A resolution on tonight’s (Tuesday) City Council agenda, calling on the House of Representatives to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, is not just another feel-good Berkeley measure. 

Rather, it’s part of a burgeoning nationwide effort to recognize the crimes of the nation’s top executives and remove them from office, according to Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who has sponsored the resolution calling on the council to ask the House of Representatives to impeach Bush and Cheney and has co-sponsored a second resolution calling for a similar measure to be placed before the voters in November. 

“We’re doing it to build momentum, to build a campaign, to get members  

of the House and Senate  

and general public to demand accountability,” Worthing- 

ton said. 

The related resolution before the council, written by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmemebers Linda Maio, Dona Spring and Worthington calls for the Peace and Justice Commission to prepare an advisory impeachment measure for the November ballot. 

“If enough people on the grassroots level support the resolutions, then others will join,” said Nora Foster, who worked with Worthington’s office on the resolution and is a member of ImpeachPAC, (impeachPAC.org) an organization attempting to get local resolutions passed through cities and change the Congress nationally to one that would be friendly toward impeachment. 

“The media has left important questions slip under the wire,” Foster said. “People need to understand how far (Bush and Cheney) have gone to abrogate people’s rights.”  

If the council approves the measure, it will be the third city in California to do so, following San Francisco, Arcata and Santa Cruz. 

Oakland may also move in that direction. Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel, a mayoral candidate, is working on such a resolution, but is still researching whether she will opt to support impeachment or censure, according to Marisa Arrona, a policy analyst in Nadel’s office. 

John Conyers is the top Democrat on the Judiciary committee and is leading the move to investigate Bush’s crimes in the House. Thirty-two colleagues have called for the investigation, including Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) and Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont.) 

The Progressive Democrats of America are bringing the question to the state Democratic Party by holding a forum on impeachment during the state Democratic Convention on Saturday in Sacramento. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) will speak. 

A Berkeley-based student group, Constitution Summer 2006, is calling for “honesty, integrity and responsibility in government,” according to student organizer Abraham Kneisley, who will be working with students on the ground and in cyberspace in a “constitutional summer,” where students across the nation will spend their summer organizing for impeachment. (WWW.constitutionsummer.org.) 

The Berkeley City Council resolution cites the following reasons for impeaching Bush and Cheney: They “defrauded” the country by misleading Congress and the public regarding a threat from Iraq in order to justify war; they authorized torture and indefinite detention; they failed to act quickly and adequately to respond to Hurricane Katrina and they ordered secret surveillance of American people. 

Other related websites include: afterdowningstreet.org, democrats.com, www.impeachnow.org, and impeachbush.meetup.com 

After decades of wrangling, neighbors of Alta Bates Hospital gathered at the Alta Bates auditorium last week to express their outrage at the city’s decision to install a road across the hard-won grassy mall next to the hospital. 

While construction continues to renovate the Alta Bates emergency room, a temporary road has been made through a grassy area called the Bateman Mall (located off of Prince Street before the Colby cul-de-sac by Bateman Park). The road had been designed to accommodate two-way traffic between Prince Street and residents of houses in the southernmost cul-de-sac. 

The residents said they were alarmed that the City of Berkeley had informed them that this temporary road may become permanent. 

So far one meeting had been held with the neighborhood, the hospital and the city to discuss issues important to the new construction. Councilmember Kriss Worthington was the only city official attending the Thursday night meeting. 

“Although the date and time were suggested by Peter Eakland, the city’s associate traffic engineer in charge of the policy and design changes to the Bateman Mall, our neighborhood group was informed two days ago that neither he nor any representative from the city would be attending the meeting,” said Dorothy Hale, a resident of Prince Street. “This is highly frustrating, since the whole point of the meeting was to begin to correct the lack of due process and neighborhood involvement. We can’t help but take this as a sign that the city is not seriously responding to neighborhood opinion.” 

Hale added that the local residents wished the city would be more responsive to their pleas to seek alternatives and avoid cutting a road through the Bateman Mall. This measure directs emergency vehicle traffic onto one of the narrowest two-way streets in Berkeley, she said, and it creates severe drainage problems for Prince and Dana streets. 

The other concern that was raised during the meeting was safety concerns for the children who frequented the adjacent Bateman Park. 

Wendy Cosin, deputy planning director for the city, said that Eakland would be meeting with neighbors in May to discuss options for how Bateman Mall would look after it underwent construction. 

“Our goal is to start working on it after Alta Bates finishes with their construction in August,” she said. “We want to reach an agreement with the neighbors that would address the current drainage problem successfully.” 

Deborah Pitts, manager of public affairs at Alta Bates Summit, told the Planet that the Bateman Mall project falls outside the Hospital-Neighborhood agreement signed in 1983 that was meant to govern hospital growth for 99 years. 

“We have an obligation to put it back the way it was, but if the city for safety reasons think that there needs to be a change, we would have to go with that,” she said. “Right now we are waiting to see what happens.” 

Pitts added that the property in question belonged to the city. 

At the May meeting, the neighbors said they will demand information concerning conditions dealing with soil, noise, traffic, drainage, mosquito infestation from standing water, and whether the new construction would be a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act. 

At last Thursday’s meeting the residents noted that the city memo by Eakland for review by Alta Bates-area residents contained no option for restoration of the Bateman Mall to its original state.  

The memo notes that the original emergency access which provided a grass surface for the entire mall needed (1) to be moved to avoid constraints on the Prince Street side; (2) to be widened several feet to accommodate emergency vehicles; (3) guidance on both sides of the road surface; (4) an all-weather road surface that does not require maintenance, and (5) improvement of the drainage system to increase capacity and reduce the tendency of clogging. 

The memo also mentions that “originally it had been thought that construction would be accomplished without closing Colby south of the emergency room area.”  

In meetings between the contractor and the Alta Bates staff in the week prior to the start of construction, it was established that the existing drainage system would have to be removed to provide the needed access for residents during construction 

As a result a temporary asphalt surface with drainage was constructed along the east of the road between the cul-de-sac and Prince Street. Although the memo reads that “the roadway has provided adequate access for residents and good drainage during the rainy season” the residents said that drainage remained a problem. 

Suzanna Yeh, who lives near the corner of Prince and Bateman, said that the flooding caused after the temporary road was built caused tremendous problems for her disabled mother.  

“I have to lift the wheelchair up at times because there is so much water there,” she said. “I have lived here for 30 years and the flooding started only after the temporary road was built. This is my quality of life we are talking about. I don’t want the city to change that.” 

The residents noted that “emergency” could mean anything from police vans, ambulances, fire-trucks or even an exit for the kids in the tot lot, if need be, and added that this kind of an emergency exit would not be in keeping with the spirit of the original idea of allowing only fire-trucks to move in during a crisis.  

“We don’t want it to be used as a thoroughfare,” said Marty Barclay, a neighbor. “More than aesthetics, the issue is about the resident’s safety and health.””

A Berkeley assemblymember’s bill scheduled for debate this week in the assembly Education Committee would not end military recruitment on California’s high school campuses, but it would make it easier for parents to exempt their children from the recruitment process. 

Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and Sally Lieber (D-San Jose) jointly introduced the bill, AB 1778, which would require that high schools include an “opt out” military recruiter checkout box on the emergency information contact forms filled out every year by the state’s students and parents. 

The bill was co-authored by Oakland Assemblymember Wilma Chan. The bill would tighten up and clarify the military recruitment “opt out” notification procedures to parents and students that are required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. 

The Hancock-Lieber bill has been labeled the “Student and Family Protection Act of 2006.” 

Under NCLB, schools receiving federal funds are required to provide student contact information to military recruiters unless the individual student or the student’s parents notify the school that they do not want the information to go to the recruiters. 

That is the so-called “opt out” provision of the law. 

A representative in Lieber’s office said that bill would also assist California school districts in both avoiding litigation and complying with NCLB. 

“Not only are parents and students often not aware that their private contact information may be released by their school, school districts themselves risk litigation if they do not provide adequate notice to parents of their right to opt out of the release of this information,” Lieber staffmember Cory Jasperson wrote earlier this year in a fact sheet to Assembly Education Committee members. 

“In fact,” Jasperson added, “earlier this year the Albuquerque Public Schools settled a lawsuit over this issue after being sued by the ACLU for sending students’ contact information directly to military recruiters without properly notifying parents of their right under NCLB to opt out of such information sharing.” 

In support of the Hancock-Lieber bill, Northern California-based Mainstreet Moms says on its website that “with a $1 billion Army advertising budget and an overall $4 billion recruiting budget at work, kids choosing whether or not to enlist face some of the most sophisticated marketing tactics and shrewdest messaging money can buy. Who has their personal information, and how that information is used, should be left up to the students and their families to decide.” 

The organization says that the Hancock-Lieber bill “makes it easy for families to make that decision” and adds that “it’s clear that when students and families are made aware of their rights, they take action.” 

A small number of school districts, including Berkeley Unified, have adopted a more liberal “opt in” policy which allows the school district to withhold student contact information from military recruiters unless the student or their parent turns in a form authorizing the release of that information. NCLB specifically bans the “opt in” practice. 

South Bay Congressmember Mike Honda (D-San Jose) has introduced legislation in Congress that would make the “opt in” procedure legal, but that legislation has been stalled in committee since last spring. 

While indicating that she supports “the aims” of Honda’s “opt in” bill, Lieber said by telephone that changing federal law was a “slow process,” and her emergency form opt out state legislation is an interim step to reduce military recruitment on school campuses. 

That would make a difference in such districts as the Mountain View-Los Altos Unified School District, for example, she said, where the opt-out provision appears on page 53 of the student handbook. 

“My hats are off to the parents and students who make it through the first 52 pages,” Lieber said. 

Saying that the bill is getting “a lot of support from local school districts,” Lieber added that “I think this is going to get support from a lot of unexpected quarters as well. At one PTA meeting in my district, I met a woman who was a career military official. She said that even she was offended that she could not get military recruiters to leave her school-age son alone.”  

Lieber said that in some studies she’s seen where school districts have used the opt-out checkout box on emergency contact information forms, “the choice of opting out from military recruitment has jumped from 8 to 12 percent to more than 80 percent” of parents and students in a school. 

A spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which is supporting the bill, said that while the ACLU-NC would prefer to either include an “opt in” provision” or to “get rid of military recruitment out of the schools altogether,” the Hancock-Lieber bill would “at least make the opt out provision as accessible as possible.” 

Opposition to the bill has not yet jelled. Only one organization, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of California, have come out in opposition, and the Republican Caucus of the state legislature has not yet taken a formal position. 

The bill has been “double referred” to committee, meaning that if it survives the Education Committee vote scheduled for Wednesday, it must go next to the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee before it reaches the floor of the Assembly. 

The last day for the Assembly to pass its own bills this year is June 2, with an Aug. 31 deadline for the Senate to approve bills that have made it through the Assembly. 

The chairperson of the UC Board of Regents said this week that there may be disciplinary action taken in the wake of the university’s employee compensation scandal, but what those disciplinary actions might be will not be revealed until the regents’ May meeting. 

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

As a result, the university has already initiated three separate audits of compensation package procedures. Further, UC President Robert Dynes convened a task force of business, government, media, and education community members to look into the current compensation scandal and the regents have formed a permanent committee of compensation. 

Saying that the secret compensation packages were contrary to regents’ policy, regents chairperson Gerald Parsky said in a telephone interview following a special regents meeting in Los Angeles this week that regents “have asked [Dynes] to come to the May meeting to offer an explanation” as to why the secret compensation packages did not come before the regents for public approval. 

Parsky said that Dynes “believes that there will be consequences taken.” 

Parsky said that after Dynes’ presentation and a review of three separate audits of the compensation issue, regents may also take action themselves. 

One of those likely actions, Parsky said, “is a change in policy so that voluntary compliance with disclosure won’t be the framework for the future.” 

On Monday, UC auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers of San Francisco released the results of one of the compensation audits to regents, concluding that “certain benefits promised or paid” to some top-level university employees had not been approved by regents “as required by Regental policies” and that some of these benefit packages were “exceptions to university policies or standard practices.” 

In addition, the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ audit concluded that “certain of the compensation items” were not disclosed to the public as required. 

Among the compensation items listed as not approved by the regents in the PricewaterhouseCoppers’ audit was $97,500 in relocation allowances to UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgenau, $248,000 in bonuses and incentives to UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, and $125,000 in relocation allowances to UC Santa Cruz provost M.R.C. Greenwood.  

In answer to a reporter’s question, regents’ chairperson Parsky said that it was “inappropriate to speculate whether or not the regents would have approved the compensation packages if they had been aware of them. The regents should have been made aware of them, and been allowed to address the situation. 

It’s important that the regents have a complete picture of what is being offered. That’s one of the responsibilities of every public board that I’m aware of.” 

Also listed in the PricewaterhouseCooper audit as one of the compensation items that was an “exception to university policies or standard practices not approved by the regents” was a perk granted to former UC Chancellor Robert Berdahl following a one year leave of absence after he left the chancellor’s position. 

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this year revealed that contrary to university policy, Berdahl was not required to return to a teaching position with the university, and did not have to pay back $355,000 he had earned from the university while on leave. 

“UC policy usually requires faculty members to return to teaching for at least as long they were on paid leave,” the Chronicle reported at the time. “Otherwise, they are supposed to pay back a prorated portion of the money.” 

Following the article, the UC Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs, George Strait, had issued an open letter to “the Cal community” stating that “we are certain that a review of relevant documents makes it quite clear that Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s decision regarding former Chancellor Berdahl’s sabbatical and compensation was a matter of public record, in no way violated existing policy, and was completely consistent with the best interests of the university.” 

In his telephone press conference on Monday, regents chairperson Parsky said that it was a “reasonable expectation that the public should be informed of everything in the compensation packages. We have made it plain to [President Dynes] that if he can’t defend the terms of the compensation package to the public, then the compensation should not go forward.””

Small class sizes, school libraries and music and arts education are just a few of the programs the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) will ask local voters to support this November.  

The district is considering a measure to renew two parcel taxes, the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project and Measure B of 2004, both slated to sunset in 2007. 

The measure would direct $19.6 million a year—the same rate as the existing taxes combined—plus cost-of-living adjustments into district coffers for 10 years. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence has identified programs in need of continued funding. The options are up for public debate at a special Board of Education meeting Wednesday.  

About two-thirds would be earmarked for salaries to ensure small class sizes, high school electives and counselors for middle school students. 

The number of students-per-class in grades kindergarten through third-grade would be about 20, fourth- and fifth-grades would be 26, and middle and high schools would max out at 28. This is roughly consistent with current figures. 

A quarter of the funds would go toward programs to enhance student learning, of which 42 percent—or about $200 a student—would be dedicated to the individual schools, effectively giving sites more discretion over the distribution of dollars. The allocation of those resources would fall to site governance councils.  

Of the remaining 58 percent, 30 percent would fund staff at school libraries, and 20 percent would maintain existing arts programs for elementary and middle schools students.  

The last 8 percent under the umbrella “programs to enhance student learning” would support families of students with three parent outreach specialists, parent workshops and additional materials.  

Some financial leeway would exist should a school choose to expend extra resources for a specific purpose, like new band instruments. Up to 10 percent of money earmarked for one program could be rolled over to another program, so long as it doesn’t go over 15 percent of its annual allocation. 

Nine percent of the total amount would fund professional development and data-driven program evaluation. BUSD does not currently have a system in place that implements data to improve student achievement. Lawrence said she hopes to build an evaluation office that would require new research staff and software.  

Lawrence also suggests setting aside 2 percent of the renewed tax for public information, translation services and the Planning and Oversight Committee, which oversees the district’s parcel taxes.  

The proposed measure covers most bases built into the current levies, with one notable exception. More than $800,000 earmarked for school facilities in the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project would go toward student achievement; specifically $345,000 for middle schools and $420,000 for professional development and program evaluation. 

Some debate has focused on whether to increase the tax rate and allot funding for additional programs, such as an extended pre-school program, facilities, a healthy nutrition program, high school athletics, schools nurses, seventh period for all middle schoolers, which would allow students to enroll in an elective, and physical and mental health services. 

District spokeman Mark Coplan said the current recommendation—to maintain the tax rate as is—reflects the district’s fear that a rate hike could decrease chances of earning the two-thirds majority needed to pass the measure. 

“The real issue behind it is, if the board goes out for a measure in November and it fails, a third of our teachers would go away as would all of the music programs, and our libraries would close,” Coplan said. “It would devastate the district.” 

There is some evidence to suggest that voters would support a tax increase. In a telephone poll of 600 likely voters conducted in March, 77 percent of respondents said they would approve an additional $63 a year. 

A public hearing will be held Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. For more information, call 644-6206.

The Berkeley City Council will begin its meeting tonight (Tuesday) with a Disaster Training Workshop at 5 p.m. An executive session meeting on the threat of a lawsuit be developer Patrick Kennedy will by held at 6 p.m. The council will begin its regular meeting at 7 p.m. 

The lawsuit threat to be discussed in closed session concerns the Gaia Building at 2116 Allston Way which Kennedy built and now owns. The city allowed Kennedy to build two floors higher than normal downtown limits as a trade-off for the promise of cultural uses on the ground floor and mezzanine. 

An open-session discussion on the Gaia Arts Center use permit is also on the regular council agenda. 

Yard parking considered 

A proposed ordinance on the agenda would permit parking in yards—back yards and side yards—of residences without going through a use-permit process and thereby notifying neighbors of the possible change in land use in the dwelling next to them. 

In a memo to the council, city resident Robert Lauriston writes: “Allowing parking in required yards by right would allow developers to convert the entirety of a rear yard into a parking lot and result in the proliferation of incongruous “pop-up” projects similar to 3045 Shattuck and 2901 Otis.” 

In recommending the ordinance, Land-Use Planning Manager Mark Rhoades wrote in the council report that he believes the change to be minor: “Given the fact that the city is mostly built out and many of the city’s parcels already have off-street parking, staff does not expect many new spaces in rear or side yards to be created.” 

The requirement of an administrative use permit would unfairly burden these few property owners who are making a change in their existing parking arrangements, such as having torn down a garage, Rhodes wrote. 

Creek ordinance delayed 

An ordinance aimed at preserving Berkeley’s creeks has been in the works for more than a year. The Creeks Task Force was to have presented an ordinance to the council this month for adoption, but final language for the revised creeks law is yet to be written. 

The planning staff is recommending that the council adopt draft ordinance language in July and final language in September. 

Rapid transit cuts addressed 

While AC Transit is gearing up for enhanced rapid service from International Boulevard to Telegraph Avenue, it is considering cuts on the 43 and 40 line in Berkeley, which will impact bus riders on Shattuck Avenue. 

The council is asking the city manager to write a letter to AC Transit to delay a hearing on the cuts until the Berkeley City Council can make a formal recommendation on them. 

Storm system demystified 

Acting Public Works Director Claudette Ford will make a presentation to the council on the city’s complex storm-drain system.  

Consent calendar matters 

The consent calendar, which council can adopt without discussion if no councilmember chooses to pull off the item for debate, includes the following: 

• The council will vote to create a committee to look at the process of assessing historical resources in the downtown area. The committee will be made up of members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee and the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

• The Berkeley Alcohol Policy Advisory Coalition has outlined new policies for the city to reduce alcohol sales venues that become neighborhood nuisances. The council will be asked to hold a workshop in July on the proposals and then adopt them in ordinance form at a later date. 

• The city will also accept a $23,000 grant from the California Family Health Council to participate in an assessment of contraceptive gel users and their partners. ›

The Transportation Commission last week weighed in on a traffic report for mixed-use development at University Avenue at Martin Luther King Jr. Way, moved forward with a solution to parking losses on Telegraph Avenue and introduced design options for the downtown Berkeley BART station. 

Commissioners at the Thursday meeting developed a plan for improved transportation circulation at 1885 University Ave., where developers are proposing a 156-unit apartment complex and a 13,515-square-foot Trader Joe’s, accessible via a driveway on Berkeley Way. 

The project includes additional commercial space and both above- and below-ground parking lots. 

A traffic impact analysis drafted by Korve Engineering, a civil engineering and planning firm in Oakland, found that the project would exacerbate congestion in an already-bustling corridor, but that implementing mitigation measures—adding traffic signals, reconfiguring lanes and removing parking, for instance—would ameliorate poor conditions. 

“What this study tells us is cars will still move and they’ll probably move better with mitigation measures,” said Chris Hudson, who is co-developing the project with fellow Berkeleyan Evan McDonald. 

Neighbors have raised a number of concerns, nonetheless. Many residents complain that a commercial driveway on Berkeley Way will be dangerous for children who live on the street and play outside.  

“I think it’s monumentally presumptuous of the project to suggest all the traffic should come onto a residential street,” said Rob Browning, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years.  

He joined with several residents in advocating for a diverter on Berkeley Way to prevent Trader Joe’s shoppers from using the residential street as a thoroughfare. 

Commissioners Wendy Alfsen and Rob Wrenn took it a step further and called on developers to consider alternative entryways.  

“I just can’t believe there’s not a way to design this site so access to Trader Joe’s isn’t from Berkeley Way,” Wrenn said.  

Developers insisted they considered all alternative possibilities, and Berkeley Way was the only viable option.  

The loss of parking spaces along MLK between Berkeley Way and University was a further concern. Jerry Cho, who owns a business in the neighborhood said, “It will kill small retailers.” 

Other issues raised included pedestrian safety, residential permit parking, bike parking and construction. 

Alfsen made a motion to address those concerns; it passed with one commissioner opposing (Michael Issel) and one abstention (Nathan Landau). An additional motion urging developers to seek different entryways to the project’s commercial space failed. Instead, commissioners passed a recommendation to install a diverter on Berkeley Way, as supported by many residents.  

The Transportation Commission’s recommendations will be forwarded to the Zoning Adjustments Board, which will consider the project next month, said Peter Hiller, assistant city manager for transportation.  

Telegraph Avenue lane changes 

Also Thursday, commissioners instructed transportation staff to draft a solution to the removal of car parking and winding lane stripes on Telegraph Avenue. 

Late last year, residents and shopkeepers started complaining when they discovered that about 20 spots along Telegraph north of Ashby Avenue to Dwight Way, had been replaced by motorcycle parking, and accompanying straight lane stripes had been repainted to bottleneck at intersections. 

The reconfiguration occurred without public process, and multiple businesses say they’ve been adversely affected. 

“Customers have told me they wanted to come to dinner, and they couldn’t find a parking space, so they just left,” said Thomas Cooper of Le Bateau Ivre. 

The design was part of a larger plan to revamp road markings in Berkeley, but as transportation staff now admit, it didn’t quite pan out. Several years ago, a traffic engineer, who is no longer with the city, according to city Transportation Director Peter Hillier, configured Telegraph with bike lanes of substandard width. 

To correct the mistake, staff say they had to remove parking at intersections and redraw lane lines to accommodate wider bike thoroughfares. Compact parking was not an option, Hillier said, and rather than red-curb the affected spots, staff opted to implement parallel motorcycle parking.  

Many business owners say they’ve rarely—if ever—seen motorcycles use the parking, and they want car spaces restored. 

Commissioners heeded their demands and called on transportation staff to consider reinstating car parking by shrinking pedestrian medians where it is safe to do so, where there are traffic signals, for example. Of 17 intersections, eight are signalized. 

Hillier estimates that the work will not cost very much money, so long as staff can piggyback it onto another contract project.  

The commission instructed transportation staff to return with a proposal. 

Downtown Berkeley BART 

The Transportation Commission got its first look at four preliminary design options for the downtown Berkeley BART plaza, which members of the public are invited to examine and weigh in on this Saturday at the Berkeley Public Library from 1 to 4 p.m. They are: 

• Option 1: Shattuck Avenue would host an exclusive center bus lane, and left turns would be removed. Various design enhancements would be implemented at the plaza, such as a newsstand and a stage, but the existing BART rotunda would remain as is.  

• Option 2: Traffic would be reconfigured to two lanes in each direction north of Center Street. The east side of Shattuck Square would accommodate a northbound lane for buses only. Additionally, there would be more open space on the east side of Shattuck at Center. The BART rotunda would be similar to Option1. 

• Option 3: The main entrance to BART would be relocated to the east side of Shattuck and the existing rotunda would be removed. Shattuck would be reconfigured into a four-lane road to the west of Shattuck Square, and a two-lane street to the east. 

• Option 4: Shattuck would be reconfigured to create an open plaza on Center, and create a central transit station for buses and BART. There would be no through traffic on Center at Shattuck. The rotunda would be removed. 

Commissioners discussed the options briefly, with Comissioner Sarah Syed expressing support for Option 4. The other commissioners said theey had not yet formed opinions.  

Contact Suzanne La Barre at slabarre@berkeleydailyplanet.com.  

Time is running out for the Planning Commission to officially weigh in on the city’s much-debated Creeks Ordinance, but a viable recommendation is still weeks away. 

Planning Director Dan Marks will go before the Berkeley City Council tonight (Tuesday) to request further time for consideration of the Creeks Ordinance, a law enacted in 1989 that regulates development on and near Berkeley’s open and interred waterways.  

Marks will ask councilmembers to extend a May 1 deadline initially prescribed in 2004 when they formed a Creeks Task Force charged with suggesting revisions to the ordinance. 

The council stipulated that if the task force failed to draft recommendations by May 1—recommendations the Planning Commission would also consider—creek culverts would be removed from the ordinance.  

That timeline has not been upheld. 

However, Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin does not foresee any problem securing an extension. 

“I don’t think there’s an issue,” she said. “The Creeks Task Force is moving ahead, the Planning Commission will make a recommendation and we will bring the whole package to the City Council in May.” 

For almost a year and a half, the task force has toiled over how to appease homeowners who want fewer restrictions on development near waterways and environmentalists who want to protect creeks and their natural habitats. 

Generally their recommendations—which are under constant revision—forbid or require permitting for development within 30-feet of a creek’s centerline, with exceptions made for repairs and rebuilding. 

Emma Gutzler, the restoration coordinator for the creeks advocacy group Urban Creeks Council, said those suggestions look pretty good.  

“Overall, we feel we are happy with what was presented,” she said Friday. “There are some measures we wanted to see, but generally it’s good for our creeks.” 

But as of April 17, the task force has submitted new recommendations and clarifications.  

One of the key additions is the definition of a creek. Currently, the ordinance restricts development within 30 feet of a waterway, whether open or interred. This has been cause for much brouhaha, since about a third of the 1,833 homes affected by the ordinance live near creek culverts. Many property owners insist those waterways are better likened to storm drains not natural channels that warrant environmental protection.  

The latest ordinance language agrees culverted creeks should be treated as storm drains under the authority of the Public Works Department. 

But former mayor Shirley Dean, who’s a member of the homeowners’ rights group Neighbors on Urban Creeks, says it isn’t enough.  

“It concerns us because of this atmosphere of distrust surrounding this ordinance,” she said. 

The group believes culverted creeks should be referred to in a completely separate resolution. 

Planning Commission Chair Helen Burke, who also heads up the Creeks Task Force, said there must be some mention of culverted creeks in the ordinance, per the city attorney’s advice.  

Further recent recommendations put forth by the task force include environmental analyses for some development (decks under certain circumstances in addition to vertical and horizontal expansions within 30 feet of a creek), and a requirement that affected homeowners must be notified before all future changes to the ordinance.  

Contingent on the City Council granting the extension, the Planning Commission is scheduled to compose final comments on the ordinance by May 10.  

Councilmembers should consider a draft ordinance by June, Burke said..

Although Hispanic media helped to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in last month’s immigration protests, they are split when it comes to the economic boycott planned for May 1.  

From Univision, which has prohibited its employees from publicizing the boycott, to KIQI La Grande 1010-AM in San Francisco, which is actively promoting it, Latino media are more ambivalent this time around. 

According to the Mexican newspaper El Diario, based in Ciudad Juarez, Univision sent out an e-mail asking Spanish D.J.s and employees not to promote or mention the boycott, a move that other media see as acquiescing to the demands of their advertisers. Popular syndicated D.J.s like “El Piolín” on Univision’s La Nueva 101.9-FM in Los Angeles were critical in mobilizing large numbers of people in last month’s marches. 

“It’s sad that Univision is not supporting the boycott because of their sponsors,” says Margarita Molina, general manager of La Grande 1010. “Univision is the most popular channel, and for them not to support a big movement like that is sad.” 

La Grande 1010, she says, is the only station in the area that is actively promoting the boycott, including a 14-hour commercial-free radio marathon on May 1 to provide continuous coverage of the protest. In an advertisement for the radio marathon, the voices of protesters can be heard chanting “Sí se puede” (Yes, we can), the famous slogan of Cesar Chavez. 

Other media that supported last month’s marches, like Los Angeles-based La Opinión, the nation’s largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, are reluctant to back the boycott openly. 

“La Opinión has a historical role of promoting community participation, from voting to school politics,” says editorial page editor Henrik Rehbinder. “But the boycott is very risky. It’s not clear it will benefit everybody. It’s certain that it will hurt some people, that some people will be fired. If you are a dishwasher, a waiter or another unskilled worker, you may be replaced. As a media outlet, you can’t tell people not to go to work.” 

Instead, La Opinión is calling for a day of action on May 1 in which people can make their own decision about how they will participate: whether that means boycotting or attending the marches and vigils after work, going to church or talking about immigration in school. “We are not going to encourage the boycott, but we are not opposing it,” Rehbinder says. “There are many different ways to participate and everyone has to be responsible and make the right choice.” 

Others in the Latino media say they can’t afford to take a position.  

Jonathan Sanchez, associate publisher of Eastern Group Publications, says his publication did not support the march or the boycott and is critical of media that took an active role. 

“It was radio primarily that pushed the envelope,” Sanchez says. “Radio stations are adding fuel to the fire, misleading people by the way they are reporting it. As media we don’t have any business promoting either way. I think it’s out of line to do that. But Spanish radio has that tradition.” 

Spanish-language media has a history of defending its community, beginning with the first Spanish newspaper 151 years ago, says Jose Luis Benavides, journalism professor at California State University, Northridge. Founded June 19, 1855, El Clamor Público (The Public Outcry) advocated for the rights of Latinos, who made up the majority of the population of Los Angeles but were victims of violence, judicial bias and lack of political representation—many of the same issues they experience today, says Benavides. 

In 1939 the newspaper El Espectador in the San Gabriel Valley helped organize a boycott against the local movie theatre Upland Theater that only allowed Mexicans to sit in the side aisles and balcony, writes Mario Garcia in his book Mexican Americans. The boycott was successful in integrating the theater. 

The paradox of Hispanic media today, Benavides says, is that despite its activist tradition, very little Hispanic media are now owned by Latinos. This is especially true in radio and TV, where large corporate-owned media may choose to side with advertisers.  

If greater corporatization of media continues, Benavides says, we can expect to see more instances in which media may have to choose between activism and the economic bottom line. “But,” he adds, “if they move really far away from the community they are supposed to represent, then no one is going to watch them.” 

“The peculiar phenomenon of Latino immigration,” according to an April 17 editorial in La Opinión, “has allowed for the development of a journalism that combines the commitment to the immigrant public with the Anglo search for objectivity.” 

“There are principles of professionalism that demand a distance to ensure a level of objectivity,” writes La Opinión, “although there are certain situations that demand drastic action. The threat of the bill HR4437 is one of these cases where one cannot simply be a spectator.”

The controversial proposal to build a massive five-story high-rise at the corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way comes before ZAB Thursday. 

Two other lightning rods adorn the agenda—Pacific Steel Casting and the Sisterna Tract Historic District. 

Developers Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald hope to win Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) approval for their project at 1885 University Ave. that has drawn the ire of neighbors, who claim it’s too big and will cause too much traffic. 

The property is currently occupied by a strip mall with Kragen Auto Parts as the principal tenant. 

The developers have promised a sweetener for the city—a highly popular Trader Joe’s market in the ground floor commercial space. 

Neighbors have decried the building’s shadowing effects on Berkeley Way, the residential street that flanks the structure on the north. They also fear the impacts of traffic to the market, which will be directed into an entrance on their street. 

The developers have promised the city that the market will bring needed sales taxes to the city and have said they’re already entitled to build an even more massive project at the 1885 University Ave. site. 

Steve Wollmer of PlanBerkeley.org is a project neighbor and has submitted a series of lengthy objections, and city staff have provided their own massive report. 

During Thursday’s meeting, the board will take public testimony and advise the developers on issues of building height and mass. 

Also on the ZAB agenda is a proposal by Pacific Steel Casting to install air filtering equipment at their Second Street foundry. 

Neighbors have waged a long-running battle over foul odors emanating from the plant, and the company responded with a plan to install the equipment after neighbors raised the threat of a flood of small claims lawsuits. 

The proposal is listed on the board’s consent calendar. 

Another agenda item certain to generate public comment is a request by developer Gary Feiner to give retroactive approval to his demolition of a landmarked building at 2104 Sixth St. 

Part of a two-building pop-up and build-out project, the landmarked cottage was effectively demolished in direct contravention of an agreement with the city. 

A contractor removed the roof in violation of the building permit, replacing it with a steel-framed replacement. Architect Timothy Rempel, who is working for developer Gary Feiner, said the action was a mistake, leading to the firing of the contractor. 

Project neighbors who landmarked the 19th-century working-class neighborhood in response to Feiner’s plans can be expected to turn out to air their grievances, as they did at the Landmarks Preservation Commission earlier this month. 

Another West Berkeley project on the agenda is a proposal to add a rooftop parking structure to an automotive service building at 1218 Seventh St. and construct a new three-story, 8,075-square-foot building with a mezzanine on a vacant lot next door at 1220 Seventh St. 

Because of the unusually crowded agenda, the meeting will begin an hour earlier than normal at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.w

It’s over. The Italian superior court has declared that Silvio Berlusconi is out and that Romano Prodi has won. But more than voting out Berlusconi’s center-right alliance or approving Prodi’s center-left coalition, Italians have chosen to go back to the splintered governments preceding the early 1990s. 

Italian analysts are busy debating the significance of the April 12 elections. Some say the new government will be strong enough to steer the Italian ship through the waves of globalization; others claim the opposite. Both may miss the point. In dividing their votes to the dime—49.8 percent to 49.7—Italians have signaled that they think a weak government may be better than the solid majoritarian governments that have been managing Italy since the Tangentopoli (”Bribeville”) flare-up 14 years ago.  

A financial scandal of immense magnitude, Tangentopoli hastened the extinction of the Christian Democrats and the Socialists—two parties which had governed Italy with a relative majority of the seats in parliament—and eventually fostered the advent of the country’s Second Republic in 1992.  

Under this new republic, Italy did away with old political oligarchies—at least theoretically—and launched an extensive revision of the constitution and of the welfare, criminal and civil justice systems. It undertook radical labor reform and changed the electoral system, adopting a majoritarian mechanism similar to that of the United States.  

Superficially, it seemed to work. Since the inception of the Second Republic, Italy has seen some of its longest-serving governments since World War II. Massimo D’Alema, the first former communist to head an Italian government, was at the helm of one, and Berlusconi guided two, including his most recent, a five-year stint of uninterrupted stewardship that made him the longest-serving prime minister in modern Italy. Conversely, First Republic governments had an average lifespan of nine months. Sixty of them rose and fell from power between the end of the war and the beginning of the 1990s. 

But despite the relative stability of its governments during the Second Republic, during the same period Italy has suffered some of the most serious downturns of its post-war history. Italy has become the tail-light economy of the Eurozone—public debt is above 100 percent of GDP, growth is null, youth unemployment has reached 25 percent—and the country is marred by a loss of purpose and common direction.  

Today, Italy has one the lowest birth rates of the developed world. Social structures such as the Church, political organizations and unions have lost their allure, and the country seems to be able to find its passion and creativity only when it comes to soccer games or the discussion of the latest fashion fad or TV show.  

Not that the old First Republic was in any way more accountable or competent than the Second. It had a sketchy control of economic dynamics, produced anemic public institutions, fostered the growth of political clienteles and encouraged citizens’ indifference toward the state. But, strangely, in such a climate of lasseiz-faire, Italians thrived. 

During the First Republic, Italy’s economy rose to fifth place in the world, thanks to the contribution made by a widespread network of small and medium-sized family-owned businesses, and to the widespread use of undocumented labor. Thanks to wise investment in research and development, products of Italian style and design, as well as those of the food and agricultural sector, became the trademark of good living across the globe. Italian cinema competed head-to-head with Hollywood. And Italy itself, because of its historical and natural treasures, became a world-class tourist destination.  

Central to this success was consociationism, a political arrangement in which amicable agreements between majority and minority produced gains for everybody. In such a fashion, governments doled out, through prolonged bargaining among constituencies, a good amount of subsidies to every social group.  

While the government handsomely subsidized the private industry, at the same time it provided blue collar elites—those close to the Communist and the Socialist parties—with a pervasive welfare system ranging from housing assistance, free universal health coverage and higher education to good pension plans and extended unemployment benefits. This allowed the working class to defray many of the costs for those services that in other countries—such as the United States—are borne by the workers.  

