 50 semifinalists for the Innovation in American Government Award. 

The award, referred to as the “Government Oscars,” puts Berkeley in the running for a $100,000 grant from Harvard University. 

Through a partnership with City CarShare, Berkeley retired 15 vehicles and replaced them with four hybrid cars operated by City CarShare. City employees have exclusive use of the cars during business hours, while any City CarShare member has access to them on evenings and weekends. 

“This innovative program is saving Berkeley taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, improving government efficiency, reducing pollution and providing an alternative to car ownership for Berkeley residents,” said Mayor Tom Bates. 

Now it its 18th year, the award is a program of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The school will announce the six winning programs in July. 

—Matthew Artz


LBNL Plans Major Offsite Move, Historic Accelerator Demolition By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday March 18, 2005

Major changes now being planned at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) include a major move off-campus and a step toward demolition of one of the facility’s major structure. 

The off-campus move sends several LBNL programs into 72,000 square feet of newly leased space near Aquatic Park. 

The other move came in the form of a notice of preparation for an environmental impact report (EIR) required before the lab can demolish Building 54, the home of the facility’s long-retired Bevatron, the particle accelerator credited with four Nobel Prizes for work done on the machine. 

The long-term lease, signed earlier this month, on the second floor of a former warehouse building at 717 Potter St. in Wareham Development’s Aquatic Park Center, means another hunk of Berkeley real estate has moved off the tax rolls. Under state law, private property rented to a government or non-profit agency is removed from the tax rolls for the duration of the lease. 

Other tenants of Wareham’s 15-acre center include Bayer HealthCare, Dynavax Technologies, Xoma Ltd. and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). As with the lab, the DTSC pays no property taxes. 

Among the LBNL tenants occupying the newly acquired space will be experts in cancer research, advanced microscopy and computational modeling. The new quarters will also house the Synthetic Biology Department, a joint venture of LBNL and UC Berkeley under the director of Professor Kay Keasling. 

Wareham is a major East Bay property owner whose other Berkeley holdings include a 106,000-square-foot building now under construction at 700 Heinz Ave., the landmark Durkee Building at 800 Heinz Ave., and the Constitution Square Building on Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley. 

In Richmond the firm owns the state Department of Justice DNA lab, the building that houses the UC Technology Transfer Center and headquarters for Region IX of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Point Richmond Tech Center. 

Emeryville holdings include the Churn building, the 20-acre EmeryStation complex, the Amtrak Intermodal Station, Heritage Square, the Emeryville Research and Development Center, the Hollis Street Center and the Federal Express building. 

UC Berkeley published notice of the EIR Tuesday, including the announcement of a public scoping meeting to address concerns raised by the demolition to be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. March 31 in the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

According to the notice, the lab doesn’t need the building or the massive particle accelerator, which was used between 1954 and 1993. 

Because four Nobel Prizes in physics stemmed directly from work conducted on the 180-feet-in-diameter Bevatron, the structure is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. 

Soil and groundwater contamination has been detected under the building, including toxic volatile organic compounds, PCBs and mercury. 

If approved, demolition would begin in one or two years and be completed by 2010-12. 

While some building materials could be recycled, portions of the Bevatron and its shielding as well as the adjacent concrete are radioactive at low levels and would have to be taken to Department of Energy approved disposal facilities. 

Officials from Wareham and LBNL did not return calls for this article. The information was taken from the Wareham web site and the LBNL EIR notice.


Judicial Nominees Prompt Alameda County to Party By NOEL SUTTER

Special to the Planet
Friday March 18, 2005

When Alameda County progressives recently got wind of President Bush’s resubmission of seven federal judicial nominees previously rejected by the U.S. Senate for being too extreme, they did what many progressives all over the country did: They decided to party. 

Ten Alameda County residents opened their homes and hosted parties for scores of people they did not know on the night of March 10 in Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, and beyond. These parties were part of a larger wave of parties across the nation that began at 7 p.m. Eastern, Mountain, and Pacific times attended by approximately 15,000 people. 

Vincent Casalaina of North Berkeley hosted a party off College Avenue. 

“This is a big deal,” Casalaina said of the wave of parties across the country. Casalaina decided to host a party because he wanted to see “how MoveOn is going to make its first big foray into organizing grassroots action at the local level.” 

Garth Shultz decided to host a party in South Berkeley because “all the other parties were filled up and I really wanted to be at a party.” 

Shultz added that he believes getting people into local action is crucial. 

The party at Casalaina’s spacious Berkeley home transitioned quickly from friendly introductions with the typical unease one finds when meeting strangers to all attention focused on a streaming videocast coming over the Internet. The videocast piped in two phone calls from Senate minority leader Harry Reid and Democratic Party leader Howard Dean. 

Senator Reid told the people sitting in the living room off College Avenue—as well as people sitting in living rooms in Contra Costa County, Nevada, Colorado, and beyond—that the President “is once again using fear to push his extreme policies” by saying there is a judicial crisis in the Senate. 

Reid said that the Senate’s record of confirming judicial nominees—with 204 nominees confirmed and only the ten most extreme rejected—is better than that achieved by President Clinton, President George H. W. Bush, and President Reagan. 

He also said that Senate democrats “will not capitulate to threats” and will fight every step of the way against Bush’s seven renominated judicial nominees who have “already been found too extreme by the members of this [Senate] chamber.”  

Howard Dean spoke of reshaping the Democratic Party. He said “the core of the progressive message is going to be social and economic justice.” 

Closing remarks on the videocast were made by MoveOn PAC organizer, Adam Rubin. Rubin told the party-goers that they were “like the minutemen in the American Revolution,” willing to stand up against those who control our government. 

He said that the 3,000 neighborhood action teams now forming around the country mark the launching of a nationwide campaign, called “Operation Democracy.” He said the campaign’s purpose is to “confront policies that put corporations first and people second.” 

“With tens of thousands of us around the country now, and later hundreds of thousands of us all standing together, I know we can win,” Rubin said. 

After the videocast the party-goers separated into neighborhood action teams, and they rehashed what they had heard on the videocast. 

Edward Shipwash, 48, of North Berkeley, said he had read about a few of the judicial renominees the Senate had rejected last year. 

“I read the backgrounds of three of those guys and they seemed greedy and self-serving,” he said. 

Operation Democracy’s first activity was neighborhood action teams enlisting citizens in every state to call their local Senators March 16 to tell them they care about having fair-minded judges, they understand these judicial appointments are for life, and they are watching. 

o


Letters to the Editor

Friday March 18, 2005

BROWER CENTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

James Doherty is right on target when he notes the terrible irony of building the Brower Center over a huge parking garage (Daily Planet, March 11-14). It makes a mockery of the effort to achieve a LEED Platinum designation for the structure, dishonors the life and work of a great environmentalist, and serves the citizens of Berkeley badly. Most of us understand that burning fossil fuel is bringing on rapid, deleterious climate change, and the efforts to get the last pockets of oil and gas from Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, and other western states will destroy the little remaining habitat for wildlife. How then can we allow the planning of the Brower Center to go forward designed for housing cars instead of insisting that it be based on 21st-century needs. Mr. Doherty’s forward-looking proposal that the high cost of an underground garage be redirected towards a light rail connecting downtown to the Berkeley Marina deserves serious consideration. Make Berkeley a model for other cities by recognizing the necessity of new approaches to transportation in our city center. 

Charlene M. Woodcock 

 

• 

GOLDEN GATE FIELDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to respond to numerous inaccuracies contained in a recent story regarding Golden Gate Fields. 

I have been the General Manager of Golden Gate Fields for 25 years. This track has a proud history of generating revenue for the City of Albany and in contributing to numerous charitable causes over its 68 years. We have opened our beautiful property to our Albany neighbors to walk their dogs, ride their bikes and teach their kids to drive in our parking lot. It is with this same sense of community and partnership that we enter into discussions with Albany residents about how to improve and expand public access to the land and shoreline, create new open space, while generating much needed revenue for the city. 

Here’s the truth about the track and possible development: 

Golden Gates is not closing. In fact, we have been investing to improve our facilities. We have spent more that $1 million in the last several years to upgrade and renovate the grandstands, not to mention building a brand new state-of-the-art medical facility for the horses on our grounds. 

The statement that a “600,000-800,000 square-foot” development is planned is completely false. In fact, there is no plan yet. That’s why we’re out in the community meeting with organizations and individuals to ask what people would want in a new project on our property. We are ready and willing to meet with Albany residents to hear their ideas and concerns. 

The story states that the development plans have “provoked strong opposition” from the Albany City Council and the Albany Chamber of Commerce. The truth is that the Albany Chamber passed a resolution recently, stating in part, “The Albany Chamber of Commerce supports thoughtful community-minded development at Golden Gate Fields” and we have heard a broad range of opinions from others with whom we have met. 

Those of us at Golden Gate Fields share the view that our property is a great resource, and that any plans should be carefully considered, well done, and be a benefit to the people of Albany by creating a wide range of opportunities to enjoy the waterfront. We are all in this together. Striking the right balance between development and open space is our only goal. Our actions are guided no by what is good for business, but equally by what is good for Albany—its residents, businesses, and schools. 

Peter Tunney  

Manager, Golden Gate Fields 

 

• 

UNDERCURRENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With regards to Jesse Allen-Taylor and most of his columns including the last two weeks, he seems to be long on opinion and short on fact. After all why let a few facts get in the way of an opinion piece? It’s a Grand Old Tradition of right wingers such as Ann Coulter and William Safire not to bother with facts. Few, it appears have the guts to take him to task. After all it’s Berkeley and it would be so un-PC to criticize a black writer. Racism or something, no doubt. Or is it that most Daily Planet readers just aren’t familiar enough with what goes on in Oakland? However when the ball is in the other court, it doesn’t seem to stop criticism. Several months ago there were several scathing letters aimed at Susan Parker telling her they didn’t care for her narratives on her daily life in her “gentrified” (it’s far from that) neighborhood and to get out. But she after all is easy to take pot shots at, since she is just a white woman.  

J. Sierra  

North Oakland 

 

• 

ECON 101 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I don’t know who this Bob Burnett fellow is and I am sure he is a fine fellow but he ought to at least take freshman Economics 101 or at least engage his brain before putting fingertips to the keyboard. I recall folks of Mr. Burnett’s ilk crying that the sky is falling because of high deficits during the Reagan years, shortly after I graduated from business school. The scare then was that deficit spending was going to cause inflation which of course was and is nonsense which anybody who bothered to study the matter knew. The economy needed priming then and lo and behold it grew out of the deficit hardly a decade later. And it is especially disingenuous to read Mr. Burnett’s disdain of Keynesian spending under the current administration when his liberal lot cursed the conservative spending under Hoover but loved the deficit spending programs of the New Deal under FDR. Face it Mr. Burnett the deficits we are running as a percentage of GNP are about what they have been for much of the last century and guess what there is no need for alarm they are not even near the worst we have seen. Your real beef is you do not like the policies of the Bush Administration; you are looking for validation from Chairman Greenspan when it is inappropriate for him to suggest how we lower deficits just that we do lower them eventually which just as before we will. Mr. Burnett, the other party won the elections. Get over it and even better if you wish to make suggestions, please do but in the context of the current political reality, not your what you might like to see in you Utopian World which ain’t going to happen now. 

