The future of Berkeley’s warm water pool, a popular recreation choice for disabled residents, remains unsettled after a city study released last week found that rebuilding the current facility at Berkeley High School’s Old Gym or constructing a new one would cost between $6.3 and $7.5 milion—roughly twice the amount the city has on hand for the project. 

Public Works Director Rene Cardinaux will present the report from Glass Architects to the City Council Tuesday. City staff has requested that the council ask the school district to refrain from recommending a permanent home for a new warm water pool until the city determines its preferred location. 

Under a 1998 memorandum of understanding between the city and the district, the city accepted responsibility for maintaining the pool, while Berkeley Unified retained responsibility for maintaining the building. 

“The council needs to decide which option it wants and we need to see what we can do to get more money,” said Henry DeGrassa, manager of capital projects for the city. 

The report is the latest setback for warm water pool users, who in the four years since voters approved a $3.25 million measure to refurbish the pool have seen cost estimates skyrocket while the bond money has remained unspent. 

“I’m a little bit worried,” said Mark Hendrix, a leader of warm water pool users. “The question is can we get a new pool sometime before this building becomes so dilapidated that swimmers can’t use it anymore?” 

Some disabled residents said the warm water pool is one of the few places they can exercise. 

“I’m like a beached whale out of water, but I’m like Flipper in the pool,” said Corbett O’Toole, who had polio and rides in a wheelchair. 

Arthritis-patient Shirley Naylor said she walks out of the pool in a lot less pain than when she enters. “The warm water is the best thing for my joints,” she said. 

City officials charge that the district has neglected the Old Gym in recent years, effectively ending hope that the building could be preserved. 

“It’s deteriorated significantly over just the last three to four years,” Cardinaux said. “Problems we thought could be repaired now mean the building has to be torn down.” 

The consultant’s report found that the Old Gym was too unsafe to renovate. It also studied possibly relocating the warm water pool to the site of the current West Campus pool, but pool users are opposed to that idea since only a smaller warm water pool could fit on the site. 

Meanwhile, the school board is scheduled to vote May 11 on a plan for the southern portion of the high school campus that calls for tearing down the Old Gym and reserving a portion of the tennis courts across Milvia Street for a new pool, said Lew Jones, the school district’s facilities director. Jones said the district was under the impression that the city supported the district moving forward with the proposal to move the location of the pool. 

The benefits of the plan to build a new pool on the tennis courts site, Jones said, would be that swimmers could continue to use the current pool while the city builds the new pool across the street. However, the city doesn’t have the roughly $7 million needed to build a new pool. City Manager Phil Kamlarz has proposed allocating $1 million towards the project, which combined with the still unspent $3.25 million bond would still leave the city roughly $3 million short. 

Kamlarz said one option would be to go back to voters next year and ask for a new bond. But Councilmember Dona Spring argued that seeking voter approval would take too long and further drive up costs as the prices for steel and concrete continue to rise. 

“We can’t dilly dally anymore,” she said. “If we wait two years the pool will end up costing $10 million.” 

Spring is proposing that the city seek at least $1 million from the school district for the new pool and pay for the balance of the project through a Certificate of Participation, by which the city would borrow money and repay it within 10 years. 

Adding to the sense of urgency for warm water pool users, the pool, according to Glass Architects, “is in a state of substantial decay.” 

The building’s poor condition has led many pool advocates to conclude that the district isn’t interested in keeping the pool. 

“The BUSD has always been opposed to having people other than high school kids on the south campus,” said pool user and advocate Josephine Arasteh. 

“I do feel the district has played a waiting game to see if the building could get so decrepit that we would have to leave,” Hendrix said. 

New ceiling vents stopped working shortly after they were installed in 1999, presumably from corrosion; the new roof, installed at the same time, is unfinished and shows signs of staining; electrical conduits are exposed and recessed light fixtures and junction boxes are significantly rusted with some dangerous exposed wiring visible, the consultants found.  

Moreover, Cardinaux warned that the ceiling over an adjacent pool no longer in operation was at risk of collapsing. The roof over the warm water pool is also in subpar shape, Cardinaux said, despite the fact that the school district several years ago installed a new roof with roughly $300,000 supplied by the city. 

“I don’t think [the roof repairs] were done as well as they could have been done,” Cardinaux said, adding that the new wooden roof was never painted or finished. 

Jones said that the district had not done any significant maintenance on the Old Gym in the past few years because the school district assumed that the building would have to be torn down. “We were reluctant to spend major money when there’s uncertainty how long the building will be there,” Jones said. 

Sasha Futran, the consultant hired jointly by the city and the district to figure out how to raise money for the pool, questioned the district’s intentions from the start. 

“I don’t think the school district ever wanted to renovate that pool,” she said. Futran said that in 2000 former Superintendent Jack McLoughlin wanted the warm water pool project to be folded into the school district’s bond measure on the ballot. When Futran learned that rehabbing the pool was the district’s lowest priority project for the bond money she said she lobbied progressive councilmembers to make sure that the pool bond would be a city-funded measure, independent of the schools. 

Relations between the district and swimmers have soured since 2000. 

Shortly after the election, McLoughlin ordered the architecture firm Akol and Yoshi to draw preliminary designs of a refurbished warm water pool at the Old Gym. But according to Jones, as part of their work, the architects contracted an engineering firm that found the building might collapse in a major earthquake. 

“Their testing showed that the concrete was much weaker than we had thought,” Jones said. The report was released just as McLoughlin, long considered an advocate of the warm water pool, resigned and was replaced by current Superintendent Michele Lawrence. Facing a mounting budget deficit, Lawrence halted the project. 

“Jack didn’t have the knowledge that Michele had,” Jones said. “She wanted to have a better handle on what the district’s needs were and not run willy-nilly into a building project.”  

Although the four-year delay for additional planning has increased project costs, Jones said building a new pool across the street was “the only viable solution we know to preserve the warm water pool.” Under the district plan, Jones said the pool would be serviced by plenty of disabled parking spaces and have a wider deck. 

Jones added that he wasn’t clear if the district’s bond could pay for the new pool, and said the available funds had already been assigned to other projects. 

The warm water pool serves students as well and is the primary gym option for disabled students. If the district needed a temporary home for student swimmers, Berkeley YMCA Director Fran Gallati said the Downtown Y, which has three swimming pools, could accommodate the students, and possibly the adults as well, if the district pool closed for rebuilding on the same site or elsewhere.?

Angry words and heated questions surfaced anew Thursday night when West Campus neighbors confronted Berkeley public school district officials and their consultant on the future of the site on the south side of University Avenue between Bonar and Curtis streets. 

One of the bombshells dropped Thursday night came from Berkeley Unified School District Trustee Terry Doran, who said the district might not accept city jurisdiction over development at the site. 

“You may not like it, but I’m a school board member and not a city councilmember,” Doran said, citing his obligation “to act in the best interests of the children of Berkeley.” 

Doran, noting that he’s lived three blocks from the site for the last 30 years, said he understood neighbors’ concerns. “I’m committed to working with neighbors to come up with a project to give the best education possible while doing the best I can to protect the interests of the community,” he said. 

Doran’s declaration worried West Berkeley City Councilmember Darryl Moore, who has been a regular at the school district sessions. 

“I’m hoping to get a legal opinion from the city attorney” on the oversight issue, Moore said. “It’s quite apparent that if 85 percent of the site is used for administration purposes, this project should come to the city for permits and approvals.” 

Buildings devoted to instructional purposes are overseen by the state architect’s office and are exempt from local zoning and building department oversight. But the district’s plans for the West Campus site are primarily administrative, which led Moore and most in the audience to call for city oversight. 

Moore said the school district’s relations with neighbors have deteriorated since last session on April 7. 

“I’m concerned, because I hear a lot of citizens in West Berkeley saying they don’t like the process,” he said. “They want a site committee.” 

And that they did, with one audience member after another asking to be named to an official district site committee for the project. 

Some recalled the battle over the move of the Adult School from the West Campus site to Franklin School last year. Franklin neighbors filed suit, claiming the district violated state law when they didn’t discuss future plans for a vacated West Campus in their environmental report on the move. 

The district resolved the suit by naming neighbors to a site council which negotiated a successful resolution to their concerns about traffic and other problems at the new site.  

Drawing a larger turnout than a similar session two weeks earlier, the meeting was, if anything, testier, with intense questions from audience members derailing the timing of the planned agenda by more than an hour. 

Some of the questions concerned the role of the BUSD’s hired consultant who has been running the meetings, David C. Early—who has himself become a lightning rod for criticism. 

While the district hired Early as head of Design, Community & Environment, a private firm that assists local government in bringing community involvement into the planning process, neighbors saw a conflict with his position as chair of Livable Berkeley, an advocacy group whose philosophy is best expressed by the slogan emblazoned on the T-shirts and magnets the group sells—YIMBY, for “Yes In My Back Yard,” a play on the well-known NIMBY, substituting Yes in place of Not. 

A Livable Berkeley subcommittee met in his offices on April 5 to discuss the West Campus project, prompting a reporter to ask if providing a meeting space to an advocacy group might have compromised Early’s professional role as a neutral arbiter. 

Early insisted again Thursday that there was no conflict—then read a prepared statement. “The committee only discussed the project in general terms, and no alternatives were discussed,” he said. 

Early said he will recuse himself from any of the group’s meeting where the project is discussed and he won’t discuss the project with members. While Livable Berkeley will continue to meet in his office, “there will be no meetings at the office where this is discussed.” 

So long as he abides by the rules, he said, BUSD staff has agreed that there’s no conflict of interest. 

Early also drew criticism for failing to fulfill a promise made at the last meeting, when he said he would post photos of the types of vehicles the district plans to keep on the site. 

Another Early error brought relief to many in the audience. 

While he had told participants in the previous session that the district would open a facility on the site to teach students expelled from regular schools for acts or violence and other anti-social behavior, Early said Thursday that he’d been wrong. Such students will continue to go to an Alameda County school. Those send to classes at the West Campus site would be those students who couldn’t attend regular schools for religious, agoraphobic and other similar reasons. Homeless students will also be included.  

Though a few in the audience said they were confident the school district would exercise proper concern in handling site development, they were in the minority. Calls for a site committee, first broached by Franklin School neighbor John McBride, were quickly echoed by most of the rest. 

At one point, a shouting match ensued between Doran and Curtis Street resident Rachel Boyce, who confronted the school board member in a loud, angry voice. Doran later apologized; Boyce didn’t. 

Costs of site development under three alternatives presented Thursday ranged between $12 million and $20 million, not including landscaping and some other costs. Some of the money would come from remaining measure AA funds, 

Proposals formulated by the public during the last two meetings—working with a list of givens presented by the district—varied on issues such building private mixed-use housing and commercial projects along part of the site’s University Avenue frontage, but all neighbors were concerned that truck traffic be kept off all but short stretches of Curtis and Bonar streets and excluded from Addison Street altogether. 

The last session was scheduled for May 12 at the site, where the district will present a draft of the preferred alternative plan, but an additional session is now scheduled for June 2, when the district will unveil the draft site master plan. 

Whatever alternative is selected, the district has required that the site must include 35,700 square feet for administrative offices and the district board room, a teacher development center, independent study and day school facilities, a child care program, a district kitchen, buildings and ground shops, a small warehouse, a document storage center and 75,500 square feet of parking.›

After repeated delays, the City Council appears ready to vote today (Tuesday) on whether to allow UC Berkeley to build a bridge 21 feet over Hearst Avenue. 

The vote on the street bridge, which has been sought by campus officials for nearly 20 years, will force the council to weigh the benefit of the $200,000 the university is offering the city for permission to build against the concerns of many North Berkeley residents. 

The council is also set to vote at the meeting on charging the university for city sewer fees. UC attorneys have insisted that, as a state institution, UC is exempt. UC Berkeley has also ignored the city’s demand to collect Berkeley’s parking tax from motorists who use university garages. On Monday, the council met in closed session to further discuss filing a lawsuit to compel the university to pay for both parking and sewers. 

Also Tuesday the council will hold public hearings on allocations to local non-profits and on an appeal to the designation of the building that formerly housed Celia’s Mexican Restaurant. If the council reverses the ‘structure of merit’ designation for the building at Addison and Fourth streets, developer Urban Housing Group Inc. will have one less obstacle to building a condominium development at the site. 

Foothill Bridge 

Two weeks ago, the council held a lengthy public hearing on the Foothill Bridge project, a proposed footbridge connecting the two halves of the Foothill Housing Complex near Hearst and La Loma avenues. UC Berkeley has argued that it would improve pedestrian safety for dorm residents and open the dormitory to disabled students. In return for the right to build over the city street, the university is offering $200,000 for future pedestrian improvement projects. 

Opponents of the project argue that air rights above Hearst Avenue are worth more than the university has offered to pay. They have suggested various compensation deals more advantageous to the city, such as leasing the air space to the university rather selling it outright, charging the determined fair market value of the air space and forcing the university to indemnify the city against a threatened lawsuit from the owner of a nearby building if the bridge is built. 

Those opposed to the project further argue that the bridge won’t solve the desired accessibility issues for wheelchair users since the housing complex is near the top of a steep hill and is not served by wheelchair accessible paths. Though the city’s disability commission favors the bridge, no students in wheelchairs have lobbied the council in favor of the project. 

Previously two councilmembers, Dona Spring and Betty Olds, said they opposed the bridge, while Gordon Wozniak, who represents Foothill students and neighbors, offered his support. 

University officials this week acknowledged that the structure, estimated to cost $1.7 million, will be paid for out of student rental fees. Additionally, the university said that the UC Regents would have to approve any decision to lease the air space for a continuing fee, pay the determined fair market value of the air space or to indemnify the city against a threatened lawsuit from the owner of a nearby building. 

Structure of Merit Appeal 

City staff is recommending that the council reverse the designation of 2040 Fourth St. (Celia’s Mexican Restaurant) as a structure of merit. In February, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 5-4 to landmark the building, citing that it is the only known Berkeley work of highly respected architect Irwin Johnson. The staff report, approved by Planning Director Dan Marks, noted that the commission didn’t identify any physical reasons why the building is a historic resource and relied on a conflicting report from a proponent of the development that Johnson had actually designed 11 other buildings in Berkeley. 

Urban Housing Group, Inc. has proposed demolishing Celia’s and nearby Brennan’s Restaurant to build approximately 200 condominiums above ground floor retail space at Fourth and Addison streets. Celia’s future remains uncertain and Brennan’s would be rebuilt on the project site. 

If Celia’s designation as a structure of merit is not reversed, Deibel will not be able to demolish the building without the approval of the Zoning Adjustment Board. 

Non-profit Funding 

At a public hearing, the council will get its first look at a proposed 9 percent cut to general fund allocations for local non-profits. The cuts are based on relative merit and mostly follow the recommendations made by city commissions. Overall, City Manager Phil Kamlarz is proposing to allocate $4.286 million to non-profits from the general fund, down from $4.720 million last year. 

The Berkeley Community Coalition, an umbrella group of non-profits, met with Mayor Tom Bates and city leaders last week urging them to restore funding with proceeds slated to go for capital projects. The coalition has also questioned whether the city should have made across-the-board cuts rather than targeting specific organizations. 

“Unless they truly evaluated every program in the city with the same methodology you can’t back these cuts up,” said Boona Cheema, executive director of Building Options for Self Sufficiency. Her group is slated to lose nearly $60,000 in city funding. 

Other allocations on the chopping block include Berkeley Youth Alternatives youth employment program, and the Berkeley Boosters Downtown Berkeley guides and BART escorts programs. The proposal also calls for cutting civic arts grant funding from $289,797 to $229, 306.  

Among programs slated for more funding next year are Rubicon, which took over Berkeley’s jobs training program, and Youth Emergency Assistance Shelters (YEAY), which is supposed to receive funding previously given to Berkeley Ecumenical Ministries Chaplaincy to the Homeless.  

Last year, the chaplaincy stopped their free clothing program due to mismanagement that resulted in their host church asking them to leave, according to a report from the Homeless Commission. YEAY Executive Director Sharon Hawkins-Leyden said the two groups were in preliminary talks to consolidate their programs.  

The council is not expected to vote on general fund allocations to community agencies until it approves the 2006 fiscal year budget in June. Councilmembers, however, are scheduled Tuesday to vote to approve the allocation of over $5 million in federal funding to local non profits. Most of the money ($4.1 million) is from federal Community Development Block Grants, a program the Bush administration has proposed eliminating next year. 

Vista College President Judy Walters gave Peralta Community College District Trustees a power-point view last week of what the college’s new Center Street campus will look like when it opens next fall, in hopes of showing that the six-story downtown structure is worth its $65 million price tag and the years of meetings, litigation, and struggle it took to bring it into the world. 

The trustees seemed convinced, with Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen calling the long road to the building’s construction “an incredible story. It’s something that should be written in a book, when all of this is finished.” 

During a late afternoon special trustee meeting at Vista’s current Milvia Street campus last Thursday, Walters, Peralta General Services Director Sadiq Ikharo, and representatives of construction project designers Ratcliff Architects described a gleaming, spacious structure centered around a glass-topped atrium running the entire six stories of the building. 

Highlights of the new building included 35 classrooms, 10 laboratories, a multimedia and an animation studio, a bookstore, and a 225-seat basement auditorium. Space is at such a premium that until the college reaches its projected 7,500-student maximum capacity, expected sometime around 2016, the college plans to rent out some of its rooms to outside agencies and organizations. The meeting was attended by trustees Gonzalez Yuen, Cy Gulassa, Bill Withrow, and Marcie Hodge. A representative of Swinerton Management & Consulting, the project managers, was also there. 

The district commitment to build Vista’s new building came out of a 1998 court settlement between Berkeley residents and the Peralta District, after Berkeley residents moved to separate Vista from the district and the district sued to keep it in. Walters called the struggle “10 years of angst” and described the new campus as a “miracle building” that many new campus supporters dubbed “the not-in-my-lifetime” building because they never thought it would be built. 

Ikharo said that construction became so contentious at one point that “police had to be called to settle disputes between the district and the general contractor.” SJ Amoroso Construction Company of Redwood Shores is the Vista general contractor. 

The new building, currently under construction and expected to be completed in the spring of 2006, will be a far cry from Vista’s present campus, which has narrow hallways that resemble coal mine tunnels, and classroom walls so thin and porous that students can stand outside the closed doors and take notes on the lectures within.  

But at the end of the presentation, after trustees praised Vista, Peralta, and Ratcliff officials for the work so far done, Trustee Gulassa told President Walters and Peralta General Services Director Ikharo that this wouldn’t stop continued close oversight of the building project by the trustee board. 

“I agree with others about the profusion of thanks that are appropriate, but that won’t stop the board from asking tough questions,” Gulassa said. “It’s our fiduciary responsibility. You’re forewarned.” 

In recent months, Peralta trustees have questioned several change orders at the Vista construction project, leading to the passage of a new board policy earlier this year that gives trustees more oversight over alterations to construction contracts. 

At Thursday’s meeting, Ikharo said that a little over half a million dollars has been spent for various changes to the Vista project plan. The “change orders,” as they are called, accounted for 1.26 percent of the total $65 million price tag. “We don’t expect to get anywhere near 5 percent,” Ikharo said. 

Walters said she expects to present trustees with a package of new requested change orders within the next few weeks, including several to change classroom configurations. Walters blamed the need for those changes on former Peralta chief operating officer Charles A. Taylor, who she said “cut off communications between Vista and Ratcliff in November of 2003. We knew back then that these changes were needed but for whatever reason, Charles Taylor told Vista representatives they couldn’t talk to the architects.” 

Walters said she hopes to have the movers come in the day after graduation in May 2006 to transfer the school to the new building. Walters said that may delay the college’s 2006 summer session for a month or so, “but we don’t want to give the summer session up entirely.” 

Walters and Ikharo said a decision on the exact moving timetable would be made later this year, after construction gets closer to completion.

Walking through the cavernous interior of what was once California’s largest winery, Jim Levine bubbles with enthusiasm. 

“If you look at the economic model, this is a site that will really attract visitors and conventions. We expect $150 million in additional local income along with new jobs and purchases from local vendors,” he said. 

If the Berkeley developer has his way, the venerable structure by the shore of Richmond’s Point Molate will become a magnet for Asian tourists, drawing the dollars to an economically depressed community. 

Many question his vision, but he’s drawn the enthusiastic endorsement of many in Richmond’s elected and appointed officialdom who see his plans for a posh casino resort complex at the foot of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge as the city’s economic salvation. 

While critics claim the gambling palace will siphon dollars from the pockets of those who are the most desperate and least able to afford the losses, Levine says his primary market is players from Asia where gambling has long been part of their culture. 

Unlike two other casinos proposed for the Richmond area, Point Molate is the only one that plans to offer luxury accommodations, shops and a Las Vegas-scale entertainment venue to draw internationally known performers. 

With 1,100 rooms, a 300,000-square-foot retail mall, a dozen or so restaurants and convention facilities to boot, Point Molate would rival any resort in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.  

In other words, Point Molate will compete for “whales” and other high-rollers, and not for the trade that arrives by bus and car to the gambling rooms of other tribes who count on dollars from California residents. 

“Richmond has an extraordinarily unique site,” he said, pointing from the roof of Winehaven toward the high rises of San Francisco still visible in the gathering clouds that would bring rain a few minutes later. 

“The jobs that came here in World War II aren’t coming back, especially because of increasing development in China, so the city is going to have to rely on tourism and other aspects of the economy,” he said. “What we have to do is to make this a world-class facility.” 

Many in Richmond hope he’s right, and he’s drawn strong support from an African American population ravished by a struggling economy and overseas job flight. 

From Toxics to Slots  

While Levine made his initial fortune in the toxic waste cleanup business when he ran LFR-Levine Fricke, an Emeryville-based firm which handles cleanups in many countries, he said his involvement in the gambling trade stemmed from economic development studies he conducted for tribes, often on a pro bono basis. 

The site of his planned casino project had been a U.S. Navy refueling station until it was shut down during the round of base closures in the mid-1990s and was transferred to the city for $1 in September, 2003. 

Before the city acquired the site, councilmembers hired a Colorado consulting company to evaluate the site’s casino potential. When the report said a gambling spa could generate $500 million in economic activity annually along with $1.2 million in sales taxes and 4,462 new jobs, the city decided any would-be developer’s plans had to include a casino alternative. 

The council awarded Levine’s Upstream Investments an exclusive six-month agreement to negotiate a project for the site in December 2003, and the firm quickly established a relationship with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the leading lender in the world of tribal casinos. 

“They performed financial analyses, and then gave introductions to the top four gaming companies in the U.S.” Levine said. 

Upstream’s final choice was Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s reigning casino giant, which leant its own weight to the deal. Upstream also went out and recruited its own tribe, the Guidiville Band of Pomos, to take the land as a reservation and claim formal ownership of the site. 

Heated council meetings and an unsuccessful ChevronTexaco lawsuit to block the sale delayed the sale until last Nov. 10, when a bare majority of Richmond councilmembers gave Levine his deal. 

Other participants in Upstream’s plans are the Odermatt Group, a Berkeley urban design firm which is doing much of the planning work. Levine’s old firm is tackling some of the environmental and infrastructure issues. Lowe Enterprises, a leading hotelier originally involved in the project, has dropped out.  

One major addition was William Cohen, the powerfully connected Maine Republican who served as Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and now runs his own Washington consulting firm. 

While Cherokee Investment Partners, a firm involved in planned developments on two controversial hazardous waste sites in Richmond, was originally considered as a potential funding source, Levine said he had found less expensive money through Harrah’s. 

Two other potential partners were also dropped, Levine said, “because we decided we didn’t want to wind up with too many cooks.” 

If his proposal clears federal and state approval, the aging Winehaven building will be restored to its earlier glory, with the interior transformed from a stark concrete warehouse into a gambling palace with offices in the lowest level, 2,500 to 3,000 slot machines and 125 to 160 table games on the main floor, and a gourmet restaurant and bar on the small third level. 

Because Winehaven and many of the other structures are on the National Register of Historic Places, Upstream is legally obligated to maintain the historic exteriors, an expensive task for developers. 

“The costs are not trivial,” Levine said. “Who else could afford to spend $20 million to fix just one building?”  

Winehaven’s brick facade is showing its age, with much of the mortar crumbling to powder and large sections of brickwork on the verge of breaking free. Levine said restoring the 29 landmarked housing units—contaminated by asbestos and lead paint—represents another major expenditure. 

Meanwhile, legal fights continue. Though Levine says he’s not concerned, attorneys for two groups who are challenging the city’s sale of the land without prior environmental review are hailing the intervention of the state attorney general’s office on their behalf. 

That suit alleges the awarding of the property to Upstream was invalid because the city hadn’t yet completed an Environmental Impact Statement or Review on the transfer. Levine said the transfer won’t be complete without the document, which is mandated in Upstream’s agreement with the city. 

He also said that his agreement is the only tribal agreement that mandates that the development be subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. 

The two litigants, Citizens for East Shore Parks and the East Bay Regional Park District, want to preserve shoreline under public ownership, but Levine argues that all his site has been developed, and that he would be restoring more shoreline green space than currently exists. 

That litigation could be decided by late September or early October. 

A second lawsuit by a rival, Florida-based tribal gaming developer is seeking a billion dollars from Levine’s group on that grounds that they improperly enticed the Guidivilles out of an existing deal. 

Levine’s side scored a major victory in that case on April 13, when the office of the secretary of the interior issued a finding that the original agreement was not legally binding because it hadn’t been approved by the secretary’s office. 

Shrewd Political Player 

Critics charge that Levine is master of the political game. But what critics see as a negative, Levine sees as a positive. 

“I have friends who are powerful in both parties,” Levine said, and he gives money to both sides. 

“Although I’m a Democrat, my personal belief is that our system works best when neither party has all the power,” he said. 

Levine’s a longtime supporter of Rep. Barbara Lee, the outspoken East Bay congressional Representative, and he gave $27,500 to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante’s campaign in the gubernatorial recall election. He also contributed to the Al Gore presidential campaign in 2000. 

But he’s been giving to the GOP more recently, including a $10,000 donation to the Republican National Committee last June, and $2,500 to Pioneer PAC, which funds GOP candidates for the House. 

Levine insists his contributions are dictated by personal beliefs, not business reasons. 

“I also gave a few thousand to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,” he said. “And Barbara Lee’s really my hero. I’ve supported her throughout my career.” 

Levine’s casino dreams now rest in political hands. Before he can build a casino, he needs approval from the Interior Department, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger—another new political friend—and the state legislature. 

And should his casino plans fail, Levine has a backup plan that calls for 1,100 housing units on the site.ª

Small groups of political activists across the country have been working for decades to make the United States accountable for a variety of human rights violations and to resist government repression of those who work for political change.  

Organizers defending the U.S. constitution and opposing imprisonment and mistreatment of Puerto Rican, Haitian, Palestinian, Filipino, Iraqi and U.S. dissidents came together at St. Joseph the Worker Church Friday evening and on the UC Berkeley campus Saturday, in a conference called “Attica to Abu Ghraib.”  

“Why we’re all here—it’s about saving our country,” outspoken Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) told the cheering crowd of about 200 Friday evening. The theme, she said, “is a striking juxtaposition of what America really is. Attica is an incredible story of prisoners with restricted rights, protecting their constitutional rights.”  

One doesn’t have to go back to 1971 and the Attica prison revolt to find abuse of government power, McKinney said, pointing to the early April “Operation Falcon,” a nation-wide law enforcement sweep where some 10,000 people were arrested. While the arrests were lauded by “corporate media,” most arrested were street level drug dealers, McKinney said. The CNN coverage of Operation Falcon is emblematic of the problems of today’s mass media: “They don’t quote anybody opposed to the dragnet. They don’t quote the ACLU or anybody except the government itself.”  

McKinney didn’t confine her condemnation to the Republican administration and the media, but took aim at her own Democratic Party. While she supports UC Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff, who has criticized the Democratic Party for lacking clarity in its message, she said she sees a more fundamental problem.  

“Suppose you’re trying to tell an organization or political party to frame its message and the political party has no message, it has no vision, it has no passion, it has no mission,” she said. Without that, you won’t make fundamental change. “That’s why we’re here in this room tonight, because we want fundamental change.”  

Activist attorney Lynne Stewart made a surprise appearance just before McKinney spoke. Stewart represented Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was sentenced to life in prison for masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. To visit him in prison after his conviction, Stewart had to promise that she wouldn’t transmit messages from him to the outside world. However in 2000, she sent out a press release on behalf of her client, who was in isolation, and two years later was indicted on charges of giving material support to terrorism. Along with a paralegal and translator, Stewart was convicted in February and faces up to 30 years in prison. She is yet to be sentenced.  

“I couldn’t see missing a conference called ‘Attica to Abu Ghraib,’ ” Stewart said. “Human rights—it’s what my whole long career has been about.” The day she was sentenced, Stewart said the wider implications of her imprisonment hit her hard: “They can’t lock up the lawyers;” the accused are “so vulnerable without defense, if the lawyers are locked up.”  

Stewart said she doesn’t regret having sent out the press release and said she would do it again: “I’m not going to be rehabilitated, so there’s no reason to send me to jail,” she said as the crowd rose in a standing ovation.  

Activists regrouped Saturday on the UC Berkeley campus to share their work and strategies for change. The United States government’s role in repressing the work of activists was a theme throughout the day. Holding her infant, Michelle Morales of Jose Solis Defense Committee talked about how Puerto Rican activist organizations had been infiltrated and how political prisoners from that movement languish in United States jails.  

Others spoke about former Black Panthers who have been imprisoned for decades, of Filipino political prisoners in jail at the behest of the U.S. government and Haitian political prisoners jailed by United States Marines, who occupied Haiti for two months after the U.S. removed the democratically-elected president from Haiti in February, 2004. (The Marines have since been replaced by United Nation forces.)  

Although attacks on the freedom to organize and the freedom of speech predates the Patriot Act, the legislation and its consequences for organizers was one of the day’s principal themes. 

“If you can make people afraid, you can get away with criminalizing activism,” said Jeff Mittman of the ACLU.  

Parts of the Patriot Act will end at the end of December unless renewed, he said. A few of the clauses include:  

• The expansion of the government’s ability to execute criminal search warrants (which need not involve terrorism) and seize property without telling the target for weeks or months;  

• Allowing the FBI to seize sensitive personal information and belongings—including medical, library and business records;  

• Lowering the standards for issuing “national security letters,” issued at the sole discretion of the Justice Department, imposing a blanket gag order on recipients without judicial review. They can be used to seize a variety of business and financial records and, in certain instances, can be used to access the membership lists of organizations that provide even limited Internet services (see www.aclu.org/sunsets).  

Activist Gene Bernardi brought the discussion of the repression of individual rights home, calling on Berkeley residents to oppose the move of the library administration to insert radio frequency identification technology, known as RFID tags, into books. “I’m worried that books can be tracked while people are carrying them,” she said.  

Mittman added that there’s a proposal to insert RFIDs into driver’s licenses and passports. “They can be read without you knowing they’re read,” he said.  

Rose Braz, director of Critical Resistance, an organization that addresses the negative role prisons play in society, said the organization wanted “to debunk the myth that prisons make it safer (for those on the outside) and that more surveillance makes the nation safer.”  

The idea that locking people promotes public safety is not new, Braz said. “It’s about social control, the removal of a segment of the population that is not wanted.” 

After Sept. 11, 2001 about 1,100 people were detained without charges, Braz said, pointing to one case where a Muslim hospital worker was arrested because a co-worker had reported that he “wore a surgical mask longer than necessary.”  

