An SUV driver battered his vehicle through the doors of the Starbucks at Solano and Colusa avenues Tuesday morning, scattering a dozen or more customers who leapt out of the way and jumped through open windows as he backed up and tried it again. 

“He appeared to be aiming for the counter,” said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

After the second try, the driver backed out and sped away northbound on Colusa Avenue, leaving parts of vehicle scattered inside and outside the coffee shop. 

Police quickly identified a suspect, in large part because the jeep’s front bumper cover was left behind in the wreckage, complete with license plate. 

Even without it, police would have quickly found the fellow because customers who had leapt out of the store managed to write down the number on the rear plate. 

“He came back and hit it twice,” said 14-year-old Lily McNeil, who was standing outside not far from the entrance when the attack occurred. “I was really surprised, it was like, ‘Oh my God!’” 

“At first I thought it was a crash, and then I thought maybe it was a robbery because people were rushing out of the windows,” said her companion, Josie Guthrie, 12. 

A store employee told acquaintances that customers had rushed outside to write down the vehicle’s license number. When approached by a reporter, she said, “I cannot talk to you. I am loyal to my company.” 

Officers and crime scene technicians were at the scene within minutes, interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence. 

Among the vehicle parts left behind were a front bumper cover, a lower front quarter panel covered in burgundy paint and the remains of a parking light. 

The floor of the shop was covered with shattered glass from the front door windows the driver broke as he made his attacks. Tables and chairs were upended, the remains of the blue doors lay across the entrance, and scattered bags of chips and boxes lay where they’d fallen. 

A support beam standing in front of the counter apparently saved those who were the targets of the driver’s wrath, and the force of the impact opened a crack in the stucco along the store’s Solano Avenue frontage. 

“It was a miracle that no one was hit,” said Okies as he surveyed the scene. “There were at least a dozen people in here when it happened.” 

Police quickly located the 40-year-old suspect and took him into custody, later releasing him to the custody of a mental health facility after it became apparent he was suffering from mental problems. 

Officer Okies said the man hadn’t been arrested, though the incident has been classified as an assault with a deadly weapon “because it seemed obvious that his action were intentional and there were at least a dozen people in line at the counter.” y

The City Council learned Monday that the greenest project ever planned for Berkeley might leave the city in the red. 

With construction still at least a year off, the David Brower Center is already $8.5 million over budget, and the developers are asking for up to $2 million in additional city subsidies. 

Negotiations on a possible bailout are scheduled to proceed throughout the summer. The project’s uncertain finances forced the council to hold off on a scheduled agreement to transfer ownership of a city owned parking lot, valued at $5.7 million, to make way for the project. The council is scheduled to revisit the development in October. 

“I love this project, but there are some warning bells,” Mayor Tom Bates said. 

Despite rising cost estimates the council continued to show support for the concept they first approved three years ago. By an 8-0-1 vote (Olds abstain) councilmembers adopted an environmental report for the project and approved amending local zoning rules to allow for its design. The vote was seen as necessary to help the developers, non-profit housing developer Resources For Community Development (RCD) and The David Brower Center, raise more money for the buildings. 

The Brower Center, along with RCD’s Oxford Plaza, an adjoining affordable housing development, have been heralded by city leaders as a salvation for the ailing downtown economy. 

The project, honoring the late David Brower, the Berkeley-born founder of the Friends of the Earth, is slated to replace the parking lot on Oxford Street between Kittredge Street and Allston Way. It would include the 96-unit, six-story affordable housing complex for low income families, at least one level of underground parking, high-end retail shops and a four-story office building and conference center for non-profit environmental groups. 

Since last May estimated project costs have jumped from $52.2 million to $63.5 million. As for many projects, rising prices for steel and other construction materials are partially to blame. However the Brower Center’s commitment to an environmentally innovative design—the office building will generate its own energy and employ a natural climate control system—means the price tag is higher than standard downtown developments.  

The city’s investment in the project was to be $2.5 million in federal affordable housing funds plus the loss of parking revenues from the Oxford lot during construction, estimated at $600,000. 

But now the project is asking for more, specifically more than $1 million to construct a 105-space underground parking garage to replace most of the parking lost at the 130-space Oxford lot. Originally the city had agreed to sell the lot to the developers for $1 in return for the construction of the underground lot, which they then lease back to the city. 

However cost estimates for the underground parking have jumped from $4.8 million last year to $6.5 million—higher than the appraised value of the land. The developers want Berkeley to make up the difference. In response, the city has commissioned a new appraisal of the property. 

Meanwhile downtown merchants have been pressing the council to build a second level of underground parking, estimated to cost an additional $6 million, to make up for the loss of other downtown lots over the past several years. Councilmembers hinted Monday that with financing for the project already tight, the merchants would have to pay part of the construction costs for additional parking. 

The financial risks to the city go beyond the parking lot shortfall. Although the David Brower Center is ultimately responsible for completion of the office building, the city would likely have to bail out the housing development if cost overruns during construction plague the project, said Housing Director Steve Barton.  

As a non-profit housing developer, RCD doesn’t have assets to offer lenders as collateral. Although Berkeley wouldn’t be legally responsible for backing the project, Barton said the city would have to help the developer raise additional funds to finish it. 

Brower Center Project Manager John Clawson told councilmembers that environmental groups have already reserved 50 percent of the planned office space and that outdoor apparel retailer Patagonia has signed a letter of intent to occupy one of the retail spaces. 

He added that that project has lined up potential funding to cover $6.5 million of the $8.5 million shortfall. 

Willard Afterschool Program 

Parents whose children attend a recently defunded city after-school program at Willard Park urged the council to find money to reopen the program in September. As a cost saving measure to balance this year’s budget, the city cut a recreation coordinator position that oversaw the program serving 24 elementary school aged children.  

Parks and Recreation Director Marc Seleznow said that restoring the program would cost the city $123,000. To control costs at city recreation programs, Seleznow has proposed operating larger after-school programs at fewer sites. The city is reserving space for the students at a similar program, the Frances Albrier Center in West Berkeley. 

Dove Scherr, the mother of a child in the Willard program, said it was unfair for the city to target Willard and that parents would not stop fighting for its reinstatement. 

“You can’t just cut a program with 24 kids and expect us to just disappear,” she said. 

The council opened the door to a possible special meeting in August if staff could come up with a way to keep the program open. 

Density Bonus 

In a further escalation of the war of words between some councilmembers and city staff, Councilmember Kriss Worthington charged that staff was trying to manipulate the council. 

At issue was a vote by the council last week establishing a joint subcommittee to look into how the city applies a state housing law. Critics of the current interpretation like Worthington say it allows developers to build bigger buildings with proportionately fewer affordable units. 

Last week the council passed a resolution adding Acting Housing Advisory Commission Chair Jesse Arreguin—a critic of current city policy—to the subcommittee made up of four Planning Commission and Zoning Adjustment Board members. 

But this week the council voted to rescind that action because of concern that it wasn’t properly noticed on the prior week’s meeting agenda and thus violated state open government laws. 

Worthington was fuming because the agenda for Monday’s meeting didn’t mention the council’s vote last week to include Arreguin. Without that recommendation on the agenda for this week, the council was unable once again to add Arreguin to the commission. 

“This item for a second week in a row is a manipulation of the City Council,” Worthington said. “It declines to list an option that the entire City Council voted for and instead gives one politically biased distorted recommendation that is grossly unfair and a manipulation of the process.” 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz shot back, “I think that’s totally unfair.” He added that the agenda was not set by staff, but by a three-person panel of the counsel.  

Most other councilmembers didn’t seem bothered by the recommendation. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak called the dispute, “a relatively minor issue,” and Councilmember Betty Olds argued that “the sneaky thing” was the council improperly adding Arreguin to the commission last week. 

The council voted 6-2-1 (Worthington, Spring no, Anderson abstain) to approve a joint subcommittee of just planning commissioners and ZAB members. By an unanimous vote the council agreed to take up adding a member of the HAC when it reconvenes Sept. 13. 

Christopher Wilson, the 20-year-old Berkeley High graduate police say drove the getaway car in the Meleia Willis-Starbuck shooting, was scheduled to be released Thursday on a $326,000 property bond in to the custody of family friends. 

The parents of Wilson’s best friend, Robin Baker and Ralph Silber, put up their Berkeley house to get Wilson out of jail. 

“He’s like my other son,” Baker said after the bail hearing. “I have every confidence in him. I know he’s not capable of hurting another person.”  

Wilson, who was a close friend of Willis-Starbuck, has been charged with murder. He is scheduled to return to court Sept. 13 to enter a plea. 

Wilson has no prior criminal record, a fact that Judge Winfred Scott said weighed heavily in her decision to grant bail. 

Scott required that Wilson adhere to a 9 p.m. curfew and surrender any cell phone or electronic communication devices. She also ordered him to stay away from a list of his friends provided by prosecutors, stay in Alameda County and to remain under the supervision of Baker and Silber. 

When asked if he understood the restrictions, Wilson, dressed in a red prison jumper replied, “Yes ma’am.” 

Baker, the director of UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program, said her son has been friends with Wilson since elementary school. Silber is CEO of the Alameda County Health Care Network. 

Judge Scott did not explain why Wilson was released into the custody of Wilson and Baker rather than to his family. When asked about the arrangement, a spokesperson for Wilson’s attorney, Elizabeth Grossman, said Wilson had a long-standing relationship with the couple and that they were, “in essence family.” 

Prosecutor Carrie Panetta had proposed setting bail at $500,000. 

During the hearing, prosecutors acknowledged that there was a third person in the car at the time of Willis-Starbuck’s murder who had since left the country. 

Wilson’s supporters packed the 60-seat courtroom. Former classmates declined to comment on the case after the bail hearing. Inside the courtroom one friend blurted out, “It’s a start,” after Judge Scott granted bail. 

Christopher Hollis, the man police believe shot Willis-Starbuck, remains at large.  

Berkeley police said last week that Wilson drove Hollis and the other passenger to the corner of Dwight Way and College Avenue where Hollis allegedly got out of the car and fired into a crowd of people, striking only Willis-Starbuck, a 19-year-old Dartmouth College student, who had returned to Berkeley for a summer internship. 

It is believed that Willis-Starbuck called Hollis to the scene after she and several friends got into an argument with a group of men. 

The way Berkeley skateboarder Sean O’Loughlin tells it, one moment last April he was racing down the eight-foot bowl at Berkeley’s Harrison Skateboard Park, and the next, police officers had turned the fenced-in park into a holding cell. 

“All of a sudden there are four cop cars pulling up and we’re trapped in the park,” he said. 

O’Loughlin said police ordered him and other skaters to sit on a skateboard rail, while officers wrote them $100 tickets. 

Their offense? They weren’t wearing helmets and pads as required under Berkeley and state law. 

Skaters say that since Berkeley’s three-year-old skate park—rated tops in the Bay Area by skateboard bible Thrasher Magazine—reopened in March after winter rains, enforcement is up and attendance is down. 

“It makes absolutely no sense,” said Bob O’Leary, a UC Berkeley sophomore, who grew up in Berkeley. “The city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build the park and now no one’s using it because they’re afraid of getting a ticket.” 

Enforcement is up, acknowledged Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna, who oversaw the construction of the $700,000 park at Harrison and Fifth streets while she was Director of Parks and Recreation. The reason, she said, is twofold: fear that skaters will injure themselves and fear that injured skaters will sue the city. 

When Berkeley opened the park in 2002, Caronna said, the city’s understanding was that to avoid liability lawsuits under state law, the city merely needed to post the law requiring skaters to wear a helmet, knee and elbow pads when using the skatepark. 

State law on the issue hasn’t changed, Caronna said, but the opinion of the city attorney’s office has. 

“When the city attorney’s office took a look at this they didn’t think it was clear cut that you could post a sign and then walk away,” she said. “They weren’t convinced that doing nothing to enforce the law would really protect us [against a lawsuit].” 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, citing that her office was preparing a detailed report on the skatepark, declined to comment on the recent enforcement effort. Caronna said she didn’t know of any lawsuit against the city involving the skate park. 

Skaters interviewed said that police have been cruising past the park every day, sometimes scolding skaters and sometimes handing out tickets. “It’s become like a game,” said David Keegan. 

He said that when skaters see police or city staff they stop skating and flee the park. “Every time I go there I get chased out,” he said. “It’s really bizarre.” 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Joe Okies said statistics on tickets handed out for illegal skateboarding were not available. Unpaid tickets can lead to arrest warrants, but skaters interviewed didn’t know of anyone who ended up in jail because of unpaid tickets. 

O’Leary, who was also ticketed recently, said he and other skaters are once again skating in the street or at areas less traveled by police such as Berkeley Arts Magnet School or the Claremont Avenue DMV. 

“The situation has totally reversed,” he said. “It used to be that we needed a skatepark because we were getting hassled on the street, now we’re hassled in the skatepark so we have to go back to the streets.” 

Skaters interviewed rejected their other option—wearing a helmet and pads. 

Keenan said skateboarders “didn’t want to carry an army of pads with them were ever they went.” O’Leary said helmets and pads didn’t prevent the most prevalent injuries—broken arms and wrists. 

And Stephen Freskos said, “It’s just against my morals to wear pads.” 

The stepped up enforcement has taken its toll on skatepark attendance, O’Leary said. “Friday nights used to have 50 to 100 people, now it’s a wasteland,” he said. 

On Wednesday afternoon there were ten skaters in the park, none of who were wearing pads. 

Enforcement of other skateparks around the state varies from city to city said Kevin Convertito, art director for San Francisco-based Thrasher Magazine. 

Convertito said Southern California cities tend to enforce helmet and safety rules more stringently than Northern California towns, and that Berkeley’s park now had the most aggressive enforcement in the Bay Area. 

“It’s notoriously hot at the moment,” he said. 

Caronna said that a recent city survey showed that other cities in the state had recently stepped up enforcement. When Berkeley opened the park, Caronna said most California cities didn’t actively enforce safety rules, but now half of them do. 

“The world around us has really changed,” she said. “We think it’s important to get the message out to kids that it’s important to wear a helmet and pads and it’s important for the city to enforce any rules that it posts.” 

Caronna said the city has tried to alert skaters of the new rules and that it didn’t plan on returning to lax enforcement. “If God forbid someone got seriously hurt this wouldn’t even be a conversation,” she said. 

California has seen a boom in skateparks over the past several years, in part because of a 1997 state law that placed the sport on the “hazardous recreation list” along with football and other contact sports. The intent of the law was to relieve cities and private operators of liability for skateboard related accidents. In 2002 state lawmakers passed a bill requiring that cities with skateparks amend their laws to require that users wear a helmet, elbow pad and knee pad. 

David Amell, a Berkeley attorney and skateboarder who has written on state skateboarding law for Sports Lawyer Journal, said the law protected the city whether it chose to actively enforce the safety rules or merely post a sign. The only risk the city runs, Amell said, is to continue the current practice of stationing an employee at the park during parts of the day. 

“If you have supervision of the skatepark and someone is hurt you can make the argument that they weren’t fulfilling duty,” he said. 

According to data from the National Safety Council and the National Consumer Products Safety Commission in 1997, there were 48,186 reported skateboarding injuries out of about 16 million skaters. The rate of three injuries per thousand skaters placed the sport as safer than the four major team sports and safer than fishing. Ice hockey was ranked the most dangerous sport. ?

A Peralta College proposal for joint use with the Oakland Library of the soon-to-be-closed Oakland Kaiser Convention Center left some Peralta trustees and staff members angry and some encouraged at last Tuesday’s trustee meeting. 

The proposal was part of an interim report presented by principal Atheria Smith of Oakland-based Scala Design & Development Company, who was hired under a six-month consultant contract by the district last January to produce a district-wide land-use development report. 

Chancellor Elihu Harris had requested the interim report for the last trustee meeting before the month-long summer break so that trustees would be brought up to date on the progress of the project. 

Last month, citing budget concerns, Oakland City Council voted to close the 90-year-old city-owned convention center as of Jan. 1. The Kaiser Center, which includes a theater and an arena, is located nearly adjacent to the Laney College campus, on the Lake Merritt Channel that connects Lake Merritt with the estuary. The Lake Merritt Channel is scheduled for a makeover within the next few years with funds from Oakland’s Bond Measure DD. 

During debate over the convention center closure when it came before Oakland City Council last month, Councilmember Pat Kernighan said she would explore keeping the Kaiser Center open, but under private management. 

But Gerry Garzon, Administrative Librarian with the Oakland Public Library, told Peralta trustees Tuesday night that his agency is looking at the Kaiser Convention Center as a possible site for a new main library, and is interested in partnering with Laney College to use a portion of the space for the Laney College Library, as well as with the Oakland Museum for the use of some of the space as a cultural center. 

Garzon said that because a bond measure might have to be put on the ballot in 2006 to finance that plan, the planning process for such a proposal needed to be put through in the next six to eight months. 

Following the trustee meeting, Smith said that if such a partnership took place, it might involve the joint library use of the convention center’s arena, while retaining the theater as a performance space. 

The proposal was presented to Peralta trustees for information purposes only, and the board took no action. 

The plan drew praise from some trustees, including Marcie Hodge, who said that she was excited by the prospect of possible joint-use agreements with other government entities. Trustee Linda Handy agreed, adding that such agreements were important “because we’re all pulling from the same tax base.” 

But trustee Cy Gulassa poured cold water on the idea, at least for the time being, saying that he assumed that Smith’s proposals were “simply a dream plan,” and that district faculty and staff “want to be involved before any such plans are finalized. We should all remember that this always comes up whenever the land use issue comes before the board of trustees.” 

Gulassa added that “the presentation of a relatively finalized plan is a surprise; I thought this was just an update.” 

The proposal also was blasted by some Laney College staff. Shirley Coaston, Laney College Head Librarian, complained that she had not been invited to any of the meetings concerning the possible Kaiser joint library venture. 

Coaston said that while she wasn’t “totally against” the proposal, she said, “I don’t think that what happens at Laney College should be forced to go through a six- to eight-month process just because the Oakland library needs a partner.” 

She added that “Laney College isn’t a public library. We have a different mission and a different focus. So we would like to be part of any planning that takes place.” 

Laney College Faculty Senate President Evelyn Lord, who is also a Laney librarian, added that she had “not been consulted as to what’s going on with the library proposal.” 

Chancellor Harris said “there was no intent to exclude” anyone and that the Scala proposals were not final. 

Presentation of the proposal “was just for the purpose of initiating conversation,” he said. “We haven’t initiated plans with the City of Oakland or with anybody else. But we talk to people. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Nothing here is in concrete. Nothing here is specific. You need to put the hostility and the caution away.” 

Smith said following the meeting that she intended to hold meetings with staff throughout the district over possible land use proposals.

The Hershey Co., the nation’s largest candy maker, announced Monday that it plans to purchase Berkeley-based Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, Inc. 

Scharffen Berger makes fine dark chocolate bars and baking products, and has three retail locations in Berkeley, San Francisco and New York City. 

Hershey has declined to say how much they will pay to acquire Scharffen Berger. Co-founder John Scharffenberger said that Hershey’s resources would allow the company to accelerate its growth. 

“[The Hershey Co.] saw that we were doing a great job at what we do, and we thought they were very good at what they do,” he said. “This was bound to happen sooner or later, and we feel really lucky to be associated with a company with high ethical standards.”  

Scharffenberger said the shareholders of Scharffen Berger, of which he is one, were impressed with the Hershey Co., even though he’s not “a corporation kind of guy.” 

“They do a lot of work helping underprivileged kids get educations, a lot of good things,” he said. 

Hershey spokeswoman Stephanie Moritz said of Scharffen Berger, “We thought they were a great brand … a fantastic, complementary fit to our broad chocolate portfolio.” 

Moritz said Scharffen Berger will remain with the “artisan roots that have made them a respected name in the chocolate industry.” 

“We would not have done it if they wanted us to change our product, and that was a big factor in our decision,” Scharffenberger said. “This [acquisition] will allow us to do more creative things with the company, to do more of what we’re already doing.” 

Hershey said it expects the purchase to close in the third quarter, after the customary closing conditions are met. 

Scharffen Berger Chocolate was formed in 1996, the brainchild of family physician and Harvard graduate Dr. Robert Steinberg. He proposed the idea of an American manufacturer of fine chocolate to his friend and former patient, Scharffenberger Cellars founder John Scharffenberger, who seized the opportunity. 

“Ultimately, I joined Robert in founding Scharffen Berger because of our mutual love of fine chocolate and our desire to produce a superior product in this country,” Scharffenberger said, according the Scharffen Berger website. 

Their goal was simple: “to produce chocolate of the highest quality possible from the finest cacao beans available,” according to their website. 

To that end, Steinberg took a brief internship in France under the renowned Bernachon Chocolatiers in Lyon, France. Upon his return he and Scharffenberger went to work finding and grinding the finest cacao beans in the world. In his kitchen in 1996, they used a coffee grinder, a mortar and pestle, and an electric mixer heated with a hairdryer to simulate the chocolate making process. 

The first batch of “meaningful chocolate,” produced in their original location in South San Francisco, received accolades from foodies and celebrity chefs and by 2000, the two realized they needed to expand. 

They moved into their current location, a 100-year-old, 27,000-square-foot Berkeley warehouse on Heinz Ave. in May of 2001. The San Francisco boutique opened in August of 2003 in the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero and the Manhattan location celebrated its grand opening in November of 2004. 

They say the secrets of their dark chocolate’s flavor “lies in careful attention to bean selection, blending, roasting, and conching, and the benefits of small-batch processing.” 

Scharffenberger and Steinberg will stay at the company following the acquisition. 

“We were doing a lot of business work,” Scharffenberger said, “and this will allow us to get back to what we love to do—make really good chocolate.” 

The search for a home for the Brower Ball, as some wags have dubbed “Spaceship Earth”—a massive sculptural memorial to the late Berkeley environmentalist David Brower—took another twist Monday when Ohlone Park was crossed off the list. 

While two other sites are officially on the table, only one appears to have any likelihood of acceptance, a spot near a goal on the Frisbee golf course at Aquatic Park. 

The latest decision came at a Parks and Recreation Commission hearing Monday night, when the panel voted a hearty thumbs down on the Ohlone Park pitch. 

“Neighbors and other people who use Ohlone Park are so vigilant and so protective of the park, and they made it clear that they thought [the sculpture] was way too large,” said commission Chair Yolanda Huang. 

None of the speakers who turned out for the meeting spoke in favor of the Ohlone Park location, Huang said. 

David Snippen, member of the Civic Arts Commission and chair of a three-commission panel working to find a home for the sculpture, said the group wasn’t interested in mounting the sculpture anywhere it wasn’t wanted. His subcommittee includes members from the Parks and Recreation and Waterfront commissions. 

Snippen said he expected the same sort of opposition from the second site on the subcommittee’s list, Cedar Rose Park. 

“People don’t feel they have enough green space,” Huang said. “The [Parks and Recreation] Commission voted to ask the subcommittee ... to seek another site.” 

Snippen said the Cedar Rose site was “also problematic because the BART tracks are closer” than at Ohlone Park, and the 350,000-pound mass of the orb would likely pose structural engineering problems. 

The sculpture, which has yet to be assembled, is made of wedge-shaped sections of blue Brazilian Quartzite which will be bolted together at the site. The continents and islands are crafted of bronze and will be bolted to the surface of the sphere.  

As originally designed, the sculpture was to have a life-size bronze of Brower kneeling atop the earth and reaching for the stars. The notion of a white man astride the globe and reaching for the stars evoked images of imperialism for many critics, so a subsequent version was proposed that would have had Brower sitting on a bench and admiring the globe. 

“There’s no figure now at all,” Snippen said, leaving only the massive 12-foot diameter 25-ton orb and its black granite base. “We won’t allow it.” 

Another site mentioned at Monday’s meeting isn’t even on the subcommittee’s dwindling short list—in the center of the Turtle Fountain in Civic Center Park. 

“The site has good attributes,” Huang said. “It’s already made of concrete and it’s surrounded by benches and offers a long view of the sculpture.” 

Snippen, however, scoffed at the notion. 

“Some years have been spent on the design of the park, and to try to overlay the Brower sculpture at this late date is not feasible. It’s disrespectful of the neighborhood,” he said, and “of the Native Americans the Turtle Fountain is meant to honor.” 

Typically, he said, public art is commissioned to be created for a certain space, a context: “This is a non-site-specific piece, and that makes finding a site much more difficult.” 

The sculpture was commissioned by Power Bar founders Brian and Jennifer Maxwell well before the former’s death last year. 

The Maxwells originally intended the piece to be sited in San Francisco, but the city’s Visual Arts Subcommittee had unkind things to say about it, such as: “extremely grand and flamboyant,” and lacking in “sensitivity to environmental issues.” The Maxwells withdrew the offered and turned to their friend Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who was a friend both of the Maxwells and the late environmentalist. 

Besides Bates, whose embrace of the artwork led to the site search, Eino’s orb’s biggest fan is Waterfront Commission Chair Paul Kamen. The first sites studied and rejected by the sculpture committee focused on the Berkeley Marina, where Kamen thought the artwork was well suited. 

“Next to the mayor, I seemed to be the only one who thought it looked good there,” said Kamen, speaking from Hawaii, where he had just arrived via sailboat Tuesday. 

Bonnie Hughes, who resigned from the Civic Arts Commission earlier this year, partly in protest over the commission’s vote to accept the sculpture, said she’ll accept a site at the lagoon, “but only if they install it at low tide.” 

With the commission headed for its August recess, the homeless big blue ball will bounce back in September as the search continues.

Hazardous waste cleanup operations at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station are expected to cost the school an additional $20 million, according to a document recently posted on the university’s website. 

The reason: a change in state oversight at the university’s waterfront research facility on the south Richmond shoreline. 

That information was contained in a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeking an environmental consultant to help guide the process. According to the RFQ, the handover of cleanup oversight from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to the state Department of Toxic Substances Control is expected to result in four additional phases of cleanup. 

University officials had argued against the regulatory handover earlier this year when the Richmond City Council was debating a resolution to seek the change. 

The resolution was adopted and the transfer of oversight followed several weeks later, something sought by community activists who were unhappy with the water board’s supervision. 

University officials are currently engaged in talks that will lead to a vast new construction project at the Richmond facility that will transform the institution into an academic/corporate research park that will include 70 of the site’s 152 acres. 

The two million square feet of new office and research space projected for the future “Bayside Research Campus” is more than proposed for the entire Long Range Development Plan for the main Berkeley campus. 

Much of the contamination at the field station resulted from the site’s previous incarnation as a plant that made blasting caps from a mercury compound. Mercury compounds have been linked to a variety of ailments, ranging from fatal illnesses to severe brain damage. They are especially hazardous to unborn children. 

Other contaminants were imported into the site from the adjoining Campus Bay site, which was used for over a century for production of a wide range of chemicals, many of them dangerous, created in part from other equally hazardous substances. 

Cherokee Simeon Ventures is the owner of the Campus Bay site and has been selected by the university as the prospective developer of the Field Station. 

The firm is a joint venture of Simeon Properties, a prominent Bay Area developer, and Cherokee Investment Partners, which specializes in lending money for projects built on remediated hazardous waste sites. 

The RFQ, issued by Rob Gayle, UC’s assistant vice chancellor for capital projects, calls for prospective consultants to submit their application by Aug. 11.

Without any public fanfare, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown’s Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) has quietly moved from a charter high school to a charter middle and high school. 

State-appointed Oakland School Administrator Randolph Ward approved OSA’s charter revision early last month, adding grades six through eight of 50 students apiece to the school’s existing 9-12 grade charter. 

OSA has been operating under an Oakland Unified School District charter since September 2002. Mayor Brown is the chairperson of the board of directors of the non-profit organization that runs the school. The school currently operates out of portable buildings behind the Fox Oakland building in downtown Oakland, and is expected to move into the Fox Oakland itself when that building is renovated. 

The new grades are expected to begin operation in September, with a total student population of 550. The school has already begun sending out postcards announcing the expansion, and late last month held auditions for entering students from sixth to tenth grades. 

In their proposal, OSA officials said that its faculty will increase from 27 (20 full-time and 7 part-time) to 30 to accommodate the grade expansion. 

Because Oakland’s schools are currently being run by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, school board members have no voice in charter approval and function only as an advisory board to the school administrator. 

OSA administrators were out of town this week and unavailable for comment, but OUSD advisory board director Alice Spearman said in a telephone interview that school officials said they asked for the grade extension “because they thought it would be better to start out with younger students at the school. It was their feeling that many of the children entering their school in the ninth grade simply didn’t have the necessary arts training, because that training is lacking in many public schools.” 

In the 2004 Academic Performance Index (API), the basis on which the State of California ranks schools, the Oakland School for the Arts was ranked 9 among all California high schools (on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being the highest), and 10 among California high schools of a similar size and student population. 

The charter revision, which also extends OSA’s charter through June 2010, received mixed reviews from representatives associated with the school district. 

Board director Spearman said that the grade extension was “probably a good thing” for OSA. “The arts school has an academic piece that is far superior to most of our high schools in Oakland,” he said. 

Spearman also praised OSA’s arts curriculum, stating that “we don’t have the expertise in the other schools to bring artists up like they do. Even though we have a school of the arts run by Oakland Unified [at Skyline High School], our school doesn’t measure up [to OSA]. They are probably the only charter I would give passing grades to. I’m impressed with them.” 

But Oakland Education Association President Ben Visnick, who represents most of Oakland Unified’s teachers, opposed the charter extension when it came to the state administrator and the board in May, saying that the district was contributing to the further decline of average daily attendance money from the state if the grade extension was approved. 

Visnick said in a telephone interview that he also opposed the extension because “over half of the students at the arts school are from Oakland,” and “a lot of money is going over to the arts school that could be better spent helping Oakland schools survive.” 

In its charter amendment application, OSA said that 63 percent of the school’s student body reside in Oakland, but does not specify if any of those current Oakland residents were living in other cities before enrolling at OSA. The OSA application says that 48 percent of the student body is African-American, 22 percent white, 9 percent Latino, 8 percent Asian, and the remaining 13 percent either multi-ethnic or of unidentified ethnic background. 

In their budget plan, the school says that $700,000 of OSA’s projected $5 million in revenue in 2005-06 will come from the City of Oakland, with another $100,000 coming from a Port of Oakland/Oakland Airport contract.

A short-handed Planning Commission Wednesday endorsed the Gilman Street ballfields and set a Sept. 14 hearing on the proposed West Berkeley Bowl.  

A planned discussion of the Downtown Area Plan, mandated under the terms of the settlement of the city’s suit against UC Berkeley, wasn’t held because it hadn’t been moved the commission’s action agenda. 

The resignations of members David Tabb and Joe Fireman accounted for two empty chairs and the absence of Chair Harry Pollack was balanced by the presence of Mike Sheen, a temporary appointment for the night. 

Bowl scope 

First up on the agenda was a scoping session seeking public input on issues to be addressed in the Environmental Impact Report on the Berkeley Bowl project, planned for the southwest corner of the intersection of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue. 

Most speakers were somewhat critical of the project, raising concerns about the way it had doubled in scale from its initial proposal. 

