The long-running battle between developer Gary Feiner and residents of the landmarked Sisterna Tract neighborhood has flared up again. 

The city ordered a halt to construction at one of two Sixth Street homes Feiner is turning into duplexes—at 2104 Sixth—declaring that he had exceeded the bounds of his permit and carried out an effective demolition. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will take up that issue Thursday night. 

Meanwhile, a commission subcommittee met Tuesday afternoon with neighbo rs and Feiner’s architect to talk about the other building, created after an approved demolition at 2108 Sixth. 

Neighbors made it clear they weren’t happy with architect Timothy Rempel’s creation, nor were they happy with his drawings—which played a majo r role in their decision to approve the project. 

Rempel conceded the key point raised by critics, namely, that the drawings of streetscapes he’d created were not done to scale. 

The architectural drawings themselves—the technical designs used in the actual construction—were to scale, but they didn’t present the house in the context of the streetscape. 

That meant a great deal to Carrie Olson, the LPC member who chairs the subcommittee that has been working with neighbors, the developer and the architect. 

Historic District  

Concern about the projects—originally conceived as more massive modernist creations—played a central role in mobilizing neighbors to create what became the city’s second designated historic neighborhood. 

On March 1, 2004, the Landm arks Preservation Commission (LPC) created Sisterna Historic District 106. 

Psychotherapist Elise Blumenfeld and colleague Sarah Satterlee, joined by 14 other volunteers, including an archeologist, an architect and a woodworker, prepared a lavishly illust rated 48-page application calling for the landmarking of the neighborhood and its working-class cottages. 

In creating the district, commissioners landmarked nine dwellings within the boundaries of the district, including both the home and property at 2104, but only the land at 2108 because the structure had been significantly altered from its original Victorian features. 

Creation of a district imposes guidelines on all new buildings within its boundaries, requiring projects to fit in with the character of the neighborhood. 

Feiner appealed the designation on May 12, and commission hearings in June and July drew large turnouts of preservationists and neighbors on one side and architects and development partisans on the other. 

Feiner’s plans went through numerous revisions and significant downsizing before the LPC finally approved them on Nov. 1. 

Before the approval, Elise Blumenfeld and her spouse, psychiatrist Neal, offered renderings by Oakland architect Charles Coburn, who specializes in restoration s. 

Those sketches drew favorable comments from several commissioners, who said some of the details were more in keeping with the character of the neighborhood than those offered by Rempel. 

Subcommittee meeting  

At issue during Tuesday’s subcommittee me eting were the height and appearance of the home at 2108 Sixth, the structure that had been legally demolished after the LPC declined to landmark it. 

The new home appears to be much taller than was portrayed in the streetscape sketches shown to the LPC a t the time they approved the designs, a point noted by Chair Olson as the meeting began. 

“The roof height is higher than we approved,” said LPC member Leslie Emmington. 

“I believe it’s the correct height,” said Rempel—which a check of the plans by LPC m ember and architect Steven Winkel proved correct. 

The streetscape drawings, which had been ordered by the LPC to place the buildings into context, were done by an assistant from photographs, Rempel said, acknowledging that “in the future when building be tween historic buildings, you should require measurement of the adjacent buildings.”  

Rempel also said he had to convince his client to spend the money to do even the drawings the commission had seen. 

“Story poles would actually be cheaper,” said Winkel, referring to poles erected to the height of proposed buildings and often used in projects in the Berkeley hills to evaluate the impact of designs on neighbors’ views. 

“Story poles would be a fine idea,” said Rempel, who noted that in two hills projects he was working on, the poles were required, as was a verification of their height by an independent surveyor. 

Emmington said the streetscape sketches “are like criminal because they are so far off. We have to keep reminding ourselves when we get excited about a plan that that’s not necessarily what’s going to happen.” 

The height is further emphasized because the demolished structure wasn’t as high in its street-facing facade. 

“Historic districts are supposed to have a ‘feel,’ and that feel is definite ly not here,” said Emmington. 

Winkel said that when construction resumes on the landmarked building at 2104, “we should send a surveyor out to make sure it matches the drawing.” 

“I am very disappointed,” said Elise Blumenfeld, who, with her husband, own s the building at 2110 Sixth immediately south of the nearly completed Feiner duplex. “As citizens we made an enormous effort on this project, and now it feels likes smoke and mirrors.” 

“It doesn’t have any spirit,” said Neal Blumenfeld. 

“I completely d isagree,” said Rempel. 

“I’m talking about the spirit of the neighborhood, said Blumenfeld. 

“I find that very insulting as an architect,” said Rempel. 

“You deserve to be insulted,” said Jano Bogg, a neighbor. 

Reached the following afternoon, Olson said the LPC had learned a significant lesson from the project. “The drawings are very deceptive. We’re given just so much information, and we’ve never been successful in getting the (city) planning department to put up story poles,” she said. “This project m ay give us what we need to require them the next time.” 

LPC meet 

Thursday’s LPC meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Community Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

While the notice mailed out by city staff referred to a hearing on “proposed legaliza tion of a demolition,” Olson said the whole project at 2104 is open for a resubmission. 

Neighbors claimed Tuesday that additional demolition had taken place at the landmarked structure, including removal of siding that was specifically singled out for re tention. 

------ 

West Berkeley historian and activist Stephanie Manning will lead a Berkeley Historical Society walking tour of the Sisterna Tract on Saturday, May 20. (See article on the historic walking tour series in this issue, page 7) The walk “Sisterna Tract: A Small Chilean Ranch Transformed,” will begin at 10 a.m. For more information, see www.cityofberkeley.info/histsoc/, or call the Berkeley Historical Society at 848-0181..?

The hours of several instructional aides in the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) may get slashed, whereas the Berkeley Board of Education considers pay increases for district administration.  

More than a dozen classified employees, including math, reading and arts instructional specialists, could lose their jobs or find their hours significantly reduced because funds earmarked for those positions may not materialize until after the state finalizes its budget—if at all. 

Meanwhile the board will weigh in on a proposal to promote the director of educational services to assistant superintendent and to add an additional assistant superintendent to payroll, positions paid for through the district’s general fund, and therefore unrelated to looming layoffs of classified employees, said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. 

The board will vote to issue pink slips at Wednesday’s meeting. 

The vote would not instantly eliminate jobs, however. The district may find other sources of funding to maintain employees, but by law, if layoffs are to occur by the end of the school year, notices must go out 45 days in advance, meaning now. 

“We regret the hardship this notification process places on employees and the uncertainty of their future employment status,” Lawrence said in correspondence to the board. “Nevertheless, the district must guard against encroachments into the general fund due to the loss of categorical dollars.” 

She guesses that “some but not most” of the jobs will be cut. 

“It’s hard to predict which ones will be funded and which ones won’t,” she said. 

Funding for district administrators appears more stable. 

Under a proposal slated for consideration at tomorrow’s board meeting, current Director of Educational Services Neil Smith would earn a $14,249 salary hike, from $120,682 to $134,931 a year.  

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said Smith is already performing the tasks of an assistant superintendent. 

“He’s basically been doing the job without the title,” Coplan said.  

In his existing position, Smith is charged with the oversight of instructional support to schools, including staff development, student achievement and curriculum standards. He also supervises colleagues at the same level, a capacity Lawrence calls “awkward.”  

“He needs to have formal higher authority within the organization warranting the proposed position,” she said.  

As assistant superintendent, he would be expected to work 227 days a year, 10 days more than an existing requirement and attend Board of Education meetings. 

The second assistant superintendent would also work 227 days a year, earn $134,931 attend board meetings and would replace the director of certified employees, Patricia Calvert. Calvert receives $118,333 a year and will vacate the job June 30.  

A designated assistant superintendent for certified employees is necessary to offset an increased workload due to a larger work force, five unions and credentialing complexities associated with the No Child Left Behind Act, Lawrence said. 

The district offered a similar high-level position prior to 2002 when fiscal hardships stripped administration to the bare bones. 

Hiring two assistant superintendents will not encroach on the General Fund, because other central office retirements and resignations have freed up resources, Lawrence said. 

The positions will also take some pressure off Lawrence and deputy superintendent Eric Smith who bear the brunt of the district’s CEO responsibilities, said Coplan. 

BUSD’s maintenance department is also slated for a shakeup. Director of Maintenance Rhonda Bacot left the district in February to take a position at another school district. Rather than find a replacement, department oversight will fall to Facilities Director Lew Jones. Jones, who will not receive a raise, will secure the support of managers, one each for maintenance, transportation and custodial operations.  

The reorganization is expected to dig into the general fund by $65,000, but because of ongoing cost saving and budgetary adjustments, the district expects a net zero fiscal impact. 

The Berkeley Board of Education meets Wednesday at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 644-6206.  

Mixed baby greens dressed in Sesame Goddess vinaigrette and soy bacon bits drenched in Miso Ginger dressing paved the way for the nation’s first ever certified organic kitchen on an American college campus at UC Berkeley’s Crossroads dining commons on Thursday. 

According to Kim LaPean, marketing coordinator for Cal Dining, one of UC Berkeley’s food services, all four of the dining halls managed by Cal Dining will start offering certified organic salad bars by next spring. 

Speaking to The Planet, Chuck Davies, Assistant Director/ Executive Chef for Cal Dining described the organic spread as “rotating salads ranging from pasta and grain salads, kidney and garbanzo beans to fresh spinach, carrot and cucumber slices, sunflower seeds, and anything else that adds to its appeal.” 

Davies added that getting certified under CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) had not been easy. 

“There are so many institutions dabbling in organic food today,” he said. “But we decided to take that extra step, spend that extra dollar to go ahead and get certified.” 

Davies hired Lorraine Aguilar, a senior at UC Berkeley’s Nutritional Science and Toxicology department, to help him with CCOF’s application process. 

“We had to create product flow charts, audit trails showing from scratch how organic products would be handled, maps of the kitchen and dining areas, and outline how the staff would deal with dishwashing and pest control using only approved products,” he said.  

CCOF, the oldest and largest organic certifier in N orth America, was started by a group of activist farmers in 1973.  

“Getting certified is a huge achievement,” said Jake Lewin, director of marketing and international programs at CCOF. “With organic food becoming more and more popular everyday, it’s onl y logical to have something like this. It definitely provides more options to customers.” 

Cal Dining partnered with Piranha Produce, the largest food distributer on campus, and United Natural Foods for the launch of the organic salad bar at Crossroads, a t 2415 Bowditch St. 

Both Piranha Produce and United Natural Foods are certified organic distributors of fresh vegetables and fruits as well as processed vegetables, beans, dried fruits, nuts, dressings, oils and vinegars.  

“Cal has put up a cutting e dge program and rest of the nation will soon follow in its footsteps,” said Jan Burkett, school food service specialist for Piranha Produce.  

The organic vinaigrettes, with their exotic combinations and funky names, caused quite a stir among students dur ing lunch hour on Thursday. They were manufactured by Organicville—the brainchild of Berkeley’s Haas School of Business alumni Rachel Kruse. 

Kruse, a third generation vegetarian, quit her job in the corporate world and started her own business in Emeryvi lle. 

“I felt the need to create something different,” she said. “Something that is vegan, gluten free, one carb per serving and still manages to taste good. I wanted salad dressings to be fun.” 

The result was organic vinaigrettes such as Orange Cranberr y, Sesame Tamari, and Sun Dried Tomato and Garlic.  

“It feels really great to give back to my school like this,” Kruse said. “I feel I have come full circle. I want to show people that organic is accessible and that it helps the environment.” 

Liese Gree nsf elder from Berkeley’s Office of Public Affairs told the Planet that prices have not been increased after the revamp. “They worked very hard to keep the cost down. Student’s won’t need to pay extra for the organic salads.” she said. 

Venus, an intended psy chology major at Berkeley was taken by surprise when she saw the revamped salad bar. “I am very excited. The salad dressings are usually very messy but I like what they had today. I am definitely coming back for more.” 

Then there were those who knew about the opening and had come to sample the goodies during lunch time. 

“I think it’s very important to keep the spirit of the organic movement alive,” said Allen Feldman, a student at UC Berkeley. “This is a great way of doing it.”” 

Photo by Riya Bhattacharjee: 

Venus You-Ching Tsai, a UC Berkeley sophmore, checks out the revamped organic salad bar at Crossroads dining commons.

The Berkeley Housing Authority has accused a 70-year-old man, who is mentally impaired of neglecting to report that he was receiving general assistance payments. The man has said he believed he had informed the BHA, but the authority insisted on taking the man to a hearing, where he could have lost his housing. 

Fortunately for him, Naomi Young, housing attorney with Bay Area Legal Aid, learned of the situation, stepped in at the hearing and cleared up the mess.  

“It’s (potentially) a very serious problem for a minor infraction,” said Young, who wants to see the BHA strengthen its advocacy for vulnerable clients. 

With two other Legal Aid attorneys, Young wrote a report asking the Housing Authority, already under the gun from the federal government to make a host of improvements, to change procedures to serve victims of abuse, disabled persons and people with limited English skills better. Moreover, the attorneys asked the BHA to improve its due process procedures. They presented the report at a Housing Authority meeting March 21. 

The Legal Aid attorneys have been looking at deficiencies in various housing agencies in the area. 

“Berkeley seems more deficient than others,” Young said. 

Victims of spousal/partner abuse often have to leave home quickly and should get priority consideration for subsidized housing, the report said, quoting a Ford Foundation study that reported that 50 percent of homeless women are without shelter due to domestic violence. 

In the Bay Area, 80 percent of those who want to go to battered women’s shelters are turned away for lack of space, the Legal Aid report says, concluding: “Finding and preserving affordable housing is an essential step for abuse survivors in their struggle to keep themselves and their children safe.”  

And there are special considerations the Housing Authority should take to support abuse victims. When one spouse batters the other in a subsidized unit and the victim moves out, the victim should receive a new housing voucher, the report said. 

Further, when battery causes property damage to a public housing unit, the Housing Authority should seek payment by the perpetrator, not by the victim. 

People who speak little English should also have special consideration from the Housing Authority, Legal Aid attorneys said. Their leases and other notices should be in the language they understand. And interpreters should be available at hearings. 

Some 15 percent of Berkeley residents self-identify as having a disability and, says Legal Aid, disabled persons are three times more likely to live in poverty than non-disabled people. Because this group cannot afford Berkeley rents, they should be given greater access to public housing.  

Legal Aid attorneys say that the BHA has erred in not writing specific instructions for BHA staff on getting and keeping disabled persons in public housing. Accommodations should include explicit permission to have companion and service animals, parking accommodations, accessible units, and lease modifications to allow payment of rent on a date tied to receipt of disability payments. 

Acting BHA Manager Berverli Marshall said in a phone interview Monday that she was sorry the Legal Aid attorneys had not contacted her before making their report public. 

She explained that BHA is not allowed to prioritize any single group, such as victims of abuse or disabled people.  

The Housing and Urban Development Department has no preference requirements, Marshall said. 

“Each agency is allowed to adopt its own preferences,” she said. 

The Housing Authority Board, made up of the City Council and two public housing residents, can write its own policies, Marshall said. 

Moreover, the Housing Authority does consider individual needs, she said. It deals with situations on a case-by-case basis.  

As for translating documents, Marshall said that will be done. First, however, the BHA has to survey the residents to ascertain their language needs. The BHA now has software that will help compile the data, Marshall said. 

Finally, there is the due process question. BALA would like public housing clients to be better informed of their rights and of the agencies that can help them keep their housing.  

But Marshall said they already give the required information to the residents. 

“We tell them that there is a process and how much time they have to respond,” she said. “We’re not required to tell them about other agencies. We don’t need to list agencies like Bay Area Legal Aid.” 

The BHA is responsible for 75 city-owned units of public housing and about 1,840 units of Section 8 housing, where housing subsidies are paid to private landlords. 

The Housing Authority has until June to clear up some of the problems identified by HUD including failure to meet annual deadlines to re-certify Section 8 recipients, complete unit inspections and submit reports to HUD. If they fail to comply, another agency, such as the Oakland Housing Authority, could take over the BHA. 

Young said Legal Aid understands that clearing up these problems will take precedence for the BHA. She said she hoped to meet with Marshall after that time. 

Thanks to a grant from a major national nonprofit, arts education in Alameda County is a quarter of a million dollars richer. 

The Alameda County Office of Education recently secured $250,000 through the Ford Foundation, an independent grant-making organization based in New York. Funding will support professional development for arts educators in Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville unified school districts. 

“It’s a great thing,” said Suzanne McCulloch, visual and performing arts coordinator for the Berkeley Unified School District. “The arts are often the first thing to get cut when funding’s tough, and funding’s been tough for a few years now. This really supports arts education.” 

The grant is part of the Ford Foundation’s nationwide effort to address the snowballing deterioration of art, music and performance in public schools, said Louise Music, Alameda County Coordinator of Arts Learning.  

Other communities to receive funding include Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Baltimore, Dallas, Jackson, Miss., and St. Louis.  

In Alameda County, the grant is the result of a year of planning conducted by a countywide network of school district and arts organization professionals called the Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership.  

Funding will supplement the Arts Is Learning Anchor School Initiative, an education reform effort taking place at 15 schools in three county school districts, including Berkeley’s Arts and Humanities Academy. The initiative aims to make arts learning available to all students.  

Berkeley School Board President Terry Doran, who headed up Berkeley High School’s art department for several years, said arts education is of great importance.  

“All the research I’ve read leads me to believe when students get an arts education, it helps them to be more open and accepting to other academic work,” he said. Art “helps to build ego and confidence as well as build an appreciation for visual beauty.”

Teachers, parents, labor supporters and other members of the community will descend upon Oakland City Hall Wednesday at 4 p.m. to demand support from city officials in an ongoing clash over contract negotiations. 

Protesters will beseech Oakland’s key mayoral candidates to throw their weight behind the Oakland teachers’ union, which has been battling the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) for fair contracts for two years. The union represents 3,200 teachers, nurses and librarians. 

Mayoral hopeful Ron Dellums unilaterally defends Oakland’s teachers. 

“He very much supports the teachers and their efforts to get a raise,” said his spokesperson Mike Healy.  

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who will battle Dellums for the mayor’s seat in November, refused to pick sides.  

“He is against a strike,” said his spokesperson Libby Schaaf. “He believes the district and the teachers need to get back to the negotiating room and find a compromise.”  

A representative for Nancy Nadel, who will also vie to become Oakland’s mayor, could not be reached for comment by press time.  

The rally comes just a week after Oakland Education Association (OEA) President Ben Visnick announced that Oakland’s teachers will walk off the job April 20 if a contract settlement is not reached. 

Recent talks between the school district and the union have yielded some progress—the district agreed March 21 to give teachers a 5.5 percent raise, up from an earlier offer of 4 percent—but disagreement over two issues, healthcare and teacher preparation periods, remains strong.  

District spokesperson Alex Katz said schools will remain open in the event of a strike..

The good news is the student at King Middle School who came down with pertussis—whooping cough to most of us—a couple of weeks ago has taken the prescribed dose of antibiotics, is no longer contagious and is back at school. 

The news that parents don’t want to hear, however, is that whooping cough is on the upsurge in Alameda County and across the country. Preteens and teens are particularly vulnerable.  

“A substantial increase in reported cases has occurred among adolescents, who become susceptible to pertussis approximately 6-10 years after childhood vaccination,” according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dec. 23, 2005 ,Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 

Whooping cough is a “reportable” disease—one about which doctors inform local health officers. When Berkeley Health Officer Dr. Linda Rudolph learned of the illness, she asked the school to send home notices.  

Historically, a whooping cough vaccine has been given routinely to babies. 

“But now we’re seeing cases in school-age kids,” Rudolph said. The public health department is recommending a new vaccine for those 11-18 years of age. 

“The vaccine (given to babies) appears to need a booster,” she said. 

King Middle School sent home two different letters to parents, depending on whether the children were in class with the child who had become ill or others who were simply attending the school. For those who may have had direct contact, the school recommended that parents take the children to the doctor. 

“Antibiotics can prevent the spread of pertussis and are recommended for persons who have had close contact with someone who has pertussis. To prevent your child from becoming ill with pertussis, we recommend that he/she take antibiotics,” the letter states. 

According to Rudolph, the “typical symptoms are spasmodic coughing. A lot of times there is a running nose.” 

The cough often ends with a “whoop,” with the patient gasping for air. Sometimes there is vomiting. 

While the disease is very contagious, it is considered most severe in infants. 

“If people think they have been exposed or have symptoms, they should go to the doctor and get an evaluation,” Rudolph said. 

In Alameda County—without Berkeley, which has its own health department—the number of reported cases has grown exponentially. However, cautioned Linda Frank, chief of Alameda County Disease Surveillance and Epidemiology, some of the rising numbers may be due to better reporting of cases.  

Reported cases in Alameda County since 2001 are as follows: 2001, 23 cases; 2002, 41 cases; 2003, 37 cases; 2004, 84 cases; 2005, 120 cases. Statistics in Berkeley, which are not included with the rest of Alameda County, show: 1999, two cases; 2000, four cases; 2001, one case; 2002, three cases; 2003, four cases; 2004, one case; 2005, two cases; 2006, one case to date. 

Across the United States the jump has been from a historic low in 1976 with 1,010 cases reported to 11,647 cases reported in 2003, according to the CDC..

Due to an administrative snafu, the public has additional opportunity to debate Wednesday the merits of a study assessing traffic patterns at a proposed West Berkeley marketplace. 

Planning Commission staff mistakenly distributed two versions of a report detailing potential peak-hour traffic jams at West Berkeley Bowl, a 1.9-acre grocery store and prepared food service project slated for development at 920 Heinz Ave. 

One report outlined car travel in December—a month known to produce the heaviest gridlock—while the other looked at January traffic. The January analysis shows typical traffic patterns more accurately, said Principal Planner Allan Gatzke, because it does not include holiday traffic. 

Christopher A. Joseph & Associates, an environmental planning and research firm based in Petaluma, prepared both studies. The same company drafted an environmental impact report in October 2005 that did not find any “significant and unavoidable impacts” associated with the project, but was deemed inadequate for failing to account for weekend traffic patterns. 

The recirculated report, available for public consideration until April 24, finds considerable impacts. West Berkeley Bowl would include an 83,990-square-foot grocery store and an adjacent 7,070-square-foot prepared food service building, in addition to a 109-space underground car garage and 102 surface parking spaces. To accommodate the development, the city would have to rezone the area from mixed use/light industrial to commercial.  

As proposed, the project is expected to generate about 6,095 vehicle trips a day on Saturdays, which would jam up the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Ashby Avenue by an extra 44 seconds, and San Pablo at Heinz by 107 seconds during Saturday peak hours.  

Installing a traffic light at the latter intersection would decrease traffic to a less-than-significant level. Mitigation efforts at San Pablo and Ashby, however, would not adequately offset congestion, the report says.  

The latest report includes alternatives to the proposed 91,060-square-foot project.  

One option would be to leave the site as is. Another alternative would involve building a 150,000-square-foot office building, which would eliminate weekend traffic impacts, but increase weekday gridlock. Planners say mitigation measures could reduce the latter effect. 

A third option would see the development of a 50,000-square-foot single story light industrial/manufacturing building, expected to generate less traffic than an office building. However, because of the cost of land in West Berkeley, the city is unlikely to receive many—if any—applications for manufacturing buildings, the report says. 

Neither plan fulfills the West Berkeley Plan objective of erecting an affordable food-shopping hub. West Berkeley, a mixed-residential, commercial/industrial and educational community, does not currently house a full-service supermarket. 

Other alternatives consider reducing the scope of the West Berkeley Bowl project. One proposal would cut back development to 65,815 square feet, and would include a 37,005-square-foot grocery store, a 28,810 warehouse, 111 parking spaces and 33 spots for bicycles. 

The store would sell natural and organic produce and groceries, but would not be a full-service supermarket. Car buildup would occur during peak weekday and weekend hours, but mitigation efforts could curb much of the major congestion. 

A second reduced-size alternative would develop the site with a 45,430-square-foot grocery, a 3,420-square-foot office and a 23,908-square-foot warehouse for a total of 72,758 square feet. This project would create more traffic than the 65,815-square-foot alternative, but less than the proposed West Berkeley Bowl. 

Project developer Glen Yasuda, who owns the original Berkeley Bowl on Oregon Street, has said he would rather build the marketplace elsewhere than downsize. He could not be reached to comment for this article. 

Planning Commissioner Susan Wengraf admitted that a new grocery store in West Berkeley would introduce added congestion, but she said it’s a small price to pay.  

“Personally, I think it is going to create more traffic and I don’t think that can be mitigated,” she said. “But I do think you have to look at the bigger picture, which is that there will be a greater good. West Berkeley needs a marketplace.” 

That might be the case, said Commissioner Mike Sheen, but the commission needs to pay special attention to the alternatives.  

“There’s a lot of potentially bad things that could happen if we were to put in something that big,” he said. “I haven’t fully made up my mind yet, but I am wanting to take a closer look at possible size reduction.” 

The Planning Commission will take comments on the recirculated traffic impact analysis and revised alternatives analysis of the draft environmental impact report Wednesday, 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave..

There have been “significant improvements” in the payroll problems that have plagued the Alameda County Medical Center in recent weeks, according to a spokesperson for the union representing hospital workers. 

Union officials said they have not yet decided if they will ask for a paper trail backup to the electronic system. 

Two weeks ago, the Berkeley Daily Planet reported that union officials had received more than 40 recent complaints of payroll problems with the medical center’s new Kronos automated payroll system, “with some people missing hours, some people missing whole pay periods,” and some workers being dropped from the center’s health benefit plan because they were improperly dropped to part-time worker status. 

The Kronos automated system replaced the center’s paper-based payroll system. 

ACMC trustees had asked to receive a status report from the center’s chief financial officer at the board’s March 28 meeting, but that meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum. 

This week, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Director of Communications Brad Cleveland said that while the union has not yet received a copy of the error report detailing the exact number of problems that occurred in the last pay period, “it is our understanding that things have gotten better.” 

SEIU officials and the hospital had earlier worked out an agreement in which the Kronos automated system would be initially operated alongside a paper-based payroll system, but that plan was later scrapped by the hospital. 

“It’s my understanding that [ACMC Chief Executive Officer Wright] Lassiter is amenable to putting in place the dual payroll system, if we ask for it,” Cleveland said. “We want to look at the error report first before we make that request. There’s always going to be some level of error in any system. We just have to determine if the number of errors in the ACMC payroll are still sufficient enough to warrant a dual system.” 

ACMC officials declined to comment on the status of the payroll problem, citing pending litigation by a former center employee that includes complaints about the payroll system. The officials would only say that they are working on solving the problem..

As the dismembering of the once-mighty Knight Ridder newspaper chain progresses, a leading shareholder of one of the nation’s leading homebuilding companies has emerged as a potential buyer of two papers. 

Bruce Toll, one of the owners and founders of Toll Brothers—a Horsham, Pa.-based home-building company that is one of the Bay Area’s largest builders—is a key member of a consortium making bids on two Knight Ridder papers in Philadelphia. 

Toll Brothers is the major builder of new homes in Richmond and has projects throughout the Bay Area. Toll’s group is not bidding on any of the chain’s Bay Area papers—though another homebuilder wants the paper in Monterey. 

The fates of the Bay Area’s second- and third-largest papers remain uncertain, as does the fate of a host of smaller publications. 

Sacramento-based McClatchy Corp., publishers of the Sacramento Bee, 11 other dailies, and 16 community papers, bought the 32-paper Knight Ridder chain last month in a $3.75 billion deal. 

Because the purchase included $2 billion in Knight Ridder debt, McClatchy promptly announced it would sell a dozen of its new dailies, including the Contra Costa Times (circulation 182,000), San Jose Mercury News (circulation 249,000) and the Monterey County Herald (circulation 32,000). 

Unmentioned papers 

McClatchy officials said papers selected for sale were those that didn’t meet the chain’s growth expectations. 

In addition to the three Bay Area and two Philadelphia papers on the block, McClatchy is peddling the Aberdeen American News, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Duluth News Tribune, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, the Grand Forks Herald, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press and the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.  

Besides the 12 paid-circulation daily papers up for sale, McClatchy is also selling a collection of other publications, including the free-distribution Daily News papers, based in Palo Alto, as well as papers published under the umbrella of the paid dailies. 

Sarah Lubman, of New York’s Brunswick Group public relations firm, is representing McClatchy in the sale. She declined to comment about any offers pending for the papers. 

As for the so-called “community papers” published on the turf of the large dailies, Lubman said they “will generally be considered along with the daily newspapers when we are selling the dailies.” 

Publications under the Contra Costa Times umbrella include: the Alameda Journal, Antioch News, Berkeley Voice, Brentwood News, Concord Transcript, Contra Costa Sun, Danville Times, East County Times, The Montclarion, Oakley News, The Piedmonter, Pleasant Hill/Martinez Record, Pleasanton Times, San Ramon Valley Times, The Journal (Albany/El Cerrito), Valley Times, Walnut Creek Journal, and the West County Times. 

