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The building at 2626 Hillegass Ave. started in a trash container and quickly spread to the attic. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
The building at 2626 Hillegass Ave. started in a trash container and quickly spread to the attic. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
 

News

Three-Alarm Blaze Breaks Out In Willard Park Neighborhood

By Rio Bauce and Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 11, 2006

Fire’s Damage Estimated at $1 Million 

 

A blazing fire which erupted at a large two-story five-unit housing complex at 2626 Hillegass Ave. on Wednesday afternoon reportedly caused damages in excess of a million dollars. 

According to investigations completed by Berkeley Fire Department officials on Thursday afternoon, the fire started in a rubbish container in the exterior stairwell of the building, and the heat was able to penetrate through the windows and get inside the building. It then mushroomed its way into the attic, causing extensive damage to the roof and the second floor as well as the first floor. 

“We don’t know what caused the fire in the rubbish container but the Fire Department thinks it’s accidental. Once a fire gets into something like an attic, it spreads very fast. There were smoke and water damages on the first floor, fire damages on the exterior of the second floor as well as the roof,” said Assistant Fire Chief Rod Foster. 

The fire was reported at 4:03 p.m., a second alarm was reported at 4:07 p.m., and the third alarm was called at 4:25 p.m. The firefighters reported that they had contained the fire at 5:07 p.m. The Berkeley Fire Department had also requested mutual assistance from the Oakland, Albany, and Alameda County Fire Departments. 

According to an eyewitness, six homeless people saw the fire from Willard Park and ran inside the building, but didn’t see anyone. It was reported that nobody was inside when the fire broke out. The building, which is located half a block from Willard, was built in 1923. 

According to Fire Department officials, the fire was pretty severe and had a total of six injuries, three of which were sustained by firefighters. One firefighter fell down some stairs and the other suffered from heat exhaustion, according to Foster. 

The third firefighter was allowed to carry on working after being assessed on the spot. Two of the homeless people who saw the fire from Willard Park and ran into the house to help also suffered injuries, from smoke inhalation and cuts on the leg. 

“It was a very challenging and difficult fire, especially because it was an attic fire,” said Assistant Chief Gil Dong, BFD. “Four of the casualties were transported to Alta Bates, the local hospital, and two firefighters were treated onsite for minor burns.” 

“We essentially had four units out,” said Dong.” Right now, the injuries sustained by firefighters and civilians are not life-threatening.”  

George Oram, nearby resident and Berkeley realtor, estimated that the value of the complex was close to $1,250,000. He described the aftermath as “a big traffic jam and a wave of smoke”. 

Robert L. Kish, a real estate attorney from Richmond, owns the property, according to public records. He could not be reached by phone. The last sale of the property occurred in 1994.  

The site used to be occupied by the Berkeley Tennis Club. 

“We built a clubhouse at 2643 Hillegass Ave. on Jan. 8, 1906,” said Geoff Hayes, manager at the Berkeley Tennis Club. “I think that the tennis courts were built shortly after that date on the 2626 Hillegass property. Then the apartment complex was built a little later.”


Clif Bar Announces Move to Alameda

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 11, 2006

A week after Nestle USA-owned PowerBar announced its move from Berkeley to Glendale, Calif., rival company ClifBar confirmed on Wednesday that it will be moving its Berkeley headquarters to Alameda, when the company’s current lease expires in July 2008. 

David Jericoff, executive vice president of human resources for Clif Bar & Co., said that the move is the result of the company outgrowing its existing facility, occupied since 1994, and not because Berkeley zoning laws made it difficult for them to construct a day-care center at its current West Berkeley location, as reported elsewhere. 

“The day-care center was a project I worked on almost two years ago. Unlike what has been reported in the media, it not being built did nothing to trigger our move. In fact our current Berkeley location featured in the top two of the 14 sites that responded to our RFP. As our business has expanded, we could not find a space large enough to suit our current and future needs. The City of Alameda provided a unique waterfront site with an opportunity to employ green building and energy practices. The abandoned warehouse gives us ample opportunity to build it out as an environmentally-focused building. We also have the choice of purchasing it if we want to. All this made the entire package very attractive.” 

The proposed site is a waterfront location at the Navy’s former Fleet Industrial Supply Center across the estuary from Jack London Square which is part of the 777-acre Alameda Landing Project. A letter of intent has been signed and the Alameda City Council is scheduled to vote on the development at its Sept. 5 meeting.  

Founded in 1990 by bakery owner and avid rock climber Gary Erickson, this privately owned, California-based company, known for its all-natural and organic energy snacks for athletes (such as Clif Bar, Clif Shot and Luna), began its “ecological expedition” in 2000. The company went on to create quite a buzz in the community with athletic and environmental events such as Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon and the Green Festival in San Francisco. 

“What makes us different from other profit-driven companies is that we work towards a balanced community, brand and business. Our commitment to the environment is one of our fundamental principals. We are careful to use mostly organic products so as to not leave any footprints on the earth,” said Jericoff. 

Jericoff added that Berkeley had been like a home to Clif Bar’s 150 employees who had been very tied into the Fourth Street shopping district. “We have very much enjoyed and valued being a part of the vibrant Berkeley community. The city and Mayor Tom Bates were very responsive to our RFP and we would have been happy to stay back. However, business turnovers can change a lot of things as happened in our case. It’s just natural evolution.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio, in whose district the West Berkeley business falls, expressed her disappointment at the news.  

“It will definitely mean a loss for the city. They are a Berkeley company, they grew up in Berkeley and are wonderful community-minded people. It’s always difficult to see this kind of a great business, a green business, go.” 

Maio recalled how she had worked with Mayor Tom Bates to adjust the city’s zoning laws so that the day-care center could be built at the company’s west Berkeley location. “We would have done anything to keep them here. They are the perfect kind of business for Berkeley. But around the time we were working on the zoning laws they found this perfectly lovely spot by the water in Alameda which was just too attractive to give up. Berkeley is a very built-up city and we don’t have a whole lot of space for expansion. I am really sorry to see them go but understand why they are doing it,” she said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington echoed her thoughts. “Berkeley unfortunately has lost a lot of these businesses over the years. It is troubling that we have so many businesses leaving all over the city. There are vacancies not only on Telegraph Av. but in other areas as well. We need to look at what can do to help businesses succeed. The city’s Department of Economic Development is currently understaffed and they are having a hard time trying to retain businesses.” 

Dave Fogarty, the city’s community development project coordinator, told the Planet that the main issue with expansion was that the Clif Bar headquarters was located at a site which was zoned for manufacturing, not offices. “We would have changed our zoning laws for an existing business in an existing building such as ClifBar to expand. But in the end Alameda with its promises of renewable access energy, ample parking, and a building large enough for an extensive solar-panel system was the ultimate choice.” 

Fogarty added that this kind of a move for a growing company was inevitable in a regional economy, and although Clif Bar was an environmental business that Berkeley would have liked to retain, their move would not prove disastrous for the city.  

Cisco de Vries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates, told the Planet that although the city would have wanted the office to stay, land in Berkeley was relatively scarce and expensive. “It’s a great company and we made every possible effort to keep them here but I guess Alameda won in the end.” 

 

 


Second Berkeley Cop Suspected of Evidence Theft

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 11, 2006

A Berkeley police patrol officer was suspended Wednesday, reportedly after a sting operation focusing on theft of evidence, the Daily Planet has learned.  

The officer in the current incident is reportedly a relative of a high-ranking official. 

Asked for confirmation, department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said “I can only tell you that an internal investigation is going on.” 

The incident marks the second time this year that a Berkeley officer has been accused of taking evidence. 

Sgt. Cary Kent was sentenced July 27 to a year of home detention after his guilty plea to charges stemming from the theft of drugs from the department’s drug vault. He wasn’t arrested until after he had been allowed to resign in January. 

A joint city-county investigation revealed that Kent had opened at least 181 evidence bags containing drugs seized by Berkeley police. 

The officer’s attorney claimed that he used the stolen drugs to treat pain caused by systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic autoimmune disease that results in inflammation of joints, skin and vital organs. 

In the current investigation, said one source who spoke on condition he not be named, a video camera recorded a search of the officer’s locker by agents the source identified as “from the Department of Justice.” The same source said the man’s home was also searched later. 

Under federal law, the U.S. Department of Justice is charged with investigation of police corruption carried out “under color of law”—although the investigation in the case of Sgt. Kent was conducted by city and county officers. A call to the spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office was not returned. 

The sting was initiated, sources said, following the discovery that evidence had been missing. At least one element of the sting reportedly included a cash-filled wallet from which some of the money was reportedly taken, said a source. 

While his office said Chief Douglas Hambleton was on vacation, another source said the chief had returned because of the investigation. 

Asked for confirmation, City Manager Phil Kamlarz said, “It’s one of those personnel issues I can’t comment on right now.” Asked when he might be able to comment, Kamlarz said, “We’re doing the usual review.” 

Reached at his office late Thursday afternoon, Cisco DeVries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates, said he hadn’t heard of the incident.  

Kriss Worthington said he also had not been informed, “but then I’m just a city councilmember.” 

Sgt. Kusmiss said that “By its nature, because it’s a personnel matter, it is confidential. If it becomes public record,” the department will release more information, “but officers and employees of the department are afforded due legal process.”


Major Discrepancies in Condo Conversion Initiative

By Rio Bauce
Friday August 11, 2006

There seems to have been some confusion over the facts of the Condo Conversion Initiative, which will be before Berkeley voters on the Nov. 7 ballot. As a result, the city may be forced to hire outside attorneys to sue itself to correct possible errors. 

On Monday afternoon, this reporter’s examination revealed that there was a major inconsistency between the versions of the initiative that various city officials and Berkeley residents had been discussing. 

All parties are now scrutinizing the provision that would change the time allotted for a pre-existing tenant to buy a rental unit converted to a condominium. Currently, the city ordinance allows one year after the landlord first offers to sell it to the tenant. The original version of the initiative proposed that the time be changed to 14 days with 30 more days to close the deal. But a second draft of the initiative changed the time allowed to 30 days with no time limit for closing the sale. City staff now claims proponents of the initiative told the city attorney that they had only changed the title, which is why the city attorney did not catch the changed time limit. 

“The city attorney told them to revise the title,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz when the Planet reporter asked about the discrepancy he’d discovered between the initiative and the city attorney’s analysis, which the council had approved for placing on the ballot at their July 25 meeting.”However, they also made a change in the initiative. Nobody was aware of the actual change.” 

“It would appear that we have an assemblymember and a mayor writing a ballot measure opposition argument on an initiative that they haven’t actually read,” said Michael Wilson, spokesman for the Berkeley Property Owners Association (BPOA). 

Kamlarz said that the initiative proponents made the change found in the second draft before they went out to collect signatures. He said that the council did approve language for the ballot question on the initiative that included the 30-day time period at their July 25 meeting. 

But since the city attorney’s analysis was based on the old version of the initiative, it says that the time limit for buying a converted unit is six weeks for a pre-existing tenant, a figure that apparently was based on adding 14 days and 30 days (which actually adds up to 44 days). In order to correct this problem, the city, essentially, must take itself to court. 

“There is a process for a technical change like this,” said Cisco Devries, chief of staff for Mayor Tom Bates. “The city has to go to court to get it fixed.” 

Kamlarz explained that the city is hiring an outside counsel to sue the city to correct the problem. 

“There are a couple of changes that must be made,” said Kamlarz. “The argument against the Condominium Conversion Initiative was based on the older version. We are suing to allow the opponents of this measure the opportunity of changing their argument. Additionally, the city attorney’s analysis was flawed, so that must be changed as well.” 

Kamlarz admitted that this was a big oversight. 

“The city attorney didn’t notice the changes in the first edition,” he said. “It was a staff mistake. The analysis was based on the wrong version.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring, District 4, hoped that the city attorney’s office is working hard to correct this. 

Spring said, “I hope that the city attorney’s office is going over the ballot measure and the analysis to make sure that there are no more blunders.” 

Kamlarz insisted that the outside counsel is looking over the initiative and has not caught any more significant errors. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, District 7, told the Daily Planet that he has asked another attorney to look over the initiative to make sure no other significant changes have been made. 

“The threat of 500 units of central housing being removed could cause catastrophic displacement on Berkeley tenants,” said Worthington.” We need to study every technicality and legality of the issue very closely.” 

Deputy City Attorney Zac Cowan did not return several phone calls or respond to repeated requests to meet with him regarding this matter. City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque is out of town until Monday. 

Wilson threw another question into the mix. 

“One real question is: What do we respond to?” said Wilson.” Do we respond to the incorrect argument or do you assume that it is to be changed [by the courts]?” 

City Clerk Sherry Kelly replied,”My understanding is that we are not going to court to do a new argument but to rectify the inaccuracy concerning the number of days ... Monday is still the day for the rebuttals. If the rebuttals perpetuate the error, we will have to go to court [to fix those] as well.”  

Councilmember Linda Maio, District 1, who took the lead in the opposition to the Condo Conversion Initiative, thinks voters need to understand the initiative. 

“The most important thing for us is to make sure that the voters have the right information,” said Maio.”We don’t know how much the proponents changed it and we must see if the changes were significant. We need to honor the voters.” 

When asked why opponents didn’t see the changes sooner, as the changes had been made back in April and posted on the city’s website, Maio replied, “I guess we were using the language provided to us by the city clerk. It shouldn’t have been that language at all. It speaks to the fact that we actually need to look over the initiative very closely.” 

An employee who preferred not to be named from the Housing Justice Coalition, an organization that helped draft the language for the initiative along with with Michael Wilson’s father David, told the Daily Planet that the confusion regarding the initiative language was the fault of the city staff and declined to accept responsibility on behalf of her organization. 

“They should’ve changed it,” said the source. “I know that the people I work for have worked to do everything as insanely legal as possible. The city clerk had the new language several months ago. All infrastructures are happy with the status quo. My bosses are trying to shuffle around the status quo. They knew that they were going to get picked at.” 

This isn’t the first time that the city attorney’s office has been charged with writing incorrect language for an initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot. The battle over the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Initiative also drew comments insinuating that Deputy City Attorney Cowan didn’t provide a fair ballot analysis. 

“Zac is a professional, who has had many years in Berkeley,” said John McBride, secretary of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. “We just saw many things that were not realistic in his analysis.” 

During the City Council’s July 25 meeting, City Attorney Albuquerque told the council that she was trying to make treatment of the Condo Conversion Initiative as unbiased as possible. Whether she succeeded or not is now part of the discussion among all parties.


Broken Crosswalk Lights Hazardous for Disabled

By Rio Bauce
Friday August 11, 2006

Broken Santa Rosa lights at the corner of Parker and Telegraph have been causing difficulties for blind people and other pedestrians. These lights, which are embedded in the roadway and activated by a push button, flash to notify drivers that pedestrians are coming and that they need to stop. On Tuesday morning, the Berkeley Office of Transportation was notified that the light at Parker and Telegraph streets wasn’t working. 

“I got an e-mail from Councilmember [Kriss] Worthington himself, indicating that it was not working and I directed it to the electrical crew,” said Tamalyn Bright, Office of Transportation. “We found out that our electrical crew had decided to refer it to Silicon Constellations, an outside contractor.” 

When Worthington was informed of the update, he replied, “We are very grateful to Tamalyn for her rapid response.” 

George Conklin, nearby Berkeley resident, first noticed the malfunction of the lights on Sunday night and reported it to Worthington. 

“I live on Parker and I occasionally walk up to Telegraph,” said Conklin. “I push it every time I go up there and this time it wasn’t functioning. Why should such a recent system stop working?” 

Craig Martin, account manager for Silicon Constellations, Inc., answered, “It turns out that we did an evaluation on this system. We discovered that the installation was not hooked up properly. The crew did not hook up the activator controller and that is why the system is down. We are hoping to get it up and working by Friday or Saturday.” 

“It has a tremendous impact on the visually impaired community,” said Chris Mullin, information referral specialist for the Center for Independent Living, a Berkeley disabled rights advocacy group that helps disabled people live independently in the community, and which is located just blocks away from the Parker and Telegraph street corner. “The lights have served as a real aid to their independence. If they don’t have that, they need to rely on people on the street who either help them physically or just verbally indicate that it is okay to cross.” 

Santa Rosa lights, or blinking traffic lights, first gained prominence in Berkeley when former Councilmember Polly Armstrong joined with other Berkeley residents to implement this system at the corner of Claremont Avenue and Brookside Drive. Pedestrians were concerned about crossing busy intersections.  

“I was searching for ways to make it safer to cross the road,” said Armstrong. “I had read about the lights and thought that it was a great idea.” 

Since then, due to their success in reducing car-to-pedestrian accidents, Berkeley has installed these systems all around the city at major intersections. 

 

 

The Santa Rosa light system at the corner of Parker Street and Telegraph Avenue has been causing problems for the disabled. Photograph by Rio Bauce.


Telegraph Area Association Revival Under Consideration

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 11, 2006

By Richard Brenneman 

 

Moribund since the city cut off its funding and reeling from the loss of $14,000 to a possible fraud, the Telegraph Area Association (TAA) may be planning a comeback. 

“We have some organizational issues to deal with first,” said TAA President Bruce Miller. 

“I’m concerned with what’s been happening on Telegraph,” said Jesse Arreguin, a UC Berkeley student and city commissioner who served on the association board. “There are ways to improve the avenue, and the association was the perfect vehicle for bringing people together.” 

“We’re trying to reorganize them, to bring them back,” said City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose district centers along the avenue’s length from UC Berkeley to the Oakland border. 

The councilmember has a special insight into the organization, since he served as its executive director prior to his election. 

The group was formed in 1993 in response to the effort to create the Southside Plan, and was funded jointly by the city and the university—with the university providing office space in a Victorian cottage owned by the school. 

The organization operated with a 25-member board, which included merchants, UC faculty, students and staff, members of the Willard Neighborhood Association and other community activists. 

“Back when the TAA was in its heyday, it was a good forum to bring together the city and the university, residents and students,” said Worthington. “It was very eclectic. I’d like to see it resurrected with an active board. I’ve written a proposal called ‘Transforming TAA’ with a range of possibilities.” 

In light of the July closing of the flagship Cody’s Books and increasing commercial vacancies on the troubled street, Worthington said it’s a perfect time to revitalize the association. 

But the TAA suffered a near-fatal blow when the city cut off funding during the fiscal year 2005 budget crisis, Miller said. 

Clinics administrator for UC Berkeley’s School of Optometry, he said that with the loss of city money, the TAA had decided not to seek funds form the university 

“We were working on some good things,” said Arreguin. “Unfortunately, the organization just stopped functioning with the budget cuts. Telegraph definitely needs improvement. There’s a vacancy problem, but because the rents are so high, it’s not easy for small businesses.” 

 

Accomplishments 

One major accomplishment grew out of the association’s concern with the perennial Telegraph problem of the homeless—a condition often linked with substance abuse. 

Then-TAA Executive Director Kathy Berger spearheaded the Neighborhood Partnership on Homelessness, a coalition that included representatives of the city’s Department of Health and Human Services, BOSS and Options Recovery. 

The study they produced, “Detox—the Missing Step in Berkeley’s Continuum of Care—One Neighborhood’s Approach,” played a major role in convincing the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to support creation of a detox center in 2004. 

The board voted $2 million a year in Measure A funds for the program, which is scheduled to open next May (see story, Page Six). 

Berger said the group chalked up some major accomplishments, including the creation of the Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District, a city-mandated body that assesses merchants a fee to fund improvements along the commercial corridor. 

But that creation has become in some ways a rival. “The B.I.D. represents the commercial real estate industry—not the businesses or residents,” Worthington said. 

The association also worked with the city and university to put together a health and safety team for the area, what Berger called “a mobile crisis intervention team geared toward disenfranchised populations on the street to help them get off the street.” 

“She was very effective at bringing in city services, too, especially mental health,” said Andy Katz, a board member who also serves on the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board. 

Another major accomplishment was the renovation of the Sather Gate Garage, including a new ticket system and replacement of broken elevators to make shopping on Telegraph more convenient. 

“Parking has always been an issue,” Berger said. 

Among the TAA’s other legacies are the Southside Plan, the creation of a Good Sam Policy between the university and the neighborhood to prevent and manage disorders, and the annual Berkeley World Music Festival and the Jazz Festival.  

Berger said the task ahead is formidable. “I went over to Telegraph recently, and when I saw all the vacant storefronts, my heart went out to the neighborhood. But since Cody’s left along with some other stores, there’s a lot of energy to renovate.” 

The city has brought Berger back, but this time as a consultant to look at the association and evaluate its future prospects. 

“When she was executive director, the organization was very effective at bringing together a lot of diverse interests,” said Katz. “The city is fortunate to have her.” 

 

Funding issues  

One key question Miller said must be addressed is whether to restructure TAA, dissolve it and start something new, or turn the shell of the non-profit corporation over to another group to revive in a new form. 

Berger, now an independent consultant based in San Francisco, is working with Miller on just those questions. 

But the biggest issue confronting the association is funding. 

“While I was successful in getting grants from foundations while I was executive director, they were for specific projects,” she said. “Long-term funding is more difficult.” 

Though the neighborhood has a very low average income, when grant-givers look at the reasons they discover that the key factor is the presence of students. 

“They see that as a voluntary situation,” she said. “But when they look at areas like Richmond, parts of Oakland, the Tenderloin (in San Francisco) and the Canal in San Rafael, they see that people who live there do so because they can’t afford to live anywhere else.” 

And, given the choice, donors will fund programs in those areas rather than Berkeley, she said. 

“An organization like the TAA is desperately needed, but it will need funds from the City of Berkeley and UC because of those reasons,” Berger said. “We did get grants when I was there, but they were for things like the World Music Festival and the Southside Plan. But the core funding has to come from the city and UC.” 

One problem still to be resolved is the loss of $14,000 from the TAA’s checking account, which Miller attributed to the organizational chaos that followed after Kathy Berger left the post of executive director. 

“Things came unraveled,” he said, blaming ineffective controls. “The new executive director wasn’t as effective, and as a result, the checking account was held in an insecure way. There seems to have been fraud perpetrated in relation to the control of the checks. We are working to resolve the situation with Bank of America.” 

The missing funds were reported to UC Berkeley police last October, and an investigation is continuing, said Miller. “They are working with the Berkeley Police Department,” he said. 

And there’s still another problem—the impending loss of the organization’s offices in the 1876 John Woolley House, now at 2509 Haste St., which is owned by the University of California and sited on a UC-owned lot. 

As plans now stand, the house is slated for relocation to make room for a new mixed-use housing and commercial building planned for the corner of Telegraph and Haste—a development promoted as a major new economic stimulus to the ailing avenue.


Ashby BART Project Spurs Rise of Community Groups

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 11, 2006

As plans for development at the Ashby BART station continue under a city-designated task force, alternative groups are sprouting up in South Berkeley. 

Two small groups met Wednesday night, both starting at 7 o’clock. 

One, a group of Prince Street neighbors, discussed the project in a gathering partly devoted to a review of their annual block party last Sunday. 

The other group, United We Stand and Deliver (UWSD), met in the community room at the Harriet Tubman Terrace apartments on Adeline Street. 

Another, larger gathering is expected Tuesday night, which will bring together the Russell/Oregon/California streets (ROC) and Lorin neighborhood associations and Neighbors of Ashby Bart (NABART) with task force member Andy DeGiovanni. 

That meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. 

Meanwhile, the co-chair of the official Ashby BART Task Force said his group wants to be independent as it embarks on a nine-month process of formulating proposals for development on the western parking lot of the South Berkeley BART station. 

“We are trying to steer an independent course,” said John Selawsky, a South Berkeley resident who also serves on the board of the Berkeley Unified School district. 

The task force was picked by the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation (SBNDC), which had been given the task by the city council in December. 

At the time, the city was seeking a $120,000 Caltrans grant to fund the planning process for a project of more than 300 condominiums to be built over commercial spaces on the parking lot. 

The task force’s first meetings drew a large and often angry public, sparked by concerned neighbors who were roused by fears of intensive development, the threat of eminent domain (a process the city councilmembers say they renounce for the project) and its potential to lead to increased congestion and loss of parking. 

Faced with strong opposition and the council’s own rejection of key points in the grant application, Caltrans denied the funding request. 

While Mayor Tom Bates and City Councilmember Max Anderson—the project’s principal sponsors—said they were considering a broader planning process looking at the Adeline Street corridor, the proposal they brought back to the council allocated $40,000 of city funds to study development on the same site as the original proposal. That’s the project Selawsky’s panel is now tackling.  

“We were selected by the SBNDC and authorized by the City of Berkeley, and the city council did authorize some funding and staff,” said Selawsky, “but since the city didn’t appoint us, I see us as an independent,” he said. “As far as I know, we are not subject to the Brown Act,” a state law governing the conduct of public agencies and boards. 

 

Alternative groups 

Both UWSD and NABART arose in response to the city’s December announcement of plans to seek the Caltrans grant. 

Another organization still in the process of formation is Imagine South Berkeley, which aims to provide a forum that will engage a broader segment of the community in evolving a vision of what they would like to see happen, said Kenoli Oleari, a community organizer. 

“We want to involve more than the usual advocacy groups that always turn out,” Oleari said. “We want to involve ordinary people of South Berkeley, the people who have a lot more at stake. 

“Imagine South Berkeley wants to focus on much more than just what we do at Ashby BART,” he said. 

UWSD activist Martin Vargas, a South Berkeley letter carrier, told Wednesday night’s gathering that he’d like to see parks. 

Chris Lien agreed, pointing out that Measure L, a 1986 initiative endorsed by Berkeley voters, requires existing open space in the city to be preserved for parks. 

“This was passed as a high priority initiative, and has priority over any other laws in Berkeley except state and federal mandates,” said Lien. “This is the controlling law.” 

Measure L require two acres of parks for every 1,000 people. “We have 12,000 people in South Berkeley. We should have 24 acres of parks, but we have only six. We’re short 18 acres,” he said. “Where else could we come up with those acres?” 

Vargas said parks are critical in South Berkeley, which has many children and few places to play and exercise. 

Another concern raised by the group was the possible move of the South Berkeley branch library to the Ed Roberts Campus, a project now in development at the eastern Ashby BART parking lot that will provide a home for organizations providing programs and advocacy for the disabled. 

“I understand it’s because they’re short of funds and want as many tenants to move in as they can get,” said Lien. 

“I would like to know what would go in where the library is now,” said Gianna Ranuzzi, a member of the LeConte Neighborhood Association. 

UWSD meets every second Wednesday, and the organization posts news of its meetings and events at Black & White Liquors at 3027 Adeline St., which is owned by member Sucha Singh Banger.


Assembly Bill Puts Comcast Cable Contract in Doubt

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 11, 2006

The City of Berkeley’s future plans to re-negotiate its contract with Comcast Corporation, the current provider of cable video services in Berkeley, stand to be threatened if a state-level legislative bill demanding the elimination of the role of local government in the franchise process is passed as early as Monday 

At the state level, Assembly Bill AB2987, sponsored by Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-L.A), was approved (77-0) by the state Assembly in June 2006 and will be going in front of the Appropriations Committee on Monday. 

If this bill passes, it will allow multiple franchisees into the public right of way, and will prevent local government from issuing exclusive franchises or extracting additional fees from any franchisee who wishes to provide video services to residents and businesses in the community.  

However, a newly introduced amendment by Sen. Joe Simitian (D—Palo Alto) may be able to rescue funding for local organizations such as Berkeley Community Media. This amendment will be put forward to the committee on Monday and will make the bill less damaging for community media. 

The amendment to AB2987 which has been enorsed by the Alliance for Community Media, states that “AB2987 must [maintain] [provide] the much needed financial support for the public, education, and government access (PEG) centers in the community. The ACM amendments recognize that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach shortchanges our state's smaller communities, and would force many existing PEG centers that serve them to slash services or even close their doors. The ACM amendments preserve the agreements that support existing community media centers and provide opportunities to build new centers throughout California.” 

The city’s current contract with Comcast Corp. is set for expiration on November 12, 2007. If the bill passes, Comcast will no longer need to renew its contract with the city and will be able to enter into a contract with the state. 

“This legislation could wipe out local control altogether. I am extremely concerned about the loss of funding which could undermine Berkeley Community Media and the city’s cable funding,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “These bills will eliminate the local government’s role in the franchise process and place it at the State level. Telecommunications law could be modified in a way that would threaten the city’s telecommunications revenue, control over the public right of way, or its ability to negotiate cable/video service agreements,” he added. 

Groups such as The League of California Cities Telecommunications Task Force and the States of California and Nevada chapter of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (SCAN NATOA) have been actively trying to work with the bill’s author to create a mutually acceptable piece of legislation that would protect the interests of local government. 

Sally Williams, former chairperson of the Telecommunications Task Force and a member of SCAN NATOA told the Planet that despite these attempts the bill is all set to pass next week. “It’s pretty much a done deal. The city has sent out letters and has been very involved in the whole franchising process. But the telecommunication companies have been very persuasive and they no longer want to pay the franchisee fees to the city.” 

City staff has assisted Assemblywoman Loni Hancock and Mayor Tom Bates since Spring 2006 to advocate for the preservation of local city authority in the regulation of cable video franchises. According to a letter submitted by City Manager Phil Kamlarz to Mayor Tom Bates and the City Council, the main items that need protection in the new legislation include the following: local public access programming, institutional networks for local government, an adequate definition of franchise fees for local governments, permitting authority for telecom work in the public right of way, consumer protections, and anti-redlining provisions to ensure full system buildout among others. 

Williams added that the legislation would revolutionize how people get telecommunication services, phone services, Internet services, and video services in their homes.  

“The telecom and cable companies will have a free hand in saying what is Basic Cable. There will be a greater digital divide. Services will be very costly but the quality of service will be inferior,” she said. 

Williams added that although cities across California have held public meetings asking community members about their ideas on the subject, Berkeley has refrained from doing so. “The city was supposed to be representing the subscribers. It’s very unfortunate that the community was kept out of the loop. So much could have been done through letter campaigns,” she said. 

The city’s cable franchise for video services has been renewed and transferred several times since its initiation in 1968, with the most recent being the transfer of the franchise from AT&T to Comcast Corporation in 2002. The local franchising authority status that the city obtained from the FCC in 1992 allows it to regulate the rates for Basic Cable, the rates for installation and repair, as well as to enforce customer service standards which will all be taken away if the bill passes.  

The city received a total of $667,000 in franchise fees on cable service for fiscal year 2005. Changes in state and federal law could lead to reduced revenues to the City from these sources.


Cinema Workers, Management Discuss Grievances

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday August 11, 2006

Shattuck Cinema workers and union representatives met with management on Wednesday to negotiate pay raises, and other basic demands including uniforms and grievance procedures. 

Landmark Cinemas, the parent company of Shattuck Cinemas, and the owner of 58 other theaters all over the United States, had frozen pay increases for workers for over a year, citing problems with funds. 

In an e-mail to union representatives on Aug. 4, Landmark announced that the pay increase freeze was being removed and that they were readjusting wages to be competitive in the market. Harjit Gill of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the union for Shattuck Cinema workers, said that this was an effort to keep the workers from unionizing. 

“They feel that any kind of increase, however small or nonexistent, will satisfy workers,” he said.  

“Workers wanted to meet with management to negotiate the terms and conditions of the proposal that Landmark had put forward. For example the proposal lets certain workers get up to a dollar as a raise and there are others who receive zero cents. We asked the management why this was so and demanded an increase for all. We believe that all workers should be rewarded for their hard work. Overall the meeting helped us to make some good gains. The management has promised us a decision within the next forty eight hours.” 

According to Gill, the workers did not have a problem with the current management at Shattuck Cinemas. Instead their disagreements were with those higher-up in Landmark Cinemas, which is based out of Los Angeles. 

Gill said that workers also wanted a “non-discriminatory” clause included in their contract which is currently not available to “at-will” employees. 

Some kind of a resolution was also supposed to be reached regarding the workers’ uniforms. Currently the workers are not happy with their uniforms and want management to change them. 

Workers have also asked for a chair for the person who rips the ticket at the entrance of the theater because at present he doesn’t get to sit down for seven to eight hours straight. The management was not in support of this because they think that it is unprofessional. 

There is also currently no break room for the cinema workers to gather in during their free time, which workers feel is necessary.  

The other important thing that workers want to negotiate on is the final step of the grievance procedure which includes a mediator who steps in to resolve disputes between the company and the workers. The workers want to employ the services of the Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services whereas the company wants them to use an arbitrator, which the union feels is less localized and steeped in bureaucracy. 

Another issue which was discussed at the meeting had to do with the scheduling of the workers. Currently, the management puts up a schedule once a week and workers have to stick to that. The workers along with the union have proposed that the management let the workers do the scheduling. “Although we know that the management will never agree to this the workers would like to pick someone from among themselves once a month who would be in charge of the scheduling,” said Gill. 

Gill added that community members in Berkeley were very supportive of the workers. “We have people coming to our rallies, giving us donations and even writing letters to the management at Landmark to back us up. We were very happy to see councilmember Kriss Worthington at our meeting on Wednesday. He supports the workers because he thinks that they make the city function.” 

Councimember Worthington told the Planet that he had attended the meeting to let the management know that the public was in support of the workers rights and wanted them to have a fair contract. “With respect to the chair that the workers want for the person who rips the tickets, I think its highly doable. I don’t think Bay Area moviegoers would find it disrespectful at all. It’s a simple accomodation and won’t even cost them any money. It’s absurd that the management don’t want to grant them this request.” 


Detox Center Emerges From Telegraph Group’s Work

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 11, 2006

Starting in May, Alameda County will have a new program to handle substance abusers, fulfilling the long-time dreams of Berkeley activists and city officials. 

May 4, 2007, is the scheduled opening date for the county’s first detox and sobering centers, which will be located on the grounds of the Alameda County Medical Center’s Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro. 

“Berkeley really did its part as a community to get this ball rolling,” said city Director of Health and Human Services Fred Medrano. 

“A lot of the concerns came out of a group from the Telegraph Area Association working with my staff. We wrote up a report and took it to the county and other stakeholders, and it’s really gratifying to see that it got results,” he said. 

“Telegraph Area played a big part in bringing everybody together,” said Barbara Becker, the Alameda County Behavioral Health Care program specialist who has been spearheading the project.  

“We’ve been pushing for this for years,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz. “It’s been one of the missing cogs in our whole health care system. It will be a big asset for an issue we face on a day-to-day basis.” 

“Blessed be!” said Osha Neumann, an attorney who advocates on behalf of Berkeley’s homeless population. “It’s about time.” 

The new facilities will be housed in existing buildings at Fairmont that will be specially renovated to meet the needs of the programs. 

Schematic drawings for the project are already in hand, said one county official, and the project will go to bid soon with construction to start in January. 

In addition to the $2 million annual appropriation from Measure A funds, an additional $150,000 has been earmarked for the program in the federal spending program Congress will take up after the November elections. 

 

Unexpected gap 

But it’s all coming late, officials acknowledged. 

“You’d expect that in a county as progressive as we are that we would’ve already had a detox program for low-income people,” said Medrano. 

While there are plenty of programs available for those with money and good insurance, police and emergency intervention personnel all too often are forced to send those incapacitated by alcohol and other drugs to drunk tanks or emergency rooms, Medrano said. 

Both alternatives can be much more expensive than treatment in a specially dedicated facility. 

Asked for estimates of how many people from Berkeley might be rerouted to the new facilities, Medrano cited a study that compared rates of arrests in Alameda County cities for violation of Penal Code Section 647f, which makes it a misdemeanor to be so intoxicated in public that one is a danger to self or others, who obstructs streets or sidewalks. 

By that standard, Berkeley ranks fourth in the county, with an average of 38 monthly arrests between July 2005 and January of this year. 

Oakland was highest with 123, followed by Hayward with 67 and Alameda with 66. 

Neumann said those figures only represent the tip of the iceberg. 

“I run a citation defense clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center with Boalt Hall students as advocates, and we deal with a whole range of citations that result from alcohol and other substance abuse problems,” Neumann said. “Most of them are ‘quality of life’ citations for offenses like trespassing and possession of an open container that don’t show up as a 647f.” 

Instead, the offenses fall under the Berkeley Municipal or the state Business & Professions codes, he said. 

Another, more revealing, figure cited by Medrano might be the 40 percent of Alameda County’s chronically homeless people who make Berkeley their home base. 

“Many of these people are dependent on alcohol or drugs, and many suffer from mental illness or disabilities,” he said. 

 

Location, location 

Finding a place for the program proved difficult. 

Alameda County Alcohol, Drugs & Mental Health Services Director Dr. Marye L. Thomas outlined the problems in a letter to the March 24 meeting of the Measure A Oversight Committee: 

“Despite the overwhelming broad community consensus that detox/sobering is a critical community need, there has been equally overwhelming opposition to having it located in any local community. 

“Despite the community’s expressed desire for a north county site, the only acceptable location we have found is on county-owned property,” and at a location that would increase transport costs. 

“The closest it ever got to Berkeley was North Oakland or Emeryville,” said Kamlarz. “Still, it’s closer than where we have to go now, like San Mateo County.” 

Neumann said that to find a program that would take one of his clients—a man who really wanted to kick his alcohol habit—“I had to drive all the way up to Roseville. There was no place else to go.” 

The new program will utilize a three-pronged approach, incorporating a “sobering station,” an in-patient detox program and a transportation system using mobile vans to bring patients to the program. 

The sobering station “is something like a drunk tank but in a health care environment so that patients can sober up and be assessed to get them into the right resources,” Medrano said. 

