A deal that Mayor Tom Bates and UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau heralded Wednesday as ushering in a new era of town-gown tranquility continues to stir controversy in Berkeley where several councilmembers and neighborhood leaders insist the city got a bum deal. 

“This is a deal that will live in infamy,” said Councilmember Dona Spring. “The city gave up everything and the university gave up nothing.” 

On Tuesday, the council voted 6-3 to settle the city’s lawsuit against the university. Besides Spring, councilmembers Betty Olds and Kriss Worthington opposed the settlement. The UC Regents endorsed the deal Wednesday. 

Under the agreement, UC Berkeley will more than double its annual payments to the city from just over $500,000 to $1.2 million, with the amount increasing by 3 percent every year through 2021. 

The payments, which will go to sewer and fire services as well as transportation improvement and neighborhood beautification programs, are far lower than the $4.1 million originally sought by the city, which this year faces an $8.9 million deficit. Before the city filed a lawsuit in February, the university had offered annual payments of $1.1 million. 

According to a city’s consultant report last year, the university costs the city about $10.9 million a year. The university disputed that figure. 

The city’s hope for winning its lawsuit and forcing the university to pay sewer fees and parking taxes had plummeted in recent weeks, according to Spring. After telling the council that the city had a good chance to force the university to pay the fees, Spring said, city lawyers told councilmembers that Berkeley had little hope of prevailing in court. 

Bates agreed that the city’s legal options were limited. Had the city prevailed against the long-range plan, he said, the university “would have still gotten exactly what it wanted with just more stop signs.” 

He added that a potential sewer lawsuit “was an uphill fight” and that it was useless to try to collect city parking taxes because nearly every university activity could be construed as having an educational component, which precludes the city from taxing it. 

“We really had no weight,” he said. “The reality is the state Legislature has to come up with a way to help university communities. There’s no way we’re going to squeeze them unless they [the state] change their provisions.” 

Chancellor Birgeneau said the university didn’t have enough money to raise its offer. “We’re running a deficit too,” he said. “Doubling the amount of money really does hurt.”  

The university also pledged to explore a proposal by which the city could collect an additional $200,000 to $500,000 from taxes the university pays for purchases made out of state.  

Besides increasing UC payments to the city, the deal commits both parties to embark on an estimated $500,000 joint effort to devise new zoning rules for downtown Berkeley from the campus to Martin Luther King Jr. Way between Hearst Avenue to Dwight Way. The city will be allowed to use a portion of UC payments to dedicate one full-time planner to the project. 

“We get a chance now to be equal partners with the university and make a logical plan for the downtown,” said Mayor Bates. He called the deal, “the best agreement between any city and university in the state.” 

Bates touted university commitments to work to establish a public-private research center, most likely for West Berkeley, and to locate in Berkeley businesses that spin off from UC research, as well as give hiring preference to Berkeley residents and reduce the number of new parking campus parking spaces from 2,300 to just over 1,200. 

The settlement ends the city’s lawsuit against the UC Berkeley’s Long-Range Development Plan. City officials had argued that the plan essentially gave a blank check to the university to build up to 2.2 million square feet of new administrative and academic space, mostly in the downtown, with no city input. 

As a state entity, UC Berkeley is exempt from paying city taxes or following city zoning regulations. 

The agreement requires the university to list university- and state-owned properties downtown that might be developed over the next 15 years so that the city can better plan for UC expansion. 

But the city also made numerous concessions. Berkeley withdrew its right to sue the university for collection of sewer fees and the city’s parking tax. The city also agreed not to challenge the construction of a new UC Berkeley project on the southeast edge of campus that includes a renovated Memorial Stadium. 

The agreement also makes no mention of city proposals for lessening the effects of campus growth on surrounding neighborhoods. There is no commitment from the university to pay for improving enforcement of residential preferred parking rules, limiting the loss of public sidewalks during construction or establishing a free transit pass for university employees, concessions suggested by residents opposing the plan. 

“The employees of the university are getting screwed just like the residents of Berkeley are getting screwed because there is going to be a lot more traffic,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

Additionally, the university did not commit itself to following the new downtown area plan, and if the new plan is not in place within four years UC can decrease its annual payments by $180,000. Although the university and the city will share the costs of devising the plan, should it be challenged in court, “the university will not be required to defend [it] in court.” 

“The [downtown plan] is a violation of public trust,” said Spring, who represents the downtown area. “We’ve ceded sovereignty to the university and given up our ability to set our own zoning code.” 

Although the plan will go before city commissions and the City Council for approval, the university must sign off on it. Also city-university disagreements will be settled by staff rather than the city’s Planning Commission, and all meetings before city bodies “must be coordinated with UC Berkeley.” 

Rob Wrenn, a member of Berkeley’s planning and transportation commissions, predicted the university would use the new pan to remove its least favorite aspects of the current downtown plan, approved in 1990. 

“What the city really needed was a commitment by the university to follow the current plan,” Wrenn said. 

Ed Denton, the university’s vice chancellor of facilities, declined to specify the university’s objections to the current downtown plan. “The plan is extremely old,” he said. “Right now we have to keep saying no. We want to develop a plan that allows us to say yes.” 

Bates agreed that the current downtown plan needs updating and that the new plan would give the city and university a chance to coordinate future development in the downtown.  

Raudel Wilson, president of the Downtown Berkeley Association, a merchants group, praised the proposal. 

“I think it’s a smart idea,” he said. “If UC is going to be building down here it makes sense for them to work with the city and have a say in the downtown’s future.” 

Before Berkeley and UC signed a deal making settlement negotiations secret, Mayor Tom Bates sought a confidentiality agreement with the UC Berkeley Chancellor. 

In a March 14 letter obtained by the Daily Planet, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau rejected Bates’ suggestion that the two sign an agreement to “engage in private confidential discussions.” 

Mayor Bates said that he and Birgeneau had had productive discussions before the city filed suit against the university and that he thought additional talks could break the stalemate. 

“I wanted to continue those discussions because I thought we were making progress,” he said. Bates added that he sought the confidentiality agreement to make sure that UC could not use anything said at the meeting during a trial.  

In rejecting the offer, Birgeneau wrote that the two sides should conduct negotiations, “only through the formal mandatory settlement conference, and not through personal side meetings.” 

The chancellor elaborated on his rationale for rejecting the secret talks at a Wednesday press conference. “These types of negotiations have to be done properly,” he said. “They can’t be done anecdotally between the mayor and myself.” 

Soon after Birgeneau rejected Bates’ request, the two sides agreed to a more expansive confidentiality agreement that prevented residents from viewing the deal until both sides approved it. 

The agreement, signed by attorneys for both sides, has drawn heat from councilmembers, who said they never formally voted to approve it. 

Although Bates wanted to have private talks with the chancellor, he said he understood that any confidentiality agreement the city entered into would not preclude publicizing the proposed settlement. 

Last week, the university rejected a request from the mayor and City Council to waive the agreement so residents could preview the deal. 

Birgeneau said Wednesday that the Regents wouldn’t permit the university to disclose the terms before it approved the settlement. 

Neighborhood activists, angry that they couldn’t view or comment on the deal before it was approved, are now challenging it in court. Today (Friday) a superior court judge will hear a petition to intervene filed by Berkeley resident Carl Friberg. 

“I feel we have the constitutional right for citizens to review any agreement made on our behalf by the city,” Friberg said. “That’s what the mayor promised and that’s what we’re asking for.” 

Friberg maintained that because the city didn’t give residents input into the decision making process, they should be added as a third party to the city’s lawsuit against the university. 

If the judge grants Friberg’s petition, the settlement agreement would be put on hold. 

Meanwhile Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who opposed the settlement agreement, said he was preparing a proposal to prevent the city from not disclosing similar settlement agreements, before the council approves them. 

“I think it is reprehensible that some attorney succeeded in keeping the public from having one second of comment before this was a done deal,” he said. 

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The Berkeley Unified School District took an enormous bite out of its union problems last Tuesday, reaching tentative agreements with its teachers, bus drivers, custodians, instructional assistants and office workers. 

Members of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, Stationary Engineers Local 39, and the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees have to vote on ratification of the contracts, and, if approved, the contracts must be certified by the Alameda County Office of Education to ensure that the district can actually meet the promised fiscal obligations. 

Contract negotiations are still ongoing with the unions representing BUSD’s administrators and managers and supervisors. 

The teacher contract dispute had gotten the bulk of public attention over the past few months, with several BFT-sponsored rallies held on the Old City Hall grounds during School Board meetings and with many teachers holding a “work-to-rule” action throughout the schools in which they refused to provide volunteer work past their contracted eight-hour days. Berkeley teachers have been working without a new contract for two years. 

The new contract, if ratified, will extend through the 2007-08 school year. BFT and district representatives reportedly held at least one 24-hour session over the weekend to reach the tentative agreement. 

BUSD representatives would not disclose details of the tentative agreement. But Thursday afternoon, shortly before teachers assembled at the Berkeley Community Theater to begin voting on the proposed contract, the teachers’ union released a summary of what they called the “key features” of the contract, which include: 

• A 1.04 percent across-the-board salary increase in 2005-06. 

• A limit on increases in health care co-payments in 2005-06. 

• A “fair share” revenue sharing formula for 2006-07 and 2007-08 during which teacher pay and benefits will rise if new revenue is received by the district. 

• A cap on health care benefits for 2006-07 through 2007-08. 

• Maximum class sizes at all grade levels, and BSEP Measure B staffing ratios written as part of contracts for all classes. 

In a telephone interview, Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Barry Fike credited the union’s direct-action tactics and “parents who pushed both sides to negotiate an agreement rather than taking this to a strike” for ultimately pushing through the tentative contract agreement. 

“The settlement reflects tight financial times at both the state and local levels,” Fike said, “and is consistent with the union’s position all along that we’d only ask for our fair share.” 

Saying that “we are relieved that we have a contract,” Fike said that he did not envision any further negotiations if BFT members turn it down. “I’m informing teachers that they should either vote to approve the tentative contract or be prepared for a strike.” 

He said that the union’s negotiating team was recommending member approval of the proposed contract, but that because of the short period between the signing of the tentative agreement and beginning of the teacher ratification vote, on Thursday, BFT’s Executive Committee was not able to formally meet to make a recommendation. 

In the contract disputes among the district’s bus drivers and custodians there was some lingering confusion and bitterness. 

Several custodians came out to Wednesday night’s BUSD board meeting apparently prepared to make presentations but left en masse shortly before the meeting began without explaining what they had come to say. One Local 39 member would only say that the custodians had left “because our leaders aren’t out here.” 

Mary Alice Pride, identifying herself as a district bus driver, spoke during the board’s public comment period, complaining that recent district announcements of possible bus stop eliminations and zoning changes “ultimately will eliminate bus drivers and eliminate bus service for some children. We think that budget cuts can be made in other areas.” 

Pride also complained that the district was hiring new bus drivers at the lowest pay scale while handing out layoff notice to higher-paid drivers who had been with the district for years. 

All of the district’s bus drivers had recently received layoff notices. 

“The buses will roll next year, and all eligible children will ride,” said BUSD Board President Nancy Riddle. “We may consolidate some bus stops, and we may stagger some of the bell times to make the routes more efficient. This is just a case of anxious employees misunderstanding the situation.” 

Riddle said that the layoff notices were necessary by law “whenever there is even a slight modification in the work schedules,” but added that “no driver will lose their job.” 

Superintendent Michelle Lawrence also assured the district’s bus drivers that their jobs were not in jeopardy. 

Representatives of Stationary Engineers Local 39 and the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees were not available for comment for this story. 

Despite the still-lingering contract controversies, Lawrence praised union and district negotiators for “making it through this incredibly difficult time” and stating that “maybe this means we’ll end the school year on a good note.” 

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After almost four years of trying to negotiate a new union contract, workers at the Claremont Resort and Spa voted Wednesday to go on strike if an agreement is not reached by June 1. According to the union, 94 percent of the workers voted in favor of walking out. 

In a public demonstration of the vote, more than 200 workers, community members, elected officials and other union representatives rallied at the hotel Thursday afternoon and then marched down Ashby Avenue to Claremont Avenue to the cheers and honks of passing motorists. 

“It depends on management, they have until June 1,” said Evelyn Sanchez, an organizer with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, which helped organize the strike vote. “I’m sure they understand the repercussions of a strike economically; if they choose to do nothing, that’s on them.” 

The union did not say whether June 1 will be the official start of the strike if an agreement is not reached. 

—Jakob Schiller 

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Overriding the pleas of preservationists, Berkeley Planning Commissioners passed changes to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) Wednesday night. 

The controversial measure now heads to the City Council for a hearing on July 12. 

The measure gives the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) the power to deny demolitions of designated historical resources, including those designated structures of merit. 

The measure simultaneously strips the LPC’s control over so-called “minor alterations” to the exteriors of structures of merit and vests the authority with city staff. 

Structures of merit are structures of historical significance that have been altered but still retain many of their original design features, while “landmarks” are more pristine. 

The lesser classification was entitled to the same protections as “landmarks” under the current ordinance, including the requirement that all changes must be approved by the LPC.  

The Planning Commission version also weakens protections for structures of merit under the California Environment Quality Act, reducing the need for a detailed Environmental Impact Report for demolitions or major alterations. 

As adopted, a city zoning officer can approve “minor alterations” without the right of appeal to the LPC unless the city official chooses to refer it to the commission. Just what constitutes a minor alteration isn’t spelled out.  

Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman proposed an amendment that would allow appeals of proposed alterations to the Landmarks Commission, but it failed on a tie (four-four) vote. 

“This is truly appalling,” said LPC member Patricia Dacey during the public comment session at the start of the meeting. “It is a transfer of power from the commissions and City Council to the bureaucrat. Changes to structures of merit will be made on the say-so of zoning officers with no right of appeal, and city staff have shown themselves to be no friends of landmarks.” 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association President Wendy Markle declared in a letter presented at the start of Wednesday’s meeting, “The broad stroke of these provisions is to turn the intent and practice of the LPO away from the citizen, the neighborhood, and the of a community-involved commission to the developer, the paid planning staff, and outside developer.” 

The measure also introduces a new procedure that allows property owners to apply for a “Request for Determination” (RFD) to ascertain whether or not a 50-year-old-plus building potentially qualifies as a landmark. 

Owners of single-family homes and duplexes who want a determination and aren’t planning major alterations or demolitions will only have to submit a photograph of the dwelling as visible from the street, the name of the architect (if available) and the construction date. 

Owners of larger and commercial buildings will have to submit a detailed historical analysis which contains information similar to that required now for a landmarking application. 

If owners are planning alteration or demolition, then RFDs are mandatory and must contain a full, detailed analysis. 

Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman offered a successful amendment that gave the LPC the right to continue non-project RFDs an additional two meetings beyond the two proposed by his commission to decide whether or not to initiate a landmark proposal on the property. After that, interested members have an additional 10 days to gather the 25 needed signatures to initiate a landmark application on their own. 

For RFDs with construction, the time limits are imposed by the Permit Streamlining Act, the original impetus for the LPC’s long-term project to revise the ordinance. The Planning Commission took six months to mull over what had taken years of effort by the LPC. 

Two other Poschman amendments failed on a 4-4 vote, the result of the non-appearance of Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn, whose absence at commission meetings has been more frequent than his attendance. 

When it came time to vote on the whole package, commissioner Sara Shumer said she couldn’t consider voting for the measure because of the tie votes. 

“I am perfectly comfortable voting on something where the majority voted in favor of the provisions, but I’m not comfortable voting for things where amendments failed on a 4-4 vote. I would be comfortable voting for those things that got majority support, but this is not kosher,” she said. 

Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan reminded Shumer that motions on an ordinance were all or nothing. 

Colleague David Stoloff, appointee of Mayor Tom Bates, said Shumer’s concerns could be addressed in a letter transmitted to the council along with the ordinance. 

“I’m planning to vote for it because this has been with us a long time,” said Helen Burke. 

“This will strengthen preservation in this town,” said Chair Harry Pollack. 

When it came time for the final vote only Poschman and Joe Fireman sided with Shumer and the ordinance was approved on a 5-3 vote. 

The measure now heads to the City Council in time for a decision before the council takes its annual summer break, as Mayor Bates has been urging. f

Promising to attract some of the best scientific minds in the country, the UC Board of Regents voted Thursday to compete for the management of the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons research and development laboratories in Los Alamos, New Mexico in partnership with Bechtel National, Inc. 

The only regent voting in opposition was Gary Novack, UC Alumni Association vice president.  

The university’s drive to continue managing the lab, which gave birth to the atomic bomb, was met by the sometimes raucous opposition of about four dozen students and community activists who showed up at an 8 a.m. subcommittee meeting on Wednesday at the Laurel Heights campus in San Francisco.  

After 23 of them were permitted to voice their concerns for 90 seconds each, the activists vented their frustration by chanting and heckling the regents, who left the meeting room and were replaced by a row of armed police. Given the choice to leave or be arrested, the group agreed to observe the regents’ deliberations quietly.  

At issue was DOE’s call for competitive bids to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The university has had a no-bid contract to manage the facility since 1943, but DOE revised its contract procedures after recent security breeches. The final requirements for the competition were announced last week; proposals must be submitted by July 19. It is expected that a University of Texas-Lockheed team will also compete.  

Students from the Coalition to Demilitarize UC and peace advocates said weapons development was at odds with the educational mission of the university. UC Berkeley graduate student Josh Kearns said he suspected that in addition to research and development, “UC will be overseeing the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.” 

The coalition condemned the partnership with BNI, a division of the San Francisco-based Bechtel Group. Calling the corporation a “war profiteer” for its lucrative contract work in Iraq, Juan Reardon of UC Santa Cruz, questioned the “moral implications of work with Bechtel.”  

Activists from Tri-Valley Cares addressed the health and safety of employees and communities surrounding the labs, pointing to worker lawsuits claiming chemical exposure. They also asked the university to ensure workers’ rights to organize and “whistleblower” protections.  

Lab subcommittee members posed questions to Michael Anastasio, who will lead the UC-Bechtel team, and to representatives from BNI and subcontractors BWX Technologies and Washington Group International. Like the students, several regents thought the labs might be preparing to manufacture nuclear weapons. Regent Richard Blum of Blum Capital Partners wanted to be sure they wouldn’t be violating international treaties or “spurring a new nuclear arms race.”  

Anastasio assured Blum that Congress regulates nuclear weapons development, so that any change in the Los Alamos mission would have to come directly from the lawmakers.  

Students charged that Blum, husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, should not vote because he is vice chair of URS Corp., which does business with Los Alamos. UC’s general council on Thursday, however, ruled out a conflict of interest and allowed Blum to vote.  

Regents also voiced concern for lab employees, who will cease to be UC staff—the university and Bechtel will form a new corporation—and whose pensions are part of the UC system. Regents Chair Gerald Parsky of the Aurora Capital Group cautioned, “There are a number of issues that need to be worked out.”  

Several of the regents lauded the unique working conditions for scientists at Los Alamos. “The strength is in the environment of academic freedom. This doesn’t exist in the corporate environment,” Parsky said. 

The “open inquiry of science sets a tone for employees” which allows the university to attract “some of the best scientists,” Anastasio said.  

However Novack, the only regent to oppose the competition, argued that the university’s focus should be on academics and improving K-12 education. “The downsides outweigh the upsides,” he said.  

Non-voting Regent Richard Rominger, secretary of UC’s Alumni Association, voiced concern that the labs are an “additional distraction from the core mission of the university.”  

Regents emphasized they did not manage the labs for money, even though the fee paid to the new management team could be as high as $79 million, more than eight times the fees UC had been receiving. 

“It’s clear that UC does not benefit,” said George Blumenthal, chair of the faculty council. All UC fees are put back into the labs. “Service to the country is the university’s mission.”  

Regent Peter Preuss, of the Preuss Foundation, added, “Bidding for this contract is our duty. The nation needs us to do this job.”  

“We live in a very dangerous world. Nuclear weapons could be in the hands of people who we wish didn’t have them,” such as Iran and North Korea, said Regent Blum, who added that the work of the labs “will keep us safe, so we can sit here and protest.”  

Regent David Lee of San Jose further underscored the labs’ mission, by saying, “When we have stronger weapons, people listen to us.”  

When Robi Damelin’s 28-year-old son was killed while serving as an Israeli soldier in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, she didn’t know what to do. She was overcome with a mixture of anger, sadness and confusion. Her son was a peace activist and nev er wanted to serve. She couldn’t figure out who or what to blame. 

When Nadwa Sarandah’s sister was stabbed to death in the streets of East Jerusalem, she became mired in her grief. After living under an occupation that she said had already taken away her dignity and her freedom, she couldn’t bare to lose another part of her life. 

Both women said they felt helpless. Both also knew, however, that whatever they did, they did not want to feed the cycle of violence and misunderstanding that robbed them of their loved ones. 

Damelin and Sarandah eventually met in the Parent’s Circle—Families Forum, an organization started by an Israeli man who also lost his son, formed to give bereaved parents and families an outlet for their grief. 

Now, several years later, Damelin and Sarandah continue to work together. On Monday, they addressed a crowd at the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center to tell their story during an event sponsored by Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, a national Jewish organization dedicated to finding a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

“If we can have one hope, we need to trust each other,” said Damelin, to crowd of about 30 people. Sitting side by side and often interrupting each other like old friends, the two women had the cr owd in tears several times after recounting their losses. 

They said that soon after joining the Parent’s Circle, they discovered the organization was not only a place to grieve but gave families on both sides of the conflict a forum to share their storie s and a place to start working toward reconciliation. Sarandah and Damelin have traveled around their countries together, recruiting parents and families to participate. 

At the JCC talk, Damelin read the letter she had written to the family of the Palest inian who killed her son. She said she had come to realize that her son wasn’t killed for being himself, but instead because he was a symbol of the occupation. This helped her better understand his death, she said, and she wanted to share this with the gunner’s family. 

“I know [your son] did not kill David because he was David,” Damelin read from the letter. “Let us put an end to the killing and find a solution through mutual understanding.” 

Sarandah delivered Damelin’s letter to the Palestinian family who she said were deeply affected by the occupation, cut off from the rest of the world by the roadblocks that surrounded their village. She learned that the man who had killed David was only a kid when he saw his uncle killed by Israeli forces. Since the n, his family had lost several more family members in the violence. 

“He had no hope whatsoever,” Sarandah said. 

Both women said the experience confirmed their belief that the only way to find a solution is to overcome the divisiveness and unite person to person and family to family at a grassroots level. 

“You can sign any paper you want,” said Damelin in reference to agreements such as the Oslo Accords or the Road Map. “But unless you have a reconciliation process, you will not have peace.” 

For more information about Sarandah or Damelin, or to find out more about the Parent’s Circle, visit www.theparentscircle.org. 



With the blessing of city officials, the owner of an illegal West Berkeley live/work warehouse where 15 tenants refuse to leave has formulated a plan to speed up evictions and safeguard the value of the property. 

Lawrence White, owner of the Drayage building, is set to apply for permits to demolish the building’s 24 illegal residential units, according to his attorney William Berland. The permits could potentially allow White to evict tenants and ask a judge to enforce an eviction order months earlier than he could otherwise. 

City officials said approval of the interior demolition permit could be fast-tracked and would not need to go before the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board, sparking an angry rebuke from the tenants’ legal advisor, Jeffrey Carter. 

“The implications of this is that in Berkeley it is easy to throw people on the street for living a slightly bohemian lifestyle,” Carter said. 

He contends the city’s zoning board must approve the permits, which would add several months to the process. 

If granted, the demolition permit would allow White, under Berkeley’s rent laws, to proceed with evictions without subjecting his property to restrictions on its future use. Without the permit, White’s surest option to legally remove the tenants is to leave the rental business. 

Had White taken that route, city law requires that the tenants be allowed to remain for four months, and they have the right to return if the building was brought up to code as rental housing. In addition, the building could not be converted to a condominium for 10 years after the eviction. 

Condominium restrictions could lower the value of the property which White has said he would put on the market for $2.7 million. Two months ago a deal fell through to sell the site for $2.05 million to a developer who planned to build condos. 

White has been under pressure from the city to have the tenants vacate the building since a fire inspection in March uncovered over 250 code violations at the warehouse on Addison and Third streets. 

Calling the building “an extreme fire hazard,” Berkeley Fire Marshal David Orth has fined White $2,500 a day since Apr. 15 and made him pay an extra $1,000 a day for an on-site fire watch until all of the tenants are removed. 

Although Carter maintains that the Zoning Adjustments Board is required to rule on the demolition of dwelling units, Berkeley Land Use Planning Manager Mark Rhoades said that the Drayage residences don’t qualify for ZAB review since they were built illegally. 

“They were never recognized under the zoning ordinance as dwelling units,” Rhoades said. “The residences are commercial spaces that have been illegally used as dwelling units.” 