Also for sale is the 50,000-circulation chain of Daily News papers, headquartered in Palo Alto, which includes the East Bay Daily News. According to last Wednesday’s Palo Alto Weekly, Diana Diamond, who served as executive editor of all the Daily News papers, was fired last week, and the chain has been operating under a hiring freeze. 

Palo Alto Weekly editor Jay Thorwaldson wrote that Knight Ridder CEO Tony Ridder had praised Diamond after he bought the ten-year-old chain on Feb. 15, 2005, for running “the paper of the future.” Three months later, Knight Ridder launched the mini-chain’s East Bay edition. 

The contenders 

Two groups have entered bids for all 12 of the Knight Ridder paid dailies, one the proposed employee-owned ValuePlus Media and the other MediaNews, a Denver-based chain that already owns the Oakland Tribune and a collection of other Bay Area papers. 

ValePlus Media, the employee group, was launched after Mercury News reporters Julie Patel and Rick Tulsky began email discussions with other staff journalists and the president of the local chapter of the American Newspaper Guild—an employee union.  

Two Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) experts helped formed ValuePlus to buy the paper, and Yucaipa Companies, a labor-friendly pension fund investment firm, offered the financial clout to make the bid. 

If successful, the resulting company would become the nation’s first employee-owned media chain. 

MediaNews is the creation of media magnate Dean Singleton whose firm is renowned for what some consider ruthless cost-cutting and layoffs—although his reputation has been rising, reported a 2003 article in Columbia Journalism Review that carried the subhead, “Once, Angry Reporters Threw Beer Cans at Him. Now He’s Reaching for Journalistic Respect-ability.” 

Were MediaNews to win, the chain would control daily and weekly papers circling the bay with a combined circulation of more than 800,000, double the average daily figure for the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Concerns about the implications of such regional dominance have prompted a preliminary investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, reports John McManus of Grade the News, an on-line media monitoring web site (www.gradethenews.org) in an item posted on the site Wednesday. 

McManus wrote that he was contacted by a Justice Department paralegal who asked about the potential sale’s impact on advertisers, “rather that on consumer prices of news quality. But he was willing to listen to concerns about concentration of ownership on the news product.” 

Monterey bidder? 

While Toll Brothers is not interested in any of the Bay Area papers, another homebuilder is. 

Nader Agha is the leader of a consortium that wants to buy the Monterey County Herald, according to an article reported last Tuesday in that paper. Also involved is Charles Chrietzberg, president and CEO of Monterey County Bank, the paper reports. 

The Herald was scooped on the story by the Los Angeles Times, which broke the news two days earlier in a story that included a quote from Herald editor Carolina Garcia, who observed that Agha offers to do a lot of things, but not a lot comes to pass.” 

Lubman declined to comment when asked if Agha’s group had submitted a bid..

The Richmond City Council will make two key decisions tonight (Tuesday) on the proposed 269-condo Westshore Marina Project at Marina Bay. 

During a public hearing, councilmembers will be asked to approve the final environmental impact report (EIR) on the project and to issue conditional approval for Toll Brothers’ plans for the site. Toll Brothers, a home-building company based in Horsham, Pa., is one of the Bay Area’s largest builders and a major builder of new homes in Richmond. 

The state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which has final say over all Marina Bay projects, has ordered removal of antimony-contaminated soil from part of the site that is not slated for housing. 

A large and divided crowd appeared at the council to argue for and against the project last month. 

The project site once housed a Ford Motor plant that made cars and, during World War II, military equipment. The site also housed buried fuel tanks. 

Other matters 

The council will consider paying up to $75,000 a year more to increase the city’s Internet band width. 

The council will also consider creating a number of new city positions, including Deputy Police Chief-Human Resources at a salary to be determined, City Prosecutor at a salary range of $59,880 to $111,204, Law Office Supervisor ($57,108 to $68,700), Legal Secretary ($46,334 to $56,340) and Engineering Operations Administrator ($48,684 to $58,224). 

The council has also scheduled a discussion of the Richmond Improvement Association’s plans to spend the $200,000 the council awarded the group last week to fund anti-violence programs. 

The council voted to award the funds last week over the strong objections of Councilmember Tom Butt, who said he was alarmed at the lack of specifics of the faith-based groups’ proposal. Butt charged that the vote was conducted in violation of the spirit of the Brown Act, which governs public meetings in California. 

The appropriation wasn’t listed on the council agenda as an action item, and was listed only for discussion, Butt said in an e-mail to constituents. 

Tonight’s (Tuesday) meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in council chambers at the temporary city hall at 1401 Marina Way South..

The acting registrar of voters for Alameda County urged citizens registering for the first time who want to vote in the June 6 primary and nominating election to get their paperwork in early, expecting numerous delays and problems with California’s new registration requirements. 

A state senator has charged that Secretary of State Bruce McPherson cut a deal with the Bush Administration which would prevent many Californians from registering or reregistering to vote. 

California law sets a registration deadline of 5 p.m. on May 22 for voters who wish to cast ballots in the June 6 election. But according to Acting Registrar Elaine Ginnold, because of delays caused by the setting up of a statewide registration database mandated by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA), “if you wait until May 22 to register, your name won’t be listed on your precinct roll.” 

There have been reports of widespread registration and re-registration problems around the state since the state registration database requirements went into effect on Jan. 1 this year. 

In Alameda County alone the problem was “just enormous” in the beginning of HAVA database compliance, with some 6,000 registration forms returned by the office of the Secretary of State because of data discrepancies, according to Ginnold. 

“Now it’s diminished quite a bit because most of what we’re doing now is changes to existing registration forms,” she said, but added that she expects the problem to resurface as new registrations get turned in to her office near the May registration deadline. 

Under the HAVA requirements, states must cross-check the information on voter registration forms with the information in the state database for licensed drivers and individuals with state identification cards. 

California was not able to meet the statewide registration database requirements in time, and an interim solution was worked out between federal officials and Secretary of State McPherson. Ginnold estimated that the final statewide registration database won’t be in place until 2010. 

According to Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law (www.brennancenter.org), under the McPherson-Bush Administration agreement, California is one of nine states which has chosen to adopt an “exact match” standard of compliance. 

What that means, according to Ginnold, is that “if you got your driver’s license under the name James T. Smith and then registered to vote under the name Jim Smith, the names don’t match, and the Secretary of State’s office sends the registration form back to the county to verify whether the two names apply to the same person.” 

Ginnold said that once new registration forms or change of address forms are received in the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office, “it takes about a week for the information to be keyed into the computer. It takes about 5 days for the Secretary of State’s office to do the database matching and send back registration forms that have discrepancies.” 

Registrar of Voters workers must then contact the voter to attempt to clear up any discrepancies. The Registrar of Voters office publishes two voter registration lists for precincts—for the June election, the main registration list will be published on May 12, and a supplemental list will be printed on May 31. 

Ginnold said that while any voter showing up at the polls can vote by provisional ballot if their name is not on their precinct registration list, new voters or voters changing precincts should count on getting their forms in by the week of May 8 to ensure that their names are on one of the precinct lists.  

Meanwhile, the controversy over the new statewide voter list requirements—and the resulting reports of large numbers of voters needing to have their data verified—had the Secretary of State’s office scrambling to contain the political damage. 

On March 30, Secretary of State McPherson commemorated his first year in office by declaring April “Voter Education and Participation Month” in California. 

“It is my hope for every eligible Californian to exercise their precious right to vote,” McPherson said in a prepared press statement.  

McPherson, a Republican, was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger after former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley resigned under a cloud of ethics violation charges. 

The same day, California State Senator Debra Bowen (D-Redondo Beach), chair of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee, told reporters, “It’s ironic to see him proclaim April as ‘voter participation month’ after he signed a landmark agreement with President Bush’s Department of Justice that makes it hard for people to register and re-register to vote in California. The deal he cut with the Bush Administration nearly five months ago has been a disaster for anyone who is trying to register for the first time or re-register because they moved, got married and need to change their name, or because they want to change parties. The Bush Administration has referred to its deal with Secretary McPherson as a ‘model for other states,’ but given the number of eligible voters who have been prevented from registering and re-registering to vote in California thanks to this deal, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to follow California’s lead. The Secretary said the agreement will ensure that ‘all eligible voters will be able to cast a ballot in California,’ but the evidence in so far means exactly the opposite is what’s going to happen. Thousands of people are likely to be prevented from registering or re-registering in time for the April 11 municipal and special elections in California as a direct result of this agreement, and I think the problem is going to get even worse as we approach the May 22 deadline to register for the June primary.”  

Bowen went on to say, “The problem we’re having in California goes beyond missing driver’s license numbers and it stems directly from the Bush-McPherson deal that adopted the most restrictive standards possible. ... The potential for tens of thousands of voters to be disenfranchised thanks to this deal is astronomical. People shouldn’t be prevented from voting or have to jump through additional hurdles simply because they move, get married and change their name, or want to change parties. Counties are required to go back and contact voters one by one to make sure John Smith is the same as Jonathan A. Smith, even when the addresses, birth dates, and driver’s license numbers of the two are identical, and that takes an incredible amount of manpower, especially in a county like Los Angeles where during the height of the season, it’s receiving 20,000 voter registration forms a day. If the Bush-McPherson standards continue to reject 43 percent of all voter registration and re-registration forms, it means more than 8,000 people a day who are legally entitled to register to vote may not be able to do so, and that’s just in L.A. County.” 

The next day, McPherson issued a second statement, proposing state legislation that would allow county registration offices to clear up discrepancies in registration data using existing state databases, rather than being forced to contact the voters themselves. 

“I’ve listened to the concerns that dedicated county election officials have about current state law,” McPherson said, adding that his proposed new legislation “will help to ensure access to eligible voters while still providing safeguards against voter fraud.” 

In addition, McPherson put the onus on the voters themselves, urging “all Californians to remember to completely fill out their voter registration card. ... Providing all necessary information will avoid complications when registering to vote.””

“Sleep when the baby sleeps” 

This is perhaps the most basic, most oft repeated, most bogus piece of advice I received in the never-ending, well intentioned (largely unsolicited) tsunami of advice that swept over me during my pregnancy last year. My first son was born the day before Christmas and I’ve had two months to try and heed their advice, to no avail. 

Ostensibly, catching 40 (or at least five or six) winks whenever the baby naps will keep the blurry-eyed, mildly delusional crankiness of newborn-induced sleep deprivation at bay. 

Sounds good in theory, doesn’t it? 

Unfortunately, a handful of catnaps cannot take the place of a deep and luxurious full night’s sleep, and in fact, for someone operating on 2-3 hours sleep a night, a tiny interrupted daytime doze is like a sadistic amuse bouche—a gourmet canape offered to, then snatched from the grasp of, a starving man. 

Besides which, how can I think of sleep when there are half a dozen undone chores waiting, and now—(ssh... ssh... his eyes are drooping ... one last flail of teensy arms ... and he’s asleep!)—suddenly there’s a ten minute to two hour window to get things done. Clear the decks! Batten down the hatches! Take no prisoners! I will clean every last dish before he wakes!  

Admittedly, forgoing sleep to sort mail or tidy the living room is partly the product of a personality tinged with mild-to-moderate OCD, but in my defense, the pervasive encouragement to let the laundry and dishes pile up is kind-hearted but unrealistic. 

My little bundle of bodily functions goes through a third of his stash of outfits, blankets, and burp cloths every day, and if they aren’t laundered at a jaunty pace, he’ll have to go naked as a jaybird and I’ll be forced to wipe his spit-up with a souvenir tea towel, the only hygienic scrap of fabric in the house. 

Alas, sleep is second—or third—priority for now. I’d rather have clean undies. 

And then there’s the big taboo for new moms—wanting to keep other interests alive, interests that preceded my new addition by, oh, three-plus decades or so? Prior to getting pregnant, I visited a parenting chat room online and vented my concern that, post-baby, I wouldn’t have time for any of the hobbies that have meant so much to me for years. One of the moms promptly told me that if I was worried about my hobbies, I wasn’t ready to be a mom. 

Harrumph! 

Okay, my bad—“hobbies” was definitely the wrong word. What I’d meant was, those soul-fulfilling, self-defining passions that have infused my existence with joy, pleasure, challenges, and learning my whole life. Yes, I know (personally, now!) that parenthood gives you that soul-food a thousandfold, but I’d rather not eat the same food at every meal, whether it’s a meal for my stomach, or my brain and heart.  

So while caring for my perfect little snuggle bunny mini-me and hanging on his every sound, gesture, and expression happily occupy the bulk of my days (and nights—oi!), when he naps, I’ll be damned if I’m going to lie down and close my eyes. If the laundry and dishes are done, I can actually crack open a book! Or draw a little, do some yoga, blog-surf, or write this little ditty, for whatever it’s worth. 

Sleep shmeep. Sleep is for suckers. I’ll sleep when the baby starts pre-school.  

Er, kindergarden? 

College? 

Historic neighborhoods coping with change seem to be an informal unifying theme of most of this spring’s Berkeley Historical Society’s walking tours. 

Set for five Saturday mornings from April 8 through June, the inexpensive two-hour walking tours are le d, as always, by community volunteers and serve both as a public educational activity and fundraiser for BHS. 

The first tour (led by the author) on Saturday, April 8, recalls Downtown Berkeley from the decades after 1906 and before World War II. Downtow n burgeoned then, in the era between architectural and cultural Victorianism and the Modern age. 

The streets were lined with new and handsome masonry buildings from the original Tupper and Reed music store (now Beckett’s Pub) to Berkeley’s first high-ris e—with Berkeley’s first controversial high-rise neon billboard—the Chamber of Commerce building that now houses Wells Fargo Bank.  

The tour will also explore the commercial enterprises and lively cultural life that Berkeleyans enjoyed in a pre-War downto w n “arts district” which included Art Deco movie palaces, a genuine cutting-edge repertory theatre in an old church, and the “Berkeley Art Museum” on Shattuck Avenue.  

Next, on April 22, community historian and photographer Bruce Goodell, who has done sev eral informative and intriguing tours for BHS, brings the catastrophic events of April 1906 home when he leads a tour of sites on the UC Berkeley campus where refugees of the 1906 earthquake were cared for. 

Displaced San Franciscans—many with nothing mor e than the proverbial “clothes on their backs”—boarded ferries for Oakland and Berkeley in the disaster aftermath. 

A tent city on an early football field, open-air kitchens under the oaks, and refugee quarters in gymnasiums, were all part of the camp us picture.  

Fewer and fewer Berkeleyans now seem to remember that, in addition to the tracks near the freeway, a second railroad line cut diagonally across central Berkeley for several decades. 

Trains—including highly controversial troop transports dur ing the Vietnam War—regularly rumbled right behind homes and businesses and across University Avenue, Sacramento Street, and smaller neighborhood streets. 

On May 6, guide Susan Schwartz—a stalwart of the local creek restoration movement, and a board memb er o f Berkeley Path Wanderers—will recall and explain that receding past.  

Her walk traces the history—and future—of some four miles of the Santa Fe Right of Way, part of which has now been transformed into community gardens and linear park space. 

This prom ises to be a vigorous excursion but the terrain is largely flat and the scenery and history varied and interesting (it is also the one walk not wheelchair accessible because of the distance covered over bare earth). 

West Berkeley historian and acti vist S tephanie Manning leads the Saturday, May 20 tour through a more compact but equally interesting area, the “Sisterna Tract: A Small Chilean Ranch Transformed.” 

Never heard of it? Sisterna was a familiar name in early Berkeley, belonging to a Chilea n family that came to the area as early as 1860 and built a house on what is now Fifth Street in 1878.  

Survivors of that era, including Victorian cottages and commercial buildings, still dot the neighborhood just south of University Avenue and east of A quatic Park. 

Back then, Oceanview—the settlement that preceded Berkeley—was a mix of factories, stores, homes both humble and substantial, and open fields. 

Manning will guide the group through “the layers of time represented by the various styles of arc hitectu re and culture present there.”The neighborhood is still alive and kicking; not long ago current residents worked successfully to document and have part declared a historic district, one of only a handful in Berkeley. 

The last tour, on June 3, switches fr om West to South Berkeley, focusing on the Lorin neighborhood around Alcatraz and Adeline. 

An early “streetcar suburb,” Lorin was induced to officially join the City of Berkeley in 1892 and “promised services and stature,” according to historic resources consultant Dale Smith, who will lead this tour “through time, and in and out of the shops and galleries of this original township.” 

The area retains many of Berkeley’s best older houses and a lively community culture. 

Like West Berkeley, it’s also a fo cus of hot development discussion and controversy, including the recent turmoil over a grant to study infill development at the Ashby BART Station parking lot. 

The tours run from 10 a.m. to approximately noon. Each costs $10 for the general pub lic and $8 for BHS members. If you want to have a guaranteed spot on all the tours (which can fill up), it’s $30 for a “season ticket” package for Berkeley Historical Society members only. You can join BHS when making your reservations. 

Those stalwarts w ho purchas e tickets for at least three tours have the opportunity on Saturday, June 10, to take a free “Bonus Tour” providing an inside look at the new Berkeley Community College headquarters building that has risen on Center Street, west of Shattuck. 

For tour reservation information, visit the Berkeley Historical Society (1931 Center Street, in the Veteran’s Memorial Building) Thursday through Saturday, 1-4 p.m., see www.cityofberkeley.info/histsoc/, or call 848-0181. 

Photo courtesy of author  

Downtown Berkeley at Shattuck and Center in the early decades of the 20th century when there was still a train station (at left), an imposing office building (center right) where the Bank of America now stands, and a giant flagpole instead of today’s giant tuning fork.

Bank robber 

Berkeley Police are seeking the public’s help in learning the name of the fellow who robbed the Bank of America at 1500 Shattuck Ave. Wednesday. 

The bandit (at right) walked into the bank claiming to have a gun and demanded cash from the teller. Berkeley Police spokesperson Ed Galvan said the robber may be the same man who pulled similar heists at banks in Albany, El Sobrante and Fremont over the last two weeks. 

The robber is described as a white male in his early to mid 40s. He has blond hair, stands 5’6” tall, weighs about 150 pounds and sports a longer style mustache. 

Bank of America is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for his arrest and conviction. 

Galvan asked anyone with information on the robber to call his department’s robbery detail at 981-5742. 

Pistol-whipped 

A resident of the 2800 block of Ellsworth Street was startled Saturday morning when the knock on the door turned out to be a man bleeding from a head wound in need of help. 

As he later told police, the man had been pistol-whipped by a bandit who walked up to him and demanded cash. After telling the bandit he was carrying no money, the robber settled for his iPod instead. 

Note to readers 

The police blotter has been brief of late because the Berkeley Police Department hasn’t been posting many entries to its Daily Police Bulletins website. No entries were posted at all for the period between March 23 and April 1.

Fires damaged two Berkeley residences Friday night and almost killed a cat, while mudslides threaten to cut off three homes from emergency services, reports Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. 

Candle fire 

A thoughtless resident committed one of the BFD’s least favorite sins by leaving a candle burning unattended in a dwelling at 2340 Eighth St. 

Fire engines rushed to the scene after the resident called at 4:22 p.m. to report that the candle had fallen to the floor, where the burning wax ignited the carpet and burned through the floorboards. 

The blaze had self-extinguished by the time emergency workers had arrived, but not before doing an estimated $10,000 in damage to the structure and an additional $15,000 in harm to the contents. 

Never, ever, leave candles burning unattended, warns Orth. 

Eight lives left 

After an upstairs neighbor saw smoke pouring from the apartment below, firefighters rushed to 1521 Francisco St. 

Receiving no answer to their knocks, firefighters forced their way in to find that the resident had left a cardboard box partially atop a floor heater, resulting in the blaze. 

In the course of fighting the flames, firefighters discovered a cat collapsed in the apartment’s rear bedroom. A quick application of resuscitation skills brought the critter back from the brink. 

Orth estimated the damage to the structure at $20,000. 

Slide alert 

Rain-saturated soil has sparked a series of mudslides along Panoramic Way that threaten to isolate at least three homes at the upper reach of the roadway, Orth said Monday. 

“I’m sending out an e-mail to the Oakland and East Bay Regional Park District fire departments warning that we may lose our access,” Orth said. 

While the homes are located within Oakland city limits, the only regular road leading into them is Panoramic Way from Berkeley. While fire trails offer access in dry weather, Orth said he suspects that the main trail leading into the uppermost home may be impassible. 

An acacia tree along the roadway was also felled by the storm, but neighbors cleared enough of the debris to open one of the two lanes to traffic.d

The little red wagons have been swapped for grown-up soft coolers (still red), wagon operators have been replaced by food runners about twice as tall, and food portions are slightly larger, but everything else is about the same: Alternative High School students are receiving a free morning meal. 

On the heels of a successful pilot at Le Conte Elementary School, where students receive classmate-operated red wagon deliveries of trans fat-free, corn syrup-free breakfast food each morning, Alternative High School students are the latest recipients of the Berkeley universal breakfast program. 

Every morning at 8:45 a.m., a representative from each classroom picks up a freezer-sized cooler bag filled with fresh fruits, milk, fresh-baked muffins, organic cereal and other healthy comestibles, and carries the supplies back to classmates for a morning feast. Students eat while teachers take attendance and give announcements. 

Universal breakfast at the alternative school is part of a districtwide effort to encourage students to fill up on wholesome food in the morning. The program is predominantly funded through a federal grant and state reimbursements. 

“All kids should have a healthy start to their day, and not all kids get one,” said Ann Cooper, director of nutrition services for the Berkeley Unified School District. 

Cragmont and Washington elementary schools are expected to join the program in the next six weeks, she said. 

Alternative High School Health Specialist Joy Moore says many students don’t eat breakfast before coming to school. 

“We’re concerned that the kids come to school without eating, then rush to the liquor store at break,” she said, where they buy junk food like soda, packaged doughnuts and candy. 

On March 22, students at the alternative school ate their first free breakfast. When the Daily Planet visited the school Wednesday, about half the students were chowing down—and offering mixed reviews.  

“It’s O.K.,” said Duillermo Ronquillo, a senior, who consumed a muffin in just a few bites. “It could be better. It kind of looks like the food we got back in kindergarten when we got cookies and milk.” 

Wednesday’s meal included low-fat, hormone- and antibiotic-free milk, apples and muffins baked fresh from the Fullbloom Bakery. Another day during the week, students might get fresh scones, yogurt and juice, or foccacia, pears and milk.  

Mayra Marin, a senior, commended the pastries for keeping her alert during class.  

“It helps me stay awake,” she said. “It gives me energy.” 

History teacher Jorge Melgoza agreed the food helps keep students’ attention. 

“When they do eat, they focus,” he said. “Whereas before, they would just nod off.” On Wednesday, though, Melgoza was the only one in his class eating. 

Marcos Soto, a senior, wasn’t eating because he had munched on two doughnuts and chocolate milk before school. Lisette Cooper, a senior, had also already eaten breakfast, but she said she generally likes what the district serves. 

“It’s healthy for you, it’s not like we’re eating junk food,” she said. “If we didn’t have this, we’d be at the store buying chips or soda.” 

Food services assistant Sulma Zevallos said that about half the meals are coming back untouched. “But yesterday, one bag came back totally empty,” she said. 

Moore guesses students are still getting acclimated to the program and to a menu that may be different from what they’re used to eating. Also, she said some students were expecting a hot breakfast—pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage—and were mildly disappointed to see cold food only. Other students, like Ronquillo, complain the portions are “kid-sized.” 

But Moore is convinced their complaints indicate that the program is working. 

They went from having no breakfast to demanding a better breakfast,” she said. “They’re invested in the program.”

The Oakland City Council took its first formal look at the massive Oak Street to Ninth Street waterfront development project Tuesday night, hearing presentations both from the developers themselves and an overflow crowd of organizations and Oakland resi dents that spilled over into two downstairs hearing rooms at City Hall. 

Interest in the issue was so high that the clerk noted that 110 people filled out speaker card requests after coming to the meeting. That was in addition to representatives of several organizations that had consolidated their presentations to the Council in blocks of time. 

At issue is a 64-acre parcel of land that sits on Oakland’s estuary south of Jack London Square, bounded north and south by Fallon Street and 10th Avenue, and on the east by Embarcadero. 

The land is currently owned by the Port of Oakland. The proposed 3,100 residential unit, 200,000 square foot commercial space development would dwarf the 850 residential unit, 29,000 square foot commercial space Forest City devel opment currently underway in Oakland’s uptown area.  

One of the major issues of contention in the Oak To Ninth controversy is the developer’s proposal to destroy some 90 percent of the Ninth Avenue terminal, a 1,000 foot by 180 foot, 47 foot tall structu re built in 1930 by the Port of Oakland.  

Many local organizations and individuals want to preserve the terminal building. 

A study released last year by the University of California, Berkeley, City Planning 290E class, “Historic Preservation in Califor nia” noted that “few buildings along Oakland’s waterfront remain standing that capture the spirit of the Port of Oakland’s early history. As shipping methods have changed and modernization has occurred, the last vestiges of the historic working waterfro nt have been wiped away by new construction.” 

“Today, one of the last landmarks from this earlier era to survive is the Ninth Avenue Terminal,” the class study continued. “In fact, the Ninth Avenue Terminal is the last of the break-bulk terminals constructed as a part of the Port of Oakland’s massive modernization and improvement program during the later half of the 1920s. The Ninth Avenue Terminal is unparalleled in its importance to the built heritage of the Oakland Waterfront. This massive structure, constructed between 1929 and 1952, offers the community a variety of opportunities to create a lasting landmark and civic resource right alongside the San Francisco Bay.” 

While the initial CEQA study on the development was prepared almost two years ago, in the spring of 2004, and the project has been going through a series  

of public processes, including Environmental Impact Report scoping review, hearings before Oakland’s Design Review Committee, the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, as well as a series of small public meetings sponsored by the developer, public interest in the project is just beginning to mount. 

The development won Oakland Planning Commission approval on March 15th. It now faces a series of hurdles before City Council, including certification of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) report, amending the city’s landmark Estuary Policy Plan to accommodate proposed changes in the type and density of housing that the plan a llows, creating of new zoning for the area, and reaching an agreement with Oakland Harbor Partners, the creation of the homebuilders Signature Properties and Concord commercial developers Reynolds & Brown.  

Oakland Planning Director Claudia Cappio told C ity Councilmembers Tuesday night that the Oak To Ninth plan provides a “somewhat different vision of housing than is presently in the estuary plan.” 

The project has already needed special state legislature even to get this far. According to a report by W aterfront Action, an Oakland-based organization dedicated to public access to the city’s waterways, “under the provisions of the California State constitution, the Public Trust lands now located within the planned Oak to Ninth project cannot be used for h ousing and other non-trust uses. The project property includes over 75 percent Public Trust land, so the Port [of Oakland] arranged for Senator [Don] Perata to carry legislation to trade the ‘after acquired’ Public Trust lands within the Oak to Ninth are a for another site in Oakland of equal or higher value. The bill was approved by the Governor September 15, 2004.”  

At one point at Tuesday’s hearing, Oakland Harbor Partners president Michael Ghielmetti noted that both opponents and supporters of the de velopment had worn yellow t-shirts to the meeting with message announcing their respective positions. 

“I hope this is an omen that we can work out our problems,” Ghielmetti said. 

But consensus seemed far away, as representatives of such organizations as the Oak To Ninth Community Benefits Coalition blasted the proposal for everything from its affordable housing and public space provisions to its changes to the existing Estuary Policy Plan. 

Oak To Ninth coalition members said that they wanted an agreeme nt between the city and the developers for 20 percent onsite affordable housing, that the majority of that affordable housing be made up of two- and three-bedroom units for families with children, and that they be within reach of families with income unde r $50,000. 

The coalition also asked that construction of the project be set up so that 300 Oakland residents can be hired as building trades apprentices. 

Fernando Marti, an architect with Asian Neighborhood Design, wanted guarantees that the promised op en space in the project would actually be available to the public. 

“Who are all these parks and amenities for?” he asked. “Are they only going to be for the condominium owners, or are they going to be for all of Oakland?” 

That concern for open space was echoed by former Oakland City Councilmember John Sutter, who said he was “speaking on behalf of the Estuary Policy Plan,” which was adopted as part of Oakland’s General Plan in 1999 and is supposed to dictate what can and cannot be built along the city’s waterfront. 

“What good are the plans if we don’t follow them? The [Oak To Ninth] proposal does not follow the [Estuary Policy Plan] in so far as open space is concerned. The Estuary Plan calls for 35 acres of open space in this area. This [development] plan calls for about 21 acres of new open space.” 

His voice rising, Sutter told Councilmembers to “give us the parks that we were promised. Give us the parks that we voted for.” 

Sutter mentioned the passage of Measure DD, the 2002 water bond measure tha t called for new open space and public park development along Oakland’s waterfront area. 

And Steve Canada, a resident of 5th Avenue near the proposed project area, said, “I am not anti-development, but I have serious concerns about this development.” 

Canada said that he had come to several presentations by Oakland Harbor Partners “and I’ve seen different parts of this project get moved around like pieces on a Monopoly board. I’m concerned that this moving around will continue once this project receives council approval and the project is out of Council’s reach.” 

