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Jakob Schiller: UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau speaks to striking campus workers and their supporters outside the International House Thursday afternoon. The workers called a one-day strike to protest what they consider UC’s unwillingness to bargain in good faith..
Jakob Schiller: UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau speaks to striking campus workers and their supporters outside the International House Thursday afternoon. The workers called a one-day strike to protest what they consider UC’s unwillingness to bargain in good faith..
 

News

UC Strikers Demand Good-Faith Bargaining By JAKOB SCHILLER

Friday April 15, 2005

University of California service workers from the system’s nine campuses, five medical facilities and the Lawrence Berkeley Labs held a one-day strike Thursday to protest what they said is UC’s disrespect for their jobs and its refusal to bargain in good faith for a new contract. 

At UC Berkeley, low-wage service workers including custodians, food-service workers, bus drivers and maintenance workers were joined on several picket lines by other UC unions and hundreds of students who skipped classes to show their support. Pickets started at 6 a.m. and were scheduled to continue until 11:30 p.m.  

Cal’s new Chancellor Robert Birgeneau surprised strikers by speaking twice at the picket line. Around 4 p.m., strikers marched to International House on the east side of campus where Birgeneau was holding a reception for faculty and staff to kick-off his three-day inauguration celebration which lasts through Saturday. They demanded that he come out and address the crowd. Two union workers told the Daily Planet that they went into the reception and convinced him to come out. Outside, Birgeneau took one of the bull horns and expressed his support for increased pay. 

“I support a living wage throughout the UC system,” he said. He also said he has called the UC Office of the President and expressed his concern about the issues raised by strikers. 

According to Noel Gallagher, a spokesperson for UC Berkeley, Chancellor Birgeneau had visited workers around 9 a.m. where he also conveyed his support for a salary increase.  

Workers said the visits were encouraging but are waiting to see if the university makes any moves at the bargaining table. 

“They need to treat us with the respect we deserve,” said Maricruz Manzanares, a custodian who cleans three floors in one of the UC Berkeley dormitories. Manzanares, who lives in Richmond with her husband and three kids, has worked at UC Berkeley for six years and makes $12 an hour. Manzanares, along with her co-workers, has not received a raise since October 2002. 

She said her wages are not enough to support her family, which is dependent on a second income from her husband. As prices of gas and other necessities continue to rise, she said she might be forced to find a second job.  

“I hope [the university] listens,” she said, as she stood amongst the crowd who participated in a noontime rally in front of Sproul Hall. 

In addition to the low pay, workers said they want more opportunities to advance in their job categories and for the university to provide job training programs that could help them advance their careers. They also want an end to what they say is a discriminatory hiring process. Along with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union, the workers have been bargaining with UC over these issues since a previous contract expired in June of last year.  

The two sides have met 27 times since the contract expired, according to the union. After both sides were unable to reach an agreement they declared impasse and began meeting with a state mandated mediator. After meetings with the mediator did not produce a settlement, the process went into a fact-finding period which just ended. According to Faith Raider, the spokesperson for the union, the end of the fact-finding process officially allowed the union to strike. 

“The workers have been angry about the way they have been treated for a very long time,” said Raider. “The university made it very clear that they were not willing to move on a couple of key issues, so workers thought this was the right thing to do.”  

The university disagrees with the technicalities about whether the negotiations process had ended, and therefore whether it was sanctioned for the union to strike. In a press release written by the UC Office of the President, the university called the strike “unlawful and unprotected,” and a clear demonstration of “bad faith bargaining.” 

Noel Van Nyhuis, a spokesperson for the Office of the President, said the university has negotiated in good faith and “will continue to do so.” 

At the strike, the union said it will escalate its tactics if there is no resolution when the two sides return to the bargaining table. According to Debra Grabelle, the initial strike was only one day because it sent a clear message but did not keep workers, who depend on every day’s pay, from missing multiple days of work. 

Members of the Coalition of University Employees, which represents clerical workers at UC, the Union of Professional and Technical Employees, and student workers represented by the United Auto Workers all honored the picket line. Several classes were either canceled or moved off campus so students would not have to cross the picket. 

Workers said they were especially excited about the student turnout. They said the student’s support was encouraging because it showed them that the students acknowledge and care about the work they do. 

“The student support was tremendous,” said Joe Pulido, a senior building maintenance worker. “We love the students.”ô


No Layoffs At Library By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

Unanticipated revenues have halted plans to lay off workers at the Berkeley Public Library, the library’s Executive Director Jackie Griffin said. 

Griffin said she is retooling her budget proposal after learning that Bay Area Personal Income Growth, an indicator that can be used to inflate the city’s library tax, rose 4.8 percent this year, more than double the 2 percent the library had budgeted.  

Griffin said the library has recouped enough of its budget deficit—last calculated at $850,000—to avoid letting workers go, when the new tax is added to money the library expects to save from instituting mandatory time off. 

“There won’t be layoffs,” Griffin said. 

The Library Board of Trustees rescheduled its April 13 meeting to April 27 in anticipation of receiving new budget numbers from library staff. 

Earlier this year, Griffin said nine library employees would lose their jobs under a proposed a reorganization plan to help the library balance its budget. The library reduced that layoff number to five employees last month after several employees resigned. Under Griffin’s plan, library aides, who typically do most of the library’s menial work such as shelving books, would be trained to do higher-level work as well. 

The reorganization plan has sparked fierce union opposition, which argued that the plan would leave workers with overwhelming workloads and that Griffin had ignored their suggestions to save money, including implementing mandatory time off. 

Last week, the Service Employees International Union, Local 535, which represents the library workers, filed an unfair labor charge against the library for the transfer of four library aides from general services in the central branch to the children’s department. 

“It’s a really bizarre move because a lot of our time we’re there we’re idle, while things are piling up elsewhere,” said Ayaan Gates-Williams, one of the transferred aides. She added that the four aides transferred were “four of the people most outspoken about the reorganization.” 

Union head Ynes Partridge-Lewis said that the library was still seeking to train the transferred aides to do the work of higher-level library assistants, which in effect would begin the director’s reorganization plan while the union and city officials were still debating the matter. 

Gates-Williams said she and other aides were not opposed to learning the additional tasks, but she said the reorganization plan won’t work. 

Griffin said that the aides were not being asked to do anything outside of their job classifications. 

“We essentially moved four library aides from the first floor [of the central library] to the fourth floor,” she said. “Their job duties remain the same and their classifications remain the same.” 

Griffin said in recent months, due to staffing shortages, she has transferred six other aides from the central library to the branches. 

“Moving four aides from one floor to another doesn’t seem like an unfair labor practice to me,” she said. “I’m baffled.”›


Council Can’t Help Evicted Artists By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

Lacking the authority to keep more than two dozen tenants in their West Berkeley live/work complex that city officials have declared a fire hazard, the City Council Tuesday urged the residents of the Drayage Warehouse to comply with an April 15 evacuation order. 

“You’ve got to realize it’s time to move,” Mayor Tom Bates told them. Many are artisans who have lived in the building for more than a decade. “You really need to move.” 

If the tenants aren’t out by April 15, building owner Lawrence White faces a $2,500-a-day fine from the city. Although City Manager Phil Kamlarz pledged not to send in police to remove tenants, he said the residents too may be fined if they don’t leave on their own accord. 

In other matters, the council lowered condominium conversion fees and delayed votes on allowing UC Berkeley to build a pedestrian bridge over Hearst Avenue and charging the university more than $2 million for use of the city’s sewer system. 

Drayage tenants told city officials not to expect a mass exodus this week. 

“A lot of people will not be gone on the 15th, it’s just not enough time,” said Claudia Viera, a tenant. 

Last weekend, the tenants and White signed an unofficial agreement whereby they could remain until June 1 and White would begin exclusive negotiations with the Northern California Land Trust to purchase the property, bring it up to code and give tenants the right to return. 

Several councilmembers lauded the proposal, but under state law, city Fire Marshal David Orth has ultimate authority to enforce code violations and he refused to recognize the pact. 

“That’s not what we’re asking for,” Orth said. “This is a very serious life threatening problem. I don’t want there to be false hope that June 1 is OK.”  

A fire inspection last month found more than 250 code violations at the illegal residential warehouse located at Third and Addison streets. 

Its hands tied, the council voted unanimously to recommend that the city forgive landlord fines if tenants are out by April 19 and to keep the item on its agenda for its next meeting in case there are new developments. City officials also said they would expedite the permit process for building upgrades if the land trust bought the property. 

“I wish we could give them more time,” said Councilmember Darryl Moore, whose district includes the Drayage. “The fact that the tenants and owner had worked on the June 1 date, that seemed very reasonable to me.” 

Outside the council chamber Orth told tenants that two other possibly illegal live/work spaces in West Berkeley had recently come to the fire department’s attention. 

“We are going to address this issue over and over again,” he said, complimenting the tenants’ effort to bring the building up to code and maintain it as an artisan community. “You may suffer losses in this battle, but this is a war that you might ultimately win.” 

The impromptu discussion turned heated when the subject turned to property owner White. 

“He hasn’t acted in good faith as far as we’re concerned,” said city building official Joan McQuarrie. She faulted White for not evicting tenants and sending them off with an adequate relocation package instead of paying over $1,000 a day for fire safety officers, mandated by the city. 

White’s Attorney Don Jelinek responded that the landlord didn’t evict the tenants for the same reason the city won’t. “They don’t want a Waco-type action,” he said. 

Jelinek faulted city officials for not considering the human element of the situation, to which Orth shot back: “I’m not about to risk lives for your altruistic views. I have a responsibility and I’m going to protect people.” 

“We’re trying to be reasonable,” McQuarrie said. “I hear you pushing us into a corner. When I hear you say ‘a Waco-type action’ that is inflammatory.” She added of White: “He doesn’t put his best foot forward by hiding behind his attorney. He needs to present his case.” 

Although White has aligned himself with tenants, Maresa Danielsen, a tenant, said part of her motivation in wanting to stay past April 15 was to make sure the building wasn’t vacant, which would give White more negotiating leverage with potential buyers. 

“The value of the building will shoot up a bunch with no tenants,” she said. “Our bargaining power goes down if we leave. Once you’re out it’s hard to get back in.” 

 

Condo Conversion 

The council voted Tuesday to remove its restrictions on tenancies in common and reduce fees to convert rental units to condominiums. If the council approves a second reading of the measure next week, conversion fees will be capped at 10 percent of the sale price of a unit until October. With the average condo now fetching $500,000, the fee will average about $50,000 a unit. The council will reconsider the issue in the fall to craft a long-term policy. 

Reducing condo fees marks a change in long-standing city policy to preserve rental units. The previous conversion formula was devised to remove all financial incentive to turn rental space into condos. 

The change stems from a state appeals court ruling last year striking down a San Francisco law restricting tenancies in common. City Attorney Manuela Alburquerque has written that the ruling applies to Berkeley as well. In 1992 Berkeley imposed severe restrictions on tenancies in common, which it viewed as an undesirable form of home ownership.  

Tenancies in common have been considered risky investments because shareholders do not hold title to specific units as they do for condominiums. City councilmembers said they hope that by making condominiums more attractive, property owners will be dissuaded from forming tenancies in common which give them greater latitude to evict tenants. 

 

Sewer Fees 

At the request of Mayor Bates, the council agreed to postpone until April 26 a vote on billing UC Berkeley $2.18 million for use of the city’s sewer system. City Manager Kamlarz said the city was continuing to negotiate with the university over sewer fees. Currently, UC Berkeley pays $470,000 annually under a 15-year agreement set to expire at the end of June. 

Before the council voted to delay the issue, UC attorney Jason Houghton, of Thelen Rein & Priest, reiterated the UC Regents’ position that the sewer fee would be illegal and that the university would not pay. In response Berkeley resident Steve Wollmer said that the council should charge the university nevertheless. 

“They may have lawyers who can cite chapter and verse, but we have justice on our side,” he said. 

 

Foothill Bridge 

The council also delayed a vote on Foothill Bridge for two weeks. The pedestrian walkway proposed to join two UC Berkeley dormitories over Hearst Avenue has sparked controversy. The university says the bridge is needed to make the Foothill Dormitory more accessible to wheelchair users and safer for student pedestrians. Some Berkeley residents argue that the bridge won’t be enough to make the dorms attractive to disabled students and that the $200,000 offered by the university is not enough for the city to surrender its air rights above Hearst. 

“If UC wants accessible housing they need to build it in accessible areas,” said Wendy Alfsen, noting that the university built Foothill near the top of a steep hill rather than in a more level part of the city. 

In response, Tim Perry, a former Planning Commissioner, said, “Basically we’re telling disabled people who go to the university to get on the back of the bus. The university seems to be the only party in the room that recognizes the rights of disabled people.” 

Tom Lolini, UC Berkeley’s assistant vice chancellor of capital projects, said he knew of one disabled person living in the section of Foothill that currently is accessible to wheelchair users.ô


Peralta Chancellor Reopens Dones Negotiations, Temporarily Pulls Back on Art Annex Contract By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday April 15, 2005

Peralta Community College Chancellor Elihu Harris is close to an agreement in principle with Oakland developer Alan Dones on a controversial Peralta-Laney College land development proposal, but plans to present the agreement to Peralta Trustees in coming weeks without his recommendation. 

In other Peralta land-use news, an $8 million no-bid contract for the new Laney Art Annex was pulled off the Peralta Trustee agenda for Tuesday night at the last minute. 

On the Peralta-Laney development issue, Harris would only say that he is “moving forward” with discussions with Dones over the developer proposal. “If an agreement in principle is reached,” the chancellor said, he will present it to trustees at their regularly scheduled April 26 meeting. 

But Peralta Federation of Teachers (PFT) President Michael Mills said that Harris told participants in a chancellor’s meeting last week that he had negotiated the contract with Dones. Mills added that according to Harris, the chancellor informed the developer that the agreement was being done “with a lack of enthusiasm.” 

Mills said, “I asked Elihu [at last week’s meeting] if he was going to include the notation at the end of the agenda item that the Chancellor recommends approval, and he said no.” 

Laney College Faculty Senate President Evelyn Lord—who attended the chancellor’s meeting—confirmed Mills’ account of Harris’ presentation. 

In its final meeting last November, over the objections of incoming trustees, the outgoing Peralta Board of Trustees authorized Harris to negotiate a one-year contract with Dones and Dones’ Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA) to produce a development plan for certain Laney College properties and the adjacent Peralta administrative offices. 

Complaints were later publicly voiced by Laney College representatives, including Acting College President Odell Johnson, that Dones had not consulted with them about the Laney land proposals before presenting the proposal to Peralta trustees. A month later, after the newly elected trustee board was sworn in and reports appeared in several local newspapers questioning the proposed plan, Harris announced that he put the SUDA contract negotiations on temporary hold because of the controversy. Harris said at the time he thought such negotiations were “premature.” 

Laney Faculty Senate President Lord said she expected the revived Dones proposal would be opposed by Laney College faculty representatives when it comes before trustees. 

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “There will definitely be people opposed.” 

Lord said she expects the Laney Faculty Senate to pass a resolution in opposition. 

While the Peralta-Dones land development plan proposal is back on track after several months on the back burner, another controversial proposal was put on hold at Tuesday night’s trustee meeting. 

With no explanation, Trustee Board President William Riley announced that he was removing from the agenda trustee consideration of Laney College’s new art building modular construction contract from the agenda. 

Harris had intended to ask trustees to ratify an $8.1 million, no-bid contract with non-union Meehleis Modular Builders of Lodi using an interpretation of the so-called “piggyback” provision of the California Public Contract Code. Under the provision, which is currently being reviewed by the state attorney general, school and community college districts can escape the normal bidding process by placing their purchases through another district. 

The new building is being constructed with CalTrans money to replace the existing Art Annex Building that sits on land CalTrans needs for I-880 freeway repairs. Construction of the 26,000-square-foot building is currently scheduled to begin in mid May. 

Riley said following the meeting that “it just made sense to go back and review the contract after all the questions were raised.” 

Harris said, “We want to make sure we’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s.” 

Harris noted that the delay will cause some problems with the timing of the building construction. “We really needed to get this done tonight,” he said. 

PFT President Mills had been scheduled to speak at Tuesday night’s trustee meeting in opposition to the Meehleis art annex contract, but withdrew his remarks after the item was withdrawn from the agenda. In a later telephone interview, Mills said he was opposed to the contract on four grounds. 

“The first point is appearance,” he said. “That is absolutely critical. This looks bad. If we need to go before the public on a bond measure in the future, we don’t want local newspapers reprinting articles about these kinds of deals. The second point is that Oakland is a union town, and unions are in favor of a livable wage for workers. Meehleis is a non-union company that pays sub-standard wages. It’s unthinkable that this would not be taken into consideration by the Peralta administration. The third point of opposition is that the PFT believes all such contracts should get signed off by Peralta Chief Financial Officer Tom Smith before it comes to the trustees. We don’t believe that happened in this case, even though it’s his office that is responsible for tracking the money. And finally, I am opposed to the Meehleis contract because it’s a no-bid contract, and the law being used to approve it is questionable, at best.” 

Mills noted that on the same trustee agenda, the district awarded a $92,000 contract for janitorial supplies on bid. The contract was awarded to Janitorial Supplies Corporate Express, Inc. of Union City. 

“If piggybacking contracts was sound policy, this janitorial supply contract would be the appropriate place to put it,” Mills said. 

Mills also said that the art annex contract background mentioned that Peralta administrators contacted three companies before awarding the contract to Meehleis. “If they had time to discuss it with three companies, they had time to send it out to those companies for bid,” he said.ô


BUSD Launches Long-Range School Planning Initiative By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday April 15, 2005

In the midst of continuing uncertainty about how much education money will be coming out of Sacramento—and what strings will be attached—the Berkeley Unified School District has launched a long-range initiative to identify the “essential components of quality schools” and reliable ways to fund them in Berkeley. 

Begun last January by BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence, the Designing and Funding Quality Schools (DFQS) project has set up two working groups to advance its goals and has sponsored three public forums using education experts drawn primarily from UC Berkeley. 

Meeting twice a month to hear from experts and review research, an Education Working Group, headed by BUSD Director of Curriculum and Instruction Neil Smith, and a Resources Working Group, headed by Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp, were originally expected to present preliminary reports to Lawrence in June. That timetable may be delayed, however, because the groups are relying on BUSD central staff to provide them with information on the district’s education programs and financing, and district staff has recently turned much of its attention to the district’s ongoing teacher contract dispute. 

The Berkeley effort is being packaged under the title “quality schools initiative,” a catch-all term that has been used throughout the country in recent years to describe widely different projects. 

Jay Nitschke, who was hired by the district out of the private sector to coordinate the DFQS planning process, said that Berkeley’s initiative is something Lawrence originally intended to do earlier but delayed because of Berkeley Unified’s pressing budget problems. 

“Traditionally, new superintendents begin planning in their first year,” Nitschke said. “But in her first three years, Lawrence was involved with balancing the budget and making sure the district’s business services were straightened out.” 

Nitschke said that when Lawrence finally launched the planning initiative, “she believed that the budget problems had settled, and she thought it was the opportunity to figure out what the district’s education programs should be, and how they should be funded. Of course, she didn’t know at the time that Governor Schwarzenegger would take actions that would disrupt the budget again. But we’re moving forward.” 

Nitschke said a new look at Berkeley’s education plan was needed “because the last plan was done 10 years ago. The district has been looking at things like how the music program will be implemented in each school, or developing next year’s budget. But there hasn’t been an overarching look at education and funding and the district as a whole in some time. Most public agencies don’t get to look long term. But this process is going to be looking at where we want to be in the next 10 years.” 

Nitschke said the goal is both to equalize educational opportunities for students and to raise the level of education district-wide. 

“[Berkeley High Principal] Jim Slemp describes education in this district as a listing boat,” he said, “with some of the students sitting up in the high end and getting a very high level of education, and some of the students sitting in the low end, and getting an education that’s not so good. Our goal is to do two things: level the boat so that all of the students are getting an equal chance, but raise the level of the water as well, so everybody’s level of education is lifted to a level that’s higher than at present.” 

Trina Ostrander, BPEF executive director and a supporter of the initiative, calls it “a timely issue.” 

“A structured, planning process for public education in Berkeley” is needed, she added. “Right now we don’t have enough facts. We just have a lot of factions” advocating their own individual education priorities. 

Ostrander said the quality schools initiative was launched partly because of the present BUSD budget uncertainties caused by Sacramento and Washington, and partly because of planning imbalances that go all the way back to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. 

“Because there has been so little money for education since that time, the educational planning process has been driven by politics rather than by what programs are needed to run a fundamentally sound school district,” she said. 

Ostrander said that the new initiative is “born of the same motivation out of which BSEP (the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project) and Measure B were passed. We want quality schools for every kid in Berkeley. We are willing to pay for this excellence locally. The difference is that the quality schools initiative is a more methodical approach.” 

Ostrander said the results of the initiative will be useful when BSEP funding comes up for voter renewal in 2006. 

“It will give us a blueprint of our educational plans to present to voters,” she said. 

Nitschke said the Berkeley public won’t have to wait a year to hear the results of the study. Extensive information resulting from the initiative’s meetings and public forums have already been posted on the district’s website under a Quality School Plan link on the main page directory. In addition, Nitschke said that the two parallel groups—education needs and finance—“intend to produce documents along the way, as they see fit.” 


Planning Panel Sets Landmarks Law Hearing, Approves Creeks Proposal By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday April 15, 2005

Planning commissioners Wednesday voted unanimously to approve the proposed workplan and timeline of the Creeks Task Force and to schedule an April 27 hearing on the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO). 

Thursday’s meeting was also the first for former Commissioner Gene Poschman since he was brought back to the panel by City Councilmember Donna Spring to fill the seat vacated by Nancy Holland. 

Though neither vote was accompanied by a public hearing, the commission heard plenty from the audience on both issues in the public comment period early in the meeting. 

While little controversy attached to the Creeks Task Force, there was plenty when it came to the landmarks legislation, which would alter both the existing ordinance and the accompanying sections of city zoning law. 

The hottest issue concerns just which city panel will assume basic authority over proposed demolitions of and alterations to already recognized city landmarks and “structures of merit,” the latter being buildings which have been significantly altered but still contain elements of the original. 

First to speak was Daniela Thompson, who read a letter from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). “It is BAHA’s expert opinion that the proposed LPO amendments have evolved to be sufficiently at variance with the stated preservation objectives of the LPO and its long-standing practices as to mandate a full environmental review” under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), she said. 

A concern raised by Thompson and others was a Planning Commission subcommittee’s recommendation to strip the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) of its authority over demolition of recognized city landmarks. 

“Where did this come from?” asked retired planner John English. “The City Council did not ask for this, and I urge its rejection.” 

Preservation architect and former LPC member Burton Edwards, who worked on the LPC’s recommendations for changes in the ordinance, came down on both sides of the political divide, agreeing with English that the LPC should have purview over demolitions—“Who better to pass judgment?”—but urging stricter standards for proposed landmarks. 

Edwards said he favored abolishing the structure of merit designation, and recommended the city adopt the strict standards of integrity mandated for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The LPC uses more relaxed standards, which it proposes to maintain. 

Poschman also sided with the LPC’s proposal to retain authority over environmental reviews in landmark cases, while some on the planning commissioners said they hoped to turn that power over to the Zoning Adjustments Board, along with authority over demolitions. 

Livable Berkeley’s Alan Tobey presented a letter from his organization endorsing elimination of the structure of merit category and lauding the planning subcommittee’s efforts as a “much improved result” of the LPC’s “failures.” 

LPC Commissioner Patricia Dacey, who was appointed after the panel finished its LPO revisions, told the planners, “There wasn’t any upswelling of the Berkeley citizenry to gut the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance or the commission.” 

She also challenged Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan’s contention that the existing ordinance violates the Permit Streamlining Act, which imposes strict deadlines on applications for building permits. Dacey said other cities allow suspension of the PAS during demolition proceedings, a point endorsed by fellow commission Leslie Emmington. 

Dacey also faulted a proposed revision that would limit initiations of proposed landmarks to 10 days after a permit is filed for a building or demolition, charging that it was class-based. 

“If you’re living in a Maybeck in the hills, it’s not that much of a task. But if you’re living in the flatlands and working, it can be quite a task,” Dacey said. 

John McBride, a preservation activist who attended most of the LPC’s session on the ordinance, defended the decision to suspend. He said dividing responsibilities between the LPC and ZAB would “create a messier situation, bouncing back and forth between landmarks and ZAB. It will be less fair and less understandable” because “ZAB doesn’t deal with historical and architectural merit.” 

 

West Campus Report 

Planning Commissioner David Stoloff gave a report on the Berkeley Unified School District’s public planning meeting on the West Campus site. 

While BUSD consultant David Early told the session that oversight of the project could wind up in the hands of either the Office of the State Architect—which has jurisdiction over instructional sites—or the city, Stoloff said, “The city will be the permitting agency.” 

While the site includes instructional facilities, it will also house district offices and non-instructional functions, as well as possible commercial and residential developments. 

“It seemed clear that both the community and the school district are open to following the University Avenue Strategic Plan process,” Stoloff said.


UC, Developer Extend Downtown Hotel Talks By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday April 15, 2005

UC Berkeley’s plans for a hotel, conference center and museums complex aren’t dead, merely delayed, said Kevin Hufferd, the university’s project manager. 

On Sept. 1, 2003 the school entered into exclusive negotiations with Carpenter & Co., a leading hotelier, to build a high-rise hotel and a conference center at the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street. 

When the exclusive agreement ended, the two sides agreed to another six-month extension, which ended last month. A second six-month extension allows the parties to continue their talks for a second full year. 

The university eventually intends to build a museum complex and parking structures as well in the two-block parcel it owns between Center Street and University Avenue and Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street. 

“We’re moving along and progressing nicely,” Hufferd said. “We’re continuing to look at a basic array of feasibility issues.” 

He said, “The process involves doing urban design work on a two-block area and working on issues of bulk and scale. We’re also examining the recommendations of the UC Hotel Task Force, including the possibility of daylighting Strawberry Creek.” 

The task force was created by the city Planning Commission after news of the university’s plans broke. Composed of commission members and community representatives, the panel formulated proposals to help mitigate the impact of a 12-to-14-story hotel and other uses in the heart of the city center. 

“I’m pleased. We’re moving forward,” Hufferd said. “People have been patient and curious, and hopefully they will bear with us as we formulate our plans for the site.” 


Property Auction Augments City’s General Fund By MATTHEW ARTZ

Staff
Friday April 15, 2005

Berkeley is $773,000 richer after auctioning off two residential housing lots on McKinley Avenue behind the public safety building Tuesday. 

The winning bid for a 3,900-square-foot lot at 2140 McKinley Ave. was $266,000. A 6,500-square-foot lot at 2114 McKinley Ave. sold for $507,000, City Manager Phil Kamlarz said. The buildings were estimated to sell for a combined $400,000, which means the city will have more money in its general fund than anticipated 

The city had budgeted $400,000 from the auction to pay for capital costs, such as fixing streets, so the City Council will now get to decided how to spend the additional $373,000. Last week, the Housing Advisory Commission requested that an undetermined portion of the sale price go to replenish the city’s housing trust fund. Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he expected a battle over how to spend the extra proceeds. 

Both properties were previously an employee parking lot before the construction of the new Public Safety Building. The properties are zoned as R-2 which allows for two-family residences.›


Hancock Waste Site Bill Set for Assembly Hearing By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday April 15, 2005

At least two East Bay residents will testify later this month on two bills that would transform regulation of toxic waste sites. 

