The Caltrans sign at the end of the back road out of the Best Buy electronics store parking lot in Emeryville gives an odd command: Left Turn Only. The odd part is that the sign sits in front of a two-way street, Hollis Street, where a right turn appears permissible. 

To the left of the Caltrans “Left Turn Only” sign is the East Bay Bridge Shopping Center and the gleaming condominiums and auto-packed streets that mark the entrance to Emeryville. To the right of the “Left Turn Only” sign is Oakland. 

The Oakland side is a community so much in transition it cannot be easily characterized. 

The neighborhood is evenly divided between small, well-painted, older Victorian houses where old black women still put out neat flower gardens—blocks that once housed Oakland’s thriving middle class African-American community—and gritty, dirty industrial buildings. A demolition contractor’s headquarters sits on one corner. A recycling center—featuring cash for aluminum cans—sits on another. 

Two churches—one a solid-built Baptist, the other a ramshackle put-up—sit a couple of doors down from the combination liquor store and check-cashing establishment. In front of the store, two black men sit on a concrete wall, drinking beer from cans barely hidden inside paper bags. Around the corner are two tiny, triangle-shaped parks where the homeless sleep and addicts come at night to shoot or snort their dope. 

Intermixed with all of this is the sign of the North Oakland-West Oakland coming gentrification: condominiums, newly painted, with “For Sale” signs on their fences. One of the rows of two-story condominiums shows the schizophrenia of the area: they are made of corrugated tin, purposely constructed to look like the side of an industrial building. 

This is Bordertown, the center of all the conflicting social and economic and racial trends blowing across the northwest section of Oakland where it intersects with Emeryville. In the middle, in the shadows under that part of the freeway where I80 splits east and west, Sacramento and San Francisco, sits the Bordertown skatepark. 

Earlier this year, Bordertown was a rogue squatters development on vacant Caltrans land where local skateboarders had built themselves an acre-wide skate park, complete with concrete ramps and metal framework. Last July, Caltrans officials discovered the illegal park while preparing plans for construction of a new freeway on-ramp, fenced off the property, and announced they were demolishing the park. But Bordertown quickly became a political issue after the skateboarders took their story to the local media, and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente—both with tough election campaigns next year—jumped in to save it. Also intervening in negotiations with Caltrans were U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, State Senator Don Perata (D-Oakland), and State Assemblymembers Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) and Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley). 

Two signs posted on the locked gate entering the property late in the summer tell the end of the story. One, posted by Caltrans, reads: “State Property. No dumping. No parking. No trespassing.” Next to that is a second sign, signed by the “Bordertown Lifers,” which reads: “Attention: Keep out. Steps are being taken to legitimize Bordertown. If you want to help, be patient. Do not climb over the fence. The city is on our side and with your cooperation things will move faster. Trespassers are jeopardizing the life of Bordertown. So don’t blow it, go to Berkeley Skatepark.” 

Last week, both the patience and the political work paid off when Caltrans and the City of Oakland signed a lease agreement allowing Bordertown Skate Park to remain. 

Under the agreement, Oakland gets the use of several acres of land under the MacArthur Maze freeway for $100 for a period of two and a half years, with an option to renew for another two and a half. Oakland in turn will sublease the property to the Bordertown Skate Park nonprofit and will cover some of the use of the park with the city’s own liability insurance. For its part, the Bordertown nonprofit will have to purchase additional liability insurance, and will be able to expand the skate park’s area to 10,000 square feet. 

The sublease is expected to be finalized by Nov. 1, with the skateboard park reopening to skaters shortly after that. 

“I’m proud to be a part of this historic agreement,” Bordertown co-founder Tony Miorana told Bay City News. “It’s refreshing to see the City of Oakland help its community when we really need it. A skateboard park in Oakland has long been overdue.” 

Councilmember De La Fuente said, “it’s gratifying to see that the state and city could both compromise to reach a workable solution for the benefit of all parties. Oakland is a great city, with great people, and we’re proud to have been able to capture the creative energy of our local youth, and save something they took the initiative to create.” 

Caltrans District 4 Director Bijan Sartipi, in a statement, said, “although Caltrans does not condone illegal encroachment on state property, this is an example of our commitment to this partnership: working hard with our local agencies to find an innovative solution to a difficult problem.” 

›

What’s to be gained from converting the Ashby Avenue and Gilman Street corridors in West Berkeley from manufacturing and light industrial zones to commercial? 

If Mayor Tom Bates is right, a lot of new sales tax dollars for a cash-strapped city. 

But if the three knowledgeable critics who addressed a community meeting last Thursday are right, the move would also lead to: 

• Traffic congestion. 

• The elimination of well-paying blue collar jobs. 

• Higher rents for artists. 

• The loss of a vital mainstay of the city’s economy. 

More than 100 West Berkeley residents, city officials, two city councilmembers and an assortment of city commissioners thronged the West Berkeley Senior Center to attend a public forum presented by WeBAIC, the alliance of West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies. 

The focus of the meeting was the three-member panel consisting of Neil Mayer, founder and former director of the city’s Department of Economic Development, Nathan Landau, a former Berkeley city planner and the lead author of the West Berkeley Plan, and Eugenie P. Thompson, a civil and traffic engineer. 

After a brief introduction by Mary Lou Van Deventer, Thompson led off with a presentation on the traffic impacts. 

With three decades of transportation planning experience—including Oakland International Airport and the Caldecott Tunnel—Thompson said commercialization of the two West Berkeley corridors would carry significant potential costs. 

She questioned city studies showing no significant impacts from the first major commercial development in the area, the Berkeley Bowl proposed for the corner of Ninth Street and Heinz Avenue near the intersection of Ashby and San Pablo avenues. 

Noting that a supermarket can be expected to generate 14 times more traffic than a light industrial use, Thompson noted that “city studies show no impacts from a 10,000-square-foot store. How is that possible?” 

Noting that San Pablo Avenue carries more traffic near the Ashby Avenue intersection than in Emeryvillle, she asked, “How can we put more traffic in Berkeley?” 

Expanding already crowded thoroughfares and building out freeway interchanges to handle extra traffic could pose formidable costs as well, she said. 

Mayer, who now runs his own consulting firm, said the 200 manufacturing, wholesale and warehouse operations in West Berkeley—along with a sizable number of artists and craftspeople—constitute a major source of economic diversity for the city. 

At just over one percent, Berkeley has the lowest industrial vacancy rate in the East Bay, and no lack of customers for existing vacancies, he said. 

“The West Berkeley Plan has been critical in maintaining a healthy industrial sector. From 1981 to 1991, when the city enacted zoning changes to protect existing industrial uses, West Berkeley lost 2,800 of 7,800 manufacturing jobs. From 1991 to 2001, jobs were stable,” he said. 

Some losses followed in the wake of the post-9/11 recession, almost all from the loss of one dotcom company, he said. 

Manufacturing also provides good jobs for blue-collar workers, paying double the wages of the retail sector. “Recent studies show that the best way for low-income workers to earn more is to change from commercial to manufacturing,” Mayer said. 

He also cautioned that “there is a question if there is a real demand for additional retail in West Berkeley. It could steal business from downtown and elsewhere in the community.”  

Mayer also warned that even the discussion of zoning changes has an impact on property values and rents. “It makes owners think they can change to higher rents, and it makes them look for such tenants.” 

Finally, he said, the existing West Berkeley Plan was created by a “very painstaking process, often on a parcel by parcel basis, balancing different kinds of uses . . . it was supported by all major sets of participants and approved unanimously by an otherwise very divided City Council.” 

Landau, who served as project manager of the West Berkeley Plan from 1989 to 1996 and now serves as a planner for AC Transit and is on the Berkeley Transportation Commission, warned that while “no plan should be sacred, they should be changed slowly, carefully and comprehensively. 

“I see no evidence of that now.” 

Observing that the plan was written to maintain a mixture of uses, “not a monoculture where higher-paying uses mow down the lower-paying,” he said the plan was specifically written to protect manufacturing from uses that command higher land prices. 

“We didn’t want more commercial districts to compete with downtown and San Pablo Avenue,” he said. “On San Pablo we were very concerned about traffic, especially around Gilman and Ashby, which were already congested 15 years ago. Emeryville wasn’t the model.” 

Landau said that to change the plan responsibly, the city “must understand why the plan did what it did and not simply wash it away. They must get deep into the data and not just rely on anecdotal evidence. 

“Get the data and not decide on the basis of prejudice” he said. “After that they can look at the goals and tradeoffs.” 

He also cautioned the city to “avoid trendiness in plans, noting that during the preparation of the current plan, the New York Times headlined an article, “In the Time of a Gold Rush, Berkeley Seeks Lead.” 

“Wouldn’t it have been a disaster if we’d followed the dotcom gold rush? I fear we’re in danger again of looking for a trendy land use.” 

Following the presentations, the meeting was thrown open for questions. 

After one neighbor of Pacific Steel complained of the odors, WeBAIC stalwart and woodworker John Curl said “The future of West Berkeley is intimately tied to the greening of the industry that’s already here. The more polluting industries need to leave. There are problems with Pacific Steel and probably elsewhere, and we need to lobby them to become cleaner.” 

“The number one polluter in West Berkeley is the freeway,” added Landau. 

Calvin Fong, aide to Mayor Bates, said his office was working on a health risk assessment of Pacific Steel. 

Asked by audience members to explain the origin of the proposed changes, Fong said the city council voted to add the item to the city budget plan with a request that the Planning Department incorporate it into their work plan. 

“The Planning Commission will take it up. There’s no set schedule yet when it will occur, and the staff may not begin to look into it until January or February,” he said. 

“The mayor has asked them to push it down lower on their list of priorities because there’s so much other work that needs to be done now. It will begin at the staff level, and recommendations will be made to the Planning Commission,” Fong said. 

After public hearings, the decision to adopt the changes will go to other commissions and ultimately to the city council,” he said. “There is no fixed time line.” 

Of the two West Berkeley councilmembers, only Darryl Moore—who sided with Bates on the council vote—was represented by aide Ryan Lau. Linda Maio, who voted against the mayor, was not represented. 

Councilmember (and acting mayor) Kriss Worthington, another no vote, was present and addressed the meeting. 

Noting that “every plan is violated in the City of Berkeley on a regular basis,” he asked whether opponents of the mayor’s proposal should be concentrating on the plan or on the zoning ordinance itself, the only legally binding power on the city’s actions. 

“Should we be fighting over the plan or focus on actually changing the ordinance? Or should we create a pressure group to put pressure on the mayor and city council to enforce the plans and laws we’ve already created? Or do we need to do all three, or something else altogether?” he asked. 

“The language of the plan is less important than the ordinance,” Mayer responded. “We have been using the language of the plan because, at least in theory, zoning should reflect the spirit of the plan.” He also said that “West Berkeley is one of the areas where a lot of the activity doesn’t follow the zoning already in place.” 

Landau said one of the reasons for the divergence between plan and zoning is the fact that Berkeley is a charter city and therefore granted more flexibility by law. A second reason, he said, is that the city devotes less staff and attention to zoning enforcement than it once did. 

Corliss Lesser, a West Berkeley painter, asked Worthington “how can we best lobby the city to protect the plan and still ensure revenues for the city?” 

“The answer is the ballot box,” said Worthington. “The vote that occurred to initiate a move to undermine the West Berkeley Plan was decided by one vote. Others felt that other priorities needed the city’s time and money. 

“In this process there are many different steps, and at each step of the way there is an opportunity to be heard. You can hold a press conference. You can organize a racially diverse group of West Berkeley people and call on the city to implement the West Berkeley Plan.” 

Then, with a smile, he added. “That’s just an idea.” 

Among the other city officials at the meeting were Planning Commissioner Helen Burke, Civic Arts Commission Vice-Chair and Design Review Committee member David Snippen, Civic Arts Chair Jos Sances, and Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Fran Packard. 

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The eight remaining tenants of an illegal West Berkeley live-work warehouse have agreed to vacate their homes by the end of the month in return for approximately $10,000 and six months free rent dating back to April. 

The deal reached last week between the tenants and property owner Lawrence White ends a seven-month standoff at the East Bay Drayage. 

White said by telephone Monday that he still had a deal to sell the property for $2.7 million to a developer who will replace the warehouse on the corner of Addison and Third streets with housing and possibly ground floor retail. White said the buyer has requested his identity be kept secret until the title changes hands in December. 

Last March, after White’s deal to sell the property to developer Ali Kashani for $2.05 million fell through, a fire inspection at the Drayage uncovered more than 200 health and safety code violations. 

When the city ordered White to evacuate the building in April, many of the two dozen residents, most of whom were artisans, refused to leave. The standoff drew attention to the dwindling amount of artist space available in West Berkeley as rents and land values continue to rise. 

White also said Monday that he planned to contest the nearly $400,000 in fines the city has levied on him since April 15 for failing to evacuate the building.  

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said Berkeley would decide this week whether to seek payment of the fines in light of the settlement. He added that the city might also chose to keep fining White $2,500 a day until the building is evacuated on Oct. 31. 

Commenting on the agreement with tenants, White said, “I’m delighted that it’s finally over and everybody’s happy with it.” 

The eight remaining tenants voted to accept the deal last week after an all-day negotiating session. Had no deal been reached, White could have filed eviction notices on Oct. 8. The tenants had planned to contest the evictions and legal proceedings were expected to last into 2006 with city fines continuing to accumulate. 

The $10,000 settlement applies only to the eight remaining tenants at the Drayage. Tenants who left earlier made separate deals with White. Settlements varied with one short-term tenant accepting $6,000 and another settling for $800, according to Maresa Danielsen, a tenant.  

Jeffrey Ruiz, who lived and built furniture at the Drayage for 11 years, said that a $10,000 pay out coupled with not having to pay rent from last April through October was enough for him to stop fighting to save the Drayage as space for artisans. 

During the early months of the standoff, tenants worked with the Northern California Land Trust on its announced intention to buy the property and build affordable live-work units for the tenants to purchase, which didn’t happen. 

“Once the land trust deal fell though I didn’t feel like I had it in me to fight for this place,” said Danielsen, who has lived at the Drayage for eight years. 

“I’m still super-pissed at the city for giving us no support,” she added. “What the city wants to do is rezone West Berkeley and have as much yuppie housing as possible.” 

Danielsen said city officials didn’t do enough to pressure White into accepting a deal with the land trust. Land Trust Executive Director Ian Winters said the non-profit development group offered White $2.5 million for the property, while White countered that he never received any official offer from the land trust. 

Berkeley Community Services Liaison Michael Caplan said the city had few options other than fines to pressure White. “Private property transfers are really beyond the purview of the city,” he said, adding that the episode has forced Berkeley to explore policies to keep artists in West Berkeley. 

“We need to get our heads together on policies that will protect live-work spaces for our artists and craftsmen,” said Councilmember Darryl Moore, who represents the West Berkeley district that includes the Drayage. Moore said he might propose establishing enterprise zones in West Berkeley giving developers incentives like tax breaks to build affordable live-work spaces. 

White bought the warehouse for $1.8 million in 1997. Despite his pending deal to sell it for $2.7 million, he said that the cost of this year’s battle with the city and tenants means that he will lose money on the property. 

In the years since White bought the Drayage, West Berkeley has been home to several new housing developments. Opponents of the developments fear that more housing and retail will drive up land costs and force out industrial and artisan jobs that have been centered in West Berkeley. One block east of the Drayage, a new condominium and retail development is planned for the site where Celia’s Mexican Restaurant and Brennan’s have long stood. 

Danielsen said that while she has found a new home in West Berkeley, many other Drayage tenants have moved to Oakland. Ruiz is moving his furniture making business 84 miles north to Clearlake, Danielsen said. 

“The saddest thing is that after all this, West Berkeley has lost one of its coolest things,” she added. “It sucks all around.”›

Former Congressmember Ron Dellums has extended for a week his deadline for announcing whether he will run for the office of mayor of Oakland in 2006. 

Oakland educator Kitty Kelly Epstein, one of the leaders of a petition campaign to convince Dellums to run, said this week that Dellums will be in Oakland on Friday to hold what he is calling a “discussion” with the press and the public on his mayoral plans. 

Several candidates have announced their intention to run to succeed Mayor Jerry Brown, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits. Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, Oakland City Councilmember Nancy Nadel, Alameda County Treasurer Don White, and Oakland Unified School District Advisory Board members Dan Siegel and Greg Hodge have all said they will run for mayor. Hodge has indicated that he would drop out in favor of Dellums if Dellums decides to run. 

Regardless of who runs—or wins—the challenges facing the next Oakland mayor will be formidable after eight years of Jerry Brown. Below are listed three of the most prominent. 

Strong Mayor 

In the 1998 vote that first elected Brown, Oakland voters also passed Measure X, which granted Brown so-called “strong mayor” powers. Before Brown, Oakland’s mayor was little more than the most prominent member of the City Council, serving as the council president, with no powers of hiring and firing. This is the same form of government presently in place in Berkeley. 

Oakland Measure X—slightly modified by Oakland voters under Measure P in March of 2004—took away the Mayor’s City Council responsibilities except to vote in case of a tie. It also gave the Oakland mayor veto power over council legislation, the power to hire and fire the city manager, and ultimate supervisorial powers over city employees. 

But critics of Brown say that although the mayor fought hard to gain the “strong mayor” powers, he has left them largely unused during his time in office. His most prominent actions were the firing of City Manager Robert Bobb in 2003, and the hiring of the new Oakland chief of police earlier this year. They have also charged that Brown has paid less attention to his Oakland duties now that he is running for the 2006 Democratic Party nomination for California attorney general. 

The first task of the new mayor, therefore, will be to fully assume the “strong mayor” powers that most Oakland residents have not seen applied in their lifetimes. 

Police Issues 

Oakland’s new mayor will have to struggle to build a consensus over the city’s beleaguered police department. 

Violent crime is still an enormous problem in the city, with homicides projected to be in the 80s for the second year in a row (after several years of more than 100 murders), muggings and armed robberies holding naggingly steady, and many open air drug markets operating seemingly with impunity. 

But while many Oakland residents welcome the police and want more of them on the streets enforcing the law, large numbers of Oakland citizens consider the police department to be in serious need of reform. That contradiction may have reached its peak in 2002, when Oakland voters approved Mayor Brown’s plan to hire 100 more police, but then defeated companion proposals to pay for them. Last year, Oakland voters approved a compromise plan to both hire extra police officers but to fund violence prevention programs as well. 

Brown will hand over a plateful of legal problems related to the police when he vacates his office within a year. The city is still operating under a federal court consent decree after a 2003 police misconduct settlement—the so-called “Riders civil case.” 

That consent decree resulted from charges by more than 100 Oakland residents that Oakland police conducted a campaign of kidnapping and beating citizens, planting false evidence, and lying on police reports and on the witness stand. Monitors appointed by the federal court continue to report back to the court on Oakland’s progress in eliminating those problems. 

In one of their reports, the federal monitors criticized Oakland police for conducting strip searches of subjects on city streets, exposing suspects’ genitals and buttocks in the public while searching for possible hidden drugs. Late last month, three Oakland residents filed a class action suit in federal court, saying that Oakland police had conducted such a public strip search on them. 

In addition, the Oakland Police Department is facing an investigation by the Alameda County Grand Jury of allegations of abuses of overtime. 

The new mayor’s challenge will be to rebuild full public confidence in the police department through reforms. To accomplish those reforms, the new mayor must either come to an accommodation with the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association union—or else break it. 

Downtown Development 

For years this has been the Holy Grail of Oakland mayors, the rebuilding of the once-vibrant downtown that went downhill during the era of mall-building in the communities surrounding Oakland. 

When he first ran for mayor in 1998, Jerry Brown promised a downtown retail revival by building scores of new residential neighborhoods in the downtown area, filled with mostly upscale-income citizens. This was the so-called 10K Plan, and earlier this year, Brown announced on his blog that it was “85 percent complete.” 

But while many new residents have moved into the downtown area, the promised retail component has not surfaced. And so instead of retail following automatically behind residents, as Brown implied, the city is once more trying to coax retail into the downtown area. 

That old policy was reiterated by City Council President De La Fuente recently when he said that “Mayor Brown has done a very good job of nearly fulfilling the goal of 10,000 (residents) downtown, so our next challenge should be to bring retail back downtown.” 

Brown tried to meet that challenge through the heavily subsidized Forest City development in the Telegraph Avenue-San Pablo Avenue area near the Fox Oakland and Paramount theaters. One of the challenges facing the new mayor will be to decide if the Forest City development is important enough that the subsidies should continue, or if a new retail downtown development plan should be built from scratch.

Berkeley physician and inventor Kenneth Matsumura wants to terminate the Terminator, and if preliminary results are any indicator, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may face a recall vote in next June’s general election. 

“This man has to be stopped. He’s using California as a movie set, rampaging around and tearing things up,” said the physician. 

Matsumura, whose inventions include the first-ever artificial liver, says he’s received an overwhelmingly positive response to his recall proposal. 

“It seemed a daunting task, but then I realized we could do it if 35,000 volunteers gathered 40 signatures apiece. We have thousands of volunteers already, and we haven’t even put together a staff yet,” he said. “People are pouring in donations, and there’s lots of camaraderie.” 

Matsumura said the idea for a recall has been in the air for some time, but it was talks with some of his poorer patients that inspired him to transform thought into action. 

“Hospitals and healthcare facilities that care for the poor are on the verge of closing because the governor refuses to raise taxes,” he said. “When it comes to health care for the poor, every time we take one step forward, we have to watch Schwarzenegger take four steps backward.” 

Similarly, he cited Schwarzenegger’s broken electoral promise to preserve the state education budget. 

To take his dream to the ballot box, Matsumura said he’ll need to gather 1,040,00 signatures—15 percent of the turnout in the last general election. 

“Living and working in Berkeley and Oakland, you often hear people talking about the problems the governor is causing and you hear people asking why doesn’t someone start a recall. I said and thought the same things. But it was talking to my patients who are poor that got me to think, maybe this is a better use of my time.” 

A product of the 60s, Matsumura said he had been inspired by the rise of the student movement in Berkeley, and by President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural call to “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” 

“I see that same idealism and enthusiasm in the people who have been contacting me,” he said. 

Matsumura’s campaign has drawn international attention, landed him on the front pages and given him considerable exposure on the electronic media. 

Last week he was hustled for a Los Angeles radio appearance on what he later discovered was an archconservative’s radio talk show. To his great delight, the show produced a mass of hits on his web site, www.recall2006.com (also found at www.savecalnow.com). 

To land the measure on the ballot, Matsumura first needs 100 signatures on a preliminary petition verifiable by the Secretary of State—who must also approve the language that will appear on the larger petition drive and on the June ballot. 

If all goes as planned, Schwarzenegger would be recalled in June, giving the legislature time to pass measures previously vetoed by the governor before a new legislature is elected in the fall. Matsumura said he’s shooting for the general election, rather than a costly special election. 

“I don’t think we’ll have trouble getting the signatures,” he said. “I would think we’d get most of them in San Francisco and the East Bay. But we’ve already got volunteers in places like Los Angeles, Stockton and San Diego. I even got a donation from Dallas!” 

Today (Tuesday) he’ll be a guest on Air America, the liberal radio talk network, and more interviews are on the way. 

The momentum seems to be on Matsumura’s side. 

“It’s been an incredible week,” he said, “and I’m glad we’re doing it.”

A former UC Berkeley employee has sued the university charging, that she was laid off for criticizing her department head for awarding fellowships based on political favoritism rather than merit. 

In a complaint filed Sept. 15 in Alameda County Superior Court, Karen Schermerhorn, a former student affairs officer in the Department of Material Science and Engineering, alleged that department Chair Fiona Doyle restricted access to fellowships and “manipulated the [fellowship] competition to the benefit of her own research group.”  

Schermerhorn, who started working for UC Berkeley in 1975 and had served for more than three years as the department’s student affairs officer, was laid off in May 2004 as what she said her supervisors represented as a cost-saving measure. 

She is seeking more than $200,000 in damages. 

“She feels like it was completely retaliatory for her complaints over the fellowships,” said Schermerhorn’s attorney Shelley Buchanan of San Francisco. Schermerhorn has been working “a low-level retail job” since being laid off, Buchanan added. 

Besides UC Berkeley, the complaint also lists the UC Board of Regents and university employees Wanda Capece, Janice Zeppa, Rosemary Leb and Doyle as defendants. 

Doyle, who has since been promoted to executive associate dean for academic affairs at UC Berkeley, did not return phone calls for this story. 

Campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore said UC officials had investigated Schermerhorn’s claims about the fellowships and her layoff and “found no indication of wrongdoing in either matter.” 

In the complaint, Schermerhorn alleges that she repeatedly complained about Doyle’s handling of the Jane Lewis Fellowship Fund and the Dimitri Vedensky Fund. 

Schermerhorn alleges that in the 2003-04 academic year, Doyle failed to advertise the competition for the Jane Lewis Fellowship. Instead, according to the complaint, Doyle used her position as chair of the fellowship committee to give fellowships only to students she invited to apply. 

Schermerhorn charges that Doyle allowed a professor to select students from his nanotechnology project to apply for the fellowship, while no other students working in the same field were given an opportunity to compete. 

“This rendered the ‘competition’ a non-competition in reality,” according to the complaint. 

Schermerhorn also alleges that Doyle manipulated the competition that year so that two of the four fellowships awarded to graduate students in the department were members of Doyle’s own research group. 

One of the students, according to the complaint, was Hongyuan Duan, who was awarded a fellowship without transcripts or letters of recommendation. 

Graduate students were awarded $415,000 from the Jane Lewis Fellowship Fund in 2004-05, according to Buchanan. 

Schermerhorn also alleges in the complaint that Doyle unilaterally changed requirements for the Vedensky Fund to help junior faculty at the expense of graduate students. 

On May 27, 2004, Doyle alerted Schermerhorn that she had been laid off “due to budget cuts and demanded that she leave the premises immediately.” 

Along with the complaint, Schermerhorn has forwarded to the court over 30 letters of support from graduate students and department faculty. 

Professor Anderas Glaeser e-mailed the department, calling the execution of the layoff “a disgrace” and added that the layoff would negatively impact “graduate student recruiting, graduate admissions, graduate student morale and retention and future support for the department from our current and former graduate students.” 

As student services officer, Schermerhorn processed applications and administered fellowships for the department’s graduate students. 

