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Judith Scherr: City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque took part in a countywide forum on open government Friday in San Lorenzo..
Judith Scherr: City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque took part in a countywide forum on open government Friday in San Lorenzo..
 

News

Sun Slow to Shine on Berkeley Government By JUDITH SCHERR

Tuesday March 21, 2006

When Councilmember Laurie Capitelli introduced new elements to a draft Landmarks Preservation Ordinance at a council meeting earlier this month with no notice to the public, some community members cried foul. 

Bringing in proposals at the last minute “wo rks against the public’s right to know,” said Berkeley resident Doug Buckwald, citing Capitelli’s last-minute additions to the draft law, considered a proper amendment by the city attorney. Buckwald made his comments from the floor during a question-and-a nswer session at the League of Women Voters countywide forum on open government Friday in San Lorenzo. 

The forum, which included panelists Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque and Berkeley City Clerk Sara Cox as well as representatives from other m unicipalities and experts on “sunshine” ordinances—local laws expanding state guarantees for access to government information and participation—comes just days after Berkeley’s draft sunshine ordinance was made public by Counclmember Kriss Worthington, wh o had sponsored a resolution approved five years ago to create such an ordinance for Berkeley. 

Known worldwide as a free speech leader, Berkeley lags behind Oakland, San Francisco, Contra Costa County, Los Angeles, Benicia and several other jurisdictions that have sunshine ordinances in place. 

However, now that a draft has been written, Worthington is fuming: “It’s worse than having no sunshine ordinance at all,” he said in an interview several days before the LWV event. The draft, prepared by Albuquerque, is a scaled-back version of a stronger ordinance written by former City Clerk Sherry Kelly, acting as a consultant, Worthington said. 

Central to Worthington’s critique is the remedies section of the draft law: those who believe the city has violated its sunshine ordinance would present their complaints to the city manager. If the manager does not validate the complaint, the citizen can appeal to the City Council, but no one can sue under the ordinance. 

“Having to appeal to the city manager is outrageous,” Worthington said, adding that without the right to sue, the ordinance has no teeth. 

Between sessions at the LWV workshop, Albuquerque defended the remedies provision in the draft law, arguing that most citizens would not file suit, as provided by the Brown Act, but might be more likely to go to the city manager for relief. She pointed out that under this plan, the manager would keep records of complaints. “If something is wrong, it will be fixed,” she said. 

Both Oakland and San Francisco sunshine ordinances empower citizens’ commissions to enforce the laws. Dan Purnell, executive director of Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission, speaking on one of the LWV’s panels, said people who believe they’ve been wronged “file a complaint with the Ethics Commi ssion and the Ethics Commission can enforce a remedy.” For example, he said, if a meeting is not properly noticed, the Ethics Commission could have the entire meeting repeated after proper noticing. 

Berkeley resident Carl Friberg queried the panel during a question and answer session about what he called “a secret agreement” between Berkeley and the University of California. He was referring to the settlement agreement between the city and the university last summer, in which attorneys on both sides ente red into a confidentiality agreement, preventing the content of the agreement from being made public until the settlement was finalized. 

Responding from the podium, Albuquerque explained that the Brown Act “allows settlement of lawsuits in closed session,” and that a suit [by Peter Mutnick] claiming violation of open meeting laws in that instance had been rejected in court. Another suit challenging the settlement, in which Friburg is a plaintiff, is still pending. 

In the earlier interview, Worthington n oted: “A good sunshine ordinance would have prevented the ‘secret’ deal having been done in secret.” Such an ordinance would mandate opening agreements to the public for comment before they are finalized, Worthington said, arguing that the draft ordinance is weak in this area. 

Other comments on perceived weaknesses in open government in Berkeley that came to the fore at the LWV forum included these: 

• Agenda item reports sometimes come to the City Council the same day (or hour) the council is asked to v ote on the item. In Oakland, such reports must be available 10 days before council meetings. 

• The city’s lottery system, in which only 10 names are selected for public comment before the meeting starts, prohibits many citizens from addressing the counci l. In Oakland, speakers have the right to address the council for two minutes before each item that the council takes up for action.  

Simply understanding the Brown Act and the Public Records Act as they are now written would be an enormous benefit to the citizens of Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville, said Luanne Rogers, a local LWV member who attended the forum and spoke to a reporter as an individual, not representing the LWV.  

Rogers said she had learned much from the panelists and would ask the local LWV to consider preparing written information for citizens to help them understand their rights. “I’m sure the citizens of Berkeley don’t understand all the aspects (of the laws),” she said. 

According to Rogers, the Berkeley, Oakland and Albany LWV have not discussed crafting or supporting local sunshine ordinances. Oakland’s Sunshine Ordinance, approved in 1997, was largely written and supported by the Oakland League of Women Voters. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington will hold a community meeting to discuss a Berkeley sunshine ordinance, 7 p.m., March 27, fifth floor, 2180 Milvia St. . ?e


Oakland Police Deal Costlier Than Expected By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Tuesday March 21, 2006

An agreement between the chief of the Oakland Police Department and the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association union to put more officers on Oakland’s streets at peak crime times delivers considerably fewer officers than first proposed by the chie f, and appears to do so at considerably greater cost.  

The police agreement was announced by OPOA and city officials last week, and helped to avert a proposed “state of emergency” declaration by the Oakland City Council that would have allowed Chief Wayn e G. Tucker to implement the plan without union approval. 

But as of Monday afternoon, many city officials did not have a copy of the agreement, even though it was the subject of widely covered press conferences by both the police officers’ union and city officials last week. Neither Councilmembers Jane Brunner and Desley Brooks had copies, nor did the public information officer for the Oakland Police Department. With the assistance of Brunner’s office, the Daily Planet was able to obtain a copy of the agreement from the office of the personnel director of the City of Oakland.  

It is scheduled to be presented to the Oakland City Council tonight (Tuesday) at the council’s regular meeting at Oakland City Hall beginning at 6 p.m. 

Under the agreement, only 64 on-call patrol officers will be available at peak crime times in the city. That is an increase from the present 35 but is fewer than the original 84 officers proposed by Tucker. 

In addition, while Tucker’s proposal would have sharply curtailed police overtime pay, the newly signed agreement between the chief and the union leaves the existing overtime structure in place. Police overtime costs the City of Oakland millions of dollars a year. 

A separate plan to form a tactical squad to put an additional 24 to 30 officers on Oakland streets during weekend hours was included in the agreement, but plans for the tactical squad formation had been announced by Chief Tucker’s office several weeks ago and had not been contested by the union. 

The Oakland Tribune reported union officials as praising Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and District 1 Councilmember Jane Brunner (North Oakland) for what the newspaper called “helping to broker the deal.” 

Oakland District 6 Councilmember Desley Brooks, who first revealed the existence of Tucker’s deployment proposal at a PUEBLO meeting in Oakland earlier this month, criticized the agreement, saying, “I’m not clear why reducing overtime became a less important goal than continuing to give some people m ore money.” Noting that OPOA President Bob Valladon had initially rejected the chief’s proposal, Brooks said, “a week ago, Bob Valladon was saying that the chief’s plan would not work. What happened in a week? Does it work now because they have been promi sed more money?” 

Brooks called the agreement “the Raiders deal all over again.” 

Councilmember Brunner’s office could not be reached later on Monday to comment on Brooks’ statement. Neither Councilmember De La Fuente’s office nor a spokesperson for Mayor Jerry Brown’s office returned telephone calls related to this article. Oakland Police Lt. Pete Sarna, who wrote Chief Tucker’s original deployment plan, was also not available for comment. 

Though the agreement itself was widely reported last week, with press statements issued by the police union on Thursday and a city administration-sponsored press conference held on Friday, city officials would not comment on details as revealed in the text obtained by the Planet. 

Police Public Information Officer Rol and Holmgren said on Monday that “I’m looking for a final copy myself. I’m interested in getting one so that I can inform my officers.” A secretary in the office of City Administrator Deborah Edgerly said that copies of the agreement could only be obtaine d from Press Secretary Karen Boyd, who was “out for the week.” Councilmember Brunner’s office did not have a copy of the agreement either. 

Councilmember Brooks, who had not seen a copy of the agreement herself as of Monday, said that “I received a briefi ng on it on Thursday, but [officials in the city administrator’s office] wouldn’t give us anything in writing. They said they wanted it all to be released together on Friday.” 

The two page agreement itself does not detail the number of police officers to be reassigned to peak crime periods, nor does it mention how those officers would be paid for. 

But Chief Tucker’s original redeployment plan called for realigning the police department’s current three 8 hour shift plan to a series of overlapping shifts that would include some officers working five days a week for eight hours, some working four days a week for 10 hours, and some working three days a week for 12 hours. Under the current schedule, when more officers are needed for high crime times, they ar e allowed to work over their regular eight-hour shifts for overtime pay.  

Chief Tucker’s proposed overlapping shift schedule would have eliminated much of the need for overtime pay. That schedule does not appear in the new chief-police union agreement, a nd thus appears to be a casualty of the negotiations. 

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BUSD to Address Flooding Issue At Alternative High School By SUZANNE LA BARRE

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Something’s foul at the Alternative High School. 

During the heavy rains, water seeped into some classrooms, soaking carpets and leaving a moldy stench in its wake, a school health specialist said. The flooding has been recurrent, she said, but only now is the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) doing something about it. 

“It smells very bad,” said Milana Russin, 17, a student at the alternative school. “I remember I had to sit outside the classroom, it was so bad.” 

Russin’s English class accumulates water from both an overhead leak by the blackboard and water creeping up from the ground that leaves one- to three-foot wide puddles, she said.  

“I think there’s some drainage issues outside the classroom, because when it rains, all the water runs toward my classroom and just seeps in,” said Russin’s teacher, Andrea Pritchard. 

Alternative High School Principal Victor Diaz enlightened the district’s facilities department about the water seepage some two weeks ago, said Facilities Director Lew Jones. 

But Joy Moore, who educates students on health issues at the alternative school, claimed flooding has gone on much longer, and both Diaz and the school’s former principal have complained to the district. 

Diaz did not return calls to check that out.  

Jones said it is possible that Director of Maintenance Rhonda Bacot, who resigned a few weeks ago, knew about the high school’s flooding and odor problems. Jones is assuming Bacot’s position until a new maintenance chief is hired. 

Moore fears the flooding affects the well-being of her students, particularly those who are sensitive to allergens. 

“My point is, even if I help them eat better, exercise, get healthy, I send them back into classrooms that could trigger asthma,” she said. 

Pritchard confirmed that a few students have reacted badly to the odor. 

“I have some asthmatic students and there were one or two days when students refused to come into the classroom because of the smell,” she said. She does not, however, have any reason to believe this poses a health hazard, she said.  

The district has not yet conducted an assessment to determine possible health effects. 

The facility was completed in winter of 1999-2000. It comprises about 10 portable classrooms bookended by permanent buildings on Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Ward Street, and plays host to an additional BUSD campus, the Independent Study program. 

Independent Study Coordinator Mary-Louise Newling said water buildup is affecting her buildings, too. 

Though water does not typically infiltrate the program’s classrooms, she said there is some accumulation by the bathrooms. 

“This has been an ongoing problem,” she said. “My concern is there’s a smell at certain times in the bathrooms, and I’m concerned what the water is doing to the [building’s] foundation.” 

Maintenance staff visited the site on Friday, Newling said. Jones expects a full assessment to take place in the next 10 days or so. 

“We’re following up on it,” he said. 

Until then, the exact cause of the leakage remains a mystery.  

Urban legend points to the existence of a buried creek meandering beneath the school, said Ecology Center Executive Director Martin Bourque, which would explain why the site’s soil is perennially muddy. Lime treatments and other preventative measures were ordered up during the planning process to ready the soil for development, Jones said. But it may not have been enough. 

Drains in the area need a revamp, Bourque said. 

“They knew about the drainage issues, they just didn’t do a very good job designing [the school],” Bourque said.  

The lead architect for the project has since retired. Other project developers could not be reached for comment by press time. 

As for a solution, “My understanding is you can either look at where new drains need to be put. That’s the expensive route,” said Bourque. “Then there’s the band-aid solution which is where you can put in sandbags” and other stopgaps. 

Newling said the site is already fortified with water bags, and that a recommendation for new drains and pumping to move water away from district buildings was put forth.  

“I’m hoping we can get this remedied,” she said. “It smells, it’s bad for the foundation and there’s the possibility of mold.”


Gaia Building Culture Wars Head Back to Zoning Board By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 21, 2006

The Gaia Building, the heart of one of Berkeley’s longest-running political and cultural dramas, is heading back for another look by the same city panel that approved its construction. 

While no formal action is planned for Thursday night’s meeting, a majority of the city’s Zoning Adjustment Board members indicated earlier this month that they’re very unhappy with what’s been happening with the first two floors of the building at 2116 Allston Way. 

The immediate issue is the forbidden use of one of the structure’s two “cultural bonus” floors, for which developer Patrick Kennedy was allowed to add two more floors of apartments above—making the entire structure two floors higher than the five otherwise permitted. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB), which approved the construction, will hear a city staff report on the use of the mezzanine Thursday from Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin. 

The report outlines a variety of options available to the board, with possible alternative findings that declare that the use of the floors either does or does not conform with policy and past ZAB and staff decisions. 

But City Manager Phil Kamlarz, in a letter dated March 15, written to the City Council in response to concerns from city councilmembers, repeated determinations by city fire and building inspectors that use of the mezzanine floor has been in violation of city permits. 

Kennedy “did not have the required permits and approval to use the second floor of the Gaia Building after December 16, 2005,” wrote Kamlarz. 

Furthermore, he said, the building lacks the required permit to allow occupants to run a catering business there, and no permits were sought for two rooms that were constructed on the mezzanine level. 

In addition, a rock concert held on the ground floor may have violated the area’s maximum capacity limit, which sets legal occupancy levels for public assembly and meeting rooms—and the Fire Department was notified by another tenant that the posted occupant load sign for the ground floor theater space had been changed from 96 to 222 without the department’s approval. 

When ZAB members had their initial look at the flap earlier this month, they were nearly at the point of taking action before they were reminded that no hearing had been scheduled nor had any notice of pending action been circulated. 

Thursday night’s discussion also won’t result in any action, but a board majority indicated earlier this month that they wanted to do something. 

 

Cultural wars 

The cultural bonus first appeared in the city’s 1990 downtown plan, but because no formal statute was enacted offering a precise definition of the term and the qualifications for its use, application has been more art than science. 

“The Gaia Building was our first application,” said Principal Planner Debra Sanderson, who serves as secretary to ZAB. “We learned a lot from the experience.” 

The tallest structure built in the city center in decades, the Gaia Building was erected only after a political and legal battle waged between developer Patrick Kennedy and preservationists. 

By agreeing to provide a 10,000-square-foot “cultural facility” on the ground floor and the mezzanine above, with the New Age Gaia Bookstore as tenant, Kennedy was allowed to add two additional floors of apartments. 

Opponents argued that the building was simply too massive, and that construction would require demolition of a historic Berkeley building—the old Berkeley Farms creamery. 

When it came time for a demolition hearing before the Zoning Adjustments Board at a Nov. 13, 1997, hearing, Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Chair Robert Kehlmann had sent formal notice that the commission had found by an 8-0-1 vote that Kennedy’s building was too bulky and massive, and would adversely impact on the adjacent Roberts Studio Building, a city landmark built in 1934. 

Future Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley and Doris E. Willingham, writing as members of the Committee for Neighborhood Preservation, opposed the demolition on the grounds that it violated the California Environmental Quality Act. 

When the demolition was nevertheless approved on May 6, 1997, the LPC acted again, using the provisions of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance on June 1 to declare the former creamery building a “structure of merit,” a landmark designation that takes into account subsequent alterations to the original building. 

Despite an appeal by the LPC and LPC commissioners O’Malley and Burton Edwards, the City Council voted to approve the demolition, which was completed in September. 

But the building’s would-be tenant, the Gaia Bookstore, was already defunct, thanks to New Age book buyers, who had abandoned bricks and mortar stores and transmigrated to the more ethereal World Wide Web. 

 

Tenants 

One of the central disputes centers on just what is the cultural bonus, and how can a building owner use the space thereby created? 

In approving the cultural use space for the Gaia Building, ZAB had issued a specific finding that “cultural facility” could mean a for-profit business, with the board to determine just who did or did not meet the requirements. 

With the bankruptcy of the bookstore and his would-be renter gone, Kennedy sought other tenants to fill the two empty floors. Two theatrical troupes considered leases but were unable to come up with the hefty sums needed to finish out the interior, a barren expanse of concrete, steel, ducts and coverless walls and ceilings. 

Kennedy was also the landlord to Anna de Leon, who operated Anna’s Jazz Cafe in one of the developer’s earliest buildings, at 1801 University Ave., and he contacted her about moving into his newest building. 

De Leon closed her cafe in early 2003 in anticipation of the move—a wait that was to last two years before she was finally able to open in the Gaia Building in May 2005. 

Another prospective tenant was Glass Onion Catering, a West Berkeley firm. Co-owner Gloria Atherstone emerged as the firm’s public voice before ZAB and in letters to the press. 

During the ZAB meeting earlier this month, both Atherstone and de Leon said they and Kennedy had a tentative agreement about the use of the space. 

But the plans fell apart, and de Leon was left with her restaurant—which finally opened last spring—and Atherstone and her husband Thomas took over the remainder of the space, including most of the ground floor and all of the mezzanine. 

Atherstone has been running private catered events in the building, and as a principal of Gaia Arts Management, has been renting out space for concerts, theatrical performances, fund-raisers and other events. 

De Leon protested to the city after she said crowds from private parties in November 2005 and last January disrupted events at her club, and again during a Feb. 11 six-band rock concert which found more than 100 sometimes rowdy youths on the sidewalk outside, upset because there was no more space inside. 

She, Atherstone and Kennedy all appeared at the March 3 ZAB meeting, where Kennedy and Atherstone depicted the troubles as a business dispute—an argument that seemed to convince a minority of the board, including Robert Allen and Jesse Anthony. 

“I think they can work this out,” said Allen. 

 

Conflicting visions 

But the larger issues remain and the board majority seemed to agree that something needs to be done about what’s happening in the building. 

“Could we set this for modifying the use permit so that this board sets the performance standard rather than having it be reset by the staff?” asked ZAB Chair Chris Tiedemann. 

As it stands now, city planning staffers, including former Planning Director Carol Barrett and Wendy Cosin, have expressed the opinion that the Gaia Building’s culture space needs to be used only by performance-related activities 30 percent of the time, with the remainder available for whatever permitted use the tenants chose. 

ZAB member Dave Blake said he had understood that the figure meant that 30 percent of the time the floors were in use they would be used for performances, and the rest of the time would be for related activities. 

De Leon said she had come up with the 30 percent figure in a letter to Cosin at Cosin’s request. 

She said it was because Cosin told her that typical performance venues devoted 30 percent of their time to shows and the remainder to preparing for them and related purposes—a significantly different interpretation than has since been applied. 

In a parallel effort, board members, the Civic Arts Commission and others will be taking a longer look at the bonus itself and what it means. Another group that may be looking into the bonus is the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, which is charged with helping to prepare a new plan for the downtown area—including the arts district—as part of the settlement of the city’s suit against UC Berkeley stemming from the school’s Long Range Development Plan. 

 

Another edifice 

One of Kennedy’s most prominent supporters during his original fight to get the building built was Susan Medak, managing director of Berkeley Rep, which eight years later would become the largest recipient of “cultural bonus” work and performance space under the same law that enabled Kennedy to raise the Gaia Building above the five-floor downtown maximum. 

Medak called the proposal “an innovative approach to enriching the livability of our community” and “a model of innovation.” 

In approving the nine-story Arpeggio—formerly the Seagate Building—a luxury condo complex planned for 2041-65 Center St., city staffers said the developer was actually entitled to build to 14 stories downtown because of high construction costs, units reserved for moderate-income buyers and a total of 12,067 feet of cultural space. 

Most of the space would be used for rehearsals by Berkeley Rep, which has also agreed to rent out the hall at cost to other community groups for their performances. 

The use permits for the Arpeggio are much more explicit and restrictive, a result, Sanderson said, of the lessons the city is still learning from the Gaia Building.Æ


Police Department Sends Message with Major Pot Bust By SUZANNE LA BARRE

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Berkeley police made the biggest pot bust in the department’s recent history Wednesday, and they wanted people to know.  

“This is huge for Berkeley,” said Public Information Officer Ed Galvan, who came into police headquarters on his day off to talk to the media. “This is the largest sophisticated marijuana-growing operation we’ve had.” 

Special Enforcement Unit (SEU) officers raided a converted West Berkeley warehouse at 809 Allston Way, arresting six suspects, and seizing 2,500 plants in various stages of growth and roughly 100 pounds of dried pot. Police also descended upon related operations in Oakland, Brentwood and Castro Valley, where they confiscated an additional 2,500 plants, cash and assorted firearms. A seventh suspect was captured in Oakland. 

In all, officers seized more than 5,000 plants and $120,000 in cash.  

Suspects face felony charges for cultivation of marijuana for sale and weapons. All will spend time in jail, Galvan said.  

The investigation was five months in the works, and corralled 21 officers from the SEU, Bicycle Detail and the Detective Division. All work was conducted internally.  

The raids were unrelated to a pot-candy bust in Oakland Thursday, Galvan said.  

At police headquarters Friday, a room was set up for media interviews and viewing of several high-resolution photographs mounted on poster board that depicted rows of plants, firearms neatly arranged like a jewelry collection and mug shots of the suspects, all white males between 23 and 34 years old. 

This is the fresh face of public relations at the Berkeley Police Department.  

“My job is to tout what we do well,” Galvan said, and the bust, unique in part because “everything went so smoothly,” is a prime example. 

“Anytime you take drugs and guns off the street, it’s a good thing,” he said.  

But whether Berkeley residents unanimously agree remains to be seen.  

Some would rather see the Police Department hone in on homicides, which claimed the lives of four youths in recent months. Two of those cases remain unsolved. 

In response to criticism, Galvan said: “We put more than 21 officers on both the homicides. There is only so much we can do. We can’t shake the students and say, ‘What did you see? What did you do?’ 

“There’s going to be a large part of the community who complains, ‘Why are you wasting time on drug wars?’” he said. “But a lot of hazards are related to it,” including fires ignited by grow lights, weapon use, robbery and murder. Galvan cited the 2003 murder of a young person in a pot-related incident in the Berkeley hills as evidence that marijuana is not a victimless crime. 

“The general population believes that marijuana is OK to have and to smoke and to grow in this town because historically we have not done a lot proactively, they think,” Galvan said. “But we’ve always been very proactive on marijuana grows. We’re not after one or two plants, but when you start having 200 plants, that’s more than people can use on their own.””


Council Looks at Housing, Birds, and More By Judith Scherr

Tuesday March 21, 2006

The City Council meets tonight, Tuesday, first at 5:30 p.m. as the Redevelopment Agency, then at 7 p.m., in its regular role. 

Both as Redevelopment Agency and as the City Council, the public officials will be looking at the Oxford Plaza/David Brower Center, slated, as part of the project, to provide 96 units of housing to people designated as extremely low, very low and low income. The city plans to use $1.5 million redevelopment money from the Fourth Street redevelopment area, though redevelopment money generally goes back into redevelopment areas. However, California law requires cities to use 20 percent of redevelopment funds to support low-income housing, so councilmembers will be asked to agree with city staff that the housing will benefit the project area.  

A staff report—released to councilmembers at 5 p.m. on Friday and to the press and public via the city website late Monday morning—says that the project will benefit west Berkeley “by improvement of the supply of housing available at an affordable housing cost to persons who work or live in the Project Area.” 

The delay in releasing the report upset Councilmember Dona Spring, in whose district the project sits. “It makes a controversial issue that much more difficult,” Spring said. “There’s so much money involved that the public needs oversight.”  

Housing Director Stephen Barton said the delay in releasing the report to the public was unavoidable, with various people reviewing the report. “Adding information seems to go on and on,” Barton said. He defended the late distribution to the public by noting that many times reports to the public come in late—sometimes they even come in at the City Council meetings, he said. 

(At the Daily Planet’s deadline Monday, another council item, regarding construction at Alta Bates Hospital, still had no staff report released to the public.) 

 

Warm Pool before voters? 

If this item is approved, the City Council will ask the School Board to add a $2 million item to the November parcel tax ballot measure to help fund a new warm pool at Berkeley High across the street from the school. The warm pool is used especially by disabled and elderly people. 

Upgrades for $3.8 million to the aging pool were approved by the voters in 2000, but subsequently the pool and the building that houses it were found structurally unsound. The School Board has indicated that it wants to build a new warm pool where the Berkeley High tennis courts had been. This will cost $6-$8 million. The City Council voted to kick in an extra $1 million and needs $2 million from the tax to complete the funding.  

 

Tritium glow 

Also before the council will be the phasing out of tritium signs in city-owned or leased buildings. These are the glowing exit signs used so that electricity outages won’t prevent people from knowing where building doors are located. 

The signs use tritium, which is the radioactive isotope of hydrogen, according to the city’s staff report. The tritium signs can break, although it is unlikely. Breakage could lead to adverse health effects and costly cleanup, the staff report says. 

 

Row row? 

The Berkeley High women’s rowing crew wants to practice at the Aquatic Park lagoon during winter months, which is the time of year when there is a great influx of waterbirds, including bufflehead, American coot and scaup. A staff report, citing a study on the winter waterbirds at the lagoon, recommends that the rowers could be restricted to a central lane in the middle of the lake and that vegetation on the sides of the lagoon could be increased to protect the birds. 

In a letter to the Parks and Recreation Commission, Samantha Murray of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, however, said the report was incomplete, having simply looked at the birds and ignored fish and other disturbing factors to the lagoon, such as other year-round paddling, rowing and water-skiing activities.  

“Taking a piecemeal approach to protecting wildlife and habitat is problematic because it acts to consider only one or two factors in a vacuum, independently of countless other interconnected variables,” Murray wrote. 

This item is for the council’s information only. No action will be taken..


Creeks Ordinance Nears Deadline By SUZANNE LA BARRE

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Decision time is fast approaching for the hotly debated creeks ordinance, but Creeks Task Force members are still torn over how to regulate the city’s hidden waterways. 

After more than a year of deliberation, the task force has drafted recommendations to amend the 1989 ordinance, revised in 2002, that limits development on and near Berkeley’s creeks. Many questions remain, however, such as whether to consider Berkeley’s interred watercourses as veritable creeks—and therefore subject to regulation—or as storm drains. 

Currently, the ordinance forbids homeowners living within 30 feet of any waterway, open or underground, from rebuilding or adding onto their homes. In 2004, that was clarified to exempt homes destroyed by natural disasters. But for many residents, the ordinance merits a complete overhaul. 

That time has come. 

The task force will hold a joint public hearing with the Planning Commission tomorrow on the following recommendations, agreed upon by at least nine of 15 task force members: 

• Homes within 30 feet of a creek may be expanded vertically on a case-by-case basis.  

• Homeowners who plan to develop as much as 5 feet into the 30-foot setback must obtain an administrative use permit. Expansion beyond five feet requires a variance. 

• Repairs and rebuilding are allowed. Incentives may be offered to encourage rebuilding 30 feet away from a creek or more. 

• No new structures may be built within 30 feet of a creek. 

Daylighting, or the opening of creek culverts, may or may not be considered in the existing ordinance. If addressed, members recommend that all daylighting on private property be voluntary. 

The staff report, dated March 22, also says, “Creek culverts should be treated as storm drains for purposes of safety, access and maintenance.” 

At press time, however, the task force remained split on the issue. Members agree creek culverts should be managed differently; they’re just not sure to what extent. 

Task force representatives, composed of City Council and city commission appointees, in addition to community members, met Monday night to discuss the point and to flesh out additional concerns, such as what type of structure warrants regulation. The existing ordinance refers only to roofed structures. Unroofed buildings, such as patios, decks and bridges are still up for debate. 

Task force members have other demands. They want a city-funded creek coordinator who would provide general assistance to creekside homeowners, a guide on creek-friendly development and a citywide watershed assessment. 

Wednesday’s joint public hearing at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave., will give community members an opportunity to express their opinions before the Planning Commission formally considers task force suggestions April 5. 

Commissioners must formulate a decision by April 26 to forward recommendations to the City Council by a May 1 deadline. If the commission is unable to reach a verdict by then, the inclusion of culverts in the ordinance’s definition of a creek will sunset. Creeks Task Force Secretary Erin Dando clarified that this will not occur automatically; the council will have to actually amend the ordinance.


Transportation Meeting By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday March 21, 2006

At last Thursday’s Berkeley Transportation Commission meeting, the board unanimously passed a motion asking for a transportation services fee (TSF) to be approved by the City Council at its July 11 meeting. 

A second motion proposed that the fee not be assessed for the first six months after adoption, with one-third of the fee assessed during the following six months and two- thirds of the fee assessed in the next 12 months. After this 30-month adoption period the fee would be assessed in full. 

The TSF as originally proposed by city staff would be assessed on projects that generated new floor area over 1,000 square feet or on changes of use in major commercial districts that require an administrative use permit (AUP) or use permit (UP). The TSF would not be assessed on most changes of use (in which no additional floor area over 1,000 square feet is created) in neighborhood commercial districts, but would be assessed on residential projects if they created additional dwelling units. Affordable housing would be potentially exempted.  

Roland Peterson of Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District spoke against the TSF proposal. He pointed out that Telegraph Avenue currently had a very high level of commercial vacancies, and said that implementing the TSF would harm new businesses that were trying to move in. He gave the example of Blockbuster Video on Durant, which had been turned into a retail store and is currently vacant. 

Berkeley resident Claire Risley spoke in favor of the fee. “Discounts should be offered to people who use alternate forms of transit like bikes or walk. This is not a fantasy idea, a lot of cities are implementing it,” she said. 

Planning Commission Chair Rob Wrenn said that uncertainty about the kind of retail outlet affected could lead to the fee being tweaked. He also said that the fee would not affect stores that went from higher to lower levels of business.  

Transportation staffer Kara Vuicich rejected the idea of collecting fees in installments. They said that even though cities such as San Francisco collect large fees in installments, Berkeley did not have to do the same. “Our main aim is collection; we do not want the city’s resources wasted on collecting fees,” the staff said. 

Board members also stressed the fact that they wanted to make the fee as simple as possible so that business owners would be able to understand it and calculate their own fee without any problems.  

Board member Wendy Alfsen reminded fellow commissioners that a lot of jurisdictions that are more conservative than Berkeley had already implemented a TSF, and so it would not be a revolutionary move.  

 

UC Berkeley/City of Berkeley Long Range Development Plan Agreement 

Regarding the $200,000 payment that UC Berkeley provides annually to the City of Berkeley as part of a settlement agreement, Commission Chair Rob Wrenn said that there had still not been any decisions on what the TDM (Transportation Development Management) funds would be used for. He said that the exact nature of the use of the funds for the joint UC and city transportation development management and pedestrian improvement programs would be decided by the transportation commission subcommittee at the next meeting. 

 

Grants and staffing 

The board also voted in favor of the City Council adding a new staff position.  

Matthew Nichols, principal planner at Berkeley’s Office of Transportation, told the Daily Planet that “in view of the extraordinarily high number of grant applications that the Transportation Division of the Department of Public Works had developed, and the fact that these efforts have resulted in almost $9 million in funding to the city in financial year 2005-06, there is an immediate need for someone to take care of this.” Nichols, who is currently responsible for grants in the Office of Transportation, also stressed the need for someone to adequately carry out future fundraising and grant management projects, as well as bicycle, pedestrian, transit, traffic calming and TDM activities. Wendy Alfsen invited suggestions from the public about how this money could be prioritized. 

Traffic Analysis for MLK/University (Trader Joe’s) was taken off the agenda for the evening..


Popular Berkeley Restaurant Benefits Nepalese Students By Richard Brenneman

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Aficionados of Himalayan cuisine can eat their hearts out tonight (Tuesday), knowing that they’re doing good by eating well. 

The occasion? A benefit at Taste of the Himalayas, the 1700 Shattuck Ave. restaurant owned by Rajen Thapa, a Nepali native who i s raising funds for the school he started in Itahari, a city between Kathmandu and Dharan in the mountain kingdom. 

“I started the Modern Preparatory Secondary Boarding School in a house in 1993,” he explains, with initial funding he had raised in Germany. He began with 125 students from kindergarten through fifth grade. 

Today, the school provides a comprehensive education—in English—for 800 students through the college preparatory level. Of the total, 125 are on full scholarships, many of them untouchab les who would otherwise be unable to obtain an education. 

“We have to raise the money,” Thapa said. “Otherwise the school will be closed down.” 

As it is, Thapa said he sends about $2,000 a month he makes through the popular restaurant back to Nepal to h elp fund the school, which a nephew is now running in his absence. 

Born in India, Thapa’s Nepalese grandparents left their homeland along with many of their compatriots who emigrated to work on the tea plantations of West Bengal. 

“I got a scholarship from the Tea Board,” he said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to afford to go to school. School exposed me to the wider world, and it was there I decided to become a teacher.” 

Thapa decided to go to his ancestral homeland, settling in Itahari in 1983 at the age of 20 as a teacher of English and history. Within months he had been named first vice-principal and then principal of the school. He started his own school a decade later, and in the years since, more than 300 students have graduated. 

“I want my students to become first-class citizens of the world, outgoing, eloquent and confident. Many of them arrive after not thinking they’d ever be able to go to school,” Thapa said. 

Many Nepalese parents resist the notion of sending their children to school, believing their children should work, Thapa said. “‘Many of them say, ‘It’s always been this way: Why should it be any different.’ Others say they don’t want their children to learn to read and write because they don’t want them writing love letters.” 

Once accepted by the school, all students are provided with clothes, meals, texts and all school supplies, and they have a chance to work with computers. 

Another high-tech touch is provided by the parabolic solar collectors created by students and faculty from Emden University in Germany. The devices are used to provide the heat for cooking student meals, replacing the highly polluting wood stoves previously used. 

Those who attend tonight’s festivities will get to meet some of the graduates of Thapa’s school, including some who will demonstrate traditional dances. 

It was his success that sent Thapa to the Bay Area. In a country riven by political dissent, with traditionalists opposed by Maoist revolutionaries, Thapa’s high profile as a modernist was a ttracting unwanted attention and he was granted political asylum by the United States. 

In Berkeley, where several former students attend the university, he began as an employee of the restaurant, and a year ago he was able to buy it—the occasion of tonight’s celebration. 

Festivities will be held from 5 to 10 p.m., and all are welcome, he said. Customers who arrive at the restaurant tonight won’t be charged for their meals. But voluntary contributions they give will all go toward the school, he said. 

 

Photo by Richard Brenneman 

Berkeley residents who dine at Rajen Thapa’s Taste of the Himalayas may not realiize that some of their tab is helping to educate children at a Nepalese school founded by the restaurant’s owner. A benefit tonight (Tuesday) is open to all starting at 5 p.m.


Berkeley Voters Would Support School Parcel Tax By Suzanne La Barre

Tuesday March 21, 2006

More than 75 percent of Berkeley voters would support a renewed school parcel tax, a new survey says. 

Wednesday, the Berkeley Board of Education will hear results from a telephone survey conducted by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research that asked 600 likely voters earlier this month whether they would endorse a new parcel tax and where they would like that money to go. 

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) wants to place a measure on the November 2006 ballot to succeed the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project and Measure B of 2004, both scheduled to expire at the end of the 2006-2007 school year. 

Combined, the two measures provide BUSD with about $19 million to maintain reduced class sizes, library services, music classes and other programs. 

According to the new study, 78 percent of those surveyed said they would vote in favor of a measure that would replace the existing tax level. Slightly fewer—77 percent—said they would support a $63 tax raise. 

The measure would need a two-thirds majority vote to pass. It would sunset in 10 years.  

A comparable study for Measure B in 2004 found that 75 percent of those surveyed supported the tax. Voters passed Measure B by 72 percent.  

The survey, which was conducted in English and Spanish, also asked respondents to rank school programs they deemed most important for funding.  

Class size reduction, teacher training, academic enrichment for high achievers and academic tutoring topped the list. 

Longer school days and school years, landscaping and free school lunches were branded least important. 

The proposed measure would levy a tax on private properties at approximately 23 cents per square foot and on commercial properties at 34 cents per square foot, yielding a total of $19.5 million. The rate would increase with annual cost-of-living adjustments.  

Low-income seniors would be eligible for exemption.  

The Berkeley Board of Education meets Wednesday at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at 7:30 p.m., to hear the voter research report and terms of the suggested bond measure..


Foster Care Faces Budget Cuts By Riya Bhattacharjee

Tuesday March 21, 2006

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2006 which was passed in February 2006 by Congress and signed by President Bush included language that essentially overturned the Rosales v. Thompson decision handed down by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The decision in Rosales broadened the eligibility criteria for federal foster care funding under Title IV-E, which enabled children to be found eligible for Title IV-E.  

The Deficit Reduction Act thus narrowed the eligibility criteria again, meaning that fewer children would be eligible for federal funding. 

Cathy Senderling, senior legislative advocate at the County Welfare Director’s Association of California (CWDA), said that the cuts would be very unfortunate. “For children placed with relatives, the difference could be great. As an example, consider two siblings aged 7 and 10 who are placed with a grandmother who is also needy. Under the Rosales court decision, if those children were found eligible for federal foster care, the family would be able to receive a payment of $1,330 each month using a combination of foster care funds and our CalWORKs cash assistance program (the state’s welfare program). If Rosales no longer applies, this family would lose the foster care payments for the two siblings, and instead get a CalWORKs grant for a family of three. Their new monthly payment is $703—a loss of $607 a month, or $7,284 a year,” she said. 

Senderling added that this was a substantial difference for a low-income family that was trying to make ends meet in the first place. “Our relative caregivers are often needy themselves and are willing to where they have been abused and neglected, but they must be able to feed, clothe, and shelter those children. Relatives are the placement of choice because they keep children connected to their broader families as well as to their friends, schools and communities. If we are not able to find a relative who is willing and able to take in these children, they may be separated from their siblings and moved far away from their communities and schools to live with caregivers they have never met before. We very much value our licensed, non-related foster parents, but both federal and state law—as well as best social work practice— dictate that we look first to the child’s family to find someone they already know who can care for them.” 

If this kind of money is lost by caregivers, placements could be destabilized, making it more difficult for CWDA to find relatives who were willing and able to care for children. This is one of the main reasons why the federal budget cut is such a problem.  

“We believe that the federal government should share in the cost of caring for children who have been abused and neglected and should be helping us find quality caregivers for these children by broadening the criteria for children to be eligible for federal funding—not making it even more difficult than it already is to find good caregivers,” Senderling told the Daily Planet. 

