Full Text

Richard Brenneman: Friends and family of slain Berkeley High School sophomore Alberto Salvador Villareal-Morales gathered outside St. Joseph the Worker Church after Friday’s funeral mass..
Richard Brenneman: Friends and family of slain Berkeley High School sophomore Alberto Salvador Villareal-Morales gathered outside St. Joseph the Worker Church after Friday’s funeral mass..
 

News

Berkeley Mourns Slain Teenager By RIO BAUCE Special to the Planet

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Hundreds of people gathered at St. Joseph the Worker Church on Friday to mourn the death of 15-year-old Berkeley High School sophomore Alberto Salvador Villareal-Morales. 

Many in the audience at the Addison Street church were students from Berkeley High School. 

“I thought that it was a good outpouring of care,” said Principal Jim Slemp. “I felt inspired, because there were a group of Salvador’s friends who collected $3,000. Students were giving so much money. Many at the funeral may have known who he was, but were not necessarily friends with him. But they came there to honor Salvador and support each other ... to make a statement against violence.” 

Salvador was killed the night of Jan. 14 as he stood on the 2600 block of East 15th Street in Oakland. Police reported that he was killed by gunfire from a passing car. No one has been arrested in connection to the murder.  

The 9 a.m. funeral mass began with a viewing of the body in an open casket. Members of the public stood in line to view the body, while family members of Salvador stood around the casket. Screams of pain and sorrow rang out from family members while they paid their last respects to Salvador. 

The Rev. George Crespin told the crowded church, “This past Monday was the first Monday that I knew about Salvadore’s death. I looked up in the sky and saw a rainbow, while it was raining. There was no reason for there to be a rainbow. I took it as a sign that Salvadore was okay.” 

He also said he had a message for the many young people in the audience. 

“I know that this hits you harder than the rest of us,” Crespin said. “You walk the streets and you know what happens. You have to watch your back. You know how it feels to be put down. We in the community, in many ways, have failed you. I’m hoping that we can say, ‘We can make it better for you.’ We all need to work together to do that. I think the greatest thing we can do for Salvador is to change those things which we have some control over. We can all do something and I think that is what Salvador is asking us. Please do something.” 

Rosalinda Morales, 32, the mother of Salvador, gave a speech to the audience in Spanish which Crespin translated into English. She said that she wanted people to honor her son’s name and his memory by trying to ensure that no other mother finds herself in her situation. 

After the service, Morales told this reporter more about Salvador. 

“He was always so lovely,” recalled Morales.” He always said, ‘Mom. I love you.’ ... He was always helping people. He helped me a lot. He was my oldest son.” 

She said that before Salvador’s death, she expressed many concerns to Slemp and other school officials. 

“Many things need to be changed,” she said, summarizing the concerns she had told to the school administrators. “A lot of teenagers don’t have any manners and never even say ‘Thank you’ anymore. They need to be more respectful and take their education more seriously. This is all part of the problem. The principal told me, ‘We can’t change that.’ We leave this to the teachers, but education starts at the home. People are always blaming the teachers.” 

Morales said she believed the Berkeley community had a role to play in preventing future deaths of teenagers, “The more we organize today, the less blood is shed tomorrow.” 

“I think it’s really sad that he died,” said Rene Warren, 16, a friend of Salvador’s. “He liked having fun and hanging out. He had a lot of friends. I actually saw him on Friday, the day before he died. He was eating off-campus lunch on Shattuck. I’m not going to be able to see him anymore.” 

Salvador was a tenth-grader at Berkeley High and was involved in many extracurricular activities. He was a member of Huaxtec, which is a Latino youth leadership group. And he was also a member of the grassroots organization called TOJIL, which helps better the schools and education. 

Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington adjourned last week’s council meeting in Salvador’s memory. 

Police are offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of Salvador’s killer. Anyone with information can call the Oakland homicide unit at 238-3821. 

Contributions to help with the funeral costs may be made to Rosalinda Morales, 2207 Bonar St., Apt. G, Berkeley, CA 94702. 

 


Legal Setback for Marin Ave. Change By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday January 24, 2006

A Hayward judge has handed down a mixed victory for Raymond Chamberlin’s lawsuit challenging the reduction of traffic lanes on Marin Avenue. 

Unless the city complies fully with the California Environmental Quality Act, Berkeley will have to restore the roadway to its earlier, two-lane condition, ruled Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw in a decision filed on Jan. 13. 

Or will it? 

Neither Chamberlin, a Berkeley resident, nor city Deputy City Attorney Zac Cowan says he is quite sure what the judge’s ruling means. 

“Language is sometimes an imprecise instrument,” Cowan said. 

The ruling has no impact on the City of Albany, which conducted similar work on its portion of Marin Avenue, because Chamberlin missed the 90-day cutoff period before filing his challenge. 

In an effort to slow traffic on the roadway which parallels the highly congested Solano Avenue, the Albany City Council voted on Nov. 18, 2004, to approve narrowing the street from two lanes in each direction to one, while adding bicycle lanes. 

The project affects the length of Marin Avenue from San Pablo Avenue in Albany to The Alameda in Berkeley, where 85 percent of the traffic had been clocked at 35.6 miles per hour, more than 10 m.p.h. faster than the posted limit of 25. 

Albany had first prepared an initial study on the project—an environmental review document required by the California Environmental Quality Act—and adopted a negative declaration three days before the council vote, which held that the project carried no significant environmental impacts. 

Berkeley conducted its own hearings on the project and adopted a negative declaration of its own on Jan. 28, 2005. 

Chamberlin filed suit one month later, challenging the negative declarations, but did not seek to halt the project until July 8—the month after Berkeley removed the two cement islands from the median strip at the intersection of Marin and Colusa avenues. 

Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw ruled July 25 that Chamberlin had filed his original petition too late to challenge Albany’s decision, and allowed that city’s work to continue. 

However, Sabraw also ruled that the action could continue against Berkeley—though denying his attempt to halt work on the project. 

While the judge ruled that Chamberlin had offered little evidence to support his claims that the reshaping of the Marin/Colusa interchange presented a threat to pedestrian safety or that it would impede emergency responses—both the Berkeley Police and Fire departments said it wouldn’t—the impact of slowing traffic was a different matter. 

Relying on a finding in the city’s initial study, Sabraw ruled that the document contained enough information “to support a fair argument” that reduced traffic times on Marin Avenue might send impatient drivers to side streets “and thus cause a significant adverse impact.” 

“Berkeley’s City Council appeared to have recognized the existence of this argument prior to approving the negative declaration,” Sabraw wrote. 

The judge cited comments from City Council members who worried that the project would “cause a disaster with great congestion” and the “the EIR (environmental impact report) is not a good EIR ... It’s flawed.” 

The fatal flaw in the approval, however, was the city’s request for an EIR only after it approved the reconfiguration project, rather than before. 

“CEQA, however, does not permit deferring evaluation of environmental impacts until after adoption of a negative declaration,” wrote the judge (emphasis in original). 

And here Chamberlin was supported by the one bit of scientific evidence he had provided, a study by the University of North Carolina which showed that on streets that carried more than 20,000 cars a day—which Marin Avenue does—a reconfiguration can lead motorists to divert to other, less congested streets. 

Cowan, Berkeley’s deputy city attorney, argued that the study was too general to be considered, but Sabraw wasn’t convinced. 

Furthermore, the city’s environmental study failed to consider traffic on “the network of quieter and more narrow streets immediately adjacent to Marin,” Sabraw wrote. 

“In light of this existence of this fair argument, Berkeley should have prepared an EIR ... prior to deciding whether to adopt the reconfiguration project....Failure to have done so was in violation of CEQA.” 

Studies conducted since the reconfiguration have failed to show the hoped-for five-mile-an-hour reduction in speed, and the city is now conducting another study to find out why. 

Under the judge’s ruling, the city must now rescind its original approval of the project, along with the negative declaration, and start the CEQA anew. 

Chamberlin said he’s not entirely happy with the process and is now considering an appeal, seeking to restore the action against Albany. He argues that under CEQA, projects should be considered as a whole, and that one part of the project cannot be separated from the other. 

A retired electronic engineer, Chamberlin represented himself in court—though that wasn’t his original intent. He’s now looking for a community-minded attorney to help with the appeal. 

“I’m not in a position to handle that level of expense,” he added. 

For Chamberlin, the basic issue remains pedestrian safety, and the diversion of traffic was the lesser issue. By doing away with the medians in the Colusa/Marin intersection, the city eliminated a stopping area for slower pedestrians, he said. 

“The judge said that pedestrian crossing safety wasn’t an issue, but I see it as an ongoing problem,” Chamberlin said. .


KPFA Chief Steps Down After Troubled Reign By SUZANNE LA BARRE Special to the Planet

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Amid a flurry of controversy, KPFA-FM General Manager Roy Campanella II has stepped down. 

The radio station chief, son of Brooklyn Dodger Hall of Famer Roy Campanella, submitted his resignation late last week, on the heels of reports that KPFA’s 24-member Local Station Board (LSB) voted to terminate his employment. Several board members cited a confidentiality gag in declining to confirm the verdict or whether it directly precipitated Campanella’s retreat. 

However, some active in the KPFA community said they expected KPFA’s parent company, the Pacifica Foundation, to shed light on the matter in coming weeks. 

KPFA representatives called a town hall meeting in San Francisco on Sunday to tackle escalating concerns over the conflict at the listener-supported radio station, a meeting Campanella was expected to attend. But the embattled boss, whose tenure has been marred by allegations of sexual harassment and abusive behavior—charges that were never substantiated—was not present. 

Instead, he issued a statement that included the first public acknowledgment of his departure: 

“I hope you will excuse me for not being able to attend the town hall meeting,” Campanella writes. “Last week I submitted my resignation as general manager of KPFA, and while I am sure this news will be the source of some discussion, I also hope your dialogue will focus on ways to build effective conflict resolution skills.” 

A few muffled “wows” swept across the crowd of roughly 50 KPFA listeners, participants and supporters. 

During Campanella’s stormy 14-month reign over KPFA, he was accused of sexual harassment and verbally abusing colleagues, allegations that prompted 78 paid and unpaid workers—roughly a quarter of KPFA’s employees—to sign a letter expressing no confidence in the general manager.  

In May 2005, he was lambasted for aggressive conduct, when he challenged a male employee to take a fight outside. The following month, a letter to the LSB board signed by 15 female KPFA workers excoriated Campanella for his alleged “pattern of inappropriate, gender-biased, and disturbing behavior … aimed particularly toward KPFA’s women employees.” 

One woman told the San Francisco Chronicle that after she turned Campanella down for a date, their relationship became “highly stressful and retaliatory.” 

Campanella denies those charges, and two subsequent investigations, one carried out by Pacifica and another conducted by a board-hired lawyer, upheld his innocence.  

Rumors surrounding Campanella’s ousting festered on the independent media website indybay.org before the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Jan. 14 that the board agreed to recommend his removal. 

Some KPFA community members were elated by the news of Campenella’s resignation. 

“As a Feminist Woman, I am pleased,” wrote one blogger in response to the indybay.org report. “He richly deserved it …” 

Others were horrified. At Sunday’s meeting, former board member and longtime KPFA supporter Tomas Moran lamented the circumstances surrounding Campanella’s resignation.  

“It’s a shameful mark on the KPFA community that Roy leaves the station and the Bay Area with an undeserved mark on his reputation regarding accusations about sexual harassment,” Moran said. 

Dan Siegel, the KPFA board-hired lawyer who upheld Campanella’s innocence on the harrassment allegations, ultimately urged the board to fire Campanella. LSB Chair Richard Phelps said that Siegel’s recommendation was based on other factors, and was not evidence of sexual harassment. Phelps declined to be more specific. Siegel said he is precluded from discussing details of the case. 

In August, the LSB shot down Siegel’s suggestion to remove Campanella in a 15-5 vote. But the board’s recent aboutface has left many nonplused: Why the change of heart? 

Campanella, a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University who enjoyed a career as a director and producer before joining KPFA, repudiates conjecture that earlier harassment and abuse claims played into the board’s ruling. 

“The broad agenda for the discussion they had had nothing to do with those allegations,” Campanella said in a phone interview Sunday. “That had already been dealt with.” 

Moran suggested that larger forces may be at work. KPFA’s government is fiercely entrenched in faction wars, he said, and the GM is a sitting duck. He speculates that Campanella met political death by rankling both sides of the bureaucracy, which disagree over how much reform to press upon the station. 

“This has been going on at KPFA for a long time,” Moran said.  

The last general manager, former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport, warmed the seat for less than a year, before checking out for personal reasons. (Some onlookers insisted other issues were at work. Then LSB Chair Willie Ratcliff was quoted in the Daily Planet saying, “[The staff] are afraid that [management] is going to usurp their power, they’re going to have a boss, and they don’t like it.”) 

At Sunday’s meeting, board member Max Blanchet said the station’s crisis delves far deeper than Roy Campanella. 

“We’ve been through two managers in two years, we need to address the problem,” he said. “There are systemic problems. … We need to create a structure so we can be properly managed.” 

Moran took the sentiment a step further: “Nothing’s going to change by getting rid of Roy,” he said.  

The process for seeking a new GM is underway, Blanchet said. The board will whittle the applicant pool down to three or four candidates, and Pacifica’s executive director will pick from the pack, he said, adding that a few staff members may take over general management duties in the interim.  


Lake Merritt Tree Supporters Unmoved By Public Works Tour By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday January 24, 2006

If an Oakland Public Works Agency guided walk around the south end of Lake Merritt was designed to dampen criticism of the city’s plan to remove more than 200 trees, it didn’t exactly work. 

Lake Merritt neighborhood activist Laurie Gordon said in a follow-up e-mail to fellow tree preservationists, “I really did appreciate the time and explanations given by” the Public Works staff, and “I thought they were very patient and well prepared,” but she urged tree supporters to continue to “call or e-mail your protests” about saving particular trees. 

In connection with Measure DD, Oakland’s $198 million water bond measure passed in 2002, the city has planned major construction projects around Lake Merritt that will involve the removal of approximately 225 trees and the planting of more than 500 new ones. City staff members are emphasizing that when the Measure DD construction project is finished, there will be a 52 percent increase in the total number of trees around Lake Merritt. 

Final decision on which trees will remain and which will be removed will be made by the city arborist this week. Construction on the Measure DD Lake Merritt projects is scheduled to begin this summer. 

The most extensive portion of the Measure DD Lake Merritt construction—and the portion that will involve the most trees—will take place at the southern end of the lake. The channel which connects the lake with the estuary—running through a series of small culverts—will be completely opened to allow its original free tidal flow. 

A tidal wetlands will be established between the channel and the Kaiser Convention Center parking lot in an area that now contains a long stand of trees. In addition, because the 14th Street/12th Street interchange at the foot of Lake Merritt will be drastically reduced, the Kaiser Convention Center parking lot itself will be reduced and completely refigured. City staff members estimate that three quarters of the Lake Merritt tree removal involves what is called the 12th Street Project portion of Measure DD construction. 

City Arborist Dan Gallagher said that the trees along the proposed wetland had to be removed “because raptor birds would find that a convenient place to hide and prey on the shoreline birds, and that would be the end of the shoreline bird habitat.” 

Gallagher said planners were trying to duplicate conditions along the California tidal wetlands “where you almost never see trees growing next to the water.” 

City staff have said that the majority of the remainder of the trees need to be removed either because they are diseased or subject to rot, or have been planted in areas that either restrict the tree’s growth or stand in the way of improvements planned for the parklands surrounding the lake. 

But in a letter sent to Oakland officials immediately following the tour, Oakland resident Patricia Durham wrote, “Many of us believe that these trees—ungainly, mature, aging, out of place as they might be considered by some—have a beauty, serenity and stability that is irreplaceable, and in short supply in our community today. They may not be ‘valuable’ according to a horticulturist’s definition. They might not have been the ‘best’ selection for the location when first planted. They are here now, most of them thriving, most of them familiar, and most of them beloved—despite their eccentricities or because of them—by a lot of folks who walk, run, bicycle, boat, drive, or sit at the Lake. Each tree is beautiful in its own way. The premise should have been to keep them, wherever possible.” 

“The wonderful promise of renovations at Lake Merritt is sadly compromised by this impending, irreversible threat to its existing trees and associated wildlife populations,” Durham wrote. “Many of us worked hard to create this plan for Lake Merritt. Never did we conceive that essential assets of Lake Merritt would be destroyed in order to ‘rebuild’ it.” 

According to Public Information Officer Karen Boyd of the Oakland City Administrator’s office, the original plans called for the removal of more than 300 trees. But responding to citizen complaints, intervention from the offices of Oakland City Councilmembers Nancy Nadel, Pat Kernighan, and Jane Brunner, and “indications from city staff that ‘that’s a lot of trees,’” the list was pared down by 75. 

Lake Merritt trees scheduled for removal have been tagged with red-colored notices, but in what appears to be a form of guerrilla protest, city workers say that several of the red tags have been removed without city authorization. 

On a damp, overcast Saturday morning, Measure DD Landscape Project Coordinator Lyle Oehler and arborist Gallagher led some 15 to 20 residents on a three-hour tour that began on the west side of the lake at the old boat house that once housed the Public Works Agency, crossed under 12th Street to the parking lot of the Kaiser Convention Center, and ended on the east side of the lake along Lakeshore Avenue. While Oehler and Gallagher gave detailed explanations of the thinking behind each set of tree removals, participants peppered them with questions, and sometimes attempted to draw them into debate. 

At one point, when a participant told Oehler that a proposed new parking lot at the old boat house was not authorized in the text of Measure DD, Oehler replied, “It’s just not possible for a bond measure to get into that level of construction detail.” 

And at another point, after Oehler said he was “only here to talk about tree removal” and not the overall direction of the Measure DD construction projects, participants asked him, “Well, if you’re not the best person to talk with, who is?” 

Oehler suggested they contact their councilmembers.?


AC Transit Plan to Delete Stops Draws Riders’ Ire By DANIEL DeBOLT Special to the Planet

Tuesday January 24, 2006

AC transit’s plan to “delete” 44 bus stops in Berkeley, Alameda and Oakland next week to provide faster and more reliable service has angered many riders who depend on those stops. 

“For the disabled community it’s such a joke,” said Chris Mullins, information and referral specialist at Berkeley’s Center for Independent Living. “The disabled community very rarely benefits from the elimination of bus stops. It’s hard enough for them to get to bus stops now. Eliminating them is just going to make it harder.” 

According to AC Transit, months of surveying was done to determine which stops would be deleted. AC Transit is not required by law to have public hearings before removing stops, said Clarence Johnson, media relations manager at AC Transit. But the plan was brought to an AC Transit advisory committee that looks at issues of accessibility.  

The committee stopped the proposed elimination of several stops frequented by the disabled, Johnson said. The stops at 29th Street and Broadway and at 38th Street and Broadway were among the stops that were saved because the two stops were near facilities for the sight-impaired.  

Mullins said he takes about 100 bus rides a month and he knows dozens of disabled people who take the bus regularly. Mullins said that bus riders who are in wheelchairs might now have to wheel up hills that they didn’t have to before.  

“People with disabilities come to live here (in Berkeley) because it’s more accessible,” Mullins said. “Or at least that’s the reputation.” 

AC Transit’s budget problems were not the reason for removing the stops, Johnson said, though budget problems are a constant concern for its decision makers,  

“The decisions were made solely to improve bus routes by decreasing passengers’ travel times,” Johnson said, “eliminating unnecessary transit delays and enhancing overall public reliability. To that end, nothing is set in stone. If there is a community, disabled or otherwise that has a compelling case as to why removing a particular stop is a bad idea, we would certainly revisit our plan.” 

Mullins said AC Transit was dealing with a community that sometimes lacks a voice to combat discrimination. 

“I don’t think that expecting the disabled community to express outrage even if they are outraged is very feasible,” he said. “They are just glad there are bus stops out there for them to get on.” 

One of the 44 stops that will be removed is on the corner of University Avenue at California Street in Berkeley. A recent weekend visit found three disabled people who said they used the stop regularly, one of whom is visually-impaired and two others who have mobility impairments. 

Service to the neighborhood has already been significantly cut back with the removal of the number 67 bus line, they said. 

Now, a cover over the bus stop sign warns riders that no buses will stop beginning Jan. 29 in efforts to “streamline service” and “standardize bus stop distances.” The same sign is found at various stops in each direction on the 51, 40 and the 43 routes, the only lines so far affected. AC Transit officials said the bus stop removal is ongoing. 

Jenny Lee, a resident in the immediate neighborhood around the University Avenue and California Street stop, said she was concerned for her father who is in his 70s and frequently uses the stop. Her father would have to walk two blocks east or two blocks west from California Avenue to find another stop, she said. 

Lee noted that she doubted that removing her father’s stop, which is right before the stoplight at California Street, will do much to keep buses moving along more efficiently. 

But the removals will get AC Transit closer to the goal of its Board of Directors to have 1,300 feet between bus stops, 20 feet shy of a quarter mile. This is supposed to make the bus system more reliable and prevent delays, Johnson, of AC Transit, said. 

“It’s insensitive and seemingly unnecessary,” said Mullins. “It is going to stop people from using buses.” 

Mullins said he suspected that more disabled people would choose to use ride programs to taxi them places from their front door rather than take the bus when the stops are removed. 

“The idea is to get them to rely less on ride programs,” he said. “Getting to and from bus stops is one of the criteria for independent living. They are reducing that by eliminating bus stops.” 

 


Peralta District Officials Delay Release of Report By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday January 24, 2006

A much-anticipated Board of Trustees presentation on the Peralta Community College District International and Global Education Department has been postponed. 

Peralta Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig told trustees last September that she intended to “conduct a review of the international education office, including the finances and the mission of the office,” with a report scheduled for the Jan. 24 meeting. 

As late as last week the report was scheduled to be on Tuesday night’s trustee agenda, but was then pulled. 

Jeff Heyman, Executive Director of Marketing, Public Relations and Communications for the four-college Peralta District, said that Haig was “still working on the report. We’re hoping to get it at the next board meeting.” 

Peralta officials downplayed the delay. 

Peralta’s International Education Department is responsible, in part, for recruitment and coordination of international students enrolling in the district’s four colleges. Because foreign student tuition fees go directly to the district—rather than being siphoned off first to the state and then a percentage filtered down as is done with tuition for in-state students—the International Education Department is considered a potential lucrative money-maker for the district. 

Trustee Vice President Bill Withrow has estimated that the department presently brings in a net of $2.2 million to the district while operating on a $470,000 budget. 

But trustees have complained that the international department could be bringing in far more money, and that has led to calls for reforming the department. Haig was hired last September as Vice Chancellor for Education Services in part because of her background in international education. 

Haig’s announcement of her review of the international affairs department came during a contentious September trustee meeting in which several trustees expressed concerns about the operation of the department. 

Withrow told Haig that “there is concern about this program in the community; it’s been shrouded in secrecy and there has been a lack of data.” 

And Trustee Cy Gulassa criticized a report submitted by International Education Department Director Jacob Ng, who did not attend the September meeting. 

Gulassa called the report “unacceptable to someone who’s trying to understand what’s going on in this program. If you’re going to Bangkok, let us know how many students later came to Peralta from Bangkok. And if you can’t answer that, maybe you shouldn’t be going to Bangkok.” 

But while calling for accountability in the department, trustees balked at Trustee Marcie Hodge’s motion to abolish the department altogether. 

Hodge has made reform of the international department a major effort. A month after the September trustee meeting, she sent out a brochure to constituents charging that the department “spends lavishly, traveling the world while tuition for students rises.” 

Hodge called on constituents to “help me demand an end to this shameful waste.” 

Allegations of fiscal mismanagement at the Peralta International Education Department led to an Alameda County Civil Grand Jury investigation, and is indirectly credited with the eventual firing of former Peralta Chancellor Ronald Temple. 

Public Relations Director Heyman has said that the department has been significantly reformed since those days. 

“These are events that happened in the past,” Heyman said late last year in response to Hodge’s charges that the International Education Department is misappropriating travel money. “They were looked into and worked on. We’ve done our duty. The issue isn’t relevant any longer.” 

The Peralta trustees meeting will be held Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Peralta Administration Building, 333 East Eighth St. in Oakland.›


Attorney General Signs Off on Point Molate Settlement By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday January 24, 2006

With the approval of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, the lawsuit filed by environmentalists over the sale of Richmond’s Point Molate is history. 

The settlement, filed Friday in Marin County Superior Court, marks the end of 13 months of litigation over the controversial proposal to build a luxury casino on the Richmond shoreline. 

The City of Richmond voted to sell Point Molate—a former U.S. Navy refueling station—to Upstream Point Molate in November 2004, and Citizens for the Eastshore State Park filed suit to block the sale a month later. The suit was joined the following day by the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

The agreement required the city to back Upstream’s plans for a Native American casino on the site and to lobby for approval of the casino deal in Sacramento and Washington. 

To build the casino, the land would first have to be declared a tribal reservation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, followed by more approvals for the casino proposal. 

Though the city had decided that the sale was exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), CESP and the parks district disagreed and decided to challenge it. 

In March 2005, the city announced the start of the environmental impact report process, which is still under way. 

The state attorney general’s office entered the suit a month later, siding with the plaintiffs. 

In the settlement, Upstream agreed to pay the Attorney General’s office $13,740 in legal fees, with the questions of fees for CESP and the parks district to be resolved later by the court. 

Under the settlement, the city expressly reserves the right to select any use for the site available before the sale, and Upstream agrees that a city decision not to transfer or lease the land to them would not be a breach of the land disposition agreement (sales document). 

The city also agreed to prepare an environmental impact report before allowing any development on the property.


Liquor Store Appeal, Brower Plaza Lead City Council Agenda By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Berkeley city councilmembers will hear an appeal Tuesday by the owner of Dwight Way Liquor, who wants to overturn a Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) decision declaring the store a public nuisance. 

ZAB began proceedings against the 2440 Sacramento St. store in August, conducted a public hearing on September, and voted to declare the store a public nuisance in October. 

David Dryden, attorney for the partnership that owns the store, appealed the ZAB decision to the City Council, charging that the ruling was unconstitutional and an unlawful taking of property rights. 

Instead of ordering a shutdown, Dryden argues, the city could have taken less radical actions, including limiting hours, hiring security, ordering the store to pick up litter in the area and making them use branded bags. 

Along with the appeal, Dryden submitted petitions signed by 56 people urging the city to keep the store open. 

Store operator Abdulaziz Saleh Saleh has been cited repeatedly by the city for violating the terms of the store’s liquor license, and a large number of neighbors turned out for the public hearing and the meeting where ZAB voted to order the shutdown. 

A ZAB staff report prepared for the August hearing recounted 27 liquor law violations found by Berkeley Police and the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and 12 violations of the city Zoning Ordinance. 

City staff had suggested that ZAB set conditions on the store—those cited by Dryden in the appeal—but the board voted instead for closure. 