Carter countered that the city’s zoning ordinance only requires that a dwelling unit be occupied “by persons living in a household,” not that the unit be legally established. 

Rhoades said the city would need about three to four weeks to rule on the permit application once it is presented. He added that after obtaining the permit, the city could not require White to follow through with the demolition work. 

The tenants, many of whom are artisans and have lived at the warehouse for a decade, continue to hope that by staying put they can pressure White to accept a deal from the Northern California Land Trust. The trust has reportedly offered more than $2.05 million for the property and has pledged of to give tenants the right to return in a new building that meets city codes. 

“We’re disappointed the landlord has refused the land trust’s offer,” said Claudia Viera, a tenant. “It seems like they’re trying very hard to get around the law.” 

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In an effort to decrease the number of vacant storefronts around town, the Berkeley City Council Tuesday eased parking requirements for new businesses that open on commercial streets. 

The ordinance, passed by a vote of 7-1, with one abstention, ends restrictions that forced prospective merchants to provide off-street parking when they opened a business that provides a different use from that of the previous business. 

Also, the council narrowly rejected a proposal encouraging state lawmakers to allow cities to extend the vote to 16-year-olds and defeated another proposal to ask state regulators to form a citizen advisory group to oversee the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s cleanup of the Strawberry Creek Watershed at the lab’s Berkeley campus. 

The drive to ease parking restrictions on new businesses stems from a recommendation from Mayor Tom Bates’ Taskforce on Permitting and Development. Because many current businesses were grandfathered in before Berkeley established laws requiring businesses to supply off-street parking, potential new businesses were often saddled with the responsibility for providing customer parking in areas where no parking was readily available. 

The task force, which met last year, heard the saga of a South Berkeley pizza restaurant, Spud’s, that nearly didn’t open because of the city’s parking restrictions. By changing the building’s use from retail to a restaurant, the new owner was required to provide 12 new parking spaces even though on-street parking in the area was plentiful. 

The owner’s search to secure parking delayed the restaurant’s opening and ultimately forced him to sign a parking deal with a local church that required the restaurant not to serve alcohol. 

The new ordinance, which must still be passed a second time to become law, applies only to commercial streets. Also, in order to waive parking requirements for new businesses that require more parking under city law than their predecessors, the city must make special findings that the new business is located either near public transportation or a public parking lot. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington argued that giving the city discretion over reducing parking requirements could result in the law being applied unfairly. He also held that the proposal would merely force shoppers to park on nearby residential streets. 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, who chaired the mayor’s task force prior to being elected to the council, countered that the new law would not displace any more parking to neighborhoods than under the current conditions. 

Youth Voting 

Despite an impassioned plea from nine Berkeley High students, the council failed to round up five votes to pass a resolution supporting local choice for lowering the voting age to 16. The resolution failed 4-2, with three abstentions (Spring, Worthington, Anderson and Moore, yes). 

Should the state legislature ever allow cities to lower the voting age, Berkeley would spend an additional $38,800 to pay for extra ballots, voting rolls and poll workers, according to City Clerk Sara Cox. 

That is a small price to pay “for ensuring that young people have a voice,” said Councilmember Max Anderson. 

But many of his colleagues weren’t ready to go to bat for teen suffrage. 

“What keeps me from supporting this is my own memory of myself as a 16-year-old,” said Capitelli. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak opposed the notion of a proposal that effectively would give the vote to 16-year-olds in some California cities but not others. 

The defeat was a surprise to the students who said they thought that weeks of lobbying would carry the day. 

“I feel we were slightly misled,” said Berkeley High student Chris Howell. “A lot of the complaints they made tonight came out of the blue.” 

Lab Cleanup 

To the relief of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the council rejected a proposal to ask state regulators to install a citizen advisory board comprised partially of lab critics to oversee the cleanup at the Strawberry Creek Canyon site.  

Instead, the council voted 6-3 (Worthington, Spring, Anderson, no) to designate the Community Environmental Advisory Commission to act as the liaison with state regulators and to keep citizens informed about the cleanup. Also the council directed the city manager to urge Berkeley’s representatives in Congress to press for more federal money for the cleanup effort. 

Lab spokesperson Terry Powell said the lab was pleased with the vote. “Now we can focus on the cleanup,” she said, adding that the lab had 17 months to complete the job. 

Slavery Ties 

In other matters at Tuesday’s meeting, the council, without debate, voted 8-1 (Olds, no) to require city vendors to disclose whether they had any financial ties to slavery in the U.S. 

It also unanimously approved a resolution urging county lawmakers to reduce bird deaths at county wind energy plants, and another to revisit granting a contract extension for Pedal Express to deliver the city’s interoffice mail.

Berkeley gardener and traffic circle advocate Karl Reeh is learning the hard way: Never negotiate with terrorists.  

Especially with an unnamed person or group brazen enough to kidnap the 15-year-old Bald Cypress tree he raised from a seeding right out of a traffic circle at Ellsworth and Ward streets. 

“In a way it is like terrorism,” Reeh said. “When I give in, they just raise the stakes.” 

At the request of a resident who lives beside the new traffic circle, Reeh, on April 10, planted his six-foot cypress tree in the circle. Eleven days later the tree was gone, replaced by the following note from a group calling itself “The Society for the Humane Treatment of Trees and People.” 

“Your tree is safe, but will not be returned unless you agree never to plant any type of tree in the traffic circle. To show your good will, plant any other low-growing plant in its place and your tree will be returned.” 

The tree nabbers, believed to live somewhere on the 2300 block of Ward Street, just east of the traffic circle, gave the justification for taking the hostage. In a hand-scribbled note, they argued that as the tree grew, it would risk pedestrian safety by blocking views across the circle, crowd out other plants on the circle, and “block the open feeling of the circle and the big bowl of blue sky above it.”  

As a compromise, the tree nabbers suggested replanting the tree two blocks north on the traffic circle at Ellsworth and Carleton streets, where a young redwood, donated by the city, had died. 

Not wanting to pick a fight, Reeh, who lives in the neighborhood and is president of the local neighborhood association, didn’t file a police report and complied with their demands. 

“As a community activist,” he said, “I think it’s important not to snub the minority opinion.”  

He left Delphinium bulbs at the circle, which were planted, but instead of getting back his tree, Reeh, through an intermediary, received another note with new demands. The tree could no longer be available to the neighboring traffic circles, the tree nabbers said, because the Bald Cypress needs too much water to thrive in the middle of asphalt. 

They added, “Your tree is having a lovely time out of town, in the company of other trees,” but if Reeh wanted it back, he would have to “put out the general word to the neighborhood” that the tree would not be available to other traffic circles. 

“At this point I don’t know whether I’m going to get it back,” said Reeh, who maintains that the cypress does not require much water and is suitable for a traffic circle. “I try to withhold any anger because I don’t know who I’m dealing with.” 

Reeh said he has communicated with the tree nabbers through Holly and Bruce Schenck, residents of Ward Street, who are responsible for maintaining the traffic circle. 

“I’m happy to see the tree gone,” said Bruce Schenck, adding that he didn’t know the identity of the thieves. While his niece, who lives a few houses down on Ellsworth Street, liked the tree, he found the idea of have a cypress unappealing. 

“If you’re a pedestrian, you’re pretty much invisible to a driver when you’re walking on the other side of the circle,” he said. 

Schenck’s neighbor, who refused to give his name, said he preferred the circle without the tree and didn’t think anyone on his block wanted it. 

Meanwhile on Ellsworth Street, Alan McCornick, who first petitioned Berkeley to install the traffic circle, fumed at the news. 

“What a low-life. A tree-stealer. Now that’s a new kind of scuzzbag,” McCornick wrote in an e-mail. 

“My humble opinion is they just want control over that circle and don’t want anyone else involved,” said Reeh, who has not given up hope that the tree will end up at the neighboring traffic circle on Carleton Street. 

On Sunday Reeh paid a visit to the home of Jane Scherr, one of several people who care for the Carleton traffic circle, asking her to gather signatures from neighbors in favor of planting the tree at their circle. 

“Maybe if they see there is a lot of support for the tree here, they’ll be moved to return it,” Reeh said. “All I want is for it to be returned so it can be planted again.” 

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas

Parking will no longer be free for local BART riders beginning in January. 

By a 7-2 vote, BART’s board of directors, looking to close a $53 million budget deficit, voted Thursday to charge parking fees at 10 East Bay stations, including Ashby and North Berkeley. 

The board also approved shortening peak time trains and establishing a 10-cent fare surcharge. When coupled with a previously approved 3.7 percent fare increase set to take effect in January, the minimum fare will increase from $1.25 to $1.40. 

Disabled and senior riders will also have to pay more. Starting in January, BART will reduce their ride discount from 75 percent to 62.5 percent of the full fare. 

Beginning in 2006, BART will charge $1 parking fees at the following East Bay stations: North Berkeley, Ashby, MacArthur, Lake Merritt, Rockridge, Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek and Dublin-Pleasanton, and $5 at West Oakland. 

Outlying BART stations were spared from parking fees, BART Director Bob Franklin said, in part because BART only has equipment to charge for parking at 10 stations and also because directors representing outlying areas opposed parking fees at their stations. 

“It’s not fair [that some passengers will pay more], but we have a budget deficit and this is the most we can get in parking charges,” Franklin said. 

Franklin predicted that if ridership remains stable at stations where the parking fees are established, directors would feel pressure to charge for parking throughout the system. Should ridership drop sharply, he said the board would likely rescind the parking fees. 

Berkeley officials have been pushing for BART to charge for parking at city stations. Noting that BART reported that it costs about $1 a day to maintain parking spaces, Councilmember Kriss Worthington said free parking amounted to an unfair subsidy for drivers. 

Additionally, the city contends that public agencies such as BART are subject to the city’s 10 percent parking tax, but details have not been worked out with the agency. With 1,437 parking spaces in Berkeley, if the city were to receive the tax on BART’s $1 per space fee, Berkeley would net about $40,000 a year. 

The board also approved the elimination of 115 positions, 65 of which were vacant, and froze salaries for top managers. In all the cuts, trimmed BART’s budget deficit from $53 million to $23.5 million. 

BART spokesperson Linton Johnson said the transit system will seek to balance its budget from savings through negotiations with its unions. The contracts for all five BART unions expire at the end of June. BART’s budget projects that union employees won’t receive pay raises for the next four years. 

BART’s deficit stems mainly from falling revenues and increasing costs. While sales tax revenues and ridership (BART’s two sources of income) have dropped over the past five years, employee salaries and benefits have increased. 

BART, which is not required to operate on a balanced budget, has until the end of June to finalize its budget for fiscal year 2006, which begins July 1. 

Oakland developer Alan Dones told Peralta Community College trustees Tuesday night that he “came to be a partner, not an adversary,” and was withdrawing his controversial proposal for an agreement to develop Peralta-Laney College lands. 

Following Dones’ dramatic announcement, members of the Peralta Trustee Board audience—many of whom had come out to vocally oppose the proposed agreement—broke into spontaneous applause. 

Several meeting participants, including members of Oakland’s black business and political community, had come with the intention of supporting the Dones proposal. Dones is African-American, and support for his proposal on the trustee board had been divided along racial lines. 

The proposal had appeared on the agenda without Chancellor Elihu Harris’ recommendation of approval. 

Board Vice President Linda Handy, a supporter of the Dones project, asked the trustees to accept the project withdrawal with the understanding it would be reconsidered once the board completes its strategic plan at the end of the year. The resolution was passed unanimously. 

Trustees Nicky Gonzalez Yuen and Cy Gulassa, vocal opponents of the Dones proposal, had argued in earlier meetings that the development of the strategic plan should precede any district development plans. 

With four of its members retiring, the outgoing Peralta Board of Trustees authorized contract negotiations between Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris and Dones at the board’s final meeting last November. The proposed contract would have given Dones and his Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA) exclusive one-year rights to come up with a long-term lease and joint development plan for the Peralta administration buildings and the Laney College student-faculty parking lot. 

The plot sits on what may soon become prime development land once the City of Oakland makes bond-authorized improvements to the Lake Merritt Channel, which runs between the Peralta and Laney properties. 

Concerns about commercial development of Laney properties escalated last February after a Laney College meeting in which Dones indicated that he wanted to include land on East 10th Street that had already been set aside to construct Laney’s new Art Building. The Peralta Federation of Teachers also actively opposed the Dones proposal, bringing with them the clout of Alameda County’s powerful labor coalitions. 

In his statement to trustees during the public comment period before the board began considering agenda items, a contrite Dones said that he made his decision “because the process has pretty much degraded, and in light of the chancellor’s stated opposition to my plan.” 

Dones said he was also “offering my assistance as the district moves forward with the strategic plan, and after administrators and faculty and students get the chance to weigh in on this matter, I will be more than happy—should the board desire it—to resubmit my proposal at a later time.” 

Opponents of the Dones plan were quick to praise the developer for withdrawing his proposal before the vote and offering an olive branch of peace. 

Trustee Cy Gulassa said, “I have always felt Mr. Dones was a man of great integrity and responsibility, and in my talks with labor representatives, they all say that they hold you in high regard. I hope that we can work together in the future as partners.” 

Evelyn Lord, president of the Laney Faculty Senate that had passed several resolutions against the Dones plan, offered “thanks and appreciation to Mr. Dones for having the integrity to step forward tonight and make this announcement. I look forward to perhaps working with him in the future on campus projects.” 

Sharon Cornu, executive director of the Alameda Central Labor Council, said, “I suspect at some future point my organization will be back here to support some project Mr. Dones is working on.” 

And while Dones and development proposal opponents were talking peace, supporters of the Dones proposal got off a few parting shots in what had been a bitter and often racially divided lobbying campaign. 

Local business leader Geoffrey Pete, chairman of the Oakland Black Caucus, complained that African-Americans have been left out of Peralta’s ongoing multi-million dollar Vista College building project in Berkeley despite support for the Vista project by African-American business and political leaders. 

“Where is the outrage at that?” he said. “Or is outrage reserved against African-American developers only? Let’s make sure that the causal reason that cost SUDA this contract isn’t the same one that has left African-Americans out of the Vista project.” 

(Pete is the cousin of the author of this story.) 

Chancellor Harris announced for the first time that he opposed the Dones proposal and criticized what he called “misinformation” about the plan. 

“There was a lot of hoopla in the community that this was a proposal to sell Peralta and Laney land,” Harris said. “That was incorrect. The sale of the land was never in the proposal. It was a joint-use agreement.” 

›

Panoramic Hill will become Berkeley’s newest national landmark, a federal official said Thursday. 

Sandwiched between the two UC Berkeley campuses and Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve, the landmark-to-be is a narrow wedge of hillside marked by narrow one-lane roads that sit next to some of Berkeley’s most distinguished houses. 

Paul Lusignan, the National Register of Historic Places historian in charge of landmark designations in western states, said minor changes remain to be made in the application, but “there’s nothing that stands in the way of its eventual listing.” 

The district features unique creations by illustrious architects, including Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, Ernest Coxhead, John Hudson Thomas and William Wurster. 

Two Panoramic Hill residents—Janice Thomas and Fredrica Drotos—prepared the 62-page application for submission to the State Historic Resources Commission, which endorsed the proposal in February and forwarded it on to Lusignan’s office. 

At the time, state historian Marilyn Lortie said that in her 20 years with the state Office of Historic Preservation, “this is one of the nicest residential districts I’ve ever seen. It has all the stars of California architecture.” 

Once the minor bugs are resolved, the Panoramic Hill Historic District will become the city’s 11th national landmark and the second district to be recognized. The Berkeley Historic Civic Center District was recognized two years ago. 

“This is fabulous news,” said Thomas when informed of Lusignan’s comments. “It’s a great relief. Let’s hope it protects us from whatever the university’s got planned.” 

Thomas and her friends on Panoramic Hill have been outspoken critics of UC Berkeley’s plans for installing nighttime television lighting at Memorial Stadium, which sits at the base of their hillside. 

Of the 61 hillside homes nominated for inclusion in the district, Lusignan rejected only one, the creation of Frank Lloyd Wright—arguably the best-known of American architects. 

The problem wasn’t so much the structure as its age. 

While Wright designed the home in the 1930s for a hillside site in Malibu, his client never built it, and the plans remained in the custody of the architect’s estate until purchased for construction at 13 Mosswood Road on a site approved by the Taliesin Foundation. 

The home was built in 1975, nearly four decades after it was designed—and that’s what counted for Lusignan. 

“It’s a Frank Lloyd Wright design, but from our perspective it’s a 1975 home,” he said. 

That date puts it outside National Register criteria, he said, and the design wasn’t sufficiently distinctive to breach the age restriction. “It’s not exceptional enough.” 

“We knew there was some risk with including it,” Thomas said. “The owners have done a fabulous job of keeping it intact.” 

Thomas said the current owners had been enthusiastic about the possibility of their home being included in the district, and she was worried that without that protection a future owner might now be able to enlarge or otherwise alter the structure.

CITY SERVICES TO UC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wish somebody—the Daily Planet maybe—could tell readers the following: 

How many dollars is the City of Berkeley spending to provide sewer and fire service to UC, over and above whatever fees UC pays to the city. In other words, what is the total subsidy? 

What is the law on providing these services? Is the city required by any law to provide sewer and fire services below cost? 

If so, it seems the city doesn’t have much negotiating clout. 

If not, it seems the city has powerful negotiating clout—in which case, why don’t city officials set a date by which UC pays its fair share, or has its service cut off? That’s what happens to regular taxpayers if they don’t pay their bills. 

This is not a rhetorical question. It’s a serious question. Really—why don’t they? 

If the city won’t tell us, maybe the Daily Planet can. 

Russ Mitchell 

• 

HOUSING AUTHORITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

According to the city website, “The Berkeley Housing Authority is responsible for carrying out the Housing Assistance Voucher and Public Housing Programs for low income Berkeley families. The Housing Authority is composed of the elected City Council and two tenant members of the Housing Authority. Tenant members are appointed to the authority by the council for two-year terms. One tenant member must be 62 years of age or older.” 

Apparently one or two councilmembers are unaware of this duality structure of the BHA—Section 8 (including some project-based) and public housing. It appears that for some time and yet again, the BHA has been lacking crucial tenant representation. As administrator of both Berkeley’s Section 8 and public housing, this is especially crucial. The City Council and mayor should fill this vacancy expeditiously by appointing an appropriately representative and capable person, someone who, among other things, will insist on timely delivery of meeting agenda and who will not audibly value meetings for their brevity. 

Helen Rippier Wheeler 

Former BHA member 

• 

PROBLEM OR SOLUTION? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Most Americans distrust news media and for good reason. It’s not only because individuals are carelessness or deceitful but over and over again we’re shown professionally produced film clips with voice-over by non-inquisitive journalists who subtly promote American superiority and our noble intentions. The situation is, therefore, not limited to headlined booboos committed by CBS (Dan Rather) or Newsweek (Michael Isakoff), nor to the Pentagon’s self-serving deceits (Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman) and scapegoating (detainee abuse).  

Sometimes the media’s bias is bold as when pundits and panderers praised the election in Iraq not for its product but for its process. Thus, we were expected to see the process as the birth of a “democratic” state and encouraged to hope that no matter who got elected our soldiers could think about coming home. 

Media prejudice also fosters confusion, as when our man in Afghanistan, president Karsai, gets referred to as a partner and also a major recipient of our largess; in other words the USA is both his equal and his patron.  

More often the media’s spin is subtle. Attempting to salvage something of value from Laura Bush’s superbly staged goodwill tour of the Middle East where ninety percent of the people hate our guts and many showed it, CBS concluded: “The U.S. may still have some image-building to do…”  

Indeed, if the mess we’re in was caused by a flawed image then the mainstream media is the solution. Alas, behind the image there is substance—violence, destruction, death and maiming—and for that the mainstream media is part of the problem. 

Marvin Chachere  

• 

SODA FOUNTAINS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Whenever you print an article regarding Ozzie’s drug store soda fountain it seems that you always seem to need to mention that it is the “last Bay Area example of a once ubiquitous institution.” 

This is not true. I believe you owe an apology to Mr. James Cohen, a pharmacist who owns the Medicine Chest Pharmacy on B Street in Hayward. It contains a ‘50s-style soda fountain. 

Marilyn Ann Pasqual  

Hayward 

• 

BIKE TO WORK DAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Somebody please tell Jim Doherty (Letters, May 24-26) that Bike to Work Day was definitely not called on account of rain. I’m not sure if Mayor Bates made it to the noon ride from City Hall—actually, I heard he didn’t—but he was out riding his bike around 8 a.m. I was one of the volunteers at  

the Telegraph and Russell energizer station and he stopped by and talked with us for a bit. Besides the mayor we saw quite a few people at that corner for the two hours we were there. When we opened at 7 a.m. it was pretty sloppy and uninviting and I was worried that the event would be a bust, but by 9 a.m. it was clearing and bike riders were becoming more and more numerous—in fact, we had trouble getting away at 9, we were too busy to shut the  

station down! 

David Coolidge 

• 

MORE ON BIKE TO WORK DAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Jim Doherty’s letter: We’re sorry you missed the annual Bike to Work Day even—it was held on May 19 this year, not May 20 as you stated in your letter. You can find brief coverage of the event on the city’s website. As the site will tell you, the event went forward successfully despite early morning showers, and we had a great time supporting approximately 80 cyclists who visited the city’s energizer station. As you’ll see, Mayor Bates did participate in the event. The event was organized by the city’s Office of Transportation—special thanks to Tully’s, Uncommon Grounds, Omafiets and the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition for donations; and thanks to all our volunteers and visitors for a great event! 

You can also read much more about bicycling and Bike to Work Day in Berkeley and throughout the Bay Area at http://bicycling.511.org. 

Matt Nichols 

Principal Planner 

City of Berkeley Office of Transportation 

• 

DEATH OF DEMOCRACY? 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

All the hints are that the City Council has done the dirty and approved the settlement agreement over the UC lawsuit behind closed doors, without ever releasing the terms of the settlement, in clear violation of the Brown Act, even after it was clearly explained to them (by me) why it was a violation of the Brown Act.  

To briefly review that reason, under Government Code Section 54956.9, the only justification for a closed session meeting to confer with attorney over pending litigation is that “discussion in open session concerning those matters would prejudice the position of the local agency in the litigation.” Concerning the reporting of settlement offers and settlement negotiations by the city attorney to the City Council, those matters cannot, by their very nature, “prejudice the position of the local agency in the litigation.” The reason is that settlement offers and settlement negotiations are strictly inadmissible under Evidence Code Sections 1152 and 1154 to prove either the validity or invalidity of a claim. Therefore, the confidentiality agreement was unlawful under the Brown Act. (The city attorney had stated to the City Council and to the public that the reason for the confidentiality agreement was to prevent the settlement negotiations from being used against the city in litigation.)  

Because the confidentiality agreement was unlawful under the Brown Act, it was prejudicial to the public interest, and because it was prejudicial to the public interest, the City Council had every right and obligation to unilaterally rescind it under Civil Code Section 1689(b)(6). Instead, the City Council chose to flout the law and flout the principle of democracy embodied in the law.  

It is therefore clear that the City Council is no longer operating under the principles of democracy. It has become what Herbert Marcuse called a one-dimensional societal structure, able to shut out any challenge to its autocratic rule. It accepts blindly bad legal advice from the city attorney and supporting legal staff, and that bad advice directs it and empowers it to completely exclude any other legal information, no matter how valid. Democratic debate concerning the law is strictly precluded. The “little people,” i.e. the citizenry, can have their opinions, but any real knowledge of their rights under the law is presumed to be absent and hence completely disregarded when asserted. 

My friends, it is time to test the law and the principles of democracy.  

Peter J. Mutnick 

• 

YOUTH VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This past Tuesday night, Berkeley City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak expressed his support for youth empowerment by voting against the proposal that would have taken a step towards allowing youth to vote. Not wanting to treat 16 year-olds as “second class citizens,” he did not support giving them the right to vote in only city elections, but rather supported giving them no voting rights at all. 

It’s ironic how some councilmembers used their democratic right to vote to deny others that same democratic right. Why is it that when something is proposed to benefit youth, many people, namely adults, rally up against it? In the audience of the City Council meeting were three elderly people who applauded the council’s decision and asked them to repeat it for “those confused kids.” 

Members of the Berkeley High School Chapter of the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA-Berkeley) went to speak during public comment at the council meeting on Tuesday and, despite our call for the vote, the proposal fell one vote short of passing. On behalf of the members of NYRA-Berkeley and myself, I’d like to send our love to councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Darryl Moore, Dona Spring, and Max Anderson for supporting the proposal. We’d also like to thank Mayor Tom Bates, councilmembers Linda Maio, and Laurie Capitelli for keeping an open mind about the issue. 