Carol Collins, Assistant Agency Director, Department of Children and Family Services, Social Services Agency of Alameda County, said that the cuts would prove devastating for both children and families alike. “Child foster care is very underfunded in the first place. Any proposed cuts makes us even more fearful of the situation. We are anxiously awaiting to learn how these cuts would affect foster care in Alameda County.” 

Children who go into foster care are usually those who are removed from their immediate family because of abuse or neglect. They are then placed preferably with a blood relative or a temporary parent who if found eligible, receives federal funding for the child’s care until the child can be reunited with his or her parents. Collins said that as a result of these cuts, relatives would find it difficult to provide foster care which would result in the child going into the care of a total stranger.  

Presently, there are legislators and advocates who are lobbying against this new law. “Because of the cuts, we will have to increase the number of county-licensed foster homes. We have put together a massive effort and are working with different faith organizations, churches, faith leaders, and foster parents from congregations to prepare for this,” she said. 

Collins added that although the highest concentration of foster children were in East and West Oakland and South Hayward—all three having the highest numbers of economically deprived families—foster care in Berkeley would also be affected. “It is rather unfortunate that foster child care is not being given a high priority. These are the ones who are abused and neglected and need the most care and protection that they can get. It is sad that they are not seen as an important enough priority by the government.” she told the Daily Planet.  

Alameda County currently has a total of 3,000 foster children. 

The Social Service Agency of Alameda County is responsible for providing foster children in Berkeley with placements in either the city or outside. Children from a different city are also provided foster care placements in Berkeley. The city is responsible for providing only healthcare and other services to those who are already eligible for foster care in Berkeley.  

According to Julie Sinai, senior aide to Mayor Tom Bates, the cuts will impact foster care services in the city as well. Although the exact nature of the cuts is not yet known, the mayor is very supportive of the children who are in the foster care system. Some of the services that are provided to foster kids in Berkeley are MediCal, free lunches in school, and mental health services. “We haven’t got any announcements yet from the Alameda County Social Services Agency about the effects these cuts will have on our ability to care for these kids,” Sinai said.  

Sinai also acknowledged the fact that the foster care system was “seriously underfunded and underresourced,” and that “a budget cut at the federal level would not be doing anyone any good.” She added that the kids who went into foster care at a young age were the same kids who were turned out into the streets with zero resources at age 18. “They become Berkeley’s homeless youth. Currently the city is working on permanent placement programs like Homeless Connect (scheduled to take place on April 3) and reunification projects like Homeless Bound to help these kids out.” ?


Police Blotter By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Richmond-based robbers 

Police have arrested six Richmond youths in two apparently unrelated Berkeley robberies, one Friday and the second on Sunday. 

In the Friday incident, two strong-arm bandits confronted a 14-year-old Berkeley woman at 1799 Grant St. and robbed her of her iPod. Thanks to a quick response by police, officers were able to find the robbers and recover the stolen music player. The two bandits were taken to Juvenile Hall. 

In the second, and more serious, incident Sunday evening in the 2600 block of Ellsworth Street, a gang of four youths, one armed with a handgun, jumped and pistol-whipped a 22-year-old Berkeley man before robbing him of his wallet and cell phone. 

Though the victim’s glasses were knocked off during the assault, he was able to describe the gang’s getaway car—which an alert officer spotted heading westbound on University Avenue moments later. 

A quick search of the vehicle turned up the stolen property, and after a quick “roll-by” ID by the robbery victim, the four teens were hauled off to Juvenile Hall. 

Their victim was taken to a local emergency room, where he was treated and released later that evening, said Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

 

Armed heist? 

Two men, one of them professing to have a pistol, convinced a 20-year-old Berkeley man to give up his cash—less than $40—after the pair confronted him at 2429 College Ave. just after 11 a.m. Tuesday. 

 

Soda heist 

A gang of 10 or so youngsters, possibly students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, confronted another youth near the corner of University Avenue and Bonar Street and demanded the can of soda he was carrying. 

The youth submitted after one of the gang shoved him, an act that turned a simple act of menacing into a robbery under California law. 

No arrests have been made said Officer Galvan. 

 

Robbery 

Two men, one possibly in his late teens and the other about 10 years older, shoved a silver handgun at a man near the corner of Bret Harte Road and Keith Avenue at 8:30 Friday night and forced him to hand over his wallet and car keys. 

Officer Galvan said the victim was a Berkeley man in his 30s. 

 


Fire Department Log By RICHARD BRENNEMAN

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Car torched 

Somebody torched an abandoned car at 2120 Canyon Drive in Tilden Park just before 10:30 Friday night, said Berkeley’s Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. 

While Berkeley firefighters responded to the blaze—which was quickly extinguished—the arson investigation is being handled by the East Bay Regional Parks District Fire Department because the blaze occurred within the boundaries of Tilden Park, said Orth. 

 

Frat shutdown 

Firefighters summoned by police who had responded to a complaint of a noisy party shut down a fraternity’s St. Patrick’s Day party on Piedmont Avenue at 11:42 p.m. Friday. 

Orth said the shutdown was ordered because more than 300 were in attendance and minors were spotted imbibing alcoholic beverages.Â


Remembering Mr. Charles, By: Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday March 17, 2006

No need for tears. Joseph Charles wouldn’t have wanted that. He would have wanted you to smile—or wave. And he would have definitely wanted you to cheer. On March 22, members of the Berkeley NAACP Youth & College Division are coming together to celebrate the legacy of Mr. Charles, Berkeley’s “Waving Man.” 

For 30 years Mr. Charles stood on the busy intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Oregon to smile and wave hello to morning commuters. What started off with a casual wave to his neighbor way back in 1962 went on to become a daily custom, not only for Mr. Charles but for hundreds of others who waved back at him on their way to work or school every day. It earned him the title of “Waving Man” and by the time he retired from this daily ritual in 1992, he had been featured in media worldwide and had become the “face of Berkeley.” 

Although Mr. Charles retired from his job at the Oakland Naval Supply Center in 1971, he would be at his usual post at 6:30 a.m. everyday, adding a little cheer to the morning commute on Martin Luther King J. Way. 

The residents of South Berkeley found a way to remember this legend after he passed away in 2002 from heart failure. Eve Cohen came up with the idea of putting a mural in the neighborhood based on the theme “South Berkeley Shine.” Sara Bruckmier, who worked on Mr. Charles’ mural remembers, “He was a wonderful, wonderful man. He generated so much love. I remember seeing him when I was younger and thinking how extraordinary his gesture was. It’s fate that I ended up doing his painting,” she said.  

Bruckmier was so drawn into the project that she visited the Berkeley Historical Society Museum to carry out research on Mr. Charles. Today visitors can find the pair of bright yellow gloves that a fan had given him to use while waving at the museum.  

“I was afraid that people wouldn’t recognize the mural. I started with his smile, thinking that it would inspire me. And this lady passing by asked me if I was painting Mr. Charles. I was delighted. A man like him makes a neighborhood,” Bruckmier said.  

Bruckmier recalls how people would stop by when she was painting the mural to tell stories about Mr. Charles. “He was a sweet loving man with not a bad word to say. I am really inspired by the love that he generated to the neighborhood.” 

On his 96th birthday, Joseph Charles will be remembered once again. “Although a lot of people see his house everyday, they still forget,” said Denisha DeLane, advisor to the youth council of NAACP. “We have so many young people in Berkeley who missed seeing Mr. Charles wave. We want to bring back the memory for them. I had wanted to do this for a long time and I am glad that we finally are. There will never be anyone like Mr. Charles.” 

Founded in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization and its half-million adult and youth members are the premier advocates for civil rights. The Berkeley NAACP youth and college division have decided to celebrate Mr. Charles’ tradition by holding up signs on the intersection of MLK and Oregon and smiling and cheering at passengers as they drive by.  

“I remember him giving so much joy to people,” said DeLane. “I would see him waving everyday on my way to Berkeley High and later King. He wasn’t always in the best of health and some people said he interfered with traffic, but he was a good kind man and he took the time to greet everybody.” 

For many, Mr. Charles was the official welcomer to Berkeley. People from all over would drive out of their way in order to take a look at him. Some would even honk back to acknowledge his smile. As DeLane puts it, “It was a very Berkeley thing. If he was not out there waving, you knew that something was definitely wrong.” 

DeLane feels positively about the event scheduled to be held next Wednesday morning from 7:45 to 9:30 a.m. “I want to see a good group of people. We are telling people to bring along the bright yellow gloves that were Mr. Charles’ trademark. Legacies such as this should be continued. Young people have a lot to learn from this and their support and enthusiasm is just terrific.” 

“There is nothing more powerful than a smile,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “I am planning to attend on Wednesday and I think it is a very appropriate thing to remember Mr. Charles by. By lifting up our hands and cheering we are keeping the tradition alive. Young people can learn so much from this positive action.”›


SupervisorsApproveVoting Machine Negotiations, By: J. Douglas Allen Taylor

Friday March 17, 2006

Caught between a steady chorus of warnings by local voting rights activists and a looming deadline to begin preparations for the November elections, Alameda County Supervisors voted narrowly this week to begin negotiations with two companies for the poss ible purchase of paper-verified electronic voting machines. But even supervisors who supported the negotiations cautioned that the vote does not necessarily mean that new electronic voting machines will actually be bought. 

Acting Alameda County Registra r of Voters Elaine Ginnold told supervisors that nothing in the contract negotiations would prevent the county from adopting a paper ballot system for the November election similar to the one that will be used for the June election, if the supervisors lat e r choose to go that route. 

Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner Phoebe Anne Thomas Sorgen, one of several county residents who urged supervisors to abandon electronic voting machines during two days of presentations at the county administration buil ding, said following the vote that “we’re disappointed. We are going to have to regroup and decide what to do next.” 

Thomas Sorgen predicted that activists would return to the supervisors meeting en masse when the report on the contract negotiations come s back. 

Supervisors Nate Miley and Scott Haggerty supported the $17 million contract negotiations with voting machine manufacturers Diebold Election Systems of Texas and Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland. They were joined by Alice Lai-Bitker, who appeare d to waver over her vote until the last minute. Board president Keith Carson and Supervisor Gale Steele opposed moving forward with negotiations. 

Diebold and Sequoia were the top two of four companies vying to supply voting machines for Alameda County for the general election in November. 

Saying that she supported the negotiations because the decision is “not binding us to the purchase,” Lai-Bitker said that “if we kill this [voting machine purchase] process, we could jeopardize the November elections. K illing this resolution today would mean that the Registrar of Voters could not move forward with providing options.” 

Carson, who said “I’ve been on record not in favor of Diebold,” pushed for supervisors to approve some form of paper balloting for the No vember election, saying that “while paper ballots might take a little longer to count, it’s a system that worked well recently in Iraq, and in South Africa, when Nelson Mandela was elected. And people have confidence in the result.” Carson added that “thi s is not like buying a new fleet of vehicles for the county. This is fundamental to the rights of Alameda County citizens.” 

Electronic voting machines will not be an option in the June primary. 

Alameda County residents used a punch-card system for votin g for 30 years until 2000. But after the 2000 Presidential election debacle in Florida, in which punch-cards played a major part, the California Secretary of State outlawed the systems, and Alameda County moved to an electronic touchscreen voting system o perated by Diebold. 

The Diebold machines became obsolete in January of this year when a new state law went into effect, requiring a verifiable paper audit trail on electronic voting machines. 

With the old electronic voting machines, counting was done el ectronically, with neither the voter nor public officials having any way to independently verify whether the voter’s ballot was properly counted and the entire tally was correctly done. 

With the machines now required under the new California law, the vot er can compare a paper printout with the votes registered on the screen, and public officials can use the paper printouts as a backup to make sure that the electronic count was correct. 

The voting system is further complicated by the fact that f ederal la w, under the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), now requires that voting precincts contain at least one method of allowing disabled voters to vote in secret, without assistance. 

Alameda County began the process last year of soliciting proposals from manu facturers for paper trail electronic machines, but the process broke down when companies could not get early state and federal certification for those machines. When time ran out to purchase the new electronic machines in time for the June prim ary, acting Alameda County Registrar of Voters Elaine Ginnold proposed using paper ballots for those elections, with counting done by scanning machines at a central location in Oakland. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, county supervisors approved Ginnold’s proposal for a pape r ballot June primary with little debate. 

But discussion was extensive over the proposal to restart the procedure to enter purchase negotiations for electronic voting machines for the November election, now that both Diebold and Sequoia have both receive d state and federal approval for their paper trail machines. 

Urging supervisors to abandon electronic voting altogether, John Bass of Oakland told supervisors that “the heart of the issue is we want our vote to count. With the present electr onic voting m achines, we do not know if our vote is counted correctly. If the person who got the most votes is not the person who is put in office, then we do not live in a democracy.” 

And Voting Rights Task Force co-chair Judy Bertelsen, a frequent con tributor to th e Daily Planet commentary section, called the voting machines being considered “hackable and shot through with security problems.” 

Supervisor Steele, who requested a two minute break “to clear my head” following the debate and before the v ote—a break tha t eventually stretched to a half an hour—said that she “came here thinking I was going to do one thing, but I changed my mind. I’m continually bothered by the erosion of confidence in our electoral system, whether it’s real or only perception. We need mor e security on these systems.” 

Haggerty said he was “impressed” by the presentation of voting machine opponents, telling them that “if your goal was to leave doubt in my mind, you’ve been successful.” But Haggerty added that “if we don’t start the process, we won’t have a process,” and he and Miley and Lai-Bitker indicated that they were swayed by the timetable presented by acting Registrar of Voters Ginnold, who said that failure to move forward at Tuesday’s meeting would make it difficu lt to get ready f or the November vote and would limit the county’s flexibility for the adoption of a permanent voting system in 2007 and beyond. Ginnold said that six weeks were needed to complete the negotiations with the two vendors, with another three to four months ne eded for the winning vendor to prepare equipment and deliver it to Alameda County. “We need to physically have the voting machines in our possession in July in order to prepare the ballots beginning in August,” Ginnold said.›µ?


Open Derby Sports Field Moves Forward, By: Suzanne LaBarre

Friday March 17, 2006

Diamonds are forever, so the Berkeley Board of Education is starting small. It will build an open field.  

Board directors voted unanimously to earmark $800,000 for an open athletic field design at the East Campus/ Derby Street site on Wednesday. The decision will end six years of disuse at a district-owned block, stretching from Martin Luther King Jr. Way to Milvia Street, and Derby and Carleton streets. Plans to develop a larger field at the site, which calls for the closure of Derby Street to make room for a regulation-sized baseball diamond, are still underway, Board President Terry Doran emphasized.  

“For me, this is clearly a Phase One, and an interim project. The board has gone on the record stating that the preference is to have a larger, multi-purpose field that would include a baseball diamond and that would require closing of Derby Street,” he said. “(Directors) have not changed their mind about the ultimate field we desire to build on this site.” 

The approved interim design, paid for in bond monies, reflects the bare minimum required to develop a functional playing field. It will consist of a grass expanse surrounded by a fence of a yet-to-be-determined height.  

The plan requires the demolition of existing parking structures at the site’s north and south sides, new irrigation, re-grading and corrective drainage measures, and removal of electrical transformers. 

Berkeley Unified School District students will have first dibs on field-use, but the community will also have access. Project completion is expected by fall, said district spokesperson Mark Coplan. 

Speakers at Wednesday’s meeting were by-and-large thrilled to see the project move forward.  

“I was delighted at the vote, and I look forward to participating in the design process,” said South Berkeley resident Susi Marzuola after the meeting.  

Joy Moore, a health specialist from the Alternative High School, located on Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Ward Street, commended the project. Her students are predominantly at-risk youth who have been without a playing field for 10 years, she said. 

“There is no opportunity for physical exercise” at BAHS, she said. “It’s more important that these kids get resources, because the district has already failed them.” 

She presented the board with a petition in support of the open field, signed by 50 BAHS students. 

Support was not unqualified, however. Both Linda Graham, a representative from the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, which is held each Tuesday on Derby Street, and Ecology Center Executive Director Martin Bourque expressed concern for the project’s encroachment on parking and bathroom use. Farmer’s market vendors currently use portable facilities, and would like access to BAHS restrooms, Graham said.  

Doran was unimpressed by the suggestion.  

“As a school board responsible for the education of our students and facilities for students, it’s difficult to grapple with taking resources from students to provide restrooms for the community,” he said.  

Board directors approved the project scope sans amendment, but will render further decisions in coming months, such as how high to build the fence and whom to hire as a project manager. The board will decide on the latter at an April 5 meeting. 

Terms surrounding the long-range closed-street project are less clear. In February, the board approved $100,000 toward an estimated $200,000 environmental impact report that would investigate the effects of closing Derby Street. The report is on hold, however, because the school district wants the city of Berkeley to share the cost. The city has exclusive rights over street closures. 

Coplan said there is a total of $1.3 million in bond money salted away for the East Campus field, which is not enough to cover the cost of the larger project. 

Ã


Berkeley Police Re-Package Crime Data, By: Richard Brenneman

Friday March 17, 2006

People who turn to the Internet for information about Berkeley crimes will get both more and less information than they did before, but much more attractively packaged. 

In addition, the new mapping system will allow neighbors to get a quick look at events happening nearby, something the old system doesn’t offer. 

The Berkeley Police Department has launched Crime View Community, a graphically rich online system that lists incidents on an interactive map that can be used to search for events by type, location and date.  

It’s a system that’s catching on across the country. The San Francisco Police Department has just launched a version of the software and Concord also uses the program, along with Redondo Beach. 

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police uses Crime View—though a department spokesman said there were initial troubles getting it to work—along with cities in five other states. The Los Angeles Police Department has just gone online with a similar package from another developer. 

In Berkeley, the system is designed to replace the daily police bulletins, which list events throughout the city on a daily basis and which are not easily searched except by reading through the daily logs one by one. 

“It takes a lot of additional work to produce the bulletins,” said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan, “and the new site offers the same information.” 

But does it? 

 

Law and parsimony 

Compared with several other jurisdictions, the Berkeley Police Department has always been parsimonious about the information it doles out to the press, so a reporter decided to look at the new system and compare it to the one it’s designed to replace. 

Galvan said one reason the information is so scarce is that the department operates under strict guidelines from the city attorney’s office that starkly limit what information can be revealed. 

“We are not allowed to include dog bites and sex crimes in the bulletins,” he said, although a reporter cited instances when both had appeared in the bulletins. 

A Dec. 21 report of a rape by drugs in the vicinity of the intersection of Haste and Dana streets is listed in that day’s bulletin, though Galvan’s predecessor, Officer Joe Okies, refused to provide any information about it to the Daily Planet. 

Other rapes and incidents of child molestation have also been reported in the daily bulletins. 

Still, the new mapping system does show sex crimes, the result of a new decision by the city, Galvan said. 

A quick exploration revealed that the information provided by the two systems is often conflicting. 

In testing the new system, a reporter recently looked for incidents reported within a quarter-mile radius of the intersection of Ashby and Shattuck Avenues. 

The resulting map revealed that a rape was reported at 3:38 p.m. on Feb. 1 which occurred in the 1600 block of Russell Street. No such incident was reported in the daily bulletins, nor had the department issued any notice or bulletins to the public or press. 

Score one for Crime View Community. 

Another map search—for the quarter-mile around the intersection of 10th and Gilman streets—revealed yet another sex crime on the maps that never appeared in the daily bulletins. That incident occurred on Feb. 4, when police were summoned to the area at 9:41 a.m. to investigate an alleged child molestation. 

That day’s bulletin lists nothing between a tire slashing in the 1400 block of Allston Way at 9:16 a.m. and a report of a stolen Toyota in the 1800 block of Marin Avenue at 9:51. 

 

Missing links 

But other instances of crimes reported on the bulletins don’t show up on Crime View, such as the robbery reported at 7th Street and University Avenue on Feb. 7. Four other searches also found incidents listed in the bulletins that didn’t appear on the map. 

A report of shots fired near Roundtree’s restaurant at 2618 San Pablo Ave., at 1:32 a.m. on Feb. 5, is missing from the map altogether. The blotter reports the incident and offers a detailed description of the suspect. The Daily Planet reported on the incident, including the fact that officers found shell casings at the scene. 

And when the two systems do intersect, the daily bulletins produce more information of use to the public and press. 

A search through the daily reports revealed that many crimes weren’t finding their way to the maps, but one that did was case number 06997109, reported at 9:70 p.m. on Feb. 8. The location is listed as the 200 block of Dwight Way and the event category as a robbery, which is also the “Offense as Recorded.” 

And that’s it. 

But a check of the bulletin revealed considerably more. The crime is listed as a 211 (the California Penal Code section for robbery), and the address this time is specific. The victim is listed as Roxie Food Center, 2250 Dwight Way, and the stolen property is identified as cash. The bulletin also says the crime was committed by “threats of gun,” and it lists the officer who handled the call, Officer Hong. 

The same case number is provided, as in the sequence number—which is another way to access information on the incident. 

Attempts to locate six other crimes reported in the bulletins failed to turn up any map hits. One was case number 008435-06, a Feb. 15 grand theft report involving the taking of a laptop computer, a digital camera and a passport from a car near the corner of Forest and Piedmont Avenues. It’s simply not there on the map. 

Nor is a far more serious case, a car crash that resulted from a carjacking on the same date. The daily bulletin lists the event as being reported at 9:14 p.m. at Ashby Lumber Co., where the stolen car crashed into a fence. The report also lists the name and birthdate of a suspect who was arrested. 

As far as the map is concerned, the event didn’t happen. 

The maps also won’t list the non-injury and injury traffic accidents listed in the daily bulletins. “Otherwise, Sixth and University would just be a mass of symbols,” Galvan explained. 

 

Fewer crimes listed 

The maps also include much smaller range of incidents and offenses. 

Community Crime View is certainly more attractive that the bulletins, which are Adobe PDF documents done in all-capital letters. But attempts to print out the resulting map on two Daily Planet computers, one operating with Windows XP and the other a Macintosh, resulted in almost blank documents. 

Crime View also provides a way of offering crime density maps, graphic evidence of the concentration of specific types of crime in certain areas—something the bulletins didn’t provide. But once again, the maps didn’t print on the newspaper’s computers. 

Crime View is clearly superior in allowing residents to look at what’s happening in their neighborhoods, without inputting and crunching all the data from the bulletins, a long and laborious process, given that PDF files can’t be cut and pasted from the Internet in the same manner as regular text files. 

But for anyone looking for a meaningful picture of crime in Berkeley, a reporter would have to say the bulletins provide more meaningful factual data, while Crime Review, at this stage, must be rated as just another way the Internet can serve up pretty pictures. 

Galvan said the bulletins are labor intensive, and are used by only three reporters, this writer being one of them. 

 

Bottom line 

From a reporter’s perspective, the maps—while attractive and informative in certain ways—are a poor replacement for the bulletins. The latter tells what’s happening on a day-by-day basis, and in a far more inclusive way. 

From a resident’s perspective, the maps clearly offer a way to see what’s happening in the neighborhood, and to see how it compares with other neighborhoods. 

In the best of all possible worlds, the public would have both systems. 

Trip Albagdadi, marketing director and spokesperson for the software maker, said the problem isn’t the software package itself. 

“The application can be expanded or further customized to provide more information,” he said. And expanding the program to include citywide searches is an easy fix. 

Currently, it’s impossible to do a citywide search with the software, which was developed by the Omega Group in San Diego. At present, the widest search area permitted is a one-mile radius from a given location or a city council district. 

It’s an easy fix, said Albagdadi, and Galvan said it’s underway. 

To compare the two systems, go to the BPD website at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ police. There’s an icon for Community Crime View on the right hand side of the page and the bulletins are found by clicking on the third link posted under the heading “Frequently Used Resources.”?


Richmond Community Activist Earns National Honor, By: Suzanne LaBarre

Friday March 17, 2006

There have been many Betties. 

There was Wartime Betty, Artist Betty, Political Betty, Black Nationalist Betty. There was Married Betty, Divorced Betty, Mother Betty, Midlife Crisis Betty. There was New Orleans Betty, Berkeley Betty, Dancing Betty, Painting Betty and lately, Blogging Betty. 

This month, the National Women’s History Project will pay tribute to the woman who has reinvented herself more times than Madonna: Richmond resident Betty Reid Soskin. 

The project has highlighted women’s historical achievements since 1980. Soskin and nine other women will be honored in Los Angeles this Sunday, and again March 22 in Washington D.C.  

Soskin, 84, was selected for demonstrating the year’s theme: Builders of Communities and Dreams.  

And build she has. 

As a South Berkeley shop owner, she helped overhaul a drug- and crime-infested neighborhood, earning her the 1995 honor California Woman of the Year. In more recent years, she has worked to shore up Richmond’s historical record, by resurrecting the stories of residents in war-era black neighborhoods. 

Her investment in military history is deeply personal. 

As a young woman during World War II, Soskin took a job clerking for the Boilermakers A-36. Like many women of the time, she was dubbed a “Rosie” for contributing to the wartime effort, though she did not consider herself one, she said. She pointed out that African Americans did not join the workforce until later in the war, and the term “Rosie” largely referred to white women. 

After the war, Soskin settled down to raise a family in Walnut Creek, a time in her life she branded her “lowest and highest point.”  

The sleepy East Bay suburb, then a stronghold of white ultra-conservatives, was loath to welcome a black family into the community. 

“I became the target of racial hatred, by virtue of being the first [African American] family on the block and the second family in that valley,” she said. “The white community we moved into thought one of their rights was their denial of mine.” 

To steel herself against discrimination, Soskin became active in the local Unitarian-Universalist community. But it only took her so far. 

As the pressure of her oppressive environs mounted, Soskin’s marriage started to crumble and her eldest child spiraled deep into a troubled adolescence. 

“I just caved in,” she said. 

Unable to resume day-to-day functioning, Soskin palliated her midlife crisis with Jungian therapy. Therein she discovered myriad new Betties. 

“I began to write music and to sing and to paint,” she said. “Things just seemed to move out of my subconscious into my conscious state. I was a whole, totally reinvented Betty, who was an artist.” 

Then, like that, she reinvented herself yet again. 

“I became political Betty,” she said. 

After her first husband fell ill, Soskin ventured to Berkeley to save his business, Reid’s Music Store on Sacramento Street at Prince Street. The area was a veritable wasteland of drugs and prostitution. Soskin quickly realized that the only way for the store to survive was to overhaul the neighborhood. 

Thus began an estimated $8.5 million, seven-year battle to replace a two-block crime-ridden expanse with 41 units of low-income housing. 

It was a grueling process, she said, that contributed to the downfall of her second marriage. 

But it also reaffirmed her identification with the black community. 

“It was a period that was really rich,” she said. “I really came to terms with the fact that my salvation lay in my racial identification, and that’s when my Africaness came to the front, and that’s what I move out of.” 

For her triumph over the South Berkeley slum, the California State Legislature nominated Soskin Woman of the Year in 1995. Soskin went on to work as a field representative championing the causes of two California state assemblymembers, Dion Aroner and Loni Hancock. 

In the late 1990s, Soskin became involved in the Black Power movement, pushing for the recognition of the black agenda in the Unitarian-Universalist Association.  

More recently, Soskin has taken on a major role developing the Rosie the Riveter/ World War II Homefront National Historical Park, an auto tour in Richmond. 

Though the city is a goldmine of World War II-era relics, the historical ledger often excluded African Americans. 

Soskin worked to change that. 

Thanks to her efforts, the park acknowledges the role of black neighborhoods surrounding the site of mass industrial production during World War II. The neighborhoods were bulldozed following the close of the war.  

While digging up these accounts, Soskin has turned to recording her own history. 

She has been a prolific blogger since 2003, turning out several entries a week. Entries range from detailing the care of her disabled daughter, to describing obscure local stories, generously peppered with outrage over the paucity of historical awareness in Richmond.  

But her blog serves a more personal purpose, too, she said. It is for her children and family so they may learn about the woman who has been many different women, and the woman who doesn’t plan to stop reinventing herself now. 

Soskin’s blog can be found at http://cbreaux.blogspot.com. ?


Second Mayoral Candidate Declares, By: Judith Scherr

Friday March 17, 2006

While he has little experience in city government, Zachary RunningWolf, who formally announced his candidacy for mayor on Wednesday, says he knows what Berkeley needs. 

“I’m running on Tom Bates’ record,” said RunningWolf, 43, who opposes the mayor on a number of issues.  

In an interview on the steps of City Hall, RunningWolf challenged the mayor’s support for development, citing rushed plans to build housing on the Ashby BART station property with little citizen input. (After public outcry, the mayor h eld a public meeting on the proposed development.) 

He also condemned Bates’ deal with UC Berkeley. “He went behind the voters’ backs,” RunningWolf said, referring to an agreement Bates brokered between the city and the university. 

Looking south from Cit y Hall, RunningWolf looked down Milvia Street toward a housing project under construction just steps from his alma mater, Berkeley High School. He said he opposed the development, fearing that new neighbors might come into conflict with the “frisky” young teens. Moreover, the housing development won’t serve low-income people, he said. 

Instead of development, the city should support farmers’ markets, the Flea Market and playing fields, he said. 

RunningWolf’s only formal position as a city official has be en serving as School Board member Terry Doran’s appointee on the Peace and Justice Commission. His bio, however, includes a number of leadership positions: serving on the board of directors at the Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland and being named an elder in the Blackfeet Nation at age 42.  

A community activist, RunningWolf said he has helped to start the American Indian Charter School in Oakland, worked to change the name of Columbus School to Rosa Parks and fought to preserve ethnic studies at UC Berkeley. 

His platform calls for banning genetically altered foods in Berkeley, suing the University of California over the downtown plan, getting the city’s diesel fleet back to bio-diesel and strengthening ethnic and gender studies in Berkeley schools. 

On Wednesday, RunningWolf filed his “papers of organization” with the city clerk, which allows candidates to start raising money for their campaigns. Bates is the only other candidate in the local November races who has filed these papers. At present RunningWolf is the only announced mayoral challenger, although former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein reportedly will announce her candidacy this month. Formal filing of candidacy papers will take place in mid-July. 

RunningWolf’s website is www. kanatsitapiiksi.org and his e-mail is zacharyrunningwolf@Yahoo.com..


Parks Board Picks Nancy Skinner To Fill Vacancy Caused by Death, By: Richard Brenneman

Friday March 17, 2006

By unanimous vote, environmentalist and former Berkeley City Councilmember Nancy Skinner was named Monday to fill a vacant seat on the board of the East Bay Regional Parks District. 

In a 6-0 vote, board members elected Skinner to fill the term vacated by the death of Jean Siri, who represented Ward 1. 

Siri, a San Pablo resident and a long-time environmental activist, died Jan. 20 at the age of 85 in the final year of a four-year term. 

Skinner will fill out the remainder of her term, and is expected to run for the post in the November election. AT 51, she will be one of the board’s younger members. 

“I hope to be a good ambassador for the parks, promoting the parks throughout the district, and not just Ward 1,” Skinner said Wednesday. 

As one of six finalists from an initial field of 13 applicants, Skinner and the other five were interviewed for the post by a committee of three board members: Ted Radke, Beverly Lane and Carol Severin, who also serves as board president. 

Other finalists included former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, Richmond environmental activist Whitney Dotson, Sierra Club attorney/activist Norman La Force, Oakland Deputy City Attorney Richard Illgen and former Berkeley school board member Car roll Williams, who had served as Ward 1 representative before he was defeated by Siri in 1992. 

The board administers more than 95,000 acres of parkland, including 65 regional parks and recreation, wilderness, shoreline, preserve and land bank areas in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. 

Their 2005-2006 fiscal budget totals $159 million. Park staff includes 596 full-time and up to 80 seasonal and temporary employees. 

Skinner said she hopes to increase awareness of the parks and their role in parts of the district where voters have been reluctant to vote new funds. 

“It’s important because to fulfill the mission of the parks and to provide the necessary services and amenities, the district needs more operating funds,” she said. 

If she has a special interest, Skinner said “it’s shepherding the East Shore Park. It’s very near and dear to me, and to everyone in Ward 1.” 

Skinner was the youngest person ever elected to the Berkeley City Council when she ran in 1984 while a student at UC Berkeley. She served on the council through 1994. 

In that race she had the strong backing of then-Assemblyman and now Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. She also served as coordinator of the successful 2002 run of Bates’ spouse, Loni Hancock, to replace him in the Assembly after he was forced out by term limits. 

Dean said that she heard “from at least 25 people” that Skinner “is being groomed to run for Loni’s seat in November 2008 when Loni is termed out” of the Assembly. 

An internationally known environmentalist, Skinner is one of the founders of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and the U.S. director of the Climate Group, a non-profit organization rallying governmental and corporate support on climate change issues. 

Prior to joining the Climate Group after its formation in 2004, she served nearly 10 years with Cities for Climate Protection, an alliance that included Berkeley, San Francisco, Seattle and other municipalities..


University Building Plan Expo Draws Public, Jocks, Officials, By: Richard Brenneman

Friday March 17, 2006

UC Berkeley officials, athletes and contractors staged a full-court press at Memorial Stadium Monday, offering soft drinks and cookies along with the reasons they said everyone should support their massive building plans around the aging facility. 

Wheth er or not it worked remains an open question. 

The university is scheduled to unveil an environmental impact report on the project in May, which will offer new details about the school’s plans for what could total nearly a half-billion dollars in new cons truction. 

Three new major structures are proposed, along with massive alterations to Memorial Stadium, an aging concrete edifice built directly atop the Hayward Fault—the fissure U.S. geologists say is most likely to rupture in the years ahead. 

One of t he new structures, a monumental athletic training center, is separated from the stadium by only a five-foot gap, and a second structure—a five-level mostly subterranean parking structure northwest of the stadium—directly borders the fault. 

The third edif ice, a stair-stepped “Law and Business Connection” building, is farthest from the rupture, located directly across Piedmont Avenue from the stadium. 

On hand to answer questions about earthquakes was David Friedman, a structural engineer from Forell/Elses ser Engineers, Inc., a San Francisco firm working on the project. “We’re planning for the worst case scenario with the stadium,” he said, which would include up to six feet of horizontal movement along the two sides of the fault, two feet of vertical move ment. 

Friedman also noted that the planned press box, topped by another level of luxury sky boxes for deep-pocket fans, would rise as much as 28 feet above the stadium rim. That bothered preservationist John English, who pointed to the university’s own 1 999 Historic Structures Report conducted by an Emeryville consulting firm that concluded no additions should extend above the stadium rim. 

“But it’s going to be much more open and translucent than the old press box,” said Joseph Dienko of HNTB Architectu re, one of the firms involved in the project. 

Friedman, Dienko and the other official representatives staffed tables featuring hand-out sheets and foam-core-mounted graphics and charts. And for the sports buffs who weren’t already dazzled by the rows and cases of trophies in the Hall of Fame Room where the gathering was held, there were also real, live members of the Cal Bears gridiron crew, smiling pleasantly and eager to describe how the project would benefit them and their fellow athletes. 

“Any quest ions?” asked quarterback Nathan Longshore. “We’re glad to help,” added linebacker Greg Van Hoesen.  

“We will take out everything from the outer walls until you hit the grandstand,” said Harrison Fraker, the Dean of the university’s College of Environment al Design and the chair of the university Design Review Committee that will approve the stadium plans. “It will be wonderful.”  

The training facilities now housed within  

the cramped confines of the stadium’s interior will be relocated in a 132,500-squar e-foot Student Athlete High Performance Center, the first of the new structures slated for construction, and the stadium itself will be refurbished for seismic safety and spectator comfort. 

The training center will be built along the stadium’s western wa ll, separated from the older structure by a five-foot gap designed to keep the structures separate in event of a temblor. 

And if the need for the center was in doubt, there were colorful charts showing how Cal athletes are short-changed for training spac e compared with their Pac 10 rivals. Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman, himself a former Bears gridiron star, laughed at the charts. “Wait till I can start doing an analysis,” he said, smiling as his pen flew over the handout sheet. 

Angel L. McDonald o f Horton Lee Brogden Lighting Design was on hand with charts and answers about the new permanent night lighting planned for the stadium, a sore point with neighbors who live on Panoramic Hill, recently enrolled as a nationally landmarked neighborhood in p art because of residents’ opposition to the expansion plans. 

“It’s far worse than I thought,” said Janice Thomas, a Panoramic Hill neighbor instrumental on the landmarking efforts. “Now I see that they’re adding a cooling tower in the south stadium parking lot that will bring even more noise. There’s been no give. I’m stunned, like a deer caught in the headlights.” 

Another Panoramic Hill resident who declined to give her name for fear of upsetting Thomas and other fellow neighbors, said she thought the university had shown some sensitivity to their concerns. “It’s better than I thought it would be, but they still shouldn’t be building on top of a fault. But then they’re going to do it, so maybe this is the best we can hope for.” 

Monday evening’s agenda also included walking tours of the stadium—both to view dry rot and termite-eaten seats in need of replacement and to see the far from deluxe interior accommodations accorded the needs of the university’s athletes and the throngs of fans who come for eve nts like the fabled Big Game against the Stanford Cardinals. 

Bob Milano, the ever-smiling assistant financial director for capital planning and management, even offered both genders in his tour group a glimpse of a women’s bathroom, little changed from w hen the stadium first opened for games in 1923. 

He also pointed to the gap in the stadium’s southern rim that is designed to accommodate movement along that pesky fault. A matching gap is found at the opposite end of the stadium. 

Athletic equipment mana ger Ed Garland escorted the curious through the laundry room—festooned with the corporate banners of ABC, Nike and TBS—and upstairs to the room and its array of stacked and racked athletic gear ranging from extra football helmet face guards to size 17 ins oles. 

City of Berkeley Planning Commissioner Jordan De Staebler and city Principal Planner Allan Gatzke accompanied Milano’s group. Other Berkeley city officials who attended Monday’s gathering included City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, Planning Commiss ioner Mike Sheen, Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Steven Winkel and Disaster Commission member Jesse Townley. 

The public’s next opportunity to offer on-the-record comments about the massive building plans will come in May, when the university release the draft environmental impact report on the combined projects. Comments will be taken for consideration in the final document for 45 days after the draft’s release..z


Race, Poverty and Neglect Dominate Casino Hearing, By: Richard Brenneman

Friday March 17, 2006

Issues of race, poverty and neglect dominated during the next-to-final hand of a high stakes gamble over the future of North Richmond. 

More than 200 supporters and foes of a plan to build a tribal casino in the unincorporated area gathered in Richmond Memorial Auditorium for the final hearing on a key environmental document. 

The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be used to help the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs determine if a disinherited tribe should be granted a new reservation on the site, the critical step before the massive casino can rise along Richmond Parkway. 