Forward to the post-tangentopoli governments, and Italians have been pushed into a one-size-fits-all economic agreement with the rest of Europe. According to market guru Allen Sinai and Nobel laureate economists Gary Becker and Paul Samuelson, that agreement eliminates the ability of the national government to use monetary levers to keep Italian exports and labor competitive on world markets. Furthermore, Berlusconi’s erosion of the welfare system has further exasperated the public, which since the introduction of the euro has been enraged about the rising cost of living.  

Writing for Il Manifesto, popular commentator Grabiele Polo has defined this election as the last memoir of a country dissolving itself into thousands of threads of individual passion. Taking a different view, La Repubblica’s Franco Carlini, another renowned analyst, notes that when a country is confused or unconvinced by the proposals of either political coalition, 50-50 is the only possible result.  

Both fail to see that by giving a slight majority to Prodi’s Unione, Italy’s civil society may have meant to affirm that the primacy of the state stands with its people—and that political parties must find a way to work together for the good of all. 

Paolo Pontoniere is U.S. correspondent for Focus, Italy’s leading monthly..

I was in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at my aunt’s 95th birthday party. Her name was Pricilla, but everyone called her Aunt Gussie. She had outlived all of her friends and contemporaries and was the matriarch and Griot (oral historian) of our family. 

She was the one who passed down to us not just our own history but what it was like growing up in a racially divided America, living as a black woman, in the South and in Philadelphia during the early 20th century. 

Someone asked, “Gussie, are you having fun?” 

She said, “I’m just fine, but I won’t be here this time next year.” 

I thought that was kind of morbid! Later, after she blew out the number 95 candle on her cake, I asked, “Hey, Aunt Gussie, how about some words of wisdom?” 

“Well, this has been a marvelous party,” she said, “but I’m not going to be here this time next year.” 

I gave her a loving look and assured her. “Yes you are, you’re not going to die, and we won’t let you.” 

“Die! Who said anything about dying? This time next year I’m going to have a party in New York City!”  

For a major part of my life, especially in my 20s and 30s, my optimism and pessimism had been driven by the thought—this time next year. It was why I did things and why I didn’t. I knew in my mind that by this time next year, no matter what was actually happening, I would either be dead or rich. There was no in-between. It was why I got in and out of relationships, in and out of jobs, and in and out of trouble. Sometimes it was positive. I made impulsive moves that took me on adventures and places I would never have gone, and I took chances that taught me things I would never have learned. 

It was also how I dealt with pain. I knew that no matter how much something hurt, this time next year I would feel different, if not better. However, more often than not, I would find myself a year later broke and still alive with a whole lot of apologizing to do—with a trail of regrets and people I either hurt or disappointed, never having lived up to my potential, and occasionally on the run.  

Almost everyday, I’m horrified when I read of young people killing each other, robbing each other, and going to jail for long stretches of time. They have no regard for their life or anyone else’s. They are living for the now and believe that this time next year they’ll either be on top or gone—so what does it matter? 

Some people believe in life after death and that they’ll get their reward in the next life. Isn’t that what also motivates suicide bombers? The catch is you have to die to see if it’s true. A lot of people both young and old live in the reverse—they want their rewards now, on Earth, and are willing to give up their life or yours to get paid today. 

When I was young, I was terrified by two things—polio and the atomic bomb. Today’s youth have to worry about terrorism, war, cancer, AIDS, crack, drive-bys and a host of other things. Even the birds pose a threat to our existence! It’s no wonder many people are fatalistic. We as a society are also constantly looking for the instant fix and get-rich-quick proposition. Instant breakfast, instant coffee, fast food, instant tan, liposuction (why wait to lose weight?), instant mega super lotto millionaires. 

The movies, literature, and TV shows are full of rags-to-riches stories. There are reality shows such as “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and “American Idol.” It’s as if we were all living in some contemporary vision of The Count of Monte Cristo. In this Alexander Dumas story the count breaks out of prison, discovers a fabulous treasure and proceeds to knock off anyone that wronged him in the past. Many people believe that with one stroke of good fortune or roll of the dice this time next year they’ll have it made. They’ll have grabbed hold of the American Dream! 

It would be nice if I could say that some great love, profound experience or moral realization changed my ways and made me believe I would be around next year, but actually it was traffic tickets. Every year I would get dozens of tickets and throw them away. Shucks, I thought! As soon as my saxophone recording of “Hey Joe” hit the airwaves I’d make plenty of cash to take care of all my debts! 

My indifference also contributed to my phone, gas and electricity being frequently turned off, so parking tickets were the least thing on my list—until it came time to renew my driver’s license. 

Standing at the DMV counter, contemplating forking over the hard-earned cash I had worked and schemed for, for the third year in a row, I had a choice: lose my license and go to jail or pay for studio recording time. As I slowly gave the DMV all the money I had, it dawned on me—it’s always been about the little things—not just getting rich or dying while trying. The little things had always been holding me back and kicking my butt for years. 

I realized that everyday it was the little things that could make or break me and that life was too short to wait a year! It’s not the bills you pay, it’s the one you don’t that gets you in trouble. It’s not about the big thing you dream of that never happened, but the little things you do that no one knows about.  

There are many people who are not intimidated by either jail or death; they’re focused on chasing the American Dream. If they would believe that they’ll be here five years, ten years, even 20 years from now and learn how to appreciate the little things, maybe they’d make it to next year. 

Aunt Gussie never had her 96th birthday party in New York City; she died six months later, still an eternal optimist. Her glass was never half empty but always half full. Now that I’ve gotten older, I never say “this time next year.” But I must admit that every now and than, I find myself thinking, this time next month!!

DAPAC “visioned” Thursday night. 

The group advising the city and UC Berkeley about their hopes for an expanded downtown sat down with scissors, glue, markers, maps, colored paper and sheets of gold stars and proceeded to cut, paste, scribble and argue. 

The occasion was the latest meeting of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), created as a result of the settlement of the city’s suit over the university’s expansion plans through 2020. 

The colored sheets were filled with squares and rectangles signifying—among other things—the 800,000 square feet of new projects the university plans for the expanded downtown area, along with 1,000 new parking spaces. 

Other symbols represented the potential desiderata of DAPAC members, ranging from eight-story-plus apartment and office buildings to daylighted creeks that would replace block-long segments of streetscapes. 

Still more squares and rectangles symbolized—among other things—grocery stores, town houses, apartments (also up to eight-plus stories), social services, shops and restaurants, research and development facilities, the warm water pool, a hotel conference and retail center building of up to ten floors and parking (both public and private). 

Also included were squares for movie theaters, grocery stores and retail anchor (read “department”) stores. 

Committee members were split into four groups, and each was assigned a table along with city staff to assist and set to work at formulating their vision of what Berkeley’s downtown should look like two decades hence. 

By the time the sometimes-heated scissoring and sticking ended, no maps had been completed—there was far too little time for that—and only a modicum of consensus had been achieved among the four groups. 

“Our group is called The Dementos,” said James Samuels, one of the Planning Commission’s representatives on the panel. “People at one end of the table didn’t talk to those at the other end.” 

People sitting across the narrower middle of the Dementos table clashed, too—as when Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Patti Dacey and former City Councilmember Mim Hawley clashed over landmarks and potential landmarks along Shattuck Avenue. 

“Some of those just might have to go,” said Hawley. 

“Shattuck Avenue is a nationally significant street, eligible for the National Register (of Historic Places),” Dacey responded. 

“Have you looked down that street?” Hawley shot back. “It’s ugly.” 

Dacey raised her hands, then closed her eyes and shook her head. 

Planning Commissioner Gene Poschmann said his table was “a very, very cooperative group. The only place where we had unanimity was that no one wanted to get up and explain.”  

But the groups did reach several conclusions—sometimes not unanimously—starting with the basic fact that they didn’t have nearly enough time to complete their assigned tasks. 

All four groups favored plans to bring Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), AC Transit’s system for higher-speed bus service on urban thoroughfares—to Shattuck Avenue, though one group added a cautionary “if feasible.” The other three groups favored closing the eastern lanes of Shattuck where the street splits into one-way segments at Shattuck Square between Center Street and University Avenue. 

The groups also favored concentrating the bulk of the university’s development on sites the school already owns or is in the process of buying, with the greatest concentrations at the site of the state Health Department Building—which the university is now negotiating to acquire. 

The other sites picked for university expansion were on land the university already owns between Center Street and University Avenue and Shattuck and Oxford—the site already selected for the hotel and conference center complex and the museum complex—and the Tang Center parking lot at the southwest corner of the Durant Avenue and Fulton Street intersection. 

Planning Commission Chair Helen Burke said that her group also favored bringing the underground parking structure now planned for the site of Maxwell Family Field near Memorial Stadium down to the Tang lot to alleviate pressure on already congested streets in the southeast campus area. 

The groups all favored closing Center Street between Shattuck and Oxford Street, some with a daylighted Strawberry Creek as the dominant feature of the block and others with a plaza, with or without a creek. 

Juliet Lamont, an activist on creeks and other environmental issues, said her group couldn’t agree on daylighting the creek, and split between that concept and “the leave it open as a street plan.” The group did agree that any tall buildings should be stepped back from the street to preserve solar access and reduce the winds tall structures can generate. 

“We have lots of green,” she said, “but not as much as I wanted.” 

Samuels’ group favored moving the downtown BART “bandbox” from the west side of Shattuck and Center to the east side, to be situated near the UC hotel and conference center planned for the northeast corner of the intersection. 

Billy Keys, who spoke for the group that included Burke and DAPAC Chair Will Travis, said his group could not agree on whether or not to daylight the creek, but they agreed there needed to be “some grand entrance to the university. There is no grand entrance now. Just the ant hill entrances.” 

His group also agreed that development along Shattuck Avenue should be limited to four or five stories, and that new parking should be restricted to the periphery, to encourage people to walk the downtown streets. 

“If we’d had a few more hours, we probably would’ve finished,” he said. 

Dorothy Walker, former Assistant Vice Chancellor for Property Development at the university and a DAPAC member, said her group—which included Lamont—“showed more than 800,000 square feet for the university. We gave them choices.” 

Also in attendance were the two UCB representatives appointed to the panel by the City Council, Kevin Hufferd, a Project Manager/Senior Planner in the office of Capital Projects, and his colleague, Principal Planner Jennifer McDougall (formerly Lawrence). 

Also on hand were a variety of city planning staffers, including Matt Taecker, the planning officer hired specifically to ramrod the plan, Planning Director Dan Marks, Planning Manager Mark Rhoades and Principal Planner Allan Gatzke. 

After the final presentations, several members expressed concern that they weren’t going to be allowed to attend what as billed as a meeting of the technical advisory committee of professional staff from the city and university who are working on the plan. 

“It can be closed,” said Taecker. “The law is pretty clear on that.” 

He described the session as “an issue-focused presentation for staff members to present their insights” which would help the committee in their work. 

“Who is actually writing the plan?” asked DAPAC member and city Housing Commissioner Jesse Arreguin. 

“You’re the body making the decisions,” said Taecker. 

Asked why the city has already issued a call for consultants to prepare the plan’s environmental impact report (EIR) when the plan isn’t due to the City Council until November 2007, Taecker said “a lot of questions have arisen about transportation and historic resources and sub-consultants to the EIR will help with background information.” 

Taecker said that the EIR team won’t be brought on board “until later this year or early next year.” 

DAPAC’s next meeting is scheduled for May 17 and will focus on environmental issues.?

There have always been leftovers at People’s Park, be it food, clothes, shoes, plants, or anything else people want to donate to those in need. 

But when Berkeley naturalist Terri Compost turned up there last Saturday to carry out her usual work-day routine of planting and spreading wood chips, a UC Berkeley police officer came up to her and said that she could no longer block access to the driveway for delivering food and garden supplies or leave food on the stage. 

Compost was also told that two officers were going to be policing People’s Park for the next month to “strictly enforce” the park rules.  

According to a flyer handed out by the People’s Park office, the park rules include the following: “No person shall bring, leave, or dump furniture, mattresses, or other household items in People’s Park. Large personal belongings or large amounts of personal belongings, that is, anything other than what can be reasonably carried on the person or reasonably used for recreational purposes, may not be brought or kept in the park at any time.” 

Thursday afternoon, when a group of People’s Park activists brought out a mobile free box to celebrate the Park’s 37th anniversary, the celebrants said that UC police informed them it was a violation of the park policy which states that “no unauthorized carts, carriages, trailers, or other vehicles of conveyance ... shall be allowed in People’s Park at any time.”  

When the group refused to comply, eight back-up UCB officers were called in, they said. According to Michael Delacour, who claims to be the man behind the idea of a People’s Park, the officers started taking pictures and videotaping the crowd’s actions. “I guess they left when they realized that there were just too many of us,” he said. 

Compost was also informed by one of the officer that any clothes or leftover food kept on the park’s stage or premises would result in a verbal warning from the officers and then ticketing.  

“This escalation on the part of UC threatens our right to share with each other and the historical use of the park,” Compost said. “As far as what has gone on and what is the norm clothes and food have always been shared at People’s Park. It was somewhat surreal to hear that if someone comes by with a bag of clothes to give to the homeless, they would be threatened or given a ticket. Even after the free box was torn down in November, the park has remained an important resource for sharing, a means of exchange. I would hate to see that go.” 

Irene Hegarty, UC Berkeley’s Director for Community Relations, said steps like this are taken from time to time to ensure proper law enforcement at the park. 

“The two cops who will be patrolling the park everyday now are there to enforce laws and rules,” she said. “They will check drug peddling and other crimes.” 

Hegarty continued, “We are not against food distribution in a healthy manner. In fact Food Not Bombs and a few other organizations who distribute food to the homeless are still coming everyday. We just don’t want the leftovers to create a rodent or a pigeon problem.” 

With respect to blocking access to the driveway, Hegarty said that 35 days of continuous rains had created a rut and damaged the decomposed granite driveway. “We don’t want it to be used as a parking lot,” she added. 

Compost, however told the Planet that the decomposed granite driveway is not harmed by driving on it. Compost said the driveway was an important access point for the community that tends People’s Park.  

“It is used by all the groups that share meals with the community, it is used during concerts and events, by groups delivering free socks, soaps or bag lunches and it is needed to drop off gardening supplies,” she said. “We did get an agreement that the cops would let Food Not Bombs come in to drop off or maybe stay during the meals. But it is a total threat to have cops sitting there telling people it is illegal to share in the park now.”  

Martin Brooks, a volunteer for Food Not Bombs, was handing out lentil soup and rice at the park on Wednesday. He told the Planet that a couple of cops had come up to him and said there would be tickets issued for littering the stage with leftover bread or food. 

“We always leave bread on the stage after distributing our free meals. This is policing people selectively. Would they do the same to church groups?” he asked.  

Sal, who cooks for Food Not Bombs, said it would be a loss for the park if no more clothes or bag lunches could be dropped off at the park. 

“First they said no free boxes, now this,” he said. “It’s a shame, people enjoyed it a lot.” 

Raymond Palmiero and Teddy Mead, who call themselves activists for People’s Park and are regulars at the free lunches, said that they were going to inaugurate the mobile free box this Sunday, during the park’s anniversary celebrations. It would be taken around the park at specific hours for collecting and distributing clothes. 

“We don’t have UC’s permission yet, but we are hoping for the best,” Mead said.  

Carrie Guilfoyle, assistant site coordinator for the People’s Park office, said she was trying to enforce the rules by telling people not to leave donations in the park. 

“I tell them to drop it off at Bing Dry and Wash,” she said. “They have a box there. The clothes pose a big problem for us and we eventually have to throw them away.” 

Capt. Mitch Celaya of the UC Berkeley police told the Planet that the two officers had been positioned at the park since April 14 to “actively enforce all park rules” and not any one rule in particular. 

“We did this back in December in order to clean up the illegal drug and alcohol activities going on in the park and it really cleaned up the place,” he said. “Now that the weather is better, we want to have the added police presence for at least a month.” 

Celaya said that dumping items in the park was a violation. 

“Our first act would be to inform them of the park rules and seek their compliance,” he said. “If they refuse we would be required to go on to the next level and issue them a citation.” 

He added that in the week the officers had been in the park so far, “no one had been issued citations for trespassing or violation of the park rules.”?

Don’t like a development proposal? In Alameda, that could cost you more that $10,000.  

At least it did for three residents who filed appeals to a local theater project and rang up a $10,725 bill as a result.  

Alamedans Ani Dimusheva and Valerie Ruma appealed the design of an eight-screen multiplex and 350-space parking garage slated for development in the city’s downtown district last summer. The two residents, members of the ad hoc group Citizens for a Megaplex-Free Alameda, each forked over $600—$100 for a flat fee and a $500 deposit—the maximum the city would hold them responsible for, they thought.  

Instead they received an invoice for $5,500, on top of the $1,200 they already paid, with 10 days to pony up or risk referral to collections. Charges were based on planning department staff time and materials needed to process the appeals, averaged at $100 an hour, details they were never told, Ruma said.  

The statement arrived in the mail just weeks after Citizens for a Megaplex-Free Alameda sued the city over failure to commission an environmental impact report for the project.  

Bob Gavrich, another member of the citizens’ group, appealed the project’s use permit in October, and received a comparably steep bill for $3,425. Like Dimusheva and Ruma, he had already paid $600 upfront. 

“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Gavrich said. “No other city in the state or in the country, to my knowledge, charges these kinds of fees. That constitutes a violation of the First Amendment. You are keeping poorer groups from redressing grievances.” 

Gavrich admits he knew could be on the hook for an excess of $600, but that permit technician Nancy Souza told him he could also recoup some of that money. 

The same clerk allegedly told Dimusheva and Ruma that charges over their pooled $1,200 would be the responsibility of the other party, the project developer. Souza declined to comment for this story.  

Planning and Building Director Cathy Woodbury doesn’t believe staff would give out misinformation.  

“I would doubt very much they made an error,” she said. “Our staff are trained, they know what their job is.” 

But when the city conducted an internal investigation, it was revealed that Dimusheva and Ruma had not been properly informed of the fee schedule. 

City Manager Debra Kurita subsequently absolved all three residents of time and materials charges, though they will not recoup the $600 flat rate and deposit.  

Communications snafu notwithstanding, the fees levied were perfectly legitimate. In the 2002-2003 fiscal year, the cost of time and materials was added to a $125 base rate for filing an appeal. The following year, the Alameda City Council unanimously passed the current configuration as a consent item: a $100 flat rate, a $500 deposit plus time and materials. 

Councilmembers say they don’t recall passing the resolution.  

The rationale for an hourly rate, which includes the price for staff to compile reports, conduct research and attend public hearing, is to recover costs to the agency, Woodbury said. Because of the complexity of the theater project, fees exacted on Dimusheva, Ruma and Gavrich were especially stiff. 

Generally, however, the amount earned through appeal fees is a pittance in the planning department’s budget. The department has an annual budget of $3.5 million, but in the last two years, the city has processed just 13 appeals, averaging $1,061 each. Other fees, for permits for example, account for a greater portion of the budget. 

Other Bay Area studies deal with appeal fees in a variety of ways. Many distinguish between whether an applicant, like a developer, or a non-applicant--a resident for instance—files the appeals. 

To appeal a project in San Jose, for instance, a developer could shoulder a $1,925 bill, whereas a resident pays nothing. In San Rafael, non-applicant residents pay up to $303; all others pay as much as $2,730. Hayward applicants pay $1,200 plus time and materials while non-applicants pay a flat rate of $50.  

Emeryville and El Cerrito levy flat fees on all appellants in the $100 to $209 range.  

On Tuesday, the Alameda City Council considered three proposals to amend the existing resolution, all of which could have imposed costs of as much as $1,000. 

City Councilmember Frank Matarrese floated a fourth option: a $100 flat rate. 

“$100 is large enough to make a person pause to think if they’re being frivolous,” he said.  

The proposal passed unanimously. 

Though resolved, the incident has exacerbated distrust between residents and the city, Gavrich said. 

“I don’t trust any of them anymore,” Gavrich said. “They are an extremely developer-friendly City Council, planning board and staff.” 

The theater project first came up for consideration in 2000, when the city’s Economic Development Commission requested a proposal to revitalize downtown Alameda’s defunct movie theater, built in 1932. The project expanded to include a seven-screen 58-foot-tall cineplex and parking garage at the corner of Oak Street and Central Avenue, an area largely dominated by low-slung commercial buildings. 

Residents decried the project as a behemoth that would ruin Alameda’s small town charm. Citizens for a Megaplex-Free Alameda, a band of private citizens who say they have no economic interest in the development, formed in opposition. After a series of heated public meetings, the planning board approved design and granted developer Kyle Connor a use permit. Construction on the project has not begun. 

If the citizens’ group successfully wages war against the city in court, all decisions will be void. The lawsuit is expected to go before an Alameda Superior Court judge April 27. 

Local historian Woody Minor says divisiveness over the theater reflects the public’s general wariness about city expansion. 

“The city of Alameda right now is going through one of those periods where development pressures are impinging on the consciousness of the city, so there’s this climate of rancor,” he said. “We’re a polarized community.” 

Issues on Tuesday night’s City Council calendar brought an overcapacity crowd—and a handful of police officers to enforce fire rules and keep anyone without a seat out of the council chambers. 

Berkeleyans had come to hear discussions on items as diverse as sewer fees, closing Derby Street, funding a wheelchair ramp at a student co-op and adopting the barn owl as the city bird. 

More than 100 had signed up to speak, placing speaker cards into a lottery, hoping they’d be chosen to address the council. Only 10 were picked, in accordance with council rules that limit public comment to 30 minutes. 

Library staff grievance 

On behalf of library workers, Service Employees International Union Local 535 brought a letter expressing a vote of no confidence in the library director. 

“It is an unacceptable irony that the management of the Berkeley Public Library would ignore the American Library Association policy on workplace speech and seek to silence and harass workers in an organization whose mission is to foster the free flow of ideas and information in our community,” said library worker and union representative Andrea Segall, reading the union statement to the council. 

The tenure of the library director was not before the council, however, as the Library Board of Trustees oversees the library director and staff. 

Sweat-free law 

Russell Kilday-Hicks, vice chair of the labor commission, spoke in support of a resolution asking the council to write a “sweat-free” ordinance that would prohibit the city from purchasing goods made in sweatshops, made by children or made by prison labor. 

“It’s time to step up to our beliefs,” he said.  

While his name was not drawn, former state Sen. Tom Hayden was spotted in the council chambers and invited to speak. A leader in the coalition promoting anti-sweatshop legislation around the country, Hayden pointed to the students in their baseball uniforms who had come to lobby the council for a regulation-size baseball field. Hayden told the young people that the apparel was likely made “by people their own age in sweat shops in Bangladesh” or elsewhere. 

The council passed the anti-sweatshop resolution on the consent calendar, unanimously and without discussion. Staff will write the ordinance, which the council will be asked to approve at a later date. 

Gaia Building, barn owls, sewers and parking 

An item looking into cultural uses at Patrick Kennedy’s Gaia Building, for which the developer was allowed to build two extra stories, will be discussed next week in closed session because Kennedy has threatened a lawsuit on the issue. 

No one opposed Councilmember Betty Olds when she endorsed the tyto alba, otherwise known as a barn owl, as Berkeley’s official bird. 

“A mother who can get 13 rats a night to feed her babies—how can anyone have anything against it?” she asked. 

Olds also had something to say on the sewers issue. The proposed ordinance was very misunderstood, she said, adding, “I don’t know why people are so upset about that—to me, it’s more important than a lot of other things.”  

At issue was a $150 sewer certificate fee, to be obtained by homeowners at the time a house is sold or $100,000 of work is done. The homeowner hires a plumber to video the private sewer lateral—the part of the sewer connecting a home and extending to the public sewer lateral near the property line. 

Then the homeowner takes the video to the Public Works Department where the film is inspected to make sure the sewer is intact; sometimes an inspector will examine the sewer on site. If there are problems, which is likely when a sewer lateral is 20 years old or more, the homeowner must have it repaired or replaced. The ordinance was passed with all councilmembers voting approval except Councilmember Kriss Worthington who opposed the fee. 

Permit parking keeps all-day parkers out of neighborhoods that request the permits. New permit parking areas approved by the council on Tuesday night were Hearst Avenue between Acton and Short streets on the north side of the street and Wheeler Avenue between Ashby Avenue and Prince Street. 

Block grants 

More than a dozen people came to a public hearing scheduled to examine the $4 million in federal money dedicated to low-income persons, known as Community Development Block Grants. 

The long list of funded projects included foster care, home rehabilitation, disabled services and more. But most of the people who spoke were at the meeting because the list did not include full funding for a $45,000 ramp needed to make the Hillegass-Parker House, part of the University Students’ Cooperative Association, accessible for disabled people. Staff said they thought they could find funding for the ramp and also for a roof for the James Kinney recreation center, which was also left off the list of fully-funded projects. The council will be asked to approve the CDBG expenditures next week.  

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Six dozen kids, most garbed in sports uniforms, came to the Berkeley City Council Tuesday night to ask for the closure of one block of Derby Street to provide space for a regulation-size baseball field and other sports. 

After heated discussion, the council majority agreed to move toward this option. 

While welcoming the development of fields on the school district-owned city block surrounded by Derby, Milvia, and Carleton streets and Martin Luther King Way, neighbors of the proposed project asked the council, before closing the street, to require discussion with those affected: residents, the Ecology Center which runs a Tuesday farmers’ market on Derby Street and alternative school students, whose school is on property south of Derby. 

In the end, a slim council majority voted in favor of a resolution that moves the city closer to approving closure of Derby Street. The vote requires the Berkeley Unified School District to hold a public workshop to discuss alternatives to closing the street before beginning the environmental impact report (EIR), a formal process that details the impacts of large developments on the community and mandates community input. (The city will pay for half the EIR, expected to total $200,000.)  

The resolution also said the new configuration must include space for the popular Tuesday afternoon farmers’ market. 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli authored the resolution and was joined by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmembers Linda Maio, Max Anderson and Dona Spring. The other councilmembers abstained. 

The question of closing Derby Street between MLK Way and Milvia Street has dragged on for more than seven years. The high school has no space for a regulation-size baseball field on its campus and so the players go a distance to San Pablo Park to practice. 

Calling the fields “much-needed practice space,” Berkeley High Athletic Director Kristin Glenchur spoke during the council public comment period, pointing out that in addition to baseball, the soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and other teams would use the field. 

Peter Waller, who attended the council meeting with about a dozen other neighbors of the proposed field, called for a community process. 

“There may be an alternative short of closing Derby,” he said, pointing out that the EIR process is “long, expensive and divisive.” 

A defeated motion, authored by Anderson, called for first developing the fields without closing Derby Street, then setting up a community “visioning process,” which would become the foundation for a plan to be analyzed by an eventual EIR. 

Anderson and councilmembers Spring, Maio and Kriss Worthington supported the motion; Councilmember Darryl Moore abstained; the four others opposed the measure. 

In support of his resolution, Capitelli said the community will provide input through a well-publicized workshop and through the EIR planning process. 

“I’m hesitant to commit to an open-ended public process,” he said. 

But Anderson called the workshop “an event, not a process,” and advocated community dialogue from which a compromise solution would emerge. 

“There are genuine and legitimate concerns and needs on both sides of the issue,” he said, adding that conducting an EIR prematurely “cuts out community.”  

At a workshop, “all we’ll get is confrontation, not discussion,” Anderson argued. 

Another wrinkle in the project is that, according to City Manager Phil Kamlarz, the school district has only $1.3 million of the $6 million needed. 

“That’s a pretty significant gap,” Kamlarz said. 

In a phone interview Wednesday, School Board President Terry Doran, a strong supporter of closing Derby Street, disagreed with Kamlarz’ figures. He said the school district’s analysis brings the total cost closer to $4 million. Moreover, people want to raise private funds, but cannot do so until the city promises to close the street, he said. (The council will vote on street closure after the EIR process.) 

Further, Doran pointed out that the play fields would comprise only two-thirds of the land, which means the community can use the rest for its needs, including space for the farmers’ market.  

Doran said he hopes that out of the process approved by the council, all would be able to sit down and share their concerns. “What would (opponents) need to close the street?” he asked. 

Photo by:By JUDITH SCHERR

Click here for the Survey PDF

It has survived heated criticism, a curriculum overhaul and a new name, but Freshman Seminar can’t stand up to Academic Choice.  

Following a 4-1 vote by the Berkeley Board of Education Wednesday, students enrolled in the Academic Choice enrichment program at Berkeley High School are no longer required to take the concentrated ethnic studies and social living course required of freshmen, known in recent years as Freshman Seminar.  

Instead, they will enroll in a year’s worth of ancient civilization and geography that will make time for a month-long social living segment as mandated by state law. Ethnicity and identity studies will be dispersed throughout the program’s four-year arc. The new curriculum goes into effect this fall.  

“We’ve been struggling for years to provide a meaningful social studies course,” said Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp. “Since I’ve been there, we’ve been working on it and not succeeding. … There may be better ways to meet those goals than what’s currently being offered.” 

Freshman Seminar, or Identity and Ethnic Studies (IES), as it was known pre-2004, provides lessons in identity, diversity, health. The curriculum has been a rite of passage for freshmen at Berkeley High since the early 1990s, but one that has earned mixed reviews. 

Some say the course lacks structure. Instructors are free to teach—or not teach—as they please. Bradley Johnson, who served as student school board director during the 2003-2004 school year, complained that the ethnic studies course victimized ethnic minorities, demonized white students and inculcated students to the teacher’s ideology. 

In 2004, the board approved an IES curriculum revamp and conferred the new name Freshman Seminar. But most agree the program is still flawed. 

“Some people like the program. Some love it. But a lot of people really hate the course,” said school board Vice President Joaquin Rivera. “It has been extremely controversial. We’ve tried to improve it in many ways and with a few exceptions, it has not been successful.” 

Susan Helmrich, one of more than a dozen Academic Choice parents who attended Wednesday’s board meeting in support of the new courses, described her son’s Freshman Seminar as “an absolute disaster.” 

Another parent quipped that her child watched movies and learned how to play poker in IES. 

Others expressed concern that the existing curriculum does not offer UC credit to Academic Choice freshmen. Academic Choice is a program within Berkeley High School for high achievers.  

The newly approved freshman course offers one semester of world geography and cultures, and one semester of ancient civilization, both of which are designed after UC-approved courses. There is no guarantee they will earn accreditation, however.  

Support for the curriculum is not unanimous. The proposed course was submitted to the Berkeley High School Shared Governance Committee, comprised of school site council representatives, faculty, staff and students, three times, and never received a two-thirds majority approval.  

On Wednesday, School Board candidate and Berkeley High School parent Karen Hemphill spoke out against the course.  

“I think the proposal is a short-sighted answer to a long-term problem,” she said, detailing the benefits of coursework that emphasizes identity development, ethnicity and diversity. “Lack of academic rigor is not due to course content, but due to lack of accountability for teachers.” 

Student Board Director Teal Miller agreed teachers make the course, but that doesn’t mean other possibilities should be dismissed.  

“I had an amazing IES teacher, however the more I talk to students at Berkeley High over the past three years, the more I realize I was in the minority in having a phenomenal teacher,” she said. “Taking it from a different perspective is important because of the other students I talked to who sat for a year and did nothing and I think that’s really unfortunate.” 

School board directors Rivera, Shirley Issel, John Selawsky and Nancy Riddle approved the new Academic Choice curriculum. Terry Doran opposed it, saying he did not feel world history was necessarily appropriate at the freshman level, and preferred a contemporary course. 

Only one other program at Berkeley High, the International High School—a small school slated to open this fall—provides an alternative to Freshman Seminar. Students at the other small schools and the comprehensive high school are still required to take Freshman Seminar.  

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With the state-controlled Oakland Unified School District narrowly averting a one-day teacher strike, and the mayor of Los Angeles requesting the state Legislature to give him control of that city’s schools, the Oakland mayoral campaign took an educational turn this week. 

Candidates held debates at Skyline High School and Merritt College that focused, in part, on education issues, and one candidate—City Councilmember Nancy Nadel—renewed her call for the office of Oakland mayor to take over writing the Oakland public school budget. 

The Oakland mayor’s office once had more control over city schools than the mayors of most California cities. In the spring of 2000, Oakland voters approved a four-year experiment to allow Mayor Jerry Brown to appoint three additional members to the seven-member OUSD school board. That authority expired in May 2004, however, and Brown did not return to voters to ask for a renewal of that authority. 

After the state seized the Oakland Unified School District three years ago, Oakland’s schools have been operated by the State Superintendent of Schools’ office through appointed administrator Randolph Ward. The elected seven-member school board operates in an advisory capacity only, with no power to set policy. 

Nadel’s proposal would leave the elected school district undisturbed, allowing it to return as the district’s policy-making body when local control is eventually won back from the state. 

But while she told audience members at a Skyline High School debate this week that “I’m not talking about the mayor taking over the schools,” she said that the mayor’s office should be responsible for writing the school district budget as well as that of the Port of Oakland. 

Currently, the port’s budget is written by a board of commissioners appointed by the mayor. 

“We need to have one person looking holistically at all of these government institutions in the city,” Nadel said. 

She added that the mayor’s office could look at overall city priorities, taking money from the more prosperous areas such as the port and giving it to areas such as the schools which need more resources. 

“It’s wrong for the port commissioners to be sitting up having big meals at fancy restaurants while teachers in our schools have to scrounge for paper clips,” she said. 

On her campaign website, Nadel has expanded on the idea, writing that she is suggesting giving the Oakland mayor the same responsibility for the school budget as the mayor’s office has with the city budget. 

“Currently,” she writes, “the mayor develops the city budget with the city administrator and presents it to the council for review, modification and adoption. The charter change I suggest would give similar power to the mayor with respect to the OUSD budget as well as the port budget, with the final budget decisions still in the hands of the democratically elected school board, and port commissioners. This new role for the mayor would insure that someone in the city is thinking holistically across the major functions in the city. … This charter change will allow the mayor to coordinate expenditures to achieve economies of scale and coordinate like services.” 

Speaking days before the state administrator and the Oakland Education Association teachers union reached a tentative agreement on a new teacher contract, mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente said at the Skyline debate that teachers were “the most unrewarded of our professionals,” and deserved a pay hike. But he questioned how much city government could do to help out. 

“How would we pay for it?” De La Fuente asked. “We could use the resources of the city to share revenues with the school district, but we have to be realistic. That would mean that we would be neglecting the areas such as public safety that city government is obligated by our charter to perform.” 

But De La Fuente said that the mayor could act as a powerful advocate for the schools, helping to bring in outside resources and coordinating city efforts with the school district. 

“When I was first elected to City Council, every school in my district was a year-round school, every school was overcrowded,” De La Fuente said.  

The City Council president noted that he used his considerable influence to help get the Cesar Chavez Educational Center built on the grounds of the old Montgomery Ward building at 29th Avenue and International Boulevard, one of the first new schools built in the city in several decades. Preservationists and developers had wanted to convert the Montgomery Ward building into housing, but De La Fuente said “I helped fight them off, because what we needed was a new school.” 

That’s the model he said he would bring into his job as Oakland mayor if elected, pledging that he would appoint the “first deputy mayor for education” in the city. 

At the Merritt College debate, which De La Fuente did not attend, candidate Ron Dellums called for a quick end to state control of the Oakland Unified School District, saying that “we need to take back our schools.” 

He said that the schools should be the center of social delivery service in the city, “where we wrap around such services as health care, mental health, housing, and tutoring.” He called on city leaders and other adults to “start listening to our young people. If we do so, they’ll provide us with a lot of the answers to our questions.”  

But none of the Oakland mayoral candidates come close to asking for the kind of power over city schools asked for this week by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. 

In his annual State of the City address, Villaraigosa said he was requesting the state legislature to set up a council of mayors in Los Angeles County to run the Los Angeles public schools on a six-year trial basis. Set up on a proportional basis so that Los Angeles, which has the largest population in the county, would have the largest representation on the council, Villaraigosa proposed that the council of mayors hire and fire the Superintendent as well as approve the district budget. 

The superintendent would take the traditional responsibility for directing personnel and managing the instructional program, but would take on the added role of granting charters, a powerful position following the passage of the national No Child Left Behind Law that favors charter school development.  

But while Villaraigosa’s proposal would retain the elected school board, it would significantly reduce its rule in the decision-making process, relegating board members to “reviewing complaints, creating and issuing school accountability report cards, conducting an annual survey of parents, and making recommendations based on the results.” 

In addition, the Los Angeles mayor suggested the “ultimate charge” of the school board should be to “help parents navigate through the system and solve problems with their kids’ schools.” 

If the proposal is adopted by the Legislature, that would make the role of the Los Angeles Unified School District board similar to that of the Oakland Unified School District board under state control: advisory only. 

If passed, the Los Angeles proposal would set a precedent for other school districts in the state. It is expected to receive significant opposition, particularly from teachers’ organizations. 

It was billed as a day of victory. After marathon negotiations, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) reached a tentative contract agreement with the teachers’ union Wednesday and averted a one-day strike. 