Detox will be a longer, three-to-five-day inpatient program to enable substances abusers to clear their systems. 

“There’s never enough time,” said Neumann. “Even the 31-day maximum stay allowed by some programs isn’t enough, and there’s often not enough follow-up.” 

Becker said the 39-bed detox program scheduled to open in May will be followed by the 50-person sobering center six months later. 

The sobering center is designed to provide agencies an alternative to emergency rooms and drunk tanks for dealing with inebriates who need to “sleep it off,” said Becker. 

The facility will offer sexually segregated areas and special facilities for older patients and those with other problems in addition to alcoholism. 

Becker acknowledged that there’s still a shortage of longer-term treatment facilities, but notes that the country currently contracts for about $25 million in adult drug treatment services. 

She reserved special praise for Bill Riess, a psychoanalyst on the county’s planning committee who originally served as the Telegraph Area Association representative. 

“Though the association has gone dormant and he has no official status, he’s continuing to work with us and he’s been a great help,” she said.


Activists Give Perata Deadline on Oakland School District Property Sale

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 11, 2006

A group of Oakland education and political leaders and activists have given state Sen. Don Perata until Aug. 16 to either meet with them directly or issue a statement opposing the pending sale of the Oakland Unified School District administration building and property and several adjacent schools. 

That was the result of a meeting this week between representatives of the Ad Hoc Committee to Restore Local Control to the Oakland Unified School District and aides to the state Senate president at Perata’s Oakland headquarters. The Ad Hoc Committee has been leading the fight to stop the proposed OUSD downtown property sale by the state and to restore local control to the Oakland schools, which was removed in 2003 in legislation authored by Sen. Perata.  

Sen. Perata is “avoiding us as much as possible” said Ad Hoc Committee member Henry Hitz following the meeting. Hitz, the coordinator for the Oakland Parents Together community group, added, “He doesn’t want to take a position on the sale. But a neutral position is actually a position in favor of the sale because the sale is going through. We told his people that there is a new political reality in Oakland, and if he wants to continue running for political office in this city, he’s going to have to be flexibile. He’s been flexible in the past.”  

Pamela Drake, a former City Council aide and City Council District Two candidate, said that committee members attending the meeting had asked why Perata was not present at the meeting himself. “We were all pretty offended that he wasn’t there.” Drake said committee members told Perata aides that “regardless of what position the state senator may or may not be taking behind closed doors, politics is about perception. If the state senator does not come out in the public and take a position against the sale, everyone in Oakland will perceive that he could have stopped the sale, but he chose not to. He’s the second most powerful office holder in the state.” 

A year ago, Drake was one of several Oakland residents arrested in the office of outgoing OUSD state administrator Randolph Ward while demanding that State Superintendent for Public Instruction Jack O’Connell come to Oakland and address the state-run operation of the Oakland schools. Following the arrests that resulted in statewide publicity, O’Connell eventually came to a standing-room-only meeting at Oakland Technical High School.  

Following the meeting between the Ad Hoc Committee members and Perata’s aides, Perata’s press secretary, Alicia Trost, said in a telephone statement that “Don is still staying out of this. We’re still saying no comment.” 

Perata last made public reference to the proposed property sale in a June 12 letter sent to State Superintendent for Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, in which the state senator wrote “at the district’s request, the legislature amended state law to allow the proceeds of the sale or lease of this property to pay back the state loan. While I support using these funds to reduce the district’s debt, it is important that appropriate public review and comment precede final decision on the sale. … Concerns like these can be allayed by a public presentation by the state administrator at a public hearing held before any formal sale negotiations commence.” 

While provisions for the sale or lease of the OUSD property were originally included in Perata’s bill, the provision for the lease of the property was taken out before the bill was finally passed by the legislature (see accompanying sidebar on the history of the property provisions of SB39). 

OUSD has scheduled three public hearings on the proposed property sale, with the second one slated for 5: 30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16 at the district’s Second Avenue administration building. There is no word if O’Connell will attend and make a presentation, although members of the Oakland Unified School District board of trustees have also requested him to come to Oakland to hear from residents and explain his position on the proposed sale. 

O’Connell is currently negotiating the proposed sale of 8.25 acres of Lake Merritt-area OUSD property to a group of east coast-based developers. O’Connell has the authority to sell the property under legislation authored by Perata in 2003 that authorized the state takeover of the Oakland school district. Under the signed letter of intent with the developers, O’Connell has until mid-September to make the deal before the developers lose their exclusive negotiating rights.


The Curious History of the OUSD Land Sale As Told in the Legislative Record

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 11, 2006

SB39, the bill that authorized the state takeover of the Oakland Unified School District, was introduced in abbreviated form in January 2003 by state Sen. Don Perata, with no details included. 

On March 27, 2003, the Oakland Unified School District Board of Trustees passed a resolution requesting the bailout loan from the State of California. That resolution read, in part, that “on or before June 30, 2004, the district be allowed to declare as surplus property and sell or lease such property on or before June 30, 2004, and use the proceeds from any such sale or lease to reduce or retire the State loan …” 

The key provision is that the board of trustees resolution called for either the sale or the lease of surplus district property to help retire the state debt. 

On April 7, 2003, SB39’s details were filled in with amendments by Sen. Perata, including a provision that read: “The bill would authorize the district … to declare as surplus property any property of the district and to sell, sell back, lease or leaseback that property on or before June 30, 2004, and use the proceeds from that transaction to reduce or retire the loan.” 

That language was included when the bill was amended on April 21. 

On April 24, however, all language authorizing the sale or lease of surplus property to help retire the state debt was taken out of the bill when it was passed by the state Senate and sent to the Assembly. 

On May 14, when SB39 was referred to the Assembly Commmittee on Appropriations, the clause authorizing the sale or lease of the surplus OUSD property to help retire the state debt was re-inserted into the bill. However, a new clause was inserted into the bill, stating that “this subdivision [authorizing the sale or lease of the surplus property] applies only to surplus property that is currently used to house administrative services or used as warehouse space.” 

On May 22, the bill was amended, again, on the floor of the Assembly, taking out the provision that limited the property sale to property “used to house administrative services or used as warehouse space.” At the same time, the provisions authorizing the leasing of the surplus property to help retire the debt were taken out of the bill. It also took out the term “surplus,” meaning that it applied to any property owned by the district. The final provision read: “The bill would authorize the district…to sell property of the district and use the proceeds from that transaction to reduce or retire the emergency loan.” 

On May 29, the Senate concurred in the amendments to the bill passed by the Assembly, and SB39 was approved by the governor on the following day. 

No official explanation is given in SB39’s legislative history as to why the provisions to lease property to help retire the debt were taken out of the bill. 

 


Police Blotter

By Richard Brenneman
Friday August 11, 2006

Gangs of three 

UC Berkeley police nabbed one suspected trio of strong-arm robbers and are looking for a second following a pair of heists this week, reports Chief Victoria L. Harrison. 

The first group struck about 9:40 p.m. Monday, stealing the purse of a UC student as she was walking near the corner of Ellsworth Street and Bancroft Way. 

That trio was last seen beating the pavement eastbound on Durant Avenue heading toward Telegraph. 

The second gang of three—all juveniles—struck at 7:20 p.m. Tuesday, when they robbed a 20-year-old woman who was walking eastbound in the 2400 block of Channing Way near Residential Unit III. 

One of the bandits grabbed her neck from behind and threw her to the ground, where the trio surrounded her as one of them grabbed her purse. 

Minutes after the woman reported the robbery, a university officer spotted a threesome matching her description walking along Bancroft Way. 

When a search turned up some of the items stolen from the woman, all three—a 16-year-old and two 14-year-olds—were booked on suspicion of robbery.


News Analysis: Hundreds of Mexican Miners Fired for Striking

By David Bacon, New America Media
Friday August 11, 2006

NACOZARI, Sonora, Mexico—Just days after conservative candidate Felipe Calderon declared himself the winner of Mexico’s July 2 presidential election, the Mexican federal labor board lowered the boom on striking miners. At Nacozari, one of the world’s largest copper mines, just a few miles south of Arizona, 1,400 miners have been on strike since March 24. On July 12 the board said they’d abandoned their jobs, and gave the mine’s owner, Grupo Mexico, permission to close down operations. 

Under Mexican labor law, during a legal strike a company must stop production. The use of strikebreakers is illegal, and no enterprise can close while workers are on strike. By ruling that there was no legal stoppage, and that Grupo Mexico could therefore close the mine, the board gave the company a legal pretext to fire every miner. 

The closure was a legal fiction. In the days that followed, mine managers began soliciting applications from workers for jobs when the mine reopens. Some of the very miners who were terminated may be accepted back as new employees—but with no seniority and no union contract. And not everyone will be going back. Those most active in the strike are on a blacklist. 

On the day of the announcement, Sonora Gov. Bours Castelo issued arrest warrants against 21 strikers. The two striking local unions offered to sit down with the company to work out a solution to the conflict, but Bours Castelo responded that the union contract no longer existed. “Negotiations are no longer possible,” he declared, “since the union no longer has any bargaining relationship with the company.” 

These were the latest efforts by Mexico’s outgoing conservative Fox administration to force an end to a labor war that has rocked the country for six months, a war that has the beneficiaries of Mexico’s privatization land rush worried. It is no coincidence that Fox moved quickly to crush the strike once Calderon, his hand-picked successor, declared himself elected, in the midst of accusations of fraud and huge demonstrations demanding a recount. 

Unions in the country’s mines and mills are determined to roll back the conservative economic reforms of the past two decades. A victory by Calderon’s opponent, former Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, would increase the political pressure for such a rollback. According to the country’s business interests, however, Mexico must be brought back under control instead. 

Last April steel workers stopped work at the huge Sicartsa steel mill in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, and have occupied it since then in a planton, or tent city. Local police tried unsuccessfully to stop their strike on April 20, shooting and killing two union workers. Miners at Mexico’s other huge copper mine at Cananea went on strike in June. 

Nacozari and Cananea are owned by Grupo Mexico, which in turn belongs to one of the country’s wealthiest families, the Larreas. The Sicartsa mill belongs to Grupo Villacero, which is the family business of the wealthy Villareal clan. Both families owe their enormous wealth to the wave of privatization that transformed the Mexican economy in the 1990s, in which they were virtually given their mines and mills. 

Grupo Mexico’s board of directors now includes directors of Kimberly Clark Mexico (the family business of U.S. Congressman James Sensenbrenner, author of last year’s anti-immigrant bill HR 4437) and the Carlyle Group (whose board included former President George Bush Sr.) In the 1990s, Grupo Mexico’s mushrooming capital gave it the resources to buy one of the oldest and largest mining companies in the United States, American Smelting and Refining Co. 

Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, head of the Mexican Union of Mine, Metal and Allied Workers, says, “They think we’re like a cancer, and should be exterminated. This is no longer a country that can be called a democracy.” The effort by Fox to remove him from his union’s leadership was the flashpoint that set off the last few months of conflict. 

Two days after 65 miners died last February in a huge coal mine explosion, Gomez Urrutia accused the Secretary of Labor and Grupo Mexico, the mine’s owner, of “industrial homicide.” Corruption charges most unions view as bogus were filed against him less than a week later. Meanwhile, workers at Nacozari, Cananea and Lazaro Cardenas struck, demanding his reinstatement. 

In a July report, the National Human Rights Commission found that the local office of the federal labor ministry had “clear knowledge” before the accident of the conditions that would set off the explosion. Since the accident, eight miners in other mines have died in accidents. 

The same day Fox’s labor board announced it would allow Grupo Mexico to fire the Nacozari miners, his administration also issued arrest warrants against six other mine union leaders on corruption charges and raided the union’s national office in Mexico City. Facing the threat of closure at their own mine, the union local at Cananea then voted to end their strike, while at Sicartsa, the strike goes on. 

In the meantime, however, Gomez Urrutia and his family fled Mexico. Fox has formally asked Canada for his extradition. 

Mexicans headed for the polls in the middle of this turmoil. Grupo Mexico and Grupo Villacero poured money into Calderon’s campaign, funding commercials predicting chaos if Obrador was elected. 

Since the July 2 election, huge national demonstrations, including the miners and most progressive unions, have demanded a recount after accusations of fraud threw Calderon’s tiny margin of victory into doubt. Whether or not they win a recount, this labor conflict will continue. Two weeks after the election, as Grupo Mexico announced it was firing the Nacozari miners, an anonymous spokesperson for Scotiabank, one of Mexico’s largest, told Reuters news service that Mexican business welcomed the action against the strikers. “This sets a precedent, so the workers will think harder,” he threatened.


City Landmarks Bevatron Site, Not Bevatron Building

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 08, 2006

The battle over landmarking the Bevatron building ended Thursday when a city panel voted to bestow the honorific not on the structure itself but on the ground beneath. 

The 5-4 decision by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) ended an agonizing process that had lasted through months and a long series of deadlocked votes. 

“We’re going to landmark a site. This is starting a precedent that has never happened before,” said Commissioner Lesley Emmington, one of the dissenters. 

“The building seems eminently suited to landmarking to me,” said Gary Parsons. 

In adopting the motion by Burton Edwards, the commission called out the details of the revolutionary discoveries made within the massive circular building, as well as the discoverers—while leaving out all mention of the structure and its unique architecture. 

“This application was made by the public,” Emmington said, and called for designating the building and its historical significance. 

Commissioner Carrie Olson cast the deciding vote, supporting a motion by Edwards that called on the university to memorialize the groundbreaking research carried out on what was once the world’s foremost subatomic particle accelerator. 

“So we have a new landmark site,” said Chair Robert Johnson after the vote in which he opted for the Edwards motion. “It’s a complex issue.” 

The commission has been wrestling with the issue since last December, when it conducted its first hearing on a proposal by LA Wood to designate the building that led to four Nobel Prizes for research that transformed the way physicists look at the way the universe works. 

Officials of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory opposed landmarking from the start, declaring that the best way to commemorate the work done there was to tear it down and build new facilities for new cutting edge research. 

Opinion in the scientific community was divided. The late Owen Chamberlain, the Nobel Laureate honored for his Bevatron research that discovered the anti-proton, had argued passionately for preservation before his death at the end of February. 

The Bevatron building and the attached office structure totaling 126,500 square feet form part of a series of major demolitions planned at the lab. The other six large structures are in the lab’s “Old Town,” a collection of mostly wooden buildings constructed during World War II. 

Demolition plans are spelled out in the lab’s 10-year site plan, released on May 20, 2005. 

According to that report, demolition of the Bevatron building and the massive structure it contains will take six to seven years and cost an estimated $83 million—with work to begin before the end of the current fiscal year and ending six to seven years later. 

 

Opposition 

Opposition to demolition mobilized residents who fear that that the 4,700 truckloads expected to traverse city street en route to recycling facilities, landfills and hazardous waste disposal sites could spread radioactive contamination and dangerous asbestos fibers in their wake. 

Critics also said they are concerned about traffic congestion, especially in light of other major construction work planned by UC Berkeley in the area of Memorial Stadium not far from the lab. 

Landmarking efforts came later, and the application before the council was filed by LA Wood, who with Pamela Shivola has been spearheading opposition on public health grounds. 

Many of the landmarking advocates have consistently acknowledged that their concerns were as much for public health and safety as for the preservation of a unique exemplar of Cold War architecture. 

Demolition of the massive structure ranks high on the priorities of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—and neighbors are worried that deconstruction will result in exposures to radioactive particles, asbestos fibers and other toxins. 

Completed in 1953, the Bevatron was in operation until Feb. 21, 1993, when it shut down for the last time, rendered obsolete by vastly larger and more powerful accelerators. 

Modern accelerators are far greater in size—with the largest almost big enough to encompass all of Berkeley within their circumferences. 

But the Bevatron was unique in being the first of the world’s great accelerators, and while the accelerator itself—once the world’s largest human-made machine—has been decommissioned, much of the heavy equipment remains in place. 

While Wood, Shivola and the commission minority felt the building itself should remain, the majority agreed with lab officials, who have repeatedly said the best memorial would be to replace the structure with new facilities that could generate new ground-breaking research in physics. 

Even if the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission had voted to landmark the building, the decision would have had little power to halt the eventual demolition of Berkeley’s last significant relic of the monumental era of government-funded Cold War science, since it is owned by the University of California, which is exempt from Berkeley law. 

If Edwards has his way, the work carried out at the Bevatron will be commemorated in an exhibit, perhaps at the Lawrence Hall of Science—a suggestion repeatedly raised by lab officials.


PowerBar Moves To Southern Cal

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Nestle USA’s announcement last week that it was moving its PowerBar business from Berkeley to Glendale, Calif., has received mixed reactions from the local community.  

While city officials say that they’d rather the business stayed in Berkeley, there are those for whom the news was music to the ears. 

PowerBar’s controversial 26-foot-wide sign atop their downtown office on Shattuck Avenue has been a source of constant complaints from Berkeley residents ever since it was first installed in December 1997. 

“Residents were furious that they had no say in the matter when the sign got approved in mid-1997. By the time we challenged it, it was too late. We were stuck with a blinking sign on the rooftop of the tallest building in Berkeley. The Design Review Commission actually said the sign would improve the ugly building. Instead, it has blighted downtown for the last eight years. It is true that the business brought as many as 100 jobs to the city, but the sign did very little to contribute to the aesthetics of downtown Berkeley,” said Jim Sharp, a Berkeley resident who championed the cause of removing the sign. 

Constant complaints from residents brought a stop to the blinking, but the sign remained, causing the business to be nicknamed “PowerBlight.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring, in whose district the PowerBar office is located, said that although PowerBar’s move would mean a loss to Berkeley, its sign had certainly been unpopular with people living in the hills.  

“The sign was like an obstruction for the panoramic views of the bay. It created quite a bit of controversy during the [Mayor] Shirley Dean administration. There are a lot of people who will be happy to see the sign taken off,” she said. 

Spring added that when PowerBar had first started off in 1986 under Brian Maxwell, a UC Berkeley alumnus and former track coach, it had started a natural food movement like no other.  

“It was a huge change from the sugary high-fat candy bars that were available at that time. Their bars were high in nutrition and protein and at the same time one of the best kinds of energy bars available. PowerBar was undoubtedly a trend-setter.”  

Spring also said that Berkeley has always been the incubator for a lot of start-ups which went on to become hugely successful in the future. “With success comes the need to expand, to share common resources. It is therefore no surprise that PowerBar is moving.” 

Although there has been much speculation on the fact that the move was being made to make up for the lack of space that was needed to expand the business, PowerBar spokesperson Vanessa Wager told the Planet that this was not the case.  

“It’s not because of space constraints, it’s a strategic move which will benefit the business. After PowerBar was acquired by Nestle in 2000, it remained as a satellite office in Berkeley. We feel the need to be closer to headquarters,” she said. 

Wager added that “the transfer of the PowerBar business to Glendale will capitalize on PowerBar's proximity to personnel and other shared resources from Nestle Nutrition and Nestle USA, providing a ready source of ideas and innovation to support strong long-term business growth. Our goal is to continue providing consumers with the product and service excellence they have come to expect from PowerBar.” 

The transition is scheduled to begin over the next five months and transferring employees will be settled in Glendale by November 15, 2006. The downtown office will be officially closed on Dec. 31.  

Although the majority of PowerBar Berkeley employees are being offered positions in the new office in Glendale, there will be a certain amount of layoffs in the consolidation of activities with Glendale’s Nestlé Nutrition and Nestlé USA staffs. Those whose positions are being affected by this move will be given generous severance packages by the company. 

In a statement, Cliff Clive, vice president and general manager of Nestle Performance Nutrition, said that although the decision to relocate had been difficult, the move was necessary in order to “best position PowerBar and the broader Performance Nutrition business for what we know will be a very exciting future.” 

“We’re sorry that PowerBar is leaving,” commented Cisco de Vries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates. “We understand that they are moving to Glendale to be closer to their parent company, Nestle. However, this move should not bring about any major economical change for the city. We’d rather that PowerBar stayed in Berkeley. But this is part of what Berkeley is known for. A lot of companies which start off here are bought by bigger companies and then with their growth and prosperity feel the need to relocate. It was probably the same with PowerBar,” he said. 

De Vries added that although it was not certain who would be taking over the vacant space yet, there was no doubt about the fact that it would be leased soon.  

“The fact that the PowerBar building is so close to the UC Berkeley campus will definitely make it a prime location. Recently Yahoo! opened up a research section on University Avenue. A lot of companies are interested to move into downtown Berkeley. The mayor’s office gets calls from interested parties all the time,” he said. 

Berkeley-based PowerBar rival ClifBar is also considering a move in 2008. Kate Torgersen, assistant communications manager for ClifBar, told the Planet that the reason for the move was lack of space.  

“We love our current location in West Berkeley but we have simply outgrown our facilities. In our RFP, we have mentioned that we want a green building, which will have minimal impact on the environment and allow us to have recreational space. We want to stay in the Bay Area and right now one possibility could be Alameda,” Torgersen said. 

According to Councilmember Spring, ClifBar had wanted a child care center in its current West Berkeley location but had been denied a permit by the city.  

“The ClifBar office is located close to Pacific Steel Casting Company, which has been cited by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for leaks of toxic substances. The city does not think that this is a safe place for children. However, there are two playing fields in the vicinity which state the dangers of toxic fumes on children. So it’s not that that the public is not being warned. There is also a halfway house for the homeless on Harrison Street. The city should not treat ClifBar employees differently. They should be given all the information and should decide for themselves whether it is safe to bring the children in there. Holding up the permit to build is not the solution,” she said. 

 


Opposition to Oakland School District Property Sale Grows

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday August 08, 2006

With the state’s office of the superintendent for public instruction announcing an interim Oakland Unified School District administrator to replace the outgoing Randolph Ward, opposition to the sale of the OUSD downtown properties got a boost in the past few days when two more Oakland public officials came out against the sale. 

Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks stated her opposition in an interview at a community concert in East Oakland on Sunday. And late last week, Peralta Community College District Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen released a letter sent to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in which Yuen said that “the plan to sell off the OUSD land near Lake Merritt … is a huge mistake.”  

Meanwhile, members of the Ad Hoc Committee to Restore Local Control, the coalition of Oakland organizations, officials, and activists that has led the opposition to the property sale, have scheduled a meeting with aides of state Sen. Don Perata later this week to try to persuade the senator to come out in opposition as well. 

Perata, who wrote the legislation that made both the state takeover of the Oakland Unified School District as well as the sale of the OUSD downtown properties, has been silent since the controversy over the property sale began. 

On Monday, O’Connell’s office announced the appointment of OUSD academic chief Dr. Kimberly Ann Statham as interim state administrator for the Oakland schools. Statham is replacing current administrator Randolph Ward, who is leaving the district in a week to take the job as superintendent of the San Diego County School District. 

Statham will receive a yearly salary of $240,000 for her position as interim administrator, the same as former superintendent Dennis Chaconas received in 2003 before he lost his job during the state takeover. Ward’s starting salary in 2003 was reported to be $239,000, but was later reduced by $6,000 as a budget- cutting measure. 

In a statement released by the state superintendent’s office, Statham, a graduate of the University of Maryland and Howard University as well as the same Broad Urban Superintendents Academy where Ward received his training, said that her “immediate focus will continue to be on preparing for the beginning of the school year August 28.” 

In a letter sent Monday to school district staff, Ward, who hired Statham for the academic chief post, wrote that Statham will continue the work on the controversial Expect Success! initiative he brought into the Oakland schools. “However long this interim appointment lasts,” Ward wrote, “I am confident that Dr. Statham has the vision and the ability to continue the work that has been done to make Oakland a national model for urban school reform. Her expertise will only add to the district redesign effort known as Expect Success! Parts of this project were under way before I arrived in Oakland, and I have no doubt that this effort and the momentum it has created will continue and grow under the great project leaders who remain.” 

As interim OUSD administrator, one of Statham’s most closely watched acts will be her recommendation to State Superintendent O’Connell on the proposed OUSD property sale. O’Connell is currently in negotiations with the East Coast development team of TerraMark/UrbanAmerica for the sale of 8.25 acres of downtown-area OUSD property, including three schools, two early childhood development centers, and the OUSD Paul Robeson Administration Building. The 2003 state takeover of the school district gave O’Connell the legal authority to sell the property and to apply the proceeds to the $100 million borrowed by OUSD from the state. 

Under the letter of intent signed between O’Connell, TerraMark/ UrbanAmerica, and outgoing OUSD administrator Ward, the parties have until mid-September to reach a deal on the property sale. 

On Sunday afternoon, during the kickoff of the second season of free community concerts at East Oakland’s Arroyo Viejo Park sponsored by her office, Councilmember Brooks told the Daily Planet that she was “completely opposed to the sale of the school property. I don’t think this is a time that we should be getting rid of public property. We should be preserving what we have.” 

Brooks’ position makes unanimous the opposition to the sale from the eight member Oakland City Council. 

Late last month, Brooks had failed to join six other councilmembers in signing a proclamation co-sponsored by Councilmembers Pat Kernighan and Jean Quan which noted that “there is no guarantee that the proposed sale of District land would financially benefit the School District, even in the short term.” However, Brooks said that “the only reason I didn’t sign the proclamation is that one of Pat [Kernighan]’s aides brought it to me to sign while we were taking a vote, and I didn’t have time to read it. I don’t sign anything that I haven’t read.”  

City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente was not present at the meeting in which the proclamation was signed, but he earlier stated to the Daily Planet through a staff member that he was opposed to the sale of the OUSD property as well. 

City Council opposition to the proposed sale is significant because even though the council has no say in the sale, any future development of the property by the new owners would have to go through the Oakland city planning process, including final approval by the council. 

Meanwhile, in his July 31 letter, Peralta Trustee Yuen told O’Connell that while “I can understand the temptations to liquidate district resources to generate greater revenue, … I strongly urge you to quickly put out this fire, shelve the plan to sell the land, and get back to the central concerns of reestablishing administratively and fiscally sound systems of governance and management.” 

Yuen said his opposition was based upon three conclusions: that there was no “consistent and reliable system of governance” in the Oakland schools “that will ensure that this project does not become another boondoggle that benefits private interests and leaves the public stripped of even more resources than it started with”; that the sale would be “a huge distraction from the job of governance in the district”; and that “decisions of such long-term impact should never be made by a caretaker administration.…It contradicts the notion that the people who are most seriously affected by a decision should have the greatest influence over the making of such decisions.” 

Yuen concluded that the goal of the state takeover of the Oakland school district in 2003 “was and remains the establishment of a stable and viable system of administration and governance as quickly as possible. The goal is to restore a functioning system of local control. The Lake Merritt development project is completely unnecessary to and beyond the scope of any of these goals.” 

The second of three public hearings on the proposed sale of the OUSD downtown properties is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16 at the OUSD Administration Building. 

 


City Studies Internet Access for All Residents

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Berkeley city officials, residents, and local independent wireless providers continue the search for the perfect Internet system that will provide city-wide Internet access to people who live, work, or recreate in Berkeley. 

“We are still in the investigative process,” said Chris Mead, director of Information Technology for the City of Berkeley. “The council wants some more information on the possibilities and requirements for a Berkeley citywide wireless (“Wi-Fi”) Internet System. One of the reasons why we are looking so closely at the proposal submitted by the city is that we are also considering options such as fiber optics.” 

Wi-Fi uses unregulated bands of the electromagnetic spectrum whereas information passes with the help of light through a fiber optic cable. Although more expensive than the Wi-Fi system (which would cost the city somewhere between $2-$5 million), fiber optics is considered to be a lot faster, transmitting up to 1GB per second. 

“Fiber optics is definitely faster, but it would also cost the city up to tens of millions of dollars to set it up. There would also be a lot of work involved in setting up the fiber network and running them through all the houses. It will be a major construction process. On the other hand, Wi-Fi is a lot easier to install and will certainly stimulate the economy while closing the digital divide. The idea is to look carefully into all the possible options and then report back. Only then can we send out a RFP at which point both local and national service providers can submit their proposals. We will be selecting the one which meets our requirements the best. For this we have to keep in mind the cost to the city, security, long-term probability and the speed of the service,” Mead said. 

Mead also added that the city was looking at partnering with a public entity, such as UC Berkeley, to provide free Internet access to the city. Currently, the goal is to launch a city-wide pilot program encompassing the downtown area. 

UC currently has the only large-scale Wi-Fi infrastructure in Berkeley in the form of the AirBears network which offers a unified wireless local area network that can be used by students and faculty in most of the major buildings on campus.  

However, as Mead puts it, security becomes a major factor in any free wireless network. “The network has to be secure in cases of business or government work. Also, users will not be able to download anything illegally from the Internet. There will be a specific set of terms and conditions that users will need to accept before they can log on to this network,” 

Tom Hunt, a Berkeley resident and advisor to the City’s IT Department, is in favor of fiber optics. “It’s a hundred or even a thousand times as fast as Wi-Fi,” he said. “There is currently a project in Canada called CANARIE in which fiber optics is being used to provide Internet service to the public. It comes at a cost of $1000/$1500 per household but it amounts to only $17.42 per month over a period of ten years. However, Wi-Fi also provides a short-term probability if the city is able to set up a periodic contract with a suitable service provider that will not hamper future upgrades to a faster and new technology, such as a wireless mesh system that could come along in the next five to six years,” he said.  

Eric Dynamic, CTO, UC Telecommunications Company, echoed Hunt’s thoughts on fiber optics. “It uses one-wire service to provide all common data services: voice (phone), data (Internet), TV, and is permanent, faster and more capable than any other technology. It is also virtually maintenance free and provides for “net neutrality”—that is the ability to select from a wide range of vendors. Also there are no concerns for EM radiation hazards in this case,” 

According to councilmember Linda Maio, who requested a city report on the costs and benefits of a wireless system last August along with councilmembers Laurie Capitelli, Darryl Moore, and Max Anderson, there are presently two issues with respect to Wi-Fi.  

“It is certainly attractive to have a city which has one of the world’s premier institutions to have free wireless anywhere in the city, at least in the core areas. However our past experience with cell phone antennas placed in the city has not been too good. Community members have had several concerns about transmissions and what effect they might have on our health. Technology is certainly a wonderful thing but there definitely are concerns about it in the modern world.” 

Maio added that at the moment the idea was just a proposal and it could take anywhere up to a year to even get it to the agenda stage. “We want to press ahead with the idea and see how it goes but we haven’t asked for a specific schedule yet. It’s too early to set dates for something that is still in the ‘looking into’ stage,” she said. 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE 

This story begins a collaboration between the Berkeley Daily Planet and the Kitchen Democracy polling organization. If you’d like to express your opinion on this topic, go to kitchendemocracy.org on the Internet. 

 

 


Candidates Chosen for Rent Stabilization Board

By Rio Bauce, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 08, 2006

On a sunny afternoon last Sunday, Berkeley residents picked Lisa Anne Stephens, Howard Chong, Chris Kavanagh, Pam Webster and David Blake as candidates for the Rent Stabilization Board. Bob Evans, current Rent Stabilization Board member, although given high marks by the Rent Board’s screening process, was not selected to be on the slate. 

“I was a bit surprised that Bob Evans, an incumbent, didn’t make it onto the slate,” reported Chong. 

All of the candidates thought that the field was very strong and that the slate of five was stellar. The candidates who weren’t selected for the slate were Bob Evans (Rent Board incumbent), Judy Ann Alberti (former Rent Board member), Edith Monk-Hallberg (Commission on Labor Member), Kokovulu Lumakanda (chair of the Homeless Commission), Elliot Cohen (Peace and Justice Commissioner), and Frances Hailman (Berkeley resident). 

“The slate is great,” commented Blake, in a phone interview on Monday. “It is full of these long-time Berkeley activists who care about the future of the Rent Board. We are also very good friends. We need to work hard to defeat the Condo Conversion Initiative. Otherwise, there isn’t much for the Rent Board to do anymore.” 

Councilmember Max Anderson, the moderator, opened up the event, and Rent Board Chair Howard Chong explained the voting procedure to the audience. Despite the fact that Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) has not yet been implemented in Berkeley city elections, it made its way into the Rent Board voting process.  

“I thought that it was a great way to educate residents about IRV,” said Webster. “I had great confidence in Howard to explain it to the people.” 

But there were complaints over the voting process, which turned into a full heated debate. Anderson and Chong ended debate quickly after realizing that it was taking too long, to try to give candidates more speaking time, regarded as more important. While some thought that it was necessary to discuss situations in which the voting process was flawed, others dismissed it as grandstanding. 

“They made it more complicated than it really was,” said Kavanagh.” It’s just simply ranking candidate choices.” 

When asked what the top goal of the Rent Board should be, many answers replicated one another. 

“Personally,” said Blake, “I want to create an informed constituency. I want to find more ways for people to be aware of their rights.” 

Echoing Blake’s thoughts, Kavanagh said, “We need outreach and voter education, especially to educate people on the Condo Conversion Initiative.” 

Jesse Arreguin, Rent Board member, talked to the audience about the dangers of the Condo Conversion Initiative put on the ballot by landlords in Berkeley. The Committee to Defend Affordable Housing (CDAH) was actively seeking funds to cover the cost of defeating the measure in November. 

“It will have a significant impact on what we value in Berkeley,” said Arreguin. “We need to work hard to defeat this horrible measure in November.” 

However, Michael Wilson, spokesman for the Berkeley Property Owners Association (BPOA) claims that the Condo Conversion Initiative is long overdue. 

“I think that in general Berkeley’s housing policies are stuck in 1972,” Wilson said in a telephone interview. “They haven’t updated the policy or evaluated it.” 

The convention was held by the CDAH, a grassroots campaign coalition of pro-tenant activists in the community. CDAH helps get the five-member slate elected to the Rent Board and helps to lobby for pro-tenant initiatives and lobby against pro-landlord initiatives. 

Will there be any competition for the five-person slate in November? 

Jason Overman, Berkeley Rent Board member, said, “It is not to my knowledge that any progressive candidates will run independently of the five-person slate already selected. I think that it is important for progressive candidates to run united.” 

When asked if the BPOA would run anyone for the Rent Board, Wilson replied, “No, because of two major reasons. Firstly, after the Costa-Hawkins Act of 1996, a far larger number of units have rents that are much closer to market. Therefore, there are far fewer cases being filed. Secondly, since the settling of a lawsuit with Measure P, the annual rate increases are automated.” 

 

 

Photograph by Rio Bauce. 

Rent Board Candidates Lisa Anne Stephens, Pamela Webster, David Blake, Chris Kavanagh and Howard Chong.


Library Board Considers Moving South Berkeley Branch

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Should the South Berkeley branch library at Russell and Martin Luther King be moved to the new Ed Roberts campus to be built at the corner of Woolsey and Adeline? The Berkeley Library Board of Library trustees in Berkeley has allocated close to $25,000 for a consulting firm to do a community needs-based assessment for the South Berkeley library branch this month in an attempt to answer this question.  

West Berkeley-based HTA consultants has been hired to carry out up to four different types of surveys of community members who live, work or recreate in the south Berkeley area in order to determine whether moving the South Berkeley branch to the proposed Ed Roberts Campus will prove helpful to the local community. 

The South Berkeley branch has been working out of its 1901 Russell St. address since the single-story building was first built in 1963. With its vast collections of books, periodicals, and CDs as well as how-to books which are a part of the adjacent tool-lending library, it has grown into something of a neighborhood institution over the years. 

“The Board of Library trustees felt that community input is the most important aspect in making this decision. We want to gather details of how library users would like to see the library expand and what would suit their needs best at this point of time. Depending on this, the board will make a decision on whether or not to consider a possible move,” said Alan Bern, Berkeley Public Library Community Relations Librarian. 

“We want to ask questions about the positives and negatives of using the current South Berkeley branch and how it can be made better to cater to the needs of all our patrons, including the elderly, the disabled and the youth. Currently, the branch is located in a very old building, which is not ADA-accessible There is also no place for youth programs. We need to give some of these problems serious consideration. In the future we would like to perform this type of a community assessment on all our other branches,” said Bern. 

Bern added that the entire process would be carried out relatively rapidly and would start out by having a focus group comprised of library stakeholders and regular users whose feedback would be used to construct survey questions that would be asked to the public. A total of 285 to 344 community members will be surveyed overall.  

“We are excited because HTA will be training the youth in Berkeley to carry out the face-to-face surveys,” Bern said. Around 120 to 140 people will be questioned in the face-to-face survey which will be carried out in places such as the Ashby BART station, the nearby flea market, summer schools, senior centers and grocery stores. 

Around 120 to 140 more people will be randomly selected by zip code to take part in a semi-automated telephone survey that will be carried out by a professional team. Surveys of current users—about three to four dozen in total—will be carried out at the branch premises itself. 

Finally, there will be a face-to-face survey of key stakeholders and leaders of the community.  

Bern added that the Board of Trustees were very eager to know the results of the surveys because they are the key to understanding South Berkeley and more important, the needs of those who are a part of the South Berkeley community.  

“After the completion of the surveys a report will be prepared and presented to the board which will be followed by other meetings. Depending on all of the above, if it makes sense to move the library branch, the proper steps will be gradually carried out. But all this is quite a bit further down the line. First comes the assessment,” said Bern. 

Jeri Ewart, head librarian of the South Berkeley branch, said that the community assessment was a very positive step. “Nothing has been written in stone yet. However, we feel that the library will benefit from the move to the Ed Roberts campus and we want to find out if the public is enthusiastic about it in the same way we are.”  

Ewart added that all the branches—including the south branch which was the smallest of the lot—needed to be refurbished. 

