A clean-air watchdog group is threatening to sue Pacific Steel Casting, if the West Berkeley foundry fails to permanently eradicate foul odor emissions within 30 days. 

The newly formed Clean Air Coalition (CAC) announced Thursday that it will file a multiple-action small claims lawsuit against the plant under California State Law Public Nuisance 3479, “for causing and maintaining a nuisance that interferes with (community members’) right to enjoy their lives and property,” writes Grace Neufeld, executive director of the nonprofit mediation service Neighborhood Solutions, in a letter to Pacific Steel. The group is helping CAC with its suit. 

Litigants from Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito will demand up to $7,500 each if the steel company, comprised of three plants on Second Street in West Berkeley, is unable to deliver a complete abatement plan by Mar. 2. The plan must detail, in layperson’s terms the “production of an odorless, toxic-less by-product,” said coalition representative Willi Paul in a phone interview Thursday. 

West Berkeley inhabitants and businesses have complained about the steel company’s noxious emissions for more than two decades, saying it causes headaches, nausea and shortness of breath. Many liken the stench to a burning pot handle. 

But Pacific Steel consultant Dion Aroner said suing the company doesn’t make sense. 

“From my perspective, a court suit like this becomes a distraction from trying to remedy the issue,” she said, pointing out that the company is already pursuing avenues to clean up its emissions. 

Prior Action 

In a recent settlement with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), Pacific Steel agreed to install a $2 million carbon abatement system that is expected to significantly reduce or eliminate air quality problems, said air district Executive Officer Jack Broadbent in a Dec. 23 press release. The project is slated for completion in October. 

The agreement also slaps Pacific Steel with $17,500 in fines for nine emission and permit violations. 

The West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs, a watchdog group that formed nine months before the coalition, held a meeting Tuesday to discuss the settlement and the future of Pacific Steel. The meeting gathered alliance members, air district officials, Councilmember Linda Maio, Mayor Tom Bates and delegates from other public offices. Representatives from Pacific Steel did not attend, because they learned about the meeting too late, a consultant said. 

On Tuesday, some alliance members hailed the agreement as an important attempt to improve pollution in the neighborhood, but also criticized it for failing to address the full spectrum of their concerns. 

“The settlement is a weak agreement that does very little to improve the situation, and mostly provided ‘feel good’ PR for PSC and BAAQMD,” said alliance member Andrew Galpern, in an e-mail. “It’s a tiny step in the right direction.” 

Paul, who is also an alliance member, agreed: “The settlement fell way short,” he said. The meeting illuminated those shortcomings, and the coalition formed as a result.  

Health Matters 

At issue is “not just an odor problem, but a very serious health problem for this community,” said alliance member Peter Guerrero at the meeting. “It’s producing emissions that are known carcinogens” such as benzene, formaldehyde and additional toxins associated with cancer, reproductive, respiratory, neurotoxic and other adverse health effects. 

The air district, which is charged with regulating air quality in nine Bay Area counties, confirmed that Pacific Steel emits those toxic compounds. The agency has not, however, found evidence to support claims that they occur in dangerous quantities. 

Pacific Steel General Manager Joe Emmerichs said what carcinogens the plant emits are “so minimal, most of it is burned off before it comes out” into the air.  

“There are people out there who think we have toxins, but we don’t,” he said. “We’ve never had an employee get sick from this. We have 600 employees. It doesn’t happen at Pacific Steel.” 

Nonetheless, a recent spike in production has prompted air district staff to conduct a formal review of the plant’s potential health risks. If deemed a hazard, the plant will be forced to conduct an audit, said Brian Bateman, director of toxic evaluation at the air district. The report is due in June. 

Some residents don’t want to wait. They’ve started measuring air quality themselves. 

Richard Spencer said a tester he used came back with levels of formaldehyde “higher than they should be.” He lives six blocks from the plant, and said he has experienced countless health problems since moving in 10 years ago: depression, sleep disturbances and dry, red skin, to name a few. He admitted he can’t directly attribute foundry emissions to his diminishing health. Still, he said, “I eat all organic food. I don’t know how else [I could be like this] unless I was picking up the pollution elsewhere.”  

Past and future 

The first odor complaint lodged against Pacific Steel was recorded in 1981. In 1985, an unconditional order of abatement went into effect, forcing the company to stop polluting the air. In 2000, the order was lifted, over much opposition from residents. 

Since then, complaints against Pacific Steel have steadily risen: 18 in 2001, 49 in 2003, 112 in 2004 and 533 in 2005.  

The upsurge in grievances—and the resulting settlement—is chiefly due to the efforts of the alliance, which formed in April, and encourages residents to call the air district whenever a foul odor wafts through the air.  

But Paul thinks it isn’t enough. 

“Our work puts legal muscle in support of many of the demands that the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs delivered to BAAQMD at their community meeting on 1/31/06,” he writes of the coalition in an e-mail. “The community has suffered for decades and now requires a ‘clean up strategy with teeth’ to bring PSC into compliance.” 

To Paul’s knowledge, this is the first time residents have trotted out a small claims threat against the company, he said. He anticipates that as many as 150 residents will join the suit, should Pacific Steel fail to heed the coalition’s demands. 

In the wake of a U.S. Court of Appeals rejection of the City of Berkeley’s bid to regulate telecommunications companies inside the city’s borders, one of the leading proponents of that regulation says that the issue should be dropped for now. 

“I don’t see a lot of hope in continuing an appeal to the United States Supreme Court,” City Councilmember Dona Spring said in a telephone interview this week. “It’s clear that the trend in these cases is favoring multinational corporations over the rights of citizens and of cities. The Congress, the legislatures, the presidency, and the judiciary are all coming under the control of these multinationals.” 

Last month, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a 2003 district court decision ruling that two separate telecommunications regulations laws passed by the City of Berkeley were pre-empted by federal law. The Berkeley ordinances were aimed at a plan by Qwest Communications Corporation to provide expanded telecommunications capacity to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

“The district court ruled [in 2003] that the [Berkeley law] is preempted by the [Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996] because the ordinance imposed an onerous burden on telecommunications providers seeking entry into the telecommunications market in Berkeley,” the three-judge panel wrote in its January ruling. “The court held also that the . . . regulations that create this prohibiting effect do not merely regulate the City of Berkeley’s public rights-of-way but regulate the telecommunications companies themselves.” The judges said that Berkeley’s attempt to regulate telecommunications companies went against the federal telecommunications law, which precluded “states and municipalities from passing laws that ‘prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the ability of any entity’ from providing telecommunications services.” 

“We have interpreted [the federal Telecommunications Act] to be clear and ‘virtually absolute’ in restricting municipalities to a ‘very limited and proscribed role in the regulation of telecommunications,’” the appeals court concluded. 

A spokesperson in the office of Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said that the city attorney would discuss the court’s ruling in closed session with the City Council next Tuesday. The spokesperson said Albuquerque could make no further comment on the issue until then. 

Meanwhile, Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who opposed the Berkeley telecommunications ordinance when it originally came up for council vote, said that the Berkeley law “was patently illegal,” and Council “should have listened to me. Only once or twice a year do I say that the city attorney’s advice is wrong. I said it this time.” 

The Berkeley ordinance grew out of a 1999 contract between Qwest and the Lawrence Berkeley Lab to beef up the lab’s telecommunications facilities. As part of this contract, Qwest requested permits to dig trenches under city streets to lay conduit lines between Qwest’s central facilities and the lab. 

In the summer of 2000, in the midst of negotiations over permits for the trench digging, the City Council declared a moratorium on telecommunications infrastructure work within the city. In December of that year, City Council passed a telecommunications ordinance calling for stiffer fees and regulation of telecommunications construction in the city. That was followed by a period of legal maneuvering in which Qwest won a federal injunction preventing the city from enforcing the ordinance, and City Council passed a second ordinance in an attempt to clean up the court’s concerns about the first ordinance. Qwest sued the city, winning in federal district court in 2003, and setting up the city’s appeal to the Ninth Circuit. 

Councilmember Worthington sees the ordinance and appeal as a waste of the city’s time, even if they were in service of what the councilmember feels was a good cause. 

“They were trying to do something noble,” Worthington said, “getting a telecommunications corporation to mitigate its impact on the city of Berkeley. I’m all for that. If they can be made to pay their fair share, then send them a bill.” 

But Worthington said he felt the ordinance was doomed from the start, and said he backed up that view by passing out to fellow Councilmembers the opinions of several attorneys, all of whom Worthington said agreed that the ordinance would probably be disallowed. 

“I can’t think of a single Democratic federal judge who would have sided with the city on this,” Worthington said, “much less the Republican ones who now dominate the judiciary. I wouldn’t have even minded using a fight in court to raise public awareness to help change the federal law. But doing this all so quietly—as the city did—didn’t make any sense under any circumstances.” 

For her part, Councilmember Spring feels the Appeals Court ruling doesn’t bode well for Berkeley in trying to control what corporations can and cannot do inside the city limits. 

“The court has denied local jurisdictions the right to regulate trenching operations,” she said. “That means corporations can come in and dig up streets at will, and cities are in a very weak position trying to deal with the problems. We shouldn’t have our streets torn up without adequate compensation.”

After a relatively quiet period at the end of 2005, the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees returned last week to the type of open-ended fiscal battles that marked the first of last year. If that continues, it would seem to dim the prospects of the passage of a new construction bond measure in the near future, which district leaders have repeatedly said is needed to repair and rebuild the district’s aging facilities. 

At last week’s meeting, trustees approved on a 4-3 vote a $2.3 million contract to construct 1,400 new bleachers, put in additional lights, and revamp toilet facilities at the Laney College Stadium. President Linda Handy, Vice President Bill Withrow, and trustees Bill Riley and Alona Clifton supported the contract, while trustees Nicky González Yuen, Cy Gulassa, and Marcie Hodge opposed. Hodge, who supported the stadium construction when it initially came before trustees last year, reversed herself and seconded Yuen’s motion at last week’s meeting to put off the construction. 

Money for the contract will come out of Measure E funds, the $153 million Peralta Colleges facilities construction bond measure passed by voters in 2000. 

The vote came shortly after trustees rejected—on a reverse 3-4 vote—a resolution by Yuen that would have put the bleacher construction off until a new construction bond measure is passed. 

In his failed resolution, Yuen said that “expansion of Laney’s bleacher seating appears nowhere on any list of current priorities generated by any of the personnel who actually work at or use the four campuses...or any priority lists generated by any of the District or College facilities committees,” and added that “the Director of the Athletic Department at Laney College, Stan Peters, has clearly stated on several occasions...that bleacher expansion is a relatively low priority for the department.” 

Trustee Riley, one of the supporters of the Laney stadium renovation measure, said the renovations were needed so that Laney could host a high school invitational track meet scheduled for April. Riley said the Oakland Invitational Relays, which originated at Laney but were moved to UC Berkeley during the past decade, draw participants from 110 high schools from Northern California and Oregon. Riley said that 5,000 to 6,000 spectators are anticipated. 

But under questioning from Trustee Hodge, Peralta General Services Director Sadiq Ikharo said that the permanent bleachers cIkharo said that construction would only be completed on the additional lighting and access paths to accomodate the temporary bleachers. 

The vote on the Laney stadium renovations revived some of the type of bitter debate that marked last year’s prolonged discussion over the proposal by Oakland developer Alan Dones to develop a portion of the Laney campus and the Peralta Administration grounds. 

Handy called Yuen’s attempt to stop the contract award “irresponsible. There hasn’t been any research on this motion.” Handy added that trustees “have already discussed the original proposal at length.” 

In fact, last week’s stadium construction vote was a continuation of a contentious debate last May, when trustees approved taking out bids for the construction. With Gulassa and Yuen unsuccessfully trying to table the matter for further study, Yuen argued that the vote would constitute a new bond measure expenditure that would prevent the completion of construction proposals already on the district’s list. 

At that May meeting, Hodge initially expressed concerns about the priority of constructing bleachers over what she called “other more pressing needs,” but later voted to support the stadium construction after a conversation with Riley.›

OAKLAND (BCN)—A University of California, Berkeley football player testified today that Dartmouth College student Meleia Willis-Starbuck was arguing with a group of men in Berkeley just before she was shot to death last July 17. 

Gary Doxy, an 18-year-old freshman from Long Beach, said Willis-Starbuck, 19, told a group of about six men at her apartment at the intersection of College Avenue and Dwight Way that they should leave, following a confrontation between the men and Willis-Starbuck and about four female friends. 

Doxy said the confrontation began after one of the other men called one of Willis-Starbuck’s friends a name. 

Doxy said Willis-Starbuck told the men, “This is my block and my street and I run this.’’ 

Doxy said that shortly after that, a shot rang out and he ran away as fast as he could. 

