Al Gore need not advertise his recently released documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, in Berkeley—a group of high school students are doing it for him.  

For more than a week, 35 hand-drawn posters, each promoting the movie, have adorned the site of the late Eddie Bauer store on Shattuck Avenue at Allston Way. 

Rendered in markers on butcher paper and tacked up with layers of tape, the posters urge onlookers to view the critically acclaimed documentary, which features Gore in his crusade against global warming. 

“Hey you. Yeah, you,” one poster says. “Do you care about our future? Watch! An Inconvenient Truth.” An arrow points to a drawing of Earth with the words, “Find out how to save this.” 

None of the posters is signed and no two are the same.  

There are scholarly renditions: “By burning fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and oil, and clearing forests, we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxides in the Earth’s atmosphere, and temperatures are rising,” a text-laden poster says. “I would encourage people to see ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ because I want them to understand it’s time to use the energy saving.” 

There are plugs for alternative transportation: Hybrid cars “can save over 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year,” one poster says, while another, featuring an image of a bicycle, declares, “Ride me and save the world.” 

The doomsday variety features prominently: One poster depicts an underwater world and forebodingly asks, “Where will you be in 50 years?” 

The posters were a project of Matt Fishbach’s advanced biology course at Berkeley High School last semester when students learned about environmental issues, including global warming. 

“It pretty much goes along the precept of ‘think globally, act locally,’” Fishbach said in a phone message. (He was out of town this week and could not be reached for further comment.) 

Berkeley Unified School District public information officer Mark Coplan touted the project as “an outstanding effort by Berkeley young people to do grassroots advertising.”  

The building’s owner, a private bank trust, probably did not sanction the posting of the signs, said John Gordon, of Gordon Commercial Real Estate Services, the property’s broker. 

“My guess is it is not authorized. Banks generally don’t take political viewpoints,” he said Friday.  

Still, the signs remain. They’ve survived wind, sun, destructive passers-by and other wear and tear.  

They’ve had help. Sympathetic observers like Bonnie Hughes have mended the posters when they’ve torn or been swept away. Hughes now traverses Shattuck Avenue with a roll of packing tape in tow and urges others do the same. “I recommend that everyone carry tape with them,” she said.  

An Inconvenient Truth opened in theaters in late May. The film interweaves Gore’s personal history with a crash course in global warming, and has been described by critics as “highly persuasive,” “informative and enlightening” and “for a doomsday lecture … shockingly entertaining.” 

The film sold out the first weekend it opened at California Theatre on Kittredge Street, around the corner from the collection of student posters, and continues to play on two screens, an employee said.

Two conflicting revisions of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) made significant advances last week—the first an ordinance from Mayor Tom Bates and the second an initiative for the November ballot. 

On a 6-2 vote late Thursday night, Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved the mayor’s developer-backed ordinance, which would make major changes in the city’s existing law governing historic properties. 

The next day, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters declared that supporters of a rival, preservationist-backed measure had gathered enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. 

That initiative seeks to preserve the existing law while making minor changes designed to bring it fully into line with state law. 

City Clerk Sherry Kelly said she is preparing a report on the LPO initiative, which will go to the City Council on July 18 or 25. 

“They can either adopt the initiative then or place it on the ballot,” she said. 

Only Lesley Emmington, the LPC’s most uncompromising preservationist, and former Chair Jill Korte voted against the Bates ordinance at Thursday’s LPO meeting. 

Korte had announced her vote early in the meeting, saying she could not vote on a draft she and her fellow commissioners had only received that day. 

The commission’s newest members, realtor and developer Miriam Ng and architect Burton Edwards, voted with the majority. 

Edwards had been appointed to fill the seat vacated by Councilmember Max Anderson’s ouster of Patti Dacey, a Maudelle Shirek appointee and another staunch preservationist who had repeatedly slammed the Bates proposal. Ng was appointed by Darryl Moore to fill a seat which had been vacant for months.  

The mayor’s measure will go to the City Council for a first hearing and vote July 11, with a solid majority likely to approve, if previous discussions are any guideline. 

That measure, created by Bates and City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, includes a key provision critics say will make it easier for developers to level potential landmarks—the so-called Request for Determination (RFD.) 

That section allows developers and property owners to force the LPC to rule on whether or not a site qualifies as a landmark, based on a report prepared by a private consultant selected from a list approved by the commission. 

If the LPC passes on the property, developers are given a two-year “safe harbor” during which any attempt to landmark the property is barred. References to a five-year span in the previous draft had been removed by city staff, said Planning Director Dan Marks. 

Developers sought changes in the existing law, which had been used to delay their projects, sometimes fatally. 

Confronted with neighborhood-changing projects, activists have filed petitions to initiate the landmarking process for structures that would be demolished to make way for the developments. 

But in recent instances when the LPC has approved the landmarks, the decisions were overruled by a City Council that has grown increasingly impatient with the use of preservation law to block development. 

The particular bane of developers has been the structure of merit, a category that extends the protections to historic structures that been altered to an extent greater than those which are granted the “landmark” designation. Confusingly, both classes are landmarks in the sense of legal protections. 

The original draft of the Bates-Capitelli ordinance eliminated the category except with historic districts, which drew praise from developers and Rena Rickles, an Oakland attorney who frequently represents them before the city. 

Korte objected to the name given the process in the draft before the commission Thursday, and her colleagues agreed the older name was a more accurate description of the process. 

“I really don’t think an Assessment of Historic Significance is the outcome here,” she said. “It is really an opportunity for the LPC to review and initiate, and it is not an Assessment of Historic Significance.” 

The process sets up two roughly parallel tracks for looking at potentially historic properties—the initiation of the landmarks process and the RFD. 

But an RFD—unless acted on by the LPC—blocks the public from filing a landmark application for the two-year period, a move that would have block the public landmark application that stalled a condominium conversion project at 2901 Otis St. 

Developers had filed for a use permit to turn the Victorian cottage into a three-story popup with a condo on each floor. Neighbors who learned of the project were able to convince the LPC top declare the building a structure of merit. 

By the time the City Council overturned the designation, the developers had called off their project and later sold the building to a neighbor who wanted to preserve the existing structure. 

The house “was a cornerstone to its neighborhood,” Roger Marquis told the LPC Thursday. “I don’t think it would’ve been save under the revision you guys are looking at.” 

Marquis is one of the two principal sponsors of the LPC initiative voters will decide on in November. Also present Thursday was the measure’s second principal proponent, Laurie Bright. 

“We are seeing a full court press by developers,” Bright said. 

Most of the audience was composed of opponents of the mayor’s revisions. Alan Tobey of Livable Berkeley was the principal supporter. Also present were Calvin Fong, an aide to the mayor, and Deputy City Attorney Zac Cowan. 

City Planner Marks found himself repeatedly at loggerheads with Emmington, who frequently interposed objections and questions as he guided the commission through the latest draft. 

When it came time for a vote, Steven Winkel made the motion, with a second from Burton Edwards. Carrie Olson, who worked closely with the mayor in trying to find a compromise the LPC could live with, added an amendment directing the commission to take another look at the ordinance in a year and perform any necessary tweaking. 

“I’m going to vote no,” said Korte. “I just got the draft tonight, and if each of us is honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we really don’t know what we’re voting on.” 

The next move is up to the City Council, and, after them, the voters in November.

Critics of the city’s handling of proposed development at the Ashby BART station have launched an effort to start their own planning process. 

The South Berkeley Community Visioning Project has filed for a $60,000 grant from the UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund. 

Meanwhile, the City Council allocated $40,000 for its own planning process when it adopted the 2006-2007 budget Tuesday night. Winners of the UC Berkeley grants won’t be announced until August. 

The chancellor’s fund, which will disperse $200,000 this year, was set up under terms of the settlement of a city lawsuit filed against the university’s Long Range Development Plan for the years through 2020. 

The lead organization for the grant application is the Long Range Education, Empowerment and Action Project—LEAP, headed by Kenoli Oleari, one of the leading critics of the Ashby BART Task Force. 

The task force was selected by the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation (SBNDC), designated by the city as the lead agent in the preliminary planning of a mixed-use housing project to be built over the BART station’s main parking lot between Adeline Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

That process was contingent on a $120,000 grant from the California Department of Transportation, which was denied by the agency in late May. 

The task force has continued to meet, despite initial and subsequently withdrawn objections from its principal sponsors, Mayor Tom Bates and City Councilmember Max Anderson. 

Bates said Thursday that he hopes an expanded planning process will look at the entire Adeline Street corridor. 

“The money will go to the city manager to come back with ideas, ways to set up a process, “ Bates said. “Max will also come back with policy guidance for the council to consider.” 

Asked if the existing task force would be involved, the mayor said “The council did ask the SBNDC to come up with a task force, but I don’t know what Max will ask for.” 

Oleari and other critics charged that the task force was selected through a secret process, with no set number of members nor qualifications for membership spelled out in advance.  

“People don’t want a process run by some guy they don’t know and who doesn’t even smile,” Oleari said, referring to Ed Church, the professional consultant working with SBNDC. 

The initial task force public meetings were raucous affairs, frequently interrupted by shouts and, on one occasion, a chant. 

“The next time we hold a meeting, I think I’ll ask a mental health expert to come along,” said Bates. 

Two city officials serve on the nine-member board of the Chancellor’s fund, Jim Hynes, an assistant city manager, and Julie Sinai, senior aide to Mayor Bates. 

The mayor said he won’t be making any suggestions about the grants, either pro or con. “Whatever comes out of the process is fine,” he said, adding that requests for $900,000 in grants had been received, more than four times the available funds.  

Other non-university members include Berkeley Alliance Executive Director Tracey Schear (an organization which is chaired by Sinai), Chamber of Commerce board Chair Carolyn Henry-Godolphin and Pastor Rodney Yee, chair of Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. 

UCB members include Associate Chancellor John Cummins, Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor Marthinsen, Community Relations Director Irene Hegarty, and Heather Hood, director of the Institute of Urban & Regional Development’s Center for Community Innovation. 

Grants from the Chancellor’s fund require participants from the university, and the South Berkeley Community Visioning Project has two: Dr. Alan Steinbach of the School of Health’s Joint Medical Program-Community Health and Development Program and Susan A Shaheen, of the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH), which is based at the university. 

Other participants in the community group are Tony Hill of the Prince Street Group, Ozzie Vincent of the South Berkeley Crime Prevention Council, Martin Vargas of United We Stand and Deliver, Laura Menard of the ROC Neighborhood Association, Don Link of the Shattuck Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council, and Sam Dyke of People’s Bazaar, an Adeline Street merchant. 

Oleari is a professional community facilitator who has worked on projects across the globe. In the Bay Area, he is currently working with a community organization in Bayview/Hunter’s Point. 

He also worked with the Novato school system, starting with a series of racial incidents at San Marin High School a decade ago. One result of that process is the district’s Equity Action Plan, which his been used in instances of homophobic outbreaks ands other diversity issues, Oleari said. 

Oleari said that the group’s first task would be to organize a group of community members who will be charged with reaching out to make certain that a broader range of community members and views are involved before the planning process begins. 

The entire process, from initial organizing to concrete proposals, could take as little as a year, he said. “Of course having a pot of money would help,” he said. 

Many who support Oleari’s efforts were organized through Neighbors of Ashby BART, and its web site, the creation of local land use activist Robert Lauriston, a supporter of Oleari’s grant application. 

Another supporter is Osha Neumann, the activist attorney and Ashby BART neighbor who represents Community Services United, the coalition of nonprofits that administers the Berkeley Flea Market held at the at the BART parking lot on weekends. 

Another supporter is Ashley Berkowitz, a director and founder of EPIC Arts. 

Oleari’s group has a web site, Imagine South Berkeley, at southberkeley.longrange.org.

In Berkeley, it seems most everyone wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stop global warming, but few want to stop driving, eating refrigerated food, reading by electric lights and watching TV. 

Which is why the City Council wants to engage the community in a process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, created mostly by burning fossil fuel, by putting the Berkeley Climate Protection Measure on the November ballot. 

The council approved the measure by unanimous vote last month—despite comments by Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring who would have preferred stronger language—to name 2007 as Stop Global Warming Year, “support aggressive efforts to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions,” and create a community process to meet a goal of reducing community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

The council will vote on final language before the summer recess that begins at the end of the month. 

Cisco DeVries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates, said the simple act of voting for the measure will make Berkeleyans more conscious of their personal responsibility to combat global warning. 

“It gets people to make a public commitment,” said DeVries, who helped craft the referendum. 

If approved, the measure will also give the green light to the city to write forceful policy to attack the problem, he said. For example, the city could raise the RECO (Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance) standards that mandate energy-saving measures, DeVries said, underscoring that this is an example of what the city could do and not contained in the ballot measure. 

“There is little time to save the planet,” DeVries said. 

Environmentalist and East Bay Regional Parks Board Member Nancy Skinner, who also helped put together the measure, points to the importance of its “community process.” 

While the ballot language does not spell out what that process will be, it could mean setting up a task force of limited duration—this would be less costly than creating a new commission—or combining several commissions to work on the issue, she said.  

Skinner points to Seattle where the mayor created a “green-ribbon task force,” combining the efforts of the city, residents and businesses. One result was that key businesses, such as Seattle-based REI (Recreation Equipment, Inc.) set internal goals for reducing emissions. 