Inspired by ongoing events at Campus Bay, a hazardous waste site in Richmond proposed as the grounds for a 1,330-unit housing development, the measures were written by Assemblymember Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley-Richmond. 

The measures, designated Assembly Bills 1360 and 1546, go before the Assembly’s Committee of Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials on April 23. 

Sherry Padgett, an outspoken critic of events at Campus Bay and the adjacent UC Berkeley Richmond Field Station, said she has been invited to testify, along with Contra Costa County Public Health Director Wendel Brunner. 

Brunner has expressed concerns about the way demolitions were handled on the site under the aegis of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and plans to build housing atop 350,000 cubic yards of buried industrial waste at Campus Bay. 

A hearing on the site conducted by Hancock and Assembly Rules Committee Chair Cindy Montanez last year ended with the water board surrendering jurisdiction over most of the site to the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). The handover came after the water board’s top official acknowledged his agency didn’t have a toxicologist on its staff. DTSC is a statewide agency well-staffed with toxicologists and other experts.  

“I am trying to end the practice of agency-shopping,” Hancock said. 

Under existing law, a developer can chose between the DTSC and the local water quality control board. Hancock said AB 1360 would divide responsibilities “at the water’s edge, with the water board responsible for the water and the DTSC responsible for dry land with some collaboration at the interface, especially on complex sites.” 

The legislation would create a special category called the “public health priority site” in cases where potential releases of toxins could pose a threat to present and future workers and residents on or near the site. 

Hancock said her special concern was cases where an industrial site or a site to be remediated to industrial and commercial levels was changed to housing. At Campus Bay, developer Cherokee Simeon Ventures originally intended to build a private industry research park on the heavily contaminated former site of a chemical factory, then switched plans to housing after the market collapse following Sept. 11, 2001. 

The developer has since been selected by UC Berkeley to develop an academic/corporate research facility immediately to the north at the Richmond Field Station.  

Her second measure, AB 1546, calls for a change in the structure of management of toxic cleanups by the state Environmental Protection Agency. 

The bill calls for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to convene a Cleanup Agency Consolidation Task Force, composed of one member each from the DTSC, the water boards and the state Department of Health Services, Radiological Health Branch. 

The new agency would be assigned authorities and duties now resting with the existing agencies, and operate under clear, unified standards in managing hazardous waste sites earmarked for development, called brownfields. 

“I am looking for consensus from the entire environmental community,” Hancock said.›


Slasher Companion Resigns By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

The accused accomplice of the 16-year-old girl who has been charged with slashing a Berkeley woman outside the Rose Garden has resigned from her job at Juvenile Hall, Alameda County Counsel Richard Winnie said. 

Hamaseh Kianfar, 30, who met the slasher while working in the guidance office of Juvenile Hall and admitted to being with her during the attack, resigned Tuesday, Winnie said. Last week, Kianfar was arraigned and released on $15,000 bail. 

The accused slasher, a 16-year-old Oakland girl, meanwhile remains in county custody at Juvenile Hall on charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. A court-ordered psychiatric exam has not yet been completed. 


Tax Activists: Big Buisness Must Pay its Fair Share By LUCY KOMISAR

Pacific News Service
Friday April 15, 2005

As Americans fret over their personal income taxes, there is a movement afoot to reduce the tax burden on ordinary people by getting corporations and wealthy individuals to pay their fair share.  

Concern over Social Security has put the problem into relief. In 1984, Congress raised payroll taxes significantly on workers to expand the Social Security trust fund to assure funding for when the baby boom generation retires. Instead of those receipts being put in a lock-box, they were used to offset the federal deficit, replacing lost tax revenues. Now there’s a demand to re-engineer Social Security and cut back benefits or raise taxes on workers.  

That’s not needed. The government just has to collect taxes from big corporations doing business in the United States, and from the mega-rich who benefit from living in the United States. Both use fancy foot-work accounting to move assets to tax havens.  

The new movement in the United States and other countries seeks first to raise the awareness of the public and political leaders about the impact of offshore tax evasion. Last month, the Tax Justice Network (www.taxjustice.net) issued a report based on publicly available statistics from the Bank of International Settlements and Merrill Lynch, the investment company. The data showed the following:  

• Approximately $11.5 trillion of assets are held offshore by high net-worth individuals, or about a third of the total global GDP, the value of goods and services, which in 2003 was $36.2 trillion.  

• The annual income that these assets might be expected to earn amounts to $860 billion annually.  

• The tax not paid as a result of these funds being held offshore would exceed $255 billion a year.  

These figures, the first such an analysis, do not include the vast amounts stashed in tax havens by multinational corporations. Those multi-trillions include 31 percent of the net profits of U.S. multinationals. Last year, the Government Accountability Office reported that from 1996 through 2000, nearly two-thirds of the companies operating in the United States reported owing no taxes. Large corporations—with at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in gross receipts—own over 93 percent of all assets reported on U.S. corporate returns. In 2000, an estimated 82 percent of large U.S. corporations and 76 percent of large foreign corporations reported taxes of less than 5 percent of income.  

As recently as 1943, U.S. corporations provided nearly 40 percent of U.S. tax revenues. Now they pay about seven percent. They use offshore companies and accounts in places such as the Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein and Switzerland to “launder” profits, to pretend that money is earned in tax havens instead of where business is done—in the United States.  

It is a pernicious aspect of globalization. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), set up by the G-7 in 1989, says that there has been a 1,500 percent increase in the money deposited offshore over the past 15 years. Offshore companies are being formed at the rate of about 150,000 annually. In the 1970s, there were just 25 tax havens; now there are about 70.  

The threat to social programs in the industrial world and the inability of developing countries to raise people out of poverty have moved analysts and activists with varied concerns to realize that they have something in common. None can have economic and social development as long as corporations and the very rich opt out of paying taxes.  

That prompted the founding two years ago at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, of a new global movement, the Tax Justice Network (TJN), headquartered in London, to bring together groups in civil society to combat offshore tax evasion.  

In Washington, D.C., on April 7, a week before tax day, TJN/US held a briefing on Capitol Hill with the sponsorship of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.), both of whom are working to end big-ticket tax evasion. It was co-sponsored also by civil society groups that work on economic and finance reform, environment, labor, women’s rights, social welfare and third world development issues.  

Jack Blum, an expert on international money laundering who ran the Senate investigations into BCCI and Iran Contra and is a senior advisor to TJN, warned, “We are very rapidly heading toward having every society agree that no corporation will pay taxes, and further, they will give them cash subsidies for doing business.” 

Simultaneously, Blum said, nations “will allow the executives and wealthiest shareholders of these corporations to use the offshore world to avoid taxation of their own wealth.”  

That the richest and most powerful in the world are not supporting the needs of government and leaving that obligation to the middle classes, working people and the poor, Blum said, “is an unacceptable amendment to the social contract.” 

 

Lucy Komisar is a journalist who is writing a book about the off-shore bank and corporate secrecy system. ô



Letters to the Editor

Friday April 15, 2005

WHAT’S HAPPENING? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the recent City Council meeting on April 12. What’s happening to this city? Pools getting closed that are well used and compassionate library workers with a boss who wants to ignore the union that represents her employees? I’m a frequent library user and I’ve noticed the plummeting morale at my local branch and tired faces on the workers. I’ve also noticed that the computers never work and stay broken for weeks. What happened to supporting people in Berkeley who can’t afford the $700,000 house or the swanky, gourmet restaurants or the expensive gym memberships? I say we should save the public pools for our residents, support workers rights, and get our priorities straight. Let’s find more creative ways to deal with our budget woes. What happened to speaking up for what we believe in as citizens?  

L. Finzel 

 

• 

PRICE PARANOIA 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

We are told that the reason gas prices have “surged to a record high” is the increased global demand for oil. Consumers are expected to accept this explanation as the inevitable consequence of “the Law of Supply and Demand”—scarce product plus increased demand equals high prices. 

But if there is a supply/demand law it is very peculiar. The gas station across the street from my house changed its prices three times and yet received no new delivery. How can the same tank contain gas of differing prices? Furthermore, there is no reason why “global demand” should cause national variations—California gas costs 16 percent more than the national average—and regional differences—3 to 4 percent more in San Francisco than elsewhere in the Bay Area. 

I sense the spread of economic paranoia and the mainstream media must take at least partial responsibility for failing to investigate the source of profiteering and price gouging. 

Marvin Chachere 

 

• 

AC TRANSIT BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Joyce Roy’s April 12-14 commentary on AC Transit’s Van Hools buses isn’t strong enough. Those buses are a liability lawsuit waiting to happen. Drivers on the 40 Telegraph line drive fast immediately after I board, as I am thrown back and forth grasping for something to hold onto and tripping before I can find a seat. In the good ol’ days, I complained about waiting 40 minutes for the 40 bus headed north on Telegraph (it’s scheduled to come about every 15 minutes). Now I also have my black and blue marks to complain about, not to mention the pain and disorientation of being tossed around on a moving bus that is lurching very fast and unpredictably down a bumpy street. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.  

Hello, AC Transit directors. Is anyone there listening? 

Maureen Kane 

 

 

• 

WEST CAMPUS REDESIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the neighborhood meeting last Thursday night to discuss the West Campus redesign to meet the needs of BUSD and the local neighborhood, as well as city planning needs. 

While it is thoughtful of BUSD to use this meeting process to try to avert the type of difficulties they had with the Franklin School rehab, and the move of all the classrooms to that facility, their current plan to develop, discuss, and help define the neighborhood’s vision for the old West Campus facility cannot possibly take place in such a short time. Nor can the design input process they are currently using possibly represent a consensus on the part of the neighbors or the generally held popular views of the larger planning community of citizens (not developers) in our town. 

What the so-called design process represents is a strong effort to look like they asked for the neighborhood’s opinion, without truly answering any of our valid concerns, questions, or needs. 

If the school district wants to work with the neighbors, they should listen to our concerns, answer our questions, and meet us halfway. This eight-acre parcel cannot be redesigned during a musical chairs exercise, which is all we’ve gotten thus far. 

Lynda Winslow 

Curtis Street Neighbors 

 

• 

ADULT SCHOOL  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your article on the West Campus meeting characterized the former Adult School business as “seismically safe.” This is either or misprint, a mistake, or an example of blatant misrepresentation by the school district. Those of us who opposed moving the adult school out of our neighborhood were repeatedly told that the building was seismically unsafe and that retrofitting it would be more expensive than remodeling the Franklin school and transferring the Adult School to it. We were not told, by the way, that the district’s own retained experts had advised against that move and instead had suggested that administrative office share the West Campus site with the Adult School. 

Another interesting points is that while the superintendent denied that the district had plans for the site, during questioning at meetings on the move to Franklin it became clear that she wanted to build an administrative office building on part of the space and use the rest to store and maintain trucks and other heavy equipment. It also became clear that the district wasn’t interested in opinions of the City of Berkeley, which opposed the district’s plans for the site, or the neighbors. The site was being cleared of the Adult School in furtherance of the plan to build district office space on that is now emerging. (The district continues to deny that it has a plan for the site. This master plan is supposed to be created suddenly in the next 30 days. ) 

The real story and the most glaring omission from your coverage of the planning discussion is the fact that the district intends to build its luxurious new office space with funds the citizens of Berkeley voted in 2000 to retrofit school classrooms. A review of the district’s resolution to submit the bond issue Proposition AA to the voters, the ballot proposition itself, and the arguments in favor it the bond issue, make it clear that the citizens of Berkeley were voting to raise money to protect the children of Berkeley, not to provide a luxurious new office building for the superintendent and her staff. In view of the fiscal crises facing the school district, it’s unlikely that the citizens of Berkeley knowingly would vote funds to create new office space, particularly when there were and are other more fiscally responsible options available. In order to get around this, is appears that the school district will include “classrooms” for “teacher development” and some spaces for the 20-35 students who have been expelled from Berkeley schools and call the new structure a “school.” Even so, the clear language of the ballot proposition should prevent the use of Proposition AA funds for this project. 

Finally, the “requirements” for the site mentioned in your article, should properly be characterized as a “dream list” not requirements, since there is other real estate available to the district for some of these uses, including the corporation yard that will increase traffic past two pre-schools and the Strawberry Creek Lodge, home to many elderly pedestrians. 

Ruchama Burrell 

Poet’s Corner Neighborhood Group 

 

• 

HEALTH CARE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As I read today that Poki Namkung will be leaving the City of Berkeley’s Health Department, I was reminded of the best 11 weeks of nursing school yet. Between August and December 2004, I and three other students from the UCSF Masters Entry Program spent two days a week working along side the City of Berkeley’s Public Health Nurses gaining clinical experience for a course in Community Health Nursing. Having grown up here in Berkeley and Oakland, I felt lucky to have the opportunity to give back to my community as a part of a clinical assignment for school.  

As I entered nursing school last June, I had limited knowledge about the role of the nurse in our society. What came to mind were images of complacent women who knew only how to follow the directions of doctors and were unable to think critically on their own. What I have learned during the past 10 months is that the nurse is a vital force in the community who helps maintain people’s health, and assists them in their recovery from illness. The nurse is also the man or woman who supports a family and works as an advocate for them through the process of birth and living, as well as death and dying. The nurse is the person who provides access to information and resources for children, adults, and elders in our community, for whom access is the largest barrier to them receiving health care and maintaining good health. Additionally, the nurse is the person who must understand the complexities of the human body and its illnesses, as well as know how to address the way they effect the social, emotional, economic, and spiritual health of our patients. We must be able to think critically, and empower our patients to do so as well as they navigate through a system which is fundamentally disempowering. 

We are lucky to live in a town which has its own Public Health Department, and to have had people like Poki and the rest of the team of health care providers who work daily for the health of our community. 

Eva Goodfriend-Reaño 

 

• 

LYTTON CASINO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mark Maccoro’s opposition to the Lytton casino plans was based on the “unfair disadvantages faced by other tribes” in comparison with the Lytton’s. Why is he not also concerned with the unfair disadvantages to the mainstream public for not being allowed to have slots and casinos? Just other tribes? 

Keep in mind, any tribe or tribal member can buy a card room and operate it under California law as it was run by the previous owner. They don’t HAVE to operate a tax-exempt “Indian Casino”. That is a choice they make that is not available to the rest of us. It looks to me that it’s not any “tribe” that is facing discrimination, but the general public. 

Or did someone outlaw equal rights when I wasn’t looking? 

Betty Perkowski 

North Stonington CT 

 

• 

SCHOOL FUNDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Following teacher statements at the board last week, the superintendent and board members tried to distance themselves from Arnold—saying that they found it “deplorable” that teachers could say their actions were “like Arnold’s.” We all know that some of the financial issues facing the district are the direct result of inadequate state funding. But, we also know that there are other areas where the Arnold-like actions of this administration take on a life of their own. 

Take, for example, termination notices sent to approximately 75 temporary teachers on March 15. In years past BUSD sent out many March 15 notification letters, but waited to send out termination letters until the end of the school year. In most years BUSD finds itself in a position to offer back jobs to most of its temporary and probationary teachers. If things at my school are any indication that will be true this year too. Why then is the administration acting like Arnold? This is a non-monetary issue, yet they are seizing an opportunity to demoralize teachers. 

How does such Arnold-like action affect a specific site? At my site, Malcolm X, for example, we have two teachers retiring and another teacher leaving the area—creating three vacancies. At Malcolm X we also have two temporary—and wonderful—first-year teachers. Both of these teachers received a termination notice in March in spite of the fact that the principal has given them excellent evaluations. These two first year teachers are having to watch as their positions are posted throughout the district, and having to re-apply for their positions at a school which already has three vacancies. This is the kind of anti-worker behavior one would expect from Arnold. It is totally demoralizing. 

If the superintendent and the board want to distance themselves from Arnold they need to act, not just speak, in ways that show basic concern and respect for the people they employ. Indiscriminately sending termination notices on March 15 to 75 temporary and probationary employees is not a commendable labor practice. 

Louise Rosenkrantz 

 

• 

TENANTS IN COMMON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley City Council has done it again. On Tuesday night, it has passed on the first reading a revocation of tenants rights on the basis of a complete and perhaps deliberate misreading of a Court of Appeal ruling, Tom v. City and County of San Francisco (2004) 120 Cal.App.4th 675. That ruling declared a badly worded San Francisco ordinance to be an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. The San Francisco ordinance had outlawed tenants in common agreements, after first allowing tenants in common ownership. For whatever reason, the Board of Supervisors thought this was a preferable way of restricting tenancies in common, but of course it is not and it is patently absurd. Willie Brown, to his credit, realized the foolishness of this approach, but apparently he could not enunciate his reason convincingly and the Board of Supervisors overrode his veto. 

The Court of Appeal ruled on just the narrow issue of the unconstitutional invasion of privacy arising from restricting the internal agreement among owners of a residential property, once the ownership and hence ownership rights have been granted. It did not address the broader issue of whether a city may outlaw tenants in common ownership in the first place, if it is done on zoning and planning grounds. The Court of Appeal ruling explicitly declined to rule on whether the San Francisco ordinance was preempted by the Ellis Act. A fortiori, it therefore declined to rule on whether any other ordinance, such as the Berkeley ordinance, was preempted by the Ellis Act. The trial court had issued a broader ruling, but the ruling of a trial court sets no precedent and is binding only on the parties to the lawsuit. It is certainly not binding on the City of Berkeley or any other municipality. 

The Berkeley ordinance had not shared the infirmity of the San Francisco ordinance. It had simply outlawed tenants in common ownership, on planning and zoning grounds. The Ellis Act explicitly allows this type of restriction, and it was in no way implicated by the Court of Appeal ruling. The wolves in sheeps clothing have apparently used an hysterical misreading of this ruling to do what they really intend, namely dismantle completely all tenants rights in the City of Berkeley. How long will the intelligent people of Berkeley stand for these neo-con shenanigans? 

Peter Mutnick 

 

• 

AL GORE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The April 12 letter by Ms. Maureen L. Farrell which critiqued my critique of the coming Al Gore Current cable television channel was interesting. However, I do not accept the notion that none of us can say boo about the many and varied deficiencies of Al Gore’s ill-fated 2000 presidential campaign, because, somehow, that would be “supporting” the Bush gang and all of their many miseries which they have visited upon us and the rest of the world in the last five years.  

Since my anti-Bush credentials have been challenged, I searched my computer’s hard disk and discovered that I have been writing letters attacking the awful environmental record and hard-right extremist views of then Texas Gov. Bush starting in October 1999, long before he was nominated for president by the Republican Party in the summer of 2000. I also began writing letters attacking the Bush administration’s many lies and distortions about Iraq starting in August 2002, at least six months before the start of the Bush war on Iraq in March 2003.  

That being said, Vice President Al Gore ran a very poor campaign for the presidency in 2000. He shunned the support of the incumbent President Bill Clinton, easily the most popular and most savvy Democratic president since Harry Truman. This poor decision alone may have cost Gore the presidency. In the televised presidential debates, Mr. Gore just couldn’t be bothered to control and mask his utter disdain for the coked-out little mind of Gov. Bush; admittedly, that would be a tall order for ordinary folks, like you or me, but this is supposed to be one of the strengths of a career politician.  

After the close 2000 election, Mr. Gore didn’t demand a total and complete recount of all the votes in the disputed Florida election. No, he just asked for a recount in the five most populous (and most heavily Democratic) counties. This lame move made him look self-serving and thus not interested in true democracy, i.e., having all the votes counted.  

After the Five Supremes picked their ideological buddy, Gov. Bush, to be president, Al Gore just rolled over and played dead, and thus revealed his underlying allegiance to the rich white old boys’ club (Dem/GOP) that runs this country, and showing no interest in honest, count-all-the-votes American democracy. Al Gore could have pressed his case by speaking about the massive Republican election fraud masterminded by Bush brother Jeb and GOP Secretary of State Katherine Harris in illegally tossing thousands of legitimate black voters off of the Florida voter registration rolls in 2000. If Gore had shown some guts and courage by attacking the absurd illogical convoluted one-time-only ruling of the Supremes, he possibly could have helped rein in the Bush regime, by painting it as illegitimate. Al Gore let us down.  

This same miserable losing scenario was again played out four years later, this time by Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 election. With overwhelming evidence of massive computerized electronic election fraud and theft of the 2004 election by GOP manipulation (with what I estimate to be the flipping of 5 million Kerry votes into Bush votes on election night), Sen. Kerry just rolled over and played dead for Bush and his gang. John Kerry, just like Al Gore, showed his underlying allegiance to the rich white old boys’ club (Dem/GOP) that runs this country, and showed no interest in honest count-all-the-votes American democracy. John Kerry let us down.  

So if I choose to write a critical critique of Al Gore’s new Current cable television project, saying that it is probably off-the-mark, it is with knowledge of the long history of Al Gore missteps and poor decisions as background. Mr. Gore’s new project may prove interesting and useful, but what we really need is an Air America cable television channel as an alternative to the present faux news offerings of the corporate media. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

 

• 

PERSONAL ATTACKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would really appreciate if you cease printing letters that contain unexplained and confusing personal attacks on people. The Daily Planet has published several letters that attack people without offering any context or justification for the attacks. In some cases, also, I think you should consider offering an opportunity to the person attacked to respond in the same issue. Or do a little fact-checking? 

A letter was published last October from Sean Dugar, a former chair of the City of Berkeley Youth Commission about Karen Hemphill, a School Board candidate. He did not explain his opinion that “[t]he thought of Karen Hemphill on the school board terrifies me. I have sat down with her several times to try and convince myself that she is what is needed on the board. But I cannot and will not vote for someone just because they are black. Karen has values and thoughts that change like the wind.” I wondered what issues Ms. Hemphill had changed her mind about, and why her flip flopping was so terrifying, but the letter writer did not explain. All I learned from his letter was that she was black, which I had not known from Hemphill’s election materials that I vaguely recalled. Despite my skepticism about Dugar’s judgments, his letter influenced me. Maybe he knew something I didn’t know? No response appeared from the candidate. And 10 days later, the election was over and Hemphill had lost—barely.  

Recently, Rabbi Jane Litman, a commissioner on the Peace and Justice Commission (which I had never heard of it), was the subject of a bewildering and context-less letter by Nancy Delaney (March 22). Delaney wrote that Litman commented in a meeting “that rape was not a violation of ...human rights [but] admitted it was a crime.” Litman was accused of “callousness,” her “solidarity with other women less privileged than herself” was questioned, and Delaney speculated about whether Litman or someone close to her had ever been raped. What was this all about, I wondered? Was Litman (a distant acquaintance) using her position on the Peace and Justice Commission to defend rapists ? Delaney’s letter had mentioned that the issue was related to approving a book about international human rights violations. But what was the issue here? Did the book attack rapists while Litman defended them? Litman did respond a few days later (March 25). Evidently the discussion had involved whether rape was a violation of municipal, state or international law. Or something like that. But why? I still don’t know exactly why this came up! 

Then a truly personal attack came on April 1 in a letter by Judith Clancy that incorrectly stated that Litman’s defending letter was hostile, and that Litman was “seeking to minimize the horror of rape.” The Clancy letter doubted her “decency” as a person, a woman, and a feminist, questioned her “moral teachings” as a rabbi, and demanded apologies from Litman’s employer as well as the Berkeley school board member who appointed her—all because of an unexplained but evidently rather arcane issue regarding jurisdictional issues in international law. At least I am glad Litman noticed these letters and was able to respond clearly and eloquently to them, and with restraint.  

I suppose that, due to her position on an obscure Berkeley commission, Litman is a public figure, so it is not entirely outside the bounds of journalism to publish unexplained and bizarre attacks on her, but it is not even very good entertainment. It must be rather painful to her. Is it really necessary? Is it even decent? 

David Herzstein Couchª


Looking for Love From Oakland’s Next Mayor J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

UnderCurrents
Friday April 15, 2005

A friend from out of town asked the other day if Oakland had a convention center. 

She was in San Francisco for an education gathering, which had gotten somewhat disrupted because of the ongoing hotel strike. She said some of the conference organizers had initially considered moving to Oakland, but the idea got quickly voted down because of what she said was Oakland’s reputation as a “bad” city, and so they moved it to the Moscone Center instead. After we ate dinner, I dropped her off at the nearby Holiday Inn on Third Street where she was staying, and then drove several blocks through South of Market to the freeway, a grim and grimy stretch of the homeless and the hookers and the hooked, quarter-a-minute “adult” sex show shops, papers blowing through stale puddles of beer and vomit and urine and the other assorted human offal, a dreary neighborhood, indeed. Even in its unlit, abandoned corners, Oakland has nothing bad enough to compare. But Oakland has its bad reputation. San Francisco has its great PR. 

I don’t make political endorsements, mostly out of fear that it would only drive voters into the camp of the opposition. But with the first round of a critical Oakland mayoral election less than a year away, it’s important to lay out some guidelines as to what we should look for in a new mayor. 

Considering my friend’s query, and after two terms of Jerry Brown, I want a mayor who loves Oakland, and who is committed to helping Oaklanders get back to loving ourselves. Oakland’s intense sense of inferiority and a nagging, below-the-surface climate of targeted self-hatred is at the root of many of Oakland’s problems and until we face that situation openly, in an adult fashion, we’ll continue to make up the back row in the Bay Area’s parade of cities. 

In its “About Oakland” webpage at www.oaklandcvb.com/media_about_oakland.cfm, the Oakland Convention & Visitors Bureau describes Oakland as “one of the nation’s most ethnically integrated cities, Oaklanders speak more than 100 languages and dialects. Our city’s many faces give us our strength, our civic pride, and our inspired sense of community.” Leaving aside the hype in the second sentence, the assertions in the first are almost certainly true. 

It would stand to reason that if Oakland is, indeed, one of the more diverse cities in the country, emphasizing events and developments that are attractive specifically to Oaklanders would automatically attract visitors from the outside as well, since Oaklanders are representative of just about every ethnic and cultural community within reach. 

And, in fact, we’ve seen that at work with our ethnic festivals. Chinatown’s August StreetFest and the Fruitvale’s Cinco de Mayo and Dia De Los Muertos annually attract tens of thousands of visitors to the city’s two major ethnic commercial centers. We also see it in the continued success of the primarily African and African Diasporan dance classes at Malonga Casquelord Center-formerly the Alice Arts Center-which have survived and prospered over the years despite recent, failed, attempts to dislodge them by the administration of Mayor Brown. (For Californians considering Jerry Brown as our chief law enforcement officer, it may be useful to recall that in order to get the tenant-artists out of Alice Arts, he once accused them of stalking the students at the Oakland Arts School, a charge that withered and died because of…ummm…complete lack of evidence.) 

In any event, our cultural festival experience shows us that where Oakland celebrates Oakland—in all of its corners—without self-consciousness or shame, Oakland succeeds. Most interesting is that while the core constituency of these events are centered in their respective ethnicities-Chinese, Mexican, and African-their appeal crosses racial and ethnic boundaries. 

But just as instructive to our discussion is Oakland’s sorry history with two other annual celebrations—Carijama and the Festival at the Lake. 

Carijama—at North Oakland’s Mosswood Park—was a dance-and-music celebration of the city’s West Indian and African connection, while the Festival of the Lake—on the shores of Lake Merritt—was Oakland’s crown jewel of street festivals, bringing together all of Oakland’s diverse communities and constituencies under one big tent. At their height, both of these annual events were bursting at the seams, so popular it was often hard to find a spare spot to sit on the grass. 