“Every inch of the 5,000 square feet of space has been used. We had people sitting on top of each other even before the computers, the self check-out machines and other technology moved into the library. Things have become worse since then and currently there is no place for wheelchair users to move about. The proposed site at the Ed Roberts campus has twice as much space. This is a good opportunity. In fact it is the only opportunity to get a new space without going through a bond measure. Since we are currently located in a very old building, it is not possible to build on top or build along the sides. The city will not give us the variance to do so. We cannot afford to purchase a plot of land and start building from scratch. The Ed Roberts campus provides us with something of a condo situation which allows organizations to utilize the space available to them in the best possible way. It’s financially very doable,” she said. 

In the past, consultants have suggested tearing down the current structure on Russell Street and rebuilding it. However the over-all unstable condition of the building and the blown-on ceiling with the asbestos has made it impossible to carry out any kind of new construction. As Bern puts it, the problems with space will not go away by just “fixing” the place up because it’s virtually impossible to do so.  

The proposed Ed Roberts Campus has already been approved by the City of Berkeley to start building, and is scheduled to break ground for construction on the east end of the Ashby BART parking lot very soon. 

Adam Broner, tool-lending specialist at the Berkeley tool-lending library, said that he was excited at the prospect of the South Berkeley branch moving to the Ed Roberts campus. “We have enjoyed the close proximity of the branch. We get a lot of our patrons from there and the branch hosts a lot of how-to videos and books which help them. However, a move would help the tool-lending library because currently we operate from a place which is the size of a trailer. We could really do with more space, although it would mean losing the nice relation with the library.”


Race May Become an Issue In Peralta Trustee Campaign

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Although the candidates may not raise it themselves, the battle between Latinos and African Americans for political power in Oakland and the East Bay has already become an issue in the race for the Peralta Community College District Area 7 trustee seat. 

Alona Clifton, the two-term incumbent, is being challenged by a 31-year-old education bond consultant, Abel Guillen. Area 7 includes the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland as well as West Oakland and a portion of the East Lake and Chinatown areas. 

Four years ago, Clifton easily won re-election to her seat, winning two-thirds of the vote against a student challenger. 

“I’ve heard it come up,” Guillen’s campaign manager, Matt Lockshin, said when asked about the Latino/African-American issue in this year’s race. “I wonder whether it will be a big issue. It shouldn’t be.” 

It is difficult to see how it won’t, whatever the candidates’ intentions.  

The issue of Latino versus African-American political power last came up as an issue in the recent mayoral race between Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, a Latino, and former Congressmember Ron Dellums, an African-American, even though neither candidate ran on the basis of their ethnicities. 

After a period culminating more than a decade ago in which African-Americans dominated the major elected positions in the Oakland area—a majority of the City Council and Oakland Unified School District boards, the mayor of Oakland and the area’s Congressional and state assembly representatives—African-American political power has been on the wane. In the meantime, although Latinos are growing in population in the area, their numbers have never been fully represented in political office in Oakland and the East Bay. 

The last holdout of major African American political power in the East Bay is the Peralta Community College District board of trustees, where African Americans hold four of the seven seats. 

Despite the fact that 14 percent of the student population in the Peralta District are Latino, there are no Latino representatives on the board of trustees. 

Meanwhile, the Area 7 Peralta trustee race pits two individuals against each other who have been active in causes important to their respective ethnicities. 

Clifton has long been an advocate for African American rights. She has been the Peralta trustee most consistent in pushing for the hiring of local workers and contracts for local businesses in Peralta construction projects. In an era where it is illegal for public agencies to promote affirmative action for minorities, “local hiring” and “local contracts” have become a substitute in the East Bay for promoting minority firms and workers. At one point, she served as president of the politically powerful Oakland/Berkeley Chapter of the Black Women Organized for Political Action, an organization credited with helping several African American women win political office in the East Bay. 

In 2004, the African-American-based magazine CityFlight named Clifton one of its “Ten Most Influential African Americans in the Bay Area,” noting that “Ms. Clifton’s 30 years of activism engages her in political, social and economic grassroots efforts. Her activism centers on providing better access, opportunity, and equity to African Americans in particular and to the greater community as a whole.” And Clifton was one of two Peralta trustees—board president Linda Handy was the other—to be honored last month at the Eleventh Annual African American Excellence in Business and Scholarship Gala in Oakland as one of 101 local women “making a difference in our community.” 

Meanwhile, as a student senator at UC Berkeley in the late ’90s, Guillen was instrumental in convincing the UC administration to change the name of the student center from the Golden Bear Center to the Cesar E. Chavez Student Center. A UC Berkeley press release at the time of the renaming ceremony in 1997 quoted Guillen as saying, “Many students agreed the renaming of the student center would serve as a strong symbolic gesture of the university's commitment to diversity. Cesar Chavez was not just a role model for Latinos, but for anyone who believes in the idea of social justice." While at UC Berkeley in the late ’90s, Guillen also fought against the repeal of the University of California’s affirmative action policy. 

But Guillen’s campaign manager said it is not his intention to make race an issue in this campaign. 

“Abel isn’t running as a Latino candidate,” Lockshin said by telephone. “He’s Latino, and he’s proud of it. And of course, he will be supported by Latino people. But I don’t see his base of support as Latinos. He is running as a progressive young Democrat.” 

Lockshin also said that even though Clifton is the incumbent “and only one of them can win, and one of them will lose, Abel isn’t running against Alona.” Instead, Lockshin said that Guillen’s position is that “it is the board as a whole that has made a number of decisions that were not in the best interests of the district,” including the controversial Peralta and Laney property contract with Oakland developer Alan Dones—later voluntarily abandoned by Dones—and the current contract with PeopleSoft to reorganize the district’s computer systems. Lockshin said Guillen is running on a platform of three principles: relevance to students, fairness to faculty and staff, and accountability and transparency to the entire community. 

Clifton could not be reached in time to comment for this article. 

In at least one area, Guillen and Clifton appear to be running on parallel tracks. Stating that one of Guillen’s issues is that Peralta “needs more workforce training to prepare those people for employment who are not interested in moving on to a four-year institution,” campaign manager Lockshin said that “the district needs to set up more partnerships with local businesses. They have some, but these businesses are not necessarily employing people from the colleges.” 

That, in fact, has been one of Clifton’s major issues on the trustee board. At a trustee meeting last May, for example, she pushed district staff to tighten implementation of the district’s Project Labor Agreements with contractors. Peralta’s PLAs promote the hiring of local workers and subcontracting with local businesses. 

While the public has not yet turned its attention to the November races, local political organizations are already preparing for endorsements in the Area 7 Peralta race. The endorsement decisions of the Alameda County Central Labor Council and unions representing Peralta trustees are expected later this month, with the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club endorsement expected early in September. 

 


Neighbors Blast Plans for Garr Building Site

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Artists living in one of the city’s last West Berkeley creative havens said they fear impacts of a planned new building at 740 Heinz Ave. could end their idyll. 

They raised their concerns Thursday night to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in comments before developers offered a first look at their latest plans for the site. 

Wareham Development, West Berkeley’s premier developer of office and laboratory space, has plans to turn the landmarked Garr Building into the shell of a major office/lab complex. 

The resulting structure would soar 30 feet above the current 45-foot West Berkeley height limit, said Darrell de Tienne, a San Franciscan who has represented Wareham and other firms developing projects in Berkeley. 

Chris Barlow, a partner in Wareham, said rising construction costs make the increased size essential for the project’s economic viability. 

Because the Garr Building now located on the site is a city landmark, project engineer Steve Tipping devised a way to preserve three of the existing unreinforced masonry walls as a shell for the larger building, which would be constructed partially inside them and end on further to the east. 

It is that extension that worries the artists who live at 800 Heinz Ave. in the old Durkee Building, another Wareham building that was preserved as part of a compromise to allow development on the other parts of the landmarked complex. 

Spacious units in the Durkee Building are rented to artists at reduced rents, averaging between $700 and $900. Many of the tenants are painters, who say they rely on natural light for their work. 

The plans shown the LPC would bring the edge of the building much closer to 800 Heinz. 

“What they’re planning is larger than anything in the area. I’m afraid we’ll lose our light,” said Corliss Lesser. “I can’t understand why it has to be so huge.” 

“We’re all afraid of losing the light for our studios,” said Betsey Strange, another 740 Heinz painter. “I also oppose it because of its size ands scale,” she said, and worried about the additional traffic and parking problems the new building would bring, as well as the noise and dust that would accompany construction. 

Strange noted that two other projects are planned in adjacent blocks, the Ashby Lofts and the new Berkeley Bowl, and said she worried about the cumulative impacts not only on the artists at 740 Heinz but also students at four nearby schools. 

“It’s just too big,” said Georgia Shea, another artist, “and it is just 100 feet from our building. . .It’s just not reasonable for the size of the height.” 

“A lot of the objections raised by adjacent residents are not our concern,” said LPC member Steven Winkel, an architect, “but I have concerns about the height” and its impact on nearby historic buildings. “It’s perhaps one story too tall,” he said. 

“We actually say the height is taller than what is allowed for buildings in this area,” said Commissioner Jill Korte. 

“You’re asking for a 28-foot height variance?” asked LPC member Carrie Olson. 

“The height and scale of the building are out of character with the already gigantic Garr Building,” said member Lesley Emmington. 

“It’s disproportionate to the size of the existing building,” said LPC member and architect Burton Edwards, who asked the developers to show the commission an inexpensive three-dimensional building model. 

Commissioners also indicated that the design they were shown was out of harmony with the existing building. 

 

Other business  

Commissioners added two new landmarks to the city’s roster of historically significant buildings, 1770 La Loma Ave. and 2411 Fifth St. 

The former Phi Kappa Psi Chapter House, the La Loma Avenue structure was built in 1901 as UC Berkeley’s second fraternity house. Commissioners voted unanimously to approve an application by Daniella Thompson to designate the structure Berkeley’s Landmark #290. 

The aging brown shingle structure is in poor repair, and Thompson said the new owner, a San Francisco realty firm, is apparently conducting renovations without a building permit. 

The vote to designate the Martin House on Fifth Street was 7-2, with commissioners Fran Packard and Steven Winkel opposing the application signed by 62 neighbors to designate the 1892 Queen Anne cottage a structure of merit. 

Owner Laura Fletcher objected to the landmarking, which was initiated after neighbors learned she was attempting to sell the property for demolition as the site of a new six-unit residential building. 

Neighbor Cathleen Quandt, the author of the initiation petition, was joined by seven other current and former residents who testified in favor of designating a structure—the second oldest on the block—they said was essentially for maintaining the character of their neighborhood. 

Commissioners delayed acting on Gale Garcia’s petition to landmark Iceland, acting on a request of the owners’ attorney, Rena Rickles, who said they were engaged in negotiations with the city on a way to keep the venerable skating rink open. 

The LPC will take up the issue again on Nov. 2. 

City officials have demanded replacement of the rink’s ammonia-based cooling system on the grounds that an accidental release of the hazardous compound could endanger nearby residents. 

Commissioners offered no objections to a request by developers Hudson McDonald LLC to demolish the Drayage Building at 651 Addison St. The structure houses a collection of illegal live/work spaces built by artist and crafts makers until they were evicted by city officials earlier this year. 


National Youth Rights Meeting Discusses Ageism, Promotes Youth Voting

By Rio Bauce
Tuesday August 08, 2006

This past Sunday, youth rights activists from around the country, from as far as Washington, D.C., came to the National Youth Rights Association’s (NYRA) annual meeting (www.youthrights.org) in San Francisco to discuss ageism in the community and what progress the individual regional chapters have made to combat it. Five people from NYRA’s Berkeley chapter, including myself, attended the meeting. 

The mission of NYRA is simple: to empower youth and to defend the rights of young people in the United States. One of the main goals of NYRA is to lower the voting age, which in our opinion, would empower young people. 

The meeting started with a brilliant talk by Jordan Riak of NoSpank.Net. He prints books that talk about the dangers of using corporal punishment on kids. 

Riak told us about an Asian boy from San Francisco by the name of Paul Choy. Choy was in trouble with the law and was sent to boot camp. After Choy was there for a little while, his drill sergeant announced that Choy “failed to complete the five-mile run.” His punishment was to sit on a cold platform for five hours, without food, water, or a bathroom break. Choy started crying and crying. Instead of being comforted, several big men jumped on him and suffocated him to death. 

I can’t believe this. It’s hard for me to imagine how there are such violent, heartless people in the world. I can’t believe that boot camps are so unregulated, not to mention prisons or military camps. There is talk about drafting resolutions to be introduced into local communities, recommending that no parent inflict corporal punishment on their children. 

Riak additionally went on to speak about how in many states it is legal to “paddle” kids at school. 

“It’s a double standard,” says Riak. “People would scream if women were being spanked, or if minorities were subject to spanking. However, the Constitution doesn’t protect youth. It’s embarrassing.” 

Our next speaker was UC Santa Cruz professor Dr. Mike Males, author of two books: Scapegoat Generation and Framing Youth. He talked about ageism in society and likened it to racism. In many ways, I agree. While racism is widely politically incorrect, ageism is very politically correct, even in “liberal” Berkeley.  

Our group tried to get the City Council to support a modest proposal to support introducing state legislation that would allow local municipalities to lower their voting age to 16 for their local elections. We could only muster four votes for the resolution—one short of passing. Additionally, the council didn’t even allow the Youth Commission to present an item recommending that the city put on the ballot a question of whether residents would support lowering the voting age to 17 for School Board elections. Councilmember Wozniak tabled the item before any other member could even speak on the matter. 

It’s not just this issue. There are many. When Berkeley High students are buying lunch on Shattuck, they are treated like criminals. In Walgreen’s, for example, there is a policy that only a certain number of high school students can be in the store at one time. The notion that teens are more likely to steal is contrary to fact. There are several studies that show that 40-year-olds are much more likely to steal than teens. However, many people don’t know that or refuse to accept it. 

We need to start to educate people on ageism. It is ever too prevalent. Unlike 50 years ago, when our ancestors used to shape our culture, it is now today’s youth who shape tomorrow’s future. If there are always being discriminated against, there is no inspiration for them to try to better society.


State’s Heat Wave Takes Toll On South Asian Farmers

By Viji Sundaram, New American Media
Tuesday August 08, 2006

MARYSVILLE, Calif.—First it was the long wet spring that took its toll on Sarbjit Johl’s peaches. Then the 10 straight days of triple digit temperatures last week, California’s deadliest hot spell in five decades, cooked the fruit on the trees. 

“This has been the most brutal year I’ve ever seen,” lamented Johl, who’s been farming since 1976 and co-owns Johl Brothers Farms in Marysville. “We are probably going to see the lowest yield since 1983. There was bad weather then, something like what we’ve had this year.” 

Johl’s lament finds an echo among Central Valley farmers in Butte, Sutter and Yuba counties, who say Nature’s one-two punch will cut deep into their profits this year. The Central Valley produces more than half of the state’s peaches. Nearly 75 percent of the peach farms here are owned by people of Indian descent. 

In 1983, California’s peach farmers produced 339,000 tons of the fruit. Three years earlier, good weather helped the state to produce 744,000 tons, but has never been able to replicate that abundance since, Johl said. Last year’s yield was 481,000 tons. 

Excessive rains keep the crops smaller than usual because the blooms set late. And some of the blooms rot on the trees. That is what happened this year before the unusually hot weather set in. 

Farmers were not the only ones hit by this year’s weather. The punishing heat forced laborers, mostly immigrants from Mexico, to cut by two to three hours the amount of time they spent in the field picking fruit, hurting their pocket books as well. 

“On hot days they quit at around 11 or 12 (noon), instead of stopping at the usual time (of 2 p.m.),” said Didar Singh Bains, as he drove up in his Silverado pick-up to see how his son, Ajit, was faring fork-lifting the peach-laden trays onto the trucks to be taken to the Del Monte Fruits canning factories, which contracts with many of the Central Valley peach growers. Bains is the director of the California Peach Association. He claims he is “the largest peach grower in the world.” He and his two sons own farms all across the Central Valley and Canada. 

Even as it was, “labor was in short supply because of increased patrolling of the (U.S.-Mexico) borders,” observed Ajayab Dhaddey, California Canning Peach Association’s manager of field operations. The heat wave only worsened things, he said, noting that the weather drove many of the laborers to “kinder” climates like neighboring Washington State. Johl’s farm drew only about 60 percent of the labor it usually does for its peach harvest that lasts two months in early summer. 

The relentless heat ripened the fruits on the tops of the trees, but not those at the bottom. This meant that farmers had to harvest the fruit in two picks, forcing them to pay more to the pickers. It also meant that the ripened fruit had to be picked quickly before the sun could damage them. 

“Every load is graded (by our buyers),” Johl said. “The peaches can’t be too ripe, too green, too small or have anything cosmetically wrong with them.” 

Between the rows of peach trees on his 550-acre peach farm, dozens of discarded golden fruit rot in the hot sun. Most of them had some minor cosmetic defect and would not have passed muster with Del Monte Fruits or Signature Fruits, the two canners Johl contracts with. His sorters had tossed them out of the bins even as they were being filled by the pickers. 

Ajit Bains believes that the spring rain has cost his family about $1 million in losses. He estimates the loss from the heat wave could “easily be $150,000.” 

“That’s the thing about Mother Nature,” Johl observed. “She has the last word.” 


Activists Stage Hunger Strike, Call for Troops to Come Home

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday August 08, 2006

For septuagenarian Jane Jackson, fasting is a way of life. 

Jackson, together with co-faster Ivan Olsen, a Bay Area artist and activist, is on day 36 of a hunger strike demanding that U.S. troops be brought home from Iraq. 

Standing in front of the Ron J. Dellums Federal Building in downtown Oakland, Jackson and Olsen have a simple message for all the rush-hour commuters: “Bring Bay Area troops home. Iraq is not where they belong.”  

The fast in downtown Oakland is being organized in solidarity with the Troops Home Fast currently taking place in front of the White House. 

“We have made a commitment to bring the troops home in 2006 and to take non-violent steps for a comprehensive, concrete and rapid end to the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq. It was Gandhi who said that it is a small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission who can alter the course of history. Gandhi also said that ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.’ That is the day we look forward to,” said Jackson. 

Jackson, a resident of Oakland, came to the city in 1973 on the insistence of the Black Panthers in order to campaign for then mayoral candidate Bobby Seale. She remembers fasting for seventy days in Washington, D.C., the longest so far, to support disabled children’s education rights during the 1982 Reagan administration. For her, fasting for a cause is more than an occupation, it’s a “labor of love.” 

In 1976, Jackson also participated in bringing civil rights to the disabled community through a demonstration at the Federal Building in San Francisco.  

“It is sad, but the truth is we are still waiting to see civil rights in its entirety become a reality for the disabled community in our cities. I want to draw attention to the fact that the money that is going towards the war can be used to help the disabled, the poor, and the starving. To fulfill basic needs such as education and food,” said Jackson. 

Olsen and Jackson have both been off solid food for the last 36 days. A concoction of warm water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper is what their daily diet is made up of.  

“Dick Gregory, another long-term faster in Washington, D.C. told us that the cayenne pepper helps to flush out the toxins. It’s sort of a cleansing drink and helps to keep us on our feet,” said Olsen. 

Olsen and Jackson keep their weekday vigil from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and join other demonstrations on the weekends. 

“What makes us sad is the lack of interest from people. There are those who continue to be surprised by the fact that we are fasting for 36 days, but that’s about it,” Olsen said. “We hope that there will be a change of attitude, that people will start thinking about how to bring a stop to the war and actually make it happen. Until then we will continue to fast.”


Police Blotter

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Armed officers storm home; suspect gone 

In a tense standoff that wasn’t, Berkeley police barricaded a house Sunday night, only to find out hours later that an armed gunman had vanished. 

Capt. Stephanie Fleming said officers were called to a rear unit in the 2000 block of Parker Street after a 19-year-old armed with a pistol had threatened family members, then ordered them to leave. 

Neighbors who contacted the Daily Planet said they had been alarmed at the sight of officers in body armor and carrying assault weapons. 

Police surrounded the residence, then summoned the Barricaded Subject Hostage Negotiation Team. 

After attempting for several hours to contact anyone inside the dwelling, officers decided to force entry about 3 a.m.—only to discover that the young gunman had already fled, apparently before the first officers had arrived. 

The young man remained at large Monday, said Capt. Fleming.


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: The Importance of Protecting Free Speech

By Becky O’Malley
Friday August 11, 2006

This week we got a phone call from a polite but persistent guy who asked to speak to the editor—that’s me. When I called him back, he identified himself as the owner of a restaurant which has been advertising once a week in our restaurant guide section, and he said he was so unhappy with the paper’s coverage of the Middle East that he was thinking of canceling his ad. Now, 60 bucks a week one way or the other (those little color ads are almost loss-leader cheap for the advertisers) won’t make or break the budget, so we really don’t have a strong financial interest in arguing with the guy, but I did make an effort to explain two principles to him. First, respectable newspapers don’t let advertisers dictate policy for the editorial section and second, we firmly believe that airing all opinions, even those we find extremely distasteful, is the best way to solve problems in the long run. I pointed out that the Planet didn’t “cover” the Middle East, but just allowed opinions on the news from that area to be printed as letters or commentary signed by the authors. I asked the restaurant owner if he ever read the European press on the Internet, or Ha’aretz, the Israeli paper, or even the New York Times on a regular basis. He said he didn’t. We had a civil discussion, but it was apparent he wasn’t persuaded.  

I’ll check the ads in today’s paper to see if he did cancel. We’re used to this, having had a number of similar threats and actual cancellations from strong supporters of one of the parties in the Middle East disputes in the past.  

We also got a call from a young-sounding woman with a San Francisco number who said she was “Tami from ADL.” I expected that meant she represented the Anti-Defamation League. When I called her back, she said “We’d like to meet with you.” I’d just fielded a similar request for a meeting from the manager of a political candidate. In both cases, I’m assuming they hope to affect the way the paper covers stories and issues that they care about, and frankly, the answer to both has to be sorry, but no dice.  

I told Tami that if she was hoping to persuade us to self-censor our opinion coverage, a meeting would be a waste of time for both parties, but if her organization wanted to submit a commentary we’d be happy to print it. She didn’t say yes to that, but said goodbye in a hurry, and I must admit we were waiting apprehensively for the other shoe to drop. But she has submitted a letter for today’s paper after all, which action we heartily applaud.  

We don’t agree with her that speech causes hate, that “hateful words can lead to ugly, violent acts.” We think it’s the other way round, that hate causes angry speech, and that angry speech serves as a good early warning that hate is present and violence might follow. Ironically, Ha’aretz is a bastion of free speech of all kinds, and it’s a good safety valve for a conflict that has already turned violent.  

There just doesn’t seem to be any way to convince partisans that using the advertising dollar or any other form of persuasion to suppress speech you don’t like in newspapers hurts your cause in the long run. Those angry people full of hate are out there, and even if you have the muscle to keep them out of the papers they’re still angry, you just don’t hear about it.  

What you don’t know can hurt you. The best remedy for speech you don’t like, or which frightens you, is more speech. Burying your head in the sand, ostrich-like, just leaves your flanks exposed to enemies. When a correspondent refers in all seriousness to the “Arab-European” school of journalism, it should be cause for alarm. That’s a good bit of the world he’s writing off, people he should probably be listening to, for self-protection if nothing else.  

And the Internet is making it possible to spread all kinds of ideas both good and bad at warp speed, so censoring newspapers is no solution. Ned Lamont’s Connecticut primary victory over Middle East hawk Joe Lieberman shows the power of the new forms of media. (Two Berkeley organizations, DailyKos and MoveOn.org, can claim a good deal of the credit for that one.) Contrary organizations and opinions can also be found in profusion on the Internet. The dialogue is healthy, even though some of the expression is uncivil in the extreme. There’s no reason newspaper readers need to be shielded from the information and opinion explosion taking place in cyberspace, even though, unlike the Internet, print journalism has traditionally been supported by commercial advertising.  

We’re profoundly grateful to the several excellent organizations which have made it their business to defend the public’s right to read all about it in their newspapers. The American Civil Liberties Union has a long and distinguished history, especially the ACLU of Northern California. FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Media) does good work making sure that press coverage is not one-sided.  

We’ve just learned that Terry Francke, Peter Scheer and the California First Amendment Coalition have been selected to receive the 2006 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award sponsored by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. The award recognizes accomplishments on behalf of the freedoms provided by the First Amendment. Peter is the current director of CFAC, and Terry is its most recent past director who has gone on to start a new organization, Californians Aware, with a similar mission. Both groups are particularly interested in access to governmental records in California, an important part of preserving citizen oversight of actions carried out in the name of the public. They provide all kinds of important help to papers like ours, to other media and to the public at large. 

Anyone interested in learning more about the whys and wherefores of protecting free speech can take advantage of the opportunity to attend CFAC's First Amendment Assembly, featuring Arianna Huffington, Dan Ellsberg, Gabriel Schoenfeld, Dan Weintraub, Dan Gillmor—and more—which will be held this year on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 29 and 30, at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. If you register early, admission is free. Go to cfac.org for particulars. 

 

 

 


Editorial: Two Fine Days on the Oakland Scene

By Becky O’Malley
Tuesday August 08, 2006

We get a lot of Chicken Little letters around here. For those of you who are folklore-challenged, Chicken Little was the character who thought being hit on the head by an acorn meant that the sky was falling. He put a lot of effort into running around convincing all the animals in the forest to panic, with mixed results. It’s traditionally the job of the press to play the Chicken Little role, so we really can’t complain when our readers tell us to write more about climate change, or the on-going struggles in the Middle East, or the attempt by Bush II to dismantle the Constitution of the United States of America. Yes, we’re worried, worried, worried about all of these, and more. This time the sky might really be falling, and what are we going to do about it? But every so often, it’s a good idea to check into what’s going right—all worry and no fun makes Jill a dull girl. 

Over the weekend we had the pleasure of seeing two things that were going very right, and in much-maligned Oakland, of all places. Number one: Children’s Fairyland is still alive and well and doing its job. If you don’t have a 4-year-old to hang with, you might not have heard of Children’s Fairyland, might never have been there, might have missed all the fun. It’s a dorky 10-acre corner of the beautiful park surrounding Lake Merritt (which is now mightily threatened by the condo-builders, but we won’t go there today). In many ways, it’s a little bit of the innocent 1950s, when it was founded. There’s a bunch of now slightly tatty original buildings representing themes like the houses of the Three Little Pigs and Old MacDonald’s Farm, derived from European stories and songs, which kids can climb on and play inside. More recently, exhibits with African and Asian roots have been added to expand the fifties’ too-narrow window on the world. There are animals to pet and shows featuring children and puppets to watch.  

Nothing’s noisy, nothing flashes. Nothing is violent or even scary, unless you count a few dark tunnels like the one representing Alice’s rabbit hole. No national brands in evidence. In other words, it’s the anti-Metreon, as unlike San Francisco’s ugly indoor entertainment destination as it could possibly be. 

And the best thing about it is the kids, all kinds and shapes and sizes and colors of kids. Some stars: the girl with that wonderful 10-year-old combination of childish playfulness and adult gravitas, beaded braids sparkling, who was shepherding her three rowdy younger brothers to wait their turn in lines without poking each other or anyone else, as panting grandma hurried to catch up. (I recognize the technique from watching my 10-year-old granddaughter trying to civilize her 5-year-old sister, but using it on three brothers is impressive.) The little boys working earnestly to blow the Three Little Pigs’ houses down. The 5-year-old girl who took our 4-year-old by the hand so she wouldn’t be afraid to ride the small enclosed ferris wheel. Afterwards the two climbed all the daredevil structures together until closing time, despite the fact that the five-year-old spoke mostly Spanish with very few English words, and our 4-year-old has only a few words of Spanish. All were enjoying themselves, all behaving. (“I am be-ing-have,” one of my kids once told me indignantly when reprimanded.) Everyone, in fact, was Getting Along. If they built a Children’s Fairyland in the Middle East, would the adults be able to learn anything from it? 

Number Two: The Sunday afternoon jazz session at Golden Gate Library on San Pablo. Here the crowd was predominantly old-timers like me, long-time fans and musicians, crowded standing-room-only into a small basement room. It was part of a summer series that’s been going on for 15 years, every Sunday at 3 p.m., audience free (with a donation jar if you’re feeling generous).  

The main act was a group headed by clarinetist Leon Williams, with George Alexander sitting in on the trumpet, and they were sensational, much appreciated by the head-bobbing toe-tapping audience of aficionados. A mini-lecture on jazz history and a short demo-talk by a visual artist followed, and the afternoon ended with an open jam. First up was the young people’s jam. Bass player Michael Jones was joined by his daughters Donnalea (almost 10) and Randella (8) on cello and piano, laying down a bit of the blues. The adult jam boasted five killer saxophones, enough to blow off the top of your head in that low-ceiling room, and they didn’t even have amplifiers.  

It was another example of what Oakland has always done best, bringing lively people together for a peaceful good time. It’s hard to believe that the sky is falling in Oakland, as Jerry Brown would like you to believe, when you see how well so many things are still going there, even though there are also difficulties. Ron Dellums was elected to be Oakland’s mayor because his campaign projected optimism and enthusiasm about Oakland’s present and even more about its future. What we saw there this weekend was enough to convince anyone that he must be right.  


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday August 11, 2006

INSIGHTFUL, HONEST 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I wanted to thank Sharon Hudson for her insightful, honest, (and even humorous) commentary, “Notes on NIMBYism,” in the Daily Planet of Aug. 8. 

I appreciated her ability to clearly express some of the same complicated emotions that I, too, have felt brewing in side of me for the last few years. 

I recently took a trip to Vancouver, B.C. and while I appreciated the natural beauty of Vancouver’s setting, I was shocked at the ugliness of its overwhelming high-rise architecture. Now I worry about the loss of Berkeley’s beauty, Berkeley’s scale. 

Thank you, again, Ms. Hudson, for your courageous commentary. 

Diana Rossi 

 

• 

A FIRST STEP 

Editors, Daily Planet 

As referred to in the Telegraph Assistance Package passed by the City Council in June, the lighting on Telegraph and side streets has been substandard for some time. Recently it was found that many of the street lamps have only had 200-watt bulbs instead of the proper 400-watt ones originally installed: This is 50 percent less light. No wonder the avenue has seemed a bit dreary after sunset. Let’s get this simple problem fixed and get on with the rest of the assistance package of budgeted city services being restored to the Telegraph community. Most importantly, we must have a dedicated community police and mental health presence on Telegraph to promote civic conduct and dissuade crime. Berkeleyans, please come down to this special street and contribute to its renaissance. 

Al Geyer, 

for the Telegraph Merchants’  

Association 

 

• 

RIGGED FORUM 

Editors, Daily Planet 

The Wellstone “Democratic” Club’s candidate forum was rigged. Had the forum been run in the genuine spirit of the late senator, I would have humiliated Tom Bates. 

When asked a sharp question about his role in forcing through the Ashby BART development, Tom skillfully misstated (with an affected laziness) that he empowered a “neighborhood association” to appoint the Ashby Takeover Force. 

The crowd then enthusiastically called for an opportunity for the candidates to respond to each other’s presentations. 

It took Jack Kurzweil, the event’s host and moderator, more than 10 minutes of aggressive, anti-democratic blustering to prevent the crowd’s request. 

By the time the “vote” was taken, everyone had “learned” that Jack wasn’t going to allow Tom Bates to be exposed—even if it took making an authoritarian fool out of himself. 

Unfortunately, and entirely unnecessarily, as in almost every other public forum in United States today, more people chose to raise their hand in support of tyranny than lift their hand to insist on the people’s right to genuine democracy. 

The “development corporation” flunkies that Bates is actually helping to carve up South Berkeley are the same goons gutting the rest of the city’s neighborhoods and historic landmarks. 

As I stated in City Council, if Tom Bates pretends not to understand that a crowd of 150 angry local residents protesting the fake democratic proceedings means that they do not want the development, then we have a “mayor” who is willfully acting against the people’s interest, and he must be removed from power. 

In these times that try men’s souls, we must uphold the true standard of all our most principled, fallen leaders. 

I ask you citizens of Berkeley to recognize me as Mayor on Nov. 7, and I will demonstrate the helpful, intelligence-creating, solving power of real democracy. 

Christian Pecaut 

 

• 

CONTRIBUTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Your portrait of mayoral candidate Zelda Bronstein’s campaign donors (“City’s Political Candidates Rake in the Campaign Cash,” Aug. 4) was incomplete and misleading. Zelda’s initial 103 contributors include neighborhood activists, owners of independent Berkeley businesses, artists and artisans, preservationists, teachers, writers and editors, the former presidents of two union locals and members of the Planning Commission, the Zoning Adjustments Board, the Housing Advisory Commission, the Transportation Commission, the Mental Health Commission, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Peace & Justice Commission and the Public Works Commission.  

Austene Hall 

Bronstein Campaign Manager 

 

• 

A VOTE FOR THE KID 

Editors, Daily Planet 

From the outside viewer, who has been in Berkeley a little over a year, I have been keeping an eye on the mayoral candidates, since this will be my first year considering to vote in my life. 

I love the City of Berkeley and its people, who have a lot to offer, and are willing to socialize. 

The upcoming mayoral election has three different political categories: 

1. Mayor Bates is a stooge for the developers, who come into this town, develop it as in Oakland, and then leave. This is obvious, although I don’t study politics much. 

At a recent City Council meeting, he admitted that he had a soft spot for developers. And then at the recent candidate’s forum, he stood in mock composure, right in front of the other mayoral candidates, and hid behind one thousand children, to try and get the Wellstone Democratic Club’s endorsement. 

2. Candidates who repeatedly complain on the same topic. 

3. Candidates with answers, not just complaints—namely, Christian Pecaut.  

Now this candidate, who is relatively new to the scene here in Berkeley, as I’ve come to understand from hearing about him, and seeing some of his fliers, to me shows the most promise out of all the candidates—and the most hope for any decent governance of the people. 

Because, unlike Bates, Pecaut is not out to buy the people—he’s by the people, for the people, and with the people—against the financial tyranny and gluttony of real estate developers, and against politicians, corporations, and individuals with their own agendas against the city.  

And I feel this candidate shows more promise than the rest of the candidates put together. So if I am going to vote for the first time, and I am 52 years of age, come Nov. 7, I will check the box next to Pecaut on the ballot. 

Ken Wagnon 

• 

WAL-MART  

SQUARE FOOTAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet 

Eric Riley accuses me (Letters, Aug. 8) of lying about the size of the West Berkeley Bowl. In “Bates and the Bowl: Some Inconvenient Truths” (Commentary, Aug. 4), I stated that the new facility will be 91,000 square feet. Mr. Riley says that it will be 60,000 square feet. 

The actual number is important because it’s the basis for calculating the amount of traffic the project will generate. To state the obvious: the smaller the development, the less the traffic.  

The city’s notice of the council’s June 13 public hearing on the new Bowl refers to “two buildings with…a total of 91,060 square feet.” Mr. Riley arrived at the 60,000 figure by considering only the retail floor space and disregarding the project’s office and warehouse components.  

Common sense suggests that the project’s office and warehouse space should be included in the new Bowl’s size and its corresponding amount of traffic. (Think of the trucks alone that will be going to and fro.) And in this case, common sense is backed up by professional standards—namely, the criteria used by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). The ITE defines Gross Floor Area so as to include all leasable areas. Warehouse space and office space are leasable. 

Mr. Riley asserts that I’m lying again when I say that the new Bowl is the size of a Wal-Mart. Wal-marts, he writes, always have at least 160,000 square feet of retail space.  

The Wal-Mart website tells a different story. Turns out there are three kinds of Wal-Marts: Supercenters, which average 185,000 square feet; Discount Stores, which average 101,000 square feet; and Neighborhood Markets, which average 41,000 square feet.  

It so happens that the existing Berkeley Bowl measures 42,000 square feet. So at 91,000 square feet, the new Bowl is over twice as big as both a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market and the existing Bowl. 

By the way, is the Planet’s correspondent the Eric Riley who’s the partner of Tom Bates’ aide, Julie Sinai? 

Zelda Bronstein 

• 

CHOICEPOINT 

Editors, Daily Planet 

The Aug. 8 commentary by Ben Rietman contains numerous errors regarding ChoicePoint, especially when it comes to our mythical roll in various elections since 2000. For the record, here are the facts: 

ChoicePoint did not perform the review of Florida voter rolls used in the 2000 Presidential election or any other election in any other country, for that matter. ChoicePoint did acquire the company, Database Technologies (DBT), that performed the 1998, 1999 and 2000 voter registration reviews in Florida as required by state law, but only after DBT had delivered the initial 2000 voter exception list to Florida officials for verification. ChoicePoint ended the product in 2000 and has not been involved in any voting related activities since, nor will we be. You can learn more at our Web site—www.choicepoint.com/news/statement—including the results of a U.S. Civil Rights Commission review of the 2000 elections that clearly states ChoicePoint was not involved and DBT was not at fault.  

As for the rest of the description about what ChoicePoint does, we are a public company that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CPS. Simple research will reveal that we are not a foreign owned company and we do not engage in any of the activities, or offer the products and services Mr. Reitman claims we do.  

James E. Lee 

Chief Marketing Officer, ChoicePoint 

 

• 

GIGGLES 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I read Chris Kavanagh’s defense of John Selawsky with giggles, especially the claim that the BUSD “maintains a solid and stable financial foundation.” 