But on Thursday, the school community was more divided than ever. 

Union leaders, teachers, students and parents gathered at Peralta Park in Oakland to celebrate the long-awaited end to a two-year battle over contracts negotiations. But the event quickly turned sour when state-appointed OUSD Administrator Randolph Ward showed up, and was subsequently heckled out of the rally. 

“Hey hey, ho ho, Randolph Ward has got to go!” teachers called out as they surrounded him, waving flyers in his face, and trailed him back to OUSD offices.  

Ward was appointed to head up the financially strapped school district in 2003, and many fault the state administrator for escalating bitterness surrounding teacher contracts. 

On Wednesday, students were instructed to stay home from school in the event of a strike scheduled for the following day if a settlement wasn’t reached. But late Wednesday night, Ward and union President Ben Visnick announced a tentative agreement, the terms of which have not been officially released. 

District spokeperson Alex Katz would only say, “The important thing is people are going to have bigger paychecks every month.” 

Union negotiators last called for a 6.5 percent salary raise and an employee contribution of no more than half a percent to increases in medical premiums, among other requests. 

Visnick would not comment on whether those demands were met, only that the agreement is for three years, retroactive to last year, and that it is within the parameters a neutral fact-finding report released in January.  

“This is not a perfect contract,” he said. “This is not an excellent contract—we still need more to educate our students—but it is a fair contract.” 

The OUSD released a statement late Thursday that confirmed that the three-year agreement would provide a 2 percent salary increase retroactive to last July, a 2.5 percent increase beginning this July and a 1.75 percent increase for the following year. The statement did not include details of benefits. 

Rumors about the tentative agreement circulated at the rally. Edna Brewer Middle School teacher Mark Airgood told the Daily Planet that, based on conversation with members of the union bargaining team, employees would have to split the cost of future health care increases, which he says would be more than the 0.5 percent contribution that teachers initially agreed to pay. 

A paper drafted by OEA Executive Board Member Tania Kappner also said the agreement makes concessions on health care. Further compromises were made on counselor-student ratios and teacher seniority rights, the paper said. 

Neither union nor district officials would confirm that. 

At Thursday’s rally, employees were still in the dark about settlement details. Many turned their frustration to union brass. 

“I was hoping to hear him [Visnick] say what the concessions are, and he hasn’t,” said Ife Hill-Roy, who held a sign “OEA, don’t sell us out!” 

Meanwhile, union leaders mounted the park’s stage, praised those involved in the bargaining process and sang songs of solidarity, though only about half the audience joined in.  

“They’re yahooing up there and we don’t know jack-shit,” said parent Stephanie Pearl. Pearl attended the rally with her daughter Kiley, who stayed home from school Thursday in anticipation of a strike. 

Other teachers were confident the union made a sound decision, though they weren’t sure what that decision was. 

“Both sides had to back down somewhat,” said Russell Cohen, a first-grade teacher at Lafayette Elementary School. “That’s the nature of compromise.” 

Cohen said he was “ecstatic” the two sides reached a tentative agreement, and firmly believed the union drafted a good deal, otherwise it would not have held out for so long, he said. 

The union’s executive board met last night after press time to work out details of the agreement. The board will take a vote in the next week, then send the agreement to the 3,200-member union, which include teachers, librarians, nurses and others.  

But the battle is far from over, said lead union negotiator David de Leeuw. 

“Many people are relieved it may almost be over, but it’s not all good,” he said. “It may not be ratified.” 

The last tentative agreement reached in the spring of 2005 was rejected by 84 percent of the voting membership, he said. 

De Leeuw has higher hopes for the current agreement. 

“It leaves us in decent shape on basic economics and other issues,” he said. “Nobody expected we’d get a fantastic contract.” 

Caustic assault 

Berkeley Police arrested a 45-year-old woman on a charge of assault with a caustic chemical after she allegedly threw cleaning chemicals at the clerk of the Berkeley YMCA April 6, reports Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

The desk clerk stopped the woman after she tried to sneak a guest into her room. The agitated woman responded by grabbing the chemical, which was stored near the desk, and hurling it at the clerk. 

The victim was treated for injuries at the scene by Fire Department paramedics. 

Spare change robbery try 

After a Berkeley woman turned down a trio of teens panhandling for spare change shortly after 1 a.m. on April 7 near the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Woolsey Street, the three surrounded her and made an unsuccessful try to grab her pocketbook before they gave up and fled in frustration in what their erstwhile victim believed to be a white 1989 Chevrolet Corsica. 

Strong-arm heist 

A strong-arm bandit robbed the clerk at Bob’s Liquors & Deli, 2842 Sacramento St., just before 7:25 p.m. on April 10. 

Clad in the usual dark hoodie, the perp sauntered into the store and told the clerk he was packing a pistol—though the said weapon was never produced. Ordered to empty his pockets, the clerk complied, and the robber departed with a small quantity of cash, said Officer Galvan. 

Lunch bagged 

A young man called Berkeley at 9:13 p.m. on the 10th to report that he’d just seen three other young men who had robbed him of his lunch bag six days earlier. 

By the time officers arrived in the 2500 block of Bancroft Way, the strong-arm trio was gone. 

Rape report 

Police were called to a Blake Street address at 12:45 a.m. April 11 after a Berkeley woman called to report that she had been sexually assaulted and beaten by her companion. The woman declined medical attention, and the case was referred to the District Attorney’s office. No arrests have been made, said Officer Galvan. 

Armed robbery 

The desk clerk at the Golden Bear Inn at 1620 San Pablo Ave. called police at 7:25 p.m. on the 11th to report that a tall, thin fellow wearing a black beanie and a green hoodie and brandishing a black handgun had just pulled off a stick-up. 

The gunman was gone by the time police arrived. 

Bewildered vic 

A hapless and somewhat bewildered pedestrian called police three hours later to report that a gunman in a black hoodie had just robbed him—though he couldn’t quite recall where. 

The 20-year-old victim said he’d been robbed somewhere on Telegraph or Hillegass avenues—“Getting robbed can be pretty traumatic,” said Officer Galvan—by a fellow who relieved him of his wallet and its contents. 

Another rape 

San Francisco police called Berkeley officers at 11:22 p.m. on the 12th to report that a woman had come in to report that she had been raped in Berkeley in the 1400 block of Hearst Avenue earlier in the day. 

A Berkeley investigator went to San Francisco to interview the woman with the help of a translator. 

No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing. 

Forced oral sex 

Police are investigation a report that a Berkeley man was forced to perform oral sex on another man early in the morning of April 14. Officer Galvan said he could provide no additional information beyond the fact that it occurred on Cedar Street because of a policy set by the City Attorney’s office. 

Bottle bashers 

Police are seeking two men who attacked a 21-year-old Berkeley man as he walked along the 2500 block of Bancroft Way near the Urban Outfitters store just after 6 a.m. on the 14th. 

The victim told officers he was approached by two men, one of who hit him on the head with a bottle before the pair fled across Bancroft and onto the UC Berkeley campus. 

The injured man was rushed to a local emergency room for treatment of his injuries. 

Table leg attack 

Police rushed to a residence in the 1500 block of Tyler Street at 10:58 a.m. Saturday after a woman called to report that she’d been assaulted with a pipe by a 57-year-old woman who had just run out the door. 

The weapon turned out to be a table leg, and the victim refused medical attention. No arrests have been made, said Officer Galvan. 

Drive-by robbers 

A Berkeley woman was just getting into her car in the 100 block of Tamalpais Roads at about 6:45 p.m. Saturday when a car pulled up and a young man leapt out, grabbed her purse and jumped back into the car—a noisy older sedan with no license plates—which then sped off with an accomplice at the wheel. 

Armed robbery 

A tall, thin gunman, accompanied by another fellow, pulled a pistol on a 27-year-old Berkeley man who was walking in the 2100 block of Milvia Street about 1 a.m. Tuesday. 

After he handed over his wallet and watch, the robbers fled. 

Child molestation 

Berkeley police are investigating allegations of child molestation reported Tuesday morning by a young Berkeley woman. No other details are available, said Officer Galvan. ›

Librarians raised the pressure a notch this week in the two-year battle with their boss, presenting a statement of no confidence in Library Director Jackie Griffin Tuesday to the City Council and Wednesday to the Library Board of Truste es. 

“We find the management of the Berkeley Public Library as provided by Library Director Jackie Griffin to be a liability for the organization, and a misuse of the public trust,” the statement concludes. 

While to date 77 of the 120 library employees r epresented by the Service Employees International Union 535 have signed the statement, their names are not listed individually. 

Anes Lewis-Partridge, senior field representative with the union, said that is because there has been retaliation against empl oyees who speak out at the library. In fact, grievances have been filed on behalf of workers who claim they are facing retaliatory disciplinary measures. 

“The tactic of the administration is to target activists,” Partridge said. “It has a chilling effect.” 

The no confidence statement included some of the following points: 

• Library service hours have been cut. 

• Library materials are unavailable due to shelving backlogs. 

• Administrative and supervisory staff positions have increased. 

• An expensive, controversial radio frequency identification system was instituted. 

• Labor-management meetings have been costly and ineffective. 

• Reprisals against employees who have spoken out include loss of promotions, written reprimands, punitive work assignments, gag orders, loss of pay and more 

The Wednesday evening trustees’ meeting included a closed-door session to discuss the director’s evaluation. 

Griffin’s evaluation has been on the trustees’ executive session agenda in February and again in March. In early April, the trustees met behind closed doors to discuss a lawsuit the director’s attorney threatened to file if she is fired. 

Through the library spokesperson, Community Relations Librarian Alan Bern, the library director declined comment on these i ssues because, Bern said, “We do not comment on internal personnel matters.” 

At the union’s behest, the mayor, a councilmember, two trustees and union representatives will meet within the next two weeks, Partridge said. 

“We’re trying to come to some sort of resolution,” she said. “At this point, enough is enough—this union needs some answers.””

It’s a remarkable moment in Haiti’s 200-year history, one where both optimism and fear coexist. 

There’s the hope that Rene Préval, the popular president-elect, can take the country’s reins and provide the fundamental freedoms and neces sities of life, for which the people elected him. 

“After two years of an unelected U.S.-imposed regime, an elected president is scheduled to be inaugurated on May 14,” attorney Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said Wednesday in a telephone interview from his home in northeastern Oregon.  

Concannon was referring to the ouster of elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February 2004 and his replacement by an interim U.S.-backed government.  

The elected go vernment will “provide opportunities and dangers for Haiti,” he said. 

Concannon and Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, Haitian human rights activist and coordinator of the September 30th Foundation, will be in Berkeley at the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant tonight (F riday) speaking about “Haiti at the Crossroads.” 

The danger Concannon cites is the possibility that the United States and European allies will undermine Haitian democracy as they have before, through an economic embargo or political destabilization. 

Whe n Préval served his first term as president, 1996-2001, the United States enforced an embargo when he refused to institute many of the monetary policies demanded of him, such as privatization of all state-owned companies and lowering of tariffs, Concannon said.  

The political destabilization was more subtle. 

“What was happening was that the United States was propping up political parties that had absolutely no electoral legitimacy—they never got more than 10 percent of the vote,” Concannon said. 

Préval’s Feb. 7 victory was the continuation of a break with the past that began with Aristide’s first election in 1990, when Haiti’s poor majority understood that they could choose candidates who would speak for them, rather than the wealthy elite, Concannon said. 

The population appreciates “even very obvious things like candidates speaking Creole, which most Haitians speak, instead of French, which most Haitians don’t speak,” Concannon said. “The main thing the voters were looking for are progressive social and economic policies.”  

Much of the work of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti is aimed at educating people in the United States about Haiti. If people understand the role of the United States in Haiti, they will put pressure on the U.S. government, Concannon said.  

He said that the average person lacks awareness of events in Haiti due largely to the media, which generally ignores or distorts what is happening there. 

“The media keeps repeating things until it’s believed,” Concannon said, pointing specifically to the notion, advanced in the press, that Préval was Aristide’s puppet when he governed. 

Préval brought in a whole new leadership team when he took over the presidency, Concannon said. And the emphasis of the two presidents was di fferent, although both concentrated on improving the lives of Haiti’s poor. While Aristide focused more on the urban poor, Préval, an agronomist, looked more toward the peasantry and land reform and developing agricultural production, he said. 

Préval’s r ule will surely be complicated by the situation in Parliament, he said. Runoff elections are scheduled for today (Friday) and will probably result in a legislature fragmented by multiple parties, he said. 

The most influential political movement since 199 0 has been Aristide’s party, Lavalas. Because the unelected government was ruling the country and the U.N. military was occupying it, Lavalas leadership decided to boycott the elections. 

The man who would have been the Lavalas candidate for president—put forward by grassroots Lavalas leaders—Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, was thrown in jail.  

Préval created a new political party—the party of Hope. It will not have a majority in the legislature. 

“No party will have a near majority,” Concannon predicted. Préval will have to patch together a coalition. “It’s going to be a difficult collaboration,” he said. 

But the bigger danger is that foreign powers won’t allow Haiti to develop in the direction it chooses. 

“Préval has a chance to build the economy, but only if the United States lets it,” Concannon said, putting the burden on progressives in the United States. “Unless activists in the United States force our government to allow Haiti develop, it’s not going to develop. To me, that’s the key. It matters some wha t Préval does on the ground, but in the end, as long as the international community does not let Haiti develop along the lines it wants to develop, then it won’t do so.”› 

Brian Concannon, director of the Insitute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, and Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, Haitian human rights activist and coordinator of the September 30th Foundation, will be in Berkeley at the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant at 362 Bancroft Way tonight (Friday) at 7 p.m. speaking about “Haiti at the Crossroads.” For more information, see the IJDH website is www.ijdh.org. 

What began as a fantasy, a “fairy-tale candy land” in the form of Sweet Dreams Candy Store 35 years ago on College Avenue is now a successful toy shop.  

“The best part about being an independent toy store is that you can be yourself,” owner Gary Gendel said. “Very few stores indulge in the kind of unique toys that we do.” 

Gendel said that Sweet Dreams had never felt the competition from larger toy-chains in the Bay Area like Toys ‘R Us or even chains such as Walmart and Target, which have recently added toy sections. 

“Independent toy stores are not just about rows and rows of merchandise,” Gendel said. “There is nothing wrong with having plastic stacked up with some neon lights for show, but that’s just not how we want to sell toys.” 

Berkeley’s independent toy stores are thriving at a time when the toy store business is not all fun and games. Toys ‘R Us, with an outlet in Emeryville, is reeling nationally from financial losses and has closed a total of 73 stores nationwide as of last month. 

“The majority of these stores were located in markets that have one or more additional Toys ‘R Us locations,” Bob Friedland, spokesman for Toys ‘R Us, told the Planet. “This included two Bay Area Toys ‘R Us stores in San Francisco and Vallejo.” 

Friedland said another dozen Toys ‘R Us stores will be converted to Babies ‘R Us stores this spring, including the ones in Colma and Emeryville. 

Friedland added that “these closings and conversions were a result of a comprehensive review of the Toys ‘R Us store portfolio across the United States and would help position the company for growth over the long-term.” 

Michael Sloan, co-owner of Games of Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue said that his store had seen some positive effect from the closure of the Bay Area Toys ‘R Us stores.  

“We saw a sudden increase in the sale of Scrabble, Apples to Apples, UNO, and Monopoly—games that were sold at Toys ‘R Us extremely cheaply.” 

Sloan added that Games of Berkeley didn’t need to compete with toy chains.  

“We don’t carry the same things that toy chains do. Chains carry maybe 15 percent of the stuff that we have on our shelves. We buy from around 400 vendors all over the U.S. A majority of them are hobby suppliers.” 

Sloan however acknowledged that in this age of X-Box and other electronic gizmos, the independent toy industry is something of a shrinking market. 

“The good news is that the number of people who carry independent toys are also shrinking,” he said. “So it is turning into a specialty item. As long as people want to play chess or hug a hand-made doll, business will go on. Our future depends on how people allocate their dollars.” 

In the past, several mall-based retail toy stores have gone out of business including Zainy Brainy and The Game Keeper chain owned by Wizards of the Coast. KB Toys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004 and closed 365 stores around the U.S. 

Sloan and his wife Janet Winters bought Games of Berkeley from its former owner Toy World in 2003 when the store was being closed along with 12 others in Northern California.  

Winters told the Planet that the store benefited from being located so close to the downtown Berkeley BART station. 

“Our Wednesday night open ‘Scrabble’ and Friday night ‘Magic: The Gathering’ played in our game room is a big favorite with the college kids and other regular customers. Our products are driven by customer requests. You won’t find our staff hiding in some backroom when customers are around,” she quipped.  

Peter Bernard, a resident of Oakland, is a regular at Games of Berkeley because of its expansive game collection. 

Marilyn Ornelas, a Berkeley resident, had brought her grandson Moses into the store recently. “Moses wanted a particular type of squishy toy that was only available here. Personally I prefer to do business in Berkeley and keep all my money in Berkeley,” she said. 

Johnny Williams, owner of Boss Robot Hobby on College Avenue said that dealing in independent toys was gradually turning into a struggle.  

Boss Robot sells radio controlled cars and trucks as well as model kits from the Tamiya and Kyosho brands that are imported from Japan. “It’s a lot of work involved in making customers happy,” he said. “Store variety and product knowledge needs to be far superior in order to compete with the bigger chains. We need to fill the niches that bigger chains are not interested in.” 

Pam Byars, who owns The Ark on 4th Street said that smaller toy stores added to a sense of community. 

“There is something special about seeing a child being born, growing up, and then coming back to the same store as an adult,” she said. “Target or the other chains won’t wrap up your toy with a bow and make it look all pretty—we believe in going that extra mile for all our customers. We believe in creativity, in being open ended, and in taking a child’s breath away.” 

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism Dean Orville Schell announced Wednesday he will not seek reappointment this fall. 

Schell leaves the school to pursue his own writing, and has been offered a position at UC Berkeley as a special advisor on global issues, a press release said. Schell has been with the journalism school for almost 10 years. 

Schell is credited with introducing a prominent cast of characters to the graduate school for guest appearances and lectures, from Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw to Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama. He also encouraged international travel as a method for students to hone their reporting skills. 

“It will be the end of an incredibly exciting era,” said Associate Dean Cynthia Gorney. “He is a guy of pretty extraordinary vision and ambition.” 

Schell is a specialist on China and the media, and has authored 14 books. He studied Far Eastern history as an undergraduate at Harvard College and Chinese history at UC Berkeley as a graduate student. 

He served as a correspondent and consultant for an Emmy-award winning episode of “60 Minutes” in addition to multiple “Frontline” documentaries. 

There are no obvious frontrunners to replace Schell, Gorney said. Schell plans to stay on until a new dean is appointed.  

The last dean, Thomas Goldstein, held the position from 1988 to 1996.  

Monday morning’s e-mail brought a dispatch from the lively Op-Ed News website, the first to report, as far as we know, that Assemblymember Paul Koretz has just introduced in the California Legislature a resolution to impeach not only the despised Dubya but also the odious Dick Cheney. He has submitted it as amendments to his prior Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39. They reference Section 603 of Jefferson’s Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. A similar resolution is already underway in Illinois, and proponents have high hopes that it will be passed. 

Koretz’s press release says that he “bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the Federal Torture Act and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial.” Whew. That’s a stunning assortment of high crimes for one president to have committed, and Bush did them all and more.  

We first called for impeachment in this space around Christmas time, which doesn’t seem like so long ago. Since then the smoking gun in the Plame Wilson case has been deftly placed in the Bush-Cheney briefcase by the incomparable Patrick Fitzgerald. Bush’s lawless spying on Americans has been documented even more fully. No one, even many conservatives, believes any more that the presidential propaganda leading up to the Iraq invasion contained an iota of truth. In fact, what’s most shocking at the moment is the question of why not more has happened now that all of this is out. Why do members of the U.S. House of Representatives seem to be dragging their feet on the bill of impeachment introduced by John Conyers and others?  

One answer, the simplest one, is that the Democrats know that they’ll never get it passed in the Republican-dominated House. That’s why the November election looms large at the moment. As of this writing, we can’t find any reliable authority to tell us what the consequences of the state legislatures’ passing these resolutions might be. It doesn’t seem likely that the U.S. House of Representatives would be out of the picture altogether, but it would at least give Congress members something to think about. 

The job now for people around here is to persuade our local state Assembly members to quickly add their names to the Koretz crusade. He represents West Hollywood, a district as progressive as ours if not more so, but there’s no reason Loni Hancock and Wilma Chan shouldn’t jump on board immediately, not to mention the rest of the Bay Area members who are in safe Democratic districts. And for our Internet readers, there are several safe Blue States (Vermont, Rhode Island and Massachusetts come to mind) where an impeachment crusade has a chance of success.  

While we’re talking about persuasion, however, and about the usually excellent Op-Ed News site, could we make yet another plea to be left out of their robot-mail operation? Their home page contains a button which generates this option: “This special one click action page is brought to you by OpEdNews.com and The People’s E-mail Network (P.E.N.). It will submit your personal message on any issue YOU care about to your local newspaper as a Letter to the Editor. We can either determine your closest daily paper from your address, or you can pick on a particular one in your area yourself.”  

The result of this is that the Planet (and probably other papers as well) is being deluged with the written equivalent of sound bytes on “everyone-around-here-agrees” topics like, in fact, impeaching the president. The format of the auto-mailer limits writers to 250 words and encourages less, so they don’t do much except shout hallelujah with the choir. We can recognize these letters easily because many signers don’t notice the box where they’re supposed to select an honorific to add to the signature, so a letter might be signed “Mr. Sarah Glutz.” They’re nothing more than spam, even if they’re progressive spam. All we do is press the delete button—we don’t even count such letters.  

Some of the attached names are our friends, local people we know to be thoughtful and good writers. We’d love to get well-written letters from them, tailored to the Planet’s literate readers, but please, folks, skip the People’s E-mail Network form. You’re filling up our mail boxes and driving us nuts. Better you should write good letters to Hancock, Chan et al., urging them to join Koretz’s crusade. He probably needs all the help he can get at this point. 

A little bird dropped off at the Daily Planet office a document entitled “Survey on Economic Development in Berkeley—Preliminary Materials,” dated April 9. It is described as “proposed categories and question [sic] for an economic development survey,” to be converted by a professional survey company into the appropriate format to reach 400 potential Berkeley voters. It purports to be an attempt “to discover how Berkeley residents feel about a variety of public policy challenges confronting the city in spring, 2006.” 

The birdie suggested that the survey will probably be paid for by some combination of the Downtown Berkeley Association (sometimes called the Downtown Business Association), the Seagate property development corporation that’s been swallowing up big chunks of Berkeley, the Chamber of Commerce, and maybe the city’s Economic Development Department. A laudable idea, perhaps, asking what people think and developing policy as the people wish. Or maybe not. 

There are at least two kinds of opinion polls. Some polls are open-minded, genuine attempts to get information. Others, however, are not. These are the notorious “push” polls, the ones that attempt to suggest to the respondents what they ought to be thinking. These have been recently employed by, among others, the far right supporters of the Bush administration, and they’re an ugly business.  

Based on the document we saw, it looks like downtown interests are planning to inflict a push-poll on the citizens of Berkeley, a very poor idea indeed. Why do we think this? 

Well, let’s start at the top.  

I—Questions Regarding Street Behavior 

1. Lying Ordinance 

a. Do you favor a stricter enforcement of this ordinance? 

b. What enforcement tool should police have?  

c. Are you familiar with James Q. Wilson’s “Broken Windows,” Atlantic Monthly (March,1982)…? 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the codes embedded in this question, a brief primer. Berkeley’s “lying ordinance”—prohibiting various forms of prone posture on public sidewalks—was designed to clear the streets of unsightly beggars without actually violating their constitutional rights. The “Broken Windows” theory is one of the most persistent of absolutely unprovable urban legends, that if you make cities look nice by cosmetic alterations such as fixing broken windows, cleaning off graffiti and hauling away unsightly beggars, crime will disappear and property values will rise.  

As it happens, Thursday’s Los Angeles Times contained an excellent article by University of Chicago Law Professor Bernard Harcourt, refuting, once again, for the umpteenth time, the broken window legend. Here’s how he describes it:  

“The theory was first articulated by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in the Atlantic magazine in 1982. They argued that minor forms of disorder—such as graffiti, litter, panhandling and prostitution—will, if left unattended, result in an increase in serious criminal activity. Clean up minor disorder, they said, and a reduction in major crime will follow.” 

He then goes on to cite at least six major social science studies since 1982, including a recent one of his own, which completely refute Wilson’s theory. His conclusion: 

“Everybody agrees that police matter. The question is how to allocate scarce police dollars. Should cops be arresting, processing and clogging the courts with minor-disorder offenders or focusing on violence, as well as gang and gun crimes, with the help of increased computerized crime tracking? The evidence, in my view, is clear: Focusing on minor misdemeanors is a waste.” 

Property owners in Berkeley’s modest, somewhat seedy old downtown shopping district have traditionally blamed panhandlers for their business problems, and they have a First Amendment right to do so—even if they’re mistaken. But when they use a push-poll and discredited pseudo-science to promote public demand for more policing in their own arena, something’s wrong. Drug violence is severely impacting Berkeley neighborhoods, and that’s where police dollars are needed. 

And here are more proposed questions, designed to lead the respondent to a predetermined conclusion: 

II, 6. If you knew that at least a million square feel of land in West Berkeley that is zoned for light industry, has been sitting empty for long periods of time, and has been contributing nothing to the tax base, would you favor rezoning of that area so that it could be used commercially in a different way which would make a significant contribution to the city’s tax base? 

And:  

II,13. If you were told that the city of Berkeley has a substantially higher percentage of buildings landmarked than any other surrounding city, and that such landmarking was impairing economic development in Berkeley, would you support a change in the landmarking process?  

If you were told that pigs could fly, would you support the City of Berkeley’s requiring them to file flight plans?  

This kind of loopy question continues for six closely spaced pages which contain many more outrageous and erroneous assumptions. Berkeley citizens deserve to know who’s paying for this folderol, whether any public funding is involved, and how sponsors plan to use it. Influencing the November city election is one possibility.  

Gluttons for outrage can see the full text of the proposed survey on our website: www.berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

—Becky O’Malley›

STRAWBERRY CREEK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have a simple question about the idea of daylighting Center Street between Oxford and Shattuck and perhaps some reader out there knows the answer. My question is this: Does Strawberry Creek even run under Center Street? I always believed it ran from the campus under Oxford and then down Allston. Now I may be wrong about this. 

But if this is the case then “daylighting” would actually mean relocating the creek to Center Street and then at some point downstream ret urning it to Allston. And that would be a much more expensive and disruptive project. Moving a creek probably even violates whatever Creeks Ordinance will be in force soon. 

So, does anybody know for sure where the creek runs after it leaves campus? 

Frank Greenspan 

• 

I’M A PERFORMER! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the parent of a Berkeley public school student, I would like to thank the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and the school district for the wonderful “I’m a Performer!” program held each year in four Berkeley elementary schools. 

This morning, April 20, students, grades K-5, from Jefferson School and Oxford School, enjoyed the opportunity to perform with this great symphony, the highlight of a relationship that includes classroom visits by musicians and attending a Berkeley Symphony Orchestra concert. The children worked hard to prepare and were thrilled by the opportunity to play with a “real” orchestra. Thanks go to the symphony, today’s conductor George Thomson and the orchestra members for giving our kids the thrill of a musical lifetime! Imagine being a kindergartener who can say, “I sang with the symphony today.” 

That’s our Measure B tax dollars at work, friends! Thanks to everyone who has made music alive once again in our schools. 

Kim Smith 

• 

P EOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you so much for Riya Bhattacharjee’s article on the crackdown on free clothing exchange in People’s Park. I’m sure many Berkeley residents share my relief that the police are finally up there arresting sweaters a nd shoes. I can finally sleep at night. 

Carol Denney 

• 

RED HERRING IN THE CREEK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What does the city of Berkeley really gain from turning over the fate of 2,400 homeowners to a task force stacked with paid and self-affirmed creek ad vocates? This is clearly another round of the city’s smokescreen blame game where two groups of citizens fight it out over important problems with no coherent or appropriate application of commonly accepted principles of public planning or policy. 

The Creeks Task Force has primarily been a venue for frightening many of us who have homes on small lots which are entirely covered by this proposed 60 foot ban (30 feet from the centerline on either side) on construction along our so-called creeks. My “creek,” which I grew up alongside, runs only for one or two months a year, is not spring-fed and doesn’t contain pure or even uncontaminated water. It’s never had a fish or frog, and is fed primarily by all the runoff from the gutters and backyards serving Solan o Avenue businesses. That’s dry cleaners, restaurants, copy stores, and hair salons. When people think “creek” they think clean. They think natural. Not so. And not an honest use of the word by the task force. Think instead storm drains and the city’s sew er system and you have a far more accurate picture. But the truth is so inconvenient and contrary to the picture they want to present that the task force won’t even allow anyone to use the term “storm drain”—nope, you have to say “creek” so we can all mai ntain some fantasy about the urban paradise we live in. Like many other people, I think trying to legislate individual behavior without a plan for the whole watershed is a waste of time and lots of money ($100,000 so far of your money). The task force’s o wn consultants have said that trying to revitalize Berkeley’s creeks from the top-down doesn’t make sense. Money and time would be better spent at the points where the creeks intersect with the bay. And can someone please explain to me why my property has a potentially stringent ordinance keeping me from improving or rebuilding my home when less than three blocks away the very same creek in the city of Albany has no such ordinance “protecting” it from those residents? 

This task force has served really as a red herring to distract the city’s taxpayers and homeowners from the mounting and catastrophic cost associated with checking, repairing and replacing the aging storm drain system. The city is the real winner in this whole charade. They are hoping for t hose of us on creeks and culverts to pay their way in repairing and maintaining these public goods that benefit the entire city. Watch out Berkeley taxpayers, it’s open season on your property if you live over a culvert or near a creek. This isn’t a harml ess “only in Berkeley” story, it’s one that will impact your investment in your home, your ability to insure it for future replacement, and even your chance of rebuilding it if it’s lost to a disaster, natural or manmade. 

Sarah Armstrong 

• 

FAIR AND BALANCED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recent reporting concerning the Berkeley Public Library reminds me of Bill O’Reilly’s “Fair and Balanced” opinions on almost any topic. Judith Scherr might agree that he is neither. Nor is she. 

Her reportage presents one, and only one, opinion, local SEIU 535’s. It appears that Ms. Scherr is the mouthpiece for 535. Have any employees had the courage to decline signing the declaration of no-confidence in the library director? Has each and every member of 535 been given the oppo rtunity to sign—or not to sign? Has she checked? There are at least two other unions at BPL, as well as unrepresented employees. Has she interviewed any of the members of the other unions? 

Has Ms. Scherr interviewed any union member who is afraid to spea k out fearful of 535 threats should they disagree? 

What was the administrative action that caused a small band of discontents to seek and wreak vengeance? She might seek the cause. Are 535 members not covered by an MOU that specifies a grievance procedure? Has 535 filed grievances with the City and what have been the results? The Planet appears to have made itself a part of grievance rather than investigating it? Will Ms. Scherr publish that particular procedure for the benefit of the public? 

Of course, Library Director Griffin cannot speak of personnel matters in a public forum, nor on any pending personnel matter. But there may be others Ms. Scherr might interview who represent different opinions if she will seek them out. 

I remain interested in Berk eley happenings because I lived there when I was at the university. Thus, I access the Planet on the Web. Before I retired as a librarian, I was an active union member. It strikes me that were I in 535 I would try to unionize my colleagues to decertify it because it represented me in no way. Rather, it has created palpable fear in the library. The small band of unhappy “leaders” love the library so much that they are happily willing to kill it. 

Ms Scherr and the Planet might try to show more than one sid e of the story. 

Ruth I. Gordon 

Retired Librarian 

Cloverdale 

• 

WATERFRONT  

DEVELOPMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One of the vital services that we should expect our city government to provide is an open, comprehensive process to plan for our city’s future. T his is especially important for preserving our unique natural resource, the Albany shoreline. Those who claim that such a process is too expensive to undertake should consider the long term consequences, financial and otherwise, of leaving planning to others who would put their own interests above those of the citizens. 

Unfortunately, the City of Albany has so far declined to engage in a comprehensive process for the development of our waterfront that is not developer driven. For this reason, a group of Albany citizens has been gathering signatures to put an initiative on the ballot that defines a process that must occur before any development can take place on the waterfront. Contrary to misleading claims by opponents of the initiative, it contains prov isions that ensure the process is an open one and that no plan may go forward without a vote of the citizens. This is a reasonable step to ensure that any development that occurs on our waterfront is in the best interests of the citizens of Albany, not of developers. 

Mark Maslow 

Albany 

• 

TRANSPORTATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Fifty-nine percent of women and 41 percent of men feel unsafe waiting for their bus, according to a recent study published on UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies Revie w Online website (”Fear Factor: How scary are bus stops?” Winter 2005-2006, www.its.berkeley.edu/itsreview/winter2005/busstop.html). 

Furthermore, “If someone is fearful, she (or he) will not use transit if there are any other options.” 

The author (Anast asia Loukaitou-Sideris) makes the case for good design and maintenance of bus stops as a way of reducing this “fear factor.” As a “Transit First” city committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Berkeley should follow her advice and improve the desig n and maintenance of its bus stops.  

For instance, the southbound Bus Rapid Transit stop at the corner of San Pablo and Gilman in Berkeley is neglected: there is an abandoned newsstand filled with trash; the other newsstands and the shelter badly need cl eaning; shopping carts are frequently abandoned next to the bus stop; and a city garbage can is parked directly in front of the bus stop. Other stops have damaged benches (e.g. Cedar and San Pablo northbound). 

In order to reduce traffic congestion, co nserve oil, and slow down global warming, it is imperative that we reduce auto use. Proper maintenance of bus stops will bring us closer to this goal.  

Leonard Conly 

• 

DOWNTOWN  

ASSOCIATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the executive director of the Downtow n Berkeley Association, please accept my apology for the inadvertent release of a draft internal document that was published in the April 21 issue of the Daily Planet. That preliminary document—“Survey on Economic Development”—was a draft intended for the purpose of committee discussion only, and not for public review.  

For 16 years, our non-profit organization has represented over 800 business members with a mission to improve the vitality of the downtown commercial district. We follow the Main Street o rganizational model which encourages community participation through committees which report to a board of directors. The committees cover issues related to access, design, economic development, and promotions.  

With e-mail, it has become very easy to fo rward our correspondence out to growing numbers of people. Our communications are currently sent to around 80 people who are active in our organization, plus numerous additional community members. Our standard of broadly circulating our committee work has unfortunately resulted in the mis-use of an internal draft document. 

To the readers of the April 21 edition, I request that you forgive my mistake. For community members interested in improving the downtown district, I strongly encourage you to engage with our organization. For the DBA itself, I will take necessary action to ensure that all future draft documents are not circulated publicly.  

Deborah Badhia 

Executive Director  

Downtown Berkeley Association 

On our city streets, most anywhere, 

We find a Starbucks opened there. 

Every store seems quite afflicted 

With lines of the caffeine-addicted. 

Throughout this nation, like busy ants, 

There’s quite a coffee ambiance 

From early morn to late night again. 

—George Banks. 

Oakland

Much has been written in these pages about the prospect of a regulation baseball diamond for the Berkeley High baseball team. Reams of articles and opinions have been written as a matter of fact. Others have been written as a matter of fancy. Few articles or commentaries have, however, addressed the perspective of what results from not building such a field. What happens, of course, is that things stay the way they are. With San Pablo Park being the practice and game field for the team. So what’s that like?  

But first, a disclosure. I reside across from San Pablo Park where the team currently practices and plays its home games. I have seen the alternative of leaving things as they are. When the Romans were faced with such an alternative, they called it the status quo. Easy for them to say, they probably didn’t have foul balls. 

Foul balls are a reality of life—of life around a baseball field at least. It’s more of a reality when home plate is too far from the backstop and when the backstop has no overhang. Because of these factors, many of these foul balls end up in the street or in neighbors’ yards. Or through car windows. Or through home windows. Oddly enough, the diamond at the opposite end of the city’s park has an overhang to reduce the number of foul balls. It’s just the backstop where games are played and where batting practice takes place that has no overhang. It’s all about the integrity of the game, you know.  

It’s not as if the City of Berkeley is unaware of the foul ball issue. Numerous claims have arisen over the years (some mine) and promises have been made to improve the situation. Another season; no improvement. A few years back a wire mesh was placed over the dugouts to protect players, but nothing has changed for the public.  

Apparently, it will only become an issue of concern to the city and to you, its taxpayers, when one of those round orbs launched from the playing field lands on someone’s head. It may then end up costing taxpayers more than the cost of a real baseball diamond being built on school district land.  

Not surprisingly, there are people at this (ostensibly) public park who use it for things other than to play baseball for the local high school team. Like walk. Or push baby strollers. Or sit in the grass. Or ride bicycles. In short, some people treat San Pablo Park as though it were a public park!  