Conference participants agreed to regroup in July, according to Judith Mirkinson, an organizer with the sponsoring group, the International Human Rights Initiative.  

“If there’s going to be globalized repression, there has to be globalized resistance,” she said. “We need to build broad coalitions—that’s our job.”  

For information on future organizing efforts, see www.attica2abughraib.com/index.html.  

A conference sponsored by the Ethnic Studies Department at UC Berkeley covering many of the same issues will be held Thursday, beginning with a rally in Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus and moving to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre at 2025 Addison St. for panel discussions. For more information, go to http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~ethnicst/torture.  

For additional information on Lynne Stewart’s case, see www.LynneStewart.org; she will appear tonight (Tuesday) at 8 p.m. at a rally sponsored by the African People’s Solidarity committee at Humanist Hall at 390 27th Street, Oakland and on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle Hall on the UC Berkeley campus at a rally sponsored by the campus chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and others. For details, call 333-7966.  

The practice of Islam, like the practice of other religions, responds to the cultural context of the countries where it takes root. Scholars discussed the many faces of Islam and addressed Islam’s intersection with democracy in a day-long conference, “Democracy and Global Islam,” at UC Berkeley on Friday.  

“In a world where people travel and immigrate, we have a marketplace not only of goods but of ideas,” said panelist Oliver Roy, research associate at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. In many countries, especially where Islam is a minority religion as in China, India and Western Europe, there is a disconnect between the dominant culture and Islam. However, where Islam dominates, as in Afghanistan, “people don’t differentiate between religion and culture,” Roy said.  

So in France, where they account for just 5 to 10 percent of the population, Muslims may have difficulty finding halal meat; they may change their dietary practice accordingly. Second generation Muslims may further modify the way they practice Islam.  

The issue of whether women wear the veil is a cultural one, one panelist said. It is actually a question of what is considered dressing with modesty in a particular cultural setting.  

In France, the government banned students from wearing religious symbols to school, purportedly to encourage secularism in education. This impacted young women who wear the veil and inadvertently resulted in the establishment of private Muslim schools. “Rather than helping integration, people view the state antipathetically,” Roy said.  

Abdoulaye Kane, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Florida spoke to the question of the “Africanization of Islam,” which, he said, is not unlike the Africanization of Christianity. Modifications take place in the setting to which a religion is transported. One reason Islam transforms in Sub-Saharan Africa is because “They don’t speak Arabic (and) Koranic study is low,” Kane said.  

Discrimination plays a role as well in keeping mainstream and African practices separate. In France, Middle Eastern Muslims “don’t want to be guided by African Imams,” Kane said.  

The Senegalese form of Sufism is so distanced from that practiced in America that when Senegalese Muslims living in New York have a question on spiritual practice, they won’t go to a neighboring mosque for the answer, but call or e-mail home to Senegal. African forms of Islam, as well as African forms of Christianity, are contested outside of Africa, Kane said.  

Americans understand little about their Muslim neighbors; they don’t separate the Middle East and Islam, Roy said, noting, “There are new trends that have nothing to do with the Middle East. To understand Islam, one needs to look outside the Middle East.”  

Hatem Bazian, lecturer in Near Eastern and ethnic studies at UC Berkeley and adjunct professor of religion at St. Mary’s College, Moraga agreed: “There’s an overemphasis on the Middle East because of U.S. geopolitical interests; we are addicted to oil.”  

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that African American Muslim converts make up the largest percentage of Muslims in the United States, 35 to 40 percent, Bazian said. Indo-Pakistanis make up the second-largest group, with Muslim of Middle East origin as the third largest.  

Islam is growing in the Bay Area. In 1985, there were three mosques in the area and now there are 50. “They’re not sleeping cells for Al Qaeda. They’ve sprung up for Silicon Valley engineers,” Bazian said.  

While many Silicon Valley Muslims are living the American dream with million-dollar homes, others, particularly Iraqis and Yemenis, may have achieved a lower level of economic success, Bazian said, underscoring the need to understand the diverse nature of American Muslims.  

Globalism also means that the influences of the outside world flood into the nations where Islam dominates. In Amman, Jordan, for example, Mark LaVine, history professor at UC Irvine, found ads for cable TV’s “Sex in the City” in the Mecca Mall. And in Iraq, Syria and Morocco, LaVine found a number of “religiously inspired” Islamic heavy metal bands.  

LaVine told another story about globalization: sitting in an Egyptian hotel room, he was watching an Islamic preacher on TV talk about why adultery is bad; there were stock quotes running at the bottom of the screen. Tongue in cheek, LaVine summed up the process of Islamic globalization: “People go back and forth to Europe and their home countries, not just to bomb buildings, but to bring back heavy metal music.”  

When it came to discussing Islam and democracy, participants agreed that democracy has little to do with the religion of Islam. Democracy is more closely related to the culture of a particular nation.  

Should western-style democracy be transplanted to the Islamic Middle East? “The idea is not to impose democracy,” Roy said. Rather, nations such as the United States can promote democracy by withdrawing support for authoritarian regimes, he said.  

Forcing people to hold elections can bring the opposite of a desired outcome. “Mr. Bush is the best recruiter (for extremist movements) and Bin Laden is his sergeant,” said Nadia Yassine, spokesperson for the al-Adi wal-Ihsan (Justice and Charity) Islamist Movement in Morocco. Yassine said the best way to bring democracy is for developed nations to assist in providing education and eradicating poverty. The United States’ way is adopting “democracy Nescafe—quickly made. We have to have real democracy,” she said.  

Defining democracy in terms of elections is oversimplifying the concept. Elections as imposed in Iraq, where a large segment of the population refused to participate, is not democracy, said Saba Mahmood, professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Anthropology. On the other hand developing women’s mosques in Egypt, grounded in traditional Islam, empower women and therefore should be seen as institutions that promote democracy.  

Islam should not be viewed as a political problem, something to watch and to fix. “The main problem is that America follows its geo-political interests,” said Gunter Mulack, ambassador at the German Foreign Office in Berlin and the Minister’s Commissioner for Germany’s Dialogue with the Islamic World. “America is responsible for the negative outfall of its policies. You cannot impose democracy. You cannot export American democracy to the Middle east.”  

Conference sponsors included the Institute of Governmental Studies, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, French Department, Graduate Theological Union, Institute of European Studies, International and Area Studies, The Townsend Center for the Humanities, French Studies Program and Insitut d’Etudes de Sécurité de l’Union Européene.

Two Laney College development contracts go in opposite directions on this week’s Peralta Community College District Trustee agenda, with the expected appearance of developer Alan Dones’s proposal failing to materialize, and the New Art Building “piggyback” modular contract returning after a two-week delay. 

The regular Peralta Trustee meeting will be held today (Tuesday), 7 p.m., at the Peralta District headquarters on 333 East Eighth St. in Oakland. 

The Dones development proposal has been on hold since last December, one month after the outgoing Board of Trustees authorized Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris to enter into an exclusive, one-year contract with Dones’s Oakland-based Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA) to draw up commercial development plans for the Peralta Administration Building and certain Laney College properties. 

Harris backed off negotiating a contract with Dones after complaints from Laney College faculty, staff, students, and administrators, and after critical articles appeared in local newspapers. Three weeks ago, Harris appeared ready to move forward with the contract, reluctantly, telling participants at a chancellor’s meeting that he was going to present the contract proposal to trustees at this week’s board meeting, but without his recommendation. 

The Dones contract proposal failed to appear on this Tuesday’s agenda, however, without explanation. 

The Laney New Art Building contract resurfaced after local union leaders gave it their go-ahead. Trustees are being asked to ratify a contract already reached between Chancellor Harris and a San Joaquin County modular building contractor. 

The proposed $8.1 million art building is scheduled to be constructed on the East 10th Street site presently occupied by the Laney tennis courts, and will replace the existing art annex. Laney must vacate the existing art annex by December to make way for CalTrans work on the site. CalTrans will pay $7 million of the construction costs. 

Last month, Chancellor Harris reached an agreement with Meehleis Modular Builders of Lodi to construct the building out of modular parts prefabricated in the company’s San Joaquin County plant using a controversial piggyback clause of the California Public Contract Code. That piggyback clause—under which school districts can circumvent bidding on construction contracts by attaching themselves to a contract already reached between another school district and a modular builder—is currently being reviewed by the state attorney general’s office. 

But local labor leaders complained of the proposed Meehleis contract on other grounds—that the construction work on the New Art Building would be done at less-than-union rates. It was union complaints that reportedly caused Harris to withdraw the Meehleis contract from consideration at the trustees meeting two weeks ago. 

But Peralta Federation of Teachers President Michael Mills said last week that “that issue has been fully vetted” with representatives of the Alameda County Building Trades Council during a meeting with Peralta General Services Director Sadiq Ikharo, “and the building trades unions are happy. There will be union wages paid on-site.” 

In his memorandum to Harris for Tuesday’s meeting, Ikharo noted that Meehleis would “pay prevailing wage in the market in which this public work is to be performed” and would “affiliate with unions. Nearly all the subcontractors are either union members or affiliated with unions.” That language was not included in the general services director’s backup material when the issue originally came before the board April 12. 

Representatives of the Alameda County Building Trades Council were not available for comment. 

In other agenda items scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting, trustees will review the district’s Athletic Facilities Use Fee Schedule and Philosophy for Use of Facilities Statement. The issue of fees for outside use of Peralta Colleges athletic facilities surfaced at the April 12 meeting, held at the College of Alameda, when representatives of the Alameda High School track team complained that what they called “excessive fees” were preventing their team members from practicing on the College of Alameda track.ª

The University Students Cooperative Association board voted last week to shut down Berkeley’s most infamous student co-op, Le Chateau, this summer and eventually transform it into a “graduate-themed” co-op. 

The move comes less than two months after a small claims court judge declared the housing complex a nuisance and awarded neighbors of the housing complex $63,500 in damages. The USCA has appealed the ruling. 

USCA Community Relations and Development Director Kathryn McCarthy said the board hoped that a newly-themed Chateau would improve relations with neighbors and reduce vacancies in the three building complex at Hillegas and Parker. 

“We are pleased with this,” said George Lewinsky, the lead plaintiff of the nuisance suit brought against the Chateau by 22 neighbors. “Reforming the culture of Le Chateau has always been a neighborhood objective and this has the potential towards doing that.” 

Le Chateau Manager Ian Latta called the board’s decision “shameful.”  

“It ignores all our efforts to improve the situation,” he said. Latta added that residents, sensing the board was not satisfied with the current state of affairs at Le Chateau, had offered to remake the co-op with a focus towards community service. 

The USCA board is scheduled to meet again this Thursday to iron out details for the remaking of Le Chateau, McCarthy said. She predicted that the UCSA board would keep the complex closed at least until spring semester while renovations are completed. McCarthy estimated that renovation work to make Le Chateau attractive to graduate students could cost as much as $600,000. 

She added the board would consider converting all of the bedrooms to singles, which the UCSA hoped would reduce vacancies and lower capacity. 

This year, according to Latta, about one-third of the Le Chateau’s 75 beds have been empty. Had the co-op remained open for current residents this fall, McCarthy said only 14 residents had planned to return and another 14 incoming students had expressed interest in moving in. 

Latta said student co-ops have experienced higher vacancies recently because of new dormitories and declining rents for private housing. 

“The UCSA isn’t the cheapest option for students anymore,” Latta said. 

Co-op residents pay $730 for room and board, although McCarthy said that the UCSA would likely institute a different fee structure for Le Chateau once it becomes available to graduate students.  

Current Chateau residents will be relocated to other houses in the student co-op system, McCarthy said.ª

In the latest blast against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2005-06 budget proposals, Berkeley parents and students will be joining a statewide caravan to the state capitol in Sacramento Thursday to protest state education cuts. Buses will be leaving from Berkeley at 9:30 a.m. from the West Campus pool at the corner of Browning and Addison streets. 

The local contingent for the “Caravan For Kids” is being organized by the Berkeley PTA Council in coordination with the Berkeley Unified School District, which has been distributing local leaflets for the event. 

“We’ve been patient in the past, but this budget [proposal] is the last straw,” said California State PTA President Carla Niño in a prepared statement. “It breaks a promise that parents and their kids were counting on. We will not sit back and watch the continued underfunding of our schools and the assault on Proposition 98.” 

Proposition 98 was the 1996 voter-passed California Constitutional amendment that was supposed to guarantee minimum levels of funding for California public schools. Last year, Schwarzenegger withheld $2 billion in Prop 98-mandated school funding with the promise that he would restore it in this year’s budget. Instead, the governor has moved to make much of the education budget cuts permanent. 

Local caravan coordinator Cynthia Papermaster—a former Berkeley PTA Council President—said that a rally will be held on the steps of the state capitol at noon, and that “we are setting up appointments with State Senator Don Perata and State Assemblymember Loni Hancock” to be held afterwards. 

Papermaster said that two buses have been chartered to attend the rally from Berkeley, and that reservations for seating can be arranged by calling her at (415) 393-8248 or or by writing to Cynthia_papermaster@yahoo.com. 

She also said that middle and high school students, with the exception of seniors, will not be attending the Sacramento rally due to the STAR tests scheduled for the same day.  

The statewide event is being jointly coordinated by the California State PTA and the Community for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS), a Santa Monica-based organization working to improve public schools. 

The Library Board of Trustees will meet Wednesday to approve a budget that looks to be far less controversial than it appeared two weeks ago. 

A greater-than-anticipated increase in the Bay Area personal income growth index, which is used to set the percentage increase for the library tax, and the implementation of mandatory time off will each add about $300,000 to the library’s bottom line next year, said Executive Director Jackie Griffin. 

Griffin’s plan to lay off employees and reorganize staffing to close a $850,00 budget shortfall over the next two years was criticized by library staffers, and she has since ruled out layoffs. The library employee union’s refusal to reopen its contract, which doesn’t expire until 2008, has stymied a part of her reorganization plan. She had proposed upgrading the classification of library aides to library assistants with the aim of creating a more flexible workforce. The union still opposes other facets of Griffin’s plan, including centralizing children’s librarians at the main branch.  

Mandatory time off means that the library, which last year reduced hours and closed its doors on Sundays, will be closed an additional day every month. Griffin had originally opposed the idea, which City Manager Phil Kamlarz has proposed for other city workers, but she said that to avoid complications, Kamlarz wanted mandatory time off to apply to library staff as well. 

The mandatory time off is officially a one-day layoff, Griffin explained. If the library were to remain open on a day when other city offices were closed, another city employee with a similar classification in a different department could insist on working in place of a library employee with less seniority, she said. 

The owner of an illegal West Berkeley live-work complex has broken off negotiations to sell the building to a public trust and is moving ahead with evicting tenants, according to his attorney Bill Berland. 

Lawrence White, owner of the Drayage Warehouse, will serve his remaining tenants with eviction papers possibly by the end of the week, Berland said. 

After negotiations with the Northern California Land Trust broke down last week, White hired Berland to replace attorney Don Jelinek, who refuses to litigate evictions. 

“White doesn’t want to evict, but he’s got two guns to his head,” Berland said. “The city is ordering him to evict and the tenants are saying we won’t leave.” 

Berland confirmed that White is now asking $2.7 million for the property. The land trust, according to tenants, had offered in the neighborhood of $2.05 million, the same price for which White two months ago had agreed to sell the property to Developer Ali Kashani.  

“It’s really unfortunate that somehow the price has gone up $700,000 in a matter of weeks,” said resident Marisa Danielsen. “If he was going to sell it to Kashani for $2.05 million why won’t he sell it to us?” 

Under a deal with the land trust, current tenants would have been given the option to purchase their units after they were brought up to code. 

Danielsen said she and many of the 16 other remaining tenants intend to fight eviction proceedings in hopes of pressuring White to reenter negotiations with the land trust.  

Berland said White was seeking fair market value for the property and that Kashani “would have been getting the property for a bargain basement price.” 

Kashani has said he pulled out of the deal after learning that the warehouse had residential tenants. His request for an address verification while he was in negotiations prompted city building officials to focus their attention on the property. 

Last month Berkeley Fire Marshall David Orth declared the warehouse a fire hazard and ordered the building evacuated by April 15. Since the deadline expired, the city has fined White $2,500 a day for failing to comply with the evacuation order. Orth has also ordered White to post two security guards at the site at White’s expense. 

The tenants and White have filed separate appeals to the fire department’s evacuation order. 

Berland said he was researching city law to determine if the circumstances of the case would allow White to serve tenants a three-day eviction notice. Such notices are typically issued for cases in which tenants have violated their lease. Otherwise, he said, White would have to serve 60-day notices for tenants who have resided at the warehouse for more than a year and 30-notices for newer tenants. 

So far about 14 tenants have moved out said Claudia Viera, a tenant. She added that White had offered tenants $7,000 to vacate their homes. 

If residents fight the eviction notices, Berland expected litigation to last at least a few months. Should White prevail, Michael Caplan of the city manager’s office said, Berkeley police would not evacuate the building. 

“Ultimately it’s the owner’s responsibility,” he said. “If it came down to it they’d have to bring in county sheriff’s deputies.”

The UC Berkeley fraternity accused in a BB-gun hazing incident has been temporarily suspended by the university pending further investigation. 

Members of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity have been implicated in the alleged April 8 BB-gun assault on a 19-ye ar-old fraternity pledge at the intersection of Channing Way and Prospect Street. The pledge was reportedly shot at least 30 times, and required attention at a local emergency room. UC officials are investigating whether the alleged assault took place dur ing a hazing of the fraternity pledge. Hazing is prohibited at UC Berkeley. 

UC officials say that the interim suspension bars members from the fraternity from engaging in any fraternity activities. The chapter house remains open, but can only be used for residential purposes. 

A hearing on any permanent sanctions against the fraternity will be held by the campus Student Judicial Affairs office, but no date for that hearing has yet been set. 

Janet Gilmore in the UC Berkeley Media Relations office said sh e had no estimate on how long the interim suspension would be in effect. “It could be weeks or months, depending on what happens with the investigation,” she said. 

In addition to sanctions against the fraternity itself, individual fraternity members accused in the alleged hazing assault also face possible individual disciplinary charges by the Student Judicial Affairs office, as well as possible criminal charges currently being investigated by Berkeley police.  

Planning commissioners will tackle the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Wednesday night, while the Zoning Adjustments Board will handle a controversial pop-up and by-right additions after they get their first look at a major new proposal for University Avenue. 

The planning commission is considering additions to the landmarks ordinance and accompanying city zoning codes in a meeting that begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

If past meetings of the commission and its landmarks ordinance revisions subcommittee offer any clues, Wednesday’s meeting could grow heated. 

ZAB’s meeting Thursday kicks off at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than normal, to accommodate a preview of plans for a pair of five-story buildings with 186 units along Martin Luther King Jr. Way between University Avenue and Berkeley Way. 

The structure would be built at the site of an existing strip mall which houses Kragen Auto Parts and a Pet Food Express store. That structure would be demolished to make way for former Panoramic Interests developers Christopher Hudson and Evan McDonald to build a structure that has been drawing fire from neighbors. 

The city staff has granted HudsonMcDonald LLC the right to build 48 “bonus units” on top of the baseline total of what they define as a baseline of 135, creating a structure neighbors say has too little parking and too much shadow for their tastes. 

ZAB will also consider the thorny issue of by-right additions—the up to 500 square feet of additional space a homeowner can add to a previously unexpanded dwelling without required a city administrative use permit—and their impacts when they address a proposed addition to a home at 1737 Grant St. 

Neighbors appealed a proposed addition, and board must decide if and how it wants to handle the cumulative impacts of the addition combined with a previous by-right addition. 

Also on the ZAB agenda is the controversial “Flying Cottage” at 3045 Shattuck Ave., to which the owner says she added another story-plus after her then-contractor told her she could do it by right. 

Neighbors protested the structural inflation to city officials, who ordered a halt. Revised plans failed to clear the city’s Design Review Committee, and it’s up to ZAB to decide Thursday if the house remains a nuisance. 

Click here to view the latest work by Planet cartoonist Justin DeFreitasw

CIVIC CENTER FOUNTAIN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The current conflict between restoration of the fountain in Civic Center Park and the community of swimmers in Berkeley is a manufactured conflict. The restoration of the long neglected fountain was intended to be done with bond money approved by voters in Berkeley in 1997. Measure S was written to obtain money for expansion of the Central Library, earthquake retrofit of the Civic Center Building at 2180 Milvia, and improvements for the downtown. A portion of the money for the downtown was to be used for revitalization of Civic Center Park. After their bond issue passed a group of interested citizens from all over Berkeley joined with a subcommittee of the Parks and Recreation Commission to discuss how the bond money would best be spent. There were workshops, committee meetings, consultants, much time spent planning for the improvements to the park. The most time consuming and expensive item was always the fountain, but it was also the job which had to be done first. We set priorities on which jobs were to be funded immediately and which jobs should wait for later funding, either from grants or the general fund. The fountain was not to be funded from the general fund but from the bond money. 

Of course the City of Berkeley should not be closing its swimming pools. People need them for their health. Employees of the City of Berkeley also should not change the money source for major infrastructure jobs when a long delayed project finally is ready to be completed. The fountain and the children’s play area are the most important jobs to be done in Civic Center Park and should be done immediately with the bond money. Many people enjoy festivals in the park. It serves as open space for the people who live in or near downtown. We as a city should respect our infrastructure by keeping all of it in good condition. Nearby residents would be more than happy to help with the construction and maintenance of the fountain and the play area. 

Carrie Sprague 

• 

WEST BERKELEY BOWL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Why is it that we who live in the neighborhood of the proposed West Berkeley Bowl are expected to allow people such as John Curl, Mary Lou Van De Venter and Zelda Bronstein to decide what is best for us? All of these people are interested in serving commercial interests (imaginary ones at that). 

The land on which the proposed Bowl would sit had sat vacant for decades, as an eyesore. As for traffic problems, so what if a number of people from other areas want to bring money into this area? As for parking and congestion, why doesn’t the city buy up the railroad property adjoining the site in question? I hear they are planning to construct a four-block bicycle route to nowhere on that land. I am an avid biker, and I cannot think of any reason for such a stupid idea. 

There are many senior citizens who live in this neighborhood, who are extremely inconvenienced by the lack of a market in this area—that is, one where one can obtain healthy nourishing food at an affordable price. We all need for this market to happen. 

I hope that this won’t just turn into one more example of the City of Berkeley shooting themselves in the foot. 

Christina Ramer 

• 

FLOWER CIRCLES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m wondering why, in this time of severe budget cuts, the City of Berkeley is constructing all of these flower circles at neighborhood intersections in West Berkeley? I’ve counted around eight at intersections from Shattuck down to San Pablo, and from Ashby over to Delaware. 

I understand the flower circles help to control traffic flow. I also see more motorists, than not, completely ignore the directions for going around the flower circles and make the sharp left turn. At the same time these flower circles are slowing down traffic, they are also slowing response time to crime scenes and firemen to respond to emergencies, so why does the city feel it is necessary to put up these expensive, decorative impediments to their jobs? 

The City of Berkeley is cutting services to its citizens citing budget constraints, yet they find the money to tear up perfectly fine intersections, build the flower circles. I don’t have the figures on what it takes to build, plant and maintain (year after year) these flower circles, but instead of flower circles I would like the City of Berkeley to fix the pothole on Parker just above Sacramento. That fucker is four inches deep and popped my bike tire last month. 

Brenda Benson 

• 

OAKLAND DEVELOPMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I find it telling that planners at the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce (“Closed Meeting Held on West Lake Merritt Plans”, April 19-21) have not yet learned how to tell direction. I suspect they spend too much time in the “metropolitan” and not enough time in Oakland. 

The conference discussed developments planned south of Lake Merritt. 

It concerns me, too, that the chamber may not be fully informed as to the public trust status of the greatest portion of that land, and brought private developers into the discussion who are looking opportunities for speculation. 

Perhaps someone at the chamber should do some land-title research while they pull out a map, before hosting conferences to lure developers to Oakland. 

Steven Lavoie 

Oakland 

• 

POLICE ACTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your latest editorial reports a police action in which police initially demanded momentary conformance and submission from a citizen in order to resolve a situation created by a 911 call. Once resolved, the police “profusely” apologized when it became clear that the call was a false alarm. 

Some details are that a person went to the wrong door, knocked, and tried to enter. The occupant, frightened and confused, called 911. 

The editorial asks “why are you not surprised to learn that she’s [the would-be entrant] a dark-skinned person?” 

The answer, for me, is that if you randomly select a person who makes such an innocent mistake in Berkeley, the odds, while probably less than 50 percent, are not small that that person will have dark skin. There are many dark-skinned people who live here. Pick a random person and you shouldn’t be surprised if they happen to have dark skin: You’ve made an only very slightly lucky selection. 

In other words, I am not surprised, but not for the reasons the editorial proposes. I am also not alarmed and I think it is quite a stretch to claim that this is racism. 

The editorial asks me to believe that the response would have been different for a white-skinned person. I don’t believe that at all, based on experience. 

The editorial ridicules the idea that a woman with a baby carriage in broad daylight could possibly be a serious threat. The bombed bus from Israel that recently visited Berkeley is refutation enough. 

Please don’t add fuel to a fire, Daily Planet. 

The real issues here are: 

(a) Was the police response rapid and ample enough? 

(b) How can we can educate people that such momentary interruptions of their routine are not much of a problem if they take the police seriously rather than trying to resist helping them or insist on picking pointless fights with them? 

We live in interesting times. 

Tom Lord 

• 

PEDAL EXPRESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In an attempt to address massive funding shortfalls, the City of Berkeley is drastically cutting some departmental budgets. One contract on the chopping block is with our company, Pedal Express, which has been delivering interoffice mail to outlying city buildings by bicycle for over 10 years. We are still delivering Commission packets for the time being. 

We originally won this city contract as part of the city’s Resource Conservation and Global Warming Abatement Plan, which calls for a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2010. In these 10 years, we have proven to not only decrease pollution and traffic with bicycle delivery, but also provide timely, efficient service at significant savings to the city.  

As a small worker-owned cooperative, we pay ourselves a living wage, while saving the city money through the use of efficient vehicles and a non-hierarchical management structure. The current city plan calls for city employees driving city vehicles to take over these tasks. This increases fuel, insurance, repair and parking costs, as well as adding to downtown congestion and pollution, while increasing the strain on already-overworked employees. 

We will hopefully be on the agenda at the May 10 City Council meeting to address this change. Please support us. 

Kristin Hale 

Keeeth Kohler 

Barbara Murphy 

Cynthia Powell 

Robert Webb 

Pedal Express Cooperative 

• 

FOOTHILL HOUSING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

He said it, not I.  

David Snippen, Chair of the Civic Arts Commission, at the City Council’s regular meeting on April 12 characterized the service entrance to UC Berkeley’s Foothill Housing dining commons as the “armpit” of Hearst Avenue’s 2700 block. 

Mr. Snippen’s eyesore abuts one of four 15-year-old concrete pylons—two on each side of Hearst—residuals of the long-running Foothill bridge proposal, reintroduced in 2003, the fourth time since 1988.   

The applicant is none other than the UC Regents.  

At issue is whether the Berkeley City Council should grant or deny a “major encroachment permit” for a mid-block pedestrian bridge linking the northern (La Loma) section of the Foothill Student Housing Complex with the southern (Hillside) section. 

The council is currently scheduled to render a decision on this matter at their regular meeting on April 26.  

Unfortunately for the university, a careful reading of BMC 16.18.080 suggests that our city mothers and fathers—should they choose to uphold city law—will be severely challenged to make the “findings” required to grant the permit. 

Hence, the university is offering “mitigation” capital to sweeten the deal.   

“The presence of the bridge will provide a certain level of detriment to the neighborhood,” acknowledge our city manager and public works director.  However, they assert, this detriment would be “sufficiently offset” by public infrastructure improvements in the “Hearst Corridor” contributed by the applicant “in the amount of $200,000.” 

Before you condemn city staff for recommending a swap of undervalued public air space for some vague infrastructure mitigations, why not look at the positive side?   

Creation of a pedestrian bridge over Hearst Avenue could help obscure a street armpit and: 

• Create a highly visible structure which the applicant could enhance with “THIS IS BEAR TERRITORY” banners.  

• Enable La Loma residents with midnight munchies to browse after-hours food-service offerings across the street while clad in pajamas.  

• Reduce orientation time for short-term La Loma residents who attend one or more of UC Berkeley’s many “summer camps” (eg, football, rugby, academic enhancement, and cheerleading).  

• Simplify the job descriptions of Foothill service personnel responsible for maintaining habitability, dispensers, and vending machines on the La Loma side.  

• Guarantee that another $600,000 to $1,500,000 of business for UC contractors (and overhead for UC administrators) could be siphoned out of student fees.  

• Provide an excellent platform for viewing the thousands of trucks laden with toxic soil and radioactive debris that are expected to descend from the LBNL’s Bevatron demolition site (circa 2006-2012).  

• Test, following the next big jolt on the Hayward Fault, whether the University’s design and engineering consultants have done their homework correctly.  

Jim Sharp 

• 

OAKLAND POLICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am neither a friend nor an enemy of the police. They have a job to do, and when it is well done, everybody benefits. When it is badly done, everybody loses. The recent story about the alleged refusal to help a shooting victim is a case in point. 

The police arrived at a scene of illegal activity (armed robbery at the least) with gunshots fired. There were abandoned cars and people fleeing, which would indicate a need for both action and caution (“Friends Say Oakland Police Denied Aid to Shooting Victim,” April 22-25).  

The friends may have had the best intentions in the world, but the police had no way of knowing that. They could have been friends of the victim, but incompetent (i.e., their cell phone ran out of battery or time), or friends of the shooter(s) looking to silence a victim. They might or might not have known how to give first aid. They might or might not have been attempting to lure police away from the well-lit activity scene onto darkened streets with hostile purpose. The police went with the by-the-book scenario to control the area (i.e., get witness statements, clear the scene of bystanders/unidentifiable participants, and impound anything that looked like evidence.)  

The young man had fled and was several blocks away, in hiding. He was no longer a part of the scene and was apparently in no immediate danger. If he had come forward to ask for help or to give a witness statement, that would require action. But police, as I understand it, are not supposed to do hot pursuit in this sort of situation because the possible complications are much worse than misplacing one witness or one participant.  

I agree the officers could have been more helpful. That is why a chaplain often rides with the police, because the chaplain can assist friends/ traumatized bystanders, etc., in a safe zone set up near but outside of the police action. Since chaplains are volunteers and most do not get paid, there is always a need for more to assist in these kinds of situations.  

I sincerely hope and pray that the young man recovers well. He undoubtedly got the best of trauma care at both Children’s and Highland. I also hope that the police do not get so much hostility behind this crime (which they had no part in) that people forget that the young man was not shot by police; b. was not harmed in any way by the police; and was in good enough condition that his friends moved him themselves rather than calling an ambulance to get him the fastest possible care.  

The Rev. Teddy Knight 

• 

ON THE ENVIRONMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Since another Earth Day has recently passed, now is the perfect time to evaluate the effects our everyday choices have on the environment. When most people think of protecting the Earth, they may consider driving less, recycling, or conserving water. These are all positive, but there is another simple, powerful action that makes a huge difference for the environment: eating less meat. 

About 450,000 factory farms produce most American meat, using an enormous amount of resources and contributing to virtually every environmental problem we face. Factory farms are responsible for about half of our total water use, and animal waste causes water pollution that devastates ecosystems and poisons groundwater. Waste and chemicals from factory farms also cause air pollution and human health problems. Cows and manure pits even produce greenhouse gases, contributing to the climate crisis. 