It would be fun to hear Chris Kavanagh publicly explain the BUSD budget and the basis for such a bogus claim. After all it took the appointed BUSD audit committee 18 months to comprehend that byzantine buget, and they had BUSD staff members helping. Plus, I have heard a Board member publicly state that she couldn’t understand the BUSD budget, despite having been on the Board for over four years. The public has raised complaints about the obtuseness of the format in which the budget is presented, but BUSD has yet to present a budget that is comprehensible and useful as a planning tool. I must point out that during John Selawsky’s tenure, the general fund was way in the red, and the way BUSD avoided bankruptcy was to take our parcel taxes which we thought we were paying for class size reduction, and to use that money to plug the bleeding of their overspending. This includes $4 million over budget for the cafeteria. Class sizes zoomed to over 45 students in many classes at the high school. There weren’t enough chairs or tables for students. In some classrooms there wasn’t enough space for 45 chairs or tables even if the furniture was available. No wonder the truancy rate was high. One young man who I know and like, said he took to cutting classes because there was no place to sit. 

And so this upcoming November, this self same board whom Mr. Kavanagh describes as “competent and proven” want to pull the wool over our eyes again, by asking us to pay over $18 million a year in parcel taxes. Read the parcel tax language. The actual language lets the Board use the money for anything they want. Class size reduction is only a “goal.” BUSD has no requirement or obligation to use the money for class size reduction. With government, when they take your money and don’t give you what they promise, it’s called “good governance.” With any body else, it’s called consumer fraud. 

BUSD says it needs “flexibility.” If BUSD wants flexibility then it should submit a parcel tax that is voted on every 4 years instead of every ten. But don’t shove a 10 year parcel tax at us—so the voters don’t have the right to more frequent review, and then insert that worthless loosey goosey language so that the Board can have the “flexibility” do whatever it wants.  

And of course BUSD says “trust us.” Well, the past behavior of the Board has shown that it is not trustworthy. I will not vote for a ten year parcel tax, and I will not support a parcel tax that is not specific and enforceable. 

Jenn Haven 

 

• 

NOT RUNNING 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I want to thank Chris Kavanagh for his kind words and public support for me. At this time, however, I have decided not to run for the city auditor’s position, primarily because I have two years remaining on this, my second, term on the Berkeley School Board. 

I also want to acknowledge others who have helped stabilize BUSD’s finances, budget, and systems, and add that this work is on-going, and never entirely completed: Superintendent Michele Lawrence, Deputy Superintendent Eric Smith, Neil Smith, Lew Jones, former interim Superintendent Steve Goldstone, and many, many other staff and teachers who have sacrificed and helped to carry the load during several years of lean times. Thank you all.  

John Selawsky 

Director,  

Berkeley School Board 

 

• 

RENT BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet 

In the Aug. 8 article “Candidates Chosen for Rent Stabilization Board,” by Rio Bauce, David Blake, one of the candidates is quoted as saying: “The slate is great,” “It is full of these long-time Berkeley activists who care about the future of the Rent Board. We are also very good friends. We need to work hard to defeat the Condo Conversion Initiative. Otherwise, there isn’t much for the Rent Board to do anymore.” 

The condo conversion initiative is barely out the gate. What the heck has the rent board been doing?  

Nancy Friedberg 

 

• 

DEATH OF DEMOCRACY? 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I find it staggering that a writer could argue (Death of Democracy, Aug. 4) that “democracy died in Albany” when the Albany City Council made a principled refusal to grant a developer an up-front guarantee of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project for which the developer had not yet even applied. 

What does “democracy” mean? That all applicants who wish to build projects in Albany should be subject to the same rules? Or, as the letter writer argues, that wealthy developers should be given the opportunity to exact promises that their projects, no matter how offensive they may be to the majority of Albany residents, merit the lengthy, time-consuming attention of an EIR, a document that would not be prepared for any other proposed project that was not allowable under a property’s current zoning. 

If I wanted to build a heliport in my front yard, I dare say the planning staff would happily accept my application and fees, and the Planning and Zoning Commission would handily deny, without preparing the EIR that would be required if a heliport was a permitted use on my lot, my request for a use that is not allowed in the residential district where I live. 

Moreover, the writer of the letter declaring that democracy has breathed its last spreads some inaccurate information. First, the letter claims that the city “refused” to accept the developer’s application for many months but he has never submitted it. How could the city refused something that has not been proffered. 

Joanne Wile 

Albany 

 

• 

THE WAR GOLEM 

Editors, Daily Planet 

In his current suspense mystery, Dead Aim, Robert Perry writes of some of the attendees at a thrill kill training camp: 

“Some of the middle-aged men who had been born too rich and protected to have been forced into military training when they were young seemed to thirst for it now, to feel their incompleteness and inadequacy and want to patch it up now.” 

Sound like our current chicken hawk rulers? Who actually came to be as “Team B” (Bush, Sr., Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfeld, Cheney) in the mid 1970s. The CIA needed independent questioners, it was claimed, in a wave of exaggerated nuclear might (WMD) of the Soviets. Out Colby, in Bush, Sr., and the source of today’s sores. 

I was told once I have been living in a war economy since 1938. Brecht’s line “If peace is being talked about, war has been declared,” a European/Atlantic way of thinking, I find, is followed by the Israelis as if it were Kol Nidre. 

To support the state-of-the-art Zionist military mania, why do we not hear through the Bushits’ noise of “no cease fire, permanent solution,” nauseum ads, the real truth—goose stepped up production at Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, United Technologies, ad nauseum? In how many congressional districts does the right wing pork barreling rule the dark day?  

Jobs before justice. Use up our old and new weapons (and illegal ones—cluster bombs, white phosphorous, laser devices) to make more; it was thus in the Balkans ethnic cleansing of the last decade, at least, and remains emblazoned in stone tombstones, I believe.  

I just ask: no nukes until after the baseball season. And I still ain’t sure if I’d rather be blind or deaf.  

Arnie Passman 

 


Commentary: Immigration Bill’s Provisions Hidden in Plain Sight

By Rashida Tlaib, New America Media
Friday August 11, 2006

DETROIT—It’s been said before that the debate in Congress over immigration has needlessly gone beyond fixing the core problems within our immigration system.  

There’s a need to decrease the waiting time for an immigrant visa. The number of visas must be increased to meet the demand. The discretion of immigration judges must be reviewed. There is need for an overhaul of the immigration appeal process. These are real issues. But many of our elected officials have chosen instead to focus on proposals that would only worsen the effects of these problems.  

They have approved an “English-only” measure. They want to burden our states with national ID requirements. They want to force our local police to do the federal government’s job of enforcing complicated immigration law and criminalizing those who provide humanitarian aid to the undocumented. All this has set a tone that anyone who is, or looks like, an immigrant can be treated with less dignity and respect.  

These proposals do nothing to improve the work of an important arm of the federal government; they only bring our country closer to becoming a police state that permits laws that encourage racial and ethnic profiling and undermine American values.  

Providing a path to citizenship is, of course, the heart of reforming immigration, but the debate over legalization programs and border security has inadvertently given cover to extremely dangerous provisions included in both the House and Senate immigration bills. Many of these provisions, dubbed the “Title II” section, directly attack basic civil and human rights.  

This includes Section 204, deceptively named “Terrorist Bars,” which have nothing to do with terrorism but instead increases the discretion of Department of Homeland Security to deny a legal permanent resident’s the right to become a U.S. citizen. The section goes so far as to allow the use of secret evidence in denying citizenship, preventing a person from ever knowing and challenging the evidence barring them from becoming an integral part of U.S. society. Even though this only applies to legal permanent residents, it opens the door to secret programs that cover up violations of individual rights protected under our Constitution.  

The insidious “terrorist bars” section adds terminology such as “terrorist activity and security related grounds” to be used in determining the moral character of a citizenship applicant. It’s not clearly defined and is ambiguous as to what kinds of acts would fit into this category. It opens the flood gates to dangerous outcomes when immigration officials are left to determine the application of an unclear standard.  

The proposed section is already worrying many advocates and attorneys representing several Arab and Muslim applicants who are currently facing citizenship delays of almost two years (applicants of other nationalities receive citizenship in less than six months). Many communities suspect that “terrorist bars” would target primarily Arab and Muslim applicants and result in thousands of citizenship requests to be unfairly denied.  

The inclusion of this new standard doesn’t make any sense when our current citizenship process already includes the necessary safeguards in adequately measuring good moral character by requiring a security background check, an interview and filling out a 14-page application with every question on behavior known to man.  

To include such a provision during the “war on terrorism” and post-9/11 climate is going to make things worse for immigrants who strive to live the American dream and provide all the opportunities to their children they could not offer in their native country.  

Capitol Hill must address real problems, not imaginary ones. Lack of a path to legalization is a real problem, and so are the complications in non-immigrant visas, the bureaucratic nightmare of applying for family members and the unchecked powers of our immigration officers and judges.


Readers Respond to Middle East Commentaries

Friday August 11, 2006

EDITOR’S NOTE: 

The Daily Planet will be taking some time off from Middle East letters and commentary. 

 

TOO FAR 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The Berkeley Daily Planet have finally gone too far when it published the blatantly anti-Semitic diatribe by Kuosh Arianpour “Zionist Crimes in Lebanon,” His “commentary” hardly requires refutation. It is replete with all the catch words currently in vogue by Israel/Jew haters: “Zionist” instead of Israel, “genocide,” “chosen people,” etc.  

By publishing this piece, is the Planet trying to show the extent to which Jew haters will go to spew their venom? Are you trying to teach some important lesson here to the liberal progressive Berkeley community about the depth of Jew-hatred in the world? If so, a disclaimer was necessary to distance the Planet from anti-Semitism. Otherwise, one can only conclude that you share the writer’s hateful opinions and our community would know clearly where you stand on the issue of tolerance.  

Dr. Hilda Kessler 

 

• 

FREE PRESS RESTRAINT 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

With a free press comes responsibility. We must recognize that words can be more than words—especially when they justify or condone violence.  

ADL has seen time and time again how hateful words can lead to ugly, violent acts. We saw it less than a year ago in San Francisco where several men making anti-Semitic jokes ended with two young men being brutally beaten. We saw it in Rwanda where hateful propaganda on the radio stations and in the newspapers led to genocide.  

Finally, we saw it just two weeks ago when a self-identified angry Muslim man walked in to the lobby of the Seattle Jewish Federation with a gun to the head of a 14-year old girl. He was disgruntled over the conflict in the Middle East and decided the employees of the Federation were an appropriate target for his rage. One woman was killed, four others were seriously injured and an entire community was left shocked, confused, and terrified. Time and time again we have seen rhetoric and speech galvanize people to action and even violence. 

Kurosh Arinapour is not merely offering thoughts on the current conflict or showing support for the Palestinian and Lebanese people, he is justifying slavery, hatred, and genocide by engaging in scapegoating and blaming the victim. Speech like Mr. Arinapour’s is dangerous and hateful and can lead to acts of discrimination and violence. Sadly, we saw that two weeks ago in Seattle. Does Mr. Arinapour think the staff at the Jewish Federation deserved or even earned their fate just like the slaves in Babylonia or the six million Jews in the Holocaust? We have a free press to encourage discourse and share ideas, but spreading hatred is not the job of the press or the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Tami Holzman  

Assistant Director, Anti-Defamation League,  

San Francisco 

Oakland resident 

 

• 

FREE TO CRITICIZE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

There are any number of people that conflate criticism of Israeli policy and practice with an anti-Israel attitude. Indeed, they usually call us Israel haters, if not downright anti-Semitic. Thus, Leon Mayeri’s letter in a recent edition of your paper. Were that true, those of us who criticize the Iraq war would be anti-American, and not the loyal opposition we surely are.  

Indeed, to criticize the Israeli war on Lebanon is to argue for the safety and long range security of the state of Israel, for surely it can be readily seen that the conduct of this war, with its devastating loss of civilian life, is the best recruiting device that Hezbollah (and Hamas) could devise. 

Malcolm Burnstein 

 

• 

NOT MY TITLE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I would like to thank you for printing my letter. It would seem that events of the past several weeks have borne out my assertions that Ms. O’Malley has been a victim of the Hezbollah PR machine, including Human Rights Watch’s downward revisions of the casualties at Quana, as well as the Lebanese government’s continual downward revision of initial reports of so-called massacres, in one recent case from twenty casualties down to one. It has also been widely reported that the Reuters photographer who was responsible for most of the photos from Quana has been fired for multiple instances of altering photos to make the devastation from the conflict seem greater than it actually is. However, I object strenuously to the title you placed above my letter. I do not think that anywhere in my letter I made the assertion, either explicitly or implicitly, that criticizing Israel is anti-Semitic. I made no mention of Judaism or anti-Semitism, and in fact, I find the argument that criticism of Israel to be equivalent to anti-Semitism to be a knee-jerk reaction. I understand that Ms. O’Malley has been facing this accusation lately, as she indicated in her editorial, but it did not come from me.  

Howard Glickman 

 

• 

BIRTH OF HEZBOLLAH 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Israel created Hezbollah through its unjustified 1982 invasion of Lebanon. After experiencing quiet on their northern border for a years, they went into Lebanon specifically to destroy the PLO as a political organization. The PLO was never a military threat to Israel, rather the reverse has been true since 1948. Israel’s response to attacks on its soldiers has been to kill hundreds of civilians and displace at least half a million people in southern Lebanon. If I was the victim of a criminal attack in my neighborhood, would I then have the right to level the surrounding area plus half the city ? Please, Glickman, spare us the quotes from the IDF code. Why not quote the former Soviet Constitution? It is about as meaningful. Since all Arabs are Semites, it is more reasonable to label Israeli apologists as anti-Semitic. Israel has always spelled peace, p-i-e-c-e. Until that changes nothing else will in that region. 

Michael Hardesty 

Oakland 

 

• 

CLUMSY PROPAGANDA 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

The two side-by-side commentaries in Tuesday’s Planet certainly caught my eye. The first one had a rather provocative title: “Criticizing Israel = Anti Semitism,” by Howard Glickman of Berkeley. I’ve never heard anyone actually make that equation, but I’ve certainly heard people accuse Israel’s supporters of making it. Had the Planet actually found someone willing to equate criticizing Israel with hating the Jews? 

I read the article. Then I read the article again. Then I read the article very carefully a third time. Then I went to the Planet’s website, downloaded the text of the article, and searched it for the strings “Jew” and “semit.” Those strings to not appear anywhere in the article, and I don’t see the author in any way making the equation alleged in the title. 

I’m curious, where did the title of the article come from? Is that what the author called it, or was the title added by someone at the Planet? If the latter, that person might want to consider a career other than journalism. 

After puzzling over that for a while, I went on to the second commentary piece entitled “Zionist Crimes in Lebanon,” by Kurosh Arianpour of Iran. That one was less interesting, but I thought I’d quote from it: 

“Also, one can ask why Jews had problem with Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans? The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the Chosen People. Because of this attitude, they do wrong to other people to the point that others turn against them, namely, become anti-Semite if you will.” 

It is a mystery why the Planet thought this clumsy propaganda was worthy of publication. Was it to remind us that there are many people in this world with an irrational hatred for Jews? Thanks, but we already knew that. 

Jef Poskanzer 

 

• 

WRONG ON MANY POINTS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Kurosh Arianpour, in his “Zionist Crimes in Lebanon,” was wrong on many points. Let me start with a particularly galling one. Quoting Mr. Arianpour: “Also, one can ask why Jews had problem with Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans? The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the ‘Chosen People.’” 

The belief (not exclusive to Jews) that Jews are, “chosen,” refers (loosely) to having been selected to communicate to all people that there is a divine being who wants us to obey his laws, and in return for doing so, will bless us with peace, security, bounty, and contentment, for all eternity.  

Mr. Arianpour’s assertions that Jews consider themselves to be in possession of license to pillage and plunder are misguided, at best. 

The perfunctory dismissal by Mr. Arianpour, and his fellow travelers, of all possibility that the unfolding tragedy in Lebanon is due to Hezbollah aggression, demonstrates the bias of these individuals. 

It matters not a whit, how many times they are confronted with the inescapable twin truths: 

Israel withdrew from Lebanon (certified by the Jihadist-friendly United Nations) in 2000. Hezbollah has chosen to remain belligerent. 

Hezbollah declares that Shebaa is Lebanese territory and Hezbollah elects to start a war over this small patch of land. The Shebaa Farms region, an area the size of Denver International Airport, is Syrian Territory. This was certified by the United Nations, which is decidedly not Israel-friendly.  

Let’s face it: It’s not about Zionism. It’s not about “Occupation.” It is about Jihadist intentions to kill as many Jews as they can. 

Ira Berkowitz 

Emeryville 

 

• 

STOP THE ACCUSATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I have held myself back until now, but I feel compelled to write this letter. I am, personally, disgusted with the uproar that occurs when anybody criticizes Israel. If you criticize Israel, you get called the most rotten names, you get accused of being anti-Semitic, etc. This is utterly ridiculous. I happen to be Jewish, but I do not completely agree with the actions and policies of Israel. Am I going to get accused of being a self-hating Jew? Stop the accusations and grow up. 

Rio Bauce 

 

• 

WORDS FOR A  

SAVAGE CONFLICT 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

With superb artistry the fourth estate manages to do what no person worthy of inherent rational human DNA can do – use words of equivalence to describe the violent clash between Israel and Hezbollah. The most popular are “crisis” and “conflict” and “calamity.” 

It is one thing to maintain that a state’s right to exist carries the right to defend itself. It is quite another to seize lands, build walls, invade and destroy everything, human and human-made, that is remotely associated with an ancient enemy all in the name of security. 

The basic fact that the military forces of Israel are mobile whereas Hezbollah’s are fixed may or may not denote aggression but any fair-minded observer must, at the very least, see imbalance. Add to that the overwhelming superiority in military hardware and any suggestion of equivalence is ludicrous. 

The fourth estate will have lost all respect for the nexus between words and facts if it fails to label as disingenuous the U.N. cease-fire resolution drafted by the U.S.A. and France in consultation with Israel.  

It is super-ludicrous to think the world does not see savagery in this one-sided clash.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

 

• 

LOST A READER 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

I have been an avid reader of the Berkeley Daily Planet in both incarnations for several years, and repeatedly recommended your articles to my friends and colleagues. I have read your editorials, commentaries, and letters to the editor over the years in some disbelief as Israel and Jewish people that support Israel have been maligned and characterized as right-wing wackos in support of a “military state,” but I believe in the idea that all opinions should be put out on the table and discussed so that we can all use our critical thinking skills and make our own decisions.  

I personally feel that Jews have been targeted unprovoked by anti-Semitism for nearly two millennia and were nearly wiped off the planet 60 years ago, had it not been for the Allied victories and the Germans’ mistake of taking on the Soviet Union. I thank God every day that Israel exists as a relative “safe haven” and homeland for the Jewish people. Now that I have read the Aug. 8 commentary by Kurosh Arianpour, I have personally reached my limit with your paper. I thought some of the previously published material was somewhat offensive, but this article is really garbage. I can assure you that this kind of hate message would never have been printed had it targeted any other racial or cultural group. I believe in freedom of speech, but I don’t have to subject myself to this drivel. I don’t expect any kind of apology. I just wanted you to know that you have lost a loyal reader. 

Allen Nudel 

 

• 

APOLOGY NEEDED 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

In the latest edition you ran a commentary by Howard Glickman under the headline “Criticism of Israel = Anti-Semitism.” Nowhere in the piece could I find any such assertion, and I looked for it. The author, while clearly an unabashed apologist for Israel, doesn’t seem to be making a case about anti-Semitism—rather, he suggests that the Planet didn’t get the facts right, and may have been misled by the propaganda of Israel’s enemies. What is the Planet’s reason for using such an inaccurate and inflammatory headline? I think you owe Mr. Glickman an apology. 

David Coolidge 

 

• 

APOLOGY NEEDED 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

While in America we do not believe in censorship, we do expect that published materials are written with accuracy and in an attempt to convey the truth. 

Your paper disregarded both of these guidelines, when it published “Zionist Crimes in Lebanon,” a racist diatribe by Kuros Arianpour, an Iranian student studying in India. This self-appointed expert of theology, Jewish history and international relations indicates that “among other things” Jews have been the root cause of anti-Semitism and even brought the Holocaust upon themselves. 

He shamelessly says “…one can ask why Jews had problem with Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans? The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the ‘Chosen People’. Because of this attitude, they do wrong to other people to the point that others turn against them, namely, become anti-Semite if you will.” 

Mr. Arianpour clearly does not understand the real meaning of the Jewish concept of “chosenness” that does not imply superiority nor promises privileges. Rather it obligates the members of the Jewish community to work towards “Tikkun Olam,” mending our imperfect world. Before I earned my Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, I majored in Iranian Studies at the University of Budapest and at Columbia University. However, you do not need any academic knowledge to realize and recognize the ignorance and sheer hatred that comes from Kuros Arianpour, apparently a faithful spiritual disciple of Adolf Hitler and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. 

Ferenc Raj, Rabbi


Commentary: ‘Progressives’ Oversimplify Housing, Growth Issues

By John Koenigshofer
Friday August 11, 2006

The irony of “progressive” politics is nowhere more apparent than in the housing policies of the City of Berkeley.  

For decades progressives have held up rent control as their shinning achievement while ignoring its systemic injustices. Of late, their new crown jewel is “smart growth,” perhaps generally a good concept but requiring a skeptical review. 

Rent control and the current frenzy of smart growth enjoy the blind support of Berkeley progressives via an ideological commitment to a general philosophic idea while failing to examine the real world details wherein the devil doth reside. 

Rent control is based on a vague ideological assumption that those with less should be taken care of by those with more but has made no effort to define what “more” or “less” means. It has simply assumed that the landlord is wealthy and should provide housing subsidies to the tenant, who is automatically presumed to deserve a subsidy. From its inception, rent control has never differentiated between mom and pop landlords and corporate housing providers. Nor has it recognize the difference between a good landlord and a slumlord. All property holders are evil and all tenants are good.  

Such a simplistic and polarizing construct is used to obscure the countless injustices perpetrated by rent control. 

To state the case simply, rent control compels one group to give money (in the form of rent subsidy) to another group with no consideration as to the economic capacity of either group. An 80-year-old on a fixed income is forced to subsidize the housing of individuals who are younger, more education and have higher incomes than him. Shockingly, such injustice does not bother the progressive proponents of rent control. They do not care about injustices done to those in the evil class (property owners). Their generalized ideological commitment prevents them from recognizing unfairness. 

Progressive politics should be the politic of the common person. Not in Berkeley. One of the ironic outcomes of rent control (and smart growth as I will explicate later) is that ownership of property (in this case rental property) has been pushed out of the hands of mom and pop landlords and into the hands of corporate owners. The reason is simple. Mom and pop cannot bear the economic burden of suppressed rents or the belligerence of the Rent Board. However, the big boys can. Deep pockets can wait out artificially low rents, compensating for losses on rent control units with market rate units. They can afford attorneys to litigate and pay the high cost of tenant buy-outs.  

It is perhaps the law of unintended consequences, but progressive policy has undermine the ability of ordinary people to own rental units in favor of the consolidation of rental housing in fewer and bigger hands. Mom and Pop out, corporation in! 

To the progressive a landlord is a landlord is a landlord. But it is not true. A retired schoolteacher with three apartments is not the same as a corporation with 160 units. Generalization is the sin of ideologues. 

The same mistake is being made in regards to smart growth.  

For decades, (like landlords) a developer was a developer was a developer and developers were bad. Then, via smart growth, developers were suddenly good! The ideological devotion to ‘smart growth’ makes it impossible for progressives to critically assess the frenzy of reckless development that is currently underway.  

Smart growth asserts that increased urban density will alleviate developmental pressures in outlying areas. This in turn will preserve open space and reduce commuting by providing housing near work, mass transit and commercial and cultural amenities.  

Is this true? There is no evidence that suburban and rural development has slowed in response to increased urban density. Perhaps population growth is simply outpacing development or perhaps, what is being built is not what the housing consumer in outlying areas is seeking. Would a young couple that works in San Francisco and owns a home in Martinez (for price reasons) relocate to a small apartment-like condo in a six-story building in downtown Berkeley? Probably not, especially if that building lacks aesthetic character, has no open green space or trees and does not provide adequate parking.  

Like rent control smart growth is pushing housing into the hands of bigger and bigger corporate developers. The reason is simple, a site that once accommodated eight to 12 townhouses with open space, courtyards and parking now accommodates a six-story structure with 70-80 small, dense units. There is little green space and inadequate parking. Such density potential profoundly increases the value (cost) of the land so that only big developers can compete in the Berkeley marketplace.  

Under the cover of environmental rhetoric the building frenzy is on. It has become taboo (in P.C. Berkeley) to ask how many people should live in California? How many in Berkeley?  

Just as progressive blind commitment to rent control prevented its proponents from acknowledging and correcting its problems, current blind commitment to smart growth leaves its proponents unable to say “no” or even “slow down.”  

Ironically the same environmentalists who taught us that pavement, concrete and steel heats up our environment now argue on its behalf never suggesting that with each new building there should be significant areas dedicated to greenery. Why not require a 10-foot greenbelt set back along our main transportation corridors (Shattuck, University, San Pablo) to cool the city, convert the carbon dioxide and establish a landscape that greens, matures and improves our city over time?  

The ideological answer is simple; that would reduce density. Density is good. Ever inch must be devoted to housing. Add to that rhetoric “low-income housing” and “non-profit developers,” you have a formula that makes every blind ideologue gleeful and transforms every vacant lot into a big box building with little parking and less greenery.  

We must ask what will these buildings will look like in 10, 20, 50 years? What will the traffic and parking really be like? How will it be to live in a city with thousands of more people and less and less open space and greenery? What are the implications of consolidation of housing ownership in fewer and fewer and richer and richer hands?  

I do not know the answers. I do know that blind endorsement of progressive catchphrases and associated programs (smart growth, affordable housing, rent stabilization) lead us down a road of unintended consequences. “Progressive” rhetoric generalizes and demonizes ironically providing cover for the real devil that waits in the details.  

 

John Koenigshofer is a Berkeley resident. 


Commentary: Both Mideast Commentaries Were Wrong

By Ehud Appel
Friday August 11, 2006

The Aug. 8 edition of the Daily Planet featured two appallingly ludicrous commentaries about the Lebanon war. One was an exercise in the most indulgent of national mythologies: “We are morally superior to Them.”  

The other article used a morally and intellectually bankrupt framework to analyze the current war: “How is this war the expression of unique and timeless Jewish characteristics?” 

Howard Glickman asserts, “[Executive Editor Becky O’Malley] should consider that when the IDF accidentally kills civilians in a military operation, the operation is considered a failure, and everyone in Israel mourns the loss of innocent life. When Hezbollah kills civilians, the operation is considered a success and a cause for celebration.”  

While Nasrallah’s attacks on northern Israel will earn him and Hezbollah no admiration or moral absolution from me, Glickman’s contrasting portrait of Israeli society is pure fantasy. I would like to see some evidence of these national days of mourning in which “every” Israeli grieves the loss of innocent Lebanese or Palestinian life. Indeed, a certain percentage of Israelis do mourn the loss of innocent life. A certain percentage of Israelis will celebrate it. A larger percentage will immediately start combing through the photos and videos, looking for inconsistencies that “prove” Israel bears no responsibility for the deaths. A still larger percentage will feel nothing: We are under attack, how can we be expected to grieve for Them? Dehumanizing the Other does not require “teaching kids hate,” the explanation Israel’s Hasbara agents often give for why Palestinians are so angry at Israel. All it requires is a convenient myth which places a moral barrier between a society and the Other. All societies tell themselves these lies, including Palestine, including Lebanon. But Glickman is foolish for claiming Israeli exceptionalism from this phenomenon. Entering a debate with the supposition of inherent moral superiority precludes rational discussion about policy.  

Kurosh Arianpour declares that Israel has been ravishing Lebanon and slaughtering its civilians (terms with which I agree) because “they think they are the Chosen People [and] can murder Lebanese and Palestinian children at will.” Now, I am a Chosen Person myself, and find the concept of “Chosenness” to be among the silliest aspects of my religious tradition. As a formalized concept, it is—at least in common perception—unique to Judaism. By ascribing the racist and militaristic discourse fueling Israel’s actions in Lebanon to “Chosen Peopleness,” Arianpour suggests that certain behaviors—including this type of racism—are unique to Jews. He takes it a step further by implying that racism exhibited by Jews is of an entirely different nature than other forms of prejudice, such as racism towards Jews. He argues that racism towards Jews has always been “caused” by “Jewish attitudes,” including the racism displayed—euphemistically—“in modern times [by] Germans.” Jews, however, carry their racism with them, from place to place, from era to era. Arianpour uses a rather flimsly Jewish “cultural trait” to explain a miraculous scenario of transgenerational, universal Jewish consistency that could otherwise be explained only through biological determinism. To quote the wonderful Jeff Halper reacting to similar arguments: “[This] inane discourse...is not even sophisticated racism. It’s just plain old-fashioned stupid racism.” 

Let me offer a different explanation: Israel, since its inception, has been dominated in the political arena by its military elite. Military elites tend to be at the forefront of dehumanizing the Other. It makes it easier to kill them. Nasrallah knows this, and so does Dan Halutz. When a government whose discourse largely originates from the military establishment (and this describes a ton of governments) has the unlimited support of the world’s richest and most powerful nation, the results are all too predictable. Hasbara spokespeople will often say that any country in Israel’s position would act the same way. I’m inclined to agree. Racist arguments like Arianpour’s have no place in the struggle for justice for Palestinans and Lebanese, and should be given no legitimacy. Propagandistic arguments like Glickman’s have no bearing in reality and thus no relevance in the quest for regional peace, coexistence, and the safety of all peoples. 

 

Ehud Appel is a student at UC Berkeley. 


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday August 08, 2006

THE PARTY LINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Once upon a time, Judith Scherr was a good journalist. What the heck happened? 

Her Aug. 4 article (“City’s Political Candidates Rake in Campaign Cash”) was an embarrassing effort to take straight-forward facts and twist them into some a contorted story about the big-bad out-of-town developers that are supporting Tom Bates while poor Zelda Bronstein is pounding the grassroots in search of true believers. 

Ms. Scherr—in the true Daily Planet tradition—doesn’t let the truth interfere with a good party line. Be that as it may, it is worth noting Tom Bates’ and Zelda Bronstein have received virtually the same portion (20 percent) of their contributions from “out of towners.” Further, while the average contribution to the Bates campaign is $142, the average contribution to Bronstein’s is $165. (I’m no expert on this stuff, but it seems to me that having more and smaller contributions is actually a sign of broad-based support.) Could it be that Ms. Bronstein is actually the stealth candidate of the landed gentry? 

But alas, why let the facts get in the way of Zelda’s zealots. How many times will the Planet publish Ms. Bronstein’s assertion that the new Berkeley Bowl is the size of a Wal-Mart? (Same issue, “Bates and Bowl: Some Inconvenient Truths.”) With retail floor space of 60,000 square feet, the Bowl isn’t even close to the size of a Wal-Mart, the smallest of which have 160,000 square feet of retail space. I guess Zelda and the Planet have learned a most important lesson from the Bushies—if you repeat the same lie enough times, pretty soon people will believe you. 

Eric Riley 

 

• 

PETTY CONCERNS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the weather grows ever more freakish and as the oceans warm, rise, and empty—even as Barry Bonds, home accessories, and Israel command people’s thoughts—I suspect that Arnie Passman’s quote by Gar Smith (Letters, Aug. 4) is correct: it is probably too late to save our progressively plundered and poisoned planet. Earth is not a machine that we can fix after breaking it, but like the machines we today so thoughtlessly throw away, it will discard us as it seeks a new equilibrium that does not include most of the nature we know. When that realization dawns, Berkeleyans will understand that they face more pressing issues than their damned landmarks ordinance. 

Gray Brechin 

 

• 

SCRA POOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Cal alumn and mother of two, ages 10 and 14. We recently experienced an alarming change at the SCRA Pool parking lot. Sadly, the University has installed a pay-to-park program, which severely limits the community to have access to one of the best resources for recreation there is in Berkeley. It sends a negative message to potential patrons: “If you don’t have much money, don’t swim here.” Our family has used the facility for camps, etc., for many years. We have spent in excess of $10,000 on UC sports camp alone. It is a shame to penalize those who are past patrons and to turn away families who are lower income. 

Kyle Miller 

 

• 

CITY AUDITOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In her Aug. 1 letter criticizing Berkeley School Board Director John Selawsky, Sandra Horne declares that Mr. Selawsky would be an “inappropriate” candidate for city auditor. 

In fact, the exact opposite is true: John Selawsky will be an outstanding candidate for city auditor based, alone, on his decisive leadership and performance during his first term as a School Board Director. 

Prior to Mr. Selawasky’s election in 2000, the Berkeley Unified School District was unexpectedly plunged into financial turmoil: at the time, the school district faced the prospect of involuntary state receivership (take over) because of unprecedented deficit spending, mismanagement and inadequate financial accounting/recordkeeping. 

As School Board president, Mr. Selawasky led the effort to rectify this potentially damaging financial situation, and avoid the fate of the neighboring Oakland and Emeryville school districts—a state take over of their respective school districts (which still continues to this day in Oakland). 

Under Mr. Selawasky’s oversight, the school district’s accounting practices were reformed, and the district’s annual budgets closely monitored and audited. Today, the Berkeley School District maintains a solid and stable financial foundation. 

There is no question in my mind that John Selawsky will be an excellent—and proven—candidate for city auditor. 

Chris Kavanagh 

 

• 

INCONVENIENT FOR ZELDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ll let Bates and Bronstein battle over their “true” position regarding the West Berkeley Bowl issue as they wrestle through the mayoral contest, but one statement in Ms. Bronstein’s recent commentary (“Bates and the Bowl: Some Inconvenient Truths”) stood out in its bold-faced inaccuracy: “So he (Bates) ought to explain why in the matter of the Bowl, he ignored all the stockholders but one: the owner of the business.” 

At the June 13 City Council meeting where the Bowl won majority approval, there were dozens of people in attendance who spoke in favor of building the Bowl— neighbors, business owners, families and concerned citizens. At one point, one of the speakers asked for all those present who favored the Bowl being built to stand, at least half of the capacity crowd stood. None owned a stake in the business of the Berkeley Bowl. 

It seems Ms. Bronstein found that small fact a very inconvenient truth. 

Cameron Woo 

 

• 

LANDMARKS ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With regard to the large amount of well-deserved press coverage on the battle over changes to the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) and specifically on the criticism of how structure of merit designations are used in Berkeley: 

It is, when considered out of context, inappropriate for the structure of merit designation to be used as a protection that extends beyond the scope of its original intent. When considered in context however, such a use implies that those other processes which should address that overlapping scope have in fact lost their ability to function properly within the realm of checks and balances that should exist. 

In other words, if gear A is being asked to do too much work, it’s because gear B is not working properly. What bothers me is that focus on gear A doing too much work is occurring in such a way that it is masking culpability of gear B—an actual source of imbalance in this analogy. 

I think that in the context of this general idea, it is both legitimate and important to ask whether it is appropriate that the city Planning Department play such a strong advocacy role in the interest of developers (in other words, large new development projects) in order to promote their own internal interests which may very well be as simple as assuring that they have enough to do to keep themselves busy. If such a bias is determined to adversely affect the public interest and the public good as a whole, then a good portion of the imbalance can be said to be located there. 

Developers should have a voice commensurate with their place in the dynamic public continuum. It is unfair for bodies which should be impartial such as the City Planning Department and the Zoning Adjustments Board, to also carry their flag. I have sat in City Council and watched with rapt amazement as representatives of city planning have demonstrated almost rabid antipathy towards the will of the community, of people who will actually have to live around the projects they promote, while at the same time using all their considerable power of intimate systemic knowledge to push even inappropriate projects through by any means necessary. 

This reality is known to those who have been directly embroiled in these proceedings, but I fear it is not within the public perception of events in Berkeley because, again, newspaper accounts tend to focus on the problem with gear A while disregarding or failing to see the issue of gear B. Impartiality demands of course that gear A have two sides: those attacking and those defending—but discussion of gear B remains largely mute—and that, I think, leaves a rather large hole in the fabric of the debate. 

Joseph Stubbs 

 

• 

TAKING EXCEPTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As one of the authors who participated in the last CIL Author’s Night fundraising event that Susan Parker alluded to in her July 25 column, I must take exception to her “sour grapes” reaction at being overlooked as the perfect person to represent the disabled community. I found it deceptive that Ms. Parker neglected to mention that the theme of that evening’s program centered on cultural diversity and included three women authors—one Asian-American, one of mixed race, and one (myself) having a lifelong disability from birth—reading from our books about the experiences of navigating life as minority women within the context of a broader society. I wouldn’t have considered any of us to be spokespersons for our community, just good writers wanting to tell our stories—hoping that something we would be reading would resonate with our audience to provoke humor, insight, identification, or some grasp of realization that no matter what our experiences we’re all cut from the fabric of humanity. 

There’s one additional point I’d like to make regarding that column. I’ve learned as a writer that once I’ve put my words “out there” to be read, I have no control over how they’ll be interpreted. Criticism is one of the pitfalls of the trade. I may not like it, but I live with it, and, much of the time, I learn from it. It makes me a better writer! 

Denise Sherer Jacobson 

Oakland 

 

• 

REPUBLICANS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Do you know that the Sierra Club has endorsed a Republican senator, Lincoln Chafee, in Rhode Island? Do you know that the current Republican chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator James Inhofe, says that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”? Why would an environmental organization support, in any way, a party that places someone like Inhofe in such a position? It doesn’t matter how Mr. Chafee votes when he participates in a (now majority) party that is anti-abortion. 