I’d also like to note that Councilmember Betty Olds, in her patronizing equivocation, told the teenagers in the crowd that she thought we should have the right to vote, because we were exceptional, whereas she doesn’t believe all 16 year-olds are competent enough to vote. Neither are all adults, but what’s there to stop them from voting? 

Robert Reynolds 

NYRA-Berkeley Founder 

• 

EMERGENCY SERVICES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We oppose the evisceration of the Office of Emergency Services, which is the city entity that plans and responds to major disasters—from the next earthquake on the Hayward Fault to the next hills fire to chemical spills to bombings to flooding. While the OES manager, who was slated to be completely deleted, will be replaced with a uniformed Fire Department employee, the job still only demands 20 percent of that employee’s time—8 hours a week. This is criminally insufficient and threatens all of our lives. Keeping the inadequate status quo of 1.2 workers (1.2 FTE) to prepare residents, businesses, and government for the next disaster means more avoidable deaths, more avoidable dismemberments, and more avoidable property damage. 

Restoring the low-level analyst position cut in last year’s budget bloodletting, even for one year, means dozens, perhaps hundreds, of residents and business owners will be able to save themselves and their neighbors from disaster’s devastation. We ask the City Council to change the penny-wise and pound-foolish approach of the current OES budget proposal and restore meaningful disaster training. 

Howard Cook, Disaster Council 

Ed Gold, Chair Commission on Disability 

Eileen Hughes, former Vice-Chair and former member of the Disaster  

Council 

Stephanie May, Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board Member 

Karl Reeh, Chair Disaster Council 

Jesse Townley, Vice-Chair Disaster Council 

• 

OPPORTUNITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Readers of the Daily Planet should be aware of an opportunity that will be available this summer to women who might otherwise be in danger of “falling through the cracks” (as those of you who Really Count like to put it,) as well as women in general. 

If you have never been taught the basic plumbing, electrical, locksmithing, and emergency preparedness skills necessary to acquiring a position as an apartment manager, if you are unsure as to the means by which you would schedule and work with contractors in such a position, if you are unsure as to the specifics of landlord/tenant law and in need of training in this area, and if you have ever wanted the free or reduced rent available to those in apartment manager positions, this six-session course, which begins on June 7, will provide you with everything you need to qualify for an apartment manager position—including confidence. 

The course fee is $25-$250, sliding scale, based on need. Those who complete the two Tuesday and two Thursday evening classes (6- 9:30 p.m.) as well as the two 9 a.m.- 3 p.m. Saturday sessions, will have earned two certificates—one showing the aforementioned skills taught in the first five sessions, and a second certifying that the student has completed a day-long seminar on the final day, presented by Sentinel Fair Housing. 

The course, titled “Apartment Building Management for Women,” is offered at the Building Education Center at 812 Page St. in West Berkeley, and is taught by Naomi Friedman, a licensed plumber and one of the world’s greatest teachers. Naomi provides hands-on instruction in all repair skills necessary to an apartment manager, as well as one-on-one criticism of each student’s work. Her philosophy is “There are no stupid questions.” 

Anyone serious about taking this opportunity should contact the Building Education Center at 525-7610 or www.bldgeductr.org. 

If any landlord has a tenant whose character suits her to be an apartment manager, but who may lack a few of the requisite skills, this would be a wonderful course to recommend to such a person. 

Chadidjah McFall

If you’ve been traveling south on Interstate 880 from downtown Oakland recently—on your way to the A’s game, for example, or maybe to cruise International Boulevard after you’ve perused the offerings in redbook (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll explain some other time)—then you’ve probably noticed the new Bud Lite billboard next to the overpass just before the High Street exit. It shows two teenage-looking female models—one Latina, one African-American—dressed invitingly, staring out indifferently at the passing cars. I think their look is supposed to represent some sort of challenge—try us out if you’re up to it, man, but you’ve got to bring your A game. Anyway, far up on the right-hand corner of the billboard, away from the two young women and the oversized Bud Lite logo, is the message: “Serve Chilled.” Serve chilled? Is that supposed to mean that the best way to break down these young women’s icy looks is to get them beer-drunk? Or does the message mean that it is the women themselves who are supposed to be served—properly cooled-out, of course—to the would-be male consumers driving by in their cars? I think one of our clever friends at the ad agency made this deliberately ambiguous. 

In any event, after you pass the Bud Lite billboard on 880, you can get off the High Street exit and turn right on International towards the Fruitvale, if you like. There along the boulevard, if it is late enough and the police haven’t rousted them, you will find actual teenage Latina and African American girls—not models made up to look like ones—sitting at bus stops or lounging in storefront doorways, waiting on dark corners for men to drive by in cars to pick them up, to rent their services and bodies for a half an hour or so. 

The Bud Lite chilled dark girls billboard might appear in other parts of Oakland—or other parts of the Bay Area—but so far the gateway to the Fruitvale area prostitute stroll is the only place I’ve seen it. I’m sure this is only a coincidence and that the Bud Lite folks are only trying to make an honest buck, which they are allowed to do under our capitalist system, and do not intend to encourage the exploitation of Latina and African American teenage girls. But everything has a context, and a consequence, friends. For yourself, you’re free to draw your own conclusions. 

Meanwhile… 

With more than two and a half years left on the job he’s still supposed to be doing for us, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown’s campaign for his hoped-for next job continues to build momentum. At http://jerrybrown.org, the Brown For Attorney General committee is inviting all interested parties to make campaign donations on their credit cards. For your convenience, they have included a suggested amount of $5,600 for starters. In an accompanying signed online letter, Mr. Brown himself explains that magic number, writing that “recent state law limits donations to $5,600 from any one individual or corporation. Please give as much as you can.” We don’t mean to be picky, but we’ve come a long ways from the days, haven’t we, when Mr. Brown would only accept $100 contributions per donor, and no more, so that no-one could accuse him of being a tool of the big-money guys. 

Principles, principles. Principles fade as gray hair invades. Isn’t that part of a Dylan Thomas poem, or something? 

Meanwhile, a visit to the mayor’s blog at http://jerrybrown.typepad.com gives you some insight as to the Oakland “accomplishments” Mr. Brown is promoting in his state campaign. 

On March 23 of this year, the mayor writes, “San Francisco Chronicle writer Dan Levy’s latest story about the condo boom in downtown Oakland [‘Downtown Brown: Oakland’s mayor has made dramatic progress in his ambitious plan to bring 10,000 new residents to the city’s core’] is great news for those interested in this town’s revitalization. Formerly abandoned lots are being transformed into housing as part of the 10K Initiative. 

“According to Levy, ‘Six years after Brown made his bold pronouncement, Oakland is close to fulfilling what has become known as the mayor’s 10K Initiative. With two years to go, ‘10K’ is 85 percent complete.’” 

But Oaklanders with long memories will be tempted to point out that the purpose of Brown’s original 10K proposal was not merely to bring 10,000 new residents downtown. Oakland, after all, has many residential neighborhoods, and any student of post Prop 13 California knows that cities now actually lose money on residential neighborhoods alone, if one wants to look at this as a capitalist enterprise. The original hype of 10K, at least as Mr. Brown proposed it, was that it would attract retail back into a depressed downtown area. In fact, under the heading “The 10K Initiative—Creating More Than Housing,” the city’s official 10K website says just that, telling us: “The 10K Housing Initiative is not just about housing—it is also about creating an environment that is conducive to residential development, through the transformation of the downtown into a more livable space that incorporates streetscapes, parks, commercial, retail, and other amenities.” 

If you leave the International Boulevard stroll where the teenage prostitutes hang and drive north until you come to the shores of Lake Merritt, and then west towards the estuary, you will come to the mayor’s old neighborhood, the place where Mr. Brown’s 10K initiative has been the most successful. Along Second, Third, and Fourth streets between Alice and the produce section, developers have put up row after row of lofts and condominiums (many of these were begun during the time of Mayor Elihu Harris, of course). Drive along these streets and you will see hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new residents, some of whom have now been there for more than six years. 

But drive along the streets of the loft district and what you will not find is a new Walgreens Drug Store. Or an Albertsons or Safeway. Or a row of new restaurants, or department stores, or any of the tax-base-rich retail outlets that we were promised would come with the new Oaklanders. Perhaps they will, perhaps not. But they ain’t got there yet. 

Where are these people now shopping? I’m not sure. Across the estuary in Alameda, I imagine. Or around the freeway to Emeryville. Shouldn’t the city be doing a study to find out, since this is such an integral part of present Oakland policy? 

The truth is, the assertion and assumption that retail would automatically follow the thousands of new residents downtown has always been the flaw in Mr. Brown’s 10K initiative, a sort of cause-and-effect thing that we were always supposed to take on faith at the beginning, and which gets mentioned less and less (or, more often, not at all) as the process has moved forward, and Oakland money has been committed to this scheme. 

We hear now that the retail will come in the uptown area—not the loft area—in the proposed (and heavily subsidized) Forest City Project. But the Forest City Project has yet to be built. And so, we shall have to wait and see if Mr. Brown is a visionary or merely a visitor whose accomplishments will begin to quickly fade as soon as he closes the door behind him. 

?

Rape Suspect 

Berkeley police released a sketch Thursday of the man they are seeking for the Sunday evening rape of a 17-year-old woman in north Aquatic Park. 

The suspect is described as a heavyset Hispanic male between the ages of 30 and 40, approximate ly 5’6” tall and weighing about 180 pounds. He has shoulder-length black hair and was wearing a black baseball cap and white T-shirt. 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said police have distributed copies of the sketch in the park area. 

Any o ne with possible information that might help police with the apprehension of the suspect is encouraged to call the Sex Crimes Detail at 981-5735 or e-mail police@berkeley.ca.us. Those who provide information may remain anonymous, Okies said. 

ATM Card R obbery 

Two bandits—one male, one female—robbed a woman of her ATM card outside the Wells Fargo Bank at San Pablo and University avenues shortly before 7 a.m. Monday, then fled in a white sedan. 

No arrests have been made, said Officer Okies.  

Bullet Hole Discovery 

A couple returning to their domicile in the 1900 block of Eighth Street Monday night discovered that someone had capped off a round through their front window while they were out. 

Luckily, no one was inside at the time.,

The Berkeley City Council, strong-armed by Mayor Bates and the city attorney, has held a series of secret meetings and secret votes about a secret document, culminating on May 24 when the council secretly met and finally voted on a secret final document. Unbelievable! 

This is the so-called “settlement agreement” between the city and UCB wherein the city, apparently, has signed away our right to control vast university expansion and our right to bill the university for a substantial part of the $13-plus million annually in free services now being provided to UCB by the city. 

The dispute is NOT about the value of UCB, an institution widely respected, cherished, and appreciated. It IS about land, money, and power. 

Some perspective: There is nothing new o r unusual about town-gown friction in our country or history. This friction erupts periodically, is usually based on real issues, and has been written about extensively. There is nothing new about land wars—farmer-rancher disputes, water grabbing, railroa d encroachment, and so on throughout our history. Now, in our dense and crowded city, we are truly engaged in a town-gown land war. There is nothing new about monetary and taxation disputes—who pays and who gets the tax breaks. Now, in our financially har d-pressed city, we are truly engaged in a big bucks town-gown dispute over who is stuck with a $13 million tab every year. 

The city absolutely should not have signed any agreement that enables the university to expand its land uses and damage our neighbo rhoods without full CEQA disclosures, compliances, mitigations, and changes. Nor should the city have signed any agreement that accepts pennies on the dollar as compensation for city services. Despite some legal precedent for UC getting a free ride on pub lic services, circumstances have changed so drastically that the entire question needs to be revisited. When it comes to money, all public entities always claim to be hurting. In hard fact, unlike the city, UCB does have access to deep pockets and other r esources. UC regularly raises millions of dollars from millionaires and billionaires for trophy projects, it has profitable joint partnerships with corporations, money from patents and royalties, and vast special purpose endowments. I suggest that the uni versity seriously consider undertaking a City Trophy Project and raise a $100 million endowment to mitigate UC’s impacts on the city and its neighborhoods, pay a fair share amount for city services, and fund a variety of urban enhancements to benefit both town and gown. This would be, and could be promoted as, a tremendous public service/public good undertaking and donors could receive all the usual accolades and honors that accrue to charitable giving, good works, and helping the university and the larger community. 

For right now, it is likely that concerned citizens will be suing the city and/or university over the numerous crimes and misdemeanors that inhere in the settlement agreement process and product. It is also likely that there will be serious political repercussions for the politicians who supported the secret city sellout, particularly for Mayor Bates whose credibility and competence as our leader has been most seriously damaged. 

Barbara Gilbert is active in several Berkeley civic organizat ions and is a former Berkeley City Council candidate. 

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I am the chief of the cardiology division of Kaiser Richmond where I have worked for 24 years, and I am a resident of Richmond. I rollerblade on the Bay Trail between the Richmond Marina and Point Isabel. I tell my patients to exercise there as well. I rollerblade past the Campus Bay property, a beautiful marshland, sadly contaminated by toxic chemicals. I have been a part of the community movement to demand a safe cleanup of this site. 

The problem we are confronted with is that 237 acres of bay-front real estate has been polluted by Stauffer Chemical, Astra Zeneca Corporation and California Cap Company with a host of cancer causing chemicals. A fair and logical response would include:  

• Holding the polluters responsible.  

• Cleaning up the site in as safe a way as possible to protect the workers, the local community and the fragile wetland ecosystem. 

• Investigating what went wrong so that we can keep from making similar mistakes in the future. 

• Compensating any individuals who have suffered injury as a result of the pollution. 

• Determining and instituting a plan for the future use of the land which is safe and in the best interests of the greater community. 

None of this has happened. The logical sequence of events has in fact been reversed. No safe cleanup has been completed. Despite this, the city and the developer were well on their way to railroad through a high rise residential development when a local group of community residents and workers, calling themselves Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development (BARRD) essentially forced a halt to the project and a re-evaluation. Had this articulate and persistent citizen advocacy group not challenged the redevelopment already in process, Richmond would possibly have a cluster of future cancers and birth defects to deal with. Indeed, there is now suspicion that the poorly monitored cleanup may already have resulted in preventable cancers.  

We cannot change the past; we can only learn from our past mistakes. With what we know today all parties should be able to agree that the first order of business is a safe cleanup of the site. I am calling on all of the involved parties to work together toward that end.  

To the developers I wish to say: Do not blame the community for delaying your project. There can be no development without a safe cleanup. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of these toxic sites which need to be cleaned-up. Do the right thing. Become known as the developer who has the expertise and experience needed to join with the community to cleanup and safely develop these toxic sites. You will eventually be financially rewarded for doing the right thing. You will have earned the respect of the community and local government and you will be seen as the model for dealing with these sites in the future. 

To the Richmond Redevelopment Agency, I wish to say, your mandate is for healthy development to benefit the Richmond community. Ignoring the health of the public, in the pursuit of narrow financial gain is bad for the city in the long run. Do not let your zeal to bring in revenue, blind you to the greater good of the community. Your statements in the past have shown a total disregard for public health. Make the health of the community your highest priority. Your job is one of service to the community. 

To the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, I wish to say, your reputation in the community has suffered greatly from your past statements about the toxic site which were erroneous and highly insensitive to the community. Join with the community in putting public health before narrow business interests. Become a model for the California State Chamber of Commerce by showing how business can make a profit but at the same time be respectful of and give priority to public and environmental health concerns. Right now the California Chamber is opposing legislation by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock which would ensure better oversight of the cleanup process of toxic dumps. Explain to your state colleagues why this is unwise and implore them to put public and environmental health as a top priority in their deliberations. 

It is time for all of us to join together for the greater good. No one wants to suffer a cancer or birth defect that could have been prevented. We have all learned a great deal from the process to date. These environmental problems will be more common in the future and developing the skills needed to all work together to clean them up and then to put the land to good use will make the City of Richmond a national leader in earth restoration and redevelopment, something our children and grandchildren will thank us for. 

Dr. Jeff Ritterman is chief of the cardiology division at Kaiser Permanente in Richmond. 

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Aidan Delgado, an Army reservist who witnessed multiple war crimes at Abu Ghraib, returns to the Bay Area May 29, 6 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. Joined by other nationally known war resisters—Camilo Mejia, Tim Goodrich, Jeff Paterson, Stephen Funk, along with family members of servicemen killed in Iraq—Delgado will present a slide show of atrocities he himself observed in Iraq. Delgado spent six months helping to run the now-infamous Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. 

I first saw Delgado’s slide show at Joseph Schottland’s senior government class in Lafayette. The photos were incriminating—a soldier toying with a skull, charred remains of children, a dead prisoner who was unarmed when he was shot. To a roomful of stunned students, Delgado said he observed mutilation of the dead, mass roundup of noncombatants, trophy photos of dead Iraqis, positioning of prisoners in the line of fire—all violations of the Geneva Conventions, which Delgado seems to know by heart. Delgado’s own buddies—decent Christian men, as he describes them—shot unarmed detainees. 

When I talked with Aidan after class, he expressed deep love for his country, but insisted that racism is driving the occupation, infecting the entire military operation in Iraq. 

“From the very earliest time I was in Iraq,” he said, “I began to see ugly strains of racism among our troops—anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiments.” He gave me examples. “There was a master sergeant. He whipped this group of Iraqi children with a steel Humvee antenna. He just lashed them with it because they were crowding around, bothering him, and he was tired of talking. Another time, a Marine, a lance corporal—a big guy about six-foot-two—planted a boot on a kid’s chest, when the kid came up to him and asked him for a soda. It was a matter of routine for guys in my unit to drive by in a Humvee and shatter bottles over Iraqis’ heads as they went by. And these were guys I considered friends. I told them: ‘What the hell are you doing? What does that accomplish?’ One said back, ‘I hate being here. I hate looking at them. I hate being surrounded by all these Hajjis.’ Hajji is the new ethnic slur for Arabs and Muslims. It is used extensively in the military. The Arabic word refers to one who has gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca. But it is used in the military with the same kind of connotation as ‘gook,’ ‘Charlie,’ or the n-word. It’s real common. Throughout my entire stay I never once heard the term ‘Iraqi’ for Iraqis. There was really a thick aura of racism.” 

Delgado saw a lot of paperwork on the detainees. He told me that a lot of prisoners were imprisoned for no crime at all. “They were not insurgents. They were picked up in mass sweeps of men between the ages of 17 and 50. A lot of completely innocent civilians were in prison camp for no offense, and detainees were beaten within inches of their life.” 

For more information on the upcoming event in Berkeley, “Military Voices Against Endless War,” go to www.notinourname.net. For a full-length interview, see “What’s New” on www.inmotionmagazine.com.  

Paul Rockwell is a Bay Area journalist and a columnist for Common Dreams. 

Damp weather and wind flay away at the paint and tin of an old Quonset hut in San Francisco’s Presidio. And, near the foot of its door, there’s a stone with a message carved onto it. The stone commemorates the work of 60 students and teachers, mostly Americans of Japanese descent, who trained and taught here as linguists and translators during the outbreak of World War II. 

Their work was done in secret. But as these Japanese American soldiers studied and slept in the hut, less than half a mile away the Army ordered the internment of their families into concentration camps throughout the United States, their civil liberties stripped away by prejudice and wartime hysteria.  

Sons of Japanese Americans living under armed guard, their work as linguists was key to winning the war in the Pacific. Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s chief of intelligence credited them with saving as many as a million lives, and their translation of Japan’s military plans ensured U.S. control of the Pacific. 

Through use of language, these Japanese American soldiers also helped create the world’s largest foreign language institute, the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey. Yet their work in military intelligence remained classified until 1971. 

But as these men pass away, there is an urgency to tell their story. Shigeya Kihara, a graduate of UC Berkeley, was one of these men. At his memorial service, “Shig” Kihara was remembered as the “founding father” of schools that trained mainly Japanese Americans to become skilled as translators, interpreters, linguists and advisors during World War II and the occupation of Japan.  

Kihara was a Nisei, a person of Japanese ancestry born in the United States. When war broke out, he volunteered for military service.  

Ironically, Kihara destroyed Japanese-language material at home when the war began. After Pearl Harbor, the FBI began searches of Japanese American homes and seizures of cultural items. Kihara destroyed books in hopes of preventing his family from being singled out. 

Like Kihara, Masaji “Gene” Uratsu volunteered for army duty and was well versed in Japanese—a rare skill in those days. Japanese was once considered such a difficult language to master, it was said that the Imperial army did not bother to code messages. The need for linguists became critical. 

Soon after entering service, Gene Uratsu was asked to read a Japanese military manual. “The interviewer told me that what took place shouldn’t be discussed,” said Urastu about that first test. He was also told that, “we would be subject to court-martial if we talked about it. It was highly classified.”  

As the army secretly interviewed Uratsu, Kihara was tapped to develop a Japanese language school. He recalled that early meeting in a basement that had only “a wooden orange crate with a set of Japanese books and dictionaries.” This was the beginning of the Presidio’s language school where Kihara also served as an instructor. 

“In 1941 there were no teaching materials,” said Urastu of those early days, “there were four teachers assigned but who did not have previous teaching experience. They had to make up the teaching materials and mimeograph them to give to the students.”  

As the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast began, the language school was moved to Minnesota where the school was known as the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MIS). Its former students would later refer to themselves as the “MISers.”  

The need for linguists remained high and students were pulled out of school and sent on missions before completing the full course.  

At the same time, Nisei were secretly recruited from internment camps to go to Minnesota. At Kihara’s memorial, Col. Harry Fukuhara stood straight and firm. In a voice shaking with emotion he recalled that for those Nisei who “left at 3 in the morning, with no good-bye party, no good-byes to their families,” it was a lonely time leaving camp. 

After the war, MIS was moved to Monterey where it expanded to include about 30 languages. It is now known as the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.  

But the once secret MIS was “the genesis of the armed services’ only permanent resident foreign language training program of its kind,” says U.S. Command Historian James McNaughton. Now students from across the country attend the Defense Language Center for intensive study of foreign languages. 

At Shig Kihara’s memorial, McNaughton recalled working with Kihara and gaining an insight into the unique history of MIS. As the Nisei studied and taught each other Japanese day and night at MIS, they helped to create a way of learning language still in use today. “The method of intensive study of a single subject, using native speakers and authentic materials” for daily use was pioneered at MIS said McNaughton.  

After the war, Shigeya Kihara became the Defense Language Institute’s director of research and development. After retirement, Kihara continued to actively document the role of the Japanese American translators and interpreters. 

One of Kihara’s projects was working with the National Japanese American Historical Society (JAHS) to transform the Quonset hut into an exhibit hall reflecting its use as a school for Nisei linguists. Fundraising continues with JAHS playing a leading role in this difficult task. In the meantime, the Quonset hut still stands in the face of San Francisco Bay’s relentless elements. But, in the JAHS vision statement, “the importance of language in communication and the ongoing battle against intolerance in the face of global conflict” reflects what the battered hut stands for. 

For more information about MIS and about the exhibit hall project, contact the National Japanese American Historical Society at (415) 921-5007. 

FRIDAY, MAY 27 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” at the Roda Theater, through June 5. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Honour” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through July 3. Tickets are $20-$39. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.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 

Subterranean Shakespeare “The Taming of the Shrew,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, through June 24. No show June 2. 276-3871. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sojourns” New works by Michael Shemchuk and Emily Payne. Reception at 6 p.m. at Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St. Exhibition runs through June 26. 549-1018. www.cecilmoochneck.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Ewing Duncan describes “The Geneticist Who Played With My DNA: And Other Masterminds from the Frontiers of Biotech” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Audra McDonald, soprano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Graham Richards, Peter Barshay at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baby James, J. Meyers, Laila Tov at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Obatelo at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Beth Waters and Larkin Gail at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Eddie From Ohio at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Vince Wallace Quintet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711 www.cafevankleef.com 

Garrin Benfield and Cas Lucas at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Shanna Carlson Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Two Foot Yard, Plays Monk at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

The Sick, The Hyper Kids, No Nothing Party 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. 

Izum, funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Gary Burton Generations Band at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $12-$22. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, MAY 28 

THEATER 

“Smug Shift” an evening of hip, underground comedy at 8:30 and 11 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. Cost is $7. 444-6174.  

The Conscious Cabaret “Scared Skitless” with Errol and Rochelle Alicia Strider, at 8 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Cost is $15-$25. 528-8844. unityberkeley.org 

“Requiem for a Friend” an intermedia performance ritual, directed by Antero Alli, Sat. and Sun. at 9 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $10. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Living History and the Theater” with Leigh Fondakowski, playwright and director of “The People’s Temple” at 5 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2015 Addison St. Free. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Bruce Lee’s Oakland Years: The Dragon and the Tiger” with authors Sid Campbell and Greglon Yimm Lee at 4 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 Unversity Ave. 548-2350. 