 

Brower Center votes 

The council faces two votes involving the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza affordable housing complex planned for the site of the city’s Oxford Street parking lot. 

The first vote would commit $45,000 from the city’s General Fund to pay outside legal consultants Goldfarb and Lipman LLP for work on the Oxford Plaza complex and other affordable housing issues, raising their total contract to $69,950. 

The second vote is on a resolution to the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Loan Guarantee Program to use up to $4 million in Community Development Block grant funds to secure a loan to build the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza housing complex. 

Unlike most of the new residential complexes being built in Berkeley recently, the Oxford Plaza housing would be reserved solely for poor and working-class families earning incomes well below the area median. 

The council will also consider: 

• A new city ordinance governing the care of “outdoor dogs,” pets that spend most of their days outside the home. 

• An amendment to the city’s Coast Live Oak ordinance banning excessive and damaging pruning. 

• An ordinance to rename the city’s Solid Waste Commission as the Zero Waste Commission. 

• A vote to add $100,000 and one year to the city’s contract with SCS Field Services for post-closure and maintenance monitoring at the now-closed landfill at Cesar Chavez Park. ?


Density Bonuses, Creeks and Liquor Store on Land Use Meeting Agendas By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Density bonuses, West Berkeley zoning changes and creeks are among the land use issues city officials will be considering this week. 

A Tuesday afternoon session in the city’s Permit Service Center brings together representatives of the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) and the Planning and Housing Advisory commissions to hear recommendations for changing the city’s controversial density bonus ordinance. 

The joint committee was launched after ZAB formed a subcommittee to study the bonus, which some critics charged had been applied by city staff in a way that allows much larger buildings than intended by the city’s plan and zoning ordinance. 

ZAB members Bob Allen and Dave Blake will present the ZAB subcommittee’s recommendations on commercial space allocation and parking lifts. 

The panel will also consider the potential impacts of inclusionary regulation changes. 

The meeting will be held from 3-5:30 p.m. in the Permit Center’s Sitka Spruce Conference Room, 2120 Milvia St. 

 

Planning Commission 

Wednesday night the Planning Commission will hold the second of its workshops on proposals to change zoning in West Berkeley to allow car dealerships to move into areas now zoned for industrial and manufacturing use. 

The impending loss of two dealerships and the sales taxes they bring have prompted Mayor Tom Bates and city staff to consider allowing dealerships to locate along the freeway as one means of keeping them in the city. 

The Planning Commission, which meets at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave., will also conduct a workshop on preliminary recommendations of the city’s Creeks Task Force. 

The commission will also hear an update on the Southside Plan. 

 

Zoning Adjustments Board 

ZAB meets Wednesday starting at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers in Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The main item on the agenda is Black & White Liquor Store at 3027 Adeline St. ZAB members have already declared the store a public nuisance—based in part on neighborhood complaints and in part on the store’s licensing problems. 

ZAB members will hear from neighbors and decide what conditions to impose on the corner store. 

Deputy City Attorney Zac Cowan said he expects ZAB will impose new hours and require the hiring of private security. Another likely requirement would have the store pack purchases in bags bearing the store’s name. 


Golden Gate Fields Mall Opponents Hold Rally By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Opponents of a plan to build a shopping mall in a Golden Gate Fields parking lot are holding a rally Thursday in the form of an old-fashioned ice cream social. 

The meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the multi-purpose room of Albany High School, is sponsored by the Sierra Club, Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS) and Citizens for the Eastshore State Park (CESP). 

Rick Caruso, a Los Angeles developer known for his themed malls, has teamed with Magna Entertainment, the Canadian firm which operates Golden Gate and several other race tracks around the country. 

Before anything can be developed on the Albany waterfront, the proposal must first be submitted to a vote of residents. 

The three environmental organizations will be offering their own vision for the site and for the rest of the municipal waterfront area. 

Among those speaking at the meeting will be Mara Duncan, a member of CAS and co-founder of Sustainable Albany, Norman LaForce of the Sierra Club and former Albany Mayor and CESP President Robert Cheasty. 

?


Immigration Agents Hunt for 500,000 Absconders From the Filipino Reporter

Tuesday January 24, 2006

In an unprecedented crackdown on more than 500,000 absconders—illegal immigrants who have not followed deportation orders—U.S. authorities this year are nearly tripling the number of federal officers assigned to round up such fugitives. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement will deploy 52 fugitive-hunting teams across the nation by December, up from 17 teams last year, says John Torres, the agency’s acting director of detention and removal. 

Teams generally are made up of five to eight agents, focused on rounding up and deporting immigrants who have been ordered by a judge to leave the U.S. because they are here illegally or have violated the conditions of their stay by committing crimes. 

“It is one of our top priorities,” Torres says. “The message for absconders is this: While they think they may be able to flout immigration laws, this is not the case. They may get a knock on their doors very early in the morning.” 

The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington put a spotlight on domestic security concerns, including the U.S. government’s problems in tracking down and deporting foreigners who are in the country illegally. 

The fugitive teams were created in 2003. Various researchers estimate that between 10 million and 11 million illegal immigrants are in the U.S. 

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, does not dispute that. 

In part because tracking down all of those illegal immigrants is unrealistic, federal immigration agencies have focused on improving border security and on catching the approximately 536,000 illegal immigrants who are fugitives from the law. 

The number of fugitives increases by about 35,000 annually, ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi says. 

The new teams are expected to arrest 40,000 to 50,000 fugitives annually, Torres says. That would be a dramatic increase in the rate of such arrests; since March 2003, ICE has arrested 32,625 fugitives, agency records show. The agency needs another 50 teams, Torres says. 

“If we do the math, we’re just breaking even with those teams,” Torres said. “We’re looking to put a dent into the backlog.” 

The new teams are slated for Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Diego, St. Paul and several other cities. 

The agency is getting about $75 million over two years to pay for the teams, Raimondi says. 

 

The Filipino Reporter is part of Pacific News Service’s “Ethnic Media Exchange.”›


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Brandisher boogies 

UC Berkeley police rushed to Hilgard Hall early Friday afternoon after a caller reported a heavyset woman in the area who was brandishing a deadly weapon. Both the woman and weapon—unspecified in the campus police crime alert—were gone by the time officers arrived.


News Analysis: Evo Morales and the Roots of Revolution By ROGER BURBACH Pacific News Service

Tuesday January 24, 2006

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia—The inauguration of Evo Morales as the first president of Bolivia of indigenous origins marks a watershed in the history of the Americas. The “caras,” whites and mestizos who have dominated Bolivia for centuries, are being replaced by an Indian who represents the country’s true majority.  

But will Morales be able to truly empower Bolivia’s Indians to improve their social and economic lot? In countries like Peru, Ecuador and Mexico, history is replete with betrayal by national leaders with Indian blood, as well as by presidents placed in office by Indian movements.  

Morales’ inauguration, however, appears to mark a dramatic change.  

Morales’ presidency is the result of an ongoing massive social upheaval that has profoundly shaken the country. Bolivia may be a poor nation, but it has some of the richest popular mobilizations witnessed in Latin America over the past decade or more.  

Evo Morales made his home for many years here in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third largest city with just under a million inhabitants. On Jan. 19 he had an informal gathering at his humble home before departing for La Paz to take up residence at the presidential palace. He spoke emotionally of his sense of loss at leaving Cochabamba, saying, “I hope to return every month to be in touch.” Those present, he said, “will need to tell me if I am fulfilling my commitment to help the most needy.”  

Much has been made of the uprising of the poor communities in Los Altos on the plateau above La Paz that shook the foundations of Bolivia’s entrenched political system. In October 2003 protesters descended on the capital to oust President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, and then in June 2005, his successor Carlos Mesa. As part of the accord that installed the head of the Supreme Court as interim-president, general elections were called for December 2005, leading to Evo Morales’ triumph.  

But it is in Cochabamba and the adjacent semi-tropical province of Chipare that one finds the true roots of the popular struggle that lifted Evo Morales to the country’s presidency. It is here that the Movement for Socialism, Morales’ political party, was founded.  

Like many others of Indian origin, Evo migrated to the Chipare as a young man from the Bolivian highlands as many of the tin mines were closed and labor unions disbanded in the name of modernizing the country’s mining industry. The growing of coca plants in Chipare became the primary economic activity of the immigrants. Clearing unoccupied lands, the new peasants formed a network of local unions, or syndicates, grouped together in seven federations. In 1989, the highly personable and self-effacing Morales became president of the seven federations of coca growers, or “cocaleros.”  

From the late 1990s onwards, the cocaleros have fought an intense war against the U.S.-sponsored “coca zero” program in Chipare. Intended to uproot and destroy all coca plants, the United States militarized the region, setting up four military bases while training and advising special Bolivian battalions. According to Pedro Rocha, a small coca grower interviewed while tending his plants, “nothing was sacred. Our homes were invaded and even burnt, our belonging were stolen or tossed into the fields and many of us were beaten and arrested.” Subsistence crops along with coca plants, Rocha said, were trampled and destroyed.  

The cocaleros, led by Morales, organized massive resistance to the eradication program, reaching out to other national unions and to international human rights organizations. Roads were blockaded in the Chipare for more than a month at a time as the local unions rotated their members, women and men, day and night, to stop all traffic through the center of the country.  

As the war was unfolding in Chipare, the city of Cochabamba erupted with massive demonstrations in 1999-2000 against Bechtel, the U.S. corporation that led a consortium of companies that had taken control of the city’s water supply as part of the privatization of public utilities occurring throughout Bolivia. The citizens won the “water war,” forcing Bechtel out, and doubtlessly helping inspire the people of Los Altos to move on the very seat of government in La Paz. The subsequent change in presidents also boomeranged in Chipare, as a weakened President Mesa was forced to negotiate a truce with the cocaleros in late 2004, allowing each family to grow one-sixth of a hectare of coca plants.  

The militancy of Cochabamba and Chipare is palatable as Evo Morales takes over the presidency. As farmer Pedro Rocha declares, “Bolivia’s presidents have all had their special military guards. We will be Evo Morales’ special guards, ready to rise up, making sure that no one dares to touch him so he can change our country.”  

Morales in his inaugural address on Sunday, Jan. 22, echoed the struggles of the people of Chipare and Cochabamba: “We cannot privatize public needs like water. We are fighting for our water rights, for our right to plant coca, for control over our national resources.” He added: “we need to end the radicalism of neo-liberalism, not the radicalism of our unions and our movements.”  

Paraphrasing Morales discussion of the mission of the Movement for Socialism that brought him to office, he said: “Socialism does not come from a small group of leaders; it comes from a fight, from a communal struggle. Socialism is an original mandate. It means social justice, the participation of all.”  

 

Roger Burbach is currently traveling in South America. In Chile, the Spanish edition of his book, The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice, is being released.u


Neighbors Oppose Ashby BART Project By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday January 20, 2006

Nearly 400 neighbors of Ashby BART packed the South Berkeley Senior Center Tuesday night to voice their concerns about the transit village project proposed for the station’s western parking lot. 

And by the time the meeting had ended, 220 of them had sig ned a petition calling for rejection of a CalTrans grant application that would provide $120,000 to develop a project plan. 

The meeting also produced a flood of communications to CalTrans, agency spokesperson Tamie McGowen said Thursday afternoon. 

“We r eceived numerous phone calls and emails, mostly in opposition, but a couple in support,” McGowen said. 

Few who spoke had anything good to say about the plan, which is backed by Mayor Tom Bates and South Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson, to install a complex that would include about 300 residential units and a collection of shops in a building to be constructed at the BART lot. 

The meeting opened with presentations by a panel of speakers, with Robert Lauriston leading off. Lauriston, who lives a block from the site, has organized Neighbors of Ashby BART and its website, www.nabart.com. 

“I donated $250 to Max’s campaign, but that doesn’t mean he returns my phone calls,” Lauriston said. 

Proposing a specific development before consulting the neigh borhood “is putting the cart before the horse,” he said. “We may have to figure out for ourselves” what to put on the site. 

Lauriston pointed out discrepancies in the reported number of residential units proposed for the site, noting that the grant appli cation specified a minimum of 300, while project coordinator Ed Church told the City Council that 300 was a maximum. 

Church was chosen by the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Council (SBNDC) to guide the project, the nonprofit group that filed the application. 

Lauriston also pointed to another neighborhood concern, the 25 percent density bonus that would be allowed for new construction within a transit village district, which includes properties within a quarter-mile radius of a project. 

Panelist Sam Dykes, an Adeline Street merchant who serves on the SBNDC board, had little to say. 

That was not the case with former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein, who is not a project neighbor. 

“This should be stopped because it’s a back-room deal” and an example of cronyism, Bronstein said. “Judging from the way it’s been handled, I have to say the SBNDC cannot be trusted to represent the South Shattuck neighborhood.” 

Bronstein called on opponents to make their positions known to CalTrans official s who would be awarding the grant, and one Prince Street resident reported Thursday that a friend had contacted 32 friends and family members who had fired off emails to the agency. 

She also questioned whether the village would accomplish one of its goal s, the reduction of automobile trips by its residents—a question raised by other speakers as well. 

Panelist and former Mayor Shirley Dean was invited because organizers figured she would be a backer of the proposal, but she proved to be anything but. 

“T he application says it’s important that there be an open and vital community process, but it has already settled a number of important issues, like the 300 units,” Dean said. “It was on the City Council’s consent calendar, and it was only discussed becaus e a single member of the community, Jackie DeBose, stood up and objected.” 

Dean said she had never before seen an occasion when a grant application had been filed on behalf of the city before its approval by the City Council. Church told the council at t he Dec. 13 meeting where the application was approved that he had filed the document in October because he had become aware of the grant at the last minute before the application period closed. 

Dean said she also objected because the community had no way to hold the SBNDC board accountable. 

Panelist Bob Brokl had been invited because he had spearheaded a successful campaign to derail a North Oakland redevelopment district that had been submitted to residents only after the city had gotten consultants to develop the proposal. 

A 33-year Temescal neighborhood resident, Brokl urged BART project opponents to mobilize neighbors through door-to-door personal contacts and through flyers. 

“Create unusual alliances,” he said, noting that in the North Oakland ca mpaign his group had allied with a prominent Orange County Republican.  

 

Speaker comments 

“A big G-word campaign is happening. The G-word is gentrification,” said David Shoemaker, who works on Adeline Street directly across from the site. 

“I feel we’v e been betrayed by Max Anderson,” said Newberry Street resident Max LeClampe, who proposed a recall campaign against the city councilmember. 

“I want a moratorium on any development at Ashby BART until we get more information on the impact of the Ed Rober ts Center,” said letter carrier Martin Vargas. That center, which will serve the needs of Berkeley’s disabled community and its organizations, is scheduled to be built on the station’s eastern parking lot. 

“Tom Bates and Loni [the mayor’s spouse, Assemblymember Loni Hancock] want to demolish every historical landmark we have in South Berkeley,” Vargas declared. 

“I’m strongly opposed to this project. It doesn’t make any sense,” said Zachary Running Wolf, a Native American activist and the only currently declared candidate to run against Bates in the fall mayoral election. 

Several speakers also raised concerns about the flea market held each weekend on the BART lot. 

Charles Gary, a member of the market’s board who also sits on the board of the Shotgun P layers, which has a theater directly across from the BART lot on Ashby Avenue, read from a letter sent by Community Services United, which manages the market, to the city.  

Osha Neumann, the attorney who wrote the letter and a BART neighbor, ridiculed th e city’s proposal to relocate the market to Adeline Street immediately to the east. 

“We’re talking about the death of the flea market, one of the most diverse communities in Berkeley,” he said, ridiculing the notion that Adeline Street merchants would be happy with the noisy market on a closed thoroughfare in front of their stores and restaurants. 

Adama Mosley, a flea market vendor, said that without the market, “I’d probably be on the welfare rolls.” 

Noting that the market also provides free space to nonprofit community groups and affords residents a chance “to sell the stuff in our attics and basements,” Mosley said. “Berkeley is selling us out. Let’s not let them do it.” 

“How dare they think they can come in here and tell us our community is blight ed?” said Russell Street resident Sam Herbert. “They can’t have our gol-darned neighborhood. If they go forward, I will be circulating a petition for a class-action lawsuit and we will sue the city.” 

Though greatly outnumbered by critics, several speaker s rose to defend the project. One was Max Anderson’s spouse, Linda Olivenbaum, who noted that the councilmember wasn’t able to attend because the council was meeting at the same time. 

Criticizing the panel for a lack of balance, Olivenbaum said “There is no done deal. Fear and lack of reason is taking over. There will be a time when a more balanced discussion can be heard.” 

She said the project would help undo the damage done to the community when the BART station was built and provide needed working cl ass housing. 

Other speakers declared that because only 20 percent of the units would be set aside for lower-income tenants, the rest would go for market rate rents which would unaffordable to working class families. 

Theresa Clark offered her support for the proposal, telling critics that “we need to give people a chance. We need to give the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Council a chance. I don’t know why people are getting so crazed. You need to mellow out.” 

Her comments drew scattered applau se. 

 

State deadline 

A CalTrans official—speaking on background—said that while the official period for public comment had already closed, the agency would take the emails and calls into consideration. 

The grant application wasn’t presented to the City Council until after the normal comment period had closed. 

CalTrans officials are scheduled to have the list of finalists completed by March 10, when administrators will make the final awards.  

The total of grant money sought far exceeds the available f unding.›


Panel: What Makes a Great Downtown? By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday January 20, 2006

What makes a great downtown? 

‘Look to Portland, Oregon,’ seemed to be the consensus of the experts who outlined their visions Wednesday night to members of the Berkeley Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

The panel gathered in Warren Hall on the UC Berkeley campus to hear four thinkers share their vision. 

One panelist was missing: Austene Hall, of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, who was asked to speak about the history of buildings in the city center. 

“I asked not to be on the panel because I feel, as a preservationist, that I need to speak specifically to Berkeley,” Hall said. 

She said she had asked Matt Taecker, the city planner hired with UC Berkeley money to coordinate the planning process, if she could make a separate presentation, one that would include a representative of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and a preservation architect. 

The four panel members outlined their own criteria for what makes for a workable downtown, starting with Donlyn Lyndon, professor emeritus of architecture and urban design at UC Berkeley and the editor of PLACES, an environmental design journal. 

The key characteristic of a great downtown, Lyndon said, is “that everybody wants to be there at some point. It’s great if the physical configuration makes it memorable.” 

Stressing a point made by all of the panelists, Lyndon said housing was a critical element of a healthy city center, living in “buildings overtly housing other people.” 

“It should be full of choice and opportunity,” he added. 

Panelist Dena Belzer, a Berkeley resident who is a principal of Strategic Economics, a firm specializing in regional economics, and also serves on the board of the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, talked about the evolving new role of city centers. 

While downtowns once served at hubs for department stores, financial institutions, media companies and other institutions, Belzer said, decentralization of information brought about by the Internet, changing demographics, the decline of urban department stores and other shifts were altering the nation of the urban core. 

Nonetheless, she said, downtown Berkeley currently accommodates 7,179 jobs with 5,178 housing units either built, under construction or planned. 

What downtown Berkeley lacks, she said, is synergism and visual cohesion. 

Paul Okamoto of Okamoto Saijo Architecture, asked, “Is there a ‘there’ there?” An advocate of daylighting urban creeks, he said he hopes plans for downtown Berkeley would include restoration of buried waterways. 

Alan Jacobs, UCB professor emeritus of city and regional planning, also served as San Francisco’s Planning Director. 

“A dense urban center creates a critical mass of people, ideas, products and activities that promote growth and trade,” he said. “Any good city has a good transportation system. Really good downtowns are congested. Stop worrying about it—pray for it.” 

Other key characteristics of healthy downtowns include low levels of service at certain periods, “and there is always a shortage of parking in any good downtown,” he said. “Cities that spend the most on traffic and parking are not nearly as good as those that don’t.” 

Jacobs faulted the city for allowing Barnes & Noble to build a one-story bookstore on Shattuck Avenue, when a taller building with housing—and possibly UCB offices—above would have been more appropriate. 

“It’s the habitation of downtown that counts,” he said. 

One member of the audience asked the panelists how they would deal with the homeless who frequent the streets of downtown Berkeley. 

“Downtown needs to be a place where everybody wants to be and if not enough people are using it, it seems to be dominated by one group,” said Lyndon. 

Okamoto suggested adding more truly affordable housing. 

Asked how downtown Berkeley could become “truly inspirational,” Jacobs said “more people and more density,” along with “more clarity and more mystery.” 

“What we don’t have is a really well-formed public space,” said Lyndon, pointing to his pet peeve as an example: Oxford Street. 

“It only serves as a division,” he said. “It doesn’t have a visual character that connects with what’s on either side of it.” 

“The whole creek scene,” said Okamoto. “Provide an open public space and integrate it with the natural environment.” 

“The scale is really great,” said Belzer, “but you drive through downtown Berkeley pretty quickly, so the scale is distorted.” Instead, Belzer suggested slowing traffic and creating more public spaces along the streetscape. 

When Travis told the panelists that UC Berkeley planned to add more than a million square feet of space in downtown Berkeley—the impetus that led to the lawsuit that resulted in creation of DAPAC—Jacobs was surprised. 

“A million square feet in downtown Berkeley? For offices? Who said it?” 

“It’s an opportunity but it creates a great challenge,” said Belzer. “It’s important to look where it could go, where it could fit. That’s a lot to think about, how it could possibly be made to work. A million square feet is a lot of space, but I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand.” 

Patti Dacey, one of two new DAPAC members, said, “I am puzzled how homogenous this group is. We have only gotten one fairly narrow view of what our marching orders should be. It seems to be density, plus a little bit of nature . . . I feel a little bit like one very narrow vision has been picked for us to be lectured on.” 

Dacey, recently ousted from her seat on the Landmarks Preservation Commission, said she was particularly concerned about the lack of consideration given to landmark buildings.  

“It is true we all know each other and we have a lot that we agree on,” said Lyndon, who also agreed that the city has “wonderful historic buildings downtown.” 

But, he said, “All of those buildings that are historic were once new, outrageous, outside the norm. They rattled people’s cages. It’s important to create additional historic heritage.” 

Jesse Arreguin, a city housing commissioner and Rent Board member who also sits on DAPAC, said he was concerned that the panelists “weren’t specific about the types of housing,” noting that the downtown lacked units for truly low-income people. 

Among those in audience was Mayor Tom Bates, who got the last word. 

UC’s plans posed a major problem, he said. 

“I would love to see what we can preserve and build on. How does it fit with the old? What can we build together? And how can we take Oxford Street and make it blending and not a barrier?” 

The mayor said he hoped the state would turn the old State Health Department building—a huge piece of property—over to the university, and noted that the school already has considerable property along Oxford it could develop.  

 

Other business 

Before he turned the meeting over to the speakers, DAPAC Chair Will Travis acknowledged criticism about his decision to admit UC Berkeley officials to serve on the panel in an ex officio capacity. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington had raised concerns about Travis’s appointments to a city commission whose other members had been selected by the City Council and the Planning Commission. 

“There has been some question if the committee has the capacity to invite people to participate in an ex officio capacity,” Travis said, adding that the matter would be presented to the City Council. 

“This is a city commission. That is why it got into trouble,” said former Planning Commission chair Zelda Bronstein during the opening public comment period. “It is your mission to guide city staff, and so far I don’t see any guidance.” 

Travis responded by telling Bronstein that “the worst way of commenting is in this fashion.” 

“What do you mean?” asked DAPAC member Lisa Stephens. 

Travis said that because “numerous studies” have shown that only 20 percent of verbal comments are remembered, remarks were better off submitted in writing.g


Housing Authority Director Resigns Under Cloud of Suspicion By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday January 20, 2006

The surprise resignation of the manager of the Berkeley Housing Authority has left City Councilmembers puzzled and Housing Department officials scrambling to find a replacement by the end of the month. 

Director Sharon Jackson made the announcement to Councilmembers Tuesday night in the break between the Berkeley Housing Authority meeting and the Berkeley City Council meeting. The Housing Authority consists of all city councilmembers as well as two appointed tenant representatives. 

But the real shock to the council, according to Councilmember Kriss Worthington, was Jackson’s revelation that she was under investigation by the city’s Housing Department for allegations of malfeasance. 

“She told us that someone had found incorrect data in the Housing Authority database and accused her of entering incorrect data,” Worthington said. 

Worthington said that Jackson did not give details as to the nature of the “incorrect data,” or who had accused her. He said that Housing Director Steve Barton told councilmembers that “it was a personnel matter, and he could not give out any confidential information about the matter at the present time.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio said the accusation and investigation apparently stemmed from allegations of “falsifying data” in the Housing Authority computer database. She said that because of the nature of the Housing Authority’s password system at the time of the alleged data falsification—a password was needed to put data into the system, but all authorized employees were given the same password—department officials could not determine which employee entered data at any given time. 

“The department is correcting that,” Maio said. “They are in the process of changing the system so that they can determine which employee was logged on and entering data at any given time.” 

Maio said that she did not know if results of the Housing Department investigation would come back to the City Council. 

“It depends on what they find,” she said, adding that Jackson told councilmembers that she was not responsible for the incorrect data entry. 

“That fact that [Jackson] told us about the accusation at all was surprising,” Worthington added in a separate interview. “Usually when there’s an accusation against an employee, Personnel doesn’t want us to know about it.” 

The councilmember said that he “didn’t get the impression” that Jackson was saying “there was a causal connection between the accusation and her resignation.” 

Housing Director Barton, Jackson’s supervisor, said in a telephone interview that Jackson resigned because she’s “been in a high stress job for some time. She found another position that pays almost as much with a shorter commute and much less stress.” 

Jackson, who served for two years as assistant Housing Authority manager before serving two years as manager, is taking on the job of deputy director of the Benicia Housing Authority. 

Barton said he was “extremely disappointed” by Jackson’s departure. 

“Good housing authority managers are hard to come by,” he added. “We’re going to have to recruit really fast to replace her.” 

Maio added that the real story was how Jackson had risen up through the ranks to become manager of the Housing Authority. 

“She’s a Berkeley girl who came to work for the city on the clerical staff and worked her way up the ranks to a position of authority,” Maio said. “She cut her teeth in the department. There’s not a lot of people who do that.” 

The Berkeley Housing Authority is a city program operated out of the city’s Housing Department. It is charged with oversight of the city’s public housing programs, including 1800 individual Section 8 vouchers funded through the federal Housing and Urban Development Department, 100 project-based Section 8 units occupied mostly by formerly homeless individuals, and 75 public housing units owned and operated by the City of Berkeley. 

Jackson’s resignation comes at a time when the Berkeley Housing Authority is struggling for its life. 