Don Arnold, chair of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomos—the tribal group seeking to have the land declared a reservation—listened throughout the hearing but made no comments for the record. 

The tribe is partnered with a Florida developer who specializes in packaging tribal casinos. They plan to build the Sugar Bowl Casino, a 225,000-square-foot, 1,940-slot Las Vegas-style gambling palace. 

Andres Soto, a Richmond Progressive Alliance activist and former city council candidate, was first to raise the issue of race, charging that casino developers had held out African Americans as the community’s “gatekeepers,” while North Richmond is seeing a rise in Latino and Asian residents. 

Noting that an elementary school near the casino site has a 65 percent Latino enrollment, Soto called for a new dialog. 

“Shame on you, Andres Soto,” said Barbara Becnel, an African American who serves as executive director of Neighborhood House of North Richmond, a program that provides services and housing for felons and substance abusers and provides meal for those in need.  

A frequent ally of Soto’s on other issues, Becnel said the casino is needed because “we need jobs in this community, and we can’t wait. It’s inhumane of our leaders to say we have to wait.” 

A major selling point for Becnel was the promise of Don Arnold, chair of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomos, to hire ex-felons, something neither the nearby city of Richmond nor Contra County is eager to do, Becnel said. 

Soto also blasted Analytical Environmental Services, the consulting firm that prepared the EIS. 

”They proudly describe their bread and butter business as doing reports for gaming tribes,” said Soto. “They have a vested interest in sugar-coating their reports.” 

A Thursday check of the firm’s website—www.analyticalcorp.com—showed that of 15 current documents available on-line, 10 were for Native American casino projects. 

Both Soto and William Thompson, a University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor who has been hired by casino opponents, criticized the EIS for neglecting the issue of gambling addiction. 

“The draft EIS is deceptive and incomplete,” said Thompson. “It implies no crime connections, an audacity that rises to the heights of deception.” 

Thompson cited the case of a Casino San Pablo winner who was followed out of the casino and robbed while attempting to deposit her winnings in a bank ATM. 

“No casino ATMs take deposits,” he added, a remark that drew gasps and chuckles from the audience. 

Thompson also said the casino would suck money from the already impoverished community, enriching Nevada slot machine makers to the tune of $30 million to furnish the machines and the tribe’s corporate business partner in Florida who will get 35 percent of the net for a tribe that doesn’t live in the area. 

“The money is coming out of the community. There will be no tourists because there is no hotel and no tourist attractions,” he said. 

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, who wasn’t able to attend Wednesday’s meeting, said Thursday that he was very concerned with the document’s lack of consideration of negative impacts. 

“It’s very hard to spell out mitigations when you don’t go into detail about the negative impacts. The Board of Supervisors is on record against the expansion of casinos in the West County. With three Las Vegas style casinos proposed within a few miles of each other, we have become the ground zero of urban gambling in California,” he said. 

 

Tribe vs. tribe 

One point on which all parties agreed was that Native Americans had been the target of virulent, often genocidal racism at the hands of the American government, and that the Scotts Valley Band and others had been wrongly stripped of their reservations a half-century earlier. 

But the casino project has also pitted tribe against tribe, with two Pomo bands confronting the Muwekma Ohlones, the only group of the three recognized as historic inhabitants of the site—the Pomos hailing from further north in Lake, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. 

The Muwekmas, however, have been denied recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, despite their passionate arguments and the avid support of archaeologist Allan Levanthal, who appeared Wednesday night to argue on behalf of the tribe. 

Tribal chair Rosemary Cambra, accompanied by co-chair Monica Arellano, made a dramatic argument against granting the Pomos a reservation on traditional Ohlone lands. 

“We’ve never backed away from a public challenge when it comes to our religion, our history, or genealogy and our relationship to our sacred sites,” said Cambra. 

Turning to Scotts Valley chair Arnold, Cambra declared, “I don’t want to debate over our sacred sites versus your development, over sovereignty over our sacred sites versus your love of money,” she declared. “Take your vision home . . . do it in your own home. 

The Scotts Valley tribe is traditionally based near Lakeville. 

“Bring it on. Bring on the fight,” she declared. “But remember it is the Muwekma’s land. We’ve never left our land.” 

(The Muwekma’s aren’t entirely opposed to casinos; Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown once proposed backing them for a casino at the old Oakland Army Depot.) 

Another Pomo band was on hand to support Arnold and his tribe. 

Michael Derry, CEO of the Guidiville Rancheria’s economic development arm, urged approval of the Scotts Valley project. 

The Guidivilles are planning a casino of their own at Point Molate, a project which is several months behind the Sugar Bowl proposal. 

After the meeting Arnold said his band had supported the Muwekmas in their fight for recognition. “The reason they weren’t included in the EIS is that they aren’t federally recognized. One of our biggest problems is that we fight among ourselves,” he said, “and a hundred years later, and we’re both still fighting the federal government.” 

 

Other speakers 

Richmond City Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin was the only elected official to speak. 

While sympathizing with the plight of the tribe and recognizing the troubles faced by North Richmond residents, McLaughlin said the casino “will not bring about increased well being and quality of life just because it’s sought by Native American people.” 

The community needs “other, realistic alternatives to get out of decades of poverty and neglect.” 

Chantay Scott, who is of African American and Choctaw heritage, offered “100 percent support for casino. North Richmond has nothing now.” 

Lee Jones, president of the North Richmond Municipal Advisory Council and an African American, said that fears of crime were ridiculous, given that the community “is already inundated with crime and HIV. The community is full of it. We’re up to our necks.” 

The community needs jobs and hope, he said. 

“I feel like a swimmer in the ocean and all of a sudden I look over the horizon and I see this poor Indian saying he would throw us a life jacket and rescue us . . . let’s grab the life preserver.” 

But Latondra Goode, another African American, said “it’s a life preserver that’s thrown to us that’s filled with lead,” citing a study which she said revealed that the typical costs per resident of a new casino amounted to $214 a year. 

Tim Cromartie, an aide to state Sen. Kevin Murray, said he favored tribal casinos—but not in urban areas. 

Genocide can never be erased, he said, but casinos are not valid economic development projects for poor communities. 

“Yes, they bring jobs. But when you factor in all the social ills, they’re a band-aid. In the long run, the social ills will outweigh the economic development.” 

Fred David Jackson, who works at Neighborhood House and has lived in North Richmond since 1956, praised the casino project. 

“Crime is so bad now that I don’t think it can increase any more. The Native Americans can help empower our community,” he said. “They should have this chance.” 

Two BIA officials listened patiently throughout the hearing: Environmental Protection Specialist Patrick O’Malley and John Rydzik, chief of the BIA’s Pacific Region Division of Environmental, Cultural Resource Management and Safety. 

The agency is expected to reach a decision on granting the reservation in 120 days..


Multiple Choices for Anti-War Voices, By: Judith Scherr

Friday March 17, 2006

 

 

It’s a war goin on, the ghetto is a cage 

They only give you two choices; be a rebel or a slave. 

—Boots Riley  

of Boots and The Coup 

 

Watch out Walnut Creek—average home price $800,000, registered Democrats just slightly more than Republicans; 84 percent white—here comes Oakland’s Boots and The Coup, Berkeley’s Country Joe and a flock of folks protesting the Iraq War on its third anniversary. 

Oh—you thought the march was in the “city.” One—probably the largest—is. 

Dozens more, however, are scattered around the state and hundreds around the country. Nearby anti-war marches are set for Walnut Creek—Walnut Creek BART, 11 a.m.; San Francisco—Civic Center, 11 a.m.; Palo Alto—noon, City Hall Plaza, 250 Hamilton Ave.; Vallejo, 10:30 a.m., Redwood and Sonoma streets. And Rep. Barbara Lee’s holding a town meeting at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., 9 a.m. 

The peace movement has been slowly fracturing into two main camps, one more narrowly focused on getting out of Iraq and the other insisting that protests reflect the concept that the Iraq War is just one piece of the U.S. attempt to  

dominate the planet. 

“San Francisco will be preaching to the choir,” said Tony Martarella, with the Progressive Alliance of Contra Costa County, one of the Walnut Creek march’s sponsoring organizations. “Contra Costa County is more conservative—we are moderate, centrists, not liberal progressive.” 

People need to ease into the peace movement, he said. “We don’t want to confuse people with multiple messages. After [the war] we can deal with other social and economic injustices.” 

But without multiple messages—protesters in San Francisco will hear from groups supporting Palestine, Haiti, the Philippines and more—people will not get a sense of the global nature of the conflict, argued Bill Hackwell spokesperson for the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and Racism) Coalition, the umbrella group sponsoring the San Francisco demonstration. 

Hackwell said the march will physically link issues by stopping at Glide Church, where the hungry are fed and at the Sheraton Hotel, where workers are on strike.  

In addition to Norman Solomon, most recently author of War Made Easy, the Walnut Creek Rally will feature a number of speakers from the Democratic Party, including Rep. George Miller, D-Concord, and former U.S. Congressperson Pete McCloskey. 

Targeting these speakers, Hackwell said he has no confidence in the Democratic Party. “Kerry was for the expansion of the war,” he said, adding: “We say bring the troops home and put them in job training. Don’t redeploy them somewhere else.” 

Speakers at the Palo Alto march and rally, sponsored by the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, will hear from Joel Beinin, professor in Middle East studies at Stanford University and Larry Bensky, Berkeley resident and longtime KPFA-FM producer.  

Asked why Palo Alto was organizing separately from San Francisco, Bensky responded that “a lot of people don’t want to work with A.N.S.W.E.R. People who try to work with A.N.S.W.E.R., part of the Workers World Party, have found them to be hard-line and inflexible.”  

Bensky further noted that the other large umbrella coalition, United for Peace and Justice, which has stated uncategorically on its website that it will no longer work with A.N.S.W. E.R., will be holding its own large peace march in New York, April 29. 

Speaking for Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, Nathan Britton said the congresswoman wanted to hold a different kind of event, one where the community will have a chance to voice its opinions. At rallies, “generally what you get are a long list of speakers,” Britton said. 

Lee will be joined by panelists Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange, Andy Shalal, Iraqi American activist and Sophie Simon-Ortiz, producer/reporter at Youth Radio. 

“Three years into this unnecessary war, after an incredible human and financial cost and our country and the world are less safe, it is time to recognize that success means ending this war, bringing our troops home and making sure there are no permanent military bases (in Iraq),” Lee said in a prepared statement. 

 

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Environmentalists Speak Out Against Pacific Steel, By: Suzanne LaBarre

Friday March 17, 2006

The “backdoor agreement” that outlines pollution management of Pacific Steel Casting must be revoked, environmental groups say.  

About 20 representatives from several community organizations mounted pressure on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) Board of Directors Wednesday to take action against a settlement forged between the Air District and Pacific Steel, saying it fails to adequately regulate the steel company’s emissions. 

“The settlement was cut behind the back of the community, and sends a message that the permits written by BAAQMD are not worth the paper they’re written on,” said Bradley Angel, a representative for Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. “It makes a mockery of your public participation mandates and your environmental justice mandates.” 

Reached in December, the agreement details avenues Pacific Steel must take to curb odor emissions that many say smell like a burning pot handle. 

The company is composed of three plants at 1333 Second St. in West Berkeley. It was built in 1934. 

Residents have been complaining about its noxious fumes for more than two decades. 

Measures laid out in the agreement include installing a $2 million carbon abatement system, expected to reduce odor emissions by 90 percent, said Darrell Waller, Air District public information officer. Additionally, the company must implement interim abatement measures, draft an odor management plan and shell out $17,500 in fines for past violations. 

Though several speakers at Wednesday’s meeting urged cancellation of the agreement, the board could not take action because it was not on the agenda. The board is comprised of 22 public officials from Bay Area counties.  

According to Oakland City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, who introduced himself at Wednesday’s meeting as vice president of the steel workers’ union, Pacific Steel is doing everything in its power to get clean.  

“That plant has been there 70 years and that plant has done everything to reduce emissions,” De La Fuente said. “This is a responsible company that has put in numerous resources to improve the quality of life for workers and for people who live in the community.” 

Opponents disagreed, citing a caveat in the agreement that could alter emissions permitting the company to actually increase pollution. 

“The community does not agree with the air district staff’s decision to modify permits to enable Pacific Steel to pollute more,” writes David Schroeder, a member of the environmental watchdog group West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs, in a prepared statement. “This approach encourages industrial pollution and excludes the affected community from any say in the matter. Such policymaking is egregious and completely unacceptable.” 

Pacific Steel spokesperson and former state Assemblymember Dion Aroner said in an interview Wednesday that emissions amounts do not change under the settlement, they’re simply re-distributed. This corrects a permit error made in 2002, she said. 

The agreement is not clear on the point, however. Speakers at Wednesday’s meeting complained that they were left out of the process of drafting the cleanup plan. 

Waller said the community has been involved every step of the way. 

“When the community indicates they have a serious concern, we have been very responsive and we will continue to be,” he said. 

For many, the most pressing cause for concern is health.  

“Pacific Steel is a serious health problem. It is not just a nuisance,” said Berkeley resident Peter Guerrero, a member of the alliance. “BAAQMD’s attempts to address this are insufficient.” 

The facility has been shown to emit toxic substances, confirmed Nebil Al-Hadithy of the City of Berkeley Toxics Management Division, but levels have not been significant enough to pose health risks.  

However, the foundry has increased output in recent years, producing everything from bridge parts to busses, cable cars and wheelchairs. Thus, Air District officials commissioned a new health risk assessment. The report is due June. 

Some opponents aren’t willing to wait. In February, the watchdog group Cleanaircoalition.net threatened to file a small claims lawsuit against Pacific Steel. Other community members, who have supported the company in the past because it keeps nearly 600 union jobs in West Berkeley, are getting fed up. 

“We think it’s important that we not lose our industrial jobs,” said Ecology Center Executive Director Martin Bourque after Wednesday’s meeting. “But it’s not acceptable for that to happen at the cost to our community health and our environment.” 

Efforts put forth by the environmental groups to persuade Air District directors to formally consider their concerns at their next meeting largely fell on deaf ears. 

Director Chris Daly of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors expressed interest in forming an ad hoc committee to address the issue. The majority of the board did not share his sentiment, however. 

“I think it would be wrong for the board to step in,” said Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty.  

At the urging of Air District Executive Officer Jack Broadbent, the board agreed to move forward with the details of the settlement at staff level, though there was some talk of staff drumming up a report by the next board meeting, April 5. 

Community activists said they will be there, pressing for new terms of the agreement.  

Aroner said their pressure isn’t likely to work.  

“It’s a binding agreement on both parties,” she said. “We can’t imagine why the air district would walk away from that settlement.””


Alameda Med Counts Board Votes to Fire Trustee, By: J. Douglas Allen Taylor

Friday March 17, 2006

A vote by Alameda County Supervisors this week to remove a controversial trustee from the board of the Alameda County Medical Center may not necessarily stop pending legal action against the county for her original removal from the board. 

“If the court says I can continue, I will continue,” former trustee Gwen Rowe-Lee Sykes said by telephone. “If the court says I can’t, then it’s up to the taxpayers of Alameda County to look into the problems at the medical center.” 

The ACMC Board of Trustees oversees several of Alameda County’s public medical institutions, including Highland Hospital and the John George Psychiatric Clinic. 

Sykes’ off-again, on-again, off-again saga began in February when Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson informed medical center trustees that Sykes “will no longer serve on the Alameda County Medical Center Board of Trustees.” Carson, who nominated Sykes to the board in 2004, said in an interview that he had removed her because of complaints from “a majority of her colleagues” on the board, who Carson said were “having a difficult time conducting business” because of her actions during meetings. 

Sykes called those allegations of disruption “false, unless disruption means not allowing people to steal money from the hospital.” During her tenure on the board, Sykes repeatedly criticized the board over management and doctors’ contracts. 

In response to Carson’s notice of removal, Sykes filed legal action in  

California Superior Court in Oakland, stating that only the full county Board of Supervisors—not one supervisor—were empowered to remove a trustee from the Medical Center Board. Alameda County Counsel Richard Winnie agreed with that assertion in an earlier interview with the Daily Planet. Sykes was allowed to participate in the March board of trustees meeting after board president J. Bennett Tate and board clerk Barbara Miller-Elegbede had originally informed her that Carson had removed her. 

On Tuesday, an item to remove Sykes from the medical center board was placed on the county board of supervisors’ consent calendar, and supervisors approved it along with the rest of the calendar without debate. Sykes said that neither she nor her attorney were notified that her removal would be on the agenda, and did not attend the meeting because of a prior business commitment. 

In her later interview, Sykes criticized the supervisors for placing her removal on the consent calendar, where matters are passed en masse without debate on individual items. “That type of action is smothering the concerns,” Sykes said. “It’s the same type of smothering that’s taking place with issues affecting the entire medical center.” 

Three citizens spoke up for Sykes at the supervisors meeting, including Berkeley resident Jackie DeBose and health professional Edith Davis of the Bay Area Consortium, asking that the supervisors postpone their vote to give Sykes a chance to come before them and defend herself. Albany resident Greg Miller asked supervisors to “strongly reconsider your action. I’ve known Dr. Sykes for 10 years. She’s always been a strong advocate. Certainly she causes waves, but isn’t that what we want?””


Teen Violence: A Community Challenge, By: Judith Scherr

Friday March 17, 2006

They scream obscenities at the teacher during class and show up all smiles to chat after school; they defy curfews and curl up in their mothers’ laps; they’re ready to live on their own and can’t make a sandwich; they sleep with boyfriends and play with Barbies; they live on chips and cry over acne. 

They are teenagers and more likely to die from car crashes, homicide or suicide than anything else, according to Dr. Barbara Staggers, who heads adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital and Research Center, Oakland.  

“Homicide and violence in teens is a huge issue,” she says. While teens are physically healthier then they will ever be, “they are dying of things that are preventable.”  

Meleia Willis-Starbuck, 19, Juan Carlos Ramos, 18, Keith Stephens, 24 and Alberto Salvador Villareal-Morales, 15, were lost to violence in recent months. The deaths of the three young people killed in Berkeley and Villareal-Morales, a Berkeley High student murdered in Oakland, have prompted the community to ask how to keep children safe. 

While erratic teen behavior is comprehensible and changes throughout the teenage years, a young teen is unaware of consequences. According to Staggers, “He could shoot someone. He’s thinking of here, now, today. He can’t plan.”  

Teens in the middle range, learning to separate from adults, thrive on conflict. “They have to experiment with life; they’re different people on different days,” she says, noting that being afflicted with AIDS or hooked on heroin can be lifelong consequences of experimental teen behavior. 

At this stage, decision-making skills are key and parent lectures are useless. “Parents have to step back,” Staggers says. Teens listen to peers. For kids on a rocky path, “ex-gang members have more credibility,” Staggers says.  

Berkeley High Security Officer Mark Griffin teaches anger management. He can relate to kids in trouble—he’s been there. In his work, he gives teens a chance to talk about why they are hurting and helps them role-play conflict situations to find a safe way out. 

In late adolescence, teens make conscious decisions, Staggers says. Drug dealing, for example, is no longer experimental, but a conscious choice. Teens may not see other options. What young people need at this stage is to recognize choices. Perhaps a young man carrying a gun does not know how to talk his way out of a situation. “Teach him to talk,” Staggers says, cautioning: teach him in a non-judgmental way. 

Berkeley’s Youth Services Coordinator Phil Harper-Cotton offers options to teens on the edge. Sometimes he drives down Sacramento Street or San Pablo Avenue in the evenings and chats with kids hanging out, letting them know someone cares. He offers a pocket-size card with services—job referrals, drug and alcohol treatment, counseling. He’s offering choices; some respond. 

 

Teens under stress 

Home and school should be safe places, but sometimes they create stress. For teens of color, race is an often ignored stressor, says Dr. Vicki Alexander, responsible for child and teen health in Berkeley’s Health Department. “There are very clear divisions in wealth in Berkeley; it comes down along racial lines,” with the presence of the university exaggerating the divide, Alexander says. She advocates anti-racist campaigns to change attitudes, equalize opportunities and reduce stress on people of color. 

The recent murders are stressors for local teens, says sociologist Howard Pinderhughes, Berkeley resident and assistant professor at UC San Francisco. Even when teens don’t know the victims, the homicides trigger emotions carried over from other incidents in the teen’s life. They need safe places to talk about what they are feeling, he says, adding: “And they need safe places to hang out.”  

 

Safe spaces for teens 

But that’s easier said then done. Youth leaders at the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center have tried to create a safe place to party and hit a blank wall, they said last week, sitting around a table at the Walnut Street facility, eating pizza and talking to a reporter. “There’s no place for teens or pre-teens to go,” Molly Bilick, 17, said.  

The group tried putting on dances and had several successful ones. But the popularity grew through text-messaging and word-of-mouth. The second-to-last dance drew 700 teens to the Walnut Street building; neighbors called the police and the fire marshal shut it down. The group was diverse, well behaved; there was no stealing or vandalism, the youths said. 

The last dance was in August. Tickets were sold in advance and only ticketed people could come in. This was a disaster, leaving a large unruly crowd outside.  

The night before meeting with the reporter, the group trekked to the City Council meeting to ask for funding for a teen center, a place for dances and opportunities to learn skills, such as carpentry and cooking. It would have to be in a warehouse, away from homes, they said.  

They’d already asked the city for the use of their gyms, but were turned down. There is no appropriate city venue, said Harper-Cotton in a separate interview. Recreation staff could control the dance, “but we can’t control outside,” he said, explaining that neighbors would complain. 

While Councilmember Darryl Moore and other city officials say a teen center is a good idea, there are no plans to create such a space. 

The city is not without things for teens to do. “Berkeley’s very rich in resources, but you have to be self motivated and a lot of kids aren’t,” said Tricia Brazil, who works in tobacco, drug and violence prevention at Berkeley High. At the school there are more than 30 clubs, plus drama, music and sports programs. In the community there is the Young Adult Project, a city-run center for youth referred by teachers or counselors, Berkeley Youth Alternatives, where young people can get tutoring and take classes such as in music production. There’s Youth Radio and more. 

 

Kids in trouble 

But, as Dr. Staggers noted, teens experiment and don’t see consequences. They get in trouble with the police. That’s when Detective Sgt. Dave White of the Youth Services Bureau steps in.  

Lately, he’s heard from a growing number of parents. “We’re getting a lot of calls saying that kids are incorrigible—two to three times a day.” Parents don’t know what to do. White refers them to community agencies. 

White says his job is keeping kids out of the juvenile justice system. When teens are picked up for minor crimes, they can be sent to youth court in Oakland. Staffed by teen prosecutors, judges and juries, retributive, rather than punitive justice is delivered: offenders may have to write letters of apology to victims or scrub graffiti off walls. (Berkeley High has recently introduced a youth court as well.) 

Teen offenders might also be required to check in regularly with a police department counselor. 

While the recent homicides are tragic and have shaken nerves throughout the city, teen violence does not appear to be escalating, White said. (Berkeley Police keep no records specific to juvenile crime, according to Ed Galvan, police department spokesperson.) White said juvenile crime trends tend to be about the same as trends for adult violent crime. In Berkeley, violent crime over the last five years has not increased. 

Still, the tragic deaths have been a wake-up call: youth commissioners want to create more opportunities for young teens to learn conflict resolution strategies; youth violence was the focus of an Albany High meeting last week and will be the focus of a Berkeley High workshop Thursday.


Teen Parties Can Lead to Violence If Not Supervised, By: Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday March 17, 2006

Lauralaura is an 18YO SWF (18-year-old single white female, for the uninitiated) from Berkeley who likes Goth parties.  

Crystalia is 17. She’s a SBF from Berkeley who has a thing for impromptu dance parties. Her profile also says “YEAH for slumber parties!” 

Dolce Vita, 15, is all about the next 4th of July block party. 

All three belong to “Sexy Party People”—a group on myspace.com which boasts 76,179 members to date. Nothing wrong about being a party person—but “Sexy Party People” isn’t your everyday teen forum on parties—it comes with sights and sounds no underage teen would be encouraged to dabble in. It even talks about gatecrashing parties “just for the fun of it.” 

Gatecrashing is often one of the steps that leads to violence at teen parties. According to Officer Ed Galvan of the Berkeley Police Department, the Berkeley police occasionally receives phone-calls from irate parents or hosts about gatecrashers.  

Although concerns for violent teen parties are rising, Officer Galvan told the Daly Planet that “In general, the rowdiness or violence level in parties in Berkeley hasn’t increased or decreased over the last few years.” Echoing his words was Detective David White, Youth Services Bureau, BPD, who said that he hasn’t seen any trends in teen parties getting violent or out-of-hand. “The Berkeley Hills party which led to the Contra Costa kid being murdered was an eye opener for a lot of people. You get kids and alcohol together and it’s a dangerous mix. It’s definitely important for parents to be aware of these parties and chaperone them.” 

The other complaints about teen parties that the police receive from Berkeley residents involve noise levels, blocked streets or driveways, and littering caused by beer bottles or food. 

Although the city hasn’t enforced any rules on the chaperoning of underage parties, Officer Galvan said it was advisable to do so. “It is good to have a parent or a grown-up around in case things get out of hand,” he said. When asked why the police didn’t receive more calls from teenagers when something went wrong at these parties, Officer Galvan said that “they were probably scared of getting into trouble.” 

The city also has very strict rules about alcohol being served to minors at parties. “You cannot, by any means, serve or sell beer or any form of alcohol to someone under 21 at a house party,” said Officer Galvan. 

Keeping in mind the recent stabbings in the Berkeley hills, the BPD and the District 5 Berkeley City Council Office (represented by councilmember Laurie Capitelli) will be sponsoring a community forum on teen parties at the Northbrae Church Community Center next Thursday. The forum, “How Many Guests Are Too Many?” seeks to address the problems of large, unsupervised teen parties, uninvited guests, and noise, which result in vandalism and violence. Other concerns that will be addressed are: 

• The social factors that lead to out-of-control teen events. 

• What teens can do if their party gets out of control. 

• Teen anxiety about calling the police. What will really happen? 

• What are parents’ responsibilities if they are not there? 

• What can and should neighbors do if they suspect a large, unsupervised teen party? 

• How websites, such as “My Space,” play a role in large, unchaperoned teen parties. 

“The main reason behind this is to educate high school and middle school parents on the vices of teen parties,” said Officer Galvan. We especially hope to raise the issue of the Internet as a tool for spreading the word about these parties.” 

Jill Martinueci, aide to councilmember Capitelli, agrees. “The event is close to the area where the recent murder of Juan Carlos Ramos occurred. As a parent of a teenager I feel that forums like this are extremely important to know what’s going on.” 

Martinueci also feels that cell phones and the Internet play a huge role in getting teenagers at these parties instantaneously. “It’s all so immediate, so right now—the word spreads like wildfire. You can’t really blame any one website or chatroom for this.” 

Another parent who wished to remained anonymous told the Planet that parties in the big houses in the hills drew kids like magnets. “Somehow it makes them think that it’s going to be a nicer party. That they are away from prying eyes of parents in these places,” she said. 

Mark Coplan, Public Information Officer at BUSD and father of a 16 year-old, told the Planet that “with the influx of teen violence throughout the nation, the rules that parents lay down for their children when it comes to parties is very important.” 

“Kids often are heard telling parents, ‘don’t call other parents when I’m at a party’ because it’s not popular. If I am worried about something I always call up other parents whose kids my son is visiting. This at times has surprised a lot of parents.” 

Coplan said that his son stopped going to parties after he witnessed one getting out of control. “There was a lot of drinking and vandalism and he just shelled up after that. Now he just calls over a few friends when he wants to have fun.” 

Rio Bauce, Chair of the city’s Youth Commission and a student at Berkeley High, told the Daily Planet that teen parties in Berkeley are usually pretty mellow. “Sure you can get tons of hits on parties if you go to websites like myspace.com, but if you are sensible you would know which ones to avoid.” 

Krystal, a sophomore at Berkeley High, says that although she has witnessed smoking and drinking at teen parties in Berkeley, she hasn’t come across violence. “It’s usually normal teenage behavior. Guys being guys and fighting over alcohol or pot,” she said. Krystal has also walked into the girl’s bathroom in Berkeley High and seen girls smoking pot. 

According to Dane, a freshman at Vista College, “it all depends on what kind of people are invited and what kind of party you land up at. I have older siblings and when I exchange stories about parties with them—I don’t see any major differences in the parties we both attended.” 

Then there are some teenagers who avoid parties completely and want to keep it that way. Jessica Nicely, a junior at Berkeley High has “no time for parties.” 

“I have better things to do than getting drunk and hooking up with random people at parties. Right now rehearsing for a school musical is taking up all my time.” she told the Daily Planet.?


School Board Meeting Roundup, By: Suzanne LaBarre

Friday March 17, 2006

At Wednesday’s regularly scheduled Berkeley Board of Education meeting, directors approved: 

• The second year interim report on district finances. The district expects to earn a “positive” certification, meaning the budget can meet its fiscal obligations. Board President Terry Doran pointed out that the district has received positive certifications for each of the last three rounds of financial reporting.  

• The Five-Year Deferred Maintenance Plan, which outlines facilities improvements the district will undertake with monies from the state’s deferred maintenance fund, a matching fund. Projects the district will embark upon in the 2006-2007 school year include painting and flooring at Emerson Elementary School and replacing roofing for administration at Willard Middle School. 

• The 2006 Facilities Master Plan. The first comprehensive plan since 2005 corrals budgets, scheduling and accounting information for all current and future facilities projects. The document highlights several projects likely to pose challenges in the coming year. Among them: finalizing plans for the West Campus, which will be used as the district’s central administrative facility, finalizing development of the East Campus (see articl, Page One), gaining approval for a new transportation facility, and resolving planning issues for the district’s various child development sites, namely assessing how many children will use the facilities in years to come. 

• Several education policies. The board gave final approval of a modified high school exit exam policy, thus allowing students who have not yet passed the exit exam to walk on graduation day with their peers. Directors also revised high school graduation requirements, approved details of the annual Standardized Testing and Reporting Program (STAR) and adopted Student Study Team academic intervention policy. 

The board also heard a report on a special education model called “Learning Center” that will be recommended for districtwide implementation. Cragmont Elementary School and Willard Middle School are currently piloting the model, which gives students with special needs access to general education in addition to special education services. 

—Suzanne La Barre 

 

 

 


Police Blotter, By: Richard Brenneman

Friday March 17, 2006

Shots fired, two found 

911 operators were flooded with calls from concerned West Berkeley residents at 9:21 p.m. Saturday, all reporting that they’d heard a volley of gunfire near the intersection of Seventh and Addison streets. 

Officers scoured the scene but weren’t able to find any evidence of the shooting, said Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

Two hours later, a resident returned home to find a bullet hole in a front window and called police. Responding officers found spent .40-caliber shell casings and a second bullet impact in the residence’s front yard. 

Just who fired the shots—and why—remains a mystery. 

 

Rat pack punch 

A gang of three teenagers confronted a 20-year-old Berkeley woman as she walked along the 2400 block of Carleton Street about 3:30 Sunday morning. 

After one of the trio punched her in the mouth, the gang stole her backpack and wallet, then fled. 

 

Belated report 

A woman walked into the Berkeley Police Department Sunday morning to report that she’d been robbed the night before by a strongarm bandit who stole her purse and cell phone as she was walking along the 2500 block of Telegraph Ave. 

 

Failed heist 

A 52-year-old Oakland woman who’d just been confronted by a strongarm heister demanding her purse bolted instead into a nearby store—Metro Lighting in the 2100 block of San Pablo Avenue. 

The robber had been long gone by the time officers arrived. 

 

GTP 

That’s grand theft . . . piano, the offense reported by the owner of a Sacramento music store who arrived at his storage facility in the 1000 block of Folger Avenue only to discover that 10 of his prize pianos had been stolen. 

Because there was no sign of forced entry, detectives are investigating the possibility that the theft was carried out by a former employee, said Officer Galvan. 

“To make it even worse, he later saw one of his pianos for sale on craigslist.com,” said the officer. 

 

Short but deadly 

Walking along the 1500 block of Oregon Street Monday afternoon, a man found himself confronted by a five-foot-tall youth packing an adult-sized handgun. 

When the robber demanded his wallet, the man complied, then headed to the lobby of the Berkeley Police Department, where he reported the crime. 

 

Powerful thirst 

A short-haired bicyclist with a profound thirst stormed into L&K Liquors just after 6 p.m. Monday, where he pulled a knife, waved it at the manager, then grabbed two pint-sized cans of King Cobra Malt Liquor before beating a retreat and biking away. 

The beer peddler was long gone from the 2495 Sacramento St. store by the time the black-and-whites arrived. 

 

Unsnatched purse 

A purse not snatched can be news, too—at least to San Francisco resident Rita Jeremy, who was visiting Berkeley Saturday night. 

“I lost my purse. It wasn’t stolen, it fell off my shoulder near Piedmont and Bancroft,” she said. “Someone very nice found it and handed it in to the Police Department.” 

Informed that it had been recovered, Jeremy came to Berkeley Wednesday, where she was delighted to discover that she’d lost none of her cash, her ID or her keys. 

The finder turned in the purse to Officer Brian White, who turned it over to the police property room. 

“I want to thank whoever turned it in,” said Jeremy. “And I thought your readers would like to hear something very positive about life in Berkeley.”›


Building Education Center Provides Hands-On Experience, By: Riya Bhattacharjee

Friday March 17, 2006

On a balmy Saturday morning, a doctor, a lawyer, a software engineer, and a smattering of others gathered in a room in West Berkeley to learn how to install windows, doors, and skylights. 

It’s not a career change this motley group of 12 was after—it was home improvement. 

For those who want to learn how to replace a room full of old, drafty windows or make a dull breakfast nook look cozy again, there’s help in the form of the Building Education Center. 

Founded in 1992 after its predecessor organization, the Owner Builder Center, went out of business, BEC helps people build, remodel, and maintain their own homes. 

According to Sidney Adams, the program’s director, BEC is strictly an educational organization. 

“Our courses cover everything from building from the ground up to being an educated, informed consumer,” she said. “We have been seeing more students who are interested in being trained for the professional trades, but we primarily cater to your ‘average’ homeowner type.” 

The classes are open to anyone with or without prior knowledge in building construction and the instructors are all professionals in their fields. 

“We have architects, attorneys, authors, builders, contractors, designers, engineers, inspectors, project managers and many others taking classes throughout the week.” Adams said. “We get most of our instructors through word-of-mouth referrals.” 

Glenn Kittsenberger has been teaching at BEC for 20 years. He has more than 30 years of experience in the building profession. 

“My classes help students to go out and build their own homes,” he said. “Sometimes it helps them to supervise construction. I try and keep it as simple as possible. For example, I would illustrate a three-way switch with the help of charts.” 

Kittsenberger even provides students with an hour’s worth of free consultation time after classes. 

“I use handouts, slide projectors, and a lot of hands-on training to make them understand the nuts and bolts of building,” he said. “Sometimes the students call me when they are actually trying to build something.” 

Among the more popular classes that Kittsenberger teaches at BEC is the Homeowner’s Essential Course. 

Joe Rickson, a computer engineer from San Jose, praised the class. 

“This is my fourth class at BEC and I must say it’s helping me remodel my house in a big way,” he said. “I have replaced older windows from the 1940s and have also learned carpentry framing and basic electrical theory.” 

BEC also covers issues such as flood damage control and earthquake retrofitting, which are helpful to those owning homes in the Bay Area.  

Sharon Maldonado is a retired school teacher who lives near Monterey Market. 

“I wanted to learn how to use power tools safely and effectively,” she said. “BEC helped me to do that. They make beginners feel very comfortable.” 

Apartment Management for Women is a course aimed at helping women gain independence and security. According to its instructor Naomi Friedman, it’s not easy work. 

“It requires you to have good people skills and being on call, sometimes 24/7,” she said. “It teaches you the basics of plumbing, electrical, locks, tenant relations, emergency preparedness, scheduling and working with contractors. My one requirement is that students must be on time.” 

Rebecca Herman, a Berkeley homeowner, said Friedman knows her subject. “She is really smart and very supportive,” Herman said. “The course made me more confident about basic electrical and plumbing stuff.” 

Specialized classes like Feng Shui, Green Building, Architectural Model Making and sketching attract a lot of people.  

“Everyone wants more hands-on workshops,” Adams, the director, said. “Thus they are very popular and fill up as we do limit the enrollment somewhat on these. The Homeowners Essential Course is the most comprehensive overview we offer and the Summer Intensive are especially good for people who are from out of the area or want to get a lot of information in a short amount of time.” 

Adams said the classes How to get Your Permit Approved, Plan Reading and Finding and Assessing Fixer Uppers are the most popular three-hour short classes. Owner Contracting, Earthquake Retrofitting and Kitchen Design are the most popular one-day seminars, she said. 

 

A free lecture, “What You Need to Know Before You Build or Remodel,” will be held at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St., on Saturday, April 8 from 10 a.m.-noon and repeated on Monday, April 10 from 7- 9 p.m.  

For more information on courses see www.bldgeductr.org or call 525-7610. 

 

 

 


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Who Pays for the News? Part II By BECKY O'MALLEY

Tuesday March 21, 2006

In this space on Friday we talked about how the major newspaper chains have been taken over by the Wall Street investment model, wherein profits must continually be maximized, and where papers and chains of papers have been dumped when profits dip to 19 percent. On Sunday night we attended a forum at the lately resuscitated Hillside Club, where the enterprising Sylvia Paull had convened a panel to discuss this proposition: 

“Bloggers and podcasters are suspicious of elitist big media and view the democratizing force of digital technology positively. In contrast, many traditional journalists regard most blogs, wikis and podcasts as amateurish and narcissistic. We wonder if expertise is, by definition, elitist. And we ask if expertise and elitism might indeed be necessary features of a high-quality media.” 

Panelists for what she calls a “Cybersalon” included New York Times technology reporter and author John Markoff, BlogHer cofounders and bloggers Jory des Jardins and Lisa Stone, blogger/podcaster/digital reporter Steve Gillmor, and Joshua Greenbaum, who writes for trade journals about technical subjects. The audience was heavily populated by geeks whose idea of news is the latest wrinkle in electronic technology, but included a number of members who also have some connection to the real world, including reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times.  

The first pass through the panel produced the predictable encomiums for the democratization of information which the Internet has produced, tempered a bit by Markoff’s observation that the people have not yet seized the reins of power. He drew on his pre-journalism sociological studies of power structures with the likes of C. Wright Mills and Bill Domhoff to observe that if anything power is more concentrated than it was before. Last to speak was Josh Greenbaum, who aroused the ire of a good part of the audience with his mild and judicious comment that collecting information is costly, and someone has to pay for it—heresy to those who believe that everything is free in cyberspace. He mentioned the dread words copyright and patent, and there were dark mutterings on the floor.  