Infighting over the proposal has already reached City Council, even before Council began formal deliberations on the idea.  

Members of a Grand Lake area organization were circulating an e-mail earlier this week from 3rd District Councilmember Nancy Nadel, a candidate for Oakland mayor in the June elections. 

“I think the city and the port approached this project backwards,” Nadel wrote. “We should have done a specific plan and then found devel opers who would do what we want. When I asked the planning director why that wasn’t the process as outlined in the Estuary Plan, she said that it was less expensive for the city and port to ask the developer to do a plan. And that’s what they did. The res ult is a project that uses too much open space, has buildings that are too tall for the waterfront, tears down an historic building without studying whether it could have a good use, and minimally includes affordable housing. In its current state, it is not a good deal for Oaklanders. The developer will make 17% profit just on the land deal alone—we don’t know what additional profit will be made on the build-out.” 

Nadel’s e-mail concluded that “this is one of the last big parcels of public land and we shouldn’t just give it away.” 

Organization members were also circulating a response from District 2 Councilmember Pat Kernighan, who wrote, “There are certainly plenty of issues raised by the Oak to Ninth project, but I am getting the impression that to o much of the commentary is based on inaccurate facts. … Nancy is incorrect that the proposed project ‘tears down an historic building without studying whether it could have a good use,’ The staff report includes a 25 page, in-depth study of 5 reuse scenarios for the Ninth Ave. Terminal with projected costs and incomes. It concludes that none are financially feasible, but please read it for yourselves, analyze the numbers and draw your own conclusions.” 

Kernighan said that “I am still weighing the good and the bad on this project. There is a lot of information to consider. I understand that there will be divergent views on the value of the project, but let’s all at least get the facts before we make up our minds.” 

Photo by Stephan Babuljak 

Transmerdian Warehouses employee Thomas Ma cleans up water inside of the Ninth Avenue Terminal Building in Oakland. A UC Berkeley study called the structure unparalleled in its importance to the built heritage of the Oakland waterfront. 

Berkeley police arrested two suspects in the Saturday night murder of a father who was shot after he took a gun away from a party goer in his Prince Street home. 

Aderian “Dre” Gaines, 36, died in the bedroom of his home in the 1500 block of Prince Street after he was shot shortly after  

9:30 p.m. Saturday. 

A friend, identified only as “Nat” or Nathaniel, was also shot in the arm. Police have declined to give his name. “He doesn’t want it released,” said Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

The two suspects James Freeman, 29, and Antonio Harris, 18, were arrested in Oakland Wed-nesday, Galvan announced in a written statement. 

Harris, described by Galvan as “the identified shooter,” barricaded himself inside a home near 83rd Avenue and Olive Street in East Oakland after Berkeley Police arrived at the scene about 5 p.m. 

The Berkeley officers called in the Oakland Police Department SWAT Team, and “after a short standoff, Harris surrendered,” Galvan reported. 

Freeman was arrested without incident earlier in the day at an apartment on Kirkham Way in West Oakland by Berkeley homicides investigators, accompanied by a contingent from the BPD Barricaded Suspect Hostage Negotiation Team and Oakland officers. 

Harris was charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder. Freeman was booked on one murder count only. 

The murder occurred during a party at the Gaines home, where the family had been hosting events at which participants were charged for admission. 

Saturday night’s party was the celebration of a local student’s 15th birthday, and word of the event had circulated by cell phone text messages, police reported. 

The two suspects were identified as members of a group who, witness Natasha Jackson saiid, had demanded entry and threatened to kick down the door if they were refused. 

Jackson said she called for Gaines after seeing one of the guests, “a 29-year-old,” dancing with a pistol tucked into the waistband of his pants. 

Gaines took the pistol, which Jackson identified as a black nine-millimeter semiautomatic. 

“After Gaines kicked him out of the party, the suspect returned and shot Gaines to death,” Galvan reported. 

Gaines was slain in the front bedroom of the house and “Nat” was apparently shot near the back steps. 

The older man and the shooter then piled into a car along with eight others and fled the scene, Jackson and other witnesses reported. 

Jackson said the older man had many tattoos, including one that identified him as claiming West Oakland identity and another featuring a pistol. 

Party goers had to sign in, and they were also frisked for weapons, Jackson has said. Police took the sign-in sheets, which identified attendees by their geographical area. 

The fence outside the Gaines residence was marked by graffiti, including those of the “South Side Boys,” the name of a South Berkeley gang. Symbols for Oakland groups had been X-ed out. 

One neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said shots had been fired outside after an earlier party at the home, but Galvan was not available Thursday to confirm the account..

After almost five years of struggle between management and workers, peace has finally descended on the majestic Claremont Resort & Spa. 

Unite Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 2850 announced Monday that the hotel had finalized contracts wit h hotel and spa employees. 

Hotel workers had been without a contract since September 2001 when management blocked spa workers from joining the union. 

What changed, according to both workers and management, was the new hotel owner. Orlando, Fla.-based CN L Hotels & Resorts, Inc. bought the Claremont in 2004 from KSL Recreation Corp. CNL kept KSL on as the operator for one and one-half years until August when KSL was replaced by management from Interstate Hotels and Resorts. 

“With KSL, I came to work like I was coming to a war zone; there was a lot of stress,” said Fidel Arroyo, who has been a cook at the Claremont for 11 years. Each day Arroyo would think, “Maybe today is the day I lose my job.” 

But in August, the work environment for Arroyo and the other workers was transformed. 

“Immediately, with Interstate everything changed. They gave us a raise immediately,” he said. “And all the management inside the hotel started changing their attitudes.” 

Like Arroyo, Claremont General Manager Mike Czarcinski was in a celebratory mood. 

“I’m overwhelmed with joy,” he said, giving credit to the hotel owners for the positive outcome. “It’s not just Interstate that saw the light. It was the ownership changes to CNL.” 

The agreement raises the workers’ wages and l owers the amount they pay for benefits immediately and continues over the life of the contract. 

“By the end of the contract in 2009, we’ll be matched with the Marriott and Hilton (wages),” Huber said, adding that the new contract includes thousands of dollars in bonuses and retroactive pay. And the employers’ responsibility for paying for benefits increased significantly.  

Another union victory went to spa workers who were able to vote on whether they wanted to unionize. The vote that brought them into the union was held two weeks ago. 

For Arroyo the settlement means he gets just under a $2/hour wage hike over the next two and one-half years and his expenditure for benefits for his family plummets immediately from $250 to $80 and will end up at $25 by the end of the contract period. 

“With KSL we were just showing up for negotiations—it was a waste of time,” said Wei-Ling Huber, HERE Local 2850 vice president, who helped to mount support that included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a group of local clergy and a unanimous Berkeley City Council. 

There had been lively picket lines and what Huber called “a very successful boycott” of the hotel.  

That boycott has been called off.  

During the labor strife, Arroyo had paid a price for supporting the union. He was suspended from his job two different times. The first suspension came when he was leafleting in front of the hotel, but a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board got him reinstated. The second time he allowed a photo of himself and his family to be used on a union poster calling for the hotel boycott. After that, he was written up “for little things,” he said, and suspended for a week. But an appearance on a local radio show brought a flood of calls to the hotel. “The company had to bring me b ack,” he said. 

Czarcinski said he’s not thinking about the strife of the past. 

“Management is focused on the present and the future. The union and the Claremont are the winners,” he said, urging support for the hotel. “We want to be part of the Berkeley-Oakland community.””µ

A cautious Peralta Board of Trustees gave Chancellor Elihu Harris limited authority to explore the administrative takeover of the troubled Compton Community College District, but only after inserting language giving the board a greater say in the outcome. 

The controversial proposal passed on a 5-1-1 vote at Tuesday’s trustee meeting, with Trustee Nicky Gonzalez-Yuen abstaining because of disagreements over when Harris would be required to report back to the board, and Trustee Marcie Hodge voting no. 

Trustee William Riley said that he was “dumbfounded that out of 109 community colleges in the state, Peralta was the only one it came down to. It makes me wonder, if we were in the same situation as Compton, would somebody come to our aid? The way it looks now, nobody would.” 

Board President Linda Handy added “if not us” stepping in to help, “then who?” 

Handy said that while there were “still more questions than answers” about the proposed takeover, she said that she was confident that there was “a powerful team working on providing those answers.” 

She included Chancellor Harris and California Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally as members of that “powerful team.” 

And Vice President Bill Withrow said that while “we are still not at ease” about the proposal and “we don’t yet know what role we will be playing,” he said that “knowing [Chancellor Harris] like I do, I know that this will be a collaborative effort with both the Peralta and the Compton stakeholders.” 

Following the vote, Harris said that he would immed iately have his staff members begin meeting with Compton officials, faculty, employees, and students to hear their concerns about the proposed takeover. 

But while saying that the Peralta Federation of Teachers would support the administrative takeover “s o long as we can make sure that Peralta is not harmed in any way” and union rights in both districts are protected, PFT President Michael Mills blasted the state accreditation body whose actions have brought Compton College to the brink of closure. He sai d that the Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ actions in taking away Compton’s accreditation are unconscionable. 

“WASC is functioning as a star chamber,” he said. “The problem at Compton was being taken care of. The Board of Trustees was stripp ed of its power, and a trustee was appointed by the State Chancellor to oversee the district. We can understand WASC’s concerns over the financial problems at WASC, but that had nothing to do with quality of the academic content at the school. Don’t punis h the administrators and students. They didn’t do anything wrong. If the trustees broke the law, put those sons-of-bitches in jail. But why take away the college’s accreditation? Why is WASC’s actions continuing? Compton’s not the story. WASC is the story.”  

Compton, which operates a single college that had a 6,600 student enrollment in 2004, began its present round of problems in January of 2003, when reports of financial problems and irregularities were received by the office of State Community College Chancellor Mark Drummond. A year later, Drummond put the district on a Priority One watch list, installed a Special Trustee to run the college, and later suspended the trustee board itself. 

But Drummond’s actions apparently did not satisfy the Western A ssociation of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the same body that accredits the Peralta District colleges. 

Shortly after the state chancellor’s office took over operation of Compton, WASC stripped the district of its accreditation. Compton was allowed to rem ain open pending an appeal, but a denial of that appeal by WASC could mean the closure of the school as early as the end of the spring semester. 

A month ago, after several other state community colleges passed on the job, Drummond asked Peralta Chancello r Harris to explore the possibility of Peralta’s taking over administration of Compton College until the school is able to regain its accreditation.  

If Compton’s appeal of its accreditation removal is upheld, the takeover will not be necessary. 

At Tuesday’s Peralta trustee meeting, Chancellor Harris made an appeal for adoption of the resolution authorizing his office to explore the administrative takeover, saying that “many students in the Compton area will not be served if Compton College goes out of existence.” 

Stating that the state chancellor’s office has promised to pay Peralta’s administrative costs, and proposed legislation by California Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally (D-Los Angeles) “would create a firewall so that there will be no legal exposu re to Peralta,” Harris said that the administrative takeover “will allow us to do a good deed with no detriment to ourselves.” 

The chancellor was joined in his appeal to the trustees Tuesday night by Assemblymember Dymally and members of the Compton Coll ege staff. 

Dymally assured trustees that the takeover was envisioned only as a “temporary relationship,” and that he would consult Peralta officials and staff members to make sure that their concerns were addressed in his supporting legislation. 

But while Harris assured trustees that the resolution authorizing exploration of the administrative takeover “by no means signifies that this is a done deal or an agreement” and was requested by the state chancellor’s office only “to show that we intend to work with this process,” Peralta trustees balked at the resolution’s original language that some said earlier would have given Harris “carte blanche” to forge an agreement. 

Instead of authorizing Harris to “enter into” the agreement with Compton, board member s substituted language—co-written in intense negotiations over a 24 hour period by Board Vice President Bill Withrow and Trustee Cy Gulassa—to authorize Harris only to “explore the development” of those agreements. 

Gulassa said that under the original resolution “again we’re being asked to ‘trust me.’ We’ve been asked to ‘trust me’ too often, and ‘trust me’ can get you into trouble.” 

Gulassa called the amendments a “cautionary step backwards.” 

The resolution requires Harris to submit a final agreement to the trustee board “no later than June 30.” 

Shortly after Harris gave assurances to Gulassa that he would make periodic reports to the board and the public on the progress of the negotiations with Compton officials over the takeover, board members rejected an amendment by Trustee Gonzalez-Yuen that would have required Harris to submit the final agreement by May 23. 

Gonzalez-Yuen said he wanted the final proposal to be submitted prior to the end of June—widely-reported as the proposed closure date for Compton—because “I don’t want to have staff come here and say there’s no time for adjustments to the proposal, telling us ‘if you don’t vote for this exactly as it is, Compton is dead.’” Harris told trustees that the June 30 closure date was incorrect, an d that Compton could be closed any time WASC decides to upon rejection of the appeal. 

In announcing her opposition to the takeover, Trustee Hodge called the takeover proposal “dangerous and irresponsible. We cannot educate the world.” 

Saying that she fe ared that siphoning off Peralta resources to Compton “could jeopardize the educational mission at Peralta,” Hodge said she was concerned that “in two years, Peralta could be left bankrupt and holding the bag.” 

Asked following the vote for his position on the proposed Compton administrative takeover, Peralta District Academic Senate President Joseph Belinski said, “I don’t know. I need something in writing before I can react. My next step will be to ensure that the District Academic Senate is involved in the negotiations.” 

a

Oakland Police responding to a report of a car crash on Brookdale Avenue at 9:05 p.m. Tuesday found a 40-year-old Berkeley woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. 

Aberial Denise Bradley had apparently lost control of her late-model car after the shooting, and the vehicle slammed into a light pole. 

Oakland Police spokesperson Officer Roland A. Holmgren said Bradley was rushed to Highland Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 9:42 p.m. 

Holmgren was able to provide little additional information, but a published account said Bradley had dropped off her 9-year-old son with a relative a half hour before the shooting. Holmgren asked anyone with information about the crime to call Oakland Police at 238-3821..

Further tests are needed to determine just what killed a Berkeley man whose body was discovered in a burning car near his home at 1900 El Dorado Ave. early Friday morning. 

Kevin D. Shepard, 40, was a Spanish teacher, said Alameda County Coroner’s Supervising Investigator Cheryl Gibbs. 

Firefighters discovered the body after they were called to the scene to battle the blaze, which had been reported by neighbors. 

The body, which had been so badly burned that identification could only be determined by dental records, bore no obvious wounds. 

Gibbs said that though an autopsy was performed Monday, no cause of death has yet been established pending the outcome of additional tests..

What’s that old saying? There’s no such thing as a free, uh, wind turbine. 

It wasn’t the monetary costs associated with the gratis apparatus that worried City Councilmember Betty Olds at the March 21 meeting when the City Council faced the question of accepting the turbine. Olds’ concern was that, as has happened at the Altamont Pass wind farm in southeastern Alameda County, birds would be killed by the turbine’s whizzing blades. 

Moreover, Olds was afraid that by installing the electricity-generating equipment as a demonstration project at the Marina, the city would be promoting wind turbines, which would send the wrong message to the public.  

So Olds added a stipulation to which the council agreed: before accepting the Southwest Wind Power turbine, the Golden Gate Audubon Society would have to give its O.K. to the project. It did so on Wednesday, with a caveat—GGAS asked the city to monitor the turbine and to remove it if it killed birds. 

“We can’t be so scared by the technology that we don’t try,” said Patty Donald, coordinator of the Shorebird Nature Center at the Marina, where the turbine will stand. Donald is very enthusiastic about the project, because the wind turbine will add to the other “green” energy and building materials showcased at the center, which include solar electricity, radiant heating, natural linoleum floors, sustainable harvested wood and recycled glass countertops.  

“If it was chopping up birds—then we’d take it out,” Donald said. 

In confirming that the Audubon Society had given its O.K. and that the city would accept the turbine, Alice La Pierre, the city’s energy analyst, underscored that if birds were killed, the turbine would be removed. 

As for monetary costs, the city pays the piper—initially. The Southwest Wind Power turbine, valued at $5,500 retail, has been offered to the city without cost in exchange for the manufacturer running tests on the equipment. All Berkeley has to do is pay the $12,000 installation costs. The city will recuperate these funds over about 11 years. The turbine is expected to produce 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, a savings of about $1,100 every year.  

Southwest Wind Power marketing director Miriam Robbins said the city and SWP signed a confidentiality agreement regarding the wind turbine and declined to talk about the agreement. La Pierre said it had to do with the city not disclosing information about the company’s proprietary equipment. 

After the council meeting, Samantha Murray, conservation director for the Audubon Society, visited the proposed site near the Marina’s nature center and Adventure Playground. 

“Of course we’re very sympathetic with pursuing reusable energy,” Murray said. At the same time she said she is acutely aware of the avian deaths at Altamont Pass. She said she would caution against siting the turbine on a flight corridor.  

Donald said she’s been observing the site for 20 years and it isn’t on a migratory path for birds. Moreover, the proposed turbine would be 40 feet high. 

“Birds don’t migrate at 40 feet,” she said. 

The bad rap for wind turbines comes from the experience at Altamont Pass, where, according to a Southwest Wind Power report, there are more than 6,500 turbines sited along a migratory route for birds.  

At Altamont Pass there have been more birds of prey killed than at any other wind facility in North America, according to the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. 

“Research by raptor experts for the California Energy Commission indicates that each year, Altamont Pass wind turbines kill an estimated 881 to 1,300 birds of prey, including more than 75 golden eagles, several hundred red-tailed hawks, several hundred burrowing owls, and hundreds of additional raptors including American kestrels, great horned owls, ferruginous hawks, and barn owls,” according to the center’s website.  

While La Pierre pointed out that two local owners of windmills say they have never had a bird killed, Murray of the Audubon Society said one cannot assume that birds haven’t been killed, just because the remains of dead birds haven’t been seen.  

Before giving its O.K., the Audubon Society consulted experts in the field, according to La Pierre. With the organization’s blessing, the city does not need further council approvals to move ahead with installation of the wind turbine.  

“The Audubon Society wants us to monitor the project and we will,” La Pierre said. 



Oakland teachers will hold a one-day strike April 20 if contract talks fail to lead to a settlement, the union announced yesterday. 

“The school employees of this district do not want to strike, but we have to set a deadline. We have to send a message . . . that we want this contract settled,” said Ben Visnick, president of the Oakland Education Association, which represents 3,200 educators in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). 

For two years, the union has been engaged in a bitter fight with the school district over contract negotiations. Talks are currently stalled due to disagreements on healthcare and teacher prep time. 

Union members voted on March 22, 1,054 to 330, to authorize the strike. Visnick hopes setting a strike date will hasten the settlement process.  

At press time, no talks were scheduled, Visnick said. 

The union is urging district negotiators to follow a fact-finding report released in January that said the district can afford to pay for the union’s healthcare and preparation period requests. 

Currently, the union is pressing for a healthcare program where members contribute half a percent of their salaries toward insurance premiums. The district is offering to split the cost of future health benefit increases. 

The union is also asking for staffed elementary school teacher preparation time that’s paid for through the district’s general fund. The district wants to support those periods through school site categorical funds. 

Other union concerns include support of guidance counseling, substitute teacher pay and processes for transferring teachers to different schools in the district. 

District spokesperson Alex Katz said the district made significant strides toward meeting the union’s requests with an offer last week. The ball is in the union’s court to submit a counter-proposal, he said.  

“It’s sort of coming out of left field for them to announce a strike a month from now when we have a proposal on the table,” he said.  

If an agreement is not reached, the school district’s classified employees will unite with teachers in a walkout, Visnick said. Classified employees, including secretaries and security officers, are also waging war against the school district over contracts.  

Schools will have to close if this happens, Visnick said. 

Katz countered that the schools will stay open. 

Oakland teachers last went on strike in 1996. 

The union representing 6,000 San Francisco public school employees voted Wednesday to authorize a strike, calling into question the possibility of a joint Oakland-San Francisco strike.  

“Both unions would be stronger in their work action if we strike together,” Visnick said. “We hope it doesn’t come to that, but it is a possibility.” 

Explaining why he wants to run for mayor, Richard Berkeley paraphrased Emiliano Zapata: “The only reason to take power is to give it back to the people,” he said. 

Berkeley turned in organizational papers to the city clerk on Wednesday. When a minor error on the form he filled out is corrected, Berkeley will be eligible to raise funds for his campaign. 

He will face incumbent Mayor Tom Bates and other challengers, who include former Planning Commissioner Zelda Bronstein and community activist Zachary RunningWolf. The formal filing period for the November elections begins mid-July and ends mid-August. 

Berkeley says he’s running for office because current local and federal governments leave poor people out of the equation.  

In the past, Berkeley says he has worked closely with people and organizations that serve the disenfranchised and enhance neighborhoods: The Berkeley Food Conspiracy, the Berkeley Co-ops, the Berkeley Farmers Markets, and former Councilmember John Denton. He also worked on the North Berkeley Area Plan. 

Berkeley said he would like to do something about health care services for the poor. 

“You have to take two buses to get health care,” he said. “Community services should be where the poor are—if you’re poor, you’re in trouble.”  

If elected, Berkeley said he would find out what people want. 

“I would send people out to the neighborhoods with questionnaires to put people in touch with neighborhoods.” 

Berkeley, who calls himself “an old Jewish guy from New York,” says his last name is truly Berkeley, though it was changed by his father from Berkowitz..

The downpour didn’t stop some 30 people from searching for “sunshine”—open, accessible government—at a community meeting in City Hall Monday evening.  

Councilmember Kriss Worthington called the meeting to gather citizen input for a strong mandate for open government in Berkeley.  

The councilmember said he plans to use the citizen input to correct and enhance what he characterized as a “weak” draft sunshine ordinance written by the city attorney.  

Sunshine laws, which exist in San Francisco, Oakland, Contra Costa County, Benicia, Los Angeles and elsewhere, are local ordinances that strengthen state and federal open meeting and public information statutes. 

Opening more police records to the public, getting the library board to meet at a time when the public can participate, disallowing lawsuit settlements made before the public has a chance to see the agreements, permitting all who wish to address city officials at public meetings the right to do so. These were just a few of the issues brought to the table. 

“Democracies die behind closed doors,” said 40-year Berkeley resident Peter Sussman, quoting a judge who was speaking in secret deportation hearings. A newspaper and book editor and open government activist with the Society of Professional Journalists, Sussman gave an overview of the need for local sunshine laws. 

He pointed out that in the five years since a sunshine ordinance was first raised in Berkeley the city has made progress, especially in augmenting public information available on the city web site. 

Ensuring compliance with the sunshine ordinance will be key. 

“Commissions in San Francisco and Oakland monitor compliance,” Sussman said.  

The Berkeley city attorney’s draft, on the other hand, says that if citizens believe that the Sunshine Ordinance has been violated, they need to take their complaints to the city manager for relief. 

“There’s a lot of work left to do, because the people who decide what you should know are the very people about whom you’re trying to get information,” Sussman said. “So we’re leaving the fox in charge of the chicken coop.” 

Worthington said the task is two-pronged. One is strengthening and refining existing laws that guarantee open government and the second is educating the public about these laws. 

In a recent case, Worthington said, a commissioner on the Zoning Advisory Board shared a draft proposal with the public that was going to be reviewed by a ZAB subcommittee. He was chastised by his fellow commissioners for making the draft public. 

“We actually don’t need a sunshine ordinance to address that—it’s already state law,” Worthington said. “That person is required by law to give that information to the public.”  

Andrea Prichett of Berkeley’s Cop Watch said the city’s current system for providing police records is inadequate—it’s hard for a suspect to get arrest reports without an attorney, she said, and then when they get them, the reports are not those originally written by the officer, but a summary of the officer’s report, written by a supervisor. Also, the reports are heavily redacted, Prichett said. Prichett often works with people who are arrested and then have their charges dropped. Detailed police reports are particularly important in these cases, she said. 

Worthington pointed out that in the city attorney’s draft ordinance, the public has little power over public information available from the police department. 

Police can change public information policies at any time only “subject to advance public notice and review by the Police Review Commission,” the draft ordinance says. 

Participants also said any new ordinance should target all of the city’s boards and commissions. Worthington said the library board is particularly egregious in this area, having changed its meeting time to 5 p.m. “when working people can’t attend,” and listing items as oral reports on agendas, then taking action on them. 

Dean Metzger, Zoning Adjustment Board member, said something has to be done to prevent items coming to the City Council at the last minute and Carl Friberg said legal settlements should be made available to the public before the council votes on them. 

Worthington plans to compile the suggestions and turn them over to a volunteer attorney experienced in drafting sunshine ordinances. He will then propose a City Council workshop to review the draft, make final changes and then bring it to the council for a vote. If the council doesn’t approve it, he says he’ll bring it to the electorate, as was done in San Francisco. 

Those interested in raising issues for the ordinance can contact Worthington’s office at 981-7170 or worthington@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

There is simply nothing like a freshly harvested homegrown vegetable for flavor. That easiest of all vegetables to grow, the humble radish, is absolutely at its tastiest best when pulled from the ground in spring, given a good scrub under the kitchen tap, and eaten then and there. Pungent, crisp, it is the very essence of spring. 

One might well ask, spring? Even with frost lying thickly on garage roof and ground, wilting the cabbages? The fact is that radishes do not seem to mind a touch of frost, even a heavy-handed one. Still, I confess to a couple of trade secrets. 

First, I sowed the plump seeds last fall, so that they could dawdle through the dark months, with little spurts of growth in mild weather. And I had lots of help from my Wriggly Wranch, tiny red worms from the compost bin. 

I was given a handful of these creatures about two years ago, and ordered a set of trays in which they were supposed to live. I placed the trays in the kitchen, and provided the worms with the materials they were said to like—shredded leaves, a little earth for grit, and kitchen trimmings. In theory, when the bottom tray materials had been consumed, the worms would move into the tray above, leaving behind compost. 

This did in fact work, but I was concerned that whenever I removed the lid, a cloud of midges arose. The legs of the tray set had to stand in cans of water or oil to keep out ants. Altogether the system did not help my constant struggle for a life of simplicity and ease. So I chucked the lot into my outdoor compost bin and hoped the wriggly worms would survive. 

Before sowing the radish seeds I groveled into the bottom of the compost bin and amazingly came up with a couple of pails of the dark crumbly stuff one reads about in gardening books. I tossed this o n to the vegetable plot, spreading it thinly. When a couple of weeks later I dug it under, I was surprised to find the normally heavy texture of the earth, the tilth, had miraculously become ideal for seeds, so I sowed carrots and beets as well. Sowing radishes sparingly, about four inches apart, saves the bother of later thinning. When crowded, they tend to send up flower stalks rather than plump their roots. 

Saying that radishes are easy to grow is not strictly truthful. I here confess that this is my first, my only success. Yet in the weedy patch of my garden euphemistically called the meadow, radishes grow wild. These have coarse leaves and thick gnarled stems appropriate for their common name which derives from the Latin radix, for root, and when th ey look about to take over everything else, I remove a few. I do so reluctantly, because all through the summer and well into fall they produce delicate flower petals of pastel yellows, pinks, ivory and purple, visited by butterflies and even hummingbirds. These are edible, and so are the leaves and seed pods when green. The ancients made oil from them. With just about every part of them of use, I look on them fondly, as a potential famine crop. You never know. 

In the cruciferae family, radish, Raphanus sativus, is described variously as having no known wild ancestor, or as deriving from China. Either way, it is truly prehistoric, known to the ancients. There is little doubt that Apollo enjoyed them. Radishes were presented to him in gold containers, bee ts in silver, and turnips in lead, a truly Olympian distinction. Numerous varieties grow all year in Mediterranean climates like ours. They come in all shapes and sizes, from fat ‘Round Black Spanish’ to cylindrical ‘China Rose’ and the small red or red a nd white ones I grow. 

Radishes contain measurable amounts of the B and C vitamins. Along with green celery and black olives, they are an essential component of that quintessential American dish, the relish plate. Worthy of gold in the speed with which the seeds germinate and their ease of handling, they are fun for junior gardeners to grow and sample on the spot. And if your brood prefers to emulate Luna Lovegood and wear them as earrings, they’ll still need a good wash first. 

On March 15, Berkeley police seized 120 pounds of dried marijuana, more than 5,000 plants, $120,000 cash and several weapons from a growing outfit headquartered at 809 Allston Way in West Berkeley. 

Seven people were apprehended in connection with the operation. It was the largest pot bust in the department’s recent history. 

But was it legal? 

A skim through Sec. 12.24 of the Berkeley Municipal Code would yield a resounding no. 

In 1979, Berkeley voters passed the Berkeley Marijuana Initiative II (BMI II), an ordinance that makes the possession, cultivation, sale and transportation of marijuana the police department’s lowest priority. The law is on the books today.  

BMI II calls on the Berkeley City Council to ensure that officers do not issue citations, make arrests or expend public funds on pot crimes. The ordinance further stipulates that all marijuana law enforcement activities must be reported to the City Council and the Police Review Commission on a semi-annual basis. 

A reader raised the legal conundrum in the March 24 issue of the Berkeley Daily Planet.  