Two years ago, the Daily Planet reported that the Berkeley Housing Authority’s Section 8 program was mismanaged, poorly staffed, and on the brink of insolvency, according to a sweeping independent study conducted at HUD’s request. The study found problems ranging from thousands of dollars lost in miscalculated rents to no procedures for managing a waiting list of 5,000 applicants for Section 8 housing vouchers, and a backlog of 900 housing units not inspected. 

At the time, the Planet reported Housing Director Barton saying the report’s findings came as no surprise to him because the authority had flunked itself on repeated self-evaluations. 

“The housing authority is lacking just about everywhere, and has been for some time,” Barton said at the time. 

The Berkeley Housing Authority was later put on “troubled” status by HUD, which could allow the federal agency to disband the authority if it does not correct a list of deficiencies by June, including charges that the authority has not submitted required paperwork documenting its expenditures.  

In that event, the city’s voucher program and public housing projects could be transferred to oversight by another local agency, including ones operated by Alameda County or the City of Oakland. But Worthington said that Housing Department officials and employees were confident that they could correct the deficiencies by the June deadline. 

That, however, could come at a cost to the city. 

According to Worthington, City Manager Phil Kamlarz has informed Councilmembers that the city manager has authorized $79,000 out of surplus Housing Authority funds to hire temporary clerical staff to catch up with the HUD-required paperwork. 

Kamlarz has told councilmembers that the surplus funds are almost exhausted, and that council may have to appropriate as much as $100,000 out of the city’s general fund each year to pay for staff to keep up with the federal government’s reporting requirements. 

Worthington called that expenditure “a small price to pay” for the city keeping its Housing Authority.›


Regents Pass Employee Compensation Reform By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday January 20, 2006

A month after announcing initial plans to regain public confidence over its handling of employee compensation, the University of California Board of Regents is considering several proposals to tighten controls over salaries of high-paid university officials and professors. 

The crisis began last November after a series of articles appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle charging that many highly paid university employees had gotten close to $600 million in additional compensation packages not publicly reported by the university. 

Coming as it did when the UC Regents were holding the line on lower-level salaries and considering steep student fee increases, the reports spurred an immediate call by legislators, salaried UC employees, and a systemwide coalition of university professors for an investigation into the high-end secret compensation practices. 

Last December, in a telephone press conference with reporters representing newspapers throughout California, regents announced the creation of a permanent Regents’ committee on compensation, initiated an independent audit going back 10 years and released the names of task force members charged with looking into the compensation issue. 

This week, meeting at UC San Diego, the regents formally considered a series of more detailed curbs on employee compensation recommended by UC President Robert Dynes. Included in Dynes’ proposed reform package was: 

• Submission to the Board of Regents for approval of all severance agreements for all top-level UC employees, including the President, Vice Presidents, Chancellors, Department of Energy Laboratory Directors, and Medical Center Directors. 

While the UC President will retain the power to approve all severance packages under $100,000, all severance agreements over that amount will have to be submitted to the Regents. 

The policy is intended to be a stopgap measure until more permanent measures are recommended by the various Regent-authorized committees and organizations looking into the compensation issue. 

• Adoption of a new salary schedule for senior leadership staff. That recommended schedule runs from a minimum of $94,000 to a maximum of $791,600 per year. 

Regents and President Dynes were still meeting at the time of this story deadline, and were not available for comment. 

This week’s meetings are the first for UC Regents on the UC San Diego campus. Regents normally rotate meetings between the UCSF-Laurel Heights campus and UCLA. The last Regents’ meeting, however, was held in November at UC Berkeley.


City, Kennedy Lawyers Discuss Gaia Controversy By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday January 20, 2006

Attorneys for the city and developer Patrick Kennedy are meeting today (Friday) to reach what Kennedy hopes will be a final settlement on the use of the Gaia Cultural Center. 

“We’ve been exchanging letters, e-mails, memoranda and other communications for seven years now,” Kennedy said. 

The latest controversies stem from a rowdy party held in the cultural center—the central part of the Gaia Building’s ground floor—and from a proposal to hold weekly church services for the homeless in the center. 

Anna de Leon, proprietor of Anna’s Jazz Island, the building’s first commercial tenant, called police after a birthday party held in the center on Jan. 7 got out of hand. 

De Leon said she called police after customers became anxious and would-be party-goers were sneaking in through her club. When police arrived, they shut down the party, and de Leon said she counted 191 people leaving a space where the city had declared a maximum capacity of 99. 

“Who would’ve thought that would happen at an 18th birthday party for a Berkeley High School honor student?” asked Kennedy. “I do know there wasn’t any alcohol being served.” 

“No alcohol was being served,” echoed Gloria Atherstone, an officer of Gaia Arts Management, Inc., which administers the cultural center, as well as an officer of Glass Onion Catering, which provides food service for gatherings at the center. 

However Berkeley Police Officer H. Wellington, who wrote up the official report of the incident, said he found two soda bottles abandoned in the building’s lobby that “smelled strongly of alcohol.” 

The crowd grew more rambunctious after the eviction, and several scuffles broke out, resulting in the citation and release of one attendee for throwing a bottle toward the officers, police said. 

De Leon has also alleged that Glass Onion has improperly served alcohol without a liquor license at several functions in the cultural center. 

The state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) has said that while the catering company doesn’t have a liquor license, they are allowed to serve charity events where the non-profits have acquired a special license for one-day events. 

Only one organization, The Marsh, which holds theatrical performances in the center, failed to obtain the requisite license. In response, the ABC denied the troupe the right to obtain further licenses, said an ABC spokesperson. 

“Anna has provided a wonderful addition to downtown Berkeley at a time when movie attendance is down,” along with other business, said Kennedy. 

“It’s a shame that there’s conflict,” he said. 

One of the issues to be resolved today is the lease of the center for weekly services of the San Francisco City Church for its East Bay congregation. 

City Planning Manager Mark Rhoades said that the church can’t use the space without first acquiring a use permit as required under the city zoning code for religious institutions. 

“Our lawyers disagree,” said Kennedy, “if he wants to say a spiritual quest isn’t a cultural use. Does that mean someone who wants to hold a prayer meeting in their hotel room has to first get a use permit? I’m confident our lawyers will sort things out.” 

 

Cultural bonus 

The flap over the Gaia Cultural Center is merely the latest twist in the ongoing brouhaha about Berkeley’s building bonuses, which allow builders to create larger structures than would be otherwise permitted. 

Critics of the bonuses point to the Gaia Building as the city’s prime exemplar of what not to do. 

Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests was allowed to build the Gaia higher than downtown zoning would normally allow because he was awarded both of the city’s available bonuses—one mandated by state law and the other dispensed by the city. 

The first awards beefier building size for projects that allot a percentage of residential units for lower-income tenants—or upper-median- income in the case of condos. The second locally-awarded privilege was intended to bestow a bonus for space devoted to cultural activities. 

While the authors of Berkeley’s 1990 Downtown Plan recommended that cultural bonuses be allowed only for projects that reserve the resulting space for purely non-profit use, that proviso wasn’t adopted until its inclusion in the 2000 General Plan. 

In issuing permits for the Gaia Building, Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board specifically permitted for-profit uses, provided that the space was allotted to businesses that give preference to local artists, musicians or writers and that allow the facility’s use for other cultural purposes, said Rhoades. 

“That can’t happen again,” he said.›


City Attorney Narrowly Avoids State Supreme Court’s Wrath By MIKE McKEE San Francisco Recorder

Friday January 20, 2006

Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque walked a dangerous line during oral arguments before the California Supreme Court in San Francisco a week ago—and probably didn’t even realize it.  

Several times during the case in which she was defending the city’s decision to deny free mooring to the Sea Scouts—an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America—Albuquerque interrupted or talked over questions posed by justices Joyce Kennard and Marvin Baxter. She even ignored an inquiry by Kennard, insisting on completely answering a previous question by the justice.  

That just isn’t done, and it was surprising that neither Kennard nor Baxter snapped Albuquerque in line with a sharp retort. Both appeared frustrated by Albuquerque’s well-intentioned interruptions, but bit their tongues rather than get mean.  

Kennard, however, did plead with Albuquerque at one point to just let her finish a sentence. The attorney seemed to calm down afterward and butted in less often.  

Still, veteran court watchers were holding their breath, waiting for the rebuke that never came from the bench.  

Don’t expect future buttinskis to be so lucky.  

 

 

Reprinted with permission from the Jan. 17 issue of the San Francisco Recorder. All rights reserved. Further duplication is prohibited.


Council Rings in New Year With Unfinished BusinessBy SUZANNE LA BARRE Special to the Planet

Friday January 20, 2006

Three news items unresolved in 2005—outdoor dog care, cell phone tower radiation and a controversial homebuilding amendment—dominated discussion at the first Berkeley City Council meeting of the new year on Tuesday.  

Councilmembers unanimously approved a revised work plan requiring the Planning Commission to contemplate changes to Berkeley’s contentious by-right addition ordinance, a code that currently allows homeowners to add up to 500 square feet to their property. 

By-right build-outs have come under fire recently because some residents, particularly those in the Berkeley hills, are complaining about blocked sunlight and views. Many lament that they have no recourse under existing policy. 

In December, the council considered issuing an urgency ordinance that would have banned additions above the second floor, required use permits and granted neighbors the opportunity to appeal. But the ordinance required a four-fifths vote, a majority that the council deemed unfeasible.  

“There’s a majority for some change,” Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said in a phone interview Wednesday, but “it’s not clear what yet.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio was less ambivalent about championing reform.  

“It seems to me there’s a definite gain on the part of one party and a loss on the part of another one,” she said. “I’m actually in favor of moving along more aggressively, but I will go along with my fellow councilmembers and pass staff’s recommendation.” 

As a result of Tuesday’s decision, the Planning Commission will be responsible for drafting a palatable by-right addition amendment, a process that is expected to begin in 30 to 60 days. Planning Director Dan Marks said the commission will postpone its annual general plan review and a land-use analysis of the area between Gilman Street and Ashby Avenue from Interstate 80 to San Pablo Avenue to allot time for the by-right addition project. 

 

Cell phone health standards get  

mixed reception 

The city manager’s reminder to councilmembers Tuesday that the city is, by federal law, precluded from thwarting development of cell phone towers on account of health and safety concerns alone, reignited debate over regulation of radio frequency (RF) emissions.  

The recommendation countermanded urgings from the Community Health Commission (CHC) in November that council not approve new cell phone base stations until completion of a health study due out in May. The CHC had further directed the city to implement the most rigorous international health standards known, which permit one hundredth of the exposure currently deemed safe by the U.S. government. 

Wozniak expressed skepticism about the precaution. “From what I know … I would say there’s no convincing evidence there are any health hazards associated with cell phones.” 

Councilmember Max Anderson disagreed. 

“If we’re waiting on some results from the Health Commission, it seems to me that it would be prudent to not approve any more cell towers during the interim,” he said Tuesday.  

Legally, however, Anderson’s point is moot, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said. 

“You’re making complete logical sense, councilmember,” she told him. “The only problem is that we’re not allowed to regulate health effects at all. … Our hands are completely tied by the government.” 

Though opinions appear well formed, the issue will be held over until the next meeting, because councilmembers received no documentation from the CHC on Tuesday.  

In the meantime, controversy surrounding RF emissions is not likely to fade. In addition to an ongoing demand for new cell phone towers, Berkeley is considering a citywide wireless Internet system and radio frequency identification devices for use at the public library, compounding concern over potential health hazards. 

On Tuesday the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that cell phone towers can not be denied under California law because of aesthetic reasons. 

 

Not in their backyard? Outdoor dog care amendment carried over 

Councilmembers deferred passing an amendment that would exempt homeless people who own dogs from the same outdoor care standards required of other dog-owners, given that concessions may be implicit in the code. 

“The way I read the ordinance, it says ‘No person shall keep a dog on premises …’” Wozniak said. “It seems to me that it says we’re not talking about homeless people.” 

The city attorney agreed. “I don’t think (the amendment) is necessary, because on its face, (the ordinance) doesn’t apply to anything that’s not on premises,” Albuquerque said.  

In December, the council approved care requirements for canines tethered outdoors, delineating shelter, water, food and exercise protocol. But Humane Commission member Jill Posner worried that the ordinance unfairly targeted homeless dog-owners.  

“It does not enshrine in it the kind of protections for the homeless and for those people without shelter,” she said Tuesday. “The people who do not have shelter themselves cannot be expected to provide the same level of care for their animals.” 

The ordinance does not deal with inhumane treatment, an issue that is touched upon separately in the municipal code. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, who proposed the amendment, moved to shelve the matter until next week, pending discussion between Posner and the city attorney. 


Defeating Alito with Cookies and Milk

Friday January 20, 2006

Photo by Stephan Babuljak  

 

University of California law student Carrie Skolnick places a call to Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office Wednesday from the Boalt Law School lobby. Alliance for Justice partnered with Boalt Law Students Against Alito to encourage students and professors to call the offices of senators Feinstein and Boxer to urge them to vote against Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination for the Supreme Court and to not rule out the possibility of a filibuster. Calling the event a “Reverse Bakesale,” the group gave away milk and cookies to students in exchange for their support and participation.n


Correction

Friday January 20, 2006

The Daily Planet incorrectly reported that a meeting that will be held Monday evening focused on the Ashby BART transit village proposal. The meeting will focus on the Downtown Berkeley BART station. 

The session, which begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave., seeks public input for a redesign of the Downtown BART plaza to better accommodate bus, paratransit, taxi and other connections for BART riders.Ã


Elena Fernández Herr 1920-2006 By Richard Herr

Friday January 20, 2006

Elena Fernández Herr died in her apartment in Paris, France on Sunday Jan. 15. She was born in Madrid, Spain on Aug. 14, 1920, the daughter of a jewelry appraiser. Her primary and secondary education was at the liberal Instituto Escuela of Madrid, which moved with its students to Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. 

As Barcelona fell to the forces of General Franco in early 1939, Elena crossed on foot into France with her parents. During the German occupation of France she and her father worked for a woolen factory in Normandy. With help from an American fund, she attended the Sorbonne University in Paris 1944-46, preparing to teach French abroad. 

During this period she met Richard Herr, of the U.S. Army. They were married on March 2, 1946 and came to the United States. Together they had two sons, Charles and Winship, and attended the University of Chicago graduate program, where Elena received a Ph.D. in comparative literature in 1970. Her thesis became a book, Les origines de l'Espagne romantique, les récits de voyage 1755-1823.  

After living in Connecticut and Berkeley, she and her husband were divorced in 1966 and she returned to Paris to complete her doctoral thesis. Between 1966 and 1973, she taught at the American University of Paris and St. Xavier College in Chicago. 

In 1973, she returned to Berkeley to the elegant house which has been her home since then, and from which she made regular trips to Paris and Madrid. She hiked with the Alpine Club and was an early member of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Those who knew her will not forget her spirit, her warmth, generosity, and strong will, preserving the democratic idealism of the Spanish Republic of the 1930s. 

She is survived by her two sons and their families: Charles Fernandez Herr of New York, his wife Betsy and son Dave; and Winship Herr, of Lausanne, Switzerland, his wife Nouria and children Julien and Isabel Elena. 

The funeral will be on Wed. Jan. 25 at 11 a.m. at the Fernwood Cemetery, 301 Tennessee Valley Road, Mill Valley. Friends are also invited to celebrate Elena’s life at her home 1731 La Loma Ave., Berkeley, that afternoon at 4 p.m.  


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Friday January 20, 2006

Car slasher 

Berkeley police arrested a 34-year-old man on Jan 11 after he allegedly threatened a motorist with a knife which he then used to damage the vehicle, said Officer Ed Galvan, the new official Berkeley police spokesperson. 

 

Silent victim 

An emergency room nurse at Summit Alta Bates Hospital called police at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12 after a patient was admitted suffering injuries from an obvious assault. 

The victim, who said he had been assaulted with a baseball bat, refused to provide officers with any information about the attack or his attacker. 

 

Paintballed 

Police were summoned to the 2500 block of Durant Avenue at 10:24 p.m. Sunday, where they arrived to find a 28-year-old man with a welt on his neck. 

The man, who declined medical aid, said he’d been attacked with a paintball gun by an unknown assailant. 

Officer Galvan said police are classifying the incident as assault with a deadly weapon. 

 

Bottle slasher 

Police arrested a 35-year-old man after he allegedly slashed an acquaintance’s face with a broken bottle outside the Caffe Meditteraneum shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday. 

The incident reportedly began when the victim broke a beer bottle, which the attacker then picked up and used to slash the victim’s face. 

The injured man was rushed by ambulance to the Summit Alta Bates emergency room. 

 

Drugs dealt, then crash 

A Berkeley police officer on patrol spotted a drug deal going down about 4 p.m. Thursday, and when he ran the license plate of the car involved, it came back as stolen. 

The car sped off, only to crash six blocks later at the corner of Derby Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Officer Galvan said the passenger had already fled on foot when officers arrived, leaving the driver—a juvenile—behind to face the music.ò


Column: Dispatches From The Edge: Planning the Next War: White House Targets Iran By Conn Hallinan

Friday January 20, 2006

Iran has long been a target of the Bush administration’s rhetorical ire. The president called it “the world’s primary state sponsor of terrorism,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice characterized it as “something to be loathed.” But with the U.S. military under siege in Iraq, and polls running heavily against the Iraq war, it seemed just bluster and so much talk. 

But this past December, German newspapers reported that briefings by high-level officials indicate that the United States is seriously contemplating an air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities sometime this spring. And the general consensus among newspapers like Der Spiegel, Der Tagesspiegel, and DDP News Agency is that recent anti-Semitic tirades by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad gives the Bush administration an opening. 

“I would be very surprised if the Americans, in the mid-term, didn’t take advantage of the opportunity offered by Tehran,” one high placed German defense official told DDP. 

The European speculation is based less on any escalation of threats, than on who is making them. According to Der Tagesspeiegel, Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter Goss visited Turkey Dec. 12 and informed Turkish Prime Minister Redep Tayyip Erdogan that the United States was seriously considering striking Iran sometime in 2006. 

Rice and FBI Director Robert Mueller also made trips to Ankara.  

Goss reportedly told the Turks that if they cooperated, the United States would “green light” a Turkish cross border attack on the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). 

Turkey is deeply opposed to the establishment of an independent Kurdish state, having fought a long and bloody war with the PPK in the mid-1980s. Turkey fears Kurdish independence would send separatist ripples through Kurdish populations in Syria, Iran and Turkey’s eastern provinces. 

As recently as March 20, Rumsfeld denounced Turkey for refusing to let the U.S. Fourth Infantry Division invade Iraq from southern Turkey during the opening weeks of the Iraq War. He charged that Ankara was partly responsible for the United States’s current problems with the insurgency. 

But in mid-December, Yasar Buyukanit, head of the Turkish army and the likely future military chief of staff, flew to Washington for a round of talks with the Department of Defense, which he later described as “very friendly.” The question Europeans are asking is, did Washington and Ankara reach a quid pro quo? The United States whacks Iran with minimal protest from the Turks; Ankara smashes the PKK and derails the formation of a Kurdish state with a few mild “tut-tuts” from the Americans? 

And then there is Israel.  

According to the Sunday Times, Israeli Special Forces have been put on alert in anticipation of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s March report on whether Iran has been concealing a nuclear weapons program. The Israelis say they will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. 

Likud’s candidate for Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear what he will do if elected: “When I form the new Israeli government, we’ll do what we did in the past against Saddam’s reactor, which gave us 20 years of tranquility.”  

In 1981, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. 

The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) attacked the Bush administration for its decision not to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, (Washington did not have the votes to do so), and for endorsing a Russian proposal to enrich reactor fuel for the Iran’s civilian program. AIPAC called the decision a “disturbing shift” in administration policy that “poses a danger to the U.S. and our allies.”  

No one thinks Iran has nuclear weapons, and estimates of when they could produce them range from five years to a decade. 

The Iranians deny they intend to build a bomb, and the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says nuclear weapons are incompatible with Islam. But then again, everyone denies building bombs. India and Pakistan disavowed they were constructing nuclear weapons up until the moment they tested them, and Israel even built a false wall at its Dimona Reactor to hide its weapons program from the Kennedy administration. 

Given that Iran is surrounded by nuclear powers in Russia, Pakistan, India and Israel, and that American troops occupy countries on its borders, one can hardly blame them. And it does not follow that a nuclear-armed Iran is a danger to countries in the region, even Israel. Given the number of nuclear weapons in their arsenals, any attack on Israel or the United States would be tantamount to national suicide. 

Most observers think Ahmandinejad’s anti-Israeli rants have more to do with domestic matters than foreign policy. “He wants to control the domestic situation through isolating Iran,” says Saeed Laylaz, an Iranian policy analyst. “Then he can suppress the voices inside the country and control the situation.” 

An Israeli attack on Iran would be logistically complex, because Israel’s air force would need to over fly Jordan and Iraq to strike targets in Iran. The planes would also have to be refueled in-flight. However, the Israelis recently purchased some 500 GBU-27 and GBU-28 “bunker buster” bombs that can penetrate 30 feet of concrete, so they could pull off an attack. 

But given the upheaval in Israel following Ariel Sharon’s stroke, and the regional political fallout from such an action, it seems more likely Washington would do the job. 

The United States, could do it easily, using either carried launched planes, B-2 “stealth” bombers armed with “bunker busters,” or Tomahawk cruise missiles. The U.S. might even invoke the 2002 “Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations” and use tactical nuclear weapons. 

If Iran is no immediate threat, why attack?  

First, the United States would love to put a crimp in the developing Asian Energy Security Grid, which in turn would hamper the development of India and China. An Iran in turmoil, maybe enchained by sanctions, might help derail or slow down the second great industrial revolution in Asia 

Foreign reaction would be severe, but it is not clear the White House much cares. In a Jan. 5 interview with the Financial Times, a “senior” State Department official told the newspaper that the administration will concentrate on “coalitions of the willing” in future conflicts, rather than turning to “existing but unreliable” institutional alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  

Second, an attack on Iran rolls the 9/11 dice for the 2006 mid-term elections. Recent polls indicate that the Republicans may lose both houses of Congress, which would make U.S. Rep. John Conyers chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Conyers armed with subpoenas is the White House’s definition of a nightmare. If the country is in another war, might the voters again feel uncomfortable about shifting horses in mid-stream? 

Attacking Iran seems like madness, but the White House appears more desperate and out of touch these days than at any time in the past five years. What the administration does know is that if it cannot change the subject from domestic spying, Katrina, and the chaos of Iraq, it faces defeat in November, which would deeply damage Republican designs on the presidency in 2008. 

It will not be easy to stop this new drive toward war, particularly given that many Democrats in the Congress are almost as bellicose on Iran as the Republicans. But any attack on Iran will unleash regional and international consequences that will finally make Iraq look like the cakewalk the Bush administration originally predicted it to be.›


Column: UnderCurrents: Punishing Politicians for Doing the Right Thing By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday January 20, 2006

Last week’s column ended saying that Oakland needs some straight talk and some serious, adult conversation on this recent explosion of violence in our city, where it’s coming from, and where it may be leading. 

This week, in an almost surreal reply, the president of the Oakland City Council says that perhaps we’ve already talked too much. 

In an Oakland Tribune article entitled “Gangs Tighten Grip In City—Police, Officials Acknowledge Violent Surge,” reporters Kamika Dunlap and Harry Harris write that Council President Ignacio De La Fuente “said he agreed that city officials had spent too much time talking about the [gang violence] problem rather than actually working to end it. ‘We have to get the gloves off,’ De La Fuente said.” 

(It wasn’t clear who Mr. De La Fuente was agreeing with, since no one else in the article was talking about too much talking, but perhaps that part got cut out of the article in editing.) 

In any event, if we needed any reminder that the 2006 campaign season has officially started, this was it. As they prepare to come before voters, officeholders are often sensitive to charges that they haven’t done something about the problems they were supposed to fix during the period for which we elected them the last time, and are too often quick to embrace initiatives that show that they are “taking charge” and “doing something.” While this ends up with good one-liners on a campaign brochure or a newspaper article (such as saying “we have to get the gloves off”), many times it also results in bad government as officeholders scramble to pass laws or institute policies that buck up their resumés while making the initial problem worse. 

And so last year, in order for Mayor Jerry Brown to polish up his law-and-order credentials in preparation for his run for California Attorney General, we got stuck with Mr. Brown’s arrest-the-sideshow-spectators ordinance. The ordinance got introduced so suddenly that originally it did not even have time to go through the normal channels of public discussion and hearings in the City Council Public Safety Committee. Was Mr. Brown’s arrest-the-sideshow-spectators ordinance actually needed as a police tool? What was its immediate effect? What are its long-term implications? Who knows? Since it has already served its actual purpose—to get Mr. Brown statewide headlines as being tough on crime—the actual result on Oakland’s streets has gotten lost in the bureaucratic paper shuffle. 

With Mr. De La Fuente in a race to succeed Mr. Brown as mayor of Oakland—and with the Oakland Tribune noting in its gang violence article that Mr. De La Fuente representing the district “where most of this crime takes place”—God only knows what we’ll end up with out of City Council before the June election. 

But if you think this column is an attack on Mr. De La Fuente himself, you are mistaken. Within reason, officeholders tend to respond to what we demand, and usually only deliver what we accept. In most cases, the public accepts superficiality and often punishes politicians who actually dig down, stick with it, and try to solve the problem. Since superficiality is what we almost always reward, superficiality is what we generally get. 

Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente is the best proof of that. We can show that by a quick test, but the results will probably not be what you are expecting. 

Think of the botched Oakland Raiders deal, in which the City of Oakland and Alameda County wooed Al Davis and the Raiders to come back from Los Angeles, and then got stuck with a monumental bond bill that is going to last into the generation of our grandchildren. What politician comes immediately to mind as most closely associated with that debacle? Most people will say Ignacio De La Fuente. 

But why do we identify Ignacio De La Fuente most closely with the Raiders deal and almost nobody else? 

In the early 1990s, when the City of Oakland was wooing the Raiders back from Los Angeles and the deal was being struck that we eventually got stuck with, Ignacio De La Fuente was just getting on the Oakland City Council (he was originally elected in 1992). He was not the major council power that we know today and although he certainly supported the Raider deal—practically every Oakland official did at the time—it was not a deal that Mr. De La Fuente put together. 

Actually one of the major powers behind the Raiders deal was State Senator Don Perata. But almost nobody today associates Mr. Perata with the Raiders deal, and the newspapers rarely, if ever, mention his connection. 

That wasn’t true when the deal itself went down. A 1996 news archive entry in a website run by one of the Raider Nation faithful (www.vertgame.com) gives us some interesting history and insight from a contemporary San Francisco Chronicle article: “Monday, Aug. 26, 1996—There’s yet more bad news today about [the Oakland Football Management Association], the incompetent organization responsible for selling [Personal Seat Licenses] to pay off the cost of the Coliseum renovations. Former Alameda County Supervisor Don Perata, who was instrumental in helping convince the Raiders to return to Oakland, has quit his job as a marketing consultant to OFMA in disgust. In a resignation letter dated Aug. 19, Perata wrote, ‘The lack of a discernible organizational structure and the absence of a coherent marketing plan simply make it impossible to perform effectively . . . What we have is a bureaucracy.’” 