He said as he started running, he heard Willis-Starbuck say, “That’s my brother right there,’’ and another man also started running away. 

Doxy said he then heard three to five more shots. 

He said when he got back to his dormitory, which was nearby, someone told him he had blood on his T-shirt and he noticed a mark on his right wrist, which he assumed was from one of the gunshots. 

Doxy said he returned to the shooting scene a short while later and saw authorities attending to Willis-Starbuck, who he said was lying on the ground at the spot where he had last seen her. 

Doxy is testifying at the preliminary hearing of Christopher Hollis, a 22-year-old Hayward man and Christopher Wilson, a 20-year-old Berkeley man, who are both charged with murder in connection with Willis-Starbuck’s death. 

Authorities allege that Hollis fired the shot that killed Willis-Starbuck and that Wilson drove the getaway car. 

Hollis and Wilson are also charged with assault with a firearm in connection with the injury that Doxy sustained. 

Stew Albert, one of the creators of People’s Park, a former editor of the Berkeley Barb and a founder of the Youth International Party—the Yippies—died Monday at his home in Portland, Ore. 

He was 66, and an unreconstructed radical to the end. 

According to longtime friend and almost-codefendant Paul Krassner, Albert died of liver cancer. His passing was noted by newspapers across the country, and in scores of blogs. 

Albert achieved his greatest notoriety during the Republican National Convention in 1968, when he and other members of the Yippies ran a counter-presidential campaign with Pigasus as their chosen standard-bearer. 

Fellow Yippie Krassner, a satirist who now lives in Desert Hot Springs, said that he and Albert were originally slated to be prosecuted as defendants in what became known as the trial of the Chicago Seven, radicals charged with crossing state lines for the purpose of conspiring to incite protesters to riot at the convention. 

Krassner said Albert may have been the first to have had his head smashed by a Chicago lawman during what was later characterized as a “police riot” by politicians and the media. 

He said William Kunstler, the famed defense attorney who represented the defendants in the conspiracy trial, told him that he and Albert weren’t charged and had been listed as unindicted co-conspirators because prosecutors feared they would raise a First Amendment defense.  

Albert was covering the convention for the Berkeley Barb, while Krassner edited The Realist, a satirical newsletter. 

“Stew served as a peacemaker in the Yippies,” said Krassner. “Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin would have arguments about something and Stew would serve as a buffer.” 

One such dispute involved whether or not the pig originally selected as the party’s presidential hopeful was sufficiently ugly for the part. In the end, “Stew went with Jerry to buy a bigger and uglier pig,” Krassner said. 

Krassner first met Albert when Krassner was invited to host the first Vietnam Day Teach-In at the UC Berkeley campus in 1965. 

“I was first turned on to marijuana by him then,” Krassner recalled. “I’d tried it a few times, but nothing. He gave me some Thai stick and I said, ‘Now I know why we’re fighting in Southeast Asia—to protect the crop.’” 

Albert described his involvement in the creation of People’s Park in an interview for the April 20, 2004 edition of the Daily Planet. 

“I got invited to a meeting at the Red Square on April 13 [1969]. Michael Delacour presented the idea of building a park, and different people laid out the plans,” said Albert. 

“I was given the assignment of writing a story for the Berkeley Barb, which appeared on April 18, 1969, as a call for one and all to one to bring building materials to the lot so they could build a community park. I signed it as Robin Hood’s Park Commissioner,” Albert said. “The Barb story appeared on April 19, and the next morning between 100 and 200 people showed up. 

“The next weekend we had something like a thousand. It was all spontaneous, and there wasn’t much of a central authority.”  

At Delacour’s suggestion, he and landscaper John Reed had driven up to a sod farm in Vallejo, buying turf that volunteers laid on ground they had cleared and prepared. 

A few days later, UC Berkeley administrators announced their intent to turn the area into an intramural soccer field, setting the stage for the violent showdown that was to follow. 

On May 14, the university sealed off the park with a fence, and the following day’s demonstration turned bloody when Alameda County Sheriff’s officers, clad in the jumpsuits that gave them the nickname of Blue Meanies, marched on the demonstrators. 

A Berkeley poet was blinded by a shotgun pellet, and a San Jose man who was visiting Berkeley was killed by another shotgun blast, both fired by deputies. 

Albert’s involvement in the protests led to an arrest and a two-month stretch in the Alameda County Jail at Santa Rita. 

The following year he decided to run for Alameda County Sheriff against incumbent John Madigan. He carried the city of Berkeley and captured 65,000 votes. 

Albert also served as the liaison between the Yippies and the Black Panther Party, Krassner said.  

Albert was in Algeria when LSD advocate Timothy Leary fled the country and sought refuge in that country, where Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver was also in exile, Krassner said. 

“Leary had some acid, and Albert asked if Cleaver was interested in trying some with Leary. Cleaver was afraid Leary was going to try to program him, so he said he’d do it only if he could hold on to his gun,” Krassner said. 

Krassner said he last saw his friend in August at the Portland Book Festival. 

“He had become very involved in his old religion, and he wrote a column for a local newspaper called ‘Jews in the News.’ He had his website and his weblogs, and he was very accessible. A lot of young people who wanted to know about the ‘60s and the Yippies wrote him, and it made him feel good to see that the spirit of questioning authority was continuing,” Krassner said. 

Albert had moved to Portland in 1984 with his spouse, Judy Gumbo, who had been at his side since his Berkeley days and was a co-founder of the Yippies. 

His memoir Who the Hell is Stew Albert? appeared last year and is available from Red Hen Press. His website at http://hometown.aol.com/stewa/stew.html contains selections of his writings. 

Krassner said he’ll miss his old friend. 

“He was like a wise old rabbi in the body of a friendly blond teddy bear,” said Krassner. 

Photo by ©Robert Altman, 2003  

Stew Albert, a seminal figures of 1960s radicalism in Berkeley and the nation, died Monday at his home in Portland, Ore. In this picture he is shown speaking at a Berkeley protest in 1969.

The elephant before them was the groom in a shotgun wedding. 

And by the end of Tuesday night’s meeting, members of the panel planning the future of downtown Berkeley had invited the beast to take a seat—three of them, actually—at the table. 

The elephantine nuptial analogies were raised by members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, during a long discussion about whether or not to grant ex officio status on the panel to representatives of UC Berkeley. 

Last month DAPAC Chair Will Travis had earned the displeasure of City Councilmember Kriss Worthington for inviting the university to name four ex officio members to the panel. 

Worthington objected, questioning whether Travis had the power to invite members onto a committee whose other members had been selected by the councilmembers and the planning commission. 

Afterward, Travis sent a follow-up letter, inviting the university to participate “on an informal basis” until the issue was resolved. 

Procedure questioned 

At least one DAPAC member also objected Tuesday that Travis had acted unilaterally, extending the invitation without first consulting the rest of the committee. 

“I really don’t believe you had the power to do it,” said Patricia Dacey. 

“I really do believe we should stick to our brief and follow the rules” and the city’s handbook for conduct of Berkeley commissions and committees. 

Jesse Arreguin, a DAPAC member who serves on other city commissions, agreed. “Letters sent out in the name of the committee must be sent out with the consent of the committee.”  

Travis acknowledged his error. 

The committee’s existence and the formulation of the new downtown plan are a direct result of the university’s massive expansion plans targeting the downtown, which were revealed in its Long Range Development Plan for 2020. 

The committee was formed as a condition of the settlement of a city suit against the university, filed in an attempt to mitigate the impacts of the LRDP on the city and local taxpayers. 

Two informal university representatives were on hand to field questions Tuesday, Kevin Hufferd and Jennifer Lawrence. Hufferd is a project manager/senior planner in UC’s Office of Capital Projects and Lawrence is a principal planner. 

The pair occasionally offered comments and answered questions as DAPAC spent most of Tuesday’s meeting deciding just what role gown should play on town’s panel. 

In the lengthy discussion that followed, the committee made its first break from the tightly scripted agendas it had followed in its previous meetings, documents that blocked out specific time segments for each item. 

Committee Chair Will Travis had been adept at hewing to the timelines in earlier meetings. 

Travis, who has two degrees in planning, works as executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and was appointed by Mayor Bates to chair DAPAC. 

Juliet Lamont, Bates’ other appointee, said she had mixed feelings about the ex officio appointments, “but our best hope of working in partnership with the university to have an open dialog and make sure information is going back and forth.” 

No reciprocity? 

Several members wanted a reciprocal action by the university—city representation on the UCB body that will make decisions about the massive development the university plans downtown that sparked the city lawsuit that led to the settlement which included creation of DAPAC. 

But Vice Chancellor of Facilities Services Edward J. Denton, in a letter sent to DAPAC the day before the meeting, declared that UCB doesn’t have a committee paralleling DAPAC “and does not intend to constitute one.” 

He did acknowledged that “the university from time to time will consult with an ad hoc group of advisors, including faculty and administrators, willing to consider the university’s role and provide expertise to the university about our participation in the process.” 

The paragraph “really wants to say, ‘We ain’t got nobody you can meet with on our side,’” quipped DAPAC member and Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman. 

Referring to the proposed ex officio representatives, he asked, “Are we really getting the counterparts of Matt and Dan?” referring to Matt Taecker, the planner hired by the city to work on the plan, and Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks. “I would really like to know what we’re going to get from this.” 

“What do we get out of this by having ex officio members?” added DAPAC Member and transportation Commission Chair Rob Wrenn. 

Wrenn said that if the university had permanent representation on the panel, he wanted to make sure other stakeholder groups had ample time to make their presentations to DAPAC beyond the three-minute public comment periods at the start of each meeting. 

Others agreed. 

“It’s disingenuous for the university to say there is no committee and then to say they are meeting from time to time with advisors,” added member Linda Schacht. 

“To me, the bottom line is to embrace the charge that we have” from the City Council, said Carole Kennerly, which is to work with the university on a plan that encompasses their plans for the downtown. 

Numbers question 

Dacey objected to granting four seats to the university when many other stakeholder groups aren’t represented on the panel. 

Arreguin, who is a graduate student at the university, said that he wanted the UCB representatives to include a staff member and a student, a suggestion immediately endorsed by DAPAC member Wendy Alfsen. 

But Dorothy Walker, a DAPAC member who retired from the university as assistant vice chancellor for property development, called on the panel to embrace a “golden opportunity.” 

“The decision process will not involving plumbing the thoughts of students and staff,” she said, urging the panel to name university decision-makers, “the higher the level, the better.” 

Committee member Winston Burton then suggested that the university appointees be limited to two, the same number each councilmember appointed. 

Victoria Eisen said she would welcome four or six. 

At that point Planning Commissioner and DAPAC member Helen Burke interjected. 

“First, I think this whole process is like a shotgun wedding. Nobody wants it but we’re here at the table and the bridegroom needs to be at the table,” she said. 

“And the bridegroom’s an elephant,” called out another member. 

Burke said she’d supported two UC officials, but colleague and former City Councilmember Mim Hawley suggested three—to match the three planning commissioners serving on the committee. 

Burke agreed, although Poschman, one of the three planning commissioners, quipped, “How about reducing the planning commission to two?” 

A motion followed to recommend that the council invited three members, and when it came to a vote, only Dacey opposed. 

The final decision rests with the City Council, which is expected to endorse the decision. 

Committee members never got around to sharing their three goals for downtown Berkeley—an assignment from Travis. Instead, they were asked to submit them by e-mail for discussion at the group’s next meeting Wednesday. 

At that session Dan Marks and city Economic Development Director Dave Fogarty are scheduled to present information on the demographics and economic trends of the downtown, and the panel is also expected to name a subcommittee that will focus on the historic character of the city center. ›

SAN FRANCISCO—Turn a quiet corner of the U.S. health care system and bump into a medical niche unknown — and unavailable — to most patients.  

While many Americans are traveling to India and Singapore for affordable lifesaving or cosmetic procedures, affluent foreign patients are paying cash upfront for stateside surgery and routine checkups in large medical centers with concierge services that cater to traveling families’ banking, dining and shopping desires.  

Call it medical tourism, American style.  

Bouncing back from a post-9/11 setback in Middle Eastern patients by reaching out to Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, this market is competitive and lucrative. Neither the American Hospital Association nor the federal government knows the total number of foreign patients who received care at U.S. international medicine centers last year, or how much revenue U.S. hospitals and local economies reaped for treating them and hosting their families. According to “The Healthcare Business Market Research Handbook,” by Richard K. Miller and Associates, annual revenue to U.S. hospitals for treating foreign patients who return home afterward totals more than $1 billion.  

Mayo Clinic. Johns Hopkins. Cleveland Clinic. Texas Medical Center. Together with nine medical facilities in Philadelphia, these domestic drivers of medical tourism alone report welcoming more than 30,000 patients from more than 100 countries last year.  