A lot of time was wasted in a discussion of what it might mean to be elitist, nothing any American would admit to being. The moderator, Andrew Keen, is a Brit, and as such had no problem with avowing elitism, but he was alone in this. The general consensus seemed to be that what is now called “Web 2.0,” the current state of Internet technology, offers a great way of disseminating information, but many were hazy on where the information is supposed to come from in the first place. They seemed not to be aware of newsgathering, the activity still conducted in most depth by newspapers. 

One commentator pointed with approval to the blogger Glen Greenwald, a lawyer who has evidently done a yeoman job of close textual analysis of legal documents about NSA spying on phone conversations. Markoff noted that he himself was raised on the work of I.F. Stone, who managed to find out much of what official Washington was trying to hide by studying documents, and was able to get the word out by mailing his printed newsletter, no Internet needed. He permitted himself a tiny gentlemanly smirk with a light reference to how the NSA documents got out in the first place: obtained by the New York Times. 

The question of who pays for collecting the news never really came up again. Markoff had earlier observed that Craigslist might be creating a drop in classified advertising revenues at the big papers, which might in turn lead to cuts in news staffing, but the topic didn’t interest anyone else in the room, save one questioner who asked about “corporatization” of major media and got little response. 

But this is a central question. Although there’s a lot of good stuff on the Web if you know where to look, much of Blogsville is inhabited by people who haven’t quit their day jobs, and have not much to offer except opinion within a narrow range of experience. Without a few people who are paid to find out what’s going on and to report it clearly, talk radio will continue to be the way most people form their opinions, with predictably bad results when it comes time to vote. Poor Craig Newmark, who’s only trying to do something useful, shouldn’t get all the blame for the decline in newspaper advertising, since advertising of all kinds in print media is shrinking.  

The loyalty that many local businesses used to feel to their local press has declined. Recent letters that the Daily Planet’s advertising sales staff have passed along to the editorial department clearly illustrate that mindset:  

 

Thanks for thinking of Berkeley Rep. I want to be candid with you and report that Berkeley Rep has no plans to advertise in the Daily Planet now or in the immediate future. We know that many of your readers are Berkeley Rep patrons, but we believe that we are reaching those audiences already through other means—none of which includes local print like the DP, Berkeley Voice, East Bay Monthly or East Bay Express. Sorry to disappoint. 

 

Our sales staffer asked the writer how he reaches his target audience, and he replied: 

 

We reach our patrons through direct mail, outbound e-mail and through ads in the major print dailies (primarily the Chron, also the CC Times and Oakland Trib for the moment). We use radio, especially KQED, and some television. Our non-subscriber patrons come usually once or twice a year. They come from all over the Bay Area including Marin, SF, the Peninsula. Less than half our audiences comes from Berkeley. They are, as you can imagine, educated and culturally literate. They are middle class and wealthy, and middle aged or older. Of course we also have a younger audience in their 20s and 30s, and we continually nurture them. Hope this helps.”  

 

The writer is marketing director for the Berkeley Repertory Theater, a well-regarded cultural institution which has received millions of dollars in subsidies from Berkeley taxpayers. It is regularly reviewed by the Daily Planet and listed in our calendar. Honesty compels us to admit that for a hot minute we were strongly tempted to drop the free calendar listings and reviews, but our editorial loyalty must continue to be to our readers, unaffected by the whims of advertisers.  

And we appreciate his own honesty. His letter helps us come to terms with what a challenge we’re facing in trying to continue to bring a newspaper to a community like Berkeley, where the sense of entitlement is strong, and where noblesse oblige died long ago. But if advertising doesn’t pay for newspapers, and subscriptions haven’t paid for newspapers for more than 20 years, who’s going to? We doubt that it will be, for example, Berkeley taxpayers. In 10 years, Web X.x may be the only source of information, and that won’t be good. 


Editorial: Blood in the Media Waters, By: Becky O'Malley

Friday March 17, 2006

The buzz this week in journalistic circles has been all about the Knight Ridder corporation selling itself off to the McClatchy organization. Last week’s panic in the press—fears that the chain would fall into the wrong hands—was momentarily superseded by euphoria in “responsible” quarters, notably the New York Times, because of the wholesome reputation for solid journalism that McClatchy’s California flagships have nourished over the years.  

This just in: It’s not your grandfather’s McClatchy anymore. Old C.K. McClatchy, the legendary stiff-necked publisher of the Bee papers in the Valley, died in 1989, and Gary Pruitt, the current publisher, is a smiley blond lawyer-turned-executive described by Editor and Publisher as specializing in “iron-cupcake diplomacy.” 

The three names in this transaction, Knight, Ridder and McClatchy, all carry connotations of a period when newspaper journalism was more than a corporate money-making enterprise. The original Knights, the Ridders and the McClatchys all managed their businesses—and they were, of course, businesses, even then—in such a way as to add luster to the family name as well as gold to the bottom line. Occasionally some family member even took a modest flier into the public policy leadership arena. John S. Knight, though a registered Republican, was one of the earliest voices calling for withdrawal from Vietnam in the ‘60s.  

Now we’re being treated to the unseemly spectacle of K-R publisher Tony Ridder saying he’s shocked, shocked, that McClatchy’s corporate masters are going to unload some of what they’ve bought as fast as they can. Well, anyone who’s read Carl Hiassen’s hilarious 2002 crime novel Basket Case isn’t a bit surprised. Catty rumors in Blogsville suggest that the character Race Maggard III, the owner of the newspaper where the protagonist worked in the book, was a send-up of Tony Ridder. Here’s one of Hiassen’s many sharp-edged depictions: 

Maggard-Feist is a publicly traded company that owns 27 dailies around the country. The chairman and CEO, young Race Maggard III, believes newspapers can prosper handsomely without practicing distinguished journalism, as distinguished journalism tends to cost money. Race Maggard III believes the easiest way to boost a newspaper’s profits is to cut back on the actual gathering of news. 

In 2003 Geneva Oberholser, a columnist for the journalism think-tank Poynter Institute, lambasted Knight Ridder’s “executive incentive” plan: “Knight Ridder executives could hardly send a clearer message about what matters most than this plan to ‘motivate and reward executives for achieving total shareholder return equal to or greater than the other companies in the S&P Publishing/Newspaper Index,’ as the company’s proxy statement put it.” At that point, Knight Ridder’s return to shareholders, both stock-price gains and dividends, was 25 percent, according to a story in the chain’s San Jose Mercury News. Oberholser’s comment: “If the mantra used to be: ‘We’ve got to be a strong business in order to do strong journalism,’ it now seems quite openly to have become: ‘We’ve got to make higher profits than all the others.’”  

And when the profits went down a bit this year, to just above 19 percent, the Wall Street investors got even greedier, resulting finally in last week’s firesale. Carl Hiassen’s book predicted the post-sale results, so they should have come as no shock to anyone, especially Ridder, who’d done the same thing himself in the past:  

When a newspaper is purchased by a chain such as Maggard-Feist, the first order of business is to assure worried employees that their jobs are safe, and that no drastic changes are planned. The second order of business is to attack the paper’s payroll with a rusty cleaver, and start shoving people out the door.  

Because newspaper companies promote the myth that they’re more sensitive and socially responsible than the rest of corporate America, elaborate efforts are made to avoid the appearance of a bloodbath. Mass firings are discouraged in favor of strong-armed buyout packages and accelerated attrition. 

And it’s not just McClatchy-Knight-Ridder-Maggard-Feist that’s guilty of doing business like this. Ask any current or recently discharged staffer at the San Francisco Chronicle (bought by Hearst) or the Los Angeles Times (bought by the Chicago Tribune). Or for that matter at the Village Voice (bought by New Times, Inc.) 

A widely-quoted quip described the acquisition as a dolphin swallowing a whale. From the perspective of a small bottom-feeding family-owned newspaper, however, the action among the big players looks a lot more like Shark v. Shark. It’s not clear what, if anything, is to supposed to become of old-time public service journalism, but we’re pretty sure that, wearing our investor hats, we’d settle for a lot less than 19 percent profit in this venture.  

 


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday March 21, 2006

BERKELEY UTOPIA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley has always had a soft spot in its heart for 1930-style socialism. Berkeley’s current system of either buying an expensive home or living in a proletarian rent-controlled unit for the rest of your life has mirrored that “Utopia” in creating Berkeley’s own Privilegencia. Nothing in the middle. Stalin would be proud. 

Nancy Friedberg 

 

• 

BART BIKE THEFT SOLUTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I solved the problem of bike theft after walking home in the rain one night from MacArthur BART. I simply don’t use BART anymore. That’s right, horror of horrors, I drive my car to San Francisco. I save time, money and peace of mind. 

Judi Sierra 

Oakland 

 

• 

DERBY STREET BALLFIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Terry Doran is to be commended for his comments regarding the Derby Street sports field to the effect that the School Board should not be in the business of using resources intended for students to satisfy general community needs (March 17). Here’s hoping he and the majority of the board that he referred to in the same story stay their original course and pursue the full-field option (i.e. closed Derby Street), which includes a regulation baseball diamond. That is the solution that makes the fullest and best use of scarce school district resources for the people it is obligated to serve: its students. 

Phyllis Orrick 

 

• 

HALLINAN’S MIDDLE EAST ANALYSIS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Conn Hallinan makes about as much sense now as he did when he edited and wrote for the Communist Party’s publication, People’s Weekly World. While Hamas, the duly-elected Palestinian governing party, maintains their covenant calling for the destruction of Israel and Jews everywhere, Hallinan somehow can’t seem to comprehend why Israeli politicians refuse to speak with those butchers.  

May I inquire, Mr. Hallinan, what part of genocide do you fail to comprehend? 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

 

• 

ALBANY WATERFRONT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I support the Albany Waterfront Specific Plan Initiative which allows for a comprehensive plan for the entire shoreline. For me, this issue is not about tax revenues or even about how Albany will or will not benefit from a big retail/condominium development. The bigger issue is the legacy we leave for future generations. Everywhere I go, there is more and more building—homes, shopping centers, big business complexes, with their attendant parking lots. The whole world is being put under cement. Is this what our children should have to live with? We need to preserve whatever open space we still have because we are fast running out of land, anywhere and everywhere. I am at the Albany Shoreline a lot just to enjoy an environment free of commercialism. 

What about thoughtful planned open space? The Caruso plan suggests only a 2.5-acre open area along the shoreline in contrast to the 45 acres he wants to develop with its attendant parking structure. This is not thoughtful nor responsible as it will generate more traffic on I-80, more pollution, more health problems. A few more years of planning isn’t much to ask when compared to the loss of land once a retail complex is built, but it will give Albany residents a chance to consider an alternative to a southern California style mall. 

I urge every Albany resident to support this initiative and sign the petition to put it on the November ballot. Be proud that you helped to preserve our shoreline. 

Diane Ichiyasu 

Albany 

 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Marcia Lau suggests in her March 14 letter that there is a better bus route for the planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on Telegraph Avenue. Her point is well-taken. There are routes that could be covered, covered more and covered better all over the East Bay, but most transportation funding goes to infrastructure for the automobile. No wonder we can’t get good bus service; we live in a car-dominated world and are left to fight and scramble for every morsel of funding for alternatives available. However, at this point in time, the Major Investment Study has shown the chosen Telegraph route to offer most “access to major employment centers, major educational centers, connections with other transit, and support for transit-oriented development.”  

Marcia says BRT will be redundant with BART, following the same route. This point has been made before. However, if BRT was redundant with BART, it would have to limit stops to only the same stops as BART. It is true that in order to make the bus ride faster there won’t be as many stops as there are on the 43 line, but there will be numerous stops in addition to the BART stations. The BRT will allow riders to access much more along the route that BART does. If a rider is going from BART station-area to BART station-area, then of course, taking BART makes sense! But, if you need to get off at points in between, BART doesn’t work. 

Similarly, if you live far enough east of BART stations to make walking to the BART station too time-consuming, then the BRT would be a more convenient ride for you. The current bus line—as illustrated by the No. 43, by shear numbers of riders, and the numbers of riders getting on and off at stops along the way—the importance of the bus route. To offer bus service that is even more effective (by shortening the travel time between stops) is to attract more riders who may otherwise be compelled to use a car. 

Dedicated travel lanes for buses, traffic signal prioritization for buses and reduced bus stops will all contribute to reduced waiting times at bus stops, more reliable bus service and a more convenient alternative to the single-occupancy vehicle.  

Bus Rapid Transit on Telegraph will offer a real solution to the problem of traffic congestion, air pollution and global warming. AC Transit is part of the solution. Let’s join them. 

Marcy Greenhut 

 

• 

NIMBYS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I stand in awe of Charles Siegel’s ability to pack so many misrepresentations and misleading statements into one short letter about the Bus Rapid Transit proposal (March 17). Thank heavens that the readers of this paper know from Mr. Siegel’s previous diatribes that he has a strong bias against the use of automobiles in Berkeley. I will comment on one statement in his most recent letter: “As I understand it, a relatively small number of local NIMBYs are against BRT south of Dwight.” That statement is quite misguided, and I am certain it was not based on any research conducted by Mr. Siegel. I have talked with many residents in the Willard, Benvenue, CENA, and LeConte neighborhoods, and have encountered substantial opposition to this drastic and unnecessary proposal. (Rob Wren is the notable exception, of course, who seems to view BRT as a type of fundamentalist religion which must be accepted without question.) 

What’s more, isn’t it time that we conducted discussions about public policy without using the term “NIMBY” to denigrate our fellow citizens? After all, the term NIMBY is nothing but a conscious attempt to marginalize citizens who are fighting to protect their quality of life from imminent threats. Almost any citizen in Berkeley can become a NIMBY overnight due to our current unchecked development mania, and these new projects invariably result in increased noise, pollution, congestion, loss of sunlight, inadequate parking, blocked view corridors, reduction in green space, and loss of public space. It is perfectly understandable for people to try to fight these harmful impacts in order to prevent damage to their health and well-being. Before we criticize any of our fellow citizens who face the prospect of, say, a new four- or six-story building next door, or a huge influx of traffic into their neighborhood, or the loss of the last bit of greenery on their street—or a 50 percent reduction in the traffic capacity of their main thoroughfare—it would be helpful if we actually visited their neighborhood and spent some time talking with them to learn about their experiences and perspectives.  

Yes, let’s put an end to the use of the term NIMBY in our city, and let’s do it in a constructive way. From now on, if you should catch yourself using the term NIMBY, fine yourself $20—and then donate that amount to your favorite charity. You will be helping to eliminate a scurrilous term from our civic discourse, and supporting your favorite cause at the same time. It’s a win-win solution.  

Doug Buckwald  

 

• 

BRT NOT NECESSARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project has recently become a political football here on the letters page. 

There is already plenty of bus service on Telegraph. The big articulated Van Hool buses on the 40L line have lots of room, and they run frequently. 

But the BRT is supposed to make bus service fun and fast to motivate people to ride the bus instead of drive. The BRT will carry the current riders, plus all those people who used to drive all alone in their car. 

What will provide the motivation for new riders? Those shiny new buses? Faster getting on and off the buses? Maybe AC Transit will use the three doors on the Van Hools to implement some form of pre-paid boarding? Will employers subsidize bus passes? 

Faster trips? Fewer stops? Will the BRT buses get some kind of priority on Telegraph? Will there be bus-only lanes? Will buses have flashing signals telling car drivers to pull over? Will on-street parking on Telegraph be reduced enough to give room to pull over? 

Maybe the shift to BRT-riding will take enough cars off the road so that we get the required space that way. Or is that a chicken and egg problem? 

Is UC Berkeley going to reduce the number of campus parking spaces and offer bus passes to faculty, staff and students? 

I don’t see much of this happening in the near future. 

The bottom line is the question of whether a lot of new people are going to ride the BRT. If this isn’t going to happen, the BRT project really should not be going forward. 

Steve Geller 

 

• 

ELECTRONIC VOTE THEFT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Is it time to deal with electronic theft of elections? Hi-tech voter fraud began in Georgia, went on to Minnesota and spread throughout the country in 2004. 

Computer software can be hacked, programmers can alter votes and never be detected, and touchscreen voting machines are manufactured by companies that have close connections with the Bush administration. 

The electronic theft of elections began in Georgia where a popular Democratic governor and senator were both unseated in what media called amazing upsets with vote swings of up 16 percent from the last poll results before the election. In Minnesota, Walter Mondale was also defeated in a large last-second vote shift. And in the last presidential election there were last-second vote swings that gave George Bush victories in states that had been voting solidly for John Kerry. 

I bet if you checked, anti-abortion Republicans have won all suspect and disputed elections in 2000, 2002 and 2004. 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City 

 

• 

LOVE AND PEACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

By now, we all know that pre-emptive war just doesn’t work, and it makes matters worse. Enough airtime has been used in making up clever insults against Bush and Co. The real cure for war is to think about peace, joy, love; to practice self-love, and kindness towards all humans, and all of life; to meditate and pray everyday, going within to your heart and talking to your Higher Power, God, Goddess, or Creator. This is at the heart of every religion on Earth. Of course, there’s the practical side of doing all the footwork of contacting Congress, showing up at pro-peace rallies. Mother Theresa (or was it me or Jesus?) said, “It’s not enough to be anti-war; we must be pro-peace.” Ma Theresa promised, “The moment there’s a Pro-Peace Rally, I’ll be there.” Posthumously, if necessary. John Lennon has been known to make HIS posthumous appearances. Hee, hee!  

Please turn within to find your power, your love, your beauty. Then you will shine your light before the world. I personally find that if you love yourself and are gentle to yourself and self-nurturing, you’re not going to be cruel or very difficult on other people. I know damn well I can’t force you guys into desiring peace and love, let alone doing the inner work necessary to contact God within you. But I can be the change I want to see, thus effectively embodying Mahatma Ghandhi’s advice. Whatever you do, keep all pro-peace rallies non-violent and be polite. No rude language; it makes them angrier. Yes, it’s tempting to say nasty things about the criminals who stole America, twice! Well, Heaven and Earth and I and the other Lightworkers (saints, shamans, healers, and human angels everywhere) plus all the others who show up to help bring in World Peace Forever, won’t let them get away with it. As Klaus Meines of The Scorpions wrote, “The winds of change are blowing.” Maybe I should sing that song as my personal peace rally. The Scorpion’s “Winds of Change” brought down the Berlin Wall. Come on, guys; the World Wide Peace and Joy and Love Movement will be the next bringing down of the Berlin Wall. This wall isn’t physical, and it ain’t in Berlin. But that won’t stop us. The desire for world peace forever is now the supreme world power, not the darker side of the United States of America. I wish to let the world know, there are many Americans who wish world peace, who want an end to this long and bloody war. We shall prevail. I love you and I forgive you all for not “getting it” sooner and more gracefully. Phew...  

Linda M. Smith 

 

• 

CIVIL WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The unfolding civil war in Iraq is eerily similar to the civil strife in India that preceded partition into India and Pakistan, and to the ensuing 60 years of hatred between those states. On the eve of Britain’s retreat from almost a century of colonial domination she encouraged the antagonisms between Hindus and Muslims through discrimination, dispossession, provocation and segregation, presumably so Britain would not appear to leave a united India, disgraced.  

Despite the U.S. government’s hand-ringing about how terrible civil war would be in Iraq, the U.S. may be a main potential beneficiary from chaos and worsening internal warfare. Though the pressure for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq grows, the U.S. intends to keep its several new state of the art permanent military bases there and to control Iraq’s oil. Civil war reduces the chance of Iraq uniting against that agenda although 80 percent of Iraqis want the U.S. out. Civil war shifts the crisis from the destructive and hated occupation to Iraqi sectarianism and the growing murderous strife; it reduces the public relations damage of a U.S. policy defeat. A question: does the U.S. run its own underground killing militia(s) in Iraq?  

Marc Sapir 

 

• 

CARTOONS AND CHAOS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding the somewhat recent publications of the still controversial Danish cartoons, I would just like to express a few of my personal thoughts regarding this ongoing issue.  

For one, if college students, or people in general, do not challenge tradition, then progress as a whole would not be very fruitful. Regardless of whether that tradition is science or religion, as time passes on, and new knowledge is gained, ideas, old and new, must be challenged. Facing a huge wave of criticism should be no reason to cease; if so, then many of the ideas we hold so dear today would not be very well known. For instance, the fact that the planets revolve around the sun, and not vise versa.  

Lastly, instead of getting too caught up in the emotion that is dominating this issue over the rights of free speech and respect for religion, I have taken a different and more productive approach. When I look at this controversy I am constantly drawn into the theory of chaos, where order exists in what appears to be complete disorder. Applying this theory to the Danish cartoon controversy I have been making progress in understanding this vital theory, and have been gaining more understanding about how society functions as a whole, which does not seem too much different than the original attempt to predicate how the weather will be in a given day. To better relate to how I view this, just think about the famous butterfly effect, which states something as small as the flap of a butterfly’s wings can bring a tornado in Texas for example, or consider the fox and the hare. As you know, the fox and the hares are in constant conflict, with one taking on the role of the predator, and the other taking on the role as victim to the predator. But without this chaos, or the illusion of chaos rather, order between the two different groups would not exist, as one would become dominate, and as a result, the natural food chain would evolve.  

So instead of looking at these cartoons as world chaos which brings us closer to the brink of a major war, try looking at them as a normal part of the order that brings us together as people in general.  

Curtis Stone 

 

• 

CAMPUS CARTOON FLAP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The self-righteous indignation of the Cal Muslim Student Association over the publication of the cartoons would be credible if the media and textbooks in most Muslim countries were not saturated with racist propaganda against Jews and Christians. For instance, Egyptian public television recently aired a multi-part series treating the anti-Semitic tract “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as though it were factual. Articles accusing Jewish doctors of infecting Muslim children with AIDS or of Jews stealing children to harvest their organs, routinely circulate in mainstream media in the Arab world. Muslims commonly compare Jews to apes and pigs in daily speech and in the press. Muslims also refer to Christians as “those who incur Allah’s wrath".  

The Cal Muslim Students should stop complaining about our press and look at their own. They ought to petition their own governments and media outlets to stop publishing racist propaganda, and not stop demanding until the Muslim racism stops. Then they ought to apologize to the Jews, to the Christians, and to the Danes. After they have done those things, they might have some credibility, not before. Until then they ought to shut up. 

Jack Kessler 

El Cerrito  

 

• 

FACE REALITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

So Dick Cheney, in his March 19 appearance on “Face the Nation,” thinks that his statements about the United States being welcomed as liberators after the preemptive invasion of Iraq and that the insurgency is in its last throes “were basically accurate and reflect reality.” Perhaps he thinks throwing grenades at U.S. troops is the same as throwing flowers at them. And how many thousands have died in Iraq since his “last throes” statement?  

The VP also criticizes the media for it failure to report on all the positive progress made in Iraq. Maybe the media has a problem reporting how safe it is when reporters get kidnaped and killed when they go out without security guards. And if they are able to report, what positive progress will they report? Will they describe the lack of electricity, drinking water, basic sewage operations, health care, and other failures of the basic infrastructure? Will they report that the country with the second highest oil reserves has to import oil to meet its basic needs? Will they report on the massive corruption in government contracts in Iraq? Will they highlight the high infant mortality rate due to basic health care failures? Just which of these areas of progress should the media report? 

Cheney’s current view of reality ranks right up there with his beliefs about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. His “beliefs” are illusions and lies.  

Bush, Cheney and company must go now. 

Recently the South Korean Prime Minister was forced to resign because he was playing golf on the day that a national railway strike began. His golf outing set off a scandal in Korea. 

I think that this should encourage President Bush to consider resigning as well. Bush’s actions from lying to the American people to start a pre-emptive war which has led to the Iraqi quagmire to his inactions around hurricane Katrina certainly deserve a similar resignation on his part. Iraq and Katrina are just two of the top problems created by the Bush regime. 

The world can not afford another three years of Bush, Cheney, Rummy and company. 

Kenneth J. Thiesen  

Oakland 

 

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Commentary: Another Perspective on the Gaia Situation By GLORIA ATHERSTONE

Tuesday March 21, 2006

The City of Berkeley, members of the city government, Anna De Leon, and Panoramic Interest have spent weeks, months, years, and thousands of your tax dollars debating and clarifying the issues of the Gaia Arts Center. In an attempt to bring controversy about the Gaia Arts Center back to city government, Ms. De Leon is using her status as an attorney, misinterpretation of the facts, and influential friends in the city government to encourage city planning officials and the ZAB to reexamine the Gaia Arts Center and modify zoning. 

In recent letters to the city and published articles, Ms. De Leon indicates she was unaware of the intended use for the space when she decided to relocate her business to the location at 2120 Allston Way. Ms. De Leon was not only aware of the intended use, she drafted over five documents to city zoning officers Carol Barrett, Wendy Cosin and Mark Rhodes, which subsequently allowed for the use modifications that currently allow her for-profit bar, restaurant, and jazz lounge known as Anna’s Jazz Island and the Gaia Arts Center to obtain proper occupancy. For reasons that can best be summarized as “Landlord and Tenant” issues, Ms. De Leon would have the citizens of Berkeley and the City of Berkeley hold public hearings.  

The landlord Patrick Kennedy, and myself, manager of the Gaia Arts Center, are both confused by Ms. De Leon’s motives. Over four years ago the three of us met on multiple occasions to thoroughly discuss and outline the operation of and “the framework” for the Gaia Arts Center. Ms. De Leon was a crucial part of the genesis of the project. Anna’s knowledge of the local arts and music community, her status as an attorney, and her strong and influential ties to various departments of city government allowed us to move forward with our plans to open a multi-use artistic, cultural, and community center. 

The original use permit lists Gaia Arts and Cultural Center as an acceptable user. The original use permits exclude any food service establishment or restaurant such as Anna’s Jazz Island. On Dec. 3, 2002, Ms. De Leon applied for the first of several modifications to the use permit. The modification was granted with a variety of conditions and allowed her to open her for-profit restaurant and bar.  

On March 20, 2003, Ms. De Leon writes to city planners for further modification, she writes: 

 

Dear Mr. Rhodes, I am writing to confirm our understanding that the above referenced use permit allows us to serve all permitted food and beverage to all entities in the cultural center at 2118-2120 Allston Way, both on the main floor and on the mezzanine. These spaces will not be used for cooking or be a part of the cooking or bar facility in any formal sense, but food and alcoholic beverages may be brought to and consumed in the theatre and mezzanine spaces. 

 

Ms. De Leon has been adamant in her position that the consumption of food and beverage on the mezzanine was never an intended use. The above statement indicates Ms. De Leon’s knowledge that food and beverage service was intended in the mezzanine and the tone of the letter reflects she is acting as an advocate for these services. 

On April 22, 2003, Ms. De Leon requests further clarification and modification, she writes: 

 

As you know, we had a lengthy discussion of the cultural uses planned for the Panoramic Arts Center. This discussion was intended to clarify our vision for matters pertaining to the Center. This letter summarizes our understanding of the discussion. The Arts Center is intended to be open to the community for all kinds of cultural uses and events. They will include a wide variety of music concerts, theatre productions, films, lectures, receptions and the enormous variety of cultural and incidental uses that we discussed would be appropriate for a theatre/ concert hall venue. In an effort to keep the theatre/ concert hall in a wide cross section of community use rather than be rented or used by a single arts entity, Patrick Kennedy will retain control over all the space exclusive of that for which I hold the use permit. 

 

This letter from Ms. De Leon outlines the wide variety of cultural and community uses the Gaia Arts Center was intending to host. Ms. De Leon specifically indicates she was aware that the facility would not only host artistic cultural activities, but would host a variety of community and incidental uses that would be appropriate for the space. Ms. De Leon has now changed her mind. She is asking the city to apply restrictions to the types of community functions that may take place in the facility. Ms. De Leon is also requesting that the city and The ZAB restrict cultural and artistic functions allowing only groups that meet her definition of cultural. Ms. De Leon has written to the city requesting the “non-profit youth music concerts” which were scheduled to take place be banned and has further implied the church congregation that meets at the facility does not qualify as a cultural user and is bad neighbor for her business. 

In the April 22, 2003 letter Ms. De Leon also writes: 

 

I plan to open a jazz venue. Chris Davis who owns and operates “Lois the Pie Queen” attended the meeting in that he will participate in the food and beverage operation which will service the entire facility. 

 

This statement is a clear contradiction of recent allegations that her establishment was to be the exclusive food and beverage provider for the entire facility. It is clear from this letter Ms. De Leon never intended to provide the sale of food or beverage to the Arts Center. It is absurd to think that the availability of outside food and beverage to patrons of the Gaia Arts Center is detrimental to her business. 

The Gaia Arts Center wanted to make sure we had the support of the city and had a clarification of an actual “cultural standard” that was to be maintained. On June 6, 2003 Ms. De Leon requests this clarification: 

 

Our intent is to finish the tenant improvements for the theatre within six months from the date of city approval of the performance standards stated below. We commit to the following performance standards: in the theatre area, we will program performance use on 30 percent of the days of each month on average. In the remainder of the ground floor and mezzanine, we will program arts related activities 15 days per month on average. 

 

The language Ms. De Leon drafted for this passage was very clear and exact; her previous letters had already clearly defined a “cultural” user. This passage was written for the purpose of ensuring other community groups would be allowed to use the facility when it was not in use by cultural users. 

As reported in a staff report on Feb. 23, 2006, by Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin, the Gaia Arts Center has maintained over 48 percent performance standard in the theatre space. The Marsh Theatre Company (whose performance and cultural activities will be lost if Ms. De Leon is able to impose another modification) has found a receptive audience in Berkeley and is proud to call the Gaia Arts Center their East Bay home. The Marsh was willing to program “Theatrical Seasons” and they were eager to get to work on weekly performance as well. To their credit, The Marsh has successfully programmed over 100 live performances since their debut in August. 

I find Ms. De Leon’s inconsistency of opinion to be offensive. I find her ability to “flip-flop” and manipulate the issues and the law to suit her own personal agenda to be a blatant abuse of the city government’s time and our resources. Our local city government should not be used as a tool to carry out a personal agenda, especially when that agenda seems to change daily. There is an old saying: “You can’t have it both ways.” It is ridiculous that Ms. De Leon submits letters and use permit modifications to allow for the operations of the Gaia Arts Center and her own for-profit restaurant and jazz cafe and then after having disputes with the landlord and other tenants request that they be revoked. Ms. De Leon has not been able to resolve her landlord and tenant issues internally; therefore, she is attempting to manipulate the citizens of Berkeley and the city government to resolve them for her. 

 

Gloria Atherstone is the director of Gaia Arts Management, Inc.


Commentary: The Lessons of Blackberry Creek By ZELDA BRONSTEIN and CHRISTINE SWETT

Tuesday March 21, 2006

A decade ago we led the successful community effort to rebuild the tot-lot at Thousand Oaks School Park in conjunction with the daylighting of Blackberry Creek. As Glen Kohler has stated (letter to the editor, Feb. 21), the daylighting project was a wrenching experience for our neighborhood. Replying to Kohler, Urban Creeks Council leader Carol Schemmerling (Feb. 28) wrote: “There were indeed, advocates and critics (after all this is Berkeley)…”  

In fact, the major source of acrimony was not some local penchant for contentiousness. Rather, it was poor planning by the Urban Creeks Council, which oversaw the daylighting of the creek. Above all, the UCC disregarded the social aspects of the park. Daylighting the creek meant removing the park’s tot-lot, which was located above the culverted stream. The tot-lot at Thousand Oaks School Park was (and is) the heart of our neighborhood, a center of convivial activity that brings together several generations in convivial activity. The prospect of losing it was extremely dismaying.  

It’s true, as Schemmerling wrote, that the equipment at the old tot-lot needed to be replaced. But it’s not true, as she also wrote, that when the creek daylighting was proposed, the city was “partnering with citizens who could raise funds privately for new equipment that was up to code.” (Situated on land owned by the Berkeley Unified School District, the park was built with City of Berkeley Measure Y funds.) Such a partnership did occur, but only after Thousand Oaks neighbors realized that, despite our appeals, the Urban Creeks Council hadn’t the slightest interest in replacing the tot-lot, either with a portion of the grant from the California Department of Water Resources or with other funds.  

Only after Zelda Bronstein stood up at a BUSD school board meeting just as the daylighting project was about to get final approval and called out (totally out of order), “What about the tot-lot?” did the board direct the UCC to dedicate $25,000 of its grant monies toward a new tot-lot. We went on to raise the additional $40,000 or so that it took to build the new tot-lot, gratefully accepting donations in cash and in kind from the BUSD, the city of Berkeley, local businesses and Thousand Oaks neighbors. With the help of Partners for Parks, Berkeley’s volunteer parks support organization, we formed the Thousand Oaks Parks Society and were able to receive donations. Landscape architect Walter Hood generously shared his talent in the form of a pro bono design that became the basis of the new tot-lot and the reconfigured park. We also benefited from the guidance of Lisa Caronna and Brad Ricard of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, who helped us to determine the site’s final specifications.  

Creek daylighting can be a fine thing. Indeed, we were early supporters of daylighting Blackberry Creek. One of us carried a letter from the Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association to the Sierra Club’s Northern Alameda Group asking NAG to endorse the project for the grant application to the state (which it did). Since the creek was opened up, the bird life in our neighborhood has greatly multiplied, much to our delight.  

But the scars from the decade-old history remain. Much of the acrimony could have been avoided if the planning had been truly inclusive, involving all the key stakeholders from the start. (Until the last minute, the park’s tai chi users were also sidelined. They learned that their meditation tree was about to be cut down, not through some community planning process, but quite by happenstance, when they stumbled over the contractor who was preparing to remove it.) Everyone also would have benefited from greater fiscal realism on the part of the Urban Creeks Council, which received only a fraction of the money requested in the grant application to the state but still proceeded with the daylighting project.  

Berkeley’s creeks flow through a dense urban setting, not a wilderness. When we open up our local watercourses on public land—as we should, where it’s appropriate—we need to take into consideration the real, social uses that have grown up around them. Otherwise, we’re going to invite more “strident neighborhood disharmony” of the sort that roiled Thousand Oaks over the daylighting of Blackberry Creek.  

 

Zelda Bronstein and Christine Swett are neighbors of Thousand Oaks School Park.  

 

 


Commentary: Berkeley: A River Runs Through It By JULIET LAMONT, ELYCE JUDITH, ALAN GOULD AND DIANE TOKUGAWA, LISA OWENS VIANI, JEIWON DEPUTY

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Two weeks ago, some local residents spotted something truly special in Codornices Creek: a pair of adult steelhead trout—a federally listed threatened species—trying to build nests (“redds”) for their eggs. Fortunately, Friends of Five Creeks and the Urban Creeks Council were able to capture these spawning attempts on film for the first time ever on this creek (you can view the video clip at www.urbancreeks.org). 

It’s remarkable and exciting that our urban creeks have the ecological integrity to support rare and endangered species. Let’s grasp this opportunity and do something truly significant for future generations and the environment, by preserving the existing habitat that supports these fish, and restoring more habitat for them and for other wildlif e.  

Right now, one of Berkeley’s key environmental regulations, the Berkeley Creek Ordinance, is under pressure. The outcome will set a precedent for our willingness to stand up for the environment, and to affirm that the environmental regulations that B erkeley pioneered are vital to healthy cities. On March 22, the Berkeley Creeks Task Force and the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to hear final comments about task force recommendations (7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hea rst Ave.). We hope you’ll come to the meeting and speak out for strong creek and watershed protections! 

Why support strong creek and watershed policies? One reason is that such policies don’t just protect fish, they protect people and property too. Healt hy creeks, and vegetated buffer zones along them, work directly toward protecting property from erosion, improving water quality, preventing floods, and stabilizing banks. Creekside vegetation helps to filter pollutants, while slowing flood pulses from st orms. Natural swales and vegetation not only reduce the pollution and sediments flowing into the creeks that harm water quality and wildlife, but also reduce flooding on streets and into homes, and help to reduce the damage to structures from those floods. 

Even large, heavily urbanized cities like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, are embracing integrated watershed planning and restoration, in an effort to enhance their “green infrastructure” and the use of natural systems to control stormwater runoff and floods. And it just happens that with all of these benefits to us and to our communities, we also benefit the fish, the birds, the trees—the natural world around us.  

Join us and many others in our community in supporting the following policy recommendations, which are a good compromise for addressing property owner concerns while ensuring that we protect and restore critical natural ecosystems: 

• Continue the current policy that prevents new roofed construction within 30 feet of an open cree k. But vertical expansions (i.e. up or down within the same footprint) should be allowed. 

• Continue the current policy that allows rebuilding of existing structures after disaster or loss. 

• Continue the current policy that allows repairs to roofed str uctures that are within 30 feet of a creek. 

• Provide a buffer zone so that parking lots, patios, and other structures cannot be built extremely close to a creek. Healthy creeks need a vegetated buffer zone.  

• Keep culverted (i.e. underground) creek se ctions in the ordinance—creeks are a whole system from top to bottom!—but soften the restrictions on building near culverts by basing them on safety and maintenance access , as other cities do. 

• Identify realistic, feasible daylighting opportunities thr ough an open, public process, and protect those opportunities on public and institutional properties, while encouraging voluntary daylighting on private properties through grant funding and other incentives. (“Daylighting” means restoring culverted creeks to run above-ground again.) 

• Prohibit the construction of new culverts, new armored walls (e.g. “riprap” and “gabion walls”), and other “hardscape” (like concrete) in creek channels. These are detrimental structures that impact everyone. 

• Include strong incentives for property owners to restore creeks and riparian buffer zones. 

• Support the funding of a Watershed & Creeks Coordinator position, and the design and implementation of a comprehensive, integrated watershed protection and management plan for Berkeley. 

Our environment is a community trust; its protection and stewardship should be a city and global priority. Come out to the hearing, write to your city representatives, and celebrate Berkeley’s commitment to a sustainable, healthy planet! 

 

J uliet Lamont is an environmental consultant and owns property alongside Codornices Creek. Elyce Judith, Alan Gould and Diane Tokugawa are Cordornices creekside property owners, Lisa Owens Viani is an environmental writer/editor, and Jeiwon Deputy is an employee of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

 


Letters to the Editor

Friday March 17, 2006

HARD CHOICES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Great political leaders must be able to make hard choices. Every good political move has consequences—some bad. Post-communist Russia resulted in an increase in poverty among elderly pensioners. Post-apartheid South Africa resulted in an increase in crime for all South Africans, both black and white. But the people of both nations are now more secure, not less secure. Life is all about tradeoffs: short-term political advantage versus long term diplomacy. Anyone, including Hillary Clinton, who thinks the barring of a friendly Arab country from our ports will increase our long-term security is unable to make those hard choices. 

