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Teacher Maria Carriedo helps Yarik Munguia write letters at the summer bridge preschool program at Rosa Parks Elementary School Wednesday. Sitting next to them, Madison Milan practices her writing. Photograph by Michael Howerton
Teacher Maria Carriedo helps Yarik Munguia write letters at the summer bridge preschool program at Rosa Parks Elementary School Wednesday. Sitting next to them, Madison Milan practices her writing. Photograph by Michael Howerton
 

News

Parents and Kids Prepare for Kindergarten

By Suzanne La Barre
Friday June 30, 2006

The first foray into kindergarten can feel overwhelming for many children who have not previously attended preschool. From socializing with others to learning to hold a writing implement, youngsters with no prior schooling may struggle where their peers forge ahead. 

But a lesser-known fact is that for many parents, sending their children off to school can prove equally daunting.  

Enter the First Five Alameda County summer bridge program, a free, five-week school preparatory program, open to families whose children have not attended preschool. The program is designed to instill school readiness in students and parents, under the well-documented premise that parental involvement bodes well for student success. 

“If you look at educational research, there’s only so much teachers and administrators can do,” said John Santoro, principal of early childhood education in the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD). “Parent education is really seen as something that’s as important as school functions. Teaching parents about school is really extremely important.” 

Though in existence elsewhere in Alameda County for some time, the summer bridge program, funded through First Five, is new to Berkeley this year. Parents found out about the program through the district’s Latino family outreach liaison, websites like Craigslist and the Berkeley Parents Network, and advertisements around the community. Classes commenced June 20. 

Through July 21, a dozen children will assemble at Rosa Parks Elementary School Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to noon, to learn, play and socialize. Over the course of the program, they will learn about numbers, the letters of the alphabet and how to color shapes with crayons. 

They will learn to navigate the plastic slides, variegated climbing structures and metal rings of the school playground. They will learn how to line up, how to use the bathroom and where to hang their coats, as well as how to make friends, how to lose friends and the meaning of the word “tattletale.” In short, they will learn how to do school. 

Today (Friday), it’s the parents who go to school. Each week, a speaker gives a presentation on a distinct facet of education, such as math, literacy or health. Last Friday, over orange juice and pastries, around a low-slung table with pint-sized chairs, eight parents and one English-to-Spanish translator listened intently to Rebecca Wheat, former principal of BUSD’s early childhood education and current university professor, who gave an overview of kindergarten in Berkeley, of what to expect from a child’s first taste of the next 13 years. 

“One thing we do know is that children do better when their parents are involved,” Wheat said. 

An overview of research literature on education, conducted by analysts at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, overwhelmingly demonstrates that parental involvement is positively related to academic achievement. The parent workshops in the summer bridge program attempt to boost that effect. 

A question like how to set up a parent-teacher conference may seem self-evident to some parents but not so for many unfamiliar with the particulars of American public education. 

Most of the families in the summer bridge program are non-native English speakers. Many are Mexican immigrants, including one mother who emigrated just four months ago. 

Another parent, Oleg Kornilov, a post-doc at UC Berkeley, recently came over from Russia. Early childhood education is unfamiliar to him since in Russia, children begin school later, at age 7, he said. 

Wheat encouraged parents to read to their children often in their native language. “Reading to your child is so important,” she said. “Children who are read to usually learn to read quite easily.” 

She touched on issues of safety, diversity, and classroom preparedness and how to secure resources for kids. Parents also asked questions about their individual children’s needs. One parent wanted to know how she could sign up for after-school childcare, which is based on a sliding scale of documented income, when her family makes money under the table.  

The program is about “setting the tone and letting the families know about resources,” Wheat said, at the close of the 45-minute-long session. “I think parents really learn how to be good advocates for their children and parents feel more apart of the community when they’re informed.”


Council Faces City Housing Authority’s Failures

By Suzanne La Barre
Friday June 30, 2006

The Housing Authority Board convened for an extended meeting Tuesday to face the bitter reality that the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) is a troubled agency.  

The Housing Authority, charged with managing the city’s public housing programs and buildings, is under the gun to correct deficiencies in its administration of the federal Section 8 program, which provides about 1,800 rental vouchers to low-income residents. 

Today (Friday) is the deadline. A report is due to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 45 to 60 days.  

The agency is earning a passing grade, said Beverli Marshall, interim director for the Berkeley Housing Authority, but just barely. 

Outstanding concerns include housing quality standards, incomplete housing inspections and annual re-examinations, and tenant income miscalculations. HUD will have to verify the report and may not release results until October or November.  

Even if the authority survives this hurdle—one of many in the agency’s long, troubled history—“there are still severe internal problems at the BHA that will remain,” said Housing Department Director Stephen Barton, in a communication to the Housing Authority Board. 

Tenants and landlords know firsthand.  

“Members of the property owners association who have had dealings with the Housing Authority are generally disappointed with it,” said Michael Wilson, president of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. “We hear stories all the time about improper dealings.” 

One resident, Joanna Spencer, 69, claims she wound up homeless because the authority erred in processing her Section 8 voucher. Spencer, currently sleeping on couches, hopes the authority will grant her a new voucher.  

“I’ve been through hell these last five years,” she said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I said, (to the authority) ‘Let’s make this right,’ and they refused to do it.” 

The authority’s grave problems derive, at least in part, from staff shortages, a dearth of sound management and inadequate funds, Barton said.  

The authority has gone through three managers in four years. Former manager Sharon Jackson resigned abruptly in January, under suspicion of fraud—charges that were never substantiated—and Marshall, her replacement, is on loan from the Berkeley Public Library, where she is the financial manager. (Technically her position with the housing authority ends today, though she may stay on longer.) 

The federal government, which supports the agency with an annual budget of about $27.4 million, is cutting funds for administrative fees (though funding for Section 8 vouchers is on the rise). In the last few years, the authority has decreased staffing from 19 to 13 employees to remain solvent, Barton said.  

The 11-member Housing Authority Board, composed of city councilmembers and two residents-at-large, unanimously agreed Tuesday to earmark $150,000 in general funds for additional staffing. But some councilmembers fear they may be throwing money into a black hole. 

“I really don’t have any faith that anything is going to be any better,” said Councilmember Betty Olds. “I’m just not very optimistic.” 

Also Tuesday, the board voted to authorize the city manager to negotiate with HUD over reorganizing the agency. Options include appointing a permanent manager, sending the agency into receivership, abolishing it altogether or folding it into another organization like the Alameda County housing authority—though it is unclear whether the county, or any other agency, is interested in the added workload. 

City Councilmember Dona Spring adamantly supports maintaining the authority as a local entity.  

“We’ve got to do everything in our power to keep the Berkeley Housing Authority in Berkeley,” she said in a phone interview earlier this week, pointing out that in another agency’s hands, Berkeley residents may not get a fair shot at assisted housing.  

Her sentiment, though, is not shared by all. 

“Frankly I don’t care if we pass” the HUD report, said Councilmember Laurie Capitelli. “I think we need to get a housing authority that’s functional.” 

For former city officials, the story is all too familiar.  

Fred Collignon, who served on the Berkeley City Council in the 1980s and ‘90s, recalled that the authority was more troubled then than it is now.  

“Sometimes it was bad management, sometimes it was the difficulty of staff discipline,” he said. “It was not seen as a very efficient unit.” 

At the time, council debated—and ultimately opted against--handing the authority over to Alameda County, he said. 

Ex-Mayor Shirley Dean cites similar deficiencies dating as far back as 1975, when she first sat on the Berkeley City Council. 

“The Housing Authority has been a difficult situation for as long as I can remember,” she said. She pointed to an evergreen backlog of inspections, and managerial problems “that were very disturbing,” she said, including one instance where a manager was accused of fraud. (Charges were later dropped, Dean said.) 

During Dean’s tenure as mayor, rats infested public housing on Ward Street. The housing authority subsequently turned over management of all 75 of its public housing units to an outside organization. The organization now in charge has, recently, been the subject of numerous tenant complaints. 

The explanation for the authority’s pervasive flaws has always vacillated between personnel problems and funding shortages, Dean said. But that may not be the full picture, she said. She faults the City Council for not assuming a stronger leadership role. 

“If greater oversight was exercised by City Council long ago, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now,” Dean said. “…It’s a shame, because I don’t think it’s insurmountable. I think the problem is neglect.” 


Ward Quits OUSD, Takes District Post In San Diego

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 30, 2006

The future of the administration of the Oakland Unified School District—as well as the future of OUSD’s downtown administrative properties—fell into considerable confusion this week with the decision by the San Diego County Board of Education to hire state administrator Randy Ward as their administrator. 

On Thursday morning, San Diego County Office of Education officials announced that their county board had voted 5-0 to hire Ward to replace the SDCOE outgoing superintendent. 

While rumors of Ward’s pending hiring had been roaring through Oakland all week following calls from the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper to Oakland school board members to get background information on Ward, the fact that Ward had applied for the San Diego job caught most school officials off guard. 

Board members said that Ward had not informed them of his San Diego plans before the San Diego Union Tribune inquiries, and they had not been contacted by State Superintendent Jack O’Connell even while O’Connell was making statements to newspapers concerning his future plans for Oakland schools.  

Ward was hired by State Superintendent O’Connell to run the Oakland public schools in 2003 after a massive budget shortfall and a state bailout loan caused the state to take over control of the Oakland school district. OUSD’s elected board of trustees has functioned as an advisory body only since that time. 

He is scheduled to begin work officially in San Diego on August 14 and is expected by San Diego officials to spend some days there between now and then to work on transitioning. 

“I don’t think there is any question that Jack O’Connell is going to hire another administrator to replace Randy Ward,” OUSD Advisory Board President David Kakishiba said during an emergency board meeting held on Thursday afternoon shortly after the San Diego decision was announced. “The question is, for what purpose, and how long?”  

Kakishiba said that any new administrator should be charged by O’Connell with the dual responsibilities of continuing the education and financial stability gains made in the district over the past few years, and working in close concert with the school board and the community to facilitate a return to local control. 

Board members renewed their call for a phased timetable for a return to local control of the Oakland public schools by next summer, with outgoing trustee Dan Siegel saying, “Who do we trust more with the future of the Oakland schools—Jack O’Connell, or ourselves? I’ve got more confidence in the rest of you to run this district than I do in O’Connell or some potluck administrator he brings in. The state has had three years to come in and fix the systems. If they haven’t been able to fix them so far, what makes you think they’ll be able to do any better in the next three years?”  

Last week, before the Ward decision was announced, the OUSD advisory board members unanimously passed a resolution requesting that O’Connell “direct the State Administrator to immediately work with the Oakland Board of Education to develop and execute an orderly governance transition process, including, but not limited to the Board of Education’s search for a Superintendent, beginning January 30, 2007, and its selection of a Superintendent by July 1, 2007.” 

The resolution said that the district had substantially met the fiscal and academic reforms called for in the legislation that authorized the 2003 state takeover. 

Copies of the resolution were sent out to O’Connell, the State Board of Education, the State Assembly and Senate, and County Superintendent Sheila Jordan, asking for support for return to local control of the Oakland schools by next summer. 

Kakishiba said on Thursday that even with Ward’s imminent departure, the board should “stay the course” on the summer of 2007 timetable. 

On Thursday, Trustee Greg Hodge argued that the board should take immediate steps to hire an interim superintendent to begin the transition to local control, and Siegel called for immediate return to local control. Siegel also called for the suspension of negotiations over pending sale of the district’s downtown properties—including the Paul Robeson Administration Building and five surrounding schools—until Ward’s replacement is in place. Three public hearings on the proposed sale have been scheduled for this summer, with one of them to take place in September, after Ward’s planned departure from the district. 

But other board members urged caution in transitioning back to local control, with Yee saying that the summer of 2007 “should be our target” and adding that “we should not be distracted by asking for an interim superintendent.” 

Trustee Noel Gallo agreed, saying, “We’re still not being informed by the state administrator’s office about what is happening in the district. You want local control, but local control of what? What is the true budget picture? I don’t know. This district is still being managed by the state, and O’Connell has never responded to questions by David [Kakishiba], even out of courtesy.” 

Gallo said that board members were being given mixed messages about the actual financial situation in the district. 

“The county superintendent [Sheila Jordan] is saying one thing publicly and another thing privately,” Gallo said. “I guarantee that in a year’s time, if we get immediate local control we will be back in the same financial situation that originally led to the state takeover, and we’ll be blamed.” 

Trustee Alice Spearman said that the board should request local control over everything but the district’s finances, saying that control over the district’s academic direction was the most important step “so that we can start to make this district heal and make it whole.”  

Spearman said that she had supported the state takeover as a private citizen and local education activist in 2003 “because I wasn’t pleased with the way things were going then.” 

While board members eventually backed away from speeding up their proposed timetable for return to local control by next summer, they added that they would organize a campaign among local elected officials to convince State Superintendent Jack O’Connell to give the school board a say in the selection of Ward’s replacement in Oakland—however long that replacement may last, and in whatever form that replacement will run Oakland’s schools. 

“This is going to be a political decision,” trustee Noel Gallo said. “We’re going to have involve the politicians that the state superintendent listens to the most. In my opinion, that means we are going to have to involve [incoming Oakland mayor] Ron Dellums.” 

Board members also said they would contact State Senator Don Perata, Assemblymember Wilma Chan, and her pending replacement, incoming Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, to help lobby O’Connell. Hodge also said that Perata might be induced to add amendments to SB39—the Perata-written legislation that authorized the Oakland school takeover in 2003—to make it easier for Oakland’s schools to return to local control.  

All of the board’s members were present at the emergency meeting except for Kerry Hammil, who is on vacation.  

Ward was reportedly in San Diego on Thursday and did not attend the emergency Oakland board meeting. Kakishiba said that the state administrator was not scheduled to return to work until July 10. 


Convicted Drug Officer Not Yet Serving Sentence

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 30, 2006

The former Berkeley police sergeant convicted of grand theft and felony possession of heroin and methamphetamine was not formally sentenced to home detention Tuesday, as was expected, due to a paperwork snafu.  

Cary Kent retired from the Berkeley Police Department in January after a preliminary investigation showed drug evidence, which he was charged to protect, was missing. In all, more than 280 envelopes of drug evidence in Kent’s charge had been tampered with, according to police reports. 

Kent pleaded guilty to felony charges in April and was sentenced to five years probation. He is to serve three months of alternative sentencing, which was to have been finalized Tuesday. 

“Sergeant Kent was informally accepted into the Contra Costa County home detention service. To get formally accepted, he will need a court order,” Deputy District Attorney Jim Panetta told the Daily Planet by phone after the brief hearing in which Kent appeared with his attorney, former Berkeley police officer Harry Stern. 

Judge C. Don Clay asked Kent to come back to court July 27. 

Before the 8:30 a.m. hearing, Berkeley Copwatch demonstrated outside the Oakland courthouse, calling for the district attorney to broaden the investigation to other officers who had access to the evidence room and to look into other crimes Kent may have committed. 

According to a 900-page police report, Kent was said to have purchased drugs from a police informant after having retired from the police force, but he has not been charged for such a crime. 

“It’s up to the Berkeley Police Department if they want to bring charges forward,” Panetta said. “They didn’t have the dope, only the testimony of the informant. In order to push [these charges] forward, they would have to reveal the name of the informant.” 

But Berkeley Police Chief Doug Hambleton told the Planet: “We don’t make decisions about charging. That wasn’t our choice. I never discussed with the D.A.’s office about that issue.”  

At the Wednesday evening Police Review Commission meeting six members of Copwatch were on hand, urging the body to move quickly to thoroughly investigate the case and to use its subpoena power to obtain detailed information, such as the quantity of drugs stolen, which, according to Andrea Prichett of Copwatch, could indicate whether Kent was using the drugs or if he was selling them. 

Police reports indicate only that Kent was using the drugs and his attorney says he is in a drug treatment program. 

“I encourage you to step up and become involved,” Prichett told the PRC. “This is the mother of all complaints.” 

A PRC subcommittee on the Kent case has been formed and will meet next month. Commissioners agreed to hold a public workshop to focus on questions arising from the case. A date has not been set. PRC Officer Victoria Urbi, named to staff the division June 9, will help put together the workshop. 

Some reorganization of operations in Berkeley’s drug evidence procedures is expected. The California Commission on Peace Officers Standards (POST) has looked at the city’s drug evidence procedures.  

The organization will submit a report to the police chief in 60 to 70 days, according to Bob Stresak, POST public information officer, who underscored that the report is advisory. 

The police chief has promised to share the POST report with the Police Revue Commission before implementing changes in the department.


Presidential Impeachment Measure on November Ballot

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 30, 2006

Excoriating George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney for defiling the constitution, the Berkeley City Council spoke out with one voice Tuesday night, voting unanimously to place a referendum on the November ballot to poll Berkeley citizens on the question of impeaching the president and vice president.  

Berkeley is the first city in the country to decide to ask its citizens to vote on whether Bush should be impeached. 

“We’ve invaded a sovereign country without provocation,” Councilmember Max Anderson said in support of placing the measure on the ballot. 

“Wiretapping people is illegal; it’s senseless,” said Mayor Tom Bates. “Look at what [George Bush] has done to shred the Constitution.” 

And that’s just the point, according to student organizers of Constitution Summer, the group that helped the Peace and Justice Commission craft the ballot measure.  

Abraham Kneisley, one of the Constitution Summer founders, said the campaign to pass the referendum, though advisory, is an opportunity to educate people locally and around the country. In addition to UC Berkeley, the group includes participants at Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, Columbia Law School, Georgetown Law School, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, University of Michigan and the University of Maryland.  

“We can motivate people, engage them in a civic process,” Kneisley told the council. 

Celebrated Vietnam-era whistleblower and Constitution Summer Advisory Board Member Daniel Ellsberg also weighed in. 

“Imagine if there was a constitutional crisis and nobody noticed,” he said, underscoring the notion that Berkeley should be first in the nation to put the question before the voters. “If not here, where?” he asked.  

Berkeley resident Cindy Sheehan, mother of slain soldier Casey Sheehan, at the council meeting to accept an award for her peace work, drew applause from the packed chambers when she urged the council to put the measure on the ballot. 

Passing the referendum already has had an impact, Steve Freedkin, chair of the Peace and Justice Commission, said Wednesday, pointing to wide-ranging local and national media coverage. It has begun the community dialogue, he said.  

“Impeachment is not a vote of no confidence; it’s for a serious violation of principles,” Freedkin said. “It gives us an opportunity to say what we’re for, while we’re working against what we’re against.” 

Freedkin expressed his message to the large Fox TV news audience on June 27. 

Responding to a question by host John Gibson, he responded: “Well, there are a number of particulars that [Bush and Cheney] have been involved in. There is the wiretapping, the electronic surveillance done without court approval, even after Congress passed the law specifying you have to go to the secret foreign intelligence courts and to get that approval. Bush simply signed a document saying, well, that’s the law, I’ve signed the law, but I’m not going to follow it.” 

The ballot measure will be highlighted tonight (Friday) on the 6 p.m. Fox News show Hannity and Colmes. 

As of Thursday morning, the mayor’s office had received 520 e-mails on the referendum, of which 497 were in favor and 23 opposed, according to Bates’ chief of staff Cisco DeVries. Positive comments came from other California cities including Santa Rosa and Half Moon Bay and from residents of Oregon, Vermont, and New York, he said.  

The ripple effect from the approved ballot measure sparked right wing reaction. 

Marcie Drinkwalter of Glendale addressed a vitriolic e-mail to the mayor and council: “While al Qaeda is no doubt as gleeful as you about this ballot measure, I am incredulous that any American would propose such an idiotic initiative during this time of war. Your act is despicable and treasonous, and will only serve to encourage al Qaeda supporters.” 

Speaking from his home in Virginia, David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.com, said putting the referendum on the Berkeley ballot will influence cities considering impeachment resolutions. At least 11 cities, including Berkeley, have approved impeachment resolutions. 

The ballot text accuses Bush and Cheney of misleading the nation so that it would invade and occupy Iraq; conducting electronic surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment; detaining persons without charges, due process and access to counsel or courts; and permitting the torture of detainees 

The city will spend about $10,000 to place the referendum on the ballot.


Council Rejects ‘Clean Money’ Measure, Adopts New Budget

By Judith Scherr
Friday June 30, 2006

Ignoring commission advice, the Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday not to place public financing of local elections before the voters in November. The Fair Campaign Practices Commission had voted 7-1 last week to support putting “clean money” on the local ballot. 

Among the concerns expressed by the mayor and council was the large number of Berkeley residents who would have to give $5 contributions to demonstrate candidate viability—600 for the mayor and 150 for councilmembers. 

“It’s a huge barrier,” said Mayor Tom Bates, who nevertheless supported public financing for the mayor’s race. 

The council voted twice, first defeating a motion to use public financing for only the mayor’s race at a cost of $308,000 annually, and second defeating a motion to finance the council races, at about $190,000 per year.  

Councilmember Linda Maio said collecting the large number of $5 contributions would be time-consuming and create one more hurdle for a candidate to face. There’s already little interest in running for office due to the low salaries (about $25,000 annually), she said.  

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak objected to the measure being put back on the ballot, after having failed just two years ago: “In a way, you’re disrespecting the voters,” he said.  

And Councilmember Laurie Capitelli looked at the cost: “If I have $400,000 to spend, I wouldn’t spend it on this tonight,” he said. 

But Councilmember Darryl Moore pointed out that the city today is in better financial shape than it was in 2004 when the council was “cutting thousands and thousands of dollars out of the budget.” 

Also the League of Women Voters, which sat out the measure in the last election, is on board this time, he said. 

The vote to use public money to finance the mayoral race was defeated 4-2-3 with Councilmembers Moore, Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Mayor Tom Bates in favor, Councilmembers Capitelli and Betty Olds in opposition, and Councilmembers Wozniak, Max Anderson and Linda Maio abstaining. In a second vote on public financing for the council only, Spring and Worthington voted to approve; Capitelli, Olds and Wozniak voted in opposition; and Maio, Moore, Anderson and Bates abstained.  

 

Budget passes 

There were few surprises in the 2006-2007 budget, which the City Council approved unanimously. Despite some 20 advocates of full $60,000 funding to monitor an ordinance that mandates that the city not purchase goods and services from companies that do business in sweatshop conditions, the city allocated only $25,000 to the program.  

The council did, however, restore the Berkeley Arts Center full supplemental funding of $20,000, put in $250,000 to restore full fire station coverage for the high-fire season, added $12,000 funding for an intern to inventory artists in West Berkeley and $220,000 for Telegraph Avenue Area improvements. 

The budget included $2.8 million for affordable housing, street and stormwater system repair. Another $200,000 was allocated to traffic calming. Traffic-calming priorities will be determined in the future.  

Most of the $300 million budget reflects fixed costs for city services. Approval of the budget includes a 25-cent per hour increase in parking meter fees. 

Approval of the Telegraph Avenue budget item sparked comment by Worthington, who called for adding $50,000 to eliminate the motorcycle parking and return automobile parking on Telegraph south of Dwight Way. Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier said he thought he could find the funds in the Public Works Department budget.  

While she voted to support the budget, Olds expressed reservations. 

“Let’s not forget the warm water pool,” she said, noting that the pool used by the elderly and disabled people got no funding this year, but should be a priority for future funding. Olds also said the task force working on Ashby BART should be a volunteer effort, rather than by costing $40,000. 

 

In other matters: 

• The council critiqued UC Berkeley’s proposed southeast campus development projects so that its comments could be included in the Draft Environmental Impact Report. The proposed development includes retrofitting Memorial Stadium, building a new High Performance Center for student athletes, a 911-space parking garage and more. Councilmembers were highly critical of the project, especially disapproving the large number of parking spaces, with a two-lane road access and building on the Hayward fault. 

• Fearing the union workforce could be fired when new ownership takes over the Doubletree Hotel at the Marina—similar to what happened originally to workers when new ownership took over Berkeley Honda—the council asked staff to write an ordinance that would protect non-management employees of large hotels when hotels change hands. Similar ordinances are in effect in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and elsewhere, according to Worthington, who authored the proposal. 

• Discussion of cultural uses at the Allston Way Gaia Building was delayed until the July 11 council meeting. 


Planning Commission OKs In-Lieu Condo Fees, Library Gardens’ Condo Map

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 30, 2006

Berkeley planning commissioners Tuesday voted to urge the City Council to adopt a new in-lieu fee for condo developers designed to create more affordable housing for the city’s poorer residents. 

While the fee was approved on a 5-0-3 vote—with members James Samuels, Harry Pollack and Susan Wengraf abstaining—commissioners voted unanimously to allow the 186 apartments and four retail spaces in the nearly completed Library Gardens apartment complex to be sold as condos. 

Patrick Kennedy, Berkeley’s major developer of rental housing and the only developer to speak on the in-lieu fee, said his fellow developers would reject what he called yet one more impediment to building housing in Berkeley. 

But the proposal had strong backing from the city Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) and the density bonus subcommittee, a multi-agency city panel which has been looking at state and city laws that grant developers bigger buildings in return for reserving units for lower-income residents. 

The inclusionary law mandates developers to set aside 20 percent of residences in apartments or condos with more than five units for residents who would otherwise be unable to afford them. 

The proposed fee would allow developers to sell the dedicated units at market rates in exchange for paying a fee that amounts to 62.5 percent of the difference between the mandated inclusionary price—now a maximum of three times 120 percent of the area’s median income—and the market rate price. 

Kennedy asked for a lower fee, in the range of one-third to half of the price differential. 

Fee revenues would fund the city’s housing trust fund, which has been depleted by the allocation of most of its monies to the Oxford Plaza apartments being built as part of the David Brower Center complex. 

“This would create quite a lot more affordable housing, either through new construction or through rehabilitation of existing buildings,” said city Housing Director Steve Barton. 

The fee would not apply to so-called density bonus units, lower-income condos added to a project in order to allow the developer to create a larger building than would otherwise be allowed by city code, Barton said. 

Density bonus units are typically affordable to lower median incomes, in the range of 50 to 80 percent, rather than the 120 percent for inclusionary units. 

“The Housing Advisory Commission urges your support,” said acting HAC Chair Jesse Arreguin, who said the commission is also looking at the notion of creating an equivalent fee for rental units. 

“It’s time for Berkeley to provide more options for developers,” he said. 

“There’s no developer in opposition except Patrick Kennedy,” said Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman, who researched the fee for the density bonus subcommittee. 

One developer is ready to pay the fee the moment it’s enacted, Poschman said. “Darrell de Tienne is waiting to sign,” he said. 

Not so, said de Tienne Thursday. 

De Tienne represents SNK Captec, developers of the Arpeggio—formerly Seagate Building—on Center Street, which is scheduled to commence construction later this summer. 

That building includes 11 inclusionary units. The project’s 12 density bonus units—which helped the structure reach the nine-stories approved by the city—would not be affected. 

De Tienne said he had no position on the issue and that any decision would be made by officials of SNK. 

Mayor Tom Bates said Thursday that while he favors an in-lieu fee, he prefers that it would be based on the difference between the developer’s actual costs of building a unit and the sale price. 

“I don’t think anyone should have to lose money,” he said. 

Planning Commissioner James Samuels said the proposed fee “seems outlandish,” and the city should set a more reasonable number.  

Citing Barton’s own statement that one developer paid an even high fee in Santa Cruz—80 percent of the difference—Commissioner Susan Wengraf called for time to study programs in other cities to come up with a more reasonable number. 

But the majority view, expressed by David Stoloff, was that developers would make more money under the Barton plan than they do now in providing the mandated inclusionary units. 

 

Library Gardens 

The massive five-story project now nearing completion behind the Berkeley Public Library on Kittredge Street will offer 35 affordable apartments for rent, even though the commissioners approved the condo map Wednesday night, said city staff. 

The project doesn’t include any density bonus units. 

Planning Director Dan Marks said developer John de Clerq had agreed to rent the inclusionary apartments at an even lower rate than is specified in the city code, making them affordable to individuals and families earning 30 to 60 percent of the area median income. 

When Planning Commissioner Mike Sheen asked why the lowest rate, attorney John Gutierrez, who represents the developer, said that “the project was stalled in the approval process, so the developer agreed to accept a deeper discount to avoid further delays.” 

De Clerq said all the units will be rented initially, and a decision to sell as condos would come later. Because the project has already been approved for condos, there would be no need to pay the city’s condominium conversion fee. 

 

Landmarks ordinance 

The commission was also scheduled to give their comments on the latest draft of the mayor’s revision of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

The sticking point, however, was that the Landmarks Preservation Commission—increasingly at odds with the Planning Commission—hadn’t finished with their own corrections. 

Unwilling to comment before they’d seen the final result, the commission followed the suggestion floated by Dan Marks and passed a resolution urging the council to stick to the spirit of the Planning Commission’s own version of the ordinance. 

That mayor’s draft included many of the commissioner’s suggestions, though the latest draft restores the controversial structure of merit category which developers and the planning commission had sought to eliminate.


Federal Deadline Arrives for BUSD Paraprofessionals

By Suzanne La Barre
Friday June 30, 2006

The union representing about 370 paraprofessionals and other classified employees is accusing the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) of failing to avert layoffs in the face of newly effective No Child Left Behind mandates.  

Today (Friday), the district will let go of as many as 12 employees who have not met higher education standards spelled out in the federal education reform act, signed into law in 2002. The Berkeley Council of Classified Employees Local 6292 has filed both a grievance and an unfair labor practice charge against the district, arguing that BUSD insisted on standards more rigorous—and more draconian—than those outlined in the federal law. 

Layoffs, the union insists, are not in order. 

“Our district chose very early what we consider a very punitive model,” said union President Ann Graybeal. 

No Child Left Behind calls for all paraprofessionals at Title I-funded schools, who are involved in teaching students—including instructional assistants, technicians, specialists and interpreters for the deaf—to complete 48 units of college-level work, earn an associate’s degree or take a test that demonstrates proficiency in reading, writing and math. 

The federal mandate does not, however, spell out more specific details, leaving standards for assessment open to interpretation. BUSD, the council says, is taking a hard-line approach. 

According to Graybeal, districts like Hayward Unified allow employees to meet requirements based on in-class evaluations and years of service—a more palatable option for veteran employees rusty on test taking and schoolwork. Berkeley does not. 

Other districts accept, as core courses, art, nutrition and early childhood education, among other classes. Berkeley does not. One employee with 122 units of higher education was told she did not comply with Berkeley’s definition of acceptable coursework, Graybeal said.  

Superintendent Michele Lawrence said Wednesday that employees in Berkeley must adhere to more stringent standards than those laid out by No Child Left Behind. 

“We believe we have a higher level of expectation,” she said, pointing out that the district established clear guidelines for compliance shortly after the law went into effect; employees, she said, have had ample time to complete suitable coursework. 

The union has also called into question the reliability of the proficiency tests, which are administered and scored by district staff. 

“The test given for NCLB compliance consists, in Berkeley’s version, of two parts—one multiple choice and one essay. At one point, outside candidates were allowed to combine their scores on two portions of the test—inside candidates were not,” said Graybeal in a prepared speech to the Berkeley Board of Education Wednesday. “There were random exceptions even in that case. Some employees were allowed to use portions of tests taken elsewhere while other employees were not told of this option.” 

Paula Robinson, an instructional assistant in the district for 19 years, took the district’s test and was told, at first, that she had not passed. Later, she received word that, in fact, she had passed. Typically, Robinson works for BUSD in the summer, but because the district initially said she was not in compliance with federal law, she didn’t bother to apply for a job.  

“I feel like right now I’m just being screwed,” she said. “I have no job.” 

Lawrence concedes some testing proved inconsistent, but that the district had worked vigorously to correct errors. 

“Every effort—and a lot of effort—has been undertaken to make sure these employees meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind,” she said.  