Philadelphia International Medicine (PIM) is the only U.S. medical consortium formed specifically to attract foreign patients to one metropolitan area, according to Leonard Karp, executive vice president and chief operations officer. Among its members are University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Temple University Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Founded six years ago, PIM is also building a hospital in Korea at an estimated cost of $860 million.  

“Originally, our hope was to generate $200 million a year for the Philadelphia region, with about 6,000 patients generating $60 million in revenue,” Karp says. “Since 9/11, we have restructured to be in a better position to withstand world events. This year, we attracted between 4,000 and 5,000 patients, mostly from the Caribbean, Middle East and Brazil, who generated more than $60 million in economic activity in Philadelphia.”  

Like his competitors, who attract at least double the number of overseas patients, Karp is secretive about total revenue and profit figures. Middle Eastern embassies regularly arrange payments for their patients, he says. Other patients pay cash or use insurance from companies with PIM contracts. Foreign patients can pay as much as 100 percent more than domestic patients.  

Most health care observers consider marketing these centers a savvy way to make money in a broken health care system. But because doctor-patient communication in every major language is at the core of these programs, their interpretation services are the envy of health professionals serving as many as 20 million U.S. residents who barely speak English. These immigrants would be lucky to find a full-time, trained medical interpreter in a major metropolitan area emergency room.  

Patients who speak limited English risk misdiagnosis, medical errors and poor quality of care, according to widespread research on language access in health care. These patients are more likely than others to report being in fair or poor health, defer needed medical care and experience drug complications. Guaranteed by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as a protection against discrimination based on national origin, medical interpreting is often called health care’s biggest “unfunded mandate.” But failure to afford an interpreter will not prevent a malpractice lawsuit or civil rights investigation when mistakes from lack of communication result in injury or death.  

In some cases, immigrants with a limited grasp of English who live and work near international medical centers can benefit from these facilities’ commitment to hiring full-time interpreters. For instance, Johns Hopkins Medicine International reports having 40 full-time and 45 on-call interpreters; Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, 38 fulltime interpreters and 25 on-call employees; Cleveland Clinic, 35 staff interpreters; and Texas Medical Center, 10 full-time interpreters and 25 bilingual staffers.  

“When our international patient coordinators have time to assist domestic patients who are limited-English-proficient, they do so,” says Mika Dulay, project analyst for the Johns Hopkins International Call Center in Baltimore, Md. “Domestic patients who speak unusual languages might have to wait 60 or 90 minutes to get an in-person interpreter, and we also use telephonic interpreting.”  

In the Philadelphia international consortium, however, “there is a difference between use of medical interpreting for domestic patients who barely speak English and foreign patients,” Karp says. “It’s daunting for U.S. patients who speak English. You can imagine how it is for a person from a foreign country who doesn’t speak English... We wouldn’t want to use a telephonic interpreting service for the foreign patient unfamiliar with our culture and not speaking English. It’s pretty impersonal. But telephonic works well in emergencies in hospitals for domestic patients who may not speak English.”  

It’s the nature of the world that “crazy amounts of money buy good health care like trained medical interpreters,” says Heng Foong, program director of PALS for Health, a community-based organization offering free, professional health care interpreting in Los Angeles and Orange County. “Do I think it’s fair to someone who’s living in this country and can’t afford it? No. But this is a hard nut to crack. Very few people are willing to talk about it.”  

From where I sit on Thursdays in the Friends’ bookstore at the Central Library, I can watch parents and their children streaming into the elevator for the ride up to the Children’s Room on the fourth floor. I remember 50 years ago when my own children and I climbed the endless staircase up to what was then the library’s top floor. They loved hearing their voices and footsteps echoing in the tall space and the exhilarating—and scary—glimpses down the stairwell. 

On my first visit recently—in the new elevator—I was delighted to discover in this grand new space that the old library continues to occupy alcoves along the north wall. The high peaked windows with their window seats, the original fireplace, and even the pint-sized, round oak tables, each with four chairs, remain—though all refurbished and looking as they must have looked when the new library first opened in 1932. 

Then, as now, the Children’s Room and the children’s library section in the four branch libraries, are often a Berkeleyan’s first introduction to the world of books. There will always be an exquisite pleasure to possessing—even for a limited time—one’s own selection of books.  

Senior librarian Elizabeth Overmyer, who is primarily responsible for the various special children’s programs including the summer reading program, points up through the new two-story window wall. “When we’re outside on the sidewalk, I ask the children to look up toward the top of one of the columns and they claim they see nothing special. Then when we are upstairs, I ask them to look again and they discover to their delight, the stern face of a concrete ram seeming to look intently at them through the window.” 

In front of the windows, board books for babies and toddlers are displayed in special low shelves. Kids sprawling on the colorful carpet share the space with two large stuffed bears. 

Across the way is the picture book alcove with hundreds of books. Elizabeth, who moves with the agility and enthusiasm of the very young, tells the story of the quilt hanging on the wall. “Each of the nine squares depicts a beloved children’s book and as one might expect, an illustration from Goodnight, Moon occupies the upper left-hand corner,” she says. “This particular piece was done for us by Olivia Hurd, the daughter-in-law of Clement Hurd, the book’s illustrator,” she adds. Turning over a corner of the quilt, she reveals dozens of signatures. “In the week before we opened the remodeled library, all the staff visited the Children’s Library and each member made a stitch on the quilt and signed their name.” 

At the reference desk, we are joined by librarians Armin Arethna and supervising library assistant Susan Huish. Armin conducts the Wednesday morning “Baby Bounces” and Susan combines time on the reference desk with the behind-the-scenes tasks that keep the department running smoothly. Passing through the area with its wide assortment of books on tape, CDs, videos, and DVDs, we open the heavy door to the Story Room which once served as the library’s art gallery and is still illuminated by skylights.  

Armin gets out the box of mariachis, tambourines, and sticks—always a big moment in the Baby Bounce. “The children and babies range in age from six months to three years,” she says. “To keep them engaged we provide lots of activity including finger plays, very short stories, and the music-making.” 

“Once a month we have a special performer such as a puppeteer or magician,” she adds. 

In a perfect example of serendipity, the east-facing window frames downtown Berkeley’s most charming building—the story-book clinker brick, slate-roofed Tupper and Reed building with its tall chimney topped by the iron silhouette of a prancing piper, horn raised to the sky. The spell of this being a pre-arranged stage set is broken only by stepping forward and looking down onto Shattuck Avenue and seeing the AC Transit buses. 

The Children’s Library isn’t just about spinning delights inside and out, of course, it’s also about education and research. Linda Perkins, the head of Children’s Services points out that they serve kids up through the eighth grade. “Teachers bring their classes and we show them how to use a variety of material, including our on-line catalogs and electronic resources. We also have book collections in several languages and an assortment of magazines.” 

But it’s the summer reading program—one of the many programs sponsored by the Friends—that probably helps most to establish a life-long reading habit. “At the end of the spring semester, the children’s librarians from the Central Library and all the branches go out to the schools to explain the program and invite the children to participate,” Linda says. “Our reward is when teachers tell us they know which children have kept up their reading over the long summer.” 

Photograph by Stephan Babuljak: 

Amanda Bristow reads to her 3-year-old son George at the central branch of the Berkeley Public Library on Wednesday.ô

Residents of Berkeley and surrounding communities with a connection to San Pablo Park during the years from the Depression through the 1960s have been invited by the city to come to the park this Saturday to share their memories. 

The program, co-sponsored by the City of Berkeley Civic Arts Commission, the Frances Albrier Community Center, the San Pablo Neighborhood Council, the Berkeley Historical Society, and the West Berkeley Foundation, will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Center, 2800 Park St., on the San Pablo Park grounds. 

Albrier was a community and social activist in the South Berkeley and San Pablo Park areas during the middle decades of the last century, and one of the purposes of Saturday’s meeting is to inform current neighborhood and city residents about her work. 

“As I dug more deeply into Albrier’s life, I realized her remarkable activism took place in a neighborhood that had its own fascinating history,” said local historian Donna Graves, the director of the event. Graves was recently involved in a similar collection of community historical memories of people who came to Richmond during World War II to work in the shipyards. 

Participants in Saturday’s San Pablo Park event are being asked to bring photos and other memorabilia from the San Pablo Park neighborhood for archival scanning. In addition, the personal histories presented at Saturday’s event will be video recorded for preservation at the Berkeley Public Library’s History Room and the Berkeley Historical Society.

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 

ª

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.›

Thanks, Cindy Sheehan, for giving us a nice hook for one of our periodic lectures on why everyone should love the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Here’s what it says: 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”  

Justice Hugo Black used to holler at doubters “that means NO LAW!” — nothing, for instance, like saying that Cindy couldn’t wear a t-shirt with the number of American soldiers dead in Iraq printed on the front to the State of the Union address. Congress didn’t pass any such law, but that didn’t stop the Capitol police from thinking they had. Even the police have finally, belatedly, figured it out, perhaps helped by the Congressman whose wife was also reprimanded for expressing a pro-government point of view on her own t-shirt. Mrs. Congressperson, however, was not arrested, though Cindy was. 

Subsequent amendments and interpretations have extended the prohibition on restricting speech to all government bodies. The government, in any of its multifarious manifestations (federal, state, local) may not restrict the content of political speech, period, and it has to watch its step in trying to stop other kinds of speech as well. The City of Berkeley learned this lesson a few years ago, expensively, by taking a city law which tried to keep citizens from begging for money in undesired spots, like near ATMs, as far as the federal appeals court. Berkeley’s own judge Claudia Wilken, at the request of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued an injunction against the enforcement of the Berkeley ordinance because it purported to regulate the content of panhandlers’ speech.  

A lot of otherwise politically astute people don’t quite understand the special role of government action in the free speech debate. A discouraging number of well-meaning critics, including members of the anti-war Code Pink organization and letter-writers to this very paper, thought that BART should not have rented advertising space for an anti-abortion ad to a religious group.  

Wrong. BART is a government entity, and under both the freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion clauses it can’t censor the content of its ads. And besides, everyone benefits from knowing what the sponsors of these ads think, even if we don’t agree with them.  

Other countries, even other “democracies,” don’t have the same ingrained reverence for free speech which our own First Amendment ensures. Just this week, Britain narrowly escaped passage of another Tony Blair special, a proposal to make it a criminal offense to incite religious hatred through threatening words or actions, which critics interpreted as banning any criticism of religion whatsoever. Around the world countries left and right, democratic and undemocratic, have repeatedly tried and sometimes succeeded in passing similar regulations. 

Some first amendment purists would argue that dissenters have the right to scrawl rude comments on the BART ads if they want, or even to tear them up. Whether or not dissenters to any speech should be allowed to silence their opponents is a hot, endlessly disputable topic which often comes up in the context of hecklers at lectures on campuses. But the key difference is that individuals tearing up signs and shouting down speakers are not government action, though they may be regarded as rude.  

A lot of people do have a problem with rudeness in discussions. The Washington Post’s ombudsperson expressed shock because e-mail correspondents and bloggers scathingly criticized the paper for implying that Jack Abramoff gave money to Democrats, when in fact he didn’t, though some of his clients did. The comments that were so shocking to the Post were not untrue, obscene or personal, though they were very pointed, sometimes vulgar and occasionally profane. The Post in its horror shut down its blog, but that can’t last forever. This is the new new journalism, where the readers talk back, as any regular reader of the Daily Planet’s opinion pages can attest, and the old media will just have to get used to it.  

We’re used to it, though we sometimes cringe at the vituperative tone of some attacks on our paper. About the only thing we don’t print is personal attacks on private individuals, because we have no way of checking whether they’re true or not.  

Researching this piece did bring to our attention that we received one letter about the Abramoff affair that we failed to print, because we’d mislaid it, as sometimes happens around here. If letters and comments aren’t addressed to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com, and sometimes even if they are, they can get lost. In any event, here it is now, from a stalwart supporter of the Planet: 

Your editorial makes it look like Abramoff gave money to Boxer. Abramoff gave no money to Democrats. An Indian tribe did give money to Boxer, including one tribe tied to Abramoff. There is no evidence that Abramoff directed the gift. Certainly the Republicans would like to spin the events to make the Democrats look bad also. Please pull down the Internet posting of your editorial, as it is misleading, clarify your editorial, and re-post it on the Internet. 

—Tim Hansen 

We can’t take mistakes out of our archives, but we can run subsequent corrections which should be found by online searches. Tim is absolutely right—we were misled, as thousands of other irate readers were not, by what we read in the Post and elsewhere, and we appreciate the correction, as we do all corrections.  

B

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.›

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.