Pam Tent reads from “Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Famous Cockette” at 7:30 p.m. at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Novello Quartet, a concert of Boccerini and Mozart at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $12-$18. 415-794-1100. www.novelloquartet.org 

Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble with the Triskelea Harp Trio and The Pleiades Ensemble at 2 p.m. at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 2005 Berryman. Donation $5-$15. 548-3326. 

Pacific Boychoir Academy presents its farewell tour concert at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 27th St. and Broadway. Tickets are $8. 452-4722. www.pacificboychoiracademy.org 

“Las Buenas Flamenquitas” with the Azahar Dance Foundation at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10-$17. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Kurt Elling, piano and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $18-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Jason Marineau, Tina Marshall with the Ellen Hoffman Trio, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

The Bobs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jose Seves at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Johnny Otis Living Tribute Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sleep in Fame, Unjust, Re-Ignition at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Julie Kelly Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Hal Stein Quartet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 763-7711. www.cafevankleef.com  

Barry Syska & Gentry Bronson at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Boom Bip, The Fog, Rapatron at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Chuck Steed, R&B funk, at 7 p.m. at Spuds, 3290 Adeline Ave. Cost is $7. 597-0795. 

Circu Mutante, Guire Doodate 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. 

Times 4, with saxophonist Lincoln Adler, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, MAY 29 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Gabrielle Calvocoressi and C. Dale Young at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Distant Oaks “Offerings” at 7 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Suggested donation $10. 213-3122. 

Novello Quartet, a concert of Boccerini and Mozart at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Tickets are $8-$10. 415-794-1100. www.novelloquartet.org 

Shakti Dance Company with Mythili Prakash in solo at 6:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $15-$20. 925-798-1300.  

Via Rio with Dave Bell, Ron Blanchard, Mike Golds and others at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Victor Mendoza, vibraphone, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Death Breeds Sorrow at 4 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Mind Eraser, Say Goodbye at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, MAY 30 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Americana Unplugged: Tom Huebner at 4 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jimmy Bosch at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, MAY 31 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “The Lost Generation” with filmmaker Jack Walsh at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Golden Bowl” adapted by Isabelle Rogin read by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Patricia Rain discusses “Vanilla: A Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Dylan Schaffer introduces his new mystery “I Right the Wrongs” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The People’s Jazz Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Bill Frisell with Brian Blade & Sam Yahel at 8 and 10 p.m. through Thurs. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

Gary Rowe, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

Alvarado Artists Group Show with works by Marilyn MacGregor, Barbara Werner, Joan Lakin Mikkelsen, Carla Dole and MJ Orcutt opens at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Eric Dyson asks “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sonic Camouflage at 8 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 763-7711. www.cafevankleef.com  

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

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

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

Quimbobo, salsa, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159. 

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 

CHILDREN 

Kid’s Musical Theater “Finding My Own Rock and Roll” with students from the Park Day School, at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5-$10. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players, “Arabian Night” opens at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. and runs Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. until July 10. Tickets are $10-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Real World” An exhibit of carbon copies and simulations, reproductions and scale models. Reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibit runs to July 16. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

FILM 

“Goodbye, Dragon Inn” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free screening. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Tribute to the Divas” with Dee Spencer at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Jeanne Wagner featured poet at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Kevin Smokler reads from a collection of contemporary writers, “Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $18-$39. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

“Tribute to the Divas” with Denise Perrier at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Central Reading Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Ro Sham Bo and The Irrationals, a cappella at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568.  

Rafael Manriquez Trio, guitar and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Jackpot, Nik Freitas at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Paul Mehling and Will Bernard at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Nathan Clevenger Group at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Akosua, African folk fusion, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” at the Roda Theater and runs through June 5. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep, “Honour” opens at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. and runs through July 3. Tickets are $20-$39. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Private Lives” Noel Coward’s comedy. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through June 12, at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $10. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Shotgun Players, “Arabian Night” Thurs.-Su. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. until July 10. Tickets are $10-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Subterranean Shakespeare “The Taming of the Shrew,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, through June 24. For reservations call 276-3871. 

Un-Scripted Theater Company “The Short and the Long of It” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., through June 25 at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oakland. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.un-scripted.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Gallery Talk with Sculptor Bruce Beasley discussing his 45-Year Retrospective at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $4-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Myrlie Evers-Williams presents “The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters and Speeches” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Dance Projects Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High. 

Berkeley Edge Fest 70th Birthday Celebration for Terry Riley at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Pacific Collegium “Couperin le Grand: Grand Motets” at 8 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20. www.pacificcollegium.org 

Galax Quartet, consort music for strings and voice by John Dowland and Roy Wheldon at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. 601-1370.  

Hide Date at 8 p.m. and Ed Reed and his Trio at 9 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Cowpokes for Peace at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

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

Lalo Izquierdo and Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian music and dance at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Vince Wallace Quintet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Tom Paxton at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Jeff Kazor and the Swerve Beats at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Maria Marquez & Larry Vukovich Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Eileen Hazel and Helen Chaya at 8 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

A.D.D., Riot Au Go Go, False Alliance at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Paquito D’Rivera and members of the Turtle Island String Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200. l

New mid-intersection traffic circles have been sprouting up in central Berkeley like mushrooms after a rain. 

While there are several landscaped intersection islands around Berkeley, the LeConte neighborhood—southeast of downtown, roughly bordered by Dwi ght Way, Shattuck Avenue, and Telegraph Avenue, with a total of seven circles—has the most experience with the sort of circle the city is now constructing.  

The issues of whether the circles are good, bad, or neutral for traffic safety have been vigorou sly debated. What I’d like to tell you about are other aspects of the circles. 

In LeConte, neighbors plant, weed, and water the circles; the city provided soil, but didn’t plant them. There’s now a loose e-mail group of volunteer gardeners, and every LeC onte circle has one or more neighbors who scrub away graffiti on the signage, plant, weed, and water, usually from their own outdoor faucets and hoses.  

Hundreds of hours and many dollars have been invested by neighbors in the purchase of plants and circ le upkeep. The result has been a literal flowering of new civic amenities and beauty that provide clear community benefits beyond the traffic-calming effects. 

The LeConte circles seem to provide a safe context for public contact. When people from my bloc k are out in our circle gardening, or even just standing there looking at the newest spring blooms, many passersby—particularly pedestrians, but also drivers—stop or slow down, say hello, admire the flowers and chat.  

When was the last time a total stra nger paused and thanked you on the streets of Berkeley? It has happened at least once every time I’ve been out working in the circle on my corner. 

In essence, at least some of the circles are becoming a solvent for those little, casual, social interactio ns and positive experiences that help make a true neighborhood out of a collection of people living very different, often preoccupied, lives.  

The circles also serve an environmental function in Berkeley, where some 25 percent of the land area is covered with the asphalt or concrete of public streets.  

Both in LeConte and in central Berkeley, the circles are very modest in size. The one nearest my home provides perhaps 300 square feet of growing space. Assembled together, the seven LeConte circles woul d probably cover no more than one third of a typical Berkeley flatlands lot.  

But these oases punch holes in the hardscape of urban life. They help to green densely populated neighborhoods like mine that have no city park space and little prospect of obt aining any.  

By coincidence, six out of seven LeConte circles ended up this spring with prominent stands of California poppies. But beneath and around those seasonal wildflowers, the botanical terrain varies considerably .  

At Russell and Fulton streets, a group of neighbors carefully planned a handsome model of ecological design, an all-natives landscape—annuals, flowering shrubs, perennials, grasses—complete with a literally homegrown California live oak.  

A long block away at Russell and Ellsworth streets, the circle is gardened to harmonize with the adjacent butterfly garden at LeConte School. A considerable variety of native butterfly host plants attractive to growing caterpillars are planted amidst the many flowers.  

Most of the LeConte circles also have a single tree in them. Many people like that, but it’s important for other neighborhoods getting circles to realize the city doesn’t require trees in the intersections; don’t be shy about declining one.  

The circle on my block doesn’t have a t ree. Most of the private yards are either very small or shady, and conversations among neighbors produced a feeling that we wanted a circle where sun-loving plants and flowers could flourish.  

Throughout LeConte, it has been heartening this spring to wat ch the return of natural processes to what were, at this time last year, barren swaths of asphalt. The flowering circles glow with color from blocks away. Beneficial insects have arrived. 

I very much look forward to seeing what central Berkeley residents will do to plant “their” circles. While plantings should stay relatively low, possibilities abound. How about a circle filled with geraniums, the flowers that were once the public glory of Berkeley? Or a low-water, all-succulents, circle?  

There are al l sorts of options. One of our LeConte circles was laid out to subtly show the compass directions, which differ somewhat from the street grid. 

The LeConte circle story is hardly begun, and it hasn’t all been a bed of poppies. Tensions over choice of pla nts and upkeep will arise. At one circle on Ellsworth Street there’s even been a recent “tree-napping” (see Page XXXX).  

Some of the circles may lose their luster as dry summers come on, soil compacts, and weeds and woody growth accumulate. Vandals or pl ant thieves have not yet put in a serious appearance (except to spray-paint traffic signage), but they may. Upkeep and watering—all done voluntarily by nearby neighbors—may wax and wane.  

There are clearly people still unhappy with the circles. But I sus pect that complaints and concerns in LeConte and elsewhere will sort themselves out as people, especially the people who pass them every day, become used to having the circles around.  

Each new neighborhood, I hope, will come to see them as we do—not merely a traffic-calming measure, but as a new and rare civic amenity which we can all help sustain, literally at the grassroots level. And I hope they will continue to blossom across Berkeley. 

FRIDAY, MAY 27 

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

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Francisca Goldsmith of the Berkeley Public Library on “Intellectual Freedom” 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. 

Activism Series: Vital Issues of Our Time with Juliette Beck and Karmyn Johnson at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. Donation $5. 495-5132. 

Radio Camp Build an FM trasmitter and learn the fundamentals of micropower broadcasting in this 4-day workshop in Oakland. Class runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., May 27-30. Cost is $150-$200 sliding scale. For information and to register call 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

“The Trouble with Music” with Mat Callahan at 7 p.m. AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.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. dann@netwiz.net 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 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 

“The Making of a Humanistic Rabbi” with Rabbi Jay Heyman at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share for Oneg, and non-perishable food for the needy. Sponsored by Kol Hadash. 428-1492. 

SATURDAY, MAY 28 

Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. along Salono Ave. 527-5358. www.solanoave.org  

Introduction to Residential Solar Learn how photovolactic systems work, what system would be right for your home and cost information. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Town Hall Meeting on Energy with Pratap Chatterjee, Jihan Gearon, Barbara Hale, Randy Hayes and others, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at King Middle School Auditorium, 1781 Rose St. Cost is $10. Sponsored by KPFA. www.kpfa.org 

Vegetarian Cooking Class: Six Quick Meals From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. Cost is $35. To register call 531-2665. www.compassionatecooks.com/reg.htm 

Women’s Poetry Reading at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Bring nature poetry of your own, or of others. 525-2233. 

Butterfly Garden Learn to identify the local species of butterflies and the plants that support them at 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/ 

walkingtours 

Bay Street Beat Arts & Music Festival Sat and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Bay St., Emeryville. Arts, crafts, food, music and children’s activity area. 655-4002. 

Power Tool Drag Racing from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. Cost is $4.50-$8.50. 642-5132. 

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. 

SUNDAY, MAY 29 

Raising Chickens Learn about breeds, housing and eggs, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost is $10-$15. Call the Ecology Center for location 548-2220, ext. 233. 

On Membranous Wings Look for, collect, observe and release wasps, bees, ants and others and learn about the ecological roles they play, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Laurel Canyon Plant Hike Meet at 2 p.m at Tilden Nature Center for a plant survey. 525-2233. 

Military Voices Against Endless War & Occupation at 6 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Cost is $9-$15. 800-956-6917, ext. 710. www.notinourname.net/mv/ 

“Peace One Day” a documentary by British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley on meetings with the Dalai Lama, Shimon Peres, Amre Moussa and others at 7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $5. 627-0450. www.peaceoneday.org  

Kapla Skyscraper in Progress Watch as this tower is constructed of small building blocks, then demolished at 3:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. Cost is $4.50-$8.50. 642-5132. 

“Freaky Friday” the film at 11 a.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Amdo and Abbe Blum on “The Six Realms of Existence” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, MAY 30 

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

Memorial Day Open House at Tilden Nature Center. Join us for a day of critters, crafts and creative fun from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 525-2233. 

Family Pond Study Meet backswimmers, waterboatmen and learn how they breathe, swim and feed underwater. at 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“The Weather Underground: History, Politics and Lessons” with Ron Jacobs, Dan Berger and former members, at 7 p.m. AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

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

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, MAY 31 

Morning Bird Walk in Tilden Park Meet at 10 a.m. at the Nature VCenter. 525-2233.  

Berkeley Marina Walk with the Solo Sierrans at 1:30 p.m. For information and reservations call Betsy, 620-9424. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Green City Visions A conference on how to rebuild our human habitat to save the environment from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1547 Lakeshore Drive, Oakland. Sponsored by Oakland’s Office of the Mayor and Ecocity Builders. http://ecocitybuilders.org/greencity 

Backpacking 101 Review the fundamentals of gear, water purification, bear-proofing food and first aid kit essentials at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“Globalize Liberation” an evening of ideas and inspiration with Marina Sitrin, Elizabeth Martinez, and others at 7 p.m. AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

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

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

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

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

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

“Shavuot: A Meeting Point between Cyclical and Linear Time” with Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0237. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 

“The Witness” a film on rescueing abandoned animals, and the meat and fur industries, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. www.HumanistHall.net 

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 10 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Volunteers are needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. Advance sign-up needed 594-5165. 

American Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Alta Bates Summit Auditorium, 2450 Ashby Ave. To make an appointment call 1-800-448-3543. www.BeADonor.com 

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

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Au Cocolait, 200 University Ave. at Milvia. 524-3765. 

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

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station. Vigil at 6:30 p.m., Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JUNE 2 

Early Morning Bird Walk Meet at 7 a.m. at Kennedy Grove off San Pablo Dam Rd. to look for woodland and chaparral birds. 525-2233. 

Condominium Conversion Public Hearing on proposed amendments to the Berkeley Ordinance at 7:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5431. 

Friends of Faith Fundraiser in honor of KTVU reporter Faith Fancher at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant, Jack London Square. For more information and reservations call 204-1667. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 3 

“The Iraq War: Domestic Costs” with William Rivers Pitt at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Cost is $5-$15, no one turned away. 524-4244. 

“Speaking Out Against the War Machine” a discussion with Cindy Sheehan of Military Families Speak Out, Donna Foley of Pax Christi, and Cathy Orozco of CCCO at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 482-1062. 

“An Evening with Iyanla Vanzant” at 6:30 p.m. at Black Repertory Theater., Adeline St. 652-2120. www.blackrepertorygroup.com 

Water Safety Day Learn how to keep your child safe in the water, at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Yoga with Baby Learn yoga stretches and techniques that you can do with your baby. Mats provided. At 6 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. 

Kirtan, improvisational devotional chanting at 7:30 p.m. at 850 Talbot, at Solano, Albany. Donation $10. 526-9642. 

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

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

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

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

SATURDAY, JUNE 4 

Family Fun Day at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Civic Center Parrk, with performances, hands-on activities and informational booths. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Spring Faire at Washington Elementary School, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2300 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Activities for kids, health and education booths, food, raffle and performances. Free. 486-1742. 

Sacramento Street Community Cleanup, from Oregon St. to Alcatraz. Meet at 9 a.m. at the El Nopal Restaurant parking lot, 3136 Sacramento, to help sweep, weed, pick-up litter and remove graffiti. Bring gloves if you have them. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley Neighborhood Services, 981-7000. 

National Trails Day Service Project Join REI for a day of trail maintenance in Tilden Park, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For ages 14 and up. Registration required. 527-4140, ext. 259. 

Bird’s Eye View Hike to the top of Wildcat Peak from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bring your lunch and something to drink. For information and meeting place call 525-2233. 

Sick Plant Clinic UC plant pathologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Build a Pond for Wildlife Learn about the design and features, including native pond plants and maintenance, from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the VIsitor Center, Tilden Park. Optional tour to Big Nest Wildlife Pond in Sebastopol from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $30-$35. Bring your lunch. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

“Eating Wild Foods” Learn about the edible native plants and common weeds and how to gather and prepare them. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15, no one turned away. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Nature Survival For Kids from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. For ages 8-12. Learn what to eat, how to make shelter and first aid techniques. Registration required. 525-2233. 

“Vanilla Tastings” at noon at the Pasta Shop at 1786 Fourth St. 528-1786. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of the “Square Block” in West Berkeley at 11 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. Call for meeting place. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“Anti-War Activities in the Bay Area” A forum on the laws, anti-recruitment efforts and the Central Committee of Conscientious Objectors from 1 to 3 p.m. at Temescal Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-6456, 525-6105. 

California Writers Club hosts fifth-graders reading their prize-winning work at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 482-0265. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

North Berkeley Block Party from 4 to 8 p.m. on Delaware, between Shattuck and Milvia. Potluck/bbq with music. Benefit for Vitamin Angels. Donation $5. 

Record Show with hard to find LPs, 45s soul, jazz, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2318 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $2. 452-2452. 

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. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., June 1, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5347. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., June 1, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/firesafety 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 2, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., June 2, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

Berkeley residents will not get the opportunity to view the terms of a high stakes legal settlement with the University of California, university officials said. 

The university on Friday rejected a request from the City Council to waive a confidentiality agreement, signed at the city’s behest, and release the settlement deal before both sides vote on it this week. 

UC Berkeley Director of Community Relations Irene Hegarty said the university held that it was common practice for litigants not to release the terms of a settlement until it was approved by both parties. 

“From the university’s perspective the agreement isn’t final until the Regents approve it,” she said. 

Announcement of the settlement agreement could come as early as this week, said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. The City Council has scheduled a closed-door meeting Tuesday at 8:30 p.m., presumably to vote on the deal, and the UC Board of Regents Finance Committee has scheduled a closed-door review of the deal for Wednesday. 

“We expect the council will take it up Tuesday and then submit it to the Regents the following day,” Hegarty said. 

The deal could provide the framework for town-gown relations through 2020. In return for the city dropping its lawsuit over the university’s 15-year development plan, the university, which as a state institution is exempt from city taxes, has agreed to increase payments for city services. 

The city, which is eager for new revenue to close budget deficits, had reportedly asked for between $3 million and $5 million a year from the university, which countered with a proposal of $1.2 million. 

Councilmember Dona Spring has hinted that the proposed settlement is far closer to the university’s offer.  

A copy of the university’s settlement proposal to Mayor Tom Bates from December, obtained by the Daily Planet, showed that the university at the time offered the city $1.1 million a year, $350,000 for sewer service, $350,000 for fire service, $200,000 to fund joint transportation and pedestrian safety improvement projects and $200,000 to be spent at the chancellor’s discretion to benefit neighborhoods near the central campus. 

Mayor Bates replied that the offer was too low since Berkeley spent $2.1 million supplying the campus with sewer services and $2 million for fire services.  

Councilmember Worthington is continuing to push for the final settlement to be released publicly before the council’s final vote. 

“The amount of secrecy is absurd especially considering the public will presumably find out this week [after both sides approve the deal],” Worthington said. He added that both the university and the city attorney’s office have told him that not only is the settlement agreement confidential, but so are details of the confidentiality agreement. 

“That is preposterous,” said Worthington, who noted that at last week’s council meeting Mayor Bates expressed surprise that the deal must be kept confidential. 

“How can anyone commit the city to secrecy without telling the mayor or the City Council?” he asked. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque told the council last week that after she discussed the issue with the council in private, the city entered into the agreement to prevent the university from using comments made at settlement discussions during a trial. 

Terry Francke, executive director of the open government organization Californians Aware, didn’t think the confidentiality agreement should prevent the city from releasing the contents of the proposed deal. 

“I don’t see any connection between keeping a city official from popping off about it and releasing the text of the proposed settlement for the public to know about,” he said. “All it seems to protect the city from is having residents tell the City Council what they think of the proposed settlement.”.”Y

Father George Crespin returned to the pulpit Sunday, two days after Oakland Diocese officials cleared him on charges that he sexually molested a boy more than 30 years ago. 

In a letter handed out to parishioners Sunday, Bishop of Oakland Allen Vigneron wrote that a diocese review board found the available evidence “insufficient to support the allegation made against Father Crespin.” 

Diocese officials were not available Monday to answer whether the accuser, whose identity the diocese has withheld, would have the opportunity to appeal the ruling. 

According to parishioners, Father Crespin, 69, told those at mass on Sunday that he was overwhelmed by their support and prayers. 

“It was just jubilation,” said Sharon Girard, who attended the mass. “We all believed in him. I never doubted him for a moment.” 

In February, the diocese placed Crespin on administrative leave while it investigated an accusation from a man who said Crespin sexually abused him in 1984, while Crespin was a priest at Our Lady of the Rosary in Union City. 

Crespin, who has been assigned to Berkeley’s St. Joseph the Worker since 1980, abruptly retired, but maintained his innocence in a letter that was given to parishioners earlier this year. 

“Since I know the person making this accusation, I am firmly convinced that this is being done to get money from the church,” he wrote. 

During the investigation, Father Crespin continued to live at the residence at St. Joseph and meet with parishioners, Girard said. In his new role as Pastor Emeritus, Crespin will continue to lead several services until a permanent replacement is found. 

Although, Crespin’s name has been cleared, the Oakland Diocese, which serves Alameda and parts of Contra Costa counties, as of February still had 44 pending cases of sexual misconduct against clergymen. In the case of Crespin, the charge was too dated for criminal charges to be filed, although if the accusation had been substantiated, the diocese could have been liable for monetary damages. 

Crespin, who was ordained in 1962, has served for 25 years at St. Joseph, which has been a hotbed of liberal Catholic theology. Like his longtime colleague and predecessor as pastor, Father Bill O’Donnell, Crespin championed the cause of the poor, and as the child of Mexican immigrants, he has been especially active with local Latino groups.

Reversing a decision by his predecessor, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has granted tenure and retroactive pay to embattled Professor Ignacio Chapela. 

The action comes a month after Chapela filed suit against the University of California. 

“I don’t know what I will do next,” said Chapela, a biology professor. “This was a very shocking decision, but I’m glad that this small chapter in my story is over. This takes the tenure issue out of center stage and allows us to concentrate on the questions of the corruption of the university and how decisions are made.” 

The outspoken instructor has been a thorn in the side of the College of Natural Resources where he taught in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management until last December. 

Chapela took a lead role in challenging the 1998 $25 million five-year deal collaborative agreement between Swiss biotech giant Novartis—now renamed Syngenta—and his college, citing the potentials for conflicts of interest and corporate control of research. 

A study conducted last year by Michigan State University concluded that Chapela’s attack on the pact had played a major role in the denial of his tenure. 

In a written statement released Saturday, UC Berkeley spokesperson George Strait denied that Chapela’s attacks played any part in the original decision to deny tenure. If anything, he said, the criticisms may have actually worked in his favor—a point Chapela strongly contested.  

Chapela’s lawsuit, filed April 18 in Alameda County Superior Court by Oakland attorney Dan Siegel, cited three actions of alleged wrongful conduct by the university: discrimination on the basis of national origins (Chapela was born in Mexico); violation of the California Whistleblower Protection Act; and false representations by the university of the real grounds of “secret, de facto requirements for promotion.” 

The lawsuit didn’t seek specific monetary damages, but called for remuneration for lost wages, earnings and benefits, compensatory damages for humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress and attorneys’ fees and costs of the action. 

Siegel hailed Birgeneau’s decision as “really great, a big victory for Ignacio and the people who have supported him. We didn’t even know it had gotten this far.” 

The chancellor’s decision also granted one of the demands in the lawsuit, granting him full pay as a tenured professor back to 2003. 

Siegel said he didn’t know what effect Birgeneau’s decision might have on the lawsuit. “I’ll have to have discussions with Ignacio,” he said. 

“I have to consult with my attorney,” Chapela said, “but the point must be made that the merit of my claims remains intact. It’s a meritorious lawsuit that can allow the public to know what happened. It would be a painful process to pursue it, but I feel a commitment to the public—though I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to continue.” 

In a prepared statement, the university denied that Chapela’s tenure had been denied for improper reasons. 

“The campus administration believes that the initial review of the case was fair and that there was no conflict of interest,” according to the statement. “This was a case in which reasonable reviewers can disagree, depending on how different elements are weighed.” 

The original denial of tenure was made despite widespread support from faculty in his own college, which voted 32 to 1 in favor of Chapela’s tenure in 2002. Their decision was ratified unanimously by an ad hoc tenure committee. 

The first decision to deny was reached by the campus Budget Committee in June, 2003, and reaffirmed that November.  