In April, 57 paraprofessionals were at risk of losing their jobs. Since then, more than 40 employees have completed the higher education requirements or retired. 

The mandate is effective today, and applies only to employees hired before No Child Left Behind was signed into law. (Newer hires have already met those requirements.) More than 93 percent of those affected by the law have come into compliance, said district staff. 

At press time, district staff were still working on registering transcripts and test scores. The director of classified employees took leave of the district last month, and Alan Rasmussen, former superintendent for Merced Unified School District, is filling in, temporarily, three days a week. 

“My intent is that we get this resolved for everyone,” he said. 

Those who have not met the requirements by the end of the day may take the district’s proficiency exam in July and reapply for their jobs. 

The union filed a grievance against the district May 10, and charged unfair labor practices a week later. Talks with the district are ongoing, Graybeal said.


Alternative High Students Protest Exclusion from Graduation Event

By Suzanne La Barre
Friday June 30, 2006

A handful of students from the Berkeley Alternative High School claim they were denied participation in unofficial graduation festivities earlier this month. 

Three high school seniors say they were ostracized from the La Raza graduation festivities held at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley June 17. 

The ceremony, staged by students and an adult volunteer, gathered 36 high school seniors and more than 400 parents and family members for an evening-long cultural celebration of Latino/ Chicano students. The event, a tradition in Berkeley, was unaffiliated with the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD). 

Alternative High students who were excluded from the celebration voiced their disappointment at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Berkeley Board of Education Wednesday. 

“Some students were left out of the Chicano/ Latino graduation and we felt that wasn’t right,” said Guillermo Ronquillo, a recent graduate. “That hurts me a lot inside, that’s like telling me, ‘You’re not graduating.’ Everybody else had time to show their colors and their pride, but I couldn’t show mine.” 

Those who attended the La Raza event partook in a religious mass, followed by a graduation ceremony where students received plaques for academic achievement. The event, which ended around 10 p.m., also included student speakers, a keynote address by the director of the Bay Area Hispanic Institute for Advancement, and dinner and dancing. 

According to several sources, an adult volunteer who directs a non-BUSD after-school program, used a personal rift with a student from Berkeley Alternative to exclude other Alternative High School students from the ceremony.  

“The organizer has a personal issue,” said the student, Mayra Marin. “I believe because of me, she denied the rest of us” the right to participate. 

Adriana Betti, director of the Berkeley-based nonprofit RISE (Responsibility, Integrity, Strength and Empowerment) denies the accusation. Students wishing to participate were required to submit paperwork by May 5, and those who failed to do so were not allowed to join the ceremony, she said.  

“The kids have set deadlines,” she said. “It’s just a matter of when they put their paperwork in.” 

In the week leading up to graduation, school district spokesperson Mark Coplan said he and others attempted to reach Betti on several occasions, to no avail. Betti claims she made contact with just one district staffperson, who mentioned a complaint but never forwarded further details. Betti has organized the La Raza celebration off and on for seven years and uses office space on the Berkeley High School campus. 

Members of the Board of Education expressed sympathy with the students Wednesday. “I will do everything in my power to make sure this never happens again,” said board President Terry Doran. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence was careful to point out that, because the celebration was a community event, not a BUSD event, the district does not bear responsibility. 

“We were very distressed to hear about your experience. The school district did not sanction this,” she said. “This is a volunteer. She is not our employee. But Alternative High School students were excluded and they shouldn’t have been, and I will personally send a letter of concern.” 

To some students and members of the public, the distinction between district-sanctioned and non-sanctioned graduations is unclear. Ronquillo and his Alternative High School classmate Adriana Roman said they always thought the Latino/ Chicano graduation ceremony was a school event. 

Officially, BUSD sponsors the districtwide high school convocation, which took place at the Greek Theatre June 16. Three informal cultural ceremonies—all held in churches and funded by community members—also occurred throughout June.  

One of those events, the African-American Studies Department Celebration of Excellence, a tradition in Berkeley for 16 years, drew fire this year for featuring an evangelist speaker who derided homosexuality. 

That, coupled with the exclusion of students from the La Raza celebration, has prompted Superintendent Lawrence to call for the establishment of some protocol for non-district graduation events. 

In the fall, the district will “identify all the criteria necessary for extracurricular graduations so that there is a decorum and an understanding of what we would hope our volunteers would include in these ceremonies,” she said.  

Board members agreed there need to be some standards in place. “What happened this year, I hope was a real anomaly,” said Doran.


Police Blotter

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 30, 2006

Berkeley experienced an unusual rash of drive-by assaults during a four-day period from June 13-19, starting with paintballs, escalating to a lemon and culminating in a drive-by shooting that left a Brentwood man with a leg wound. Another shooting, this one with no injuries, followed. 

 

Drive-by paintballer 

A mysterious assailant has been skulking along the streets of Berkeley, potting at hapless pedestrians and motorists with a paintball gun, reports Berkeley police spokesperson Office Ed Galvan. 

“Nobody’s seen who’s doing it,” Galvan said. 

The first report came just before 8 p.m. on June 13, when a woman called police to report that she’d been walking along the 1300 block of University Avenue when she felt a sudden, sharp stinging sensation on her shoulder. 

Looking at the site of her injury, she saw a big red spot. It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realize that the weapon had been a paintball, fired by a charge of compressed air. 

The next call came 30 minutes later from a motorist who heard something strike his car near the corner of Solano Avenue and Tulare Street. A further check proved the device to have been yet another paintball. 

The next call came a minute after midnight on June 16, this time from a 30-year-old woman who was struck by a paintball as she walked along Shattuck Avenue near the Carelton Street intersection. 

The fourth and so far final call came at 2:25 that afternoon from a woman who was hit behind the ear as she walked near the Radio Shack store in the 1600 block of University Avenue. 

While an assault by a gelatin capsule filled with paint might not seem all that serious, the nasty little spheres are capable of putting out an eye—which is why paintball players are required to wear protective goggles. 

And should the mysterious paintballer wind up under arrest, there are four open charges of assault with a deadly weapon pending, according to police records. 

 

Drive-by lemoning 

Another drive-by assailant used a different weapon on June 16, to wit, a lemon, reports Officer Galvan. 

A 47-year-old Berkeley man was standing near his residence in the 3100 block of Telegraph Avenue at just after 11 p.m. when the driver of a passing car abruptly pelted him with a lemon. 

The citrus-struck victim was alert enough to get a look at the driver, whom he recognized as a 17-year-old Richmond resident. Police are investigating. 

 

Drive-by chaining  

The next drive-by assault took place just before 10 a.m. on June 16, when a Berkeley man was walking along Harrison Street near the corner of Eighth Street in West Berkeley. 

Suddenly, a passenger in the front seat of a passing white and purple Ford van swung a chain at him, breaking the pedestrian’s finger. 

 

Drive-by shooting 

The most serious of the drive-by attacks was reported at a minute after midnight on June 17. 

Police and paramedics rushed to the 3100 block of Sacramento Street where they found an 18-year-old Brentwood man on the sidewalk, suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg. 

The shooter fired at the man from a moving car, and was last seen turning onto to Fairview Street, said Officer Galvan. No one was able to provide a description of either the shooter or the vehicle. 

 

Another shooting 

The final drive-by, a shooting, happened in the 1500 block of Prince Street at 2 a.m. on June 19. 

An 18-year-old Oakland woman told police she was sitting in her car when it was struck by two gunshots. 

She could provide no description of the assailant.  

It was in the same block on March 25 when Aderian “Dre” Gaines, 36, was gunned down and a friend injured during a birthday party at the Gaines home. A reputed Oakland gang leader has been charged with the slaying.


Fire Department Log

By Richard Brenneman
Friday June 30, 2006

Watery rescue 

For firefighters, water is usually a friend. But it wasn’t to the four adults and one infant who found themselves in a fuel-less 22-foot motorboat at the entrance to the Berkeley Marina Tuesday night. 

There were originally six adults and the tot when the gas ran out and the wave-driven craft started battering itself against the rocks, but two were able to leap free. 

Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth said firefighters were able to tie lines to the craft and eventually lash it to the pier until the Coast Guard arrived and was able to tow the battered boat into the marina. 

The passengers were rescued without further incident.  

“It’s not the sort of thing we usually do,” said Orth. 

 

Fireworks fire 

Illicit fireworks, the bane of firefighters as Independence Day approaches, are blamed as the likely culprits in a small straw fire that broke out near an East Bay Municipal Utilities District reservoir near 700 Winehaven Road at the edge of Tilden Park. 

The fire was quickly quenched before it could do any serious damage.


Condos Dominate Planning Agenda

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Planning commissioners will be juggling political hot potatoes Wednesday night, ranging from condos to landmarks and Telegraph Avenue. 

Condos appear in three different forms—a new condo conversion ordinance, a proposed “in lieu” fee that would allow condo developers to pay the city instead of adding units for low-income residents, and a bid to turn the Library Gardens project into condos. 

The “in lieu” fee was a unanimous recommendation of the density bonus task force, a special group that consists of members of the Planning and Housing Advisory commissions and the Zoning Adjustments Board. 

Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman said the proposal could lead to the creation of three or four times as many low-income housing units than are built under the current system by directing the fees toward low-income housing projects. 

City Housing Director Steve Barton agreed: “With the fee, we’ll be able to create quite a few more affordable housing units.” 

Under the existing law, developers of condo projects with five or more units are required to include units affordable to would-be buyers earning up to 120 percent of area median income. 

Soaring housing prices have created a huge gap between the inclusionary and market prices, rendering the final costs of the units far higher than affordable housing units the city could fund in cooperation with non-profit developers, said Barton and Poschman. 

Barton cited the case of a $700,000 market rate unit which a developer might be forced to sell at $200,000 under the existing code. 

Under his proposal, the developer would pay a fee amounting to 62.5 percent of the difference—$312,500 in his example. The $700,000 sales price would yield the developer $387,500, minus the city transfer tax and broker fees, compared to the $200,000 under the current ordinance. 

Affordable housing developers would use the money, allocated by the city’s Housing Trust Fund, to build new housing or rehabilitate existing structures—“which gives you a lot more bang for the buck,” Barton said. 

Poschman said that of the 107 communities in California with inclusionary laws, “more than 80 have in lieu fees.” 

But if the goal is more housing, the fee offers a proven way to get many more units. 

One potential source of opposition, Poschman said, comes “from a kind of nostalgia for having the inclusionary units in the same projects” which funded them. 

Councilmember Dona Spring, who appointed Poschman to the Planning Commission, shares that concern. 

“If I weren’t assured that we would get more housing” from the fee, “I wouldn’t support it,” she said. 

Barton’s measure also opens the door for developers of projects already in the development pipeline to pay the fee to opt out of previously approved inclusionary units. 

“If Library Gardens decides to sell units, they could apply,” he said. 

Developers of that nearly complete 180-unit project at 2016-2022 Kittredge St. will appear before the commission Thursday asking for approval of a map that would allow them to turn the previously-approved apartments into condos. 

Another building that could apply would be the Arpeggio on Center Street, the nine-story condo project scheduled to break ground by the end of summer. 

Under Barton’s proposal, units that are used to gain a density bonus—low-cost units in addition to the inclusionary units that are used to win approval for a larger project than would otherwise be allowed—would still have to be sold to low-income tenants. 

In the case of the Arpeggio, that would include the 12 units reserved for those who earn less than half the median income. Another 11 units reserved for those earning up to 81 percent could be opted out through fee payments he said. 

Poschman said another proposal is in the works that would allow for another fee for those units. 

The third condo item on the commission’s agenda is a report from Barton on the city’s existing condo conversion ordinance. 

 

Other business 

Commissioners will also comment on the latest draft of Mayor Tom Bates’s proposed revisions to the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance—yet another law the City Council hopes to decide on before the start of the summer recess. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission bogged down in their review Thursday, in part because the draft they were given was heavily larded with glitches and conflicts. 

Landmarks and Planning have been at loggerheads over the ordinance, with each panel coming up with its own proposal, only to be trumped by the Mayor, with an assist from Councilmember Laurie Capitelli. 

Commissioners are also being asked to set a hearing on a new ordinance governing the height of fences and accessory structures on residential lots, as well as by-right installation of solar energy collectors. 

The final item on the agenda is a call to set a hearing on zoning amendments sought by the mayor to help business on Telegraph Avenue. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Avenue at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.


Housing Authority Faces Friday Federal Deadline

By Suzanne La Barre
Tuesday June 27, 2006

The deadline for the embattled Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) to correct a laundry list of managerial deficiencies is fast approaching. 

The authority has until June 30 to show the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that it is a “standard performing” agency, but with a paucity of staff, high management turnover and a dwindling administrative budget, the authority must prepare for eventualities, including a possible takeover by another agency. 

Tonight (Tuesday), at 6 p.m., BHA staff will ask the authority’s board, comprised of city councilmembers and two residents, to allocate general fund money for additional staff and to authorize the city manager to negotiate reorganization options with the federal housing department. 

The Berkeley Housing Authority provides rental assistance to 1,800 Berkeley residents through the federal Section 8 program and manages other local housing programs. The authority also owns 75 public housing units. Its annual budget, through HUD, is about $27.4 million. 

In 2004, HUD released a report detailing deep flaws in the authority’s operations. Tenants’ shares of the rent had been miscalculated, regular housing inspections had failed to take place and there was no efficient system in place to manage a waiting list of some 5,000 residents. The authority was deemed “troubled” and has since embarked upon a seemingly Sisyphean effort to correct its shortcomings. 

The problems stem in part from the federal government increasingly slashing funding for housing authority administration, said Stephen Barton, director of the Housing Department. Berkeley Housing Interim Authority Manager Beverli Marshall was away from work this week. 

“HUD has been cutting the administration fees paid to housing authorities, and at this point the housing authority can’t get all the work done it needs to get done,” Barton said. 

Two years ago, HUD reduced administrative fees by 13 percent, resulting in estimated shortages of $73,000 in 2004 and $212,000 in 2005. Congress is considering trimming the administrative budget by an additional 8 percent this year, Barton said. 

Much of the workload, including Section 8 inspections and janitorial services, is contracted out. Other work simply doesn’t get done. Over the years, the authority has reduced staff from 19 to 13 employees, Barton said. 

“With caseloads between 415 and 430 per case manager, there is not enough time to process all of the annual re-examinations, interim re-examinations and requests for tenancy,” Barton wrote in a correspondence to the authority board. 

The authority, typically an independent agency, is asking the board to earmark $150,000 from the city’s general fund for additional staffing for the 2007 fiscal year. 

That won’t save the authority from the scrutiny of HUD, though. 

If by Friday, the local agency has not pulled itself out of the doldrums, HUD may rule at a later date to turn the authority over to a larger agency, like the Housing Authority of the County of Alameda, send it into receivership or dissolve it altogether. 

A brighter scenario would involve stabilizing management and continuing to operate as a local outfit, Barton said, which would ensure local control.  

“If the Berkeley Housing Authority was dissolved, its vouchers would go (ostensibly) to Alameda County, and then there’d be no guarantee 1,800 Berkeley households would get assistance,” he said. 

Additionally, the authority is involved in coordinating with local housing development and, to a lesser extent, the city’s homeless programs—features that would be lost on an external organization, he said. 

City Councilmember Dona Spring echoed his concern. 

“We’ve got to do everything we can to keep the Berkeley Housing Authority in Berkeley,” she said. “These tenant are depending on us to make sure they don’t get short-shrifted at another agency.” 

Tonight, the BHA board is expected to grant City Manager Phil Kamlarz the power to work out a deal with HUD over the future of the authority. 

A report on the housing authority’s performance is due to HUD in mid-August. HUD should determine whether or not the agency has improved by October, Barton said.  

“The immediate focus is on getting the Housing Authority out of troubled status and coming to an agreement with HUD,” Barton said. “During that (time), we need to look at how can we make the internal functions more efficient?” 

Residents give the housing authority mixed reviews. 

Virginia Henkel, 68, has been on Section 8 in Berkeley for 22 years. She’s never had any problems with the agency. “I’m very satisfied,” she said. 

For Roger Aarons, a 29-year veteran of the program, the housing authority has proved more troublesome. A few months ago, his landlord opted out of Section 8, forcing Aarons to decide whether to maintain his apartment on rent control or take his voucher elsewhere. When he solicited the authority for help, he came up against a brickwall. 

“I didn’t even know who to talk to necessarily. I didn’t get a response to my calls. I couldn’t find out from the housing authority what the rules are,” he said. “I’m not naive, and I find it very difficult to figure out the rules.” 

Landlord Surendra Barot, who manages the building where Henkel and Aarons live, complains that the housing authority has fed him misinformation and has repeatedly botched payments. (Most recently, employees erred in his favor; he received voucher payments for Aarons’s apartment, though Aarons is no longer on Section 8.) 

Barot said he is starting to pull his units off Section 8 because he is so fed up with the agency. He said: “It’s a huge frustration on my part dealing with the Berkeley Housing Authority.” 

 


Trader Joe’s Project Moves to Design Review

By Suzanne La Barre
Tuesday June 27, 2006

A Trader Joe’s in downtown Berkeley is one step closer to reality, following a vote by the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) Thursday.  

Charged with the task of deciding between two development proposals—one with a Trader Joe’s, the other without—board members voted 7-2 in favor of sending the grocery store plans along to the next phase of public review. The architectural components of the project, which is proposed for development at 1885 University Ave., move on to the Design Review Committee (DRC) for a vetting process. 

The proposed project involves two five-story buildings, 14,390 square feet of retail space, a two-level parking garage and 148 units of housing, of which 19 would accommodate low- and very low-income residents. 

The site, on a one-acre lot bounded by University, Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Berkeley Way, abuts commercial space and residences. 

Initially, Berkeley-based developers Evan McDonald and Chris Hudson floated a 186-unit mixed-use project with about 4,000 square-feet of retail and no Trader Joe’s. In prior meetings, board members branded that design scheme gravely flawed, predominantly due to the dearth of commercial space it contained. So McDonald and Hudson forged an alternative with 156 units and almost 14,000 square feet for a Trader Joe’s. 

ZAB has slowly been chipping away at that proposal, whittling the 156 units down to 148. On Thursday, the developers threatened to revive the 186-unit option if ZAB failed to get the ball rolling on the grocery store alternative. The project, in its various forms, has been in the works for multiple years, and Hudson said time is running out.  

“If we don’t move on to the DRC tonight, we’re not going to retain Trader Joe’s,” Hudson said Thursday. 

ZAB members Jesse Anthony, Rick Judd, Bob Allen, Raudel Wilson, Christiana Tiedemann, Andy Katz and Sara Shumer voted to send the 148-unit alternative to DRC along with the board members’ remarks. Members David Blake and Dean Metzger voted against it.  

Blake suggested a substitute motion that would have required the committee to consider chopping off 1,200 square feet, or about two units, from the project to appease Berkeley Way residents’ concerns about the project’s height. The motion failed 5-4.  

ZAB members generally agreed that the proposal as it stands for DRC review is far from perfect. 

“There are a lot of things that need to be tweaked,” said Tiedemann.  

The project’s density bonus, or the number of dwelling units developers can build over a base figure, is among the sticking points. McDonald and Hudson are asking for 25 units over what’s spelled out by state density bonus law. The extra units are necessary, they say, for the project to remain financially viable. 

That’s acceptable only if more affordable housing is the upshot, said board member Katz. Several other ZAB members similarly complained that the project does not offer enough low-income housing. 

Traffic, building mass and height were other bones of contention Thursday, but the board shunted them aside to focus on moving the project along.  

Board member Blake conceded plans for 1885 University Ave. still pose more questions than answers, but felt confident Thursday’s decision, complete with board comments, was a good point of departure for the DRC. 

He said, “That should be enough for Design Review to get to work.”


Landmark Commissioners Find Flaws in Mayor’s Plan

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 27, 2006

“I have heard again and again that the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) is being used to stop development, though it was never meant to,” said Patti Dacey Thursday. “That’s not true.” 

Speaking to her former colleagues on the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) from which she said she had just been “unceremoniously dumped,” Dacey hailed the LPO as part of Berkeley’s venerable radical tradition. 

“The Black Panther Party came to the City Council to support the passage of this landmarks ordinance,” Dacey said. “They saw this as yet another thing that would add to the health of the neighborhoods.” 

But the LPC, acting under the direction of a City Council that seems intent on passing the revised ordinance, kept to its task—while lamenting conflicts and apparent errors in the draft they’d been given to vet. 

With Dacey’s ouster, only Commissioner Lesley Emmington remains in unequivocal opposition to the revised ordinance proposed by Mayor Tom Bates with the strong encouragement of developers and real estate interests. 

But most of the commissioners who hashed through the ordinance last week and will do so again Thursday night voiced strong concerns about the measure the mayor and a majority of councilmembers have indicated they want passed by the time the council leaves for its annual summer recess. 

That would require a first vote at the council’s July 11 meeting, 

Pressured though they were, commissioners found numerous flaws in the proposal—more than enough to keep them busy until nearly midnight and were forced to postpone the discussion on the ordinance’s most controversial provisions until yet another meeting that will be held Thursday. 

Commissioners slogged through the measure, using a side-by-side draft that featured the mayor’s proposal alongside the existing version—skipping over portions that defined two parallel but different processes: landmarking and the assessment of historical significance. 

The latter process—one of the most controversial features of Bates’s propopsal and strongly supported by developers—gives property owners and developers a tool to force the commission to decide on the historical merits of their property separate from the regular landmarking process. 

If the commission failed to act, the property would be immune from further landmarking efforts by citizens or the commission—though for how long, the ordinance draft isn’t clear, since periods of both two and five years are cited in different sections. 

Commissioners offered an unusual opportunity for the public to join in the discussion, dropping the usual maximum of a three-minute public comment and allowing a broader, ongoing discussion. 

The audience was heavily weighted toward critics of the ordinance, with only Livable Berkeley’s Alan Tobey in support, along with a silent Calvin Fong from the mayor’s office. 

And Tobey acknowledged problems with the wording of the provisions for the parallel processes. 

“There are drafting problems,” said retired planner John English, a preservationist, and he backed up his contention with a concise memorandum outlining 11 of them. 

“There is no clear language on the status of structures of merit,” said Commissioner Steven Winkel. 

The structure of merit has emerged as the most controversial provision of the city’s existing ordinance, creating a landmark that may have been altered since its original construction. 

The mayor wants to ban any new examples of the category outside historic districts—though he has called for existing examples to be preserved. 

The mayor’s version would also bar members of the general public from moving to create historic districts and restrict initiation to a majority of property owners or residents of the proposed district, the council and the Landmarks, Civic Arts and Planning commissions. 

Future structures of merit would only be allowed within the districts—a key point of criticism for Dacey and Emmington. 

Dacey had been appointed by former Councilmember Maudelle Shirek, and was removed before last week’s meeting by Shirek’s successor, Max Anderson. Her replacement is Burton Edwards, the third architect on the eight-member commission. Darryl Moore has replaced his previous appointee with realtor Miriam Ng—although Ng was absent from the meeting. Civic Arts Commissioner David Snippen served in her absence. 

Carrie Olson, the commissioner who worked most closely with the mayor trying to hammer out a compromise, said the proposed assessment provision “in the current language is a determination made without information. We’re going to be expected to make people’s lives easier and totally give up our integrity.” 

Olson said her goal had been to create a single process, which would take some 20 to 40 hours of research to gather enough information to make an informed decision. 

Burton Edwards said he didn’t have enough information on the assessment process to make a decision. 

Commissioners will be back at their task Thursday night when the meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Meanwhile, the Planning Commission is scheduled to weigh in with comments of their own on Wednesday night. 

Critics of the mayor’s proposal have turned in petitions that could place a slightly revised version of the current ordinance on the November general election ballot. 

If passed by the voters, the initiative would trump the mayor’s proposal. 

Roger Marquis and Laurie Bright, the two key sponsors of the ballot measure, were present at last week’s meeting.


Public Financing of Elections Clears Hurdle

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Despite the city attorney’s reluctance, the Fair Campaign Practices Commission voted 7-1 Thursday to ask the Berkeley City Council to put a measure before the voters in November that would support public financing for council and mayoral elections.  

Commissioner Dennis White voted in opposition; one commission seat is vacant. 

The FCPC will present an oral report on its decision to the council today (Tuesday), after which the council could vote on the concept. If it approves the clean money proposal in principle, the city attorney will draft the measure in time for final approval before the council recess. 

The Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville League of Women Voters (LWV) is among the clean money sponsors. Sherry Smith, outgoing LWV president, told the commission the measure is needed because elected officials listen to “friends” who contribute to their campaigns.  

“Wouldn’t it be better if the public were your ‘friends?’” she asked. 

The City Council voted to ask the commission to look at the public financing issue, limiting consideration to the mayor’s race. The commission, however, broadened its deliberations to address both council and mayoral elections. It went even further, noting that in the future it would consider expanding the measure to cover school board and auditor races. 

If the proposal is approved, candidates would collect $5 contributions to indicate they have community support: 600 for mayoral candidates and 150 for council hopefuls. Funding would come from the general fund and equal $4 per resident (or $410,972) per year, with a $2 million cap. Candidates could receive and spend up to $140,000 for the mayor’s race and $20,000 for the council contest.  

In a letter to the FCPC, Sam Ferguson of the Berkeley Clean Elections Coalition, which is spearheading the public financing effort, pointed to a 2002 election where one council candidate spent $70,000 and the opponent, $40,000, causing, he said, the candidate with less funding to lose. (Gordon Wozniak raised about $73,000 and the closest challenger, Andy Katz, raised about $33,000, according to campaign finance statements.) 

“There is a political arms race in Berkeley that must be stopped,” he said. 

Several weeks ago, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque had said her office was too busy to write the ordinance before the council deadline, but on Monday, in a phone interview with the Daily Planet, she affirmed that, though it would be difficult, she would be able to make the deadline.  

At the commission meeting, Albuquerque had urged commissioners to move slower. 

“I’m not sure why we have to do it in November,” she said. “You have time. I can’t give you decent staff support.” 

Albuquerque urged the commission to take a year to thoroughly analyze each section of the draft. 

However, Commissioner Stephen Bedrick argued: “If people want public financing in 2008, then it has to be on the 2006 ballot.” 

Albuquerque said there is a mechanism for the council to adopt public financing without going to the voters, but Bedrick argued that would put the council in the position of supporting something voters rejected two years ago. 

“My nickel says the voters will pass it this time,” he said. 

In 2004 voters rejected a public financing ballot measure 59 to 41 percent. While he voted to support the measure, Commission Chair Eric Weaver said he was concerned about putting a similar proposal before the voters so soon. 

“If it is defeated again, that’s it,” he said. 

Ferguson responded from his seat in the audience, arguing that this year is different. In 2004, Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes (BASTA) opposed several tax measures on the ballot and lumped public financing of elections in with them. 

Now is the time, Smith said: “We have a lot of good press on clean money. People are thinking about how to clean up the election process. Every once in a while your stars line up—they are lined up now.” 

White, the only commissioner to oppose the measure, did not speak against it at the meeting, knowing, he said by phone on Friday, he would be outvoted. 

White told the Daily Planet he opposes the measure because of the ease with which a council candidate could collect 150 signatures and get access to public funds. 

“I could see somebody doing it for a lark,” he said, adding that the current $250 contribution cap is a sufficient deterrent to corruption.  

Moreover, the act of going door to door to solicit donations has political value, since candidates talk about issues while collecting funds, he said. And White said the commissioners should have listened to the city attorney and not rushed to approve the proposal. 

 

Clean elections on California ballot 

Meanwhile, Californians for Clean Elections (CCE) announced Monday that they had collected the required number of valid signatures to place a state-wide public financing initiative on the November ballot. 

“This initiative is intended to enable elected leaders to focus on the wishes and needs of all its citizens rather than their campaign contributors,” according to a CCE statement. 

In response, Assemblymember Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, announced in a press statement that she will drop her public financing legislation to allow political reform organizations to focus on the ballot measure. 

“The public has lost faith in California’s electoral process,” Hancock said in the statement. “Clean Money will reform the electoral system and re-establish trust with the voters.”


‘Opt Out’ Military Recruitment Bill Heads to State Senate

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday June 27, 2006

A California bill designed to inform high school students and their parents of their right to withhold contact information from military recruiters won Republican support in the state legislature last week but not nearly enough to survive a possible gubernatorial veto. 

Mountain View Democratic Assemblymember Sally Lieber’s AB1778 Release of Student Contact Information bill—co-sponsored by Berkeley Assemblymember Loni Hancock—passed the State Senate Education Committee 9-1-1. 

All of the committee’s eight Democrats supported the bill and the three Republicans split down the middle, with one voting in support, one voting against, and one senator’s vote recorded as “pass.” Staff members for Carlsbad Republican Senator Bill Morrow were not certain whether the senator abstained on the vote or was not present when the vote took place. Morrow is chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.  

The bill now goes to the full Senate. 

Immediately following the Education Committee meeting, Lieber’s office issued a press advisory stating that the bill had passed “on a BIPARTISAN vote,” with the capital letters included in the advisory. 

Lieber’s bill did not receive a single Republican vote in passing the Assembly Education or Veterans Affairs committees and the full Assembly earlier this spring. 

With Democrats holding 63 percent of the seats in the Senate and 61 percent in the Assembly, the bill would have to receive two Republican Senate votes and five Republican Assembly votes, while holding all the Democratic votes, in order to survive a possible veto by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Two Democrat Assemblymembers, Nicole Parra of the Central Valley and Tom Umberg of Anaheim, voted against the measure when it passed the full Assembly earlier this month. 

The vote of the lone Republican Senate Education committee member who supported Lieber’s bill cannot be considered a Republican trend. San Jose State Senator Abel Maldonado has a habit of voting independent of the Republican Party line. 

The fiscally conservative Maldonado, who came in second in last month’s Republican primary for state controller, has supported both the pro-choice and pro-life abortion positions almost equally (67 percent support for Planned Parenthood of California in 2004, 79 percent for the Life-Priority Network in 2003), and voted with the California Republican Assembly 50 percent in 2005.  

Maldonado’s press information officer said that the senator voted for the Lieber bill “on his own,” and did so “because he sees this as a parental rights issue. It’s important that they have control over who gets their children’s personal information.” 

The Maldonado spokesperson said they did not necessarily see this as a move by the Senate Republican Caucus toward supporting the Lieber bill.


Council to Debate Budget, Gaia Building, Public Comment

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday June 27, 2006

While City Manager Phil Kamlarz has detailed a $220,000 six-month Telegraph Avenue area improvement plan as part of his $300 million mostly fixed-cost budget that goes before the Berkeley City Council tonight (Tuesday), Councilmember Kriss Worthington will ask his colleagues to approve the funds but hold off on the plan specifics. 

“We need to analyze the community’s suggestions to figure out how to spend the money,” said Worthington, whose district includes Telegraph. 

He noted that there are “glaring omissions” in the city manager’s plan, including a lack of solutions to the parking problem on the street. 

The manager’s six-month Telegraph Avenue spending plan calls for:  

• $100,000 to be spent on overtime for increased bike patrol and drug task force officers. 

• $70,000 to add hours for laborers to clean the Telegraph area and downtown sidewalks ($50,000 from the 2005-2006-year budget has been spent recently for two green machines to clean sidewalks on Telegraph and downtown). 

• $20,000 to improve facades, a contribution to a $160,000 fund also supported by the university, the business improvement district, and property and business owners. 

• $30,000 to increase mental health staffing. 

Worthington said it would cost $50,000 to restore the 22 or so parking spaces converted to motorcycle parking last fall. 

He criticized the report for not addressing the yellow zones on Durant Avenue and Telegraph, which allow no public parking. 