Worthington said he intends to try to strengthen the measure when it comes back to the council on July 12 or July 19. He said he would like to see it include a way to broker financing for solar energy and also include making the city’s fleet of vehicles run on biodiesel.  

Many city vehicles had run on biodiesal until January 2004. The program was halted when bacteria mold from the biodiesel fuel was found to have clogged engine filters and fuel injection. 

Worthington said the problems encountered have been fixed and that he hopes through this measure the city will “recommit to a better version of biodiesel.” 

Worthington noted, however, that the present version of the ballot measure was much improved over previous ones that lacked the specific goal of emission reduction of 80 percent by 2050. “It gives it a bit of substance, something to work toward,” he said. 

Despite opposition by those who believe lockers for the homeless are a nuisance, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) opened its new locker service for the homeless on Friday. 

“It’s important because people need to have a safe, secure place to store their belongings,” said Robert Long, program coordinator for the BOSS-run Multi-Service Agency Center at the Center Street Veterans Building, where the lockers were installed. 

Three years ago, when fees were raised for lockers the city was renting for the homeless at the Shattuck Self Storage at Shattuck Avenue and Ward Street, the city put the program on hold and began to look for an agency that would sponsor the program. 

“Finally, we decided to give it a try,” Long said. 

Long, who has worked with BOSS for more than 30 years, said he understands the issues. The Shattuck Avenue locker program was plagued by people storing drugs, alcohol and weapons. 

“People were assigned a locker and others were using it,” he said. 

Options Recovery Services shares the Veterans Building with the Multi-Service Agency shelter. Options Executive and Medical Director Dr. Davida Coady says she has worked hard to keep the space drug-and-alcohol free for her clients, many of whom are just beginning the road to sobriety.  

“I feel the money should be spent for solutions to homelessness, rather than making homelessness more comfortable,” she said. “I don’t feel people are choosing to remain homeless.” 

The city allocated about $45,000 annually for staffing and $20,000 for the lockers. 

Long said he plans to address the problems. The program BOSS is calling Lockers to Housing will be part of the continuum of services, designed to house homeless persons. Each person who gets a locker also gets mandatory case-management services. In order to keep the locker, the individual must meet at least monthly with the caseworker. 

“People will have to have a plan for permanent housing; that is part of their growth,” Long said. 

There are a total of 60 lockers, each about the size of a school locker. They will be distributed over time in batches of 20 and will be available only during working hours. 

“We’ll have the right to open the lockers,” Long said. 

Coady said she hopes Options’ protests and concerns were heard by those running the new program. “The police will help us, too,” she said.

After 15 years as lead administrator for Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School (BAM), longtime educator Lorna Skantze-Niell has retired. 

Skantze-Niell, 64, a Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) employee for 40 years, took leave of her position June 30. The district has selected King Middle School teacher Kristin Collins to serve as her replacement.  

Skantze-Niell counts developing the school’s arts curriculum, improving student literacy and honing in on professional development among her successes at BAM. 

She got her start in the Berkeley Unified School District as a student teacher trainer in 1966, before landing her first administration position as a summer school principal for Columbus Elementary School (now Rosa Parks) in 1984. After a short stint as vice principal at Columbus, she moved up to head administrator, a position she held for six years.  

In 1991, she moved on to Berkeley Arts Magnet, a 363-student K-6 elementary school focusing on arts education, where students receive training in each of the major art forms.  

Skantze-Niell earned undergraduate and graduate degrees, in addition to educator credentials, from San Francisco State University. 

She retires from school administration to care for her husband, who fell ill with multiple myeloma last year. She plans to pursue hobbies like knitting, calligraphy and training her new puppy—all those activities for which she had little time when she was working 12- to 15-hour days, she said.  

Collins, who has taught English and history at King for 15 years, takes the reins as chief BAM administrator this fall. 

“I love teaching, but throughout my teaching career, I’ve been involved in teacher leadership roles and I have a business background and this seems like a point in my career to combine those experiences in my life,” she said. 

Collins, 52, a graduate of Georgetown University, worked in the shipping industry for 14 years before securing a teaching position at King. 

She has served as a representative to the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project’s Planning and Oversight Committee, which oversees school parcel tax funds, and recently co-chaired Friends of BUSD Libraries. 

She considers school libraries a central professional interest: 

“I’ve been a really strong school library advocate,” she said. “That’s one of my passions because it’s directly related to student achievement.” 

Collins has also worked as a teacher researcher for the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project. She received teaching and administrator credentials from CSU East Bay. Her two children attend Berkeley schools. 

“I’m very excited,” she said of her new position at Berkeley Arts Magnet. “I’m very much looking forward to it.”

Out of the 124 workers projected to be eliminated at the Alameda County Medical Center in the $419 million budget approved this week by trustees, Service Employees International Union Local 616 representative Brad Cleveland estimates that some 90 positions belong to SEIU bargaining units  

Those 90 positions are divided between 616, which represents 1,300 registered nurses, hospital clerical staff, and allied health care professionals at the medical center, and the United Health Care Workers. 

Calling it the easiest budget deliberations in years, elated trustees unanimously accepted a budget submitted by ACMC CEO Wright Lassiter that included a $3.8 million operating deficit but did not include $8 million in set-aside monies earlier approved by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors at the request of Supervisors Board President Keith Carson. 

Lassiter said that the $8 million set-aside money was specifically not intended to close the medical center’s budget gap, and was set up on a request-as-you-go basis for which request guidelines had not yet been established. 

Lassiter’s $3.8 million submitted deficit had been whittled down by a million dollars from the $4.8 million deficit he had been predicting only a week ago. 

Lassiter told trustees the deficit reduction had come from one million dollars in “non-labor expenses,” which had been identified by center management officials and taken out of the budget. 

Writing in his budget message, “I am confident … that ACMC can achieve break-even or better operating performance during the upcoming fiscal year,” Lassiter included between $3.1 million and $5.9 million in projected supplemental revenue or cost savings that could bring the budget into balance by the end of the year.  

Among those projected dollars are between $1 million and $2 million extra in Measure A tax revenue (Measure A revenue has been consistently running above expectations), and the elimination of $400,000 in the operating loss coming from the medical center’s clinic at the Alameda County Juvenile Detention Center. 

Lassiter has said that if the medical center cannot renegotiate its contract with Alameda County so that the center is fully paid for the cost of its operation of the detention center clinic, the medical center will cease operation of the clinic in January. 

“So one way or the other,” Lassiter said, “the operating loss will be eliminated.” 

Because the medical center, by state law, could not approve an unbalanced budget, on the motion of trustee board finance chair Stanley M. Schiffman trustees made up the $3.8 million deficit on paper by eliminating the $400,000 projected detention center clinic loss and adding $1.7 million in revenue apiece from Measure A funds and additional MediCal supplemental revenue. 

Lassiter said that because the Measure A and MediCal money was not under the medical center’s control, he would monitor its collection “on a month-to-month basis” and report back to the board if further budget adjustments are needed.

With construction winding up on the $65 million Berkeley City College new facility and with $519 million in voter-approved facilities bond money in its pocket, the Peralta Community College District moved quickly last week to plan for its next round of facilities maintenance and construction action. 

Students, faculty, and administrators are scheduled to move into the new Center Street campus of Berkeley City (formerly Vista) College in time for the fall semester. 

Meanwhile, the district is also expecting to complete this year construction of a $14.3 million Art Building on the Laney College campus to replace the old art annex which had to be vacated because the property was needed by Caltrans to help build a new I-880 on-ramp. 

The Laney Art Building was paid for largely by Caltrans, and the BCC facility was financed for the most part through Peralta’s $153 million construction bond Measure E passed by voters in 2000. 

A portion of the Measure E money remains unspent. 

At last week’s district meeting, trustees approved a new five-year construction plan that committed $137.8 million of the $519 Measure A Peralta facilities bond money approved by local voters in last month’s election. 

Peralta officials said they have listed another five years of Measure A projects, but projects scheduled for completion in 2013 and beyond were not released at last week’s trustees’ meeting. 

Measure A bond projects differ significantly from those that came under Measure E. Under the 2000 construction bond measure, specific construction projects were not listed in the bond language, and the district could use the money for any qualified school construction project. 

Over the past year, this led to some discontent among Peralta trustees who complained that they were sometimes asked by district administration officials to approve new bond projects without letting trustees know what remaining, unfinished projects their action might knock off the waiting list. 

By contrast, Measure A was passed under the authority of Proposition 39, which required that projects using the bond money be limited to those projects listed in the ballot language and approved by voters. 

In addition, Proposition 39 requires districts to set up a citizens oversight committee to monitor the spending of the bond money. 

At last week’s meeting, trustees approved by-laws for the Measure A bond committee, calling for a seven-member committee made up of one representative apiece of local business, senior citizens, and taxpayers organizations, one enrolled student, one individual active in an organization supporting the community college district, and two members selected at-large. 

All of the oversight members will be recommended by the chancellor and approved by the trustees. 

Unlike the Berkeley Unified School District Measure B committee, the Peralta Measure A committee will not recommend projects on which to spend the bond money, but will be limited to reviewing actions approved or taken by the district trustees or administration. 

The district did not release a timetable for soliciting members to the oversight committee or for the committee’s formation. 

Meanwhile, with Berkeley City College having eaten up the lion’s share of recent Peralta bond money, BCC had no projects listed under the five-year construction plan, while the remaining three district colleges—College of Alameda, Laney and Merritt—listed roughly $50 million apiece in projects. 

Laney College has scheduled renovation of its Student Services Building and Multi-Purpose Room for 2007 and 2008, and is set to complete a modernization of its theater and an $18.4 million modernization of its library in 2011. 

Merritt has scheduled renovations of three buildings in 2007 and 2008, renovation of a fourth building in 2011, and construction of a Child Development Center in 2012. 

The College of Alameda has scheduled renovation of its Student Services Building in 2007 and modernization of three buildings, including the campus library, for completion in 2011. 

A 22-year-old Hayward man died late Friday night after he was gunned down in the parking lot of an apartment building in the 1100 block of 62nd Street. 

The site is just south of the Berkeley/Oakland border and a block from Emeryville. 

Oakland Police Department spokesperson Officer Roland Holmgren said Angelo Lewis was struck by multiple bullets just before 11:33 p.m. 

By the time police arrived at the scene, a woman was rushing Lewis to Kaiser Hospital in a car. 

Police followed, and less than 20 minutes after they arrived at the hospital, Lewis was pronounced dead of his injuries. 

Few details of the crime were available Monday. 

While early weekend news reports said three young men had been arrested for the murder after officers spotted and chased down a car matching the description of a vehicle seen leaving the scene of the shooting, Officer Holmgren said they were not charged with the death. 

“Two of them were arrested for unrelated crimes,” said Holmgren. 

He was unable to provide any description of a suspect in the shooting, and asked anyone with any possible information about the crime to call detectives at 238-3821. 

Signs of the crime were very much in evidence at the scene Monday. 

A makeshift memorial, complete with empty liquor bottles and candles, had been created at the base of the wall of one of the apartments in the two-building complex at 1126-30 62nd St. 

Above them were taped two sheets of poster board and a large, heart-shaped mylar balloon, adorned with “I Love You.” 

The poster board had been filled with tributes, as well as a photo of the slain man alongside a young woman. 

Taped to one of the posters was a lament penned on a sheet of notebook paper adorned with a single red rose. It read: 

Why is my friend gone? 

I don’t know 

How did my friend Die? 

He was Shot. Gun down like a dog in the Streets. 

But he was no dog. 

He was a rose growing in the concreet jungul. 

Peace I heard him say moments befor he was Killed. 

Did God hear his call for peace. I Think so, I did. 

Do you want Peace? I Do 

I pray for you, hope you make it home tonight. 

Peace My Brothers. 

A few feet away was a utility panel, scrawled with gang graffiti. “Fuck B-Town,” declared one, referring to youths of the city just across the border to the north. 

In the parking lot along the 62nd Street side of the complex, yellow chalk circles marked the sites where police had noted evidence, and the young man’s blood was still plainly visible Monday afternoon. 

The crime scene is a half-block south of San Pablo, and the site of the Maynard Academy just across the thoroughfare. 

Two blocks to the north on San Pablo, a small forest of wooden crosses flanks a larger concrete cross in front of St. Columba Catholic Church. 

Each of the smaller crosses bears a first name and a date. A larger sign fixed to the concrete cross declares, “These crosses represent those killed by homicide in Oakland this year.” 

There isn’t a cross yet for Anthony Lewis.

Three men were arrested and 152 marijuana plants seized when a major growing operation was discovered in a remote section of the Berkeley hills. 

A UC Berkeley patrol discovered the growing operation early last week, and a subsequent stakeout led to the arrest of one man Wednesday, which in turn led to the arrests of two others. 

The growing operation was located on rugged terrain several hundred yards west of the Claremont Avenue/Grizzly Peak Boulevard intersection, said UCB Police Lt. Doug Wing. 

“We have patrols in the hills during the summer,” said Lt. Wing. “One of them found it.” 

The plants were too young to harvest yet, he said. 

“The suspects all gave the same name at first,” said the officer, though eventually they were able to determine that the men were Jose Diaz-Mendez, 45, Jose Diaz-Nieto, 27 and Jose Diaz III. 