Unfortunately, the Berkeley High baseball team holds no such point of view. It is, after all, their home diamond and practice field. Not just after school in the afternoon and not just on game days.  

Coaches come with individual team members or with groups of players for instruction throughout the day. Or on the weekends. Whenever. Because it’s their field, after all.  

But it’s only fair. The City of Berkeley is appropriately compensated by the BUSD for all the additional grooming and care the diamond commands. Isn’t it? You’ve seen the numbers reported in stories about this subject. Haven’t you?  

So how ‘bout a description of a typical practice day?  

Because of where their current practice and home field is located, players and coaches travel from the campus to the park in private vehicles. Never, in the brief history of high school student automobile driving, have testosterone-loaded competitive young men been tempted to drive recklessly. At least it certainly doesn’t happen on these trips back and forth. That’s probably because the school has firm written rules about driving and other conduct by players and coaches. Shirley, (and those of you with other first names as well) in all this debate, you’ve read those written rules for yourself in these pages. Haven’t you?  

Just like you’ve read the written rules issued to players urging them to respect the property rights of people living around the park. You know, the ones about not leaving trash in the dugout or not tramping into people’s yards without permission to retrieve foul balls. Rules like those are a part of any quality organized sports program, of course, because sports builds character. And because, without such instruction, boys will be boys. Which is to say they’ll dash across a street without looking in order to snag a foul ball from somebody’s bushes without first asking permission.  

Why? Well (as stories from the world of sports remind us on a daily basis) male athletes have a strong, almost hormonal, attachment to their balls but somewhat less regard for other people’s bushes.  

But I digress. Back to a typical practice day.  

Once the players arrive, they have to change into uniform. Given the absence of a locker room, they, naturally enough, change on the street beside their cars or in the dugout. It’s just all part of the friendly family atmosphere of a public park.  

There is a restroom in the park, but walking all that distance to change would, apparently, require too much exertion. The same could frequently be said of the effort required to walk to the restroom for another purpose as well. The supply shed near the baseball diamond is thus frequently used as a urinal. Not inside the supply shed (which is locked) but the side of the shed. 

Speaking of wet grass, the rain this year has presented a real difficulty both for baseball practice and for games. Last Friday (April 7) was an example. The park had been closed to the public for days on end because of standing water and soggy grass. That didn’t, however, stop efforts to play a BHS game. It was raining virtually from the onset and that’s when it hit me.  

Not another foul ball (that went into a neighbor’s driveway and hit a parked car). But the realization of what Berkeley High baseball really needs. Not just a dedicated-use open-air baseball field but a domed stadium! A sports arena with room for serious fans and air conditioning too. And concessions. And maybe practice games against the Oakland Athletics. A place untouched by weather.  

After all, we’re talking about a high school that already has an indoor swimming pool. Water polo, crew, badminton, golf, lacrosse, tennis, mountain biking, swimming and baseball are a vital part of the learning experience. Just like dance studios. And like not simply having a cafeteria but a “food court.” Which is almost as essential as having a state-of-the-art library just blocks from the newly renovated Berkeley Main Library.  

As I recall, the latest bill for updating the Berkeley High School campus was around $13 million. Not a dime too much either. I’m sure those beautiful exotic wood tables and chairs are still in pristine condition without a scratch or single wad of bubble gum under them. The point here is that the quality of education is determined entirely by the cost of physical facilities. There is just no legitimate argument about it: If Berkeley High is ever going to become the baseball dynasty this region deserves, a domed stadium is the only answer.  

Forget nonsense like closing that vital transit artery called Derby Street. What nitwit could have conceived such an idea? In Berkeley no less—a city that prides itself on maintaining open streets free of obstructions or other impediments to straight navigation. It’s particularly loathsome to consider closing a street which has proven itself so vital to travel that it is now closed only once a week for a farmer’s market.  

A farmer’s market which, by the way, could never possibly exist in any other location on the planet except for right where it is. Except for the other days of the week when it’s located elsewhere. Mere facts, however, should not stand in the way of building a domed stadium. Nor should existing buildings stand in the way of such a project.  

I understand some of the space on the BHS campus is currently being wasted on classrooms. Has the school board even considered the close relationship between classrooms and poor student achievement? Most high school drop-out have spent time in a classroom. Eliminate classrooms and you eliminate academic failure.  

The (lighted) football field (with artificial turf), the track, softball field, building M (gymnasium), Donahue Gymnasium, Building E (Jacket Pool, Jacket Gym), the Community Theater...these are all essential parts of the school campus. But what about the other parts? There’s enough brick just in buildings C, D, and G to make a fine domed stadium.  

Look at reality folks: My plan doesn’t require closing any streets with so little traffic that people park RVs there to sleep at night. And, my plan will practically pay for itself through ticket and hot dog sales. Include beer sales and you could soon also afford to build an on-campus ski slope.  

Neil Cook lives near San Pablo Park.  

On April 25 the Berkeley City Council will vote to consider a comprehensive Alcoholic Beverage Sales Commercial Activities Regulation plan. One aspect of this proposal is mandatory Responsible Beverage Service training (RBS) for licensees, managers, servers and clerks prior to selling alcoholic beverages. 

A resident of the Berkeley community for four years and a patron at local Berkeley bars, I see mandatory RBS training to be of paramount importance to secure the safety of Berkeley residents who are consumers at these bars and to ensure more quiet and peaceful neighborhoods. 

Through my participation with a student division of the Berkeley Alcohol Policy Advocacy Coalition at UC Berkeley, Students for a Safer Southside, I performed observations of five bars and restaurants within a quarter-mile of the campus. Upon obtaining the same Responsible Beverage Service training that a bartender would receive, I was able to assess the current sales and service mechanisms on the premises. My results were shocking: At three of the five locations I evaluated, servers themselves were noted to be consuming alcohol while working. In addition, patrons exhibiting signs of obvious excess intoxication were served. These practices are against the law. What is more, examination of driver’s licenses and identification cards was unsatisfactory. Bouncers were inconsistent in regards to verifying age, and underage drinking on premises was confirmed.  

In the restaurants my group reviewed, transition times from day time food consumers to evening drinkers proved to be problematic. Around 10 p.m. when hand stamps verifying age were given upon entrance to the location, three employees did not question those remaining on the site after their dinner for their identification. This would not be a problem if the servers knew to simply ask the patron to wave their hand stamp during this challenging changeover period from restaurant to bar. 

These behaviors will be improved if the correct education program is implemented. Responsible Beverage Service training is such an education program to teach licensees, clerks and servers the acceptable and lawful manner in which to provide alcohol and the repercussions which occur when they act against the law. Berkeley would not be the first city to institute a mandatory RBS training program. Poway, San Buenaventura and Newport Beach have already set such precedents thereby making a commitment to their city’s welfare. Responsible beverage sales and service training is cited as a U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Best Practice. The course is officially supported by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. For all of these reasons I see it as essential that on April 25 the Berkeley City Council vote to consider the Alcoholic Beverage Sales Commercial Activities Regulations to improve the quality of life in our city. 

Emer Cunningham is a member of Students for a Safer Southside, a division of the Alameda County State Incentive Grant.›

Graham called me a hypocrite for urging Berkeley’s City Council and Peace and Justice Commission (P&J) to pass anti-Palestinian resolutions, when I derided the same bodies for passing a pro-Palestinian resolution. I never said, nor did mean, any such thing. I do not believe that Berkeley city government has any constructive role to play in the locally divisive issue of the Palestine/Israel conflict. I merely said that Berkeley’s Palestinian supporters like Graham, should have a good heart-to-heart with their Palestinian friends and let them know that their election of Hamas won’t wash even here in Berkeley. If Graham and her buddies want to stand by Hamas, fine. At least I tried to talk some sense into them. 

After Graham willfully misrepresents my position, she goes on to libel. In her paranoid worldview, I am a Jewish godfather, the Elder of Zion dispatched to Berkeley with a fist full of money to brutalize Israel’s critics into silence. She believes that I personally orchestrated a takeover of Berkeley’s P&J. This charge, which first surfaced in the Daily Planet, has been thoroughly discredited. Not one past or sitting member of P&J owes his or her seat to me in any way. All I ever did was loudly voice the not uncommon opinion that the old P&J was an oligarchic cesspool of radical lunacy. People listened because I was right, and things have now changed somewhat for the better, but not because anyone is on my payroll. 

Graham goes on to fume that, with all my money, I intend to buy the next mayoral election. Rubbish. Graham has no way of knowing my net worth, but, more importantly, Bill Gates, himself, could not buy a Berkeley election. Doesn’t Graham know that there is, as there should be, a strict limit to individual contributions in Berkeley? If I am not mistaken, that limit is currently set at $250, hardly enough to buy an election. Moreover, if she would care to go down to City Hall and check the public records, she will discover that in the more than 20 years that I have lived in Berkeley, I have contributed in total less than $1,000 to Berkeley politicians.  

The only person I know of in this town who has used her own money to significantly alter the Berkeley political landscape is Becky O’Malley. She did this when she bought the Daily Planet in order to use it as her personal mouthpiece. Though I often disagree with O’Malley, I do want to say with sincerity that I applaud her for publishing, and not suppressing, the responses of her many critics. That’s why I do not support a boycott of the Daily Planet, and, probably why the Daily Planet has not, at least yet, heeded Graham’s call for a boycott of my property, Zorro. Boycotting people in America for their beliefs smells of fascism, Ms. Graham. And here I really think you may be in a minority. The pro-Palestinian Daily Planet gave Berkeley Rep’s Zorro in Hell (which I co-commissioned, and in which I do admit having a financial interest) a very good review, and the pro-Palestinian nonprofit, MECA, actually sold tickets to Zorro in Hell as a fundraiser. I will be donating my profits from MECA’s efforts to the local non-profit, Bridges to Israel, which funnels money to Israeli victims of Palestinian terror. 

Graham goes on to contend that I have threatened local politicians, like Linda Maio or Kriss Worthington, into silence with the prospect of a smear campaign for passing a pro-Palestinian resolution. I readily admit that I have said that I will work hard to make sure that anyone who believes that Berkeley needs a pro-Palestinian foreign policy should not be mayor of this city. I will oppose them by all legal and ethical means. And, indeed, I will give $250 to their more moderate opponent. I will not smear Maio or Worthington, but to the extent anyone will listen to me, I will help make their misguided foreign policy a central issue of the campaign. That’s not nefarious, Ms. Graham, that’s democracy. And Graham intends to exercise her democratic rights as well. For in her words, if councilmembers do not pass more anti-Israel resolutions, then “we can express our disagreement with them at the polls.” You do that, Ms. Graham. You exercise your rights, and leave me to exercise mine. 

Berkeley resident John Gertz owns the Zorro trademark. ›

OREGON STEET 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Max Anderson should be ashamed of himself for racebaiting his constituents (“Oregon Street Neighbors Win Appeal, Criticism,” April 18). I and scores of other neighbors on Oregon Street and surrounding streets have been working for years to deal with the drug dealing and violence at 1610 Oregon St. We have now won four straight court victories against Lenora Moore, and hope there doesn’t have to be a fifth. But we will persevere in our civil actions, because we have been abandoned by our councilmember and our mayor. The city of Berkeley has it in its power to clean up with what the courts have deemed a public nuisance, but they have chosen to abdicate their responsibility and either hide behind the skirts of the neighbors (Bates) or taunt and racebait them (Anderson).  

Why is our councilmember siding with the drug dealers against his constituents?  

Paul Rauber  

• 

STOP THE DEALING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Max Anderson misunderstands the concerns of the Oregon Street residents: They don’t want Grandma Moore to move, they just want folks to stop dealing drugs out of her home.  

Max Anderson assaults the sensibilities of folks who don’t like drug dealing in their neighborhood, which certainly includes African-Americans, when he suggests that his status as an African-American is a basis for his outrage at the small claims filing of nearby residents. Is he suggesting that it is racist to not want drug dealers, who may be of African-American descent, dealing drugs in their neighborhood?  

Mr. Anderson’s time might be better spent working on solutions for the young men in that neighborhood who don’t have enough opportunities in our post-industrial economy rather than suggesting concerned neighbors are behaving outrageously in pursuing their small claims actions against a house that has indisputably sheltered drug dealing for years.  

Paul S. Lecky 

• 

GENERIC LINK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I share Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson’s consternation at the Berkeley community’s willingness to address the drug problem at 1610 Oregon St. by making two elderly blacks homeless. 

However, has anyone made the generic link between pockets of drug activity on Oregon Street and the apparent refusal of Berkeley Bowl, just up the street, to hire blacks? No? I didn’t think so. Probably the lack of black faces I see there, which causes me not to shop there, is just my imagination. 

Jean Damu 

• 

ZELDA FOR MAYOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You’re on your own.   

That’s Tom Bates’ basic message to Berkeley residents threatened by drug houses.   

According to the April 18 Daily Planet, the mayor says that “the city doesn’t plan any independent action” on the Oregon Street drug house and congratulates the neighbors for having successfully sued the owner of the problem property in small claims court. 

It’s unconscionable for Tom Bates to tell the neighbors of drug houses that their main recourse is to solve the problem themselves. Two weeks ago, after testifying in court, one of the Oregon Street plaintiffs received death threats at her house. As another of the plaintiffs, Paul Rauber, told the Planet, “Guys with uniforms and guns should be handling these problems, not amateurs and neighbors like us.”  

This is a job for the police—and the city attorney.  In Oakland, City Attorney John Russo has set up an award-winning Neighborhood Law Corps that directly assists neighbors. Instead of ordinary citizens having to face down drug dealers, the deputy city attorneys in the Law Corps build cases against drug houses and other public nuisances and file lawsuits in superior court.   

Berkeley needs a Neighborhood Law Corps. But most of all we need a mayor who understands that government has an obligation to do all it can to keep the community safe. 

Zelda Bronstein 

• 

ACT OF KINDNESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Interesting to read that on one corner of Berkeley, your car gets “booted” if you park and walk off the lot. On my corner of Hopkins and Monterey, for the last five years, I’ve been permitting people to park on my lot and shop nearby as a courtesy, hoping that a little goodwill may flow back. Also interesting is the fact that during this time, not one merchant has acknowledged or thanked this courtesy from which they’ve benefited. Sometimes I guess no good deed goes unpunished. 

Tim Cannon 

BerkeleyHome Real Estate 

• 

ASHBY BART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If, as Mayor Bates promised on Feb. 11, “everything is on the table” regarding development on the Ashby BART west parking lot, why has the city commissioned a study of whether moving the Flea Market to the middle of Adeline Street is technically feasible (“City Hires Firm to Study Ashby Flea Market Move,” April 18)? Should the community-based planning process decide that any appropriate development at the site must preserve enough open space to accommodate the Flea Market, this study will have been a waste of scarce tax money. 

Robert Lauriston 

• 

TASK FORCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Richard Brenneman’s article on the formation of a task force to plan a housing development at the Ashby BART (“Controversy Surrounds Ashby BART Task Force,” April 14) lists me as an applicant for a position on the force. I have not applied. My name was placed in nomination by someone else without consulting me. The first I learned about it was when I received an e-mail from Ed Church, on behalf of the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation. It informed me that I had been nominated, and asked, 1), whether I had read an attached flier and 2), “Do you endorse the process?” I am not in the habit of signing loyalty oaths, even if accompanied by the not quite reassuring statement that “Non-endorsement of the process might not disqualify your candidacy, but I believe it is a salient factor for the board of SBNDC to consider.” I declined the nomination. I do not, in fact, endorse the process, which has not been open to consideration of whether it is in the interest of South Berkeley to consume the last open space in the community with a multi-story development that will, despite protestations to the contrary, be the death of the Flea Market.  

Osha Neumann 

• 

MACARTHUR  

TRANSIT VILLAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have mixed feelings about Robert Brokl’s April 18 commentary, “Another Transit Village in the Pipeline.” 

On one hand, I am happy that so many people realize that higher density around transit is needed to stop global warming and wars for oil. I hope that Brokl is not exaggerating and that this “smart growth rhetoric” really did dominate discussions in Oakland as completely as he says. I only wish that the discussion in Berkeley were equally idealistic.  

On the other hand, I sorry to see that the idea of smart growth is being used to justify a 20- and 22-story building at MacArthur BART. Most people do not want to live in an impersonal, high-rise city of the future. If highrise development is the only alternative to sprawl, then most people will choose to live in sprawl.  

Traditional European cities are the right model for smart growth. Santana Row in San Jose, modeled on Milan and Barcelona, is a good local example of new development in this style.  

If they build at this sort of European density around BART stations, everyone will see that smart growth makes these neighborhoods more attractive and more human-scale than they are now, cut up by parking lots. But if they build high-rises around BART stations, it is likely to lead to a backlash against smart growth.  

Brokl is certainly wrong to say that smart growth is a fad that will be forgotten in a few decades. Cities and towns have always been dense enough to allow people to walk—from pre-historic times until the 20th century, when we first began building suburban neighborhoods so low density that they are totally auto-dependent.  

Auto-dependent neighborhoods are the temporary fad. We can see now that they have failed in environmental terms and in human terms. The only remaining questions are how much damage auto-dependency will do before we decide to build more walkable neighborhoods, and whether the reaction against sprawl will bring us high-rises or traditional pedestrian-scale neighborhoods.  

Charles Siegel 

• 

GAIA BONUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I got a good laugh out of the April 18 article by Judith Scherr titled “Council to Examine Gaia Bonus.” It mentions Mr. Kennedy’s lawyer threatening the city with a lawsuit. Well, I am not a big believer in lawsuits, but I do believe in grand jury investigations. Which leaves me wondering: Just how many affordable housing units were we promised and how many are there now? Just how did it get to be 116-feet tall when the use permit only allows 87 feet. Just where did those offices on top of the building come from and how were they permitted? How come the planning file is now so thin? Seven floors? Just how many buttons are there in the elevator anyway? Mezzanines? Just how big are the rooms they open up into? And this is just one property. So many questions, so few answers. Yes, I am definitely in favor of investigations. 

Tim Hansen 

• 

SCHOOL DISTRICTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s April 14 UnderCurrents column (“History Lesson: Making a Mess of Our School Districts”) correctly points out that county Superintendent of Schools Sheila Jordan is to be blamed. Another actor in the drama is the Fiscal Crisis and Management Team (FCMAT). That semi-secret organization was created by the Legislature in 1991 when there was an alarm about more and more school districts going bankrupt. 

It assigned to the county superintendent of schools the authority to closely watch over the spending of local school districts. But, as the Alameda County Grand Jury has pointed out, elected county superintendents of schools need not have—and most don’t—any experience in school finance or administration. That shouldn’t be surprising, because other politicians need not have qualifications to run other than to be a resident of their electoral districts. 

The Alameda Grand Jury pointed out that county Superintendent of Schools Sheila Jordan had allowed Emery and Oakland go bankrupt. She got her five-person $750,000 public relations department to churn out denials, blasting the Grand Jury and blaming the local school boards—and in the case of Oakland, Superintendent Dennis Chaconas—for giving her false data.  

She then called in the cavalry—FCMAT—to do the job she should have done. They, in turn, hire consultants without going out to bid. Of course, guess who picks up the bill for all this? Yes, we taxpayers. 

It’s all a very “old boy/girl” network: The county superintendent falls down on the job, then calls in FCMAT. They cover for each other. For example, when Jordan in a dilatory fashion allowed Hayward Unified School District to almost go bankrupt, she finally called in FCMAT. After it made its study, it had a press conference congratulating Jordan for doing such a fine job! 

Ernest Avellar 

Hayward 

• 

DRILLING IN THE  

ARCTIC REFUGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

So the Republican-controlled Congress is at it again. The are determined to seek an amendment to any legislation that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Why they are in a zealous move to drill in a site which is home of the Gwich’in people is beyond me, other than letting greed cause them to do the bidding of oil companies. 

People should understand that the Gwich’in people are a sovereign people who live their own way of life. Also, they know how to preserve water and take the animals there. What would oil drilling in the Arctic accomplish? Nothing more than having the water be toxic with oil. That catastrophe will wipe out the Gwich’in people as a whole. 

The mainstream media should be held accountable for not focusing on the concern of the Gwich’in people who will be painfully impacted by oil drilling in their homeland. I urge people who are concerned about preserving the Gwich’in people’s way of life in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to fight Congress’ attempt to drill for oil there. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland 

• 

HEALTH SERVICE CUTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was shocked to learn of the proposed $12 million budget cuts in Contra Costa County’s health services. If the budget reductions are enacted, the county’s health services will be decimated. The loss of almost 90 full-time positions will be a disaster for the most vulnerable Contra Costa residents. 

As a West County resident, I am particularly concerned about the proposed cut of two positions at the Richmond-based Intensive Day Treatment program. The impact described on the website (“loss of art therapy services”) fails to describe the deleterious effect the loss of these two positions will have on the program’s clients. During the 25 years the Richmond Center has served the West Contra Costa County community, the expressive arts therapy program has played an integral role. The program’s primary purpose is to help people who are facing severely challenging mental and emotional crises to achieve or return to a fuller, more satisfying life in the community. The 40 hours per week of innovative therapy that only these two positions can provide are essential. They have helped the program’s consumers stay out of the hospital and off the street. The expressive arts component of the program is the core of the center’s program. There is concern that without it, the center itself will ultimately close. 

West Contra Costa County is one of the poorest, most disenfranchised and violent communities in the Bay Area, and needs programs like this. It will be very short-sighted if the Board of Supervisors approves these proposed cuts. Short-term savings will be replaced by long-term suffering by clients and higher taxpayer costs to pay for emergency treatment and hospitalization. 

It is difficult for the people receiving treatment at the Richmond Center to advocate for themselves. 

The Richmond Center art therapy staff provides an invaluable service. The program is a beacon among community mental health programs. Everyone should oppose the proposed budget cuts. 

Glenda Rubin 

El Cerrito 

• 

WAR ON IRAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recently in response to a question about a nuclear attack against Iranian nuclear sites, President Bush stated that “all options are on the table.” Some may consider this a diplomatic ploy to strengthen the United States’ hand in negotiations. But given Bush’s past actions and his belief that god directed him to launch attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq we should be wary. 

While keeping Iran from obtaining the bomb is the window dressing that is being used to prepare us for war against Iran, the real reason for the war is regime change. Bush states, “The world cannot be put in a position where we can be blackmailed by a nuclear weapon.” But what he really means is that the United States intends to maintain its dominant position in the world. In order to do that it must control the vast petroleum reserves of the Middle East, which is also a strategic location at the intersection of Africa, Asia and Europe.  

For Bush and those that advise him, nuclear war is just one of many options for projecting U.S. power in the Middle East.  

In 2001 a panel sponsored by the National Institute for Public Policy issued a report that recommended the treatment of tactical nuclear weapons as an essential part of the U.S. weapons arsenal. It stated that such weapons are particularly useful “for those occasions when the certain and prompt destruction of high priority targets is essential and beyond the promise of conventional weapons.” Unfortunately several of the signers of this report are now high-level officials in the Bush Administration. Chief among them is Bush’s National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley. They also include Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone and Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Robert Joseph. These are some of the people now advising Bush about Iran. 

The policy wonks describe such tactical nukes as “bunker busters” and consider them useful in attacking underground sites such as those they claim are hiding Iran’s nuclear facilities. But if such an attack were to occur it would be a disaster for the people of Iran and the world. We must do everything possible to prevent such a tragedy by driving the Bush regime from power now. The world cannot wait to see whether Bush will launch pre-emptive war against Iran, either nuclear or conventional. The consequences would be far worse than those already being seen in Iraq. 

For more information about this subject and also how to drive the Bush regime from power, please see worldcantwait.net. 

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland 

• 

ANOTHER WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It hardly seems credible that this administration would consider military action against Iran in the wake of the disastrous and constantly unraveling occupation of Iraq. Our government here in the United States at this particular point in history, whatever faith it may profess, has no faith in diplomacy. They seem to believe that bombing is justifiable when it is carried out on a massive scale by our own troops, but abhorrent when carried out by others. It is abhorrent in either case. It is time we insist that the United States stop asserting a global double-standard. It is time we step down our own nuclear weapons program, so that as we negotiate for a less dangerous world, those negotiations may be taken seriously. 

Clark Suprynowicz 

• 

AXIS OF EVIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Jan. 29, 2002, President Bush, in his State Of The Union Address, employed the term “Axis of Evil” and referred explicitly to Iran, Iraq and North Korea. After our invasion of Iraq, is it any surprise that both Iran and North Korea would refuse to consider surrendering any nuclear weapons they might already possess or to forgo seeking to perfect whatever processes are involved in developing a stock of nuclear weapons? What other defense might they have against the juggernaut that is a United States whose Commander and Chief happens to be George Bush? 

Irving Gershenberg 

• 

POLICE BLOTTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Why does the writer of your Police Blotter seem to think it’s all so funny? I doubt that he has he been knocked to the ground and had his teeth kicked in by a gang of Berkeley thugs yet? Or has he, and suffered brain damage? I have a suggestion; Maybe a more direct, plain style of writing would be more appropriate- just imagine how a real journalist would write about crime and the victims of crime, there you go, not so difficult is it? So please save the insensitive and ill-advised attempts at humor for some other subject. 

Alan Jencks 

• 

CESAR CHAVEZ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As we approach Earth Day, a big thank you to reporter Santiago Casal for reminding us of Cesar Chavez’s commitment to the environment, as well as to social justice (“Cesar Chavez and Environmentalism,” April 14). 

Daily Planet readers should also be aware that Chavez was himself an ethical vegetarian committed to social justice for animals as well as humans. Consider this excerpt from a letter that the great man wrote to me on Dec. 26, 1990 (copies available upon request): 

“Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and rodeos are cut from the same fabric: violence. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.” Words to live by.  

R.I.P., Cesar. You are sorely missed. 

Eric Mills, coordinator 

Action for Animals 

P.O. Box 20184 

Oakland, CA 94620 

652-5603 

FACT-FREE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The recent letters of John Gerz and Dan Spitzer are virtually fact-free. Israel, thanks to hundreds of billions from the American taxpayer, is the fourth strongest military power today. Not only has Israel never been in danger of annihilation but it is the Palestinians who have faced such a process beginning with the expulsion of over 800,000 residents in 1947-48. Even at that time “little Israel” had three times the armed manpower of the six pathetic Arab “armies.”  

In 1956 Israel colluded with the UK and France in an illegal invasion of Egypt which was condemned by the US and the UN. In 1978 and 1982 Israel illegally invaded Lebanon causing tens of thousands of civilian casualties and displacing hundreds of thousands. Only in 1973 did Egypt and Syria initiate the war and that was strictly for the purpose of trying to remove Israeli Occupation from their lands. Israel sponsored Hamas over twenty five years ago in an attempt to sidetrack the secular PLO. Now the chickens have come home to roost! Hamas, for all of its rhetoric, represents not the slightest military danger to Israel. Israel’s apologists did everything they could to discredit the PLO and thus open door for Hamas. 

The salient fact to remember here is that Israel is illegally occupying the Palestinians, not vice-versa. 

Clinton’s 2000 deal left the West Bank truncated into several Bantustans, gave Israel full control over water rights, left many settlements intact and gave Israel veto power over all decisions of the rump Palestinian governing body. 

Israel’s fanatical partisans resemble the old Stalinists of the Soviet era who were similarly diligent in defending their “Holy” State. The New Republic serves as a prime example here of backing both bad causes. 

I would urge the Editor not to be intimidated by these ugly apologists for Occupation. 

Kris Martinsen 

P.S.: For an excellent history of the Arab-Israeli conflict see The Iron Wall:Israel and The Arab World by Israeli historian Avi Shlaim. He demonstrates that much of the intransigence in this conflict has been generated by Israel from the beginning. 

• 

MIDDLE EAST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Since time immemorial, enemies of the Jewish people have plied their prejudice through allegations that Jews engaged in conspiratorial efforts to corrupt good offices. Unfortunately, this justification for bigotry may also be seen in the DailyPlanet’s letters’ pages. 

On April 7, R.W. Davis used that old anti-Semitic code word “cabal” when referring to what he believed to be the undue influences of Israel on US policy. And in the Daily Planet’s April 14 edition, Palestinian propagandist Joanne Graham wrote of what she alleges to be the local “Jewish lobby": “A small, unelected Group is distorting city policy by exerting undue influence and would do so no matter who is in office.” Readers with any sense of history understand fullwell the dark place from which Ms. Graham is coming...  

On another matter, in his last column for the Daily Planet, Conn Hallinan cites a study by an Indian professor who maintains that currently in the subcontinent, “the per person food availability is lower now than it was during the horrendous Bengal famine of 1942-43.” Now how could that be, when the horrific famine to which Hallinan refers led to the starvation of 6-8 million Bengalis and today in India there is nothing remotely approaching that unspeakable tragedy? 

If the Daily Planet is going to run future columns by that old Commie Conn (surely I am not the only one who thinks his name is a most apt “double entendre"), won’t it be wise to diminish that ideologue’s copious errors through the employment of a fact-checker? Just a friendly suggestion, lest the Planet continue to maintain a credibility level rivaling KPFA’s News Department. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

HAMAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Those who say they were surprised by Hamas’ victory at the polls, recently, have not been paying attention to the events of the world. They obviously are not aware of what happened in South Africa and how Mandela became a household name. He and his party the ANC, were labeled terrorists, murders, rapists and all the other names the Palestinians are called by America and Europe now. 

However, immediately after Mandela’s release from prison, still under some unrevealed circumstances, there were elections and his party won. Mandela and the ANC formed South Africa’s first democratic government. America and Europe immediately forgot that Mandela and the ANC were the most wanted terrorists in South Africa, no, in the world, dropped all their labels, poured money into South Africa and supported Mandela. George Bush invited Mandela to America in June 1990 after Mandela’s release from prison on Feb. 2, 1990. But before his arrest in 1962, Mandela headed Umkhonto we Siswe, an underground military wing of the ANC.  

Hamas is exactly in the same position as the ANC was in 1990. Before the elections, Hamas was merely asking to be included in the decision making of Palestine. After the elections, Hamas is now the decision maker for the whole country. These are two separate positions which use different methods of operations because their purposes are different. Hamas has been democratically chosen by the Palestinians, and as the decision maker, Hamas is now fighting a different war, which includes diplomacy both abroad and at home, working with international communities, international politics and international economics. This is one of the major political or survival lessons demonstrated by the Mandela and ANC presidency. 

Interestingly, when the ANC took power in South Africa, America and Europe never demanded that ANC should first denounce violence before they would accept its legitimacy as the ruling party. ANC never announced to Europe and America that it had denounced or it would never be violent again. Neither did the Boers when they were in power. Indeed, up to this day, South Africa is still one of the most violent places in the world, committed by all kinds of people—ANC or not. But accepting Mandela and the ANC’s leadership was the only way to bring economic stability and some sense of security. Similarly, the acceptance of Hamas by Israel and the west, maybe the only option available to give both Israel and Palestine the much needed peace and security. Thus, America and Europe must follow President Putin’s courageous lead and accept Hamas as the legitimate government of Palestine.  

Gaeage Moetse Maher 

El Cerrito  

• 

OPEN LATER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Dear Mayor Bates and City Councilmembers: 

At last night’s City Council’s regular meeting, Andrea Segall, vice-president of SEIU Local 535, told you that she represented “the entire membership” of 500 Local 535 members who wished to submit a vote of no confidence in Library Director Jackie Griffin. You have seen in the local press and heard remarks by Local 535 officials in the past year about how Jackie Griffin has failed the Berkeley Public Library. It’s now time for those of us who feel differently to be heard. 

I have been the Administrative Secretary at the Library for the past seven years, and have worked closely with Jackie Griffin for four-and-a-half years. This is what I know about her: she’s honest to a fault, she’s ethical, and she cares deeply about providing the best service to the patrons of the library. She works on the Information Desk on Sundays along with the rest of the staff. She’s out there asking the community what they want from the Library, and she’s acting on that information. She examines seriously the issues facing our library both on local and national levels. She was among the first to speak out  

against the Patriot Act and the dangers it posed to the privacy of library patrons. She is extremely careful about the stewardship of public funds – in fact, she asked the City Auditor to carry out an audit, and made sure that the Library staff put the Auditor’s recommendations in place as quickly as possible. She has built a management team that works well together, and who have in common a desire to make the Berkeley Public Library the best of its kind. She has had an open-door policy for all staff from the first day she started working at the Library; as her secretary, I encouraged staff to walk in whenever her door was open, and made appointments whenever they asked for one. Her open, frank manner, and her sense of humor are qualities that many staff appreciate. 

I have, in 18 years of working in the Bay Area’s public libraries and public library cooperatives, seldom met a Library Director who so clearly had all the right attributes. It is a terrible shame that her reputation has been slandered both locally and in national library publications. It’s time for Local 535 officials to treat her respectfully, professionally, and honestly. 

One last thing: despite the April 11 article in the Berkeley Daily Planet, no staff were laid off in order to pay for the RFID system. This may be easily ascertained by contacting the City of Berkeley’s Human Resources department. 

Yvette Gan 

My limited experience in Oakland is that police officers are mismanaged and poorly trained. The problems of mismanagement and lack of accountability affecting officers extends well beyond their ranks and into city, county and state government. It’s not ex citing, but fostering basic, functioning systems is what is needed for our schools, police, transit, DMV among other services. 

As someone who bought a house three years ago in West Oakland, I hear gunshots routinely, have light aircraft buzzing over my h ouse well below the 1000-foot requirement, daily witness people blasting through the stop sign in front of the house, have half full paint cans, old tires, furniture and assorted garbage dumped illegally in front of my house (or in front of neighbors’ hom es and businesses). I have found human feces on my property, had my home broken into and now have the “honor” of, two out of three years, deducting the dollar value of stolen property off my income taxes. Previously having lived in Manhattan and then Berk eley, I never had the misfortune to be aware of this tax write-off until moving here. 

Oakland citizens who are victims of crimes have to do their own criminal investigations and hand results to OPD if we expect them to be involved. Vigilante cops like th e Riders, run amok and when caught, the courts bungle the process and they walk. Peaceful protesters are brutalized by OPD and tax payers are penalized with settlements. 

Anyone with brains would think three times before accepting a job here as a police o fficer. 

In January 2005, the car I was driving was hit in the rear while making a turn by an uninsured driver with a suspended license in Oakland. The OPD officer who arrived on the scene couldn’t comprehend the physical evidence. He was too busy chattin g up the assailant who was wearing a miniskirt. I had to go through OPD Internal Affairs and retrieve documented testimony from a CHP officer who also witnessed the accident scene to get the OPD report revised to be factual. On top of being nearly serious ly injured by a driver that, in a world that had any sense of justice would have sent him to jail, I was insulted by having to waste significant time and energy in my defense. The assailant is probably still racing her SUV on the wrong side of the road he re in Oakland. 

In March 2006, I made plans to meet a friend in downtown Oakland for dinner. She took the train in from Lafayette. I drove from my home to meet her. When I arrived she was already at street level and we made eye contact and waved to each o ther. She was on the opposite side of the street and I pulled my car over at the corner, put my hazard signal on, and she crossed with the next green light and climbed into my car. I never left my vehicle and it only stood there for about 90 seconds. As we pulled away, Alameda County sheriffs appeared from behind, pulled me over and gave me a semi-legible ticket ($25, $75, some other sum?) for the infraction of “stopping” in a bus zone. I had to keep a straight face and say “yes sir” as the young officer tells me the ticket is for my own good because I could be crushed in my car by a speeding bus if it pulls up to the bus stop. The bus stop at 12th and Broadway is large enough for multiple buses to park at the same time. I’m in more danger when someone fl eeing a shooting races down my street through all the stop signs. 

The friend I had just picked up told me that, as she waited for me to arrive, she witnessed those cops attempting to pull someone else over, presumably for the same reason. But that driver had the forethought to flee and speed away. The cops just let them go. I guess there’s no income, and lots of danger, in chasing someone for a “stopping” ticket. I figure the fugitive must be one of the tough guys shooting guns at the corner liquor store in my neighborhood. So much for protecting citizens from rampant lawlessness. They aren’t here in Oakland to protect citizens from gross lawlessness, just to harvest citations. To top it off, AC Transit employs a private firm that mishandles the payment process to jack up these citation fees as an apparent fund raising scheme.  

In my new neighborhood, the Title and Registration Department at the DMV couldn’t successfully deliver the documents I paid for three times in a row in 2004 (they did manage to c ash the check). The DMV refused to address the system error and ultimately hand processed the documents. When the problem occurred again in 2005, I was flat out ignored by the governor’s office. I contacted my Rep. Wilma Chang to force the DMV to address the system issue. Although her office was responsive, the DMV still refused to address the system issue and hand addressed my particular situation again. They blame it on my zip code and their computer. What will they do this year? 