The report should have addressed the specific amount of time that a city planner would spend working on Telegraph Avenue-related issues, Worthington said. 

And, when increasing police patrols on Telegraph Avenue, the city needs to address the displacement of drug dealing into the neighborhoods, he added. 

 

Other budget considerations 

Also coming up in the budget deliberations will be a 25-cent increase in hourly parking-meter fees, expected to raised about $1 million annually.  

Other proposed expenditures, in addition to the approximate $300 million in fixed costs, include: 

• $200,000 for a traffic-calming plan. 

• $2.8 million for street and sewer improvements, as well as affordable housing. 

• The mayor’s proposed $900,000 in expenditures that include funding for implementation of an ordinance to buy goods not made in sweatshops, promotion of business areas, the Ashby BART community process, a watershed coordinator and more.  

The council will also discuss: 

• Cultural uses at the Gaia Building on Allston Way. Owned by developer Patrick Kennedy, the Gaia Building was permitted extra height in exchange for the implementation of cultural uses on the ground floor and mezzanine. 

The council and developer have been at odds over that usage. The council will discuss an agreement between the developer and city staff specifying the amount of time to be used for cultural events. 

• Changing the rules for public comment at city meetings to possibly allow all items on the agenda to be addressed, rather than simply those selected by lottery. 

The change in rules is in response to a lawsuit threatened by the First Amendment Project. 

• Establishing the level of income at $33,500 to exempt low-income individuals and couples from paying certain local taxes and fees. 

• Placing an advisory measure on the November ballot calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney. 

The measure accused them of having “intentionally misled the congress and American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war” and other crimes. 

• Approving, in principle, an ordinance that would ensure that large-scale hospitality businesses retain workers when the business changes hands. 

The item targets the Doubletree Hotel in the Berkeley Marina, which may change hands in September. 


Seagate/Arpeggio High-Rise Condo Project Set to Rise

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday June 27, 2006

In Monday morning’s bright sunlight, a front-end loader busily growled through the dwindling piles of rubble that are the last remnants of three Center Street buildings. 

And one morning soon—probably in late August—earthmovers will begin their excavations, making way for the posh, 186,000-square-foot, nine-story condo complex. 

Once that happens, the one-block stretch of Center Street between Shattuck Avenue and Milvia Street—already reduced to one lane by the work at the new Berkeley City College building—will become even more congested as crews across the street start digging for parking. 

The college’s “use of the street for construction activities will end approximately the end of July, and building occupancy will occur on August 23, 2006, which is the start of the school year,” said Tamlyn Bright of the city Office of Transportation. 

Excavation won’t commence until after college starts. 

Still more construction is being planned just across Shattuck where UC Berkeley and Carpenter and Company are planning a 210-room upscale hotel, condo and convention center complex, though the developer says construction could be as much as two years away. 

Once dubbed the Seagate Building after its first set of developers and renamed by their successors, the 2041-67 Center St. Arpeggio will become Berkeley’s tallest new building since the Gaia Building. 

But, unlike the always controversial Gaia, it will house a full-time 9,000-square-foot performance and rehearsal venue under the auspices of the non-profit Berkeley Repertory Theatre. 

 

Groundbreaking 

“My prediction is that it will be a couple of months before we start digging the hole,” said Darrell de Tienne, a San Francisco developer who has been involved with the project through two changes of ownership. 

The construction date will be determined by the city approval process, de Tienne said. 

“The city will probably change everything six ways from Sunday,” he quipped. “But once we begin, construction should be complete within 24 months.” 

The new building will incorporate green technology, the developer said, and will qualify for certification under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, de Tienne said, but just at what level he couldn’t say. 

The Arpeggio will feature eight floors totaling 149 up-scale condominiums built atop a ground floor that will include rehearsal space for the Berkeley Repertory Theater, a public art gallery and at least one commercial use. 

The building will also feature 160 parking spaces in a two-level underground lot. 

The Berkeley Rep was given first call on the arts space—which provides an additional “bonus” floor of housing as compensation—because the non-profit’s rehearsal facilities were located in two of the just-demolished buildings. 

Berkeley Rep has signed a lease that allows other groups to hold performances in the space 52 days a year. 

A second bonus comes from the “inclusionary” condos incorporated in the plans, 11 units that will be sold to those earning 81 percent or less of the area’s median income and another 12 for those earning 50 percent or less. 

None of the units will be on the top two floors, which will command the highest prices—a point that irks City Councilmember Dona Spring. 

“Inclusionary units are supposed to be the same as any others,” she said, “but these units are the inside units that don’t have the views. That’s wrong.” 

The combination of bonuses allowed the developer to add four additional floors above the downtown five-floor limit. 

Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton said that a proposal that will be presented to the Planning Commission Wednesday night would allow the developers to sell the 11 units at market rate if they paid a proposed in-lieu fee to the city’s Housing Trust Fund. 

The main legal opposition came in a November 2004 appeal by Citizens for Downtown Berkeley, spearheaded by current mayoral candidate and former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein. 

Two months later, the City Council rejected the appeal on an 8-0-1 vote, with Councilmember Kriss Worthington abstaining. 

 

Property sold 

The first developers were Seagate, a privately held five-member partnership with extensive real estate holdings in the Bay Area and apartments in Colorado. That company owns the 12-story Wells Fargo Bank building, 2140 Shattuck Ave. and structures at 2850 Telegraph Ave., 1950 and 2039-2040 Addison St., and 1918 and 1936 University Ave.  

Seagate sold the site, plans and permits in May 2005 to SNK Captec Arpeggio, LLC, a joint venture corporation between an Arizona builder and a Michigan financial company. 

Captec Financial Group, a firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich., specializes in development and equipment financing and holds a portfolio of leased properties. The 24-year-old company owns or manages approximately $1 billion in assets, according to the corporate web site. 

SNK Realty Group, an arm of SNK Development, joined with Captec in August 2004 to create to form SNK Opportunity Partners LLC. 

The same partnership has developed a 102-unit residential and ground floor commercial project, with an adjoining 263-car parking structure, at 40th Street and San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville.


Supervisors Give $8 Million Bailout to Medical Center, Avert Layoffs

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Representatives of the hospital workers union which successfully lobbied county supervisors to provide an $8 million budget bailout for the Alameda County Medical Center say they will continue to monitor the situation to make sure that the center incurs no new round of layoffs. 

With ACMC projecting a $4.8 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year, the county board of supervisors voted this week to support Board of Supervisors President Keith Carson’s plan to shift $4.4 million from the county capital projects fund and $3.6 million in surplus fund to the medical center for use over the next two years. 

In a memorandum to the Board of Supervisors, Carson said the money was intended for “short term operational and/or capital needs.” 

Carson wrote that while ACMC CEO Wright Lassiter “anticipates closing his remaining $4.8 million funding gap … I propose that we establish an $8 million designation to help ensure that the ACMC budget remains balanced.”  

Patricia Van Hook, legislative analyst for the medical center, said in a telephone interview that Lassiter’s budget to be submitted to trustees today (Tuesday) will continue to include the projected $4.8 million deficit, and will not include the $8 million county bailout money. 

Van Hook said that Lassiter will continue to seek internal ways to close the budget gap, without further staff reductions than the ones already anticipated and announced.  

Earlier this month, at CEO Lassiter’s direction, ACMC trustees approved $23 million in budget reductions for the upcoming fiscal year, mostly from efficiency savings. 

Center officials were anticipating that the reductions would only result in the loss of between 68 and 84 full-time equivalent employees out of a total workforce of more than 2,000. 

“There will not be any more layoffs other than those already announced,” Van Hook said. 

ACMC Trustees will vote on the center’s budget today. The medical center operates several public medical facilities in Alameda County, including Highland Hospital in Oakland, Fairmont Hospital and John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro, and several clinics. 

Service Employees International Union Local 616, which represents 1,300 registered nurses, hospital clerical staff, and allied health care professionals at the medical center, conducted an intensive fax and online petition lobbying campaign in support of the bailout last week, targeting Carson and Board of Supervisors Vice President Scott Haggerty. Supervisor Nate Miley joined Carson and Haggerty in supporting the $8 million transfer. 

Local 616 representative Brad Cleveland said that Carson and Haggerty were specifically targeted because “they have worked most closely with the center, and they have the most intimate knowledge of Wright Lassiter.” 

Cleveland added that “the fact that they approved this money shows the level of confidence they have in the new management at the center.” 

Lassiter was hired last September to replace Tennessee-based management consultants Cambio Health Solutions. Cambio was hired by the medical center in early 2004 to analyze ACMC’s finances, but has been criticized by trustee board, staff, and union representatives for leaving the district in a budgetary shambles.  

With rumors circulating throughout the medical center that the $4.8 million deficit would lead to larger layoffs, representatives of SEIU and the Vote Health organization had urged supervisors to come up with the money. 

The SEIU’s Cleveland said that even with the $8 million influx, the medical center is not out of the fiscal woods yet. 

“The $23 million in savings from the margin audit process is not money in the bank,” Cleveland said. “All of that money won’t just materialize on July 1 and even in the best of all worlds, they won’t be able to realize all of the anticipated savings through the end of the next fiscal year.” 

In addition, Cleveland said that the new county money will not be simply transferred into the medical center’s account. “They are going to have to request it for specific needs,” he said. 

Cleveland said that the $8 million bailout should be considered a “cushion” that can help the center bridge any delays in the implementation of the margin audit process savings. 

Under Carson’s budget amendment, any of the $8 million not used by the center by the end of the ‘07-’08 fiscal year will revert to the capital fund.


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Dreams for Everyone to Share

By Becky O'Malley
Friday June 30, 2006

Over the weekend I got an e-mail petition asking me to add my name to this letter and pass it on: 

 

“Dear Disney Company,  

In December 2005, I made my first visit to Disney World with my family. The experience was breathtaking. Throughout our journey, the adults were astonished by how the themes were brought to life. … Above all, the girls were intrigued by the Princesses’ mini-shows. However, my daughter had a question. She said, “How come there’s no Princess here like me?” I asked, “What do you mean?” She replied, “You know, a Princess like That’s So Raven or Penny Proud.” I responded by saying, “Unfortunately, Disney has not created fairytales for children like you. In other words, there are no Princesses of African American descent.”  

As the evening came to an end, I began to ponder on her question. I thought to myself...well, why aren’t there any African American Princesses in such a place where the motto is “We Make All Dreams Come True"? I decided to e-mail your company to ask why.  

A few weeks later, I received a surprising call. The woman I spoke to reassured me that my question and concern was taken seriously and would be looked into further. During this conversation, I asked why there aren’t any African American Princesses. [She said] because there aren’t any African American fairy tales. …[but] “ we have Pocahontas who represents Native America, Mulan who represents the Chinese, Jasmine who represents the descendants of the Middle East and the African Americans have Lion King out of Africa.” That reply left me with the thought that she just compared African Americans to wild animals. After that statement, I just laughed and respectfully ended the conversation.  

One thing I realized was that I can’t blame her for her response. Disney has not created an African American fairytale…[We] all know that through life experiences what we can touch, see, feel, taste, and hear leaves a lasting impression. Disney, you hold the power to make life experiences become a reality to a melting pot world, which includes African Americans. Disney’s motto is “We Make All Dreams Come True.” Well Disney, my child and other children like her have a dream and through their Disney experience, they are depending on you to make it come true. 

Thank you, 

Katrina Y. Helm” 

 

As the grandmother of a 4-year-old, I know she’s making a very good point. Little girls in the 2-to-6-year old age bracket these days are obsessed with Disney Princesses and all their branded paraphernalia. Every mall has its Disney store with lavish Princess displays. Even the kids who are seldom allowed to watch television have Disney videos which they play again and again and again. And this includes my own 4-year-old granddaughter, who is of African-American descent and indeed doesn’t look exactly like any of the Disney royalty. 

My correspondent said in her cover letter that she was even sending the petition to her white friends, “because racism is just as much their problem as ours and we will all benefit from its eradication.” She’s right about that, and it doesn’t just apply to those of us whose grandkids are personally affected.  

Another facet of the Disney Princess phenomenon is perhaps more confusing to deal with. In my granddaughter’s circle of friends there are also a couple of little boys who are obsessed with Disney Princesses and who have asked for tiaras and high-heeled shoes to act out their princess fantasies. I can’t honestly say how I would react if I were the parent or grandparent of one of these boys. I suppose if he came with a manufacturer’s label saying that he was gay, I’d accept gladly accept him, because there’s a secure niche in my world for gay men.  

But is it normal for “real men” or even real boys to have dreams of being princesses at three, and can they go on to being straight? Most of us are happy to have our daughters dreaming of being firefighters or cowboys, but can we accept our sons dreaming of being princesses? Should we supply them with tiaras to test the principle? Uncharted waters…. 

The report in last Friday’s paper about the minister who condemned gays at the African-American graduation ceremony in Berkeley has stirred up a lot of controversy, some of which is in today’s Planet. We ACLU types will defend his right to express his opinions, of course, but we also reserve our own right to tell him that he’s wrong, dead wrong, even perniciously wrong. Seeing the picture of the ceremony at St. Paul AME church, I thought of a family friend, a young gay African-American man who graduated from Berkeley High and whose parents are faithful church members. How awful it would have been for him to be one of those graduates sitting in those pews and hearing himself condemned from the pulpit, which could easily have happened when he graduated a few years ago.  

Like racism, homophobia is everyone’s problem, and we’ll all benefit from its eradication. Scientific evidence is mounting that sexual orientation, like much else that makes up human beings, is outside the scope of what theologians call “free will.” All of us, believers and non-believers alike, should be building a world where all kinds of people with all kinds of skin, hair and sexual orientation—all God’s children, using the language of faith—are cherished. There’s plenty of work for all of us to do to get to this promised land.  

One small way to start is by adding our names to the petition asking the Disney corporation to get to work on that African-American Princess. Another might be to speak up when misguided believers suggest that their God frowns on some of His creation. Perhaps some who attended the graduation event should write a letter to the speaker, telling him politely but clearly that a lot of people in Berkeley believe he’s making a mistake by condemning homosexuality. It might get him thinking. 


News of Doubletree Sale Worries Hotel Workers

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday June 27, 2006

The Doubletree Hotel at the Marina, in the process of being sold to Canadian buyers, has raised hotel workers’ concern.  

The transaction is part of an acquisition of the Boykin Lodging Company, which owns the Doubletree, by a partnership of the Toronto-based Westmont Hospitality Group and Cadim Inc. of Quebec in a cash transaction valued at about $416 million, according to Hotel Online. 

The sale is expected to be completed in 90 days, according to Mark Dean, Doubletree’s director of operations. 

The change in ownership is of concern to hotel and restaurant workers, whose contract expired at the end of 2005. (About 75 workers and supporters demonstrated at the hotel last month to press for a new contract.) In a recent negotiating session, Boykin asked Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) to extend the present contract to the new management. 

“We’re not sure who will operate the hotel,” said Mary Catherine Plunkett, HERE researcher. “The deal still has to go to the shareholders.” 

Plunkett said the union is not ready to approve a contract extension because Westmont has not agreed to real worker retention. 

“They want a 90-day probation period,” Plunkett said. “There’s no job security. They could be fired for anything at all.” 

Doubletree workers will attend tonight’s (Tuesday) City Council meeting to urge adoption of a worker-retention ordinance proposed in concept by Councilmember Kriss Worthington to make sure the new owners do not terminate current hotel staff.


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday June 30, 2006

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to give proper respect to Berkeleyans who understood immediately what McKnight (“Homophobic Speech Sours Community Graduation Event,” June 23) was talking about. Scott’s other points were obliterated by mechanisms designed to protect freedom, his included. Political correctness was and still is a part of freedom and vice versa. 

Though I did not attend this year’s Celebration of Excellence, I can imagine the event by extrapolating from the controversial events organized by the African-American Studies department at Berkeley High when I attended. 

The majority of Berkeleyans disagree with Scott’s belief that hatefulness towards homosexuality is a mandate from God. Is that any reason to call for censorship? Most of us would say no. 

PC is about treating people like humans with considerate acknowledgment of diversity. It is simply an extension of common courtesy, not censorship. 

I applaud McKnight’s act of resistance against censorship. I’m glad to see that his love of discourse expands beyond the classroom to the community. He is continuing, I believe, in the tradition of Dr. Navies.  

Melinda Zapata 

 

• 

APPALLED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I too am appalled at the comments the Rev. Manuel Scott Jr. delivered to the African American Berkeley High School graduates.  

I am doubly appalled that some blacks in Berkeley would choose to endorse bigotry while inside the African Episcopal Methodist Church-the church that was created in 1787 to shield African Americans from bigotry and racism. It was also within the sanctuary of the AME church in 1817 that Blacks overwhelmingly refused to capitulate to racism and bigotry and voted to remain in America and fight for equal rights. These historic incidents merely compound the travesty perpetrated by the Revs. Manuel Scott Jr. and Robert McKnight.  

I am all in favor of an African American graduation ceremony; particularly when compared to the silliness and gong show I witnessed that passed for Berkeley High School Commencement at the Greek Theater last week. But if I had to choose between watching “The Gong Show” or suffering two black ministers desecrating a historic African American church, I’d settle for “The Gong Show.”  

Jean Damu 

• 

MISGUIDED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ethan Feldman’s June 27 letter was an effective answer to the sadly misguided commencement speech of Rev. Manuel Scott and also to the letter by Lisa Owens celebrating the Rev. Scott’s condemnation of homosexuals on Biblical grounds. I know I’m not the first the point out that such Bible-backed-bigotry is best answered by those who know and respect the Bible, and who know how to read it. Unfortunately, secular people’s disdain of traditional writings, and of all religion, leaves them as ignorant as the bigots, unable to meet them on their own ground and correct them with their own sources. 

Citing Biblical sources approving slavery as an answer to a black man citing Biblical condemnation of homosexuals—perfect! 

Dorothy Bryant 

 

• 

INTELLECTUAL LAZINESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Living in Berkeley, I am still amazed at the intellectual laziness and double-standards I find among some of the citizenry, especially when it comes to the Bible. I dare say that most Berkeleyans would not be so arrogant and lazy when it comes to offering interpretations of, say, the Koran or the Vedas or the Bhagavad-Gita. Yet still we have to endure theologically and historically simplistic and reductionistic arguments about the Bible, slavery, and homosexuality from some like Ethan Feldman.  

When a preacher of whatever stripe teaches that the Bible is always and everywhere against the practice of homosexual behavior (which it is!), it gets rather tiring to hear the same old reductionistic, intellectually dishonest and lazy responses along the lines of, “Well the Bible teaches that slavery is OK and so did many preachers throughout history, so since we don’t follow the Bible on slavery, why should we follow it on homosexuality?” Well, cased closed then, eh? How come we don’t hear these same Berkeley people saying, “The Koran teaches that all infidels (i.e., non-Muslims) should be killed, so the Koran should be ignored as wrong and totally irrelevant to our world today?” Answer: Such people want to be much more careful in what they say about the Koran than they do about the Bible. Most Berkeleyans realize that the above statement about the Koran is reductionistic and overly simplistic, and so they would never say it. But they should realize that usually their statements about the Bible are just as simplistic, if not more so, than the one stated above about the Koran. So how about a little less laziness and reductionism from the “educated” Berkeley citizenry, and how about more statements about the Bible that take into account the entirety of it’s writings; more careful attention to what the text actually says and doesn’t say; the linguistic, grammatical, religious, historical, and socio-political context of it’s writings, and a deeply thoughtful interpretation of the relationship between the OT and the NT? This is the respectful way to approach not only the Bible, but any book worth reading and understanding. 

Michael Duenes 

 

• 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Our city has a widely recognized identity. The descriptions run the gambit, and range from progressive and accepting to pompous and hypocritical, depending on whom you ask. 

Free speech has always been a flag Berkeleyans wave with fervor. That is, until someone with an unpopular opinion speaks up, then that person is accused of engaging in “hate speech.” 

Some letter writers are calling for the resignation or firing of Mr. McKnight because of his choice for keynote speakers at this recent event. For one, Mr. McKnight didn’t give the speech. Secondly, this event was not sanctioned by Berkeley High School, and as such Mr. McKnight cannot be accused of professional misconduct (so firing him would be an egregious act of misconduct by the BUSD itself). 

I don’t agree with the speaker either, but I wasn’t there. I haven’t read the exact language of the speech. Hence, I will not jump to any conclusions like a lot of my fellow Berkeley citizens. When you support your freedoms of speech and expression, you accept the fact that someone might say something you won’t like. 

Matthew Mitschang 

 

• 

PAINFUL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was painful to read Reverend Manuel Scott Jr.’s remarks on gayness as he apparently delivered them to an audience of public school students on the tenth of June. When he referred to his religious opinions as “Biblical correctness” and expressed contempt for “political correctness,” all I could think of was the saying that those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it.  

Descendants of the survivors of the European Hundred Years’ War between Roman Catholics and Protestants, a war which caused the deaths of a large proportion of the inhabitants of Europe and was fought because each side thought it was defending “Biblical correctness” by exterminating the other side, decided, having journeyed to these shores that it would be wise to found the government of the United States on the principle of separation of Church and State.  

Reverend Scott’s remarks would have been appropriate had they been delivered in church. He had no right, however, to impose his views on an audience made up of the graduates of a state-funded public high school.His remarks were hate speech and were homophobic from the point of view of those who do not share his religious beliefs, even though he himself may believe that he is courageously standing up for a spiritual truth, that he “hates the sin, not the sinner,” etc.  

If “African-American culture” is supposed to excuse Reverend Scott’s equation of gayness with, say, crack addiction, one might try visualizing such African-Americans as James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Bayard Rustin, or Pat Parker in his audience to get a sense of how destructive Reverend Scott’s remarks really were.  

It’s unlikely that there will ever be a politically viable “Crackhead Liberation Movement.” Smoking crack is simply and purely bad for you, both physically and spiritually. 

Black Liberation, Women’s Liberation, and Gay Liberation, however—all three of which have contributed to the sometimes-hated concept of “political correctness”—have succeeded in transforming America precisely because all three represented growth in the direction of greater spiritual health for a significant portion of the American people. Their political force has been due to their spiritual validity. But all three liberation movements have been accused by their opponents of being “against God and the Bible.”  

If Reverend Scott wants to believe that the collection of books published in one volume by Protestant Christians under the title The Holy Bible is a computer readout from God that no two right-minded souls could interpret in different ways, I have to pray that the policy of separation of Church and State survives. It is, in the long run, the only thing that will protect him from others who believe the same thing, but have a different interpretation of the computer readout, who may be willing to kill to defend “God and the Bible.”  

Chadidjah McFall 

 

• 

PACIFIC STEEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a resident and home owner in North Berkeley I am outraged at the city’s lack of will to clean up Pacific Steel Casting. I thought this was enviro-friendly, green, tree-hugging Berkeley? Instead I find out that less than a mile away from my home and work PSC is dumping toxins in the air 24/7 endangering my health and my family. 

Every day I can smell PSC from my home and have noticed shortness in breath in both myself and my daughter ever since ling here.  

It’s time for PSC to pack up and move it’s operations to an industrial area—not a residential one that is densely populated like Berkeley. It looks like for a million dollars not only can you buy a 1,200-square-foot fixer, but you also get polluted air filled with toxins from PSC.  

Any person who reads this and who lives in Berkeley need to come together and take a stand against this polluter in our community. 

David Landon 

 

• 

FIREWORKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With tears streaming down my face and a very sad heart, I write these few words. 

An Army infantry official rang the doorbell to deliver a telegram: 

"With regrets, we wish to inform you, your son (my brother) Technical Sergeant Max Dragoon was killed in action on Sept. 3, 1944.” 

We hugged, mourned and consoled each other. War is cruel. We took comfort in the thought that Max was killed defending our country against Fascism and Hitlerism. 

Twenty-six days passed and, would you believe, another official, this time from the Army Air Force, arrived at our door with a telegram: 

"Sorry to inform you, your son (my brother) Technical Sergeant Samuel Dragoon was killed in action on Sept. 29, 1944 when the B-24 Bomber of which he was a crew member was shot down and crashed near Lyancourt, France.” 

At the time of his death , he was a member of the 787th Bomb Squadron, 466th Bomb Group. Because the Army Graves Registration Service was unable to identify the crew members’ remains separately, the crew was buried in a common grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri which is centrally located in the United States. 

While each member of our family had to deal with this death in their own way, it left us all in a ‘shocked’ state, devastated with disbelief There was no hugging, no talking, no consoling—complete silence. Until this day, I am in denial and believe Sam must be lost, maybe an amnesia victim—my beloved favorite brother. 

I was 15 and my world fell apart. For years I had nightmares. Parts of me died with them. I vowed never to totally love anyone again for fear of losing them. My life was a picture of hopelessness and despair. I neglected my schooling—thought surely my heart would break. But I learned to hide my feelings and emotions and managed to somehow go on living—unhappily, miserably and lonely. War destroys the living too. 

Almost 62 years have gone by; the pain remains eternal. 

Another Grandmother Against The War  

Ann Dragoon Wasserman  

 

• 

TELEGRAPH AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A few thoughts on the proposed increase in funding for social and police services on Telegraph Avenue: 

First, any strategy must be able to pass constitutional muster. Enforcement should be based on new civil codes that are developed to help enforce socially appropriate behavior. Ordinances on Telegraph should not be different than other areas of Berkeley. Groups and people sleeping on sidewalks need to be addressed in a coherent plan. Enforcement of crime should not be aimed primarily at skateboarders, jaywalkers and other victimless crimes. Drug dealing should be prosecuted, particularly hard drugs like heroin and crack that are sold in People’s Park. Gangs that have taken over the south campus territories should be cracked down upon and taken out of the city. Unruly behavior must be restrained. This includes aggressive panhandling, abusive speech, physically intimidating behavior—these are usually done by people that are criminally predatory, mentally ill and individuals acting out, as well as college age and older adults under the influence of alcohol. Open containers should first be confiscated with a warning or ticketed. People who suffer from mental illness or severe chemical dependency problems acting out continuously against local residents must not be allowed to stay on Telegraph. Perhaps a “three strikes” ordinance should be utilized for repeated problem incidents of behavior or crime, resulting in a “stay-away order” from the Telegraph area. The Telegraph community should be involved with any police presence and participate in enforcement efforts.  

This enforcement should be consistent throughout the day and into the late evening, with reasonably fast response times. Mental health and social services must be fully integrated in this program. 

Berkeley has always been know for its courteous and well-educated police force and any police presence on Telegraph by Berkeley and UC police should reflect this. I believe new police hires for Telegraph should be trained to be specialists in community policing, perhaps with previous experience in psychology or sociology, a future walking police who know the merchants and community and become familiar with all the problematic individuals on Telegraph. These officers need to be trained as experts in dealing with a small urban “village” such as Telegraph.  

The Telegraph community downturn is not primarily a crime problem but a sociological problem reflecting all of the realities of an urban neighborhood. Attitudes and participation by individuals in the community as well as city personnel must encourage and enforce a code of civil conduct that allows for diversity and individuality while requiring responsible public behavior. Developing a holistic, long-term approach is imperative. Telegraph should be safe, yet a free and fun place to be. 

Al Geyer 

 

• 

DEFINING ARTS AND CRAFTS:  

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I understand that the Arts Commission has been asked to review and update the definition of “arts and crafts” as referred to in the West Berkeley Plan. I hope they will keep in mind that tangible work requires a different setting than symbolic work. Those of us who are trying to make a living with tools and materials and our biomechanical digits need larger work spaces, the ability to make noise and, dare I say it, lower rents, than those who manipulate keyboards and pixels. If other professions compete with artisans for available workspace those of us who still work with tools and materials will be priced out of West Berkeley. 

Jim Rosenau 

 

• 

CURVY DERBY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to thank Susi Marzuola and the other members of the East Campus Neighborhood Association (ECNA) for their “Curvy Derby” proposal that would include a home for the Berkeley High baseball players on the BUSD property at MLK and Derby. I understand that this proposal comes with conditions and that it may have to be modified before all parties can support it. But this seems to be the breakthrough that I have been hoping for that can lead to the speedy completion of this sorely needed facility. 

As for a community design process, I trust that the BHS representatives, including Athletic Director Glenchur and Baseball Coach Moellering will ensure that the needs of the student athletes will be met by the final facility design and that is my main concern. It would seem to make sense that these negotiations be conducted by representatives of the various groups such as the ECNA, the BUSD and the Ecology Center. Let’s get on with it. 

I can support any plan that includes an adequate home for the BHS baseball players. If the neighbors and the Farmers’ Market can benefit as well then good for them! Hopefully we can now work together to figure out how us Berkeley tax payers will pay for this. 

Ed Mahley  

 

• 

KRAGEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I applaud John Aronovic’s April 18 letter to the on Kragen’s Parking Lot at University Avenue and MLK Jr. Way—and know exactly how it feels—and also had to pay the $60 for this woman to remove the boot from my car (last year) as well. I will never, and expressly promote anyone needing to go into that establishment that I meet, friend or foe, not to shop there, park there or go anywhere near this store.  

I used to shop there when it was a grocery produce store U-Save 30-plus years ago—and it was a neighborhood store then, as most stores should aspire to be if they wish continued business and future business from Berkeley patrons. This U-Save was a pre-Monterey Market venue—and I recall once, when there was a police riot between them and hippies circa 1970 or so, the store manager locked all of us in there for our own protection, so we would not be clubbed, gassed, or chased as the hippies were. That was nice—but today—this same place is a source of vile greed and for me, and a few others I have told, I hope this store goes, where so many (good) stores on Shattuck and Telegraph have gone, into history via greed with a vindictive demeanor and truly lousy customer service for all. 

Mark Bayless 

 

• 

PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As I stepped out of my house on Sunday at noon to load my tools and some recycled wood to bring up to People’s Park to build a free box in the parking strip on Haste Street, a Berkeley police car was pulled up behind my truck writing me a ticket. I’m glad that the government of the City of Berkeley has become complicit in the discrimination that the University of California is practicing against the poorest people in our community. Politicians have always been notoriously at a loss when it comes to doing something about People’s Park. It neither speaks their language nor has the currency to turn their eyes towards the needs of the people and away from the desires of the elites. 

So here we have the dirty secret of Berkeley wrapped up in a nutshell. We pretend to stand for peace while actually profiting from war. We pretend to have some semblance of civil rights, yet sharing clothing, keeping these items out of the dumpsters is a more unacceptable method of interaction than stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the taxpayers. 

Arthur Fonseca 

 

• 

BLOOD DONATION 

Many times when college students are featured in the news, like most news stories, it is for bad news. We wanted to let you know about the many wonderful students who by donating blood to the American Red Cross have helped to save at least 10,000 lives during the 2005–2006 school year. 

We collected more than 3,400 pints of blood during 81 drives at colleges and universities throughout Northern California, including 42 drives on the UC Berkeley campus. Thanks to these drives, well over 10,000 people may have received the gift of life, as each pint of donated blood can help three people.  

Students may have been late for class or even missed a class while they were donating blood. But much like school itself, donating blood is part of a lesson in life. Giving blood is one of the most important, rewarding and compassionate things a person can do.  

Student leaders and faculty advisors put a great deal of energy and effort into organizing a blood drive. By having a blood drive on campus, students have the opportunity to donate with their peers, making it less stressful. Students who donate are more likely to donate later in life. Our goal is to make them life-long donors because only 2-3 percent of eligible Bay Area residents donate blood. Nationwide, the average is closer to 5 percent. Medical advances require more and more blood as our population lives longer. Regular blood donors are desperately needed. High school and college blood drives account for less than 9 percent of the mobile blood drives we do, yet these students provide over 10 percent of the blood needed in the Bay Area.  