Steve Pardee 

 

• 

DERBY STREET FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

First of all, let me say that, like virtually all neighbors of the East Campus, I was very pleased with the School Board’s decision not to consider closing Derby Street, and hence not to consider the possible installation of a hardball field in the East Campus, at this time. The School Board deserves the highest praise for sticking to the East Campus process it had decided upon, and not allowing itself to be derailed by the machinations of hardball field proponents.  

Second of all, and even more important, let me try to make clear why this controversy is not really about a proposed hardball field, but is rather about a  

fundamental question that concerns all citizens of Berkeley, namely, does any public agency have the right to force a non-essential project on a neighborhood which not only is strongly against it, but which already is the site of three public facilities (the East Campus, a UC maintenance warehouse, and the Farmers’ Market)? 

In order to understand why I feel the answer to this question must be no, consider the following: 

In recent years, the theory has been publicized that listening to (and if possible playing!) Mozart, raises the intelligence of children and young people. Let us assume that further research reveals that listening to, and if possible playing, any classical music raises the intelligence of children and young people—even 20th century classical, like that of Stravinsky, Bartok, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Webern, music that most people consider to be “just noise.”  

Let us assume that the School Board, which is always up on the latest educational research, decides that, for the good of the students, a section of a park in North Berkeley is to be set aside for classical music performances. A stage is to be built, with loudspeakers and lights, and students are to be allowed to perform, as soloists or in groups, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, 365 days a year (same as for the proposed hardball field). 

Let us assume—reasonably, I think—that when word gets out about this project, the neighbors of the park are almost unanimously opposed to it, arguing that the School Board has no right to destroy their peace and quiet, and has no right to force upon them a project that will almost certainly lower their property values, which represent a major portion of their life savings in many cases.  

Proponents of the stage scorn these protests, accusing the neighbors of being “against youth” and of being “selfish” for thinking of property values when the intellectual development of Berkeley’s youth is at stake. 

I hope that every reader can see that this is not an argument about whether classical music is good for Berkeley’s youth or not. It is an argument about the rights of neighbors relative to a non-essential public project that the vast majority of the neighbors are against. 

Most of the neighbors would, I am sure, not say that Berkeley’s youth should be deprived of classical music, but instead would simply ask the School Board to find other locations for its stage.  

The parallels to the hardball field are obvious.  

Let me conclude by repeating what I said in a previous letter to the editor: If the hardball field goes through, no neighborhood in Berkeley will be safe, because every public agency will take it as a green light to do whatever it wants anywhere in the city, regardless of the feelings of the neighbors. 

Peter Schorer 

 

• 

MORE ON DERBY FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing in response to the travesty of a decision that the Berkeley Public School Board reached last Wednesday, March 9. 

My name is Eli Flushman. I am proud to say that I am a complete product of the Berkeley public school system, from kindergarten (Cragmont School) through college (UC Berkeley). I am currently the junior varsity baseball coach at Berkeley High. I am 23, and don’t think I have or ever will be as disgusted with the School 

Board and its members as I am now (With exception to Duran and Rivera, thank you for your attempts). 

The Berkeley High School Athletic department, one of the largest athletic departments in the country (something our board should be embracing not discouraging), has lacked space for over 40 years. East Campus, the site of which this discussion is based, is property of the BUSD and also the logical choice to improve the athletics space dilemma. 

The Berkeley High baseball team and its students are in dire need of a baseball field after sharing one at San Pablo park with other baseball and softball leagues, as well as soccer, rugby, lacrosse, and other people who otherwise would want to use a public park (i.e. not property of the BUSD). East Campus, could alleviate this burden of lack of space so prevalent our many students endure every day. 

If this land truly is BUSD property, why then are all the compromises coming at the expense of the students that by fault own the land? If it is property of the BUSD, then the board should make decisions that benefit the students that the land is intended to be used by, not the neighbors that live near it, or the Farmers’ Market that barrows its space. 

The resolution that was voted down, was there to find more information, nothing more. Not one shovel was going to be used because of a “yes” vote. Information was to be gathered as to what project could be done, and what would it cost. That is it. 

The three board members who decided against the needs of a large number of students did so while hiding behind excuses of a lack of timing, and that going 

back on their word lacked integrity, and was unethical. 

In my 23 years in this city I find that timing is never going to be good to make any decisions in this city because there will always be tough decisions to be made. Citing timing as a reason is a cop-out on making a decision and those who use that as the basis of their decision should be stripped of their role as a public servant as they are not fulfilling it. Further, there is always going to be opposition in this city, and someone will always be on the “short end of the stick,” so citing “angst” is even worse of a barrier to hide behind. 

What is unethical, what lacks integrity is the fact that the decision was made without knowing all the facts, that the decision was made without knowing the 

benefits it could bring our students. I voted for some of the board members who voted this resolution down, and I am hurt because I voted for them because I 

thought that they were running for the position to improve the Berkeley public schools, obviously I was wrong. Issel, Riddle, Selawsky, you all disappointed 

me greatly, as well as many others. 

To use an analogy, here is the decision they came too. Say you were a homeowner and you wanted to renovate your bathroom. Would you go over to your neighbors and ask them what they think you should do? Sure, why not? They may use your bathroom. But if they told you that you can’t do it unless it looks like they wanted it, you would tell them, “Too bad, it is my bathroom, and I am the one who uses it.” Unfortunately, three of our School Board members don’t want to make a decision that will benefit the people that would use it the most. 

Please, understand that the needs of the students of our community need to come first, contact the school board and tell them you believe so too. 

Eli Flushman 

 

• 

STUDENT’S PERSPECTIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Some might say I have a biased view of the pros and cons of building a regulation size baseball field on the Derby Street site because I’m a member of the Berkeley High baseball program.  

It is true that I would welcome such a field, but that does not make me indifferent to the protests of the neighbors. What surprises me is how unwilling some are to seriously discuss the possibility of a real baseball field being included on the Derby Street site.  

I’ve heard the “skinned infield” proposal and rumors of batting cages, but what’s the use of having a limited facility that wouldn’t even support a full practice? Are the infielders to practice at Derby Street and the pitchers and outfielders at San Pablo? That would make for just the kind of team the school board seems to envision, a nice of enough idea as long the board can continue to get away with selling out the student athletes.  

Alex Day 

BHS junior 

 

• 

PARTS ONE AND TWO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is very telling that nowhere in the recent letter from East Campus neighbors do the words “interim” or “temporary” appear. 

Part one of the Derby Street project was to include nothing that couldn’t be removed or used if the school district decided to build a full size ball field there. It was the drifting away from that requirement that worried so many supporters of a field and sparked Terry Doran’s awkward but necessary motion to explore the part two endorsed by most of the school board, a full-sized baseball field. 

The neighbors talk a lot about alternatives, but this just serves to avoid discussing Derby Street as one of the possible sites. Frankly, anyone who really explored what a team needs would see that East Campus is by far the best site. It would be silly to not discuss it. To envision bifurcated practices, with batting cages one place and full practices another is hardly realistic. 

The writers say the space would languish if the ball field were considered. Once again, there is a part one, with its busy uses, and then (I hope) a field, maybe sooner, maybe later, certainly not immediately.  

I do have to wonder, though, if this new space without a field isn’t going to be the biggest hang-out place in town, a People’s Park south. Maybe we could all get behind that. Believe it or not, a ball field is a good open space to be near. 

As someone who was deeply involved in the Adult School fight, I know how much trust counts and how carelessly the school board and superintendent sometimes treat that trust and how easily they can screw up a process.  

For all sorts of reasons, that was a different fight, no matter how much some board members strain mightily to turn an apple into an orange. For one thing, we never had a board member whose first and foremost job is to bring home the bacon to his neighbors and political base. There was never really any bait to be part of a bait-and-switch (except for the legal blackmailing of a couple of neighbors to drop a lawsuit). Almost all of us were ready to accept the adult school (as if we had any choice) if there were no other options, if the process was thorough and fair and if the planning was better. The neighbors and a local architect made sure it was. We did not become, we didn’t want to be, a fearful, exclusive neighborhood. 

Unfortunately for everyone, the Derby Street process was always too patched together and one-sided to work. There was never a good time to make corrections. The school board’s vote just means there’s more anguish to come. The leadership in this city tortures both sides to avoid making a decision. If Michele Lawrence or Shirley Issel or some council member says one more time that it’s the other’s responsibility to go first, we should sit them in a corner until they grow up. 

So, with respect, I have to ask the East Campus neighbors, are you keeping faith with the rest of the city by whistling past a possible part two, by pretending it hasn’t always been part of the process, just wishing that it isn’t something that has to be discussed for the benefit of our kids? 

James Day 

 

• 

STATE BUDGET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a parent and as President of the Berkeley PTA Council, I am deeply concerned about the effects on children of the governor’s 2005-2006 state budget proposal. The proposal funds education below the Proposition 98 guaranteed minimum and further harms public schools that already suffer from inadequate resources. Legislators must consider the long term, negative effects of inadequate funding on California’s children as they deliberate the proposal. 

California’s schools are among the lowest funded in the nation and have suffered $9.8 billion in cuts in the last several years. Our average class size is the largest in the nation. We are last in the nation in the funding of school nurses, librarians, and counselors. Yet we have the most rigorous academic standards and one of the most stringent accountability systems in the nation. These high standards point the way to academic success for our students and future workers, but schools require adequate funding in order to fulfill that promise. 

The governor and legislators must meet their responsibility to California’s children, on whose success the future of California rests. They need to consider all necessary actions, including state budget structural reform, to ensure a budget serves the needs of children, schools and families. Our children, in Berkeley and throughout California, deserve the best educational opportunity we can give them. 

Roia Ferrazares 

President, Berkeley PTA Council 

 

• 

MESSAGE TO BHS TEACHERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley High can feel like a huge, impersonal place to many youngsters. If a student is not part of some special program or special group, it can be hard to feel like part of anything. For my son who will be graduating this June a few of you have made a difference. Your personal interest has helped him feel a sense of belonging even in this giant institution. Though he sometimes looked as if he just stepped out of a rap video you have looked past stereotypes and into the heart of a fine young person. Though his size and growing beard make him look like an adult, you have realized that he is not. He has needed you to reach out with an occasional reminder, a little encouragement and a bit of understanding. And you have provided these.  

His good verbal skills may even have lead you to believe that he is more sophisticated than he is. You could have been annoyed and believed that he wasn’t really trying. But you didn’t. You realized that he was sometimes clueless, a work in progress and you gave him the benefit of the doubt. Not all teachers are willing or able to see distinct individuals in the mass of teenage bodies that is Berkeley High, but a few of you have done so. You have tutored him at lunchtime, trusted his explanations, or encouraged him to rewrite papers for a better grade. And sometimes you have just talked to him and listened to him. 

There is no book or curriculum that is as powerful in teaching youngsters as a teacher is. And what some of you teach the students that is more important than any content is that they are worthwhile people and capable of success. 

My son has had his share of challenges dealing with teachers of differing levels of competence and commitment. Fortunately he has also had the opportunity to grow from the skill and kindness of others like you. 

It may be years before you see the positive outcomes that you have brought about and in many cases you won’t see them at all. But I want you to know that the time you have spent on my son and other kids like him has not been wasted. He already appreciates it and so do we his parents. 

Susan DeMersseman 

 

• 

BUDGET PRIORITIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I strongly oppose the proposal to spend $2.4 million for a Public Safety Computer Dispatch System for the following reasons:  

• It is not a good investment and will require further staff-time and City money before it becomes fully operational; and  

• The reasons that a new dispatch system is needed are not transparent.  