Changing our diet is critical to the health of the planet. Happily, vegetarian options have never been more delicious or plentiful, and choosing a plant-based meal is an easy way to protect the earth. Readers can learn more about meat production’s environmental effects at www.small-planet.org and can find local veg-friendly restaurants, recipes, and other resources at www.VegSF.com.  

Erin Williams  

President, Small Planet  

• 

TRAFFIC CAMERAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yes, people who run red lights should be punished. Yes, there is a safety concern. Yes, a slap in the pocketbook is an appropriate punishment. Yes, police and fire personnel are over-paid with generous salaries and pensions, but they are generally informed and courteous. No, for a fine of $321, citizens should get more than a robotized traffic cop with an anonymous officer reviewing the photos. Ironically, a Berkeley police office (with real, live police officers) is right at the intersection of the Adeline Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way where one of the three cameras is installed. 

Robert Gable 

• 

ACHIEVEMENT GAP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Michael Larrick’s April 19 commentary: I fail to see any cohesive evidence he has that the “achievement gap” is a problem of blacks being “perennial victims.” He starts the article with “blacks and their leaders”??? I am an African-American male and the only leaders I have are my father and mother; the thought of having a “leader” speak for their whole community is nonsense. Is President Bush the leader of “whites”? I attended Berkeley schools in late ‘60s and have three young boys growing up here in Berkeley; believe me, the problem is socio-economic. Many children, as high as 60 percent to 70 percent, are attending the Berkeley schools from “other districts” so we are not getting children who are initially “educated in Berkeley.” Come on, how silly is it for Larrick to try and connect “rap music” with low achievement! Rap music is “theatrical” just as heavy metal sends messages of death and the devil. I see Larrick has quite a narrow view of the world...and lemme guess: Got any black friends? I doubt it. 

Carlton Jones 

• 

STEREOTYPING BLACKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Michael Larrick’s and Peter Schorer’s comments indicate that they have only one very clear stereotype of African Americans: unsuccessful. Perhaps because that is the picture the popular media is most comfortable showing us again and again, they fail to take into account the many African Americans, like myself, who are college educated, home owners, responsible parents, taxpayers, and deeply proud of their heritage. 

We know that we did not get where we are today on our own. We are here and we thrive because of the incredible strength and power of our ancestors who endured, resisted, and survived millions of atrocities committed against them during over 300 years of American chattel slavery. We are here and we thrive because of the strength of character which allowed our grandparents and parents to keep going everyday—in spite of daily racist and dehumanizing treatment at their schools and workplaces. We are here and we thrive and we do not want to forget, or allow others to forget, whose shoulders we stand upon. 

I enjoy civil rights, not because of Thomas Jefferson, but because of my forbears’’ courageous demands to share in the benefits of this wealthy nation which was in large part built by their forced and underpaid labor. In suggesting a name change for Jefferson School we ask the community to learn about the true history of our ancestors, rather than continue to minimize and marginalize it. We seek, not a magic pill to right all wrongs and cure all injustices, but acknowledgment and respect for the lives and experiences of our families. 

Marguerite Talley-Hughes  

• 

PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While I am happy to learn that the Berkeley Public Library has canceled its plan to lay off employees, I am concerned by the way the restructuring process has occurred throughout this year. Although there have been proposals from the Union as well as library staff addressing financial and staffing issues, as well as significant public comment, Library Director Jackie Griffin seems unwilling to take into account any of these sources’ opinions in shaping her own proposals. 

For example, the proposal to move all the teen librarians from the branches to Central has remained on the table, despite the nonsensical nature of the proposal and public outcry at the idea of losing beloved members of branch library communities. Griffin claims that the branch teen programs are ineffective and lack diversity, and wants the librarians to try for more inclusion. As a former member of the Playreaders at the North Berkeley Branch, I object to the idea that the Teen Program is unsuccessful—Playreaders is probably, by almost anyone’s count, one of the most successful library programs at any branch. Bringing it to Central would not increase its diversity, as it already has all ethnicities, income brackets, and sexual orientations represented among the 48 people on its mailing list.  

I am sure that all the teen librarians are open to suggestions and innovations as to how to create programs that will bring more youth of all backgrounds to the libraries. But centralizing the teen program as a way of fostering this goal makes very little sense. Teenagers do not like to go out of their way to find someone; indeed, having trusted adults readily available to teens in their neighborhoods is one of the most important ways to keep them safe. Teen librarians in all the branches value their time at the desk when they can see and greet teens who come in, and invite them to participate in local programs. The proposed changes in the teen program would drastically reduce this face time, and probably would cut some teens out altogether.  

It may be that the teen program needs some restructuring, but it should keep the teen librarians at their branches, and should actively involve them in coming in up with new strategies and programs that will attract a larger portion of the teen community. Jackie Griffin needs to put more trust in her staff and less trust in her ego. 

Joanna Taylor 

• 

PRIVATE SOCIETY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Our president is using the political capital he thinks he won last Nov. 2 to inject a large dose of privatization into a healthy Social Security system, a debilitating inoculation for a mild ache decades in advance of its happening.  

Look for his “Campaign for Change” to follow a pattern of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”: having declared what he wants, the president then puts his men and women to work finding reasons for doing it, reasons on which all can agree. For “regime change” read “ownership society” and substitute “crisis” for “WMD.”  

Such arrogant and simplistic strategies are impervious to rational opposition because they are impervious to truth as was painfully demonstrated by the inability of more people than voted for him to stop or even delay his war whistle. The fact that Social Security has made retirement a bit more comfortable for millions and millions, among them, my dad who was one of the first to receive benefits, will not deter the president.  

The Bush network knows how to turn catastrophe into success and make a fantasy look like the real thing. It’s too early to tell whether privatize means abolish, but if privatization follows the prototype in which “liberate” is the same as “occupy” and “Iraqi freedom” equals “freedom to support the U.S.,” then there is reason to worry. Young workers will be enticed with happy visions of hands-on control of their own, hard earned money, reaping huge profits, changing bread into cake, as it were. Older people will be blasted with arousing songs, seductive chants that assuage fear—pay less now or pay more later.  

Numbers may be overlooked but they cannot be erased. Almost 50 million people currently receive monthly Social Security payments contributed by 150 million workers totaling $492 billion annually. Subtract my share and the fund shrinks to $491,999,999,074, a number that is difficult to read much less understand. 

In Middle East policy the Bush team’s success was based on the fear of WMD; this time their fear mongering rests on large numbers. They recently used a calculation “at infinity” to predict a “$10 trillion shortfall,” “pulling a number out of the air” (New York Times editorial, Jan. 3).  

Large numbers are both fascinating and frightening. Expect “bad math [and] faulty logic…” to fig leaf the lies (Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research). 

The trust fund’s future inadequacy is a fraud because is not static, it is not subject to wear like an auto tire that you need to start saving now to replace some years down the line. It changes, and although it is inversely affected by decreases in mortality rates it only needs patching such as was done 20 years ago when “baby boomers” threatened its sustainability. 

George W. was not alive in 1935 when Social Security became law and not one of his supporters will be alive to benefit from or, indeed, answer for the consequences if it’s privatized. People not yet born will.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

SUPREME COURT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The size of the Supreme Court is not fixed by the Constitution. Called for by the Constitution but established and limited by congressional legislation, the original court had only six members: five associate judges and the chief justice. Congressional law raised the possible court complement to 10 in 1863, but in 1866, at odds with an unpopular post-Civil War president, Congress voted for the court to shrink to seven, as vacancies occurred. Consequently, the court shrank to eight, until in 1869, when Andrew Johnson left office, Congress restored the complement to nine, where it remains. 

The history of that turbulent long-past decade of the 1860s, should be remembered in our present circumstance. Before the horse runs away, we should close the barn door, permanently. Faced with possibly impending loss of Rehnquist and several other justices, together with the frightening realization that on Sept. 11, 2001, all nine of the justices could have been killed at once by a hijacked airplane, wouldn’t it be well for Congress to prevent appointment, ever, by one man, of an overwhelming number, or, at worst, the totality of members of the Supreme Court to serve for life in either our near or distant future? 

Is it not advisable for Congress to limit every president during this tenure to seating on the court only two, even when only one judge comprises the court, or to three when a catastrophic event had eliminated the entire court (not an impossibility at any time), in either case the court to grow to its maximum in subsequent administrations. Could such limitation really be worse than if, as at present, following a sudden extinction of the court or undue multiple vacancies one man can at once seat nine judges or an overwhelming majority? 

A reasonable limitation of any president’s replacements on the Supreme Court should be a bipartisan goal. With court members constitutionally seated for life, bar only resignation or impeachment, restricting replacement to two (or three after a wipeout) by any one president (constitutionally restricted to two terms) should guard against to abrupt fortuitous retrenchments of popularly-discarded or even abhorrent views. The delay to more than one administration, of the replacement of close-spaced multiple vacancies should favor a healthy diversity of age, sex, race, ethnicity, social and economic status on the court. 

Judith Segard Hunt 

• 

BOLTON HEARING: 

A BETTER CHOICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Instead of going to the Berkeley City Council Meeting Tuesday night, or even watching it on cable TV, I watched instead the hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on C-SPAN. My foregone disappointment with the undemocratic and unresponsive modus operandi of the Berkeley City Council was quickly assuaged by the splendid demonstration of democracy conducted by Senators Dodd, Biden, Kerry, and Obama. By their eloquent speeches, which must have stirred the very spirits of the founding fathers, they won over several key Republicans and even melted the glacier-like ice of Senator Lugar, the chairman of the committee, which was no small accomplishment. Of course, such efforts should not have even been necessary in such an obvious matter of democratic procedure, and it only goes to remind that we are still in the kindergarten stage of democracy and not in the institutions of higher learning, if we are under a democracy at all. 

Peter Mutnick 



I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard fellow Berkeleyans holding forth on the difficulty of parking downtown. The complaint puzzles me, since I almost always find a space at the city’s Center Street garage.  

At last Thursday’s workshop on downtown parking, sponsored by the Transportation Commission, I discovered that my personal impression is backed up by numerous studies, including a March 2005 report that postdates the closure of the Hinks garage. Except for weekdays between noon and 3 p.m., there’s ample parking in downtown garages. On a typical weekend evening, said Transportation Commission Chair Rob Wrenn, “a thousand spaces go begging.” Even during crunch time, only some garages may reach 90 percent or a bit more capacity on some weekdays for a period ranging from a few minutes to two to three hours.  

So it was disconcerting to hear leaders of the Downtown Berkeley Association argue that the $3.5 million Vista parking mitigation funds should all go toward the $10 million that it would cost to add 411 spaces to the city’s Center Street garage when that facility is seismically retrofitted. What matters most, contended DBA Treasurer John DeClercq, is people’s perception that there’s not enough parking in the garages.  

Perception does matter. But instead of pandering to ignorance, why not educate the public? BDA, in league with the Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Office of Economic Development, ought to launch a “myth vs. reality” campaign that publicizes the actual availability of parking in downtown garages. “Parking educators” could spread the word through formal presentations at neighborhood association meetings around town. Ads in the local press and articles in the city’s newsletter would also be a good idea.  

Beyond education, we need better management. After the workshop, the Transportation Commission approved the first phase of a parking information guidance system that, when fully implemented, will use computer-driven signs to tell drivers how many spaces are available in specific downtown parking facilities at any one moment. Berkeley, of all places, ought to enjoy the benefit of such sophisticated technology, which has long been employed in many European cities and some American ones.  

Then there’s the inadequate enforcement of on-street parking. It turns out that the real shortage in downtown parking is not in the garages but on the street, and that it’s largely due to meter-feeding by employees of downtown businesses. This was the revelatory finding of the fall 2002 study conducted by Professor Betty Deakin, director of the UC Berkeley Transportation Center, and her students. At Thursday’s workshop Deakin, emphasizing the lost sales tax and meter revenue, called meter-feeding “a very serious problem that the city needs to start addressing.” 

One way to do so, she said, would be to provide transit passes to all downtown employees, while addressing the financial challenges that such an arrangement would present to smaller businesses. Rob Wrenn has suggested using some of the Vista parking mitigation monies to fund a pilot program along these lines. At Thursday’s meeting, North Berkeley resident Austene Hall told how in Providence, R.I., she had recently encountered a city employee with a gizmo that recorded both a specific vehicle’s license number and its length of stay in a parking space. We could use that machine in Berkeley. We could also use vandal-resistant parking meters that work. Let’s hope that the new ones on Shattuck Avenue are tougher than their predecessors. (And how about gearing old and new alike to a maximum 90 minutes instead of an hour?)  

My own dubious gripe about downtown parking has to do with the new rates in the Center Street garage. Since the first free hour was replaced with a charge of $1.50, rising at 61 minutes to $3, I’ve often parked in a nearby neighborhood. (Little-known fact: The first 15 minutes are still free.) At Thursday’s workshop, I felt a twinge of guilt when central Berkeley resident Carrie Sprague complained about people parking in her neighborhood to avoid paying to park downtown. City staff report that since the new rates were put in, use of the Center Street garage has declined. In fact, the rates are still below-market: On weekdays, the private garage on Allston charges $2.50 per hour or a fraction thereof.  

I know I should park in a garage or, better yet, take the bus downtown. I am negotiating these matters with my inner environmentalist.  

• • • 

Kudos to Councilmembers Anderson, Maio, Spring and Worthington for opposing Mayor Bates’ scheme to rezone Ashby Avenue and Gilman Street west of San Pablo Avenue for retail. At the council’s April 12 meeting, Maio asked that the motion then on the floor, to approve the Planning Department’s work priorities for fiscal year 2006, be amended to provide that in the event of such rezoning, the balance of industrial, commercial and residential uses mandated by the West Berkeley Plan would be maintained. The maker of the motion, Councilmember Capitelli, rejected Maio’s request. Spring then severed the rezoning issue from the main motion, forcing a vote on the rezoning alone.  

The mayor did his best to squelch the dissent. First he tried to cut off discussion by invoking the rarely used “20 minute rule,” only to be told that it didn’t apply because a motion was on the floor. Next he called for a vote on whether to sever the rezoning, only to be informed that severing is not subject to a vote.  

The rezoning was approved as a fiscal year 2006 priority. Councilmember Moore, disregarding the interests of his West Berkeley constituents, gave the Bates’ faction its fifth, tie-breaking vote.  

Zelda Bronstein, a former chair of the Berkeley Planning Commission, is still active in Berkeley politics. ª

“Jerry’s apartment is on fire,” shouted Willie as he sprinted out the door. Someone had called and told him that one of the buildings at the Sojourner Truth housing complex for seniors on Martin Luther King was ablaze. Before I could respond, Willie was gone. 

I checked on Ralph. Andrea was on the phone, trying to call Omar, who lives down the hall from Jerry and lets him use his telephone. There was no answer. 

“I’ll drive up there and see what’s going on,” I said. “There’s three Sojourner Truth buildings. Maybe the fire is in one of the other apartments.” 

Dover Street, which runs in front of my house, is usually quiet, but it was obvious by the number of cars on the street that traffic was being rerouted. I turned left on 60th and left on MLK. I was one block above Jerry’s building. I could tell that his complex was okay. It was the building just south of his that was burning. 

I’d hoped to find Jerry and Willie outside the apartment, but traffic was blocked and I had to take a circuitous route behind the burning complex. I drove home and waited for news. 

About an hour later Willie and Jerry arrived. Jerry was dressed like he’d just gotten out of bed and put on the first thing he found on the floor. He had on an old t-shirt I recognized as once belonging to me, baggy jeans, and untied sneakers. He appeared shaken up.  

“You’re okay,” I shouted, giving him a hug. 

“Yeah boy, but other people ain’t. It’s not a good situation up there.” 

He came into the kitchen, sat on a stool and kicked off his shoes. “Like to scare me to death,” he said. “You never know what those old folks up there might do. Mixin’ cigarettes with oxygen tanks is what I heard. Damned near killed me.” 

This was, of course, an exaggeration as Jerry lives a block away from the burned building, but I understood his point. He was close enough to see the flames and smell smoke; close enough to want to be as far away from there as possible. At the moment, that was our house. 

We were quiet for a moment as we considered the gravity of the situation on MLK. Then I noticed that Jerry wasn’t wearing socks. “What’s wrong with your feet?” I asked, looking down at his toes. His heels were dry and cracked, but it was his digits that were alarming. They were black, as if he’d dipped them in ink or painted the nails with ebony polish.  

“You know I got athlete’s foot,” he said. “Had it all my life. Comes from wearin’ funky basketball shoes for the last 70 years. These toenails are about to fall off.” 

“I don’t like the idea of you walking around my house with diseased feet,” I said. “I might catch it.” 

“You’re not gonna catch this fungus from me, so don’t trip,” he said. Then he got serious. The fire had given him pause. “Some men are all ate up by cancer and others by V.D., but me, I’m full of foot fungus. When I go, it ain’t gonna be no fire, car wreck or heart attack. It’s this goddamn athlete foot thing that’s gonna bring me down.” 

“Is there anything you can do about it?” I asked. 

He shook his head slowly, and looked at his feet. “They got some medicine that you can take that’ll cure it. Flush it right outta your system. But you know what the side effects are, don’t you?  

“What?” I asked.  

“It’ll kill you!” he shouted. “Ain’t that somethin’? I could die of foot fungus or I could die from the medicine that’s supposed to fix it.” 

He looked at me for a moment so that the information could sink in. 

“Sometimes, girl,” he said, “You just can’t win.”ª

There’s no police blotter today because the Berkeley Police Department didn’t post their police bulletins this week or return calls from the Daily Planet. 

Police were also unavailable last Thursday, which accounts for the absence of a blotter in Friday’s paper as well.ª

As a Berkeley homeowner for over 30 years and a life-long Berkeley Public Library user, I have been following the recent controversies surrounding the library and its director very closely. I’ve also been doing some thorough investigation in the matter. 

Never in all my years have I witnessed such a debacle of community trust as is happening to our most cherished institution, the Public Library. From what I can assess, all blame must be brought to the feet of the director, Jackie Griffin. Furthermore, it is beyond me, considering the overwhelming PR disaster which the library faces, why the library’s board of trustees has not asked for Ms. Griffin’s resignation. 

Here’s what we know of Ms. Griffin’s most egregious acts: 

• Failed to actively campaign and persuade the voters to accept a library tax that would restore staff and operating hours. 

• Managed to anger and alienate the majority of her employees. 

• Allowed staff’s morale to “sink to an all-time low,” as one beleaguered employee was quoted. 

• Has accepted some 20+ resignations or early retirements in the past three years. 

• When faced with a budget crisis, her immediate proposal was to lay off 14 of the lowest paid and least benefited positions and where most of the library’s youth and diversity are found. 

• At the same time, the director is retaining a $150,000-a-year salaried employee whose contract, (to oversee the move into the newly remodeled Central Building) expired a couple of years ago. 

• The director pushed through a $650,000 radio frequency identification (RFID) self-checkout technology with very little if any public awareness or input. 

• Dismissed and rejected employees’ budget saving suggestions as alternatives to layoffs. 

• Has created an atmosphere of fear among the employees who may wish to speak out, while she is free to propagandize and have the last word in television and newspaper reports. 

• Has contradicted herself several times with budget figures and presented conflicting accounts before the library’s board of trustees. 

• Despite workers efforts to reduce repetitive stress injuries to zero in 2004, Ms. Griffin continues to use workers comp and repetitive stress injury dollars to justify the purchase of RFID. 

• Has encouraged an aggressive book weeding with the dumping of some 20,000-plus volumes, while the shelves remain less than half full. 

• Has made it clear that she wants more “popular materials” (ala Barnes & Noble) and that academic and/or esoteric titles can be gotten at the university libraries. Ms. Griffin seems indifferent to the intellectual capacity of the community, and to how difficult it is to get access to UC Berkeley’s book collection. 

• Has allowed constant computer malfunctions since mid-February, and at one stretch tens of thousands of checkout transactions were lost. 

• Has insisted on pushing through her layoff and reorganization plan (with many changes in job descriptions) without going through the process of Meet and Confer with the local union. 

• She finally backed off the layoff plan when she magically found $300,000, and then announces it to the public as if she performed a benevolent miracle. 

• Has allowed the library users’ morale to sink to all all-time low as well. In talking to dozens of library users, it’s evident that there is a frustration with too much unreliable technology (particularly voiced among seniors) in what should be the simple steps to searching, reserving and renewing books. 

• Closed the Central Library on Sundays without polling the public as to which day would be the best to close, leaving many users angry, particularly families and the elderly. 

• Finally, Ms. Griffin ignores the public by not responding to letters and phone calls as has been expressed in this paper and at Library Board of Trustees meetings. 

I call upon every book-loving person in this town to attend the next Library Trustees meeting at the South Berkeley Senior Center Wed. April 27th at 6:45 p.m. (to put your name in for a chance to speak) and to demand the resignation of Jackie Griffin and call the Trustees to account for their complicity in the erosion of service and welfare of the library. It is OUR library. It should reflect OUR needs and values. And its director should conduct operations in a fair and transparent manner. 

Rosemary Vimont is a Berkeley resident. ª

On Thursday, April 28, at 6 p.m., the Zoning Adjustments Board will consider a proposal by Hudson McDonald LLC to demolish the one-story strip mall (Kragen, Pet Food Express) on the west side of Martin Luther King Jr. Way between Berkeley Way and University Avenue and replace it with a massive, boxy two-building complex containing 186 apartments and a few tiny retail spaces. (This project was originally proposed by Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests. Kennedy’s former affiliates Christopher J. Hudson and Evan McDonald took the project with them when they left to start their own firm: see “Reports Cite Chill Between Developer, UC Prof Backer,” August 6, 2004.) 

This proposal flouts many of the relevant policies and development standards in Berkeley’s zoning code and general plan. The zoning code allows up to three stories, the proposed design has five. The code requires 126 parking spaces, HMcD proposes to provide only 71 (56% of the requirement). The code requires 200 square feet of usable open space per unit, for a total of 37,200; by HMcD’s count, which includes arguably unusable areas, the project provides less than half that. The code requires a 15-foot setback along Berkeley Way, and a 20-foot setback from the property line of the adjacent residence; HMcD proposes to build to the sidewalk and within five feet of the fence. 

The most egregious excess is in the project’s density. Per the general plan, density for this “Avenue Commercial” area ranges from 20 to 40 units per acre, or around 1100 to 2200 square feet of lot area per unit. HMcD proposes 185 units per acre, which is just 235 square feet per unit. This is almost five times the density envisioned for the area in the general plan, 85% higher than the general plan’s vision for the densest parts of downtown, and close to the 200 square-foot maximum allowed in San Francisco’s densest neighborhoods, such as Chinatown. 

The primary rationale for setting aside these regulations and policies? The project includes 30 units of--by the state’s definition--affordable housing. By state law, that entitles HMcD to a 25% density bonus. Through creative interpretation of that law, foot-dragging on updating the zoning code with numerical density standards, and the tacit support of a majority of the City Council, Berkeley planning staff have repeatedly managed to turn that into an effective 65 to 100% height and mass bonus. 

Perhaps that’s a fair tradeoff. These affordable units would get homeless people off the street, provide better housing for poor families, and give elderly people on fixed incomes a secure place to live--right? 

Wrong. First, the rents aren’t below market rate, they’re just at the low end of the market range. According to the state’s perverse calculation of “below market rate” rents, HMcD could charge up to $863 for studios, $925 for one-bedrooms, and $1110 for two-bedrooms. In Craig’s List’s Berkeley rental listings today, I found 65 studios, 35 one-bedrooms, and 12 two-bedrooms offered for less. 

Second, the so-called affordable units aren’t reserved for genuinely low-income renters. The maximum annual household income is $34,530 for studios, $36,990 for one-bedrooms, and $44,400 for two-bedrooms. Since the average annual income for Berkeley tenant households is under $30,000, those units are rentable to the majority of apartment seekers. 

The truth is this building, like Patrick Kennedy’s projects, is for-profit, market-rate student housing with a smidgen of ill-conceived retail space tacked on to benefit from Berkeley’s more lenient regulation of mixed-use projects. Student housing’s not necessarily a bad use of the property, but it’s not something we need so desperately as to justify throwing out all of our development standards. Instead of rubber-stamping this monstrosity, the ZAB should tell HMcD to come back with a design for a much smaller building, with more and better-designed retail space, including all the parking and usable open space required by the zoning code, and that reflects the height, setback, and other suggestions made by the Design Review Committee on April 17, 2003. 

Pro-democracy activist Robert Lauriston lives in South Berkeley 

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The staff at the Berkeley Public Library recognizes that the library faces budgetary constraints and must make difficult decisions on staffing and services. Unfortunately, library management has made unilateral decisions on what services are important and what should be cutback without consulting either library staff or the users of library services. These arbitrary decisions have eroded staff morale and aggravated relations with the library user community. As long-time library staff, we want to propose a set of principles that could guide decisions about maintenance of library services and the staffing to ensure them:  

• Books, CDs, DVDs available on the shelves (not sitting in the sorting area) brought to you by enough shelvers to get the job done, and done safely, preventing repetitive strain injuries. The elimination of one library management position could pay for 12 15-hour-a-week shelving positions. 

• Each branch library tailored to the service needs of the surrounding neighborhoods. In Berkeley, the communities served by the different branches are somewhat different and therefore shouldn’t be subject to a generic franchise approach to library staffing. 

• An up-to-date, reliable computer network for staff and public before introducing unproven technologies that do not enjoy community and staff support. Recently, the computer network that allows you to access our collection and allows us to serve you by checking out and ordering books, has been out of order for weeks at a time. Despite repeated requests, library workers do not even have a connection to the Berkeley City Intranet so we can give you up-to-date information on city government and services. And unlike most Berkeley coffee houses, the public library does not have wireless Internet access (WiFi). We are spending a lot to introduce RFID when we have not met more basic technology needs. 

• Library employees that have enough time to interact with you, whether it be to check-out your books, answer your information and reference questions, find that song you can’t quite remember, or help your child find another compelling book about trains. Those long lines at the circulation desk and at the reference desk are a stressful hardship and can be alleviated by allocating more staff to the frontlines, and less to management and administrative posts. 

• Opening the Central Branch again on Sundays. We see this as essential, because you are working people and families that often can’t visit the library during the week. You pay taxes and want access. The elimination of one Library Management position could pay for Sundays. 

Berkeley Public Library staff, who work directly with you, want to be part of the process to make sure your library functions as best as possible, even during hard times. There are difficult decisions to be made balancing new services while maintaining our beloved library traditions.  

We ask you to support our union’s proposal to resolve our differences through “Interest Based Bargaining.” This is a form of contract negotiation where a facilitator helps management and staff find common interests to achieve common goals. It’s a way for all voices to be heard, a way to return to a climate of harmony and collaboration that will heal the library community.  

We need your help. Please write to your councilmember and to the Board of Library Trustees. And, please come to the library board meeting this Wednesday, April 27, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center, at the corner of Ashby and Ellis. 

Jane Scantlebury is a reference librarian at the Central Library. Andrea Segall is an art and music librarian at the Central Library. 

Growing up Protestant and Lower Middle Class in a Northern English milltown is not the best preparation for appreciating Rubens. It was about as difficult to warm up to those big fat naked ladies as it was to take seriously Italian Opera. “Well, I only ‘ope YOU can sing while you’re dying!” 

Going through architecture school deepened the distaste. According to our instructors, the previously brilliant Italians buggered-up High Renaissance by letting it debauch into writhing theatrical Baroque, an episode of deplorable taste that never really “took” in England. 

Molded by this lofty mindset, exacerbated by the even more self-denying Modern Movement, those of us with any feeling for painting at all settled for the calm static figures of Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, and—ultimate sophistication—the sublime restraint of Piero Della Francesca. Botticelli’s diaphanous, almost-modern blondes were the most exuberant we ever got. Fledgling architects contemptuous of art history, we jumped for Piero to Seurat with very little in-between. The Bauhaus led us to Paul Klee and Kandinsky, Le Courbusier to Leger and Cubism.  

Only too aware of this anti-mystical Cromwellian background, I accepted with some misgivings the invitation to comment on an artist as whole-hog Catholic as Rubens—grandmaster of the Flemish Baroque, but now I am glad I did. For quite apart from viewing the strange somber little exhibition, in Mario Ciampi’s still remarkable museum, the assignment prompted me to learn a lot in a short time about a brilliant multi-talented likable celebrity in a time of political and spiritual upheaval. 

Younger son of an eminent lawyer in Spanish-controlled Antwerp, a Protestant who fled to Germany to escape religious persecution, Peter Paul Rubens, born in 1577, returned at age 10, a Catholic child with a widowed mother, to a war-ravaged Antwerp that was fast becoming an important center of the Counter Reformation. Blessed with a resourceful and well-connected parent, the 13-year-old boy, tall, handsome and already the recipient of a Classical education, was placed as a page in the establishment of a nearby countess. This was unusually privileged cultural training, so he must have shown some special art talent for his mother to change the plan and have him apprenticed to a local master painter. 

The boy flourished, becoming a master himself at age 21, before moving to Italy, the world-center of advanced painting. After eight years of successful commissions and court employment there, he returned to Antwerp and a special appointment as court painter to the Spanish regent, with freedom to establish a large workshop and a varied practice of independent work. By this time, he had long been respected as a confidential advisor and emissary, and entrusted with important diplomatic missions, a combination of activities almost unimaginable today. One such trip in 1629 took him to England and resulted in a warm friendship with the ill-fated King Charles I, for whom he painted the Allegory of Peace, and who knighted him in return. This visit, though a diplomatic failure, also led to a commission to decorate the ceiling of Inigo Jones’s new Banqueting House, nine paintings celebrating the House of Stuart that remain one of the art-sights in London. 

All this by the age of about 57, in the glorious autumn of his life, which had begun, symbolically, by his re-marriage at age 54 to an attractive 16-year-old—Hélene Fourment, whose beauty he celebrated in numerous portraits and allegories. By now, he had finally abandoned the diplomatic career, bought himself a country estate, and was spending more time close to nature and away from the pressures of court life. 

Landscape elements that had previously been limited in his large dramatic works to backgrounds carried out by assistants now took his full attention, and resulted in, for him, a new genre paintings such as “Landscape with Rainbow,” and “Landscape with Het Steen,” his country house, take their place among his major achievements. In modern terms, he had finally become his own master, working to please himself rather than those in high authority. 

There’s really no equivalent today for this kind of career, unless we imagine Picasso and Henry Kissinger combined in one awesome personality. Politicians don’t paint, while major artist hide from public view. As for the art itself, painting in Catholic Baroque 1620—major religious and political celebration—is hardly the same activity as painting today—visual expression of a private state of mind. The closest equivalent now to a group of talented assistants collaborating on a huge altarpiece under the supervision of a Rubens would probably be the making of a fine film under a distinguished director. 

Thus it is easier for most of us secular moderns to admire and empathize with the sober tender portraits—Rubens and Isabella Brant of 1609, or Hélene Fourment with her Firstborn Son—than to identify comfortably with the Great Last Judgment of 1614, or the floating-in-the-sky bodies of Women of the Apocalypse in Munich—not to mention his superb, light-suffused drawings. 

Indeed, the trouble with this current show in the University Art Museum is that it contains none of the pleasures of the tender family portraits, or the amazingly timeless chalk drawings, or, for those who love the big stuff, the overwhelming presence of great dramatic painting. These oil sketches are quite small—about the size of a modest watercolor—while the final “Woman of the Apocalypse” measure approximately 13 by 18 feet, and the “Raising of the Cross” triptych in Antwerp an impressive 15 by 22. 