BLACK & WHITE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to offer my congratulations to the Zoning Adjustments Board for finding a balanced and reasonable path to take in handling the issues over Black & White Liquor. 

I would also like to commend Mr. Banger for being earnestly engaged and responsive to the concerns raised. Relinquishing the grandfathering of the site under zoning regulations is a graceful, meaningful, helpful, and (in my opinion) quite welcome development.  

South Berkeley can just keep getting better and better, one step at a time, as the fantastic and inclusive community it really is at heart. 

To my friends who fought well and hard for a nuisance finding—I think we did very well here without doing too much harm; we can declare victory. (And, even better, nobody has to admit defeat.) 

Thomas Lord 

• 

GO SOLAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

By unanimous vote, Wednesday night, the Willits City Council took the first step toward the development of solar electric installations to power major city operations. 

If Willits can do it, the City of Berkeley should all be able to do it. 

Harvey Sherback 

• 

ALBANY MALL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding your article, “Residents, Environmentalists Debate Albany Mall,” as an Albany resident and member of the Sierra Club, I obviously support and enjoy parks and open space. However, after a careful reading of the newly unveiled CESP/CAS initiative (the “Citizens’ Planning Initiative to Protect Albany’s Shoreline”), there seems to be a major problem for Albany schools. 

The Albany Unified School District receives approximately $500,000 annually in parcel-tax assessments from Golden Gate Fields race track. In the new CESP/CAS initiative, (quote) “Planning shall assume that a large portion of the Albany Waterfront District will be dedicated or acquired for public park, open space, and environmental restoration purposes.” The remaining portion available for development will be (quote) “located as close to the Interstate 80 freeway as possible” and not within 600 feet of the shoreline. Looking at a map, I estimate this remainder at about 50 percent of the existing property. 

The developer of this small remainder—located right next to a roaring, polluted freeway—will then be obliged to build a “green, sustainable” development that somehow will generate $1,200,000 in revenue annually for the City, to replace that lost from the race track. That’s unlikely, to say the least. But there’s worse to come: the developer will only pay parcel tax to the school district based on the square footage they own. That means the schools will lose about 50 percent of the current $500,000. That is, Albany schools will lose $250,000 per year, every year, if this initiative passes. 

Albany residents need to study this initiative very carefully. Our city and our schools are depending on it. 

Trevor Grayling 

Albany 

• 

‘FALSTAFF’ FANTASTIC! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Olivia Stapp’s review of Berkeley Opera’s current production of Falstaff in the Jan. 31 Daily Planet did not describe the opera I saw that night. In fact, the review had much more to say about Ms. Stapp’s in-depth personal knowledge about Verdi’s final opera than it does about what I believe to be one of the most highly entertaining productions ever staged by Berkeley Opera. 

I was impressed by the quality of the performance and its direction, as were the members of the audience with whom I spoke. People simply loved it and lauded Jo Vincent Parks (as Falstaff) both for his stunningly beautiful voice and great comedic acting. Then there was Ann Moss (as Nanetta) whose pure voice touched our hearts, Jillian Khuner (as Alice), Katherine Growden (as Meg), Mark Hernandez (as Bardolfo) and Isaiah Musik-Ayala (as Pistola) for their perfect singing and great acting, Igor Vieira (as Ford), Donna Olson (as Mistress Quickly), Norman DeVol (as Dr. Caius), David Briggs (as Robin), and Tony Ambrose (as the innkeeper). Well ... we really couldn’t decide whom we liked the best! 

The audience was also delighted at the exquisite ballet in the final act and the thunderous applause and cheers at the end of the performance perfectly expressed the audience’s appreciation of this production. 

I know several people who are going to see it again. I would encourage everyone, not just opera lovers, to catch the production this weekend. There are performances at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 5. 

Jane Kelly 

• 

ASHBY BART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We are very concerned about the grant for development at Ashby BART. The democratic process has been ignored by Max Anderson. He and the SBNDC do not possess community support that they claim. This grant was applied for in an underhanded (hiding it from the community) and unorthodox manner.  

There is evidence from the Jan. 17 community meeting from SBNDC members, that they have known of this grant for some time, which refutes the fact that the grant was submitted without council approval because of time constraints. Max Anderson has had numerous opportunities to inform the public about these actions, but has failed to promote a transparent process and environment.  

Is this the kind of Berkeley we want? Berkeley should set an example for the rest of the country, as we have in the past, and be the model for a truly open and transparent democracy.  

We do not see how this grant process can move forward on this type of foundation. We ask the City Council to please withdraw the proposal, reject Max Anderson’s resolution, and instead discuss how we can all create a community-driven process to determine the future of the Ashby BART site.  

Dan B. Bristol 

Anona A. Bristol 

• 

TRANSIT VILLAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I like near Ashby BART and am thinking about the proposal to develop the West Parking lot for housing/commercial use and was wondering if anyone could help me understand why we need development at the Ashby BART parking lot in specific and more large developments in Berkeley in general. I know there is a lot of knowledge and reasoning ability out there amongst the readers of this paper. 

It has been said that Berkeley already has one of the highest population densities of any city in the area. That may be good, bad or indifferent depending on what side of the social policy/engineering discussion one lands on. If one were to promote denser urban areas in order to save some green space out on the edges of the cities/suburbs, one could say Berkeley was currently leading the way with our already high population density. I do not think Berkeley should operate in a vacuum. Is there a regional planning entity that can decide what type of development is appropriate and beneficial to a specific locale, as well as the region, and then enforce any development allotments? 

Others may say that we need to build whatever infill housing we can to provide for the demand for new units in Berkeley (be they market-rate, low-income, senior, accessible etc.). Will this demand ever be able to be filled? If the city wants to sponsor the housing of city workers in town, they may have to get into the landlord business on a bigger scale. I do not think the market will take care of that. 

How much does the current and future well being of the existing residents factors into the development plans for an area of the city or the city as a whole? From my personal viewpoint of living in and around Berkeley for 25 years, there may already be enough people in this city. In the Lorin District of South Berkeley where I live, we are able to observe much of what is good and bad of Berkeley’s high population density. We have a rich diversity of cultures and social values that makes for interesting conversations and learning opportunities when one takes the time to get out and meet the neighbors. One the other hand, our area suffers from some of the problems associated with this same density: street crime and trash, as well as poverty that may or may not result from increased density. 

Will living in our neighborhood be more or less enjoyable with an extra 100-600 (or how many) new residents? I wonder if it is possible for the city to sponsor the improvement of the lot of the existing residents and businesses before we rush ahead with increasing the number of people in the same space. 

Sorry if I have offended anyone. I really need to get educated in order to decide what is best for the city and my family. 

Andy DeGiovanni 

• 

MORE ON ALBANY MALL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have resigned from the Albany Parks and Recreation Commission to protest the undemocratic actions of PRC Chair Alan Riffer. Mr. Riffer has politicized the commission by offering Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso an entire special meeting of the commission as a forum for continuing his PR campaign for Caruso’s proposed waterfront mall. 

Mr. Riffer even relocated the special meeting to City Council chambers to provide a camera-equipped stage for Mr. Caruso’s presentation, which will enjoy multiple replays on our local public access TV station. When I asked that open space/park advocates be offered equal time for a presentation at the meeting, this request was denied. This charade of a planning process illustrates the very real need for the proposed Citizens’ Planning Initiative to Protect Albany’s Shoreline to ensure an open community process versus the current Caruso PR campaign. 

It’s outrageous that Mr. Riffer and other pro-mall politicians think they can control public debate by banning open space advocates from having an equal voice at public forums. Mr. Riffer’s stand on the mall is well known (he has hosted Caruso PR events at his home). It is not wrong for a city official to have a strong stand, but it is wrong for him to use his position to promote it and quash open debate. 

Brian Parker 

Albany 

• 

CLEAN MONEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s article about the public campaign financing law just passed by the CA Assembly bemoans the fact that there was no Republican support. I agree. On the Assembly floor the Republicans complained about how bad the current system of campaign finance is but they offered no solutions. 

In Arizona the Clean Money system has already been working though three elections. More Republicans use the Clean Money funding than Democrats in Arizona. 

The problem of funding election campaigns with special interest contributions affects both Democrats and Republicans. If Republicans do not join in the solution then they will remain part of the problem. 

Bill Walzer 

• 

MORE ON CLEAN MONEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s gloomy article about the vulnerability of the California Clean Money bill, AB 583, seems strangely out of step in the wake of the passage of the bill by the full Assembly on Jan. 30. The bill passed 47-31 on a party-line vote, with two Republicans abstaining and one Democrat voting against. The bill will now go to the Senate. 

Yes, Clean Money is an uphill battle and yes it will be difficult to get it passed into law. But there is a major grass-roots action behind Clean Money involving thousands of Californians who wrote letters and made phone calls to their assemblymembers in support of AB 583. Several of the assemblymembers who spoke on the floor Monday in support of the bill remarked about the strength of this grassroots support as well as about the recent PPIC poll that revealed how 78 percent California voters feel that the government is in the hands of big corporate interests. It is clear to California’s elected officials that real reform, as opposed to a little tweaking of lobbying laws, is required to win citizens’ confidence in government. 

Although in the past some have criticized earlier versions of the bill for being too favorable to major parties and incumbents, the bill has been amended to be more friendly to third parties. Thus, in December the Green Party of California formally endorsed AB 583 with its amended performance-based system that allows candidates regardless of party an opportunity to get full funding in the general election if they can show substantial community support. 

Less cynical hand wringing about the obstacles and more energy and creativity put into overcoming them will bring publicly financed election campaigns to California. It has happened in Maine and Arizona, it can happen here. 

AB 583 enjoys huge popular support and a growing number of activists are getting involved in helping with its passage. In addition, there are a number of decent, well-meaning legislators who are working hard to create a well-crafted law that will really work to restore democracy to our state. So be part of the solution to our myriad political woes, and join the Clean Money campaign! 

Lynn Davidson 

• 

OAK ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a follow-up to my Jan. 31 letter published under the headline “Oak Ordinance Violations Ignored by City Staff,” I would like to add the following information. 

Apparently as a result of my warnings to a local homeowner, he stopped short of removing a Coast Live Oak from his property. City Forestry Unit staff, to whom I forwarded my letter, visited the site on Monday, Jan. 30, and found “a large Coast Live Oak that had been excessively pruned.” 

Staff informed me that this type of excessive pruning (I prefer to call it mutilation) is not addressed in the present Oak Removal Moratorium, but it will be in the future. At last week’s City Council meeting, the council passed the first reading of an ordinance change that would prohibit excessive pruning (over 25 percent in a 24-month period) of Coast Live Oak trees. This change is expected to go into effect in about two months, and all local tree-service companies will be notified. 

This won’t address the problem of property owners hiring off-the-street laborers to do the work, but let’s hope that while strengthening the Coast Live Oak Ordinance, the City Council will also impose fines stiff enough to deter scofflaws. 

Daniella Thompson 

›

I am a member of the Steering Committee of Neighbors on Urban Creeks and a member of the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Board. I have spent considerable time attending meetings, studying this complex issue and speaking to people about it. Because I don’t live on or near an open or culverted creek that is regulated under the city’s current Creeks Ordinance, you might well ask why I spend my time this way. I do it because besides being a creeks issue, it’s also a people and neighborhood issue.  

In order for you to better understand the importance of this issue, I would like to give you a little background about the Creeks Ordinance. It was first approved by the City Council in 1989. The legislative history of that 1989 action indicates that the ordinance applied only to open creeks on vacant land. However, in 1991, unbeknownst to the City Council, the city attorney ruled that the ordinance also applied to culverted creeks. When the council was informed of that ruling many months later, the council still believed that it applied to vacant land. It was not until 2003 that it finally became clear that the ordinance regulating both open and culverted creeks applied to existing homes and commercial buildings. Up to this time, the city had not enforced the ordinance except as it applied to vacant land and hundreds of permits had been issued by the city for construction on affected properties that were not in compliance with the regulations in the ordinance. It was not until 2004, 15 years after the ordinance was first adopted, that the city identified the specific properties affected by the ordinance and informed over 2,000 property owners about the regulations. 

People who lived near an open creek obviously knew that the creek was there, but they didn’t know anything about the 30-foot setback from the centerline on each side of the creek, a total of 60 feet around the creek, where construction was prohibited.  

The same setback rule applied to culverted creeks. However, the vast majority of private property owners had no idea that a culvert on their property even existed. They hadn’t been informed about this when they purchased their property, nothing was recorded on their deeds, and you can’t see the culvert. The rationale for not allowing anything to be built within the setback of a culvert on private property, is that some day the culvert should be opened and the creek restored, a process known as “daylighting.” How this was to be accomplished when the culvert ran under the house, or when the house was too close to the culvert was never explained. 

