Small-business niches are scattered through downtown Berkeley, occupied by people who know things the rest of us don’t. 

Family-owned Replica Copy has been at 2140 Oxford St. for seven years. The small, high-tech shop sits at the edge of a restaurant district. Across a narrow sidewalk and four lanes of traffic, there is a view of the back wall of a University of California sports stadium. 

“It doesn’t look like a very good location,” I said. 

“Oh, it’s a wonderful location,” said co-owner Kavita Dhir. She motioned to the left of the stadium wall, where a road and walkway curved up into the woodlands below the main campus. 

Most of her regular customers come down that way, she said—students to copy textbooks at four cents a page and professors with writings to be duplicated, collated, and bound into book form. 

“We do a lot of books,” she said. 

A block away, Shihadeh Kitami, co-owner of Razan’s Organic Kitchen at 2119 Allston Way, stares at one of the restaurant’s inside walls. Termites—apparently—had devoured the lower struts and it wasn’t clear what was holding the wall up. 

“I don’t want to pay $2,000 to fix this. I can do it myself,” said Kitami, who didn’t know how to do it. 

“It can’t be that hard,” I said, not knowing how to do it either. 

After four days and many mistakes and discussions about tactics, a new and redundantly buttressed wall was put up. 

Kitami, skilled at figuring things out as he goes along, started as a dishwasher at a San Francisco restaurant, worked as a cashier at Fred’s Market on University Avenue, operated a food cart at Sproul Plaza for several years, and opened his all-organic restaurant with his wife, Siham Zumot, in 1998. The restaurant expanded two years ago. 

Kitami’s business philosophy is: “You have to love your customers and they have to love you.”  

Customers make themselves at home, toting in infants and other small children. moving the tables around, chatting with the cooks. 

Such casualness makes small businesses endearing and enduring, said John Gordon, a downtown Berkeley real estate agent for 20 years. 

“What makes a neighborhood great are small businesses, someone who cares when you walk into the store, who says, ‘Hi, how you doing.’” 

When Comic Relief lost its lease after 18 years in a long, narrow store on upper University Avenue, Gordon helped the popular comic book business move into a building he owns at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street. The small business occupies a large space at 2280 Fulton St., filled with more than 75,000 volumes. 

Owner Rory Root, who has read and sold comic books most of his life, said: “Comic books are a medium, not a genre. They can communicate anything—from Doonsebury to erotica, Superman to Japanese coming-of-age comics popular with young girls. 

Two first issues of Spiderman, printed in 1963 and protected in plastic, sell for $6,000 and $30,000. 

Root said most customers are aged 18 to 35. Some older ones want to know the ending of stories they lost track of years ago, he said. Does the Silver Surfer finally betray Galactus and side with the Fantastic Four to save the universe? “Yes,” Root says, pointing to the place on the shelves where the adventure unfolds. 

Walking down Fulton Street where it meets Bancroft, it’s hard to tell what the small store at 2280 is about. Boxes of old Life magazines sit near the doorway and sometimes the inside is neat and sometimes it is a clutter of coins, china, silver candlesticks, teapots, plates, salt-shakers and endlessly so on, with barely room to walk. It looks like someone is moving in or moving out but has looked like that for much of the 18 years it has been in business. 

A business card on the front door explains: “The Berkeley Collectible Shop.” 

George Klimacek, the owner and only employee, buys most of his inventory at estate sales. He sells much of it to other dealers. One of them, Ted Neima, owner of a collectible shop in Vacaville, said Klimacek is astute and honest. When he sells you something, “if there’s something wrong with it he tells you,” Neima said. 

Klimacek, who collected coins as a kid, said: “The first time I went to an auction, all I knew about was coins. I learned by trial and error and what I do now is try to find auction house mistakes.” He’s at his shop Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons, and sometimes on Tuesdays.  

Call first: 848-3199. 

›

The Zoning Adjustments Board handed a reprieve to Black & White Liquors Thursday night, declining to declare the 3027 Adeline St. store a public nuisance. 

On a 5-4 vote, the board opted to allow owner Sucha Singh Banger and his attorney to negotiate a c ity zoning certificate, which would impose some of the same conditions the board indicated last month that they would impose in a public nuisance finding. The zoning certificate will bind the conditions to the property and will remain in force in the even t of a sale. The store now has neither a use permit nor a zoning certificate because it was in business for many years under predecessors of the current owner and is considered grandfathered in under earlier, less stringent regulations which did not require them. 

The board gave significant concessions to the store owner, extending the proposed closing times, dropping a demand to hire a security guard and offering to drastically reduce the length of the log of digital video surveillance records the city had sought. 

The fate of the store just south of the heavily traveled Adeline Street/Ashby Avenue intersection has divided a community. Supporters of the store, led by letter carrier Martin Vargas, have praised Banger, while other neighbors have branded the store as the source of long-running community problems. 

Another group of neighbors, including Dawn Rubin, have contended that the store is a public nuisance and draws drunks to their streets and porches. A hefty city investigative report was produced by city staff setting out complaints. 

From the start of Thursday’s hearing, several ZAB members indicated they were willing to retract or loosen conditions they’d been ready to impose the month before, when on Dec. 8 the board voted 8-0 (with member Jess e Anthony absent) to direct city staff to prepare a resolution declaring the store a public nuisance and specifying conditions to impose. 

The shift became apparent early in the meeting. 

Dave Blake and Tim Perry, two ZAB members in particular, seemed rel uctant to impose the nuisance declaration. 

Blake said that he was reluctant to impose the heavier sanction because a public nuisance finding “is a big blot on someone’s record. I’ve gotten nervous about this.” 

Perry said he was reluctant to impose heavy sanctions because he had seen little evidence to connect the neighborhood problems and police reports mentioned in the lengthy staff report and reported at the December meeting with the store itself. 

“As I walk out of the Shattuck Theater I get accosted by panhandlers. Does that make them [the theater] a nuisance?” Perry asked, adding that he found it hard to connect reports of problems with drunks three blocks away with Black & White. 

“It’s been suggested that everything’s fine now, but I find it hard to believe that after years” of problems for neighbors “that it’s all fine now,” said ZAB member Bob Allen. “I think it’s entirely appropriate to proceed with a nuisance finding and impose conditions.” 

Allen then moved for the nuisance declaration, with a change in store hours and the removal of a condition that required Banger to hire a security guard. His motion was immediately seconded by Carrie Sprague. 

During a long debate that followed, resolutions were amended and substituted to the point where some members lost count. “I believe this is a record,” said Chair Andy Katz toward the end, when a total of three proposed actions were under consideration. 

Banger had switched attorneys in the interim, replacing Jerome Marks with Richard D. Warren, who took strong exception to some of the conditions in the proposed public nuisance declaration. 

Of 17 conditions in the staff’s declaration draft, Warren said his client would voluntarily comply with some but took strong exception to several—including a proposal to shut down the store at 9 p.m. 

In the end, the board—at Blake’s suggestion—went with an 11 p.m. closing time, with the proviso that Banger could later seek to remain open till midnight if no further problems developed. Allen, backed by Anthony, had urged 10 p.m., but after that failed, Anthony voted with the majority for 11. 

While the original order called for Banger to keep a one-year backlog of video recordings from the surveillance camera sought by the board—and which he subsequently instal led—Warren said the high cost of buying a computer drive to hold a year’s worth of data made the condition intolerable. 

While Warren had offered thirty days, the board was willing to settle for 90 days, which City Code Enforcement Officer Greg Daniel sai d was fine. 

Warren said Banger would voluntarily comply with a provision to meet with a neighborhood watch group. 

Another proposed condition bans the sale of fortified beer and wine—drinks in which higher proof alcohol is added to the beverages. ZAB Sec retary and city planner Deborah Sanderson said her staff would prepare the language based on state regulations. 

Neighbor concern  

Laura Menard, a former City Council candidate who is active on South Berkeley crime and policing issues, charged that contrary to the statements of Perry and Blake, Berkeley Police Officer Steve Rego had tied each of the police reports to the store. 

Rego was off duty Monday and unavailable for comment. 

Daniel had also defended the police reports during the hearing. “I have to reason to question the information the police gave me because I have worked very closely with them,” he said.  

Menard said “It was very discouraging to see all the testimony from the community documenting the public nuisance just thrown out” as well a s the debate about the connection between problems and police calls. 

She said she was also concerned about board member comments to the effect that area residents hadn’t met with the owner. “I know that’s not true, because I talked to Mister Banger myse lf, and I know others who did, too,” she said.1

Testimony is expected to continue on Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland in a hearing to determine whether two friends of 19-year-old Dartmouth College student Meleia Willis-Starbuck should be bound over to trial for her murder on a Berkeley street. 

On the stand again is expected to be Gregory Mitchell, who was reportedly one of four people present in a car that drove to the scene of Willis-Starbuck’s shooting. Mitchell has been granted immunity by prosecutors for his testimony. 

Christopher Hollis, 22, has been charged with firing the shots that killed Willis-Starbuck in the early morning hours of July 17. Also charged is 21-year-old Berkeley High School graduate Christopher Wilson, whose attorney has admitted that Wilson drove the car that carried Hollis to the shooting scene. 

Hollis is represented by attorney John Burris, Wilson by attorney Elizabeth Grossman, and Mitchell by attorney Lewis Romero. 

Wilson turned himself in to police shortly following the shooting last summer, and has been free on bail for several months. Hollis remained at large for two months, but was arrested following a traffic stop in Fresno. 

Berkeley High graduate Willis-Starbuck, who was living in Berkeley last summer and had planned to return to Dartmouth in the fall, was reportedly in an argument near her College Avenue apartment with a group of men that included several UC Berkeley football players shortly before she was shot and killed. 

Berkeley police have speculated that Hollis and Wilson went to the scene in order to protect Willis-Starbuck from the men. 

A number of friends of both Hollis and Willis-Starbuck have speculated that if Hollis was the shooter, the shooting was accidental. 

“It absolutely could not have been on purpose,” Berkeley High teacher Rick Ayers told the Daily Planet last July. “They were close friends.” Ayers taught both Hollis and Willis-Starbuck while they were students at Berkeley High. 

Dana Johnson, 20, a witness to the shooting who testified at last week’s preliminary hearing, told the Daily Planet last year that as she and Willis-Starbuck approached Willis-Starbuck’s College Avenue apartment on the night of the shooting, they were confronted by a group of five young men who Johnson said “acted disrespectfully” towards the two women. Later, following a heated argument between Willis-Starbuck and the men—some of whom were since identified as UC Berkeley football players—”someone came out of nowhere and fired shots.” 

Willis-Starbuck was active in social justice affairs both at Berkeley High and Dartmouth. Following her death, a memorial scholarship was set up at Berkeley High for graduates who wish to pursue work in social justice. At Dartmouth, Willis-Starbuck was a double major in sociology and African American studies and was active in the Dartmouth Afro-American Society, the Dartmouth Alliance for Children of Color and the Dartmouth College Greens. ›

Spurred by neighborhood concerns, Max Anderson is asking his fellow city councilmembers to agree to limit the statutory powers to be used in building a proposed housing project at the Ashby BART station while re-affirming their support for a planning grant application for the site. 

The resolution will be presented to the City Council for a vote on Feb. 7, to be followed four days later by a public meeting Anderson said he is calling to correct misperceptions about the project. 

The location and time of the meeting will be announced within the next few days, he said. Anderson, Mayor Tom Bates and Project Manager Ed Church will field questions, said Church. 

Anderson’s resolution asks the council to reject the use of eminent domain in building the project and to disavow intent to create a redevelopment district. It would also assert that the city would forgo creation of a Transit Village District, a legal entity created by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates in his earlier incarnation as a member of the state Assembly, on and around the Ashby site. The resolution would be an expression of intent only, since one council cannot bind future councils to a specific course of action. 

Robert Lauriston, a South Berkeley writer and development issues activist who has organized Neighbors of Ashby BART, says the concessions mean very little. 

“Under the Berkeley zoning code, the city can approve just about anything it wants in the South Berkeley commercial area,” Lauriston said. “For mixed-use projects specifically, ZAB can approve almost anything.” 

Anderson said he is organizing the Feb. 11 meeting “to clear up the misinformation in the community about eminent domain, upzoning and redevelopment,” Anderson said. 

Anderson’s council resolution also includes a provision that the affordable housing units in the project be reserved for low- and very low-income tenants—a provision that merely restates the existing requirement for all new housing projects in Berkeley that include five or more dwelling units. 

Under city law, 20 percent of units in new condominium and apartment complexes must be reserved for such tenants, and the provision was already included in the existing proposal. 

The council-endorsed application for $120,000 in planning funds from the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) already included the provision for the low-income units. The proposal calls for the remaining units to be market-rate condos or apartments. 

While the CalTrans grant application calls for a project with “at least 300 units of new housing to address population increases,” Anderson’s resolution specifies that “no specific number of residential units in any potential development has been established and it should be part of the planning process to recommend that number to council.”  

If passed, the resolution might allay some of the concerns of project neighbors who packed a meeting room at the South Berkeley Senior Center on Jan. 17 to voice their concerns about the project. 

The overwhelming majority of speakers at that gathering spoke against the project, many citing fears of eminent domain that could jeopardize their property, and others calling the project a form of gentrification. 

“People get frightened when they hear a lot of rumors about things that threaten their existence,” said Anderson. “That’s understandable. People are talking about eminent domain, about huge areas to be upzoned—and this is designed to provoke a public response.” 

Despite the number of units mentioned in the grant application, Anderson said there is no fixed size for the project, which would house residences over ground-floor neighborhood-serving retail. 

“There is no size of anything yet,” Anderson said. “This is merely a grant so we can have some public process.” 

Anderson said the funds are needed because the city has allocated only the equivalent of one-quarter of a full-time employee’s work to planning in the area. 

“We need some resource so we can get a real look at what we want to do,” he said. “It will be a transparent process throughout.” 

Anderson said that a decision to forgo creating a Transit Village District to facilitate the process would not affect the ability of the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Council to secure CalTrans funds. 

The districts allow for a greater density of housing in the surrounding district than would be otherwise permitted in the area surrounding the transit hub—the upzoning Anderson and the critics have cited. 

While Anderson said he wants the community to be fully involved in the planning process, Lauriston said that the CalTrans grant application calls for a developer to be selected in June before the grant awards are announced. 

The grant applicant is the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Council, a community group that currently administers some affordable housing. The group, of which Anderson has been a long-time member, designated consultant Ed Church as project director. 

“I don’t believe Ed Church is looking for a community process,” said Lauriston. “I believe he is looking to cut the community out of the process, that he wants to neutralize the community in the process.” 

Church disagrees. 

“I have experienced many personal attacks in the process of doing this, and questioning someone’s motivations is not productive,” he said. “I don’t question his motivations, though I could imagine any number of reasons why he’s doing what he’s doing. The point is, we need to sit down together.” 

Church, whose Nine Trees Group was formed as a limited liability corporation in January 2005, was also the founding director of the Livable Communities Initiative. 

Livable Communities is funded by the Oakland-based East Bay Community Foundation, which paid a contractor to do a 2004 study of a proposed mixed-use development at Ashby BART, one of several studies that have focused on the economics of building at the site. 

Church said that many studies have looked at the site, “but we won’t get any real answers until we can sit down across from the table from a real developer and ask the questions.” 

Throughout the process, there will be constant opportunities for public involve- ment, he said, both as the proposal is being formulated and as it makes recurring appearances before the city council. 

Many questions remain to be answered. Lauriston cites studies showing that any housing built at the site could be very expensive and beyond the reach of many Berkeley residents. He notes that the official “affordable” housing rates are based on percentages of the incomes for the Alameda and Contra Costa counties metropolitan areas, where median incomes as a whole are “almost double” those in Berkeley. 

Church acknowledges that affordable housing beyond those units already required remains an open question. 

“The city has said they want housing affordable to the public sector work force,” Church said, adding that the city could chose a combination of a for-profit developer and a non-profit developer of affordable housing.

Albany residents and other environmentalists packed the multi-purpose room of Albany High School Thursday to voice their opposition to Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso’s proposal for a massive shopping plaza on what is now the parking lot for Golden Gate Fields racetrack. Proponents introduced an initiative calling for a community planning process to guide development of commercial and park areas on the Albany shore. 

Sponsored by Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS), the Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP), and the Sierra Club, the Citizens’ Planning Initiative to Protect Albany’s Shoreline calls for creation of a waterfront plan for substantial park area along the bay and a minimum of commercial development to be formulated by a planning committee of 15 appointed Albany voters. The proposal asks for a setback of open parkland for 600 feet from the bay, with sustainable, green commercial development to be placed as close to Highway 80 as possible without significant obstructions of bay views. It establishes a moratorium on development and re-zoning of the area for two years while the planning committee meets. 

The planning process to be undertaken by the committee would cover all types of development, recreational and park-related facilities as well as commercial developments, from the perspective of what would be best for Albany. The group would plan for the entire waterfront, including the racetrack area, against the possibility that its owner, the Magna Corporation, decides to sell it because of declining profits. 

The initiative’s backers say that it is aimed at keeping city planning in the control of voters rather than of officials and corporations. Three committee members will be appointed by environmental groups. According to Albany resident and environmental activist Brian Parker, dialogue between Caruso and residents until now has largely been about what to include in the mall, and the question of what was best for Albany over the long term was not asked. Relying on an opinion poll collected by Evans/McDonough Company, which reported two to one against the mall, opponents argue that parks are what Albany residents want instead.  

Since the purpose of the meeting was to present the initiative as an alternative to Caruso’s project, many of the presentations and much of the panel discussion directly attacked the mall. It was portrayed as something that would destroy small businesses, bring perpetual gridlock with environmental degradation, give big business control over local politics, and irreparably harm Albany’s natural resources and small town ambiance.  

“Caruso creates make-believe main streets like Disneyland,” said Robert Cheasty, CESP president and former Albany mayor. “Malls on the edge of town hurt main streets. We [already] have a main street, and this is Northern California, not L.A.” 

Former executive director of the Albany Chamber of Commerce James Carter elaborated on the threat to small businesses and argued that small business would be crushed not only in Albany but in neighboring Berkeley and El Cerrito as well. Small businesses cannot compete with Caruso’s multi-million dollar advertising budget and the low prices of national chain stores, he said. Consumers will be drawn away from shops and restaurants on Solano Avenueand Fourth Street, he predicted.  

Community activists at the meeting envision a different Albany if the project gets approved. Sustainable Albany founder Nan Wishner noted that a mall with significant parking facilities would bring between 18,000 and 60,000 cars each day and would encourage single-passenger driving. Gridlock on streets near schools would raise the risk of asthma and other illnesses for children, she said, and would detract from rather than contribute to the waterfront’s appeal. She said Albany should utilize its spectacular waterfront instead of destroying it in an effort to compete with commercial attractions like those in El Cerrito and Emeryville.  

“Putting a mall at this beautiful site is just wrong,” City Council member Robert Lieber added. “We have a chance to protect our unique waterfront with stunning views for generations to enjoy.”  

Although environmental preservation was a core concern at the meeting, the threat of local politics being subjugated to a wealthy Los Angeles developer with ties to big money, George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger was also cause for alarm. “Big corporations are buying our country. Are we going to let them buy Albany?” Carter asked. “One person could conceivably control the whole town,” he added. 

Albany environmental and citizens groups say they’re doing all they can to prevent that from happening, and that they have some good legal tools at their disposal. Albany’s Measure C requires a citizens’ vote to approve any changes in zoning laws at the waterfront. Since current zoning prohibits general retail like Nordstrom’s, such a vote would be required for this project. However, Caruso has had experience in navigating the electoral process and money to support a public relations campaign to sway voters in an election.  

The new initiative, if approved, is designed to protect the waterfront from development as much as possible by putting all the planning in the hands of selected voters and professional consultants. The results of this planning process will then be submitted for approval to the Albany electorate. 

“We should have an open citizens’ planning process,” Lieber said. “We need to hear everyone’s vision and make a choice for what Albany needs.” ª

Alex Katz, the longtime education reporter for the Oakland Tribune, has been hired as the new press secretary for the Oakland Unified School District, continuing to report for the newspaper on school district matters while he was being recruited for his new job. 

In a terse, three-paragraph article published last Saturday entitled “Schools Reporter Switches to District,” the Tribune reported that “after accepting the position with the district, Katz . . . stopped covering school issues for the Tribune but worked as a general-assignment reporter. Thursday [Jan. 26] was his last day at the newspaper, and he will begin his new job Wednesday.” 

The Tribune published two Katz stories on the Oakland Unified School District after Katz notified the newspaper that he had accepted the job with the school district. 

The revelation comes at a time when journalistic ethics have come under sharp fire on a national level, with several nationally known print and television journalists last year accused of collusion with conservative think-tanks and with the administration of President George W. Bush. It also comes during a period when Katz was reporting on events leading up to a possible strike against the Oakland Unified School District by teachers represented by the Oakland Education Association. The OUSD and OEA are currently involved in tense contract negotiations, with Oakland teachers working without a contract since June of 2004. 

OEA President Ben Visnick, who said last week that he was “angered” by the revelation that Katz had been working on OUSD stories while considering going to work for the district, would only add the suggestion that the Daily Planet reporter “give Katz a call and ask him what he thinks about it.” 

Neither the Oakland Unified School District nor Katz was available for comment for this story. 

Oakland Tribune editor Mario Dianda denied that his paper’s handling of the Katz situation should raise any further ethical concerns. Dianda said that once Katz informed him of the hiring, the editor initially held two OUSD-related stories that Katz had been working on, but decided to publish them after review. 

“The only reason I pulled the stories was because of the perception,” Dianda said. “But Katz has been a pretty straight reporter.” Dianda added that “once it was known that he had been hired by the district, I immediately pulled him off the school beat because of the appearance of a conflict of interest.” 

Dianda said in a telephone interview that Katz “gave no indication” to Tribune editors how long he had been in negotiations for a job with the Oakland Unified School District while keeping that information secret from his editors and continuing to work on school district stories. 

Commenting on the journalistic ethics of the Katz situation, Alternet Senior Editor Tai Moses said that “I would not have put any of the reporter’s stories into print once I was notified that he had been hired. His hiring by an agency  

he was covering compromises any stories that he was working on. Once the objectivity of a reporter and a news outlet has been lost, it can’t be regained.” In addition, Moses said, “The reporter should have taken himself off the agency he was covering once he was offered a job by that agency. I know that reporters sometimes think that they can remain objective in such situations, but it’s the perception of objectivity that’s important.” 

The reporter of this article has written stories for Alternet that have been edited by Moses. 

But University of California Graduate School of Journalism Associate Dean Cynthia Gorney said that unless there is an actual allegation of bias in a story, she sees no ethical problem with Katz’ hiring. 

“This is not comparable to columnists being on the take,” Gorney said. “There are a lot of ethical issues burning up the media these days, but this is not one of them. This is simply a job switch. I don’t think it’s the equivalent of the revolving door between government officials and lobbying.” 

Gorney said that in any negotiation for a new position, “there’s always that dicey period when you don’t want to tell anybody because the negotiations might fall through. If I were his ethical advisor, I would have told him not to let the negotiations go on for more than a week, and if he came across a big story concerning the school district, he should come clean.” 

Gorney added that without knowing any of the details of how long Katz was in negotiations with the district, she could not comment on whether his actual conduct violated any journalistic ethical standards. “But I know Alex,” she said. “I don’t think there’s any question about his objectivity as a reporter.” 

But the hiring does raise ethical questions as to whether Katz should have notified the newspaper while he was in negotiations for the OUSD press secretary position, and whether the Tribune should have killed all of Katz’ OUSD stories once Katz notified the paper that he had been hired by the district. 

According to Dianda, Katz notified Tribune editors on Jan. 12 that he had accepted a job with the Oakland school district. Since that time, most of Katz’ stories with the Tribune have involved non-school issues, including the plight of East Bay evacuees from last year’s Katrina flood and neighborhood development issues. 

But the Tribune published Katz stories on the Oakland school district on Friday, Jan. 13 and again on Monday, Jan. 16. 

“He’d already been working on those stories, and needed to finish them up,” Tribune editor Dianda said. He said he decided to run the stories in part because “if anything, both stories were somewhat negative to the district. They might have even been angry with him about writing them.” 

Katz’ Jan. 13 story, “School’s Growth May Be Cut Short,” involved the possible shutdown of a charter school by the district. The article does not appear to raise ethical questions about Katz’ reporting. 

Katz’ Jan. 16 story, however, does. 

In an article entitled “Library A Chapter In School’s Past,” Katz wrote about the closure of the Castlemont High School Library. “School officials say they’re working to restore the library,” Katz wrote, “which they could no longer afford after Castlemont split into” three small schools. 

One of the issues in the contract negotiations between the district and the teachers is whether the district has enough money to support both a teacher pay raise and full district payment for health care benefits. A Tribune article on lack of district money for a high school library appearing in the midst of those negotiations, while offering comments critical of the district, could also be used by the district to buttress its argument that it was low on money. 

“Unfortunately, this is not an unusual story,” Alternet editor Moses said. “There have been scores of reporters leaving the media in recent years to ‘go over to the other side,’ as we call it. These things almost always occur because reporters can get higher pay at public relations jobs.” Moses called the issue “a tough ethical question for modern journalism.”ª

California State Assemblymember Loni Hancock’s (D-Berkeley) public campaign finance bill passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee last week on a straight-line party vote, leaving it vulnerable to a possible veto by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

The Appropriations Committee’s 13 Democrats approved the proposed measure, while its five Republicans opposed it. The bill now goes to the full Assembly, but without some measure of Republican support in both the Assembly and the State Senate, the measure could not get the two-thirds vote necessary to overcome a veto. 

But Hancock’s office was upbeat about the conference passage. 

“The public has lost faith in its elected officials,” the assemblymember said in a statement. “The cost of implementing this program pales in comparison to the cost of doing nothing. We must reform our electoral system and re-establish trust with the voters.” 

Hancock said she introduced the Clean Money legislation to provide a clear alternative to the influence of big money in California politics. 

“At a time when we are making budget decisions that will shape the future of every human being in our state, at a time where scandal on Capitol Hill has shown the abuses of special interest money, we can no longer ignore the corrosive influence of money on the legislative process,” she said. “Clean Money—public financing of campaigns—is an idea whose time has come.” 

Hancock’s bill would provide public money for qualifying candidates for state office, both in primaries and in general elections, from $150,000 for assembly candidates in a party primary up to $10 million for gubernatorial candidates in a general election. To qualify for the public money, candidates would have to produce a combination of petition signatures and campaign contributions in small amounts, and would have to agree not to receive any outside contributions once the public contributions kick in. 

Public campaign financing “clean money” laws are already in operation in Maine and Arizona. 

Some critics have accused public financing proposals similar to Hancock’s of being favorable to incumbents and to major party candidates. 

The provisions of Hancock’s bill are similar to those introduced to Berkeley voters under Measure H by Hancock’s spouse, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, in November 2004. That measure lost badly, 59 percent to 41 percent.?

The Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count is a hallowed tradition and a valuable exercise in citizen science—but it’s not for everyone. Counts take place as scheduled, rain or shine, and shine is never guaranteed. As often as not, you wind up standing in a downpour, feeling the cold rain run down your neck, as you try to sort out very small, very active birds way up in a Douglas fir, or slogging through an alder swamp in search of whatever’s hiding in there, or bracing yourself against the winds off the ocean as you scope for seabirds.  

There’s an alternative for the less adventurous, though: This is the month of the ninth annual Great Backyard Bird Count. The GBBC, sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, takes place over the Presidents’ Day weekend, Feb. 17-20. The methodology is simple: You count whatever shows up in your yard and report your sightings on-line to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. There’s no fee, no registration, and you don’t have to be a birding ace to participate. 

Last year 52,000 counters tallied more than 6 million birds of 613 species—not half bad for February. A thousand participants supported their observations with digital photos. One backyard counter in Missouri, whose property apparently borders a wildlife refuge, reported 291,246 birds. I would bet that was heavy on the blackbirds, grackles, and starlings. 

All the numbers go into a searchable database at Cornell and become grist for the study of population trends. As with Christmas Counts and Breeding Bird Surveys, the Great Backyard Bird Count is an indicator of what species are declining or increasing in numbers, expanding or contracting their ranges, benefiting or suffering from climate change.  

It’s another window on the response of corvids—crows, jays, magpies—to the West Nile virus, to which these birds appear particularly susceptible. (I’ve been seeing anecdotal reports of vacant yellow-billed magpie roosts in the Sacramento area, where these endemic California corvids were once abundant.) It’s a way of tracking the explosive spread of the Eurasian collared-dove, which has made it all the way out here from its initial Florida beachhead. Gulf State counters may shed light on how wildlife was affected by last year’s hurricanes. And with global warming, how far north migratory birds like robins winter becomes a matter of scientific interest. 