The operative words here are was and were. Both Carijama and the Festival At The Lake fell by almost identical causes—violent disruptions by African-American youth outside of the boundaries of the festivals, and after the respective festivals were shutting down for the evening. There are disagreements to this day as to the exact train of events of these disruptions—and the role of the Oakland Police in either stopping them or escalating them—but that’s a discussion for another day. 

In any event, Oakland’s official response to the problems at Carijama and the Lake Festival were identical—limit their attraction to these “disruptive” African-American youth by limiting their attraction to everybody. The Lake Festival was moved from sunny June to who-knows-what-the-weather-will-be October, also coinciding with Yom Kippur, ensuring that much of our Jewish bretheren would not be in the mix, and further and predictably sending it to a quick end. Carijama was moved from its neighborhood home at expansive, grassy, family-friendly Mosswood Park to the more austere, concrete-surrounded enclosure of downtown’s Frank Ogawa Plaza, a move that both fatally sterilized the festival’s atmosphere and failed to keep out the “disruptive” black kids, thus doubly ensuring its demise. 

I put the word “disruptive” in quotes in describing the African-American youth in the paragraph above because it has never been determined whether those kids came out deliberately to disrupt something they did not like—having participated in such activities myself in my time, I know that this can happen—or whether the disruptions may have flowed from other causes, such as those youth feeling left out of events taking place in their own communities. 

This is more than a mere academic argument. Upon its resolution rests the future of Oakland’s economy and, more importantly, its soul. 

This city spends millions in an effort to get outsiders to like us so they will bring their money here—the Forest City subsidies are only the most recent example—while either overlooking or outright rejecting efforts that might keep Oakland dollars from flowing outside the city limits. A walk through the Jack London Square area on a weekend night shows it teeming with African-American youth ready to spend their entertainment dollars, but with no entertainment venue specifically oriented to their particular tastes (note to planners: think hip hop). In fact, if you judged Oakland’s official attitude on the matter by the actions of the police who stroll or ride around watching these black crowds with wary eyes, you’d think Oakland believed it better if these black kids would just go away. They won’t because, for the most part, they live here. 

Jack London on the weekend seems symbolic of an Oakland that shouts about its celebrated diversity, but gets oddly quiet and hang-doggely when attention shines upon the darker branches of the family. 

The comedian, Chris Rock, once said that if you say you love somebody you’ve got to love everything about them, not just the center of the slice of bread, but the crust part, too. That starts with Oakland’s black youth, but it spreads to other parts of the city as well. 

And so, in Oakland’s next mayor, I’m looking first for someone who loves Oakland—all of us—and sets polices in place to include all Oaklanders in its building and its benefits. How can we get others to love us, if we continue to feel so ill at ease with ourselves? 

 

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The Meaning of Manliness: A Cosby Kid in the ‘Hood By P.M. Price

The View From Here
Friday April 15, 2005

Not long ago, my 10-year-old son, Jason, came limping into the kitchen, a doo-rag (scarf) on his head, some bling (an over-sized, shiny but fake medallion) around his neck and wearing—just barely—a pair of pants about two sizes too large, his plaid boxers peeking out over his backside.  

“What are you supposed to be?” I asked.  

“A thug!” he snarled, wiggling his crooked fingers at me in what I was later to find out was the signage for a West Berkeley street gang. 

“Oh, no you are not a thug!” I snarled right back. 

“I be gettin’ down!” he retorted, comically twisting his body around to the tune of his nod-nod-nodding head. I caught a sparkle of amusement in his eyes, a hint of a grin across his down-turned mouth, so I knew that he knew that I knew that he wasn’t all that. 

“Jason, we do not have thugs in our family and we do not talk or dress like thugs, either. So, you can take that stuff off before you go anywhere with me.” 

“Aw, Mom,” he intoned. “You just ain’t with it.” 

“I guess I ain’t.” I replied. “But, I am with you and you’re with me, so go change your clothes. Now.” 

“Unnnh,” he moaned and trudged on upstairs to discard his cool while I continued filling out applications for private middle school. 

This was not the first time we experienced culture clash between Jason and his schoolmates and it would not be the last. The first time was not with the little brothers from the ‘hood but with upper class white boys in Jason’s pre-school. Jason had been accustomed to being around girls, including his older sister and two little girls in day-care. He was equally comfortable playing fireman and house. However, just before he turned 4, the slightly older boys in his pre-school began excluding him. Why? Because not only did he not join in when they persistently declared that they hated girls, but he actually had the nerve to play with them. On the day that Jason came home and announced, “I hate girls!” I felt a great sadness, as though some innocent, non-discriminating part of him had been lost. 

Today, among the measures of manliness for 10-year-old boys is one’s ability to “suck it up,” to refrain from showing emotion when in pain. On a recent sleepover with a group of classmates, one of the boys tore an emblem off of Jason’s new jacket. When asked to give it back, he refused and instead ripped it up in front of Jason’s face, bringing tears to his eyes. Not one of the other boys criticized the youth who so boldly destroyed Jason’s property. Instead, Jason was berated for showing that he cared so much. Later, the host of the party introduced another fun game which required that his guests line up so that he could forcefully punch each one in the arm. Whoever flinched was declared a sissy. Jason refused to participate, so you can guess what they called him.  

Now, there’s the male thing and then there’s the black male thing.  

On top of being encouraged to dislike girls and show no pain, black boys, who often grow up to suffer from higher rates of illness, poor education, violence, unemployment, incarceration and even suicide, are placed under particular pressure to not exhibit their pain, anger and frustration, though exhibit it they do, by tragically becoming both perpetrators and victims of their environment. This is the dilemma that many blacks felt Bill Cosby ignored when he publicly criticized black parenting skills. While alternately shunned and feared on city streets and in classrooms, young black men are fully embraced on playing fields and dance floors. Small wonder that so many little black boys see sports and music as the only pathways to success. 

Not my son. No way. He is exposed to all manner of talented role models and achievers. But, is that enough when the vast majority of his black schoolmates view the world so differently? By the way, when considering the rise in corporate crime, global wars, racial and sexual violence, and the shameful neglect of this country’s youth, disadvantaged and elderly, young white boys don’t have much in the way of role models, either.  

While I agree with Bill Cosby’s assertion that black parents must assume more responsibility for the behaviors of their children, I would have added that white parents should work harder to unlearn racism to better prevent it from being absorbed by their children. And we would all benefit from teaching our children empathy, tolerance and appreciation for others by practicing those values ourselves. 

I think we’ll forgo private school for now. I want my son to feel comfortable with a wide range of cultures, ethnicities and classes that better reflect our growing, changing world. Perhaps, Jason and his friends can learn to become the role models they all need, right where they are. Besides, who wants to fork over all that private school money? I could buy myself some bling. For rizzle.


Police Blotter By MATTHEW ARTZ

Friday April 15, 2005

Combat Victim 

Police responded to a fight at Piedmont Avenue and Channing Way Sunday at 1:39 a.m. to find a 21-year-old man severely injured. Police arrested the other combatant on charges of battery with great bodily injury. 

 

Wet Awakening 

A 28-year man awoke to the sound of breaking glass early Sunday morning. When he journeyed to the lobby of his apartment building on Panoramic Way to check out the commotion, a man charged towards him with the building’s fire extinguisher, said Berkeley Police Public Information Officer Joe Okies. The intruder sprayed the tenant in the face and fled the scene. The tenant was not injured in the attack. 

 

Spraypainter Nabbed 

Police arrested a 65-year-old Berkeley man Sunday after officers reported seeing him around 1 p.m. spaypainting city property while holding a beer in his free hand, according to Officer Okies. The man ultimately had both his hands cuffed behind his body for defacing property at University Avenue and Milvia Street. 

 

Purse Snatch 

Two teenaged girls grabbed the purse of a 19-year-old walking on the 2600 block of Dwight Way near the American Baptist Church Sunday at 8:44 p.m., Okies said. 

 

Officer Attacked 

A 28-year-old Berkeley man didn’t take kindly to officers stopping him outside the 7-11 at Telegraph Avenue and Parker Street around 11 p.m. Tuesday. According to Officer Okies, the man attacked and injured one officer on the scene. He was arrested for battery on a peace officer. 


Community Supports Work-To-Rule, Teacher Says By GEN KOGURE

Commentary
Friday April 15, 2005

In the encounters I have had with the parents and children of Berkeley, I have found that the overwhelming majority of them support the work to rule action. I know that they don’t find it easy, but all of them understand the fundamental human right that people should be paid for the hours they work. 

They also understand that many of the wonderful things the teachers have been doing for their students have been done on donated time and should not  

be taken for granted or as an educational right. At the high school, some teachers donate their time to take students to Washington, Costa Rica, even Italy. They help run clubs, organize the small schools, chaperone dances and sporting events. Many of my colleagues volunteer their time to help our school have some of the highest average AP scores in the nation. Most of the countless hours are donated time, and I am sure that the primary and middle school teachers can say the same. 

The truth is, if the board’s proposed pay cuts go through, in the future much of our district will be in a permanent state of “work to rule.” The massive increases in heath care costs charged by the district will force many teachers to take extra assignments or second and third jobs to make ends meet. There will be no time for educational enrichment needed in a vibrant educational community. 

Many younger teachers, like myself, are saddled with student debt and can only afford to live in a shared housing situation. Some of us live in outlying communities like Oakland, Hayward, or Richmond. So I ask you, why should these young energetic teachers, who are the future educational foundation of Berkeley, continue to commute to a district which steadily insists on eroding teacher compensation? Speaking with some of the younger teachers, I know that morale is low, and I am sure that some of them are using their “work to rule” time after school to look into opportunities in other districts. We love our students but we also have dreams for the future—to perhaps own a home and raise a family in Berkeley—and we ultimately cannot work in a district whose offers are nothing more than pay cuts that make our dreams impossible. 

I believe the Berkeley community supports education for their children. They generously voted in Measure B, not to benefit the teachers or the board, but to reduce the class sizes for the children. Maybe some day I’ll be able to afford a house in Berkeley and pay taxes that support Measure B. Every day I see parent volunteers helping run the school and helping teachers in their classes. The Berkeley community understands the fundamental importance of education for their children, and I believe If the “progressive” board continues to insist on cutting teacher pay and driving away quality teachers, there will be a referendum: it will be in  

the next school board elections. 

The district has attempted to confuse the public in a massive PR effort claiming they don’t have enough money for raises. They blame Arnold for reneging on his promises (rightfully so). They also produce figures and budgets from various sources, accountants, and auditors. But let’s make it clear—teachers aren’t asking for a raise—they are fighting against massive pay cuts proposed by the district. Teachers believe in fiscal responsibility and saving for a rainy day. Teachers are also opposed to sacrificing essential services for the children just to support their pay. We understand that we aren’t in agreement on the fiscal realities of the future. That is why our proposal asks the district, “If there actually is a surplus, please allocate some of it to help off set the pay cut.” 

I believe that the people of Berkeley feel that children have a right to an education. They also understand and believe in the fundamental rights of workers to be paid for their work and to protest injustice. If we have to “work to rule” and take outside jobs, we will. If the district insists on further cuts and we have to strike, we will. Teachers have families to support. Our labor actions aren’t holding the students’ hostage for a pay raise. We are fighting against a pay cut, and all workers have a right to protest and to refuse to work without pay. We’re not just fighting for ourselves, we are also fighting for the pay which allow us to have the enriching and continually improving schools that the district seems determined to destroy . In the upcoming days, I hope more of the community joins us in asking the board to not drastically cut teacher pay if money materializes from Sacramento. I believe the teachers and the community want what’s best for the children—a nurturing and challenging education that is different from the factory model found across the nation—we just need to convince the school board, our elected officials, the  

same. 

 

Gen Kogure is a teacher at Berkeley High School.›


Arrested for Attempted Murder: Don’t You Hate it When That Happens? By CAROL DENNEY

Commentary
Friday April 15, 2005

I was arrested a couple weeks ago for attempted murder. The police take me to jail a lot for sport. I’m starting to think they should thank me for providing some recreation in their day. 

My friends are used to my getting arrested. I told one friend I was arrested for attempted murder, and she smiled and said, “I hope it was for a worthy cause.” Another said, “Don’t you hate it when that happens?” 

I’m not sure who I’m supposed to have tried to murder unless it was the traffic cone I took out of my driveway so I could go borrow a friend’s drill to install a cabinet in my bathroom. Perhaps the police thought I removed the plastic orange traffic cone from in front of my driveway so that I could kidnap it, and torture it to death. A friend pointed out this could technically be called coincidence. There may be a special penal code section on the mistreatment and abuse of traffic cones, with appropriately severe penalties. 

I would consider this, except that technically I rescued the plastic orange traffic cone from being run over, which infuriated the truck driver who’d put it there, who then blocked my car and called the police, who were only too happy to handcuff me, knock me around, and take me to jail. I’m a fifty-one year old woman, but this doesn’t seem to matter. 

They towed my car from my own driveway. In this way they manage not only to inconvenience me, but also to unnecessarily cost me lots of money. In the world of police business, if you couple knocking someone around with unnecessarily towing their car from their own driveway, it’s considered something like a royal flush. 

I photographed my own bruises, a lonely business. They will drop the charges after lots of pre-trial hearings. I’ll sue them, another mini-drama with no perceptible satisfaction. And that will be that, until it happens again. The last time it happened, around three years ago, it cost them lots of money, and no, it is not worth it. It is something you have to do otherwise they will do it all the more. 

There used to be a modest commitment toward police accountability in town, which would swell and recede with tides of police abuse. But little by little the outrage erodes, the old slogans seem unfashionable, and the budget for police review is bled to nearly nothing by a crew of liberals who state in perfect deadpan that there is no longer much need. 

Cast an original thought in this pond at your own peril. You will never be convicted of a crime, but your arrest record, in all its ridiculous pomposity, will stay with you. You will learn the assemblage of light jokes one makes when asking the tow-truck driver the favor of cutting your plastic jail wristband off with his pocketknife. And you can never call the police without knowing that they’re more likely to side with the person assaulting you, if they stop to listen at all. 

If you’re prudent, you always carry a tape recorder and camera, as I did that day, so that a little bit of the truth is allowed into the room over time. It may not save you immediately, but it will help down the line when the police are forced to explain how their stories managed to leave out so much. 

But no one gives you back your time, your unbruised day of casual carpentry, your sense of trust in the ordinary nature of the universe. These are the little things lost when a community turns its back on its commitment to an above-board police force. The big things lost, the potential for reduction in crime that can accompany a cooperative relationship between citizens and police, are reflected in the sad priorities of a cash-strapped budget that leaves a sparkling new jail where the old brand-new jail used to be, while the librarians are fired. 

The police faxed a copy of my arrest to my workplace. This has an interesting effect on the executive director of a non-profit. They appreciate the “innocent until proven guilty” principle, but that “where there’s smoke there’s fire” maxim keeps peeking around the corner. 

Off I go to a long series of court dates at the public’s expense. It is an odd sort of entertainment watching uniformed police officers try to convince the court that I should be convicted, this time of being a grave danger to the public safety of plastic orange traffic cones. And, who knows, maybe this time they’ll get lucky. 

 

Carol Denney writes the Pepper Spray Times, published montly in the Daily Planet.›


Berkeley’s Best: Jump’n Java By BECKY O'MALLEY

Friday April 15, 2005

Jump’n Java 

6606 Shattuck Ave., Oakland 

595-9666 

 

People who like iced coffee best often have southern roots. In the southern United States, New Orleans and environs, iced coffee used to be (and perhaps still is) the sophisticated alternative to the ubiquitous summer iced tea. Here in California, land of eternal summer, real iced coffee is perfect for days when the temperature in the sun gets above 70 and outdoor café tables get crowded. 

Jump’n Java, on South Shattuck near the Berkeley-Oakland border, gets it right. They start with strong coffee—“black as night, dark as sin”— pre-chilled so that adding ice doesn’t dilute it. That’s the key step. It’s a serious disappointment to order iced coffee and be served a weak, tepid, pale brown liquid produced by pouring hot coffee over ice.  

Real southerners used to add heavy cream. Jump’n Java will provide other whiteners on request, but their first offer is half-and-half—luxury enough by California standards. Their iced coffee comes in a tall heavy glass, not a paper cup or the evil-tasting clear plastic cups which name brand chains use to spoil their offering of otherwise not-so-bad iced coffee.  

The small café is a pleasant place to drink it, too. There are three sidewalk tables, and inside, facing rows of small ones complete with Internet and plugs for laptop users. The walls are decorated with tropical murals featuring parrots and palm trees. The music is NOT the heavy-metal choice of the dishwasher-du-jour which ruins conversation at many cafes. And the owner remembers your name after the second or third visit…just like down home. 

 

 

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East Bay’s Little-Known Russian Community Celebrates Diversity By FRED DODSWORTH

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

It’s easy to miss the East Bay’s immigrant Russian community. Typically they are poised, neatly dressed Caucasians with lilting accents that can be mistaken for anything from French to Eastern European to Israeli. 

Frequently Russian émigrés are very well educated, although, because of American licensing restrictions, rarely are they able to find work in their fields of expertise. Ironically, many of them fled to America, the modern “promised land,” because they were victims of American-style capitalism’s harsh realities—low employment rates, a destroyed social infrastructure and high prices. 

The Berkeley Russian School acts as both a social network and a learning center for these new Americans.  

“(It is) like a school and like a club,” said Yelena Gli kman, founder and director. “All newcomers can come to our school and get the support that they need. For example, a lot of Russian wives, who people just met and bring here, these women are absolutely lost here because they don’t understand anything.” 

Glikman said that many newly arrived Russians think that all Americans are rich and that since they have a car they must be millionaires. Then they find out that’s not true.  

“It’s terribly hard,” she said. “I know a few couples who are very good, but a lot of them, they can’t survive, unfortunately. These people come to us and we give them moral support. A lot of them have children, these women who come here because they cannot feed their children in Russia. It’s not because they look for a better life, it’s because they cannot buy food for their children. They need to go somewhere.”  

Glikman said the economic situation in Russia is bleak. Many educated people cannot find jobs. 

“I know the story of one professor; he died from hunger because he was too proud to go and ask for the money,” she said. “They don’t pay him enough for bread. To buy bread, you know? It’s a very hard life over there.”  

Yelena started the Berkeley Russian School few years after she and her husband, Alex, immigrated to the Unit ed States in 1989. Alex, who was a professional classical musician, originally taught music at the school and ran the school’s concert program until he died three years ago. 

The school holds classes in Berkeley, Walnut Creek and San Francisco. This weekend, Saturday, April 16th, from noon to 6 p.m. the organization will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a festival of Russian culture open to all. The inexpensive afternoon of events will offer homemade Russian food and drink and arts and crafts for sale. There also will be performances by adults and children in plays, puppetry, performance dancing by adults, and several piano concerts by award winning pianists associated with the school.  

Like all immigrants before them, Russians finding their way in m odern America face losing touch with the traditions, culture and language of their lost ‘motherland’.  

Sasha and Nadia Blank’s son, Daniel, 6, has attended the school for the last three years. The Blanks said they like the sense of community the school p rovides and have established new friendships with other Russian-speaking parents.  

“We want to preserve his Russian language and heritage,” said Sasha. “The other good thing is the school’s math program, it’s two years ahead of the public schools.”  

Recent Russian immigrants Mark and Lena Wohlfarth of Oakland enrolled their daughters, Tanya, 8, and Nadia, 6, in the Berkeley Russian School because they felt the local schools weren’t demanding enough from the children. The girls take classes in Russian language and literature, math, chess, arts and drama.  

“I like the selection of literature they’re learning, especially the poems,” said the girl’s mother Lena. “The teacher talks about different (Russian) authors and different styles of writing and the history of the words. The Russian language is very beautiful.”  

Wohlfarth said she plans to cook golubtsy (a cabbage-wrapped meat dish in tomato sauce), blini (filled pancakes) and pierogi (filled dumplings) for the celebration. While listing her planned contributions, she decided to provide Russian candy as well.  

“We have to have Russian candy,” Wohlfarth said excitedly.  

Beyond the celebration, Wohlfarth said she’s looking forward to meeting all the other parents and grandparents.  

Stacy and Robe rt Kertsman’s daughter Talia, 5, has been attending the after school program for the last nine months. Stacy, an American born Berkeley resident, doesn’t speak Russian, but her in-laws, who now live in San Francisco, are native Russian speakers.  

“My hus band’s Ukrainian and we want our daughter to know her Russian language and culture,” said Stacy. “The school offers both options at a high level.”  

“(It’s) because we want them to know their culture,” affirmed Glikman. “I think it’s important to know b oth cultures because it’s their roots. A lot of parents say: ‘We live here. We have everything. Why do they need to speak Russian?’ Because they need to speak to their grandparents who don’t speak English. And there’s us also, our English is not good enou gh to speak about everything so deep, and such important things.”  

 

More than 50 families from the East Bay’s Russian community will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Berkeley Russian School Saturday, from noon-6 p.m. Saturday, April 16, with homemade Russian food and drink, art, music, puppetry, drama and dance. 1821 Catalina Ave., at the corner of Colusa Avenue. There is a $5 entry fee and many items of Russian culture will be for sale. For more information, see www.berkeleyrussianschool.org. ›


Point Richmond’s Masquers Mark 50 Years with ‘Proof’ By BETSY M. HUNTON

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

The Masquers of Point Richmond, housed for the last 40 years in one of the most charming theaters in one of the most charming areas in the Bay Area—we’ll get to that later—are celebrating their 50th anniversary with their usual eclectic selection of plays. The company started the season with a bubble entitled The Farndale Avenue Dramatic Society’s Production of MacBeth and has now moved on to one of Broadway’s recent and best-known block-busters. 

They’re is planning a 50th anniversary party in September. 

There are lots of rather remarkable things about David Auburn’s Proof, not the least of which might be that in 2001 it won both the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the Tony for Best Play. Both. That’s not bad for a playwrite’s second full-length play, as well as his first one to even get to Broadway at all. 

By this time the play is well enough known that the fact that three out of the four characters are mathematicians may not seem quite as daunting as it did earlier on. But people who haven’t seen Proof yet will probably admit that math doesn’t seem like the first place you would expect theatrical material. Obviously, however, in this instance it works very well indeed.  

The play, after all, is about the characters: a daughter who has interrupted her life to take care of an aging father whose internationally known genius has deteriorated into worse than decay, an ambitious young man who falls in love with her and an older sister who is determined to reorganize her family’s lives. 

Proof manages to touch on most of the great dramatic themes; it’s a love story and it’s full of both humor and sadness. There’s a mystery, a seeming betrayal, a loss and a recovery. The play demands a lot of its actors, and in this production a very strong cast is up to the challenge.  

In the lead role of Catherine, the daughter who has put her own life on hold to care for her father, Carolyn Zola does terrific work, covering situations which require portrayals of almost every emotion in the book. It’s a very convincing and moving performance. 

The play opens on Catherine’s 25th birthday—an age which has particular significance in a mathematician’s family. It’s the age when mathematicians are generally believed to have finished their significant creative works. It was by that time that her father was considered to have “changed the face of mathematics.”  

Zola has appeared in productions throughout the Bay Area and is studying acting with David Ford and at Studio ACT. Her father, Robert is touchingly portrayed by multitalented Masquers’ member, David Coury, an actor in numerous productions as well as a four-time award winner for his lighting designs. In real-life, he’s in transportation engineering, but for many years he has been an active member of several theater groups with multiple roles, primarily as a technical designer and advisor, and board member.  

Georg Herzog is Harold Dobbs, a young Ph.D. candidate who comes into the isolated world of Catherine and her father, in the hope that, by going through the old man’s endless and mostly incoherent notebooks, he will find valuable mathematical materials. His relationship with the unpredictable Carolyn becomes a new complication to the scene and a major issue in the play. Herzog has studied acting with Full Circle Productions, B.A.T.S. Improv, and the ACT Studio program. Director John McMullen describes him as “a real hunk who has real talent.” 

Lily Cedar-Kraft plays the take-charge big sister Claire who has come sweeping in from New York City to straighten her family up—primarily by taking her sister off with her for what she presents as a well-organized “normal” life. Catherine, however, suspects, perhaps legitimately, that Claire really plans to commit her along with their father. 

Cedar-Kraft recently received an Arty best actress nomination. She plays a variety of roles, including, she says, “every film I can get.” Her B.A. from San Francisco State is in Drama. 

Part of the production’s success goes straight to the Masquers’ technique of selecting both plays and their directors. Thanks to Theatre Bay Area, a magazine which is almost mandatory reading for the area’s theatrical world, the Masquers and other “non-professional” theaters are able to draw on a large pool of theatrical talent from many miles around.  

It’s “almost” only because of Actors Equity’s rules for its members’ participation. Thus a sizable number of actors who either haven’t yet made “the Big Decision” or who have the good sense to prefer a less chancy way of earning a living or even—Heaven help us—of wanting to lead “a normal life,” are available, no, make that “eager” to move heaven and earth to play a particular role.  

Theater people are an obsessed breed of cats; they routinely commute staggering numbers of miles to have the chance to do a role they want on their resumes, or a director whose work they want to experience. They think nothing of a schedule that no sane person would even consider. Thus Point Richmond, this tiny, hidden little gem of an “almost village,” is able to draw talent from most of the entire Bay Area’s acting community. 

All The Masquers had to do was to place an announcement in Theatre Bay Area of their desire for a director, asking what play that he/she wanted to direct, and what his/her rationale was for that choice, and select among the people they interview. 

Director McMullen, who lives in Oakland and teaches in the Theater Departments at City College of San Francisco and Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, wanted very much to direct Proof.  

McMullen says, “I find that I choose plays which have psychological issues that resonate in me, or are particularly timely about something that’s happening in the world about which I feel strongly. Proof started off as a psychological issue—I had an aunt who cared for my grandparents and was put out of the house after their deaths by her sisters—not my Mom. And the play turned into something timely with the big flap about women in math that the guy (President) from Harvard started. I put in for Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple for next year at Masquers because I think it’s important now to remember about fighting for your freedoms.” 

McMullen has worked with all the members of his cast previously. Carolyn Zola (“Catherine”) was in McMullen’s first acting class at CCSF and he says he knew “she was an incipient talent.” He has cast her in four of his plays. He himself has acted with Georg Herzog at Berkeley’s Impact theatre. Lily Cedar-Kraft played the “Marilyn Monroe” part in Bus Stop and Dave Coury was the bus driver and also did the lights. McMullen describes Coury as a “multi-talented man. He is a lighting genius. He even took my course in acting at CCSF.” 

When asked about casting people whom he has known previously, McMullen added: “It’s nice to have people you know you can work with, and in my case, to have people who will put up with me.” 

And now, finally, we get to Point Richmond itself. 

There just doesn’t seem to be another adjective as accurate as “charming” to describe both the Masquers’ Playhouse and its setting in Point Richmond. It’s a tiny, hilly area, as different as it is possible to get from the unfortunate stereotype that Richmond has to fight. 

The buildings around the theater itself are appealing and individualized. Call it a town square, but whatever you call it, try out one of the several restaurants that lie behind the inviting fronts.  

Berkeley doesn’t have anything to teach Point Richmond’s chefs. 

The Masquers of Point Richmond perform Proof at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through May 7 and at 2 :30 p.m. Sunday, April 24 and Sunday, May 2. $13.  

Masquers’ Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Richmond. 232-4031. ?