The amendments made to the ordinance in 2003 by the City Council made it impossible to rebuild if your property was damaged in a disaster. As you can imagine when people found out about this the protests were huge. The council responded by eliminating the 2003 part of the ordinance and establishing a task force to revise the ordinance. Many property owners believed that the right to re-build was given by the City at that time, but I regret to inform you that at this time such a right is still not guaranteed, but more about that later. 

The City holds the individual property owner responsible for proving the exact location of any culverted creek on their property. Property owners with culverts have reported costs ranging as high as $6,000 to $10,000. The city also holds the individual property owner responsible to pay the cost of repair and maintenance of culverts on their property. The city’s reasoning is that private contractors built culverts in order to increase their profits because it would enable them to build more houses. Culverts range in size from 10 inches to seven feet and repairs can run up to $6,000 per foot. Problems are occurring along Strawberry Creek and currently some 15 homeowners are suing each other, the city and the university over who is responsible for the costs of repairing the damages. One property owner where the culvert does not run directly under the existing house cites over $400,000 of damages. Others in the lawsuit have homes built directly over the failing culvert.  

This reasoning ignores the fact that culverts and open creeks, along with the streets, function as the city’s storm drain system providing benefit to everyone and that storm drains where they do exist were built to a capacity that has long since been exceeded. The flooding during the recent heavy rains illustrates the inadequacy of our storm drain system. 

The city’s task force has met for almost a year. Neighbors on Urban Creeks, a group of residents, some directly affected by the ordinance, and some not, was formed in 2004 and has attended every task force meeting. Neighbors on Urban Creeks believes in preserving creeks AND protecting property rights. To that end, NUOC has taken the position that culverts should not be included in the Creeks Ordinance, that any “daylighting” should occur only on public property, that “daylighting” on private property must be voluntary, and that the individual property owner should not have to bear the financial burden for the storm drain system alone, nor pay for finding the exact location of the creek/storm drain on their property. 

Neighbors on Urban Creeks led the fight to grant owners of property with open or culverted creeks the right to re-build. We have since discovered there is no right to re-build after your home has been destroyed. If your home is destroyed, whether or not you are near an open or culverted creek, unless you have an existing use permit (which the vast majority of us do not have), you would have to go through a public hearing use permit process to re-build the exact same house you had before it was destroyed. Under the use permit process, the city could deny, amend or approve your application. Neighbors on Urban Creeks want all of us to be able to rebuild the exact same house you have today as a matter of right. If you want to build higher or larger, or place it differently on your lot, we maintain you should go through the zoning review process, but not if all you want to do is to re-build what you have today. 

The city’s task force doesn’t seem to want to take up this larger issue, nor has it indicated it will address the serious problems of the city’s inadequate and deteriorating storm drain system. They have been told by the council that they should not talk about who has the financial responsibility for replacement or repair of culverts because of the current litigation. They are still talking about a one-size fits all creeks setback in which construction would be prohibited, including playhouses and fences, and potential “daylighting” of culverts on some private property. Neighbors need your help to turn this around.  

Neighbors on Urban Creeks is holding a town meeting on Saturday morning, Feb. 4 from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Alternative High School on the corner of Derby and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. At that meeting they will provide the latest information on the task force’s recommendations and give people a chance to engage in a discussion with other property owners before a public hearing which is to be held by the task force later that month. 

This is a critical issue to everyone, whether you are a property owner affected by the Creeks Ordinance or not. The Creeks Ordinance has serious regulatory and financial consequences for every property owner directly affected by Ordinance. The value of property, including re-financing, re-sale and mortgage, and insurance will be directly affected. Because there are so many properties involved and because the impacts can be so severe, there is no way that every other property in the neighborhood will not be affected, so it truly is a neighborhood issue for all of us. 

Please, come to the Feb. 4 meeting to learn more and have all of your questions answered.  

Martha Hamilton Jones is a longtime resident on the Derby-Warring corridor. 

›

District 3 representative Max Anderson has placed a resolution on the Tuesday, Feb. 7 City Council agenda specifically excluding declaration of a Transit Village Development District or a Redevelopment Area, or exercise of eminent domain, as part of Ashby BART development. That’s good. (That resolution, and the other documents mentioned below, can be found on nabart.com.) Anderson’s resolution also reaffirms support for the city’s Caltrans grant application. That’s bad. Here’s why: 

Public participation 

The grant application highlights the importance of public participation: “In almost all cases, public input is obtained after significant portions of the project have already been determined. In too many cases, the result is a less-than-desirable project, acrimony, lawsuits, delay and disenfranchisement.” 

Fine words. Yet that same application indicates that, before any public input, the most significant elements of the project have already been determined: 

• Developer to be selected by June of this year. 

• For-profit rather than nonprofit. 

• Mixed-use project with residential, retail, and arts space. 

• At least 300 units of housing. 

• South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation and application author Ed Church to disburse money. 

• End result is a request for qualifications for the previously selected developer. 

Moreover, the 2004 feasibility study found that a six-story, 553-unit rental project would not be practical. So effectively it has already been determined that the project would have to be condos. 

Flea Market 

The proposed development would displace the flea market. The grant application envisions moving it to Adeline Street. As detailed in the flea market’s attorney Osha Neumann’s Jan. 11 letter to the City Council, this proposal is unworkable, and there is no other practical location in the area. 

Ed Roberts Campus 

The Ed Roberts Campus partners already have a permit to build an 86,000-square-foot office building in the east parking lot and construction is scheduled to start next year. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put off contracting with a developer for development of the west lot until we see the ERC’s impact on the neighborhood? 

Affordable housing 

The for-profit development envisioned by the grant application is similar to the large apartment/condo projects recently built just over the border in Emeryville. The proponents’ main selling point for such a project is that 20 percent of the units would be affordable. Unfortunately, under current law, so-called “affordable” units with less than three bedrooms can rent at market rates. (For details, see my commentary “Is a Transit Village Economically Feasible?” in the Jan. 27 Daily Planet.) Building truly affordable housing requires significant contributions from government or charitable organizations, such as the $4 million in federal funds the City Council just pledged to the Brower Center. 

Feasibility 

A 2001 study concluded that development of the west parking lot was not feasible, due primarily to the high cost of providing the same number of BART parking spaces as currently exist. A more detailed 2004 study found that a six-story project with 553 rental units (76 units per acre, 50 percent higher than envisioned by the grant application) was not feasible, but that the cost of providing BART parking was not a major factor. Anderson’s resolution implicitly rejects condos by saying that the “affordable” housing would be for “households making no more than 80 percent or 50 percent, respectively, of the Area Median Income.” By Berkeley law, “affordable” condos may be sold to households making 120 percent of AMI. 

SBNDC as grant recipient 

The South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation is the city’s co-applicant on the grant application, which specifies that the money would flow through the SBNDC. The organization’s track record does not inspire confidence. For example, it did a survey to find out what sort of retail people wanted at its 1995 Lorin Station Plaza project (3253 Adeline), and neighbors asked for a cafe, a produce market, and a laundromat. Instead of finding retail tenants, the SBNDC leased the commercial spaces to an accountant’s office, a Comcast service center, and a nonprofit job-training program. 

Ed Church as project manager 

The legitimacy of the $120,000 Community-Based Transit Planning grant application, which would give its author Ed Church primary control over how the money is spent, hinges on his commitment to (in his own words to the City Council) an “open and transparent” process of public participation. The process to date has been anything but: 

• Neither the 2001 nor the 2004 feasibility study was shared with the public until the grant application brought them to neighbors’ attention and we asked for copies. 

• The grant application was submitted on Oct. 14, but not made public until early December, and then only through an entry on the consent calendar for the December 13 City Council agenda. 

• No one informed the flea market, neighborhood associations, Ashby BART patrons, or other stakeholders about the City Council agenda item so they could comment. 

• Ed Church, Max Anderson, and Mayor Tom Bates, the main drivers behind the grant application, met with various South Berkeley neighborhood groups between the time the grant application was submitted and the Dec. 13 agenda was published, but said nothing about it. 

Ed Church has put a lot of time and effort into developing his vision for Ashby BART development, and thus has much to contribute to a real community-based planning process. But the Ashby BART neighborhood doesn’t need a paid professional “smart-growth” advocate—or any other individual—to direct that process. We can and will do it ourselves. 

Bottom line 

The process to date has been anything but open and transparent. The community was inappropriately excluded from that process. Caltrans giving $120,000 to Ed Church and the SBNDC would tend to diminish rather than promote community participation in decisions about what will happen at Ashby BART. The City Council should thus withdraw support for the grant proposal and let the community take the lead. I invite everyone who supports that outcome to join me at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday on the steps of 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way for a pre-council meeting rally. 

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

›

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. 

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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.  

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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.›

“Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.” 

—Article VI, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968 

“The United States will not use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear weapon party state to the Non-Proliferation Treaty…except in the case of an attack on the United States, its territories or armed forces, or its allies, by such a state allied to a nuclear weapon state…” 

—Addendum to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1978, agreed to by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and endorsed by France. Reaffirmed in 1980 and 1995. 

“The leaders of states who use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using, in one way or another, weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part. This response could be a conventional one. It could be of a different kind.” 

—French President Jacques Chirac visiting the nuclear submarine Vigilant,  

Jan. 19, 2006. 

Treaties are rarely scintillating, but the 30-year old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT) has a certain sparseness of language and precision of meaning that makes it an engaging read. Boiled down, it commits the 177 non-nuclear nations that signed it not to acquire nuclear weapons and the Big Five nuclear powers—the U.S., Britain, France, China and the USSR—to dismantle theirs.  

The theory behind it was simple: non-nuclear weapons states would forgo developing nukes on the conditions that, 1) they are never threatened with nuclear weapons, 2) the Big Five get rid of their arsenals.  

All of this seems to have gotten lost in the recent uproar over Iran. While Tehran is being accused of trying to scam the NNPT by secretly developing nuclear weapons, the open flaunting of the Treaty by the major nuclear powers is simply ignored.  

For almost 38 years the vast majority of the world’s nations have adhered to the NNPT. Only India, Pakistan, Israel, and possibly North Korea have joined the Big Five, although, at the time the Treaty was signed, a dozen more were on the verge of developing them. In short, the vast bulk of the signers have held to what they agreed to. 

The Big Five, however, have ignored the obligation to dismantle their nuclear arsenals or to even discuss general disarmament. At the NNPT Review Conference last summer the issue did not even come up. 

Not only have the Big Five refused to consider eliminating their nuclear arsenals, in 2002 the Bush administration’s Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) unilaterally overturned the 1978 pledge and threatened to use nukes on Syria, Iran and Iraq, all non-nuclear states. The administration’s rationale is that the NNPT is not just about nuclear weapons, but “weapons of mass destruction,” which it argues, includes chemical and biological weapons. It is a re-interpretation the French appear to embrace as well. 

But chemical and biological weapons were specifically excluded from the NNPT for the very good reason that they are not weapons of mass destruction. 

Chemical weapons are certainly nasty, but generals in World War I found them more an annoyance than a serious threat. Out of the 8.5 million deaths from 1914-1918, gas only killed about 100,000. Chemicals are simply too difficult to deliver and too volatile to do much damage.  

Bacteriological warfare is spooky, but even more difficult to make effective. Anthrax may have shut down Washington, but it only killed five people. 

Nuclear weapons are quite another matter. 

The fireball that consumed Hiroshima reached 18 million degrees in one millionth of a second. It evaporated 68 percent of the city, demolishing structures built to withstand an 8.5 earthquake. It charred trees five miles from ground zero, blew out windows 17 miles from the city’s center, and killed 100,000 people in a single blow. Another 100,000 plus would follow in the months ahead. 

The bomb that flattened Hiroshima was 15 kilotons. The standard warhead in the U.S. arsenal today—the W-76—is 100 kilotons. A substantial number of our weapons are 250 kilotons, and they range as high as five megatons. One of the latter can eliminate a small country. 

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are presently about 27,000 such warheads in the world, many of them capable of being launched within a half hour.  

This is the price the world is paying for not insisting that the Big Five do what they agreed to do.  

And the danger is getting worse. Not from countries like Iran, but from the nuclear weapons establishment—particularly in the U.S.—that is systematically trying to dismantle the fragile barrier of treaties that hold the beast in check.  

One of the key threads in this increasingly tattered web is the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The theory behind the CTBT was that banning tests would prevent any further developments in nuclear weapons technology. It was also assumed that no one would risk deploying a weapon which had not been tested. 

But the ink was hardly dry when the U.S.—and, it would appear, France—figured out how to redesign weapons without actually setting them off. Using sophisticated computers, weapon labs began to configure a new generation of nuclear weapons. 