Gilmore said the university review found that the department had a legitimate basis for cutting Schemerhorn’s position to deal with funding cuts.

A Bay Area Air Quality Management District monitor, responding to four complaints of bad air wafting from Pacific Steel Castings, was robbed at gunpoint outside the plant’s West Berkeley headquarters at 1 a.m. Friday. 

Following the mugging, the air district’s Director of Enforcement Kelly Wee alerted city officials by e-mail that it would no longer respond to air pollution complaints at Pacific Steel Castings “until we can re-evaluate the safety for our staff at night.” 

West Berkeley residents had been pressuring the air district to send monitors late at night to Pacific Steel Castings, which it blames for producing a burnt rubber smell in the neighborhood that is often most pungent at night. 

Since March the air district has issued the company three notices of violations for producing foul-smelling air. Later this year, Berkeley and Pacific Steel are scheduled to begin studies to locate the exact source of the odor emanating from the plant at 1333 Second St. 

Councilmember Linda Maio, who represents the neighborhood, said she was working to provide a police escort for air monitors responding to late night complaints around Pacific Steel. 

“We need to make sure that the air district can come when the smell is evident,” she said. 

According to Wee, Supervising Inspector Ron Pilkington parked his car on the side of Gilman Street and Sixth Street early Friday morning when a man smashed his car window and pressed a gun in his face.  

“The robbers were armed and instructed him to turn over his money and keys or they would ‘shoot you in the face,’” Wee wrote.  

Pilkington complied and after walking away from the car found someone with a cell phone who called the police, according to Wee.  

Police spokesperson, Officer Joe Okies said police are searching for two men in connection with the robbery. He added that the information at his disposal did not indicate that the robbers made off with Pilkington’s car. 

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An article in the Sept. 30 issue on the 35th anniversary of The Monthly mistakenly reported that Fred Cody wrote exposés on milk, meat and sugar diets. Tom Klaber was the author of those articles on the meat, dairy, sugar and cancer industries in The Monthly throughout the ‘70s. 

The Sept. 16 review of Aurora Theatre Company’s production of The Price gave an incorrect name for the actor who plays the character of Walter. The role is played by Michael Santo.e

To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.

LORIN DISTRICT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As homeowners nearby on Woolsey Street for the past seven years, my family has seen the Lorin District neighborhood go through some changes, mostly for the better. We’ve heard many stories from our older neighbors about what this area used to be like in years long past (before BART), when many small local businesses made for a thriving and vibrant neighborhood, and we’ve been happy to see that some brave souls have come in to help bring that back. 

We’ve been especially heartened by the additions of the fabulous Ashby Stage and Sweet Adeline’s Bakeshop—and kudos to Spud’s Pizza for bringing live music to the neighborhood—and we would love to see even more neighborhood friendly businesses come in. 

It seems that the closure of yet another corner liquor store could be an opportunity for just such a business. Our neighborhood still doesn’t have a real coffee house, and some neighbors have suggested an ice cream parlor, as well. We’ve seen what Caffé Trieste has done for the corner of San Pablo and Dwight—why not something like it on the corner of MLK and Ashby? The location seems to have plenty going for it, with the BART station and Ashby Stage right across the way. It seems obvious that this would be a good thing for the neighborhood. Clearly the last thing we need is another liquor store. 

I don’t know how much revenue a funky corner liquor store generates, but it seems to me that a good café would cater to far more people, both local and visiting from other neighborhoods, not to mention the fact that it would mean one less place selling malt liquor and cigarettes. 

Suzanne Drexhage 

• 

ELMWOOD SOCIALISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I generally don’t like labels, but what do you call the Elmwood business quotas, if not socialist? Anyone proposing such restrictions in 21st Century Hungary, Poland or the Czech Republic would be laughed out of town. 

Tom Case 

• 

EQUALITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I find myself thinking that for 2005, we as a country, and we a state (albeit a “blue” one), are surprisingly backwards. 

Where shall I begin? I could start with George Bush’s attack on education with No Child Left Behind. I could continue by discussing our lack of commitment to something as basic as health care, so basic that every other industrialized nation insures its citizens, all of them, while we settle for leaving 45 million uninsured (Malcolm Gladwell tackled this subject in the Aug. 29 New Yorker). And I could end with the most recent affront to my sensibilities, Gov. Schwarzenegger’s veto of AB849, the gay marriage bill. 

Compared to education and health care, perhaps this bill appears insignificant, paltry. Compared to 45 million uninsured Americans, and 70.3 million American students, 4.3 million gay, lesbian, or bisexual Americans (according to 2000 U.S. Census data) may seem like a small number. 

Yet this is where I become upset. Irate. So many have fought so hard for equal rights: to abolish slavery, to give women the right to vote. In 1868 U.S. citizens decided that it would be unlawful to take rights away from other citizens. (Amendment XIV, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution reads, “… No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges … of citizens of the United States.”). 1868. On Sept. 29, Gov. Schwarzenegger did just that. 

I have just two more questions, When did we stop believing in equality? When did we stop fighting? 

Nedra Rauschenberg 

• 

BERKELEY HONDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In reply to Barry Strock’s Sept. 30 letter to the editor, the union is paying people to stand outside of Berkeley Honda because they are on strike, for heaven’s sake. That’s what union dues are for, to fund strikes. So yes, people are being paid to maintain the strike.  

And yes, the union doesn’t want anyone to patronize that dealership while the new owners bust the union! Is that shocking? 

Not to me, but here’s what I do find shocking: that Berkeley Honda refuses to see that it’s not just the union they are fighting, but the whole community. Berkeley citizens don’t like union busting and they are backing the strikers. I don’t think management factored that little problem into their business model. 

Judy Shelton 

• 

HONKING DRIVERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am so sick of listening to horns being honked by drivers who sympathize with the strikers. It is really annoying to have to listen to it for hours. I live over three blocks away—it must be even worse for people who live or work closer. If these strikers had any consideration for anyone other than themselves, they would stop urging drivers to honk all day long. 

Mary Kazmer 

• 

SHIREK POST OFFICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you, Rep. King, for vetoing a stupid bill to honor an old CPUSA fellow traveler hack. They are a dime a dozen around here, and have not a new thought in 50 years. They apologized for every Communist regime and excused the hundreds of millions of Communist caused deaths. They are an aging pack of old farts who speak to an ever-dwindling audience. Except for the workplace drug testing, all the items listed on your agenda sound good to me. 

Joseph McCarthy was far more right than wrong as Arthur Herman’s book proved in copious detail. You will receive nasty letters inspired by Becky O’Malley, another aging Berzerkeley hack. Put them in the circular file. Contrary to the dead wrong conventional unwisdom, these desiccated lefty fossils do not speak for everyone in Berkeley and Oakland.  

My Aunt Eileen lives in Missouri Valley and I will tell her to support you if she doesn’t already. Keep up your great work ! 

Michael Hardesty 

Oakland 

• 

ENDANGERED SPECIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was shocked to read that the House of Representatives voted to gut the Endangered Species Act, our nation’s safety net for fish, wildlife, and plants. But I was outraged when I found out that, on this very close vote, Rep. Barbara Lee didn’t even show up, even though she was actively participating on votes early in the week on renaming a Berkeley post office.  

This was probably the most important vote on environmental issues thus far in Rep. Lee’s congressional career, and if congressional representatives from the Bay Area cannot be counted on to show up, advocate, and vote on our behalf it’s no wonder developers and the politicians and they give money to are able to rewrite our basic environmental safeguards.  

Brent Plater 

Oakland 

• 

FLYING COTTAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The comment in your story on 3045 Shattuck (“Flying Cottage Wins Permit from ZAB,” Sept. 27) that ZAB’s decision “essentially gives Sun the go-ahead to complete the building” is somewhat misleading. 

Sun’s original goal was to maximize her rental income as cheaply as possible. The plans mistakenly approved by staff in 2002 were for a hideous three-story plywood box with the remains of a bungalow in one corner and bizarrely placed windows and doors. In that scheme, the top two floors were to be a 10-bedroom rooming house designed for easy, illegal conversion into two flats. 

What ZAB approved is a much more expensive, much better looking building. The approved design has a normal shape, with some of the bulk cut away at the corners and a porch similar to those of adjacent houses. The quality of the materials is higher, with wooden rather than metal doors and windows, and wood siding rather than cement shingles. The rooming house has been split into two three-bedroom, two-bath flats, each with private washer-dryer and a parking space. 

On the downside, the building still looms over its immediate neighbors. The permit was also issued illegally, since the van-accessible handicapped parking space required for the commercial space has not been provided, the off-street parking spaces for the apartments have been located in the required rear yard without the required use permits, and the required public hearing on these matters was never held, violating neighbors’ due-process right to a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Unfortunately, if we appealed on those grounds and won, ZAB could simply waive one or both parking spaces for the apartments to make room for the handicapped space. 

So we neighbors won only a partial victory in our fight with one developer over one building. On the bright side, we won the fight with planning staff over design review standards. The Design Review Committee and ZAB made it abundantly clear that if a building will be significantly higher than its neighbors, it also has to be attractive and high-quality. 

It looks like we will also win at the Planning Commission. To resolve some conflicts in the zoning code that came to light as a result of the fight over 3045 Shattuck, staff asked the PC to amend the code to allow parking in required yards by right. That would mean all Berkeley property owners would be free to pave their rear-yard open space and park there, no public hearing required, nothing neighbors could do to stop them, no right of appeal. From what I heard at last Wednesday’s hearing, none of the commissioners liked the idea. It looks like instead they will allow parking in required yards only with an administrative use permit, which means notice to neighbors and the ability to appeal to the ZAB. 

The one remaining task is to amend the zoning code to close the various loopholes that allowed 3045 Shattuck to be approved with the above-noted shortcomings and without a public hearing. I will soon send a list of proposed changes to the City Council and Planning Commission, and hope they will act on them promptly. 

Robert Lauriston 

• 

FATHERS AND SONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent letter from “Ace Backwords,” taking issue with Mr. Allen-Taylor’s dismissal of the importance Ignacio De La Fuente’s son’s arrest, was quite distressing. There are two major things wrong with his rebuttal. (By the way, I must say up front that if you are the same Ace Backwords I’m thinking of, up to now I counted myself as a fan of your incisive political cartooning. Now I’m not so sure.) 

The first is a breathtaking ignorance of basic legal principle: Backwords thinks De La Fuente shouldn’t run because his son was arrested for rape. He goes on to say that he (De La Fuente Jr.) “kidnapped a teenaged girl right off the street, raped her and beat her ...” 

How does he know this? Was he there? Hello! Does the phrase “innocent until proven guilty” ring a bell somewhere in there? Remember, he’s been charged with these crimes, not convicted of them. 

Secondly, this diatribe is illustrative of an unfortunately common practice among lefties and so-called “progressives” toward those they do not like: pick up the nearest brush and tar them with it. I’m pretty sure that Ace Backwords counts himself among those who support Mumia Abu Jamal and believe him to be innocent, even though he’s been convicted of (not merely charged with) a major crime. How does this square with the local situation, where the man’s son has only been charged? (By the way, I consider myself agnostic on the subject of Mumia’s guilt or innocence, since I’m not privy to any of the court proceedings, but do believe that he should get a new, fair trial.) 

By Backwords’ reasoning, Ron Dellums should immediately tell his supporters that he won’t run for mayor. After all, his case trumps De La Fuente’s: his son was convicted of murder and is serving time for it. (Don’t worry, though: Dellum’s opponents are sure to wave this large stinking red-colored fish during the campaign should he run.) 

I should say that I don’t like De La Fuente and see him as a dangerous demagogue, probably worse than our present mayor. (Witness his participation in the mob that would have practically lynched the released sex offender had they been allowed.) But opposing him the way you do is unprincipled and simply invites similar attacks on candidates you might like to support, like, say, Ron Dellums. As I said, this practice is far too often seen on the left, and shows a glaring double standard: one rule for candidates you like, another for those you don’t. This is the very definition of unprincipled. Aren’t you a vehement advocate of presumed innocence, say for the thousands of Near Easterners swept up by the “War on Terror”? (I am.) Remember what they say about sauce, geese and ganders. 

If you don’t like Ignacio De La Fuente, as I don’t, then why don’t you just say so? Oppose him on relevant issues, of which there are plenty. Children, after all, are free agents, not robots programmed by their parents (well, usually), so blaming the father for the sins of the son is unfair. 

David Nebenzahl 

North Oakland 

• 

SKATE PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a 20-year-old bike rider who works in Berkeley and lives in Albany. Berkeley’s skate park is about 10 minutes from my house, which is awesome. The weather is great right now and it’s been nice getting some sessions in before the rain hits and the city closes down the park for the winter. I ride the park about two or three times a week, or whenever I get the chance, all while avoiding cops and the ill-mannered security guards that patrol the park on a daily basis.  

My bicycle makes me a criminal in that park. Skater kids are taught to hate biker kids and this is all created and supported by the City of Berkeley! Bikes are not allowed in this park. There are no reasons for this, just lazy uneducated politics. This park is a gift from a city that preaches tolerance, equality, compassion. A city that destroys the spirit of young children who simply want to enjoy the park like any other person on boards and blades. A city that is segregating black from white!  

I will continue to ride this park for as long as I live in the area. Nothing will change that—not cops, not tickets, not jail, not an ass-beating—nothing. I ride for the love of my sport, just like skaters. The city uses us as a way to get more money and that’s not fair. Ticket the rich for being rich in a poor area but leave the skaters and bikers alone! 

Chris San Agustin 

• 

HOLLIS ARREST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is extremely gratifying that the Fresno police arrested Christopher Lester Hollis. I had been checking in Bay Area newspapers weekly since the July 17 shooting death of Meleia Willis-Starbuck, hoping to read that Hollis, a close friend of the slain woman, was in custody.  

Willis-Starbuck, 19, graduated from Berkeley High School in 2003, and was about to return to Dartmouth College for her junior year when she was killed late at night outside her summer residence near the corner of Dwight Way and College Avenue in Berkeley.  

Lt. Randy Dobbins of the Fresno Police Department said the arrest came 12 hours after Hollis, the close friend of the slain Berkeley High School graduate, was first detained following a traffic stop. On the morning of the arrest, investigators discovered that Hollis’ companion in the car during the traffic stop, a woman on probation for a felony, had just made a call from the telephone in her apartment. An inquiry matched the number to an address in a nearby apartment complex. Officers went there and arrested Hollis.  

Immediately following Hollis’ arrest, I discussed the case at length with the students in my writing class here at Kyung Hee University in South Korea. 

Richard Thompson 

Visiting Professor, Kyung Hee University 

• 

LA FARINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

So ... Zelda Bronstein is one of the culprits who was holding up the La Farine opening for so long (“Support Locally Owned Berkeley Retail (While You Can),” Sept. 27)! Or so it seems from her column. With her description of the City Council “cavalierly” dismissing “three Thousand Oaks residents’ appeal of La Farine’s restaurant use permit,” you would think that this was a case of David losing out to Goliath. In truth, the petitions in favor of La Farine’s new location on Solano, which could be found at another locally owned business, Pegasus, filled quickly with signatures in favor of the only bakery now on Solano. In fact, if eight of the 20 food establishments on Solano in Berkeley that Ms. Bronstein asserts are illegal were to be forced out, you would have more than petitions at play.  

While we are all in favor of local businesses (Cody’s, Pegasus, Black Oak, etc. not Amazon) let’s pick our fights wisely. I, for one, would vote for a good liquor store on Solano. They all seem to have migrated to the south side of town!  

Chris Gilbert 

• 

SWIM PROGRAM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The children and parents at King Middle School are very disappointed that the fall swim program has been canceled. We hope the city and BUSD will consider extending the time for fall swim to accommodate the three-week lag in hiring lifeguards to staff the program, and that they will ensure nine weeks of swimming in the spring to serve the other two grades.  

Otherwise, this eighth grade class will be the first class to graduate from King without ever having used the pool. It is a shame to lose a long-standing, successful, and well-loved program that is of great benefit to all the children. Swimming is one of the few forms of exercise that can be pursued throughout adulthood and senior years. It is fun at any level, repairs stressed joints and muscles, mental distress, and enhances learning. 

We are equally concerned that the swim program recommence at Willard School. 

Gael Alcock,  

writing on behalf of 23 King Middle School parents 

• 

DON’T BLAME THE BOX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It amazes me that some people will allow the University of California to destroy perfectly good, clean, useable clothing and allow landmarked People’s Park to be robbed of an historic tradition on the grounds that somebody might run off with some clothing and try to sell it, or that an argument might take place over who should have it.  

The months the park has been without a freebox prove that its absence has not stopped arguments between people, or drug dealing, or entrepreneurial capitalism, for that matter. I was there last week watching people attempting to drop off clothing get threatened with tickets, while drug dealing went on three feet from where I was locking my bicycle with no interference at all from the police or the park staff. 

If the university really wanted to address these issues it has plenty of opportunities to do so instead of arresting people like me for singing songs. But don’t blame the freebox or the simple tradition of free exchange for the behavior of a few. The freebox tradition is not just for the poor, it is for all of us who enjoy a different color sweater now and then or have something taking up closet space that doesn’t fit.  

The destruction of useable clothing is an outrage. I’m a UC alumna, but will refuse to contribute a dime until I see some sensible manifestation of this supposed “era of cooperation.” 

Carol Denney 

• 

WILDLIFE HABITAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Humans own the entire Earth, right? So what could possibly be wrong with flooding yet more of our scanty remaining wildlife habitat with more humans? What could be wrong is that we are 100 percent dependent on the existence of other species. They clean our air, clean our water, “fix” nitrogen (make it available to living things), and provide food, medicines, pleasure, and countless other free services. That implies that we must allow them to have a place to live, where they can survive in perpetuity—habitat that is acceptable to them. That is habitat that is off-limits to humans. Most species don’t like having us around, and, considering our track record, with good reason! We have plenty of places to experience the pleasures of being in nature, without opening up our protected watersheds to more human access. 

Mike Vandeman, Ph.D. 

Hayward 

• 

RESPONSE TO 

JOHN GERTZ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mr. Gertz, former president of the Jewish community center, has spent much invective and slander in his latest stew of misinformation and babble published last issue. He has painted critics of the actions of Israel as lacking intelligence and reasoned principles. He has also simplified a wide variety of opinions to two or three bad ideas. So in the interest of showing one of the many ways a Jew may look at the Israel/Palestine conflict without falling into the categories defined by Gertz I offer the following:  

I believe: That there could be a Palestine and an Israel or a single country with both peoples at peace. That peace is the only option if humans are to survive into the future. That justice is a necessity if humans are to thrive into the future. 

I don’t believe: That Israel can or should be defended at all cost, though I would like it to continue to exist. That the Palestinian people are being treated with anything like justice. That Jews cannot be fascists. That a theocracy can be a democracy. 

Harry Wiener 

?

There’s a strike at Berkeley Honda. The owners of the business have raised big bucks for Cal. Is UC siding with the dealership to the extent of bending or breaking campus rules about free speech and free alcohol? Based on what I observed on campus last Saturday afternoon, the answer appears to be yes.  

Along with other members of the Berkeley Honda Labor and Community Coalition, I’d gone up to Kleeberger Field, just north of Memorial Stadium, where the Cal football team would shortly kick off its game with the University of Arizona. The Berkeley Honda website said that the business would be hosting “a free tailgate party in the North end zone.” It seemed like a good opportunity to educate the public about the strike.  

We wanted to let people know that when the Doten family sold the Honda dealership on Shattuck to Danville businessmen last June, the new owners immediately required all employees, most of whom were union members, to reapply for their jobs. In the service and repair department, the new owners declined to rehire many experienced and unionized older workers, who averaged 20 years of tenure. They replaced these veteran employees with recent technical school students and graduates. As our flier put it: “Lower Wages But Not Lower Prices.” 

The new owners have also degraded pension benefits and unilaterally changed the health insurance plan. Instead of bargaining in good faith with the unions, East Bay Automotive Machinists Lodge Local 1546 and Teamsters Local 78, management is continually delaying negotiations. Former Berkeley Honda employees are picketing on Shattuck Avenue outside the dealership, often accompanied by community supporters and a 12-foot-high inflatable rat.  

Mindful of the parking jam on game days, we decided to shuttle people up the hill. After dropping off a carload, I (miraculously) found a parking space on Regent Street just south of Dwight Way and then walked back to Kleeberger Field.  

When I arrived at the Berkeley Honda booth, the dealership manager, Tim Lubeck, was offering free hot dogs, chips, beer and wine to everyone who walked by. A few feet away, four of my colleagues were in dialogue with four campus police officers. I later learned from another member of the Labor and Community Coalition, Mary Courtney, that Lubeck, told her that he had called the police. Dolores Helman, also in the coalition, told me why.  

Beinke, she said, had come out in front of the booth and accused her of lying about the strike. “Get out of my face,” he said and grabbed the fliers she was holding. “You give me back those fliers, and I’ll get out of your face,” she replied. “Those are mine. We paid for them.”  

According to Helman, Beinke refused to return the fliers. So Helman and Coalition member Judy Shelton went down to Gayley Road and told a campus policeman there what had happened. “He did that?!” said the officer, seemingly surprised. Thinking that the officer had called other police to help them, Helman and Shelton returned to the tailgate party. When they got there, more campus police had indeed arrived—but to aid Berkeley Honda, not them.  

At first, the police said that coalition members had to leave because the dealership had a permit, and they didn’t. About then, I came onto the scene. Campus Police Lieutenant Ferrandini was ruling that we could stay after all, under certain conditions. “You can’t cause a disruption,” she said. “You have to step off to the side. Don’t bother [Berkeley Honda].” And, “you can’t distribute the fliers.”  

“We can’t distribute our fliers?” I said. “Isn’t that what the Free Speech Movement was all about?” John Lame, a passerby who said he was a UC employee and a member of AFSCME, joined the protest. But the lieutenant was adamant. I asked: “Is this part of the university’s time, place and manner [of assembly] rules?” She said it was and told me to check out UC’s website.  

I went home and Googled up three items. They all left me wondering where the university draws the line between itself and private business, especially when it comes to free speech.  

The UC Berkeley Police Department’s page on “Free Speech and Public Assembly” states:  

“UC Berkeley has a tradition of being an open forum for the expression of political and social ideas. While the university and its Police Department recognize the rights of individuals to engage in constitutionally protected free speech and public assembly, this activity must be conducted in a reasonable and responsible manner. 

“People who choose to exercise their freedom of speech or right to public assembly should understand that such rights are not unlimited. When the activity infringes on the rights of others or interferes with university business, it loses constitutional protection and may become a violation of law or university rules and regulations.”  

I wondered: Could leafletting the Berkeley Honda tailgate party be considered “interfering with university business”?  

The “Policy on Speech and Advocacy” states:  

“The time, place and manner of exercising constitutionally protected rights of free expression, speech, assembly, and worship are subject to campus regulations that shall provide for non-interference with university functions and reasonable protection to persons against practices that would make them involuntary audiences or place them in reasonable fear, as determined by the university, for their personal safety.”  

As far as I knew, nobody from the Labor and Community Coalition had made anyone an “involuntary audience” or placed anyone “in reasonable fear.” But again, I wondered whether distributing our leaflets near the Berkeley Honda booth could be deemed interference with a “university function.”  

Regulation 363 under “Berkeley Campus Regulations Implementing University Policies” says:  

“Anyone may personally distribute non-commercial announcements, statements, or materials in any outdoor area of the campus consistent with the orderly conduct of university affairs, the maintenance of university property, and the free flow of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Efforts must be made to avoid litter. Particular circumstances at particular times may require some limitations.”  

The first sentence here seemed to support our right to give out our flyers. But once more, the UC regulation raised questions. Did the Berkeley Honda tailgate party count as one of the “particular circumstances” that “at particular times” required “some limitations” on free speech? Would the university rule that our “materials” were commercial and therefore undeserving of protection? What about Berkeley Honda, then? Wasn’t their presence blatantly commercial? Did their right to expression deserve more protection than ours?  

And the episode raised a host of other, equally troubling issues. “Berkeley Campus Policies Governing the Promotion of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Products on the Campus and at Campus-Sponsored Events” include a prohibition on “offering free drinks.” Tim Lubeck had been loudly hawking free beer (and what’s more, apparently not bothering to card any of the young people who took up his offer). Why didn’t the campus police stop him?  

Taped prominently onto the table of the Berkeley Honda booth was an ad that ran in the Sept. 30-Oct. 3 issue of the Daily Planet. There, Beinke and his Berkeley Honda partner, Steve Haworth, claimed to have raised over $600,000 for Cal athletic programs and the Haas School of Business in the past seven years. Did that buy them the right to dispense free booze on campus?  

UC’s website says that any exception to its alcohol promotion regulations “requires the express approval of the dean of student life (or, in his or her absence, the provost for undergraduate affairs), who will determine whether the promised promotional activity’s benefit to the campus community significantly outweighs the detriment it poses.” Did the dean or provost decide that Berkeley Honda’s benefits to the campus community outweighed the detriment posed by its free dispensation of beer and wine? It seems unlikely, but the question remains.  

The Cal website also says that violation of the school’s alcohol promotion policy “is grounds for canceling or suspending the activity or event and imposing sanctions against the sponsoring unit, group or organization, at the discretion of the dean of student life.” 

Berkeley Honda has sent out a letter to its customers advertising its October tailgate parties at Cal. The Cal football team has two more home games this month. Is the university administration going to allow Berkeley Honda to continue offering free liquor on campus before games? Is it going to cancel the company’s tailgate parties or impose other sanctions?  

The Official Athletic Site of the University of California Golden Bears, run by Cal Sports Properties, a division of ISP Sports, Inc., currently welcomes Berkeley Honda as one of “our newest Golden Bear partners.” Does the Cal Athletic Department really want to partner with a business like Berkeley Honda? If so, what does that willingness say about the department’s values and its lessons for the students at what is, as its website reminds prospective Golden Bear partners, “the premier public university in the nation”?  

Zelda Bronstein, B.A. 1970, is a lifetime member of the California Alumni Association.  

?

Should we erect a statue of Jimi Hendrix in Berkeley? Whaddaya think? 

In September 1967 I started my freshman year at Philadelphia Community College where I proceeded to major in “Jimi Hendrix.” Together with a group of friends, I spent that first semester getting high, cutting classes and listening to music. In those days there was an active military draft and I didn’t realize until later that if you flunked out of school and lost your college deferment, more than likely you were headed for Vietnam. 