I recognize the Herculean task that is required of City Council to make hard decisions on the city budget. In considering the many worthy competing priorities for continued service to our diverse population, I believe that spending this large sum for a dispatch system is not appropriate. Having some experience in developing information systems for public health purposes, I have learned that several criteria must be met before an information system can be successfully developed and/or used effectively. The system was advertised as “off-the-shelf” and will presumably be usable immediately after purchase. My experience is that no such item in information systems exists. There are always reasons why specific new functionalities need to be programmed; and/or bugs need to be “fixed.” I read recently in the Berkeley Daily Planet that a $1 million computer dispatch system was bought a few years ago and had to be abandoned because it did not serve the department’s needs. Was this also advertised as an “off-the-shelf” system?  

It is important for the public to understand the reasons for the need of a new computerized dispatch system that will be used by the police department. In the climate of information-sharing with fewer human rights protections, I believe the citizens of Berkeley deserve a detailed description of the rationale for this new police tool, what it will accomplish, potential limitations of the system, and potential adverse impacts on privacy and human rights.  

I strongly urge City Council to spend $2.4 million of our money on continued services rather than on this dispatch system.  

Lisa Pascopella 

 

• 

PROTECTING RETIREMENT SECURITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The governor’s proposal to overhaul the pensions that millions of California’s public employees depend on for a secure retirement is bad news for working people and tax payers throughout the state. Under the current CALPERS system, public employees get a guaranteed pension and the choice to contribute to a 401(k) plan. The governor proposes to make it illegal to provide traditional pensions to new employees, leaving them with only risky 401(k) type plans. Given that 401(k) plans lost 40 percent in the recent stock market crash, its clear that investing all of one’s retirement savings in a 401(k) is a risk that working people should not be forced to take. And when investments go sour and workers’ retirement savings go belly up, its taxpayers who will be forced to foot the bill. So who wins if working families and taxpayers lose? The big winners will be the Wall Street brokers who will reap billions in fees and commissions.  

CALPERS currently provides what all working people have a right to expect: a secure retirement. Instead of working to destroy retirement security for millions of working people in California, the governor should strive to ensure that every working person in California has the retirement security that the current CALPERS system guarantees. 

Michael Marchant 

Albany



Mayor Brown Misses the Point of This Column By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR Column

UNDERCURRENTS OF THE EAST BAY AND BEYOND
Friday March 18, 2005

A recent UnderCurrents column was linked in Mayor Jerry Brown’s new online blog (http://jerrybrown.typepad.com/), but do you think maybe this one was a mistake? 

In a March 11 entry on Oakland’s sideshows called “Culture Crash,” Mr. Brown writes, “A sideshow, for the uninitiated, is a homegrown version of a demolition derby, except it takes place illegally on city streets—often under the influence of drugs and violence.” 

The word “violence” in the mayor’s sideshow description links to an online report of a Feb. 11 NBC-11 news story (“Expectant Father Fatally Shot At ‘Sideshow’”) concerning the death of Eric Ramon Baeza. 

We can’t let Mr. Brown’s sideshow description pass without a comment. A “demolition derby” is an event in which cars deliberately bang into each other, the purpose of the exercise being to bash all the other cars into submission, so that yours is the only one able to drive away. A sideshow is an event in which drivers attempt to do intricate maneuvers with their cars—spinning donuts, for example—without hitting anything. One can be against the sideshows or for them; that’s your choice. But we ought to at least describe them as they are. 

It gets worse, friends. 

In the next paragraph, Mr. Brown writes, “The spectacle has its share of apologists. They believe government has failed to provide ‘youth’ with suitable evening amusement—thus the need for late night hijinks.” The word “apologists” links to a recent UnderCurrents column. 

Reading Mr. Brown’s comments, you would think that I—as a sideshow “apologist,” in the mayor’s words—support the sideshows as they are now operated in Oakland’s streets. I don’t, and I’ve made that clear in my columns. In a June, 2001 “Oakland Unwrapped” column in the now defunct Urbanview newspaper, for example, I wrote that sideshows are “sometimes dangerous, and it’s almost always annoying to older folk (like myself) who have to put up with the noise and the inconveniences.” 

Over the past few years, I have also written often about how the sideshows ended up in the streets in the first place, driven by Oakland police and politicians out of the parking lots at Eastmont Mall and Pac’N’Save on Hegenberger—where they bothered almost nobody—and into East Oakland’s residential neighborhoods—where they are bothering almost everybody, and costing us more than a million dollars a year in police overtime trying to curtail them, besides. 

I have also advocated solutions to the problem, writing in this column in June of 2003, again for example, “The trick, I think, is to try to take the most positive aspects of the original sideshows—the excitement, the music, the dancing, the boys-getting-phone-numbers-from-girls thing, the tight cars—some of the things that even Oakland Police Traffic Division head Dave Kozicki has said, on occasion, that he might be able to support—and out of that create something new and productive that both the city and the youngsters can live with.” 

You would think that the mayor’s staff would have linked to one of these two columns—both of which are available on the web—as a fair presentation of my position on Oakland’s sideshows. Instead, oddly, Mr. Brown’s “apologists” link sends you to a Feb. 11 UnderCurrents column (“Applying Critical Thinking to Another Oakland Shooting Death”) concerning the Eric Ramon Baeza death that was the subject of the NBC-11 story. The column does not state my position on the sideshows. Instead, it raises the question of whether or not it was actually a sideshow at which Mr. Baeza was killed. 

One might argue that Mr. Brown included the “Critical Thinking” column to be fair, but fairness has not been one of his hallmarks in his approach to the sideshows. Another—more likely—theory is that it is typical of the sloppiness with which Mr. Brown typically approaches Oakland issues. Rather than actually going through and reading my various columns on sideshows until they came to one that proved his point, it appears that whoever provided the “apologists” link on the mayor’s blog simply came to the first sideshow UnderCurrents column they found, assumed that it must involve “apologizing” for the sideshows since they had already decided I was a sideshow “apologist,” and stuck the link in. 

Anyways, let me make it easy for the folks at the top of the stairs in the big building on Frank Ogawa Plaza. 

I am not in favor of the illegal street sideshows currently taking place in East Oakland’s neighborhoods. 

On the other hand, I am not in favor of the methods used by Oakland police to halt them. I believe that Oakland’s current police suppression tactics to try to halt the sideshows have made the situation worse, rather than making it better. 

In addition it is my belief that you do not make young people responsible by merely constantly talking about how irresponsible they are, as the mayor has done. You help make young people responsible by giving them responsibility-as much as they can handle-and working with them to handle it. 

Therefore… 

I believe that the City of Oakland should partner with African-American and Latino youth in a serious attempt to develop a form of sideshows that is acceptable to city officials, the East Oakland neighborhoods, and the youth themselves. There would have to be give and take on all sides, and there is no guarantee that such an effort would work. But the effort itself would force all sides in this dispute to deal with each other as partners working for a common goal rather than adversaries in the streets. I think such an effort would cause Oakland to look at these youth in a different light, recognizing that they are citizens of this city whose needs have to be accounted for just like any other citizen, people who should not be dismissed simply because we have the power to dismiss them. And I think such an effort would cause the youth themselves to take on more responsibility for their own actions, realizing that they can play a major role in how they are viewed, and understanding that how they are viewed goes a long ways toward whether or not their goals are realized. 

Would all the young people participate in such an effort? Nope. Neither would all the politicians, or all of anybody else. So what? If you waited around for all of anybody to participate in something, you’d never get anything done. 

I think there is tremendous potential in such an effort to mediate the sideshow problem and create an acceptable alternative, potential to heal old wounds, potential to open up partnerships that can be beneficial to all Oakland citizens, spiritually, financially, and in many other ways. 

And, finally, I think it’s stupid not to try. 

This shouldn’t be a news soundbite or a slogan on a campaign mailer. This can’t be left to be a wedge issue in somebody’s political race. These are not statistics. These are our children. These are our neighborhoods. These are our lives. 

Link up with that, Mr. Brown.?


My Happy New Year Begins Right Now By P.M. PRICE Column

THE VIEW FROM HERE
Friday March 18, 2005

While parked on Shattuck Avenue, sipping a latte and waiting for the Berkeley Public Library to open, I eyed two well-worn women as they ambled by, deep in conversation. One, with grayed-brown curls seeping out of her frayed knitted cap, clutched an overstuffed garbage bag to her side. She seemed quite intense as she spoke to her companion: “I think back in time to when things have disappeared and you’ve been drunk and you didn’t know you lost it…” 

That’s all I heard through my half-opened window but it was enough to get me to thinking about how many things have slipped through my fingers and out of my life when I wasn’t paying attention. 

It’s March already and I haven’t made a single New Year’s resolution. Yeah, I’d like to eat healthier, get more exercise and in general, be a happier, kinder, more fulfilled individual. But, what else is there? What’s missing from my miserable life? 

Well, I’m not truly miserable. I have much to be grateful for and I am grateful. I count my blessings every day. On the other hand, I peer out at these two haggard crones, and I wonder, could that be me 10 years from now, waddling down some small town street without a comb or a cup of coffee, full of wonder and regret? 

“I think back in time to when things have disappeared and you’ve been drunk and didn’t know you lost it…” 

It keeps running through my head, nudging me, taunting me. I think back on missed opportunities, both career-building and romantic. I think back on all the times I kept my mouth shut when I was burning up inside, wanting to scream or to hit somebody. I think back to all the times from early childhood through elementary school and even in college when I tried to make myself small, invisible, so as not to draw any attention to myself that would cause me pain. 

And finally, I think to myself, here I am, middle-aged and still thinking about all this crap. Perhaps what I need to do is to stop thinking about all this old stuff and just let it go. It’s done, over with, there’s nothing I can change about the past. All I have is right now, this moment. And if I’m ever going to become truly fulfilled, I had better get up off of my behind and do whatever it takes to become so and be quick about it. Certainly no one else can do it for me.  

So, what do I want from what’s left of my life? When we were young and invincible, we all thought we’d not only see the world but would change it, profoundly, for the better. We were going to conquer mountains and all manner of evil foes. Some of us thought we would become rich and famous, write the next great American novel, discover the cure for cancer or teach children how to read. Others just wanted to live in peace, free from artificial, man-made constraints of any kind (so long as we’re not hurting anybody else, we’d always add). The point is that we all had dreams that we believed in then and that many of us have dreams we still believe in now and that it’s not too late. It can’t be. What would be the point if there’s no point? 

I look around and think, okay, what’s happening right now? And I am surprised to find myself contemplating many of the same “Who am I and what am I doing here?” type of questions I pondered as a 16-year-old hippie hanging out on Venice Beach. I then ask myself, if I’m not exactly where I want to be at this stage of my life, what steps am I taking to get there? And therein lies my New Year’s Resolution: To actively take whatever steps are necessary, even if my own timeworn and weary mind and body can only manage one such step per day. I will take that small step and then another and another until each one of my dreams—leftover and newly emerging—comes true. 

Time’s a-wastin’. Get on with it, already. Happy New Year!  

 

 

 


Berlusconi’s Bid for Survival Leads to Italy’s Pullout From Iraq By PAOLO PONTONIERE News Analysis

Pacfic News Service
Friday March 18, 2005

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi didn’t wait for the result of the joint American-Italian probe into the killing of Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari, and the wounding of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, before announcing the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq. Combined with a hastily arranged Ukrainian departure and a planned Romanian retreat, Berlusconi’s announcement shatters the so-called Coalition of the Willing, rendering the Iraq occupation a de facto Anglo-American operation.  