Gerald Shmavonian 

Piedmont 

 

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UC STADIUM OPEN HOUSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding the university’s stadium open house:  

It was a lot to take in, but at least the university disclosed their project designs and opened their doors to the community. Who knows whether community questions and input will affect the final design. But at least there was an opportunity for frank dialogue.  

Nevertheless, I was not relieved by what I learned. The cold fact is that the low profile stadium will be more prominent with a raised rim and prominent permanently installed lights. Stadium capacity will be lowered but the number of events will be increased.  

Some information was misleading, such as the inappropriate height comparison between existing portable lights and proposed permanently installed lights.  

Some areas of concern had not been considered, such as construction routes passing through residential corridors rather than through university-owned roads, or the unnecessary location of a noisy utility box next to, rather than, separate from residential areas.  

Some seismic questions remain such as the difference between the university’s recent geotechnical report and the established California Geological Survey landslide and liquefaction maps published in the 2020 Long Range Development Plan.  

Clearly additional work needs to be done to iron out project detail before the university project will be the “win-win” solution envisioned by Cal athletics. One wonders though if project detail can ever mitigate the co-occurring hazards of earth rupture, spectators evacuating the area, interference with emergency response, and firestorms in the most inaccessible area of Berkeley. 

Janice Thomas 

 

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CLOSE ADELINE, NOT DERBY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is funny sometimes how the right answer to a problem can be so obvious and yet be overlooked. Take the flap over the Derby field. I won’t argue whether the field should be multi-use to serve both neighbors and athletes, or a fenced special area able to accommodate a long ball. I want to offer an alternative: Closed Adeline between Shattuck and MLK. Seven or eight lanes plus a huge divider strip—there is room for baseball, football, soccer, probably even polo!  

Adeline is superfluous, it does not really go anywhere; it is just an extra wide shortcut. Just a quicker faster way to get cars through our part of town, leaving scattered pedestrians in their wake. That traffic could go down other streets like Ashby or Alcatraz. Imagine the long beautiful park we could make—some picnic tables near the Berkeley Bowl that were not slanted and perched on a sidewalk, room for the Farmers’ Market and the Flea Market, grassy places to play without fear of stepping over the curb and being squashed by a car. We could call it Harriet Tubman’s Terrace. The time has come!  

David Soffa 

 

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BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Marcia Lau seems to be confusing two features of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan when she says “opposition to narrowing Telegraph Avenue is overwhelming” because many people have signed the Telegraph Avenue merchants’ petitions opposing the project.  

As I understand it, many Telegraph Avenue merchants are against closing Telegraph to all cars between Bancroft and Dwight. But this is only one alternative in the BRT plan. Another alternative includes one lane for buses and one for cars along this part of Telegraph. This seems to be a reasonable compromise that would bring the regional benefits of BRT with minimal disruption to automobile traffic: there would be one northbound car lane on Telegraph south of Dwight feeding into the one northbound lane on Telegraph north of Dwight.  

As I understand it, a relatively small number of local NIMBYs are against BRT south of Dwight, which would leave this part of the street with one car lane and one bus lane in each direction. For example, they claim that BRT would make it harder for them to turn onto Telegraph when they are driving from their neighborhood. I do not understand why they think this minor inconvenience to a relatively small number of people should outweigh the benefits of BRT to the entire East Bay.  

Lau is also wrong to say that this transit route is redundant because it is faster to take BART from Berkeley to San Leandro. BRT will be useful to people taking shorter trips all along this new line, and it is not meant to compete with BART for this long trip. For example, UC students who live near Telegraph Ave. in south Berkeley and north Oakland cannot conveniently use BART for their commute, and BRT will shift people in this corridor from their  

cars to the bus.  

BRT has been successful everywhere that it has been tried. Every city on the west coast, from Seattle to San Diego, has converted some bus routes to either light rail or BRT. Only the East Bay is still relying solely on conventional buses stuck in automobile traffic. It is time for us to help break the national addiction to oil by building BRT.  

Charles Siegel 

 

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DERBY FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the story “Board Considers Open Derby Street Plan” (March 14), there is the statement “Others say Derby Street should stay open and the site should host a multi-use playing field.” It is important for your readers to understand that the closed Derby option also results in a multi-use playing field accommodating all of the same sports as the open option. The difference is that the closed-Derby field includes baseball whereas the open-Derby field does not. Therefore the open Derby multi-use field does not satisfy the BUSD need to provide a home for the BHS baseball program. Until that BUSD need is met there is no resolution to the fundamental problem that has caused this property to remain undeveloped and underutilized for all of these years. I hope that the people of Berkeley and our elected representatives will recognize that the final solution to the problem will include a regulation-sized baseball field, within walking distance of BHS and with scheduling of the field under BUSD control. The BUSD property at Derby and MLK would seem to provide the ideal solution. As it turns out, there is a Farmers’ Market that uses the section of Derby that would be closed, one day per week, that opposes the closure of the street (for baseball, not the market). Additionally, there are neighbors of the property that oppose the street closure (also for baseball, street closure for the market is okay). The BUSD has offered to design features into the property that address most of the concerns of these opponents to the closed Derby multi-use field. From my perspective, as a concerned resident of Berkeley and a parent of a baseball player at BHS, it seems the opponents are completely unwilling to compromise such that BUSD can serve all of its students. 

As long as BUSD owns this property, BHS has a baseball program and there is no suitable BUSD-owned home field for this program, there will be no end to the debate over how to develop this property. That is because each year there will be a new wave of angry parents of BHS baseball players (they are also Berkeley residents) to add to the existing group. They become angry as they discover that a small group of intransigent neighbors and a one day per week Farmers’ Market have stalemated development of the BUSD property that can best solve the problem. The open-Derby multi-use field does not solve the problem and leaves students that choose to play baseball with pariah status. It is my hope that all affected parties can come together and form a compromise that creates a home for BHS baseball and takes into account the concerns of those that fear a multi-use field (that includes baseball) will diminish their quality of life. 

Ed Mahley  

 

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BREVITY APPRECIATED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The letters of the editor of the Daily Planet are, for me, one of the more interesting parts of each issue. 

Would that more letters were as short and well written as the letter by Pat Cody in the March 10 issue. 

Why not put letters that are excessively long (some taking up an entire column) in your Internet site and print those that are similar to Pat Cody’s making a point clearly and briefly? 

Max Macks 

 

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BART BIKE THEFT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There are two possible solutions to the problems that Justin Lehrer (Commentary, March 14) and others face in parking bikes at BART. One is to use the valet parking available at Downtown Berkeley Station. For bicyclists unable to use that service, we should encourage BART to upgrade its current bike lockers and adopt the system being used at El Cerrito Plaza Station. Those lockers are available for rent with a prepaid key-card. They provide greater security than racks that expose bikes to theft and vandalism. 

I recently gave up a bike locker at the Ashby station that I rented for a full year. Most of that time, the locker was empty. It is more efficient to allow people to rent lockers for the time they need them, and prepaid cards are a convenient way to do that. In the long run, this would be more effective and cheaper than hiring more police and monitoring video cameras. To know that your bike is safe until you return is worth the rental cost. 

Tom Yamaguchi 

 

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SENSATIONALISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am saddened to read Suzanne La Barre’s March 14 coverage of the republication of Danish cartoons in the California Patriot. The opening sentence of the article is that students have ambiguously “lash[ed] out against” the Cal Patriot in response. Unfortunately, this “lashing out” merely constitutes an isolated incident involving the disposal of a number of magazines, the mere opinions of campus Muslims that were offended by the publication, two editorials in the Daily Cal condemning the publication, and an educational event on the life of Muhammad on Thursday evening organized by the Cal Muslim Student Association. The method in which the article is opened to report a “lashing out” is misleading, inaccurate, and seems to give an intentionally reactionary image of the Cal MSA when, in fact, it is the Cal Patriot that is the “reactionary provocateur.” 

Later in the article La Barre cites a rumor blog, Cal Stuff, as reporting that “student protests are in the works.” She follows this up with the fact that no organized rallies were reported by press time. Incidentally, this is because none are planned.  

I am saddened to see the record of the Daily Planet marred by such irresponsible and sensational reporting. 

Yaman Salahi 

 

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BOY SCOUTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The recent action by the City of Berkeley against the Boy Scouts is without merit. The Boy Scouts deserve to use the marina free of charge. The City of Berkeley and its citizens have been the beneficiary of Boy Scout service to the community for many decades (free of charge). The Boy Scout program has helped thousands of youth and kept many from pursuing lives of crime. Rejection of the scout’s use of the marina for a few hours is pathetic. The City of Berkeley should take some time and add up the thousands of hours the Boy Scouts have spent improving their local community (free of charge).  

Many groups that discriminate against others in our society are beneficiaries of public funds even in the City of Berkeley. Any citizen who lives in the city gets the benefit of public funds whether it be clean air to breathe, feeling safe walking down the street, or utilizing any public service. 

By taking this action the City of Berkeley is not only rejecting the Boy Scout volunteers and boy scouts but they are rejecting the future of Berkeley and of America. 

Dewey Stanford 

 

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BART STORY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To paraphrase your front-page headline on the March 14 edition, “BART Fire Article Spotlights Need for Balanced Reporting.” 

According to the article’s criticisms of BART, the following events took place: Her BART train was delayed. The author, fearing she’d be late for an appointment, panicked! Passengers on the halted train ignored instructions given by the train operator and forced doors open, making the train inoperative. Oh, and the reason the train had stopped was that there was a trash fire on the tracks.  

What was not disclosed was how long it took BART to become functional again. Did your beleaguered reporter reach her appointment in time? I’m willing to bet that she did—and I’m not a little irked that she invoked a “terrorist attack” which “could have been fatal” to describe what was in fact a minor inconvenience. And would she have preferred that the train power on through the fire on the tracks? 

I dislike front-page editorializing and I dislike the easy attack on bureaucracies. I rode the BART line to my job in San Francisco for over 20 years. Thanks to BART, I never had to worry about finding a parking place in the city—or paying for it. Yes, there were occasional delays on the system—but for the most part my travel was very reliable. And on a daily basis I could look out the window of my moving train to see freeway traffic at a standstill. 

BART deserves our appreciation and support—and your readers deserve more balanced reporting. 

Kate Styrsky 

 

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PACIFIC STEEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Are the political winds changing in the toxified neighborhoods surrounding Pacific Steel Casting?  

Dunno. Still stinks to me! 

At today’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) Board Meeting in San Francisco, approximately 20 irate Berkeley residents and their supporters took three-minute turns at the podium in support of revising the corrupt December 2005 settlement between PSC and the district—a deal struck without any community input at all. Concerned members at the meeting today included Greenaction, the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs, cleanaircoalition.net, the Ecology Center and a new Berkeley-based Title V group. 

What isn’t surprising is that Jack Broadbent and his associates at PSC opposed the demands of our citizens to get this issue on the official agenda at the next board meeting, scheduled for April 5. Interested citizens can join us for Round 2 at this Board Meeting, at 939 Ellis Street, San Francisco at 9:45 a.m. We need your voices! 

Surprising was finding a letter from District 1 City Councilmember Linda Maio at the meeting! In her letter, Maio presented the following concerns to BAAQMD, including if the settlement actually increases the allowable emission rate at the foundry; what the district knows about Dioxin and other toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process; How Title V plays role moving forward in this struggle; and her wish for BAAQMD/PSC-related meetings to be held in Berkeley so residents can attend and give input. Good stuff. My guess is that you can read this mission-changing letter on Maio’s website. 

Maybe Maio smells the clean winds of change heading back down Gilman, a “green shift” that cleanaircoalition.net and many other groups kick-started long ago! Let’s everyone keep a watchful eye and ear on Maio’s rhetoric and see if this letter actually represents a sincere desire to recover our backyards—and sanity—as we cleanup PSC.  

November is just around the corner, Linda. 

Willi Paul 

 

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PUBLIC LIBRARIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I live near Shattuck and Alcatraz in Oakland and for years I rode the No. 43 bus to Berkeley Public Library’s Main Branch. Now I go exclusively to various branches of the Oakland Public Library. I have vowed to never use the self checkout. I like interacting with the workers however briefly and I resent the use of a dubious and expensive new system (RFID) that uses library patrons as guinea pigs. It doesn’t even seem to be working half the time. I proudly voted for Measure Q which has rejuvenated the Oakland Public Library system and leaves Berkeley in the dust. Keep your “here” over “there.” 

Jack Finzel 

 

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O’CONNOR SPEECH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The San Francisco Chronicle, with extraordinary cheek, began a minor editorial on March 15 with the statement “Sandra Day O’Connor’s remarks on the dangers of dictatorship in this country got little attention last week. Maybe that’s expected when a retired U.S. Supreme Court justice speaks to a roomful of lawyers. But O’Connor’s thoughts on the high court deserve prime time."  

That, of course, would have been the job of the Chronicle’s editorial board which, as far as I can determine, never ran an article on O’Connor’s warning, let alone giving it the prime time of the front page which the editors usually devote to large photos of Barry Bonds in drag or otherwise. Nor did the Chronicle, the following day, run a story on how Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg have received death threats from those domestic fundamentalists whom O’Connor now cautions are taking the U.S. toward totalitarianism. To get that news, I have to rely on the Internet, Amy Goodman, and the London Guardian, not on my local Hearst paper.  

Since we can’t even get the story itself, we can’t get the analysis that it deserves, and thus our amnesia deepens. Like its oft-repeated description of Dianne Feinstein as a “respected centrist,” the Chronicle editorial describes the former Supreme Court justice as a “Reagan-appointed moderate” who now warns that extremists are taking the U.S. towards a dictatorship. 

Is that the same Republican whose swing vote stopped the vote recount in Florida in 2000, thereby giving us the loser so beloved of those very people whom O’Connor now sees as a threat? Is that the same “moderate” whose retirement gave the far-right Samuel Alito a lifetime berth on the Supreme Court bench from which to work out his bizarre theory of a “unitary executive” who can operate above the law? 

I hope that O’Connor’s remarks indicate that she is beginning to understand the magnitude of what she herself has brought down, and that a vestigial conscience will torment her as her dark prophecy unfolds. 

Gray Brechin 

 

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DUBAI DEAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Democrats are to be congratulated for killing Dubai ports deal. They managed to be more right-wing than the president in their use of xenophobia and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim scare tactics. Going to the right of the repressive Bush regime seems to be their strategy for winning this year’s congressional elections.  

As James Zogby, president of Arab American Institute stated about the Democrats, “They are full of shit.” And just like Bush, their shit stinks. 

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland 

 

• 

MATT CANTOR’S COLUMN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your paper has done a great service to it’s readership by printing Matt Cantor’s article about the problem(s) with aluminum wiring in homes from the mid-’60s to mid-’80s (East Bay Home & Real Estate, March 10). This is an unseen and very serious danger as you will see for yourself as I relate my tale of experiencing aluminum wiring problems. 

While attending a dinner party at some family function I noticed the lights would flicker occasionally. I asked what that was all about and my mother-in-law said it happens more and more lately but started about a month prior. She complained that the oven was not getting as hot as fast as usual also. Every so often those lights would flicker and I would here a strange noise coming from the garage. Being the nosy one I decided to investigate. 

Upon entering the garage I noticed a bad burning smell. I quickly put two and two together (I had worked in facility maintenance for many years ) and asked where the breaker panel was. Much to my chagrin it was behind 15 years worth of assorted junk. After rapidly throwing the junk out of the way I got to the breaker box. I could see light wisps of smoke coming from it. I ran to the main power disconnect and shut it down immediately. 

Returning to the panel I opened the front cover, burning my hand in the process. Realizing there might be fire behind it I ripped off the whole panel cover and found the BUSS bar melted and smoldering and some small fire starting in the insulating materiel adjacent to it. We called 911 and had the fire department out. 

The fire captain said that had we not taken the action that we did the whole house would have probably burnt down. If this were to have happened in the middle of the night things could have been much worse. PG&E came and disconnected the house until it was repaired. My in-laws got to stay at the Holiday Inn while they did the work. 

The wiring situation was so bad that every single wire, for the most part and except the ground, were fried and melted and ready to go. We are talking about the wires to lights and plugs and everything. Everything in the whole house was re-wired with copper. 

This will hopefully illustrate to some of your readers the importance of having your home wiring inspected by a professional at least every three years and by the home owner every six months. If any kind of change or problem is noted have a professional repair it immediately or sooner. This may prevent a tragedy. I have seen first-hand how dangerous aluminum wiring can be. 

Christopher D. Fuller 

Livermore 

 

• 

VIOLENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There have been a number of random shootings on San Pablo Avenue. I am concerned for those who get injured and their anxious families. I wonder why access to guns is so easy in the United States. I wonder why people who are addicted to drugs or mentally ill can nonetheless find their way to guns.  

Can we not become a society where guns are handed out only to the police? Let our sense of looking out for our neighbors be the basis of security in our society. 

Romila Khanna 

 

• 

BUSH IMPEACHMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I believe the American media have long been derelict in their duty to keep the citizenry informed of wrong doings by those in public office. The litany of Bush’s misdeeds is too long to list here. Any one of his many alleged illegal and immoral activities would prove to be grounds for his impeachment. I urge your newspaper to reclaim your sense of conscience in our community, and commit to reporting on the growing national call for Mr. Bush’s impeachment. We need clear reporting and fact-checking throughout the nation now, so we can choose wisely and again take control of our political process. Please examine Rep. Conyer’s H.R. 635 and comment on his allegations, and opine whether they seem to be impeachable offenses. 

Peter M. Toluzzi


Commentary: Follow The Leader: An Excerpt from the Philadelphia Daily News Posted on Tuesday, Feb. 28

Friday March 17, 2006

“Purcell Daniels Jr., A Humble Hero” 

By John F. Morrison 

With Company C pinned down by enemy fire in a battle during the Vietnam War, somebody had to get to a parked tank and take out the hostiles. There’s an Army adage that you don’t volunteer for anything, but Purcell Hayward Daniels Jr. paid no attention to that. To the surprise of his buddies, Purcell jumped up, ran to the tank and climbed inside. As related to his family by men who were there, he drove the tank over a hill. The men heard shooting, then silence. The tank came back, and Purcell hopped out. “He could drive a tank real good,” one of his buddies told the family. Asked why he had been so reckless, his buddies recalled, he said something like, “The job had to be done and somebody had to do it.” That was Purcell. When something needed doing, he was always there to do it. The decorated soldier won a Bronze Star with a “V” device for valor for another action, and two Purple Hearts for wounds that left him 100 percent disabled, as well as other decorations. Daniels died Feb. 21, 2006. He was 57 and lived in West Oak Lane. It wasn’t until after his death that his family found out about his Vietnam actions. He never talked about it and, in fact, at one point urged that his medals be discarded. “My brother was a humble giant,” said his sister. “I once asked him how his arm got messed up, and he wouldn’t tell me. He finally told our mother that there had been a skirmish, and he was the only one to come back alive. “We’re all in shock,” she said. “He was a black ‘Rambo,’ a black John Wayne. He is our hero.” 

 

I write this story because Purcell was my cousin; we grew up across the street from each other, got drafted at the same time and eventually shared a bachelor’s pad in Philadelphia. In between partying, and going to work we spent hundreds of hours talking about our lives and the past, around the midnight lamp. The stories he told me have no resemblance to what is printed above. In between being scared, bored or tired in Viet nam, he told me he spent his time self-medicating and wishing he was home. In no way do I want to tarnish the medals that he and the other brave people who also did extraordinary things, richly deserve. It seems to me, however, that young people today are being programmed to think that military service is a good way to pay for college, learn computers and get housing loans. Recruiters tend to downplay the fact that you may get killed, kill other people, and may never be the same.  

I write this story because my kids have asked me, “Dad, why didn’t you go to Viet nam like Purcell, it sounds cool!” I told them, “I’m not good at playing Follow the Leader! Once upon a time the leader used to be at the forefront of the action, the first one into battle—thus the name leader. After awhile the leader stayed at the rear so he could observe the battle unfold and dispatch support where needed. Eventually the leader was nowhere near the fighting and received reports from others about what was happening on the battlefront. Today, in a crisis, too many leaders are the furthest away from any danger! They may be buried miles beneath the earth or flying miles above—safe and sound with their circle of family, friends and advisors. It’s surprising how many so-called leaders, who are eager to send us to war, have never served in the military. While it’s okay for my family to serve our country, their children are ensconced at some nice college or employed in a plush job, far from harm’s way.” My kids also asked, “You and Purcell must’ve learned how to be tough and fight from growing up in the hood.” I told them “The main thing I learned was to run first, run fast and to run often!” I’m a big fan of Forrest Gump! 

We live in a violent society, and as a nation are always at war. (That’s why my kids’ fear, fascination and interest in the ongoing violence in our communities and the world doesn’t surprise me.) Not just the announced wars like Iraq and Afghanistan, but the war on poverty, the war on drugs and the day-to-day wars that happen all the time over dumb shit. “Where’s my money, who stole my weed, you ate my chicken sandwich, you disrespected me!” The lesson we teach, the answer we give from the news, movies, TV shows and our history books is violence! If you mess with me I’ll mess you up! I must admit that I’ve raised my kids with the message, “ if someone hits you, hit them back!” Even the Bible says an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth. We have to admit, but not accept, that as a nation, a society, a culture, we are warlike! 

I also write this story because at my son’s elementary school a group of high school ROTC cadets marched around carrying the American flag as part of a Black History Month celebration. Several parents were disturbed, and for good reason. It’s true that the Supreme Court recently ruled unanimously that colleges that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus. But elementary school? And what do young cadets performing rifle drills have to do with Martin Luther King or Harriet Tubman?  

So beware students! The war drums continue to beat! And when the ROTC and other recruiters come to your campus to send you in harm’s way remember, their leaders will be behind you—far, far behind you! Be careful playing Follow the Leader—for many it’s not a game. Follow the leader? You often can’t find them in times of trouble! 

Purcell Daniels was a hero, like so many other young Americans who heeded the call to follow the leader and serve their country. I also know why Purcell Daniels wanted to discard his medals. But what happens in Philly, stays in Philly! 

 

Winston Burton is a Berkeley resident. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Commentary: Constitution Is No Protection from Homophobia, By: Gene Zubovich

Friday March 17, 2006

The Supreme Court has gotten many things wrong over the years but the decision to uphold the Solomon Amendment is good Constitutional law. Unfortunately for those hoping to stem the tide of homophobia, the Constitution offers little protection. 

The Solomon amendment passed in 1995 with the intention of barring federal money from universities that barred military recruiters from campus. A series of changes toughened the law: the amount of funding withheld increased, the university as a whole became vulnerable from the actions of one of its departments, and the granting of unequal access in 2005, as well as complete barring, meant disqualification. 

A consortium of law school professors collectively challenged the law’s constitutionality, charging that by forcing the schools to accept military recruiters through threat of financial divestment, the government was forcing them to carry the military’s message. That message is the homophobic “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. 

Chief Justice Roberts got it exactly right when he wrote, “[The Solomon amendment] affects what law schools must do—afford equal access to military recruiters—not what they may or may not say.” The idea that a campus is promoting a view by allowing it is bad logic. And my wish to bar recruiters from campus has no bearing on that. The matter is one of power—one institution forcing another to perform certain actions—and not speech. 

So, what to do now? We can continue with the course we have been taking: lobbying, writing, voting, and the like. We can bar military recruiters and face the financial consequences. We can create an undesirable atmosphere for military recruitment through mass action. 

The first option we have been pursuing already and the results have been positive but slow. The second option is unlikely to happen and, if it did, the conservative cabal at Cal—much larger than most people believe—would revolt. Even if the latter were to get enough support, which is doubtful, it would polarize the campus. 

I would like to suggest another option, one that will have little immediate impact but could make a world of difference years from now. The Solomon amendment makes an exception for “the institution of higher education [that] involved a longstanding policy of pacifism based on historical religious affiliation.” I am not suggesting that we all become Quakers—rather, we should demand that we be treated with the respect we would get if we were. 

Religious beliefs carry a moral currency in this country that other moral beliefs do not. Those professing pacifism or equality, without reference to God, are laughed at, insulted, and not given serious consideration. Ending this double standard should be among the highest priorities of those wishing to affect change in this country. 

This involves more of the same: talking, writing, voting, and lobbying. But we must do this with a new sensitivity to insults and stereotypes. Being taken seriously is a fundamental prerequisite to dialog and change. Simply appealing to free speech will not get us far. When the Supreme Court rules against laws like the Solomon amendment, it will be recognizing change, not creating it. 

 

Gene Zubovich is a Berkeley resident..


Commentary: It’s Berkeley’s Problem, Too, By: Alan Christie Swain

Friday March 17, 2006

“U.S. Launches Invasion of Iran,” or maybe, “Nuclear Ultimatum Delivered to Pakistan.” We can imagine these screaming headlines in the Chronicle. This is unlikely to happen now, but it may not be for the next American president. 

The problem of nuclear proliferation is not one the U.S. will be able to prevent or solve, but a problem that we will have to learn to live with. In the modern world the knowledge needed to build a bomb is not particularly complex. Virtually any nation that can sustain the cost can build a bomb—North Korea is broke but was able to do it. The United Nations is useless, and the non proliferation agreements ineffective simply because, as has been demonstrated plainly in the Security Council, the international community does not have the will to effectively enforce them. 

The real problem in the future will be whether or not the Iranian regime will pass a weapon or radioactive material on to terrorists. The same threat exists in Pakistan. Should President Musharaff be overthrown, the “Muslim bomb” could conceivably fall under the control of a radical regime already experienced in selling, giving or smuggling nuclear material to others.  

Should terrorists explode a nuclear device in Israel, Europe, or in San Francisco the pressure on the American president will be intense. Should the president order nuclear retaliation against Iran based on shadowy intelligence that may not be perfect? After the WMD fiasco in Iraq, who would trust “intelligence” sources for this kind of decision? Though, this was the clear logic behind the recent pronouncements of French president Chirac, to the effect that France would use its nuclear force to retaliate in the event of a nuclear terrorist attack against it.  

Instead of ordering a nuclear retaliation that could cost hundreds of thousands of lives, the President would more likely again rely on U.S. military forces, and order another campaign of “regime change.” American military forces are our first line of defense in what is clearly going to be a long, civilizational conflict between democratic, technological and capitalist societies and the resentful, reactionary rump of the Islamic world that seeks to destroy a system it has been unable to integrate with successfully. Understand that a robust military gives America flexibility whether to respond to a tsunami in Muslim Indonesia or an earthquake in Muslim Pakistan or genocide in Muslim Bosnia. Of course, the military is superbly trained to use force in defense of American interests when needed, such as toppling a hostile Taliban government in an isolated country on the other side of the world in under two months time.  

This is the future we all face and it is necessary for those on the left in this country and in Berkeley to realize that the armed forces will play a vital role in preserving your way of life—your right to be gay, to be atheist, to be a woman with a career, for your right to criticize and write what you wish. As Osha Neumann said in these pages, “none of us would look good in a burquas.” It is time to stop the mindless and destructive hatred of the military. Gerardo Sandoval is naive in the extreme and Cindy Sheehan’s complaint that the U.S. military was “occupying” New Orleans was incomprehensible. Young Americans volunteering to take on this threat should not be equated with Nazis. Don’t like the way the military is run or used? Try to change it, but you better believe that the young men and women who volunteer to do that dirty work are a necessary and vital and important way of defending our freedoms. It is time to realize that the Bay Area’s foolish opposition to all things military is not leadership, moral or otherwise, but amounts to nothing more than freeloading and free riding on the good will and the blood and tears of the rest of America.  

 

Alan Christie Swain is graduate student at UC Berkeley..


Commentary: What South Berkeley Needs: Public Open Space, By: Kenoli Oleari

Friday March 17, 2006

I sat through Tom Bates’ long introduction to his “mayor’s breakfast” at the Vault today, listening to his iteration of all the things he is doing for Berkeley. I have little framework for evaluating much of what he had to say. Sounds like he’s taking on every relevant issue—locally, nationally, globally—right here in Berkeley. 

My ears pricked up, however, during his response to a request for his vision for Berkeley in ten years. The pieces that grabbed my attention were his projection that the population density will remain the same in all neighborhoods and that he has a vision for a large open public space in Downtown Berkeley, where public events can take place, art shows, music, etc. 

So, this sounds like what we would like in South Berkeley. Yet, Bates’ future for us, in the plan he has included in the planning grant to Caltrans for the Ashby BART station, involves taking our last open space, the humble “public space” of the parking lot at Ashby BART, where our key public activities, namely, the Ashby Flea Market, our world class South Berkeley drum ensemble and Mas Allah’s very local blues are conducted weekly, and replace it with high density housing. 

Sounds to me like increased population density and less public space for South Berkeley. Are we not one of the neighborhoods you see in your ten year vision, Mr. Mayor? 

But, wait . . . you have also said you want to conduct a planning process that will let the community decide what it wants for that parking lot, everything is up for grabs. Yet, Max Anderson and Ed Church, your cronies in the project and Dan Marks, your planning director, have all said privately to community members that they are interested in what the public has to say, but the only option they will consider is an option that includes high density housing . . . this sounds like, “Whatever the public wants, as long as it’s what the city wants!” 

My ears tell me that there is widespread interest in South Berkeley for a public space at the Ashby BART, a space large enough for the flea market, outdoor art and music, space for outdoor eating and public interaction, some greenery, with retail that supports local needs thrown in, maybe a public meeting space. There is little enthusiasm for your high density housing, especially the kind proposed that will not serve low income families, but contributes to the already existing spate of market rate housing that is driving us out of our neighborhoods. 

We have a budding arts district here. One we can afford. My housemate just debuted at the Ashby Stage in a cutting edge production met with rave reviews and an average audience of about 10, a great start to a career that wouldn’t even be noticed at the Berkeley Rep. There is space here for not-yet-established artists who are still low income, for the Tryptich Gallery that has a home in the side windows of the Walgreen’s Drug Store along Adeline Street, for Epic arts that opens its space to the community for events the community feels are important, for the Black Rep trying to find its footing in a hungry community. We have a community land trust that is offering access to one of the few housing models that might provide for permanent housing affordability. Our flea market is one of the few places a budding entrepreneur can get a start without taking on a mortgage to gain access to over-priced commercial real estate. Local residents have exposed themselves to huge personal financial risk to establish what are wonderful budding businesses on the strip along Adeline Street, a strip that has failed to otherwise establish itself through the City’s best economic planning efforts. Community groups are addressing youth issues, crime, housing, traffic, all issues the City has never been able to address effectively. 

Along with these things, things we have built out of whole cloth with our own hands, we want our open space, too. We want it as much as the high paying theater goers want their open space in Downtown Berkeley. 

What about it mayor Bates? What about a vision that is truly responsive to what your constituents want? Is it “your way or the highway?” Or . . . are you willing got put your money where your mouth is. You’ve presented a business plan, through Ed Church, for the Ashby BART predicated on high density housing. How about a business plan that demonstrates how a public plaza can be made economically feasible? If it’s good enough for downtown Berkeley, it’s good enough for us! 

Unless we have an alternative like this to compare, it is a setup. Of course, without this comparison, the only thing feasible is increased population density and less public space for South Berkeley in ten years. 

 

Kenoli Oleari is a member of the Neighborhood Assemblies Network..


Commentary: Ashby BART: A Chance for Healing, By: Bill Hamilton

Friday March 17, 2006

I commend the Daily Planet for running several good and timely commentary pieces lately concerning the proposed Ashby BART development. Bob Wrenn’s piece (2/28) made the important case for going ahead with the project even though it has “gotten off on the wrong foot.” His reasons include providing needed housing for low and very-low income people, for the disabled, and for senior citizens. 

David Soffa’s piece called important attention to how the project could “create a neighborhood, both to replace the erased neighborhood and to knit the city fabric back together where it was cut apart.” I agree with these assessments. 

I have some further comments about the important opportunity we have to transform or to reconstruct our neighborhood and community. But, before I go there I would like to comment on the reluctance of many neighbors to support the ongoing process to develop the Ashby BART property. 

There is a natural and understandable reluctance by many long time residents to support efforts by the city government to “develop” areas within our neighborhood because of the history of past redevelopment practices that sought to clear away older and less affluent residents and build upscale developments. This practice was good for private developers and city coffers but bad for long-time residents. I believe that this process can be avoided by making sure that all concerned neighbors, homeowners, renters, and even homeless stay involved in the process throughout. Also, some homeowners feel that any development that increases density will hurt their property values due to an increase of housing stock and decreasing demand. Also, in the case of an increase of low income housing some neighbors are afraid of “the criminal element” impacting their safety and possibly lowering their property values. The counter argument is that our neighborhood must be economically varied, having room for all income groups, races, and our own children. We cannot deal with social problems by exclusion. 

The placement of the Ashby BART station in the heart of a predominantly African-American neighborhood 40 to 50 years ago was a big set back for long time residents. Fortunately, neighborhood activists and city officials retained the air rights above the station and parking lot for future development. Further impacting long-time residents is the continual and persistent replacement of black homeowners, renters, and businesses with more affluent and usually white residents. Gentrification continues to change the nature and culture of this area. This economic trend must be resisted or mitigated in order to maintain the unique and valuable character of this multi-racial South Berkeley-North Oakland neighborhood that we are proud of and are known for.  

How might we accomplish such a project? By providing housing and services for low income and senior citizens we can help keep a more diverse population in the neighborhood. Also, an accommodation for the Ashby Flea Market will help maintain this distinctly African-American institution. Traditional black run businesses such as restaurants, beauty parlors, barbers, night clubs and other cultural outlets could be encouraged to set up in the commercial areas of the development. Just as Yoshi’s has done for Jack London Square a world class jazz club could be an anchor and destination for music lovers from all over the Bay Area. An African-American museum and bookstore that chronicles the local history of African-Americans would be a valuable cultural addition to this South Berkeley-North Oakland neighborhood.  

Economic development in the local community including the black community should be a priority. Construction jobs could be set aside for the local black population that suffers from an especially high unemployment rate especially among black youth. A job training and career program could be developed and housed at the Ashby BART development. The city could initiate and encourage lenders to make small business loans available to local small businesses, including black entrepreneurs. 

The Ashby BART Transportation Village envisaged by some local politicians and planners can have a very positive impact on the South Berkeley-North Oakland area if neighborhood activists from all populations get involved in the planning process. We have a unique opportunity to develop a public vision of our community based on our cultural history and to carry it out into the future. 

 

Bill Hamilton is a Berkeley resident..


Commentary: Workers Important to Community, By: Garry Horrocks

Friday March 17, 2006

I worked at Jim Doten Honda as a mechanic for 15 years. The average tenure of the mechanics was about 20 years. 

Some of us had been employed by Mr. Doten for over 30 years. Together with the other departments there were about 60 employees in all.  

Over the years we became a family. We watched each other’s children come into the world, and watched each other’s parents leave this world. Through the good times and the bad, we were there for each other. 

Not only did we become a family of coworkers, we also became part of this community. Some of us grew up here, some of us purchased homes here.  

We are raising our families here. We attend school here. We coach your children in youth activities. Our wives and girlfriends also work here, at the optometrist’s office, the university, and the local restaurants. We come here to practice our faith. We serve the needy in our community. We are taxpayers, good citizens and good neighbors. We are the threads in the tapestry of this great community. 

This all changed when Mr. Doten sold the dealership. 

It was around May 15th.The note by the time clock at work read:  

“I have sold the dealership and I am sure you will find the new owners very pleasant to work for. Thanks for the years of service, 

Mr. Doten”  

Good for Mr. Doten, most of us thought, he can finally retire. 

Mr. Doten is getting on in years, we haven’t seen much of him anyway. 

He spends most of his time in Palm Springs, he loves his golf you know. 

Maybe this is why he didn’t do his homework. In his recent commentary to the Daily Planet [January 24 th–26th ] he said he had made a slight oversight in not realizing his liability to the underfunding of the Union’s pension.Was Mr. Doten too focused on his game? 

It seems that every other owner or general manager of a union dealership is aware of their obligation to the pension fund including the new owners, they were all notified by the union! 

The new owners realized Mr. Doten did not do his home work, and that he was unaware of his obligation to the pension and did not mention it to him during the sale of the business. In Mr. Doten’s recent commentary he assures us that the new owners will be “good corporate neighbors”  

Mr. Doten, how do you feel about your corporate neighbor now ? 

Mr. Doten goes on to tell us of how much he is suffering from having to pay this money, even after his handsome contributions to our pension 

Would I be rude to remind Mr. Doten that half of these contributions were our raises that we voted to direct to our pension? 

Mr. Doten we empathize with your suffering. For the workers have come to know suffering as well. Out of the 60 members of the Jim Doten Honda family there are only four still working there. The lives of 56 families were turned upside down! Some of us on the strike line have suffered significant financial loss also. Some of us have not received a real pay check in eight months. Some of us have wiped out our savings. Some of us now have to pay an obscene amount of money for our families’ health care. All of us have lost our accrued vacation time and seniority. 

Some of us [ the younger workers ] suffer the loss of all of their retirement contributions for they were not fully vested yet. Some of us will not receive any more contribution to this retirement fund and therefore it cannot mature properly. Some of us are too close to retiring to bring another nest egg to maturity, it takes 20 years to realize a significant return in a 401k or defined benefit plan. Some of us will suffer for the rest of our lives due to the loss of our pension. Some of us will not be able to retire! Some of us on the line have been cussed at, had dead birds thrown at us, threatened, verbally and physically, almost run, over flipped off, spit at, have had our legs intentionally pinned between cars, told to get a job, and generally harassed on a daily basis. 

Mr. Doten said in his commentary, “this strike is not about people, it’s about the money grab by the union.” To Mr. Doten I say tell that to the 56 families that have been displaced and the greater community, people are exactly what this strike is about . We also suffer loss but not only loss of money, but loss of self, our dignity, our jobs, our work family, and our community. 

The fabric of this community is being ripped apart. Mr. Doten we all know who is the source of all this suffering. It’s the new guys in town with the Wal-mart-type business plan. They are the ones who will make a profit on all of our suffering. Mr. Doten, the suffering won’t stop with us. The new owners are drastically cutting their employees benefit plan. The new employees are starting to feel the pain of paying for their families health care. And as for their retirement soon they will come to realize that to few are receiving too little too late, and they will not be able to retire. And who is profiting on their suffering? 

Mr. Doten, the suffering won’t stop with them, because in order to remain competitive the other shops in town will have to cut their employees benefits, and who is causing their suffering? Mr. Doten the suffering wont stop with them either. Because any of these people who can’t afford health care or can’t afford to save for their retirement will end up falling back on the state for assistance, and all of us will suffer from higher taxes. Once again who will be profiting on all of our suffering? Mr. Doten, the ripple effect of suffering passing through our community is caused by a few very very rich men, Blackhawk developers who have said, “this operation is so small it is not even a blip on our financial radar screen.” 