“This project has become a major source of scientific information about North American bird populations,” says John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab. “It is a classic example of the vital role citizens and the Internet now play in understanding our planet.” 

In theory, GBBC counters don’t even need to leave the house: all that’s required is a window, and ideally a pair of binoculars and a field guide. I believe flyovers count as well as feeder visitors. It’s a far cry from some of the Christmas Counts in the far north, where miles of dogsled and snowmobile travel may yield, if you’re lucky, a single raven.  

For more information, or to view count data from previous years, visit www.birdsource.org/gbbc; or contact the Cornell Lab at cornellbirds@cornell.edu, (800)843-2473.

Jean Siri told it like it is and had a vision of how it should be. Former El Cerrito City Manager Pokorny said that Siri “had the courage to tell those who elected her and those who served with her, what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.” Unfortunately, those abilities are so rare these days they are described as “refreshing.”  

Siri was not politically correct or careful about anyone’s feelings. She did not waste her time “being nice to be nice.” Instead, she was effective; and she was effective until she died of a heart attack, in her car on the morning of Friday, Jan. 20, about to drive off to yet another meeting.  

Years ago Siri fought long and hard to monitor toxic emissions in minority communities, often taking busloads of people who suffered from Chevron’s emissions in their neighborhoods, to the neighborhoods of those who served on the Chevron corporate board. Of course, they were “uninvited” and not very welcome in the safe, comfortable neighborhoods of the CEO and board members. Siri once ran a “smell school” to teach people in the impacted neighborhoods to identify pollutants by smell, so they could report it by name to the Air Board.  

This battle, still being waged, is now described as the battle against environmental racism. Dr. Wendel Brunner, director of public health for Contra Costa County, told me that when he became public health director in 1983, “It was Siri’s personal pushing and public advocacy that was essential to my efforts to try to figure out how to address the toxic issues rampant in the county, and especially in the low income and minority communities.” Siri was a founding member of Contra Costa’s Public and Environmental Health Advisory Board (PEHAB) and also helped found the West County Toxics Coalition.  

Siri’s life was a lesson in public service. She was instrumental in founding Save the Bay. She served as an elected official on three boards: The STEGE Sanitary District Board; the El Cerrito City Council, twice serving as mayor; and finally, her greatest joy, as a director for Ward 1 on the East Bay Regional Parks District Board. 

Women from every generation and every walk of life think they are the “first” to do everything and do it all, but every generation has women of courage who lead the way for the next. As we honor Jean Siri, we must recall her work with Lucretia Edwards and Barbara Vincent to save our shoreline and open it up to public access. Without the work of Siri, Edwards and Vincent, the East Bay shoreline would be crowded with industry, housing and dump-sites. Instead we all enjoy their legacy of beautiful shoreline parks, including Point Pinole and others. 

Siri also served on the board of directors of the organization I founded and run, a respite and service center for those among the working poor and homeless in the Walnut Creek area, Fresh Start. She visited once a month, talking to everyone, always remembering names and stories, as she cheered people on. 

Jean, Fancheon Christner and I were members of the West County Gray Panthers. In the mid-1980s, along with Gray Panther Convener Art Schroeder, we began to work on the issue of homelessness. Due to our passion, persistence, humor, and always “in your face” attitude, an editor at the Oakland Tribune named the three of us “The Wild Women of West County.” Soon the name was striking fear in the hearts of politicos and bureaucrats across Contra Costa County. We were “Wild Women” and we proudly lived up to the name.  

People like Jean Siri are important to our lives. In my life Jean Siri was my friend and the mother I should have had. She called herself my “mother, mentor and confidant.” I met Jean when I was 22 and she told me that she thought I “might have some potential as a trouble-maker!”  

Because of Jean, my life is not what it might have been. For that I am grateful because anything else would have been too damned dull! She helped me see life and the truth from many different angles as she pushed me to be more of an activist, to talk back, speak truth to power and, as she liked to say, “make trouble.”  

Jean Siri helped me to understand better the true nature of how we are supposed to treat and care for each other, simply because of our membership in the community, and that we share a responsibility to make the world a better place because we live in it. As Jean taught her daughters, she taught me “Don’t wait for someone else to fix a problem or do the right thing. Do it yourself and do it first.” 

Jean Siri leaves two daughters, Ann Siri of Philo, in Mendocino County, and Lynn Siri Kimsey, of Davis, California. Lynn’s husband, Bob Kimsey, once told me how empty their house was after a visit from Jean. She filled up the space, not with size, but with her booming voice. Jean and Will Siri were both very proud of their daughters, of son-in-law Bob Kimsey and their many abilities and accomplishments. Their grandchildren, Erin and Ben Kimsey, were a particular joy. Will Siri died in 2004. Jean’s beloved dog, Babe, died in 2004 as well. 

Jean Siri was in my life for 33 years and it was not long enough. I have a quote hanging above my desk that reminds me of Jean: “Live your life so at the end you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.” She did that, although I’m sure, as we joked many times, there are some who are not sorry to see Jean go!  

When we vote to replace Siri on the East Bay Parks Board of Directors we have an obligation to remember her legacy and choose someone with similar passions, not only for the outdoors, the environment and conservation, but for people. The person who represents Ward 1 must have a vision of how things can be and an eye on the future. Perhaps we can find a young person with a fresh outlook and new ideas about parks and open space. Jean would like that.  

There is no better way to celebrate Jean Siri than with activism, laughter and tears. Mother Jones, another “trouble maker,” said: “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” We will Jean. You can count on it. 

A memorial for Jean Siri will be held at Miller Knox Regional Shoreline Park in Pt. Richmond on Friday, Feb. 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The public is welcome. The family suggests donations be made in Jean Siri's name to Fresh Start, 1924 Trinity Ave., Walnut Creek, CA 94596 or the Regional Parks Foundation, P.O. Box 21074, Crestmont Station, Oakland, CA 94620 

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White House staff members, who are trying to prevent Iran from developing its own nuclear energy capacity and who refuse to take military action against Iran “off the table,” have conveniently forgotten that the United States was the midwife to the Iranian nuclear program 30 years ago. 

Every aspect of Iran’s current nuclear development was approved and encouraged by Washington in the 1970s. President Gerald Ford offered Iran a full nuclear cycle in 1976. Moreover, the only Iranian reactor currently about to become operative, the reactor in Bushire (also known as Bushehr), was started before the Iranian revolution with U.S. approval, and cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium. 

The Bushire reactor—a “light water” reactor—produces Pu (plutonium) 240, Pu241 and Pu242. Although these isotopes could theoretically be weaponized, the process is extremely long and complicated, and also untried. To date, no nuclear weapon has ever been produced with plutonium produced with the kind of reactor at Bushire. Moreover, the plant must be completely shut down to extract the fuel rods, making the process immediately open to detection and inspection. Other possible reactors in Iran are far in the future. 

The American push for Iran’s nuclear development was carried out with great enthusiasm. Professor Ahmad Sadri, chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lake Forest College in Illinois, was a young man in Iran when the United States was touting nuclear power facilities to the government of the Shah. In the 1970s he remembers seeing the American display at the Tehran International Exhibition, which was “dedicated to the single theme of extolling the virtues of atomic energy and the feasibility of its transfer to Iran.” Sadri also remembers an encounter with Octave J. Du Temple, executive director emeritus of the American Nuclear Society, who fondly reminisced about half a dozen trips in the early 1970s to Tehran and Shiraz in order to participate in conferences and summits on “transfer of nuclear technology.” 

Washington international lawyer Donald Weadon, who was active in Iran during this period, points out that after 1972 and the oil crisis, the United States was rabidly pursuing investment opportunities in Iran, including selling nuclear power plants. “The Iranians were wooed hard with the prospect of nuclear power from trusted, U.S.-backed suppliers,” he says, “with the prospect of the reservation of significant revenues from oil exports for foreign and domestic investment.” 

American dissimulation on this point reveals some interesting motives on Washington’s part. Iran under the Shah was as much of a threat to its neighbors (including Iraq) as it might be said to be today. Its nuclear ambitions then could have been inflated and denigrated in exactly the same way they are being inflated and denigrated today, but the United States was blissfully unconcerned. The big difference is that Iran is now perceived to be a threat to Israel, and this fuels much of the threat of military action. 

Even those who admit that the United States helped start Iran’s current nuclear development can produce only two factors that make a difference in how Iran should be treated today as opposed to the 1970s. The most recent factor is President Ahmadinejad’s widely denounced remarks attacking Israel. The second, older factor is Iran’s alleged concealment of nuclear energy development activities in the past. 

President Ahmadinejad’s remarks have little or no connection with any probable action on Iran’s part regarding Israel. His pronouncements were designed primarily to shore up support from extremist elements among his own revolutionary supporters. Moreover, Ahmadinejad has no control over Iran’s foreign policy or its nuclear energy program, and his views are not embraced by Iran’s clerical leaders. 

The second accusation, that Iran has “regularly hidden information about its nuclear program,” is equally specious. Much of what the United States has called “concealment” was never concealed at all, when the reports of the United Nations inspection team are examined. Many of the U.S. charges about removing topsoil and bulldozing material at some of the research sites are unsupported by the United Nations. Moreover, even if one concedes that Iran did conceal some processes, this activity started 18-20 years ago, when the revolution was still young and Ayatollah Khomeini was still alive, under completely different political actors than are in power today. 

Indeed, whatever Iran did or didn’t do in the past, they are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at present. Indeed, there would be no way to accuse them of anything if they had not been so compliant about responding to NNPT requests for information. The NNPT grants all signatories the right to pursue nuclear research for peaceful purposes of precisely the kind in which Iran is currently engaged. 

The mantra “Iran must not get nuclear weapons” has been repeated so often now that most people have come to believe that Iran has them or is getting them. This implication is completely unproven. The tragedy would be that in the end, U.S. hostility may goad Iran into a real nuclear weapons program.›

Firefighter porn bust 

A 17-year veteran of the Berkeley Fire Department has been arrested on misdemeanor charges of possession of child pornography after evidence surfaced at the fire station where he works. 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan said that an audit of a computer that 49-year-old Luis Ponce used but did not solely control led to further investigation. 

“A discovery was made of child pornography on a city computer that was linked to Ponce,” Galvan ex-plained. 

As a result, search warrants were issued for the computer, his living quarters and locker at a Berkeley fire station and for his home in Grass Valley. 

Galvan declined to comment on evidence that may have been discovered during the searches. 

Berkeley policy is that “employee lockers belong to us [employees] and a search warrant is necessary to enter them,” Galvan explained. 

Ponce was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home in Grass Valley and booked into Nevada County jail on three counts of possession of photos of underage sexual activity. 

The firefighter is expected to be returned to Alameda County for arraignment Thursday, Galvan said. He is currently on administrative leave from his job. 

Missing man 

Berkeley Police are asking the public’s help in locating a 40-year-old deaf man reported missing by his mother on Dec. 21. 

Officer Ed Galvan said Rodney Texera had emailed his mother on Dec. 1 to say he was going to Oroville to help a friend move. 

The family hasn’t heard from him since, and anyone with information is asked to contact BPD Homicide Detective Rob Rittenhouse at 981-5741. 

Texera is a white male who stands 5’3” and weighs 150 pounds. He is bald, has hazel eyes and wears a mustache. He was born on Aug. 21, 1965.  

Dastardly scoundrel 

Person or persons unknown used a lock pry to burglarize a disabled person’s vehicle while it was parked at the Ashby BART station Thursday, making off with the owner’s disabled placard and a collection of audio tapes. 

The victim was a 43-year-old Berkeley man.  

No charges 

Police were called to a board and care home in the 1600 block of Alcatraz Avenue Friday, where a resident had choked a 47-year-old attendant. 

The woman wasn’t seriously injured, and no charges were filed against the patient, though the woman’s injuries were documented by a department evidence technician, said Officer Galvan. 

Shot hits apartment 

Calls of “shots fired” flooded the Emergency Services Center switchboard at 5:04 p.m. Friday—but there’s still little certain about just what happened in the 1600 block of King Street. 

Callers reported anywhere between two and seven shots, and a car connected with the incident was variously described as red, green and black. One caller reported that they’d also heard someone hurrying through their back yard. 

But investigating officers did find clear evidence of a shooting—a bullet hole in the stucco of an apartment dwelling and another in the window of a parked car. 

No arrests have been made in connection with the incident, said Officer Galvan. 

Armed robber 

A 40-something gunman robbed a teenager of his cash as he was walking along the 2300 block of Sixth Street about 7:20 p.m. Saturday. 

The young man said the robber confronted him with a black pistol, then fled on foot in the direction of Aquatic Park after pocketing the youth’s small amount of cash. 

Bat attack 

Motorists and pedestrians passing the 1600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way early Sunday afternoon found themselves confronted by a young man with a bat. 

The fellow, accompanied by two or three friends, swung on pedestrians and cars alike, and managed to connect with at least one of the vehicles, driven by a 27-year-old woman. 

Alerted to the incident, police arrived at the scene and during the following search found five youths in Ohlone Park, one of whom was taken into custody and cited for the incident.›

Berkeley city councilmembers voted Tuesday to pledge $4 million in federal funds to pay for community services and affordable housing as collateral for a federal loan to help fund the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza. 

The council delayed acting on an appeal from the purported owner of Dwight Way Liquors, after neither he nor his lawyer appeared to testify. The council voted to continue the hearing to their Feb. 7 meeting. 

Brower Center 

The $60 million project includes two structures that would be built on the site of the city’s Oxford Plaza parking lot, located on Oxford Street between Allston Way and Kittredge Street. 

Project plans call for replacing the existing parking with an underground lot beneath the two structures. 

The David Brower Center would house offices of non-profit environmental organizations, as well as the commercial retailer Patagonia and a proposed organic foods restaurant. 

The second structure, Oxford Plaza Apartments, would contain 96 units—including two- and three-bedroom apartments, all reserved for low-income and very low-income tenants. 

The loan application approved by the council was a necessary component of the city’s request for a $2 million Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) grant application. BEDI grants are awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to projects built on sites burdened by proven or potential chemical contamination. Parking lots are included within HUD’s definition. 

The BEDI funds would be used to help fund the Brower Center while the $4 million in HUD Section 108 funding the city is seeking to secure using the $4 million in Community Block Grant Development (CBGD) funds as collateral would help fund the apartments. 

Federal funding of CBGD grants nationally has been declining in recent years, with a 5 percent cutback last year and a 10 percent cut approved for this year. The grants fund a variety of programs and services in Berkeley, including the city’s housing department. 

Some of the councilmembers who voted to support the grant application said they weren’t entirely happy with the cautionary statements included in the written report from Housing Director Steve Barton, in which he warned of the possible dangers of commiting funds essential to many city programs. 

“I’m really troubled by the report,” said Laurie Capitelli. “It’s incomplete, and it raises red flags on every page.” 

Betty Olds, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said she was troubled by the fact the report had been submitted too late for her to be able to digest it. 

While the developers say they intend to rent office space in the Brower Center to non-profit environmental organizations, Capitelli asked Barton what might happen if they couldn’t. “Who would be the best tenant?” he asked. 

“I would say organizations like the energy functions of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab or various university projects related to the environment,” said Barton. “Certainly the university would be a deep-pocket tenant.” 

“So theoretically we could undertake this project to fund office space for the university?” Capitelli asked. 

“We’re taking this on primarily to get the BEDI grant that supports the affordable housing component,” Barton answered. 

“I think we should go ahead, but I too have concerns about the risks. They’re hard to ignore,” said Councilmember Gordon Wozniak. 

Liquor store 

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted to declare Dwight Way Liquors a public nuisance on Oct. 25, and Oakland Attorney Robert Bryden filed an appeal on behalf of Nasr Nagi. 

“Mr. Bryden does not represent the owner or the alcohol license holder,” city code enforcement supervisor Gregory Daniel told the council Tuesday. “There is only one person recognized as the operator and owner,” and that is Abdulaziz Saleh Saleh, said Daniel. 

He said the District Attorney’s office reported that during a Jan. 17 court hearing Bryden told the court that Nagi was selling the store, but he can’t be because he doesn’t own it. 

Bryden said Thursday that he hadn’t attended the council hearing because he hadn’t received any notice that it was occurring. He added that his client “is a partner with the guy whose name is on the license.” 

Asked if he would attend the Feb. 7 hearing, Bryden said, “most likely.” 

Daniel said notices of the hearing were sent out by regular mail, and that a copy had been sent to Bryden. 

Daniel told the council Tuesday that if the store is operating in the name of a partnership, “they have to have a liquor license under that name. Mr. Saleh is the only person on the liquor license and the only person on the business license and the zoning permit. Mr. Nagi appears nowhere.” 

In September, the city asked for a copy of any partnership agreement, but no copy was ever provided, said Daniel. 

ZAB Chair Andy Katz told the council that the board “did not take the remedy lightly in recommending closure.” 

Daniel had presented the council with a massive report, detailing a host of violations filed against the store and recounting a variety of state actions against the store’s liquor license. Neighbors told of violations of operating hours, sales to minors and of inebriates invading their property and discarding empty bottles on porches and in yards, along with drug paraphernalia. 

Other business  

The council delayed action on a new ordinance governing the care of dogs kept outdoors, as well as a proposed amendment by Dona Spring that would set different standards for animals kept by the homeless. 

Both proposals were referred back to the planning commission. 

The council also delayed action on a proposal from the Community Health Commission that would have the city set higher public health and safety standards for the installation of cell phone antennae. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque noted that federal law preempts local laws from adopting different standards than those set by federal regulations. 

“We are handicapped, but people are genuinely concerned,” said Councilmember Linda Maio. “People are wearing ear pieces with their cell phones because they don’t want transmissions next to their brains. But we’re hooked on this technology.” 

Albuquerque said that the city was further hampered by a recent federal appellate decision drastically limiting local jurisdictions’ ability to limit antenna installation on municipal street lighting polls. 

The council voted to ask the health commission to investigate the one issue over which they do have control—whether or not the city should be encouraging the installation of a wi-fi system, a wireless Internet service. 

The council also approved: 

• An ordinance that would prevent new sidewalk flower vendors from setting up outside an indoor florist’s shop. 

• Amendments to the Coast Live Oaks Ordinance banning excessive pruning of the trees. 

• Allocating up to $350,000 for monitoring and maintenance of the closed landfill at Cesar Chavez Park. 

• A$45,000 increase in a legal services contract with a private law firm to advise on the Brower Center project.?

Sitting in his curio shop on University Avenue, Tsewang Khangsar recalls the onerous journey that he had made almost 45 years ago across the Himalayas from Tibet. 

“We were fleeing from the Chinese occupation,” he said. “The Communist rule was slowly destroying everything that we knew as culture, as sacred, as ancient.” 

After being given refugee status in India, Khangsar completed his education from Cambrian School in Dehradoon and later went on to teach elementary and high school in Dharamshala for 20 years.  

In 1995 Khangsar was uprooted for a second time when he won the green card lottery which allowed 1,000 Tibetan refugees to come to the United States. With the help of a Tibetan support group in California, Khangsar arrived in Berkeley. 

“I washed dishes and ran errands to make ends meet,” he said. “In spite of having a masters degree in education from the University of Massachusetts, I was not allowed to teach in California. Six years ago when I opened Little Tibet, on University Avenue, there was only one other curio shop on Salon Avenue that specialized in Indian and Tibetan handicrafts. Today there are at least 10 such shops in Berkeley.” 

Khangsar said that his business at 2037 University Ave. is slow because of fierce competition. Technological advancements and growing dependence on all things mechanical have not helped either. 

“People have no use for ancient cultures anymore,” he said. “Businesses such as these face a great risk of slowly drifting away.” 

Khangsar says that most of his regular clients are those who are tired of chains like Macy’s.  

Maulin Chokshi of Bombay Jewelry Company (1042 University Ave.) is the president of the University Avenue Association. He agrees that Indian businesses in Berkeley are gradually drifting away. 

“There was a time when people would fly down from as far as Honolulu to do their monthly grocery shopping at Vik’s,” said Chokshi. “The fame of clothing boutiques such as Roopam and Sari Palace spread as far as Reno. In the late 1970s, Berkeley provided the only connection to India in the Bay Area.” 

With Indian markets emerging in Santa Clara, Fremont, and San Bruno, customers no longer have to commute to Berkeley for that exotic spice from Malabar. They can easily get it two doors down at their neighborhood grocery shop. In Fremont itself there are more than 20 grocery shops today. Fremont also boasts of the Naz8 Cinemas, North America’s first multicultural entertainment megaplex which attracts hordes of Indians by showing Bollywood films every week. 

Chokshi however acknowledged that the number of Indian businesses have grown tremendously in West Berkeley since 1989. In the late 1970s there were a mere eight to nine Indian shops. Today the number has grown to well over 50. According to Chokshi, the UC system initially brought in a lot of clientele in the form of the student’s parents. But today the shops have a identity of their own and are not dependent on anything. 

“Indian businesses in West Berkeley have grown because of the tremendous effort each of us put into our work,” he said. “People respect us because of the superior quality of our service and products—be it garments, jewelry, or spices.” 

According to Chokshi, Indian businesses in West Berkeley flourished from 1992 to 2000. He recalls how the dotcom boom brought in the maximum traffic. 

“There was more business to be done, more money to be made,” he said. “Certain stores even had to hire extra help on the weekends. People were spending money like there was no tomorrow.” 

When the bubble burst however, the spending gradually died down and a lot of his clientele even left the country.  

Although business has been slow from 2000 to 2005, 2006 is witnessing a state of rebuilding. Chokshi acknowledges that both environment and security issues are dealt with a lot better by the City of Berkeley than before. In 1990 Chokshi was held at gunpoint and robbed in his shop in broad daylight. Today there are policemen patrolling the area continuously and the streets are a lot cleaner. The University Avenue Association also arranged for Diwali lights last year and it works to maintain harmony within the international market blocks in that area. 

However, Chokshi finds it distressing that the city is not doing anything to promote the uniqueness of international markets in West Berkeley. 

Echoing his concerns is Shaman Ajmani of Karma, an interior décor boutique on the same block. 

“The city should help to promote this part of town as a tourist attraction. We need more lights to brighten up the place in the evening. People are scared of walking here after 6 p.m. Graffiti is also a big menace,” Ajmani said.  

According to both Ajmani and Chokshi parking problems are one of the main reasons for the dwindling businesses. 

“It is not only in the benefit of the businesses but also the city if parking is made easier for tourists and local shoppers,” Ajmani said.  

In 1989, it was Ajmani’s father, Anil Ajmani, who took over Bombay Music which had been a part of Bombay Bazaar and Bombay Travel in the 1970s. An ardent admirer of Bollywood movies, Anil Ajmani worked hard to establish the store and today it is one of the most popular destinations for lovers of Indian cinema in Berkeley. 

Another popular Indian haunt in Berkeley is Vik’s on Allston Way. Mr. Chopra of Vik’s was the first to bring the sighs, smells, and tastes of Indian street food to Berkeley and since then Indian restaurants have been mushrooming all over the city. Bir Thapa of the recently opened Mount Everest Restaurant on Shattuck Avenue finds the cut-throat competition in the Berkeley Indian restaurant industry frustrating. 

Opening a business in Berkeley had not been easy for Mr. Thapa. He fled Bhutan in 1992 to escape from the Maoist regime and had arrived in the United States in 2000. Along with three other friends, he decided to start a restaurant specializing in Indian and Nepalese food that would appeal to international customers. 

“After opening in July 2005, the restaurant did very good business for the first three months,” he said. “It began to sag after new restaurants opened on our street two months back.” 

However, there are others like Chaat Café on University Avenue who refuse to be daunted by competition. Leena, a student of business management at UC Berkeley who works at the café, says that the restaurant is always packed. 

“Competition is good,” she said. “It helps to improve the quality of service.” 

Inspired by the booming business at Chaat Café, Leena said she plans to start her own Indian restaurant in San Francisco after graduating.

There’s no denying that Berkeley has a worldwide reputation, not always positive. From humble beginnings in the 1850s, through the turbulent 1960s and up to today, Berkeley’s citizens are seldom shy about voicing their passions. 

Berkeley was first home to squatters along the bay’s shoreline attracted by accessible water and farmland. Later, the establishment of the University of California acted like a magnet for students and staff. The 1906 earthquake further increased the population, causing many San Franciscans to cross the bay and change their city of residence.  

This magnetism has been a constant pull from all directions. Today over 120 different languages and dialects are spoken within Berkeley’s eighteen square miles. Diversity, except perhaps politically, is what gives Berkeley its unique character and occasional discord, often resulting in a cacophony of ideologies, each marching to its own drummer. 

A postcard setting from the waters of the bay to the verdant hills, intellectual pursuit, appreciation of the arts and fine food, an abundance of coffee houses and bookstores, a commitment to the outdoors on the one hand, countered with a population of many dispossessed on the other, all combine to create a city beloved by many but identified as “Berzerkeley” by some. 

Berkeley as a whole breathes because of its parts, the individual neighborhoods of which it is comprised. As multiple systems function together to create a living organism, so too multiple neighborhoods function together as the city of Berkeley.  

Over the next several months I’ll place Berkeley’s neighborhoods under my own microscope, highlighting their history, architecture, culture, parks, and businesses, some of the essence of what makes them unique.  

West Berkeley—Getting the job done 

West Berkeley, once known as Ocean View, was the first neighborhood established, around 1853, and soon became a vibrant community of farmers, dockworkers, innkeepers and saloon owners, attracting many minority settlers. From the German, Irish, Finnish, Italian, Chinese and French settlers of the early 1900s to African American immigration during World War II and the recent influx of Latin-American, Asian-American and Southeast Indians—cultural diversity rules in West Berkeley and is its greatest strength. 

Occupying the area from Sacramento Avenue to the bay and from the Albany border to Ashby Avenue, Berkeley’s economic engine is an eclectic mixture of working class neighborhood, light industry and thriving business. Warehouses, auto repair and body shops, nurseries and artists coexist among restored Victorians, small bungalows and dilapidated cottages as well as Berkeley’s most effective retail district. 

A wander around Ocean View yields pieces of Berkeley’s past. The lovingly restored home at 1723 Sixth St. was one of 20 saloons serving residents and university students in the late 1800s. On Tenth Street the barn-like Finnish Hall gives testimony to the thriving Finnish community who built the hall in the early 1900s. The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd and the First Presbyterian Church of West Berkeley, built in 1879, on Hearst Avenue, served the pioneer community.  

Ocean View’s architectural showpiece is the Delaware Street Historic District, a collection of 13 relocated Victorian buildings. With plank sidewalks, picket fences, period lampposts and signs and complementary colors, this street is a step back in time. Period detailing continues onto Fourth Street, where shops and eateries in attractive settings draw people from all directions. 

Much of West Berkeley’s charm lies in its juxtapositions. Twin Italianate houses on Fifth Street face a handbag outlet factory and a car repair shop. Throughout these streets, renovation alternates with dilapidation, residence with business, high technology with art—all thriving side by side. 

A natural resource for renovators and deconstructors alike is Ohmega Salvage and Ohmega Too on San Pablo Avenue. Here salvaged antiques and well made reproductions line the ground and fill the storage sheds. Multiple-pane wood windows and doors of all sizes are neatly stacked and labeled; pedestal porcelain sinks and claw foot bathtubs appear as art sculptures, with framed wood fireplace mantles and bannisters—proving that one person’s cast-off is another’s treasure. 

One area of West Berkeley’s cultural diversity can be found on lower University Avenue, where the smells and colors of Little India will send your heart east. From Bombay Spice House, redolent with exotic smells of curry and cardamom, the uplifting beat at Bombay Music to the fabrics at Roopam Saris, dazzling colors of a tropical paradise, all are a feast for your senses.  

Resembling the United Nations is Vik’s Distributors, where the market and the Chaat Café should be on everyone’s lunchtime list. Full plate curries, single entrees like Masala Dosa and Lamb Baida Roti, nan, puri and cholle, delightful confections and mango lassi—at incredibly low prices, explain why the line is long and tables full. Insubstantial paper plates and plastic sporks aren’t an issue when music fills the air and flavors burst in your mouth. 

West Berkeley’s tatterdemalion warehouses and buildings have reincarnated as homes and studios for artists in various mediums. The Berkeley Potters Guild, on Jones Street, in existence for 36 years, provides work and exhibit space for 19 ceramicists in a former auto repair shop. Styles range from whimsical to dramatic. A recent tour found duck candelabras, cuerda seca tiles, porcelain dinnerware in vibrant blue and rust, stark raku vases with copper-flamed designs, paper-clay pig statues—a small sample of the diverse work created here. 