Berlusconi made his announcement carefully, so as not to embarrass and further infuriate his American allies. Withdrawal will start in September and take place only after the Iraqi parliament nominates a national government. Still, the announcement makes it very difficult for Berlusconi to backtrack. He was already facing political difficulties. First, the Italian mission in Iraq was recently extended to next June only because the center-left coalition abstained. Berlusconi also is now sandwiched between two elections, the regional polls of April 3-4 and the national election of June 2006.  

Varied factors convinced Berlusconi to unhitch his political destiny from Washington’s fortunes in Iraq. First is the obvious fallout from the Calipari-Sgrena shooting. Berlusconi found himself on the defensive and isolated. He was attacked by the left and by the center-left coalition, and some of his key political partners also undercut him.  

While Berlusconi reacted with guarded caution to the incident, calling U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler to Palazzo Chigi for what was seen as a ceremonial “eye-to-eye” meeting, Italy’s Foreign Minister Giancarlo Fini—the vice-prime minister and leader of Alleanza Nazionale, Italy’s second-largest political formation—was spewing fire at the House of Representatives, denouncing the Calipari-Sgrena incident.  

Fini insisted that Italy not only had the moral obligation to bring back its kidnapped citizens, but also to not reveal the kidnappers’ identities. Fini went further, stating that the “Italian government will not hand over hostages to the Americans.” While he was holding forth in parliament, his party’s youth organization was planning a street protest right in front of the American embassy in Rome, marking one of the first times in many years when youths from the left and the right found themselves on the same side of the barricade.  

Polls taken in the days following the Sgrena incident showed that 70 percent of Italians did not believe the Americans were telling the truth and did not trust the U.S. investigation. A similar percentage believed Italian troops should leave Iraq. Another poll taken by La Stampa, one of Italy’s major daily newspapers, found that if elections were held the government would be voted out of office.  

Berlusconi, therefore, was in danger of coming off as a lackey of the Americans. The risk was greatly increased by reactions from the United States, where neoconservatives accused the Italians of financing Sunni terrorism by agreeing to negotiate with Sgrena’s kidnappers.  

A flurry of bilateral contacts—telephone calls from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Fini, from Bush to Berlusconi, and letters from Bush to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italy’s president—failed to convince the Italian public that the United States was accepting shared responsibility for the incident. Berlusconi had to recall Ambassador Sembler to Pallazzo Chigi two more times, and only then did the United States agree not to leave its ally hanging by the thumbs and to name a joint Italian-American investigating commission.  

By then the damage had been done. The United States was irritated. The Italian left, though not through its own merit, was finally able prove to the Italian public that the Iraq coalition was just a masquerade for the unilateral U.S. bid to dominate Middle East politics.  

“The bilateral (Italy-U.S.) commission is a Pyrrhic victory,” says Giovanni Russo-Spena, House Speaker for Rifondazione Comunista, Italy’s fifth largest political force. Recalling the Cermis case—when a U.S. fighter jet severed the cables of a mountain lift, killing 20 persons—Russo-Spena said the joint probe will not produce any relevant result, “but it gives Berlusconi the possibility to regain the ground he was losing to Fini.”  

Besides the shakiness of U.S.-Italian relations over Iraq, additional domestic factors led to Berlusconi’s decision to withdraw the troops. There’s turmoil on his right. Alleanza Nazionale, Fini’s party and Berlusconi’s main ally, recently split into two fractions, with Alessandra Mussolini—Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter—taking the helm of Alternativa Sociale, a more rightist group. Mussolini’s party was recently accused of falsifying signatures to get on the ballot and barred from taking part in Lazio’s regional election—Lazio is one of Italy’s 21 states—by the president of that region. On the eve of nationwide local elections, this could spell big trouble for Berlusconi’s coalition. The announcement of the troop withdrawal provides a convenient popular distraction.  

To outflank his center-left opposition, Berlusconi had to distance himself from the United States. As a result, he is enjoying a rise in his personal ratings. Withdrawing the troops from Iraq may allow him to tap further into popular good will, depriving his center-left opponents of a fortuitous advantage.  

 

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

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Ann Arbor, Berkeley Comparisons are Invalid By DANIEL SCHONBERG Commentary

Friday March 18, 2005

Ann and Dean Metzger’s op-ed “Why UCB Should Follow the Lead Of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor” (Daily Planet, March 4-7) was very frustrating. It begins in the first two paragraphs by seeming to seek a middle ground in the present fight between the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley by examining the relationship of Ann Arbor, Mich. to the University of Michigan (UM). After those two paragraphs though, the article takes a different tone, implying that UM bends over backwards for Ann Arbor and thereby implies that UCB should act likewise. Worse though than the articles faux-unbiased stance, is that it is based on a false premise. Namely that Ann Arbor and Berkeley are in similar situations. Having spent roughly four years living in both cities, I feel I am qualified to point out the failings in the Metzgers’ premise. 

Before I proceed, I will admit my own bias in this situation. If you are uninterested in such, proceed directly to the next paragraph. I do not feel that UCB is innocent in the town-gown fight, but I feel the City of Berkeley holds the greater guilt in the current incarnation. Whomever the instigators of the situation, the town is taking it to the higher level (by way of litigation). The thing that separates Berkeley from El Cerrito, Richmond, and Oakland is not physical proximity in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the presence of a top tier university. That university is a good thing for Berkeley, and it should be helped to grow instead of being forced to stagnate (as stagnating things often quickly become dying things). So as I see it, it comes down to a fight where UCB seeks to continue its growth while the City of Berkeley seeks for it to maintain the status quo (if not become less intrusive). That being said, I shall proceed to point out the differences between Ann Arbor and Berkeley. 

The first difference between the situation of the two universities can be seen through an examination of the layout of UM (www.umich.edu/~info/maps.html). A quick study reveals that Ann Arbor has ample physical space for UM to expand. UM’s north campus in particular is sparse in a way that Berkeley simply cannot be. Without any deep search, I am aware of the construction of a life sciences building, a computer science building, and more dormitory space on campus that did not require the demolition of existing housing or parking all within the last five years. With as much breathing room as UM has, comparing its relationship with Ann Arbor to that of UCB and Berkeley is like comparing apples and oranges. 

A second point of comparison is the local populations attitudes towards college football. Its a reality of modern society that college football is big business. A successful college football program can pay for a university’s entire athletic department (such as UM). In Ann Arbor, people know this. Every fall Saturday with a home game results in some 110,000 people coming to Ann Arbor for the football game. This isn’t a huge problem though, since the like has been happening for years now (Michigan hasn’t had a losing football season in over 30 years). The high school kitty-corner to the stadium never bothered to develop on a large tract of its land since it can use this land for parking (and at $10 a spot as of four years ago, they can do well). Other parts of the surrounding area have adapted to thrive off the numbers attending each game. With a strong alumni presence in the south eastern Michigan area, it’s not hard to see why Ann Arbor is happy to have the masses come out each week for the game. Now compare to Berkeley, where the recent increase of crowds to around 70,000 have turned the locals into a raging frenzy. From the comments I read in the press, it seems the Berkeley locals would rather that the football team draw no one at all. The gapping differences in how these towns react to college football makes comparisons between the cities irrelevant. 

A third difference between Ann Arbor and Berkeley is the make up of the population living immediately adjacent to campus. Throughout my time in Ann Arbor, the only times I would run into people without a current tie to the university would be when I traveled miles out of my way to get away from campus. Even recent graduates I knew wishing to continue living in Ann Arbor would move away from the campus. Its simply understood that student housing should be close to campus, and that only students would really want to live in it. Compare this to Berkeley, where students can’t even afford to live in apartments just a block or two from the northern border of campus. As a result, in Berkeley, students must constantly move around near the homes of locals, making neither happy. Sure its easy for Michigan and Ann Arbor to get along well in comparison to Berkeley and UCB. The town is laid out so that they don’t get in each others’ ways. 

Finally, when considering the Metzgers’ article, it is important to note the differences in California’s budgetary methods. Thanks to Proposition 13, California significantly reduces the property tax revenue it should take in. As a result, people are motivated to stay in homes on valuable land. When the land’s value has been arbitrarily inflated by the presence of a premiere public university, this creates undue resentment against the university. Michigan is not held down by any similar laws. This and other points of California’s tax law makes the comparison between Ann Arbor and Berkeley invalid. 

For these reasons, the Metzgers’ article makes an irrelevant point. Sure, UM gives money to Ann Arbor, but that says nothing about how UCB and Berkeley should interact. There is one point the article does make though, and that is this: “Just because you find some facts on the Internet, it doesn’t mean you understand the situation.” 

 

Daniel Schonberg is a Berkeley resident.?


University Contributes Much to Public Projects By STEVEN FINACOM Commentary

Friday March 18, 2005

Ann and Dean Metzger write in the March 4-7 Daily Planet that the University of Michigan has been “a partner in many capital improvement projects” in the city of Ann Arbor and that the University of California campus in Berkeley should follow Michigan’s lead. 

It already does. For the past three quarters of a century the University of California has partnered repeatedly with the City of Berkeley in planning and financing public street improvements. 

In the early 1930s, the university gave the city of Berkeley land to widen Bancroft Way west of Dana Street, based on the recommendations of a transportation consultant who had been jointly engaged by university and city to evaluate the impacts of constructing Edwards Stadium. 

Later, when the Student Center/Student Union complex was built north of Telegraph and Bancroft, the university again apparently contributed land to widen additional blocks of Bancroft, from Barrow Lane to Dana. 

And again, in the mid-20th century, when the city wanted to reconfigure Oxford Street to carry through traffic around downtown Berkeley, the university cooperated by cutting into the western edge of the campus to provide space for the street widening. Today, Oxford is four lanes wide with a landscaped median, thanks to this contribution of university land. 

More recently, in the 1990s, the university encouraged the city to apply for a Federal ISTEA grant to improve the pedestrian streetscape on Center Street, between the BART Station and Oxford. 

The university put up matching funds which resulted in the highly successful sidewalk improvements. When the city didn’t have sufficient staffing to administer the design contract for the work, the university provided staff, gratis, to work with the design consultants; the city exercised ultimate approval over the design. 

The university also cooperated with the city and students in the mid-1990s to fund an extensive Southside Pedestrian Lighting Study. Part of the outcome of this was a university contribution of a quarter of a million dollars to improve the street lighting along Piedmont Avenue, a city street. 

The university has also contributed to various intersection improvements on city streets, including current pledges of hundreds of thousands of dollars to help improve intersections along Hearst Avenue. 

In fact, in May of 2004 the Northside Neighborhood Association wrote to city officials applauding this project and stating “this is a great example of how the city, the university and the community working together can achieve positive solutions for the challenges that we face.” Mr. Metzger, in his capacity as a member of the Transportation Commission, was one of the recipients of that letter. 

The university also maintains, for free, the landscape of part of at least one city owned street, the historic portion of Piedmont Avenue north of Bancroft Way. And a few years back the university pledged matching funds for a city grant application to restore the historic streetscape on Piedmont from Gayley to Dwight; unfortunately, that grant was not funded by the state. 

Last but not least, the Metzgers—and you, dear reader, and I—should remember that every time we, as Berkeley residents, drive on Gayley Road across the eastern edge of the campus or take a jaunt up Centennial Drive through Strawberry Canyon to get to Grizzly Peak Boulevard or Tilden Park, we’re driving not on city streets but on campus roadways that have been made available for public use for several decades. 