Many concerns had to do with traffic and parking issues, not only regarding the store itself, but in combination with other developments now being built or in planning for the West Berkeley area.  

Several speakers focused on Mayor Tom Bates’ plans for expanded commercial development along the Ashby Avenue and Gilman Street corridors, which they said would further increase traffic and parking problems on already overcrowded thoroughfares. 

“This could be a tipping point for commercial development up and down Ashby Avenue,” said Steve Wollmer of PlanBerkeley.org. “The interchange at I-80 is already at capacity, and this project would have more approval if it were situated on the frontage road between University [Avenue] and Gilman where there are fewer residences.” 

Laurie Bright, who owns a business three blocks from the Bowl site, ticked off a list of new and planned developments near the property. 

“There are big changes being planned at City Hall for West Berkeley,” he said, noting that the area is zoned for manufacturing and light industrial uses, “and we need a real analysis of that they would impact business and residences around the area if they were rezoned for commercial uses.”  

Area resident Claude Hutchinson, a regular attendee at city- and developer-sponsored meetings on the project, offered his endorsement of the project. 

“If the Bowl doesn’t go in, something else will,” he said, “and we’ve long needed a wonderful grocery store that will serve the needs of the neighborhood.” 

Michael Larrick also spoke in favor of the proposal, saying the project wouldn’t add any significant amount of new traffic or air quality problems. 

But the great majority of speakers said that they wanted the study to consider a smaller project, something architect Kava Massih has said wouldn’t be economically feasible for owner Glen Yasuda. Massih was on hand for part of the discussion but offered no comments. 

Following the scoping session, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to conduct a hearing on Sept. 28 on changes to the West Berkeley Plan and Berkeley Zoning Ordinance needed before the project can move forward. 

Gilman Ballfields 

The commission made short work of zoning and plan changes required to create a set of playing fields at the foot of Gilman Street on land owned by the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

A Joint Powers Agreements among the cities of Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond and the parks district calls for creation of two rectangular playing fields, two softball diamonds and one regulation baseball diamond on land that is now used as the southern parking lot of Golden Gate Fields. 

Only Berkeley resident L.A. Woods spoke in opposition, raising his concerns about the effects that freeway exhaust might have on young players. 

The commission, however, agreed with city staff’s Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) which said air quality concerns were minimal. 

Unanimous votes approved sending the MND and the plan and zoning changes along to the city council with their recommendations for adoption. 

Only enough money has been raised for the two artificial turf rectangular fields, which can be used for soccer, rugby, lacrosse and football. If all goes as planned those fields will open for play next September. 

Condo ordinance 

The commission declined to take any action on revisions to the city’s condominium ordinance, which were mandated after a 2004 court case invalidated the city’s law restricting the right to convert larger rental properties into Tenancies-In-Common. 

When the state Supreme Court refused to overturn the verdict of the San Francisco appellate court last December, Berkeley set about revising its own ordinance—which contained the same provisions struck down in the San Francisco law. 

On May 17, the City Council passed a temporary ordinance which expires on Oct. 28, leaving time to prepare a more thorough ordinance in the interim. 

The draft presented to the commission Wednesday had been drafted by the city Housing Department and Housing Advisory Commission and was presented by Housing Director Steve Barton. 

Because the court decision makes it possible to convert multi-unit buildings from rentals to TIC—which Barton described as a problematic form of ownership—city staff decided that the best solution would be to ease up on conversions to condominium ownership. 

After a lengthy discussion, the commission decided there were too many unanswered questions and handed off the matter to the council without additional comment. 

?

Richmond police have arrested two Berkeley men and are seeking two other city residents—all described as gang members or associates—in a June 27 double slaying in Richmond. 

Two Hayward men were also arrested. 

Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan said the deaths of Sean McClelland and Lacorey Brooks, both of Richmond, were retaliatory killings for the June 25 murder of Jamon Monty Williams on the Oakland side of the Berkeley/Oakland border. 

Williams was gunned down in front of Express Auto at 1339 60th St. He was carrying bindles of rock cocaine in his pocket, police said. Oakland Police arrested Orlando Terrell Wiggins Jr. for the shooting. 

McClelland and Brooks were killed by shots from at least three different firearms as they were riding in a vehicle along Harbour Way near Roosevelt Avenue. 

“The subsequent criminal investigation revealed that the shooting was a retaliatory act carried out by a group of Berkeley criminals who are linked by association to” Williams, according to a July 21 Richmond police operation order authorizing search warrants at four Berkeley addresses. 

“Our investigation has identified a conspiracy involving at least six identified individuals,” according to the document. “These people are validated gang members, and/or associates—four of six are on active parole.” 

Murder charges have been filed against three of the Berkeley suspects: 

• Jason Moses “J-Boo” Parrott, 32, of 1130 Bancroft Way, Apt. C. 

• Dwayne Murphy, 24, of 3135 Sacramento St. Apt. 3. 

• Joseph James Carroll Jr., 28, of 2408 Seventh St. 

Murphy has been arrested, but Carroll and Parrott remain at large. Charges are still pending against the fourth Berkeley suspect, age 31, who has also been arrested. 

Also charged in the incident were two Hayward men, ages 27 and 30.

The Bay Area is home to several dozen worker cooperatives, or collectives, in which every member is at the same time a worker and an owner of the enterprise. Some are thriving and others are struggling, but they are all enterprises dedicated to the notion that there is a better way to do business than business as usual.  

There is no hierarchy in collectives. Every worker, as a member of the collective, has an equal voice in the decision making, generally gets the same hourly wage and shares equally in the profits of the business. While it seems like a simple concept, it can take considerable effort and commitment to make it function. 

The local co-op workplaces are organized into a Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives—that’s NoBAWC, pronounced “No Boss,” which provides a venue for sharing of information among the member co-ops and advice to groups wanting to start new cooperative enterprises. 

Dave Karoly, staff person of NoBAWC, points out that local government offices of economic development offer advice for people wanting to start up a business, but, he says, “generally they don’t understand a democratic structure.” 

Karoly said that cooperatives can be organizations such as consumer co-ops as well as institutions like the Free Clinic that incorporate volunteers into their democratically run workplace as well as worker collectives. There are a few other places in the country where there are clusters of worker collectives, notably around Portland and the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. 

“I think there’s probably a relationship between the politics of the area and the number of democratic workplaces,” Karoly says. “I think the atmosphere encourages this. [Places] where there’s progressive movement would be more receptive to democratic structures, both in terms of creating a pool of workers as well as supporting them as consumers.”  

The epicenter of all worker cooperatives is a town called Mondragon, in the Basque country of northern Spain. A young priest named Father Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta went there in the 1940s to teach in a vocational school. Besides teaching technical subjects he talked about social values which led to the concept of worker cooperatives. 

The first co-op was started in 1956 and by now Mondragon has a large network of widely diverse and hugely successful cooperative enterprises. A group of visitors from Mondragon University came to the July NoBAWC meeting and shared some of their experiences in trying to teach and maintain cooperative values in the present atmosphere of global outsourcing. 

Does the name of Father Arizmendiarrieta ring a bell? The three Arizmendi bakeries (two in the East Bay and one in San Francisco) are worker collectives which in turn were started with the help of members of the Cheese Board, Berkeley’s much-loved Gourmet Ghetto institution. The Cheese Board collective has been around for 36 years and has more than 40 members, many of whom have been there for many years. The operation is fairly typical of worker collectives. Everyone has an equal voice in all decision making, there are no managers or bosses. Everyone gets the same hourly pay, their total wages depending on the number of hours they work.  

Participating in all decision-making can be something of a burden. A democratic process takes time but as an owner, every member is responsible, in the words of Crow Bolt of the Nabolom Bakery collective, “for a lot of the nuts and bolts that keep the place together.” 

But things have taken a turn for the worse at Nabolom, which is losing money, can’t pay its bills and might go out of business at the end of August despite months of working to try to save it and staff pay cuts. Nabolom’s experience reveals some of the pitfalls of collectives, including poor organization, lack of business experience, and allowing personal relationships to compromise management concerns. 

Crow traced the problem back several years ago to an incompetent financial manger and poor communication with the rest of the members. By the time they confronted the situation the collective ended up deep in debt. The Elmwood District bakery has been threatened with a Sept. 1 eviction date unless it can catch up on more than three months of back rent. 

“Most of us are on the borderline economically and can’t afford to work without pay,” Crow said. “(Most) have put a lot of heart and effort into it—far more than they’re paid back for it.” 

Inno Nagara, a member of three-year-old Design Action Collective, said that collectives are a viable business model. 

“Co-ops are more stable in the long run, they make better decisions,” he said. “You can look at the trends around cooperatives. They do tend to last longer, they move a little bit slower but as a result make better decisions.” 

Design Action is a spinoff from Inkworks, a venerable printing company collective with a more than 30-year history. General manager Erica Braun has been with Inkworks almost since the beginning. 

“The participation of everybody is very important in terms of making good judgments about our service to the community,” which, she said, has always been the company’s mission. “It’s hard. It lengthens the process but I think in the end we make better decisions.”  

Keeeth (yes, that’s how he spells his name) at Pedal Express, a bicycle cargo delivery service cooperative, said the frustrations of cooperatives are worth it because of the satisfaction of working where “people are empowered to make good choices instead of just showing up for work, punching the clock.”  

Collective members tend to bond with each other more than they would in the traditional workplace. They share common goals, they all participate in admitting new members and they spend a lot of time together, he said. 

Arturo T., who has been a member of the Cheese Board for 21 years said, “It’s a family. You’re marrying into a family.” 

The Missing Link bicycle shop is another business that has a long history in Berkeley with members that have been part of the collective for many years. Bill Sparks, one of the old timers, has a quick answer to the question, ‘What’s so great about being in a collective?’ 

“It’s the boss thing, of course,” he said. “Because we’ve all worked for idiots. [This] affords us some freedoms that maybe you won’t get in the real world.”  

›

The Nabolom Bakery, Berkeley’s second oldest collective, will almost certainly shut its doors at the end of August, said Jim Burr, a member of the cooperative and former chief financial officer. 

Founded in 1976, the Elmwood District institution has been teetering on the brink of financial collapse for several years. Burr said Wednesday the building’s property manager, Carrie McCarthy, has had enough of unpaid rents. 

Earlier this month McCarthy notified the bakery by certified mail that she would file for eviction proceedings Sept. 1 if the bakery did not fully catch up on rent payments. Burr said that by Sept. 1 the bakery would be three-and-a-half months behind on rent. Monthly rent for the bakery is $3,886. 

Bakery finances have deteriorated to the extent that, this past week, for the first time, the cooperative doesn’t have money to pay its 14 full- and part-time workers, Burr said. Besides unpaid rent, the bakery also owes about $36,000 in unpaid payroll taxes and several thousand more to vendors. 

Burr said financial mismanagement plunged the bakery into the red about four years ago. A poorly trained former financial officer took over the operation, Burr said, and promptly incurred over $40,000 in debts from penalties on back taxes. Then the bakery lost its major wholesale account with Fellini’s, a restaurant on University Avenue. 

The bakery, located at 2708 Russell St., has scheduled a community meeting for Monday at 7 p.m. to discuss a possible bail-out. As a last ditch effort, Burr said the bakery would try to secure $50,000 from the public in pledges by Aug. 15. That would give the bakery two weeks to collect the money and pay off its debts. Customers who pledge the money would be reimbursed through food. 

“I don’t really know what kind of community support we have,” said Burr acknowledging that the plan was a longshot. “But without [the pledges] I can’t see us staying open.” 

Last year the bakery held several meetings aimed at reviving the faltering business. The bakery tried staying open later and serving pizza, but neither managed to draw more customers. 

Burr said that the cooperative was also open to selling the business to a private operator that could pay off the debts and operate the bakery.

http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Workì

GROVE MARKET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My name is Muhammad Elbgal and I am the son of Mr. Nasser Elbgal who owns Grove Market at 2948 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. I am writing to ask that your newspaper please make a correction in the next edition on two accounts.  

First in your article entitled “Arsenal Found in Adeline St. Apartment” you mention that the owner of Black and White Liquor store is also the owner of Grove Market. This is wrong: Mr. Banger (owner of Black and White) does not own Grove Market; he owns the building in which Grove Market is located. We at Grove Market do not deserve to be affiliated with what happened at the Black and White Liquor store, so please let your readers know that your paper has made a mistake.  

Secondly you quote former City Council candidate Laura Menard as saying that neighborhood activists have been trying to close Grove Market and that we are a problem store. This is also not the case. We have worked hard to maintain a good relationship with our community and we are not a problem store, as Ms. Menard has said.  

Also we are not located in North Berkeley; we are located in South Berkeley. So if Ms. Menard has made a mistake we ask that you inform her of this. We have had nothing but support from our neighbors and customers and it is wrong to say that we are a problem store if there is no evidence to back up that claim.  

Thank you for your time and we are hoping to see some action taken on this matter. 

Muhammad Elbgal 

• 

LEAVE GROVE OUT OF IT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to put in a good word for the Grove Market. I don’t think they have anything to do with what happened to the other store. And the bust of guns and drugs may not have anything to do with the store. 

Grove is two blocks away, and shouldn’t be associated with what happened in that apartment. The people who run Grove Market are just trying to make a living, and are a service to this community. I like going there more than having to hassle with Berkeley Bowl, which is expensive (I go to Canned Foods, much more economical) and is also a human beehive, though they make some good burritos. 

Seriously, I don’t think Grove Market should be threatened like that by “neighborhood activists” because of something that happened two blocks away and that had nothing to do with them.  

John Delmos 

• 

MARITAL STATUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My husband and I don’t always agree on political matters. 

While Ms. Taubenfeld is certainly entitled to her own opinion, I think it would have been ethical to point out when she wrote defending Albany City Councilmember Robert Lieber that she is married to him.  

She has written two recent letters. If she writes on a topic such as homeless kittens, I see no problem. 

If she writes again defending her husband’s point of view, I respectfully request that the Daily Planet mention her marital status. 

Marsha Skinner 

Albany 

• 

KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As one who has been associated with KPFA since its inception in 1949 as a member, supporter, volunteer programmer and producer, and member of the unpaid staff organization, I would like to make two observations about the station’s current state. 

It is not my experience that there has “always been a running battle between (paid) staff and the general manager.” I would invite listeners and reporters to ask the three general managers preceding the current one if they had problems with paid staff. Paid staff is hungry for a sensitive general manager, as the documented complaints against the current one would indicate. 

I would like those who speak of “entrenched paid staff” to consider what they are saying. They are talking about people whose career is radio, who have jobs at the station. Isn’t it better that we have a seasoned experienced staff that establishes continuity, that understands radio and is proud when they do exceptional work in it? I’d hate to go to a restaurant where the cook was changed every two months and the waiters were learning their job. 

I have utmost respect for the current paid staff at KPFA. I see them as serious, hard working professionals of integrity who produce outstanding radio under onerous conditions. 

Adam David Miller 

GROVE MARKET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My name is Muhammad Elbgal and I am the son of Mr. Nasser Elbgal who owns Grove Market at 2948 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. I am writing to ask that your newspaper please make a correction in the next edition on two accounts.  

First in your article entitled “Arsenal Found in Adeline St. Apartment” you mention that the owner of Black and White Liquor store is also the owner of Grove Market. This is wrong: Mr. Banger (owner of Black and White) does not own Grove Market; he owns the building in which Grove Market is located. We at Grove Market do not deserve to be affiliated with what happened at the Black and White Liquor store, so please let your readers know that your paper has made a mistake.  

Secondly you quote former City Council candidate Laura Menard as saying that neighborhood activists have been trying to close Grove Market and that we are a problem store. This is also not the case. We have worked hard to maintain a good relationship with our community and we are not a problem store, as Ms. Menard has said.  

Also we are not located in North Berkeley; we are located in South Berkeley. So if Ms. Menard has made a mistake we ask that you inform her of this. We have had nothing but support from our neighbors and customers and it is wrong to say that we are a problem store if there is no evidence to back up that claim.  

Thank you for your time and we are hoping to see some action taken on this matter. 

Muhammad Elbgal 

• 

LEAVE GROVE OUT OF IT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to put in a good word for the Grove Market. I don’t think they have anything to do with what happened to the other store. And the bust of guns and drugs may not have anything to do with the store. 

Grove is two blocks away, and shouldn’t be associated with what happened in that apartment. The people who run Grove Market are just trying to make a living, and are a service to this community. I like going there more than having to hassle with Berkeley Bowl, which is expensive (I go to Canned Foods, much more economical) and is also a human beehive, though they make some good burritos. 

Seriously, I don’t think Grove Market should be threatened like that by “neighborhood activists” because of something that happened two blocks away and that had nothing to do with them.  

John Delmos 

• 

MARITAL STATUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My husband and I don’t always agree on political matters. 

While Ms. Taubenfeld is certainly entitled to her own opinion, I think it would have been ethical to point out when she wrote defending Albany City Councilmember Robert Lieber that she is married to him.  

She has written two recent letters. If she writes on a topic such as homeless kittens, I see no problem. 

If she writes again defending her husband’s point of view, I respectfully request that the Daily Planet mention her marital status. 

Marsha Skinner 

Albany 

• 

KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As one who has been associated with KPFA since its inception in 1949 as a member, supporter, volunteer programmer and producer, and member of the unpaid staff organization, I would like to make two observations about the station’s current state. 

It is not my experience that there has “always been a running battle between (paid) staff and the general manager.” I would invite listeners and reporters to ask the three general managers preceding the current one if they had problems with paid staff. Paid staff is hungry for a sensitive general manager, as the documented complaints against the current one would indicate. 

I would like those who speak of “entrenched paid staff” to consider what they are saying. They are talking about people whose career is radio, who have jobs at the station. Isn’t it better that we have a seasoned experienced staff that establishes continuity, that understands radio and is proud when they do exceptional work in it? I’d hate to go to a restaurant where the cook was changed every two months and the waiters were learning their job. 

I have utmost respect for the current paid staff at KPFA. I see them as serious, hard working professionals of integrity who produce outstanding radio under onerous conditions. 

Adam David Miller 

• 

REALITY CHECK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I enjoyed my voyage through Tom Lord’s fantasy world (Commentary, Weekday edition, July 19-21). 

But, like many fantasists, his must also be subject to a reality check. 

So, I have a proposal for Mr. Lord: I will personally deliver to his home (or to a neutral setting), one month of the West Contra Costa Times. I recommend turning first to the editorial pages. Believe me, you will be shocked, shocked, at the viciousness of many letter writers, our very own red staters, at the name calling and blame heaped on the word “liberal.” This exercise should end once and for all the notion that progressives need apologize to anyone. 

And I will alternate for one month the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, so Mr. Lord can inform the readers of the Daily Planet where exactly these blue state papers show liberal tendencies, and encourage superiority toward red staters. 

And perhaps, after reading all of this, he might be clearer on the difference between “neocon” and “progressive.” 

Sandra Shamis 

Albany 

• 

TEEN LIBRARIANS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many patrons and many citizens of Berkeley have been writing and speaking to the Board of Library Trustees for seven months now with no satisfactory resolution of the issue of the involuntary and inappropriate transfer of the teen librarians from their respective branches to the main library, and I feel it is important to notify more citizens in Berkeley what is going on here. 

The Berkeley Public Library director has so inappropriately wished to execute her desire to initiate a teen program at the main library, and for several reasons in the past has failed, but now wishes to wreck what has been a marvelous program at the branches where the respective teen librarians have worked diligently for the last decade. 

Why wreck a good thing at the branches to begin what has failed before at the main library—and for the same reason as before: parking, business-like environment, and not teen-friendly to their needs as compared to the branches which have these attribute built in for many many years (if not decades)? Why wreck the entire Berkeley library system by rotating the teen librarians to promote a program that in its current design is flawed and poorly planned, and also does not have the support of the staff as it is currently planned?  

This dire mistake the library director has planned to move on in the near future is a farce. I am on the side of the teens and the teen librarians on this one, and strongly oppose the director in her actions. Should this plan move toward its completion, I will turn in my library card and urge everyone I know in Berkeley to do the same. 

Mark Bayless 

• 

ALBANY BULB 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Doesn’t anybody care that arch Zionazi Henry J. Kaiser dumped his Richmond factories of death and destruction into the bay creating what is now known as the Albany Bulb? Walk along the shoreline at low tide and check out the tons and tons of heavy industrial waste that was dumped as close and as cheaply as possible. 

If you’re really adventurous visit the interior; if you see any steel pipes coming out of the ground, get close and take a whiff. There is some real nasty stuff buried under there. No wonder the fish aren’t edible. 

Henry J. Kaiser Co. is responsible and should have to pay a big fine as well as clean it up. This is a good indicator of the character of the people who drafted over 10 million men to do their dirty work in Europe and Asia. More civilian workers died—58,000-plus—in World War II than all American casualties in Vietnam. Thank you Rosie, hope you enjoyed the good times with the Big Bands and all. 

Ronald Branch 

• 

POLICE BLOTTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Allow me to weigh in on the Brenneman problem. The first time I picked up a copy of the Daily Planet, I was amused by Brenneman’s take on small-time crime in Berkeley. But the more editions of the Planet I read, the more I appreciated your paper for its intensive and lucid covering of the day’s news—certainly not just ol’ Berzerkeley. The Planet is a serious piece of journalism. And in this context, Mr. Brenneman does come off a bit facile. Maybe some other publication—not the Planet. With no disrespect to Mr. Brenneman, 

Madeline Smith Moore 

Oakland 

• 

OAKLAND MAYOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Well, I haven’t been this jazzed in a long time. I have always known that Ignacio De La Fuente was a slime and could not even comprehend how we were going to have to suffer at least four years of him as mayor of Oakland. Yeah Ignacio, all of us homeowners still remember the Raider mess you left us saddled with, plus messing over a few unions on your way to get things done your way. 

So here comes a wonderful ethical solution, a petition to Ron Dellums to run for mayor of Oakland. An ethical honest man who I respect. Where the daylights are those petitions? I want to sign and I want it right now. A Google search was worthless on the subject so I am relying on you guys to point me in the right direction. My husband is cheering too as he gets nauseated when the subject of De La Fuente for mayor comes up. 

Carma Winfrey-Hayes 

Oakand 

• 

BROWER CENTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ah, I was somewhat sorry to see no “parking lobby” people at the special City Council meeting Monday July 25, as the council voted the go-ahead for the David Brower Center. 

If they had been there, they could have heard what was music to my ears, and perhaps believed it, because they had heard it. 

Nevertheless, I still heard:  

The second parking level would expose the city to much greater risk, because of the water table being too high at that depth, to much greater risk than the $6 million the second level of underground parking would already cost.  

As Councilmember Spring noted, that $6 million comes from the closed after-school centers, the collapsed city budget, and could be raised well enough by a downtown Business Improvement District fee.  

What perception? What reality? 

Claire Risley 

• 

BRUCE BOLT, 1930-2005 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The July 26 San Francisco Chronicle carried an extensive obituary for Bruce Bolt, the seismic scientist, recounting the contributions he made to our community, state, and nation. An important facet of his story concerns his interest in art. In his role as president of the Faculty Club on the Berkeley campus, he was instrumental in the establishment of a collection of art of the Berkeley School on permanent display in the Faculty Club of the University of California. The collection presents works in oil, fresco, watercolor, gouache, sumi, egg tempera, and charcoal of ten artists who were active in that school from 1930 to 1950, which had a great influence on the progress of art education locally and nationally. 

The development of the collection had its beginning in early 2003 when Bruce Bolt, knowing that I was a member of the art department, asked me what I might know about the large fresco on a wall of a dining room in the Faculty Club which was not attractive because a glaze of green color had be painted over it. I told him that I had seen the fresco when a student in the late 1930s and that the original colors were brilliant. No one knew why or when the green glaze had been applied; a guess was that it presented male and female figures in the nude and this was found offensive by some club members. Bruce asked me to make tests to determine if the glaze could be removed. Tests showed the glaze to be in distempera and could be removed. I had had experience in restoration procedures and, with two assistants, I removed the glaze and restored the fresco to its original, 1930, glory. 

This led Bruce to approve my suggestion that a collection of works by artists who were confreres of the painter of the fresco, Roy Boynton, be installed in the same room. The room today houses works by Eugene Neuhaus, Worth Ryder, who joined the faculty in 1927, and was largely responsible for the appointment of the other members of the school: John Haley, Margaret Peterson, Erle Loran, Chiura Obata, James McCray, Mary Dumas, and myself. 

Karl Kasten 

Professor Emeritus 

• 

RFID 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just finished with page nine of the July 26-28 Daily Planet, devoted to commentaries on the library’s use of RFIDs. Pretty much a complete waste of paper. How about doing an accurate, unbiased, information story on RFID? Before the Aug. 1 forum would be good. 

I think the library may have been sold a bill of goods when they got into an RFID-based system; there are some serious questions as to whether the RFID technology offers any real advantages to a public library. However, all I see about it in the Planet is the usual Berkeley-esque politico-babble about something that is, at bottom, a technical issue. And what the writers say about the technology itself seems to be ill-informed and poorly understood. 

The library went and bought a high-tech solution to a low-tech problem, and at this point should be looking for a way to cut its losses. The concerned citizens deserve some solid facts—wrangling about hypothetical problems just makes everyone involved ineffectual. So how about some real information for a change, Daily Planet? From somebody with some actual knowledge who doesn’t have to rely on “studies” (unidentified) which are “emerging” (someplace). Maybe somebody who has actually done and published a study? and/or someone who has actually implemented an RFID system and used it?  

More light, less heat. Act like a real newspaper. Are you up to it? 

David Coolidge 

• 

STORY IDEA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to Matthew Artz for an excellent article. 

Well, what else is new? Zionist money subverts City Council...yawn. 

What would make a great story is how a Zionist comes to own the trademark rights to a Mexican-Californio legend, rights which make him no doubt extremely wealthy, and provide him with the base from which he can carry out successfully these threats to get people. 

How about asking John Gertz about this? 

Mark Richey 

• 

CRIME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The point of Laura Menard’s July 26 letter, “Rose Colored Glasses,” was difficult for me to understand. She did make clear she is against, “thug life,” schools teaching about the Black Panthers and youth advocates speaking to high school students. 

She describes a youth advocate telling a “tale” of “utter nonsense,” in which black males experience discrimination and where something called three-strikes results in life imprisonment. She does not mention Proposition 21 and how that affects youth, or that black youth have a better chance of winding up in prison than in college.  

She would probably accuse me of telling nonsensical tales when I lament that as a society we continue to spend less on schools and more on prisons, almost dollar for dollar. Incredibly, those of us who see the discrimination and inherent racism still existing in our society she accuses of wearing rose colored glasses.  

The one thing she is in favor of—police dogs being used on our youth—she claims would be “moving Berkeley out of the tired 1960s rhetoric.” Some of us are aware of our history and have no desire to see attack dogs being paid for with our tax dollars. It is worth noting that despite the tragic shootings and real drug problems that exist in Berkeley, the violent crime rate is at something like a 10-year low. 

Further, programs that treat drug addiction, teach job skills to youth, and provide positive alternatives to teens, have continued to show more efficacy in reducing crime then incarceration. Is my wanting our city to treat these problems in an efficient way what she means by “the politics of blame”? I don’t know; what I do know is each time I read her statements on the problems and challenges our neighborhoods face and her proposed solutions, I am grateful she was not elected my neighborhood’s councilmember. 

Neil Doherty 

• 

CRIMINAL ACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the editor’s call for stricter gun control after the recent murder of the Dartmouth student, I urge your readers to think with their brains instead of relying on knee-jerk ideology. The young man that allegedly committed the murder already was carrying a handgun illegally. It was illegal that he fired his gun it into a group of people on a city street. He murdered a girl, which is illegal. He illegally left the scene of a crime. I doubt that his gun was legally purchased and registered. One more restrictive gun law would not have stopped him. He is not a law-abiding citizen.  

I am a law-abiding citizen. My gun is purchased legally and registered. I go to the shooting range to practice target shooting and to be familiar with my firearm. I take my daughter there so she will be skilled as well. I have lived with a gun in my home all my life. Guns do not jump up and kill people. A loaded gun could sit on my nightstand for 100 years and never commit a crime. Criminals commit crime. The real test for gun violence in the home is not whether there is a gun in the home, but whether or not there is a criminal in the home or you socialize with criminals. Enacting more restrictions (Berkeley already has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country) will not make anyone safer. Allow me, and all law abiding individuals, the freedom to own firearms to protect ourselves and truly prosecute severely those who commit crimes.  

If all homes had to place a sign in their window stating either “I am unarmed and won’t defend myself” or “I own a gun and I know how to use it,” statistically, whose house do you think will be robbed?  

Vicki Larrick 

• 

PREDATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read with interest Joe Eaton’s well-written and informative July 26 article entitled “Inescapable Predation: Part of Life in the Food Chain.” As the founder and president of the Hudson Valley Raptor Center in Stanfordville, New York, I share with Mr. Eaton his awe of nature. But it seems to me that Mr. Eaton has failed to mention that we “ern” humans are also predators. While we, for the most part, no longer scale trees to pull baby woodpeckers from their nests, we do drive to the supermarkets to pick up our preferably fresh killed quarry to bring home to our families. It is this lack of connection to life on the food chain that I, personally, believe fosters a sense of superiority amongst us humans in relation to other animals. Might I climb out on a limb here, for just an amusing second, to suggest that if martens, great horned owls and other so-called predators had supermarkets they certainly wouldn’t be above using them. And, on a more sober note, I would venture to say that it is competition for prey and not morality that drove our ancestors (and modern man as well) to their zero-tolerance policy for predators. 

Dona Tracy 

President, Hudson Valley  

Raptor Center 

Stanfordville, NY 

• 

TAXES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his July 26 letter, Mal Burnstein asserted, “We should be discussing which taxes do the job most fairly and successfully, not how to avoid taxes altogether as Fred seems to think we ought to do.” This was in response to my July 22 letter, in which I wrote that the concept of club dues “applies only to taxes on real estate, especially land.”  

As I wrote, land-based dues, such as the assessments paid by members of a condominium, are in direct exchange for services. For many reasons, dues based on land value are the best source of public finance. I would like Mal Burnstein to explain how my proposition—that a land tax is most like dues—logically implies his claim that I stated that we ought to “avoid taxes altogether.” 

As to the statement of Mr. Burnstein that “the poor should be protected from excessive property taxes as well,” how would a person who owns valuable real estate be poor? Moreover, a tax on land value cannot possibly be excessive, because the price of land would go down to make up for paying the tax. If all the land rent is taxed, the land value drops to zero, and what the landowner pays in taxes is offset by what he does not have to pay in mortgage interest. The net tax burden is zero. 

Fred Foldvary 

• 

STRAY BULLETS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

It was shocking to read of the enormous number of weapons, ammunition and explosives that were found only by accident by the Fire Department near the liquor store in Berkeley. And that machine guns were a part of this cache reported by the Daily Planet in the edition of July 22-25. I found it both interesting and disturbing that in this very same issue was a follow up account of the tragic shooting of Meleia Willis-Starbuck by her friend and letters (some hysterical) from members of the National Rifle Association advocating people owning guns. Where in the world and how did such an arsenal including machine guns get into Berkeley ? If this bizarre collection of guns and ammunition was only found by accident one wonders how many other such collections exist in the Bay Area and how many will be used. 