Typically executed to show a patron the proposed composition, to guide his own assistants, or as the basis for later engraving, they inevitable lack the vibrancy of final masterworks, and their florid dominating faded-gilt frames make this slightness worse. It would be interesting to see these 33 very uneven studies set in off-white mattes and simple wood frames! Or better yet, double-size photo-prints in a well-lit room, instead of these ill-framed ‘authentic artifacts’ on depressing mid-blue walls under subdued light. People seeking an aesthetic experience comparable to facing Manet’s Bar at the Folies Bergére or a Juan Gris still-life will not find it here in this impressive yet joyless show. It’s perhaps revealing that the cover of the tempting-looking catalog is dramatized by the powerful and timeless “Head of a Negro (No. 32)”— the only arrestingly ‘modern’ image in the room. 

Visitor advice: Save yourself a lot of money in the Museum bookstore by just buying the Prestel Art Guide “Rubens” ($7.95), an amazing little summary. Background Reading: Simon Schama’s “Rembrandt’s Eyes” has a splendid four-chapter introduction devoted to Rubens. 

“Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens” runs through May 22 at the UC Berkeley Art Musuem, 2626 Bancroft Way, Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. 

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Though he talks with a distinctive Chicago accent—a family inheritance—Richard Bermack is finally willing to admit the reality. 

“I was born in L.A.,” he says. “Growing up in the ‘50s, I was always being told that everything was perfect. But something underneath it all didn’t feel right, and I wasn’t quite sure of what it was.” 

To disguise his Lala-Land roots, Bermack said he used to tell people only that he was born in 1968, the year he moved to Berkeley. 

The year before, President Lyndon Johnson had made the last public speech of his administration that wasn’t delivered on a military base. The massive anti-war protest outside the Century Plaza Hotel, where Johnson was staying, was finally ended by the batons and tear gas of the Los Angeles Police Department. 

“Police beat the shit out of the kids, and a lot of them were from Beverly Hills,” Bermack recalls. 

The L.A. demonstration proved too much for Johnson, and from then on he spoke only in front of tightly controlled audiences—much like George W. Bush today. 

And then, in April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. fell prey to an assassin’s bullet in Memphis. 

Frustrated with L.A.—“My folks had moved to the San Fernando Valley, which was my version of hell”—Bermack came to Berkeley. “It was just in time for People’s Park,” he recalls, including the events of “Bloody Sunday” on May 15. 

Less than four weeks later, Robert F. Kennedy, the man many in the New Left hoped would succeed Johnson, was gunned down in the kitchen of L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel just moments after declaring victory in the California presidential primary. 

Safely ensconced in Berkeley, Bermack said, “I was enthralled by the sense of community, feeling part of something bigger than myself—especially coming from L.A. where there is no community.” 

Berkeley’s New Left was flourishing, an evolution of the same sense of moral outrage that had fueled the Free Speech Movement and the earlier protests against the House Un-American Activities Committee protests in San Francisco, where Berkeley people had played leading roles. 

“We had a lot of energy and vitality, but not a lot of analysis,” Bermack recalled. “We thought we could reinvent everything without regard to the past. But we couldn’t, and things started falling apart.” 

One project of the New Left was the Radical Elders Oral History Project, which was an effort to preserve the stories of the men and women from an era when the Left was stronger and well organized. 

Bermack started out taking pictures, then realized he was equally capable of conducting the interviews themselves. 

“It was like the New Left learning from the Old Left,” Bermack said. From the inchoate radicalism of the Sixties he found himself turning to the study of Marxism because “it gave me a sense of my roots, my identity,” he said. 

Among those who had the most profound impacts on the young radical’s life were veterans of two epic struggles, the labor movement and the Spanish Civil War—which would point him toward a new direction in his life. 

Bermack’s involvement, first behind the lens and then as an interviewer and writer, provided not only the means to an engaging new livelihood but decades later to his first book, just published by Berkeley’s own Heyday Books. 

The Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade portrays in photography and prose the lives of the poorly armed men and women of the Old Left who battled for the Spanish Republic against Francisco Franco’s fascist army during the Spanish Civil War. 

While the labor struggle remains very much alive today, the Spanish Civil War—once an epochal event—has receded from popular memory. Yet the veterans of that forgotten war have played a part in countless struggles since. 

Bermack quickly discovered that the same zeal that had inspired their willingness to die on a foreign battlefield continued to motivate their lives long after Franco’s forces had slaughtered their way to victory. 

Though their numbers are dwindling, they remain active in the fights against the ongoing war in Iraq and for better lives for the poor, for victims of racial prejudice and for a society no longer dominated by a small, wealthy elite. 

Bermack speaks of them with a mixture of awe and affection. 

“Doing the book I realized you can keep your own ideals, though it’s not an easy thing to do at all,” he said. “The point of the book is to show that none of them left the struggle.” 

The Lincoln Brigade began withdrawing from Spain in October 1938, when it had become clear that Franco’s victory was at hand. A month later, Hitler’s war against the Jews took a new, more virulent turn when he unleashed his stormtroopers on Jewish stores and homes on Kristallnacht. 

The following March, Franco’s forces took Madrid, the last remaining Republican stronghold. 

Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was formed after the war, giving its men and women an organizational base as well as a means of staying in touch. 

Because the Abraham Lincoln Brigade was largely the creation of the American Communist Party, the veterans’ organization soon landed on the U.S. Attorney’s list of subversive organization, and FBI agents became frequent visitors at the homes and workplaces of the veterans, sometimes costing them jobs. 

Many veterans dropped out of the party in bitterness after Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev revealed the murderous crimes of Josef Stalin in 1956, “but they remained devoted to the cause of social justice,” Bermack said. 

The veterans also produce their own newsletter, and Bermack was a natural choice to produce it, which gave him an ongoing connection to the organization and the lives of its members. 

Immersion in Marxism and his encounters with labor activists who helped create the golden age of organized labor in the U.S. also led to his ongoing involvement in the labor movement. 

“With a bachelor’s in existential psychology, there wasn’t a lot I could do, so I went out and did projects about work and the labor movement,” Bermack said. “There’s just something about the labor movement, and as long as you’re dealing with the rank and file, it’s tremendous.” 

It was the computer that gave him the final tool he needed. 

“I had a lot of trouble writing because I couldn’t spell,” he said. “Then the computer came along and saved me.” 

THE FRONTLINES OF SOCIAL CHANGE: VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE 

By Richard Bermack 

Heyday Books, 145 pages, $19.95›

Given our intimate relationship with the 800-pound gorilla in our midst, Berkeleyans should be racing to bookstores to buy the new book University Inc. by Jennifer Washburn, subtitled The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education, or, as I like to call it, Universities Behaving Badly. If you are interested in the integrity of higher education, academic freedom, the responsible treatment of employees and students, quality undergraduate education, the continued vitality of the liberal arts and social sciences, unbiased research, and public ownership of the discoveries funded by your tax dollars—this might well be the most important book you will ever read. But be forewarned: this is a tragedy, so keep the Kleenex handy. 

University Inc. describes, chronicles, and substantiates what Washburn calls the “single greatest threat to the future of American higher education: the intrusion of a market ideology into the heart of academic life.” Covering private and public universities nationwide, Washburn focuses on the impact of the university’s marketization on the academic and scientific communities. The consequences of this intrusion are so deep and broad, so intertwined, and so disturbing as to be beyond summarizing here.  

Instead I ask: How might the new University Inc. affect the broader Berkeley community? Three of Washburn’s themes shed light on this question: the university as a laundry for federal subsidies to private industry, the university as a profit-making enterprise, and the university as an “engine of economic growth.” 

Historically, the American university has entertained a shifting balance between utilitarianism (which gave rise to university business, law, engineering, and medical schools), and “pure” intellectual inquiry, academic independence, and teaching. During and after World War II, scientific research became an important national resource, and universities became vital if ambivalent partners in military and industrial research and development. Later, in the 1970s, America’s perceived lack of industrial competitiveness culminated in the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act. This critical policy change permitted and encouraged universities to patent and profit from their research, and to partner with private industry in this venture.  

This act essentially made American universities a funnel for money that it would have been politically unpalatable for the federal government to give directly to private industry. It also opened the doors for increasing control over university research by their private industry partners. Unfortunately, “no one bothered to consider how routing industrial support through the university would affect academic freedom—or scientific investigation over the long term.”  

UC Berkeley’s very own Novartis affair, and the accompanying tenure battle of “whistleblower” Ignacio Chapela, illustrates the problem. Investigators concluded that UCB “effectively [allowed] one company to exert a monopoly over the department’s best research, regardless of whether it was funded by Novartis or by U.S. taxpayers.” Translation: American tax money was funneled through UC to Novartis. Worse, a qualified professor was denied tenure by the “budget” committee after he questioned corporate interests. 

According to Washburn, “industry now directly influences an estimated 20 to 25 percent of university research funding overall.” This means that when UCB exercises its immunity from Berkeley’s land use laws and taxes, private industry is a major beneficiary. The federal government funds about 58 percent of university-based research, with universities vigorously lobbying and competing for federal dollars. UC skims up to 40 percent of those dollars off the top for its own overhead, but refuses to give the city any infrastructure support. Meanwhile, the state, which should be safeguarding the university’s educational function, has reduced its UC funding to the point where former Chancellor Berdahl described UC as a “state assisted” rather than a public institution.  

When the profit motive entered university research, universities began to behave like for-profit corporations. Chasing money—and the prestige that attracts it—has created distortions in education. Do undergraduates subsidize research? Some universities now pay “star” professors up to a half million dollars per year, while undergraduate education is “farmed out to the growing army of part-time instructors who receive no benefits and meager pay.” In 1969, 97 percent of professors were on tenure track; now it is 40 percent; America now has an army of Ph.D.s scrounging for steady jobs. Tuition has increased at three times the rate of inflation, while students have become “customers” to be gratified with lifestyle luxuries and high grades rather than outstanding education. Funding is diverted from the humanities and social sciences into the science departments that can bring in industrial dollars.  

In the lucrative sciences, academic collegiality is giving way to squabbles over patent rights, and the “knowledge commons” is increasingly privatized and hoarded. When professors object, universities assuage them by making them stakeholders in university business enterprises. Ironically, most universities make no profit on their patenting operations, so opening the Pandora’s Box of academic damage yields them no benefits. And in the final twist, American universities have gotten so greedy that now their private partners are complaining—and starting to take their research subsidies overseas! 

As Washburn points out, the profit-motivated behavior of universities is a gross violation of the public trust that universities have earned over a hundred years. Universities receive public funding and tax exemptions because they serve the public good, providing well-rounded education, unbiased research, and accessible knowledge. But if universities behave like businesses, shouldn’t they be treated like them—legally and fiscally? And, Washburn asks: “Would alumni continue to give so generously to their alma maters if they perceived them as increasingly motivated by profit rather than serving the public good? Would politicians and taxpayers continue to issue tens of billions of dollars annually to colleges and universities in the form of grants, tax exemptions, and student financial aid?”  

Unfortunately, for the politicians, the answer may well be “yes.” Because as universities view themsleves as for-profit corporations, and compete for bucks and breaks from state and local governments, they have repackaged themselves as “engines of economic growth.” These governments, strapped for money and hoping to duplicate Stanford’s impact on Silicon Valley, are more than eager to take the bait.  

Leaving aside the question of whether “economic growth” is necessarily a good thing, most universities are not up to the task. UC campuses, for example, increasingly keep profit-making projects such as convention centers “in-house,” while deflecting their costs onto their host communities—but what kind of “engine” doesn’t even pull its own weight? And no university can single-handedly jump-start the economic growth of a city or region, which depends on a healthy existing infrastructure and an attractive quality of life. “Any high-tech regional initiative must include the development of vibrant communities…the kinds of places that knowledge workers who drive the new economy gravitate toward and prefer to live in.”  

In other words, the university is embedded in a community that sustains it and is prepared to capitalize on its contribution. UCB has for years been reducing the benefits it provides to the community, while callously increasing its detriments. The city is attracted to flashy projects like the proposed downtown museum complex, perhaps convinced this UC project will be the “engine” that rescues our struggling downtown from decades of bad planning. But when it comes to reaping benefits and avoiding costs, this engine always comes in first. We know that from the fiscal drain and quality-of-life damage that UC creates in other parts of the community. So far University Inc. doesn’t see any “profit” in addressing those problems, preferring to let the city pick up the tab. 

UNIVERSITY INC.:  

THE CORPORATE CORRUPTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION 

By Jennifer Washburn 

Basic Books, 326 pages, $26?

TUESDAY, APRIL 26 

CHILDREN 

First Stage Children’s Theater “The Case of the Ancient Artifacts” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5 available at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Katherine Ellison describes “The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

The Whole Note Poetry Series honoring Allen Cohen, with Ann Cohen and Clive Matson at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Rory Block at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50- $19.50. 548-1761.  

Graham Connah, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Over the Rhine, Kim Taylor at 8 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $13. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Michael O’Neill with Kenny Washington at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Habillements” Multifoiled drawings and prints by Karen Ruenitz, paintings by Thomas Clayton at California College of the Arts, 5241 College Ave. Reception at 5:30 p.m.  

FILM 

History of Cinema: “Capturing the Friedmans” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Vistor Navasky describes his journalistic experiences in “A Matter of Opinion” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. Free. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Michael Joseph Gross reads from his stories in “Starstruck” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Writing Teachers Write with Floyd Salas and his students from Foothill College at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Steve Almond reads from his new collection of short stories, “Evil B. B. Chow” 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 www.starryplough.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Ooklah the Moc, Hawaiian reggae at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Famous Last Words at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Andre Nickatina and Equipto at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $12-$17. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Tristan & Iseult at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Chick Corea Elektric Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, APRIL 28 

EXHIBITIONS 

“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.  

“Blind at the Museum” guided tour at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Latino Film Festival: “Sexo con Amor” a comedy from Chile at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 849-2568. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sarah Vowell describes her “Assassination Vacation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Elizabeth Gaffney reads from her debut novel, “Metropolis” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Cecil Castellucci discusses “Boy Proof” the story of a high school outcast at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Live and Unplugged Open mic featuring music and spoken word at 7 p.m. at 1924 Cedar St. 703-9350. www.LiveAndUnplugged.org 

Word Beat Reading Series with Andy Fong and Stephen Berry at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High School Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley High School. 

Oakland Choreographer’s Showcase at 8 p.m. at Haas Pavillion, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Free. dance@mills.edu 

Piano Music by Tim Ross and Jack Kruscup from 5 to 7 p.m., Thurs. and Fri., at the Berkeley Faculty Club, Kerr Dining Room, UC Campus. 540-5678. 

Dhol Patrol, Bangra and Pan-Arabic beats at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Alex de Grassi at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Andrew Cheiken, Kinnie Star at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryplough.com 

Andre Bush Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

FRIDAY, APRIL 29 

EXHIBITIONS 

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

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 

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 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” at the Roda Theater, 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 

Eastenders Repertory “A Knight's Escape” and “WWJD,” Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m., through May 15 at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $15-$18 available from 568-4118. 

Impact Briefs 7: “The How-To Show” Thu.-Sat at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through May 28. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Opera Piccola and Stagebridge Senior Theater, “Being Something: Living ‘Young’ and Growing ‘Old’” Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Oakland Metro, Jack London Square, through May 1. Tickets are $15. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

“Proof” by David Auburn, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through May 7, Sun. May 1 at 2:30 p.m at The Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $13. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Traveling Jewish Theater “Blood Relative” at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Thurs., Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 7 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. Tickets are $23-$34. 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Presidio Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremeont Ave. Tickets are $10.  

Andy Canepa, piano recital at 8 p.m. in the PSR Chapel, 1798 Scenic Way. Suggested donation $10-$20. 704-7729. 

Street to Nowhere, Desa, The Wildlife at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Sovoso at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

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

Potingue, contemporary flamenco and Latin music at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stompy Jones, East Coast Swing, Lindy Hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick & Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $$11-13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Candice & Company at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Avalon Rising, The Dead Guise at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

These Days, Stop at Nothing, Count the Hours 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. 

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

The Chick Corea Elektric Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 30 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Orange Sherbert at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

THEATER 

Living Arts Playback Theater, an evening of improvisational theater at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $12-$18. For reservations 655-5186, ext. 25. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Albert Flynn DeSilver and Chris Stroffolino at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Berkeley Broadway Singers “Future Broadway” at 8 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman St. Free concert. 604-5732. www.berkeleybroadwaysingers.org 

Peter Cincotti, jazz vocalist, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

Jody Stecher & Kate Breslin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mujeres: Carolyn Brandy with Ojala and Las Locas of Loco Bloco at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $18-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Emmanuel Vaughn Lee Group at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kotoja at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson with Comfort at 9 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Fingertight, Alexic, Forthmorning, alt, progressive, punk at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

The Rio Thing at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Conscious Cabaret “Been There, Undone That” at 8 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Tickets are $15-$25. 528-8844. www.unityberkeley.org 

Greg Lamboy, Christie McCarthy, Mokai at 8 p.m. at McNally’s Irish Pub, 5352 College Ave., Oakland. Fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. 415-710-0207. 

Sandy Coates, Willow Willow, Yea-Ming at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Midnight Laserbeam, Apocalipstick, Pigeon 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. 

CV1 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, MAY 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Moments Seized” photographs reconstructed in glazed graphite paintings by Mary Cook. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Cafe DiBartolo, 3310 Grand Ave., Oakland. 832-9005. 

FILM 

“Under a Shipwrecked Moon” by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $5-$10. 464-4640. www.verticalpool.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Across Oceans of Sound: Music of the African Diaspora” a panel discussion at 2 p.m., concert at 3:30 p.m. at Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Bancroft Way at College Ave. 643-7648. http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu 

“Behind the Prints of Christopher Brown” with the printmaker at 3:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $4-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Judy Chicago introduces “Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours” from 2 to 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

Poetry Flash a reading for Milvia Street Magazine at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Broadway Singers “Unforgettable” Choral works, solo pieces and standards at 4 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Church, 400 Alcatraz Ave. 604-5732. www.berkeleybroadwaysingers.org 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra Duruflé “Requiem” at 4:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. free, donations accepted. www.bcco.org 

Kronos Quartet at at 7 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $42, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

UC Chamber Chorus performs music composed during the Counter Reformation in Italy at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Maria Marquez at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Redbird with Peter Mulvey, Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Phil Berkowitz & Louis Blues at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Minerva, Empathy at 4 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

From Ashes Rise, Paint it Black, Coliseum at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Haverfan, Revolve, Exposure 411, alt rock, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

MONDAY, MAY 2 

EXHIBTIONS 

“Be Animated at NIAD” an exhibition of cartoons, anime, and cartoon characters by artists with disabilities and local professional animators at NIAD Gallery, 551 23rd St., Richmond. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Page to Stage” A conversation about the making of “The People’s Temple” with playwright and director Leigh Fondakowski at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2015 Addison St. Free. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Actors Reading Writers “The Intimacy of Strangers” stories by Richard Bausch and Flannery O'Connor at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Bring a book and take a book in our monthly book exchange. www.juliamorgan.org  

Greil Marcus looks at Bob Dylan and his music in “Like a Rolling Stone” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

David Watt reads from “Bedside Manners: One Doctor’s Reflections on the Oddly Intimate Encounters between Patient and Healer” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Express with Jim Lyle at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

Last Word Poetry Open Mic featuring Marvin Hiemstra and Jan Steckel, at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bill Bell & The Jazz Connection at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

ª

I see the city’s planting some podocarps along Dwight Way just east of Shattuck Avenue. I don’t see that often as a street tree; the plant is more likely to be in a lobby or courtyard, or next to some institutional doorway. As it generally gets used, it’s kind of a 1960s Sunset décor plant, with a poolside aura. It looks natural—which is to say, not quite natural at all—next to an Eames chair or one of those round plastic tables that look like exaggerated hourglasses. 

In fact, the foliage of this tree, sometimes called African fern pine, has an oddly plastic look. Maybe that’s because it’s fairly uniform, all its needly leaves about the same size and color except for the newest growth. That’s paler green, tender and a bit smaller; it gives the tree a sprightly fresh look in spring. 

On the street, though, it looks good—what landscapers call a “clean” look goes well there. Maybe the less sheltered life agrees with it, or maybe those on Dwight Way are just young trees, loose and airy in habit, and not pruned into stiffness yet. The tree does tolerate heavy pruning, which can make it denser for better or worse. I know this because it’s one species that my tree teacher set me on when he was hoping I’d make a new mistake for a change, by pruning too heavily. I did, and the tree is just fine, healthy and handsome now nevertheless. 

I’m not sure whether it’s about having been a good Catholic girl or having been a scholarship student who needed good grades (and was sternly notified of this at about grade six) but making mistakes has always been the scary part of schooling to me. I don’t think I ever really grasped the concept of creative screw-ups until I studied with Dennis Makishima, and I was nearly 40 then. The closest I came before that was that my father had taught me to deliver a good straight-line for a bad joke. Hey kids! Here’s my advice: Screw up now, while you can. And enjoy it! 

Podocarpus gracilior’s English name isn’t quite a mistake, confusing as it is. It’s from east Africa, and though it only looks ferny, it has something real in common with pines: It’s a gymnosperm. Gymnosperms are “primitive” flowering plants—in a sense in which “primitive” means “basal”—that is, basic, a big, senior limb on the tree of life. They include all the conifers, like pines, firs, redwood; and some more stereotypically ancient taxa like cycads, ginkgo, araucarias, ephedra (our own desert tea) and that oddest of desert plants, Welwitschia. (You can see one of those at the UC Bot Garden.) 

You can see araucarias around town, too—the Norfolk Island pines, bunya-bunyas, and monkey puzzle trees that the Victorians were so fond of, and planted in their gardens. Like them, podocarps are plants of ancient Gondwanaland, one of the ur-continents of really ancient Earth. This makes them an odd inhabitant indeed of magazine gardens and decorator lobbies, a souvenir of a time not only before Martha Stewart but before Mrs. Beeton or Eve or even Lilith’s favorite aesthetic daemon. Far from being plastic, it’s not far from being a component of some of the petroleum deposits from which plastic was made… or at least of brown coal. 

Podocarps are semitropical in origin, so one might wonder how they’ll do in the next freeze. Will they be as wimpy as, say, the jacarandas over on Gilman Street, who stagger back from every hard frost just barely able to look gorgeous next flowering season? Podocarps, like jacarandas, are more common as street trees in Los Angeles—maybe the Berkeley tree folks are anticipating global warming. 

But I know a few big ones around town that have soldiered on through the last 25 years or so, and look as good as the necessities of building maintenance and the exigencies of awkward siting could allow. What the hey, they’ve survived continental drift, a few ice ages, the slings and arrows of outrageous landscaping. I like the idea of giving them a crack at surviving Berkeley in the early 21st century.›

TUESDAY, APRIL 26 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at the far parking lot of Bear Creek entrance to Briones to look for warblers and woodpeckers on the Seaborg Trail. 525-2233. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meets at 10 a.m. For information and to register call 525-2233.  

Homeschooling Options Panel Discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Cost is $5. 877-648-KIDS ext. 86. www.npnonline.org  

“China Digital Times” with Xiao Qiang of the Berkeley China Internet Project at 4 p.m. at IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. 642-2809. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

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

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

Taiko Drum Lessons at Tatsumaki Taiko, 725 Gilman St. fora ges 12 and up. Cost is $12 per class. Class runs for 6 weeks. For information email tatsumaki@email.com  

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 

Trance Drumming Workshop with Sondra Slade at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $30-$40. www.belladonna.ws 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 

“The Education Crisis in California” with Greg Hodge, Oakland School Board, Terry Doran, Berkeley School Board and Fannie Brown, Oakland Acorn at 1:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by Berkeley Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Proposed Amendments Public Hearing at 7 p.m. at the Planning Commission, North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7410. 

“Reproductive Rights: Different Views” A panel discussion sponsored by the ACLU at 7 p.m. at Richmond’s Main Public Library, 325 Civic Center Drive. 558-0377. 

Codornices Creek Watershed Restoration Plan Community meeting at 7 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High School, 1294 Albina Ave. 540-6669. www.urbancreeks.org 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Conspiracy of Fools,” by Kurt Eichenwald at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Coffee Shop, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

“Urban Futures: Planning for Sustainable Urban Development” with Prof. Raquel Pinderhughes, SFSU, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 223. www.ecologycenter.org 

Poison Control with Barbara Cheatham, Alameda County Health Dept. at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Berkeley PTA Rally to protest the Governor’s proposed education budget at 3 p.m. at Old City Hall, 2134 MLK Jr Way. 333-6097. 

Study Skills and Organization Workshop for Teens at 7 p.m. at Classroom Matters, 2607 7th Street, Suite E. Free. 540-8646.  

“Work with Meaning, Work with Joy” with Pat Sullivan at 6:30 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Cost is $20. 530-0284. www.unityberkeley.org 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

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

THURSDAY, APRIL 28 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at the Pack Rat Trail, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Green Building 101 covering the basics of building or remodeling a green home, energy and water conservation and air quality issues at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. To register call 845-5106, ext. 230. www.BuildGreen.Now.org 

Dining Out for Life Over 60 East Bay restaurants will donate 25% of their sales to support the Center of AIDS Services, 5720 Shattuck Ave. Oakland. For a list of participating restaurants call 282-0623. www.diningoutforlife.com 

The First Place Fund for Youth “There’s No Place Like Home” benefit at the Asian Cultural Center, downtown Oakland, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $55. 272-0979, ext. 26. 

Teach-in on Torture Human rights experts, and litigants against the government, and academics will challenge U.S. government sponsorship of torture, from 1:30-9 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison. www.tortureteachin.org 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1744A University Ave. All welcome. 845-5513.  

Advance Directives What are they, and how can they help you and your loved ones? A panel discussion at Alta Bates Health Education Center, Fontaine Auditorium, 400 Hawthorne St., Oakland. Free, reservations recommended. 869-8276. 

Legal Issues for Relative Caregivers A workshop for grandparents and relatives who are raising grandchildren, nieces and nephews at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. To register call 658-7353. 

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

Latino Film Festival: “Sexo con Amor” a comedy from Chile at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 849-2568. 

Karen Vogel co-creator of the Motherpeace Tarot deck at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. www.belladonna.ws 

FRIDAY, APRIL 29 

Protest Action: Campus Bay and UC Field Station to demand better oversight of these toxic sites and protection for the community at 7 a.m. at South 47th and Meade Sts., off the Bay View exit, west of 580, in Richmond. Dress warmly. 496-2722. 

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

Celebrating South Berkeley Seniors A presentation of murals in progress, storytelling, food and music at 6 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the California Council for the Humanities, California Stories Project. 704-0803. 486-8213. www.calhum.org 

Malcolm X Consciousness Conference A 3-day event with speakers, concerts, awards and fashion show at Laney College, Oakland. Tickets are $75. 997-0075. www.unlockyourroots.com 

Alameda County Bike to Work Kick-Off Lunch at noon at the MTC Metrocenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. to RSVP call 530-3444. www.511.org 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping in Berkeley Public schools at 1:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

“Exploring Quantum Phenomena” with Cornelia Jarica at 7 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Cost is $15. 528-8844. www.unityberkeley.org 

“Three Beats for Nothing” a small group meeting weekly at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center to sing for fun and practice, mostly 16th century harmony. No charge. 655-8863, 843-7610.  

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. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, APRIL 30 

See Our Snakes Meet the resident snakes of Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park at 10:30 a.m. and learn about their behavior. 525-2233. 

Green Home Expo and Energy Symposium from noon to 5:30 p.m. at Civic Center Park. Information on energy conservation, sustainable and non-toxic building products and renewable energy technology. www.GreenHome EXPO.org 

Cinco de Mayo Celebration with BAHIA and the City of Berkeley at 1 p.m. at James Kenney Park, 1720 Eighth St., at Delaware. Health fair, music, children’s games, crafts, and food. 525-1463. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of “Holy Hill,” site of the Graduate Theological Union and the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library led by Allen Stross, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Illuminated Cards Craft Event Make your own illuminated card in the style of the Middle Ages from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Free and open to all ages. 526-3700, ext. 17. 

Civil Rights Celebration honoring James Forman, Joanne Grant and Ossie Davis at 6 p.m. at SEIU Local 250, 560 Thomas L. Berkley Way (formerly 20th St.) Between San Pablo and Telegraph Aves. Donation $5-$10. 

International Family Fair sponsored by The New School of Berkeley from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Bonita St. between Cedar and Virginia. Live entertainment, games, food and raffle. Free. 548-9165. www.newschoolofberkeley.org 

Spring Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Potters Guild Annual Spring Show Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 731 Jones St. 524-7031. www.berkeleypotters.com 

New Women’s Program Benefit Sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the KPFA parking lot on Berkeley Way just east of MLK Way. 527-2784. 

Self Defense for Daughters & Parents from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $75 for a parent and child. 845-8542, ext. 302. 

Good Night Little Farm Help with the afternoon feeding, learn about our rare breeds and help tuck the animals in for the night, at 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Choosing the Right Rose and Keeping an Organic Rose Garden with Ken Jose, rose expert, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Botanizing California A series of local and overnight field trips to highlight California’s plant communities. Cost is $80-$95. Registration required. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Drawing and Painting the Birds of the Garden A two day class in the Botanic Garden of Tilden Park. Cost is $90-$95. Registration required. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

“In the Light of Reverence” a documentary with Chief Sisk-Franco of the Winneman-Wintu Tribe on the development of the Shasta Dam at 6 p.m. at the Richmond Main Library. Sponsored by West County Native Americans for Environmental Justice. 236-1631. 

“The Teachings of Light and Sound” with Sri Gary Olsen from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. www.masterpathpath.org 

Art Deco Society Preservation Ball Dinner, silent auction and entertainment, and presentation of the 2005 Art Deco Preservation Awards at Sweet’s Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $85-$100. 415-982-3326. www.artdecosociety.org 

Reel Kids Films Inc. Gala Benefit at Sequoyah Country Club, 4550 Heafey Rd., Oakland. For ticket information and reservations call 978-0002. www.reelkidsfilms.com 

Integral Transformative Practice Workshop Sat. and Sun. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Non-strenuous movement, meditation and energy exercises. Cost is $125. For reservations call 415-927-0913. pam_kramer22@yahoo.com  

Living More With Less, A day of conversation about living simpler, slower and smaller from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Cost is $12-$15. 548-2220, ext. 233. www.metafoundation.org/ 

simplicity 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class in Disaster Mental Health from 9 a.m. to noon at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. To sign up call 981-5605. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Small Press Distribution Spring Open House from noon to 4 p.m. at 1341 Seventh St., off Gilman, with books, entertainment and guest of honor Andrei Cogrescu. 524-1668. www.spdbooks.org 

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

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

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

Kol Hadash Passover Seder at 6 p.m. at the Albany Community Center. Reservations required. 925-254-0609 or 925-254-1908. greensu@comcast.net  

SUNDAY, MAY 1 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Spring House Tour of Panoramic Hill from 1 to 5 p.m. Cost is $25-$30. For details and reservations call 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Crowden Music Center’s Anniversary Gala at 5 p.m. in the Rotunda, 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Honoring Robert Cole and Susan Muscarella. Tickets are $200. 559-6910. www.crowdenmusiccenter.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 Jack Petranker on “Mind in Nature” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

May Day Maimouna with Achi ben Shalom at 3 p.m. at 2746 College Ave. 843-3131.  

MONDAY, MAY 2 

National Organization for Women, Oakland East Bay Chapter, meets at 6 p.m. at 1515 Webster St. Renee Walker will discuss Abstinence-Only Education in Bay Area Public Schools. 287-8948. 