NARAL, the abortion rights group, has also endorsed Mr. Chafee, and we all know what the Republican party is trying to do with that issue. 

Chris Gilbert 

Former Sierra Club and NARAL member 

 

• 

MEMORIAL STADIUM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is painful to sing anything but praise for an article reporting on the city’s “scathing critique of UC Stadium Expansion Report.” But, I do believe there was one factual error.  

The Planet article states the hazard risk thus: “Noting that the DEIR declares that even with a seismic retrofit, the risk of injury and death from earthquakes at the stadium can be reduced ‘to less than significant levels,’ Marks said, ‘It is essential that the campus seriously consider and analyze the option of relocating the stadium to other sites.’” 

I have doubled-checked the city’s letter and also the draft environmental impact report (DEIR), and I believe you meant to say that the risk of injury and death cannot be reduced to less than significant levels.  

The City of Berkeley’s comment letter states as follows: 

“In light of the DEIR’s statement that the proposed seismic retrofit cannot reduce the potential risk of injury and death to less than significant levels, it is essential that the campus seriously consider and analyze the option of relocating the stadium to other sites.”  

Moreover, the text in the SCIP DEIR (p.4.3-22) states as follows:  

“The degree of risk due to fault rupture cannot be quantitatively expressed with the current information. Such risk will be strongly influenced by the structural design details yet to be developed; however, the risk cannot be completely mitigated by any design. Therefore, while the mitigations suggested below would reduce risks, this impact is considered significant and unavoidable.”  

On the next page of the DEIR, the “risk of loss, injury, or death resulting from strong seismic ground shaking” is estimated as also “significant and unavoidable.” www.cp.berkeley.edu/SCIP/DEIR/SCIP_DEIR.html. 

If my understanding of the city’s letter and the draft EIR’s impact analysis is correct, I believe a correction is in order.  

Janice Thomas  

 

• 

PROPOSITION 89 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While letter writer Keith Winnard professes to support the goals of the Proposition 89 “Clean Money and Fair Election” initiative of putting an end to “pay to play” politics and “leveling the political playing field” (Letters, Aug. 4), the means he suggests to attain these goals are unrealistic. How, as he suggests (Letters, July 18), would it be possible to enforce a law that made it illegal for an elected official to “take action affecting” a large campaign contributor? Mr. Winnard also suggests the laudable goal of lowering campaign contribution limits, but as Vermont recently found out, the Supreme Court will step in to prevent this—but it will allow a candidate the option of “going clean” and not taking any contributions. 

As for his final suggestion of limiting candidates to presenting their positions solely through government printed voters’ guides, this is the type of reform—along with free and equal use of the air waves—which might be attainable once the system is changed by Proposition 89. Right now it is a political impossibility. Moreover, supporters of Proposition 89 are not seeking “the keys to the State Treasury” as Mr. Winnard suggests, but quite the opposite: Proposition 89 would take the keys away from special interests, and return them to the people. 

The cost—the price of a latte and a muffin for each voter—concerns Mr. Winnard as it should, but it’s a cheap price to pay to staunch the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of special interests under a system currently founded upon legalized bribery, instead of being used for the public good as determined by the voters. 

Tom Miller 

Advisory Board Member,  

TakebackCa.org 

 

• 

PECAUT’S PAPER PROBLEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A few days ago the cars in my area were papered with flyers for Christian Pecaut’s mayoral bid. He may want to know that he is in violation of Berkeley Municipal Code 9.08.090, which outlaws placing ads on windshields—considered a form of litter. Apart from that, I find most of the items of his platform agreeable, except for one: “Reduce Parking Tickets, We’ve Paid for the Streets Already!” We obviously haven’t paid for their proper maintenance, since many are in sad disrepair. More seriously, we haven’t paid for a modern traffic control system. Most of the major intersections in Berkeley are without left-turn arrows, and those that exist are on fixed timers rather than sensors to monitor cars in the left turn lane, so that oncoming traffic must wait for the arrow to time out, even when there are no cars turning. The next time you drive up Ashby, keep track of the time you waste waiting for cars in front of you to turn left. Modern traffic control could well reduce the time required to traverse the city by 25 percent, which would reduce congestion at any moment by the same amount. Consider, too, that every minute cars have to idle while waiting for traffic to clear just pumps more pollution into our air.  

What we really need is a ballot measure requiring all revenue from parking tickets to be applied to street repair and improved traffic control. 

Jerry Landis 

 

• 

BUSD ENROLLMENT WOES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is sadly true that adding a lease or deed documentation requirement will not fix the chronic failure to enforce enrollment. Here are some proposals that might help. 

First, respect the teachers. Their union has tried to tell the board that this is a critical issue. Teachers in my experience know which of their students are from out of district. They are in the best position to decide if a cheating pupil is detrimental to the class. Teachers should be empowered to help by a promise that if they report a student as not appropriate for service the administration will investigate with a presumption of action if the report is true. Second, require birth certificates or adoption papers as proof that the pupil is under the care of the adult filing for service. That’s evidence harder to fake. Finally, for now, reconsider transfers to impacted Berkeley High. Students take turns to have the desks! Berkeley High should be a Berkeley experience. 

David Baggins 

 

• 

SCHOOL DISTRICT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Selawsky, a member of the Berkeley Board of Education, in his letter to the editor wrongly claims that the school district is well audited. The school district is poorly audited because the school district is not reviewed for efficiency and effectiveness. Selawsky’s letter states that BUSD’s finances are only reviewed for “legitimacy” (prevent fraud), “accuracy” (is the math correct?) and “the district’s ability to meet all obligations” (pay the bills).  

These standards are inadequate. BUSD needs further review on whether it operates efficiently and effectively. For example, BUSD still does not have a computerized system to keep track of supplies, equipment, tools, books and other materials. 7-11, Berkeley Bowl, and Long’s all have computerized inventory systems, but not BUSD.  

The type of auditing we are advocating is a thorough review of efficiency and effectiveness so that our tax monies really and truly benefit the children and improve education. If BUSD was a $100 million a year corporation, the SEC would require it to do performance auditing. Berkeley pays the highest parcel taxes in the state for education. Berkeley schools have the highest achievement gap and high numbers for truancy and high school drop-outs, which are issues desperately needing attention. Under its current auditing system, it is perfectly legitimate for BUSD to spend money for cherry paneling in lunchrooms and custom cabinets for a principal’s offices, while installing cheap particle board cabinets for the chemistry department. The particle board doors easily broke and so supplies and equipment could not be secured. 

BUSD says it cannot afford the $55,000 a year needed to keep pools open so students can learn to swim, but it can afford 15 percent plus pay raises for administrators which greatly exceed $55,000. 

These are not examples of spending which benefit children and improve education. These are not examples of efficient and effective administration. And clearly, the current auditing system is inadequate, which is why BUSD needs to implement performance auditing. I wholly support public education. But I do not support waste. And unless BUSD is willing to submit to performance audits, it does not deserve our tax dollars. For these reasons I am opposing the new parcel taxes BUSD is seeking. 

Stevie Corcos 

Founding member, BESMAART 

 

• 

HISTORY LESSON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In your Aug. 1 editorial about Lebanon, Becky O’Malley states, “During the American revolution, the revolutionary army hid among civilians, but the British army didn’t retaliate by shelling cities.” This statement, even if it were true, would be irrelevant, since the British military regarded most of the inhabitants of American towns and cities as loyal British subjects. In fact, though, O’Malley’s statement does not correspond to the actual history of the Revolution. While it is true that the Continental Army had no fixed address, it did not “hide” in the manner O’Malley implies, and—unlike the British and the Hessians—usually quartered itself in the hinterland, rather than in cities or towns. Early in the war, moreover, both sides showed themselves quite willing to shell cities. 

The Continental Army shelled Boston, from March 3 to 5, 1776, as a matter of military necessity, in order to prevent the British occupiers of that city from detecting the Americans’ night-time fortification of Dorchester Heights. An American lieutenant, quoted in David McCullough’s book 1776, reported: “Our shells raked the houses, and the cries of the poor women and children very frequently reached our ears.” A few months later, on July 12, 1776, as the British were commencing their conquest of New York, British ships were fired on by Continental artillery at the south end of Manhattan island. In a show of force, the British responded by shelling the habitations of neighboring Greenwich village. The persisting problem, which is relevant to all wars, is: how are we to raise the standard of care in weighing military necessity against the risk of civilian suffering and loss; and how can this standard be enforced upon all warring parties, including “non-State actors”? 

John Gussman 

Oakland 

 

• 

MORE ON MIDDLE EAST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although Berkeley has many residents with family members living in Israel, some under the fire of Hezbollah rockets hitting Haifa, it is reflective of the Daily Planet’s bias that a local of Lebanese descent was made the subject of a BDP interview rather than anyone with kin in Israel.  

Given that Ms. Ghammache, whose ignorance of current and past Israeli/Lebanese interaction is appalling, is a member of the Albany School Board and that Israel-demonizer supreme Barbara Lubin is a former member of the Berkeley School Board, can anyone wonder why our local educational system is in such shambles? 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

 

• 

NEVER AGAIN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For all those who have written about the Hezbollah/Israeli conflict, of any religion (especially Jews), remember “Never Again.” The Holocaust will always be too fresh. 

Rita Wilson 

 

• 

NEVERENDING WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The ignorant and arrogant response in Congress to Israel’s destruction of Lebanon will ensure that we are fighting the war on terror (and creating it) for many decades to come. Bomb away! Congress and the U.S. media are pathetic. 

Carl Zaisser 

 

• 

AIRPLANES OVERHEAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Quite often when I’m reading or watching television in the early evening, an airplane flies over my apartment building—a low-flying plane. Sometimes the plane sounds too close for comfort and I rush to the window to determine if it’s a commercial airliner or a private plane. As yet I’ve never made this determination, and I can’t say I’ve been unduly alarmed by these occurrences. But last week, while watching an Edward R. Murrow documentary with graphic scenes of the London bombings in World War II, my mysterious plane flew overhead at that exact moment. Suddenly I was struck with the realization that we Americans have never experienced the horror of falling bombs, houses demolished, cities gone up in flames. Yet, ironically, in the past century we’ve unrelentingly rained bombs on cities and countries all over the world—Hiroshima, Dresden, Vietnam, and now, shamefully, Iraq. Have the citizens of these distant places posed a danger to this country? Have I ever been threatened? I’m filled with shame these days when I see heartbreaking pictures of thousands of Iraqi mothers grieving for their dead sons, small bodies lying on blood-soaked streets and, just as tragically, the growing list of our military dead and injured. My shame actually began decades ago with the haunting picture of the terrified little girl running naked down a dusty road, her clothes burned off by the napalm bomb we dropped on her village. And who can forget the idiotic statement by a military officer, “We had to destroy the village to save it”?! 

Call it macabre if you wish, but the thought lingers in my mind, “Why have we, this country of ours, which has inflicted so much suffering, been spared the falling bombs and missiles that we’ve mercilessly inflicted on much of the world? Will our time not come?” 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

• 

DAVID AND GOLIATH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Miracle of miracles! Israel has managed to be both David and Goliath at the same time!  

Ruth Bird 

 

• 

MIDEAST ON FIRE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Middle East is on fire. The Dogs of War have been loosed and they are ripping the eyes out of the skulls of dead babies. And just to show you that I am no Mel Gibson, babies are being butchered in Israel as well as Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon. Have our “leaders” gone crazy? I lie awake nights crying because I’m so frustrated that there is nothing I can do to stop this gory dismemberment of our young. 

But there is one group of people who do have the political clout to stop this insane and bloody maiming of babies. You know who I’m talking about. The same people who haunt the malls and websites of America with photos of dead fetuses. The same people who lament and bemoan abortions. 

Pro-Lifers? Baby protectors? Where are you now? 

This savage and brutal slaughter of innocents in the Middle East is one of the most—if not the most—horrendous disasters to strike the infants of our world since the end of World War II. Not since Herod....  

Pro-Lifers? Baby protectors? Where are you now? 

The world’s babies are being cruelly mauled, exploded, massacred and dissected. Partial-birth abortion is not even close to being as extreme and nauseating as this. 

Pro-Lifers? Baby protectors? Where are you now? 

PS: Speaking of double standards, Where have all the Christians gone? And the Jews? And the Muslims? Have they gone to neo-con cons every one? Sing along, boys and girls. When will they ever learn? When will they—ever—learn? 

A Bush-Cheney neo-con with a lust for power in his heart and blood in his eye is not a Christian. An Osama bin Ladin neo-con with a lust for power in his heart and blood in his eye is not a Muslim. And a Olmert-Peres neo-con with a lust for power in his heart and blood in his eye is not a Jew. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. And make no mistake. We are the sheep. “Bon appetite.” 

Jane Stillwater 

 

• 

MORE ON MIDDLE EAST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The government of Lebanon has a national army of 80,000. That was more than enough force to comply with a U.N. mandate to disarm militias, all except one. Hezbollah was permitted to remain along the southern border with Israel. Not only that, but to dig in, and to receive military weaponry from Iran. What did the people of Lebanon think would happen? This is Iran’s pawn that killed 241 U.S. marines, and organized the Buenos Aries synagogue bombing out of the Iranian embassy. It’s like leaving a time bomb ticking in your basement. 

Palestinians lack the option of disarming their militias. If you or I had a bomb-making factory in the basement of our apartment building, we might want to ask them to move away from where families were living. A Palestinian wouldn’t dare. S/he would be mindful of how the second Intifada began—not by an attack on the Jews, but with a public hanging of eight “collaborators.” That put an end to people-to-people peace initiatives. So you would watch for the bomb-maker to leave, and note the color of the car he was entering. Then you would go back inside and on your cell phone describe it to the IDF. You know that innocent bystanders would likely die. But you also know that the only chance for a peace agreement is to get power out of the hands of the men and boys with guns. Hats of to the brave, anonymous Palestinians who brave the terror of their armed militias. 

Jim Young 

Oakland 

 

• 

PRICE OF OIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When Democrats still had some say and influence, crude oil prices averaged $18 a barrel. Then Dick Cheney hosted a secret meeting with the energy industry. Who attended those meetings and what they discussed, we’ll never know...but we can guess. 

The price of oil has quadrupled and we’re told it’s a supply and demand issue. Supply and demand were high before so why is Big Oil all of a sudden raking in record profits? Is there some sort of collusion between the Bush administration, the GOP and oil companies? 

How many Americans are paying $50 bucks now to fill up their gas tanks? Thanks Dick and George for your secret meetings. 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley 

 

• 

GIMME THAT OL’TIME NEWS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Question: When is news not news? 

Answer: When information it conveys is crafted to persuade rather than inform. 

There is a sort of virus that is everywhere infecting the information we’re getting about the recurrence of war savagery in Israel and Lebanon. You don’t have to be pro or con to recognize that it’s not information but persuasion because two big facts about the war are hardly ever mentioned.  

Israel has a 10 to 1 advantage; 10 times more and 10 times deadlier weaponry plus ten times fewer civilian casualties. Here’s “asymmetric warfare” for real! 

The second fact is that when Hezbollah forces attacked an Israeli patrol killing five and capturing two, it was not the first day in the history of the world. If it were, then we could applaud our unbiased and healthy news crafters. As it is, we can only be sickened and ashamed on account of their ignoring the past while insisting that the right to exist and the right to defend sanctions the right to destroy.  

To recover from this virus we must discover, if possible, what news agencies are not telling us. I don’t know how to do that. Does anyone? 

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo 


Commentary: In Defense of Library Administration Criticism

By Ben Reitman
Tuesday August 08, 2006

In regard to recent criticism of press coverage of the takeover of the library by a serial carpetbagging, Bush water-carrying, ex-director Jackie Griffin, I must add the information Loren Linnard (Letters, July 21) left out of her unwarranted criticism of Judith Scherr.  

Ms. Scherr reported on ineptitude and counterproductive activities. This reporting occurred after the information had been in our blogs and listservs for a year or more as we who did the research found that Ms. Griffin was being set up in liberal city (Eugene) after liberal city (Berkeley) to do the same conservative purging of valuable and irreplaceable materials of progressive political slant. In the process, between 4,000 and 10,000 books were thrown out by hand-picked unsupervised workers thrust into the role of censors without training but with a clear political and economic incentive to destroy progressive information wherever they encountered it. If you pleased Jackie Griffin by purging “correctly,” you might keep your job. After the purge was completed, she went on a purchasing spree, spending tens of thousands of dollars on the likes of Ann Coulter, William Kristol, David Horowitz, and other equally irrelevant masters of misinformation and worse. Out went Chomsky and in came Falwell. This may be common practice for the dimly lit medulla beyond the Sierras but not here in the cortex of the progressive community.  

In addition Ms. Griffin (in both cities) instituted electronic patron monitoring systems (RFID, radio frequency identification) to track the mind spaces/book choices of library patrons, and without oversight (inadvertently?) made them available for export to the databases at Choicepoint/Checkpoint back east in Ohio and Georgia and Israel. Choicepoint/Checkpoint made the 2000, and 2002, and 2004 phony purge lists for the disenfranchising of Black voters in Florida. Since these are privately held databases comprising 18 billion records of citizen’s worldwide, they are available to the highest bidder to search for little tidbits of political nuance to be twisted and used against activists by the Bush Department of Justice, or worse. They were recently involved in the Mexican 2006 elections. These companies maintain the largest credit, advertising, marketing, and political databases in the world, dwarfing even the National Security Agency, which they are required by statute to cooperate with.  

Choicepoint/Checkpoint (genetically identical through corporate inheritance) is an ultimately an Israeli corporation. Additionally they make computer security back door breaches easy with their “free” Zone Alarm software. A computer with Zone Alarm installed can be entered anytime Choicepoint/Checkpoint wants access to your personal information. When you walk into Berkeley Hardware, the security shield is Choicepoint/Checkpoint which can document the library books you have in your bag and know that you checked them out along with sounding an alarm that you have an unpaid item from the hardware store. When you get your place in line at the post office, you use a Choicepoint/Checkpoint device when you walk into the courthouse, for jury duty you are scanned by Choicepoint/Checkpoint…etc. 

I see these incursions into personal information and business as a threat to personal freedoms.  

When seen with my own deeply held prejudice, Ms. Scherr—although somewhat cautious and slow to warm to the task—did take the responsibility to report the facts thoughtfully and completely. Now that the problem of the incursions by these insidious conservative authoritarians is thankfully recognized by the press, it still remains to be addressed by Mayor Bates and the City Council. The “two-minute speaking periods” at the council meetings did focus the city’s attention in order to get Griffin to resign, but the RFID menace to our privacy remains installed, and the books which were thrown out haven’t been replaced. The only sticking point for the City Council seems to be the amount of severance pay and reward Jackie Griffin is going to receive for having violated the public trust so thoroughly.  

The real story of how Berkeleyans removed the RFID menace and restored their library’s stacks to their former greatness has yet to be told because the story has been dropped from the front pages, and the damage done to the community has not been fully felt.  

Back to the blogs, I guess. 

 

Ben Reitman is a Berkeley resident.


Commentary: Criticizing Israel = Anti-Semitism

By Howard Glickman
Tuesday August 08, 2006

I should not be surprised that the Daily Planet joins in the Arab-European “blame Israel first” school of journalism, but after reading Becky O’Malley’s diatribe against the State of Israel in Tuesday’s edition, I was startled that the paper would publish such an obviously incorrect editorial, so viciously slanted in favor of those who wish to destroy a sovereign nation and its inhabitants. Before throwing her sympathies to the murderers and terrorists, Ms. O’Malley should check the Israel Defense Forces policies regarding military operations in areas with civilian populations, which are the strictest, most moral in the world. She should consider that when the IDF accidentally kills civilians in a military operation, the operation is considered a failure, and everyone in Israel mourns the loss of innocent life. When Hezbollah kills civilians, the operation is considered a success and a cause for celebration. Instead of doing a web search for “dead children,” perhaps Ms. O’Malley should do web search for the IDF Code of Ethics, which includes the doctrine that “[T]he IDF servicemen and women will use their weapons and force only for the purpose of their mission, only to the necessary extent and will maintain their humanity even during combat. IDF soldiers will not use their weapons and force to harm human beings who are not combatants or prisoners of war, and will do all in their power to avoid causing harm to their lives, bodies, dignity and property.” Would Hezbollah or Hamas make the same commitment? 

Ms. O’Malley should also check her facts. The bombing of a Hezbollah artillery position in Qana did not kill 37 children as the author claims, but 19 (which is still no less a tragedy), and she does not stop to consider why the building did not collapse for eight hours after the operation. Could it possibly have been the result of exploding munitions stored in the building by Hezbollah? Obviously not, because Israel is presumed guilty, while the terrorists and their supporters are innocents. And why were the “innocent civilians” not evacuated from the building during the eight hours before it collapsed? She might also want to ask why the same two individuals are in each and every photograph of the ”rescue operation” and why these same two individuals in the same clothing and helmets are in similar photos from an incident in 1996? Is there not even a shadow of doubt in Ms. O’Malley’s mind that these atrocities may have been created, magnified, or exaggerated by those who do not value human life to provoke exactly the kind of reaction that Ms. O’Malley had to these terrible events? It is unfortunate that Ms. O’Malley and the Daily Planet have been duped by the Hezbollah PR machine. 

Even worse than Ms O’Malley’s incomplete, one-sided view of Mideast politics and history, she seems unaware of American history when she writes, “During the American revolution the revolutionary army hid among civilians, but the British army didn’t retaliate by shelling cities.” Has she forgotten the Boston Massacre? Or the fact that the British burned Charlestown, Mass. to the ground during the Battle of Bunker Hill? Or the British bombardment of New York City? There are many more examples but again, even the most cursory search for anything but an inflammatory term such as “dead children” might have revealed to her these facts that every sixth grader knows. 

In light of the tone of her editorial and these disheartening inaccuracies, I must ask, has the Daily Planet ever run an editorial condemning Hezbollah for launching rockets into Israel for six years after they pulled out under the auspices of UN Resolution 1559, while Hezbollah refused to disarm as called for in the same resolution? Has the Daily Planet ever run an editorial condemning the citizens of the Gaza Strip for electing a terrorist organization, Hamas, as its government and proceeding to launch rockets and raids over Israel’s borders? Has the Daily Planet ever condemned the killing of innocent Israeli woman and children by suicide bombers in the marketplaces of Tel Aviv? Israel must defend itself, and terrorists must learn that free nations will not accept terrorists on its borders or within its society. If we do not stand with Israel in its mission to disarm Hezbollah, if the disease of terrorism is allowed to continue to spread, past Haifa, past Cairo, London, Madrid, past New York City, the next suicide bombing at an outdoor market may not be half a world away, it might be one sunny Saturday morning on Center Street, and then who will stand with us, and who will Ms. O’Malley blame then? 

 

Howard Glickman is a Berkeley resident.


Commentary: Zionist Crimes in Lebanon

By Kurosh Arianpour
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Some people who usually brand Berkeley Daily Planet and Executive Editor Becky O’Malley anti-Semitic have turned up their diatribe to silence a few voices that decry the crimes committed in Lebanon by the Zionist regime. All around the world, there have been demonstrations and protests against the genocide of civilians and children in the hands of Israeli forces. Have you not seen the photos coming from Lebanon? Have you not seen the photos of dead toddlers some with their pacifiers around their necks? Most probably not, because the complicit corporate media in the United States conceals these killings. The media only magnifies news of rockets fired by Lebanese fighters; rockets that are incomparable with the military hardware of the Zionist regime. But know this: So far some 800 Lebanese, mostly civilians and children, have been killed, compared to 80 Israelis, mostly Zionist soldiers. The U.S. media is hard at work to divert the attention of Americans from the destruction of Lebanon by the Zionist regime. You mostly find irrelevant stories, such as same-sex marriage, drunken Mel Gibson, etc., in the U.S. media. While Americans are amused with such stories, the U.S. Congress almost unanimously passed a resolution for full support of the Zionist regime and killing of more Lebanese civilians. Even your favorite politician, Barbara Lee, remained silent when the resolution was put up for vote. 

Perhaps the usual folks who attack Berkeley Daily Planet are right: There is, after all, anti-Semitism in the world. One can argue that the genocide of Lebanese people in the past few weeks has fueled anti-Semitism. But this is not the only reason. One should ask why anti-Semitism has persisted throughout the centuries. 

Let us go back to 539 BC, when Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, went to Babylonia and liberated Jews. One can ask why Jews were enslaved by Babylonians. Also, one can ask why Jews had problem with Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans? The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the “Chosen People.” Because of this attitude, they do wrong to other people to the point that others turn against them, namely, become anti-Semite if you will. Since they think they are the Chosen People they can murder Lebanese and Palestinian children at will. Do you not remember the scene where a Palestinian father was screaming to stop Israeli soldiers shooting his son? But, the soldiers killed the boy mercilessly. Perhaps, Americans are so busy to amuse themselves with their iPods, lap-top computers, or cell phones. They do not have time to see the murders committed by the Chosen People. The Chosen People have become the Chosen Murderers. So long as the Zionists have no regard for the lives of others, people around the world will turn into anti-Semites, regardless of their religions. Even some Jews are condemning the atrocities of the Zionist regime. 

When people witness what is happening in the Middle East, they dream to fight for freedom and dignity of Lebanese and the entire Middle East. Even President Hugo Chavez who is thousands of miles away from Lebanon recalled the Venezuela’s ambassador to Israel and called what Israel is doing genocide. The U.S. media only brands President Chavez as crazy. People in the Middle East and around the world now know that Israel is murdering innocent people, with the approval of the United States and UK. Condoleezza Rice wants to give birth to a “New Middle East.” But, know this: Her evil child will be stillborn. The New Middle East will be the reincarnation of the children who have been murdered by the Zionist murderers. They will free the Middle East from the U.S. hegemony and its perverted democracy. The Middle Easterners believe that the U.S. brand of democracy is nothing but, hegemony, oppression, murder, destruction, and rape. In the past four years, the United States in Iraq has proved what it means by democracy. If the United States and the U.S. Congress are globalizing their terror by sending the United States made bombs to the Zionist regime via British airports, then the freedom fighters will fight back to stop the U.S. crimes and save the human dignity. 

 

Kurosh Arianpour is an Iranian student studying in India.


Commentary: Religious Texts vs. Faith

By Jacqueline Sokolinsky
Tuesday August 08, 2006

The problem of morally ambiguous religious texts is something I’ve given a great deal of thought to in the past few years. I attended a Jewish seminary from 1996 to 1999, where I struggled to understand the troubling texts, and after graduating life handed me a real and painful spiritual ordeal. I underwent a transformation of my ideas. 

One idea to emerge from the ordeal was the following: when “religious law” violates “human law,” it must be considered invalid. If you hold the world’s religious texts to this principle, they crumble. 

Belief in the Hebrew Bible, in its present form, requires faith in the holiness of a text which calls for genocide against “Amalek,” male circumcision, stoning women with messy hair, the establishment of a line of violent, sinful human “kings” to replace the Kingship of God, etc. 

Belief in the Gospels entails acceptance of the idea that God is evil. According to the text, God sent Jesus to be tortured to death as penance for the sins of mankind. He also established eternal punishment for sinners. 

Belief in the Koran, in its present form, entails acceptance of the idea that murder is an act of holiness. 

This is where atheists lose faith altogether. However, I came to a different conclusion. I came to make a distinction between true religion and false religion. I don’t mean that there is only one true religion. I believe that there are many true religions, and they share certain characteristics. 

One: True religions value all human life: all ages, all races, all genders, all sexual orientations, all ethnicities, all authentic spiritual paths. They value even the lives of the tormented—criminals, addicts, the mentally ill. They value the destinies and capacities of mankind for fulfillment. They value all animal life. They do not teach or permit violence, whether it is mutilation of the body, sexual abuse, murder or war. 

Two: True religions honor genuine holiness. This entails a commitment to justice and freedom, as well as holding Good as an ideal to live by, faith, and participation in the struggle against evil. 

Three: True religions honor God, Goddess, and the infinite, eternal Creator. Without faith, mankind is led to believe in his (or her) domination of the universe. Thus I read in the papers that immigrant families are subject now to genetic testing to “prove” their relationships. This is breaking up families. Fathers are learning that their children are not “genetically” theirs. But marriages today take place between men and women who are not eternal husband-and-wife. Babies are not, I believe, formed by random couplings—they are eternal souls. Their “genes” are related to their eternal parents, who are not always the people who gave birth to them.  

Four: True religions honor the universe as part of the infinite Creator. It is a meaningful, purposeful, living universe. Today we have instead the disastrous concept of “natural resources”—whether oil, gas, or fertile land—and this has led to the draining of the earth’s body and the looming threat of a dead planet. Without the ethos of honoring the universe, we lose our sense of mankind’s responsibilities to the earth, the atmosphere and space. We are responsible for the universe’s health, for its preservation. We are meant, I believe, to live lightly on it. 

Five: True religions have faith in the eternal life of the mind and the spiritual body of every person and animal. I have discovered, in my own being, that the flesh is lent vitality by the spirit; that the spirit gives us the capacity for love and every other emotion, the capacity for a sense of holiness and connection to the Creator or God and Goddess, the capacity for language, thought and intelligence—and even for motion. It is not just the soul which is eternal—it is every part of your conscious being.  

Six: True religions hold that everyone—even very great sinners—can heal with the help of the Creator, that everyone is reborn innocent, and that everyone must repent for their own sins. “Everyone” includes those people who sin through prejudice or hate. 

I hope that this outline helps those who have been searching for God in troubling texts, and preserves them from despair or cynicism. My plea: turn away from the texts, and believe instead in true religion. 

 

Jacqueline Sokolinsky is a Berkeley  

resident. 

 


Columns

The Public Eye: Notes on NIMBYism Part II: Density, Equity, And the Urban NIMBY

By Sharon Hudson
Friday August 11, 2006

Most urban NIMBYs in Berkeley who oppose new developments are not part of an insulated class trying to hang onto their privileges. They are part of a sacrificial class that already lives in or next to high-density areas or transit corridors. They mostly do all the “right” things: walk a lot, drive little, consume little, live in little spaces, have little gardens (if any), and tolerate being a little too crowded. High-income people consume much more, utilize many more resources, and contribute much more to global warming than low-income people. Yet all the detriments of man’s environmental abuse and atonement are borne by the poor and funneled into high-density areas.  

It would be considered pathologically regressive to suggest an economic or social policy that makes life more difficult for those who already have marginal lives, while shielding those with the best lives from all unpleasantness. Yet in land use policy, this is widely accepted. Zoning regulations are the means by which huge differences in quality of life are enshrined in law; they are a form of class discrimination that goes unchallenged. Although I am not about to suggest doing away with zoning, in any liberal and progressive society, legally sanctioned inequities must be examined periodically to see if they are necessary, and if so, how they can be made more tolerable. 

In Berkeley, those in low-density neighborhoods have few problems and are pretty good at defending their interests. Week after week, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) gives painstaking consideration to protecting the views, air, privacy, and sunlight of homeowners in the better parts of town. But current and future residents of high-density neighborhoods are not so lucky: ZAB and the City Council deprive dozens of them at a time of the little quality of life they enjoy with only a crocodile tear or two. ZAB members who live in comfortable low-density areas have no trouble telling the urban NIMBYs to stop whining. This would likely change were ZAB representative of Berkeley’s housing demographics. 

There are at least three ways in which Berkeleyans who live in high-density areas are disadvantaged. First, quality of life is poor. High-density living is less spacious, less pleasant, less quiet, less peaceful, less attractive, less healthy, more toxic, more stressful, and provides less freedom and access to nature than low-density life. It is convenient but false to think that people live in these areas by choice, because they want an interesting and “vibrant” lifestyle. The vast majority eagerly move up the zoning ladder as soon as they can—which is why cities are dying while suburbia is thriving. Every indicator shows that the advantage of high-density living—ready access to diverse and stimulating people and cultural activities—does not outweigh the disadvantages. Urban sprawl will continue unabated until the drawbacks of high-density life are drastically reduced. 

Apparently no fan of unchecked urban vibrancy, the World Health Organization states that the “sensory overload and the continuous tension and change” inherent in difficult social and housing conditions “increases feelings of anxiety and uncertainty,” leading to a long list of social, psychological, and bodily ills. Anonymity, vandalism, and crime accompany density, and noise exposure is insidious, stressful, and largely unaddressed. And, adding to the burden of their own density, the rest of society’s unpleasant and unhealthy commercial, manufacturing, and institutional activities are also funneled into poor, high-density, and mixed-use neighborhoods.  

Berkeley has plenty of mixed-use development, and smart growth calls for more, but livable mixed-use development requires ironclad protection of residential rights. But Berkeley’s planners and politicians habitually encourage commercial and institutional activities to expand at the expense of residents. For example, Berkeley has not addressed the dilemma that institutional and commercial (mixed-use) demand for parking can expand almost indefinitely, and becomes worse as businesses become more successful. And the noise generated by large buildings and non-residential activities is pooh-poohed if discussed at all. Ignorance may be bliss for ideologues and planners, but urban residents must live in reality. 

Second—and perversely—Berkeley deliberately makes life in high-density areas even worse than it already is. When planners see a street struggling with social collapse caused by big anonymous apartment buildings, instead of trying to rehabilitate that street, they rush in to put more big buildings there. Traffic and buses are, of course, directed straight through high-density neighborhoods. One Berkeley planner informed me with apparent delight that Berkeley’s General Plan requires him to make parking as difficult as possible in my neighborhood. Such callous attacks on suffering and marginal neighborhoods in the name of the shallowest interpretation of “smart growth” turn naive neighbors into enraged urban NIMBYs overnight.  

Third, high-density residents pay “density taxes” in lost time and dollars from crime, parking fees and fines, construction inconvenience, neighborhood deterioration, loss of property value, etc. Parking fees and fines are particularly regressive “taxes” that disproportionately fall on low-income residents and renters in high-density and mixed-use neighborhoods. We pay for an ineffective residential parking program, then get ticketed, towed, and vandalized because our cars are parked too far away to keep an eye on. About $1,000 in parking fines is paid every month by my immediate neighbors—mostly lower-income renters—because there is no place to park on street-sweeping days. The city recently received over $400,000 for selling the university our parking spaces and roads during the Underhill dormitory construction, but refused to use a dime of it to help the impacted neighborhood. Such “taxes” only fall on those in the higher density areas. 

Does all this mean that we should eliminate zoning, or that we should decrease the quality of life in R-1 until it is as bad as in R-4? Of course not. It means we should trade our traditional planning approach, which perpetuates class discrimination and urban flight, for ethical and creative planning and zoning that improves and maintains good quality of life in all urban settings, especially high-density ones. High-density living can be excellent if it is thoughtfully designed and protected. The goal is to make life in R-4 and mixed use areas different (yes, more urban, more active) but equal in quality to life in low-density areas.  

Both social justice and environmentalism demand a complete overhaul of our planning priorities. To improve equity, we should recognize that residents in high-density areas are not there by choice, but nonetheless “pay” disproportionately to reduce the environmental damage caused mostly by others. Therefore we should do our best to mitigate all damage to them, and to provide them compensatory benefits as well. To stop urban flight, we must upgrade the livability of high-density areas until such areas can attract and retain as many stable residents as possible. High-density areas must stop being dumping grounds for experiments in unguided self-interest; instead, they must become showcases of quality living, carefully crafted in the public interest.  

The large developments added to Berkeley in recent years have decreased livability and increased inequity. As long as this continues, people will struggle against it. But wouldn’t it be better if those in power joined our urban NIMBYs to embrace a socially and environmentally responsible land use vision? 

 

Sharon Hudson is a 35-year Berkeley  

resident with a special interest in land use issues.


Undercurrents: Jerry Brown Adds Zeros to Justify Operation

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday August 11, 2006

In their 1948 American classic book about growing up in Oakland in the early part of the last century, Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey wrote in Cheaper By The Dozen that their father once discovered one of the more fascinating elements of the human mind—people could pass by a black typewriter every day without stopping or even thinking about it, but a typewriter painted white simply could not be resisted. “For some reason, anyone who sees a white typewriter wants to type on it,” Frank Gilbreth told his children on the day he brought one home and set it on the dining room table. “Don’t ask me why. It’s psychology.” (For those born in the 80’s and beyond and so didn’t live in those times, typewriters—which preceded computers as the thing on which we did our writing—used to come in one color, black. Same with telephones.) 

While Jerry Brown may not know how to solve Oakland’s problems—or, at this point on his way out the door, even really care whether he does or not—the mayor certainly knows something about human psychology. Aside from white typewriters, humans seem to attach great, mystical value to numbers that end in zero, giving weight to programs that are named with such numbers far out of proportion to their actual demonstrated worth. 

And so Mr. Brown gave us most famously his 10K downtown development initiative, a campaign slogan that always appeared absent-mindedly in search of a policy to justify the importance the mayor wanted it to convey. Who knows what benefits 10,000 new residents were actually supposed to bring to Oakland? 10K had such a nice, authoritative ring to it, like it knew what it was doing, even if we didn’t. 

Now, in response to this year’s horrific violent crime wave in Oakland, Mr. Brown has fallen back on the familiar and well-tested formula, rolling out the anti-crime “Operation Ceasefire” that will target the top 100 offenders who Mr. Brown feels are causing a significant portion of the violent crime in the city. 

“Every cop in Oakland will know who these guys are," the Oakland Tribune quoted Mr. Brown as saying at the press conference announcing the new program. "These are the people who have been wreaking havoc on our neighborhoods." 