Max Macks 

• 

SWIMMING POOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a (now senior) swimmer for over 20 years at King and other Berkeley pools, I am dismayed by the threats of pool closures year after year. It appears that a significant factor in these pool closures is BUSD’s failure and refusal to contribute any funds for pool maintenance. The school district cries poor, but it is obviously maintaining a brand new pool it just built at the high school, from which we community swimmers and the students of King and Willard have been excluded. 

I am even more dismayed that BUSD feels the aquatics programs are expendable for middle school students. Swimming is an essential life skill for physical and mental health which all children should have the opportunity to learn long before they reach high school. Where do championship swim teams come from, if not from the middle schools? Not to mention swimming as a healthy alternative to video games, substance abuse and the growing incidence of tragic violence we are witnessing among young people right here in Berkeley. 

When I was a kid, neither my community nor my school district could afford to build a pool, let alone staff and maintain it. Only when the local college opened its pool in the summer did I discover that swimming cured my chronic depression. I was suddenly motivated to get to the pool by 8 a.m. and have been swimming happily ever since!  

That the Berkeley Unified School District has existing pools and thinks nothing of building a new one, but places bureaucratic wrangling over the needs of its middle school students is shameful! Although my children have long since graduated from Berkeley Schools, I still pay taxes and want them used wisely. According to the City of Berkeley Parks and Recreation Commission, the cost of a 10-week session at King Pool is $36,000. Surely the BUSD can come up with this paltry small sum to keep kids swimming for even one semester out of the year. In the process, this will serve the entire community and help keep the pools open. A pretty good bargain for the money! The city and community are eager to work with the BUSD to solve this problem. For BUSD to do otherwise is short-sighted and mean-spirited. 

Paula Wagner 

• 

IMPOSSIBLE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How come the Daily Planet includes gender information when describing assailants in the Police Blotter? Doing so gives readers the fanciful impression that nearly all violent crimes are committed by males—a statistical impossibility since more than half the population is female. 

P. Wooton 

• 

PARKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Spruce Street below Rose has been designated as a residential street by the city. The Residential Traffic Calming Program developed by the Planning Department has developed a policy of directing traffic away from residential streets and onto collector and arterial streets. The Beth El Temple does not address this issue in its plan. Their traffic plan does not discourage traffic from entering our neighborhood street and, in fact, Beth El has applied for “G” parking permits (Spruce Street south of Rose) when it is located in the “H” parking area.  

It is good that Beth El has been able to secure satellite parking, but Beth El can do better. They can use on-site, frontage and assigned satellite parking as a first option. Neighborhood parking should be a last resort. The temple can also rescind its application for “G” parking permits. This more effective parking plan would add less traffic to the neighborhood.  

A more effective parking plan would provide “assigned” parking to all congregants based on where they live relative to the temple. For every event, invitations should include parking instructions with indications of assigned satellite parking. For example, if a family lives north of the temple, then it will be told to use Lot B, Lot C or Lot D, whichever is closer to its residence. If another family needs parking in closer proximity, because of disabilities, seniority or some other extenuating circumstance, then it will be assigned parking either on-site or on the frontage. Beth El’s plan calls for someone located on-site at the temple to direct parking on the day of the event. This will lead to unnecessary circling of the neighborhood streets and unwarranted traffic, as vehicles pass by for instruction. Instead of a single monitor, they should also have monitors at the satellite parking sites. Congregants should drive directly to their assigned lot, if that lot is full, then the monitors can direct them to alternative lots.  

I hope the city enforces its policy to protect residential streets and requires Beth El to provide a plan as stated above. Beth El should do this because it has built, against the neighborhood’s wishes, a huge regional temple with the possibility of drawing 800 congregants from throughout the Bay Area to our neighborhood.  

Linda Trujillo Bargmeyer 

?

CITY ADVERTISING DOLLARS 

To Mayor Tom Bates:  

I just read Marty Schiffenbauer’s letter to the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

According to him, he stated that the city of Berkeley no longer supplies the paper with city public notices or advertises in it.  

Inste ad, you place ads in the East Bay Daily News. I just picked up that paper and it’s an ordinary newspaper—really doesn’t do much local coverage in depth. 

I’ve been reading the Berkeley Daily Planet for several months now, and I find it to be the best loca l newspaper I’ve ever read. I’m not surprised they recently won publishing awards. 

I was brought up in Berkeley in the ‘50s, and we had the Berkeley Gazette, which was a typical local newspaper. Adequate, but not great. 

I have published an international trade magazine for 18 years (I sold it last year), so that helps me in recognizing excellence in publishing. 

I also know how much work and dedication to produce the type of quality and in-depth local coverage that the Daily Planet provides. 

They are a great asset to our community. Providing and inspiring democracy in action on a local scale. 

So I wanted to double check to see if the city has withdrawn its support of the Daily Planet or not, etc., and then I’ll continue with this dialogue. 

Please ackn owledge receiving this e-mail, and, if necessary, forward it to the right people, if it’s something you can’t respond to yourself. 

Richard Fabry 

Dear Mayor Bates, City Councilmembers, and City Manager Kamlarz: 

We are homeowners in Berkeley’s District 6 and previously owned a home in District 5. 

We understand that the City of Berkeley has decided to pull it’s advertising and public notices from the Berkeley Daily Planet in favor of the East Bay Daily News. 

Both of us find this decision very troubling for a couple of reasons. First, we read the Berkeley Daily Planet twice a week—as do all our neighbors. We had never heard of the East Bay Daily News until we heard of the city’s recent decision. We do not know where to get it, nor do we wish to go out of our way to find city information since we have come to rely on the Planet. The city’s decision makes it more difficult for us and everyone we know to access important information about our community. 

Second, the Berkeley is a locally owned and run busin ess, while the East Bay Daily News is owned by media giant Knight-Ridder. We are troubled that the city—to which we pay huge taxes—has decided to use our tax dollars to support a large corporation rather than a local entity. 

As Berkeley taxpayers who nee d local information, we respectfully ask you to change your decision. 

Charles Press and Debra Sabah Press 



Just before my daughter and I enter Berkeley High School’s gymnasium for Meleia’s memorial service, I see her mother, Kimberly, encircled by loving arms, red-eyed sorrow and whispered words of comfort. Our daughters, although three years apart, attended Park Day School together and my daughter looked up to Meleia like a big sister. Meleia always greeted her with hugs and praise. 

My daughter loved her. I wait and breathe, trying to keep my tears in check until I stand before Kimberly, dazed and helpless. We embrace and exchange expressions of utter sorrow. “I lost my firstborn, too,” I say. 

Kimberly looks startled. She didn’t know that. We shake our heads, acknowledging that particular kind of grief. “Just let everybody hold you up,” I advise. She nods vigorously, then laughs. “With all these people here, I had to come and be a part of this. If I hadn’t, Meleia would’ve kicked my butt!” We laugh again and she goes on to the next set of waiting arms. 

When I first heard about the shooting and saw Meleia’s soft-featured face, warm and welcoming, on the front pages of several newspapers, I said to myself; “Whose child is this? Who are her parents? I know this child.” 

I hadn’t seen Meleia in years and didn’t recognize her all grown up. My second thought was; “Oh my God. This could be my daughter. This could happen to her.” And my heart filled with sadness and fear. 

I know what it’s like to lose a child. My firstborn, Arianne, died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome when she was three months old. Just as the birth of my precious new baby taught me the full meaning of unconditional love, her unexpected death taught me the meaning of true suffering and overwhelming grief. I know of no greater loss. 

At the service, Kimberly described her reaction upon first hea ring of her “baby girl’s” death: “I ran around the house screaming ‘Oh my God! What am I going to do? How am I going to live?’” When she calmed, she knew she had to return to Berkeley (from Georgia) to be with the multitude of friends, teachers and commun ity members who had come to know and love Meleia so very much. Several of these friends spoke at the service about carrying on Meleia’s social justice work and everyone was moved by her young brother’s plea for a “gun-free future.” The mood, while painful, was decidedly upbeat, a true celebration of Meleia’s life.  

But, I have to pause. Perhaps I am not as evolved as those who are now focused solely on healing the community because underneath all of the sorrow, I am angry. 

Meleia was shot and killed whi le she was taking the time to try to explain to a group of young men—some of whom were reported to be Cal football players—why it was inappropriate and disrespectful to call her and her friends “bitches” for having refused their advances. Not one of the supposed UC Berkeley students has come forward to acknowledge his role in this tragedy or to express any regret for the verbal abuse that preceded the shooting. If in fact these were Cal students, perhaps UC’s Athletic Department can pay tribute to Meleia’s memory by sponsoring a seminar on gender issues which would include discussion on the notion of entitlement. 

I have always disliked the word “bitch” and have likened it to a racist’s use of the word “nigger.” I find it demeaning and crude. I’ve been told by some young people, my own daughter included, that these words do not carry the same weight they used to and that they have the power to redefine these words, to free them from negativity. That may be so, but I still cringe at the current casualness of their use, whether in music videos, among friends or enemies. Apparently, Meleia and her friends cringed, too. 

The behavior demonstrated by the young men who were simply looking for some females to party with is nothing new. When I was their age, thir ty years ago, my friends and I were also called bitches or at minimum labeled “stuck-up” if we failed to deliver the demanded digits, names, addresses or company. A simple “no, thank you” or “not interested” was rarely sufficient. 

It’s not news that ther e are cultures all across the globe in which men believe that they are entitled to whatever they want to take from women and that they are justified in denying women equal rights. During the few minutes it takes to read this column, thousands of women all over the world are being assaulted, raped and murdered for refusing to say yes, for trying to say no or simply for being born female and physically weaker than their attackers. At the risk of being termed a “male-basher” I must say that the numbers don’t lie—even the statistics supplied by the U.S. Department of Justice are horrifying. And far from bashing males, I am trying my best to raise a healthy one. My son is kind, courteous, empathetic and fair-minded and I hope he stays that way. 

Perhaps as a p arent who has lost a child I have yet to overcome my need to find someone, something to blame. Parents like me often ask; “What could I have done differently? If only I hadn’t let her go to that party, or that school, or get in that car. If only I had pic ked her up when she cried.” We start with ourselves, then move on.  

Doctors, hospitals, society, culture, racism, ignorance, guns, God or the perceived lack of one—the list goes on. Finally, we realize that there are some questions that have no answers a nd there are many occurrences in life we have no control over. 

Although it seems that Meleia would be the last person who would choose to resolve a conflict with violence, it tragically appears that she was killed by a close friend who mistakenly thought he was coming to her rescue, gun in hand. Nonetheless, I believe that Meleia would forgive her shooter. And her family has requested that we focus not on blame but on healing. 

Meleia Willis-Starbuck was not a color or a race, a political label or a “bit ch.” Meleia was a warm-hearted, courageous, intelligent, beautiful young woman who had touched many lives and was dedicated to improving the lives of many more. Perhaps if I can try harder to let go of my anger and my need to place blame, you can try to d o the same. For Meleia.  

›t

We may never know for certain what Meleia Willis-Starbuck said to the two Chris’s—her friends Chris Hollis and Chris Wilson—to get them to drive out to College Avenue on the tragic night that Ms. Willis-Starbuck was shot and killed. The case has already entered into the realm of our judicial system, which may be concerned with exacting justice but is not always equipped to discover truth, not feeling the one is necessarily dependent upon the other. 

But if the various media accounts are believable—and being a working journalist, I am always skeptical of media accounts, my friends—then one of the basic facts of the Willis-Starbuck tragedy is that Ms. Willis-Starbuck said something on the telephone that caused Mr. Hollis and Mr. Wilson to believe that they needed to come to her assistance against a crowd of young men, and that—at least so far as the 21-year-old Mr. Hollis was concerned—a gun was needed as well. 

In the days immediately after Ms. Willis-Starbuck’s death, the Daily Planet’s letters to the editor pages were filled with (I assume) well-intentioned citizens who had already decided how the shooting happened, and who was to blame. 

Michael Hardesty called the shooter a “punk.” Eileen M. Mello labeled it “a misogynist hate crime.” And Mr. Gerry O’Brien painted with a broader brush, writing that “I shall never stop scrutinizing young men in the College Avenue environs … until that day … when the Berkeley Police Department apprehends the shooter and brings him before the court to answer for his conduct.” Presumably the type of young men whom Ms. Willis-Starbuck was reportedly arguing with shortly before the shooting, though Mr. O’Brien was, perhaps deliberately, vague on exactly who that means he would be scrutinizing. 

All of these letters were written within a day or two of the shooting, when people believed that the shooting had been done by the men on the street with whom Ms. Willis-Starbuck was having an argument, before media revealed that one of her close friends was accused of doing the shooting, that he may have done it while coming to her defense, and that she may have placed the call to bring him to the spot. But it is often in these first moments of a tragedy, before many of the facts are determined, that we blurt out unguarded thoughts, and we get an inkling into our true thinking. 

The need in humans to assign blame to tragedy is both powerful and understandable, because it allows us to neatly pack away in a safe closet of understanding what otherwise appears unbearable. But saying something is understandable does not mean it is necessarily right. 

And what seems understanding may actually be misunderstanding, once the actual facts begin to surface. One is reminded of the story—I have told it before, in columns—of the Texas woman who expressed surprise when learning that the suspect arrested in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City turned out to be a white American Gulf War veteran Christian American patriot terrorist, and not an Arab Muslim terrorist, as had been widely expected. “Now I don’t know who to hate,” she said, one assumes quite honestly. 

And so, now that it is less easy to hate Ms. Willis-Starbuck’s shooter (hate the sin, but not the sinner, I can hear one of my old ministers saying), what you hear more than anything is people calling the shooting “senseless.” 

But that would be a mistake, too. There is little that is senseless in human society. Mostly there are things which we have not yet figured out a way to make sense of. Or, perhaps, we don’t want to make sense of, because we worry about the implications. 

But let us try to figure, while the tragedy is fresh in our minds, and we have not yet moved on to other concerns. 

What is it that would have caused Mr. Hollis to carry a gun with him on the drive out to College Avenue that night, and to allegedly discharge it—as Berkeley police now say—into a crowd standing on the street? We don’t know because we can’t read Mr. Hollis’ mind, and he has not yet surfaced to give his side of the story. 

But we have some possible clues. We do know that the East Bay is an incredibly—almost unbelievably—violent place, particularly for young African-American men, such as Mr. Hollis. For those of us who are either too old or live far removed from the epicenters, it is difficult to understand the effect this violence and threat of violence is having on the young people most at risk. We see it in statistics and television reports—eight murders in Richmond in a two week-period, 41 murders in Oakland since the beginning of the year—but rarely from the point of view of those who are most likely to have seen a shooting, or know someone who has been shot, or be shot themselves. How does it affect their thinking? How does it affect their lives? 

Last February, 49-year-old Patrick McCullough shot and wounded 16-year-old Melvin McHenry following an argument in front of Mr. McCullough’s 59th Street home. The two men give different stories about the nature of the argument, and what Mr. McHenry was doing in front of Mr. McCullough’s house before the argument began. Mr. McCullough had previously been active in trying to clean up drug trafficking on his block, and because of it, he had received threats from alleged drug dealers. And so even though the 16-year-old Mr. McHenry had not been accused of drug dealing, and was not suspected in making the threats against Mr. McCullough, both Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Oakland Police Lt. Lawrence Green, who oversees patrols in the North Oakland neighborhood where the shooting took place, came out in the shooter’s defense even before police completed their investigation of the case. Lt. Green, in fact, circulated a petition urging the Alameda County District Attorney not to charge Mr. McCullough in the shooting. 

“Realistically, given the threats [McCullough has] had, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to carry a weapon,” Lt. Green told the Daily Planet reporter. 

But if it is realistic—according to an Oakland police lieutenant—for a 49-year-old Oakland citizen to carry a weapon because he fears for his life and that of his family, why is it not equally as reasonable to expect Chris Hollis to carry a weapon as well, knowing the fear he might face as a 21-year-old African-American man simply trying to survive on the East Bay’s streets? 

Am I suggesting that either shooting-that of the 16-year-old Melvin McHenry or the 19-year-old Meleia Willis-Starbuck was acceptable, or even comparable? Absolutely not. 

But it’s a reasonable question to ask—why young African-American men feel that at times they must protect themselves and their friends with guns—because the answer might give us a clue as to how we might intervene to stop the East Bay street violence that is cycling, cycling out of control. 

›

Dirty Harry? 

In a scene that might’ve come right out of Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” flick The Dead Pool, a distraught motorist called Berkeley police just after noon Tuesday to report that he’d just been threatened by a fellow armed with a harpoon gun. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Joe Okies said the call reporting the event from a gas station in the 2700 block of Seventh Street, which apparently occurred as part of a road rage incident. 

The motorist said the harpoon-brandisher was a male about 40 years old wearing a maroon shirt, maroon shorts and driving a maroon Pathfinder. 

Extreme Heist II 

In its second robbery in two weeks, workers at Extreme Pizza, at 2352 Shattuck Ave., were threatened by a man intent on making off with the dough. 

Unlike the last incident, where a gunman tapped the till, Sunday’s bandit professed to be packing a blade and made off not with the store receipts but with the employees’ own tip jar. 

Fortunately for the workers, Berkeley police arrived moments later, in time to arrest the 51-year-old bandit with goods in hand. 

Taggers busy 

Armed with felt pens and spray paint, taggers struck at least twice around the Berkeley area Monday evening. 

The first report came in a 7:13 p.m. after someone spotted the telltale paint on a piece of city property in the 2100 block of Wheeler Street. 

The next report—of ink marker tagging at Codornices Park—followed 37 minutes later. 

Bizarre brandishing 

A father called police shortly after noon Tuesday to report a terrifying experience that had happened a few minutes earlier in the 2900 block of 7th Street as he was walking his children to school. 

The man said a fellow in a four-door beige American car stopped for no reason, pulled a knife and charged after him and his children. 

Then, for an equally mysterious reason, the knife-wielder abandoned the chase and drove away. 

Beats, robs 

A bandit slugged a 15-year-old Berkeley youth in the head in the 1600 block of Channing Way just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday and robbed him of his cash and an MP3 player, said Officer Okies.

It’s interesting how the English language has been altered and rearranged to obscure the truth. When we don’t like the way something sounds and believe it to be too clear an expression of reality we just change the words and assume it also changes realit y. 

Take “faith based initiative” for instance. Please. 

You couldn’t very well call it “formation of state religion.” 

We are, after all, a nation settled by people who wanted to escape the religious intolerance of Europe so they could establish their ow n religious intolerance here. When it became clear that everybody imposing their own brand of intolerance within a certain area wasn’t going to make a very cohesive country, those early settlers struck upon the novel concept of keeping government separate from religion. 

Under this approach a Baptist could run for mayor in a town populated mostly by Methodists and win because (most) voters judged candidates based on their policies, not their religion. Sure, a Catholic still couldn’t get elected, but why would they be running for office outside of Boston anyhow? 

Eventually religious affiliation became virtually irrelevant to most voters and anybody (who was white) could be elected. 

As a predominantly Christian nation we rolled along for a years and mana ged to survive even after abolishing slavery. 

Then, during the middle of the last century, we watched other predominantly Christian nations give rise to one compassionate and considerate leader after another: Franco (Spain), Mussolini (Italy), Hitler (G ermany), Stalin (Russia). 

It’s taken us a bit longer, but we’re finally on the road to such bold and imaginative leadership right here. 

All that stands in the way is that last, quaint, idea of separation between religion and government. You see, you can’t have a really effective government leadership unless you’ve got a populace whose fervor is elevated to the boiling point; and there’s no better way to reach that boiling point than by infusing religion into politics. 

Whipping up public sentiment by bl aming others for every perceived wrong helps of course. A catchy phrase is handy as well. Leibenstraum has worked in the past, but most American houses already have living rooms, so that won’t do. Unions aren’t exactly catching fire right now so don’t exp ect some gibberish about ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ to work here.  

Nope, good old fashioned religious fervor is the ingredient that’s finally going to get America the kind of leadership that makes history. 

That little term, ‘faith based initiati ve’ is a subtle start.  

First we funnel tax money to religious schools. It’s worked well in Afghanistan in Syria and in Saudi Arabia and it can certainly work here. We ‘educate’ an entire generation to ignore science, ignore facts and concentrate instead on religion. The right Religion. The Religious Right. Pretty soon all that’s left is the Right. 

Stamp out alternative viewpoints. Scoff at the very concept of a free press, limit news media access to the facts, limit Congressional access to the facts, intimidate those who object. Create ‘camps’ to house enemies of the state. Devise means to detect such enemies wherever they live. Looking at library records could help. Clearly, only dangerous people read. Everything that safe people need to know will be fed to them through the anointed television network. 

Yep, we’re on the road all right. And there are only two alternatives for you: either lay down and let the machine roll over you on that road or .... Well, I’m sure there must be another alternative but I just can’t think of it right now. 

But remember, the September 11 missions were ‘faith based initiatives’ as well. So perhaps that other alternative has something to do with reigning in fanatics of every persuasion. 

Neil Cook is a Berkeley reside nt. 

r

How appropriate that Richard Brenneman’s article “Brower Sculpture Decision Could Come Monday” appeared next to the “Corrections” box! As if the innuendo and lack of objectivity of the article weren’t bad enough, the misinformation and errors delivered in faux 19th century voice are characteristic of the writer’s careless diction and inaccuracy in reporting. Unless they were promised anonymity, it would be instructive to know the sources of Brenneman’s coverage, which is an embarrassment to the Berkeley Daily Planet, and a disservice to its’ readers. 

Who is the chair of the Civic Arts Commission? It is not the individual whom the reporter named. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to accept the Brower Monument. There is no representation of David Brower associated with the sculpture, neither on it, nor adjacent to it. The name of the sculpture is not “Spaceship Earth.” The university was not asked to site the sculpture. Tilden Park and Lawrence Hall of Science were eliminated early on as possibilities, and were not on the final list of 30 potential sites. The Brower Center was not considered an appropriate site for the piece. From what sector came the “considerable opposition” to Berkeley’s accepting the Eino piece? 

The article suggests that the Civic Arts Commission has been inept and unfair in its processes. The site selection committee included, among others, members from the Waterfront Commission, the Recreation and Parks Department, the city manager’s office, and members of the Maxwell family, as well as members of the Civic Arts Commission. On what basis does the author assert that the sculpture has had “at best a lukewarm response in the community?” The purpose of the Sunday, July 22, meeting was to get community feedback on the sculpture and the potential site. If the community rejected the sculpture, two other sites were under consideration. The article neglects to mention this. 

The Brower article was mild in its obvious bias, compared to past trashing of the Civic Art Commission. Particularly lacking in objectivity has been the coverage of the “Here/There” public art sculpture. Whatever the staff of the Planet and its supporters may think of the piece, as in the case of the siting for the Brower monument, the selection process for “Here/There” was fair.  

An editorial cartoon suggested that the selection panel for “Here/There” was middle-aged, white, middle-class and not from the community. In fact, if your staff had observed the most basic rules of reporting, they would have discovered that there were three African Americans on the selection panel, two of whom are distinguished artists with international reputations and all of them residents of Berkeley. They were: Mildred Howard, Dewey Crumpler and Barbara Coleman. Ms. Howard, an artist with a prestigious record, is a life-long resident of the neighborhood where the sculpture is located and another panelist, Brenda Prager, a member of the Civic Arts Commission, died in her home two blocks from the the site of the “Here/There” installation in 2003. Both of them strongly supported accepting the piece. The Planet’s negative coverage of the “Here/There” installation was gratuitous and patronizing to the residents of South Berkeley/North Oakland, who are more sophisticated than critics of the piece. Unlike the critics, they understand post-modernism and have a sense of humor. 

Visual arts coverage in the Planet is infrequent and often inaccurate, a tradition one hopes will be corrected before Berkeley’s vibrant visual arts community dies of neglect or goes elsewhere. 

Robbin Henderson is director of the Berkeley Art Center.

I agree that the business of the Peace and Justice Commission should be to promote world peace. But this mission was sadly perverted when the commission began to pass one-side resolutions concerning the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The divestiture resolution was their first attempt. Cynically, as the Daily Planet points out, that resolution called for a boycott of both Israel and Palestine. However, on the day it came before the City Council, hundreds of pro-Palestinians turned out to urge its passage. They and everyone else involved knew that, whereas Palestine exports virtually nothing to the U.S. (except perhaps, jihad), tiny Israel has more companies listed on NASDQ than any other, except the U.S. itself. Enactment of this resolution might, for example, have led to Berkeley shutting itself down, since, most computers contain chips designed or manufactured in Israel. The old Peace and Justice Commission was quick to jump on Israel, but passed not one resolution condemning suicide bombing, Darfur, Wahhabism, Arab mistreatment of women and gays, or Palestinian cleptocracy. The old Peace and Justice Commission was setting Berkeley’s citizens against one another by condemning one side, and one side alone. I have spoken with some of the commission’s newer members, and agree that some of them are unlikely to support anti-Israel resolutions. But, very importantly, neither are they inclined to put forth pro-Israel or anti-Palestinian resolutions. I can’t speak for them, but my sense is that, consistent with the principles of the Peace and Justice Commission, they are waging a peace campaign--they want peace to return to Berkeley on this issue. 

The Daily Planet seems to imply that I am somehow pulling all the strings behind the scenes. Not so. Citizen outrage against the old Peace and Justice Commission is widespread. For example, the Daily Planet incorrectly wrote that I lobbied school board members to appoint Peace and Justice Commission members who would oppose anti-Israel resolutions. I have never communicated in any way with any member of the school board. I have lobbied three City Council members, but that’s it, and that, of course, is my right as a citizen. I am certain the anti-Israel camp in Berkeley does the same, and that is their right. The Daily Planet is also wrong when it calls me a “local player in Democratic politics.” I am not. I often speak with members of congress, but, although I am a registered Democrat, I talk with members on both sides of the aisle because the issues which concern me are bi-partisan. 

The Daily Planet quotes me as saying that were Maio to run for mayor she would “go down” to defeat. The Planet continues “[Gertz] didn’t specify how he would ensure [her] defeat. (I pointedly leave Worthington out of this, because his record is complicated.) Well, the reporter didn’t ask. I am happy to specify here by way of fair warning to the would be candidate. In my view, Maio can either pass mindless one-sided anti-Israel resolutions or be mayor of all Berkeleyans. She cannot do both. 

Maio has admitted in the pages of the Daily Planet that her vote on Corrie was a mistake. Yet she has steadfastly refused to fix that mistake, by simply reversing that bad resolution. She was the swing vote, and she could change the outcome if she chooses. Bad legislation is routinely rescinded at every level of government. Apparently, Maio wants it both ways. She wants to play the role of “useful idiot” to Berkeley’s fringe jihadists, while pandering to the rest of us. For this she is doubly damned. The political wisdom of her position escapes me. Surely, Maio must realize by now that her Corrie vote will be one of the key issues in her mayoral campaign. I predict that her anti-Israel record will bring a lot of cash and a lot of volunteers to the cause of her more moderate opponent. Can’t she imagine the literature that will surely be mailed to Berkeley voters showing her picture right next to that now famous picture of Corrie’s contorted face burning the American flag in front of Palestinian school children (printed in USA Today and Mother Jones)? Does she think that only Berkeley’s Jewish community (roughly 25 percent of voters) will care about this? Even voters with no particular opinion about the Middle East will surely think twice about electing a mayor who prefers to delve into foreign policy matters which so clearly polarize Berkeleyans, rather than one who will largely stick to city business, and delve into foreign policy only when there is a clear Berkeley consensus.  

The past few weeks have yet again shone the spotlight on President Bush’s chief political advisor, Karl Rove. It turns out that “Turd Blossom,” as the president so affectionately calls him, allegedly leaked the covert identity of an active CIA agent to strike back at her husband, Joseph Wilson, a political opponent of the administration while they were cooking intelligence to trick Americans into invading Iraq. While lawyers bandy questions back and forth over whether Rove actually broke the law, and operatives from both sides prepare to protect or decimate America’s most powerful political aide, we should remember that this isn’t the first time Rove got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. 

Rove rose through the ranks of Republican operatives showcasing his brutality and willingness to “go all the way” for a candidate, to do what others did not have the stomach to do. In 2000 during the South Carolina Republican primary, Rove orchestrated the whisper campaign against John McCain that he had an illegitimate black child and was likely insane from his time in a North Vietnamese POW camp. Also, Rove likely had a hand in the 2004 version of the whisper campaign, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Though never directly linked to the group, Texan Home Developer Bob Perry donated the initial funds to the Swiftees as well as to George Bush’s campaign for President and their first media consultant, Merrie Spaeth, is Rove’s close associate. These are the more public examples of Rove’s brutality. The lesser known examples are even more appalling.  

To really understand Rove’s willingness to go to the edge of legality, and sometimes beyond, for a candidate, look at the Texas gubernatorial election of 1986. According to analysts, the even race between former governor and oilman Bill Clements (R) and the younger incumbent Mark White (D) would have to be decided at the upcoming debate, where White was expected to dominate Clements. Just before the debate, Rove called a Press Conference to announce that a bugging device had been discovered in the campaign offices. Rove would say to reporters, “There is no doubt in my mind that the only ones who would benefit from this detailed, sensitive information would be the political opposition.” FBI memos and records from the initial police investigation pointed the finger at Rove, who had hired the same firm to plant and discover the device. The tactic worked; Rove’s accusation stayed on the front pages of the states’ dailies until a week before election day and Clements won with 56 percent of the vote. Then, incredibly, the lawsuit against the Clements campaign was round-filed in the Reagan Justice Department. Rove possesses the crucial talent of a dirty trickster; he breaks the law and gets away with it, even after the facts come out. 

In 1980, the Alabama Court were packed with entrenched Democratic judges and Rove was hired to turn the court Republican. Rove handpicked, advised and got elected an entire bench full of Republicans, all along the way brutally stamping out the political opposition. In one indicative move for a seat on the bench, Rove drove up the negatives of the well-respected sitting Democratic Judge Mark Kennedy by circulating rumors that Kennedy was a child molester. It didn’t phase Rove that Kennedy was well-known in the state for his work on behalf of abused children: Kennedy had served with the Children’s Trust Fund of Alabama, founded the Corporate Foundation for Children and at the time of the whisper campaign, he held the position of president in the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect. He convinced a number of students and professors at the University of Alabama law school that his opponent was a pedophile and these transmitters promptly relayed the message. According to a former Rove staffer, "It was our standard practice to use the university…to disseminate whisper-campaign information...The students at the law school are from all over the state, and that’s one of the ways that Karl got the information out—he knew the law students would take it back to their home towns and it would get out." Over a couple of weeks, the tactic worked; allegations of Kennedy abusing children were everywhere. Though he won the race, Kennedy refused to run for reelection to spare his family the hardship.  

In each of these scandals, Rove comes out on top. He changes the subject or the public gets bored. Now Rove is at the center of another political scandal. And he won’t go down without a fight.  