All are Mexican nationals, and Diaz-Mendez has been identified as the father of the other two. 

The trio was taken to the Berkeley city lockup and booked on suspicion of felony marijuana cultivation. 

Asked for further details about the growing operation, Lt. Wing declined to comment beyond stating that the case is still under active investigation.

An Oakland man was critically injured in an I-580 car crash as he tried to evade a gunman firing at his car from a Richmond freeway overpass minutes before midnight Sunday. 

Darrell Gospel, 22, was behind the wheel of a 1989 Buick Regal driving eastbound when his wife, Magdalena, also 22, saw a figure standing on the Regatta Boulevard overcrossing, said Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan. 

Accompanying them was their 11-month-old child. 

When the man began firing, Gospel lost control of his car as he tried to evade the bullets, striking a large commercial truck. 

“He rolled three times and was critically injured when his arm was crushed,” said Gagan “He was airlifted to a trauma center.” 

Gospel’s spouse and child were not hurt, Gagan said. While their car was struck by several bullets, none of the rounds struck an occupant—despite an account published in a local wire service. 

Both Richmond police and the California Highway Patrol responded to the crime scene when they were notified of the shooting moments later, and were unable to identify a suspect—though shell casings were recovered form the overpass. 

“Because of the volume of traffic at the time and the distance involved, we don’t believe these victims were specifically targeted,” Gagan said. 

The officer said he didn’t know if any other vehicles had been shot at, though no other reports had been received. 

Gagan declined to release the nature of the weapon used in the shooting. 

The lieutenant asked anyone with any possible information about the crime to call the Richmond Police Detective Division at 629-6160. 

Gospel remained in critical condition Monday following surgery to repair his arm, which had been nearly severed in the rollover.

Shoplift to robbery 

What began as the simple shoplifting of a bottle of hooch from the Safeway store at Shattuck Avenue and Rose Street turned into an armed robbery on the afternoon of June 20 when a store clerk confronted the booster in the store’s doorway. 

At that moment the shoplifter, a fellow with long, braided hair, revealed the butt of the gun stuck into his waistband, transforming a misdemeanor into a felony. “Go ahead,” said the clerk. 

The bandit rendezvoused with another fellow outside and the pair departed, according to Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

Coldstone creamed 

A masked gunman burst into Coldstone Creamery in the 2200 block of Shattuck Avenue about 10:20 p.m. on June 20, flashed a shiny silver pistol and demanded the contents of the cash register and the safe. 

Store clerks complied, and the bandit fled with hard, cold cash. 

Brick banditry 

Three teens, one wielding a brick, robbed a 40-year-old Berkeley woman of her wallet when they confronted her on Allston Way near the corner of  

Roosevelt Street shortly after midnight on June 22.  

Rape alleged 

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office is examining allegations filed by a Berkeley woman who told police investigators that she was sexually assaulted by a long-time acquaintance on June 23. The woman said the latest incident was the latest in a series of similar assaults. 

Rat pack attack 

A gang of five young males on bicycles assaulted a 28-year-old Berkeley man and stole his wallet and keys near the corner of Adeline and Essex streets just after 2 a.m. June 25, reports Officer Galvan. 

Moustachioed gunman 

A gunman packing a pistol robbed a 24-year-old woman of her wallet, cell phone and car keys in the 2100 block of Grant Street at 1 a.m. June 26. 

Tully’s robbed 

A diminutive woman armed with a pistol walked into Tully’s coffee shop in the 2100 block of Shattuck Avenue on June 26, collected three blue bags of currency and receipts and departed. 

Wrestles robber 

Confronted with a a bandit in the 1300 block of Delaware Street who demanded her wallet and cell phone, a 30-year-old Berkeley woman wrestled with the bandit in an attempt to save her belongings during the 2:30 a.m. heist June 27. 

The bewildered bandit cried out for help and was saved from his victim by an accomplice. The pair departed with the woman’s valuables, including a small amount of cash, said Officer  

Galvan

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.”

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.” 

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

OK, the basics on the flap: the New York Times discovered that the administration has been trying to figure out how suspected terrorists move their money around, running something called the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. The title may be just wishful thinking, but the fact is that government snoops have been looking into all kinds of banking transactions, which might include yours and mine, in their attempt to find something fishy. After a reasonable amount of checking facts followed by a large dose of introspection, the Times printed the story. Whammo! The Republicans in Congress, egged on by the right flank of the Blogsville flamers, came down on them like a ton of bricks. On Thursday the House passed a resolution condemning news organizations for outing the program because it had “placed the lives of Americans in danger.” The vote was 227-183, along party lines for the most part. Some Republicans started hollering treason. Clearly, as Nancy Pelosi charged, the Repugs are trying to turn this one into a campaign issue. 

What is a bit more surprising is that the relatively sober Wall Street Journal joined the chorus on its editorial page, in fact all over its editorial page. An unsigned and almost unreadable full-page editorial essay lambasted the Times for running such a story “in wartime.” Granted, the editorial page of the WSJ is famously silly, just as famous for being clueless as its news pages are respected for being incisive and intelligent. One casualty of this tale is the reputation of Journal reporter Glenn Simpson, who was working on the same story that the Times broke, but who was burdened with an embargoed government disclosure of selected facts about the program which represented administration attempts to spin the Times version. The Journal’s editorial patted itself on the back for dutifully withholding publication until the powers-that-be came up with the official story and gave the go-ahead for its publication.  

The next chapter of the tale was on Saturday, when Dean Baquet, editor of the Los Angeles Times, and Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, published a joint editorial (unusual and perhaps unprecedented) explaining that their papers (the L.A. Times also carried the story) really were responsible corporate citizens who knew when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em when national security was on the line. The New York paper, which had previously taken heat from the left for holding back a story about government surveillance of phone systems for almost a year, clearly thinks it’s found the golden mean for such situations. 

The corporate press unfortunately more often chooses to go along to get along—to embargo stories that might annoy someone until a convenient time, and not just on heavy-duty matters of national security. Here at our little paper we are sometimes amazed at the stories we print that other papers must be deliberately holding back.  

A couple of summers ago our reporter Richard Brenneman found out that developer Jim Levine, with the assistance of a passel of folks inside and outside government, was planning a big casino development at Point Molate. Levine asked him to hold the story until a future date, but he (and the paper) declined to wait, and the story came out early. Not a word of it appeared in other papers in the area, however, until the appointed date for Levine’s announcement, though their reporters had every chance to find out what was in the works, by reading the Planet among other ways. Recently our reporter J. Douglas Allen-Taylor got wind of plans to sell off buildings belonging to the Oakland school district, which he documented in these pages. Other media waited for the official announcement, and then simply reported what was in the official press release, even though by that time outraged critics had become vocal and easily found.  

So why are we all gathered here together today talking about this? Well, a friend, an experienced journalist, strongly suggested that the Berkeley Daily Planet ought to take a stand on the side of the press’s responsibility to tell the truth in a timely way when something the public needs to know comes to light. His plea was made even weightier by his suggestion that after all, this is the Fourth of July issue. He’s a naturalized citizen, which is possibly why he takes the idea that a free and independent press is a cornerstone of true patriotism more seriously than many who are currently holding down corporate editorial jobs. It might sound like a corny, old-fashioned notion, but we’re sticking with it. 

The good news is that suggestions by Dick Cheney and New York congressman Peter King that journalists should be jailed for publishing the story has already goaded papers all over the country into responding. “Beating the Press Hurts Democracy” is the headline on a Madison, Wisconsin, State Journal editorial, and similar sentiments can be found on the Internet from places as diverse as Enid, Oklahoma, and Augusta, Georgia. The smug, deferential Wall Street Journal editorial has gotten its share of criticism in the process. 

The bad news is that even when the press blows the trumpet like Joshua in the biblical Battle of Jericho, most of the time the walls don’t “come tumbling down,” as they did in the Bible story. We’ve had a year or more of revelation upon revelation on the national scene, but atrocity continues to be piled upon atrocity. Last month’s story about U.S. military personnel gratuitously killing unarmed villagers is followed by yesterday’s story of U.S. soldiers raping an Iraqi girl and slaughtering her whole family to cover it up. Every week brings a new tale of a different shadowy sinister person within the Bush administration who is determined to destroy cherished American freedoms—this week’s New Yorker has a chilling profile of some guy named Addison in Cheney’s office who is single-handedly re-inventing the imperial presidency or perhaps has re-discovered fascism itself. 

But how we as citizens can take the process from exposure of government misdeeds to stopping them is a whole new topic which must be for another day. Today, Independence Day, we should just take the time, between the barbecues and the fireworks, to appreciate the fact that we’ve still got a relatively free press which can help out with the job if it continues to do its own job as it should. 

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. 

TAKING THE LEAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I welcome the news that the Berkeley City Council has again taken the lead in addressing current situations of injustice by voting to impeach the president. It did so by calling for an end to our involvement in Vietnam and later by calling for a boycott of South Africa because of apartheid. In both those cases it was the beginning of the turning point in American public opinion, which ultimately led to the proper resolution of the unjust situations. Let us hope this most recent step is as successful. 

Connie de la Vega 

Oakland 

• 

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I applaud the Berkeley Public Library Board of Trustees for removing Ms. Griffith from her post as library director, and hope this same board will fully realize that they had a part to play in this directorial disaster, and should formally apologize to the staff and patrons of the library for their mismanaged mess. This would instill some much needed confidence by all concerned, and show all that in Berkeley there is still some decency left in those that direct to those they serve—that there are consequences for mistakes, and can begin to rebuild with a better footing for all in the years to come...with an apology.  

Mark Bayless 

• 

CLEAN MONEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While City Councilmembers who voted against adopting “clean money” public financing (“Council Rejects ‘Clean Money’ Measure,” June 30) may believe it an unnecessary expense in Berkeley, where all politicians are as pure as new fallen snow, this is not the case statewide and nationally, where entrenched “pay to play” politics gets us into wars and channels hundreds of billions of dollars to special interests and away from the public good. Let’s hope they come to their senses this fall, and support the public financing measure on the November ballot for statewide offices. It will cost us about the same as the Berkeley measure ($5 per voter), and, if passed, the pay to players who have fed at the public trough for so long will find themselves beggars at the door.  

Tom Miller 

• 

ANTI-BUSINESS BRONSTEIN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I can’t sit back and let Zelda Bronstein, perhaps the most unfriendly person to business in the city, run down the city and the mayor and not place her comments in perspective. One look at Bronstein’s actions demonstrate her true beliefs. She is anti-business. She does not listen to the neighborhoods but rather tries to impose her personal views on neighborhoods. 

Zelda Bronstein was the Planning Commission chair for two years. During her term she brought no business-supportive issues to the Planning Commission.  

After leaving the Planning Commission, Bronstein promptly began leading the opposition to the West Berkeley Bowl, holding up the project for nearly a year and almost killing it with delays. She ignored the strong collective voices of West Berkeley residents (Bronstein lives in North Berkeley) who repeatedly requested and deserve a full-service market with reasonably priced fresh organic fruits and vegetables.  

Further proof of Bronstein’s deafness to the real desires of a neighborhood was her opposition to La Farine Bakery on Solano Avenue. As head of her local neighborhood association (TONA) at the time, she manipulated TONA into opposing La Farine’s effort to have outdoor seating or, in fact having any seating at all. TONA finally held a truly open meeting, reversed the position she had been representing as the neighborhood’s position, and voted in support of the La Farine’s seating. If Bronstein had her way, the bakery wouldn’t be the neighborhood asset that it is today. 

Bronstein’s actions on the Planning Commission and since her departure belie her words. Her actions speak louder. 

Harry Pollack  

• 

SHE DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mayoral Candidate Zelda Bronstein was shocked (but not surprised) that Mayor Bates told the New York Times “it was a shock” that Cody’s Books was closing (Daily Planet, June 30). Apparently Zelda Bronstein is the only person in Berkeley who wasn’t greatly shocked and greatly saddened that Cody’s is closing. In her defense, it should be noted that she also wasn’t shocked by Sept. 11, or even by the assassination of John Kennedy way back when. That’s what we need around here, a mayor who can see it all coming, and just takes it all in stride. Unruffleable.  

Anyway, she then goes on for over 34 inches of steel-cold typeface saying why it’s all Tom Bates’ fault, not only for that, but for everything else as well. Everything. She goes on and on and on about all of the things that she would do if only she were mayor . . . just about all of which the mayor does not have the power to do. Clearly, her warped perception of the Great Evil that Tom Bates has wrought, and the Great Good that she would accomplish, bespeaks a marked lack of understanding and good judgment at best. Proving yet again, that it is difficult to make much political hay out of a load, even a very large load, of horse manure.  

The simple tragic fact is that independents are going out of business in droves all over the country, unable to compete with mega-chains and the Internet. Sadly, A Clean Well Lighted For Books on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco has just announced that it is closing its doors due to lack of sales. Spiffy, bustling Van Ness—no hordes of drug dealers, no boarded up stores, no urban blight, and no Tom Bates. I really would have had more respect for Bronstein’s political agenda if it consisted merely of politely asking everyone to go out and buy a few books at Black Oak or Pegasus. That I could support. Absent that, I fear that the lady doth protest way too much. In fact, I am shocked!  

Ken Stein 

• 

SLOPPY PLANET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor writes that Ignacio De La Fuente, Jr. was arresting for “raping” Fruitvale area prostitutes. 