For all of this, we wish to recognize the students of UC Berkeley for their help. We would also like to remind the community that as schools are out and people take vacations, summer is a time when blood banks experience extreme challenges to maintaining an adequate supply of blood for local hospitals. Please make an extra effort to donate soon by calling 800-GIVE-LIFE or visiting www.HelpSaveALife.org. 

Jay Winkenbach 

Chief Executive Officer


Commentary: Neglect Threatens Hillside School

By Mary Lee Noonan
Friday June 30, 2006

As a neighbor of the Hillside School since 1968, as a parent of children who attended Hillside and as a school volunteer, I knew the school as a jewel in the crown of the Berkeley Unified School District. And then in 1983, sadly it was closed. For almost a quarter century, like all the neighbors, like the endless parade of tenants, like the weekend basketball players and the recreation programs, like the children swinging on the play structures or learning to ride their bikes, I have watched the surfaces of this gracious Tudor building quietly rot.  

Paint peels. The roof leaks. Plaster falls. Windows break. Weeds grow, in the last year occasionally reaching heights of three feet or more in some areas. Money that the community is assured has been designated for the maintenance of Hillside somehow isn’t. The Berkeley Unified School District has simply turned its back on its responsibilities as the steward of this major asset for the community.  

Opened with great fanfare in 1926, Hillside is a major project by an important Berkeley architect, Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., whose work was celebrated several weeks ago in the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s spring house tour. Using materials and a period revival style typical of residential construction after the Berkeley fire of 1923, Ratcliff’s design is totally in harmony with its residential setting, reaching arms to the north and south that embrace the neighborhood. It is our local center of gravity. We are the Hillside Neighborhood. In fact, the splendid auditorium was explicitly intended to be used by the community as well as by the school. The school yard is a magnet for all ages.  

Over the years, the larger community has chosen to recognize officially the historical and aesthetic importance of the Hillside School. In June, 1982, it was unanimously voted a City of Berkeley landmark, and in October of that year is was added to the National Register of Historic Places. These designations offer the building and its site a degree of protection. Any proposed change in its use will trigger a review under the California Environmental Quality Act. An environmental impact report would be necessary. There are also incentives for preservation such as tax advantages and special waivers in building codes. Certain provisions of the Tax Reform Act of 1976 would affect its demolition and replacement.  

At the moment, Hillside is still considered structurally sound. But how long can this remarkable building survive its owner’s neglect? After all these years without basic maintenance, a Surplus Property Committee has now been impaneled by the school district to consider the ghost of the Hillside School. Their challenge is enormous as they thoughtfully try to advise the School Board whether or not to declare Hillside a surplus property, as well as making recommendations for its future use.  

Their task is further complicated by a soils report submitted in the ‘90s by Harding Lawson Associates, stating that an ancient secondary trace of the Hayward Fault passes under part of Hillside. Although extensively reinforced with steel and declared seismically safe in an earlier survey of BUSD buildings, the stone of doubt has been cast. Edwin Zacher of H. J. Brunnier Associates, a structural engineer hired as a consultant by the district, had concluded that future seismic events would trigger an alluvial flow downhill and west around the Hillside fortress, which would remain intact. The late Bruce Bolt, director of the UC Berkeley Seismographic Station, former chair of the California Seismic Commission and a neighbor, wanted to study the trenching at the time it was done, but it was filled in immediately. Instead of sharing his restraint and skepticism about the nature of any activity on the trace, many people tend to speak of Hillside as “on the fault,” as if the actual Hayward Fault had been found between Le Roy Avenue and Buena Vista Way. Before Hillside can be considered as a possible site for an institution involving children, the use for which it was built, further soil studies obviously need to be done.  

Can we in the community be of help to the Surplus Property Committee as it confronts these dilemmas, brainstorming, networking and encouraging serious, workable proposals? For years the district has failed to develop a plan for Hillside. For years the district has continued to betray the public’s trust that it would care for the site. In a 1993 survey of neighborhood opinion, the residents overwhelmingly supported one goal: the preservation of the Hillside School. At the eleventh hour can the building and the honor of the school district be saved?  

Please send your ideas to Robert Jackson, chair, Surplus Property Committee of the Berkeley Unified School District, 1720 Oregon St., Berkeley, CA. Watch for a public hearing in September. 

 

Mary Lee Noonan is a Berkeley  

resident.


Commentary: Comedy: Cliches or Contradictions

By R.G. Davis
Friday June 30, 2006

Sitting in a local theater a few weeks ago and watching the audience listen to a political comedy I wondered why some people were laughing at things I thought were rehashed slaps at the Bushites. A giggling older man I watched was bouncing up and down on his chair. I thought that must be fun—the jiggling, not the giggling. There is after all, an important function to jiggling while giggling or just jiggling the body. More oxygen, the blood flows and the body is alert—all to the good. The problem is that current political comedy theater is not capable of digging deep enough into the malaise to face a number of reactionary factors. 

The thesis here is that the socio-political-economic-environmental conditions are so convoluted and horrific that simplistic comic determinists are irrelevant and even obstacles to understanding. The American knee-jerk notion that to make a political point one has to use comedy is in part derived from George Bernard Shaw’s dictum somewhere next to the one “If you can’t do, teach.” The “sugar coated bitter pill” is supposed to make it possible for an audience to receive disturbing news. The problem within this culture, such comedy is a distraction and makes the audience think it is smarter than the dumb dumbs in office. Commercial comedy rarely cuts to the bone, because satire is shallow—“rapid transitions … unwillingness to ponder any situation or investigate it thoroughly… fragmentary quality … demonstrating the continuous movement that never brings about change.” (Alvin Kernan Modern Satire) No matter, it makes the audience “feel good” pays the bills and is addictive like junk food. 

Take subjects that are taboo. Consider doing a comedy about Rachel Corrie—a straight play rejected in New York by an art theater group but being done by Peter Shuman’s Bread and Puppet Theatre—most likely not a comic piece. 

Al Franken, when asked by KPFA’s Dennis Bernstein “Would you do comedy on Palestine,” responded, “I avoid that topic.” Franken is no Lenny Bruce. Make jokes about Zionists shooting Palestinians in the occupied and now free-fire-zone of Gaza strip? What? The American Jews used to be famous for their Borscht Belt comics, now the Borscht belt is a chokehold on the brain. One might observe there are levels of comedy in which the matter turns into humor if it is dialectical. Dialectics is that side of intelligent critique that turns into an “ahah moment” in which the recognition of something familiar yet not obvious is made clear. The connection between the Zionists and the right wing “raptus” people might bring a breathy “ahah” but not a giggle since the matter is so bizarre and historically farcical that any laughter is likely to relieve the body of its tears rather than of increasing its oxygen. 

If we consider preemptive strike as a break with previous policy (epistemological break?), if we recognize global warming as dangerous to human habitat, if we recognize the current regime and their clones in the Democratic party as a major problem of which semi-barbarians will replace the barbarians, if we consider the loss of civil liberties and the militarization of American foreign policy and life riddled by patriotism, nationalism and militarism—in high schools and in the religious groups—additional anti Muslim Arab, anti anti, anti xenophobia (an immigrant country—“No Spanish spoken here!”) add the argument that the 9/11 event was known to the current regime and was allowed, or was known and amplified by the implosion of the buildings the composite, the collection of factors causes deep angst. Given that the usual answer to angst is a psychological one—buy a pair of shoes, go to a movie, treat yourself to a good restaurant, it takes a sophisticated method of anlysis to be able to even hear the list. Most people have little time to consider the vast corruption of the empty category “democracy” nor are they able to countenance that their cherished cliches no longer explain current events. People with little theory or ability to engage in negation of the negation or more likely negation of the negation of the negation—until overwhelmed by events crisis, jail, or choking from pollution, are likely to begin giggling. To understand where we are jiggling and giggling won’t help.  

My second thesis: The means by which we have in the past dealt with wars, militarism, invasions, imperialism no longer applies to the Age of the Empire. The Reagan years and the Clinton “no-fly zones over Iraq,” NAFTA (an ecological disaster) distortions, consumerism and the rising costs of gasoline, energy, heat, rent, medical care, education—along with corporate millions for the CEOs, together make for a necessary change in cliches. 

I was at a global warming/carbon depletion presentation, and when the articulate explainer finished, the moderator said “Well, that sort of doomsday approach is ...” and tried to make light with a babble of cliches. It’s tough to argue for a complex explanation of ecological matters without some positivistic moderator objecting—uh oh “You’re getting serious. And negative. We have hope.” Contradictions are our only hope. (The possibility of thinking like that may be the only joke in this article.) 

 

 

R.G. Davis is the founder of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.


Commentary: A Pro-Business, Pro-Berkeley Agenda

By Zelda Bronstein
Friday June 30, 2006

“It was a shock,” Tom Bates told the New York Times, “that an institution like Cody’s was closing.” What’s really shocking is the mayor’s surprise at this turn of events. Since Mr. Bates took office in December 2002, the precarious state of independent bookstores and the deterioration of Telegraph Avenue have been obvious to anyone who cared to look. Tom Bates simply hasn’t paid attention. It’s a safe bet that if Andy Ross hadn’t announced in May that Cody’s flagship would close in July, and if the mayor weren’t up for re-election in four and a half months, Mr. Bates would still be ignoring both Telly and its struggling merchants, just as he’s ignored the city’s other neighborhood shopping districts and small businesses—when he hasn’t actually harmed them.  

At the City Council’s June 13 meeting, Tom Bates made the most blatantly anti-business move yet of his mayoralty: He turned a blind eye to a petition signed by Ashby Lumber, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Inkworks Press, Urban Ore and 23 other businesses in the vicinity of 920 Heinz St., the site of the coming West Berkeley Bowl. The petitioners had asked the city to do an economic impact analysis before acting on the new Bowl. The mayor also failed to acknowledge the request of the West Berkeley Traffic and Safety Coalition, made up of businesses and residents, that the city approve a smaller (68,815 square feet) neighborhood-scale store and insist on traffic mitigations.  

Everyone agrees that the West Berkeley residents want, need and deserve a neighborhood grocery. But at 91,000 square feet, the new facility will be no neighborhood market; it’s a regional superstore over twice as big as the existing Bowl. The environmental impact report says the project will generate 50,000 vehicle trips a week. Traffic at Ashby and Seventh Street is already often backed up for blocks. Those 50,000 weekly auto trips will make it that much harder for customers and suppliers to reach nearby businesses.  

You’d think a mayor would do everything possible to protect his city’s longtime, stable firms with hundreds of employees, especially when business is leaving that city in alarming numbers. Next month, Berkeley will lose not only Cody’s on Telegraph but Radston’s, which has been selling office supplies on Shattuck Avenue for 98 years. Next year Ifshin’s Violins, reportedly the largest violinmaker in the western United States, will move from its 25-year location on University Avenue to El Cerrito. Last June Phoenix Optical, another one-of-a-kind retailer, departed its 47-year site in downtown Berkeley for a College Avenue storefront in Rockridge. Since Tom Bates became mayor, Berkeley has lost two other respected and venerable independent bookstores, Shambhala and Easy Going. At the same time, many of the storefronts in the big, new mixed-used projects that have sprung up all over town are plastered with “For Lease” signs.  

Against this dismaying backdrop, Mayor Bates’ snubbing of the 27 West Berkeley companies seems bizarre, until you realize that with one exception (auto dealers), the only kind of business he’s promoted for the past three and a half years has been big real estate development. (Before entering public office, Mr. Bates worked in real estate.) The coming Wal-Mart-sized Bowl is the opening wedge of his stated plan to commercialize Gilman and Ashby west of San Pablo. Those two streets back up against areas that are home to a hundred manufacturing firms and thousands of jobs. Turning west Gilman and west Ashby into retail strip malls would hit Berkeley business with a double whammy: First, it would drive up rents and thereby drive out both industry and the artists and artisans who depend on industrial zoning to keep their rents affordable. Second, it would pull customers away from the city’s neighborhood shopping districts.  

I expect Mayor Bates to defend this scheme by pointing to City Hall’s fiscal straits and observing that retail yields much more sales tax than manufacturing. But government is supposed to serve the citizenry, not the other way around. Instead of changing Berkeley’s economy in order to support the city’s government, we ought to change the city’s government in order to better support Berkeley’s economic specialties—neighborhood commercial districts stocked with unique, locally owned shops; and a rich array of light industry, artists and artisans, ranging from bakeries to woodworkers to printers to musical instrument-makers. Yes, the city needs revenue—keeping our auto dealerships in town is a priority—and it needs development. But pursuit of those goals must respect and enhance Berkeley’s unique character, economic and otherwise.  

As Berkeley mayor, I will: 

• Replace the current ad hoc, piecemeal approach to business with long-range, comprehensive economic policymaking and planning. Consider the cumulative, neighborhood- and city-wide impacts of proposed development. The delays in getting business permits are legendary; cut the red tape. At the same time protect community control of quality of life and public space. For large projects, run a stakeholder-based planning process modeled on the admirable 2004 UC Hotel/Conference Center Citizens Advisory Group. Balance the need for revenue with the city’s other economic goals, including the promotion of a strong industrial base; support for independent, locally owned and neighborhood-serving business; and the provision of varied jobs with a range of skill levels for Berkeley residents.  

• Make Berkeley businesses more accessible. Set parking meters to a minimum of 90 minutes. Make UC’s many under-used parking facilities easier for the general public to use. Install computerized signage directing motorists to currently available parking in downtown’s private and public garages. Reduce and perhaps eliminate guaranteed parking for city employees in commercial districts. Promote alternatives to the car: fund a free shoppers’ shuttle; install bicycle parking for customers in city garages, lots and other available locations; provide safe and convenient pedestrian crossings in business districts.  

• Implement effective street safety and civility programs throughout the city, not just on Telegraph. Enforce existing city laws against aggressive behavior in public. Add mental health workers to help people whose behavior is problematic. Restore the beat cop to the Alcatraz/Adeline shopping district. Adequately patrol Downtown. Work with UC and city police to prevent drug dealing. Institute genuine community policing.  

• Promote Berkeley’s unique merchants and neighborhood shopping districts through imaginative, year-round marketing events. How about an annual citywide “Independents’ Day” celebration that featured the city’s local owned and operated shops? Or a Berkeley Booksellers’ Fair? Berkeley has some of the best textile arts stores in the nation. Why not stage a yearly Berkeley in Stitches festival that publicizes our fabric, knitting and other needlecraft businesses?  

• Uphold the industrial zoning that keeps West Berkeley affordable to the city’s hundreds of manufacturing firms and numerous artisans and artists.  

• Help artists find affordable space. Enforce the Arts & Crafts ordinance, which requires landlords who evict artists and artisans to find their former tenants comparable space in West Berkeley. Help artists buy their own buildings.  

• Debunk the myth that Berkeley industry is dead. Display the products of Berkeley manufacturers, artists and artisans on a rotating basis in an attractive, high-visibility venue. Hold a yearly Berkeley Industrial and Artisanal Exposition that shows off the things that are made in Berkeley and the people and businesses that make them.  

• Do more local procurement. The city government should be purchasing locally produced goods and services, fiscal and other relevant considerations permitting. Today Berkeley businesses get extra points only for bids of $25,000 or less. Expand the Buy Berkeley policy to cover bids over $25,000. Regularly monitor the city’s purchases of locally-produced goods and services, and make the results a matter of public record.  

• Revive the Office of Economic Development. This once-energetic and innovative city bureau has shrunk to a shadow of its former self. The OED no longer does general business retention. Its citywide loan and façade improvement programs have lapsed. A reinvigorated OED should supplement the work of the various business improvement districts (BIDs) with citywide support for Berkeley enterprise. Hire staff that know how to do business attraction and retention, and have them do it.  

 

Former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein is a candidate for mayor of Berkeley (www.zeldaformayor.org). 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: 

The Daily Planet encourages all mayoral and City Council candidates to send commentaries to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com.


Commentary: Oakland Should Consider ‘Municipalizing’ the Oakland Athletics

By Jean Damu
Friday June 30, 2006

There’s a new sheriff in town and he has called for new ideas to help make Oakland a better city.  

One idea might be to apply a legislative form of the Denver Boot to the ankles of the Oakland A’s. The Denver Boot is that odd-looking, 150-pound piece of metal parking control officers apply to vehicles with excessive parking tickets to anchor and immobilize them until the tickets are paid. The A’s need to be anchored to Oakland.  

Oakland has numerous problems. Keeping in mind that we do not want to “obscure the priorities,” as mayor-elect Dellums stated at his June 19 press conference, the concept of Oakland taking control of the A’s baseball team, and possibly the football and basketball franchises as well, should be considered. 

Oakland A’s owner du jour, Lew Wolff is threatening to move the team unless Oakland comes up with a plan to build him and his team a new ballpark at public expense. Wolff never bothered with the sheep’s clothing. The estimated cost of a new park is in the $300-400 million range. Wolff paid $180 million for the A’s just over a year ago and now he wants a new $400 million ballpark at little or no cost to himself. Wouldn’t it be cheaper for Oakland just to buy the team?  

Conventional wisdom tells us that the Green Bay Packers is the only publicly owned professional sports franchise in the U.S. Conventional wisdom is somewhat off the mark. The Boston Celtics and the Florida Panthers franchises are owned by the fans to the tune of 51 percent. Several minor league baseball teams are non-profit corporations owned by their municipalities or counties of residence.  

Also in 1998, and again in 2003, the New York State Assembly considered an act that would have created a State Sports Authority to administer professional franchises. The act would have allowed the Sports Authority to obtain the franchises through eminent domain.  

Oakland tried something similar when it attempted to acquire the Raiders through eminent domain in 1982, before the team finally moved to Los Angeles. Eventually Oakland’s right to eminent domain was overruled by California Court of Appeals after the California Supreme Court had earlier backed the city. Most recently however, the U.S. Supreme Court has boiler plated eminent domain rules, in the favor of cities, governing almost all forms of private property.  

It seems to me if creative thinking is brought into play on this issue Oakland, possibly in combination with Alameda County or even the State of California, could take over ownership of the Athletics or create a governing board, perhaps similar to the Port of Oakland, to run all its professional sport franchises.  

Quite naturally the biggest stumbling block to any notion of publicly owned professional sport teams are the owners. In 1992 when Joan Kroc, widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, attempted to donate the San Diego Padres to the city of San Diego, major league owners fatuously adopted a resolution forbidding the sale of any franchise to a non-profit corporation. That was like the congress of the Confederate States of America passing a resolution forbidding the abolition of slavery.  

Citizens who are concerned about the perpetual state of conflict between the City of Oakland and her professional sports teams should urge Mayor-elect Dellums to convene a body of concerned and knowledgeable citizens to investigate a city takeover of the Oakland A’s.  

 

 

Jean Damu is a Berkeley resident.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Commentary: Don’t Lose the Benefits Of Our Only Warm Pool

By Daniel Rudman
Friday June 30, 2006

On Tuesday evening, June 20, I went to the City Council meeting to offer my support for the Berkeley Warm Pool. I arrived at the old City Hall building at 6:30 and left after midnight, depressed after what I’d witnessed. The members of the council sat in a semi-circle, each leafing through stacks of paper as speakers took their two-minute turns at the microphone. I asked the guy next to me how come they weren’t paying attention. “It’s called “multi-tasking,” he said. 

“Call me crazy,” I said, “but I like people looking at me when I talk to them.” It was not a productive night for the Warm Pool. 

I’ve been using the Warm Pool for the past 20 years. For most of that time I was bed-ridden from a neck injury and unable to speak without intense pain. Recently medication has helped, but the pool enabled me to survive. Once there, I was able to move without pain for an hour and a half each day. It prevented me from physically deteriorating. Kept me mentally and emotionally alert. Made me feel alive. 

I’m only one of hundreds. During this period, I’ve gotten to know men and women who have experienced relief from strokes, lupus, cancer, cerebral palsy, arthritis, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, hip and back injuries and polio. 

The Warm Pool is the only indoor heated pool in the East Bay. Its clientele is varied and constantly expanding. There are classes for two-month old infants and up. Dori Maxon runs creative programs for disabled kids. There are Vista classes for disabled adults and the Berkeley Recreation Department has four classes of swimming for senior citizens and the disabled, along with classes for arthritis, Tai Chi, and water phobias. 

I believe it is the most democratic community in our city. The aged, obese, sick, and disabled, who are often still discriminated against, are treated with compassion. 

The pool is a source of emotional support. You can talk about your difficulties and people will pay attention. 

It’s also a place to gain valuable information. Helpful medications, unique treatments, the names of innovative doctors are shared.  

Given the obvious benefits of the Warm Pool, it is extremely frustrating that its very existence is in doubt. Despite the passage of Measure R, a $3.2 million bond to renovate the facility, the School District plans to destroy the building. It refuses to contribute any additional money toward a new pool, which will cost approximately $8 million. 

The City Council has not shown much interest or initiative other than giving lip service to unworkable plans such as using the YMCA or remodeling the West Campus Pool, which is half the size of the Warm Pool. This despite the fact that Mayor Bates, speaking at the memorial of activist Fred Lupke promised to get a new pool built on his watch. At this point the council can’t even guarantee that a pool will be provided before the present one is destroyed.  

This is shameful! 

I urge the members of the Berkeley City Council to make the creation of a viable warm water pool a priority. Maybe they should stop by the Warm Pool. Get their feet wet. Experience for themselves why it is so essential. Hopefully a visit would jump-start their enthusiasm to deal with the funding problem, which is the only real problem. Supposedly all of them support the idea of a pool, but they’re afraid it can’t be done because there’s not sufficient money. The members of the Pool Committee along with Councilpersons Worthington and Spring believe it’s a question of will, effort. The Richmond Plunge was saved despite financial obstacles. There are a number of fund raising possibilities that should be explored. Councilwoman Spring has several ideas. And Councilman Worthington has suggested the possibility of Certificate of Participation which was used to support the Berkeley Rep.  

For the Council to fail to find a solution would be a betrayal of the hundreds who presently depend on the Berkeley Warm Pool, as well as the thousands who voted for Measure R’s $3.2 million bond.  

Sometime after midnight, as I hurried home in my manual wheelchair, sliding effortlessly up one sidewalk ramp and down the next, I remembered how different things were forty years ago when I first moved to Berkeley. I was healthier then and less observant but I don’t believe there was much wheelchair accessibility. The city complied only after a group of dedicated activists put their bodies on the line. Silently I thanked these nameless heroes. 

As I tooled through the empty darkened streets I wondered if the same thing would have to happen for the Warm Pool to become as accepted a part of Berkeley as sidewalk ramps. 

 

Daniel Rudman is a Berkeley resident.  


Commentary: Educational Bonds vs. Economic Justice

By Jacqueline Sokolinsky
Friday June 30, 2006

Saturday afternoon after a quiet sabbath at home, I found myself talking about the spate of educational bond measures, now defeated in the polls. One was what I considered a “construction boondoggle”—for Vista, Berkeley’s community college, to build brand-new facilities with state-of-the-art new equipment. Why shouldn’t the community college continue its already established relationship with UC Berkeley, sharing the facilities and equipment of the UC Berkeley campus?  

The other educational bond was to provide pre-schools for all children. Proponents of the bond said that children who attend pre-school do better in school than children who don’t.  

In my opinion, the pre-school proponents, by not presenting a broad range of social and economic reforms, in effect left the burden of overcoming the effects of our social problems squarely in the laps of the state’s four-year-olds.  

No one proposed middle-class incomes for ghetto families—perhaps by juggling the pay scales of everyone on the payroll of the state’s businesses: CEOS now pulling $10 million to $500 million; management now pulling $100,000; office workers now pulling $30,000 and blue-collar workers now pulling wages below the poverty line could all agree to earn exactly the same wage for their work—a modest middle-class salary.  

Instead of a redistribution of wages, legislators left intact the economics of wealth and poverty. How the babies of the ghetto overcome poverty after exiting the schools is up to them—there’s no social structure for such an escape except the old “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.” And maybe they would if they didn’t fall victim to the gang violence that rules their neighborhoods.  

No one proposed ways to end the reign of drugs and gun violence that terrorize the residents of the ghetto neighborhoods. No money for rehabilitation programs for the drug addicted, the pushers, the violent. No measures for gun control. Not even any rules in our local schools to protect youth from violence. No laws against the culture that creates violence and drug-abuse. We don’t penalize Hollywood for dominating the cultural output of the country with films, books, TV shows, radio programs and so forth which glorify violence, gangs, drugs. Is that against Free Speech? Try writing a law that the glorification of violence, gangs, drugs, crime and hate cannot be sold for profit. They can make and distribute it—and not earn a cent. That would end that problem, I think.  

No one is creating educational and support programs for teaching and helping ghetto parents to nurture their children, and raise them with love, care, self-respect, confidence, a sense of civics, a sense of freedom, a sense of ethics. The best our legislators could do was propose taking four-year olds out of the family environment for the day.  

No one is proposing to end the welfare system’s notorious broken-home policy. If you don’t know it already, that means that women cannot receive government aid unless they have no man in the house. That means that fathers in the ghetto, unable to provide for their families, are forced to desert them altogether. The result—apparent by this generation—is that many ghetto youth think they have no responsibility for the babies they make, no responsibility to the women (or girls) they made them with. It has led to cases of serial desertion: wherein a youth becomes a father, deserts the mother and the child, and then becomes the father of another woman’s child and deserts her too. Is it fair to lay all the blame on the deserter, when the state made the policy?  

No one has proposed legislation to help replace the hundreds of liquor stores in ghetto neighborhoods with inexpensive healthy produce-and-basic foods markets. 

No one has proposed to establish more free community services in ghetto neighborhoods, such as libraries stocked with the works of the heroes and heroines of liberation movements, spiritual leaders, ethicists, race and class historians, literary, artistic, dramatic and musical lights. No one has proposed free schools for youth and adults where local people can teach or learn what they want to teach and learn. No one has proposed safe and healthy places for kids of all ages to play. Nor are the ghettos going to acquire neighborhood arts venues or spaces for activists, where locals could pursue such goals as the restoration of democracy, civil and human rights which have been eroded so drastically under the last few Administrations.  

All this is what I would like to see instead of more four-year-olds in public school. I don’t doubt that the proponents of that legislation are decent people—I’m sure they wanted to help children—but they lack vision. They weren’t in touch with the economic and social barriers to success in this country, where wealth propagates wealth and poverty reproduces poverty, where ghettoization fosters drugs and violence, ignorance and powerlessness—and where wealth fosters power, education for power, mass violence for power.  

 

Jacqueline Sokolinsky is a Berkeley  

resident. 

 


Commentary: No Public Policy by Fiat

By Sam Herbert
Friday June 30, 2006

Before the 2004 election for City Council representative for District 3 I knew little about Max Anderson. I knew he had powerful friends among the city’s leadership. I had heard he was into development for South Berkeley. I asked friends of mine whose opinions I valued, if they thought Anderson could be trusted to represent all the voices in South Berkeley, equably and honestly. The comments and observations of these friends were discouraging. 

Laura Menard entered the race late on, as a direct response to an unfulfilled need in this community: a voice that speaks for everyone in District 3, not just select sub-groups. Lacking the friends-in-high-places Max Anderson enjoyed, not to mention his well-financed campaign (he outspent Menard, 8 to 1), we were not surprised when Anderson won the seat. 

Soon after the election, we invited Max Anderson—our new City Council representative—to a meeting of ROC (Russell, Oregon and California streets). The ROC neighborhood group is organized, well-established, and active. Everyone from the surrounding area is welcomed to meetings, encouraged to speak up and participate as part of the larger community. Anderson came to the meeting, but he did not make a favorable impression on anyone. He showed disinterest or disapproval of ideas discussed by the group. When asked what his own interests were, he outlined suggestions which were all about development. There was a real disconnect with the community. 

Since then, the only times we have heard from or about Max Anderson were when he was trying to perpetuate a scheme against the interests of the community. One example was his advocacy for the (Dual Diagnosis) Mental Health Drop In Clinic. He went to the council with a request for a substantial raise in city funding, even though our tax dollars are already subsidizing this poorly-run organization. There is no accountability—then or now—about how they spend that largesse. They don’t even have a system for case management, to control treatment, follow-up, or any aspect of the clientele they purport to serve. That so-called service organization is a disservice to the community. And what was Max Anderson’s interest in the Clinic? His wife was on the Board of Directors. She has since resigned, under the protest from the surrounding community. 

Then came the altogether sneaky attempt to get the City Council to rubber-stamp approval of a grant application to the state to “study” a massive scale construction project in our midst: the so-called “transit village” at the Ashby BART Station. Under no circumstances should this construction project have been broached without prior agreement and substantial community involvement. And by “community involvement,” I do not mean the approval of the SBNDC. This is an inbred, self-selecting cabal of like-minded individuals, whose commentary should in no way be mistaken for community opinion. If you don’t believe me, try to join that organization, which is supposedly open to the public. Try to get anyone on the phone. Try to get a response to your call if you do get an answering machine. Or try to get a response from Max Anderson’s office. Then, should you manage to succeed that far, try finding out about any of the meetings they hold in private, belying the claim that they are open to comments and opinion of the community. 

The very rationale for the transit village is erroneous. Those of us who commute to work by BART already walk to the Station. Those who use BART, but live too far away, or cannot manage to walk that distance, drive to the BART lot or park on the streets in residential areas. Local parking is already crowded, and often, it is difficult to find a space in front of your own home. Add a substantial number of new residents to our area and you make a bad situation intolerable. Further, I maintain there is no housing shortage. There is no underserved subgroup that needs housing. There is no reason or rationale for any new construction without our prior agreement, and certainly not at the expense of the demise of the Flea Market. Max Anderson, you do not have our permission to reconstruct South Berkeley as a reflection of a personal plan for your aggrandizement. Should such a boondoggle succeed, how much of the funding would find its way into your pockets, or those of your friends? 

I do not blame the task force, selected to “study” the plan, and retroactively (I suspect) give it some respectability. I believe the task force members are trying to do the right thing, but trying to rectify a plan that was conceived in deception puts them in a tricky position. They are requesting elucidation from the city as to their role, from here on, since the grant application was denied. I think the answer to this ought to be pretty simple, unless you are Max Anderson or Ed Church. 

Trust is always something to be earned. Once lost, it is difficult if not impossible to regain. We don’t trust you, Max. I don’t trust you.  

 

Sam Herbert is a Berkeley resident.


Commentary: Correcting the Record on Urban Development

By Doug Fielding
Friday June 30, 2006

EDITOR’S NOTE: This commentary appears only on our website. 

 

The Berkeley Daily Planet gave Joanne Kowalski quite a bit of space to put forth her theory on urban development. The tome started out with a quote from noted sociologist Herbert Gans essentially saying that development is for the people who live in the area now, not the future tenants. This was followed by the fact that primary reason people move is noise, heavy traffic, deteriorating infrastructure and crime in that order. She then extrapolates this to the construction of the land around Ashby BART and a lighted athletic field across from residential neighborhood. This would result in increases of all the above reasons to move and therefore longer term residents would relocate and the neighborhood would “become more transitory and crime to increase.” 

Unfortunately the theory is wrong and Herbert Gans would be rolling over in his grave to have his thinking associated with this specious reasoning. Crime statistics show a reduced rate of crime around athletic fields for the simple reason that most criminals are not interested in an audience. A playing field has people coming and going all the time so there are increased numbers of people who might be witness to their crime, hence the reduced crime rate. Also if the theory were correct the areas around San Pablo Park, Grove Street Park and James Kenney would have a residential turnover substantially higher than other areas of the city. This just isn’t the case. 

And the impact of an athletic field on a neighborhood as a noise and traffic generator is nothing compared to a hospital or a school. Would Herbert Gans oppose the construction of these noise and traffic generating facilities? Alta Bates is located in the Elmwood, one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city and even the Bateman neighborhood, directly across the street from the hospital, rarely has houses come on the market. 