“The recent pot bust in Berkeley was not merely a massive waste of police resources—it violated city law,” said Attorney Martin Putnam in a letter to the editor. 

Putnam is the parent of one of the suspects arrested March 15, and he may have spoken too soon. 

That’s because before BMI II, there was BMI I. Voters passed the first initiative in April of 1973, forbidding police from making arrests for pot crimes unless cleared by the City Council. The California Attorney General promptly challenged the law. Four months later, in Younger v. Berkeley City Council, an Alameda County Superior Court dealt initiative activists the death knell: The city must allow Berkeley police to enforce marijuana laws. 

In his ruling, Judge Lionel Wilson struck down the ordinance for modifying laws governing a police officer’s right to make arrests, preempting state marijuana laws and violating city code that gives the City Manager discretion over police personnel—not the City Council.  

The city has interpreted the decision as a permanent entity. In 1980, a defendant arrested for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana filed for a case dismissal, citing BMI II. A municipal court judge roundly rejected the motion, upholding the precedent that state marijuana and arrest laws preempt local law. Deputy City Attorney Matt Orebic said he has not heard of any other legal challenges to the 1973 verdict. 

That’s not to say the ordinance is unbending, though. Following passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, which allows for the use and cultivation of medicinal marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, Berkeley established guidelines allowing patients to use, possess and cultivate a small amount of marijuana for “personal medical purposes.”  

As a result, the city interprets Wilson’s ruling as applying only to unlawful marijuana. But 5,000 plants and 120 pounds of pot grown are still game for seizure, as is an eighth from a non-medical street dealer on Telegraph Avenue. 

So if the ordinance doesn’t carry any weight, why keep it around?  

For one thing, Orebic said, there aren’t any procedures in place for getting rid of it. 

“There are sometimes old laws on the books that have been banged around by the courts and just sit there,” he said. “Just because a court rules something unenforceable, it doesn’t require the legislature to take it off the books.” 

Dale Gieringer, coordinator of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) guesses it’s a political piece.  

“It’s not a legally enforceable kind of thing, it’s politically enforceable,” he said, pointing out that one facet of the law that remains intact is a requirement to report the activities of police officers apropos marijuana law enforcement. The upshot is that when there is a spike in pot-related arrests, as was the case several years ago following a crackdown on Telegraph Avenue, Gieringer said, people know about it and raise hell accordingly.  

The marijuana ordinance also pays lip service to what Berkeley’s pot policy would look like if not bound by other local, state and federal laws.  

“These lowest priority ordinances in my opinion don’t have any teeth,” said Bill Panzer, an Oakland-based criminal defense lawyer specializing in pot crimes. “But it is a policy point. It shows what the people believe. Now it’d be nice if the police took into account where the people are at.” 

Rain. Rain. And more rain. We have sure had a lot of it this spring. Around the bay, March’s 31 days produced from 22 to 25 days of rain, depending on where you were standing when you counted, breaking records going all the way back to the middle of the 19th century. The total amount of rain in March set records too, ranging from 7.22 inches at the usually warm and sunny Oakland airport to 8.74 inches in San Francisco, always somewhat damper than the East Bay. And the prediction is that it won’t let up for a while. 

In the face of so much weather, it’s not hard to believe what they’ve been telling us about climate change. No scientific authority, in the reports I’ve read, is attributing last month’s record rainfall specifically to climate change, but all of the dire reports of the melting of the polar ice cap have led to informal speculation across back fences that what we’re seeing might be the forerunner of worse to come. Some, of course, notably the ostriches who hold the power in Washington at the moment, pretend not to believe that climate change is in our future, but they’re in a shrinking minority. 

Among those who keep up with such things, there are now at least three schools of thought, not just two. Politically minded optimists continue to preach that individual action can make a difference. The Ad Council last week launched a new series of television spots, in partnership with Environmental Defense (formerly known as the Environmental Defense Fund) to promote personal attitude change in response to perception of threat—a direct confrontation with the administration’s “it’s not happening” stance. They show a man in front of a speeding train who steps aside just in time to avoid being hit, but reveals a little girl standing behind him. “There’s still time,” the ad says.  

But some scientists are not so optimistic, as reported by Seth Borenstein for the Associated Press: 

“There are limits, experts say, to how much individuals can do. The best we can hope for is to prevent the worst—world-altering disasters like catastrophic climate change and a drastic rise in sea levels, say 10 leading climate scientists interviewed by the Associated Press. They pull out ominous phrases like ‘point of no return.’”  

Americans are culturally optimistic. They need and want to believe that they can shape the future, so doomsday predictions have never found a big audience. That’s why ad campaigns about how people can reduce the dangers of climate change are going to be popular. According to the AP report, “Despite what scientists say, 70 percent of Americans believe it’s possible to reduce the effects of global warming, and 59 percent think their individual actions can help, according to a poll commissioned by Environmental Defense as part of its public service campaign. Climate scientists find themselves in the delicate position of trying to balance calculations that lead to scientific despair with an optimistic public’s hope.” 

The Bay Area’s dominant progressive political culture leans toward bigger and better band-aids: Motorcycle parking on Telegraph! Ever-more refined trash sorting! Organic produce from Chile! New Priuses for city employees! Windmills on the waterfront! What we lack in conventional religious affiliation we make up for with belief in our power to change outcomes by local or personal pious behavior. Pursuing this train of thought too far will inevitably produce a barrage of angry letters from Berkeley zealots, but perhaps it’s time to face the fact that just about the only chance Americans have of affecting the inexorable progress of climate change is serious major political change, and this needs to happen immediately at the national and international level. 

In a major policy speech on Monday, Senator Barack Obama got it right: “…there’s a reason that some have compared the quest for energy independence to the Manhattan Project or the Apollo moon landing. Like those historic efforts, moving away from an oil economy is a major challenge that will require a sustained national commitment.”  

The current national administration’s total abdication of responsibility for looming climate disaster is yet another example (like the messes we’ve made in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Medicare prescription screw-up and many more) of why Americans need to work as hard as we can for national regime change, and why just “think global, act local” won’t cut it any more. We need to do whatever we can as fast as we can, and on the national level, even, perish the thought, skimping on some of the time we devote to household recycling if necessary.  

The Environmental Defense commercial’s image of the runaway train is even more apt if it’s taken as a metaphor for where this country has been going in the last six years. A country as big and as powerful as the United States of America cannot be allowed to roll along any longer with no one in the engineer’s cab. Even Republicans are starting to realize that, as they contemplate the burgeoning national debt. 

B

Last week I pulled an unopened box of shredded wheat off the top shelf in our pantry to offer to grandchildren, and happened to notice that its “sell by” date was 2003. That’s how long it’s been since I visited that shelf, and, not coincidentally, that’s how long we’ve been running this paper. Many things in our lives stopped when this enterprise started. The relentless pressure of twice-weekly deadlines, coupled with the never-ending minutiae of running an understaffed small business, leaves little time for frivolous entertainments like eating shredded wheat.  

The first issue of the revived Berkeley Daily Planet came out on April 1, 2003, an amusing date which is also the anniversary of the city charter. For literature majors of my generation, T.S. Eliot was hands-down the poet most taught and most read in academia, and few of us turn the calendar page to April without thinking of the first lines of “The Waste Land”:  

April is the cruelest month, breeding 

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 

Memory and desire, stirring  

Dull roots with spring rain. 

For a bred-in-the-bone Californian, these lines are perhaps less poignant, but those of us who have spent any time in places where everything dies in winter can’t fail to be moved by them. April is the month of hope, cruel because the hope is inevitably touched by nostalgia and anxiety.  

What were our hopes for the Planet three years ago? Here’s part of it: 

“Local coverage well done can give local citizens the information they need to take responsibility for the actions of local government.” Have we succeeded in this goal? Some would say we’ve succeeded too well, since we’ve just lost one of our liveliest writers to participation in the political process. There’s certainly been more talk about what local governments, not only Berkeley’s but those of our neighbors north and south, are up to. But has it affected their actions? Have outcomes been altered? That’s not clear. 

As we were launching, the Fine Arts Theater was being demolished, and the UC Theater stood empty. Despite the developer’s pious and hypocritical promises that Fine Arts would be rebuilt, neither theater has been revived as a film venue. This week we’ve heard that another Berkeley movie house, the Landmark Act 1&2, is closing. Could the Berkeley city government have done anything to prevent this, or are we simply at the mercy of international economic forces which are destroying local movie houses everywhere?  

This is just one example. There’s a host of other failures and missed opportunities for government responsibility in other arenas which the paper has chronicled but not yet affected. Thanks to the Planet, citizens have learned about the infinite variety of casinos being foisted on the East Bay, but have they been stopped? Will the Albany shore be turned into a hideous and vulgar shopping center?  

Is it worth the time and effort it takes to shine a little light on what’s going on for our readers?  

And would it have been worth it after all….? asked Eliot’s Prufrock.  

Many of our readers live very comfortable lives despite the storms raging around us. Northern California is as close to paradise on earth as makes no difference. Berkeley has become Valhalla for many successful warriors who have made their mark elsewhere. They’ve moved to Berkeley (or just “winter” in Berkeley) to live peacefully in some Maybeckian eyrie in the hills, venturing out occasionally to one of our many exquisite restaurants, submitting to an occasional interview by a member of the Eastern media in a lovely hillside garden. For readers like this, the daily struggles of flatland readers with congestion and pollution as chronicled in these pages must seem remote. It must be hard for them to imagine the indignation felt by those whose major neighborhood open space is the BART parking lot, now coveted as a development site by those who profit from the building process.  

But for all of us here, in hills and flats alike, there’s a constant temptation to abandon today’s fray in whatever way we can afford, to enjoy whatever serenity and comfort we can manage. For many, it’s mostly in our much-maligned Back Yard, a place of refuge—but only until it’s assaulted by someone who wants to shadow it with a big ugly building. And we get the same anguished complaints from hill-dwellers who face losing a precious view. 

It’s a shame that Eliot died before hyperlinks were available. “The Waste Land,” his central work, is loaded with allusions, some of which are modestly footnoted, but he could have gone wild with modern tools for connecting the dots. He quotes there a line of Baudelaire’s which is a favorite of mine. I think of it frequently when I’m at any gathering of Berkeley notables, or when I’m reading the letters to the editor in the Planet:  

“…hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon frere..” (Hypocritical reader, my look-alike, my brother.) 

The paper has had a spate of letters recently from self-righteous people who challenge other residents’ rights to defend their own little corner of the earth, hollering NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) as if it were an insult instead of the rallying cry of the Love Canal victims. As an Ashby Avenue resident of 35 years, I can’t help being offended myself by the writer who is more than willing to add to the enormous traffic burden that those of us who live on this residential street carry (probably at significant risk to our health) just so that he can have a cheap grocery store in his own back yard. But that’s what the paper is for, to put all kinds of ideas out in the open for scrutiny and challenge, even though some of them are offensive to some of us some of the time. It all comes down to a question of whose ox is being gored, or whose backyard is being invaded.  

y

Peralta Trustee Alona Clifton was misquoted in the March 28 issue of the Planet. She said “Compton is the closest we have in California to a historically-black community college,”not “Compton is the only historically-black community college we have in California.”  

In the same article, Mervyn Dymally was identified as a California State Senator. Dymally served in the California State Senate in the 1960s, and was later elected to the United States Congress. After retiring from Congress, he was elected to the California State Legislature as an Assemblymember, where he now serves.n

BERKELEY BOWL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Bravo to Steve Donaldson for his letter published in the March 28-30 edition commenting that “the approval of the West Berkeley Bowl has turned into an absurd saga, strung out over two years by a handful of people wit h the money and time to use the system for their own personal agendas and ignoring the needs of the local community.” I am part of the community and I can attest that it has become a virtual nightmare to drive to the Shattuck Berkeley Bowl. There is insan e traffic, pollution created by the overabundance of cars and even though the clerks are very efficient, the lines are extremely long. Why not spread the wonderful advantages of fresh inexpensive produce and other goods to people who really need those ser vices in the West Berkeley area and relieve the congestion existing in the south Berkeley neighborhood? I would not blame the owners of Berkeley Bowl to give up and go somewhere other than Berkeley rather than fight this idiotic bureaucracy. 

Andree Leenaers Smith 

• 

DERBY FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The letter by Susi Marzuola (March 31) which compares the amount of asphalt in the closed-Derby field vs. the open-Derby field avoids the real issue: The Berkeley High School baseball team does not have an adequate home field. The BUSD has committed to rectify this situation. It needs to have Derby street closed so that a regulation baseball field can be part of the multi-purpose field. 

The open-street plan which came out of a public process is only an int erim measure. I attended this meeting and that is what all participants were told. Proponents of closing Derby were told that we couldn’t discuss that aspect of the plan that night. The meeting was to get input from the community for the first phase of th e project (demolishing existing structures and making the property usable while awaiting funding for the next phase) and that nothing would be built that would preclude future closing of the street for the purpose of adding baseball as one of the uses for the facility. Apparently BUSD has decided to try to move directly to the final phase of development of their property, as it is needed now and would be the most cost effective way. 

If BUSD is not allowed to close Derby now they will try again later. It is a matter of money and political will and will not go away until the kids in the BHS baseball program are finally afforded a suitable facility that includes them. The open-Derby plan specifically marginalizes these kids and it hurts them. Attend any cou ncil meeting that affects this project and you can see and hear from them yourselves. 

It appears from my viewpoint that opponents of closing Derby have entrenched themselves into a position of “I don’t care about the BHS baseball team and I will fight al lowing baseball on this site with every resource available.” If that position could be modified to “I’m willing to accept kids baseball on the site but I don’t want night or adult baseball, locked fields, PA systems, etc.. and I do want a place for the Farmers’ Market and I have concerns about parking, etc…” then maybe a compromise can be achieved. 

The battle over this issue is being waged in a way that will lead to one group losing. We need to solve the problem of no BHS baseball home field while being sensitive to the needs of the neighbors. I’m sure that there is a way for kids to practice and play baseball in a facility that enhances the neighborhood that it is in. Let BUSD know what those enhancements need to be and maybe we can all be winners. 

Ed M ahley 

• 

US AND THEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Despite intense, expanding and irresolvable conflict regarding illegal immigration, so called, no one seems aware that the issue springs from a very basic tribal instinct.  

It is blithering idiocy for grown me n, legislators no less, to talk about constructing a wall to seal our “porous southern border.” It is sanctimonious nonsense to wave the “nation of immigrants” banner, a hallowed ideal contradicted by slavery, the Alien Sedition Acts (1789), the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), the Walter McCarren Act (1952). It makes me vomit to hear “true Americans” plead for sympathy for Hispanics who come here to do work Americans are unwilling to do, as if these folks, filled with brotherly love, leave their homes just to help us get things done. How does one account for such nonsense? 

A world populated by a single human being is hardly conceivable. A world in which all humans are identical is conceivable but sterile. Fortunately, in the real world humans are vastly di fferent and this makes it not only expedient but necessary that we self-identify. 

Basic to our nature is the need to be of a certain kind, a phenomenon referred to by David Berreby in his recent book Us and Them (Little Brown and Company, 2005) as origin ating in “our tribal minds.”  

Each of us must, per force, locate ourselves in a group, a collection with whose members we share some common attribute. Each human being belongs to an Us group—family, teacher, male, cleric, invalid, parent, etc. The compos ition of any Us group depends on the attribute that defines it. Anyone who is not one of Us belongs to the non-Us group and gets referred to with scornful disdain as being one of Them. “What do They want, anyway?” “Who speaks for Them?” played like motifs during the Civil Rights Movement. 

Us groups come in many kinds, some permanent and involuntary like nationality, some temporal and voluntary like student; their number and nature are limitless. All Us groups, however, are essentially exclusionary and superior in everyway to non-Us members—We’re better than they. 

We are told that our nation has 12 million illegal immigrants. Although that’s an uncommonly large non-Us group it’s nowhere near as large as Us. In fact, there are 25 times more of Us than of Them. 

Who do they think they are, anyway? 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is in response to Richard Brenneman’s false fact that there is a South Berkeley gang called the “South Side Boys.” I am 18 years old, grew up i n Berkeley and, on behalf of the youth of Berkeley, there is no South Side Boys. It was mistaken for the letters S.S.B., which stand for South Side Berkeley.  

Justin Davis 

• 

NAIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Unwisely, Harry Weininger (“In Praise of Jewish People,” March 28) seems to derive his identity from the group he belongs to. We Jews, as with all classifications of human-groups, have our praise-worthy members and, of course, the not so admirable in our ranks as well. Naively, Weininger skips over this reality, mentioning only being perplexed with some Jews who seem to “buy into anti-Semitism,” apparently his only possible answer to such self-criticism.  

Many of us, though not denying these worthy attributes, hear such listed praises of one’s own group as a claim to superiority, or as degrading others; enforcing the very world dissension he is attempting to dispel. Harry Weininger could use his writing proficiency to unite people instead; perhaps noting the similarity of human endeavors, fears, and des ires.. 

We are not responsible for our identity at birth, but we can claim our pride, or at least insight, for the individual we can become.  

Gerta Farber 

• 

RICHMOND PLUNGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I appreciated the article on the Richmond Plunge. My firs t memory of a swimming pool, at age three, are of the Plunge. This was in 1940. It was very magical to a 3-year-old.  

There was an error in your article. It named Todd Jeremy as the clever architect who figured out how to reduce costs of restoring the Pl unge. The Richmond Plunge web site identifies the architects as, Todd Jersey Architecture and Ron Gammill, architect. Perhaps Mr. Jersey and Mr. Gammill could perform the same cost savings for the restoration or rebuilding of Warm Pool at Berkeley High Sc hool.  

Nancy Bartell 

• 

INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley’s crucial November general election process, (along with Oakland and San Leandro) is now in the hands—literally—of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the Board’s coun sel or attorney’s office. The reason for this situation is connected to the 2004 passage of Berkeley Measure I that mandates all future elections use instant runoff voting (IRV), or “ranked choice voting.” 

Instant runoff voting is an enhanced, highly dem ocratic voting process that is transforming local, municipal and county elections across California and the United States. Berkeley voters passed the 2004 IRV ballot measure by a 72 percent landslide. 

In November 2004, San Francisco successfully used IRV voting to elect that city’s Board of Supervisors, Board of Education and other candidate offices. In February 2006, the City of Burlington, Vermont—the state’s capital and largest city—used IRV voting to elect that city’s new mayor. IRV is widely used in the U.K., Ireland and Australia. Bills permitting IRV voting are now pending in several U.S. state legislatures.  

Meanwhile, the East Bay cities of Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro have each incorporated IRV voting provisions for use in future elections. According to Measure I, Berkeley must implement IRV for the city’s next general election in November 2006.  

In a nutshell, IRV enables a voter to rank his or her preferred candidates by marking the ballot with a simple “one, two, three” ranking (next to each candidate’s name). If three candidates are on a ballot, after votes are tabulated, the last ranked candidate is dropped and his or her votes transferred to the next favored candidate until one candidate receives at least 50.1 percent.  

IRV voting avoids the need for a second, separate runoff election 30 days after the first election, saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also, if five or six candidates seek one elected office, IRV avoids one candidate winning with only 20 or 25 perce nt of the total votes cast—the least democratic means of winning a multi-candidate contest. On March 13, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, on behalf of the City Council and the city’s voters, sent a request to the Alameda County Supervisors and the board’s counsel. Currently, the City of Berkeley is anticipating a legal opinion—to be rendered by the Alameda County Counsel’s office—on Berkeley’s IRV election status.  

Once the counsel’s office renders a decision, Berkeley is prepared to move forward expeditiously to arrange IRV voting for the November election. The timeline, however, to arrange IRV in time for the November election is very narrow.  

It is critical that the supervisors and its counsel act with all deliberate speed to enable Berkeley and other East Bay cities to prepare their polling stations with IRV-compatable voting machines, and uphold each city’s respective voter mandates. It is important that each city’s democratic process be respected.  

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

AMERICAN DREAM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It has always puzzled me that this country wants many new children to be born, but turns its back on them in terms of medical care, education, and housing. Berkeley’s current version of “eat your young” keeps young people from buying homes in Berkeley w ith it’s housing policies that make it impossible for young families and first-time home buyers to acquire their piece of the American dream: home ownership.  

Berkeley now has a glut of rental housing, with literally thousands of new units either built or under construction by the university, private developers, and “not-for-profit” developers taking advantage of city subsidies. A sensible condo conversion process would not negatively impact the market at all, as our real crisis in housing is the dearth of affordable ownership opportunities.  

All of the city’s rental investment subsidies go toward building new units—not rehabbing neglected old properties. Instead of policies that promote upgrading or care of our unique older housing stock, we have made it economically unfeasible to maintain these buildings. After 25 years of rent control, condo-conversion could be the way to spur new investment in old properties, making them showcases instead of slums for Berkeley. 

Roslyn Fuerman 

• 

MARIJUANA BUST 

Edito rs, Daily Planet: 

Indeed kudos to the Daily Planet for continued reporting regarding the marijuana cultivation arrests, the five-month Berkeley police investigation, and the related issues in light of Berkeley’s marijuana initiatives.  

While I don’t bel ieve the “cultivating” individuals were arrested illegally, I find it extremely difficult to justify the amount of city taxpayer money spent in a five-month investigation. What if information of surveillance could have been passed to the suspects months ago; perhaps they would have discontinued their operation. Since guns were found, the Berkeley Police Department may have the benefit of the doubt. 

Still, I can’t help but feel the overwhelming will of Berkeley voters was not taken into consideration. By the way, if the city has interpreted Judge Lionel Wilson’s decision to apply only to “unlawful” marijuana, what if the cultivators were growing for medical use and had displayed enough proper caretaker paperwork from certified medical cannabis patients? A s a medical cannabis patient and patient advocate, I would have appreciated more definition and clear policy from the city attorney cited in your article. Likewise from the BPD, city manager, and our elected officials. Patients’ safe, secure, and continue d access to their medicine deserves high priority in my view.  

Dale Gieringer and Bill Panzer mentioned, are especially knowledgeable and informed individuals relating to California’s medical cannabis situation and the concerns and problems legitimate, certified patients often face too frequently with various law enforcement agencies and many uninformed and uncaring elected officials. Finally, the individual who wrote the “police procedure” letter to the editor, is certainly entitled to his opinion. But, as a Berkeley homeowner and taxpayer, I simply do not understand how “our entire community, in multitude of ways” was “benefited” by the west Berkeley pot bust. The times my van has been vandalized I attribute to society’s economic inequities as well as substance abuse. I object to the notion that unlawful marijuana use is associated with committing crimes.  

Charles A. Pappas 

• 

MOUSSAOUI TRIAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I hope many of you have been reading the print media about the Moussaoui trial. In t he last few days of the trial, Moussaoui, who had been the government’s sole living alleged 9/11 conspirator, the so-called “20th hijacker” of their 19-Arab hijacker story, has made such fantastic and easily disprovable claims which have thrown into quest ion his mental stability and destroyed his credibility that the government has been forced to introduce, in a deus-ex-machina fashion, another 20th Arab hijacker from out of nowhere. In a March 29 New York Times article we are now told that Mohammed Al-Qahtani, [is] “widely believed to be the real missing ‘20th hijacker.’” Of course, he is out in there in the ether under detention somewhere, no doubt being primed for later revelations on an as-needed basis. 

In the trial a few days ago, purported written “testimony” was introduced (and as far as I know, unchallenged for its veracity by defense lawyers) from one Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to affirm that Moussaoui was to have been used in a second wave of attacks. Mohammed, is reportedly being held in a secret location—presumably not under any form of duress, unlike what has been shown to be the case with every other U.S. kidnapped detainee. In much the same way that Moussaoui has been superseded as the “20th hijacker,” Shaikh Mohammed had replaced Osama bin La den, as the so-called “mastermind” of 9/11 about a year or so ago when bin Laden’s usefulness as a principal perp had become dated.  

I think it is becoming increasingly clear, especially from this trial, that the whole Neocon fantasy about 19 Arab hijack ers perpetrating the acts of 9/11 under the direction of Osama bin Laden, oops, I mean, Shaikh Mohammed, is your classic house of cards. This is completely consistent with every other claim this administration has made about anything and everything. It is another giant lie that has gained traction through endless repetition. 

Peter Teichner 

BERKELEY HONDA 

Dear Mr. Stephen Beinke, 

Blackhawk Services: 

I have been following the strike at Berkeley Honda for some time, and am dismayed by the way in which this situation continues to drag on. I am particularly troubled by your unwillingness to bargain in good faith with the affected unions so that you can settle this matter once and for all. 

As the co-founder, along with Cesar Chavez, of the United Farm Workers, I have spent my life fighting for justice in the workplace. Thus I and countless others in the workers’ rights movement have been urging unions across the country to stand in solidarity with their striking brothers at Berkeley Honda. We are appalled at your callous refusal to retain many long-time workers, among them a 31-year veteran only two years from retirement, and at your refusal to maintain the pension plan. 

But it is not only union workers who are watching what you do. Your potential customers are also watching you. People who buy Hondas know that in treating your workers fairly, you also treat your customers fairly; customers want to know they are doing business with a fair company. 

Please re-think your stance on this dispute. You have the power to make another choice, and to return in earnest to the bargaining table. If you would be regarded as the conscientious and reasonable employers you claim to be, you have the obligation to sit at that table until you reach a satisfactory agreement with the affected unions. 

I hope you will accept that obligation. 

Dolores Huerta.

Bird-killing guillotines in Berkeley? Your recent article, “Berkeley Plans to Accept ‘Free’ Wind Turbine for Marina” (Daily Planet, March 31) was quite depressing. It seems that the City of Berkeley is planning on allowing Southwest Wind Power, Inc. to install one of its industrial electricity-generating wind turbines on the Marina as part of a “green energy” demonstration project. 

The corporate logic of this supposedly free gift should be quite obvious to one and all. If a corporation can get the City of Berkeley to accept and approve use of its new technology, then the corporation can happily market its product to towns and cities across the country. This activity is just exploiting Berkeley’s traditional reputation as being a very progressive city. That reputation may have been deserved twenty or thirty years ago, but it is a somewhat dubious notion these days. 

This same corporate scheme was used in the selling of the highly intrusive tracking technology used in the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips implanted in every book in the Berkeley Public Library several years ago. Once this corporation got Berkeley to accept and install the RFID system, it was easy for them to sell it elsewhere. 

Now we are being treated to the spectacle of the coordinator of the Shoreline Nature Center at the Marina, Ms. Patty McDonald, saying about the new high-tech wind turbines, “We can’t be so scared by the technology that we don’t try (it).” By this ignorant lack of thought, she asserts that we can no longer think critically and come to intelligent decisions. By her attitude, we should also consider installing a nuclear reactor on the Marina. One can easily read the scientific and environmental literature available on the Internet about the many deficiencies and problems associated with modern high-tech industrial wind turbines, but Ms. McDonald just can’t seem to be bothered with this thoughtful approach. 

She also wants to fall back on to the alleged expertise and morality of the Audubon Society in the matter of the bird killing by these industrial wind turbines. Unfortunately, the Audubon Society is just another large corporate entity with its own agenda, which does not always place protecting all bird life at the top of its priorities. The National Audubon Society has long been trying to play God by advocating the killing of certain plants and animals in favor of other plants and animals.  

Ms. McDonald also seems to suggest that just because wind turbines in the Altamont Pass area have an awful record of killing several hundred hawks and other birds each year that somehow, a wind turbine installed in the Berkeley Marina would not repeat this sort of killing. Is this notion faith-based or what?  

Modern industrial wind turbines are just giant metal bird-killing guillotines. Now there is news from West Virginia and Pennsylvania that these machines are also killing hundreds of bats each year. We need to find other more passive ways to generate and conserve energy. Solar energy comes to mind. Increased vehicle fuel efficiency requirements would be highly useful. Maybe we should stop pigging out with our massive SUVs, our massive houses and our endless reproduction and our covering the earth with our roads, malls, factories and houses.  

In the 1960s and the 1970s, Berkeley was open and supportive of progressive and positive social change. Now, in the 21st century, Berkeley seems open to regressive corporate technology. 

James K. Sayre is an Oakland resident.

In this progressive City of Berkeley, so-called “affordable housing” is not within reach of people with incomes that hover around the poverty line. Section 8 is a high-odds lottery that’s hanging by a thread. Investing in a condo or TIC is not a possibility for people living on fixed incomes whose nest egg is gone. And for older folks, applying for the scarce senior housing options that exist can mean years of waiting for a one-room studio and saying goodbye to treasured possessions. 

My experience as a tenant illustrates what happens when real estate interests succeed in destroying the few protections low-income tenants have against joining the ranks of the homeless.  

In 1979, Vacancy Decontrol became law in New York, replacing years of Rent Control. I was a working mother who had lived with my daughter for 15 years in a two-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment on the Upper West Side. When a corporation bought the building, tenants had two choices: buy shares in the corporation, or move out—unless two-thirds of us voted against the offer. Though some tenants voted against it, a majority agreed to buy into the “co-op” (the corporation held the “lion’s share”), knowing they could not find another affordable rental in the fast-becoming-gentrified Upper West Side. When the bank rejected my mortgage application, I made a deal with a lawyer who wanted my apartment and, with the money he paid me, left New York in 1980 for a newly rent-controlled apartment in Berkeley.  