Another culture awaits at Takara Sake on Addison Street. The architectural design of the Tasting Room, the crisp coolness of the various sakes, background music and a sense of calm serve as a stand in for another eastern trip. Douglas fir woodwork, granite floor tiles, shoji screens, large boulders and gently rotating ceiling mobiles each add to the unique ambiance. 

In the adjacent museum the story of 19th century sake production in Japan unfolds. Well laid out displays of rare tools and artifacts along with printed information give life to this period. Exquisitely rustic and simple and exquisitely beautiful are the wood implements and raffia containers. A wall-hung exhibit resembles the tools of present-day gardeners—broom, paddle, and rake. The museum’s showpiece is a giant wood and iron press adorned with thick ropes tied around large boulders.  

An area’s parklands are often indicative of its strengths. Strawberry Creek Park on Allston Way is easily missed, tucked between residential streets. On the former site of the Santa Fe Railroad, Strawberry Creek has been freed from its culverts and surrounded by green lawns and native plantings. Playground equipment and facilities for basketball, volleyball and tennis draw the more active. Expansive lawns, benches and an outdoors café in a stately brick building attract residents and visitors to this lovely urban park. 

Eclectic, diverse, economically vital, West Berkeley combines past and future. Restored Victorian homes, no frills food at Brennan’s and Juan’s Place, upscale shopping and dining on Fourth Street, small factory outlets and handmade craft, without pretense Berkeley’s first neighborhood gets the job done. 

Photograph by Marta Yamamoto. 

Day laborers wait for jobs outside the old First Presbyterian Church of West Berkeley.

Members of the joint commission formed to look into the city’s density bonus are moving closer to formulating suggestions for a new ordinance. 

The panel, drawn from the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB), Planning Commission and the Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) gathered in the city’s Permit Services Center Tuesday.  

ZAB members Dave Blake and Bob Allen presented an update on their efforts to formulate a policy governing the use of ground floor retail space as a basis for granting builders the right to add an additional floor to buildings than would be otherwise permitted. 

Blake noted that as the law is currently administered, the 55-foot permissible height created to encourage higher ceilings in four-story buildings has been used by developers to squeeze in a fifth floor. 

“The result is horrible buildings without enough ceiling height,” Blake said. “We both agree that developers should be required to add more height to the first floor.” 

The ZAB members are also looking into minimum depths for retail space, in part because some buildings have been allowed a bonus for creating space as shallow as eight feet. 

“Dave and I keep talking through this to find what kind of inducement would attract better buildings and better retail,” said Allen. 

“If neighbors are going to have to put up with big buildings, the least we can give them is decent retail,” said Blake. 

One limiting factor is that developers also use part of the ground floor to provide required parking. 

Allen cited the large number of lots on University and San Pablo Avenues that are 100 feet deep. Because two rows of parking and a center lane require a 60-foot depth, the maximum depth of retail is limited to 40 feet, he said. 

“For any less than that, perhaps it should not trigger the density bonus floor,” he added. 

Planning Commissioner David Stoloff said that he agreed that the city should establish minimum sizes for ground floor retail spaces. 

“I am very interested in pursuing the notion of requiring ground floor commercial and not giving bonuses,” said fellow Planning Commissioner Susan Wengraf. 

While 55 feet is a maximum height for wood-framed buildings, structures built with metal stud framing can reach six to eight stories, said Allen, noting that the metal framing is included in plans for the six-floor Oxford Plaza Apartments that are part of the David Brower Center complex. 

Wengraf said the ordinance should also include minimum heights, a suggestion raised at last week’s meeting of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee meeting, where a panel of experts faulted the city for permitting single-story construction along the Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley. 

Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman said the city should also considering adopting in-lieu fees, where developers who didn’t want to include now-mandated units for low-income tenants could pay a fee to the city’s Housing Trust Fund that would help fund new affordable housing projects. 

Some members objected, saying that including lower-income tenants in upscale projects was a positive force, in alignment with Berkeley’s more egalitarian nature. 

“We can drop the inclusionary requirement, but that’s not a Berkeley value,” said city Planning Manager Mark Rhoades. 

Poschman countered with the observation that 80 percent of the city’s affordable housing is being provided by non-profit buildings. 

Blake said he favored the in-lieu fees as a means to establish a broader range of housing in the city. “I hope we would start using in-lieu fees in a controlled way to provide really high quality units for retirees,” he said.›

A report on negotiations between the Oakland Unified School District and the Oakland Education Association has brought the city closer to a teacher strike or closer to a settlement. 

Ben Visnick, president of the 3,200 member OEA, is not yet willing to say which. 

“We’re going back to the bargaining table on Saturday,” Visnick said late this week. “I’ll know better Saturday night.” 

The OEA plans a 9 a.m. Saturday rally at the OUSD headquarters, 1025 Second Ave. in Oakland, to support their bargaining position. 

Last May, OEA members overwhelmingly rejected a tentative contract agreement reached between the OEA bargaining team and the 43,000 student OUSD. Teachers last held a strike in Oakland in 1996. 

On the issue of health care benefits, the union wants the district to continue to fully fund worker health costs, while the district wants to impose a ceiling on how much money it spends on each district worker. 

The chairman of the fact-finding panel recommended that the two sides split the difference between their two proposals. 

In its analysis, the three-member fact-finding panel, made up of district and union representatives and a neutral arbitrator serving as chairman, found that Oakland’s education district is in a grave employment situation with an average 30 percent teacher turnover each year, and “is not competitive in attracting and retaining quality teachers or substitutes due in large part to low pay.” 

“According to the district,” the report noted, “exit interviews with teachers to determine the reasons for their early termination of employment reported general frustration attributed to working conditions in Oakland … low pay and greater opportunities for professional growth and promotions in other school districts.” 

The report added that while district officials wished to provide substantial teacher pay increases, it could not do so because “its financial situation is still grave.” 

The report concluded, however, that the union presented “persuasive, credible and verifiable evidence” that OUSD had “an improved financial liability” to fund a requested pay increase of between 2 percent and 2.5 percent. 

In a dig at the state-run Oakland school district, the report said that “much of the District’s financial data presented at the fact finding hearing was often incomplete, inaccurate and unverifiable; reflective more of its ongoing internal accounting problems.” 

OEA members—including K-12, adult education, and early childhood regular and substitute teachers, nurses, psychologists, counselors, librarians, and speech therapists—have been working without a contract since June of 2004. The major sticking points between the OEA and the district, according to the fact-finding report, involve health benefits and the district’s enrichment program. Agreement has been reached on raises, as well as a provision to reopen salary negotiations for the next budget year. 

Randolph Ward, the state-appointed administrator who operates the Oakland Unified School District under the authority of California State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, can legally impose the district’s proposed contract terms and conditions on the union as early as Feb. 2, an action that might directly lead to an immediate strike vote by the OEA. 

But Visnick said that while Ward possesses the power to impose such terms and conditions, it would be “silly for him to do so after only one follow-up bargaining session. I think that would hurt him politically. The community is moving towards our side.” 

Visnick said that he has been contacted in recent days by Oakland mayoral candidates Nancy Nadel, Ignacio De La Fuente, and Ron Dellums, all asking what might be done to lend their support. 

“There is also political pressure on the state superintendent,” he added. “The California Teachers Association has not yet endorsed O’Connell for re-election in part because of the actions he has taken in Oakland.” 

Both sides have been preparing for a strike, with teachers carrying green “Fair Contracts—Quality Schools” placards and chanting “real substitutes don’t scab” marching to the Oakland Airport Hilton last Monday to picket an OUSD job fair designed to sign up workers to act as strikebreakers. 

Representatives for Randolph Ward, were not available for comment for this article. 

But OEA President Visnick says it is too soon to tell how close the district is to a teachers’ strike. 

“I’m not Randy Ward,” Visnick said. “He runs the district by himself, but I don’t run the OEA alone. I’ve got a 15 member executive board to answer to, and a 150 member rep council. The OEA is among the most vocal, democratic unions in the country. Our members speak their minds. We probably have every left-wing tendency imaginable. All of our members will get the chance to give their input before we make a final decision.” 

Visnick said a strike would need to be supported by “a substantial majority of our membership … in order to be viable.”›

Planning Commissioners tackled creeks, cars dealerships and a proposed transportation services fee Wednesday—long-term issues that will eventually result in new city ordinances. 

First up on the agenda was a workshop on the city’s Creeks Task Force, which is preparing recommendations for a revision of existing law governing the miles of open and buried waterways in Berkeley. 

Most of the city’s creeks have been buried in culverts, and many property owners who live near or above them weren’t aware of them—or of the legal implications they carried. 

Owners of property within 30 feet of a waterway can’t add on to their structures, and they can’t rebuild if they’ve been irreparably damaged by dry rot. 

The current ordinance was passed in 1989, and until an amendment to the ordinance passed in November 2004, some owners of affected properties believed that they weren’t allowed to rebuild. 

Under the amendment, rebuilding is allowed only if a structure has been demolished by fire or a natural disaster like an earthquake—which prompted Commissioner Susan Wengraf to comment, “Seems like an invitation to arson.” 

The ordinance affects the owners of 1191 parcels, many of them single-family residences, built on or adjacent to the waterways. 

The task force must come back with specific recommendations to the city council by May 1, or structures affected by culverted creeks will automatically be removed from coverage by the existing ordinance. 

The task force will hold a public hearing on the ordinance on March 23, followed by another presentation to the planning commission on April 2. 

When commissioners questioned the 30-foot setback—actually 60 feet since it affects properties on either side of the waterway—task force secretary and planning staff member Erin Dando said that the panel is “concerned whether 30 feet is a good number or not.”  

Several members of Neighbors on Urban Creeks (NOUC) offered comments, including former Mayor Shirley Dean. 

One of the major issues confronting the task force is who bears the financial responsibility for repair maintaining creeks and the city’s aging culvert system. 

As the law now stands the responsibility falls on property owners, to which NOUC strongly objects. 

“The homeowners can’t afford the repairs,” said task force member John Roberts. 

NOUC member Barbara Allen said that costs of culvert repair typically run thousands of dollars per linear foot. 

“The creeks ordinance has to be cut back, revised and made reasonable,” said NOUC member Jerry Landis. 

Dean said that the decision to make property owners responsible for repairs to damaged culverts wasn’t included in the 1989 ordinance, but came from a subsequent ruling by the city attorney’s office. 

NOUC members also pointed out that the waterways were an integral part of the city’s storm drainage system, which has become overtaxed as more and more land is developed, built on and paved over. Dean said UC Berkeley’s planned expansion will compound the problem. 

“These issues haven’t been addressed,” said Katherine Bowman, who owns a home affected by the ordinance. “I’ve been to many Creeks Task Force meetings, and they have addressed how to preserve creeks and daylighting creeks but not the rights of property owners. I wish the task force would spend more attention on the human impacts.” 

“People are terrified” that the city will come onto their property and tell them they have to daylight a creek—and pay for it, said Roberts. 

Planning Commission Chair Harry Pollack said he hoped the task force would address the issue of restoring homes damaged by other causes than fires and natural disasters. 

Commissioner David Stoloff said the issue of distance also needed to be resolved. 

“They should also address the issue of the equity of creek maintenance,” said Commissioner Jordan De Staebler. 

“I am concerned that the data collected by city staff deals with the properties of creeks and not the kinds of data we’ve heard tonight,” said Commissioner James Samuels. 

Dealerships 

Tasked by Mayor Tom Bates and the city council with looking for ways to rezone West Berkeley to keep the city’s dwindling number of car dealerships, the commission held another workshop Wednesday. 

While the proposal has drawn fire from West Berkeley activists—who have strongly resisted efforts to reduce the amount of land zoned for industry and manufacturing—the first glimmers of a possible compromise appeared during the meeting. 

“It seems you are trying to accommodate four dealers,” said Rick Auerbach, who urged the commission to look for sites that wouldn’t disrupt existing business. 

“You don’t want to use a sledgehammer to go after a mite,” he said. 

“We urge you to draw the lines as narrowly as possible,” said West Berkeley woodworker John Curl. 

Dealerships are under pressure from auto manufacturers to locate near freeways, said Economic Development Director Dave Fogarty, a comment echoed by dealers during an earlier commission tour of West Berkeley sites. 

As the most desirable sites, both com-missioners and critics zeroed in Wednesday on self-storage businesses built along the Eastshore Freeway frontage road, which provide little in the way of revenues to the city in comparison with the lucrative taxes generated by new car sales. 

“We need to be very focused,” said Commissioner Helen Burke. “We don’t want to do something if it’s not really needed.” 

Fogarty said that in addition to current Berkeley dealerships that have expressed interest in moving next to the freeway, the city has received expressions of interest from other dealerships located in nearby communities. 

“The only area that has a future for dealerships in Berkeley is next to the freeway,” Fogarty said. 

“I have a lot of sympathy for the view that the area” for dealerships “should be very narrow,” said Commission Chair Harry Pollack. 

“I wonder if we could identify a zone, say two or three blocks off the freeway,” said Samuels. “It seems to me we’re getting off track by limiting them by zone rather than by area.” 

“If they’re not visible from the freeway, they’re not going to fly,” said de Staebler. 

Stoloff suggested limiting the number of dealerships, “so we don’t have an auto row.” 

In the end, the commission continued the workshop until their next meeting. 

Transportation fee 

Commissioners briefly discussed the proposed transportation services fee program drafted by the Transportation Commission. 

The fee would be imposed on new construction and is designed to partially offset the cost of the impacts of new automobile trips generated by the buildings on the city’s traffic and transportation infrastructure. 

Projects would be able to reduce or eliminate the fee altogether by offering mitigations that would reduce or eliminate the trips.  

Mark McLeod, one of the owner/operators of the Downtown Restaurant at 2102 Shattuck Ave., said his business and many others downtown wouldn’t have located in Berkeley had the fee been in place at the time. “No one would have considered locating in Berkeley,” he said. 

The fee is mandated in the city’s General Plan, and the commission voted to devote more time to discussing the proposal during their first meeting in March.g

In September 2003, two days after receiving an excellent evaluation, Chaplain James Yee was arrested, charged with espionage and thrown into solitary confinement for 76 days. When he left the Army in 2005 after all charges were dropped, he received a medal. He recounts his journey from Muslim American poster boy to “enemy of the state” in his memoir, For God and Country. Yee was interviewed by Sandip Roy, host of “UpFront,” New America Media's radio program.  

Sandip Roy: As chaplain at Guantanamo Bay you served not just the soldiers but also 660 prisoners. What did you have to do for them?  

Capt. Yee: I was an advisor to the command on the unique religious paradigm in Guantanamo, where all the prisoners are Muslim. I had open access to them and I would talk to them daily, understand their concerns and relay that information to the command so some of the tensions in the cell block between soldiers and prisoners could be relieved.  

Q: Donald Rumsfeld has called the prisoners some of the “worst of the worst.” How did you find them?  

A: I disagree with that characterization. Clearly many of them are innocent. At least three were between 12 and 14. There are a dozen Uighurs from western China. Some of them have been deemed to be not enemy combatants by the Pentagon's own review board but still haven't been released.  

I saw prisoners who were so despondent they would no longer eat. At least two were permanently in the hospital being force-fed through a tube. One prisoner attempted suicide and ended up in a coma.  

There were also mass suicide attempts. A prisoner would attempt suicide, the guards would unlock his cell and take him down, and the medics would come. Fifteen minutes later another prisoner would attempt suicide, and this would go on for hours. They were demanding the commanding general apologize for the abuse of the Koran.  

Q: Did you see any abuse?  

A: As a chaplain I was able to ensure some things like halal meals, the call to prayer, the painted arrow pointing to Mecca. But the Koran was desecrated. In the conduct of searches, it often ended up ripped. There were confirmed incidents where interrogators threw the Koran on the floor and stepped on it.  

When Newsweek report about the Koran desecration outraged the entire Muslim world, the Pentagon responded by showing that there was a policy in place that gave proper guidance on how to correctly handle the Koran. What the Pentagon never said was that the chaplain they had accused of spying and threatened with the death penalty was the one who authored that policy.  

Q: The government says the war on terrorism is not a war on Islam, but you write that's not how it felt on most days at Guantanamo.  

A: There was really strong anti-Muslim hostility directed not just toward the prisoners but also to the patriotic Muslim Americans serving there. I wasn't the only one singled out. Two others were arrested around the same time.  

Q: But was this the bigotry of a few bad apples, or more pervasive?  

A: The commanding general told me he had enormous anger toward “those Muslims” who carried out the attacks on 9/11. When new soldiers came to Guantanamo they were given a briefing that seemed to indicate the 660 prisoners there planned and carried out 9/11. E-mails referred to Muslims as “ragheads.” Muslim personnel who attended services on Friday were sometimes called “Hamas.”  

Q: What do you think triggered the suspicions about you?  

A: The Muslim personnel pray five times a day, bowing and prostrating just like the prisoners. We read the Koran in Arabic just like the prisoners. To some over-zealous, inexperienced and bigoted few, we were some kind of subversive sleeper cell.  

But my ethnicity also played a role. I found out that someone had said, “Who the hell does this Chinese Taliban think he is, telling us how to treat our prisoners?”  

Q: When you were arrested were you subject to the same things the prisoners had complained about?  

A: I was transferred to the consolidated naval brig in Charleston (S.C.), where U.S. citizen enemy combatants are held. I was shackled in three places—wrists, waist and ankles. They put the blackened goggles on my eyes so I couldn't see anything and heavy industrial earmuffs on my ears so I couldn't hear anything. That's how prisoners are transported from Afghanistan to Guantanamo.  

Q: Were you afraid you would just disappear?  

A: When I heard the accusations I thought they were absurd and would be cleared in a matter of days, if not hours. It became much more frightening when I heard I was being taken to some undisclosed location. Nobody knew where I was. My parents and family were not informed. My wife and daughter were in fact waiting for me at the airport to come pick them up. I never showed up. I essentially disappeared for 10 days.  

Q: Did the military learn something from the experience?  

A: My experience has worked to undermine the efforts in fighting the war on terrorism. What the world saw was if a U.S. citizen could not get a fair look under U.S. military justice, what makes anyone think that foreign prisoners in Guantanamo are going to get a fair shake?  

Q: Now that you are out, what do you want? An apology?  

A: When I separated from the military in January 2005, I received an honorable discharge and another army commendation, but I didn't receive that apology. Now I, my family and supporters, and several congressmen are awaiting the result of an investigation that the Department of Defense inspector general agreed to take on as to how it really was that I, Capt. James Yee, landed in prison for 76 days, being accused of these heinous crimes and being threatened with the death penalty. We are all looking forward to the results of that investigation—and a well deserved apology.  

On Jan. 26, 2006, Capt. James Yee received an Exceptional Communicator Award from New California Media.›

Brenda ran Los Angeles’ citywide marathon representing John Adams Middle School. After finishing at the top of her age group, she felt “on top of the world.”  

Then she told her track coach that she wanted to go to college. He told her it wasn’t going to happen, because she was undocumented.  

Eight years later, Brenda is a senior at the UC Berkeley. The California Dream Act of 2001 allows undocumented students to attend public universities for in-state tuition—and allowed Brenda to prove her coach wrong.  

Brenda will be among the first class to graduate since the law went into effect. But her opportunity for advancement may end on graduation day, as she tries to find her way into a job market from which she is legally barred.  

“I’m back in the same situation,” she said. “What do I do now?”  

The Supreme Court has ruled that immigrants have a right to an education regardless of citizenship. Undocumented graduates, however, cannot work legally in the United States.  

With the job market closed to them, some soon-to-be graduates are finding reasons to prolong their college education. The hope, according to Horacio Arroyo, a youth organizer with the Coalition on Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, is that the law might change in the near future, making it easier for these students to naturalize and enter the work force.  

Arroyo is in touch with undocumented students at colleges across the California. “A lot of them are looking for a second major right now,” he said.  

Only about half of undocumented high school students will make it to graduation. Of those, less than half will go on to college. Only 15 percent will earn a degree, according to Jeffrey Passel, a demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C.  

In high school, even promising students like Brenda can be timid about seeking support for their college aspirations, said Arroyo, whose organization advocates for undocumented students interested in higher education.  

Brenda, Arroyo recalls, approached the coalition seeking help for a friend. “We were amazed at the story she told, and at what her friend had been through. We encouraged her to bring her friend by.”  

The story Brenda told was her own.  

Brenda was 7 years old when she was carried across the border between Ciudad Juare z and El Paso, Texas in 1989. Her family settled near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Brenda grew up in a cockroach-infested one-bedroom apartment with her parents and three younger sisters.  

Brenda’s father found work in the textile mills, w here he has worked for minimum wage for the past 16 years. Brenda did her part throughout high school by working in “the alleys,” L.A.’s fashion district, where she made $35 a day selling dresses priced at $80 or more.  

After joining the coalition, Brend a participated in rallies, meetings with legislators and press events. That fall, then-Gov. Gray Davis signed the California Dream Act. Brenda enrolled at U.C.Berkeley in January, 2002, the month the law went into effect.  

Jack Martin, a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), is critical of the California Dream Act and of similar proposals at the national level.  

“Our first responsibility is to legal residents in this country,” he said. “We are not opposed to [undocument ed students] studying here, we would just like to see them study as foreign students—which they are.”  

FAIR estimates that taxpayers pay $7.4 billion a year to educated undocumented students in public elementary and secondary schools. When states like California allow these students to pay in-state tuition at public universities, he added, taxpayers cover that, too.  

But Stephen Levy, senior economist at the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy, said the math is not that simple.  

“When we talk about ‘our kids,’ we talk about investment,” he observed. “When we talk about unauthorized immigrant kids, we talk about cost.”  

Levy pointed out that the difference in lifetime earnings between a high school and a college graduate can be cl ose to a million dollars. Increasing the earning power of undocumented residents, it follows, would increase tax revenues.  

Brenda said her parents are excited about her impending graduation—“I think they have the hope that I’m going to support them.” Bu t for the past four years, Brenda has had difficulty supporting herself. Undocumented students are ineligible for state or federal financial aid, and work is hard to come by without papers.  

Brenda has been lucky to find part-time work with a local nonprofit, but it’s not enough—she’s been late on every tuition payment. Each time, she’s had to go to the dean’s office and explain her situation.  

Now she’s wondering how to explain to her parents that a college diploma may not mean what they think it will.  

“My parents are older now,” she said. “My mom has diabetes. My sisters are growing up. How am I supposed to help?”  

“I really don’t have any hope for the future,” said the soon-to-be college graduate. “That’s the hardest thing.”  

Nick Guroff is a freelance writer studying journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. His reporting is supported by a special James Irvine Foundation grant to develop reporting fellowships for U.C. students and the ethnic media.  

Two-alarm blaze 

A heat lamp used to keep a lizard comfortable in an Ashby Avenue apartment apparently caused a two-alarm fire early Wednesday that did heavy damage to one apartment and led to water damage to the unit below. 

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said the fire at 1931 Ashby Ave. was reported at 1:24 a.m., and firefighters arrived to find the upper unit in the two-residence building spouting flames. 

A second alarm was sounded because the structure was close to another building, Orth said. 

Five engines and two trucks responded to the blaze, along with an ambulance. 

Firefighters returned to the scene several hours later after a small fire burst out in an area of the roof firefighters had been unable to reach. The flames were quickly doused. 

Orth said the fire displaced four or five residents. 

Arson suspected 

Firefighters were summoned to 821 Acton St. at 6:58 a.m. that same morning, where they found a bed afire. 

The fire was rapidly extinguished after doing about a thousand dollars of damage to the structure and $500 to its contents. 

Orth said that because of an ongoing investigation, the only thing he could say about the cause of the fire was that it was suspicious.f

Burglar nailed 

An early morning burglar alarm call from Model Shoe Renew at 1934 Shattuck Ave. on Jan. 11 ended with the arrest of a burglar who has since admitted pulling off more than 100 commercial burglaries—half of them in Berkeley—over the past eight months. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan said that when police responded to the 3:30 a.m. alarm, they found the store’s front door glass had been shattered. 

Officers making a quick search of the surrounding area spotted a man looking into a trash container. 

When one of the officers approached the man—who they first thought was merely dumpster diving—to ask if he’d seen anyone suspicious in the area, the lawman noticed small slivers of glass on the man’s hat, jacket and gloves, Galvan said. 

A quick frisk turned up items stolen from the store, along with burglary tools. 

During a subsequent interview with a property crimes detective, the suspect—identified as Andrew Larry Austin, 56, of Berkeley—admitted to a long string of commercial burglaries. 

Most of the 50 or so Berkeley crimes targeted businesses in the downtown area, Galvan said. 

Purse snatched 

A 29-year-old woman walked into the police station lobby Sunday to report that she’d been robbed by a purse-snatcher 10 minutes earlier at the corner of Addison Way and Martin Luther King. Jr. Way. 

The suspect was described as a man in his early 20s. 

She said/she said 

Police were called to a neighborhood market and liquor store in the 1600 block of Ward Street early Sunday afternoon after a fracas broke out among a group of young women. 

Officer Galvan said that one of young women said another had hit her in the head with a Coke bottle, while the alleged bottle-basher said the alleged bashee had tried to run her down with a car. 

After listening to both disputants and some witnesses, officers elected to charge neither of the young women. 

Pink Flamingo crash 

A 29-year-old woman drove her car into a parked car in front of the Pink Flamingo motel in the 1700 block of University Avenue about 3:40 a.m. Tuesday. 

The woman sustained a head injury, and she was bleeding when officers arrived. Though she initially insisted on driving herself to and emergency room for treatment, she eventually accepted an ambulance ride. 

Posterior penetration 

Eight hours later, a 61-year-old man walked into the police station to report that he’d been stabbed in the buttock nine hours earlier in the 900 block of San Pablo Avenue. 

Paramedics were summoned, and, after a quick examination, they pronounced the wound as minor and not requiring hospitalization. 

The stabbing victim identified the suspect as a 56-year-old acquaintance. 

No arrest has been made, said Officer Galvan. 

Cell robbery 

A 26-year-old man called police Tuesday morning to report that a pair of juveniles had robbed him of his cell phone at 6:45 p.m. the day before in the 2800 block of California Street. 

Guard beaten 

Summoned by a caller who reported a group of men beating up someone in the Berkeley Bowl parking lot at 6:41 p.m. Tuesday, officers arrived to find a bleeding security guard and a 29-year-old suspect. 

The incident apparently began after the suspect was spotted shoplifting in the store, and the attack began outside when he was confronted by the guard. 

The suspect was booked on suspicion of robbery, burglary, battery, brandishing a deadly weapon and malicious damage to a motor vehicle. 

Botched robbery 

A team of teenage robbers, their faces concealed beneath their hoodies and brandishing a silver-colored semiautomatic pistol were unable to convince a clerk at the University Avenue Foster’s Freeze to part with the contents of the till at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. 

The duo was last seen fleeing westbound along the avenue, said Officer Galvan. 

And another 

A Berkeley woman suffered a minor cut to her knee as she resisted a young man in a black hoodie who’d tried to rob her of her backpack in the 1600 block of Virginia Street at 10:47 p.m. Tuesday. 

Robbery team 

A teenager clad in a white hoodie and packing a small caliber pistol robbed a 41-year-old woman of her wallet and its contents as she walked along the 1200 block of Carleton Street just before 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. 

The robber then leapt into a small Japanese car driven by his wheelman. ›

Historic resources will be on the agendas of two city commissions meeting this week. 

The first, the newly formed panel created to help form a new plan for downtown Berkeley, will hear tonight (Tuesday) from a subcommittee which is considering how to assess the historic buildings in the downtown area. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) was formed as part of the settlement of the city’s lawsuit against UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020. It is charged with creating a new plan for the city center. 

DAPAC members will also share their own ideas of what they’d like to see happen to the city center. 

That meeting will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will meet in the same venue starting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday to hold several public hearings on proposed projects affecting Berkeley landmarks. 

First on the agenda is a hearing under the National Historic Preservation Act on the impact of a proposed senior residents’ housing project across the street from the Ashby BART station. 

Prince Hall Arms proposes to build a mixed-use senior housing project at 3132-38 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Thursday’s hearing will focus on the impact the structure will have on other historical buildings in the project’s area of potential effect. 

The hearing is mandated because the project may receive federal funds for the project through the City of Berkeley. 

Two hearings will consider aspects of proposed alterations of the landmark H.J. Heinz Building at 2900 San Pablo Ave., where the owner is seeking to make repairs, including replacement of siding and windows and to demolish an existing garage. 