When my friends and I first heard Hendrix it was all over! We had grown up with the Stylistics, Delfonics, and Temptations. We were now listening to Bob Dylan, and even Frank Zappa, but we had never heard any thing like Jimi before. Jazz was the teacher, funk is the preacher, and Jimi combined it all with his psychedelic guitar licks, and took us to another world.  

For me, 1967 to 1968 was a period of music, indulgence, and promiscuity. A slice of time, after birth control pills and before AIDS. It was a time of free-speech, free-love and free-fall. People called us Hippies. We liked our hair long, our music loud, our clothes louder, drank Red Mountain wine, and gave a two-finger salute. Jimi was our high priest.  

Jimi was a virtuoso on his instrument, and is still without peer. A poet who wrote his own lyrics and the greatest showman on stage I ever saw. He played guitar behind his back, between his legs, with his teeth and even burned the damn thing on stage. Imagine all that, and remember Jimi was only on the scene for four years. He started playing when he was 15, and played guitar for only 12 years before he died at 27.  

There was a rumor at school that Jimi Hendrix was coming to town to play at the Electric Factory. It turned out to be true. The Electric Factory used to be an actual factory in downtown Philadelphia. It was a large but intimate open space with a single stage. There were no chairs, tables or kitchen, and they didn’t sell alcohol. You stood, sat or lay on the concrete floor. We went there for one reason—to hear music loud, and in your face. Instead of security guards there were about 15 huge guys dressed in karate uniforms. They were all bald-headed and walked around in bare feet.  

The night of the show, I had a blind date with a girl named Georgette. When I met Georgette I was pleasantly surprised. She was cute, shapely, and plus she had her own car. We headed off to the show, making a momentary stop at a friends house on the way to get nice. 

The atmosphere inside the Electric Factory that night was truly electric. With the flashing strobe lights, day glow paint and huge speakers blaring, it was like an indoor thunderstorm, without the rain. And then Jimi appeared. I don’t remember the time, who or how many opening acts there were, and only vaguely what Jimi was wearing. Those who remember everything that happened in the sixties weren’t really there! I do remember that he had silk scarves tied around everywhere—his head, his neck, his waist, his arms, even his legs. When he finally started tuning up on stage the Factory got even more electric. Jimi tuning up was as good as some bands whole show. The crowd started going wild! People were screaming out different songs they wanted to hear. Jimi stepped to the microphone and said, “I know what I’m gonna play,” and launched right into “Purple Haze”! 

When Jimi first came on stage, Georgette and I were sitting in front. As he started to play we stood up to avoid being stomped. In that first song Jimi pulled out all the stops. He was playing behind his back, between his legs, with his teeth, and it looked like sparks were leaping off of his guitar strings. With those huge Marshall speakers staring straight at us it sounded as if there were 10 people on stage rather than three (Mitch Mitchell was on drums and Noel Redding on bass).  

The next thing I knew someone was kicking me in the side with a bare foot. I looked up to see a huge guy, with a bald head and karate suit on. I said, “Man are you crazy, I’m trying to dig the show.” He said, “The show’s been over for an hour—you got to go.” I looked around and there were about 10 people still there, lying on the floor next to me, where hundreds had been earlier. Georgette was nowhere to be found. Don’t ask me what happened! A lifetime’s worth of anticipation over in 10 minutes. Maybe I kissed the sky! But I never saw Jimi Hendrix live or Georgette again.  

Months later, back in my old neighborhood in West Philadelphia, the brothers that weren’t being sent to Vietnam were “turning on, tuning in and dropping out,” and I was becoming more politically aware. So with my grades falling, and the draft board in full pursuit, I loaded up my Chevy van, complete with milk crate shelves, and 8 track tape player and headed for California. I packed my fringe jacket, moccasins, flowered shirts, jeans, bell bottoms and LP’s. After two weeks of driving, nothing on the radio, and 3,000 miles, I was standing on the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were still going strong. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi were still alive, and I was standing in the middle of the summer of love! 

Thirty-seven years later, my freak flag long retired, I was lounging on a leather couch in my house in Berkeley listening (rocking) to Jimi Hendrix. It was the first day of a well deserved three-week vacation and I’m wondering what I should do. My wife walks in and says, “Could you turn that down?” “It’s already turned down,” I respond. A fan of Hendrix herself, she asked, “Do you still get off on it like you used to, now that you don’t get high anymore?” 

“After the first time, you’re always high, you’re changed, you’re never the same. At least now I understand the lyrics,” I told her. “I know what we should do on vacation—let’s find Jimi Hendrix.” She asked, “What does that mean?” I answered, “I don’t know.”  

A week later, in my Volvo station wagon, we were headed for Seattle where Jimi was born. After two days of driving, nothing on the radio, and 900 miles we arrived at the Experience Music Project (EMP), next door to the Space Needle. On the first floor there was a small theater that played a loop of Hendrix live concerts every hour. One of the concerts featured Jimi playing in Berkeley. 

We went looking for other signs of Jimi in the city. We came upon the only statue of Jimi Hendrix in Seattle. It was small, about five feet high and depicted Jimi playing guitar on his knees. It was near the local community college and seemed out of place. 

The next day we drove to Renton, just outside of Seattle, to the cemetery where Jimi is buried. It was the only cemetery my kids have ever been to. There is a McDonald’s restaurant in the front. Inside the cemetery, on a manicured open field, is an above ground tomb and the remains of James Marshall Hendrix. People had left flowers, messages, and someone had even left a half-smoked marijuana cigarette on top of Jimi’s tomb. My journey was over, and as we headed home to Berkeley I realized that my search for Jimi Hendrix ended by reminding me of my own mortality … my past, who I am and maybe where I’m going. 

Should we erect a statue of Jimi Hendrix in Berkeley?  

Jimi was only on the music scene for about four years, and one of his most famous, and best known shows was recorded live at the Community Theater in downtown Berkeley. We should erect a statue of Jimi in front of the theater and put a kiosk next to it. People will visit from all over the world! We could sell tie-dye shirts, silk scarves, posters, and Jimi Hendrix CD’s, donating the money to the music programs at the local public schools.  

What do you think? 

Sept. 18th was the 35th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death. 

Photo courtesy of Rockmine, the Internet's largest rock music resource.t

There are words for certain people who have lost loved ones; a widow, a widower, an orphan. But what do you call a parent who has lost a child? I pondered this question with Kimberly Willis-Starbuck, mother of Meleia, lost to us all in a tragic shooting in Berkeley on July 17. 

With the recent arrest of Christopher Hollis, the young man accused of murdering the Berkeley High grad and Dartmouth freshman, there is new speculation about exactly what happened and why. The Starbucks have been asked by the local police to refrain from public comment about the case until the investigation has run its course. 

Meanwhile, Kimberly adds to the shrine she began creating the night her daughter died. That night, Kimberly lit 11 candles and had them burning on the dining room table. The shrine now holds photographs of Meleia as a baby and with her little brother, Zach; Meleia with her high school class in Cuba. There are colorful handmade books she made at Park Day School and there’s an amusing photo of a Louis Vuitton purse Meleia bought in Paris and had to return the next day. “She didn’t have enough money to eat and buy the purse,” Kimberly laughs. The shrine extends up two adjoining walls displaying her admission letter to Dartmouth, a soccer trophy, a beautiful doll she made when she was ten, her yearbook, a Good Citizenship Award she received from the City of Berkeley and more. 

“On one wall,” Kimberly says, “I have things connected to her death and the beautiful memorial her friends and my friends put on for her. There is Rafael Casal poem that he read, a letter from one of the deans at Dartmouth, letters from Barbara Lee and Barbara Boxer citing what an incredible young woman Meleia was and how she gave back to the community. There’s also a letter from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors stating that they adjourned their regular meeting on July 18 out of respect to Meleia’s memory.” 

And more, Kimberly says, “There’s so much more.” 

At the time of the shooting it was widely reported that Meleia called Christopher Hollis for assistance after having been confronted by a group of young men, including several Cal football players, who referred to Meleia and her friends as “bitches” after the girls refused their advances. It was while Meleia was standing on the sidewalk as her girlfriends waited for her in their car, patiently explaining to the young men why it was disrespectful to call them “bitches” that Christopher Hollis arrived on the scene and allegedly shot at the group from a block and a half away, fatally wounding his good friend, Meleia. 

Who are these Cal football players and exactly what was their involvement? Which one called Meleia a “bitch”? Were any threats of physical violence made? We, the public, along with Meleia’s family and friends, have a right to know. I called Cal Football Coach Jeff Tedford’s office and was referred to Kevin Klintworth, Associate Athletic Director for Communications. I wanted to know what these young men are taught, if anything, about social issues and interacting with women. Klintworth said that he thought there was some sort of class or orientation, but he wasn’t sure what it was. 

At press time, he had not gotten back to me with the details. 

The San Francisco Chronicle on Oct. 2 reported that, according to George Strait, UC Berkeley’s vice chancellor for public affairs, Cal football player Gary Doxy, although wounded at the scene, did not realize his flesh wound was related to the gunshots, therefore did not reveal his injury to the police until a month later. Rumors of a cover-up are beginning to emerge, not uncommon when it comes to protecting potentially big money-making athletes. 

Christopher Hollis is being represented by renowned Oakland attorney John Burris. Burris was quoted in this newspaper describing Hollis as “funny, intelligent and dependable—maybe too dependable.” I certainly hope that this seemingly innocuous comment isn’t an indicator of an attempt to mitigate the severity of Hollis’ alleged crime by trying to lay a foundation upon which to later blame the victim. 

Meleia deserves better. 

I hope that the politicians, community activists, university officials and other dignitaries, who praised Meleia so ardently for her short life’s full work, do not allow her memory to be tarnished for any reason. No reason would be good enough. 

Back in Georgia, where Kimberly and John Starbuck had initially moved to be closer to Meleia, they are planning a trip to Dartmouth next week to attend a memorial in celebration of what would have been Meleia’s 20th birthday on Oct. 10. Towards the end of our conversation, Kimberly tells me that they have kept Meleia’s phone answering message just so that they can hear her voice. Sometimes the phone rings in the middle of the night and they know not to answer it. It is one of Meleia’s many devoted friends calling so that they, too, can hear her voice one more time. 

I asked for the number but I haven’t yet been able to call it. It hit me while talking to Kimberly that it was Sept. 30, my own daughter’s birthday. Arianne would have turned 18. She died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (crib death) at 3 months of age. Even during those short three months, Arianne made a powerful impact upon everyone she met with her wide, intelligent eyes and her intense gaze. She seemed an old soul. Who knows what she would have accomplished in 19 years or 90? I’ve given birth to two other wonderful children since her death and I still miss her terribly. 

“Meleia is still here,” her little brother Zack insists. “She’s just on a different plane,” he explains. “She sees us. She hears us. She’s in my heart and she’ll always be there.” 

I know exactly how he feels.›

Several weeks ago a woman came to our front door and introduced herself as Grandmaw. 

“I like your columns in the Berkeley Daily Planet,” she said. “But I saw some of those negative letters to the editor about you and I thought you might need a hug.” 

Although I’m not in the habit of embracing every stranger who rings our doorbell, she was correct in her assumption, so I let her hug me. I invited her inside and introduced her to Ralph, Andrea, and Willie. We talked for a while and I wondered, momentarily, if she might be a serial killer, and if welcoming her into our home was a mistake. 

She was dressed simply in slacks, sneakers and a well-worn parka. She carried a handmade pocketbook that was actually a pair of cut-off blue jeans sewed together at the bottom and attached to a long strap. Inside the shoulder bag she carried newspaper clippings and some plastic containers. She explained she used the containers to save lunch leftovers for her neighbors at the nearby senior housing complex. 

She said she was on her way to visit acquaintances at St. Vincent de Paul down on San Pablo Avenue. I offered to give her a lift but she said no, she enjoyed riding the bus. She showed me her AC transit pass. It was encased in plastic. She kept it on a string hung around her neck.  

I asked her if she would like some of the greens Andrea had just cooked and she said she’d stop back after lunch and pick them up.  

I walked her to the southbound bus stop at 51st Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. As we strolled along the sidewalk, we chatted about the weather, her children, the places one could go for a free meal, and the best way to cook collard greens. 

She told me she was 83 years old, a vegetarian, an avid reader, and that she walked and rode busses everywhere. As soon as we arrived at the bus stop the No. 15 appeared. Before getting on she gave me another hug. This embrace was more intimate and I could feel her ribcage through the thick layers of clothes she wore. She disappeared up the steps, into the bus. It pulled away from the corner, spewed exhaust, and rocked southward on MLK.  

Several hours passed by before she returned. “Lunch was good,” she informed us. “You never know who you’re going to run into down there. I have the most fascinating conversations with the people I meet.” 

We filled her plastic containers with well-cooked greens, and I joined her on the short trek to the northbound bus stop at 53rd and MLK. Once again the bus appeared just as we reached the corner. She gave me another hug. She promised she’d come back and see us again soon.  

I walked home, surprised and delighted by the surreal visit, by the three unexpected hugs, and by the magical way in which the two buses materialized the moment Grandmaw and I had arrived at each corner. But I have not seen or heard from her since, and now I wonder if she is a figment of my imagination. I go over the details of the encounter. It all seems real enough to me, except for the part about the buses miraculously arriving just as she needed them. Could she hold some supernatural power over the public transportation system, and if so, could she share a bit of that mojo with me?  

But, more importantly, where is she now? If anyone out there knows Grandmaw, please tell her Suzy Parker could use another one of her hugs.n

Home invaders 

A gang of three men, one in his 50s and the others in their 20s, invaded the home of a Berkeley woman in the 1600 block of Alcatraz Avenue on Sept. 24, robbing their terrified victim of a computer, a television set and a DVD player before fleeing in a battered 1980s vintage red American car, said Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

The woman wasn’t injured in the attack. 

Berkeley Bowl attack 

A younger man slashed the face of a man in his 40s in an attack in the Berkeley Bowl parking lot shortly before 3 p.m. on Sept. 24. The victim was treated at a local hospital. 

Road rage bust 

Following an outburst of road rage about 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 in the 2600 block of College Avenue, one of the two women involved tailed the other, prompting the pursued to call police, who stopped the pursuer, a 21-year-old woman and her 45-year-old male companion.  

A search of their car turned up a knife, a pistol and stolen property, earning the arrestees a variety of charges, the least of which was driving on a suspended license. 

Bike brigands 

A pair of would-be teenage felons mounted on BMX-style bicycles produced a pistol and robbed a pedestrian of his cell phone and wallet near the corner of Dana Street and Dwight Way about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 25. 

Mop attack 

A 21-year-old woman attacked a 32-year-old woman with a mop at 9:30 a.m. last Monday in the 1400 block of Harmon Street. 

Gambling bust 

Police arrested five suspects on gambling charges after neighbors called officers to report their gaming activity near one of the volleyball courts in Strawberry Creek Park shortly before 7 p.m. last Tuesday. 

Home invasion II 

A couple sleeping in their home near the corner of Ashby Avenue and Wheeler Street Tuesday night was awakened by the sound of a masked burglar crawling in through their bedroom window. 

After they confronted the bandit—a man in his 20s—the burglar produced a pistol and proceeded to rob them. 

Bank heist 

A man in his 30s walked into the Citibank branch at 2000 Shattuck Ave. shortly after 12:30 p.m. Thursday and presented the teller with a demand note. As they are taught to do, the teller handed over the cash and the man fled on foot. He was last seen headed toward University Avenue, said Officer Okies. 

Berkeley Bowl attack II 

A 42-year-old man was attacked by a uniquely clad man armed with a screwdriver in the Berkeley Bowl parking lot about 7:20 p.m. Thursday. 

The suspect is described as a clean-shaven African American man about 25 years old who stands about 5’9” and weighs about 170 pounds. 

He was dressed in a camel-colored snap-brim hat, a blue puffy jacket, and white and blue vertically stripped shirt, black pants and golf shoes. He fled the scene on foot. 

Robbery 

A man in his early 20s strong-armed the purse away from a 42-year-old woman in the 3000 block of San Pablo Avenue about 10 p.m. Thursday. 

Middle school knife flasher 

Police arrested a 13-year-old at Willard Middle School just after 3 p.m. Friday after the youth allegedly threatened another student with a knife. 

Orange dred heister 

A tall man with shoulder-length orange dreadlocks robbed a 14-year-old girl of her cell phone and keys in the 2100 block of Shattuck Avenue shortly before 4 p.m. last Friday, said Officer Okies. 

Armed youths 

Berkeley Police officers conducting a security check in the 2300 block of Tenth Street shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday found a group of 15 people, most of them juveniles. Three were found to be in possession of firearms, including one adult. The pistol-packers were arrested and hauled off to the pokey. 

Armed driver 

When police stopped a 20-year-old driver in the 1800 block of Ashby Avenue late Friday night, they turned up a bonanza. Not only was the motorist driving on a suspended license, but he was also packing a firearm—a double felony, considering he’s also an ex-felon.›

“They went, they sat, they came back,” said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth Monday. 

He was referring to the Alameda County Search and Rescue team sent to Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. 

One of the members was Berkeley Lt. Darren Bobrosky, who was back in time to attend last Friday’s badge pinning ceremonies for recently promoted Berkeley firefighters. 

It had been Bobrosky second September trip to the South. He had been dispatched to Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to help in body recovery. 

Kitchen fire 

Firefighters responded to a home at 260 Alvarado Road Friday night, where they found a small kitchen fire had already been extinguished by the dwelling’s occupant. 

The blaze did an estimated $1,000 in damage to the home and $1,200 in damage to contents, mostly an oven and a microwave, said Orth.

If John Gertz actually wants to understand what he calls “anti-Israelism,” I suggest he take a break from name-calling and use the time to learn a bit about what’s happening on the ground in occupied Palestine.  

My report from a hamlet in the south Hebron hills section of the West Bank (Daily Planet, Aug. 30) has now earned me two denunciations from Gertz, plus a letter from his comrade in arms, Dan Spitzer, comparing me to Goebbels. But neither of them disputes what I wrote: Israeli settlers in the area (most of them living in outposts that are illegal even under Israeli law, yet continue to enjoy government assistance and army protection) routinely resort to harassment and violence in hopes of driving Palestinian villagers out of their ancestral homes. 

If Gertz, Spitzer, and anyone else choose not to believe what I wrote because of my association with the International Solidarity Movement, so be it—there are plenty of other sources that document this ongoing attempt at ethnic cleansing. For starters, I’d suggest the regular reports from the Christian Peacemaker Teams, who for years have maintained a presence in At-Tuwani, a village just a few miles from the one I stayed in this summer. Among other things, these reports cover the settlers’ repeated attempts to poison that village’s wells and flocks, as well as an attack a year ago that seriously injured two CPT members, including San Francisco resident Chris Brown, as they escorted Palestinian children to school. 

If Gertz et al. won’t trust the CPT—they’re goyim, after all—maybe they would believe Israeli sources. In June of this year, Ha’aretz, one of Israel’s largest newspapers, reported that “The settlers’ attacks on the Palestinians in this region are a daily occurrence. The most extreme zealots keep coming up with ever-more malicious and destructive ideas—arson, plowing cultivated fields, bringing herds to seeded fields, poisoning sheep, poisoning water wells and more.”  

Finally, B’Tselem, the widely respected Israeli human rights group, has issued a series of exhaustively documented reports on the situation in the Hebron hills. Some highlights from the latest, published just two months ago: 

• “B’Tselem’s survey found that, over the past three years, eighty-eight percent of the residents have been victims of settler violence, or witnessed such violence toward a first-degree relative. No village has managed to escape settler abuse.” 

• “Settler violence against Palestinians is common all over the West Bank. However, throughout the history of the occupation, efforts to enforce the law against settlers have been limited and ineffective.” 

• “…in most cases, not only do soldiers turn a blind eye to settler attacks on Palestinians, they aid the attackers.” 

All of this concerns just one small section of the West Bank. When you consider all the other outrages associated with the occupation—the killing and maiming of children and other innocent civilians, the home demolitions, the “administrative detentions” (imprisonment without trial), the curfews and “closures” and checkpoints that make normal life impossible, and now the monstrous Wall—is it any wonder that “anti-Israelism” is increasing, not just in Berkeley but wherever people value justice? 

For the record, let me add that almost everything Gertz wrote about me personally was incorrect. Becky O’Malley didn’t “appoint [me] as her Middle East reporter”—she simply accepted an article I submitted on a freelance basis. I was not “in the Middle East as a member of the ISM” —I was taking part in the “Palestine Summer Encounter,” a annual program sponsored by the Holy Land Trust and the Middle East Fellowship (and one I highly recommend to anyone who wants to see first-hand what’s really happening on the West Bank).  

Last but not least, neither I nor the ISM “praises and supports Palestinian terror.” 

Henry Norr is a Berkeley resident and former technology reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.

I’m only a part-time reader of the Daily Planet, and the San Francisco Chronicle doesn’t often cover the Berkeley ferry issue, so I may be a little out of date. I wonder if ferry planners have even considered what might be a huge boon to hundreds, if not thousands, of West Berkeley residents, and that is putting the ferry terminal closer to the shoreline rather than at the tip of the marina? 

There are many good points to ferries on the bay, not the least of which is the reduction of car traffic. Putting the terminal in the basin closest to the freeway will allow many people to be within walking distance of the ferry, further reducing car traffic and the need for parking. The pedestrian bridge over the Eastshore Freeway provides the access, alleviating the need for that much more parking space. Yes, some people will try to drive and park close to the pedestrian bridge, then walk over. Good luck with that. There is already relatively little parking in the area. 

There are also many objections to ferries on the bay, one of which is the need for dredging and potential loss of bird habitat. There are many mitigating reasons for going forward with dredging. One is the above reason, allowing more people to walk from their homes to the ferry terminal. Remember, people from other areas of Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, and Richmond, will be driving to the ferry regardless of where it is. People in West Berkeley would be added to that total if they also had to walk to end of University Avenue, then hike another quarter mile to the terminal. 

Dredging the bay is always an issue. Where will the mud go? How much of the disturbed area, already polluted, will spread its pollution, how far and to what already fragile areas? How much bird habitat will be upset? There is a simple, almost simplistic, answer: since non-native species—that would be us—arrived in this part of the world, the bay has been a work in progress, mostly destructive. The entire marina area, from the Spengers parking lot and Aquatic Park out to the two restaurants, is landfill. Various sources say that the bay itself has been reduced by at least half to even two-thirds of its original size, mostly by filling in wetlands and tidal marshes. 

Saving the bay is also a huge priority, one that will take many resources, lots of money and—last but not least—political will. I imagine that somewhere some mad scientist is already working on a system to cleanse dredged up matter from polluted bays and rivers. I’m not a scientist, mad or otherwise, so I have no way to answer the objection of what to do with polluted material dredged up from the bay (send it to Texas?). But in order to achieve the goal of having a ferry terminal that people can walk to, I would have us make the sacrifice of dredging, rather than increasing the amount of traffic and parking at the other end of the marina. 

The matter of birds is another issue. If we leave areas like the Albany Bulb undeveloped, bird habitat and sanctuary will be increased. If we upgrade the water in Aquatic Park, bird habitat and sanctuary will be increased. (Bringing in a steady supply of treated water from the EBMUD plant could do this). 

We have created a huge dog park at the north end of the marina. All of this space is landfill. Allowing dogs to run free has been a great boon to dog lovers and people who like to see dogs on leashes on city streets. All of that land could equally be used as bird habitat as well—not that I’m suggesting we do any such thing! I can hear the howls of protest already. But we have created this park to achieve a balance between our needs and our pets’ needs. We can do equally well by creating a ferry terminal that mitigates more car traffic and provides a vast area of the city with walk-to rather than a drive-to form of public transit. 

Finally, we need to keep in mind what CHP spokesperson Wayne Ziese said not too long ago: “We have a very precarious transportation system. Shut down a major artery, and commutes are impacted within a heartbeat” (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 16). Precarious transportation, precarious ecology. We need to achieve a balance between the two while we still have both time and an unfinished masterpiece, which is what the Bay Area could become, at least in terms of transportation. Look at the map and you will see that our also precarious public transportation system has only four points of simple correspondence between systems: Amtrak/BART in Richmond; Amtrak/ACE/BART in Fremont; Amtrak/ACE in San Jose, and BART/SFO in Millbrae. In almost every other place, there is a substantial gap between systems; one example, of course, is BART and the Oakland Airport. While many people use the shuttle from BART to the airport, many more don’t.  

A typical case (mine) runs something like this: A walk of one mile to North Berkeley BART, BART to Coliseum/Airport, shuttle to airport. Cost for two people: cheap at about $10 each way, but carrying luggage, including food for nice, cheap Southwest Airlines flights is a major hassle in time and effort. Or drive to the airport, pay for parking, walk to the terminal, usually in less than one half hour, which is what it takes to walk to BART. I suspect that most people do what I do, if traffic to the airport is any indication. 

It’s time to make a concerted effort to make simple transportation connections the norm rather than the exception. Both nice new Amtrak terminals in Emeryville and Oakland are not near enough to BART or even, in Oakland, to the ferry terminal, to make using the system to get anywhere at all very convenient. The fact that not all BART trains go to the airport, adding a step for most, makes the journey longer, less convenient and therefore less palatable for many people. Having a ferry terminal in Berkeley that is close to Amtrak (but not close enough) and close enough for many people to walk to is not only a good idea, but a step in a new direction—the direction of getting our transportation system to conform to the needs of the people rather than trying to get a very recalcitrant population to conform to the varying needs of a patchwork transportation system. 

Jack Jackson is a special education instructor in San Francisco and writes on social issues for various publications.

I am impressed that Ms. Mickleson (Letters Sept. 16) chose the words “ignorant hedonist” to describe how I painted her, and while I will not quibble with her interpretation, I will advise that she be mindful of her own brush strokes. Having carefully followed this developing story I think Ms. Mickleson would be well served to check her own bucket of paint. 