Former Chancellor Robert Berdahl issued the formal denial on Nov. 20, 2003 despite repeated recommendations for approval by his department chair and the college dean. 

The budget panel reported that it had decided against tenure based on controversial research by Chapela and graduate student Donald Quist reporting that strains of genetically modified corn had been found deep in the heartland of Mexico where the grain was adapted to cultivation and genetically modified crops were banned. 

The research, published in the November 2001 issue of the prestigious British journal Nature, resulted in a firestorm of controversy. 

One British website featured scathing critiques from “scientists” who turned out to be figments of a publicist’s imagination, while hostile letters poured into Nature, including one from a Berkeley colleague of Chapela’s. Nature responded with a partial retraction, the first in the journal’s history, but subsequent research has verified the presence of manmade genes. 

Marie Felde, director of media relations for the university, said that the recommendation to approve tenure was made on April 25 by a special six-member budget committee that didn’t include any of the nine-member panel that had voted against tenure. 

Chancellor Birgeneau reached the decision to grant tenure on May 17, and Chapela was informed of the decision on the following day by College of Natural Resources Dean Paul Ludden, a supporter. 

Chapela has emerged as perhaps the leading academic critic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and a champion of opponents of the increasing corporate control over the world’s food supply. 

He said he will begin consulting with colleagues in his college to begin working out a research program. Whatever he settles on, Chapela said, will include a focus on biotechnology and GMOs.

Berkeley is poised to become the third city in the nation to require companies that do business with the city to disclose any financial ties with slavery. 

Under the ordinance on the City Council’s Tuesday agenda, the city could void contracts with companies that failed to disclose information or disclosed false data about prior connections with slavery in the United States. The ordinance, which has been passed in Chicago and Richmond, would target big financial and insurance corporations. 

Also scheduled for Tuesday, the council will consider a host of other issues, including: 

• Recommending that the state allow cities to lower the voting age to 16. 

• Urging the county to reduce the number of birds killed at its wind energy sites. 

• Asking the city manager to preserve a city contract with a bicycle messenger company. 

• Lobbying the state to allow local environmentalists to oversee the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s cleanup of Strawberry Creek canyon. • Looking at a dispute over a proposal that neighbors say would super-size a house on Bancroft Way. 

“I think disclosure helps with the healing process [over slavery],” said Councilmember Darryl Moore who co-sponsored the proposal along with councilmembers Max Anderson and Dona Spring. “It helps educate the community that slavery was pervasive throughout the country.” 

Under the proposed law, most companies would have six months to disclose any past involvement with slavery. Insurance companies, which under a state law passed in 2000 are already required to divulge any links with slavery, would have 30 days to make disclosures. New vendors would have to complete the disclosure requirement at the time they sign the city contract. 

To ensure the filings are accurate, both the city and private individuals would be able to file lawsuits to enforce the ordinance. 

Following California’s lead, Chicago in 2002 became the first city ordering vendors to disclose any links to investment or collateral for loans of African Americans enslaved in the United States and living in the city. The law, designed to provide access to records for African Americans to one day seek compensation, forced JP Morgan Chase to disclose that predecessor companies had accepted 13,000 slaves as collateral on loans and took nearly all of them when the plantation owners defaulted.  

In response to the revelation, the corporation has set up a $5 million scholarship fund for African Americans.  

Councilmember Moore said he hoped the Berkeley ordinance might encourage other companies to follow JP Morgan Chase’s lead, but said it was possible that no Berkeley vendors would be affected. 

“I don’t anticipate there would be many banks in California that would have been around at that time,” he said.  

Teenager Vote 

After persistent lobbying from the city’s Youth Commission, the council is scheduled to vote on a proposal asking state lawmakers to allow cities to lower the voting age to 16, and prepare a ballot initiative to lower the voting age in Berkeley once the state acts. 

Robert Reynolds, a Berkeley High senior, has argued before the council that giving 16-year-olds the vote would help generate interest in politics among teens and make them reliable voters for the rest of their lives. 

Councilmember Moore, who is co-sponsoring the proposal with Councilmember Kriss Worthington, said he thought 16-year-olds should at least be able to vote for school board and public school bonds that affect the quality of their education. 

Dead Birds 

Angered over a state study that 4,700 birds are killed every year by the 6,000 twirling wind turbines at Alameda County’s Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, Councilmember Betty Olds is pushing the council to get involved. She wants Berkeley to press county lawmakers to require that wind energy companies find ways to reduce the number of bird deaths by half over the next three years. 

Next week the County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a hearing on the issue at the wind farms that dot the landscape off of I-580 in Livermore. Last year the Golden Gate Audubon Society, the Center for Biological Diversity and Californians for Renewable Energy urged the Board of Supervisors to deny new use permits to wind farm operators that didn’t take action to reduce bird deaths. The organization called for the companies to remove the deadliest brand of turbine and shut down all turbines during the four winter months when the farms produce less energy. 

Bike Messengers 

Councilembers Linda Maio, Anderson and Worthington are asking that the city renew its contract with the Berkeley-based bicycle messenger company Pedal Express to deliver inter-office letters as it had since 1998. Last April, citing that the service was no longer as valuable since city has consolidated its outlying offices downtown, city officials terminated Pedal Express’s contract for a savings of $26,250. 

Lab Cleanup 

With the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory set to clean contaminated soil and groundwater at its campus along the Strawberry Creek Watershed under the direction of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, councilmembers Spring and Worthington are asking the council to lobby the state regulators to establish a citizen advisory board. 

The proposed board would be charged with overseeing the lab’s cleanup effort and would consist of members from creek advocacy groups as well as Berkleyans for a Livable University Environment and the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste. Both of those groups have a history of opposing the university, which Councilmember Spring argued made them well suited for participation on an advisory board. 

“They’ve been active on these issues,” said Spring, adding that she thought the lab had a credibility gap between its statements and actions in protecting the environment.  

Unwanted Demolition 

The council will be asked to settle a dispute between the new owner of 1734 Bancroft Ave. and several neighbors. Residents have had qualms over the house for years, which was at times offered as a homeless encampment by the former owner, who died several years ago.  

Instead of spending an estimated $130,000 to repair the 1,315-square-foot home, the new owner, Christine Lee, whom Councilmember Spring said plans to sell the property, has received a permit to tear down the house and build a two-story, 2,531-square-foot house in its place. The plans have angered neighbors. 

William Taylor, a neighbor who filed an appeal to the permit, argued that the city’s Zoning Adjustment Board should not have issued the permit since the original building could have been renovated. “It is a bad precedent to allow such a structure to be demolished merely because a new owner wants to replace it with something bigger,” he wrote.  

Taylor added that the current home, which he wrote dates back to the turn of the 20th century, was consistent with the scale of buildings on the block, while the proposed house “is just a vertical box filling the property out to its limits.” 

Berkeley Land Use Planning Manager Mark Rhoades held that the ZAB could issue the demolition permit without a finding that the building could not be saved and that the ZAB had found that the project would not be detrimental to adjacent properties, the surrounding area or the neighborhood.?

The controversial Seagate Building, a nine-story condo-and-commercial project planned for Center Street, has been sold and renamed The Arpeggio of Berkeley. Construction is slated to begin this fall with completion two years later. 

According to the grant deed filed with the Alameda County Recorder’s office on May 18, Seagate Center Partners sold the project to SNK Captec Arpeggio, LLC, a joint venture corporation between an Arizona builder and a Michigan financial company. 

The same partnership is also involved in a 102-unit residential and ground floor commercial project in Emeryville, on the site of the bankrupt King Midas Card Club on San Pablo Avenue, with an adjoining 263-car parking structure. 

SNK Development, the Arizona half of the development team, has developed a serious of housing and commercial projects in the Bay Area, including: 

• The Franklin 88, an 88-unit condominium project in Oakland’s Chinatown. 

• The Allegro Loft Project, a 310-unit building at Third and Jackson streets in Oakland. 

• The Allegro, 312-apartment mixed use project at Jack London Square. 

• The Arioso, a 201-unit apartment complex in Cuppertino. 

• The Alborado, a 442-unit apartment complex in Fremont. 

Other projects are located in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Southern California. 

The Phoenix-based firm has its own construction company and is also a wireless and cable television provider. 

“We are delighted to develop this first of its kind project in the City of Berkeley and look forward to working with Seagate and the Berkeley Repertory Theater to bring it to fruition,” said SNK CEO Hal Watson in a prepared statement released Monday afternoon. 

On the firm’s website, Watson reports that the company began with garden-style apartments but had shifted focus to urban infill projects. 

“Anticipating future market trends, we’re adopting innovative design and construction models that provide multi-family housing that’s relevant to demand,” he said. “We’ve started to investigate urban ethnic markets, where future population growth will be greatest.” 

Captec Financial Group, the financial partner, is based in Ann Arbor, Mich., and specializes in development and equipment financing and holds a portfolio of leased properties. Founded in 1981, the company owns or manages approximately $1 billion in assets, according to the corporate website. 

SNK Realty Group, an arm of SNK Development, joined with Captec last August to create to form SNK Opportunity Partners LLC. According to a Captec press release, the firm plans to develop a minimum of 15 new projects over a five-year span. The agreement spelled an end to SNK’s 14-year relationship with Kishimoto Building Group, the firm’s previous bankroller. 

Announcing the creation of the joint venture firm, Captec Chair Patrick L. Beach said the new firm “has the development talent and balance sheet to successfully build and manage many types of properties, including multi-family rental, condominiums and mixed use retail.” 

The Seagate project has proved a lightning rod for criticism in Berkeley, especially because its nine-story height is four stories more than permitted by the Downtown Plan. 

The building will house 149 condominium units in addition to 5,675 square feet of retail space as well as a large rehearsal space for the Berkeley Rep and 160 underground parking spaces. 

Seagate principal Mark Polite, who signed the grant deed transferring the property to SNK Captec, expressed his thanks in the SNK press release to the city, the Planning Department, the City Council and Mayor Tom Bates “for their support in approving The Arpeggio of Berkeley.”

Ozzie’s, the soda fountain at the former Elmwood Pharmacy, has been granted a one-month reprieve from its scheduled June 1 closing, said operator Michael Hogan. 

“We have an extra month so that I can review the leases and hopefully work out something that will enable us to stay in business,” said Hogan. 

Ozzie’s was the last Bay Area example of a once ubiquitous institution, the drugstore soda fountain, until Elmwood Pharmacy owner Victoria Carter closed her prescription drug business last year. 

Renamed Elmwood Health & Mercantile, the 2900 College Ave. business has been converted to a gift shop and over-the-counter medication business. 

Hogan said that a mediator will work with him and Carter in hopes of formulating a lease that both parties will find acceptable. 

Carter declined to comment for this article other than to say that she felt it necessary to raise the cost of the monthly lease because she hadn’t raised it in more than a year and during that time the cost of her master lease had increased. 

Berkeley’s Planning Commission could act on their proposed revisions to the city’s Landmark’s Preservation Ordinance as early as Wednesday night. 

City Councilmember Dona Spring said Mayor Tom Bates has been exerting pressure to weaken the ordinance, which provides protections for structures designated by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

“There’s been a familiar theme in the City Council Agenda Committee in which the mayor is pushing the city manager to get them through the Planning Commission as soon as possible,” Spring said. 

Spring said Bates wants the changes on the council’s agenda so they can be passed before the council goes on its summer recess at the end of July. 

A call to Bates’ office was not returned by deadline time. 

“He’s no fan of the Landmarks Ordinance,” said Spring. “He doesn’t like anything to interfere with development.” 

The ordinance is the only major action item on the Planning Commission agenda for the meeting that begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The commission is also scheduled to appoint a formal subcommittee to work on procedures for implementing the controversial density bonus and inclusionary housing provisions of city code. 

ZAB revisits “Flying Cottage” 

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) has already named its own inclusionary/density bonus panel. 

ZAB meets Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, to consider, among other items, the “Flying Cottage” at 3045 Shattuck Ave. 

ZAB members have indicated little favor for the latest version of plans for the three-story structure, which consists of a former cottage raised atop a two-story plywood shell. 

The hearing will be focused on whether the structure complies with the city Zoning Ordinance. 

Also on the agenda are developer John DeClerq’s request for ZAB’s consent to his plea to modify noise reduction strictures at the Library Gardens project at 2020 Kittredge St., a hearing on a new home planned for 1143 Hillview Road and a cell phone company’s request to install a generator atop the Heinz Building at 2900 San Pablo Ave.

Plans for a new 800-acre North Oakland redevelopment district just south of the Berkeley border have been put on hold. 

Kathy Kleinbaum, project manager for the existing, smaller two-parcel redevelopment project that flanks the proposed new district, made the announcement in an e-mail to North Oakland activists. 

First District Councilmember Jane Brunner said Monday she had already asked for the proposal to be removed from the City Council’s agenda before the plan was presented to area residents on May 9. 

“When I learned about it, I said you can’t go forward without going to the community first,” Brunner said. “Redevelopment is a big deal and you can’t do it without engaging the community in a conversation.” 

Hundreds of concerned residents packed the North Oakland Senior Center on May 9 to hear project plans and register their opposition. 

In her e-mail, Kleinbaum said, “In response to the concerns raised by the community ... the Redevelopment Agency has suspended all action items relating to moving forward with the redevelopment plan amendment.” 

City officials had proposed merging the proposed new 800-acre district with the smaller 600-acre Broadway/MacArthur/ San Pablo Redevelopment Project. 

Kleinbaum said the proposed project had been pulled from the City Council agenda and the requests for proposals for various aspects of project development had been suspended. 

“Staff will only move forward with the proposed redevelopment plan amendment if there is clear community support in this area,” she wrote. 

The project had been fast-tracked for approval. Calls for proposals from consultants and others had been issued and interviews with candidates had already commenced well before the project was unveiled at the May 9 community meeting. 

Many of those who attended the session voiced fears that, despite assurances from Kleinbaum and others, the project might entail the eminent domain seizures of their homes. City officials promised that eminent domain would be only exercised against blighted commercial properties, but many speakers indicated they weren’t convinced. 

Others contended that the project area was anything but blighted—a necessary finding before redevelopment can be implemented. 

Brunner said that she considered creation of a redevelopment district because it was the easiest way to obtain funds for projects individual neighborhoods have been seeking. 

“Other council districts have redevelopment zones, so when they want to do, say, $500,000 in streetscape improvements they have a source of funding. That’s the only reason to consider creating a district,” Brunner said. 

The councilmember said that about a year and a half ago she had divided her district into seven areas and held meetings with community members to see what sort of projects they wanted in their neighborhoods. 

“San Pablo Avenue wanted lighting, Telegraph Avenue wanted streetscape improvements, Shattuck Avenue wanted frontage improvements at Bushrod Park and College Avenue wanted streetscape improvements and benches,” she said. “We were able to provide a little funding, about $50,000 each. But Telegraph Avenue alone was proposing between $1 million and $2 million in improvements, and the city simply doesn’t have that kind of money.” 

Brunner said, “If that’s what the community wants, the question becomes, how do we fund it? That’s when we began considering redevelopment.”  

Other sources of state and federal funding are highly competitive, pitting city against city and district against district. Redevelopment offers tax increment funding, drawing funds out of increased property values with the state making up on any losses to schools. 

The councilmember acknowledged that redevelopment has a troubled history, “and there’re lots of reasons to be concerned.” 

Before the proposal is reintroduced, Brunner said, there will be more discussions with community members. 

“There’s not going to be 100 percent consensus,” she said. “But in any case, there will be no eminent domain exercised against residential properties.”

Neighbors of Le Chateau, UC Berkeley’s most infamous student co-op, and the University Students Cooperative Association have reached a tentative settlement on the neighbor’s nuisance suit. 

Under the terms of the agreement, scheduled to be signed today (Tuesday), USCA would drop the appeal of a small claims court ruling in favor of the neighbors, and pay the 15 plaintiffs a total of $32,000. The settlement also stipulates that future disputes be settled by mediation, according to USCA Community Relations and Development Director Kathryn McCarthy. 

Two months ago, Small Claims Court Commissioner John Rantzman ordered the USCA to pay neighbors $63,250 for creating a nuisance at the corner of Hillegas and Parker streets. 

Since the ruling, the USCA has changed Le Chateau’s theme. Instead of housing undergraduate students, the co-op, when it reopens this fall, will house only graduate students, visiting scholars, post doctorate employees and reentry students. 

Six months after it was initially authorized by the outgoing Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, Oakland developer Alan Dones’ proposed exclusive negotiation agreement for development of Laney College lands goes back to the board for final approval tonight (Tuesday). 

The appearance on tonight’s Peralta agenda follows escalating charges of racism and suggestions that the proposal has “the appearance of a backroom deal.” The proposed agreement also comes without Chancellor Elihu Harris’ recommendation. 

The Peralta Trustees meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Peralta Administrative Headquarters, 333 East Eighth St. in Oakland. 

If approved by the trustees, Dones and his Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA) will have exclusive rights for one year to develop a lease and development agreement for the Laney faculty-student parking lot on East Eighth Street and for district properties on East Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue that include the Peralta Administration Building, the International and Global Education Center, the Admissions and Records Headquarters, and Peralta’s Central Receiving Warehouse. 

In return, Dones will pay the district a $100,000 deposit and reimburse the district for up to $350,000 for the costs of putting together the plan. No money will be paid by Peralta to SUDA, and the agreement contains no promise that the district will give final approval to the lease and development agreement that SUDA eventually develops. 

The Peralta Federation of Teachers and other local union representatives are expected to oppose the Dones-Peralta agreement. In recent weeks, resolutions of opposition have also come from both the Peralta District Academic Senate and the Laney College Faculty Senate. 

The board vote on the Dones proposal is expected to be close. The Dones contract proposal initially came to the board last November, when trustees voted to authorize contract negotiations between Dones and Chancellor Harris. But Harris broke off negotiations after controversy mounted over the proposal, saying that he thought the proposal was “premature.” 

Three of the board members—President Bill Riley, Vice President Linda Handy, and Trustee Alona Clifton—voted to authorize the contract when it initially came before the board. Clifton is listed on the SUDA website as a “participant” in SUDA’s downtown Oakland Thomas L. Berkeley Square development project, and is the president of the North County Center for Self Sufficiency Corporation, which will eventually have its headquarters in that project. 

Because of her ties to Dones, opponents of the Dones proposal have attempted to force Clifton to recuse herself from the vote. Clifton says that neither she nor Peralta General Counsel Thuy Nguyen feel that Clifton has a conflict of interest on the Dones vote. 

With trustees Cy Gulassa, Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, and Bill Withrow expected to vote against the Dones proposal, lobbying has centered around Marcie Hodge. 

Peralta insiders say that race and charges of anti-black racism have been an underlying facet of the fierce lobbying debate on the contract, with Dones’ supporters charging that this contract is getting scrutiny that other, non-black Peralta contracts do not. Dones is African-American as are trustees Riley, Handy, Clifton, and Hodge. 

But while board Vice President Handy refused to comment on the race issue, she was quick to criticize opponents of the Dones proposal, charging that they are lying to the public in order to block the contract. 

“Faculty members and union representatives have been putting out lies,” Handy said. “Last week, union leaders were putting out information that we were going to build houses on the Laney athletic fields, even though the Laney athletic fields have nothing to do with the proposal.... I’m very disappointed and embarrassed at the shame this is going to cause the district.” 

In fact, the inclusion of the Laney athletic fields in the Dones proposal initially came from Dones himself, but he later said he had never intended commercial development of the fields. Dones said in a later interview that he was only interested in working with the Laney Athletic Department to “enhance the athletic use of the fields.”  

Handy dismissed the lack of a chancellor’s recommendation to the proposal, saying, “Elihu does not have a vote on the board. Seven trustees have a vote. He wasn’t hired to make those types of decisions. That’s our job.” 

Handy said that she favors the Dones proposal because “Peralta will keep possession of the land, with the possibility of adding some enhancements to our education mission, like the possibility of a small hospital on-site that will provide student training.” 

Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen says his opposition to the Dones proposal centers on two concerns: the appearance of impropriety and hidden costs to the district. 

“I’m not making any accusations of illegalities,” Yuen said, “but it’s a matter of perception. There is the appearance of a backroom deal here, which we need to bend over backward to remove.” 

Yuen said he was concerned that Peralta will have to pay substantial costs for the Dones contract, even without paying SUDA for the plan. 

“The district is going to have to spend thousands of hours of staff time assisting in this proposal,” he said, “time that could be better used in the education of our students or in long-term planning by the district itself. This can only be a distraction and divisive to the mission of the district.” 

Yuen added that a “secondary cost to the district will be the cost to our reputation. If we approve this contract, we are potentially approving another no-bid contract. What we will lose is the public’s good will. So the reimbursement we are getting from Mr. Dones is not nearly adequate for the costs the district will ultimately bear.” 

** 

Highlights of the proposed exclusive negotiating agreement between the Peralta Community College District and Alan Dones’ Strategic Urban Development Alliance (SUDA), include: 

• Establishing a one-year negotiation period between the district and SUDA between May 2005 and May 2006. 

• SUDA will draft a Lease and Development Agreement and work with the district to determine the feasibility of the joint development of the property. 

• SUDA will conduct a market study, conduct Phase 1 environmental study if necessary, and prepare a development plan. 

• During the one-year negotiating period, the district will negotiate exclusively with SUDA concerning the long-term lease of the property. 

• SUDA will deposit $100,000 with the district upon approval of this exclusive negotiating agreement, and will pay all costs up to $450,000 incurred by the district in negotiating the terms of the lease and development agreement. 

The exclusive negotiating agreement does not bind the district to any long-term lease agreement with SUDA for the property. 

›

Almost three months after the Berkeley School Board killed a proposal to consider a regulation high school baseball field for its Derby Street properties, the proposal is back on the table. 

On Wednesday, the board will vote on whether to ask staff to prepare an administrative plan for the combined Berkeley Alternative High School and former Berkeley Adult School properties “detailing a closed Derby Street option.” 

Derby Street runs between the two district-owned properties on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and closing it is necessary to have enough space for a regulation high school baseball field. 

While the district owns both properties, closing Derby Street can only be done by the City Council. 

The BUSD Board meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Old City Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

If the board approves the development of a closed-Derby Street plan, it would come back before board directors in August. 

Board directors will also be asked to consider a plan by WLC Architects to temporarily develop the old Adult School portion of the properties while the Derby Street issue is debated. 

The plan originally contained a multipurpose athletic field, a baseball infield, batting cages, basketball courts, and a community area which included a garden and a toddlers playground. 

BUSD Director of Facilities Lew Jones is recommending that the proposed basketball courts be considered only as an alternate, and says that “if the board proceeds with a plan that keeps Derby Street open, more discussion will be needed about [the] community spaces before the uses could be finally determined.” 

During the March meeting which killed adding the closed Derby Street option on a 3-2 vote, Board President Nancy Riddle and Director Shirley Issel said that they voted against adding the option at that time for procedural reasons only, and left open the possibility that they might support a closed Derby development proposal in the future. 

Click here to view the latest work by Justin DeFreitas

WHERE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There’s an obvious solution to the Oakland/Berkeley sculpture dilemma: Put the “Here” on the Oakland side so that Berkeley will be “There.” Berkeley can be very smug about this, because people driving past who think that they are there will actually be here. 

Robert Gable 

• 

PRETTY NEAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Let me make my position clear from the outset of this letter: I am a long-time resident of Oakland and love my hometown dearly. I think the “Here/There” sculpture is pretty neat. I’m sure I don’t speak for all Oakland citizens but most of us here (or there as it were) have lived with the “there” for many years and also proclaim it from the rooftops (a flag atop the Tribune tower—and now Sears building) and in art (a huge colorful metal sculpture in downtown City Center), so its not a label we are offended by or find derogatory. 

I don’t know if Berkeley citizens are being offended for us, but this whole border sculpture seems a tempest in a teapot...and if they found it offensive and divisive, why didn’t they find it so before it was approved rather than just before it was to be installed? It seems like a pretty fun piece of art and I’m for big public art pieces. We don’t have enough of them. I hope the Berkeley City Council goes ahead and approves this project. 

Pamela Magnuson-Peddle 

• 

THE SHAFT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s outrageous that anyone in government would approve $50,000 to be spent on something like this. It’s bad enough that our so called artwork downtown consists we have a Giant Red Tuning Fork and a piece of something that looks like it’s covered in bird crap, do we really need this? How much additional money is it going to cost Berkeley taxpayers for round-the-clock security to protect this new artwork? Do we really want to drive a bigger wedge between Berkeley and Oakland? 

Since our Civic Arts Commission finds this so tongue-in-cheek, why don’t we just erect a $50,000 giant dildo at that intersection to symbolize the shaft that is being given to the tax-paying public in Berkeley by our Arts Commission and elected officials. 