Indeed, India pointed to this computer-based U.S. weapons program as one of the reasons why it initiated a round of nuclear tests in 1998. 

Last year, Congress launched the Reliable Warhead Replacement (RWR) program purportedly to ensure that the U.S. nuclear arsenal would continue to work.  

But according to the local anti-nuclear group Tri-Valley CAREs, the program is also retooling warheads to make them smaller in yield (and therefore more likely to be used), capable of taking out deeply buried targets, and able to destroy chemical and biological weapons.  

It is possible the U.S. could accomplish this without resuming testing. But even if the U.S. doesn’t test, other nations will certainly not allow themselves to fall behind just because they don’t have fancy computers. If the U.S. continues on this path, other nations will resume testing, which will, in turn, encourage non-nuclear nations to begin their own programs.  

“The most important thing,” Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, told the Financial Times, “is to make the big boys understand that the major league is not an exclusive club. If you are not going to dissolve that club, others are going to join it. A world of haves and have nots is not sustainable.” 

The major danger in the world today comes not from countries like Iran and North Korea, but from the unwillingness of the major nuclear powers to live up to the promise they made back in 1968. 

“The central problem in halting nuclear proliferation,” says Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program of the Center for International Policy and a former India bureau chief for the Washington Post, “lies in the failure of the original nuclear powers that signed the NNPT to live up to Article 6, in which they pledged to phase out their nuclear weapons.”  

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One of the widely-advertised benefits of a democracy is that it requires politicians and officeholders to periodically come before the public to explain themselves in events we call elections, a process which is supposed to allow citizens the opportunity to help set the future of our city, our state, or our nation. 

In reality, although the leaders of this country are busily bombing the shit out of various people around the world and using various other forms of coercion—military and economic—in an effort to drive them into the state of being that we call democracy, we, ourselves, seem strangely disinterested in taking advantage of the rights and powers that we have right here. 

Thus, politicians who publish position papers and go into great detail in speeches during the election season are systematically ignored for those efforts, while the public gravitates eagerly towards sex-and-corruption scandal and one-liners and other forms of entertainment. Think about it. How many times have you actually visited a candidates’ website and read in detail what they say they stand for? Too much trouble, one imagines. 

Meanwhile most of the media—trying to follow the public’s tastes, in this instance—scramble to find something interesting about democracy’s most sacred rite, often treating the elections as they would a football season, tallying wins, losses, and assorted injuries along the way. Not to single out the San Francisco Chronicle for this—most newspapers and media outlets are guilty of the practice, and our own Oakland Tribune followed dutifully on the day following—but this week we have our good friends across the bay publishing an article on fund-raising in the Oakland mayoral race in which the Chronicle reporter gives us a scorecard on who is ahead—and behind—in the donations race. The title, “Ex-Congressman [meaning Mr. Dellums] Gaining Ground On De La Fuente,” says it all. Before the election season is over, similar articles will be written in all of the area newspapers and announced in other media outlets on who is ahead or behind in the public opinion polls as well as the money race, almost as if we are being told that the San Diego Chargers, having lost two out of three of the first games of the season, have now won four in a row, and are only a game behind the Raiders in the standings. Sad, isn’t it? 

With three gifted, experienced, and thoughtful candidates in the Oakland mayoral race—Councilmember Nancy Nadel, Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, and former Congressmember Ron Dellums, all of whom have taken clear stands on controversial issues in the past—the Oakland public ought to demand more, both of the candidates, and of ourselves. We won’t get this chance again to set the direction of our city, not for a long time. 

So boring or not, back to a discussion of the issues. 

A couple of weeks ago in this column, I wrote that Oakland was being kept in the dark about the explosion of violence in our city that began towards the end of last year, and concluded that “Oakland needs some straight talk and some serious, adult conversation on this recent explosion of violence in our city, where it’s coming from, and where it may be leading.” 

Since that time, we’ve had something of an explosion of newspaper coverage of Oakland’s violence. On Jan. 16 the Oakland Tribune reported the drive-by shooting death of a 15-year-old Berkeley youth near the corner of East 15th and 26th Avenue, and while stating that “police have not determined if the killing was gang related,” the article added that “the East Oakland neighborhood where he was shot is known for [Latino] gang activity.” The next day the Tribune reported a second drive-by shooting, this time of three men on Cooledge Avenue, noting that “Police said they believe the three were ‘mistaken for someone else,’ possibly members of a street gang.” The next day, the Tribune published a long article entitled “Gangs Tighten Grip In City; Police, Officials Acknowledge Violent Surge, Which Claims 2nd Victim Of 2006.” The Tribune article reported that “Police estimate several hundred Hispanic gang members occupy neighborhoods throughout Oakland, mostly in East Oakland from the Fruitvale district to Elmhurst, with International Boulevard the closest traffic artery. 

A week after the Tribune’s “Gangs Tighten Grip” article, the paper reported another shooting at a 37th and International gas station that, the paper said, “left a driver brain-dead, and wounded his two passengers and an innocent bystander.” Four days after that five people were shot—two of them fatally—near the Manzanita Recreation Center on 22nd Avenue. While the victims in the earlier slayings had Latino names, the victims in the Manzanita Rec shooting did not (this being Oakland, one speculates that they were African-American, just by the law of averages, but that’s just speculation). The Tribune reported that the Manzanita Rec shooting may have been “retaliation for another killing or narcotics.” 

And finally, on Feb. 2, the Tribune reported the shooting death of a 25-year-old San Leandro man outside a West Oakland grocery store in an African-American neighborhood (following the scorekeeping tradition, the newspaper informed us that “the killing was Oakland's ninth homicide of the year. Last year at this time there were three homicides” on the theory, I suppose, that we need to know that we are ahead or behind.) The article added that the Adeline Street area where the shooting death took place “is known for drug activity, and there have been several shootings between rival groups.” 

In my earlier column, I asked if Oakland was in the midst of a drug war, and, if so, what was being done about it at City Hall and the Police Administration headquarters? In light of the two weeks of shootings that followed, it’s clear that Oakland police and at least some of Oakland’s public officials believe that a Latino gang war is ongoing, with a possible African-American-based drug war as well. 

In its “Gangs Tighten Grip” story, the Tribune reported that in response to the rash of gang shootings, “Mayor Jerry Brown said [that] the police department was developing a plan to add officers to the gang unit and more quickly deploy them to hot spots identified by commanders.” That’s the type of sound-bite response you expect from someone who is running for California Attorney General in the June Democratic primary, and needs to be quoted as showing that he is being tough on crime in the city he’s supposed to be running. 

That may be good for Mr. Brown’s future political career, but that’s not what Oakland needs right now. 

If there is a Latino gang war—and an African-American-based drug war as well—going on in Oakland, the citizens of this city ought to be brought in on the discussion right now, before the direction of the city response is set. Actions often have unintended consequences, after all, even when those actions are done with the best of intentions. 

In their defense over charges that they illegally beat suspects and planted evidence, the members of the so-called Oakland Police “Riders” squad argued during their trials that they’d been given the “wink-and-nod” green-light for their operations by Mayor Brown and former Chief Richard Word, who, the “Riders” claimed, indicated that they wanted the city’s drug activities cleaned up at any price. The result was a major assault on the civil liberties of Oakland citizens, a stain on the city’s reputation and prestige, and a huge hit to our pocketbooks in the Allen v. Oakland consent decree settlement. 

Mr. Word has gone, but Mr. Brown remains, and so, too, is the danger of jumping too soon into solutions of serious problems without first determining the nature of those problems. 

What is causing the sudden explosion of violence in Oakland? It’s a subject that ought to be a serious topic of discussion in the Oakland mayoral race, as well as in classrooms and meeting rooms across the city. As I said in my previous column on the subject, our lives and our future depend upon it. 

In the late 1800s, Berkeley was a favorite retirement spot for sea captains. A number of them built imposing Victorians overlooking the Golden Gate in the North Berkeley hills, but few people know that the Southside boasted its own enclave of sailors’ residences at the intersection of Fulton and Blake Streets. 

This intersection retains its Victorian character to this day, with four intact houses—one Italianate and three Queen Annes—gracing its northeast and southwest corners. The original owners of all these houses had been seafarers. 

Captain John H. Whitham’s house stands at 2198 Blake St. This elegant Queen Anne, still surrounded by its original cast-iron fence, was designed and built in 1889 by prominent Alameda architect A.W. Pattiani. Two years l ater, Pattiani went on to build Captain James H. Bruce’s sumptuous Queen Anne at 2211 Blake St. Both residences were featured in BAHA’s 2004 house tour, Berkeley 1890: “At Home” along Fulton Street. 

But the oldest house in the Blake-Fulton maritime corne r is the Alfred Bartlett residence at 2201 Blake St. Erected in 1877, it is probably the most unspoiled Italianate dwelling in Berkeley. 

An Englishman born in 1841, Alfred Bartlett served in the British navy in his early teens. Discontented, at age 15 he stowed away on a ship to New York. In 1857 he worked passage on a ship to California in a stormy voyage of 152 days around the horn. Once arrived in San Francisco, he bought a wagon and horses and began selling books. 

Following a checkered and adventurous career, by 1877 Bartlett was prosperous enough to invest in real estate. Early that year he bought two lots on Blake Street in Berkeley and built the Italianate dwelling “for the sake of the health of my wife and two daughters,” then 3 and 5 years old. The same year, Bartlett joined with four other prominent businessmen—James L Barker, William B. Heywood, George D. Dornin, and Charles K. Clarke— in forming the Berkeley Land and Building Company. The Berkeley Advocate of Aug. 25, 1877 reported that “The y intend to do a real estate business in conjunction with building and improvements that will contribute to the growth and prosperity of the town.” The company’s office was located at the Berkeley terminus, on the Shattuck Avenue island now known as Berkeley Square.  

At the time the Bartlett residence went up, the surrounding Blake Tract, newly subdivided in 1876, was still mostly farmland, yet on Nov. 24, 1877 the Berkeley Advocate was calling for “a separate incorporation of Berkeley, like Cambridge, (Mass.), or any other university town.” Berkeley would incorporate the following year.  

In addition to selling books and real estate, Alfred Bartlett also dabbled in local politics. In 1886, he ran for the office of Berkeley town marshal. In this campaign he was defeated by the popular contractor-builder and amateur painter A.H. Broad, who had been a member of Berkeley’s first Board of Trustees, was a founder of Berkeley’s first library, and later would serve as town engineer and as superintendent of reconstruction of Berkeley schools injured by the earthquake. 

In 1892, the Bartletts built a second house next door, at 2205 Blake St. Rumor has it that this Queen Anne residence was a wedding present for one of the Bartletts’ daughters, but it appears to have been used as a rental property, as demand for housing increased as the district grew around the thriving downtown and Dwight Way Station commercial areas along Shattuck Avenue. 

The two Bartlett houses, situated in their original setting with virtual ly no exterior alterations, are probably the most pristine representation of Victorian Berkeley remaining. They were designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in December 2005. Sadly, their owner has removed several of the old Coast Live Oak trees around the se graceful old houses.  

Photo by Daniella Thompson 

The Captain Whitham house, 2198 Blake St. ,

If you’re a weekday plant shopper, you have only a week to get on down to Magic Gardens on Heinz Street and grab some of those nifty Japanese red-twigged variegated willows or those ’lebenty-seven rose varieties all in a row. If you’ll stoop to rubbing elbows with the weekend crowd and want to keep the place open as a retail nursery, plan on spending time and bucks there some Saturdays. As of Feb. 11, Magic Gardens, sole location will be open for retail sales only on Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to start. 

Magic Gardens has been through changes in its relatively short life, so many that the rest of us get dizzy trying to keep track It started out an instant star, with arrays of plants jewel-like in their condition and rarity—big enthusiasm. Aerin Moore’s charismatic promotion of gardening in general and his and other local genius’ techniques in particular certainly helped make the place popular. There were classes and nifty things to buy and all was apparently hunky-dory in this welcome new item on our nursery smorgasbord. (Today’s spread here features mashed metaphors with a piquant gossip gravy.)  

Then the place got to looking a bit ratty for a few years, and its hours and ambition seemed to contract somewhat. Rumors abounded in the garden community, heads were shaken, tuts were tutted, the usual. Then suddenly Magic Gardens was open in a new location, up the frontage road from Central Avenue toward Richmond alongside American Soil’s new retail place and The Urban Gardener. Then it was bi-locating like somebody’s patron saint. Then it had returned to concentrate on its original Berkeley location, on Heinz Street west of Seventh. Now it’s de-concentrating, as it were, by limiting its retail hours and spending most energy on the landscaping arm of its business. 