I

It has been about five years since I had my problems with Walgreens and its pharmacy in Cathedral City, Ca. I felt that was a serious matter—so serious that the California Board of Pharmacies got involved and Walgreens was fined. I’ve moved on since then and recently came up to Berkeley.  

Wondering how long could hold a grudge, I decided I would patronize Walgreens once again. 

Hearing about the Berkeley Bowl, a large food emporium, remindful of Zabar’s and Dean & DeLucca’s, I decided I would shop at both Walgreens and the Berkeley Bowl which are adjacent to each other separated by their parking lots. It is very confusing entering the parking lots trying to figure out whose is whose. The parking problem in Berkeley is about as bad as downtown New York City. After circling the block a couple of times trying to figure how to enter the parking lot, I entered Walgreens lot. Big signs blared: “WALGREENS SHOPPERS ONLY, $60 FINE IF YOU CROSS THE STREET.” 

Stupidly (remember, I spent the last 15 years in Southern California and my brain has atrophied) I figured, “No problem, since I will shop the Berkeley Bowl and then Walgreens. Big mistake. I shopped at the Berkeley Bowl and with my brown shopping bag walked back to Walgreens, and spending an equal amount of time in Walgreens. I noticed that although the parking lot was three-quarters full, Walgreens’ store was nearly empty. Walking out of Walgreens to my car holding both the Berkeley Bowl shopping bag and the Walgreens shopping bag, my car had a boot on it and a warning sign, “Do Not Move This Vehicle” scotched taped to the side window and an attendant tapping her toes awaiting my arrival. “Sixty dollars, please, and I’ll remove the boot,” said Ana, who works for American Parking and Patrol, Inc. “What? I just came from shopping in Walgreens.” “But you crossed the street. If you entered Walgreens first and then crossed the street to the Berkeley Bowl, you would not be fined,” added Ana. 

After protesting, Ana agreed to lower my fine to $40 dollars. I insisted on calling her supervisor whose toll-free 24 hour line had a machine answering it. No luck there. 

I thought to myself, “Am I in the middle of a Monopoly game? Did I pick the “Chance” card that read, “Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200?” 

Still feeling outraged, I marched back into Walgreens to speak to the manager, Ms. Fields. She reiterated that if only I walked into Walgreens first and then the Berkeley Bowl, I would have avoided being fined. But, she continued, she was willing to reduce my fine to $30 and have the boot removed from my car wheel if I paid that. She explained that the Berkeley Bowl wasn’t willing to do anything about the parking problem, so Walgreens had to take this drastic step because its patrons weren’t able to find parking. I again looked around the store and it was nearly empty. I guess most Berkeley Bowl patrons learned the rules of the game: Don’t cross the street, without going into Walgreens first. I told Ms. Fields that if this is an example of Walgreens’ great customer service, the cure they’ve chosen for their parking problem is worse than the disease and that I am one customer who shall not return. Ms. Fields then told me if that was the case and if I was intending not to return to Walgreens, she would not reduce my fine to $30 and it would remain $60. At that point I decided to pay the $30 fine and have the boot removed from my car.  

As I drove away $30 poorer, I decided not to get angry but to get even. Then I decided, no, Walgreens has good sales, it’s been around a long time, and it used to have a good reputation. It is growing by 450 stores a year. If their corporate heads are not aware of what is happening at their stores, let’s get their attention. Let’s try to keep Walgreens customer friendly. The only way I know they will listen is when their profits are affected. 

I sent an e-mail last month to Walgreens’ president, vice president and board of directors, as well as Berkeley’s city manager and councilmembers. Thus far, the only response I got was from a Walgreens secretary to a vice president saying if the e-mail I sent was spam mail, they are sorry I received the spam mail and that they were not responsible for spam and that I should contact my Internet provider. 

Alyss Dorese is a Berkeley resident. 

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year by looking back and looking ahead.  

This year’s program offers 49 films from 15 countries, including short films, classic features, contemporary dramas, comedies and documentaries.  

The festival, which opened July 21 at San Francisco’s Castro Theater, continues this Sunday at Berkeley’s Roda Theater—as well as at theaters in Mountain View and San Rafael—through Aug. 6.  

The SFJFF began in 1981, the first of its kind. Over the years, many festivals have followed suit; there are now more than 100 Jewish film festivals worldwide. 

This year’s program spotlights the work of Jewish screenwriters blacklisted during the 1950s. Peter Godfrey’s Hotel Berlin (1945) features an adapted screenplay written by Blacklist victim Alvah Bessie and features Peter Lorre, a Hungarian Jew who made his name playing a murderer in German director Fritz Lang’s 1931 anti-Nazi film M.  

Other classics include The Locket, co-written by the uncredited Norma Barzman, and Fred Zinnemann’s The Search in which Montgomery Clift plays a GI during World War II who befriends a young boy in a United Nations’ camp in occupied Germany. The screenplay was written by Blacklist victim Paul Jarrico.  

The festival will also screen Martin Ritt’s The Front (1976), a comedy starring Woody Allen as a stand-in for a Blacklisted television writer played by Zero Mostel, himself a Blacklist victim.  

Though the festival has maintained its strong focus on Israeli films this year, one of the highlights of the week comes from Germany. Go For Zucker! (2004) stars Henry Hübchen as Jaecki Zucker (formerly Zuckermann), a man who abandoned his Jewish identity decades ago but must now reconcile with his estranged Orthodox brother in order to acquire an inheritance. Zucker’s family, including his wife, played by German star Hannelore Elsner, struggle to pass as observant when the in-laws come to visit. The film has earned praise for presenting German Jews outside a Holocaust context, an unprecedented feat in post-war German cinema. 

Among the contemporary Israeli films, Campfire (2004) is another stand-out. The film, which won the Israeli Academy Award for best picture, presents a widowed mother seeking to prove herself worthy of joining a West Bank religious settlement where she hopes to start a new life for herself and her two daughters. 

One of the strengths of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is its willingness to screen unflinching documentaries examining volatile topics. Some of these films are among the most enticing in this year’s program. 

Commune (2005), Jonathan Berman’s exploration of the allure that utopian societies hold for Jews, looks at the Black Bear Ranch, a 1970s community in Northern California’s Siskiyou County, and features Black Bear members Harriet Beinfeld, Peter Coyote and Daily Planet contributor Osha Neumann. Jericho’s Echo (2005) takes a look at the Israeli punk scene. And in Keep Not Silent (2005), director Ilil Alexander offers a glimpse into the lives of three Orthodox lesbians dealing with the choices and sacrifices that result when religion and sexuality collide.  

Shiri Tsur’s On The Objection Front (2004) documents the plight of and debate over “refusniks,” Israeli soldiers who declare themselves conscientious objectors, refusing to serve in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

Wall, Simone Bitton’s exploration of the impact of the barrier dividing Israel from the Palestinian territories, won a Special Jury Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. And in Protocols of Zion, director Marc Levin hits the streets to show that the stereotypes and bigoted notions expressed in the long-discredited pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are alive and well in America. 

And finally, Berkeley filmmaker Judith Montell’s Professional Revolutionary, which documents the life of Saul Wellman and his life-long dedication to socialist causes, plays at 2:20 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6. 

The festival also includes 18 short films interspersed with the feature-length films.  

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs July 31- Aug. 6 at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. For a complete schedule of films, including ticket information, director biographies and film descriptions, go to www.sfjff.org/25. For ticket information, call (925) 275-9490 or write to jewishfilm@sfjff.org.  

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When Mike Daisey begins his solo piece, The Ugly American, he is sitting at a table on the Thrust Stage at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, facing the audience. He is sitting there at the conclusion, too. 

He uses gestures and expressions to illustrate his tale of studying acting in London on an overseas program of his “micro-Ivy League” college. Chalk marks for the table’s placement are visible on the boards. He shares some of the simplicity, but otherwise, none of the theatricality of his predecessors in solo performance, such as its pioneer, Emlyn Williams playing Charles Dickens. 

Mike Daisey plays himself. This, too, separates him from other solo performers who seem close to the traditions of burlesque and stand-up comedy, such as Barry Humphreys, who plays Dame Edna (among others), or Garrison Keillor (whom Daisey valorizes), slipping in and out of various roles as well as being the master of ceremonies, where stand-up began. 

Daisey, who calls himself a monologist, is also a book author, a writer for The New York Times Magazine and contributes commentaries to NPR’s “Day To Day.” His monologues are unscripted, and evolve as performed throughout his run. 

“Unlike so much theater, there is no illusion here,” he says. 

On the stage, Daisey plays the affable “hale fellow, well-met” of bar room lore, but with a more contemporary and somewhat detached attitude. Sometimes it’s as though he’s musing over what he’s saying. 

“They say that youth is wasted on the young,” he says, “they would say that, the fuckers!” Beginning with dissing Bernard Shaw’s famous line, and running the dozens on it to the tune of: “‘I had a wasted youth; I know so much more now’” and emerging with, “the essence of youth is in the misspending,” Daisey warns off would-be listeners who won’t understand, “people with TiVos ... who keep Day Planners, even in utero!” and launches his odyssey, from “a sordid love-affair with acting,” to imagining he’ll be greeted by the shades of Olivier and The Bard himself when he touches down on Old Blighty for training, “to be told I was special, and to feel something.” 

Instead, he’s sent off to see Heiner Muller’s Hamletmachine, “German Postmodern with a vengeance,” and finds himself hedging afterwards along with everybody else: “Interesting ... Challenging,” except for a jock who’s taken the program to party on continental daytrips, who shouts in a loud American voice all the way back in the tube, “Dude, it was boring!” 

From the picture of his acting coach, a “flinty, hawklike” woman, to his “audition” for an off-off fringe production in an abandoned suburban church abutted by council housing, where the director looks him over like a horse and pronounces, “You’ll do,” Daisey delineates his plunge from an aesthetic daydream into a nightmare made amusing in the retelling. 

His big scene, in the ultrafeminist restaging of a Caryl Churchill musical, leads to a torrid affair with the Welsh hooker actress who’s his scene partner. Pursuing his affair with the boozy, sexy, inscrutable Cymreis Tamsyn, he slips in his schoolwork, ending up returning to perform his “type—a fat, retarded” infantile creature in a pathetic school play project, only to be out of sync with his fellow actors’ pauses after the bad lines. 

Throughout, Daisey breaks his cool and his bemusement with raving tirades that are oddly glib and clipped, but otherwise reminiscent of a gentler Lewis Black. Yet his cool is genial, personable even, with a slight air of confiding something, obviously helped along by the deliberate spontaneity of his unscripted format. 

At times the autobiographical mode becomes banal, the raconteurishness chatty, a little like talk radio. The effect is like being told “I only read nonfiction” by a triumphant stranger at a cocktail party. Imagination can become a little clipped, too. 

There’s a great deal of sentimentalism to the anti-sentimental “plain speaking” pose this small-town Yankee takes the stage with, more false-naive than urbane in the unmounted snapshots he seems to be casually showing us. 

But his all-over good humor and self-deprecation (in the midst of potshots at various and sundry) win over the audience, some of whom are obvious repeat fans from his previous hits, 21 Dog Years and All Stories are Fiction (and his evolving new piece, Monopoly!, which will have a $5 show at the Rep on Sun. Aug. 14). Mike Daisey may be The Ugly American, but he’s a nice Ugly American. 

The Ugly American, created and performed by Mike Daisey, runs at the Berkeley Reperatory Theatre through Aug. 13. For tickets or information, call the 647-2949, or see www.berkeleyrep.org..

FRIDAY, JULY 29 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “A Murder is Announced” by Agatha Christie at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Runs Fri. and Sat. through Aug. 13. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “The Thousandth Night” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m., through July 31, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep, “The Ugly American” Created and performed by Mike Daisey at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Aug. 13. Tickets are $30-$35. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

California Shakespeare Theater, “Nicholas Nickleby” Parts 1 and 2 at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., between Berkeley and Orinda, through Sept. 16. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Central Works, “The Grand Inquisitor” by Dostoevsky. Thurs - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 31. Tickets are $9-$25 sliding scale. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Anything Goes” Cole Porter’s musical, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Aug. 13 at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

“Livin’ Fat” a comedy about an African American family struggling over a financial blessing, Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., through July 30, at Sweets Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50-$35. 233-9222. 

The Lobster Project “Killing My Lobster and the Wonderful World of Science” Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 7:30 and 10 p.m. and Sun. at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12-$17. 415-558-7721. www.killingmylobster.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“4 Minnesota Potters” Works by Tim Crane, Maren Kloppman, Matt Metz and Mark Pharis at Trax Gallery, 1812 Fifth St. to Sept. 9. Reception at 5 p.m. 540-8729. www.traxgallery.com 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only “The House on 92nd Street” at 7:30 p.m. and “Pickup on South Street” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Youth Writing Festival with students from Mentoring for Academic Success (MAS) at 6 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

COterie DAnce, CODA, presents “Emotional Passages” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $13-$15. 925-798-1300. 

De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ellen Hoffman, Dick Conte Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick & Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

LoCal Music Expo II at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

Wanda Stafford Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Mike Glendinning at 7 p.m. at A Cuppa Tea, 3203 College Ave. Free, all ages show. www.mikeglendinning.com  

All Ages Show with The Botticellis, Nineteen Eightyfour, Pyramus Never Dies and The Picture Theory at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Ampere, Bones Brigade, Motherspeed, Hiretsuken 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. 

Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Felonious at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159.  

LoCal Music Expo II, acoustic folk/rock, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Zadell: Zoe & Dave Ellis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Django Reinhardt Festival with Dorado Schmitt, Florin Niculescu and others at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 30 

THEATER 

“Hiroshima Stories” 60th Anniversary Commemoration with personal stories, drumming, and theater at 7:30 p.m. at International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $10. 642-9460. 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Doing Good” at 2 p.m. at Mosswood Park, MacArthur and Broadway, Oakland. 415-285-1717. www.sfmt.org 

Shotgun Players, “Cyrano de Bergerac” at 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. through Sept. 11, at John Hinkle Park, labor day perf. Sept. 5. Free with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“This is Your Life! Richmond, California” A time-line exhibit in honor of Richmond’s 100th birthday. Reception at 2 p.m. at the RIchmond Museum of History, Carnegie Bldg., 400 Nevin Ave. Cost for reception is $5-$7.50. 235-7387.  

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “Blonde Venus” at 7 p.m. and “Midnight Mary” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Official Pep Talks” Gallery talk on the installation and interactive project by The Susan O’Malley Research Team at 1 p.m. at ProArts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-4361. www.proartsgallery.org 

“No No the Saddest” A poetry and dance collaboration with Alan Bern and Lucinda Weaver at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

A Night of Voices, a nomadic variety show, at 7:30 p.m. at Comic Relief, 2026 Shattuck Ave. Free. 843-5002.  

Mark John Sternal on “Guitar: Total Techniques, Scales & Applications” at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 5604 Bay Street, Emeryville. 547-0905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cambio X Change Join the Berkeley Plama Soriano Sister City group for Cuban music and dance, art exhibit, and information on upcoming delegations to Cuba at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

PortFest World Music & Jazz Festival with Hugh Masekela, Kenny Garrett Quartet, Dave Ellis Quintet, Mo’Rockin Project and others from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, at the end of 7th St., Oakland. 627-1111. www.portofoaklandpublicartprogram.com 

Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Persian classical music, at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $30-$45. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Hideo Date, Ed Reed & Laura Klein Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

One Block Radius, hip hop at at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7-$8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Maestro de Bomba en la Bahia, Afro-Puerto Rican dance and music at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Daniel Marschak & Friends at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Zydeco Flames at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Alan Smithline, blues, at 7 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Bud Spanger/Taylor Eigsti 4-Tet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Famous Last Words at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

“From Brooklyn with Love,” with Maya Azucena and DJ Sake-1 at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Fleas & Lice, Star Spangled Bastards, Motorama 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. 

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

SUNDAY, JULY 31 

CHILDREN  

Putamayo “Swing Around the World” at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players, “Cyrano de Bergerac” at 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. through Sept. 11, at John Hinkle Park, (labor day perf. Sept. 5). Free with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

Harold Lloyd “Welcome Danger” at 3 p.m. with Jon Mirsalis on piano, and Pre-Code Hollywood “Gold Diggers of 1933” at 5:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Jewish Film Festival from 11:45 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Tickets are available from 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Jacqueline Berger and Shelley Savren at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pacific Collegium “Penitential Psalms” at 3 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal, 2300 Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$15, at the door. 452-0503. ww.pacificcollegium.org  

Rose Royce at 3 p.m. at Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park, 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Samora Pinderhughes Quintet at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

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

Alexandria, belly dance, flamenco, South Indian Dance at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Americana Unplugged: Tom Kingsley & The Moonbats at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Maya Azucena, at 10 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 1 

FILM 

Jewish Film Festival from 2 to 8:35 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Tickets are available from 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “Travels” stories by Lorrie Moore, Maria Thomas, and John Updike, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Free. 845-8542, ext. 376. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sandy Cressman’s Homenagem Brasileira at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 

FILM 

Eyeing Nature: “Storm and Stress” with Janis Crystal Lipzin in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Jewish Film Festival from 1 to 8:45 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Tickets are available from 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will read from “At Knit’s End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much” at 2 p.m. at Stash Yarns on 1820 Solano Ave. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. RSVP to 558- YARN. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alice Templeton and JoAnne Henry, old favorites and originals, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Bayennale Performance Benefit with Beth Custer, Mobius Operandi, Nguyen Dance Company, at 8 p.m. at LoBot Gallery, 1800 Campbell St., West Oakland. Cost is $5-$25. www.lobotgallery.com 

Brass Menagerie at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance leson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Clockwork, a cappella jazz dinner show at 6 p.m. at Downtown. Cost is $50. 649-3810. 

Singers’ Open Mic, with Ellen Hoffman, piano, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Issa Bagayogo, from Mali, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only: “The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Doing Time, Doing Vipassana” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

Jewish Film Festival from noon to 9 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Tickets are available from 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ned Boynton Trio with Jules Broussard on sax, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Mark Little Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

I Grade St. Croix Reggae Showcase, featuring Army, Abja, Niyorah, Ancient King and Tuff Lion at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

The Jenna Mammina Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 

FILM 

Louis Malle: “And the Pursuit of Happiness” at 5:30 p.m. and “Place de la République” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Doing Time, Doing Vipassana” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jewish Film Festival from 12:30 to 9:45 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Tickets are available from 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Carol Costello introduces “The Soul of Selling” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-3635. 

Elizabeth Rosner reads from her poetry at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Word Beat Reading Series with Barbara Minton and Medeline Lacques-Aranda at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Eye Sea: Passages” a performance by the students of the Ailey Camp at 3 and 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Admission is free. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Jon Wilcox, Larry Hanks, folk musicians, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Sarah Manning Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Robbie Fulks, The Famous at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Gonzalo Rubalcaba Quartet, Cuban pianist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $15-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com?

Can a sailing school in Berkeley change the world? Anthony Sandberg, 56, the Founder and President of Olympic Circle Sailing Club, believes that the answer is an emphatic “Yes!” 

It’s a dream he shares with everyone who walks through the school’s doors where the company motto is “sail cleanly, leaving only your wake.”  

Sandberg founded the OCSC in 1979 as a one-man sailing school. He worked from a small office in the Alameda estuary using a borrowed boat and a telephone. For the first six months, he spent nights sleeping in his Dodge van. Gradually, the business grew through word-of-mouth. 

In 1981, Sandberg moved the school to the Berkeley Marina, on city-owned land that was once part of the municipal dump but which sits directly across from the Golden Gate Bridge. Today, his 10,000-square-foot-facility is the largest single-location educational sailing institution in the country.  

Sandberg’s love of sailing goes back to his early childhood in the Hawaiian Islands where he grew up sailing all types of boats. The “Aloha Spirit,” an actual statute under Hawaiian law, instilled in him the importance of sharing resources and belonging to a community. He further honed his skills sailing with his family on Lake Tahoe, and at the age of 16 he was hired to sail an 80-foot brigantine sailboat around the Pacific Ocean.  

After attending Dartmouth College, Sandberg participated in regattas around the world and skippered yachts for wealthy European boat owners. As a counterbalance, he served in the Peace Corps in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world. 

“My experience in Nepal convinced me that you don’t need to be rich to be happy,” said Sandberg. 

At the age of 30, Sandberg founded OCSC in order to share his life’s passion with others. More important, he said, “I wanted to make sailing available and affordable. Anyone with the desire to learn should be able to participate.”  

OCSC members pay modest fees for access to a variety of classes and activities. They learn to sail with the most qualified professionals in the industry, acquiring both the confidence and the competence to navigate the challenging San Francisco Bay where winds of 25-30 knots and currents of 6-7 knots are common. 

“We’re the most rigorous school in the country because we have to be,” explained Sandberg.  

Of equal importance are the social aspects of the club.  

“It’s all about community,” emphasized Sandberg. “Sailing is about teamwork and trust, both of which are important elements of the OCSC culture.” 

Sandberg augments students’ time on the water with seminars, lectures, movies, organized outings, social barbecues and parties. The feelings of camaraderie and commitment extend beyond OCSC’s walls. The company is an ongoing sponsor of local youth sailing programs. Members regularly pitch in to clean the shorelines of Berkeley and beyond.  

“I want OCSC to be a model for the marine industry,” said Sandberg, who teaches students the importance of using on-board holding tanks for waste and how to anchor without damaging fragile reefs. “It’s not enough to say we do no harm—we also need to ask, ‘What good can we do?’”  

Sandberg formalized his commitment to the environment when he enrolled OCSC in 1 Percent for the Planet, a non-profit started by Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard. As a member of the alliance, OCSC donates 1 percent of net annual sales to groups that preserve and restore the natural environment, including Seacology, the Rainforest Action Network and The Bay Institute, which monitors and protects the waters of the San Francisco Bay.  

OCSC also donates five percent of vacation charter fees to local nonprofits in the countries it visits. “We must respect foreign cultures and their environments,” explained Sandberg. For instance, a flotilla charter to Belize raised $6,250 for TIDE, an environmental group that protects the sensitive reefs, wetlands and watershed in southern Belize. The money was used to repair hurricane damage to a ranger station in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve that guards against manatee poachers.  

Last July, 75 OCSC members sailing in Tonga donated $13,000 to preserve coral reefs near Vava’u Island. The money will pay for the construction, installation and maintenance of mooring balls that will be placed near fragile reefs. The mooring balls will offer a preferable alternative to anchoring and protect the reefs from the damage caused by anchors and chains that are now dropped annually by visiting sailors and divers. 

For Sandberg, “being green” simply makes good business sense. OCSC has grown to become the nation’s second largest sailing school in terms of revenues, a salient statistic considering that the number of sailors worldwide has dropped from eight million to three million since OCSC opened its doors 26 years ago. Reasons for the decline in sailing include the perceived expense and exclusivity of the sport, as well as people’s lack of time. 

But where others see problems, Sandberg sees opportunities. He is determined to put a new face on the sport of sailing by creating a welcoming community for anyone who wants to learn. 

“Every phenomenon has a counter-phenomenon,” mused Sandberg. “In the same way that the Slow Food Movement was born in response to fast food, I hope to remind people of the pleasure and relaxation that sailing offers in a frenzied world.” 

With 1,000 members in the club, Sandberg’s strategy seems to be working.  

Moreover, the company employs 65 people who share his passion and enthusiasm. The San Francisco Business Times ranked OCSC as one of 100 best Bay Area companies to work for in 2004 based on employee satisfaction surveys.  

Despite his success, Sandberg continues to seek personal and professional growth. Guided by the true “Aloha Spirit,” he tries to put himself in other people’s places and understand their perspectives. Every year, for example, he takes up two new activities.  

“I want to remind myself of what new sailors experience and what it is like to be outside of their comfort zones,” explained Sandberg. “This year, I’ve taken up open water swimming and acting. The latter is, by far, the most terrifying thing I’ve done!”

FRIDAY, JULY 29 

Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories and Photographs with Jewish-American activist Anna Pillerat 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 845-4740. 

Youth Writing Festival with students from Mentoring for Academic Success (MAS) at 6 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Skin Cancer Screening for people with limited or no insurance at Alta Bates, Markstein Campus. Free, but registration required. 869-8833. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. 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 

Salsa Dancing at “The Beat” Dance Studio at 8:30 p.m. Lessons with Joseph Gallardo. 2560 9th St. at Parker. 472-2393 www.wildsalsanights.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 30 

Breakfast and Birding Walk with Robbie Fischer. Meet at 8 a.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $25. Registration required. 525-6155. 

Year of the Estuary at Pt. Isabel Meet at the end of Isabel St. for a walk along the waterfront, marsh, bay and slough, to look for birds in bright plummage, down from their northern breeding grounds. 525-2233. 

Native Plant Society Star Thistle Removal from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. just below the large parking lot at 1150 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Sponsored by the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and the East Bay Regional Parks. 848-6489. 

Berkeley Kite Festival Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Cesar E. Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina. Activities, kite competitions and demonstrations. 235-5483. 

Potluck on the Picket Line of Berkeley Honda. Bring a dish to share and a picket sign at 2 p.m. at Parker and Shattuck. For information call Judy Shelton, 548-9334. 

Cambio X Change Join the Berkeley Palma Soriano Sister City group for Cuban music and dance, art exhibit, and information on upcoming delegations to Cuba at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 653-1009. 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Doing Good” at 2 p.m. at Mosswood Park, MacArthur and Broadway, Oakland. 415-285-1717. www.sfmt.org 

Hiroshima Stories, a commemorative event of performances and ritual in observance of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at 7:30 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $10. 642-9460. http://ihouse.berkeley.edu  

PortFest World Music & Jazz Festival with Hugh Masekela, Kenny Garrett Quartet, Dave Ellis Quintet, Mo’Rockin Project and others from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, at the end of 7th St., Oakland. 627-1111. www.portofoaklandpublicartprogram.com 

Pancrustacea is Not a Dish: Insects and their Surprising Relatives. A realignment of animal groups has brought insects some interesting relatives and removed others from their family tree. At 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“The Peaceable Kingdom” will be screened at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

SpiritWalking at the Berkeley Warm Pool Ability to walk on land not necessary. Sat. from 10 to 11 a.m., to Aug. 11. Cost is $3.50 seniors/disabled, $5.50 others. Bring a towel and deck shoes. 526-0312. well-being@pacbell.net 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Kaiser Center Roof Garden and the Oakland Museum of California Garden. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Homeopathy for Animals: Emergency Situations Learn about local holistic vets and homeopathic remedies that can be used in emergency situations, including puncture wounds, ingesting toxins, excessive bleeding, muscle strain, bites and stings, foxtails, and fear of loud noises, at 3:30 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $45. 525-6155. 

Your Backyard Pond Learn how to keep your backyard pond in balance, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Free Help with Computers at the El Cerrito Library to learn about email, searching the web, the library’s online databases, or basic word processing. Workshops held on Sat. a.m. at 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Registration required. 526-7512.  

“Guitar: Total Techniques, Scales & Applications” with Mark John Sternal at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 5604 Bay Street, Emeryville. 547-0905. 

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. 

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, JULY 31 

Bird Walk in Tilden Join Alan Kaplan on his 500th bird walk at 8 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Blessing of the Animals at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

Bicycle Crash Skills Clinic Learn how to deal with curbs, gutters, wet weather, pedestrians, dogs and especially car doors, and how to repair your bike and body. From 2 to 6 p.m. at Berkeley Center for Appropriate Transport, 1336 Channing Way. For more information, email bcat_events@yahoo.com 

Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park with Rose Royce at 3 p.m. at 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Jingletown. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

The New Tree of Life We’ll look for examples of new ways of looking at life in forest, meadow and pond at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

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

“U.S. Imperialism and the Counterinsurgency War” with Antonio, a former political prisoner from South America, at 1 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but donation of $5 accepted. 393-5685.  

Social Action Forum with David McPhail on School of the Americas, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

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

MONDAY, AUGUST 1 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster Street. The speaker will be Joyce Rutledge Starosciak, a member of the San Leandro City Council. Her topic will be “Sandra Day O’Connor: a Woman in the Men’s Club.” 287-8948. 

Wild vs. Hatchery Trout A lecture on the importance of saving wild trout with Mondy Lariz of California Trout’s Lake Merced Campaign at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

“RFID: What's It All About?” Berkeley Public Library is holding a Community Informational Forum on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to hear both sides of the issue at 6:30 p.m. at at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. Gordon Wozniak will speak on the safety of RFID, and representatives from the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation will talk about the privacy concerns. For accessibility questions and more information, call 981-6121. 

Berkeley High School Development Group Information Meeting Learn about community building, making grants to BHS programs, clubs and special projects at 7:15 p.m. at the BUSD Annex Building at 1835 Allston Way. shelmrich@aol.com 

City of Berkeley Walking Group walks Mon.-Thurs. from 5 to 5:30 p.m. Meet at 830 University Ave. All new participants receive a free pedometer. 981-5131. 

Stress Less with Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

Vacation Bible School from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Aug. 5 at The Church on the Corner, 1319 Solano Ave., Albany. 243-7410. www.albanyfirstbaptist.org 

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

TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 

“National Night Out” Public safety awareness forum focusing on alcohol and drug fueled crime and violence in Berkeley from a faith-based perspective. From 6 to 9 p.m. at McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. at McGee Ave. 658-2467. www.berkeleyboca.org 

“At Knit’s End : Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much” with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee at 2 p.m. at Stash Yarns on 1820 Solano Ave. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. RSVP to 558- YARN. 

Exploring Baja California Hiking, kayaking, mountain biking and more with Trudi Angell at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140.  

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

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. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “The Coarseness of Culture” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690.  

Healthy Eating Habits and Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

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

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

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, AUGUST 3 

Berkeley Path Wanderers’ Tour of WWII Ship Building History Explore the Exhibits of the Rosie the Riveter National Historic Park on a level three-mile walk on the Bay Trail. Meet at 10 a.m. at Shimada Park, Richmond. 235-2835. For a map see www.ci.richmond.ca.us/trac/ 

“Falluja April 2004” a documentary of the invasion by Toshikuni Doi, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but $5 donations accepted. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters welcomes curious guests & new members. Meets at 7:15 a.m. at Au Coquelet Cafe, 2000 University Ave. at Milvia. 435-5863.  

Bicycle Maintenance 101 Learn how to identify and fix your bike’s simple mechanical problems at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140.  

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

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

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. 

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. 

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

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

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 

Baby Massage for new and expecting parents at 10 a.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. To register 658-7353. 