Since the implementation of Vacancy Decontrol in Berkeley, I’ve witnessed a replay of New York with the highest rentals this side of Manhattan in previously controlled, old buildings. Newer so-called “affordable housing” offers a small percentage of units at rents that are unaffordable for low-income residents. 

The decontrolled apartments in my building go for $1,200 to $1,800/month, generally rented to students whose parents are paying their rent and their tuition. The turnover is frequent, the building is maintained minimally, and some apartments remain vacant. Because Eviction Control was not wiped out, the owners cannot legally evict long-time residents unless we default on our rent or otherwise violate the terms of occupancy. 

When I asked a former member of the Rent Stabilization Board about other housing options, he advised me to stay where I am, saying I could not afford the “affordable housing” springing up around Berkeley. Unless I have to face an attempt to convert this damp and moldy, poorly constructed and maintained building into condos or Tenants in Common, I will consider myself fortunate to live in a progressive city like Berkeley with its dwindling economically “diverse” population. If the changing face of neighboring Shattuck Avenue in the “gourmet ghetto” is any indication—not to mention Fourth Street and other neighborhoods being “redeveloped,” I am witnessing Berkeley’s version of what I fled in Manhattan’s unaffordable, upscale Upper West Side.  

Marianne Robinson has been a tenant in Berkeley for 26 years. ›

Kenoli Oleari’s commentary in the March 31 Daily Planet contains erroneous statements about the development-planning grant for the west parking lot of Ashby BART. It concerns me that such misinformation could discourage some people from participating in the planning process. Below are some clarifying comments, correct information and resources for the reader to review on their own.  

First, Kenoli states that a task force is being formed before the community has had “one conversation” about what is desired at Ashby BART. 

This is simply not true. Hundreds of people know that there was an initial meeting on Jan. 17, chaired by Robert Lauriston, because many of them were there, holding dozens of conversations for a couple of hours.  

Subsequently, the mayor, City Councilmember Max Anderson and Ed Church held a community meeting at St. Paul’s AME church on Feb. 11. You can see this presentation at www.southberkeley.org. This meeting was also very well attended by community members who also held conversations. 

Certainly, as well, there has been discussion here in the Daily Planet’s opinion pages. In addition, I can’t imagine that members of the community haven’t been holding conversations on their own, but maybe not. Is this what Kenoli meant when he said the community hasn’t had “one conversation”?  

Most people I’ve spoken to seem to understand that the reason the task force is being formed is to have that very conversation to which Kenoli refers. I’m sure Kenoli has read the grant, which states: 

“The Community-Based Transportation Planning (CBTP) Grant Program funds coordinated transportation and land use planning projects that encourage community involvement and partnership. Projects should support livable community concepts, and promote community identity and quality of life.” This document can be read online at www.dot.ca.gov. 

When I read the grant and the application itself, I immediately noticed the word “planning.” The grant does not fund the implementation of the plan or construction. It funds a planning process. Utilization of the planning grant funds, however, doesn’t commence until after the task force completes it’s assignment.  

City Councilmembers passed a resolution authorizing the grant application and a community-based planning process, defining “appropriate development parameters,” in concert with the developer, that meets “community interests” (Item 12, City Council meeting packet for Dec. 13, 2005: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us.) 

And so, putting the cart before the horse, Kenoli demands community participation. I am mystified that Kenoli continues to beat this drum. Though there has been plenty already, the official planning process has yet to begin. The whole point of the task force is to effectively engage in this very conversation that he demands, so that everyone can be heard, inclusively and equally.  

Why would Kenoli and others attempt to stop the community-based planning process (as funded by the CalTrans grant) that he demands? Kenoli suggests the community take on the planning process. So, why doesn’t he do it? 

Second, Kenoli’s letter says: “The specific and only task assigned to this task force is to advise the City Council on signing a contract with a developer for the Ashby BART site, before there is an opportunity for any kind of broad community process to decide what we want, if anything.” 

But, from the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation Ashby BART Task Force website it says the task force will: 

• Identify the basic elements of a potential development at the site and the desired qualifications of potential developers 

• Make written recommendations to the City Council that can be the basis for Council’s issuing an RFQ (Request For Qualifications) 

• Review responses to the RFQ and make recommendations to the Council regarding selection of the developer(s). (For more information see www.southberkeley.org/TaskForce.html.) 

I can see why Kenoli would say it’s all about the developer, but upon close reading, it becomes clear that the task force will be defining “basic elements” of the “potential development,” and making written recommendations to City Council, all as a basis upon which a developer RFQ will be announced, by the city, not the task force.  

All of South Berkeley would benefit from appropriate development; changes in the streetscape as well as mixed land use can really enhance and rejuvenate South Berkeley, making it the dynamic neighborhood it once was. Everyone I have spoken to wants to see the Flea Market persevere and flourish. I see no reason why it wouldn’t.  

South Berkeley needs vision. Share your vision, voice your ideas, nominate yourself or someone you think would make a positive contribution, to the task force. By participating, we—all of us—can forge our own vision, and create a South Berkeley to match our vision. 

In order to be involved in the Ashby BART planning process, I have nominated myself for the task force. Whether or not I am chosen for the task force, I look forward to participating as a member of the community in open, productive discussion.  

Marcy Greenhut is a nine-year South Berkeley resident.  

THE DATA ARE IN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Environmentalists arise! The data are in. Official state estimates from the Department of Finance show that in 2005 there were 500,000 new residents in California. The majority of the increase involved new foreign immigrants and a relatively high birth rate among immigrants. I have personally benefited in the past—my beloved and legally adopted son was born in the Dominican Republic. And, yes, I have also benefited from cheap illegal labor. But now we are all starting to pay the delayed costs of an over-burdened infrastructure resulting in loss of open space, crowded highways, hospitals going out of business, high housing costs, water shortages, and poorer air quality. The governor has proposed a massive $222 billion 10-year bond to address infrastructure problems. Realistic environmental policy must come to terms with the fundamental issue of poorly regulated population growth. 

Robert Gable 

• 

POLICE PROCEDURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many people share Becky O’Malley’s grumblings (March 24) that police priorities appear misplaced. My favorite is when I discovered California State Police saturating the UC Santa Cruz campus and issuing tickets to skateboarders. You could be certain that people were dying on the highways the same time that the state police had decided to make the campus a safer place (in the middle of the day). 

Ms. O’Malley, however, fails to understand that the local marijuana industry and her car break-in are directly related. From her description, the “hapless thug” was so incompetent, I would bet he was high on drugs at the time. Moreover, the contents of her car appear to have been fairly low value, probably just enough to buy alcohol and marijuana. 

In Berkeley, my car is broken into once every 18 months, and each time the bandit appears incompetent and comes away with spare change. I can’t help to think that these break-ins are at the hands of substance abuser searching for just enough cash to buy their next fix. 

Kudos to the Berkeley Police Department for their recent West Berkeley pot bust. These arrests benefit our entire community in a multitude of ways, and that’s how I want to see my property tax dollars spent. Too bad that every time I drive around one of Berkeley’s new $20,000 traffic circles, Ms. O’Malley’s words ring true: “...it’s our tax dollars at work where it’s convenient, and not at work where we need them to be.” 

Paul Kalas 

• 

DERBY FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have read many bizzaro commentaries about the differences between open and closed Derby but hats off to Mark McDonald. He has made statements that are so baseless that it is hard to imagine where he could possibly have come up the concepts. 

BUSD, has not and is not involved in the Gilman Fields project. Nor for that matter are the schools from Albany or Richmond. There is absolutely no truth to his claim that BUSD was going to come up with $2 million for the Gilman Project or any amount of money for that matter. It’s never even been  

discussed—and I’ve been at every meeting since we started pushing for playing fields in Eastshore State Park six years ago.  

When the City of Berkeley, not the School Board, initially proposed a plan for Derby, the Farmers’ Market supported its move to another site. However, in the middle of the process, the Farmers’ Market reconsidered its position. The closed-Derby plans developed by the athletic community has allocated 45,000 square feet for the Farmers’ Market (with no fencing along MLK) and community compared to the 27,000 square feet under open-Derby. Under the open-Derby plan the Farmer’s Market is losing its parking “cut-ins.” It would not surprise me in the least for the Farmers’ Market to come to the realization that the closed-Derby plan developed by the athletic community is far superior to what they are going to have under open-Derby. Just wait until open-Derby is finished and they really are limited to Derby Street.  

The notion that an open Derby is a multipurpose field and closed Derby is a baseball only field is a concept fostered by the opponents of closing Derby. The closed-Derby plan developed by the athletic community has a regulation soccer/football/lacrosse/rugby field that has no part of the field in the dirt. Closed Derby is not a plan supported by “one small vocal sports group” as Mr. McDonald states. It is supported by the presidents of the Albany Berkeley Soccer Club (900 players) and Alameda Contra Costa Youth Soccer (3,000 players) as well as many other athletic groups including the Berkeley Cougars who serve 185 at risk low income minority children who spoke in support of closing Derby in front of the Berkeley City Council. This on top of the athletic director for BUSD and coaches from BHS sports from girl’s rugby to women’s soccer.  

And as for funding, the Berkeley general fund isn’t going to fund this project. The $100,000 being asked by BUSD was something resulting from the Mayor’s (and several council persons) offer to share the costs of the EIR at a City Council meeting.  

Enough is enough. We all support building the interim plan and the entire athletic community as well as no small number of neighbors who also live around the Derby Street site look forward to a closed Derby in the near future. 

Doug Fielding 

• 

PETER’S BACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Uh-oh: Peter Levitt is back and flinging his favorite epithet, “NIMBY” (letter, March 28). This time, his target is newly declared mayoral candidate Zelda Bronstein.  

I long ago tired of the Build Absolutely Anything Anywhere (BAAA) crowd’s failed arguments for subsidizing the further enrichment of rich developers. But I’ve especially tired of their name-calling. Here are some personal resolutions that I invite others to also consider: 

First, the next time someone cries “NIMBY” without even bothering to define the acronym, fill it in for yourself: “Not Intimidated By Mad Yelling.”  

From what little I’ve read of Ms. Bronstein, that fits her to a “T” (TFHTAT). Back when she held some power and influence as Planning Commission chair, she insisted on sharing it, by vigorously advocating transparent government and broad participation in city decisions. Since resigning, she’s pursued the same goals from the less comfortable perch of activist, columnist, and now machine-free candidate. Don’t you want an owl guarding the foxhouse that is City Hall? 

Second, the next time someone whines “NIMBY” in hopes of silencing a debate they can’t win, view everything else they say as suspect. And give their target the benefit of the doubt (see above). 

Finally, when someone is lazy enough to substitute shorthand epithets for coherent arguments, question their competence even in their claimed specialty. By this criterion, I fear I can no longer trust Mr. Levitt to make a payroll, hire or fire other human beings, or even properly apply a lox schmear to my bagel at his Saul’s Deli. QED. TTFN. 

Marcia Lau 

• 

THIN GRUEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last week the owner of a North Berkeley deli wrote that: “Zelda Bronstein, how can she run for mayor, she has never met a payroll.” I was glad to see that Calvin Coolidge (“The business of America is business”) is alive and well in Berkeley. All one has to do is shout: “I am a businessman, therefore I know”—and he doesn’t have to explain what he knows, or how it applies to, um, promoting the general welfare.  

Now I have to admit that the businesspeople running Washington are demonstrating their hard-headed commercial skills to the world. I only wish that the deli boss would show his smarts by shaping up his rather slovenly-looking wait-staff—and while he’s at it, stop serving chopped chicken liver with the consistency of thin gruel. Come to think of it, his letter has the consistency of thin gruel. 

Neal Blumenfeld 

• 

99-CENT MISS SAIGON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to the Planet’s Ken Bullock for telling us about “The 99-cent Miss Saigon” March 14). I squeaked into the sold-out final performance and, like everyone else, ended up on my feet clapping my hands raw at curtain time.  

This was the freshest, most surprising treat I’ve seen on a Berkeley stage since Shotgun Players wowed everyone with “The Death of Meyerhold” in 2003. 

Actually, the Miss Saigon company had neither stage nor curtain—they worked magic with a basic schoolroom. Now they have no venue in which to extend their run. Let’s hope they find one so that more folks will have a chance to enjoy this great pocket musical. 

Michael Katz 

• 

MORE ON DERBY FIELD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to C. Gilbert’s letter, the real irony of the Derby Street plans is that the closed-street plan actually has MORE paving than the open-street plan. The open-street plan—which came out of a public BUSD process last year, includes Derby Street (a public street with 65 public parking spaces and emergency access from the local fire station), one basketball court, a restroom structure and site walkways—has approximately 45,500 square feet of paving.  

The closed-street plan, drawn up last summer by BUSD without public input, proposes removal of Derby Street only to replace it with a large, fenced blacktop area—the proverbial “parking lot”—along the entire west end of the site facing MLK. This paved area is for the once weekly use by the Farmers’ Market, minimum daily use as two basketball courts and BUSD parking. The closed-street plan also has a fire lane (required by the Fire Department for site access), a restroom structure and site walkways, all adding up to approximately 52,000 square feet of paving. Two other important items of note are that 1) the configuration of the large paved rectangle does not work nearly as well as an open street does for the Farmers’ Market, and 2) the 315 afternoons a year that the closed-street black top area is not a Farmers’ Market, it will simply be a large paved vacant lot with not much use. 

Adding to the irony is the fact that the active playing field area for the two plans is the basically the same. The open-street plan yields approximately 130,000 square feet of playing fields. The closed-street field yields approximately 132,000 square feet of field space. What’s more, the dirt infield of the baseball diamond in the closed street plan overlaps the multi-sport field, compromising its use for soccer, lacrosse, field-hockey, rugby, football and other field sports. The open-street plan does not present this overlap between the practice infield diamond and the multi-sport playing field, making for a much more useful multi-sports field. 

Maybe the Ecology Center and others who have actually studied the plans are onto something. The open-street plan is greener, more multi-purpose, more affordable and has funding available. Build the multi-use fields now and keep Derby open.  

Susi Marzuola 

• 

GIRL FEST PROTEST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last Friday evening the Berkeley nightclub Shattuck Down Low hosted a benefit for Girl Fest as part of a conference to educate people on preventing violence against women. The nightclub was picketed by Diana Russell and others because the nightclub building is owned by the Reddy family, several of whom have been convicted of crimes against women. 

Diana Russell has for many years written and lectured on the connection between sadistic pornography and violence against women and children. Also for many years she has focused our attention on the crimes of the Reddy family. We all owe her a debt of gratitude. 

But, I and many other feminists, wish that instead of picketing Shattuck Down Low that she and her supporters had been able to appreciate the nightclub’s generosity and also how much women would benefit. The money will help to prevent future Reddy-like crimes. 

Nancy Ward 

• 

CREEKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A writer recently suggests that we should try to ignore the creeks just because we don’t know when they will be restored. Hopefully some residents have longer-term goals, and it appears inevitable to me that most creeks will be restored in coming decades. 

Strawberry Creek passes nearly under my home, and I bought this house the day it was listed specifically because the neighborhood will be so much more improved when it is restored someday. 

Be realistic: The culverts were unnatural and unsustainable/ temporary and will be too expensive to maintain, besides depriving us of wonderful creek aesthetics. 

The other inevitabilities for Berkeley are significant population growth this century, a restoration of local rail transit, and less traffic as autos become less needed and more expensive to operate. This is among the best locations worldwide for a city, and it will become as dense as European cities are now—get used to it. Our descendants will need more parks more than they will need every expensive-to-maintain street. 

For example, when University corridor is eventually built-out with modern four—and six-story buildings, perhaps this century, those thousands of residents and employees will need more parks or we will risk slum-like conditions. Future residents need us to plan ahead now so that the length of Strawberry Creek can someday be Berkeley’s “Central Park.”  

To start, the creek should be restored on BUSD property between Browning and the old gymnasium as part of the redevelopment there. Once Browning is also someday closed there, our block will finally be able to restore the creek on our private property, before or when the culvert inevitably fails. 

Let me clarify that the ordinance currently limits construction on my own lot and closing Browning will also increase traffic on my street, but the benefits are greater. The local apts will have much happier residents not needing to drive elsewhere to find parks, and Addison will become a popular/safe bike route connecting the university and train station, reducing UC’s traffic and parking problems once the commuters and delivery trucks can no longer use Browning/Addison as a speedway.  

A creek in my yard? Ten to 20 years is a long time to wait, but these things take time as surely as it took decades to replace Berkeley’s incredible rail transit system and beautiful creeks with dangerous traffic. 

Sennet Williams 

• 

ALBANY WATERFRONT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I visited the controversial Albany waterfront, and reveled in its flora, fauna, sights, sounds and smells. I saw where four, then six, unleashed dogs plunged and leaped in the foam, playing with their owners (who threw sticks) and with each other. Happy dogs, they never heard of Rick Caruso and his upscale ambience! But these dogs will be leashed and fenced in if a huge “mixed use development” (with a Nordstrom’s, no less!) and a six-story garage frown over their spot of bay. 

Walking north, overlooking the path to the Bulb, I saw a flock of about 60 plump, matter-of-fact little willets, dredging for food with their long bills. Time stood still for them. The Bulb is their village, and the Albany tax base another country. Noise, fumes, density, Nordstrom’s wrappers would choke all such life. The dead watercourses in Rachel Carson’s 1962 classic, Silent Spring, come to mind. 

Nature abhors an upscale ambience. Shouldn’t you? Please save our Albany shore! 

Anne Richardson 

Albany 

It’s business as usual with the Ashby BART “development.” In a recent move by Ed Church and the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation (SBNDC), SBNDC is now going to choose a team of people who will represent all of South Berkeley to the City Council in a process to hire a developer for the Ashby BART site. And this before we have had one conversation as a community about what we want regarding the Ashby BART station. 

Generally, Tom Bates and Max Anderson have been telling people that they started out too fast, that they now want to slow down and find out what the community wants at the BART station. They say they want what the community wants. 

I have spoken to community members, local business owners, and other South Berkeley groups, and my impression is that there is widespread interest in some kind of community open space at the Ashby BART, a piazza-like structure with retail, outdoor eating and art, perhaps some community meeting space and a small amount of affordable housing IF housing can be fit into that format. My general impression is that there is widespread support for a space that will allow for the continuation of the Ashby Flea Market, ON THAT SITE. 

So, this sounds good. Let’s get together, figure out what we want and do it! 

But . . . The wind is blowing in a different direction. 

Tom and Max and Ed and other city council members, when pressed, actually tell us that they are only open to a plan that is primarily high density housing. They have said this in a meeting with the Flea Market, in meetings with various other groups, in personal communications I have had with them and in various forums. They also agree that this would not be compatible with the vision for a community piazza such as that described above or with a space that would support the continuation of the Flea Market at their present location. There us a widespread belief among these folks and a few hundred “workforce” families is the best medicine for South Berkeley. 

And recent developments demonstrate the same. The latest move in this drama is that Ed Church, in the name of the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation, has issued a call for nominees to become part of a “task force.” The specific and only task assigned to this task force is to advise the City Council on signing a contract with a developer for the Ashby BART site, before there is an opportunity for any kind of broad community process to decide what we want, if anything. This was the very thing that concerned us when we first read the Caltrans proposal: if the process starts out by contracting with a developer to build high density housing, how can we decide to do anything else. Our role will be relegated to deciding the color of the walls of the fortification we will walk past.  

While Tom Bates assured us at his meeting at the AME church that they would be tearing up the proposal and instead implementing a community driven exploration, Ed’s move belies this fact by following the proposal to a T. 

Upon reading his announcement, I immediately sent Ed an e-mail asking two questions: 

1. Who will be making the selection among the nominees for the final task force and how will that be done? 

2. Since Max and Tom have been telling everyone we can do whatever the community wants at the BART station, how does this square with starting off with a contract with a developer for housing at the site? 

He has not responded. It has been about a week since I sent the e-mail. This is not a group that is real open about their plans for us.  

Soon after seeing Ed’s announcement, I learned from an SBNDC board member that the task force will be selected by the SBNDC board. Even though this task force will be said to represent us as a community, none of us will have any part in making the final selection among nominees. 

While this is going on, Max has been offering various groups pieces of this project in hopes of appealing to their self-interest and get their support for what he wants. He has promised free parking to churches in the area, art space to Epic Arts. He has offered the Northern California Land Trust, of which I am a member of the board, a piece of the high density housing. Sounds like he is hawking his plan, not spending time finding our what we want. He’s supposed to be representing the desires of the community that elected him to represent US. 

If we really want this process to be driven by us, and if we want something at the BART station that supports a broad community vision, we are clearly going to have to fight for it, and this means standing up to Tom and Max and ED and SBNDC and speaking up for our community. This means saying it is not OK for you to select a task force and then say it represents us. 

There is some action we can take immediately. 

There have been appeals circulated this week to send Caltrans a last rush of letters as they make their final decision on the SBNDC proposal to let them know that we are still not satisfied with the process this group and the City are leading. In addition, there will be a petition circulated asking for a moratorium on any activities, like hiring a developer, until a REAL community process that truly involves all voices in the community can be completed. It is in violation of Tom and Max and Ed’s promise to support what the community wants to go ahead with any agreement with any developer. 

Please join this process. Write a letter and sign the petition. The petition will be circulated at the Flea Market this weekend and there will be copies around other places, including some local e-mail lists. 

Here is the contact information for Caltrans: 

Tom Neumann, Chief 

Office of Community Planning 

Division of Transportation Planning 

California Department of Transportation 

1120 N St., MS#49 

Sacramento, CA 95814 

tom_neumann@dot.ca.gov 

Kenoli Oleari is a member of the Neighborhood Assemblies Network. 

ª

Write on behalf of some landmark preservation dispute and people roll their eyes over how the preservationists have just gone too far, pushed too hard, and need a more balanced perspective.  

Developers, after all, they’ll point out, have created important community benefits with their new construction. Respond by saying that the new buildings are almost uniformly ugly, poorly built, overpriced as both housing and retail, and absent both open space and cultural amenities, and they’ll usually reply that housing is in such crisis that such buildings are worth building even if they only help a few.  

What’s never calculated is the net loss of the amenities that could have been there, that the community can now never have until the building comes down decades from today and more sensible planning prevails. 

Blaming developers is short-sighted. One of the largest local developers once stated that he’d be a fool not to take whatever profitable opportunity the City Council and the Planning Department was willing to let him get away with. Blaming preservationists who try to protect remnants of the past is even worse, as the ranks of poorly paid or unpaid historians willing to spend time and money working to protect history from short-sighted development grow more and more thin.  

As another election rolls near, remember to put the blame for the monstrous new edifice in your neighborhood, which brought only overpriced housing and displaced decades-old and respected businesses with useless, short-lived, non-neighborhood-serving retail, squarely on the shoulders of the Berkeley City Council. 

This group of elected politicians could, if they chose, take a stand against inappropriate development, re-direct their Planning Department to reprioritize neighborhood concerns, honestly address transportation and parking problems, and populate commissions with appointees dedicated to making sure new developments address an honest balance of concerns. 

If the Planning Department and the City Council are ready to sell out the public, you can hardly blame the developers who profit after the fact or the preservationists whose dedication to history sometimes affords uneasy protection for qualified buildings. The real protection against the new breed of ticky-tacky developments should be elected representatives with the courage to demand the realistic planning that neighborhoods, both residential and commercial, deserve. 

When the next election rolls around, grill the incumbents on the building that gutted your neighborhood. Get the facts as to why the so-called retail stood empty for so long, and why the toxics over which the building was built remain in place. Demand, in writing, promises from challengers, so that voters have some honest options. And above all, pay attention. If we sleep through the destruction of the city we love, we have only ourselves to blame. 

Carol Denney is a Berkeley musician and activist.›

The Landmark Theatre Act 1 & 2 on Center Street is shutting down and I can’t say that I feel bad about it. Act 1 is inaccessible to wheelchair users due to stairs. Act 2 can be accessed by using a small lift located in the lobby. But the lift doesn’t always work. My husband and I were once refunded our money after getting trapped inside it, unable to go up or down.  

The last time Ralph and I went to the Act 1 & 2 was in 1999 when we saw The Blair Witch Project on opening night. We were unaware that the film was a word-of-mouth, overnight Internet blockbuster. We arrived in front of the building to find a line stretching to Oxford Street. I went to the box office to inquire about wheelchair seating. I was told there was room for us. 

We waited in line. We paid for our tickets. I took the footrests off Ralph’s wheelchair, backed him into the lift, and shoved his feet underneath the chair. The lift sputtered and stalled, then rose the four feet or so necessary to accommodate the steps into the theater. I replaced the footrests and pushed Ralph into the hallway, then down into the screening room where I maneuvered him into the designated wheelchair space. By doing so we blocked the view of the patron sitting behind us. The seat next to Ralph was occupied by a young man. I asked him to move but because the show was sold out, there were no empty seats left.  

Management asked Ralph to move into the aisle, and gave me a folding chair on which to sit. Now we were blocking an exit and therefore breaking the law. But at least the people around us could see and stretch their legs. After the show was over we vowed never to return. It wasn’t worth the trouble.  

But the Act 1 & 2 is not the only local theater we sometimes rule out as too difficult to patronize. The Albany, Elmwood, Piedmont and Grand Lake cinemas present similar seating problems. Additionally, at the Albany we must enter through a locked side door. The Piedmont requires some tricky hallway turns. The Elmwood has an awkward entranceway to negotiate.  

We are better off in theaters where the wheelchair seating is located in the rear. Though not our favorite place to sit, at least we don’t get in the way of other patrons. It’s sometimes a pain to be seated next to the entrance door, but better than having to ask others to move.  

There are quite a few local theaters in which this type of seating is available. The downtown Shattuck Cinemas is one of these establishments and it works well for us except that nearby disabled parking isn’t easy to find. The United Artists Emery Bay complex provides lots of wheelchair seating and plenty of free, accessible parking. Too bad they rarely show the movies we want to see. 

You might think that the new AMC Bay Street 16 would be ideal, but that is not the case. In some of the theatres the wheelchair seating is located mid screening room on a wide aisle. There is a railing bordering this area. Ralph once leaned back and somehow got the top of his chair caught behind the railing. Several AMC employees had to help me disentangle him.  

Although the seating was iffy at the Act 1 & 2 I did enjoy The Blair Witch Project. Remember the last scene where the hapless protagonist looks into her handheld camera and cries? That could be me agonizing over our next movie date.

There sure are some funny-looking trees in this town. Some of them are the results of whimsical pruning—there’s a big cedar in my general neighborhood, a traffic accident in waiting because I can’t be the only person who reflexively eases up on the gas p edal to stare when passing it. 

It’s completely sheared into poodle balls, little bluish pompoms, shaggy in some seasons, on the ends of long bare upcurved branches. It’s been maintained that way for years, and it’s tall enough that this must take a ladder and lots of labor.  

Some poodle-balled trees (yes arborists really call them that, and it’s not something a veterinarian can fix) seem to be a sort of Japanese-style pruning gone off in odd directions. Classical Japanese pruning includes some shearing, especially of shrubs, into the smooth-contoured “cloud form.” 

Here, I’m not sure whether someone liked the look and applied it to any old species, or lots of people didn’t quite get it and sheared things into shapes that reminded them vaguely of what th ey’d seen in Japan, or in picture books.  

You see lots of junipers done up into green pads on racks, and they’re tough enough to take it. But a Japanese maple I knew had been sheared into a perfect globe. I started a long reshaping process; when I took m y first whacks at it, I found lots of dead twigs and branches, deprived of light and air circulation inside that mass. Lots of plant-eating bugs, too, and mildewed leaves. 

There are species—mostly shrubs like boxwood but a few trees like Syzygium panicul atum (eugenia or lilly pilly)—that tolerate shearing, so they’re used for topiary. There’s a eugenia in San Lorenzo shaped into a sort of bas-relief kangaroo, against a house wall, and I’m told there’s a lot of it done up as topiary in Disneyland. 

Another technique that turns out weird-looking trees is pollarding. Some of the planetrees on the UC campus, for example the rows just inside Sather Gate, are pollarded. Planetrees and sycamores in general seem not to mind this, and if it’s done right it doesn’t hurt the tree. (Why am I hearing Marlon Perkins reassuring the TV audience that “this does not hurt the animal” as someone lassoes a hapless antelope?)  

The tree has to be cut repeatedly to exactly the same point, until it forms those odd knobs you see all winter. Then the twigs that shoot out of those knobs must be cut off every fall, and the knobs mustn’t be cut off or into. It’s originally a technique for harvesting firewood while keeping the trees alive, but it turned into a sort of French-aestheti c tradition. It’s also good for fruitless mulberries in hot-summer places where you want summer-only shade.  

Another source of funny trees is PG&E pruning. This is perfectly utilitarian, so to speak—solely for the purpose of keeping utility lines up wher e they belong. It’s merciless to the trees involved, but believe it or not it used to be worse. Sort of.  