Wilde Irish’s ‘Ariel’ Explores the Battleground of Family By KEN BULLOCK

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

So the Platonic Year/Whirls out new right and wrong,/Whirls in old instead;/All men are dancers and their tread/Goes to the barbarous clangour of a gong. 

—W. B. Yeats, “Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen” 

 

Ever since Greek was the vogue of the Romans, playwrights have emulated and imitated the classical tragedies of Athens, sometimes trying to fuse the old myths with whatever present in which their plays have been set. 

Eugene O’Neill’s three-part Mourning Becomes Electra is one case in point, combining the doom of the generations of the House of Atreus from Aeschylus’ Oresteia with a modern domestic drama a la Strindberg, enacted by an American family in their Greek Revival mansion, circa 1865. 

Marina Carr’s 2002 play Ariel—at Berkeley’s City Club in a Wilde Irish production—is another such play, injecting ancient venom into contemporary Irish veins amid scenes of familiar, even banal, public and private life. These themes of obsession and revenge are concentrated so that strife in the family seems more intense than that on a battlefield. 

“Poet Patrick Kavanaugh once imagined Homer whispering to him that he made The Iliad from local land and marriage disputes,” writes C. L. Dallat of Carr’s previous By the Bog of Cats (an Irish Gypsy rendering of Medea, at San Jose Rep four years ago—and now in London—with Holly Hunter), “Marina Carr reinvigorates this idea.” 

The play now on stage at the City Club, begins with birthday candles to celebrate Ariel’s 16th birthday, the Fitzgerald clan seems united in festivity. But all prove distracted, haunted by the sense that “everything’s either already happened, or is about to.” 

Fermoy (Robert Hamm, with a wolfish leer and grin covering a desperate obsession) confesses to his priest brother Boniface (Howard Dillon, whose gentle manner eventually descends into a cynical foolery), “Me and God’s on a one-to-one”—and that this God demands sacrifice. Boniface counsels, “That’s why our thoughts are silent: so we can do away with them before they’re spoken.” 

Fermoy’s wife, Frances (fiery Rica Anderson) is his match, whether dancing with him or dryly applauding his railing at the world. She mourns her dead son by a first marriage. She and Fermoy have been together 17 years after an adulterous “fling that went wrong.” Their 10-year-old Stephen (Sean og Bogue) seems barely weaned. 

“Is there anything lovely as a sleeping child?” asks Boniface, seeing Stephen drowse. “There is,” Frances says, “a dead one.” Boniface tells her later in the play, “You’d reminisce the future, Missus, if you thought you’d get away with it, “ 

Most touching is the birthday girl, Ariel (fresh, girlish Elana Kepner). “When You Were Sweet 16,” Fermoy sings to her, and says, “Even though you aren’t a child any longer, we’re going to hold onto you as long as we can.” Her presence, and later absence, give a lyrical touch of the evanescence of youth, though haunted by nightmares of mortality.  

A crisis is brewing. Fermoy’s standing for an election he’s likely to lose. There are threats from his opponent, bullish Hanafin (Larry LePaule), his obsession with a self-imposed mission of greatness, and the stormy attraction/repulsion of his marriage. He and Ariel go out for a ride in the car he’s just given her. 

There’s a flash forward, years past the crisis, in a brilliant scene of an interview with now-seasoned politico Fermoy—that proves a rehearsal of finessing the press. Second daughter Elaine (steely-eyed Jena Rose) has transformed from tomboy in to father’s flack. Stephen (now played by Steve Nye) is a filmmaker of his own infantile obsessions. But the past stretches out to eternity, old atrocities begetting new ones; the skeletons dug up not of an ancient, but a primal scene. They’re from the family closet, and are followed by apparitions and visitaions, like in the old time dramas of revenge and retribution. 

Fermoy’s anger at the Old Dispensation (“The death of Christ was by us, not for us. The Resurrection was for Himself.”) and crusade to reeducate the nation runs aground on the revelations of what he’s done to escape what he’s seen. Frances confronts him: “You laid my daughter on an altar for power!” And enter Electra: Elaine confronts Frances, saying, “Behind your own front door isn’t where you do what you like; it’s where you face ‘em all down, with your tail between your legs!” 

Ariel’s an abridged Oresteia, not just “the legend of Iphigenia” as advertised. Gemma Whelan’s direction keeps the dire pace of what’s remembered, said and done, running ahead of the brooding over it all. It’s a peculiarly Celtic complex, trying to say the unsayable all at once, grasp the ungraspable in past, present and future all at once, have your cake and spew it, too. There have been even more crystallized visions of the same: Samuel Beckett’s radio play, 

Embers—following Yeats’ great, late little masterpiece, Purgatory—may be the inspiration for Fermoy’s repeating the old family horrors he’s seen, hoping to put them to rest, unlike Boniface and Aunt Sarah (Breda Courtney) who’ve merely witnessed, and remembered. 

In Marina Carr’s play, it’s played out on a bigger field, that of power, as Yeats put it elsewhere in “Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen,” “The night can sweat with terror as before/We pieced our thoughts into philosophy/And planned to bring the world under a rule/Who are but weasels in a hole.” 

 

Ariel runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and at 3 p.m. Sundays through May 1. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 644-9940. www.wildeirish.org.›


Arts Calendar

Friday April 15, 2005

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Working,” inspired by Studs Terkel, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. Through May 7. Tickets are $13-$15. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Albany High School Theater “Wit” and “Benefactor” Thurs. at 7 p.m., Fri. at 8 p.m. and Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. through April 16, at Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany. Tickets are $5-$10. 558-2500, ext. 2579.  

Aurora Theatre, “Blue/Orange” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m., 2081 Addison St. through May 15. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.aurora.theatre.org 

BareStage Productions “She Loves Me!” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through April 24 at Choral Rehearsal Hall, Cesar Chavez Student Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10. http://tickets.berkeley.edu 

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

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” opens at the Roda Theater and runs through May 29. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Black Repertory Group “Bubbling Brown Sugar” the musical Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2:30 and 8 p.m. to May 14 at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $7-$15. 652-2120.   

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through May 21. Tickets are $12-$20. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Laney College Theater, “Legacy for LoEshe” in memory of a girl slain in West Oakland, Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., through April 21, at 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$9. 464-3544. 

“Proof” by David Auburn, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through May 7 at The Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $13. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“La Causa” Photographs of the Farmworkers’ Movement at The Free Speech Movement Cafe, Moffitt Library, UC Campus, through Oct. 482-3336. 

“A Bahl Beemsh” featuring the art of seven artists working from ceramic sculpture to oil portraiture. Reception at 7:30 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. boontlinggallery@hotmail.com 

Native American Jeweler Ken Romero, at 7 p.m. at Gathering Tribes Gallery, 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038. 

FILM 

Marina Goldovskaya: “Lucky to be Born in Russia” at 7:30 p.m. and “The House on Arbat Street” at 9:15 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

Lucrecia Martel: "La Ciénaga” screening and discussion with the filmmaker at 2 p.m. in Room 370, Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. Part of “on Argentina” lecture series. http://spanish-portuguese.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Jazz Lab Band at 7 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High School. 

Rafael Manriquez, Chilean singer and guitarist, at 7:30 p.m. at at the Fellowship Café, Cedar & Bonita Sts. Donation $5-$10. 841-4824. 

University Dance Theater 2005, with new works by Carol Murota, Lisa Wymore and Ellis Wood, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$14. 642-9925. http://theater.berkeley.edu 

Aphrodesia and Otis Goodnight, Afro-beat, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Voco and the Toids, folksinging and Balkan music, at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donations $10-$20. 701-1787 www.hillsideclub.org/concerts  

Lua at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Anger/Marshall Duo & Vasen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Solari, Thriving Ivory, Keith Varon rock, at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

So Funny I Forgot to Laugh at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

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

Joe Gilman Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Lae with Ranch Hound Brown, funk, hip hop, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

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

The Bananas, Onion Flavored Rings, Ashtray at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Kenny Washington at 7 p.m. at Maxwell’s, 341 13th St., Oakland. 839-6169. 

John Pizzarelli at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 16 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Gayle Schmidt & The Toodala Ramblers at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Elissa Haden-Guest, creator of the Walter and Iris series, will read from and discuss her books at noon, at the Cal Student Store. 642-9000, ext. 661. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sculpture by Bruce Beasley: A 45-Year Retrospective” opens at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

THEATER 

Kathakali Classical Dance Drama from South India at 6 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, 1781 Rose. Tickets are $12-$25. 925-784-6718. www.kathakalibythebay.com  

FILM 

Crying in Color: Some Came Running” at 12:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Reza Aslan describes “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

“Sculpture by Bruce Beasley: A 45-Year Retrospective” A slide lecture by the sculptor at 2 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Harvey Helfand, author of “Campus Guide, UC-Berkeley” will discuss the history and traditions of the University at 2 p.m., at the Cal Student Store, 642-9000, ext. 661. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concert “Solstice” at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Cost is $8-$12. 549-3864. http://trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Festival of Cultures with international dance, music, theater from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Admission $3-$6. Children under 18 free. 642-9461.  

Il Giardino Armonico at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $42. 642-9988.  

Holy Names University, “Opera Scenes” at 8 p.m. at Regents Theater, Valley Center for the Performing Arts, 3500 Mountain Blvd, Oakland. Tickets are $7-$10. 436-1330.  

Samba Ngo in a benefit for Doctors Without Borders at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$25, sliding scale. 525-5054.  

Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project with La Familia at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568.  

Val Esway’s Acoustic Onslaught at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Hip Hop Awakening at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

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

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

Anger/Marshall Duo & Vasen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Drunken Spacemen, Bad Habitz, Abominable Flowmen, rap, hip hop, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Michael Manring, extreme bass, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373.  

Spark, CD release party, at 8:30 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento. Tickets are $10-$15 from www.eileenhazel.com 

Tarbox Ramblers, The Cowlicks at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

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

Marcus Shelby Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Eileen Hazel at 8:30 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $10-$15.  

Second Coming, All Bets Off, Doomsday Device at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 17 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Vistas, Views and Visions” Two-dimemsional works by members of the San Francisco Women Artists at the Addison Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. Reception at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, Rehearsal Room A, 2081 Center St. 981-7546. 

“Blind at the Museum” guided tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Creative Partnership in the Era of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore” from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

FILM 

Marina Goldovskaya: “Art and Life: Finding the Thread” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Lorna Dee Cervants and Opal Palmer Adisa at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Schools Performing Arts Showcase with the Music Honors Ensembles Concert from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley HighSchool. Artwork from the schools will also be on display. 644-8772. 

Cantare Chorale and Chamber Ensemble “A Symphony of Psalms” at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 2619 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$25. 925-798-1300. www.CantareConVivo.org 

Healing Muses “On the Slopes of Parnassus” the life and times of Georg Muffat at 4 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington at Neilson, Albany. Tickets are $15-$18. 523-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Organ Music with Robert Huw Morgan at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $15 at the door. Reception follows. 845-6830. 

“A Tribute to the Great Trumpet Players” with The Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra and Fred Radke at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12-$18 at the door. 420-4560. www.bigbandjazz.net 

University Alumni Chorus “Balshazzar’s Feast” Hugh Davies guest baritone soloist. At 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$15. 643-9645. www.ucac.net  

Americana Unplugged: Jeanie & Chuck’s Country Roundup at 4 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Son de Madera, music and dance from Veracruz, Mexico, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stephanie Bruce at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Clockwork, The Idea of North at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Arturo Gatti, Tried by Fire, Pain of Exile at 4 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. All ages show. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Fall of Troy, Clarity Process, A Burning Water, rock, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 18 

FILM 

Buddhism and Film: “Hima- 

laya” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

THEATER 

“Gang of Grandmothers” James Keller’s latest play at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearts Ave. Through the 20th. 526-2023. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“I’m a Stranger to Myself” A lecture on the American cabaret style, 1940-present, with William Bolcom, composer and Joan Morris, mezzo-soprano, at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. http://music.berkeley.edu/bloch 

Michael Balter describes “The Goddess and the Bull: Catalhoyuk: An Archeological Journey to the Dawn of Time” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chabot College Jazz Groups at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

Annual Quilt Show at the North Berkeley Public Library, 1170 The Alameda, at Hopkins, and runs through May 21. 981-6250. 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: Devotional Cinema Films by Nathaniel Dorsky at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nick Salvatore introduces “Singing in a Strange Land: Rev. C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

John Shelby Spong explains “The Sins of the Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love”at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $10. 845-7852.  

“Synagogue Mosaics and Liturgy in Greco-Roman Palestine” with Prof. Steven Fine of Univ. of Cincinnati at 7 p.m. at Badé Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8201. 

Ayun Halliday describes her life a “Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-Market Dilettante” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50- $21.50. 548-1761.  

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

Danny Caron, Jazz guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Wallpaper, rock, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886.  

Gunga, Brazilian music, at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20 

THEATER 

Laney College Theater, “Legacy for LoEshe” in memory of a girl slain in West Oakland, Wed. and Thurs. at 8 p.m., at 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$9. 464-3544. 

FILM 

History of Cinema: “Life on Earth” at 3 p.m. and Games People Play “eXistenZ” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Wesley Stace introduces his new novel “Misfortune” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Ji-Li Liang, talks about “Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution” at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Mark Kurlansky discusses “1968: The Year That Rocked the World” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

Café Poetry hosted by Paradise Freejalove at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, “Love Songs by Robert and Clara Schumann” with Marissa Matthews, soprano, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on the Rosales Organ at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555.  

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

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Lessons at 7 p.m. Cost is $7. 525-5054.  

La Verdad, salsa, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Cyril Guiraud Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50- $21.50. 548-1761.  

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

Toots Thielemans and Kenny Werner with Oscar Castro-Neves at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $12-$22. 238-9200. ª


Garden Tour Focuses on East Bay’s Native Plants By RON SULLIVAN

Special to the Planet
Friday April 15, 2005

On Sunday, May 1, the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour will open 50 gardens in the East Bay for free tours. Tours include guides, who along with the garden owners can answer questions and point out subtle features of the gardens; at some gardens, plants will be available for purchase or for free. The gardens are maintained with minimal supplemental water—some get no irrigation at all, just our usual winter rain—and also minimal or no pesticides. This fosters a lively ecosystem; many gardeners have long lists of the wildlife they encounter in their gardens, from mammals to birds and butterflies. Thirteen of these gardens are in Berkeley, and for an example of the range of possibilities in a California native plant garden, here are three. 

Barbara Thompson lives in a house in Claremont; flowing through her front yard is a good stretch of Harwood Creek, and she has some mature liveoaks too. Owning such a piece of ground carries with it certain responsibilities, and she is living up to them—and honoring her creek, oaks, and living system. She’s had native plants installed in lots of the yard—and gone organic in her garden care, which natives makes easier, as they’re adapted to the place where they live and at least the native insect population there. This reduces the pollution load washing into the creek. And there are plants on the steep banks, the ones that aren’t city-built retaining walls, to control erosion. Most are natives, so they prosper without a lot of watering or feeding. 

The effects of all this care include healthy populations of dragonflies and Pacific chorus frogs. These can, paradoxically enough, work against each other, as the dragonfly larvae eat tadpoles. So Barbara has pressed a nonworking aquarium tank into service, shading it and screening it from dragonflies and raising a batch of tadpoles to froghood.  

The contractor who built the garden’s street fencing included windows so passersby can have a look at the creek and its life—including one window at a height suitable for children or wheelchair riders.  

West of there, in my own flatlands neighborhood, are two gardeners with different approaches, and I like both. They have yards of roughly similar sizes, and they’re both named Schneider, though they aren’t related. 

Christine Schneider is a landscape architect who knows her plants, and her birds, bugs, and other critters too. Her day job is about wildlands restoration, and she applies what she’s learned there as well as back in architecture school to her home landscape.  

Behind a pre-existing boxwood hedge is a pleasant gravel surround for a big native grass clump, set in a raised circle of stacked flagstones like an arrangement in a vase. The gravel, an illusory pond that replaced a real, too-shallow pond, is bordered by native grasses, poppies, iris, and other droughty greens, and native shrubs including a favorite of mine, fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, against the house. These mesh well with several scattered fans of German iris in a striking shade of blue, all propagated from her original plant. 

Through the back gate is a visual surprise, as it opens onto a yard that looks acres-deep because of Christine’s eye for rhythm and illusion. To the right is her “token lawn,” an Italian stone pine, and fruit trees, backed by a couple of veggie beds whose wooden sides are hidden by the mass of flowers, native and not, in their curved bed. A wisteria reached over the fence from a neighbor’s yard; other wisterias drape the cottage in back and the deck on the house. To the left, running up to that deck, is an oval bed of bluish grass mounds—native and not watered in summer—and their mostly-native border of monkeyflower, iris, ceanothus, manzanita and more. There’s a young alder, planted by the deck for gentle visual screening and for a more practical purpose: A finger of Derby Creek runs under the yard, and Christine has hired the tree to suck up excess water.  

“This is the barbeque ‘room’,” she said, gesturing by the edge of the bunchgrass oval. “And over there is the sipping-wine-and-watching-the-sunset ‘room.’” Her natives dominate the yard, while harmonizing with the few exotics she’s planted because she just plain likes them. “They all play well with others,” she said, laughing. They also bloom in sequence, so there’s always some color happening. It’s an inviting space—to local wildlife as well, the finches and butterflies that pass through as we stroll the garden. And of the whole thing, it’s only the right side of the backyard—and a few pet Japanese maples—that get summer water. 

A few blocks north, Glen Schneider has a garden with a completely different look, one oddly familiar to those of us who take off for the parks and wildlands when we can. Behind a white fence, his front yard is a perfect example of a wild East Bay meadow: bunchgrasses, Douglas iris, several grand cow parsnips, a couple with flower stalks starting up. Cow parsnip is that big soft green plant with white umbels of flowers like giant Queen Anne’s lace, over mapley-shaped leaves. It’s a signal of place—our place. Tangled among the iris leaves are a rambling California rose, some native currants, poppies, and a scatter of other denizens of Berkeley’s wild spots.  

Beside the house, next to the former driveway, is a small veggie garden, and a thornless raspberry is trained along the fence. Glen has a bed at the end of the yard with five kinds of garlic, too; he’s no purist ascetic. The back yard is another meadow, just a bit sunnier, with clarkias, more grasses and meadow flowers, sagebrush, and blue elderberries. Behind the shed is a ramada topped with dried leafy branches, a picnic table and a ten-by-ten patch of California forest understory under the bordering Lombardy poplar. A monster manroot and a native grape climb the poplar, and more woods plants nestle in the space. 

There are a couple of soaproots out in the sun, and I’ve rarely seen them this big. This is a quietly nifty plant, with long wavy-edged leaves rising from a bulb that the pre-European folks here used for food, soap, and—dried—for brushes. It has a central stalk of little white flowers that most of us rarely see, because it blooms at night—actually, it’s “vespertine,” Glen tells me, blooming from about 5 p.m. till past midnight.  

Now, that’s something most of us have to spend the night in a tent to see. And quite a bit of the insect life and the 44 bird species in this yard’s list need some sitting quietly, just being there, to see. Aside from wanting to see what the lost parts of the East Bay once looked like, the deep-soil flatlands of which so little is left undisturbed, Glen has arranged this space as a sort of permanent field trip. 

In a mere three of this tour’s 50 gardens, we can see three completely different looks, feel three contrasting moods. Barbara Thompson has saluted a bit of original California flowing through her garden. Christine Schneider has extended her house by two or three welcoming outdoor rooms, bringing herself and her family out to a bit of local Nature. And Glen Schneider has brought local Nature to his doorstep, where he can sit on the steps with breakfast and be in the real world.  

 

Register for the free tour—you need to register to get the maps—at www.bringingbackthenatives.net/ or for more information, call Kathy Kramer at 236-9558 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. 

ô


Berkeley This Week

Friday April 15, 2005

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 

Funeral Services for Margaret Breland, former Berkeley City Councilmember, at 11 a.m. at Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 997 University Ave. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Sidra Stich, “Enhancing Italian Art Appreication” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

Five Star Night Fundraiser for Alameda County Meals at 6:30 p.m. at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, 4700 Lincoln Ave., Oakland Tickets are $250 available from 577-3581. www.feedingseniors.org 

“Violence in the Americas” conference, Fri. and Sat. at Stephens Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

World Space Summit and Party for Yuri’s Night at 6 p.m. at the Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$75. www.chabotspace.org 

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. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, APRIL 16 

Regional Parks Botanic Garden Annual Native Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring cardboard boxes to carry your purchases. Refreshments will be available. Located at Tilden Regional Park at intersection of Wildcat Canyon and South Park Drive. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org. 

Annual California Wildflower Show, Sat. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sun. noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

41st Annual Iris Show and Sale from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by the Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society. 277-4200. 

Compost Critters Learn which animals do the dirty work of turning leftovers into rich soil. For ages 5 and up at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 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-$7, registration required. 525-2233. 

Learn to Grow Your Own Food from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UC Berkeley Organic Garden, Walnut and Virginia. Cost is $10-$15. To register call 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Spring Blooming Perennials with Aerin Moore at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of the Glass Block Buildings of West Berkeley led by Bill Goodell, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Russian Festival from noon to 6 p.m. at 1821 Catalina Ave., corner of Colusa. Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Berkeley Russian School. 526-8892. 

Community Budget Workshop with City staff on the two-year City budget cycle which begins July 1, at 10 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Co-sponsred by the League of Women Voters. 981-7004.  

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.  

Self Defense for Women from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542, ext. 302. 

Astronomy Day with activities from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $9-$13. 336-7373. www.chabotspace.org 

Museum Exhibition Catalog Sale at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

California Writers Club with Beth Proudfoot, Director, East of Eden Writers Conference, speaking on "Making the Most of Writers Conferences and Literary Contests” at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

“Join Hands with Africa” Gala to raise funds for a village in Africa, with speakers, food and a fashion show, at 6:30 p.m. at the Richmond Civic Center, Macdonald Ave at 26th St. Tickets are $40. 691-2882. www.afrimmigrants.org 

East Bay Atheists meets from 2 to 5 p.m. with Richard Carrier, on “Ethicology: Proposing a New Science of Moral Imperatives” at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd floor Meeting Room. 222-7580. eastbayatheists.org 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Basic Personal Preparedness from 9 to 11 a.m. at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

fire/oes.html 

“Chain Breakin” Workshops in Capoeira and Maculelê from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $12-$25. Hosted by BAKA Cultural Arts Center. 205-1799. 

Festival of Cultures with international dance, music, theater from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Admission $3-$6. Children under 18 free. 642-9461. http://ihouse.berkeley.edu 

By the Light of the Moon Open mic and salon for women at 7:30 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Sliding scale $3-$7. 482-1315. www. 

changemakersforwomen.com  

California College of Arts Spring Fair with ceramics, glass, jewelry, clothing, textiles, paintings and more. Proceeds go to individual artists. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 5212 Broadway at College Ave. 594-3666. 

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  

Sistaz N Motion Membership Drive and Mixer at noon at the Richmond Public Library, Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 925-439-1612. 

Brown Bag Lunch Practicum for Writers at 11 a.m. Sat. and Sun. in Berkeley. For details call the Creative Project Institute 415-816-5640. www.creativeprojectinstitute.com 

Remodeling Workshop for Homeowners from 9 a.m. to noon at Truitt and White Conference Center, 1817 2nd St. Cost is $25-$30. Registration required. 558-8030. 

“Lights, Camera Fashion” Charity fashion show by UC students at 4 and 8 p.m. in the Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$10 from http://fashion.berkeley.edu 

Quit Smoking Class from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. for six Saturdays at Alta Bates Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave., first floor auditorium. To register call 981-5330. quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

“Exploring the Awakening World” personal coaching with Leza Danly from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Claremont, 41 Tunnel Rd. Cost is $5-$15. www.sfcoaches.com 

“Destination Studies: Nevada, So. CA, Arizona” from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Vista Community College. 2020 Milvia St. Cost is $13. RSVP to 981-2931. 

“How to Buy a Home in This Crazy Market” from 10 a.m. to noon at First American Title, 2089 Rose, near Shattuck. To RSVP call 981-3063. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 17 

Annual California Wildflower Show noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Activities for children and families. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

41st Annual Iris Show and Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by the Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society. 277-4200. 

Spring Wildflower Hike Meet at 10 a.m. at the bulletin board at the Big Springs pullout on South Park Drive, Tilden Park. We’ll learn to recognize the eight major families of California wildflowers on this hike. Wear sturdy shoes for a rocky trail. 525-2233. 

The Pond is a Nursery Learn aquatic entomology for the larval point of view, see dragonfly babies, phantom midges and learn their history and future at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Huckleberry-Sibley Scramble in the Oakland Hills with Greenbelt Alliance. Reservations required. 415-255-3233. www.greenbelt.org 

A Child’s Container Garden a family workshop from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $14-$18. Registration required. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at the Willard Community Peace Labyrinth on blacktop next to the gardens at Willard Middle School. Enter by the dirt road on Derby. Free and wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377. 

Earth Day at the Oakland Zoo Learn how to support animals around the world with activities, performers, displays and more from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 632-9525, ext. 202. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Soap Making Workshop Learn the chemistry of soap as we use olive, coconut and palm oils to make natural soap. Bring a pair of rubber gloves. For ages 12 and up. Cost is $10-$12. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Hands-on Bicycle Clinic: Flat Repair at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

Center for the Education of the Infant Deaf Walkathon Fundraiser at 9 p.m. at the Moraga Commons Park, Moraga. Registration is $100. For information call 848-4800, ext. 318. www.ceid.org 

The Peace Alliance Foundation East Bay Kickoff for the US Dept. of Peace at 7 p.m. at the First Church of Religious Science, 5000 Clarewood Dr, off Broadway Terrace, Oakland. 547-1979. www.ThePeaceAlliance.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 Sylvia Gretchen on “Joyful Mind” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 18 

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.  

Choke Saving Skills, with Hashim Anderson, EMT, at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

“Bringing Biodiesel to Native America” A send off of the bus and bike tour at 3 p.m. at the Inter-Tribal Friendship House, 523 International Blvd., Oakland. 653-4274.  

Interfaith Weddings: What Are the Options? at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $15 per couple. 839-2900, ext. 347. 

Stress Less Seminar at 7:15 p.m. at the Upaya Center for Wellbeing, 478 Santa Clara Ave., Oakland. Cost is $40-$80. 465-2524. 

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. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 19 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at Inspiration Point, Tilden Park, to look for Seaview Trail species, including nuthatches, warblers and sparrows. 525-2233. 

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

Mini-Rangers at Tilden Park Join us for an afternoon of nature study, conservation and rambling through the woods and water. Dress to get dirty, and bring a healthy snack to share. For children age 8-12, unaccompanied by their partents. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley Garden Club Spring Tea and “Natural Flower Arranging” at 1 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Cost is $8. 524-4374. 

Kayaking 101 Learn about safety and places to paddle at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Freeing a Superpower’s Slaves” The story of the first great human rights campaign with Adam Hochchild at 7:30 p.m. in Buttner Auditorium, College Prep School, 6100 Broadway. Cost is $5-$10. 658-5202. 

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

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss The Draft and the Military from 7 to 9 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690.     

Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration “All About Hamlet” at 7 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. For reservations call 843-6798. yogikuby@earthlink.net 

“Community Resources for Better Health” with Donna Schempp, LCSW, at 4 p.m. at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 104, Albany. To register call 558-7800. 