Shouldn’t “allegedly” be put in front of “raping”? This is sloppy writing and sloppy editing. 

Michael Hardesty 

Oakland 

• 

MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In two articles in the June 27 edition of the Daily Planet, Richard Brenneman makes numerous mentions of the area median income. You talk about people earning 120 percent of it, less than half of it, up to 81 percent of it—but never tell us what that figure is. Could you please let me know? It would clarify my understanding of the issues involved. 

Also, in May 19 edition of the Daily Planet, this headline caught my eye: “Markos Speaks: Berkeley Blogger’s Daily Kos Makes National Waves.” I thought I was going to learn why it’s making waves! The headline on the “continued on” page says “Berkeley Blogger’s Site Stirs National Sensation." But nowhere in the article does Brenneman explain why. Nor does it support the author’s claim that dailykos.com has become “one of the world’s most popular blogs” and the claim in the picture caption that “(Kos) runs the world’s most popular political blog.” Instead, I felt as though I were reading a People magazine article about a celebrity—lots of mundane and irrelevant info on this guy’s personal life, info on how he’s making money indirectly off his blog, and about his personal political passions. I know the author didn’t write the headlines, but shouldn’t the article address the claims made in them and in the article itself?  

Jessie West 

• 

CONTEXT, PLEASE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Nowhere in Richard Brenneman’s coverage of the Planning Commission’s OK of “in-lieu condo fees” (Daily Planet, June 30) is there any mention of how this decision will directly affect Berkeley residents seeking affordable housing units. Instead, the article is full of numbers and percentages and technical terms known best to developers and planning commissioners, without one example, one reference to what a condo might cost a buyer in actual dollars. Is it verboten to quote a range of actual or proposed prices? The overall tenor of the article serves to further mystify the proceedings of the Planning Commission for residents who would like to understand what the (bleep) is going on in the Berkeley housing arena and its impact on us as potential customers (I use the word advisedly) for the new housing. What’s missing in the mix of such terms as “in-lieu,” “inclusionary units,” “density bonus,” and “market rate” is any reference to what an condo/unit/apartment might actually cost a Berkeley resident in the market for housing. There is also a need to inform low-income buyers or renters of new units how and where to apply for apartments or condos in the ongoing construction of large developments. A friend of mine was told by the developer he should apply for a unit in one building, only to find that applications had closed the week before. Will this be another discouraging bureaucratic mess, or do planners and developers really want to sell/rent new units? 

Marianne Robinson 

• 

INNACCURATE PHRASING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I usually enjoy Susan Parker’s column. In the June 20-22 installment, however, she (or your copy desk) used a tired and inaccurate phrase. The column states that her husband is “...confined to an electric wheelchair...” But he’s not chained to it, with padlocks. And I bet he sleeps on a bed. 

Don’t get me wrong. As a disabled person who uses an electric wheelchair (“...uses a wheelchair,” hmm..."), I don’t mind being called crippled, or lame. I am a lame cripple. I don’t claim to represent Parker’s husband: His opinion is his own. This is mine: As a former journalist, I do mind lazy semantics, and keyboards disconnected from the brain. 

Brian Hill 

Albany 

• 

TRASH TALK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ken Lock (letters, June 23) complains about garbage collectors who get paid a full day’s pay when they complete their daily route, even if they finish it in under eight hours. News flash! Any work based on driving has variable hours due to traffic, weather, detours, and employee efficiency. Garbage collectors are paid a flat daily rate because to do otherwise would reward the inefficient who take longer on their routes, while penalizing those who are efficient, talented workers who finish their routes more quickly.  

If this wasn’t the case, Mr. Lock would be hollering about our city “rewarding slackers” instead of “paying an assumed work day.” I guess you can have it both ways! 

Jesse Townley 

• 

TRADER JOE’S PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Under veiled threats by Hudson McDonald to take their ball and go home by withdrawing their offer to bring Trader Joe’s to near-downtown, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) reluctantly referred the Trader Joe’s project at University and MLK on to the Design Review Committee (July 20) for a “shave and a haircut.” Meanwhile ZAB readies itself to take public comments July 13 on the adequacy of the project’s CEQA Initial Study that—surprise, surprise—found no significant impacts anywhere they looked; 1,600 extra cars through the University-MLK intersection and onto Berkeley Way every day? No problem there, put in another traffic light and everything will be just like before, or even better. 

After repeated requests by ZAB members the applicant and staff finally conceded that a zoning/density bonus analysis of the proposed project results in 123-unit project rather than the proposed 148-unit project, an “inconvenient truth” that neighbors have been pointing out for a year. This “inconvenient” project shortfall has called forth the resourcefulness of city staff and the applicant. Standard procedures determine that the applicant has no right to the project they want? Time to call in those imaginative, creative types from the Planning Department and the city attorney’s office who will dice, slice and chop city and state law until, voila—25 additional density bonus units will appear like magic after a laying on of (barely visible) hands by staff and the City Council. Normally a project’s density bonus entitlement under the city’s arcane procedures is constructed on a base of our zoning ordinance’s development standards and only then modified to accommodate state mandated density bonus units—here Planning staff starts their analysis from the applicant’s proposed project and through creative back-solving and vigorous back-scratching make the project just happen to be what the applicant is demanding. Will miracles never cease? 

What makes it particularly galling to ZAB and the neighbors is that we have been repeatedly told that this project absolutely, positively, must follow procedures in place at the time the original project was deemed complete (December 2004). Maybe our ever resourceful city staff will find a way to back-date their miraculous solution to the problem of how to bring Two-Buck-Shuck to the teeming downtown masses. But before writing your shopping list stop and think about precedent that will be set by the circuitous and curious path this project trail blazes through our zoning ordinance and think about all the questions a judge might be prompted to ask. 

Stephen Wollmer 

Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way 

• 

TELEGRAPH AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I listened to an interesting discussion on the radio about the problems on Telegraph Avenue but found one remarkable hole in the conversation. When you walk the street and see garbage, broken glass, vomit, food scraps and sticky sidewalks from soda pop spills, citizens are inclined to blames the homeless and itinerant youths. When you read about shootings, car crimes, assaults and girlfriend bashing, you never think of the university. Nobody wants to discuss a prominent source of the southside ugliness; students. Homeless people do not have the kind of disposable income to throw away half a pizza or dump Coca-Cola on the sidewalk, the students do. 

On any Monday morning, the streets are filled with the leftover trash from a Saturday night without adult supervision. Check out the streets in Southside around graduation or winter break, the students dump their dorm room throwaways on the curb and the city has to go on double shifts to pick up all the junk. The best suggestion I heard on the radio was not a free box but an entire free store. However, nobody mentioned the student contribution to the Avenue’s seediness. 

Hank Chapot 

• 

KAREN GRASSLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was searching the Internet for information on Karen Grassle’s recent play, Open Secrets, which is now playing at The Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, when I came across a wonderful article called, A Note of Thanks To Karen Grassle. Wow! What a story! 

I am a big fan of Karen’s and I have been since I was 8 years old. I am now almost 39 years of age. How wonderful that someone at the height of her fame— “Little House on the Prairie” was number one in the ratings at the time—took the time to personally answer fan mail, and help a fan in need. That was such a loving thing for her to do. 

Karen Grassle is one of a kind! What a rare talent she is! 

I wish Karen all the success in this world! 

God Bless you, Karen. 

Maggie Kennedy 

Alexandria, Virginia 

• 

TOLERATING INTOLERANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The gay bashing minister at the Berkeley High School African American graduation ceremony prompts me to wonder how a group suffering as much repression as does African America can tolerate this, and other ministerial spouters of hate, who condemn one of the major groups in the United States that has kept the issue of equal treatment and inclusion on the front burner since the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Perhaps it is that some ministers in the black church see their bread buttered by brow beating their captive congregations that want some black culture, which the ministers define in stereotypes of “ghetto life,” i.e. drugs, violence, unwed mothers and rowdy behavior in general. The minister who badgered the Berkeley High students was in the middle of such a rant when he added gay behavior to his list of sinful activities. 

Black ministers who yell and shout about gays can be contrasted with black American elected public servants, who are mosty liberal minded individuals who seek to bridge differences rather than cement them. The ministerial gay bashing seems akin to the tirades against gays given by the Republicans in Congress. Are the ministers GOP? 

Ted Vincent 

• 

ANTI-GAY SPEECH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

First of all, let me state that the minister who expressed bigotry against gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and other like-minded, was expressing his own opinions of GLBTs, not those of God. God/Goddess/Spirit is inclusive of all people, of all sexual orientations, races, colors, political bents, and opinions. I, Linda, pray that all us GLBTs learn to love ourselves and each other, regardless of what our sexual inclinations are. Everybody’s sexual, and everybody’s going to find somebody or something to be a turn-on. We might as well build a world where everybody is loved and everybody is included, respected, and nurtured. 

Second, I don’t believe that there aren’t any fairy tales or other cultural stories and myths from Africa. I betcha anything there are. We, and Disneyworld, probably just haven’t heard any yet. 

I’d be willing to volunteer to write a story about a little African Princess. My mind is busy on inventing a name and a plot, etc. I wonder, are there any other people out there, be they of African ancestry or any other “flavor” (as my 6th grade teacher, Ms. Mikova, referred to diversity in people), who know anything about African stories, myths, deities, and religion? 

I read somewhere, that traditionally, most African tribes didn’t write down their stories. Instead, they probably told them around a fire or in a circle, or they used masks, dancing, music making, singing, etc., to tell their creation myths. 

There is an African religion. It’s called Santeria, or Yoruba, or something. While I am certainly not an expert at African storytelling or myth, I have read stories of Orishas (deities or the main characters) such as Yemaya, Oluddamarre, Oshun, Chang-O, and even animals such as Tiger, Bre’r Rabbit, and other colorful characters. Why not research those tales, and write stories based on that? 

I’d be happy to help Disney or somebody do that. If nothing else, it’s one heck of writing exercise. 

You do realize, don’t you, that a culture’s stories and myths, tend to color our imaginations, our religions, and even our sexuality? Christianity is filled with stories, and so is every religion, culture, and tribe. Heck, Sponge Bob Square Pants might be elevated to mythological level someday. We tend to treat our Hollywood and rock star celebrities like they were Gods or mythological figures, even though they’re real, live human beings who resent invasive photographers or people who make an Olympic sport of bad-mouthing them. 

Linda M. Smith 

• 

PLANNING EXPERTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Where did Joanne Kowalski get the idea that city planners ought to pay attention to the everyday living experiences of real people? In her June 23 commentary, “Noise + Traffic = Flight: Saving Urban Neighborhoods” Ms. Kowalski makes the startling claim that “we should strive to retain residents already in the city by working with neighborhoods to determine what they need and want.” Does she really believe that Berkeley citizens have enough knowledge and experience to decide what living conditions suit them? Oh, please. 

No, today’s Berkeley city planners know what people really want, because they are very good at listening carefully to developers’ grandiose claims—and are equally adept at pushing little colored rectangles around on city grid maps. They have thought these things through, believe me. Wall-to wall high-rise buildings creating permanent shade on every major street? Perfect—just think of the money we’ll save on sunglasses! Constant gridlock as traffic is pushed onto fewer and fewer streets? How nice—we’ll finally drive out those irritating families who resist using bicycles to drop their kids at day care on the way to work! Replace trees downtown with concrete bus platforms? It’s about time! After all, trees require water, pruning, and raking—all of which significantly drain our city budget. Allow UC to control development in our downtown? What harm could that do? Less green space and more buildings and concrete everywhere? Of course, that’s what being a green city means now! Build the biggest damn building you can get away with today so that your profiteering buddies can build even bigger ones tomorrow! 

Joanne, honey, get with the program—quality of life is yesterday’s news. Today it’s all about social engineering. 

Doug Buckwald 

• 

TAKE CARE OF PETS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Every year the Fourth of July celebration of explosive fireworks reverberating from the bay to the hills results in hundreds of runaway pets. Berkeley Animal Care Services alone reports the collection of more than 20 dogs each year, frightened and separated from their owners. Many of these beloved family pets are never reclaimed; many others end up in shelters already overcrowded from the spring puppy and kitten season, and are ultimately euthanized. 

Please leave your pets at home in a safe place if you go out and celebrate; better yet, stay at home and celebrate with friends and family, comfort your pets, and watch the displays on television. 

Alice La Pierre 

Hi, I’m Christian “The Kid” Pecaut. At Stanford University in 2003, I created a class called “The Science of Social Problem Solving.” The main lecturer was Neil Robert Miller, a San Francisco public high school teacher, who passed away early in 2005. In late 1984, he and a team of dedicated student researchers completed the Paradigm from California, www.imaginenine.com, a full-scale scientific understanding that describes why things have gone so badly for 10,000 years, what a world-going-well looks like, and how to put things right, world-wide and forever. Since he died, I have been working tirelessly to share this discovery with the leadership of the Democratic Party, particularly the Clintons, who received exclusive ownership of the copyrights in accord with Neil’s explicit last wishes. 

So what does the Paradigm prove that is relevant to the citizens of Berkeley?  

1. Nature, and basic human behavior within it, are geared for work out well for every person.  

Implications: human-harming problems, such as poverty, violence, rape, deception, and homelessness, can and must be solved, for everyone, permanently; claims otherwise (such as “It is inevitable within nature that things will work out poorly for some, most, or all people”) are inaccurate, harmful, and deliberate lies. 