Jim Hultman 

• 

INTERPRETATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With respect to the “Here/There” artwork on the Berkeley Oakland border, for purposes of property tax assessments, which is worth more, “here” or “there”? Let the local governments settle the dispute. I would like to offer a helpful suggestion. Instead of “Here/There,” the artwork on the Oakland Berkeley border should be changed by making it into an equilateral triangle with one point labeled “here,” the second point labeled “there,” and the third point labeled “everywhere.” All art is open to many varied interpretations stimulating discourse. This modest change brings to mind a few interpretations: 

• We are all one world. 

• A tribute to the Beatles 

• The hoped-for circulation of the Daily Planet. 

• The Republican view of the Bush mandate. 

• The Democratic reality of their waning power. 

• The neocon view of U.S. foreign policy. 

• The ego of this letter writer. 

It’s amazing how art will stimulate the mind. 

Paul M. Schwartz 

• 

RFID TECHNOLOGY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It seems to me that the discussion of RFID use by the Berkeley Public Library has been long on heat and short on light. There are some real issues, but if the letters to the editor are anything to go by, the issues don’t seem to be well understood and aren’t being effectively debated. In the interests of trying to move the level of the public debate up a notch or two, here are two Internet links I’ve found (using Google) that appear to offer useful information about RFID technology as applied to libraries. 

The first (www.cs.berkeley. edu/~dmolnar/library.pdf) is a scholarly paper from UC, very technical. If you aren’t an engineer, I recommend just reading the introductory paragraphs of each section, and even those can be tough. It does describe some possible ways that the RFID labels in books could be used to compromise privacy of library patrons. 

The second (www.VTLS.com/doucmens/privacy.pdf) is by people in the RFID industry, and thus has an obvious bias in favor of RFID use, but it gives an easy-to-understand description of the how the technology works and describes clearly how it is applied in libraries as well as warehouses and stores. So for anyone who is asking him/herself “What the heck is an RFID anyway?” this is a good paper to read first. One caveat, though: I would take the authors’ assertion that there is no way to read library-type RFIDs beyond 18 inches with a fair pinch of salt. I’ve read elsewhere that the read-range depends more on the reader than it does on the passive label - although the ranges being discussed were on the order of tens of feet, not miles. 

David Coolidge 

• 

MORE ON RFID 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have been aware for some time that a new system is being introduced into the Berkeley Public Library. Each book will receive a sticker which will supposedly make checking books in and out and which will make books easier to find. It will also decrease time needed for the workers to check the books in and out. This system is called RFID. A large amount of money, $650,000, has been borrowed to pay for this system! 

In Berkeley, a huge change like this would ordinarily have been preceded by newspaper articles and by meetings where information was presented and feedback was requested. There would have been publicity given to the question of paying the cost of RFID. A decision would have been made, a positive decision followed support of a majority of Berkeley citizens. 

However, this decision seems to have been made by the person in charge of the Berkeley Public Library with no input from Berkeley citizens or library workers. Apparently library worker criticism has been followed by punishment. I have not met one Berkeley citizen who supports RFID. This huge and expensive decision seems to have been made by one person, the person in charge of the library. 

How could such a decision be overturned? Perhaps by the mayor of Berkeley. I am thinking of suggesting to him that he overturn the decision to have RFID added to the books in the Berkeley public Libraries. 

Julia Craig 

• 

LANDMARKS REFORM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are major problems with the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance and the Landmarks Commission. Carrie Olson’s recent letter in defense of the commission suggested that she is unaware of the problems. 

Many people who have been before the commission regale their friends with tales of its ineptitude. The problems I personally witnessed were meandering, pointless meetings that went to midnight and an absence of agreed-upon standards. I saw an inept, insensitive, and impractical commission. 

The Landmarks Commission has a major credibility problem. The commission’s credibility problem is sufficiently serious that ardent preservationists can and do find themselves in opposition to it. The commission needs to reform and become, as the saying goes, “user-friendly.” The commission needs to admit it’s in trouble. 

Sandy McCoy 

• 

BIKE TO WORK DAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Hey, I wound up stuck in Donner Pass area with the storm this week—what happened with Thursday’s Bike to Work Day? There’s no coverage on your website of the planned Berkeley event that day (May 20). Was it called off due to the rains? I was hoping to ride with Mayor Bates, who missed last year’s event. I bet he missed this year’s too, if it even happened, as I got no response to my “will he or won’t he” message, e-mailed to the mayor’s office the prior Monday.  

Jim Doherty 

• 

HISTORY LESSON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is sad to find a young person so vituperative as is Christian Hartsock (“Busting the Filibuster,” May 20), especially when he has so little sense of history. It is the Republicans who are threatening to change the rules, not the Democrats who are breaking them. Mr. Hartsock seems unaware that when Republicans were the minority in Congress they made use of the filibuster to bar many Clinton judicial nominees from being approved. Bill Frist himself successfully filibustered against a Clinton appeals court nominee. Mr. Hartsock seems not to understand that the Founders were intent on protecting the interests of the minority—they never intended pure democracy, “mob-rule,” as some have called it, in our country. Thus, although Al Gore won the majority of votes in 2000, because of the intervention of the Republican-majority Supreme Court, the electoral college vote gave the presidency to the minority candidate, George Bush. 

Mr. Hartsock seems to be ignorant of the essential concepts of the balance of powers and separation of church and state to protect the interests of minorities in our country. The attack on the filibuster not only insults the history of our Congress, it shows the Republicans to be terribly short-sighted. No matter how much our recent elections have been corrupted, Republican rule will not continue indefinitely. 

Charlene Woodcock 

• 

OAKLAND SCHOOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The 2002 revelation of the “largest school district deficit in state history” gave legal license for a state execution of the Oakland Public Schools body politic. State Administrator Randolph Ward has picked apart and isolated its political remains with his state conferred autocratic muscle.  

Ward is generally perceived as a grim reaper applying the killing touch to neighborhood schools, programs and district morale. The Oakland school’s politically dead are having out of political body experiences engaged in protests that once carried clout and now deliver a ghostly punch! Ward is more political ghost buster than union buster.  

Some teachers marched and chanted for Oakland’s “rich corporate businesses” to bail out Oakland’s fiscally mismanaged schools. There were no teacher chants, or whispers, for a district bailout from big teacher unions. The National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) compete for (teacher dues) market share and political influence. It is big teacher union businesses, not Oakland corporate businesses, that grab money from teacher pay checks. In Oakland it’s about 2 percent of average teacher pay, with one third of these union dues retained locally, by the Oakland Education Association (OEA) teacher union. The other two thirds get scooped up by OEA’s parent affiliates, CTA and NEA.  

Accusations of Ward’s union busting should be of less concern to Oakland teachers than his ongoing busting of their jobs and wages. In addition to “feeling their pain” big teacher union business should share some of it by declaring a debt free moratorium on Oakland teacher union dues until the state stops punishing them for fiscal mistakes they didn’t create and their unions can’t remedy or ameliorate. 

Big teacher unions’ temporary loss of Oakland teacher revenue wouldn’t seriously impact their mega flow of mandatory teacher dollars from other districts, while providing Oakland teachers more usable income. A pinch of dough from that cash flow could be diverted to maintain OEA’s measly budget, equal to one third of retained Oakland teacher union dues.  

Just think of it! Union brothers and sisters in richer school districts inadvertently helping their union brothers and sisters suffering the unjust consequences of fiscal mismanagement in a poor diverse urban school district! I need a Kleenex. 

John Willson  

Twenty-five year Oakland teacher and union representative 

• 

MISSING BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was 1984 and I wasn’t about to graduate high school back here in Berea, Ohio. My oldest sister, Kerry and her boyfriend were, for one reason or another, living in Berkeley at the time.  

We were about to lose our house for non payment of property taxes so I had nowhere to go. I ended up moving to Berkeley for two months and have not recovered since. I miss the magical feeling in the air and the friendly people I would meet on my walks around College Avenue where I stayed. I imagine I looked at things differently through the eyes of an 18-year-old with his own problems back home but it was still such a wonderful experience. I remember the 49ers won the Super Bowl, the arsonist who set local dumpsters on fire, learning of People’s Park, taking the BART, walking my neighbor’s dog up in the Berkeley hills, the warm weather that would bring out the smell of eucalyptus, working at Round Table Pizza and hearing Chaka Khan’s hit “I Feel For You” on the radio. Speaking of music, whenever I hear a song back here that was popular while I was living in Berkeley a crazy feeling comes over me and I take a mini mental vacation for the remainder of the song. It’s funny how music can do that.  

By far, my most memorable experience was being caught up, quite literally, in the anti-apartheid rallies on Sproul Hall. I would walk my “StumpJumper” (mountain bike) up on the steps and watch people go by and soak up the local talents of the street performers. It seemed like one evening, out of the blue, a rally got underway and I was pulled right into it. I admit that I wasn’t the most socially conscious 18-year-old but I couldn’t help but to feel the mood of the moment and after getting the scoop from someone next to me I decided to chime in with the rest. Talk about culture shock. It felt so new and good to me to know a different way of thinking other than my own.  

Due to family matters I moved back to Ohio two months after I landed in Berkeley and I’ve been wanting to go back ever since and in the very least to vacation there. I’m a freelance photographer now (when it can pay some bills) and I’ve dreamed about the photos I’d take of a place where I once lived and walked the streets. Berkeley will forever be part of my identity even if I was only there for a couple of months because there’s an electrical current in the air and a rhythm to life in Berkeley that made every day special to me. 

I just wanted to share my little story with the Berkeley Daily Planet and wish you lucky people a wonderful day. Thanks. 

Kirby Kulow 

North Olmsted, OH 

• 

HERR DR. FRIST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Frankenstein is a story we’ve all heard before. It speaks to society’s obsession with “playing God” through science. Dr. Frankenstein is a misguided villain who creates life by accident and later regrets his decision. 

In Congress, we now have a Doctor Frist, who like Frankenstein, is trying to “play God” with the Judicial Branch. His intentions are not to merely to make appointments to the court, he really wants to use the courts to dictate social policy and control our lives. He hopes to create a judicial monster that he and his supporters can manipulate to do their evil bidding. 

As a doctor, Sen. Frist cannot be blamed for wanting to “play God.” It is, after all, a role he has been training for his whole life. However, he now seems to have cast aside the Hippocratic chains of medical ethics: “To never deliberately do harm to anyone for anyone else’s interest,” and has given himself a license to do harm to the U.S. Constitution and the American people. 

Like Frankenstein, Frist and his supporters, will not be happy with their judicial monster. It will eventually turn on them! In the movie, once the monster kills the doctor’s assistant, Fritz (similarity to “Frist” is coincidental, but ironic), the doctor, falls into a state of shock, and eventually joins the crowd of townspeople as they hunt down the monster to kill him. By trying to socially engineer the U.S. justice system, Frist and his assistants will eventually find it necessary to destroy the key tenet of American justice: its independence. 

Paul Page 

San Francisco 

• 

FAY STENDER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I agree with May 17 Brian Gluss’s proposal in the Daily Planet that Berkeley should have a “Fay Stender Day” to commemorate Fay Stender. She is a worthy honoree. 

However, I take strong issue with a statement in Mr. Gluss’s article, in which he says, speaking of Fay’s work for prisoners: “It was this work that ultimately got her killed. (There is no rational explanation for such evil acts.)” 

As usual, Berkeley tries to cover up the reality of her death. To quote an article in the June 1997 issue of Commentary magazine about what actually happened: “Around the same time, Fay Stender, Huey Newton’s former attorney, had become the target of a Panther vendetta for her refusal to smuggle a revolver into prison to help the gunman George Jackson escape. One day, a hit man arrived at her door, forced her to sign a ‘confession,’ shot her five times, and left her for dead. A year later, paralyzed and hiding from reprisal in Hong Kong, Stender took her own life.” 

Fay Stender devoted her life to defending the Black Panthers and similar radical groups. And how did they express their gratitude for a lifetime of sacrifice on her part, committing her brilliant mind to help their cause? They murdered her for not being revolutionary enough. 

I was personally involved in this case so I know more than can be revealed here, but I will affirm that Fay Stender was a good human being who did what she thought was the right thing. The villains in her death are the very same black revolutionary groups she naively tried to help. To say, as Mr. Gluss did, that “There is no rational explanation for such evil acts” is a self-deluded cop-out. There is a rational explanation: Revolutionary groups, then and now, lack any moral foundation and will always resort to violence, even against their own kind. 

Fay’s shooting was one of the turning points in Berkeley history. It was the night the dream died—the dream of racial brotherhood, the dream of a liberal utopia, the dream of socialist revolution. It was all revealed to be a cruel hoax, a fantasy world created by well-meaning dreamers unaware of real human nature. 

And it was not only a turning point for Berkeley, but for the entire Leftist movement in America, which disintegrated as those five shots rang out, never to be put back together again. 

Since that night, the Left has been based on a lie, and continues to be to this day. 

Joseph Daniel Johnston 

• 

TOWN-GOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I love Berkeley and I came from Texas A&M, and believe me, the way things go there is little negotiation between the university and College Station. Granted it is a small town but they get what they get, yet the city still gets the windfall of tax receipts from the 40,000 or so kids who attend. The university consists of hard people led by President Robert Gates, former director of Central Intelligence, and they have the presidential library of one of Berkeley’s arch enemies, President George H. W. Bush. In contrast we get Cal, whose sole purpose isn’t to run over people, as can be illustrated in that there was a competition to manage Los Alamos earlier this year and UT, Texas A&M, and some other non-factors all dropped out because there was no money in it, but for honor and prestige Cal stayed in. City of Berkeley, you do not know how lucky you are to be dealing with such genteel people. And I will withhold further opinion, but why don’t you start acting like grownups rather that running off to sue them? Have you seen how screwed up Memorial Stadium and the kids’ athletic facilities are? Do you realize what a positive impact getting the alums to come back to see the Bears beat Oregon and SC have on not just the university but the town? 

Steve Pardee 

• 

JEFFERSON SCHOOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What’s in a name? When referring to a person, a name is simply a means of identification. Associations and reasons a person is given the name depend on their parents’ choice and/or beliefs. Some Americans look to their heritage. Others look at books when choosing a name, while those looking to escape the past association with oppression and/or slavery look for names that reflects their ethnic group(s). The name “Jefferson” within itself means nothing. However the name of a Berkeley school is to be changed, or a discussion and vote are to take place over possible change. I’m wondering why. Slavery as I see it became an issue only for those who give reasons and believe them. The statement [by teacher Marguerite Talley-Hughes] “because that’s what was happening. . .etc” bothers me, because history tells many stories of that time period, as history will continue to do. That rationale from an educator is a wasted argument. The comments [from people at the meeting] in the eighth paragraph [of the article about it] should become the focal point, and may serve Berkeley in many ways.  

Charlene Matthews 

• 

YOUTH VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to remind everyone that tonight (Tuesday) is the City Council meeting in which the council will look at the topic of youth voting and local choice in Berkeley. Please come at 2134 MLK Jr. Way at around 7:30 p.m. to help us. Bring a sign if you can and help us cheer for youth voting! For more information, visit our website at http://berkeley.youthrights.org or our national website at www.youthrights.org.  

Rio Bauce 

• 

FIRST LADY’S MISSION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

All signs suggest our federal system based on the separation of powers is undergoing a critical 21st century makeover. The legislature emits stinking fumes like an engine needing lubrication. The judiciary reels under the slings and arrows of outrageous activism. The executive branch works hard to perfect its talent for spinning fiction from fact: rewarding incompetence, covering bullshit with sugar-coatings of “democracy” and “freedom,” hiding death and outsourcing torture it can’t or won’t do… 

I wonder, in this triple-crippled period, why the first lady ventured into a hate-filled Middle East with a message of goodwill delivered in candid mode. Is she supposed to be the antidote to disaffection in the region? Does she represent the yin to match her husband’s yang? Or is she stepping onto the global stage to do for us what QE2 does when England needs a foreign Band-Aid?  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

After the city tax measures went down to defeat last fall, Tom Bates started talking about “re-inventing Berkeley government.” 

“Berkeley is … known throughout the world as a leader in social policy,” asserted a “Policy Brief” put out by the mayor’s office in January. “[W]e must also work to be just as well known for an effective government that has the trust of the people it serves.” In his Jan. 11 “priority setting speech,” Bates sounded the same theme. “During a time when people’s faith in progressivism and government is shaken,” he said, “we must … put our values to work and lead by example. ... We need to listen to our bosses—the voters of the city.”  

Tom Bates regards Berkeley voters as his bosses? The evidence of the last two and a half years says just the opposite.  

A few examples: In February 2003, barely three months after taking office, the mayor pressured the then Planning Commission chair (myself) to keep members of the public from directly engaging representatives of UC at an upcoming workshop on the Southside Plan. In a message left on my answering machine, Bates said that “it was inappropriate for outside parties”—meaning ordinary citizens—to “be in dialogue” with the University.  

In early 2004, having realized that, rather than shooting the breeze, the Planning Commission’s UC-Hotel Conference Center Task Force was going to make substantial recommendations to the City Council, the mayor asked that it be disbanded. In March 2004 he proposed changes to public comment that, the Daily Planet reported, “would significantly limit the ability of Berkeley citizens to present their views to City Council.” During this same period, Bates repeatedly held secret, illegal meetings with the developers of the code-busting, Seagate luxury high-rise.  

This March, out of the blue, the mayor revealed his intention to rezone Gilman Street and Ashby Avenue west of San Pablo Avenue for retail. That scheme has multiple conflicts with the city’s new General Plan, itself the product of an extensive public process.  

Now it appears that to expedite his plans for a commercialized west Gilman Street, Bates has extended his imperious sway over the Berkeley Unified School District. On May 12 BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan told me that the mayor had blocked the BUSD’s plans for a much-needed new bus yard at 1325 Sixth St. until the district agreed to give up the site’s Gilman Street frontage for retail.  

How, you may ask, was this possible? Aren’t the city and the school district legally separate authorities? In fact, if a BUSD project is not primarily educational, then the city’s zoning laws take over. But nothing in city law, policy or precedent says that under such circumstances, the mayor takes over.  

An Oct. 22, 2004 letter to city planner Greg Powell from BUSD Director of Facilities Lew Jones recounts the school district’s efforts to build new facilities for its Transportation Department. The department is now housed on three separate, rented sites in the area. In 2000, the BUSD bought the 82,000 square foot parcel at 1325 Sixth St.  

“The City of Berkeley,” writes Jones, “requested that the District explore other alternatives to housing the facility at 1325 Sixth St. The mayor was a particular advocate for exhausting all possibilities, but we also met with the city manager and other city staff.” When it turned out that 1325 Sixth St. was the only appropriate site, “[t]he city”—i.e., the mayor—“requested that we build the facility to the south of the site and leave the north end (Gilman Street frontage) available for future development.” After spending several more months working to satisfy “the city,” the BUSD submitted its revised plans to the Zoning Department last November.  

The Zoning Department’s website indicates that the BUSD’s current application was deemed complete on Jan. 21. The site plan shows the buildings and staff/visitor parking lot set back 70 feet behind the Gilman Street property line. An April 18 memo from Coplan says that “approximately 8,800 square feet is being reserved at the Gilman Street site for retail use.”  

Mayor Bates did not return my calls regarding his involvement with 1325 Sixth St. But his chief of staff, Cisco de Vries, denied that his boss prevented the city from signing off on the Transportation Yard project until the Gilman Street frontage was reserved for retail. De Vries conceded that the mayor made it known to the BUSD that he would like to see commercial development there. The parcel is currently zoned for light industry.  

Consider, then, that the district is proposing to put light industrial uses—its warehouse, kitchen and Buildings and Grounds Department facilities—on the former Adult School site at West Campus, in the middle of a quiet residential neighborhood of modest single-family homes. Reasonably enough, West Campus neighbors would like at least some of those industrial uses moved to the 8,800-square-foot strip at 1325 Sixth St.  

Is it mere coincidence that on May 11 the School Board voted to ask Bates’ wife, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, to add Berkeley’s name to Assembly Bill 952, which exempts specified school districts from state laws governing the sale of their “surplus property?” That category could conceivably include the Gilman frontage at 1325 Sixth St. (as well as portions of West Campus).  

Irrational land use and back-room dealing aside, the episode raises issues of fiscal irresponsibility. “The ongoing rental costs required to pay for the three sites [now used for the BUSD buses] is financially crippling the district as we currently pay almost $500,000 per year rent,” wrote Jones last October. “In addition, as long as the district is renting the three sites, the city cannot collect all its taxes on either proposed site or on the rented sites.”  

Tom Bates owes the public a full explanation of his role in this mess, as well as a vow to stop overreaching his mayoral authority. For now, we have one more indication that he’s “re-inventing” Berkeley in the image of Willie Brown’s Sacramento.  

Just after I’d written a column about our friend Leroy contacting us from the beyond, but before it was published last week, I got a phone call from his sister, Cleo. 

“I’ve been thinking about you,” she said. 

“Funny that you would call just now, Cleo. I think Leroy’s been trying to contact us.” 

“How’s that?” she asked. 

“Every once in awhile our lights flicker on and off, and the woman who lives with us, Andrea, swears that it’s Leroy.” 

“I’m not surprised,” said Cleo. “He comes to visit me sometimes, too. He stands in the kitchen doorway and looks across the hall into my bedroom. I say to him, ‘Come on now Leroy, it’s time for you to go back where you came from.’” 

We were silent for a moment. 

“I miss my big brother everyday,” she said. “And especially on Sundays when he used to come for dinner.” 

“I remember.” 

“My daughter says he comes to visit her, too. He stands behind her and watches. She says to him, ‘Uncle Leroy, stop bothering me now,’ and he goes away.” 

“How are all your grandkids?” I asked. 

“They’re doin’ alright. Got one of my great grand babies here right now.” 

“Great grand children? How many do you have?” 

“I got me eight,” she answered. “Tamika’s twenty-one and Zack is six, and all the rest are in-between.” 

“Wow.” 

“Know all of their birthdays, too,” she added. 

“Have you been to the casinos lately?” I asked. 

“You know I have. Went just a few weeks ago. Won pretty good, too. I’m about ready to go back.” 

“Leroy would have been glad to know you won.” 

“Oh yeah. Leroy would’ve been the first in line to ask me for a loan.” She paused and laughed. “I’m tellin’ ya, Suzy, I miss him everyday.” 

“We do too.” 

“Jerry,” she said. “What about Leroy’s friend, Jerry? You hear from him?” 

“Yes, but we’re mad at him right now. You know how it goes, we like him, then he does something bad and we’re mad at him again. It’s back and forth, back and forth with Jerry.” 

“What he do this time?” 

“Stole a pot roast from our freezer.” 

“What?” 

“A pot roast.” 

“A pot roast?” 

“I’m afraid so.” 

“Suzy, I don’t hardly understand people these days. What’s he gonna do with a frozen pot roast? That man can’t cook, can he?” 

“Not a pot roast.” 

“I know you would’ve given it to him if he’d asked. What ails him, do you think?” 

“I don’t know,” I said. 

“Wait! Did Leroy come to see you before or after Jerry took the pot roast?” 

“After.” 

“Then Leroy probably wasn’t lookin’ for you.” 

“No?”  

“No,” she said with conviction. “He was lookin’ for Jerry to give him a piece of his mind.” 

“And then to eat some pot roast?” 

“No, baby. Leroy don’t like pot roast. He likes T-bone steaks cooked medium rare, and he likes my fried chicken and potato salad. Really now, I think he was comin’ for Jerry.” 

“Maybe so,” I said. 

“Next time he comes,” she instructed, “you send him over to Jerry’s. My brother didn’t go for that kinda stuff. He’ll set Jerry straight.” 

“I will,” I promised. 

“Well, I got to be goin’,” she said “I’ll give you a holler again soon.” 

“Thanks for calling Cleo. It’s good to hear your voice.” 

“Likewise,” said Cleo as she hung up the phone. 

I looked up at the chandelier in the dining room, Leroy’s preferred location in which to communicate.  

“We’re waitin’ on you Leroy,” I whispered.  

The lights stayed on. He must have been busy elsewhere. 

Middle School Arson 

An arson blaze just after midnight Monday caused about $1,000 in damage to construction materials at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, said Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief David Orth. 

The arsonist ignited a fire next to an acetylene w elding tank near construction materials at the 1781 Rose St. school. 

“Neighbors called to report an explosion and flames at 12:17 a.m.,” Orth said. “We dispatched three engines, a truck and an ambulance.” 

Firefighters arrived to find several small fires scattered among construction materials and quickly extinguished the flames. 

While there have been several arson fires at East Bay schools in recent weeks, Orth said they don’t appear to be related to the Berkeley fire. Investigators are, however, lookin g into possible links between Monday’s fire and a May 4 arson at Congregation Beth El that damaged a portable concrete mixer. Orth said he was waiting to review security tapes made at the school, which could help identify a suspect. 