The year date of the Chronicle article and the Vertgame website entry is significant. It was 1996, a year after the Raiders returned to Oakland. The financial structure of the botched Raider deal was all in place—including the personal seat licenses that never sold and the massive stadium renovations that the public has to pay for—but in the euphoria of the Raiders’ first couple of years back in Oakland, the full implications of how bad that deal actually was hadn’t yet sunk in with the general population. Mr. Perata “quit his job as a marketing consultant to OFMA in disgust” after putting the deal in place, thus jumping clear of the Raider mess before it hit the fan. His involvement in putting together the Raider deal has long since been forgotten, and he is rarely, if ever, mentioned when people talk these days about the Raider mess. 

In the meanwhile, Mr. De La Fuente, who was a junior councilmember in the early 1990s and only a minor player in the Raider deal, at best, spent the next decade trying to clean up the mess. Whatever you think of Mr. De La Fuente’s politics or whether he was right or wrong to support the original Raiders deal or what moves he has tried to make since then to correct the Raider deal mistake, he didn’t cut and run. The public associates Mr. De La Fuente with the Raiders mess not because he was its originator, but because he was the janitor left with the broom trying to sweep up behind others who have long since washed their hands and left the building. 

Politicians are many things, but most of them are not dumb. They get the message. In Oakland, politicians are not punished if they screw up and cut out. They are only punished if they stick around and do the work required to clean up a bad situation, whether or not they created that situation. That rewards superficiality. It leaves us with a lot of snappy campaign rhetoric during election time—“We have to get the gloves off”—but with a reluctance by officeholders to dig in and do the dirty work required to actually solve the problems. If it looks like that is what we’re now getting from officeholders like Mr. De La Fuente, we need to look to ourselves for part of the blame. 


Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS

Friday January 20, 2006

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.

 


Letters to the Editor

Friday January 20, 2006

RENT CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last week you printed a letter from Chris Kavanaugh touting the 25th anniversary of the San Francisco and Berkeley rent ordinances. He thinks that the results have been favorable to tenants in both cities. 

Why does it cost so much more for Berkeley to do the same rent control benefit as San Francisco? San Francisco’s rent control budget is about $26 per unit served while Berkeley’s is $165 per unit served. San Francisco gets by with only five commissioners while Berkeley (with under 11 percent of the units covered in San Francisco) has nine commissioners. 

Maybe if San Francisco is the “City That Knows How” we could borrow some ideas from it. Happy anniversary to all. 

William J. Flynn 

 

• 

EAST BAY EXPRESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m sorry, Mike Mechanic. I’m well aware of your work—prior to managing East Bay Express—while you were in the punk scene. Your band Juke and record label Bad Monkey Records were well intentioned but at best mediocre. What’s transparent with the paper you’ve reigned in the past few years is that it is not well intentioned. In your letter to the Daily Planet you swear up and down autonomy from New Times, that you are honest and a Democrat, that you’re a true-blooded East Bay native. Yippie! The paper is still cynical and alienating. In short, East Bay Express was once a diverse array of freelance thought, a shining example of the smart people of our community. You’ve lost it. That’s why we don’t read it, and we don’t care. 

Robert Eggplant 

 

• 

FALLING FLAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Oh! But you are so bad! Publishing Michael Mechanic of the East Bay Express simply gives him rope to hang himself. His self-aggrandizing letter demonstrates why so many readers eschew the East Bay Express and SF Weekly. (“Puhlease!” is campy enough for The City, but falls distinctly flat in Berkeley.)  

The UC journalism grad did not mention picking up experience at an established professional publication before being hired by New Times. Some newbie journalists like to acquire a bit of polish, you know. But since New Times publications in the Bay Area emphasize caustic editorial contempt towards other publications, perhaps his banty rooster attitude is qualification enough for the crew at New Times.  

Glen Kohler  

• 

RIVALRY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a professional journalist and a Berkeley native, I am conflicted about the strange new rivalry between the Daily Planet and the East Bay Express. On the one hand, the Planet does not have the history or the resources of the Express—on the other, the Planet has worked hard to cover local issues including City Council meetings and intra-city issues where the Express has tapered off.  

But it is important to point out that it is in the interest of a newspaper to be even-handed with other local publications. The Daily Planet’s original publisher, Arnold Lee, made it his goal to bury the Berkeley Voice, which, if not being the greatest newspaper, had impressive and enviable prep sports coverage in writer Peter Mentor. The Voice is still publishing, but its role has been reduced in the face of local competition. 

The question really is whether Berkeley is a big enough city to support so many weekly newspapers plus a small number of daily upstarts. Certainly, we can look at history: Oakland’s UrbanView disappeared in 2002. The Planet folded temporarily that same year.  

The issue here is definitely not politics, it’s simply about money. There are not enough advertisers to support a myriad of newspapers. All the new choices have put retailers in a dilemma, and that problem is really about audiences. From my own research, despite being 4,000 miles away now, the Planet is mostly read by the Berkeley middle class—what is known in audit terms as the AB set. The Express’ audience is younger, earn less money, but are more likely to spend on events and nights out; they want a quality paper with lots of info on local events but which skims over the political details of their area to focus on the interesting and the weird. The Express also has a great sex advice column, which is funny and explicit. I would challenge the Planet to run something like that, but the most controversial it will likely go is editorial cartooning. 

Were the Planet to challenge local papers better it should bone up its local sports coverage to two or more pages, find some more prescient columnists, and make journalists do their homework on stories.  

If I were Becky O’Malley I would probably retract my claims that the Express is run in the spirit of “Cowboy Libertarianism.” These newspapers have more in common than they think: a need to strengthen the bottom line. 

John Parman 

College Park, MD 

 

• 

BERKELEY HONDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The tone of D. Doulgeropoulos’s letter in the Jan. 13 Daily Planet does not suggest that he, or she, has any suspicion or concern that there might be anything unethical in Berkeley Honda’s replacement of the former employees of Doten Honda. Berkeley Honda is not a brand new business. It is the continuation, under new owners, of an existing business. Part of the value of any existing business is what is called “goodwill.. In Doten’s case this consisted of former customers, service records, and personal relationships to staff. Staff created the goodwill, but can only share in its value as long as they have a job. Executive staff often have contracts that provide for substantial severance pay when there is a change of control. I doubt that any of the staff at Berkeley Honda received such pay, and I doubt they have as much leverage or flexibility to relocate to another job with equivalent pay and benefits.  

The capitalist/free trade ethic is often interpreted to mean maximize one’s own return, without regard to others. On the world scale, proponents ignore poverty, global warming, and so on. On our local level, Berkeley Honda, and D. Doulgeropoulos, want to ignore any responsibility to the former employees of Doten Honda. Everyone for themselves is the ethical system of a slime mold. Thank you Berkeley, for showing that humanity can mean more.  

Robert Clear  

 

• 

SCARE TACTICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recently, two citizen groups—Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development (BARRD) and the South Shoreline Richmond Sites Community Advisory Group (CAG)—have demanded that the highly acclaimed Making Waves program be evicted from its temporary home on our Campus Bay property. It’s hard to imagine what is motivating this action, but it can’t be concern for the best interests of the children served by Making Waves.  

Making Waves, which provides after-school tutoring to at-risk students, has been a part of the Richmond community for 15 years, and has sent more than 80 local students to colleges around the nation. Unfortunately, area facilities with the capacity to hold 250 children are few and far between, After Making Waves had been forced out of the city’s recreational buildings and had outgrown the Eastshore Community Center, where it operated for a number of years.  

Making Waves board member Ron Nahas approached Cherokee Simeon Ventures (CSV) about providing facilities at our Campus Bay property. Campus Bay covers 86 acres, some which were contaminated by prior owners. Although much of the contamination has been remediated, additional remediation is required in some areas of the property. However, we believed that former office buildings at Campus Bay which had never been used for industrial purposes and had never shown any evidence of contamination could provide a safe temporary home for Making Waves.  

After our testing of the facilities in question confirmed that they were safe for use by Making Waves, we agreed to host the program with no financial benefit while it continued to look for a permanent home. These facilities have since been evaluated by the California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC), the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Contra Costa County Health Services Department and California Department of Health Services—all of whom have concluded that the building used by Making Waves is safe for children, and that there is no health reason to discontinue use of the facilities. 

Despite this convincing evidence, and the absence of any evidence to the contrary, and despite the pleas from the directors of Making Waves to allow them to continue to use our facility until construction of their new home is completed later this year, BARRD and the CAG insist that the kids of Making Waves would be better off on the street. These are the same people who claimed that radioactive drums were buried at Meeker Beach, yet just last week DTSC found that the buried drums that were supposed to contain radioactive materials were no such thing. Nothing radioactive or harmful was found, but it took a lot of time and created a lot of worry for people who live at Marina Bay. They are also the same people who alleged that trees on the Campus Bay property were being damaged by unknown substances in the groundwater or soil, which proved to be entirely wrong, according to DTSC and Dr. Robert Raabe, professor emeritus, UC Berkeley.  

Scare tactics like these divert attention from the real problems facing Richmond. Making Waves shouldn’t suffer from unsubstantiated accusations, and the community shouldn’t be made to worry about radioactive waste and other problems that have never existed. 

CSV is committed to making Campus Bay clean and safe, and we need to allow DTSC to focus on the most important issues instead of being distracted any further. We hope the community will join us to support DTSC’s continued efforts to do its job—to protect local residents by making sure the Richmond Shoreline is clean and safe.  

We also hope that your newspaper will join these efforts by offering accurate and unbiased reporting as we strive to transform Campus Bay and help reinvigorate the city of Richmond. 

Dwight Stenseth,  

Doug Mosteller 

Cherokee Investment Partners, LLC 

 

• 

WHO’S AFFECTED? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

First there was John Roberts, then Harriet Miers and now Samuel Alito. If you’re not tired by now, you’re tougher than I am.  

I cannot for the life of me get excited about the impending confirmation of Alito to replace O’Connor on the Supreme Court. (I confess a cynical behind-the-hand curiosity—will women senators vote “No”?)  

I’m not foolish enough to deny the significance of another conservative on the highest court. It’s just that, you know, it’s politics. Conservatives run Washington and financial interests run conservatives. So, who besides the usual suspects is affected?  

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, then women under 40 will be second-classed. If flag burning is outlawed, then dissenters will be second-classed. If school children are obliged to pledge their loyalty “under God,” then school children will be second-classed. The thing is, women, dissenters and children are already second-classed.  

Finally, if the court decides to overturn the ruling that overturned its 1896 Plessey v. Ferguson ruling and legalize, in patriotic pursuit of a secure homeland, a modernized application of “separate but equal,” then only minorities will be second-classed.  

Look at it this way. Those who are not affect don’t care, and those who are affected and care can’t do anything about it. Anyway, everyone belongs to a minority of some sort and therefore everyone will be equally second-classed. Get it? 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

 

• 

TRANSIT VILLAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I recently attended a neighborhood meeting at the South Berkeley Senior Center. I had gone to it with an idea that I was supportive of a transit village at the west parking lot of Ashby BART if the housing built was available to our homeless population here—and the working poor (whomever they may be) and I felt it with the idea that the retail component of the project should be—instead—parking facilities, shape and form the only issue. 

Perhaps the people who attended would support this idea or perhaps still resent the project being shoved into their lives. The point is, I think, that it is social services in this city which need to be developed and that does include providing housing for people. Retailers might be able to provide more than a doorway now and then--I am not very up on how money gets funneled or how taxes provide enrichment for a community. What I do know is that we need more housing and we don’t need more things to buy or even yet another coffee shop. I understand wanting to have community input for this project but I think the substance of it is what is at issue over and above the speed at which it is planned. 

Iris Crider  

 

• 

EL CERRITO PLAZA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Building condos at El Cerrito Plaza is the “best and highest” use of the land because of the sites location to BART and pedestrian orientation to services. Development however requires needs and services. Whether 128 units or 97 units are built is not going to make a significant difference on the environment. What is important and has impact in the long term is the amount of light (sun light), structure volume and big trees (greenery) when mature are provided. For those concerned about traffic, the solution is to rent/sell to those who do not have cars. 

Richard Splenda 

 

• 

CLEAN MONEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I believe the time has come for a constitutional convention assembled for the stated purpose of removing all money from politics. Politicians could not be trusted to do this. If our members of congress did not have to spend so much of their time and energy getting elected and re-elected maybe they could help solve our countries problems.  

Jack Parks 

 

• 

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While I always disagree with the oddly conservative politics of Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley, who seems intent on keeping Berkeley what it was half a century ago rather than supporting and celebrating the economically and socially diverse place it really is, I do read the newspaper for its comprehensive coverage of Berkeley and Oakland. However, this coverage has been getting a little sloppy, if not downright erroneous. 

In the Jan. 17 issue, for example, reporter Richard Brenneman would have readers believe that Ron Dellums already ran once for mayor of Oakland: “In 1998, De La Fuente was a candidate for Oakland mayor against Dellums...”  

In fact, Ron Dellums’s current campaign for Oakland is his first and only.  

In addition, the same issue contains a write-up of an upcoming panel about a new plan for downtown Berkeley. I would like to attend, but the article lists only the location and time of the panel, and not the day. Please try harder to provide your readers with factual and correct information. 

Kelley Kahn 

Oakland 

 

• 

CLARENCE RAY ALLEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was amused by the claims from the anti-death penalty crowd regarding the “unfairness” of executing an elderly death row inmate like the heinous Clarence Ray Allen. When in fact it was precisely because of the endless stalling and circumventing of our legal system by the anti-death penalty zealots that allowed condemned killer Allen to live to a ripe old age in the first place. It kind of reminds me of the old joke where the guy murders his parents and then appeals to the judge for mercy on the grounds that he’s an orphan. Ha ha. And its also worth noting that if Allen had in fact been put to death for his first murder, he wouldn’t have been around to commit three more murders. The innocent blood of those three people is on the hands of the anti-death penalty zealots. And if you don’t think so, you couldn’t be more wrong.  

Peter Labriola 

 

• 

SUPREME COURT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Bush administration went too far in trying to block Oregon’s assisted suicide law. The three dissenting votes were Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and new Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. What did you expect? Bush told us all along he was going to appoint justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas and that’s exactly what he did. The Supreme Court now has three ultraconservatives. 

How did we get the new chief justice? John Roberts deceived America through evasion as to his true nature at the recent confirmation hearing. Samuel Alito has used the same tactic of evasion to mask his intentions during a confirmation hearing. One could lay odds that Alito also fits the mold of Scalia and Thomas. 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City 

 

 

CANARY IN THE FREEBOX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Just what we need, another secretly appointed, UC-selected committee. 

On Thursday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. at the La Fiesta Banquet Room on Haste at Telegraph, yet another in the endless parade of powerless committees debuted with great fanfare from the university for the alleged purpose of overseeing People’s Park. 

It is safe to suggest the sudden, unexplained dismantling of the previous committee six months ago was not be on the agenda. 

The thousands of dollars spent paying overtime to UC employees to systematically destroy freebox replacements in the last six months in the dead of night was probably not be on the agenda, either. 

The sudden birth and even more sudden death of these seemingless endless committees, boards, and advisory groups paints a distinctive portrait of a university committed to maintaining a pathetic facade of community involvement and oversight while fiercely protecting its right to override, ignore, or dismantle any committee which steps out of line. 

The City of Berkeley usually joins the limp celebration of the production of yet another committee, or just looks the other way. People’s Park always seems like such a small matter compared to the future of downtown, or the erection of pedestrian overpasses which elevate the lucky few above the UC-generated congestion the rest of us must brave daily. Some entire neighborhoods are locked down with big rigs, deafening noise, and choking dust while weathering seemingly constant UC construction projects, while others watch as beloved historic landmarks disappear. 

The freebox is a small matter compared to these other issues. A small group may depend on it for clothing assistance, but its larger mission of general community-based free exchange can be interrupted with only modest inconvenience. It hardly seems worth notice, although it parallels the other issues with alarming congruence. 

The City of Berkeley, the community of people that cares about the park, and the appointees themselves should object to the non-democratic nature of this group, as should anyone who sees the pragmatism of democratic values. An honestly representative group, with an honest set of responsibilities and autonomy, is the only way the community, so long abused, can be well served. 

Carol Denney 

 

 

?


Commentary: Two Halves Needed for a Whole Downtown By ALAN TOBEY

Friday January 20, 2006

Thanks to the city’s very helpful online NewsScan service, we recently saw two different visions of what makes for a successful downtown—and neither of them goes far enough. It’s instructive to figure out why. 

Tuesday’s edition contained two related articles—one in the San Francisco Business Times about Oakland, and one in the Contra Costa Times about Berkeley. Both proclaimed recent downtown developments to be major successes, but they couldn’t possibly have been describing more different outcomes. 

The Oakland article (“Oakland Mayor Finishes 10K Race in Time”) noted the success of mayor Jerry Brown in meeting his goal of creating housing for 10,000 new residents in the once-depressed downtown. The main factor seems to have been encouraging “regional and national developers” to build some “soaring condo towers” to replace “squat apartment complexes.” And the planning goal behind that was to encourage “a downtown brimful of workers . . . during the day and keep it from emptying out at night.” But housing is all that’s been built. 

The result, if you’ve been there lately, is still the dullest downtown in the whole Bay Area. Oakland has provided for 10,000 new residents who will have almost no reason ever to leave their cozy new digs, except to go to work or to seek urban excitement (and a decent supermarket) outside the downtown.  

The Oakland article noted that, in the last five years, Oakland issued permits for 3,648 units of infill multi-family housing while Berkeley approved permits for 977. It was this increase in denser development that allowed the “success” of Jerry Brown’s plan. 

The Berkeley article (“Berkeley’s Cultural Renaissance”) described how the downtown has been brought back from “its absolute worst” around 1990 by the success of the Berkeley Rep and the subsequent Arts District it inspired. Now there are “signs of vitality everywhere. Theatergoers line the streets, the clubs are hopping, and restaurants are filled with diners.” Future plans for new museums and galleries that may “stay open late six nights a week,” plus a relocated Pacific Film Archive, are noted as signs that more is to come. And being “close to BART” means that Berkeley’s downtown will have “regional appeal.” How different from downtown Oakland can you get? 

Let’s compare the two “successes.” Downtown Oakland will be the host of many denser and taller housing projects, but their residents have nothing to do at night in a cultural desert. Downtown Berkeley may be on the way to being a happenin’ place, but it seems to be basing success on renting its downtown by the night to visitors from elsewhere. Berkeley’s own cultural desert is apparent in the daytime sunshine, when downtown workers or a few optimistic local residents try to buy a loaf of bread, a pair of pants, or some other basic necessity. All the trendy night-time restaurants and jazz clubs in the world don’t make up for the lack of one good grocery store to make the downtown an actual livable place. Downtown Berkeley is in danger of becoming nothing but—forgive the nasty word—an entertainment mall, as dependent on non-local patronage as any Hilltop or Emeryville mall is. 

So we have opposite solutions: downtown Oakland as a place to live but with almost nowhere to go, and downtown Berkeley as a place to go but (unless you’re a student) almost nowhere to live. Yet both are failures at creating a truly livable downtown in the sense of an integrated community of residents and visitors who support—and are supported by—a full range of urban services and amenities. Together the two towns constitute a “dumbbell solution”—a mass of housing in downtown Oakland and a mass of entertainment in downtown Berkeley, joined by a thin BART track. Surely that’s not the best of outcomes. 

Oakland must bravely believe that “if we build it (dense housing), interesting amenities will come.” For their sake we can hope that this time is different—that there’s enough new housing to create a critical mass of support for the still-missing services. Berkeley apparently believes, since “soaring condo towers” or other more dense housing are apparently unthinkable, that transient success at night—supported by visitors much more than by downtown residents—is all we need. The slogan must be “if we don’t build it (dense housing) maybe nobody will notice (at least after 6 p.m.).” 

Berkeley’s newly-launched (re)planning effort for the downtown, fortunately, still gives us the opportunity to build the missing half of a complete downtown. Instead of merely boosting more of the same (focus on arts-goers and transient hotel guests), we have the chance—let’s call it our last good chance—to create a truly livable place at our urban core. And the key, clearly, will be the courage to build downtown more densely, with residential critical mass in mind, and to build for the daytime as well as for the night-time—with “our daily bread” the right measure of success.  

We have the choice: a downtown only optimized for the pleasure of others, or a vital mixed residential and commercial district that thrives by day as well as by night. If we build it WE will come—to live as well as to play. 

 

Alan Tobey is a retired technologist who has lived in Berkeley since 1970. 


Commentary Parsing the Derby Street Proposals By MARK McDONALD

Friday January 20, 2006

I would like to help clarify the two competing plans on what type of sports field should be developed at the Derby Street field. One is labeled the Multi–Use—Don’t Close Derby Street plan. The other is the Regulation Baseball Ballfield—Close Derby Street plan.  

The Multi-Use–Don’t Close Derby Street plan includes a practice field for Berkeley High School’s baseball teams and guarantees use by other school sports teams such as boys’ and girls’ soccer, lacrosse and others. This plan also includes basketball courts, a tot lot, public restrooms and tables and seating for patrons of the Tuesday Farmers’ Market which would continue to operate on Derby Street as it has for over a decade. Also included is guaranteed public access to the field when not in use by a school sports squad. This plan was crafted by a lengthy public process involving professional field architects and cost the Berkeley Unified School district (BUSD) hundreds of thousands of dollars. The construction cost of this plan is within the BUSD budget and does not require additional city funding.  

The Regulation Baseball Ballfield—Close Derby Street plan would provide a regulation League standard baseball field that would enable Berkeley High’s 40 baseball players a short walk when they host their six or seven games a year with other cities’ baseball teams. Presently they must take a bus to the new baseball field built for them at Gilman Street. This plan does not guarantee usage to other sports teams and does not guarantee public access when not in use. In fact, there is a real possibility that the field will have to be padlocked to protect the league quality infield. The closing of Derby street will require the removal of the Tuesday Farmers’ Market to a fenced in basketball court which will cause a variety of operational difficulties to the market as expressed by their representatives. The closing of Derby Street will add millions of dollars to the cost presumably to be paid out of the city’s general fund and may require additional property taxes.  

It is not a coincidence that former Councilmember Maudelle Shirek and BUSD Director John Selawsky both oppose the Baseball Ballfield—Close Derby Street plan. Both are to be commended for weighing the needs of all students and the community versus those of a small vocal baseball group. The issue has been confused and over simplified by local spin masters, most of whom do not live in South Berkeley. Petition-signers have not been told that Derby Street is a vital emergency route for South Berkeley and that the San Pablo Park fields would also benefit from the Multi Use-Don’t Close Derby plan, which could have been built eight years ago were it not for the baseball lobbyists holding the project hostage until their demands are met.  

For twenty some years the Derby Street neighborhood , ethnically and economically diverse, predominantly low income and working class, has tolerated the neglected BUSD property at the Derby site. This two block corridor that lies along Shattuck Avenue and MLK Jr. Way is home to public housing at Ward Street, Savo Island coop housing at Oregon Street, Harriet Tubman Senior Housing at Russell Street, numerous Section 8 housing and offers other public facilities like the Tool Library, Iceland and the new theaters at Ashby. The neighborhood has embraced the teens at the Alternative High School as part of their community. This is hardly the selfish NIMBY homeowners as described by the Baseball Ballfield—Close Derby advocates.  

Councilmember Max Anderson recently pointed out that there are many senior and children programs that suffered drastic cutbacks in the recent budget crisis that should be considered before spending city general funds on an expensive sports facility for the convenience of one small group of student baseball players.  

 

Mark McDonald is a Berkeley resident. 


Commentary Exit Exam is Misguided Educational Policy By KEN STANTON

Friday January 20, 2006

Requiring students to pass the California High School Exit Examination in order to qualify for a high school diploma is a misguided educational policy. In his Jan. 6 letter to the state Board of Education, California Superintendent of Schools Jack O’Connell said, “Some schools pushed each and every student to succeed while others, wallowing in the status quo of low standards, handed out diplomas to any student who simply put in seat time.” According to O’Connell, the goal of requiring seniors to pass the exit exam is to “hold every school in California accountable for improving student achievement...” 

The method that has been selected to achieve this goal is the same method that has been rejected by American industry. After years of failure to compete in the global marketplace, the American automobile industry achieved major successes by replacing traditional quality control methods with continuous quality improvement. In quality control, products are inspected after they come off the assembly line; those that fail to pass inspection are either repaired or discarded. The result is considerable waste of time and resources. In continuous quality improvement, the process is designed at the front end to assure that failures are minimal or nonexistent. Since the 1970s, this method has been applied with impressive results to a wide variety of manufacturing and service enterprises. 

Applying traditional quality control methods to public education, in order to hold schools accountable for improving student achievement, means that students who fail the exit exam will either be repaired—by allowing them to take additional remedial classes until they are able to pass the exam—or discarded. As the automobile industry learned at great cost to private investors and the national economy, this wastes time and resources, and ultimately leads to failure. In this case, unfortunately, much of the burden of this failure will fall on the students we have failed to educate. In effect, the high school exit exam will hold students, rather than schools, accountable for our failure to improve student achievement.  

Superintendent O’Connell promises that the state will provide “sufficient funding to ensure that students who do not pass the exam—24 percent of all tenth graders who took the exam in 2005—will have an opportunity to take remedial classes in order to pass the exam. Unfortunately, remedial programs are not particularly effective. According to the independent analysis commissioned by the state, “about half of those re-tested members of the Class of 2006 still have not passed.” In effect, the state is planning to create a large pool of citizens who lack a high school diploma after 12 years of public education. 

If the funding for remedial programs is actually made available as promised, it will divert resources from schools that need these funds to educate students in basic math and English in the first place. According to the independent analyst’s report, “Minority and disadvantaged students in schools where there were high concentrations of such students had lower passing rates than their counterparts at other schools.” Clearly, it is the quality of the schools, rather than the quality of the students, that makes the difference in providing a good, basic education. A more economical use of the promised funding would be to improve the quality of education in schools with inadequate resources. 

More likely, however, in spite of the genuine good intentions of advocates for the high school exit exam, the additional funding for remedial education will not continue for long. When the old state hospitals for the mentally ill were closed in the 1960s, advocates for deinstitutionalization promised that funding would follow these patients into the community. After a brief existence, comprehensive community mental health centers disappeared from most communities in the state, and the mentally ill were left to fend for themselves. In the case of high school students who fail the exit exam, we may hope the money for remedial education will continue to be available, but it is not likely. 