As a business person in this community, there is one aspect of this issue that continues to bother me. Ms. Mickleson referenced the “fact” that everything would be fine if “Tim Beinke had not fired nearly half the work force.” This is the mantra repeated by the protesters on the street and in these pages. To anyone who has carefully followed this story, or to anyone with an ounce of business knowledge, it is clear that this is not in fact the case. Mr. Beinke fired no one; Jim Doten Honda did. The same Jim Doten Honda who profited from the many years of service from their employees. This is the same Jim Doten Honda who presumably profited from the sale of the franchise rights to Mr. Beinke. If there were any obligation, legal or moral, to ensure that these workers were taken care of, it clearly would have been the obligation of Jim Doten Honda. There are many ways this could have been accomplished, yet no one wants to address that. The fact is that Tim Beinke fired no one. No one was laid off by Tim Beinke. No one was “kicked to the curb” by Tim Beinke. If in fact anyone was kicked, it was with a boot whose sole print clearly was that of Doten. Yet, based on the signs and comments of the protesters, Berkeley Honda should be shut down for trying to hire the best people for the job. Damn the facts, it wouldn’t serve the “cause.” 

The new owners presumably bought the franchise rights to sell Hondas in Berkeley—no more, no less. As such, Jim Doten Honda ceased to exist. They therefore fired, let go, kicked to the curb all of their employees. The new owners have stated that the store was under-performing and falling well short of Honda’s expectations. Given that Honda franchises are rarely available, this would seem to be logical. The new owner’s obligation was to build a team that they knew could ensure the long-term success of their business. In that vain, they interviewed all former Doten employees who wished to work for the new company, and according to the NLRB made their hiring decisions without prejudice or discrimination. Call me silly, but could it be that those who were not offered positions might not have been top performers or as efficient as they would like us all to believe? Again, the facts would not serve the cause. 

I know, you’re going to say that this is just a clever business cover-up, meant to disguise the true nefarious nature of the devious plot hatched by the new owners. But the facts are unavoidable. The new owners had no obligation, legal or moral, to hire any of Doten’s employees. If their true purpose was to “bust the union,” why would they hire a majority of union labor? Again you will say that this was just a clever ruse. If the facts don’t fit, misdirect. 

There is one other issue that disturbs me. You refer to the good corporate citizenship of Doten Honda (although you cited it third-hand) and in the same breath you questioned Beinke’s commitment to the community. You are unwilling however to give Beinke the opportunity to show it. If you do any research on the Beinke’s business dealings, you would find that they are outstanding corporate citizens in every community in which they do business. This is above and beyond the many philanthropic endeavors that they have created and supported. Yet any mention of their commitment to Berkeley will be met with the refrain, “They just want to buy their way into the community!”  

Everyone seems so ready to accept the suppositions that the union has carefully planted about what the intentions of this new ownership group are. “If the union says it, it must be true.” Why else would I keep reading such derisive comments referring to the 401k offered by management? I don’t know about you, but given the opportunity to have money put into a 401k that I have total control over, or the same amount of money put into an under-funded pension plan over which I have no control, the decision is easy. But then again, you probably believe that Social Security is in fine shape. “Damn the facts. Shut them down!” 

What amazes me is how much energy and vitriol is being aimed at this situation, especially in light of so many more important issues faced by this community. It would seem to better serve the community to allow the new owners the opportunity to make the business decisions that are their right to make and judge them on what they do, not what we think they are going to do. Maybe they are ruthless business people presumably willing to invest millions of dollars so they could hire unskilled labor to work on sophisticated cars, hoping that an unsophisticated public would continue to bring their cars to be poorly serviced for exorbitant rates. Or maybe they are smart business people, willing to invest millions of dollars in an under performing business, with the goal of improving the operation so it can grow, employing many more people than ever before and becoming not only one of the top revenue generators for the City of Berkeley but also a leading corporate citizen. You are free to choose which you believe. The union and its supporters would have you believe the former. Common sense, logic and oh yes, the facts would suggest the latter. 

Chris Regalia is a Berkeley resident. 

›

A rice bowl, a pair of chopsticks and a brightly colored cloth, when put together, cause a samurai to materialize, leaping, fencing, then, quickly changing into a junklike boat on cloth waves, the same simple objects manifesting the transoceanic voyage of Japanese to America. 

This is just a moment at the start of a puppet show fable of a difficult chapter in our 20th century history, Lunatique Fantastique’s Executive Order #9066, now at the new Marsh Berkeley in the Gaia Building. 

The Oakland-based Lunatique Fantastique, a kind of Dickensian orphanage for found objects that multitask as all manner of puppets, props and scenery, is the brainchild of Liebe Wetzel, who directed her puppeteer collaborators with Christine Young in what’s just the first of a work-in-progress “War Trilogy,” including pieces on the carving up of the Middle East and Einstein and the development of the bomb.  

Lunatique’s previous shows have usually been more whimsical, but Wetzel’s humor has bite, and pathos. Executive Order #9066 is a simply told story that relies on a dazzling sleight of puppeteers’ hands. 

The puppeteers themselves are attired in Bunraku-like black robes with veiled hoods. They’re visible onstage all the while, and provide the spare soundtrack to the story, with unintelligible chatter and giggling, as well as sound effects performed solely by lips and tongue—and the sounds of the objects they manipulate into form.  

A Japanese tea setting becomes a Japanese American family, inverted pot for mother’s head (spout for eloquent nose) and teacups for her mischievous sons, always cutting up or playing baseball with the Anglo neighbor boy, a white sugarbowl (handles for big adolescent ears), whose mother is a white English-style teapot, upsidedown.  

Things seem cozy in the neighborhood, until, in the first tour-de-force of their artistry, Pearl Harbor is attacked, the whole scene played out with paper, its crumpling the sickening sound of flames, a harbinger for worse nearer the end of the show. 

The two previously friendly housewives read it in their newspapers, teapot spots “pouring” intently over the tragedy that silences their curbside morning chats. Suspicion and shame replace friendship. (Always remarkable how well-handled puppets can bring out the subtlest of emotions, even these momentary collections of odds-and-ends, their “unselfconsciousness,” as playwright Heinrich von Kleist put it almost 200 years ago, enabling them to move and to express things in a way that humans would stumble over themselves, just trying.) 

In another scene, which is part fable and part political cartoon, an upside-down coffee urn becomes a military head; a hat, glasses and a cigarette holder materialize FDR in a wheelchair of kitchenware. The President and the general play poker with pricetags, strings dangling. When FDR loses, he signs Executive Order #9066 with his cigarette holder. It is the command that sent 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans into internment camps in February 1942. Lunatique, with the help of survivors of that time and the projects which memorialize it, researched and developed this piece for The Marsh. 

The price tags become tags for the auctioning of the detainee’s belongings. Pennies are scattered on the stage. An old, tattered suitcase becomes a bus on rollers with tin can headlights. The family is deposited at the camp, laid out on a field of brown wrapping paper covered in sand, which gets into everything. A new, hard life begins for the family. 

Nonetheless, there’s humor and a little lightheartedness and a lot of baseball and playing in confinement. One son decides to enlist, followed by scenes of combat. The tags are later put into service as dogtags, telegrams, tombstones and Japanese shrines in the sand, and a memorial scroll hanging on the tree (a twig in a tin can) grown on the campgrounds, which finally flowers. 

The dropping of the A-Bomb looks back to the troupe’s enactment of Pearl Harbor, and ahead to Wonder, the story of Einstein and atomic power, the projected third part of the trilogy. It’s enacted in awful simplicity for this current run, which began at The Marsh in San Francisco on the 60th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima. 

As story-telling, as performance and as a chronicle of human endurance while lost in upheaval, Lunatique Fantastique’s Executive Order #9066 is remarkable and unique. As puppeteering, the show is a successful extension of their own style into a more complicated mode and historical material that’s difficult to represent, as many of the 50th and 60th tributes to World War II survivors have demonstrated. 

No wonder these artists-in-residence at The Marsh have been recognized by the Jim Henson Foundation (named after the Muppets’ creator) as bringing a new and versatile style to the craft. 

Lunatique Fantastique’s Executive Order #9066 plays at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, the Gaia Building, through Oct. 21. For more information call 800-838-3006 or see www.themarsh.org.›

TUESDAY, OCT. 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Modern Visions from Mongolia” opens at the Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus.  

FILM 

Derek Jarman’s Home Movies: “Imagining October” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Salman Rushdie reads from his new novel “Shalimar the Clown” at 6:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $40, $50 per couple and includes a copy of the book. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Diversified with Jan Steckel and Hew Wolff a 7:30 p.m. at World Ground Café, 3726 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 482-2933. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Prezident Brown backed by the Solid Foundation Band, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

The Tannahill Weavers, traditional Scottish music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50- $20.50. 548-1761.  

Singer’s Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Eric Shifrin, solo jazz piano and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

John Santos & Machete Ensemble at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5 

FILM 

Doctor Atomic Goes Nuclear “The Beginning or the End” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Andrew Lam reads from his new book, “Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora” at 4 p.m. at the Institute of East Asian Studies, 6th Flr., 2223 Fulton St. 642-3609. 

Tom Panas introduces the “Images of America” book on El Cerrito at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Book Signing with Mary Lee Bendolph of the Gees Bend Quilters at 5 p.m. at Paulson Press Gallery, 1318 Tenth St. 559-2088. www.paulsonpress.com  

Louise Erdrich reads from her new novel “The Painted Drum” at 6:15 p.m. at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., Tickets are $40, $50 per couple and includes a copy of the book. 845-7852.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert with Anna Carol Dudley, voice, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

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

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

La Peña Latin Jazz Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

Saddle Cats at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Western Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pepe Y Su Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

The Cottars, youthful Celtic roots, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50- $18.50. 548-1761.  

Calvin Keys Trio Invitational Jam at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Scott Amendola Band at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, OCT. 6 

EXHIBITIONS 

The Baum Award for Emerging Photographers exhibition opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Dialogue with the artists, Lisa Kereszi, Jeanne Finely and Terri Cohn at 6:15 p.m. 642-0808.  

“Bijoux” An exhibition in conjunction with the Northern California Bead Society,. Reception at 6 p.m. at NIAD Art Center, 551 23rd St., Richmond, Exhibition runs to Nov. 18. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

“Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia and Deco” guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. 

California Landscapes pastel paintings by Amy Gitelman at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., through Oct. 31. 524-3043. 

FILM 

MadCat Woman’s International Film Festival: Animated Documentaries at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Egyptian Expeditions to the Sinai Peninisula” The AIA La Follette Lecture by Dr. Thomas Hikade, Univ. of British Columbia, at 7:30 p.m. at 370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. 415-338-1537. 

Nomad Spoken Word Night at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Ana Maria Spagna reads from “Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging and the Crosscut Saw” at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Nuala O’Faolain on her biography “The Story of Chicago May” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Ron Powers reads from his biography “Mark Twain: A Life” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Word Beat Reading Series with Dale Jensen and Judy Wells at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cecelia Bartoli with the Zurich Orchestra at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $50-$250. 642-9988.  

Global Fusion: Emam & Friends at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Tessa Loehwing & Adam Blankman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

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

David Jacobs-Strain, blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Nine Pound Show, Powder Wheel at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082  

Dave Bernstein and John Wiitala, guitar and bass, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Dead Kenny G’s, Brian Haas, Skerik, Mike Dillon at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200.  

FRIDAY, OCT. 7 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “The Price” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m., through Oct. 9, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

California Shakespeare Theater, “The Tempest” at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., between Berkeley and Orinda, through Oct. 23. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “You Can’t Take it With You” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Pomona Ave. at Moeser Lane, El Cerrito, through Oct. 22. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Lunatique Fantastique “Executive Order 9066” Thurs. -Sat. at 7 p.m., through Oct. 21 at 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $15-$22. 415-826-5750. www.themarsh.org 

Rough and Tumble “Candide,” A version with live radio, music, puppets and assorted bizarre props, Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. Free, donations accepted. 601-1444. 

Shotgun Players, “Owners” at 8 p.m., Thurs.-Sun. through Oct. 16 at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Reservations suggested. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

“Spanglish Lab” Comedy with Bill Santiago at 8 p.m. at at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“The Cradle Will Rock” by UC Dept. of Theater Dance and Performance Studies, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Oct. 16, at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-9925. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Romanian Lace Costume and Sentimental Embroideries” Reception at 6 p.m. Exhibition runs to Feb. 4 at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. 843-7178. lacismuseum.org 

“Single Moms: Invisible Lives” Photographs by Katherine Bettis through Oct. 31 at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

“Greetings From Oakland: The Immortalization Project” Photograhs and videos of people and their nostalgic possessions by Lisa Walsh. Reception at 7 pm. at 21 Grand Gallery, 416 25th St., Oakland.  

FILM 

Dr. Atomic Goes Nuclear “Seven Days to Noon” at 7 p.m., “Hell and High Water” at 9 p.m., at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Best New American Voices including Andrew Altschul, Kaui Hart Hemmings, Jamie Keene Albert Martinez at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Last Word Poetry Series with Bert Glick and Philip Hackett at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Symphony at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-9988.  

Hyim and the Fat Foakland Orchestra at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Ellen Robinson & Ben Flint Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Leftover Dreams, music from the Great American Songbook, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

20 Minute Loop, Six Eye Columbia, Brian Kenney Fresno at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Betty Fu Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Jared Karol and Lemon Juju at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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

Raw Deluxe, album release party, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

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

U.K. Subs, The Sick, Arno Corps 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. 

George Brooks’ Summit at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, OCT. 8 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Asheba, Afro-Caribbean music at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Counterintuitive” Prints by Jay Chadwick Johnson. Reception at 6 p.m. at The Gallery of Urban Art, 1266 66th St., Emeryville. 596-0020, ext. 192. www.thegalleryofurbanart.com 

FILM 

Documentaries from the Grad. School of Journalism at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. www.realdramadocs.com 

Farewell: A Tribute to Elem Klimov and Larissa Shepitko “Heat” at 5 p.m., “Wings” at 7 p.m. and “You and I” at 8:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Arts Festival: “Two Dialogues from the Classics” by Dorothy Bryant based on “The Decay of Lying” by Oscar Wilde and “The Plague” by Albert Camus, red by Clive Chafer and Terry Lamb at 3 p.m. at 2324 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Elizabeth Partridge reads from her biography of John Lennon, “All I Want Is the Truth” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE  

The Sierra Ensemble Heather Haughn, violin, Janis Lieberman, horn, Marc Steiner, piano at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

J.Y. Song, pianist, at 7:30 p.m. at the Calvin Simmons Theater, 10 Tenth St., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$40. 601-7919.  

University Symphony at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-9988.  

Thomas Barquee Sanskrit chanting at 7 p.m. at Sacred Space, 816 Bancroft Way . Cost is $12-$15. 496-6047. 

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Shanna Carlson & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

In Harmony’s Way, a capella folk ensemble, at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

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

Brindl and Joshua Lennon Pierce at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

J-Soul at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Eric Thompson’s Kleptograss at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Bebop & Beyond at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com  

“For tha Love of Radio Unplug Clear Channel” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8, includes CD. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ray Cepeda & Friends, latin rock, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Luca, Red Thread, Julia Mack at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Teenage Harlots, Secretions, Mouth Offs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 9 

CHILDREN 

Family Square Dance with Evie Laden at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

Norma Mayer, soprano and Richard Mayer, flute at 4 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $5 children $10 adults. 925-798-1300.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Nature Sculptures” Photographs by Zach Pine Reception at 4 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

“Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia and Deco”guided tour at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Documentaries from the Grad. School of Journalism at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. www.realdramadocs.com 

Dutch Voices: Jos de Puter and Peter Delpeut “Go West, Young Man!” at 4 p.m. and “Monte Walsh” at 5:40 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joel Ben Izzy discovers the wisdom of ancient stories in “The Beggar King and The Secret of Happiness” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“Yosemite in Time” Panel discussion with exhibition photographers Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Poetry Flash with Martha Evans, Katherine Hastings, Mary Hower and Hannah Stein at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Arts Festival: Barely Human Dance Theatre “From Here We Watch The World Go By” at 5 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza. 883-0302. 

The Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 116 Montecito St., Oakland. Admission is free, donations requested. 

Daniel Pearl Music Day with mezzo-soprano Sylvie Braitman at 4 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $12. 848-0237. 

Jenna Mammina Benefit for “Scat for Cats” to bring music into the schools at 2 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

E. W. Wainwright’s African Roots of Jazz, celebrating Oscar Brown Jr.’s Birthday, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Americana Unplugged: Stay Tuned Bluegrass Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Jon Fromer and The Cheats, parodies, ballads and barbs, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$12, sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mardi Gras 2010 A Gulf Coast Survivor Relief Benefit where 100% of the proceeds are going to the survivors of hurricane Katrina from 2 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at White Horse Inn, 6551 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. Cost is $10. 652-3820 www.whitehorsebar.com 

Samora Pinderhughes at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Bob Marley Student Ensemble at 7:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Ferron, folk music poet, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Tap Roots and New Growth Dona Rosa, Gulare Azafli and Zulfiyye Ibadova Lecture at 7 p.m., performance at 8:15 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$18. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Philips Marine Duo, jazz, at 10 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

This Bike is A Pipe Bomb, Defiance, Ohio, The Bananas at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926.›

Microcina leei may very well be the most obscure creature I’ve ever written about. It stumped Google Image; the accompanying photograph is of a very distant relative. It’s only a millimeter long and spends its entire life hiding under rocks. 

Why is it worth the column inches, then? Well, for openers, it’s a Berkeley near-endemic, found only at one site in the hills above campus and another just beyond the Oakland border. Few other creatures, if any, can claim that distinction. It’s also a presumptively endangered species that’s been left out in the cold by the machinery of protection. And it and its relatives pose an intriguing puzzle for students of biogeography, the science that tries to determine why living things are where they are.  

M. leei and its six fellow members of the genus Microcina are known as microblind harvestmen, a construction that bothers me a little. Why not “blind microharvestmen?” They are in fact eyeless, and they’re definitely micro. And they’re members of the arachnid order Opiliones, whose 5,000 species you probably know as daddy-longlegs. “Harvestman” is a British name, inspired by their tendency to show up in numbers during harvest season. The Brits also call them shepherd spiders; in parts of Mexico they’re pinacates; in Japan, mekuragumo. 

Although they have eight legs, harvestmen are not spiders. (It doesn’t help that some true spiders with attenuated legs are called daddy-longlegs spiders.) Spiders have waists, dividing head-and-thorax from abdomen; harvestmen have a one-piece ovoid body.  

Harvestmen don’t produce silk or spin webs. Spiders are predators; harvestmen eat plant matter and carrion as well as living prey. And male harvestmen (harvestpersons?) have a penis, whereas spiders do not. Male spiders do have a complicated work-around, involving portable webs and pedipalps, but let’s leave well enough alone here. 

Rick Vetter, an arachnologist at UC Riverside and a gold mine of spider lore, says there’s a widespread belief that harvestmen are deadly poisonous but can’t inflict lethal damage because their fangs are too short. This is a complete canard. They have no fangs or venom glands. Vetter also says the daddy-longlegs spiders, more properly known as pholcids, are not known to be biters and the venom they use on their prey has never been tested for toxicity to humans. 

The only way a harvestman could do you any damage is if taken internally. They repel predators by secreting unpleasant chemicals: Thomas Eisner, the pioneering chemical ecologist, found one in west Texas that produces benzoquinones in crystalline form. When provoked, it dilutes the crystals with saliva and uses the tips of its forelegs to brush the fluid on its attackers. This seems to discourage ants, at least.  

If microblind harvestmen have similar defenses, no one has reported it. We know very little about the lives of these creatures, in fact. They need microhabitats that provide high humidity, total darkness, and warmth; this usually means the underside of rocks. They prey on springtails, which are either primitive insects or not-quite-insects depending on which entomologist you listen to. They are not highly social, occurring mostly one to a rock, although groups of 10 or more have been observed. They show up when the rainy season begins and disappear when the ground beneath their rocks dries out.  

That’s pretty much their whole story. 

Blind harvestmen as a group are, one species excepted, found only in California. And the genus Microcina, the microblinds, occur only in the Bay Area, with a scattered distribution: one species near Mount Burdell in Marin County, one on the Tiburon Peninsula, two in the East Bay, one in Edgewood Park south of San Francisco, two in Santa Clara County. Each has been found in only a small patch of habitat at its respective site. Six of the seven species are limited to serpentine grassland, perhaps because serpentine-derived soil holds moisture like a sponge. 

Serpentine is weird stuff: our official state rock, formed on ancient seafloors and scraped onto continental margins when plates collide or microplates dock. Serpentine soil is chock full of magnesium, chromium, and nickel, lacking in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Most plants can’t tolerate the stuff. Some, though, grow there and nowhere else, like the bizarre Tiburon mariposa lily that blooms on Ring Mountain in late spring. There are outcrops of gray-green serpentine in most Bay Area counties; but only a few such locales have resident microblind harvestmen. 

How do these reclusive blind crawlers get around? If the seven species have a common ancestor, how did one set of descendants wind up on Mount Burdell and another in Edgewood Park? Are these the last survivors of a formerly more widespread population that lived in whatever a harvestman would consider flush times? The entomologists who named the genus, Thomas Briggs and Darrell Ubick of the California Academy of Sciences, were reasonably certain that each little enclave had a distinct species. It’s the penises. Each species has a uniquely-shaped organ, some tending toward the baroque; in one group, it folds and telescopes. If a Mount Burdell male were ever to meet an Edgewood female, their options would be limited. 

Six of the seven microblind harvestmen have a measure of federal protection: they’re covered in an omnibus Recovery Plan for Serpentine Soil Species, along with a couple dozen plants, a checkerspot butterfly, and a longhorn moth. The odd harvestman out is Berkeley’s own Microcina leei. Vincent Lee discovered it on the north side of Woolsey Canyon next to the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory parking lot, beneath chunks of sandstone. No serpentine, so no Recovery Plan. A second population is or was found on Claremont Avenue northeast of its intersection with Ashby. No serpentine there either. 

It strikes me as grossly unfair that Lee’s microblind harvestman should be deprived of its Endangered Species Act rights because of a simple twist of geologic fate. If it’s even still there—I don’t know if anyone has gone back to look for it. Anyway, if anyone is searching for a cause to espouse, let me suggest Microcina leei. And what if it’s not a whale or a condor or a redwood? Nobody’s perfect.  

Which reminds me: thanks to Jim Buskirk for pointing out that the turtle whose photograph accompanied the March 1 article on the western pond turtle is actually a red-eared slider—a melanistic male. 

Photograph: Dr. Hays Cummins, Miami University  

Microblind harvestmen are members of the arachnid order Opiliones, whose 5,000 species you probably know as daddy-longlegs.?

TUESDAY, OCT. 4 

People’s Park Beautification Planning Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the SW corner of the park. 658-9178. 

Sing-A-Long from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122. 

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

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Free, registration required. 465-2524. 

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. 524-9992. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5 

Cindy Sheehan speaks at 7 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Donation of $20 benefits Global Exchange, CodePink, and Gold Star Families for Peace. 415-255-7296, ext. 253. 

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Albany Waterfront Development meeting at 1 p.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. Matt Middlebrook from Caruso Affiliated will speak, discussion follows. All welcome. 524-9122. 

Sustainable Farming on the Gill Tract, 1050 San Pablo Ave., Albany, at 3:30 p.m. www.agroeco.org 

American 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. 

Living Mercury Free How mercury affects your health and what you can do about it at 7 p.m. at the Teleosis Institute, 1512B Fifth St. Free, but please RSVP to 558-7285. 

Book Signing with Mary Lee Bendolph of the Gees Bend Quilters at 5 p.m. at Paulson Press Gallery, 1318 Tenth St. 559-2088. www.paulsonpress.com  

Friends of the Oakland Library Book Sale from 10:30 to 5:30 p.m. at 721 Washington St., through Oct. 8. 444-0473. 

Lab Live Hip Hop Ensemble Workshop for musicians, emcees, spoken word artists and singers at 4:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Free. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation 30th Anniversary Celebration from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 287-5353, ext. 344. 

Legacy And Practice Of Democratic Psychiatry at 4 p.m. at the Men’s Faculty Club, UC Campus. Conference continues on Thurs. from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. For conference agenda and information see http://trieste-in-california.berkeley.edu/ 

Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College Open House at 6 p.m. at 2550 Shattuck Ave. Tours of classrooms and clinics and information for prospective students. To RSVP call 666-8248, ext. 106.  

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

Entrepreneurs Networking at 8 a.m. at A’Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcatraz. Cost is $5. For more information contact JB, 562-9431.  

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. 

Prose Writer’s Workshop An ongoing group made up of friendly writers who are serious about our craft. All levels welcome. At 7 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

“A History of God” by Karen Armstrong discussion group at 6:30 p.m. at Bookmark Bookstore, 721 Washington St., Oakland. 

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. 

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 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, OCT. 6 

Oakland Bird Club with Hans and Pam Peeters, authors and illustrators of “Raptors of California” at 7:30 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, Upstairs Meeting Room, 5366 College Ave. 444-0355.  

Songs and Stories for Working with Children in the Garden with songwriter, storyteller Nancy Schimmel at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Hands-on Bike Maintenance Learn how to prevent and repair flats on your bike at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Café Philo, French discussion group, at 7 p.m. at The Alliance Française, 2004 Woolsey St. Cost is $5. 548-7481.  

“Beyond Chutzpah” On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and Abuse of History with Norman Finkelstein at 7:30 p.m. at St. Jopseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 548-0542. 

Design/Build Workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pella Showroom, 1717 B Fourth St. Cost is $20 in advance, $25 at the door. To register call 559-1333. www.mcbuild.com 

World Affairs/Politics Group for people 60 years and older meets at 3:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $2.50, includes refreshments. 524-9122. 

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

FRIDAY, OCT. 7 

Berkeley Unicycle and Juggling Festival from 5 to 9:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 10 a.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. www.ocf.berkeley.edu/ 

~juggle/festival 

“Trafficking of Women and Children” at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church 1640 Addison St. 655-5659, 510-581-7963. 

“Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience” a documentary at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalists Fellowship Hall, Bonita at Cedar.  

“Trafficking of Women and Children” at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church 1640 Addison St. 655-5659, 510-581-7963. 

“Sisters Break the Silence” Uniting to Heal from Domestic Violence. Panel discussions and workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Health Education Center, Alta Bates Summit, 400 Hawthorne Ave. Oakland. Cost is $40. To register call 869-6210. 