Line-clearing pruning crews used to just top a tree—whack it off bluntly, a procedure that usually, gradually, kills the tree. Now, since Alex Shigo introduced his studies to arboriculture, they instead cut limbs down to the place they sprouted off bigger limbs. They call this “drop-crotching.” It’ll still probably kill the tree, but more slowly, and urban trees generally aren’t that long-lived anywa y.  

What you see after this is a Y-shaped tree, another silly shape but one that coaxes the tree to grow away from the lines that run through its middle rather than sending a zillion sprouts straight up into those lines in a year or two.  

A reader asked me if that was a result of trees’ being sensitive to electromagnetic frequencies. You might think so, looking at the trees, but, what being sensitive to EMFs means is that their foliage turn brown foot or two from the line. Those awkward trees you’re seeing are results of line-clearing; they didn’t do that all by themselves.  

Lots of arborists and even PG&E urge people to choose smaller trees to plant under city powerlines in the first place, so they won’t have this problem when the tree reaches mature size. Good idea.  

Photo by Ron Sullivan  

A good example of PG&E pruning: a sycamore "dropcrotched" into a big "Y" shape to clear powerlines above it.›

U.S. Secretary Of State Condoleeza Rice’s recent visit to Jakarta was the concluding act in the Bush administration’s five-year drive to whitewash the Indonesian military’s sordid past, green light Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua, and forge another l ink in Washington’s plan to ring China with U.S. military bases and allies. 

Shortly after the 2001 inauguration, then-assistant secretary of defense and former ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz began a campaign to dismantle U.S. restrictions on mili tary aid to the Tentara Nasional Indonesia, or “TNI” as the armed forces are known. The aid was cut in 1999, following the TNI’s rampage in East Timor that killed thousands of civilians, forced 250,000 into concentration camps in West Timor, and destroyed 70 percent of the tiny country’s infrastructure.  

Not a single TNI officer has served a day in jail for those massacres, and the only civilian convicted of any crimes—the former governor of East Timor—had his sentence overturned by the Indonesian Suprem e Court.  

Wolfowitz argued that “re-engaging” with the TNI would make the military more sensitive to human rights. “More contact with the West and the United States and moving them in a positive direction is important both to support democracy and suppor t the fight against terrorism,” he said. 

But the Indonesian military’s “worst abuses,” counters Ed McWilliams, former State Department political counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, “took place when we (the U.S.) were most engaged.”  

The 9/11 attac ks gave the White House the opportunity to undermine the military aid embargo in the name of fighting terrorism, even though the TNI has been implicated in the wide spread use of terrorism against its political opponents. 

In 2001, several members of Kopa ssus, the most notorious unit in the TNI, murdered Papuan independence leader Theys Eluy after he attended an army dinner. In an effort to destabilize the regime of President Abdurrahman Wahid, the military quietly encouraged the right-wing Muslim organiz ation, Laskar Jihad, to attack Christians in Ambon, Maluku and Central Sulawesi islands. And in 2004, the military and the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency were implicated in the poisoning death of human rights lawyer Munir Said Thalib. 

The one incid ent that caused the TNI trouble with the U.S. Congress, however, involved accusations that it had a role in the 2002 murder of two American teachers and an Indonesian colleague near the huge Freeport McMoRan gold and copper mine in West Papua. 

The TNI cl aimed the attack was engineered by the Free Papua Movement (OPM), a group resisting Indonesia’s 1969 unilateral seizure of West Papua.  

But the OPM vigorously denied any involvement in the ambush, and human rights groups and the local police instead implicated Kopassus. 

A police report argued that the OPM “never attacks white people,” and found that the teachers were killed with an M-16, the TNI’s basic weapon. The OPM is generally armed with bows and arrows. Based on the investigation of the incident, then Police Chief of West Papua concluded that the TNI was behind the ambush. 

According to a Washington Post story, Australian intelligence intercepted phone calls from Indonesia’s then Commander-in-Chief, Endriartono Sutarto, discussing carrying out the ambush as a way to discredit the OPM and get the U.S. to declare it a “terrorist” organization. 

The TNI had another motive as well. From 1998 to 2004, Freeport paid out $20 million to the TNI to “protect” the company from growing anger by locals at envi ronmental destruction caused by the company’s Gasberg Mine. The mine generates 700,000 tons of waste daily, and has covered 90 square miles with tailings. Under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department and the Security and Exchange Commission, however, F reeport cut back on the payments. The suspicion is that the “ambush” was blackmail by the TNI: pay up or bad things happen. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft and the FBI soon rode to Wolfowitz and Rice’s rescue, indicting self-described OPM “commander” Anth onius Wamang for the attack, even though the OPM says Wamang works for Kopassus. This past January, the FBI helped arrest Wamang and 11 other civilians, including a priest, a teenager and several farmers, for the murders. 

The arrests allowed the Bush adm inistration to declare Indonesia a “strategic partner,” and waive congressional restrictions on military aid. The latter will increase six-fold by 2007. Meanwhile, the TNI has poured troops and police into West Papua to crush demonstrations against Freepo rt and smother growing sentiment for an independent West Papua.  

“West Papua has long been neglected by the international community,” says Karen Orenstein of the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network. “Secretary Rice should … press Jakarta to heed cal ls from West Papua for demilitarization and a fair share of the income from its resources, and demand that Indonesia fully open West Papua to the outside world.” 

Australia’s close ties to the Bush administration are little like taking up with Tony Soprano: no matter how much you do for the big guy, you’re going to get whacked in the end. 

First, in the teeth of widespread opposition, John Howard’s conservative government sent 900 troops to Iraq, and coughed up $1.2 billion to support them. A recent poll by Hawker Britton found that almost two-thirds of the public wants the troops to leave in the next few months. 

Second, the Howard government agreed to join the U.S., anti-ballistic missile system, which angers its largest trading partner. Exports to Chin a are what keeps Australia’s economy in the black. 

Third, Howard signed a free trade agreement with the United States which will put a dent in Australia’s farm industry, and place the country’s financial services at a distinct disadvantage to its far lar ger and wealthier U.S. counterpart. 

So do the Aussies get a hug and a kiss? 

Not exactly. 

The Iraqi government recently blacklisted the Australian Wheat Board Ltd. (AWB) because a U.N. investigation implicated the latter in a bribes-for-wheat scheme with the Saddam Hussein regime. The ban deep-sixed a one million ton deal, and dropped AWB’s shares eight percent on the Australian Stock Exchange. Similar bribes by Turkish and Jordanian companies were ignored, as was embargo busting by U.S. oil companies. 

According to the Financial Times, one source close to the AWB charges that Iraq imposed the ban at the urging of U.S. wheat interests. “The U.S. is going to attempt to secure maximum commercial advantage” from the AWB ban, he said, adding, “so much for t he coalition of the willing.”  

Then Rice showed up in Canberra to denounce China for human rights violations, military spending, and its currency and intellectual property rights policies. She called China a “negative force” in the Pacific. Asked if Chin a should see Rice’s comments as cause for concern, one unnamed State Department official replied, “I think we certainly hope so.” 

Aussie Foreign Minister Alexander Downer hurriedly distanced himself from Rice’s rhetoric, and “welcomed China’s constructiv e engagement in the region,” and making it clear that Australia does not “support a policy of containment of China. We don’t think that is going to a be productive or constructive policy at all.” 

Lie down with dogs…. 

Kiwi pluck. The New Zealand union “U nite” has launched an organizing drive at Starbucks and McDonalds, and has launched a global e-mail campaign to flood the two giant corporations with protest messages. Go to: laborstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=80. 

New Zealand today, tomorrow… 

My grandfather Ellis was a dreamer, a visionary who always had more ideas and plans carried around in his pockets than he had room in his life to complete. The house he and my grandmother once had off of Seminary Avenue in East Oakland was full of his projects—gardens and sheds and walkways—in various stages of completion and uncompletion. Once, he decided he wanted to add an upstairs bedroom to the house and immediately began to build it, starting with an outside staircase. The staircase was completed and then my grandfather got distracted by other things, so that for the longest it hung there on the side of the house by itself, a stairway to noplace. 

My grandfather is a beloved figure in the Allen family, his eccentricities on these spare projects always forgiven, because he never left his main duties undone. He was a Pullman porter who kept his wages and tips in his pockets and stayed on the train while many of the other porters hit their favorite station stops along the way, and when my grandfather got back to Oakland he’d empty all of the money out on the bed for my grandmother to manage, asking her only for some change to buy cigarettes. 

In 1998, Oakland thought we had elected such a man as mayor. We knew that Jerry Brown had his quirks and eccentricities, but we also believed him when he said he was all grown up and ready to get down to business. 

It didn’t exactly end up that way, did it?  

Like the Nazgûl racing across Mr. Tolkien’s Mordor towards Mount Doom near the end of the third book, Mr. Brown appeared as a bright comet across the Oakland sky “shooting like flaming bolts,” but eventually, “as caught in the fiery ruin of hill and sky,” he simply “crackled, withered, and went out.” With nine months still to go in his administration, there is hardly a trace of the mayor’s presence in and around Oakland, except, maybe, to use the city as a backdrop to his campaign for California attorney general. 

The signs of the mayor’s inattention, sometimes bordering on boredom, are everywhere. 

At Mr. Brown’s official website on the city server, there is a schedule page on which Oakland residents are supposed to be able to see the mayor’s official calendar and what events he is attending to every day. If Mr. Brown’s online schedule is to believed, the mayor of Oakland has not done anything on the job since Sept. 18, 2005. That’s the last entry for the schedule.  

And even then, much of the work had little to do with what we were paying him for. Mr. Brown was on three week vacation from Aug. 25 through Sept. 14. When he got back in town he had a few ceremonial duties, but mostly the mayor was appearing on talk shows that perhaps had something to do with his Oakland work, perhaps not: a live interview on KABC radio in Los Angeles on Sept.16, Fox News interview on Sept. 17, Fox News, “At Large with Geraldo Rivera” on Sept. 18, when the schedule entries end. Nice work, if you can get it, as they used to say in my grandfather’s day. 

Mr. Brown’s personal blog on the web has suffered a similar fate. Launched with much fanfare early last year, it drew the attention of veteran bloggers who commented on how interesting it was that Mr. Brown was able to keep up with new trends. (For those of you who don’t keep up with the new trends, a blog, short for web log, is an online diary, or running commentary, that its owners write to several times a week, and often every day.) Mr. Brown himself, in one of his first posts, wrote that he was “glad to see all the lively responses to my entry into the blogosphere. I welcome the robust debate.” The debate was apparently not robust enough, and Mr. Brown’s last entry was posted in October of last year. 

Even when local events force Mr. Brown to turn his attention away from statewide campaigning and back to his Oakland duties, he seems oddly disengaged and removed from the realities that everyone else is experiencing in this city. 

Asked by a UC Boalt Hall law student earlier this week if the recent explosion of violent crime in the city was giving Oakland a negative image, Mr. Brown said it was not. “I don’t think there is a negative Oakland image,” the Oakland Tribune quoted the mayor as saying. “There is some crime going on, and historically that is true. But crime is down 30 percent from a 30-year average. And it just so happens that we’ve got a little surge.” 

A little surge? 

Earlier this month, during the heated debate how to deploy more police on city streets, Oakland Chief of Police Wayne Tucker reporting increases in the city since this time last year of 300 percent for homicides, 127 percent for assaults with a deadly weapon, 100 percent for robberies, and 47 percent for sexual assaults. There were 33 homicides in Oakland already in the first three months of this year when I began this column, 34 by the time I finished. That’s a trend that would put us over 130 murders if it continued for a 12 month period, a ghastly statistic. 

But Mr. Brown needs “law and order” credentials in his run for attorney general, and so must fiddle with statistics and downplay what everybody else in Oakland feels is a big deal. 

That “crime is down 30 percent from a 30-year average” sounds impressive only if you forget what was happening over the past 30 years. In 1976 Oakland—like every other major American urban center—was in the middle of the crack epidemic, and murders and violent crime skyrocketed as drug dealers fought over the lucrative new turf and crack addicts stole everything in sight to pay for their monstrous new habits. The early ‘90s saw another wave of violence as crack dealers fought over turf. Comparing the recent crime wave to those days doesn’t make today’s crime wave any better, it only makes it seem better. And for Mr. Brown’s purposes, it’s the seeming that is important, as the king said in The Madness Of King George. 

When people imply that he is not paying attention to Oakland’s suddenly-rising violent crime Mr. Brown bristles, often saying—as he did in the Attorney General’s race debate this week held in Oakland by the Alameda County Lawyers Association—that he lives in a high-crime area himself, what he calls “the second toughest crime beat in Oakland.”  

Well, I’ve been to the corner of 27th Street and Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, where Mr. Brown and Ms. Gust have their condominium, and it doesn’t seem like the second roughest neighborhood in Oakland to me. But even if it were, the implications in Mr. Brown’s assertions are strange, as if he were saying that if violent crime weren’t happening on his block, he wouldn’t be quite so involved. That’s not what you want to hear from someone who is supposed to be the mayor of an entire city, with all of the many problems that the mayor himself might not actually have to face. 

This week, the nice people at OakPAC, Oakland’s big business political action committee, were kind enough to send me a campaign brochure for mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente that asks, on the cover, “Who Knows Best What It Takes To Run A City?” Open up the brochure and you get the answer: “California’s Best Mayors Know What It Takes To Run A City.” Next to that is a full-color picture of Mayor Brown. 

If Mr. Brown knows how to run this city, I wish he would go ahead and do it, even with the little time he has left in his term. It’s fine to have a visionary in the family. As my old church deacon used to say, faith without work is dead. And as some of the young people would say today, a visionary who doesn’t put in the work to realize those visions is nothing but a slacker. 

?

The following is an excerpt from Richard Schwartz’s Earthquake Exodus, 1906: Berkeley Responds to the San Francisco Refugees. The Daily Planet will run two more excerpts in the coming weeks. 

The Great Earthquake of 1906 struck a little after 5 a.m. on the warm Wednsday morning of April 18. Hundreds of miles of California coastal towns were monstrously shaken and many suffered major destruction.  

Some cities actually feared the refugees from San Francisco and citizens suggested efforts to stop them from arriving. At a meeting called by San Jose’s Chamber of Commerce, someone suggested that they ask the Southern Pacific Railroad to help them keep refugees away from San Jose. One man insisted that San Jose must look after itself and was not in a position to help others. Another warned, “If they come here, they will eat us out of house and home in three days.” An anxious supervisor reported that 30,000 shaken San Franciscans were walking towards San Jose. 

Though Berkeley was more damaged than its citizens were initially told by their own newspaper, this did not slow down the amazingly rapid response of Berkeley residents, knowing that San Franciscans would surely be arriving as refugees to assess, organize and implement a relief effort. News trickled in from those who had come over on early ferries. People told in hushed voices of the calamity quickly spreading over the city that was burning across the bay. Many Berkeley residents had friends and family over in the stricken city and many others commuted there to work.  

These Berkeley citizens didn’t wait for the government, they didn't wait for money, and they didn't wait for instructions. They assessed the situation, decided on what needed to be done and appointed themselves to do it. This is a remarkable story of generosity and competency. Though injured itself, the Berkeley community thought first of helping those most in need. This is a legacy the city can be proud of one hundred years later and one that was somehow lost to us until this 100th anniversary commemoration.  

The Relief Effort  

Berkeley responded with remarkable speed to help the San Franciscans streaming into town. F. W. Foss, president of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, called for a town meeting to decide what could be done to assist the victims. 

The meeting, held the morning of April 18 at the chamber offices in the First National Bank at Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, was packed with concerned Berkeleyans. The attendees quickly set up a citizen relief committee, to be housed at the Mason McDuffie Real Estate office at Shattuck and Center, near the downtown train station. 

This convenient location allowed relief workers to meet the refugees as they stepped off the trains and to provide them with shelter, food, and clothing, along with any medical attention they might need. The Reverend E. L. Parsons, rector at St. Mark’s Church, was made chairman of the Relief Committee. 

Many subcommittees, called departments, were formed to handle health, housing and other tasks. Berkeley residents from all walks of life—church leaders, university professors, veterans, and leaders from the business community, as well as city officials—came forward to head the departments. 

Duncan McDuffie, of Mason McDuffie Real Estate, took charge of the Office Department, which organized a clearing center responsible for receiving the refugees and transporting them to their designated housing. He was also responsible for disseminating information, such as posting notices about the need for housing in Oakland newspapers. Frank Wilson, chairman of the Finance Department, began accepting contributions in cash and provisions. He proceeded to collect approximately $3,000 in the hours just after the earthquake.  

The purpose of the Oriental Department was to care for segregated groups of Chinese and Japanese refugees. This was an era when anti-Asian sentiments ran high, fueled by fear that white citizens would lose their jobs or that Asians would spread contagious diseases. There was even an Anti-Asian League whose presence in Berkeley was condoned. As word arrived that the San Francisco jails had been emptied of prisoners (as it turned out, they were being transferred as the fires devoured the city), a Protection Department was formed to deal with what was described as a “tendency toward lawlessness that follows such great confusion, excitement and disease.” 

Acting Mayor Francis Ferrier, in one of the few other official acts the Berkeley government took, appointed a “committee of safety” to do whatever necessary to maintain order, enforce sanitary regulations (posted in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and other languages), and generally guard the public welfare. 

The heads of the departments formed an executive committee that met twice daily in the first few days after the earthquake. To oversee the citywide effort, the Relief Committee took on the job of supervising the work of local organizations such as churches and fraternal groups. The Relief Committee, in turn, coordinated its tasks with the city and the university through a Town and University Committee (formed by appointment of the mayor). 

All important questions involving the relief efforts were referred to this committee. Its members included UC Berkeley President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Reverend Parsons, Frank Wilson, and UC history professor Bernard Moses. Little time had been wasted in creating a well-organized relief machinery that did not hesitate to make its own laws and enforce them. Within a week of the quake, Wheeler described, almost jocularly, the situation in Berkeley to President Theodore Roosevelt as “practically a government by vigilance committee.” 

Before the initial Relief Committee meeting on April 18 adjourned, thirty-one households offered to shelter refugees, whether in a spare room or on a shared couch. Guy Chick, a former Berkeley building inspector, volunteered a ten-room house. By 2 a.m. on the morning of April 19, more than three hundred homes were prepared for the displaced San Francisco residents, along with damaged Stiles Hall and the Native Sons’ Hall at 2108 Shattuck Ave. 

With accommodations found for eight hundred refugees, the Housing Department was just reaching its stride. Local real estate firms provided men and rigs to transport refugees to their assigned housing. 

Hundreds of frightened San Francisco refugees spent the first night after the earthquake in the Berkeley hills, suffering through the chilly night without enough provisions rather than take shelter in Berkeley buildings that might be damaged by aftershocks. 

Eleven women reportedly gave birth in the hills that night, with no medical assistance. Nine of them were said to have died. As the sun rose on April 19 over the hills and illuminated the clouds of smoke that had blown east across the bay, the hungry, sleepless refugees staggered down in search of assistance. 

Starting late that morning, a torrent of refugees flooded the town, most of them arriving by train from Oakland. This pace continued all day, making the night of April 19 particularly hectic for relief workers trying to place and feed an estimated seven thousand refugees. Vacant rooms became impossible to find. 

The need was so great that almost every Berkeley household provided accommodations to friends or strangers from San Francisco. UC professors took in homeless San Franciscans, and even fraternity and sorority members gave up their lodging for use by the refugees. Everyone was instructed to keep the refugees inside rather than let them loiter in front of houses and other buildings.  

On April 18 at City Council Chambers, the public is invited to a 3:30 p.m. ceremony at which Richard Schwartz will present Mayor Bates with a Certificate of Honor to the citizens of Berkeley from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Also, following the ceremony, BAHA will sponsor a lecture on the 1906 Berkeley Earthquake Relief effort and the book at the Berkeley City Club at 7:30 that night. Contact BAHA for tickets, at 841-2242. 

Photo from the book Earthquake Exodus, 1906 

with permission from the author, Richard Schwartz. (Blue and Gold, 1908.) 

The main refugee camp at UC Berkeley’s California Field, now the site of the Hearst Gymnasium.

TUESDAY, APRIL 4 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theater Lab: muwumpin presents “Frankie & Johnny” Mon. and Tues. to April 18 at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $10. 841-6500.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“American Mythology: The Monstrous and the Marvelous” Works by 22 artists on the idea of the mythic, opens at 4 p.m. at the Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Campus, College and Bancroft. 

“Nude Photographic Work” by Dana Davis opens the Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., and runs through June 29. 

“Everyting I Know, I Learned in the Movies” Color photography by Ann P. Meredith opens at Muse Media Center, 4221 Hollis St. at Park Ave. Emeryville. 655-1111. 

FILM 

Vantage Points: New Docu- 

mentaries by Women “The Tailenders” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kevin Phillips on “American Theocracy: Oil, Preachers, and Borrowed Money: America’s Coming Catastrophe” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Seating opens at 6:30 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Mimi Koehl author of “Wave-Swept Shore: The Rigors of Life on a Rocky Coast,” with photographs by Anne Wertheim at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. Cost is $4.50$5.50. 548-1761.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bandworks with five teen and adult bands at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5. 525-5054. 

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

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

Karen Blixt at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5 

THEATER 

The Marsh Berkeley “Faulty Intellegence”satirical songs by Roy Zimmerman, Wed.-Thurs. at 7 p.m. at 2118 Allston Way, through April 27. Tickets are $15-$22. www.themarsh.org 

FILM 

Film 50: History of Cinema “Au Hasard Balthazar” at 3 p.m. and Video: Recent and Strange at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Treasures “A Conversation with John Toki,” ceramic sculptor, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 644-6893. 

“Creativity is a Muscle” A beginner’s guide to community-based arts with Mat Schwarzman at noon at California College of the Arts, Center for Art in Public Life, 5275 Broadway. 

“Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade” with photographer Richard Bermack at 7 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $5. 848-0237. 

Theodore Roszak will speak about his book “World Beware: American Triumphalism in an Age of Terror” at 1 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. 524-9122. 

Gary Hart looks at “God and Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politcs” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. 

David Edmonds introduces “Rousseau’s Dog” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Movement Spring 2006 Showcase at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Also on Thurs. Tickets are $8. 925-798-1300. 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with the Copland and Beethoven Quartets at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

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

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

Ned Boynton Trio with Jules Broussard on sax, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Edessa at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. 

3 Strikez and guests at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Neurohumors, improv, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Sakai, neo-soul singer, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 6 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Drawn Together by Line” works on paper by Nora Pauwels, Ann Stoeher and Livia Stein, opens at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Reception at 6 p.m. 549-2977.  

“Amid Abstraction” Paintings by Mary Vaughan at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473.  

“Masque Romance ... George to Genesse” works by visually impaired artist Genesse McGaugh. Reception at 5:30 p.m. at the Prescott-Joseph Center, 920 Peralta St., off 10th St. in West Oakland. 835-8683. 

Livia Stein Paintings and works on paper. Reception at 4 p.m. at the Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. 817-5773. 

FILM 

65 Seconds that Shook the Earth Commemorating the 1906 Earthquake with works by George Kuchar, Christina McPhee, Dolissa Medina, Bill Morrison, and Semiconductor at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES.  

Leslie Freudenheim presents “Building with Nature” at 7:30 p.m. Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St. 845-6874. 

Jan Steckel, poet, followed by open mic at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Jacquelyn Baas author of “Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today,” in conversation with Lawrence Rinder at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

Robert Barnett introduces “Lhasa: Streets with Memories” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Word Beat Reading Series with Alice Templeton and Christina Hutchins at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tchaikovsky Perm Ballet and Orchestra “Swan Lake” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988.  

Garnet Rogers, musical storyteller, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Brian Kane Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

The Buttless Chaps, Lane Murchison, The Porch Flies at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Chelle and Friends at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568.  

Sebastien Lanson & Marcus Shelby at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Subnautic, electronic jazz funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Joey DeFrancesco with George Coleman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $15-$22. 238-9200.  

FRIDAY, APRIL 7 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory Children’s Musical Theater presents “Into the Woods, Jr.” at 7:30 p.m. and Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$20 sliding scale, for adults, $10, children. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “The Devil’s Disciple” by G.B. Shaw, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through May 6. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

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.  

Masquers Playhouse “Relative Values” by Noel Coward. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through May 6. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

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 

“Inside Out” Detail in Dress from 1850 to the Jazz Age. Reception at 6 p.m. at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. 843-7178. 

“Books Open, TV Off” An exhibition to promote reading. Reception at noon at Richmond Health Center, 100 38th St. (enter at 39th and Bissell), Richmond. Sponsored by ArtsChange. www.artschange.org 

“Headache New Work” Figurative sculpture and line drawings by John Casey and Lucien Shapiro. Reception at 7 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.boontlinggallery.com 

“Organics 3” Cibachrome prints by Kiyo Eshima. Reception at 6 p.m. at Fertile Grounds Café, 1796 Shattuck Ave. Through April 30. 548-1423. 

“Gigantic” A group show exporing scale, proportion, and impact in a variety of media. Reception at 7 p.m. at auto3321art gallery, 3321 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 593- 8489. 

FILM 

65 Seconds that Shook the Earth Commemorating the 1906 Earthquake “Earthquake” at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

2006 EarthDance: Short Attention Span Environmental FIlm Festival at 7 and 9 p.m., with receptions at 6 and 8 p.m at the Oakland Museum of California. Cost is $8. 238-2200. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

J. California Cooper reads from his collection of short stories, “Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns”at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Iris Stone, violin, and Eva-Maria Zimmerman, piano, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12. 848-1228.  

Chamber Music at noon at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 

“Music in the Dharma, Dharma in the Music” Songs that embody the teachings of Buddha, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinely Ave. 845-2215. 

Tchaikovsky Perm Ballet “Swan Lake” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988.  

Future Action Villians, Coin Operated Machine, Stereo Chromatic at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Monk’s Bones at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rami Khalife & Kinan Azmeh, Arabic, jazz, contemporary and classical music at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$18. 849-2568.  

Helene Attia/Owen Davis Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums with Ms Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

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

Del Rey & Steve James, Eric & Suzy Thompson, traditional American music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Jon Steiner Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Nate Cooper and Jack Irving at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Oddua, Diamond Moodie, Judea Eden Band at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Brutal Knights, Tamora, Rabies at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

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

Stolen Bibles at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Joey DeFrancesco with George Coleman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $15-$22. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, APRIL 8 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Bonnie Lockhart, interactive music for children, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568.  

Stage Door Conservatory Children’s Musical Theater presents “Into the Woods, Jr.” Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $10-$20. 

EXHIBITIONS 

The Crucible Student Art Show and Open House from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1260 Seventh St., at Union, Oakland. www.thecrucible.org 

Nancy Backstrom watercolor show from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sat. and Sun. at the Terrace Cafe, 5891 Broadway Terrace, at Clarewood, Oakland. 482-9602. 

FILM 

65 Seconds that Shook the Earth Commemorating the 1906 Earthquake “Disaster at Dawn” at 7 p.m. and “Flame of the Barbary Coast” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse All Open Mic at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. 644-6893.  

“How Poetry Can End Global Warming, and Other Dilemmas” with Robert Aquinas McNally at the Annual Poets’ Dinner at noon at Spenger’s on Fourth St. Tickets are $25. 

Traditional Chinese Opera Lecture and demonstration with Grace Wang, Roger Lin, and Mark Kuo at 1:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Shattuck. 981-6136. 

California Society of Printmakers annual business meeting and public program with Larissa Goldston of the Larissa Goldston Gallery in New York City, and Pam Paulson and Renee Bott, of Paulson Press in Berkeley, from noon to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

American Bach Soloists, with soloist Mary Wilson, at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $18-$40. 415-621-7900.  

Tchaikovsky Perm Ballet and Orchestra “Swan Lake” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988.  

African Music & Dance Ensemble at 8 p.m. in Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 642-9988. 

Claudia Schmidt at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Larry Stefl Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. 

Yancie Taylor Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Son De Madera at 8 p.m. at at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15. 849-2568.  

Gary Wade at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7 per family. 558-0881. 

The Highway Robbers , The Devil's Own , The Wiggle Wagons at 10 p.m. at The Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $7. 524-9220.  

Jai Uttal & The Pagan Love Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$18. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Last, Nasty Habits, Aliplast at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Dick Conte Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Evan Raymond and Splintered Tree at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Tarnation, Last of the Blacksmiths, Two Sheds at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Hostile Takeover, Annihilation, Bad Reaction at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

CV1 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 9 

ARCHITECTURE TOUR 

Oakland Museum of California Tour of the building and gardens, designed by architect Kevin Roche and landscape architect Dan Kiley. Meet at 1 p.m. at the koi pond on the first level. 238-2200. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Berkeley Treasures Series 1 Opening Reception at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. 

The Crucible Student Art Show and Open House from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1260 Seventh St., at Union, Oakland. www.thecrucible.org 

FILM 

65 Seconds that Shook the Earth Commemorating the 1906 Earthquake “The Night the World Exploded” at 6 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Laura Sims, Danielle Pafunda and Geraldine Kim, poets at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Joanna Fuhrman, Donna De La Pierre and Joseph Lease will read at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

“Selections from the Collection” A gallery talk and booksigning, Peter Selz with Timothy Dresser at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum. 642-0808.  