The one hundred figure is not just a rounded off approximation, but an actual list. Oakland police officials said at the press conference that they have already prepared the list of 100, with Bay City News (BCN) reporting that it is made up of “people who've already been convicted of various charges as well as others who are suspected of committing crimes but haven't yet been charged.”  

According to BCN, Deputy Police Chief Howard Jordan, the Operation Ceasefire coordinator, says that police will attempt to meet with the people on the 100 top offenders list to convince them to give up their lives of crime, and that "those who choose the criminal path will be subject to swift and severe punishment." 

One presumes that the people on the list of 100 who are suspected of crimes but not yet been charged, have not been charged because there is only that suspicion, and not enough probable cause to justify an arrest or proof beyond a reasonable doubt to secure a conviction. If that’s not true, then why haven’t they been arrested and charged, yet? And if there isn’t enough evidence against some of these individuals to bring charges in court, how, exactly, does the police department intend to enact its “punishments” as promised in Mr. Brown’s “Operation Ceasefire” program? (There were ways that used to be done in the old days, but the police department is supposed to be out of that business now, especially with Judge Thelton Henderson monitoring their actions.) 

Meanwhile, one interesting part of the “100 Most Unwanted Oaklanders” list was pointed out by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson, who wrote this week that “by the time Oakland officials introduced on Thursday ‘Operation Ceasefire,’ … it was already out of date. … [The list of] 100 of the city’s worst criminal suspects … has already been reduced to 98. One of the people on the list was in the morgue by the time the plan was announced. The other was in custody.” 

This raises questions. Will two more names be added to the list to bring it back up to 100, so that the police department will always have a list of the “100 Most Unwanted” to be tracked down, tied up, or run off? Or will the numbers on the list gradually be whittled down to nothing, so that we know that the worst bad-asses are finally off our streets, and it’s safe to go outside again? That leads us to the further puzzlement: was the list padded with people who the police don’t think are so dangerous, or were some really dangerous people left off, just so the list could either make, or be kept at, the politically magic number of 100? 

And that leads us to another question, maybe the most important of the bunch. What makes “Operation Ceasefire” different from all of the other anti-crime measures that have been launched during the tenure of Jerry Brown in Oakland, and what are the mayor and the police department offering to show us that this new operation will be more successful than all of the anti-crime and anti-violence operations that preceded it? In fact, what happened to the other anti-crime/anti-violence operations? Are they still operating? Were they tossed out? What were the results, and what lessons were learned from their implementation, or lack of implementation? Any serious new effort to combat a problem, after all, ought to begin with an analysis and understanding of the previous efforts. 

In their article on “Operation Ceasefire,” San Francisco Chronicle political columnists Matier & Ross said that Mr. Brown had initiated 11 “crime-busting attacks” since taking office in 1999. Some of them went by so swiftly, they didn’t seem to last long enough to be given names. 

The one I remember most vividly is Operation Impact, launched in September of 2003 in the midst of an earlier wave of Oakland homicides. Writing in February of 2004, Harry Harris of the Oakland Tribune wrote that in “the project—which targets East Oakland—…[California Highway Patrol Officers] saturate main thoroughfares, including Bancroft Avenue and International, MacArthur and Foothill boulevards. The CHP presence allows police to direct more efforts at known hot spots for violence and drugs.” Mr. Harris called Operation Impact a “success,” noting that during the first four months of the operation, “serious crime like homicide, robbery and assault were down 6 percent from the same period in 2002.” Mr. Harris reported City Council Public Safety Chair Larry Reid as saying when the CHP officers were around, "things are peaceful. I want them here every day." 

As you know if you’ve been driving the nighttime streets in East Oakland since Operation Impact began, its focus was far different from that proposed in Operation Ceasefire. While Ceasefire targets the one hundred people who Mr. Brown says “have been wreaking havoc on our neighborhoods," Impact targeted the entire neighborhood, with Oakland police, CHP, and sometimes Alameda County sheriff’s deputies and park police conducting rolling traffic sweeps of major East Oakland throughways, stopping people at random, giving out tickets at will. During the first four months of its operation, Mr. Harris reported in early 2004, “the CHP arrested almost 600 people for various crimes, issued 1,564 traffic citations, towed 908 vehicles and seized six guns and 12 stolen cars.” 

When the homicide rate began to slow toward the end of 2004, however, Operation Impact did not end, the emphasis merely switching over to sideshow abatement. Eventually, that morphed into the Oakland police department’s present policy of “sideshow zones,” broad pockets of streets and neighborhoods from the San Leandro border to High Street in East Oakland where sideshows do not necessarily have to be taking place, but where police enforce stricter traffic rules than they do in the rest of the city, supposedly with the idea that people will see the police patrols and decide not to start a sideshow. 

Did Operation Impact succeed as glowingly as police and city officials were reporting in early 2004? Did its emphasis change because the murder rate went down, and should the city be returning to its “targeting the entire neighborhood” approach that it said was working so well? And if if worked, why is the city launching a new project with a completely different emphasis and approach? Or did Operation Impact not work, and should all of its manifestations—including the “sideshow zone law” now being enacted in East Oakland—be shut down in favor of this new approach? 

Serious questions, friends. How about some answers. 

 

 


Head for the Berkeley Hills

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Friday August 11, 2006

“Bring your own” is a good motto to remember when visiting the neighborhoods of the Berkeley hills. With no shopping district or quaint cafes, there’s little to tempt your dollars. Unless you’re in the market for a home. Then you’re in trouble, big trouble, because what the hills area does offer is hard to resist: a showcase for architectural excellence, eye-filling views, rock outcropping parks, hidden pathways and an appealing sense of space within nature.  

East of Arlington Boulevard, bordered by Kensington on the north and Oakland on the south, lies one of the last Berkeley areas to be developed. Here streets named after California counties climb steeply, some wide and shaded by mature sycamores, others narrow and winding, laid out to match the contours of the land.  

Cutting across hillsides are steps and pathways, allowing glimpses into backyard lives. When few roads existed, paths provided easier access to the streetcar line and a shortcut to the university for resident professors. With more than 120 to choose from, they’re an exploration in the making, each unique in details of stonewalls, benches, paving, urns and wooden pergolas. 

Arlington Circle, the hub, and the streets that spoke-off from it are the unofficial gateway to the hills, designed by John Galen Howard to serve as the entrance to a proposed new state capital. Though supported by the local populace, the measure was defeated statewide. Instead, today, we celebrate Berkeley with the second Marin Circle Fountain, installed in 1996, 38 years after a run-away truck demolished the 1911 fountain. 

The Berkeley hills are a living testament to great architects, from inception to the present. One-story bungalows to three-story homes surrounded by towering redwoods, in earth-toned stucco and natural woods atop concrete and fieldstones, homes mirror the environment they adopted. Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan’s Craftsman and Brown Shingle, the Prairie Style of John Hudson Thomas, John Galen Howard’s Beaux Arts, designs by William Wurster and architects of the Second Bay Tradition—all are represented. Newer homes may utilize updated materials, but the aesthetics and attention to detail remain—textured stucco and natural woods, small-paned windows, field and flagstone, wood fences and gateways, balconies and decks as inviting outdoor living spaces. 

Public outdoor spaces, aka parks, are plentiful and varied, tucked into canyons, landscaped on hillsides and developed around massive stone outcroppings. Sizes and amenities vary, but most afford panoramic views reaching from Oakland, across to San Francisco and north to Richmond. 

In the North Berkeley hills, I revisited two walking routes I’d enjoyed when my children were young, many years ago. Both circuits combined architectural candy with the chance to participate in park life. Along the way I greeted some of Berkeley’s noteworthy homes as old friends and made new acquaintances. 

My historic architecture walk circles from the Rose and La Loma Steps, up Buena Vista Way, along Greenwood Terrence and Tamalpais Road, returning through Codornices Park and the Rose Garden. Though some areas are steep, the overall distance is less than two miles. 

Bernard Maybeck designed Rose Walk as part of a planned hillside community. Faded pink steps and pathway led me past homes of earth-toned stucco, weathered wood and red tile roofs, with flower-filled gardens open to view. Following the curve of step-down benches I reached Le Roy Street and a home designed by John Galen Howard. Its blunt shape reminded me of the prow of a large ship. 

Maybeck’s designs were as varied as the number of artisan bread bakeries in Berkeley. On La Loma, a home resembling a Roman villa, distinctive in muted hues, with arched windows and small colored tiles inset to create diamond-patterned motifs. On Buena Vista, the “Sack House,” Maybeck’s answer to the 1923 fire that destroyed nearly 600 homes. The distinct outlines of burlap sacks dipped in concrete and hung like rough shingles, contrast with the graceful roof and overhanging eaves of the nearby Prairie-Style Matheson House. 

Another Maybeck, designed as a Bavarian cottage, hides behind its own forest of trees. On the door of the garage I saw the often photographed painted motifs. The old Volvo nearly buried beneath branches and fallen leaves added to the “Enchanted Forest” feel. 

Further up Buena Vista, Randolf Munro completed the stunning Temple of Wings, with massive Corinthian columns and concrete balconies. Above, John Hudson Thomas’ Hume Cloister, modeled on a 13th century Augustinian monastery, has curved walls of rough stone blocks and round tower that bypass time and location. 

Greenwood Terrace contains the work of William Wurster who designed Greenwood Common in the 1920s as a private enclave. Ringed by houses in the Second Bay Tradition, the lush common of broad lawn, towering pines, alleyway of flowering plums and million-dollar views reflects tranquility. 

The John Hudson Thomas at the end of Tamalpais Road tops my list of favorites. Pale green trim around small paned windows, timbers and textured walls, stone garden wall topped by flowers are all surrounded by towering redwoods and firs. 

Tamalpais Path follows the hill down to Codornices Park where recreation and nature receive equal billing. Groves of oak, bay and redwood shelter picnic tables, playground equipment entertains the young, while softball and basketball court all ages. A highlight is the 40-foot concrete slide where a long line of cardboard toting kids waited their turn. 

Across Euclid Avenue, the Berkeley Rose Garden, originally a 1933 WPA project, blooms. More than 3,000 bushes and 250 varieties, a cornucopia of colors, occupy tiered rows on 3.6-acres. A lovely spot to take in this botanical wonder is a stone and wood bench beneath the redwood pergola covered with climbing roses. 

My second neighborhood walk takes in three of Berkeley’s “rock” parks plus an added attraction, all near Indian Rock Avenue. Indian, Mortar and Grotto Rock Parks take advantage of volcanic outcroppings and boast spectacular vistas. Steps carved into the rhyolite surface provide easy rock-top access, acorn-grinding depressions serve as reminders of the Ohlone, stunted trees anchored in cracks and multi-colored lichen attest to the tenacity of nature. I watched budding climbers test their skills, young adults share a picnic and lone individuals feast their eyes. 

Nearby, at the end of San Diego Road, is the back entrance to John Hinkle Park where a twisted-branch canopy of lofty bay and oak create a cool, wooded environment. Steps and paths lead down to a small amphitheater, areas of lawn, picnic and playground facilities and two narrow creeks. This park is ripe for imagination-inspired adventures as well as quiet contemplation. 

The Berkeley hills covers several miles and offers opportunities for both active and passive enjoyment - popular with bicyclists, motorcyclists, walkers and those who arrive just to take in the views. Steps away you’ll find Tilden Park and the Lawrence Hall of Science, each worthy of visits. So pick up coffee, pack a lunch, carry your camera and wear comfortable shoes—head to the Berkeley hills. 

 

 

Photograph by Marta Yamamoto. 

Bernard Maybeck’s Prairie-Style design with low roof, overhaning eaves and pleasing blue hues stands on Buena Vista Way. 

 

THE BERKELEY HILLS 

 

Codornices Park: 1201 Euclid Ave. between Eunice Street and Bayview Place 

 

Berkeley Rose Garden: Euclid Avenue and Bayview Place 

 

Indian Rock Park: Indian Rock Avenue at Shattuck Avenue 

 

Mortar Rock Park: 901 Indian Rock Ave. at San Diego Road. 

 

Grotto Rock Park: 879 Santa Barbara Road 

 

John Hinkle Park: 41 Somerset Ave. between Southampton Avenue and San Diego Road 

 

Map of Berkeley’s Pathways: Wanderers Association, www.berkeleypath.org, $4.95.


East Bay Then and Now: Harris Allen: The Spirit of Individuality

By Daniella Thompson
Friday August 11, 2006

Architect Harris Allen had no cookie cutters in his professional tool box. No two of his buildings looked alike—each was designed for its particular site and stamped with the owner’s individuality. 

Yet Allen was hardly the Zelig of architecture. All his buildings are marked with strong personalities and demonstrate, through many fine details, their designer’s enlightened sensibility to “patterns” (in Christopher Alexander’s term) that make a building livable. 

Allen designed his first building—a chapter house for his fraternity—in 1901, at the age of 24 (see “Landmarking the House That Students Built,” July 28). At that time, he was working as a draftsman for the traditional San Francisco firm Percy & Hamilton, but that didn’t prevent him from keeping his eyes open to new trends in architecture. The First Bay Region Tradition pioneered by Ernest Coxhead, Willis Polk, and Bernard Maybeck was still in its infancy, yet young Allen incorporated its principles admirably in his Phi Kappa Psi house. 

Harris Campbell Allen was born in Rutland, Vermont on Nov. 22, 1876. He enrolled at Stanford University and was initiated into the California Beta chapter of Phi Kappa Psi in 1894. He graduated with honors in 1897, and the following year attended a special course in Berkeley, where he founded the California Gamma chapter of Phi Kappa Psi. 

Shortly after the chapter house was completed, Allen was offered a position in the Pittsburgh office of the prominent architectural firm Alden & Harlow, designers of the Carnegie Institute. He remained in Pittsburgh from 1902 until 1908, when he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and established an office in Oakland. His return was perfectly timed, since the 1906 earthquake opened up building opportunities on both sides of the bay. 

Settling in Berkeley, Allen teamed up with contractor Robert H. Van Sant Jr., who resided at 6 Encina Place, in Duncan McDuffie’s new Claremont Park subdivision. Their first project, built for William F. Kelt in 1908, was an apparently speculative house at 46 El Camino Real. The following year they constructed three adjacent speculative houses at 254, 258, and 262 Hillcrest Road. In style, the three are quite different, although they form a cohesive group. 

The corner house at 254 Hillcrest is faced with stucco on the front and a mixture of stucco and wood siding in the rear. A succession of three see-through arches leads the eye from exterior to interior, making the most of the tight entry space. Next door, 258 is a rustic Brown Shingle, set down from the street, with a long, bridge-like approach to the front door. The third house, now a bed-and-breakfast, features elegant half-timbering over stone. Unfortunately, the owner is planning to alter the façade by replacing the multi-paned kitchen windows on the ground floor with expanses of glass. No doubt, having the garden in full view would improve the kitchen ambiance, but at a serious cost to the building’s exterior. 

Built on steep lots descending from Hillcrest to Roanoke Road, the three houses gave Allen the opportunity to design two street façades for each one. Over the years, unattractive rear additions marred the original grace of 258 and 262—only the rear of 254 remains unaltered. 

Following Van Sant’s death, Allen began working with other contractors, chief among them Jacob House. On a level lot at 2810 Claremont Blvd., Allen designed for Sarah C. Haldan in 1910 a stately house with an Arts & Crafts porch. Around 1913, he built one of Berkeley’s finest residences for broker Wallace G. White. Situated along a public stairway at 99 The Plaza Drive, the house is clad in natural textured stucco and illuminated by banks of narrow windows. 

Harris Allen’s windows merit dedicated study, since they are hardly ever repeated from one house to the next. Designing custom windows for each building was an integral part of the architect’s job, and he invariably did it for simple houses as well as for opulent ones. 

In 1914, Allen built a house (long since divided into apartments) for Justin Warren McKibben, a sales manager at a packing house. The half-timber and brick building at 2522 Piedmont Ave. retains some of its original Secessionist-inspired windows and a front door glazed with unevenly sized panes of ribbed glass. The door-handle plate, depicting a dragon in hammered copper, deserves a special visit. 

Dudley Baird, a mining engineer and foundryman, commissioned Allen in 1913 to built him a house at 2434 Prospect St. In those days, Prospect was an elegant street, unlike the student ghetto it has since become. Now serving as a student rental, the Baird house is surprisingly little altered. The interior boasts unpainted redwood wainscots, and the two fireplaces are still surrounded by the original Arts & Crafts tile. Particularly arresting is the wooden mantelpiece in the living room, lavishly carved with a variety of fruits and leaves. 

In 1915, Allen designed a vaguely French stucco house at 3025 Claremont Ave. The blind lunettes above the French windows would become commonplace in mid-1920s buildings, but this was an early use of the feature. From the same year dates the Reuben Underhill stucco-and-shingle house at 9 Tamalpais Road, which combines a clay tile roof with diamond window panes. Also in 1915, Allen designed the second Phi Kappa Psi chapter house at 2625 Hearst Ave. (demolished for UC’s Upper Hearst Parking Structure) and a 3-story apartment house for Mrs. Alice Rickard on Bancroft Way, apparently never built. 

Other Allen-designed houses in the tonier parts of town included the Albert E. Sykes house at 77 Domingo Ave. (1913); the Charles E. Miller house at 2942 Claremont Blvd. (1914, altered in the ’50s); the Allen H. Babcock house, 2227 Piedmont Ave. (1914, demolished or moved when Memorial Stadium was built); the Cromwell house, 11 Alvarado Road (1917); 59 Oak Vale Ave.; the Mel houses at 8 and 10 Mosswood Road (1919); the Griffith house at 2830 Russell St. (1919); and the Linforth house, 160 Vicente Road (1926, burned in the 1991 fire). Twenty-two houses in all. 

During World War I, Allen served as captain in the Air Service. In 1919 he became the editor of the Pacific Coast Architect, a position he held through July 1933. During the 15 years of his editorship, Allen frequently wrote the magazine’s lead articles, which covered a wide variety of topics, from California Memorial Stadium and the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House (“Music Belongs to the People”) to the work of individual architects (e.g., “Albert Farr, Eclectic” or “The Creative Instinct,” about Los Angeles architect Harwood Hewitt) and urban design (e.g., “An American Village,” about Lake Arrowhead, or “New Spain,” about the work of Addison Mizner in Florida). 

Allen’s headlines often made clear his preferences. Such was the case in an article about the 1932 exhibit of the Northern California chapter of the American Institute of Architects, whose headline announced, “Simplicity received recognition.” In May 1933, at the height of the Depression, an Allen headline proclaimed, “For the Land’s Sake Modernize! Restoring Old Property Now May Be Good Business.” The article went on to advocate adaptive reuse of old buildings through conversion, as well as simplicity of design, “which should prevent [a building’s] becoming ‘old fashioned’ soon.” 

Allen built only two Berkeley houses in the 1920s and none in the ’30s. In 1924, he designed the George Beaver house at 1813 Sonoma Ave. This simple-looking house is the most colorful in the architect’s body of work, being built largely of unusually textured red blocks, with a board-and-batten gable on one side. The architect’s commissions were now coming from Marin County, and like many of his Berkeley houses, they were sited on “difficult” lots and defied categorizing. 

An article in The Building Review described a 1922 San Anselmo house designed by Allen: 

Mr. Allen likes to plan country houses which fit into their environment, which look as though they “belonged”; which is after all, when you analyze it, the appealing quality in the aforementioned cottages of the old world. The idea for this house as conceived in the owner’s mind was a bungalow of Spanish type. Many of the distinctive Spanish features, such as plaster walls, tiled roof and enclosed patio would have been unsuited to this particular location. So it will be built of redwood stained a warm grey with steep-gabled roof designed to shed rain, elevated front terrace and rear patio sheltered on two sides. […] 

With its grey-green sides and touch of varied colors in roof-shingles it is in sympathetic harmony with the tints of the surrounding shrubs and trees. Not a distinct “type,” neither “English Cottage,” “French Cottage,” “French Peasant,” or “Mexican-Spanish”; but contrived to express, by the adaptation of features from these styles, the individuality of the owner, at a moderate cost. 

For many years, Allen resided at 2514 Hillegass Ave. in Berkeley. He never married, living with his older half-sister Louisa Allen Page (1855–1947). He died in San Francisco on March 3, 1960. 

 

 

 

Photo by Daniella Thompson. Harris Allen built this residence —one of Berkeley’s finest—around 1913 for broker Wallace G. White at 99 The Plaza Drive. The house is clad in natural textured  

stucco and illuminated by banks of narrow  

windows.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Tripping, Slipping and Falling Around Your House

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 11, 2006

I’m often amazed at the lack of attention paid to places where people can fall, slip or trip around the house (not to mention commercial or municipal buildings). Maybe other people aren’t as clumsy as I am. It is a plus, though, that in my job I seem to be admirably suited to finding any obstacle that might ultimately cause any other person at any future date to slip, trip or fall. No divination required; I’m just the poster boy for smacking your cranium. 

It’s amazing that so many of these conditions go unaltered year after year, even after people have been hurt. The problem is, I think, that rather than finding the physical environs at fault, people tend to blame their own clumsiness (or others blame them for not paying attention). The truth is that all of us are rushing to and fro all day long from the first rush to the bathroom, to the gym, to work, to the market and so forth. It’s a wonder that people aren’t crashing into things more often (well, actually they are!). 

Ideally, our physical settings should be built to minimize harm under these high velocity conditions, but that’s just not how things work. As with most things, we alter our built environment only when it’s absolutely demanded of us, when people have been crippled or killed. 

Over half a million people in North America end up in the hospital each year as a result of a slip or fall. Three hundred thousand of these end up as disabling injuries such as broken legs or hips. Twenty thousand are fatalities, making them the second most prevalent cause of accidental death, right after auto accidents. 

This is serious stuff, but it’s very hard as a home inspector to get items along these lines taken seriously. Everyone wants to know whether they’re going to need a new roof or a new foundation because there’s money on the line. Try and talk about a slippery set of stairs and the eyes begin to roll. Frankly, although I’ll always report them, I don’t care that much about a leaky roof. I have yet to hear about one person who died because the roof leaked and I haven’t seen a single roof that had to be reframed because of leaks (other than the occasional garage that had been solidly ignored for 40 years).  

If the roof leaks, you may have to put a new roof on and perhaps new sheetrock on the ceiling, but nobody dies. On the other hand, a balcony railing over a driveway with a 20 drop which has nine-inch spaces may result in the death of a 3-year-old. Now let’s get very real. Which do you really car about, a leaky roof or the death of a child? Sorry, but this is what we’re talking about and the place to start is by asking “What might happen?” 

Let’s talk about tripping. Many homes have doorways that have overly large sills or transition strips that can cause a trip. If you tripped once looking around the house, that means that more people are going to trip. If you had to look twice and step over it, it’s time to change it. 

Now, look at what you would have fallen on. If you have a set of stairs with a small bump at the top and there’s a long way to fall or a short way to a hard surface, it’s time to fix it. Here’s how I think my way through these things. I imagine that there’s a party. It’s dark and there’s a woman in high heels who’s had a lot to drink. She’s my imaginary test case (of course, if there are any men out there who wear high heels—and you know who you are—you can substitute). Now take her (him) around this house that she’s never been in before. One hand on a champagne glass and one hand on a paper plate full of hor d’oeuvres, she steps over doorways, walks down stairways and walks the various paths through the backyard, sideyard and front yard. If there are uneven paths, or stairways that have steps that vary in riser height she may go head first down to the concrete landing. Driveways and patios are often broken up or lifted in places and it doesn’t take much more than about one centimeter to cause a trip. An inch is a lot. As we age, we also don’t lift our feet as much and older people are quite vulnerable to tripping and falling when sidewalks are uneven or when a porch board is sticking up just a bit. 

Slipping is also a serious issue and beyond the obvious wet clean-ups that we need to get to in the bath or kitchen, there are some endemic ones that are often over-looked. My favorite is the smoothly painted concrete porch and staircase that’s often sporting the front of our older craftsman or classic revival homes. When rains wet these surfaces they are both slippery and very hard. It is therefore easy to slip and fall on them with great potential for injury. Wooden stairs are often painted smooth and these are similarly treacherous, although the falls aren’t as harmful. In either case, repainting these with a textured paint is a great idea. You can request that crushed walnuts or sand be added to the paint at the paint store and then hurry home to paint before they have a chance to settle out. Be sure to use a “decking” paint designed for walking surfaces and prepare your old painted surface properly. If your pathways, driveway or patios are similarly painted, it’s a good idea to include them in this repainting measure. A bare concrete surface usually has plenty of tooth and needs no special treatment. Some folks like to use special friction tape, available by the foot at your local hardware store, but I prefer the painted approach if you can manage it. If not, the tape is still a very good choice. 

Smooth tile is a very poor choice for almost any floor and certainly for any outside surface. It’s bad enough that we have to slip in the bathroom on smooth tile but a smoothly tiled porch, balcony or stairway is almost a sure formula for misery. If you have smooth tile in such an area, there are paint-applied compounds that can be installed to give them some tack but it’s best to avoid such materials and I’d even recommend removing them if there’s potential for a serious fall. 

As far as falls go, you’ll have to look around and see if you can find any place on your property where you or your 3-year-old (or the tipsy damsel in heels) might take a serious spill. Railings should be high enough to keep small ones from falling from any surface more than three inches high. Special attention should be paid to very high surfaces or ones where the fall ends on concrete. Look at windows that have low sills and balconies that have benches to climb upon. Railings should be tight enough to keep small heads from getting through. The current code calls for four inches but it’s also important to be sure that the railing cannot be easily climbed. Kids are adventurous and when we’re small we are all immortal, right? 

An often missed falling hazard is at the top of a retaining wall where there is no barrier and the bottom is many feet down and paved with a hard surface. There’s a house in my neighborhood that I pass every day. The front yard is about seven feet above the sidewalk and it’s on a street corner. Yes, there are plants along the edges but they’ll just serve to trip you when it’s dark and you’re looking for the way to your car. By the way, lighting is a great way to lessen all of these hazards and, although the code tries harder today to address it, most of us are in old houses that are exempt. 

You know, this isn’t about morality. It’s about opening our eyes and taking notice of “what might happen.” There’s a school in Berkeley at the Graduate Theological Union that I’ve often passed and marveled at. I’ve told my wife, because she graduated from that school. It has a lovely grassy area about 14 feet above the parking lot that has no real barrier along it’s edge. They sometimes have some blind students. Now ask yourself, “What might happen?” 

 

 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com.


The Dirty Lowdown on Working With Our Lowdown Dirt

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 11, 2006

One of the hardest things for new gardeners here—both experienced gardeners who move here and long-time locals who get inspired by the goddess Flora—is our dirt. Most of us have to garden on clay soil here, and those of us in the flatlands generally have the heaviest, the historically most stomped-on and sometimes most-contaminated clay.  

It’s ruff, it’s tuff, it’s so heavy you might think you’ve been teleported to Jupiter (assuming there’s soil on Jupiter at all, which I doubt) and it sticks to your spade like massed molecular bulldogs. People get desperate and rototill their whole yards, or double-dig beds. That’s OK if you’re young and you want some resistive exercise, and it does give immediate, fluffy results.  

It’s not the only way, though, and skip rototilling if you have trees in the yard. In heavy soil, their roots are likely to stay in the top couple of feet of soil because they need oxygen.  

If you can use the soil you’ve got, you have some advantages. Clay retains nutrients well. Use organic matter—compost, chips, sawdust with nitrogen added. Treat it as an ongoing need. 

If you have soil so compacted it’s like concrete, well, here’s what has worked for me.  

I started with gypsum—scratched it into the clay with a stiff rake, watered it, repeated rake and water every few days for a week or so in the fall. It dissolved slowly, milkily. After that week, the soil was beginning to yield just a bit, so I planted starters. In one plot, those were rescued and discarded fortnight lilies and freeway daisies; in another where I took a longer view, I planted native shrub salvias in back and some laterally spreading odds and ends I got from a friend in front.  

I worked the first plot hard; I was young then. I waited only till the following spring to start planting natives, and in a couple of years I had a thriving garden that included things like flannelbush that need good drainage. I could throw a spade into it spear-style and it would go in to the hilt.  

The second plot, I took my time, after two of us hurt ourselves on an attempted asparagus bed. Near that was a gravelly bit that had been a parking space. Nobody who scratched at that accomplished much, and it was of course nastily contaminated.  

I did the gypsum trick and planted those salvias and for a decade they’ve provided cover for our towhees, finches, and robins, and scent for our home. They also took up some of the crap the parked cars had left behind, and sequestered it harmlessly. The soil’s more permeable under them than elsewhere in the yard, and more like its old self.  

The other castoffs, just shallowly planted at odd intervals whenever I got them over the years, rendered the front tillable in that same time. It didn’t have to run that long, so don’t think this works only for the very patient. Some pioneer plants and minimal sweat will work where the most grimly determined attacks on clay will just let you grow the one thing we all do—tired.  

 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday August 11, 2006

Head For The Doorway? 

In the early days of California, many homes were made of adobe bricks with wooden doorframes. After a powerful earthquake, doorframes were sometimes the only parts of these houses still standing.  

From this came the myth that a doorway is the safest place to be during an earthquake. Today, few people in the Bay Area live in unreinforced adobe houses. In modern houses, doorways may be no stronger than any other part of the house, and do little to protect you from falling objects. If the doorway is a “cased opening,” that is, has no door, then you may be fine in this area. You are safest under a table, so “drop, cover, and hold on.” 

 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.


The Public Eye: Notes on NIMBYism

By Sharon Hudson
Tuesday August 08, 2006

Part I: To NIMBY, or Not to NIMBY? That is the Question 

 

I admit, I never thought I was at risk. But people I know are showing symptoms, and it’s spreading quickly, so I decided to get tested. I’m very nervous, though. I’m afraid I might test positive for being a NIMBY. 

Apparently I am a NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) if I don’t want a five-story building in my back yard. (Actually, as a renter I don’t have a back yard, and if Berkeley’s planners have their way, neither will anybody else, but that’s another story.) But what if I oppose the same building five or 10 blocks away, or down in Oakland? Then am I a NIMBY or an “anti-NIMBY”? How far does the metaphorical “back yard” extend? What if I just believe in good development, which in some places, both rural and urban, means no development?  

In 2003, the City Council considered charging a prohibitive development appeal fee to Berkeley residents who live “too far” (more than 300 feet) from a project. Is caring about land use decisions more than a block from one’s house a symptom? But if those who live next to a project are NIMBYs, and those who live farther away are crackpots and busybodies, who can challenge bad developments? Nobody—which is just what the fee advocates wanted. Fortunately, the council tabled the fee after public protest. City Hall has since moved on to more subtle and successful means of eliminating public participation. 

The smug intellectual version of calling somebody a NIMBY is to say they are “afraid of change.” This charge condescends toward those who are not “progressive” enough to embrace the name-caller’s version of the future, or “smart” enough to know what is good for them. But doesn’t almost everyone welcome “good” change and resist “bad” change? And, increasingly, bad changes and bad planning in Berkeley are starting to look like the status quo. So please, Doctor, am I afraid of change, or afraid of the status quo?  

In land use matters, unless we cooperate—which most neighbors favor but which most developers eschew—“change” means taking away Peter’s rights to benefit Paul. If Peter objects, Paul says that Peter is “afraid of change.” For example, before my time, another apartment building was built just south of mine. Its extra height cut off the winter solar heat to the south side of my building and tripled the winter energy bills for our south-facing units. This was (and still is) a direct financial subsidy by neighboring residents to the developer, and I’m sure the neighbors at the time were vociferously “afraid of change.” But if the City Council were to consider instating renters’ solar rights, who would be “afraid of change” then? Will this turn developers into NIMBYs? 

Some “smart growth” advocates admit that land use conflicts have nothing to do with “fear of change” and everything to do with gain and loss. Simply stated, bad development means developers gain and we lose. Then developers spend a fraction of their gains to convince well-intentioned Berkeleyans that bad development is smart growth. They also have some allies among some very “smart” people who are safely out of the development zone. I’m probably doomed to be a NIMBY if I am too dumb to realize that I will “gain” from the overdevelopment agenda. If only Berkeleyans were smart enough, we would realize that we really want to live in a place with more people, bigger buildings, and less greenery. But for some reason, we stay in a quiet town filled with large trees, small cottages, and old Victorians. Yes, we are a dumb lot indeed! 

It is important to a sustainable planet that most people live in fairly compact urban areas. Berkeley’s population density is higher than 90 percent of California’s cities, and three times that of the (equivocal) smart-growth poster-child, Portland, Ore. This means that Berkeley already enjoys something quite special: a remarkably pleasant environment at a relatively high density. The more honest “smart growth” advocates admit that adding density to Berkeley isn’t good for Berkeley. But they are willing to impose bad development upon us because it is good for the planet. These terra-NIMBYs are truly terrified of change—climate change. And who isn’t? Unfortunately, however, nothing we do in Berkeley’s land use will have any noticeable impact on climate change.  

Berkeley’s idealism is laudable, but sometimes misguided. Few people—idealists least of all—want to acknowledge that something as critical as global warming cannot be affected by personal self-sacrifice. Berkeley is already doing less damage than almost any other American city of equivalent size. Stuffing a few thousand extra residents into the upper floors of too-tall buildings, and depriving them of cars, will do no good for the planet, but it will do considerable harm to Berkeley. Injuring Berkeley to impact either urban sprawl or global warming is like cutting off your thumb to lose weight: It will have no impact on your weight problem, but it’s mighty detrimental to your hand. And it's permanent. Try it; you’ll see. 

But if those who are working so hard to remake Berkeley into their ideal were to spend equivalent time working for changes in federal and global environmental, population, economic, and science policies, it could make a huge difference. But that’s no fun. It’s fun to play around with little models, to get awards for being “green,” and to see your ego enshrined in architecture. That makes Berkeleyans feel good. Meanwhile, buying new SUVs will make about a billion Chinese feel fantastic. 

Finally, there are a handful of “smart growth” advocates in Berkeley who are true environmentalists. They value the California Environmental Quality Act and similar local protections like the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. They even believe in public participation. Although they realize that changes in Berkeley alone will be globally insignificant, they believe in Berkeley’s moral leadership and ability to change others by example. But it’s delusional to think that Berkeley’s example could save the planet from global warming, so let’s set our hubris aside and work a little closer to home. Let’s model a city in which people can live happily in relatively dense urban areas. Removing our existing strengths and pleasures, and emulating less attractive and livable cities, will not do this; it will do the opposite. 

In addition, with all due respect, few people rush to follow the “good example” of hypocrites. If you would not live in the buildings you advocate; if you own or drive a car, but want to make it difficult for others to do so; if you like your tree-lined or historic street, but believe others don’t need the same; if you want to live in peace and quiet, but to visit all-night bars and restaurants in other people’s neighborhoods—then you are a hypocrite. If you say you want people (especially other people) to live in high-density communities, but then do nothing to protect their quality of life, you are a hypocrite. If you obsess over affordable housing while ignoring population control, then perhaps you are more concerned with looking good than with doing good. 

In truth, I won’t mind testing positive. NIMBYs may not look good, but they do good. It is NIMBYs who fight to keep the urban environment livable. It is urban NIMBYs who struggle tirelessly against uncooperative developers and planners for good development. So Berkeley NIMBYs: stand up and be proud. And don’t forget to vote. 

 

Sharon Hudson is a 35-year Berkeley resident with a special interest in land use issues.


Column: The Public Eye: The Liberal Response to the Failure of Conservatism

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday August 08, 2006

History will record that the Bush administration was the high-water mark of conservatism, note that during Dubya’s reign conservatives had their chance and failed. What remains to be seen is how liberals will respond: will they continue to be “conservative lite” or will they reformulate liberalism? 

Conservative domestic policy rests upon a single tenet: the federal government must be drastically reduced because it impedes “the market.” Accordingly, the Bush administration and an obedient Republican Congress slashed taxes. They assured the American people that, as a “natural” result of these cuts the economy would flourish and the federal government would wither. But neither prediction proved accurate. The economy showed modest growth, which benefited only corporations and wealthy individuals; meanwhile, the real income of the average American family went down. And, the federal government didn’t shrink; it grew. The linchpin of conservatism ideology didn’t work. 

Corresponding to their naïve disregard for the federal government, conservatives advocated their brand of Social Darwinism: “You’re on your own.” They insisted government has no responsibility to protect the rights or well-being of citizens; claimed that the market will take care of everyone. 

Contemporary conservatism actually has two faces. On Fox News and Sunday morning talk shows, conservatives pontificate as if their ideology makes sense. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, having failed at their primary objective of shrinking government, the Bush administration proceeded to loot it. Five years of Dubya has shown America the true conservative morality: it’s not personal responsibility, but rather self-aggrandizement. Bush-era conservatism produced a tsunami of venality: a corrupt political-business partnership that abandons any notion of the common good and, instead, substitutes: “What’s in it for me?” 

Liberalism’s response to the conservative failure might be simply to say: liberals care about all the people, not just the rich and powerful. The problem with this approach is that after five years of non-stop Bush administration lies Americans are deeply skeptical of any political message. Many see no difference between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats; they regard them all as thieves and scoundrels. There is no simple way to address this cynicism other than to preach a message of morality, pragmatism, and hope; and then to follow through on this. Liberals must show Americans that they have integrity; that they mean what they say. 

A new liberalism should begin with a restatement of the ethic of working for the common good. Barack Obama’s speech to the 2004 Democratic convention contained a model formulation, “alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people… it is that fundamental belief—I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keeper—that makes this country work.” 