“A Tribute to the Negro Leagues” at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, Tenth and Oak St., in conjunction with the exhibition “Baseball As America.” 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Fair Trade Rice Farming with guest farmers from Thailand at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Rice-tasing and potluck, please bring something to share. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Friends of the Oakland Library Book Sale from 10:30 to 5:30 p.m. at 721 Washington St., through Oct. 8. 444-0473. 

UC Press SIdewalk Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2120 Berkeley Way. All books $5-$10. www.ucpress.edu 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Carolyn Merchant, Prof. of Environmental History on “Partnership Ethics.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020. 

Solo Sierrans: Walk and Wine Tasting in North Berkeley Meet at 4 p.m. at Starbucks at corner of Cedar and Shattuck. RSVP to 841-5493, 724-3005.  

Depression Screening Learn how to manage stress and to recognize depression symptoms. Free and anonymous. Appointments available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Alta Bates Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way. to register call 204-4580.  

Hillegass-Parker Co-op Open House at 5 p.m. at 2545 Hillegass Ave. 848-1936, ext. 316. 

Three Beats for Nothing sings early music for fun and practice at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 655-8863. 

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

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

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 8 

Berkeley Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow & Indian Market Enjoy Native American foods, traditional dancing, and arts and crafts, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Grand Entry at noon. 595-5520. www.red-coral.net/Pow.html  

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Take Flight with Aquatic Park EGRET Enjoy seasonal treats from 4 to 6 p.m. in the historic Cabin at the southeast corner of Aquatic Park’s Main Lagoon and watch egrets gather for the night. Donation of $15 supports EGRET's bayshore habitat and trail maintenance work. 549-0818. www.egretpark.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “Comfort Foods Galore” at 10 a.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $40. To register visit www.compassionatecooks.com 

“What is the Human Capacity for Peace?” An examination from several religious traditions from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bade Museum, GTU, 1798 Scenic Ave. 848-9788.  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Disaster Mental Health from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St., between 8th and 9th. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

fire/oes.html 

Berkeley Unicycle and Juggling Variety Show at 7:30 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Cost is $12. www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~juggle/festival 

Italian Chalk Art Festival Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Bay Street, Emeryville. Activities for children and awards for chalk art. www.baystreetemeryville.com 

Behind the Scenes at Pixar Benefit for the Emery Ed Fund, at 11 a.m. at Pixar Studios. Cost is $100. For tickets see www.emeryed.org 

Free Sailboat Rides between 1 and 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring warm waterproof clothes. www.cal-sailing.org 

Planting Under Oaks with Judy Thomas, Merritt College Hort. Dept., at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

“Foods of the Americas” A market of native corn, tomatoes, peppers, chocolate, quinoa and more, through Oct. 26 at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. 

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

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

Spirit Walking Aqua Chi (TM) A gentle water exercise class at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $3.50 per session. 526-0312. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 9 

Morning Bird Walk to welcome back the Northern Flicker, Kinglets and others, at 9:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Fall Bird Walk with birder Dennis Wolff at 9 a.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $8-$12. 643-2755. 

Halloween Animals Learn the facts and myths about cats and rats from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 525-2233. 

Blessing of the Animals at 10 a.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Pets in carriers or on leashes requested. 524-2921. 

Green Sunday: “The War at Home” the corporate offensive from Reagan to Bush with Jack Rasmus, author, at 5 p.m. at the Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. 

People’s Park Beautification Work Party from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the SW corner of the park. 658-9178. 

Breakfast Aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1337 Canal Blvd, Berth #6, Richmond. Cost is $6, children under 5 free. Includes tour of the ship. 237-2933. 

“Savor the Season” from 1 to 4 p.m. at Alameda County Community Food Bank, with Food Network’s Iron Chef America Cat Cora, live and silent auctions. Tickets are $50 and include lunch and wine. This fundraiser provides low-income children and families with nutritional help during the holiday season and year round. 635-3663, ext. 328. www.accfb.org 

Shawl-Anderson Dance Center Open Studio and scholarship fundraiser from 2 to 5 p.m. at 2704 Alcatraz Ave., with performances, refreshments and raffle. 654-5921 www.shawl-anderson.org 

Spenger's Fifth Annual Crabby Chef Competition at 2 p.m. in the parking lot at 1919 Fourth Street. Enjoy live music and seafood delights while watching top East Bay chefs compete to create the best crab dish. Cooking booths open from 11 a.m. to 4:30 pm. 845-7771. 

“The Culture of Chocolate” presentations, discussions and tastings from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Phoebe Hearst Museum. Cost is $15-$15. Reservations required. 643-7649. 

“The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” family film series at 11 a.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5. www.juliamorgan.org 

Free Sailboat Rides between 1 and 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring warm waterproof clothes. www.cal-sailing.org 

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, OCT. 10 

Freedom From Tobacco Class Mon. Oct. 10 and 24 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Free acupuncture option. 981-5330. 

“Popular Mobilization and the State in Bolivia Today” with Prof. Herbert S. Klein, Columbia Univ. at noon in the CLAS Conference Room, 2334 Bowditch St. 642-2088. 

Building Strategic Alliances that Work! at 4 p.m. at Trader Vic’s, 9 Anchor Drive at Powell, Emeryville. Cost is $30-$50. Sponsored by the Institute of Management Consultants 800-462-8910. www.imcnorcal.org 

“Music You Can Sing” with Prof. Tom Acord, at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

Critical Viewing An ongoing group to examine the art/craft(iness) of short films and television productions and its effects on our daily lives, at 1 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Free. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

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

ONGOING 

Election Officers Need for Nov. 8th. Must be registered to vote in Alameda County and have basic clerical skills. Training provided. For information call 272-6971.  

Find a Loving Animal Companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center (open from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday). 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Tues. Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/firesafety 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Oct. 6, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning   

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues. Oct. 11, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., Oct. 12, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/homeless 

?

In the wake of a 215-190 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week defeating a bill by Rep. Barbara Lee to rename the main Berkeley Post Office after former Berkeley Councilmember Maudelle Shirek, a spokesperson for Lee said that she has not given up on the idea. 

“She is looking into ways that this can be done,” said Nathan Britton, Lee’s spokesperson, from his Washington, D.C. office. “Congressmember Lee still would like to see the Berkeley Post Office named after Maudelle Shirek.” 

According to a recent article in The Hill, a newspaper “for and about the U.S. Congress,” most office-renaming bills are among the most routine in Congress, with “about one in eight public laws” devoted to the subject. The article added that “the practical effect of [such] legislation is less than might appear,” with only a plaque posted in the facility’s lobby, and the address listing for the post office remaining the same. 

The Shirek bill seemed headed for passage this fall after Lee won the support of Tom Davis (R-Virginia), chairperson of the Government Reform Committee, where the bill had been stalled since it was introduced two years ago. But after conservative Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa raised objections, the bill lost on a roll call vote. 

King, one of the more conservative members of Congress, told reporters that he objected to Shirek because of her support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a man convicted of killing a Philadelphia policeman, and because of her involvement with the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library in Oakland. He said that the Niebyl-Proctor connection gave her “an affiliation with the Communist Party,” and said that Shirek’s activities “sets her apart from ... the most consistent of American values.” 

In a prepared statement, Congresswoman Barbara Lee said that “Maudelle Shirek is a woman whose leadership, service and commitment to our community are a testament to what is great about our nation, and she deserves to be honored. That a Republican from Iowa could launch a campaign to deny naming a local post office after this 94-year-old civil rights leader ... is just shameful. Mr. King’s campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated ‘concern’ is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today’s House of Representatives.” 

Other Berkeley leaders agreed. 

Berkeley Councilmember Linda Maio called Congressman King’s actions “very insulting and out of step with America.”  

“If anyone exemplifies the term ‘woman warrior’ it is Maudelle,” Maio said. “She showed up all the time for important causes, with both her money and her time. She is an amazing woman. Denying her this honor flies in the face of the best American values, because Maudelle Shirek typifies those values. No matter who needed it, she was there to help.” 

Maio said that while the Berkeley City Council has no authority over the naming of the post office, “we do have authority over other things, and we should have a discussion about a permanent way to honor her,” possibly by naming some other public building in the city for Shirek. 

“Normally we don’t do that until someone passes away,” Maio said, “but this seems to be an appropriate time.” 

Max Anderson, who succeeded Shirek representing District 3 on the City Council, said his response echoed Lee’s. 

“It’s appalling that someone sitting in Iowa could be leading a floor fight against the honoring of a Berkeley individual who has been a longtime fighter for civil rights, peace, and social justice,” he said. “It appears that the old Cold War mentality is still prevalent among a lot of Republicans.” 

Anderson said he has been setting up a committee and holding a series of meetings to plan local honors for Shirek, including naming buildings after her and setting up a scholarship in her name. The councilmember said that plans are being developed for a fund-raising event on Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, to raise money for a Maudelle Shirek Scholarship Fund. 

On Oct. 19, the South Berkeley Community Church will honor Shirek, a founding member, as part of its Capital Restoration Campaign program, celebrating the Fairview Street church’s legacy as the city’s first inter-racial church. The program will start at 7:30 p.m. 

Mayor Tom Bates was out of town and unavailable for comment. 

At the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, formerly in Berkeley and now located in Oakland, a spokesperson said that workers at the library were sharing laughs about their newfound national notoriety, saying that “it’s incredible that Congress would revert back to the old McCarthy days.” 

Edith Laub, librarian and secretary treasurer of Niebyl-Proctor, said that Shirek’s involvement in the library was minimal. 

“When the library was started, we thought it would be helpful to sign up prominent individuals as sponsors,” she said. “Maudelle Shirek was approached, along with a large number of other persons who were known by the director at that time. She said it sounded like a fine idea, and she signed the form that was sent out to her. Sponsors were only asked to lend their names, and nothing else was required of them. That is the extent of her connection to the library.” 

Among the other sponsors listed on the library’s website are Berkeley attorney and author Ann Fagan Ginger, founder and executive director of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, author and historian Howard Zinn, educator and radical activist Angela Davis, historian Herbert Aptheker, and longtime Southern civil rights worker Anne Braden. 

Meanwhile, Jackie DeBose of Berkeley, who is now executive director of the New Light senior lunch program which Shirek founded and still attends, took issue with a report in Thursday’s San Francisco Chronicle that Shirek was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. 

Calling that an “urban myth,” DeBose said “I don’t know where they got that information from. Nobody that I know of who knows Maudelle well thinks she has any symptoms of Alzheimer’s. I see Maudelle every day, and speak with her in depth. I took her to lunch today and we talked about the post office situation on the way there, and the possible U.S. Supreme Court nominations on the way back. There was nothing wrong with her memory. This is just an example of the fact that you can’t believe everything you read in the daily newspapers.” 

DeBose said that while Shirek has “health issues related to her age,” there is nothing to suggest Alzheimer’s. “I think this is just symptomatic of the belief that when we get old, something must be wrong,” she said. 

As for the post office snub, DeBose called that “business as usual” for the national Republican government. 

“I don’t know why people are so shocked and upset,” she said. “This is standard procedure for the Republicans. They are being consistent.” =

While the world-wide proletariat struggle may have seen better days, there is a museum in Oakland making sure socialism’s bygone era will never be forgotten. 

Stepping inside the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library at 6501 Telegraph Ave. is like entering an alternate universe. Gone are any notions of the red menace, axis of evil, or heroic entrepreneurs blazing a trail to prosperity. 

At Niebyl-Proctor, Brezhnev is presented as a matinee idol, North Korea has the makings of a utopian society and heroes carry union cards and always fight for the working man. 

“We’re preserving the history of people who led valiant struggles and have just been erased,” said the library’s Executive Director Bob Patenaude. “We keep their memory alive.” 

Niebyl-Proctor’s holdings include about 15,000 books, more than 20,000 pamphlets and dozens of cardboard boxes filled with oral histories of progressive activists from the early 20th century.  

The bulk of the collection was donated by the estate of Karl Niebyl, a Marxist economics professor who escaped from Nazi Germany and came to the Bay Area late in life to teach at San Jose State. 

After his death in 1985, Niebyl’s friends stored his 253 cartons of books and pamphlets in the basement of a San Jose bookstore while they searched for a showplace, said Edith Laub, an early museum volunteer and now, along with Patenaude, one of its two paid staffers. 

With donations from supporters and technical assistance from UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, the collection moved into Berkeley’s Finnish Hall in 1987. Shortly thereafter, the library inherited the papers of Roscoe Proctor, a Berkeley labor organizer, and the Niebyl-Proctor library was born.  

Space and money constraints keep the library from updating its collection, but when it comes to materials on progressive and Marxist causes up to the 1980s, Niebyl-Proctor is loaded. 

Inside the library’s 58 file drawers full of pamphlets, one can find the 1933 Manifesto of the Young Communist League of the United States, urging America’s youth to “Fight for a Soviet U.S.A.”, or a 1948 report on North Korea, heralding the “People’s Revolution” there and forecasting a peaceful reunification after the inevitable financial ruin for the American-dominated south. 

Pamphlets were a common tool of communist governments and their allies abroad to promote Marxist views across the globe, Patenaude said. 

“Sure this is pure communist propaganda, but it was to counter U.S. propaganda, which is just as misleading and sometimes even more vile,” he said. 

The library is also home to an extensive archive. Inside the drawers are original Black Panther street posters decrying the “kidnapping” of its leader Bobby Seale by “FBI Pigs With Drawn Guns.” Also available are first-hand accounts of a 1947 riot in Peekskill, New York, when the left-wing African American entertainer Paul Robeson tried to give an outdoor concert, and the original speech recited in 1945 by Russian diplomat Nikolai Novikov before a packed house at Madison Square Garden honoring those who had fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. 

“What people don’t often realize is that these were huge mass movements,” Patenaude said. “They might seem a little hokey now, but these ideas drive the world for decades.” 

The library is constantly receiving book donations and updating its collection. Besides the collected works of Marx and Engels, Niebyl-Proctor contains sections unfathomable in most libraries, like psychology in the former Soviet Union. 

Laub said the library gets the occasional visit from UC Berkeley researchers, but most of the patrons are locals who just want to browse. On a recent Tuesday, the only visitor from noon until 2 p.m. was Chris Kavanagh, a middle school teacher and Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner. 

“As a Green Party activist, I’m fascinated by the mass movements on the left and what led to their demise,” said Kavanagh, as he was reading a copy of Socialism and the Great War. 

The only drawback, Kavanagh said, is that the library doesn’t allow patrons to check out materials. 

“It isn’t easy for a Marxist library to survive in a capitalist county,” said Patenaude, who made his living as a purchasing manager for several local businesses before taking over the library. In 2002, the library received $61,204 in contributions, but spent over $74,320, according to state records. 

“Fundraising is always front and center,” he said. “We lose a lot of time we could spend on political work just trying to keep the place afloat.” 

The library’s biggest asset is its two-story building on Telegraph Avenue, a gift from an anonymous supporter.  

To increase its cash flow and raise its profile, the library has recently begun renting space to local left-leaning political groups like the Alameda County Green Party, the Communist Party USA and the Peace and Freedom Party. 

Although Marxism might not be the potent political force it once was, its adherents across the country are organizing to save relics of past glories in hopes that a new golden era might not be far away. There is a Marxist reading room in New York City, Patenaude said, and Marxist libraries were being planned in Sacramento and Chicago. 

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Patenaude. He argues that U.S. policies aren’t sustainable and if the political tide turns, Niebyl-Proctor will be around to let people know about library’s its roots. 

“We’re maintaining the history of our class,” he said. “The working class and their fight against the bad guys.” 

The Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday or by appointment. 6501 Telegraph Ave. 

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While not conceding that Christopher Hollis fired the bullet that killed his friend and former Berkeley High School classmate Meleia Willis-Starbuck, his attorney John Burris said the 21-year-old Berkeley native had confirmed earlier press accounts of the shooting. 

“He was responding to a call for help,” Burris said after Hollis’ arraignment was postponed Tuesday until Oct. 5. “He didn’t mean to kill anyone.” 

Hollis, who is being held without bail at Santa Rita Prison, is to be charged with murder in the Willis-Starbuck shooting. He is also to be charged with assault with a deadly weapon for firing a bullet that grazed the hand of Cal football player Gary Doxy who was at the murder scene. 

At a Wednesday press conference, Cal Football Coach Jeff Tedford acknowledged that two football players—Doxy, a redshirt freshman safety and David Gray, a junior wide receiver— were at the murder scene. Tedford said the bullet left Doxy with little more than “a scratch on the wrist.” 

Gray, 21, was arrested outside a North Beach nightclub last December for carrying a concealed weapon and tampering with the identification marks of a firearm. No charges were filed against him. 

“A few of our student athletes were there and witnessed it,” Tedford told reporters Wednesday. “They have been very cooperative all along with the situation. None of our players have been implicated in any wrongdoing. I want to reiterate that it is very sad and tragic and we are doing everything we can to be cooperative through the investigation.” 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies said university officials have cooperated with detectives investigating the murder. 

Burris said his defense might examine the culpability of the football players in the shooting. “That was the genesis of this whole thing,” Burris said. 

Police say Willis-Starbuck called Hollis on his cell phone to come to her defense July 17 after she and several friends got in an argument with a group of men in front of Willis-Starbuck’s apartment on College Avenue between Haste Street and Dwight Way. Her friends had said the men called them “bitches” after they refused to go to a party with them. 

Responding to Willis-Starbuck’s call, Hollis jumped out of a car at the corner of College and Dwight and fired into the crowd, striking Willis-Starbuck, according to police. 

Christopher Wilson, the man police say drove Hollis from the scene, has been released on $500,000 bail and is scheduled to enter a plea on a murder charge Oct. 4. 

Hollis fled town after the shooting. Last week Fresno police stopped Hollis and a 33-year-old woman after the woman ran a stop sign. The two gave false names and were released, but when Hollis’ fingerprints were scanned and officers found he was wanted for murder, they tracked him down to a bedroom closet where he was hiding. 

Burris, who had spoken to Hollis by phone two months ago, said his client was ready to face charges. 

“He’s absolutely relieved not to be leading a life of secrecy and hiding,” he said. 

Burris, an Oakland civil rights attorney, who has represented Rodney King, said he would defend Hollis for free. 

“Community people who knew him and thought highly of him thought that I should assist him,” he said. “He’s funny, intelligent and dependable—maybe a little too dependable.” 

Despite a signed agreement barring schools and day care centers on a toxics-laden South Richmond site, minority students of the Making Waves academic preparation program meet regularly on the site. 

Just how much danger the site poses to children remains a question. 

The highly acclaimed educational program provides support and academic preparation for 500 students selected from 20 elementary schools in Richmond and seven in San Francisco. 

The site, which housed a century of chemical manufacturing activities that loaded the soil with hundreds of contaminants, is currently owned by Cherokee-Simeon Ventures LLC. Plans to build a 1,330-unit housing complex on the site are currently on hold. 

Making Waves students meet in an office building on the site that once housed offices of Zeneca (now Astra-Zeneca), the last of the corporate entities to manufacture chemicals on the property. 

In a Feb. 11 letter to the Richmond City Council, Ronald C. Nahas, a member of the program’s board of directors, said about 200 students study onsite between 3:30 and 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. 

“The students are brought to the building via private transportation, escorted into the building by their paid tutors and confined to the building while they are on the site,” he wrote. 

Nahas said Thursday that the program wouldn’t allow students in the building unless they felt conditions were safe. “The most important thing to us is that there should be no risk to the children,” he said. 

Barbara Cook, who is overseeing the site for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), said preliminary test results show that the children aren’t being exposed to significant risks, although more will be known next week after the analysis of results of recent state tests. 

Others, including many of the activists who played a major role in forcing the handover of the site to Cook’s agency, say they’re not so sure the site is safe. 

Dr. Robert Raabe, an emeritus UC Berkeley plant pathology professor and host of the university’s popular sick plant clinic, said he believes trees near the site show indications of damage from toxic exposures. 

Cook said that Raabe, Cherokee-Simeon landscapers and DTSC staff surveyed the area near Making Waves and found that most of the damage was caused by improper watering and fire blight, an organism carried by honey bees from blossom to blossom. 

She said that, at Raabe’s suggestions, tests are being conducted on samples from one tree near the building housing Making Waves. 

Cook also said that soil gas tests conducted by Making Waves in their building didn’t live up to DTSC standards, which had prompted the agency’s own tests of soils beneath the structure.  

“We understand they will have a new location for their program after the end of the academic year,” said Cook. If the tests conclude there is no public health risk in the short term, they will be allowed to stay through the end of the school year. 

“In reality, we didn’t have any other place to meet,” said Nahas. “We were pushed out of the schools and the community center buildings, and Cherokee Simeon has been very supportive of us, even though it’s caused some bad publicity for them,” he said. 

Sponsored largely by businesses, the Making Waves program has reported remarkable success in preparing minority students for the rigors of academia. 

While only 58 percent of California’s African American and Latino students graduate from high school, Making Waves claims a 98 percent graduation rate. More impressive, 92 percent of program students go on to college. 

According to Richmond City Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin, a leading critic of past cleanup activities at Campus Bay, city staff directed program officials to locate at the building. 

“It is my understanding that the city told them that was the place to go,” she said. 

The program is housed in a building on S. 49th Street which is located in Parcel C of the Cherokee Simeon property and backs up on a toxic waste hot spot previously identified by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. 

Buried on the property immediately behind the building housing Making Waves is what one local activist called “a 350,000-cubic-yard, 30-acre, eight-foot-tall table top mountain” of buried wastes, largely acidic iron pyrite cinders but also housing a noxious brew of other, more dangerous compounds, many known to be lethal and or carcinogenic. 

Nahas said that the program has a new location for the program, which will be constructed in an industrial “shell” building at 860 Harbor Way South and should be ready for occupancy by the time the next school year starts. 

Joan Lichterman, statewide health issues representative for the union that represents many workers at the main UC Berkeley campus and at the Richmond Field Station adjacent to the Campus Bay site on the north, said that while Making Waves offers a very good program, she questions the wisdom of locating it adjacent to a toxics-laden waste dump. 

Lichterman, a UC Berkeley employee, represents the interests of members of the University Professional & Technical Employees-CWA union. 

Calls to Cherokee Simeon’s site manager were not returned by deadline.

Ignoring the wishes of several city commissions, the City Council gave itself the task Tuesday of forming an advisory committee to oversee the development of new downtown zoning laws.  

By a 6-3 vote (Anderson, Spring, Worthington, no) the council approved a plan by Mayor Tom Bates to establish a 21-member body to advise city staff on the new Downtown Area Plan. Each of the nine councilmembers will make two appointments and the Planning Commission will appoint three of its members to the committee.  

Appointments to the advisory group must be made by Oct. 31 and meetings are scheduled to begin in November.  

At Tuesday’s meeting, it was announced that planner Matt Taecker, a member of Berkeley Design Advocates and of the school board’s Facilities Committee, will lead the city’s effort in forming the plan.  

The new Downtown Area Plan, to be designed in partnership with UC Berkeley, has caused a political firestorm this year. While supporters maintain that new land-use rules are needed to integrate UC’s planned expansion in the downtown, opponents counter that the plan cedes city zoning authority to the university and potentially freezes out citizens while UC and city staff planners come to an agreement.  

Control over the advisory committee is seen as a tool for shaping the final plan. Councilmembers who have been most critical of the new agreement urged the council to hold off voting until receiving recommendations from the Planning Commission, several members of which have also been critical of the endeavor.  

The Planning Commission, which must approve a final plan, made clear two weeks ago that it wanted to lead the advisory body and make appointments. It had not taken a formal vote before the council vote. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Transportation Commission also have requested a role in developing the plan. 

Bates’ proposal requires the advisory group to hold joint workshops with commissions, make quarterly progress reports to the Planning Commission and accept comments from commissions on their areas of expertise.  

“The commission is going to be eminently involved. They won’t be starting from ground zero,” Bates said introducing his proposal, which he represented as a compromise.  

Councilmember Dona Spring fired back that the mayor’s plan would further erode public confidence in the planning process.  

“By short-circuiting the Planning Commission, we start off again on the wrong wheel,” she said.  

Spring is one of three councilmembers who voted against settling a lawsuit the city had filed over the university’s plan for future development. The settlement mandated that the two sides begin a joint plan for the downtown.  

The plan will cover land from Hearst Avenue to Dwight Way and from Oxford Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said that the current Downtown Plan, passed in 1990, was antiquated and that the council shouldn’t waste time waiting for a formal recommendation from the Planning Commission on the advisory committee.  

“Sending it back to the Planning Commission only delays it,” he said. “The buck stops here.”  

Setting the board at 21 members was also presented as a compromise by Bates. Planning Director Dan Marks had asked for the board to have between 15 and 20 members, while several planning commissioners wanted more members to represent various interest groups and increase public participation.  

Addressing the council, former Planning Commissioner Zelda Bronstein questioned whether staff wanted a smaller committee so that it could be more easily controlled.  

Tuesday’s debate opened up old wounds over the lawsuit. Councilmember Kriss Worthington pressed City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque to acknowledge that UC Berkeley, as a state agency, will not be bound to follow the plan, and that the city won’t be able to release the plan without university approval.  

Albuquerque replied that the provisions are “not unique” when two public agencies are cooperating on a new plan.  

Striking a conciliatory tone, Acting Assistant UC Vice Chancellor Emily Marthinsen said the university had no intention of vetoing the downtown plan. “Our hope is that we can forward our mutual interests by working together,” she said.  

Other items 

At the urging of Councilmember Worthington, the council voted unanimously not to charge a veterans’ group for access to Berkeley’s Veterans’ Memorial Building. The city is working on agreements with non-profits using the building to pay a portion of the building’s operating expenses.  

Oakland residents Sasha and Merideth Shamszad won approval to add a fourth floor to 2750 Adeline St., a Berkeley landmark. The redesigned building will have one or two living spaces and four spaces for artists. Natasha Shawver, a former tenant, had appealed the permit issued by the Zoning Adjustments Board because the plans included eliminating illegal live/work spaces in the building.  

Councilmembers Worthington and Wozniak agreed to send the Elmwood Shopping District quota system to the Planning Commission for review. Wozniak, who represents half of the two-block shopping district, is recommending scaling back quotas on most types of businesses in the district. Worthington, who represents the other half of the district, supports the quota system.  