The LPC has also scheduled hearings on two new proposed landmarks, one at 1861 Solano Ave. and a second at 2667-69 Le Conte Ave.›

Today’s letters column contains an indignant response from an Oakland booster to a recent commentary from a Berkeley man who seems to think that Oakland will be getting a lot of new residents who won’t have much to entertain them. And also, that Berkeley’s much-hyped new Arts District is entertainment central, but there are not enough downtown residents to enjoy the fun. Oakland has every right to be annoyed.  

The letter-writer lists the many new restaurants and other attractions which have been added to downtown Oakland in the last few years, but leaves out many more amenities which have drawn people to the city over the years and still do. For example, there’s Lake Merritt and the park around it. It’s a great place to take the kids: Children’s Fairyland, the nature center and bird sanctuary, lots of open space to run around in and good playgrounds. Most of Berkeley’s parks are either in the hills, just about inaccessible to those without cars, or on the waterfront, windswept and cold for much of the year. Oakland’s warm sunny microclimate is unbeatable. 

Then there’s the entertainment scene. Oakland has a terrific venue in its glamorous restored historic Paramount Theater, home to an enormous variety of programs, most notably the Oakland Symphony, which plays to an enthusiastic full house of diverse residents for every performance, and whose conductor Michael Morgan is tirelessly active in civic endeavors, especially educating kids. 

Oakland has lots of avant-garde music too. The Oakland Opera Theater puts on exciting programs in a converted bar on Broadway near Jack London square, and has featured works by the likes of Phillip Glass which have gotten world attention. And the city is the cradle of many kinds of ethnic music in pop, folkloric and classic genres, such as the Purple Bamboo orchestra for Chinese instruments. 

And how about museums? The unique Oakland Museum manages to combine art, history and nature study into a harmonious whole in an architecturally delightful building. The new African American museum is a splendid addition. And for the museums of the future, Oakland’s industrial districts are home to many artists driven out of other cities by gentrification.  

Or food? In addition to the obligatory (and increasingly formulaic) California cuisine restaurants which Berkeley also boasts, Oakland’s ethnic diversity gives diners the chance to travel around the world at dinnertime. Right next to the Oakland Museum, there’s a Nigerian restaurant, and a couple of blocks away the best dim sun in the Bay Area. Out on International Boulevard there’s block after block of Latin American eateries from many different countries.  

But there’s that D-word again, a warning to Oakland that it might be in danger of destroying the city in the guise of saving it. What Oakland really has going for it, what Oakland has had going for it in the 33 years we’ve been around here, is Diversity with a capital D—all those folks from just about everywhere in the world living together in relative harmony and making the city more interesting. The 10,000 new downtown residents that departing Mayor Jerry Brown, our Berkeley writer and the Oakland booster are all so proud of could end up diluting Oakland’s exciting mix with too many dull whitebread yuppies (and that term “whitebread” can include some dull African-American and Asian-American yuppies too). It’s clear that Brown and his allies don’t really appreciate Oakland’s many existing treasures—they’re trying to change the traditional name of downtown Oakland to Uptown, a place which no one seems to be able to find on the map. They’ve even tried to push the blandly homogeneous Uptown concept into the lively Temescal neighborhood by using the destructive mechanism of redevelopment, though the residents there seem to have headed that off just in time.  

The most pernicious of Urban Legends are those born from the unproven dogma that planners can design a great city. Most of the great cities of the world have grown organically, and when they’ve declined, it’s been because of wrong-headed planning. Even Paris, which was re-planned to somewhat good effect in the mid-19th century by Baron Haussman, is now suffering from the effects of subsequent bad planning in its ring suburbs.  

The millennial belief that global warming will be prevented by mass transit is the Urban Legend that’s causing a lot of grief at the moment. Big buildings are being plopped into areas (where, granted, there really ought be opportunities for living without cars) with no reality check to see if it’s actually possible to get around on buses from the target location. Within blocks of the Planet office on Shattuck we see the notorious “flying cottage,” a small home being expanded to enormous size under the ideological supervision of the City of Berkeley’s Planning Department, and at the same time the bus stop at its doorstep is being removed by a different set of ideologues, the planners at AC Transit, who think that more people would ride if buses went faster and didn’t stop as often.  

Another theory that’s headed for big trouble is the belief, expounded by the Berkeley commentator, that the new downtown apartment dwellers are necessarily going to want a lot of excitement near home. Zoning, which arose in the early 20th century, was a response to the earnest desire of many city dwellers of the time to be insulated from the hustle and bustle of commerce and transport. It turns out that many today want the same things they wanted in the suburbs where they grew up: no noise from either revelers or buses, and plenty of free parking so they can drive to the same shopping malls they patronized before they moved downtown. They won’t be bringing that Ikea furniture home on BART, and they’ve already started objecting to music clubs staying open past midnight. And the building boom in Tracy and Fairfield hasn’t slowed down at all. 

B

In the Jan. 24 issue, an article misstated that Willie Ratcliff was the former local station board chair of KPFA radio station. Ratcliff was chair of the local advisory board..

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.

›

WARM POOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Since returning to USA from 13 years overseas I have lived for two years as a senior in Berkeley (which I regard as almost a Third World community). I swim regularly in the Berkeley High School warm pool simply because it is close and cheap and warm. 

It is, however, a complete disgrace. It is as dilapidated as an abandoned warehouse in the Bronx and it is absolutely filthy, disgusting dump, and must not have seen a janitor in three years. 

I hear talk it may be closed and that is OK by me—it will force me to go to a decent place and pay more! 

In England I used to swim in a pool eight times the size of that hole; it was immaculate and modern, and as a senior it cost me zero! 

Brian C. Waters 

• 

TWO WHYS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Why does the price of gasoline vary so much and so often? At the station across the street in the course of a few days a full underground tank of regular unleaded sold out for four different prices. 

Why is gasoline priced at 9/10th of a cent? Why not 3/10th? Or 7/10th? Nothing else we consumers consume is so precisely priced. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

HOUSING AUTHORITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

So....Sharon Jackson has resigned from the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) just as the feds announced a fraud investigation. Meanwhile, the BHA is entering its fifth year as an officially designated “troubled agency.” 

Despite all the pork spoon-fed to the BHA, they have apparently failed to perform basic functions such as verifying tenant income and enforcing HUD habitability requirements, or the required annual inspections of Section 8 Units. It begs the question: Why spend so much money just to have our own Housing Authority? Most communities prefer to handle this job at the county or regional level. 

Sharon Jackson’s boss is Steve Barton, the Housing Department chief. Barton’s boss is the City Council, which also sits as the BHA. The BHA’s financial mess has gotten worse in the last five years, not better. And now there’s a fraud investigation. Yet Barton and every councilmember quoted by the Daily Planet says that Jackson was fantastic and nothing’s amiss! Am I missing something? 

It seems like the same tired old faces continue to collect salaries and benefits from the Rent Board, the Housing Authority, and the Housing Advisory Commission. Under the guise of “affordable housing,” this inbred group does everything it can to prevent young families and first time buyers from ever owning their own homes. 

Perhaps the federal government’s investigation will finally fix the BHA. Perhaps it is up to the voters to fix the rest of Berkeley’s dysfunctional housing bureaucracy. But, isn’t it time the council demanded a real investigation, conducted by someone who is not a cousin of someone being investigated? 

Roslyn Fuerman 

• 

STUFFED TURKEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s articles and columns evidence so much personal bias and conceited smugness that you should serve him up as the stuffed turkey that he really is! 

Wayne Kirchoffer 

Oakland 

• 

WALKING THE LINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was my honor and duty to walk the Berkeley Honda picket line with the striking workers, union brothers and sisters from SEIU 790, and community supporters this past Wednesday morning. Management’s primary objective is to bust the union, going so far as to try to shout over our chants that union workers make too much money. Do they prefer their workers be homeless and subservient? In the process of busting the union they are disrupting the lives of decent and hard working people. Many of those not retained by the new owners had been employed with the dealership for more than twenty years. Nat Courtney, a gold star mechanic, had worked there his entire adult life for thirty one years. We should not allow Berkeley Honda to pursue its race to the bottom. That is why I am proud to walk on the picket line. I hope that many of you will also give your support to the union and the striking workers.  

Jerry McNerney 

Candidate, 11th Congressional District 

• 

TWO VENTURES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although my property taxes went up 11 percent, I was able to mail my payment before the deadline. This devastated my bank account. On the way home I picked up a copy of the Daily Planet. The front page featured articles concerning projects to redesign and rebuild the Ashby BART west lot and the downtown BART plaza. A third article reported that revenues from downtown retail merchants have fallen by 10 percent. 

Taken at face value, it appears that we have two ventures that are going to cost property owners like myself many thousands of dollars. This in light of the fact that the City of Berkeley is expecting to have less money. Is it just me or is there something wrong with this picture? I remember reading a month or two ago that Berkeley was running a $13 million shortfall. Did the city recently win the lottery? 

Might I be allowed to suggest that we just take a little rest here. Both BART projects are important, but not matters of life and death. Can’t Berkeley, for just a few moments, let go of this drive to keep it in the forefront of every aspect of urban progress? Could we not mark time until financial reality at least catches sight of our vision? I fear that these projects and their probable cost overruns will be financed by reaching into my pockets, which are now empty! 

John Fingado 

• 

BART ADVERTISING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Letter-writer John McMullen says he is “aghast” that a “point-of-view” advertisement is posted in a BART station, a public space that is subsidized by taxes. While his letter is carefully couched to avoid expressing a point of view of his own, I wonder what on Jefferson’s green earth he could possibly be thinking. Last time I checked—and, I admit, the situation is changing rapidly—we live in a democracy, in which citizens are meant to conduct political discourse with one another in order to wrestle toward resolution the constant and shifting conflicts that arise among people whose opinions are not marshaled by thought-police into neat, conforming rows. Does Mr. McMullen mean to suggest that political discourse ought to be a private matter, conducted in dark alleys and behind closed doors, where each of us can be safely and hermetically isolated from those whose points of view diverge from our own? I sure hope that’s not where we’re headed. As the still-controversial third president of the United States once observed, “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.” While I myself go queasy at the content and tenor of the anti-choice ads that so upset Mr. McMullen, it would be a nail in the coffin of democracy to agitate against the right of those with whom I disagree to express themselves in public. Whose mouth gets duct-taped next? Mine, maybe? 

Steve Masover 

• 

USE OF TAX DOLLARS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Earlier this month, the Berkeley Voice published a letter of mine in which I opposed spending taxes on political campaign propaganda as Assemblywoman Hancock would have us do in the public campaign financing legislation she is crafting. Instead, I suggest that a better use of tax dollars would be to teach high school students about how to become eligible to vote, how to distinguish fact from fiction, opinion, and hyperbole in the propaganda generated by political campaigns. 

In response to my letter, Tom Miller, a member of a group promoting the use of taxes for political campaign propaganda, provides some blatant examples of such propaganda printed in the Dec. 16 issue of your paper. 

In his letter, Mr. Miller flatly states that “The public financing concept does not enable candidates to spend more money.” The truth is that many candidates who accept tax-subsidies for their political ads will be able to spend more money than they could themselves in the absence of those subsidies. They just won’t be able to exceed spending ceilings set for tax-subsidized candidates that may be higher than what they planned to spend anyway. 

Mr. Miller also states that tax-subsidies for political propaganda (aka public campaign financing) “puts all candidates on an even playing field.” The truth is that only those candidates who accept tax-subsidies will be playing on this “even” field. Other candidates who chose not to spend taxpayers’ money on their propaganda will be able to spend as much as they can raise through voluntary donations. 

I invite Mr. Miller or Assemblywoman Hancock to provide conclusive evidence that public campaign financing will not exacerbate the campaign advertising arms race. A visit to Mr. Miller’s website failed to unearth any evidence that public campaign financing reduces spending on political advertising and propaganda in the aggregate (for all candidates combined). Miller and Hancock’s proposed legislation will certainly increase the amount of taxes spent on such an arms race. 

Finally, Mr. Miller states that the costs of his proposals are “about the price of a movie ticket” per taxpayer per election. I would much rather spend those millions of tax dollars on high school teachers and programs that show students who are about to become eligible voters how to distinguish political propaganda, such as that presented in Mr. Miller’s letter, from the truth. 

Keith Winnard 

• 

HAMAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a remarkable show of democracy at work, a significant plurality of Palestinians elected Hamas as their new government. As a result of decades of indoctrination from preschool on, Hamas has seen the fruition of its endeavor to create the sociopathic society of a pro-genocide populace.  

Correspondingly, it should be crystalline that the vast majority of Palestinians support a government which has overtly promised to destroy the Jews of Israel, impose Islamic strictures on a female population already consigned to third class status, persecute homosexuals, and suppress any intellectual articulation which is deemed antithetical to the Koran. 

In sum, the Palestinian people have made their clearcut choice. So when the likes of KPFAC’s news department, Barbara Lubin, Becky O’Malley, ISM’ers, and the so-called “Jewish Voice for Peace” say they support the Palestinian cause, we can say without qualification that we now know fullwell that they support genocide, discrimination and repression.  

Naturally, said parties will doubtless soon attempt to spin this, but only an ignoramus would fail to see through it. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

ISRAEL/PALESTINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Following George Bush’s lead, Ron Berman—undoubtedly a Jew—writes (letter, Jan. 236 San Francisco Chronicle) to tell Hamas, the popular choice of Palestinians, what they must do to bring peace: disarm, recognize Israel, care more about their own people than about destruction of their Jewish neighbors. I write also as a Jew but to tell Israel what it must do to achieve peace: allow Palestinians born in Israel (and their progeny) to return and be granted the same Israeli citizenship rights I, born in Brooklyn, enjoy under the Israeli state. Grant them one person-one vote in Israel. Then you can tell Hamas these things, and you will likely find Hamas a gentle lamb willing to disarm. I wouldn’t be surprised if they would trade away in perpetuity the idea of an Islamic state; but we won’t know because Israel will not talk with them. Is this democratic proposal so unreasonable?  

Marc Sapir  

• 

AIDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush has given nearly one-quarter of $15 billion earmarked to fight AIDS, to religious groups who stress sexual abstinence over condom use. As any person knows, it is easier to slip on a condom than to give up the naturally ingrained function of sex. It’s a no-brainer except in the minds of religious right-wingers. A narrow ideological viewpoint won’t stop the spread of AIDS. 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City 

The State of the Union 

Is under barrage 

With Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld 

Firmly in charge. 

—George Banks 

OaklandA

Ongoing investigations into cloning researcher Hwang Woo Suk’s apparently fraudulent results are seeing American researchers and bioethicist apologists disavowing any connection between Korea’s scandal and the integrity of embryonic stem cell research more generally. Hwang, so recently honored as a hero in the field, is an aberration we are told now. The scientific community bears no taint. Distancing Hwang’s project from the larger cloning effort, Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology scolds that “while (Hwang) played his games…” cures have been held up. Biotech-industry favored bioethicist Laurie Zoloth soothes that “We can hope that with good codes…, good oversight…, good law and a good scientific process …the story (scientists tell us) is true.”  

Should taxpayers trust the story? Is Hwang’s debacle merely failed personal integrity? Sloppy lab methods, perhaps? Or is it an extreme case of succumbing to the pressures of national pride, international competition, and the lure of vast commercial reward?  

The fact is, science no longer operates in the culture of service that induced Jonas Salk to donate his polio vaccine to the public in the 1950s. Since 1980, when the Bayh-Dole legislation permitted universities and their researchers to patent creations funded by public monies, and the Supreme Court decision Chakrabarty vs. Diamond allowed human-modified organisms to count as patentable material, “science” has made lurching efforts to morph into a mega-buck commercial venture. In this political culture science-entrepreneurs were induced to promise cures (though promulgators knew claims were based on unreplicated results) which helped loosen public purse strings when venture capital smelled a bad deal and declined financial backing. 

Troubling concerns resist disavowals. What motivated an American scientist to sign as a co-author of Hwang’s paper if he was not integral to the research? Why do science publishing rules allow it? Moreover, it wasn’t Dr. Hwang who convinced Ron Reagan, on the basis of unreplicated results, to tell millions of TV viewers that embryonic stem cell research would yield everybody their own personalized cures kit. It wasn’t Hwang who spent $35 million barraging California voters with advertisements to persuade them that passing Proposition 71, which would make somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) a constitutional right and authorize $3 billion to get the research done, could “save the life of someone you love.” It wasn’t Hwang who sued pro-choice feminists opposing the initiative in (a failed) attempt to prevent them from publishing in the state’s Voters Guide that SCNT constituted human embryo cloning and would require thousands of women’s eggs. It wasn’t Hwang who reneged on the promise to share royalties with the state.  

Who was it who did all that? Why should we trust them?  

These questions should concern all states now considering whether to fund human embryonic cloning. Until citizens can access unbiased information on complex scientific developments, questions regarding whom to trust must be left to legislators who must keep this in mind: the research is in its infancy and the scientists relied upon for information have intractable conflicts of interest which must be brought under control. Maybe embryonic stem cell cloning will yield treatments, maybe it won’t. Claims beyond this are hype. Attention should flow to replicated results—including the penchant of embryonic stem cells to produce tumors—not the parade of claims, hopes and hype. 

M. L. Tina Stevens, author of Bioethics in America: Origins and Cultural Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003) teaches in the History Department at San Francisco State University. Diane Beeson is a medical sociologist and professor emerita in the Department of Sociology and Social Services at California State University, East Bay. Along with other pro-choice feminists, they have filed an amicus brief supporting the constitutional challenges to Proposition 71. 

›

The Berkeley Daily Planet reported on the joint Planning Commission-Creeks Task Force (CTF) workshop that took place on Jan. 25. As a member of the CTF who has attended every CTF meeting—save one—over the past year, I found myself surprised at some of the conclusions and opinions that were expressed by those interviewed for Richard Brenneman’s Jan. 27 article. Speaking only for myself and not the Creeks Task Force, allow me to point out where I think Mr. Brenneman and those he interviewed are either wrong or have mischaracterized what we have so far achieved on the CTF. 

1) Owners of creekside properties are not foreclosed from adding on to existing structures. The ordinance simply prevents them from building INTO the 30 foot setback. Preventing construction too close to a creek is a reasonable restriction and prevents significant impacts to the creek and other upstream and downstream properties. 

2) The CTF is precluded from discussing who should bear the financial responsibility for the repair and maintenance of existing culverts. The city is currently engaged in litigation with homeowners, insurance companies, and the university over who bears the financial responsibility for repairing the failing culvert at the end of North Valley Street. The people of Berkeley are going to have to address this issue soon, but it will not be the CTF that does so. 

3) People may be “terrified” that the city will FORCE (emphasis added) them to daylight their culvert as you reported, but to my knowledge, no one on the CTF has ever encouraged or advocated for this position. It is my personal belief that if a section of culvert is failing, one of options that should be considered is that the culvert be removed and the creek opened up. Should this option be the most reasonable, the cost should not fall entirely on the shoulders of the homeowner. The CTF should make recommendations on how to “incentivize” this option so that the cost is shared. 

4) Finally, the dates for the public meetings are: Feb. 15 and March 22 and will be held at the North Berkeley Senior Center. All who have an interest in these issues, whether you reside next to a creek, have experienced flooding in your neighborhood, or want to encourage the development of healthier creeks and watersheds, should definitely plan to attend. 

Tom Kelly is a Berkeley resident.›

Around noon on Sunday, Jan. 29, I watched two laborers with apparently no arborist credentials in the process of cutting down a large coast live oak in the Fulton Street yard of the historic Bartlett house at 2201 Blake St. When I arrived on the scene, the trunk was still there, but the majority of the upper branches and most of the canopy were gone.  

The tree’s canopy had been taller than the utility lines, and the circumference of its trunk was well in excess of the 18-inch minimum specified by the City of Berkeley’s Coast Live Oak Ordinance, which declared a moratorium on the removal of such trees in 2000. 

I informed the workers that removing coast live oaks of this size is not permitted in Berkeley, and they summoned the property owner. Learning that the tree was protected by a city ordinance did nothing to stop him, and he declared that he “hates the tree” because it’s “messy.” I told him that I would report him to the city, which would likely result in a fine for him. He replied that since he would probably be fined anyway for having removed the canopy, he might as well “finish the job.” 

A neighbor informed me that the property owner had previously cut down other mature coast live oaks from the same yard. 

I shot photographs of the workers and the damage, and will present this evidence to the city. However, based on prior experience, I doubt that our municipal tree guardians will lift a finger. When one of my neighbors severely trimmed a public Coast Live Oak in front of her house, neither photographs nor frequent reminders stirred the Forestry Unit to take any action. 

Daniella Thompson is a Berkeley resident.  

ƒ

Once there was a kindly old elf named Santa Claus, who knew when everyone was sleeping, who knew when they were awake and who knew whether they’d been bad or good, and would leave them a gift if they’d been good, and nothing if they’d been bad. Thus he was the one who set up the first performance-based contract. 

This kindly old elf also noticed that the elves were happy-go-lucky; living off a few dewdrops and moonbeams hanging out contently with the fairies and unicorns; so he put them to work making toys, at the cold North Pole yet. So he was also the one who set up the first Workfirst program. 

Snow White was a young woman who lived in a cabin with the seven dwarfs, taking, care of them and cooking their meals and cleaning their house; so she claimed them as, dependents on her application for TANF (welfare). But when they set up a fraud unit they discovered they weren’t related and so she was the first to be cut off from TANF. 

Sleeping Beauty was a beautiful princess on general assistance (no income), who went to sleep for a hundred years after pricking her finger with a needle. So then the welfare office called her to come in and report, and they called and they called, and then they sent her an appointment letter, and when she didn’t report for her appointment, they cut her off welfare, and sent her the first sanction letter. 

Old Mother Hubbard, who used to date Santa Claus, was a single woman who lived with her dog, and one day when she went to the cupboard to get her dog a bone there was none, because her food stamps were all gone. So when the authorities found out, she was accused of cruelty to animals. 

And then there was an old woman who lived in a shoe because she had so many children she didn’t know what to do; but when they found out about that, they prosecuted her for inadequate housing and child neglect. Then this old woman filed the first complaint against a husband for failure to pay child support. His name was Rumpelstiltskin, and instead of working he was spending all his time chasing around after another woman and trying to spin straw into gold. 

Winston Burton is a member of the Downtown Area Planning Advisory Committee.›

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.

?

TRANSIT VILLAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The only problem I saw with the East Bay Express story about BART station developments is that it wasn’t “cowboy libertarian” enough. The story mentions, but hardly dwells on, the fact that the Fruitvale BART development is run (not very well) by public developers. It also notes that the successful BART developments are privately run. 

I’m not sure I like the idea of an Ashby BART development. That’s a nice quiet residential neighborhood right now. But if one goes in, I’d rather see a vibrant development developed by people who know what they’re doing, and avoid an ill-managed half-empty ghost town of a project developed by well meaning but less-than-expert public do-gooders. 

Remember downtown pedestrian malls? 

Tom Case 

• 

SOUTH BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was reported in the Jan. 24 East Bay Daily News that, in her speech to the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations, Laura Menard, who ran against Max Anderson in the last election, said that South Berkeley is suffering. Yes, south Berkeley is suffering, and has suffered ever since the BART tore through the once-thriving commercial area of the Lorin District! And thanks to the brave leadership of Max Anderson and Ed Church, the urban fabric may finally have a chance of being repaired. I say brave leadership because they likely knew they would have to face the anti-development hysteria in Berkeley that gets couched as neighborhood activism, and that was evident at last week’s meeting at the Senior Center.  

One of the reasons the citizens and City of Berkeley fought hard in the late 1960s for air rights and paid millions extra for an underground subway instead of an aerial one at the Ashby BART was undoubtedly to one day repair the damage that they knew would be done to the area. Now, after 35 years, we have a chance to create a plan that will bring back some life to the dead parking lot (flea market days notwithstanding) and create safer, walkable streets between Jack’s Antiques and the businesses on Adeline at the edge of South Berkeley. I, for one, am not going to stand idly by while nay-saying, anti-development activists derail this important planning work with misinformation and fear-mongering about eminent domain. I have lived within a block of Ashby BART for over 20 years and this is one neighbor that says it is time to be a part of the solution and create a development plan that will. 

Teresa Clarke  

P.S. Thank you for your coverage of this issue, albeit slanted! 

• 

DENSITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Perhaps it’s because Mr. Stephens (Commentary, “Berkeley Needs More Density on BART Site,” Jan. 24) has only been here a couple of years, and does not know the history of the BCA that he is so naive as to not understand what we are afraid of. Or he also thinks that we had to invade Iraq, because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. 

David Krasnor 

• 

A TALE OF TWO VILLAGES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The supporters of the plan to build a “transit village” atop the Ashby BART station have tried to allay the fears of the neighbors of this project by pointing to the Fruitvale Transit Village as an example of a successful “transit village,” and a model for their own project. 

I live one block from the Ashby BART station, and frankly, I am one of this project’s worried neighbors myself. 

I decided to go to the Fruitvale Transit Village and see this place for myself. Brother, that place is a total economic disaster! To see my photo essay about the Fruitvale Transit Village, go to: www.tarses.com/fruitvale.html and judge for yourself. 

Mark Tarses 

• 

BART ADVERTISING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While riding BART yesterday, I was aghast to find an anti-abortion, anti-Roe v. Wade message advertised on the train. I called BART and they said they allow “point-of-view” advertising. On a municipal transit authority which is paid for in part by tax dollars? Is this proper? What if the KKK wanted to take out an ad? The Supreme Court has protected their right to free speech, too. Could I suggest you make you opinions heard by calling Marketing Representative Lewis Martin, Sr. at (510) 464-7122 or writing to him at BART, 300 Lakeside Dr., 18th Floor, Oakland, 94612. 

John McMullen  

• 

RENT CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his Jan. 20 letter ( “Rent Control”), William Flynn asks why Berkeley’s rental unit registration fee for the city’s Rent Stabilization Program is not as low as San Francisco’s rent control unit registration fee. 

The answer to Mr. Flynn’s question is very simple: San Francisco’s citywide rent control policy is based on a mutual “honor system” between the individual property owner and the renter. Each San Francisco renter presumes—or expects—that his or her unit’s rent level is the correct, legal amount. There is no official, city-operated rent level tracking system in place for all of San Francisco’s 170,000 rental units. 

In contrast to San Francisco, Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Program accurately tracks the correct, legal rent level for every one of the city’s 19,000 units. This comprehensive record keeping system is free and accessible to both tenants and property owners. An annual mailing is sent to both parties listing each unit’s legal rent level.   

Registration fees maintain and update this rent tracking system and the staff necessary to operate Berkeley’s program. Similar comprehensive rent tracking systems also exist in Santa Monica and several other California cities that regulate rent levels. 

In addition to tracking individual unit rent levels, Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Program provides other important client services, including: 

(1) An agency mediation/hearing examiner process to successfully resolve property owner/tenant issues or disagreements; (2) an agency legal counseling service for both property owners and tenants; and (3) Rent Stabilization Program information newsletters/mailings issued several times a year to all property owners and tenants. 

Also, the city’s Rent Stabilization Program’s office staff receive and service over 10,000 inquiries a year via in-person office contacts, phone and e-mail. 

Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Program office is located at 2125 Milvia St. (across the corner from City Hall) and is open 9 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and noon-6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The agency’s phone number is 644-6128. The agency’s website is www.rent.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

CHOOSING DIRECTORS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With the resignation/termination of KPFA’s most recent general manager Roy Campanella II this past week, and the widespread staff and public dissatisfaction with the managerial style of the current director of the Berkeley Public Library, it would appear that in both cases the hiring committees did not have full information about these individuals’ suitability for the organizations and the Berkeley context they would work in.   

Perhaps a bit of uncommon common sense in hiring procedures is in order. 

I propose that in addition to gathering the most impressive resumes and glowing recommendations, how about including in the interview procedure that the search committee make an effort to talk with colleagues and staff who worked under the proposed executive. Those folks have nothing to gain or lose by being honest, not always the case with a supervising executive who may be happy about the possibility that a troublesome or unsatisfactory employee might move on. The issue of personality and managerial approach should always be one element in such choices. 

Joan Levinson 

• 

ABORTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“The nationwide battle over abortion rights” seems to have both sides carefully avoiding a prime ingredient in the debate! Pro-life marchers were urged not to display signs equating abortion with “murder.” It is obvious that a murder penalty would have to be considered, as this “killing of a human being” is the prime argument in avoiding elimination of a fetus.  

Perhaps they realize that such a penalty discussion may have their proponents reconsider the question—how would a formerly pregnant female, and the doctor who performs her abortion, be penalized for this murder? 

More importantly, perhaps, why have the pro-choice forces seemingly ignored this vital question? 

Gerta Farber 

• 

FINDING A HOME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was both troubled and heartened to read Annie Kassof’s story in Tuesday’s Daily Planet about Robert Coil and Alexis Hooper, the two remarkable Berkeley High School students who are scheduled to be put out of their foster group home in a little over a week through no fault of their own. 