Five and a half years of the Bush administration finds the United States in crisis. We’re besieged by domestic problems that aren’t going to go away and don’t lend themselves to simple solutions: national competitiveness, healthcare, and global climate change, not to mention the omnipresent threat of terrorist attack. A new liberal ideology must acknowledge these problems and assert that we can solve them by working together. Liberals should restate what most Americans instinctively believe: the people of the United States are our greatest resource; when we join in common purpose we can solve any problem. 

From this foundation, the new liberalism needs to state the obvious: Americans need a responsible federal government and it’s our common responsibility to pay for it. Liberals should reassert their belief that government can be a force for good, so long as it is well run. Not only must liberals be persons of integrity, they must provide the leadership that America desperately needs. 

Finally, a new liberal ideology must address two other conservative beliefs: The first is that government should not regulate business; that this is the exclusive responsibility of the market. This is wrong, because an equitable American society requires the active intervention of the federal government to protect the rights and well-being of our citizens. A cornerstone of the new liberalism must be the primacy of individual rights over those of corporations and CEOs. 

The second conservative belief that must be challenged is that the U.S. defense budget is sacrosanct. Americans have been brainwashed to believe that having the largest defense establishment in the world-spending $550 million per year on the Department of Defense-keeps us safe. Citizens must be taught to distinguish between big and smart. America can be protected even though DOD is drastically reduced. Money must be redirected from our military budget and used for vital needs such as the funding of our “first responders.” 

The vacuum left by the failure of conservatism must be filled by an articulate and relevant liberal ideology. The problem won’t be in preparing this—it’s a reformulation of the liberal vision and values of the Founders; basic ideas that last saw a cogent reformulation in the New Deal. The problem is finding a liberal spokesperson that Americans trust.  

There are actually two crises in American politics: the dominant conservative ideology has failed and, at the moment, the country has no leadership. This dire situation should be a golden opportunity for liberals.  

 

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


Column: Fleas, Chiggers, Greenheads And Sunbathing in the Nude

By Susan Parker
Tuesday August 08, 2006

I forgot to give my dog, Whiskers, her flea medication and as a result she got fleas. Whiskers sleeps in my bed, so it didn’t take long for me to get the buggers, too. Thus began a three-week spiral into insecticide hell.  

I went to Ellis’, my local hardware store, and purchased special powders, soaps, and sprays. The next day I bought more of the same, plus a powerful, deadly bug bomb that took three hours to detonate. Nothing worked. The fleas refused to leave.  

Because I had exhausted the selection of flea insecticides at Ellis’, I went to Home Depot where there is a shelf a mile long and three stories high dedicated to insect eradication. I spent a ridiculous amount of money on anti-flea paraphernalia, then went home and dropped a nuclear-like cocktail, mixing and matching bug poisons in the hope that something would chase the critters away. Houseplants died, but the fleas survived.  

I sought advice from friends, relatives and strangers. Most people took a step back before responding to my complaints. Everyone had a flea-fix story to share.  

“Spread a white sheet on the floor and cover it in flea powder,” recommended the woman standing behind me in Home Depot. “Fleas are attracted to white. They’ll roll around on the sheet, get themselves full of powder and die.” She shook her head in sympathy. “If that doesn’t get rid of them,” she said, “I’ve got another remedy that might work, but it could kill you if you aren’t careful.”  

“I’m careful,” I lied. “And desperate.”  

“Spread lye under your house and then leave on a six-week vacation,” she whispered, looking around to see if anyone could hear her. “Don’t tell anyone it was my suggestion.”  

Someone said I needed to wash everything in the house with ammonia, fill the vacuum bag with mothballs and sweep until the carpet was threadbare. Another person said to throw out mattresses, chairs and sofas; anything the dog or I had slept on.  

Somebody mean hinted that I should get rid of Whiskers; someone else said selling the house and moving elsewhere was always an option.  

A neighbor informed me that fleas overrun the country of South Africa, and therefore I should be glad I live in Oakland, where only my house seemed to have the problem.  

“Drink plenty of gin with tonic and lime and wait ‘til winter,” advised Andrea. “Fleas hibernate in cold weather.”  

My dad suggested inviting all the neighborhood dogs into the house. “Let them in the back door and run them through each room until they run out the front door,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Then put camphor inside all the furniture, and go into lockdown mode for three full days.”  

I called my friend Jack, a pest control expert in Manhattan. I interrupted him while he was on vacation in Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  

“Should I put out white sheets and white powder? Should I throw out my bed and sofa?”  

“No,” said Jack. “Call a professional. They’ll use chemicals to zap ‘em.”  

“Should I—”  

Jack cut me off. “I gotta go,” he said. “I’m at a nude beach, and the greenhead flies are eating me up.”  

I decided to take Jack’s advice but before doing so I had lunch with my sage friends, Pearl and Louise. They were surprisingly unsympathetic.  

“Back when I was growing up,” said Pearl, “people were tougher than they are now. We learned to live with fleas. You shouldn’t be so hung-up on bugs. Fleas are, after all, quite small.”  

Louise seemed to agree. “In Louisiana we didn’t have fleas, we had chiggers. They got in the bed ticking and they wouldn’t let go. If you think fleas are bad, try sleeping every night on a homemade mattress full of feathers and bugs. In the morning there was blood everywhere.”  

I went home from my visit with Louise and Pearl determined to get tough. After all, I wasn’t in chigger-infested Louisiana, or flea-ridden South Africa. And I wasn’t in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where I’d be subject to ravenous, flesh-eating flying greenheads, and cranky middle-aged pest control experts sunbathing in the nude.  

 


A Little Respect for the Red-Breasted Sapsucker

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 08, 2006

About this time last week I was at Yuba Pass in the northern Sierra, swatting the insatiable mosquitoes and watching a family of red-breasted sapsuckers. (There is a Berkeley connection here: some of these birds spend the winter along the coast, and they’re likely to begin showing up in Tilden Park in a couple of months). 

The group consisted of an adult—whether father or mother I couldn’t tell you, since the only way to distinguish the sexes is by in-hand examination of the tail feathers—and three recent fledglings, recognizable by their brownish heads. What they were doing was sucking sap. The adult was hard at work drilling sap wells in a red fir, and the kids followed him or her around, feeding greedily and bickering among themselves. They were at it for three consecutive days, dawn to dusk. 

“Red-breasted sapsucker” is not the most dignified name for a bird to be saddled with. At least this species has done marginally better in the gravitas department than its close eastern relative, the yellow-bellied sapsucker, the bird that comic birdwatchers in the movies are always looking for. “Yellow-bellied sapsucker” is what the guy in the white hat in a B western would call the guy in the black hat, just before he plugged him. 

But the names are descriptive, at least. Sucking sap is what these aberrant woodpeckers do. The habit has been documented in a number of woodpecker species, but only the four sapsuckers (counting the western red-naped and Williamson’s) make a living at it. They’ve evolved a couple of anatomical specializations for this. Most woodpeckers have extremely long tongues for nabbing wood-dwelling insects; a sapsucker’s tongue is shorter and less extensible, and tipped with stiff hairs to trap the sap. 

You can tell when a sapsucker has been at work by the neat rows of holes it leaves behind. And it’s not just a matter of drilling until you strike sap. These birds take advantage of the annual cycles of tree physiology to get the most nutritious sap available. 

There’s no such thing as just plain sap, it appears. Trees have a kind of circulatory system in which xylem tissues transport water and dissolved nutrients up from the roots into the branches, twigs, and leaves by capillary action, and phloem tissues convey the products of photosynthesis down from leaves to roots. (This is a gross oversimplification, of course). In evergreens, it’s more or less a two-way street, although different conduits are involved. But in deciduous trees, like the quaking aspens that ring the meadow at Yuba Pass, the phloem traffic doesn’t begin until the tree has leafed out, transporting the nutrients produced in all those little green factories. 

I couldn’t find detailed information for red-breasted sapsuckers, but field studies of yellow-bellied and red-naped sapsuckers show that the birds dig xylem wells in conifers during winter and early spring. To reach the xylem tissues, they have to penetrate the outer phloem layer. Then, when the leaves sprout on the deciduous trees, the sapsuckers switch over to them and begin to drill phloem wells, tapping that richer source. Different techniques are involved: xylem wells are circular in shape, phloem wells begin as lateral slits and are expanded into rectangles.  

Both the sounds of a working sapsucker and the marks on the sap tree are fairly conspicuous. So it’s no surprise that freeloaders are attracted to sapsucker diggings. Insects are drawn to the sap, of course, and provide a nice protein bonus for the birds. They sometimes dip ants into the sap, perhaps to kill that formic-acid taste. Red-breasted nuthatches smear sap from the wells around their own nest cavities. Hummingbirds—ruby-throated in the east, rufous, broad-tailed, and calliope in the western mountains—feed at the wells. They often nest nearby, and the timing of their spring migrations may reflect the sapsuckers’ excavation schedules. 

This is what led ecologist Paul Ehrlich to characterize the red-naped sapsucker as a keystone species—one whose activities provide food or shelter for a whole set of organisms—in western forests. Beyond the sap, these birds excavate nest cavities like most woodpeckers; and their old homes accommodate cavity-nesting birds like chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and bluebirds, not to mention flying squirrels.  

So, silly name notwithstanding, I’d say the sapsuckers of whatever species deserve credit for exploiting a hidden food resource in a fairly sophisticated way, and acting as community benefactors in the process.  

 

 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

All in a day's work: a red-breasted sapsucker and its sap wells.


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday August 11, 2006

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory “42nd Street” at 7:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Night of the Iguana” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through Aug. 12. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Merchant of Venice” at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. Tues.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Encore Theatre Company and Shotgun Players “The Typographer’s Dream” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Impact Theatre “House of Lucky” Written and performed by Frank Wortham, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Aug. 26. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “The King and I” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m., through Aug 13 at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. TIckets are $21.50-$35.50. 531-9597. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sculpture by Armando Ramos” on display at the Sculpture Court, 1111 Broadway, Oakland, through Nov. 1. 238-6836. 

FILM 

Frank Borzage “Man’s Castle” at 7 p.m. and Kenji Mizoguchi “Sisters of the Gion” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

La Orquestra La Moderna Tradition at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Bong, Suburban Plight, The Know How at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Save the Albany Shoreline Benefit Concert with the Funky Nixons, Carol Ginsberg & The Old Time Fiddle Band and many others at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Donation $15-$25. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Free Peoples, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

“Crazy In Love with Patsy Cline” with Lavay Smith, Carmin Getit and Ingrid Lucia at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Brian Melvin Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Five Dollar Suit and Peter Maybarduk at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Flux, Bolivar Zoar at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Fleshies, Rock ‘N’ Roll Adventure Kids at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $65. 525-9926. 

Loop Station, Why R Boys? at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159.  

Wayward Monks at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Pete Escovedo Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 

EXHIBITIONS 

Art: Recycled and Found A group art show. Reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930. 

THEATER 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Godfellas” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Live Oak Park, Shattuck & Berryman. 415-285-1717. 

Shotgun Players “Ragnarok: Doom of the Gods” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkle Park, through Sept. 10. Free, with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500.  

FILM 

Frank Borzage “No Greater Glory” at 6:30 p.m. and “Little Man, What Now?” at 8:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

“Persons of Interest” A documentary on the post 9-11 detention of Muslim-Americans at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse with Misha Ferguson and others at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. Free. 527-9753. 

Dramatically Speaking A performance of the poem “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” at 9 p.m. at the Kaiser Building, 1950 Franklin St. RSVP required. 581-8675. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The SEEN Festival World Reggae-Soul music extravaganza from noon to 5 p.m. at People’s Park. 938-2463. 

Crosscut, vintage blues, rock, and original music, at 9 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King, Oakland. Cost is $10. 654-4549. 

Santero at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Edessa and Near East & Far West at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Turkish dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Arnold Garcia and Linh Nguyen at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Dayna Stephens Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Phil Marsh, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Ghost Next Door, Age of Agression, Scripted at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Mark Little Duo at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Old Puppy, rock, at 10 a.m. at Nabalom Bakery, 2708 Russell St. 845-BAKE. 

British Invasion #3 with The Hoo, The Rave Ups, The Sun Kings at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $15. 451-8100.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 

FILM 

Janet Gaynor “The Johnstown Flood” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Samplings 2006: A Festival of Textiles” with quilt artist Julie Silber discussing her work at 3 p.m. Bring a quilt for dating from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Nicole Galland reads from “Revenge of the Rose” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Mimi Luebbermann on “The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Steve Taylor-Ramirez at 7:30 p.m. at Prism Café, 1918 Park Blvd., Oakland. Donations accepted. 251-1453.  

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater. Cost is $29.50-$30.50. 548-1761.  

Americana Unplugged: AJ Roach at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Nate Lopez at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, AUGUST 14 

CHILDREN 

Rafa Cano, Spanish sing-along for children, at 10:30 a.m. at PriPri Cafe, 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. Free. 528-7002. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jared Bernstein discusses “All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Poetry Express with Claire Blotter at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

City Concert Opera presents Handel’s “Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” on period instruments at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$20. 415-334-7679.  

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

SFJazz Young Composers Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $10. 238-9200. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 15 

CHILDREN 

Swazzle Puppets “Rex & Boots: Super Sleuths” at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Paul Robeson: The Tallest Tree in Our Forest” Tues.-Sat., noon to 5:30 p.m. at The African-American Museum, 659 14th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to Aug. 26. 637-0199. 

“Mercury Rising” New works by 15 Bay Area artists. Reception at 5 p.m. at Robert Tomlinson Studio, 25 Grand Ave., Oakland. Exhibition runs to Aug. 31. Gallery hours are Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  

FILM 

Screenagers “Troop 1500: Girl Scouts Beyond Bars” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“William Morris: Socialist and Shopkeeper” with Alan Crawford at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club. Sponsored by Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Suggested donation $15. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Frank Morgan with special guests Sean Jones & Ronnie Matthews at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

Craig Williams Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16 

FILM 

Frank Borzage “History Is Made at Night” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“La Jette” A film from 1962 about a man sent back in time to save a war-ravaged world at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lewis Buzbee reads from “The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Café Poetry hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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 Aug. 24. 800-838-3006. www.themarsh.org  

The Widows, Stiff Dead Cat and Pickin’ Trix at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Orquestra La Verdad 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 Baby Mammals at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Rachel Goldstar, Tomihira, Foxtail Somersult at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Michael Coleman Trio Jazz Jam at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Bring your instrument. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Tashina & Tristan Clarridge at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Frank Morgan at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17 

THEATER 

Works in Progress Works by five East Bay playwright/performers at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $3. 849-2568. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sculpture by Armando Ramos” Opening reception at 5 p.m. at the Sculpture Court, 1111 Broadway, Oakland, through Nov. 1. 238-6836. 

“Light Markers” Sculpture by David Ruth. Opening reception at 5 p.m. at Gallery 555, 555 12th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to Nov. 10. 238-6836. 

FILM 

Beyond Bollywood “Bad Girl with a Heart of Gold” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“For Review” Deborah Kirshman in conversation with Peter Selz, author of “Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond” at 6:30 p.m. at Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

Celeste Lipow MacLeod presents “Multiethnic Australia: Its History and Future” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Frank Portman, author of “King Dork” will read and sing at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Radical Open Mic at 6:30 p.m. at Nabalom Bakery, 2708 Russell St. 845-BAKE. 

Word Beat Reading Series with Jenne Lupton & Janell Moon at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut at the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Free.  

Upside Down & Backwards, blues, jazz and rockin’ roll at 9 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 MLK, Jr. Way, West Oakland. Cost is $5. 654-4549. 

Brave Combo, rock, polka, jazz, Tex-Mex at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054.  

Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

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

The Highway Robbers, Bob Harp at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082  

Lee Ritenour with guests Dave Grusin & Friends at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $15-$26. 238-9200.


Great Works from New York on Display at Magnes

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Friday August 11, 2006

The Magnes Museum, the “Jewish Museum of the West,” is currently exhibiting a fine collection of paintings, photographs, works on paper and sculpture from the Jewish Museum in New York. Many of the paintings are by artists of social conscience, such as Ben Shahn, Raphael and Moses Soyer, Peter Blume, Ben Zion, William Gropper and Philip Evergood. 

The earliest entries are drawings by Jacob Epstein, who drew people in the Lower East Side, such as Revolutionaries (1900)—intense young radicals, sitting, discussing, planning, plotting. Epstein soon emigrated to England, where, as Sir Jacob Epstein, he became a renowned sculptor. There is also the famous photograph The Steerage (1907) by Alfred Stieglitz, a beautifully composed picture of the huddled masses, below a white drawbridge, who were made to return to steerage, having been refused entry to land. 

A relatively unknown artist, Theresa Bernstein, who was greatly influenced by the Armory Show which brought modern art to America in 1913, painted a striking Self Portrait (1914) with vigorous Expressionist brushwork and the bright color contrasts which she saw in Matisse’s paintings. Max Weber, born in Russia, and an early American modernist, turned to Jewish subjects after the War, as seen in his Sabbath (1919). At that time Weber wrote “to see an art work casually or en passant is a very pleasant experience: but to come in touch with the vision, the spirit of its maker, is seeing in participation and then it is not a gratification but an exultation.” 

Many artists at the time, disillusioned with the injustice inherent in the capitalist system and affected directly by the Great Depression, produced radical political art. William Gropper, one of the most militant among American Social Realists, is represented with drawings which reveal the Nazi propaganda in the United States as late as 1942, as well as with one of his paintings of Senators, a canvas done in 1950. It depicts lawmakers thrashing the air and reminds the viewer of the punch in Daumier’s paintings of French legislators. 

Perhaps the most eloquent painting in the show is Phil Evergood’s The Hundredth Psalm. The satirical reference is to the psalm which praises the Lord for his mercy. What we see in this deeply moving small painting is a black man, hanging from a tree with flames below his body, while clansmen hold their folded hand in pious prayer and play the fiddle. We are clearly reminded of Billie Holiday, plaintively singing “Strange Fruit” at the same time in a New York night club. 

The abstract Expressionists are well represented with early work. There is Mark Rothko’s portrait of his first wife, Edith Sachar, done in 1932—long before he moved into his iconic abstractions. This small picture of a comely young woman, done with expressive brushstrokes recalling Soutine, indicates great talent by this painter, still in his twenties.  

The thrust of American painting changed greatly after the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact, the destruction of World War II, the devastation of the atom bomb, and the Holocaust. Many artists such as Rothko felt that art was not able to solve social and political problems. They found personal contact with the European modernist tradition of Surrealism and abstraction and developed a new form of painting. Adolph Gottleib is represented with a splendid painting, The Return of the Mariner, which uses the genre of pictographs with images of a profile head, arrows, an eye and a sail as totemic forms of mythic content. There is also a semi-abstract painting, Jacob’s Ladder and Menorah (1951) by Robert Motherwell, which was a study the artist made for a synagogue in Milburn, New Jersey, and two fine early paintings by Morris Louis, done prior to his well known color fields. Charred Journal Firewritten V (1951) is part of a series of canvases which referred to the Nazi book burning. Louis started as a Social Realist in Baltimore, but felt that the Nazi horror was so great that only abstraction could deal with it in art. This work and the accompanying Marcella and Joe Went Walking (1950) are among the finest paintings in the exhibition, which traces the development of American painting from realism, often dealing with Jewish identity and with sociopolitical concerns to a more inner-directed abstraction.  

The Magnes Museum and its chief curator Alla Efimova all deserve to be commended on a series of innovative exhibitions called “Revisions.” The current installment, “The First Intergalactic Art Exhibition” by Jonathan Keats, however, is more shadow than substance.  

 

 

MY AMERICA: ART FROM THE JEWISH MUSEUM COLLECTION, 1900-1955 

11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday; 11 a.m.-8p.m. Thursday. $4-$6.  

Judah L. Magnes Museum,  

2911 Russell St. 549-6950. 

 

 

Image Courtesy William and Theresa Bernstein Meyerowitz Foundation  

Self Portrait (1914), by Theresa Bernstein, oil on canvas.


SF Mime Troupe Brings ‘Godfellas’ to Berkeley

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday August 11, 2006

“Imagine a nation where religious fervor runs hot, and faith rhetoric runs hotter.” If you feel your imagination is running behind the headlines, hie you to the outdoors—a park, say, Live Oak this weekend, or Willard on the 26th or 27th—and see those headlines in the flesh but with the faith rhetoric standing on its head, as the San Francisco Mime Troupe girds up for battle with powers and principalities by putting on an act entitled Godfellas. 

The Troupe’s concocted a simple parable of “shy civics teachers” gone hog wild with controversy over religion in the schools, a certain Reverend C. B. De Love (Michael Gene Sullivan) who’s pushing for “an all powerful, omniscient and omnipresent military-industrial God complex,” and The Syndicate behind it all, its diabolical agents including a punitive nun in drag (Victor Toman) and the rappin’ Gangstas for God—then scrambled up this simple lesson into a bunch of over-the-top, schtick-y scenes that feature the quick-change, impersonation-conscious talents of the Troupe’s tight ensemble. 

There’s lots of singing and dancing too—and the music (a swinging group led by Pat Moran) starts a half hour before the “curtain” goes up at 2 o’clock—as pedagogical Ms. Angela Franklin (Velina Brown) “finds herself” when, under pressure to bow to a bit more than equal time for godly fundamentals in the classroom, she stands up straight as Homo erectus and declares, “Kiss my black heinie!” 

From there through all its addled foolery, it’s really a straight shot to stardom for Angela. Pretty soon she has the call-ins of all colors on Larry King (Keiko Shimosago) Live, et al (and each magnificently impersonated, often ’cross gender lines), erupting in her very words over the phone lines and airwaves, à la Peter Finch in Network, whatever color their heinie may be. 

Just at the point where a happy—and lucrative—end seems in sight, a romantic rapprochement looms between Citizen Angela and her wallflower opposite number on the faculty, Mr. (Todd) Blendikin (Christian Cagigal), who’s just foresworn fundamentalism (at a religious re-education camp, “They took away my copy of ‘Branded in The Name of Jesus’—and I really saw the light!”), and the triumph of her Citizens for A God-Free America is imminent in the ratings, dogma lifts up its hoary head as Angela contemplates becoming the apostle of an orthodox anti-religion, one that countenances no heresy—a semi-apostasy that tickles Rev. De Love and the Syndicate no end. 

The show’s a quick-change blitz of scenes (designed by Paul Garber) and costumes (and caricatures) by an accomplished cast, chanting and hoofing their way through such numbers as “Rock The Lord” (“Put the Fun back in Fundamentalism!”)—with The Dominionettes, or Mr. Blendikin’s number, “Whatever Happened to Jesus?” (“’Cause he’s gone, he’s gone/The Prince of Peace ... Try Guantanamo Bay!”), appearing one moment as a gospel chorus in Choir robes jiving with cowboys of various hues in matching goldenrod dusters, the next as a cigar-chomping rabbi with ratty sidelocks putting on the Edward G. Robinson squeeze, with a Day-Glo mitred bishop for back-up muscle. The show’s studded with Tom Paine quotes, too—like, “One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests”—and in fact it is the apparition of the author of “Common Sense” (Keiko Shimosago again, “But why are you dressed like a doorman?”), accompanied by randy Founding Father Thomas Jefferson (again, Victor Toman) cruising a black female teacher (before running off to check out Hillary and Diane ... “These are the times that try men’s souls,” indeed)—that brings Citizen Angela around ... she’s Born Again! “We can’t use their tactics to out-religion them!”—and Paine agrees, prophetically: “The greatest tyranny is always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes.”  

But yet another cliffhanger—the nun in drag with enormous ruler poised twists meek Mr. Blendikin’s arm: “You better get that dame back on message or else!” Will togetherness end the separation of church and state? 

A Morality Play? A Miracle Play? A Pageant to Diversity and Tolerance? A very animated political cartoon? A not-so-silent movie melodrama played live in daylight? It’s all the Mime Troupe’s own blend—and a completely collaborative one—of frantic fun and ideological tagging—and a sunny summer day in the park. 

 

Photograph: Amos Glick, Keiko Shimosato, Michael Carriero, Lisa Hori-Garcia, Velina Brown, Christian Cagigal, Victor Toman, Michael Sullivan take many roles in “Godfellas.”


Moving Pictures: Pacific Film Archive Takes a Look at One of Japan’s Greatest Directors

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday August 11, 2006

Earlier this year, Pacific Film Archive presented a series of films by Mikio Naruse, bringing much deserved attention to one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers. Now they’ll follow up with a series on another Japanese master, Kenji Mizoguchi. 

Mizoguchi (1898-1956), along with Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, is considered one of the greatest of Japanese directors. Thirty of his films surive today, and while that may seem like a hefty output, it apparently represents just a third of his ouvre. Mizoguchi’s movies are not readily available on video, so the PFA series represents a rare opportunity to see many of these films. 

Mizoguchi began as a painter and a newspaper page designer before venturing into film. His style is noted for long takes and a fluid, moving camera, with particularly effective use of space and motion.  

David Thomson, in his Biographical Dictionary of Film, says that Mizoguchi “has no superior at the unfolding of narrative by way of camera movement.” 

“Unfolding Mizoguchi: Seven Classics” will feature films from various periods of the director’s career, and will include Ugetsu, the film for which he is best known.  

 

 

UNFOLDING MIZOGUCHI:  

SEVEN CLASSICS 

 

8:45 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11: 

Sisters of the Gion  

 

7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18: 

Osaka Elegy  

 

8:45 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18: 

Ugetsu 

 

7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 

Street of Shame 

 

8:50 Friday, Aug. 25: 

Sansho the Bailiff  

 

5:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27: 

The Life of Oharu 

 

7:30 Wednesday, Aug. 30: 

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums


Head for the Berkeley Hills

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Friday August 11, 2006

“Bring your own” is a good motto to remember when visiting the neighborhoods of the Berkeley hills. With no shopping district or quaint cafes, there’s little to tempt your dollars. Unless you’re in the market for a home. Then you’re in trouble, big trouble, because what the hills area does offer is hard to resist: a showcase for architectural excellence, eye-filling views, rock outcropping parks, hidden pathways and an appealing sense of space within nature.  

East of Arlington Boulevard, bordered by Kensington on the north and Oakland on the south, lies one of the last Berkeley areas to be developed. Here streets named after California counties climb steeply, some wide and shaded by mature sycamores, others narrow and winding, laid out to match the contours of the land.  

Cutting across hillsides are steps and pathways, allowing glimpses into backyard lives. When few roads existed, paths provided easier access to the streetcar line and a shortcut to the university for resident professors. With more than 120 to choose from, they’re an exploration in the making, each unique in details of stonewalls, benches, paving, urns and wooden pergolas. 

Arlington Circle, the hub, and the streets that spoke-off from it are the unofficial gateway to the hills, designed by John Galen Howard to serve as the entrance to a proposed new state capital. Though supported by the local populace, the measure was defeated statewide. Instead, today, we celebrate Berkeley with the second Marin Circle Fountain, installed in 1996, 38 years after a run-away truck demolished the 1911 fountain. 

The Berkeley hills are a living testament to great architects, from inception to the present. One-story bungalows to three-story homes surrounded by towering redwoods, in earth-toned stucco and natural woods atop concrete and fieldstones, homes mirror the environment they adopted. Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan’s Craftsman and Brown Shingle, the Prairie Style of John Hudson Thomas, John Galen Howard’s Beaux Arts, designs by William Wurster and architects of the Second Bay Tradition—all are represented. Newer homes may utilize updated materials, but the aesthetics and attention to detail remain—textured stucco and natural woods, small-paned windows, field and flagstone, wood fences and gateways, balconies and decks as inviting outdoor living spaces. 

Public outdoor spaces, aka parks, are plentiful and varied, tucked into canyons, landscaped on hillsides and developed around massive stone outcroppings. Sizes and amenities vary, but most afford panoramic views reaching from Oakland, across to San Francisco and north to Richmond. 

In the North Berkeley hills, I revisited two walking routes I’d enjoyed when my children were young, many years ago. Both circuits combined architectural candy with the chance to participate in park life. Along the way I greeted some of Berkeley’s noteworthy homes as old friends and made new acquaintances. 

My historic architecture walk circles from the Rose and La Loma Steps, up Buena Vista Way, along Greenwood Terrence and Tamalpais Road, returning through Codornices Park and the Rose Garden. Though some areas are steep, the overall distance is less than two miles. 

Bernard Maybeck designed Rose Walk as part of a planned hillside community. Faded pink steps and pathway led me past homes of earth-toned stucco, weathered wood and red tile roofs, with flower-filled gardens open to view. Following the curve of step-down benches I reached Le Roy Street and a home designed by John Galen Howard. Its blunt shape reminded me of the prow of a large ship. 

Maybeck’s designs were as varied as the number of artisan bread bakeries in Berkeley. On La Loma, a home resembling a Roman villa, distinctive in muted hues, with arched windows and small colored tiles inset to create diamond-patterned motifs. On Buena Vista, the “Sack House,” Maybeck’s answer to the 1923 fire that destroyed nearly 600 homes. The distinct outlines of burlap sacks dipped in concrete and hung like rough shingles, contrast with the graceful roof and overhanging eaves of the nearby Prairie-Style Matheson House. 

Another Maybeck, designed as a Bavarian cottage, hides behind its own forest of trees. On the door of the garage I saw the often photographed painted motifs. The old Volvo nearly buried beneath branches and fallen leaves added to the “Enchanted Forest” feel. 

Further up Buena Vista, Randolf Munro completed the stunning Temple of Wings, with massive Corinthian columns and concrete balconies. Above, John Hudson Thomas’ Hume Cloister, modeled on a 13th century Augustinian monastery, has curved walls of rough stone blocks and round tower that bypass time and location. 

Greenwood Terrace contains the work of William Wurster who designed Greenwood Common in the 1920s as a private enclave. Ringed by houses in the Second Bay Tradition, the lush common of broad lawn, towering pines, alleyway of flowering plums and million-dollar views reflects tranquility. 

The John Hudson Thomas at the end of Tamalpais Road tops my list of favorites. Pale green trim around small paned windows, timbers and textured walls, stone garden wall topped by flowers are all surrounded by towering redwoods and firs. 

Tamalpais Path follows the hill down to Codornices Park where recreation and nature receive equal billing. Groves of oak, bay and redwood shelter picnic tables, playground equipment entertains the young, while softball and basketball court all ages. A highlight is the 40-foot concrete slide where a long line of cardboard toting kids waited their turn. 

Across Euclid Avenue, the Berkeley Rose Garden, originally a 1933 WPA project, blooms. More than 3,000 bushes and 250 varieties, a cornucopia of colors, occupy tiered rows on 3.6-acres. A lovely spot to take in this botanical wonder is a stone and wood bench beneath the redwood pergola covered with climbing roses. 

My second neighborhood walk takes in three of Berkeley’s “rock” parks plus an added attraction, all near Indian Rock Avenue. Indian, Mortar and Grotto Rock Parks take advantage of volcanic outcroppings and boast spectacular vistas. Steps carved into the rhyolite surface provide easy rock-top access, acorn-grinding depressions serve as reminders of the Ohlone, stunted trees anchored in cracks and multi-colored lichen attest to the tenacity of nature. I watched budding climbers test their skills, young adults share a picnic and lone individuals feast their eyes. 

Nearby, at the end of San Diego Road, is the back entrance to John Hinkle Park where a twisted-branch canopy of lofty bay and oak create a cool, wooded environment. Steps and paths lead down to a small amphitheater, areas of lawn, picnic and playground facilities and two narrow creeks. This park is ripe for imagination-inspired adventures as well as quiet contemplation. 

The Berkeley hills covers several miles and offers opportunities for both active and passive enjoyment - popular with bicyclists, motorcyclists, walkers and those who arrive just to take in the views. Steps away you’ll find Tilden Park and the Lawrence Hall of Science, each worthy of visits. So pick up coffee, pack a lunch, carry your camera and wear comfortable shoes—head to the Berkeley hills. 

 

 

Photograph by Marta Yamamoto. 

Bernard Maybeck’s Prairie-Style design with low roof, overhaning eaves and pleasing blue hues stands on Buena Vista Way. 

 

THE BERKELEY HILLS 

 

Codornices Park: 1201 Euclid Ave. between Eunice Street and Bayview Place 

 

Berkeley Rose Garden: Euclid Avenue and Bayview Place 

 

Indian Rock Park: Indian Rock Avenue at Shattuck Avenue 

 

Mortar Rock Park: 901 Indian Rock Ave. at San Diego Road. 

 

Grotto Rock Park: 879 Santa Barbara Road 

 

John Hinkle Park: 41 Somerset Ave. between Southampton Avenue and San Diego Road 

 

Map of Berkeley’s Pathways: Wanderers Association, www.berkeleypath.org, $4.95.


East Bay Then and Now: Harris Allen: The Spirit of Individuality

By Daniella Thompson
Friday August 11, 2006

Architect Harris Allen had no cookie cutters in his professional tool box. No two of his buildings looked alike—each was designed for its particular site and stamped with the owner’s individuality. 

Yet Allen was hardly the Zelig of architecture. All his buildings are marked with strong personalities and demonstrate, through many fine details, their designer’s enlightened sensibility to “patterns” (in Christopher Alexander’s term) that make a building livable. 

Allen designed his first building—a chapter house for his fraternity—in 1901, at the age of 24 (see “Landmarking the House That Students Built,” July 28). At that time, he was working as a draftsman for the traditional San Francisco firm Percy & Hamilton, but that didn’t prevent him from keeping his eyes open to new trends in architecture. The First Bay Region Tradition pioneered by Ernest Coxhead, Willis Polk, and Bernard Maybeck was still in its infancy, yet young Allen incorporated its principles admirably in his Phi Kappa Psi house. 

Harris Campbell Allen was born in Rutland, Vermont on Nov. 22, 1876. He enrolled at Stanford University and was initiated into the California Beta chapter of Phi Kappa Psi in 1894. He graduated with honors in 1897, and the following year attended a special course in Berkeley, where he founded the California Gamma chapter of Phi Kappa Psi. 

Shortly after the chapter house was completed, Allen was offered a position in the Pittsburgh office of the prominent architectural firm Alden & Harlow, designers of the Carnegie Institute. He remained in Pittsburgh from 1902 until 1908, when he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and established an office in Oakland. His return was perfectly timed, since the 1906 earthquake opened up building opportunities on both sides of the bay. 

Settling in Berkeley, Allen teamed up with contractor Robert H. Van Sant Jr., who resided at 6 Encina Place, in Duncan McDuffie’s new Claremont Park subdivision. Their first project, built for William F. Kelt in 1908, was an apparently speculative house at 46 El Camino Real. The following year they constructed three adjacent speculative houses at 254, 258, and 262 Hillcrest Road. In style, the three are quite different, although they form a cohesive group. 

The corner house at 254 Hillcrest is faced with stucco on the front and a mixture of stucco and wood siding in the rear. A succession of three see-through arches leads the eye from exterior to interior, making the most of the tight entry space. Next door, 258 is a rustic Brown Shingle, set down from the street, with a long, bridge-like approach to the front door. The third house, now a bed-and-breakfast, features elegant half-timbering over stone. Unfortunately, the owner is planning to alter the façade by replacing the multi-paned kitchen windows on the ground floor with expanses of glass. No doubt, having the garden in full view would improve the kitchen ambiance, but at a serious cost to the building’s exterior. 

Built on steep lots descending from Hillcrest to Roanoke Road, the three houses gave Allen the opportunity to design two street façades for each one. Over the years, unattractive rear additions marred the original grace of 258 and 262—only the rear of 254 remains unaltered. 

Following Van Sant’s death, Allen began working with other contractors, chief among them Jacob House. On a level lot at 2810 Claremont Blvd., Allen designed for Sarah C. Haldan in 1910 a stately house with an Arts & Crafts porch. Around 1913, he built one of Berkeley’s finest residences for broker Wallace G. White. Situated along a public stairway at 99 The Plaza Drive, the house is clad in natural textured stucco and illuminated by banks of narrow windows. 

Harris Allen’s windows merit dedicated study, since they are hardly ever repeated from one house to the next. Designing custom windows for each building was an integral part of the architect’s job, and he invariably did it for simple houses as well as for opulent ones. 

In 1914, Allen built a house (long since divided into apartments) for Justin Warren McKibben, a sales manager at a packing house. The half-timber and brick building at 2522 Piedmont Ave. retains some of its original Secessionist-inspired windows and a front door glazed with unevenly sized panes of ribbed glass. The door-handle plate, depicting a dragon in hammered copper, deserves a special visit. 

Dudley Baird, a mining engineer and foundryman, commissioned Allen in 1913 to built him a house at 2434 Prospect St. In those days, Prospect was an elegant street, unlike the student ghetto it has since become. Now serving as a student rental, the Baird house is surprisingly little altered. The interior boasts unpainted redwood wainscots, and the two fireplaces are still surrounded by the original Arts & Crafts tile. Particularly arresting is the wooden mantelpiece in the living room, lavishly carved with a variety of fruits and leaves. 

In 1915, Allen designed a vaguely French stucco house at 3025 Claremont Ave. The blind lunettes above the French windows would become commonplace in mid-1920s buildings, but this was an early use of the feature. From the same year dates the Reuben Underhill stucco-and-shingle house at 9 Tamalpais Road, which combines a clay tile roof with diamond window panes. Also in 1915, Allen designed the second Phi Kappa Psi chapter house at 2625 Hearst Ave. (demolished for UC’s Upper Hearst Parking Structure) and a 3-story apartment house for Mrs. Alice Rickard on Bancroft Way, apparently never built. 