Worthington held over an item about the city removing newspaper racks until he receives more information from city officials. ›

An article in the Sept. 27 issue mistakenly reported that Abdulalaziz Saleh, Behjat Yahyavi and Johnny Shokouh were owners of Dwight Way Liquor. According to Shokouh, he and Yahjavi own the property at 2440 Sacramento St. and Saleh owns the store.

The Draft Ron Dellums For Oakland Mayor Campaign played its last act this week, with members hoping that next week there will soon be a political campaign to work on. 

On Wednesday morning at a rally in front of the Ron Dellums Federal Office Building in downtown Oakland, a coalition of Dellums supporters held up a box of petitions with what they said were more than 8,000 signatures of Oakland citizens urging the former Oakland-Berkeley congressman to run for Oakland mayor in next year’s race. 

Dellums has given a self-imposed deadline of Oct. 1 to announce whether he will run. Leaders of the petition campaign said that the petitions would be sent by overnight mail to reach Dellums in Washington D.C. on Friday in advance of that decision. 

Included in the coalition were representatives of local Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, African-American, faith-based, white progressive, and labor communities. 

At one point, rally members sporting white “Ron Dellums For Oakland Mayor”  

T-shirts took up the chant of “Run, Ron, Run!” 

Jerry Brown will leave office in 2007 under term limits after serving two terms as Oakland mayor, with elections scheduled next spring to succeed him. A runoff will be held in November 2006 if no candidate receives a majority in the spring election. Several candidates have already announced plans to run, including Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, Oakland City Councilmember Nancy Nadel, Alameda County Treasurer Don White, and Oakland School Board members Dan Siegel and Greg Hodge. 

Service Employees International Union Local 790 Political Organizer Andre Spearman called the petition campaign a success. SEIU volunteers helped gather many of the signatures over the past weeks. 

“It was spontaneous combustion,” he said, “the highest form of democracy.” 

Oakland educator Kitty Kelly Epstein, credited with helping start the Draft Dellums Campaign, said following the rally that organizers had done all they could do to convince Dellums to run, and “it’s in his hands, now.” 

Epstein had earlier told cheering rally participants that “we don’t need to settle for low-life politics in Oakland.” 

Directing her remarks to Dellums, who was not present at the rally, she said, “We’ve gathered the signatures of thousands of people who are saying ‘we don’t know if you want to be mayor, but we sure would like it if you were.’ ” 

In an open letter to Dellums released at the federal building rally, local Latino leaders said that by even raising the possibility of running, Dellums had done a public service. 

“Already, at kitchen tables from the flatlands to the Fruitvale, from West Oakland to the Coliseum Corridor and even in the hills, neighbors, friends, co-workers and families are coming together and rediscovering the courage to believe and to demand an Oakland where all can live, work, study and prosper together,” the letter read. 

Asian and Pacific Islander American leaders also released letters of praise for Dellums. 

ï

Berkeley planning commissioners looked at three thorny issues Wednesday night and decided they didn’t have enough information to make a decision. 

They did, however, give unanimous approval to a map that authorizes developers of a planned four-story residential building at 2025 Channing Way to market their 30 residential units as condominiums. 

But things bogged down when it came time for hearings on three other issues: home occupation permits for teaching, zoning ordinance amendments governing elimination of so-called accessory dwelling units and other amendments governing the definition of “yards” and where and how cars may be parked in yards. 

The home teaching issue was dropped in the commission’s lap by the City Council, which directed it to consider making it easier for teachers and tutors to ply their craft at home. 

While all the commissioners agreed that piano teachers and others shouldn’t have to pay the $1,1441.70 fee usually charged for home occupations in residential districts, they were reluctant to eliminate all restrictions on home teaching activities. 

“Home occupations have always been a bone of contention,” said commissioner Gene Poschman, who said he was hesitant to approve a process that would grant permits without notifying neighbors “because the impact could be quite heavy.” 

While the proposal before the commission would limit students to a maximum of four at a time, the measure didn’t make any restrictions on the hours teachers could bring in students—which prompted concerns about what might happen in neighborhoods where street parking is scarce. 

Commission Chair Harry Pollack said that home teaching would continue without lower fees, but a lot more teachers would probably seek permits if the permit costs were lower. 

The commission took a similar stand on a proposed ordinance to regulate conversions of accessory dwelling units back to their original uses as garages, basements and storage buildings. 

The issue of parking in rear and side yards proved even thornier. 

Poschman described it as a law that affects people in the flatlands because people who live in the hills often have plenty of on-street parking and don’t need to park in the rear and side yards. 

Sara Shumer said she was particularly concerned about the impacts that paved rear yards have on runoff and recommended that when parking is allowed there, the surfaces should be water-permeable to avoid an excess of runoff in the city’s already taxed storm drainage system. 

Several commissioners worried that backyard parking would adversely impact neighbors. 

In the end, the commission tabled the issue until the Nov. 30 meeting.

To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit  

www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.

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GROVE LIQUOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I live in that neighborhood. With a tip of the hat to Mr. Banger, the landlord of the building, and in the spirit of an “open source” business plan, I suggest a combined cafe and grocery store. 

The neighborhood is mostly served by Berkeley Bowl which, though excellent, is often very crowded. Neighborhood residents would likely flock to a densely packed small grocery store within comparable walking/biking distance, even if that meant paying a slight premium for staples. It would likely do well to offer a selection of good prepared foods. Yes, a small coffee-bar and a table or two outside would probably be profit-makers. Beer, wine and smokes would be easy money-makers short of a full-blown hard-liquor store. Skillfully negotiated, I’d bet dollars to donuts that Berkeley Bowl would give such a store a good wholesale deal on some of the inventory and introductions to other wholesalers for much of the rest. The BB kitchens might be a great source for some of the prepared foods. 

The economic pattern of Northside’s “Produce Center,” “Juice Bar Collective,” “Saul’s,” “The French Cafe,” “Peet’s” et al. show how these kinds of services, densely packed, add up to successful businesses. 

If I had the seed capital I’d be writing up my small business loan ASAP, but I don’t. So I hope the Daily Planet will at least help me share the idea. 

Tom Lord 

• 

MAUDELLE SHIREK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How dare they? How dare the federal government put the kibosh on naming Berkeley’s Main Post Office after Maudelle Shirek? Ms. Shirek has spent the majority of her 94 years as a community activist, on the side of the poor and disenfranchised. Their reason for denying the request is that she lacks the proper values. Leading the whispering campaign to deny the request is Steve King, (R) Iowa, who informs us that Joe McCarthy was an American hero. So maybe we should name the Post Office after him. Right! So, let’s get on with it, Berkeley. Since when have you listened to “no,” especially from the feds. Etch Maudelle Shirek’s name on the post office, writ large, and let the chips fall where they may. If the feds don’t like it, they can come out here to the one part of the country they most fear and erase it. That should be big fun. 

Madeline Smith Moore 

A Berkeley-lover from Oakland 

• 

FATHERS AND SONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I couldn’t disagree more with J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s recent column where he maintained that Ignacio De La Fuente’s son’s recent arrest for rape was irrelevant to the Oakland mayoral issue. Ignacio De La Fuente Jr. kidnapped a teenaged girl right off the street, raped her and beat her for several hours, and then dumped her back on the sidewalk. And you’re saying this isn’t a reflection on Ignacio De La Fuente Sr.? Most Americans would sharply disagree with you. Why do you think every politician in America uses every photo-op possible to show off their clean-cut, smiling brood to the voters? Precisely because it does matter. If this guy De La Fuente can’t even run his own household, why should he be entrusted to run Oakland? If this specimen is the best that Oakland has to offer, if this is the kind of man that you want to represent Oakland, then all I can say is: God help Oakland.  

Ace Backwords 

• 

REDEVELOPMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to the Daily Planet for its ongoing coverage by intrepid reporter Richard Brenneman on the City of Oakland’s efforts to extend redevelopment into all of the North Oakland flats.  

His most recent article (Sept. 16) covered the decision by Councilmember Brunner to withdraw the proposal. But her message to constituents which trumpeted supposed benefits of redevelopment, along with the tenacity with which the proposal was promoted by city staff, should not encourage any of us who worry about the numerous downsides of redevelopment—including eminent domain and robbing the city’s general fund—to let down our guard.  

While Brenneman was kind enough to mention Alfred Crofts and myself as ringleaders of the effort to thwart the extension, in reality several of us who met at the pivotal meeting on May 9 are involved. We formed a new group, Neighborhood Preservation, and plan to remain active. After all, many of those who came forward at this and other meetings on the subject wanted improvements we all can support, and ways should be found without redevelopment to accomplish them.  

But this happy (for now) outcome might not have happened without the Daily Planet—where would we be without it! Brenneman even covered our Sunday public forum with Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, preservationist/author Jane Powell, and Montclair/Greater Oakland Democratic Club President Pamela Drake. (Our event was missed by the Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle, ostensibly our local “paper of record,” which had an entire bureau of nine at the Burning Man Festival.)  

Anyone interested in attending an upcoming local event on issues around redevelopment and eminent domain is encouraged to attend the “Conference on Redevelopment Abuse,” 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Park Plaza Hotel, 150 Hegenberger Road, Oakland. Reservations: Muncipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform, (714) 871-9756. $65. (Need-based reduced rates available.)  

Robert Brokl  

• 

BUSD MEETING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The August BUSD board meeting was exciting to watch as this summer’s maintenance and building programs were showcased. Mostly paid for out of bond money, they ranged from routine upkeep to large scale construction. Each project seemed beneficial for our students. 

At Malcolm X, the area outside the fence was re-configured to ward off a recurrence of winter storms that flooded many classrooms. At Washington, the standing water pond behind the play structure was drained and the overall yard upgraded with more seating and trees. Le Conte’s drop off and pick up area began to be improved and the butterfly yard started to be repositioned. 

The largest area of construction was at the middle schools. Willard began a full rehabilitation of its main academic and administrative buildings. M.L. King is constructing a dining commons along with a new science building. Berkeley High School is having its “C” building repainted, lead paint removed, and the Donahue and South Campus gyms renovated. Meanwhile, the old East Campus buildings have been leveled. Additionally, there are plans for redeveloping West Campus and move central administrative offices. The garden/play area at Franklin Adult is also being completed. 

While some sites will be ready in a few weeks, most will not be finished for some time. Remembering similar past BUSD projects, I wondered how many would actually be finished with current bond monies available. Often projects have remained incomplete until new bond measures were passed. 

And then the first issue on the agenda was the report back on the fiscal feasibility of the closed site option for the Derby Street playing fields. (This report was issued by BUSD’s own Lew Jones and is “must” reading for people involved in the issue, to check for exact numbers). The review team reported that $900,000 remains set aside for improvements at this location. However, the closed site option, totaling hard and soft costs, would be around 6 million dollars. The Board asked for a reconciliation of these numbers, and a further study of “bare bone” cost comparison between the open and closed site options. However, it’s obvious that there will remain a gap in the millions between the money available and what’s needed for the closed site plan. 

And so, the question is, how will this shortfall be funded? By raiding some of the wonderful improvement projects begun this summer? And if any extra BUSD money is available, it seems that there are other projects already in line, e.g. the completion of the South Berkeley High School plan. BUSD has already admitted not having enough money to finish this project And what about the warm water pool on the high school campus? Since BUSD’s financial situation is widely viewed as still very shaky, this doesn’t seem the time to begin raiding other programs, not completing ones already started, and not fulfilling agreements.  

Waldo Esteva 

• 

THE WORST KIND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Zelda Bronstein’s Sept. 27 column demonstrates the worst kind of thinking from supposed do-gooders. Berkeley’s retail quota system is clearly outdated, and I’m thrilled the city isn’t bothering to enforce it. Ms Bronstein writes, “To be truly neighborhood-serving, a commercial district needs variety.” If folks like Ms. Bronstein had her way, we’d have commercial strips lined with stores that nobody patronized. Which would lead to a rapid decline of those neighborhoods. 

Variety is failing in our neighborhoods, and you know what? That’s OK. I don’t know about Zelda, but my world view extends beyond the half-mile radius outside my home. If Berkeley excels in food service, great! However much she oh-so-wishes we’d shop at our neighborhood hardware store, well, I’m sorry, Home Depot is not that far away, and I can get great deals online at Amazon. And clearly, I’m not the only Berkeleyan of this mindset. 

Also, why pick on food service? Restaurants and cafes strengthen community through the contact that happens there. People from the neighborhood linger and talk. Retail stores encourage isolated shopping and brief interchanges. I’ll take a packed coffeehouse over an empty ACE Hardware any day. 

Peter Merholz 

South Berkeley 

• 

BERKELEY HONDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This war of sorts between Berkeley Honda and the union has dwindled over the months. There are still a few picketers outside every day standing at attention in the morning waiting for customers to drive in, and sitting in lawn chairs in the afternoon overseeing the giant rat displayed on Shattuck Avenue. During brief discussions with a few of them the general consensus is that “We’ll stay out here as long as the union pays us.” The union is so afraid that somebody might want to patronize our dealership that they are paying people to stand outside. I do not think this dispute should be fought out in a cold war-esque sort of way in the local newspapers. I suggest to the general public to find out for themselves if Berkeley Honda is a quality place to do business. This will give people a first-hand opportunity to listen to both sides of the argument and make the decision if Berkeley Honda is a good place to do business. Next time the Honda owners in the local area need an oil change, light bulb replaced or anything on their Honda please stop by and see for themselves that Berkeley Honda is a good company with skilled quality employees that lives up to, or exceeds, the legacy of the former owner.  

Barry Strock 

Service Advisor 

Berkeley Honda 

• 

AAA APPROVAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley Honda customers should be aware that the service department there is not AAA-approved, despite the AAA-approval logo that appears on their letterhead and the AAA sign that hangs over the service entry. The shop’s name does not appear in the current “Directory of Approved Auto Repair Facilities” that Triple A issues. 

When AAA gives their imprimatur to a shop, they are guaranteeing the work that is done there. That is why this designation is so valued by customers. But to receive their endorsement, a shop must be in business under it’s current ownership for at least one year. Berkeley Honda’s owners purchased the dealership on June 1 of this year. 

Rather than continuing to generate the false assumption among its customers that AAA is backing their work, Berkeley Honda should immediately remove its sign and the letterhead logo. In the meantime, AAA is referring this matter to their legal department. 

Judy Shelton 

• 

PARSING THREATS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a Sept. 23 letter to the editor, John Stillman writes that Carol Denny’s letter to UCB Chancellor Birgeneau (also published in the Daily Planet) makes “not one but two threats against the man. ‘It’s a good way to avoid riots’ is just another way of threatening to create a riot if Denney and her other whining friends don’t get their ways.”  

Actually, Denny’s letter about People’s Park was a quite friendly one, if ironic in places. Let’s look at the context from which Stillman has lifted the quote he takes from her:  

“We try to show a little respect for other people and trees and stuff, and check in before we do anything dramatic like cutting down a tree. It’s not that hard to write a letter or post a poster or have a meeting or something, and it’s a good way to avoid riots.... Come on up and help build a bench with the salvaged wood from the tree, for instance. I think that would be a really nice gesture, or at least don’t arrest the rest of us when we go ahead without you. But don’t be afraid to join us, we’re kind of a nice bunch.”  

These words (and the rest of Denny’s letter) do not contain any kind of personal threat to the chancellor.  

That said, People’s Park is certainly not the utopian community that some of its supporters have made it out to be. But the reasons for its failings are deep ones, not touched on by Stillman’s remarks.  

Raymond Barglow  

• 

SOUTHSIDE VIEW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to offer a long-standing southside resident’s view of the recently removed clothes box from People’s Park. 

That box has long been a nuisance. True it’s unsightly just being in the park, as it quickly ends up all over the sidewalk. But anyone who spends any time watching the ways of the park and adjoining neighborhood quickly observes that once delivered to the box, the donations quickly end up in various piles on sidewalks, in front of doorways, in parking lots, and so on. There seems to be a relatively small group of the chronics who wait for delivery, then immediately try to sell it to the local recycled clothing stores. In fact you often find the aforementioned piles of donations abandoned in close proximity to these stores. 

Then there is the issue of those who don’t necessarily try to sell the donations, but just use them temporarily to wear or sleep in for a night or two, then simply abandon at will. Anyone who lives/works in this are can see the resultant blight seven days a week. Believe me, it’s not a pretty sight. 

What this means is that most homeless are not really benefiting from clothes donations; just a few shrewd street people. However local residents and businesses are left to clean up or put up with donations-to-discards; and this is every day! 

Clearly this operation is a failure if you ask local residents and businesses. 

Dean Hunsaker 

• 

POLARIZATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Carol Denney’s article is a good example of why there is so much conflict on the issue of People’s Park. While I may not agree with the university’s actions, I can understand their frustration at dealing with longtime advocates for the park such as Denney who refuse to see the park as anything but a wonderful paradise free of problems. 

Denney paints a picture that makes it seem like the free clothing exchange box is a peaceful wonderful way to clothe the homeless. Her refusal to even mention the problems associated with the box explains why no compromise can be made. Unless Denney and others are going to be honest about the situation with the box, no solution other than the university removing the box will occur. 

Denney doesn’t mention that the clothes donated to the box have become valuable currency to people who turn around and sell the clothes to Buffalo Exchange and other used clothing places near the park. The people getting first dibs at the clothes are not the old ladies who need Aunt Mabel’s sweaters, but aggressive people who see the box as a way to get easy cash. Denney doesn’t mention the violence and physical fighting that has happened as people argue over who gets the more valuable items left in the box. Denney does not mention how the worthless clothes are discarded around the park, making a mess. Denney doesn’t mention the fact that people “simply moved to help others” are accosted as they approach the box and have had bags ripped from their hands by overly aggressive people who want to get at the valuable clothes that are easy to sell before anyone else can get to them. 

While the box is a well-intentioned project, the reality is that it has become a source of violence and danger for many. 

Selective truth is not going to create a solution. Denney calls for discussion, but that discussion must include an honest assessment of a kind project gone bad and her refusal to do so and her playing the university as the big bad guy only continues the polarization of this issue. 

Sherman Boyson 

• 

ERA OF COOPERATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mayor Tom Bates is crowing about the “era of cooperation” between the city and the university while the university throws clean clothes in the dumpster. I either want to see some cooperation protecting the tradition of free clothing exchange or I want something besides self-serving rhetoric from Bates.  

The people I personally know who suddenly found their residential neighborhoods governed by an ever-changing and ever-expanding secret “downtown” plan in which they were allowed no voice are livid about it.  

When Shirley Dean was mayor and the university geared up to attack the free food exchange in People’s Park, she made it clear to the university and the community that the city, at least, had better uses for city police and fire resources.  

I hope we can expect at least as much from Mayor Bates and acting Mayor Kriss Worthington, so we don’t waste time and money throwing people in jail for trying to give away a warm sweater.  

The city could easily establish its right to maintain clothing exchange receptacles in several locations on the median strip around the park, making it clear to the university that the clothing exchange tradition will continue as usual, at least on the park’s periphery. Without some leadership from the city, a whole lot of taxpayer money is about to be pointlessly wasted.  

Carol Denney 

• 

ANOTHER WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

While people think the Iraq war will be and should be ending soon, I warn you that the U.S. is preparing for another war. It was in the news a week ago that the U.S. is deploying the entire 101st Airborne Division (20,000 soldiers) together with their war hardware to Iraq. The U.S. has started sending this division a week ago. This division is supposed to be in Tikrit, Iraq for a year. 

There is no reason to send this division that specializes in air raids and rapid deployment of troops by helicopters to Iraq at this point. According to the news, this division will train the Iraqi police. This is a lie. The 101st Airborne Division is over-qualified to train soldiers and police. Besides, they do not need all their helicopters to do the training. The only purpose is to invade either Iran or Syria. The timing will be just right for the November 2006 election. 

Be prepared for another war and blood shed. 

Mina Davenport 

• 

TREES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Today the sound of chain saws greeted me as I left my house to go to work. A neighbor on the next block was having two large, old palm trees cut down. The loss of large trees is always of great concern to me but in this case I was even more upset because barn owls have established a nest and raised young in those palms. The owls had one brood in the spring and had a second group of young very recently. I asked my neighbor if he knew about the owls in the trees and asked him why he was cutting down the trees. “Liability” was his response. Old palm fronds were falling on the sidewalk and his next door neighbor had expressed a concern that the palms were swaying in the wind and might fall on her house in a storm this winter. Apparently ignorant of the fact that old fronds can be trimmed and palms do sway in the wind without falling as these had for decades, my neighbor decided to cut the trees down. When I expressed concern about the owls and, at least waiting until the young had left the nest, he responded that the workers “are here now” and, you know, “liability.” So when I came home today the skyline was empty where two old palms had stood sentinel for several decades and the young owls had gone—but where? A little note of nature’s grace in the city is now gone from my neighborhood. And why? Because of “liability.” 

I am grieving the loss of those trees and the future generations of barn owls who will not be part of my neighborhood. People, have some respect for the great trees that grace our city! And please be aware that when you trim or cut down trees there may be young birds in those trees. Arborists can be consulted to solve tree issues and those solutions are often short of cutting the trees down. It took many years for those palms to become the neighborhood landmarks they became and only one day to obliterate them from the landscape. And why? Because of “liability.” What a country! 

Christopher Kroll 

• 

SCHOOLS AND THE CITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many letter-writers lump the local school district and the city together. This is serious misconception. The two have no common components. In fact they learn more about what each other are doing via the local papers than by any formal means of collaboration. This is how I explain to myself the cognizance rift between the two. Neither benefits by the learning curve of the other. 

I am surprised by how faintly aware are local citizens and officials of the great local building project of the past 12 years, the refurbishment and replacement of all of Berkeley’s K-12 public schools. The school rebuilding, a $300 million project nearing its completion, scarcely finds its like anywhere in the U.S. It began not with the school district bureaucracy but with citizen activists who raised the alarm after the earthquake, organized, computed the price tag and how it had to be paid, and persuaded the School Board to act. 

The early projects had some problems. But this has been a long, high-stakes learning curve. Near the end the school district was a smooth-running machine for processing public input and cranking out splendid buildings which have largely delighted constituents. (The machine has gathered a little rust recently.) Among the lessons were successful and unsuccessful models for applying public input. Another discovery was the reservoir of local citizens’ practical vision. In retrospect it was obvious that such would reside in a place like Berkeley, but there was never before such a vast occasion for turning citizen vision into concrete and sheetrock. 

I feel we should have a shot at deploying some of that local “genius” in behalf of our downtown, our “commons.” 

We know where to turn to obtain planning services. World-class professional designers are among us. But the vision which informs design must not be something we “buy”—or seek from our benign local university. We can and should author it ourselves. On the DBA design subcommittee we have thought a lot about this. Here is an idea for how it might be done, mentioned earlier in the week by in the Daily Planet: http://busduse.org/VisioningDowntownProposal.html. It is not yet approved by any organization but being shaped by citizen “brainstorming.” 

Bruce Wicinas 

DBA Design Subcommittee 

• 

KATRINA AND FEMA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

James K. Sayre’s commentary on Bush and FEMA contained an appropriate amount of righteous political anger at the misplanned and mis-executed federal responses to Hurricane Katrina—appropriate if focused on the bunglers at the top. But the situation on the ground was and is much more complex than he described, and not everything failed because of a simple-minded right-wing plot. As a Red Cross volunteer who’s personally dealt with hundreds of heart-wrenching requests for help to our national hotline from those affected by the storm, I recommend taking a broader perspective. 

It’s essential to consider separately the three phases of post-disaster work: search and rescue, emergency assistance, and long-term recovery. Search and rescue is a job for highly trained professionals, not spontaneous volunteers, and FEMA was entirely right to initially exclude the Red Cross and other entities from New Orleans and other flooded zones. That’s the agreed practice, not the result of incompetence or worse. This necessary first-phase delay of help explains exactly why every emergency preparedness agency always teaches people that they will be on their own for up to a week following a major disaster. No amount of preparation will ever eliminate that grim reality. 

In the current emergency-assistance phase, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and a multitude of other public and private agencies including FEMA have been acting exceptionally well from the ground up to first provide life essentials—water, food, shelter and clothing—and then to start work on longer-term issues of housing and local infrastructure. In the zones most damaged by the hurricane—which are generally even worse to the north and east of New Orleans than that mediagenic city is—it’s only now in the fourth week that the first multi-agency service centers have begun to appear. In many of those places, such as the Gulfport-Biloxi coast, even the emergency shelters and Red Cross disaster operations centers were destroyed—there was literally nothing left standing to use for public help.  

And that chaotic circumstance, caused by physical destruction beyond all contingency planning, cannot smugly be laid at the feet of “the illegitimate Bush regime.” 

It’s only in the third phase of longer-term recovery still to come that we will truly test FEMA and the federal response. Political media tours to the French Quarter will no doubt be frequent, while Hattiesburg and Mobile will continue suffering in the shadows. My own fear is that the politicians, bureaucrats and disastercrats will focus all our attention on the future Disneyfication of New Orleans while they leave the countryside to rot. Effective disaster response will require just a bit more than building a few new telegenic theme parks to create the illusion of full recovery when the tourists return. 

As I’ve been learning on the phone one-to-one, whole communities that never make the network news have shared utter destruction. Hundreds of thousands of evacuees now face the disorienting prospect not only of starting life over in a new place, but also of doing so in other more individualistic and more shallow-rooted communities. The rest of the country may be used to anonymous urban communities but those “roots” folks certainly are not. There’s no chapter in the FEMA handbook on how to deal with cultural displacement on a national scale, and no reason to expect them to deal with a problem that’s now local to all of us. 

So while we certainly need to give Bush and FEMA an F for the first Katrina grading period, they still rate only an Incomplete for the full course. Meanwhile, let’s remember how great a job every local disaster worker and committed volunteer has been doing day after day, in all 50 states, and let us strive with them for a grade of A on the recovery tests we face together right here in California. We will all need to do our best to support the evacuees among us—more than 1200 families in the Bay Area alone—through the even more difficult times ahead. 

Alan Tobey 

• 

HURRICANE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While flooded Gulf-state residents begin to reclaim their homes and communities, it looks like the inundation of federal money is going very, very well for Bush’s supporters and handlers. Look who’s receiving $100 million dollar no-bid contracts: the Shaw Group, KBR-Halliburton, Flour Corp., Bechtel, and the Shaw Group (a double-dip for them!). These corporations are clients of Joe Allbaugh, lobbyist. Remember Joe? Bush’s campaign manager in 2000, then Bush’s appointee to head FEMA before passing the patronage to his buddy, Michael “Brownie” Brown. He got money shunted to these corporations before the ink was dry on Congress’ approval of relief funds. 