Denying a high school diploma to students who attend school for 12 years in good faith, and who trust that their efforts will be rewarded by a good education, is a misguided educational policy. We need a school system that is capable of providing a basic education to more than 76 percent of its students. After six years in operation, the high school exit exam has demonstrated that it is not an effective means for achieving this goal. 

 

El Cerrito resident Ken Stanton works in Berkeley as a registered nurse. 

 

f


Commentary: Jackson, King and the Business of Black Leadership By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON Pacific News Service

Friday January 20, 2006

Jesse Jackson is peeved that Martin Luther King Jr.’s chronicler, Taylor Branch, revealed that King regarded Jackson as an egoist and opportunist. Branch made the charge in At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968. He claimed that after a stormy meeting in Memphis shortly before his assassination, Dr. King shouted at Jackson that he wanted to carve out his own niche in society and was only interested in doing his own thing.  

Jackson has a right to be incensed at Branch. The revelation (allegation?) comes decades after King’s death, giving Jackson little chance to refute it. But Jackson’s ire and the propriety of the charge aside, the flap points to the glaring contrast in objectives, style and even personal motives between King, Jackson and other mainstream black leaders then and now.  

King’s style of leadership was egalitarian, hands-on and in the trenches, and he always kept a careful eye on the needs of poor and working class blacks. He was a selfless leader who never made a nickel from his civil rights activism. He would be appalled at the cash, glitter and bling fetish of prominent blacks. He would have been aghast at the money squabble within his own family over the King Center’s fate.  

King also would have recoiled at the frantic maneuver of some black leaders to command center stage at press conferences and put their media spin on racial issues. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is a textbook example of that penchant. He grabbed headlines by claiming Katrina was God’s punishment to blacks for their allegedly profligate ways. A shamefaced Nagin later apologized, but he got his camera action.  

Nagin’s shoot-from-the lip quips were no different from the ways in which other telegenic leaders operate. Jackson’s media-grabbing, hit-and-run style of leadership has long been geared to burnish his image and credentials as a humanitarian, religious leader and peace advocate. This instantly boosts his stature in the media and strengthens his standing as black America’s main, if not only, man.  

In the past few years Jackson’s image and top-dog standing as the supreme black leader has taken a severe pounding with the scandal over his fathering a child out of wedlock, the allegations of financial profiteering from his civil rights actions and the ever-present charge that he is a crass opportunist who relentlessly chases TV cameras and microphones.  

In years past, King’s SCLC, the NAACP and other mainstream black organizations relied on the nickels and dimes of poor and working class blacks for their support. This gave them complete independence and a solid constituency to mount powerful campaigns for jobs, better housing, quality schools and against police abuse.  

The profound shift in the method and style of black leadership began, tragically enough, with the murder of King, the collapse of legal segregation in the 1960s, the class divisions that imploded within black America and the greening of the black middle-class. By the close of the 1960s the civil rights movement had spent itself. The torrent of demonstrations, sit-ins, marches and civil rights legislation annihilated the legal wall of segregation. With the barriers erased the black middle-class had a field day. They were starting more and better businesses, marching into more corporations and universities, winning more political offices, buying bigger and more expensive homes, cars, clothes and jewelry, taking more luxury vacations and joining more country clubs than ever before. The first chance they got, many packed up their bags and started their headlong flight to greener, suburban pastures.  

None of their success has even the remotest bearing on the lives of the black poor, who have become even poorer and more desperate. Many of the latter turn to crime, drugs and gangs as their only way out.  

Mainstream civil rights leaders are trapped in the middle by the twisting political trends and disparate fortunes of the black middle-class and the black poor. A tilt toward an aggressive activist agenda carries the deep risk of alienating the corporate donors they have carefully cultivated in the past few years. They depend on them to gain more jobs, promotions and contracts for black professionals and businesspersons and to secure contributions for their fund-raising campaigns, banquets, scholarship funds and programs. That keeps their doors open, but it dulls the cutting-edge activism that was the trademark of King and the civil rights leaders of his day.  

Branch may have been picky, gossipy and even unfair in airing King’s censure of Jackson. But when Jackson and today’s black leaders turn leadership into a business-style competition in which success is measured by piling up political favors and corporate dollars, they leave themselves wide open to that criticism.  

 

 

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an associate editor at New America Media, an association of over 700 print, broadcast and online ethnic media organizations founded in 1996 by Pacific News Service and members of ethnic media.  


China, Taiwan Crack Down on Korean Soap Operas By EUGENIA CHIEN Pacific News Service

Friday January 20, 2006

In the cramped space of AsiaStar Fantasy, a video store that specializes in Chinese cinema in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood, DVDs of flashy Korean soap operas like “Jewel in the Palace” and “Greatest Hits of Korean Drama” have been edging their way in.  

“People just love these Korean soap operas,” says Mr. Luo, the store’s proprietor. “In the past year or two, they have really become so popular.”  

“Jewel in the Palace” stars a fair-skinned, royal chef-cum-first woman physician in the Korean palace. The soap has gathered such a huge following among Chinese that the set has been turned into a theme park where fans from all over East Asia come to see their favorite show up close.  

Luo devotes an entire display to Korean soap operas and television series in his store, which has more than 100 different Korean titles.  

Since 2002, South Korean music and television have dominated youth culture in China and Taiwan. Korean pop singer Rain sells out concerts in Chinese cities and New York; Korean sitcoms dubbed in Chinese such as “The Marrying Type” and “Jewel in the Palace” are shown on television in China and Taiwan. Korean hip hop and fashion are widely imitated by young people there.  

In 2002, 30 Korean soap operas were aired in Taiwan, where they received some of the highest ratings. In Hong Kong, “Jewel in the Palace” was the most-watched of any program in the last 25 years.  

But lately, the popularity of Korean soap operas is causing a backlash against Korean pop culture imports. Rising economic tension in the region and competition between Korean soaps and those produced in China and Taiwan finally came to a head last week as the Chinese and Taiwanese governments announced measures to curb the “Korea wave.”  

Taiwan’s Government Information Office announced on Jan. 10 that it is considering limiting foreign television shows during prime time, reported the Taipei Times.  

In December 2005, China’s State Administration for Radio Film and Television, which controls programming on Chinese television stations, announced that it will decrease the air time for popular Korean television shows by half. Local TV programming directors told the People’s Daily that stations want to cool down the “Korean fever.”  

One reason is that Korean shows are cutting into budgets for Chinese shows. A television programming director in Hunan province told the People’s Daily that Korean soap operas have become so hot that the station is spending more money on purchasing Korean programs than developing its own shows.  

Additionally, Taiwanese television stations import more South Korean soap operas than they sell to South Korea, according to Darson Chiu, an associate research fellow at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. In an editorial for the Taipei Times, Chiu said that banning Korean soap operas from prime time is “merely an attempt at making an unequal situation more fair.”  

While relations between China and South Korea have expanded in recent years, South Korean and Chinese export products compete against one another. According to a Korea International Trade Association report, South Korea is lagging behind China in global market growth, and many of its key exports, including cell phones and computers, are in direct competition with China.  

Some disagree that the economic tension in the region is contributing to the anti-Korean sentiments.  

“Competition is heating up between the two countries,” says David Kang, visiting associate professor at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. But the economic interaction is “much more ‘squabbling’ than anything else,” Kang says.  

However, competitive and nationalistic sentiments over the soap operas are creeping into the Chinese media. A well-known Chinese actor, Zhang Guo-Li, was quoted as saying that the growing anti-Korean sentiments made watching Korean soap operas an act of national subterfuge.  

China’s media is traditionally state-owned, and its purpose is to maintain social stability and instill nationalism, according to Ling Chi Wang, professor of ethnic studies at the University of California at Berkeley.  

“From the point of view of China, an excessive amount of Korean soap operas will undermine national prestige, self-confidence and nationalism,” Wang says.  

The allure of Korean soap operas caught many media watchers by surprise. For years, Japanese culture imports were popular in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. But Korean soap operas, with their Confucian values and sleek production, appealed to Chinese viewers. They found Korean culture easier to accept than that of the Japanese, whose war-time crimes are still rooted deep in the hearts of most Chinese.  

History aside, viewers explain their attraction to Korean soap operas simply.  

“Chinese soap operas are outdated and boring,” says Rachel Wang, a 27-year-old Chinese immigrant and Bay Area resident. Wang watches “Jewel in the Palace” and likes the show’s segments on cooking and Asian herbal medicine. “Korean soap operas have attractive actors and fun story lines,” she says.  

China and Taiwan may be trying to cool down the wave of Korean pop culture imports, but in the end, the rampant copyright infringement in Asia might make the governments’ attempts meaningless.  

When asked what she will do if television channels stopped showing Korean soap operas, “Jewel in the Palace” fan Rachel Wang shrugged and said, “I can get the shows on pirated DVDs anyway.”  

 

Eugenia Chien is a writer and editor for New America Media, an association of over 700 print, broadcast and online ethnic media organizations founded in 1996 by Pacific News Service and members of ethnic media.


Correction

Friday January 20, 2006

The Pacific News Service article, “Arab Analysts Give Nod to Favored Oscar Contenders,” published in the Jan. 17 Daily Planet, stated that the film Munich had been banned in Israel. The film has not been banned there. Pacific News Service regrets the error. ›


Barn Owls in Berkeley? Learn How to Keep Them Here By JOE EATON Special to the Planet

Friday January 20, 2006

Barn owls are more common in urban areas, including Berkeley, than you might think. Most of the time they’re just ghostly apparitions in the night. But on Jan. 28, you can meet one of these nocturnal hunters face to face at a fundraiser for the Hungry Owl Project (HOP), sponsored by Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley, a recently launched owl-advocacy group. 

Jane Goodall has described the Marin-based HOP as “a much needed and very important initiative” for the protection of these birds, which are in trouble in many parts of their almost world-wide range.  

The “Afternoon with Owls” event, from 2-4 p.m. on Regal Road in Berkeley, will feature presentations by volunteers with the HOP and Napa County’s Habitat for Hooters, a video of life inside a barn owl nest, and other exhibits. The main attraction, though, will be the visiting owl—a bird with a remarkable presence.  

For those who want to encourage barn owls in their own neighborhoods, nest boxes will be available for sale at the event. Traditionally cavity nesters, the owls will readily accept nest boxes—much safer places to raise a brood than the palm trees they often use. HOP has already installed over 100 boxes at private homes, farms, ranches, and vineyards. Owls that use the boxes are being banded for ongoing research in collaboration with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge of their behavior: how long they live, how far they travel. 

And why would you want to attract owls? 

“They’re not that wise,” says Dennis Christiansen, a Fresno teacher who uses barn owls in a classroom program. “But they’re the best at what they do.” 

These birds are consummate rodent-killers. In California, rodents and other small mammals make up 95-99 percent of a barn owl’s diet. In rural areas this would be mostly voles and gophers; in cities, house mice and rats. One study found that a brood of six owlets consumed 600 field mice in 10 weeks. 

A single owlet can eat its weight in mice every night; a captive accounted for 13 at one sitting. Vineyard managers particularly appreciate their taste for gophers. San Bernabe Vineyard in Monterey County, home of the Night Owl label, has over 70 owl boxes in its operation. 

 

Admission to the “Afternoon with Owls” is $25 per person, and space is limited. For more information, contact Lisa Owens at 549-2963; for owl background, visit Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley’s web site, www.kboib.com. 

 

Photo by Deane P. Lewis  

A single owlet can eat its weight in mice every night.


About the House: Yes, You Really Can Learn To Do It Yourself By MATT CANTOR

Friday January 20, 2006

I have known quite a few handymen and even a couple of handywomen over the years and there’s nothing especially distinctive about them as a group. Perhaps there is one thing and it might be worth taking note of. Each of them is willing to do something they’ve never done before…every day.  

What most people don’t understand about their handyperson or even their contractor is that they often have no idea what they’re doing. It doesn’t stop them, it just makes their day a bit more interesting than the average accountant. You see, when you go to the store to pick up a faucet or a new deadbolt, you don’t really know what you’re about to contend with. They keep changing them. One day you only need a screwdriver and the next, you need a wrench, three hands and the ability to breath underwater.  

Sometimes I just sit down and watch one of these people work. They open the box, read the instructions and start fiddling. At some point things start making sense and eventually the whole thing gets done. Now, in all fairness, these folks do learn a thing or two along the way, but that isn’t where I want to go with all of this, so don’t give it too much weight. The point is that when a fixer-upper (as my Tennesseean friend calls them) starts to fix, they know with almost absolute certitude that they are going to have to figure out some of the details of their task from scratch, upside-down and in the dark.  

Now why am I telling you all this? Do I want you to pay your handyguy or gal more? Buy ‘em a beer at the end of the day? Feel more gratitude in your life? These are all nice, but no. The reason I’m pointing out these daily struggles is that there is positively no good reason that you, dear reader, should not attempt to undertake at least some of these adventures for yourself. 

As one who is conscripted to study the workmanship of others each day, I am often amazed at the quality of the homeowner’s efforts. Though they may be flawed in one way or another or show a lack of familiarity with the subject, they often show great care and are not infrequently superior to the work I would expect to see from a good portion of the paid workforce. This isn’t surprising, really, when you consider the notion that one can generally figure these things out and often perform simple repairs with only limited knowledge. Additionally, the homeowner has a high vested interest in doing things well and this can compensate for a lack of experience. All too often I’ll see second-rate work produced by paid people for, I assume, the simple reason that they just didn’t care enough. 

So what do you have to lose? Fair question. First, don’t bite off too much. There are loads of tasks that you might start with but certainly some you want to avoid at first. Leave the furnace alone. Don’t mess with your breaker or fuse panel. Let someone else deal with gas piping. 

That still leaves a huge list of things you might try your hand at. If this is your first time out, how about changing the washers on a leaky faucet or replacing a set of doorknobs? This isn’t the sort of thing I want to try describing here and now, but there are a load of books at the library or at the bookstore on simple repair jobs like these.  

Consider starting a small fix-it library as inspiration for your newfound avocation. A good simple book to get is New Fix-It-Yourself Manual: How to Repair, Clean, and Maintain Anything and Everything in and Around Your Home, published by Reader’s Digest. Another is The Complete Photo Guide to Home Improvement: Over 1700 Photos, 250 Step-by-Step Projects (Black & Decker Complete Photo Guide). 

Buy yourself some tools. There is nothing so satisfying as arming yourself with a cordless drill with a keyless chuck. Every woman and man should have one these babies in their own plastic toolbox. Get yourself a small set of drill bits and some screwdrivers. You do not need to buy these things new. If they have no moving parts (hammer, screwdriver, toolbox) used is just fine. Drills are better bought new because they start to act badly just prior to people selling them. Same thing with electric saws and almost anything else which is motor-driven. New is nice and it does not need to be the most expensive one in the store. Here is a good rule of thumb for buying tools as a new explorer in this very exciting world. Buy the tools you need for your first job. See how it goes. Do it again with the second job. Rent or borrow here and there (Berkeley has a Tool Lending Library!) As things move along, you may decide that you want to buy a nice set of drill bits (when they’re sharp, life goes more smoothly). 

Although it is not my goal to have this “teach you a lesson,” one of the things that will surely come out of doing a few household repairs on your own will be an increased appreciation of the time and effort (and savvy) it actually requires to do some of these seemingly simple projects. This isn’t a reason to turn tail and run from your chore but you may find future interplay with paid help may prove less upsetting when you see how long or difficult a “small” job can be. 

Women, take note, these words are for you. Men who claim to be lousy at fixing things. These words are for you. Start small. Get someone to show you how. Read the book and go forth and fix.  

Here’s a parting thought as I wish you all a great adventure. A girlfriend of mine, some 20 years ago, used to say something that I often think about: “I can do anything if I do it slowly enough.” 




Garden Variety No Need to Rush Those Gardening Decisions By RON SULLIVAN

Friday January 20, 2006

You’ve found it! You’ve signed on the line, committed a scary amount of money and time, got your own piece of ground, a roof of your own over your own head, no landlord to answer to and the freedom to garden as you please. Congratulations! 

Since your first look at the place, you’ve been building some Eden in your imagination. Old roses like Grammy’s, new tropicals like the latest Garden Style, a riot of variegated foliage, a peaceful all-white, no, all-blue garden with a bench. A pergola!  

You’ll grow your own heirloom tomatoes and corn, spend autumn weekends making preserves. You’ll graft 10 varieties of peach and nectarine onto a single trunk. Maybe there’ll be room for a goat, and herbs for the goat cheese too. (Goats in Berkeley? Don’t laugh.) 

Don’t put a leash on your imagination yet, but give it a season or four to let it mesh with the reality of your new space. Plant annuals or winter veggies and watch what your dirt does with them, so you don’t feel guilty for taking your time.  

You have several things to consider before you make any big decisions.  

First, and don’t rush this: What do you want out of your garden? A playspace for kids, food, seasonings, medicinals, flowers to cut, a quiet outdoor room, habitat, screening, climate control? You might have to choose, but you might not have to choose only one.  

What’s there already? Lots of lots are overplanted; people love their living stuff and can’t bear to give it the axe. Wait before commencing wholesale slaughter. It’s winter! If you’re not absolutely sure of what every plant is (and experts are most likely to be humble about this) give it a year to show its stuff. I’ve heard horror stories about newcomers who helpfully had the bare conifer cut down before learning it was a deciduous dawn redwood, and an historic specimen planted from the first seeds of this “living fossil” brought from China.  

If you know it’s going to be a jungle, don’t attack it with the hedgetrimmer, because that will only make it worse when it grows back. Go up to Merritt College or browse local nurseries for basic pruning lessons, like how to turn a juniper ball into a small tree with character. Or hire a real arborist, not the mow-n-blow guys.  

Check out the neighbors’ gardens. What grows well there? Talk to them; they might know why. Maybe you’re in a banana belt, or maybe there’s an underground creek on the block. They can give you hints about where stormwater runs, what happens when it’s windy, and who that critter was rattling the bins last night.  

Give yourself a year—really!—to watch for patterns and possibilities, to see what you want to do outside daily, to get to know your place.  

Next week, I’ll give you some seat-of-the-pants (literally) tests you can use to figure out how to get what you want out of a new garden. Stay tuned. 


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Speaking Truth, Getting Power By BECKY O'MALLEY

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Bernie Sanders has been in town this week, and he’s, to coin a phrase, a breath of fresh air. This is a man who seems never to hesitate to say and do exactly what he thinks is right, and it’s only been good for him. He was once the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and for years he’s been the sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives from that small state. His biggest claim to fame is that he’s an independent, not a Democrat, in a state where Democrats and Republicans have traded off in political jobs most of the time. Now he’s running to replace retiring independent (formerly Republican) Senator James Jefferds, against someone he describes as “the richest person in Vermont,” a real Republican candidate who’s expected to spend as much as he wants of his own considerable fortune to beat Bernie. The Sanders camp thinks that they can hold their own, in a state where only about 600,000 souls live with three or four hundred thousand voting, for about $5 million. That’s a big number, but nothing like as big as expenditures in more populous states like California, where the war chest for a senate race is more like $15 million. So Bernie is touring the country unabashedly trying to raise what he needs to win, and judging by the enthusiasm with which he was received at the Berkeley function I attended, he’s well on his way. Turns out a lot of people still admire a person who speaks his mind. 

On the other hand, we have the depressing spectacle of Sen. Hillary Clinton. If there were ever a politician who embodied Jim Hightower’s quip that there’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead armadillos, it’s poor pathetic Hillary, who has managed to turn herself into a dead armadillo in a remarkably short period of time. Not only that, the person who’s set himself up as the arbiter of Democratic congressional candidates for 2006 is her old buddy Rahm Emanuel, the architect, long ago, of her disastrous attempt to please everyone with a health care plan that was the original armadillo compromise, doomed to die.  

I was all set to take off on Sen. Clinton’s right turn, in which she’s positioning herself as being more conservative than most voters recently polled, when Molly Ivins stole my thunder. So now I can just refer readers to Molly’s Jan. 20 column. We’re going to try to get permission to reprint it here, but in the meantime it can be read on the Creator’s Syndicate website at creators.com. Here’s the lead: “I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president. Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her.” 

Amen and hallelujah. 

However. Coming up like a cyclone from what used to be called left field is—big surprise—Al Gore again. I never expected to hear KPFA devote many hours of airtime to replaying a speech by a former Democratic candidate, but Gore’s stirring—it can only be called—oration on Martin Luther King Day to the American Constitution Society has been burning up the air waves all week. Gore called for an independent counsel to investigate whether George Bush broke the law in authorizing domestic eavesdropping without court approval. He sounded like the man he should have been when Bush stole the presidency from him in 2000, and it’s just possible that losing that election has turned him into someone who could lead this country back to where it should be.  

I asked Bernie Sanders if we were going to be stuck with Hillary in 2008, and he mentioned a few other intriguing possibilities besides Gore, among them John Edwards. Hillary’s a temptation for feminists, of course. She’s tried very hard to turn herself into the supposedly electable “honorary man” who’s not afraid to be bellicose, like our own Di-Fi, but we have better candidates and role models in our Barbaras, Lee and Boxer.  

Anyone who’s on the fence has a good chance to see Hillary in action this week in San Francisco and support a good cause at the same time. The San Francisco Bar Association’s charitable foundation has her on a program in conversation with TV journalist Jane Pauley on Saturday night, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. Maybe she’ll surprise us all and call for withdrawal from Iraq. Go, and ask her about it. 

And one more role model: Jean Siri, twice mayor of El Cerrito, who died suddenly on Friday with her boots on, still an elected member of the East Bay Regional Parks District Board at 85. If she thought anything needed doing, she just went out and got it done without waiting for permission: everything from saving the bay to housing the homeless. We’ll miss her. 

• • • 

 

P.S.: While we’re on the subject of strong-minded women, Berkeley Councilmember Betty Olds left me a message saying indignantly that she has not endorsed Tom Bates for mayor, as I mistakenly reported last week. I should have known better than to believe that rumor, and I’m glad to stand corrected.  

 

 

 

c


Editorial: Give Purple a Chance in Berkeley By BECKY O'MALLEY

Friday January 20, 2006

Every year about this time I start feeling my California confusion. Though I’ve lived here for most of my life, my imprinting on the proper rhythm of the seasons came in the years I spent as a child and again as a young adult in the East and Midwest, where January is cold and the trees are bare. But even though the holiday wreath of bay leaves on our front door is still fresh and green, the spring bulbs next to the door are coming up fast, and the pear tree next door is already covered with white blossoms. Spring is here already, though this year, with a long warm fall, winter lasted less than a month. 

In this context, perhaps I should not be so surprised to hear on the grapevine that the old pols are already soliciting endorsements for their fall mayoral campaigns. In Oakland, Ron Dellums’ kickoff has taken place, and he presumably got a bunch of signers before he even declared. Two opponents were already in the race when he decided to enter, each with an existing coterie of early endorsers, some of whom jumped ship when Dellums made his move.  

The mayor of Berkeley is the currently reigning representative of an erstwhile progressive organization (only conservatives unkindly call them “machines”) that rivaled Dellums’ own when both were young Turks. Each of them has managed to control the succession to his respective position, Dellums in the U.S. Congress and Bates in the state legislature.  

Dellums saw to it that trusted aide Barbara Lee succeeded through a carefully timed sequence of resignations and special elections. Bates anointed first his top aide, Dion Aroner, and then his wife, Loni Hancock (who engineered her own succession when she resigned as Berkeley mayor midterm.) Unseemly primaries have largely been avoided, though the two groups, who exhibit frosty politesse at public gatherings, have sometimes duked it out when underlings engaged in fights for lesser offices. It’s all very cozy, and newcomers don’t have a chance.  

Some are now suggesting that if the 68-year-old Bates is re-elected, he might resign in the middle of the next term to take a job with his UC administrator friends. The retirement benefits for such positions are awesome, and he could leave the mayor’s job, a la Hancock, to an anointed successor without an untidy election. 

Bates has started to press everyone in Berkeley whose name counts with the public to support his re-election campaign. Rumor has it that he started with the City Council faction formerly known as Moderates or even conservatives (Capitelli, Wozniak, Olds), and with them in hand moved on to some former Progressives (Maio, Moore), but that he has yet to sign the two stubborn true-progressive holdouts, Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington. There’s no final word on the position of the enigmatic Max Anderson, who was substituted in for Maudelle Shirek in a truly remarkable piece of political engineering which saw her top aide “forgetting” to file her nomination papers, enabling Anderson to step out of the wings just in time to avoid a real contest for her seat. Anderson’s recent alliance with Bates to propose a big pork project for the Ashby BART station is taken by some as a clue that he’s now joined the council’s developer-driven majority. 

To make things more interesting, ex-Mayor Shirley Dean, who used to be the leader of the Mod faction, has been popping up in appearances all over town, though she coyly refuses to say whether or not she’s a candidate. But just her face on a discussion panel seems to be enough to send some local progressives running back to the Bates camp. Many progressives claim to be deeply disappointed with Bates’ record as mayor, where he’s distinguished himself by siding consistently with big developers (especially the biggest of all, UC Berkeley) against the interest of residents. It’s a record that is virtually indistinguishable from Dean’s on most key issues, but the knee-jerk partisan reaction from some is that they’d never support a candidate opposing Bates if it gave Dean a chance to win.  

The major reason why no one in Berkeley with any sense should be filling out endorsement cards for Bates this early in the game is that we don’t yet know what form the November mayoral election will take. Berkeley passed a ballot measure authorizing instant runoff voting, which would enable voters to indicate their second choice for mayor if their first choice loses, in a multi-candidate race. In a no-primary election, that would be the best way for a newcomer to get a foothold on the electoral ladder without an organizational blessing. But IRV in Berkeley is currently stalled because Alameda county is claiming that its voting machines aren’t set up to handle it, even though San Francisco has made it work. If it doesn’t happen by November, a candidate who can get 40 percent (almost any incumbent, in this case Bates) will win without a runoff. But if it does, new candidates with a truly progressive and neighborhood-friendly agenda will have a shot at defeating Bates.  

Where would such candidates be found? Spring and Worthington, the most obvious choices to carry the progressive banner against the neo-Mods who now control the council, both face re-election in their council districts, and are likely to be reluctant to risk losing everything, since they can’t run for both offices at the same time. There seems to have been a recent poll which put forward names of former candidates, commissioners, neighborhood activists and other plausible contenders, but no results have been released.  

In any event, two slogans for whatever candidate is willing to step up to the plate emerged at the remarkable meeting this week of those who oppose the Ashby development. Oakland resident and Berkeley artist Bob Brokl talked about the coalition of those who defeated a recent developer-backed attempt to bring redevelopment and eminent domain to his Temescal neighborhood. He said they came from all parts of the political spectrum: “both red-state and blue-state kinds of people: we should be called the purple people.” Le Conte neighborhood activist Patti Dacey, a preservationist recently removed from the Landmarks Commission by Max Anderson, happened to be wearing a purple scarf at the meeting. She characterized the pro-developer council majority this way: “They’re not left, they’re not right, they’re just wrong.” Before purple Berkeleyans sign up for two more years with Bates, they should wait to see if there are any other options available. 