Candles Ignite Dresse r 

Candles left burning and unattended early Sunday morning on a third floor apartment bedroom at 2918 Harper St. caused $3,000 in damage to a dresser and a wall before firefighters extinguished the blaze.›

North Aquatic Park Rape 

Police are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the man who sexually assaulted and raped a 17-year-old woman in North Aquatic Park Saturday night. 

Berkeley police spokesman Officer Joe Okies said the attack began about 6 p.m. when the assailant grabbed the woman as she was walking in the park and dragged her into nearby bushes. The victim called police after she was released. 

“It appears to be an isolated case,” Okies said, “and detectives from the Sex Crimes Detail ar e currently pursuing investigative leads.” 

The department has assigned additional officers to patrol Aquatic Park and locate potential witnesses, he said. 

Anyone with information is requested to contact the Sex Crime unit at 981-5735 or e-mail tips to p olice@ci.berkeley.ca.us. Informants may remain anonymous. 

Pedestrian Beaten 

A call from the emergency room at Alta Bates Hospital alerted police to a three-person attack on a 24-year-old pedestrian in the 2900 block of San Pablo Avenue that occurred abo ut 4 a.m. Thursday. 

The victim reported that he was beaten by three suspects, all clad in dark clothing. 

Drunken Brandisher 

A 45-year-old woman was arrested by Berkeley police shortly after 11:30 a.m. Thursday after a 40-year-old woman reported that sh e had threatened her with a knife. 

Officers arrived on the scene to find the suspect still on the scene. In addition to arresting her for brandishing a deadly weapon, officers also charged her with being drunk in public, Okies said. 

BB-Gun Toting Studen t 

Officers arrested a student at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School Thursday afternoon after he reportedly brandished a BB-gun at another student. 

Backdoor Gunman 

A 31-year-old resident of the 2700 block of Ashby Avenue called police just after midnight Friday to report that someone had just knocked at his back door and threatened him with a pistol. 

The mysterious felon was gone by the time police arrived. 

Assault by Car 

Officers arrested a 49-year-old driver Saturday on charges of assault with a deadly weapon after he drove his car into a motorcyclist in the culmination of what police are calling an act of road rage. 

The 50-year-old victim was rushed to a local hospital, said Officer Okies. 

The incident apparently began on the Eastshore Freeway before ending at 7:17 p.m. in the 2900 block of San Pablo Avenue. The suspect was booked on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. 

Street Robbery 

Two men wearing T-shirts robbed a 23-year-old man near the corner of Parker and Ellsworth streets about 7:20 a.m. Sunday. 

Bizarre Theft 

Police investigating a theft report near the intersection of Durant Avenue and Fulton Street found themselves confronting a suspect armed with scissors and pepper spray. 

Once the suspect had been subdued, the 23-year-old was charged with one count each of theft, improper use of pepper spray, brandishing a deadly weapon and resisting arrest, said Officer Okies.

In February the City filed a lawsuit against the university over its Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and its meaningless environmental impact report (EIR). The university plans to expand by 4000 full-time students (adding to Berkeley’s housing problems), 3500 faculty, staff, and visitors (adding to Berkeley’s traffic and parking problems), and 2.2 million square feet (built who-knows-where and creating who-knows-what problems). The city stated, correctly, that the LRDP/EIR “falls far short of providing adequate information, analysis, or mitigations for the tremendous burden this growth will place on our city.”  

The lawsuit, considered eminently winnable (and if so, free), was and is lauded by most informed observers, including city staff, local residents, the Sierra Club, students, and many others concerned about urban environmental degradation and fiscal impacts. The city set aside about $250,000 for the lawsuit, less than 1/1000 of one year’s city budget, and about 1/50 of the monetary cost of the university’s current annual unmitigated damages to the city.  

Since then the city, guided by the mayor, has been working on a “negotiated settlement” behind closed doors. Last time this happened, in 1990, a toothless, unenforceable backroom deal emerged and was enacted over citizen objections. That agreement gave a pittance to the city. Its only significant beneficial element was a promise by the university to reduce enrollment; instead UC promptly increased enrollment. 

This time, we hope the process will be a more democratic one. But we’re not off to a good start. It appears that the city attorney, unbeknownst to the mayor or the City Council, signed a confidentiality agreement under which UC must now give the council “permission” to release the settlement to the public, which is required for a transparent, democratic decision on this critical matter. Even though the university is apparently arrogant enough to withhold such permission, the City Council can and should inform UC that if permission is not forthcoming, the lawsuit will proceed. If the mayor, who publicly promised that there would be open discussion of the agreement before it is finalized, was serious about that promise, that is what the council will do.  

Meanwhile, Councilmember Wozniak, UC’s most ardent apologist, has stated that those who want public input into this process are “a few citizens who want to micromanage everything and look over our shoulders.” Mr. Wozniak lives securely outside the range of UC impacts, both existing and LRDP-related. Others can’t be so sanguine: more than 300 people and organizations wrote letters of concern about the LRDP, and 300 people voiced their concerns in public hearings. Over 20,000 Berkeleyans are directly impacted by UC detriments (not including those with tax impacts alone). Far fewer people are impacted by the “creeks” problem, but the City Council immediately set up a task force with a $100,000 budget to address that issue. Why is the city so much less concerned about the well-being of those who live close to the university, I wonder. 

Blind speculation about whether the city and/or mayor negotiated vigorously enough, or extracted a “good deal” from the overempowered UC bully, is less important than what happens next. Which is that the citizens—and yes, especially those most impacted and most knowledgeable—should be the ones to judge whether the proposed deal mitigates the damages of the LRDP enough to justify dropping the lawsuit. And for the citizens to make that decision, they must see the proposed settlement, have time to digest it, and have yet more time to let the City Council know their concerns. Will this occur, or do we live in a sham democracy in which elected officials hatch deals in the dark and only pretend to respond to the voices of the people? What occurs now will reveal the council’s true colors. 

Sharon Hudson is a political observer interested in land use issues. She has lived within five blocks of the university for 33 years. 

K

So far the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) dispute between the City of Berkeley and University of California has played out with commendable respect for the involved interests. The university published its draft environmental impact report (EIR), the city and community commented on it, and the university responded as it saw fit. The city, visualizing the University’s environmental shortcomings and their economic implications, challenged UC in court—ultimately seeking a better decision through litigation or negotiation. To their credit, the two parties then engaged in negotiations to resolve the city’s concerns by consensus if possible. I praise the city for calling UC’s bluff by commencing litigation that keeps the process open, just as I praise both parties for attempting to produce a final product now and not after years in court. 

To date I also praise the confidentiality that has attended the city-UC negotiations. Successful negotiation requires the contending parties to put aside legal positions and frankly discuss their underlying needs and interests; neither the courtroom nor the public meeting process allows for this frank discussion by those ultimately accountable for final resolution. 

But now that the negotiators appear to have produced a final proposal for decision by their respective principals—the City Council and UC Regents—confidentiality has run its course. In order that the final environmental decision comply with the principles of CEQA laid down over a generation of California jurisprudence, the publics of both City Council and Regents must be given their opportunity to review and comment on a proposed litigation settlement. 

The lesson I offer is an intensely personal one. Twenty years ago, representing Inyo County in its enduring Owens Valley water wars against Los Angeles, we faced this same issue: How can long-standing adversaries voluntarily resolve to put CEQA litigation aside, and still protect the rights of the greater public to participate in that outcome? Los Angeles insisted that Inyo agree to remove one issue from further litigation; the county felt powerless to object, despite our professional reservations. The court of appeal sternly rejected the litigants’ efforts to “privatize” the ultimate resolution of the CEQA dispute, in what remains the leading judicial instruction on the rules of CEQA settlement. Condemning “a fundamental misconception about the CEQA process -- … what might be aptly described as a CEQA turkey shoot,” the court held that “all of the participants in the CEQA process must have the opportunity to participate,” and the outcome cannot be fixed unless it is “open for public discussion and agency modification during the CEQA process.” The justices evaluated the litigating parties’ insensitivity to citizen involvement as “unseemly in an area where public confidence in the openness of the process is important.” 

Honoring this mandate, the city and UC must now allow the product of their negotiations to be tested by public review before the CEQA process is allowed to conclude by a termination of the city’s CEQA litigation. Not just because the courts have said so, but more fundamentally because behind that judicial mandate lies the reality and expectation that public review of a proposed settlement can make it better for all concerned. And it is not just the City Council and its public who will benefit; the Regents also have their public that should not be kept in the dark: members of the UC Berkeley community, the other campuses, and the other UC-host communities around the state, all of whom are vitally concerned with how UC resolves the environmental issues at its flagship campus. 

The open process may not be as orderly or predicable as the negotiators predict or desire at the moment. In the Owens Valley, before Inyo County could sign a series of peace treaties with Los Angeles, months of public hearings and review followed, and the Board of Supervisors courageous enough to pursue peace had to survive a recall attempt against them. While no one anticipates such a lengthy and demanding process here at home, in the end both Inyo and Los Angeles, and the substance of their agreement, emerged stronger having faced the test of involvement by the publics of both communities. 

Can the university’s and city’s lawyers see their way to this outcome? On the west wall of Boalt Hall is inscribed the advice to the 1925 Albany Law School graduating class: “You will study the wisdom of the past, for in a wilderness of conflicting counsels, a trail has there been blazed.” Discerning that trail for today’s Boalt students, Inyo v. Los Angeles forms part of the curriculum. The city appears to have gotten the message. Let us now hope that the university’s lawyers and Regents will also live up to the lessons taught in its law school. Release the proposed settlement for public review before either governing board votes on it. 

Antonio Rossmann has litigated or settled CEQA cases for more than 30 years, and teaches water resources and land use law at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall. 

3

Terry Francke is right about the purpose of the Brown Act, as stated in its preamble: Government Code Section 54950. In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. 

On the other hand, J. Stacey Sullivan is wrong when he says: “What Mr. Francke erroneously uses as legal authority for his disagreement with Antonio Rossman is what is known as ‘findings and declarations’ language, with which the Legislature makes general statements about the need for and intent of a statute. This language can be cited by a judge as persuasive or indicative of legislative intent, but it does not have the same force of law as the substantive provisions of the statute.” 

Mr. Sullivan seems to neglect the following substantive provision of the statute: 54953.7. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, legislative bodies of local agencies may impose requirements upon themselves which allow greater access to their meetings than prescribed by the minimal standards set forth in this chapter. This demonstrates that any attempt to use the Brown Act as an excuse for keeping information from the people is indeed turning it on its head. Everything in the Brown Act is a minimal standard of disclosure, not a maximal standard. 

Moreover, Mr. Sullivan seems to be trapped in a trap of his own making here. He describes Antonio Rossman as an eminent legal authority and suggests we should rely on his authority. Mr. Rossman is not an expert in the Brown Act, but he is an expert in land use law, and what he has said about this lawsuit in that regard is relevant. “At the moment, my sense is that the city has the advantage on the merits of the case,” Rossman said (54, Feb. 25). 

Dona Spring has expressed the concern that even with disclosure, the City Council would not be receptive to input from the public. Why? Because its legal advisers have soured it on the strength of its case. But its legal advisers have made a long string of obvious and preposterous legal errors. They have not earned the trust of the public or of the council. Is the legal staff just incompetent, or is something else going on? The legal staff seems to be a Trojan horse of neo-con legal philosophy that has invaded the City of Berkeley. 

The latest faux pas is now there for all the world to see, in the video of the 10 minutes just before the closed session council meeting on May 17 at 9 p.m. In response to questions from Councilmember Worthington and Mayor Bates, the city attorney declares that, in the past, statements made during settlement negotiations were used against the city in litigation and that for that reason the city requested and obtained the notorious “Confidentiality Agreement.” It is well known by all “eminent legal authorities” that the contents of settlement negotiations are strictly inadmissible (Evidence Code Sections 1152 and 1154), so if they were used against the city, it was only because of the incompetence of the city’s attorneys in failing to object to their use. As an excuse for the “Confidentiality Agreement,” the explanation of the city attorney is simply preposterous. 

On a more serious note, one may ask whether a confidentiality agreement is allowed by the Brown Act. J. Stacey Sullivan suggests that it is. He says, “In the case of the Brown Act, two of those substantive provisions authorize closed meetings to address pending litigation and settlement agreements (Government Code Secs. 54956.9 and 54957.1(a)(3)).” The following is the first code section cited by Sullivan: 54956.9. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prevent a legislative body of a local agency, based on advice of its legal counsel, from holding a closed session to confer with, or receive advice from, its legal counsel regarding pending litigation when discussion in open session concerning those matters would prejudice the position of the local agency in the litigation. 

But again, disclosure of settlement offers cannot prejudice the position of the local agency in the litigation, because of Evidence Code Sections 1152 and 1154. The implied correlative is that this chapter can be construed to prevent a legislative body from holding a closed session in regard to matters that cannot by their very nature prejudice the position of the local agency in the litigation, such as the reporting of settlement offers and the statements made during settlement negotiations. That this is the correct interpretation is born out by the very next paragraph of the Brown Act: For purposes of this chapter, all expressions of the lawyer-client privilege other than those provided in this section are hereby abrogated. This section is the exclusive expression of the lawyer-client privilege for purposes of conducting closed-session meetings pursuant to this chapter. 

The following is the second code section cited by Sullivan: 54957.1.(a)(3)(A) If the legislative body accepts a settlement offer signed by the opposing party, the body shall report its acceptance and identify the substance of the agreement in open session at the public meeting during which the closed session is held. (B) If final approval rests with some other party to the litigation or with the court, then as soon as the settlement becomes final, and upon inquiry by any person, the local agency shall disclose the fact of that approval, and identify the substance of the agreement. 

It is the approval that may be done in closed session and thereafter disclosed. As for the agreement, the requirement is to “identify” the substance of the agreement that was approved. This actually implies that the various settlement offers have already been made public and need only be “identified.” It does not say that the settlement offers can be withheld until one of them is approved – it just does not say that, and one cannot take liberties in that direction, because it is opposed to the overall and consistently applied intent of the Brown Act. 

Conclusion: In Alameda County Superior Court Case No. RG05199505, the “Confidentiality Agreement” pertaining to settlement negotiations is unlawful under the Brown Act. The mayor and City Council are hereby noticed. Please consider the following substantive provision of the Brown Act: 54959. Each member of a legislative body who attends a meeting of that legislative body where action is taken in violation of any provision of this chapter, and where the member intends to deprive the public of information to which the member knows or has reason to know the public is entitled under this chapter, is guilty of a misdemeanor.  

It may not be possible to rescind the “Confidentiality Agreement” under Civil Code Section 1689(b)(5), but it is possible and necessary to do immediately under Civil Code Section 1689(b)(6), which read as follows: Civil Code Section 1689 (b) A party to a contract may rescind the contract in the following cases: … (5) If the contract is unlawful for causes which do not appear in its terms or conditions, and the parties are not equally at fault. (6) If the public interest will be prejudiced by permitting the contract to stand. 

Peter Mutnick is a Berkeley resident.?

Toy instruments have been used in classical music for their humor and novelty effect at least since Father Angerer’s nineteenth century Toy Symphony (I know, until recently everyone thought it was by Leopold Mozart). Just the other day, in 1948, experime ntalist John Cage wrote a Suite for Toy Piano. 

Jazz, though, has a way of taking toy or novelty instruments and making them central to the creative act. It takes the word play in a more literal sense than the classical world has since the 18th century. T he saxophone, xylophone, plucked bass, and drum kit or traps (short for contraptions) have all been central to the history of the music while even the more unusual hot fountain pen, goofus, claviette, manzello and stritch have made their mark on jazz in t he hands of gifted performers like Adrian Rollini and Roland Kirk.  

Among these freaks and crotchets, few are played by a more select fraternity than the vibraphone, an electric xylophone with metal instead of wood bars and an adjustable, rotating vane in the resonating tube suspended below each bar that produces varying degrees of vibrato. It is this varying of the vibrato that gives each player a unique voice. It was invented in 1916, just a few years before Victor Theremin invented his first electric musical instrument. 

Vibes became a jazz instrument, and the first electric jazz instrument as well, when Louis Armstrong was making his classic recording of I’m Confessin’ that I Love You on July 21, 1930 backed by the Les Hite band. Louis noticed a vibr aphone (also known as a vibraharp) in the corner of the recording studio and suggested that Hite’s drummer play a brief, improvised opening to the tune on it. The drummer happened to be Lionel Hampton and his few introductory bars became the opening notes to one of the great jazz careers. I always picture him bursting out of Louis’ brain, mallets in hand, like a fully-armed Athene erupting out of the head of Zeus. 

As I said, it’s not like there have been a lot of great vibraphone players. The few masters of this electric glockenspiel include Hampton, the originator; trombonist Tyree Glenn, his inspired follower who doubled on vibes; Red Norvo, really a genius on xylophone who switched to vibes late in his career; Milt Jackson, the modernist and star solo ist of the Modern Jazz Quartet; Terry Gibbs, the mainstreamer; Cal Tjader, exponent of Latin jazz; and Bobby Hutcherson, the avant-gardist. Then there’s Gary Burton, perhaps the most original vibes player since Hamp.  

Burton, born in 1943, grew up in Indiana and taught himself to play the vibes. A virtual child prodigy, he made his first recordings at seventeen with country guitarists Chet Atkins and Hank Garland. He soon switched to jazz, working first with George Shearing and then with Stan Getz.  

In 1967, he left Getz to form his own first quartet with Larry Coryell, Steve Swallow and Bob Moses, who was soon replaced by the great Roy Haynes. Their albums, such as Lofty Fake Anagram, were among the first jazz-rock fusion recordings and this was two years before Miles’ Bitches Brew. Among his most interesting recordings from this period is Genuine Tong Funeral. Burton commissioned Carla Bley to compose the extended piece and it remains one of the classics of the fusion period.  

His influences include not only jazz, country, and rock, but tango and classical as well. Over the years, Burton has worked with Carla Bley, Stephane Grappelli, Pat Metheny and Astor Piazzolla among others. His early championing of Piazzolla helped bring the Argentinian nuevo t ango giant to the attention of an American audience. Their live 1986 recording together at Montreux, The New Tango, remains one of the highpoints of both their careers.  

For the last 38 years, Burton has recorded with some of the greatest musicians of our time in various ensembles, in duet, and even got a Grammy award for his 1971 solo album, Alone at Last. His album, Virtuosi, released in 2002, presents his unique improvisational approach to such classical composers as Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Scarlatti, Ravel and Barber, as well as Gershwin and rococo ragtime composer Zez Confrey. Generations, his latest album, features his current band and was released in April, 2004 on the Concord label. The group will soon record a second album which should be out lat er this year. 

Burton was the first to create complex solos using four mallets, but his virtuosity always takes a backseat to his shimmering lyricism. Although his breathtaking tone and melodicism have made him popular with New Age audiences, this is no f uzzy, air-headed musical cotton candy. At its core, Burton’s music rings out with the clarity, strength and emotional depth that are the hallmark of all great jazz. 

Gary Burton Generations Band, featuring guitarist/composer Julian Lage, pianist Vadim Ne selovskyi, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer James Williams, performs at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday at Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West in Oakland, 8 p.m. For more information, 238-9200.›?

Not long ago, a very wealthy American couple visited a beautiful little village in the south of France while on vacation. They loved what they saw—everything. So captivated were they with the little town that they extended their vacation seven days, giving them time to get to know the locals, until they were all on a first-name basis. During their stay one thought kept racing through their minds: “There must be a way that more people could come here and enjoy such a place!”  

While in the village, they dined on marvelous food freshly prepared at dozens of restaurants, each one wholly different from the next. The couple marveled at the sense of community and how much they felt at home there, though they lived thousands of miles away. And they saw dollar signs. 

Eventually the big corporation the couple headed bought the whole town, lock, stock and barrel. After a series of protests, their company bulldozed the entire village and built a theme park in its place, the main attraction a faux small town that very much resembled, on the surface, at least, the French village they decimated.  

Years later, the few remaining authentic downtowns in the East Bay also face the prospect of being replaced by facades that are actually big-box malls, all designed to give visitors the sense they are strolling around a real downtown—except, of course, for the parking lots with their acres of cars. 

However, in the East Bay there remains one authentic small town. It was not designed by developers from a thousand miles away, and instead of chain stores has mom and pop shops, modern boutiques, and some of the finest restaurants in the Bay Area. That little town is called Albany. 

Folks from around the Bay Area will have a chance to experience what it feels like to be a part of a real community again Sunday, June 5, during the fourth annual spring festival called “A Taste of Albany—A Small-Town Walkabout.” 

This culinary tour features tastes from 18 of the best restaurants in Albany, including: Fonda, Albany Bistro, Ruen Pair Thai Cuisine, Kathmandu Restaurant, Eunice Gourmet, Celadon/Teance Fine Teas, Walker’s Restaurant and Pie Shop, Cugini Pasta & Wood Fired Pizza, The Sophia Cafe, Jodie’s Restaurant and Barbecue, Thep Naaree Thai Cuisine, Zaytoon Steaks & Kabob House, The Sunny Side Cafe, Mother Nature’s Vegetarian Restaurant, Claypot Seafood Restaurant, Renee’s Place, Royal Ground Coffee Cafe, and the Solano Grill and Bar.  

Local independently-owned-and-operated businesses—such as Five Little Monkeys, Sweet Potatoes, Albany Bowl, Mary and Joe’s Sporting Goods, Matsu, Club Mallard, Casa Oaxaca—will be offering special promotions, freebees, or discounts for folks who have tickets. Artists will show their wares at an enchanting arts and crafts show dotting Solano Avenue... Ah but here’s another surprise. There will be no streets closed for this festival. Why? Because it is designed to help promote our local small businesses rather than feature professional vendors hawking hot dogs or deep fried tofu. 

Twelve bands will be performing everything from R&B to Dixieland, Reggae to Folk, Fusion, Funk and Jazz. Certain to rock a younger crowd’s world is Orixa, with their unique mix of Latin and funk-flavored rock. Performing on the same stage is Otis Goodnight, with jazz/funk/fusion, while in another spot in town, people can dance to salsa by the Martin Franco Band and Mucho Axé, or dig jazz/pop by the Mark Kay, or be moved by the soulful Quadraphonics, and many other terrific bands and performers. 

Jugglers and magicians will delight you as you enjoy tastes from 18 restaurants at two outdoor cafes, spots where you can actually sit down at a table and relax. Cold microbrews and fine wine will be available at both outdoor cafes, located on Solano and San Pablo Avenues. And there’s a Kid’s Town for the little ones. 

Two San Francisco-style cable cars will shuttle folks up and down Solano and San Pablo all afternoon—for free. And all the utensils, plates, cups, and napkins used at the Taste of Albany are completely compostable, made from corn and the stalks of sugar cane, meaning “A Taste of Albany” is a GREEN festival. 

Twenty percent of any profits will be donated by the Albany Chamber of Commerce to the Oakland Center for the Blind, and Victims of the South Asian Tsunami.  

Tickets are $20 in advance, and, if any are available, $25 June 5. You can purchase tickets from most participating restaurants, or on line at www.albanychamber.org. For more information call 525-1771. 

James Carter is the executive director of the Albany Chamber of Commerce. 

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TUESDAY, MAY 24 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Skibbins reads from his new mystery “Eight” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Carol Setters, author of “Kick Start: A Cosmic Biker Babe's Guide to Life” at 7 p.m. at Change Makers Books for Women, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 655-2405. 

Susann Cokal introduces her historical novel “Breath and Bones” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Clarinet Thing with Beth Custer, Ralph Carney, Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, and Harvey Wainapel at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50- $18.50. 548-1761.  

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

Brian Kane, solo jazz guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

7: ES-EL at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6-$7. 848-0886.  

Ah LaRocca at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

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

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep, “Honour” opens at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. and runs through July 3. Tickets are $20-$39. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Berkeley High Annual Student Film Festival at 6 p.m. at Florence Schwimly Little Theater, Berkeley High Campus. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Martha O’Conner introduces “The Bitch Posse” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jorge Emmanuel, Abe Ignacio and Helen Toribio discuss “The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit “Famous War Horses Played on the Organ” at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Vechirka, an Ukranian party with Kitka at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donations help to send the group to the Ukraine this summer. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Jug Free America at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Happy Turtle, jazz-funk-lounge at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Sonic Camouflage at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Free. 763-7711. www.cafevankleef.com 

Penny Lang & The Echo Hunters at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Anthony Wilson Nonet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, MAY 26 

CHILDREN 

Story Theater PLUS! With students from Redwood Day School and the College of Marin at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. www.juliamorgan.org  

THEATER 

Subterranean Shakespeare “The Taming of the Shrew,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, through June 24. No show June 2. For reservations call 276-3871. 