What is true is that most people resist change of any kind. When we proposed putting athletic fields, now known as Harrison Park, in the industrial area on the Berkeley Albany border people railed that this was a terrible place for playing fields because parents would complain about the industrial noise, traffic and smells. Businesses would come under increasing pressure to leave and the more appropriate place for this type of land development would be in a residential neighborhood where it would be more accessible to the people who would use the fields. And the skateboarders, oh my God, even the people running the Homeless Shelter wanted a barrier between those drug dealing bums and their clients. In fact none of the fears materialized and there is general consensus that the playing fields have not only been of no burden to the surrounding businesses (not one parental complaint in five years) but have actually helped improve the neighborhood. And the people at the Homeless Shelter are generally quite pleased with the activity at the park. 

When we proposed playing fields on the west side of the freeway, in Eastshore State Park, every environmental group from the Sierra Club to Save the Bay opposed putting them in THAT location. Athletic fields were going to ruin the park like setting and pour tons of toxic chemicals into the bay. Why not put them in a more appropriate residential location was their cry. We are all now working together and when the Gilman Fields open up this winter, I think many readers of the Planet will discover the area between Gilman and University with its off-leash nature trail and dog park, no dog nature area, and sunsets at the seashore. 

Those of us who have been involved in community land development are fully aware that a change in the way things have been is always met by resistance by those who are fearful of what the change might bring. But rather than trotting out some unsubstantiated social theory as a reason to squash development of a playing field or the Ashby BART station we are all better served by encouraging the community dialogue. What I find most amusing in many of these discussions, like the one presented by Ms. Kowalski, is that there is talk about the need for reduced urban sprawl, reduced traffic, etc. but they oppose, in the case of the Ashby Project, developing housing that is convenient to mass transit—the very development concept championed by people who want to reduce sprawl and traffic. 

 

Doug Fielding is a Berkeley resident.


Commentary: Toward a Sweat-Free Ordinance

By Nicholas E. Smith
Friday June 30, 2006

EDITOR’S NOTE: This commentary appears only on our website. 

 

As citizens of the richest nation on the planet, it is easy to take for granted the many luxuries of American life. With access to jobs that provide us with fair compensation, affordable healthcare, the right to union organization, retirement / pension plans, we are generally able to live comfortable lives. But there are millions of people across the world who just aren’t as fortunate.  

In stark contrast to our standard of living, there are those are forced to work in deplorable sweatshop conditions, with unreasonable demands such fifteen hour workdays and as little as 13 cents an hour compensation, according to Global Exchange. Worse, among this group are innocent young people, exploited by money-driven corporations that engage in child-labor. This sounds deplorable and it is, and something must be done about it.  

It is our responsibility as Americans to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, to end the ability of corporations to exploit their workers, and to end the continuing cycle of poverty in the United States and abroad. Our inaction may result in the continued plight of millions of people, primarily at the hands of corporations who engage in these practices.  

What empowers these specific companies is the fact that we readily spend our money on goods without direct knowledge they may have been produced by the abused. While it is our responsibility to ensure that the money we spend does not fund these groups, we must ensure that governments spend our taxpayer dollars in the same fashion.  

The City of Berkeley spends hundreds-of-thousands of our taxpayer dollars a year on goods. Currently we have no direct knowledge of whether they were produced in sweatshop conditions. As a result, Berkeley is poised to join other governments (including the City of San Francisco) in passing a Sweat-Free Ordinance. This important legislations is apart of a larger effort to ban governments from contracting companies who practice sweatshop labor.  

The time for Berkeley to join this movement has come. If we are to end poverty across the world, this must be done. Come to the next Berkeley City Council meeting and ask your mayor and councilmembers to pass this piece of this legislation with proper funding for enforcement.  

For more information, visit www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/berkeley.html. 

 

Nicholas E. Smith is chairman of the Commission on Labor and a member of the Housing Advisory Commission. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the commissions on which he serves. 


The Usual Suspects Sound Off on the Middle East

Friday June 30, 2006

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letters appear only on our website. 

 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

David Altschul employs a familiar tactic used by the apologists for Israel’s indefensible policies. He ignores every specific, documented criticism of Israel and reiterates all the old nonsense about “the Arabs” being solely responsible for the Palestinian conflict. This does not square with the meticulous research of Israeli historians like Tom Segev and Avi Shlaim which show the original Zionist antagonism towards the native Arabs as well Israeli belligerence towards the Arab states from the beginning. 

The Palestinians were never “nonexistent” to use Altschul’s repellent version of holocaust denial and the PLO did distinguish between Jews and Zionists, whom are not all identical. Altschul’s selective reading of the Arab media is not impressive, Al-Jazzera has had the freest, best investigative reporting of any media outlet in the Middle East. 

Women are required to sit in the back of the Orthodox synagogues in Israel, Reform and Conservative Jews have considerably less freedom of religion. Israel does have some courageous media outlets and they are constantly being censored by the Israeli government. 

Altschul overlooks the history of Israeli aid to Hamas as a counterbalance to the secular PLO. As he overlooks the horrible occupation that gave rise to the Hamas victory. 

Altschul’s “arguments” for Israeli policies parallel those former apologists for apartheid South Africa who would proclaim the superiority of that regime to those of the rest of Africa as if that mitigated the horrors of apartheid. 

Kris Martinsen 

 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

So dark the Conn of Hallinan.  

Conn Hallinan buys uncritically the Palestinian claim that an errant Israeli artillery shell landed on a hapless Palestinian family enjoying a day at the beach. Perhaps it did. Or, perhaps not. No one disputes that Israel fired six shells at terrorists who were firing missiles into Israel, and that these terrorists had set up their position just a few hundred yards from that beach. Israel further admits that it can account for the exact landing site of only five of the six shells fired. On the other hand, Israel has tendered a great deal of evidence suggesting that their shelling was not responsible for the civilian deaths. For example, the missing shell in question landed a full five minutes before the beach explosion. Moreover, Israel has a history of telling it straight, profusely apologizing when they do inadvertently hurt civilians, and treating injured Palestinian civilians in their state-of-the-art hospitals. Meanwhile, Palestinians have repeatedly been caught fabricating evidence in incidents such as these. While Hallinan jumps to the conclusion he desires, for me the jury is still out. 

But while we wait for more evidence, let’s consider some facts that no one disputes. First, when Palestinian civilians are killed, Israel regards it as a military failure in the fog of war. When Palestinians kill Israeli civilians it is considered a triumph, the very achievement of their purpose. Who can forget the scenes of Palestinians dancing in the streets of Gaza on September 11 or the stream of suicide bombers into Israel before it constructed its security fence? Let’s further ponder just why it is that Israel is firing shells at terrorists in Gaza in the first place. It is because Gaza-based terrorists almost daily fire missiles into Israeli civilian towns and villages along the border. The distances are small. It is as though the people of El Cerrito persisted in firing missiles into Berkeley. What exactly is Israel supposed to do about this? Hallinan says Israel should negotiate. With whom, and about what? The “whom” in question would be the Palestinian Authority headed by the popularly elected Hamas. But Hamas’ charter calls for the “obliteration” of Israel. Hamas has nothing it cares to negotiate. Hallinan needn’t believe me, he need merely ask his friends in Hamas. He will find that Hamas regards the obliteration of Israel as a divine imperative from Allah which is not subject to human give and take. Moreover, Israel cannot withdraw anymore from Gaza than it already has. Israel no longer occupies so much as one square inch of Gaza, and every single last Jew has been removed. The place is completely Judenrein. Let’s now ponder just why it is that every last Jew must leave Palestine. Fully 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arabs. But not one single Jew is permitted to live as a loyal citizen of Palestine, just as Jews cannot live in Saudi Arabia.  

It is clear to all but the blind that this intifada is not about Israeli “occupation,” it is about Israeli existence. Why else would Palestinians be firing missiles into Israel, and with the full backing of a large majority of the populace, after it had abandoned Gaza? Hallinan clearly cares not one whit about Israeli existence because that is all Israel can give that would satisfy Hamas. In this he joins the company of Hamas’ backers on Berkeley’s City Council, Kriss Worthington, Linda Maio, and Dona Spring.  

John Gertz 

 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In both Judith Scheer’s woefully unbalanced reportage on pro-Palestinian protests concerning the Gaza Beach incident and Conn Hallinan’s poorly researched column, it is evident that neither has transcended their doctrinaire radical past. And then, of course, there is Barbara Lubin, who has proven herself utterly incapable of articulating any semblance of truth as her typical rant quoted at the protest reveals. 

I suggest readers who really wish to know what happened check out the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. That publication suggested that the Gaza beach incident had actually been orchestrated by the Palestinians. Examining Palestinian cameraman Zakarija Abu Harbed’s pictures of 10-year-old Huda Ghalia, the newspaper reported: “Harbed claims that Huda escaped serious injury, since she was bathing in the sea. In his photos, however, Huda is running around in dry street clothes. Harbed runs several minutes of the crying Huda and afterwards turns his camera to the dead and injured.  

“Suddenly a man beside Huda’s dead father can be discerned, until now covered and motionless, who appears with a machine gun in his hand. In the pictures of the cameraman one can recognize both medics in green clothes as well as dozens of men, most with typical Hamas full beards, apparently securing pieces of evidence.  

“However one must ask, why the medics do not worry about the injured people and policemen do not secure the place. Have the Hamas men, as Israeli media quote Palestinian eye witnesses, removed pieces of evidence? 

“It is also strange why in Harbed’s pictures we cannot discern a crater. The more cameraman Harbed is asked by Sueddeutche Zeitung in the telephone interview, the more he evades the issue. Was he at the scene of the incident before the outpatient clinic [personnel] arrived? Who are the civilians, who are cleaning the beach? Who is the armed man on the ground, who suddenly rises? If it was an Israeli army shell that killed the Ghalia family members, why don’t the Palestinians show its fragments?” 

Meanwhile, on June 21 the IDF reported that tests on two pieces of shrapnel removed from victims being treated in Israel demonstrate “beyond all doubt” that they do not come from a 155mm artillery shell as claimed by the Palestinians and supporters like Lubin. Adding to the possibility of a Palestinian coverup, the Sourasky Medical Center issued a statement saying that one of the victims of the beach incident, Ayham Ghalia, had been ‘cleansed’ of shrapnel before arriving at the Israeli hospital. There medical investigators wrote: “We would like to make it clear that no fragments were found in her body except for one fragment that is inaccessible to surgery; it is also clear—beyond all doubt—that part of her injuries were caused by fragments. 

“This combination is not routine and does not correspond to our accumulated medical experience as a result of having treated hundreds of patients who were wounded in terrorist attacks and by bombs and who usually arrive with fragments in various places throughout their bodies. 

“In such cases, standard medical practice is not to search for or extract the fragments unless they constitute an immediate danger to the patient. This is also the reason that, in most cases, fragments remain in the patients’ bodies, frequently for the rest of their lives.” 

Although the hospital statement stops short of accusing Palestinian doctors directly of removing shrapnel for no medical reason, it raises a red flag concerning what may have happened prior to Ghalia’s treament in Israel. 

When it comes to Hallinan and other critics of Israel, much has been made of allegations by Human Rights Watch’s military “expert” Marc Garlasco. Such critics fail to note that Garlasco met on June 19 with Major Gen. Meir Klifi, head of the IDF inquiry and acknowledged that HRW was unable to contradict the IDF’s findings.  

As The Jerusalem Post reports: “Following the three-hour meeting, described by both sides as cordial and pleasant, Garlasco praised the IDF’s professional investigation into the blast, which he said was most likely caused by unexploded Israeli ordnance left laying on the beach, a possibility also raised by Klifi and his team. Garlasco told Klifi during the meeting that he was impressed with the IDF’s system of checks and balances concerning its artillery fire in the Gaza Strip and unlike Hamas which specifically targeted civilians in its rocket attacks, the Israelis, he said, invested a great amount of resources and efforts not to harm innocent civilians. 

“Garlasco has since then continued to trumpet his original statements but his backpedaling would seem to indicate that he is no longer as confident in his theory. The IDF and the Israeli government has come in for some criticism over its handling of its public diplomacy in the immediate aftermath of the Gaza beach incident. While, undoubtedly, much damage to Israel’s image may have been spared by a speedier response to Palestinian and media charges, the latest reaction of HRW to the IDF’s methodical and careful investigation confirms the strength of Israel’s credibility when confronted with spurious Palestinian claims.” 

Of course, then there was the typical shot-from-the hip response from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who immediately said he was skeptical about the findings of Israel’s inquiry findings. However, Annan has now retracted his earlier comments, telling reporters that he had responded too quickly to “media speculations.” Annan’s admittance offers further evidence of a pro-Palestinian bias (as we regularly see in the Daily Planet) in media reportage in influencing both the public and important international political figures. 

Regardless of who was responsible for the deaths of the family in Gaza, knowledgeable people internationally were understandably skeptical of the initial Palestinian allegations blaming Israel. After all, it was the Palestinians who claimed an Israeli army massacre in the refugee camp at Jenin. This notorious myth has since been debunked by Human Rights watch and the UN. And then there was the infamous “death” of 12 -year-old Muhammed al-Dura at the hands of the IDF, later shown to have been staged by a Palestinian filmmaker (see The Atlantic, June, 2003). Correspondingly, it is understandable that the Palestinian propaganda machine which regularly churns out such fabrications has become internationally known as “Pallywood.” 

Finally, be they Palestinians or Israelis, the death of innocents is always deplorable. And as Hallinan noted, there was plenty of Israeli sympathy for the loss of the Palestinian family’s life in Gaza. But have you ever seen any Palestinians or supporters such as Barbara Lubin express grief for Jewish victims of Palestinian suicide bombers? 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday June 27, 2006

HYPOCRITICAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The title that your headline writer gave to Suzanne La Barre’s article regarding the Berkeley High Schools African American graduation ceremony was hateful and hypocritical! Your writer is a hypocrite! Where is the free speech? I believe the black graduates, their family and friends appreciated for once one of their own (I’m included) to have spoken truth to a hated generation that continuously is forced lies from the perverted people who think they’re in control of this city, particularly our community. Do you not have any shame? 

Rev. Manuel Scott, Jr and Rev. Dr. Robert McKinght, I thank you and praise Almighty God for your faith, for your love, and for your boldness in the Lord to stand against an evil and perverse city. May the Peace of God the Son Be Unto You. 

Lisa Owens 

 

• 

CORRECTNESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your article “Homophobic Speech Sours Community Graduation Event” caught my eye, as it was not the kind of speech one would expect to occur in Berkeley. The speaker, an African-American, defended his statement by stating that his interests were not with the “political correctness,” but “biblical correctness” of his content. I study the Bible and find much value in it, yet such biblical scholars as he should heed that the Old Testament clearly sanctions slavery, and it is my understanding that even Paul, who is most quoted as being the chief New Testament decrier of homosexuality, also delineates proper treatment for slaves rather than calling for its abolition. Given Paul’s close relationship with the slave in question, it is doubtful he entirely approved of the institution, so it raises the question: Was his acceptance of the slavery was out born out of “biblical” or “political” correctness? How many African Methodist Episcopal priests or Baptist evangelical preachers are preaching the “biblical correctness” of slavery today, and conversely, for how many centuries was slavery trumpeted in our country by ministers as being biblically justifiable and correct? Honest self-examination by the churches and their leaders would hopefully have them realize mores of homophobia and intolerance present in ancient times and today masquerading in the guise of sanctity as the real cause of this current cultural trend in Christian morality.  

Ethan Feldman 

 

• 

DISTURBING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I found the story on the homophobic speech at a Berkeley High School event deeply disturbing. The fact that the speaker was paid for his hate speech is even more appalling. And I can’t believe that the chair of the BHS African-American Studies Department made the choice to import this hatemonger from Los Angeles. I believe that the Rev. Robert McKnight should apologize for hiring Mr. Scott to give the keynote speech at this event. If Mr. McKnight can’t find it in his heart to do the right thing, he should be fired. 

Our community needs to come together, not be divided by hate speech.  

Mark Pasley 

 

• 

PACIFIC STEEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

L A Wood (no relation) has pulled back the curtain on what seems to me to be the obvious. This successful company, Pacific Steel, excellent as it may be, no longer should be in West Berkeley. I believe it could move to a more suitable location nearby, where it could thrive and expand and of course keep its current workforce intact.  

We could sue Pacific Steel Casting for polluting the air, land, and landscape, but this is a last resort if the following proposal is not accepted. I think a very large incentive could be favorably received by PSC and it’s quite simple and maybe cost free! The City of Berkeley can offer a one time rezoning of the PSC site and a one time offer to allow a “highest and best use” of the property. I suggest the city have certain design review of course but not much more because the likely use would be 10- to 12-story market-rate housing, even luxury housing, with Fourth Street retail extended north. PSC would have a one-time chance to move with a huge incentive which costs Berkeley really nothing and actually would bring huge benefits to the area and the city—the company would have this one time opportunity to fund not only the move but the cleanup of this site. It would be irresponsible for PSC not to accept this offer because the cleanup is an ongoing liability for the company with this one time chance to avoid it or shift it to a development project. I think PSC could be pleased to have this friendly offer of a huge contribution to an overdue move rather than lawsuits which don’t solve the basic problem. 

Phil Wood 

 

• 

SPARE THE AIR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Spare the Air Day, but not in Berkeley.  

So I heard that the City of Berkeley wants to get serious about cleaning the city’s air. Get more people on bikes, car pooling, AC Transit, and convert all its remaining city vehicles to bio-diesel or hybrids. What about Berkeley’s No. 1 contributor to bad air: Pacific Steel! Not only are they pumping out green house gases which contribute to global warming they release a large amount of PM-10s, which contribute to global dimming. Once again, the city turns a blind eye. After all Pacific Steel contributes to the spare the air day fund! Therefore it should be able to continuing polluting on spare the air days. I smell their stench as I try to get a breeze through my window on this hot Spare the Air Day. 

Patrick Traynor 

 

• 

MEASURE B 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor needs to get a correction from OUSD Public Information Office Alex Katz for mentioning newly passed $435 million Measure B Bond money as a possible source for paying for the transformation of Carter Middle School into the Oakland Schools’ new central administrative offices. State Administrator Ward made clear during the Oakland School Board meeting that Proposition 39 did not allow for expenditure of School Bond construction money on administrative facilities. However, Administrator Ward said he was discussing with the State Department of Education if bond money not yet spent from the bond measure prior to Measure B could be tapped for paying relocation costs. Here relocation cost means transforming a school into administrative offices at a cost of millions and not simply moving costs. 

The following quotes Mr. Allen-Taylor received from Alex Katz contradict Administrator Ward’s comments during the School Board meeting: 

“OUSD Public Information Officer Alex Katz said he did not have an exact figure on the administration building relocation costs, adding that ‘it is still under discussion’ between Ward and State Superintendent Jack O’Connell over ‘whether that money would come from a draw-down on the state line of credit ‘or from the $425 million in Measure B bond money passed by Oakland voters in this month’s election.’” 

Jim Mordecai 

Oakland 

 

• 

WRONG ORIENTATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For your information, the “Curvy Derby” baseball field has the wrong orientation. Proper field orientation is basic good design. The personal injury liability for public agencies shall be great and just one accident involving a pitcher and batter can result in a lawsuit and award (loss) of significant money. The partial use, complete lock down and even removal of the new baseball facility is then very real. 

Too, the basketball court orientation is not right. 

Who are these designers? 

Richard Splenda 

 

• 

A SUGGESTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Here is a suggestion for the Berkeley Unified School District: 

Give the teachers a chance to take any day off they desire to be able to “stand up for yourself,” as a teacher stated. There should be no need to worry about work contracts. The school district should even apologize if the work day was an inconvenience to any rally or protest that a teacher may want to attend. Here is a better idea. Cancel school on the days when these rallies might even seem extra important so that even kids can be involved. 

Frank Price 

 

• 

VOTING RIGHTS ACT 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

If there is one political proposition we might think has universal acceptance, it would be that all Americans should be encouraged and enabled to exercise their right to vote free of caging and obstruction.  

Yet a handful of Republicans in Congress are holding up renewal of the Voting Rights Act, landmark legislation of the Civil Rights Movement, for reasons they aren’t willing to publicly discuss. 

What reasons could those be? Opposition to excessive democracy? Opposition to allowing people to vote who might vote against the kinds of Republicans holding up this bill?  

Indications are that the Rovian strategy for 2008 is to eliminate opposition by eliminating opposition voters, and this is being done by demographic purging of state voting registration rolls, among other underhanded tactics that renewal of the Voting Rights Act would go a long way to prevent.  

That seems to be the real reason for delaying renewal, and the main reason the VRA is still needed today as much as when it was originally passed a generation ago. 

Citizens, call your representatives to free this bill from bondage, so that the civil right which secures all others can be secured for every voter.  

Dan Ashby 

San Pablo 

 

• 

THANKS TO THE LIBRARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Most cumulus commendations to our Berkeley Public Library for hipping me to the delicious works of Bill Fitzhugh, a contemporary satirical novelist messing with mystery—a true heir to the inestimable Richard Condon of Manchurian Candidate and Prizzi’s Honor acclaim. To wit, a Mississippi Delta FM blues DJ/private eye, a fired “Orkin man” named Bob Dillon, whose exterminations are highly sought by the global assassin world, a woman finally set for a heart transplant, only to be trumped by the president (a fainting spell is spun). Scandalously unavailable (found a total of two titles) in our best and other Berkeley book stores. Check out Bill Fitzhugh at Central.  

Arnie Passman 

P.S. Fitzhugh is one of “Five Mystery Writers Worth Investigation” in the June 26 issue of Time. 

 

• 

CRIMINAL REGIME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The American people oppose this cruel war of aggression and war profiteering that is destroying our reputation and the goodwill of other nations! No candidate deserves to be in office who does not stand up to the lies and treasonous activities of the criminal Bush regime. The Democrats must also find the courage to confront the constitutional crisis of massive computer election fraud and systematic voter disenfranchisement that has been implemented by the Republican Party. The evidence that Bush was not the winner of the 2004 election is overwhelming and Americans are losing faith in our election system. Why are our Democratic Senators and Congresspersons so afraid to fulfill their oaths of office to “protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic”?  

It is time for a major change in our government! This nation belongs to “we the people” not to the corporations or their fraudulently “elected” cronies. 

Allen Michaan 

 

• 

DON’T “CELEBRATE” OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BY  

DISRESPECTING IT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Some people enjoyed April’s “International Food Festival” in West Berkeley. Others had 90 decibels of it imposed on them with no warning. One’s enjoyment seems to be inversely proportional to the distance one lives from the portable toilets, the smoke from the outdoor cooking booths, the rude staff, and the enormous sound speakers trained directly on certain apartment windows. 

An asphalt parking lot next to four apartment buildings, where sound ricochets off the surrounding walls, is the worst possible location for an amplified show, unless your intent is to annoy hundreds of tenants, only a few of whom had any warning from the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation (WBNDC). 

The notice to the neighborhood for the “International Food Fair” didn’t mention using the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot for an amplified sound stage or putting two aromatic portable toilets right under dozens of tenants’ windows. A variance notice with some of this detail, or any detail, would have initiated some objections, entitling the neighborhood to at least a public hearing. When the City of Berkeley had this pointed out, Jay Ogden (Department of Environmental Health) responded, “that’s not our problem.” 

The owner of a nearby vacant lot next to no residences agreed to host the stage, but Willie Phillips, one of the board members of the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation, said changing their plans was too much trouble. District 1 representative Linda Maio’s office said “negotiations with the neighbors was not required.” Darryl Moore’s office didn’t respond, but showed up to get some face time on the stage, ignoring the issue of the imposition on immediate tenants. 

WBNDC hired an out-of-towner from San Francisco to do its leg work rather than taking the time to walk the neighborhood. Many merchants I spoke with told me they found her manner offensive, or weren’t invited to participate at all. Some merchants no doubt made money, and some people with apartments adjoining the amplified sound stage no doubt enjoyed the music, but only at the expense of hundreds of others who had no warning about the event, and had their work, their quiet, and their private gatherings suddenly and needlessly disturbed for hours. 

One of the event’s staff, Bruce Williams, tore down posters representing opposition, not to the event itself, but to the event’s lack of notice to the neighborhood, and refused to identify himself when photographed doing so. Betsy Morris, the chair of WBNDC, refused to intervene. Letters from tenants in all four of the apartment buildings testify to the difficulty imposed on some of the neighbors that day, but the WBNDC has yet to acknowledge the fact, let alone promise to plan a different location for any future events. 

Please encourage the West Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation to play fair, if there is a next time, so that hard-working people don’t suffer the burden of their bad planning. Nobody opposes a festival, or music, or great food, or dance. But if your event poses an imposition on others, it’s rude not to consult with them about it, and to respond by telling them to “enjoy” it. 

Carol Denney 


Commentary: Defining Artisans Out of Existence

By John Curl
Tuesday June 27, 2006

The Berkeley City Council has just asked the Arts Commission to “review and update the definition of ‘arts and crafts’ as referred to in the West Berkeley zoning, which will enable an inventory of such space to go forward and ensure that the space is protected, as stipulated in the West Berkeley Plan and the zoning.” So far, great: protecting arts/crafts space is essential. But if you read on, another agenda appears: “The commission will no doubt struggle with what constitutes arts and crafts as their practice has been modified by the advent of computers and advanced technology.”  

This is not a debate over “what is art?” This is a struggle over development. “Advanced technology” is just verbal legerdemain, the latest sally in the current offensive from developers to touch off a gentrification explosion in West Berkeley.  

In fact the practice of artisans and artists has not been modified by computers. Potters still throw pots, glassblowers still blow glass, woodworkers still plane wood, and sculptors still chisel away, not in virtual space, but in real time immemorial, just as they have always done, in industrial-type studios. The very concept of an art/craft studio is to make space available for uses that cannot be done in an office setting. The definition determines what uses are eligible to be in an arts/crafts studio, and the current definition includes only those arts/crafts that actually need an industrial-type space. There have always been types of artists, such as poets for example, who do not need industrial-type studios, and these were purposefully not included in the West Berkeley definition. But to open the definition to all creative work, inclusive of that ordinarily done in an office, means doom to numerous working artisans and artists. The new computer media are practiced in an office environment, and can afford it. Computer art functions on a higher financial level than traditional arts/crafts, which generate only industrial-level rent. Office rent is double that of industrial. To include computer art in the definition means doubling the rent on arts/crafts studios, pushing working artisans and artists out of town, and converting all the arts/crafts studios into offices. 

It is actually no joke, poets being made eligible for arts/crafts studios. That’s what the city actually put in the shameful use permit of Strawberry Creek Center, a formerly industrial building located at Addison and Bonar, that was supposed to become arts/crafts studios, but which instead was converted into offices. Being east of San Pablo, West Berkeley protected use definitions didn’t apply. When Strawberry Creek Center first opened in the 1990s, a number of artisans and artists moved in, but these were soon pushed out by skyrocketing rents. The owners, with help of city staff, accomplished the conversion from industrial to office simply by their definition of “arts and crafts” in their use permit, which contained a list of over 300 examples of “artists and craftspeople” including gems such as architect, interior decorator, city or urban planner, civil engineer, communications engineer, aeronautical engineer, functionalist, daubster, copyist, stylist, writer, wordsmith, and of course poet. 

Remember those old movies where the villagers and peasants, after long-term abuse, finally rise up on a foggy night and storm the castle by torchlight with hammers and pitchforks? Well, West Berkeley artisans and artists just want to continue to work. Most of us usually ignore city politics. We are slow to anger. But if the city tries to redefine our studios out of existence, redefine our studios as offices, doubling our rents, at some point soon on a foggy night we are going to gather up our hammers and pitchforks. 

The Arts Commission holds the life or death of West Berkeley arts/crafts studios in their hands. I urge all people who support the retention of working artisans and artists in town to communicate that to the Arts Commission through its secretary at MMerker@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

 

John Curl is a woodworker, poet, and co-chair of West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies.


Commentary: A No-Sweat Method To Make Berkeley Sweat-Free

By Igor Tregub
Tuesday June 27, 2006

The City of Berkeley spends $89,000 annually to purchase goods that facilitate an efficient infrastructure and continued service. Police uniforms, computers for city offices, and accounting supplies are generally ordered from private vendors, who contract companies from across the world to manufacture the starting materials. 

It may come as a shock that the city, with its lasting and proud history of leadership in social justice issues, has no mechanism in place to trace the origins of these starting materials. Little known to any of us is the possibility that some of these origins may be rooted in an onerous legacy of sweatshops, inhumane labor practices, and wages as low as 13 cents per hour. 

This dereliction, however, has the potential for redress on June 27. On this evening, the City Council will have the power to pass a Sweat-Free Ordinance. This provision will ensure for years to come that the purchasing department employs our taxpayer money in a clean and just fashion.  

Subcontractors and contractors that honor the basic labor rights of a minimum wage, the ability to unionize, and the freedom from harassment and abuse will be rewarded through bid offers. Those that fall short of the necessary regulations will receive ample time to reform their practices; if, however, their efforts still remain inadequate, Berkeley will take its business elsewhere. 

It is of paramount importance to remember that such an ordinance without a proper level of funding amounts to nothing more than a toothless bill. This is why a broad coalition of members on the Berkeley Labor and Peace and Justice Commissions as well as over 30 labor, faith-based, student, and community groups in Berkeley recommend that this resolution receive the full amount of a $60,000 request. 

A portion of this amount would be earmarked for an internal monitor, who would conduct much-needed research into the genesis and lifetime of goods and services that eventually find their way into our municipality. Basic data, such as the country of production, normal working hours per day, and overtime policy, will be entered. 

The remainder would be allocated toward a consortium spanning the East Bay, created with the express purpose of sharing information, expediting research, and saving cities time and money. This collaboration will draw on the strength of enforcement in locales such as San Francisco, which recently passed its own sweat-free ordinance, and information stored in the collective annals of the Bay Area. 

The Sweat-Free Ordinance is inseparable in letter or spirit from the monetary request, as the latter will be the only method to promulgate the former. We urge you to contact your council member and state your support for this ordinance. Let’s enjoy the fruits of labor in a just and equitable way! 

 

Igor Tregub is member of the  

Commission on Labor.


Commentary: John Galen Howard Was Right

By Helen Burke
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Regarding UCB’s draft enviornmental impact report (DEIR) for the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP), which include retrofitting Memorial stadium, a new Student Athlete High Performance Center (SAHPC), new parking garage, and other improvements, John Galen Howard was right.  

Back in the 1920s when the university first proposed the stadium, Campus Architect John Galen Howard opposed building the stadium in its current location, primarily because it was over the Hayward Fault. From Berkeley historians and preservationists, we can piece together other concerns of the day.  

First and foremost, the Hayward Fault bisects the Memorial Stadium, and the proposed 158,000-square-foot SAHPC adjacent to the stadium is within the Alquist-Priolo Fault Hazard Zone of the fault as is the proposed 911-car parking garage. It is now known that this fault is in one of the most dangerous locations in CA with a 27 percent probability of a 6.7 quake causing significant damage to persons and property by 2032. The university proposes to more than double the number of capacity events which would mean more people—both those attending events and those living in adjacent neighborhoods—would be exposed to greater risk in the event of a major earthquake. The DEIR downplays the seriousness of this increased risk and does not look at less risky alternatives.  

Second, access to the stadium and other buildings is through already congested narrow streets designed almost a century ago to serve a primarily residential area. Access remains difficult and would be made worse by the additional parking facility and more events. There is only one egress and one ingress to the new 911-car parking structure off Centennial Drive where it meets Gayley Road. Gridlock would be sure to ensue before and after a football game! This impact is not adequately covered by the DEIR nor is it fully mitigated.  