 

 

 

 


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday January 24, 2006

CORRECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The caption of the “Police Blotter” photo on page four of your Jan. 20 issue is incorrect. The photo shows my son’s car, with the license plate clearly legible. The caption identifies the car as having been stolen, and the driver as the thief. My son’s car was being driven by him; he is not a thief and the car was not stolen. 

My son’s car was struck by a stolen car heading south on Martin Luther King Jr. Way at high speed on the wrong side of the street through the red light, as my son was entering the intersection with the green light heading west on Derby Street. 

The stolen car was driven by another young man who was fleeing from police. The car the thief was driving is not shown in the photograph. 

My son was slightly injured, was taken to Alta Bates Hospital Emergency Department, treated for his injury, and released two hours later. His car appears to have been totaled. He came home to see the photo in your paper identifying him as a thief—literally adding insult to injury. 

The thief was not injured. He was apprehended by the police and taken to jail from the scene of the accident. 

Please correct your error. 

Joshua B. Kardon 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The information in the caption was provided by the Police Department. We regret the error. 

 

• 

YUPPIFICATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Since I’ve moved from Berkeley some 13 years ago, I’ve noticed how yuppified this place has become. The only two real places left to go in Berkeley anymore (in my humble opinion) are the Berkeley Flea Market and the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. So, it is with much sadness, but not surprise that I hear of officials, armed with big plans, proposing to move each institution to new locations as if they were nothing more than potted plants. I knew this day would soon come. 

The feelings of neighbors and communities have become nothing more than nuisances to special interest groups and developers who continue to enjoy cozy relationships with our elected “representatives.” Because both markets have taken many years to establish, they are now currently at risk of being destroyed. Do we really want to take such a risk in doing so? 

Michael Bauce 

 

• 

RENT CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I don’t know how to reach Chris Kavanaugh to thank him for his letter in the Jan. 13 Daily Planet, but I really appreciate it. It’s important for all our citizens to know the history of rent control in Berkeley and other cities. 

Unfortunately for tenants, especially those seeking apartments in Berkeley these days, statewide real estate interests succeeded in undermining rent control in the late 1980s and weakening its tenant protection by turning it into “vacancy decontrol.” In Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, and elsewhere, there have been numerous attempts to evict tenants (and further weaken rent control) by phony owner move-ins, and by turning rental apartments into condos and tenants-in-common (TICs). I have lived in my apartment since 1980, and rent control is the only reason I can afford to live in the Bay Area in 2006. The four students who occupy an  

apartment in the same building pay fully three times as much, plus water, gas, electric, and parking fees. 

Thanks to all the elected members of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board for your unwavering advocacy on behalf of the thousands of neighbors in this city who cannot buy homes and need low-cost housing. 

Marianne Robinson 

 

• 

OAKLAND VIOLENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor has told the City of Oakland, and presumably by extension all of it’s citizens and the Police Department, that it is “past time for Oakland to confront violence” Hear hear! However, apart from prescribing “serious adult conversation,” he seems equally at a loss for the specifics of what to do as Oakland’s own law-abiding citizens.  

To excoriate Police Chief Wayne Tucker for saying that 60 murders a year would be better than the city average of 80-plus is unproductive and just plain mean. Or does Allen-Taylor believe that reducing the average by 20 deaths would not be an improvement?  

To assert that if there had been more murders, there would have been 132 is a meaningless straw man target that has no place in “serious adult conversation.”  

Glen Kohler  

 

• 

DERBY STREET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Here’s a modest proposal: 

Just so we all have our facts straight and so the debate has some connection with reality, people interested in the Derby Street issue should gather to listen to one another, once at the Tuesday Farmers’ Market and again at a varsity baseball practice or game—this in addition to any hothouse meetings at Old City Hall. 

Such a thing could be arranged by city and/or School Board officials (or by the Daily Planet), but maybe we should run the thing ourselves for a change, perhaps choosing a moderator or two.  

The need to talk is pretty obvious, even to partisans.  

For instance, this partisan notes that Mark MacDonald’s letter (Jan. 20) opposing a regulation baseball field at Derby Street states that “presently (the baseball team) must take a bus to the new baseball field built for them at Gilman Street.” 

There is no field at Gilman Street. Players have to find own their way to San Pablo Park and have to miss at least two classes, in part to wrestle a plastic homerun fence onto the field.  

(Just the mention of a field at Gilman Street is another hint that the powers that be have decided to oppose the Derby Street field and hope they’ll be one someday at Gilman Street. It’s unclear how, if a Gilman Street field is ever built, the players are going to get there; who’s going to pay for the transportation. Will it be controlled by more than one authority; will it need to be leased, and at what cost?) 

It is also incorrect to imply that the team would use the field for just a few league games and to suggest that a small practice field would suffice at other times. There are at least as many non-league, pre-season games as regular games and any team needs a full field to practice. 

But more than any details, just as the Derby Street neighbors must get tired of being called NIMBYs, I get tired of having my son or this family or the kids we’ve known for years being called elitists.  

We should talk. 

James Day 

 

• 

WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The ruling Republican Party has suffered casualties recently from its top elected and advisory ranks because of bad behavior: Cunningham, Libby, Delay, Ney, etc.   

I withhold applause and restrain from gloating just long enough to offer these words of consolation:  

 “Party struggles lead to party strength…[and the party]…becomes stronger by purging itself.” 

These words written by Karl Marx in 1852 were cited by Lenin at the top of a pamphlet published 15 years before the Communist Revolution in Russia, titled in translation, “What Is To Be Done?” 

Now, it’s time for the party in power to consider what is to be done about the abuse of power boastfully practiced by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez and Rice.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

 

• 

PRESERVATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Roger Marquis’s Jan. 17 commentary on the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) should act as a wake-up call to all inhabitants of Berkeley’s older neighborhoods, particularly those west of Shattuck Avenue. The ill-considered demolitions that gave rise to the LPO may well return if it is weakened. 

The LPO’s “structure of merit” designation, which the city Planning Department proposes to abolish, is one of the very few government mechanisms through which ordinary taxpayers can hope to influence the meaning and appearance of the built environment that surrounds them. It is an effective means of reminding planners that the quality of neighborhood life should be their first concern, not an afterthought. 

No sensible person would claim that all our older districts contain landmarks of national importance. But most of them are dignified by at least one or two structures of historic interest at the local or even state level. And some districts merit consideration as a whole. In ours, for instance, there are about 1,100 structures, spread over 1.5 square miles, of which some 85 percent, according to a survey made by our group, are over 50 years old—many well over. 

Since nearly all of the lovingly maintained older structures have survived through various degrees of alteration, they would be prohibited, under the Planning Department’s revision of the LPO, from appearing on any list of historic structures that might qualify them for any degree of public protection whatsoever. That would apply even to the 19th-century mansion, built by a name architect, for which the Landmarks Commission, by unanimous vote, has asked us to initiate landmarking. 

Development has already claimed too many Berkeley buildings that should have been saved and reused. If landmarking procedures really delay worthwhile construction, then the city should allot the Landmarks Commission more staff support instead of trying to gut its authority. 

J. Michael Edwards 

Secretary, McGee-Spaulding-Hardy 

Historic Interest Group  

 

• 

CORRECTING THE CORRECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read with bemusement Kelley Kahn’s letter in the Jan. 20 issue in which she bemoans the Daily Planet’s coverage as “getting a little sloppy, if not downright erroneous.” 

To which I, as the one alleged miscreant named in her letter, would respond: People who live in vitreous domiciles shouldn’t fling metamorphic projectiles. 

As an example of Planetary blunders, she cites a Jan. 17 story in which “reporter Richard Brenneman would have us believe that Ron Dellums already ran for mayor of Oakland.” 

There’s just one little problem with her that. I, the named offender, didn’t write the story—nor is it my byline that’s on the story. 

The second purportedly erroneous story she cites from the same issue—without naming the allegedly malfeasant author—was in fact my own effort. But there’s a problem here, too. 

To quote Ms. Kahn, “the same issue contains a write-up of an upcoming panel about a new plan for downtown Berkeley. I would like to attend, but the article lists only the location and time of the panel, and not the day.” 

Uh-oh! Major goof, right? 

Well, there one little problem. Consider the very first sentence of the article: “The panel charged with helping draft a new plan for downtown Berkeley will hear from a panel of experts Wednesday. . .” 

Last time I glanced at my calendar, Wednesday was, in fact, a day of the week. 

Which is not to say that I haven’t made mistakes. But when I make them and they’re called to my attention, I also write a correction to set things 

straight. 

Richard Brenneman  

 

• 

PETER’S PETITION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My petition for Writ of Certiorari pertaining to the fraudulent settlement of the LRDP lawsuit is now on the docket in the U.S. Supreme Court. The docket number is 05-860. The petition can be viewed in its entirety in my “briefcase,” at the following Internet address: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/pjmutnick@sbcglobal.net .  

To the best of my knowledge, Feb. 17 is the earliest that the court may decide whether to grant the petition. Those who love justice can pray or otherwise hope for the petition to be granted.  

Do not worry about politics. The goal of all right-minded people is to break down the barriers between the stultified positions of right and left that defraud the people of their true and rightful sovereignty. My petition aims to do just that. It is right on the law, and hopefully that is all that will matter. 

Peter J. Mutnick 

 

• 

OSAMA BIN FORGOTTEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a new audiotape from Osama bin Laden (it’s gotta be new because in the tape he mentions the relatively recent revelation that Bush plotted to bomb the Al Jazeera offices in Qatar), bin Laden says stuff like, “We are people who do not stand for injustice and we will seek revenge all our lives. The nights and days will not pass without us taking vengeance like on Sept. 11, God permitting. Your minds will be troubled and your lives embittered.” He has plans to blow up America? We are now going to be living at Ground Zero? That does not sound good. 

What will it be like living at Ground Zero? There are many ways to find out. For instance, you could ask any New Yorker after 9-11, when George Bush failed to heed warnings that could have protected America—to say nothing of all the double-talk about bad pilots we have gotten out of Bush since.  

What is it like living at Ground Zero? Ask anyone in Iran. The Bush bureaucracy and its allies in Israel have been threatening to blow up that country regularly since the Supreme Court first gave the White House to GWB in 2000. People in Tehran have been living at Ground Zero daily for years. 

What is it like living at Ground Zero? Ask anyone in Iraq. Everyone there knows that when they leave their home in the morning, they may never come back. And even if they don’t leave their home in the morning...they still may never come back. 

What is it like living at Ground Zero? Ask any Afghani. In the past 25 years, the U.S. government has paid the Taliban to bomb Afghanis, paid warlords to bomb Afghanis, paid the Northern Alliance to bomb Afghanis and then went and bombed Afghanis themselves. 

What is it like living at Ground Zero? Ask any Palestinian. In 1947-48, 450 Palestinian farming villages were destroyed by Zionists and it has gone downhill from there every since. Today, there are 40,000 home demolition orders out on Palestinian homes. If you are a Palestinian, you never know when you leave your home in the morning if it will be there when you come back. 

What is it like living at Ground Zero? I hope to God that Americans, unlike all those poor schmucks in the Middle East, will never have to find out. And I also hope that the Bush bureaucracy will finally figure out that bombing the Middle East only adds fuel to the terrorists’ fire and that Bush will finally use what little sense God gave him and stop it -- so that we can finally go back to forgetting about Osama again. 

Jane Stillwater  

 

?


Editorial Cartoon By JUSTIN DEFREITAS

Tuesday January 24, 2006

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.

 

 


Commentary: Pension Fund Problems Behind Berkeley Honda Dispute By JIM DOTEN

Tuesday January 24, 2006

First of all, I want to say that despite all the turmoil that has occurred since I sold my Honda dealership, I have been pleased at so many positive references to how Jim Doten Honda was viewed by the Berkeley community. That is very important to me. I want to assure all the citizens of Berkeley that I sold the franchise to a group in whom I have the utmost confidence. I believe that they are committed to being good corporate citizens and have the talent, dedication and wherewithal to grow the business to new levels, providing many more jobs and sales tax revenues to the community that I have served for 31 years. 

So what do I think of the strike? I’m glad you asked. 

I believe that the strike and boycott against Berkeley Honda is one of the most misguided and misdirected invectives I have ever witnessed. The union would have you believe that it is about people, but it clearly has nothing to do with people. Sadly, the good citizens of Berkeley are being fed a line by the union to stir their emotions and cause them to rush to the defense of the “wronged employees.” I believe that the owners of Berkeley Honda made not only legal, but sound business decisions in their hiring of staff for the new operation, an opinion that is shared by the NLRB. That is why the union dropped its unfair labor practices lawsuit so quickly. So why has all the hoopla continued and why has it gone on for so long? It is being done for one reason and one reason alone: To divert you from the real issue, which is the incompetence of the union and its pension plan. 

How am I so sure of that? I’m glad you asked. 

Two days after Christmas I received a thank you gift from the Automotive Industries Pension Plan. It was a bill for $543,878.36 for which I am personally responsible. As an additional present they graciously gave me the opportunity to pay this bill over three and a half years bringing the yuletide total demand to just shy of $600,000. Let me say again so you don’t miss it: six hundred thousand dollars. And to top it off, it all comes from after-tax dollars. This, after having paid every contribution for every employee that I was required to, on time, for the past 31 years. It is a tremendous amount of money, $541,923 in the past five years alone. The letter (whose salutation should have been “Greetings”) went on to point out that the unfunded vested liability of the plan was $141,495,878 at the end of 2004. To put that in perspective, the amount of the fund deficit was equal to the gross domestic product of Argentina! It is projected that as of year-end 2005 the unfunded vested liability will be $200 million. The amount I am being asked to pay is my pro-rata share, based on my contributions over the past five years. So the more I paid in, the more of the unfunded liability I am being asked to cover. 

So how did that unfunded liability occur? I’m glad you asked. 

Pension funds across this country are being faced with many problems, some of which are not in their control. The fact that Americans are living longer, while good news for all of us, has made the actuarial data used to establish these plans inaccurate. Another problem is the declining membership in the trade unions, meaning that there are less current workers to support more retired workers. These are problems over which there is little control. Other reasons leading to unfunded liabilities are poor investment decisions and actions taken by the trustees of the plan. The pension fund, like so many others, has suffered with the economy. I grant that the vagaries of the capital markets have bested some fine money managers. Let’s suffice it to say that modest growth is the least to be expected from a fund devoted to retirement benefits ... and this fund has not experienced modest growth. Despite that fact, it is the actions of the trustees on which I would like to focus. 

In 2001 the plan actually had a surplus of $150 million. The decision of the trustees was to give everyone a raise. The benefit payout percentage was increased from 4.2 percent to 5 percent per month. This increase was made retroactive to 1955. This means that a fully vested retiree would see a monthly retirement check equal to 5 percent of each and every monthly contribution made for them since 1955. What a great windfall for everyone. However the fund had a $0 surplus by the end of 2002, a $50 million deficit by the end of 2003 and the spiral continues. And now, to cover that deficit, they are coming after me, and any other dealer who has the desire to sell their dealership. You may not like businessmen but I ask you how fair it is, that after dutifully paying into their fund for all these years, I have to pay for their money grab. 

Additionally, in reaction to the deficits, and since the fund is precluded by law from taking away any benefits already given, they started dropping the payout percentage going forward. That percentage is now effectively down to 1.17 percent for current members of the machinists union. That means for every $450 monthly contribution that Berkeley Honda makes for each employee, that employee will see $5.27 per month in retirement benefits. Just three years ago the same $450 contribution would have brought $22.50 per month in retirement benefits. The new owners would prefer to see that their employees get the maximum benefit from the money put aside for them. 

I have to admit that I was unaware of the potential liability when I signed the union agreement. I am now being asked to pay a tremendous price for the oversight. The owners of Berkeley Honda were smart enough to actually read the pension plan trust agreement prior to signing the union agreement and saw it would make them personally liable for potentially millions of dollars over which they had no control. No rational person would agree to such a deal especially in light of the fund’s performance over the past several years. Their counter offer to put the same amount of money into 401(k)s for each employee is not only prudent, it shows an actual concern that their employees end up receiving the money they are entitled to receive. Yet the union keeps feeding people with misleading information so that they don’t have to face the real issue. While I respect the people of Berkeley and their concern for workers, this concern would be better aimed at the union. This protest ought to be conducted at the union headquarters and not at Berkeley Honda. Every union member ought to be questioning how their union could allow their pension to get into the state that it is in. Every union member ought to be questioning whether the union really care about them or about covering their own behind.  

Don’t shoot the messenger just because you don’t like the message. That is just my opinion. 

I’m glad you asked. 

 

Jim Doten is the former owner of  

Berkeley Honda.


Commentary: Cultural Space Not for Private Parties By ANNA DE LEON

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Thank you for this community forum to discuss issues that affect the whole community. I feel compelled to respond to the letter written by Gloria Atherstone, owner of Glass Onion Catering Company, also the tenant who rents the performance space and mezzanine at the Gaia Building. She signs her letter as Gaia Arts Management, Inc. She asserts that the private party-turned-melee on Jan. 7 was “not facilitated in any way by Glass Onion Catering, Gaia Arts Management or Panoramic Interests.” The party was held in a building owned by Panoramic Interests, in a space rented and managed by Ms. Atherstone. Yet no one takes responsibility for this private party that attracted hundreds, kept my customers away and had to be shut down by the police.  

Neither the one security guard nor I could prevent at least a hundred young men from using my venue as a pass-through. Bad for my business, yes. And the ensuing melee was bad for downtown, occurring at Allston and Shattuck as the movies were letting out. Virtually any parent in flatlands Berkeley or Oakland could tell Gloria Atherstone that a party for an 18-year-old in a large downtown space would probably become uncontrollable. Once the word gets out, hundreds of teenage and young adult men will come to any party they can find on a Saturday night. 

Quoting part of the police report: “There were about 100 teenagers and young adults standing around on the sidewalk in front of [Anna’ s Jazz Island] and another 10-15 standing around inside the lobby. Ms de Leon told me that the party patrons were circumventing the security guards assigned to the party and were using her nightclub to walk in and out of the party through a rear entrance. They were smoking marijuana and some were drinking alcohol from two-liter soda bottles that had been spiked. 

“I recovered two such soda bottles abandoned in the lobby that contained at least half their contents. I examined the bottles and they smelled strongly of alcohol. The party was extremely loud and the music was easily audible from the sidewalk. 

“The person [responsible for the party] said he was unable to manage the crowd and the issues presented by them. ... The security assigned accomplished the dispersal of the room quick and orderly. Ms de Leon said she attempted to count the number of people in the room as they were leaving and she lost count at 182. [Current occupancy permitted is 86.] 

“I requested additional units to assist with what was likely to be a crowd control concern. Several officers and sergeants arrived within moments (in six police cars). Sgt. Frankel led a group of officers in an effort to move the crowd toward Shattuck Avenue and away from the Gaia Building. After about 20 30 minutes of interactive crowd management and only minor skirmishes, the crowd dispersed. While dispersing, a bottle was thrown from the crowd in the direction of the officers...” 

The officers handled this volatile situation extremely well. No escalation, no injuries, no arrests. But Ms. Atherstone states: “This birthday party was a private celebration and was not facilitated in any way by Glass Onion Catering and Gaia Arts Management or Panoramic Interests.” With that total unwillingness to take responsibility, or to apologize for bad judgment, this will likely happen again. And it makes one wonder: What mysterious person gave the parent of an 18-year-old the key to the Gaia door? Who told The Marsh to shut down the play that one night in a month-long run? Who received the rent that the parent told me he paid for the facility? Not only did this private party benefit no one, we all now bear the cost for the six police cars that arrived. We all pay the salaries of all those officers called to the scene to do “crowd control.” All for another private party that should never have been held in a space in which only cultural use is permitted. 

 

Anna de Leon is the proprietor of Anna’ s Jazz Island.


Commentary: Berkeley Needs More Density on BART Site By Jonathan Stephens

Tuesday January 24, 2006

The reason that I moved to South Berkeley a few years ago was to become part of a community that shared my vision for an inclusive society that valued diversity and compassion above all other things. While I still feel deeply committed to a world that is centered more on the common good of its citizens than petty economic pursuits, I do feel that there needs to be a little flexibility and open mindedness when it comes to the growing need for high-density housing options here in Berkeley.  

Here in Berkeley this problem is more acute than anywhere else I can think of off hand. This city is one of the most densely populated cities in the entire state. For nearly a century, development of land in Berkeley was approached with a philosophy that was totally incongruent with the geographical limitations of the area. The approach was not unlike Los Angeles. However the fact that Berkeley is situated between the bay and the coastal range made the problems associated with urban sprawl much more acute than in the Los Angeles basin and its seemingly endless expanse of arid pasture land.  

With this bit of history in mind, I am amazed that the citizens of South Berkeley are angrily fighting the mere study of a potential development at the Ashby BART parking lot. In my estimation, parking lots are probably the biggest waste of land imaginable. The idea that a piece of land in the middle of a densely populated city is only being used to house cars and a flea market is insane. Thankfully, the kind of antiquated thinking that led to such an outrageous notion in the first place is being supplanted with the wisdom to do more with our land than host drum circles and collect oil slicks. Of course, this sentiment is coming from a guy who parks at the Ashby BART and loves to hear the drum circle when I sit in my back yard on the weekends. 

Now I am certain that most of the opponents to the development can agree with me in principle that something must be done at the site. I am pretty sure that a city with such an educated populace is more than aware that a parking lot is a big waste of space. Unfortunately, I don’t understand what the opponents are afraid of at this point. After all, at this point, Mr. Anderson and his associates are merely trying to secure money for a study regarding the property. When did this become a major no-no? It’s not as if they invited Bechtel over for drinks and signed a deal that would have given them enough kickback money to send the next three generations of family to college. Clearly, nothing illegal, immoral or underhanded was done. All that has happened so far is a chance for the city to get money to examine potential uses for the site.  

I think the real issue here is that many people who oppose this plan are being nit-picky about the bureaucratic process because they do not want to see any changes in South Berkeley. They would rather watch weeds grow in a parking lot than support a development that they view as elitist. I believe there is a pervasive fear that any development that doesn’t serve the far-fetched claims I have read about in this paper recently is inherently wrong.  

I’m sorry to say this, but the flea market does not justify the massive land waste at the Ashby BART. For those who feel the flea market is their only way to make a living, the city has pledged to find the venue a new home on Adeline. Moreover, citizens who use the flea market as their justification to oppose a new development need to acknowledge that something must be done with the land eventually, and it is inevitable that the flea market will have to find a new venue at some point. Further, using the land for “a creek to help children lose weight” is a nice sentiment, but a little unrealistic. In my view, the only viable option for the site is to provide high-density housing and viable commercial options in an area that badly lacks both of these things. Also, there is no chance that eminent domain will be used in any development, and nobody in favor of the development has insinuated that historical buildings should be torn down. However, if this development could bring upgrades to the area’s buildings, this is a good thing.  

Lastly, I am grateful to live in a city with so man citizens who care about the path we take as a community. However, there must be compromise to allow development to take place. We must keep pace with the changing dynamics of our time so that we can continue to provide for the current and future needs of our city. Instead of opposing any development outright, why don’t we look at ways to ensure there is affordable housing components of developments and that the construction is green. The future of any development on the parking lot must have the input of all of South Berkeley’s citizens and must conform to a vision that we all can agree on. I truly hope that we can have some sort of a creek in the new development, as I love the idea of restoring native habitat. I also hope that we can integrate essential services for underserved people in the new development. However, we cannot let far fetched theory and pettiness deride the great opportunity we have at the Ashby BART parking lot. For any development to work there must be compromise. The future will bring change regardless of our personal views, and the only way we can all shape this change is to talk it out and reach a consensus.  

 

Jonathan Stephens is a South Berkeley resident.$


Commentary: Line Rage By WINSTON BURTON

Tuesday January 24, 2006

Before you read this article, take a five count. Slowly inhale through your nose for five seconds, hold your breath for five seconds and then slowly exhale through your mouth counting to five. 

Who needs a road or a vehicle to be in a rage, a shopping cart can do just fine. Some people seem to think that by pushing their shopping cart in your behind in the check-out line the cashier will move faster. I’ve also noticed people behind me counting the items in my cart to make sure there are 15 or less. (Are 10 cans of Alpo considered one item or 10...it’s all dog food.) Also when someone finally has their groceries rung up and they pull out coupons—look out! The sighs and groans that come from the line are only duplicated by the changing of cashiers or someone being sentenced to jail.  

Line rage at the DMV got so bad that you’ll occasionally see an armed state trooper roaming the lobby instead of patrolling the highways. They’ve also introduced appointments.  

Line rage is not always unjustifiable. It can be brought on by rude store personnel or by someone standing in line in front of you waving for their three friends to join them. 

I’ve recently read in the Daily Planet of long lines and people’s discontent with poor service at the post office. Uh oh! We don’t need the public going postal too. 

But all is not lost, yet. I have some suggestions. 

“Not in a hurry, left early.” That’s my new mantra. It gives me, and especially those who are even more incompetent, time to handle their business. 

Reading tabloids. I look forward to standing in line as an opportunity to read the Enquirer, Globe and all those other papers that I have never purchased and never will. Who knows! Maybe Elvis and Jimi Hendrix really did come from another planet. Perhaps they can even install news racks at the post office and DMV. 

Be nice. Sometimes I turn to the impatient person behind me and insist they go in front of me. It confounds the hell out of them. 

The five-second count. Recently I’ve had to go as high as a 10-second count. But watch out! I can only hold my breath for so long. 

I’m amazed at the length some people will go to gain a few extra minutes out of a 24-hour day. We’ve all heard of fistfights and shootings on the freeway because someone wanted to get a few car lengths ahead of someone else. Impatience causes stress, and stress is a leading cause of death in America.  

Beware! Those few minutes you may gain rushing about could be the cause of your demise.  

 

 

Winston Burton is a Berkeley resident. 

 


Commentary: Sam A. Man By Frank Olivier

Tuesday January 24, 2006

 

That Sam A. Man, that Sam A. Man, I do not trust that Sam A. Man. 

I would not trust him in a judge’s box, and sure not with that Cheney Fox. 

 

Would not trust him with our last tree, he’s friends with Karl Rove you see. 

Big Business is where he’s at; he’s friends with “The Cat in the Fat.” 

 

Alito says he’s not rememberin’ the club of bigots that he’s in. 

We need someone to be a man, not a selective memory span. 

 

I would not trust him with a vote, not him, not in a judge’s coat. 

Not in Louisiana rain, it’s true he comes from Bush’s brain. 

 

Bush’s brain, whoever that might be, Rove, or Cheney, or Libby. 

We all know the time is now, and we can stop him, this is how. 