Berkeley citizens regard those throughfares as vital parts of the public street network but they are, in fact, entirely constructed, maintained, and improved by the university. Last summer, for instance, the university repaved much of Gayley Road. 

Finally, the Metzgers applaud the University of Michigan’s contribution of some $14,000,000 annually to the City of Ann Arbor but apparently don’t 

realize that $6 million of that money represents the University of Michigan’s annual water bill, presumably paid to the City of Ann Arbor as the local water district. 

I suppose if the University of California were to claim the water payments it makes to East Bay MUD as part of its “contributions” to local government 

it could assert an equally heroic figure. 

I wish I could claim my water bill as a public spirited “contribution” to local government! 

It just goes to show that if the grass seems to be greener elsewhere, Michigan for instance, someone is probably paying to water it. 

 

Steven Finacom is an employee of UC Berkeley and a Berkeley resident.?


Jewish Music Festival Celebrates 20 Years By BEN FRANDZEL

Special to the Planet
Friday March 18, 2005

If you wanted to know what Jewish music sounds like, would you turn to a beatboxing hip-hop artist? An avant-garde string quartet? A master of ancient Middle Eastern musical traditions? 

To discover the many ways the range of Jewish identity can be reflected in music, or simply to dance, or explore new musical worlds, Bay Area listeners can turn to the 20th annual Berkeley Jewish Music Festival, which begins this weekend and runs for two weeks. It is the country’s largest Jewish music festival and organizers have assembled a rich and varied lineup of performers and events for this special anniversary.  

The concerts begin Saturday night at Wheeler Auditorium on the UC Berkeley campus, with a joint performance by Israel’s East West Ensemble and Turkish Sufi master Omar Faruk Tekbilek and his ensemble. True to their name, the Israeli group mixes Western instruments with such sounds as the Persian ney flute, stirring up an entrancing mix of Jewish, Arab and Asian music with rock, jazz, and Western classical touches. They’re beautifully matched by Tekbilek’s ensemble, which draws on music of Turkey, Arabia, Greece, Persia and Spain, and has worked with musicians as diverse as Don Cherry and Ginger Baker. 

“It’s our 20th year, so we wanted to start with an opening night that would have more meaning than just a concert,” said Festival Director Ellie Shapiro. “It was to make a statement that we wanted these two rich cultural traditions to come together in music, so this is a collaboration between Sufi Muslim and Jewish mystical traditions, with 14 world-class musicians.”  

For the first time, the festival features an artist-in-residence, the Israeli composer, oud (Middle Eastern lute) player and violinist Yair Dalal. Of Iraqi-Jewish descent, Dalal has done much to teach audiences about the intertwined music and cultures of Arabs and Jews. 

“He’s made it his life’s work to perpetuate the unique culture of Iraqi and Middle Eastern Jews in general,” Shapiro said.  

Dalal has been giving public lectures and performances in the Bay Area since February, introducing Middle Eastern music to 19 Bay Area schools, including a workshop with the Berkeley High orchestra. 

“This is our fourth year in the Berkeley public schools doing workshops on Jewish music. Part of what we do is preserve and perpetuate Jewish culture, so this is also an important part of what the festival is about,” Shapiro said. 

Dalal’s residency concludes with a performance at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station on Sunday, March 20, at 4 p.m. 

The festival also features the high-energy Klezmatics. Described as the cutting edge of the klezmer revival, the band has taken their mastery of this Eastern European Jewish dance music and merged it with jazz, rock, and many strains of world music, in the process collaborating with everyone from Allen Ginsberg to Itzhak Perlman to Arlo Guthrie.  

This time around, they’re joined by Joshua Nelson, an African-American Jewish gospel singer who has performed with Wynton Marsalis and Aretha Franklin. 

“He’s incredible. He has a voice that channels Mahalia Jackson,” Shapiro said. “This is a CD release party for a live album they did last year in Berlin, so you have the energy of an African-American Jewish concert in Berlin, and everything that means.” 

The concert will take place at 4 p.m., Sunday April 3, at Wheeler. The Klezmatics will head down the road for a 7:30 p.m. dance party that night at the festival’s home base, the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, where Jewish dance expert Steven Weintraub will lead a festival finale. 

The festival will feature the great singer/actor Theodore Bikel on March 20 at 4 p.m. at San Francisco’s Temple Emanu-El. A leader of the ‘50s folk revival and an Oscar-nominated actor often seen as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Bikel will be joined by klezmer luminary Hankus Netsky, leader of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. 

“I’m here today doing what I’m doing because when I was six years old, I was dancing around the dining room table to his music,” Shapiro said of Bikel. “In the 1950s he was one of the first people to introduce world music, and now it’s a genre unto itself. It’s a real honor having him here for our 20th year.” 

Another special visitor from Israel is Moroccan-born countertenor Emil Zrihan. The singer, who has been compared to Pavarotti, will be performing with none other than San Francisco’s eclectic new music stalwarts, the Kronos Quartet. The celebrated foursome heard Zrihan and initiated the collaboration, drawn in by the singer called the “Moroccan Nightingale.” Zrihan and Kronos will preview their upcoming world premiere of new arrangements of Zrihan’s classic Arabic-inspired material. 

An all-ages Community Music Day at the JCC will be held on Sunday, March 27, from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Kicking off with a family concert by children’s performer Gary Lapow, guests can delve into 15 workshops, nine performances, and an instrument petting zoo.  

“From the beginning we’ve had the festival as a project of the Berkeley Richmond JCC because the founder of the festival, who was also a founder of the center, recognized the power of music to build community,” Shapiro said. “There’s everything from learning to beat box to learning how to chant Torah. It’s really the gamut of Jewish music today.” 

On March 28 at 7:30 p.m., the JCC will host vocalist and Sephardic music scholar Judith Cohen, in a concert/lecture with her daughter, Tamar Cohen Adams. The program will explore the musical traditions of Spain’s Jews, which survived through centuries of official prohibition. The festival will hold more than a dozen additional concerts, workshops, classes, and panel discussions.  

Altogether, the festival is a Berkeley event, with art, culture, ideas and community coming together. As Shapiro says, “I grew up back east, and I don’t think a festival like this could have happened anywhere else. It’s a cosmopolitan community with an openness to other cultures, and that has allowed us to experiment and be more creative than we could have in many other places.” 

For more information on the Jewish Music Festival, visit www.brjcc.org or call (415) 276-1511. 


Theater Lab Explores Irrationality in Developing Work By KEN BULLOCK

Special to the Planet
Friday March 18, 2005

Going into the foolsFURY Incubator/Shotgun Lab staging of Monster in the Dark is, in a number of ways, like walking in the dark. The publicity for the work-in-progress, playing Mondays and Tuesdays at the Ashby Stage, dwells on the theme, ‘what are you irrationally afraid of?’—and that the show is a work-in-progress, an exploration, and not much more than that. 

Wondering what you’ll be seeing, trying to anticipate, is a big element of the audience’s role in any type of theater, particularly approaching more experimental, movement-oriented troupes like foolsFURY, founded by Ben Yalom in 1998. “Our work is immediate and visceral,” reads the company credo. But foolsFURY doesn’t eschew text. 

Ben himself comes from a literary background, and the group has performed adaptations of older dramatic and literary classics (Jacques and His Master, from Diderot’s novel, and The Illusion, after Corneille’s play), as well as contemporary works, like Mrozek’s short, absurdly humorous social allegories or last year’s staging of Don DeLillo’s Valparaiso. Their ongoing exploration of new themes and modes of production development is always worth following. 

Entering Monster in the Dark is an unusual experience in itself. Each spectator receives on entrance, well, personal treatment—a little reminiscent of a haunted house, or carny sideshows without the barking. There’re attractions to be experienced, and at the end, in a real eye-opener, the spectator finds him-or-herself watching—already in the audience, but more like a voyeur gawking at other spectators still among the grotesques, an overview of what was just a personal foray into this hall of shadows and whispers.  

The show itself is no more immediately frameable—vignettes, tableaux, routines are played out in succession as if on a revolving stage. Soon it becomes apparent there’s continuity, three situations or storylines and that there’s some connection between them: on the dungeon set for Shotgun’s The Just (playing on weekends), a little group gathers at sunset around a black cube in a square of light, muttering things like: “It’s not today.” “Today IS today!” and begins to perform an obscure ritual. 

Meanwhile, there are ongoing episodes of a caregiver addressing the audience of her growing distaste for the helpless old woman she takes care of, acted out in jagged (and strangely humorous) poses, intercut with people in a cellar listening to weather reports on the radio as flood waters rise and others literally stream in, some praising the maker (“Thank you in advance for a sign!”), alternating with a row of instructors right in the audience’s face, voicing explanations from flood myths. 

The ensemble is tight and expresses great range in performing, including Davina Cohen, Deborah Ben-Eliezar, Ben Eckstein, Brian Livingstone of foolsFURY, and Emily Jordan, who’s collaborated with Shotgun. 

Maybe least integrated into the web of interrelated stories, but a gem on its own, is the feminized take on Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart,” with remarkable timing, lights and performance, from the first utterance of “vulture’s eye” to the tableau the trench-coated detectives are presented with when the “ringing in the ears” becomes unbearable. 

The designers—Alex Lopez, lights; Patrick Kalinski, sound (snatches of music, insinuating whispers—and effects made by the cast on kitchen utensils); Lindsey Peck Scherloom, costumes (the detectives’ first appearance reveals her work in puppets and sculpture)—have given a work-in-progress the feel of a professional show, developing great textures for all the senses.  

Ben Yalom commented on the collaboration with Shotgun, “the first real joint project for the Shotgun Lab ... It’s a great collaboration, coming at a time when we’ve brought new actors into our company, a new sound designer and literary manager, and plan regular training sessions—it’s infused the existing company with new energy.” 

Yalom says the “talkback” sessions after the performances have been the most fruitful he remembers. 

“There’s an audience developing of those who go out to see works-in-progress, whether at Shotgun Lab, foolsFURY or wherever, who enjoy having a voice, have something to say about what they’ve seen,” he says. 

With the increase in staged readings all over the Bay Area in recent years, it could be the beginning of a new era of audience participation in the process of making theater—and Shotgun Lab and foolsFURY are right at the forefront. 


‘Monday at Moe’s’ Series Features Poetry Duo By KEN BULLOCK

Special to the Planet
Friday March 18, 2005

Poets David Gitin and Jack Marshall—both long involved with poetry in the Bay Area, and long acquainted with each other—will read their poems at 7:30 p.n. Monday, March 21 at Moe’s Books on Telegraph Avenue.  

David Gitin—cofounder of Poets’ Theater at the Straight Theater in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, and past participant in music shows (with Charles Amirkhanian) and poetry programer on KPFA—is author of eight books of poems, including two by Berkeley’s Blue Wind Press (This Once and Fire Dance) and his new selection, Passing Through (Linehan Press, in Monterey, where Gitin lives and teaches), his first book in 15 years. 

This will be Gitin’s first Bay Area reading in a decade. The reading is part of the Monday at Moe’s Poetry Series organized by Owen Hill. Admission is free.  

Gitin’s work has been widely praised by older contemporaries, including Robert Creeley, late longtime Berkeley resident Larry Eigner, John Cage, and Allen Ginsberg, who said of Gitin’s poems, “Maybe the clearest sort of writing anyone can do.” 