Other Allen-designed houses in the tonier parts of town included the Albert E. Sykes house at 77 Domingo Ave. (1913); the Charles E. Miller house at 2942 Claremont Blvd. (1914, altered in the ’50s); the Allen H. Babcock house, 2227 Piedmont Ave. (1914, demolished or moved when Memorial Stadium was built); the Cromwell house, 11 Alvarado Road (1917); 59 Oak Vale Ave.; the Mel houses at 8 and 10 Mosswood Road (1919); the Griffith house at 2830 Russell St. (1919); and the Linforth house, 160 Vicente Road (1926, burned in the 1991 fire). Twenty-two houses in all. 

During World War I, Allen served as captain in the Air Service. In 1919 he became the editor of the Pacific Coast Architect, a position he held through July 1933. During the 15 years of his editorship, Allen frequently wrote the magazine’s lead articles, which covered a wide variety of topics, from California Memorial Stadium and the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House (“Music Belongs to the People”) to the work of individual architects (e.g., “Albert Farr, Eclectic” or “The Creative Instinct,” about Los Angeles architect Harwood Hewitt) and urban design (e.g., “An American Village,” about Lake Arrowhead, or “New Spain,” about the work of Addison Mizner in Florida). 

Allen’s headlines often made clear his preferences. Such was the case in an article about the 1932 exhibit of the Northern California chapter of the American Institute of Architects, whose headline announced, “Simplicity received recognition.” In May 1933, at the height of the Depression, an Allen headline proclaimed, “For the Land’s Sake Modernize! Restoring Old Property Now May Be Good Business.” The article went on to advocate adaptive reuse of old buildings through conversion, as well as simplicity of design, “which should prevent [a building’s] becoming ‘old fashioned’ soon.” 

Allen built only two Berkeley houses in the 1920s and none in the ’30s. In 1924, he designed the George Beaver house at 1813 Sonoma Ave. This simple-looking house is the most colorful in the architect’s body of work, being built largely of unusually textured red blocks, with a board-and-batten gable on one side. The architect’s commissions were now coming from Marin County, and like many of his Berkeley houses, they were sited on “difficult” lots and defied categorizing. 

An article in The Building Review described a 1922 San Anselmo house designed by Allen: 

Mr. Allen likes to plan country houses which fit into their environment, which look as though they “belonged”; which is after all, when you analyze it, the appealing quality in the aforementioned cottages of the old world. The idea for this house as conceived in the owner’s mind was a bungalow of Spanish type. Many of the distinctive Spanish features, such as plaster walls, tiled roof and enclosed patio would have been unsuited to this particular location. So it will be built of redwood stained a warm grey with steep-gabled roof designed to shed rain, elevated front terrace and rear patio sheltered on two sides. […] 

With its grey-green sides and touch of varied colors in roof-shingles it is in sympathetic harmony with the tints of the surrounding shrubs and trees. Not a distinct “type,” neither “English Cottage,” “French Cottage,” “French Peasant,” or “Mexican-Spanish”; but contrived to express, by the adaptation of features from these styles, the individuality of the owner, at a moderate cost. 

For many years, Allen resided at 2514 Hillegass Ave. in Berkeley. He never married, living with his older half-sister Louisa Allen Page (1855–1947). He died in San Francisco on March 3, 1960. 

 

 

 

Photo by Daniella Thompson. Harris Allen built this residence —one of Berkeley’s finest—around 1913 for broker Wallace G. White at 99 The Plaza Drive. The house is clad in natural textured  

stucco and illuminated by banks of narrow  

windows.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Tripping, Slipping and Falling Around Your House

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 11, 2006

I’m often amazed at the lack of attention paid to places where people can fall, slip or trip around the house (not to mention commercial or municipal buildings). Maybe other people aren’t as clumsy as I am. It is a plus, though, that in my job I seem to be admirably suited to finding any obstacle that might ultimately cause any other person at any future date to slip, trip or fall. No divination required; I’m just the poster boy for smacking your cranium. 

It’s amazing that so many of these conditions go unaltered year after year, even after people have been hurt. The problem is, I think, that rather than finding the physical environs at fault, people tend to blame their own clumsiness (or others blame them for not paying attention). The truth is that all of us are rushing to and fro all day long from the first rush to the bathroom, to the gym, to work, to the market and so forth. It’s a wonder that people aren’t crashing into things more often (well, actually they are!). 

Ideally, our physical settings should be built to minimize harm under these high velocity conditions, but that’s just not how things work. As with most things, we alter our built environment only when it’s absolutely demanded of us, when people have been crippled or killed. 

Over half a million people in North America end up in the hospital each year as a result of a slip or fall. Three hundred thousand of these end up as disabling injuries such as broken legs or hips. Twenty thousand are fatalities, making them the second most prevalent cause of accidental death, right after auto accidents. 

This is serious stuff, but it’s very hard as a home inspector to get items along these lines taken seriously. Everyone wants to know whether they’re going to need a new roof or a new foundation because there’s money on the line. Try and talk about a slippery set of stairs and the eyes begin to roll. Frankly, although I’ll always report them, I don’t care that much about a leaky roof. I have yet to hear about one person who died because the roof leaked and I haven’t seen a single roof that had to be reframed because of leaks (other than the occasional garage that had been solidly ignored for 40 years).  

If the roof leaks, you may have to put a new roof on and perhaps new sheetrock on the ceiling, but nobody dies. On the other hand, a balcony railing over a driveway with a 20 drop which has nine-inch spaces may result in the death of a 3-year-old. Now let’s get very real. Which do you really car about, a leaky roof or the death of a child? Sorry, but this is what we’re talking about and the place to start is by asking “What might happen?” 

Let’s talk about tripping. Many homes have doorways that have overly large sills or transition strips that can cause a trip. If you tripped once looking around the house, that means that more people are going to trip. If you had to look twice and step over it, it’s time to change it. 

Now, look at what you would have fallen on. If you have a set of stairs with a small bump at the top and there’s a long way to fall or a short way to a hard surface, it’s time to fix it. Here’s how I think my way through these things. I imagine that there’s a party. It’s dark and there’s a woman in high heels who’s had a lot to drink. She’s my imaginary test case (of course, if there are any men out there who wear high heels—and you know who you are—you can substitute). Now take her (him) around this house that she’s never been in before. One hand on a champagne glass and one hand on a paper plate full of hor d’oeuvres, she steps over doorways, walks down stairways and walks the various paths through the backyard, sideyard and front yard. If there are uneven paths, or stairways that have steps that vary in riser height she may go head first down to the concrete landing. Driveways and patios are often broken up or lifted in places and it doesn’t take much more than about one centimeter to cause a trip. An inch is a lot. As we age, we also don’t lift our feet as much and older people are quite vulnerable to tripping and falling when sidewalks are uneven or when a porch board is sticking up just a bit. 

Slipping is also a serious issue and beyond the obvious wet clean-ups that we need to get to in the bath or kitchen, there are some endemic ones that are often over-looked. My favorite is the smoothly painted concrete porch and staircase that’s often sporting the front of our older craftsman or classic revival homes. When rains wet these surfaces they are both slippery and very hard. It is therefore easy to slip and fall on them with great potential for injury. Wooden stairs are often painted smooth and these are similarly treacherous, although the falls aren’t as harmful. In either case, repainting these with a textured paint is a great idea. You can request that crushed walnuts or sand be added to the paint at the paint store and then hurry home to paint before they have a chance to settle out. Be sure to use a “decking” paint designed for walking surfaces and prepare your old painted surface properly. If your pathways, driveway or patios are similarly painted, it’s a good idea to include them in this repainting measure. A bare concrete surface usually has plenty of tooth and needs no special treatment. Some folks like to use special friction tape, available by the foot at your local hardware store, but I prefer the painted approach if you can manage it. If not, the tape is still a very good choice. 

Smooth tile is a very poor choice for almost any floor and certainly for any outside surface. It’s bad enough that we have to slip in the bathroom on smooth tile but a smoothly tiled porch, balcony or stairway is almost a sure formula for misery. If you have smooth tile in such an area, there are paint-applied compounds that can be installed to give them some tack but it’s best to avoid such materials and I’d even recommend removing them if there’s potential for a serious fall. 

As far as falls go, you’ll have to look around and see if you can find any place on your property where you or your 3-year-old (or the tipsy damsel in heels) might take a serious spill. Railings should be high enough to keep small ones from falling from any surface more than three inches high. Special attention should be paid to very high surfaces or ones where the fall ends on concrete. Look at windows that have low sills and balconies that have benches to climb upon. Railings should be tight enough to keep small heads from getting through. The current code calls for four inches but it’s also important to be sure that the railing cannot be easily climbed. Kids are adventurous and when we’re small we are all immortal, right? 

An often missed falling hazard is at the top of a retaining wall where there is no barrier and the bottom is many feet down and paved with a hard surface. There’s a house in my neighborhood that I pass every day. The front yard is about seven feet above the sidewalk and it’s on a street corner. Yes, there are plants along the edges but they’ll just serve to trip you when it’s dark and you’re looking for the way to your car. By the way, lighting is a great way to lessen all of these hazards and, although the code tries harder today to address it, most of us are in old houses that are exempt. 

You know, this isn’t about morality. It’s about opening our eyes and taking notice of “what might happen.” There’s a school in Berkeley at the Graduate Theological Union that I’ve often passed and marveled at. I’ve told my wife, because she graduated from that school. It has a lovely grassy area about 14 feet above the parking lot that has no real barrier along it’s edge. They sometimes have some blind students. Now ask yourself, “What might happen?” 

 

 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com.


The Dirty Lowdown on Working With Our Lowdown Dirt

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 11, 2006

One of the hardest things for new gardeners here—both experienced gardeners who move here and long-time locals who get inspired by the goddess Flora—is our dirt. Most of us have to garden on clay soil here, and those of us in the flatlands generally have the heaviest, the historically most stomped-on and sometimes most-contaminated clay.  

It’s ruff, it’s tuff, it’s so heavy you might think you’ve been teleported to Jupiter (assuming there’s soil on Jupiter at all, which I doubt) and it sticks to your spade like massed molecular bulldogs. People get desperate and rototill their whole yards, or double-dig beds. That’s OK if you’re young and you want some resistive exercise, and it does give immediate, fluffy results.  

It’s not the only way, though, and skip rototilling if you have trees in the yard. In heavy soil, their roots are likely to stay in the top couple of feet of soil because they need oxygen.  

If you can use the soil you’ve got, you have some advantages. Clay retains nutrients well. Use organic matter—compost, chips, sawdust with nitrogen added. Treat it as an ongoing need. 

If you have soil so compacted it’s like concrete, well, here’s what has worked for me.  

I started with gypsum—scratched it into the clay with a stiff rake, watered it, repeated rake and water every few days for a week or so in the fall. It dissolved slowly, milkily. After that week, the soil was beginning to yield just a bit, so I planted starters. In one plot, those were rescued and discarded fortnight lilies and freeway daisies; in another where I took a longer view, I planted native shrub salvias in back and some laterally spreading odds and ends I got from a friend in front.  

I worked the first plot hard; I was young then. I waited only till the following spring to start planting natives, and in a couple of years I had a thriving garden that included things like flannelbush that need good drainage. I could throw a spade into it spear-style and it would go in to the hilt.  

The second plot, I took my time, after two of us hurt ourselves on an attempted asparagus bed. Near that was a gravelly bit that had been a parking space. Nobody who scratched at that accomplished much, and it was of course nastily contaminated.  

I did the gypsum trick and planted those salvias and for a decade they’ve provided cover for our towhees, finches, and robins, and scent for our home. They also took up some of the crap the parked cars had left behind, and sequestered it harmlessly. The soil’s more permeable under them than elsewhere in the yard, and more like its old self.  

The other castoffs, just shallowly planted at odd intervals whenever I got them over the years, rendered the front tillable in that same time. It didn’t have to run that long, so don’t think this works only for the very patient. Some pioneer plants and minimal sweat will work where the most grimly determined attacks on clay will just let you grow the one thing we all do—tired.  

 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday August 11, 2006

Head For The Doorway? 

In the early days of California, many homes were made of adobe bricks with wooden doorframes. After a powerful earthquake, doorframes were sometimes the only parts of these houses still standing.  

From this came the myth that a doorway is the safest place to be during an earthquake. Today, few people in the Bay Area live in unreinforced adobe houses. In modern houses, doorways may be no stronger than any other part of the house, and do little to protect you from falling objects. If the doorway is a “cased opening,” that is, has no door, then you may be fine in this area. You are safest under a table, so “drop, cover, and hold on.” 

 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.


Berkeley This Week

Friday August 11, 2006

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 

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 

Berkeley Folk Dancers Community Classes and Teacher Workshop, for ages 8 and up, at 7:45 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck. Cost is $5. 

Ballroom Dancing at 8 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building, 200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10. 925-934-9129. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 

Anti-War Rally and Speak-Out from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the corner of Acton and University. All welcome to help end the war. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour Along “The River MacArthur” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at the Farmer’s Market, Splash Pad Park, corner of Grand Ave. and Lake Park. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218.  

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

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. 

Urban Releaf Tree Tour of Oakland on Saturdays. For information call 601-9062. www.urbanreleaf.org  

Sushi for the More Adventurous Learn the history of this ancient cuisine, and make and taste some exotic varieties, at 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Parent participation required for 8-10 year olds. Cost is $25-$40. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Persons of Interest” A documentary on the post 9-11 detention of Muslim-Americans at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 

Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars Exhibition celebrating the 123-year history of the observatories opens at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. 336-7300. 

Walking with Faith A Walk for the Cure in honor of Faith Fancher who died of breast cancer. Registration for the walk begins at 9 a.m. at Oakland’s Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. 834-4142. www.faithfancher.org 

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

Great War Society, East Bay Chapter meets to discuss the Italian Army before and at the beginning of WWI, at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

Spiritwalking: Aqua Chi(TM) at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $5.50, $3.50 seniors & disabled. Bring your own towels. 526-0312. 

Yoga for Peace at 9:30 a.m. at Ohlone Park, MLK at Hearst. Bring a yoga mat, warm blanket, and peace sign.  

Adult Fast Pitch Softball every Sat at noon. For location call 204-9500.  

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, AUGUST 13 

Green Sunday “Getting Beyond Media Perceptions of the Assault on Lebanon and Occupied Gaza” What really motivates Hamas, Hezbollah and the Israeli Hawks? At 5:30 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th in North Oakland. 

 

“Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden” Learn how to care for these garden pets and get eggs and fertilizer as payback! Children welcome. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 547-8715. 

Toddler Nature Walk for 2 to 3 year olds to look for reptiles at 10:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. 

Summer Pond Plunge Search for nymphs and naiads, salmander larvae and sideswimmers, for ages 4 and up at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 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  

“Quilt Sharing” Bring a quilt for identification and dating with Julie Silber at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Pancake Breakfast Aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship in Richmond Harbor, 1337 Canal Blvd. Cost is $6, children under 5, free, and includes a tour of the ship. 237-2933. 

Summer Sunday Forum with Lynn Tingle, founder of the Milo Foundation, an animal sanctuary, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of The Redwoods of Oakland from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$15. For experienced hikers. Reservations required. 763-9218.  

“Flexible Healing” A free class on proper breathing, range of motion, and relaxation at 1:30 p.m. at Liberty Hill Church, 9th and University Ave. 390-8644. 

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 Jack Petranker on “Breaking through Limits: Time, Space and Freedom from Conditioning” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 14 

Berkeley Progressive Alliance Meeting at 7 p.m. in the Redwood Room, St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. at the corner of College and Derby. Open to all and wheelchair accessible. www.berkeleyprogressivealliance.org 

Summer Science Week for ages 9 to 12, covering biology and other natural science topics from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mon. - Fri. in Tilden Park. Cost is $160. Registration required. 636-1684.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Sisters of Song Poetry Workshop for girls age 13-19 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $50. 848-0237, ext. 130. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60+ years old meets at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $3. 524-9122. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 15 

Tuesday is for the Birds A tranquil early morning walk through Kennedy Grove. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. Call for meeting place. 525-2233. 

“Get Out More: Tips from Backpacker Magazine” at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Islamic Responses to Current World Issues” with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, at 7 p.m. at the Islamic Cultural Center, 1433 Madison St., Oakland. Cost is $10-$15. 832-7600. 

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation from 6 to 8 p.m. in Oakland. Help support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. For more information call 594-5165.  

Discussion Salon on Parmaceutical and Alternative Medicine at 7 p.m. at 1414 Walnut by Rose. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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 always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16  

Introduction to Urban Permaculture Hear and see local permaculture designers from the Ecological Division of Merritt College’s Landscape Horticulture Department discuss what is possible in a city, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. 

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. For reservations call 238-3234. 

Religion and the Contemporary World Conference from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Islamic Cultural Center, 1433 Madison St., Oakland. Speakers include Drs. Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Khaled Abou el Fadl. Cost is $25-$50. 832-7600. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

JumpStart Networking Share information with other entrepreneurs at 8 p.m. at A’Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcatraz. Cost is $10. 652-4532. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 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, AUGUST 17 

Family Fun Night at Tilden Park includes presentations by naturalists and arts and crafts projects for the whole family. At 6 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Family Fun in the Garden for ages 5 and up accompanied by an adult, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $14-$18 for one adult and child. Registration required. 643-2755. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets from 6:45 to 8:30 p.m. at Spud's Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. 

ONGOING 

Energy Saving Program for Residents CYES is running its 7th annual summer program, providing direct-installation of CFLs, retractable clotheslines, showerheads, and more. Services available in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond. Free. 665-1501. 

Child Care Food Program is available without charge to all children enrolled in the BUSD Early Childhood Education progam, based on income eligibility guidelines. Please call for details, 644-6358. 

Each One Teach One Mentoring Program of the Oakland Unified School District is curbing student absenteeism, decreasing suspensions and increasing student participation with the help of volunteer mentors like you. For more information call 495-4010, 495-4011.  

Berkeley Adult School Register for programs in High School Diploma, GED Preparation, Citizenship and ESL classes, Mon.-Thurs. 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., Fri. 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1701 San Pablo Ave. 644-6130. http://bas.berkeley.net 

 


Correction

Friday August 11, 2006

A typographical error in Bob Burnett’s Aug. 8 “Public Eye” column caused a gross underestimation of the U.S. defense budget. The correct figure is approximately $550 billion.


Arts Calendar

Tuesday August 08, 2006

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 

CHILDREN 

Colibri, an interactive journey through the music of Latin America, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

NATya Indian Dance Storytelling through dance at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

FILM 

Civil Liberties Film Series “Dissent” from the ACLU “Freedom Files” TV series, with guest speaker Jim Chanin, civil rights attorney, at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. 620-6561. 

Screenagers “Thirteen” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

”Alien” a screening to benefit the Zapatistas at 9:15 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.speakeasytheaters.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dan Berger on “Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity” at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

Leigh Raiford, Steven Estes, Kathryn Nasstrom talk about “The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Brazuca Brown and Southwest Nomadic, Brazilian, Gypsy, Reggae at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Debbie Poryes & Friends at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Salif Keita at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 

THEATER 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Merchant of Venice” opens at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. Tues.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. 

FILM 

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” Science-fiction film from 1951 at 7:30 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Janet Gaynor “The Young in Heart” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Café Poetry hosted by Kira Allen at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Donation $2. 849-2568.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cease Fire: Words and Music Against the Siege of Lebanon and Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $10. 849-2568. 

Jazz Function at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473.  

Roy Zimmerman in “Faulty Intelligence” An evening of satirical songs, Wed.-Fri. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2118 Allston Way, through Aug. 24. 800-838-3006.  

Michael Coleman Trio Jazz Jam at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. 451-8100.  

Tropical Vibrations at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Los, Jeff Henderson at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886.  

Julio Bravo at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Salif Keita at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 

FILM 

Beyond Bollywood “The Terrorist” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Citizenship, Civic Activity and Political Engagement” An evening with Steven Hill, Carol Pott, and Arthur Blaustein at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert with BabShad Jazz at the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Free.  

Kris Delmhorst, songcrafter, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Travis and Friends at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The Hot Toddies, Skeleton Television, The Nomad at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

Pete Escovedo Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory “42nd Street” at 7:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Night of the Iguana” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through Aug. 12. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Merchant of Venice” at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. Tues.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 4 p.m. through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Encore Theatre Company and Shotgun Players “The Typographer’s Dream” at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Sept. 3. Tickets are $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Impact Theatre “House of Lucky” Written and performed by Frank Wortham, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Aug. 26. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “The King and I” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m., through Aug 13 at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. TIckets are $21.50-$35.50. 531-9597. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Sculpture by Armando Ramos” on display at the Sculpture Court, 1111 Broadway, Oakland, through Nov. 1. 238-6836. 

FILM 

Frank Borzage “Man’s Castle” at 7 p.m. and Kenji Mizoguchi “Sisters of the Gion” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

La Orquestra La Moderna Tradition at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Bong, Suburban Plight, The Know How at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Save the Albany Shoreline Benefit Concert with the Funky Nixons, Carol Ginsberg & The Old Time Fiddle Band and many others at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Donation $15-$25. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Free Peoples, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

“Crazy In Love with Patsy Cline” with Lavay Smith, Carmin Getit and Ingrid Lucia at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Brian Melvin Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Five Dollar Suit and Peter Maybarduk at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Flux, Bolivar Zoar at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Fleshies, Rock ‘N’ Roll Adventure Kids at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $65. 525-9926. 

Loop Station, Why R Boys? at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159.  

Wayward Monks at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Pete Escovedo Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 

EXHIBITIONS 

Art: Recycled and Found A group art show. Reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930. 

THEATER 

San Francisco Mime Troupe “Godfellas” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Live Oak Park, Shattuck & Berryman. 415-285-1717. 

Shotgun Players “Ragnarok: Doom of the Gods” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkle Park, through Sept. 10. Free, with pass the hat donation after the show. 841-6500.  

FILM 

Frank Borzage “No Greater Glory” at 6:30 p.m. and “Little Man, What Now?” at 8:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

“Persons of Interest” A documentary on the post 9-11 detention of Muslim-Americans at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse with Misha Ferguson and others at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. Free. 527-9753. 

Dramatically Speaking A performance of the poem “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” at 9 p.m. at the Kaiser Building, 1950 Franklin St. RSVP required. 581-8675. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Crosscut, vintage blues, rock, and original music, at 9 p.m. at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King, Oakland. Cost is $10. 654-4549. 

Santero at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Edessa and Near East & Far West at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Turkish dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Arnold Garcia and Linh Nguyen at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Dayna Stephens Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Phil Marsh, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Ghost Next Door, Age of Agression, Scripted at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Mark Little Duo at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Old Puppy, rock, at 10 a.m. at Nabalom Bakery, 2708 Russell St. 845-BAKE. 

British Invasion #3 with The Hoo, The Rave Ups, The Sun Kings at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $15. 451-8100.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 

FILM 

Janet Gaynor “The Johnstown Flood” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Samplings 2006: A Festival of Textiles” with quilt artist Julie Silber discussing her work at 3 p.m. Bring a quilt for dating from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Nicole Galland reads from “Revenge of the Rose” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Mimi Luebbermann on “The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Steve Taylor-Ramirez at 7:30 p.m. at Prism Café, 1918 Park Blvd., Oakland. Donations accepted. 251-1453.  

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater. Cost is $29.50-$30.50. 548-1761.  

Americana Unplugged: AJ Roach at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Nate Lopez at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, AUGUST 14 

CHILDREN 

Rafa Cano, Spanish sing-along for children, at 10:30 a.m. at PriPri Cafe, 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. Free. 528-7002. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jared Bernstein discusses “All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Poetry Express with Claire Blotter at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

City Concert Opera presents Handel’s “Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno” on period instruments at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$20. 415-334-7679.  

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

SFJazz Young Composers Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $10. 238-9200.


The Theater: ‘Typographer’s Dream’ a Fruitful Collaboration

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 08, 2006

The Typographer’s Dream, Encore Theatre Company’s production of Adam Bock’s play, at Ashby Stage in collaboration with the Shotgun Players (Bock’s closely associated with both troupes), opens with absence that’s sketchily filled in with some undreamlike folderol.  

A long, empty table faces the audience, with three nameplates on it, reading “Typographer,” “Ethnographer,” “Stenographer.” On the long table and a side table are purses, coffee cups, Kleenex, stacked extra cups. There’s pounding at a side door. A couple comes in and talks inaudibly, then leaves. The woman, with a rollaround travel bag, reappears, disappears again, reappears once more, switches chairs at the table, and sits down behind “Ethnographer.” She’s joined by a man in a suit, who sits behind the “Stenographer” plate. There’s a series of light checks, with the crew apologizing for glitches. Fingers tap, there’re nervous smiles and much impatient body language. Finally, a door slams out in the lobby of the theater; a bicycle comes in, as the panelists stare, and are joined by The Typographer (apparently), who sits down with her helmet still on, disgorging her bag and banging its contents on the table. 

Scarcely a word—and the audience has been smiling, then tittering, finally laughing. 

The three introduce themselves by profession, then begin to engage in a kind of verbal leapfrog—less a round robin presentation or conversation than overlapping monologues that seem at once to vie with each other and yet be almost oblivious.  

Each relates anecdotes, professional in-jokes (with all the attendant chagrin), musings and random thoughts about work. Personal history begins to get mixed in; confessions are enacted (or re-enacted). The shifting “presentations” become loopier and loopier, until asides and distractions become the main attraction—unless you can say, oxymoronically, that a kind of featuring of Attention Deficit Disorder becomes the primary focus, with a lot of personal psychology spilling over from something like Freudian slippage of these absolutely banal in-public “talks”—that sound more like the characters talking to themselves. 

Scenes from private life are summoned up and performed by the participants, pinch-hitting for each other’s Significant Other. Finally, it all comes loose, with the conservatively dressed, primly mannered Ethnographer, who’s been pitching the importance of Geography versus Social Studies, lip-syncing and dancing wildly to a disco number, expressing all that pent-up emotion—just as disheveled as these professionals have gradually rendered the properly institutional set (James Faeroon’s design). 

The audience relates to all this in a way slightly reminiscent of that film of a conversation about the death of conversation, My Dinner with Andre—it’s interesting to see what catches different spectators’ attentions. On opening night, one audience member (who turned out to be a business school student) grinned raptly through The Stenographer’s routines (including his fetishism as he describes and fondles a court reporter’s machine), while two young ladies laughed uproariously with recognition at The Ethnographer’s flattest, most deadpan academic truisms.  

The trio—Aimee Guillot as Margaret (yes; they have names) The Typographer, Jamie Jones as Annalise The Ethnographer and Michael Shipley as Dave The Steno (who’s really a court reporter, but thinks it best to be introduced otherwise)—all execute well, “execute” being the operant term, as they sometimes seem to be a bundle of professional functions and tics (both characters’ and actors’), syncopated by apperception. Their sense of ensemble, even while ignoring each other, is good, and the timing (on the beat, but accented by the chiming of three different internal clocks) is impeccable—as directed by Anne Kauffman. 

Adam Bock has an ear for the banal and an eye for the insouciant. He’s cleverly set up the tableau of the play as a triptych in which the colors and motifs run together. And the designers (including lights by Chris Studley) have made it look just right.  

But in the end there’s less than meets the eye, just as the playwright strives, without appearing to strive, to lift his work above appearances. The play’s a comic tour-de-force in form, not so much developed from its basic material of verbal and physical mannerisms as by putting these basic materials into a conceptualized scheme, then offhandedly moralizing on them through the hapless characters. Not quite a human puppet show, it’s more a sitcom in abstract, going through the same changes as comedy sketches, less Harold Pinter than Bob Newhart; not “playing against the changes” as per Coleman Hawkins’ dictum, as much as running through the scales with the same head. 

The Typographer’s Dream offers an intriguing possibility of playing against “dead air,” as in broadcast, of realizing a music onstage of white noise from crossed “Strindbergian” monologues that plucks a kind of virtual dialogue from the most colorless narrative. Western theater begins with the dream of a discourse in the overtones of Euripides’ (and Plato’s) dialogues. This Dream is more a daydream, the glare of light in a tunnel, reverse of the old LBJ cliche—but is there just more bright light at the end of it? A problem in contrast: maybe the playwright neglected a fourth, even more self-conscious character: The Videographer. 

 

 

THE TYPOGRAPHER’S DREAM 

Presented by Encore Theater Company and the Shotgun Players. 8 p.m. Wednesday- 

Sunday through Sept. 3. $15-$30. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org.


A Little Respect for the Red-Breasted Sapsucker

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday August 08, 2006

About this time last week I was at Yuba Pass in the northern Sierra, swatting the insatiable mosquitoes and watching a family of red-breasted sapsuckers. (There is a Berkeley connection here: some of these birds spend the winter along the coast, and they’re likely to begin showing up in Tilden Park in a couple of months). 

The group consisted of an adult—whether father or mother I couldn’t tell you, since the only way to distinguish the sexes is by in-hand examination of the tail feathers—and three recent fledglings, recognizable by their brownish heads. What they were doing was sucking sap. The adult was hard at work drilling sap wells in a red fir, and the kids followed him or her around, feeding greedily and bickering among themselves. They were at it for three consecutive days, dawn to dusk. 

“Red-breasted sapsucker” is not the most dignified name for a bird to be saddled with. At least this species has done marginally better in the gravitas department than its close eastern relative, the yellow-bellied sapsucker, the bird that comic birdwatchers in the movies are always looking for. “Yellow-bellied sapsucker” is what the guy in the white hat in a B western would call the guy in the black hat, just before he plugged him. 

But the names are descriptive, at least. Sucking sap is what these aberrant woodpeckers do. The habit has been documented in a number of woodpecker species, but only the four sapsuckers (counting the western red-naped and Williamson’s) make a living at it. They’ve evolved a couple of anatomical specializations for this. Most woodpeckers have extremely long tongues for nabbing wood-dwelling insects; a sapsucker’s tongue is shorter and less extensible, and tipped with stiff hairs to trap the sap. 

You can tell when a sapsucker has been at work by the neat rows of holes it leaves behind. And it’s not just a matter of drilling until you strike sap. These birds take advantage of the annual cycles of tree physiology to get the most nutritious sap available. 

There’s no such thing as just plain sap, it appears. Trees have a kind of circulatory system in which xylem tissues transport water and dissolved nutrients up from the roots into the branches, twigs, and leaves by capillary action, and phloem tissues convey the products of photosynthesis down from leaves to roots. (This is a gross oversimplification, of course). In evergreens, it’s more or less a two-way street, although different conduits are involved. But in deciduous trees, like the quaking aspens that ring the meadow at Yuba Pass, the phloem traffic doesn’t begin until the tree has leafed out, transporting the nutrients produced in all those little green factories. 

I couldn’t find detailed information for red-breasted sapsuckers, but field studies of yellow-bellied and red-naped sapsuckers show that the birds dig xylem wells in conifers during winter and early spring. To reach the xylem tissues, they have to penetrate the outer phloem layer. Then, when the leaves sprout on the deciduous trees, the sapsuckers switch over to them and begin to drill phloem wells, tapping that richer source. Different techniques are involved: xylem wells are circular in shape, phloem wells begin as lateral slits and are expanded into rectangles.  

Both the sounds of a working sapsucker and the marks on the sap tree are fairly conspicuous. So it’s no surprise that freeloaders are attracted to sapsucker diggings. Insects are drawn to the sap, of course, and provide a nice protein bonus for the birds. They sometimes dip ants into the sap, perhaps to kill that formic-acid taste. Red-breasted nuthatches smear sap from the wells around their own nest cavities. Hummingbirds—ruby-throated in the east, rufous, broad-tailed, and calliope in the western mountains—feed at the wells. They often nest nearby, and the timing of their spring migrations may reflect the sapsuckers’ excavation schedules. 

This is what led ecologist Paul Ehrlich to characterize the red-naped sapsucker as a keystone species—one whose activities provide food or shelter for a whole set of organisms—in western forests. Beyond the sap, these birds excavate nest cavities like most woodpeckers; and their old homes accommodate cavity-nesting birds like chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and bluebirds, not to mention flying squirrels.  

So, silly name notwithstanding, I’d say the sapsuckers of whatever species deserve credit for exploiting a hidden food resource in a fairly sophisticated way, and acting as community benefactors in the process.  

 

 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

All in a day's work: a red-breasted sapsucker and its sap wells.


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday August 08, 2006

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 

Tuesday is for the Birds A tranquil early morning walk in Point Isabel. Meet at 7 a.m. at the Rydin Rd entrance. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. 525-2233. 

“Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity” with author Dan Berger at 7 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

”Alien” a screening to benefit the Zapatistas at 9:15 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $7. www.speakeasytheaters.com 

Civil Liberties Film Series “Dissent” from the ACLU “Freedom Files” TV series, with guest speaker Jim Chanin, civil rights attorney, at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Library Community Room, 325 Civic Center Plaza. 620-6561. 

Horray for Herps Meet some unusual animals aboard the Zoomobile of the Oakland Zoo at 11 a.m. at the Elmhurst Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1427 88th Ave. 615-5727. 

“Backpacking in the High Sierra” A slide presentation with Brandon Andre at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

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. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9  

Full Moon Walk at John Miur National Historic Site See nocturnal animal and plant life and walk the same trail John Muir walked with his daughters. For reservations and details of meeting time and location, call 925-228-8860. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland Uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Cease Fire: Words and Music Against the Siege of Lebanon and Palestine at 7:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center. Donation $10. 849-2568.  

Community Conversations on the Crisis in the Middle East with Molly Freeman of Brit Tzedek at 7:30 p.m. at JGate in El Cerrito, near El Cerrito Plaza and BART. 559-8140.  

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” Science-fiction film from 1951 at 7:30 p.m. at The Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 

“Citizenship, Civic Activity and Political Engagement” An evening with Steven Hill, Carol Pott, and Arthur Blaustein at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Predators and Their Prey Meet the animals at 10:15 p.m. at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

Richmond Southeast Shoreline Area Community Advisory Group meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Richmond Convention Center, Bermuda Room, 403 Civic Center Plaza at Nevin and 25th St. 540-3923. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Tilden Room, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To make an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. 

East Bay Macintosh Users Group meets to discuss Windows on a Mac at 6 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound, Emeryville. www.ebmug.org 

Urban Renaissance High School Open House from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 967 Stanford Ave., Oakland. 302-9199.  

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 

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 

Berkeley Folk Dancers Community Classes and Teacher Workshop, for ages 8 and up, at 7:45 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck. Cost is $5. 

Ballroom Dancing every Friday at 8 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building, 200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Live band and refreshments. Cost is $10. 925-934-9129. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour Along “The River MacArthur” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at the Farmer’s Market, Splash Pad Park, corner of Grand Ave. and Lake Park. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218.  

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

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. 

Sushi for the More Adventurous Learn the history of this ancient cuisine, and make and taste some exotic varieties, at 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Parent participation required for 8-10 year olds. Cost is $25-$40. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Persons of Interest” A documentary on the post 9-11 detention of Muslim-Americans at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 

Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars Exhibition celebrating the 123-year history of the observatories opens at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. 336-7300. 

Walking with Faith A Walk for the Cure in honor of Faith Fancher who died of breast cancer. Registration for the walk begins at 9 a.m. at Oakland’s Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. 834-4142. www.faithfancher.org 

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

Great War Society, East Bay Chapter meets to discuss the Italian Army before and at the beginning of WWI, at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

Spiritwalking: Aqua Chi(TM) at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $5.50, $3.50 seniors & disabled. Bring your own towels. 526-0312. 

Yoga for Peace at 9:30 a.m. at Ohlone Park, MLK at Hearst. Bring a yoga mat, warm blanket, and peace sign.  

Adult Fast Pitch Softball every Sat at noon. For location call 204-9500.  

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, AUGUST 13 

“Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden” Learn how to care for these garden pets and get eggs and fertilizer as payback! Children welcome. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 547-8715. 

Toddler Nature Walk for 2 to 3 year olds to look for reptiles at 10:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. 525-2233. 

Summer Pond Plunge Search for nymphs and naiads, salmander larvae and sideswimmers, for ages 4 and up at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 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  

“Quilt Sharing” Bring a quilt for identification and dating with Julie Silber at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Pancake Breakfast Aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship in Richmond Harbor, 1337 Canal Blvd. Cost is $6, children under 5, free, and includes a tour of the ship. 237-2933. 

Summer Sunday Forum with Lynn Tingle, founder of the Milo Foundation, an animal sanctuary, at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of The Redwoods of Oakland from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$15. For experienced hikers. Reservations required. 763-9218.  

“Flexible Healing” A free class on proper breathing, range of motion, and relaxation at 1:30 p.m. at Liberty Hill Church, 9th and University Ave. 390-8644. 

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 Jack Petranker on “Breaking through Limits: Time, Space and Freedom from Conditioning” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 14 

Summer Science Week for ages 9 to 12, covering biology and other natural science topics from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mon. - Fri. in Tilden Park. Cost is $160. Registration required. 636-1684.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Sisters of Song Poetry Workshop for girls age 13-19 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri. and BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $50. 848-0237, ext. 130. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people 60+ years old meets at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $3. 524-9122. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., Aug. 9, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. Cliff Marchetti, 981-6740.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Aug 10, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.  

ONGOING 

Energy Saving Program for Residents CYES is running its 7th annual summer program, providing direct-installation of CFLs, retractable clotheslines, showerheads, and more. Services available in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond. Free. 665-1501. 

Child Care Food Program is available without charge to all children enrolled in the BUSD Early Childhood Education progam, based on income eligibility guidelines. Please call for details, 644-6358.