 

If we want to stop Alito, we have strength that we can muster,  

And Sam A. Man will be finito, now’s our chance to filibuster. 

 

It’s not so hard to do you see, now take this little tip from me: 

Just talk until the day is through, and then Sam A. goes away from you. 

 


Arts Calendar

Friday January 20, 2006

FRIDAY, JAN. 20 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Twelfth Night” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through Feb. 18. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. 

“Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins ... In Search of My Father” performed by W. Allen Taylor at 7 p.m. at the Marsh-Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way, through Jan. 28. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006. 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “Splinters ... and Other F-Words” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, through Feb. 11. Tickets are $12-$25 sliding scale. 800-838-3006. www.raggedwing.org 

Shotgun Players “Cabaret” Thurs. - Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Through Jan. 29. 841-6500.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Painting Italy” Works by Audrey Brown opens with a reception at 6:30 p.m., at Red Oak Realty Office, 2983 College Ave. 849-9990. 

FILM 

“The Best of Youth, Parts 1 and 2” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ana Marie Cox introduces her political comic novel, “Dog Days” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 98 Broadway, Oakland. 272-0120. 

Sesshu Foster introduces a fantastical mythology “Atomik Aztex” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland East Bay Symphony performs Puts, Mozart and Brahms at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15-$60. 625-8497. 

King Wawa and the Oneness Kingdom Band at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Eurythmy Recital Dance by students of the East Bay Waldorf School at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Free. www.juliamorgan.org 

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company “As I Was Saying” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Warsaw Poland Brothers, Hukanolix at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Bradford Powers & Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com  

Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carman Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Carlos Zialcita Blues Band at 9 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way., Oakland. Cost is $7. 654-4549. 

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

Palm Wine Boys at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Eric Swinderman Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Meric Long, The Pigeon and the Peasant at 8 p.m. at the Living Room Gallery, 3230 Adeline St. Donation $3-$5. 601-5774. 

Robin Galante and Martin Dory at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Pansy Division, Fleshies, Abi Yo Yo’s at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

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

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

Ledisi 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, JAN. 21 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Mary Ellen Hill, multicultural folk and fairy tales, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mikio Naruse “The Song Lantern” at 7 p.m. and “A Tale of Archers at the Sanjusangendo” at 8:55 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

THEATER 

Moshe Cohen and Unique Derique “Cirque Do Somethin’” at 1 p.m. at the Marsh, 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $10-$15. 800-838-3006. www.themarsh.org 

Masquers Playhouse "Over the River and Through the Woods" Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Feb. 25 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

FILM 

“NeoPaganism in California: Visions of the Past and Memories of the Future” Films and panel discussion from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the Chapel, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Drive. Cost is $15-$25 sliding scale. www.thepaganalliance.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“I Have Been to the Mountaintop” Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech, followed by discussion with Demetrius Gins at 2:30 p.m. at Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. 

Ronne Hartfield describes “Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Gary Hart introduces “God and Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politics” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Miss Poppy (Elaine Addison) talks about “Miss Poppy’s Guide to Raising Raising Perfectly Happy Children” at 11:30 a.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“The Genite Chronicles - A Link to the Past” with transgendered authors Nicole and Debbie Cook at 2 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company “Blind Date” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Discussion with Bill T. Jones after the performance. Tickets are $26-$48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

San Francisco Early Music Society at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. www.sfem.org 

Sarah Cahill, pianist, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. trinitychamberconcerts.com 

American Bach Soloists at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $18-$40. 415-621-7900. www.americanbach.org 

Jessica Neighbor Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Sambo Ngo at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Caribbean Youth Project Presents: Youth in Action at 8 p.m.at La Peña. Cost is $7-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

KaUaTuahine Polynesian Dance Company at 8 p.m. at Maha Uchiyama Center, 729 Heinz Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 845-2605. 

Big Delta Blues Club at 10 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way., Oakland. Cost is $7. 654-4549. 

Noitada Brasileira at 8 p.m. at The Beat, 2560 Ninth St. Tickets are $15-$20. 548-5348. www.the-beat.org 

Jared Karol and Nate Cooper at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

CV1 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Maria Muldaur at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Finless Brown, The Contaminates at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Dave Bernstein Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Moment’s Notice, improvised music, dance and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio 2525 8th St. Cost is $8-$10. 649-1791. 

Jason Webley, Two Gallants, Teenage Harlets 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. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 22 

CHILDREN 

Gary Laplow at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

EXHIBTIONS 

Annual Members’ Showcase Reception at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 

FILM 

Screenagers: Bay Area High School Film Festival at noon and 2:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

A Tribute to Frenando Alegría at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Kate Gale and Heather Lee at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Island Literary Series, hosted by Avotcja, at 3 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $3. 841-JAZZ. 

Andrea Johnston talks about “Girls Speak Out: Finding Your True Self” at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Jürgen Vsych reads from “The Woman Director,” the first autobiography by an American female film director, at 2 p.m. at Change Makers Books. 655-2405 www.TheWomanDirector.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tribute to Barbara Shearer at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Brad Mehldau Trio & Bill Frisell Quintet at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$40. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

San Francisco Symphony Chamber Music Sundaes at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $9-$17. 415-584-5946. www.chambermusicsundaes.org 

Oakland Civic Orchestra, with Callan Milani, finalist in OEBS Young Artist Competition at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Free. 338-0538. 

Tina Marzell Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Nate Cooper at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Flamenco Open Stage at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jacqui Naylor at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

John McCutcheon at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ledisi at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is 20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 23 

THEATER 

Subterranean Shakespeare “The Tempest” Staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1924 Cedar St. Donation $5. 276-3871. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Making Cakes for the Queen of Heaven” an exhibition on family religion in Ancient Israel opens at the Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion. 849-8201. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Saving Antiquities” Matthew Bogdanos, author of “Thieves of Baghdad” and a colonel in the Marine reserve will describe his efforts to save irreplaceable antiquities looted from the Iraq Museum in 2003, at 7:30 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. www.savingantiquities.org 

“Women’s Religious Culture in Ancient Israel” with Carol Meyers at 3:30 p.m. in Chapel Room 6, Pacific School of Relgion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8201. 

Theodore Rosak reads from his new book “World Beware! American Triumphalism in an Age of Terror” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Express with John Curl at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Hallifax & Jeffrey at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

West Coast Songwriters Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Willie Jones III Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JAN. 24 

THEATER 

“MacHomer” Rick Miller’s one-man show of “Macbeth” featuring impressions from “The Simpsons” at 8 p.m., Sat at 7 and 10 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Roda Theater, 2015 Addison, Tickets are $30-$35. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

FILM 

Mary Ellen Bute, Gunvor Nelson and “The Woman’s FIlm” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

James McManus describes “Physical: An American Check-up” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Debbie Poryes, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

McCoy Tyner Residency, with Joe Lovano, Dave Holland & Lewis Nash at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Feb. 5. Cost is $15-$30. 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. 

Eric Muhler, jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “9 Parts of Desire” about women in war-torn Iraq, at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through March 5. Tickets are $30-$59. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Jeanne Dunning “Study After Untitled,” photographs and video works, opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Artists talk at 2 p.m. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Movies in the Nickelodeon Era at 3 p.m. and “La Lucha: The Struggle” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Looting the World’s Archaeological Heritage: Whose Fault?” with Lord Colin Renfrew, Disney Professor of Archaeology, University of Cambridge and Director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, at 5 p.m. at the Archaeological Research Facility, 2251 College Building, UC Campus. 

Josh Kun describes “Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert: “Bach’s Influence on Mozart” at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Music for the Spirit with Dave Hatt, organ, at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

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

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

Big Lou’s Polka Casserole at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Polka dance lesson at 8 p.m. with the Golden Gate Bavarian Club. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pepe y Su Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Cas Lucas at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Eliza Glikyson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Infamous, Yellow Bus Gang, Sani at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 26 

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Lightning” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“California Faience of Berkeley: A Family Perspective” with Kirby William Brown at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $8-$12. 843-8982. 

Matthew Bokovoy reads from “The San Diego World’s Fairs and Southwestern Memory, 1880-1940” at 7 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

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

Word Beat Reading Series celebrates Jesse Beagle’s 80th birthday at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Young People’s Chamber Orchestra at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Free. www.ypco.org 

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

Smithtone Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Philip Rodriguez with Water, guitar, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Wayward Monks at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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


Columns

Column: The View From Here: Where Will the Transit Village Leave South Berkeley? By P.M. Price

Tuesday January 24, 2006

The South Berkeley Blues 

 

Goin’ to South Berkeley 

Sorry but I can’t take you 

Said I’m goin’ to South Berkeley 

Sorry but I can’t take you 

‘Cause deep down in ole South Berkeley  

There just ain’t nothin’ for nobody to do... 

 

Well... 

 

Rant 

So, great, along with our bookstores, delicatessens, banks, boutiques, art galleries, museums, parks, Peet’s and Starbucks, we’re getting a “transit village” too? After our fair city allowed BART to rip apart our neighborhood while ‘60s hippies and Berkeley-style liberals quietly watched—I’m sure there were more important issues at the time—we got split in two so that north Berkeleyans could and still do speed through our used-to-be neighborhood to get to the freeway flyin’ down MLK not stopping for pregnant/elderly/our children with no pedestrian crossing/double the fines/school ahead/humans walking signs or stripes or lighted walkways like on College Avenue, Solano Avenue in the north east any place but here to prevent us from harm injury death ... the pleasure of calling out to our neighbors swallowed up by the constant din making us deaf to each other but not to the screeching of tires the blaring of horns our main street turned pollution filled highway so others can go go go as fast as you can to get to anyplace but here and their noise and the smell dust particles from their cars on our window sills our fruit trees settling into our lungs our children die younger in South Berkeley our elderly die younger our men our women I bet even our pets—would you care then if our dogs were dying because of the car exhaust you dump into our neighborhood would you care then if it was all about our dogs would you care then? 

So now we have what was a Transparent Theater now an Ashby Stage and an Epic Arts and young white kids moving in creatively trying to live where the rents are lower and there’s some hope some room for their kind of creativity and daddy’s money whose money their hard working money is this city money? Hey, are there any black owned stores in South Berkeley in north east West Berkeley any black owned businesses yes we do our own hair so we do have those and one shoe repair shop and and and and — 

We eat we wear clothes and read books and where are our stores? Will any of these new transit village homes shops creative ideas have room for us will we own anything create anything show our art, sell our food, your cheeses anybody’s coffee? Will we sing in this transit village will we recite poetry perform plays sew clothes paint pictures sculpt, play read sleep talk with other humans as though we were human too in this new village? Or will we weep? Will this transit village be just another transit be just another way of going through without seeing transversing without the village part just a going through to get to never mind who was there before and still might be now, they’re just remnants of what was anyway. 

And what of our beloved flea market our landmark truly the center of our village the village that is not in transit does not need funding or redesigning or building but the village that already is and has been? 

We gather at our flea market every weekend for communion for exercise we walk talk dance to our own made up music we laugh we share not just buy it’s not about the money. 

Do you really need another playground? 

End of Rant 

 

 

When I was growing up and spending my summers in South Berkeley with Grandma and Granddad (we just called it Berkeley then; it was all just plain old Berkeley) you could actually engage in a conversation with the Cottons across the street and you could walk across Grove Street without taking your life into your hands. 

What we did in South Berkeley was spend time with our families. It wasn’t about going out and shopping. We ate, we laughed, we walked down to the park, we played in the sand while our parents played tennis, we walked home, gathered together and shared our days. Now, the old black and Asian folks are mostly gone, their offspring as well. Many young black families cannot afford their own parents’ homes so they’ve moved to Oakland, Richmond, El Cerrito and further. Look around you. Where are Berkeley’s middle-class black families? Few and far between.  

My questions are these: Is it the plan for this transit village to be wholly self-contained? So that folks arrive on BART, shop and then leave? So there’s no interaction with the aborigines in the outer village at all? If so, what do the rest of us villagers get besides the loss of our beloved flea market? It sounds eerily like what’s being planned for our Derby Street Farmer’s Market. Destroy our landmark—one of our primary centers for nourishment and communion—to make our neighborhood more desirable for whom? For how many hours?  

If there is to be a South Berkeley Transit Village, we need some guarantees demonstrating inclusiveness. And while we’re waiting for our paid representatives to supply these guarantees, why don’t you people do something about the speeding down MLK, the lack of protection for pedestrians, the noise and pollution people in transit create while transiting through our used-to-be neighborhood and fill some potholes, smooth some sidewalks and plant some trees while you’re at it.  

Thank you.?


Column: Late December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) By SUSAN PARKER

Tuesday January 24, 2006

My New York friends took me to see the musical Jersey Boys at the August Wilson Theatre on 52nd Street in Manhattan. They thought that because I grew up in the Garden State I would identify with, at the very least, the title. And in some ways I did. Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, was familiar because, like almost everyone from the ‘burbs in the early ‘60s, I grew up with their music. 

Before entering the theater I had no idea how many Four Seasons’ tunes I knew by heart. 

It turns out I know more Frankie Valli lyrics then those of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Unbeknownst to me, Frank and the Seasons made up the background noise of my formative years. After four-plus decades I have, both regrettably and remarkably retained without effort, every word, doo wop, and mumble uttered by Mr. Valli and his boys. 

It helps, of course, that every Four Seasons’ tune sounds exactly the same, but perhaps that’s part of the charm. Secretly listening to WIBG Philadelphia blaring from my pink transistor radio hidden under my pillow, I woke up to Silhouettes (“On the Shade”), brushed my teeth to “Earth Angel,” ate breakfast to “Big Man in Town,” and left for Wenonah Elementary School to the strains of “C’mon Marianne.” 

I returned home, flicked on the radio, and was greeted by Frankie once again, singing Sherry (“Sherry baby”), Dawn (“You’re no good for me”), and my then personal favorite, “Ragdoll.” Just before going to bed Frank serenaded me with “My Eyes Adored You,” and followed up with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.” 

Is it any wonder I turned out to be the person I am today with short, falsetto, very Catholic Frankie telling the pre-pubescent me all night long he was ‘working his way back with a burning love inside’? 

On the way to the theater, I reviewed my brief history with the Broadway musical form. When was the last time I had seen a show in the Big Apple? I recalled going on a school bus trip when I was 14 or 15 years old, but what did I see? It wasn’t Hair, because eighth-graders from Gateway Regional Junior High wouldn’t have been permitted to see it. It wasn’t Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, Westside Story, My Fair Lady, or Fiddler on the Roof. Cats came later, as did Godspell and A Chorus Line. It wasn’t Oh Calcutta! because I would have definitely remembered naked people on stage. 

I went through the alphabet hoping it would help me jump-start my memory. I asked my friends to sing aloud the show tunes they remembered from childhood. They mumbled weirdly jumbled interpretations of “Climb Every Mountain,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “The Rain in Spain,” but we didn’t get any closer to unlocking my forgotten past. The only words to Camelot anyone could recall were these four sung in a Richard Harris-affected baritone: “to Ca-me-lot.” 

I tried another approach. What musicals did they see when they were teenagers? There was a long pause while everyone struggled to mentally search back 45 years or so. Suddenly, they all shouted at once: Man of LaMancha! Each of them burst into their own rendition of “The Impossible Dream.” It was pathetic. 

What had happened to us? We’d gone from dreaming the impossible dream, fighting the unbeatable foe, and bearing the unbearable sorrow to “I’m Beggin You and Bye Bye Baby, (don’t make me cry).” 

But while I don’t recall much about Don Quixote and his quest, I do remember Frankie Valli advising and admonishing in “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man.” Perhaps it’s time to take his advice again and apply it to my waning memories as in “Let’s Hang on to What We Got (don’t give up girl, we’ve got a lot).” 

 

 

 

 


Trees Manage Water to the Benefit of the Atmosphere By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet

Tuesday January 24, 2006

It’s only on my worst, most misanthropic days that I suspect most of my fellow humans of not noticing that the trees around us are more than overdecorated hatracks. We all know they’re alive, right? And we all know, or ought to, that they’re in motion, growing, moving (though at a pace we’re ill-equipped to see), performing, building the massive edifices of themselves with light and carbon and air.  

They move themselves mostly by building, a few cells at a time, reaching by expanding, and bending by swelling or compressing themselves on one side or another, toward light above ground and water below. In the process of making their food and substance they emit oxygen and water into the atmosphere. Turns out they’re juggling that water in a more complex and sophisticated manner than anyone had suspected, according to recent finds by various scientists.  

The heights to which they can pump water, passing it and the nutrient minerals dissolved in it along their xylem tissues, vary among species—and it’s evidently the limiting factor for many trees’ ultimate heights. In the top leaves of big old redwoods, for example, photosynthesis is much less efficient than it was when the tree was younger and smaller.  

There appears to be a simple mechanical reason for this: Water is forced along those long columns largely by the force of evaporation through the stomata, the little pores on each leaf. At the top of a big tree, water is scarcer because it’s harder to draw up, so the stomata are closed more often to limit evaporation. But leaves also take in carbon dioxide through those stomata, and can’t do so when they’re in effect holding their breath. Metabolically, the tree ends up running as fast as it can just to stay in place.  

Conifers have larger pores in the connections within their water-conducting systems, which allow them to move more water through with less internal resistance. This would be one reason those redwoods and big pines and spruces can tower over other trees in the forest.  

Plumbing isn’t the whole story; there are internal cell-growth effects of hydrostatic pressure differences, and some tropical trees that also grow more slowly when they get big, but USDA ecologist Michael Ryan and his team studying a set of eucalyptus seedlings in Hawaii for seven years think that water’s too plentiful to be the limiter. They’re still looking for that. 

Meanwhile, a set of UC Berkeley researchers has figured out that deep-rooted trees engage in water-banking: they store water in different levels of the soil for their own use. By doing this, they’re able to keep their rate of evapotranspiration—the release of water into the air around them, humidifying and cooling it—and of photosynthesis 40 percent higher in dry months than they would otherwise be, and keep their place and the planet cooler than they’d be without them. 

Todd Dawson, Jung-Eun Lee, and Inez Fung of UC Berkeley, and their colleagues including Rafael Oliveira of the Laboratório de Ecologia Isotópica at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, studied Amazonian trees in particular but said their model showed effects in temperate places too.  

The tap roots that some species have, which can extend more than their height underground, have more to do than anchor the tree. Fibrous feeding roots reach a broad, shallower area around the tree; tap roots, using chemical potential gradients, redistribute water downwards in rainy seasons and upwards in dry seasons to keep nurturing life processes. These processes are how trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere—another control on planetary climate extremes. 

“These trees are using their root system to redistribute water into different soil compartments,” Dawson said. “This allows the trees and the forest to sustain water use throughout the dry season. … There’s this skin on the Earth—plants—that has an effect on a global scale, pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and letting water go, in a dynamic way that has climatic implications.” 

We know that trees modify our immediate surroundings in the city—you can feel that directly, standing in a tree’s shade on a hot day, being cooled by its transpiration. Apparently they’re actively doing that favor for the whole world, too. 

 

?


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday January 24, 2006

TUESDAY, JAN. 24 

THEATER 

“MacHomer” Rick Miller’s one-man show of “Macbeth” featuring impressions from “The Simpsons” at 8 p.m., Sat at 7 and 10 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Roda Theater, 2015 Addison, Tickets are $30-$35. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

FILM 

Mary Ellen Bute, Gunvor Nelson and “The Woman’s FIlm” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

James McManus describes “Physical: An American Check-up” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

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

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761.  

Debbie Poryes, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

McCoy Tyner Residency, with Joe Lovano, Dave Holland & Lewis Nash at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Feb. 5. Cost is $15-$30. 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. 

Eric Muhler, jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “9 Parts of Desire” about women in war-torn Iraq, at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through March 5. Tickets are $30-$59. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Jeanne Dunning “Study After Untitled,” photographs and video works, opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Artists talk at 2 p.m. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Movies in the Nickelodeon Era at 3 p.m. and “La Lucha: The Struggle” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Looting the World’s Archaeological Heritage: Whose Fault?” with Lord Colin Renfrew, Disney Professor of Archaeology, University of Cambridge and Director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, at 5 p.m. at the Archaeological Research Facility, 2251 College Building, UC Campus. 

Josh Kun describes “Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert: “Bach’s Influence on Mozart” at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Music for the Spirit with Dave Hatt, organ, at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

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

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

Big Lou’s Polka Casserole at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Polka dance lesson at 8 p.m. with the Golden Gate Bavarian Club. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Pepe y Su Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Cas Lucas at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Eliza Glikyson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Infamous, Yellow Bus Gang, Sani at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 26 

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Lightning” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“California Faience of Berkeley: A Family Perspective” with Kirby William Brown at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $8-$12. 843-8982. 

Matthew Bokovoy reads from “The San Diego World’s Fairs and Southwestern Memory, 1880-1940” at 7 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

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

Word Beat Reading Series celebrates Jesse Beagle’s 80th birthday at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Young People’s Chamber Orchestra at 2 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Free. www.ypco.org 

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

Smithtone Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Philip Rodriguez with Water, guitar, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Wayward Monks at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

FRIDAY, JAN. 27 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Twelfth Night” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through Feb. 18. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

“MacHomer” Rick Miller’s one-man show of “Macbeth” featuring impressions from “The Simpsons” at 8 p.m., Sat at 7 and 10 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Roda Theater, 2015 Addison, Tickets are $30-$35. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Berkeley Rep “9 Parts of Desire” about women in war-torn Iraq, at 8 p.m. at the Trust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through March 5. Tickets are $30-$59. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest” Fri. and Sat at 8 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser Lane, El Cerrito, through Feb. 25. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

Masquers Playhouse "Over the River and Through the Woods" Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Feb. 25 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Walkin’ Talkin’ Bill Hawkins ... In Search of My Father” performed by W. Allen Taylor at 7 p.m. at the Marsh-Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way, through Feb. 5. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006. 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “Splinters ... and Other F-Words” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, through Feb. 11. Tickets are $12-$25 sliding scale. 800-838-3006. www.raggedwing.org 

Shotgun Players “Cabaret” Thurs. - Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Through Jan. 29. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Fib and Quibble Showcase, in celebration of Black History Month, at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 3 p.m. Sun at Malonga Casquelord Cener for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Donation $5. 839-9192. 

FILM 

African Film Festival “Delwende” at 7 and 8:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alice Walker in conversation with Amy Goodman at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. Benefits Media Alliance. 832-9000, ext. 305. 

Suzanne Braun Levine talks about “Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gabriel Trop, cello and Jim Prell, piano at noon at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Pellejo Seco, Cuban son, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sol Rebelz, Jerneye, Forensic Science at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Karen Blixt & Yooyoo Wolfe at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Don Carlos with RazorBlade at 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Josh Workman Duo at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Hostile Takeover, I Object, Abductee SD 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. 

Sila & The Afro Funk Experience at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Amy Lou Blues Band at 9 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way., Oakland. Cost is $7. 654-4549. 

Three Faces of Evil, cabaret music with Carolyn Mark, Amy Honey and Lily Fawn at 9 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph, Oakland. 444-6174. 

Ali Handal, guitar, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Guru Garage at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

McCoy Tyner Residency, with Joe Lovano, Dave Holland & Lewis Nash at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Feb. 5. Cost is $15-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JAN. 28 

CHILDREN  

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

EXHIBITIONS 

“Regla: Revolution” Selected prints from Cuban printmaker Antonio Canet. Reception at 2 p.m. at NIAD Art Center, 551 23rd St. Richmond. www.niadart.org 

Richmond Art Center Reception for Artists from 2 to 5 p.m. at 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. 620-6772. 

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Husband and Wife” at 7 p.m. and “Wife” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Asian American Poets with Ed Bok Lee, Barbara Jane Reyes and Justin Chin at 2 p.m. at Heller Lounge, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. Sponsored by Eastwind Books of Berkeley. 548-2350. 

Dave Barry introduces “Dave Barry’s Money Secrets: Like: Why is There a Giant Eyball on the Dollar?” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Falstaff” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, through Feb. 5. Tickets are $15-$40. 841-1903. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Santa Fe Guitar Quartet at 7:30 p.m. at Regents Theater, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd. Tickets are $25-$40. 549-3504. www.fourseasonsconcerts.com 

Ed Reed & Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

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

Dream Sequence, with Sistas in the Pit, Company of Prophets, and headRush, hip hop and poetry at 9 p.m. at The Oakland Noodle Factory, 1255 26th St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$20. All ages. 595-5526. 

The Mash Bash with Red Horizon, Secondhand Seranade, Story Told, and others at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. All ages. 

Jeff Rolka and Duff Ferguson at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. www.epicarts.org 

The Ravines and Jon Cooney at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

John Schott’s Dream Kitchen at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Lou & Peter Berryman at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Thrill Train R&B at 9 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way., Oakland. Cost is $7. 654-4549. 

Crack Pot Theory, Ghost Next Door, Absent Society at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Left Turn No Signal at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Warren Gale Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Megan Mclaugin and Patty Espeth at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Rio Brasil Forró Band, Brazilian, at 9 p.m. at Capoeira Arts Cafe, 2026 Addison St. Cost is $8. 666-1255. capoeiraarts.com 

Mandrake, Lemon Lime Lights, Black Bird Stitches at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Lights Out, Internal Affairs, Down to Nothing 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. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 29 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Art in Progress: Styles of the Artist” from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Poetry readings by John Curl, Meg Withers, and Patti Chepourkova at 2 p.m. at 800 Heinz. 845-0707. 

THEATER 

“Civil Rights Tales” By Stagebridge Senior Theater Company at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 WAlnut St. Tickets are $5-$8. 848-0237.  

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Older Brother, Younger Sister” at 4:30 p.m. and “Late Chrysanthemums” at 6:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Edward Weston: Masterworks from the Collection” with curator of photography Drew Johnson, at 2 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Poetry Flash with Amber Flora Thomas, Rose Black and Joseph Zaccardi at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anna Carol Dudley, soprano, celebrates her 75th birthday with a free concert at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, at Dana and Durant. 848-3696. 

Distant Oaks, a mid-winter Celtic celebration at 7 p.m. at Firts Presbyterian Church of Alameda, 2001 Santa Clara at Chestnut. Donation $10-$15. 522-1477. www.AlamedaChurch.com 

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Admission is free, donations requested. 

Maria Loreto at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

Vicki Genfan at 5 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

International Contemporary Ensemble “Composer Portrait Magnus Lindberg” at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32. 642-9988.  

Alma Brasileira at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

John Worley & Worlview at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazz- 

school.com 

Bandworks at 2:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jessie Turner, and Vanessa Lowe at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Push to Talk, Aberdien, One Way Letter, at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, JAN. 30 

THEATER 

Subterranean Shakespeare “King Lear” Staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1924 Cedar St. Donation $5. 276-3871. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Writing for the Greater Good” panel discussion to celebrate the latest issue of Greater Good magazine at 5:30 p.m. at North Gate Library, Hearst at Euclid, UC Campus. http://peacecenter.berkeley.edu/greatergood 

“Electoral Guerilla Theatre: Speaking Mirth to Power” with UC Davis professor of theatre, Larry Bogad at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698.  