“History of Local Creek Restoration” A slide show sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks in obeservation of California Watersheds Month, at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 848 9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Iraq War Veteran and Resister Camilo Mejia speaks at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. at 27th. Tickets are $5 - $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. Benefits Veterans for Peace. 415-255-7331. www.veteransforpeace.org 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Trivia Cafe at 6:30 p.m. at Ristorante Raphael 2132 Center St. 644-9500. 

ONGOING 

Bike Chain Response is organizing an interfaith bike ride from the Nevada Test Site to Los Alamos National Laboratory, June 19 to July 17, to raise awareness of alternative modes of transportation and the tragedy of the nuclear weapons industry. 505-870-2-ASK. www.lovarchy.org/ride/ 

Medical Care for Your Pet at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society low-cost veterinary clinic. 2700 Ninth St. For appointments call 845-3633. www.berkeleyhumane.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., April 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Virginia Aiello, 981-5158. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/parksandrecreation 

City Council meets Tues., April 26, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Budget Review Commission meets Wed., April 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7041. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/budget 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/civicarts 

Disaster Council meets Wed., April 27, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., April 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., April 27, 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 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., April 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., April 28, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoningw

The University of California and the union representing its 7,300 low-wage service workers announced Wednesday that they had come to a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract after almost 10 months of negotiations. 

The agreement comes less than one week after workers at the nine campuses, five medical facilities and Lawrence Berkeley Labs held a one-day strike to protest what they said was the university’s disrespect for their jobs and its refusal to bargain in good faith. The contract has been agreed on by the university and the union, but still needs to be ratified by workers, who are scheduled to vote sometime within the next three weeks. 

“We’re really happy with this contract,” said Faith Raider, the spokesperson for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, the union that represents the workers. “It’s by no means perfect, but it’s a major step in the direction of where we want to be.” 

A significant part of the new contract is annual across-the-board raises. Workers are scheduled to get a 3 percent increase in October 2005 and October 2006, and a 4 percent increase in October 2007. They are also supposed to get a $250 lump sum retroactive payment because they did not receive a raise last year. 

According to the university, the across-the-board raises are dependent on money from the state and could change if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not fulfill his compact with the university to provide increased funding in coming years. The union said it is happy about the new raises, but it’s trying to make sure the new contract gives it bargaining power, including the ability to strike, just in case the state money changes. 

“We’re happy for our service workers and hope our compact is fully funded,” said Noel Van Nyhuis, the spokesperson for the UC Office of the President. 

Other significant parts of the contract include a guaranteed raise for workers who work nights and weekend shifts. This, and one other small across the board raise, will come from UC money that is not tied to the state.  

The contract raises the starting wage to $9 an hour, which will help 600 workers, most of them in Southern California. Food service workers at all UC campuses will receive one free meal a day instead of having their meal money automatically deducted from their checks. Food service workers at UC Berkeley were already receiving a daily free meal. The health care program stays the same through 2009. 

The contract also addresses the union’s demand for job training programs that will help workers advance their careers. Workers will have 24 hours of paid time to attend classes that either help them improve their current job or train them to apply for a new job within the university. It also insures existing workers are given priority for job openings and clarifies language for promotions and layoffs. 

“It’s a start,” said Maria Ventura, a lead food service worker in the Crossroads dining hall at UC Berkeley. She said workers are happy with the raises but hope subsequent contracts guarantee larger increases because the cost of living is rising so fast.  

“When you look at [3 percent] in an hourly rate it’s not much,” she said. Still, “[Workers] are happy something was agreed upon.” 

Opponents of the proposed casino coastal resort at Richmond’s Point Molate gained a powerful ally this week when the state attorney general’s office intervened on their behalf. 

Citizens for Eastshore Parks and the East Bay Regional Parks District filed suit in December, alleging that the city’s sale of the land to Berkeley developer James D. Levine and his partners violated key provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). 

Their lawsuit seeks to void the Land Development Agreement (LDA) passed by the City Council approving the sale of the former U.S. Navy refueling base on one of the few largely undeveloped stretches of bayshore. 

Janill L. Richards, an environmental attorney with the attorney generals office, Tuesday mailed copies of a Peoples’ Complaint in Intervention to all parties in the litigation. 

“We’re concerned that a proper review be conducted before a decision is made on an important piece of public property with significant public interests,” Richards said. 

Levine discounted the significance of the state intervention. “We think their claims are absurd,” he said. “That’s just not how business is done. Besides, any lawyer can think whatever they want, but the only lawyers’ opinions that matter belong to the ones wearing the black robes.” 

The plaintiffs think otherwise. 

“It’s a great boost to have such a formidable ally,” said Stephan Volker, the Oakland environmental attorney who is representing CESP. “The attorney general has confirmed that our objections are well-grounded and has intervened on our behalf.” 

“We think it’s fantastic,” said Matthew Zinn, the San Francisco attorney retained by the parks district. While Zinn said he felt the case was strong enough to prevail on its own merit, the state intervention “certainly adds legitimacy to our claims.” 

A second major action in the case took place on the same date as the filing when Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Zuniga ordered a change of venue from her court to Marin County. 

The parks district had sought to have the case heard in Alameda or Contra Costa counties while Levine had asked for a court in Fairfield or Sacramento. While Levine said the move to the North Bay places the case in a neutral venue, Volker and Zinn said they were pleased with the decision to send the case to what they consider a favorable jurisdiction for their side. 

The State’s Case 

The state sided with the plaintiffs in contending that city violated CEQA by failing to produce either the CEQA-mandated environmental study before the sale, or a full environmental impact report (EIR). 

“[I]f the development is built,” the motion states, “it is almost certain there will be significant impacts to the land, air, water, flora, fauna, noise and objects of historic and aesthetic significance.” 

Furthermore, the suit alleges, a full EIR is required because there is “a fair argument that (the sale), which contemplates that Point Molate will be developed as a gaming and entertainment complex, will have a significant effect of the environment, including, but not limited to, destruction of wildlife habitant, obstructions or impediments to shore and water front access, interference with the Bay Trial, permanent changes to or loss of archeological sites and historic buildings, increased water use, and increased noise and traffic.”  

The state is asking for all costs associated with their litigation and: 

• Writs of mandate “to void every determination, finding and/or decision related to approval and execution of the LDA. 

• Writs compelling the City of Richmond to comply with CEQA. 

• A writ halting all activity on the project until CEQA compliance is satisfied, and 

• A temporary restraining order enforcing the writs. 

The final decision will rest in the hands of the judge appointed to hear the case in Marin County. The plaintiffs’ attorneys say they expect a final hearing in September, after both sides have had a chance to present their cases in written form. 

The lawyers for CESP and the parks district are presently preparing a written record that will include transcripts of Richmond City Council sessions where the sale was considered and decided. 

Richards served a copy of the suit on Richmond Mayor Irma Anderson, who did not return calls Thursday. 

City Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin, a member of the Richmond Progressive Alliance elected in November and seated on the City Council after the Point Molate vote, hailed the state intervention. 

“It’s excellent,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought they’d have done it. This is what we wanted. The sale should never have happened in the first place.” 

The one concern she did have was that the city has already spent some of the deposit money Levine and his partners paid after the LDA was concluded. 

The council majority hailed the sale as a financial savior and source of jobs in an ailing community. Opponents opposed the project both on environmental impacts and for the impact the massive array of slots could have on the city’s poorer residents. 

Levine’s plans call for a four-hotel luxury resort with a large entertainment auditorium and casino with 2,500 to 3,000 slot machines and 125 to 160 table games in the landmarked Winehaven building. 

The Bureau of Indian Affair is currently considering the application of the Lytton Band of Pomo tribespeople to have the site designated a reservation.

The 19-year-old African-American shooting victim in a sideshow-vicinity East Oakland robbery attempt last weekend has charged that Oakland Police officers failed to search for him while he lay bleeding from two gunshot wounds and hiding from his attackers, and prevented friends from searching for him as well. 

The friends eventually found the victim and drove him to Children’s Hospital in their own car for emergency treatment, passing both Highland and Alta Bates Hospitals because they did not know how to reach them from the 880 freeway. 

According to the friends, Oakland police threatened to have their car towed if they did not vacate the area, one of them telling the friends, “I don’t care; you shouldn’t have been at a sideshow” when they told the police that they were searching for someone who had been shot. 

The incident occurred in the early morning hours last Sunday at an all-night gas station near the intersection of 90th Avenue and Bancroft, during what Oakland Police have described as nearby “sideshow” activities. 

The term “sideshow” has no specific definition by police or the news media, but is most often used in Oakland to describe street or parking lot congregations of young African-Americans or Latinos in cars. The events often involve intricate car maneuvers, including one called “spinning donuts,” in which drivers spin their cars in a circle, leaving black, donut-shaped tire tracks in the street. The gatherings are considered illegal, and Oakland police have spent the last several years trying to shut them down. 

Anthony Davenport of Emeryville, who attended Berkeley High School, was shot in his wrist and his side and was hit on his head with a pistol. Although Davenport said he is “worried about how my arm will recover,” none of his injuries were life-threatening, and he is at home recovering from a shattered bone in his wrist. He was initially treated at Children’s Hospital, and later transported to Highland Hospital by ambulance. Davenport said that Oakland police took a statement from him at Children’s Hospital concerning the shooting and the abortive robbery. 

Davenport said that he and his friends had gone to the all-night store to buy some food before going home, but one of his companions said they had come out to the area to “go to the sideshow.” 

Davenport lives in Emeryville with an aunt, Kelly Conlin, an advertising representative at the Berkeley Daily Planet. She said that she has had custody of Conlin “off and on” for several years. 

Conlin said that while Davenport “shouldn’t have been at a sideshow, it doesn’t mean that he should get shot and not get help. I’m horrified by what happened, and I’m scared of my children growing up. It’s my job to reprimand my kids. It’s the police’s job to be public servants. But in this case, they weren’t serving the public.” 

Oakland police confirmed the robbery attempt, the shooting, and the transportation to Children’s Hospital by friends. But in an e-mailed statement, Oakland Police Information Officer Danielle Ashford said that “without the names of the officers, I have no way of confirming whether or not those things were said. I can tell you, however, that it is the duty of every Oakland police officer to provide fair, courteous, and professional service at all times.” 

Davenport said that he and a companion were approached by two gunmen while sitting in their car on 90th Avenue near the gas station parking lot. At the time, the lot was filled with cars and people, and some drivers were in the street doing donuts. Davenport said one of the gunmen hit him in the head with the pistol when Davenport tried to escape, and then fired several shots at him as he ran away. It is not clear whether the same bullet that hit Davenport’s wrist also went through his side. A second man was shot during the leg in the parking lot at the same time, possibly during the same burst of gunfire. 

Davenport said he ran across Bancroft with at least one of the gunmen in pursuit, and hid between houses along 89th Avenue a couple of blocks away. There he discovered that he had been shot in the arm. He said he stemmed the bleeding by wrapping his shirt around the wound while he was hiding. 

One of Davenport’s companions, 19-year-old former Emery High student Wilkens Owens, said he was at the parking lot with Davenport, but was not near the car at the time of the shooting. “We heard bam-bam-bam, and everybody cleared out pretty fast,” Owens said. Neither Owens nor two other companions, in fact, saw the shooting or the following chase. When they returned to the car and couldn’t find Davenport, however, Owens said that they called Davenport on his cellphone and found out what had happened. “But our cellphone went dead before he told us where he was,” Owens said, “so we drove around looking for him. We knew he was someplace near.” 

Oakland police officers had arrived on the scene, meanwhile, and many began clearing cars away from the area. 

Owens said that during their frantic search, they were pulled over by two Oakland Police Department patrol cars. Owens said that the officers ordered them out of the area, even after they repeatedly insisted that they were searching for a friend who had been shot. Owens could not identify the officers other than two say that two were male and one was female. 

Owens said that he and his friends finally left the area and drove to a pay phone at 85th Avenue and International Boulevard, some 15 blocks away. Using a cellphone from a passerby they called Davenport. They doubled back to where Davenport was hiding and rushed him to the hospital. Owens said they ended up at Children’s Hospital while looking for Alta Bates after getting off the 51st Street exit from Highway 24. 

A second companion, who asked not to be identified, confirmed both Davenport’s account of the robbery attempt and Owens’ account of the search for Davenport and the incident with the police officers. The second companion, who said he was driving the search car, said that the police officers asked him for his license during what he described as a heated argument over remaining in the area to search for Davenport. The second companion described one of the police cars as a black “task force” car. 

“It was messed up,” the second companion said, describing the police attitude. “They didn’t even care that Anthony was shot.” 

Davenport’s aunt, Kelly Conlin, said that the family has not yet decided what further steps they make take concerning Oakland police action in the matter. Conlin also said the family presently had no information on whether the delay in getting Davenport to the hospital, or the initial treatment at Children’s Hospital, will have any effect on his recovery. 

Red light runners in Berkeley should prepare to smile as they illegally cross intersections this June when the city implements its new red light camera system. 

The technology has sparked disputes between motorist rights groups and safety advocates around the country, but in Berkeley, the chief concern is over a contract the city signed giving the camera manufacturer, Transol USA, a cut of every traffic ticket meted out. 

At its last meeting of 2003 the City Council voted unanimously to install red light cameras at the intersections of Adeline Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, University Avenue and Sixth Street and University and Shattuck avenues. In return for paying to install the cameras and operate the system, Transol is to receive $48 of every ticket collected. Red light tickets cost offenders $321, of which Berkeley, under its agreement with Transol, would receive $161. 

The council vote came two weeks before a state law went into effect prohibiting future contracts that gave red light camera manufacturers a portion of ticket revenues. 

Berkeley couldn’t afford red light cameras if it had to either buy or lease the equipment and operate it, according to a city report from City Manager Phil Kamlarz.  

State lawmakers prohibited cities from signing future deals giving camera manufacturers a cut of ticket revenue out of concern that the arrangement gave them both financial incentive to ticket as many motorists as possible. In California two local governments which also gave camera manufacturers a cut of ticket revenues suspended operations after findings that the cameras were untrustworthy and unreliable.  

San Diego suspended its program on June 1, 2001 after a judge threw out 300 tickets on grounds that the manufacturer Affiliated Computer Systems had failed to maintain the cameras to the point that the pictures were not admissible as evidence. In April 2002, the city and county of Sacramento suspended its program also run by ACS for discrepancies between the manual ACS prepared and the actual functioning of the system. Later an appellate panel of Sacramento Superior Court threw out a red light violation on grounds that ACS maintenance logs failed to show that the cameras functioned properly. 

A 2002 state audit on red light cameras warned local governments that giving manufacturers a share of ticket revenue might become an incentive for vendors to maximize the number of citations “and create a poor perception of the red light camera program by the public.” As of 2002, 20 local governments in California employed red light cameras. 

“Most of the vendors have switched over or are in the process of going to a flat fee to avoid the appearance of conflict, “ said Judith Stone, President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a proponent of red light cameras. 

With the cameras nearly installed, city officials say their system will be fair to motorists. “We have clear and precise rules for what constitutes a valid red light violation and these are the rules which every potential violation is filtered through, and even then only a qualified police officer makes the decision to approve or reject a case,” wrote Hamid Mostowfi, Berkeley’s supervising transit engineer in an interview conducted via e-mail. 

Mostowfi said that, unlike in San Diego where the red light camera system was connected through traffic signal controllers, Berkeley’s camera system will have no connection to the signal controller and thus can’t affect signal operation. 

Under Berkeley’s system, Transol representatives will review red light camera photos and forward apparent violations to Berkeley police for additional study. 

Lt. Bruce Agnew of the BPD said that three police officers will be responsible for reviewing the photos. Only cases where pictures clearly identify the driver’s face and the license plate number will be admissible, he said. Agnew added that anyone who receives a ticket in the mail will be invited to come to police headquarters to view the series of still photos of the incident. 

“They can then make up their mind whether it’s worth contesting,” he said. 

On intersections marked with crosswalks, state law defines running a red light as failing to cross the outer edge of the outermost crosswalk line when the light turns red. If any portion of the car crosses that line while the light is yellow, there is no violation. 

Agnew said Berkeley police primarily focus on pedestrian right-of-way and speeding enforcement. Berkeley anticipates that the cameras will generate between 90 and 100 tickets a month at each of the three intersections. At $161 per ticket, Berkeley would take in roughly $550,000 a year from the cameras. 

“I would have looked a lot more carefully at this type of program in our community,” said Councilmember Max Anderson, who wasn’t on the council for the 2003 vote. “I’m not a big fan of surveillance cameras.” 

Asked if the cameras could detect anything other than red light violations, Mostowfi, replied, “Not at this time”. He added that in accordance with the new state law that seeks to secure the privacy of the driver, Berkeley would shred red light camera photos within six months. 

The five-year contract with Transol offers the city an option to end the program once a year or to expand it to more intersections. To meet the state-mandated 30-day notice period before launching the program, Mostowfi said the city will begin media announcements and issue warning letters to offenders rather than tickets for the first 30 days the cameras are in operation. 

Transol, an Austrialian-based company, is a relatively new entrant to the California market for red light cameras. There are no reports that judges or municipalities have shut down their systems. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington defended the council’s approval of the cameras. “I see it as a safety thing,” he said. “If people see a higher chance of getting a ticket, they will run fewer red lights and it will be safer for pedestrians and other drivers.” 

Red light cameras have had mixed safety benefits, depending on the study. In Oxnard, Calif., broadside accidents—the type most associated with motorists running red lights—decreased by 32 percent, according to a 2001 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a supporter of red light cameras. According to the state audit, a San Diego report, using data from 1995 through 2001, found that red light violations in the county decreased by 20 percent to 24 percent, but rear-end collisions increased by 37 percent. The report assumed that rear collision rates would decrease over time as drivers became more accustomed to the lights. 

For drivers weary of the new technology, online merchant Phantom Plate offers a spray it claims makes license plates highly reflective and unreadable when the camera flashes. According to the state audit, of seven local governments reviewed, they enforced only 23 percent of violations because of the difficulty of obtaining clear photographs.ª

Berkeley City Councilmembers will meet an hour before their regular Tuesday night meeting to consider the new—and final—five-year-plan for the West Berkeley Redevelopment Area. 

Sitting as the Berkeley Redevelopment Agency, the council will also hear a staff report on the history of the district, originally established in 1967. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in council chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Creation of the district blocked industrial expansion into the area bounded by Cedar Street on the north, University Avenue on the south, the I-80 Frontage Road on the west and Sixth Street on the east. 

The project area also includes the rail stop and transit plaza adjacent to the now vacant 1913 Southern Pacific Railroad Station, including a narrow strip along the Union Pacific rails between Hearst Avenue and Addison Street and a second strip along University Avenue extending from the tracks to Fourth Street. 

Construction on the plaza began in late February, and the $2.4 million project will include nighttime lighting, a canopy covering the trackside area, improved access for the disabled, street repaving and new striping for more efficient access by buses, bicycles, paratransit, shuttles and taxis, landscaping and benches. 

The site will include four bus pads, 18 two-hour parking spaces and six long-term slots with no time limits. 

Iris Starr, the planner in charge of the project, said the long-term spaces will be of particular help to commuters who catch an early morning train to jobs at UC Davis. 

The project is scheduled to be completed in the next two or three months. 

“The number one thing is for it to be a good-looking, long-lasting project, but I’ll settle for on-time and on budget, too,” Starr said. 

The creation of the transit node, as it’s known in plannerese, could create some additional controversy in light of recent changes in state law. 

The landmarked rail station is in the same square block where Urban Housing Group (UHG) plans to build a major new mixed-use housing and commercial project. UHG, a subsidiary of real estate investment giant Marcus and Milichap, specializes in building projects at transit nodes. 

The project has drawn fire from preservationists and some neighbors. Preservationists are worried because the site includes another Berkeley landmark, the now vacant Celia’s restaurant, which was designed by architect Irwin Johnson and designated a structure of merit by the Landmarks Preservation Commission earlier this year. 

The commission refused to designate another building on the site, Brennan’s Irish Pub, which UHG has promised to install in the railroad station. 

Of special concern are recent changes in state law which allow cities to ease normal zoning requirements within the immediate vicinity of transit-oriented developments. Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks said the city has no plans at the moment to implement the provision. 

“No one has asked the staff if they would apply it to this or any other project,” he said. 

John McBride, who sits on the advisory-only West Berkeley Project Area Committee, said the provisions allow zoning for transit-oriented projects without the normal findings of blight required for most redevelopment projects and allow development without any reference to the city’s General Plan. 

The advisory committee itself is slated for dissolution at the end of 2006 as the redevelopment project winds down. 

Remaining projects to be completed during the new and final five-year plan include paving of Second Street in the industrial area of the West Berkeley Project Area and the creation of an access route along Addison Street to the pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the Eastshore Freeway, as well as landscaping improvements along area streets. 

º An agreement between the state and the city housing department cleared a major hurdle this week for the Ed Roberts Center, a planned facility serving Berkeley’s disabled community, when a state agency verbally agreed to withdraw its objections. 

“We’re very pleased,” said center President Jan Garrett. 

Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton and center representatives met in Sacramento this week with State Historic Preservation Officer Milford Wayne Donaldson, who had raised objections to the project last fall and again in January. 

During a meeting in the office of Berkeley Assemblymember Loni Hancock Monday, Barton said, city officials clarified issues of impacts of the modernist building to existing historic properties which could qualify as national landmarks. 

Official city recognition of potential landmarks resolved part of Donaldson’s reservations, and the others vanished when the center agree to install four more trees to shield much of the building from Adeline Street, Barton said. 

“They said the building was well done,” Barton added. 

The center must still provide Donaldson with architectural drawings showing the additional trees before he can sign off on the project, which could happen within the next two weeks. 

Garrett said there are many steps remaining before the center becomes a reality, but Donaldson’s verbal acceptance paves the way to removal of the biggest stumbling block. 

Without his endorsement, the center couldn’t receive critical federal funding—which requires official acknowledgment by the state that the project won’t have significant negative impacts on historical resources within the structure’s vicinity. 

“We determined they have good screening and setbacks on three sides, but a strong impact from the facade. The architecture is stunning, really nice, but perhaps in the wrong place,” said Donaldson. “But with skillful mitigation, it works.” 

The state official praised the city staff for their handling of the project. Austene Hall, a preservation activist with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, was less well disposed to the city’s conduct. 

“It’s been very disappointing,” Hall said. “We sent a letter to the city on Feb. 5 asking to be a consulting party on the project, but the city has never replied to or acknowledged our request. We believe that BAHA should be a party to the final review.”ô

The fountain at Civic Center Park will stay dry indefinitely after the City Council Tuesday unanimously rejected a proposed $600,000 renovation.  

The council also voted unanimously to eliminate the Citizen’s Budget Review Commission and the Civic Improvement Corporation as well as to combine the Fire Safety Commission with the Disaster Council. 

The council split on reducing the meeting schedule for other commissions, agreeing to forward suggestions for further cuts to the city manager by May 17. 

In a pair of narrow votes, the council directed the Planning Department to consider rezoning Ashby Avenue and Gilman Street below San Pablo Avenue to allow for more retail shops and auto dealerships, and approved $60,000 for a July 4 fireworks show to be paid for by higher marina fees. 

Tuesday’s meeting was dedicated to budget issues. This year the council faces a $8.9 million structural deficit. At the same time it must determine how to allocate an extra $10.5 million that the city expects to receive over the next four years, mostly from property tax revenue. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz has urged the council to allocate the funds for capital projects rather than preserving city programs. But, in the case of the fountain, pressure from groups facing decreased funding made the project politically costly. Pool users flooded councilmembers’ inboxes with e-mails demanding that a share of the money slated for the fountain go to keep one pool open this winter. And at Tuesday’s meeting other groups, angry over funding reductions, took aim at the fountain. 

“I think that services [for youth] are a more pertinent need than a fountain full of water,” said Mark Gambala of Berkeley Youth Alternatives. 

While rejecting the $600,000 fountain renovation, the council agreed to spend $40,000 on additions to the fountain depicting turtles and honoring indigenous peoples and $60,000 on foundation work to prepare the fountain to spout water when the council decides to pay for the project. Local Native American advocates had lobbied city officials for the turtle art installation.  

Councilmember Darryl Moore proposed dedicating some of the money saved to keep one pool open this winter. Although Mayor Tom Bates concurred that there was strong sentiment for the pool, the council couldn’t vote for proposal because it wasn’t on their agenda. 

The rejection of the fountain project means that the council still has approximately $4 million in revenue to allocate for next year’s budget, which they must approve by the end of June. Last month, the council set aside $3.5 million in unanticipated tax revenue from the current year’s budget for a series of projects, the most expensive being a $2.4 million allocation for a new police dispatch system. 

Renovation of the fountain, which arrived in Berkeley in the 1940’s and stopped working about 20 years later, was to be the centerpiece of a redesigned Civic Center Park. The park upgrade, which includes a new play area near Center Street, is scheduled to proceed with money primarily from Measure S, a 1996 city bond initiative for downtown improvements. The bond, along with some state financing, was supposed to pay for the fountain as well the other park upgrades, but rising construction costs sent the total project over budget. 

Citizen Commissions 

The council Tuesday struck its first blow against Berkeley’s 45 citizen commissions. At the suggestion of Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the council eliminated the Citizens Budget Commission, which city staff had merely requested to reduce meetings from once a month to four times a year. 

The commission had typically been quiet on budget issues, but last year urged the council to reopen union contracts and reject tax increases. 

City brass has asked the council to scale back commissions and commission meetings in order to free up staff for other projects. But when it came to further commission cuts, the council was sharply divided. 

“It’s pretty much an absurd idea,” Worthington said. He and Councilmember Dona Spring argued that the city wouldn’t realize any reduced staff time because issues that would otherwise have been settled by commissions would instead go to the council.  

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak replied: “We have to find some savings here. To say this is a sacred cow is foolish.” Mayor Bates suggested reducing meeting frequencies for commissions, but allowing them to appeal to the city manager for additional meetings. 

West Berkeley Zoning 

A 5-4 council majority, hoping to boost sales tax revenues, voted to order the planning department to consider new zoning rules for Gilman Street and Ashby Avenue west of San Pablo Avenue. Councilmembers Linda Maio, Max Anderson, Spring and Worthington opposed the proposal, saying that changing zoning rules would threaten industrial businesses in West Berkeley. 

“If they rezone, we’re gone,” said Mary Lou Van Deventer, owner of Urban Ore. She expected her rent to quadruple if zoning were changed to allow retail businesses at her site. Substantial portions of Ashby and Gilman are zoned for industrial uses. However, with city sales tax revenue stagnant and auto dealerships—the city’s highest sales tax contributors—threatening to move, city leaders have urged opening up more of Gilman and Ashby to commercial uses. 

“We need that sales tax,” Wozniak said. Councilmember Darryl Moore, whose district includes the southern portion of West Berkeley, said it would have been “inconsistent” for the council to talk about increasing sales tax revenue at previous meetings and then request that that the planning department maintain a balance between land zoned for commercial and industrial uses. 

Opponents of rezoning the two freeway arteries asked that the city reconsider zoning for all of West Berkeley rather than looking only at the major corridors. Planning Director Dan Marks, however, said the department didn’t have enough staff to undertake a complete review of the West Berkeley Plan. Lack of manpower is forcing the planning department to put other projects on hold, including implementing changes to the University Avenue Strategic Plan, establishing quotas on restaurants on Euclid Avenue and reviewing zoning rules for San Pablo Avenue. 

Fourth of July Fireworks 

Berkeley will once again celebrate July 4 with fireworks at the marina this year. The council voted 5-4 (Olds, Spring, Wozniak, no, Worthington, abstain) to raise the marina fee to pay for the annual $60,000 celebration. The event was at risk because marina fees are already slated to increase 10 percent a year for the next three years to pay for repairing the marina’s dock. The fireworks celebration will increase the fee by less than one percent. 

“It’s a hallmark of our town,” said Councilmember Linda Maio in support of the fireworks. Councilmember Worthington said $60,000 was too much to spend on one event, and Councilmember Betty Olds based her opposition on the plight of animals on the marina. “I’m sure they all think they’ve moved to Iraq,” she said, concluding that the festivities disrupt wildlife that hasn’t finished nesting. 

The council held off making cuts to other special events until May 10. 

On Sept. 13, 1971, a four-day revolt against abominable prison conditions ended with police and guards storming Attica State Prison, killing 32 inmates and 11 corrections officers. At Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, U.S. military and private prison guards have tortured prisoners. In Dublin, Calif., and other federal prisons around the country, inmates known for political activism have been convicted for alleged criminal acts. Political prisoners—some charged as criminals, many not charged at all—sit in jails in Palestine, the Philippines, Haiti and elsewhere.  

The United States’ role in supporting the criminalization of political activities must stop, says Kali Akuna, an organizer with the conference “Attica to Abu Ghraib” that begins tonight at 6 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. with a keynote address by Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Georgia.  

The conference, which continues Saturday at Barrows Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, is the beginning of a movement to let the U.S. government know “there’s a base that’s not going to tolerate its attempts to legitimatize torture as standard operating procedure,” Akuna said. (Barrows Hall is just north of Heart Gym near Bowditch Street and Bancroft Way.)  

Various panels on political prisoners, torture and the U.S. government role begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and continue all day. 

Organizations have been working in isolation on political prisoner and torture issues, Akuna said. This is an opportunity to bring the groups together and create a powerful movement, they say. There are political prisoners in almost every country. “They are denied political prison status,” Akuna said. 

United States’ prisoner abuse at home is not well known, said Judith Mirk, another conference organizer. 

“For 50 years the U.S. has been isolating prisoners, locking them up for 24 hours a day,” she said. Isolation is just one form of torture. Using Guantanamo as an example, the U.S. is “trying to make the idea of torture acceptable,” she added.  

The conference will “expose what’s going on and make the connections,” Mirk said, noting that this weekend’s gathering is just the beginning. A Day of International Solidarity with Political Prisoners is already planned for Dec. 3.  

For more information on the conference, go to www.attica2abughraib.com or call (415) 273-4608 or (510) 593-3956.

Professor L. Ling-chi Wang’s colleagues across the country tell him he’s lucky to work at UC Berkeley, a bastion of academic freedom.  

But Wang, an associate professor in the departments of ethnic and Asian studies, says he knows better: “I’ve always maintained to friends and colleagues that (UC) Berkeley is anything but progressive. It is so conservative that the students have no choice but to rebel.”  

Most recently the university administration declined to support Ethnic Studies Department efforts to put on and promote a teach-in on torture, scheduled for April 28. Wang says he won’t go so far as to say the university’s failure to support the teach-in was a conspiracy against him or an attempt to undermine the First Amendment, but still, he says, “I have to wonder if it’s a deliberate effort.”  

While the university sends out releases to the press almost daily, highlighting conferences, exhibits, sporting events, faculty deaths and such, Wang said he was unable to get the public relations department to fax publicity on the torture teach-in to the media. After making the request, he followed up and was told that “higher ups” were considering it. It took a week for the department to finally turn down the request, making independent efforts to publicize the conference difficult, Wang said.  

Identifying herself as the “higher-up” who makes decisions on what publicity to release, Marie Felde, UC’s director of media relations, said that sending out press material is a question of priorities. Last week, when the request came to them, there were a number of critical issues to which the department had to respond: a hazing incident, the inauguration of the new chancellor, labor issues, Cal Day and more. 

“We can only do so much at one time,” Felde said.  

And then there was the question of getting a room for the teach-in. Even with more than a month lead time, Wang was unable to schedule a venue at the university. Scheduling manager Walter Wong, however, says there’s no conspiracy against Wang. It’s hard to get large rooms for special events on weekdays when classes are in session, he said.  