Third, nature lovers, including early Sierra Club leaders and professors, used to meet frequently in the area which became the stadium site to hike up Strawberry Canyon along Strawberry Creek, passing a beautiful waterfall (now culverted). This group opposed the stadium plan because they wanted to preserve a beautiful natural area. The university now plans to destroy 100 live oaks, including three or four rare heritage oaks, in the same area in order to build the student athletic center. One wonders if it would be possible to save these majestic, historical and long-lived trees or to build around them, preserving them in place. This latter option is not addressed in the DEIR.  

Fourth, residents of Panoramic Hill area were concerned about access to that area in case of fire or other emergencies since there was only one narrow road entering and leaving the area. There continues to be only one narrow road into and out of the area, Panoramic Way, which begins very close to the stadium and would very likely be adversely impacted by stadium and student athletic facility construction activity. The building of these new structures would exacerbate an already dangerous situation and increase risk to the area. An emergency access route is needed in case of fire or other disaster. The DEIR identifies the issue but does not suggest adequate mitigation.  

Given the significance of these concerns and requirements of CEQA, the university needs to look carefully at alternatives. One mentioned in the DEIR is to relocate the stadium and possibly the student athletic facility to Golden Gate Fields on the Albany waterfront. However, that alternative would conflict with plans for completing the Eastshore State Park. A plan for protecting the waterfront area is currently the subject of an initiative campaign in Albany.  

Another alternative the university might want to look at is using the Oakland Coliseum for football games. Although located in another city, one has only to remember that UCLA’s football team plays some 20 miles away in Pasadena to see it is possible to play football games outside of Berkeley. This alternative should at least be looked at in the DEIR and should include an analysis of local and regional traffic impacts.  

Furthermore, the university should consider: doing a minimal seismic retrofit of the stadium, thereby preserving its historical value; maintaining the current number of games per year; and building the student athletic facility in a safer, more easily accessible location.  

Another parking alternative the DEIR should consider is building several satellite parking structures in the downtown area, e.g. the Department of Health Services building, UC Extension Building and Tang parking lot, rather than centralizing and concentrating parking in one building near the stadium, which includes 411 new parking spaces. Dispersing parking in this way might lessen the impact of additional parking in the Gayley Road area and surrounding neighborhoods. What is needed is an overall analysis of the impact of campus parking on Berkeley streets, including the new Underhill parking structure currently under construction.  

Let’s hope the university will listen this time to John Galen Howard.  

 

Helen Burke is a Berkeley resident.


Commentary: A Note of Thanks to Karen Grassle

By Maureen McAlorum
Tuesday June 27, 2006

As she prepares to take to the stage at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura for the world premiere of Open Secrets, I thought your readers may be interested to learn how Berkeley’s famous daughter Karen Grassle saved my life almost 30 years ago when she was at the height of her fame, playing Caroline Ingalls in “Little House on the Prairie.”  

It was the mid ’70s and I was a troubled teenager living in a home where my father mentally and physically abused my mother on an almost daily basis and mentally tortured me. At that time domestic violence was not as openly discussed as it is today and as my friends were more into boys and make-up, I had no one to talk to and was pretty desperate. I was a big fan of “Little House on the Prairie” which at that time was the number one show in the U.S. It was the one hour every week when I could briefly escape from what was going on at home and how I wished I could have been part of a loving family like the Ingalls.  

As things got worse at home I found myself writing down all that was happening, how it was affecting me and how I was feeling. For some reason—I don’t really know why—I mailed the letter to Karen and to be honest I didn’t expect to hear anything back because, as I said, “Little House” was at the peak of its popularity. But I under estimated the care and compassion of this very special lady, because two weeks later not only did I receive a personal reply but her home address and a plea to keep in touch. How many “stars” of today would take the time and trouble to help out a fan in need?  

We exchanged letters for almost a year and then one day came the one which was to literally save my life. Karen sent me the address of Erin Pizzey’s office in London and pleaded with me to get in touch with it. Erin was one of the first people here in the UK to set up safe homes for battered women, a cause which I later learned was very close to Karen’s heart. She co-wrote and starred in the movie Battered about the effects of domestic violence between three couples. I eventually contacted the office and they put me in touch with a local group here in Northern Ireland set up to help kids like me and although the journey was long, slow and sometimes very painful, I survived. In the meantime though I lost touch with Karen when she moved but life went on and the years passed.  

I met and married a wonderful man who restored my faith in the males of this world, and we have two beautiful children. Last September, my daughter, who is 13, was learning in school about the different types of abuse we humans inflict on each other and it was while chatting to her about this that I was suddenly struck by the vast realisation that but for the grace of Karen Grassle I would not be here today to tell my story. Of that I have no doubt. That special letter arrived when I was truly considering suicide and I’ll never be able to thank this wonderful lady enough for saving me. I started what was to be a seven-month search for Karen after the discussion with my daughter. I felt the urge to get in touch with her again to see if she remembered me but more importantly, to thank her from the bottom of my heart for how her very kind actions which enabled me to turn my life around.  

You will be pleased to know I finally caught up with her as she was appearing on stage in Winnipeg. I wrote to her at the theatre and a few weeks later I received a personal reply. She did indeed remember me, was glad my life had turned out so well and thanked me for reminding her that sometimes she’s made a difference. Well that difference to me was my life and for that I will always be indebted to her.  

This lady is a star in the true sense of the word. If the world were full of Karen Grassle’s it would be a wonderful place. 

God Bless you, Karen. You’re one in a million and Berkeley should be very proud of you. 

 

Maureen McAlorum lives in Northern Ireland.


Columns

Column: The View From Here: Out of Berkeley . . . and on to Africa

By P.M. Price
Friday June 30, 2006

My daughter beat me to Africa. On Monday morning, “Liana” (her pseudonym in this sometimes embarrassing column), along with 10 other students and two teachers from Berkeley High School, arrived in Shirati, a small village in the East African country of Tanzania. 

Liana, a 16-year-old who cannot live without her cell phone, whose text messaging has tripled our phone bill, who appears not to be able to survive a single day without spending at least an hour of it on MySpace, this typical teenager and her similarly situated friends will be living in a home generously hosted by former BHS Swahili teacher Christine Nyada-Chacha, with no cell phones, no Internet, very little electricity and no running water.  

There will be no hanging out on Shattuck or Telegraph, no late night runs to Walgreen’s or Blockbuster. No Mom to chauffeur her to Target, no little brother to play tricks on her and perhaps most importantly, no boyfriend by her side (or on the other end of the phone call, text message or MySpace update). 

“Hopefully she’ll come back with a heightened sense of appreciation for all the little things in life, all the things she so readily takes for granted,” I affirm knowingly, as I take another sip of my soy hazelnut mocha latte. My learned friends nod their heads in solemn agreement. 

“This trip will cause her to see herself differently, from a world perspective,” I proclaim as I anxiously check my watch. I don’t want to miss the beginning of “Law & Order.” 

As we parents gathered with our offspring at the San Francisco International Airport at 6 a.m. last Friday, we all felt a mixture of separation anxiety and profound excitement. Our children—our precious babies (Liana would be puking about now) were heading off to the other side of the world—without us! For four long weeks! This is the longest period of time my daughter will have ever spent away from home. I began missing her before she even made it through security.  

I grinned and waved and tried not to show it. But we were all a little weepy, even a few of the kids.  

Not Liana though. She was beaming. 

These dedicated, compassionate, eager young people are students of CAS, one of Berkeley High’s small schools within the larger metropolis. CAS, which stands for Communications, Arts and Sciences, is one of Berkeley High’s more socially conscious factions and proud of it. It follows, then, that this trip has a purpose. After changing planes in Montreal and London and then landing in Nairobi to take a nine-hour bus ride to Shirati, these students are going to build a brick school room, engage in AIDS education, volunteer in the community’s AIDS clinic, teach some English and play a little soccer. 

The phrase: “an African country devastated by AIDS” will become real to them. They will come to know children orphaned by the disease by name. I am certain they will do their very best to make their days brighter, to bring them some joy and take away the same. 

Liana and her classmates have spent months fundraising, doing everything from running parking lots to selling student-designed T-shirts and homemade cookies. They organized two tasty feasts (with parental suppport; I cooked the greens—they were fabulous) and held a successful silent auction.  

They’ve worked hard to earn this trip so that they can not only give of themselves to people in need, but can learn from and befriend these very same people, rich in history and culture, tradition and spirit.  

This has been a season of transitions for my family. My son entered the raging, deep waters of middle school. My husband and I separated and are heading toward divorce. My daughter embarked on her most serious relationship to date (I’m not quite sure how that sounds. They’re 16.) I’m still not used to my mother’s unavailability; she died of breast cancer two Augusts ago. And now my daughter has disappeared through the gates; out of sight; out of reach; out of the illusion of control, headed for the adventure of a lifetime. And I let go. Again.  

 


Column: Undercurrents: Pressing Mayor-Elect Dellums on Press Access

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday June 30, 2006

One afternoon, some years after the election of Jerry Brown to succeed Elihu Harris as mayor of Oakland, I saw Mr. Harris walking with some friends and former aides along “government street” between City Hall and the federal and state office buildings that were the centerpiece of the Harris administration’s downtown revival after the devastation of Loma Prieta. I had once described the Harris administration as “dismal” and “drifting” in a column for the old Urban View newspaper, and I had to stop and confess to him that the more I saw of his replacement, Mr. Brown, the better Mr. Harris had come to look. 

Quite the opposite seems to have happened with some of my fellow columnists in the other area newspapers in the first days since the election of Ron Dellums. It’s not so much that the Jerry Brown years seem better than they think the Dellums administration will be, but that my good friends in the other newspapers have either minimized Mr. Brown’s record or seemingly forgotten it altogether. 

In two recent columns, Chip Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle and Will Harper of the East Bay Express have chosen to criticize what they think will be Mr. Dellums’ relation with the media and the press once Mr. Dellums assumes office next January. 

“One of the … hurdles Dellums will have to overcome will be his not-so-touchy-feely relationship with the news media, which he deftly dodged with style during nearly three decades in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Mr. Johnson writes this week. “As mayor, Dellums will receive queries from the local press on a daily basis, and his constituents are just a phone call or a 15-minute car ride from City Hall. He’s been advised by those close to him that in order to operate a truly participatory government with an open-door policy, he’s going to have to include the press in that process and put aside his inclination to dismiss news reporters—and their questions. For a man with such a long professional and public career, he has been thin-skinned when it comes to news coverage and criticism.” 

That’s about the same as you get from Mr. Harper in last week’s “Bottom Feeder” column in the Express, where he writes: “Considering the former congressman’s behavior during the mayoral campaign and his historically prickly relationship with the press, the Dellums era will probably be just as opaque as the Jerry Brown years. During the campaign,“ Mr. Harper goes on, “Dellums often proved elusive and thin-skinned when dealing with reporters. … Dellums repeatedly turned down interview requests from KNTV and wouldn’t let KTVU producers interview him at home—unlike both his main opponents, councilmembers Ignacio De La Fuente and Nancy Nadel. He refused to talk to Chip Johnson, the Chronicle’s East Bay columnist, after Johnson wrote a piece on Dellums’ estranged son, Michael, who is serving a life sentence for murder. De La Fuente, by contrast, answered lots of questions about his own wayward son, who is awaiting trial on multiple rape charges. Even Dellums’ supporters share the candidate’s touchiness, condemning what they considered the negative portrayal of their man in the ‘white press’ and ‘corporate media.’” 

Mr. Harper then suggests that during his administration, Mr. Dellums should hold regular press conferences “as De La Fuente had promised to do.”  

This is going to take some sorting out, not necessarily with the pig going first, as the Supreme Being chose to do in Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits. 

Mr. Harper’s allusion to statements by those he calls “Dellums’ supporters” about the “white press” is so explosive that he needs to do more than just mention this in passing. Which “Dellums supporters” made such remarks, what was the context of the remarks, and were they speaking for Mr. Dellums at the time they did so? Did Mr. Dellums ever make such statements? In his column Mr. Harper refers to sharp criticisms Mr. Dellums made of the press while he was in Congress, but nothing which identified the press—or its ownership—by race. It is entirely irresponsible—and inflammatory—to include such anonymous statements by unnamed “supporters” of a candidate in an article that is supposed to be talking about the attitudes of the candidate himself, particularly from a candidate who took great pains to assure us that he was going to represent the complete diversity of our city. 

Anyways, Mr. Harper’s reference to Mr. Dellums’ refusal to talk to Mr. Johnson after Mr. Johnson wrote a column about Michael Dellums needs to be put in context as well. Michael Dellums was convicted some years ago of a murder that occurred in 1979. There has never been an allegation that the murder had any connection to his father, Ron Dellums, and from all the public information we have, the younger Dellums was raised by his mother—not Ron Dellums—after his parents divorced. The issue only came up in the mayoral campaign when Mr. De La Fuente’s son was arrested for raping Fruitvale area prostitutes, and Mr. Johnson wrote a column combining the two situations. 

What Mr. Harper fails to mention in his column is that he also wrote about Mr. Dellums’ son’s criminal troubles—once during the campaign, and in 2003, when Michael Dellums was coming up for parole. In his 2003 article, Mr. Harper also referred to a 1988 East Bay Express article which went into the subject, writing that when Mr. Dellums was asked by the Express reporter “‘Your son by your first marriage is in jail for armed robbery and murder. Do you feel that you could have done something different, as a parent, to have prevented his troubles?’ Dellums tersely replied, ‘You’re in an area that I don’t want to get into. And I did not raise him. ... I don’t want to deal with that.’” 

That Mr. Dellums might have thought it was a cheap shot both by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Harper to bring up these old matters about his son is understandable, and neither columnist have successfully answered—to my satisfaction, anyway—why they were important to the 2006 Oakland mayoral race. (Given the fact that there was never any link made between Mr. De La Fuente and the actions of his sons, I never thought Mr. De La Fuente’s son’s recent legal troubles were relevant to the campaign, either, and said so in a column that appeared during the campaign.) 

Meanwhile, it is entirely fair to request and require that the mayor of Oakland hold regular conferences with the press—the whole press—to answer questions of interest and concern to the city’s citizens. 

One only wishes that standard had been applied to the current occupant of the office, Mr. Brown. Perhaps someone will correct me if I missed an occasion, but it is my recollection that in the seven years and counting Mr. Brown served as mayor of Oakland since his election in June of 1998, he never once called all of the press together for a formal press conference in which media representatives were allowed to ask questions in front of all the other media representatives. 

In any event, let me make my position clear. A candidate has no responsibility to talk with the press, or answer any of our questions. I would certainly prefer that they be available to us, but if they can win without such exposure, so be it. Once elected, however, the mayor of a major city such as Oakland has a responsibility to meet openly and often with the press in order to give the public and unfiltered view of what is going on. I expect Mr. Dellums to meet that responsibility, even during these transition days as he prepares to enter office and decisions are being made. I just think he ought to get the chance to take the first swing, before we criticize the fact that he hasn’t yet gotten a hit. 


To Vegas Through the Back Door

By Carole Terwilliger Meyers, Special to the Planet
Friday June 30, 2006

Last September, on a spectacularly scenic car trip to Las Vegas, I spent a night by Mono Lake, another by June Lake, and another in Death Valley. We drove through the Tioga Pass in Yosemite, which is open only a few months each year—usually May through September (it is closed in winter due to heavy snowfall).  

At the beginning of this great all-American road trip, we flew along on Highway 580 at the tail end of the morning rush hour. After passing Highway 5, where L.A. traffic siphons off, we were on the wide-open 205, which, alas, quickly became the great all-American traffic jam from hell.  

So we were more than ready for a relaxing lunch when we finally reached the woodsy mountain town of Groveland. (Note that it is smart to gas up along Highway 120 before turning onto Highway 108. Buying fresh local produce at one of the stands early on is also a good idea.) 

Built in 1853 and claiming to be the oldest saloon in the state, the Iron Door Saloon was the perfect refuge. In our private wooden booth in the dark, cool interior with 16-foot high ceilings and a long, long bar—not to mention walls hung with atmospheric stuffed buffalo and moose heads—a simple hamburger hit the spot.  

From here we continued on, turning off at Crane Flat (where there is a gas station, but unfortunately for us this was the one day each year that it closes down for cleaning) for the scenic journey through the legendary Tioga Pass. We climbed to 9,000 feet, where the air is clear, clean, and cool, stopping at the Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center to view a lovely and informative collection of wildflower identifications cards. 

At the crest, we then recognized yellow rabbit brush as well as lavender pussypaws and scarlet penstemons, all displayed stunningly against granite. Minimal food service is available along this route, but picnic spots are plentiful and spectacular; be prepared.  

Our gas held out until we reached Lee Vining, down at 6,500 feet. We filled the tank at the Tioga Gas Mart, and then ourselves with one of the world-famous fresh fish tacos at its Whoa Nelli Deli—dubbed “the best restaurant in a convenience store in America.”  

Then it was time to check in to our vintage cabin at the Tioga Lodge Resort, located across the street from Mono Lake. Though the original lodge was destroyed by a flood in 1956, this well-maintained re-creation includes both motel rooms and cabins tucked amid sheltering mature trees. A footbridge led over a rushing stream to our cabin, which had a clawfoot tub and also a porch with a lake view filtered through shore-side shrubs.  

We unpacked, then drove out to the South Tufa Area to hike beside the mysterious salt-water lake and view its famous pinnacles and spires up close in the late afternoon light—the best time for a comfortable temperature and to capture good photos.  

Dinner was just a stroll away from our cabin. In the resort’s small, casual restaurant, the well-priced food was down-home delicious—especially the Mexican specialties.  

Next day, we got off to an easy start with a good old bacon-and-eggs breakfast in the then sunny and serene resort restaurant. As we departed for Bodie—a 45-minute drive—people were gathering to take the resort’s popular boat tour of the lake.  

To reach the isolated ghost town of Bodie, we exited Highway 395 onto 270 and drove for 13 windy miles through Old West-style scenery. The last three miles were over a dirt road. We were grateful to find water faucets and bathrooms when we arrived.  

In 1879, when 10,000 people lived here, there were 2 churches, 4 newspapers, and 65 saloons. It was reputed to be quite rowdy. A little girl who moved here in its heyday wrote in her diary, “Good, by God! We’re going to Bodie.” This passage has also been interpreted as “Good-bye God! We’re going to Bodie.” Due to fires in 1892 and 1932, only about 5 percent of the town structures remain. On our ranger-led walk, we learned much, much more.  

From here it was a short drive back to our next stop. Exiting Highway 395, we took the June Lake Loop (Highway 158)—a scenic 15-mile excursion that winds past four mountain lakes set in glacial canyons with aspens and pines.  

Our destination was the full-service Double Eagle Resort & Spa. Located in a fragrant valley forest surrounded by granite peaks and several waterfalls, this small luxury resort has spacious guest rooms with contemporary rustique whole-log and bent-twig furnishings. Each has a deck overlooking a tranquil catch-and-release trout pond that becomes an ice-skating rink in winter. Two-bedroom cabins with full kitchens are also available.  

Adjacent to the small spa, an indoor pool and hot tub look out through a wall of windows at a view of jagged peaks reminiscent of Switzerland’s finest. The included breakfast was served in the restaurant’s dramatic dining room featuring knotty pine walls, a tall open-beam ceiling, and mountain views from every seat.  

But the resort is still wild enough for our room to be named “Cinnamon Black Bear,” after the bears that sometimes are seen on site foraging for garbage. Hiking trails, fly-fishing ponds, and horseback riding are nearby.  

From here we departed for Death Valley, stopping in Bishop for a cheap and delicious lunch on the patio of Erick Schat’s Bakkery. Sheepherder bread has been baked here continuously since 1907. Sandwiches are big, and a cookie is included with every order.  

Bishop is also home to the spectacular Mountain Light Gallery. Formerly owned by the late Galen Rowell, a celebrated nature photographer, it displays and sells his photographs as well as some by other accomplished photographers. Related events and workshops are often scheduled.  

Not far away, in tiny Independence, we made our last sightseeing stop at Manzanar National Historic Site. Following the Pearl Harbor attack in 1942, 10,000 Japanese Americans were detained in this internment camp. 

The Visitor Center, which opened in 2004, was built by internees in 1944 as a high school auditorium. Now it is home to state-of-the-art exhibits that are thoughtful and enlightening as well as disturbing.  

When the Manzanar War Relocation Center closed after World War II in 1945, most of the buildings were either moved elsewhere or dismantled and sold as scrap. A self-guided auto tour weaves through the dusty remains—mostly foundations—providing plenty of food for thought. It has become a peaceful, beautiful site, with sagebrush and trees and the Sierra peaks in the distance.  

We continued on through the unexpectedly gorgeous Panamint Mountains, with their striking red earth and green vegetation, and into Death Valley and a night at the historic Furnace Creek Inn. Enjoying a refreshing dip under the stars in the hot spring-fed pool on a warm desert night proved to be a trip highlight.  

Next day, after visiting only a few Death Valley sights (it is the largest national park in the lower 48 states, so it is ideal to allow several days here), we were on the road again and arrived mid-afternoon in Las Vegas.  

 

SIDEBAR: 

Tioga Pass road conditions: (209) 372-0200  

Lee Vining Chamber of Commerce (7600 647-6629; leevining.com  

Mono Lake (760) 647-3000; www.monolake.org 

June Lake Chamber of Commerce (760) 648-7584; www.junelakechamber.org  

Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau (760) 873-8405; www.bishopvisitor.com.  

Death Valley National Park (760) 786-3200; www.nps.gov/deva 

Tioga Lodge Resort (888) 647-6423, 760-647-6423; www.tiogalodge.com  

Double Eagle Resort & Spa (760) 648-7004; www.doubleeagleresort.com 

Furnace Creek Inn (888) 297-2757, (760) 786-2345; www.furnacecreekresort.com 

 

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. 

 

 

Photograph by Carole Terwilliger Meyers. 

The isolated ghost town of Bodie.


About the House: Some Advice on Avoiding Floods

By Matt Cantor
Friday June 30, 2006

Your washing machine is following you. O.K., so I’m being a bit dramatic but it’s true. Your washing machine is trying to get into your bedroom. 

Decades ago, before the invention of the washing machine, houses were provided with concrete sinks in the basement with an inclined front edge just right for a washboard. Now you only see washboards in antique stores or hanging on the walls of restaurants for ambiance. The sinks were mounted in pairs so that one was for washing and the other for rinsing. 

They even had pairs of hot and cold faucets for each. You might have one of these in your basement and you’ll note that the old faucets have no threading on them because they were never intended to have hoses attached to them. 

Eventually, the faucets got changed and hoses were attached and washing machines were installed beside the old concrete basin. The years rolled by and eventually dryers were invented to the detriment of fabrics everywhere. The clotheslines sat lame and mothers went off to jobs in defense plants. 

More time passed and we all got even busier. Mom went back to school, moved into the working world alongside dad and laundries began to appear in the small room beside the kitchen to save time. The laundry peered down the hallway and, when nobody was looking, crept down the hall into a closet with a pair of sliding doors. 

This is when things began to get a bit threatening but I won’t get ahead of myself. Eventually, when the kids were off at school, the stacked pair (dryer on top) snuck upstairs into a small closet in the upstairs across from the master bedroom where it stands, waiting for it’s chance, one day, to dart across the hall and into the master bedroom closet. For now, it’s not there, but it’s just a matter of time. 

See, people want to do their laundry when they’re done with dinner, tired and, if possible, during the commercial break of Jay Leno. They just don’t want to go down to the kitchen or, “PLEASE G-D, NO!”, the basement. This is why the laundry has been gradually creeping upward through the house all these years. 

The problem is washing machines leak every now and again and when they do there can be enormous damage done inside the home. When they were in the garage or the basement, this wasn’t such a big deal. 

But the further up in the house they go, the more devastating a washing machine leak becomes. There are, however, solutions. 

The first thing I will always recommend is the easiest and the cheapest because that’s the kind of guy I am. This is to replace the rubber hoses with the “No-Burst” type. They go by various names but are easily identified by the metal woven jacket around the entire length of the hose. 

They look a bit like the steel belts on a tire when the rubber is worn away. These prevent the most common laundry leak, that being the one that occurs when the hose becomes worn, cracked and eventually bursts forth with as much water as can escape prior to your unpleasant return home. This usually occurs to lawyers who’ve recently bought a lot of art work which is still sitting on the floor in the downstairs. 

A more expensive secondary step (but well worth the money) is the installation of a pan below the washing machine with a drain that carries overflow to a safe locale. This can be quite difficult to achieve if the washing machine is well inside the house on the second floor but is not nearly so difficult if the laundry backs up to an outside wall. 

There’s also nothing wrong with terminating the drain just outside the wall up on the second floor. It’s just for emergencies and sure beats a saturated interior. Architects, take note: Adding a drain during construction in almost any location is easy but very expensive after the interior is complete. 

A third method is to employ one of the new “Floodstop” products that not only senses a leak but actually turns off the water leading to the washing machine (or water heater, dishwasher, etc.). 

Like the pan and drain method, they are also quite suitable to water heaters that are inside the house and especially for those machines located in the upstairs. One purveyor can be found at www.thewateralarm.com/productline.asp. 

The devices are available for washing machines, water heaters, dishwashers and icemakers. The same company also markets a device for sump pumps to alert you to an overflow. 

These devices cost around $70-90 which is cheap when you consider the damage that can be caused by a washing machine or water heater leak. 

As noted, this issue extends to a range of other pieces of equipment and there are a few other ways to prevent flooding in the home that are well worth pointing out. While a sink drain might leak and cause damage to the sink cabinet, the greater concern is a burst water line to the faucet. 

The flexible connectors below sinks and also those connected to toilets are often the flexible plastic/fiberglass type and can burst just like their washing machine counterparts. 

The “No Burst” connector is available for these as well and the low cost makes this sort of safety hard to turn down. 

So, let’s say that you’ve put a pan with a drain below your washing machine and your water heater and you’ve changed all the plastic or rubber flexible water connectors in the house to the metal braided type. What’s left? 

Well there is one remaining item and it’s something you can do even if you do nothing else. For many of us, the water pressure in our houses is quite high. If it’s over 80 pounds (PSI), it’s kind if high and if it’s well above 100 it’s serious. 

I occasionally see a house that’s over 150 and they’re usually in the hills where the water pressure gets a big boost to make it to the top. Houses with high pressure, not surprisingly, have more floods and there is, once again, a fairly simple fix, that being the installation of a pressure regulator (or pressure reducing valve). 

This device mounts near the main water valve to the house and lowers the pressure of the entire system, thus reducing the propensity for pipes, connectors and devices to leak. 

If your plumbing is badly corroded and filled with mineral deposits this may reduce your shower flow somewhat but it may be best to tackle that problem with some new piping. 

So with these things in mind, it’s no big deal that the washing machine is now upstairs across from your bedroom but if you’re like me, you probably still won’t be able to get the laundry done.  


Garden Variety: How to Plant a Plant to Ensure It Will Survive

By Ron Sullivan
Friday June 30, 2006

You buy a tree or shrub and dig a hole and put the plant into it and fill it up and that’s pretty much it, right? Well, not exactly. It’s usually not a technical challenge, but there are right ways and wrong ways to plant a plant.  

Our instinct when we plant a tree or shrub is to tuck it in lovingly, after digging a nice deep hole and filling it partway with nice rich loam. That doesn’t work in the heavy clay most of us have as base soil. 

It’s disastrous for rhodies and azaleas, because they have a strong tendency to treat the nice rich soil and the nice deep hole as a container – in fact, it is effectively a clay pot—and grow their roots in a circle inside its confines.  

Besides, they hate having their crowns buried. The crown of a woody plant is (another counterintuitive thing here) at its base, between root and stem tissue, just about at soil level.  

Native live oaks also die slowly but inevitably when their crowns are buried by mulch, other plants, or anything else that holds water against them, including surface soil and leaf litter that’s sliding downhill. 

They’re susceptible to fungi that thrive in warm wet soil too, which is why they shouldn’t get water in summer—and neither should anything planted under them! If you have one, treat it as the treasure it is: plant a native understory; there are lots of droughty shade plants to play with. 

This problem is so common that when I was a pro, I could confidently stick a spade under a sick azalea, pop it flying out of the ground, and catch it in one hand to show the cramped, strangled rootball.  

So. When you plant, dig a wide, fairly shallow hole. Rough out the edges with the shovel blade; you don’t want smooth walls. Pile a little hump of dirt in the middle.  

Gently untangle the plant’s roots, or score the rootball vertically a couple of times along its edges. Put the plant on top of the hump, roots spread as much as you can, and backfill the hole with the same soil you took out of it. 

The crown should end up several inches above soil level, because it’s going to settle and sink a bit. Press the soil gently but firmly into place with your feet. 

Mulch the roots if you want to, but keep the mulch away from the trunk(s). If you make a watering “well” around it, be extra sure the trunk is above it—and remember to get rid of the raised circle after a year or so! The feeder roots should be far past its edges by then.  

Mulching with seasoned compost is a good way to fertilize later on. You don’t need to dig it in and disturb those delicate new roots, either. Spread it and let the earthworms do the work. 

If you have a wobbly tree after the planting procedure, use stakes to stabilize it. More about those next week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday June 30, 2006

Visited Your Shut-offs Lately? 

 

It’s time to get acquainted with your gas, electric, and water shut-offs. I’m finding in my earthquake consults that, even though most folks know where the cut-offs are, many aren’t sure how to operate one or more of them. 

Even worse: In more than half of my consults I discover that the gas valve is “frozen.” 

So, here’s the deal: 

1. know where gas, electric, and water shut-offs are 

2. make sure every capable person in the house knows how to operate them 

3. test the gas & water valves (slight movement to make sure they aren’t inoperable) 

If valves are frozen, call PG&E (gas) or EBMud (water) and ask that the valve be replaced or repaired: they will take care of the problem with no charge.  

 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service in the east bay. www.quakeprepare.com


Column: The Public Eye: Campaign 2006: Top 10 Senate Races

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Voters will determine 33 Senate seats in 2006. According to veteran D.C. prognosticator Charlie Cook, 16 incumbent senators are all but guaranteed reelection. In order to regain control of the Senate, Democrats will have to win at least six of the eight Republican seats that are in play and retain all nine of the contested Democratic seats. Here are the ten most interesting senatorial races:  

In Arizona Republican incumbent John Kyl anticipated an easy victory. Now, polls show that his margin over a Democratic challenger has dwindled from 31 to 7 percent. The Sept. 12 primary will pit Jim Pedersen against John Verkamp. Pedersen is the favorite. 

Minnesota has a vacant Senate seat because Democrat Mark Dayton is retiring. The primary will be held Sept. 12; the leading Democratic candidate is Hennepin County District Attorney Amy Klobuchar. The latest polls show her leading Mark Kennedy, her likely Republican opponent. 

An interesting race is shaping up in Missouri where Republican incumbent Jim Talent has weakened in the polls. The Missouri primary is Aug. 8, and the favored Democrat is State Auditor Claire McCaskill. The race appears to be a toss- up.  

Another intriguing contest 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 June 6 primary resulted in the nomination of populist farmer Jon Tester. The latest polls show him ahead. 

You may remember that New Jersey Democratic Senator Jon Corzine resigned his position once he took office as governor in January. His replacement was Democratic Representative Bob Menendez. So far, Menendez has run a lackluster race against his Republican opponent, Tom Kean, Jr. This is probably the GOP’s best shot at picking up a Democratic seat. 

In Ohio, Democratic Representative Sherrod Brown is running against embattled Republican incumbent Mike DeWine, who has been implicated in the Abramoff scandal. This race is a toss-up. 