Clarity Breathwork with Maggie Ostara, Ph.D. and Susan Chettle at 7 p.m. at Belldonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $30-$35. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

Vision Screening for Toddlers at 10 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Introductory Buddhist Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at Dzalandhara Buddhist Center, in Berkeley. Suggested donation $7-$10. For directions call 559-8183.www.kadampas.org 

Raging Grannies meet to sing for peace and justice at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

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. Volunteer recognition luncheon at noon. 845-6830. 

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

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20 

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 plant secrets. From 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Concerned About Teacher Contract Negotiations?” Join the Berkeley Federation of Teachers in a community forum, at 7 p.m. at Longfellow School Auditorium, 1500 Derby St. Childcare provided. Wheelchair accessible,. Traduccíon al Español disponible. 549-2307. 

“Mountain Bike Racers in Berkeley?” Come meet the Berkeley High team and the founder of the NorCal Mountain Bike High School League at 8 p.m., at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Sponsored by Grizzly Peak Cyclists and open to all. Wheelchair accessible. 527-0450. 

Direct from Chiapas with Gustavo Castro at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. Benefit for Chiapas Support Committee. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

A Conversation with Alice Walker and Sue Hoya Sellars at 6 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Tickets are $20. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

“Saving Social Security” with Deb Androsa of Global Exchange at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. Light supper served. 548-9696. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

Taoist Tai Chi Beginning Level Class at 7 p.m. in the Large Assembly Room of the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Affordable monthly donation requested. 415-864-0899. www.taichicalifornia.org 

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

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station.www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon. April 18 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon., April 18 at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

citycouncil/agenda-committee 

City Council meets Tues., April 19, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., April 19 at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/housingauthority 

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

Commission on Aging meets Wed. April 20, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., April 20, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 981-7550. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., April 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Kristen Lee, 981-5427. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., April 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/designreview  

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

ª


Conflict of Interest Charge At West Campus Planning Meeting By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Heated tempers and pointed questions dominated the opening minutes of Thursday’s Berkeley Unified School District’s public planning meeting last week on the West Campus site. 

The first moments of the Thursday meeting, however, were devoted to City Councilmember Darryl Moore’s tribute to his predecessor Margaret Breland, who had died earlier in the day. 

Following his tribute, Moore addressed the issue at hand—formulating plans for the future of the 10 buildings on six-plus acres the school district owns along University Avenue between Bonar and Curtis streets. 

“It’s going to be complicated, and it’s important that we work together,” Moore said. 

And, within minutes, things got more complicated. 

The first issue was David C. Early, the consultant hired by BUSD to conduct the community planning process for the site, and his dual roles as head of Design, Community & Environment—the firm awarded the consulting contract—and as the chair of Livable Berkeley, an advocacy organization that is currently formulating its own plans for the site. 

Rachel Boyce, a Curtis Street resident, was the first to raise the issue of a conflict with Early’s role, noting that a Livable Berkeley meeting in Early’s offices two days earlier had conducted its own session to propose alternatives for the site to present at Thursday’s meeting. 

“I was out of the country,” Early said when asked about the meeting in his office. “The agenda had a workshop about what members wanted to do, but I was not in attendance and I don’t know about the results.” 

“What stake does Livable Berkeley have?” Boyce asked. 

“There’s a question about your role because of your involvement in Livable Berkeley,” said Kristin Leimkuhler. 

“I hope the people who are unhappy will let this proceed,” said developer Ali Kashani, who had come to participate as a project area resident. 

A Daily Planet reporter who has been evicted from the evening meeting at Early’s Walnut Street office asked if the planning consultant saw any conflict between his role as a district consultant and the fact that he was offering office space to a meeting called by an activist group to formulate a policy on the project. 

“Livable Berkeley has not taken a position yet,” Early said. “There are members here this evening, but I know absolutely nothing about what may have happened at the meeting, and as a citizen of Berkeley I have as much right as anyone else to join an organization. I would say that in this case, there is no conflict of interest.” 

BUSD Board Member John Selawsky later said he was unaware of Early’s connection with both groups and said he would look into the issue of potential conflicts of interest. 

Others said they were angry that a 52-page needs assessment report on the site Early had prepared for BUSD wasn’t posted on the district’s web site until the day before the meeting. Early acknowledged that the report had been prepared about a week earlier and apologized for the late web posting. 

Others said they were concerned at the speed at which the project was moving forward. 

“This is a very fast-track process,” Early acknowledged. “The school board meets only during the academic year, and Superintendent Michelle Lawrence has made a commitment to the staff to get them out of two incredibly unsafe buildings.” 

The structures in question are Old City Hall and those at the district-owned complex at 172O Oregon St. The district hopes to move district officers and other uses from those sites to West Campus, which already hosts some programs in its largely vacant buildings. 

“Part of what offends me is that this is the largest single parcel in Central Berkeley, and you’re asking people to participate without briefing them on the University Avenue Strategic Plan,” said Leimkuhler. “I feel you’re asking people to make enormous decisions that are sort of pie-in-the-sky.” 

Thursday’s was the second of four public participation sessions Early’s company is running. The first session was held March 17, and additional meetings are scheduled for April 21 and May 12. 

Once the opening dustup had settled, participants split into groups to formulate their own plans for the site, starting with printed maps and multicolor sheets featuring cut-along-the-non-dotted-line representations of the district’s mandatory and optional uses for the site. 

Six groups retired to separate tables to talk, cut and tape, emerging at the end with reports presented to the meeting. 

One mandatory use for the site was rejected by a large majority, the presence on the site of BUSD’s Community Day School, which provides education for students who have been expelled, put on probation or referred by the School Attendance Review Board and who are now currently being home-schooled. Many of the Day School pupils have been sent to the program for violence and other behavioral problems, prompting great concern from participants that the program would be on the site. 

Most of the groups favored the option of daylighting Strawberry Creek’s course through the property, a program strongly endorsed by Livable Berkeley. Most also favored the option of including residential housing over ground-level commercial space and parking along University Avenue. One group favored arts programs to augment the majority-approved recommendation to transform the current auditorium at the site into a community theater. 

All groups favored keeping the swimming pools now on the site as well as the 12,000-square-foot boys’ gymnasium. 

The groups divided on preserving the three-story, 39,000-square-foot three-story classroom building, which was built without a now-mandatory elevator. While some wanted to preserve the seismically sound structure, Planning Commissioner David Stoloff favored demolition, noting that rehabilitating an existing building costs as much as a structure. 

District requirements for the site include: 

• 31,200 square feet of administrative offices plus 4,500 square feet for a board room and ancillary quarters. 

• 8,800 square feet for a teacher and staff development center, 4,000 square feet each for the district’s independent study and Community Day School programs, and 2,800-square feet for a child care program. 

• 6,000 square feet for buildings and grounds shops. 

• A 6,000-square-foot district-wide kitchen, a 1,700-square foot print center, a 1,500-square-foot district warehouse and 800 square feet for document storage. 

• 75,500 square feet for parking. 

Optional uses included: 

• The existing 26,500-square-foot softball and soccer field on the west of the property 

• 30,000-square feet of housing along with 9,000 square feet of parking and a 1,600-square-foot child development center for residents, and 

• 30,000 square feet of retail space with 3,000 square feet of parking. 

One big question raised by the audience was who would oversee the site. Under state law, a school site where instruction occurs falls under the Office of the State Architect rather than under local agencies, while an administrative-only site is overseen by local building, planning and zoning agencies. 

Because the site includes a mix of uses, including possible retail and residential uses, Early said he couldn’t predict which agencies would assume ultimate jurisdiction. 

“It has never been an issue in Berkeley before,” he said. 

At the meeting’s end, Early promised to post photos on the school district’s website of the plans formulated at Thursday night’s gathering. The presentations will be boiled down to three alternative schemes, including a preferred alternative, and brought back to the next community workshop on April 21. The final recommendation will be presented as a West Campus Draft Master Plan to be hashed out at the final public workshop of May. 12.


Peralta Board to Vote on No-Bid Contract at Laney By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Peralta Community College District Trustees this week will be asked this week to approve an $8 million no-bid contract to build Laney College’s new art building using a controversial interpretation of the California Public Contract Code. 

The contract is on the consent agenda of the trustee board’s regular meeting scheduled for Wednesday, 7 p.m. The meeting will be held at the College of Alameda Student Center, 555 Atlantic Ave. in Alameda. 

Chancellor Elihu Harris is asking trustees to ratify the contract he has already awarded to Meehleis Modular Builders of Lodi. 

The issue of piggyback contacts in modular building has attracted the attention of labor unions because they could be used to evade the prevailing wage laws which keep wages high on public work projects in cities such as Oakland. 

Matt Bender, spokesperson for the state Department of General Services, said it was “fair to say that labor organizations are concerned about whether the piggyback contracts for modular construction violate prevailing wage law.” 

The 26,000-square-foot one-story art building at Laney—which is planning to include three modular buildings under a common roof united by covered walkways—is scheduled for completion by January 2006 on the East 10th Street site now occupied by the campus tennis courts. 

The new art building will replace the existing Laney College Art Annex Building along Interstate 880, which stands on property that CalTrans needs for highway retrofitting and construction. CalTrans is financing the new building. 

In the board agenda description of the item to be presented by Peralta General Services Director Sadiq Ikharo, district officials say that the Meehleis contract was awarded after the district solicited three proposals from modular builders. The narrative says that the contract was awarded “under a ‘piggyback’ contract” between Meehleis and the Gustine Unified School District in Merced County. 

“Under this arrangement,” the board agenda narrative continues, “the formal public bidding process is not required. Because the piggyback agreement expired on March 28, and the March 22 Board meeting was canceled, it was necessary for the Chancellor to approve the contract with Meehleis.” 

While Meehleis lists no community college construction on its website, it lists completed and ongoing modular construction in public school districts throughout Northern and Central California. The company’s local modular projects include John Muir School in San Leandro, Coleman and Galinas elementaries in San Rafael, Eagle Peak Elementary in Concord, and Valley View in Pleasanton. 

Chancellor Harris declined to comment for this article. Peralta Community Colleges Director of Communications Jeff Heyman said that the district “will have a response at the board meeting. We’ll be answering trustees’ questions, and Sadiq will explain thoroughly what we are doing and why we are doing it.” 

The so-called “piggyback” contract practice comes from Section 20652 of the Public Contract Code, which allows community college districts to circumvent the normal bidding process by leasing or purchasing “data-processing equipment, materials, supplies, equipment, automotive vehicles, tractors, and other personal property” through other public agencies. Public school districts have a similar provision in their contract code. 

However recently school districts have begun using the provision to authorize, without bid, the construction of an entire modular-built school campus by attaching it to the construction of a school in a different district by the same company. 

The practice has become so controversial that the State Allocation Board, at its Feb. 23 meeting, directed its staff to request an opinion from the California Attorney General on the legality of “one school district piggybacking on another school district’s modular construction contract.” 

The Allocation Board consists of the state Finance Director, the Director of the Department of General Services, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and several members of the state legislature. 

In its bid proposal to MSE and Peralta, Meehleis said that some of the art building construction would be done at the company’s factory and some would be done on site in Oakland. Calling itself “a non-union company,” Meehleis said that prevailing wage labor rates in the contract would only apply “for work not performed at [the company’s] plant.” 

Earlier this year, the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California criticized construction piggybacking on its website, saying the practice “locks all the school construction projects with the original contractor and prevents other reputable, local contractors from submitting a bid.” 

Kellé Lynch-McMahon, project manager for the Oakland-based engineering consultants MSE Group which is managing the art building construction project, said that the concept for the new arts building “has always been modular because of the budget and the timeline.” 

Noting that “as usual, the state government wants Cadillac construction on a Volkswagen budget,” Lynch-McMahon said, “CalTrans requires the existing annex building to be demolished by June of 2005, and modular construction provides the most expedient and cost-effective way to replace it in the time required.” 

Demolition of the tennis court site where the new art building will be constructed began last week, with construction of the buildings themselves scheduled to begin in mid May.ª


BUSD to Replace Five Principals, Food Chief By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday April 12, 2005

As if ongoing budget and contract problems and the task of hiring 60 new teachers were not enough, Berkeley Unified School District must replace five of its 16 school principals and the district director of food services this summer. 

Food Service Director Karen Candito has already left the district for another job, while principals Alex Palau of the Berkeley Alternative High, Nancy D. Waters of John Muir Elementary, Kathleen Lewis of Oxford Elementary, Shirley Herrera of Rosa Parks Elementary, and Michele Patterson of Willard Middle have resigned their positions and will leave at the end of the school year. 

While there is a possibility that the principals of Oxford, Willard, and Rosa Parks may be reassigned to non-principal positions within the district, Palau says that he is leaving the district to “stay home for a year with my 8-month-old daughter” and Waters is returning to her native Florida. 

At least three of the positions are being vacated following some controversy. 

Last spring, more than three quarters of Rosa Parks’ teachers signed a letter of no confidence to Superintendent Michele Lawrence asking that Principal Herrera be transferred from the school for what they called “unreliable leadership” and “inequitable treatment of students, teachers, and staff.” 

Stating that the principal was “working in the best interest of that school and the children that she serves,” Lawrence left Herrera in place, transferring four teachers from the school instead. Three other teachers transferred out on their own. 

Last January, Berkeley Alternative students, parents, and staff protested to district officials after alternative school students were barred from participation in Berkeley High’s homecoming, junior and senior prom, and cheerleading activities. After Palau and BHS principal Jim Slemp traded accusations through the newspaper, the superintendent convened meetings between representatives of the two schools, and the ban was eventually lifted. 

Candito also leaves the district’s food program after mixed results. While Berkeley Unified’s food service department has received such national honors as the Golden Carrot Award (given by the Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine for food service facilities that offer innovative programs that help improve child health and reduce obesity), the department has received regular complaints at board meetings and within the district for losing money. Last winter, a collection of 26 Berkeley residents—including Berkeley High PTA President Lee Berry—requested that the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury investigate financial mismanagement at Berkeley Unified School District’s Food Services Department. 

Candito said she was leaving the district voluntarily “because I got another opportunity.” 

She said she has been hired as the director of food services for a county correctional department “in a location I’d rather not publicize.” She said it is a position that will allow her to “work to improve health issues on a larger scale. Unfortunately, jails have more funding than schools in the present state budget climate. But I hope what I’ll be able to do in corrections is going to come back and help school nutrition. I’ll have more leeway; at least I will, in my dreams. I hope it turns out to be a reality.” 

Candito said her biggest accomplishment in her four years at Berkeley Unified was “building a strong foundation and infrastructure for the school services department. I’m leaving the department fully integrated into the school system and platform.” 

Candito added that she wanted to “thank the Berkeley School Board and the Superintendent for their support in school nutrition. I’ve never seen any board or administration more committed to healthy children. They’ve been wonderful. While it’s really exciting to move on to another challenge, I’m sad to be leaving. The Berkeley community is wonderful, and my staff was great.” 

While BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan called the principal turnover “higher than usual,” he said that “part of the fact is that we only had one principal hiring in the last two years—Jim Slemp at the high school. Things are just catching up.” 

Coplan said the district anticipates no problem in filling the positions because “Berkeley is a district everybody wants to come to.” He said that the district expects “a few dozen applications from outside the district, and we may have some teachers moving up who have been working on their principal credentials.” 

Coplan said his office is currently putting together a recruitment brochure to send out to school districts across the state, as well as to credentialling graduate programs for school administrators. Cutoff date for response to the principal jobs is the end of April. 

Board director Shirley Issel called the outgoing principals “highly valued members of our staff. I hope they continue their careers here.” 

Issel said that moving back from an administrative position to teaching may actually be preferable to some of the principals. 

“People enter the profession because they want to help kids,” she said. “Returning to the classroom might end up being an attractive option for them.” 

Meanwhile, 20 of the 60 new teacher hirings will fill the spots of teachers who are retiring or leaving the district for other reasons, while the remaining 40 are new positions made possible by Measure B class-size reduction funds.ª


City Looks to Boost Condo Conversion By MATTHEW ARTZ

Staff
Tuesday April 12, 2005

The City Council Tuesday will consider a proposal that could make the condominium king in Berkeley. 

To dissuade landlords from forming tenancies in common, a form of ownership some fear could displace tenants, the council will consider capping city fees for condo conversions at $50,000, less than half the average current conversion fee. 

Condo supporters on the council want to further lower the conversion price, while tenant backers said $50,000 is too low and want more safeguards for renters.  

The head of the city’s small landlord organization wondered if lower conversion fees were designed to help them or big developers. 

“There’s concern that this would be a bailout for large scale developers sitting on empty units so they can auction them off and save their investment,” said Michael Wilson of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. 

The future of condos in Berkeley is just one of the items on the council’s packed agenda that could have lasting consequences for the cityscape. Others are town relations with UC Berkeley, tenants facing eviction at a West Berkeley warehouse, developers seeking larger buildings, and residents hoping to avoid parking tickets. 

The drive to ease restrictions on condo conversions stems from a state appeals court ruling last year striking down a San Francisco law prohibiting tenancies in common. Berkeley officials say the ruling, which the state supreme court declined to hear, requires the city to end its prohibition on tenancies in common. Berkeley banned that form of home ownership for buildings with more than three units 13 years ago after roughly 700 property owners employed it during the ‘80s and early ‘90s to avoid rent control. 

Tenancies in common, a way for two or more people to own property together, is often thought to be a less desirable form of ownership than condos. Owners can have more trouble obtaining financing if TICs are considered a risky investment because shareholders do not hold title to specific units as they do for condominiums. Only owners with a fifty percent stake in a TIC can pursue owner occupancy evictions.  

However, TICs have one big advantage over condos for landlords eager to rid themselves of tenants in rent controlled units paying below market rents. Under California’s Ellis Act, passed in 1986, a landlord can choose to leave the rental business, evict his tenants, and then sell the building as a tenancy in common, all free from city regulation. By comparison, Berkeley law requires a landlord to wait ten years after employing the Ellis Act to convert a rental property into condos. 

“Things are much more dangerous [for tenants] now,” said Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton. “Owners can use the Ellis Act to kick out tenants and sell a property as TIC shares. Since the city can no longer stop TICs, we need to offer a carrot to open up condo conversion and make it profitable for the owner.” 

Barton said that currently Berkeley charges an owner seeking to convert to condos between $100,000 and $150,000 per unit, which he said explains why Berkeley hasn’t had any condo conversions in recent years. Under the city plan, property owners would pay no more than $50,000 per unit and the fee would go to the city’s housing trust fund to build more affordable housing. City law would continue to limit condo conversions to no more than 100 per year. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said he approves of the concept, but wants the city to explore lowering the cap to between $30,000 and $40,000. 

“I’d like to see some intermediate priced home opportunities in Berkeley and condos are more affordable for people interested in home ownership,” said Wozniak, explaining his support for expanding the condo market. 

For Councilmember Dona Spring, whose district comprises mainly tenants, the city’s first response to the return of TICs should be to figure out how to protect long-term renters from being evicted by landlords converting to condos or TICs. “I want to make sure that we don’t liberalize condo conversion so much that it will be an inducement for property owners to evict tenants,” she said.  

Al Sukoff, an Oakland-based developer, said he didn’t know if a $50,000 conversion fee would be enough to make condo conversions attractive to landlords. 

“It really depends on the building and the owner,” he said. “Personally I would probably go to my grave before I give the city $50,000.” 

Sukoff added that Oakland charges a replacement housing fee for condo conversions that is usually around $5,000 per unit. 

“For me $50,000 would still be too high,” said Wilson, of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. 

 

 

Foothill bridge, sewer fees 

The council will also hold a public hearing on UC Berkeley’s proposed Foothill Bridge. The university is seeking city permission to build a pedestrian bridge over Hearst Avenue to connect the two halves of the Foothill Residential Complex.  

UC Berkeley has argued that the bridge is necessary to solve pedestrian safety concerns and open up the La Loma dormitory to students who use wheelchairs. Opponents say the bridge would damage views and that wheelchair-using students still wouldn’t reside at the dorm because it is near the top of a steep hill. Typically, after a public hearing, the council delays a vote for a week or two. 

In a separate issue, the council is scheduled to vote on whether to charge UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Unified School District for use of the sewer system. The new sewer fees, which go into effect in July, will cost the university $2.18 million and the BUSD $157,503. UC Berkeley officials have said they believe as a state entity they are exempt from the fee and will not pay the bill, setting up a potential court case. 

Glenston Thompson, the BUSD’s deputy superintendent of business and operations, said the school district plans to pay its fee, but isn’t thrilled about it. “We have no capacity to absorb increased costs at this time,” he said. 

 

Drayage deadline 

For the more than two dozen residents of the Drayage Warehouse in West Berkeley facing an April 15 evacuation order, Tuesday’s council meeting is perhaps their last chance for a reprieve. City staff is preparing a report regarding the building which the fire department has labeled “an extreme fire hazard.” Councimember Spring has hinted that she would push the council to take some action aimed at looking for ways to keep tenants in their homes. 

Spring has also written a proposal asking the council for a clearer definition of how to apply a state law that grants extra building space for projects that include low income units. Spring contends city staff opted against clearly applying the law so they could have added flexibility to grant developers more space. 

Also, the Police Department is recommending that the city hire three new parking enforcement officers and one new supervisor to boost parking ticket revenue. According to the city’s calculations each new parking enforcer will net an additional $25,000 in the next fiscal year. 


Bayer Moves Division Headquarters to Berkeley By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Berkeley is set to be at the center of hemophilia research as the new headquarters for Bayer’s Biological Products Division. 

The German pharmaceutical giant announced last week that it had transferred the division’s headquarters to its Berkeley facility from Research Triangle Park, NC. 

The move coincides with the construction of a $50 million clinical manufacturing facility that will allow the company to test new and existing drugs at Bayer’s West Berkeley campus. 

“This shows Berkeley that we are committed to the city and that we’re here to stay,” said Bayer Communications Manager Sheri Alterman. 

In 2003 Bayer moved nearly 200 jobs from its Berkeley campus to Germany and Connecticut. 

Alterman said Bayer currently employs about 1,400 people at its Berkeley site. According to city officials, Bayer has estimated that the move will bring between 30 and 50 additional jobs to Berkeley this year and as many as 100 jobs over the next couple of years. About 30 employees will be transferred from North Carolina to Berkeley. 

The Berkeley campus, which had already specialized in hemophilia and hematology drug research, will now be the hub for the division’s administrative, marketing and research work. 

Bayer opted to move its division from North Carolina after divesting itself of its plasma protein business, also centered at Research Triangle Park. 

Rumors circulating last week that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would attend last Friday’s press conference to announce the company’s move drew a devoted band of protesters braving a strong rain. But the governor was a no-show and city officials said they had learned days prior that he would not attend.


Margaret Breland Funeral Services

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Funeral services for former Berkeley City Councilmember Margaret Breland will be held at 11 a.m. Friday morning at the Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 997 University Ave. Mourners are also invited to pay respects at a “Quiet Hours” vigil at 7 p.m. Thursday at Fouche’s Hudson Funeral Home, 3665 Telegraph Ave. 


Contra Costa County, Orinda Say No to Urban Casinos; Senate May Act By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Contra Costa County and the City of Orinda joined the ranks of East Bay casino foes last week, while a Washington D.C. hearing targeted Casino San Pablo. 

Meeting in Martinez on Tuesday, Contra Costa Supervisors voted 4-0 to oppose new or expanded casinos anywhere in the county. The Orinda City Council voted their own opposition that evening, joining the Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, El Cerrito and San Leandro city councils. 

But the biggest action that day was in Washington, where East Bay Assemblymember Loni Hancock was one of the four witnesses to testify before Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his fellow members of his Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. 

The Senate panel is considering legislation by Sen. Diane Feinstein of California that would strip the Lytton Rancheria of Pomos of the special status granted when they acquired the Casino San Pablo card room. 

Rep. George Miller (D-East Bay) wrote special legislation that backdated the tribe’s acquisition of the card room, exempting it from the review required of other tribes with newly acquired land which must undergo extensive public review before gaming is approved. 

“It was a fascinating experience,” said Hancock, an ardent opponent of urban gambling. “Senator McCain seemed very interested in the legislation.” 

Marjorie Mejia, the Lytton tribal chair, defended her band’s right to gambling and the legitimacy of the Miller measure. 

However, Mark Maccoro, a Native American who appeared in advertisements supporting Proposition 1A, an unsuccessful measure defeated by California voters last November, testified in support of Feinstein’s bill. Maccoro’s opposition was based on the unfair disadvantages faced by other tribes in comparison with the Lytton’s, Hancock said. 

Joining Mejia in supporting Miller’s measure was San Pablo Councilmember Sharon Brow, who praised the tribe. Miller has stated that he never intended that his amendment would give rise to plans for the 5,000-slot-machine gaming operation jointly proposed by the tribe and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

That plan was later reduced to 2,500 machines when legislators and the public came down solidly against the original plan. Mejia later abandoned that plan too in the face of ongoing opposition. The tribe now plans to offer a 1,000 coin-operated bingo machines, which can be installed under the current law. 

Sen. Feinstein told the panel that if her law is enacted, it “would simply return the Lytton tribe to the same status as all other tribes seeking to game on newly acquired lands.”ª


East Bay Pickets Target Controversial Developer By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Protesters plan to target the San Francisco offices of Simeon Properties today (Tuesday), challenging the firm’s plan to bring a Super Wal-Mart to the Oakland Metroport, near the Oakland International Airport. 

Simeon has partnered with Cherokee Investment Partners of Cherokee Simeon Ventures, a firm created to develop toxic waste sites in the Bay Area. The joint venture is no stranger to controversy. 

An ongoing battle in Richmond has pitted some residents, nearby property owners and environmental groups against the firm’s plans for a 1,330-unit housing complex along a toxic waste dump at Campus Bay. 

Protests have prompted a change in toxic cleanup oversight at most of the property to a stricter state regulatory agency. The activists are calling for a similar oversight switch at the adjacent UC Berkeley Field Station.  

Cherokee Simeon has also been selected by the university to transform their Field Station into an academic/corporate research park renamed as Bayside Research Campus. The UC site features many of the same pollutants as Campus Bay. 

Organized by the Wal-Mart Metroport Coalition, Thursday’s demonstration targets the firm’s plans to bring a 150,000-square-foot Super Wal-Mart to the Hegenberger Gateway site. The pickets at Simeon Properties offices at 655 Montgomery St. in San Francisco are scheduled from 1:45 to 4 p.m. this afternoon, while coalition members attempt to meet with company officials. 

The coalition is composed of a variety of organizations including the Sierra Club, ACORN, the Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors, the East Bay Community Law Center, Just Cause Oakland, the Green Party, the Urban Strategies Council and the Wilson Riles-Oakland Community Action Network. 

Demonstrators are asking the company for youth scholarships along health care and job training funds, said Sierra Club organizer Anna Oursler. 

“We also organized a town hall meeting with over 200 attending last week in which we educated the community and sent a strong message to our city council that Wal-Mart is not welcome in Oakland,” Oursler said. 

“Today’s meeting is to demand that the developer sit down with the community to address mitigation and community benefits in East Oakland,” she said. 

Oursler said the coalition was formed after the Port of Oakland awarded Cherokee Simeon the right to develop the project on the basis of plans that called for office space, a BART station and a full-service hotel on the 23-acre site, then allowed the firm to drop the hotel and office space and retarget the site for commercial outlets. 

Representatives of Simeon Properties were unavailable for comment Monday afternoon.ª


Berkeley Loses Key Health Official Namkung By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Poki Namkung, Berkeley’s health officer for the past ten years, resigned last week to become health officer for Santa Cruz County. 