Had this been the only time the university failed to adequately support a project sponsored by his department, Wang said he could have shrugged it off. But this lack of assistance comes directly on the heels of another event where Wang had to fight the university for logistical support. That was when the Ethnic Studies Department invited the highly controversial University of Colorado professor, Ward Churchill, to speak March 28. Churchill has come under fire for post Sept. 11 writings in which he argued that the attacks on the World Trade Center were a direct response to U.S. policies responsible for deaths of hundreds of thousands in the Middle East.  

University officials wanted the noontime event held at Clark Kerr campus, about a mile from the university. Wang argued that would have discouraged students from attending. He said it took a lot of time and pressure to get the venue approved at centrally-located Pauley Ballroom; when it was finally given an OK, he had only three days to alert the public to the event.  

Wang underscores that in both instances—the Churchill event and the torture teach-in—that he can’t be sure the lack of support from the university is directed at him or his department. “I’m not prepared to say it’s a conspiracy,” he says.  

Nevertheless, he places the lack of support in the context of what he sees as increasing conservatism on campus and points to a well-publicized incident two years ago to make his point: Associate Vice Chancellor Robert Price removed two paragraphs in a fund-raising letter for a research project on Emma Goldman’s life and work. The deleted remarks were Goldman’s call to protest “war madness” and a warning about the loss of free speech. (Officials reportedly said at the time that they feared Goldman’s remarks, quoted prominently at the top of the letter, would be construed as university opposition to war in Iraq.)  

In trying to understand why only 104 academics signed the call for the torture teach-in, which includes an invitation to the attorney general and secretary of state, Wang says some of his colleagues believe it’s because of a political climate since Sept. 11 that has chilled free speech. But Wang says he thinks it has more to do with a growing apathy and conservatism on and off campus. “There’s no moral indignation and outrage,” he said.  

Robert Knapp, professor of classics and chair of UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate—the organization, which speaks for the university’s professors—sees campus politics in a different light. He says the university community continues its tradition of support for those who speak out on controversial subjects. “I don’t see people being silenced or told they can’t organize a conference or invite people (to speak),” he said. Pointing to campus opposition to the Patriot Act and its support for the First Amendment, he asserted, “Berkeley is still a very liberal place.”  

The teach-in on torture kicks off with a rally at noon April 28 in Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus, then shifts to the Berkeley Repertory Theater at 2025 Addison St., with panel discussions focusing on United States’ promotion of torture at home and internationally; the conference ends in the evening with a discussion on creating a national movement to write policy opposing United States torture. Participants include: Barbara Olshansky, CCR lead Guantanamo lawyer; Lucas Guttentag, ACLU case against Rumsfeld; Marjorie Cohn, International Human Rights Law Professor and National Lawyers Guild vice president, Uwe Jacobs, Survivors International director, Terry Karl, Stanford Political Science professor, expert on Latin American torture; Carlos Mauricio, torture survivor and As'ad AbuKhalil, human rights advocate. For more information go to www.teach-intorture.org.  

Teach-In on Torture, a call to action against torture, will include a noon rally on Thursday April 28 at Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley. The teach-in will be held 1:30-10 p.m. at the Thrust Theater at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addision St. For more information, see www.tortureteachin.org. 

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Driving home close to midnight after an 11-hour workday last August, Carol Harris never expected to become embroiled in a free speech fight.  

But when the 51-year-old Oakland resident saw union protesters outside the Claremont Hotel holding up signs urging motorists to honk in support, she said she gave three quick beeps. The next thing she knew a Berkeley police officer had pulled her over on Tunnel Road and given her a $143 ticket for “Unreasonable use of horn.” 

“It was my First Amendment right to honk,” said Harris, who lists her occupation as a freelance worker. “I can empathize with what the protesters were doing. I had just finished being paid $11 an hour standing on my feet all day as an usher. And they don’t give me health insurance either.” 

Harris filed a complaint with Berkeley’s Police Review Commission, and this Thursday, a three-member panel of the commission will decide if BPD Lieutenant Wesley Hester violated his discretion in ordering police to ticket passing motorists who honked in support of the protest. Police estimate they wrote between 30 and 40 tickets for “unreasonable use of horn” outside the Claremont Hotel late night Friday August 27. 

In a taped interview with the Police Review Commission, Lt. Hester defended his decision. “Every licensed driver is supposed to know the rules of the road and [the rules] strictly prohibit the use the horn unless it falls under certain parameters,” he said. “It was not appropriate in my opinion in this situation.” 

Hester said the BPD had received numerous calls from residents across the street from the Claremont’s entrance on Tunnel Road complaining that the protesters were keeping them awake. 

“It generated so many calls over the course of several hours that it was necessary to send people there just to minimize the discomfort that the neighbors were feeling,” Hester said. 

Police succeeded in stopping protesters from banging pots and using megaphones after 10 p.m., Hester said, but as the honks persisted, he ordered officers to enforce the vehicle code that states that a driver may use the horn only “to ensure safe operation” of the car. 

The Police Review Commission doesn’t have the power to overturn Harris’ ticket, but if it finds in her favor it can seek to initiate a new city policy against ticketing motorists who honk in support of demonstrators.  

“I want to make sure that no one else is extorted out of $143,” Harris said. 

The case is not cut and dried, said Jesse H. Choper, a constitutional law professor at Boalt Hall. “Does the interest in having privacy and quiet at 11:45 p.m. overcome her First Amendment interest? It’s a close call.” 

Choper added, “I don’t think the lieutenant abused his discretion. It was a reasonable action, but reasonable is not always good enough when first amendment rights are concerned.” 

Choper called on the city to draft a clearer policy on horn honking for future cases. As for the ticket: “If I were the traffic court judge, I’d rip it up. It was excusable.” 

Harris said she chose not to fight the ticket because a “courtesy notice” from Berkeley traffic court said she had been cited for “use of horn” rather than “unreasonable use of horn” as stated on her ticket. 

“I couldn’t dispute that I honked the horn,” she said. “If you argue with a judge, especially one of those mean ones in Berkeley, it’s futile.” 

The protest, organized by the Oakland-based Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 2850, was meant to commemorate the three-year anniversary of their boycott against the Claremont, which has not come to terms with spa workers. 

In a previous interview with the Daily Planet, former union leader Claire Darby said demonstrators tried to make a sign warning protesters not to honk after police decided to start issuing tickets, but couldn’t find anything big enough to convey the message in the dark. She added that neighbors had complained about the 27-hour protest and asked them for warning before scheduling another. 

Harris had little sympathy for hotel neighbors. “They can complain all they want to,” she said. “If they don’t like it they should move to a strictly residential street where there isn’t a major hotel and thoroughfare.” 

She did empathize for the officer who ticketed her, Thomas Grove, who she said apologized for having to issue the ticket. “He wasn’t rude in any way,” she said. 

Asked how he handled the traffic stops in an interview with the PRC, Grove said, “It’s the first citation I’ve written for unreasonable use of the horn so I understand people having some issues with it. I just tried to explain it the best I could to people.” 

“Interpreters work best when they’re unnoticed, when you do your job so well no one knows you’re there,” explained Berkeley resident Fred Burks. 

But Burks did get noticed—and that’s why he no longer translates for George W. Bush or the State Department. 

His problems with the feds began last October during the heat of last year’s presidential campaign, when Burks sent out an e-mail endorsing the idea, then cascading through the Internet, that George W. Bush had worn a secret listening device during that autumn’s presidential debates with John Kerry. 

What led Burks to that conclusion was Bush’s own performance in White House discussions with then-Indonesian Prime Minister Megawati Sukarnoputri on Sept. 19, 2001, eight days after 9/11. 

“He talked so deeply and intelligently about Indonesia and he had no notes,” Burks said. “I concluded that either he’s brilliant, or he had some kind of listening device. After talking with colleagues, we assumed it had to be a listening device.” 

Yet in other meetings with his advisors present, Bush occasionally floundered. “He would turn to his advisors and say, ‘I don’t know what to say. Tell me what to say.’ And they’d tell him what to say.” 

When Internet reports containing photographs of Bush apparently wearing something odd on his back during the presidential debates surfaced, Burks sent an e-mail to the blogmeister Bob Fertik at democrats.com endorsing the listening device theory. 

“Things really accelerated then,” Burks said. 

In retrospect, he acknowledges that sending the e-mail was ethically questionable, but said most of the blame rests with the State Department, which had never bothered to demand a signed confidentiality oath from him.  

“It’s an example of government foolishness,” said the 47-year-old bachelor who shares a home with a young family near the North Berkeley BART station. “Most of government is a huge, inefficient bureaucracy. That’s why there was no confidentiality agreement. It sort of slipped through the cracks.” 

Burks said, “Back in 2000 they sent out a single-sheet secrecy clause, but with no due date to sign it. It was way too restrictive, and barred us from discussing anything we saw or heard for the rest of our lives unless we obtained the appropriate approval. I didn’t sign because I won’t sign anything I know I’m going to violate.” 

After Burks sent his e-mail, the State Department mailed out new contracts to replace the previous version, and this one included the same mandatory secrecy clause he had refused to sign separately four years before. 

“I called up my supervisor and said there was going to be a problem,” he said. 

Threatened with the possibility of termination because of his e-mail, Burks talked to a former supervisor, then concluded it was time for him to resign. A little more thinking, and Burks decided he didn’t want to quit. 

A sympathetic supervisor tried to work out a way he could continue as before on a case-by-case basis or through a purchase agreement. But then came an e-mail from on high demanding he sign the secrecy clause in any event. Burks quit instead. 

“Once I resigned,” he said, “I felt free.” 

That’s when the press began taking real notice of the maverick interpreter who showed no reluctance in spilling the beans. The Washington Post took notice on Dec. 9, and other papers followed. 

The ramifications of his revelations took on international significance when he was asked to testify in the Indonesian trial of Abu Bakir Bashir, an Islamic cleric the White House accused of masterminding the Oct. 12, 2002 terrorist bombing of a nightclub on the island of Bali that killed 202, and one Aug. 5, 2003 of the Marriott Hotel in downtown Jakarta that killed 12. 

The Bali attack occurred on the second anniversary of the al Qaeda attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors and the terrorists who rammed an explosives-laden small craft onto the warship. 

Burks described a secret meeting between Megawati, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce and Karen Brooks. Burks said Brooks was a CIA officer who was introduced to Megawati as a special assistant to the president. Accordng to Burks, the Americans told the Indonesian leader that her position would be endangered if she failed to hand over Bashir in secret. 

Washington charges that Bashir is the head of Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical Islamic group linked to al Qaeda, though “most Indonesians don’t even think the group exists,” said Burks. 

Megawati refused the request, he testified, on the grounds that the cleric was too popular with the Indonesian public. Another cleric vouched for Burks’ account, saying he too had been pressured by Boyce in March, 2004, to urge Indonesian security officers to keep Bashir in prison when his sentence expired. 

Though Megawati declined to surrender the cleric to the Americans, the Indonesian government put him on trial the next year on charges of directing a terrorist organization, ending in a victory for the 68-year-old cleric. He was, however, found guilty of immigration violations and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. 

On his release from prison, Bashir was promptly rearrested and charged with masterminding the two bombings. 

Burks agreed to testify for the defense, and when he arrived in Indonesia in February, he found he had become a celebrity, followed everywhere by the press and the occasional autograph-hunter. 

“I was treated like a rock star, which was fine for the week that I was there, but enough to make me glad when things reverted back to normal,” he said. 

When the court rendered its findings on March 3, Bashir was cleared of involvement in the Jakarta bombing but convicted of conspiracy in the Bali blast. The 30-month sentence, less credit for 10 months served while awaiting trial, provoked outrage from Washington and Canberra, capital of the nation which had lost 82 civilians in the bombing. 

Burks said he enjoyed translating for leading officials, a job he started in 1995 after working as a State Department interpreter since 1986. He initially worked with the International Business Program which targeted people in their 30s and 40s who had been identified as potential leaders. 

“They bring them here for a month and they get to see whatever they wanted to see. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that I had to wear a suit and tie,” he said. 

The program has proven highly successful, and more than 150 of those targeted later went on to serve as leaders of their nations, including Anwar Sadat and Margaret Thatcher. 

Then in 1995 he got a call asking if he could go to Copenhagen that weekend and interpret for Al Gore at the U.N. Summit for Social Development. Burks was then summoned to the White House seven months later to interpret at a meeting between Suharto, Gore and President Bill Clinton. 

“Clinton was a whole other story,” Burks said. “”Everyone in the White House adored him. Bush was pretty friendly too, but it was more of a good ol’ boy thing.” 

Still, he said, “I was very impressed by Bush. I don’t like his politics, but he’s very personable, and as a person, he’s really nice. As an interpreter, you judge people by the way they treat you, and when I worked with him in person, he’d always look me in the eye and say, ‘You did a really good job.” 

Both men, he said, were driven by advisors. “Whoever controls the advisors controls the president,” he said. 

One of his more interesting lessons in Realpolitik came not during an interpreting session but before, when the White House Situation Room called in advance of a phone call between Megawati and Bush in 2003. 

“They had scheduled it for 15 minutes, and I asked if that would be enough time,” Burks said. “They told me they could guarantee it wouldn’t be over 15 minutes because Bush was scheduled to talk to a high Saudi Arabian official, and they don’t wait for anyone. 

“I thought, ‘Interesting. That really tells where the power lies.’” 

Burks is anything but conventional, which has made it easier for his State Department and White House critics. His beliefs have a strong New Age slant, and he’s an outspoken believer in UFOs. 

While a student at UC Santa Cruz, he took part in a program that placed students in overseas families to learn about different cultures. He learned Indonesian when he was sent there to live with an Islamic extended family of 20. He learned Chinese when he was sent to China by the same program on a teaching assignment. 

Trained as a nurse, he worked for 10 years with Alta Bates Herrick Hospital, doing both general and psychiatric nursing. Now jobless, he devotes his energies to three web sites, most notably wanttoknow.info, a collaborative site that features alternative perspective on international politics. 

“We recently reached the half-million visitor mark,” he said, “and we’ve had over a million page views.”?

Three separate bills inspired by the struggles over the polluted site of a proposed housing complex in Richmond are scheduled for hearings Tuesday in Sacramento. 

Meanwhile, members of the Richmond Progressive Alliance, joined by Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development (BARRD), have called for a public protest at the site three days after the hearings. 

The April 26 protests will target both Campus Bay, where the 1,330-unit housing complex is planned, and UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station next door. Both sites have been contaminated by more than a century of chemical manufacturing. 

The activists are urging the state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to act on a Richmond City Council resolution passed in February urging the agency to hand oversight of the sites to the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). 

At Tuesday’s hearings, the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials will consider three bills, two from Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley, Richmond), and a third by Cindy Montanez, a San Fernando Valley Democrat and political powerhouse. 

Hancock and Montanez presided over a Nov. 3, 2004 legislative hearing at the Richmond Field Station that explored the history of pollution and proposed development at Campus Bay. The hearing ended with a change of regulatory control, with most of the site passing from the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to the DTSC. The water board has no toxics expertise, while the state toxics agency is well-staffed with toxicologists and other experts. 

Both Montanez—who chairs both the powerful Assembly Rules Committee and the Select Committee on Environmental Justice—and Hancock vowed to craft legislation to change the way the handling of hazardous waste cleanups are handled on redevelopment sites. 

Montanez’s bill is designed to fix one of the major flaws in the current process, in which a developer is allowed to chose between regulators. As the law now stands, the developer can choose between the regional water board and the DTSC.  

Montanez’s legislation, AB 597, would impose: 

• The same public disclosure and participation standards on both agencies, with mandatory public notification of all decisions and proposed actions; 

• Public access to site assessments and proposed cleanup plans, both at the local office of the regulatory agency and in convenient public locations such as libraries. 

• A mandatory 30-day period for public review of the proposed cleanup plans, with the regulatory agency mandated to consider public comments. 

• A mandatory public meeting near the site during the public comment period if one is requested. 

• Coordination and integration of public participation activities—to the greatest extent possible—with other public agencies involved in the development, investigation and rehabilitation of the site.  

In her own district, Montanez has been at the center of battles over a planned development at a heavily contaminated site that once housed a plumbing fixtures manufacturing plant. In that case the developer chose the local water board as a regulator, effectively denying participation by an increasingly concerned public.  

One of Hancock’s measures—AB 1360—would hand jurisdiction of dry land sites to the DTSC, with the water board taking jurisdiction at the water’s edge. 

Her second bill—AB 1546—is designed to create a long-term fix by mandating the creation of a Cleanup Agency Consolidation Task Force which would be charged with creating the Department of Environmental Management (DEM). 

The DEM would combine the functions and staffs of the DTSC, the state and local water boards and the Radiological Health Branch of the state Department of Health Services into a single agency with standardized policies and rules for public access and participation. 

Sherry Padgett, who is scheduled to speak Tuesday along with Contra Costa County Public Health Director Dr. Wendel Brunner, is one of the organizers of the April 26 protest. 

Both Padgett and Gayle McLaughlin, a Richmond Progressive Alliance candidate elected to the City Council last November, hope next Friday’s protest will jar the state EPA—which includes both the water boards and DTSC—into compliance with a Richmond City Council resolution calling for both sites to be handed over to the DTSC. 

The water board currently has oversight of the UC Field Station as well as the marsh at the edge of Campus Bay. 

Both properties are currently targeted for development by Cherokee-Simeon Properties, a joint venture firm which has engaged in extensive development on Bay Area sites cleaned up under the water board’s aegis. 

UC Berkeley has resisted a takeover of the Field Station cleanup by DTSC. The school plans to build a corporate/academic research park on the site. 

With little discussion and only minor tweaking, Berkeley Unified School District directors unanimously passed a policy Wednesday night to modify the process of selecting new principals. 

Five principal positions currently need to be filled for next school year, including Berkeley Alternative, Willard Middle, and John Muir, Oxford, and Rosa Parks elementary schools. Berkeley Unified has already begun advertising for the positions. 

While the temporary hiring procedure modifies the makeup and duties of community and staff selection committees set up to screen applicants, Superintendent Michele Lawrence says that the intent is to make the process less cumbersome, and will not restrict input. Lawrence assured Student Director Lily Dorman-Colby that one to two students will be included on the Berkeley Alternative and Willard Middle screening panels. At Board Vice President Terry Doran’s request, she agreed to a modification that the district would solicit all parent applicants to the screening committees, not just from PTAs. Doran said he made the request to be more inclusive “because all parents don’t participate in the PTAs.” 

Director Joaquin Rivera said that the modified selection process was the same as the one used to hire Principal Jim Slemp at Berkeley High two years ago. 

In other action Wednesday night, the board: 

• Moved forward with a plan to reduce class sizes using Berkeley Schools Excellence Project (BSEP) funds and money from the 2004 Measure B class size reduction bond. The district is projecting average class sizes for the 2005-06 school year of 20 for grades K-3, 26 for grades 4-5, and 28 for grades 6-12. Board President Nancy Riddle noted that without BSEP and Measure B funds, and without qualifying for state reduced size subsidies, Berkeley’s average class size would be 39. “That’s California,” Riddle said. “That’s why we appreciate what Berkeley voters have done in these measures.” 

• In a continuing effort to bring the district out of “qualified” budget status, approved the elimination of eight classified employee positions, including three school bus drivers and two food service assistants. Director Doran called the decisions “tough.” Superintendent Lawrence said that “the food service positions are vacant, but there are real people attached to the other positions.” Lawrence said that more staff cutbacks will be forthcoming. 

• Approved a program that will allow summer school at the middle and high school levels that will be available only for students who have failed classes or, at the high school level, “are not making satisfactory progress toward high school graduation.” When Director Dorman-Colby asked if this was a change from the previous policy of allowing any student to attend summer school who wanted, Lawrence said, “yes. That’s one of the consequences of these budget cuts.” 

• Passed, on first reading, board bylaws. After several minutes of discussion, board members held off until their next meeting a decision on how board officers are chosen. One option would have board officers automatically selected based upon the totals given to them by Berkeley voters in elections to the board; another would have officers directly elected by the board directors themselves.ô

Click here to view the latest work by Planet cartoonist Justin DeFreitasÛ

WORK-TO-RULE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When negotiations between the teachers‚ union (BFT) and the school district came to a standstill, teachers started “work to rule”; we decided to confine our teaching work to the seven-hour and 10-minute contract day. “Work to rule” has been tough on everyone. It has also made me and my colleagues acutely aware of how many hours a week we ordinarily spend on activities connected to teaching, but beyond the scope of the responsibilities defined by the contract—from interacting with students and parents, to collaborating with other teachers, attending extra meetings and developing new curriculum. “Work to rule” has generated discussions about the state and nationwide dilemma Berkeley Board of Education is currently facing: how to pay its staff fair wages and remain fiscally sound. 

I know that Berkeley Unified School District is in a tough financial position. I know that California is in a tough financial position and that the federal government has a deficit that continues to spiral out of control. And I think I know why! Our nation’s priorities are, as my students would say, “messed up”! We continually send the message to our children and to other nations that we value domination, the power to inflict death, over life and sustainability—so much so that we choose to divert dollars away from much needed human services and into military spending.  

The City of Berkeley is infamous for making national headlines by issuing proclamations on international issues. It’s time for us to take a stand on a local issue that will reverberate statewide, nationwide, perhaps even internationally. We need to proclaim that educating our children is a priority and back it up by making funding choices that maximize positive, healthy interactions at the school site where adults interact daily with students. The Berkeley community (school board members, administrators, custodial staff, teachers, classified, and families—all of us) must arrive as soon as possible at the point where we are prepared as a community to up and march together to Sacramento proclaiming “These are our priorities!” I believe the Board of Education is waiting to hear from the Berkeley community. Please contact the board members and let them know what you think.  

Martha Cain 

Longfellow Teacher 

• 

HAZING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Isn’t it ironic that though there is a zero-tolerance policy towards hazing the “Berkeley chapter of Pi Kappa Phi had been disciplined four times in the past five years.” The stated policy, and the subsequent “discipline” are clearly not in sync. If the authorities do not take hazing seriously, the students won’t either. Hazing will be curbed when everyone, perpetrators, bystanders and authority figures are held responsible. 

Dr. Susan Lipkins 

Port Washington, NY  

• 

CITY EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the April 19 edition of the Daily Planet, Mr. Winard was not convinced with Zac Unger’s perspective on firefighter compensation and asked the Daily Planet to help verify whether public employees should contribute to their own pensions and if that would solve the city budget crisis. Below are some facts to help readers better understand the situation. 

First, Mr. Unger is not a Berkeley firefighter; he is an Oakland firefighter. Second, Berkeley firefighters and police officers both pay 9 percent of their annual salary into the pension system. Private sector employees pay 6.2 percent to Social Security.  

When Social Security was created in 1935, government employees were expressly excluded. Even when state and local governments were given the option to join the system in the 1950s, many fire departments were still legally barred from electing Social Security coverage until 1994. Berkeley firefighters, as well as other City of Berkeley employees are members of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). 

CalPERS generates revenue through contributions from the employee, the employer, and investment income. According to CalPERS, 65 percent of the revenue to pay for retirement benefits is generated from investment income. Social Security relies totally on income taxes, payroll taxes, and interest earned from borrowed Social Security funds by the U.S. Treasury department. During the 1990s the stock market had significant growth resulting in pension rebates paid to the city or a decrease in the city’s contribution rate to zero or low single percentages. Due to the collapse in the stock market in 2001 and 2002, the investment return for CalPERS dropped dramatically, causing employer rates to return to the pre-1990s level. 

Regarding the issue of firefighter compensation, Berkeley top-step firefighters make $28.77 per hour and are scheduled to work 900 more hours annually than private sector employee. Maybe this is why Mr. Unger has a different perspective. 

Gil Dong, President 

Berkeley Fire Fighters Association 

• 

CIVIC CENTER FOUNTAIN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It has recently come to my attention that the city plans to spend $400,000 in general funds to restore the Civic Center fountain, which has been dry for over 20 years. In my opinion, restoring the fountain would be an unconscionable waste of the city’s capital and operating funds, given the current fiscal crisis. Spending scarce public resources on the fountain seems particularly ironic at a time when the city is considering closing the public pools—“water features” that are actually used and loved by the residents and that convey recreation and health benefits. Who are the constituents and what is the policy rationale for the fountain project?  

It is my understanding that the annual cost of operating the fountain is equivalent to operating one city pool. As a regular year-round swimmer who has participated in several private fundraising events over the last two years in order to keep the pools open, I am at a loss as to why the city would consider spending $400,000 in capital costs and $60,000 annually to maintain a non-essential “accessory” that does not provide tangible benefits to the community. 

In its budget process, the city has an obligation to prioritize programs that people actually use (such as the pools) over a fountain, an aesthetic luxury. 

Eve Stewart 

• 

CITY POOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On April 7, the San Francisco Chronicle’s ChronicleWatch reported that the Berkeley city manager had found some extra general fund revenue. He and the Parks and Recreation director propose to spend $600,000 on renovations and maintenance for the fountain in Civic Center Park while closing the swimming pools programs for half the year, fall and winter. This is a bad idea and misappropriation of funding. 

The pools programs provide public health support for children, seniors, the disabled and other adults who swim year round for health. In the fall and through the winter we swimmers are in the water every day, starting in the dark morning hours, even in the rain. 

In April, the California Department of Health Services and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research released three studies describing the health costs and economic costs of obesity and physical inactivity in adolescents and adults. Under these circumstances, Berkeley, who holds a strong history of innovative public health support, would do better to promote physical activities such as swimming rather than close its pools. 

For my part, I’m a daily swimmer in the King pool swimming programs. I need this pool. I have a disability with pinched nerves in my pelvis that is severely painful. Swimming and water exercise bring the only substantive pain relief I can get, so I work in the water every morning for about two hours, rain or shine and through the dark, cold winter. 

Stefan Welch 

• 

ACHIEVEMENT GAP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Michael Larrick deserves the highest praise for the views he expressed in his opinion piece, “Jefferson Elementary School, and Other Excuses for the Achievement Gap” (Apr. 19-21). The black community continues to hope that what we should call “name magic” will solve its problems. First if was the belief that replacing “negro” with “black” was a major part of the answer; then, when that didn’t seem to do much good, it was decided that “black” was also the wrong name, it should be “African-American.” But that hasn’t helped much either. Meantime, name magic continues to be applied to streets and schools, the latest example in Berkeley being the proposed renaming of Jefferson School. 

White liberals who go along with this nonsense are guilty of the worst kind of exploitation, because what is really going on here, and has been for decades, is the old projection racket. Most white liberals—particularly in the university—belong to the liberal arts community, and in today’s world, in which engineering, science, and business are king, that community is a relative have-not. It is perfectly natural, therefore, for these have-nots to project their plight onto worse-off have-nots, and to sympathize with and excuse every kind of bad behavior and wishful thinking in this latter group, calling it the result of “oppression” (in other words, not their fault).  

Yet very few if any of these white liberals would respond to the news that their children weren’t performing well in school, by demanding that the school change its name! Nor would any black coach tell a white player who wasn’t performing well, that his problem would be solved if he only would change his name. (Black superstars in the athletic and entertainment fields did not become multi-millionaires because they just happened to have the right names.) 

The correct response to blacks who want to blame slavery, and hence slave-owners like Thomas Jefferson, for their present miseries, is “That was then. This is now.” Every minority in this country that has raised itself from poverty has done so by recognizing that the only way out is through education, hard work, thrift, and having no more children than parents can raise and educate properly. That’s the only magic.  

Peter Schorer 

• 

DISGUSTED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a former student of Jefferson Elementary and a current one of Berkeley High, I read Michael Larrick’s recent commentary with disgust.  

To run with Larrick’s thesis: Yes. The escalating fight over the name of Jefferson school is concerning, because it is at heart a divisive and unwinnable struggle. No one, least of all elementary school students (who are not well equipped to judge Jefferson’s guilt without knowing greater detail about his life and times) should be forced to “take sides” and receive judgment for it. It is a bitter and injurious battle to fight for a more politically correct name and clearly one that has caused more hurt feelings and anger than a new and more tolerance-inspiring name is supposed to prevent. And, finally, it is unwinnable because whatever name is left standing, when everyone has fought until the bitter end, will mean anger for one “side.” It’s terribly sad when such—dare I say—adolescent fights are allowed to escalate beyond the school yard without the benefit of those peer mediators who roamed the yards while I was a student at Jefferson. 

And yet, what I find offensive and insulting in Larrick’s commentary is his judgmental assumptions about “black’s victimhood” and “education running counter to black identity.” Yes, victimization is present (among all students—have you talked to an adolescent lately?), but we are all responsible for our actions and our actions alone. Michael Larrick has no right to admonish black students for not “achieving.” His is a defensive and angry stance, demanding that black students live up to a standard of academic and social excellence as defined by various academic institutions, and Michael Larrick, respectively. His analysis of black’s failure to succeed fails to take into account an undeniable correlation between levels of poverty and race in the BUSD demographic: Black students are statistically poorer than white students. And, indeed, it doesn’t account for a group phenomena of black students being less engaged and less active, and thus less successful in school. Just today, when the accreditation committee announced their findings to BHS students and staff, they pointed out that there are “too many students in the hallways and...otherwise off-task....and these students [are] predominantly black.” With this fact in mind, it is hypocritical for Larrick to criticize a history fair that highlights the origins of topics obviously popular with black students at Willard Middle School: “NBA basketball, hip-hop, and hair weaves.” First of all, any of these topics has academic merit in cultural anthropology, musicology, or American history, and, second, the important point is that the students could relate to these topic and thus actively engage in school. Does this not fit with Larrick’s demands of black students? 

I was angered and insulted to read Larrick’s canard of students with whom I have studied and learned for 12 years in Berkeley schools and whom I respect greatly. I invite Larrick to bring his theories about black culture and the “low-sunken” academic standards of Willard students’ work and come to BUSD schools, because I think his principles of success could truly inspire black students to achieve where others have failed.  

Karin Drucker 

• 

JEFFERSON SCHOOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I hope that many people read the letter of Ms. Bonnie Killip regarding the proposed elimination of the name of Thomas Jefferson of a public school in Berkeley. Her letter in the April 8-11 issue explains why many African Americans can call themselves African Americans instead of African Africans. I too was shocked when I read about the possible change of the name of that school. 

It would almost be funny if it were not so sad. I would hope that the children in this school are taught some American history along with what ever is taught that caused this disgraceful proposal. 

Max Macks 

• 

FINAL JUDGMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Nancy Koerner’s letter (April 19-21) ends with an important question: “In the final judgment, is a person to be judged based upon one aspect of his life, or on his life as a whole?” That depends on the magnitude of that aspect, whether good or bad. 

Albert Einstein flunked as a husband and as a parent, was a lousy violinist, but all that will matter over time is his scientific achievement. 

I happen to be a former German Jew, and quite a few of my close relatives perished in the Holocaust. How would I feel about a school or other public building named after a significant participant in the Nazi crimes who later performed great public service—like former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim? I’d be appalled. There’s more distance between me and Jefferson, both in time and in the fact that I’m not a descendent of pre-abolition Americans. 

In the end, it may be a question of whose ox is being gored. 