FILM 

Latino Film Festival: “Oscar” in Spanish with subtitles at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alan Burdick introduces “Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Iain Boal, T.J. Clark Joseph Matthews and Michael Watts discuss “Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Word Beat Reading Series with Charles Curtis Blackwell and Phillip T. Nails at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Art Maxwell Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Benefit for the Family of George Robinson at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$20, sliding scale. 525-5054.  

King Wilkie at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Mirror Image, Send for Help at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Jeremy Cohen and Dean Riley at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Tango #9 at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711.  

Piano Music by Tim Ross and Jack Kruscup, Thurs. and Fri. at 5 p.m. at the Kerr Dining Room, Faculty Club, UC Campus. Early Bird specials at $13.99. For reservations 540-5678.  

Gary Burton Generations Band at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $12-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, MAY 27 

THEATER 

Berkeley Repertory Theater “The People’s Temple” at the Roda Theater, through June 5. Tickets are $20-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, “Honour” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through July 3. Tickets are $20-$39. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.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 

Subterranean Shakespeare “The Taming of the Shrew,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, through June 24. No show June 2. For reservations call 276-3871. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sojourns” New works by Michael Shemchuk and Emily Payne. Reception at 6 p.m. at Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St. Exhibition runs through June 26. 549-1018. www.cecilmoochneck.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Ewing Duncan describes “The Geneticist Who Played With My DNA: And Other Masterminds from the Frontiers of Biotech” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Audra McDonald, soprano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Graham Richards, Peter Barshay at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baby James, J. Meyers, Laila Tov at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $5-$7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Obatelo at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Beth Waters and Larkin Gail at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Eddie From Ohio at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Vince Wallace Quintet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 763-7711 www.cafevankleef.com 

Garrin Benfield and Cas Lucas at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Shanna Carlson Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Two Foot Yard, Plays Monk at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

The Sick, The Hyper Kids, No Nothing Party 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. 

Izum, funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Gary Burton Generations Band at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $12-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 28 

THEATER 

“Smug Shift” an evening of hip, underground comedy at 8:30 and 11 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. Cost is $7. 444-6174.  

The Conscious Cabaret “Scared Skitless” with Errol and Rochelle Alicia Strider, at 8 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. Cost is $15-$25. 528-8844. unityberkeley.org 

“Requiem for a Friend” an intermedia performance ritual, directed by Antero Alli, Sat. and Sun. at 9 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $10. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Living History and the Theater” with Leigh Fondakowski, playwright and director of “The People’s Temple” at 5 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2015 Addison St. Free. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Bruce Lee’s Oakland Years: The Dragon and the Tiger” with authors Sid Campbell and Greglon Yimm Lee at 4 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 Unversity Ave. 548-2350. 

Pam Tent reads from “Midnight at the Palace: My Life as a Famous Cockette” at 7:30 p.m. at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Novello Quartet, a concert of Boccerini and Mozart at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $12-$18. 415-794-1100. www.novelloquartet.org 

Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble with the Triskelea Harp Trio and The Pleiades Ensemble at 2 p.m. at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 2005 Berryman. Donation $5-$15. 548-3326. 

Pacific Boychoir Academy presents its farewell tour concert at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 27th St. and Broadway. Tickets are $8. 452-4722. www.pacificboychoiracademy.org 

“Las Buenas Flamenquitas” with the Azahar Dance Foundation at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10-$17. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Kurt Elling, piano and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $18-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Jason Marineau, Tina Marshall with the Ellen Hoffman Trio, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

The Bobs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jose Seves at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Johnny Otis Living Tribute Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sleep in Fame, Unjust, Re-Ignition at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Julie Kelly Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Hal Stein Quartet at 9 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 763-7711. www.cafevankleef.com  

Barry Syska & Gentry Bronson at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Boom Bip, The Fog, Rapatron at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Chuck Steed, R&B funk, at 7 p.m. at Spuds, 3290 Adeline Ave. Cost is $7. 597-0795. 

Circu Mutante, Guire Doodate 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. 

Times 4, with saxophonist Lincoln Adler, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, MAY 29 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Gabrielle Calvocoressi and C. Dale Young at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Distant Oaks, part of the series “Offerings” at 7 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Suggested donation $10. 213-3122. 

Novello Quartet, a concert of Boccerini and Mozart at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Tickets are $8-$10. 415-794-1100. www.novelloquartet.org 

Shakti Dance Company with Mythili Prakash in solo at 6:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $15-$20. 925-798-1300.  

Via Rio with Dave Bell, Ron Blanchard, Mike Golds and others at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Victor Mendoza, vibraphone, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Death Breeds Sorrow at 4 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Mind Eraser, Say Goodbye at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, MAY 30 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Americana Unplugged: Tom Huebner at 4 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jimmy Bosch at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, MAY 31 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “The Lost Generation” with filmmaker Jack Walsh at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Patricia Rain discusses “Vanilla: A Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor and Fragrance” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Dylan Schaffer introduces his new mystery “I Right the Wrongs” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The People’s Jazz Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Bill Frisell with Brian Blade & Sam Yahel at 8 and 10 p.m. through Thurs. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

Gary Rowe, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

Alvarado Artists Group Show with works by Marilyn MacGregor, Barbara Werner, Joan Lakin Mikkelsen, Carla Dole and MJ Orcutt opens at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Eric Dyson asks “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sonic Camouflage at 8 p.m. at Cafe Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 763-7711 www.cafevankleef.com  

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

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

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

Quimbobo, salsa, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.ô

The new tree planted at Malcolm X School last month is an alien here, but not an invasive species nor as troublesome as, say, blue gum eucalyptus; I’d call it a perfectly respectable city tree. It’s a northern red oak, native to the eastern part of the continent, and it will pay its biological dues here in due time, when it starts bearing acorns. There might be an organism or three willing to dine on its leaves, too. 

Our native oaks, especially our various species of evergreen live oaks, support lots of wildlife. That’s one reason people are so worried about Sudden Oak Death Syndrome—live oaks are keystone species in their ecosystems, supporting and sheltering a host of other organisms, some of whom support still more organisms and so on. That’s also true of many of the other plants also suffering from SODS. Our native deciduous oaks, like black oak, are also at risk and also nurture lots of other species. Another susceptible Californian, Shreve’s oak is a fairly close relative of the red oak at Malcolm X. It remains to be seen whether the so-named red oaks can die of it too; I’m crossing my fingers. 

The susceptibility of various plants to SODS is still a puzzle, and it’s possible that resistance to it is more a matter of individual plants than of species—that some live oaks, some black oaks, some tanoaks (not a “true” oak, but so far the main casualty) and so forth will be able to survive unscathed. The SODS organism has turned up in the eastern United States, though, so we might have a chance to find out. Our urban trees won’t be the only guinea pigs (to mash a metaphor) that get exposed to the stuff. 

(The stuff is Phytophthora ramorum, a “water mold”—not exactly a mold or fungus, but another clade entirely. The more you learn about biology, the weirder the world becomes.) 

Oaks might have the tools to cope. They’ve been fighting via chemical warfare for a long time. They, like tanoaks, are a major source of the tannin that we’ve used for centuries in processing things like leather; the trees “use” it and other chemicals to reduce their appeal to various bugs and other animals. Meanwhile, the animals, especially those bugs, have been evolving tolerances for the chemicals, and so on, ‘round and ‘round. The bigger critters, including us, have been working out ways to eat the nutritious acorns that the oaks make to feed the embryos tucked into them. 

The way we do it is often by food processing. Some oaks’ acorns reputedly are edible without it, but most require repeated leaching to get rid of nasty-tasting or even toxic stuff. After that, the acorn meal is high in protein and fats, and, in the right hands, even tasty. I’d put it somewhere between fufu and poi. 

People are fond of oaks, and love to name things and places for them. An oak woodland is a distinctive space. Oaks tend toward rounded forms and in great age they assume that squiggly branch structure that can make a menacing figure in dim light, all elbows and grimaces. They’re usually long-lived, with strong wood and wide branch angles, which makes for “champion” trees. An oak standing alone in a field has a great deal of presence, and a double file of middle-aged oaks running down a broad street gives us an instantly embraced, gracious feeling. Look at California Street north of Dwight for an example. 

Possibly their only vice—live and deciduous oaks both—is that they have inconspicuous little flowers that cast lots of pollen on the wind, making them prime allergens wherever they grow. We’ve just passed oak-pollen season here, and I’m relieved. 

Other than that, they tend to be good citizens, and the genus has enough species with different characters to fit into a number of urban niches. Besides, when they do die or need to be taken down, their wood makes decent lumber—and there are urban sawmills to use it. I’ll talk more about those as I tell more urban oak stories in the next few columns.

TUESDAY, MAY 24 

Morning Bird Walk in Wildcat Canyon Meet at 7 a.m. at the end of Lark Rd. off San Pablo Dam Rd. to look for grasshpper sparrows. 525-2233. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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.  

Bird Walk along the Martin Luther King Shoreline to see the Clapper Rails and the elusive Burrowing Owl at 3:30 p.m. For information call 525-2233. 

“Mount Rainier, the Alaska Range and Rescues” with Mike Gauthier, lead climbing ranger at Mount Rainier National Park, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“Modern History of Tibet: From 1905 to 1959” with Topden Tsering, formerly the editor of Tibetan Bulletin, 6 p.m. at Cornie Barbara Room, adjacent to Fellowship Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar.  

“It’s Payback Time: Strategies for Real Estate Investors” with Adam Weiss at 7 p.m. at Red Oak Realty, 2099 Pleasant Valley Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10, reservations required. 292-2009. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St. corner of Eunice. All welcome, no charge. 527-2177.  

Small Business Class “Opening a Restaurant” from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. Sponsored by the Small Businees Network. Free but registration required. 981-6148. 

Kensington Library Renewal Project meeting to discuss the future of the Kensington Library at 7 p.m. at Kendington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

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

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

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 

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

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

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. and the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Community Discussion on Diversity at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd. Sponsored by Embracing Diversity Films and the Albany High School PTA. 527-1328. 

“Universal Health Care for California: The Next Steps” with Don Bechler on Senate Bill 840, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

“Drug Policies” a panel discussion with Dale Gieringer of NORML, Sgt. Robert Eastmand of the SF Police Dept. and Allen Hopper, ACLU Drug Law Reform Project at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Main Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Drive. Sponsored by the ACLU. 558-0377. 

“The Oath” A film on the Kenyan Mau Mau Rebellion at 7:30 p.m., followed by discussion at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, donations accepted.  

“20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know” with Irene Marcos at 7 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. Please RSVP to margo@wcrc.org 

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

“Prevention of ADHD” with Bette Lamont at 7 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Donation $10.  

Balinese Music & Dance Workshops Wed. evenings through June 8 at 7:30 p.m. in El Cerrito. Cost is $60 for all five classes, $15 per class. Registration required. Gamelan Sekar Jaya, 6485 Conlon Ave., El Cerrito. 237-6849. www.gsj.org 

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

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

Sing-Along every Wed. at 4:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, MAY 26 

Morning Bird Walk in Briones Meet at 7 a.m. at the Bear Creek Rd. entrance to Briones to look for Lazuli Buntings. 525-2233. 

Public Hearing on Cleanup of Lawrence Berkeley Lab, sponsored by the State Dept. of Toxic Substances Control at 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7461.  

“Iraq and the Anti-War Movement” with Medea Benjamin, from Code Pink and Global Exchange, and Lincoln Malik, who was born in Iraq, worked with the resistance against Saddam, but opposed the US invasion at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, donations accepted. Sponsored by Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club of the East Bay and others.  

“Our Synthetic Sea” a documentary on the pollution of the Pacific Ocean by plastics at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. www.ecologycenter.org 

League of Women Voters Annual Meeting with Kathay Seng on “Rogue Redistricting: A National Redistricting Crisis?” at 4:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. http://lwvbae.org 

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

“Are Your Children Afraid to Go to the Doctor?” A workshop for parents at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Oakland. To register call 658-7353. 

“Downsizing California: Should We Split Up the State?” with Tim Holt at 2 p.m. in the Community Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6109. 

Lag B’Omer Picnic with Kosher barbeque, archery, astrobounce, from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sponsored by Chabad of teh East Bay. 540-5824. 

FRIDAY, MAY 27 

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

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Andrew E. Barshay, “Japanese POWs in the Gulag 1945-56” 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. 

Activism Series: Vital Issues of Our Time with Juliette Beck and Karmyn Johnson at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. Donation $5. 495-5132. 

Radio Camp Build an FM trasmitter and learn the fundamentals of micropower broadcasting in this 4-day workshop in Oakland. Class runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., May 27-30. Cost is $150-$200 sliding scale. For information and to register call 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

“The Trouble with Music” with Mat Callahan at 7 p.m. AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.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. dann@netwiz.net 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 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 

“The Making of a Humanistic Rabbi” with Rabbi Jay Heyman at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share for Oneg, and non-perishable food for the needy. Sponsored by Kol Hadash. 428-1492. 

SATURDAY, MAY 28 

Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. along Salono Ave. 527-5358. www.solanoave.org  

Introduction to Residential Solar Learn how photovolactic systems work, what system would be right for your home and cost information. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10-$15. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Town Hall Meeting on Energy with Pratap Chatterjee, Jihan Gearon, Barbara Hale, Randy Hayes and others, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at King Middle School Auditorium, 1781 Rose St. Cost is $10. Sponsored by KPFA. www.kpfa.org 

Vegetarian Cooking Class: Six Quick Meals From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. Cost is $35. To register call 531-2665. www.compassionatecooks.com/reg.htm 

Women’s Poetry Reading at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Bring nature poetry of your own, or of others. 525-2233. 

Butterfly Garden Learn to identify the local species of butterflies and the plants that support them at 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 525-2233. 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/ 

walkingtours 

Bay Street Beat Arts & Music Festival Sat and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Bay St., Emeryville. Arts, crafts, food, music and children’s activity area. 655-4002. 

Power Tool Drag Racing from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. Cost is $4.50-$8.50. 642-5132. 

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. 

SUNDAY, MAY 29 

Raising Chickens Learn about breeds, housing and eggs, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost is $10-$15. Call the Ecology Center for location 548-2220, ext. 233. 

On Membranous Wings Look for, collect, observe and release wasps, bees, ants and others and learn about the ecological roles they play, from 10 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Laurel Canyon Plant Hike Meet at 2 p.m at Tilden Nature Center for a plant survey. 525-2233. 

Military Voices Against Endless War & Occupation at 6 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Cost is $9-$15. 800-956-6917, ext. 710. www.notinourname.net/mv/ 

“Peace One Day” a documentary by British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley on meetings with the Dalai Lama, Shimon Peres, Amre Moussa and others at 7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $5. 627-0450. www.peaceoneday.org  

Kapla Skyscraper in Progress Watch as this tower is constructed of small building blocks, then demolished at 3:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. Cost is $4.50-$8.50. 642-5132. 

“Freaky Friday” the film at 11 a.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Amdo and Abbe Blum on “The Six Realms of Existence” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, MAY 30 

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

Memorial Day Open House at Tilden Nature Center. Join us for a day of critters, crafts and creative fun from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 525-2233. 

Family Pond Study Meet backswimmers, waterboatmen and learn how they breathe, swim and feed underwater. at 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“The Weather Underground: History, Politics and Lessons” with Ron Jacobs, Dan Berger and former members, at 7 p.m. AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

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

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, MAY 31 

Morning Bird Walk in Tilden Park Meet at 10 a.m. at the Nature VCenter. 525-2233.  

Berkeley Marina Walk with the Solo Sierrans at 1:30 p.m. For information and reservations call Betsy, 620-9424. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Green City Visions A conference on how to rebuild our human habitat to save the environment from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1547 Lakeshore Drive, Oakland. Sponsored by Oakland’s Office of the Mayor and Ecocity Builders. http://ecocitybuilders.org/greencity 

Backpacking 101 Review the fundamentals of gear, water purification, bear-proofing food and first aid kit essentials at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“Globalize Liberation” an evening of ideas and inspiration with Marina Sitrin, Elizabeth Martinez, and others at 7 p.m. AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St. Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

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

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

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

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

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

“Shavuot: A Meeting Point between Cyclical and Linear Time” with Avital Plan at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0237. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., May 24, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Budget Review Commission meets Wed., May 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7041. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/budget 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., May 25, 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., May 25 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., May 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Planning Commission meets Wed., May 25 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., May 25, 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., May 26 at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/zoningª

Here is an instant critique of the UC-city settlement. While one should be humbled by Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum that it is not the critic who counts, but the man in the arena, in a democracy critics (especially those who volunteered to participate but were excluded from the arena) have an obligation to speak up. While the passage of time may bring greater perspective, at the moment one asks if the city is worse off with this settlement than if they had never filed the CEQA lawsuit in the first place. T he city has limited its future environmental and fiscal options notwithstanding changes in the law—such as the Cal State Monterey Bay case pending before the California Supreme Court that could give the city a CEQA opportunity to exact full mitigation for UC’s impacts—and obtained little prerogative or improvement in return. 

In rough order: 

1. The settlement lacks the legitimacy and validation that would have come with public participation in its formulation. 

2. Although the city’s lawsuit led with the compelling claim that the university’s system-wide Master Plan has been adopted without environmental review, the settlement imposes no duty on UC to conduct such review. UC can continue to insist on a statewide mandate that the Berkeley campus continue to expand, without having justified or mitigated that growth. 

3. While the settlement reduces the planned parking somewhat, new parking measured against existing conditions (and not past “paper parking” approvals) is still overwhelming. The university st ill escapes a commitment to “no new net trip generation,” the policy adopted by Stanford and University of Washington to enable university growth with no increased traffic impacts. In essence UC assigns all responsibility for transportation improvement to the city (e.g., the questionable Telegraph Avenue bus corridor) rather than shouldering responsibility for its own impacts. Is it not significant that in the recitals only the City of Berkeley, and not UC, supports alternative transportation measures? 

4. The asserted joint downtown plan, presented as a new benefit, appears to drive down a one-way street: UC can block any environmental impact report or mitigation measures proposed by the city, but even after that and once a plan is adopted by the city, U C is not bound by it (only “guided,” to use a well-worn land-use weasel word). If the plan were truly joint, UC would act as CEQA responsible agency, the UC Regents would be obligated to adopt the plan, and UC then be expressly bound by it. Instead, UC re peatedly reaffirms its asserted “autonomy” from local regulation on sites off the main campus. (A true joint planning effort would relinquish that autonomy on UC projects within the city’s downtown, and would also provide for parallel city participation i n UC planning for its on-campus projects.) 

5. The city signs off on the new Southeast Academic Commons, with no definition of that project or limitations on its design. (The one limitation is that it be consistent with the long-range development plan, bu t one of the city’s compelling legal claims is that the LRDP failed to include that project even though it was announced a week after LRDP approval.) While as a member of the law school faculty I hope the Academic Commons can be both quickly and satisfact orily completed, the agreement’s failure to define that project’s constraints right now only invites future controversy. 

6. The city leaves unresolved concerns that have motivated the high degree of community concern. Residents surrounding the campus will likely find many of their issues simply unaddressed: new UC projects on the Northside, and Memorial Stadium. Particularly since the stadium project will commendably retain its historic footprint and design, one wonders why the city did not extract from UC a commitment to no permanent lighting, and restrictions on non-football stadium use, so that the stadium controversy could be put to bed and renovation proceed with no further impediment. 

Despite these critiques, one has to express empathy for city of ficials, facing at once budget shortfalls (reducing motivation to litigate worthy claims, and increasing the attractiveness of “half a loaf” UC reimbursements), and also the university’s constitutional immunity from any local land use regulation. As a law yer I can’t recommend a cure for the former, but as to the latter the question must be raised: do we need more proof for a state constitutional amendment to remove UC’s exemption from the local governance the rest of us, including private universities, must honor? 

Antonio Rossman is a land-use attorney and Boalt Hall professor. Becky O’Malley is on vacation.  

¸

EDITOR’S NOTE: Today we are pleased to offer for your information a guest editorial, author unknown. It’s a cogent, well-written summary of why the City of Berkeley needs an adequate environmental impact report from the University of California before the university moves forward with its relentless desire to radically change the face of our city between now and 2020. Nothing’s changed—the points made in this piece, placed on the city’s website in February when the lawsuit was filed under the title “Fact Sheet,” are still valid.  

There is no reason the City Council should rush to concede anything to the university within the next month, or at least no reason which would benefit Berkeley citizens. There is also no reason that the public is being kept in the dark about the terms of the proposed agreement between the city and the university.  

Even worse, it now appears that the “confidentiality agreement” between the city and the university was not voted on by any elected officials, and perhaps was not even signed by the city manager. We’ve tried to find out who did sign it, but the Daily Planet’s California Public Records Act request to see the document was denied by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque on dubious grounds.  

It would be unheard of in the business world, where I spent 18 years, for an attorney to purport to bind her clients by a confidentiality agreement like this without express authorization from her principals to do so. Any attorney trying to do something like this on behalf of any company I’ve ever worked with would have been summarily discharged.  

It’s no surprise that the University of California, having suckered some gullible operative claiming to represent the City of Berkeley into agreeing to keep the deal a secret, won’t let go now. That’s typical of the way the university treats Berkeley.  

What is somewhat of a surprise, and a disappointment, is that our City Council is allowing itself to be led around by the nose like this. Two and possibly three councilmembers seem to be showing courage in speaking for the public interest, but the rest of them seem to be falling for the specious legal arguments for secrecy that they’ve been fed. The public will, of course, have a chance to see the deal eventually, after it’s signed, sealed and delivered. The next chance to hold city councilmembers responsible for what they decide to do now will be in November of 2006. 

Here, from the anonymous author, is the “Fact Sheet” from the city’s website:  

Background 

The UC Berkeley campus is comprised of 12.1 million square feet of academic and support space and serves 31,800 students and 11,600 faculty and staff. The LRDP calls for major increases: 

• 2.2 million new square feet of academic, research and administrative space. 

• 4,000 additional full-time equivalent students. 

• Over 3,500 additional faculty, staff and visitors. 

• Up to 2,300 new parking spaces. 

• 2,600 new housing beds.  

Between March 2003 and January 2005, the city expressed its concerns about the LRDP to the university repeatedly in meetings with UC officials and staff, submitted hundreds of pages of information and comments, and repeatedly invited UC to have a serious discussion of how the city and UC could collaborate on planning for the affected areas of the city and mitigating the impacts of additional UC development. The university has not reciprocated. 

Physical Impacts 

This additional development will have a number of significant environmental impacts, notably increasing traffic congestion, but also on historic resources, storm water, aesthetics, and all of the other impacts that accompany major development. The university has offered no assurance that it will fully address all environmental impacts resulting from the LRDP. 

Fiscal Impacts 

The LRDP will put further stress on already strained city services. Unfortunately, university development also takes property off the tax rolls. The university is exempt from most taxes, assessments and fees. The current annual cost to the city of providing public services to the university is estimated at $13.5 million.  

Under the LRDP, the cost will rise by approximately $2 million. The EIR recognizes that the services provided by the city are tools for reducing environmental impacts, yet the university has not made any commitment to paying for these services as a way to mitigate the impacts resulting from the LRDP. As a result, the city will not be able to sustain the level of service needed and as those services are stretched, environmental impacts will result; from spills due to dilapidated sewer pipes and waste water systems, to deteriorating air quality as cars idle on grid-locked streets. 

Why the EIR is Inadequate 

• The LRDP and EIR contain no details about the actual development that will occur under the LRDP, or where it will occur. As a result, the EIR contains little useful information. However, the university intends to exempt projects from full environmental review (a process known as “tiering”), thus avoiding any real environmental evaluation of the projects that will be developed under it. 

• The university claimed in the LRDP and EIR that it had insufficient information to describe several specific projects, such as the Memorial Stadium renovation and Southeast Quadrant Academic Commons, even though those projects were in advanced stages of planning even as the EIR was being prepared. 

• The EIR did not evaluate the LRDP’s significant impacts on aesthetics, air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, geology, seismicity and soils, hazardous materials, hydrology and water quality, land use, noise, population and housing, public services, transportation and traffic, and utilities and service systems. It did this by treating certain significant impacts as if they did not rise to a level of significance, entirely ignoring the fact that certain aspects of the LRDP will have impacts; assuming that other impacts would be mitigated even though there was no evidence to this effect; relying on the city to mitigate certain impacts; and relying on purported mitigation measures that are unlikely to happen. 

• The EIR failed to take into account the cumulative impacts of developing the LRDP in conjunction with the forthcoming long range development plan for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). 

• The EIR did not examine a reasonable range of alternatives to the LRDP that would have reduced its impacts. 

In general, the EIR did not provide good faith, reasoned responses to the many comments the university received, on all of these issues, and others. 

The Regents’ approval of the LRDP was based on findings about the regional economic impacts of the university that entirely ignored its significant and uncompensated local costs.