Namkung’s last day in Berkeley will be June 4. 

“I feel good going on to a bigger challenge,” Namkung said. “I’ll have an entire county with its own health care system.” 

In Berkeley, Namkung gained a reputation for obtaining state grants to expand the city’s public health programs. She inherited a budget just under $5 million and is leaving with a budget now over $12 million, 80 percent of which comes from outside grants, she said. 

Namkung developed state-funded programs for nursing case management, domestic violence prevention, tobacco prevention, HIV prevention and African American infant health care. 

“Our loss is Santa Cruz’s gain,” said Tom Kelly, chairman of the Community Health Commission. “She’ll be really difficult to replace.” 

Health officers are medical doctors; the only other licensed physician on Berkeley’s staff is Vicki Alexander, the city’s director of maternal, child and adolescent health. 

Namkung said her top priority in Berkeley was connecting public health resources to schools. School officials said she was instrumental in the development of the Berkeley High School health center, which has been transformed from a tiny clinic to a full service facility that offers internists from children’s hospital, mental health case workers and peer support programs. The center was credited for Berkeley’s distinction last year as having the lowest teen birth rate in the state. 

Recently Namkung has worked with the district to secure $210,000 in state funds to return nurses to Berkeley schools. She has also helped the district request money for mental health workers. 

“Poki was the key [to getting school nurses],” said School Board Director Shirley Issel. “She saw the need and now we’re going to have three nurses.” 

Namkung is the president of the Health Officers Association of California and vice president of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. 


City Hopes New Meters More Intelligent Than Vandals By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Drivers who bank on parking at a broken meter in Downtown Berkeley might have to start riffling through their change.  

On Monday, Berkeley rolled out 31 parking stations to replace the once vaunted Rhyno parking stations that too often fell victim to vandals. Not only do the new stations, which cost the city $332,460, run on solar power, accept credit and debit cards, display messages in different languages, and send warnings for attempted theft, but they accept payment for any parking space. 

So when a driver finds that a pay station is broken, instead of ignoring the parking fee, he must pay at a nearby station within one block in either direction, said Karen Moore, the city’s parking services manager.  

To operate the machines, motorists insert coins or a credit/debit card for the desired length of stay, print a ticket, and stick the ticket on the side window facing the street when parallel parking and on the driver’s side when parking diagonally so the expiration time and date are visible from the outside. 

Cars that don’t display receipts will be ticketed. Parking fees will remain 75 cents per hour. 

The pay stations, known as ParkEZ Stations, will encompass Shattuck Avenue from Allston Streets to the vicinity of Parker Street; Center Street between Shattuck and Oxford Street; and Kittredge Street, in front of the central library. If they prove successful, the city intends to buy more of them. 

City officials estimate the new meters will generate $10,000 more in parking revenues every month than the old meters, which took in a monthly average of $25,000. The cause of the lagging parking meter revenues, according to a city report, is rampant meter vandalism. 

In the past two months, city repair crews have had to fix approximately 5,000 broken meters, many of them more than once, according to Berkeley Police Public Information Officer Joe Okies. Earlier this month, the BPD issued a warning that it would begin actively targeting and arresting meter vandals. Breaking or tampering with a meter is a misdemeanor. 

Rhyno meters were touted as a solution to Berkeley’s chronic meter vandalism when they debuted around 1998. The ParkEZ stations are also billed as being more vandal-resistant than their predecessors. They contain an automatic coin shutter that will open only for coins, not plastic, wood, cloth and other non-metal objects used to disable meters. When they are disabled or running low on power, they transmit a signal to a remote communications center.ª


Weighty Wednesday Agendas for ZAB, Planners By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Berkeley’s planning commissioners will face only two action items Wednesday, each freighted with enough potential controversy to carry a meeting.  

Members of the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) face a far fuller agenda for Thursday, though only one item ranks high on the potential inflammatory scale. 

When planners meet Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave., they’ll confront a report and recommendations for the Creeks Task Force Work Plan, budget and timelines and a subcommittee’s recommendations on proposed revisions to the city Landmarks Preservation Ordinance and accompanying zoning codes. 

The hot potato when ZAB gathers at 7 p.m. Thursday in council chambers at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, is the Urban Housing Group’s plans for a mixed-use residential and commercial project at 700 University Ave., a site that houses two city landmarks. 

The Creeks Task Force, formed by the city to deal with legal and other issues arising from the multitude of waterways flowing under the city in aging concrete culverts, is scheduled to begin considering issues starting with its May 2 meeting—pending approval of its format, schedule and proposed $100,000 city funding allocation by planning commissioners and the city council. 

The other and more immediate issue is the planners’ response to the landmarks ordinance, which members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) recently submitted after more than four years of deliberations. 

A four-member planning subcommittee headed by Commission Chair Harry Pollack and Sara Shumer discussed the proposed ordinances over four meetings starting Feb. 9. 

The panel failed to reach consensus on the controversial “structure of merit” designation, which acknowledges buildings that have undergone modifications to an extent that they don’t merit the greater “landmark” designation. 

While the LPC sought equal status with ZAB on demolitions of designated buildings, the majority voted to leave the process in ZAB’s hands, but allowed the LPC to issue recommendations that ZAB would have to issue specific findings to overturn. The panel could reach no agreement on what process to follow if ZAB overruled the LPC’s no-demolition recommendation. 

Similarly, the subcommittee agreed that LPC shouldn’t be allowed to determine the level of environmental review on applications to alter or demolish landmarks, but they agreed that ZAB would have to set out specific reasons to override LPC recommendations against the applications. 

The panel made no finding on whether the LPC should review projects involving all residential and non-residential buildings over 50 years old. Currently, landmarks members review referrals of demolitions of all non-residential buildings over 40 years old. 

ZAB’s meeting will focus on hearings for seven projects, but the 700 University Ave. project is the most controversial. 

Preservationists recently tried to landmark two structures on the site, in addition to the already landmarked 1913 Southern Pacific Railroad Station. 

While the LPC declined to landmark the popular Brennan’s Irish Pub on the northeast corner of the block, the commission designated the Celia’s building to the south as a structure of merit. 

While Urban Housing’s Dan Deibel said he’ll reserve the station as a new home for Brennan’s, he said his plans call for demolition of Celia’s, a move certain to provoke spirited opposition. 

Also on the ZAB agenda are hearings on legitimizing the illegally altered seating on the bakery and cafe at 1250 Addison St.—originally The Bread Workshop and soon to be the Zest Cafe; adding a small upper story to a home at 2644 Ellsworth St., a redesign of the internal space of a building at 1700 Fifth St., plans for a new home at 2615 Marin Ave., additions to an apartment building at 2901 Otis St. and a storefront addition to an apartment at 1043 Virginia St.ª


CORRECTION

Tuesday April 12, 2005

The Daily Planet incorrectly reported April 8 that Robert Pennell had initiated landmark designation for three homes on Buena Vista Way. All three were initiated by the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission. Pennell supplied documentation only for his own house at 2730 Buena Vista. 

Pennell has never contended that his house was designed by renowned Berkeley architect Bernarda Maybeck. It was loosely based on a sketch by Maybeck and contains a chimney which Pennell remembers was designed by Maybeck. The coast redwood on the property would not be impacted by adjacent development.


Berkeley High Crew Finishes Strong in San Diego By DAVID ARNOLD

Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 12, 2005

SAN DIEGO—The race was over.  

For the first time in five years, the junior varsity boys from Berkeley High School had advanced to the grand finals at the San Diego Crew Classic Regatta over the weekend of April 2 and 3—and then gone on to beat two crews and finish a solid fourth.  

Jeff Wong, who had rowed the bow position in the JV boat, was among the more than two dozen BHS men and women packing up in preparation for the flight home. He paused amidst the sweaty clothes and empty food containers to reflect on the past two days.  

“I arrived nervous, unsure about so much. But all we had to do was trust each other—and ourselves,” Wong said. “I leave feeling really accomplished.”  

Some might wonder where the victory lies in a fourth place finish. But not these kids. And not when the venue is the largest West Coast rowing event as you represent the only public high school amidst 3,400 rowers.  

Welcome aboard the Berkeley High School crew, where the life lessons come in exhausting seven-minute marathons (the approximate time it took to row each 2,000-meter race) and the emotional finish line moves with each boat’s goals—some with success, some not.  

Some 100 students go out for crew at Berkeley, which founded the program in 1967. The school ponies up the transportation to local races, but almost all the $197,000 annual budget for the non-profit organization is raised by parents and friends. 

A few of the shells sport duct tape. Not all the oars match. But in an arena where the competition hails from private schools and clubs that can recruit or select from a large field of prospects, Berkeley’s longevity is nothing short of remarkable, according to Brett Johnson, a spokesman for US Rowing (the national governing body for the sport).  

“The expansion of public school participation in rowing has been in the east. For Berkeley to have lasted so long with all the school budget cuts is definitely a rarity, and testament to the parents who keep the program running,” Johnson said during a telephone interview.  

Mary Glaeser, one of the rowing parents, is co-president of the high school crew’s Board of Directors. For the board, meeting expenses apparently can resemble some of the patch work adorning the older boats. What keeps her going?  

“I love this sport, I love the movement together,” Glaeser said. “It reminds me of music.”  

Music was no doubt the farthest thing on rowers’ minds during final practice in Oakland before the regatta the week before. The varsity and JV boats had just sparred for 2,000 meters down the crew training ground in the Oakland Estuary, a waterway shared with the Cal crews. Rowing has no time outs, no pauses for huddles, no breathers during foul shots. Physiologically, a race reputedly makes the same aerobic demand as two back-to-back basketball games.  

So it was no surprise that at the end of this scrimmage, the rowers in both boats resembled dogs in the Iditarod. 

“So how did it feel? And how are we doing—other than hurting, of course?” asked Chris Dadd, the 47-year old head coach. He had watched from a launch trailing the contest. 

No one in either boat appeared ready to talk. Finally Zander Bice, who rows the stern “stroke” oar, summoned up the energy to signal “thumbs up.” Good enough, Dadd concluded, and directed Rachel Rudy, the boat coxswain, to steer for home at the Jack London Aquatic Center.  

Crew is not a spectator sport, coaches would explain during the launch ride in. There are no individual heroes, no shot clocks to add excitement, no thumping body checks. There’s not even tolerance for exhibitionism. 

“It’s an athlete’s sport, incredibly designed to help you break through one barrier then the next,” said Colin Arnold, the JV coach. Back at the boathouse, Gabriel Bronson, a senior on the varsity boat, elaborated. 

“It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s hard,” he said. “But I know that if I can handle three hours of hell during practice, I can handle one hour of anything, anywhere else in my life.” 

The next stop: San Diego.  

The San Diego Crew Classic turns the shores of Mission Bay into a veritable Camelot of exhibition tents. Almost 400 pencil-thin shells lie in state, oriented as if magnetized toward the water in slings as they await the call to launch and race. T-shirts celebrate the rowing culture: “God is a coxswain,” “A woman’s place is on the water,” “We’re the fast girls your mother warned you about,” “Gay but rowing straight.”  

Saturday, April 2, was mostly filled with preliminary races. The top few finishers in each heat would move on to Sunday’s grand finals or qualify for a consolation round.  

Saturday was not a good day for the Berkeley varsity men and women. Neither crew advanced. “Gloomy” might be too chipper a description of the men during the post-race race boat wash. 

“There’s nothing I can say to take away the disappointment,” Dadd told his boys. “I’m not inside your heads. You’ve got to decide whether or not you are going to re-focus and get it together.” Every coach has to deal with early season illnesses; apparently there were times when Dadd had little to deal at all.  

By contrast, the mood was ebullient among the JV rowers. The girls had qualified for a consolation race; better still, the boys had advanced to the grand finals. 

“Try not to wash tonight,” one of the boys advised his mates after the race. “It’s bad luck.”  

In Sunday’s consolation finals, the girls placed third, beating three southern California rowing clubs. In the grand finals, the boys placed fourth, finishing ahead of a prep school from Sammamish, WA., and the Oakland Strokes Rowing Club—their own boathouse neighbors.  

In the boy’s post-race debriefing, their coach talked about the rewards of staying relaxed, staying focused, and having fun. “You accomplished everything you set out to attain. Some of them were far from easy,” Arnold said. “What you did today, you did for yourselves.” 

This combination of JV oarsmen had only been together for a week. With the climactic Northwest Regional Junior Championships slated to take place in Sacramento at the end of the school year, the horizon seemed limitless, a point not lost on Jeff Wong. 

“I am sure this boat can go faster,” he said.  

On second thought, it would appear that the race is far from over.  

 

As the father of a Berkeley High crew coach, David Arnold, a freelance journalist from Boston, struggled for objectivity writing this story. 





Letters to the Editor

Tuesday April 12, 2005

• 

PAPER TRAIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Great! Berkeley has new parking meters that have a paper trail, but our Diebold voting machines still do not. 

Anne Wagley 

 

• 

STYLE OFFENSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Does Richard Brenneman own the Daily Planet, or just know where the proverbial body is buried? Why else, after numerous reader complaints is he allowed to continue to report serious crime in his “Snidely Whiplash/Dastardly Deed” style? 

As the victim of a violent assault and robbery, and as a citizen deeply concerned with the quality of life these crimes jeopardize, it is offensive to me to read of any crime reported in such a manner. Mr. Brenneman’s reporting style is beneath your otherwise intelligent standards. He should indulge himself in a creative writing class ASAP and leave the crime reporting to a more professional journalist. 

C. Hooper 

 

• 

PARKING PROPOSAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While I live in Oakland, I enjoy shopping the Saturday Farmers’ Market. Having gotten a ticket in a white zone, I would suggest a Saturday exemption. The school and government offices served by the white curb aren’t open during market hours and parking is tight.  

Roger Radius  

 

• 

SPIRAL GARDENS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m shocked that any “Religious Society” would destroy a valuable neighborhood asset such as the Spiral Community Gardens. Now, if they had bought the lot and then offered to help raise food there, I could have imagined Buddha’s principles in action. Besides, the extra organic produce could then have been included in the Temple’s Sunday Brunch or given where it was needed most.  

Karl Reeh 

 

• 

LIBRARY WEEDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was interested to see the article about the incompetent library weeding recently conducted at the Berkeley Library because I have already written two letters to Library Director Jackie Griffin. Of course, she did not reply. 

My first letter was to Mayor Bates, complaining that it was impossible to communicate with Ms. Griffin and outlining my concerns. Apparently, his office forwarded my message to Ms. Griffin, since she did send me an e-mail saying that all I had to do was contact her directly and she would reply—copying the mayor, of course. I did this in December, but received no reply. In January, I sent Ms. Griffin a second message, but have as yet heard nothing from her. 

Of course all libraries have to discard books, but the recent weeding was not handled in an intelligent and informed way using the American Library Association guidelines for discarding books. It is clear that the librarians making the decisions about which books to discard were not subject experts. 

Just one example of several possibilities that I know about: All three volumes of the Pax Britanica Trilogy—a major historical work by the great British historian and travel writer Jan/James Morris—were in the catalogue and on the shelves last fall. When I returned the first volume and tried to check out the second, I discovered that (although it was listed in the catalogue and supposedly on the shelf) it was missing. At the reference desk, the librarian looked up the trilogy and told me that it was being discarded. She told me that she would tell the librarian weeding that section that this was an important set of books by a major writer and that it was still being used by patrons, but also suggested to me that this particular librarian had no background in the subject area she was weeding. Apparently, the staff was under pressure to simply get rid of as many books as possible. Of course, the three volumes now are no longer part of the library collection—and are not available at either the Alameda County system or the Contra Costa County system . 

I do not believe that the weeding practice “mostly targets books that are out of date or so worn that they are no longer of value.” The weeding at Berkeley’s library seems to have been erratic, at best, and incompetent at worst. 

Bruce Reeves 

 

• 

TORTURE TACTICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Shocked and surprised by our use of terror tactics on prisoners in Iraq? You shouldn’t be. Torture while interrogating prisoners is standard government policy and its procedures are spelled out. 

How do I know this? Two years ago, on Dec. 26, 2002, the Washington Post ran an article which detailed the torture methods that were used. 

They quoted security officials who defended “the use of violence against captives as just and necessary.” 

The newspaper article, written by Dana Priest and Barton Gellman, was written because of a photograph that embarrassed our government. It was taken in Afghanistan. 

Remember the picture of a naked and shackled prisoner of war in a metal tube who was being transported to our base in Cuba? 

When that picture was published, there was no apology. Just the promise to find and punish the person who released the photograph. 

Quoting from the article on the use of terror on prisoners of was in Afghanistan, it was reported that prisoners are “kept standing or kneeling for hours in black hoods” and are “at times held in awkward positions and deprived of sleep with a 48 hour bombardment of lights —subject to what are known as ‘stress and duress’ techniques.” 

Had enough? It gets worse. Read on. “Some who do not cooperate are turned over, rendered, in official parlance, to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the U.S. government and human rights organizations.” 

There are three more columns which end with, “according to one official who has been directly involved in rendering captives into foreign hands,” that the understanding is that “we don’t kick the (expletive) out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the (expletive) out of them.” 

So, when our government claims torture “is not official policy, not systematic,” the government is lying. 

The press talks of “cruel American captors. And they are being held accountable.” Rightly so. 

But they were trained in methods of torture. And they were not the major culprits. Punishing them will not keep terror tactics from being used again. 

I can only hope that the exposure of the real culprits (those who established torture as acceptable policy) will help change that policy. 

Should not the originators of that policy be charged and punished for what President Bush has accurately labeled “reprehensible” and “outrageous” behavior? 

Bernice Turoff 

Stockton 

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Marguerite Hughes is a very misguided and uninformed individual and so are the people of Berkeley. Please tell her that if it was not for Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the founding fathers she would not have the right of freedom of speech. I do not think she is fully informed on the impact that Thomas Jefferson had on this country. If they do not want Thomas Jefferson’s name on the school maybe they should rename it after Abraham Lincoln. Oh, that’s right you all already renamed a school that once was named after President Lincoln to Malcolm X Elementary. What a contrast in views of human rights. Lincoln held this union together during its darkest hours and Malcolm X wanted to ‘by any means necessary’ kill the white man. What a wonderful place to live Berkeley must be to have such a skewed out look on American history.  

David W. Craig, SSgt, USAF  

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m very curious about developments in the story of the Oakland girl who slashed the elderly woman’s throat as she was walking in the Berkeley hills. It appears that the suspect was in the company of an adult county social worker. And that the suspect and the county worker fled the scene of the attempted murder together without giving aid to the victim or even calling the police. 

The police will not give the press the county worker’s name or place her under arrest. 

This strikes me as highly suspicious, and an even more compelling story than the horrible attack.  

Is anyone reporting this case?  

Tom Murray 

San Francisco  

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Hello, my name is Cody Newcomb. I go to school at West Ridge Elementary. I am in fifth grade. In our Social Studies class we are studying our country. I got California for my state. I would appreciate if you could give me some information about your state, so I can learn some things about California. I would like to have a car license plate if possible. I would appreciate your time and effort. Thank you! 

(Please send letters, postcards, or historical information to West Ridge Elementary, 1401 19th Street, Harlan, IA 51537) 

Cody Newcomb 

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

I truly appreciated Joe Eaton’s article “Endangered Opposums Really Do Play Dead” (Daily Planet, Feb. 1-3). For years I have been volleyed between neurologists and psychiatrists and neuropsychiatrists and psychopharmocologists because I “display” seizure-like behaviors and experiences. I have experienced grand mal seizures, absense seizures, partial complex seizures, and depression. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on EEGs, video EEGs, and neuropsych evaluations. All indications suggest I have epilepsy, except for the EEGs. Because the EEGs do not pick up the spiking brainwaves indicative of epilepsy, the epileptologist sent me to the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist successfully treated my depression, but I have yet to have successful treatment for my seizures! The most recent study you refer to was an EEG performed at the Children’s Hospital in the mid-1960s. Your article suggests that the possum is experiencing a psychiatric reaction to an adverse stimuli rather than a neurological reaction? Such is my lot in life...and I have yet to have adequate treatment for my seizures. I propose finding a research facility that will perform a SPECT on a critter...I hear UCLA has a high resolution SPECT that is being used on mice and monkeys for medical research. Hmmmm... 

Patricia K. Stinner 

Rockwall, TX 

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

While I suppose I should be pleased to be labeled a “preservation activist” (”Developer Will Move Forward”, Daily Planet, April 1-4), I would emphasize the importance of preservation planning in the case of this large block (700 University Avenue) that includes Celia’s, Brennan’s and the “Train Station”.  

In particular, the Train Station is a well documented City of Berkeley Landmark as well as being on the State Historic Resources Inventory. The Train Station (built around 1913 by Southern Pacific, after an extended public battle to secure better passenger service for Berkeley) is the incredible resource on the site, and should be the focus of whatever development is proposed. The 700 University Avenue property is large, being bounded by Fourth, Addison, & Third Streets; it could easily accommodate a public plaza, with traffic circulation for the project, in front of the Station. Furthermore, to the north on University Avenue, the City of Berkeley, through its Redevelopment Agency, is spending a considerable sum to develop a transit hub linking AC Transit to the Capitol Corridor Rail. 

As a member (and now Chair) of the West Berkeley Project Area Commission (advisory to the Redevelopment Agency), I have seen the work put 

in by my fellow commissioners and City staff on this transit project over the last eight years. At the very least, this development needs to link up with those efforts. So, in this case, preservation planning is really just another and critical facet of good urban and transportation planning. 

John McBride 

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet::  

In response to the anti-Al Gore comment by letter writer James K. Sayre in the Planet (April 8-11), I’ve been studying this peculiar Anti-Gore subculture since before the 2000 Selection. These kinds of personal taunts against Gore were echoed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and other Rapture Right sympathizing journalists in print and on T.V. during the 2000 campaign. This has been well documented by the distinguished media critic for The Nation, Eric Alterman in his book “What Liberal Media”. In fact Al Gore was the first victim of the propaganda machine we’ve come to see now, starkly, in the likes of the Affaire Guckert-Gannon. 

During the 2000 Selection the Anti Al Gore chorus was joined by “progressives” who picked up the banner of the Bushies, repeating the lies, even repeating the trivia about his weight and his looks, despite somber team players asking them not to. Later, contrary to the facts, they blamed Gore for “losing” the Election. Who needs the Right Wing? This “jumping gene” of lies seems like a classic example of the pitiful brainwashing Air America is trying to address. 

Despite this horrible media distortion, Gore was the first person to vehemently speak out against the War in Iraq on Sept. 23, 2002 in San Francisco. Gore’s series of Move-On lectures leading up to the ‘04 Election were a great contribution to trying to stop Bush in ‘04. John Judis, a distinguished Democratic theorist writing in a post-election analysis in the American Prospect, said that Al Gore would have been a better candidate than John Kerry. There certainly would have been closer scrutiny of the Bushies stealing votes in Ohio. Al Gore has been teaching college students to be discerning consumers of media since he left office and his legendary lectures concerning the perils of Global Warming are memorable experiences to those who have been lucky enough to attend. 

So, when Al Gore is collaborating with Google to re-frame aspects of media, tired old put-downs of Gore seem “retro”. He is one of the Democratic Party’s leaders for the future, and Howard Dean knows that. The Gore’s have been one of the greatest American political progressive families. Like Al Gore says: “Politics is a team sport.” I hope Mr. Sayre can re-examine his thinking and quit validating the Right and join the team. 

Instead of calling Al Gore’s “Current” venture a mere “brainstorm”, Sayre should go to the Current website htt://www.current.tv/, and watch some of the award winning short videos. They are great politics. I’m still thinking about one I watched about young people in Iran. 

Maureen L. Farrell 

 

• 

HIGH CRIMES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The 2004 Budget proposed by the Governor and passed by over 2/3 of the Legislature of the great State of California was unconstitutional. 

In 1988 the electorate amended the Constitution of the State of California guaranteeing that the State of California will contribute no less than 48 percent of the total budget in any year to public education. The 2004 budget did not implement this requirement. It was two billion dollars short. 

The unconstitutional budget proposed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, approved by the State of California Legislature, accepted so far by the Secretary of State, the Attorney General of the State, and the State Supreme Court, has caused a public education disaster. 

It seems that under the current California State Government (as well as the current United States Government) a constitution is not worth the blood spilled for it. 

Fellow citizens, this must stop! Every person who becomes a public servant in California is made to swear to do only one thing: “To protect and defend the California State Constitution as well as the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.” Apparently they are too busy ignoring the Constitution to defend it. 

Please, gently, remind your public officials of their duty. If they can’t be bothered to do that one simple and critical thing, they really can’t be trusted to do anything positive for the state.  

Harry Wiener 

 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was very troubled by Judith Clancy’s attack letter printed in your April 1 edition, and I appreciate the chance to reply. I honestly cannot tell if Ms. Clancy completely misunderstands (and thus misrepresents) my position, or if she is engaged in deliberate character assassination. 

If she is in good faith, I will again attempt an explanation through analogy: Let us say there is a murder in Berkeley. This is a horrible thing and a great tragedy for the family and friends of the victim. Should, say, the City of Los Angeles respond by reporting Berkeley and Mayor Bates to the United Nations for violating the victim’s human rights? If a member of the Los Angeles City Council did not favor such an action would she/he be supporting murder? No, crimes by individuals against individuals, no matter how heinous, are not human rights violations by the governing body of the place in which the crime occurred. Otherwise, since human crime exists everywhere, all governments—local, regional, national—would be guilty of human rights violations. 

The proper response to the crime is for the Berkeley Police Department to apprehend the culprit and for the justice system of the State of California to convict the culprit. Does this mean that only murderers in Berkeley or California should be caught and convicted? No, just that these are the appropriate agencies to deal with this particular crime, and the United Nations really has no part in this, since it is not a human rights violation. 

Now what if murder is committed by militants against civilians as a deliberate tactic of combat? That is a human rights violation, which should be reported to the United Nations and eventually prosecuted as a war crime by the World Court. Both the hypothetical individual crime in Berkeley and the deliberate military policy of killing civilians are murders, they are both horrible and leave a wake of pain and suffering, but only one is a human rights violation under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. It is the nature of the perpetrator, not the nature of the crime that determines this. I hope this clarifies any misunderstanding Ms. Clancy might have. 

If instead Ms. Clancy is engaged in character assassination, I can only say that I think it is very sad when public discourse descends to this Swift Boat Veterans kind of disinformation. When I was the chair of the Southern California Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, I was subjected to numerous personal attacks by anti-choice militants. When I was the rabbi of a gay outreach synagogue, I was no stranger to hateful personal tirades by anti-gay extremists. It may be that Ms. Clancy merely misunderstood my position and I hope that she now understands it correctly. However, if she is attacking my “decency” as a cynical way of discrediting my politics, then she is in very poor company indeed. 

Jane Litman 

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

A lot of people in Berkeley are hurting because of the cuts in spending, but none more than those of us who depend on the city’s swimming pools. The announcement that all of the pools are to be closed this winter is a shock, especially to those of us who have fought to keep at least some of them open all year, raising money, and volunteering to clean up and rehabilitate the most neglected pools.  

For many of us, swimming is more than recreation; we are people who for various reasons can’t jog or do most other kinds of beneficial exercise, for whom swimming at affordable prices is a lifeline. We need to have one pool, at least, open year-round. 