It is said that true evil is the total lack of empathy. Now I ask you if these rich men have so much money, that the profit they are making on our suffering is so insignificant to them. 

Is this not approaching that definition? Mr. Doten, I pick up a sign and protest in front of Berkeley Honda every day, because I view our family, friends, coworkers and community to valuable to allow this quality of thread to be used in the tapestry of our community. 

Just a striking worker’s perspective. 

 

Garry Horrocks is a Berkeley resident. 




Commentary: Improving the Ashby Flea Market, By: George Katechis

Friday March 17, 2006

I feel a little bit helpless. The words have been spoken, declared and proclaimed. “We are not moving.” What used to be a flower has wilted and died. The Flea Market is not what it used to be. I doubt that many of the sellers there are actually from the neighborhood. To me it’s just another example of people from outside the neighborhood coming in and dictating to us how it’s going to be. 

Osha Newman has his heart in the right place, but he is working with a dead flower. The Flea Market could be a vibrant, happening place, but not as it is now. I have a music store kitty corner to the Flea Market (The Berkeley Musical Instrument Exchange). I’ve been there for 31 years. I live close by and have watched the neighborhood change. I have nothing against the Flea Market or the sellers. It’s a great place to enter the economy. I started my music business selling instruments at flea markets. I never would have been able to afford to rent a store.  

In other countries, Mexico for example, all the transportation centers are surrounded by stalls that people rent by the day or week. I think the area above the flea market, on Adeline Street should be developed into such an area. We don’t need a six-lane highway going through our neighborhood. The fact is, we should be discouraging car use. The area above the Flea Market could be put to a much better use. As it is now, it is like a demilitarized zone. There’s absolutely nothing going on there. There could be stalls, food venders, little repair stalls, who knows what? It could be happening seven days a week. Stalls would mean no rainouts. The stalls would have to be very basic, barely sheltered and with no permanent power. Or who knows? That area could be like a mini Solano Stroll, and we could still call it The Berkeley Flea Market. 

I’ve heard about mixed use retail and residential in the development plans, but the truth is, retail stores are a thing of the past. Who can afford $4,000.00 a month for a retail store? Even now I see vacant shops everywhere in Berkeley. 

Please, let’s get real. Something is going to happen to the parking lot. It is going to be developed somehow! What’s going to happen to the flea market during construction? Where is it going to go? Maybe we should start thinking about change, not intransigence.  

 

George Katechis is the owner of the Berkeley Musical Instrument Exchange.


Allan Temko: Reflections on a Long Friendship, By: John Kenyon

Friday March 17, 2006

Mid morning on January 26th I was just about to call Allan’s house to see how he was doing, when my phone rang. It was Susan calling from work to tell me she’d just read the announcement of his death. It felt very strange. An important part of my life had suddenly become the past.  

Fellow “scribblers” and lovers of architecture, Allan Temko and I had known each other since the late 1950s, in what had seemed a rather unequal friendship. I was a discontented designer-draftsman, while he, three years older and teaching Journalism at Cal, had already lived in Paris, taught at the Sorbonne, and written a well-received book on Notre Dame. Inevitably, he had become the mentor. I recall phoning him from a booth on Telegraph. “You need a grant,” he said. “Come and see me and I’ll tell you the ones to try for and how to get them.” 

But we didn’t meet again until 1962 when I was teaching architecture at the University of Oregon, and was able to invite him up to give a talk. He was in his post-New-Deal “socialist” mode, and delivered a passionate presentation on Skidmore Owings’ giant apartment blocks in all-black South Chicago that went over like a lead balloon in woodsy problem-free Eugene. Later, in the customary social evening, he upset the Louis Kahn contingent by dismissing their hero as a misguided eccentric. “Poor old Lou!” he kept muttering, not giving an inch. 

Allan’s years at the Chronicle suited him well. Never unnerved by celebrity of big egos, he was on intimate terms with almost all the significant names in architecture, planning, local politics and art, championing some and castigating others, famous or otherwise. The downside to being San Francisco’s one-man architecture critic was the scarcity—in a city loved mostly for its dramatic setting—of new world-class buildings to write about until the high-rise office boom of the Sixties and Seventies, when, despite some distinguished towers, huge corporate invaders overwhelmed the beloved topography. 

Yet, through it all, Allan seldom sounded depressed. He relished attacking the spectacularly bad Transamerica with its dunce’s cap spire, to the huge “jukebox” of the Marriott, then waxing poetic over the truly radical Oakland Museum. The sheer breadth of his interests made him invaluable. As a historian, he delighted in Temple Emanu-El’s restoration. As a student of urban design, he described a new vision for Berkeley’s harsh waterfront, and with his boyish eye for bold engineering, drew attention to the Port of Oakland’s monumental cranes. And almost always, besides being technically well-researched, his essays were pugnacious, witty, and amusing enough to entertain even the architecturally indifferent. 

Following the Eugene visit, I didn’t see Allan again for some years. After all, he was the famous fire-eating critic, while I was just an obscure City of Oakland planner. No matter that I did an occasional commentary on KPFA, was getting published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and exhibiting drawings in the Art Co-op, HE was the one with “literary tenure!” 

Yet somewhere along the way a significant breakthrough had occurred, when I spotted him “en famille” in a local restaurant reciting a Yeats poem from memory—“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.” 

I know that I shall meet my fate 

Somewhere among the clouds above; 

Those that I fight I do not hate, 

Those that I guard I do not love . . . 

and so on through the sixteen lines. Impressed and delighted, I walked over to their table and announced that “anyone who can recite Yeats to his family can’t be all bad!” That brief discovery of something mutually loved broke the competitive ice, which could, looking back, have turned into a glacier by the next episode. 

In 1972, irritated by Allan Jacobs’ Urban Design document issued by the San Francisco Planning Department, I wrote a sarcastic critique, and on the advice of a perceptive friend, sent it to Alfred Frankenstein, the Chronicle’s revered art critic. Much to my surprise, he ran it in his column for two consecutive Sundays, then invited me to lunch. Sitting at his usual table in his usual dark-panelled lair, he told me how much he had liked my writing, and asked if I would be interested in submitting articles on a regular basis. Did he mean as an “outside” contributor? “No,” he said, “I’d like you to join the paper full time.” Taken aback, I told him I’d consider it, while he said he would have to run it past the editorial board, and would let me know as soon as possible. A month later he phoned to tell me that they’d turned his proposal down flat. Apparently, they refused to battle with another big ego, and believed that any other architecture critic would be as bad! The villain of course was Temko, who had left the paper, for whatever reason, in 1970. In effect, I’d have been taking his job. 

Looking back 34 years, I’m glad now that I didn’t have to decide. In Richmond’s pared-down Redevelopment Agency, my position in charge of graphics, architectural visualizations, and Marina design, had grown more fulfilling, while leaving me private time to pursue my painting and unpressured writing. As a featured newspaper critic, holding forth on every major development, I’d have had to relegate my artwork to “Sunday painting.” Besides, I think now, re-reading Allan’s collected essays, No Way to Build a Ballpark, that in both personality and writing style, he was the more suited to the role of “king critic.” 

An unexpected reward from my accidental loyalty came in 1978, when Allan, now back in the Chronicle saddle, asked me to drive him around the great Kaiser Shipyard site that was destined to become Richmond’s new marina, then visit the design consultants in San Francisco. Shepherding him around MY project was enjoyable enough, but the real thrill came when his article “A Bold Vision on Richmond’s Shore” appeared some days later, with not one, but two references to me, “the Redevelopment Agency’s British-born planner and architect.” The second was positively embarrassing: “In the end,” he wrote, “success may hinge, in ways few people except planner John Kenyon have appreciated, on the beauty of the new container port and the enduring power of the earlier industrial monuments in the vicinity.” Deprived of even a mention, my boss was hopping mad, but it was worth it! 

Through the ’80s, Allan and I didn’t see much of each other. Forced into “early retirement” by the City’s financial straits, I was busy catching up on my painting, and writing an occasional article for the old East Bay Express. Fully preoccupied, he was busy working toward his 1990 Pulitzer Prize. Unable to take on other assignments, he very kindly passed one on to me, suggesting my name to a French government educational journal seeking an illustrated piece on San Francisco. I took the photographs and wrote it, and became for a time a regular contributor. It was another helpful boost. 

During that busy period, Allan’s wife Elizabeth, known to her many friends as Becky, became our indispensable go-between. For health reasons, she walked everywhere, so our shopping paths crossed on Hopkins or Solano almost every week. She’d tell me about Allan’s latest article, say nice things about mine, and report on their last or next trip. Nobody has final insight into anybody else’s marriage, but theirs, lasting 46 years, seemed to me very successful. She too was very design-conscious, but mainly in the realm of big scale environmental improvements and the methods of achieving them. Becky was a social worker, schoolteacher, peace activist and more, but is perhaps best remembered for her work on the Berkeley Parks and Recreation Commission, where she played an important part in creating the city’s splendid waterfront park. A memorial grove is dedicated to her there, on the edge of the meadow. 

Her death from cancer in 1996 was a major blow for Allan, which he dealt with, typically, by sardonic humor. He seemed to relish telling me how they had celebrated her last hour with a bottle of champagne, during which he’d asked her, “Have I been a good husband?” Her nonchalant response, “You were OK” seemed perfectly designed for his self-deprecating style. But he wasn’t always so stoical. On a later occasion, while walking together around her waterfront park, he told me straightforwardly, “Becky loved you.” I took it as a very moving compliment. 

After Allan’s retirement from the Chronicle in 1993, our friendship became deeper, more fun, and certainly less competitive. He’d already achieved a Pulitzer Prize and national fame, but was missing the big city and the Chronicle office companionship. He was also “fed up” with the current architecture scene, and the turn it had taken into showy eclectic “Post Modernism,” including his longtime heroes S.O.M. Yet low spirits were not in his nature, and he found new heroes in Frank Gehry, and—especially—the Spanish architect, engineer, sculptor Santiago Calatrava, whom he later tried hard to “sell” to the Diocese of Oakland as the architect for the new Catholic Cathedral. Sad to say, he failed, but did succeed in getting them to site the future edifice on Harrison, overlooking Lake Merritt. For months I was treated to a running commentary on which “world class” architect was currently favored, or was too busy to come 6,000 miles for an interview. It was all very fascinating, but didn’t rival his comment that as the only Jew on a panel of Catholic priests, he would have guaranteed entrance to Heaven! 

Another vivid memory is of Allan’s impressive but always amusing name-dropping. I once mentioned James Stirling, one of Britain’s most celebrated designers, immediately eliciting an “award-winning” description of having been given a ride from Edinburgh to London in “Big Jim’s” huge dark green open car, hurtling along at 90 mph while passing the whisky-bottle back and forth. And, of course, when he or they traveled, they somehow did it right. Visiting Falling Water, Wright’s most famous house, they were allowed to spend the night! In Spain, he always stayed with Calatrava! Yet to me, Allan’s showing-off had a childlike quality that made it very forgivable. I remember an outdoor lunch behind their little house on Fresno Avenue, and the delight he took, wearing his collar-less Thomas Jefferson shirt, in showing off Becky’s silver and white garden, inspired by the famous one at Sissinghurst in Kent. 

During the long years when I craved even a little bit of the public fame Allan seemed to enjoy, we were too locked into unexpressed rivalry to be real companions. When supportive friends would suggest that I was now the Allan Temko of the East Bay, I’d refer them to a future time when he would be called “the John Kenyon of San Francisco.” All very amusing, but ultimately fatuous, for it seems to me now, as the surviving friend, futile to envy anyone, especially somebody close. We all have our struggles and disappointments, and one of Allan’s biggest ones was not being offered the Directorship of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, a job I’d never remotely desire! 

This morning, after winding up my brief memoir, I listened to Garrison Keillor reading another short, powerful Yeats poem: 

How can I, that girl standing there, 

My attention fix  

On Roman or on Russian 

Or on Spanish politics? 

and so on to the poignant last lines— 

But O that I were young again 

And held her in my arms! 

Short, “journalistic,” and free from Yeats’ Celtic mysticism, I’ll bet that was another of Allan’s favorites, but I’ll probably never find out. We should have talked more about poetry, and a little less about architecture..


Columns

Column: ‘Our Lady of 121st Street’ By Susan Parker

Tuesday March 21, 2006

In the three years I’ve attended San Francisco State as an MFA student, I’ve developed a consuming interest in the theater. Brian Thorstenson, whose play Shadow Crossing is now at the Berkeley City Club, was the first instructor to inspire me in the craft of playwriting. In his course, “Reading and Viewing Plays,” we read and saw half a dozen live performances, and watched several on tape. We analyzed and critiqued, then copied scenes from each play, put them into our own words and voices, and made them our stories. 

The following semester I took a class from Anne Galjour, a local playwright known for her acting and Louisiana-based monologues. I enrolled in a seminar taught by Michelle Carter, whose play Ted Kaczynski Killed People with Bombs has won several international awards, and is now in pre production in London. Last semester I participated in a workshop led by Roy Conboy, a nationally known Chicano playwright who is the chair of SFSU’s Theater Arts Department and head of the graduate playwriting program. 

Before enrolling at San Francisco State I’d attended a few dozen plays. But because of these instructors and their encouragement, I’ve had the pleasure of viewing dozens and dozens of staged productions, both on my own and as required coursework. I’ve been to the Bravo, the Marsh, Berkeley Rep and the Aurora. I’ve attended plays at the Magic, Theatre Rhinoceros, the Artaud and the Geary. I’ve gone to productions staged by A.C.T., the Shotgun Players, Word for Word, Campo Santo, Central Works, and the Red Gate Performance Collective. I’ve gotten to know some actors, directors, and stage managers, dramaturges and costume designers, lighting and sound engineers. I’ve been captivated and enthralled by the collaboration and passion, the hard work and commitment, the talent and generosity required in order to get words off the page and onto the stage. 

Last night I attended Our Lady of 121st Street, a production currently showing at SF Playhouse in San Francisco. Written by New York playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Playhouse Artistic Director Bill English, this is a rapidly told, 10-scene, hard-boiled, episodic drama. As English states in the playbill, Our Lady explores the “spiritual needs of humanity: the struggle to find hope in the face of despair, forgiveness in the face of bitterness, faith in the face of doubt, and love in the face of hate.” He forgets to mention that it is also uproariously funny, flip, tender, and emotional. 

Guirgis places his 12 ethnically and socially diverse characters within a funeral home, a bar, and a Catholic church in Harlem, waiting Godot-like for the memorial service to begin for their teacher, friend, co-worker, and relative Sister Rose. But Sister Rose’s body is missing and as they await its recovery, these former friends, current lovers, ex-spouses, siblings, rivals, and strangers are forced to confront their darkest fears, their emptiness, shame, and longing.  

From Brian, Anne, Michelle and Roy, I’ve learned that every protagonist has to take the audience somewhere, and by doing so viewers will journey with them. Along the way the audience should learn about themselves and the human condition. Each of the characters in Our Lady of 121st Street starts in a place they don’t want to be. Their challenge is to change. Some do and some don’t. A few embrace their pain, acknowledge their weaknesses and move on. Others remain where they are and lose hope. Just like real life, like you and me and all of mankind, they have aspirations that are realized and dreams that are crushed. Whipped into a frenzy by quick turns of plot, hilarious juxtapositions, and machinegun-style, Mamet-esque dialogue, I cannot remember when I’ve enjoyed a theatrical performance more. And it was not just me. The small, intimate playhouse erupted in laughter, tears and a standing ovation when the seemingly brief, two-hour production came to a rollicking, soulful conclusion. 

I’m not exaggerating. Go see it for yourself at the SF Playhouse, 536 Sutter (between Powell and Mason). (415) 677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.org. 


Monterey Cypress Assumes Unique Forms Along Coast By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Once it’s reached adulthood a Monterey cypress is easy to recognize, though it takes wildly different shapes depending on whether it’s near the ocean shore, its native habitat, or inland even only a few miles. Its native habitat, in fact, is the very small section of coastland between Monterey and Point Lobos. If it were only there, it would be rare—and most likely endangered—just because its range would be so small. But it’s handsome and easy to grow from seed, so it’s in cultivation and part of human-made landscapes all over the world. 

Its best fieldmark, aside from the deep green of its scaled foliage: Small round cones like scaly shooter marbles, and the red bark, becoming silvery and furrowed with age, is the way it holds its leaves in graceful horizontal planes, in shapes like far-away new clouds on a horizon. That habit marks the sisterhood of the fantastically twisted, windblown trees on the coast with their more formally symmetrical, upright siblings—where they have space to assume their own unpruned forms—inland. There’s one at the east end of Golden Gate Park that dominates the area, a gorgeous open graceful giant towering in its stately, imperceptibly slow dance above every tree and structure in sight.  

There are several around Berkeley and on the UC campus—look around Dwinelle Hall and the Earth Sciences building—and once you’ve seen one you’ll know them. But when you think you know what to expect, go look at their home population, famously painted and photographed along the Monterey coastline, the sort of thing on which bonsai artists model their most contorted specimens. They seem at once muscular and ancient, digging their roots into rocky prominences and arguing lifelong with the fierce Pacific winds. 

Those winds nurture them uniquely, though. It’s harder to grow them, or at least to make them last long, in really dry places. They thrive on the moisture the ocean delivers to the atmosphere even during our summer droughts. In turn, they nurture ferns and mosses and understory plants beneath them, sieving the fog from the air and condensing it into drops, a very localized rainstorm to water the island of life that grows on the soil they start to form out of their own shed foliage. To see this happening, and a bit closer to home that Monterey, go out to the lighthouse at Point Reyes and look at the trees on the north shoulder of the paved road you walk on from the parking lot, at the carpet under them, brilliant green even in summer. The air smells different under them.  

Monterey cypresses on the coastline often stay upright long after they’ve died, leaving graceful silvered wood sculptures to mark their passing. The wood is tough and endures well in its untreated state, and I suppose might replace redwood in some outdoor lumber uses except for its decidedly un-lumberlike shape. Even the more upright cypresses planted inland don’t grow in an orderly column like redwoods or pines, but, as I’ve seen them, taper rapidly and bifurcate at every opportunity into a sort of organic candelabra.  

We lost several of them, along with some pines, out on the Berkeley Marina after the storms at the turn of the year. They do grow faster in deeper soils that they do in rock clefts; as a result, they share the unfortunate tendencies of fast-growing trees to overreach their capacities, to grow thick foliage sails that catch the wind and topple them when their roots can’t keep up. City life has its perils for them too, even apparently suburban city life like that in a mini-lawn by a Marina parking lot. Pavement interferes with root growth, and poor drainage can weaken their root systems, as it can with most trees, until they overbalance and topple.  

One terrible instance of this happened a few years ago on Sixth Street, when a beautiful old cypress collapsed suddenly—in, as I recall, calm weather, in the arboreal equivalent of a stroke—and killed a driver at a stop sign under it. Trees do die, as all of us living beings do, and living elbow-to-elbow in a city puts us all in peril as we lean on and overshadow each other. 

 

 

Photo by Ron Sullivan 

This 20- or 30-something Monterey cypress on the Berkeley Marina is just beginning to show the windswept flat planes of its adult form. 


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Ballots, Bullets, Bizarreness and Bribery, By: Conn Hallinan

Friday March 17, 2006

Some elections to keep an eye on. Last month’s massive demonstrations in Bangkok demanding the resignation of Thailand Prime Minister Thanksin Shinawatra focused on the media mogul’s avoidance of $100 million in taxes. But underlying the charges of corruption is a growing allergy to Thanksin’s heavy-handed approach to any opposition, a result of his scorched-earth policy toward Muslims in the country’s southern provinces. 

In an effort to derail the uproar over his taxes, Thanksin called a snap election for April 2. 

But the largely urban and middle-class opposition is less concerned with Thailand’s endemic government corruption than it is with a series of emergency laws aimed at the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, which abut the border with Malaya. The laws allow the government to ban publications, impose curfews, tap phones and detain suspects without a warrant 

“This kind of law is a Pandora’s Box,” says Sunai Phasuk, a political analyst associated with Human Rights Watch, “Once you open it, all the nasty things will come out. This law provides the government with a blank check, which is pretty alarming.” 

Thanksin has silenced critics by filing defamation suits, and buying up media outlets. He says the media must serve the “national interest” and not report “bad news.” 

Southern Thailand is “bad news,” and it’s getting worse. The area is mostly Muslim and ethnically Malay, unlike the Buddhist and ethnically Thai center and north. The three provinces, formally the Sultanate of Pattani, were annexed by Thailand—then Siam—in 1909 in a deal cut with the British. 

The fact that the south is vastly poorer than the rest of the country has fueled resentment in the three provinces, anger that exploded in April 2004 when a group of Muslims, mostly armed with knives and machetes, attacked several Thai police stations. The government responded with fury, killing more than 100 local Muslims, including 32 people who had taken refuge inside the 16th century Kru Se Mosque. 

The following October, the government savagely attacked a demonstration with water cannons and live ammunition, arresting over 1,300 people. The demonstrators were piled on top of one another for a five-hour drive, at the end of which 78 of them had suffocated. 

Thanksin said the deaths were a result of the Muslim holy month, Ramadan. “This is typical. It’s about bodies made weak from fasting. Nobody hurt them,” he said. 

The prime minister has poured 35,000 troops into the provinces, and threatens to cut aid to the impoverished region. According to Amnesty International, the military and local police are guilty of “arbitrary detentions, torture, and excessive lethal force.” The United Nations says the Thai government is violating an international treaty on civil and political rights. The ongoing tension has strained relations with Thailand’s neighbors as well. 

Some of Thanksin’s behavior has been simply bizarre. In an effort to encourage “peace,” the military dropped 100 million origami paper cranes over the provinces. But since victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki invented the origami as an act of forgiveness, the crane drop suggested that the Muslims were the ones who needed forgiveness. Needless to say, it was not well received. 

At this point the opposition says it will boycott the April 2 vote because they say it is impossible to have a fair contest during a state of emergency. Under Thai election rules that could invalidate the election. In the meantime, the repression in the south continues. It is a tactic, argues an editorial in the Financial Times, “that does not work for Israel in the occupied territories or for the U.S. forces in Iraq, and it will not work for Buddhist Thailand in the country’s predominantly Muslim southern provinces.” 

 

Consider the train wreck that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has engineered going into the April 9-10 national elections: 

• The prime minster may be facing his ninth indictment for corruption and bribery. He has been convicted three times on similar charges, but managed to pass legislation in the Italian parliament that allowed him avoid any punishment. 

• The Italian economy, according to Mario Draghi, governor of the Central Bank, “has run aground—gross domestic product did not grow, our products lost even more world market share, and the budget deficit increased.” 

• His reform minister from the racist and xenophobic Northern League was forced to resign for wearing a t-shirt embossed with cartoons insulting Mohammad, and his health minister resigned because he was caught wire tapping political opponents. 

Should be a slam-dunk for the center-left L’Unione coalition, right? Not when Berlusconi owns controlling stakes in three of the biggest private TV stations and, as prime minister, can decide what happens in the three owned by the state.  

For example, he got blanket media coverage when he pledged to abstain from all sex until after the election. On the same day L’Unione’s unveiled its economic program, he stole the limelight by comparing himself to Jesus Christ. He managed to get round the clock coverage when President Bush lent him a hand by inviting him to address a joint session of Congress.  

Using this combination of showmanship and raw financial power, he is keeping the race close. The most recent poll (before his latest legal difficulties) indicates the gap between his center-right coalition and L’Unione has closed from 6 percent to 4 percent. 

In the end, Berlusconi’s antics may all come to naught. Even with the current poll numbers, L’Unione is still on track to build a wide margin in the lower house (340 to 277) and narrowly take the senate (158-151). And his new legal difficulties may widen the gap. But with a friend in the White House and almost unlimited media power, this one isn’t going to be over until it’s over. 

 

Israel’s March 28 elections looked like they were going to be a victory lap for Ariel Sharon’s Kadima Party, but with his lackluster successor, Ehud Olmert, in charge, polls indicate a fall from a projected 44 seats to only 37 in the 120-member Knesset. Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud has picked up one of those seats for a projected total of 15. Labor is at 19 seats, the number two position. But it looks like some of the former Kadima votes will go to small parties that range from extremely reactionary to Left.  

One newcomer is the Green Leaf Party, which is dovish on the Palestinian issue and advocates legalization of marijuana, gambling and prostitution. It may take two seats. 

Netanyahu has ruled out a coalition with Kadima, and talk is of a Kadima/ Labor government. Olmert, however, says he will not negotiate with the Palestinians, which is nothing new. The Israeli government has refused to talk with the Palestinians since 2001. Labor’s Amir Peretz, on the other hand, recently met with the Palestinian Authority.  

With the exception of a few small left and Israeli Arab parties, none of the major parties has presented a peace plan that is likely to get much traction with the Palestinians, although at least Labor is willing to negotiate matters. However, until a majority of Israelis elect a government that will evacuate all the settlements, share Jerusalem, and equitably resolve the refugee question, peace will remain a long way off.?


Column: UnderCurrents: Oakland Postpones Putting More Cops on the Streets, By: J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

Friday March 17, 2006

In journalism, we are taught to look for social and political faultlines, the spots were the various forces of our society rub against each other, and sometimes collide. Usually, these are only tiny cracks in the social fabric that are barely visible, even to the trained eye. But sometimes they are a mile wide and if you lean over and peer inside, you can actually see what’s really going on. You have to look quickly, however. These things close up fast and even before they do, there’s folks running around with their smoke-blowing machines, trying to make you believe that what you are seeing is not actually what you are seeing. 

So it is, friends, with the struggle over Chief Wayne Tucker’s redeployment of the Oakland Police Department. 

If you read the Oakland Tribune on Wednesday morning, you would have been left with the impression that the City of Oakland was escalating its pressure against the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association to come to an agreement with Chief Tucker over the plan. That’s because the Tribune’s headline read: “City Puts Heat On Cop Union.” 

Really? To which part of the city was the Tribune referring, one wonders. Certainly not City Council. And definitely not the office of Mayor Jerry Brown. 

A brief recap, to bring you up to speed on this, in case you missed all the drama. 

Two weeks ago, in the midst of complaints by Oakland citizens that the police presence on the streets is dwindling while violent crime is exploding, Councilmember Desley Brooks revealed that the Oakland police chief had a plan to immediately triple the number of patrol officers at peak crime times, at no extra cost to the city. 

This would seem to solve the immediate police services crisis, except that under the current contract with the police union, the chief cannot implement the plan without the agreement of the OPOA. So last week, City Council gave the chief and the union a one-week deadline to come up with an agreement, voting unanimously to consider declaring a state of emergency at a special council meeting this week if no agreement was reached. (Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Public Safety Chair Larry Reid were not present at last week’s meeting.) Under the terms of that proposed state of emergency, no agreement with the union would be then necessary to implement the chief’s plan. 

So what has happened since then? 

First, let us look at the leadership role of Mayor Jerry Brown in what everybody agrees is a public safety crisis (Mr. Brown, you may remember, is running for California attorney general on a platform of his leadership on public safety issues). According to Wednesday’s Tribune article, “Mayor Jerry Brown declined to take a position on the state of emergency, deferring to Tucker.” Declined to take a position? As far as I can tell—and I’ve been following all the papers on this every day—it doesn’t appear as if Mr. Brown has taken a public position on Chief Tucker’s redeployment plan, either. 

Meanwhile, the chief and the union apparently reached an impasse on Monday, unable to reach an agreement. That set the stage for the City Council to declare a state of emergency at Tuesday’s special council meeting. 

Council, instead, declined. 

According to the Tribune, Public Safety Chair Larry Reid, who represents one of the East Oakland districts hardest hit by the violent crime wave, said that “a state of emergency declaration would send a message across the nation that Oakland is not a safe place to live, work and raise their children. It would be a black eye for Oakland.” The San Francisco Chronicle noted that Councilmember Jane Brunner said the chief and the union were “close” to an agreement, adding that “if someone has a house on the market, if we’re in a state of emergency, is someone going to buy it?” The Tribune also noted that Brunner “warned her colleagues that it would hurt the city’s position in the coming contract renewal negotiations to take a hard line against the union.” “We could win the battle and lose the war,” the Tribune quoted Brunner as saying.  

Perhaps. Perhaps not. That’s a subject for another discussion. But that leads us back to the question, why should the police be opposed to Chief’ Tucker’s redeployment plan in the first place? 

Currently, Oakland police operate on regular, eight-hour shifts, with an equal number of officers on each shift. That leaves deployment holes at shift change times when one group of officers is coming off the street, and another is going on. One of these “shift holes” is at midnight, a time when crime in the city is going up. Another problem with the current police deployment plan is that it puts the same number of officers on the street at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon as it does at 3 a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning, even though it’s obvious that more police officers are needed in the early morning hours because, after all, that’s when more crime takes place. 

Police often work longer than these regular eight-hour shifts when needed, of course. But when they do, we have to pay them at the overtime rate, which costs the city in the millions every year. 

Under Chief Tucker’s plan, the officers would work in overlapping shifts. Some would work eight hours a day for five days, some 10 hours for four days, some 12 hours for three days. 

Again, why is that a problem to the police? It’s difficult to say, because we’re getting conflicting reports. 

On Monday, in a story reporting that the chief-union talks were stalled, the Chronicle said that “the union’s biggest concern with Chief Tucker’s plan is the disruptive impact it would have on the officers’ private lives, and on the morale of the force.” That seemed to say that the union objection to the plan was on principle. 

But the Wednesday Tribune article said that the union’s objection, in part, at least, was not on principle, but on numbers. The Tribune said that Chief Tucker’s plan would put 84 officers on the street at peak crime times, up from the present 35. The Tribune said that the police union wants the deployment plan adjusted to only have 64 officers at peak crime times, and that Chief Tucker since reduced his proposed number in his plan to 72. 

So is the police union saying that it’s okay to disrupt the private lives of 64 officers, but the disrupting the lives of the remaining eight (the difference between the chief’s 72 and the union’s 64) is too much for them to bear? That seems too ridiculous to be the real reason. 

In her original announcement about the chief’s deployment plan, Councilmember Brooks charged that the union was holding up the plan because the plan would do away with the lucrative overtime pay (on the theory that the police union doesn’t mind disrupting police officers’ private lives so long as we pay the officers time and a half for the service). Ms. Brooks also said at the time that Mayor Brown and Council President Ignacio De La Fuente were holding up implementation of the chief’s plan because they don’t want to piss off the police union, whose endorsement Mr. Brown and Mr. De La Fuente need in their campaigns for California attorney general and Oakland Mayor. Neither Mr. Brown nor Mr. De La Fuente have responded to that charge, though they still have the opportunity to do so, if they’d like. 

“We have to take back the responsibility to manage our Police Department,” the Tribune reported Mr. De La Fuente as saying at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. It was not clear if he meant taking responsibility from the union and giving it to the chief, or putting that responsibility into the hands of the City Council. 

In any event, Mr. De La Fuente then voted with four colleagues (Councilmembers Jane Brunner, Henry Chang, Jean Kerningham, and Larry Reid) in giving the talks between the chief and the union one more week, which seemed to indicate that Mr. De La Fuente was not quite ready to make that responsibility change just yet. 

Watch carefully as this moves forward, friends. Before this is over, all of this ground may shift again, and cover up all trace of what has already happened. 

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From Petaluma to Point Reyes: Cheese and So Much More, By: Marta Yamamoto

Friday March 17, 2006

“I hope this cheese comes from happy cows,” I overheard the customer ask at the Marin French Cheese Company. He’d just purchased pounds of Rouge and Noir in several varieties and was perhaps double-checking his investment. The cows and I were equally cont ent as I cruised country roads, tasting locally produced cheeses, gathering picnic goodies and basking in nature’s bounty. 

The mood for my day was set as I left Highway 101, driving west along Novato Boulevard. Gently undulating hills were tinged with gr een, dotted with gnarled oaks awaiting spring’s foliage, and outcrops of rocks. Holsteins enjoyed the recent rains’ harvest, several poking their heads through fencing, reaching for the choicest bits. White barns and rail fences shared this working landsc ape with those of weathered-silver corrugated metal. Passing the gentle waters of Stafford Lake Park, I gazed at flocks of Canada geese along the shores, sharing pasture with cows. 

The grounds of the Marin French Cheese Company blend harmoniously with the bucolic landscape. Enticing picnic grounds with wide lawns, tables and duck ponds occupy five acres of land along with the cheese factory, deli and retail shop. 

In operation for more than 100 years, on land purchased by Jefferson Thomas in 1865, Marin French produces authentic French cheese using traditional recipes and cultures. Beginning with the creation of granular cheese in 1900, the family turned their talents to soft ripened cheese. As the saying goes, the rest is history. 

Today, tours are give n on cheese-producing days of the multi-step process that begins with Jersey milk from 100 percent BST free cows. A secret blend of living cultures is mixed with the curd, and later rinsed with collected rainwater. Over several weeks, cheeses mature, deve lop their distinctive flavor, are hand-packed and, voilà, ready for tasting. 

From the traditional buttery brie and tangy camembert, more than 20 choices now beckon, including Brie flavored with pesto and jalapeno. Though it was difficult, I restrained my self from feasting on every one. After generous tasting, a sample pack of traditional and flavored cheeses satisfied my taste buds.  

Of course, cheese doesn’t stand alone. The farmhouse-like shop of buttery walls, with wood plank floor and ceramic cookie jars on parade below the ceiling, is well stocked. Wines, attractively displayed in their own wood-paneled wine room, Tuscan crostini and Metropole Panne Di Grano Duro, Angelo’s olives and dried fig compote will easily fill your picnic basket. Stock up, but leave room for more cheese experiences in Point Reyes Station. 

Along the Petaluma-Pt. Reyes Road, the countryside continues its postcard display. Alternating the dark of wooded canyons with the bright light of open expanse, the road is dotted with ar dent cyclists. I crossed a purple bridge over the shimmering waters of Nicasio Reservoir and made my way through lichen-cloaked woods to Point Reyes Station. Population: 350, plus cows. 

At Cowgirl Creamery inside Tomales Bay Foods, the bon appetit of Fra nce is replaced by the terroir of West Marin. Here, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith have turned to the richness of the land outside their doors to produce unique  

soft-ripened cheeses. Eight years ago an old hay barn was transformed into an airy rustic food wa rehouse with trussed ceiling, cement floors and walls painted rich earth colors reminiscent of Tuscany. 

“Cheese is only as good as the milk from which it’s made,” affirmed Michael Zilber, cheesemonger and manager, as he led me through a delicious mini-co urse on Cowgirl Creamery’s cheeses produced on site. Making the cheeses begins with pure, natural, organic Strauss Family Dairy milk, whose dairy cows can be seen grazing on West Marin land. The signature cheese, Mt. Tam, a buttery triple creme, stands al one with its slight bloomy white rind. Another cheese, Red Hawk, is coated with a washed rind, with a pungent flavor created by the indigenous bacteria present in the environment. Pierce Point cheese takes terroir one-step further; its rind is coated with local herbs like chamomile and wild grasses. One taste transports you to the local hillsides. These unique products could not be created anywhere else. 

Hungry hikers stop for fresh cheese and everything else attractively displayed within Tomales Bay Foo ds. The Cowgirl Cantina provides smoked trout and fatted calf salami from the charcuterie; Grab and Go Sandwiches feature Marin Sun Farms Skirt Steak with roasted red pepper and arugula; a couscous salad with cranberries, mint and feta cheese and Della Fa ttoria pumpkin seed campagne. Little Shorty’s Golden Point Produce, all organic, fills out the broadest section of the new food pyramid with local apples, oranges, and a tasty variety of vegetables. 

Save time to watch the cheese making process and eye th e plump bundles resting in the cold room. Enjoy the tree slab table inside or partake of outdoor picnic areas if you can’t wait to sample your wares, but make sure to wander around Point Reyes Station before you head off. There are still more goodies to a dd to your basket. 

You may have come to the realization that this outing is best enjoyed after fasting for several days. Bovine Bakery is so popular that the sidewalk outside its door is usually bun-to-bun seating. Scones the size of cow-patties, succule nt with berries and ricotta; huge slices of streusel-topped coffee cake; fruit muffins sweet from pear and apple; dessert-like raspberry almond marzipan torte and their famous chocolate chip cookies will have you wishing you had a bovine multi-stomach dig estive system. Don’t forget to pick up Brickmaiden Breads; their wood-fired brick oven crust and chewy texture are perfect platforms for cheese. 

Toby’s Feed Barn combines art and food wares for humans and animals. Local produce on wooden tables and insid e farm barrels decorates the front. Within its wood walls, you can pick up the labors of Pt. Reyes Preserves—pickled brussel sprouts, beets and garlic as well as delicious fruit jams. Toby’s packages their own dried fruits, nuts and trail mix to encourage reluctant hikers. 

Non-edible merchandise includes a zany collection of T-shirts like the ones offering advice from horse and dog, world music CDs, and, in the back gallery, the work of local artists. On my visit I enjoyed the photographs of Elaine Straub, offering multiple images of favorite scenes. Banana’s Red Dodge Pick-up Truck and Moore’s White Barn, among others, evoked a warm sense of place in this unique area. 

Even if your picnic basket is overflowing, don’t head back home. The options for an al fresco feast are also overflowing. Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Tomales Bay State Park, Samuel P. Taylor State Park—all have landscape, trails and tables to put the cap on a bountiful day. Carpe diem!ôo


About The House: On Realtors and Inspectors, By: Matt Cantor

Friday March 17, 2006

Today was a good day. I started it off with the inspection of a gorgeous house. Did I say gorgeous? No, glorious. It was so true to the aesthetic of the period as to be a sensorial feast. It was actually a very simple house. Built in 1912, a “classic box,” aka, Classic Revival. One of those simple, almost-but-not-quite boxy designs that usually has a little bay front and almost always has a porch on one corner punctuated by a single classical column. There are thousands in the our area so I’m sure you know the one I mean. 

Every feature on this beauty went just a little beyond the typical. The front had a bow, not a bay, a rounded front projection with three windows, each possessing a rounded sill and casings (and let me tell ya, that’s a lot more work than a simple angular bay). The floor inside was also rounded (more work) with little inlaid borders of walnut, knotted at the corners. The windows were a joy of lead tracery and only a few panes were cracked or loose (truly amazing for a 94-year-old house).  

Inside, not much had been changed (praise the deity of your choice!). Many changes of ownership tend to come with many changes in the building and sadly, much is often lost. The most awe-striking time-capsules of construction I’ve seen over the years have been those that were left when Grandma passed away, leaving behind the home she bought with her late husband (may he rest in peace) on the G.I. bill in 1943. I’ve even seen some early refrigerators with top condensers and 1940s washing machines (with ringers) in houses when the sole owner of 60 years had just passed on. 