“Statue of Liberty: Enlightening the World” A History Channel video at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

“Globalization, Natural Resource Protection, and the Effects of War” with Silas Siakor, recipient of the Whitley: Sting & Trudie Styler Award for Human Rights & the Environment, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Nepalese Culture Shekwa Night at 5 p.m. at Taste of the Himalayas, 1700 Shattuck Ave., Suite # A. Free. 849-4983. www.tasteofthehimalayas.com 

Home Buyer Assistance Information Session at 6 p.m. at 1504 Franklin St., Oakland. Sponsored by the Home Buyer Assistance Center. Free, but reservations required. 832-6925, ext. 100. www.hbac.org 

World of Plants Tours Thurs.-Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $1-$5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden. 

berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 

Migrant Trail Walk for Life A video and reports on the trail taken by undocumented workers crossing the border in Arizona, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 342-2519, ext. 6215. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2480 Bancroft Way. Sponsored by the Community of South Berkeley. to make an appointment call 1-800-448-3543. www.BeADonor.com 

Berkeley Chess Club 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. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 

Peace Lantern Ceremony August 6th is the 60th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing. Gather to float lanterns in remembrance of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and all victims of war. Decorate lantern shades, hear Japanese flute and drum performances, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Aquatic Park, at the west end of Addison Street, two blocks west of Sixth St. and a block south of University Ave. 595-4626. Lanterns2005@progressiveportal.org  

Richmond Centennial Festival from 11 a.m. at Marina Bay Park, Richmond. Vendors, live music, children’s activities and fireworks in the evening. 

Fruitvale Transit Village Family Day Celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Transit Village Plaza, with live music and performances, human scale chess game, and other activities. www.bayennale.com 

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.  

Summer Bird Walk with Dennis Wolff and Chris Carmichael at 9 a.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Cost is $8-$12. Registration required. 643-2755. 

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

The Bat Detective Learn about the only mammal that flies, on a hike into the evening. Meet at 7 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $5-$7, registration required. 636-1684. 

“A Traveler’s Guide to the Solar System” A lecture by William K. Hartmann, winner of the first Carl Sagan medal at 7 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center. Cost is $6-$7. 336-7373. www.chabotspace.org 

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay Potluck picnic and general meeting on the special election, at 12:30 p.m. at Cordonices Park, Euclid and Eunice across from the Rose Garden. We'll bring the drinks and charcoal. 526-4632. 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Uptown Art Deco. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Free Help with Computers at the El Cerrito Library to learn about email, searching the web, the library’s online databases, or basic word processing. Workshops held on Sat. a.m. One-on-one help is also available. El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Registration required. 526-7512. 

“Spiritual Forces of the Universe” with Vovo Anomalia on how to bring harmony into your life at 3 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. at 8th. Cost is $15. 415-435-2255. 

ONGOING 

Summer Camps for Children offered by the City of Berkeley, including swimming, sports and twilight basketball, to August 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 981-5150. 

Free Lunches for Berkeley Children Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Frances Albrier Center, James Kenney Center, MLK, Jr. Youth Services Center, Strawberry Creek, Washington School and Rosa Parks School. 981-5146. ?

Berkeley said goodbye to Meleia Willis-Starbuck Friday. 

Hundreds of people lined the bleachers at Berkeley High’s Donahue Gym at the memorial for the 19-year-old Dartmouth College student murdered in the early hours of July 17. Before the memorial got underway, Meleia’s mother, Kimberly Willis-Starbuck, received hugs from every direction she turned. 

“All these wonderful people I haven’t seen in so long,” she said during one embrace. 

When she addressed the audience more than three hours later, Willis-Starbuck described her initial reaction to hearing of her daughter’s death. 

“I dropped the phone and proceeded to run around our home screaming ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do, how am I going to live?’” 

“I knew I had to be here,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed hearing stories about Meleia and getting hugs from all of you.” 

Police say Meleia Willis-Starbuck was murdered by Christopher Hollis, a former classmate she described as being like a brother to her. Hollis remains at large. Speculation is that Willis-Starbuck called Hollis for help as she and friends were arguing with a group of men outside her College Avenue apartment. The men reportedly tried to flirt with the girls and when rebuffed, insulted them. 

There was no mention of Hollis at Friday’s memorial, or of Christopher Wilson, another friend of Willis-Starbuck’s who police say drove Hollis to the murder scene. Several speakers called for stricter gun control laws. Willis-Starbuck’s 10-year-old half-brother Zachary said, “I think we should have a gun-free future.” 

There were several lighter moments during the service, including a recording of a young Willis-Starbuck singing “Jingle Bells.” Tears were shed throughout the afternoon, especially in the front two rows where Willis-Starbuck’s closest friends from Berkeley High sat. 

Sean Erick, a high school friend of Willis-Starbuck’s, broke down as he played a tribute to her on his trumpet. Several friends cried out, “It’s OK, we love you.” 

While Oakland recording artist Goapele sang “Closer,” a song Willis-Starbuck used as her cell phone greeting, her friends could not contain their grief. Anthony Washington, a former Berkeley high classmate of Willis-Starbuck, collapsed to the hardwood floor. Other friends consoled Washington and a woman fanned him with a copy of the memorial program. 

Danielle Youngblood, one of the four friends who were with Meleia when she was shot told the audience, “I just want you to know she left feeling loved. We were holding her hand telling her we loved her.” 

Bill Pratt, one of Willis-Starbuck’s teachers at Berkeley High, said she “didn’t participate in classroom discussions, she ignited them. She wasn’t always an easy person to deal with, but few of the beautiful and original people are.” 

Willis-Starbuck, who was attending Dartmouth College on full scholarship, has been remembered as a fighter against inequality. But several friends Friday said she was also bit of a glamour girl. 

Mercedes Hong, who is due to give birth to a girl in the next two weeks, joked in an open letter addressed to Willis-Starbuck, “I imagined you taking her for her first manicure, pedicure, teaching her about clothes, make-up and Tiffany’s.” 

Mayor Tom Bates and City Manager Phil Kamlarz represented the city at the memorial. Kamlarz, who worked with Kimberly Willis-Starbuck for several years, recalled Willis-Starbuck dropping by the office at one point while she was trying to convince her mother she could tour Europe on $200. She got to go, Kamlarz said, but her mother “was writing checks for the rest of the summer.” 

Twenty of Willis-Starbuck’s friends from Dartmouth were at the memorial and told the audience how highly she thought of her hometown. 

“You finally got me to the ‘best place’ in the world,” said Jonathan Lesesne, addressing Meleia. “This was truly her home.” 

Lesesne, who is from Atlanta, where the Willis-Starbucks now reside, said the family home was the only one he had visited in the South that had three different types of pita bread. 

“She taught me what an empanada is,” he said. 

Again addressing Meleia, Lesesne said, “You were our stubborn, free-spirit friend who is now our stubborn guardian angel.” 

~

A deal is in place to sell the illegal West Berkeley warehouse where several long-time residents have refused to leave their homes, owner Lawrence White said Friday. 

White would not disclose the buyer or the sale price for the East Bay Drayage at Addison and Third streets. He said the new owner would build housing on the 40,000-square-foot site, but didn’t know if the new units would be condominiums or apartments. 

White also would not comment on whether the deal is contingent on his successfully evicting the 11 tenants still living in the building. 

Claudia Viera, a tenant, said several of the remaining residents planned to fight eviction proceedings, scheduled to begin this fall.  

The tentative deal appears to end chances that White will grant the wishes of his tenants and sell the property to the Northern California Land Trust. The land trust had pledged to bring the building up to code and give residents a chance to buy their units. 

Land Trust Executive Director Ian Winters had said his group offered White $2.5 million for the property, a claim White rejected Friday. 

“They never made a serious offer,” he said. 

White said he would consider requiring the new owner to give some of the remaining tenants first rights to units in the new building set aside under Berkeley law for affordable housing. 

White had been asking $2.7 million for the property which he purchased in 1997 for $1.08 million. 

The refusal of tenants, many of whom lived in the warehouse for a decade, to leave their homes has drawn attention to the loss of affordable live-work artist space in Berkeley as real estate prices continue to rise. 

“The key thing is a whole bunch of affordable housing is about to get flushed down the toilet,” said Jeffrey Carter, the tenants' legal advisor. He said he doubted that any units in a new development would be set aside for former tenants. 

Earlier this year, White had a deal to sell the property to Developer Ali Kashani for $2.05 million. Then a fire inspection uncovered more than 200 code violations. White has been fined over $200,000 by the city since April 15 for failing to evacuate residential tenants from the building. He said he plans to contest the fines. 

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said the city was in the process of filing a lien on the property to collect fines in the case of a sale.  

o

Six months into its tenure, the newly constituted Peralta Community Colleges Board of Trustees has gotten mixed reviews. 

Veteran board observer Michael Mills said the board is “acquitting itself quite respectfully,” but veteran Board Member Linda Handy said that the group “hasn’t yet found its balance.” 

Three and a half years ago, the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, and Emeryville released a study in which it severely criticized the Peralta trustees. 

The group wrote, in part, “the trustees’ money management style ... remains a source of sharp criticism from the press and the faculty.” 

The study referred to various newspaper stories in the spring of 2001 which highlighted foreign board trips to places such as China and South Africa in search of increased enrollment of foreign students. 

“The trustees are also being questioned about their oversight of contracts between the district and external suppliers,” the league wrote. “In the spring of 2001, for example, a $4 million no-bid contract with a computer installation firm came before the board with very skimpy notice and no hard numbers in the contract. Under criticism, the board rolled over an existing contract with the firm for a much smaller sum, but their casual attitude about spelling out contract limits continues.” 

Four of the board’s seven members chose not to run for re-election last year, leading to their replacement by trustees Nicky Gonzalez Yuen, Bill Withrow, Marcie Hodge, and Cy Gulassa. Their first six months has been marked by increasing board oversight over the district’s fiscal matters, sometimes leading to sharp clashes between board members and staff as well as between board members themselves. 

To Mills, president of the Peralta Federation of Teachers (PFT), that oversight is a good thing. 

“The previous board was too accepting of what the district administration presented to them,” Mills said in a telephone interview. “It made me wonder what their role was. So last December, when the new board took office, the PFT asked for three things from them. We wanted them to demand more information from the district first, before making decisions. We wanted them to ask questions and not be passive. And we wanted them to avoid any conflicts of interest. On those accounts, they’ve done a good job. From a PFT perspective, I’m pleased. We’ve seen a significant improvement in board conduct.” 

Board Vice President Linda Handy was not on the Peralta Trustee Board during the period of the critical League of Woman Voters’ study and was elected in part because of community fiscal concerns about former Peralta Chancellor Ronald Temple. 

During her 2003 campaign, Handy wrote: “This is a question about who is the boss and I do not believe that the board as a whole has exercised its appropriate authority in managing the chancellor’s performance.” 

For her part, Handy said she is not yet convinced that the new board has reached its oversight potential over the regime of Chancellor Elihu Harris, who replaced Temple shortly after Handy was elected to the board. 

“The board has shown a lot of interest in strategic planning and in the raising of industry standards within the district, and that has made me happy,” Handy said. “Everyone wins with that. But we haven’t yet been able to maximize the benefit of the talents of the new members. If we ever can, it will be a tremendous asset to the district.” 

She praised newcomer Withrow for his “wealth of experience in organizational development and in raising the bar of professionalism,” and Gulassa and Gonzalez Yuen for their “background in education that allows them to bring a good awareness of the needs of a community college district.” 

But she said that Gulassa and Gonzalez Yuen, both of whom are community college professors, “are still learning how to separate their roles as a staff member from their roles as trustees. It’s a different responsibility entirely. So as a board, we haven’t yet found a balance between doing our jobs as trustees while not interfering with the tasks of the people we’re overseeing. I think, sometimes, we’re all over the place.” 

Handy and Gonzalez Yuen have generated the most clashes between Peralta trustees. The two sit next to each other at meetings, and often continue sometimes-animated discussions on their own, mostly over fiscal oversight issues. 

Gonzalez Yuen’s 2004 campaign platform sounded similar to the one that Handy ran on the year before. One of Gonzalez Yuen’s campaign goals was “openness and accountability,” which he described as “creating the administrative and fiscal conditions for the district to focus on its primary mission of providing a great education to students; and creating an open and inclusive process of governance, especially in the areas of budget and finance.” 

Even before the four new board members took office in mid-December, the controversy that dominated the new board for the next six months was already being dropped in its lap by the outgoing board. In its final meeting, the outgoing board approved contract negotiations with Oakland developer Alan Dones to put together a development plan for Laney College and Peralta administration lands. 

Handy was a supporter of the proposed contract, while Gonzalez Yuen was one of its most vocal critics on the board. 

The proposed contract generated much heat, both from the public at trustee board meetings and in the press, and was eventually dropped altogether last May when Dones voluntarily withdrew his proposal. 

But while the Dones contract was getting the most press attention, the board has been quietly working to put the district’s oversight house in order. 

“The style of decisions in the board in the past has been rather abrupt and often without very careful inclusion of all the interested parties in the process,” newcomer Cy Gulassa told the Daily Planet last January. “We have to clarify the board procedures so we don’t have surprises and we don’t invite hasty decisions.” 

Last January, after hearing repeated requests for more money for the $65 million Vista College construction project, trustees passed a new policy mandating increased board oversight for cost overrun requests, requiring that except in emergency circumstances, the requests come to the board before the money is spent. 

Trustees now require that the district’s chief financial officer and its general counsel both sign off on construction requests meeting certain criteria, ending the practice in which those requests passed solely through the director of general services. And late last month, trustees authorized an independent assessment of the district’s information technology operations, effectively saying that it was difficult for the district’s staff to assess itself.  

While Handy gives some of the credit for the changes to the newly-elected board members, she doesn’t give all of it. 

“There is a constant flow of issues that are ongoing, and the new board has simply become a part of that,” Handy said. “As [Chancellor] Elihu [Harris] says, there’s no stop and start to district business. So there’s no ‘this year’s board’ for me. It’s just the board.”›

The young man who police say shot and killed Meleia Willis-Starbuck telephoned the former Berkeley High boys’ basketball coach over the weekend as he continued to hide from the law. 

Vincent Trahan, now the owner of Doggie High, a restaurant just across the street from Berkeley High, said he talked to Christopher Hollis over the weekend. 

Trahan said the 21-year-old graduate of Berkeley Alternative School seemed “scared” but refused to go into details about their conversation. 

He said Hollis didn’t tell him where he was hiding, and added “I didn’t want to know. I’m praying that he calls me or someone else he trusts to accompany him to the authorities.”  

Hollis never played on the basketball team, but made friends with Trahan at his restaurant, Trahan said. 

Christopher Wilson, who is also facing a murder charge in the July 17 death of Meleia Willis-Starbuck, was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday afternoon in Superior Court in Oakland, but formal arraignment was put off until Wednesday.  

Wilson is alleged to have driven the car in which Hollis was riding. 

Wilson and his attorney, Elizabeth Grossman of Berkeley, appeared Friday in a courtroom that was packed with spectators, many of them Wilson’s relatives. 

Several of them left the abbreviated hearing in tears, holding each other for comfort, walking through a barrage of television cameras and news reporters there to cover the first formal court appearance in this high-profile case. 

Grossman said that Wilson is being held without bail on a murder charge, and that on Wednesday she will ask for setting of what she called “a reasonable bail so that he can be home to help fight against these charges.” 

Grossman told reporters that she did not believe that a charge of murder “will be sustained. My client had no idea that any violence was intended or that Mr. Hollis had a gun in his possession.”

The deal that ended the city’s lawsuit against the UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan has survived yet another challenge. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Lewman Sabraw denied a motion filed by Berkeley resident Peter Mutnick calling for an inquiry into his allegations that the settlement should be canceled because it was obtained by “extrinsic fraud.” 

Sabraw’s decision, handed down late Thursday, ruled that Mutnick’s motion failed on two grounds. 

First, she wrote, Mutnick had filed the wrong motion, noting that the court “does not have the jurisdiction to make such an inquiry, even at the request of a non-party, brought inherent to the court’s power to vacate a judgment obtained through intrinsic fraud ... however no such motion to vacate was made in this instance, and so the Motion for Inquiry is” denied. 

Even had Mutnick filed the proper motion, Sabraw wrote, she would have denied it because Mutnick had not shown that extrinsic fraud was involved in forging the pact. 

Declaring his intent to contest the ruling before the First Division of the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco, Mutnick said Monday, “The court was wrong in its application of the law on all of the grounds upon which it based its ruling. 

“The error of the court was not harmless, but caused it to come to a conclusion that was diametrically opposite to the conclusion that must be drawn from the undisputed evidence that was presented, when the proper law is properly applied. 

“Therefore, the court abused its discretion in a most obvious and hideous manner.” 

The Berkeley activist said he plans to file an appeal on Aug. 14., after he receives copies of documents and the court transcripts of Wednesday’s hearing. 

The decision granted Mutnick one small victory from the judge, a denial of the city attorney’s motion to strike City Councilmember Dona Spring’s declaration in support of Mutnick’s motion. 

Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan represented the city during the hearing. Hope A. Schmeltzer of the University of California’s Office of the General Campus argued on behalf of the UC Regents. 

Mutnick had argued that the city, by keeping the accord secret until the City Council voted its approval, had deprived him and other citizens of the right to examine and comment on the deal until the May 24 council vote. 

That secrecy, he argued, violated the Brown Act, the state law governing the conduct of public officials. 

Spring, who has grown increasingly critical of city staff, filed a declaration supporting Mutnick’s claims and declaring that the accord violates both state law and the city charter, and makes an illegal end run around the California Environmental Quality Act by granting UC the power to veto adverse findings in environmental impact studies as well as potential mitigations. 

Judge Sabraw ruled that Mutnick could have made a more timely intervention while the city’s suit against the university was still pending, and she said there was no evidence his inaction was caused by fraudulent actions by the city or the university.›

A panel of citizens, government officials and community activists appointed to advise the state on toxic waste cleanups in south Richmond will hold its second session Thursday. 

The Community Advisory Group (CAG) named to advise the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) on the ongoing cleanup of the Campus Bay project site greatly increased its role during its first meeting on June 30. 

Panelists at the first meeting voted to expand their purview to include other sites, starting with UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station and several other contaminated or potentially contaminated sites around, north and west of the Interstate 580/Bayview Avenue interchange in south Richmond. 

The CAG has no formal power over the cleanup efforts at the sites, but the various agencies involved, including the state Department of Health Services, have promised to open their files to the group. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Bermuda Room at the Richmond Convention Center, 493 Civic Center Drive, located near the intersection of Nevin and 25th Streets. ›

The fate of two landmark structures located just east of Telegraph Avenue rests in the hands of three Berkeley developers, two of them planning major developments and the third planning a new home for the vintage dwellings. 

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board get their first look at plans for one of the houses Thursday—the Ellen Blood House, a two-story 1891 Queen Anne Victorian now at 2526 Durant Ave. 

Ruegg & Ellsworth, a Berkeley development firm which hopes to build the Durant Apartments Project at the site of the Blood House, has filed applications for demolition of the Blood House and construction of their apartment complex. 

The demolition permit doesn’t mean the venerable structure is headed for the chopping block. Instead, if all goes as planned, developer John Gordon will relocate the structure to a pair of lots he owns at the southwest corner of the Dwight Way/Regent Street intersection. 

Ruegg & Ellis project manager Brendan Heafey said that the firm has an agreement to sell the building to Gordon for $1. 

The move won’t include an addition at the southwestern part of the building, Heafey said. An earlier measurement of the home and the relocation site by a Daily Planet reporter revealed the house wouldn’t fit with the addition. 

The Durant Street home was designated a structure of merit by the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission in September 1999, over the objections of Ruegg & Ellsworth, whose appeal to the City Council failed a month later. 

The developer’s plans for the vacated si te call for construction of a 44-apartment mixed-use building with two retail store fronts and 17 stacked parking spaces.  

Gordon’s plans for his property also include the move of a second landmark, the John Woolley House at 2509 Haste St., one of Berkel ey’s oldest homes, built in 1876. 

If all goes as planned for both homes will be moved to Gordon’s lot at the southwest corner of Regent Street and Dwight Way, where they will be refurbished. 

The Woolley House is currently owned by UC Berkeley, and devel oper Ken Sarachan, owner of Rasputin Music and Blondie’s Pizza, is in negotiations with the university to buy the property to add to land he already owns at the northeast corner of the Haste Street/Telegraph Avenue intersection to build a mixed use projec t of his own. 

Sarachan filed plans last September to build a structure that starts at two stories at the Telegraph Avenue end of the property, rising to five floors at the property’s eastern end. As planned, it would include three ground-floor commercial spaces, a second-floor restaurant with a roof garden and 20 one-bedroom apartments. 

For decades, Sarachan’s property housed the Berkeley Inn, a single room occupancy hotel that catered to low income tenants. A 1986 fire destroyed 77 of the units and a s econd fire in 1990 finished what the first blaze had started. 

A subsequent plan to have Resources for Community Development—the same non-profit building the housing component of the David Brower Center complex—build a 39-unit apartment building on the si te failed, and when that plan died, Sarachan bought the property in 1994. 

Sarachan was forced to file development plans last September or risk paying $800,000 in liens against the property. 

Heafey said both projects are dependent on city approval of the structural moves to Gordon’s property. 

Because both structures are designated as historic landmarks, the city’s Landmark’s Preservation Commission will also have its own say in the moves. Heafey said Gordon will be presenting his plan to the commission. 

“We hope to have the approvals to move the houses between six months and a year,” Heafey said. 

›g

A group of neighbors that unsuccessfully fought an affordable housing project all the way to the state appeals court learned Wednesday that Berkeley would have to pay for part of their legal costs. 

The First District Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Marie Bowman and Neighbors for Sensible Development qualified for $18,000 in attorneys fees from the city. 

The ruling upholds a superior court judgment that Berkeley violated the neighbors’ due process rights when the City Council first approved Affordable Housing Associates’ Outback Senior Homes project at 2517 Sacramento St. 

Berkeley had appealed the ruling. 

The developer and opponents had been in mediation at the time the council first approved the project in 2002. Assuming that no action would be taken on the project during mediation, opponents were not in council chambers to voice their opposition when the council approved it. 

After the initial ruling in favor or Bowman, the council subsequently reapproved the project. Bowman sued again arguing that the development was too big and would cause traffic congestion and environmental hazards. Last year the appeals court ruled in favor of the city affirming the legality of 40 units of affordable senior housing. 

›

With the annual August recess approaching, the city’s land use panels will be voting this week on several major hot button planning issues and development projects. 

When it meets Wednesday, the Planning Commission will ponder condominiums, the proposed new Berkeley Bowl in West Berkeley, the Gilman Street Playing Fields and the Downtown Area Plan mandated in the settlement of the city’s lawsuit against UC Berkeley. 

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

• action on the Housing Department’s proposed revision to the city’s condominium ordinance; 

• a scoping session to gather the commission’s comments for the Environmental Impact Report on the proposal to build a new Berkeley Bowl in West Berkeley, plus a decision on scheduling the commission’s hearing on the General Plan and rezoning changes needed to build the project; 

• a hearing on Waterfront Plan and zoning ordinance changes needed to build the Gilman Street Playing Fields, a cooperative effort of the East Bay Regional Parks District and East Bay cities led by Berkeley; 

• A hearing on adoption of a condominium tract map for a planned 30-unit condominium project at 2025 Channing Way. 

• A discussion of the anticipated planning process and timeline for the Downtown Area Plan agreed on by the city and UC Berkeley as part of the settlement of the city’s lawsuit against the University’s Long Range Development Plan. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board, which meets Thursday, faces its own burgeoning agenda, which includes: 

• Modification of the use permit for the David Brower Center. If all goes well, construction could begin next summer. 

• An update on plans to move the historic Blood House at 2526 Durant Ave. to make way for a 44-unit, five-story mixed use apartment complex on the site. 

That meeting gets underway at the unusual hour of 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers in Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The opening one-hour session begins with an appeal by four neighbors of ZAB’s decision to allow construction of a 608-square-foot addition to a home at 2750 Buena Vista Way and the Blood House update.  

The use-permit modification for the Brower Center is logged as an item for the consent calendar. 

The regular meeting begins when the special session ends and features hearings on the installation of four ATM machines in the Telegraph Avenue area, with one each at 2200 and 2519 Durant Ave. and 1823 and 1879 Euclid Ave. 

Also on the agenda is a hearing on plans to demolish a single family home at 1532 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and replace it with a two-story duplex and a single story cottage. 

Another single-family home demolition proposal will also be heard which would result in the building of a two-story, 2846-square-foot home on a lot at 1638 Carleton St. following the demolition of the 1,158-square-foot one-story home now on the lot. 

Also scheduled are hearings on plans to add a second story addition to a home at 1323 Kains Ave., a permit application to open a quick service restaurant with outdoor seating at 81 Shattuck Square and a permit application to transform an existing commercially zoned building at 1827 Fifth St. into a combined light manufacturing and commercial use.›

The article “Arsenal Found in Adeline St. Apartment” in the July 22 issue incorrectly reported that Black & White Liquor Store owner Sucha Singh Banger also owned Grove Market at 2948 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

While Banger owns both buildings, his tenant, Grove Market, is owned by Nasser Egbal. 

“We have worked hard to maintain a good relationship with our community, and we are not a problem store” as was reported in the story, said Egbal’s son, Muhammud Egbal.›

One of Oaxaca, Mexico’s two major newspapers suffered a violent attack by a group of union enforcers in what some say is a part of the state government’s attempt to shut the paper down.  

Just after 8 p.m. on July 18, about 100 members of a union known as the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Laborers (CROC) stormed the Noticias newspaper’s building and dragged out 31 employees who had been in the building since June 17, when the same group barricaded them in.  

The conflict first erupted in June when David Aguilar—president of the CROC union and a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)—claimed he was representing the newspaper’s workers and initiated a strike. His group surrounded the building June 17 and trapped 31 of the paper’s employees.  

Noticias staff said none of the newspaper’s 102 unionized employees were involved in the union raid. They have denied any affiliation with the group and say they do not support what CROC has done.  

But Aguilar told the New York Times that 56 Noticias employees had joined his union’s strike, although he would not identify any of them. “They are afraid,” he said. “They have been threatened.”  

CROC was created in 1952 by the PRI, which, after 71 years of reign, was ousted by President Fox’s party in 2000. In Oaxaca, where the state government is still dominated by the PRI, the party retains its presence and some unions are still used by politicians. Historically, the CROC has only supported candidates who belong to the PRI, and CROC has been used by the PRI as a forceful intimidator in the past. The union has about half a million members at the national level, though membership numbers vary.  

“What happened on Monday was savagery,” Raciel Martinez, a veteran reporter who has been with Noticias for 13 years, said by phone. “They went in violently, and not only did they hurt our colleagues, they stole their things and destroyed part of the paper’s operating system. But despite it all, we have continued and will continue to publish the newspaper. A lot of people have supported us.”  

Martinez was not trapped inside when the paper was first taken over in June and has been working with other employees to ensure Noticias’ ongoing publication.  

According to Martinez, who is from Oaxaca, the mob arrived Monday with police cars and local police who were dressed in civilian clothes. Soon after the attack, state police arrived to “see what was happening.”  

Oaxaca’s state government—which is composed mostly of PRI party members—has never hidden its disdain for Noticias, one of the only large, independent media organizations in the state and a longtime government watchdog. The PRI’s old guard—known as the “dinosaurs” in Mexico—is notorious for its intolerance of any opposition and using any means necessary to eliminate it.  

“Now the state government says that we’re committing a state offense because the paper is on strike. But none of the Noticias employees belong to the group of supposed strikers,” said Martinez. “The incongruent part of all this is that the Council of Reconciliation and Arbitration, which is supposed to reconcile disputing parties, has declared that the strike is legal.”  

Employees of the newspaper haven’t been the only victims in the ordeal. Newspaper vendors have also been attacked. Last week the vendors union in Oaxaca denounced members who continue to sell the newspaper. “We have an actual recording from the governor [Ulises Ruiz], who declared during his electoral campaign that Noticias would not survive six months while he was in office,” Martinez said. But despite the pressure, many advertisers continue to buy ads in the paper, and this has allowed Noticias to keep publishing, Martinez said.  

The newspaper is 29 years old and prints 15,000 copies daily. Numerous international organizations—including Amnesty International, the Inter-American Press Association, and Journalists Without Borders—have expressed concern and outrage over the situation in Oaxaca.  

“This attack is a desperate attempt by the government, which is irate because we continue to publish and because it is now being scorned by the national and international community,” Martinez said. “Gov. Ulises Ruiz has five years and four months left to complete the threat he made to finish us off. But we have an entire lifetime to continue to do what we believe is right.”  

Eduardo Stanley hosts the bilingual “Nuestro Foro” weekly radio program on KFCF in Fresno.›

http://www.jfdefreitas.com/index.php?path=/00_Latest%20Workµ

GROVE MARKET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My name is Muhammad Elbgal and I am the son of Mr. Nasser Elbgal who owns Grove Market at 2948 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. I am writing to ask that your newspaper please make a correction in the next edition on two accounts.  

First in your article entitled “Arsenal Found in Adeline St. Apartment” you mention that the owner of Black and White Liquor store is also the owner of Grove Market. This is wrong: Mr. Banger (owner of Black and White) does not own Grove Market; he owns the building in which Grove Market is located. We at Grove Market do not deserve to be affiliated with what happened at the Black and White Liquor store, so please let your readers know that your paper has made a mistake.  

Secondly you quote former City Council candidate Laura Menard as saying that neighborhood activists have been trying to close Grove Market and that we are a problem store. This is also not the case. We have worked hard to maintain a good relationship with our community and we are not a problem store, as Ms. Menard has said.  

Also we are not located in North Berkeley; we are located in South Berkeley. So if Ms. Menard has made a mistake we ask that you inform her of this. We have had nothing but support from our neighbors and customers and it is wrong to say that we are a problem store if there is no evidence to back up that claim.  

Thank you for your time and we are hoping to see some action taken on this matter. 

Muhammad Elbgal 

• 

LEAVE GROVE OUT OF IT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to put in a good word for the Grove Market. I don’t think they have anything to do with what happened to the other store. And the bust of guns and drugs may not have anything to do with the store. 

Grove is two blocks away, and shouldn’t be associated with what happened in that apartment. The people who run Grove Market are just trying to make a living, and are a service to this community. I like going there more than having to hassle with Berkeley Bowl, which is expensive (I go to Canned Foods, much more economical) and is also a human beehive, though they make some good burritos. 

Seriously, I don’t think Grove Market should be threatened like that by “neighborhood activists” because of something that happened two blocks away and that had nothing to do with them.  

John Delmos 

• 

MARITAL STATUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My husband and I don’t always agree on political matters. 

While Ms. Taubenfeld is certainly entitled to her own opinion, I think it would have been ethical to point out when she wrote defending Albany City Councilmember Robert Lieber that she is married to him.  

She has written two recent letters. If she writes on a topic such as homeless kittens, I see no problem. 

If she writes again defending her husband’s point of view, I respectfully request that the Daily Planet mention her marital status. 

Marsha Skinner 

Albany 

• 

KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As one who has been associated with KPFA since its inception in 1949 as a member, supporter, volunteer programmer and producer, and member of the unpaid staff organization, I would like to make two observations about the station’s current state. 

It is not my experience that there has “always been a running battle between (paid) staff and the general manager.” I would invite listeners and reporters to ask the three general managers preceding the current one if they had problems with paid staff. Paid staff is hungry for a sensitive general manager, as the documented complaints against the current one would indicate. 

I would like those who speak of “entrenched paid staff” to consider what they are saying. They are talking about people whose career is radio, who have jobs at the station. Isn’t it better that we have a seasoned experienced staff that establishes continuity, that understands radio and is proud when they do exceptional work in it? I’d hate to go to a restaurant where the cook was changed every two months and the waiters were learning their job. 