I am troubled because I know these young people, and how much they have overcome to be where they are, leading stable, productive lives and making good grades in spite of lacking the family structure and support that is usually so crucial to kids’ success. (They seem to think of themselves as each other’s family.)  

I am troubled because my own son goes to classes with them, and if I had the space, I would be happy to take one of them in. But I simply do not. 

I am troubled because the rules of the game are so cruel. Robert and Alexis, who are 17, are being turned out while still in high school because they are too young for their group home’s new rules. Meanwhile other foster children who turn 18 before they graduate are “emancipated” (read: out of luck) and must struggle to support themselves while trying to finish school.  

I am heartened because their story made its way to the pages of the Planet, and I am so hopeful that someone in Berkeley will read it and be able to provide a home for them, at least through June so they can graduate. It would clearly be ideal if they could stay together, but that might be too much to ask. Perhaps they’ll need two homes, and need to keep their connections with one another at school. 

Their story makes me think of Wendy Tokuda’s “Students Rising Above” on Channel Four. I only pray someone will reach out and offer a place that will enable them to continue beating the odds by taking the next positive step as so many featured there have been able to do. Without this small miracle, they may well face the unthinkable prospect of being homeless, which would make graduation very hard to achieve. 

If you have a place for one or both of them, or an idea that might lead to one, please send an e-mail to Dr. E. Anderson at: ejakva@pacbell.net. 

Thanks for anything you can do! 

Edythe Boone  

• 

TRANSPORTATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding two transportation items in your Jan. 24 issue: 

Speeds on Marin Avenue 

The reporter writes: “...where [on Marin] 85 percent of the traffic had been clocked at 35.6 miles per hour....” Impossible! How can 85 percent of the traffic all travel at precisely that speed? Having taught how to do speed studies for 40 years, I am pretty certain that the study found 85 percent of the traffic clocked at or below 35.6 percent. The result, if accurate, is bad enough— 15 percent speeding at above 35.6 mph. But (my guess), perhaps half the traffic was moving near the speed limit of 25 mph, 35 percent between 25 and 35 mph, and 15 percent above 35 mph. And let’s leave off the decimals— the speed meters are not that accurate. 

AC Transit Plan to Delete Stops 

There used to be a joke at UC (perhaps still is) that the faculty could work much better if it weren’t for students being there. Similarly, AC Transit must be thinking that it could run a very efficient system if it did not have to stop for passengers at all. Deleting bus stops (except perhaps in dense downtown areas) achieves little, because the buses can and do pass the stops when there is no one to drop off or pick up. It is unlikely to “improve bus routes by decreasing passengers’ travel times” [quote by AC Transit’s media relations manager] by any perceivable amount for those on board and will, of course, make these routes worse or completely useless for those whose stops are being eliminated. Eventually, someone at AC Transit will wonder: “We have improved the efficiency of this route, so why hasn’t the ridership gone up?” 

Wolfgang Homburger 

Kensington 

• 

DOWNTOWN ISSUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Alan Tobey’s commentary “Two Halves Needed for a Whole Downtown” published in the Jan. 24 issue is inaccurate and misguided. His statement that the thousands of new downtown Oakland residents have “almost nowhere to go” is easily refuted by fact.  

Over the last few years, not only has Mayor Jerry Brown delivered on his goal to attract 6,000-plus units of market-rate housing to accommodate 10,000 new residents, but his success has prompted private investment to the tune of 36 new restaurants and cafes, 18 new nightclubs and bars and 14 new gallery spaces. The city’s new MeetDowntownOak.com campaign prompted 100,000 people to grab copies of a 25-page guide to downtown venues in just three months—a signal of strong demand.  

As a direct result of the mayor’s 10K Initiative, Whole Foods will open in late 2006—downtown Oakland’s first national grocery store in more than 30 years. Oakland must be on the right track because Tobey himself chides Berkeley for the “lack of one good grocery store to make the downtown an actual livable place.” With Whole Foods and other new retail to follow, over the next three years downtown Oakland is certain to emerge as one of the most sought-after residential neighborhoods in the nation.  

Samee Roberts 

Marketing Manager 

City of Oakland 

• 

BROWER CENTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A City Council Action item for Jan. 24 was called HUD 108 Loan guarantee, to use $4 million current and future Community Development Block Grant funds to bail out the Oxford Street/ Brower Center project. This proposal was to be delivered (TBD), which means the information was not available timely and might even be delivered to the council meeting. Despite this obstacle to thoughtful consideration, enough yes votes are usually there to pass these items. In Berkeley, TBDs seem to serve as tools to cool hot issues; but they should be reason to pause and reflect before proceeding.  

Besides the lack of sunshine on this subject, there are important related issues. Martin Snapp, in a July 29 Berkeley Voice article, wrote about Brower Center difficulties. He said this project was “the most ambitious public/private development in the city’s history—facing huge cost overruns—had an $8.5 million funding gap and the city might end up holding the bag.” Snapp quoted Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton, “This loan would be secured by the city’s future Community Development Block Grant allocation.” 

Snapp also quoted Mayor Tom Bates saying that added funds might come from city parking revenues. But Mayor Bates may not be considering that the Brower Center is to be built on the city’s Oxford Street parking lot which would be given to a developer not required to provide adequate replacement parking. And Mr. Barton stated that a second level of parking underneath the project would cost $6 million, increase risk of flooding from Strawberry Creek, and become our city’s responsibility to repair. 

The Oxford lot serves as satellite parking for our movie theaters, terrific restaurants, and other sales tax producing downtown businesses, many struggling to survive for lack of parking. The 150 spaces in the Oxford lot generate over $2,000 per day and could make more if the city would discourage patrons from sneaking out after hours by ticketing at midnight.  

There are better places for the Brower Center than our city’s popular, last surviving parking lot. (Note, the city’s small Berkeley Way lot is used for city vehicles and Car Share which makes it too difficult to find a space.) A terrific possibility for Brower Center is the site of the “Power Bar” Great Western building, which is dangerous and should be removed. The Great Western is lift-slab architecture, and therefore extremely earthquake unsafe. This huge building towers over the Downtown BART station from which thousands of people emerge daily. I am quite sure that FEMA, BART, and other agencies would help pay to remove this dangerous building. The area could then be restored as a beautiful sunlit plaza, a biking and environmentally friendly transit hub, and home for the Brower Center.  

Merrilie Mitchell 

• 

BUSH REGIME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Bush regime’s recent public relations campaign justifying the secret wiretaps of international calls and e-mail is just one more assault on civil liberties and other rights that has been justified by the so-called war against terrorism. Rather than admit that wiretapping without warrants is out of bounds, the administration has gone on the offensive and is making a concerted effort to justify its actions by making reference to the commander-in-chief’s “inherent powers.” 

This inherent powers theory can be used to justify any actions taken by Bush as the leader of the U.S. military without reference to the constitution or other laws. Under Bush we should be very afraid of the consequences of such a theory. The power to make war is extremely dangerous. 

In the last month a missile attack was launched against Pakistani territory by the U.S., allegedly to kill a terrorist leader. The result was at least a dozen innocent civilians killed, including women and children. Did we hear any apologies from the government for this violation of international law? No, instead we heard theories that real terrorists were killed but their bodies were carried away by other terrorists.  

This is not surprising. Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the Bush regime has justified the indefinite detention of citizens and others. It has refused access to attorneys and to the courts. It has justified torture and the contravention of international treaties that were meant to protect prisoners. It runs secret prisons and uses rendition so that it can “interrogate” prisoners. It even fought Congress when the legislature tried to ban torture.  

My favorite action of the regime has been its refusal to even release the names of detainees in order “to protect the privacy of the prisoners.” From an administration that uses illegal wiretaps and that tried to launch the Total Information Awareness system which would have “mined” e-mail and phone calls, it is laughable to believe that it cares about privacy. 

It is past time to fight back against these and other attacks that have occurred against our freedoms. On January 31, 2006, Bush will make his State of the Union speech promising to carry on his program. But at the same time, in cities all across the country, people will be demonstrating in the streets to demand, “Bush step down and take your program with you.” In San Francisco, the rally will take place at 5 p.m. at Union Square in San Francisco. For more information see worldcantwait.net. 

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland 

• 

A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley’s faithful supporters of Palestine will rush to the sympathetic pages of the Daily Planet to explain Hamas’ recent victory. They will crow that Hamas is a breath of fresh air after years of cleptocratic Fatah rule—that these people are honest. But that is a mere variant on the defense of Hitler that he made the trains run on time. Look for writers for the Daily Planet to find a way to blame Israel. They always do. The simple awful truth is that when the Palestinians were given Gaza free and clear they turned it into a scene of bedlam, and a lauchpad for missiles aimed at Israeli civilians. At last count there were 28 separate militias in Gaza. Now, given the chance to vote freely, they have chosen a theocracy. In all likelihood this has been an exercise in one person, one vote, one time. Sharia, as divine law, by definition does not allow for givebacks. We know this by looking at Iran, the only other theocracy in the world today. Frankly, I have not expected much more of the Palestinians, steeped as they are in the culture of suicide bombings, martyrdom, and hate. But perhaps now I can reasonably expected Berkeley leftists like City Councilmember Linda Maio to stop dancing with the supporters of Palestinian terror. 

John Gertz 

• 

STATE OF THE UNION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a prelude to the State of the Union address, the president is launching an intense campaign to increase public support for his so-called war on terror. He’s got a lot to do. In Iraq the infant democracy is on life support while the insurgency strengthens and the death toll mounts. Add a plethora of legal and constitutional hurdles—denial of due process for enemy combatants, extraordinary rendition, foreign detention camps, prisoner abuse, secret surveillances, etc.—and his task is all but insurmountable.  

His admirers believe he will succeed because of a genius for framing the issues, that is, for fashioning assets out of liabilities. For instance, two Iraq elections prove that democracy is taking hold, the insurgency is not getting stronger but more desperate, killing more insurgents increases the death toll, and legal and constitutional questions disappear under the glow of the commander-in-chief’s inherent powers. Thus, everything depends on carefully framing the issues. Nonsense! 

If the law says you must get a warrant and you don’t get a warrant, then you violate the law, no matter how attractive you make your frame. Iraq cannot simultaneously be more democratic and more dangerous and the Constitution allows inherent authority only for actual wars not for metaphorical wars.  

Expect Bush & Co. to again invite the public to focus on their framed and distorted shadows rather than on true contours of substantive issues. Or more bluntly, Bush & Co.’s frames of issues amount to a euphemistic covers for lies.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

W AND WOMEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

George W. Bush showed on Roe v. Wade day what is important to him: his religious base to the exclusion of all else. Is George W. the president for 295 million Americans or an overzealous mulla playing to religious extremists as he says “We shall overcome.” 

Remember Bush’s campaign slogan in the 2000 presidential election “W is for women”? What a joke! Bush, Republicans, and new Supreme Court justices will criminalize your mother, sister, daughter, wife and girlfriend for having an abortion, if given the chance. 

George W. continues on his goal of denying a woman’s freedom of choice, feeding the frenzy of the faithful, and demonizing the opposition. Americans need to understand that anti-abortion politics is the be all and catch all for most abortion opponents. It borders on fanaticism. 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City?

Since I first saw the city’s Caltrans grant application last month, I had the gut feeling that the 50 units per acre it envisioned was nowhere near dense enough to make a for-profit project on the site economically feasible. This week, I finally found the data to back up that guess: a 2004 study performed by the Berkeley consulting firm Strategic Economics for the East Bay Community Foundation. 

The study considers two alternatives for the six-acre site, one with 482 dwelling units and a density of 67 units per acre, the other with 553 units and 76 units per acre. Both would have two buildings with interior courtyards to provide open space for residents, retail space in the north building along Ashby and Adeline, and 370 parking spaces for BART, 490 for residents, and 90 for retailers in a basement garage and part of the first floor. (The study notes on page one that eliminating BART parking would provide little benefit, so it was not considered.) In both scenarios, half the units would be 800-square-foot one-bedrooms, half 900-square-foot two-bedrooms. 

The study assumes 80 percent market-rate units and 20 percent affordable, as required by Berkeley law. Half the affordable units would be reserved for households earning less than 80 percent of the “Area Median Income” (AMI), the other half for households earning less than 50 percent of AMI. The study assumes they would rent for the following amounts: 

One-bedroom units 

80 percent $1,200-1,500 “market rate” 

10 percent $1,242 (50 percent AMI) 

10 percent $1,116 (80 percent AMI) 

(That’s not a typo: the 50 percent AMI “affordable” one-bedroom rent is higher than the bottom “market-rate” range. The study’s assumption is that Section 8 funds would be available to allow that.) 

Two-bedroom units: 

80 percent $1,500-1,800 “market rate” 

10 percent $1,400 (50 percent AMI) 

10 percent $1,412 (80 percent AMI) 

When I checked craigslist.org today, I found 54 listings for Berkeley one-bedroom units under $1,116 and 30 for Berkeley two-bedroom units under $1,400. So much for the notion that developing Ashby BART would create below-market-rate housing. 

The study concludes that the project might be feasible if market rents were to rise and additional funding could be found to pay for BART’s portion of the parking lot. This conclusion is wishful thinking: No funding for building an underground garage or parking structure has been found in the past 40 years, and inflation in rents typically means inflation in construction costs as well. 

Given that this study envisions 67-76 units per acre, the grant application’s 50 units per acre would be even less feasible. It seems to me that the only way the numbers could work for a rental project would be to go even higher than six stories and/or provide significantly less parking for the retail and residential tenants. 

The study does not draw an explicit conclusion about the feasibility of condominiums, but apparently the project would break even if the market-rate units could sell for $300,000 for the one-bedroom units and $350,000 for the two-bedroom units. So if the real-estate bubble doesn’t pop too badly, condos might work: but the “affordable” units would cost $235,000 to $265,000, not exactly low-income housing. 

By the way—can anyone tell me why the East Bay Community Foundation, a charitable organization, commissioned a feasibility study for a for-profit development? 

Robert Lauriston maintains the Neighbors of Ashby BART website (nabart.com) and invites submissions from all points of view. 

Karl Marx was right; he only had to wait a little longer. Marxists once claimed that European capitalism was advancing into its final stages, decadence would overwhelm the West and capitalism’s contradictions would cause the system to collapse. Today, demographic collapse and cultural decadence may finally usher in the end stage of the ancient culture we share with Europe. 

Many people wonder why the United States needs Europe at all any more. From the stifling anti-democratic bureaucracy of the European Union, to its secular, post religious societies, to the stagnant, sluggish and statist economies of France, Germany and the rest, what does Europe offer the United States? Consider also the lily-livered foreign policy that dreams of a utopian post conflict world dominated by laws and diplomats that somehow reach “consensus” or “compromise” on all difficult questions and no one ever says anything nasty to anybody else. The corollary to this foreign policy consists of leaving to the United States the nasty, dirty and dangerous work of ensuring the stability of the world economic and political system and dealing with real and dangerous nations such as Iran, North Korea, Sudan and others past and present that have always existed in the international system. 

The answer to why the U.S. needs Europe is because we share a common culture with “old Europe” 1,500 years of western civilization, 2,500 years if we go all the way back to the Greeks. While displaying certain bloody tendencies, Europe produced many of the most important cultural advances in history in terms of science, economics, politics and human rights, now demographic collapse and a failure of cultural will seem to suggest that Europe as we know it may cease to exist by the time our grandchildren are grown. Europe is relying on immigration from North Africa to cover up the fact that its demographic trends have cratered.  

The birth rate per woman in Germany is 1.3, Italy 1.2, Spain 1.1; rates like this suggest a population falling by nearly half each generation. One doesn’t require a Ph.D. from Cal to see that this is an extremely perilous trend. In another two generations there may be very few “old Europeans” left. Meanwhile the immigrants from North Africa with their muscular Islamic faith and high birth rates fill the void. The problem with this scenario is that Islamic immigrants to Europe don’t seem to want to adopt the cultural traits of liberal, western culture, but instead desire to, and most likely will, create an Islamicized Europe. The problem here is that the Islamic culture of Europe’s immigrants is one that does not accept political pluralism, freedom of religion, rights for gays or women, etc. Now, trend lines can’t usually be projected in a linear fashion into the future and it may be possible that Europe can summon the cultural will to force its new populations to adopt a philosophy of the melting pot by which immigrants adopt and adapt to the new culture, bringing their own sensibilities to it but not changing its fundamental tenets. On current trends, however, this seems unlikely as European societies and their dithering, multicultural, relativist mumbo-jumbo attitudes just don’t seem like they will be able to summon the strength to defend their age old culture. 

The locus of western culture has been moving westward for 100 years or at least since 1914 and the US has clearly been the cultural leader of the west since 1945. It seems clear now that a coalition led by the United States, Canada and Mexico and hopefully South America, plus Australia and New Zealand will most likely have the burden of carrying forward the traditions of economic freedom, political openness, pursuit of liberty, equal rights under law and individual freedom. It is not necessary to see ourselves as under siege, but to recognize what seems a great opportunity our generation has to bring out the best in America as we develop a new civilization with a greater role for different cultures living in freedom under the rule of law. American leadership in the coming decades could produce the flowering of a new culture that would include a greater role for the groups that have contributed so much: Africans, Asians, indigenous people and the obviously significant role that Latin America will play in the future of our culture. If America has the cultural will power to accomplish this then we will certainly we will prevail in the clash of ideas and of competing visions of the future that looms before us.  

Alan Christie Swain is a UC Berkeley graduate student.›

Thank you for publishing your Jan. 24 front-page story, “Lake Merritt Tree Supporters Unmoved by Public Works Tour.” It revealed some new and troubling details about the Oakland city staff’s mentality behind its pig-headed plans to “rebuild” the Lake Merritt shorelines by killing more than 200 mature trees. This mentality seems to be “we had to destroy the shoreline to save it.” This would seem to parallel the Bush plan for Iraq: first destroy it and then rebuilt it at an obscene profit, as per the notorious no-bid contracts let to Halliburton.  

It seems that the Oakland city staff has decided to play God by cutting down many trees near the lower marshy end of Lake Merritt to protect the shorebirds from hawks that would be perching in said trees. It is asserted that you almost never see trees along the shorelines of tidal wetlands in California and thus city staffers wanted to replicate nature in this regard.  

But it is somehow fine to have high-rise apartment buildings and office buildings and roads and parking meters near the shorelines of Lake Merritt? This is looking at the Lake Merritt through the wrong end of bird-watching binoculars. There are currently hundreds of pedestrians walking on paved paths and thousands of cars driving on roads around Lake Merritt each day. This is natural? All this alleged naturalistic renovation is just pretend stuff. There are no longer any major predators such as grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes or foxes around the lake to keep the populations of Canada geese and other birds at natural levels.  

A recent article by one of the Oakland Tribune columnists explained how the lower marshy end of Lake Merritt used to be surrounded by dense thickets of shrubs and low trees. In the 1960s the Oakland police got city workers to remove almost all of this vegetation so that they could easily spot and roust out the hippies that were camping out there.  

The city staff is also participating in the demonizing of some species of mature trees that currently ring Lake Merritt as “non-native” and “undesirable.” This demonizing of trees that originally were from overseas locations is the modern sport of California nativist fanatics. The human standard of “nativity” is that if you are born in California you are a California native. However, we are unwilling to grant this same status to trees that are “born here,” i.e., ones that sprout from seed here. This is quite a double standard. California native plant fanatics are trying to turn the botanical clock back to an allegedly pristine pre-Columbian time unsullied by the presence of Europeans and their accompanying entourage of Old World plants and animals.  

Actually, any differentiation between species on the basis of where their distant ancestors grew hundreds of years ago is purely a human conceit: it has no basis in the science of biology. Natural environments are dynamic and are never static, with populations of different species coming and going and rising and falling in numbers.  

This human discrimination against certain species of plants by ancestry is a nativist non-science. “In the beginning God (Nature) created California natives,” and no one else need apply, thank you very much. This is a sort of creationism, if you will. Plants and animals live and interact in the here and now and do not bother with nativity checks.  

The City of Oakland should leave the mature trees now growing around Lake Merritt alone. If trees are felled by rainstorm or windstorm, then they should be replaced on an individual basis. We can’t recreate pristine “native habitat” in this area without removing all buildings, roads and all other signs of human activity. It is time for us to step back, take a deep breath and start from scratch (with full public disclosure) in trying to “improve” the Lake Merritt area. 

Dateline New York Times, Jan. 29: “Memoir,” Ms. [Nan A. ] Talese said, “is a personal recollection. It is not an absolute fact. It’s how one remembers what happened.” 

Dateline Negril Jamaica, Jan. 24: 

“Pathetic? You’re calling my singing pathetic?” 

“I-” 

“I don’t believe it. You asked for help with your column. I gave it to you and now you call me pathetic!” 

“But— 

“What kind of paper do you work for? I’m writing a complaint letter to the editor. I’ve been slandered.” 

“I—” 

“Can you believe this, John? Suzy says our singing the other night was pathetic. She can’t remember the words to Man of LaMancha. She can’t even remember if she saw the damn play, and now she has the nerve to say our harmonizing wasn’t good enough for her.” 

“She said your singing wasn’t good?” 

“Our singing. She said our singing was pathetic.” 

“That’s pathetic. That she would say we’re pathetic when all we did was try to help her. I’m suing. I want half her wages. Everybody in California thinks they’re better than everyone else. But at least we know the words to Man of LaMancha.” 

I was sitting with my New York friends Patty, John, Michele, and Gerry on a white sand beach in Jamaica. I had just shared with them my latest column. It was about memories and forgotten experiences and a man in Spain searching for a dream. It was also about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The essay did not stretch the truth. It was a realistic portrait of five over-the-hill baby boomers attempting to remember lyrics to a few songs. 

“I’ve been misquoted,” said Michele despite that I hadn’t actually quoted her in the story. “I’ve been misrepresented in a West Coast newspaper. That’s it. I’m suing, too.” 

“I knew more words to Camelot than you reported,” said Gerry. “Why didn’t you just ask me to sing the whole damn song to you?” 

“This has Oprah repercussions,” said Patty. “This is like that James Frey hullabaloo. A Thousand Big Messes.” 

“A Million Little Pieces,” corrected Michele.  

“Whatever,” said Patty. “You know what I’m talking about. First Oprah gets duped, and then it’s us!” 

“That’s what happens when you trust in the liberal press,” said Gerry. 

“I’m not taking it,” said John. “Did I mention I’m suing?” 

“Look,” I said. “What’s true to me might not be true to you. I remember some really enthusiastic, but ultimately pathetic—” 

“Did you hear that?” screamed Patty. “She said it again!” 

“I heard it,” said John. “Pathetic.”  

“I—” 

“Couldn’t you have said something more positive? Like we were melodious, or that I had excellent recall power?” 

“It’s just that—” 

“Couldn’t you have said we were passionate? That we knew everything recorded by the Four Seasons between ‘63 and ‘74?” 

“Forget it,” advised Gerry. “She’s from California, what can you expect? Next thing you know, she’ll write about this conversation. She’ll say she was misunderstood. She’ll claim to know all the words to Man of LaMancha and Camelot, too. Have another drink and relax. Put up the flag, the one that lets the bartender know we’re thirsty.” 

“But I’ve been wronged,” argued Patty, waving the flag in the air. “How do the lyrics go? “To bear the unbearable sorrow, to run where the brave dare not go; to right the unrightable wrong”? That’s what Suzy needs to do, right the unrightable wrong.” 

“Yeah,” said John. “And then she needs to be willing to march into hell!”  

“And the world will be a better place,” said Gerry. “When she’s laid to rest!” 

“And scorned and covered with scars,” added Michele. 

“All right,” I said. “I’ll write a retraction.” 

“Excellent,” said Patty. “And while you’re at it, mention that your New York friends are good looking, highly intelligent, and they know all the lyrics to the songs of West Side Story.” 

“Maria,” shouted John. “I just met a girl named Maria!” 

“Maria who?” asked Michele. “Did you meet her on the beach?” 

›

I know: it’s another birds-of-prey column. But when the gods drop a subject into your lap, it would be an act of rank ingratitude not to use it. 

Ron and I were out at the Berkeley Marina a few weeks ago, looking for the burrowing owl that has been wintering on the riprap at the eastern edge of Cesar Chavez Park. She noticed that the gulls in the inlet between the park and the freeway were raising hell about something, and then we saw the big slate-gray hawk with pointed wings flying low arcs above the water, surrounded by a cloud of screaming gulls, and the dead gull below it. We had just missed seeing an adult peregrine falcon make its kill. 

That would have been a spectacle. A hunting peregrine may attain a speed of 155 miles per hour on its final descent (some estimates as high as 273), whacking the prey with both feet, talons curled into fists. I’ve been stooped on by a peregrine, I suspect more out of curiosity than hostile intent, and it was an unsettling experience. One second the bird is a tiny crossbow shape high above; the next, it’s in your face. 

Anyway, that part was over. The problem confronting the peregrine now was retrieval; she (most likely; it was a big hawk, and females are larger than males in this species) had to get the carcass to dry land. She made a few more passes, big yellow feet out like grappling hooks, trying to snag the gull, with the distraction of the living gulls all around her. They weren’t mobbing her the way land birds—crows, ravens, blackbirds—will go after a bird of prey, but they couldn’t have helped her concentration. 

Finally she got it, and made a beeline for the shore. But it was hard work; laborious flapping, with the gull trailing just above the water. And then she dropped it. She flew on, though, and landed right on the paved path for a breather. There were joggers and dogwalkers in close proximity, but this falcon was either habituated to humans or very determined. 

Back to the water again, and again she connected with the gull. 

Back toward shore, into a stiff wind off the Bay. And just shy of the riprap, she dropped it again. This time she flew farther, landing on one of the Monterey cypresses between the park and the Marriott. We thought she’d abandoned the effort, and went on to look for the owl. 

But no. Five minutes later, the peregrine was over the water again.  

For a third time she grappled the gull. She headed west toward land, then suddenly turned south, then west again, as if trying to escape the headwind. Peregrines are not built for cargo hauling, and she was clearly struggling. In the end, she made it: beyond the path, all the way to an expanse of lawn. I felt like applauding. She sat down at once and began to eat; through the binoculars I could see the blood on her beak, and the gull feathers flying. 

Predation, just in case I needed to be reminded, can be hard work.  

Some raptors, like red-shouldered hawks and American kestrels, are sit-and-wait hunters, but peregrines burn energy just looking for targets. Once they’ve killed, they may have to get the prey back to the nest if it’s breeding season, or at least to a secure perch. I looked up the weights for peregrine and California gull in the Sibley guide when I got home; with typical weights of 1.6 pounds for the falcon and 1.3 pounds for the gull, she could have been carrying close to her own mass. 

This would not have set any records; peregrines are ambitious hunters, and have been recorded as capturing prey up to 6.6 pounds in weight: loons, geese, the hulking European grouse known as capercaillies. I got to thinking about relative prey size a bit later after a news story about an anthropologist who has concluded that the Taung child—a famous South African hominid fossil—was killed by a large raptor, forensic evidence pointing to an eagle rather than a leopard or other big cat. Makes sense to me; African crowned hawk eagles prey on good-sized primates, and there’s at least one recent instance of a (nonfatal) attack on a small child. These eagles been known to kill 60-pound antelopes, more than six times their own weight. They don’t even attempt to get airborne with such large prey, though; they dismember it on the ground and cache pieces in trees for later consumption. 

I would like to be able to report that the peregrine at Cesar Chavez Park was left to enjoy her meal in peace. In fact, though, as I was watching her work on the gull, there was a bang and a puff of smoke nearby—some idiot kid with leftover New Year’s fireworks—and she took off. We’ve all had days like that.  

In a March article in The New Republic, Robert Reich wrote of four essential American stories. One of these is “the triumphant individual,” the little guy who pulls himself up by the bootstraps. Thanks to the Bush administration, that story has died for most Americans. 

Reich explained that the triumphant individual “works hard, takes risks, believes in himself, and eventually gains wealth, fame, and honor. The moral: With enough effort and courage, anyone can make it in the United States.” 

American culture has always been characterized by the optimistic belief that no matter how humble the circumstances of our birth, we could rise above them. Now, due to the policies of the Bush administration, this mythic belief has evaporated. 

At its core, the story of the triumphant individual depends on three elements: perseverance, access to education, and fair treatment. Americans believe that if they stick in there and work hard, they will eventually succeed. However, working hard is no longer enough to get ahead in America. One in four American workers—30 million—are mired in low-wage jobs that do not provide for a life with dignity. Why has this happened?  