The most highly publicized Senate race is in Pennsylvania, where conservative Christian poster-boy Rick Santorum is in trouble. Polls show him running behind the Democratic challenger Bob Casey, Jr. Santorum has a lot of money on hand and can be expected to wage a vicious race to keep his seat.  

The Rhode Island primary happens Sept. 12. The Republican incumbent, Lincoln Chafee, is facing a stiff primary challenge from conservative Steve Laffey. If Chafee gets past the primary, his likely opponent is former State Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse. The race is a toss-up. 

There will be an open Senate seat in Tennessee because Bill Frist is retiring to run for president. The Aug. 3 primary will determine the Republican candidate. The Democratic challenger is likely to be Harold Ford, Jr., a handsome, articulate, African-American congressman. Early polls indicate that the race is a toss-up. 

In Virginia incumbent Republican George Allen was said to have an easy reelection. So easy that he was thinking about running for president.  

Democrats recruited former Secretary of the Navy Jim Webb to run against Allen and suddenly there’s a race. Allen remains the favorite. 

Those of you who believe that our best strategy in Iraq is to bring the troops home should note that Brown (OH), Klobuchar (MN), McCaskill (MO), Tester (MT), Webb (VA), and Whitehouse (RI) share this position. 

Besides the BB top 10, there are several other races that should be watched. In Maryland, Democrat Paul Sarbanes is retiring. 

The primary is in September, and whichever Democrat wins, will probably win the November election. In Vermont, Independent Jim Jeffords is retiring. The Sept. 12 primary will decide the Democratic and Republican candidates. However, the prohibitive favorite is Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders.  

Democrat incumbents face stiff challenges in Michigan (Debbie Stabenow), Washington (Maria Cantwell), and West Virginia (Robert Byrd). Finally, in Connecticut, incumbent Joe Lieberman is facing unexpected competition from anti-war Dem Ned Lamont. Whichever candidate wins the Aug. 8 primary will probably prevail in November. 

 

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


Douglas-Fir Builds and Graces Towns, Creates Splendid Forests

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Joe and I spent a couple of days up in Humboldt County among the really big trees last week. We stayed in a motel on the Avenue of the Giants among the old redwoods, where we could sit on the front porch in the evening and listen to the Mozartian aria of hermit thrush and the haunting, minimalist song of varied thrush, a bird has perfected wabi-sabi.  

The redwood forest is justly celebrated—I’ve done considerable celebrating of it myself—but there’s a companion, a peer of the redwoods who carries the rainforest system farther north, joining with the great true firs and redcedars to complete world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest.  

This companion, Douglas-fir, Pseudotsuga menzieseii, shows up in cultivation, on campuses and big gardens here too. In fact, that’s not unique; I was surprised, many years ago, to notice that great big Douglas-firs were all over Harrisburg, Pa., where I grew up. The difference was that I’d learned to recognize them.  

That’s not hard. Aside from the massive yet airy bearing they have, with their deeply furrowed dark-gray bark and short narrow needles, they have a good trademark in their cones: small, brown, papery, and with a three-pointed tongue poking out from under each scale. There are stories about how Coyote was chasing the mice and they asked Douglas-fir to help them, so Douglas-fir let them hide in those cones but their tails and hind legs didn’t quite fit. One variant has Douglas-fir offering the mice shelter and then snapping them up in the cones.  

Maybe that depends on the tellers’ attitudes toward those big, useful guardian trees that, like redwoods, occasionally spear the forest floor with “widowmakers,” self-pruned branches from way way up that come down hard enough to stab the ground and stand upright like a hurled spear.  

Douglas-fir’s usefulness is evident all around us. Intense logging of the species after World War II was the first step toward the construction boom that followed, especially the residential part of that; it’s called “the tree that built suburbia.” As softwoods go, it’s strong, and it goes into plywood as well as board stock. It’s also a common Christmas tree, especially in the West.  

It hangs onto its needles well. If this makes you laugh, consider how extreme a condition it is to be amputated from most of your vital organs—half of your body, at least—stuck onto a truck, then crucified in a parking lot for a few weeks, and finally dragged into the stifling hotbox of someone’s living room for a few weeks more. And having your remaining self mauled and clamped with wire hangers and hung with twig-distorting ornaments and bound with hot points of light all the while. Then imagine trying not to shed any hair, or sweat, or get so much as flaky dry skin during this ordeal.  

The S-and-M holiday atmosphere goes mostly one way; Douglas-fir has rather non-poky needles, which is a virtue in a tree that’s going to be handled, and makes it easier company in the house too. 

The tree’s at its best, of course, in its native land. Old-growth Douglas-fir, like old-growth redwood, makes a distinctive kind of habitat. It’s preternaturally quiet in some of the old coastal groves, a place fit for Zen Druids to meditate, or for Ents to drowse. Birdcalls—hermit thrush, pileated woodpecker, spotted owl—knife the silence, echo, then dissolve into the treetop fog. Red coralroot orchids, pale irises, white-flowered thimbleberry, and tanoak look up to madrones that would be the giants of any other forest.  

The Doug-firs preside, straight as arrows to the sky or spreading low from the crowns like huge hands, “wolf trees” that got a head start in open spaces before other trees or fires got a chance to shape them. The species itself is far from endangered, but the habitats, the particular cathedrals that grow in its company, are few and scattered these days.  

When I see a Douglas-fir in the city I think of these places, and wonder sometimes if planting emissary trees where so many of us live, here in the paved and stifled parts of Earth, can possibly have the effect I’d like to see, striking a spark of longing for what we hardly know. It’s not far from here. We just have to journey there, and then stop, quiet ourselves, sit and listen to the congress of ancient giants. 


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday June 30, 2006

FRIDAY, JUNE 30 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Permanent Collection” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 23. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.auroratheatere.org 

Central Works “The Inspector General” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 30. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. www.centralworks.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Footloose” the musical based on the 1984 film at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theater, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through August 5. Tickets are $12-$20. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Crowded Fire Theater Company “We Are Not These Hands” a comedy about the friendship between two teenaged girls in a fictional third-world nation, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. through July 16 at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $10- $20. www.crowdedfire.org 

Masquers Playhouse “The Fantasticks” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sunday Matinees at 2:30 pm on uly 2, 9, 16. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 22. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Pinole Community Players “Oliver!” the musical, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. at 2 p.m., at the Community Playhouse, 601 Tennent Ave., Pinole, through July 15. Tickets are $14-$17. 724-3669, 223-3598.  

Shadow Circus Creature Theater Giant puppets perform “The Laptop Banditos” at 9 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.shadowcircus.com  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Flaming: Art from LGBT Communities” Reception for the artists at 6 p.m. at WCRC Gallery, 5741 Telegraph Ave. Runs to July 28. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

Isabelle Huppert: Passion and Contradiction “La cérémonie” at 7 p.m and “Story of Women” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gary Younge describes “Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Jazz Express at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Jules Broussard Birthday Concert with Bobbe Norris and Larry Dunlop Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Bay Area Classical Harmonies at 8 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Tickets are $15 for adults and $2 for children. 526-9146. 

“Full Circle “ Dream Dance Company and Jose Francisco Barroso and Carlos Mena Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. at 9th St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 597-1619, ext. 110. dreamdancecompany.org  

Wee and Jon Cooney, singer-songwriters, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Slydini, Moe Staiano at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Killing the Dream, Ruiner, Final Flight 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. 

Broun Fellinis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Family Arsenal, Uncle Funky at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

Take 6, a capella, at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $28-$32. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

SATURDAY, JULY 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

Photo-Quilts by Sharin Smelser Photo montages on paper and fabric arranged in American quilt patterns on display to Aug. 20 at Musical Offering and Cafe, 2430 Bancroft Way. 849-0211. 

“Ted Gordon” Recent works on display at The Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St., to Sept. 30. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

“From Isolation to Connection” works by residents of Berkeley’s Bonita House’s Creative Living Center and the City of Berkeley Mental Health Division, on display at Addison St. Windows Gallery, through July 27. 981-7533. 

Paintings from the Gaia Pelt Series by Audrey Wallace-Taylor on display in the student lounge, University YWCA on Bancroft at Bowditch through July. 848-6370. 

Berkeley Public Library Staff Art Show on display throughout the library, 2090 Kittredge St., through Aug. 7. 981-6100. 

THEATER 

“The Lorin District Project” Reading of a new play about the neighborhood at 1 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Followed by dessert and discussion. 841-6500.  

Everyday Theatre “Dreaming in a Firestorm” by Tim Barsky at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway at 2nd St. Tickets are $12-$20. 644-2204.  

FILM 

A Theater Near You: “Days of Heaven” at 6:30 p.m. and “woman in the Dunes” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Agualibre, Latin, hip-hop, soul at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054.  

GTS, Downtown Rhythm at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100.  

Peter Apfelbaum & The New York Hieroglyphics at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Morning Line, El Capitan, Amee Chapman and the Big Finish at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Yancie Taylor Jazztet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Meli Rivera, world rock, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. All ages. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Larry Vuckovich & Buca Necak Duo at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Samantha Raven and Emaluna, singer-songwriters, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Sotaque Baino, Brazilian music at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159. 

SUNDAY, JULY 2 

FILM 

A Theater Near You: “Days of Heaven” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Dorianne Laux, Geri Digiorno and Nancy Keane at 3 p.m. at Diesel, 5433 College Ave. 653-9965. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Twang Cafe: Kit and Tanya and 3 Mile Grade at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. All ages. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 644-2204.  

Aleph Null at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ.  

Gombajahbari, Latin roots from Puerto Rico at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568.  

Edessa, Blkan, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. 

The Bobs, a cappella, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Atmos Trio at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

MONDAY, JULY 3 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Al Averbach and Jeanne Lupton read their poetry at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Waybacks at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$8.50. 548-1761.  

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Kékélé at 8 and 10 p.m. p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, JULY 4 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jazz Jam with Michael Coleman Trio at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Free, bring you rinstrument. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

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

Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz Band, featuring Faye Carol, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $5. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 5 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Bay in Bloom” A Group Show by the artists of The Artful Steps Program, opens at the LunchStop Cafe, MetroCenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. 817-5773. 

FILM 

Global Rhythms on Screen: “Step Across the Border” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Hadai Ditmars will talk about “Dancing in the No-FLy Zone: A Woman’s Journey Through Iraq” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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 

Roy Zimmerman in “Faulty Intelligence” An evening of satirical songs, Wed.-Fri. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way, through July 27. 800-838-3006. www.themarsh.org  

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $6. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Whiskey Brothers, old time and bluegrass, at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Cajun/Zydeco Benefit for Agi Ban at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10.. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Vital Information at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JULY 6 

FILM 

Beyond Bollywood: “Kumar Talkies” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thursday. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India” Guided tour at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Free First Thursday. 642-0808. 

Word Beat Reading Series with Marc Elihu Hofstadter and Dian Gillmar at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

Poetry at the Albany Library with Robert Lipton followed by an open reading, at 7 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Junior Reid, reggae, at 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Lost Highway at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jim Grantham Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Trillium, harps and vocals, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

All One Thing, The Fair Saints at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Torrettes Without Regrets at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $7. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Vital Information at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 


Theater: ‘Permanent Collection’ Examines the Art of Race

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday June 30, 2006

“Put yourself in my place,” says the well-dressed African American man (L. Peter Callendar as Sterling North), surrounded by canvases of early Modern art that are punctuated by an occasional African mask—as he delivers a careful, frank but controlled account of how he was pulled over by a suburban cop for “no apparent reason” and asked for the registration for his new Jaguar, the first morning he drove to his new job as director of the prestigious (if eccentric) galleries of the Morris Foundation. 

It’s a kind of prologue to Thomas Gibbons’ play, Permanent Collection, at the Aurora. An anecdote on perspective and repeated social experience would seem a good preface to a play on art and racial controversy; the drama presents itself a little as an unfortunate accident of misunderstanding, a bit more as an inevitable collision between mutually uncomprehending types, as the events unfold in a quiet, luminous sanctuary of art. 

The antagonists are North, who, after a career in the corporate world, has been chosen to direct the Morris by the black university, the founder’s will- appointed trustee, and Paul Barrow (Tim Kniffen), who has spent his adult life at the Morris, regarding himself as a kind of protégé of the founder, and who directs the educational program. 

The disparity between the two is emphasized by their appearance and their mannerisms. And both are finally stripped down to knee-jerk, almost Pavlovian reactions to what each regards as slights—racial, professional and personal—from the other. 

It’s really something of a sad, institutional romance gone sour—a triangle, with Barrow, the scholar who wants things to stay as intimate as they are; North the dynamic force for change and expansion into the public world and Gillian Crane (Melissa Gray), the reporter for the ‘B’ section of the city paper, searching for controversy in the quiet suburbs, who gets Barrow’s indignant leaks into print, as well as North’s heated ripostes.  

To make the polar controversy a little more 360 in degree, Gibbons has tipped in North’s young African American administrative assistant, Kanika Weaver (admirably portrayed by Karen Aldridge), who befriends Barrow as kind of a mentor and gets caught in the middle. Kanika’s able to articulate less hardline, less positional views of a different generation, yet the role is clearly one created with that in mind, the relationship with Barrow a made-up one. 

Margarette Robinson plays Ella Franklin, the longtime (and only) African American staffer (the founder’s administrative assistant) when North arrives and the figure of continuity when the dust settles. And the founder himself, Dr. Morris is nicely presented by Robert Hamm, alternately a mischievous, overgrown schoolboy curmudgeon, snickering over his constant swipes at the academic and museum worlds. 

The play consists in great part of monologues and soliloquies. The Aurora production features fine acting and, overall, solid direction from Robin Stanton, plus good design from Richard Olmstead, Jon Retsky, Chris Houston, and Rebecca Ann Valentino (for set, lighting, sound and costume). 

The collaborative effort goes a ways toward fleshing out a play that’s professionally written, about real issues lucidly stated, fictionally expanded from the controversies surrounding the Barnes Foundation near Philadelphia, to touch on the deeper contradictions in our society, between equality and racial (and class) identity, public and private life, and art versus comprehension in a culture of self-expression. 

But Gibbons’ play just lays the groundwork, in itself a somewhat institutional discussion “about” art, race, society. With all its admirable intentions, it doesn’t penetrate much beneath the surface of The News, into what Aristotle called “dramatic action,” that crux of a human situation which, put on a stage before an audience, anatomizes the wellsprings of existence and change.


Moving Pictures: Deja Vu and Despair: Revisiting ‘Punishment Park’

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday June 30, 2006

If you’ve seen or intend to see The Road to Guantanamo, reviewed in this space last week, it might be a good time to revisit Peter Watkins’ 1971 Punishment Park. The two films, 35 years apart, provide perspectives on the abuse of power that are both complementary and contradictory. 

Watkins, an Englishman, came to the United States in 1969 to make a series of documentaries on American history, but the project was eventually canceled. Instead he was inspired by the political turbulence of the era to create Punishment Park, a cinema verité depiction of a government crackdown on Vietnam-era dissidents. The film was released last year on DVD by New Yorker Video as part of a series called “The Cinema of Peter Watkins.” Other films in the series include The War Game, Culloden, The Gladiators and the biopic Edvard Munch. 

Punishment Park imagines a scenario in which President Nixon invokes his rights under the 1950 Internal Security Act and establishes detention camps for dissidents, militants and draft-dodgers—indeed, anyone who has committed an act of “sabotage” or who the government has reasonable cause to believe has the intention of committing such an act. Substitute “terrorism” for “sabotage,” pour yourself a stiff drink, then settle in for 90 minutes of deju vu and despair. 

The storm of criticism unleashed upon the film’s release would be no less anachronistic than the content in today’s heated political climate. The film was assailed as an anti-American polemic, a dangerous and subversive treatise that would provide aid and comfort to the enemy. 

The film cuts back and forth between two lines of action. In the first, a group of detainees faces a right-wing citizen tribunal in a series of improvised confrontations based loosely on the trial of the Chicago Seven. The actors—amateurs selected for their appearance and political views—improvised the dialogue, a creative decision that both helps and hinders the movie, lending the action a degree of immediacy while simultaneously rendering the characters as two-dimensional stereotypes.  

Each prisoner is questioned in turn before each is given the choice of a lengthy prison term or a few days in Punishment Park, a vast expanse of desert in which they will be left to wander while the military police hunt them down in a sort of state-sanctioned version of “The Most Dangerous Game.” 

The contentious environment inside the interrogation tent is further established by the details of photographer Joan Churchill’s framing of the scene: The detainees are disheveled and unkempt and face their interrogators while surrounded by the trappings of power: Guns, billy clubs and uniformed officers lurk always in the background. And while they sit alone in the heat, facing a torrent of abuse, the tribunal’s members pass around a pitcher of ice water, and are later shown taking a break while munching at a catered buffet. 

The second line of action features the previous group of detainees, who have already faced interrogation and have opted for Punishment Park. In a series of interviews with the narrator (voiced by Watkins), the prisoners discuss their predicament as they run from and eventually confront their captors. 

In addition to the cross-cutting and mise-en-scene, the film employs a series of techniques designed to increase the pace and heighten the dramatic tension. The presence of the narrator/filmmaker sets up a confrontational dynamic between the players and the camera, and when the narrator finally drops his objective distance and becomes part of the action, expressing his outrage to the military police who have shot down several detainees in the desert, Watkins raises challenging questions about the role of media, the value of journalistic objectivity, and the civic duty of a democratic citizenry. 

It may be difficult in these times to suspend our disbelief long enough to accept that the federal government would allow media access to such an exercise; Watkins seems not to have anticipated the corporate efficiency or the sheer Orwellian chutzpah of the current administration, which has learned the lessons of the past and imposes severe restrictions on the press. 

The Road to Guantanamo, criticized by some for not telling the government’s side of the story, could not do so because the government simply refuses to tell it. Watkins’ film, on the other hand, is a product of its era, a time when politicians had yet to learn these lessons, allowing their dirty laundry to be aired at the 1968 Democratic Convention, at Kent State, in Vietnam and elsewhere. In that sense, Punishment Park is almost nostalgic. 


To Vegas Through the Back Door

By Carole Terwilliger Meyers, Special to the Planet
Friday June 30, 2006

Last September, on a spectacularly scenic car trip to Las Vegas, I spent a night by Mono Lake, another by June Lake, and another in Death Valley. We drove through the Tioga Pass in Yosemite, which is open only a few months each year—usually May through September (it is closed in winter due to heavy snowfall).  

At the beginning of this great all-American road trip, we flew along on Highway 580 at the tail end of the morning rush hour. After passing Highway 5, where L.A. traffic siphons off, we were on the wide-open 205, which, alas, quickly became the great all-American traffic jam from hell.  

So we were more than ready for a relaxing lunch when we finally reached the woodsy mountain town of Groveland. (Note that it is smart to gas up along Highway 120 before turning onto Highway 108. Buying fresh local produce at one of the stands early on is also a good idea.) 

Built in 1853 and claiming to be the oldest saloon in the state, the Iron Door Saloon was the perfect refuge. In our private wooden booth in the dark, cool interior with 16-foot high ceilings and a long, long bar—not to mention walls hung with atmospheric stuffed buffalo and moose heads—a simple hamburger hit the spot.  

From here we continued on, turning off at Crane Flat (where there is a gas station, but unfortunately for us this was the one day each year that it closes down for cleaning) for the scenic journey through the legendary Tioga Pass. We climbed to 9,000 feet, where the air is clear, clean, and cool, stopping at the Tuolumne Meadows Visitor Center to view a lovely and informative collection of wildflower identifications cards. 

At the crest, we then recognized yellow rabbit brush as well as lavender pussypaws and scarlet penstemons, all displayed stunningly against granite. Minimal food service is available along this route, but picnic spots are plentiful and spectacular; be prepared.  

Our gas held out until we reached Lee Vining, down at 6,500 feet. We filled the tank at the Tioga Gas Mart, and then ourselves with one of the world-famous fresh fish tacos at its Whoa Nelli Deli—dubbed “the best restaurant in a convenience store in America.”  

Then it was time to check in to our vintage cabin at the Tioga Lodge Resort, located across the street from Mono Lake. Though the original lodge was destroyed by a flood in 1956, this well-maintained re-creation includes both motel rooms and cabins tucked amid sheltering mature trees. A footbridge led over a rushing stream to our cabin, which had a clawfoot tub and also a porch with a lake view filtered through shore-side shrubs.  

We unpacked, then drove out to the South Tufa Area to hike beside the mysterious salt-water lake and view its famous pinnacles and spires up close in the late afternoon light—the best time for a comfortable temperature and to capture good photos.  

Dinner was just a stroll away from our cabin. In the resort’s small, casual restaurant, the well-priced food was down-home delicious—especially the Mexican specialties.  

Next day, we got off to an easy start with a good old bacon-and-eggs breakfast in the then sunny and serene resort restaurant. As we departed for Bodie—a 45-minute drive—people were gathering to take the resort’s popular boat tour of the lake.  

To reach the isolated ghost town of Bodie, we exited Highway 395 onto 270 and drove for 13 windy miles through Old West-style scenery. The last three miles were over a dirt road. We were grateful to find water faucets and bathrooms when we arrived.  

In 1879, when 10,000 people lived here, there were 2 churches, 4 newspapers, and 65 saloons. It was reputed to be quite rowdy. A little girl who moved here in its heyday wrote in her diary, “Good, by God! We’re going to Bodie.” This passage has also been interpreted as “Good-bye God! We’re going to Bodie.” Due to fires in 1892 and 1932, only about 5 percent of the town structures remain. On our ranger-led walk, we learned much, much more.  

From here it was a short drive back to our next stop. Exiting Highway 395, we took the June Lake Loop (Highway 158)—a scenic 15-mile excursion that winds past four mountain lakes set in glacial canyons with aspens and pines.  

Our destination was the full-service Double Eagle Resort & Spa. Located in a fragrant valley forest surrounded by granite peaks and several waterfalls, this small luxury resort has spacious guest rooms with contemporary rustique whole-log and bent-twig furnishings. Each has a deck overlooking a tranquil catch-and-release trout pond that becomes an ice-skating rink in winter. Two-bedroom cabins with full kitchens are also available.  

Adjacent to the small spa, an indoor pool and hot tub look out through a wall of windows at a view of jagged peaks reminiscent of Switzerland’s finest. The included breakfast was served in the restaurant’s dramatic dining room featuring knotty pine walls, a tall open-beam ceiling, and mountain views from every seat.  

But the resort is still wild enough for our room to be named “Cinnamon Black Bear,” after the bears that sometimes are seen on site foraging for garbage. Hiking trails, fly-fishing ponds, and horseback riding are nearby.  

From here we departed for Death Valley, stopping in Bishop for a cheap and delicious lunch on the patio of Erick Schat’s Bakkery. Sheepherder bread has been baked here continuously since 1907. Sandwiches are big, and a cookie is included with every order.  

Bishop is also home to the spectacular Mountain Light Gallery. Formerly owned by the late Galen Rowell, a celebrated nature photographer, it displays and sells his photographs as well as some by other accomplished photographers. Related events and workshops are often scheduled.  

Not far away, in tiny Independence, we made our last sightseeing stop at Manzanar National Historic Site. Following the Pearl Harbor attack in 1942, 10,000 Japanese Americans were detained in this internment camp. 

The Visitor Center, which opened in 2004, was built by internees in 1944 as a high school auditorium. Now it is home to state-of-the-art exhibits that are thoughtful and enlightening as well as disturbing.  

When the Manzanar War Relocation Center closed after World War II in 1945, most of the buildings were either moved elsewhere or dismantled and sold as scrap. A self-guided auto tour weaves through the dusty remains—mostly foundations—providing plenty of food for thought. It has become a peaceful, beautiful site, with sagebrush and trees and the Sierra peaks in the distance.  

We continued on through the unexpectedly gorgeous Panamint Mountains, with their striking red earth and green vegetation, and into Death Valley and a night at the historic Furnace Creek Inn. Enjoying a refreshing dip under the stars in the hot spring-fed pool on a warm desert night proved to be a trip highlight.  

Next day, after visiting only a few Death Valley sights (it is the largest national park in the lower 48 states, so it is ideal to allow several days here), we were on the road again and arrived mid-afternoon in Las Vegas.  

 

SIDEBAR: 

Tioga Pass road conditions: (209) 372-0200  

Lee Vining Chamber of Commerce (7600 647-6629; leevining.com  

Mono Lake (760) 647-3000; www.monolake.org 

June Lake Chamber of Commerce (760) 648-7584; www.junelakechamber.org  

Bishop Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau (760) 873-8405; www.bishopvisitor.com.  

Death Valley National Park (760) 786-3200; www.nps.gov/deva 

Tioga Lodge Resort (888) 647-6423, 760-647-6423; www.tiogalodge.com  

Double Eagle Resort & Spa (760) 648-7004; www.doubleeagleresort.com 

Furnace Creek Inn (888) 297-2757, (760) 786-2345; www.furnacecreekresort.com 

 

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. 

 

 

Photograph by Carole Terwilliger Meyers. 

The isolated ghost town of Bodie.


About the House: Some Advice on Avoiding Floods

By Matt Cantor
Friday June 30, 2006

Your washing machine is following you. O.K., so I’m being a bit dramatic but it’s true. Your washing machine is trying to get into your bedroom. 

Decades ago, before the invention of the washing machine, houses were provided with concrete sinks in the basement with an inclined front edge just right for a washboard. Now you only see washboards in antique stores or hanging on the walls of restaurants for ambiance. The sinks were mounted in pairs so that one was for washing and the other for rinsing. 

They even had pairs of hot and cold faucets for each. You might have one of these in your basement and you’ll note that the old faucets have no threading on them because they were never intended to have hoses attached to them. 

Eventually, the faucets got changed and hoses were attached and washing machines were installed beside the old concrete basin. The years rolled by and eventually dryers were invented to the detriment of fabrics everywhere. The clotheslines sat lame and mothers went off to jobs in defense plants. 

More time passed and we all got even busier. Mom went back to school, moved into the working world alongside dad and laundries began to appear in the small room beside the kitchen to save time. The laundry peered down the hallway and, when nobody was looking, crept down the hall into a closet with a pair of sliding doors. 

This is when things began to get a bit threatening but I won’t get ahead of myself. Eventually, when the kids were off at school, the stacked pair (dryer on top) snuck upstairs into a small closet in the upstairs across from the master bedroom where it stands, waiting for it’s chance, one day, to dart across the hall and into the master bedroom closet. For now, it’s not there, but it’s just a matter of time. 

See, people want to do their laundry when they’re done with dinner, tired and, if possible, during the commercial break of Jay Leno. They just don’t want to go down to the kitchen or, “PLEASE G-D, NO!”, the basement. This is why the laundry has been gradually creeping upward through the house all these years. 

The problem is washing machines leak every now and again and when they do there can be enormous damage done inside the home. When they were in the garage or the basement, this wasn’t such a big deal. 

But the further up in the house they go, the more devastating a washing machine leak becomes. There are, however, solutions. 

The first thing I will always recommend is the easiest and the cheapest because that’s the kind of guy I am. This is to replace the rubber hoses with the “No-Burst” type. They go by various names but are easily identified by the metal woven jacket around the entire length of the hose. 

They look a bit like the steel belts on a tire when the rubber is worn away. These prevent the most common laundry leak, that being the one that occurs when the hose becomes worn, cracked and eventually bursts forth with as much water as can escape prior to your unpleasant return home. This usually occurs to lawyers who’ve recently bought a lot of art work which is still sitting on the floor in the downstairs. 

A more expensive secondary step (but well worth the money) is the installation of a pan below the washing machine with a drain that carries overflow to a safe locale. This can be quite difficult to achieve if the washing machine is well inside the house on the second floor but is not nearly so difficult if the laundry backs up to an outside wall. 

There’s also nothing wrong with terminating the drain just outside the wall up on the second floor. It’s just for emergencies and sure beats a saturated interior. Architects, take note: Adding a drain during construction in almost any location is easy but very expensive after the interior is complete. 

A third method is to employ one of the new “Floodstop” products that not only senses a leak but actually turns off the water leading to the washing machine (or water heater, dishwasher, etc.). 

Like the pan and drain method, they are also quite suitable to water heaters that are inside the house and especially for those machines located in the upstairs. One purveyor can be found at www.thewateralarm.com/productline.asp. 

The devices are available for washing machines, water heaters, dishwashers and icemakers. The same company also markets a device for sump pumps to alert you to an overflow. 

These devices cost around $70-90 which is cheap when you consider the damage that can be caused by a washing machine or water heater leak. 

As noted, this issue extends to a range of other pieces of equipment and there are a few other ways to prevent flooding in the home that are well worth pointing out. While a sink drain might leak and cause damage to the sink cabinet, the greater concern is a burst water line to the faucet. 

The flexible connectors below sinks and also those connected to toilets are often the flexible plastic/fiberglass type and can burst just like their washing machine counterparts. 

The “No Burst” connector is available for these as well and the low cost makes this sort of safety hard to turn down. 

So, let’s say that you’ve put a pan with a drain below your washing machine and your water heater and you’ve changed all the plastic or rubber flexible water connectors in the house to the metal braided type. What’s left? 

Well there is one remaining item and it’s something you can do even if you do nothing else. For many of us, the water pressure in our houses is quite high. If it’s over 80 pounds (PSI), it’s kind if high and if it’s well above 100 it’s serious. 

I occasionally see a house that’s over 150 and they’re usually in the hills where the water pressure gets a big boost to make it to the top. Houses with high pressure, not surprisingly, have more floods and there is, once again, a fairly simple fix, that being the installation of a pressure regulator (or pressure reducing valve). 

This device mounts near the main water valve to the house and lowers the pressure of the entire system, thus reducing the propensity for pipes, connectors and devices to leak. 

If your plumbing is badly corroded and filled with mineral deposits this may reduce your shower flow somewhat but it may be best to tackle that problem with some new piping. 

So with these things in mind, it’s no big deal that the washing machine is now upstairs across from your bedroom but if you’re like me, you probably still won’t be able to get the laundry done.  


Garden Variety: How to Plant a Plant to Ensure It Will Survive

By Ron Sullivan
Friday June 30, 2006

You buy a tree or shrub and dig a hole and put the plant into it and fill it up and that’s pretty much it, right? Well, not exactly. It’s usually not a technical challenge, but there are right ways and wrong ways to plant a plant.  

Our instinct when we plant a tree or shrub is to tuck it in lovingly, after digging a nice deep hole and filling it partway with nice rich loam. That doesn’t work in the heavy clay most of us have as base soil. 

It’s disastrous for rhodies and azaleas, because they have a strong tendency to treat the nice rich soil and the nice deep hole as a container – in fact, it is effectively a clay pot—and grow their roots in a circle inside its confines.  

Besides, they hate having their crowns buried. The crown of a woody plant is (another counterintuitive thing here) at its base, between root and stem tissue, just about at soil level.  

Native live oaks also die slowly but inevitably when their crowns are buried by mulch, other plants, or anything else that holds water against them, including surface soil and leaf litter that’s sliding downhill. 

They’re susceptible to fungi that thrive in warm wet soil too, which is why they shouldn’t get water in summer—and neither should anything planted under them! If you have one, treat it as the treasure it is: plant a native understory; there are lots of droughty shade plants to play with. 

This problem is so common that when I was a pro, I could confidently stick a spade under a sick azalea, pop it flying out of the ground, and catch it in one hand to show the cramped, strangled rootball.  

So. When you plant, dig a wide, fairly shallow hole. Rough out the edges with the shovel blade; you don’t want smooth walls. Pile a little hump of dirt in the middle.  

Gently untangle the plant’s roots, or score the rootball vertically a couple of times along its edges. Put the plant on top of the hump, roots spread as much as you can, and backfill the hole with the same soil you took out of it. 