I have utmost respect for the current paid staff at KPFA. I see them as serious, hard working professionals of integrity who produce outstanding radio under onerous conditions. 

Adam David Miller 

• 

LANEY COLLEGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yipes. I had to read your front-page story on the Laney Africa trip (July 19, 2005) three times in an attempt to discern the controversy. After the first paragraph, it took 10 paragraphs (by my count), giving the history and rationale of Rehema Gueye’s actions, in order to get to the fact that money was allocated for only four Laney College students. Subsequently, there is one sentence in the article vaguely referencing Gueye’s fund-raising activities, and another sentence about “expressions of concern and skepticism from Laney College trustees and administrative staff members.” No details are given. The article then ends with a couple paragraphs about the presumed value of the trip. I’m glad that no one is likely to ask me what this front-page controversy is about because I would have no substantive information. 

Robert Gable 

• 

FATAL SHOOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Not to be missed in the tragic story of the fatal shooting of Meleia Willis-Starbuck is that though the victim was a Berkeley girl, her friend and alleged slayer is a Hayward youth. It is understandable why troubled youths from around the East Bay crash Berkeley High. No where else is there a school as supportive of angry culture. Berkeley’s resident’s pay a terrible price for the unique non-enforcement of residency in Berkeley schools. Until the school board decides to enforce residency requirements, the education gap and social problems will continue to mar our city. Meleia and others pay a steep price for this liberal policy. 

David Baggins 

• 

MISREPRESENTED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It seems as though the liberals in the Bay Area has shoved their in their mouth again. Like so many others, including UC Berkeley students with an agenda, Ms. Mellow (Letters, July 22) grossly misrepresented this crime as a call for action for a completely irrelevant cause. If she had inquired further into this tragedy, she would realize that this was no misogynist crime, as she portrayed it. Shame on her for exploiting a tragedy as a platform for her own views! I fully support the advancement of women, and in this context, it would have been more appropriate to have celebrated Meleia’s life and accomplishments—instead, Ms. Mello incorrectly repainted the scenario as a hate crime, when in reality, it was her friend who shot her.  

Kathy Tieu 

Berkeley 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The letters published in the July 22 edition were all written before it was revealed that the shooting suspect was a friend of the victim. 

• 

BIAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is appalling to see, once again, the Berkeley Daily Planet publish under the rubric of objective reporting that which is in reality a reflection of the paper’s profoundly anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias. The reference here is to the so-called “hostile takeover” of the Peace and Justice Commission (July 22 edition) by what might reasonably be inferred from the piece to be a conspiracy of appointees to create a pro-Israeli stance on the commission. 

The hackneyed canard of Jewish conspiracy implied by Planet’s reportage is a standard invocation of age-old anti-Semitism and the Planet owes the Jewish community an apology for it.  

Because a majority of the Commission no longer believes Berkeley should be a national laughingstock by promulgating inane city decrees on international matters doesn’t make said commissioners components of a pro-Israeli cabal. In fact, you don’t have to be part of a Jewish conspiracy to believe that measures like the Rachael Corrie matter should not be part of a city commission’s function. 

Indeed, there are far more pressing local issues to which the commission should confine itself, for by addressing these it just might actually have an impact instead of wasting time with the pathetic international ideological posturings we have seen it exhibit so often in the past. 

One matter for the commission to consider would be the incessant violence of local minority communities which has led to the murder of the gifted Meleia Willis-Starbuck along with scores of other young residents of the East Bay. As usual, we see plenty of letters from both gun advocates saying it was not the fault of access to handguns that precipitated the violence and typical rejoinders from left-liberals which would have one believe that handgun availability is the root cause of murder in minority communities. Both arguments have merit and both are all too simplistic.  

Left-liberals eschew the responsibility factor exhibited by the paucity of parenting in the minority communities and then condemn realistic criticism by the likes of Bill Cosby when he urges the black community to start doing right by its own populace rather than always projecting the blame on guns, racism, poverty, etc. Until the question of individual responsibility is properly addressed by left-liberals, Republicans who advocate it will find continued support by a public too intelligent to succumb to the facile societal excuses of the left. 

On the other hand, there is no doubt that the ease of obtaining firearms which are used far more for criminality than self-defense has facilitated the unspeakable death toll among minority youth. Until the nation addresses this murderous tool regularly utilized by violent youth, the carnage will continue. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

HALF-TRUTHS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My thanks to Mr. Doran who, in very few words, dramatically demonstrated the belittling attitude and lack of response to citizens’ questions and concerns displayed by BUSD during the discussions concerning the West Campus site. The Daily Planet would certainly be capable of responding to Mr. Doran’s sarcastic references to its decisions relating to publication of opinion and commentary, if a response were warranted. 

With respect to Mr. Doran’s gratuitous remarks about “half truths” and “ignorance,” I have the following response: As to ignorance, the point I made was precisely that West Campus neighbors feel that we are being kept ignorant of the school district’s processes, planning and funding. I did not detail the many hours I spent and the lengths I had to go to obtain basic documentation readily available once I was allowed to look at material that is not posted on the website and can only be viewed at the district’s office. I also didn’t point out the curious fact that to date, no one at the district has been able to locate the documents relating to the board’s voting to purchase the property at Sixth and Gilman, which should have included a description of the purpose for which the land was to be used. The response I received to my request to view these documents, mysteriously absent from the board’s minutes can only be characterized as a “run around.” 

As to “half truths,” had Mr. Doran taken the time to explain the other half of the statements he refers to as “half truths,” I’m sure the planet would have graciously printed however many words it took. And we would all have been the wiser. Instead, we now have a perfect example of the arrogant and frustrating conduct that impelled me to write to the Planet in the first place. 

Ruchama Burrell 

• 

UC DEAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your recent story on disclosure of the city’s nondisclosure agreement with UC ended: 

“In an effort to prevent controversy over future agreements, Mayor Bates and Councilmember Kriss Worthington introduced a proposal last month to require future confidentiality agreements dealing with major land use lawsuits to include provisions that allow for public review and comment before the council acts. 

“Last week, however, the mayor temporarily withdrew the proposal, according to his aide Cisco DeVries, because he was concerned that the City Council could not legally set a policy which would bind future councils.” 

I’m beginning to think Berkeleyites need a category in which to collect and remember such statements by city officials. It might be called “Can they be that stupid—or is it just that they think we are?” City councils, and above all those in the Bay Area, increasingly set policies increasing the transparency and inclusiveness of their processes. To that end, they bind themselves and future councils until and unless those future councils amend the policies through the regular legislative process. The policies are called sunshine ordinances. In light of recent events it’s hard to think of a community that needs one more. 

Terry Francke 

General Counsel 

Californians Aware 

Carmichael  

• 

SUPPORT THE PLANET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If you’re reading this letter, odds are you share my view that the Berkeley Daily Planet is providing an invaluable service to the greater Berkeley community. Yet the powers that be at City Hall are trying to drive the Planet out of business. 

Because some of the Planet’s editorial and news content has been critical of these powers, they’ve retaliated by withdrawing city public notice and other advertising from our local newspaper. Instead, they’ve decided to place city ads in the East Bay Daily News, a paper owned by the Knight Ridder chain whose apparent sole purpose is to financially crush the Planet in order to replace it with their pseudo-local-newspaper. Unfortunately, there are those at City Hall equally eager to accomplish this egregious goal. 

Becky and Mike O’Malley, who edit and publish the Planet, are at an age when most people retire. Nonetheless, they have devoted enormous amounts of their own time, energy and money to create a local newspaper that’s by far the best I’ve read in my 38-plus years as a Berkeley resident. The O’Malley’s efforts have not gone unrecognized. And, most recently, the Planet was awarded a number of prizes by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. But rather than honoring the O’Malleys as Super-Citizens, the decision-makers at City Hall are hoping to bankrupt and silence them. 

We can stop the politically-motivated boycott of the Berkeley Daily Planet by City Hall. Please call, write and e-mail the mayor, councilmembers and the city manager to demand that city advertising be returned to the Planet. 

Contact information for city officials is available at Berkeley’s website, www.ci.berkeley.ca.us, or in the phone directory. 

Marty Schiffenbauer 

• 

TAXES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Fred Foldvary doesn’t get it. The “club” is American society. Taxes are the dues. It is true that sales taxes are quite regressive and probably should be replaced by an increased progressive income tax and luxury taxes on certain goods. And the poor should be protected from excessive property taxes as well. 

But the point remains: If we want the “benefits” of a thriving society, police and fire protection, an adequate educational system to give us better trained workers and professionals, a health care system that is not driving our society and our employers into bankruptcy, etc., we need to pay for it and taxes are the mechanism (the dues as it were). We should be discussing which taxes do the job most fairly and successfully, not how to avoid taxes altogether as Fred seems to think we ought to do. 

Mal Burnstein 

• 

ROSE-COLORED GLASSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I, like most of you, mourn and am sick at the death of yet another young person to the careless use of guns. It is time for many to remove their rose-colored glasses. Berkeley High School is a school where the Black Panthers are idols. A school where “radical” politics encourages the “by any means necessary” approach to social change, where social justice can be twisted to the “politics of blame” rather than personal responsibility. 

At BHS there is a huge problem of teaching by indoctrination rather than critical thinking. A few years ago, the school board adopted a “controversial” speaker’s policy, which of course is not enforced. Last year in my son’s English class the “Unity Day” speaker was a youth advocate (your tax money hard at work) who filled the students’ heads with utter nonsense. He suggested black males are discriminated against for minor behavior problems at school. Suspended, they find themselves home alone and end up arrested for selling drugs on the corner. His tale further explained that society eventually put this drug dealer away for good using the three strikes law. I complained, and rather than address the misinformation, my son was moved to a different class. 

Last evening one of the students from this English class jumped our fence running from the cops. My son had to stop mowing the lawn, while the cops searched our yard and the block for two hours. The search could have been done in a few minutes with a canine unit. But the Berkeley Police Review Commission voted against that request last year, and Mayor Bates did not provide leadership to move Berkeley out of the tired 1960’s rhetoric. The importance of civil rights has been exchanged for the “politics of blame.” 

Read Meredith Maran’s book, Class Dismissed, supposedly an accurate portrayal of BHS. Absent is any realistic picture of the thug culture on campus, which at that time was scarier than down in the ‘hood. Read how the teachers took students out of class and marched on the police station demanding the release of a youth who had run from the police. This community still believes the war is against the cops, not against the thug culture. 

Last night, my son who graduated from the same program as the murder victim finally decided to not listen to gangster rap again. Other young adults are feeling the same. Please for the sake of the youth; remove your rose-colored glasses. 

Laura Menard 

• 

SIDESHOWS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s most recent commentary (“Did L.A. Times Story Spark Brown’s Sideshow Law?” July 22) omitted some critical details about Oakland “sideshows.” For example, Mr. Allen-Taylor failed to mention that the same March 7 L.A. Times article reported that while the sideshow phenomenon began in Oakland about a decade ago as impromptu street parties featuring stunt driving, “about two years ago, it took an ominous turn, with crashes, beatings, fatal shootings, and a rave-like lunacy fueled by the psychedelic stimulant Ecstasy.”  

Mr. Allen-Taylor has consistently downplayed the violent—and all too often lethal—nature of sideshows in his opinion and news pieces. His most recent column failed to mention that since November 2004, there been have five homicides in which spectators were shot and killed during or near street races or sideshow events in Oakland. Moreover, spectators are often robbed, beaten, or sexually assaulted during sideshow events (San Francisco Chronicle, July 12).  

Finally, I urge Daily Planet readers to log on to www.yourcallradio.org and listen to an archived broadcast of a July 11 KALW radio call-in program, in which several Oakland residents vividly described the harmful impact that sideshows have had on their neighborhoods, such as not being able to leave their homes for fear of getting hurt. As one of the callers noted, it is preposterous for anyone to argue that legalized, regulated sideshows could ever be a viable alternative to the illegal kind, since it is the illegal nature of sideshows which makes them appealing to sideshow drivers and the spectators who cheer them on.  

Eric Tremont 

?

Popular culture has given us a series of memorable duos—Laurel and Hardy, Sonny and Cher, Batman and Robin. Now the Republicans have produced George Bush and his alter ego, Karl Rove. Because of “Plamegate,” the relationship of the GOP’s dynamic duo dese rves close attention. 

The Bush-Rove partnership formed in 1993 when George decided to run for governor of Texas. Rove was the architect of Bush’s successful gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. Often characterized as “Bush’s brain,” Karl choreograph ed George’s public appearances and fabricated his image as a leader. While Bush had a reputation for being ill-tempered and belligerent, after Rove began his makeover there were few glimpses of W’s dark side. Building upon Bush’s bonhomie Rove created a p opular image of George as a regular guy, “a good Christian.” 

Now, Karl’s day job is to certify the loyalty of all White House appointments and nominations; he also considers the political ramifications of all Bush policies—a huge chore considering that i n this administration, everything is political. Karl’s night job is more sinister. Often described as the consummate political trickster, Rove is W’s enforcer. If a Democrat’s career is destroyed by a carefully staged negative campaign, Washingtonians usu ally credit this to the deceptively cherubic Karl; it is said to bear, “the mark of Rove.” In 2004, John Kerry led Bush in the polls until the notorious Swift boat ads flooded TV screens. Kerry never recovered from the attacks on his patriotism. Most poli tical observers credited the Democrat’s demise to the machinations of Karl Rove. 

Bush and Rove have a strong personal bond. Writing in the May 1, 2003, edition of the New York Review of Books, veteran political analyst Elizabeth Drew remarked that the two share an appetite for extreme conservative doctrine along with a capacity for ruthlessness and a reservoir of resentment. Drew observed that while W covers his true nature with a veneer of amiability, Rove is more transparent; he plays not only to win, but also to destroy his opponents. In the White House the two work in unison; neither takes political action without consulting the other. 

When Robert Novak outed CIA-operative Valerie Plame in a July 14, 2003, column, it was widely felt to bear the mark of Rove. In 2002, Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, had gone to Niger to investigate the possibility of Iraqi purchase of uranium. Although Wilson, a seasoned diplomat who had worked for the first President Bush and Bill Clinton, reported that the purchase was “highly unlikely,” George W. Bush ignored this information and used the unfounded accusations in his controversial 2003 State of the Union Address justifying an attack on Iraq. 

Subsequently, Wilson told his side of the story in a July 6, 2003, op-ed piece in the New York Times, titled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa.” After the Wilson article ran, the Bush administration was deluged with questions about why one of their representatives publicly disagreed with them. Novak served as their mouthpiece, indicating in his column that it hadn’t been the administration that suggested that Wilson go to Niger but, instead, his wife. “Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction,” he wrote. 

In the course of this explanation for seemingly inconsistent administration conduct, Plame was outed as an undercover CIA operator, a federal felony. A grand jury was convened and an aggressive special prosecutor, Robert Fitzgerald, was assigned to invest igate. 

At the time the Novak column appeared, many Washington insiders saw the machinations of Bush-Rove. It was assumed that Karl had been tasked to clean up the Wilson affair, and in the course of providing deep background to Novak and others, identifi ed Wilson’s wife as a CIA agent. Most hypothesized that Bush and Rove were unaware that it is a crime to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA agent. While Karl has consistently denied identifying Plame by name, recent e-mails provided to the grand jury by Time magazine reporter, Matthew Cooper, indicate that Rove did describe her as “Wilson’s wife.” 

Since Time revealed Rove as their primary source for information about Valerie Plame, the White House has been assailed with calls for Karl to resign or, at the least, give up his security clearance. Predictably, George Bush and his press secretary, Scott McClellan, have stonewalled, refusing to respond to reporters’ inquiries about Rove.  

Plamegate provides a rare glimpse into the Machiavellian world of Bush and Rove. This administration talks a lot about character and responsibility, but its operational philosophy is that the ends justify the means; that it doesn’t matter how you get the job done so long as you are successful. In a rigid hierarchy, Bus h and Rove demand discipline and don’t tolerate dissent. Most Washington observers believe they outed Valerie Plame in order to punish Joseph Wilson and provide a warning for others. 

As we consider Plamegate, it should be remembered that Rove is Bush’s a lter ego. He plays Mr. Hyde to the president’s Dr. Jekyll. If Karl is guilty, then George is too. 

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

›n

Last week, as I was reluctantly writing a $1,500 check to send my two kids to a Berkeley summer camp, I started to think of what my parents, uncles and aunts did in the 1950s and ‘60s to provide childcare for their families during the summer months when school was out full-time.  

The following is a story of how I spent my summers. 

Every summer, my younger brother and I spent the sultry months in a rural backwater somewhere on the eastern shore of Virginia. This southern outpost, which was reverently referred to as “Down Home” by my grandmother and assorted aunts and uncles, drew my relatives like a magnet southward in cars stuffed with kids and fried chicken, and talk of past lives and remembered times. 

I found out later that the reason we always packed food for long trips in those days was “Jim Crow.” We couldn’t stop at the diners and restaurants we passed along the way because we wouldn’t have been served. Forget using the restroom, even in the gas stations! Be glad you got gas and go! The woods were our bathroom and fried chicken was our travel food of choice (it’s good hot or cold). After a seven to eight hour ride from New York City and Philadelphia our caravan of three to four cars (we always traveled down south as a group) would finally arrive down home. 

The modest piece of earth we so proudly owned was called Bay Side. It was originally owned by my great grandfather, Luke Burton, a former slave, farmer and mule team driver. There was a “country style” house which was elevated from the ground for some unknown reason and was infested with flies. I used to wonder how my mother, who would spend hours trying to eradicate the life of just one single fly that happened to invade her world in Philadelphia, would have dealt with these buzzing and flitting hordes. 

My grandmother, whose unselfish love and protection I will carry with me always, was never prouder than when she introduced “her boys” to almost forgotten, ill-clad and foreign-talking second and third cousins. 

An acre of cultivated field that yielded corn and tomatoes lay to the left of the house. I’ll never forget Nana eating a raw tomato right off the plant, with no salt! Outside of the field, the house, and assorted fruit trees and grapevines were the woods. The sound of the word “woods” catapulted my 12-year-old imagination into flight. “The woods.” Not a park with its safe trees and harmless squirrels, but the woods, full of unknown “dangerous” creatures and all sorts of adventures. I’m convinced that my fascination (in my telling stories of these woods) was the only reason I allowed myself to be stuffed in the back seat of an overcrowded Chevy and whisked away from mother and friends for an entire summer. 

I loved venturing into the shadowed wooded depths, armed with bow and arrow. My urban eyes would strain into every crevice; every clump of underbrush, looking for something that I know was hiding and waiting for two little boys like me and my brother. 

This particular summer, prior to the pressures of puberty, I knew an adventure was imminent. I became obsessed with the idea of finding a snake. It may have been something my grandmother said about the weeds around and under the house being ideal for serpentine domesticity that made me conscious of the possibility of their existence in my own backyard. A snake. There are no snakes in West Philadelphia but here, right next to the woods, there had to be at least one snake. I now had a purpose and a plan. 

The days that followed my revelation found me busy at work. Limbs and branches from every conceivable tree were askew about the yard. I made snake clubs and forked sticks with the same fervor that Noah must have possessed when building the Ark. There wasn’t a side of the house or an area of the yard where my craftsmanship was not in evidence by the presence of a giant club or some other primitive looking weapon. 

The days summered by. My brother and I vacationed the days away. My grandmother lovingly labored about with the energy of an army of grandmothers, cooking, peeling, washing and calling after us. “JOEEEY,” I can hear her now. Her voice traveling for miles, it seemed, or as far as necessary, to hasten us back to her protective perimeters.  

It was this soprano wail that I heard as I was approaching the steps on which she was descending with a load of wash in her arms. But she wasn’t calling Joey. The word she was shrieking was “SNAKE.” I responded like a soldier hearing a call to arms. I spun around in the direction she was flailing her now empty arms and there it was, slithering right next to my brother, not more than ten feet away. A snake. 

The club was in my hand as one-third of its shiny blackness disappeared into a clump of weeds. With all of my 12-year-old might, I sent the club crashing onto its ebony midsection. What a mighty blow! The snake twisted its front around to see what had happened to the rest of its length and the club found the snapping head with the precision of a billiard shot. 

My grandmother was shouting and trying to pull us away, but I would not be denied the trophy. My brother grabbed his club and joined in the pounding. The snake rolled and twisted its broken body from side to side until the inevitability of death calmed the scene. I was ecstatic! I beamed. My brother was in awe. “You got him Joe,” he kept saying. “You got him.” 

My grandmother was hysterical. “He was crawling right by Winston’s leg,” she kept repeating, “right by his leg!” 

I poked and played with my prize all that day. As the flies swarmed and converged on my trophy, I emptied can after can of Raid into their midst in my futile attempt to give dignity to a lifeless piece of meat. 

What a kill! It was black, about four feet long. My grandfather said it was a water moccasin, which are poisonous. To me, it was an anaconda. I wanted to skin it and keep this treasure forever, but my grandfather quickly rejected this idea and, around dinnertime, he threw the rotting carcass into the woods where it got caught in a tree. 

I stood there and watched it hanging from a branch, silhouetted against a purple sky. Turkey buzzards circled the tree. I grabbed my bow and arrow and thought, “Wow, I’m going to shoot a buzzard out of the sky!” 

I sneaked around from tree to tree until it got too dark to see. The next morning, it was gone. 

As my kids were boarding the bus in downtown Berkeley to go to camp I told them, “Don’t kill any wildlife, especially snakes.” 

As the bus pulled away, full of kids of many different colors and cultures, I was glad for how far we had moved from the “Jim Crow” summers of the past. I also wondered if they could ever have as much fun as we did. 

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Saturday night I’m upstairs lying on my couch, which is also my bed, when my computer makes a little pinging sound alerting me that a new e-mail has arrived. I can barely get myself disengaged from the covers but since I’ve been secretly hoping that something might entice me off the couch, I get up and check my inbox. It’s a rant from my friend Karen and a part of it reads, “I’m SO useless. It’s Saturday night and I’ve got nothing to do. No life, no energy, nada. I’m reading New Yorkers dating back to March 28. What are you doing?” 

I consider telling Karen I’m in the midst of dressing for the symphony and that I don’t have time to spread good cheer all the way to the northern-most region of the Idaho Panhandle, but I change my mind. “You think you’re pathetic?” I type in response. “Paleeeese. I’m lying on the couch reading tomorrow’s New York Times wedding announcements. How depressing is that?” 

“At least you can get the New York Times,” she fires back. 

“It gets worse,” I answer. “I’m trapped in a house full of lay-around slobs. Everyone here is prone.” 

It’s true. I live in a horizontal household. 

Willie, who helps me take care of my husband, is in the next room, in bed, watching TV. His excuse? He’s broke.  

In the attic, Jernae is sprawled across a mattress, channel surfing while talking on the telephone. Earlier in the day she’d given me a handwritten note entitled, “Things I Can Do Around Here for $20.” A list followed that included items such as “clean my room, do my laundry, wash the car, weed front yard, weed backyard.” There were instructions for me to put check marks in front of the chores that needed doing. I told her that her list contained things she could and should perform for free. Her response was to remind me that she was 15 and desperate. 

“We’re all desperate here,” said Andrea, who was leaning on her bedroom door, eavesdropping. “Look at me, I haven’t gotten out of my pajamas yet and it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon!” 

Jernae and I ignored her. Andrea is always dressed in pajamas. This time she was wearing a gold satiny ensemble that had once belonged to my grandmother. She went back into her room and lay down. Lying around in other people’s pajamas is what she does best. 

Downstairs, Ralph was, as usual, in his hospital bed. He was the only one with a good excuse. He’s paralyzed and can’t get up unless we help him. But Ralph wasn’t interested in getting out of bed. He was watching two different baseball games on two different TV sets, and he was monitoring the scores of other games on his computer screen. A portable radio was perched on a stool nearby, tuned to a game that wasn’t televised. Periodically, Willie, Andrea, Jernae or myself shuffled into the kitchen to look for something to eat. While passing by Ralph we asked if he needed anything, but he was too busy to respond.  

Now it’s 9 p.m. and I’m waiting for another e-mail from Karen so we can argue about who has the more pathetic life. I hear the ping of my computer indicating a new e-mail. But this time it’s from someone I don’t know, informing me that I can super enhance the size of my penis. I hit the delete button and go back to bed. My dog, Whiskers, takes her usual position, stretching across my pillow, wrapping her warm furry body around my head. From the other rooms in the house I hear the familiar, comforting sounds of one radio and five television sets tuned to six different programs. Andrea clears her throat, Willie argues with Judge Judy, Jernae laughs at something one of the Cosby kids says, and Ralph cheers for the As. I close my eyes and wait for Sunday. 

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Reason for running 

What started out as a routine San Pablo Avenue early morning traffic stop on July 18 took a different twist when a 26-year-old man stepped on the gas instead of the brake. 

When he finally came to a halt near the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Addison Street just after 3 a.m., the driver opened the door and made a sprint for freedom. 

When officers finally slapped the cuffs on him, they discovered the reason for his flight. The gentleman in question, it seems, had been packing a concealed weapon while driving. 

He now faces a variety of criminal charges, ranging from the weapons rap to resisting arrest, said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

Simulated gun 

When a couple of young bandits walked up to a 57-year-old pedestrian strolling along Parker Street near Shattuck Avenue six hours later and one claimed to have a concealed weapon, the pedestrian wisely handed over his wallet and avoided a potentially more dire outcome. 

Cash heist 

A man wearing a gray jersey with the number 26 on the back walked up to a 64-year-old man near the corner of Ninth Street and Hearst Avenue and demanded cash. 

The victim complied. 

Scooped at B & J’s 

A gunman walked into the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlor at 2130 Oxford St. about 9:15 p.m. on the 18th and demanded cash. 

His request fulfilled, the bandit departed. 

Sexual battery 

An anonymous caller informed police in the pre-dawn hours last Tuesday to report that he’d just seen an unpleasant encounter between a man and a woman near the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Emerson Street. Subsequent investigation revealed that the man had committed sexual battery on a 22-year-old woman. 

No arrest has been made, said Officer Okies. 

Unpleasant surprise 

A man who lives near the corner of Page and Fourth Streets in West Berkeley discovered something unpleasant when he walked into his home about 10:45 last Tuesday evening: a pair of fellows in the midst of a burglary. 

Officer Okies said one of the bandits punched him in the face, but the fellow managed to turn the tables, shoving and pushing them out of his home before they managed to loot the place. 

A call to the police and a quick search of the area turned up the two suspects, one 22 and the other a juvenile. 

The punch turned a mere burglary into a robbery, and the pair was booked on one count each of resisting arrest. 

Gunman robs three 

A lone gunman robbed three pedestrians near the corner of Gilman and Cornell Streets at 12:12 a.m. Wednesday, making off with their cash. 

Dumbest bandit ever? 

The fellow who robbed the Wells Fargo Bank at Tenth Street and University Avenue Thursday just before 11 a.m. forgot Rule Number One of his trade: Don’t pull off a heist unless you’ve got a full tank. 

The fleeing felon, who pulled off the robbery with a demand note, was spotted after he’d stopped to gas up at a station at Seventh Street and University Avenue. 

He made one more block before the black-and-whites pulled him over, said Officer Okies. 

Suspicious fire 

Berkeley firefighters are investigating the cause of a car fire that managed to ignite trees near the corner of Prince and Woolsey streets about 12:25 a.m. Friday. 

The blaze was quickly extinguished, said Officer Okies. 

Another robbery 

Two gunmen robbed a 20-year-old woman of her cash, cell phone and ID as she walked along the 1700 block of San Pablo Avenue about 4:30 Saturday morning. 

Brandisher 

Police arrested a 58-year-old man after he threatened a 21-year-old woman with a knife in the 1100 block of Harrison Street at 11:10 a.m. Saturday. 

A quick search by police turned up the suspect, who was booked on one count each of suspicion of brandishing a deadly weapon and resisting arrest. 

Max to the rescue 

A young Berkeley man who was the intended victim of a rat pack bicycle robbery shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday found an unusual rescuer coming to his aid—City Councilmember Max Anderson. 

A group of six or seven would-be robbers confronted the 25-year-old cyclist and grabbed his mountain bike. Anderson and another Good Samaritan stepped in before police arrived. 

The cyclist got his wheels back, and one of the would-be robbers was briefly arrested and then released.

On July 13 at their monthly meeting, the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees announced a forum to be held Aug. 1 at the South Berkeley Senior Center, titled “RFID: What’s it all about?” The supposed aim of this forum is to assemble a group of experts who will discuss the pros and cons of radio frequency identification (RFID) equipment and the appropriateness of its installation in the Berkeley Public Library system. 

This “forum,” more than a year after the board authorized and spent three quarters of a million dollars of Berkeley taxpayers’ money on RFID, and after RFID equipment has already been installed in Berkeley libraries, is a mockery. The San Francisco Public Library held hearings and meetings before they made a decision about RFID, and they rejected it. We were never given a choice. 

Months ago, squads of temporary employees were hired and deployed to stick RFID devices in our library materials. Gates have been erected in the libraries to monitor what we are checking out. The bar codes already in our library materials have been a cheap and efficient way to check materials in and out of our libraries and there was no reason to supplement them. (Contrary to claims by the director, repetitive stress injuries of library staff declined dramatically last year, before RFID equipment was installed.) 

If we, the taxpayers, who are being subjected to this questionable technology, decide that it is an unwanted invasion of our community and potentially dangerous to our privacy and to our health, does the library administration intend to remove the equipment and give our money back? 

The sole purpose of this forum is to pretend that the director and the board are going to be influenced by a free and open discussion of RFID, which is absurd. Some experts on RFID have already said they will decline to participate in the Berkeley forum unless there is the potential for these devices to be removed. 

Library Director, Jackie Griffin, whose idea it was to buy this equipment, seems to have no difficulty steamrolling through damaging changes to a local library system that was a national model of excellence. Her position as “secretary” to the board puts her in a role of power that is entirely inappropriate. Griffin monitors materials presented to the board, prepares minutes, and mail to board members is sent to her office. She is indifferent, at best, to suggestions and criticism from the public and from library staff. As library director, she is supposed to be our employee, and responsive to us, the board and the City Council. Instead she seems to be functioning like the CEO of a private company. 

The Berkeley Charter says trustees are appointed by the City Council, and trustees are responsible for the actions of the director. Until we start paying attention to board appointments, and until a more responsible attitude is adopted, we will see further dismantling of the Berkeley library system.  

Shirley Stuart is a Berkeley resident.

The installation of radio frequency identification devices in the Berkeley Public Library is a complex issue that deserves everybody’s attention. The devices are comprised of an antenna and a microchip embedded in a 2x2 inch square tag. The microchip contains information and the antenna conveys this information to readers/scanners/sensors that are within a distance of 18 inches. Often described as promiscuous, the tags will “talk” to any reader. So, if you were to borrow a book from the Central Branch and then walk into the Ross Dress for Less Store a block away, the readers in the security gates at the door will read whatever information is on the microchip that is embedded in your library book. Privacy, health, labor and costs issues come with the application of RFID in libraries. Privacy advocacy groups like Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU ) are opposed to RFID in libraries because its application is new and untested. Both groups are convinced that the privacy of library users will be compromised. For more information you can visit their websites at www.eff.org and www.aclu.org.  