2. Protection is supposed to flow mainly downwards in hierarchies, and anxiety mainly upwards.  

Implications: Principled behavior involves primarily focusing our attention and resources on the more vulnerable—downwards in a hierarchy. Anxieties are absorbed by the powerful, combined with resources, and solved for everyone. It is unprincipled, deadly, anti-nature theft to primarily serve more powerful people, while blaming and punishing those with less power than you have. 

3. This bioecosystem works on a singular reality system, fully knowable to every human being. Implications: the difference between those who accurately report and those who deliberately misreport what they perceive or understand, is an absolute, same-for-everyone, distinction. Widely held, inaccurate ideas such as No Real Truth, Multi-Truth, or Unknowable Truth are the primary means that deceptive people remain influential and believed. 

Sounds philosophical? Well, let’s look at the City of Berkeley in this light. UC Berkeley has its claws so far into Tom Bates and the Planning Department, they are a fused unity. And that means your mayor, and a substantial portion of your city government, take direct orders from a consortium of developers, corporations and financiers—headed up by U.S. Republican Party tacticians. Sure, they’ll let Tom choose who to commemorate at the beginning of every council meeting (maybe), but for the real decisions (downtown, taxes, People’s Park, 9/11) the big boys up top know they’ve got a mayor who will “play ball” when instructed.  

Not Christian “The Kid” Pecaut. I saw with my own eyes at Stanford University exactly how the highest-level finance capital spooks get what they want: fake “environmental” groups that mask real estate speculation, “psychology” courses that dupe cure-seeking young girls into testing and marketing suicide-creating psychotropic medications, “technology innovation competitions” that coerce young boys into engineering unmanned U.S. military vehicles for Iraq. And worse. UC Berkeley, I regretfully report, is almost no different. So, what can we do? Well, once you read the Paradigm, and begin looking at your environment with an accuracy-based, solving-human-harm framework, the power of participatory democracy comes into focus. 

You see, the only way these deceivers maintain power is through the unnecessary and tragically mistaken protection they receive from caretakers at every level of society. The caretakers, the liberals, the good guys, make up 90 percent of every human group. The bullies, the reactionaries, the bad guys, are less than 10 percent of every human group, and yet they rule, everywhere—even here in Berkeley. To see this 90/10 Law in effect, a citizen needs look no further than DAPAC, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, or the Ashby Transit Village Task Force. It is the same cohort of real estate flunkies, paid planning stooges, and fake democracy “facilitators” that run every group. And it is the well-meaning but naively compliant general public that ends up helping them to steal, bleed, and kill our livelihood, intelligence, and dignity. 

These 10 percent tyrants require the 90 percent general public consent to carry out their hidden designs. Between the Fair Representation Ordinance and the Brown Act, we have the power to bind the City of Berkeley in a standstill whenever its officials, elected or otherwise, violate the public trust. We must pass strong, unequivocal motions in our appointed commissions, and force the City Council and mayor to obey our will. 

Don’t fall into the trap of respecting the carefully guarded expertise of the Planning Department or city attorneys. The law is for the people, not the lawyers. Propose daring, intelligent motions, and then sway your more timid and subservient peers into decisive, correct votes. Demand what you want, and let our elected representatives and staff figure out how to get it done. That’s why we pay them. During the recent public hearing on the budget, I rose to speak against a proposed increase in sewer fees. I explained how Tom Bates had negotiated a discounted sewer fee, in secret, with UC Berkeley last year. To my surprise and delight, the City Council resoundingly rejected the residential fee increase 5-0-4. (The mayor quickly changed his vote from “No” to “Abstain” once he realized he was the only vote against the now popular tax relief). 

This $300-$500 victory for every Berkeley household encouraged me to look even more closely at the city manager’s plan to spend our citizens’ hard-earned tax money. Thanks to the common sense insight and hard work of my volunteer staff, we uncovered the core of the financial-political control in the city: shadow appropriations. As I explained to the City Council and viewing public last Tuesday, “the way it works is that the city manager and their staff, they don’t do the job they are paid to do; and then, after not doing the job, they appropriate more money in order to pay other people to do their job.” The example I provided was street maintenance, where the painted markings were allowed to deteriorate, over years, under the paid watch of 200-plus assistants and supervisors in the Public Works Department. Then, a private contractor was hired at $400,000 per year, for three years, in order to do the same job that we, the citizen tax payers, have already paid for. 

If your head starts to spin when you try to understand how these “shadow appropriations” work, don’t be dismayed; the whole technique was designed to confuse, mislead, and steal from the public. And we’re not just talking about faded curbs. Look at Telegraph. Look at the Housing Authority. Look at the (please, don’t shoot) Police Department. The city budget is glutted with double appropriations, double spending, and triple talk—costing $10 million, cumulatively, every year. 

Tom Bates has a “winning” plan: buy his way back into office, stay quiet about his friends’ kickbacks, and lie a whole lot about what he understands. 

Unfortunately, the current City Council doesn’t yet have the courage or the confidence to point out these high-level financial schemes. “Just get along…” they whispered with their smiles, when they approved another year of unnecessary theft last Tuesday, right before approving an impeachment resolution that conceals the president’s deliberate mass murder of thousands of U.S. citizens at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 

Not Christian “The Kid” Pecaut. And not Berkeley. 

All you silent citizens, overflow the halls of government with your public comment—and insist on being heard! Almost alone I forced the City Council to reject Tom Bates’ proposed residential sewer hikes. Almost alone I exposed the hidden developer cabal pulling the strings behind DAPAC, thereby swaying the commissioners to demand transparent, public meetings. The human voice, spoken with determination and righteousness in a public forum, is the most powerful force on Earth. We can seize power in Berkeley—legally—and forge the charter along with our $300 million budget into a city that can solve the problems of its citizens, and serve as a model for the United States and the world. Vote for “The Kid,” the next mayor of Berkeley, in November.  

Hi, I’m Christian “The Kid” Pecaut. At Stanford University in 2003, I created a class called “The Science of Social Problem Solving.” The main lecturer was Neil Robert Miller, a San Francisco public high school teacher, who passed away early in 2005. In late 1984, he and a team of dedicated student researchers completed the Paradigm from California, www.imaginenine.com, a full-scale scientific understanding that describes why things have gone so badly for 10,000 years, what a world-going-well looks like, and how to put things right, world-wide and forever. Since he died, I have been working tirelessly to share this discovery with the leadership of the Democratic Party, particularly the Clintons, who received exclusive ownership of the copyrights in accord with Neil’s explicit last wishes. 

So what does the Paradigm prove that is relevant to the citizens of Berkeley?  

1. Nature, and basic human behavior within it, are geared for work out well for every person.  

Implications: human-harming problems, such as poverty, violence, rape, deception, and homelessness, can and must be solved, for everyone, permanently; claims otherwise (such as “It is inevitable within nature that things will work out poorly for some, most, or all people”) are inaccurate, harmful, and deliberate lies. 

2. Protection is supposed to flow mainly downwards in hierarchies, and anxiety mainly upwards.  

Implications: Principled behavior involves primarily focusing our attention and resources on the more vulnerable—downwards in a hierarchy. Anxieties are absorbed by the powerful, combined with resources, and solved for everyone. It is unprincipled, deadly, anti-nature theft to primarily serve more powerful people, while blaming and punishing those with less power than you have. 

3. This bioecosystem works on a singular reality system, fully knowable to every human being. Implications: the difference between those who accurately report and those who deliberately misreport what they perceive or understand, is an absolute, same-for-everyone, distinction. Widely held, inaccurate ideas such as No Real Truth, Multi-Truth, or Unknowable Truth are the primary means that deceptive people remain influential and believed. 

Sounds philosophical? Well, let’s look at the City of Berkeley in this light. UC Berkeley has its claws so far into Tom Bates and the Planning Department, they are a fused unity. And that means your mayor, and a substantial portion of your city government, take direct orders from a consortium of developers, corporations and financiers—headed up by U.S. Republican Party tacticians. Sure, they’ll let Tom choose who to commemorate at the beginning of every council meeting (maybe), but for the real decisions (downtown, taxes, People’s Park, 9/11) the big boys up top know they’ve got a mayor who will “play ball” when instructed.  

Not Christian “The Kid” Pecaut. I saw with my own eyes at Stanford University exactly how the highest-level finance capital spooks get what they want: fake “environmental” groups that mask real estate speculation, “psychology” courses that dupe cure-seeking young girls into testing and marketing suicide-creating psychotropic medications, “technology innovation competitions” that coerce young boys into engineering unmanned U.S. military vehicles for Iraq. And worse. UC Berkeley, I regretfully report, is almost no different. So, what can we do? Well, once you read the Paradigm, and begin looking at your environment with an accuracy-based, solving-human-harm framework, the power of participatory democracy comes into focus. 

You see, the only way these deceivers maintain power is through the unnecessary and tragically mistaken protection they receive from caretakers at every level of society. The caretakers, the liberals, the good guys, make up 90 percent of every human group. The bullies, the reactionaries, the bad guys, are less than 10 percent of every human group, and yet they rule, everywhere—even here in Berkeley. To see this 90/10 Law in effect, a citizen needs look no further than DAPAC, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, or the Ashby Transit Village Task Force. It is the same cohort of real estate flunkies, paid planning stooges, and fake democracy “facilitators” that run every group. And it is the well-meaning but naively compliant general public that ends up helping them to steal, bleed, and kill our livelihood, intelligence, and dignity. 

These 10 percent tyrants require the 90 percent general public consent to carry out their hidden designs. Between the Fair Representation Ordinance and the Brown Act, we have the power to bind the City of Berkeley in a standstill whenever its officials, elected or otherwise, violate the public trust. We must pass strong, unequivocal motions in our appointed commissions, and force the City Council and mayor to obey our will. 

Don’t fall into the trap of respecting the carefully guarded expertise of the Planning Department or city attorneys. The law is for the people, not the lawyers. Propose daring, intelligent motions, and then sway your more timid and subservient peers into decisive, correct votes. Demand what you want, and let our elected representatives and staff figure out how to get it done. That’s why we pay them. During the recent public hearing on the budget, I rose to speak against a proposed increase in sewer fees. I explained how Tom Bates had negotiated a discounted sewer fee, in secret, with UC Berkeley last year. To my surprise and delight, the City Council resoundingly rejected the residential fee increase 5-0-4. (The mayor quickly changed his vote from “No” to “Abstain” once he realized he was the only vote against the now popular tax relief). 

This $300-$500 victory for every Berkeley household encouraged me to look even more closely at the city manager’s plan to spend our citizens’ hard-earned tax money. Thanks to the common sense insight and hard work of my volunteer staff, we uncovered the core of the financial-political control in the city: shadow appropriations. As I explained to the City Council and viewing public last Tuesday, “the way it works is that the city manager and their staff, they don’t do the job they are paid to do; and then, after not doing the job, they appropriate more money in order to pay other people to do their job.” The example I provided was street maintenance, where the painted markings were allowed to deteriorate, over years, under the paid watch of 200-plus assistants and supervisors in the Public Works Department. Then, a private contractor was hired at $400,000 per year, for three years, in order to do the same job that we, the citizen tax payers, have already paid for. 

If your head starts to spin when you try to understand how these “shadow appropriations” work, don’t be dismayed; the whole technique was designed to confuse, mislead, and steal from the public. And we’re not just talking about faded curbs. Look at Telegraph. Look at the Housing Authority. Look at the (please, don’t shoot) Police Department. The city budget is glutted with double appropriations, double spending, and triple talk—costing $10 million, cumulatively, every year. 

Tom Bates has a “winning” plan: buy his way back into office, stay quiet about his friends’ kickbacks, and lie a whole lot about what he understands. 

Unfortunately, the current City Council doesn’t yet have the courage or the confidence to point out these high-level financial schemes. “Just get along…” they whispered with their smiles, when they approved another year of unnecessary theft last Tuesday, right before approving an impeachment resolution that conceals the president’s deliberate mass murder of thousands of U.S. citizens at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 

Not Christian “The Kid” Pecaut. And not Berkeley. 

All you silent citizens, overflow the halls of government with your public comment—and insist on being heard! Almost alone I forced the City Council to reject Tom Bates’ proposed residential sewer hikes. Almost alone I exposed the hidden developer cabal pulling the strings behind DAPAC, thereby swaying the commissioners to demand transparent, public meetings. The human voice, spoken with determination and righteousness in a public forum, is the most powerful force on Earth. We can seize power in Berkeley—legally—and forge the charter along with our $300 million budget into a city that can solve the problems of its citizens, and serve as a model for the United States and the world. Vote for “The Kid,” the next mayor of Berkeley, in November.  

Christian Pecaut is a candidate for mayor of Berkeley (www.BerkeleyMayor.org). 

EDITOR’S NOTE: 

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

The Planning Commission and City Council will soon be considering recommendations regarding revisions to the Creeks Ordinance. I am writing about what I believe is a core issue, the right to rebuild, affecting everyone in our city, but especially residents of properties with open creeks.  

It is fair to say that I have had a more than usual involvement in the workings of our government. Even with that deep involvement, I was shocked to learn that almost every homeowner in Berkeley cannot rebuild without going through a public hearing and use permit process when their property is destroyed 50 percent or more. 