Gilbert Bendix 

Kensington 

• 

IT COULD BE WORSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Becky O’Malley’s piece, “Protecting Berkeley Against Mothers and Babies,” was brilliant, as expected. However, I must remind all of us in Berkeley that things are even worse elsewhere. Remember Yoshihiro Hattori? He was the Japanese exchange student blown away in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1992 because he knocked at the wrong door while going to a Halloween party. The homeowner, who killed this completely inoffensive (and of course unarmed) adolescent was acquitted by a jury, the foreman of which gloated about the inalienable right of Americans to gun down trespassers, including kids in Halloween costumes. Yoshihiro Hattori’s father, who attended the trial of his son’s murderer, was disappointed and incredulous of the acquittal—as, indeed, was most of Japan. 

So—whenever we think that things couldn’t be worse, remember that they can be and usually are. 

Cliff Hawkins  

• 

GLOBAL WARMING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How the world will end global warming hit me a week ago down at Cesar Chavez park. I had just jogged to the top of one of the park’s hills when a six-foot-long insect with a 10-foot wing span, and huge bulging eyes swooped over my head. In the instant of horror the future flashed before me. Word of this mutant will be on the evening news and all hesitance on environmental action will cease. 

Within a year, Detroit will produce only hybrid cars. All military personnel will be reassigned to put solar panels on homes, factories and offices. Public transportation will be free, being subsidized by heavy taxes on “big box” stores. The taxes will help subsidize cheap taxis and jitneys that take commuters to and from BART. Windmills will be everywhere that there is a breeze, and in front of them to protect the birds there will be the huge mesh screens used at golf courses so the rich won’t lose their balls 

All we have to do for this to come to pass is make sure the media doesn’t discover that the insect was a kite. 

Ted Vincent 

• 

AC TRANSIT BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I respect Joyce Roy’s right to her observations and opinions (“AC Transit’s Van Hools Hated by Riders, Drivers,” April-14). Unfortunately, once she moved beyond her observations and opinions, virtually every fact in her comment is mistaken. 

AC Transit’s Van Hool A330s are “true low floor” buses in that they have a flat floor from the front all the way to the back wall of the bus. In a true low floor design, seats must be on risers in order to accommodate necessary elements such as fuel tanks, batteries and the drive shaft.  

Far from being “dreamed up in AC Transit’s ivory tower,” true low floor buses are the norm in Europe, ridden by millions of people every day. Every Van Hool A330 in the world is a true low floor bus with most of their seats on risers. All of the new Mercedes Citaro buses (the most popular bus in the world) are true low floor buses with most of their seats on risers. The same is true for new models from Volvo, Scandia, Fiat, etc., all with their seats on risers. Toyota and Nissan have similar models in Japan. 

One of the advantages of a true low floor bus is that it allows for a third door on a standard bus and a fourth door on an articulated bus. That , in turn, allows a proof-of-payment (POP) fare system to work much more efficiently. With a POP system, if a passenger has a proof that she or he has paid (such as a monthly pass, a transfer or some group pass such as the UC Berkeley Class Pass or an Eco Pass) she or he can board through any door. Passengers who need to pay board through the front door and pay as usual and get a receipt. Fare inspectors periodically come through to make sure that everyone has paid. 

With POP on the Van Hools, persons with any mobility difficulty would generally board through the wide middle door. For seniors and persons with disabilities that would give them immediate access to all seven ground level seats. For those with strollers, shopping carts, etc., they would have the large flat area in the middle of the bus for their devices. 

According to the APTA’s (American Public Transportation Association) 2004 Transit Fare Summary there are 22 agencies in North America that use POP on buses. POP is almost universal on light rail. If you have ridden light rail above ground in San Francisco, you have ridden on a POP system. If you have ridden light rail anywhere in San Jose or Sacramento, you have ridden on a POP system. 

In Europe, POP is ubiquitous on both bus and rail systems. Paris, for example, has used POP on buses for 40 years in my personal experience and still uses a form of POP today. (Paris is now experimenting to see if when they introduce a “smart card” (as the Bay Area is doing with TransLink) they can speed up boarding enough so that POP is no longer needed.) 

Every POP system deals with the interrelated issues of enforcement costs and fare evasion. There is some literature on those issues and AC Transit is struggling with them at the moment. I hope that we can find some solution and implement POP on an experimental basis soon. 

H. E. Christian Peeples 

At-Large Director, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District 

?

I don’t think that this is a column with a point to it, though I may not be the best judge. It’s just some observations about life swimming in the multicultural creek that we call East Oakland. 

A year or so ago, two or three Mexican-American men bought the house across the side fence from us. They are construction workers, I believe, because their backyard is stacked with wheelbarrows and shovels and scaffolding and other tools of that trade. At least one of them must also have some background in sound systems as well, I believe, because they have perfected the art of playing music at just that magic, neighbor-friendly level between too-faint-to-appreciate and too-loud-to-stand. On pleasant afternoons you can stand at our kitchen window and follow the melody through the trumpets and the guitars, which disappear from hearing as soon as you walk away from the sink. 

This is a phenomenon not to be taken lightly. Across one of our other fences, we once had neighbors who thought it perfectly acceptable to hire live mariachi bands—complete with amplifiers—for birthdays and other family celebrations. They came with a large family and thus had many occasions to celebrate. The bands also appeared to operate on the inverse of the AM radio broadcast principle—that is, the later it got after sunset, the higher they felt they needed to set the volume in order to be heard. One memorable night they went to three in the morning, and even the closed door of the far closet proved to be no sanctuary. From experience, I can tell you there is nothing quite so eerie as a man’s falsetto “eeeee, ha-ha-haaaaa!” following you into your bedroom late at night. Eventually the music stopped, either because these particular neighbors moved away or developed empathy. This being East Oakland, I would not entirely rule out that it might have been encouraged by things lobbed over the fences from surrounding yards. 

I know that this aversion to certain types of loud music is a racial-cultural-generational thing, all combined together. I can ratchet up the Temptations’ “Get Ready” or Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” or the Isley Brother’s “Twist And Shout” and shout along with them at the top of my lungs while rolling down International in my 1980s-era Toyota hatchback, and it don’t bother me a bit. I can do the same with War’s “City, Country, City” or Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla” or, unaccountably, Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” as well (I’m sure it’s a Lone Ranger thing). I find a common, celebratory theme that binds these songs and allows them to be shouted, not merely played (well, there wasn’t much celebratory about “Layla”; that one, I’m afraid, I simply can’t explain). But for a long time rap set my teeth on edge and through much of the ‘90s, I fought a running battle with the volume knob and the three of my daughters who were teenagers during those years. I think my problem with it might have been because the rap they were listening to in back in that day tended to be declaratory rather than celebratory, so that rather than being shouted, it feels like you are being shouted at, at least if you are of the over-40 generation. And the best of it—Tupac’s “I Ain’t Mad At Ya,” for example—demanded a mellow volume and a quiet, thoughtful corner of the house to be appreciated. 

Meanwhile, shortly after they moved in, my Mexican-American friends across the side fence commenced building a chicken pen in their backyard, and soon occupied it with a rooster. 

East Oakland was still farm country as recently as the 1940s, and remnants remain. As late as the ‘50s, my grandfather kept a pony in his backyard not far from East 14th and Seminary and in the same decade, near San Leandro Street and 85th, my parents raised chickens, slaughtered and dressed them, and sold them fresh out of a poultry shop. In recent years I continue to see farm animals in our neighborhood including once, walking up to International from the Coliseum BART station, a goat peering out between the slats in a wooden fence from behind someone’s house. And that doesn’t count the goats they set out in the hills along Leona Heights to mow the brush and grass. 

Ponies and goats and food-chickens have nothing on urban roosters, however. If you were raised up on cartoons and “The Real McCoys” and Depression-era novels, you are probably under the impression that roosters get up at first light and crow to announce the coming of dawn and the start of the day. But that is only because in the country, it pretty much stays dark outside all night. In the cities, roosters are more illumination-challenged and will get up at two or four in the morning, for example, to announce the presence of streetlights. Or security lights. Or somebody lighting a cigarette. When my oldest daughter lived in the apartment around the corner, I’m sure she would have shot the neighborhood rooster more than once if she’d had a gun, or scalded him with water boiled in a pot if she could have thrown it that far. Or brained him with the pot, for that matter. 

My mother’s particular bone to pick about our Mexican neighbors’ rooster was not the night crowing, but the smell, of which she had an intimate familiarity, having, as I said, raised chickens with my father for many years. My mother brooded over this intrusion to her nasal sensibilities for several weeks and one afternoon, standing on the back porch and seeing our neighbors across the fence, she confronted them about it. 

“You know, it’s against the law to have a rooster in the city,” she told them in her best grandmother tone. 

“We don’t have any rooster, ma’am,” one of the neighbors answered. 

My mother pointed out to him the evidence of the chicken coop, which she could clearly see from our porch. 

“Oh, yes, we used to have a rooster,” the neighbor explained with a sad look, “but he has died, unfortunately, just in the last few days. So we don’t have him any more.” 

At that moment the rooster, either just waking up or having heard his name called, walked around into the neighbors’ backyard from the side of their house, stretched, flapped his wings, eyed the afternoon sun which was beginning to fall out towards the estuary in the west and, perhaps getting his compass directions confused, commenced to crow. 

There was an awkward silence as our neighbors shuffled their feet under my mother’s withering glare. Then one of the men brightened with a thought, smiled, and clasping his hands together said to one of his housemates, “Look! Stefán! It’s a miracle!” 

No point to it, like I said, just notes from the faultlines of East Oakland, where her multicultures overlap. Bienvenidos, friends, and peace’out, too, if that’s still being said.ª

Dodged the Big One 

A burning cardboard box ignited by a malfunctioning hydraulic compressor at Consolidated Paper Co. at 2630 Eighth St. could have started a major conflagration, had not a passerby summoned the Fire Department Tuesday morning. 

Berkeley Fire Department Deputy Chief David Orth said company employees had extinguished the box without calling on BFD’s services. 

But fortunately a passerby spotted the smoke and called 911. 

When firefighters checked the scene they discovered embers still glowing, and paper on fire beneath a loaded dumpster. 

“If we hadn’t caught it, it could have been a really big fire,” Orth said. “The real message is that all fires should be reported. We talked to the company and they agreed and they’re now talking to all their employees.” 

Oven Blaze 

Another blaze 10 minutes earlier was safely contained in a residence at 1321 Haskell St. before it could do major damage to the residence. 

The oven fire did manage to ruin a $400 oven.

For the last 35 years, since Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970, we have come together as a global community to celebrate our planet and recognize the importance of a clean and healthy environment. The theme of Earth Day this year, “Protect Our Children and Our Future,” is an important reminder that our responsibility to build a cleaner, healthier and safer world is a long-term commitment to our children and the planet they will inherit. 

The Bay Area has long been a beacon of leadership on environmental issues, where people know that protecting our planet and our environment is a year-round commitment. 

In my district, businesses in Oakland, Berkeley and Albany have been working with public and private agencies to develop green business models, using cost-saving measures that reduce waste, conserve resources and add to their bottom line. 

In West Oakland, community residents, environmental groups, businesses, public agencies and elected officials are taking a collaborative approach to improving air quality and reducing asthma rates among local residents.  

These creative, collaborative efforts are examples of the sort of forward-thinking work going on in the Bay Area and around the country that should be informing our nation’s environmental policies. 

Sadly, that far-sighted vision is not shared by the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress, who continue to prioritize short-term corporate profits over the long-term health and safety of our children and the world they will live in. 

Just this week in the House of Representatives, we voted on an environmentally irresponsible energy bill that was conceived by and for the energy industry in secret meetings with Vice President Cheney. 

Instead of encouraging the development of clean, renewable energy, this pro-polluter piece of legislation gives over $37 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to the oil, nuclear and coal industries; opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other pristine public lands and coastal areas to oil and gas drilling; and endangers the public health by postponing the ban on MTBE and eliminating the product liability for the companies that produced it. 

The fact is, in the four years that President Bush has been in office, he has put together one of the worst environmental track records of any president in modern-day history. Instead of declaring and ensuring that no mother should have to worry about her children getting asthma, or that no company who pollutes our air, our land or our water will escape prosecution, or that no soldier should have to be deployed to the Middle East to be sacrificed for oil—he has done exactly the opposite. 

President Bush has rolled back countless environmental regulations designed to prevent pollution, weakening the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. He has consistently slashed funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, undermining its core function to protect our health and the environment, and he has lobbied for massive giveaways of public lands and resources to the energy extraction and logging industries. 

In effect, the Bush administration has been an environmental disaster. 

We need to change the dynamic in Washington. Instead of putting big business first, we need to put our children’s health first. We need to defend and protect the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. We need to protect critical habitats, and endangered species. And we need to empower the EPA to do its job. 

Let’s use the energy and dedication of Earth Day to recommit ourselves to changing that dynamic, so that in the future, when we celebrate Earth Day, we will be celebrating our successes in defending the environment, protecting our children’s health and securing our nation’s future.  

Congresswoman Barbara Lee represents California’s Ninth District.ô

A recent editorial by a Berkeley teacher confirmed my fears that teachers are not really hearing the truth about most parents’ opinions about the “work-to” rule. Ask any parent if they support higher pay for teachers and the answer is a resounding yes. We are well aware that the vast majority of teachers are dedicated, committed people that have our children’s best interest at heart. Of course we wish for them to receive the highest wages possible. However, ask a parent if they support the current union work action and I believe the majority will answer no.  

The teachers’ union implies that the school superintendent and board have an anti-teacher agenda and, as a result, teachers must fight this agenda with the current work action. But teachers must wonder, as I do, about the district’s incentive to deny an increase in the salary structure. If the money exists, and the future revenue stream seems predictable, why not ensure that salaries keep pace with other districts? Neither the board nor the superintendent benefit from unhappy, under-paid teachers. 

In my opinion, the board and superintendent have done a commendable job in providing real facts about the district’s financial situation and their financial priorities. It would seem that there are some additional revenues, along with a series of additional costs. Furthermore, while we have recovered from the recent near-bankruptcy, the district has not yet put aside its required reserve. I have not seen the union challenge these facts. Unless the union knows something about the finances that have not been disclosed, it is tough to see from where the funds for a higher pay-scale can come.  

The union’s claim that teachers have received no salary increase over the past several years is also not completely true. Each year Berkeley teachers move through a variety of “steps” and “columns.” Each new step and column is associated with a pay raise. Only the most senior of teachers, those that have achieved all steps and columns identified in the contract, have seen their salaries stay constant. All other teachers have received these standardized raises. It is true that the pay-scale associated with these steps has not changed in the last several years, but the claim that teachers have received no pay increase is specious. 

The biggest problem with the union’s work action is the implication that the only things being cut back are “voluntary” activities that teachers only complete in their spare time (like being forced to travel to Italy as a class chaperone). In fact, teachers have stopped preparing class lessons, issuing homework, and grading class room assignments. I find it amazing that these things are not already considered a mandatory part of the teaching day and not required by the existing contract. These items are essential to students’ learning and the union’s refusal to undertake these basic teaching activities is wrong. 

Finally, the recent editorial notes that many teachers are looking for greener pastures in other districts. Unfortunately, most BUDS students have no such option. Because we are committed to this school district for the long-term, we parents recognize that the district’s long-term financial stability, the preservation of programs like art, music, science and reading, and teachers’ salaries must be equally balanced.   

The teachers’ union has made its point. The board and superintendent must continue to carefully manage its spending and constantly evaluate priorities. It seems obvious that the state’s financial picture must get better and, should the BUDS continue its current approach, its financial situation will also improve. The board is on record as supporting higher teacher pay when finances allow. We all look forward to that time and we respectfully ask that teachers return to a full work day while we work together to solve the issues. 

Christopher Hudson is the father of two Berkeley public school students.ô

It’s not true that the vast majority of parents support the work-to-rule situation in the Berkeley Public Schools. Virtually every parent I’ve spoken with has been frustrated at the whole evolution of events and felt like their kid has been put in the middle of a complex conflict over benefits without being notified, fully informed and where their kids education has been held hostage to a settlement. 

I’m a parent with two children in the Berkeley school system, a daughter in sixth grade at King and a son in the third grade at Rosa Parks. I’m a complete supporter of public school. I’ve participated in meetings, PTA and events on my own time. I’ve supported Rosa Parks along with other very committed parents and teachers when extensive and inaccurate negative publicity was being circulated last year. 

This work-to-rule move by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers has not and is not getting massive support by parents. It was thrown at us completely by surprise. Most of us were unaware of two years of negotiations when this all began. Many of us are struggling to understand how we can keep our kids focused on schoolwork with no homework—a very mixed message to say the least. 

I think many parents understand the desire for teachers to get a pay increase and to not incur costs of often very expensive, sky rocketing medical plans that have been paid for by the school district up until now. But this issue is occurring in school districts struggling to make their budgets throughout California, not to mention private industry throughout the nation. This is not the school district imposing their expensive health care programs on employees. This is the hard and very unhappy reality of benefit costs going up and someone having to pay for them. If the district pays for these costs where does the money come from? 

BUSD now has a deficit, which puts the district out of compliance with the state mandated 3 percent reserve. Berkeley Unified does not have this and will not have it next year if they go along with the request of the union. I understand this is a major roadblock in the negotiations. It frustrates the teachers but the work-to-rule frustrates the parents as well. 

In 2000 the work-to-rule approach in dealing with contract negotiations worked. At this time the district appeared to be flush with money. The state had no deficit and was in the middle of the dot-com boom flush with a massive surplus. This world is long gone and many Californians are suffering from this. The Bay Area has one of the slowest growing economies in California and the Nation right now. Tax revenues are down significantly in Berkeley and other cities. If it wore not for BCEP money’s and Measure B from the last election Berkeley Schools right now would be facing bankruptcy. 

If the strike option is exercised to make a point about unfair treatment a real tragedy will unfold and everyone will loose. Parents who can, will opt out of the public school system, teachers will go unpaid and the district will loose up to $6,000 per child a year for reduced attendance. The district may loose up to 30% of its revenue and massive layoffs will be necessary. This is a very difficult situation and the kids—my kids—will suffer along with thousands of others. 

I’m not happy to say anyone should get paid less than they deserve. But the reality is school districts, like Berkeley are not giant corporations where the CEO gets a double bonus for cutting pay. It’s about balancing budgets and dealing with reality. 

I support the teachers. I support the district. And I support a creative solution to this long term problem that’s not going to come from a strike or highly adversarial tack ticks that put kids and their education in the middle of the conflict. 

Steven Donaldson is the parent of two Berkeley public school students. 

.

Call it Being Something. The whole unwieldy title of the production we’re concerned with here is actually Being Something: Living Young and Growing Old in Oakland and it opens this Friday night at the Metro Theater on the corner of Broadway and Second Avenue in Oakland, two blocks short of Jack London Square. 

The first thing that has to be established here is that this is definitely not a review that you’re reading. Since the play has only a two-week run, closing on May 1, this writer visited a rehearsal. And even then it was only one act that was being worked on that night. Most directors would clutch their throats in horror at the idea of a reporter showing up to see that unfinished fragment of a play but the surprisingly easy-going, award-winning director, Ellen Sebastian Chang, was unfazed. 

The second thing is that this writer fully intends to do absolutely everything necessary to get back to see the whole production when it opens this weekend. If what was rehearsed on Wednesday will be equaled—or even bettered—in the complete version, it should be a very good experience indeed. 

The omens are good. Being Something has been developed by a socko collaboration between two long-time, much respected theater companies, StageBridge and Opera Piccolo, both of which have more than a slight bent toward social consciousness. In addition to more conventional venues, they each use their talent in such things as taking playreading and story-telling into the schools. 

At 27 years of age, Stagebridge is the oldest theater group in the country specifically designed for seniors. Opera Piccolo, also well established, was started in the ‘80s for the purpose of using theater skills for the community welfare. It’s a multi-racial group involving children in acting and other theater related activities. Not surprisingly, Stagebridge’s founder, Stuart Kandell, and Susannah Wood from Opera Piccola have long considered the idea of developing a production involving their two communities: the children and the senior citizens. 

The idea seemed like a clear winner when they approached director Chang. But it was much more difficult to work out than any of them anticipated. The problem was getting the plays. Their original plan to have the kids interview senior citizens didn’t pan out. Time was running short when they had to resort to seeking out “writers who can take the existing cast and create for them.” As it now stands, each episode is written by an entirely different playwright. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, the episodes are somewhat loosely held together by narrator Jay Chee, (from Stagebridge) who establishes a framework about houses and possessions being symbols for our lives. Another uniting force is “the spirit” (Jane Chen), an awesomely talented physical theater artist, whom the director describes as giving “a level of playfulness and transition to all the short works.” Part dance, part gymnastics, Chen’s movements in and around the steps are graceful, extraordinary and indescribable. 

Two other actors, Kenneth Foreman and Isabel Ferguson, also come from the senior company, with Ferguson aweing the rest of the cast not only with her acting, but with her 85 years of age.  

From the other end of the spectrum, the production has two experienced actors who are eighth graders, La’Sharae Williams and Kenneth Foreman. Tia Hicks, a 15 year old who is a graduate of Oakland’s Carter Middle School, has performed with Opera Piccola for the past five years. In addition there is an impressive group of kids who perform a dance/gymnastics group in the second scene.  

You could argue that if the first half of the production is as good as it seemed to be in Wednesday’s rehearsal, the entire finished production might be worth the $15 ticket price. And, don’t forget, Thursday night is pay-what-you-can night. 

Being Something: Living Young and Growing Old in Oakland runs April 22-May 1, Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. at The Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. For more information, call 658-0967; for box office, call 444-4755. 

This Monday, at 7:30 p.m., Berkeley’s downtown Pegasus Bookstore at the corner of Shattuck and Durant avenues is sponsoring a free production that should be worth checking out. 

Three of Berkeley’s long-time theater people (actors, directors, founders of theater companies, boardmembers and on and on) will do a staged reading of Where Were You When They Killed Victor Jara? The 10-year-old play, by Berkeley playwright Deborah Rogin, is about the Reagan-era Chillean horror. 

The mini-production is being directed by Stanley Spenger, a stalwart in the local theater community. He is currently working with the Actors Ensemble group as a board member and is heading their selection of plays to perform. He hopes to be able to establish a series of such readings, in which he can both get a preliminary response about the choice and/or provide an opportunity for theater-buffs to familiarize themselves with a play which is currently running. 

Not surprisingly, the three actors in Monday’s reading, David Fenerty, David Stein, and Robert Hamm, are long-term theater people, two of whom are on Actors Ensemble’s board. They all have significant experience in theater in acting, directing. You name it. They’ve got it. It sounds like a good idea. 

All the action of Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange (now at the Aurora) plays out in the confines of an examining room in a mental hospital in London. It is a place where two people usually meet, one listening to the other. 

Meant to be a safe place, the room becomes the locus for a furiously confused dialogue, words circling round and round like subatomic particles in a charged atmosphere that’s like a cloud chamber. A third voice chiming in makes, from the start, a peculiarly dissonant chord out of an alternating trio of often-clashing duets. 

Chris (played by Paul Oliver), a young black man, is finishing up a 28-day hold in the hospital after “an incident” in a marketplace—with an orange? He’s eager to get out, and a little aggressive toward, a bit mocking of his redheaded doctor, Bruce (T. Edward Webster). He teases Bruce that Bruce’s saying to him, in effect, “‘No drugs for you, nigger, because you’d really enjoy them. These are my drugs.’ You white doctors are just in denial.” Bruce continues to act friendly: “Have a smoke, watch the football.” The smile dies on Chris’s lips. 

Chris talks about leaving, getting back to real life. “When I saw all the others—you know, the other geezers—I said, ‘This is a nut house.’” 

Bruce demurs. “We actually don’t use ‘crazy,’” he says, “some terms are just inaccurate. ‘Crazy’ is one of them. Unhelpful.” 

But Chris has been saying Bruce and the other doctors view him as “a crazy nigger.” The slipperiness of repetition and attribution and reference as to who’s said what is a big modus operandi of the play; one of the virtues of the tangled dialogue is that the audience can follows the confusions of the characters with unusual clarity—and bursts of humor, sometimes manic and superlucid—perfect illusion of both involvement in and detachment from the action and the wrangling over what it all means. 

Chris is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder—“keyword: Borderline”—between neurotic and psychotic. “If people get the meaning of the word wrong, how can they get the person right?” A “suit” appears in the room, compliments Bruce randily on his wife and her fondue—actually, welsh rarebit. It’s Robert (Paul Whitworth), Bruce’s supervisor, in for a consult. 

Robert’s chatty, brandishes a cigarette and coffee, and gives Chris the forbidden fruit—in the hospital, nicotine and caffeine are verboten. In fact, Robert’s extravagant manner and mannerisms are counterpoint to Bruce’s painstakingly clinical bedside manner—and parallel to Chris’s nervous jauntiness, at least when Chris is flying high. With Chris out of the room, Bruce tells Robert he wants Chris’s hold upgraded for more time in treatment as an inpatient—he’s afraid Chris is on the verge of a breakdown. 

Robert disagrees: “Look around you. Who doesn’t have declining social skills? It’s normal!” 

Robert talks a Byzantine mosaic around the question, all the while pacing, gesticulating, tacking under full trim before the wind (a marvelous performance by Whitworth). He’s also clueing Bruce in on the ropes of the profession, with great professional vanity and perhaps a warning. Robert explains his research, on which he hopes to gain a full professorship—a study (and deep understanding, of course) of cultural relativism, ethnocenticity, and all the different signals and shades of meaning every word and act imply. Theory follows hunch follows simple pragmatism on why Bruce should go. 

As a last ditch defense of his opinion, Bruce gets the re-admitted Chris to break open an orange. What color is it?  

“Completely blue ... it’s a bad orange; don’t eat it!” Then Chris tells of his famous African father and a special connection to oranges. 

In a series of scenes and vignettes, the trio combines and recombines in various tete-a-tetes and back together again, as confidences, pleas, hysterias, doubts and revelations are shared—and, just as easily, reversed or shattered. Hostilities, sometimes mistaken or manipulated, come out on the table. And it’s not just Chris who might be out on the street. 

Joe Penhall, in some engaging remarks in the program, jokes about the price of success of his play: “Uh-oh—the naive, young, gunslinging playwright days are over now,” and jokes that he “kind of nicked” his structure from David Mamet’s Speed The Plow, but “nobody spotted it.” It goes a good deal further back, to Strindberg’s intense confrontations, with dialogue that fluctuates almost cybernetically, changing with a changing situation—and changing the situation itself, besides casting light on it. Or even further back, to that moment in drama Antonin Artaud identified with Euripides’s tragedies, in which man was no longer a little god anymore, but “where we don’t know just where we are.” There are no clearcut heroes or villains to Blue/Orange. 

“Who do you think you are? God?” Bruce asks of Robert. “How does Archbishop of Canterbury sound?” is the catty response. Tom Ross has presided over a tight cast in what he calls a play about “the politics of mental illness ... a battle of wills ... who’s on top at any given moment.” 

In such a hall of mirrors, with the patient staring at the doctors staring at him, there’s no clear thoroughfare, only the slippery, selfserving advice: “Do you want to get better? Then you must do what you must do.” 

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

On Saturday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Pacific Center for the Book Arts will present the 31st Annual Printers’ Fair at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco. “The letter, the word and the book, from the romance of calligraphy to the integration of letterpress printing and digital technology” will be the theme of the fair, with some 40 exhibitors. The event is free to the public. 

While desk-top publishing has been commonplace since the early 1990s—“printers” with a dizzying plethora of typefaces and photographic processes complement most computers whether in the office or at home—it’s easy to forget that 50 years ago things were very different. Electric typewriters (with a correcting key) were almost unknown; the fax and xerox unavailable. You could type or handwrite a text. Then, that document could be handed or mailed to an individual. 

For a mass-circulation, it could be printed off-set or re-typed on mimeo-graphic stencils (remember the messy blue-notices, “spirit-duplicated” from the school and churches of the l950s?). In most cases, if you wanted to circulate your writing, it was still letter-press or “relief” printing, that is the letter-press technology developed in the 1500s whereby warmed lead was shaped into individual letters (“foundry type”), and then arranged, by hand, into words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters and books (or newspapers, pamphlets, etc). 

At this fair, you can access all of that historical technology. In most cases, these technologies have been deemed antiquated, but capable of great artistic resonance. So, for the last 15 years, as the ink-jet or laser printer has dominated our daily work, the feel of relief printing (either by ancient lead or recent plastic plates) has come to play a crucial part in both artistic and avant-garde printing. The “kiss” of the type into the paper (itself often a marvelous confection) has become prized. If we hear of “slow” cooking, there is, as well, “slow” printing: that incorporates the oldest techniques with current practice. So the computer screen of today may tangle with the traditional “hand” whether by pen or lead or plastic.  

Various East Bay artists and printers will be exhibiting their skills and displaying their wares in the fair. Karen Switzer, of artnoose, has just letterpressed the 50th issue of her anarchist-oriented ‘zine, kerbloom. Kim Vanderheiden, of Painted Tongue Press, will be showing her prints; Mary Kay Josh will demonstrate her intricate marbling—the beautiful patterns of ink floating on water that, transferred to paper, are used in various decorations such as the “endpapers” of well-bound books. Sharing a table with Patrick Reagh, master-printer of Sebastopol (who sells type and the Pac-Mac, the magnetic base for polymer-plate letterpress), I will be showing the book-works of poet Paul Vangelisti with whom I’ve published Invisible City & Red Hill Press (out of San Francisco and Los Angeles) since 1970. 

For those who enjoy the romance of the handwritten letter or postcard, Atelier Gargoyle will exhibit their custom-made seals and wax as well as fountain pens and other supplies for the discerning scribe. Groups such as the Book Club of California, the American Printing Historical Association, the Mills College Center for the Book and the San Jose Printing Guild will have tables. As usual, Jim Heagy will sell tons of lead type and lots of type cases and antique printing equipment. 

It’s a delightful day on the water at Fort Mason. Don’t miss the vegetarian chili and pastries next door at Greens Cafe. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 22 

THEATER 

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

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. through April 24. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949.  

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” at the Roda Theater, through May 29. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949.  

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 

Impact Briefs 7: “The How-To Show” Thu.-Sat at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through May 28. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Traveling Jewish Theater “Blood Relative” at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Thurs., Fri. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $23-$34. 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

Opera Piccola and Stagebridge Senior Theater, “Being Something: Living ‘Young’ and Growing ‘Old’” Fri. and Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Oakland Metro, Jack London Square, through May 1. Tickets are $15. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

“Proof” by David Auburn, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through May 7, Sun. April 24 at 2:30 p.m. at The Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $13. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Design Reconsidered” In honor of Earth Day a showcase of young designers and modern functional products. Reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Exhibition runs to May 9. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Reich and Richard Parker in discussion about “John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Elaine Herscher examines “Generation Extra Large: Rescuing Our Children from the Epidemic of Obesity” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland East Bay Symphony performs Herrmann, R. Strauss, Rosenthal, and Stravinsky at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$60. 625-8497.  

University Dance Theater 2005, with new works by Carol Murota, Lisa Wymore and Ellis Wood, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$14. 642-9925. http://theater.berkeley.edu 

David Berkeley, singer-songwriter at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Cost is $10. 848-7800. www.berkeleycityclub.com 

Women in Salsa Celebration at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Youthquake: Teen Music Competition Winners at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Piano Music by Tim Ross and Jack Kruscup from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Berkeley Faculty Club, UC Campus. 643-0834. 

SongsAlive Showcase at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music with Lila Nelson and Gilli Moon. 594-4000, ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Anton Barbeau & Scott Miller, pop, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Mystic Roots, CV 1 at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886.  

The Waybacks at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082.  