Health issues and RFID have to do with unknown heath risks associated with the low-frequency radio waves that the sensors/readers/scanners emit (the gates at the entrance of libraries are readers). Doug Loranger from the San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union (SNAFU) tells us that there are studies emerging showing that there are “potential risks to public health posed by the radiation used by RFID wireless scanners.” You can read more on this in a letter that Doug wrote to the editor of this paper in the Feb. 18. Breast Cancer Research in San Francisco is also opposed to RFID in libraries because of potential health risks associated with radio frequency. These concerns are well worth examining in an increasingly automated world.  

The labor issues have to do with the ultimate goal of the RFID industry: a fully automated library system using RFID to track its materials. This means conveyor belts, automated book sorters and self-check machines. Presently, people transport library materials from the book drop room, sort the books and then shelve them. When automation does everything except shelve the books, the variety of tasks narrows and the chance of repetitive stress injuries increases. It should be noted here that the RFID industry boasts, without any backing evidence, that it reduces repetitive stress injuries. In fact, it will reduce the variety of tasks and eventually workers themselves.  

The issues of costs are plenty. The initial cost was $650,000, $500,000 of which was loaned to the library to be paid back over the next five years. This price tag just covers the supplies and equipment for installation. What is not included is the labor used to install tags and to modify library space to accommodate the new system. We don’t know how much it will cost the library to maintain RFID. Tags costs at least 50 cents apiece, and then there’s the imminent improvements since it is a new and untested technology. Checkpoint, the company that the library contracted with, owns the RFID system as “proprietary software.” They can charge whatever they want for upgrades and, should Checkpoint go bankrupt, the library will have to start over from square one and pay who-knows-what to a brand new vendor! Important note: two recent financial publications (SmartMoney, August 2005 and the insiders’ www.alwayson-network.com posted Sept. 27, 2004) doubt that RFID will be a “meaningful revenue generator,” and out of eight new “hot” technologies, one of the four to avoid is RFID: “high costs of implementation; bar-coding works just fine.” (SmartMoney, Aug. 25.) The public had no input into this purchase nor was the precautionary principle used.  

I guess this is a good time for two reminders to our gentle readers: first, Berkeley is famous for its Free Speech Movement and the progressive and left politics that came out of that movement. Right now the Berkeley Public Library is not reflecting this rich cultural history. Secondly, under the current presidency, progressive thought and action is under attack. Homeland Security’s primary mission is a surveillance infrastructure, and Berkeley Public Library is now part of it.  

Lee Tien of EFF and Peter Warfield of the Library Users Association explore all of these issues in specifics in three informative commentaries published in the Daily Planet: 

• “RFID Should be Canceled Immediately,” March 4-7 edition. 

• “RFID: Many Problems, Little Public Discussion,” April 8-11 edition.  

• “Industry’s Gain, Library’s Pain,” May 10-12 edition.  

Hopefully you would find these articles and websites at your local library. Get informed and attend the coming “Community Forum on RFID” that the Board of Library Trustees has promised on Aug. 1 from 6:30-9 p.m. at the South Berkeley Seniors’ Center. 

The Berkeley Public Library is one of the only institutions that any person can enter for free and walk away from richer. Its mission is to reflect the community’s culture and history. Protect the Berkeley Public Library from technology designed to take away our freedoms and demand that it be rejected!  

Wanda Crow is a Berkeley resident. 

While Bush’s mantra is “WMD,” the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees’ is “WCC” (workers compensation claims for repetitive stress Injuries). Expect to hear more about the radio frequency identification (RFID) system having been installed in the Berkeley Public Libraries to reduce WCCs for RSI; that is, unless the trustees change their minds about having Councilmember Gordon Wozniak as the panelist on RFID safety issues at their Aug. 1 RFID community forum.  

Wozniak, former deputy head of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s (LBNL) Nuclear Science Division, although a specialist in ionizing radiation (not the radio frequency radiation of RFID) cannot be trusted to give an undeceptive report even on ionizing radiation, let alone on RFID health and safety issues. 

On Aug. 20, 1998 (see letter to Berkeley City Council, signed “Gordon J. Wozniak, Radioactive and proud”) Wozniak stood before the City Council, and, in an attempt to downplay community concerns about tritium emissions (radioactive hydrogen) at LBNL, tried to bamboozle the council and the public by comparing the 10 milligrams of tritium emitted by the Tritium Facility to the 50 billion atoms of tritium in the human body. When asked if the 10 milligrams was a smaller quantity than the 50 billion atoms, Wozniak answered in the affirmative. This was a lie. The 10 milligrams of tritium, or 100 curies, is 5,000 billion billion atoms, 100 billion times as many as in a typical human. 

(Dr. Julian Borrill, “Many lab scientists duck responsibility to present issues honestly, clearly,” Berkeley Voice, Nov. 26, 1998, and Dr. Roger Byrne, in a Nov. 17, 1998 letter to Mayor Shirley Dean).  

Unfazed, Wozniak, now a councilmember, attempted once again “to snooker his colleagues with some statistical legerdemain” (Rob Browning, Daily Planet, Nov. 15, 2002). This time it concerned the narrow difference in effective radio transmission between the controversial Public Safety Building’s communications tower and a proposed alternative. One misfired 6 percent of the time, the other 9 percent, which Wozniak said was a 50 percent gap (3 being 50 percent of 6?!?). 

What more fitting speaker than Wozniak to perpetuate the myth that RFID was installed at the Berkeley Public Library to reduce worker compensation claims (WCC) for repetitive stress injuries? In December 2003, Library Director Jackie Griffin told the library trustees that the library spent $1 million in the past five years for worker compensation claims, mostly due to repetitive motion injuries. Actually, the library, in that period, spent just $167,871 on RSI-related claims, only 26 percent of the total $642,161 for WCC. There were no RSI claims in 1998, 2000 and 2004 (“RFID should be canceled immediately,” Daily Planet commentary, March 3, 2005). 

How can we trust Wozniak to honestly present the safety and health effects of RFID? His statement in 1998 that concerns about tritium (which emits ionizing radiation) were “wildly exaggerated and unfounded” have been totally discredited by the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR VII) whose recently released study states “The scientific research base shows that there is no threshold of exposure below which low levels of ionized radiation can be demonstrated to be harmless or beneficial,” (“Even lower radiation poses risk, panel says,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 30, 2005). 

Please come with an open mind and hard questions to the Board of Library Trustees Community Forum on RFID, Monday Aug. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. We hope the library trustees will have second thoughts and replace Wozniak with an RFID health effects expert such as Nancy Evans of Breast Cancer Fund, SNAFU’s Doug Loranger, or Cindy Sage, environmental consultant. 

Gene Bernardi is a member of Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense (SuperBold).  

The recently recommended revisions to the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance are basically intended to simply and clarify a process that is currently very interpretive, often ambiguous, creating landmarks that are later overturned by the City Council. Clarifying the ordinance would help everyone by creating standards everyone understands. This would improve the functionality of the commission, assist historic preservationists in preserving unique Berkeley buildings and clarify to builders what’s an appropriate site to build on. 

This controversy has everyone both in Berkeley and the Bay Area laughing about how the landmarks process works—or should I say doesn’t. I mean, come on, how can this system be used to designate Celia’s restaurant a structure of merit, for example? This vastly interpretive view of the ordinance allows those sitting on the commission to use a very wide set of standards to discover and ordain a landmark or the more ambiguous “structure of merit.” As a result, these moves are then overturned by the City Council after weeks of delay and wasted time—and yes, Berkeley tax dollars. To date I have never heard a clear and rational explanation behind Celia’s designation. If anything it makes those priding themselves on historic preservation look uniformed and arbitrary in their approach. 

The structure of merit designation, for example, does not landmark a building but says that the building or property has “significant qualities” that warrant prevention of alteration or demolition. This gray area does nothing in terms of clarification but gives great sway to those who may not want to see any new buildings on a site or may not want to see a building altered—for reasons having nothing to do with its history. But aren’t these powers really vested in the Zoning Adjustments Board and the Planning Commission? This is what clarity and purpose mean with the ordinance. 

In the ongoing hearings those supporting no change to LPO constantly talk about developers wanting to demolish Berkeley landmarks. Tell me one developer in town or out of town who has it on their check list—demolish historic buildings in Berkeley, make way for L.A.-style development. This is Berkeley, folks—BERKELEY. Those working, living and building here must be sensitive to the needs of the community and want to be. The days of bulldozing redevelopment ended in the 1970s. More than 30 years have passed and both the historic buildings of Berkeley’s past and innovative new structures need to share the progressive future of Berkeley. By the way, aren’t we supposed to be a PROGRESSIVE city? 

The bottom line is that the landmarks commissioners are supposed to be looking out for the common good of the entire population of Berkeley and our historically significant buildings. Well, let’s do that and make the rationale behind it up front and clear. 

I encourage the City Council to modify the ordinance with rational thinking at its core. Change the structure of merit designation to a requirement for a historic plaque that reflects how a location fits into the historic web of Berkeley’s past and define our Landmarks Preservation Ordinance along the lines of state and national standards to preserve our great inventory of historic buildings. 

Steven Donaldson is a life-long Berkeley resident and property owner. 

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Zelda Bronstein’s “Planner’s Alchemy” column opinion correctly pointed to a problem that’s salient in our own Planning Department—staff’s interest in having greater independence and authority even while staying professionally committed to objective service and communication. But it would be helpful to separate that from the speculation about an embedded political agenda in favor of growth at any price—what she might deplore as “dumb growth.” The two dynamics are probably not connected. 

Putting the private-agenda question aside for a few paragraphs, let me apply a different theory to the process of “aggrandizement of staff authority and power.” Grabbing more authority and power is what almost any political or bureaucratic entity will do if given the opportunity—it’s the nature of the beast. Let me illustrate with two examples from the ongoing attempt to revise the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO), which I’ve observed quite closely: 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) set out at the beginning of 2004 to produce a revised LPO draft in response to a City Council request and advice from the mayor’s permit streamlining task force. They originally intended to write a “technical only” revision that narrowly met new requirements of the Permit Streamlining Act and CEQA, leaving more consequential changes to a hypothetical second round. But they simply couldn’t resist the temptation to also make policy changes (thereby opening Pandora’s box for all subsequent interest in making big changes). To no one’s surprise, every policy-level change they proposed would have had the result of increasing the LPC’s scope and authority: including every permit-subject building over 50 years old to landmark review, gaining authority over demolitions of historic resources and CEQA-level determinations, and several more. 

That self-aggrandizing draft, however, need not be attributed to evil political motives—rather to an excess of zeal. Of course a commission will believe that if given more authority and less oversight it could do a better job. That enthusiasm is commendable, and even desirable in a vigorous democracy—but it needs to be vetted and constrained by the city as a whole to avoid potential abuses of power. That’s exactly what the subsequent year of work on the LPO revision has been about—trying to balance narrow commission enthusiasm with big-picture civic needs. 

The LPC was hardly alone in following this path. The same dynamic applied to the subsequent production of the Planning Commission’s LPO draft. At several problematic points—such as when there was difficulty in deciding how to make the every-building provision practical for ordinary homeowners desiring ordinary additions—the Planning Commission asked staff to “come up with language” that would provide alternatives. Lo and behold: all the “alternatives,” through multiple drafts, involved giving Planning Department staff and the zoning officer more authority to make independent decisions of consequence, based on criteria that would not actually be specified in the proposed ordinance. 

Once again we can best attribute this to “excess of zeal” rather than “devious plot.” Of course staff will believe that if given more authority and less oversight they could do a better job, and could then certainly work more efficiently than via a process requiring more messy public involvement. And once again our civic need is to balance narrow bureaucratic enthusiasm with what’s actually better for the city as a whole. 

So, Zelda, I hope we can keep these two important concerns separate in the future. Enthusiasm for power-grabbing happens not just among the bureaucrats but also among the commissions, and needs to be checked by very careful attention to the details of the legislation we approve. Private political agendas, however, originate among elected officials and their appointed senior managers and are—for better or worse—in the politicians’ hands to wield or check. 

The solution to organizational power-grabbing is continued vigilance in the legislative process, as the city council is now attempting with the LPO. But the solution to political agendas comes only via the ballot box. And even political change at the top wouldn’t eliminate those political agendas, it would only substitute new ones for the ones we have now learned to recognize. Be careful what you ask for there. 

Berkeley resident Alan Tobey is a retired technologist. 

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I scarcely believed my ears last week when I heard Councilmember Wozniak ask staff if there was a list of all the landmarks designated thus far in Berkeley, including their dates of designation. 

If I’m not mistaken, it was Councilmember Anderson who chimed in, asking if the list could also include designations that had been overturned by the City Council. 

This line of inquiry makes me wonder if the honorable councilmembers ever read their mail, or pay attention to what community members have been telling them. 

A complete list of Berkeley Landmarks is available on (surprise, surprise) the Berkeley Landmarks website: www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/landmarks.html. 

Click the “All Landmarks” link, and you’ll find three pages, each listing in table form up to 100 landmarks. Listings include name of property, address, architect’s name, date of construction, date initiated, date designated, and additional notes informing whether this property is on the National Register, the SHRI, a historic district, a structure of merit, or demolished. 

Each property name is also linked to an illustrated article about the landmark or, at the very least, to a photo of the property. 

In addition, a separate, redundant page lists only the structures of merit: www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/structures-of-merit.html. 

And there’s much more there, if the City Council would only take the trouble to look. 

I created the Berkeley Landmarks website in September 2003, because the city’s own listing was more than three years out of date. Berkeley Landmarks is now the largest and most complete such website in the nation. Architectural historians use it regularly for research purposes, and it is distressing to discover that the Berkeley City Council, while deliberating on the LPO, still appears to be totally unaware of it. 

The Berkeley Landmarks website does not include designations overturned by the City Council, but based on my research while constructing the website, I will venture to say that their number is fewer than 10. The BAHA office has a record of them. 

Councilmember Wozniak also asked about surveying the city for historic properties and wondered how many historic properties there might be in Berkeley. In the 1970s, with a grant from the State of California, BAHA volunteers surveyed hundreds of properties that are now listed in the SHRI (State Historic Resources Inventory). My printout of the state’s Historic Properties Directory for Berkeley, dated June 11, 2003, lists 918 such properties. However, this survey is not complete; many neighborhoods remain unsurveyed. 

The bulk of the surveyed historic properties have not been designated. This is not because we don’t know where they are, but because we don’t know enough about them, and it takes time and effort to research each one and write a landmark application. If you’ll take a look at any LPC agenda, you’ll see a long list of properties awaiting their turn. 

That said, not every historic property need be designated a landmark. Historic districts or neighborhood conservation districts can help protect historic neighborhoods. 

Councilmember Wozniak’s idea is excellent. If the city would take the initiative to secure grant funds, the surveying of Berkeley could be completed, and the whole issue of request for determination might be laid to rest. 

And as long as you’re visiting the Berkeley Landmarks website, take a little detour to the neighborhoods and see these recent photo surveys: 

Ashby Station 

www.berkeleyheritage.com/essays/ashby.html. 

High-Peaked Colonial Revival 

www.berkeleyheritage.com/essays/high-peaked_colonials.html. 

These and other recent surveys (e.g., Sisterna Tract and Central Park Tract) are entirely the work of neighborhood volunteers. 

Daniella Thompson is the website editor for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. 

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I sure learned a lot about guns and those who love them from the recent letters to the Daily Planet that were prompted by the slaying of Meleia Willis-Starbuck and the editor’s subsequent commentary on gun control. One letter writer claims that all women should be armed with handguns in order to fend off would-be rapists. Presumably gun possession would also help prevent muggings; thus men should pack heat every time they leave the house too. While it’s true that with everyone carrying guns the potential for the damn things to go off increases and they may be used in anger rather than self defense and their proliferation will increase the possibility of them finding their way into the hands of children, drunks and the mentally impaired, it will not be the gun’s fault if someone is killed or wounded in error (that is little solace to any victim’s family, I’m sure). 

One letter writer from Kansas (who refers to us as being in “The People’s Republic of California”) claims we Berkeley residents don’t fully understand proper firearm maintenance and technique and that we write about guns from ignorance. Here are some things I’m not ignorant of: 

• According to FBI statistics, in the year 2000 his state of Kansas had a higher rate of overall crime, murder and rape than California.  

• Also from the FBI, violent crime, rape, and murder all rose from 2003 to 2004 in Wichita (the writer’s home city) while here in Berkeley in those same years the number of rapes rose by one while there was a huge drop in the other crimes. 

• And according to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence the nation’s crime rate has fallen in recent years but states that chose to fight crime by loosening their concealed weapons laws have experienced a significantly smaller drop in crime than states which looked to other means to combat crime in their communities. 

Nonetheless we hear from our gun loving brethren that it is not the gun that kills, but the person. 

However, in the case that started this discussion, the shooter’s intended target was not the one struck down. Had he decided to employ a knife or blunt object it is a certainty that Meleia would have not died. Indeed one of the greatest tragedies communities suffer is when a stray bullet takes an innocent life. Collateral deaths tend only to result when assailants use guns. 

Another writer tells the Planet’s editor that “the lies you tell get people killed every day.” I’m amazed I read this bizarre claim. I should have stopped reading the letter when he called the editor “a condescending bitch.” He concludes by suggesting that “if you want go after something, why not cars” as they are responsible for more deaths than guns. Excuse us if we wait until cars are aimed and fired at our citizenry.  

As if this whole affair weren’t sad enough we have to endure one letter writer’s complaint that Meleia’s death has garnered so much more publicity because of her left-leaning political views. It’s hard to overstate how cruelly insensitive is such a remark. Never mind the great promise Meleia had demonstrated and what she had already accomplished. The writer would have been better served claiming that media reaction was fueled by this being an educated African American woman of some means, rather than one of the many who die in relative anonymity within our nation’s inner cities. This same letter-writer started off by noting “some more young blacks kill each other and the editor...” 

Such callousness and its deeper meaning is left to the individual to interpret. Yes, I’ve learned a lot about guns from recent letters. I’ve learned that guns and the right to posses them pale in importance next to three promises some great men once put forth for this country, those of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Moreover, guns often stand in the way of these promises, as one did for Meleia Willis-Starbuck.  

Richard Hourula is a Berkeley resident.›

You know the answer to the riddle: Where does a 900-pound gorilla sit? Anywhere he wants. Forty-one years ago, during the Free Speech Movement (FSM), we learned that there is indeed a gorilla in town, but camouflaged in Blue and Gold and crying out “Go Bears!” Questions about nuclear weapons labs, the treatment of UC workers and teachers’ assistants, or deals with the City of Berkeley are finessed by the administration ultimately down—or up—to the Regents, the university’s own college of cardinals.  

UC’s administration is not averse to hiding bureaucratic power plays behind parading Nobel laureates and a top-of- the-line student body—whose tuition has also gone top-of-the-line. Yet Clark Kerr, chancellor during the FSM, made no bones about what he called the multiversity: Run it like a corporation, hook up with other corporations and the government. These are already part of the military-industrial complex in general, and (quietly) the nuclear labs at Livermore and Los Alamos in particular. 

The Blue and Gold gorilla has recently done double duty, sitting first on the citizens of Berkeley, and then onto everyone in the country opposed to continued work on the nuclear arsenal. The local issue was covered by the Daily Planet, giving a history that characterized the City of Berkeley’s stance toward the UC administration as: “Speak loudly and carry a rubber banana.”  

I don’t mean to get Freudian here, I don’t know that the city attorney’s office got anything from the gorilla for offering backroom legal advice about how to keep backroom decisions secret. While this was in remarkable concordance with the presumed other side UC attorneys’ position, it may be as simple as an instinct to not irritate gorillas, or to bond with fellow bureaucrats at UC, rather than the messy citizens of Berkeley.  

While pondering this disheartening news, an even bigger UC story appeared. Because of “oversight” failures, UC administration had to bid publicly to keep running Los Alamos. And who would be a better partner than Bechtel, a genteel San Francisco-style war-profiteering corporation, not of the obvious and crude Halliburton stripe? And Bechtel has a distinguished pedigree, epitomized by Reagan’s now-beatified secretary of war, Caspar Weinberger.  

In case you’ve (hopefully) forgotten, he was called Cap for his friendly manner, though those of us not captivated by his charm called him Doctor Death—or Strangelove. He showed unremitting zeal in the build-up of weaponry that ranged from nukes to cluster bombs, making possible the “shock and awe” sideshow that the DOD put on in Iraq. Reagan’s secretary of state, George Schultz, was another Bechtel principal. 

With due modesty Bechtel could claim, without appearing right-wing themselves, to be principals in the right-wing driven military buildup of the last 25 years. This has culminated not only in the war on Iraq, but in a virtually unlimited free lunch for the MIC at the public treasury. This spending straps all peacetime purposes, including universities. As a result, the university needs to—it says—pursue military contracts. And since the competing bid is coming from Texas, let’s show California loyalty. UC and Bechtel executives eat raw carrots and don’t quote Jesus, at least out loud. 

UC administration claims that, besides patriotism and national security—rationales now proclaimed by several generations of regents—the “basic” research done at the labs is best done by academics rather than some heartless soulless corporation (I’m joking, the administration would never refer to a corporation that way). This reasoning has been picked apart in the old days when there was a faculty peace movement that used to protest the UC administration’s making money while giving an educational fig leaf to the “campuses” at Livermore and Los Alamos.  

Now it’s underreported student activists who carry on the long-term fight to expose UC’s bedding down with the military-corporate—and academic—complex. They protested at the last UC regents meeting, questioning Blue and Gold pride over UC employees grooming the world’s biggest nuclear weapons (see the Coalition to Demilitarize the University of California, or TriValleyCares.org). 

So it’s probably small potatoes for the UC administration to finesse the city of Berkeley out of a few million in a 20-year backroom deal. Maybe it’s just keeping in shape for the Big Game—not Stanford, but that key to the public treasury. 

Neal Blumenfeld is a psychiatrist and FSM veteran. 

I was standing in a gallery in the New York MOMA in April when I saw it. “Invisible Man?” I went straight across the room toward the huge photograph of a young black man, seated on a stool, hunched over a pad of paper, writing, as hundreds of electric li ght bulbs glared yellow from the walls and ceiling only an arm’s length from him. 

“It is!” I exclaimed to the three or four people glancing at it as they roamed past. “It’s the opening of Invisible Man!” They looked at me with the polite patience reserve d for elderly nuts. “The novel,” I insisted. “Ralph Ellison. Around 1950. You remember. Man hides underground to write archetypal black American experience. Everybody read it.” 

Not them. They looked blank, shrugged, and moved on to the next painting. 

Ba ck home, I decided to reread Invisible Man and two other short novels using a similar metaphor: The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright, and Notes From the Underground by Dostoevsky. I wondered if I would see a hereditary line running through them, Dostoevsky to Wright to Ellison; if I’d learn more about the meaning and attraction of the “underground” as a metaphor. 

The connotation of the term “underground” (apart from its literal use, as in the London Underground train system) can be symbolicall y positive (down the rabbit hole with Alice). More often it is negative, or mixed. In Greek mythology, the underworld is the kingdom of all the dead, with eternal tortures for evil souls, but dancing in the Elysium Fields for the virtuous. In Christian my thology, the underground is negative, designed only for sinners—hellfire, but possible purgatory, redemption, and a rising up to Heaven, somewhere “up” there in the skies. 

In “noir” movies of the 1930s and 1940s, the “underworld” referred to the not-so-hidden evil but glamorous doings of urban criminals. As a political metaphor, underground can be a positive term for undermining the rule of the unjust: the underground railroad for escaping slaves; the underground press to expose news that is censored. 

“Going underground,” can mean a change of identity in order to avoid joining in government-ordered violence (the draft) or, more dubiously, can mean using violence to counter government violence (the splinter group of the 1960s, Weather Underground).  

Inv isible Man does not actually take place in the protagonist’s hidden hole. The closed-off, forgotten basement which he makes bright by tapping illegally into city power lines is only the temporary shelter where he writes his above-ground life story so far: a series of aborted disasters—college, a move from rural south to urban north, menial jobs, left-wing politics, demagogues, murderers, race riots. The central metaphor of the novel is not the underground; it is his “invisibility” as a man, as a human be ing in the reality behind the sham promises held out to him on all sides of American society. 

Richard Wright’s black protagonist, Fred Daniels, actually does live his story underground, in the city sewer system where he had fled from police who were tort uring him to force him to confess a crime he did not commit. The sewer tunnels are a rich and strange part of the city, surface and underground levels dependent on one other. Fred moves back and forth between levels, finding food and tools in forays above ground, finding rest, shelter, and a kind of free expression underground. He expresses his rejection of the lies of the world above with gestures like papering the walls of his little sleeping alcove with paper money, tamping down the damp earth floor an d studding it with diamonds (all taken from a safe in one of his above-ground forays). Fred lacks the formal education of Ellison’s unnamed protagonist, but he is also free of naïve belief in false promises and intellectual theories. Furthermore, Fred shows impressive skills and creativity in making his underground survival possible. 

Dostoevsky’s unnamed protagonist calls his shabby apartment “a dreadful, horrible hole,” but the underground from which he sends us his “notes” or self-analyses is a mental underground, a place of spite and the “disease of consciousness.” 

At 40, with a small inheritance, he can now quit his petty civil service job and retire completely to that “hole” and wallow in feeling—as we say today—disrespected. He sets up situations sure to inspire disgust in the most benign acquaintances, then spends his time alone mulling over his shame and plotting a revenge which is sure to backfire on him. Finally he turns his spite onto someone more despised and helpless than he, so that he can enjoy feeling even more base, analyzing and re-analyzing his “insincere motives, so deliberately invented, so bookish,” until he avows that he cannot stand himself. Neither can we. And we suspect that our revulsion, too, thrills him. 

The underground of Dostoevsky’s spiteful man resembles the lower depths of the Christian Hell—with this particular tormented sinner uninterested in purgatory or redemption. For both Ellison’s invisible man and Wright’s Fred Daniels, the underground is a shelter from danger, but Ellison’s hero definitely plans to resurface with his story. Fred Daniels has no plans except survival, moment by moment; the rising of hope for more than that becomes his undoing.  

Women hardly exist in the worlds of these three men. One old black woman is the savior of Ellison’s hero when he is sick and starving, and she is the only person who does not betray his trust. Dostoevsky’s spiteful man pretends to love a vulnerable young prostitute, only to insult her when she returns sincere love. In Fr ed Daniels’ desperate flight into the sewers, there are no women, not even in his fantasies or his memory. 

How do the three books hold up at second reading? Invisible Man seems a bit schematic, the symbolism, the surrealism of the race riot, a tad liter ary and abstract. But some parts seem better than at first reading. For instance, in the 1950s Ellison was criticized for his “too-negative” satire on the Communist Party USA; in the years since reading the novel, I’ve read and known a lot more communists and ex-communists whose now less-censored memories of those days match Ellison’s take on “The Brotherhood.” 

Perhaps the book is less stunning only because we are more familiar than we were fifty years ago with the racist poison it digs up. The final words still hold a quiet power, perhaps more than they did in 1950: “Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you.” Maybe because I’m 50 years older, I feel even more strongly that the disillusionments, damage, failures, lies, and stupidity that the young Invisible Man barely survived are those of most human lives, in his case writ large and deepened by racial oppression. Ellison had to have a fine mind and a large heart not to lose sight of that. 

Reading the Dostoevsky story still feels li ke being at a party or a bar, cornered by a mean drunk who enjoys watching you writhe as he repeats his sordid confession over and over. I hate to admit that I was forced to find myself identifying as well—just a little—with Dostoevsky’s spiteful old bore. He is that inner voice that wakes me at three in the morning to pick at the scab over some old insult or lie or neglect I suffered—or, worse, inflicted on someone else. 

He feeds me the words of the retort I should have spouted against some slight or i nsult, but didn’t think of at the time. He nags me about my own stupid, hurtful remarks that I should have swallowed, or rehearses the apology I should have made before it was too late. My great distaste for these sadomasochistic creeps who infect Dostoe vsky’s work may simply reflect my distaste for the trace of them I try not to see in myself.  

But this time around, Richard Wright’s novella—the shortest of the three—was a revelation, an economical, poetic evocation of much more than I had seen the fi rst time, when only Fred’s victimhood registered with me. I would be happy to identify with Fred, to see more of myself in him. 

He is clever, inventive, creative, curious, sensitive, moral, and—given the chance, which he wasn’t—loving. He has no pretensi ons, no self-pity, but plenty of courage, along with an unconquerable love of life. Yet he isn’t an idealized abstraction; he is a real, credible, “ordinary” man, unable to intellectualize the deep wisdom of his feelings, yet not simple. The awful words o f the bad cop, “You’ve got to shoot his kind. They’d wreck things,” read like a word of hope in these dark days, a promise that his spirit can still upsurge and “wreck things” as they are.  

›

“Our Father who art in heaven ... how, how ... how?” 

On the floor of a caged enclosure in a jail, a Nyorican man kneels in the middle of the night and frantically tries to recite the Lord’s Prayer from memory, sticking on “hallowed,” while other unseen inmates holler obscenities, telling him—and then each other—to shut up. 

Much later, he’ll be just as frantically apologizing to everyone like some sort of mantra, all his street cockiness gone. 

The shaky prayer and its response opens the Fellowship Theater Guild’s production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Jesus Hopped the “A” Train, running through Aug. 20 at San Francisco’s Fellowship Church, on Larkin Street just north of Broadway. 

A jailhouse drama is an unusual kind of play to see in a church hall, especially one that doesn’t offer any particular answers—religious or social—to either the personal dilemmas of the inmates or the questions that arise in a society that incarcerates (and sometimes executes) a sizable proportion of its citizenry. 

Jesus Hopped the “A” Train is also low on the usual brutality and sentimentalism of the genre. It successfully employs confessional monologues as character studies that also reveal insights into motivation and responsibility for criminal acts, insights that don’t leave out contradiction. 

Angel Cruz (played by Hector Osorio) is in the slammer for attempted murder. 

“All I did was shoot him in the ass! What’s attempted murder about that?” he protested to his appointed lawyer (Nell Schwartz), whom he runs through the ringer in glib, streetwise fashion. But the lawyer’s sympathetic and sees a chance to pull out the stops of the legal skills she’s proud of. 

The lawyer tells a story about her father accompanying her to a school dance and making a big hit, before stabbing a bigotted suburbanite with a dessert fork. She says that’s why she wants to take on Angel’s case, despite his resistance. She’s seen the same look on his face her father had that night, “incredulous ... as if the whole world was crazy and he the only sane one ... The dysfunctional side of me was proud of him. One man’s neurotic is another man’s hero.” 

Meanwhile, another, more seasoned prisoner is going through a change of fortune. Lucius Jenkins (Felix Justice) is working out in an outside cage on his hour exercise period, revelling in the sunlight and talking a blue streak to himself in semi-Biblical lingo. 