The message in Oakla nd is loud and clear. Criminals run amok and those that follow rules are punished. Let your car registration expire and run from the cops if they try to pull you over. Kill and rob with impunity because cops are too busy chasing easy money from people who actually have something to lose. And those administering these governmental systems are too busy engaging in careerism and searching for the next promotion to pay attention to the task at hand. And no one is accountable. 

Our politicians fail to attend t o the broken systems which sustain us. For every drug deal gone bad that ends in murder, there are 12 beatings. For every assault there are 12 incidents of robbery that went un-investigated. For every robbery there are 12 drivers with suspended licenses t hat drove away. For every 12 suspended licenses there are 12 people who got so fed up with a school system and DMV that doesn’t work they said, “why bother?” This is a crime pyramid that will not be broken until the suspended licenses, illegal dumpers, st op sign runners and other quality of life criminals are brought to justice. That task isn’t easy or glamorous and apparently doesn’t serve political re-election campaigns. 

Based on what happened in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, and what we’re seeing here in Oakland, we’re fools to not arm ourselves and take matters into our own hands when the time comes for “police” activities. 

There’s no one to blame but the body count in this town but the elected officials who enable and justify broken sys tems for their personal gain and the individuals at the top of this “crime pyramid” who murder. 

Oakland resident Vince Rubino will vote against all Oakland city incumbents and any Oakland bond measures for anything doing with city services. They’re frauds. 

?

Since taking office, the Bush administration has waged what amounts to a war on science. On issues ranging from climate change to contraception to AIDS prevention, policies based on sound science have routinely been cast aside in favor of policies that fa vor the economic interests of corporate contributors or the ideology of right wing supporters. 

While the competition is stiff, it is difficult to find an area where science has suffered more at the hands of the Bush administration than that of protecting the environment. 

April 22 marks the 36th annual celebration of Earth Day, a time when, around the world, people reflect on our commitment to preserving and protecting the planet we live on. 

On the sixth Earth Day under the Bush administration, it is pa st time to commit ourselves to putting the science back into our environmental policies, and returning to policymaking for the common good, not political pandering. 

Over the last five years, through legislation and rule changes, the Bush administration h as weakened or rolled back an array of environmental laws that were originally enacted to protect public health, air quality, water quality, plant and animal wildlife, the global climate, or the environment—effectively gutting the regulatory infrastructur e for environmental protection. 

By and large these environmental rollbacks have prioritized the short-term economic needs and interests of businesses over the long-term interest of public health and the people. 

Under Orwellian names like “Healthy Forest s” and “Clear Skies,” they have opened up millions of acres of public lands to logging, grazing and drilling, exempted polluters from a host of regulations to reduce their toxic emissions, and made it easier to contaminate our nation’s rivers, lakes and w etlands. 

These rollbacks of our most basic environmental protections are having a devastating impact on the health of communities across our country, particularly low income communities of color. The Bush administration’s attacks on longstanding pollution controls are contributing to increased rates of asthma, heart disease and other conditions that have been scientifically linked to exposure to harmful substances in our air and water.  

Children who live in West Oakland, a low income community of color located right here in the 9th Congressional District, are estimated to be seven times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than are children anywhere else in the state due to a high volume of local goods movement activity and truck traffic. Despite the existence of similar public health crises in communities throughout the United States, the Bush administration continues to strip away environmental health protections and drain income, in the form of health expenses, from the most vulnerable among us while the wealthiest of his corporate supporters become even wealthier. 

That is why next week I will be introducing the “Environment and Public Health Restoration Act of 2006.” This bill is designed to return to environmental policymaking that is based o n sound science. It will require an unbiased scientific review by the National Academies of Science of eight rule changes made during the Bush administration to the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the National Forest Management Act, as well as the so-c alled Healthy Forests Restoration Act, and the President’s proposed Clear Skies Initiative to asses the impact on public health, air quality, water quality, wildlife, or the environment. 

The NAS will submit a publicly available report to Congress and the relevant departments and agencies that recommends either the restoration of the pre-existing rules or laws, or proposes improvements upon them in whole or in part. The administration will then have six months to report to Congress with a plan that implem ents the recommendations of the NAS. 

Science provides the basic foundation for the creation of policies that serve the common good, not just the interests of a powerful few. The decisions about how much mercury goes into the air, or whether mining or ind ustrial waste can be dumped into lakes and rivers should not be up to the polluters. We should not undermine our children’s health or the future of our planet just to line the pocket books of the president’s polluting friends. 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee r epresents California’s District 9. 

›r

I take JetBlue when I fly back East because it offers multiple, non-stop flights from Oakland to JFK at a price I can almost afford. I like flying from Oakland Airport because I can walk out my front door and get to the departure gate fast and easily by public transportation.  

JetBlue seems to be the airline of choice among my friends and acquaintances. I almost always see someone I know on a flight. Last year I ran into my friend Gloria returning to the Bay Area with her family from a weeklong vacation in Manhattan. I saw my former next-door neighbor Kamika on a Christmastime flight into JFK.  

I chatted with my friend Wendy while suspended above Denver on Flight 91 bound for Oakland. I once stood at a JetBlue gate behind a young man I had worked with in an Emeryville climbing gym. He complained to me that his sex toys had been confiscated while going through security. 

I like JetBlue because they serve very little food, and so I calculate flight time and miles flown as hours spent fasting and calories not consumed. But best of all, I like JetBlue because I get to watch satellite TV for five hours non-stop on Eastbound flights, and six hours non-stop when heading west. 

Instead of viewing one really bad movie, I peruse a multitude of bad and semi-bad shows. I catch up on news and sporting events, Dr. Phil and Oprah. I watch MTV, BET, A&E, and The Comedy Network. I pause on VH1 and sing along silently to old rock videos, or new rock videos featuring oddly decrepit old rock stars.  

On my most recent flight I watched an episode of “All in the Family” and another from “Sanford and Son.” I came across an ancient clip of the Rolling Stones mugging at the camera, dressed in sailor suits and drowning in a sea of gigantic bubbles. I surfed through the channels, checking out “Judge Judy,” “Animal Planet,” “This Old House,” and “Yan Can Cook.” Miraculously I landed on a rerun of the classic 1980 flick, The Blues Brothers. 

Remember that movie? Of course you do. It starred Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi and featured cameo appearances by James Brown, John Candy, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, and Cab Calloway. Twiggy had a small role as did Stephen Speilberg, Steve Lawrence, Henry Gibson, Chaka Khan, Joe Walsh, and Carrie Fisher.  

I can’t recall a cross-country trip that passed by so quickly. “Hold On I’m Coming” echoed through my earphones somewhere over Nebraska. The theme song from Peter Gunn played while flying above Minnesota. “Let the Good Times Roll” rang out as we passed Chicago. John Lee Hooker mumbled “Boom Boom” when the plane began its descent near Pittsburgh. 

Aretha sang to her movie husband “think ‘bout what you’re tryin’ to do to me” as the wheels touched down on the runway. Elwood and Jake crooned a bluesy interpretation of “Stand By Your Man” while we rolled toward the arrival gate. I saw and heard the crack of the whip from Rawhide just as the overhead lights came on, the little TV screen in front of me went blank, and the stewardess welcomed us to John F. Kennedy International Airport.  

The music from The Blues Brothers can make you forget you haven’t eaten in five hours, that your legs are cramped, your butt is sore, and that security took away your sex toys. It can make you wanna sing and dance, and as in the words of Elmore James from one of the earlier scenes, “shake your money maker.” 

That’s the power of good music. That’s the power of the blues.  

f

Hunger calls as the sun rises or, in some cases, long after it’s crossed the sky. Hundreds of cafes are ready to entice your taste buds. From the happy trio of eggs, potatoes and breakfast meat to sweeter yummies like pancakes, waffles, French toast or crepes. Steaming hot lattes, fresh orange juice. Smells and flavors reminding us of home or favorite friends. 

When hunger combines with a sense of adventure and you’re ready for something different, think global. Many ethnic eateries would love to share their morning specialties with a willing audience. While some flavors and textures may shift your biological clock, consider it a travel across time zones to a new location. 

Picante Cocina Mexicana is no stranger to dining enthusiasts who know good food at great values. While evenings can be a contest in making yourself heard, mornings offer a mellower ambiance. Mexican tiles decorate bright yellow walls and roomy red leather booths circle the perimeter. Lamenting lyrics accompanied by the beat of bass and guitarron provide background. Outside, the secluded garden patio escapes breezes off the bay and retains the warmth of the sun. 

On offer are the classic Huevos Rancheros with egg-topped tortillas beneath a spicy red sauce. Huevos con Rajas contains mild chilies while Huevos a la Mexicana wakes up your palate with onion, tomato and hot jalapeños. All are served with beans of your choice and corn tortillas you never want to stop eating, Picante-made with a fresh chewy texture. Finish up with Mexican hot chocolate or coffee spiced with cinnamon, brown sugar and slivers of orange peel. You’re set for the day. 

Only on Sunday is the slogan at the Thai Buddhist Temple where your dollars are traded for tokens. Exchange these tokens for an abundance of Thai food, simple, hearty and esoteric. Devouring Pad Thai and Green Curry Chicken may seem odd at 9:30 a.m. but the tastes will soon take over your sense of timing. 

Dissipate the morning chill with a steaming bowl of Tom Yum soup. Watch the ingredients come together—a ladle of savory broth, a jumble of thin rice noodles, fish balls and ground pork piping hot mixed with fresh bean sprouts, cilantro and basil. On warm mornings refresh your palette with “made-to-order” Green Papaya Salad. The delicious dressing of chilies, peanuts and fish sauce sweetened with sugar and ground with mortar and pestle will awaken your taste buds.  

Relax at tables beneath awnings or in rows down alleyways in a bazaar-like setting. Mingle with the masses watching cars and vans arrive with new temptations from area restaurants. Digest, then get ready to sample Khanom Krok. Prepared in a cast iron skillet over hot coals, these tiny coconut pudding-pancakes will have you counting the days until the next Sunday. 

Travel to Ethiopia for a breakfast of harmonious flavors at Café Colucci. Cozy and artfully decorated with African art, the two dining areas and outside patio are perfect settings to experience a new cuisine. Walls of warm earth tones and split bamboo, unique grass-skirt lampshades, tent-like cloth-panels, ethnic background music and the striking faces of the staff and diners combine for an experience worth repeating. 

My choice, as a first-time patron, was the Ethiopian Breakfast, a sampler of four, accompanied by a basket of injera. Injera serves a dual purpose, both bread and utensil. A staple of every home, injera is made using teff, a very small grain high in protein, iron and calcium. Resembling a slightly chewy pancake, this flatbread has a tangy flavor from naturally fermented butter. 

Injera in hand, I devoured cubed potatoes cooked with bell peppers, red onion and tomato; steaming bulgur, eggs cooked with chilies and banatu. The spiciest component of my breakfast, banatu is a stew of beef and pieces of injera simmered in Berbere sauce. Eating with injera-clad hands offered the perfect excuse to lick this red pepper-laden sauce off my fingers.  

Trade injera for chopsticks and an authentic Oakland Chinatown experience at Shan Dong where one section of the extensive, five-page menu reads Breakfast. Thirteen lucky choices, as well as selections from Dumplings, Noodles or Egg Fu Yung will set you up for the rest of your day. 

Inside, the décor is limited. Miniature lights reflect along one mirrored wall. Bright red signs printed in bold black Chinese characters announce specials. Warm yellow-topped tables and chrome chairs provide cozy seating for various-sized groups. Classical music softly serenades. Here the food is the main attraction. 

Come with friends in order to sample several dishes. Several are variations of ample yeast steamed buns filled with a ground pork mixture, a sweet red bean puree or a vegetarian combination of cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, onions and rice noodles. The Special Twisted Bun is a large twist of this yeasty dough while the Chinese Donut is deep-fried. Both are popular fast-food breakfasts dipped in bowls of sweet or salty warmed soybean milk and are quite filling. 

Sliced beef seasoned with hoisin sauce and cilantro and enclosed in a sesame-encrusted piecrust satisfy both sweet and salty taste buds. The House Special Pancake is filled with sautéed leeks and egg, griddle-crispy and chewy at the same time. 

Prices are so reasonable that your table will soon be overcrowded without much damage to your wallet. 

One non-breakfast enthusiast ordered noodle soup. The rich broth was dark with the essence of beef, chicken and duck. Most impressive were the fresh-looking vegetables—bright green squash, broccoli and bok choy along with carrots and mushrooms, crisp and savory.  

When desire for a traditional breakfast refuses to be tamped down, give it a new spin. Search your memories for the smell of bacon, onions and coffee in the open air. Search the garage for your old camp stove or bag of charcoal. Search the cupboards for that cast-iron skillet or griddle. 

Head to Tilden Park. Spread the red and white plastic cloth across that broad wood table. Fire up the stove and warm up the skillet. Sauté onions and potatoes, throw in eggs and fry up some bacon. The smell alone will make you wonder why you don’t do this more often. If you’re going to break a fast, you might as well do it in style!  

Picante Cocina Mexicana  

1328 Sixth St., Berkeley. 

525-6876. www.picantecocina.citysearch.com. 

Thai Buddhist Temple 

1911 Russell St., Berkeley. 

849-3419. 

Café Colucci 

6427 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 

601-7999. www.cafecolucci.com. 

Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant 

328 10th St., Oakland. 

839-2299. www.222.to/sd.  

It’s official! Last Tuesday night the Berkeley City Council approved a resolution sponsored by councilmembers Betty Olds and Dona Spring, designating the barn owl as our city bird. I was at Old City Hall for the event but did not make it into the council chamber, which was packed with young jocks lobbying for the Derby Street baseball field.  

So Berkeley joins the company of San Francisco (whose almost-extirpated city bird is the California quail), Portland and Seattle (the great blue heron, in both cases), and Chicago (the peregrine falcon). The only other North American civic bird I was able to locate via Google is the beautiful and outlandish roseate spoonbill, adopted by Port Aransas, Texas. 

But the city-bird thing seems to be widespread in East Asia. Seoul, South Korea has the magpie; Xiamen, China, the egret; Keelung, Taiwan, the (unspecified) eagle. And there are a bunch of Japanese cities with avian mascots: Hamamatsu’s swallow, Morioka’s wagtail, Chiba’s little tern, and more. 

Why the barn owl? Well, it’s both esthetically appealing—the artist George M. Sutton thought it was one of the most beautiful of American birds—and handy to have around. As the Planet has reported, Berkeley has a rodent problem, and it’s not confined to Willard Park. I’ve already written about the barn owl’s efficacy as a rodent-killer, so I won’t belabor that point.  

I should mention, though, that this bird specializes almost exclusively on rodents. The larger and more powerful great horned owl may go after cats (as well as wild mammals of similar size: skunks, raccoons, opossums, even porcupines), but not the barn owl. A few barn owls have been known to hunt birds, mostly mass-roosting species like starlings—which wouldn’t be missed—and blackbirds, and some eat Jerusalem crickets. Otherwise it’s all mice, rats, gophers, and the occasional shrew. 

Besides, the barn owl seems like a good fit for this town. Berkeley likes to think of itself as the Athens of the West: well, in classical Greece the owl was the bird of Athena. 

Its image graced Athenian coins, and it was associated with victory and prosperity. Although owls have often had a sinister reputation, some peoples, including the Ainu and the Cherokee, revered them or at least saw admirable qualities in them. 

The Cherokee used to bathe their children’s eyes in an owl-feather infusion to give them the ability to stay awake all night. I’m not sure why this would have been a good thing.  

The barn owl, fittingly, is among the world’s most cosmopolitan bird species. It’s found on every continent except Antarctica, and many oceanic islands. Flexible in its nesting requirements, all it needs is a supply of rodents and it’s in business. I guess it would be too much of a stretch to associate the owl with Berkeley’s vibrant night life, but we can hope. 

It has occurred to the barn owl’s advocates, Lisa Owens Viani and Donna Mickelson of the group Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley, that a lot of the Planet’s readers may have had their own owl encounters. 

Maybe you’ve watched the owlets on California Street being fed by their hardworking parents, or monitored nests elsewhere in Berkeley. 

Maybe you’ve put up your own owl box (see the Hungry Owl Project’s web site, www.hungryowl.org, for particulars) or teased apart an owl pellet to see what the birds had been eating. Whatever your experience, we’d like you to share it. If you’re a photographer, you may also have owl images as appealing as the Portland youngsters captured by Mike Houck. 

So, in the interest of getting to know our new civic bird a bit better, we’re asking you to send in your owl stories, poems, and pictures. I’ll be the point of contact for email: joe_eaton@speakeasy.net. Or you can mail hard copies to the Planet.  

The best submissions will be published, and the winner will receive a copy of a wonderful video, “Backyard Barn Owls”, produced by Bert Kersey, documenting the home life of a family of southern California owls in a homemade nest box.  

And you’ll be helping Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley assemble a database of barn owl nest and roost sites to provide a clearer picture of our city bird’s status and distribution—citizen science at its best.  

Will the barn owls benefit from their new status? It couldn’t hurt. Having a civic bird creates a certain obligation to keep it around. It was, after all, highly embarrassing some years back when Louisiana, the Pelican State, ran out of pelicans.  

Photograph by Mike Houck, Urban Naturalist, Audubon Society of Portland, Ore.  

The Berkeley City Council last week named the barn owl the official city bird. 



Unless Democrats win control of either the House or the Senate, nothing is going to change in Washington. There will be no meaningful shift in Iraq, ethics, or economic policy until there is real debate on Capitol Hill. According to veteran DC prognosticator, Charlie Cook, there are seven Senate seats in play. In order to prevail, the Democrats will have to win at least six. 

Rather than treat all Democratic Senatorial candidates equally, I’ve focused on the closest races, usually those that Cook rates as a “toss up.” Within the tightest races, I’ve clustered the candidates into three groups: solidly anti-war, sorta anti-war, and incomprehensible. To have the BB “solidly anti-war” rating you have to say something like, “I was always against the war and now I support John Murtha’s position.” To have the BB “sorta anti-war” rating you say something like, “We need a timetable for withdrawal.” To be rated incomprehensible, your web site either doesn’t mention Iraq or says something vacuous, like “I support our troops.” 

Solidly anti-war 

In Ohio, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown is running against embattled incumbent Mike DeWine. Brown was against the invasion and argues that the occupation has hurt the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the overall war on terror. He wants an exit strategy and troop withdrawals that begin in October of 2006. This race is a toss up. 

Minnesota has a vacant Senate seat because Democrat Mark Dayton is retiring. The primary will be held in September; the leading Democratic candidate is district attorney Amy Klobuchar. She opposed the invasion of Iraq and says, “We must change our course in Iraq. We must draw down our forces in a responsible way.” The race is a toss up. 

In Vermont, Independent Jim Jeffords is retiring and will, no doubt, be replaced by Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders. He’s been against the war from the beginning. The primary is Sept. 12. Sanders is favored to take this seat. 

The Rhode Island primary won’t happen until September, but the battle is shaping up to be between embattled Republican incumbent, Lincoln Chafee, and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse (real name). Whitehouse supports “a rapid and responsible withdrawal” of troops and believes that most can be out by the end of this year. The race is a toss up. 

Sorta anti-war 

The most highly publicized Senate race is in Pennsylvania, where Conservative Christian poster-child, Rick Santorum, is in trouble. Polls show him tied with, or running behind, the Democratic challenger Bob Casey, Jr. Iraq is not the centerpiece of Casey’s campaign; it’s public morality—the ties between Santorum and K-street lobbyists. Casey believes that more should be done to train Iraqi security forces so our troops can come home, sooner. Casey is controversial, among Democrats, because he is pro-life. This race is a toss up. 

Incomprehensible 

An interesting race is shaping up in Missouri where State Auditor Claire McCaskill is running strong against Republican incumbent Jim Talent. She has yet to take a clear position on Iraq. 

Another interesting race is in Montana, which used to be solid red state but elected a Democratic governor in 2004 and now seems poised to dump Neanderthal Republican Sen. Conrad Burns. The primary is in June. 

There will be an open Senate seat in Tennessee because Bill Frist is retiring to run for president. The primary will be held in August and the Democratic challenger is likely to be Harold Ford, Jr. Ford is a handsome, articulate, African-American Congressman. He has yet to take a clear position on Iraq. 

Other Senate races 

In Maryland, Democrat Paul Sarbanes is retiring. The primary is in September and whichever Democrat wins, will probably win the November election. 

All the other races involve incumbents: there’s a possibility that Arizona Senator John Kyl’s seat might be challenged, by Democrat Jim Pedersen. Democrats face stiff challenges in several states: In Florida the incumbent, Bill Nelson, will probably face the loathsome Katherine Harris. In Michigan, Debbie Stabenow will have a tough race, as will Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, Washington’s Maria Cantwell, and West Virginia’s Robert Byrd. 

If the Iraq war is your big issue, then you might want to check out the four anti-war candidates that I’ve highlighted. If all you care about is that the Dems take back the Senate, then all the candidates in close races merit your attention. 

The bottom line is that Democrats have a reasonable chance of talking back the Senate, but it is far from a slam dunk. Please let me know if you feel that I’ve overlooked or misplaced a Senatorial candidate. 

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

They adopted an unusual questioning format at this week’s mayoral debate at Skyline High School, which solicited an all-too-usual reply from one of the candidates. But at least it advanced a necessary dialogue. 

The debate organizers, the Skyline PTSA, di d away with the usual moderator, and had questions coming directly from the audience. Two of them—a Castlemont student and a teacher—chose to focus on the proliferation of guns on Oakland’s streets, with the student saying that half of the middle school s tudents she had surveyed told her that they could get a gun within 24 hours, if they needed to. It was a chilling commentary. 

In response, mayoral candidate Ron Oznowicz, a former Oakland police officer and now ombudsman for the OPD, said he believed tha t people carry guns because “it’s powerful” to do so. “It’s status.” He added that “very few people carry guns in Oakland for defensive purposes. They’re for offensive purposes.” 

My guess is, this is the prevailing opinion in high places in Oakland, at least in police circles, and in the circles where many of the powerful people gather to make the decisions that run this city. 

The extension of that point of view is that Oakland is being overrun by thugs, violent young predators who are roaming the dark streets, glock in pocket, looking for their next victims. Getting rid of those people so-labeled as predators—with a combination of various forms of police crackdowns and a drying up and squeezing out of the neighborhoods where this violence springs from, thus forcing the targeted people to leave the city—has been the prevailing policy in Oakland in recent years, certainly during the administration of the current mayor, Jerry Brown. It’s part of his resumé in his attorney general campaign. 

The problem wi th this type of tactic, of course, is that standing on the corner or walking down the street, those hard-core, violent predators look no different than the average sagging, throwback-jersey, hoodie-wearing young Latino or African-American adult who deserv es protection, rather than crack-down. Too many times over the years, Oakland police and Oakland public officials have confused looks with actions, a process commonly known as racial profiling. And so we have ended up with such things as the “sideshow zon es” in East Oakland, where police are authorized (by city ordinance and practice, but not by either the state or federal constitutions) to enforce laws differently than they do in other parts of the city.  

The reality that there are too many guns on Oakl and’s streets, and too easily obtained, has also fueled a drive among the city’s more progressive elements to go after the gun dealers themselves. In answer to the same set of questions at the Skyline High debate, mayoral candidate Ron Dellums suggested t hat the city “come down on the gun stores,” and said that he would support an “enforceable law that traces gun sales back to their source. We need gun control.” Candidate Nancy Nadel agreed, adding that the Oakland City Council—of which she is currently a member—has already taken such steps. “We have closed all the gun stores in Oakland,” she reported, and added that Traders, the notorious gun store that sits on East 14th Street just across the San Leandro border, is under investigation for gun sales violations. Some portion of the weapons used in recent Oakland violence has been traced back to legal sales at Traders. 

A year ago, rapper Chuck D told participants at the Malcolm X Consciousness Conference at Laney College in Oakland that the proliferation of guns has not only increased the level of violence in African-American communities in particular, it has also helped to obliterate the sort of “folk wisdom” levelheadedness that used to keep those communities on a positive path. 

“Twenty years ago, you had gang-bangers and athletes and college students hanging out together on the corners or in barber shops in the ‘hood,” he said, “and if somebody said something really ignorant—like ‘the sky is purple,’ or something like that—everybody would tell him to shut up. And if he got belligerent, he might even get an asswhipping. But nowadays, if someone says something ignorant on the corner, all the smart people shut up and don’t challenge him, because they’re afraid he might go to his car and come back with a 9-millimeter and wipe out the corner. So in the black neighborhoods, ignorance is allowed to go unchallenged, while intelligence has to keep quieter and quieter. That’s one of the reasons why you’re seeing so much ignorance coming out of our communities.” 

But if a proliferation of guns on the streets is one of Oakland’s major problems—which seems to be the consensus across political and social lines—how do we get rid of them? 

My guess is that trying to dry up the source—cracking down on the legal gun de alers—is one part of the answer, but not the answer. At the Skyline High mayoral debate, candidate Ignacio De La Fuente said that a large percentage of Oakland guns come from out-of-state dealers. Another major portion, he said, are stolen property themse lves. While he didn’t explicitly say it, his implication was that passing more stringent laws that allow law enforcement to trace guns back to their over-the-counter-sale origin might help in some instances, but in others it will only end in a theft repor t in a police department computer somewhere. Mr. De La Fuente is probably correct. 

Let’s return to Mr. Oznowicz’ assertion that “very few people carry guns in Oakland for defensive purposes. They’re for offensive purposes.” 

My guess is that it’s just th e opposite, and that most people who carry guns on Oakland streets do so out of fear. 

In my high school days, I used to play pickup basketball games in the gym at the Boys Club on 86th and East 14th (this was in the long-ago days before it became the Boy s and Girls Club, and East 14th became International). One summer evening during one of those games, a disagreement broke out between two of the players, and they went outside on 86th Avenue—the rest of us trailing behind—to settle it. The two young men s quared off while we surrounded them in a circle, there was a brief bit of swinging and grabbing, and then one of the men popped the other in the jaw with a single punch that sent him down on the sidewalk. He lay there for a second, rubbing the side of his face and thinking about it, and said, “Shit, man, I’m through.” And that ended it. We all went back into the gym and finished the game. 

In 1963 or ’64 when that fight took place, such an ending wasn’t all that remarkable. But it couldn’t happen that way in 2006. More often than not, someone getting into a street fight at a city gym today is going to have his boys at his back, and they’re going to join in with stomps and punches themselves if the other one falls. More often than not, someone losing a fig ht is going to head for his car and pop the trunk (and if you don’t know why people pop their trunks, you better ask somebody). More often than not, in 2006 such a fight would never take place, in fact, as people have decided it’s better to go for the wea pons in their trunks first, to keep from getting beat down or shot. 

Fear of getting hurt, then, is driving much of Oakland’s violence. 

That is why when you get to the outer limits of that violence—the world of open-air drug dealing—increasing the penalt ies for violent crime, including upping the certainty of the death penalty, have little effect. A young man, slinging crack on the corner, is going to arm himself against takeover attempts by other drug gangs. He’s far more worried about getting caught by other dealers without his weapon than being caught by police with it, and the certainty of death in a drive-by is far more real to him than the possibility of death by lethal injection in San Quentin. 

To what conclusions does all this lead us? 

That it’s good we are having a contested mayoral race in Oakland where a Castlemont student and a teacher can ask a question about guns. It’s good that the candidates have to answer, in public, and on the record. In such a way, a dialogue on violence in Oakland g oes forward. Out of that dialogue, if we are serious, and pay attention, will come the answers. 



One century ago the Bay Area was rocked off its foundations. Every year around this time we’re reminded that the next “big one” is just around the corner. For weeks we’ve heard survivor stories of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and received advice abou t how to be prepared when the ground again rattles beneath our feet. 

Our earthquake survival kit requires food supplies for several days. While many might access Costco, I am here to suggest a much more civilized, European experience. Stroll through Nor t h Berkeley’s epicurean groaning board. Alert your senses, revisit the past and fill your basket with enough treats to ease your way through any disaster. 

North Berkeley’s origins can be traced to 1878 with the extension of the steam railroad from downt ow n to a new terminus at Shattuck and Vine. The first settlers to this neighborhood were railroad men and their families. Over the years the area developed into quiet middle-class. In Brown Shingles, many with Arts and Crafts accents, Victorians and Califor nia bungalows, it became a desirable place to live and raise a family.  

Metamorphosis began in 1966. The quietly pretty cabbage moth took on the brilliant markings of the Monarch butterfly. With the opening of Peet’s Coffee, the Cheeseboard and Chez Pani sse, a unique upscale commercial entity focusing on quality was born, revolutionizing American cooking and taste. Berkeley’s spirit of “power to the people” spoke in the collective organization of several businesses, including the Cheeseboard and its Juice Bar and Pizza offshoots.  

Today Berkeley’s gourmet ghetto travels the length of Shattuck offering an eclectic assortment of sense-tingling stimuli, for eyes, nose and taste buds. Being in the memories- mode of contemplation, I combined my prepared ness foray with thoughts of how businesses have survived and flourished throughout the years. One of Berkeley’s oldest, Virginia Bakery has excelled since 1924. 

Upon entering I’m surrounded by the fragrance of butter, sugar and vanilla and immediately se lect an Almond Wreath for my kit. Composed of pull-apart rolls topped with sugar frosting and sliced almonds this will ease my way into any morning. Packages of dainty, melt-in-your-mouth decorated cookies are next. These cookies were rewards in my family for every trip to Berkeley Pediatrics up the street. Pain from any shot dissolved upon tasting a sprinkle-coated bite. 

Roasting chicken evokes a warm hearth feeling and Poulet’s farmhouse atmosphere lures you in. Bright and cheerful is the theme both inside and out with attractive seating and décor. Cheerful chicken tablecloths, pale yellow walls and leg-dangling poultry figurines are the ideal setting for sampling Grecian quinoa salad, roasted beets with orange or adobo chicken. 

Baubles and Beads has just the cure for idle fingers. With beads from the Czech Republic, India, Africa and Bali, hours cut off from our electronic alter egos will seem like minutes. Walls of colored vials and strung beads present a rainbow palette, as do small plastic boxes a top e asy-browsing waist high cabinets. There’s no need to memorize price tags from 10 cents to $5 using convenient trays sorted by cost. Earrings, necklaces and bracelets in glass, metal and stone are projects awaiting your touch. 

At the ACCI Gallery, t he cur rent exhibit presents artistic interpretations of transformation, easily fitting into this earthquake theme. In “Remake/Remodel: Rebound,” unique materials provide outlets for personal experiences. In this handsome brick building, recently retrofit ted, th rowaway items are reborn. Books become tilting towers atop tree stumps; used tea bags, labels attached, form bed quilts; maxi pads and adult diapers are combined into wedding cakes; and Salvation Army socks and gloves are felted into fuzzy, gray o rganic w all sculptures, proving that almost any discard can be reincarnated. Lovely hand painted ceramic tableware by Paula Ross in warm spring pastels may not survive a temblor but still finds room in my earthquake kit. 

Sidewalk tables and roasting espresso sig nal time for a break. At the French Hotel, a brick building that once steamed with laundry now wafts the distinct aroma of the best Cappuccino in town. Rain or shine, outside tables are full and the line snakes out the door. Lines are always on order at C heesboard Pizza but no one seems to care. 

Listening to jazz and not needing to decide which pizza to select allows time to enjoy the bouquets on offer at Emilia’s flower stand. Sweet scent from color-saturated roses and tulips wafts with the c heese and g arlic emanating from next door, a true Berkeley experience. Only Cheeseboard Pizza can create a “kitchen sink” of fresh fennel, roasted onions, feta, mozzarella, calamata olives and gremolata exploding with flavor. 

How can any more be written about the Cheeseboard’s selection of cheeses, breads and pastries? Or their strong collective spirit? Needing to choose among 23 varieties of “blue cheese,” read the chalkboard so crammed that it appears solid white, decide between asiago and simple whea t loaves or a chocolate thing versus a cherry corn scone explains why multiple visits are required. 

At the Juice Bar Collective you’ll marvel that so much hearty fare can be created in this narrow boxcar space. Every bit of counter and stovetop is put into use to cr eate smoothies, soup, black bean polenta and spinach lasagna, guaranteed to warm body and soul on heater-less nights. 

Forty years ago the original Peet’s Coffee occupied a small space on the corner of Walnut and Vine serving incredibly rich coffee to mos tly inexperienced palettes. I remember being waited on by Alfred Peet himself, setting the standard of quality that continues to this day. His appearance and manner spoke of European traditions. Today the Peet’s franchise has spread, offerings have increa sed and brown-coated Alfred Peet is here in spirit only, but Peet’s still serves the strongest coffee around. 

There’s still room for additional survival supplies. Black Oak Books offers Politics and Current Events across from Cookbooks as you enter the s tore, perfect complements for lively discussions. Author photographs atop wooden bookshelves line the walls. Whatever your need or fancy, choices abound at this independent bookshop known for weekly book readings. 

At Saul’s Delicatessen the take-out coun ter tempts with tabouleh, hummus, chopped liver and herring. Cozy red leather booths contrast with the black and white theme carried out in decor and photos lining the walls. Generous sandwiches, bowls of crispy, savory pickles and matzo ball soup indulge your taste buds. 

Indulgence is the key at Masse’s and chocolate is its name. Truffles, made fresh daily, cakes almost too pretty to eat and assorted cookies, each a single delicious bite, are everyday fare. European in style and service, the simplest cu p of coffee and treat is served on white china at small, cozy tables, both inside and out. Not convinced that the passion fruit torte is what you want for your next party? Try the exact copy in miniature form, just to be sure. 

With bask et and senses groaning, you’ve merely sampled one slice of this epicurean neighborhood. Amble up the street to Live Oak Park, maybe join a basketball pick-up game, follow the paths across Codornices Creek beneath towering redwoods or see what’s on view at the Berkeley Art Center. Tucked amid its forest setting, this avant-garde gallery specializes in the work of local artists. 

Then head back for more. Try a wander into newly opened Epicurious Garden, on Shattuck Avenue near Vine Street, where passion for food transforms t ake-out into a gourmet experience. 

Earthquake preparation is no joke. Everyone needs to plan for safety, but there’s no reason we can’t do it with style. North Berkeley has more than enough style to go around. 

Virginia Bakery 

1690 Sha ttuck Ave., 848-6711 

Poulet 

1685 Shattuck Ave., 845-5932 

Baubles and Beads 

1676 Shattuck Ave., 644-BEAD 

ACCI Gallery 

1652 Shattuck Ave., 843-2527 

French Hotel 

1538 Shattuck Ave., 548-9930 

Cheeseboard 

1504 Shattuck Ave., 549-3183 

Juice Bar Collective 

2114 Vine St., 548-8473 

Peet’s Coffee & Tea 

2124 Vine St., 841-0564 

Black Oak Books 

1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698 

Saul’s Deli 

1475 Shattuck Ave., 848-DELI 

Masse’s Pastries 

1469 Shattuck Ave., 649-1004 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St., 644-6893 

Ep icurious Garden 

1509-1513 Shattuck Ave. 

Photo Caption: Marta Yamamoto 

The lunch crowd overflows the sidewalk and ignores the median strip sign outside the Cheeseboard. 

Photo Credit: MARTA YAMAMOTO 

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Mention Folsom and most folks think of the prison. That connection has become even stronger since the Academy Award-nominated movie Walk the Line brought the town’s famous, scenically situated Folsom Prison to prominence once again.  

Anyone with an interest in Johnny Cash or the penitentiary can walk a line into the prison’s tiny museum. Outfitted with an intriguing collection of confiscated weapons, it also displays a vintage copy of Cash’s famous record album.  

But many travelers don’t realize historic Folsom is also a worthy overnight destination. Located off Highway 50 just 22 miles east of Sacramento, the town makes a great stop on the way to or from South Lake Tahoe. I spent two nights there recently and left with many places still unexplored.  

History 

The first railroad west of the Mississippi originated in the town’s historic depot. Now a new rapid transit light rail service runs along that original route, connecting Folsom with Sacramento.  

The Folsom History Museum tells the town’s Gold Rush story. You can weigh in on an old-fashioned balance scale and, on Sundays, watch gold-panning demonstrations. The historic Railroad Turntable, which rests on its original granite pivot stone, is nearby.  

Also, the first and largest hydroelectric generating plant west of the Mississippi was built here in 1895. It operated until 1952, when the Folsom Dam hydroelectric plant began operating. Now known as Folsom Powerhouse State Historic Park, it is a great spot for kids to explore, with a “busy table” holding enticing experiments inside and a large park with sheltered picnic tables overlooking Lake Natoma outside.  

Tours 

Two of the town’s best tours are right in the historic downtown.  

You can tour a studio used by a collective of artists at Cloud’s Porcelain and learn how various kinds of pottery are made. A gift shop sells the wares.  

Or drop into Snooks Chocolate Factory for free samples and to observe a candy-making demonstration. If you’re lucky, they’ll be operating their candy machine that spits out hand-made chocolates just like that one in the famous “I Love Lucy” episode. Though everything is yummy, the fresh peanut brittle and the old-fashioned fudge are spectacular.  