This means that home owners have to pay $6,000 just for starters and wait a minimum of six months before you can get a hearing date. Six months is very optimistic. Anyone who has had any experience with zoning matters knows that the process often takes a year or more. Yet our city requires all of this just to rebuild what probably existed for 50 years or more. At the public hearing anyone in the city can object to your request to rebuild even if you are replacing the same structure that originally existed! 

This is especially a problem for properties with open creeks. In examining such properties, the city’s consultant found that around 60 percent of properties sampled in the hills and 80 percent of properties sampled in the flats, do not conform to the 30-foot creek setback, 60 feet if measured on both sides of the creek. It seems reasonable that those percentages can be applied to all 1,000 plus properties with open creeks. Can anyone state that objections about being too near the creek will not be the central issue raised during a public hearing to rebuild a destroyed property? Can anyone guarantee that the city will give permission to rebuild the same home in the face of such objections? I sincerely doubt it. 

Imagine the agony for both the homeowner and the city if the city’s currently clogged zoning process had to deal with any number of properties destroyed in an earthquake or a wildfire. Let’s face it, even one destroyed home is a nightmare of red tape, requirements, and back breaking effort. One homeowner said it all when he told the Creeks Task Force that the requirement for a use permit public hearing process in order to rebuild would be to add “horror upon horror” for the homeowner. 

What property owners want is very simple: First, to be able to rebuild a destroyed structure that is on the same footprint, to the same height and size as what formerly existed, as a matter of right, with no public hearing. The only requirement should be to meet current building and engineering codes. These provisions should apply to everyone in Berkeley, including properties with open creeks, and they don’t mean that a homeowner would have to build the exact same interior layout.  

Second: If the person wants to re-build something that is bigger or higher than what formerly existed, that proposal should undergo full zoning review. The Creeks Task Force has suggested granting increases to the height, or moving the structure into the front and side yard setbacks as an incentive to move a home away from a creek. Neighbors on Urban Creeks objects to this because of the likely significant impact on neighboring properties. If an incentive is to be given to encourage owners to build away from the creek, the fee for zoning review of a structure that is different from what existed should be waived. 

How does Neighbors on Urban Creeks know what owners want? We asked them. We mailed a survey out to more than 2,000 owners affected by the Ordinance. With a 17.5 percent return, 94 percent felt that the Use Permit requirement to rebuild destroyed properties was wrong. 

The right to rebuild is a property value issue that affects mortgages, insurance and resale when there is no guarantee that you can replace what you worked so hard to own. I urge the Planning Commission and City Council to begin the process to amend the Zoning Ordinance as described above.  

Shirley Dean is the former mayor of Berkeley. 

On June 25, the Women’s Employment Resources Corporation (WERC), located at 3356 Adeline St., turned 22 years old. With a very small budget, this agency has consistently and successfully served and placed into jobs, thousands of single parent families, individuals (male and female), and youth from the Berkeley community. With an emphasis on South Berkeley, where it has operated since 1989, it is a beacon of light for the most oppressed members of our beautiful city. 

What sets this agency apart from others is its unique ability to reach out, assess, and develop the essence of each and every client’s untapped skills and potential. Yet, it’s not just clients who are helped, but other agencies with whom WERC interacts. As a client, and present volunteer employee of this agency I have personally witnessed many success stories. These stories include single mothers going from welfare to entering the workforce for the first time, as well as homeless and jobless people finding jobs and housing. I myself, have first-hand experience with WERC’s services, and believe me, I represent only one of thousands of others who can verify how this agency operates. My family found ourselves homeless, me without a job, but with the assistance of WERC and the true devotion of its staff and its director, Carole Brown, a tenacious graduate of UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, my family and I were able to find employment and housing. Frankly, I don’t know where I would be today if it were not for this agency. The public needs to know that my story only echoes those stories I’ve heard with my own ears from many, many other clients of the agency. If gainful employment is a solution to our community’s crime and dysfunctioning, why is it that we are under threat of losing an agency that tackles these problems?  

Past support from the City of Berkeley is no longer forthcoming and several of the agency’s employees are no longer receiving pay checks, but are still working on a volunteer basis with the faith that funding will return. The agency is operating on funds from the community, board members and the director’s own money. This is not the first time that the agency has faced major budget cuts. As you can imagine, the past 22 years have been eventful with many cuts, yet there has always been one constant i.e., to keep the doors open and serve the community. However, without funds, the agency is in danger of folding. The impact of this vital agency closing will be detrimental to many families and individuals in the entire Berkeley community. Although I am speaking as an individual, I only represent one voice amongst thousands who have benefited from WERC today, and in past years. Any one in the community is welcome to come and visit WERC to see first hand how we benefit the community.  

Any donations made to this agency would be a tax write off and would greatly benefit our community. 

Phil McKinney is a volunteer at the Women’s Employment Resources Corporation.

“True power lies not with those who cast the votes, but rather with those who count the vote.” 

—Joseph Stalin 

Last month, I experienced a truly disgraceful display of ignorance and arrogance from a majority of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and the staff of the Registrar of Voters office. The supervisors held a public hearing on June 8th to decide on voting equipment for our future elections. Dozens of concerned citizens were treated to a pathetic example of the breakdown of responsible representative government that today plagues our nation at every level of our system. These citizens felt compelled to spend the day giving informed testimony and impassioned pleas for a return to honest and verifiable elections, only to be ignored by three of the five supervisors. Instead of having the decency to honor the desire of their constituents to eliminate potential election fraud, they instead chose to squander $13.25 million taxpayer dollars for a touch screen voting system by Sequoia. This system, like its counterparts from Diebold, employs secret software codes, which cannot be trusted to deliver honest vote counts. This system is perhaps slightly better than the now illegal 4,300 touch-screen voting devices our taxpayer dollars purchased from Diebold in 2002 for $12 million. Those machines are now sitting in a warehouse collecting dust, deemed unusable. (Diebold, in its great benevolence, will reimburse Alameda County taxpayers $3 million as a return credit on those machines.) 

The Sequoia so called “paper trail” system emits a printout on a tiny roll of thermal paper that is virtually useless for any large-scale recounts and does not allow the voter to verify his or her choices. The voter cannot see how the selections were reported. 

With public testimony from over 50 citizens, all but two speakers begged the supervisors to reject any system that incorporates hackable and pre-programmable secret source code software. There was an option to negotiate a purchase of ESS equipment, which also uses a touch-screen computer, but then prints out a paper ballot that the voter can review for accuracy before turning it into poll workers. These paper ballots can then be counted by computerized optical scanners, or better yet, counted by hand. 

I personally believe that ballots should be hand counted with observers from any interested party monitoring the count from a location where the validity of the process can be guaranteed. The optical scanning procedure that is currently in use is still vulnerable to vote switching and fraud as any computer’s software program can be preset to deliver a specific result. Most European nations and Canada employ a full paper vote and hand counting process and their elections are conducted honestly. 

Shamefully however the board’s majority ignored hours of testimony from highly informed and alarmed citizens and instead chose to vote in accordance with the advice of the two opposing speakers, one from Diebold, the other from Sequoia! The system that was approved for purchase was a secret source code software Sequoia computer that has been proved to be vulnerable to hacking and could be secretly programmed by the vendor to deliver a predetermined outcome of any election! The board added a last minute amendment, in response to the furious outcry of betrayal by those citizens in the hearing room, that the systems be checked for accuracy and a hacking test be performed. It is important to note that these vendors have a well-established history of failing to follow through on promises or even to allow testing of this sort.  

To their credit, Supervisors Nate Miley and Keith Carson asked all the right questions of the various speakers and seemed to understand the dangers of allowing the purchase of a secret software black box voting system. The staff on the other hand, seemed intent on steering the decision in only one direction…to Sequoia! Important questions were improperly answered and on several occasions false information was given to the supervisors to the amazement and consternation of the hearing’s audience. 

When it came time to vote, Supervisor Gail Steele stated that she was “feeling like I am in the Twilight Zone.” She admitted to never using her computer and to not understanding most of the four hours of testimony she had witnessed. After making this stunning admission, she chose to ignore all of the public comment and voted to purchase the insecure Sequoia system. Supervisors Alice Lai Bitker and Scott Haggerty also cast their votes for the Sequoia system. Any elected official who is so unconcerned with the sanctity of our votes, in the face of the enormous body of evidence regarding electronic voting and unanimous public comment, does not deserve to remain in office! 

It should be noted that in Washington State litigation was conducted to render unlawful the use of these Sequoia computer election systems. That lawsuit was successful.  

The turnout of this last election was one of the lowest on record. The American people have lost faith in our election system and nearly half of all Americans now believe it to be fraudulent. It is no surprise that citizens don’t bother to vote if they believe that the outcome can be manipulated. Tremendous evidence of election fraud can be seen at www.blackboxvoting.org and www.freepress.org.  

The question for history is now whether “We the People” will passively accept the demise of representative government or instead use all means at our disposal to send a clear message to elected and fraudulently elected officials alike that our votes are worth fighting for.  

Let’s reclaim our democracy now. If we fail to protect our freedom then we will surely lose it. 

Allen C. Michaan is the owner of the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. 

In August 1999, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) began the Route 24/Caldecott Tunnel Corridor Study, for which I served on the Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) as an alternate representing BART. I attended most of the numerous meetings held. The Final Summary Report was presented on November 2000. It was never accepted by the Policy Advisory Committee, and MTC basically threw up its hands and did not pursue the report’s conclusions. 

All the cities to the west of the hill who were represented on PAC objected to the construction of the fourth bore and, if I recall correctly, one of the cities to the east did as well, with another expressing some reservations. 

I was critical of several points in the report. First, the study was based on a projection of only 20 years into the future, whereas the tunnel, being major infrastructure similar to the Bay Bridge, will function for a far longer period, so the study should have extended over a longer period. If it had been done for a 50-year period it is very likely that the tunnel would by that time become congested again. So are we to build a fifth, or beyond that, a sixth tunnel? 

Another point I found troubling was that most of the study was focused on capacity and congestion, and little on land use and development, which determines the number of cars used for mobility. The current development pattern currently generates a peak use of BART that is obtuse, in that the morning peak westbound is five times greater than eastbound. The reason for this is simply the density of development around stations to the west versus development to the east which is not conducive to transit use and relies on auto access. The report to some degree acknowledges this by considering an alternative of building more parking for BART, which encourages greater auto use, which leads to a need for more and more highways and tunnels. This points out the lack of consideration for real land use and development issues. 

Overall, the environmental impact of the new bore will be detrimental to livability, air quality and health, our climate and our resources. 

The social equity implications of major mega-projects such as the new bore are generally that those who benefit are the more affluent living in low density areas. They are the ones with more auto trips, which create the problems of congestion. 

The cost effectiveness of a $400 million tunnel being built to increase capacity primarily for peak hours is negative. The new tunnel will add capacity for only 3,800 cars, so the cost per car will be over $15 per trip for 20 years. 

Transit Alternative: Before BART started operation across the bay, AC Transit during peak period was carrying the same number of people as all the vehicles or 8-9,000 per hour. Admittedly it took time to build up to this volume. There needs to be development to the east as dense as destinations in San Francisco. There is a total lack of this kind of concentration especially to the east of the tunnel. 

I recall I-710 down in Southern California was held back by Caltrans for 25-plus years because of the objection of the communities through which it would pass. Now Caltrans is proposing a long tunnel through this section through Alhambra and South Pasadena. Will Caltrans recognize the significant objections from cities such as Berkeley, which will get added traffic when the congestion on Route 24 is relieved, encouraging commuters to continue driving? Berkeley is already troubled by congestion on its local streets, so will Caltrans build a tunnel through Oakland/Berkeley to I-80?  

All that this project is doing is encouraging more auto use. 

Roy Nakadegawa is a Berkeley resident.

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

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.

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.

“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.

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.  

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.  

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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

Years ago I took a writing class from Adair Lara, a former columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of several books, including Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, a memoir about her relationship with her teenage daughter, Morgan. 

There were 13 wannabe scribes in the nine-week course. Most of us were middle-class baby boomers interested in recording our personal histories. One woman was writing a book on midwifery, another was penning essays about her father, and a third was musing on the difficulties of motherhood. There were editors, computer sales people, a chef, and one lone man in the group. He was writing about the accidental death of his young son.  

On the first day of class we introduced ourselves and discussed our goals. The man wanted to compose op-ed pieces on gun control. The chef was interested in publishing a cookbook. The midwife had many funny, bizarre, and poignant tales to tell about delivering babies in liberal, quirky Berkeley. But the person who had me sitting on the edge of my seat in rapt, voyeuristic attention was a statuesque, glamorous blonde from Marin County. 

She told us she intended to write a memoir about juggling her professional career with the day-to-day humdrum activities of her family. 

Her husband directed hardcore pornographic films in the basement of their mansion. She’d met him many years ago while hitchhiking through Sausalito. He’d slammed on the brakes of his new silver and black Porsche 911, driven onto the sidewalk where she was standing in a miniskirt, taken her back to his villa, and turned on the charm. She didn’t leave the confines of his bedroom for the next three years.  

She helped out with the porn. She was a make-up artist, applying foundation to actors’ noses, chins, and private parts. She was also a Marin County matron, a member of the PTA. She had two circles of friends: soccer moms and porn stars. In other words, she had a lot of really good stuff to write about. 