Over a decade ago, a fellow garden pro pointed out a couple of Magic landscapes that she found scandalous. One was imaginative enough, with a flag-circled lawn and pie-slices carved out of the ivy slope and planted with azaleas for visual impact. But those azaleas (and that turf) were under old California live oaks, which tend to dwindle and die slowly with summer irrigation. The water-lovers were planted downslope from the trees, which would help, but it’s an opportunity for oak-dangerous fungi to flourish. The other scandal was basically a heap of deer chow, planted in deer-friendly Orinda. It had evidently impressed the deer; what I saw looked like the wedding buffet after the guests had gone. 

But they’ve done much better things too, and there’s some good stonework around with Magic’s fingerprints on it. Evidently they’ve learned better. Certainly one can expect imaginative plant choices from these folks. I hope the rest of us will still get to have a taste of that, at least on Saturdays, and that the landscaping part of the business can support the retail nursery. Magic has been offering Saturday classes with some of our best garden mavens. I hope that continues too; it’s certainly a good omen that speaks well for its learning curve. 

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Little houses have their own heating issues and so I’d like to ask those of you who own ranchos grande to bear with me for a few minutes while I focus on the heating needs of the little houses.  

Small houses are often under-heated or minimally heated. It seems to go along with the low economy which these small homes express in so many ways. Many of the small houses I see are heated with either gas floor furnaces or gas wall furnaces or some combination of the two. A few are heated with electric heaters and, believe it or not, some have no heat at all (which some folks, amazingly, prefer). 

Wall furnaces are the most common heating I find in small houses so let’s start with them. If you have a house heated by a single wall furnace, one of the things you may have noticed is that they don’t really transmit much heat beyond the room in which they are located.  

If you close your bedroom door, it’s likely that the heat will be sucked out of those old single-glazed windows faster than the furnace can push it in through the door. If you leave the bedroom door open, this system might work for you. Floor furnaces create the same problem.  

Sometimes there is more than one wall furnace in the house and this may provide enough distribution to pass muster. You may also have noticed that, in order to get the coldest room warm enough, the room where the heater is located has to be baking hot. This raises questions about the efficiency of the system because you know you are wasting heat if you’re overheating any space. Wall furnaces also toss quite a bit of their heat up through the flue into the night sky, and if you’re really heat hungry, you may be helping to put some PG&E exec’s daughter through Stanford. 

If you have a wall furnace in a bedroom, you may be chancing a carbon monoxide poisoning because you are in an enclosed space with the unit for long periods of time and wall furnaces are more apt than other designs to draft noxious flue gases into the living space. The unit is also using up the oxygen in the room, and I don’t know about you, but I really like my oxygen (and I don’t want to share). 

Again, floor furnaces are similar in these respects and if you have either one of these heaters in a bedroom, I strongly suggest finding another way to heat the space. 

If you have a really tiny house and a single wall furnace that you’ve had checked by a good heating expert and you’re warm enough and happy, well, fine. This kind of heater might be all right for you. Nonetheless, most of the houses I see that are being heated this way prove to have those bothersome traits I’ve described. 

Here are a few more issues specific to floor furnaces. First, kids and especially infants get burned on these ancient devices, and fires can also start if flammables are left sitting on them (listen, I don’t always look to see where I tossed the newspaper). 

If you do want to use a gas “point-source” heater (non-central or unducted, like the wall or floor furnace) to heat your bedroom or all purpose (sleep/live) room, a ”direct-vent” model may be a reasonable choice. These are far less likely to introduce noxious wastes like carbon monoxide into the room and don’t use oxygen from the inside, so they’re a much better choice. These still get quite hot if left on for a long time and also don’t heat the next room very well. Again, this is a reasonable choice for a very small living space. 

If you’re using electric heat, consider that, on average, you’re paying at least three times as much for the same unit of heat. These also heat slowly, which has both plusses and minuses. If you’re in a house that has an older electrical system, the use of electric heaters may pose something of a threat and, at very least, a good electrician should check to make sure everything is properly installed. 

I would like to take a minute to discuss freestanding electric heaters. In short, don’t use them if you can possibly avoid it. They cause loads of fires as well as being real energy hogs. If you absolutely must use one, please don’t sleep with it on. Also, don’t use one with an extension cord. This greatly increases the likelihood of a fire. 

So, having covered the field of point-source heating (the main kind I see in small houses), let’s talk a little about what other choices you might explore. Oddly, one of the things I’d look at first is insulation. If you have a lot more insulation, you might not need much heat at all. Take a look at your leaky windows and consider double-glazed ones. A retrofit type might not cost too much. See if you have plenty of well-distributed attic insulation. If not, you may be fighting an uphill battle to keep the heat you’ve bought inside your house. Distribution really matters and the attic entry door should be insulated as well. Weather-strip your main exterior doors. This can save a lot of heat and keep the house cozier. 

Now the big stuff. If you feel like the house is one you’re going to stay in for a while or has the capability to sell for a good price, a central heating system is probably a reasonable economic choice. These come in very small output sizes and are somewhat cheaper when installed in a small house. If you choose a “condensing” type, they are extremely efficient and will pump warm air through all the rooms of the house at the same time. Ooooo, warmth at last. You may end up with this unit in the crawlspace, the attic or a closet in the interior. If you’re adventurous and willing to try something new, consider one of the new small “hydronic” types, that heat the house with warm water running through tubing below the floor or through radiators. There’s even a nice little unit that also heats the water you shower and cook with and the whole thing hangs on outside of the house. Next time, I’ll spend a whole page on this unit. It’s called the Baxi Luna and it’ll really raise your temperature. 

›

The address of Razan’s Organic Kitchen was printed incorrectly in Tuesday’s paper. The restaurant is located at 2119 Kittredge St..t

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.  

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 architecture 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 reservations 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 Center 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.  

Slydini with saxophonist John Ingle at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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. 

Peau de Chagrin, jazz, at at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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.  

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. 

Mary Burger and Rob Halpern at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

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.  

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

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 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8 

FILM 

FIlm 50 “The Fall of the House of Usher” at 3 p.m. and Weird America “Olie Noodling” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

An Evening with John Cleese at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Café Poetry hosted by Kira Allen at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Tim Egan describes “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Camille Paglia describes “Break, Blow, Burn” on poetry and the state of our culture, at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High School Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

North Beach Django Band at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Earth Quake Weather, Love Infinity, Sabre Teeth, Yardsale at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Four Flea Circus, folk-rock fusions, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

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 

THURSDAY, FEB. 9 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The White Album” works in varying shades of white. Reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs through March 25. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

Irie Park All-Stars “Civil Rights and Lefts” Visual history of the African-American experience. Reception at 5:30 p.m. at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. and runs through March 11. 967-5399. 

“A Retrospective in Black & White and Color” works by photographer Susan Sai-Wah Louie at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., through March 16. 981-6100. 

THEATER 

“Grandma’s Hands” A Black History Month celebration by the fifth graders at Oxford Elementary School at 9 a.m. at 1130 Oxford St. Also on Fri. at 10:30 a.m. at Jefferson Elementary School. 644-6300. 

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Summer Clouds” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“The Greater Circulation” by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 26th St. Cost is $5-$10. 444-7263. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Regla: Revolution” panel discussion on Cuban political prints by Antonio Canet, at 6 p.m. at the NIAD Art Center, 551 23rd St., Richmond. www.niadart.org 

Poets for Peace with Margaret Kaufman, Jeffrey Levine, Ilya Kaminsky and Robert Thomas at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

An Evening with John Cleese at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Sarah Vowell reads from her book “Assassination Vacation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Word Beat Reading Series with Michael Kelly and M.K. Chavez at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $32.50-$33.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bryan Girard’s Soul Jazz Collective at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Full Service at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Duo Mysterioso at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Steve Tyrell at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.comª

Celebrating 81 years of good fellowship among magicians, the Oakland Magic Circle marks the installation of a new board of directors with a banquet and gala magic show featuring a tribute to Charles Dickens, himself a conjurer. Open to the public, the fun starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, with strolling close-up magicians, at Bjornson Hall (home of The Sons of Norway) on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland. 

Festivities begin with members of the Magic Circle performing as strolling close-up entertainers, br inging tricks to the table for some intimate mystification. Dinner will follow at 7, with a prearranged choice of entrees for ticket buyers. At 8:15, the gala show will begin, with host Timothy James, followed by “A Touch of Opera” with David Miller and M lle. Jamie, then Dick Newton’s “Tribute to Charles Dickens,” and Incoming Circle President James Hamilton with some “Classic Conjuring,” followed by a grand, if wild, finale with The Flying Calamari Bros. in “Total Insanity.”  

“Timothy James is a young performer who’s appeared at the Magic Castle in Hollywood and here and there,” commented James Hamilton. “He performs comedy magic, offbeat, fun stuff. David Miller will show his marvels—like the Floating Ball—interactively with opera singer Mlle. Jamie.”  

It’s well-known that Dickens performed in amateur theater and read his stories to crowds on his popular lecture tours. The grandfather of today’s solo performance was “Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens,” the great Welsh actor and playwright reenacting the spectacular Victorian as storyteller and actor behind the lecture podium. But Dickens’ career in conjuring, which Dick Newton recreates, is something less familiar about the great novelist, social reformer and humorist.  

James Hamilton is a longtime Bay Area practitioner of the magic arts; his “Classic Conjuring” is an act aptly named. Hamilton is every inch what’s implied by the moniker of Stage Magician: elegant in dress, eloquent and witty with patter or expressive in silence and pantomime, a master of the repertoire of conjuring, from edgy illusions to mind-boggling conundrums. Familiar to local audiences as The Magician at the Christmas Party in San Francisco Ballet productions of “The Nutcracker,” Hamilton is also a historian of the art, sp ecializing in late 19th century magician Hermann The Great, and is the author of numerous magazine articles, as well as lectures he’s delivered around North America and in London.  

Asked about The Flying Calamari Bros., Hamilton just smiles. “Two big guys go crazy—it’s a wild and crazy comic magic act. The title says it all.” 

Hamilton also spoke a little bit about the Oakland Magic Circle. “It was founded in 1925 by Professor El-Tab, a professional magician who lived in Oakland. Luminaries of th e world of magic have appeared at gatherings of the Circle; in recent years, conjurers of the stature of Harry Blackstone, Jr., Mr. Electric, The Great Tomsoni, John Carney, Charlie Miller ...  

“We’re an organization for both amateur and professional mag icians,” he continued, “a social organization. We hold auctions, lectures—open to members of the public—and in the fall host an interclub magic contest, to which the different clubs around each send a contestant. That’s an open event, too, with a big spag hetti dinner. We also have competitions within the Circle, and sponsor seminars for magicians.” 

Although stage magic is experiencing a new high of popularity, and has changed outwardly in a variety of ways over the years, the classic routines—though some times with a different spin—still entrance aficionados and new spectators alike. Styles change, but the old standbys keep coming around, although, as James Hamilton points out, “all those tricks with cigarettes seem to be passé.” 

The Oakland Magic Circle: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, Bjornson Hall, MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland. Adults, $22; children 12 and under, $15. All children will receive a free magic gift. Reservations are required; no tickets will be sold at the door. Tickets and information are ava ilable at www.brownpapertickets.com/events/3036 or 1-800-838-3006.› 

Courtesy of James Hamilton 

Magic arts practitioner James Hamilton.›

In the late 1800s, Berkeley was a favorite retirement spot for sea captains. A number of them built imposing Victorians overlooking the Golden Gate in the North Berkeley hills, but few people know that the Southside boasted its own enclave of sailors’ residences at the intersection of Fulton and Blake Streets. 

This intersection retains its Victorian character to this day, with four intact houses—one Italianate and three Queen Annes—gracing its northeast and southwest corners. The original owners of all these houses had been seafarers. 

Captain John H. Whitham’s house stands at 2198 Blake St. This elegant Queen Anne, still surrounded by its original cast-iron fence, was designed and built in 1889 by prominent Alameda architect A.W. Pattiani. Two years l ater, Pattiani went on to build Captain James H. Bruce’s sumptuous Queen Anne at 2211 Blake St. Both residences were featured in BAHA’s 2004 house tour, Berkeley 1890: “At Home” along Fulton Street. 

But the oldest house in the Blake-Fulton maritime corne r is the Alfred Bartlett residence at 2201 Blake St. Erected in 1877, it is probably the most unspoiled Italianate dwelling in Berkeley. 

An Englishman born in 1841, Alfred Bartlett served in the British navy in his early teens. Discontented, at age 15 he stowed away on a ship to New York. In 1857 he worked passage on a ship to California in a stormy voyage of 152 days around the horn. Once arrived in San Francisco, he bought a wagon and horses and began selling books. 