The crown should end up several inches above soil level, because it’s going to settle and sink a bit. Press the soil gently but firmly into place with your feet. 

Mulch the roots if you want to, but keep the mulch away from the trunk(s). If you make a watering “well” around it, be extra sure the trunk is above it—and remember to get rid of the raised circle after a year or so! The feeder roots should be far past its edges by then.  

Mulching with seasoned compost is a good way to fertilize later on. You don’t need to dig it in and disturb those delicate new roots, either. Spread it and let the earthworms do the work. 

If you have a wobbly tree after the planting procedure, use stakes to stabilize it. More about those next week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday June 30, 2006

Visited Your Shut-offs Lately? 

 

It’s time to get acquainted with your gas, electric, and water shut-offs. I’m finding in my earthquake consults that, even though most folks know where the cut-offs are, many aren’t sure how to operate one or more of them. 

Even worse: In more than half of my consults I discover that the gas valve is “frozen.” 

So, here’s the deal: 

1. know where gas, electric, and water shut-offs are 

2. make sure every capable person in the house knows how to operate them 

3. test the gas & water valves (slight movement to make sure they aren’t inoperable) 

If valves are frozen, call PG&E (gas) or EBMud (water) and ask that the valve be replaced or repaired: they will take care of the problem with no charge.  

 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service in the east bay. www.quakeprepare.com


Berkeley This Week

Friday June 30, 2006

FRIDAY, JUNE 30 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

“Integrating the Spiritual Path with Modern Day Lifestyle” with Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche at 7 p.m. followed by all-day workshop on Sat. Held at Berkeley Shambhala Center, 2288 Fulton St. Cost is $25 for the talk and $75 for the workshop. Registration suggested. 701-1681. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 845-1143. 

SATURDAY, JULY 1 

Farm Stories and Songs Listen to songs and stories then meet the animals at 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

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. 

Campfire and Sing-a-Long in Tilden. Bring your hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and long sticks, and dress warmly. Meet at the Tilden Nature Center at 5:30 p.m. and we’ll walk uphill to the campfire circle. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

“Solar Electricity For Your Home” Learn how to size, specify and design your own solar electrical generator. A short field trip to a functioning house/system in Berkeley and current catalog of available equipment are also included. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610. 

Sunset Walk in Emeryville with the Solo Sierrans Meet at 5:30 p.m. behind Chevy’s Restaurant at picnic table, for an hour’s walk through the marina. Optional dinner afterwards. Wheel chair accessible. 234-8949. 

Teen Summer Reading Program begins at the Oakland Public Library. Anyone entering 7th to 12th grades can earn prizes when they read for school or pleasure. For information visit any Oakland Public Library branch or see www.oaklandlibrary.org 

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St.  

Sick Plant Clinic UC plant pathologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Origami: Twistfish and Magic Star Learn to fold origami at 2 p.m. at the The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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, JULY 2 

Felting a Fun Hand Puppet Meet our flock of Black Welsh Mountain Sheep and learn how to turn their wool into a felt project from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. For ages 8 and up; children must be accompanied by an adult. Cost is $7-$12. 636-1684. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Summer Sunday Forum: Homelessness with Kecia McMillian at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack van der Meulen on Tibetan Yoga: Contacting Beauty at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JULY 3 

Independence Day Celebration with a cabaret performance by Alan Horan at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

McGee Avenue Toastmasters meets at 7:30 p.m. at McGee Ave Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 

Deeksha and Chanting at 7:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church, 941 The Alameda. Donations accepted. 655-1425. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, JULY 4 

Fourth of July at the Berkeley Marina, from noon to 9:30 p.m. A free admission, alcohol-free event, with live entertainment, arts & crafts, food, and activities for children. Fireworks at 9:30 p.m. Sponsored by the City of Berkeley. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us.  

Fourth of July Open House at Tilden Park Visit the Nature Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to meet critters, make nature crafts and have fun. 525-2233. 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring change of clothes, windbreaker, sneakers. For ages 5 and up. cal-sailing.org  

Red Oak Victory Ship 4th of July BBQ at 6 p.m. Music, tour of the ship and a great view of fireworks around the Bay. Cost is $20. Located in Richmond harbor, Berth # 6, off Canal Blvd. Reservations required. 237-2933. 

Save the Bay Fireworks Paddle enjoy the Bay Area Fireworks by canoe off Arrowhead Marsh, from 7 to 10:30 p.m. Minimum age 10, children 10-12 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Cost is $30-$40. Registration required. 452-9261, ext. 109. www.saveSFbay.org 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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. 548-3991.  

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, JULY 5 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Super Size Me” a documentary on the physical, legal and financial costs of Americans and fast food, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donations of $5 accepted. 

“Predators and Their Prey” An introduction to live wild animals by Wildlife Associates at 2:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon. Help is needed to support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. For information call 594-5165.  

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Herrick Campus, Maffley Auditorium, 2001 Dwight Way. To make an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Sleep Seminar at 7 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

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. 

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

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JULY 6 

First Thursdays at Fruitvale Village A street fair and farmer’s market from 5 to 8 p.m. with music, tastings, and children’s activities. Sponsored by Los Cantaros Taqueria and the Unity Council. 534-6900. www.unitycouncil.org 

Teen Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club will discuss Poul Anderson’s “The Broken Sword” and J.R.R. Tolkein’s Ring trilogy at 4 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 981-6133. 

East Bay Vivarium An introduction to insects, lizards, amphibians and reptiles at 11 a.m. at the Brookfield Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 9255 Edes Ave. 615-5725. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. jstansby@yahoo.com 

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.  

ONGOING 

Find a Loving Animal Companion at the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society Adoption Center (open from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday). 2700 Ninth St. 845-7735.  

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Fri., June 30 at noon, in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., July 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/women 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., July 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/housing 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. July 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/landmarks 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., July 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 


Arts Calendar

Tuesday June 27, 2006

TUESDAY, JUNE 27 

CHILDREN 

Gretchen Woefle reads from her book “Animal Families, Animal Friends” as part of the Kensington Library’s Summer Reading Program at 7 p.m. at 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

Puppet Company “Fantasy on Strings” a magical excursion with a variety of 3 feet tall, fully articulated marionettes at 7 p.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

FILM 

Against Indifference: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski “No End” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Belinda Rathbone reads from “The Guynd: A Scottish Journal” at 7:30 p.m at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Tell It On Tuesday Storytelling at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $8-$12 sliding scale at the door.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Golden Gate International Childrens’ Choral Festival at 3 p.m. at the Mormon Interstake Center, Oakland. 547-4441. 

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

Michael Coleman Trio Jazz Jam at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Bring your instrument. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

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

Chris Chandler and David Roe House Concert at 7 p.m. at 1609 Woolsey St. 649-1423. 

Zemog El Gallo Bueno at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28 

FILM 

Arab Women Film Series “Ashiqat Al-Cinema” at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Puppet Animation of Kihachiro Kawamoto “Demons, Poets, and Priests” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Ten Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military” presented by Cindy Sheehan, Paul Rockwell, and Aimee Allison at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Kyle Bravo & Jenny LaBlanc, artists from the Gulf Coast, speak at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. www.kala.org  

“Writing Teachers Write” monthly student and teacher reading series at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Natalie Coughlin and Michael Silver describe “Golden Girl: How Natalie Coughlin Fought Back, Challenged Conventional Wisdom, and Became America’s Swimming Champion” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

Roy Zimmerman in “Faulty Intelligence” An evening of satirical songs, at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way. 800-838-3006.  

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 

Golden Gate Childrens’ Community Concert at 7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, Kensington. 547-4441. 

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

J Soul at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Ugly Beauty at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Zemog El Gallo Bueno at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JUNE 29 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Somewhere in Space” Installations and paintings by Mayumi Hamanaka and Eric Larson. Reception at 6 p.m. at Swarm Studios + Gallery, 560 Second St., Oakland. 839-2787. 

“TRASHed” an eco-friendly art exhibition of recycling bins on Bay Street through the end of August. 655-4002.  

FILM 

The Puppet Animation of Kihachiro Kawamoto “Absurdities, Legends, and Fairy Tales” at 7 p.m. and “The Book of the Dead” at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sandra M. Gilbert and Phyllis Stowell read from their new books on death and grief at 3 p.m. in the 3rd floor Community Meeting Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6107. 

“For Review” with Jack Marshall discussing his memoir “From Baghdad to Brooklyn: Growing Up in a Jewish Arabic Family in Midcentury America” at 6:30 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8 549-6950. 

Michelle Tea will read from her new book “Rose of No Man’s Land” at 6 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, West Auditorium, 125 14th St. 238-3134. 

Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi describes “The Last Song of Dusk” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

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

Elizabeth Grossman talks about “High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxins, & Human Health” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

“The Da Vinci Code: Is the Truth Stranger than Fiction?” with Rabbi Harry Manhoff at 7:30 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $5. 839-2900, ext. 249. 

Word Beat Reading Series with Ronda Lawson and Eugene David at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Full Circle “ Dream Dance Company and Jose Francisco Barroso and Carlos Mena, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. at 9th St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 597-1619, ext. 110.  

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

Triskela, three harps, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Hali Hammer CD Release Party at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Suggested donation $5-$10 sliding scale. 649-1423. 

Roy Zimmerman in “Faulty Intelligence” An evening of satirical songs, at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way. 800-838-3006.  

No More Stereo, Melaquis, The Team Hate at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Jimi Bridges, music without borders at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Take 6, a capella, at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $28-$32. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jennifer Johns at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 30 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Permanent Collection” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 23. Tickets are $28-$45. 843-4822. www.auroratheatere.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Footloose” the musical based on the 1984 film at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theater, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through August 5. Tickets are $12-$20. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Crowded Fire Theater Company “We Are Not These Hands” a comedy about the friendship between two teenaged girls in a fictional third-world nation, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 7 p.m. through July 16 at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $10- $20. www.crowdedfire.org 

Masquers Playhouse “The Fantasticks” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sunday Matinees at 2:30 pm on uly 2, 9, 16. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 22. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Pinole Community Players “Oliver!” the musical, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. at 2 p.m., at the Community Playhouse, 601 Tennent Ave., Pinole, through July 15. Tickets are $14-$17. 724-3669, 223-3598.  

Shadow Circus Creature Theater Giant puppets perform “The Laptop Banditos” at 9 p.m. at The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.shadowcircus.com  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Flaming: Art from LGBT Communities” Reception for the artists at 6 p.m. at WCRC Gallery, 5741 Telegraph Ave. Runs to July 28. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

Isabelle Huppert: Passion and Contradiction “La cérémonie” at 7 p.m and “Story of Women” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gary Younge describes “Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Jazz Express at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Jules Broussard Birthday Concert with Bobbe Norris and Larry Dunlop Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Bay Area Classical Harmonies at 8 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Tickets are $15 for adults and $2 for children. 526-9146. 

“Full Circle “ Dream Dance Company and Jose Francisco Barroso and Carlos Mena Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. at 9th St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 597-1619, ext. 110. dreamdancecompany.org  

Wee and Jon Cooney, singer-songwriters, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Slydini, Moe Staiano at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Killing the Dream, Ruiner, Final Flight 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. 

Broun Fellinis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Family Arsenal, Uncle Funky at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

Take 6, a capella, at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $28-$32. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

SATURDAY, JULY 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

Photo-Quilts by Sharin Smelser Photo montages on paper and fabric arranged in American quilt patterns on display to Aug. 20 at Musical Offering and Cafe, 2430 Bancroft Way. 849-0211. 

“Ted Gordon” Recent works on display at The Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St., to Sept. 30. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

“From Isolation to Connection” works by residents of Berkeley’s Bonita House’s Creative Living Center and the City of Berkeley Mental Health Division, on display at Addison St. Windows Gallery, through July 27. 981-7533. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Agualibre, Latin, hip-hop, soul at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054.  

GTS, Downtown Rhythm at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100.  

Peter Apfelbaum & The New York Hieroglyphics at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Morning Line, El Capitan, Amee Chapman and the Big Finish at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Yancie Taylor Jazztet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Meli Rivera, world rock, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. All ages. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Larry Vuckovich & Buca Necak Duo at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Samantha Raven and Emaluna, singer-songwriters, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Sotaque Baino, Brazilian music at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159. 

SUNDAY, JULY 2 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Dorianne Laux, Geri Digiorno and Nancy Keane at 3 p.m. at Diesel, 5433 College Ave. 653-9965. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Twang Cafe: Kit and Tanya and 3 Mile Grade at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. All ages. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 644-2204.  

Aleph Null at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ.  

Gombajahbari, Latin roots from Puerto Rico at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568.  

Edessa, Blkan, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. 

The Bobs, a cappella, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Atmos Trio at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

MONDAY, JULY 3 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Al Averbach and Jeanne Lupton read their poetry at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Waybacks at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$8.50. 548-1761.  

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Kékélé at 8 and 10 p.m. p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200.  


‘Inspector General’ at the Berkeley City Club

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Clad in his mayoral uniform of velour sweats, Anton (Christopher Herold), CEO of gated Safe Harbor on the Mendocino coast, gazes out the window through binoculars, “looking out for people—my job.” To the tune of “The Very Model Of A Modern Major General,” he practices his putting, humming along and wincing extravagantly at each miss. He greets his bubbly wife, Anna (Deborah Fink), and they prepare to celebrate another property sold, with squeals, glib cliches and funny poses. 

Very much the stuff of situation comedy: cloyingly cute, archly mannered 30-somethings at home...though strangely edgy—and that edginess breaks through the mold when they’re unexpectedly visited by The Inspector General. 

Like an urban gumshoe barging into suburbia, a trench-coated fedora’ed figure seems to materialize in the trophy home, bristling with questions and abrupt silences, scribbling down the most banal responses, repeating them and trailing off, inferentially. He finally lets drop he is Ivan (Norman Gee), and that he’s on a National Security mission—the nature of which he of course can’t reveal. 

Central Works has performed a kind of culinary reduction of Gogol’s great farce, turning it into a chamber play in the confines of the Berkeley City Club. But the smaller scale accorded to this update of a sweeping social satire proves to be a pressure cooker that simmers with the physical comedy of unconscious domestic behavior confronted with uncertainty, bringing out all its hidden anxieties and resentments. 

Jan Zvaifler, Central Works co-founder, has directed her counterpart Gary Graves’ new play with close attention to the taut, interwoven timing of the mock suspense and uproarious hysterias as the innocents-at-home break down under scrutiny, while their interogator gets loopier and loopier. It could easily fall into the kind of puerile slapstick it plays off of, but the players ease into their silliness with the confidence of tightwire artists. Naturalizing Gogol’s grotesqueries to a Yuppie idiom, it could also prove a model for how to bring off a piece by Feydeau, or Oscar Wilde. 

Christopher Herold’s portrayal of Anton’s boyish vanity alternates with a self-conscious indignation, while Deb Fink’s face flashes quickly from a beaming countenance to suspicion and hysteria as Anna comes apart. Norman Gee’s playing is more inverted as Ivan shifts unexpectedly from geniality to menace, both tough and con cop bundled up in one, his agenda less mysterious than obtuse. 

The finale’s a bit abrupt and predictable. But Central Works has brought off another unusual adaptation of a classic theme into contemporary terms, taking hook and schtick from otherwise overworked headlines and trite TV fare and making something out of usually unpromising or academic material that proves to be light, meaningful, and very, very funny.


Books: Czeslaw Milosz: The Poet in His Times

By Phil McArdle, Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 27, 2006

On the day in 1980 when Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) received the Nobel Prize for literature most people in Berkeley had never heard of him. When we went to the bookstores looking for his work, we were disappointed. What little there was sold out before noon. But when the stores restocked and newly published books by him became available, we discovered he was a prolific writer. And one of extraordinary stature.  

Milosz was Polish, a handsome, well-built man who dressed in the dark brown and gray colors favored by Eastern European intellectuals. Six feet tall, he had a face that was ruddy, craggy, and heavily lined. We became used to seeing him walking around Berkeley and, from time to time, at poetry readings. He read translations of his poems—all composed in Polish—in a pleasant, distinctly accented voice. 

He had personal gravitas, moral authority, and a sense of proportion. He described himself as “one of many poets in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of them write in English, but there are also those who write in Spanish, Greek, German, Russian. Even if one has some renown, he is, in his everyday dealings with people, anonymous, and so is, again, one among many.”  

 

Wilno  

Born in the early years of the 20th century, Milosz grew up in Wilno, the once and future capital of Lithuania. His mother was Lithuanian, his father Polish. He regarded both their languages as equally his own. He attended the University of Vilnius in Wilno. He published his first poem in 1929, and his first book, Poem on Frozen Time, four years later.  

He became a member of the Catastrophist movement, a group of young avant garde writers who looked at the future with a real apprehension of doom. Decades later Milosz would have been content to let his poetry from the Catastrophist period disappear, but he was persuaded to reprint a translation of “Artificer” in his Collected Poetry, a poem portraying a monster who “plants a big load of dynamite/and is surprised that afterward everything spouts up in the explosion.” It ends with the image of “a long row of military trains.”  

 

Warsaw  

By 1936 he was in Warsaw working for Polish State Radio, which modeled itself on the BBC. When Germany attacked Poland in 1939, Milosz, an army reservist, was called to active service but got caught up in the maelstrom of the army’s collapse before he could reach the front. In poems and prose written throughout his life he recalled the shock of losing friends in the blitzkrieg and the executions that followed—their sudden disappearances seem to have ached in his mind, the way nerves throb in a body which has not reconciled itself to losing an arm.  

He made his way back to Warsaw and joined a socialist resistance group. (He refused on principle to have anything to do with the right wing Home Army or the Communists.) He found a library job which provided cover for his underground writing, editing and publishing. He translated Jacques Maritain’s On the Roads of Defeat, an important attack on collaborationism. Milosz took satisfaction in the fact that his version of that book was published and circulating in Poland before a clandestine edition appeared in France. He also edited an anti-Nazi anthology, The Invincible Song. If the Germans had caught him, he’d have been shot.  

The war changed Milosz’s conception of poetry, and feelings and perceptions that had been building up in him came to a point one day in 1944. The Home Army had risen in an attempt to expel the Germans from Warsaw, and during the street fighting Milosz found himself pinned down by machinegun fire. In The Captive Mind he described this episode as though it happened to someone else:  

“A man is lying under machine-gun fire on a street in an embattled city. He looks at the pavement and sees a very amusing sight: the cobblestones are standing up-right like the quills of a porcupine. The bullets hitting against their edges displace and tilt them. Such moments in the consciousness of a man judge all poets and philosophers... In intellectuals who lived through the atrocities of war in Eastern Europe there took place what one might call the elimination of emotional luxuries.”  

This change showed in such poems as “A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto,” memorializing the Jewish uprising in 1943, and “Dedication,” addressed to the 200,000 members of the Home Army lost in the tragic battle for Warsaw. It is blunt writing, relying more on assertion than on the kind of showing we expect in poetry. Its effect is more like vodka than sherry—and it sneaks up on you.  

In 1944 he married Janka Dluska (“the central fact of my life story”), and their marriage lasted until her death 42 years later. It might have been much shorter: during the Warsaw uprising they were arrested and confined behind barbed wire for transportation to a concentration camp. A brave Catholic nun talked their jailor into releasing them. They escaped from Warsaw, coming to rest in Krakow.  

 

New York, Washington, and Paris  

After the war Milosz accepted a position in the Polish diplomatic service. He was posted to its New York Consulate in 1946 and promoted to cultural attache in Washington, D.C. As he performed his duties—trying to sell Americans on “the new Poland”—he became increasingly dismayed by what he heard of the Stalinist terror at home. In 1950, he returned to Warsaw for a visit, only to have his passport confiscated (usually a prelude to disappearance in the gulag). Through the secret intervention of an unknown friend, it was returned to him, and he was allowed leave the country.  

In 1951 he broke with the government, obtained asylum in France, and wrote The Captive Mind, a devastating analysis of life under Stalinism. This book put him in the company of Orwell, Koestler, and Camus, and made him a social leper in the artistic circles where formerly he had been most happy. Sartre and Neruda (among others) attacked him in print, and some of his friends were afraid to be seen with him. Worst of all, the publication of his work was prohibited in Poland. Free to publish in the West, he became an underground poet in his native land.  

But he kept writing. His poetry began to change once more, and the metaphysical and religious concerns which had always been part of it came to the fore. This was due in part to the influence of Simone Weil. 

 

Berkeley  

In 1960 Milosz returned to the United States, becoming Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the UC in Berkeley. Here he led a quiet, productive life. A fine appreciation of this phase of Milosz’s career can be found in Twentieth Century Pleasures by Robert Hass, who considers the poetry written by Milosz during this time to be his most characteristic. In fact, he suggests that for someone beginning to read Milosz, the California period is the best place to start.  

The changes worked in Milosz by his life in Berkeley are reflected in A Year of the Hunter, a fascinating journal he kept during 1987-88—a marvelous tapestry of his past and present. When he arrived here, feeling like a perpetual exile, he seems to have been as mistrustful of the place as a feral cat in a new neighborhood. 

A Year of the Hunter shows how Berkeley mellowed him despite the inevitable tribulations of life, and how secure he became:  

“A couple of weeks ago, Carol [his second wife] planted an apple tree. The planting of an apple tree is optimistic ... but the deer went after it and ate half its leaves, just as in the last few days they have eaten all sorts of flowers, pansies, even the spirea and whatever else Carol buys to add to the garden. As I write these notes, a search is under way for means of outsmarting the deer.”  

“Yesterday I gave a poetry reading in Black Oak Bookstore to mark the publication of Collected Poems. It’s difficult to comprehend how four hundred people could have crowded into the bookstore’s two rooms; that’s the delighted owner’s count. I had total control over my audience. I could have read for another half hour. A successful evening, in other words.”  

“The colors of autumn in Berkeley where, not long ago, before the first rains, there was gray and tan; now, the intensive green of the lawn on the hillsides. The rusty gold of the sycamore leaves, the unchanged color of the eucalyptus and the conifers. Splashes of bright cinnabar reds: those are the cotoneaster bushes, covered with red berries.”  

And this naturally overflowed into his poetry:  

 

A day so happy.  

Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.  

Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.  

There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.  

I knew no one worth my envying him.  

Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.  

To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me.  

In my body I felt no pain.  

When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.  

 

 

Even so, Poland was never far from his “severe and relentless mind” (the words are Joseph Brodsky’s). As the power of the regime faltered, his work was read more and more openly, and he became the laureate of Solidarity. The rebels recited his poems and carved them on monuments. After the government fell, he was invited to come home. So, in 1981 he made his first visit to Poland in 30 years. Honors were heaped on him, he read his work to audiences numbering in the thousands, and they hailed him as a hero.  

Milosz began dividing his time between Berkeley and Krakow, where he had acquired another home. But on a visit in 2000 he suffered a stoke which left him too frail to travel. When he died in Krakow in 2004, memorial services were held for him in cities throughout the world. He was 93.


Douglas-Fir Builds and Graces Towns, Creates Splendid Forests

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday June 27, 2006

Joe and I spent a couple of days up in Humboldt County among the really big trees last week. We stayed in a motel on the Avenue of the Giants among the old redwoods, where we could sit on the front porch in the evening and listen to the Mozartian aria of hermit thrush and the haunting, minimalist song of varied thrush, a bird has perfected wabi-sabi.  

The redwood forest is justly celebrated—I’ve done considerable celebrating of it myself—but there’s a companion, a peer of the redwoods who carries the rainforest system farther north, joining with the great true firs and redcedars to complete world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest.  

This companion, Douglas-fir, Pseudotsuga menzieseii, shows up in cultivation, on campuses and big gardens here too. In fact, that’s not unique; I was surprised, many years ago, to notice that great big Douglas-firs were all over Harrisburg, Pa., where I grew up. The difference was that I’d learned to recognize them.  

That’s not hard. Aside from the massive yet airy bearing they have, with their deeply furrowed dark-gray bark and short narrow needles, they have a good trademark in their cones: small, brown, papery, and with a three-pointed tongue poking out from under each scale. There are stories about how Coyote was chasing the mice and they asked Douglas-fir to help them, so Douglas-fir let them hide in those cones but their tails and hind legs didn’t quite fit. One variant has Douglas-fir offering the mice shelter and then snapping them up in the cones.  

Maybe that depends on the tellers’ attitudes toward those big, useful guardian trees that, like redwoods, occasionally spear the forest floor with “widowmakers,” self-pruned branches from way way up that come down hard enough to stab the ground and stand upright like a hurled spear.  

Douglas-fir’s usefulness is evident all around us. Intense logging of the species after World War II was the first step toward the construction boom that followed, especially the residential part of that; it’s called “the tree that built suburbia.” As softwoods go, it’s strong, and it goes into plywood as well as board stock. It’s also a common Christmas tree, especially in the West.  

It hangs onto its needles well. If this makes you laugh, consider how extreme a condition it is to be amputated from most of your vital organs—half of your body, at least—stuck onto a truck, then crucified in a parking lot for a few weeks, and finally dragged into the stifling hotbox of someone’s living room for a few weeks more. And having your remaining self mauled and clamped with wire hangers and hung with twig-distorting ornaments and bound with hot points of light all the while. Then imagine trying not to shed any hair, or sweat, or get so much as flaky dry skin during this ordeal.  

The S-and-M holiday atmosphere goes mostly one way; Douglas-fir has rather non-poky needles, which is a virtue in a tree that’s going to be handled, and makes it easier company in the house too. 

The tree’s at its best, of course, in its native land. Old-growth Douglas-fir, like old-growth redwood, makes a distinctive kind of habitat. It’s preternaturally quiet in some of the old coastal groves, a place fit for Zen Druids to meditate, or for Ents to drowse. Birdcalls—hermit thrush, pileated woodpecker, spotted owl—knife the silence, echo, then dissolve into the treetop fog. Red coralroot orchids, pale irises, white-flowered thimbleberry, and tanoak look up to madrones that would be the giants of any other forest.  

The Doug-firs preside, straight as arrows to the sky or spreading low from the crowns like huge hands, “wolf trees” that got a head start in open spaces before other trees or fires got a chance to shape them. The species itself is far from endangered, but the habitats, the particular cathedrals that grow in its company, are few and scattered these days.  

When I see a Douglas-fir in the city I think of these places, and wonder sometimes if planting emissary trees where so many of us live, here in the paved and stifled parts of Earth, can possibly have the effect I’d like to see, striking a spark of longing for what we hardly know. It’s not far from here. We just have to journey there, and then stop, quiet ourselves, sit and listen to the congress of ancient giants. 


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday June 27, 2006

TUESDAY, JUNE 27 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Course A series of 8 classes at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams, 2nd floor, 4341 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. Free, but registration is required. 531-2665. 

Raging Grannies of the East Bay invites new folks to come join us 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. 

Great Weekend Camping Trips A slide presentation with Matt Heid at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, 3rd floor, UC Campus. To make an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com  

PC Users meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St. near Eunice. 

Stress Less Seminar at 7 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28 

Walkin’ in Pride a 4-mile shoreline walk in Point Pinole at 6:30 p.m. in celebration of LGBT Pride Month. For information call 525-2233. 

Trip to Audobon Canyon Ranch with the El Cerrito Senior Center, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $15, reservations required. 215-4340. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“Ten Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military” presented by Cindy Sheehan, Paul Rockwell, and Aimee Allison at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Bureaucracy vs The Environment: What Should Be Done?” with speakers Michael Shaw, Founder, Liberty Garden, Randy Simmons, Prof. of Political Science, Utah State Univ., Carl Close, Co-editor, Re-Thinking Green at 6:30 p.m. at The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Cost is $10-$15.  

“Alameda County: Present and Future” with Keith Carson, Alameda County Supervisor at 1:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Sponsored by the Berkeley Gray Panthers. 548-9696.  

“The Art of Placemaking: Transit-Oriented Development” A panel discussion on both the challenges and potential of making Transit-Oriented Development successful, at 5:30 p.m. at AIA East Bay, 1405 Clay St., Oakland. Cost is $10-$20, includes dinner. To register call 464-3600. www.aiaeb.org  

Indigenous Permaculture with slides and music and information from El Salvador at 7 p.m. at Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5-$50 sliding scale. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

“McLibel” A documentary about two activists who take on MacDonalds in England, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donations of $5 accepted. 

“Girl, I’ve Been Through A Lot...” Poetry workshop for girls age 13 to 17 at 4 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Room 219, 125 14th St. 238-3134. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss Rabbi Paul at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito. Also organizing meeting to become a Democratic Central Committee Chartered Club. 433-2911. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, 3rd floor, UC Campus. To make an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes. 548-9840. 

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

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

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JUNE 29 

Ecological Sanitation in Haiti, Compost Toilet Project with Sasha Kramer on the work of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Free. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

A UPB Conversation on how we can live with strong ecological values locally with Ernest Callenbach, author of “Ecotopia” and “Ecology: A Pocket Guide,” from 5:30 to 7 p.m. At University Press Books/Berkeley, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Teen Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club with guest speaker Tom Whitmore on “The Other Change of Hobbit” at 4 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 981-6133. 

Free Skin Cancer Screening Clinic at Markstein Cancer Education Center, Summit Campus, Oakland. Free, but appointments required. 869-8833. 

Women’s Initiative “Develop a Business Action Plan” A free seminar for women entrepreneurs from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at 519 17 St. at Telegraph. 415-641-3463. www.womensinitiative.org 

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

FRIDAY, JUNE 30 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

“Integrating the Spiritual Path with Modern Day Lifestyle” with Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche at 7 p.m. followed by all-day workshop on Sat. Held at Berkeley Shambhala Center, 2288 Fulton St. Cost is $25 for the talk and $75 for the workshop. Registration suggested. 701-1681. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 845-1143. 

SATURDAY, JULY 1 

Farm Stories and Songs Listen to songs and stories then meet the animals at 1 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

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. 

Campfire and Sing-a-Long in Tilden. Bring your hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and long sticks, and dress warmly. Meet at the Tilden Nature Center at 5:30 p.m. and we’ll walk uphill to the campfire circle. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

“Solar Electricity For Your Home” Learn how to size, specify and design your own solar electrical generator. A short field trip to a functioning house/system in Berkeley and current catalog of available equipment are also included. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610. 

Sunset Walk in Emeryville with the Solo Sierrans Meet at 5:30 p.m. behind Chevy’s Restaurant at picnic table, for an hour’s walk through the marina. Optional dinner afterwards. Wheel chair accessible. 234-8949. 

Teen Summer Reading Program begins at the Oakland Public Library. Anyone entering 7th to 12th grades can earn prizes when they read for school or pleasure. For information visit any Oakland Public Library branch or see www.oaklandlibrary.org 

Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St.  

Sick Plant Clinic UC plant pathologist Dr. Robert Raabe, UC entomologist Dr. Nick Mills, and their team of experts will diagnose what ails your plants from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755.  

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Origami: Twistfish and Magic Star Learn to fold origami at 2 p.m. at the The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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, JULY 2 

Felting a Fun Hand Puppet Meet our flock of Black Welsh Mountain Sheep and learn how to turn their wool into a felt project from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. For ages 8 and up; children must be accompanied by an adult. Cost is $7-$12. 636-1684. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Summer Sunday Forum: Homelessness with Kecia McMillian at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack van der Meulen on Tibetan Yoga: Contacting Beauty at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JULY 3 

Independence Day Celebration with a cabaret performance by Alan Horan at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

McGee Avenue Toastmasters meets at 7:30 p.m. at McGee Ave Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 

Deeksha and Chanting at 7:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church, 941 The Alameda. Donations accepted. 655-1425. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., June 27, at 7 p.m. and Fri., June 30 at noon, in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., June 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., June 28, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., June 28, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434.  

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., June 28, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., June 28, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed., June 28 , at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

School Board meets Wed. June 28, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Mark Coplan 644-6320.