Each week Adair shared with us tips and exercises on writing personal essays. We talked about gripping starts and flashy endings, about content and syntax, epiphanies and grammar. We tried writing pieces that were humorous and newsworthy, and that captured small, everyday details reflecting and confirming the human condition. All the while I secretly looked at the PTA/porn expert, hoping she would divulge more about her double life. 

One week Adair concentrated on what makes an interesting story. “People don’t want to hear about how wonderful your life is,” she said. “They want to read about despair and heartbreak. They want to know how you overcame a problem. They want to learn from your mistakes, your struggles, and your failures. 

“Pull out all the stops,” continued Adair. “Make us laugh and weep; confide your deepest, darkest secrets.” Unfortunately, the woman from Marin wasn’t in class that night. I hoped Adair would let her know what she missed. 

In addition to teaching us the basics, Adair had each of us share with the class an essay we’d written. I was looking forward to the day the make-up artist/soccer mom would share her pathos. I was hoping for something revealing, juicy, and kind of pornographic. 

But on the evening Ms. Marin read aloud to us, she disclosed the pain and heartbreak of losing her luggage while on a two-week vacation in Greece. It was not scandalous, salacious, or sensational; it was not even interesting. She’d missed class on the day Adair instructed us to spill our guts because she had been living it up somewhere along the Aegean. 

I left class disappointed, but I took away an important lesson: Don’t share your fabulous vacation stories with your readers; save them for your friends and family who might, out of polite resignation, feign interest.  

This is a long-winded explanation for why I didn’t have a column last week. I was out of the country, having a good time. No pathos, no problems, no porn, and no epiphanies. Just a little sunburn, jetlag, and a very empty wallet. 

For more information on writing classes taught by Adair Lara see www.adairlara.com.

Last summer, shortly after reviewing the wonderful water-saving gardening book published by EBMUD, Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates, I felt a complete hypocrite dragging my garden hose from shrub to shrub, so much so that I decided then and there to stop watering everything except the vegetable plot and the raspberries. 

If this shock treatment resulted in casualties, I would replace them with plants adapted to drought. 

I did not expect the roses and fuchsias to survive, or the violets. Surely the primrose path that leads to the gas meter would never again delight the eye in early spring. In particular, of all the numerous kinds of primula, would not P. vulgaris, native to Atlantic isles of mists and showers, languish? 

To my astonishment, practically everything not only survived, but seemed to do better than usual, helped perhaps by our extended rainy season. The roses blasted forth in May, by the size of their blossoms the apple and pear had evidently not missed a beat, the fuchsias hung in through last year’s customary dry hot fall and turned into a picture. Admittedly, the water table in my garden is high. Given more than our usual rainfall, the so-called meadow turns into a lake. The only losses I could find were two azaleas transplanted from pots, and they had not done well from the start. 

Such freedom from watering is a keen joy, but how to taste it to the full? Since my favorite activity, doing nothing, is conducted supine, preferably in warm dappled shade with a non-challenging mystery in hand, a review of my reclining options seemed in order. 

Outside my scrap-wood teahouse is an old wooden reclining chair with wheels and metal slats. This is fairly comfortable with the appropriate cushions, which have to be brought in every evening to keep them dry. One of my cats is attached to these cushions, some would say proprietorially so. 

Hauling this chair to catch the sun is tedious, especially as one wheel is missing so that the seat must be propped on a concrete block. An alternative is an equally cumbersome, solid-wood reclining chair under a tree that now provides dense rather than dappled shade. Finally, my metal and plastic beach-type lounger, so easy to fold up and carry about, has deteriorated to the point that it requires a heavy board across it to prevent anyone intent on lounging from falling through. 

Having completed this dismal survey, I thought wistfully of hammocks. A tropical image of hammock slung between date palms popped into my mind. As I looked round the garden for a possible location for one, the distance between a rickety gatepost and a sturdy plum branch seemed about right, including the sun/shade orientation. I telephoned various local sporting goods stores. The kind I wanted, made of strong cord, easy to put up, and with spreader bars at each end, seemed either unavailable or beyond my wallet. 

At that point I put the idea out of my mind since houseguests were due to arrive for a lengthy visit, the weather had turned cold, and no one would want to sit outside, let alone lie down on or above wet grass. 

I had forgotten one characteristic of my guests, the avidity with which they shop. I can assure every shopowner in Berkeley that their inventory has had an extreme going-over in the past month. This forced me to fall into browsing mode too, and while we were in REI, I noticed in the camping section an elegant, simple-looking roll of white netting with shocking-pink nylon lines at each end. The label said this was a Camper’s Compact Hammock, and furthermore, it was EZ. The price was extraordinarily reasonable, and before I could give it serious thought, like  

the best houseguests the world over, mine had purchased it and presented  

it to me. 

Less graciously, I rushed us all home. Fastening the hammock to gate post and plum branch with a round turn and two half-hitches took seconds. Accompanied by a book, I cautiously lowered myself into the hammock. It was like floating on air. The hammock’s gentle rocking motion lulled me into a meditative state never achieved in yoga class. I felt I had endless time to gaze at nature’s hose-less work. The book simply fell from my fingers. 

This instant tension-reducer can stay outside all summer. I might install one indoors, too, for the unexpected guest.

We’re fortunate to have rather a large number of Hawaiians living in the Bay Area. I’ve visited the Islands only a couple of times, but I fall in love fast (if selectively) and it wasn’t just the climate, the heartstopping beauty of the place, or even the beautiful, increasingly elusive native flora and fauna that won my flinty, suspicious old heart. 

Aloha is for real, and I’ve been warmed by its glow there and, lucky me, here too.  

One Hawaiian of note, the organizer of a mainland hula halau, was caught on film marveling at seeing ohi’a trees on his street in San Francisco. ‘Ohi’a (Metrosideros polymorpha) is ubiquitous on the Islands, and its flower, known as ohi’a lehua, for the pair of lovers it unites—and if you pick the flower, it’ll rain because they weep at being separated again—is a nectar source for several of the native honeycreepers. 

These unique (and, no surprise, endangered or even extinct) birds are well worth seeing, even if you have to clamber over rough ground and thick brush for just a glimpse. I’ve bragged truthfully about the thrill of seeing an ‘apapane and, a year later, an ‘i’iwi feeding on ohi’a lehua, and the pleasure of just pronouncing that enhances the memory.  

But the fact is, what’s on the streets here is an ancestor species of the ‘ohi’a. It looks very similar, and ‘ohi’a is called polymorpha because it takes so many shapes anyway, so it’s easy to mistake them. 

Both have softly fuzzed gray-green leaves and flowers that are basically red (or occasionally yellow or orange) bristles of stamens, like a powderpuff or pincushion. Both exist here, if at all, as smallish trees, unless they’re in an arboretum or a sheltered garden. Both get bigger in their home ranges—and ‘ohi’a also gets shrubbier depending on where it’s growing.  

New Zealand Christmas tree (Metrosideros excelsa) is burdened with one of the more awkward common names I know. In New Zealand, they call it “pohutukawa,” which is long but at least only one word, and it makes more sense to me. One reference says it means “splashed by spray”—I’m taking their word for it because my Maori vocabulary is about nonexistent—and it’s typically a seaside tree there 

Picnickers sit in its shade, birds feed on its nectar, and sometimes oysters anchor themselves on its roots. 

There’s a story about its flowers, too, but less romantic, and its moral is “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” A canoe of founders sighted the pohutukawa-clad shoreline and the chief tossed his red feathers overboard, I guess thinking there were plenty to be had on shore. But what he found was red flowers that wilted when picked. Someone else had picked up his discarded feathers and wouldn’t give them back. 

Where it grows suggests a tough tree, tolerant of lots of salt in the air and around its roots, and indeed it is. It’s also tough enough to handle city life with aplomb. 

I’ve seen individuals out on the Berkeley marina, on Main Street in Half Moon Bay, and as grizzled old urban warriors on the nastiest parts of Sansome Street in San Francisco. (Nastiest for a street tree: windy, dirty, heavily trafficked, and tightly bound in concrete; I suppose it’s a respectable address for a business.)  

I’ve seen the Sansome Street trees doing something their Hawaiian cousins do, too. I looked up into one and saw a fibrous mass hanging from the trunk, like some odd broom. These were aerial roots.  

‘Ohi’a will throw bundles of these roots out into the air to capture supplemental moisture; I can see why pohutukawa would have that ability too, with dehydrating salt to contend with, and it’s certainly appropriate in foggy San Francisco, where I doubt these trees get any summer irrigation—and if they do get a drink, it’s bound to miss their feeder roots. Heaven knows what they’re finding under all that pavement: maybe groundwater, maybe leaky pipes.  

It’s an odd place to see a bit of the tropical shore, but then our median strips and curbsides host lots of New Zealand flax, another Kiwi expatriate. What with plants and all those new Hawaiian barbecue joints, we’re growing a bit of the South pPacific in North California, and hooray for that. 

Flowers and leaves of the New Zealand native Metrosideros excelsa look a lot like the tree’s Hawaiian cousin, ‘ohi’a. Photograph by Ron Sullivan

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.  

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. 

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.

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.  

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. 

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

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 your instrument. 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.  

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.  

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.  

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.  

The Look, The Static Rising, Antioquia at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Bootysatva at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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 

Summer Noon Concert with Pamela Rose at the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Free. www.downtownberkeley.org 

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 

Tremendo, Ise Lyfe, Got it Boys at 10 p.m. at The Ivy Room, 858 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $7. 524-9220. www.ivyroom.com 

Torrettes Without Regrets at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $7. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Jump/Cut, live organic electronica, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Vital Information at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JULY 7 

THEATER 

Ambitious Theatre Company “As You Like It” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, Alameda. Tickets are $8-$15. 800-838-3006. www.altarena.org 

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” a new comedy, Thurs., Fri., and 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. 

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 

Kids Take the Stage “Annie” Fri. at 7:30 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 7:30 p.m. at Chabot College Arts Center, 25555 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward. Tickets are $10-$20. 864-7061. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Fantasticks” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sunday Matinees at 2:30 p.m. on July 9 and 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.  

Woodminster Summer Musicals “Ragtime” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., through July 16. Tickets are $21.50-$34.50. 531-9597. www.woodminster.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Overhung Award: Kyle Mock and Josh Keyes” Reception at 7 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave. Exhibition runs to July 30. www.boontlinggallery.com 

“Realities: Picture Stories of the Modern World” by Guy Colwell and Mural Drawings by Rocky Baird. Reception for the artists at 5 p.m. at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., at Telegraph, Oakland. http://estebansabar.com/index.htm  

FILM 

Labor’s Love Lost: The Films of Vittorio de Seta “Bandits of Orgosolo” at 7 p.m. and “Half a Man” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Anodea Judith with Dr. Leonard Shlain, Dawson Church and Allan Hardman on “Waking the Global Heart” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Marta Acosta reads from her novel “Happy Hour at Casa Dracula” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The David Thom Band, The Billy Boys at 5:30 p.m. at Park Place and Washington Ave., Pt. Richmond. 237-9375. www. 

pointrichmond.com/prmusic  

Forrofiando from Brazil at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Eric Swinderman Sextet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, East Coast swing, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Walter Pope Trio at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Audrey Auld Mezera & Nina Gerber at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jim Grantham Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Wayblonde and Vanessa VerLee, singer-songwriters, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Bunny Numpkins and the Kill Blow-up Reaction, Anton Barbeau, Mandrake at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

Rogue Jazz Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Phenomenauts, Onion Flavored Rings, Ghengis Khan at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Outformation, Spindrift at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Diane Schurr at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JULY 8 

CHILDREN  

Peruvian, Columbian & Mexican Music, an introduction to maracas, cajon and guitar music with Lina Ortiz and Anthony at noon at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

Puppet Art Theater “Tommy’s Pirate Adventure” at 2 p.m. at the Montclair Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1687 Mountain Blvd. 482-7810. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Microcosm” Group exhibition of artists inspired by patterns in nature. Reception at 2 p.m. at Richmond Art Center, 240 Barrett Ave., entrance at 25th St. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“And All That Jazz” Works by artists relocated from the Gulf Coast after Katrina. Reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m., Wed.-Sat. Exhibition runs to July 27. 644-4930. 

“Creation Ground” Paintings by Diane Williams and Chuck Potter, and ceramic sculpture by Ari Lyckberg opens at the Community Art Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. and runs through Sept. 8. 204-1667.  

THEATER 

Everyday Theatre “Dreaming in a Firestorm” by Tim Barsky at 8 p.m. at 2232 MLK, Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20. 644-2204. www.everdaytheatre.org 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Godfellas” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Cedar Rose Park, 1300 Rose St. 415-285-1717. 

Women’s Will “Twelfth Night” Sat. and Sun. at 1 p.m. at John Hinkle Park. Free. 420-0813. www.womanswill.org 

FILM 

Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum “The Little American” at 7:30 p.m. at 37417 Niles Blvd., Fremont. Cost $5. 494-1411. www.nilesfilmmuseum.org 

Rhythms on Screen “Mahaleo” at 6:30 p.m. and “Woman in the Dunes” at 8:40 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

William Talcott Memorial Reading at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Robin Meyers explains “Why the Christian Right is Wrong” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Donation of $10 is suggested. 559-9500. 