Following a checkered and adventurous career, by 1877 Bartlett was prosperous enough to invest in real estate. Early that year he bought two lots on Blake Street in Berkeley and built the Italianate dwelling “for the sake of the health of my wife and two daughters,” then 3 and 5 years old. The same year, Bartlett joined with four other prominent businessmen—James L Barker, William B. Heywood, George D. Dornin, and Charles K. Clarke— in forming the Berkeley Land and Building Company. The Berkeley Advocate of Aug. 25, 1877 reported that “The y intend to do a real estate business in conjunction with building and improvements that will contribute to the growth and prosperity of the town.” The company’s office was located at the Berkeley terminus, on the Shattuck Avenue island now known as Berkeley Square.  

At the time the Bartlett residence went up, the surrounding Blake Tract, newly subdivided in 1876, was still mostly farmland, yet on Nov. 24, 1877 the Berkeley Advocate was calling for “a separate incorporation of Berkeley, like Cambridge, (Mass.), or any other university town.” Berkeley would incorporate the following year.  

In addition to selling books and real estate, Alfred Bartlett also dabbled in local politics. In 1886, he ran for the office of Berkeley town marshal. In this campaign he was defeated by the popular contractor-builder and amateur painter A.H. Broad, who had been a member of Berkeley’s first Board of Trustees, was a founder of Berkeley’s first library, and later would serve as town engineer and as superintendent of reconstruction of Berkeley schools injured by the earthquake. 

In 1892, the Bartletts built a second house next door, at 2205 Blake St. Rumor has it that this Queen Anne residence was a wedding present for one of the Bartletts’ daughters, but it appears to have been used as a rental property, as demand for housing increased as the district grew around the thriving downtown and Dwight Way Station commercial areas along Shattuck Avenue. 

The two Bartlett houses, situated in their original setting with virtual ly no exterior alterations, are probably the most pristine representation of Victorian Berkeley remaining. They were designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in December 2005. Sadly, their owner has removed several of the old Coast Live Oak trees around the se graceful old houses.  

Photo by Daniella Thompson 

The Captain Whitham house, 2198 Blake St. ,

If you’re a weekday plant shopper, you have only a week to get on down to Magic Gardens on Heinz Street and grab some of those nifty Japanese red-twigged variegated willows or those ’lebenty-seven rose varieties all in a row. If you’ll stoop to rubbing elbows with the weekend crowd and want to keep the place open as a retail nursery, plan on spending time and bucks there some Saturdays. As of Feb. 11, Magic Gardens, sole location will be open for retail sales only on Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to start. 

Magic Gardens has been through changes in its relatively short life, so many that the rest of us get dizzy trying to keep track It started out an instant star, with arrays of plants jewel-like in their condition and rarity—big enthusiasm. Aerin Moore’s charismatic promotion of gardening in general and his and other local genius’ techniques in particular certainly helped make the place popular. There were classes and nifty things to buy and all was apparently hunky-dory in this welcome new item on our nursery smorgasbord. (Today’s spread here features mashed metaphors with a piquant gossip gravy.)  

Then the place got to looking a bit ratty for a few years, and its hours and ambition seemed to contract somewhat. Rumors abounded in the garden community, heads were shaken, tuts were tutted, the usual. Then suddenly Magic Gardens was open in a new location, up the frontage road from Central Avenue toward Richmond alongside American Soil’s new retail place and The Urban Gardener. Then it was bi-locating like somebody’s patron saint. Then it had returned to concentrate on its original Berkeley location, on Heinz Street west of Seventh. Now it’s de-concentrating, as it were, by limiting its retail hours and spending most energy on the landscaping arm of its business. 

Over a decade ago, a fellow garden pro pointed out a couple of Magic landscapes that she found scandalous. One was imaginative enough, with a flag-circled lawn and pie-slices carved out of the ivy slope and planted with azaleas for visual impact. But those azaleas (and that turf) were under old California live oaks, which tend to dwindle and die slowly with summer irrigation. The water-lovers were planted downslope from the trees, which would help, but it’s an opportunity for oak-dangerous fungi to flourish. The other scandal was basically a heap of deer chow, planted in deer-friendly Orinda. It had evidently impressed the deer; what I saw looked like the wedding buffet after the guests had gone. 

But they’ve done much better things too, and there’s some good stonework around with Magic’s fingerprints on it. Evidently they’ve learned better. Certainly one can expect imaginative plant choices from these folks. I hope the rest of us will still get to have a taste of that, at least on Saturdays, and that the landscaping part of the business can support the retail nursery. Magic has been offering Saturday classes with some of our best garden mavens. I hope that continues too; it’s certainly a good omen that speaks well for its learning curve. 

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Little houses have their own heating issues and so I’d like to ask those of you who own ranchos grande to bear with me for a few minutes while I focus on the heating needs of the little houses.  

Small houses are often under-heated or minimally heated. It seems to go along with the low economy which these small homes express in so many ways. Many of the small houses I see are heated with either gas floor furnaces or gas wall furnaces or some combination of the two. A few are heated with electric heaters and, believe it or not, some have no heat at all (which some folks, amazingly, prefer). 

Wall furnaces are the most common heating I find in small houses so let’s start with them. If you have a house heated by a single wall furnace, one of the things you may have noticed is that they don’t really transmit much heat beyond the room in which they are located.  

If you close your bedroom door, it’s likely that the heat will be sucked out of those old single-glazed windows faster than the furnace can push it in through the door. If you leave the bedroom door open, this system might work for you. Floor furnaces create the same problem.  

Sometimes there is more than one wall furnace in the house and this may provide enough distribution to pass muster. You may also have noticed that, in order to get the coldest room warm enough, the room where the heater is located has to be baking hot. This raises questions about the efficiency of the system because you know you are wasting heat if you’re overheating any space. Wall furnaces also toss quite a bit of their heat up through the flue into the night sky, and if you’re really heat hungry, you may be helping to put some PG&E exec’s daughter through Stanford. 

If you have a wall furnace in a bedroom, you may be chancing a carbon monoxide poisoning because you are in an enclosed space with the unit for long periods of time and wall furnaces are more apt than other designs to draft noxious flue gases into the living space. The unit is also using up the oxygen in the room, and I don’t know about you, but I really like my oxygen (and I don’t want to share). 

Again, floor furnaces are similar in these respects and if you have either one of these heaters in a bedroom, I strongly suggest finding another way to heat the space. 

If you have a really tiny house and a single wall furnace that you’ve had checked by a good heating expert and you’re warm enough and happy, well, fine. This kind of heater might be all right for you. Nonetheless, most of the houses I see that are being heated this way prove to have those bothersome traits I’ve described. 

Here are a few more issues specific to floor furnaces. First, kids and especially infants get burned on these ancient devices, and fires can also start if flammables are left sitting on them (listen, I don’t always look to see where I tossed the newspaper). 

If you do want to use a gas “point-source” heater (non-central or unducted, like the wall or floor furnace) to heat your bedroom or all purpose (sleep/live) room, a ”direct-vent” model may be a reasonable choice. These are far less likely to introduce noxious wastes like carbon monoxide into the room and don’t use oxygen from the inside, so they’re a much better choice. These still get quite hot if left on for a long time and also don’t heat the next room very well. Again, this is a reasonable choice for a very small living space. 

If you’re using electric heat, consider that, on average, you’re paying at least three times as much for the same unit of heat. These also heat slowly, which has both plusses and minuses. If you’re in a house that has an older electrical system, the use of electric heaters may pose something of a threat and, at very least, a good electrician should check to make sure everything is properly installed. 

I would like to take a minute to discuss freestanding electric heaters. In short, don’t use them if you can possibly avoid it. They cause loads of fires as well as being real energy hogs. If you absolutely must use one, please don’t sleep with it on. Also, don’t use one with an extension cord. This greatly increases the likelihood of a fire. 

So, having covered the field of point-source heating (the main kind I see in small houses), let’s talk a little about what other choices you might explore. Oddly, one of the things I’d look at first is insulation. If you have a lot more insulation, you might not need much heat at all. Take a look at your leaky windows and consider double-glazed ones. A retrofit type might not cost too much. See if you have plenty of well-distributed attic insulation. If not, you may be fighting an uphill battle to keep the heat you’ve bought inside your house. Distribution really matters and the attic entry door should be insulated as well. Weather-strip your main exterior doors. This can save a lot of heat and keep the house cozier. 

Now the big stuff. If you feel like the house is one you’re going to stay in for a while or has the capability to sell for a good price, a central heating system is probably a reasonable economic choice. These come in very small output sizes and are somewhat cheaper when installed in a small house. If you choose a “condensing” type, they are extremely efficient and will pump warm air through all the rooms of the house at the same time. Ooooo, warmth at last. You may end up with this unit in the crawlspace, the attic or a closet in the interior. If you’re adventurous and willing to try something new, consider one of the new small “hydronic” types, that heat the house with warm water running through tubing below the floor or through radiators. There’s even a nice little unit that also heats the water you shower and cook with and the whole thing hangs on outside of the house. Next time, I’ll spend a whole page on this unit. It’s called the Baxi Luna and it’ll really raise your temperature. 

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The address of Razan’s Organic Kitchen was printed incorrectly in Tuesday’s paper. The restaurant is located at 2119 Kittredge St..t

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 survived the Holocaust 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. 

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 

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

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 

Help Clean Up Strawberry Creek from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lodge, 1320 Addison. RSVP to Tom Kelly kyotousa@sbcglobal.net 

“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 

Peltier Action Coalition Paryer and Drum Circle at noon at the Oakland Federal Building, 1300 Clay St. 496-6011. 

“Sacred Run” Send Off Benefit at 6 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation $10. 496-6011. 

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 an 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. 

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

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

TUESDAY, FEB. 7 

Community Rally to Stop the Ashby BART Grant at 6:15 on the steps of Old City Hall, before the City Council meeting. 

Kalimba Interactive Assembly with Carl Winters on 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. 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8 

Richmond Southeast Shoreline Community Advisory Group Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Richmond Convention Center, Bermuda Room, 403 Civic Center Plaza at Nevin and 25th Sts. 540-3923. 

Presentation about the Albany Shoreline and the Citizens’ Planning Initiative to Protect Albany’s Shoreline with Robert Cheasty, president of Citizens for East Shore Parks and former Mayor of Albany at 10:30 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 558-9639. www.albanyshoreline.org 

Lead-Safety for Remodeling, Repair and Painting of older homes. A HUD & EPA approved class held in Oakland from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. To register, call Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at 567-8280. www.ACLPPP.org 

“The Rebirth of Environ- 

mentalism” with George Lakoff and Mark Danner at 7:30 p.m. at Buttner Auditorium, College Prep School, 6100 Broadway. Tickets are $5-$10 at the door. 339-7726.  

Rhoda Goldman Lecture in Health Policy “A Conversation with Robert Klein” at 7:30 p.m. at Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave., UC Campus. 642-4670. 

Film Series on 9/11: “The Great Conspiracy” at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. Oakland. Free, but donations of $5 accepted. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Indigenous Peoples And Diabetes: Community Empowerment And Wellness” edited by Mariana Ferreira and Gretchen Lang, book release at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

East Bay Genealogical Society Robert Lindquist will about the Swedish immigration at 10 a.m. in the Library Conference Room of the Family History Center, 4766 Lincoln Ave. Oakland. 635-6692. 

Poetry Writing Workshop, led by Alison Seevak, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library ,1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at USDA, 800 Buchanan St., Albany. To schedule an appointment, call Steven at 559-6188. www.BeADonor.com  

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 and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

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

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. 

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

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, FEB. 9 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll search for our amphibian friends, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Grandma’s Hands” A Black History Month celebration by the fifth graders at Oxford Elementary School at 9 a.m. at 1130 Oxford St. Also on Fri. at 10:30 a.m. at Jefferson Elementary School. 644-6300. 

“Can the US be a Global Good Neighbor” Panel discussion with Ann Wright, Tom Barry, John Gershman, Laura Carlsen, Stephen Zunes, and Conn Hallinan at 7 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Donations suggested. Sponsored by The International Relations Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“North Koreans Beyond the Border” Four UCB Journalism students report about their travels to South Korea and Northern China where they met North Korean migrants and defectors, at 5:30 p.m. at North Gate Hall Library, UC CAmpus. http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/2006.02.09.html 

East Bay Mac Users Group meets at 6 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville Learn how to sync your Mac to almost any PDA or handheld. http://ebmug.org 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at MLK Student Union, East Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

Lead Funding Info Meeting for Landlords to learn about financial assistance to reduce lead hazards at 6 p.m. at Oakland Housing Authority, 1619 Harrison. Free, presented by Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 567-8280. www.ACLPPP.org 

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

ONGOING 

“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 

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. ª

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. 

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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. ›