Gitin characterizes his poetry as lyric (“the blue/rain the/silky descents,” from “In The Wrists”) spurning not only the attribution of his poems to various schools, but also the cliche of dubbing his brief poems “minimalist.” 

“The trouble with the whole ‘gang’ approach to literary history is that it leaves too many people out,” he says. “Jack Marshall, for instance.” 

The poems in Passing Through range in mood from elegiac (“the door/slopes of light/your body/a delay/in glass”) to wry humor (“chuckle down/fear//year/after year//smile/like a porpoise”); both are complete poems, titled by the first two and three words, respectively. 

Gitin went to university at Buffalo, where he met poet Charles Olson, but he majored in philosophy. His advisor was Marvin Farber, student of Edmund Husserl, founder of phenomenology—an interest he shared with poets Carl Rakosi and George Oppen (who appointed Gitin his bibliographer). Rakosi and Oppen are two of the poets (along with Louis Zukofsky, Bunting and Charles Reznikoff) in An ‘Objectivists’ Anthology, edited by Zukofsky, which Gitin discovered through reading Pound. Trained as a pianist and a violinist, Gitin has spoken of his conflicting ambitions in working with words or music—something he also shared with Rakosi, and with Marshall. 

Marshall, another longtime friend of Carl Rakosi, read a poem about music at Rakosi’s 100th birthday celebration at the San Francisco Public Library in November 2003. After Rakosi’s death last year, Marshall wrote a poem, “To My Friend,” including the lines, “If we had to do it over again,/we agreed, we’d be composers.” 

Marshall’s poems seem more discursive than Gitin’s, and longer. “One of Jack’s poems is as long as seven or eight of mine, at least,” jokes Gitin, “I’m reading first!”) They also tend to be autobiographical. 

His prose memoir From Baghdad to Brooklyn, Growing up in a Jewish-Arabic Family in Mid-Century America, will be published by Coffee House Press in October. Yet Marshall talks about a memoir being “all fiction, whether called fiction or nonfiction; it’s what you inherited; you choose on the run what you’ll explore—as much to do with desire as recounting actual facts.” 

He says, “Poetry’s something else; it creates a reality of its own, independent of what happens. I like that quote from Wittgenstein: ‘To create a language is to create a form of life.’” 

Marshall offers what he calls “a very small definition of poetry: precise perception and feeling propelled ... a continual transformation. I’m drawn to the way lines change sinuously, speeding one perception to another.” 

In his poem “The Lie of Health,” he writes: 

 

From a height, the sea 

right now looks like all windows 

thrown open at once. 

Any second now birds, strewn  

breadcrumbs on shore, will rise, mass. lock 

together in fluid flying jig- 

saws tight as an Escher. 

Perfect 

fit of having no ties, being the weather. 

 

Marshall has travelled and worked in many places. His first book of 10, The Darkest Continent (1967), was written, he said, after “working as a seaman on a freighter going to Africa, up the Congo, stopping at many different ports ... a voyage to origins ... I wished Rimbaud had written after he’d gone to Africa ... there’re things in my book about the Watusi, Rwanda 30 years before [the massacres]—it all keeps looping back,” 

Marshall, who has taught writing at Iowa and SF State, will read at Moe’s from his collected poems, Gorgeous Chaos (Coffee House, 2002). 

In the book, from a poem called “Angels II,” he writes, “Winter run-off babbling on/at the edge of an ocean vast enough to get lost in .... /You don’t need to be in it/to get lost in it’s way of making many things return/major that were once/incidental.” He will also read more recent poems, “about what’s going on politically, more straight on, angrier than those in Gorgeous Chaos,” he said. 

“Poetry creates an alternative to the way things seem to be, attempts to make something new out of what’s been given,” Marshall says. “Any line would contain a whole ethos, a whole world encapsulated in a single line ... no beginning or end—the center is everywhere.” 


Arts Calendar

Friday March 18, 2005

FRIDAY, MARCH 18 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “For Better or Worse” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through April 24. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949.  

Central Works, “Enemy Combatant” opens at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Performances are Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. through March 26. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

“Frank Oliver’s Twisted Cabaret 2005,” Fri., Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12-$20. 925-798-1300. 

Impact Theatre, “Othello” at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Euclid. Thurs.- Sat. through March 19. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468.  

Shotgun Players “The Just” by Albert Camus. Thurs.- Sun. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. through April 10. Tickets are sliding scale $10-$30. 841-6500.  

Un-Scripted Theater Company “You Bet Your Improvisor!” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through March 26 at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.unscripted.com 

Youth Musical Theater Company, “Jesus Christ Superstar” Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m. and Sun. at 3 p.m. at Longfellow Middle School, 1500 Derby at Sacramento. TIckets are $12 general, $6 student. For reservations call 595-5524. www.YMTCBerkeley.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Spring” paintings by Michael Grady and Judy Poldi. Reception for the artists at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. Exhibition runs to April 23. 527-3100. 

“Bucky Printers” A group printmaker show with works varying in styles from the traditional woodblock to experimental stitching and stencil. Opening reception at 7:30 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. boontlinggallery@hotmail.com 

FILM 

Edgar G. Ulmer: “The Black Cat” at 7 p.m. and “Strange Illusion” at 8:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John Rowe featured poet at 7:30 p.m. at at the Fellowship Café, Cedar & Bonita Sts. Donation $5-$10. 841-4824. 

“Divine Madness - Women Poets” with Kathryn Waddell Takara, Opal Plamer Adisa, Karla Brundage and others at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 5604 Bay Street, Emeryville. 325-4055. 

Joel Olsen on “The Abolition of White Democracy” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

“Althea Thauberger/Matrix 215” Conversation with Matthew Higg and Shannon Jackson at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-1295. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble at 7 p.m. at the Florence Schwimely Little Theater, BHS.  

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$54. 642-9988.  

Oakland East Bay Symphony performs Verdi, Tchaikovsky Armienta and Chabrier at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$60. 625-8497.  

Celebrating Vernal Equinox Organ concert at 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. Donation $10. 444-3555.  

WomenSing Concert “A Musical Odyssey” featuring Josef Rheinberger’s “Regina Coeli” and Benjamin Britten’s “Missa Brevis,” at 8:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $16-$20. 925-974-9169.  

Contra Costa Chorale at 8 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $12-$15, children under 16 free. 524-1861.  

“Tomorrow is Today” dance and martial arts by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company at 7:30 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $5-$20. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Magic City Chamber of Commerce at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Darryl Henriques at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

7th Direction, Hobo Jungle, Saul Kaye Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Akira Tana & Jon Wiitala Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Diego’s Umbrella, funk, jam at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Andrea Maxand’s Ban, Lisa Dewey, Clevergirl at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174.  

Faye Carol, jazz vocalist, at 7 p.m. at Maxwell’s, 341 13th St., Oakland. 839-6169. 

Pipedown, Shadow Boxer, Romans Go Home, Desa at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 19 

CHILDREN  

East Bay Children’s Theater “Shoemaker and The Elves” at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Oakland Museum, 10th and Oak Sts. Tickets are $6. 655-7285. www.childrens-theatre.org 

The Shamrock Ceili, Celtic music at 11:30 a.m. at Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Giving Form to the Formless” calligraphy by Ronald Y. Nakasone. Reception form 2 to 5 p.m. at UNA Information Center, 1403 B Addison St. 849-1752.  

THEATER 

Magical Arts Ritual Theater, “Oracles from the Living Tarot” at 8 p.m. at Arts First Oakland, First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison at 27th. Tickets are $15-$30 available from 523-7754. 

FILM 

International Asian American Film Festival “Evolution of a Filipino Family” at 12:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kala Artist Gallery Conversation with David Hamill, Jonn Herschend and Sarah Smith at 3 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

Prose Open Mic featuring Jan Steckel, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. www.jansteckel.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at 2 and 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$54. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Four Seasons Concerts with Yin Cheng-Zong, pino, at 7:30 p.m. at Calvin Simmons Theater, Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35. 601-7919. 

Philharmonia Baroque “Mozart’s Quartet” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400.  

Magnificat Baroque “Passion and Ressurection” at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Tickets are $12-$25. 415-979-4500.  

Solaris Quartet with Bryan Baker, piano, at 8 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, One Lawson Road, Kensington. Donation $15-$50. 525-0302.  

New Millenium Strings with Joseph Gold, violin, and Kurt Rapf, organ, at 3 p.m. at Lake Park Methodist Church, 281 Santa Clara Ave., Oakland. Donation $10-$20. 528-4633.  

Bay Area Classical Harmonies performs Bach’s B Minor Mass at 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. 866-233-9892. www.berkeleybach.org  

“20 Going on 21” With the San Francisco Choral Artists at 8 p.m. at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, 3534 Lakeshore Ave. Tickets are $17-$22. 415-979-5779. www.sfca.org 

Jewish Music Festival with members of East West Ensemble and the Omar Faruk Tekbilek Ensemble at 8 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $25-$60. www.brjcc.org  

“Tomorrow is Today” dance and martial arts by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company at 7:30 p.m., and Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Tickets are $5-$20. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Mujeres/Women: Cava and Claudia Tenorio at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568.  

The Vowel Movement, Beatbox showcase, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Melanie O’Reilly at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Look, World Wide Spies, Nation of Two, rock, nu wave, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886.  

Madeline Eastman “The Miles Davis Project” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373.  

The Fenians, Gerorge Pederson & the ReincarNatives at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082.  

Pitch Black, Enemy You, Teenagebottlerocket, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

David Benoit at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $15-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, MARCH 20 

CHILDREN 

Nigerian Brothers at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Tickets are $4-$6. 525-5054. 

THEATER 

“Beowulf” The epic translated and performed by Philip Wharton at 7:30 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $10-$15. 415-608-9683. 

“The Boy Who Lost His Laugh” performed by Stagebridge senior theater company at 3 p.m. at Arts First Oakland in the First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison Ave., at 27th St. Tickets are $5-$10. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens” guided tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-1295.  

“Shtetl” A multi-media exhibition by Naomie Kremer. Reception from 2 to 4 p.m. at Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Exhibition runs to July 31. www.magnes.org 

FILM 

Edgar G. Ulmer “People on Sunday” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Julie Carr and Evelyn Reilly at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$54. 642-9988.  

Miró Quartet at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $38 available from 642-9988.  

Philharmonia Baroque “Mozart’s Quartet” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Organ Music performed by Ether Criscuola at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Donation $15. 658-3298. 

Berkeley Youth Arts Festival Performances by young musicians at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893.  

Gil Chun’s Bay Area Follies at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Roda Theatrer, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $10-$15. 526-8474. 

Tezkatlipoka Aztec Dance A Spring Equinox Celebration at 7 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $10. 843-2787.  

Darren Johnston’s United Brassworkers Front at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band from 2 to 5 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198. 

Rahim AlHaj, Iraqi oud music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50. 548-1761.  

Allegiance, Down to Nothing, Stand and Fight at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Hemlock at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174.  

MONDAY, MARCH 21 

THEATER 

The Shotgun Players Theatre Lab, “Monster in the Dark” Mon. and Tues. at 8 p.m. through March 29, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. at MLK. Tickets are $10. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Dreaming Mind, The Conscious Mind” a collaborative exhibition between NIAD Art Center and JFK Univ. School of Holistic Studies at 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd flr. Exhibition runs to Mar. 31. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 649-0499. 