The answer is that worker’s wages are no longer tied to productivity. In July, Jonathan Tasini wrote in TomPaine.com, “For decades, workers’ wages were tied to productivity … Historically, increased efficiency flowed to workers in the form of higher wages.” 

Now that link has been broken. 

“Productivity has grown almost three times faster than wages since 2001,” he wrote. “During that time, 70 percent of the nation’s income growth has gone straight into corporate coffers as profits—presumably to continue to finance staggering pay and benefits for executives—a complete reversal from the previous seven business cycles when 77 percent of the overall income growth went to wages.”  

Simply stated, the heart of the American notion of productivity has been broken. When workers improve their output, this gain no longer benefits them or society in general; it goes straight to corporate profits. American productivity is no longer something we can all be proud of—it is a cruel hoax, a broken promise to Americas workers. 

The second essential element in the story of the triumphant individual is access to quality education. There is compelling research that shows that compensation is closely related to level of education. Most Americans understand this and routinely return to school to upgrade their skills. However, the Bush administration, as a side-affect of their duplicitous “no child left behind” program has denied the American educational system the resources it needs to ensure that our workers remain competitive in the world economy. During the past five years, the total funds allocated to worker training have diminished. The ancillary services that many workers need to receive, in order to take advantage of this job training, have also been cut: child care, vocational counseling, and the like. 

Finally, the president and his friends have set a dreadful example for the average citizen. The subliminal message from this administration is that one does not succeed on merit, but rather through connections—it’s not your competence that counts, but your cronies. George W. Bush was a failure as a CEO; one after another his businesses tanked—nonetheless, he was continuously bailed out by family connections. 

Dick Cheney provides another—and continuing—example of succeeding because of connections rather than competence. Michael “Brownie” Brown’s tenure as FEMA head is merely the most notorious of a series of crony appointments by the Bush White House. Recent events indicate that the administration learned nothing from the debacle following Hurricane Katrina; they continue to appoint cronies to senior governmental positions regardless of their lack of qualifications. 

The last Gallup poll on “opportunity” was conducted in January 2005. It contained a question regarding the respondent’s satisfaction with “opportunity for a person in this nation to get ahead by working hard?” Sixty-six percent were “very” or “somewhat satisfied.” 

In the same time period, The Economist reported that while Americans continue to believe that anyone can change social class through hard work, “A growing body of evidence suggests that the meritocratic ideal is in trouble in America. Income inequality is growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, around the 1880s. But social mobility is not increasing at anything like the same pace: would-be Horatio Algers are finding it no easier to climb from rags to riches, while the children of the privileged have a greater chance of staying at the top of the social heap. The United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society.” 

The underlying ethos of the United States has always been characterized by optimism; the confidence that the myth of the triumphant individual continues. What will happen when Americans realize that they have been tricked; that the Bush administration has corrupted the American Dream? 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and activist. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net. 

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Competitive elections give citizens a rare opportunity: a chance to participate in a discussion that could actually affect the future of their community. 

The Oakland mayoral race—which includes heavyweight candidates Nancy Nadel, Ignacio De La Fuente, and Ron Dellums—gives Oaklanders such a chance. But this is simply an opportunity. It works only if citizens take advantage of it by demanding that candidates answer questions about issues that are important to us. 

In a recent Oakland Tribune article on a De La Fuente fundraiser, reporter Heather McDonald attempted to outline some of the terms of the current mayoral debate in the area of economic development, writing that “De La Fuente promised to encourage the influx of private investment in Oakland, and use it to revitalize the waterfront and other blighted areas of Oakland. Dellums has articulated a very different philosophy, saying he supports development—but only after city leaders ensure that it embraces Oakland's racial and economic diversity.” 

I’m not sure if this accurately portrays the views of these two candidates, or shows the differences between their positions, since it seems to imply that Mr. De La Fuente is not in favor of Oakland’s racial and economic diversity, or that Mr. Dellums would not encourage private investment to help cure the city’s economic problems. I doubt if either one of those assertions is true. And, even though Ms. McDonald neglected to mention the third major candidate in the race, I would also guess that Ms. Nadel would also encourage development and promote diversity. So if we’re to understand the differences and the possibilities, where should the debate go? 

There is one view of city planning that cities are defined by their central core—their “downtown,” in the old way of saying things—and that without a live and lively downtown, a city is dead and has no identity at all. I’m not sure if Mayor Jerry Brown holds this view—one can never be quite sure what Mr. Brown actually believes—but he certainly acts like he does, and during his administration we have seen most of the economic development attention coming out of the mayor’s office concentrated in the downtown area (and by downtown, of course, we also include the Forest City “uptown” project, which is located in the northern end of downtown). 

There is another view that modern cities can be better defined by their neighborhood commercial/social centers, and that concentration on the economic health of those neighborhood centers can make for a living, vibrant city, even with a downtown that is virtually dead, or never existed. 

In this view, the City of Oakland is bustling and thriving, and only in need of a little help from City Hall in order to burst out once more as the East Bay’s economic, social, and cultural center. 

The common complaint about Oakland’s downtown is that it lacks a variety of shopping outlets, and that it virtually shuts down after dark in many places, turning into a virtual ghost town. 

That is certainly not the case in many of Oakland’s neighborhood commercial centers. 

A visit to these centers—Grand Avenue/Lakeshore, College Avenue, Montclair Village, the Laurel, the Fruitvale, the wildly-successful Chinatown—delivers a far different experience: sidewalks jammed with shoppers, restaurants and clubs filled with patrons, parking lots and metered spaces at their capacity. In some of these areas—International Boulevard between 29th and 35th, for example, or most of Chinatown—vehicle traffic comes to a virtual halt at times, Manhattan-like, because of the massive amounts of commercial and social activity. 

Traffic and parking, in fact, not “how to attract development,” is Oakland’s major economic problem that the newly-elected mayor ought to address, and where the mayoral debate ought to focus. 

Oakland’s streets were laid out in a slower, more elegant time, and if you ever get the chance to drive San Pablo Avenue from the Berkeley border to downtown, and then International out to San Leandro at, say, 4 in the morning, you can see how much the street patterns once made sense. As the population rapidly fills in, and vehicles increase both in size and in number, that is no longer the case. At the same time, it is easy to see that the available parking in any of the neighborhood commercial centers no longer meets the demand. 

Those twin problems, lack of sufficient parking and lack of flowing traffic, are what have halted the further development of Oakland’s neighborhood commercial centers, why it’s not practical to try to entice a J. C. Penney’s to, say, Lakeshore Avenue instead of Broadway or Telegraph. Residents of these areas are rightfully resisting further development because the city streets and parking areas can’t handle what is already there. 

But are these problems unsolvable, simply the curse of modern city life? A quick look around the East Bay shows that they are not. 

No local city has packed more commercial development into a small space than little Emeryville, and no East Bay city had a greater traffic problem in recent years. Many people thought that the Emery Bay development would be the death of that city, bringing traffic to a halt. It didn’t. Instead, Emeryville has combined creative solutions ($1 for four hours of parking in the lots, for example) with some sort of deal with Caltrans that caused the creation of a four-lane flyover overpass that connects Stanford Avenue with Emery Bay and Ikea and on back up to San Pablo Avenue. If Emeryville has the smarts and the state political clout to develop such remedies, the new occupant of the Oakland mayor’s office—whoever that will be—should certainly be able to do the same for the transportation problems along College Ave. 

One of the stories about Oakland is that in the early 1960s the city leaders—swollen with their assurance that the city had always been the East Bay’s economic engine and always would be—looked on the development of the malls as a passing neon-driven fad that could never compete with Oakland’s brick-and-mortar downtown. That might simply be urban legend, but it certainly has the ring of truth to it. The malls in Pleasanton or Hayward or Richmond are booming. (At the same time, none of these cities has what one would call a thriving downtown.) 

I’m glad that Oakland missed out on the malls. They are for the most part sterile, artificial economic environments, most often completely divorced from the social environments of the cities in which they temporarily exist. 

But for Oakland, the neighborhood commercial/social centers are the malls of the 21st century, the place where our commercial and social future ought to lie. Are these neighborhood centers important to the three major candidates for mayor of Oakland? If so, how would each of them preserve what we already have, and what would they adopt as policies of improvement? How would they bring similar development to the areas that have been left behind—much of West Oakland, for example, or the far reaches of East Oakland going towards San Leandro? Specifics are in order. A candidate who could successfully answer those questions—and build a campaign around those answers—could develop a coalition that would include neighborhood residents and activists as well as the majority of the city’s business owners, stretching across all of the city’s diverse economic, racial, social, and cultural lines. That’s the kind of coalition that Oakland needs. That’s the kind of political debate that Oakland needs. 

I’ll wait, patiently, to see if that happens. 

Eighteen years ago, when I started in the inspection business, my clients were always buyers and never sellers. In fact, sellers and, all too often, their agents, viewed the inspection as an assault on their homes. This was often miserable and I was sometimes foolish enough to take the bait and join in the adversarial tone of the conflict. When sellers insisted on being home, pitch-fork in hand to defend their turf from my unfair assertions, I would debate and even argue on occasion.  

Then one day the light bulb came on for me and I realized that this did nothing for my client, the buyer. All I was doing was showing off how much I thought I knew and possibly endangering my client’s deal for nothing more than my hubris. Today, I’m more apt to understand how nervous the seller is and to offer them assurances, letting them see that I’m only there to help. And to lessen their liability by informing the buyer about vital issues that may affect their money or their life. 

The truth is, I now do about a third of my business for the seller instead of the buyer. Sellers and their agents have started figuring out that presenting a thorough report on the condition of the property when they’re showing the house does a number of very powerful things for them. For your edification, here are just two: 

Liability protection 

When a seller has the house inspected prior to sale, they greatly reduce the likelihood that they’re going to get into trouble with the buyer somewhere down the line. Major issues get looked at and talked about. The realities are laid down in plain type for all to see and these documents get signed and dated by the buyers in the course of sale so that a record remains to prove that sellers were told about the damaged foundation or the leaky pipe. Strangely, these realities don’t keep most people from proceeding with the sale. We all expect old houses—actually, all houses—to have some problems. It’s natural. But now it’s been recorded in detail for future reference and also so that the buyer is conditioned to the realities.  

People in Berkeley don’t buy houses simply because they have good pipes or good foundations. If that’s all they cared about they’d all be living in Tracy. They buy houses for their charm, for the neighborhood, the big living room, the nice backyard and the proximity to schools and shopping. The physical stuff is secondary. So the fact that people are told about these failings doesn’t necessarily stop them from buying, but it does inform them so that they can go forward without remorse. There are, however, some folks that will not want to buy your house once informed about a particular problem (or perhaps 10 particular problems). Trust me when I say that you don’t want them to buy your house anyway. It is far better to move on to a buyer who buys happily; that way you don’t have to wonder when the other shoe will drop, ending up with a regretful buyer to cope with (or their attorney). 

Improved Negotiations 

So you have a buyer. They read about the old furnace, the crack in the foundation and the flat roof. They understand about these facts and they love the house. They’re going to make you an offer that they think will get you to say yes. That’s the whole idea, right? They’re going to try to avoid taking into account as many of the future costs as they can so that you’ll say yes. This is common logic. Then comes the clincher. What usually happens, except in the most vigorous seller’s market, is that inspections are done after the deal is made and then, as facts come out, buyers and their agents endeavor to reduce the sale price based on new discovery. “Hey, we just found out that that the heater is kaput, can you drop by the price by six grand?” “Oh my, the foundation will need a $12,000 repair. Will you split it with us?” 

If you’ve presented these things up front in a report from the get go, there will be far less of this occurring. There is no way to prevent new revelations or new opinions from erupting but they are far fewer and often non-existent, when sellers have taken this bold step. 

Sellers also get rightly perceived as having less to hide and as being more forthright when they obtain thorough inspections for themselves prior to putting their houses on the market. This does mean one very important thing, though. It means that if you are such a person, you need to be willing to have the bumps and warts revealed by your own representative and at your own expense.  

Occasionally a seller will ask me to slant my report one way or another and, of course, this is both ethically improper and legally unwise. I will calmly explain that the full expression of the facts from a neutral perspective helps them enormously. The truth is that most people are very willing to have a fair disclosure of their house presented to the buying public once they understand how it all works. 

If you’re buying or selling, get to know an inspector. The condition of the house certainly isn’t the only thing that matters, but not knowing can sting a whole lot more than knowing. 

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Last week I counseled patience with a newly acquired garden. Honest to Ceres, it really does pay off, or at least cost less in terms of lost plants and ego-damage, to wait a full year before doing anything major and permanent to your land. You don’t have to sit on your thumbs: put in some encouraging annuals, watch when sprouts from whatever was left behind, and get your hands in the dirt in the meantime. You know you want to.  

While you’re waiting impatiently to see what kind of yard you have and decide what you can grow there, you can do some simple testing to speed the process. 

What is the soil like? You probably won’t need expensive testing; you can learn what you need to easily. In Berkeley, you probably have clay. In the flatlands, that means poor drainage, but that can be improved. In the hills the drainage is better but the soil’s thinner, and there’s a slim chance you have some serpentine-derived soil. (Look for deep-maroon soil that most stuff isn’t growing well in.) Pick it up and squeeze it. Does it fall apart, wet as it is in midwinter? Good. You must have very good drainage and/or a gift of amended soil from your predecessors. 

Most of us have icky sticky bricky clay to work with. You know you’re one of us when the soil has stayed wet enough after a few non-rainy days to turn into a tight ball with your fingerprints on it. That also means you shouldn’t be digging it, walking on it, or generally messing with it because compressing it now will cost you lots of fluffing and amending later. 

Smell the dirt. Really. Hold a handful to your nose and savor the bouquet. Is it sour or stagnant-stinking? That’s really bad drainage. I have a mysterious watery hole in my yard, where the driveway turns from concrete to dirt, that smells like that. It’s not near a sewer or waterline; it appears every winter, no matter what I’ve tried to fill it with—rocks, sand, soil, garden waste, random small objects from the house. Something like it (OK, larger) appeared in Pennsylvania where a coalmine caved in, when I was a kid, and half the Susquehanna River poured into it. They tried truckloads of fill, concrete, even a locomotive and some of its train—really; I have pictures. I don’t remember what finally got the thing plugged. I’m worrying. If you hear that south Berkeley’s vanished, it might be my fault. 

Just plain clay smells like, well, clay: wet bricks, modeling clay (not plasticine), a freshly-watered plant’s pot. Dig a hole. How hard was that? Did the mud stick to your spade? Clay. Good amended garden soil, fit for growing food and most non-natives, smells loamy like a damp forest floor or just-picked root veggies.  

After rain, look for long-lasting puddles or mushrooms or even moss on the ground. That’s where you put your water feature. Watch the course of water running through your yard. You’ll be better off adapting to that than trying to make big changes in it. ?

TUESDAY, JAN. 31 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Making History in Avant Garde Film” Introduction and book-signing with Jeffrey Skoller at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Bruce Andrews, performance artist and poet at 5:30 p.m. in the 1st floor Living Room, Mills Hall, Mills College, Oakland. 430-2236. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bandworks at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman Trio and singer’s open mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

McCoy Tyner Residency, with Bobby Hutcherson, Ravi Coltrane, Charnett Moffet & Eric Harland at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Feb. 5. Cost is $15-$50. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

African American Inventors and Scientists at the Junior Center of Art and Science, 558 Bellvue Ave., Lakeside Park, Oakland, through April 8. 839-5777. www.juniorcenter.org 

Israel Artfest 2006 Collection of works by over 100 Israeli artists. Reception at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. Exhibition runs to Feb. 5. Cost is $10. 848-3988. 

Artists for Social and Political Awareness “Artifice” Reception at 5:30 p.m. at North/South Gallery, 5241 College Ave., at Broadway. 

FILM 

Film 50: “By The Law” at 3 p.m. at Weird America: “In a Nutshell: A Portrait of Elizabeth Tashjian” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Falstaff” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 841-1903. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Lura, Caboverdian artist at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

3 Strikez, K Diezel, G-I Joes, Hot Lipps at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Saoco at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Chuck Brodsky, old-fashioned story songs, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

McCoy Tyner with Bobby Hutcherson, Ravi Coltrane, Charnett Moffett & Eric Harland at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$35. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, FEB. 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

“In Her Mother’s Shoes” Photography exhibit in conjunction with the conference “Giving Women Power Over AIDS” at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave., through Feb. 5. Sponsored by the Hesperian Foundation and UCB School of Public Health. 845-1447, ext. 229. www.hesperian.org  

“Telegraph 3pm” Poetry by Owen Hill and photographs by Robert Eliason at 7 p.m. at the YWCA in Berkeley, 2600 Bancroft Way. 

FILM 

“Al’léési ... an African Actress” free screening at 5:30 p.m. and Mikio Naruse: “Sound of the Mountain” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kate Gale, poet, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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

Word Beat Reading Series with Jesse Redpond and Monique de Magdalene at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

John Stowell/Mike Zilber Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 701-1787. 

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

Blue Roots Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is. $5. 841-JAZZ.www.AnnasJazzIsland.com  

Deep Roots Urban Teahouse Hip Hop Show at 7:30 p.m. at 1418 34th Ave. , Oakland. Free for all ages. 436-0121. 

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

FRIDAY, FEB. 3 

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 

Aurora Theatre “The Master Builder” Wed. through Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through March 5. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.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 

The Bright River at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby at MLK. Tickets are $20. After party at Epic Arts.  

Book Burning Comedy Showcase with Will Franken, John Hoogasian, Philip Watson, Samantha Chanse at 8 p.m. at AK Press, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. Cost is $5. 208-1700. 

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 

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 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Lawn Jockey” An exhibition of works exploring the social, psychological and phenomenological implications of sod. Opening at 7.p.m. at Center Street Art Works, 1431 Center St., Oakland. csawgallery@gmail.com 

“Light Form Texture” Black and white photography of landscapes and archtecture by Mark Swanson. Reception at 7 p.m. at Fertile Grounds Cafe, 1796 Shattuck Ave. at Delaware. Exhibit runs to Feb. 28. 

“Lost & Found” Boontling's One Year Anniversary Celebration Reception at 7:30 p.m. at 4224 Telegraph Ave. 

FILM 

African Film Festival “Sisters in Law” at 7 p.m. and “The Colonial Misunderstanding” at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

James Janko and Maxine Hong Kingston discuss Janko’s new book “Buffalo Boy and Geronimo” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Team I-Themba, South African dance and drama, in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and Black History Month at 6:30 p.m. at the Little Theater, Berkeley High School, 1980 Allston Way. Tickets are $12, $6 students and go on sale at 5 p.m. 

Blues and Jazz by The Soul Sisters Band, The Dave Mathews Blues Band & Denise Perrier and Anna De Leon from 6 to 11 p.m. at The Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $25-$30. Benefit for Berkeley Food and Housing. For reservation call 649-4965, ext. 304. 

Berkeley Opera “Falstaff” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 841-1903. www.berkeleyopera.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. 

Four Shillings Short with Christy Martin, Adrianne and Kyler England at 8 p.m. at Rose St. House of Music, 1839 Rose St. Donation $10-$20. 594-4000, ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Nik Phelps and The Sprocket Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. between Durant and Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http:// 

trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Slammin, all-body band, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Pamela Rose, accompanied by Danny Caron, John R. Burr, Jason Lewis, Wayne de La Cruz and Charles McNeal at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Ghetto Retro Review at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Felonious, Ryan Greene at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Ligia Waib’s Brazilian Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Al Howard and the K23 Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. 

Crooked Jades at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Mariospeedwagon and The Pickin’ Trix at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Steve Taylor, songwriter for Cowpokes for Peace, at 7 p.m. at A Cuppa Tea, 3200 College Ave. Free, donations accepted. 654-1904. 

The Phenmenauts, The Bananas, Shruggs, Touch Me Nots at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

McCoy Tyner with Bobby Hutcherson, Ravi Coltrane, Charnett Moffett & Eric Harland at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$35. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 4 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Jerry Kennedy singing folk songs at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568.  

Chinese New Year Books for Children with authors Ying Chang and Oliver Chin at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Claim the World of Art as Our Own” Artists’ talk at 1 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. www.proartsgallery.org 

Photographs by Larry Wolfley Reception at 6 p.m. at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibit runs to March 15. www.photolaboratory.com 

THEATER 

Mixtape Vol. 2, new works showcase by Everyday Theatre at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby at MLK. Tickets are $20. http://everydaytheatre.org 

Imago Theater “Biglittlethings” at 2 and 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32, discounts for children under 16. 642-9988.  

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

FILM 

African Film Festival “The Golden Ball” at 4 p.m. and Mikio Naruse: “Flowing” at 7 p.m. and “Floating Clouds” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chesa Boudin introduces “The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions - 100 Answers” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Telegraph. 845-7852.  

African American Celebration through Poetry from 1 to 4 p.m. at the West Oakland Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1801 Adeline St. Free, all welcome. 238-7352. 

Poetry Reading Annual Contest with the Bay Area Poets Coalition from 3 to 5 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge, dining hall, 1320 Addison St. Park on the street, not in Lodge parking lot. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra “The Violin Triumphant” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Dana and Durant Sts. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Opera Alive, an introduction for the whole family at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Donation $10-$20. 525-0302. 

“Arte y Pureza” gypsy flamenco from Andalucia, Spain, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Tickets are $30. 849-2568.  

Celebration of the Energy of Yemanja, Yoruban Goddess of the Oceans and Maternal Love, with Brazilian and Latin dance and music at 9 p.m. at the Capoiera Café, 2026 Addison St. Cost is $10. 528-1958.  

The Snake Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Lee Waterman’s Brazilian & Afro-Cuban Quintet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Winston Jarrett and Wadi Gas & Jahbandis, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

Lo Cura and Avi Vinocur at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Daggermouth, Sabertooth Zombie, Barricade at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 5 

CHILDREN  

Crosspulse Family Show at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Sudden Rain” at 4:30 p.m. and “A Wife’s Heart” at 6:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chesa Boudin introduces “The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions - 100 Answers” at 3 p.m. at Casa Cuba, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 658-3984. 

Poetry Flash with Geraldine Kim and Tessa Rumsey at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Falstaff” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 841-1903.  

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra “The Violin Triumphant” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, Dana and Durant Sts. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Opera Alive, an introduction at 3 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Donation $10-$20. 525-0302. 

Oluyemi Thomas and Positive Knowledge at 7 and 8:30 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby at MLK. Tickets are $15. 

Mark Little-Ricardo Peixoto Duo at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Shaykh Yassir Chadly at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. 

Brook Schoenfield at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Head Royce High School Jazz Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

MONDAY, FEB. 6 

THEATER 

Subterranean Shakespeare “Othello” Staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1924 Cedar St. Donation $5. 276-3871. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Spoken Word by Charles C. Blackwell and Poetic Grove in celebration of Black History Month at 5:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library Golden Gate Branch, 5606 San Pablo Ave. 597-5023. 

Actors Reading Writers “The Dangers of Romance,” stories by Jonathan Franzen, David Schickler and Don Shea, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave.  

Po Bronson discusses “Why Do I Love These People? Honest and Amazing Stories of Real Families” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

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

Last Word Poetry Series with Teka-Lark Lo and Dan O at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

El Cerrito High and Portola Middle School Jazz Bands at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, FEB. 7 

EXHIBITIONS 

James Gayles’ “East Bay Blues Master” and other works by George Hopkins at the Richmond Health Center, 100 38th St., enter at 39th and Bissell. Celebrating Black History Month. 231-1348.  

FILM 

Women’s Preservation Film Festival at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Marion Nestle discusses her reasearch on culinary history in northern California at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Bernard-Henri Lévy introduces his new book “American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Pacific Trio at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20. 525-5211. 

Swamp Coolers, cajun, zydeco at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

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

David Thom Band, Dark Hollow, Grizzly Peak and Marty Varner at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761.  

Mingus Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

The seventh annual San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival runs Feb. 2-12 with workshops and intimate East Bay concerts featuring living legends like Ralph Stanley and rising local talent such as the Crooked Jades. 

The festival boasts a range of acoustic music including bluegrass, old-time (the fiddle and banjo-laden precursor to bluegrass) and a sprinkling of “jamgrass,” which combines bluegrass and jam band influences. Festival Chair Tom Lucas hopes to not only bring all types of bluegrass to the festival, but to introduce fans of particular styles to new kinds of music. Over the course of the festival, music lovers will have the opportunity to see numerous rising local groups throughout the Bay Area, and celebrated venues like the Freight and Salvage and Epic Arts will be packed with music that should not be missed. 

Of special note, the internationally renowned Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys will play three Freight and Salvage concerts on Feb. 9 and 10. During his 55 years in the business, Ralph Stanley has achieved unparalleled status as a banjo picker, recorded 170 albums, and won countless awards for his artistry. Additionally, gospel music extraordinaire Doyle Lawson and Quick Silver will perform at Freight and Salvage on Feb. 2, along with local acoustic favorite Matt Bauer.  

San Francisco performances of special note include multi-instrumentalist Peter Rowan at Noe Valley Ministry on Feb. 4; former David Grisman fiddle player Darol Anger and his trio at the Make Out Room on Feb. 5; and Leftover Salmon mandolin player Drew Emitt at Noe Valley Ministry on Feb. 11. Peter Rowan has performed with legends from Jerry Garcia to Bill Monroe and rose to fame as a solo artist in the 1980s. Darol Anger has been an innovator in incorporating the fiddle into jazz and has worked with jazz instrumentalists Bela Fleck and Stephane Grappelli, among others. And Emitt’s band Leftover Salmon plays a major part in the jamgrass scene now extremely popular among a new generation of listeners. 

While the festival brings top national performers, bluegrass and old-time fans also get the chance to experience the music of rising local performers. For example, veteran Bay Area old-time musicians the Crooked Jades perform at the Freight and Salvage on Feb. 3. A staple of the area for more than 10 years, the Crooked Jades bring unique arrangements of obscure old-time music and driving dance tunes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to venues across the country.  

“The Crooked Jades are moving up to the national circuit,” East Bay concert organizer and festival committee member Tom Wegner said. “This may be one of the few chances for people to see them in a small venue before they make it big. Their music is haunting, extremely interesting, and has incredible energy on stage.” 

For another local option, the East Bay’s Lone Mountain Sisters and Backyard Party Boys can be seen at Epic Arts on Feb. 5, as part of Wegner’s monthly Twang Cafe live music series. Wegner describes the Lone Mountain Sisters as a straight-ahead bluegrass foursome of two sisters and their husbands with comic onstage banter. Moreover, the members of the Backyard Party Boys bring decades of experience in bands of varying styles to a new eclectic group. If you are looking for a taste of old fashioned bluegrass as you would have heard it in the 1920s, East Bay natives Julay Brandenburg & the Nightbirds play at Connecticut Yankees in San Francisco on Feb. 2. This relatively new group goes to great lengths to achieve a style of bluegrass quite rare in the current music scene. 

Bluegrass and Old Time Music can be heard from Feb. 2-12 at East Bay venues including Jupiter’s, Freight and Salvage, Epic Arts and McGrath’s in Alameda. Details and a complete concert schedule can be found at www.sfbluegrass.org.  

Contributed photo:  

The Lone Mountain Sisters will peform at Epic Arts Feb. 5 as part of the San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival. 

The seventh annual San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival runs Feb. 2-12 with workshops and intimate East Bay concerts featuring living legends like Ralph Stanley and rising local talent such as the Crooked Jades. 

The festival boasts a range of acoustic music including bluegrass, old-time (the fiddle and banjo-laden precursor to bluegrass) and a sprinkling of “jamgrass,” which combines bluegrass and jam band influences. Festival Chair Tom Lucas hopes to not only bring all types of bluegrass to the festival, but to introduce fans of particular styles to new kinds of music. Over the course of the festival, music lovers will have the opportunity to see numerous rising local groups throughout the Bay Area, and celebrated venues like the Freight and Salvage and Epic Arts will be packed with music that should not be missed. 

Of special note, the internationally renowned Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys will play three Freight and Salvage concerts on Feb. 9 and 10. During his 55 years in the business, Ralph Stanley has achieved unparalleled status as a banjo picker, recorded 170 albums, and won countless awards for his artistry. Additionally, gospel music extraordinaire Doyle Lawson and Quick Silver will perform at Freight and Salvage on Feb. 2, along with local acoustic favorite Matt Bauer.  

San Francisco performances of special note include multi-instrumentalist Peter Rowan at Noe Valley Ministry on Feb. 4; former David Grisman fiddle player Darol Anger and his trio at the Make Out Room on Feb. 5; and Leftover Salmon mandolin player Drew Emitt at Noe Valley Ministry on Feb. 11. Peter Rowan has performed with legends from Jerry Garcia to Bill Monroe and rose to fame as a solo artist in the 1980s. Darol Anger has been an innovator in incorporating the fiddle into jazz and has worked with jazz instrumentalists Bela Fleck and Stephane Grappelli, among others. And Emitt’s band Leftover Salmon plays a major part in the jamgrass scene now extremely popular among a new generation of listeners. 