Something stinks, and it isn’t just the fetid flood water in New Orleans. The administration that rivals Warren G. Harding’s for incompetence has surpassed them in corruption. And where is the press? People were outraged when they learned about Teapot Dome. Taxpayers should take note of Bush’s words when he hands such financial largess to the oligarchy, “it’s your money.” 

Bruce Joffe 

• 

CAUTION NOTICES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I write this letter in response to the Sept. 12 letter of A.R. Tarlow of San Pablo regarding his/her unfortunate slip and fall at Wildcat Canyon while hiking. Just today while I was carving a piece of wood with a utility knife I noticed a faint lettering on the handle, “Warning: sharp blade.” Furthermore, as we all well know, at the cafe there are signs reading, “Caution: hot coffee” and elsewhere signs reading, “Caution: slippery slope, steep drop”, etc. Now, to further augment these idiot guides to the the outside world, A.R. Tarlow suggests that the Park Service squander their time and public money to put up signs reading, “Caution: slippery acorns”! I ask this of A.R. Tarlow: What other signs should be put up? “Caution: It can be a bit chilly at night, bring a sweater,” or “Caution: uneven ground on this nature trail, watch your step so as not to fall,” or better yet, we should put up signs that warn people not to trip over signs! I would not even be surprised if A.R. Tarlow tried to file a suit against our wonderful Parks Department, which would be just another example of someone trying to find someone else or some organization to blame for their own shortcomings of motor coordination. 

In closing I suggest three things: First, A.R. Tarlow should just stay home where it is relatively safe and leave that beautiful “stately tree” free of insult from yuppie, bourgeois placards. Second, A.R. Tarlow should take the time to learn a thing or two about the “stately tree” and know that this acorn tree does indeed drop “ball-bearings” at a certain time of the year and, lastly, on his/her way to that tree A.R. Tarlow should read and re-read the sign outside his/her door reading, “Caution: the outside world.” 

Helder Parreira 

Following Norway’s Sept. 12 elections that saw a green-red coalition turn out a pro-business, anti-immigrant center-right government, the German daily, Die Tageszeitung, mused that “perhaps people in Germany could learn something from this.” It appears they did, and what they learned is likely to be repeated in Italy and France next spring. 

While the U.S. press is spinning the German elections as “inconclusive; no clear winner,” as the New York Times put it, the figures show a solid victory for the Left, and a defeat for neo-liberalism. While the Right took 45 percent of the vote and 286 seats, the Left won 51.1 percent and 327 seats in the 613 seat Bundestag. In short, there was a “clear winner,” the Times not withstanding. 

Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union/ Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) party won just 35.2 percent, losing 23 seats. The only silver lining for the Right was that Merkel’s coalition partner, the neo-liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), won 9.8 percent of the vote and 61 seats. However, most observers think the FDP’s success is fleeting, the result of rank and file CDU/CSU members jumping parties. 

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) took 34.3 percent of the vote, marginally better than it was supposed to get, but losing 29 seats. The Greens dropped half a percentage point to 8.1 percent and lost four seats.  

The real winner was the Left Party, a coalition of the eastern-based Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the former Communist Party, and the western-based Election Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG). The latter is an alliance of left Social Democrats, trade unionists, young people, and environmentalists turned off by the Green Party leadership’s turn to the right.  

The Left Party won 8.7 percent of the vote and 54 seats, vaulting it past the Greens to become Germany’s third largest party. It also took 25 percent of the vote in the east, and close to 5 percent in the west. In four western states it reached 5 percent, the point that makes it possible to serve in the Bundestag. If it does well in upcoming state parliamentary elections, it will fundamentally alter the political balance of power in Germany. 

As it did in the 2002 German elections, Iraq loomed large. While Merkel said she would not send troops, the CDU/CSU strongly supported the invasion, and voters were clearly nervous about where that might lead if she assumed power. For instance, the Bush Administration has been pushing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to assume combat operations in Afghanistan, a move the German Left strongly opposed. The CDU/CSU was evasive about the proposal. 

Indeed, Merkel ran a largely stealth campaign, that was deliberately vague about everything from taxes to foreign policy. The Economist opined that Merkel was not revealing her program because “she must be elected before she can do anything, and being too candid would diminish her chances.” It would appear German voters figured this out. 

Merkel started out with a 21-point lead that partly reflected widespread disenchantment with the SDP/Green coalition’s Agenda 2010, which favored business while cutting jobless benefits and social services. However, the Left Party’s platform of raising minimum wages, restoring benefit cuts, and questioning the presence of U.S. bases in Germany drove the campaign to the left. It was clearly what the voters wanted, and they responded by tanking the right, spanking the SDP and the Greens, and rewarding the new Left Party. 

What the government will eventually look like is by no means clear at press time. The voters appear to want a red-red-green alliance. But for the time being, Prime Minster Gerhard Schroder of the SDP and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of the Greens are ruling that out. The most talked about formations are the so-called “Grand Alliance” between the SDP and the CDU/CSU, or an odd-fellow alliance of Greens and the Right. 

Whatever the final outcome, the ripples started in Norway are spreading south.  

France’s right-wing Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy latched on to Merkel’s brand of neo-liberalism as the salvation of France and the European Union. Her defeat will certainly put a crimp in his drive for the French presidency, giving the inside track to the more moderate candidacy of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. But, more importantly, the outcome of the German elections may further bolster the French Left that was recently energized by its successful “no” campaign to torpedo the European Union constitution. 

Lastly, there is Italy. Next spring’s Italian elections will most likely see a united Left coalition, L’Unione, drive the right-wing, pro-American coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from power. L’Unione candidates took 12 out of 14 regional elections last spring, and the parties that comprise it have been at the core of street demonstrations and social actions around everything from globalization, to ending poverty and homelessness, to opposing the Iraq War. 

The most recent poll shows L’Unione at 49.7 percent and the right at 45.2 percent. 

L’Unione is a merger of the Partido della Rifondazione Comunista, Left Democrats, the left-center Margherita Party, and a host of smaller regional and social action parties. The Berlusconi government is presently trying to ram through a series of electoral changes in an effort to dilute the power of the smaller regional parties, but the maneuver is so patently undemocratic that it has even caused tensions within his right-wing coalition. 

Nor does the Italian Left see itself as just a national movement. Fausto Bertinotti, Rifondazione’s current general secretary and a moving force behind L’Unione, is giving up his post to work on organizing a party of the European Left. 

Oh, and shortly after the elections, Norwegian Labor party leader Jens Stoltenberg announced that Norway will withdraw its small contingent of troops from Iraq.  

Ya’ gotta’ love that old Europe. 

New Europe, on the other hand, still has a way to go. 

Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Poland’s former prime minister and Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) candidate, withdrew from the Oct. 9 race for president because of corruption charges. His withdrawal leaves the Polish Left in disarray, and will probably mean that Donald Trusk of the neo-liberal Civic Platform (PO) will win the presidency (although his party took a hit in last Sunday’s election). 

Trusk has been heavily supported by foreign investors and Polish business for promising to reduce regulations and for his plan to impose a 15 percent flat tax. Trusk has been close to Angela Merkel and advocates rapid privatization of state assets.  

The SLD won the 2001 parliamentary elections, but corruption scandals brought it down. 

Trusk is popular, in part because he has publicly challenged neighboring Belarus about its treatment of its Polish minority. Nationalism—always a winner in Poland—may sweep him into office. Whether the majority of Poles want a heavy dose of neo-liberalism is another matter. PO was favored to win the Parliamentary elections this past Sunday, but came in second to the center right Law and Justice Party that opposed the tax and a number of other neo-liberal schemes.  

And whoever wins, the Poles will probably withdraw their 1,500 troops from Iraq.  

Conn Hallinan is a journalist and an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus.

“Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people peaceably to assemble…” 

Recognize that? It’s drawn from the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, part of that body of 10 amendments that we refer to as the Bill of Rights. The various state legislatures would not have ratified the original Constitution without the addition of those amendments, and today we consider the rights spelled out in them to be what defines our status as American citizens. Freedom of assembly is right there at the top, one of the first rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. 

How difficult, then, do you think it would be to take that right away from American citizens with hardly anyone—public, politician, or press—uttering a word of protest? 

Not very difficult at all, my friends, depending upon the community, and the setup. And if you think I’m talking about our Arab-Muslim neighbors today, you’re mistaken. 

Two weeks ago, in this column, I described the following event that occurred recently on International Boulevard in Oakland between 87th and 88th avenues near the headquarters of the East Bay Dragons Motorcycle Club: “And on the Sunday before Labor Day, Oakland police shut down the Dragons’ annual 88th Avenue block party at 5 p.m., and then conducted a sweep in which they ordered the crowds of people off of International Boulevard in the vicinity of the Dragons’ clubhouse.” Later in the piece, I added that “Oakland police shut things down early, long before dark, while neighborhood people were still hanging out, enjoying themselves, with no signs of problem.” 

Reading those lines for the first time-or reading them for the first time now-what were your thoughts? 

Let me add some context, for those who are not familiar with the area of International Boulevard between 87th and 88th avenues, which sits at the extreme eastern flatlands edge of the city. This is a mixed working class African-American and Mexican-American neighborhood. The East Bay Dragons is a black motorcycle club, and the crowds in question on that Sunday were virtually all black. The area is sometimes described by police and the press as being one of the centers of sideshow activity in Oakland, although that’s not exactly true if you’re talking about International Boulevard. Relatively few sideshows ever took place on International—the epicenter was up on Bancroft Avenue or Foothill Boulevard, several blocks away. Still, because of the natural tendency to generalize about a community you’ve never visited, a “need to disperse the sideshows” is probably what goes through most people’s minds when they think of Oakland police disbursing crowds in this neighborhood. 

As a matter of fact, “preventing sideshows” has become the underlying excuse for a lot of questionable police activity in the far reaches of the East Oakland flatlands. 

In August 2001, at the height of the street sideshows, then-Oakland Police Information Officer George Philips gave a revealing statement to the Oakland Tribune on how police were breaking up the events. Oakland police “don’t give them the opportunity to do anything,” Mr. Philips said. “Anytime an officer sees a group starting to gather, he radios up, gives their location, and everybody responds to chase them away.” In response, in an “Oakland Unwrapped” column, the predecessor to “UnderCurrents,” I wrote: “What immediately jumps out is who is the ‘them’ Mr. Phillips is talking about, and what is exactly is it that the Oakland Police Department are not giving ‘them’ and opportunity to ‘do’?” 

In 2001, you may or may not remember, the Oakland police had no official definition of a “sideshow.” But even after that official definition surfaced this year, in Mayor Jerry Brown’s “arrest the sideshow spectators” law, the question is still relevant. 

How, after all, do Oakland police determine that a “gathering” is likely to end up in a “sideshow?” And how much of this so-called “sideshow crackdown” has any relation to sideshows at all, directly or indirectly? 

Last month, in an East Bay Express article entitled “Sideshows RIP?”, investigative reporter Robert Gammon detailed how Oakland police have been recently going after sideshows: “[I]n late April [of this year], the OPD boosted the patrol of East Oakland streets on Friday and Saturday nights by adding 22 more officers and three sergeants. … These 43 cops are also joined by sixteen California Highway Patrol officers, who cruise the major East Oakland thoroughfares on weekend nights. The anti-sideshow forces focus on traffic violations, reasoning that sideshows are far less likely to materialize if East Oakland motorists are constantly seeing cars being pulled over by police. According to Downing, the officers have issued five thousand traffic citations on weekend nights alone since January, resulting in seven hundred arrests. They’ve also towed 1,700 vehicles in that time.” 

Read that paragraph again, carefully, in case you missed the point. Unless Mr. Gammon got it wrong—and he has a reputation as an excellent reporter—he is saying that Oakland police are cracking down on sideshows by flooding the streets of East Oakland with OPD and Highway Patrol officers, giving out huge numbers of tickets and towing the cars of drivers who even the officers themselves do not claim have anything to do with the sideshows. 

If the Oakland police felt the need to establish a massive presence in East Oakland to deter sideshows, why didn’t they do something more useful, say, like targeting the longtime open-air drug dealing going on in many East Oakland communities? 

Instead, on weekend nights driving along International Boulevard from High Street to 105th, it is not unusual to see multiple police vehicle stops—as many as three in a twenty-block area—many times with tow trucks lined up to make the trip over to A&B’s nearby impound lot. If driving the streets of your neighborhood without massive police surveillance can be considered an American right, then that right doesn’t exist on weekend nights in the far end of East Oakland. 

How many of these 5,000 traffic citations and 1,700 vehicle tows and 700 arrests described by Mr. Gammon are justified? How serious were the offenses involved, even when any offenses actually occurred? I have no way of knowing, but that isn’t the point, is it? Massive numbers of tickets are not being given in East Oakland because there are more violations there than anyone else. Massive numbers of tickets are being given in East Oakland because police are applying a scrutiny there that no other Oakland community receives. That’s a textbook description of discrimination. 

It gets by in East Oakland because, after all, it’s East Oakland, and that is said with a wink and a nod, and everybody is supposed to understand. It’s East Oakland, after all, where the poor blacks and the poor Mexicans live, where the liquor stores are, where the drug dealing and the prostitutes and the shootings go on. Oh, yes, and the sideshows. 

How difficult is it to take away fundamental Constitutional rights of assembly or travel from American citizens with hardly anyone-public, politician, or press-uttering a peep of protest? 

Not very difficult at all, my friends. It’s already happening. Right in front of our eyes. Without anyone even bothering to try to cover it up. 

Something to think about, while we criticize how all of those poor black people in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward got treated so bad during Katrina. 

Disaster standby 

With one Berkeley firefighter already in Texas to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, other Berkeley firefighters were awaiting the call Thursday night to head for Southern California. 

Flames from an uncontrolled blaze had seared more than 20,000 acres in northwestern Los Angeles County by early Thursday evening, when Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth said that Alameda County had already dispatched two firefighting teams to battle the blaze. 

The two teams are trained to battle wild-land fires and the Berkeley engine then on call is part of a so-called Type 1 team, which specializes in battling structural fires. 

Gas leak 

A truck backed over a gas meter next to UC Berkeley’s Foothill dorms at 2600 Hearst Ave. Monday afternoon, shutting off gas service to about 1,500 customers and forcing an evacuation of the construction site, said Orth. 

Adding to the complexities caused by the rupture of the high-pressure line was the fact that emergency workers couldn’t shut down the main line in the street—the first line of recourse in most line breaks, said Orth. 

The reason? Shutting off the line would have cut off gas to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an event with potentially huge consequences, Orth said. 

“So they dug holes until they found the lateral line” leading to the dorms “and pinched it off,” said the deputy chief. 

Berkeley firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after they were called out at 1:03 p.m. and remained on site until 4:43 p.m. 

Orth said gas service was restored to the area at about 6 p.m.

There are countless examples of media word-storms but the deluge from Hurricane Katrina in sound and print copiously illustrated is over the top, the coverage pushing aside a newly named chief justice of the Supreme Court and also the violence in Iraq. Every conceivable point of view floods the perspective leftward and rightward far beyond previous limits. Katrina and her aftermath aroused sympathy and outrage, finger pointing and frustration; it created a swirl of passions that changed an ordinary word-storm into a rampaging tornado. Everyone with access to viewer/reader no matter how poorly or well qualified, close or distant, illiterate or eloquent contributed; the word-twister touched down, cleared existing terrain and revealed along with its real debris a bounty of dumb observations and idiotic pronouncements.  

Even if I had resources to gather all of them I wouldn’t have the stomach for it. What follows is a motley collection, not an outline but a collage or, symbolically, a sample of spicy-hot gumbo.  

By way of introduction consider Jonathan Alter’s excellent survey in the Sept. 19 issue of Newsweek. This long and valuable piece is spoiled in its finale by two incredibly dumb paragraphs.  

The third from the end starts with a question: “What kind of president does George W. Bush want to be?” The rest of the paragraph reveals the question to be neither rhetorical nor facetious nor sarcastic; it is real. But how can it be? After almost five years in office everyone can see the kind of president we’ve got and while Katrina may cause him to want to be different he has shown little inclination to actually try.  

Mr. Alter’s penultimate paragraph quotes Margaret Schuber, principal of a New Orleans middle school currently an evacuee in Atlanta: “I didn’t realize there were so many people suffering socio-economically.” This is pure undiluted bullshit.  

My roots are in New Orleans: I went to high school there, I taught school there, my oldest brother retired there after 35 years in New Orleans schools, my youngest brother was assistant postmaster, and much more. Mama and Daddy died there. New Orleans is as much a way of life as it is a city. What sets it apart is its centuries of nurturing two parallel and symbiotic worlds, one white and one black, the former symbolized on Mardi Gras Day by the Rex parade and the other by the simultaneous parading of King Zulu. 

A casual conventioneer or a Mardi Gras tourist would have to be brain dead not to notice ubiquitous dire poverty. A resident cannot but rub shoulders with a subculture of suffering, endemic, severe and firm; a school principal cannot but rub more than her shoulders.  

Rather than quote Shuber to underscore Katrina’s surprise unveiling of people in raw, un-civil circumstances, Mr. Alter ought to have used it to illustrate how these same people survived like human cockroaches—below the surface, irrepressible and menacing, how their middle school principals voice counterfeit words. Shuber’s academic jargon hardly depicts the reality: New Orleans‚ schools are situated in jungle enclaves where parents have been under-educated for generations. They’re penniless. They live hand to mouth. Destitution is real and far more painful than mere socio-economic suffering.  

Poorly educated principals and lazy editors have lapses and may with effort be redeemed. Opinionated dunces may not.  

Take Brian Pitts of CBS, for example. Asked what was different about Katrina compared to other natural disasters he had covered, Mr. Pitts replied that victims in other parts of the world—Indonesia and Sri Lanka were named—handled their suffering with more equanimity because, he surmised, they had less and expected less than the poor citizens of New Orleans. Thus, Mr. Pitts might just as well have concluded: The poorer you are the less you expect and so when disaster strikes the less you will suffer.  

Another opinionated dunce occupying a lower rung on the celebrity ladder is syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell. He had a week to ponder the situation before declaring himself capable of understanding how people “who chose to stay” in New Orleans might regret their decision, but he found their reaction in angry assaults, rapes, shootings and lootings not only unfathomable, intolerable but downright un-American.  

Opinionated dunces like these two are usually unaware of their benighted condition.  

Before continuing I must take a brief detour. Statements from the head of the Department of Homeland Security and from presidents Clinton and Bush introduced guilt as an energizing element in the storm giving the coverage a surreal tint.  

In his televised appearance two days after landfall, Mr. Chertoff, secretary of DHS, appealed to the public to send money and his plea has since been echoed in puppet-like appearances of the presidential odd couple, 41 and 42. Government, therefore, not only needs our tax dollars to pay for FEMA but it also solicits our tax-deductible contributions to non-government relief agencies. Blessed are we who see the degradation of poor blacks and do penance by emptying our pockets.  

I can think of no better retort, irreverent though it be, than the one appearing in “Boondocks,” the comic strip by Aaron McGruder: “Who’s Katrina? And why is everybody sending this broad money?” 

Finally, brace yourself for three blistering word-showers emanating from the Big House.  

Three days after Katrina hit the president looked down from the window of Air Force One, a flying Big House, and deemed conditions on the ground to be “twice as devastating” as they appeared from up there [his word, my italics]. He might have said “10” or “20” or “one hundred” and indeed higher guesses came days later when he actually walked about and hugged people “down there.” Twice! 

The secretary of state who less than two centuries ago would have been dubbed a “house niggra,” interrupted her shopping, stepped before the cameras and supported “massa” by identifying herself with the “field niggras” milling around the Superdome with whom she shared skin color and nothing more. 

The twice-anointed First Mom, recruited to stanch the leak in her son’s sealed bubble, left her own Big House to publicly extol the generosity of her fellow Texans. Then, with dignified aplomb put her aristocratic foot into shit by observing that “so many of the [field niggras] were underprivileged, you know, anyway” that the accommodations provided “worked very well for them.”  

My formulation and inserts may be offensive but the substance is true. 

Be reassured. Katrina disrupted but did not destroy New Orleans’ lifestyle. By and by les bons temps will roll again.  

Meanwhile, run for shelter! 

Marvin Chachere is a San Pablo resident. 

The anti-war movement continues to put up great resistance to the reactionary cannon balls constantly being lobbed into our lives. However, a larger, more visionary action plan has been lacking. As a result of no apparent handle to organize around a comprehensive, inspiring political agenda, the anti-war movement has steadily spiraled into a strategic dead end.  

MoveOn, from its bright beginnings, has turned into an adjunct of the Democratic Leadership Council, leading the way over the cliff in supporting John Kerry. MoveOn hasn’t yet rallied its members behind Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s resolution to bring the troops home now, and is unlikely to.  

ANSWER and United for Peace and Justice can only come up with mass rallies every six months or so, and even those have no massive and consistent civil disobedience component. Old time Marxists still call for a Labor Party as if Diebold hadn’t invalidated honest national elections and there was a labor movement supporting such a party. 

This strategic morass is based on the faithful adherence to over-emphasizing the horrors of U.S. foreign policy over domestic social and environmental justice issues. There has been a glaring lack of loudly linking chronic, hideously unmet domestic needs to the cost of the war. 

The world-wide and national revulsion to the Bush League’s display of criminal negligence, perverse morality, and classist racism in the wake of Hurricane Katrina ought to serve as a wakeup call. That call says it’s time to shift the focus in a major way to domestic concerns. It’s more than time to focus on the actions that have to be taken to undo the Bush policies that are literally destroying America.  

The accent has to be on eliminating racism, poverty, homelessness here in the U.S., health care for all Americans, massively pumping up educational funding, creating viable, sustainable mass transportation systems, rebuilding infrastructure etc. etc. Reaching these goals through the back door of focusing on U.S. foreign policy doesn’t seem to engender changes, and hasn’t for a long, long time.  

In this light, I direct readers to Rescue America: Nine Key Steps, coming from Van Jones at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (bnb-list@ellabakercenter.org). If you agree with what you read, please sign the pledge to become part of 250,000 Americans demanding a dedicated rebuilding of our country (Colorofchange.org).  

Maris Arnold is a Berkeley resident.  

^

Karen and Tom Klaber started what is now known as The East Bay Monthly in their home 35 years ago. 

After three-and-a-half years they moved to an office at Seventh and Parker streets and then moved to their current office in Emeryville. Tom wrote all the copy and Karen was the salesperson, bookkeeper and business manager. 

It began as The Telegraph Monthly, filled with shopping advertisements for Telegraph Avenue merchants. They soon got bored with the all-advertisement format and added articles. 

For years, Fred Cody, founder of Cody’s Books, wrote a column called “The Book Bag,” which included exposés of milk, meat and sugar diets.  

As the publication’s range expanded, they changed the name to The Berkeley Monthly. Tom Klaber left the magazine in 1981, and the Klabers are now divorced, though still friends. 

Karen, a painter by training, said she wanted the cover always to feature art work. She still chooses the covers.  

“We wanted to give the public something intelligent,” Klaber said. “We’ve always wanted to have a balance of commerce and culture.” 

Another mission of the magazine was to celebrate local businesses.  

“In every issue we had an ad: support your local merchants,” she said. “There was nobody else that made merchants look good.”  

Although the circulation is still strong at 81,000, the magazine has felt the pinch of the shrinking economy and increased competition.  

“In a tough economy, which we’ve experienced since the dot-com bomb, the magazine has gotten skinnier,” Klaber said. “I’ve had to roll up my sleeves and get involved in selling advertising.” 

Klaber said she hopes to expand the magazine. She is looking for an investor or partner to increase the scope of the publication. 

To celebrate their milestone, the magazine is throwing a 35th anniversary party for friends, advertisers, writers, and editors.  

“We have advertisers who’ve been with us 30-plus years—in every single issue,” Klaber said.

Forget moveable feasts. How about a moveable gallery? 

That is what is on offer Saturday when performance artist Amber Hasselbring will conduct guests on her unique day-long ART on BART program. 

For the cost of a $5.80 BART ticket and lunch, Hasselbring will escort participants on a day-long excursion that will begin at 10:26 a.m. at BART’s Civic Center Station in San Francisco. 

The itinerary includes a ride of the entire BART system, with a stop for lunch at the Rockridge Station, and ending back at the Civic Center at 6:06 p.m. 

Participants will be given a book that will include information about the individual artists and their performances, maps of the Bay Area and information about regional ecology. 

Hasselbring often incorporates travel in her work. One of her projects, “Water Triangle,” is a 1,400-mile journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the Owens Valley and back to San Francisco, examining manmade projects to bring water to the desert. Another featured a cross-country road trip. 

“I Stand” was the opposite, a sunrise to sunset vigil last Nov. 6 where she and all who chose to participate maintained a standing vigil at the corner of 5th and Market streets in San Francisco. 

Saturday’s excursion—billed as “An Integrative Bay Area Tour”—will feature a variety of artists and their works, including: 

• Lori Gordon, who will perform “Kiss it Goodbye,” a participatory work about healing and letting go. For more information see www.lorigordon.com/kig.htm. 

• Nicole Krauch, Jenny Selgrath, Levana Saxon and Emily Simon will perform a dance score that evolves from the actions of BART riders. 

• Bill Owens will read from his novel Delco Years, which recounts the events of a survivalist community in Livermore after a virus wipes out most of the human race. 

• Rick Prelinger will present “Wire Landscapes: Making the Invisible Intelligible,” a piece which incorporates radio frequencies. 

• Ted Purves and Susan Cockrell, founders of the Temescal Amity Works, will offer fresh apples from the backyards of their neighbors in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood. 

• Christopher Woodward and Jessamyn Lovell will offer a work featuring journals and photographs of Lovell taken by participants. 