“Overcoming Faceless Labor” Farmworkers through the lens of Almudena Ortiz opens at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Through June 15. 981-6233. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PlayGround “Retelling of an Urban Legend,” readings by emerging playwrights, at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $15. 415-704-3177. www.PlayGround-sf.org 

Ishmael Reed, Tennessee Reed and others at at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Anne Lamott describes “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

David Gitin and Jack Marshall read their poems at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books on Telegraph Ave. Admission is free. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trovatore, traditional Italian songs, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Natasha Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, MARCH 22 

THEATER 

The Shotgun Players Theatre Lab, “Monster in the Dark” Mon. and Tues. at 8 p.m. through March 29, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. at MLK. Tickets are $10. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Karsten Huer describes “Walking in the Big Wild: From Yellowstone to the Yukon on the Grizzly Bears’ Trail” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Teada at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50- $17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jug Free America, Pinebox Boys, Toshio Hirano, darkgrass and cowboy, at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174. www.storkcluboakland.com 

Peter Barshay Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Tomasz Stanko Quartet at 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23 

CHILDREN 

Berkeley Youth Arts Festival Emerson First Graders perform an original musical inspired by “Where the Wild Things Are” at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Deborah Santana describes “Space Between the Stars” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Andrew Schelling reads from “Erotic Love Poems from India: A Translation of the Amarnshataka” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Whole Note Reading Series presents Judy Wells and Dale Jensen at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave. 549-9093. 

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 www.starryplough.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Jazz Gala with the BHS Jazz Ensemble, Lab Band and small combos, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Rep Theater. Tickets are $25-$75. 527-8245. www.berkeleyhighjazz.org 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with In Black and White, music by Jorge Liderman at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Music of Holy Week An organ concert at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

Ned Boynton Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Salsa Caliente All Stars at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Chris Smither, country blues tradition, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Fabulous Disaster, Oc Toons, Riot A Go-Go, punk, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Keiko Matsui at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com


Healthy Gardens Should Incorporate Wildlife By SHIRLEY BARKER

Special to the Planet
Friday March 18, 2005

Just as some city planners behave as though a brand new museum with no budget left for art, and a brand new library without librarians, are just fine, so some gardeners seem to think that a manicured garden without wildlife—often called pests—is also acceptable. This seems to be true of some environmentalists, too. 

Yet research, as well as common sense and a little knowledge of how we got here, show that wildlife is just as necessary for our mental well-being as it is for our physical survival. 

Indeed, some years ago I met a landscaper who told me he brought himself back from a severe depression by allowing his own garden to run wild. He said he just sat in it, surrounded by so-called weeds, day after day and often into the night, letting his feelings wash over him. After about a year—one in which he had surprised an opossum, who played dead, spraying her infants, presumably riding on her back, in all directions, and photo’d a pair of them frolicking in an unpruned apple tree, and found a white-footed rat living in a huge pile of twigs, and watched all kinds of insects and other creatures doing wondrous things, like the female spider who lunched on a suitor—he was cured. The fee for this therapy was a commitment to wildlife landscaping, one which I share.  

It took me a while to realize that one can cohabit with the larger mammals. Racoons may be kept out of the house by shrinking the cat door so it’s a slight squeeze for one’s fattest cat. Vegetables can be wired so that they are not dug up in the racoons’ search for worms. Squirrels it must be said are a challenge, and have to be considered an opportunity to practice tolerance. James Goren, who writes about nature occasionally in the New York Times, added squirrel to his birdwatching list. 

For finches, the base of a metal thistle feeder can be wired to its cylinder, so that a squirrel can not knock it off and spill the seeds. Thistle seeds attract the small dark olive-backed lesser goldfinch as well as the American, and if the feeder is hung in the branches of a Cecile Brunner whose thorns will deter cats, these birds make a charming Chinese painting of bright gold flickering among pink blossoms, enough to raise anyone’s spirits. 

Providing for birds in this way is the most obvious if not the most natural strategy for inviting wildlife into one’s garden. Sugar solutions for hummingbirds can, I believe, induce a fungus disease. Hummingbirds are not only attracted to the color red. In my garden they enjoy white privet, purple buddleya and wild yellow radish. Anna’s hummingbird stays here all year. Before we cut everything native down, they got through the winter on early-flowering currant species. Now they survive on eucalyptus. Ecology is about the interconnection of everything, and environmental purists would do well to pause before removing species that are not native. 

Birds do of course arrive adventitiously, and so do their nests. If you find a hummer’s, a mossy cup the size of an acorn’s, holding three tiny bumble bees with long black threads for beaks, you are in luck. I learned the hard lesson of never revealing the location of any nest, having once shared a hummingbird’s. Next day, the nest was gone. For this reason, I will just say that once, my neighborhood was graced with kites whose nest was at eye level with my bedroom. I watched three hatchlings grow into glowering adolescents, until finally the day for flight arrived. There had been the usual bouncing up and down on branches, until one morning one parent glided in slow motion around the crown of the tree, visibly conveying, “This is how it’s done.” Next day they had gone.  

These kites will not return because the tree has been cut down. I have noticed kites nesting by the bay, but not since the marina environmentalists razed the meadow. 

Let us not kid ourselves, manicuring the land means habitat-destruction, and it is our habitat we are destroying. My landscaper friend recognized this, just in time to save his mind. 

 


Berkeley This Week

Friday March 18, 2005

FRIDAY, MARCH 18 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Greg Delory, Senior Fellow, Space Lab, on “Life in the Solar System.” 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.  

ACCI Seconds Sale Ceramics, jewelry, glass, metal, textiles and fine art, Fri.- Sun., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Solo Sierrans Inspiration Point Hike A nice walk on a paved path with beautiful views. Meet at 4 p.m. in the large parking lot at Inspiration Point off Wild Cat Canyon Rd. Optional dinner in Orinda after the hike. 525-3933. 

“Three Beats for Nothing” a small group meeting weekly at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center to sing for fun and practice, mostly 16th century harmony. No charge. 655-8863, 843-7610. dann@netwiz.net 

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. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

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

SATURDAY, MARCH 19 

Global Day of Action No to War & Occupation March begins at 11 a.m. in Dolores Park, SF with a rally at 1 p.m. at Civic Center. To volunteer call 415-821-6545. 

Compost Happens A workshop on how to create a compost pile and create fertilizer for your garden. From 9 to 11 a.m. at the Visitor Center, Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $30 members/$35 nonmembers. 845-4116. 

Compost Give-Away at 10 a.m. the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Bring your own container. 548-3333. 

“The Wood-Wide-Web and Others Stories of Life Underground” with Prof. Ellen Simms, UCB, on the influence of microorganisms on the evolution of native and exotic plants at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts., Oakland. 238-2220. www.museumca.org 

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

A Conversation with Danny Glover in a benefit for Vista College, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Rep. Tickets are $50-$100. 981-2851. vistatix.com 

Annual Crab Festival at the South Berkeley Community Church, Fairview and Ellis, from 5 to 7 p.m. with crab dinner and music by the Stacey Wilson Trio. Tickets are $35, $17.50 for children. 652-1040. 

LGBT Family Night with pizza, ice cream and a raffle, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. Cost is $3, $10 for families. RSVP to 848-6834, ext. 541. ccostello@baymca.org 

Paper Making Workshop Learn how to recycle used paper into re-usable paper. For ages 7 to 11 years, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $3, registration required. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Youth Arts Festival Block Printing with Karen Weil, for children age 7 to 13, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 644-6893.  

Historical and Botanical Tour of Chapel of the Chimes, a Julia Morgan landmark, at 10 a.m. at 4499 Piedmont Ave. at Pleasant Valley. Reservations required 228-3207.  

“Expanding Your Horizons in Math and Science” a conference for middle school girls, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Mills College. To register call 430-2226. http://eyh.mills.edu 

Car Seat Checks with the Berkeley Police Dept. Learn how to install your child’s car seat correctly, from 10 a.m. to noon at the UC Garage on Addison at Oxford. Free. 647-1111. 

“String Fling” Cazadero Performing Arts Camp Benefit Auction at 6 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Tickets are $75. 527-7500, ext. 11. www.cazadero.org 

Youth Volunteer Day at the Oakland Zoo for youth ages 12-18 who are interested in helping animals and the zoo. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 632-9525, ext. 202. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Seed Saving for Gardeners Learn the basics of savings seeds from your own garden vegetables from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. 548-2220, ext. 233.  

“Jesus & the Bible in Quaker Faith & Practice” with T. Canby Jones, at 9:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St., at Cedar St. 524-4112. 

See & Feel the Aura Workshop with Cynthia Sue Larson from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Change Makers, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10-$20. 655-2405. 

SUNDAY, MARCH 20 

Let There Be Light Celebrate the extra hours of daylight by learning how to make candles. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Ring in Spring Celebrate International Earth Day and the Spring Equinox with a public ringing of Berkeley’s Peace Bell at noon, in the Civic Center Building courtyard, 2180 Milvia St. Councilmember Kriss Worthington hosts.  

Memorial for Karl Linn With music, speakers and films. Pot- 

luck meal. From 3 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Adult School, 1701 San Pablo Ave. 798-8148. www.karllinn.org/MemorialService 

Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at the Willard Community Peace Labyrinth, at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. btwn Derby and Stuart, enter by the dirt road on Derby. Free and wheelchair accessible. 526-7377. 

Interfaith Observance of Peace with the Rev. William Sloane Coffin and others, at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 848-3696. 

Interfaith Vigil and Prayer for Peace Service at 5 p.m., candle lit prayer walk at 6:30 p.m., with Rabbi David Cooper and Rev. Michael Stevens at All Nations Presbyterian Church, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. 658-7700. 

Berkeley Youth Arts Festival Word and Image with poet Tobey Kaplan, a creative writing workshop for all ages, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Lost Waterfall in Spring Learn the history of the waterfall that used to be on this easy 3.5 mile hike. Meet at 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Bring water and a snack and be prepared for muddy trails. 525-2233. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Spring Equinox Gathering at 5:30 p.m. at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. 666-8663. www.solarcalendar.org 

“Sun-Earth Day: Ancient Observatories, Timeless Knowledge” Activities on equinoxes and solstices from noon to 5 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. 336-7300. www.chabotspace.org 

Carpentry for Kids A Family Exploration Day from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts., Oakland. Free with museum admission. 238-2220. www.museumca.org 

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 Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “Great Buddhist Masters: The Sixteen Arhats,” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, MARCH 21 

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 

Berkeley High School Site Council meets from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the school library. www.bhs.berkeleypta.org/ssc 

Town Hall Meeting on the Kensington Library with Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia and Contra Costa County Library Director Anne Cain to discuss the possibility of a new or renovated building for the Kensington Library, at 7 p.m. at 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping in Berkeley Public schools at 1:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 9:45 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. Cost is $2.50 with refreshments. 524-9122. 

“Who Me Stressed?” An exploration of the various avenues one can use to deal with stress, at 8:30 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. at 58th St., Oakland. Free, pre-registration requested. 420-7900, ext. 111. margo@wcrc.org 

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

TUESDAY, MARCH 22 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7:30 a.m. opposite the Pony Ride to celebrate “gloomy winter’s now awa” with Robert Tannahill. 525-2233. 

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

“Climbing Mt. Shasta” a slide presentation with Tim Keating at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Argosy University Information Sessions for degree programs in Psychology, Education and Business at 6 p.m. at 999-A Canal Blvd., Point Richmond. To RSVP or for directions to the school, call 215-0277. 