Animals 

The tiny Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary provides refuge for non-releasable injured, orphaned, and “troubled” native North American animals. A few exotics and the largest captive wolf pack in Northern California are among them, and two new enclosures hold American black bears and mountain lions. 

In the park outside the zoo gates, the Folsom Valley Railway—a small 12-inch narrow gauge steam train that formerly ran in Berkeley’s Tilden Park—now takes riders here on a happy 10-minute ride.  

Something fishy is always happening at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, where kazillions of fingerlings are busy growing in the tanks. In the fall, when the Chinook salmon return from the ocean, a fish ladder is opened; steelhead trout show up in the winter. Fish food can be purchased for a nickel, and a Visitor Center has educational exhibits.  

Recreation 

Among the area’s myriad outdoor activities are bicycling and river kayaking. As the third-best cycling city in the state, Folsom offers “a spider web of bike trails”—including the 32-mile-long American River Parkway Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, which runs off-road all the way from Sacramento to Folsom Lake. Bicycle rentals are easily available.  

Kayaking on the river is also popular. 

Negro Bar—the historic name for the area within Folsom Lake State Recreation Area where African-Americans struck gold in 1849—is a super-scenic bend in the river and a prime put-in spot. Kayak rentals are available on-site on weekends May through mid-October. You can also swim here and picnic at tables sheltered by mature trees, and a bike trail is nearby.  

Overnighting as I did, at the Lake Natoma Inn, positioned just a few blocks from the historical downtown and the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, makes it possible to keep your car parked and walk to many sights and a plethora of antique shops and restaurants.  

Good food is easy to find. The informal Balcony Bistro features a warm, open dining room with original art hung on its brick walls and serves up some tasty, well-priced fare. Fresh fish, creative pastas (anyone for a pear-and-walnut version?), and classics such as roasted duck confit are sometimes options on the always-changing menu. Tea is served daily at Partea Time, and kids can choose from tutti fruiti and bubblegum flavored tea.  

Can’t get away now? Plan your trip for the fall, when you can tie it in with an annual event. Two particularly exciting ones happen each October. Folsom Live! features an assortment of live jazz and rock in downtown bars and restaurants, plus a large outdoor stage for the bigger names. 

Last year The Guess Who performed. More live music plus a barbecued salmon bake occurs at the hatchery’s annual Salmon Festival. Both are family-friendly and very popular with locals.  

Mayor Bob Holderness says, “Folsom has always been a one-horse town—first mining, then farming, then the prison. Hi-tech arrived with Intel in 1982.” 

Lucky for us, perhaps the newest horse is tourism.  

Carole Terwilliger Meyers is the author of Weekend Adventures in San Francisco & Northern California (www.carousel-press.com) and is the editor of Dream Sleeps: Castle & Palace Hotels of Europe. 

Photo Credit: Carole Terwilliger Meyers

In 1873, UC Berkeley’s first commencement exercises were held. It was on that occasion that California’s governor Newton Booth, who was considered one of the great public speakers of his day, called Berkeley the “Athens of the West.” The appellation stuck—not only in word but in practice. And so it came to pass that in 1914, a wealthy Norwegian-Hawaiian family brought its large brood to Berkeley to be properly educated. 

The pater familias was sugar pioneer Hans Peter Fayé II (1859–1928). Born in Norway, young Hans arrived on the island of Kauai in 1880. He leased land, cleared it of lava boulders, dug an artesian well for irrigation, and planted sugar cane. In 1898, he merged the H.P. Fayé Company with another plantation and a sugar mill, forming the Kekaha Sugar Company, which he managed for thirty years, until his death. 

In 1893, Hans Peter married Margaret Bonnar Lindsay (1873–1961). Between 1895 and 1912, they brought to the world three girls and five boys. The youngest was born in Norway, where the Fayés had returned to live. When the Nordic climate proved inhospitable, the family returned to the USA. In 1914, seven of the children were of school age, with the eldest ready to enter college. The Fayés purchased a Berkeley residence at 3122 Claremont Avenue, between Eton Ave. and Woolsey Street. It was a stately Queen Anne surrounded by extensive grounds (today there are 21 houses standing on the same land), previously owned by John Howard Smith, a San Francisco attorney. When Smith first occupied the house in 1878, the address was still given as the “west side of old Telegraph Road near the foothills.” 

During the Fayés’ 15-year residence at 3122 Claremont Ave., there was always at least one student in the house. In 1919, after completing his studies at Choate School and Yale, the second child and eldest son, Hans P. Fayé III (1896–1984), began working in the San Francisco office of his father’s agent, American Factors, Inc. The following year, he married Charlotte Eaton (1898–2000), and in 1924 the couple bought a house at 40 Eucalyptus Road, where they remained only two years. As their family grew, a larger home was needed, and in 1926 they purchased 15 Hillcrest Court, a short walk away from the parents’ estate. This house will be open during BAHA’s Spring House Tour on Sunday May 7. 

In 1927, Hans Peter II transferred ownership of his Claremont estate to the H.P. Fayé, Ltd. Company, no doubt with the intention of developing the land. His death and the crash of 1929 delayed the plans only slightly. One new house was constructed on the land in 1930, but in May 1931, H.P. Fayé, Ltd. sold the entire Claremont property to Oakland contractor John F. Whalen and his wife Lillian, carrying back a mortgage. The land, known as Tract No. 502 or Claremont Gardens, was subdivided around a cul-de-sac street called Brookside Drive, and 20 additional homes were built, the majority of them in 1932 and ’33. 

In 1934, Hans Peter III was transferred to Honolulu, where he would eventually rise to the presidency of Amfac. His four brothers carried on their father’s various enterprises. Anton Lindsay managed the Kekaha Sugar Company, Alan Eric Sr. ran the Waimea Sugar Plantation, and Eyvind Marcus took control of the El Dorado Ranch in Yolo County, where his two sons and grandson still grow a large variety of fruits and nuts. Hans Peter II’s widow, Margaret Fayé, chose to stay on in Berkeley, as did her sister-in-law Ebba and daughter Isabel. 

Ebba Fayé (1873–1966) settled into a Craftsman cottage at 3038 Hillegass Ave., sharing it with Margaret. But once Hans Peter III had moved to Honolulu, Mrs. Fayé took over his Hillcrest Court house. It wasn’t quite as grand as what she had been accustomed to, for the very same year she undertook major alterations at the cost of $4,869. The results were apparently satisfactory, since this elegant house remained in the family for over five decades, serving as its world headquarters. Here the Fayé children and their children would flock at Christmas time. This was also the scene of Mrs. Fayé’s formal dinner parties, during which she reputedly locked the kitchen to keep it out of her guests’ view, using a buzzer under the dining table to summon the staff.  

Meanwhile, the eldest daughter, Isabel Bonnar Fayé (1895–1982), lived in an apartment at 2369 Le Conte Ave., then a tony Holy Hill building across the street from Phoebe Apperson Hearst’s former residence. These days, looking somewhat dowdy, the building is owned by the Pacific School of Religion and houses its students. 

In the late 1940s, Isabel moved to 1524 Spruce St., directly across from the Second Church of Christ, Scientist. Here she remained until her mother’s death in 1961. Then it was her turn to occupy 15 Hillcrest Court, where she continued living for the rest of her life. 

Amfac eventually acquired Kekaha Sugar Co., and Lindsay “Tony” Fayé, Jr. managed the company twice before his retirement in 1992. The Waimea Sugar Mill Company was renamed Kikiaola Land Company, Ltd., still owned by the Fayé family. They are no longer in sugar, but their Waimea Plantation Cottages resort in West Kauai, with 60 restored historic houses, offers vacationers the opportunity to savor the atmosphere of an authentic Hawaiian plantation. 

Photo Caption: Daniella Thompson: 

Margaret Fayé’s Claremont home, designed by Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., will be open on BAHA’s house tour, Sunday, May 7. 

Jerry Sulliger participated in the research for this article. 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Spring House Tour & Garden Reception 

Sunday, May 7, 2006 – 1 to 5 p.m.  

This year's tour showcases eleven charming and elegant homes designed by Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr. in Claremont Park. Tour map, illustrated guidebook, and refreshments will be provided. General admission $35; BAHA members and guests $25. For information and reservations, visit the BAHA website http://berkeleyheritage.com or e-mail baha@berkeleyheritage.com.

My wife and I spent the night in Sacramento last night. Nice town, Sacramento, if a bit kitschy in parts. I guess that’s what you get with tourist towns. Some nice stuff. Some kitsch. The older part has some very beautiful older homes from the early part of the 20th century and more than a few buildings from the 19th century. One of the things that my wife, Este, and I share is a great love of old things, houses, cars, paintings, you name it. It’s part of why we live here. 

Coming back from the capital, we were saddened (and occasionally appalled) by the influx of modern buildings. Modern isn’t really the right term though because it just doesn’t say enough about what we’re seeing.  

Most of what we see, outside of our little town, is just so economically oriented that anything akin to art, solidity or permanence is utterly missing. So many buildings today seem as though they are designed to be temporary structures. How can these enclosures be intended to be a legacy to a future generations.  

Even if they do manage to stand the test of time (which is not very likely given the methods involved in the manufacture of so much of what’s out there), what do they say about who we are and what we believe? It’s really very sad. I’m not so sure that those who put up buildings a hundred years ago were all that saintly but I don’t believe that they could conceive of the notion of building a municipal building or a permanent residence that didn’t convey the music and poetry of the time. 

Today we are astounded at the lovely oaken floors that adorn nearly every local house from 1900-1950, many of which feature extravagant knotted borders but these were considered base-line, ordinary choices. The notion of using anything less for a “home” was unacceptable. Today, a plywood floor with a neutral toned polyester carpet is considered adequate. Flat sheetrock walls with nary a trim are the standard fare.  

Why is this? Who are we now that beauty is so much less the imperative? When did square footage become the overriding design criterion? 

After the big fire, it was hard not to notice that so many of the replacement homes were driven this way. Each home was twice the size of the preceding one, sometimes more. The architecture was often nondescript. 

I can recall getting lost in a house during an inspection and thinking, there’s no pattern to the layout, just rooms and rooms and more rooms. 

No hub, no center, no defining feature to any particular part, like an animal all made out of necks, no head, no tail, no belly. On the other hand, maybe I just lack a sense of direction. 

Coming out of the hinterlands of strip-mall and mega-residential conglomerations, we rolled our 20 year old Volvo back into Berkeley. Safe. No bullet holes and only a little depressed for the trial of aesthetic catharsis. 

As we cruised up into North Berkeley, we passed the usual hundreds of old houses and agreed that this was a very beautiful and special place. These old houses and commercial buildings enhance our lives in a very practical and daily way. They really do. 

As we begin to build anew, or to remodel, we have the opportunity to recreate some of what has been done before. To study and to emulate the successes of the past. This does not necessarily mean copying but can mean drawing the essence and instilling elements from these successes.  

An easy way for any one of us to do this is to literally use a piece of something beautiful left over from a time when great expenses were not spared in the making of doorknobs and baseboards. 

Our local salvage shops are filled with these treasures. Sometimes it seems to me that these places are museums with free admissions for viewing great artworks of industrial design. And for a few dollars you can own a piece for yourself. 

The next time you’re considering a small remodeling on your older home, think about first taking a trip to the salvage yard and selecting a few old treasures with which to construct your new space. 

A bath remodel is a great project in which to include some of these grand finds but some complications will be attendant. Good plumbers, in particular, will be needed for this adventure. 

For a simple enhancement, just pick out some old brass hooks to hang towels on. Many salvage yards have wild, extravagant brass hooks that can hang on a door or a wall. 

Think about an old sink, if you don’t mind a chip or a small crack and have it outfitted with either old or new hardware. There are also reproduction sinks of old styles as well as antique style faucets or the whole 9 yard works available for a clawfoot tub including tub faucets, shower faucets, soap dishes, hoops and gigantic shower heads in porcelain and brass. 

For the very adventurous, there are loads of clawfoot tubs out there, many still fitted with drains, waste-overflow piping and other bells and whistles. It’s not necessary to do all the plumbing in old parts. A few visible, touchable parts can be enough. Maybe just an old door with a mortise lock is enough to take you back. Or how about a leaded or stained glass window? Surprisingly, many are sitting out there in the salvage yards. 

These things are out there waiting to be taken home and loved and to give us all a little reminder of a time when art was everywhere and the thought of a hinge without a little filigree was just, well, unthinkable. 

Here’s a list of a few local “museums” of construction. Some feature more “cleaned-up” parts and some, being a little cheaper, feature piles of parts just as they came in. Some also feature reproductions.  

• Urban Ore 900 Murray St. (near 7th & Ashby) Berkeley, 841-7283. 

• The Sink Factory, 2140 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, 540-8193. 

• Ohmega Salvage, 2407 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. 

• Omega Too (lighting) is across the street, 204-0767 www.ohmegasalvage.com. 

• Ruiz Lighting, 2333 Clement St., Alameda, 769-6082. 

A nice list of other yards and stores can be found on Ohmega’s website under Links. 

We sadly lost Berkeley Architectural Salvage this year, the MOMA of salvage yards. I guess if we don’t use ‘em, we’ll lose ‘em. A fond good-bye and thanks to Alan Goodman who ran BAS all those years.  

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

Matt Cantor owns Cantor Inspections and lives in Berkeley. His column runs weekly. 

Copyright 2005 Matt Cantor›

Maybe we’re going to get sprung after all. Maybe we don’t have to try raising duck potatoes and cattails in all our gardens, and who knows? The sun might even come out for a few days before the summer fog rolls in.  

In the event we get some garden time this year, there are lots of resources blooming this season. Fall may be the best time to plant a lot of things, especially natives, to take advantage of the winter rains, but spring is when our fancies turn to green stuff.  

Tomorrow (Saturday, April 22) Merritt College Landscape Horticulture Department throws its annual spring plant fair. This is a great place to find garden mainstays, food plants, and good advice; it’s also a place for unusual plants: things you never heard of and new variations on old favorites. 

There’s also live music, food, and art, and good advice about soils, structures, plants, exposures, pruning, or any other garden-related question you might have. 

While you’re there, take a stroll through the department’s grounds and don’t miss the vista from the western deck. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 12500 Campus Drive, in the Oakland hills; take Hwy. 13 to the Redwood Road exit and go uphill to turn right on Campus Drive. 

More ideas, inspiration, and advice can be found on garden tours: Register—right now, quick!—to tour or volunteer, at www.bringingbackthenatives.net/ for this year’s Bringing Back the Natives tour. It’s free and fascinating, and includes freebies, garden talks, and the chance to see how natives get along with other plants and wildlife in an immense variety of situations and combinations. Self-guided all-Bay-Area tour, Sunday, May 7, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.  

Park Day School’s annual Secret Gardens of the East Bay Tour happens Sunday, April 30, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine. Order tickets, $45 each, at www.parkdayschool.org/secretgardens/ tour.html or call the hotline, (510) 653-6250. There’s a garden marketplace and lunch available at the school, or order a box lunch with your ticket, for $13.  

Reserve a tour of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek and seize the chance to buy plants from that great place afterwards. The garden has lots of succulents and irises, and you can make drainage good enough for them; take a look at the mounding method the inimitable Mrs. Bancroft used to build her oasis. 

Docent-led tours are given Fridays, 9:30 a.m., and Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Self-guided tours Fridays, 1 p.m. and Sundays, 4 p.m. All tours $7/person. Registration required; go to www.ruthbancroftgarden.org/mailtours.html or call (925) 210-9663.  

Plan for Mother’s Day: Annie’s Annuals throws an appropriately annual party at the nursery in Richmond, May 13 and 14 this year; see anniesannuals.com for directions. California Native Plant Society’s Yerba Buena Chapter runs a free self-guided tour of native gardens in San Francisco on May 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this year. 

Download a map and address list at www.cnps-yerbabuena.org/gardentour.html—this one thoughtfully includes notes on how accessible each garden is to people using walkers.  

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet.

TUESDAY, APRIL 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell It On Tuesday Original storytelling at 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $8-$12 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

Joel Beinin introduces “The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005” edited by Joel Beinin and Rebecca L. Stein at 5:30 p.m. at Unversity Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Morris Bermanon introduces “Dark Ages America...” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

David Mitchell reads from his new novel “Black Swan Green” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Larry Vuckovich, jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Dave Douglas Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 

THEATER 

The Marsh Berkeley “Faulty Intelligence”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 “Wings of Desire” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Treasures “A Conversation with Karl Kasten,” painter and printmaker, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 644-6893. 

Jonathan Safran Foer introduces his novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Elisa Southard, author of “Break Through the Noise: 9 Tools to Propel Your Marketing Message” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Cynthia Taylor on her new book “A. Philip Randolph: The Religious Journey of an African American Labor Leader” at 5:30 p.m. at Unversity Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Writing Teachers Write, monthly reading, at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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 

Wednesday Noon Concert, “Javanese Gamelan” at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Opera “Chrysalis” by Clark Suprynowicz and John O’Keefe at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Helsinki Skylight, with bassist Sam Beven, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Track Fighter, The Main Event, The Great Divorce at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Dave Douglas Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, APRIL 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change” artwork created by individuals and families from the neighborhood of West Oakland. Opening and family celebration at 6 p.m. at the African-American Museum & Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 594-3763. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

Louis Uchitelle discusses “The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Daniel Alarcón discusses his collection of short stories “War by Candlelight” at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, 125 14th St. 238-3134. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“I’m A Performer” Concert with Malcolm X and LeConte students at 8:30 a.m. at Malcolm X School, 1731 Prince St. 841-2800. 

Kitka “Spirit Voices” with Bulgarian folk singer Tzvetanka Varimezova at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., at Castro, Oakland. Tickets are $20-$22. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

New Century Chamber Orchestra performs Puccini, Beethoven, Bermel and Rhode at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$42. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

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

Tom Huebner, Steven Pile, Powell St. John at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Eric Muhler Duo at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Showtime @ 11 Hip Hop at 10 p.m. at the Ivy Room, 585 San Pablo Ave. at Solano. 524-9220. www.ivyroom.com  

John Jorgenson Quartet, American gypsy jazz, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Selector: Project Pimento at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 28 

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 

Aurora Theatre “Small Tragedy” Wed.-Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 14. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

BareStage “The Fantasticks” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. April 23 and 30 at 2 p.m., through April 30, at the basement of Cesar Chavez Student Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$12. 642-3880. barestage.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Rep “The Glass Menagerie” at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $59. Runs through May 31. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Animal Crackers” at 8 p.m. Fri and Sat., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theater, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through May 20. Tickets are $12-$20. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theater “Money & Run Episode 4: Go Straight, No Chaser,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Cost is $10-$15. Runs through May 27. 464-4468. www.impacttheater.com 

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 

Subterranean Shakespeare “Richard III” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. at Rose in Live Oak Park, through May. 20. Tickets are $12-$17. 276-3871. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Unfinished Story” Art exhibit on the interplay between traditional and modern Vietnamese culture by Chau Huynh. Reception at 6 p.m. at Worth Ryder Art Gallery, 116 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 961-1682. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Strictly Speaking: Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know? at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Michael Pollan describes “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Chrysalis” by Clark Suprynowicz and John O’Keefe at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Berkeley Dance Project 2006 Works by Margaret Jenkins, Reggie Wilson and Ellis Wood Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-9925. 

Paufve Dance “The Big Squeeze” at 8 p.m. at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz at College. Tickets are $10-$15. Reservations required. 428-9713. www.paufvedance.org 

Tito y Su Son, traditional Cuban dance music at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568.  

Full on Fly Head, Quadraped, The Ghost Next Door at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

E.W. Wainright’s African Roots of Jazz at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Vismaya Lhi, soprano, Cara Bradbury, piano, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12. 848-1228.  

Zazen with guitarist Joaquin Lievano and bassist Andy West, at 7:30 p.m. at Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$15. www.zazentour.com  

Sambadá, Brazilian, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Listen, meditative sound recordings at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $10-$18. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Ron Thompson, blues, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Kathy Larisch & Carol McComb at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Bob Dalpe Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Kenny Dinkin and Lemon Juju at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Rube Waddell, Acoustic Virgin, Vermillion Lies at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Monster Squad, Action, Peligro Social at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Brazuca Brown at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Rachelle Ferrell at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $15-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 29 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Celebrating North Richmond History” with art and culture exhibits, speakers, music and community resources, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Shields-Reid Community Center, 1416 Kelsey St., Richmond. Sponsored by Contra Costa Health Services. 925-313-6862. 

Paintings by Keeyla Meadows Reception at 4:30 p.m. at Bucci’s, 6121 Hollis, Emeryville. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

6th Berkeley Poetry Festival from noon to 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to poet Maggi H. Meyer. Free. 981-5190. 

“Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present” A panel discussion with Judy Yung, Him Mark Lai, Ling-chi Wang and others at 2 p.m. at Heller Lounge, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. Sponsored by Eastwind Books of Berkeley. 548-2350.  

Sebastian Junger looks at race and justice in “A Death in Belmont” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Celebration of the Life & Work of Octavia Butler at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Dance Project 2006 Works by Margaret Jenkins, Reggie Wilson and Ellis Wood at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-9925. 

Paufve Dance “The Big Squeeze” at 8 p.m. at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz at College. Tickets are $10-$15. Reservations required. 428-9713.  

“Migrating Woman with Bird” dance performance by Patricia Bulitt at 3 p.m. at Lakeview Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. 

Zakir Hussain, tabla, presents Masters of Percussion at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$46. 642-9988. twww.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

World Dance Salon performances by KaUaTuahine Polynesian Dance Company, Chhandam School of Kathak North Indian Classical Dance and Bharata Natyam of South India at 8 p.m. at the Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. Free. 845-2605. 

The 15th Annual Opera Scenes at 8 p.m. at Valley Center of the Performing Arts, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd. Oakland. Tickets are$5-$15. 436-1330. 

¡La Gran Noche de la Nueva Canción! Grupo Raiz’s 2006 reunion concert, a benefit for the La Peña Community Chorus at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Tickets are $22-$24. 849-2568.  

Slammin’ at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Kotoja at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Cutty Ranks at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15-$20. 548-1159.  

Ira Marlowe and Megan McLaughlin at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

The Room, The Hills, Breakpoint at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Mark Levine Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Nathaniel Cooper at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Cast of Thousands, The Plus Ones, Mike Park at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Fourtet with Chase Michaels at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Go It Alone, Paint It Black, The Loved Ones at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Rachelle Ferrell at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $15-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, APRIL 30 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Full Circle: Mandala” Paintings by Margaret Lindsey and Susan St. Thomas and pine needle and clay vessels by Melissa Woodburn. Reception at 4 p.m. at the Community Art Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. Exhibit runs through May 12. 204-1667. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal” Reception and book-signing with author Anthony Arnove at 2 p.m. at Middle East Children’s Alliance, 901 Parker St. 548-0542 . 

“Jewish Women’s Voices in Prose and Poetry” with Chana Bloch and Elizabeth Rosner at 10:30 a.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5, reservations required. 848-0237. 

Poetry Flash with Luis Garcia, David Gitin, and Belle Randall at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Chrysalis” by Clark Suprynowicz and John O’Keefe at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra presents the Beethoven Mass in C Major, Faure Pavane for Chorus and other musical highlights at 4:30 p.m. at Saint Joseph The Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free admission, donations always welcome. www.bcco.org  

Octangle Wind Quintet presents a benefit concert for Healing Muses, with music by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and Jacob at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

American Recorder Orchestra of the West “Musical Traditions of Eastern Europe” at 3 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. richgeis@jps.net 

The Pacific Collegium presents works for double-choir by J. S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $8-$12.  

“Festival of Spirituals” with Kalil Wilson, tenor and Jeannine Anderson, soprano at 3:30 p.m. at Beth Eden Baptist Church, 1183 Tenth St., at Adeline, Oakland. Tickets are $8-$10. 414-0599. 

College of Alameda Jazz Band performs a free jazz concert from 2 to 6 p.m at the Oakland Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. Families welcome. 748-2213. 748-2312. 

Berkeley Dance Project 2006 Works by Margaret Jenkins, Reggie Wilson and Ellis Wood at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-9925. 

Afro-Cuban Folkoric Dance Benefit for the Diaz Dance Foundation at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Paufve Dance “The Big Squeeze” at 8 p.m. at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz at College. Tickets are $10-$15. Reservations required. 428-9713.  

Ballet Folklorica “Quetzalli” de Veracruz at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$40. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Charlie King and Karen Brandow at 3 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. Donation $10-$20. 

Save Our Steinway Benefit Concert, to restore the 1909 Steinway at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists at 2:30 p.m. at 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation $5. 841-4824. 

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

Brazilian Soul at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Maria Marquez Quartet at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Flamenco Open Stage with Yaelisa & Her Students at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Adrian West at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Saros, Ocean, Embers, The Makai at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Rachelle Ferrell at 2 and 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15-$30. 238-9200.

It’s hard not to seem rude and inattentive while talking with Margot Schevill in her home in Berkeley. Hard to keep your gaze from wandering over the walls, tables, and chairs, decorated with colorful paintings and textiles, many from Central America. 

I have known Margot Schevill for about twenty years, but I knew of her—as Margot Blum—more than half a century ago, when we were both students at the old San Francisco State College. I was an unimpressive music major; Margot was an already well-known and rising singer, enrolled in a couple of courses outside the music department, her very presence there a source of pride for my professors. 

When did she start singing? “Oh, I always sang. As a child, when I was Margot Helmuth, I sat out on the front steps of our house on Green Street (in SF, where her widowed mother had moved from Stockton) singing, I hoped, like Deanna Durbin.” 

We laugh, both of us old enough to remember the perennially teenaged, round-faced movie star who sang well enough to do the light classics sometimes inserted into the movies of the 1940s. 

“My mother loved all kinds of music, used to bring home jazz musicians. My brother played stride piano and made records, classical and jazz, in his own studio.  

I started piano lessons at seven. But it wasn’t until I was at Lowell High that a friend talked me into taking singing lessons.” 

A year later she had progressed far enough to sing an aria from Samson and Delilah at her graduation. 

Margot was accepted to Stanford, but her mother suggested that she take a year off to devote herself to music, and find out if a singing career was possible. 

“That meant full time studies in voice, solfeggio, piano, dramatic technique, French.” 

She reels off the names of music teachers who epitomized the best in the San Francisco of the 1950s. 

“Plus ushering at opera, concerts—total immersion,” followed by studies at UC Berkeley in harmony and counterpoint, then at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, studying with John Charles Thomas and Lotte Lehman. 

In 1951 she began singing on high holy days at Temple Emanuel. Soon she was hired to sing at services on all Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. At about the same time she married and became Margot Blum. The next five or six years became the classic juggling act of the woman artist—she had two children, and sang with ensembles of all kinds, including the Civic Light Opera’s 1957 production of South Pacific. 

It was Mary Martin who stopped her after a rehearsal and said, “Why are you wasting your time here?!” She gave Margot the courage to audition for the Merola Program, which grooms promising young soloists for the San Francisco Opera. She was one of the chosen few accepted into the intensive program, which includes free coaching in languages and stage deportment. “You know, like, how to fall and die gracefully.” 

Margot had almost arrived. Almost. 

“There was one problem I already knew about: my voice wasn’t big enough for the San Francisco Opera House. My best chance in opera was to build a career in Europe, where there were many companies and many fine smaller houses.” 

Margot shakes her head. “Impossible.” 

In those days, barely a decade past the Holocaust, the idea of an American Jewish couple raising their children in Europe was unacceptable.  

“It was time to give up my ‘golden ambition’ to do opera.” 

But not to give up singing. Margot hired an agent who kept her busy during the early 1960s, singing at concerts and on radio, performing with numerous ensembles, large and small. 

One high point was Berlioz’s Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by the legendary Pierre Monteux. Another was a series of four performances (two Bay Area, two in New York) of Hugo Wolf’s Italian Lieder Book. Margot and James Schwabacher sang (in German) as James Schevill recited his new English translation of the lyrics. 

Around that time her marriage was unraveling, as was Jim’s. They fell in love and  

were married in 1966. By 1968 they were settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where, for the next twenty years, Jim Schevill was to teach and write poetry and plays at Brown University. 

At that point Margot’s story could have become that of the faculty wife with a few music pupils, an occasional singing gig, and—like the vast majority of our best practitioners of all the arts—occasional twinges of regret for the fame and fortune bestowed on the lucky few. Instead, she made a surprisingly smooth turn in a new direction. 

As a faculty wife, she could take classes, gratis, and there was still that B.A. she’d never finished. 

“A friend mentioned Anthropology. I had started weaving. Suddenly or gradually—I don’t know, it all seemed so natural—these two things came together.” 

In 1977 Margot visited Guatamala, her first trip to Central America, and, “I was stunned! The textiles, the colors, the story in every pattern.” 

For the next few years (along with performing and teaching music) Margot studied anthropology at Brown and studied weaving from indigenous masters in Guatamala. Her M.A. thesis: The Persistence of Backstrap Weaving in the Highlands of Guatamla.  

“Everything I’ve done ever since has followed from that.” 

She hasn’t slowed down since she and Jim returned to Berkeley in 1991. She  

has written and co-written many books, most recently The Maya Textile  

Tradition and Maya Textiles of Guatemala: The Gustavus A. Eisen collection,  

1902. 

For several years, whenever you walked through the San Francisco Airport you might see (in those glass cases) Margot’s influence. She was on the team of artists, art historians, and researchers who selected the art displays for the Airport Art Museums. She has curated numerous exhibits, most recently the Southwest Native American Textiles from the collection of Ruth K. Belikov, displayed on the walls of the Mills Building Foyer in downtown San Francisco in 2005. 

Her latest title is advisor to Endangered Threads Documentaries, a project of documentary filmmakers Paul G. and Kathleen M. Vitale, aimed at increasing awareness of indigenous art forms threatened by global economies.  

Check out their beautiful website at www.endangeredthreads.com where you’ll learn how to get Splendor in the Highlands, a DVD narrated by Margot. 

Plans for the future? Margot has been named curator for “Maya Textile Tradition,”  

a major exhibit at the Phoebe A. Hearst Anthropology (Lowie) Museum at the  

University of California, scheduled to open in January 2009. 

Mention music, and Margot will give an informed recommendation for the best  

performances in the Bay Area, most of which she attends. No more singing?  

She shakes her head. “My grandchildren keep nagging me to sing for them, so  

I’ve hit on a compromise. I’ve pulled out all my old tapes and I’ll make a CD for them. That’s like curating too—I have to sort through and select what they might like. Their tastes are so different from ours.” 

By Ken Bullock 

All of us to be replaced 

By a smiling china face ... 

A screen of translucent panels parts reveals a bed with a blonde woman (Marnie Breckenridge as Nelle) in profile, her hand poised above the bed. Running her fingers along the covers, she brings about a curious, profane resurrection that is touched on throughout Berkeley Opera’s Chrysalis. 

Cosmetics magnate Ellen Ermaine (Buffy Baggott) is gently lifted from sleep, while her double, Nelle, crouches behind the bed, watching her impishly, intently, as Ellen fields cellphone calls, regards herself with care in a hand mirror (Nelle always on the other side of the glass), dresses and on to her Big Day, announcing her new beauty line, named after “Hathor The Golden One, Mistress Of Heaven.” 

So the present-day romance of transformation by John O’Keefe unfolds to Clark Suprynowicz’s score in the world premiere of Chrysalis at the Julia Morgan Theatre, an event no aficionado of the performing arts will want to miss.  

Suprynowicz has used other euphemisms for Chrysalis besides opera, but it accomplishes very much what an opera is supposed to: a compounding of the arts through performance, the result of a brilliant collaboration. All at once, it’s splendid orchestral music (by the 20-piece San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Berkeley Opera’s Jonathan Khuner, alternating with Sara Jobin), singing, theater and expertly designed spectacle (stage direction and design by Mark Streshinsky). 

John O’Keefe’s libretto is wonderfully operatic, a modern Gothic tale of frantic industry and repressed passion, that reaches back to the Baroque allegories that proliferated as masques and what Monteverdi and Purcell scored. 

The tale is satiric—with a truly satyric chorus—and compels much knowing laughter from the audience. But it’s not Opera Buffa nor Comique, having an air of the fantastic, perhaps distantly reminiscent of The Tales of Hoffmann in tone. 

And the music’s no fantasia. Firmly grounded in the evolution of modern orchestration through the composer’s integral use of the full ensemble, the score touches on various points in that history, from chromaticism to contemporary developments without quoting or becoming a showcase of “hommages.” 

It’s supple enough as a whole piece to move quickly and effortlessly from the shimmer of bright, ascending chords and shimmering allusiveness, but not Impressionistic atmospherics, to wonderful melodic intervals and tunes that are every bit the refreshing airs of true opera, not academic echoing of famous arias. There are excellent passages of flute and percussion, including cymbal and xylophone, and a recurrent mysterious throbbing hum, arrived at by different means (including Rachel Erickson’s electric keyboard) that resembles the sound of a bullroarer, epop—or archaic throat-singing. 

The singers’ excellence extends to their acting, Baggott driven yet more and more haunted as executive Ellen, and Breckenridge pert and insouciant, more kid sister than evil twin. 

Her escape from the mirror and assuming of Ellen’s identity draws universal comment that the metamorphosis is an improvement. 

Igor Vieira as Ellen’s paramour, Timothy—dismissed by rampaging Nelle—inverts his romantic persona in a triumphant display of his own personal cosmetic branding in one of the more outrageously amusing theatrical coups. And John Minagro plays psychiatrist Dr. Zehn with a humorous deadpan, as he glides in and out of the action, seated in his office behind fetishes and statuettes, like the illustrious founder of his profession. 

Mark Streshinsky’s stage design and direction shows the deft, light touch that characterizes Chrysalis throughout. His use of the mobile screen flexibly defines space, from bedroom to psychiatrist’s office to corporate headquarters to the bar where chorus and principals meet and gossip, silently gliding in and out and across stage, clapping shut only once, when the screen seems to swallow the figures it framed. 

Mary Gallahue’s costumes mirror the simple, effective color scheme, from black for the principals and clinical white for chorus and psychiatrist, that allows for the sudden burst of color at the end when Nelle “comes out,” trailed by now-sidelined Ellen. 

“Beauty isn’t skin deep any more.” 

Perfect timing and staging throughout broke down only for a moment as the collaborators appeared together for a happily ragged curtain call. 

Clark Suprynowicz is an occasional contributor to the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Berkeley Opera presents Clark Suprynowicz’s Chrysalis at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday;  

8 p.m. Friday; and 2 p.m. Sunday.  

Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave. For more information or tickets, call (925) 798-1300 or see www.berkeleyopera.org. 

Contributed photo  

Plastic surgery is the topic of the new opera Chrysalis at the Julia Morgan Theatre

Hunger calls as the sun rises or, in some cases, long after it’s crossed the sky. Hundreds of cafes are ready to entice your taste buds. From the happy trio of eggs, potatoes and breakfast meat to sweeter yummies like pancakes, waffles, French toast or crepes. Steaming hot lattes, fresh orange juice. Smells and flavors reminding us of home or favorite friends. 

When hunger combines with a sense of adventure and you’re ready for something different, think global. Many ethnic eateries would love to share their morning specialties with a willing audience. While some flavors and textures may shift your biological clock, consider it a travel across time zones to a new location. 

Picante Cocina Mexicana is no stranger to dining enthusiasts who know good food at great values. While evenings can be a contest in making yourself heard, mornings offer a mellower ambiance. Mexican tiles decorate bright yellow walls and roomy red leather booths circle the perimeter. Lamenting lyrics accompanied by the beat of bass and guitarron provide background. Outside, the secluded garden patio escapes breezes off the bay and retains the warmth of the sun. 

On offer are the classic Huevos Rancheros with egg-topped tortillas beneath a spicy red sauce. Huevos con Rajas contains mild chilies while Huevos a la Mexicana wakes up your palate with onion, tomato and hot jalapeños. All are served with beans of your choice and corn tortillas you never want to stop eating, Picante-made with a fresh chewy texture. Finish up with Mexican hot chocolate or coffee spiced with cinnamon, brown sugar and slivers of orange peel. You’re set for the day. 

Only on Sunday is the slogan at the Thai Buddhist Temple where your dollars are traded for tokens. Exchange these tokens for an abundance of Thai food, simple, hearty and esoteric. Devouring Pad Thai and Green Curry Chicken may seem odd at 9:30 a.m. but the tastes will soon take over your sense of timing. 

Dissipate the morning chill with a steaming bowl of Tom Yum soup. Watch the ingredients come together—a ladle of savory broth, a jumble of thin rice noodles, fish balls and ground pork piping hot mixed with fresh bean sprouts, cilantro and basil. On warm mornings refresh your palette with “made-to-order” Green Papaya Salad. The delicious dressing of chilies, peanuts and fish sauce sweetened with sugar and ground with mortar and pestle will awaken your taste buds.  

Relax at tables beneath awnings or in rows down alleyways in a bazaar-like setting. Mingle with the masses watching cars and vans arrive with new temptations from area restaurants. Digest, then get ready to sample Khanom Krok. Prepared in a cast iron skillet over hot coals, these tiny coconut pudding-pancakes will have you counting the days until the next Sunday. 