While the festival brings top national performers, bluegrass and old-time fans also get the chance to experience the music of rising local performers. For example, veteran Bay Area old-time musicians the Crooked Jades perform at the Freight and Salvage on Feb. 3. A staple of the area for more than 10 years, the Crooked Jades bring unique arrangements of obscure old-time music and driving dance tunes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to venues across the country.  

“The Crooked Jades are moving up to the national circuit,” East Bay concert organizer and festival committee member Tom Wegner said. “This may be one of the few chances for people to see them in a small venue before they make it big. Their music is haunting, extremely interesting, and has incredible energy on stage.” 

For another local option, the East Bay’s Lone Mountain Sisters and Backyard Party Boys can be seen at Epic Arts on Feb. 5, as part of Wegner’s monthly Twang Cafe live music series. Wegner describes the Lone Mountain Sisters as a straight-ahead bluegrass foursome of two sisters and their husbands with comic onstage banter. Moreover, the members of the Backyard Party Boys bring decades of experience in bands of varying styles to a new eclectic group. If you are looking for a taste of old fashioned bluegrass as you would have heard it in the 1920s, East Bay natives Julay Brandenburg & the Nightbirds play at Connecticut Yankees in San Francisco on Feb. 2. This relatively new group goes to great lengths to achieve a style of bluegrass quite rare in the current music scene. 

Bluegrass and Old Time Music can be heard from Feb. 2-12 at East Bay venues including Jupiter’s, Freight and Salvage, Epic Arts and McGrath’s in Alameda. Details and a complete concert schedule can be found at www.sfbluegrass.org.  

Contributed photo:  

The Lone Mountain Sisters will peform at Epic Arts Feb. 5 as part of the San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival. 

The Berkeley Opera opened its 27th season Saturday with Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff. Written when the composer was eighty, this opera breaks out of the mold of his earlier works: first, because it is a comedy (of his previous 27 operas, 26 are tragedies) and second, because he abandons his trademark style of grandiloquent vocalism, and uses the singing voices almost as orchestral accents. In Falstaff, the dynamic rhythmic pulse is punctuated by only a few lyrical moments. The singers, with the exception of the central character, sing mainly in intricate ensembles. It is partly because of Verdi’s focus on mathematical precision and brilliance, rather than on passionate melodic line, that this opera has remained out of the mainstream repertoire, and is considered by many to be overly eclectic and lacking in spontaneity. 

Boito, the librettist, takes scenes from Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays, and cuts and pastes them together with segments from The Merry Wives of Windsor. It is said that Queen Elizabeth, after seeing Henry IV, grew so enamored with that “huge hill of flesh”(Falstaff), that she commanded Shakespeare to write a play about Falstaff in love. Boito reduces The Merry Wives to about one half and constructs a composite profile of the loveable oversized rogue: a braggart, a glutton, a lecherer, a con-man always on the make, who lives by his lightning wit. Boito takes us through Falstaff’s ridiculous escapades; the consequences of his scheme to woo two rich married women in order to fill his empty purse. The women decide to punish the vain old knight for his insolence. Although tricked and humiliated, his spirit and his girth are undiminished. Life remains a joke; a joyous game. 

Above all, what is demanded to carry the opera, is a protagonist with extraordinary comedic skill. He must be able to combine the nuanced timing of Charlie Chaplin, the arrogance and cynicism of W.C. Fields, and the hauteur of Charles Laughton. I well remember the legendary portrayal of this role by the 65 year old Giuseppe Taddei at the Met: swaggering, grandiose, eloquent, sly, and supremely self satisfied. Not one nuance was missed. The gleaming ebullience of his manner made him, in spite of all his roguish deviltry, irresistibly lovable. Young artists who assay this unique and challenging role would do well to familiarize themselves with the works of past masters who have defined the standard of excellence, and who have had a direct link to Verdi himself through Toscanini. 

It is heartening to see how the Berkeley Opera has improved certain aspects of its performances, such as the orchestral sound, the costumes, and the general quality of the principal singers. However, attention to a few more things would enhance the quality of their productions. There is no excuse for blurry surtitles which make deciphering the text a real struggle for the audience, since suitable technology is available today without great cost. Even scenic elements ought to be able to be rendered with higher aesthetic standards in a company that has been in existence for over a quarter of a century. Further, the subtlety brought into the work by the genius of Shakespeare, Boito and Verdi, demands an execution with greater attention to a coordinated acting style for the entire ensemble that is appropriate to the character of the work. Falstaff, as written, begins explosively and takes off like the bullet train from Paris to Marseille; it is suffused with high-powered energy musically and textually. This momentum never lets up. Without physical acting, full vigor on stage, and carefully honed team work, the opera invariably stalls.  

The highlight of the evening both vocally and dramatically was the excellent Brazilian baritone Igor Vieira. He parodied the jealous husband, Ford, with vocal mastery, and precise Italianate style. He raged and fumed over the suspected adultery of Falstaff with his wife in the most farcical manner, perfectly timing gesture, text, and music. 

Jonathan Khuner, artistic director of Berkeley Opera, and Saturday’s conductor, was able to elicit a laudable, well intoned, performance from the orchestra and cast. The able ensemble included: Ann Moss (Nanetta), Jillian Khuner (Alice Ford), Katherine Growdon (Meg Page), Donna Olson (Mistress Quickly), Andrew Truett (Fenton), Jo Vincent Parks (Falstaff), Norman DeVol (Dr. Caius), Mark Hernandez (Bardolfo), Isaiah Musik-Ayala (Pistola), Tony Ambrose (Innkeeper), David Briggs (Robin). Lovely Nymphs and Fairies rounded out the evening. 

›

In a sort of homecoming, the Jazz House (formerly at 3192 Adeline St.) will host a CD release party for East Bay jazz artists Positive Knowledge on Sunday Feb. 5 at the Ashby Stage. 

Positive Knowledge includes Oluyemi Thomas (bass clarinet), Ijeoma Thomas (spoken word and percussion), Ike Levin (saxophones) and Spirit (drums).  

“I met Patrick Dooley (artistic director of the Shotgun Players at Ashby Stage) when we were going out and they were coming in,” said Rob Woodworth, founder of the Jazz House. “We were both members in the Ashby Arts District. Our last shows were in October of 2002, when we lost our lease. After producing shows here and there, I decided to start up having a regular monthly event again as of January. We had a show with Tony Malaby, just off tour with Charlie Haden, in a space donated by a friend, just over on the Oakland side, followed by a hands-on workshop the next day, with the participation of local musicians. 

“Ike Levin, who had played a very successful show with pianist Joel Futterman for us before, had called up saying he was playing with Positive Knowledge, who I knew about through William Parker’s Vision Fest on the East Coast,” Woodworth continued, “And Patrick came up with a free date at Ashby Stage. I’m very grateful. It’s hard to find locations, whether temporary or permanent, to produce live music of this type. I usually end up warning a few people that it’s not going to be traditional jazz, not the type of stuff you hear on KCSM.” 

Woodworth started up the innovative project to feature lesser-known musicians and include younger people in both the audience and onstage—though past shows have also featured such luminaries as saxophonist Sam Rivers. Most recently, Jazz House co-produced a Sunday night series of jazz and poetry with Kimball’s Carnival at Jack London Square. But last-minute announcement of double-bookings (including a wedding) left musicians, poets and audience stranded outside the doors, and Woodworth called it off. “It was a lofty goal, to say the least,” he said. “I love the mixture of jazz and poetry—and we’re still making it happen. Ijeoma’s the poet in this show.”  

Woodworth talked about the difficulty of producing off-mainstream music events: “The most important thing is getting back on the track with some regularity, make another attempt to get people to hear the vibe. Otherwise, they won’t be able to make a decision whether they even like this kind of music or not. There’s just not any middle ground anymore, no real places for these guys to go and play. We’ve had shows where only five people showed up, and the musicians would still call me later, asking when they could play again.” 

Although, in Woodworth’s view, there’s a need for a venue where both aficionados and new listeners can hear lesser-known players and groups, the obstacles to finding a permanent location can be daunting. Woodward spoke of the owner of a storefront in downtown Berkeley—“an ideal location”—who contacted Jazz House a few months ago. “He believed in what we’re doing. But when he really understood how many hoops had to be jumped through, just dealing with the city to get necessary things done, he withdrew. People still call in, telling me about empty buildings, urging me to do it fly-by-night. But the hole-in-the-wall jazz cafe’s a thing of the past! At least, I don’t have the patience or nerves to book and publicize shows, wondering if I’m going to get shut down by the fire marshal.”  

“We’re fundraising now,” Woodworth said, “I just added a ‘donate’ button to our website. We need $40,000 for a sprinkler system and other necessities, once we find a new home. Until then, we’ll produce a show a month at different locations, which I’m always searching for, especially for someone who’ll host us, or donate their space for regular shows. And our supporters have been great, continuing to come despite the loss of our old place. There are some who come all the way from Sacramento or Monterey to catch a show. That’s dedicated support.” 

Woodworth announced a show on Friday, March 31, that’s in search of a venue: the Andre Sumelius Trio from Finland. For more information, contact the Jazz House at www.thejazzhouse.com or (415) 846-9432. 

Positive Knowledge will perform at a CD release party at 7 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday Feb. 5 at the Ashby Stage. Admission:$15; students, $10; 15 and under, free.

Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Tony Taccone just presided over his Broadway debut with one show he directed at The Rep—Sarah Jones’ solo act Bridge & Tunnel—only to move on to prepare for the New Haven opening of another, the Maurice Sendak-Tony Kushner a daptations of Brundibar and Comedy on the Bridge. The double bill, which played Berkeley during the holidays, also opens uptown in New York this spring. 

Bridge & Tunnel had a seven-month sold out run in 2004, co-produced by Meryl Streep at New York’s C ulture Project, garnering an Obie for Jones and an Off-Broadway record for single-day ticket sales. It was workshopped further in performances last year at The Rep, including new music for the show by Taccone’s son, Asa, and opened Jan. 26 for a two-month run at the 590-seat Helen Hayes Theatre on Times Square, a space Taccone called “ideal” for Jones’ intimate show. 

Called “a generous, funny valentine to the kaleidoscopic, cacophonous melting pot of New York” by New York Variety and “the best new play on Broadway” by the New York Sun, Bridge & Tunnel features Jones playing different, ethnically diverse characters reading their poetry at an open-mic night in a New York nightspot. The New York Times commented that the play was “focussing on the immigrant experience ... embodying in theatrical form the durable dream that keeps drawing immigrants to America.” 

“I first discovered Sarah Jones in a tiny theater in New York’s East Village, performing for a rapturous crowd of young people,” commented Taccone ab out Jones’ 1998 performances of Surface Transit, which he brought to The Rep in Spring, 2003. “Identified by the media as a member of the ‘hip-hop generation,’ Ms. Jones reaches out to every age, every race, every class of person willing to take a journey with her through the prism of her polyrhythmic world.” 

Brundibar, which will open Feb. 10 for a month at the Yale Repertory Theatre (which co-produced with Berkeley Rep) before its New York opening at the New Victory Theater April 26, represents the fru its of a much older collaborative relationship, which dates back almost a quarter century to Taccone’s stint as artistic director at San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre, where he helped develop Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, later commissioning and co-direc ting it for Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum. 

“Brundibar is my sixth time collaboration with Tony Taccone,” said Kushner. “It’s my fourth show at Berkeley Rep.” Speaking for himself and Maurice Sendak, the popular creator of children’s books who designed th e production, Kushner said, “We’re immensely proud of the results, which Berkeley saw first, and which will travel around the country.” 

Taccone has said of the two one-act “children’s operas” from midcentury Central Europe that “through these fairy tales, we can explore the reality of wartime for children in modern culture and the desire to sustain a community under the most trying of circumstances.” In a story in Variety, Kushner said he hoped the run at Yale would make the one-acts even more “Sendakian,” imbuing them with a surrealistic quality for their New York debut. 

Himself a native of New York, Kushner told Variety, “Call it the marquee, call it the amount of people in Times Square, call it the legacy of Broadway—there’s a sense of history here, and I’m honored to be part of that.” 

When the poet William Everson (1912-1994) came to Berkeley shortly after World War II, he earned his living as a fine art printer and, at one time, as a janitor at the UC Press. He became part of the group known collectively as the Berkeley Renaissance—Ro bert Duncan, Mary Fabilli, Josephine Miles, and others. Despite local objections, critics fold the Berkeley Renaissance into the San Francisco Renaissance, which in turn is subsumed by the Beat Generation. In little more than a decade, however, he created a new identity for himself and stepped clear of such categories.  

The residual years 

In 1934 the poetry of Robinson Jeffers inspired him to begin writing. He has described his discovery of Jeffers as “essentially a religious conversion.” Jeffers showed him, he wrote, that God was “incredibly alive” in the California landscape. Although he quickly found his own voice, Everson’s early work owes a solid debt to Jeffers, and his admiration for the older poet lasted throughout his life.  

In Jeffers he foun d a strong, clear vision of the world, but he also found a reliance on violent imagery and a Calvinistic moral tone that resonated within him. “For the first time,” he wrote years later, “I grasped the corruptness of man and the reality of an Absolute aga inst which that corruptness must be measured.” This showed in “The Stranger,” a harsh poem in which a young woman is punished for parading her “bed-lore brag.” She is impregnated by a men who infects her and her baby—at its conception—with a venereal dise ase. Despite such lapses, Everson’s early work was well-received and recognition confirmed him in his vocation as a poet. 

He married, and settled down on a farm. He might have spent his life there, but the cataclysm of World War II pushed him in a differ ent direction. He registered with his draft board as an anarchist and a pacifist. In 1943 he was sent to a work camp for conscientious objectors in Oregon. In “Chronicle of Division” he candidly described life in the camp and how his marriage reached a pa inful end while he was there. 

Kenneth Rexroth edited the first collection of Everson’s work, The Residual Years (1948). Years later he still marvelled at “how deeply personal these poems are.” But by the time the book appeared, Everson’s life had again m oved in a startling new direction. 

Visions 

He had met, fallen in love with, and married Mary Fabilli, a very gifted artist and writer. A lapsed Catholic, she was on a spiritual voyage back to the Church. They began attending Mass together and, he said la ter, this brought him to “the threshold of the Faith.” During Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco on Christmas Eve, 1948, when he experienced what he described as an intense, mystical awareness of the Divine Presence in the tabernacle, he crosse d that threshold. 

He and his wife, resolving to become practicing Catholics, found themselves in the unhappy situation where (as dramatized in novels by Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh) there is a conflict between human and divine love. Mary’s first marri age was canonically valid. Told they could not be married in the Church, they separated. Everson formally joined the Catholic Church in 1949. After his conversion he continued to have mystical experiences, and in 1951, this anarcho-pacifist joined the Dom inican Order as a lay brother; that is, as one who has taken minor orders, but not taken final vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 

Return to the world 

After a decade in the monastery, William Everson reappeared in the literary world transfigured. C lothed in splendid Dominican robes and writing as Brother Antoninus, he published three substantial books within eight years—The Crooked Lines of God (1959), The Hazards of Holiness (1962), and The Rose of Solitude (1967). It seemed that by committing him self to an orthodox religious view, he had found a clear position from which to explore his personal themes and a renewed vitality of expression. Such poems as “A Canticle to the Waterbirds” and “The South Coast” are magical evocations of Divine immanence. 

Most religious traditions recognize mystical experience, and provide disciplines and practices through which believers may seek visionary moments of union with God. In the monastery Brother Antoninus turned for guidance to the great 16th century Spanis h mystics, St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. 

They taught that the soul can obtain knowledge of God through a process of purgation, illumination, and union. St. John famously called purgation “the dark night of the soul,” and St. Teresa descr ibed illumination as “the prayer of quiet,” when the will surrenders itself to God. She described union as an experience of spiritual peace and fulfillment beyond explanation. “O Soul in God,” she wrote of this rapturous experience (as translated by Art hur Symons), “What more desires for thee remain,/ Save but to love, and love again,/ And, all on flame with love within,/ Love on, and turn to love again?” 

These saints were not puritans, and their God was not Calvinistic. In this, they differed from Bro ther Antoninus. He could never join St. Teresa in describing prayer as “friendly conversation with Him Who we know loves us.” I’ve found nothing in their writings as violent as these lines from “Gethsemani:” “Good Friday/ Draws like a scalpel/ On the mordant/ Soul of man.” 

At times Brother Antoninus seemed to be trying to beat down the doors of heaven with his fists. 

Perhaps the difference is that St. Teresa and St. John, who had both taken final vows, were happy in their religious life. James Mitchner described them as “children bathed in sunlight.” We read them and believe their writings offer us metaphors with which to understand their mystical experience.  

With Brother Antoninus, we can’t always be sure when his language is metaphorical: he wrote o f sexual experience in exactly the same words he used for religious experience. In a significant number of his poems, it is not always clear which is which. “River Root” convinced more than one reader that Brother Antoninus did not have the gift of celiba cy. 

A birthday 

I was introduced to Brother Antoninus and his work in Los Angeles. A year or two later, when I was a new and disoriented student in Berkeley, as I was walking along Telegraph Avenue one afternoon, I saw someone I recognized—an inconspicuous figure, but the first familiar face I had seen in a week. I was used to seeing him in swirling Dominican robes, but there he was, unmistakably, in mufti. I greeted him, and he graciously invited me to join him in the Mediterraneum for a cup of coffee. It was his birthday, he said, and we chatted awhile about mutual acquaintances in Los Angeles. Then he explained Berkeley to me, describing it at length as a very Protestant town. After coffee, we went our separate ways and, though I heard him read several more times, I never spoke to him again. Sometime that day, perhaps after he walked back to St. Albert’s Priory, he wrote a poem which begins, “I am fifty years old,/ The midpoint,/ Of flesh but no lecher./ No lecher?/ I turn on that thorn...” 

Scandal 

Brother Antoninus had become one of the best known Catholic poets in the country. But in December, 1969, he announced he was leaving the Dominican Order to marry Susanna Rickson. It was almost unheard of in those days for members of the Catholic clergy to withdraw from their orders. Due to his prominence, this private matter became a public scandal. 

After eighteen years with the Dominicans, he gave up use of the name Brother Antoninus and became, once again, William Everson. Although his marriage was ble ssed by a friendly priest he incurred excommunication, and within a short time he and his wife left the Bay Area. He spent ten years (1971-1981) at UC Santa Cruz, as Poet in Residence at Kresge College.  

Aftermath 

William Everson never repudiated the wo rk of his monastic period. Instead, he strove to reconcile his new life with what had gone before, reconfiguring his themes and writing new poetry and literary criticism. In volumes like The Masks of Drought (1980) and Renegade Christmas (1984) he provide d his readers with one more unexpected surprise. As confessional as ever, the language of his poetry became simpler and more transparent. In Archetype West he wrote a highly personal interpretation, brilliant at its best, of California writers and their w ork. (This was the last volume produced by his long and beneficial connection with Robert Hawley’s admirable Oyez Press in Berkeley.) But these vigorous activities were impeded by sickness (he developed Parkinson’s Disease) and other problems. In 1992, af ter twenty-two years of marriage, his wife left him. 

Before his death in 1994 he had become a Catholic in good standing once again and returned to the sacraments. He was given a religious funeral and interred at the Dominican cemetery in Benicia. Mary No rbert Korte, herself a poet and former Dominican nun, attended the services and wrote, “To be buried with all the bowing mystery of a Dominican funeral is to get a grand good-bye indeed, and Brother Antoninus Bill Everson’s Vespers and Mass took their place in a long tradition of those Birthdays into Heaven read to us in the Daily Martyrology.” 

At long last, there’s a worthy companionc—or successor—to Marjorie Schmidt’s indispensable Growing California Native Plants.  

That faithful little yellow handbook is 25 years old, and was written during one of our generation’s first waves of mass appreciation for drought-tolerant natives. As their other virtues became apparent, their fandom spread in ripples, more or less cycling along with our recurrent droughts. Habitat gardens that attract our gorgeous and fascinating wild neighbors began to attract us, too, and the harmonious beauty of local plants lured more and more of us to plant them.  

Now a trio of native experts, Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O’Brien, have collaborated to elaborate on the theme. California Native Plants for the Garden takes a leaf from Schmidt’s book and then adds striking photographs and generally great garden porn, giving those of us who are already native-plant enthusiasts a new store of information and incentive, and the rest of the world some artistic inspiration and sensual temptation to plant more of our beauties. 

Like Schmidt’s book, this one includes suggestions for planting in various situations, and elaborates on her straightforward categories. You’ll find plants that are good under live oaks, as groundcovers, for hedging or espalier. More than that, you’ll find what gardeners need most: photographs, a look at how the plants meld with each other in real situations.  

It’s these photographs that will make the book a tool for conversion experiences. Anyone who’s spent time in California wildlands will recognize their inherent aesthetic, and innovations in garden use of it. That wild garden you saw while hiking on Point Reyes? Here’s how to have it in your yard. Usefully, each photo is attributed to its place as well as its photographer.  

Most of the book is occupied by an encyclopedia of native plants, with lots of information about each species or genus. It’s well-written enough to be a good read on its own, and its illustrations arouse garden dreaming. Dang, this is a handsome book.  

It’s evident that the authors are Southern Californians. The inclusion of plants from Baja California is unusual up here, and there are lots of southerners in the plant lists. This is certainly welcome for its water-saving and just plain surprise potential for readers here up north.  

Local gardener Bracey Tiede says, “In a talk that Bart O’Brien gave to the CNPS in Palo Alto in December about the making of this book, he relayed the struggle the three authors had with determining which plants to include. They had serious space problems and spent three days on a retreat hashing over the list. Some of the criteria for inclusion were the natural range of the plant (the wider the range, the more likely to get into the book) and the availability of plant materials (why put in plants that are very hard to find). There were probably other factors such as personal favorites as well.” 

Lori Hubbart, another natives maven, agrees: “Regarding the choice of plants to cover in the book, California Native Plants for the Garden, the authors decided to stick with plants that are readily available in nurseries in most of California.”  

So you should be able to find the plants in the book without too much trouble, especially if you noodge your favorite nursery now and then. You can look for native plant sales, too, and make a field trip to a natives nursery like Native Here in Tilden Park, or Mostly Natives in Tomales. Write down your target’s Latinized species epithet, and someone will point you to it.  

If you’re an absolute newcomer to this native-plant stuff and have a garden to plant right now, I’d recommend buying both the old and the new books; Schmidt’s simple categories—“shade/dry; sun/water” and such, are easier to understand at first. But the new book’s more elaborate sortings into plants for narrow beds, meadows, hummingbirds, spiny barriers—in short, what you’d need in a garden—make sense as you get to know plants, spaces, and requirements.  

Reading the elaborations on the genus Arctostaphylos and the genus Ceanothus is fun all by itself. Of course you want one or more. Who wouldn’t? Tips for keeping them happy in your care are here too.  

Mrs. Dalloway’s has it, and I’m sure other good garden book sources have it too. It’s almost Spring, and we’re all thinking about gardens. Go get some inspiration. 

CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANTS FOR THE GARDEN 

By Carol Bornstein, David Fross and Bart O’Brien 

Cachuma Press, 2005. 

271 pages, $27.95

I know: it’s another birds-of-prey column. But when the gods drop a subject into your lap, it would be an act of rank ingratitude not to use it. 

Ron and I were out at the Berkeley Marina a few weeks ago, looking for the burrowing owl that has been wintering on the riprap at the eastern edge of Cesar Chavez Park. She noticed that the gulls in the inlet between the park and the freeway were raising hell about something, and then we saw the big slate-gray hawk with pointed wings flying low arcs above the water, surrounded by a cloud of screaming gulls, and the dead gull below it. We had just missed seeing an adult peregrine falcon make its kill. 

That would have been a spectacle. A hunting peregrine may attain a speed of 155 miles per hour on its final descent (some estimates as high as 273), whacking the prey with both feet, talons curled into fists. I’ve been stooped on by a peregrine, I suspect more out of curiosity than hostile intent, and it was an unsettling experience. One second the bird is a tiny crossbow shape high above; the next, it’s in your face. 

Anyway, that part was over. The problem confronting the peregrine now was retrieval; she (most likely; it was a big hawk, and females are larger than males in this species) had to get the carcass to dry land. She made a few more passes, big yellow feet out like grappling hooks, trying to snag the gull, with the distraction of the living gulls all around her. They weren’t mobbing her the way land birds—crows, ravens, blackbirds—will go after a bird of prey, but they couldn’t have helped her concentration. 

Finally she got it, and made a beeline for the shore. But it was hard work; laborious flapping, with the gull trailing just above the water. And then she dropped it. She flew on, though, and landed right on the paved path for a breather. There were joggers and dogwalkers in close proximity, but this falcon was either habituated to humans or very determined. 

Back to the water again, and again she connected with the gull. 

Back toward shore, into a stiff wind off the Bay. And just shy of the riprap, she dropped it again. This time she flew farther, landing on one of the Monterey cypresses between the park and the Marriott. We thought she’d abandoned the effort, and went on to look for the owl. 

But no. Five minutes later, the peregrine was over the water again.  

For a third time she grappled the gull. She headed west toward land, then suddenly turned south, then west again, as if trying to escape the headwind. Peregrines are not built for cargo hauling, and she was clearly struggling. In the end, she made it: beyond the path, all the way to an expanse of lawn. I felt like applauding. She sat down at once and began to eat; through the binoculars I could see the blood on her beak, and the gull feathers flying. 

Predation, just in case I needed to be reminded, can be hard work.  

Some raptors, like red-shouldered hawks and American kestrels, are sit-and-wait hunters, but peregrines burn energy just looking for targets. Once they’ve killed, they may have to get the prey back to the nest if it’s breeding season, or at least to a secure perch. I looked up the weights for peregrine and California gull in the Sibley guide when I got home; with typical weights of 1.6 pounds for the falcon and 1.3 pounds for the gull, she could have been carrying close to her own mass. 

This would not have set any records; peregrines are ambitious hunters, and have been recorded as capturing prey up to 6.6 pounds in weight: loons, geese, the hulking European grouse known as capercaillies. I got to thinking about relative prey size a bit later after a news story about an anthropologist who has concluded that the Taung child—a famous South African hominid fossil—was killed by a large raptor, forensic evidence pointing to an eagle rather than a leopard or other big cat. Makes sense to me; African crowned hawk eagles prey on good-sized primates, and there’s at least one recent instance of a (nonfatal) attack on a small child. These eagles been known to kill 60-pound antelopes, more than six times their own weight. They don’t even attempt to get airborne with such large prey, though; they dismember it on the ground and cache pieces in trees for later consumption. 

I would like to be able to report that the peregrine at Cesar Chavez Park was left to enjoy her meal in peace. In fact, though, as I was watching her work on the gull, there was a bang and a puff of smoke nearby—some idiot kid with leftover New Year’s fireworks—and she took off. We’ve all had days like that.  

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. 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. 524-3043. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Meet 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. 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 1 

Kalimba Interactive Assembly with Carl Winters in the African thumb piano, in celebration of Black History Month at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Elmhurst Branch, 1427 88th Ave. and at 3:30 p.m. at the Cesar Chavez Branch, 3301 East 12th St. All ages welcome. 615-5727. 

“Painful Deception” a film on the 9/11 destruction of the Twin Towers at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but $5 donations accepted. 704-0268. 

Bookmark Book Group meets to discuss “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell at 6:30 p.m. at 721 Washington St., Oakland. The Bookmark is the bookstore for Friends of the Oakland Public Library. 444-0473. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Mozart’s Birthday Concert at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon at the Oakland office. We need your help with blood drives all over the East Bay. 594-5165. 

Small Business Seminar on taxes at 2 p.m. at 2129 Shattuck Ave. To register call 655-2041. 

Breema Open House with free body work session at 6 p.m. at 6201 Florio St., Oakland 428-1234. 

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

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

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

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

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. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, FEB. 2 

Giving Women Power Over AIDS A four day conference and photo exhibit to encourage the development of a topical anti-HIV microbicide for women at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Sponsored by the Hesperian Foundationand UCB School of Public Health. 845-1447, ext. 229. www.hesperian.org 

Kalimba Interactive Assembly with Carl Winters in the African thumb piano, in celebration of Black History Month at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Dimond Branch, 3565 Fruitvale Ave. and at 3:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Branch, 6833 International Blvd. All ages welcome. 615-5727. 