Kathleen Ragan describes “Outfoxing Fear: Folktales from Around the World” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express with Zara Raab and HD Moe at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Nels Cline, music of Andrew Hill at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 


Arts: Ragged Wing Is a Welcome Addition to Local Theater By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet

Tuesday January 24, 2006

“When we reach the end, we shall know more than we know now. Once upon a time...” 

 

Strange that this familiar opening formula for bedtime stories and fairy tales should be dictated by a character from Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen, towering over her Snow Guard of workers in gauzy white jumpsuits at the beginning of Andrea L. Hart’s Splinters ... and Other F Words, produced by Ragged Wing Ensemble at the Northbrae Community Church on The Alameda, between Marin and Solano. 

The Snow Queen, all in glistening white gown and train, of course, is played on stilts by Ragged Wing cofounder Anna Shneiderman—credited as “Objective Observer” in the program, which clinical title goes along with the opening line above and its air of psychoanalysis. 

She proceeds regally throughout the whole play—90 minutes without intermission—dominating the stage and, until the end, its denizens, commenting sharply on the action which she signals in its phase-shifts with an upraised arm, a toss of her cape and what sounds like the blast of a winter’s gale. 

Splinters tells a story—a very clear one—but its episodes aren’t organized in a strictly dramatic or narrative sequence, despite the presence of the “Observer” seeming to narrate as well as participating in the scenes or vignettes along with the fluidly moving and changing ensemble, which flies across the floor of the playing area, between a mirror frame entwined by vines behind a steamer trunk (full of costume pieces and props) and the apron of a low curtained-off stage, forming ever-new groupings and tableaux.  

The story that’s told is of a girl who becomes a young woman (cofounder Amy Sass), sometimes the Gerda of Andersen’s tale, searching for Little Kai who’s in thrall to The Snow Queen, sometimes the daughter of an apostate minister who wrestles with leaving his wife, family, congregation and belief (both played by Keith Cory Davis). 

The father-daughter relationship (which reads like half an Electra complex) is complemented by the mother and other older women (one, met in a bar, is referred to as The Crone), as well as a boyfriend, a game show host, a sister and a girlfriend and other characters that spring up along the way as the story goes through its shifts, from one approach or attack to another. Credited as The Singer and Male and Female Chorus, this pool of roles is performed with energy by Mariah Howard, Mateo Hinojosa and Lauren Pizzi. 

(The real chorus of the play, the Queen’s Snow Guard, is an able bunch of middle and high school students—Esther Dane, Aiden Gavet, Amalia Mourad Korczowski, Eline Leemans, Roxie Perkins and Noah Teller—from the East and North Bay. The ensemble and other cast members teach drama and stress education and the integration of students into productions as a company goal.) 

Keith Cory Davis infuses his shifting roles with much juice, as he displayed in Ragged Wing’s first outing, The Serpent. Amy Sass, who directed that piece, is more internal, but often brings a sharp focus to Gerda/the young woman, which she plays with determination. 

Mateo Hinojosa always keeps an edge of humor to his “smarmy” roles, and Mariah Howard and Lauren Pizzi slip in and out of characters which they nonetheless delineate with distinction. 

Anna Shneiderman is every inch the Snow Queen atop her stilts, a tour-de-force of skill throughout the show (and a well-choreographed fight over her ice scepter), though perhaps exits and entrances would have added to both her role and the topology of the show’s design, which her figure dominates, relentlessly vertical, as the rest of the cast runs, slithers, writhes, pops up here and there, in processions, bar talk, a work camp or in bed. 

Andrea Hart has directed her own text, which is a kind of collage of statements, dialogue, and movement. Admitting to an early and continuing taste in theater as “a psychological dreamscape,” she’s outdistanced the constant risk of falling into a pastiche of primal scenes by constant theatrical activity, the main characters supported by or in contrapuntal distinction to the chorus. 

The sprains and speed of the show’s unfolding make up for some dramaturgical sketchiness, providing the amplitude that fleshes out the script’s perceptions into both the immediacy and staying power of drama. 

Ragged Wing is one of the newest of a batch of young movement theater companies that have added leavening to the Bay Area theater scene in recent years—foolsFURY of San Francisco, which just hosted a mini-festival for such troupes from all over, is probably the most ubiquitous, and most of them have some relationship with Dell’Arte Players and their school in Humboldt County. 

 

 

Ragged Wing Ensemble’s Splinters...and Other F Words, a performance in seven little parts runs  

at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Feb. 11. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley. Tickets are  

$12-$25. For reservations call  

(800) 838-3006.›


Trees Manage Water to the Benefit of the Atmosphere By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet

Tuesday January 24, 2006

It’s only on my worst, most misanthropic days that I suspect most of my fellow humans of not noticing that the trees around us are more than overdecorated hatracks. We all know they’re alive, right? And we all know, or ought to, that they’re in motion, growing, moving (though at a pace we’re ill-equipped to see), performing, building the massive edifices of themselves with light and carbon and air.  

They move themselves mostly by building, a few cells at a time, reaching by expanding, and bending by swelling or compressing themselves on one side or another, toward light above ground and water below. In the process of making their food and substance they emit oxygen and water into the atmosphere. Turns out they’re juggling that water in a more complex and sophisticated manner than anyone had suspected, according to recent finds by various scientists.  

The heights to which they can pump water, passing it and the nutrient minerals dissolved in it along their xylem tissues, vary among species—and it’s evidently the limiting factor for many trees’ ultimate heights. In the top leaves of big old redwoods, for example, photosynthesis is much less efficient than it was when the tree was younger and smaller.  

There appears to be a simple mechanical reason for this: Water is forced along those long columns largely by the force of evaporation through the stomata, the little pores on each leaf. At the top of a big tree, water is scarcer because it’s harder to draw up, so the stomata are closed more often to limit evaporation. But leaves also take in carbon dioxide through those stomata, and can’t do so when they’re in effect holding their breath. Metabolically, the tree ends up running as fast as it can just to stay in place.  

Conifers have larger pores in the connections within their water-conducting systems, which allow them to move more water through with less internal resistance. This would be one reason those redwoods and big pines and spruces can tower over other trees in the forest.  

Plumbing isn’t the whole story; there are internal cell-growth effects of hydrostatic pressure differences, and some tropical trees that also grow more slowly when they get big, but USDA ecologist Michael Ryan and his team studying a set of eucalyptus seedlings in Hawaii for seven years think that water’s too plentiful to be the limiter. They’re still looking for that. 

Meanwhile, a set of UC Berkeley researchers has figured out that deep-rooted trees engage in water-banking: they store water in different levels of the soil for their own use. By doing this, they’re able to keep their rate of evapotranspiration—the release of water into the air around them, humidifying and cooling it—and of photosynthesis 40 percent higher in dry months than they would otherwise be, and keep their place and the planet cooler than they’d be without them. 

Todd Dawson, Jung-Eun Lee, and Inez Fung of UC Berkeley, and their colleagues including Rafael Oliveira of the Laboratório de Ecologia Isotópica at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, studied Amazonian trees in particular but said their model showed effects in temperate places too.  

The tap roots that some species have, which can extend more than their height underground, have more to do than anchor the tree. Fibrous feeding roots reach a broad, shallower area around the tree; tap roots, using chemical potential gradients, redistribute water downwards in rainy seasons and upwards in dry seasons to keep nurturing life processes. These processes are how trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere—another control on planetary climate extremes. 

“These trees are using their root system to redistribute water into different soil compartments,” Dawson said. “This allows the trees and the forest to sustain water use throughout the dry season. … There’s this skin on the Earth—plants—that has an effect on a global scale, pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and letting water go, in a dynamic way that has climatic implications.” 

We know that trees modify our immediate surroundings in the city—you can feel that directly, standing in a tree’s shade on a hot day, being cooled by its transpiration. Apparently they’re actively doing that favor for the whole world, too. 

 

?


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday January 24, 2006

TUESDAY, JAN. 24 

Return of Over-the-Hills Gang Hiker 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. This month we’ll visit Sobrante Ridge and see a stand of rare Alameda manzanita. 525-2233. 

“The Non-GMO Project” with Sandy Myers-Kepler on the progran to implement standardized labeling for certifying food and supplements at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Natural Grocery, 1336 Gilman. 526-2456. 

“Living with Lions” A reception and lecture by the Mountain Lion Foundation at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. Tickets are $10-$20. 632-9525, ext. 122. 

Birdwalk on the MLK Shoreline from 3 to 5 p.m. to see the ducks and shorebirds here for the winter. Beginnners welcome, binoculars available for loan. 525-2233. 

Winter Backcountry Travel: Safety and Survival Tips with Mike Kelly of the National Ski Patrol at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Nepal and Bhutan: Traditional Life” a photography slide show with Don Lyon at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. 654-1548. 

“Another Side of Peace” A documentary about Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost their children at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd. Enter through the gymnasium doors on Thousand Oaks. Discussion follows. Presented by Embracing Diversity Films. 527-1328. 

“Insight and Inner Peace” a lecture on Buddhism by Joe Bobrow at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. 527-2935. 

“The Five Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss” with Dr. Jay Sordean at 6 p.m. at Curves, 701 University Ave. To reserve a place call 849-1176. 

Clowning at the Library with Daffy Dave at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. Reservations required. 524-3043. 

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

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Argosy University, 999-A Canal Blvd., Point Richmond. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

Reverse Mortgage Seminar with Maggie O’Connell of Seattle Mortgage at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo Auditorium. Free, but registration required. 800-489-0986. 

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar with hypnosis at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave. Free, but 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. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

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

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25  

Solar Richmond Project Community Meeting, on how to build solar energy in Richmond, hosted by Council member Gayle McLaughlin at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, Whittlesey Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. www.SolarRichmond.org 

Workshop on Creeks Task Force at the Planning Commission meeting at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Robert Burn’s Night at 6 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club. Bagpipes and traditional readings. Cost is $30 per person including dinner and a small glass of whiskey. Reservations required. 848-7800. 

Film Series on Animal Agony, the California egg industry amd Wegman’s cruelty, at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 suggested. www.east 

bayanimaladvocates.org 

“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” with John Perkins, Kevin Danaher and Anuradha Mittal at 7:30 p.m. at the King Middle School Auditorium, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $12-$15. Benefit for KPFA and Global Exchange. 415-255-7296, ext. 200. 

“Looting the World’s Archaeological Heritage: Whose Fault?” with Lord Colin Renfrew, Disney Professor of Archaeology, University of Cambridge and Director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, at 5 p.m. at the Archaeological Research Facility, 2251 College Building, UC Campus. 

“Strange Weather: Global Warming and Its Effects” with Tom and Jane Kelly of Kyoto-USA at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Bay Nature’s Fifth Anniversary Celebration with presentations by Michael Ellis, naturalist and writer, Phyllis Faber, Bay Area environmental leader, wetlands restoration activist, Jack Laws, naturalist, educator, and artist, and Greg Sarris, author and tribal chair of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, at 7:30 p.m. at the James Moore Theater, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 548-9696. www.baynature.com 

Introduction to Conscious Parenting If you have ever wondered about new ways of parenting, or struggled with things not going how you expected, come and find relief, community, and a host of new tools. At 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. No fee required, donations appreciated. 415-312-1830. 

“A Startling Discovery of Jewish Identity” with Mrs. Rochel (Ingrid) Dorfman at 7 p.m. in Berkeley. Reservations required, call Sharalyn at 540-5824. 

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

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

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

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. 

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 

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

THURSDAY, JAN. 26 

“California Faience of Berkeley: A Family Perspective” with Kirby William Brown at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $8-$12. 843-8982. 

Martin Luther King. Jr. Community Banquet at 7 p.m. at the Rotunda Building, 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Cost is $150. Presented by the YMCA of the East Bay. 451-8039, ext. 777.  

Community Meeting on the Albany Shoreline and an alternative to the mall project at 7 p.m. at the Albany High School multipurpose room on Key Route Blvd in Albany. Sponsored by Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS) in cooperation with Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) and the Sierra Club. 526-0073. www.albanyshoreline.org 

“A Crisis Call to Action” with Sgt. Delacy Davis, founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality at 7 p.m. at South Berkeley Community Church, 1805 Fairview St. Donations accepted. 548-0425. 

“Housetraining your Puppy” at 7:30 p.m. at dogTec, 5221 Central Ave., #1, on the border of El Cerrito and Richmond. Free, but donations appreciated. 644-0729.  

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.  

FRIDAY, JAN. 27 

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

Fib and Quibble Showcase, in celebration of Black History Month, at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., at Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St. Donation $5. 839-9192. 

Alice Walker in conversation with Amy Goodman at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. Benefits Media Alliance. 832-9000, ext. 305. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Benjamine Griffin on “The Genius of Mark Twain” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Lunar Lounge Express A party under the stars to view the Red planet and see the Sonic Vision planetarium show at 8 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center. Tickets are $15-$20. 336-7373. 

“Alameda’s History and Architecture from the Gold Rush To Today” with Woody Minor, Alameda historian and author, at 7 p.m. at Home of Truth, 1300 Grand St., Alameda. Suggested donation $20. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at Unit 4, Hillside Assembly Room, 2700 Hearst Ave., UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.  

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

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 

“Healing and Pain” a two day workshop at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. Cost is $100. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

SATURDAY, JAN. 28 

Afternoon with Owls Learn the natural history of our local owls, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Berkeley. Cost is $25. Sponsored by Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley. 549-2963. www.kboib.org  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class from 10 to noon at 997 Cedar St., between 8th and 9th. To sign up call 981-5605. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html 

Help Save The Bay Plant Native Seedlings, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland. Gloves, tools and snacks provided. Families welcome. Registration required. 452-9261, ext. 109. www.savesfbay.org 

Lunar New Year Celebration from noon to 4 p.m. at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Pacific Renaissance Plaza, 388 Ninth St., Oakland. www.oacc.cc 

Introduction to California Chinchilla Rescue from 1 to 5 p.m. at RabbitEARS Adoption Center, 303 Arlington Ave., behind ACE Hardware, Kensington. 525-6155. 

Preschool Storytime for 3-5 year olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

The Festival of Brigit A workshop for women at 7 p.m. at Changemakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. To register call 800-694-1957. 

Spirit Walking Aqua Chi Water exercise class at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $3.50 per session. 526-0312. 

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, JAN. 29 

Believe in Basketry Learn about Native American basketry and make your own periwinkle basket, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $3. 525-2233. 

“Mad Hot Ballroom” A film presented by Diversity Works at 3 p.m. at Ellen Driscoll Theater, Frank Havens School, 325 Highland Ave., Piedmont. Free, for all ages. 599-9227. 

Family Film Series will show “Babe” at 11 a.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5. 845-8542. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Temple Beth Abraham, 327 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

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

Tibetan Peace Ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 30 

Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association General Meeting at 7 p.m. in the Fireside Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 

Launch Party for “Greater Good” Magazine, reception and panel discussion, at 5:30 p.m. at North Gate Library, Hearst at Euclid, UC Campus. 

“Electoral Guerilla Theatre: Speaking Mirth to Power” with UC Davis professor of theatre, Larry Bogad, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. 

Great Directors Film Series will show Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” at 7:30 a.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5. 845-8542. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at UC Berkeley Unit 3, 2400 Durant Ave. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

Free Small Business Counselling with SCORE, Service Core of Retired Executives at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. To make an appointment call 981-6244. 

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50. 

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

Sing-A-Long from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122. 

Beginning Bridge Lessons at 11:10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $1. 524-9122. 

TUESDAY, JAN. 31 

Birdwalk on the MLK Shoreline from 3 to 5 p.m. to see the ducks and shorebirds here for the winter. Beginnners welcome, binoculars available for loan. 525-2233. 

West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs Community Meeting on Pacific Steel Casting Company with representatives from Pacific Steel Casting, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and Berkeley City Council Member Linda Maio’s office, at 7 p.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center, 1900 6th St. 558-8757. http://westberkeleyalliance.org 

“Eminent Domain: Abuse of Government Power?” with Steven Greenhut, author of “Abuse of Power” and Timothy Sanefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation, at 7 p.m. at the Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Cost is $10-$15. For reservations call 632-1366. 

Chinese New Year with author Rosemary Gong to say goodbye to the Year of the Rooster and hello to the Year of the Dog, at 7 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

Yarn Divas Basic Knitting Come learn the basics of knitting, especially, but not exclusively, for women with cancer. Experienced participants are welcome. Learning materials provided. At 7:30 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. 420-7900, ext. 111.  

“Travel Photography: Pueblos & Canyons: The American Southwest” Oakland photographic adventure guide Don Lyon, at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 654-1548.  

“A Mile Down: Disaster at Sea” with author David Vann on his trip form Turkey to the Caribbean in a 90 ft. yacht at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at UC Berkeley Unit 1, 2650 Durant Ave. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

Stress Less Seminar with hypnosis and relaxation skills at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

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

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

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

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

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

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

ONGOING 

Free Tax Help—United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! program provides free filing assistance to households that earned less than $38,000 in 2005. To find a free tax site near you, call 800-358-8832 or visit www.EarnitKeepitSaveit.org 

Pee Wee Basketball for ages 6-8 begins Feb. 4, and All Net Basketball for ages 9-11 begins Feb. 23. For further information contact Berkeley Youth Alternatives, 845-9066. www.byaonline.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Jan. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Virginia Aiello, 981-5158. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/parksandrecreation 

Disaster Council meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434.  

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Jan. 26, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. ?


Berkeley This Week

Friday January 20, 2006

FRIDAY, JAN. 20 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Robert Flammia on “The Power of Touch” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925. 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

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. 548-6310, 845-1143. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 21 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. Representatives from the Berkeley Police Dept will talk about protecting ourselves in a major disaster. www.berkeleycna.com  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Disaster First Aid from 9 to noon at 997 Cedar St., between 8th and 9th. To sign up call 981-5605.  

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 $5-$7. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Birds of Mystery A stroll to listen for the Great Horned Owls looking for mates. Meet at 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Wintertime Pruning and Tree Care A hands-on workshop from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Berkeley. Cost is $10-$15. Registration required. 548-2220, 233. www.ecologycenter.org 

“California Native Plants for the Garden” with author David Fross at 3 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Mend a Marsh for the Birds Planting and restoration at 9 a.m. at The Watershed Project, 1327 South 46th St., Richmond Field Station, #155, Richmond, followed by naturalists talk at noon. To register call 665-3689. 

Volunteer for Cerrito Creek Wear shoes with good traction and clothes that can get dirty. Meet at 10 a.m. at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara St., El Cerrito. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

A Ghost Town in San Francisco Bay? Learn about the town of Drawbridge on Station Island in the salt marshes of South San Francisco at 3 p.m. at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Fremont. 792-0222. 

“In the Company of Wild Butterflies” A new nature documentary by Bill Levinson at 6:30 p.m. at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, 1931 First Ave. Walnut Creek. Donation $5-$8. 925-935-1978. 

“Building the Progressive Movement in the East Bay” Kick-Off event with Congressman Ron Dellums and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson at 5 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. at 27th. 272-6060. 

“War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution” with Prof. Peter Irons, UCSD at 7 p.m. at Home of Truth Center, 1300 Grand Ave., Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

“A Literary Lion at Your Side” with Peter Miller, literary agent at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square, Oakland. 420-8775. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

“I Have Been to the Mountaintop” Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last speech, followed by discussion with Demetrius Gins at 2:30 p.m. at Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. 

Bayshore Walk at Point Isabel with the Solo Sierrans. Meet at 3:30 p.m. in the parking lot off Rydin. Bring binoculars. Optional dinner follows. Rain cancels. 234-8949. 

Piedmont Choir Spring Tryouts for children ages 5 to 10 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in Piedmont and Alameda. To schedule an appointment call 547-4441. www.piedmontchoirs.org  

“New Era, New Politics Walking Tour” at 10 a.m. at the African American Museum, 659 14th St., at Jefferson, Oakland. A two-hour guided tour of the points of interest in African American history in Oakland. 238-3234. 

Workshop with Magician Norman Ng for 6th-8th graders at 2 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“NeoPaganism in California: Visions of the Past and Memories of the Future” Films and panel discussion from 1 to 5:30 p.m. at the Chapel, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Drive. Cost is $15-$25 sliding scale. www.thepaganalliance.org 

Preschool Storytime for 3-5 year olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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. 

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. 

“Transforming Negative Emotions” a workshop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

SUNDAY, JAN. 22 

Newt Walk Join the annual trek to Sindicich Lagoons, the breeding waters for the California newt. Hike is 5 miles, over the Briones Crest, some muddy trails. Sturdy young hikers eight and older are welcome. Bring lunch and liquids. 525-2233. 

From Fog to Stormdrains A complete tour of our watershed at 2 p.m. at the Environmental Education Center, Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“The U.S. Sees the U.N.: A Media Analysis” with Larry Bensky of KPFA at 3:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. Sponsored by the United Nations Association.  

“Blood on the Border: Memoir of the Contra War” with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Felloship, 1924 Cedar St. 495-5132. 

El Cerrito Historical Society meeting with Richard Tuck on his “Playland-Not-at-the-Beach” Musuem at 1 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, 6510 Stockton Ave. Pot-luck lunch. for details call 526-7507. 

KPFA Town Hall Meeting from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco. All listeners are invited to come and express your thoughts and opinions about your community needs and KPFA. 848-6767. 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800. 

Cottage Brunch . . . in French! Hosted by Leonard Pitt and Kimberly Vergez from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 1542 Grant St. at Cedar. Cost is $20, reservations required. 841-0686. 

“Interfaith Families and Anti-Semitism” from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 2800 Summit St., Oakland. 547-2250. 

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “When it Rains, Does Space Get Wet?” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 23 

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza Community Workshop on a new design plan at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7065. 

“Saving Antiquities” Matthew Bogdanos, author of “Thieves of Baghdad” and a colonel in the Marine reserve will describe his efforts to save irreplaceable antiquities looted from the Iraq Museum in 2003, at 7:30 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. www.savingantiquities.org 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Kensington Library Book Club meets to discuss William Saroyan’s novel, “The Human Comedy” at 7 p.m. at 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50. 

Free Small Business Counselling with SCORE, Service Core of Retired Executives at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. To make an appointment call 981-6244. 

Medical Qigong Clinic at 5 p.m. at Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College, 2550 Shattuck Ave. For an appointment call 666-8234. 

Introduction to Meditation with Diane Eshin Rizzetto at 6:45 p.m. at Bay Zen Center, 315 Alcatraz near College Ave. $10 suggested donation, but no one turned away. Register in advance 596-3087. www.bayzen.org 

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

TUESDAY, JAN. 24 

Return of Over-the-Hills Gang Hiker 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. This month we’ll visit Sobrante Ridge and see a stand of rare Alameda manzanita. For details call 525-2233. 

“Living with Lions” A reception and lecture by the Mountain Lion Foundation at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. Tickets are $10-$20. 632-9525, ext. 122. 

Birdwalk on the MLK Shoreline from 3 to 5 p.m. to see the ducks and shorebirds here for the winter. Beginnners welcome, binoculars available for loan. 525-2233. 

Winter Backcountry Travel: Safety and Survival Tips with Mike Kelly of the National Ski Patrol at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Nepal and Bhutan: Traditional Life” a photography slide show with Don Lyon at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. 654-1548. 

“Another Side of Peace” A documentary about Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost their children at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd. Enter through the gymnasium doors on Thousand Oaks. Discussion follows. Presented by Embracing Diversity Films. 527-1328. 

“Insight and Inner Peace” a lecture on Buddhism by Joe Bobrow at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. 527-2935. 

Clowning at the Library with Daffy Dave at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. Reservations required. 524-3043. 

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

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Argosy University, 999-A Canal Blvd., Point Richmond. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

Reverse Mortgage Seminar with Maggie O’Connell of Seattle Mortgage at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo Auditorium. Free, but registration required. 800-489-0986. 

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar with hypnosis at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave. Free, but 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. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

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

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

“Ask the Social Worker” free consultations for older adults and their families from 10 a.m. to noon at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. To schedule an appointment call 558-7800, ext. 716. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25  

Solar Richmond Project Community Meeting, on how to build solar energy in Richmond, hosted by Council member Gayle McLaughlin at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, Whittlesey Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. www.SolarRichmond.org 

Robert Burn’s Night at 6 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club. Bagpipes and traditional readings. Cost is $30 per person including dinner and a small glass of whiskey. Reservations required. 848-7800. 

Film Series on Animal Agony, the California egg industry amd Wegman’s cruelty, at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 suggested. www.east 

bayanimaladvocates.org 

“Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” with John Perkins, Kevin Danaher and Anuradha Mittal at 7:30 p.m. at the King Middle School Auditorium, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $12-$15. Benefit for KPFA and Global Exchange. 415-255-7296, ext. 200. 

“Looting the World’s Archaeological Heritage: Whose Fault?” with Lord Colin Renfrew, Disney Professor of Archaeology, University of Cambridge and Director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, at 5 p.m. at the Archaeological Research Facility, 2251 College Building, UC Campus. 

“Strange Weather: Global Warming and Its Effects” with Tom and Jane Kelly of Kyoto-USA at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

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 and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

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

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. 

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 

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, JAN. 26 

“California Faience of Berkeley: A Family Perspective” with Kirby William Brown at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $8-$12. 843-8982. 

Martin Luther King. Jr. Community Banquet at 7 p.m. at the Rotunda Building, 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland. Cost is $150. Presented by the YMCA of the East Bay. 451-8039, ext. 777.  

Community Meeting on the Albany Shoreline and an alternative to the mall project at 7 p.m. at the Albany High School multipurpose room on Key Route Blvd in Albany. Sponsored by Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS) in cooperation with Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) and the Sierra Club. 526-0073. www.albanyshoreline.org 

“A Crisis Call to Action” with Sgt. Delacy Davis, founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality at 7 p.m. at South Berkeley Community Church, 1805 Fairview St. Donations accepted. 548-0425. 

“Housetraining your Puppy” at 7:30 p.m. at dogTec, 5221 Central Ave., #1, on the border of El Cerrito and Richmond. Free, but donations appreciated. 644-0729. www.openpaw.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 

Free Tax Help—United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! program provides free filing assistance to households that earned less than $38,000 in 2005. To find a free tax site near you, call 800-358-8832 or visit www.EarnitKeepitSaveit.org 

Pee Wee Basketball for ages 6-8 begins Feb. 4, and All Net Basketball for ages 9-11 begins Feb. 23. For further information cantact Berkeley Youth Alternatives, 845-9066. www.byaonline.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Creeks Task Force meets Mon. Jan. 23, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Erin Dando, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/default.html 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Jan. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Virginia Aiello, 981-5158. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/parksandrecreation 

Disaster Council meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/firesafety 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Jan. 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Jan. 26, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning  ?