Rhythm & Muse with Rashna Owen and The Winds of Mercy at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice and Rose. 644-6893. 

Artemio Rodriguez, printmaker and author at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. www.kala.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alameda Civic Light Opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Ave., Alameda. Tickets are $27-$31. 864-2256. www.aclo.com 

Snake Trio and Leo Blanco Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

A Celebration of Guinean Music and Dance at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

José Roberts & Friends “América en Mi Sangre”at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568.  

Elizabeth August, Aireene Espiritu and Rick DiDia at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

John Keawe, Hawaiian music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Charmless, Pebble Theory, Kaura at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Carolyn Chung Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Odori Simcha with Neal Cronin, at 7:30 p.m. at A Cuppa Tea, 3200 College Ave. 654-1904. 

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Green Lemon at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Carl Sonny Leland Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

The Lost Cats, jazz and swing, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. All ages. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Future Pilgrim, Famous Last Words, Rick DiDia, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Wil Blades Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Verbal Abuse, Decry, America’s Dirty Thirtys 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. 

SUNDAY, JULY 9 

CHILDREN 

Asheba, Caribbean music, at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Photographic Images of Migrant Women” By Saundra Sturdevant. Reception at 5 p.m. at La Peña. Exhibition runs through August 31. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Form and Light” Photographs by Eric Nurse. Reception at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

FILM 

Labor’s Love Lost: The Films of Vittorio de Seta “Diary of a Schoolmaster” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India” Guided tour at 2 pm. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

Karen Shepard reads from her new novel “Don’t I Know You?” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

Len and Aya Brackett on “Building the Japanese House Today” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave. www.mrsdalloways.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Eric Bibb, contemporary blues and gospel, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50- $19.50. 548-1761.  

Ben Stolerow Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Jason Armstrong and Joe Kenny at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Carola Zertuche and Sara Ayala, flamenco, at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dick Conte Trio at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Americana Unplugged: Ragged But Right at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Mister Loveless Monolaturs, The Tuesday Club at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, JULY 10 

CHILDREN 

Magic with Timothy James for all ages at 7 p.m. at the Piedmont Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 160 41st St. 597-5017. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Randall Balmar examines “Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Donation of $10 is suggested. 559-9500.  

Dale Pendell reads from “Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Teachers and the Poison Path” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Script Club Reading of “Art” by by Yasmina Reza, at 7:30 p.m. at Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St. 843-4822. 

Poetry Express with Judy Wells at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dubconscious, reggae, at 11 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Street to Nowhere, Audrye Sessions, Broken Dolls at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. 763-1146.  

Roomful of Blues at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Somewhere, across the river from ... somewhere else ... there’s a cyber-cafe with two strange young women peering in, in hysterics over what they see and trying to get inside. 

That’s how We Are Not These Hands, Sheila Callaghan’s play as produced by San Francisco’s noted Crowded Fire Theater Co., opens in its world premiere at the Ashby Stage.  

Callaghan, who’s achieved recognition in New York for pieces like Dead City, a Joycean Bloomsday in the Big Apple that starred singer Patti Smith and others, said of her new play, “I wanted to write about the challenges of third world countries, but I didn’t know how. So instead I wrote a love story.” 

The genesis of her play came during a trip to China, where in poor villages along the Yangtze, she noted illicit cyber-cafes hidden down side alleys. In news stories at home, she read of the death of 41 students, blown up while assembling firecrackers in their eastern China school, and of 24 people dying in Beijing when two teenagers set fire to an unlicensed cyber-cafe from which they’d been 86ed. 

Those anecdotes all figure in We Are Not These Hands, reset from specific locales to a kind of nowhere in between, and acted out by Cassie Beck and Juliet Tanner as local teenagers, Belly and Moth. 

The two also express themselves in the dialect of their zone, a clipped, racy idiom stuck together more expressionistically than grammatically. It settles into a kind of run-down rube jargon. At just about the point when the locals become comprehensible, a man in a sports coat and carrying a briefcase (Paul Lancour) appears inside the cafe, where he types up a storm in academese (visible on a big screen where, otherwise, media and advertising images rush). The girls immediately dub him “Leather.” 

Leather later delivers a monologue into a pocket tape recorder while in the restroom; he speaks as if to his mother, who he later declares is dead. A good deal of the play’s hook is in the disparity between the girls’ slangy dialogues and Leather’s soliloquies into his machine. 

In one of the funniest scenes, the two teenagers, outlandishly dolled up, accost Leather at his computer screen and pantomime puerile sex acts. He tries ignoring them, then treats them as panhandlers until he finally gets the idea and propositions Moth. 

In his all-but flophouse room above, Leather loquaciously explains to the wide-eyed, uncomprehending Moth why he came to their backwater, and about the social economics manuscript he’s researching and writing there that’ll make him big back home. 

His rambling circumlocutions are almost as thick as the girls’ jumbled-up speech. Moth mostly answers “okay” to everything, until Leather starts to make love to her, when she bubbles over in a fount of words, a little like Molly Bloom at the end of Ulysses. 

Later Moth tells Belly of her orgasm and Belly wants the same treatment. The two scheme how to get Leather to take them with him when he leaves; when they realize he’s digging in for a long haul, and uninterested in a menage à trois, they retaliate on what started it all: the cyber-cafe.  

A play like this depends on the exuberance of the performers, and the cast pulls it off, inhabiting strangeness quite naturally. Tanner gives a sensitive and nuanced performance as Moth, following Leather and his endless stream of words with her “big, wild eyes,” punctuated by an occasional “okay.” 

In fact, some of the best moments are the silent ones, the girls staring into the cafe or when the characters’ mostly self-absorbed speech breaks down and actions take over. 

Kent Nicholson, a specialist in new play development, has directed We Are Not These Hands well, lending rhythm and atmosphere to a text that is groping, even threadbare at times, a one-trick pony that neither takes off from its sources nor explores them in depth, analogizing them into limbo. 

It’s an old device to juxtapose characters from different backgrounds to examine reality, but the characters in We Are Not These Hands never achieves the binocular vision of Don Quixote and Sancho, or Robinson Crusoe and Friday, not to mention the wealth of examples in Paul Bowles. 

The primitiveness of the language is amusing but not particularly inventive. The equation of the childlike (or childish) and the primitive sometimes becomes cloying, too close to babytalk. 

Science fiction writers have long juxtaposed unlikely environments and exotic characters to cast light on things closer to home. The living science fiction of the New World Order goes a lot further than cyber-cafes: A few years ago in places around east Asia, peasants would go out at dawn to a cafe for a latte, dressed in Italian suits and shoes, then return home to change into overalls and drive a tractor in the fields where a few decades previous life was green tea and ox, or hand-pulled plows.  

We Are Not These Hands tries to hold onto a sense of wonder, both childlike and eccentric, a funny valentine to intercultural mix ’n’ match. Its intimate naivete misses the speechless awe of a composite, self-involved world that could only dub itself “postmodern” and the astonishment of taking a step back and looking at it.

We’re fortunate to have rather a large number of Hawaiians living in the Bay Area. I’ve visited the Islands only a couple of times, but I fall in love fast (if selectively) and it wasn’t just the climate, the heartstopping beauty of the place, or even the beautiful, increasingly elusive native flora and fauna that won my flinty, suspicious old heart. 

Aloha is for real, and I’ve been warmed by its glow there and, lucky me, here too.  

One Hawaiian of note, the organizer of a mainland hula halau, was caught on film marveling at seeing ohi’a trees on his street in San Francisco. ‘Ohi’a (Metrosideros polymorpha) is ubiquitous on the Islands, and its flower, known as ohi’a lehua, for the pair of lovers it unites—and if you pick the flower, it’ll rain because they weep at being separated again—is a nectar source for several of the native honeycreepers. 

These unique (and, no surprise, endangered or even extinct) birds are well worth seeing, even if you have to clamber over rough ground and thick brush for just a glimpse. I’ve bragged truthfully about the thrill of seeing an ‘apapane and, a year later, an ‘i’iwi feeding on ohi’a lehua, and the pleasure of just pronouncing that enhances the memory.  

But the fact is, what’s on the streets here is an ancestor species of the ‘ohi’a. It looks very similar, and ‘ohi’a is called polymorpha because it takes so many shapes anyway, so it’s easy to mistake them. 

Both have softly fuzzed gray-green leaves and flowers that are basically red (or occasionally yellow or orange) bristles of stamens, like a powderpuff or pincushion. Both exist here, if at all, as smallish trees, unless they’re in an arboretum or a sheltered garden. Both get bigger in their home ranges—and ‘ohi’a also gets shrubbier depending on where it’s growing.  

New Zealand Christmas tree (Metrosideros excelsa) is burdened with one of the more awkward common names I know. In New Zealand, they call it “pohutukawa,” which is long but at least only one word, and it makes more sense to me. One reference says it means “splashed by spray”—I’m taking their word for it because my Maori vocabulary is about nonexistent—and it’s typically a seaside tree there 

Picnickers sit in its shade, birds feed on its nectar, and sometimes oysters anchor themselves on its roots. 

There’s a story about its flowers, too, but less romantic, and its moral is “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” A canoe of founders sighted the pohutukawa-clad shoreline and the chief tossed his red feathers overboard, I guess thinking there were plenty to be had on shore. But what he found was red flowers that wilted when picked. Someone else had picked up his discarded feathers and wouldn’t give them back. 

Where it grows suggests a tough tree, tolerant of lots of salt in the air and around its roots, and indeed it is. It’s also tough enough to handle city life with aplomb. 

I’ve seen individuals out on the Berkeley marina, on Main Street in Half Moon Bay, and as grizzled old urban warriors on the nastiest parts of Sansome Street in San Francisco. (Nastiest for a street tree: windy, dirty, heavily trafficked, and tightly bound in concrete; I suppose it’s a respectable address for a business.)  

I’ve seen the Sansome Street trees doing something their Hawaiian cousins do, too. I looked up into one and saw a fibrous mass hanging from the trunk, like some odd broom. These were aerial roots.  

‘Ohi’a will throw bundles of these roots out into the air to capture supplemental moisture; I can see why pohutukawa would have that ability too, with dehydrating salt to contend with, and it’s certainly appropriate in foggy San Francisco, where I doubt these trees get any summer irrigation—and if they do get a drink, it’s bound to miss their feeder roots. Heaven knows what they’re finding under all that pavement: maybe groundwater, maybe leaky pipes.  

It’s an odd place to see a bit of the tropical shore, but then our median strips and curbsides host lots of New Zealand flax, another Kiwi expatriate. What with plants and all those new Hawaiian barbecue joints, we’re growing a bit of the South pPacific in North California, and hooray for that. 

Flowers and leaves of the New Zealand native Metrosideros excelsa look a lot like the tree’s Hawaiian cousin, ‘ohi’a. Photograph by Ron Sullivan

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 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.  

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.  

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.  

FRIDAY, JULY 7 

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 

“Keep the A’s in Oakland” Tailgate Party from 5 to 7 p.m. at the B parking lot tailgate area on the Hegenberger side. Entertaintment and speeches fromlocal leaders. chooseorlooseoakland@yahoo.com 

Stagebridge Story Workshop with local storytellers on Fridays in July from 10 a.m. to noon at Arts First Oakland Center, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Bring a bag lunch. Cost is $10 per workshop, or $25 for the series. 444-4755.  

Celebración: Food and Music of Peru at 6:30 p.m. at Crowden Center for Music, 1475 Rose St. Suggested donation $15. Please RSVP to 526-5194. 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride meets at the Berkeley BART the second Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m.  

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

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

SATURDAY, JULY 8 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Crown Beach Clean-up in the aftermath of the 4th from 9 a.m. to noon at Crown Beach, Alameda. Trash bags, gloves and other equipment provided by Save the Bay. 452-9261, ext. 109. www.saveSFbay.org 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of the F. M. “Borax” Smith Estate from 10 a.m. to noon. Meet at the redwood tree, corner of McKinley Ave. and Home Place East, one block off Park Blvd. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/ 

walkingtours 

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

Guide Dogs for the Blind Meet a puppy in-training at 2 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Sushi Basics Learn the natural and cultural history of sushi as you prepare and taste several different types.Fee is $25-$39. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Himalayan Cooking Class from 3 to 5 p.m. at Taste of the Himalayas. Cost is $50. Registration required. 849-4983. 

ChiRunning/ChiWalking A talk at 3 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JULY 9 

Toddler Nature Walk for two and three-year-olds to look for butterflies and other inscets at 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of the Mountain View Cemetery from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Meet at Chapel of the Chimes, 4400 Peidmont Ave. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Green Sunday: Oakland’s Oak to Ninth Street Scandal Can we stop this massive give away of our waterfront? From 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th in North Oakland. 

New Farmers’ Market Opens in Kensington, and will run year-round on Sun. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the parking lot behind ACE Hardware at 303 Arlington Ave. at Amherst. 528-4346. 

Summer Sunday Forum: Wold Vision with Angela Mason at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to keep your bike in excellent working condition through safety inspections, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Twilight Tour to Learn Botanical ABC’s at 5:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $8-$12. Registration required. 643-2755.  

Miksang Contemplative Photography A talk at noon at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “Visualization and Sacred Art” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

CITY MEETINGS 

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 

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 

“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.

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. 

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.

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.  

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. 

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

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