Travel to Ethiopia for a breakfast of harmonious flavors at Café Colucci. Cozy and artfully decorated with African art, the two dining areas and outside patio are perfect settings to experience a new cuisine. Walls of warm earth tones and split bamboo, unique grass-skirt lampshades, tent-like cloth-panels, ethnic background music and the striking faces of the staff and diners combine for an experience worth repeating. 

My choice, as a first-time patron, was the Ethiopian Breakfast, a sampler of four, accompanied by a basket of injera. Injera serves a dual purpose, both bread and utensil. A staple of every home, injera is made using teff, a very small grain high in protein, iron and calcium. Resembling a slightly chewy pancake, this flatbread has a tangy flavor from naturally fermented butter. 

Injera in hand, I devoured cubed potatoes cooked with bell peppers, red onion and tomato; steaming bulgur, eggs cooked with chilies and banatu. The spiciest component of my breakfast, banatu is a stew of beef and pieces of injera simmered in Berbere sauce. Eating with injera-clad hands offered the perfect excuse to lick this red pepper-laden sauce off my fingers.  

Trade injera for chopsticks and an authentic Oakland Chinatown experience at Shan Dong where one section of the extensive, five-page menu reads Breakfast. Thirteen lucky choices, as well as selections from Dumplings, Noodles or Egg Fu Yung will set you up for the rest of your day. 

Inside, the décor is limited. Miniature lights reflect along one mirrored wall. Bright red signs printed in bold black Chinese characters announce specials. Warm yellow-topped tables and chrome chairs provide cozy seating for various-sized groups. Classical music softly serenades. Here the food is the main attraction. 

Come with friends in order to sample several dishes. Several are variations of ample yeast steamed buns filled with a ground pork mixture, a sweet red bean puree or a vegetarian combination of cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, onions and rice noodles. The Special Twisted Bun is a large twist of this yeasty dough while the Chinese Donut is deep-fried. Both are popular fast-food breakfasts dipped in bowls of sweet or salty warmed soybean milk and are quite filling. 

Sliced beef seasoned with hoisin sauce and cilantro and enclosed in a sesame-encrusted piecrust satisfy both sweet and salty taste buds. The House Special Pancake is filled with sautéed leeks and egg, griddle-crispy and chewy at the same time. 

Prices are so reasonable that your table will soon be overcrowded without much damage to your wallet. 

One non-breakfast enthusiast ordered noodle soup. The rich broth was dark with the essence of beef, chicken and duck. Most impressive were the fresh-looking vegetables—bright green squash, broccoli and bok choy along with carrots and mushrooms, crisp and savory.  

When desire for a traditional breakfast refuses to be tamped down, give it a new spin. Search your memories for the smell of bacon, onions and coffee in the open air. Search the garage for your old camp stove or bag of charcoal. Search the cupboards for that cast-iron skillet or griddle. 

Head to Tilden Park. Spread the red and white plastic cloth across that broad wood table. Fire up the stove and warm up the skillet. Sauté onions and potatoes, throw in eggs and fry up some bacon. The smell alone will make you wonder why you don’t do this more often. If you’re going to break a fast, you might as well do it in style!  

Picante Cocina Mexicana  

1328 Sixth St., Berkeley. 

525-6876. www.picantecocina.citysearch.com. 

Thai Buddhist Temple 

1911 Russell St., Berkeley. 

849-3419. 

Café Colucci 

6427 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 

601-7999. www.cafecolucci.com. 

Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant 

328 10th St., Oakland. 

839-2299. www.222.to/sd.  

It’s official! Last Tuesday night the Berkeley City Council approved a resolution sponsored by councilmembers Betty Olds and Dona Spring, designating the barn owl as our city bird. I was at Old City Hall for the event but did not make it into the council chamber, which was packed with young jocks lobbying for the Derby Street baseball field.  

So Berkeley joins the company of San Francisco (whose almost-extirpated city bird is the California quail), Portland and Seattle (the great blue heron, in both cases), and Chicago (the peregrine falcon). The only other North American civic bird I was able to locate via Google is the beautiful and outlandish roseate spoonbill, adopted by Port Aransas, Texas. 

But the city-bird thing seems to be widespread in East Asia. Seoul, South Korea has the magpie; Xiamen, China, the egret; Keelung, Taiwan, the (unspecified) eagle. And there are a bunch of Japanese cities with avian mascots: Hamamatsu’s swallow, Morioka’s wagtail, Chiba’s little tern, and more. 

Why the barn owl? Well, it’s both esthetically appealing—the artist George M. Sutton thought it was one of the most beautiful of American birds—and handy to have around. As the Planet has reported, Berkeley has a rodent problem, and it’s not confined to Willard Park. I’ve already written about the barn owl’s efficacy as a rodent-killer, so I won’t belabor that point.  

I should mention, though, that this bird specializes almost exclusively on rodents. The larger and more powerful great horned owl may go after cats (as well as wild mammals of similar size: skunks, raccoons, opossums, even porcupines), but not the barn owl. A few barn owls have been known to hunt birds, mostly mass-roosting species like starlings—which wouldn’t be missed—and blackbirds, and some eat Jerusalem crickets. Otherwise it’s all mice, rats, gophers, and the occasional shrew. 

Besides, the barn owl seems like a good fit for this town. Berkeley likes to think of itself as the Athens of the West: well, in classical Greece the owl was the bird of Athena. 

Its image graced Athenian coins, and it was associated with victory and prosperity. Although owls have often had a sinister reputation, some peoples, including the Ainu and the Cherokee, revered them or at least saw admirable qualities in them. 

The Cherokee used to bathe their children’s eyes in an owl-feather infusion to give them the ability to stay awake all night. I’m not sure why this would have been a good thing.  

The barn owl, fittingly, is among the world’s most cosmopolitan bird species. It’s found on every continent except Antarctica, and many oceanic islands. Flexible in its nesting requirements, all it needs is a supply of rodents and it’s in business. I guess it would be too much of a stretch to associate the owl with Berkeley’s vibrant night life, but we can hope. 

It has occurred to the barn owl’s advocates, Lisa Owens Viani and Donna Mickelson of the group Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley, that a lot of the Planet’s readers may have had their own owl encounters. 

Maybe you’ve watched the owlets on California Street being fed by their hardworking parents, or monitored nests elsewhere in Berkeley. 

Maybe you’ve put up your own owl box (see the Hungry Owl Project’s web site, www.hungryowl.org, for particulars) or teased apart an owl pellet to see what the birds had been eating. Whatever your experience, we’d like you to share it. If you’re a photographer, you may also have owl images as appealing as the Portland youngsters captured by Mike Houck. 

So, in the interest of getting to know our new civic bird a bit better, we’re asking you to send in your owl stories, poems, and pictures. I’ll be the point of contact for email: joe_eaton@speakeasy.net. Or you can mail hard copies to the Planet.  

The best submissions will be published, and the winner will receive a copy of a wonderful video, “Backyard Barn Owls”, produced by Bert Kersey, documenting the home life of a family of southern California owls in a homemade nest box.  

And you’ll be helping Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley assemble a database of barn owl nest and roost sites to provide a clearer picture of our city bird’s status and distribution—citizen science at its best.  

Will the barn owls benefit from their new status? It couldn’t hurt. Having a civic bird creates a certain obligation to keep it around. It was, after all, highly embarrassing some years back when Louisiana, the Pelican State, ran out of pelicans.  

Photograph by Mike Houck, Urban Naturalist, Audubon Society of Portland, Ore.  

The Berkeley City Council last week named the barn owl the official city bird. 



TUESDAY, APRIL 25 

Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration with actors, scholars and musicians on “Shakespeare and his religion, from Agnosticism to Zen” at 7 p.m. at the Northbrae Church, 741 The Alameda. 843-6798. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang For hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun. This month we’ll enjoy spring wildflowers and mining history at the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve on a 3-mile hike. To register call 525-2233.  

The BHS Site Council meets at 4:30 p.m. at Berkeley High Conference Room B. On the agenda are a vote on a proposal for a Site Council bylaw change, First Semester Grade Reports, Small Schools Data, Algebra Project Update, Student Coordination Update. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Course begins at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams, 4341 Piedmont Avenue, 2nd Floor, Oakland, and runs to June 13. Sponsored by The Cancer Projec. To register, call 531-2665. 

Raging Grannies of the East Bay invites new folks to come join us the 2nd and 4th Tues, of each month, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. to sing and have fun at Berkeley Gray Panthers office, 1403 Addison St., in Andronico’s mall. 548-9696. 

Earthquake Retrofitting and Home Safety Seminar at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

Green Health Care at 7 p.m. at the Teleosis Institute, 1521B 5th St. To register call 558-7285. 

Berkeley PC User Group meets at 7 p.m. at 25 Dartmouth, in the Hiller Highland area. For questions and directions email rhs@surfbest.net  

Trance Drumming Workshop with Auntie Matter from 7 to 9 p.m. at Change Makers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. at 66th, Oakland. Cost is $40. www. 

changemakersforwomen.com  

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

“Jewish Insights on Transformation” at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley St. at Bancroft. 527-2935. 

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 26  

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult. We will learn about the seasons from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Public Workshop on Community Choice Aggregation at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Classroom A. The cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville are exploring the creation of a public agency that would purchase power and build power plants to serve customers in Berkeley. 981-5434.  

“Iraq: Strategies to Get Out” with Andy Lichterman at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. Sponsored by the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss becomming a Democratic Central Committee Chartered Club of Alameda County, and to discuss “Sell Now! The End of the Housing Bubble” by John R. Talbott at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito. 433-2911. 

Lonely Planet Travel Series with Morgan Konn on Thailand at 6 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, 124 14th St. 238-3136. 

Free Prostate Screening for men ages 35-70 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way. Free, but appointments required. 869-8833. 

Early Childhood Safety: Choke Saving Skills at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. 

Repetitive Stress Injury Learn how to take care of yourself before you get carpal tunnel syndrome at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

“Kabbalah of Creation: The Mysticism of Isaac Luria” with Rabbi Eliyahu Klein at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $10-$20. 848-0237. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 27 

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 

Introduction to BASIL Bay Area Seed Interchange Library Learn about what we do and volunteer opportunities at 5:30 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 658-9178. 

Workplace Bullying A special workshop with Gary Namie, Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute, at 5:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. Sponsored byt the Commission on Labor. 981-6903.  

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. Public is welcome. 845-5513. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Dining Out for Life Over 60 restaurants will donate a portion of their proceeds to Vital Life Services. For a list of participating restaurants, see www.diningoutforlife.com 

Ask a Union Mechanic from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Parker & Shattuck, until the strike is settled. They will offer advice on all makes of car. 

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

“Dancing with Wonder: Self Discovery Through Stories” with Nancy King and Susan Felix at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5, reservations required. 848-0237. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 28 

Reduced City Services Today Call ahead to ensure programs or services you desire will be available. 981-CITY. www.cityofberkeley.info 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with David Bain, space scientist on “Mars” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

How Did You Become an Activist? with Paul Larudee, co-founder International Solidarity Movement and Barbara Bechnel, journalist, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation $10. 528-5403. 

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. 

Early Childhood Safety: Earthquake Safety at 3 p.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. 

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. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 29 

Open the Farm Join us to greet the animals in the morning, help feed them, collect eggs and do a few chores. Dress to get dirty. From 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Little Farm in Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

3rd Annual Green Home EXPO from noon to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Park, next to Farmer’s Market. Trade in your old incandescent light bulbs, learn about energy savings and lead safe painting. Panel discussion on Energy Independence at 1 p.m. www.GrennhomeEXPO.org 

Free Universal Waste Drop-Off from noon to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Park for batteries, computers and other electronic equipment. Also Safe Medicine Disposal Event: Safely dispose of your old expired or unused medicines, including over-the-counter medicines. www.GreenHomeEXPO.org  

El Cerrito Earth Day Join the city in planting trees along San Pablo Ave. from 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., follwed by a barbeque for volunteers at noon. Call for specific locations. 215-4353. www.el-cerrito.org 

“Celebrating North Richmond History” with art and culture exhibits, speakers, music and community resources, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Shields-Reid Community Center, 1416 Kelsey St., Richmond. Sponsored by Contra Costa Health Services. 925-313-6862. 

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. 

Redesign of the Downtown Berkeley BART Station and Transit Zone The public is invited to an open house to view four different design options from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, third floor community room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-7065. 

Berkeley Poetry Festival with featured poets and open mikes. Jack Hirschman, Poet Laureate of San Francisco, will read his latest haikus. From noon to 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 549-3345. 

Crowden Community Music Day with concerts, instrument petting zoo, instrument workshop and more, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1475 Rose St. 559-2941. 

Sports Medicine for Young Athletes with Michelle Cappello, Director of the Sport Medicine Center for Young Athletes at Children’s Hospital, Oakland at 6 p.m. Coaches, parents, players, trainers, and interested others all welcome. Refreshments will be served. For ticket and event location information call 528-9026.  

Benefit Gala for the Oakland Museum of California with dinner and entertainment. TIckets are $300-$600. 239-2919. 

UC Botanical Garden Annual Plant Sale with cacti and succulents, ferns, new perrennials, and rare trees and shrubs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 200 Centennail Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Annual Junktique Sale from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in a benefit for the First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina, corner W. Richmond Ave., Pt. Richmond 236-0527. www.pointrichmond.com/methodist 

“The Five Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss” with Dr. Jay Sordean, at 12:30 p.m. at South Berkeley Curves, 2855 Telegraph Ave. Sponsored by the Doctors Speakers Bureau. RSVP to 849-1176. 

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 

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

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 30 

Berkeley International Food Festival from noon until 5 p.m. at the intersection of University and San Pablo Aves. The Festival will showcase restaurants and markets, and will feature related cultural activities. www.berkeleyinternationalfoodfestival.com 

Berkeley Citizen Action Economic Development Forum from 4 to 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 549-0816. 

Children’s Book Day from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Children’s Library, 4th floor, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Musician, clown and refreshements. 981-6107.  

Wonderous Wildflowers An easy stroll through the Tilden Nature Are to see what is blooming. Meet at 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

“Get Inspired to Green Your Garden” Bay-Friendly Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A free and self-guided tour throughout Alameda County. Registration required to receive the guide book and garden directions. www.BayFriendly.org 

Secret Gardens of the East Bay A tour with marketplace and opportunity to visit with professional garden designers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost is $45. Benefits Park Day School. 653-0317, ext. 103. www.SecretGardenTour.org 

SF South Bay Restoration Project Tours of the salt pond project from 2 to 4 p.m. Please meet at Menlo Park’s Bayfront Park, at the corner of Marsh Road and Bayshore Expressway. From 101, exit Marsh Road, and head west into Bayfront Park. Tour will repeat on May 6 and May 21. Reservations required. 792-0222, ext. 43. 

“Darwin’s Nightmare” A documentary on the importation of the Nile Perch to Lake Victoria, which decimated the native fish population and impoverished local villagers, at 2 p.m. at the Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Proceeds benefit Priority Africa Network. 527-3917. 

“Making Connections: Israeli-Palestinian Peace and U.S. Middle East Policy: Where do we go from here?” Discussion presented by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, East Bay Branch, at 1 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. 665-5459. 

Using Art to Teach Science Biological Illustration as a Way of Seeing. A workshop with biological illustrator Vicki Jennings,m from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $50-$60. 238-3818. 

Save Our Steinway Benefit Concert, to restore the 1909 Steinway at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists at 2:30 p.m. at 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation $5. 841-4824. 

“Come Spot, Come” A recall workshop for your dog from 3 to 4 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2128 Cedar St. Cost is $35. To register call 849-9323. companyofdogs.com 

Tour of the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, rare books and a comprehensive theological collection, at 4 p.m. at 2400 Ridge Rd. Reservations required 649-2420. 

Hands-On Bicycle Clinic on bicycle safety inspections from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

“Fledglings and Fly In” Bird walk accompanied by a dance performance by Patricia Bulitt at 4 p.m. on the patio behind the Lakeview Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. 

“Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal” Reception and book signing with author Anthony Arnove at 2 p.m. at Middle East Children’s Alliance, 901 Parker St. 548-0542. 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Rosalyn White on “Is Tibet Forgotten?” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

ONGOING 

Poll Workers Needed in Alameda County for June 6 Primary Election. Poll workers must be eligible to register to vote in California, have basic clerical skills. Training classes begin in May. To sign up call 272-6971. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., April 25, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/civicarts 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Gil Dong, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

School Board meets Wed. April 26, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Commission on Labor Special Meeting on Workplace Bullying on Wed., April 27, at 5:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 981-7550. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., April 27, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning    

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 

CHILDREN 

“Percussion Discussion” a performance by Ken Bergmann, including making your own instruments, from noon to 2 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive. Cost is $7.50-$9.50. 642-5132. 

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. through May 6. Tickets are $12. 649-5999.  

Aurora Theatre “Small Tragedy” Wed.-Sat at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 14. Tickets are $38. 843-4822.  

BareStage “The Fantasticks” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., at Cesar Chavez Student Center, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$12. 642-3880.  

Berkeley Rep “The Glass Menagerie” at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $59. Runs through May 31. 647-2949.  

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Animal Crackers” at 8 p.m. Fri and Sat., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through May 20. Tickets are $12-$20. 524-9132.  

Impact Theater “Money & Run Episode 4: Go Straight, No Chaser,” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Cost is $10-$15. Runs through May 27. 464-4468.  

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.  

Subterranean Shakespeare “Richard III” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. at Rose in Live Oak Park, through May. 20. Tickets are $12-$17. 276-3871. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Is It a Crow?” Abstract works by eight Bay Area artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Exhibition runs to May 25. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John Hideyo Hamamura describes the Japanese-American experience in his novel “The Color of the Sea” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

En Pointe Youth Dance Company “Horizons” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $6-$10. enpointedance@yahoo.com 

Berkeley Dance Project 2006 Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-9925. 

Paufve Dance “The Big Squeeze” at 8 p.m. at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz at College. Tickets are $10-$15. Reservations required. 428-9713.  

“Four Choreographers/One Connection” Dance performance Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Mills College, Lisser Hall, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 430-2175. 

Oakland East Bay Symphony with Karla Donehew, violin, at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway. Pre-concert lecture at 7:05 p.m. Tickets are $15-$60. 625-8497.  

The Georges Lammam Ensemble at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. Benefit for the Palestinian youth of Deir Ibzi’a. 849-2568.  

Project Greenfield, Midnight Madness at 9 p.m. at Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5.  

California Bach Society “Monteverdi: Missa in illo tempore” at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. 415-262-0272.  

Salvador Santana at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

John Newby & his Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Caribbean Allstars at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Bittersweet, americana, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Eddie Marshall Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Renee Asteria & Deborah Crooks at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Bart Davenport, Mushroom, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Deadfall, Formaldahyde Junkies, I Object, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

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

Omar Sosa Quartet, featuring Pee Wee Ellis at 8 and 10 p.m., at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 

CHILDREN  

Celebration of Children’s Literature Book fair with author signings and costumed characters, storytelling, music and a drop-in art activities for children, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m at Tolman Hall, UC Campus. http:// 

gse.berkeley.edu/admin/childlit 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri, songs in English and Spanish, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568.  

Create Your Own Flip Book A free workshop with Roberta Gould from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Earth Day Glass Blowing Demonstration from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Cohn-Stone Studios, 560 South 31st St., near Regatta Blvd exit, Richmond. Also on Sun. 234-9690.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature reads from his memoir “You Must Set Forth at Dawn” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Rhythm & Muse Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. at at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. Admission free. 644-6893.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera “Chrysalis” by Clark Suprynowicz and John O’Keefe at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300.  

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra “Ode to Joy” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant Sts. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

En Pointe Youth Dance Company “Horizons” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $6-$10. enpointedance@yahoo.com 

Paufve Dance “The Big Squeeze” at 8 p.m. at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz at College. Tickets are $10-$15. Reservations required. 428-9713.  

Berkeley Dance Project 2006 Works by Margaret Jenkins, Reggie Wilson and Ellis Wood at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-9925. 

Trinity Chamber Concerts, The Music of Walter Gieseking, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St.. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Kensington Symphony with Chauncey Aceret, cello, Young Soloist Competition Winner, 8 p.m. Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Donation $8-$10. 524-9912.  

“Four Choreographers/One Connection” Dance performance at 8 p.m. at Mills College, Lisser Hall, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 430-2175. 

Jai Uttal Kirtan Devotional Music Series at 7 p.m. Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Tickets are $15-$18. 843-2787.  

Jen Spool at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $10-$15, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

Erica Azim, traditional Shona mbira music of Zimbabwe at 8 p.m. at the Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance, 729 Heinz Ave. 

Justice, Jazz & Decadent Desserts with Ben Brandzel, of MoveOn.org, George Brooks, jazz sazophonist, and members of Berkeley High School Jazz Band, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$50. 547-2424, ext. 110. www.jycajustice.org  

The Mixers, classic rock and blues at 9:30 p.m. at The Pub at Baltic Square, 135 Park Place, Pt. R ichmond. Cost is $5. 237-4782. 

Carne Cruda, Latin, funk, cumbia, reggae at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$7. 849-2568.  

Jessica Neighbor & her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Wild Catahoulas at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Sam Misner & Megan Smith at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Kasey Knudsen Sextet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Jennifer Johns, Bumbalo & Sok the Virgo at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Mark Levine Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

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

Kurt Ribak Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473.  

Don Villa & Friends at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Conspiracy of Beards, The Pillows, Loop Station at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Internal Affairs, Blue Monday, Miles Away, Panic at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Omar Sosa Quartet, featuring Pee Wee Ellis at 8 and 10 p.m., at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 23 

CHILDREN 

Mary Ellen Hill, stories in honor of Earth Day at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

THEATER 

Josh Kornbluth “Ben Franklin Unplugged” at 2 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. Tickets are $50 and up. 848-3988. www.bethelberkeley.org 

FILM 

San Francisco Women’s Film Festival “All is Normal” and “Snowblink” at 5 and 8 p.m. at the Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $8. 814-2400. www.sfwff.com 

Watchword Cartoon Festival and brunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5. 845-0304. www.watchwordpress.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Berkeley Architecture of Bernard Maybeck” with UC Architecture Professor Emeritus Kenneth H. Cardwell at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181.  

“If You Don’t Listen You Don’t Hear” Spoken word, poetry and more by East Bay youth at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dr. Amy Tiemann, author of “Mojo Mom” at 3 p.m. at Play Café, 4400 Keller Ave., Oakland. Cost is $29.95, includes book. Registration required. 632-4433. 

Island Literary Series, jazz and poetry at 3 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $2-$4. 841-JAZZ. 

Poetry Flash with Basil King and Martha King at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Krystian Zimerman, piano, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$58. 642-9988.  

UC Alumni Chorus presents “It Takes Two: A Concert of Pairs” at 7 p.m. at Hertz Hall, Bancroft at College Ave., UC Campus. Tickets are $6-$15. 233-3469. www.ucac.net 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra “Ode to Joy” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church. Tickets are $28-$62. 415-392-4400.  

Berkeley Dance Project 2006 at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-9925. 

Paufve Dance “The Big Squeeze” at 8 p.m. at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz at College. Tickets are $10-$15. 428-9713.  

“Four Choreographers/One Connection” Dance performance at 2 p.m. at Mills College, Lisser Hall, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 430-2175. 

Bay Area Follies Senior Center dancers at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. 

Vasen, Swedish folk revivalists, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Dave Matthews Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

TrioMetrik New Media Compositions at 8 p.m. at Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, 1750 Arch. Tickets are $10. www.cnmat.berkeley.edu  

Americana Unplugged, bluegrass and oldtime showcase, at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715.  

Ajamu Akinyele with Gemini Soul at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe. 595-5344. 

Wire Graffiti, Compton SF, Dynamite 8 at 3 p.m. at Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

108, Look Back and Laugh, Lights Out Gather at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

Barclay Simpson MFA Awards Exhibition at the Tecoah Bruce Gallery, Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, 5212 Broadway. Reception and awards presentation at 5:30 p.m. 415-51-9213. 

THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theatre, “All Through the Night” at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $12 - $15. 415-522-0786.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Aurora Theatre “Los Once” a reading of the play by Finnigan Sullivan, and “The Nigeria Show” by Jayne Wenger at 7:30 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. Free. 843-4822.  

Michael Lavigne introduces his new novel about the Holocaust, “Not Me” at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Jane Fonda introduces her memoir “My Life So Far” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express Open Mic Theme Night “Cats” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

West Coast Songwriters Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mastro Omar Mokhtari, Algerian music and flamenco fusion, 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. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Chabot College Jazz Groups at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell It On Tuesday Original storytelling at 7 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $8-$12 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

Joel Beinin introduces “The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005” edited by Joel Beinin and Rebecca L. Stein at 5:30 p.m. at Unversity Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Morris Bermanon introduces “Dark Ages America...” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

David Mitchell reads from his new novel “Black Swan Green” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Larry Vuckovich, solo jazz piano, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Dave Douglas Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 

THEATER 

The Marsh Berkeley “Faulty Intelligence”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 “Wings of Desire” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Treasures “A Conversation with Karl Kasten,” painter and printmaker, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 644-6893. 

Jonathan Safran Foer introduces his novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Elisa Southard, author of “Break Through the Noise: 9 Tools to Propel Your Marketing Message” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Cynthia Taylor in conversation on her new book “A. Philip Randolph: The Religious Journey of an African American Labor Leader” at 5:30 p.m. at Unversity Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Writing Teachers Write, monthly reading, at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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 www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, “Javanese Gamelan” at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Opera “Chrysalis” by Clark Suprynowicz and John O’Keefe at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$40. 925-798-1300. www.berkeleyopera.org 

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Helsinki Skylight, with bassist Sam Beven, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Track Fighter, The Main Event, The Great Divorce at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Dave Douglas Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

After too long a period of vacuous, gallery-driven shows, the MATRIX program of the Berkeley Art Museum has come back to life with a radical exhibition by its newly appointed curator Chris Gilbert: “New-Time: Media Along the Path of the Bolivarian Process.”  

The work of Dario Azzelini, a writer and political analyst, living in Berlin and Mexico City, and the Austrian artist Oliver Ressler, it is a multi-screen projection on the subject of Venezuela’s worker-controlled factories. The two men recorded extensive interviews with workers in five factories which produce aluminum, textiles, cocoa, paper and tomato products. The viewer confronts workers who have occupied and controlled factories as part of Hugo Chávez’s socialist revolution. In the background we see and hear the factories at work. 

Aware of the failure of Soviet Russia and the countries under Soviet domination, the workers themselves, not the state, control the means of production in these factories. They make decisions, which, they tell us, are based on human values.  

The viewer listening to the workers and looking at the factories learns about co-management (cogestión), which is based on the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela (1999), that stresses the economic rights of the country’s citizens: “the fair distribution of wealth as well as the production of goods and services that meet the needs of the populace,” and “security, health, environmental protection.” In the video one of the workers sums it up by saying, “We are the protagonists ... We don’t think as Commandante Chávez does, Commandante Chávez thinks like us and that is why he is there and we will keep him there.” 

With the over-extension of the U.S. military, we can hope that there might not be another interference of “Contras” in the Venezuelan revolution. With the exception of the right-wing governments of Columbia and Paraguay, most of the South American continent has moved to the left, with Venezuela advancing furthest in its revolution against neo-liberal globalization and U.S. hegemony. Is it possible that George W. Bush has succeeded where Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara had failed? 

The current exhibition will be on view until May 28. It is to be followed by further presentations in a yearlong cycle of projects in solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution. Mr. Gilbert wants art to be didactic and politically active. He says that these exhibitions will “not merely document but also contribute to their subjects. This is a departure from a tradition of political art and exhibitions, in that it acknowledges that works of art can be part of the new world that revolutionary art brings into being rather than simply reflecting upon them.” 

In the long debate as to whether art can change consciousness, the new MATRIX curator, like this writer, believes that it can indeed have an effect on society. This work seems related to the earlier photo documentations by Allan Sekula, who in 1978 wrote: “We need to counterpose an active resistance, simultaneously political and symbolic, to monopoly capitalism’s increasing power and arrogance, a resistance aimed ultimately at socialist transformation.” 

This is by no means the only political art exhibition in the Bay Area. The Yuerba Buena Center for the Arts has just opened a major exhibition, “Black Panther Rank and File” which offers a multifaceted look at the legacy of the Black Panthers, using “the Black Panther Party as a lens through which we can explore the role the artists play in inspiring social change and in remembering and reflecting on human struggle and achievement.” 

Now-Time Venezuela, Part 1:  

Worker-Controlled Factories 

Through Sunday, May 28 

Now-Time Venezuela, Part 2:  

Revolutionary Television in Catia 

Sunday, May 14 through Sunday, July 16 

Berkeley Art Museum 

2626 Bancroft Way 

2621 Durant Avenue 

Wednesday – Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Thursdays 11 a.m.-7 p.m. 

Photo Caption:  

A factory worker from a scene in “Now Time Venezuela, Part 1: Worker-Controlled Factories.”

The films of Busby Berkeley are rendered in the popular imagination as naïve and silly entertainments from a simpler time, from a bygone era of innocence, frivolity and wholly unsophisticated audiences. This notion is not only false, it gives short shrift to the director and to the moviegoers who flocked to his films. 

In the 1930s films of Busby Berkeley the plot is merely a hook on which to hang the director-choreographer’s surreal musical sequences—interludes of imaginative and often highly subversive sexual fantasies. 

Six of Berkeley’s best-known movies have recently been released in a box set, the Busby Berkeley Collection, and a careful viewing of these early musicals dispels any lingering notions of their innocence. 

Movie musicals began with the advent of reliable sound technology in the late 1920s, which sent the industry into a tailspin as the major studios hastily adopted the new medium. 

Though there are examples of extraordinary filmmaking during this era, they are few and far between. For the most part, the earliest talkies were awkward and clumsy, and hardly any them are remembered today, other than as examples of the pitfalls of the new technology.  

Much of this was due to the physical demands of the equipment. The boom microphone hadn’t been invented, so large mics had to be somehow concealed on the set, and actors had to do their best to direct their voices toward them. And the camera, which was quite noisy, had to be engulfed in blimp-like wrapping to silence it, or placed inside a sound-proof booth, filming the action from behind a plate-glass window. Both techniques essentially immobilized the camera, rendering the early talkies static and stagebound.  

This is the context from which sprang the Hollywood musical. Early musicals were essentially filmed stage productions, with the camera placed dead center in the equivalent of the front row and the actors and dancers paraded back and forth before its gaze. And that was enough—for a while. Audiences were drawn by the spectacle, by the novelty of sound, and of course by the allure of Hollywood chorus girls. 

Then came Busby Berkeley. 

Before making the move to Hollywood, Berkeley had made a name for himself as a choreographer in a string of successful New York stage productions. Once in the movie business he quickly expanded his role, first taking over the direction of his musical numbers and then assuming control of the films themselves.  

Berkeley wasn’t much of a director when there was no music. In fact, he was quite mediocre. It’s unclear whether he simply had no talent for handling actors and dialogue or simply didn’t care enough to bother. But once the music started, there was no one like him. He exploited every device and angle that cinema afforded him. 

Berkeley presented dancers in vast groups, in multitudes swirling about in shifting geometric patterns. More often than not these multitudes featured dozens of identically and scantily clad ingenues in pulsating patterns, with the camera dollying smoothly and suggestively toward and through them. Film critic David Thomson, in his Biographical Dictionary of Film, describes Berkeley as having revealed cinema’s “ready, lascivious disposition toward orgy.” 

Gold Diggers of 1935 was made shortly after the industry began enforcing the Production Code, Hollywood’s attempt to appease the federal government by a method of self-censorship. It laid down strict rules of morality for film content: villains were to be punished; good must always triumph over evil; loose women should learn the error of their ways or at least be made to face dire consequences, etc. A director could manage to smuggle in some immoral behavior here and there, as long as it was questioned or punished by the film’s end. 

There were plenty of directors who flouted these rules, slipping subtle innuendo into their films. But no one subverted the code more ostentatiously than Berkeley. 

By the time Gold Diggers was made, sound technology had advanced significantly, with boom mics and a mobile cameras allowing Berkeley to expand his canvas. Though it is neither the film’s biggest nor most famous number, the “Words in My Heart” sequence is one of Berkeley’s most fascinating. The song features dozens of virginal upper-class society girls, dressed in white and seated primly at pearly white baby grand pianos, all swirling and spinning in ecstatic little pirouettes amid a sea of blackness. As they move about, the group takes on various shapes, at one point aligning themselves in two columns which recede into the distance. The two lines begin to move apart and together again in sensuous undulations as the camera pulls back, essentially taking on the appearance of a sort of animated Georgia O’Keefe painting.  

This would be suggestive enough, but Berkeley takes it a step further. For if you look closely, under each of those pianos is a pair of black-clad legs, the legs of dozens of men who are essentially carrying the pianos on their backs, propelling these young belles around the floor. The furtiveness of their placement, along with the positioning of the their bodies in relationship to the women, suggests far more than one might suspect at first glance. 

The fact that these men are visible is not an accident. Special effects were quite sophisticated by the early 1920s. This is not a case of a director clumsily revealing the mechanics of his technique. Berkeley chose to make those men visible, chose to incorporate them into the dance, chose to allow reflections on the black floor to bring out their silhouettes. With Freudian flair, he quite deliberately placed them beneath the gleaming, shimmering surfaces of lovely white pianos and lovely white ladies. 

The song is followed a few minutes later by the film’s climactic sequence, Winy Shaw’s Oscar-winning performance of “Lullaby of Broadway.” Again, the segment is typical Berkeley: A swarm of dancers parades across vast Art Deco sets, drawing Shaw into their whirlwind of movement. But the sequence ends abruptly as Shaw falls from a balcony to her death. It’s difficult to interpret this development: Was Berkeley bowing to the Production Code? Or was he satirizing the code? Or was it just a tragic little melodrama with no greater consideration?  

Perhaps it was meant to appease the censors, not for Wini Shaw’s devil-may-care frolic among the chorus, but for the racy “Words in My Heart” sequence that preceded it.  

In the depths of the depression, Hollywood provided glossy, escapist movies which sought to entertain audiences by returning them to the heady days of the 1920s, to the days of jazz, flappers and prosperity, an era when the theories of Sigmund Freud were in vogue. And in that generation of directors, there was no one more giddily Freudian than Busby Berkeley. 

The Busby Berkeley Collection 

Featuring Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1935, as well as bonus features, including a compilation of more than 20 complete musical numbers from nine of Berkeley’s Warner Bros. films of the 1930s.  

Warner Home Video. Unrated. $59.98›

The Devil’s Disciple, Bernard Shaw’s comedy set during the Revolutionary War—and now onstage at Live Oak Theatre in an Actors Ensemble production—is a humorous collision between costume drama, comedy of manners and a problem play: Shaw’s peculiar formula. 

It follows out the line of deliberate statements of apostasy by the self-proclaimed “Devil’s Disciple,” one Dick Dudgeon (Josh Lenn), and his seemingly Non-Euclidean parallel actions that never quite intersect with the blackened self-impression which he carefully presents to puritanical Websterbridge, New Hampshire, in 1777. The plot involves his family, the local Presbyterian minister (Jim Colgan) and his pretty young wife (Nancy Bower) and the occupying forces of His Majesty’s Army. Dick’s brother Christy (Christopher Fabbro) rankles against their mother’s (Dory Ehrlich) pious sternness—“least said is soonest mended”—as they await the arrival of minister and attorney (David Cohen) to hear the reading of old Dudgeon’s will. They also learn that his brother was just hanged by the British as a rebel in nearby Springtown.  

Mrs. Dudgeon is deadset against her eldest: “I am Richard’s mother. If I am against him, who has any right to be for him?” and acidly tells the minister he lost influence over her when he married a young thing. Dick high-handedly waltzes in and claims his lion’s-share of family estate. ”Because, sir,” as the lawyer declares, “the courts will sustain the claims of a man, and that the eldest son, against the claims of any woman.” 

But Mrs. Dudgeon isn’t having anything of primogeniture; she stalks out of the house her late husband intended them to live in together as a family, with Prodigal Son Dick providing for them and acting “as a good friend to my old horse, Jim.” 

Only his young cousin Essie (Lily Cantor), “that sinful child” who slept when her father “was just in the grave,” asks to stay with him in the family home. Dick sticks it to the townfolk who have come to hear the reading, telling them with delight to their faces what they only discuss behind each other’s back. 

Actors’ Ensemble, with David Stein directing, essays its way through this welter of tartly hilarious contradiction. And it succeeds at the point many community theater productions of Shaw conk out. 

There’s a somewhat rough start in act one, with diction and dynamics often out of kilter—enlivened by some juice from Cohen and Lenn, though Dick’s swagger gets a bit pose-y and his glibness a bit too contemporary in manner. Act two begins to get in step, and the third act, the most suave of Shavian comedy in the play, hits its stride with the excellent repartee of Kyle Nash as mannered Major Swindon, dismissive of the efficacy of the colonials who have started to surround them, and splendid Tom Reilly as “Gentlemanly Johnny.” 