Tonight’s City Council meeting will consider a one-time expenditure to save one program or asset from extinction. Some have proposed that the fountain in City Hall Plaza be the lucky winner; well, nobody can swim in a fountain. It’s been dry for decades, and can stay that way while we save a pool for those who badly need it. Please come to the council meeting tonight and show your support for swimming, the best hope for health for many of our citizens. 

John Spier 

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Pope who chose to live and die on TV and the 200 world leaders who appeared for the final show deserve more criticism than praise. 

The Pope was correct in seeing abortion as the murder of a living organism and to condemn the loose, pleasure-oriented sexual behavior of our time, as aberrant. But much suffering was caused by his dogmatic inflexibility forbidding all abortions, including those where reason and compassion would command their execution, and his prohibition of the use of contraceptives. To forbid all sexual intercourse between men and women when they have no intention to create offspring, was, in our instant gratification culture, too steep a hill to climb. The defective and unwanted children resulting from this dogmatic inflexibility are a sad burden on our community. 

The Pope engaged in Revisionism when he pushed the historic support of Nazi-Germany from the Catholic Church and the historic hostility between Christianity and Judaism under the rug. By doing that he put the Church in the political arena on the side of America and Israel in their conflict with the Muslims. New American language usage, also surreptitiously rewriting history, today is calling Western Civilization a “Judeo-Christian Civilization” instead of what it is correctly: a “Greco-Christian Civilization.” Let us be very clear about this. There never was a Judeo-Christian Civilization. Jews, who have not converted to Christianity, are not Christians. 

The 200 world leaders at the funeral are all hypocrites and philistines, monkeys dancing on the stage of the circus of the century. They have no business being there. Are they not all leaders of secular states founded on the separation of (a rational) State and (an irrational) Church, commercial cultures where the material body lives separately from the spiritual soul? 

May he rest in peace now. He was a simple man of faith, unenlightened and unprepared for the role that Fate bestowed on him. 

Jan Visser 

Kensington 

 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Robert Birgeneau, the new UC Berkeley Chancellor, considers diversity on campus to be in crisis and places it at the top of his Things To Do list. He thinks the people of California who followed Ward Connerly and rejected Affirmative Action may now be willing to correct the unintended consequences and stop “underserving” a large and important part of the state’s multicultural population. 

I am no admirer of Connerly but I thought at the time he had a point: Eliminating race will lead to a racially blind society just as eliminating gender will achieve a gender blind society. He has now risen up against the new chancellor with typically self-serving ferocity (but being now retired with less bite) and again I think he has a point. 

Granted that diversity is loaded with political value it can hardly be a substantive matter for one of the world’s great universities for it is at best superficial, rooted in appearances, and at worse illusory, based on race, a societal construct of fraudulent intent. Universities are supposed to be places where young minds grow and each mind is by nature endowed with its own uniqueness, like fingerprints or DNA. No two are alike; all student communities are therefore comprised of diverse minds. Thumping for diversity is nonsense.  

It is no surprise that in addition to race Birgeneau includes gender in his perceived crisis for he thereby rides the political tsunami initiated by his Harvard counterpart, Lawrence H. Summers. 

Such gaffs are natural because all university presidents come from the professoriate with no training whatsoever in the administration of large corporations. The great Columbia University scholar Jacque Barzun concluded, after a short stint on the job, that only two professions may be entered with no prior training—training must be acquired on the job—one profession is that of the university administrator and the other is “the world’s oldest profession”. Certification in both is achieved only as long as one is able to maintain one’s position, so to speak. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

 

• 

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Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your recent article about worker overtime by Matthew Artz shows how glamorous it is to print W2’s, but why should anyone care? People working in private companies don’t have to share their W2’s.  

City employees working overtime are not wrong. They are just picking up hours that could be worked by their fellow employees. In the private sector overtime is used due to a labor shortage or to complete a job due to time constraints. No manager likes to pay it; they do it for business needs. Many workers I know stay away from overtime. They just like to put in their work week and go home. Others work OT whenever they can. I know many people on salary who put in 60 hour weeks. They don’t get overtime, they do a job.  

Next time instead of publishing dirty laundry why not do a more in depth examination of city management. Are the staffing requirements the city has really necessary? PERS is a great pension plan. Does its cost reflect an over extension of public money, or a realistic plan in an unreal world? How many managers does the city have per employee?  

Examination of issues like these might get more savings than publishing officer Jones’ overtime and salary.  

James Mullesch  

 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Are we really talking about the firefighter overtime issue again? Ho-hum. I'll try not to bore you with the fact that firefighters regularly die in the course of doing their duty. I'll also not go too deeply into the fact that firefighters have life expectancies decades shorter than their civilian counterparts. 

Instead I'll stick to the money issue and lay it out as cleanly as I can. OVERTIME SAVES MONEY. A firefighter's total compensation package is equal to 

about 65 percent on top of his base salary. An overtime firefighter gets paid time and a half. So if a firefighter gets paid one hundred dollars a day for regular time, then letting him work overtime costs 150 dollars. Hiring a person to permanently fill that vacancy costs 165, not just on a day when there is a 

vacancy, but every day until he retires. 

"Overtime" is an ugly word; chiefs and managers stake their reputations on bringing down the OT budget. But often overtime is a cheaper way to fill 

temporary gaps than hiring permanent replacements. 

I think the real issue is the fact that firefighters are one of the few public servants to be justly compensated for their labors. They don't deserve less; others deserve more. The unpleasant truth is that people don't like to see blue collar men and women, many with no education beyond high school, earning $100,000 a year. 

Is it just chance or some sort of editorial statement that you followed a front page story on spiralling overtime with a front page story on a three-fire day? 

There's no doubt about it: A great way to save a pile of money would be to eliminate the fire department entirely. Of course, then the fires wouldn't go out, but for many people that seems to be a totally irrelevant issue. 

Zac Unger 


In Spring, Comforting Others in Time of Loss By SUSAN PARKER

Column
Tuesday April 12, 2005

Spring is a time for renewal, yet the headlines for the past few weeks have been filled with the news of death and dying. As politicians wrestled over the fate of Terri Schiavo, and the world mourned the passing of Pope John Paul II, my own small circle of acquaintances experienced sadness, confusion and loss. 

Two weeks ago I received news that my friend Elaine’s son, Brad, had died in his sleep. A husband and father of two small toddlers, his death was an unexpected shock to all who knew him. Vibrant and happy, he’d been in a minor car accident in February and subsequently experienced dizziness and mild head pain. But an otherwise healthy 35-year-old man thinks, as most of us do, that he’s invincible. He’d just completed his MBA, and he’d moved with his young family to a new city to start a new job. One evening he went to bed early, complaining of a headache. The next day he was dead. 

A week later I learned that my friend Karen’s sister had died in an avalanche in the Eastern Sierra. An extreme skier and kayaker, (she’d paddled Siberia’s north coast as well as Baffin Island and Ellesmere), 57-year-old Christina Seashore was the victim of a massive slide on the slopes of Mt. Tom. Karen and Christina were closer than twins. Only a year apart in age, they had lived, worked, traveled and played together. Kayaking, knitting, games of Royalty and Scrabble—they were constantly busy, always gabbing, continually laughing. 

Strolling along 51st Street and Telegraph Avenue last Tuesday, I ran into my friend Panzy, who sits most weekday mornings on the hard, cold cement wall in front of Walgreens, handing out The Watchtower and other literature for the Jehovah Witnesses. Panzy and her husband of 45 years, Nevil, have been stationed on that corner for over ten years, but on Tuesday, Nevil wasn’t there. Panzy told me he’d passed on. “Six months of hospice,” she said softly. “In the end he suffered greatly, but the people from the hospice were there for him, and they are still there for me. They’ll be stopping by the house sometime this afternoon to check in and chat. They’re a wonderful help.” 

How do we comfort those who are left behind? What do we say and do for friends who experience a death or tragic accident?  

Although I’d sent them both cards, I knew I had to call Elaine and Karen. But what was I going to say and how was I going to say it? I thought back to 11 years ago, when my husband Ralph had a near fatal accident. We were comforted by friends and acquaintances with cards, letters, and phone calls; visits to the hospital and rehab, deliveries of meals and groceries, and most importantly, follow-up calls and visits six month, ten months, eight years later.  

What didn’t help were the clichés and unwanted advice. Comments such as “It must be God’s will,” “At least he was doing something he loved,” and “What goes around comes around,” were not comforting. Stories about the callers own trials and tribulations weren’t often appreciated even though they were said with the best of intentions. I thought about this as I dialed Elaine’s and Karen’s phone numbers, half hoping they wouldn’t be home and that I could leave messages on their answering machines. But both picked up on the first ring, and just the sound of their voices made me realize I’d done the right thing. I didn’t have to say much. They spoke of their grief and pain, anger and frustrations. I was a sounding board and silent therapist.  

Last Tuesday Panzy and I held hands and sat quietly in front of Walgreens. The number 40 bus roared by, shoppers came and went, a jetliner circled overhead. Even though our butts were cold, the sun shone brightly, reminding us that it was spring and that life goes on.ª


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday April 12, 2005

Whole Foods Stick-up 

A man with a knife walked into an employees-only area of the 3000 Telegraph Ave. Whole Foods Market at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and brandished a knife at a worker. 

After loading himself up with groceries and other items, the bandit departed. He was last seen fleeing westbound on Ashby Avenue, said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

 

Gunmen Grab Cell, Computer, Cash 

A pair of robbers confronted a 19-year-old Berkeley pedestrian in the 2100 block of Parker Street just after 11:30 p.m. Thursday, flashed a pistol, and robbed him of his computer, his cell phone and his cash. 

 

Violates Rule Number One 

“I don’t know why anybody attempts to steal from Andronico’s,” said Officer Okies. “They’ve got the world’s best security.” 

Said fact was presumably unknown to the doubly dumb booster who Berkeley Police arrested shortly after noon Friday after he was apprehended by store security. 

Not only did the would-be thief get caught with the goods, but a search of his person also turned up narcotics paraphernalia. 

His little sojourn include ended up costing him charges of attempted larceny, parole violation and possession of drug paraphernalia. 

 

Troubles At Prospect and Channing 

Berkeley Police are investigating two non-lethal shooting incidents about four hours apart near the corner of Channing Way and Prospect Street Saturday, said office Okies. 

The first call was at 6:09 p.m. when a nurse at a local emergency room called to report a young male patient who’d been shot with a BB gun. The 19-year-old identified his assailant to officers, who are continuing to investigate. 

The second call, at 11:27 p.m., came from a man who told police he was walking along Prospect when a red Isuzu Trooper with three or male occupants passed by. 

The next thing he felt was a sting on his neck as a backseat member of the Trooper troupe fired a paintball at him. The Trooper and passengers were last seen departing the area. 

The paint-balled pedestrian required no medical treatment for his pain in the neck, said Officer Okies. ª


Governing Berkeley by Questionnaire and Fiat By ZELDA BRONSTEIN

Commentary
Tuesday April 12, 2005

“There’s no action tonight,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz as he introduced the Berkeley City Council’s March 8 work session on business revenue and the budget. “It’s really just informational and a discussion.”  

But by the end of the meeting, staff had been asked to undertake a major policy initiative—rezoning Gilman Street and Ashby Avenue west of San Pablo Avenue out of manufacturing and into retail. There was no discussion of the proposal, much less a vote. Instead, there was a not-so-subtle directive from Mayor Bates.  

Addressing the stated theme of the evening—how to increase business revenues to make up for the $8 million–$10 million shortfall the city faces in 2006-10?—the mayor asked, “Where are some assets that are not being fully utilized?” His answer, in part: They’re on Ashby and Gilman between the freeway and San Pablo, areas that are now zoned for light industry.  

In the mayor’s mind, American industry is history. “We can no longer sit back and say we have to have manufacturing here, when manufacturing is closing,” he opined. “They’re going offshore….I told people [of these views] when I was running for office, and they voted for me.”  

Really? Where in his campaign did Tom Bates allude to de-industrialization or West Berkeley industry? Not on his campaign website (still online at www/tombates.org/issues) or in his campaign literature (on file at the Berkeley Public Library).  

Shades of our nation’s current president and his own fantasied mandates for things he never mentioned when he was running for office!  

And just as George W. Bush’s imperious rule has been countenanced by the generally feckless Democrats in Congress, so Tom Bates’ peremptory style of governance has been abetted by a generally tranquilized City Council. The mayor constantly trumpets his “victory over bickering.” But what he’s failed to achieve—indeed, what he’s actively suppressed—is the sort of substantial public deliberation essential to democratic policymaking.  

On March 8, after having made clear what he wanted, Mayor Bates concluded by coyly “asking [staff] what we should do.” City Manager Kamlarz took the cue: “I think we have some consensus about what to do, especially in West Berkeley.”  

Consensus among whom, exactly? Nobody but the mayor had said anything about Gilman and Ashby.  

The only councilmember who’d even referred to West Berkeley was Betty Olds. Concerned that the city’s remaining, sales-tax rich auto dealers might follow McKevitt Volvo and leave town, Councilmember Olds had asked whether light manufacturing zoning might prevent a car dealer from relocating to Frontage Road. (The mayor had mentioned another site, the Berkeley Unified School District property at 6th and Gilman—the same spot, he didn’t say, once coveted by the Animal Shelter for its voter-funded, still-unbuilt new facility).  

That was the full extent of City Council commentary on West Berkeley—hardly a basis for taking action, especially at a “work session” where no action was supposed to be taken.  

Nevertheless, on March 31, Planning Director Dan Marks informed the West Berkeley Redevelopment PAC that at the council’s regular April 19 meeting he will present strategies for incrementally rezoning West Berkeley, starting with Gilman and Ashby. He subsequently told me that he was acting at the behest of the city manager. Mr. Marks’ memo to the PAC cited “the Council’s recent ‘vote’ about its FY 06 priorities.” The planning director had the wit to enclose the word vote in quotation marks; he was referring to the results of a poll that staff had administered to the City Council and the mayor.  

If the council is going to decide Berkeley’s future by filling out questionnaires, its members might as well stay at home and just mail in their surveys, let staff tabulate the results and then do the mayor’s bidding—which is very nearly how the city’s priorities for Fiscal Year 2006 are being set.  

Policymaking by polls and mayoral fiat is particularly offensive with respect to land use in West Berkeley, whose zoning came out of an intensive public planning process that involved scores of people for nearly a decade. The result was the West Berkeley Plan, unanimously approved by the council in 1993. Thanks to the plan, our town still has an industrial district, with the lowest vacancy rate (1.7 percent) in the East Bay, the highest rents and several hundred manufacturers, wholesalers, artists and artisans, including Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Inkworks, Urban Ore, Alliance Graphics, Pyramid Brewery, Sun Light & Power, Meyer Sound and Berkeley Mills. Tom Bates’ city website reports that just last Friday (a month after he declared that “manufacturing is closing”), the mayor joined other officials in announcing that Bayer is moving its Biological Products Global Headquarters from North Carolina to Berkeley, even as the company has begun construction of a new, $50 million Clinical Manufacturing Facility at its Berkeley campus.  

Before city officials begin to dismantle the zoning that supports Berkeley’s industrial sector, they need to remind themselves that the purpose of government is to benefit the community, not the other way around.  

They need to stop using the city’s fiscal problems as an excuse to destroy the qualities that make Berkeley a special place to live and work. Their top priority ought to be reining in municipal expenses. At the same time, keeping auto dealers and their $1.5 million revenue in town should be high on the agenda, with relocation to Frontage Road one possibility.  

That possibility, like all others, including rezoning west Gilman and Ashby for retail, needs to be vetted in a manner befitting Berkeley’s official commitment to democratic process. The mayor and the City Council could use a work session on the Citizen Participation Element of the city’s new General Plan—the sooner, the better.  

 

 

Zelda Bronstein, former chair of the City Planning Commission, is still active in Berkeley politics.


AC Transit’s Van Hools Hated by Riders, Drivers By JOYCE ROY

Commentary
Tuesday April 12, 2005

Jaimie Levin’s letter praising the Van Hool buses (DAILY PLANET, March 8-10) shows how totally out of touch AC Transit is with its riders. When these buses were first introduced, riders’ complaints were so loud and clear, that one could assume they would not continue to order them. But no, they plugged their ears and didn’t even listen to their own Riders Advisory Committee (RAC) which gave the buses their thumbs down. The board then eliminated the RAC to avoid listening to riders’ pesky demands. And soon Van Hools will be invading all the bus lines—AC Transit plans to replace ALL their buses with them. 

I am a very active senior and do not own a car so I am a frequent rider and I can tell you the overwhelming majority of riders and operators hate them. I hear seniors, in particular, saying, “We pray for an old bus.” They are better because once you get up a couple of steps (and the bus is not going to start moving as you are getting up the steps) you are home free. You can sit down quickly in a nearby seat or any other seat without having to negotiate steps while the bus is moving. 

I was on a Van Hool bus with the AC Transit boardmember who has been the chief advocate for these buses, when a passenger with two canes had to get to one of the few no-step seats that are not near the door. It took some time as it was crowded and people had to help him while shouting at the driver to not start moving before he got seated. In talking to the boardmember afterwards, I pointed out this example of how cumbersome they are and he replied, “but you see people do manage.” 

Yes, “people do manage” to overcome many obstacles. But why should they have to because of bad design. But since AC Transit primarily has a captive audience, people who have no other choices, they have to keep on riding buses that ignore their comfort and safety. 

These buses are built in Belgium, but Belgium is not to be blamed for the interior configuration. That very awkward, cumbersome, if not hazardous, seating arrangement was dreamed up in AC Transit’s ivory tower without any consumer testing. 

Here is the Van Hool experience as designed by AC Transit: You enter through a narrow door that cannot accommodate passengers getting on and off simultaneously. Then you encounter a bottleneck that will not accommodate baby carriages or shopping carts. This narrow aisle between seats with a 12” high step is often crowded with people. You look for one of the few seats that will not be too difficult to navigate. If you want to get to seats in the rear, you have to negotiate an area between these seats and the front bottleneck with nothing to hang onto with the bus moving. And if you want to sit looking forward you may be out of luck because almost half of the seats face to the rear. These are very disorienting since, unlike on BART, you have to watch the passing scene to know when to push the stop button, a button that you may not be able to reach easily. 

Then there is the rarely used third door. The whole rationale for going to Belgium for these low-floor buses instead of continuing with the two-door low-floor NABI buses assembled in Alabama (the green #72 buses on San Pablo Ave.) is that third door. It was thought to be absolutely necessary to enable people to get off and on Rapid Transit buses quickly without presenting a ticket —a system called proof of payment (POP). It is an honor system backed up by a lot of inspectors randomly checking tickets. It works for some train systems but when an AC Transit staff person was asked if it has worked for buses anyplace in America, he replied, “they tried it in Paris but gave it up because they were losing too much money.” So it is not going to happen anytime soon, certainly not within the lifetime of the buses that have been purchased to implement POP. So the whole rational for them is out the window. But that doesn’t keep AC Transit from continuing to purchase them for every line. 

And even the new 30-foot buses with only two doors that have been ordered, will have the same awkward seating.  

In fact, there are four ways that Van Hool buses make bus operation less efficient than the low-floor NABI buses:  

1) Drivers are not supposed to start moving until everyone is seated and it takes people longer to get seated. 2) People cannot enter at the same time people are exiting from the front door. 3) With wheelchair accessibility in the middle of the bus instead of at the front door it takes time to maneuver the bus to an accessible location. 4) Riders who face backwards are apt to push the stop button for the wrong stop. 

If you want to know what I am talking about ride one of the Rapid Transit Van Hool buses on San Pablo then get off and transfer to one of the green buses on the same route. Some low-floor NABIs are on other routes. You can spot them because their windows are low in front of the exit door and higher behind it because the seats are on a higher level.  

AC Transit is the nation’s only bus agency with an elected board. Years ago when AC Transit took over from the Key System, it was decided that the board should be elected so it would be more responsive to the needs of riders. Well, it didn’t work. Riders feel they have no say and probably not enough are loud mouths. You would not be able to foist these buses on cities like San Francisco that have a large number of articulate middle and upper class riders.  

Seniors were used in ads promoting Measure BB, the parcel tax for AC Transit, before last November’s election. They were shown getting onto a Van Hool bus but their struggle to get into one of the high-step seats reserved for them, once inside, was not shown. The design of these buses belies AC Transit’s concern for the needs of seniors and the mobility impaired. 

The Van Hool buses violate the spirit, and perhaps, the letter, of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). The seats near doors are supposed to be reserved for seniors and people with disabilities and words to that affect are placed over the front seats with the 12” high steps that make them virtually inaccessible to those with mobility problems. They are only suitable for the young and agile who like a physical challenge or those who have passed Rock Climbing 101. 

By the way, I have said practically everything I have said in this letter in person to the Board of AC Transit to no avail.


Kathakali: Ancient Indian Theater at MLK Middle School By KEN BULLOCK

Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 12, 2005

“Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets.” 

—Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things 

Kathakali, the great classical dance-drama of South India, will be given a rare American performance by 10 noted senior artists from the major theater institutes of Kerala state, India, one night only, 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 16 at Martin Luther King Middle School. 

The touring company will present a play from the ancient epic The Ramayana, “Baali Vadhom, The Vanquishing of Baali”—as well as “Poothana Moksham, The Salvation of Poothana,” from The Bhagavatham. 

Kathakali has inspired modern European and American performing artists from choreographer Martha Graham to stage director Jerzy Grotowski, who adapted Kathakali exercises for his Polish Laboratory Theatre in the 1960s. 

Unlike Kathak (which shares the same Sanskrit root word for “story”) and other Indian dances, Kathakali is fully theatrical (its name literally meaning “story-theater”). It dramatizes rather than accompanies or illustrates a story or poem, utilizing an elaborately stylized language of spectacle, mimetic gesture and movement. It is taken from ancient folk dances, ritual, martial arts and Sanskrit theater (Kuttyattam), all of which are still performed in Kerala. 

The stories and techniques for telling these stories seem to have been spread throughout Asia by Buddhist monks, even influencing the far-flung classical theaters of Japan, Noh and Kabuki. Putting on the spectacular costumes and make-up—recognized as an art in itself—“takes hours before a performance to transform the actors” into mythical gods, heroes and beasts, according to Katherine Kunhiraman of Kalanjali-Dances Of India, the Berkeley performing company and school that is co-sponsoring the Kathakali performance along with the Malayalee Association of Northern California and the local producers, Kathakali By The Bay. The American tour is produced by Anamica. 

Katherine Kunhiraman’s husband, K. P. Kunhiraman, who founded Kalanjali with her here in 1975, is himself a Kathakali principal actor, one of a handful to live in America. Kalanjali has performed scenes and dances from Kathakali, but full-scale performances in America by Indian companies are rare. There have been only a few in the Bay Area over the past 30 years. 

“Baali Vadhom” follows the story of The Ramayana, which tells of the split between brothers Sugriva and Baali, ruler of the kingdom of monkey men, a pact between Sri Rama and Sugriva, and the rescue of Sri Rama’s wife, Sita, from her abductor, Ravana, king of Sri Lanka, by an army of monkey men. K. P. Kunhiraman chose the story for the show. He said that it shows a range of the character types of Kathakali, as well as the characters and story line of The Ramayana. “Poothana Moksham” features the performance of Margi Vijayakumar, who specializes in female roles (all Kathakali actors are male), as Poothana, sent to kill Krishna, who becomes enraptured by the divine baby. There are elements to the tale reminiscent of Herod’s Slaughter of the Innocents from the Christian Gospels, as well as medieval miracle plays. 

Dancer and UC Berkeley alumna Barbara Framm, longtime associate of Kalanjali and filmmaker of The Golden Thread, which documents the Kunhiramans’ journey to America 30 years ago and their return to his village in Kerala to celebrate his 70th birthday in 2002, recalled the scene when a Kathakali troupe came to perform all night in Kunhiraman’s honor. 

“Beginning with a parade to announce the show, it was amazing to see the excitement it generated, involving the whole village, from the oldest down to little children, as well as people coming from surrounding vilages—maybe a thousand people,” she said. “In a famous fight scene, they were performing on a crude cement platform with broken steps up to it. Suddenly, oblivious to any danger, they flew down the steps in full costume and those heavy crowns, running right into the audience, doing the whole fight scene with their special yelling right in front of me and around the crowd. It was amazing, the way they engaged us.” 

This intensity is a mark of the lifelong training and dedication of the actors. 

“Kathakali is completely a way of life,” Katherine Kunhiraman said. “The performers are wholly committed to what is for them a devotional practice. Kunhiraman tells people who ask him when he’ll retire, ‘I will do this until I drop.’ It’s more than an artistic exercise. But it’s the unearthly visual experience that first attracts Western people to it. The actors, in costumes designed to lift them above the human level—they perform on the ground or on a low stage—wearing those golden crowns that make them look as though they’re dancing in the sky.” 

Kathakali will perform “Baali Vadhom, The Vanquishing of Baali” and “Poothana Moksham, The Salvation of Poothana” at Martin Luther King Middle School, 1781 Rose St., 6 p.m., Saturday April 16. Supertitles will be provided. Tickets are $25 and up, $12 for students.  

For details, call (925) 784-6718 or see kathakalibythebay.com, or anamica.org. 

 

 




Arts Calendar

Tuesday April 12, 2005

TUESDAY, APRIL 12 

CHILDREN 

Storytelling Performance with Randel McGee protraying Hans Christian Anderson at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

EXHIBITIONS 

40th Annual Student Art Show featuring artwork by middle and high school students from the West Contra Costa Unified School District at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: Devotional Cinema Screening and reading by Nathaniel Dorsky at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Marc Ian Barasch introduces “Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness” at 7:30 p.m. First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $10. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Sandy Boucher discusses her biography of Buddhist teacher Ruth Denison, “Dancing in Dharma”at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Mutabaruka, reggae dub poet, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oslo, The Girlfriend Experience, Harold Lies, indie rock, punk, alternative, at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886.  

Dead Meadow, Jennifer Gentle at 8:30 p.m. at Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. 

The Movement Spring 2005 Showcase at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $7 at the door.  

John Mackay Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Swingin’ Doors, The Shut-Ins, Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands, hulabilly, at 9:30 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5. 444-6174.  

Hiromi, piano, at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13 

THEATER 

“Bright River” A hip-hop retelling of Dante’s Inferno, at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Tickets are $12-$35. 415-256-8499. www.inhousetickets.com 

FILM 

Cine Contemporaneo: “La Cienaga” at 7 p.m. in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

Best of Banff Mountain Film Festival at 7 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $12-$15 available at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

History of Cinema: “The Day I Became a Woman” at 3 p.m. and Marina Goldovskaya “Solvoky Power” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Polhemus talks about “Lot’s Daughters: Sex, Redemption, and a Woman’s Quest for Authority” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Alice Carey reads from her memoir “I’ll Know It When I See It: A Daughter’s Search for a Home in Ireland” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

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

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

Janet Stickman introduces “Crushing Soft Rubies” at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. www.belladonna.ws 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Ting Chin, cello, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on the Rosales Organ at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555.  

Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $28-$48. 642-9988.  