“Usurp the serpent, Lord, it’s crawling up my leg,” he says. “Let me jog in place up to heaven, with your grace.” His friendly guard, offering a steady flow of cigarettes and food, is replaced by a cynical hardnose, Valdez (Peter Fitzsimmons). 

“It used to amaze me, the valuable objects people cavalierly discard,” Valdez has previously told the audience. “[They] do not understand that, once you discard an irreplaceable object, it’s lost forever.” 

He baits Lucius: “I hear you give out autographs.” Lucius protests, ”Prayer cards!” The hazing gets ugly. Lucius protests the violation of his constitutional rights. 

“I’m the constitution and you’re a skinny black faggot,” Valdez tells him. “You are not here because you’re a VIP, but because the livestock downstairs wants to cannibalize you.” 

In a series of revolving scenes and monologues, these four (and Lucius’ sympathetic ex-guard, Charlie D’Amico, played by Jaime Gutierrez) play out the compulsions and hidden agendas of their own characters and of their strange interpersonal relationship in the most impersonal of circumstances. 

The plot quite literally thickens. Lucius and Angel exercise opposite each other, sometimes arguing, sometimes exchanging thoughts. 

The cast is solid, with Felix Justice and Peter Fitzsimmons—cofounders of the recently reactivated Fellowship Theater Guild—as standouts. C. J. Verburg’s direction relies on the actors’ directness and appeal to the audience; this helps overcome the limited opportunity the script provides for staging. A sense of claustrophobia doesn’t always translate to internal or emotional truth, though this cast gives a great deal to a compelling story.  

Something deserves to be said about the Fellowship Church, a unique landmark under whose aegis the Guild performs. Founded in 1944 by San Francisco State philosophy professor Dr. Alfred Fisk, and Dr. Howard Thurman, a well-known theologian and a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples was the first interfaith and interracial church in the nation. 

It has always encouraged “the expression of spirituality through performance,” clearly a priority of its pastor, the Rev. Dorsey Blake, and its congregation. 

The Fellowship Theater Guild is real community theater, and not at all in the usual pejorative meaning of local amateur entertainment. It is in, of and about the community. As seasoned stage folk, they touch a chord of what theater is all about. They deserve support. 

Jesus Hopped The “A” Train plays at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 and 7 p.m. through Aug. 20. Fellowship Theater Guild, 2041 Larkin St., San Francisco. There will be no Sunday performances in July. $18-20. For tickets call (866) 811-4111. For more information call (415) 776-4910.  

TUESDAY, JULY 26 

CHILDREN 

Nick Barone Puppets with a cast of over twenty friendly dinosaurs dressed as cowboys at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

FILM 

Eyeing Nature “Proteus: A Nineteenth-Century Vision” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell it on Tuesdays Solo performer storytellers share their work at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $5 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

David Ewing Duncan introduces “The Geneticist Who Played Hoops with my DNA” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dan Zemelman Trio with Dayna Stevens at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Melissa Ferrick at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

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

Django Reinhardt Festival with the John Jorgenson Band and David Grisman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200.  

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

Eric Shrifrin, solo piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only “Billion Dollar Brain” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Arab Women Film Festival “Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Latin American Working Class Film Fest at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but donations accepted. 415-642-8066. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ernest Callenbach on the 30th Annniversary of “Ecotopia” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. www.ecologycenter.org 

Writing Teachers Write with host Judy Bebelaar at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 2352 Shattuck Ave. 644-3635. 

Christopher Sorrentino describes “Trance: 1974; the SLA; Tania” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

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

Paris King Band, funky rock, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

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

Flowtilla, world groove jazz funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Django Reinhardt Festival with the John Jorgenson Band and David Grisman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JULY 28 

THEATER 

The Lobster Project “Killing My Lobster and the Wonderful World of Science” Thurs. and Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 7:30 and 10 p.m. and Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $12-$17. 415-558-7721. www.killingmylobster.com 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “Heroes for Sale” at 7:30 p.m. and “Mayor of Hell” at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Latino Film Festival “ANC Hip Hop Revolution” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dana Adam Shapiro introduces his mystery “The Every Boy” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Word Beat Reading Series with Russell Gonzaga and Karen Gorman at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Super Hoss, bluegrass, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Helene Attia & Own Davis Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Brandi Carlile at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryplough.com 

Anton Schwartz Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Django Reinhardt Festival with Dorado Schmitt, Florin Niculescu and others at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Selector, laptop funk, beat machines, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

FRIDAY, JULY 29 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “A Murder is Announced” by Agatha Christie at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Runs Fri. and Sat. through Aug. 13. Tickets are $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “The Thousandth Night” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m., through July 31, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $36. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep, “The Ugly American” Created and performed by Mike Daisey at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Aug. 13. Tickets are $30-$35. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Central Works, “The Grand Inquisitor” by Dostoevsky. Thurs - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 31. Tickets are $9-$25 sliding scale. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Anything Goes” Cole Porter’s musical, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Aug. 13 at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

“Livin’ Fat” a comedy about an African American family struggling over a financial blessing, Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., through July 30, at Sweets Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50-$35. 233-9222. 

The Lobster Project “Killing My Lobster and the Wonderful World of Science” Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 7:30 and 10 p.m. and Sun. at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12-$17. 415-558-7721. www.killingmylobster.com 

FILM 

For Your Eyes Only “The House on 92nd Street” at 7:30 p.m. and “Pickup on South Street” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Youth Writing Festival with students from Mentoring for Academic Success (MAS) at 6 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

COterie DAnce, CODA, presents “Emotionsa Passages” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $13-$15. 925-798-1300. 

De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ellen Hoffman, Dick Conte Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick & Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

LoCal Music Expo II at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

Wanda Stafford Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Mike Glendinning at 7 p.m. at A Cuppa Tea, 3203 College Ave. Free, all ages show. www.mikeglendinning.com  

All Ages Show with The Botticellis, Nineteen Eightyfour, Pyramus Never Dies and The Picture Theory at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Ampere, Bones Brigade, Motherspeed, Hiretsuken 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. 

Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Felonious at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159.  

LoCal Music Expo II, acoustic folk/rock, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Zadell: Zoe & Dave Ellis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Django Reinhardt Festival with Dorado Schmitt, Florin Niculescu and others at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 30 

THEATER 

“Hiroshima Stories” 60th Anniversary Commemoration with personal stories, drumming, and theater at 7:30 p.m. at International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $10. 642-9460. 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Doing Good” at 2 p.m. at Mosswood Park, MacArthur and Broadway, Oakland. 415-285-1717. www.sfmt.org 

Shotgun Players, “Cyrano de Bergerac” at 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. through Sept. 11, at John Hinkle Park, labor day perf. Sept. 5. Free with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

Pre-Code Hollywood “Blonde Venus” at 7 p.m. and “Midnight Mary” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Official Pep Talks” Gallery talk on the installation and interactive project by The Susan O'Malley Research Team at 1 p.m. at ProArts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-4361. www.proartsgallery.org 

“No No the Saddest” A poetry and dance collaboration with Alan Bern and Lucinda Weaver at 7 p.m. at Belladonna, 2436 Sacramento St. 883-0600. www.belladonna.ws 

A Night of Voices, a nomadic variety show, at 7:30 p.m. at Comic Relief, 2026 Shattuck Ave. Free. 843-5002.  

Mark John Sternal on “Guitar: Total Techniques, Scales & Applications” at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 5604 Bay Street, Emeryville. 547-0905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cambio X Change Join the Berkeley Plama Soriano Sister City group for Cuban music and dance, art exhibit, and information on upcoming delegations to Cuba at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

PortFest World Music & Jazz Festival with Hugh Masekela, Kenny Garrett Quartet, Dave Ellis Quintet, Mo’Rockin Project and others from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, at the end of 7th St., Oakland. 627-1111. www.portofoaklandpublicartprogram.com 

Mohammad Reza Lotfi, Persian classical music, at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $30-$45. 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Hideo Date, Ed Reed & Laura Klein Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

One Block Radius, hip hop at at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7-$8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Maestro de Bomba en la Bahia, Afro-Puerto Rican dance and music at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Daniel Marschak & Friends at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Zydeco Flames at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Alan Smithline, blues, at 7 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Bud Spanger/Taylor Eigsti 4-Tet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Famous Last Words at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

“From Brooklyn with Love,” with Maya Azucena and DJ Sake-1 at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Fleas & Lice, Star Spangled Bastards, Motorama 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. 

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

SUNDAY, JULY 31 

CHILDREN  

Putamayo “Swing Around the World” at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players, “Cyrano de Bergerac” at 4 p.m., Sat. and Sun. through Sept. 11, at John Hinkle Park, (labor day perf. Sept. 5). Free with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

Harold Lloyd “Welcome Danger” at 3 p.m. with Jon Mirsalis on piano, and Pre-Code Hollywood “Gold Diggers of 1933” at 5:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Jewish Film Festival from 11:45 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Tickets are available from 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Jacqueline Berger and Shelley Savren at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pacific Collegium “Penitential Psalms” at 3 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal, 2300 Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$15, at the door. 452-0503. ww.pacificcollegium.org  

Rose Royce at 3 p.m. at Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park, 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Samora Pinderhughes Quintet at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

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

Alexandria, belly dance, flamenco, South Indian Dance at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Americana Unplugged: Tom Kingsley & The Moonbats at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Maya Azucena, at 10 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 1 

FILM 

Jewish Film Festival from 2 to 8:35 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Tickets are available from 925-275-9490. www.sfjff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “Travels” stories by Lorrie Moore, Maria Thomas, and John Updike, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Free. 845-8542, ext. 376. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sandy Cressman’s Homenagem Brasileira at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Standing on a West Berkeley sidewalk, I watched three young barn owls jostling around in an Atlas cedar near the palm tree where they had hatched. The light was fading, but you could still see their ghostly shapes among the branches. And you couldn’t miss their incessant “feed me” calls—a vocalization described by ornithologists as the “snore.” The parents were nowhere in sight; maybe out hunting, more likely roosting nearby, away from the racket. 

When dinner eventually arrived, it would be some kind of small mammal. Barn owls in rural locations prey heavily on voles and shrews; in urban settings, the mix would include house mice and young rats (adult rats would be too much for the owls to handle). 

With their silent flight and hyperacute sense of hearing, the birds are consummate hunters. They can locate their quarry in total darkness, dispatching it with a bite through the back of the skull. 

I had been thinking about predation since a couple of days earlier, when I had an unexpected encounter in the Lakes Basin region of the Sierra. At Sand Pond, near Sardine Lake, there’s a nature trail that winds through a patch of forest flooded by beavers, full of dead snags where woodpeckers and other birds nest. A pair of hairy woodpeckers, joined by a mixed posse of neighbors—a flicker, a warbling vireo, a couple of mountain chickadees—were harassing what I first took to be a squirrel poking its head into a nest cavity. But it wasn’t a squirrel; it was larger, with an elongated body and a semi-bushy tail. When it pulled back from the hole and turned toward me, I realized it was a marten—an arboreal member of the weasel family, a creature I’d never seen before. 

The marten went back to the hole and pulled out an almost-fledged woodpecker, already in its black-and-white plumage. It ran down the snag to cache its prey somewhere at the base, then back up. In a frenzy, it began gnawing at the rim of the nest cavity; I could see chips flying. Then it managed to cram its entire body into the hole. 

Exiting rump first, the marten brought out a second woodpecker. Back down, back up, into the cavity again, and out with the third and last nestling. The birds continued to call and swoop, but the show was over. 

I had stood speechless through the whole sequence; it never occurred to me to try to scare off the predator as it cleaned out the woodpeckers’ nest. A bad day for the woodpeckers, of course; it may have been too late for them to begin a new brood, making their nesting season a complete bust. The marten might have been a female with a litter of hungry kits, which I believe is what you would call young martens. It might have been an opportunistic male, killing more than it immediately needed (as weasels are prone to do). In any case, it was fascinating to watch the predator at work. 

The woodpeckers were predators in their own right, of course, although we tend not to think of them that way. Like most birds, they are voracious consumers of insects, beetle grubs and the like. And the gopher snake I’d seen earlier this spring being dismembered by a parent red-shouldered hawk had done in its own share of rodents. Predation is inescapable: part of life in the food chain. It’s also a large part of our perception of nature. Spend some time watching Animal Planet or PBS and you’ll see a significant body count.  

This bothers some people on a philosophical level. The naturalist Alexander Skutch, who died earlier this year (around the same time as the great evolutionary theorist Ernst Mayr and the eccentric but splendid Dame Miriam Rothschild), considered it life’s fundamental evil, and enforced a zero-tolerance policy for predators at his Costa Rican ranch. Although he loved birds, he detested hawks, snakes and other nest-robbers. For Skutch, the moment the first single-celled organism made a meal of one of its neighbors was a kind of evolutionary Original Sin. It was all downhill from there; better we should have gone the route of photosynthesis. (Skutch was willing to give some slack to scavengers that eat what something else has killed.) 

Skutch’s is definitely a minority view, though. Others see predation as the force that drove the diversification of life. I’m wary of reading progress into the evolutionary record, but I’ll buy Richard Dawkins’ argument (in his recent The Ancestor’s Tale) that arms races between predators and prey have ratcheted up adaptations on both sides: “Arms races are deeply and inescapably progressive in a way that, for example, evolutionary accommodation to the weather is not.” As Robinson Jeffers put it: “What but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine/ The fleet limbs of the antelope?” And the antelope helped shape the wolf, too, as the moth shaped the bat and the vole shaped the barn owl. 

The case can be made (as in Donna Hart and Robert Sussman’s Man the Hunted) that the human brain is one more product of the prey-predator dynamic. Modern primates are subject to heavy predation pressure by cats, raptors and snakes. Instead of cryptic coloration or defensive armor, they have evolved social and communications skills (like the African monkeys with specific alarm calls for leopards, pythons and eagles). Long before crude weapons made our ancestors effective predators, they must have been prey as well—and their responses to that role were part of the long path to humanity. 

A world without predation might be a kinder one, but I suspect it would be a whole lot less interesting. (I’ll admit, though, that I might view the issue with less equanimity if a local great horned owl happened to mistake my associate Matt the Cat—a semiretired predator himself—for a tasty skunk).›

The most appalling aspect of the bombings in Spain, in England and in Egypt in the past weeks is that the choice of victims is indiscriminate. Though it appears that the bombers have some general connection to the Islamic religion, many of the victims, perhaps most of them, do too. 

The Guardian Unlimited website has a section which collects reminiscences about the London victims. One of them, Sharara Islam, was a young woman of 20 described as a devout Moslem. A school friend, Sarah Read, speaks about her:  

“I have known Shahara, or Shaz as we called her, for seven years as we attended the same school. Shahara was a very popular student with her teachers and fellow pupils and was an asset to Barking Abbey Comprehensive School. I was devastated when I heard the news of her tragic death and have thought of her every day since. Shahara was a pleasant upbeat girl who enjoyed socialising and loved her friends and family.”  

A devout, loving, pleasant girl, taken from her friends and family—why? And in Egypt, the great majority of the victims were average Egyptian working people, mostly Moslems themselves.  

What we have seen developing in the last 20 years in indiscriminate attacks like this one is not a war of one religious or ethnic group against another, though we have seen plenty of those as well. Bosnia, Uganda, Darfur—these are locations for the old sort of inter-group conflict, dreadful to be sure, but not fundamentally different from much of human history.  

The term “terrorism” once implied that terror was used as a tactic with a political goal. The expectation was that terrorists had demands, rational or not. But some recent bomb attacks are really just killing for its own sake: a war not against an enemy, but against the world itself. They are not different in kind from the Oklahoma City bombing, where the bombers were Christians instead of Moslems. Sometimes this new kind of bomber is compared to the Irish Republican Army or the Stern Gang in Israel, or even to the Palestinian Hamas, but those groups at least had an agenda for their terrorist acts. The attacks which are part of this new war demonstrate a craving for destruction for its own sake: a War on the World and all its perceived sins. 

Regarding the world and the flesh as evils to be extirpated is nothing new. Manicheanism in the early Christian era was one example, but there have been many more in religions around the world and throughout history. What’s changed is, if you will, part of the phenomenon of globalism. Aberrant offshoots of religious beliefs used to be confined to specific localities, though Manicheanism itself did eventually spread throughout Asia before it disappeared. Now fanatics can be anywhere in the world within days. Another difference is the availability of cheap technology which can easily be adapted to wholesale slaughter by a tiny cell of plotters. 

There’s no simple answer to the question of how to stop these vicious acts. The Bush administration’s nationalist wars against Iraq and Afghanistan have proved to be useless and even counter-productive, since they fuel religious hatred while stopping few of the culprits. On a local level, the British police have been firing the classic shots in the dark, but missing the real targets. They might end up killing many suspicious-looking foreigners with no effect at all on the fanatic bombers.  

Britons have gotten used to minicams everywhere, a sight still unnerving to visiting Americans. These have proven useful in identifying bombers after the fact, but don’t seem to be much of a deterrent to suicidal attackers. Airport searches are no barrier to weapons manufactured from parts available at local hardware stores.  

A modest hope for heading off these insane acts of destruction might be the usual clichéd remedy for all kinds of problems: communication. In this case, the communication needs to take place between communities—a continuous open dialogue between religious believers and those outside their own group—and especially within communities. Women of these communities, often opponents of violence, need to find ways of talking to their husbands, sons and occasionally daughters about any feelings of alienation from the world before they fester into violent acts. Religious leaders must preach the messages of peace and love for fellow humans which are central to all of the major world religions, as Islamic clergy in Britain are reported to be doing now at Friday services.  

In communities like Berkeley—or London—where inhabitants come from many parts of the world and have many different belief systems, ongoing dialogue holds out the only real promise of eventually conquering terror. Organizations like Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission will not by themselves put an end to inter-group strife, but they can function as testing grounds for openness and cooperation among participants. Councilmembers should query their appointees about their commitment to the commission’s goal of promoting peaceful resolution of conflicts among all kinds of groups. No religion, no ethnic group and no nation—even Israel—should be given a free pass out of the discussion arena. It’s too important. 

The most appalling aspect of the bombings in Spain, in England and in Egypt in the past weeks is that the choice of victims is indiscriminate. Though it appears that the bombers have some general connection to the Islamic religion, many of the victims, perhaps most of them, do too. 

The Guardian Unlimited website has a section which collects reminiscences about the London victims. One of them, Sharara Islam, was a young woman of 20 described as a devout Moslem. A school friend, Sarah Read, speaks about her:  

“I have known Shahara, or Shaz as we called her, for seven years as we attended the same school. Shahara was a very popular student with her teachers and fellow pupils and was an asset to Barking Abbey Comprehensive School. I was devastated when I heard the news of her tragic death and have thought of her every day since. Shahara was a pleasant upbeat girl who enjoyed socialising and loved her friends and family.”  

A devout, loving, pleasant girl, taken from her friends and family—why? And in Egypt, the great majority of the victims were average Egyptian working people, mostly Moslems themselves.  

What we have seen developing in the last 20 years in indiscriminate attacks like this one is not a war of one religious or ethnic group against another, though we have seen plenty of those as well. Bosnia, Uganda, Darfur—these are locations for the old sort of inter-group conflict, dreadful to be sure, but not fundamentally different from much of human history.  

The term “terrorism” once implied that terror was used as a tactic with a political goal. The expectation was that terrorists had demands, rational or not. But some recent bomb attacks are really just killing for its own sake: a war not against an enemy, but against the world itself. They are not different in kind from the Oklahoma City bombing, where the bombers were Christians instead of Moslems. Sometimes this new kind of bomber is compared to the Irish Republican Army or the Stern Gang in Israel, or even to the Palestinian Hamas, but those groups at least had an agenda for their terrorist acts. The attacks which are part of this new war demonstrate a craving for destruction for its own sake: a War on the World and all its perceived sins. 

Regarding the world and the flesh as evils to be extirpated is nothing new. Manicheanism in the early Christian era was one example, but there have been many more in religions around the world and throughout history. What’s changed is, if you will, part of the phenomenon of globalism. Aberrant offshoots of religious beliefs used to be confined to specific localities, though Manicheanism itself did eventually spread throughout Asia before it disappeared. Now fanatics can be anywhere in the world within days. Another difference is the availability of cheap technology which can easily be adapted to wholesale slaughter by a tiny cell of plotters. 

There’s no simple answer to the question of how to stop these vicious acts. The Bush administration’s nationalist wars against Iraq and Afghanistan have proved to be useless and even counter-productive, since they fuel religious hatred while stopping few of the culprits. On a local level, the British police have been firing the classic shots in the dark, but missing the real targets. They might end up killing many suspicious-looking foreigners with no effect at all on the fanatic bombers.  

Britons have gotten used to minicams everywhere, a sight still unnerving to visiting Americans. These have proven useful in identifying bombers after the fact, but don’t seem to be much of a deterrent to suicidal attackers. Airport searches are no barrier to weapons manufactured from parts available at local hardware stores.  

A modest hope for heading off these insane acts of destruction might be the usual clichéd remedy for all kinds of problems: communication. In this case, the communication needs to take place between communities—a continuous open dialogue between religious believers and those outside their own group—and especially within communities. Women of these communities, often opponents of violence, need to find ways of talking to their husbands, sons and occasionally daughters about any feelings of alienation from the world before they fester into violent acts. Religious leaders must preach the messages of peace and love for fellow humans which are central to all of the major world religions, as Islamic clergy in Britain are reported to be doing now at Friday services.  

In communities like Berkeley—or London—where inhabitants come from many parts of the world and have many different belief systems, ongoing dialogue holds out the only real promise of eventually conquering terror. Organizations like Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission will not by themselves put an end to inter-group strife, but they can function as testing grounds for openness and cooperation among participants. Councilmembers should query their appointees about their commitment to the commission’s goal of promoting peaceful resolution of conflicts among all kinds of groups. No religion, no ethnic group and no nation—even Israel—should be given a free pass out of the discussion arena. It’s too important. 

B

TUESDAY, JULY 26 

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. at Huckleberry Preserve on Skyline Blvd., Oakland. To register call 525-2233.  

GPS Navigation with Steve Wood, REI guide, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. If you own a GPS unit, please bring it. 527-4140. 

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. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Community Family Dance from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Live Oak Park Recreation Center, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5 per person or $10 per family. Sponsored by the Berkeley Folk Dancers. 841-1205. 

Nick Barone Puppets with a cast of over twenty friendly dinosaurs dressed as cowboys at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Healthy Eating Habits and Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at MLK Student Union, UC Campus. 1-800-448-3543. www.BeADonor.com 

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 

Buddhist Meditation Class at 7 p.m. at The Dzalandhara Buddhist Center. Cost is $7-$10. For directions and details please call 559-8183. 

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, JULY 27 

“Artist Housing in West Berkeley” extended Public Comment at 6 p.m. at the Civic Arts Commission meeting at the West Berkeley Senior Center. For information contact Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. 

“Will the Governor’s November Election Sink California?” with speakers from teachers, aabor, activists and the Alliance for a Better California. At 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

“Why We Can’t Allow Gaza to Fail” with Marcia Freedman at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $10, no one turned away. 848-0237. 

Ernest Callenbach on the 30th Annniversary of “Ecotopia” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. www.ecologycenter.org 

Insects for Kids A free class for children ages 5-10, at 9 a.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. www.barringtoncollective.org 

Adventure Racing with Robyn Benincasa on her experiences competing around the world, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Arab Women Film Festival “Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt” at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Latin American Working Class Film Fest at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but donations accepted. 415-642-8066. 

2005 Asthma Walk Kick-Off Luncheon, hosted by the American Lung Association of the East Bay at 11:45 a.m. at the Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr., Oakland. For reservations call 893-5474 ext. 237. 

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

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

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. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JULY 28 

Early Morning Bird Walk in Tilden Meet at 7 a.m. at the Padre picnic site off South Park Drive to look for woodland birds. 

Norman Solomon, founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy, will speak on his new book, “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” at 6:45 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland. Sponsored byt the Wellston Democratic Renewal Club. 

Parenting Class: Baby Language and Brain Development, for new and expecting parents at 10 a.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 658-7353.  

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1744A University Ave. Public is welcome. 845-5513. www.easyland.org 

Public Meeting on Pacific Steel Castings and concerns over West Berkeley odors and toxic emissions, at 6 p.m. at the Ecology Center. 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. www.ecologycenter.org 

Nonprofits and Grantwriting Workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. freeskoolyes@yahoo.com 

Steps to Buying Your Own Home at 7 p.m. at Shaw Properties, 400 45th St., Oakland. Includes the process of pre-approval for financing, including income requirements and credit issues, and finding a realtor. www.barringtoncollective.org 

FRIDAY, JULY 29 

Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories and Photographs with Jewish-American activist Anna Pillerat 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 845-4740. 

Youth Writing Festival with students from Mentoring for Academic Success (MAS) at 6 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Skin Cancer Screening for people with limited or no insurance at Alta Bates, Markstein Campus. Free, but registration required. 869-8833. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. 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 

Salsa Dancing at “The Beat” Dance Studio at 8:30 p.m. Lessons with Joseph Gallardo. 2560 9th St. at Parker. 472-2393 www.wildsalsanights.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 30 

Breakfast and Birding Walk with Robbie Fischer. Meet at 8 a.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $25. Registration required. 525-6155. 

Year of the Estuary at Pt. Isabel Meet at the end of Isabel St. for a walk along the waterfront, marsh, bay and slough, to look for birds in bright plummage, down from their northern breeding grounds. 525-2233. 

Native Plant Society Star Thistle Removal from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. just below the large parking lot at 1150 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Sponsored by the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and the East Bay Regional Parks. 848-6489. 

Berkeley Kite Festival Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Cesar E. Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina. Activities, kite competitions and demonstrations. 235-5483. 

Cambio X Change Join the Berkeley Palma Soriano Sister City group for Cuban music and dance, art exhibit, and information on upcoming delegations to Cuba at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 653-1009. 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Doing Good” at 2 p.m. at Mosswood Park, MacArthur and Broadway, Oakland. 415-285-1717. www.sfmt.org 

Hiroshima Stories, a commemorative event of performances and ritual in observance of the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at 7:30 p.m., International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. 642-9460. www.ihouse.berkeley.edu  

PortFest World Music & Jazz Festival with Hugh Masekela, Kenny Garrett Quartet, Dave Ellis Quintet, Mo’Rockin Project and others from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, at the end of 7th St., Oakland. 627-1111. www.portofoaklandpublicartprogram.com 

Pancrustacea is Not a Dish: Insects and their Surprising Relatives. A realignment of animal groups has brought insects some interesting relatives and removed others from their family tree. At 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“The Peaceable Kingdom” will be screened at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

SpiritWalking at the Berkeley Warm Pool Ability to walk on land not necessary. Sat. from 10 to 11 a.m., to Aug. 11. Cost is $3.50 seniors/disabled, $5.50 others. Bring a towel and deck shoes. 526-0312. well-being@pacbell.net 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Kaiser Center Roof Garden and the Oakland Museum of California Garden. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Homeopathy for Animals: Emergency Situations Learn about local holistic vets and homeopathic remedies that can be used in emergency situations, including puncture wounds, ingesting toxins, excessive bleeding, muscle strain, bites and stings, foxtails, and fear of loud noises, at 3:30 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $45. 525-6155. 

Your Backyard Pond Learn how to keep your backyard pond in balance, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Free Help with Computers at the El Cerrito Library to learn about email, searching the web, the library’s online databases, or basic word processing. Workshops held on Sat. a.m. at 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Registration required. 526-7512.  

“Guitar: Total Techniques, Scales & Applications” with Mark John Sternal at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 5604 Bay Street, Emeryville. 547-0905. 

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. 

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, JULY 31 

Bird Walk in Tilden Join Alan Kaplan on his 500th bird walk at 8 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Blessing of the Animals at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

Bicycle Crash Skills Clinic Learn how to deal with curbs, gutters, wet weater, pedestrians, dogs and especially car doors, and how to repair your bike and body. From 2 to 6 p.m. at Berkeley Center for Appropriate Transport, 1336 Channing Way. For more information, email bcat_events@yahoo.com 

Music in the Park at Arroyo Viejo Park with Rose Royce at 3 p.m. at 7701 Krause St., Oakland. Sponsored by Councilperson Desley Brooks. 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Jingletown. Cost is $5-$10. For details call 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

The New Tree of Life We’ll look for examples of new ways of looking at life in forest, meadow and pond at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

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

“U.S. Imperialism and the Counterinsurgency War” with Antonio, a former political prisoner from South America, at 1 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but donation of $5 accepted. 393-5685.  

Social Action Forum with David McPhail on School of the Americas, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

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

MONDAY, AUGUST 1 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 515 Webster Street. The speaker will be Joyce Rutledge Starosciak, a member of the San Leandro City Council. Her topic will be “Sandra Day O’Connor: a Woman in the Men’s Club.” 287-8948. 

Wild vs. Hatchery Trout A lecture on the importance of saving wild trout with Mondy Lariz of California Trout’s Lake Merced Campaign at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

“RFID: What's It All About?” Berkeley Public Library is holding a Community Informational Forum on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to hear both sides of the issue at 6:30 p.m. at at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. Gordon Wozniak will speak on the safety of RFID, and representatives from the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation will talk about the privacy concerns. For accessibility questions and more information, call 981-6121. 

City of Berkeley Walking Group walks Mon.-Thurs. from 5 to 5:30 p.m. Meet at 830 University Ave. All new participants receive a free pedometer. 981-5131. 

Stress Less with Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

Vacation Bible School from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Aug. 5 at The Church on the Corner, 1319 Solano Ave., Albany. 243-7410. www.albanyfirstbaptist.org 

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

TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 

“National Night Out” Public safety awareness forum focusing on alcohol and drug fueled crime and violence in Berkeley from a faith-based perspective. From 6 to 9 p.m. at McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. at McGee Ave. 658-2467. www.berkeleyboca.org 

Exploring Baja California Hiking, kayaking, mountain biking and more with Trudi Angell at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140.  

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

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. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “The Coarseness of Culture” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Please bring snacks and soft drinks to share. No peanuts please. 601-6690.  

Healthy Eating Habits and Hypnosis A free seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 465-2524. 

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

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

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

ONGOING 

Summer Camps for Children offered by the City of Berkeley, including swimming, sports and twilight basketball, to August 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 981-5150, 981-5153. 

Free Lunches for Berkeley Children Mon.-Fri., 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Frances Albrier Center, James Kenney Center, MLK, Jr. Youth Services Center, Strawberry Creek, Washington School and Rosa Parks School. 981-5146. 

Albany Summer Youth Programs including basketball, classes, bike trips and family activities. For information see www.albanyca.org/dept/rec.html 

Bay Area Shakespeare Camp for ages 7 to 13, two week sessions through Aug., at John Hinkle Park. Cost is $395, with scholarships available. 415-422-2222. www.sfshakes.org 

Halogen Torchiere Swap!!! California Youth Energy Services is offering an on-going Torchiere Swap. Swap your halogen torchiere for a brand new energy saving torchiere for only $15! Please call CYES at 665-1501, ext.10. 

CITY MEETINGS 

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

commissions/budget 

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

sions/civicarts 

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

Energy Commission meets Wed., July 27, 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., July 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

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

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., July 28, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/zoning?