They insist on all behaving like gentleman throughout kangaroo court and hanging, though Johnny speaks of incompetence and red tape as the real enemies, in London, and remarks to stilted Maj. Swindon, “Your friend the British soldier can stand up to anything—except the British War Office!” 

The final scenes veer between drama and farce: with the rope around his neck, Dick’s confronted with a High Church priest ( Cohen again) he hasn’t asked for, and lashes out at his pious reading of scripture with “Thou shalt not kill”—to which the priest snaps back: “Now what do you want me to do with that?” 

But another substitution takes place: “In the hour of trial, a man finds his true profession.” 

Just as the man of God turned out to be the revolutionary, Dick, in the midst of yet further reversals, discovers his true calling is rather different from the position espoused in his fluent and frequent freethinking rhetoric. 

Dick Dudgeon’s that unique character, the Shavian hero, a figure that perhaps led Bertolt Brecht in his search for a political and epic theater to investigate what Walter Benjamin called “the untragic hero,” a creature of the contradictions of his peculiar predicament in the conditions that bred him. 

Shaw’s comedy is always conditional, yet has the gleam in the eye of the actor who steps out of the scene for an instant, pointing back to it with humor, saying, “Can you believe this?” 

Box:  

The Actors Ensemble of Berkeley present The Devil's Disciple by George Bernard Shaw at Live Oak Theatre at Live Oak Park on Shattuck Avenue through May 6. For more information, see www.aeofberkeley.org or call 525-1620.  

The Actors Ensemble of Berkeley present The Devil’s Disciple by George Bernard Shaw at Live Oak Theatre at Live Oak Park on Shattuck Avenue through May 6. For more information call 525-1620 or see www.aeofberkeley.org.

One century ago the Bay Area was rocked off its foundations. Every year around this time we’re reminded that the next “big one” is just around the corner. For weeks we’ve heard survivor stories of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and received advice abou t how to be prepared when the ground again rattles beneath our feet. 

Our earthquake survival kit requires food supplies for several days. While many might access Costco, I am here to suggest a much more civilized, European experience. Stroll through Nor t h Berkeley’s epicurean groaning board. Alert your senses, revisit the past and fill your basket with enough treats to ease your way through any disaster. 

North Berkeley’s origins can be traced to 1878 with the extension of the steam railroad from downt ow n to a new terminus at Shattuck and Vine. The first settlers to this neighborhood were railroad men and their families. Over the years the area developed into quiet middle-class. In Brown Shingles, many with Arts and Crafts accents, Victorians and Califor nia bungalows, it became a desirable place to live and raise a family.  

Metamorphosis began in 1966. The quietly pretty cabbage moth took on the brilliant markings of the Monarch butterfly. With the opening of Peet’s Coffee, the Cheeseboard and Chez Pani sse, a unique upscale commercial entity focusing on quality was born, revolutionizing American cooking and taste. Berkeley’s spirit of “power to the people” spoke in the collective organization of several businesses, including the Cheeseboard and its Juice Bar and Pizza offshoots.  

Today Berkeley’s gourmet ghetto travels the length of Shattuck offering an eclectic assortment of sense-tingling stimuli, for eyes, nose and taste buds. Being in the memories- mode of contemplation, I combined my prepared ness foray with thoughts of how businesses have survived and flourished throughout the years. One of Berkeley’s oldest, Virginia Bakery has excelled since 1924. 

Upon entering I’m surrounded by the fragrance of butter, sugar and vanilla and immediately se lect an Almond Wreath for my kit. Composed of pull-apart rolls topped with sugar frosting and sliced almonds this will ease my way into any morning. Packages of dainty, melt-in-your-mouth decorated cookies are next. These cookies were rewards in my family for every trip to Berkeley Pediatrics up the street. Pain from any shot dissolved upon tasting a sprinkle-coated bite. 

Roasting chicken evokes a warm hearth feeling and Poulet’s farmhouse atmosphere lures you in. Bright and cheerful is the theme both inside and out with attractive seating and décor. Cheerful chicken tablecloths, pale yellow walls and leg-dangling poultry figurines are the ideal setting for sampling Grecian quinoa salad, roasted beets with orange or adobo chicken. 

Baubles and Beads has just the cure for idle fingers. With beads from the Czech Republic, India, Africa and Bali, hours cut off from our electronic alter egos will seem like minutes. Walls of colored vials and strung beads present a rainbow palette, as do small plastic boxes a top e asy-browsing waist high cabinets. There’s no need to memorize price tags from 10 cents to $5 using convenient trays sorted by cost. Earrings, necklaces and bracelets in glass, metal and stone are projects awaiting your touch. 

At the ACCI Gallery, t he cur rent exhibit presents artistic interpretations of transformation, easily fitting into this earthquake theme. In “Remake/Remodel: Rebound,” unique materials provide outlets for personal experiences. In this handsome brick building, recently retrofit ted, th rowaway items are reborn. Books become tilting towers atop tree stumps; used tea bags, labels attached, form bed quilts; maxi pads and adult diapers are combined into wedding cakes; and Salvation Army socks and gloves are felted into fuzzy, gray o rganic w all sculptures, proving that almost any discard can be reincarnated. Lovely hand painted ceramic tableware by Paula Ross in warm spring pastels may not survive a temblor but still finds room in my earthquake kit. 

Sidewalk tables and roasting espresso sig nal time for a break. At the French Hotel, a brick building that once steamed with laundry now wafts the distinct aroma of the best Cappuccino in town. Rain or shine, outside tables are full and the line snakes out the door. Lines are always on order at C heesboard Pizza but no one seems to care. 

Listening to jazz and not needing to decide which pizza to select allows time to enjoy the bouquets on offer at Emilia’s flower stand. Sweet scent from color-saturated roses and tulips wafts with the c heese and g arlic emanating from next door, a true Berkeley experience. Only Cheeseboard Pizza can create a “kitchen sink” of fresh fennel, roasted onions, feta, mozzarella, calamata olives and gremolata exploding with flavor. 

How can any more be written about the Cheeseboard’s selection of cheeses, breads and pastries? Or their strong collective spirit? Needing to choose among 23 varieties of “blue cheese,” read the chalkboard so crammed that it appears solid white, decide between asiago and simple whea t loaves or a chocolate thing versus a cherry corn scone explains why multiple visits are required. 

At the Juice Bar Collective you’ll marvel that so much hearty fare can be created in this narrow boxcar space. Every bit of counter and stovetop is put into use to cr eate smoothies, soup, black bean polenta and spinach lasagna, guaranteed to warm body and soul on heater-less nights. 

Forty years ago the original Peet’s Coffee occupied a small space on the corner of Walnut and Vine serving incredibly rich coffee to mos tly inexperienced palettes. I remember being waited on by Alfred Peet himself, setting the standard of quality that continues to this day. His appearance and manner spoke of European traditions. Today the Peet’s franchise has spread, offerings have increa sed and brown-coated Alfred Peet is here in spirit only, but Peet’s still serves the strongest coffee around. 

There’s still room for additional survival supplies. Black Oak Books offers Politics and Current Events across from Cookbooks as you enter the s tore, perfect complements for lively discussions. Author photographs atop wooden bookshelves line the walls. Whatever your need or fancy, choices abound at this independent bookshop known for weekly book readings. 

At Saul’s Delicatessen the take-out coun ter tempts with tabouleh, hummus, chopped liver and herring. Cozy red leather booths contrast with the black and white theme carried out in decor and photos lining the walls. Generous sandwiches, bowls of crispy, savory pickles and matzo ball soup indulge your taste buds. 

Indulgence is the key at Masse’s and chocolate is its name. Truffles, made fresh daily, cakes almost too pretty to eat and assorted cookies, each a single delicious bite, are everyday fare. European in style and service, the simplest cu p of coffee and treat is served on white china at small, cozy tables, both inside and out. Not convinced that the passion fruit torte is what you want for your next party? Try the exact copy in miniature form, just to be sure. 

With bask et and senses groaning, you’ve merely sampled one slice of this epicurean neighborhood. Amble up the street to Live Oak Park, maybe join a basketball pick-up game, follow the paths across Codornices Creek beneath towering redwoods or see what’s on view at the Berkeley Art Center. Tucked amid its forest setting, this avant-garde gallery specializes in the work of local artists. 

Then head back for more. Try a wander into newly opened Epicurious Garden, on Shattuck Avenue near Vine Street, where passion for food transforms t ake-out into a gourmet experience. 

Earthquake preparation is no joke. Everyone needs to plan for safety, but there’s no reason we can’t do it with style. North Berkeley has more than enough style to go around. 

Virginia Bakery 

1690 Sha ttuck Ave., 848-6711 

Poulet 

1685 Shattuck Ave., 845-5932 

Baubles and Beads 

1676 Shattuck Ave., 644-BEAD 

ACCI Gallery 

1652 Shattuck Ave., 843-2527 

French Hotel 

1538 Shattuck Ave., 548-9930 

Cheeseboard 

1504 Shattuck Ave., 549-3183 

Juice Bar Collective 

2114 Vine St., 548-8473 

Peet’s Coffee & Tea 

2124 Vine St., 841-0564 

Black Oak Books 

1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698 

Saul’s Deli 

1475 Shattuck Ave., 848-DELI 

Masse’s Pastries 

1469 Shattuck Ave., 649-1004 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St., 644-6893 

Ep icurious Garden 

1509-1513 Shattuck Ave. 

Photo Caption: Marta Yamamoto 

The lunch crowd overflows the sidewalk and ignores the median strip sign outside the Cheeseboard. 

Photo Credit: MARTA YAMAMOTO 

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Mention Folsom and most folks think of the prison. That connection has become even stronger since the Academy Award-nominated movie Walk the Line brought the town’s famous, scenically situated Folsom Prison to prominence once again.  

Anyone with an interest in Johnny Cash or the penitentiary can walk a line into the prison’s tiny museum. Outfitted with an intriguing collection of confiscated weapons, it also displays a vintage copy of Cash’s famous record album.  

But many travelers don’t realize historic Folsom is also a worthy overnight destination. Located off Highway 50 just 22 miles east of Sacramento, the town makes a great stop on the way to or from South Lake Tahoe. I spent two nights there recently and left with many places still unexplored.  

History 

The first railroad west of the Mississippi originated in the town’s historic depot. Now a new rapid transit light rail service runs along that original route, connecting Folsom with Sacramento.  

The Folsom History Museum tells the town’s Gold Rush story. You can weigh in on an old-fashioned balance scale and, on Sundays, watch gold-panning demonstrations. The historic Railroad Turntable, which rests on its original granite pivot stone, is nearby.  

Also, the first and largest hydroelectric generating plant west of the Mississippi was built here in 1895. It operated until 1952, when the Folsom Dam hydroelectric plant began operating. Now known as Folsom Powerhouse State Historic Park, it is a great spot for kids to explore, with a “busy table” holding enticing experiments inside and a large park with sheltered picnic tables overlooking Lake Natoma outside.  

Tours 

Two of the town’s best tours are right in the historic downtown.  

You can tour a studio used by a collective of artists at Cloud’s Porcelain and learn how various kinds of pottery are made. A gift shop sells the wares.  

Or drop into Snooks Chocolate Factory for free samples and to observe a candy-making demonstration. If you’re lucky, they’ll be operating their candy machine that spits out hand-made chocolates just like that one in the famous “I Love Lucy” episode. Though everything is yummy, the fresh peanut brittle and the old-fashioned fudge are spectacular.  

Animals 

The tiny Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary provides refuge for non-releasable injured, orphaned, and “troubled” native North American animals. A few exotics and the largest captive wolf pack in Northern California are among them, and two new enclosures hold American black bears and mountain lions. 

In the park outside the zoo gates, the Folsom Valley Railway—a small 12-inch narrow gauge steam train that formerly ran in Berkeley’s Tilden Park—now takes riders here on a happy 10-minute ride.  

Something fishy is always happening at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, where kazillions of fingerlings are busy growing in the tanks. In the fall, when the Chinook salmon return from the ocean, a fish ladder is opened; steelhead trout show up in the winter. Fish food can be purchased for a nickel, and a Visitor Center has educational exhibits.  

Recreation 

Among the area’s myriad outdoor activities are bicycling and river kayaking. As the third-best cycling city in the state, Folsom offers “a spider web of bike trails”—including the 32-mile-long American River Parkway Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, which runs off-road all the way from Sacramento to Folsom Lake. Bicycle rentals are easily available.  

Kayaking on the river is also popular. 

Negro Bar—the historic name for the area within Folsom Lake State Recreation Area where African-Americans struck gold in 1849—is a super-scenic bend in the river and a prime put-in spot. Kayak rentals are available on-site on weekends May through mid-October. You can also swim here and picnic at tables sheltered by mature trees, and a bike trail is nearby.  

Overnighting as I did, at the Lake Natoma Inn, positioned just a few blocks from the historical downtown and the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, makes it possible to keep your car parked and walk to many sights and a plethora of antique shops and restaurants.  

Good food is easy to find. The informal Balcony Bistro features a warm, open dining room with original art hung on its brick walls and serves up some tasty, well-priced fare. Fresh fish, creative pastas (anyone for a pear-and-walnut version?), and classics such as roasted duck confit are sometimes options on the always-changing menu. Tea is served daily at Partea Time, and kids can choose from tutti fruiti and bubblegum flavored tea.  

Can’t get away now? Plan your trip for the fall, when you can tie it in with an annual event. Two particularly exciting ones happen each October. Folsom Live! features an assortment of live jazz and rock in downtown bars and restaurants, plus a large outdoor stage for the bigger names. 

Last year The Guess Who performed. More live music plus a barbecued salmon bake occurs at the hatchery’s annual Salmon Festival. Both are family-friendly and very popular with locals.  

Mayor Bob Holderness says, “Folsom has always been a one-horse town—first mining, then farming, then the prison. Hi-tech arrived with Intel in 1982.” 

Lucky for us, perhaps the newest horse is tourism.  

Carole Terwilliger Meyers is the author of Weekend Adventures in San Francisco & Northern California (www.carousel-press.com) and is the editor of Dream Sleeps: Castle & Palace Hotels of Europe. 

Photo Credit: Carole Terwilliger Meyers

In 1873, UC Berkeley’s first commencement exercises were held. It was on that occasion that California’s governor Newton Booth, who was considered one of the great public speakers of his day, called Berkeley the “Athens of the West.” The appellation stuck—not only in word but in practice. And so it came to pass that in 1914, a wealthy Norwegian-Hawaiian family brought its large brood to Berkeley to be properly educated. 

The pater familias was sugar pioneer Hans Peter Fayé II (1859–1928). Born in Norway, young Hans arrived on the island of Kauai in 1880. He leased land, cleared it of lava boulders, dug an artesian well for irrigation, and planted sugar cane. In 1898, he merged the H.P. Fayé Company with another plantation and a sugar mill, forming the Kekaha Sugar Company, which he managed for thirty years, until his death. 

In 1893, Hans Peter married Margaret Bonnar Lindsay (1873–1961). Between 1895 and 1912, they brought to the world three girls and five boys. The youngest was born in Norway, where the Fayés had returned to live. When the Nordic climate proved inhospitable, the family returned to the USA. In 1914, seven of the children were of school age, with the eldest ready to enter college. The Fayés purchased a Berkeley residence at 3122 Claremont Avenue, between Eton Ave. and Woolsey Street. It was a stately Queen Anne surrounded by extensive grounds (today there are 21 houses standing on the same land), previously owned by John Howard Smith, a San Francisco attorney. When Smith first occupied the house in 1878, the address was still given as the “west side of old Telegraph Road near the foothills.” 

During the Fayés’ 15-year residence at 3122 Claremont Ave., there was always at least one student in the house. In 1919, after completing his studies at Choate School and Yale, the second child and eldest son, Hans P. Fayé III (1896–1984), began working in the San Francisco office of his father’s agent, American Factors, Inc. The following year, he married Charlotte Eaton (1898–2000), and in 1924 the couple bought a house at 40 Eucalyptus Road, where they remained only two years. As their family grew, a larger home was needed, and in 1926 they purchased 15 Hillcrest Court, a short walk away from the parents’ estate. This house will be open during BAHA’s Spring House Tour on Sunday May 7. 

In 1927, Hans Peter II transferred ownership of his Claremont estate to the H.P. Fayé, Ltd. Company, no doubt with the intention of developing the land. His death and the crash of 1929 delayed the plans only slightly. One new house was constructed on the land in 1930, but in May 1931, H.P. Fayé, Ltd. sold the entire Claremont property to Oakland contractor John F. Whalen and his wife Lillian, carrying back a mortgage. The land, known as Tract No. 502 or Claremont Gardens, was subdivided around a cul-de-sac street called Brookside Drive, and 20 additional homes were built, the majority of them in 1932 and ’33. 

In 1934, Hans Peter III was transferred to Honolulu, where he would eventually rise to the presidency of Amfac. His four brothers carried on their father’s various enterprises. Anton Lindsay managed the Kekaha Sugar Company, Alan Eric Sr. ran the Waimea Sugar Plantation, and Eyvind Marcus took control of the El Dorado Ranch in Yolo County, where his two sons and grandson still grow a large variety of fruits and nuts. Hans Peter II’s widow, Margaret Fayé, chose to stay on in Berkeley, as did her sister-in-law Ebba and daughter Isabel. 

Ebba Fayé (1873–1966) settled into a Craftsman cottage at 3038 Hillegass Ave., sharing it with Margaret. But once Hans Peter III had moved to Honolulu, Mrs. Fayé took over his Hillcrest Court house. It wasn’t quite as grand as what she had been accustomed to, for the very same year she undertook major alterations at the cost of $4,869. The results were apparently satisfactory, since this elegant house remained in the family for over five decades, serving as its world headquarters. Here the Fayé children and their children would flock at Christmas time. This was also the scene of Mrs. Fayé’s formal dinner parties, during which she reputedly locked the kitchen to keep it out of her guests’ view, using a buzzer under the dining table to summon the staff.  

Meanwhile, the eldest daughter, Isabel Bonnar Fayé (1895–1982), lived in an apartment at 2369 Le Conte Ave., then a tony Holy Hill building across the street from Phoebe Apperson Hearst’s former residence. These days, looking somewhat dowdy, the building is owned by the Pacific School of Religion and houses its students. 

In the late 1940s, Isabel moved to 1524 Spruce St., directly across from the Second Church of Christ, Scientist. Here she remained until her mother’s death in 1961. Then it was her turn to occupy 15 Hillcrest Court, where she continued living for the rest of her life. 

Amfac eventually acquired Kekaha Sugar Co., and Lindsay “Tony” Fayé, Jr. managed the company twice before his retirement in 1992. The Waimea Sugar Mill Company was renamed Kikiaola Land Company, Ltd., still owned by the Fayé family. They are no longer in sugar, but their Waimea Plantation Cottages resort in West Kauai, with 60 restored historic houses, offers vacationers the opportunity to savor the atmosphere of an authentic Hawaiian plantation. 

Photo Caption: Daniella Thompson: 

Margaret Fayé’s Claremont home, designed by Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., will be open on BAHA’s house tour, Sunday, May 7. 

Jerry Sulliger participated in the research for this article. 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Spring House Tour & Garden Reception 

Sunday, May 7, 2006 – 1 to 5 p.m.  

This year's tour showcases eleven charming and elegant homes designed by Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr. in Claremont Park. Tour map, illustrated guidebook, and refreshments will be provided. General admission $35; BAHA members and guests $25. For information and reservations, visit the BAHA website http://berkeleyheritage.com or e-mail baha@berkeleyheritage.com.

My wife and I spent the night in Sacramento last night. Nice town, Sacramento, if a bit kitschy in parts. I guess that’s what you get with tourist towns. Some nice stuff. Some kitsch. The older part has some very beautiful older homes from the early part of the 20th century and more than a few buildings from the 19th century. One of the things that my wife, Este, and I share is a great love of old things, houses, cars, paintings, you name it. It’s part of why we live here. 

Coming back from the capital, we were saddened (and occasionally appalled) by the influx of modern buildings. Modern isn’t really the right term though because it just doesn’t say enough about what we’re seeing.  

Most of what we see, outside of our little town, is just so economically oriented that anything akin to art, solidity or permanence is utterly missing. So many buildings today seem as though they are designed to be temporary structures. How can these enclosures be intended to be a legacy to a future generations.  

Even if they do manage to stand the test of time (which is not very likely given the methods involved in the manufacture of so much of what’s out there), what do they say about who we are and what we believe? It’s really very sad. I’m not so sure that those who put up buildings a hundred years ago were all that saintly but I don’t believe that they could conceive of the notion of building a municipal building or a permanent residence that didn’t convey the music and poetry of the time. 

Today we are astounded at the lovely oaken floors that adorn nearly every local house from 1900-1950, many of which feature extravagant knotted borders but these were considered base-line, ordinary choices. The notion of using anything less for a “home” was unacceptable. Today, a plywood floor with a neutral toned polyester carpet is considered adequate. Flat sheetrock walls with nary a trim are the standard fare.  

Why is this? Who are we now that beauty is so much less the imperative? When did square footage become the overriding design criterion? 

After the big fire, it was hard not to notice that so many of the replacement homes were driven this way. Each home was twice the size of the preceding one, sometimes more. The architecture was often nondescript. 

I can recall getting lost in a house during an inspection and thinking, there’s no pattern to the layout, just rooms and rooms and more rooms. 

No hub, no center, no defining feature to any particular part, like an animal all made out of necks, no head, no tail, no belly. On the other hand, maybe I just lack a sense of direction. 

Coming out of the hinterlands of strip-mall and mega-residential conglomerations, we rolled our 20 year old Volvo back into Berkeley. Safe. No bullet holes and only a little depressed for the trial of aesthetic catharsis. 

As we cruised up into North Berkeley, we passed the usual hundreds of old houses and agreed that this was a very beautiful and special place. These old houses and commercial buildings enhance our lives in a very practical and daily way. They really do. 

As we begin to build anew, or to remodel, we have the opportunity to recreate some of what has been done before. To study and to emulate the successes of the past. This does not necessarily mean copying but can mean drawing the essence and instilling elements from these successes.  

An easy way for any one of us to do this is to literally use a piece of something beautiful left over from a time when great expenses were not spared in the making of doorknobs and baseboards. 

Our local salvage shops are filled with these treasures. Sometimes it seems to me that these places are museums with free admissions for viewing great artworks of industrial design. And for a few dollars you can own a piece for yourself. 

The next time you’re considering a small remodeling on your older home, think about first taking a trip to the salvage yard and selecting a few old treasures with which to construct your new space. 

A bath remodel is a great project in which to include some of these grand finds but some complications will be attendant. Good plumbers, in particular, will be needed for this adventure. 

For a simple enhancement, just pick out some old brass hooks to hang towels on. Many salvage yards have wild, extravagant brass hooks that can hang on a door or a wall. 

Think about an old sink, if you don’t mind a chip or a small crack and have it outfitted with either old or new hardware. There are also reproduction sinks of old styles as well as antique style faucets or the whole 9 yard works available for a clawfoot tub including tub faucets, shower faucets, soap dishes, hoops and gigantic shower heads in porcelain and brass. 

For the very adventurous, there are loads of clawfoot tubs out there, many still fitted with drains, waste-overflow piping and other bells and whistles. It’s not necessary to do all the plumbing in old parts. A few visible, touchable parts can be enough. Maybe just an old door with a mortise lock is enough to take you back. Or how about a leaded or stained glass window? Surprisingly, many are sitting out there in the salvage yards. 

These things are out there waiting to be taken home and loved and to give us all a little reminder of a time when art was everywhere and the thought of a hinge without a little filigree was just, well, unthinkable. 

Here’s a list of a few local “museums” of construction. Some feature more “cleaned-up” parts and some, being a little cheaper, feature piles of parts just as they came in. Some also feature reproductions.  

• Urban Ore 900 Murray St. (near 7th & Ashby) Berkeley, 841-7283. 

• The Sink Factory, 2140 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, 540-8193. 

• Ohmega Salvage, 2407 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. 

• Omega Too (lighting) is across the street, 204-0767 www.ohmegasalvage.com. 

• Ruiz Lighting, 2333 Clement St., Alameda, 769-6082. 

A nice list of other yards and stores can be found on Ohmega’s website under Links. 

We sadly lost Berkeley Architectural Salvage this year, the MOMA of salvage yards. I guess if we don’t use ‘em, we’ll lose ‘em. A fond good-bye and thanks to Alan Goodman who ran BAS all those years.  

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

Matt Cantor owns Cantor Inspections and lives in Berkeley. His column runs weekly. 

Copyright 2005 Matt Cantor›

Maybe we’re going to get sprung after all. Maybe we don’t have to try raising duck potatoes and cattails in all our gardens, and who knows? The sun might even come out for a few days before the summer fog rolls in.  

In the event we get some garden time this year, there are lots of resources blooming this season. Fall may be the best time to plant a lot of things, especially natives, to take advantage of the winter rains, but spring is when our fancies turn to green stuff.  

Tomorrow (Saturday, April 22) Merritt College Landscape Horticulture Department throws its annual spring plant fair. This is a great place to find garden mainstays, food plants, and good advice; it’s also a place for unusual plants: things you never heard of and new variations on old favorites. 

There’s also live music, food, and art, and good advice about soils, structures, plants, exposures, pruning, or any other garden-related question you might have. 

While you’re there, take a stroll through the department’s grounds and don’t miss the vista from the western deck. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 12500 Campus Drive, in the Oakland hills; take Hwy. 13 to the Redwood Road exit and go uphill to turn right on Campus Drive. 

More ideas, inspiration, and advice can be found on garden tours: Register—right now, quick!—to tour or volunteer, at www.bringingbackthenatives.net/ for this year’s Bringing Back the Natives tour. It’s free and fascinating, and includes freebies, garden talks, and the chance to see how natives get along with other plants and wildlife in an immense variety of situations and combinations. Self-guided all-Bay-Area tour, Sunday, May 7, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.  

Park Day School’s annual Secret Gardens of the East Bay Tour happens Sunday, April 30, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine. Order tickets, $45 each, at www.parkdayschool.org/secretgardens/ tour.html or call the hotline, (510) 653-6250. There’s a garden marketplace and lunch available at the school, or order a box lunch with your ticket, for $13.  

Reserve a tour of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek and seize the chance to buy plants from that great place afterwards. The garden has lots of succulents and irises, and you can make drainage good enough for them; take a look at the mounding method the inimitable Mrs. Bancroft used to build her oasis. 

Docent-led tours are given Fridays, 9:30 a.m., and Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Self-guided tours Fridays, 1 p.m. and Sundays, 4 p.m. All tours $7/person. Registration required; go to www.ruthbancroftgarden.org/mailtours.html or call (925) 210-9663.  

Plan for Mother’s Day: Annie’s Annuals throws an appropriately annual party at the nursery in Richmond, May 13 and 14 this year; see anniesannuals.com for directions. California Native Plant Society’s Yerba Buena Chapter runs a free self-guided tour of native gardens in San Francisco on May 14, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this year. 

Download a map and address list at www.cnps-yerbabuena.org/gardentour.html—this one thoughtfully includes notes on how accessible each garden is to people using walkers.  

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet.

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Ron Parsons on “Wildflowers of California” 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.  

“Haiti at the Crossroads” A discussion with Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, Haitian human rights activist and coordinator, and Brian Concannon, human rights lawyer and director, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, at 7 p.m. at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, 2362 Bancroft Way. Enter from church parking lot between Bancroft & Durant. 483-7481.    

“Votergate” a film followed by discussion with Jim Soper at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation $7. 528-5403.  

“A Large Pill to Swallow: Navigating the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Coverage Program” with health insurance counselors at 1 p.m. at the Center for Independent Living, 2539 Telegraph Ave. Please bring a list of your medications and dosages with you. 559-1406. 

Knit and Crochet Show and Marketplace Fri. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Oakland Marriott City Center. www.KnitandCrochetShow.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. 845-1041. 

Women in Black Vigil at noon at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 22 

Berkeley Earth Day Celebration from noon to 5 p.m. and Civic Center Park. Cultural performances, food, craft and community booths and activities. To volunteer call 654-6346, ext. 2. 

West County Earth Day with crafts, workshops, entertainment and food from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 101 Pittsburg Ave., one block off the Richmond Parkway. 215-3125. 

Earth Day Cleanup of the Berkeley Shoreline from 10 a.m. to noon at the Eastshore State Park in Berkeley. To sign up call 544-2515. 

Earth Day Computer Recycling Drop-off from 10 a.m. to noon at the Elephant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave.  

Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club Open House from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bowling Green, 2270 Acton St., corner of Bancroft. Lawn bowling lessons and refreshments. 898-1931. 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Earth Day at Habitot from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Celebrate the environment and make hand-made recycled paper, nature collages, and art sculptures at 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111.  

Rhododendron Flower Show and plant sale, by the American Rhododendron Society, with rare and unusual varieties in all colors, Sat. from noon to 5 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Free. www.calchapterars.org 

Bioforum: Water and California A look at current research on California’s waterways and water uses from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $15-$30. To register call 415-321-8104. 

Berkeley History Center Walking Tour: “Earthquake Relief Efforts on the UC Campus in 1906” led by Bruce Goodell, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0181. www.cityofberkeley.info/histsoc 

Celebration of Children’s Literature Book fair with author signings and costumed characters, storytelling, music and a drop-in art activities for children, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m at Tolman Hall, UC Campus. http://gse.berkeley.edu/ 

admin/childlit 

“No Toddler Left Behind? The Pros and Cons of California’s Preschool for All Act” with Bruce Fuller, David Kirp and Louis Freedberg, moderator, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Graduate School of Education, Tolman Hall, Room 2515, UC Campus. 642-0137. 

Creating Your Garden Paradise with Aerin Moore at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Landscape Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Edith Coliver Festival of Cultures with a focus on Switzerland, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. at Bancoft. Cost is $5-$7. 642-9461. 

“President Bush: Reckless Disregard for the Truth—and the Law” with Elizabeth de la Vega, former Chief of the San Jose Branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Home of Truth Center, 1300 Grand St., Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. Free, donations accepted. www.alamedaforum.org 

“Cancer in Other Words” A series of four writing workshops for women on Sat. through May 13 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Summit Campus, 450 30th St., Oakland. Registration required. 869-8833. 

Guide Dogs for the Blind A presentation by Jan Robitscher and her dog Christmas at 11 a.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. All ages welcome. 524-3043. 

Emeryville’s Spring Festival with fun for the entire family from noon to 2 p.m. at Bay St., Emeryville. 655-4002.  

Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk orientation meeting at 1 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd floor meeting room, 2090 Kittredge St. The walk will take place in July. Benefits the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. RSVP to coaches@theovernight.org 

Noetic Sciences Earth Day Conference from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Auditorium, Oakland. Cost is $75. www.noetic.org 

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.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

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 23 

Turtle Time Meet the awakening reptiles from 1 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Draft Registration and Conscientious Objection—What Every Teenager Needs to Know” A workshop from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. Free. 925-274-0900. 

Celebrate People’s Park 37th Anniversary from noon to 7 p.m. with music, dancing, children’s activities, spaekers and food. 390-0830. 

Create a Perennial Border Using California Natives. A workshop with horticulturist Nathan Smith, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $20-$25. Registration required. 643-2755. 

“Berkeley Architecture of Bernard Maybeck” with UC Architecture Professor Emeritus Kenneth H. Cardwell at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181.  

Berkeley Cybersalon meets to discuss “Asperger’s: The Geek Syndrome?” with Steve Silberman, Ellen Ullman, Annette Blackman and Philip Rosedale, at 5 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $15. Please RSVP to 527-0450. 

Dog Park Behavior Training from 10 a.m. to noon in Ohlone Dog Park, Grant St. and Hearst Ave., and on Sun. April 30. Cost for both sessions is $15 and free for ODPA members. People (and dogs) must attend both sessions. 845-4213. ohlonedogpark.org 

Loose leash Walking Workshop at 3 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2128 Cedar St. Cost is $35. Registration required. 849-9323. companyofdogs.com 

“Don’t Be Six Feet Under Without a Plan” Learn about creating a living will, powers of attorney and end of life services at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207. 

Fashion Fusion 2006 Show Annual charity fashion show at 3 and 7 p.m. in the Pauley Ballroom, Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, UC Campus. Tickets are $5-$10. http://fashion.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Hands-On Bicycle Clinic on flat repair from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Free. 527-4140. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker “Structures of the Ego” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 24 

Holocaust Rememberence Day at noon at City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Featuring Chana Bloch, Paula Fass, David Joseph-Goteiner, Joseph Rothberg, Ruth Atkin, and Ljuba Davis. Honoring Ben Sieradski and all Survivors present . 981-7170. 

Berkeley High Red & Golden Girls Reunion Luncheon for women graduates of BHS 50 or more years ago, at 11 a.m. at Double Tree Hotel, Berkeley Marina. Cost is $30. For reservations call 524-6877. 

“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. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 25 

Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration with actors scholars and musicians on “Shakespeare and his religion, from Agnosticism to Zen” at 7 p.m. at the Northbrae Church, 741 The Alameda. 843-6798. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang For hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun. This month we’ll enjoy spring wildflowers and mining history at the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve on a 3-mile hike. To register call 525-2233.  

The BHS Site Council meets at 4:30 p.m. at Berkeley High Conference Room B. On the agenda are a vote on a proposal for a Site Council bylaw change, First Semester Grade Reports, Small Schools Data, Algebra Project Update, Student Coordination Update. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Course begins at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams, 4341 Piedmont Avenue, 2nd Floor, Oakland, and runs to June 13. Sponsored by The Cancer Projec. To register, call 531-2665. 

Raging Grannies of the East Bay invites new folks to come join us the 2nd and 4th Tues, of each month, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. to sing and have fun at Berkeley Gray Panthers office, 1403 Addison St., in Andronico’s mall. 548-9696. 

Earthquake Retrofitting and Home Safety Seminar at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

Green Health Care at 7 p.m. at the Teleosis Institute, 1521B 5th St. To register call 558-7285. 

Berkeley PC User Group meets at 7 p.m. at 25 Dartmouth, in the Hiller Highland area. For questions and directions email rhs@surfbest.net  

Trance Drumming Workshop with Auntie Matter from 7 to 9 p.m. at Change Makers, 6536 Telegraph Ave. at 66th, Oakland. Cost is $40. www. 

changemakersforwomen.com  

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

“Jewish Insights on Transformation” at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley St. at Bancroft. 527-2935. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26  

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult. We will learn about the seasons from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Public Workshop on Community Choice Aggregation at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Classroom A. The cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville are exploring the creation of a public agency that would purchase power and build power plants to serve customers in Berkeley. 981-5434.  

“Iraq: Strategies to Get Out” with Andy Lichterman at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. Sponsored by the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss becomming a Democratic Central Committee Chartered Club of Alameda County, and to discuss “Sell Now! The End of the Housing Bubble” by John R. Talbott at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito. 433-2911. 

Lonely Planet Travel Series with Morgan Konn on Thailand at 6 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, 124 14th St. 238-3136. 

Free Prostate Screening for men ages 35-70 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Herrick Campus, 2001 Dwight Way. Free, but appointments required. 869-8833. 

Early Childhood Safety: Choke Saving Skills at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. Cost is $5-$6. 647-1111. 

Repetitive Stress Injury Learn how to take care of yourself before you get carpal tunnel syndrome at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

“Kabbalah of Creation: The Mysticism of Isaac Luria” with Rabbi Eliyahu Klein at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $10-$20. 848-0237. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 27 

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 

Introduction to BASIL Bay Area Seed Interchange Library Learn about what we do and volunteer opportunities at 5:30 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 658-9178. 

Workplace Bullying A special workshop with Gary Namie, Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute, at 5:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. Sponsored byt the Commission on Labor. 981-6903.  

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. Public is welcome. 845-5513. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Dining Out for Life Over 60 restaurants will donate a portion of their proceeds to Vital Life Services. For a list of participating restaurants, see www.diningoutforlife.com 

Ask a Union Mechanic from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Parker & Shattuck, until the strike is settled. They will offer advice on all makes of car. 

fWorld 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 

“Dancing with Wonder: Self Discovery Through Stories” with Nancy King and Susan Felix at 7:30 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5, reservations required. 848-0237. 

ONGOING 

Poll Workers Needed in Alameda County for June 6 Primary Election. Poll workers must be eligible to register to vote in California, have basic clerical skills. Training classes begin in May. To sign up call 272-6971. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., April 24, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Virginia Aiello, 981-5158. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/parksandrecreation 

City Council meets Tues., April 25 at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Gil Dong, 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 26, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

School Board meets Wed. April 26 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Commission on Labor Special Meeting on Workplace Bullying on Wed., April 27 at 5:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Delfina M. Geiken, 981-7550.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., April 27, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.   

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