Poetry Flash with Phyllis Stowell and Elaine Terranova at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tchaikovsky Perm Ballet “Swan Lake” at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988.  

Trio Tangria at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Grupo Folklórico, Reflejos de México at 2 and 4 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$7. 849-2568.  

Bill McHenry Trio at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Willy Porter, guitarist and songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Flamenco Open Stage with Adela Clara & La Monica at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Philips Marine Duo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Americana Unplugged, bluegrass and oldtime music showcase, at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277.

The Ballad Singer strikes up with the one about Mack The Knife—“Mackie Messer,” more properly—and the upside-down underworld odyssey of Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera begins. 

The show runs the gamut through the stews, prisons and streetlife of a L ondon that’s really Weimar Republic Berlin (or anywhere “civilized” today) as the quarrels and antics of beggars, crooks and whores are valorized in great songs that have become the staple of cabaret. 

Virago Theatre Co.’s reprise of their sold-out run of this masterpiece of musical theater, which plays this Saturday at Alameda’s Masonic Hall, capitalizes on all these elements. 

Though staged many times, and filmed several—with roles originated or taken up by performers ranging from Weill’s wife Lotte Len ya and Peter Lorre, to Raul Julia and Sammy Davis, Jr.—most people are familiar with at least a song or two, rather than the full-dress version. And Virago’s production takes it up from here with staging that has the flexibility of cabaret. 

“The actors e ngage with the audience,” said Virago’s Artistic Director Laura Lundy-Paine, who staged the show. “Mack The Knife will take a seat next to a spectator, glance at their program, even blow them a kiss. The songs are directed to the audience, and the ensembl e performs the action around it. 

We’ve done everything, too, to make this performance one of today’s world—no accents, no historical settings. When Peachum, the head of the beggars union, derides Mack The Knife for being a crook while Peachum’s a business man, when one character offhandedly orders another to die—these are the lawless struggles among the powerful in any city, anywhere, any time in history.” 

Virago’s production is mounted with a pocket orchestra of three (piano, accordion and drums) and a c ast of nine, most of whom act multiple roles. 

“It’s fun to watch spectators flip through their programs to identify a tough gangmember that just came onstage,” laughed Lundy-Paine, “when they just saw the same actor singing demurely, quite a lady!” 

Ther e’s been a spate of Brecht revivals over the past year or so, the first time since the ‘60s and ‘70s that as much interest has been shown to the socially-conscious playwright, who endeavored to found a form of theater on a new way of getting the message a cross. 

Threepenny Opera, his most popular work (and one of a handful of works he did with composer Weill), both charms and scalds the audience, its easy air of skepticism a model for the cynical pose of later representations of pre-World War II Weimar Be rlin, like Caberet. 

Based on John Gay’s 18th century ballad drama, The Beggar’s Opera, this masterpiece has the timeless air of its predecessor—a satiric touch for the sacred cows of polite society, an ageless entertainment that delivers its message with a crooked smile. 

Virago Theatre presents Threepenny Opera at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 8 at Masonic Hall, 2312 Alameda Ave., Alemeda. $17; students $10. For more information, call 865-6237 or see www.viragotheatre.org. 

Photo by: Philip Kaake 

Virago Theatre’s Cynthia Rogers Baggot, Michelle Mills, Anthony Abate and Eileen Meredith perform Threepenny Opera in Alameda this Saturday.

“How much do I love my child?” The question is repeated over and over like a mantra in Eric Coble’s Bright Ideas, a comedy that “combines Macbeth, pesto and murder,” now running in Shotgun Players’ production at the Ashby Stage. 

Joshua (Ben Ortega) and Genevra (Anna Ishida) are ambitious young parents, but haunted by their memories of a hard-scrabble upbringing and put off by the more middle-class couples they find themselves competing with at work and with the jockeying to get their three-year old into a prestigious preschool. 

Finding out her colleague Denise (Melanie Case) has placed her son at the prestigious Bright Ideas, where Genevra and Josh’s little boy’s on the waiting list, through a well-placed family donation to the school’s aquatic center, Genevra invites divorcee Denise over to dinner. Dinner develops into a culinary conspiracy to “whack” the mom of their little boy’s competitor, sending the orphan back to grandparents and freeing their wait-listed preschooler “to matriculate among the pros,” as poet Lew Welch once dubbed his (higher) educational opportunities.  

Spurred on by her husband, who needles her with an inverted “what kind of mother are you?” argument, Genevra prepares a killer pasta pesto. Among the many comic gestures in the show, the couple’s green-stained hands brandished over their Cuisine-Art with ghastly, appalled expressions—between sprints to the living room by Josh to “entertain” their unsuspecting guest and back to the kitchen to escape her advances—bring some faux-melodramatic theatrical parody to the glib, amusing gags of Coble’s script. 

Bright Ideas is a kind of Macbeth of the dotcoms, its atrocities appropriately escalating with a role-reversal: Josh, so hot on doing the deadly deed to ensure their son’s future, seems hit by the consequences, sliding into alcoholism and self-pity, while Genevra’s now flush with ambition, after quailing at dispatching her perceived rival mother. She becomes the meglomaniacal soccer mom of the preschool, organizing field trips that exhaust the kids, spurring competition among the other parents that amounts to blood-sport—and threatening staff and administrators with invitations to dinner. 

This tournament of parenting finally peaks with a showdown at a balloon-strewn fourth birthday party, complete with a song-and-dance beaver.  

Director Mary Guzman notes that “the possibilities of staging” were a plus that made her want to take on Bright Ideas for Shotgun, and she has taken every opening the script’s offered to block out a brisk, funny comedy of gestures, expressions and quick interplay between cast members. 

The cast of five contribute everything to this development of humorous expression, asides, touches, with all but the leads serving multiple duty in a range of roles: anxious parents, self-absorbed coaches, loopy teachers and administrators, even exasperated flight attendants. A couple of the players have considerable experience in improv comedy, and it shows, as the vignettes break down into sketches, one overlapping with the next. 

Bright Ideas is billed as black humor, by an author of “biting political and societal farce.” The play did well in New York, and is more the neo-”New Yorker” type of humor—off-handed gags ricocheting off a topical theme, in this case yuppies or dotcoms. It doesn’t have the explosive surprise, the over-the-top excessiveness of comedie noire. Few sacred cows are punched, much less sacrificed; at one point, Lynzie (Rami Magron), the pregnant mom, even lectures Genevra with a “have you hugged your kid today?” kind of harangue, as if the audience hadn’t gotten the point of all the wannabe super-parental shenanigans. 

The most interesting point in the staging remains undeveloped: the play is all adults, reacting with goo-goo eyes and cameras to children never seen or heard. A parent-teacher conference on the garishly orange set is carried out on wee plastic chairs, to show the parents the kids’ point-of-view. 

More of this contrast between the two worlds that look up and down at each other, with trust, expectation, hope and longing, would have served up a real comedy, one with an inherent message in the style of playing, instead of a well-performed fashionable treat, a series of pot-shots at easy targets. 

Shotgun Players presents Bright Ideas at 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday through April 23 at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. $15.  

For more information, call 841-6500 or see www.shotgunplayers.org. 

There sure are some funny-looking trees in this town. Some of them are the results of whimsical pruning—there’s a big cedar in my general neighborhood, a traffic accident in waiting because I can’t be the only person who reflexively eases up on the gas p edal to stare when passing it. 

It’s completely sheared into poodle balls, little bluish pompoms, shaggy in some seasons, on the ends of long bare upcurved branches. It’s been maintained that way for years, and it’s tall enough that this must take a ladder and lots of labor.  

Some poodle-balled trees (yes arborists really call them that, and it’s not something a veterinarian can fix) seem to be a sort of Japanese-style pruning gone off in odd directions. Classical Japanese pruning includes some shearing, especially of shrubs, into the smooth-contoured “cloud form.” 

Here, I’m not sure whether someone liked the look and applied it to any old species, or lots of people didn’t quite get it and sheared things into shapes that reminded them vaguely of what th ey’d seen in Japan, or in picture books.  

You see lots of junipers done up into green pads on racks, and they’re tough enough to take it. But a Japanese maple I knew had been sheared into a perfect globe. I started a long reshaping process; when I took m y first whacks at it, I found lots of dead twigs and branches, deprived of light and air circulation inside that mass. Lots of plant-eating bugs, too, and mildewed leaves. 

There are species—mostly shrubs like boxwood but a few trees like Syzygium panicul atum (eugenia or lilly pilly)—that tolerate shearing, so they’re used for topiary. There’s a eugenia in San Lorenzo shaped into a sort of bas-relief kangaroo, against a house wall, and I’m told there’s a lot of it done up as topiary in Disneyland. 

Another technique that turns out weird-looking trees is pollarding. Some of the planetrees on the UC campus, for example the rows just inside Sather Gate, are pollarded. Planetrees and sycamores in general seem not to mind this, and if it’s done right it doesn’t hurt the tree. (Why am I hearing Marlon Perkins reassuring the TV audience that “this does not hurt the animal” as someone lassoes a hapless antelope?)  

The tree has to be cut repeatedly to exactly the same point, until it forms those odd knobs you see all winter. Then the twigs that shoot out of those knobs must be cut off every fall, and the knobs mustn’t be cut off or into. It’s originally a technique for harvesting firewood while keeping the trees alive, but it turned into a sort of French-aestheti c tradition. It’s also good for fruitless mulberries in hot-summer places where you want summer-only shade.  

Another source of funny trees is PG&E pruning. This is perfectly utilitarian, so to speak—solely for the purpose of keeping utility lines up wher e they belong. It’s merciless to the trees involved, but believe it or not it used to be worse. Sort of.  

Line-clearing pruning crews used to just top a tree—whack it off bluntly, a procedure that usually, gradually, kills the tree. Now, since Alex Shigo introduced his studies to arboriculture, they instead cut limbs down to the place they sprouted off bigger limbs. They call this “drop-crotching.” It’ll still probably kill the tree, but more slowly, and urban trees generally aren’t that long-lived anywa y.  

What you see after this is a Y-shaped tree, another silly shape but one that coaxes the tree to grow away from the lines that run through its middle rather than sending a zillion sprouts straight up into those lines in a year or two.  

A reader asked me if that was a result of trees’ being sensitive to electromagnetic frequencies. You might think so, looking at the trees, but, what being sensitive to EMFs means is that their foliage turn brown foot or two from the line. Those awkward trees you’re seeing are results of line-clearing; they didn’t do that all by themselves.  

Lots of arborists and even PG&E urge people to choose smaller trees to plant under city powerlines in the first place, so they won’t have this problem when the tree reaches mature size. Good idea.  

Photo by Ron Sullivan  

A good example of PG&E pruning: a sycamore "dropcrotched" into a big "Y" shape to clear powerlines above it.›

TUESDAY, APRIL 4 

“Rafting the Colorado” A photo journey with Steve Miller at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“American Theocracy: Oil, Preachers, and Borrowed Money: America’s Coming Catastrophe” with author Kevin Phillips at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way.  

NCRA Recycling Update The Northern California Recycling Association’s eleventh annual Recycling Update with experts on what is happening and what works in the world of resource recovery. From 8:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the California State Office Bldg.,1515 Clay St., Oakland. Cost is $80, includes lunch and refreshments. 217-2433. www.ncrarecycles.org 

Discussion Salon on “Taxes and Investing” at 7 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. at Rose. Please bring snacks to share, no peanuts please. 

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

Free Guitar and Music Lessons for Teachers Beginners at 7 p.m. and Intermediate at 8 p.m. at Marin Elementary School, 1001 Santa Fe Ave., Albany. Sponsored by Guitars in the Classroom. 848-9463. 

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

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

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. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Association walk to explore the churches of North Berkeley. Meet at 10 a.m. at the large redwood in front of Live Oak Park Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Bring water and a snack. 524-2383. www.berkeleypaths.org 

$390 Million Bond Measure for Peralta Community College District with Tom Smith, Chief Financial Officer for the Peralta Community College at 12:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. http://lwvbae.org 

Great Decisions Foreign Policy Association Lecture with Darren Zook on “China and India” at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Cost is $40 for the eight lecture series. 526-2925. 

Chiapas Support Committee Report from Zapatista Territory at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 849-2568.  

“What I Have Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: War Against the Third World” A compilation of documentaries about CIA covert operations at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 accepted. 

“Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?” A competition for the smartest Bay Area math students, semi-finals at 11 a.m. finals at noon atSimons Auditorium in Chern Hall at MSRI in Berkeley. www.msri.org 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Publisher’s Group West, 1700 Fourth St. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

“The Spanish Civil War—the First Battle in the War of Globalization” with Richard Bermack at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

Bookmark Nonfiction Group meets to discuss George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant” at 6:30 p.m. at Bookmark Bookstore, 721 Washington St., Oakland. 444-0473. 

“Awaken Your Strongest Self” with Neil Fiore, psychologist and hypnotist at 5 p.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

Breema Open House at 6 p.m. at 6201 Florio St., Oakland. 428-1234. www.breema.com 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720.  

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

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, APRIL 6 

Teach-In and Vigil on U.S. Torture Policy, every Thurs. from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. outside the classroom of Prof. John Yoo, Boalt Hall, UC Campus. Weekly speakers. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and other organizations. www.bpf.org 

“Sir, No Sir!” A preview screening benefit for Iraq Veterans Against the War, at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Lake Ave. Tickets are $8-$10. 415-255-7296, ext. 244. 

“Building with Nature” with Leslie Freudenheim at 7:30 p.m. at Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St. 845-6874. 

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. 

“Model Citizen Canine” A lecture on teaching your dog good behavior at 7:30 p.m. at Borders Books in Emeryville. 644-0729. www.openpaw.org 

Natural Solutions for Digestion at 1 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne St. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 7 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Bernice Linnard & Dennis Kuby on “Why Shakespeare Matters” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925. 

Inspiration Point Walk Meet at 4 p.m. in the Inspiration Point parking lot for this walk with stunning views. Walk at your own pace. Rain cancels. Sponsored by Solo Sierrans. 925-376-4529. 

Poison Safety Day at 11 a.m. at Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org  

“To Bethlehem and Beyond” A report-back with Jim Haber at 7:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 2125 Jefferson St. 482-1062. 

Fundraiser for Sacred Ride to Albuquerque to promote green energy in the Native community at 7 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Cost is $10. zacharyrunningwolf@yahoo.com 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at MLK Student Union, 5th Floor, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. A drop-in, rated scholastic tournament follows from 7 to 8 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 

SATURDAY, APRIL 8 

Yard Sale and Bake Sale to benefit the animals of the Berkeley Animal Shelter from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1257 Hopkins St. http://share4shelter.org/ 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Association walk to explore the paths and gardens of the Claremont district. Meet at 10 a.m. at the historic plaque at the northeast corner of Claremont Ave. and The Uplands. Bring water and a snack. 524-2383. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Toddler Nature Walk to look for different animal habitats at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Especially for 2-3 year olds and their grown-ups. 525-2233. 

“Alternative Materials Cob and Strawbale” an introduction to two natural building materials from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610. www.bldgeductr.org/seminars 

“Two Seas, Two Feet” with Andrew Skurka who walked the entire 7,778-mile transcontinental Sea-to-Sea Route, at noon at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“Dilemmas of Getting Old: How Can We Cope?” A presentation by Nina Falk at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley co-Housing Community Room, 2220 Sacramento St. Presented by OWL, Older Women’s League. 528-3739. 

Organic Vegetable Gardening Learn how to grow your own food from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UC Village Community Garden in Albany. Cost is $10-$15. Registration required. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Berkeley History Center Walking Tour: “Downtown! Culture and Character Before World War II” led by Steve Finacom, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0181. www.cityofberkeley.info/histsoc 

Bird Walk on Mt. Wanda led by Park Ranger Cheryl Abel. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Park and Ride lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. Wear sturdy shoes and bring water and binoculars. Rain cancels. 925-228-8860. 

Beyond Good Intentions Equipping the Ministries of LGBT Allies from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2451 Ridge Rd. Free, but registration required. 204-0720. allytraining@gmail.com  

“Menopause: A Naturaopathic Perspective” at 4 p.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

Preschool Storytime for 3-5 year olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Fasting Made Easy at 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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. 

Jewish Literature Discussion Group on “The Centaur in the Garden” by Moacyr Scliar at 2 p.m. at The Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 9 

Garden Glory A walk through the native plant butterfly garden and a chance to lend a hand pulling weeds, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Green Sunday” on the The Criminalization of Our Culture with Mike Wyman, Green Party Candidate for Attorney General, at 5 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th in North Oakland. 841-8678. 

Steps for Peace: Peace Festival & Walk Around Lake Merritt Peace Social at 1 p.m., Peace Awqards at 2 p.m., and Peace WAlk at 3 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. 336-3676. pearising@sbcglobal.net 

California Horticultural Society’s Plant Sale, featuring thousands of unusual and rare plants and free lectures by gardening experts, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., off Grand Ave., Oakland. www.calhortsociety.org  

Red Oak Victory Ship Pancake Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Berth #6, 1337 Canal Blvd., Richmond. Cost is $6, children under 5 free. 237-2933. 

National Women’s Political Caucus Susan B. Anthony Award will be presented to the California Nurses Association at 4 p.m. at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 549-2839. 

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

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Beat the Cycle of Stress at 1 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

“Feminism and Religious Dialogue” with Jewish scholoar Susannah Heschel at 11 a.m., brunch at 10:30 a.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. Cost is $5. RSVP to 848-0237, ext. 132. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Bob Russo on “Prayer Wheels for the West” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 10 

Earthquake Day Make a house that keeps standing when the earth moves, from noon to 2 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. Cost is $7.50-$9.50. 642-5132. 

“Punishment and Redemption: The Death Penalty in America” with Judith Kay and Elisabeth Semel at 4:30 p.m. in the Richard S. Dinner Boardroom, 2400 Ridge Rd. Free and open to the public, but RSVP appreciated. 649-2420. 

“Perspectives on Berkeley: Past and Present” Chuck Wollenberg’s Berkeley history class at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Meets Mon. evenings through May 22. Free. 981-6150. 

Freedom From Tobacco A new series of free quit smoking classes, with the option of free hypnosis begins at 5:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, and runs through May 15th. To sign up call 981-5330. 

“End of Life Medical Issues” with Dr. McGillis at 10:30 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

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

ONGOING 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., April 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

School Board meets Wed. April 5 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., April 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. April 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

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

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

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon. April 10, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Youth Commission meets Mon., April 10, at 6:30 p.m., at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/youth 

FRIDAY, MARCH 31 

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.  

Masquers Playhouse “Relative Values” by Noel Coward. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through May 6. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

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 

The Enchanting World of Jacques Demy “Bay of Angels” at 7 p.m. and “Model Shop” at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mark Klett and Rebecca Solnit describe “After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Duamuxa, worker’s songs from the countryside to the factory, in celebration of Cesar Chavez’ birthday at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jazz From Finland with drummer Andre Sumelius in trio with Jussi Kannaste, saxophone, and John Shifflet, bass, at 8 p.m. at Da Silva Ukulele Co., 2547 Eighth St. Donation $10. Sponsored by The Jazz House, 415-846-9432. 

Karen Wells, Madeline Prager, and John Burke perform Mozart, Brahms and Shostakovish at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12. 848-1228. 

“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. 

ACL/Nac1, underground hip hop, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 644-2204.  

Hurricane Sam & The Hotshots at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Slammin’ with Keith Terry at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054.  

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

Shana Morrison at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Scott Amendola’s “Monk Trio” at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Ni Project at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Godstomper, Crime Desire, Bafabegiya at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

The Regiment at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 1 

CHILDREN 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Juanita Ulloa & Ginny Morgan, songs from Mexico and Latin America, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Inside Out” Detail in Dress from 1850 to the Jazz Age opens at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178. 

“Cultural Encounters” travel photographs of Canada, China and Turkey by members of the Berkeley Camera Club. Reception at 1 p.m. at the San Pablo Arts Gallery, 13831 San Pablo Ave., San Pablo. 215-3204. 

“Aftershock! Voices from the 1906 Earthquake and Fire” with artifacts and photographs, opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Pastels by Leslie Firestone at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave., through April 30. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

“Modulations of Light” color photographs by Sidney J.P. Hollister. Reception at 6 p.m. at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. 644-1400.  

FILM 

The Enchanting World of Jacques Demy “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” at 6:30 p.m., “Jacquot” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Creating an Illustrated Field Guide for the Sierra Nevada” with John (Jack) Muir Laws at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Sarah Waters introduces her novel “The Night Watch” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition Open Reading at 3 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison St. Park on street. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Novello Quartet celebrates Mozart’s 250th birthday at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St., between Durant and Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

Pacific Boychoir sings Bach at 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. 452-4722.  

“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. 

New Praise Choir performs at the 97th Anniversary of the Philip Temple CME Church at 5 p.m. at 3233 Adeline St. 655-6527. 

Duct Tape Mafia in a benefit for the Africa Educational Trust at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $10. For all ages. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Berkeley Broadway Singers “April in Paris” at 8 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman St. at Cornell. Free, donations appreciated. 604-5732. 

The Mixers, classic rock, ska/reggae, blues, at 10 p.m. at The Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $7. 524-9220.  

Eddie Palmieri and His Septet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall , UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988.  

The Venezuelan Music Project at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Tickets are $12-$14. 849-2568.  

Mad and Eddie Duran Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Edlos. a capella, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Braziu at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

Grapefruit Ed with Pickin Trix at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054.  

The Ravines, folk rock, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

The D Sides and Cowpokes for Peace at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Sol Rebelz, The Attick, Illadapted at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

The People, Blue Bone Express at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Jewdriver, Until the Fall, The Shemps at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Hip Bones, instrumental jazz eith funk and rock, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Mel Sharpe’s Big Money in Gumbo Band at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 

CHILDREN  

“Eggstravaganza” Celebrate spring with an egg decorating contest, egg games and activities from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wild Things” with watercolor artist Rita Sklar. Reception at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Jeanne Dunning “Study After Untitled” Guided tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 642-0808. 

FILM 

The Enchanting World of Jacques Demy “the Young Girls of Rochefort” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Houses and Housings: Portability in Jewish Faith and Culture” with Henry Shreibman in conjunction with the current exhibit at the Magnes Museum, at 2 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

“Tails of Devotion: A Look at the Bond Between People and Their Pets” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Poetry Flash with Greg Hewett and Ted Mathys at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

BUSD Performing Arts Showcase from 1 to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Community Theater, Allston Way between MLK and Milvia. 644-8772. 

Golden Gate Boys Choir and Bellringers at 4 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman St. at Cornell. Tickets are $5-$10. 887-4311. www.ggbc.org 

San Francisco City Chorus performs Handel’s “Israel in Egypt” at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $13-$20. 415-701-7664.  

Sor Ensemble performs chamber music by Shostakovich at 4 p.m. at the Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. at Sacramento. Tickets are $12, free for children. www.crowden.org 

San Francisco Choral Artists “Wisdom of the Ages: Sages and Seers” at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 415-979-5779. 

Berkeley Broadway Singers “April in Paris” at 4 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Church, 400 Alcatraz Ave. Free, donations appreciated. 604-5732. 

Leslie Hassberg sings Women Singer-Songwriters of the 60s and 70s, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Cost is $12-$15.  

“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. 

Brentano String Quartet, with Hsin-Yun Huang, viola, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Pre-concert talk with Mark Steinberg at 2 p.m. Tickets are $42, available from 642-9988.  

Twang Cafe, americana, at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 644-2204.  

Bandworks from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with 17 youth bands at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5. 525-5054. 

Houston Jones at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

Americana Unplugged bluegrass and oldtime music showcase at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Pierre Bensuan, French-Algerian guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $21.50-$22.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Variety Show with Raum, Ula, a shadow puppet show and short films at 3 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $4. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 3 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theater Lab: muwumpin presents “Frankie & Johnny” Mon. and Tues. to April 18 at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $10. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

United Nations Association Film Festival “Statement of Hope and Courage” 6:30 p.m.at Pacific Film Archive, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10. 849-1752. 

“Stupid Cupid” at 9:30 p.m. at the Parkway Theater in Oakland. Director Chris Housh and several cast members will be present. Cost is $5. 593-9069. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers, short stories by Penelope Lively and W. Somerset Maugham at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Free. 

Poetry Express with KC Frogge and guest Frank Anthony at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $3-$7. 642-4864. 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Zilberella Monday at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

TUESDAY, APRIL 4 

THEATER 

Shotgun Theater Lab: muwumpin presents “Frankie & Johnny” Mon. and Tues. to April 18 at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $10. 841-6500.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“American Mythology: The Monstrous and the Marvelous” Works by 22 artists on the idea of the mythic, opens at 4 p.m. at the Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Campus, College and Bancroft. 

“Nude Photographic Work” by Dana Davis opens the Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., and runs through June 29. 

FILM 

Vantage Points: New Docu- 

mentaries by Women “The Tailenders” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kevin Phillips on “American Theocracy: Oil, Preachers, and Borrowed Money: America’s Coming Catastrophe” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Seating opens at 6:30 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Mimi Koehl author of “Wave-Swept Shore: The Rigors of Life on a Rocky Coast,” with photographs by Anne Wertheim at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bandworks with five teen and adult bands at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Karen Blixt at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5 

THEATER 

The Marsh Berkeley “Faulty Intellegence”satirical songs by Roy Zimmerman, Wed.-Thurs. at 7 p.m. at 2118 Allston Way, through April 27. Tickets are $15-$22. www.themarsh.org 

FILM 

Film 50: History of Cinema “Au Hasard Balthazar” at 3 p.m. and Video: Recent and Strange at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Treasures “A Conversation with John Toki,” ceramic sculptor, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 644-6893. 

“Creativity is a Muscle” A beginner’s guide to community-based arts with Mat Schwarzman at noon at California College of the Arts, Center for Art in Public Life, 5275 Broadway. 

“Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade” with photographer Richard Bermack at 7 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $5. 848-0237. 

Theodore Roszak will speak about his book “World Beware: American Triumphalism in an Age of Terror” at 1 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. 524-9122. 

Gary Hart looks at “God and Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politcs” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

David Edmonds introduces “Rousseau’s Dog” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Movement Spring 2006 Showcase at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Also on Thurs. Tickets are $8. 925-798-1300. 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with the Copland and Beethoven Quartets at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

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

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

Ned Boynton Trio with Jules Broussard on sax, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Edessa at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

3 Strikez and guests at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Neurohumors, improvisational music, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277.

“I get goosebumps listening to that music,” Howard Wiley said. “Anything you do that gives you goosebumps—that experience is good.” 

Saxophonist Wiley was talking about the spirituals and field shouts of prisoners in Louisiana’s Angola State Prison—and the musical sounds from his own background—that brought him to create his “Angola State Project,” commissioned works that set these songs for an unusual sextet plus two vocalists that he will lead at the premiere this Tuesday at Intersection For The Arts, 446 Valencia St., near 16th Street, in San Francisco’s Mission District.  

Wiley, a Berkeley native and Berkeley High alumnus who has been attracting national attention as a player, credited his writer friend, John Atkinson (who wrote the notes for Wiley’s CD) with getting him to hear the Angola inmates’ music. 

“He hounded me to listen to it, so I came home one day from the airport, picked up an album at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, and listened to ‘Rise And Fly.’” Wiley said. “It was something I’d never heard before. It had that intangible something I got in listening to Coltrane or Mahalia Jackson, but not nearly so refined. You could call it transcedant spirituality.”  

Wiley explained how the Project unfolded. 

“My friend made a trip down there and came back with a recording, emailing me two tracks,” he said. “That solidified it for me. I made him mail me all the pictures and documentation of the trip. I wanted to present it in some way, do this music justice—take it to the next level.”  

Angola State Prison is a self-sufficient, enclosed, working prison plantation, part of a three-prison farm system that includes the more notorious Parchman Farm. Pioneer music ethnographer Alan Lomax made field recordings there in the middle of last century. The tradition endures—and captivated Wiley. 

“When somebody entraps you like what these guys did ... I’d be listening to The Pure Hard Messengers, a quartet doing ‘The Keys To The City,’ and I’d think, ‘Man! Prisoners? In jail, struggling to find the key?’” Wiley said. “I was listening more and more, breaking down and analysing what these untrained musicians, these singers could do—so many inflections, so much personality ... It’s so powerful, moving; weird seven bar, two and three bar phrases in odd meters—it’s like the intro to ‘A Love Supreme.’” 

The Intersection commission—Wiley’s first commission—came through Kevin Chan. 

“He deals with pre-jazz, with the development of American music, and is familiar with Angola,” Wiley said. “The commission made it possible for me to compose two pieces.” 

Rob Woodworth of The Jazz House, where Wiley played and jammed when it was on Adeline Street, and since, is co-producing the project.  