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

Bernard Anderson and the Old School Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick & Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Los Rumberos, salsa, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Enion Pelta and Jamie Stillway Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Babatunde Lea with Steve Turre at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, APRIL 14 

EXHIBTITIONS 

“Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens” guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Best of Banff Mountain Film Festival at 7 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $12-$15 available at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Marina Goldovskaya: “The Shattered Mirror” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Panoramic Hill’s Sierra Club Legacy” A lecture on the architecture and environs of this Berkeley neighborhood at 7:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Tickets are $10, available from Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assoc. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

“Learning History from Sheet Music” with Mary Kay Duggan, UC Dept. of Music, at 1 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Charles Wilkinson discusses “Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Sonja Franeta reads from her new book, “Pink Flamingoes: Ten Siberian Interviews” at 7:30 p.m. in the Forum building at Laney College, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. 464-3156.  

Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards read from “Grassroots: A Field Guide to Feminist Activism” at 7 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. RSVP to 655-2405.  

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers Garrett Murphy and Mark States at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Vincent Spaulding, solo guitar, at 12:15 p.m. at the Art and Music Room, Berkeley Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

The Movement Spring 2005 Showcase at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Tickets are $7 at the door.  

Natural Vibrations, Hawaiian reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

South Austin Jug Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Hyim & The Fat Foakland Orchestra at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Bart Davenport, Pillows, Beam at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

Anton Schwartz & Art Hirahara at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

John Pizzarelli at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Working,” inspired by Studs Terkel, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. Through May 7. Tickets are $13-$15. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Albany High School Theater “Wit” and “Benefactor” Thurs. at 7 p.m., Fri. at 8 p.m. and Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. through April 16, at Albany High School Little Theater, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany. Tickets are $5-$10. 558-2500, ext. 2579.  

Aurora Theatre, “Blue/Orange” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m., 2081 Addison St. through May 15. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.aurora.theatre.org 

BareStage Productions “She Loves Me!” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through April 24 at Choral Rehearsal Hall, Cesar Chavez Student Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10. http://tickets.berkeley.edu 

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

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” opens at the Roda Theater and runs through May 29. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Black Repertory Group “Bubbling Brown Sugar” the musical Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2:30 and 8 p.m. to May 14 at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $7-$15. 652-2120.   

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through May 21. Tickets are $12-$20. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Laney College Theater, “Legacy for LoEshe” in memory of a girl slain in West Oakland, Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., through April 21, at 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$9. 464-3544. 

“Proof” by David Auburn, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through May 7 at The Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $13. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“La Causa” Photographs of the Farmworkers’ Movement at The Free Speech Movement Cafe, Moffitt Library, UC Campus, through Oct. 482-3336. 

“A Bahl Beemsh” featuring the art of seven artists working from ceramic sculpture to oil portraiture. Reception at 7:30 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. boontlinggallery@hotmail.com 

Native American Jeweler Ken Romero, at 7 p.m. at Gathering Tribes Gallery, 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038. 

FILM 

Marina Goldovskaya: “Lucky to be Born in Russia” at 7:30 p.m. and “The House on Arbat Street” at 9:15 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Friends of African Film meets at 7:30 p.m. at 464 Van Buren, next to the Resurrection Lutheran Church, Oakland. Parking in Church parking lot. Donation requested. FOAF@bigfoot.com. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Jazz Lab Band at 7 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High School. 

Rafael Manriquez, Chilean singer and guitarist, at 7:30 p.m. at at the Fellowship Café, Cedar & Bonita Sts. Donation $5-$10. 841-4824. 

University Dance Theater 2005, with new works by Carol Murota, Lisa Wymore and Ellis Wood, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$14. 642-9925. http://theater.berkeley.edu 

Aphrodesia and Otis Goodnight, Afro-beat, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Voco and the Toids, folksinging and Balkan music, at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donations $10-$20. 701-1787 www.hillsideclub.org/concerts  

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

Anger/Marshall Duo & Vasen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Solari, Thriving Ivory, Keith Varon rock, at 9:30 at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

So Funny I Forgot to Laugh at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

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

Joe Gilman Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Lae with Ranch Hound Brown, funk, hip hop, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

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

The Bananas, Onion Flavored Rings, Ashtray at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Kenny Washington at 7 p.m. at Maxwell’s, 341 13th St., Oakland. 839-6169. 

John Pizzarelli at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 16 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Gayle Schmidt & the Toodala Ramblers at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Elissa Haden-Guest, creator of the Walter and Iris series, will read from and discuss her books at noon, at the Cal Student Store. 642-9000, ext. 661. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sculpture by Bruce Beasley: A 45-Year Retrospective” opens at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

THEATER 

Kathakali Classical Dance Drama from South India at 6 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, 1781 Rose. Tickets are $12-$25. 925-784-6718. www.kathakalibythebay.com  

FILM 

Crying in Color: Some Came Running” at 12:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Reza Aslan describes “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com  

“Sculpture by Bruce Beasley: A 45-Year Retrospective” A slide lecture by the sculptor at 2 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Harvey Helfand, author of “Campus Guide, UC-Berkeley” will discuss the history and traditions of the University at 2 p.m., at the Cal Student Store, 642-9000, ext. 661. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concert “Solstice” at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Cost is $8-$12. 549-3864. http://trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Festival of Cultures with international dance, music, theater from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at International house, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Admission $3-$6. Children under 18 free. 642-9461. http://ihouse.berkeley.edu 

Il Giardino Armonico at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Holy Names University, “Opera Scenes” at 8 p.m. at Regents Theater, Valley Center for the Performing Arts, 3500 Mountain Blvd, Oakland. Tickets are $7-$10. 436-1330. www.hnu.edu/academics/MusicEvents.html 

Samba Ngo in a benefit for Doctors Without Borders at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$25, sliding scale. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project with La Familia at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Val Esway’s Acoustic Onslaught Series at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Hip Hop Awakening at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

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

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

Anger/Marshall Duo & Vasen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Drunken Spacemen, Bad Habitz, Abominable Flowmen, rap, hip hop, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Michael Manring, an evening of extreme bass, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

Spark, CD release party, at 8:30 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento. Tickets are $10-$15 from www.eileenhazel.com 

Tarbox Ramblers, The Cowlicks at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Marcus Shelby Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Eileen Hazel at 8:30 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $10-$15. www.belladonna.ws 

Second Coming, All Bets Off, Doomsday Device 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.ª


Blooming Flannelbush, One of Area’s Showiest Plants By RON SULLIVAN

Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 12, 2005

It’s not quite a tree—except for a specimen belonging to a friend of ours, a monster some twenty-five feet tall, standing, or rather lounging, somewhat angled in the arms of a Hollywood juniper in his back yard. But I can’t resist it; it’s one of Berkeley’s showiest plant citizens, and it’s blooming now, if the rain hasn’t knocked the flowers off between deadline and distribution. It’s even a California native. 

There are some public plantings of Fremontodendron californicum, F. mexicanum, or flannelbush, around: one by the tennis courts at Martin Luther King and Russell, one in Oakland, along the green stretch of 51st Street between Telegraph Avenue and Broadway. They also peek over fences from people’s gardens; I know a few right in my neighborhood, at Sacramento Street near Dwight Way, on Allston Way west of Sacramento—and that monster, hidden from public view in our friends’ back yard, except for the lucky residents of the apartment house next door. 

This shrub is best known for its flowers—big surprise—but its genus name is a matter of interest too. Like that city to our south, it’s named for John C. Fremont, aka “The Pathfinder,” the 19th-century explorer and promo genius who had a prominent role in the Bear Flag Rising. That event is one of the more comical in California’s history, and left us with a few souvenirs including our state flag, the original of which bears a critter that looks more like an agouti. As we currently have no more grizzlies in the state than we have agoutis—and all of either species must be in zoos—perhaps a revision of emblem, flag, or name would be in order. 

We could fly a flannelbush flag; what would be homier? And there’s even a “Don’t Tread On Me” note to it: The plant’s endearingly furry leaves aren’t meant for stroking, as the fuzz can irritate skin. If you plant one, keep it away from paths—it’s tall enough for a good backdrop plant. 

Certainly the University ought to be emulating Cambridge and adding a home touch by planting blue ceanothus and gold flannelbush together at every opportunity. As both are famously drought-tolerant, it would be water-thrifty, and the pair are spectacular together. 

Fremont’s fate was as oddly hobbled as Prince Charles’ love life. Bernard de Voto wrote of him: “God and events were against Fremont. He tried to be a great man, but something always happened.” 

Fremont apparently found the type specimen of flannelbush in Spring of 1846, somewhere north of Sutter’s Fort. This bit of plant survived to make it to the then-brand-new Smithsonian, unlike the bales of specimens that went over a precipice with the mule carrying them in the Sierra, or the ones lost in a flood on the Kansas River, or the others lost in what the publisher of his discoveries, John Torrey, called “the numerous and unavoidable mishaps of such a hazardous journey.” 

The genus itself is a northward extension of a mostly tropical family, Sterculiaciae, the same family that gives us the kola nut in Coke and Pepsi. Flannelbush has more benefits, aside from its beauty, to ants, moths and bees than directly to us. Its flower buds support at least three moth species in one location studied—Pine Hill—and give bees a homing signal with ultraviolet-colored nectar. Bees can see ultraviolet, and a flower that still has nectar is a multicolored beacon to them. 

It feeds native ants (which are lately imperiled by invasive Argentine ants, the ones most likely in your kitchen) by growing a food structure called an eliasome on each seed. Ants carry the seeds to their nests, eat the nutritious eliasomes, and handily distribute and plant the seeds. In a working ecosystem, everybody pays their way. 

Most of the ones in nurseries are varieties of F. mexicanum, from southern California; F. californicum and several varieties (one is even prostrate) are more easily found at native plant sales and more specialized nurseries. 

You can get a Fremontodendron of your own at the Tilden Botanic Garden’s annual sale on Saturday, April 16, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the garden—and have a stroll around the grounds some time before that, to get a taste of our home plants. See www.nativeplants.org for a map and directions. 

ª


Berkeley This Week

Staff
Tuesday April 12, 2005

TUESDAY, APRIL 12 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at the end of Rifle Range Road, in Wildcat Canyon to look for birds of the woods and willows. 525-2233. 

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

“Wanderlust of a Sierra Rock Climber” a slide presentation with Heidi Pesterfield of Alpine Skills International at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $85-$100. 527-4140. 

“The Art of Music” Berkeley Symphony Orchestra’s Spring Gala at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Tickets are $250. For information call 841-2800. 

“The New Americans” Episode 1, at 7 p.m. at Albany High School, 603 Key Route Blvd. in Albany. Sponsored by Embracing Diversity Films and Albany High School PTA. 

“Islam, Religious Pluralism, and Interreligious Dialogue” with Imam Warith Deen Mohammad at 5:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Free but reservations requested. Reception to follow. 649-2426. 

“Good People in an Evil Time” with Dr. Svetlana Borz, granddaughter of the former Yugoslavia’s Marshall Tito at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. www.ahimsaberkeley.org  

Water Resources Center Lecture “The Influence of ENSO Phase on Floods & Sediment Transport in California Coastal Streams” with Edmund Andrews of U.S. Geological Survey at 5:30 p.m. in 105 North Gate Hall, UC Campus. 642-2666. 

“Supermarket Savvy: Shopping for a Healthier Planet” at 7 p.m. at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 104, Albany. To register call 558-7800. 

Introductory Buddhist Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at Dzalandhara Buddhist Center, in Berkeley. Suggested donation $7-$10. For directions call 559-8183. www.kadampas.org 

An Evening with Rabbi Steven Greenberg at 7 p.m. at Badé Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8206. www.clgs.org 

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 digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Blood pressure screening at 10:30 a.m. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13 

AIDS Town Hall Meeting to discuss the future of care, treatment and prevention, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Oakland Marriott CIty Center, 1001 Broadway. Sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research. www.amfar.org 

“The Blunt Truth About the Drug War and Racial Justice” with the Berkeley ACLU Drug Policy and Racial Justice divisions at 6:15 p.m. at FSM Cafe at Moffitt Library, UC Campus. fsm-info@library.berkeley.edu 

“Unprecedented” and “Votergate” two documentaries at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. 393-5685. 

ACTransit Public Meeting on proposed expansion and changes to Transbay Bus Service at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkley Senior Center. 891-4854. www.actransit.org 

Introduction to Judaism with Sarah Gershman, at 7:30 p.m., April 13, 20 and May 4, at the BRJCC. Cost is $40. 848-0237. 

New Jewish Literature with Laura Bernell at 11:30 a.m. at BRJCC. Cost is $5. 848-0237. 

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. This service will continue through April. Appointments must be made in advance. 526-3720, ext. 5. 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets at 7:15 a.m. at Au Cocolait, 200 University Ave. at Milvia. For information call Robert Flammia 524-3765. 

Poetry Writing Workshop with Alison Seevak at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

“Know Thyself…and the World You Live In” a free lecture at 7:30 p.m. at New Acropolis Cultural Center, 1700 Dwight Way. Call to register 665-3740. www.acropolis.org 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Action St. 841-2174.  

Sing-Along every Wed. at 4:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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. 548-9840. 

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

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Camp Gan Israel Information Night at 8 p.m. at Chabad of the East Bay, 2643 College Ave. 540-5824. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 14 

“Panoramic Hill’s Sierra Club Legacy” at 7:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Cost is $10, available from Berkeley Architectural Heritage at 841-2241. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

No War Tax Day Event A desert potluck at 7 p.m. and granting of resisted tax dollars at 7:30 p.m. at 2220 Sacramento St. 843-9877. www.nowartax.org 

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

Ocean View Neighbors Meeting with Mayor Bates and representatives from Pacific Steel and the Air Quality Resources Board at 7 p.m. at James Kenney Park, 1720 Eighth St., between Virginia and Delaware. 981-7100. 

“The Commercialization of Childhood” with Allen D. Kanner, Ph.D. at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley High Library. Sponsored by the Berkeley High PTSA. 

Grizzly Peak Flyfishers Skills Fair with demonstrations of casting, fly tying, knots and insect identification at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. in Kensington. 547-8629. 

“French Anti-Semitism” with journalist Marie Brenner at 5:30 p.m. with dinner. Cost is $75 plus donation to the Jewish Community Federation. For reservations see www.jfed.org/choices2005 

“Driving & Aging” panel discussion at 4 p.m. at Jewish Family & Children’s Services, 828 San Pablo Ave., Suite 104, Albany. 558-7800. 

“To Dust You Will Return” Jewish Perspecties on Dying, Death and an Afterlife with Rachel Brodie at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC. Cost is $5-$8. 848-0237. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Sidra Stich, “Enhancing Italian Art Appreication” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

Five Star Night Fundraiser for Alameda County Meals at 6:30 p.m. at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension, 4700 Lincoln Ave., Oakland Tickets are $250 available from 577-3581. www.feedingseniors.org 

“Violence in the Americas” conference, Fri. and Sat. at Stephens Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

World Space Summit and Party for Yuri’s Night at 6 p.m. at the Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$75. www.chabotspace.org 

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. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, APRIL 16 

Regional Parks Botanic Garden Annual Native Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bring cardboard boxes to carry your purchases. Refreshments will be available. Located at Tilden Regional Park at intersection of Wildcat Canyon and South Park Drive. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org. 

Annual California Wildflower Show, Sat. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sun. noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

41st Annual Iris Show and Sale from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by the Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society. 277-4200. 

Compost Critters Learn which animals do the dirty work of turning leftovers into rich soil. For ages 5 and up at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 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-$7, registration required. 525-2233. 

Learn to Grow Your Own Food from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UC Berkeley Organic Garden, Walnut and Virginia. Cost is $10-$15. To register call 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Spring Blooming Perennials with Aerin Moore at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of the Glass Block Buildings of West Berkeley led by Bill Goodell, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Russian Festival from noon to 6 p.m. at 1821 Catalina Ave., corner of Colusa. Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Berkeley Russian School. 526-8892. 

Community Budget Workshop with City staff on the two-year City budget cycle which begins July 1, at 10 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Co-sponsred by the League of Women Voters. 981-7004.  

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.  

Astronomy Day with activities from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $9-$13. 336-7373. www.chabotspace.org 

Museum Exhibition Catalog Sale at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

California Writers Club with Beth Proudfoot, Director, East of Eden Writers Conference, speaking on "Making the Most of Writers Conferences and Literary Contests” at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

East Bay Atheists meets from 2 to 5 p.m. with Richard Carrier, on “Ethicology: Proposing a New Science of Moral Imperatives” at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd floor Meeting Room. 222-7580. eastbayatheists.org 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Basic Personal Preparedness from 9 to 11 a.m. at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

fire/oes.html 

“Chain Breakin” Workshops in Capoeira and Maculelê from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $12-$25. Hosted by BAKA Cultural Arts Center. 205-1799. 

Festival of Cultures with international dance, music, theater from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at International house, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Admission $3-$6. Children under 18 free. 642-9461. http://ihouse.berkeley.edu 

By the Light of the Moon Open mic and salon for women at 7:30 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Sliding scale $3-$7. 482-1315. www. 

changemakersforwomen.com  

California College of Arts Spring Fair with ceramics, glass, jewelry, clothing, textiles, paintings and more. Proceeds go to individual artists. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 5212 Broadway at College Ave. 594-3666. 

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  

Sistaz N Motion Membership Drive and Mixer at noon at the Richmond Public Library, Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 925-439-1612. 

Brown Bag Lunch Practicum for Writers at 11 a.m. Sat. and Sun. in Berkeley. For details call the Creative Project Institute 415-816-5640. www.creativeprojectinstitute.com 

Remodeling Workshop for Homeowners from 9 a.m. to noon at Truitt and White Conference Center, 1817 2nd St. Cost is $25-$30. Registration reaquired. 558-8030. 

“Lights, Camera Fashion” Charity fashion show by UC students at 4 and 8 p.m. in the Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$10 from http://fashion.berkeley.edu 

Quit Smoking Class from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. for six Saturdays at Alta Bates Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave., first floor auditorium. To register call 981-5330. quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

“Exploring the Awakening World” personal coaching with Leza Danly from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Claremont, 41 Tunnel Rd. Cost is $5-$15. www.sfcoaches.com 

“Destination Studies: Nevada, So. CA, Arizona” from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Vista Community College. 2020 Milvia St. Cost is $13. RSVP to 981-2931. 

“How to Buy a Home in This Crazy Market” from 10 a.m. to noon at First American Title, 2089 Rose, near Shattuck. to RSVP call 981-3063. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 17 

Annual California Wildflower Show noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Activities for children and families. Admission is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

41st Annual Iris Show and Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by the Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society. 277-4200. 

Spring Wildflower Hike Meet at 10 a.m. at the bulletin board at the Big Springs pullout on South Park Drive, Tilden Park. We’ll learn to recognize the eight major families of California wildflowers on this hike. Wear sturdy shoes for a rocky trail. 525-2233. 

The Pond is a Nursery Learn aquatic entomology for the larval point of view, see dragonfly babies, phantom midges and learn their history and future at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Huckleberry-Sibley Scramble in the Oakland Hills with Greenbelt Alliance. Reservations required. 415-255-3233. www.greenbelt.org 

A Child’s Container Garden a family workshop from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $14-$18. Registration required. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at the Willard Community Peace Labyrinth on blacktop next to the gardens at Willard Middle School. Enter by the dirt road on Derby. Free and wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377. 

Earth Day at the Oakland Zoo Learn how to support animals around the world with activities, performers, displays and more from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 632-9525, ext. 202. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Soap Making Workshop Learn the chemistry of soap as we use olive, coconut and palm oils to make natural soap. Bring a pair of rubber gloves. For ages 12 and up. Cost is $10-$12. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Hands-on Bicycle Clinic: Flat Repair at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

Center for the Education of the Infant Deaf Walkathon Fundraiser at 9 p.m. at the Moraga Commons Park, Moraga.Registration is $100. For information call 848-4800, ext. 318. www.ceid.org 

The Peace Alliance Foundation East Bay Kickoff for the US Dept. of Peace at 7 p.m. at the First Church of Religious Science, 5000 Clarewood Dr, off Broadway Terrace, Oakland. 547-1979. www.ThePeaceAlliance.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 Sylvia Gretchen on “Joyful Mind” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., April 12, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on Disability meets Wed., April 13, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Don Brown, 981-6346. TDD: 981-6345. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/disability 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., April 13, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed. April 13, at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Jackie Y. Griffin, 981-6195. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/library 

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 13, at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., April 13 at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/policereview 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., April 13, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti, 644-6376 ext. 224. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/waterfront 

Community Health Commission meets Thurs, April 14, at 6:45 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.ber 

keley.ca.us/commissions/health 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., April 14, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Iris Starr, 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., April 14, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoningª


Opinion

Editorials

Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish By BECKY O'MALLEY

Editorial
Friday April 15, 2005

Next week’s Berkeley City Council agenda contains a proposal from City Manager Phil Kamlarz, generated at the City Council’s behest, for cost-cutting by cutting down on a large percentage of Berkeley’s commission meetings. For example, he recommends that the Commission on Disabilities should meet only quarterly, instead of monthly, and that the Public Works Commission should meet only every other month. If adopted, this proposal would cause a dramatic change in Berkeley’s long and proud tradition of citizen participation in government.  

And how much money would this save? The report tallies the fiscal impacts of the recommendation as “saving staffing costs equivalent to two FTE positions.” No dollar figure is given, but for humor let’s just say that the staff positions eliminated are in the $100,000-plus category, a level enjoyed by more than 150 City of Berkeley staffers when benefits and overtime are factored in. And then let’s double that to account for overhead. Saved? A maximum of $400,000, and that’s if (a big if) the positions cut are at this top level. More likely, the staff time saved is not in the high price brackets, but in the $60K ranks, where savings would net out to around $300,000, or less than it costs to buy any house in Berkeley these days.  

The proposal is a classic example of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Many of the volunteers who serve on city commissions, on their own time and without compensation, are better educated and better versed in their subject matter than city employees at any pay level, or than the average councilmember. The city benefits hugely from their contributions. 

Take the Public Works Commission as an example. The city staff and/or elected officials were ready to give away—free—the air rights for the University of California’s much-desired bridge over Hearst Street, until Public Works commissioners with legal training, on their own time and with no help from city legal staff, did legal research which showed that city ordinances regarding encroachment on city streets provide the city with a strong bargaining position vis à vis UC. If a deal can be made, this might easily translate into compensatory payments from UC to the city approaching the $300,000 which would be saved by axing commission meetings. (Some citizens, of course, would prefer no bridge at all, and their position is also bolstered by the research done by Public Works commissioners.) And that’s just one case. 

Jonathan Schell, in the April 25 issue of The Nation, has a chilling discussion of how the concept of civil society, which he calls “the international movement for democracy that brought down several dozen dictatorships of every possible description” is now threatened by what he calls “a shadow civil society”--a kind of false democracy which is starting to “merge … imperceptibly with the real one.” He calls out the fake “town meetings” staged for Bush as cases in point.  

At the local level, citizen participation in government is constantly at risk from similar impulses. Officials, both hired and elected, are all too ready to tell citizens in “town meetings” that “we feel your pain” without actually swerving in any way from their pre-conceived agenda. Ever-cynical observers have suggested that city staffers and some councilmembers have gleefully seized on budget problems as a good excuse for getting rid of a major source of irritation, mouthy commissions which don’t know their place. We won’t comment on this theory, except to say that it’s conceivable. 

But we do know that the current commission system allows about 400 Berkeleyans to participate in the process of governance at any one time, with a much larger number taking part in a five or 10-year period To give up the huge benefits to the civic culture and the civic pocketbook which this participation provides, in return for only two FTEs in financial savings, would, in the Biblical phrase, be trading our birthright for a mess of pottage. There are other ways for the city to save three or four hundred thousand dollars. 


Watchdogging Government By BECKY O'MALLEY

Editorial
Tuesday April 12, 2005

The front page of Sunday’s Contra Costa Times featured an impressive team effort by reporters Jessica Guynn, Lisa Vorderbruggen and John Simerman, documenting, in the words of Guynn’s lead paragraph, that “a state law to help poor people in California has turned into a tax loophole almost as big as the city of Oakland.” Their story, which took up three pages and was copiously illustrated with maps, charts and photos, looked at enterprise zones, where businesses get big tax breaks for locating in supposedly poor areas. A variety of points of view were included in the report, but the clear bottom line is that the enterprise zone strategy has become just another of the many mechanisms by which the rich get richer. Cost to California taxpayers, according to a graph of data supplied by the state’s Franchise Tax Board: $179.4 million in lost revenues, with benefits to citizens which, most charitably, can be described as illusory.  

Businesses move around the state in order to grab the tax benefits where they can, but in the long run not much happens to help disadvantaged workers. The story quotes critics as saying “state taxpayers should not subsidize a costly game of musical chairs.” These commentators instead advocate cutting taxes for all businesses which hire workers in target groups, regardless of where they are located.  

In a particularly gutsy move, the CoCo Times editors illustrated the San Jose enterprise zone with a picture of the Knight-Ridder building, headquarters of the paper’s own distant parent corporation and of the flagship San Jose Mercury. The Merc, of course, needs to be in San Jose with or without tax breaks, but Knight-Ridder gladly took the subsidy, and why shouldn’t they? Stockholders have the right to insist that corporations use all the tax breaks they can get, but government doesn’t need to subsidize their profits.  

Keeping track of government largesse to favored corporate constituencies is a classic assignment for newspapers. If it’s not enterprise zones, it’s sports arenas (see Raiders, Oakland) or hotel-conference centers (just defeated—or perhaps just stalled—in Santa Cruz, but still on tap for Berkeley.) But more and more papers seem to be going after the little guy instead of documenting the big-time tax expenditures on behalf of the already privileged. Welfare mothers are a much easier target. The CoCo Times team deserves to win a major award for this piece, which keeps the spotlight where it belongs. 

Our whole news staff at the Planet is smaller than the team which worked just on this story, but in our own way we also try to keep track of what’s going on in government. An example: In Berkeley officials are now trying to play revenue catch-up by a variety of small schemes, including increasing fines for traffic offenses. A citizen acquaintance buttonholed me on the street on Sunday with his tale of woe: He got a $381 fine for “interfering with firefighters”. Sounds serious, right? What actually happened is that he couldn’t hear an oncoming siren and didn’t pull over in time. Could happen to anyone, right? There was no bad outcome, no accident or anything, just his word against that of the officer who gave him the ticket. He appealed, but the traffic commissioner allocates less than two minutes to each appeal—case closed. Four hundred dollars is real money for many people. A letter writer complained about a big fine for parking facing in the wrong direction, a common and harmless local custom in Berkeley in the last thirty years, but now evidently the target of a new “enforcement” effort cynically calculated to raise revenues by any means necessary.  

What’s the connection to enterprise zones? Well, if the state gives away money big-time, localities must look for small-time ways to tax the long-suffering working stiff even more. And often, local pols make lousy choices. Local voters don’t necessarily make the connection between national, state and local policies—they just know that they’re unhappy. 

In order to help us keep track of what’s going on, we’ve decided to offer regular slots in the Planet to two of our most zealous citizen watchdogs. Bob Burnett and Zelda Bronstein have both been active on political fronts themselves, and at the same time have been supplying the Planet with regular lively and literate critiques of what they’ve been seeing as they participate. We think readers will appreciate the opportunity to expect to find their comments in the paper on a regular basis, so we’ve asked them to take responsibility for alternate Tuesday columns. Bob will generally comment on national and sometimes international issues, and Zelda will concentrate on local and sometimes state topics, starting today. As always, their opinions will be strictly their own, not those of the Planet, its owners, management or staff.  

We would welcome more citizen commentators on what’s going on in the other cities we serve up and down the East Bay shore. Planet readership is increasing in many areas, and our staff manages to cover a good part of the news from several cities, but we can’t be everywhere all the time. You can help us get the word out.