William Beattie Trio at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 

Michael Bluestein Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Belinda Underwood & Friends at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Albino, afro-beat, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Swoop Unit at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 23 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Betsy Rose singing songs for Earth Day at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Briefly It Enters” by William Bolcom, 2005 Ernest Bloch Lecturer, and songs by Fauré performed by Jennifer Goltz, soprano & Gayle Blankenburg, piano, at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu/ 

Rhythm & Muse with poet Garrett Murphy at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Free. Berkeley Art Center. 527-9753. 

Ishle Yi Park reads from her new book of poetry, “Temperature of This Water” at 4 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

Arnaud Maitland describes “Living Without Regret: Growing Old in the Light of Tibetan Buddhism” at 4 p.m. at Dharma Publishing Bookstore, 2910 San Pablo Ave. at Ashby. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Moh Alileche at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

American Bach Soloists at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $20-$40. 415-621-7900. www.americanbach.org 

Natasha Miller, jazz vocalist at 8 p.m. at the PSR Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. Donation $10-$20. 704-7729. 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau, Cajun, Zydeco at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Four Seasons Concerts “Burning River Brass” at 7:30 p.m. at Calvin Simmons Theater, 10 Tenth St., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35. 601-7919. www.fourseasonsconcerts.com 

pickPocket Ensemble, european cafe music, at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Stephen Yerky with Mario 

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

Jump/Cut, CD release party, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

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

Mastema, Second Shot, Overdrive A.D., punk, rock, alt at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886.  

Bill Ortiz, new interpretations of the music of James Brown, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

Arte Flamenco at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $18-$20. 849-2568.  

Firecracker, Cowpokes for Peace at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Jen Chapin Trio, urban folk and jazz, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Mark Levine Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Phenomenauts, Teenage Harlots, Left Alone at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 24 

CHILDREN 

Asheba at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Matrix 216: “The Year of the Doppelganger” by Slater Bradley, opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Artist’s talk at 4 p.m. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens” guided tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kazuo Ishiguro reads from his new novel “Never Let Me Go” at 2 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Tariq Ali introduces his two new books “Street-Fighting Years” and “Speaking of Empire and Resistance” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Free. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Nuria Amat, with translator Peter Bursh read from the novel “Queen Cocaine” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Flash with Gillian Conoley and Jane Miller at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

Words Weaving Together, poetry, at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ya Elah, part of the series “Offerings” at 7 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Suggested donation $10. 213-3122. 

Point Taken, Sky Bleeds Red, Ambulance Ambulance at 4 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. All ages show. 848-0886.  

Mingus Amongus and other artists from noon to 6 p.m. at Art of Living Center, 2905 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 848-3736. 

Americana Unplugged at 4 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Celebracíon de Culturas a benefit for Escula Bilingüe Internacional at 5 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Que Calor at 4:30 at the Jazz- 

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

Ellis Paul at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

MONDAY, APRIL 25 

FILM 

Buddhism and Film: “The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Loung Ung writes about life under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and her escape in “Lucky Child” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Pico Iyer discusses “Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign” and Michael Shapiro on travel writers in “A Sense of Place” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

“Where were you when they killed Victor Jara?” a free play reading with Actors Ensemble of Berkeley at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, downtown Berkeley.  

Poetry Express Theme night “Planes, Trains, and Busses” from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New European Chamber Orchestra at 5 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Tuscan Sun Festival with New European Chamber Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

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

West Coast Songwriters Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5. 548-1761. 

Alameda High School Jazz Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 26 

CHILDREN 

First Stage Children’s Theater “The Case of the Ancient Artifacts” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5 available at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Katherine Ellison describes “The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

The Whole Note Poetry Series honoring Allen Cohen, with Ann Cohen and Clive Matson at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Rory Block at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50- $19.50. 548-1761.  

Graham Connah, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Over the Rhine, Kim Taylor at 8 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $13. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Michael O’Neill with Kenny Washington at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Habillements” Multifoiled drawings and prints by Karen Ruenitz, paintings by Thomas Clayton at California College of the Arts, 5241 College Ave. Reception at 5:30 p.m.  

FILM 

History of Cinema: “Capturing the Friedmans” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Vistor Navasky describes his journalistic experiences in “A Matter of Opinion” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. Free. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Michael Joseph Gross reads from his stories in “Starstruck” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Writing Teachers Write with Floyd Salas and his students from Foothill College at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Steve Almond reads from his new collection of short stories, “Evil B. B. Chow” 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 www.starryplough.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Ooklah the Moc, Hawaiian reggae at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Famous Last Words at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Andre Nickatina and Equipto at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $12-$17. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Tristan & Iseult at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Chick Corea Elektric Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, APRIL 28 

EXHIBITIONS 

“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.  

“Blind at the Museum” guided tour at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Latino Film Festival: “Sexo con Amor” a comedy from Chile at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 849-2568. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sarah Vowell describes her “Assassination Vacation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Elizabeth Gaffney reads from her debut novel, “Metropolis” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Cecil Castellucci discusses “Boy Proof” the story of a high school outcast at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Live and Unplugged Open mic featuring music and spoken word at 7 p.m. at 1924 Cedar St. 703-9350. www.LiveAndUnplugged.org 

Word Beat Reading Series with Andy Fong and Stephen Berry at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High School Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley High School. 

Oakland Choreographer’s Showcase at 8 p.m. at Haas Pavillion, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Free. dance@mills.edu 

Piano Music by Tim Ross and Jack Kruscup from 5 to 7 p.m., Thurs. and Fri., at the Berkeley Faculty Club, Kerr Dining Room, UC Campus. 540-5678. 

Dhol Patrol, Bangra and Pan-Arabic beats at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Alex de Grassi at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Andrew Cheiken, Kinnie Star at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryplough.com 

Andre Bush Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. ª

The courtship begins with an exchange of suggestive looks across the trees. Next comes an offering, a choice twig. If reciprocated, the courtship ritual proceeds and the cycle of life begins anew for great egrets and herons. The ballet atop the redwoods has already begun and tickets are available for nest building, rearing and send-off at Audubon Canyon Ranch. 

Located on Highway One, between the coastal towns of Stinson Beach and Bolinas, Audubon Ranch serves as a haven for native wildlife. Founded in 1 962 to save the heronry from development, this non-profit organization serves to preserve breeding habitat, educate both young and old on the importance of our natural environment and to support research and conservation. A vital undertaking is being carr ied out in admirable fashion by staff, science professionals and hundreds of volunteers.  

A tapestry of natural communities and their inhabitants awaits visitors to this 1,000-acre sanctuary: dense forests of coastal redwood, Douglas fir and California b ay; coastal scrub and chaparral; grassland; freshwater pond, stream and marsh; and the ever-important Bolinas Lagoon, a critical factor in the yearly return of these magnificent birds. 

Each spring, up to 100 pairs of great egrets and great blue herons re turn to nest and raise their young in the giant coastal redwoods in Pilcher Canyon. The great egret is a vision in white, with long plumes fanning out over its body, and an orange beak, thin and tall—like a supermodel. The great blue heron is a remnant from the past with beautiful blue-gray plumage and an impressive seven-foot wingspan that’s impossible to miss. Both are perfectly adapted for wading in shallow waters and can be seen stalking food in Bolinas Lagoon.  

Timing is important in most things in life, as well as scheduling a visit to the ranch, open from spring through early summer. Several visits are required to observe the full nesting cycle. Luckily my recent trip corresponded with a variety of activities in the trees and I marveled at my luck! 

Entering the ranch from Highway One is like revisiting an old country friend. Wooded grounds fronting the lagoon, a burbling creek, the sound of birds, a white clapboard house and a warm welcome from volunteers all insure that your visit will be a memo rable one.  

After being filled in on current statistics—I learned there were seventy-three great egret nests, nine great blue heron nests and forty-three eggs—I headed up the short, but steep, Ranch Trail to the overlooks, all staffed with spotting scope s and ranch guides.  

The Clem Miller Overlook faces Bolinas Lagoon with scopes trained on foraging birds. Besides the ranch residents, I watched an osprey and Canada goose as the lagoon waters shimmered in the sunlight and ocean waves crashed beyond. I l earned that the lagoon’s abundant food sources are crucial to the yearly return of the birds, providing small fish, a variety of crustaceans and small frogs for their consumption. 

Entering the forest I was surrounded by a cornucopia of life: lofty oaks c lose enough for their curved branches to almost intertwine, decorated with garlands of gray-green lichen; emerald carpets of grasses and wood fern; the tans and browns of a shelf fungus on a fallen log, spread out like the tail of a wild turkey; and the c olors of spring in apricot monkey flowers, cream, lavender and blue Douglas iris, pink vetch and white milk maids. The leaf-littered trail was soft beneath my boots and the startled quail protested loudly as they quickly moved away. The wind rustled the leaves and the birds sang. All combined to slow my pace so that I could enjoy the moment, as well as catch my breath.  

The main event, without question, is at the Henderson Overlook, at 200-feet almost eye level with the huge nests built near the tops of the redwoods. Shaded bleachers, multiple scopes, information sheets and enthusiastic ranch guides create an atmosphere that encourages you to linger and watch. And there’s a lot to see. 

Most dramatic is the stark contrast of the egrets’ feathered white p lumes draped across the nests. I watched a pair of herons nest building, alternately bringing long twigs and carefully arranging them in exactly the right spot, their huge wingspan able to perch so gracefully on a treetop branch. Egrets performed a greeti ng display, like a courtly dance. As one flew off the other judiciously turned the Easter-turquoise egg within the nest.  

My viewing pleasure was supplemented by the wealth of information just waiting to be shared. The early bird gets the worm and the ea rly viewer gets a jump on everyone else! My early arrival, a point I always recommend, granted me almost sole occupancy at the scopes and the undivided attention of the guides. Learning about the need to rebuild and waterproof nests every year, the sharin g in the incubation, foraging and feeding the young, the timing of the various stages of life, as well as the danger of the red-tailed hawk circling above, made me want to learn more and return again. 

From the Henderson Overlook hikers can continue on to the three-mile Griffin Loop Trail for a broader exploration of the preserve or return to the canyon floor. I descended to the picnic area, passing a third manned observation site, the Kent Trail Platform, where scopes provide a lower view into the trees.  

Additional scopes were positioned at the far end of the picnic area, a lovely place to enjoy a meal while birds fly overhead. With comfortable picnic tables and benches arranged on a grassy expanse and Pilcher Canyon Creek adding its sounds to those of the birds, this is just the spot to relish the day. 

Don’t leave the picnic area before you’ve had a chance to visit the bird hide. This small rustic building with rough bark walls, a sod roof and screened windows overlooking the creek and numerous bird feeding stations blends in perfectly with the lush canyon. Inside you’ll find three rooms, each with a different outlook, well equipped with bird identification sheets illustrating the humming birds, juncos, towhees, jays and chickadees you can see outsid e. Listen to the sounds of nature and you might hear the call of an orange crowned warbler! 

Inside the exhibit hall the story of Audubon Canyon Ranch continues. Displays on the heronry, Bolinas Lagoon, canyon animal life, geology and the coastal Miwoks may sound overwhelming, but this airy white barn with its lovely egret stained glass window is visitor friendly, with many photographs outnumbering written text. It’s an excellent place to get a preview of the coming movements in the cycle of life ballet. I loved the photo of four young, fuzzy-headed egrets in the nest, all with anxious expressions, facing the same direction, as if wondering when mom would return with their lunch! The redwood display cases containing Miwok basketry, tools and weapons are a tasteful tribute to the people who may also have awaited the yearly return of these great birds. 

The book shop carries a wide variety of themed merchandise: identification guides, bird books with eye-catching photos, north coast travel guides and lots o f books for kids. The Audubon t-shirts and sweatshirts in subtle earth tones of green and brown will camouflage you on your next outing and the hand painted flower earrings will bring a smile to a favorite mom in May. 

Kids won’t let you leave without a visit to the Aileen Pearson Marsh. A wooden boardwalk carries you through the tall jungle of reeds to get your hands wet and get up close and personal with some intriguing pond “critters.” Using the nets, underwater viewers and illustrated guides provided, look below the thick covering of duckweed for California newts, diving beetles or whirligigs. Listen for a Pacific tree frog or the call of a redwing blackbird clinging to a swaying reed.  

As the hours passed I realized that there was a lot to do and learn at Audubon Canyon Ranch. The sun shone, the breeze was gentle and the atmosphere was welcoming and relaxed, so I was in no hurry to leave. Watching wildlife takes time to be rewarding. The fanning of white plumage, the exchange of a twig, the call of a warbler, a newt rising to the surface for air, the cries of a red tailed hawk—all part of the soothing beauty of nature. 

The ballet of life is well worth the trip. I hope to return in May when the eggs hatch, to watch the young stretch their legs and m aybe catch a glimpse of the final send off in June, when parents either kick those kids out or abandon their own nest—maybe we all could learn a lesson from these wise birds. 

Getting there: From Interstate 101 North take Sir Francis Drake all the way to Highway 1 in Olema. Turn south (left) on Hwy 1 and follow for about 10 miles to Bolinas Lagoon. Preserve will be on the left approximately 1 mile further. 

Audubon Canyon Ranch: 4900 Hwy 1, Stinson Beach, (415) 868-9244, www.egret.org. 

Open weekends and holidays until July 17, 10–4 p.m. Entrance free but contributions requested—$15/family. Trail map and brochure available. 

Mother’s Day BBQ Sun.day, May 8.?v

FRIDAY, APRIL 22 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Victor Perez-Mendez on “The Biggest Volcanic Explosion” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Youth Alcohol Awareness Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. 981-5806. 

Rep. Cynthia McKinney “From Attica to Abu Ghraib” at 6 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Donation $5-$25. 593-3956. www.attica2abughraib.com 

Amy Goodman “See No Evil: Media in a Time of War” at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwinley Little Theater at Berkeley High. Tickets are $15 and benefit Berkeley Community Media and Berkeley High’s Communication Arts and Sciences Program. 848-2288, ext. 11. 

“Democracy and Global Islam” a conference from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Lipman Room, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. for details see http://igov.berkeley.edu/conferences/Islamconfdescription.doc 

“The Future of Food” a documentary film on genetically modified foods, followed by a discussion with Mollie Katzen, Michael Pollen, Koons Garcia, and Ignacio Chapela, at 6:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20 sliding scale. 923-0505. 

Kulture Kulcha An evening of food, song and dance for the South Asian LGBT community at the California Ballroom, 1736 Franklin St. at 19th, Oakland. http://trikone.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. 

“Three Beats for Nothing” meets at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center to sing for fun and practice. 655-8863. 

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 23 

Earth Day in Berkeley from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Civic Center Park. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Earth Day Cleanup at Eastshore State Park Volunteers will assist with shoreline cleanup and invasive species removal from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Meet behind the Sea Breeze Deli off of University Ave. and West Frontage Rd. Volunteers should bring gloves, sturdy shoes, sunscreen and a shovel or pick for plant removal. 544-2515. 

Earth Day Cleanup in Richmond Volunteers will participate in a bay trail cleanup off Rydin Ave.from 10 a.m. to noon. Participants should bring gloves, sunscreen and water. For more information, contact the California State Parks Foundation at 888-98-PARKS. 

What Happened to the Komodo Dragon? Since the renovation of the EEC at Tilden Park, many have inquired about our former, famous resident. Come learn about the lives of these giant monitor lizards at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Wildflower Trading Cards Color and cut your own set of wildflower trading cards to take home. We will also look for blooms on a short walk. For ages 7 and up at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $3-$5. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Propagation of Native Plants Through the Seasons from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Visitor Center, Botanical Garden, Tilden Park. Cost is $30-$35. Reservations required. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Botanizing California A series of local and overnight field trips to highlight California’s plant communities. Cost is $80-$95. Registration required. 845-4116. www.nativeplants.org 

Designs for a Small Garden Using a Variety of Hardscape at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Waterwise Workshop: Gardening Where You Are A presentation on biodiversity, healthy soil and plant selection from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Registration required. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

John Muir Society celebrates the 167th anniversary of the birth of “the man who celebrated the earth” from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the John Muir Historic Site, 4204 Alhambra, off Highway 4, Martinez. www.johnmuir.org 

Earth Day Drumming Circle at 7 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Donation $10-$20. 271-8318. www.unityberkeley.org 

“From Attica to Abu Ghraib” A conference on Human Rights, Torture and Resistance from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. 593-3956. www.attica2abughraib.com 

Albany YMCA Spring Garage Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 921 Kains Ave. Featuring everything from books, clothing and children’s toys to household and office items and lots of wonderful treasures. 525-1130.  

Crowden Music Center’s Community Music Day with performances by ensembles and students, from noon to 5 p.m. at Crowden Center, 1475 Rose St., at Sacramento. www.crowdenmusiccenter.org 

“Healing the Spiritual Way” with Franz Gringinger, M.D. at 7 p.m. at Vara Healing Arts Center, 850 Talbot Ave., Albany. Free. 415-279-5293. 

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

Nepalese Cultural Night Benefit for a school in Nepal with music and dance performances, followed by dinner. At 5:30 p.m. at Yogakula, 1700 Shattuck Ave. 2nd floor. Tickets are $25. www.yogakula.com 

“International Tour Directing” from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Vista Community College. 2020 Milvia St. Cost is $13. 981-2931. 

Inspiring Masculine, Unleashing Feminine A workshop from 2:30 to 6 p.m. at Monkey Yoga Shala, 3215 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Cost is $29-$35. 415-341-4411. 

Moments Notice A monthly salon devoted to improvised music, dance & theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio 2525 8th St., at Dwight. Tickets are $8-$10. 415-831-5592. katarinaeriksson@aol.com 

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

SUNDAY, APRIL 24 

People's Park 36th Anniversary Celebration from noon to 6 p.m. Free and open to all.  

What Has Happened to Ferns and Flowers? A great re-alignment of ferns and flowering plants has been made by botanists. Learn what is new, and walk in the garden to see examples, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

A Lot of Galls! Insects and other organisms cause swellings on plant parts that serve as homes for offspring. We’ll look for these growths and learn their history, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

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

“The Ghosts of Rwanda” A screening of the Frontline special on the genocide in Rwanda, followed by conversations with Africa activists at 3 p.m. at the Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. Sponsored by Priority Africa Network. 527-3917. 

“Cuba in the World” with Isaac Saney, author of “Cuba: A Revolution in Motion” at 7 p.m. at Casa Cuba Resource Center, 6501 Telegraph Ave., near Alcatraz. 650-367-9183. www.cubaresource.org 

Visual Arts-Language Arts Anniversary Gala from 1 to 5 p.m. at Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave at Cedar. A benefit for the arts and literature programs in public schools. Tickets are $25. 845-9610. www.valaproject.org 

“Whither a Buddhist Golden Age?” the history of the Burmese in Northern Thailand, a colloquium at 12:15 p.m. at IEAS Conference Room, 2233 Fulton St. 643-6492. http://bud 

dhiststudies.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley City Club free tours from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800. 

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 

House Rabbit Society Benefit with Pizza and Poetry and announcing the winners of the “Dare to Care for a Hare” Poetry Contest, at 1 p.m. at House Rabbit Society National Headquarters, 148 Broadway, Richmond. Donation $10. 970-7575. www.rabbit.org 

“From Ike to Mao and Beyond” by Bob Avakian, book launching party at 1 p.m. at Longfellow Auditorium, 1500 Derby St. 467-3426.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack van der Meulen on “Healing through Tibetan Yoga” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 25 

Hubble Space Telescope 15th Anniversary at 10 a.m. Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $12-$15. 336-7373. www.chabotspace.org 

Berkeley High School Site Council meets at 4:30 p.m. in the BHS library. On the agenda are WASC process and Site Plan Action Items; BHS governance model and SSC meeting process; algebra program; and special education program. www.bhs.berkeleypta.org/ssc  

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. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Disaster Preparedness for Community Agencies from 3 to 5 p.m. at 11780 San Pablo Ave, Suite D, El Cerrito. 925-313-6744. cmqueen@hsd.co.contra-costa.ca.us 

World’s Largest Ice Cream Cake Social, fundraiser to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation from 5 to 8 p.m. at Cold Stone Creamery, 5609 Bay St. Emeryville.  

“The Toughest Job I’ve Ever Loved: My First Three Years as Director of Peace Corps” with Gaddi H. Vasquez at 1 p.m. at the Golman School of Public Policy, UC Campus. Brown bag lunch.  

Human Rights Advocates Annual Meeting with reports from the recent U.N. Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva, at 6 p.m. at the Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. www.humanrightsadvocates.org 

“Developing Reclaimed Land in Hong Kong” a colloquim at 4 p.m. at IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. 642-2809. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60 years and over meets Mondays at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Join at any time. Cost is $2.50 with refreshments. 524-9122. 

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

TUESDAY, APRIL 26 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at the far parking lot of Bear Creek entrance to Briones to look for warblers and woodpeckers on the Seaborg Trail. 525-2233. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meets at 10 a.m. For information and to register call 525-2233.  

Homeschooling Options Panel Discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Cost is $5. 877-648-KIDS ext. 86. www.npnonline.org  

“China Digital Times” with Xiao Qiang of the Berkeley China Internet Project at 4 p.m. at IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. 642-2809. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

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

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

Taiko Drum Lessons at Tatsumaki Taiko, 725 Gilman St. fora ges 12 and up. Cost is $12 per class. Class runs for 6 weeks. For information email tatsumaki@email.com  

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 

Trance Drumming Workshop with Sondra Slade at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. Cost is $30-$40. www.belladonna.ws 

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

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 

“The Education Crisis in California” with Greg Hodge, Oakland School Board, Terry Doran, Berkeley School Board and Fannie Brown, Oakland Acorn at 1:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by Berkeley Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Proposed Amendments Public Hearing at 7 p.m. at the Planning Commission, North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7410. 

“Reproductive Rights: Different Views” A panel discussion sponsored by the ACLU at 7 p.m. at Richmond’s Main Public Library, 325 Civic Center Drive. 558-0377. 

Codornices Creek Watershed Restoration Plan Community meeting at 7 p.m. at St. Mary’s College High School, 1294 Albina Ave. 540-6669. www.urbancreeks.org 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Conspiracy of Fools,” by Kurt Eichenwald at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Coffee Shop, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

“Urban Futures: Planning for Sustainable Urban Development” with Prof. Raquel Pinderhughes, SFSU, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 223. www.ecologycenter.org 

Poison Control with Barbara Cheatham, Alameda County Health Dept. at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Study Skills and Organization Workshop for Teens at 7 p.m. at Classroom Matters, 2607 7th Street, Suite E. Free. 540-8646.  

“Work with Meaning, Work with Joy” with Pat Sullivan at 6:30 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Cost is $20. 530-0284. www.unityberkeley.org 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

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

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

THURSDAY, APRIL 28 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at the Pack Rat Trail, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Green Building 101 covering the basics of building or remodeling a green home, energy and water conservation and air quality issues at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. To register call 845-5106, ext. 230. www.BuildGreen.Now.org 

Dining Out for Life Over 60 East Bay restaurants will donate 25% of their sales to support the Center of AIDS Services, 5720 Shattuck Ave. Oakland. For a list of participating restaurants call 282-0623. www.diningoutforlife.com 

The First Place Fund for Youth “There’s No Place Like Home” benefit at the Asian Cultural Center, downtown Oakland, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $55. 272-0979, ext. 26. 

Teach-in on Torture Human rights experts, and litigants against the government, and academics will challenge U.S. government sponsorship of torture, from 1:30-9 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison. www.tortureteachin.org 

Advance Directives What are they, and how can they help you and your loved ones? A panel discussion at Alta Bates Health Education Center, Fontaine Auditorium, 400 Hawthorne St., Oakland. Free, reservations recommended. 869-8276. 

Legal Issues for Relative Caregivers A workshop for grandparents and relatives who are raising grandchildren, nieces and nephews at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. To register call 658-7353. 

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

Latino Film Festival: “Sexo con Amor” a comedy from Chile at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 849-2568. 

Karen Vogel co-creator of the Motherpeace Tarot deck at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. www.belladonna.ws 

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., April 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Virginia Aiello, 981-5158. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/parksandrecreation 

City Council meets Tues. April 26, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Budget Review Commission meets Wed., April 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7041. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/budget 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/civicarts 

Disaster Council meets Wed., April 27 at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., April 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed. April 27, 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 27 at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed. April 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview?

Old-time vaudeville conjurers, before they went Las Vegas, used to rely on a series of clever effects known as “hat tricks.” The magician, elegantly attired in white tie and tails, would produce a series of unexpected objects out of his top hat: playing cards, brightly colored silk scarves, and for the grand finale, a live rabbit. Audience members, particularly small boys, would avidly watch the magician’s hands to see how he did it, but they seldom figured it out. A friend of mine used to do a funny imitation of the patter with which the magicians accompanied hat tricks: “At no time do my hands leave my arms!” It was designed to do what’s called “misdirection” in the trade. The idea is that you keep the watcher’s attention focused one place while the trick is actually being done someplace else. Sleight of hand, as the stage magician’s craft is sometimes called, is also practiced in other places, notably in “the shell game,” where con artists on the street move around peas under walnut shells and lure gullible watchers into betting on where they are.  

Berkeley citizens in the past few weeks have been treated to a masterful demonstration of sleight of hand by our sophisticated and charming city manager. It’s Budget Workshop time once again, and we’re being given the illusion that our opinions on how the city spends its money will really make a difference.  

First, a few facts. Almost all of every city budget is spoken for before this process ever starts. The biggest share—perhaps three quarters—of the total, goes to employee salaries, up and down the scale. When those already at the table have consumed most of the meal (to mix in a new metaphor), the bones are thrown to the dogs to fight over. In Berkeley, the leftover funds amount to less than one per cent of the total budget, which is now close to the $300 million mark.  

This year, something like $10 million has been left to squabble over, mainly from increases in real estate transfer taxes and paybacks for revenues previously withheld by the state. But before the council’s discretionary allocation process for this fractional amount started, the city manager asked for big chunks to be set aside for expensive information technology purchases slated to replace similar systems which were lemons. A majority of the council members acceded. We hope the new models won’t be as buggy as the old ones. 

So now we’re down to maybe a couple of million in crumbs. And here’s where the sleight of hand begins. Those of you who read the gullible metro dailies will have seen a lot of recent hype about the fountain in the park behind City Hall, which has been dry for as long as I’ve been in Berkeley. One of our always dependable citizen correspondents has documented the true history of the plan to restore the fountain—see the first letter opposite—so I won’t have to bother doing it myself. Here’s the con: No one ever intended to spend general fund money to fix the fountain. 

The city manager’s recent proposal to allocate an enormous percentage of the remaining budgetary crumbs from the general fund to fixing the fountain was nothing but a clever piece of misdirection. It fooled a lot of people, notably swimmers in city pools, into believing that the reason their favorite programs were going begging was spending on frivolities like fountains. It gave the equally gullible (or perhaps disingenuous) City Council an opportunity to appear fiscally prudent by voting it down. And it gave the city manager, who has been managing the purse strings at City Hall for years as assistant to a long line of predecessors, a way to keep the audience distracted while he seemed to pull that rabbit out of his hat once more.  

The con is not working so well this time, however. A behind-the-scenes coalition of unlikely allies—people formerly known as mods, progs, grumpies and greens—has been circulating sharp-pencil documents on the Internet. These are people who could never get along in the same meeting room, but whose analyses all add up to the same result: excessive spending on salaries, especially at the highest management levels. There are also many complaints about management’s new practice of earmarking most of the small number of remaining dollars even before the so-called citizen budget workshops have happened.  

The City Council seems to be the last to get the word, unfortunately. The only one who gets it at all is Kriss Worthington. He’s that rarest of birds, a progressive who’s also thrifty—he watches the money carefully because he’d really like to have some left over for social services. He’s resigned to the 99 percent of spending that’s fixed already, but he’s still keeping track of what’s left. He’s voting no on every budget allocation vote as a protest against the hypocrisy of giving the impression that real decisions are ever made as a result of budget workshops.  

In theory, the final vote on the budget won’t happen until June. If all the people who have figured out how the rabbit gets in the hat could manage to talk to one another, they might be able to go together to talk sense to their City Council members in time to make a difference. But don’t hold your breath—constructive consensus is one magic trick Berkeley citizens haven’t managed to pull off yet. 

The estimable San Francisco-based Pesticide Action Network (PANNA) put out a call to its world-wide environmental activist constituency on Thursday, asking them to celebrate Earth Day by telling Bayer, the massive world-wide chemical/pharmaceutical conglomerate, that a ban on the toxic pesticide Lindane is long overdue.  

The PANNA action is part of a series of international events, linking this year’s Earth Day theme—children’s health—to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs Treaty). The first meeting of governments who have ratified the treaty takes place in Uruguay in early May. 

Getting rid of lindane is a cause I’ve been working on for more than 25 years, ever since I read the label on a head lice remedy that a doctor prescribed for use on my kids. I was curious about what lindane, the active ingredient, was. I did a little research, and was horrified to learn that it had been banned for use on dogs and sheep but was still being prescribed for use on human children. The article I wrote about its dangers for New West Magazine got more public response than anything I’ve written before or since. Many concerned parents handed out copies in schools around the country, and eventually, more than 20 years after I wrote the original article, states are starting to ban its use on humans. But lindane’s build-up in the environment from agricultural uses continues. 

PANNA provides a cogent summary of where the anti-lindane campaign is today: 

“Lindane has been banned for all uses in more than 50 countries. The U.S. is now the only country in North America (and one of the only industrialized countries worldwide) that continues to allow agricultural use. Canada phased out agricultural uses at the end of 2004, and Mexico has agreed to phase out all uses of lindane by the end of 2005.  

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows lindane use for seed treatment on six grain crops, where the majority is applied to corn and wheat. Bayer CropScience became the primary distributor of lindane seed treatment products in 2004, when it acquired a seed treatment company called Gustafson LLC.  

“Lindane is an organochlorine insecticide, a class of pesticides that has largely been phased out in the U.S. All of the pesticides targeted for global elimination under the POPs Treaty are organochlorines, as these chemicals tend to persist in the environment, build up in the food chain, and travel across national borders on wind and air currents.  

“Continued U.S. agricultural use of lindane contributes to the buildup of lindane in the Arctic region, where it is among the most commonly found contaminants in the environment and threatens the traditional foods and health of indigenous peoples in the region. Lindane and its breakdown products are also found in blood testing of the general population. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control reported lindane in 62 percent of the subjects sampled, with the highest body burden levels among women of childbearing age.  

“In the U.S. and Canada lindane is also used to control head lice and scabies, despite research linking it with increased risk of brain tumors in children. Children are particularly vulnerable to lindane’s toxic effects, including seizures and damage to the nervous and immune systems. Lindane is also a suspected carcinogen and hormone disruptor. When lindane is used in head lice shampoos it can contaminate urban sewer systems and pollute sources of drinking water. California banned lindane shampoos and lotions in 2002, and similar legislation is pending in New York and Illinois.” 

The Bayer corporation recently moved the global headquarters for its Bayer Biological Products division from North Carolina to Berkeley. The mayor was a prominent participant in their announcement press conference, though der Gobernator, expected to participate, was a no-show. 

PANNA’s anti-lindane campaign is directed at a different division, Bayer CropScience, which distributes the agricultural products containing lindane. They’ve asked supporters to call Esmail Zirakparvar, President and CEO of Bayer CropScience’s North American offices, in North Carolina (919-549-2000) to urge the company to stop selling lindane. That’s a long distance call, of course, and it would be easier to call Bayer’s Berkeley office (510-705-5000) or even to drop by their plant on Seventh Street with a tasteful note expressing the same sentiments. Just ask the Berkeley employees to pass the message along to their corporate colleagues in North Carolina. As biologists, they should be able to understand our concerns.