Wiley’s band will feature his saxophone playing (tenor and soprano), trumpet, two acoustic basses, a cello, drums and two singers. ”One opera, one scat,” Wiley explained. “It’s very odd instrumentation with a very unique sound, reflecting the influences we’ll bring to it, to add our experience and interpretation. Those harmonies strike a chord, undeniable when it hits that chord, like when Coltrane did.” 

Wiley said he first heard that “intangible something” in the music at the churches his grandmother and mother took him to, Star of Bethel and Triumph Church of God and Christ, both in Oakland. 

“Every Sunday for 16 years,” he said, “I had a choice—and I decided to bypass the belt and go. It was the source of my inspiration. I played, learned in A flat—not the new jazz keys. There was one sister there, I loved to go and hear her sing; she sounded just like Mahalia. then I caught that thing again in Bird, in Coltrane playing ‘Blues Attributed To Sidney Bechet’ and in late Billie Holiday ... and Ornette Coleman’s ‘Lonely Woman,’ where I couldn’t hear the form and didn’t know what’s going on ... 

“Now I’ve picked those who embody that something, to add some vibe and flavor to the Project. We can’t just sit and play patterns ... where’s the inspiration? That’s what music is.” 

Howard Wiley and The Angola Project performs April 4, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., at the Intersection For The Arts, 446 Valencia St., San Francisco. $12-20. For more information, see www.theintersection.org.

The Jazz House, homeless this past year and a half since losing their lease on Adeline Street, is coming back to Berkeley tonight (Friday) at 8 p.m. with a show by young Finnish drummer Andre Sumelius, with his countryman, saxophonist Jussi Kannaste, and bassist John Shifflett, at Da Silva’s Ukelele Shop, 2547 Eighth St., co-produced by Berkeley Arts Festival. Sumelius won the Finnish Grammy for his 2001 album Kira.  

“Andre plays straight-ahead jazz,” said Rob Woolworth. “He first met local players right after he moved here, jamming with Howard Wiley and Dana Stephens at The Jazz House. He fit right in. Steve Da Silva’s Ukelele Shop has mostly featured intimate, world music-type shows, like house parties. It should be perfect for Andre’s trio.” 

André Sumelius trio performs March 31, 8 p.m., at DaSilva Ukulele Company, 2547 8th St., No. 28, Berkeley. Tickets $10. For more information, see www.thejazzhouse.org. 

›

Jacques Demy has taken a lot of hits over the years. He was a man who attempted to make movies for everyone, yet he was never what people wanted him to be. He wasn’t political enough, wasn’t edgy enough, wasn’t rebellious enough. 

But his critics were often missing the point. Demy did not aspire to be political, edgy or rebellious. He did not attempt to portray characters burdened with the world’s problems. He didn’t look for timely themes, didn’t try to capture a moment in history. Demy was more concerned with the timeless themes of love, happiness and heartache; he merely wanted to show people swept up in the joy and agony of love.  

Pacific Film Archive is seeking to rectify these misconceptions with “The Enchanting World of Jacques Demy,” a series of five of his films, as well as Jacquot, a documentary about the director made by his wife, filmmaker Agnes Varda. The series began Thursday and runs through Sunday.  

Demy’s first film, Lola, was greeted with praise by his contemporaries. Lola embodied so much of what the French New Wave embraced: young French people in modern, realistic locales, facing real-life dilemmas, sprinkled with references to American movies and culture. 

The New Wave was about aesthetics and attitude; its characters shared a certain disaffection with or alienation from their surroundings. Demy’s work shares the referential nature of the New Wave; his films are steeped in Hollywood lore and mannerisms, but he doesn’t share the New Wave’s alienation and rebelliousness. For while Demy’s characters may become restless and disenchanted with their surroundings, all it takes is a little affection from the opposite sex to rekindle their excitement with the world—much too bourgeois for the New Wave. 

Lola’s male lead, Roland (Marc Michel), is lost and wandering through life, as are his counterparts in such New Wave classics as Francois Truffaut’s 400 Blows and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless and Band of Outsiders. But there is no grand meaning or sociological statement behind Roland’s predicament—he’s just lazy. And lonely. He wanders from job to job and cafe to cafe, but he’s not looking for a religion, a political cause, or for fulfillment through work. Nor is he searching for identity, really. He is simply looking for love. And yes, it is through companionship that he hopes to find meaning and fulfillment, but this is almost an afterthought; Roland more or less just wants to be happy. 

Though Lola has all the trappings of the New Wave, it is at odds with the movement in that its story is at its root a simple one. Demy is not trying to make a grand statement, he is only trying to make a movie about love lost, found and lost again. 

Demy was also at odds with the political motivations of the Left Bank school of thought, of which Varda was a cornerstone. Once again, somewhat by chance, he had become associated with a school of filmmaking to whose tenets he did not adhere, and this misunderstanding of his work and his aspirations again led to criticism. His films are not about politics; they are about love, romance, dreams and failure, all wrapped up in a layer of escapism.  

And this informs one of the central premises behind Demy’s work: that pain and loss go down better with a layer of frosting. His films are light, fluffy confections of infectious music, swirling emotions and bright, lovely faces surrounded by bright, lovely colors. 

The actors in Demy’s films are young, beautiful and full of dreams and longing, and it is difficult not to fall for them. The women—from Anouk Aimée’s Lola to Catherine Deneuve’s Genevieve to Ellen Farner’s Madeleine and even Annie Dupéroux’s precocious 14-year-old Cécile—are without fail lovely and engaging and easily draw empathy from the audience. 

Unlike Godard’s heroines, who often have a certain detached aura, Demy’s women have more in common with the flushed-faced excitable young belles of Hollywood’s heyday. Demy’s actresses evince the fresh, bubbly wholesomeness of the Hollywood starlets of the ‘40s and ‘50s while managing to convey much of the moodiness, sultriness and complexity of America’s leading ladies of the ‘20s and ‘30s. 

The men likewise are compelling, though Roland at times seems a bit too bland to be fully engaging. Guy on the other hand, in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, with his gentle, soulful eyes and all-around good-guy qualities, is a sympathetic character from the start. 

In 1967 Demy pursued Gene Kelly as star and choreographer for The Young Girls of Rochefort. Kelly, already in his mid-50s, was well past his song-and-dance prime and was working primarily as a director. Bringing him back in front of the camera in a French musical may have seemed like an odd decision at the time, but it was a perfectly logical extension of Demy’s work. Demy was a great admirer of Hollywood’s golden age of musicals, and Kelly especially embodied much of the creative spirit Demy sought for his films.  

Check out Kelly’s musicals of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s and you can see the influence they had on Demy. Kelly was fascinated with dreams and fantasy, placing in each of his great films extended show-stopping dream sequences full of color, dance and romance. On The Town features a balletic demonstration of love and longing; An American in Paris shows the whirlwind of emotions of a couple in love amid the joy and glamor of Gay Paree; and Singin’ in the Rain features an episodic sequence filled with bright, splashy colors as his Don Lockwood character goes from rags to riches to lovelorn in 10 minutes of highly stylized fantasy.  

There is a satisfying thread that runs through the PFA series. Umbrellas, strong on its own merits, is all the more engaging when you have seen Lola, which gives you the full import of the character of Roland—his wandering spirit, his lost love, and all the pain and shiftlessness that leads him to Genevieve and to the profession of diamond-selling. (You’ll have to rent Lola though; it screened at PFA on Thursday.) And Model Shop likewise gives the audience a chance to follow up on Lola’s title character, catching up with her after she has left France and made her way to Los Angeles.  

To see these films together makes clear what so many of Demy’s critics missed: that he was in fact a filmmaker of great originality and integrity. He may not have been the director some wanted him to be, but he stayed true to his vision, making simple, emotional movies about simple, emotional people, regardless of the politics, trends and preferences of his era. 

The Enchanting World of  

Jacques Demy 

Bay of Angels 

Friday, 7 p.m. 

Model Shop 

Friday, 8:45 p.m. 

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg  

Saturday, 6:30 p.m. 

Jacquot 

Saturday, 8:30 p.m. 

The Young Girls of Rochefort 

Sunday, 3 p.m.  

Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way.  

642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.r

The following is an excerpt from Richard Schwartz’s Earthquake Exodus, 1906: Berkeley Responds to the San Francisco Refugees. The Daily Planet will run two more excerpts in the coming weeks. 

The Great Earthquake of 1906 struck a little after 5 a.m. on the warm Wednsday morning of April 18. Hundreds of miles of California coastal towns were monstrously shaken and many suffered major destruction.  

Some cities actually feared the refugees from San Francisco and citizens suggested efforts to stop them from arriving. At a meeting called by San Jose’s Chamber of Commerce, someone suggested that they ask the Southern Pacific Railroad to help them keep refugees away from San Jose. One man insisted that San Jose must look after itself and was not in a position to help others. Another warned, “If they come here, they will eat us out of house and home in three days.” An anxious supervisor reported that 30,000 shaken San Franciscans were walking towards San Jose. 

Though Berkeley was more damaged than its citizens were initially told by their own newspaper, this did not slow down the amazingly rapid response of Berkeley residents, knowing that San Franciscans would surely be arriving as refugees to assess, organize and implement a relief effort. News trickled in from those who had come over on early ferries. People told in hushed voices of the calamity quickly spreading over the city that was burning across the bay. Many Berkeley residents had friends and family over in the stricken city and many others commuted there to work.  

These Berkeley citizens didn’t wait for the government, they didn't wait for money, and they didn't wait for instructions. They assessed the situation, decided on what needed to be done and appointed themselves to do it. This is a remarkable story of generosity and competency. Though injured itself, the Berkeley community thought first of helping those most in need. This is a legacy the city can be proud of one hundred years later and one that was somehow lost to us until this 100th anniversary commemoration.  

The Relief Effort  

Berkeley responded with remarkable speed to help the San Franciscans streaming into town. F. W. Foss, president of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, called for a town meeting to decide what could be done to assist the victims. 

The meeting, held the morning of April 18 at the chamber offices in the First National Bank at Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, was packed with concerned Berkeleyans. The attendees quickly set up a citizen relief committee, to be housed at the Mason McDuffie Real Estate office at Shattuck and Center, near the downtown train station. 

This convenient location allowed relief workers to meet the refugees as they stepped off the trains and to provide them with shelter, food, and clothing, along with any medical attention they might need. The Reverend E. L. Parsons, rector at St. Mark’s Church, was made chairman of the Relief Committee. 

Many subcommittees, called departments, were formed to handle health, housing and other tasks. Berkeley residents from all walks of life—church leaders, university professors, veterans, and leaders from the business community, as well as city officials—came forward to head the departments. 

Duncan McDuffie, of Mason McDuffie Real Estate, took charge of the Office Department, which organized a clearing center responsible for receiving the refugees and transporting them to their designated housing. He was also responsible for disseminating information, such as posting notices about the need for housing in Oakland newspapers. Frank Wilson, chairman of the Finance Department, began accepting contributions in cash and provisions. He proceeded to collect approximately $3,000 in the hours just after the earthquake.  

The purpose of the Oriental Department was to care for segregated groups of Chinese and Japanese refugees. This was an era when anti-Asian sentiments ran high, fueled by fear that white citizens would lose their jobs or that Asians would spread contagious diseases. There was even an Anti-Asian League whose presence in Berkeley was condoned. As word arrived that the San Francisco jails had been emptied of prisoners (as it turned out, they were being transferred as the fires devoured the city), a Protection Department was formed to deal with what was described as a “tendency toward lawlessness that follows such great confusion, excitement and disease.” 

Acting Mayor Francis Ferrier, in one of the few other official acts the Berkeley government took, appointed a “committee of safety” to do whatever necessary to maintain order, enforce sanitary regulations (posted in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and other languages), and generally guard the public welfare. 

The heads of the departments formed an executive committee that met twice daily in the first few days after the earthquake. To oversee the citywide effort, the Relief Committee took on the job of supervising the work of local organizations such as churches and fraternal groups. The Relief Committee, in turn, coordinated its tasks with the city and the university through a Town and University Committee (formed by appointment of the mayor). 

All important questions involving the relief efforts were referred to this committee. Its members included UC Berkeley President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Reverend Parsons, Frank Wilson, and UC history professor Bernard Moses. Little time had been wasted in creating a well-organized relief machinery that did not hesitate to make its own laws and enforce them. Within a week of the quake, Wheeler described, almost jocularly, the situation in Berkeley to President Theodore Roosevelt as “practically a government by vigilance committee.” 

Before the initial Relief Committee meeting on April 18 adjourned, thirty-one households offered to shelter refugees, whether in a spare room or on a shared couch. Guy Chick, a former Berkeley building inspector, volunteered a ten-room house. By 2 a.m. on the morning of April 19, more than three hundred homes were prepared for the displaced San Francisco residents, along with damaged Stiles Hall and the Native Sons’ Hall at 2108 Shattuck Ave. 

With accommodations found for eight hundred refugees, the Housing Department was just reaching its stride. Local real estate firms provided men and rigs to transport refugees to their assigned housing. 

Hundreds of frightened San Francisco refugees spent the first night after the earthquake in the Berkeley hills, suffering through the chilly night without enough provisions rather than take shelter in Berkeley buildings that might be damaged by aftershocks. 

Eleven women reportedly gave birth in the hills that night, with no medical assistance. Nine of them were said to have died. As the sun rose on April 19 over the hills and illuminated the clouds of smoke that had blown east across the bay, the hungry, sleepless refugees staggered down in search of assistance. 

Starting late that morning, a torrent of refugees flooded the town, most of them arriving by train from Oakland. This pace continued all day, making the night of April 19 particularly hectic for relief workers trying to place and feed an estimated seven thousand refugees. Vacant rooms became impossible to find. 

The need was so great that almost every Berkeley household provided accommodations to friends or strangers from San Francisco. UC professors took in homeless San Franciscans, and even fraternity and sorority members gave up their lodging for use by the refugees. Everyone was instructed to keep the refugees inside rather than let them loiter in front of houses and other buildings.  

On April 18 at City Council Chambers, the public is invited to a 3:30 p.m. ceremony at which Richard Schwartz will present Mayor Bates with a Certificate of Honor to the citizens of Berkeley from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Also, following the ceremony, BAHA will sponsor a lecture on the 1906 Berkeley Earthquake Relief effort and the book at the Berkeley City Club at 7:30 that night. Contact BAHA for tickets, at 841-2242. 

Photo from the book Earthquake Exodus, 1906 

with permission from the author, Richard Schwartz. (Blue and Gold, 1908.) 

The main refugee camp at UC Berkeley’s California Field, now the site of the Hearst Gymnasium.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Sally Baker, producer of “Wee Poets” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

“Preparing Our Communities for the End of Cheap Oil” A presentation by the Post Carbon Institute at 7:30 p.m. at Laney College Forum, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Cost is $10. Day-long conference on Sat. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St. http://bayarea.relocalize.net, www.postcarbo.org 

Arts and Crafts Cooperative of Berkeley Gallery Spring Seconds Sale from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. 

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. 

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 

SATURDAY, APRIL 1 

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. 

Women on Common Ground Hike Meet at 1:30 p.m. at the Bear Creek Staging Area, Briones Regional Park. Hike is four miles with some hills. RSVP to 925-862-2601. 

Free Compost at the Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Bring your own container, two buckets are suggested or large garbage bags. Backyard amateur gardeners only. Sponsored by the Ecology Center. 548-3333. 

Container Gardening and Design with Gail Yelland 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. Meet at 9 a.m. in the Park and Ride lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. Wear walking shoes and bring water. 925-228-8860. 

Sick Plant Clinic UC plant pathologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Sun and Earth Day Hands-on activities for families from noon to 5 p.m. at Chabot Space & Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $9-$13. 336-7300. www.cahbotspace.org  

Bike Helmet Safety Day Purchase a helmet for $7, and from 10 a.m. to noon toddlers can get fitted, decorate their new helmets, and participate in a toddler rodeo at Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org  

“And Still I Rise ...” A soul gathering and benefit for the people of New Orleans with music, poetry, dancing and film at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donations $15 and up. 415-864-2321. 

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay meets to discuss clean money and electoral reform at 12:30 p.m. at Temescal Library, 5205 Telegraph. 636-4149. www.pdeastbay.org 

Berkeley Progressive Convention Coalition Planning meeting at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita St. 540-1975. 

Arts and Crafts Cooperative Gallery Spring Seconds Sale from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sat. and Sun. at 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. 

East Bay Atheists Berkeley meets at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge, 3rd floor meeting room. We will watch a video of Sam Harris speaking on his book, “The End of Faith.” 222-7580. 

Kids Day at Studio Rasa from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with movement, yoga and dance classes, at 933 Parker St. Cost is $10. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Free Craniosacral Self Care Techniques with Dr. Raleigh Duncan from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave.  

Protest Rally at Berkeley Honda Shattuck and Parker every Thurs. at 4:30 to 6 p.m. and Sat. from 1 to 2 p.m. until the labor dispute is settled.  

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

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

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

SUNDAY, APRIL 2 

Spring Forward Walk to mark the start of Daylight Savings Time at 10 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

El Cerrito Historical Society with guest speaker Richard Schwartz on his new book “Earthquake Exodus, 1906” at 2 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, 6510 Stockton Ave., just behind the El Cerrito Library. www.elcerritowire.com/history 

97th Anniversary of Philip Temple CME Church, with a talk by Rev. Charles Haynes at 3 p.m. at 3233 Adeline St. 655-6527. 

Hands-On Bicycle Clinic on bicycle safety inspections from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

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 

“Are You Good Enough to be Published?” a workshop with Alan Rinzler at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Telegraph Ave. 845-7852.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Bob Byrne on “Deepening Meditation” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com  

Ancient Tools for Successful Living at 10:30 a.m., and the following three Sun. in April at 5272 Foothill Blvd. at Fairfax, Oakland. Cost is $8-$20. 533-5306. 

Chabad of Berkeley honoring Rabbi Yehuda Ferris at 5:30 p.m. at the ASUC Building, Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. Tickets are $125. 540-5824.  

MONDAY, APRIL 3 

“Youth Connect” To help connect transitional age youth to services and other experiential activities from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Lutheran Church of the Cross, 1744 University Ave., at McGee.  

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

United Nations Association Film Festival “Statement of Hope and Courage” 6:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10. 849-1752. unaeastbay@sbcglobal.net 

“Perspectives on Berkeley: Past and Present” Chuck Wollenberg’s Berkeley history class begins at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., and continues on Mon. evenings through May 22. Free. 981-6150. 

National Organization for Women Oakland/East Bay Chapter meets to discuss options for senior housing at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. 287-8948. 

Green Business Discussion with green business leaders at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Free. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

“Healing from Sexual Abuse” with author Carolyn Lehman at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Neuropathic Treatment for Allergies and Hayfever at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

“How to Expand Your Mind- Body Connection” at 5:30 pm. in the Rose Room at Mercy Retirement Center, 3431 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $30 or $120 for the entire series. 534-8547, ext. 666. 

Introduction to Meditation at 6:45 p.m. at the Bay Zen Center, 315 Alcatraz near College Ave. Cost is $10. 596-3087. www.bayzen.org 

Sing-A-Long from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

Beginning Bridge Lessons at 11:10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $1. 524-9122. 

McGee Avenue Toastmasters meets at 7:30 p.m. at McGee Ave Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 501-7005. 

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

TUESDAY, APRIL 4 

“Rafting the Colorado” A photo journey with Steve Miller at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“American Theocracy: Oil, Preachers, and Borrowed Money: America’s Coming Catastrophe” with author Kevin Phillips at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way.  

Discussion Salon on “Taxes and Investing” at 7 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. at Rose. Please bring snacks to share, no peanuts please. 

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

Free Guitar and Music Lessons for Teachers Beginners at 7 p.m. and Intermediate at 8 p.m. at Marin Elementary School, 1001 Santa Fe Ave., Albany. Sponsored by Guitars in the Classroom. 848-9463. 

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

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

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. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Association walk to explore the churches of North Berkeley. Meet at 10 a.m. at the large redwood in front of Live Oak Park Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman. Bring water and a snack. 524-2383. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Great Decisions Foreign Policy Association Lecture with Darren Zook on “China and India” at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Cost is $40 for the eight lecture series. 526-2925. 

$390 Million Bond Measure for Peralta Community College District with Tom Smith, Chief Financial Officer for the Peralta Community College at 12:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. http://lwvbae.org 

Chiapas Support Committee Report from Zapatista Territory at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 849-2568.  

“What I Have Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: War Against the Third World” A compilation of documentaries about CIA covert operations at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 accepted. 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Publisher’s Group West, 1700 Fourth St. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

“The Spanish Civil War—the First Battle in the War of Globalization” with Richard Bermack at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org 

Bookmark Nonfiction Group meets to discuss George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant” at 6:30 p.m. at Bookmark Bookstore, 721 Washington St., Oakland. 444-0473. 

“Awaken Your Strongest Self” with Neil Fiore, psychologist and hypnotist at 5 p.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

Breema Open House at 6 p.m. at 6201 Florio St., Oakland. 428-1234. www.breema.com 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720.  

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

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, APRIL 6 

“Sir, No Sir!” A preview screening benefit for Iraq Veterans Against the War, at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Lake Ave. Tickets are $8-$10. 415-255-7296, ext. 244. 

“Building with Nature” with Leslie Freudenheim at 7:30 p.m. at Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St.  

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. 

“Model Citizen Canine” A lecture on teaching your dog good behavior at 7:30 p.m. at Borders Books in Emeryville. 644-0729. www.openpaw.org 

Natural Solutions for Digestion at 1 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne St. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

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

ONGOING 

Free Tax Help—United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! program provides free filing assistance to households that earned less than $38,000 in 2005. To find a free tax site near you, call 800-358-8832.  

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. 

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 

Creeks Task Force meets Mon. April 3, at 7 p.m. the North Berkeley Senior Center. Erin Dando, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/Creeks/ 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., April 3, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/peaceandjustice 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., April 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., April 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. April 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

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

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

?

Over the years I’ve probably been asked how I inspect a house or what am I looking for at least a thousand times. It’s a valid question. I guess it’s like saying “How do you inspect a square kilometer of desert?” 

How do you decide what to look at and what to disregard and how, in a fixed frame of time do you arrive at the end and say anything of substance. Again, a valid question and sometimes troubling because no matter how much you see or what you have learned, there is bound to be more that you do not know. Therefore, one needs a methodology, a series of habits, some set protocols and perhaps a set of tools with which to carry those protocols out. 

Although there is great truth in what I have just said, there is a missing piece as is often true for mysterious trades like medicine and lawnmower repair. For me, the truth to my job is that I have to find a place where I can see a whole bunch of stuff and sit down and look. That’s right. I find a spot where I can see a wall or the underside of the house, or maybe the whole house and I look. 

If you sit in the woods very quietly in one place for a long time, you are going to begin to notice all sorts of things that would surely escape your notice when tromping along from one fiefdom to another. After a while you might start to notice the many sounds and perhaps eventually identify some of them. You might start to see that a line of ants were working their way from their hill to a tree-stump and back again. 

Inspecting a house, when done properly is a bit like this. It creates problems too because people sometimes come up to me and say, “How much longer is this going to take?” and I have to say, “When is the grasshopper going to lay its eggs in the tall grass?” my epicanthic folds hidden beneath the shadow of my muslin hood. 

This thing is mysterious, goshdarnit, and I refuse to be deterred by things like efficiency. Actually, this sort of unprejudiced seeing is very efficient, especially when I’ve seen something of importance that would have been missed in a hurried examination of the premises. 

The reason this works is that there is a great deal of “noise” when looking at houses. There’s so much raw data that you have to let your mind sit and filter out all the extraneous stuff at its own pace. 

Invariably, within a short while, the naturally curious mind will begin to weed out all the obvious stuff and start to notice that there are tiny holes in the joists under the floor (beetles?) or the fact that the cripple studs (the ones that hold up the joists) are all hanging off the edge of the foundation sill on one side. 

The best place to show this to people is from across the street from the house we’re looking at. 

If your vision is fair, you can probably make out relatively small cracks and all sorts of irregularities from this sort of distance but better, you can see things that are almost certainly missed when one is close to the house. I’ve often done this with clients when I noticed something that requires this distance and want to give them a treat. 

I invite them to cross the street with me and look back at the house. I ask them to look at everything and tell me what they see. They start with the color (that they HATE), the cultured stone veneer that they also hate (cultured, my inverse perspective!), the rocks on the roof (rocks on the roof?!) and then they say it. “Hey, the whole house is … sort of ... tilted to one side.” 

That’s when I hand out the junior inspector badge, the decoder ring and teach them the secret handshake. 

It didn’t take a professional to figure out that the house was wracked or tilted. It just took a few minutes of attentive seeing (which we all know is not the same as looking). 

Even the seller of the house may have been unaware. I swear to Joshua when I say that I saw a house about a month ago that had this very condition and the owner was completely unaware until I showed it to her. She recently left me a message saying that she is now seeing it and seeing it and seeing it. 

She walks by a doorway and sees that it’s a parallelogram but certainly not a rectangle. She notices the cracks and separations that had previously been filtered out by the busy brain (and this is a very bright woman). 

What it takes is a little extra time to stop and look. Now there is clearly more to it than that but this is my rule number one. The other part is to get your inverse perspective over to all the places where important things can be seen. 

So crawling under the house is important (if it’s a house you want to inspect), Getting into the attic and bringing your lunch, climbing on the roof and spending some special moments with the clouds and the shingle. This really works. Believe me. 

After a while you’ll start to learn all the other stuff but if you don’t get a look at every facet of the house from every perspective, you are destined to miss something and, conversely, if you don’t, it doesn’t matter how many gadgets you have or how sharp your visual acuity, you’re going to miss something. 

Another thing about this process is that it provides a lot of great raw data for the back-of-the-head, long-range, subconscious thinking stuff. After you’ve looking a lot at every angle and in every place around the house, lights tend to come on (yes, in your head). 

The illusory elements start to coalesce if you’ve given them enough material around which to form their germs. 

It has often been the case for me that it was only in the third hour (or later) of an inspection that some really important aspect began to come together. This might be a general issue regarding the manner of construction or it might be the fact that there had been a fire in the house some years ago and it took seeing a lot of little facts to bring it out. 

Again, the important thing is that one simply looks slowly and attentively to many aspects and lets the information slowly emerge. 

Now you’ll have to add some construction experience in order to use this method professionally but the next time you’re working with someone like me (or your auto mechanic) you can do what attentive clients have been doing to me for years.  

Just as I’m fully saddled upon my high horse pontificating about the dangers of dryer lint, my attentive client will point over my horse’s left ear and say “We’ll yes, but what about that hole in the side of the house?” 

Thank goodness, I’ve trained myself to control that blush response. 

Persistent readers may have noticed, in this and other writings in this and other publications (I refer specifically to my every-other-Tuesday back page column on the trees of Berkeley in the Daily Planet), that I have definite opinions and strong feelings about, of all things, the treatment of trees. 

I come by those honestly, through study and experience. I’ve recommended Plant Amnesty, a funny and accomplished gang based in Seattle, for some pointers on what—and what not—to do to trees in your care, but that’s not where I first learned about caring for them.  

There’s a resource closer to home than Seattle where you can learn about the principles of good pruning, and its people have gone way beyond my skills and knowledge. You can also hire many of these folks to work on your trees; visit the website below. I suggest watching while they work, if you can. There’s much to learn that way. You can learn in other ways from this new school too.  

In the 1980s, I took landscape horticulture classes up at Merritt College. I’ve had a number of brushes with academia, and this was absolutely my best experience of it. One really good part was meeting Dennis Makishima there. 

Already an accomplished professional arborist, he was taking an arboriculture class because he wanted to learn more about productive fruit trees. While he was doing that, he was teaching the rest of us about Japanese-style pruning. I think he couldn’t help it; he’s a born teacher.  

I lucked out and got to spend some time as Dennis’ apprentice. He took several of us on, at various stages and for various times, as he was expanding his own practice and later taking months off to study with a bonsai master in Japan. 

It soon became clear that there were more people eager to learn than he could handle that way, so he and several of his students founded the Merritt College Bonsai and Aesthetic Pruning Club. 

The two branches of the club, with some overlapping membership, meet periodically to learn and discuss trees, but a lot of the teaching goes on in classes that Dennis’ first few tiers of students teach at Merritt, and in their work on trees in local public gardens, communities, and institutions. That started with the refurbishing of the Japanese Friendship Garden at Lake Merritt, and expanded all around the Bay Area.  

One major accomplishment of the group is the bonsai garden, also at Lake Merritt, built and gardened largely through their volunteer work. Every volunteer job they do is also an occasion to pass on their knowledge, via talk and hands-on practice.  

Club members also teach Saturday classes at Merritt, for a modest fee—usually under $30. That’s a good place to start. It’s an investment in your trees, in your land and even property values, in your community. 

The hort department will throw its annual plant fair on Saturday, April 22, and that’s a good place to get acquainted with the pruning club. If you want to hire someone from this powerhouse group, there’s a list on their website.  

Merritt College Bonsai and  

Aesthetic Pruning Club 

www.aestheticpruning.org 

Fee class registration, call 436-2413  

Plant Amnesty 

www.plantamnesty.org