“Locating Buddhist Nuns in the Urban and Cultural Landscape of Early North India” A colloquium at 5 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th floor. 643-6492.  

St. Paul’s Episcopal School 30th Anniversary Celebration at 6 p.m. at Jack London Aquatic Center, 115 Embarcadero West, Oakland. Cost is $85. 285-9613. 

FRIDAY, FEB. 3 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with The Hon. David Sterling, on “Issues Before the Pacific Legal Foundation” 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. 

Benefit for Berkeley Food and Housing with blues and jazz by The Soul Sisters Band, The Dave Mathews Blues Band & Denise Perrier and Anna De Leon from 6 to 11 p.m. at The Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $25-$30. For reservations call 649-4965, ext. 304. 

“A Forgotten Resistance: The Mosque of Paris” A documentary by Derri Berkani with a discussion with Annete Herskovits, a Jewish woman who was protected by Muslims in Occupied France, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at MLK Student Union, 5th Floor Tilden Room, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE.  

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. 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

SATURDAY, FEB. 4 

“Francis Albrier and Social Change in South Berkeley” with local historian Donna Graves at 2 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Community Center in San Pablo Park. 981-7533. 

Progressive Democrats of America, East Bay Chapter, strategic planning meeting for the 2006 elections from 1 to 3 p.m. at Temescal Library, 5205 Telegraph, Oakland. All welcome. 524-4424. www.pdeastbay.org 

Redwood Park Mushroom Walk with the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association. Meet at 10 a.m. at the last parking lot, next to a meadow and well past the trout monument, on the road inside the Redwood Gate entrance. www.berkeleypaths.org  

Brooks Island Kayak and Walk with Save the Bay. All equipment and instruction is provided. Minimum age 16. Trip departs from Richmond Harbor at noon. Cost is $70. For information call 452-9261 ext. 109. www.savesfbay.org 

Sick Plant Clinic from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Volunteer on Cerrito Creek Join Friends of Five Creeks volunteers planting natives and removing invasives to restore habitat along the new Cerrito Creek walkway. Meet at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara St., El Cerrito at 10 a.m. Wear shoes with good traction and clothes that can get dirty. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

French Broom Removal Work Party at 9:30 a.m. at the Skyline Gate Staging Area, Skyline Blvd., Oakland. We walk to the work site so arriving on time is important. Please bring your own gloves. Weed wrenches and other tools will be provided. Rain cancels. 684-2473. californica@mac.com 

East Bay Atheists Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education will speak on “Who’s Winning the Evolution Wars?” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd floor, 2090 Kittredge St. 

Disaster Mental Health Workshop from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St. Sponsored by the Office of Emergency Services. To register call 981-5506. 

Turn Stress into Success Workshop at 10 a.m. at Creating Harmony Institute, Atrium Plaza, 828 San Pablo Ave. Suite 115B, Albany. Free but registration required. 526-1559. 

“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. 

Mindful Drumming for Opening Minds and Healing Hearts in celebration of Black History Month at 7 p.m. at 3278 West St., Oakland. Cost is $20, scholarships available. 652-5530. 

Kids’ Night Out Party for ages 4.5 to 10 years at The Berkwood Hedge School in Berkeley. Cost is $25-$40. Proceeds benefit Monkey Business Camp’s scholarship fund. To register call 540-6025.  

“Careers in International Trade” workshop at Vista College, 2075 Allston Way. Cost is $13 for California residents. To register call 981-2913. 

Preschool Storytime for 3-5 year olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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

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. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 5 

Natural Wonders Explore nearby trails to discover what amazing offerings nature has for us. Meet at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

“Are You Good Enough to be Published” A symposium with Alan Rinzler at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.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 Buddhism with Abbe Blum on “Freedom to Change” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, FEB. 6 

National Read a Black Book Day A read-a-thon in celebration of Black History Month, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Merritt College Library, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland. 436-2557. 

National Organization for Women, Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. The speaker will be Helen Isaacson, a member of Grandmothers’ Against the War who will discuss the group’s plan to enter Army Recruiting Offices on Valentines Day to attempt to enlist. 287-8948. 

“150 Years in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Where Do We Go From Here?” with Jeff Hart at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., at Masonic. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Basic Balkan Singing Workshhop led by Janet Kutulas Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. at KITKA/Children's Advocates, 1201 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at 12th St., Oakland. Four-session series for $60. Individual class $20. 444-0323.  

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. 

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50. 

McGee Avenue Toastmasters meets on the first and third Mondays of the month at 7:30 p.m. at McGee Ave. Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 501-7005. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. To schedule and appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

“Healthy Eating Habits Seminar” at 6:30 p.m. at Lakeview Branch Library Meeting Room, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

Free Business Loan and Business Plan Writing Boot Camp Mon. and Fri. from 9 a.m. to noon at 519 17th St., 2nd Floor, Ste. 200, Oakland, through March 31. 395-6003. 

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

TUESDAY, FEB. 7 

Kalimba Interactive Assembly with Carl Winters in the African thumb piano, in celebration of Black History Month at 10 a.m. at the Oakland Public Library, West Oakland Branch, 1801 Adeline St. and at 1 p.m. at the Temescal Branch, 5205 Telegraph Ave. All ages welcome. 238-7352. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

“Sankofa” A showing of the Black independent film at 6 p.m. at Merritt College, Building A, Room 218.  

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 near Ashby BART. 415-312-1830,  

Turn Stress into Success Workshop at 7:30 p.m. at Creating Harmony Institute, Atrium Plaza, 828 San Pablo Ave. Suite 115B, Albany. Free but registration required. 526-1559. 

Paris & Provence with photographic adventure guide Don Lyon at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 654-1548.  

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss Love and Sex in the 21st Century from 7 to 9 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 601-6690. 

California Shakespeare Summer Theater Camp Open House to meet with potential campers and their families from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Cal Shakes Rehearsal Hall, 701 Heinz Ave. 548-3422 ext. 127. 

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

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

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.  

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 

“Sprout Hope” Half-Pint Library Book Drive to benefit the library at Children’s Hospital, Oakland, is looking to register schools in the book drive. To register see www.halfpricebooks.com 

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 

Albany Library Free Drop-in Homework Help for students in third through fifth grades, Mon. - Thurs. from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7460.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Feb. 2, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406.  

Creeks Task Force meets Mon. Feb. 6, at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Erin Dando, 981-7410.  

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Feb. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510.  

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

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., Feb. 8,, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Feb. 9, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. ›

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 

Rami Bar-Niv, Israeli pianist, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $15. 848-1228. 

“New Works in the Nabe” new works by local writers, comedians, dancers, and musicians at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. www.hillsideclub.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 Eyeball 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 

Berkeley Symphony “From Bach to Carter” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$54. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Arlekin Quartet Concert, benefiting the Young Peoples Chamber Orchestra at 4 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington, Kensington. Tickets are $10-$20 at the door. 595-4688. www.ypco.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. 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. 

Novello Quartet performs Haydn’s string quartets on period instruments at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. www.novelloquartet.org 

Distant Oaks, a mid-winter Celtic celebration at 7 p.m. at First 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 theater, 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.  

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.  

Daniel Sheridan, solo traditional and classical guitar at 6:30 p.m. at Fellini Restaurant, 1401 University at Acton. 

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 

TUESDAY, JAN. 31 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Making History in Avant Garde Film” Introduction and book-signing with Jeffrey Skoller at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Bruce Andrews, performance artist and poet at 5:30 p.m. in the 1st floor Living Room, Mills Hall, Mills College, Oakland. 430-2236. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bandworks at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman Trio and singer’s open mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

McCoy Tyner Residency, with Bobby Hutcherson, Ravi Coltrane, Charnett Moffet & Eric Harland at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Feb. 5. Cost is $15-$50. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

African American Inventors and Scientists at the Junior Center of Art and Science, 558 Bellvue Ave., Lakeside Park, Oakland, through April 8. 839-5777. www.juniorcenter.org 

Israel Artfest 2006 Collection of works by over 100 Israeli artists. Reception at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. Exhibition runs to Feb. 5. Cost is $10. 848-3988. 

Artists for Social and Political Awareness “Artifice” Reception at 5:30 p.m. at North/South Gallery, 5241 College Ave., at Broadway. 

FILM 

Film 50: “By The Law” at 3 p.m. at Weird America: “In a Nutshell: A Portrait of Elizabeth Tashjian” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Falstaff” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $15-$40. 841-1903. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Lura, Caboverdian artist at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

3 Strikez, K Diezel, G-I Joes, Hot Lipps at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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

Saoco at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Chuck Brodsky, old-fashioned story songs, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

McCoy Tyner with Bobby Hutcherson, Ravi Coltrane, Charnett Moffett & Eric Harland at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$35. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, FEB. 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Telegraph 3pm” Poetry by Owen Hill and photographs by Robert Eliason at 7 p.m. at the YWCA in Berkeley, 2600 Bancroft Way. 

FILM 

“Al’léési ... an African Actress” free screening at 5:30 p.m. and Mikio Naruse: “Sound of the Mountain” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kate Gale, poet, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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

Word Beat Reading Series with Jesse Redpond and Monique de Magdalene at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

John Stowell/Mike Zilber Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 701-1787. 

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. 

Blue Roots Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is. $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Deep Roots Urban Teahouse Hip Hop Show at 7:30 p.m. at 1418 34th Ave. , Oakland. Free for all ages. 436-0121. 

Dave Bernstein and John Wiitala at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. ?

“Early in the morning, always early, I come to throw dead shoes in the river ... today the river must eat.” 

The shadow of a woman with a vessel on her head glides beneath a ruined facade of blue tile and plaster, her figure in traditional abaya emerging from behind the plastic tarps screening off the rubble, past sandbags (which later double as pillows) and pours sandals into a pool surrounded by yet more tile, as she pronounces these words. 

She is a professional mourner in Baghdad, the first of the fe male characters played by Mozhan Marnò in 9 Parts of Desire, the solo show written by Heather Raffo, now on the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage. 

She goes on: “When the grandson of Genghis Khan burned all the books in Baghdad, the river ran blac k with ink ... We were promised so much. The Garden of Eden was here ... Bring me back to the water I was created in.”  

Marnò changes quickly from one character into another, cutting across class lines as well as leaping geographically, playing an exile d Iraqi woman. 

“Exile in London is mostly Scotch,” she says. “Let it [the war] be chaos; maybe something will come out of it ... I’ve always been political, though I’m bourgeois. In Beirut I protested ... Everywhere I go there is a war ... This war is ag ainst all my beliefs, yet I’m for it.” 

She also portrays a young Iraqi-American, compulsively watching TV, spending hours trying to reach family members. “We make a movie, go on Oprah, talk about it like we’re moving on,” she says. “‘The war, it’s so hea rtbreaking,’ the woman next to me said. She was getting a pedicure; I was getting a pedicure ... I can’t walk down the street and see people smiling.” 

It’s diversity with a vengeance. An artist favored by the regime, based on a woman portraitist of Sadda m that Raffo interviewed in the 90s, speaks of her love life, brushing off an unseen interlocutor’s questions with a wave of her cigarette holder: “Iraqis know not to open their mouths, even for the dentist ... I will never leave, not for freedom we don’t have. Your Western culture, sister, will not free me from being called a whore.” 

Later, a poor street vendor will try to sell one of the artist’s watercolors: “You must buy ... Our history is finished, so it is more worth. Two dollars! I have to eat.” 

There is the doctor retching over the sewage overflowing in the hospital wards, talking about the genetic abnormalities, how the depleted uranium from ordnance will go on for centuries (and children wear radioactive shell fragments as trinkets), revealing her own scars to a girl with breast cancer who embraces her—and how she’s pregnant. The woman who leads tours of the shelter where over 400 people died, named just Umm Gheda, “Mother of Tomorrow,” after her dead daughter, Gheda: “Wild greens are growing. Nature chooses to grow around this grave of Iraqi people. My family is all here. We could not live together like this.” 

9 Parts of Desire seems to follow closely the typical format of the more socially committed solo performances, like Anna Deveare Smit h’s pieces on the L.A. riots, and so on. But there’s a difference in both depth and nimbleness; maybe there’s a formula that equates speed with clarity. 

Marnò, an Angelina of Iranian heritage, playing what Raffo (whose father is Iraqi) has written and pe rformed to acclaim in New York and London, displays an exceptional, disarming ability to almost dance, but just a single step at a time, from one role into the next, or reprise an earlier one, with an agility of gestures, expressions, accents. Each identi ty is established with its own peculiarities, its own rhythms, which add up to a syncopation of sensibilities, emotions—hearts beating together, though not in unison. 

Solo performance is a very elastic form—usually too much so, all content (whatever fits), no form. 9 Parts of Desire doesn’t blaze any trails, but works within its limitations with grace and brevity, reflecting the good work of author, performer and director (Joanna Settle)—as well as of the designers (Antje Ellerman, set; Peter West, light s; Obadiah Eaves, sound—all of the New York show), and getting across the message, composed of all the little conflicting messages, with a directness and exceptional clarity that doesn’t stint the complexity of its subject. 

Many have complained, with jus tice, that this war has been treated as “about us;” Iraqis are reduced to a shadowy enemy or to “man in the street” sound-bites of no consequence. 9 Parts of Desire makes an opening into the lives and talk of a people, of women, without sentimentality, an d at just the point where both domestic tyranny and the spin of the invasion/occupation has tried to speak for them. 

It’s refreshing—upbeat, even—harrowing, absorbing and humane, bringing a situation overwrought with commentary back into focus, revealing figures, not images.  

Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents 9 Parts of Desire on the Thrust Stage through March 5. For more information, call 647-2949 or see www.berkeleyrep.org.  

Photograph by Kevin Berne 

Mozhan Marnò stars in Nine Parts of Desire, a o ne-woman show about women in war-torn Iraq, on Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage.›

Ah, a cappella.  

Concerts today are often so elaborately staged and embellished with everything from pyrotechnics to video backdrops, huge sound systems, background choruses, and full orchestras, that it’s can be a relief to periodically hear good singers perform with no amplification, no instrumental accompaniment, no lip synching—nothing but their natural voices.  

One need look no further than the University of California campus for that sort of musical entertainment.  

Cal boasts several excellent a cappella student groups, most of them student-run and loosely affiliated as part of the UC Choral Ensembles. 

Spring brings a variety of public concerts by these groups, individually and in combination. 

A cappella (“from the chapel”) music was originally sung in small religious precincts where instrumental accompaniment from organs or orchestral groups wasn’t available. It also developed a sturdy secular tradition. 

Collegiate a cappella has a long history on the East Coast, especially in the Ivy League, but there’s a venerable and thriving spirit and array of a cappella groups at West Coast universities as well. 

A good opportunity to hear some of them sing comes this Saturday, Jan. 28, when a regional quarterfinal of the National Championship of College A Cappella takes place at Wheeler Auditorium on the campus. The concert is at 8 p.m. and tickets are $10 at the door. 

Two Cal student groups—the co-ed Decadence, and the Men’s Octet—are on the competition program, along with the Troy Tones from USC and the cleverly named Fermata Nowhere (men) and Nothing But Treble (women) groups from Mount San Antonio College. 

Founded 58 years ago, the Men’s Octet fittingly won the National Championship in its 50th anniversary year. One of the best performances I’ve ever seen on any stage was the Octet in that championship season singing not only traditional favorites but also Madonna and a pitch-perfect send-up of “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music. 

The membership has changed over entirely now, but the new Octet still sings with vigor and enthusiasm.  

A fine complement to the all male group is the nine-woman California Golden Overtones, with a rich singing tradition of their own. Unfortunately they’re not performing in the Berkeley quarterfinal concert on Saturday—they’ve been seeded in another competition in the Pacific Northwest—but there are later opportunities to hear them sing. 

A cappella concerts at Cal are inexpensive, fun, and good entertainment. If you’re older than, say 25, you may initially feel a little out of place since college friends and classmates of the singers tend to dominate the audience.  

But the music—ranging from Cal spirit songs to “Golden Oldies” to contemporary pop and rock—is engaging, the students are fine singers and entertaining performers, and you should enjoy yourself at least as much as if you’d spent five or ten times more for a “professional” concert. 

If you can’t attend the competition concert this weekend, there are other opportunities this spring, although they aren’t well publicized off campus.  

Check the website of the UC Choral Ensembles, http://ucchoral.berkeley.edu/, particularly the Spring 2006 Calendar section.  

The Octet has its Spring Show on March 3 and 4. The Overtones follow with theirs on April 7 and 8th. There’s an “A Cappella Against AIDS” concert on Feb. 24, and something called the “Octet UnButtoned” on April 28.  

Events run through early May, and include an intriguing listing for the Perfect Fifth Spring Concert on April 29, staged in the soaring lobby of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. And all the Choral groups get together for a cumulative Spring Show on May 5 and 6. 

The scheduled concerts aren’t the only public performances by any means. During the school year several groups perform weekly for free at Sather Gate. If you happen to be on the Berkeley campus at 1 p.m. you can hear the Octet sing on Wednesdays, the Overtones on Fridays, and Noteworthy on Mondays.  

Photograph by Steven Finacom 

The UC Men’s Octet, performing here at Sather Gate, will compete this Saturday evening in the  

National College A Cappella Championship quarterfinals on campus.m

Eighteen years ago, when I started in the inspection business, my clients were always buyers and never sellers. In fact, sellers and, all too often, their agents, viewed the inspection as an assault on their homes. This was often miserable and I was sometimes foolish enough to take the bait and join in the adversarial tone of the conflict. When sellers insisted on being home, pitch-fork in hand to defend their turf from my unfair assertions, I would debate and even argue on occasion.  

Then one day the light bulb came on for me and I realized that this did nothing for my client, the buyer. All I was doing was showing off how much I thought I knew and possibly endangering my client’s deal for nothing more than my hubris. Today, I’m more apt to understand how nervous the seller is and to offer them assurances, letting them see that I’m only there to help. And to lessen their liability by informing the buyer about vital issues that may affect their money or their life. 

The truth is, I now do about a third of my business for the seller instead of the buyer. Sellers and their agents have started figuring out that presenting a thorough report on the condition of the property when they’re showing the house does a number of very powerful things for them. For your edification, here are just two: 

Liability protection 

When a seller has the house inspected prior to sale, they greatly reduce the likelihood that they’re going to get into trouble with the buyer somewhere down the line. Major issues get looked at and talked about. The realities are laid down in plain type for all to see and these documents get signed and dated by the buyers in the course of sale so that a record remains to prove that sellers were told about the damaged foundation or the leaky pipe. Strangely, these realities don’t keep most people from proceeding with the sale. We all expect old houses—actually, all houses—to have some problems. It’s natural. But now it’s been recorded in detail for future reference and also so that the buyer is conditioned to the realities.  

People in Berkeley don’t buy houses simply because they have good pipes or good foundations. If that’s all they cared about they’d all be living in Tracy. They buy houses for their charm, for the neighborhood, the big living room, the nice backyard and the proximity to schools and shopping. The physical stuff is secondary. So the fact that people are told about these failings doesn’t necessarily stop them from buying, but it does inform them so that they can go forward without remorse. There are, however, some folks that will not want to buy your house once informed about a particular problem (or perhaps 10 particular problems). Trust me when I say that you don’t want them to buy your house anyway. It is far better to move on to a buyer who buys happily; that way you don’t have to wonder when the other shoe will drop, ending up with a regretful buyer to cope with (or their attorney). 

Improved Negotiations 

So you have a buyer. They read about the old furnace, the crack in the foundation and the flat roof. They understand about these facts and they love the house. They’re going to make you an offer that they think will get you to say yes. That’s the whole idea, right? They’re going to try to avoid taking into account as many of the future costs as they can so that you’ll say yes. This is common logic. Then comes the clincher. What usually happens, except in the most vigorous seller’s market, is that inspections are done after the deal is made and then, as facts come out, buyers and their agents endeavor to reduce the sale price based on new discovery. “Hey, we just found out that that the heater is kaput, can you drop by the price by six grand?” “Oh my, the foundation will need a $12,000 repair. Will you split it with us?” 

If you’ve presented these things up front in a report from the get go, there will be far less of this occurring. There is no way to prevent new revelations or new opinions from erupting but they are far fewer and often non-existent, when sellers have taken this bold step. 

Sellers also get rightly perceived as having less to hide and as being more forthright when they obtain thorough inspections for themselves prior to putting their houses on the market. This does mean one very important thing, though. It means that if you are such a person, you need to be willing to have the bumps and warts revealed by your own representative and at your own expense.  

Occasionally a seller will ask me to slant my report one way or another and, of course, this is both ethically improper and legally unwise. I will calmly explain that the full expression of the facts from a neutral perspective helps them enormously. The truth is that most people are very willing to have a fair disclosure of their house presented to the buying public once they understand how it all works. 

If you’re buying or selling, get to know an inspector. The condition of the house certainly isn’t the only thing that matters, but not knowing can sting a whole lot more than knowing. 

f

Last week I counseled patience with a newly acquired garden. Honest to Ceres, it really does pay off, or at least cost less in terms of lost plants and ego-damage, to wait a full year before doing anything major and permanent to your land. You don’t have to sit on your thumbs: put in some encouraging annuals, watch when sprouts from whatever was left behind, and get your hands in the dirt in the meantime. You know you want to.  

While you’re waiting impatiently to see what kind of yard you have and decide what you can grow there, you can do some simple testing to speed the process. 

What is the soil like? You probably won’t need expensive testing; you can learn what you need to easily. In Berkeley, you probably have clay. In the flatlands, that means poor drainage, but that can be improved. In the hills the drainage is better but the soil’s thinner, and there’s a slim chance you have some serpentine-derived soil. (Look for deep-maroon soil that most stuff isn’t growing well in.) Pick it up and squeeze it. Does it fall apart, wet as it is in midwinter? Good. You must have very good drainage and/or a gift of amended soil from your predecessors. 

Most of us have icky sticky bricky clay to work with. You know you’re one of us when the soil has stayed wet enough after a few non-rainy days to turn into a tight ball with your fingerprints on it. That also means you shouldn’t be digging it, walking on it, or generally messing with it because compressing it now will cost you lots of fluffing and amending later. 

Smell the dirt. Really. Hold a handful to your nose and savor the bouquet. Is it sour or stagnant-stinking? That’s really bad drainage. I have a mysterious watery hole in my yard, where the driveway turns from concrete to dirt, that smells like that. It’s not near a sewer or waterline; it appears every winter, no matter what I’ve tried to fill it with—rocks, sand, soil, garden waste, random small objects from the house. Something like it (OK, larger) appeared in Pennsylvania where a coalmine caved in, when I was a kid, and half the Susquehanna River poured into it. They tried truckloads of fill, concrete, even a locomotive and some of its train—really; I have pictures. I don’t remember what finally got the thing plugged. I’m worrying. If you hear that south Berkeley’s vanished, it might be my fault. 

Just plain clay smells like, well, clay: wet bricks, modeling clay (not plasticine), a freshly-watered plant’s pot. Dig a hole. How hard was that? Did the mud stick to your spade? Clay. Good amended garden soil, fit for growing food and most non-natives, smells loamy like a damp forest floor or just-picked root veggies.  

After rain, look for long-lasting puddles or mushrooms or even moss on the ground. That’s where you put your water feature. Watch the course of water running through your yard. You’ll be better off adapting to that than trying to make big changes in it. ?

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 

Peace and Freedom Party mobilization to support Berkeley Honda strikers. at 1 p.m. at Parker and Shattuck. 465-9414. 

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. 

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. 

Lunar New Year Celebration for children with a dragon parade and other activities from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Habitot Children's Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

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.  

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 theater, 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 Business Loan and Business Plan Writing Boot Camp Mon. and Fri. from 9 a.m. to noon at 519 17th St., 2nd Floor, Ste. 200, Oakland, through March 31. 395-6003. 

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. 

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. 524-3043. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Meet 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. 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 1 

Kalimba Interactive Assembly with Carl Winters in the African thumb piano, in celebration of Black History Month at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Elmhurst Branch, 1427 88th Ave. and at 3:30 p.m. at the Cesar Chavez Branch, 3301 East 12th St. All ages welcome. 615-5727. 

“Painful Deception” a film on the 9/11 destruction of the Twin Towers at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but $5 donations accepted. 704-0268. 

Bookmark Book Group meets to discuss “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell at 6:30 p.m. at 721 Washington St., Oakland. The Bookmark is the bookstore for Friends of the Oakland Public Library. 444-0473. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Mozart’s Birthday Concert at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon at the Oakland office. We need your help with blood drives all over the East Bay. 594-5165. 

Small Business Seminar on taxes at 2 p.m. at 2129 Shattuck Ave. To register call 655-2041. 

Breema Open House with free body work session at 6 p.m. at 6201 Florio St., Oakland 428-1234. 

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, FEB. 2 

“A Forgotten Resistance: The Mosque of Paris” A documentary by Derri Berkani with a discussion with Annete Herskovits, a Jewish woman who was protected by Muslims in Occupied France, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 

Kalimba Interactive Assembly with Carl Winters in the African thumb piano, in celebration of Black History Month at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Dimond Branch, 3565 Fruitvale Ave. and at 3:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Branch, 6833 International Blvd. All ages welcome. 615-5727. 

“Locating Buddhist Nuns in the Urban and Cultural Landscape of Early North India” A colloquium at 5 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th floor. 643-6492. http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/events/  

St. Paul’s Episcopal School 30th Anniversary Celebration at 6 p.m. at Jack London Aquatic Center, 115 Embarcadero West, Oakland. Cost is $85. 285-9613. 

FRIDAY, FEB. 3 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with The Hon. David Sterling, on “Issues Before the Pacific Legal Foundation” 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. 

Benefit for Berkeley Food and Housing with blues and jazz by The Soul Sisters Band, The Dave Mathews Blues Band & Denise Perrier and Anna De Leon from 6 to 11 p.m. at The Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $25-$30. For reservations call 649-4965, ext. 304. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at MLK Student Union, 5th Floor Tilden Room, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

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. 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

SATURDAY, FEB. 4 

“Francis Albrier and Social Change in South Berkeley” with local historian Donna Graves at 2 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Community Center in San Pablo Park. 981-7533. 

Progressive Democrats of America, East Bay Chapter, strategic planning meeting for the 2006 elections from 1 to 3 p.m. at Temescal Library, 5205 Telegraph, Oakland. All welcome. 524-4424. www.pdeastbay.org 

Redwood Park Mushroom Walk with the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association. Meet at 10 a.m. at the last parking lot, next to a meadow and well past the trout monument, on the road inside the Redwood Gate entrance. www.berkeleypaths.org  

Brooks Island Kayak and Walk with Save the Bay. All equipment and instruction is provided. Minimum age 16. Trip departs from Richmond Harbor at noon. Cost is $70. For information call 452-9261 ext. 109. www.savesfbay.org 

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

Volunteer on Cerrito Creek Join Friends of Five Creeks volunteers planting natives and removing invasives to restore habitat along the new Cerrito Creek walkway. Meet at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara St., El Cerrito at 10 a.m. Wear shoes with good traction and clothes that can get dirty. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

French Broom Removal Work Party at 9:30 a.m. at the Skyline Gate Staging Area, Skyline Blvd., Oakland. We walk to the work site so arriving on time is important. Please bring your own gloves. Weed wrenches and other tools will be provided. Rain cancels. 684-2473. californica@mac.com 

East Bay Atheists Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education will speak on “Who’s Winning the Evolution Wars?” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd floor ,2090 Kittredge St. 

Disaster Mental Health Workshop from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St. Sponsored by the Office of Emergency Services. To register call 981-5506. 

Turn Stress into Success Workshop at 10 a.m. at Creating Harmony Institute, Atrium Plaza, 828 San Pablo Ave. Suite 115B, Albany. Free but registration required. 526-1559. 

“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. 

Mindful Drumming for Opening Minds and Healing Hearts in celebration of Black History Month at 7 p.m. at 3278 West St., Oakland. Cost is $20, scholarships available. 652-5530. 

Kids’ Night Out Party for ages 4.5 to 10 years at The Berkwood Hedge School in Berkeley. Cost is $25-$40. Proceeds benefit Monkey Business Camp’s scholarship fund. To register call 540-6025. www.monkeybusinesscamp.com  

“Careers in International Trade” workshop at Vista College, 2075 Allston Way. Cost is $13 for California residents. To register call 981-2913. 

Preschool Storytime for 3-5 year olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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. 

ONGOING 

“Sprout Hope” Half-Pint Library Book Drive to benefit the library at Children’s Hospital, Oakland, is looking to register schools in the book drive. To register see www.halfpricebooks.com 

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 

Albany Library Free Drop-in Homework Help for students in third through fifth grades, Mon. - Thurs. from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

CITY MEETINGS 

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

us/commissions/housing 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/landmarks 

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

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