“Forgetfulness: Is It Normal Aging or Alzheimer’s?” with Brian C. Richardson, M.D. at 4 p.m. at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 104, Albany. To register call 558-7800. 

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. 

Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at Dzalandhara Buddhist Center, in Berkeley. Donations accepted. For directions call 559-8183. 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Carl Arnault will show slides of the world’s coral reefs at 11 a.m. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long every Tues. from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. All ages welcome. 524-9122. 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23 

Military Recruitment Teach-In for Berkeley High students, 2nd through 5th periods in the Little Theater. For more information go to BHS Room C324. Sponsored by CAS Social Action Committee. 

Great Decisions 2005: “Widening Poverty Gap” with Prof. David Levine, Haas School of Business, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. Cost is $5. For information and reservations call 526-2925. 

Honoring Rosie’s Sisters-Women Veterans During Women's History Month Gray Panthers celebrate women who served during WWII, Korea, the Spanish Civil War, and any time. At 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

“Unlocking Horns: Healing & Forgiveness in Burundi” with David Niyonzima at 7:15 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 524-4112. 

Martial Arts Demonstration for children and teens with John Burn and students of Berkeley Cuong Nhu Karate-The Rohai Dojo at 4:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, West Branch, 1125 University Ave. at San Pablo. 981-6270. 

AARP Free Tax Assistance for taxpayers with middle and low incomes, with special attention to those 60 years and older. From 12:15 to 4:15 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Appointments must be made in advance. 526-3720, ext. 5. 

“Who Bombed Judi Bari?” documentary at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. Donation of $5 requested.  

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. 548-9840. 

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. 

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, MARCH 24 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park to look for birds of the Bible. 525-2233. 

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

Bird Walk along the Martin Luther King Shoreline to see marsh birds at 3:30 p.m. For information call 525-2233. 

“Raptor Winged Migration” a lecture and photo presentation with Don Jedlovec, East Bay Regional Parks, on the Lower Klamath Flyway at 7 p.m. in the Marian Zimmer Auditorium, Oakland Zoo. Cost is $8-$10. 632-9525, ext. 142. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Golden Gate Audubon “Saving the Wild Cheetah” at 7:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, between Solano and Marin. Dr. Laurie Marker will give an illustrated presentation on her 30-year effort to save the wild cheetah. Meeting is free and accessible. 843-2222. ggas@goldengateaudubon.org 

”The Future of Food” A film on genetically engineered foods at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. 

Community Budget Workshop with City staff on the two-year City budget cycle which begins July 1, at 7 p.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 981-7004.  

Berkeley Retired Teachers Assoc. General Meeting at 1 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Topic for this meeting is “Health Issues.” 

“Building the Bond Between Cops and Kids” A Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Social fundraiser for the Berkeley Boosters PAL at 6 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $100. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyboosters.org 

Tsunami Relief for Small Businesses in Sri Lanka A slide presentation and discussion at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Benefit for SecondAid. 525-9533. 

Older People United A discussion and support group for elders over 75 at 1:30 p.m. at the Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

“Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others” at 7 p.m. at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 104, Albany. To register call 558-7800. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Classrooms A/B. Meeting is accessible and open to the public, with time for public comment. 967-4003. 

Celebrate Purim With Chabad at 7 p.m. at Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4-$8. Reservations required. 540-5824. 

ONGOING 

United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! Program provides free tax assistance now through early April to families that earned less than $36,000 in 2004. To find a free tax site near you, call 1-800-358-8832 or visit www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org. 

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

Spring Break Program for Children offered by the City’s Recreational Division, March 28-April 1, for children ages 5-12, at the Frances Albrier Community Center, 2800 Park St. For information call 981-6640. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Creeks Task Force meets every Monday at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center through April 4. Erin Dando, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/default.html  

City Council meets Tues. Mar. 22, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Budget Review Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7041. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/budget 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/civicarts 

Disaster Council meets Wed. Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Mar. 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs. Mar. 24, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning 


Opinion

Editorials

Big Classes Sabotage Teaching By BECKY O'MALLEY Editorial

Tuesday March 22, 2005

It’s one thing to read statistics about the sorry state of education in California, but it’s another to talk to someone who’s in the trenches trying to cope with it. At a party this weekend I met a woman who’s bucking for sainthood as a teacher in the Los Angeles public school system. She’s an energetic, lively person, who’s successfully raised two kids of her own. At the age of 60, after a pleasant career which included a Ph. D. and a series of administrative jobs, she decided to “give something back” to society by resuming the school teaching career she’d given up at an early age. (She’s a red diaper baby—maybe that explains her desire to be socially significant.) 

She teaches sixth and seventh grades in a regular public school, in Sherman Oaks, a middle-class area of L.A. County. “So,” I said, making polite conversation. “How many kids do you teach?” Well, she said, it’s down to 48 this year, though last year it was 50. “Fifty kids every day,” I said, “that’s not too bad.” No, she said, 50 in the classroom at a time. 

Fifty pre-pubescents in a classroom at one time? I had to sit down, contemplating what it must be like. It’s been a few years since my kids finished in the Berkeley public schools, but surely they didn’t have anything like 50 kids in their junior high classes. I remembered statistics indicating that average class size was now under 30.  

And so it is: In California, in 2003-2004 for grade 6 it was 29.4, and for grade 7, 26.5. But the devil is in the definition: Average class size is the number of students enrolled in classes divided by the number of classes. Observe: Average class size is not maximum class size. That’s why my new friend, who teaches health education, has to try to manage 50 kids at a time. 

“Sometimes there aren’t even enough chairs for all the kids,” she told me. She said that’s a real problem when the subject matter is supposed to be sex, and the students are crammed into a too-small class room, cheek by jowl as it were, pretending to have a serious discussion of what’s already on their minds all the time, and they’re supposed to behave themselves. She said she figures it’s been a good day when no one gets hurt at school, but no, they aren’t learning much. And she can’t do much about it. She intended to teach for 10 years, of which three have passed, but she’s not sure she can stick it out. As a politically astute person, she knows the solution must be political, but not what it is. 

Are things that bad in Berkeley? We’ve had a couple of letters calling attention to the distinction between average and maximum class size in the reports we get from the teachers’ contract negotiations, but I don’t remember hearing anything about 50-student classes. The main topic in the contract dispute seems to be raises, but it’s hard to imagine a percentage pay raise which would compensate a teacher for having to cope with 50 kids at a crack. And fair compensation for teachers isn’t the only goal of the system: education for the kids has to be the real objective of the public schools.  

My granddaughter in Santa Cruz has 32 kids in her fourth grade class, and according to her mother, who volunteers in the classroom a lot, it isn’t working very well. 

Many children come to school carrying the problems of society with them. Even in small classes teachers would have a hard time providing everything these kids need—and with 32 individuals to cope with, they certainly can’t do it. 

The Planet has reported on a couple of recent local cases where high-school age young people have demonstrated big problems. One girl was caught with a gun in her backpack—and the excuse was that her father gave it to her to keep it out of the hands of younger siblings. A 16-year-old was arrested this weekend for slashing the throat of a total stranger on a pleasant spring evening at the Berkeley Rose Garden. These are problems teachers can’t solve in the classroom. 

The contract negotiations in the Berkeley Unified School District continue to be hot and heavy. Teachers are becoming more militant, working to rule by refusing to provide their professional services outside of the formal contact hour schedule. Whether this is a good PR move for the teachers’ union is debatable. The union president has sent out letters complaining that BUSD’s perspective gets better airtime on the Parent-Teacher Association e-mail tree—but that could just be a reflection of how the parents are viewing the controversy. It seems unwise for the Berkeley Federation of Teachers to suggest shooting the messenger.  

There’s no easy answer to the question of whether a teachers’ union is good or bad for students. The all-time worst teacher any of my three kids had in the Berkeley Public Schools was a high official in the union—but, to make it more complicated, so were two of the best. In the ideal world, a teachers’ union should advocate for both teachers and students, but in the real world it seems sometimes that the kids come second. 

Sometimes seriously inadequate teachers who really should move on to another profession are protected by the union for much too long. 

Maximum class size is one of the key elements highlighted in the latest round of communications from teachers. This seems to be one place where teachers and parents could agree, and could join together to make the point to the school administration. And the students, particularly the always articulate Berkeley High students, should be playing an important role in the discussion as well.  

But putting a lid on class size, even if that’s needed in Berkeley, won’t solve all the problems of the public school system today, nor will giving teachers raises, even if they deserve them. The disintegration of public education in California has much deeper roots, and the solution, as my new teacher friend recognizes, is ultimately political. 

—Becky O’Malley 

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Doing ‘Women’s Work’ By BECKY O'MALLEY Editorial

Friday March 18, 2005

This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, Berkeley’s Commission on the Status of Women recognized at its monthly meeting some “outstanding women in Berkeley who have contributed to making our community a better place to live,” in the words of the chair’s letter requesting nominations. One nice aspect of attending the event was getting a chance to put faces to people I’d previously known only as voicemail messages or e-mail addresses. In the audience as well as on the platform were many women who have been active in all sorts of important endeavors, and have told the Daily Planet about them.  

What impressed me most about the honorees and their achievements is that in large part they were being recognized for what has been traditionally considered “women’s work”: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, taking care of young people and old people, comforting the afflicted and making peace. The commission’s roots are in the feminism of the early ‘70s, but members seem to be saying today that it’s not enough for women to do just what men have traditionally done, but that they have more to contribute to society. The women who received citations this year were not chosen because they’ve made partner in a major law firm that specializes in defending insurance companies, or because they’re highly paid spokespersons for oil companies, or because they’ve put together big real estate empires, all jobs increasingly open to women as well as men. Condoleezza Rice was not held up as a role model to be emulated.  

Not, of course, that some of the honorees don’t have outstanding records of accomplishments in standard professional capacities as well. I know Donna Lasala, for example, as the public’s liaison to the city of Berkeley’s Department of Information Technology, where she does a stellar job, but her citation spoke instead of work she’d done with Iranian wheelchair users and all sorts of other good works I’d never even heard about. And the same is true of most of the others. 

One sad note: At the meeting I learned of the recent death of Eva Bansner, a stalwart participant in community-based environmental planning in many organizations, including the League of Women Voters, and a contributor to these pages. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer just a few months ago, but continued to make her valuable contributions to the public discourse throughout her illness. Eva, like those cited by the commission, took the welfare of the world to be her job, and she did it well. 

Second-wave feminists were justifiably concerned with making sure that women had equal access to levers of power. That goal hasn’t yet been reached—shall we discuss Lawrence Summers one more time? But more troubling is that the employment market now leaves even less room for “women’s work,” for women or for men. Parents, both men and women, have even less time to do a good job with their children. Supporting a family seems to mean either a high-powered 80-hour a week job for one person or two people working full-time, with no time to spare. Yet society still needs caregiving.  

It was once believed that government would be able to take the major role in providing for the common good. But as we get further into the Bush/Schwarzenegger era, it seems that more and more responsibility will fall on citizens to do the hands-on works of mercy and the educational tasks that have been traditionally shouldered by women. Since women are now often breadwinners, men should be encouraged to share in the kind of essential “civic homemaking” that still needs to be done. The Commission on the Status of Women has played an important role by recognizing the value of women’s contributions to society at large. Now it might also be time for the commission to acknowledge those men who have taken up “women’s work” for the benefit of the community. I can name 10 Berkeley men without thinking very hard who deserve this kind of citation.  

—Becky O’Malley 

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