The other thing that made this a great day was that the pair of Realtors I spent this jovial four-plus hours with were as excited as I was about what we were doing. There was no rush to get done. No concern over making too big a fuss over what was outdated or in need of repair. Just a deep appreciation of the art of looking at houses and the importance of assessing the conditions accurately and fairly. 

We spend some time talking about the old Wedgewood stove. Whether the salt and pepper shakers were actually original (we figured out that the pepper was just a wee bit too tall and not quite the right shade of porcelain to match but it was pretty close). We had a little learning session on how to adjust pilot lights (I showed off a much loved and very old screwdriver that was just right for the little valve screw). 

We shared knowledge about who was good at fixing what and how much we liked this tradesperson or that one. It was all good, as they say.  

Most of the Realtors that I’ve met are very concerned about inspections being done carefully and thoughtfully. There’s no worry and no hurry. 

The Realtors I worked with today weren’t the least bit concerned about the time the inspection took or the gravity of the items that were found wanting. A foundation was discovered to be soft enough to drive a screwdriver inward up to the hilt. The reaction was concern but not the smallest bit of doubt as to the importance of the finding or any interest in lessening the manner in which it would be discussed. “Lay it on the table” was the subtext and the spoken word. What a blessing. 

This attitude really helps me to do my job. It’s not easy when I have to say that the furnace is ready for the scrap-heap or that the water heater is done for but it’s very important to at least one person that I do it.  

It might be the person who’s getting ready to invest their last penny in the house or it could be a seller who needs to be sure that they don’t sell undisclosed defects to a buyer (who may be upset if or when they have the contractor over to talk about remodeling several months down the road and discover that things were not as they had thought). It’s all good when everybody knows what’s up. 

It’s also pretty clear that buyers don’t expect perfect houses. There are a few people out there who don’t want to buy a house that needs any significant amount of repair. These few have to buy the crème de la crème and often have to pay top dollar to get it.  

Most folks come to understand, if they didn’t prior to looking at a few houses, that older homes have pluses and minuses, just like new homes. When I talk to people about what’s wrong with the house we’re in, mostly they’ll shake their heads and acquiesce the imperfections. Sometimes, a buyer will want to negotiate about a discovery but the desire to turn tail is rare when faced with a few trouble spots. 

After all, there are a lot of motivations to buying a particular house other than the condition of the water heater (although I’ve seen some pretty nice water heaters).  

The majority of buyers are looking for a house in a particular neighborhood and secondly they need it to be of a given size and layout (two baths, four bedrooms). The things on the inspectors list are important but rarely overriding. What matters is that the buyers know what they’re getting into and have a chance to address the things that matter to them. It’s all good when everybody knows what’s up. 

There is clearly more risk in driving a motorcycle than in living with the nastiest thing I might find in a house. People just want a chance to know about the issues and decide if and how they want to address them. When we all work together to do that, it is truly a good day. 

I’d like to applaud those two Realtors from today. The applause also goes out to all those others who do the same (help to lay it on the table). Your clients appreciate it and so do I because it really is all good when everybody knows what’s up. 


Garden Variety: Spiral Gardens a Cure for The March Muddy Blues, By: Ron Sullivan

Friday March 17, 2006

All right, up and at ’em. The only cure I know for the March Muddy Blues is time spent with eager green plants, and since it’s still too wet to mess in the mid in most of our gardens, the place to mingle is the neighborhood nursery.  

Lucky me: The distance from here to Spiral Gardens Community Food Project’s Urban Garden Center is shorter than its official name. They could fit only “Urban Garden Center” on the A-frame sign on the Sacramento Street median strip; I guess that’s to the point. Most of the youngsters there are food plants or California natives, but there are wild cards and volunteers, some in the ground and some in pots, some landscape inhabitants and even some houseplants.  

It’s not exactly news that I’m fond of wild cards and surprises. (OK, not surprise snowstorms in March, those can stop now, thank you.) A nursery where I catch myself saying, “What the heck’s that?” is a place I enjoy. It’s even better when everything’s tagged and I’m still asking. Better still, when so much of it is food. I’ll try anything once. 

Except snails. Snails are the enemy, not the dinner. Besides, as the mulberries bloom I get that seasonal post-nasal drip that makes eating snails redundant. I’d rather just throw them into the street and tell them to go play in traffic. 

I’m not sure I’d eat an endangered species either, but growing things for food is one way to make them less endangered. Growing things for food in an area of the city that doesn’t have supermarkets within strolling distance is about remedying another kind of endangerment, and that’s part of Spiral Garden’s mission. Lately I’m a bit burned-out on non-profits and do-gooding, myself, but the Les Blankian motive, Always For Pleasure, hasn’t lost its power to move me. It’s not just my own pleasure. I think the world would be better off if everyone had more pleasure.  

The pleasure of eating fresh produce gets lip service but it’s still underappreciated. The pleasure of eating produce just a few yards from where it grew is more rare, and so is the related good feeling of growing your own. We’re in a great place for it, where we can grow all year, and Spiral Gardens is a good place to get starts for adventurous and for comfortably familiar eating. This year, e.g., they have a purportedly mildew-resistant squash. They have rarer things like opa, a funny tuber with clover leaves on sprawling stems.  

If you want to grow food but are new at it, Spiral’s also a great place to learn, hands-on and from experts. Just go volunteer now and then; call or drop in when they’re open. Like rare seeds, which need to be grown out and re-gathered to stay viable, garden knowledge is best preserves by dissemination—and that’s part of Spiral Gardens’ mission too.  


Prosperity Perspectives: Tracking the Mortgage Wolves, By: Russ Cohn

Friday March 17, 2006

We recently had a call from a woman who wanted some advice about her current home loan and whether we would recommend a refinance. After investigating her circumstances, hearing her story, and questioning her about the process she had gone through, I understood why there are consumer-rights groups wanting to regulate the mortgage industry. Her story spoke not only about a mortgage professional who was more interested in their own paycheck than the best interests of their client, but to a very popular loan program, that in my opinion, should be regulated very carefully. 

The loan program that was “sold” to this client is very popular today and is called by several names, some of which are registered trademarks of various banks. It is an adjustable-rate mortgage whose interest rate adjusts every month, but the required payment adjusts either annually or in some cases may be fixed for a longer time. As I write this I realize that many readers will be lost just on that concept alone. Therein lies the first reason as to why I think anyone considering one of these programs should be required to read and understand a set of disclosures using a 14-point font.  

The big print would clearly state how the monthly payment is less than the amount of interest due on the loan and that the difference between the monthly payment and the amount you actually owe will be added onto the principle balance of the loan each month. This means that as you make your payment each month, you now owe the lender more money than you did the prior month (you may want to read that sentence twice).  

This loan program has a feature called negative amortization and is not new. The program originated in the 1980s and has long been popular for large commercial properties since it gives the property owner a lot of flexibility over their cash flow. Since most commercial loans are adjustable-rate mortgages and property owners cannot raise rents every time interest rates go up, they need some stability in their cash flow and can use a loan like this to control cash flow until they can increase their income to offset their expenses.  

Also in the 1980s, the loan was introduced to homeowners as alternative financing at a time when rates were quite high. The results were fairly disastrous as market circumstances held home prices flat, the loan balances were growing, and many of these loans had balloon payments due in five years, meaning that the loan ends and needs to be repaid. The loan balances grew to equal or go beyond the value of the property and many homeowners lost their properties in foreclosure. 

The loans were then redesigned so the initial payments were at least the amount of interest due on the loan and after five years the loans were then re-amortized (a new payment schedule was established that required monthly principal reduction) and extended for an additional 25 years. Now however, in an effort to extend the low payments that had been in effect due to low interest rates, many of the safeguards have again been abandoned.  

My biggest objection to the service that this particular client experienced was that she was also sold a loan with a three-year pre-payment penalty. This means that if she refinances in the first three years she pays a penalty, which in her case is about $15,000. As a reward for selling the client this loan, the mortgage broker received a big commission from the lender. To add insult to injury, the client says that she told the mortgage person that she wanted a fixed rate loan but was told repeatedly how this loan was superior.  

There are certainly circumstances where this type of loan is the right choice. Since financing in general is sometimes a confusing subject, great care must be taken with any client considering this type of adjustable-rate mortgage. There are always choices and in my opinion, you need an objective advisor who discloses their fees (as required by law), and does not have a financial stake in your decision (one loan yields a higher commission than another).  

At this time, the interest rate market conditions are such that we have experienced a narrowing of the gap between the rate you can get on a fixed-rate loan and the rate you get on an adjustable-rate loan. In other words you can get a fixed-rate loan for almost the same interest rate as the adjustable-rate loan, making the fixed-rate loan easier to choose as well as easier to understand. 

 

Russ Cohn is president of Cohns Loans in Albany. 


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday March 21, 2006

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival “The Burnt Theater” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

James Janko discusses his debut novel, “Buffalo Boy and Geronimo,” of the war in Vietnam, its impact on nature and Vietnamese civilians and a GI, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

Michael Gordon describes “Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Simi Linton describes her life as a disabled activist in “My Body Politic” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Joshua Clover introduces “The Totality for Kids” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Redwood Day School Rock Band at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5-$8. 525-5054.  

Ellen Hoffman with Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. 841-JAZZ.  

Samite of Uganda at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Howard Barkan Trio at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell” opens at 8 p.m. in the Roda Theater. Tickets are $45-$59. Runs through April 16. 647-2949.  

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival “Dreaming Lhasa” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Writing Teachers Write Readings by students and teachers at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Danielle Trussoni describes her life with her father, a Vietnam veteran, in “Falling Through the Earth” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on organ at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Bernard Anderson & The Old School Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. West Coast Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054.  

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Chocolate O’Brian at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bill Evans’ String Summit at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

THURSDAY, MARCH 23 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “Bright Ideas” opens at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. and runs Thurs.-Sun. to April 23. Tickets are $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

“(The 99 Cent) Miss Saigon” at 7:30 p.m. at Willard Middle School Metalshop Theater, 2425 Stuart St. through Mar. 25. Tickets are $5-$15. 547-8932. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Swarm Studios Artists New Works by Jonn Herschend, Michael McDermott and Ryan Reynolds. Opening at 6 p.m. at 560 Second St., Jack London Square, Oakland. www.swarmstudios.net 

FILM 

Film and Video Makers at Cal at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

The Writer in the Digital Age A workshop offered by the National and Local Writers Union at 7 p.m. at the School of Journalism, Northgate Hall, UC Campus. 839-1248. www.writersunion.org 

Michelle Tea reads from her memoirs at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

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

Chris Bachelder introduces his novel of muckraker Upton Sinclair, “U.S.!” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Jason Francisco discusses “Far from Zion: Jews, Diaspora and Memory” at 6:30 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. www.magnes.org 

Word Beat Reading Series with readings from “Living in the Land of the Dead” Vol. 2 at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jewish Music Festival with Yiddish songs by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman at 2 p.m. at the BRJCC. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-276-1511. 

Ooklah the Moc at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Rachel Efron CD Release Party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. 

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

Gary Rowe Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

FRIDAY, MARCH 24 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell” at 8 p.m. in the Roda Theater. Tickets are $45-$59. Runs through April 16. 647-2949.  

Black Repertory Group Theater “Judgement Day” Where Are You Gonna Run? at 6 p.m. Fri. and Sat. at 3201 Adeline. Tickets are $20-$25. 916-613-6165. 

Central Works “Shadow Crossing” Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through March 26. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

“(The 99 Cent) Miss Saigon” at 7:30 p.m. at Willard Middle School Metalshop Theater, 2425 Stuart St. through Mar. 25. Tickets are $5-$15. 547-8932. 

Shotgun Players “Bright Ideas” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. to April 23. Tickets are $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sharon Smith and Phil Gasper discuss “Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the U.S.” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Ada Limón and Kaya Oakes, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Mary Elizabeth Berry introduces “Japan in Print: Information and Nation in the Early Modern Period” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zorro Remixed Dance and theater in conjunction with the Berkeley Youth Arts Festival at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 644-6893. www.berkeleysrtcenter.org 

All Ages Hip Hop Concert with Crank Jai, Blayze McKee, Influence and others at 9 p.m. in the East Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. Benefit for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Tickets are $10 and available only in advance at http://umca.berkeley.edu/calbattles.html 

Oakland East Bay Symphony performs Elgar, Beethovan and Mozart at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Pre-concert lecture at 7:05 p.m. Tickets are $15-$60. 652-8497. www.oebs.org 

What’s Up!? Aerial Dance Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Studio 12, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $10-$15. 587-0770. www.movingout.org  

James Gilman, tenor, and Cara Bradbury, piano, perform Schubert’s “Winterreise” at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12. 848-1228. 

Son con Trova: A Celebration of Contemporary Latino Songwriters and Music, with Trova sin Traba at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Cesaria Evora, Cape Verdean morna, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Ajamu Akinyele with Gemini Soul at 4:30 p.m. at Borders Books, 5800 Shellmound St., Emeryville, and at 6:30 p.m. at Starbucks,1600 Shattuck Ave. 848-7155. 

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

Stompy Jones at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Deborah Levoy, singer/songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Matt Renzi Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Coaster and Roberta Chevrette at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Akimbo, An Albatross, Last Clear Chance at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Girl Fest Bay Area with Ali Wong, Velocity Circus, La Paz and others at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Angie Stevens at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 644-2204. 

Guru Garage at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 25 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Lydia Mills, songs, games and puppets in Spanish, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

East Bay Children’s Theater, “Cinderella’s Glass Slipper” at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m at James Moore Theatre, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. Tickets are $7. 655-7285. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Still Present Pasts” A collaborative exhibition on Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War” Intergenerational discussion at 1 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-4361. 

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival “Café Lumiere” at 4:45 p.m. and Chinese Martial Arts Films at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Brian Fies provides honesty, emotion and humor in his book of cartoons “Mom’s Cancer” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Justus Ballard, Henry Baum, Laurence Dumortier, Mary Rechner and Carol Treadwell read from their fiction at 7:30 p.m. at Pegsus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Rhythm & Muse Open Mic at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cello Recital in conjunction with the Berkeley Youth Arts Festival at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 644-6893. www.berkeleysrtcenter.org 

Helda Wilking, contemporary recorder music at noon at A Cheerfull Noyse, 1228 Solano Ave., Albany. 524-0411. 

Healing Muses “A Celebration of Robert Burns,“ at 8 p.m. at Parish Hall, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Venue not wheelchair accessible. Tickets are $15-$18. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org  

Pacific Mozart Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Free. 981-6100. 

“Dangerous Beauty” Hip-hop, modern, African and jazz dance, with spoken word and rap performed by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company at 7:30 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourde Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $6-$20. 597-1619. 

Cesaria Evora, Cape Verdean morna, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Seething Brunswicks at 8 p.m. at the Lucre Lounge, 2086 Allston Way. Cost is $8. Benefit for Berkeley Community Media. 

Anything Goes Chorus 25th Anniversary Concert with jazz, pop, Broadway and world music at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison at 27th St., Oakland. Tickets are $15, children 12 and under $10, at the door.  

What’s Up!? Aerial dance performance at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 3 p.m. at Studio 12, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $10-$15, and must be purchased in advance. 587-0770.  

“The Waters of March” folk, jazz and a capella harmonies with Mary Ford and freinds at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. Suggested donation $10-$25. 704-7729.  

Son con Trova: A Celebration of Contemporary Latino Songwriters and Music, with Son Sabrosón at 9 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568.  

Jamie Davis & Mark Little Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Girl Fest Bay Area with X-Factor, Rachel Kann, Jennifer Johns and others at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Joshua Eden and The Blank Tapes at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Matt Morrish Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Barbara Higbie at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Unjust, Omissa, Nuclear at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Rhoda Benin at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Alan Smithline, country blues at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

All Shall Perish, Suffocate, The Assailant at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MARCH 26 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Now-Time Venezuela: Worker Controlled Factories” A multi-screen projection by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Discussion with the artists at 2 p.m. 642-0808. 

“Dance Anywhere” Photographs and video from 2005 at 2 p.m. at 8th Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St.  

FILM 

The Wide Angle Cinema of Michael Brault “The Times That Are” at 3 p.m. “The River Schooners” at 5:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Son con Trova: A Celebration of Contemporary Latino Songwriters Songwriting Workshop hosted by Lichi Fuentes at 12:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568.  

Poetry Flash with Sandra Stone and Barbara Tomash at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

What’s Up!? Aerial Dance at 3 p.m. at Studio 12, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $10-$15. 587-0770. www.movingout.org  

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra, with young cellist Paul Hyun, winner of the Khuner Competition, at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Admission is free, donations requested. 

Marcelle Dronkers, soprano, Larry London, clarinet at 4 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. A benefit concert for Children’s Hospital. Donation $7-$25. 527-6202. 

Pacific Collegium, works of twentieth-century a cappella choral literature at 3 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $8-$18. 459-2341.  

Chamber Music Sundaes with San Francisco Symphony Principal Cellist Michael Grebanier at 3:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $9-$21. 415-584-5946.  

“Dangerous Beauty” Hip-hop, modern, African and jazz dance, with spoken word and rap performed by Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourde Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $6-$20. 597-1619. 

Steve Seskin, Brian Joseph, Kenny Edwards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Vadim Repin, violin, and Nikolai Lugansky, piano, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$58. 642-9988.  

Jewish Music Festival Comunity Music Day with Josh Kornbluth and Ira Levin from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the BRJCC. Tickets are $7-$24. 415-276-1511. 

Mario Correa’s Brazilian Soul Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Celia Malheiros, Brazilian vocalist, at 4:30 at the Jazz 

school. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

Head-Royce School Jazz Combo and Jazz Choir at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Myra Chaney and Kristan Willits at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Funeral Diner, Racebannon, Gospel at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, MARCH 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

Hideo Hagiwara “Mount Fuji Woodblock Prints” opens at the IEAS Lobby, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Floor, and runs through May 19. Sponsored by the Institute of East Asian Studies. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Meet the Kellermans: The First Family of Crime Fiction with authors Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman and first-time author Jesse Kellerman at 6:30 p.m. at Ristorante Raphael, 2132 Center St. Dinner is $75. Benefit for the American Friends of the Israeli Red Cross. 644-9500.  

Poetry Express theme night: Poems About Women, with guest Selah Geissler at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Diana Rowan, 3 harps, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Zilber-Muscarella Quartet and Invitational at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.


Monterey Cypress Assumes Unique Forms Along Coast By RON SULLIVAN Special to the Planet

Tuesday March 21, 2006

Once it’s reached adulthood a Monterey cypress is easy to recognize, though it takes wildly different shapes depending on whether it’s near the ocean shore, its native habitat, or inland even only a few miles. Its native habitat, in fact, is the very small section of coastland between Monterey and Point Lobos. If it were only there, it would be rare—and most likely endangered—just because its range would be so small. But it’s handsome and easy to grow from seed, so it’s in cultivation and part of human-made landscapes all over the world. 

Its best fieldmark, aside from the deep green of its scaled foliage: Small round cones like scaly shooter marbles, and the red bark, becoming silvery and furrowed with age, is the way it holds its leaves in graceful horizontal planes, in shapes like far-away new clouds on a horizon. That habit marks the sisterhood of the fantastically twisted, windblown trees on the coast with their more formally symmetrical, upright siblings—where they have space to assume their own unpruned forms—inland. There’s one at the east end of Golden Gate Park that dominates the area, a gorgeous open graceful giant towering in its stately, imperceptibly slow dance above every tree and structure in sight.  

There are several around Berkeley and on the UC campus—look around Dwinelle Hall and the Earth Sciences building—and once you’ve seen one you’ll know them. But when you think you know what to expect, go look at their home population, famously painted and photographed along the Monterey coastline, the sort of thing on which bonsai artists model their most contorted specimens. They seem at once muscular and ancient, digging their roots into rocky prominences and arguing lifelong with the fierce Pacific winds. 

Those winds nurture them uniquely, though. It’s harder to grow them, or at least to make them last long, in really dry places. They thrive on the moisture the ocean delivers to the atmosphere even during our summer droughts. In turn, they nurture ferns and mosses and understory plants beneath them, sieving the fog from the air and condensing it into drops, a very localized rainstorm to water the island of life that grows on the soil they start to form out of their own shed foliage. To see this happening, and a bit closer to home that Monterey, go out to the lighthouse at Point Reyes and look at the trees on the north shoulder of the paved road you walk on from the parking lot, at the carpet under them, brilliant green even in summer. The air smells different under them.  

Monterey cypresses on the coastline often stay upright long after they’ve died, leaving graceful silvered wood sculptures to mark their passing. The wood is tough and endures well in its untreated state, and I suppose might replace redwood in some outdoor lumber uses except for its decidedly un-lumberlike shape. Even the more upright cypresses planted inland don’t grow in an orderly column like redwoods or pines, but, as I’ve seen them, taper rapidly and bifurcate at every opportunity into a sort of organic candelabra.  

We lost several of them, along with some pines, out on the Berkeley Marina after the storms at the turn of the year. They do grow faster in deeper soils that they do in rock clefts; as a result, they share the unfortunate tendencies of fast-growing trees to overreach their capacities, to grow thick foliage sails that catch the wind and topple them when their roots can’t keep up. City life has its perils for them too, even apparently suburban city life like that in a mini-lawn by a Marina parking lot. Pavement interferes with root growth, and poor drainage can weaken their root systems, as it can with most trees, until they overbalance and topple.  

One terrible instance of this happened a few years ago on Sixth Street, when a beautiful old cypress collapsed suddenly—in, as I recall, calm weather, in the arboreal equivalent of a stroke—and killed a driver at a stop sign under it. Trees do die, as all of us living beings do, and living elbow-to-elbow in a city puts us all in peril as we lean on and overshadow each other. 

 

 

Photo by Ron Sullivan 

This 20- or 30-something Monterey cypress on the Berkeley Marina is just beginning to show the windswept flat planes of its adult form. 


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday March 21, 2006

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 

Berkeley Garden Club “Native Plants for the Home Garden” with Glenn Keator, author and teacher, at 1 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 527-5641. 

“Mahaleo” A documentary on the Malagasy septet, born out of Madagascar’s 1972 rebellion against its neo-colonial regime, at 6 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Way. 

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation from 6 to 8 p.m. at its Oakland office.For more information, please call 594-5165.  

American Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at MLK Student Union, 5th Floor Tilden Room, UC Campus, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary’s College, 1294 Albina Ave. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “Energy-Personal and Public” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 601-6690. 

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. 

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

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

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

“Hinduism: Yoga and Awareness of Divinity” with Swami Vedananda at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley at Bancroft. 848-9788. 

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

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22  

Berkeley’s Waving Man, Anniversary of Joseph Charles, Sr.’s Birthday. Bring your yellow gloves and your smile at 7:45 a.m. at the corner of MLK and Oregon. Sponsored by the Berkeley NAACP. 332-0040. 

Animal Cruelty Exhibit from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. near the Savio Steps, UC Campus. Duscussion at 7 p.m. at 200 Wheeler. www.peta.org/animalliberation 

Great Decisions Foreign Policy Association Lecture “Brazil” at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Cost is $40 for the eight lecture series. 526-2925. 

“Gray Panthers on the Prowl: Looking Towards the Future” with Susan Murany, Executive Director of the National Gray Panther Office in Washington DC at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult. We will learn about the weather from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

“The Diablo Grand Loop” Learn the natural and cultural history of Mt. Diablo, including the rediscovery of Mt. Diablo buckwheat, presumed to be extinct, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Labor Unions and Worker-Managed Factories in Venezuela” with Luis Primo, a member of the Venezuelan National Union of Workers at 1 p.m. at 3335 Dwinelle Hall, office wing, level C, UC Campus. andeanproject@gmail.com 

“9/11 The Road to Tyranny” A documentary by Alex Jones at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5.  

“Rightful Resistance in Rural China” with Kevin J. O’Brien, Professor of Political Science, at 4:30 p.m. in the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Floor. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Basic First Aid for Pets at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth St. Donation of $10 requested. RSVP to 845-7735, ext. 22. www.berkeleyhumane.org 

“Sound and Fury” a film on one family’s struggle over whether or not to provide two deaf children with cochlear implants, devices that can stimulate hearing, at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd. in Albany. Free. Discussion follows the film. Sponsored by Embracing Diversity Films. 527-1328. embracingdiversityfilms.org 

Mind-Body-Spirit Causes of Chronic Fatigue A talk with Lisa Hartnett at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

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

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 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, MARCH 23 

“Is the Bush Regime Guilty of War Crimes?” with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Cindy Sheehan and Larry Everest at 7 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Way. 355-6915. 

The Writer in the Digital Age A workshop offered by the National and Local Writers Union at 7 p.m. at the School of Journalism, Northgate Hall, UC Campus. 839-1248. www.writersunion.org 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. All welcome. 845-5513. 

Ask a Union Mechanic every Thurs. from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Parker and Shattuck, until the strike is settled. They will offer advice on all makes of car. 

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 

Historical & Current Times Book Group meets on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1249 Marin Ave. 548-4517. 

FRIDAY, MARCH 24 

Reduced City Services Today Call ahead to ensure programs or services you desire will be available. 981-CITY. www.cityofberkeley.info 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Marian Diamond on “The Everlasting Gain in Biology” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

“The Real Truth About Iraq” with former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, Iraqi citizen Faiza Al-Araji, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and Medea Benjamin at 7 p.m. at Firts Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. Tickets are $15-$20. 415-255-7296, ext. 200. www.globalexchange.org 

Activist Series: Faiza Al-Araji, Iraqi Shia woman married to a Sunni will speak at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. 526-2900. 

Candlelight Vigil to Remember Archbishop Oscar Romero, martyred in El Salvador on March 24, 1980, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker, 1640 Addison. 482-1062. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente, Dining Conference Room, 1950 Franklin St., Oakland. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

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

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

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

“Does the Torah Teach Us to Live In Post Modern Society?” at Kol Hadash Humanistic Judaism Shabbat, at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share, and non-perishable food for the needy. Free and open to all. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 25 

Make Your Own Rope We will learn about the history of rope-making and make rope from various natural fibrous materials, from 2 to 3:30 p.m at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $3, registration required. 636-1684. 

Creating a Meditation Garden with Peter Bowyer at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Landscape Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Mt. Wanda Wildflower Walk in the hills where John Muir took his daughters, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Meet Ranger Tad Shay at the “Park and Ride” lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. 925-228-8860. 

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, MARCH 26 

Early Bloomers Find the earliest spring flowers on an easy hike through the canyon. Meet at 1 p.m at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“The Challenge of Global Climate Change” with Suzanne Jones Ph.D and sponsored by Richmond Environmental Fund at 4 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, Martina and W. Richmond Sts., Point Richmond. 234-4669. 

“The Scream Inside: California Women in Prison” A Women’s History Month lecture on the realities of women incarcerated in California at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Venezuela: Worker-Controlled Factories” A multi-screen video installation and talk at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Music for Babies at 9 a.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Donation of $4 suggested. To register call 658-7853. www.bananasinc.org  

Parent First Aid & Emergency Care for Babies at 4 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Cost is $30, $50 for couples. To register call 658-7853. www.bananasinc.org  

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Punk Rock Flea Market from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at at 924 Gilman St. 525-9926. 

Yoga and Meditation from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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

MONDAY, MARCH 27 

Community Meeting on a Sunshine Ordinance for Berkeley at 7 p.m. at 2180 Milvia St., 6th floor. 981-7170. 

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50. 

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. 

Sing-A-Long from10 to 11 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

Beginning Bridge Lessons at 11:10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $1. 524-9122. 

TUESDAY, MARCH 28 

“Circling the Globe-More Than a Dream,” with Bryan and Audrey Gillette at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

National Nutrition Month Cooking Demonstration with Michael Bauce on sautéeing greens, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at MLK. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Teen Babysitting Class at 4 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. To register call 658-7853. www.bananasinc.org  

Raging Grannies of the East Bay invites new folks to come join us the 2nd and 4th Tues, of each month, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. to sing (any voice will do), help plan our next gig, or write outrageously political lyrics to old familiar tunes, and have fun at Berkeley Gray Panthers office, 1403 Addison St., in Andronico’s mall. 548-9696. 

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

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

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. 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. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

ONGOING 

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 

Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour is seeking volunteers who will spend a morning or afternoon greeting tour participants and answering questions at the free native plant garden tour, featuring sixty-four gardens located throughout Alameda and Contra Costa counties on Sunday, May 7, 2006. Volunteers can select the garden they would like to spend time at by visiting the “Preview the 2006 Gardens” section at www.BringingBackTheNatives.net 

Public Art Opportunities Request for Entries The City of Berkeley is looking for artists for the 2006 Civic Center Art Competition and Exhibition. Entries are due April 18. For details contact the Civic Arts Program, 981-7533. 

Artwork for the Corporation Yard Gates Request for Proposals Applications are due April 3. For details call the Civic Arts Program at 981-7533. 

Proposal for a Mural in Tribute to Maudelle Shirek in Old City Hall. Artists are requested to submit proposals by March 31. For details contact the Civic Arts Program, 981-7533. 

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 

City Council meets Tues., Mar. 21, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Mar. 21, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housingauthority 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/civicarts 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Mental Health Commission meets Wed. Mar. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.erkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/mentalhealth 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22 , at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

School Board meets Wed., March 22 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/zoning   

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Mar. 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Virginia Aiello, 981-5158. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/parksandrecreation 

Solid Waste Management Commission Mon., Mar. 27, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Tania Levy, 981-6368. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste 

ô


Arts Calendar

Friday March 17, 2006

FRIDAY, MARCH 17 

THEATER 

Central Works “Shadow Crossing” Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through March 26. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Impact Theatre, “Hamlet” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through March 18. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival “Letter from an Unknown Woman” at 7 p.m. and “Linda Linda Linda” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tony Kushner in Conversation with Michael Krasney on Arthur Miller at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble and Combos Spring Jazz Concert at 7 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, on the Berkeley High School campus. Tickets are $10, BHS students, teachers and staff free. 527-8245. 

Frederica Von Stade, mezzo soprano, with jazz pianist Taylor Eigsti at 8 p.m. at the First Congragational Church, 2345 Channing Way. TIckets are $125. Benefit for the Jazzschool. 845-5373. 

Junior Bach Festival at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$12. 843-2224. 

Saoco, dance band mixture of reggaeton and ricos ritmos cubanos at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568.  

Blind Duck, traditonal Irish music at 7:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $4. 843-2473.  

Hal Stein Quartet CD Release Party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Stomp the Stumps Benefit for Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters with Gary Gates Band, Funky Nixons, Day Late Fool’s Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

George Cotsirilos Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Mariospeedwagon and Lemon Juju at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Instant Asshole, Skinned Alive, Dog Assassin at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Glen Washington, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $20-$22. 548-1159.  

Loretta Lynch, Oaktown country, Bob Wiseman & Leah Abramson at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 644-2204.  

The San Pablo Project at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 18 

CHILDREN  

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

East Bay Children’s Theater, “Cinderella’s Glass Slipper” at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m at James Moore Theatre, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. Tickets are $7. 655-7285. 

“Strega Nona Festival” and ice cream social presented by Stagebridge Senior Theatre Company, based on characters from Tomie dePaola’s books, at 3 p.m. Sat. and Sun. at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison, at 27th St. Oakland. Tickets are $10 general, $5 children. www.stagebridge.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

New Works by Ben Belknap, Mike Simpson & Derek Weisberg. New expressions of the figure in ceramics, wood sculpture, and pen. Reception at 7 p.m. at M.C. Artworks Gallery, 10344 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 703- 6621. 

THEATER 

“Oracles From the Living Tarot” at 2 and 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$30. Benefit for Magical Arts Ritual Theater. 523-7754. www.ticketweb.com 

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival “Memories in the Mist” at 4:40 p.m., “Punching at the Sun” at 7 p.m. and “Citizen Dog” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Buddhism at Dunhuang” Panel discussions on the manuscripts and artifacts found at the cave site, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Toll Room, Alumni House, UC Campus. 642-2809. http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/dunhuang 

Poetry Flash with Andrew Zawacki, Andrew Joron, Maxine Chernoff and Gelorge Albon and others at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Parlor Tango, Argentine Tango music composed between 1910 and 1950, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. bet. Durant and Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http://trinity 

chamberconcerts.com 

Bach Collegium Japan at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. TIckets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Jillian Khuner, soprano, in a benefit recital for the Berkeley Community Chorus, at 8 p.m. at the Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $30, includes reception. 601-1718, 549-1336.  

Noitada Brasileira “The Carnivals of Brazil” with Dandara, Beto Guimaraes, and Bateria Lucha at 8 p.m. at The Beat, Eddie Brown Center for the Arts, 2560 9th St. Tickets are $15-$20. 548-5348. 

Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu at 2 and 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

“Jazz at the Chimes” with Vince Wallace at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Donation of $15 requested. 228-3207. 

Annie Sprinkle in “A Public Cervix Announcement” with drummers, dancers and singers at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $20-$35. 925-798-1300. 

Robin Gregory and her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Jesu Diaz y su QBA, Cuban Timba music at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Pillows, She Mob and David Enos at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

The Ravines and Dave Lionelli at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Melanie O’Reilly & Aising Ghear at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Sol Bebelz, The Attik, Ill Adapted at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Kudisan Kai at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Eric Muhler Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Steve Smulian at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Sonando Quintet An Afro-Caribbean Tribute to Stevie Wonder at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, MARCH 19 

CHILDREN 

Charity Kahn & The Jamband at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

“Illustrating Nature” A family workshop on biological illustrattions from the exhibition “The Art of Seeing: Nature Revealed Through Illustration” from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Phenomenal Photogaphy” A family workshop on creating a photo transfer inspired by the exhibition of Edward Weston’s photography from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

THEATER 

Culture Clash’s “Zorro in Hell” A Benefit for KPFA and the Middle East Children’s Alliance at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St., followed by reception. Tickets are $75. 548-0542. www.mecaforpeace.org 

FILM 

“China’s Contemporary Documentary Films” from 11:15 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. TIckets are $5 per screening. 643-6321. www.ticketweb.com 

Asian American Film Festival “Grain in Ear” at 4:45 p.m., “Walk Like a Dragon” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Java and Bali: Art, Religion, and Folk Tradition” A lecture with Joseph Fischer at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6151. 

Poetry Flash with Kurt Brown and Geoffrey Brock at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

Island Literary Series, jazz and poetry at 3 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $2-$4. 841-JAZZ. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Mozart and the Search for the Missing Children” a concert at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, Kensington. Tickets are $15-$20. Benefit for Pro Busqueda, a non-governmental organization in El Salvador whose mission is to locate children who had been abducted by the Salvadoran military during the war, from 1980 - 1992. 650-579-5568.  

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra “Bernstein Bash” at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Free.  

Junior Bach Festival at 3:30 p.m. at the Crowden Music Center and at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$12. 843-2224. 

Cantible Chorale “Mass Transit” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $6-$25. www.cantabile.org  

University Chorus and Chamber Chorus “St. Matthew Passion” at 5 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $$5-$15. 642-9988.  

Organ Music with David Hunsberger at 4 p.m. at St. Johns, 2727 College Ave. Donation of $15 requested. Reception follows. 845-6830. 

Marvin Sanders, flute, Lena Lubotsky, piano at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Tickets are $10. 644- 6893. 

Dick Hindman, jazz pianist, at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina Ave., at W. Richmond Ave., Point Richmond. $10 suggested donation. 236-0527. www.pointrichmond.com/methodist 

Jewish Music Festival with Yahudice at 7:30 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, Berkeley Rep. Tickets are $22-$26. 415-276-1511. 

Jon Fromer at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Tina Marzell and her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Four Schillings Short at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Bay Area Middle School Jazz Showcase at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $5-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Bob Marley Student Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Free. 845-5373.  

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

Look Back and Laugh, The Pedestrians at 2 p.m. and Park and Amity at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, MARCH 20 

THEATER 

Woman’s Will’s 24-Hour Playfest at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$25. 420-0813. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“China’s Contemporary Documentary Films” Panel discussion at 4 p.m. at IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Flr. 643-6321.  

Story Tells, a storytelling swap, invites storytellers and listeners at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square, Oakland.  

Elizabeth Kolbert describes “Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Express with Tom Odegard at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sista Kee aka Kito Gamble CD release concert at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s. Tickets are $10-$15. 238-9200.  

Zilber-Muscarella Quartet & Invitational at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival “The Burnt Theater” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

James Janko discusses his debut novel, “Buffalo Boy and Geronimo,” of the war in Vietnam, its impact on nature and Vietnamese civilians and a GI, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7512.  

Michael Gordon describes “Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Simi Linton describes her life as a disabled activist in “My Body Politic” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Joshua Clover introduces “The Totality for Kids” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Redwood Day School Rock Band at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5-$8. 525-5054.  

Ellen Hoffman with Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. 841-JAZZ.  

Samite of Uganda at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Howard Barkan Trio at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “Culture Clash’s Zorro in Hell” opens at 8 p.m. in the Roda Theater. Tickets are $45-$59. Runs through April 16. 647-2949.  

FILM 

Asian American Film Festival “Dreaming Lhasa” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Writing Teachers Write Readings by students and teachers at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Danielle Trussoni describes her life with her father, a Vietnam veteran, in “Falling Through the Earth” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on organ at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Bernard Anderson & The Old School Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. West Coast Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054.  

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Chocolate O’Brian at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bill Evans’ String Summit at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

THURSDAY, MARCH 23 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “Bright Ideas” opens at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. and runs Thurs.-Sun. to April 23. Tickets are $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Swarm Studios Artists New Works by Jonn Herschend, Michael McDermott and Ryan Reynolds. Opening at 6 p.m. at 560 Second St., Jack London Square, Oakland. www.swarmstudios.net 

FILM 

Film and Video Makers at Cal at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

The Writer in the Digital Age A workshop offered by the National and Local Writers Union at 7 p.m. at the School of Journalism, Northgate Hall, UC Campus. 839-1248. www.writersunion.org 

Michelle Tea reads from her memoirs at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

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

Chris Bachelder introduces his novel of muckraker Upton Sinclair, “U.S.!” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Jason Francisco discusses “Far from Zion: Jews, Diaspora and Memory” at 6:30 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. www.magnes.org 

Word Beat Reading Series with readings from “Living in the Land of the Dead” Vol. 2 at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jewish Music Festival with Yiddish songs by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman at 2 p.m. at the BRJCC. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-276-1511. 

Ooklah the Moc at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Rachel Efron CD Release Party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. 