Seats are limited, so anyone wishing to participate should e-mail Hasselbring at ahasslebring@mindspring.com. 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 30 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “The Price” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m., through Oct. 9, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

California Shakespeare Theater, “The Tempest” at 8 p.m. at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., between Berkeley and Orinda, through Oct. 23. Tickets are $10-$55. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Impact Theater “Nicky Goes Goth” at 8 p.m., Thurs.-Sat. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, through Oct. 1. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Lunatique Fantastique “Executive Order 9066” Thurs. -Sat. at 7 p.m. at 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $15-$22. 415-826-5750. www.themarsh.org 

Shotgun Players, “Owners” at 8 p.m., Thurs.-Sun. through Oct. 16 at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Reservations suggested. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Wilde Irish Productions “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” Thurs. -Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m., at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through Oct. 2. Tickets are $18-$22. 644-9940. www.wildeirish.org 

FILM 

Films from Along the Silk Road ”The Adopted Son” at 7:30 p.m. and “The First Teacher” at 9:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Neil Gaiman introduces “Anansi Boys” at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. Advance reservations requested. One ticket is available with each purchase of the book. 845-7852. 

“A Composer’s Colloquium” with John Adams about his opera “Dr. Atomic” at 3 p.m. in the Elkus Room, 125 Morrison Hall, UC Campus. 

Dutch Voices: Jos de Putter and Peter Delpeut Salon with Peter Delpeut at 1:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland Opera “La Belle et la Bete,” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Oct. 2 at the Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway at 2nd. Tickets are $18-$32. 763-1146.  

Mark Morris Dance Group at at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$58. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

I Gatti Freschi with guest flutist Marty Stoddard perform Schubert and J.S. Bach, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12-$15. 848-1228. www.giorgigallery.com 

Ives String Quartet, with Anna Carol Dudly, soprano, at 8 p.m. at Mills College Concert Hall, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 430-2296. 

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

school.com 

El Hombre y el Flamenco at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mal Sharpe Sextet & Anna de Leon at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Stompy Jones/Lindy Hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. East Coast swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

David Frazier’s Cuban Jazz Ensemble at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Penelope Houston, Mike Therieau, Sean Smith at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Crow, World Burns to Death, Artimus Pyle 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. 

Santero at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7. 548-1159.  

The Push, funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Earl Klugh, contemporary jazz guitarist, at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is 20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, OCT. 1 

CHILDREN  

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

EXHIBITIONS 

“Romanian Lace Costume and Sentimental Embroideries” Exhibition runs to Feb. 4 at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. 843-7178. lacismuseum.org 

“Jewish Traditions” Works by Harry Lieberman opens at the Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Dress: Clothing as Art” Artist’s talk with Anna Maltz at 2 p.m. at Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

Walter Mosley introduces his new Easy Rawlins novel, “Cinnamon Kiss” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading and contest from 3 to 5 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison St. To enter contest call 527-9905. 

Synergy Women’s Open Mic at 3 p.m. at Lakeview Branch Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero at the column end of Lake Merritt. 632-7548. 

Synergy Women’s Open Mic at 3 p.m. at Lakeview Library at 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Singing Through the Storm A hurricane-relief benefit for New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, at 7:30 p.m. at the Mother’s Cookies Lofts, 1148 E. 18th St., Oakland. 594-4000 ext. 687.  

The Living Room, live music from emerging artists, at 8 p.m. at 3230 Adeline St. Donation. 601-5774. 

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Sekouba “Bambino” Diabate at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mosáico with José Roberto y sus Amigos at 8:30 p.m.at La Peña. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Braziu, Brazilian music, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Samantha Raven and Friends at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Austin Lounge Lizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Myra Melford Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-18. 845-5373.  

Gini Wilson’s “Chamberjazz” at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Stanley, funk to jazz, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Steve Smulian at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Victoria WIlliams, Carolyn Mark, Bermuda Triangle Service at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jason Webley, Sour Mash Jug Hug Band, Dead Hensons at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

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

SUNDAY, OCT. 2 

FILM 

African Diaspora Film Society: Bay Area Independent Filmmakers Mini-Festival at 2 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $5. www.picturepubpizza.com/special-events/diaspora 

THEATER 

PlayGround, two original short plays at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Rep., 2025 Addison St. RSVP to kickoff@playground-sf.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Single Moms: Invisible Lives” Artist’s talk with photographer Katherine Bettis at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Central Community Room, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Bill Martin discusses “Marxism and the Call of the Future: Conversations on Ethics, History and Politics” at 6 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

Poetry Flash with Anne Valley-Fox and Joan Logghe at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Arts Festival: Barely Human Dance Theatre “From Here We Watch The World Go By” at 5 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza. 883-0302. 

Four Flavors of Jazz from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Woodminister Amphitheatre in Oakland. Featured artists are Khalil Shaheed, Belinda Blair Quartet and Duo Gadjo & Joyce Grant. 238-3092. 

Sarah Manning, jazz saxophonist at 2 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. 701-1787. 

Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$18. 655-4593. www.bigbandjazz.net 

Americana Unplugged: The Dark Hollow Band at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Via Rio! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Carlos Zialcita and Myrna del Rio, jazz, blues at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Michael O’Neill Quintet, featuring Kenny Washington, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

“The We That Sets You Free” a benefit for women in prison with Sistas in the Pit, Invincible, Tru Bloo, Tree Vasquez and others at 6:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10-$25, sliding scale, no one turned away. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Catie Curtis, contemporary folk originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Anti-World, Love Songs, Lost Days of Jesus at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, OCT. 3 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Bijoux” An exhibition in conjunction with the Northern California Bead Society, at NIAD Art Center, 551 23rd St., Richmond, through Nov. 18. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Andrew Beahrs reads from his debut novel about life in the early American colonies, “Strange Saint” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Express with Daniel Johnson at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

Last Word Poetry Series with Christine DeSimone and Jesse Redpond at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

TUESDAY, OCT. 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Modern Visions from Mongolia” opens at the Worth Ryder Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus.  

FILM 

Derek Jarman’s Home Movies: “Imagining October” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Salman Rushdie reads from his new novel “Shalimar the Clown” at 6:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $40, $50 per couple and includes a copy of the book. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Diversified with Jan Steckel and Hew Wolff a 7:30 p.m. at World Ground Café, 3726 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 482-2933. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Prezident Brown backed by the Solid Foundation Band, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Tannahill Weavers, traditional Scottish music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50- $20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Singer’s Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Eric Shifrin, solo jazz piano and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

John Santos & Machete Ensemble at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5 

FILM 

Doctor Atomic Goes Nuclear “The Beginning or the End” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tom Panas introduces the “Images of America” book on El Cerrito at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Book Signing with Mary Lee Bendolph of the Gees Bend Quilters at 5 p.m. at Paulson Press Gallery, 1318 Tenth St. 559-2088. www.paulsonpress.com  

Louise Erdrich reads from her new novel “The Painted Drum” at 6:15 p.m. at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., Tickets are $40, $50 per couple and includes a copy of the book. 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.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert with Anna Carol Dudley, voice, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

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

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

La Peña Latin Jazz Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Saddle Cats at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Western Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pepe Y Su Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

The Cottars, youthful Celtic roots, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50- $18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Calvin Keys Trio Invitational Jam at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Scott Amendola Band at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, OCT. 6 

EXHIBITIONS 

The Baum Award for Emerging Photographers exhibition opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Dialogue with the artists, Lisa Kereszi, Jeanne Finely and Terri Cohn at 6:15 p.m. 642-0808.  

“Bijoux” An exhibition in conjunction with the Northern California Bead Society,. Reception at 6 p.m. at NIAD Art Center, 551 23rd St., Richmond, Exhibition runs to Nov. 18. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

“Taisho Chic: Japanese Modernity, Nostalgia and Deco” guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. 642-0808. 

California Landscapes pastel paintings by Amy Gitelman at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., through Oct. 31. 524-3043. 

FILM 

MadCat Woman’s International Film Festival: Animated Documentaries at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Egyptian Expeditions to the Sinai Peninisula” The AIA La Follette Lecture by Dr. Thomas Hikade, Univ. of British Columbia, at 7:30 p.m. at 370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. 415-338-1537. 

Nomad Spoken Word Night at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Ana Maria Spagna reads from “Now Go Home: Wilderness, Belonging and the Crosscut Saw” at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Nuala O’Faolain on her biography “The Story of Chicago May” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Ron Powers reads from his biography “Mark Twain: A Life” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Word Beat Reading Series with Dale Jensen and Judy Wells at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cecelia Bartoli with the Zurich Orchestra at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $50-$250. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Global Fusion: Emam & Friends at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Tessa Loehwing & Adam Blankman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

David Jacobs-Strain, blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Nine Pound Show, Powder Wheel at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Dave Bernstein and John Wiitala, guitar and bass, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Dead Kenny G’s, Brian Haas, Skerik, Mike Dillon at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com›

FRIDAY, SEPT. 30 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Ted Miles, Curator, San Francisco Maritime Museum, on “Historic Ships.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

Community Blood Drive from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. To make an appointment call 1-800-448-3543. www.BeADonor.com 

“The Future of Food” A film about our corporate-controlled food system opens at the Landmark Shattuck Cinema, 2230 Shattuck Ave. For show times see www.landmarktheatres.com 

Kitka Vechirka Ukranian-style party to raise funds for Kitka’s “The Rusalka Cycle” and Musicares Hurricane Relief Fund at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $50. RSVP to 444-0323. 

Movement: Chi Gung to improve energy and health, at 1 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. at Cedar. 549-9200. 

Three Beats for Nothing sings early music for fun and practice at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 655-8863. 

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

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

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 1 

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.  

Hawk Migration with Hans and Pam Peeters on their new book, “Raptors of California” at 10:30 a.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. Field trip with authors before the talk, meet at Claremont Ave. and Grizzly Peak at 9 a.m. to watch some raptors in action. 

Autumn Arachnids We will see slides first then explore the area to look for orb weavers, jumping spiders, wolf spiders and more from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of the Berkeley View Terrace Neighborhood, led by Phila Rogers, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For information call 848-0181. www.cityofberkeley.info/histsoc 

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 

Plants with Fall Blooms with garden designer Hank Jenkins at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Field of Dreams A family day at the Oakland Museum of California in conjunction with the exhibition “Baseball As America” with pitching and fielding demonstrations, fast-pitch radar machines, memorabilia appraisals and historic film clips. From noon to 4 p.m. at 1000 Oak St. Free with museum admission. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Inspiring School Gardens A tour of successful school gardens in Berkeley and Oakland, sponsored by the Watershed Project. Meet at 9 a.m. at Hillcrest Elementary, 30 Marguerite Dr., Oakland. Cost is $25. For information call 665-3689. www.thewatershedproject.org 

National Solar Homes Tour in Oakland and Berkeley from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are self-guided. Cost is $15 for two adults. Register online at www.norcalsolar.org 

Native Plant Sale of shrubs, perennials, succulants, grasses and bulbs, plus books and horticultural information. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sat., 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sun., at Merritt College, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland. 925-376-4095. www.ebcnps.org 

Swim a Mile for Women with Cancer to benefit the Women’s Cancer Resource Center. Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Trefethan Aquatic Center, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland. 601-4040 ext. 180. www.wcrc.org/swim/index.htm 

Benefit Yoga Workshop for the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, in memory of Katie Allen from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Yoga Room, 2640 College Ave. Taught by Bonnie Maeda and Gay White. Donation $20-$40. 848-0993. 

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay meets at 1 p.m. at the Temescal Library, 5205 Telegraph, Oakland. The agenda includes a discussion of the organizing for the get-out-the-vote campaign, in coalition with Alliance for a Better California, labor groups, and other progressives. 526-4632. www.pdeastbay.org 

Rally to Fight Government Repression with Lynne Stewart and others at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 839-0852. 

East Bay Atheists Annual Picnic at noon at the Big Leaf Picnic Area, Tilden Park. Please bring a salad or dessert. Donation $5. 222-7580. 

Caldecott Tunnel 4th Bore Project will be the topic at Oakland Councilmember Jane Brunner’s Community Advisory Meeting at 10 a.m. at Peralta Elementary School, 460 63rd St. 238-7013. 

Sankofa Health Fair on Afrocentric roots of heath and healing, Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 4550 San Pablo Avenue, Suite E, Second Floor, Emeryville. 839-6127. 

“Know Your Rights” A free training on what your rights are when dealing with the police from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Copwatch, 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Blessing of the Bunnies for St. Francis of Assisi Feast Day at 3 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Please bring bunnies in carriers. 525-6155. 

Spirit Walking Aqua Chi (TM) A gentle water exercise class at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $3.50 per session. 526-0312. 

Protest Rally at Berkeley Honda at 1 p.m. at Shattuck and Parker.  

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, OCT. 2 

Berkeley Animal Care Run Walk and Bike Fundraiser at 9 a.m. at Berkeley Aquatic Park, west of 2nd St. Cost is $25 for adults, $5 for children ages 2-12. Registration begins at 9 a.m. Music at noon. For information call 877-472-9243. 

Morning Bird Walk to welcome back the Northern Flicker, Kinglets and others, at 9:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Spice Of Life Festival in North Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto with demonstrations, tastings and live music from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Shattuck Ave. from Virginia to Rose Sts. www.northshattuck.org 

Halloween Animals Learn the facts and myths about snakes and spiders from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 525-2233. 

Retirement Party for Alan Kaplan, for 33 years a naturalist with East Bay Regional Parks District, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Indian Camp picnic area near the entrance to the Tilden Nature Area parking lot. 444-0355. 

Bay Area Woman In Black Report Back from Gaza from 2 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Main Library, West Auditorium, 125 14th St., Oakland. www.BayArea 

WomenInBlack.org 

African Diaspora Film Society presents “Bay Area Independent Filmmakers Mini-Festival” at 2 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $5. www.picturepubpizza.com/special-events/diaspora 

Johan Galtung, Norwegian Peace and Conflict Mediator will speak at 5 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 526-2900. 

“Marxism and the Call of the Future” Bill Martin discusses the book he coauthored with Bob Avakian, at 6 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way at Telegraph.  

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 

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, OCT. 3 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. in the boardroom of the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. The speaker will be from Narika, an organization which addresses the unmet needs of abused South Asian women. 287-8948. 

“Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living” with Berkeley architect Charles Durrett, at 7:30 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 315-0431. 

Citizens Soldiers at War: The National Guard in Iraq screening of a new documentary at 7 p.m. at Room 105, North Gate Hall, Grad. School of Journalism, UC Campus. 

“An Emerging Church” An evening with Tony Jones and friends at 7:30 p.m. in the Tuscan Common Room, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2451 Ridge Rd. To register call 204-0720. www.cdsp.edu 

Critical Viewing An ongoing group to examine the art/craft(iness) of short films and television productions and its effects on our daily lives, at 1 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Free. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

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

Kol Hadash Humanistic Rosh Hashanah Celebration at 7:30 p.m. at Albany Community Centre, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring non-perishable food for the needy. To RSVP email Lmgutner@aol.com 

TUESDAY, OCT. 4 

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

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar at 6:30 p.m. in Oakland. Free, registration required. 465-2524. 

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. 524-9992. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5 

Cindy Sheehan speaks at 7 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Donation of $20 benefits Global Exchange, CodePink, and Gold Star Families for Peace. 415-255-7296, ext. 253. 

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Albany Waterfront Development meeting at 1 p.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. Matt Middlebrook from Caruso Affiliated will speak, discussion follows. All welcome. 524-9122. 

Sustainable Farming on the Gill Tract, 1050 San Pablo Ave., Albany, at 3:30 p.m. www.agroeco.org 

American 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. 

Living Mercury Free How mercury affects your health and what you can do about it at 7 p.m. at the Teleosis Institute, 1512B Fifth St. Free, but please RSVP to 558-7285. 

Book Signing with Mary Lee Bendolph of the Gees Bend Quilters at 5 p.m. at Paulson Press Gallery, 1318 Tenth St. 559-2088. www.paulsonpress.com  

Friends of the Oakland Library Book Sale from 10:30 to 5:30 p.m. at 721 Washington St., through Oct. 8. 444-0473. 

Lab Live Hip Hop Ensemble Workshop for musicians, emcees, spoken word artists and singers at 4:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Free. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation 30th Anniversary Celebration from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 287-5353, ext. 344. 

Legacy And Practice Of Democratic Psychiatry at 4 p.m. at the Men’s Faculty Club, UC Campus. Conference continues on Thurs. from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. For conference agenda and information see http://trieste-in-california.berkeley.edu/ 

Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College Open House at 6 p.m. at 2550 Shattuck Ave. Tours of classrooms and clinics and information for prospective students. To RSVP call 666-8248, ext. 106.  

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

Entrepreneurs Networking at 8 a.m. at A’Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcatraz. Cost is $5. For more information contact JB, 562-9431.  

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. 

Prose Writer’s Workshop An ongoing group made up of friendly writers who are serious about our craft. All levels welcome. At 7 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

“A History of God” by Karen Armstrong discussion group at 6:30 p.m. at Bookmark Bookstore, 721 Washington St., Oakland. 

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. 

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 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, OCT. 6 

Oakland Bird Club with Hans and Pam Peeters, authors and illustrators of “Raptors of California” at 7:30 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, Upstairs Meeting Room, 5366 College Ave. 444-0355.  

Songs and Stories for Working with Children in the Garden with songwriter, storyteller Nancy Schimmel at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Hands-on Bike Maintenance Learn how to prevent and repair flats on your bike at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Café Philo, French discussion group, at 7 p.m. at The Alliance Française, 2004 Woolsey St. Cost is $5. 548-7481.  

“Beyond Chutzpah” On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and Abuse of History with Norman Finkelstein at 7:30 p.m. at St. Jopseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 548-0542. 

Design/Build Workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pella Showroom, 1717 B Fourth St. Cost is $20 in advance, $25 at the door. To register call 559-1333. www.mcbuild.com 

World Affairs/Politics Group for people 60 years and older meets at 3:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $2.50, includes refreshments. 524-9122. 

East Bay Mac User Group Mark Altenberg of Apple presents Quicktime Streaming Server from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville. Free. ebmug.org 

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

ONGOING 

Find a Loving Animal Companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center (open from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday). 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735. www.berkeleyhumane.org  

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Creeks Task Force meets Mon. Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Erin Dando, 981-7410. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/default.html 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Tues. Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/firesafety 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Oct. 6, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning  

As Berkeley prepares to remake its downtown once again at the behest of the University of California, we had the pleasure of spending Friday night in downtown Santa Cruz, which remade its downtown at the behest of the Loma Prieta fault. After the 1989 earthquake, the city hastily demolished many of the buildings on Pacific Avenue, and has been rebuilding the streetscape there ever since, with the aid of a redevelopment authority to coerce reluctant property owners into going with the flow. Berkeley won’t have the Draconian power that the earthquake gave Santa Cruz (G_d forbid we should have such an earthquake here!) But it’s useful to take a look at what works and what doesn’t, in a situation where almost everything’s possible.  

First, they didn’t ban cars on Pacific, though many trendies argued for this. What they did do is make it much harder for cars to use it, with one-way sections, traffic barriers diverting drivers to parallel streets, and very short-term and expensive parking meters that operate until 8 at night seven days a week. So you can still pick up your to-go pizza at Pizza My Heart, but if you want to stay longer you have to park at one of the big garages on the side streets or walk downtown as we did. This is much more sensible than Berkeley’s approach, where surface parking is cheaper than most off-street garages and free after six and on Sundays. Buses use parallel streets, not Pacific, making walking and bicycling in the street and on the sidewalk there much more pleasant than it is in Berkeley. Someone here seems to have decided that diesel fumes will add to the outdoor dining experience on our main streets.  

Pacific, always narrow, has been made even narrower, with the expanded sidewalks a good venue for street life of all kinds. We had dinner at a perfectly acceptable Mexican restaurant which had been allowed to set up tables on the wide sidewalk. Purists in our group thought that the owners should have been made to pay the city for the privilege, but we all enjoyed being able to eat outside, especially because the 4-year-old, up past her bedtime, was making a lot of noise from time to time.  

She was pleasantly diverted by the appearance of the Umbrella Man, dressed all in pink and carrying a pink parasol. He insists on walking slowly straight down the middle of the sidewalk—if anyone blocks his way, he just stands absolutely still until the person moves on. Because the woman in his way was engaged in an energetic conversation and didn’t notice him, he stood next to our dinner table for more than 10 minutes. The 4-year-old finally went over and asked him why he would only walk in a straight line. “Because I want to,” he said. Of course. 

There’s an ongoing battle between those who think that straightforward old-fashioned panhandling ought to be allowed on Pacific and those who think that only entertainers should be able to accept donations there. This currently seems to have resulted in a few distinctly untalented souls trying to make music on the street, but they’re joined by many real musicians and other entertainers. We encountered, among others, a terrific nine-member mariachi, a group that was doing excellent taiko-style drumming with home-made instruments, a classical cellist and a small R&B band set up in a dead end where dancing was permitted.  

The Santa Cruz city attorney made the same foolish mistake that the Berkeley city attorney once made, advising their council that the U.S. Constitution permitted regulation of what panhandlers said, so the city could ban asking for spare change. Homeless advocate Robert Nichol is $2,500 richer for that mistake, after he settled his lawsuit against the city of Santa Cruz for that price and the council’s agreement to change the law to comply with the Constitution.  

The street was crowded with people of all ages, clearly in a holiday mood. Many of them seemed to be weekend tourists, judging by what was printed on their T-shirts. All of the stores were open—many of them tschotchke shops, but quite attractive for the casual shopper. Some necessities of life were on sale: upscale organic groceries, books, clothing, fancy cookware … though at prices higher than mall or Internet competition. There’s a big multi-plex theater at one end of the mall, and two blocks down the historic Del Mar Theater has been restored for art films. 

UC Santa Cruz has managed to squeeze a big ugly building or two onto the street, with dead-at-night offices on the first floor and students upstairs. The students seem to be enjoying getting away from their idyllic ranch campus, but they are an uneasy mix with the senior housing that is on the upper floors of other buildings. Our hosts told us that downtown noise complaints are an on-going problem: what’s just good fun for some is a nuisance for others. 

All in all, there’s a faint Disneyesque aura over the whole scene. As in Disneyland, most of the buildings are new but not contemporary in style, though they’re not exactly historic either. A lot of America these days seems to be morphing into Disneyland, but then of course a lot of Americans love Disneyland. 

Matt Taecker, a UC Planning School graduate and professional planner, has been hired by the city of Berkeley’s planning department to run the Downtown Area Plan process. He’s a former Peter Calthorpe Associates principal who seems from the website of his current firm, Catalyst of San Francisco, to be a disciple of the New Urbanist school of city planning. The New Urbanists gave Florida the tightly controlled Disney housing development town of Celebration, regarded as lovely by many and deeply scary by others. New Urbanism has proposed many good ideas, but has also been criticized for promoting a kind of faux skin-deep charm that misses the excitingly gritty atmosphere of real historic cities like San Francisco. We’ll have to wait and see whether the new downtown that he and the University of California are going to create in Berkeley will be more like San Francisco or more like Santa Cruz. It should be interesting. 

Congressman Steve King is the yokel who has organized the successful Republican effort to prevent the Berkeley Post Office from being named after Berkeley’s revered Maudelle Shirek. We won’t waste much space here delineating exactly how annoyed the people of Berkeley are at his presumption, because they’ll certainly make their opinions known in our letter columns. Instead, let’s take a good look at who King is, and what we might do from here to make sure the people in his district are suitably embarrassed by him. First, he’s been quoted speaking admiringly of old Joe McCarthy (dean of the Congressional witchhunters in the ‘50s, for those young readers who were shortchanged in their U.S. history class.) His website does a candid job of describing his other politics: 

“He worked in the State Senate to successfully eliminate the inheritance tax, enforce workplace drug testing, enforce parenting rights, including parental notification of abortion, pass tax cuts for working Iowans, and pass the law that made English the official language in Iowa.” A veritable laundry list of ignorant and misconceived Republican crusades, and he’s been on board for all of them!  

And there’s more. He’s evidently an economic ignoramus as well. He’s described on a Republican party site as “an outspoken proponent of the FairTax, a national sales tax that would replace the federal income tax. ‘I was an advocate for replacing the income tax with a consumption tax long before I ever ran for public office,’ King said.” Tax cuts for working Iowans, indeed. King doesn’t seem to know or care that sales taxes take the most from the least well off, since even poor working people have to spend money to buy the necessities of life.  

But does this mean that he opposes unnecessary federal spending, as a genuine conservative might? Well, let’s look again at his website: 

“He has long been dedicated to adding value to the corn stalk and bean stubble. The Fifth District … is one of the most productive areas in the nation for renewable fuels. King’s very first bill in Congress was an expansion of a tax credit to small ethanol and biodiesel producers.”  

Ethanol is created by the over-production of corn on those federally subsidized Fifth District farms. No one seems to have told King, or perhaps he doesn’t care, that the use of ethanol as a gas additive is “one of the most misguided public policy decisions to be made in recent history,” according to UC Berkeley professor of civil and environmental engineering Tad Patzek. Professor Patzek, in common with colleagues at Cornell and elsewhere, proved that there is a net energy loss from every gallon of ethanol produced from corn. He says that the whole process of producing ethanol from corn takes more fossil fuel than the energy that comes from the biofuel. So King’s tax credit program for his Iowa constituents is, to coin a phrase, just another pork barrel, a transfer of wealth from national taxpayers to the homefolks.  

It’s tempting to call for a popcorn boycott as a way of letting people in Iowa know that we Californians don’t like them to dis our local heroine. But all Iowans are not bad guys. King’s district includes Sioux City, birthplace of Dear Abby and Ann Landers, twin sisters who were reliable voices for sensible politics in their long careers as newspaper advice columnists. State 29, a funny anonymous Iowa blog, dubbed Steve King “Iowa’s Dumbest Congressman.” Statewide, Iowa often goes for Democrats.  

But what’s with all those other people out there in western Iowa? King carried his district last time by a two-thirds vote. Evidently a lot of people there think that it’s all right to insult a 94-year-old woman who has devoted a major part of her life to a meal program for senior citizens, just because back in the day she might have had some Communist friends. They don’t seem to care that their own congressman (that’s what he calls himself) looks dumber than dirt to a lot of us. And they have the right to elect anyone they want.  

But just on the off chance that some people out there do care what their district looks like in more enlightened places, our reliable corps of dynamite opinion writers should write to the two Iowa papers which have endorsed King in the past, the Des Moines Register and the Sioux City Journal, and let them know that we northern Californians don’t appreciate being insulted by western Iowans. (Keep in mind, though, that all papers are not as generous as the Daily Planet with column inches for letters.) 

—Becky O’Malley