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

Gary Rowe Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. ô


Arts: Sistah Kee Celebrates Debut Album at Yoshi’s, By: Ken Bullock

Friday March 17, 2006

Sistah Kee, aka Kito Gamble, will bring her original music to Yoshi’s on Jack London Square Monday night, March 20, for shows at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., rapping and singing at the keyboard to celebrate her debut CD on Gamble Girls Records, Represent. She’ll be backed by a full horn section, guitar and rhythm section, violin and cello, plus three backup vocalists and her mother, noted jazz singer Faye Carol, deploying her celebrated scatting style. 

Sistah Kee’s music is the compound of a whole spectrum of styles: jazz, blues and hip-hop, with classical and spiritual influences. Such a wide-ranging combination is only natural to the daughter of musical parents like Faye Carol and the late Jim Gamble. Her father, “who taught at UC and privately, whose passion was writing, arranging and teaching music,” started teaching her piano at the age of three. “He taught me so much before I even knew it! He wrote some material my mother and I do together, though not at this show.” Both her parents were from Mississippi, and the influence of the South and of blues is strong in her: “I talk to my relatives, and they tell me I sound like I’m from down there.” Sistah Kee’s performing career began when she was 16; her own sound is coming from “the music of Otis Spann, of Ray Charles, of McCoy Tyner. I love McCoy Tyner!” 

Sistah Kee spoke about the history of rap, how in the beginning “the message was hard; it wasn’t sugar-coated. But then it veered off into gangsta rap. Sometimes, a number would have a good beat—but I wouldn’t want my music students to hear it! I’m glad things are coming back around to positive rap, to wanting to work with live instruments, with real musicians.” 

Spirituality suffuses her playing and vocals. “I’m just telling how glad I am that God’s touched my life, every day. In that sense, it’s gospel, but musically it sounds more like jazz or blues. I didn’t grow up playing in church. But my mother did; she sang in church. And she’ll be singing at my show, just like she did on the CD. All my life, my mother’s been a full-time, professional singer.”  

The show at Yoshi’s will be MC’d by gospel comedian J-Red. “He’s called a gospel comedian because he takes his material mostly from the Black church—Baptists, Church of Christ ... and it’s clean! He’s also promoted youth events. The local gospel rap scene wouldn’t have been the same without his participation.” 

Besides Faye Carol, Represent features well-known players from different styles of music, including innovative Jazz trombonist Steve Turre, and former 3xs Crazy member Agerman. “Agerman will be at Yoshi’s, and so will Eliza O’Malley, who sings operatically on one track of Represent, while you hear a DJ scratchin’! That’s my music, from hip-hop all the way over to classical, all at once.” 

Represent will be available at the Yoshi’s concert, as well as at Tower Records, Reid’s Records and Western Christian Bookstore. 

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Arts: Moving Pictures: ‘The Zodiac’ is a Dismal, Shallow Failure, By: Justin DeFreitas

Friday March 17, 2006

Alexander Bulkley’s The Zodiac is opening this week in limited release, and for good reason: it’s terrible. The distributors are probably just cutting their losses, sneaking the film in and out of theaters quickly and quietly, conceding the story and its audience to the upcoming big-budget version starring Robert Downey, Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo, due for release this September.  

Bulkley’s version changes the names of all the central figures and many of the actual locations. Whether this was a financial decision or a creative one is unclear. It couldn’t possibly be out of respect for the people whose lives were torn apart by the notorious murder spree that tormented the Bay Area in the ‘60s and ‘70s; if the filmmakers really cared about them they wouldn’t have transformed their tragedy into such a shallow, trite film.  

The movie opens today (Friday) at 10 theaters nationwide, including several in the greater Bay Area. You’d expect it to open in San Francisco, and it will, at the Presidio Theater; but you might not expect a film in limited release to show at the Vallejo 14. It makes sense in a rather perverse way, as Zodiac’s first two attacks, on couples parked in lonely lovers’ lanes, were in Vallejo. Hell, as long as you’re co-opting a city’s tragedy, why not take their money, too? 

The central problem with this film is fundamental: It doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a horror film? Is it a police procedural? Is it a family melodrama? It seems to be striving for all three, yet fails on all counts.  

As a horror film, The Zodiac offers little that is actually frightening. The crimes themselves are frightening enough and for the most part the film depicts them accurately. But Bulkley relies on a number of less-than-effective horror-film gimmicks in an attempt to keep viewers on the edge of their seats: the handheld camera, point-of-view shots, and muffled, menacing sound effects. There are at least a few scenes which fall so far short as horror that they inspired laughter at a recent preview. 

As a police procedural, Bulkley again takes the standard elements of the genre and botches them completely. We see very little actual detective work and get very little insight into the case, its clues and their meaning. Much ado is made of the ciphers the killer sent to the press, and in reality the solutions to those ciphers provided valuable insights into their creator. But as depicted here they are nothing more than taunting threats. 

While the supporting cast of cops and detectives are portrayed alternately as naysaying cowards or as dolts who can’t see the forest for the trees, Justin Chambers’ lead detective character is another kind of stereotype: He’s driven, obsessed, and eventually—wouldn’t you know it—he crosses the line. In a scene lifted directly from a good serial killer movie—The Silence of the Lambs—Chambers and his cohorts descend on a suspect’s house while the film cuts back and forth between the impending raid and shots of the actual killer at home. This is supposed to be suspenseful, but of course we’ve seen this trick before and we know that Chambers has the wrong man. The botched raid leads to an almost unbelievably bad scene in which the police chief, played by Philip Baker Hall, reprimands Chambers and actually says the following line: 

“Listen son, I want to get this guy as bad as you do, but you’ve got to play by the rules!” 

That’s gritty stuff.  

As the story of a family torn apart by a horrific murder spree, the film likewise fails again. As is so often the case with movies these days, the actress is given little to do but cry, scream and reproach the leading man. Robin Tunney complains that her detective husband is not home often enough, he works too late and he’s neglecting his son. And of course there’s the obligatory scene in which the late-working, single-minded husband misses somebody’s birthday party—in this case his own. 

After a lot of meandering nonsense, the film ends abruptly. It’s impossible to fathom just what the ending was intended to do. It really seems as though the filmmakers simply ran out of time. Or film. Or, more likely, ideas. It really doesn’t feel like a finished film at all; it’s more like a rough edit of a film where the director still hasn’t worked out his themes or his narrative thread. Like the fictional cops who piece together the messages behind the killer’s ciphers, director Bulkley knows the details, but fails to find the larger picture.  

The unintentionally hilarious coda features a police sketch of the killer with his disembodied voice reading lines from the real-life Zodiac’s final letter to the police: “I would like to see a movie about me,” he says. “Who will play me? I am now in control of all things.” 

And in effect, he is, for this movie is exactly the movie the killer would have wanted: A simple, shallow tale that buys into the self-created mystique of an egotistic psychopath and fails to glean any insight whatsoever into the pathetic, coward behind the murderous mask. ›


Arts: 1906 Earthquake Events Hit the Pacific Film Archive, By: Steven Finacom

Friday March 17, 2006

“The California earthquake stands between eight and ten at points of greatest disturbance; from which we may trust our senses to the extent of believing that it was no small affair,” wrote Stanford scientist John C. Branner about April 18, 1906. 

No small affair, indeed. A century later, the events of that earthquake will be commemorated in a multitude of ways in the Bay Area.  

The experiences of 1906 can be revisited over the next few weeks in two considerably different ways at the UC Berkeley campus. 

On the one hand you can take in a earthquake-themed film series, fun and educational, kinetic and sometimes literally bone jarring, at the Pacific Film Archive. 

On the other, a contemplative library exhibit offers a look back at the great San Francisco catastrophe through a rich store of written and visual archival materials. 

Take in one or both to gain a better understanding of the epochal event—to date—in urban Bay Area history. 

Pacific Film Archive Video Curator Steven Seid has put together a weird, intriguing, and entertaining array of cinematic features screening over four evenings, from Thursday, April 6, to Sunday, April 9. 

Extensive archival footage of the 1906 era—both before the earthquake, and in the aftermath—is featured on Saturday, Apri l 8, at 7:00 PM in a program titled “Disaster at Dawn,” and narrated by lively and provocative Berkeley-based historian Grey Brechin.  

The footage will most likely begin with a tram ride down a bustling pre-disaster Market Street—and continue up through the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition when San Franciscans celebrated successful municipal rebirth. 

Next that same night, how about John Wayne as a cowboy come to the big city who gets all tangled up in romance, waterfront intrigue, and literally earthshak ing events in Flame of Barbary Coast? 

“Love’s a disaster,” is Seid’s succinct summary of this 1945 romance, which he purposefully chose over the more familiar—and more frequently screened—San Francisco, with Jeannette McDonald. 

The night before, April 7, the metal-walled PFA Theatre will reverberate with the deep tones of Sensurround when the PFA screens the 1974 Charlton Heston disaster—or disastrous—epic, Earthquake. 

A technical gimmick with a short heyday in the 1970s, Sensurround employed special e quipment to boom away at the lower end of the audio spectrum.  

Meyer Sound of Berkeley has assembled three “enormous subwoofers” and a “true Sensurround decoder,” Seid says, to rattle the PFA theatre for this one show. “It’s going to be a physical experi ence,” he observes.  

In Earthquake, Los Angeles is torn apart by adultery, “wholesale lunacy” and “soap-like suffering”. . . oh, and an earthquake, of course.  

“On a Richter scale of bad decisions, that one was a 7.4,” Seid says in his program notes. He personally recalls the surreal experience of seeing Earthquake for the first time in Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, which is fictionally shaken up in the film. 

The PFA series opens on Thursday, April 6, with a free screening of several shorts th at provide provocative visual takes on disaster imagery, from lightning to mammoth Midwestern storms to 1920s floods. Included is the one working Mission District fire hydrant that helped halt the 1906 Fire. 

Christina McPhee’s SilkyVRML 422 contrasts foo tage of the fault-slashed Carrizo Plain with the actual sounds of the groaning earth, recorded by seismic equipment buried far below the surface. And All the Time in the World “makes the verdant English coast jerk and wrench.” 

After three days of localized disaster, everything ends on Sunday, April 9, with a screening of The Night the World Exploded.  

“This late-fifties disaster epic sets out to destroy the entire earth with barely a budget to back it up,” Seid writes in his program notes.  

No sooner have seismologists perfected a device to predict earthquakes than a huge one strikes Los Angeles (poor Los Angeles, ravaged again), and the earth tilts on its axis. 

An intrepid expedition of seismologists descends into Carlsbad Caverns to set things right. Or wrong, as the case may be. The wrong will be illuminated by UC seismologist Dr. Peggy Hellweg, whom Seid has enlisted to attend the screening and comment on the “scientific veracity” of the film.  

Overall, Seid says, “the beauty of these films”—at least the fictional ones—is “they have to drag the earthquake out,” since all the characters in each cast have to be variously jarred off their feet, tossed, and trampled by the Big One(s).  

For another view of epic local disaster, head over to the Brow n Gallery of the University’s Doe Library any day through Thursday, March 30.  

Changing exhibits in the Brown Gallery present the depth and treasures of the enormous University Library and affiliated repositories.  

Bancroft Library curator Theresa Salaz ar, working with a committee of campus library staff and historical experts, has put together an excellent display on 1906. 

“1906: The Great Quake—The History of A Disaster” features the events of April 18, 1906, of course, but also includes accounts and images of early earthquakes in California back to an 18th century shake in the Los Angeles basin described by Spanish explorer Juan Crespi as a “horrifying earthquake, which was repeated four times during the day.”  

There’s also the “The Great Earthquak e” of 1868 along the Hayward Fault which rattled the still-sparsely-populated greater Bay Area. 

Displayed images and written accounts of San Francisco life before the 1906 disaster include numerous photographs of city life in a metropolis of nearly 350,0 00.  

The exhibit explores the graft prosecution that was unpeeling layers of political corruption up to San Francisco’s Mayor, orchestra conductor Eugene Schmitz, and down to political boss Abe Ruef, whose status as perhaps the first Cal alumnus to becom e a great scoundrel goes unmentioned. 

There’s a printed program for Carmen at the Grand Opera House, featuring Enrico Caruso, the night before the earthquake rang down the curtain. 

The tumult of the following days—first earthquake, then fire raging acro ss the City—is conveyed through photographs, eyewitness accounts, even pieces of charred wreckage and a period pocket watch stopped at the time of the quake. 

“I buried my head in my pillow” as the earthquake struck just after 5:00 a.m., San Franciscan Ha rold Lionel Zellerbach, then 12-years-old, recalled in an oral history shown in the exhibit. “It felt like this was the end of the world,” he recalls of the moment the side of his family home fell off. 

Documentary photos show damage that spread far beyon d San Francisco, including Stanford’s wrecked Memorial Church, a shattered Russian church at Fort Ross, Santa Rosa ruined, a woman sitting in a field along the edge of a raw fault rupture.  

The exhibit acknowledges the exacting analysis and efforts of sc ientists, many from Berkeley, to advance the understanding and study of earthquakes after 1906. 

It also touches on the work of East Bay communities to shelter and feed tens of thousands of refugees who began to arrive while the fires still burned, as wel l as efforts to re-organize after the disaster. 

“Notice—Citizens Committee,” one placard directed at San Franciscans reads. “All citizens will observe the following: Don’t be afraid of a famine. There will be abundant food supply. Don’t use house toilet s under any circumstances, but dig earth closets in yards or vacant lots. “Pestilence can only be avoided by complying with these regulations.” 

In the aftermath nearly 100,000 insurance claims were processed and the business community quickly shifted pub lic focus to “The Great Fire.”  

“An earthquake was something that was unpredictable and uncontrollable, whereas a fire was a phenomenon that could be controlled and prevented,” the exhibit text notes. 

Official and commercial San Francisco rushed to rebuild, ignoring the grand, locally-commissioned plans of Chicagoan Daniel Burnham, who had spent months before the earthquake, cogitating on a city splendidly redone in Renaissance style. 

“On April 17, 1906, the plan, fresh from the printer, was deposited in City Hall for distribution.” Next morning, the building lay in ruins. 

Visionary thinking was set aside—as it often is in the rush to recover—and “within three-and-a-half years, downtown San Francisco was rebuilt along pre-earthquake lines,” the exhibi t notes.  

There’s an amazing panoramic photograph by George R. Lawrence, taken about four years after the earthquake and fire, showing the core of the city substantially reconstructed, although quite a few vacant lots are still visible. 

Not all was wel l done. “The desire for quick resumption of business meant cheap building construction and lax codes . . .” 

The exhibit organizers have woven together printed material and images, period items and later accounts, into a powerful tapestry of the event and its repercussions. "


From Petaluma to Point Reyes: Cheese and So Much More, By: Marta Yamamoto

Friday March 17, 2006

“I hope this cheese comes from happy cows,” I overheard the customer ask at the Marin French Cheese Company. He’d just purchased pounds of Rouge and Noir in several varieties and was perhaps double-checking his investment. The cows and I were equally cont ent as I cruised country roads, tasting locally produced cheeses, gathering picnic goodies and basking in nature’s bounty. 

The mood for my day was set as I left Highway 101, driving west along Novato Boulevard. Gently undulating hills were tinged with gr een, dotted with gnarled oaks awaiting spring’s foliage, and outcrops of rocks. Holsteins enjoyed the recent rains’ harvest, several poking their heads through fencing, reaching for the choicest bits. White barns and rail fences shared this working landsc ape with those of weathered-silver corrugated metal. Passing the gentle waters of Stafford Lake Park, I gazed at flocks of Canada geese along the shores, sharing pasture with cows. 

The grounds of the Marin French Cheese Company blend harmoniously with the bucolic landscape. Enticing picnic grounds with wide lawns, tables and duck ponds occupy five acres of land along with the cheese factory, deli and retail shop. 

In operation for more than 100 years, on land purchased by Jefferson Thomas in 1865, Marin French produces authentic French cheese using traditional recipes and cultures. Beginning with the creation of granular cheese in 1900, the family turned their talents to soft ripened cheese. As the saying goes, the rest is history. 

Today, tours are give n on cheese-producing days of the multi-step process that begins with Jersey milk from 100 percent BST free cows. A secret blend of living cultures is mixed with the curd, and later rinsed with collected rainwater. Over several weeks, cheeses mature, deve lop their distinctive flavor, are hand-packed and, voilà, ready for tasting. 

From the traditional buttery brie and tangy camembert, more than 20 choices now beckon, including Brie flavored with pesto and jalapeno. Though it was difficult, I restrained my self from feasting on every one. After generous tasting, a sample pack of traditional and flavored cheeses satisfied my taste buds.  

Of course, cheese doesn’t stand alone. The farmhouse-like shop of buttery walls, with wood plank floor and ceramic cookie jars on parade below the ceiling, is well stocked. Wines, attractively displayed in their own wood-paneled wine room, Tuscan crostini and Metropole Panne Di Grano Duro, Angelo’s olives and dried fig compote will easily fill your picnic basket. Stock up, but leave room for more cheese experiences in Point Reyes Station. 

Along the Petaluma-Pt. Reyes Road, the countryside continues its postcard display. Alternating the dark of wooded canyons with the bright light of open expanse, the road is dotted with ar dent cyclists. I crossed a purple bridge over the shimmering waters of Nicasio Reservoir and made my way through lichen-cloaked woods to Point Reyes Station. Population: 350, plus cows. 

At Cowgirl Creamery inside Tomales Bay Foods, the bon appetit of Fra nce is replaced by the terroir of West Marin. Here, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith have turned to the richness of the land outside their doors to produce unique  

soft-ripened cheeses. Eight years ago an old hay barn was transformed into an airy rustic food wa rehouse with trussed ceiling, cement floors and walls painted rich earth colors reminiscent of Tuscany. 

“Cheese is only as good as the milk from which it’s made,” affirmed Michael Zilber, cheesemonger and manager, as he led me through a delicious mini-co urse on Cowgirl Creamery’s cheeses produced on site. Making the cheeses begins with pure, natural, organic Strauss Family Dairy milk, whose dairy cows can be seen grazing on West Marin land. The signature cheese, Mt. Tam, a buttery triple creme, stands al one with its slight bloomy white rind. Another cheese, Red Hawk, is coated with a washed rind, with a pungent flavor created by the indigenous bacteria present in the environment. Pierce Point cheese takes terroir one-step further; its rind is coated with local herbs like chamomile and wild grasses. One taste transports you to the local hillsides. These unique products could not be created anywhere else. 

Hungry hikers stop for fresh cheese and everything else attractively displayed within Tomales Bay Foo ds. The Cowgirl Cantina provides smoked trout and fatted calf salami from the charcuterie; Grab and Go Sandwiches feature Marin Sun Farms Skirt Steak with roasted red pepper and arugula; a couscous salad with cranberries, mint and feta cheese and Della Fa ttoria pumpkin seed campagne. Little Shorty’s Golden Point Produce, all organic, fills out the broadest section of the new food pyramid with local apples, oranges, and a tasty variety of vegetables. 

Save time to watch the cheese making process and eye th e plump bundles resting in the cold room. Enjoy the tree slab table inside or partake of outdoor picnic areas if you can’t wait to sample your wares, but make sure to wander around Point Reyes Station before you head off. There are still more goodies to a dd to your basket. 

You may have come to the realization that this outing is best enjoyed after fasting for several days. Bovine Bakery is so popular that the sidewalk outside its door is usually bun-to-bun seating. Scones the size of cow-patties, succule nt with berries and ricotta; huge slices of streusel-topped coffee cake; fruit muffins sweet from pear and apple; dessert-like raspberry almond marzipan torte and their famous chocolate chip cookies will have you wishing you had a bovine multi-stomach dig estive system. Don’t forget to pick up Brickmaiden Breads; their wood-fired brick oven crust and chewy texture are perfect platforms for cheese. 

Toby’s Feed Barn combines art and food wares for humans and animals. Local produce on wooden tables and insid e farm barrels decorates the front. Within its wood walls, you can pick up the labors of Pt. Reyes Preserves—pickled brussel sprouts, beets and garlic as well as delicious fruit jams. Toby’s packages their own dried fruits, nuts and trail mix to encourage reluctant hikers. 

Non-edible merchandise includes a zany collection of T-shirts like the ones offering advice from horse and dog, world music CDs, and, in the back gallery, the work of local artists. On my visit I enjoyed the photographs of Elaine Straub, offering multiple images of favorite scenes. Banana’s Red Dodge Pick-up Truck and Moore’s White Barn, among others, evoked a warm sense of place in this unique area. 

Even if your picnic basket is overflowing, don’t head back home. The options for an al fresco feast are also overflowing. Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Tomales Bay State Park, Samuel P. Taylor State Park—all have landscape, trails and tables to put the cap on a bountiful day. Carpe diem!ôo


About The House: On Realtors and Inspectors, By: Matt Cantor

Friday March 17, 2006

Today was a good day. I started it off with the inspection of a gorgeous house. Did I say gorgeous? No, glorious. It was so true to the aesthetic of the period as to be a sensorial feast. It was actually a very simple house. Built in 1912, a “classic box,” aka, Classic Revival. One of those simple, almost-but-not-quite boxy designs that usually has a little bay front and almost always has a porch on one corner punctuated by a single classical column. There are thousands in the our area so I’m sure you know the one I mean. 

Every feature on this beauty went just a little beyond the typical. The front had a bow, not a bay, a rounded front projection with three windows, each possessing a rounded sill and casings (and let me tell ya, that’s a lot more work than a simple angular bay). The floor inside was also rounded (more work) with little inlaid borders of walnut, knotted at the corners. The windows were a joy of lead tracery and only a few panes were cracked or loose (truly amazing for a 94-year-old house).  

Inside, not much had been changed (praise the deity of your choice!). Many changes of ownership tend to come with many changes in the building and sadly, much is often lost. The most awe-striking time-capsules of construction I’ve seen over the years have been those that were left when Grandma passed away, leaving behind the home she bought with her late husband (may he rest in peace) on the G.I. bill in 1943. I’ve even seen some early refrigerators with top condensers and 1940s washing machines (with ringers) in houses when the sole owner of 60 years had just passed on. 

The other thing that made this a great day was that the pair of Realtors I spent this jovial four-plus hours with were as excited as I was about what we were doing. There was no rush to get done. No concern over making too big a fuss over what was outdated or in need of repair. Just a deep appreciation of the art of looking at houses and the importance of assessing the conditions accurately and fairly. 

We spend some time talking about the old Wedgewood stove. Whether the salt and pepper shakers were actually original (we figured out that the pepper was just a wee bit too tall and not quite the right shade of porcelain to match but it was pretty close). We had a little learning session on how to adjust pilot lights (I showed off a much loved and very old screwdriver that was just right for the little valve screw). 

We shared knowledge about who was good at fixing what and how much we liked this tradesperson or that one. It was all good, as they say.  

Most of the Realtors that I’ve met are very concerned about inspections being done carefully and thoughtfully. There’s no worry and no hurry. 

The Realtors I worked with today weren’t the least bit concerned about the time the inspection took or the gravity of the items that were found wanting. A foundation was discovered to be soft enough to drive a screwdriver inward up to the hilt. The reaction was concern but not the smallest bit of doubt as to the importance of the finding or any interest in lessening the manner in which it would be discussed. “Lay it on the table” was the subtext and the spoken word. What a blessing. 

This attitude really helps me to do my job. It’s not easy when I have to say that the furnace is ready for the scrap-heap or that the water heater is done for but it’s very important to at least one person that I do it.  

It might be the person who’s getting ready to invest their last penny in the house or it could be a seller who needs to be sure that they don’t sell undisclosed defects to a buyer (who may be upset if or when they have the contractor over to talk about remodeling several months down the road and discover that things were not as they had thought). It’s all good when everybody knows what’s up. 

It’s also pretty clear that buyers don’t expect perfect houses. There are a few people out there who don’t want to buy a house that needs any significant amount of repair. These few have to buy the crème de la crème and often have to pay top dollar to get it.  

Most folks come to understand, if they didn’t prior to looking at a few houses, that older homes have pluses and minuses, just like new homes. When I talk to people about what’s wrong with the house we’re in, mostly they’ll shake their heads and acquiesce the imperfections. Sometimes, a buyer will want to negotiate about a discovery but the desire to turn tail is rare when faced with a few trouble spots. 

After all, there are a lot of motivations to buying a particular house other than the condition of the water heater (although I’ve seen some pretty nice water heaters).  

The majority of buyers are looking for a house in a particular neighborhood and secondly they need it to be of a given size and layout (two baths, four bedrooms). The things on the inspectors list are important but rarely overriding. What matters is that the buyers know what they’re getting into and have a chance to address the things that matter to them. It’s all good when everybody knows what’s up. 

There is clearly more risk in driving a motorcycle than in living with the nastiest thing I might find in a house. People just want a chance to know about the issues and decide if and how they want to address them. When we all work together to do that, it is truly a good day. 

I’d like to applaud those two Realtors from today. The applause also goes out to all those others who do the same (help to lay it on the table). Your clients appreciate it and so do I because it really is all good when everybody knows what’s up. 


Garden Variety: Spiral Gardens a Cure for The March Muddy Blues, By: Ron Sullivan

Friday March 17, 2006

All right, up and at ’em. The only cure I know for the March Muddy Blues is time spent with eager green plants, and since it’s still too wet to mess in the mid in most of our gardens, the place to mingle is the neighborhood nursery.  

Lucky me: The distance from here to Spiral Gardens Community Food Project’s Urban Garden Center is shorter than its official name. They could fit only “Urban Garden Center” on the A-frame sign on the Sacramento Street median strip; I guess that’s to the point. Most of the youngsters there are food plants or California natives, but there are wild cards and volunteers, some in the ground and some in pots, some landscape inhabitants and even some houseplants.  

It’s not exactly news that I’m fond of wild cards and surprises. (OK, not surprise snowstorms in March, those can stop now, thank you.) A nursery where I catch myself saying, “What the heck’s that?” is a place I enjoy. It’s even better when everything’s tagged and I’m still asking. Better still, when so much of it is food. I’ll try anything once. 

Except snails. Snails are the enemy, not the dinner. Besides, as the mulberries bloom I get that seasonal post-nasal drip that makes eating snails redundant. I’d rather just throw them into the street and tell them to go play in traffic. 

I’m not sure I’d eat an endangered species either, but growing things for food is one way to make them less endangered. Growing things for food in an area of the city that doesn’t have supermarkets within strolling distance is about remedying another kind of endangerment, and that’s part of Spiral Garden’s mission. Lately I’m a bit burned-out on non-profits and do-gooding, myself, but the Les Blankian motive, Always For Pleasure, hasn’t lost its power to move me. It’s not just my own pleasure. I think the world would be better off if everyone had more pleasure.  

The pleasure of eating fresh produce gets lip service but it’s still underappreciated. The pleasure of eating produce just a few yards from where it grew is more rare, and so is the related good feeling of growing your own. We’re in a great place for it, where we can grow all year, and Spiral Gardens is a good place to get starts for adventurous and for comfortably familiar eating. This year, e.g., they have a purportedly mildew-resistant squash. They have rarer things like opa, a funny tuber with clover leaves on sprawling stems.  

If you want to grow food but are new at it, Spiral’s also a great place to learn, hands-on and from experts. Just go volunteer now and then; call or drop in when they’re open. Like rare seeds, which need to be grown out and re-gathered to stay viable, garden knowledge is best preserves by dissemination—and that’s part of Spiral Gardens’ mission too.  


Prosperity Perspectives: Tracking the Mortgage Wolves, By: Russ Cohn

Friday March 17, 2006

We recently had a call from a woman who wanted some advice about her current home loan and whether we would recommend a refinance. After investigating her circumstances, hearing her story, and questioning her about the process she had gone through, I understood why there are consumer-rights groups wanting to regulate the mortgage industry. Her story spoke not only about a mortgage professional who was more interested in their own paycheck than the best interests of their client, but to a very popular loan program, that in my opinion, should be regulated very carefully. 

The loan program that was “sold” to this client is very popular today and is called by several names, some of which are registered trademarks of various banks. It is an adjustable-rate mortgage whose interest rate adjusts every month, but the required payment adjusts either annually or in some cases may be fixed for a longer time. As I write this I realize that many readers will be lost just on that concept alone. Therein lies the first reason as to why I think anyone considering one of these programs should be required to read and understand a set of disclosures using a 14-point font.  

The big print would clearly state how the monthly payment is less than the amount of interest due on the loan and that the difference between the monthly payment and the amount you actually owe will be added onto the principle balance of the loan each month. This means that as you make your payment each month, you now owe the lender more money than you did the prior month (you may want to read that sentence twice).  

This loan program has a feature called negative amortization and is not new. The program originated in the 1980s and has long been popular for large commercial properties since it gives the property owner a lot of flexibility over their cash flow. Since most commercial loans are adjustable-rate mortgages and property owners cannot raise rents every time interest rates go up, they need some stability in their cash flow and can use a loan like this to control cash flow until they can increase their income to offset their expenses.  

Also in the 1980s, the loan was introduced to homeowners as alternative financing at a time when rates were quite high. The results were fairly disastrous as market circumstances held home prices flat, the loan balances were growing, and many of these loans had balloon payments due in five years, meaning that the loan ends and needs to be repaid. The loan balances grew to equal or go beyond the value of the property and many homeowners lost their properties in foreclosure. 

The loans were then redesigned so the initial payments were at least the amount of interest due on the loan and after five years the loans were then re-amortized (a new payment schedule was established that required monthly principal reduction) and extended for an additional 25 years. Now however, in an effort to extend the low payments that had been in effect due to low interest rates, many of the safeguards have again been abandoned.  

My biggest objection to the service that this particular client experienced was that she was also sold a loan with a three-year pre-payment penalty. This means that if she refinances in the first three years she pays a penalty, which in her case is about $15,000. As a reward for selling the client this loan, the mortgage broker received a big commission from the lender. To add insult to injury, the client says that she told the mortgage person that she wanted a fixed rate loan but was told repeatedly how this loan was superior.  

There are certainly circumstances where this type of loan is the right choice. Since financing in general is sometimes a confusing subject, great care must be taken with any client considering this type of adjustable-rate mortgage. There are always choices and in my opinion, you need an objective advisor who discloses their fees (as required by law), and does not have a financial stake in your decision (one loan yields a higher commission than another).  

At this time, the interest rate market conditions are such that we have experienced a narrowing of the gap between the rate you can get on a fixed-rate loan and the rate you get on an adjustable-rate loan. In other words you can get a fixed-rate loan for almost the same interest rate as the adjustable-rate loan, making the fixed-rate loan easier to choose as well as easier to understand. 

 

Russ Cohn is president of Cohns Loans in Albany. 


Berkeley This Week

Friday March 17, 2006

FRIDAY, MARCH 17 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Pierre Miege on “Social Pressures in China.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 665-9020.  

“Transparency in Government” A workshop for citizens on the Brown Act and the California Public Records Act from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at San Lorenzo Community Hall, 377 Paseo Grande, San Lorenzo. Sponsored by the Leagues of Women Voters of Alameda County. Cost is $20-$25. For reservations call 538-9678. lwvsun@comcast.net 

“Darfur Diaries” Film and discussion with filmmaker Adam Shapiro at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Part of the Conscientious Projector film series. Donation $5 and up, no one turned away. 528-5403. 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

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

Women in Black Vigil noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 845-1143. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 18 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Restore Rare Coastal Prarie in Richmond Volunteers are needed to assist in this on-going effort to restore a portion of West Stege marsh, its surrounding uplands, and adjacent grassland, on the University of California’s Richmond Field Station. To register and for directions call 665-3689. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Bay-Friendly Gardening Basics This workshop provides an overview of design and maintenance considerations to help you make smart choices in the nursery. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. Free, registration required. 444-7645. www.BayFriendly.org  

Berkeley Elementary School Resource Fair for parents at 10 a.m. at LeConte Elementary School, 2241 Russell St. Fair includes information about Berkeley summer camps, children’s sports leagues and financial aid, free consultations with lawyers and healthcare experts and information about Berkeley Special Education services. Spanish translation and refreshments provided. 883-5244. 

Shamrock Day at Habitot Children’s Museum Green art activities and a hunt for hidden pots of gold from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with music at 3:30 p.m. at 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111.  

“Tibet in Pictures” An educational presentation by Tamdin Wangdu of the Tibetan Village Project, at 3 p.m. at Tibet Books and Design, 1201C Solano Ave., Albany. Please RSVP as seating is limited. 525-1989. 

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

East Bay Atheists meets to discuss “Fundamentalism and Communication” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd floor meeting room. 222-7580. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class Journey to India from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45. Register in advance online at www.compassionatecooks.com 531-COOK. 

“Breastapalooza” A Breast Health Fair for young women from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Alta Bates Summit Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Rd., Oakland. To register call 1-800-870-8705. 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.com 

“Real Estate Investing” A free seminar from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Berkeley Association of Relators, 1553 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Berkeley Rep’s Teen Theater Conference from 1 to 5:45 p.m. at Berkeley Rep School of Theater, 2071 Addison St. 647-2971. www.berkeleyrep.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. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palznag and Pema Gellek on “Cutting Off Negative Thoughts” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

SUNDAY, MARCH 19 

Brooks Island Boating Voyage Paddle the rising tides across the Richmond Harbor Channel to Brooks Island. For experienced boaters who can provide their own canoe or kayak, and safety gear. Parent participation required. Ages 14 and up. Cost is $20-$22. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Spring in the Garden Celebrate the season by preparing the garden for warmer weather and learn about local butterflies, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Richmond Museum of History inaugurates a new museum on board the Red Oak Victory Ship at 2 p.m. at the end of Canal Blvd, Richmond. Reception and tour of the ship included. Coast is $5. 222-9200. 

Berkeley Cyber Salon with bloggers and podcasters, moderated by Andrew Keen, founder of the AfterTV.com podcast, at 5 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation of $10 requested. 559-9774. 

Parent First Aid & Emergency Care for Babies at 4 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Cost is $30, $50 for couples. To register call 658-7853. www.bananasinc.org 

“Illustrating Nature” A family workshop on biological illustrattions from the exhibition “The Art of Seeing: Nature Revealed Through Illustration” from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Phenomenal Photography” A family workshop on creating a photo transfer inspired by the exhibition of Edward Weston’s photography from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

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

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 

“Spinoza, Maria and Excommunication” a reading of Rabbi Milton Matz’s play at Kol Hadash Sunday Brunch at 10 a.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Donation of $5 requested. 

Alexander Technique for Pain Free Necks at 11:30 a.m. at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Spring Into Wellness: A Healing Faire from 1 to 3 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St. 528-8844. unityberkeley.org 

Yoga and Meditation Every Sun. in March from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

MONDAY, MARCH 20 

Gold Star Mother Celeste Zappala from Philadelphia will speak at an Interfaith Service “Remembrance and Resistance: The Third Anniversary of the Iraq War” at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 848-3696, ext 20. 

Spring Equinox Gathering at 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at MLK Student Union, 5th Floor Tilden Room, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE.  

“Using Nanoscale Tools, Can We Replicate the Sense of Smell?” with Dr. Arun Majumdar, Director, Berkeley Nanosciences & Nanoengineering Institute, at 5:30 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High School, Allston Way between Milvia and MLK, Jr. Way. 486-7292.  

“How to Expand Your Mind- Body Connection” Bring your grocery receipts and learn how to phase in new eating habits at 5:30 pm. in the Rose Room at Mercy Retirement Center, 3431 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Cos tis $30 or $120 for the entire series. 534-8547, ext. 666. 

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50.  

McGee Avenue Toastmasters meets at 7:30 p.m. at McGee Ave Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 501-7005. 

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. 

TUESDAY, MARCH 21 

Berkeley Garden Club “Native Plants for the Home Garden” with Glenn Keator, author and teacher, at 1 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 527-5641. 

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation from 6 to 8 p.m. at its Oakland office.For more information, please call 594-5165.  

American Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at MLK Student Union, 5th Floor Tilden Room, UC Campus, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary’s College, 1294 Albina Ave. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss “Living Poor with Style” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 601-6690. 

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. 

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

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

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

“Hinduism: Yoga and Awareness of Divinity” with Swami Vedananda at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley at Bancroft. 848-9788. 

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

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22  

Great Decisions Foreign Policy Association Lecture “Brazil” at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Cost is $40 for the eight lecture series. 526-2925. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult. We will learn about the weather from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

“The Diablo Grand Loop” Learn the natural and cultural history of Mt. Diablo, including the rediscovery of Mt. Diablo buckwheat, presumed to be extinct, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Labor Unions and Worker-Managed Factories in Venezuela” with Luis Primo, a member of the Venezuelan National Union of Workers at 1 p.m. at 3335 Dwinelle Hall, office wing, level C, UC Campus. andeanproject@gmail.com 

World Social Forum Report “Another World is Possible” with Margot Smith and Bea Howard at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Gray Panthers, 1402 Addison St. 548-9696. 

“Rightful Resistance in Rural China” with Kevin J. O’Brien, Professor of Political Science, at 4:30 p.m. in the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Floor. http://ieas.berkeley.edu 

Basic First Aid for Pets at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth St. Donation of $10 requested. RSVP to 845-7735, ext. 22. www.berkeleyhumane.org 

“Sound and Fury” a film on one family’s struggle over whether or not to provide two deaf children with cochlear implants, devices that can stimulate hearing, at 7 p.m. in the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd. in Albany. Free. Discussion follows the film. Sponsored by Embracing Diversity Films. 527-1328. embracingdiversityfilms.org 

Mind-Body-Spirit Causes of Chronic Fatigue A talk with Lisa Hartnett at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

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

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, MARCH 23 

The Writer in the Digital Age A workshop offered by the National and Local Writers Union at 7 p.m. at the School of Journalism, Northgate Hall, UC Campus. 839-1248. www.writersunion.org 

Ask a Union Mechanic every Thurs. from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Parker and Shattuck, until the strike is settled. They will offer advice on all makes of car. 

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 

Historical & Current Times Book Group meets on Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1249 Marin Ave. 548-4517. 

ONGOING 

Free Tax Help—United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! program provides free filing assistance to households that earned less than $38,000 in 2005. To find a free tax site near you, call 800-358-8832 or visit www.EarnitKeepitSaveit.org 

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. 

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

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon. Mar. 20 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Creeks Task Force meets Mon. Mar. 20, at 7 p.m. the North Berkeley Senior Center. Erin Dando, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/default.html 

City Council meets Tues., Mar. 21, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Mar. 21, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housingauthority 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/civicarts 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Mental Health Commission meets Wed. Mar. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. Harvey Turek, 981-5213. www.ci.erkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/mentalhealth 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., Mar. 22 , at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

School Board meets Wed., March 22 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Mar. 23, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/zoning   

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Mar. 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Virginia Aiello, 981-5158. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/com 

missions/parksandrecreation 

Solid Waste Management Commission Mon., Mar. 27, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Tania Levy, 981-6368. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste