The Zoning Adjustments Board on Thursday passed a motion to continue a use permit modification request for the South Berkeley Police Substation until the Police Department has met with community members in order to get their feedback on the plan. The change in use would allow expansion for employee lockers and vehicle storage.  

Board members asked that police and property owners address concerns about appropriate storefront usage and parking before the 1,472-square-foot space on 3192 Adeline St. could be converted into storage space. The building formerly housed the Nickelodeon Theater, an antique store and a jazz club. 

The site was chosen by the Police Department because of its central location and because it would offer a police presence in a high crime area. Representatives from the South Berkeley Police Substation told the board on Thursday that the South Berkeley business community found the current police operation valuable to the neighborhood, and said that the reorganization of city functions elsewhere and staffing changes had led to the requirement for additional floor area to accommodate staff and equipment. Although the Police Department and the Office of Economic Development pursued other locations in the area in 2002 to accommodate the need for additional space, negotiations for suitable alternate locations were unsuccessful, leading the city to consider an expansion of the existing facility. 

Under the current application, the South Berkeley Police Substation would be expanded into the former retail space to provide additional parking area for seven parking enforcement vehicles and an expanded employee locker room and bathroom.  

The building’s exterior would be modified to install five windows and a door, and the deteriorated wood siding would be repaired. The existing driveway from Fairview Street would also provide access to the new space. Vehicles would drive through 3194 Adeline to get to 3192. 

Board member Bob Allen pointed out that the increase in parking would lead to a major problem as there would be a shortage of space for the neighbors to park. There are currently only 16 parking spaces for the 34 employees at the substation, who will very soon be joined by five more employees.  

Board members also asked the substation to consider alternate transportation for employees, such as BART, which is located right across the street, but city staff said that parking space was decided not on the number of employees but on square footage of the property.  

Huck Rorick, one of the owners of the property, stressed that although crime still persists in the area, the police presence has proved beneficial for the community. He added that the remodeling would help to alter the poor appearance of the substation, especially with the addition of a facade. 

Sam Dyke, who spoke on behalf of the Adeline-Alcatraz Merchants’ Association, said that he disapproved of the pro-ject. “We should put something better there than storage and locker rooms. It’s a thriving area for business and the space could be put to commercial use,” he said.  

United We Stand and Deliver (UWSD) activist Martin Vargas echoed Dyke, saying that it is essential to bring commercial businesses to South Berkeley. “We need creativity as well as sensitivity in South Berkeley,” he said. 

Sinan Sabuncuoglu, owner of the Berkeley Design Center across Adeline, expressed disappointment in the city and the city’s planners . He said that the plan lacked detail, care and sensitivity, and called it a “monkey cage.” 

Board member Jesse Anthony agreed that the space needed to be used more creatively. “It bothers me that you were unable to find a renter who would use it as commercial space,” he told Rorick. “The city is renting it now and soon the Police Department will start renting it and the place will be an eyesore for the next five years,” he said. 

Allen said that since the Police Department was a positive presence in the neighborhood they should allow the public to see them inside the building in order to make their presence felt.  

“The storefront needs to look like a storefront. It should not look like a garage, which would do nothing to help the commercial nature of the area,” said ZAB vice-chair Dave Blake. 

The board agreed that the Police Department either needed to get more officers on the street, open up the windows so that people could see the officers inside or use the empty space in a way that would attract people to the area. 

The Police Department and the building owners were asked to get together with the neighbors in order to decide what would suit the community’s needs best and then come back with a report to the Sept. 14 ZAB meeting. Both parties agreed. 

In other matters, the board approved a use permit for applicant Iqbal Abdul Rahman Shah of 1187 Delaware St. to legalize construction that vertically extended existing, non-conforming front and side yard setbacks and brought an end to a dispute between Mr. Shah and his neighbors Michael Fretz and Elizabeth Buchanan of 1191 Delaware, who had expressed concern about the city’s process for correcting and enforcing compliance for theconstruction that occurred at the property without a permit. 

Board member Jesse Anthony said that both buildings had been violating building codes. “It makes no sense for this issue to come up at the meeting in the first place. Since both houses were built almost a hundred years ago, they both need code changes,” he said. 

The board agreed on the project construction as long as the windows on the west side that serve the lower story comply with the fire rating standards of the Uniform Building Code. 

On the consent calendar, the board approved a use permit for 1801 Shattuck Ave., which would allow the owners to convert three retail lease spaces in order to allow a range of two to six lease spaces among other things. Use permits for 157 and 161 Vicente Road were continued without discussion.  

The board also approved a use permit for establishing a full-service 48-seat restaurant with incidental service of beer and wine in an existing building which has no off-street parking at 2502 Telegraph Ave., and allowed the demolition of three small industrial buildings in order to facilitate the removal of contaminated soils and groundwater on the Flint Ink property on 1350 Fourth St. 

The board also decided to postpone a decision on 1490 Glendale Ave., advising the property’s owners that that the proposed 2,500-square-foot, four-bedroom requires more than one parking space. A decision on a major addition to a residential property on 704 Keeler Ave. was also postponed.

Every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the last 37 years, the New Light Senior Center, located in the South Berkeley YMCA, has provided seniors with healthy, organic, nutritionally balanced food at a low price. That might end on Sept. 1, when the program founded by former Councilmember Maudelle Shirek will have to close its doors because of funding problems. 

“There aren’t that many nutritionally balanced meals these days for seniors,” said Jackie DeBose, who took over as director of New Light when Shirek retired. “We shop at Berkeley Bowl and serve food without salt or sugar. There is a great variety of high-quality food.” 

DeBose said that the combination of high costs and reduced funding has contributed to the need for termination of the program. The expenses of gas, food, and food packaging have been high. However, she says that this is because a lot of seniors have utilized this program. 

“We serve approximately 15,000 meals a year,” said DeBose. “Around 30 to 40 people come each day for the three days. Most people get three meals a week, while people with a high need get two or three meals a day delivered to their door.” 

Harry Gans, a Berkeley resident, has been going to the New Light program for a little under a year. He describes the program as a sanctuary. 

“It’s not only a lunch program,” says Gans. “People come there for not only the food but also the company. We engage in conversation. It’s been a really extraordinary program. Everyone seems to like each other.” 

Shirek, a former city councilmember and political activist, started the program because she wanted seniors to have quality, healthy food available to them in a social setting. New Light now receives funding from the City of Berkeley and Alameda County Meals on Wheels. 

DeBose says, “I am hoping that if people read about this, there will be a bunch of people hoping to save the program who see how important this agency is.” 

How much money would they need to continue to operate? 

“We would need $40,000 to get us out of deficit,” comments DeBose. “We use about $2,000 a month for services, which is not a lot for a non-profit to operate.” 

District 4 Councilmember Dona Spring wants the program to stay open. She is proposing that if funding is found within the community to keep the program open for a month ($2,000), she would make a plea to the City Council at their Sept. 11 meeting to get $40,000 of emergency funding to keep the center open. 

“I would like us to try to find the money,” said Spring. “I think that the city should provide funding…this program has been in existence for a long time. If we can gather $2,000 from the community, I would bring it up on the 11th.” 

Councilmember Betty Olds said that if Councilmember Max Anderson wants the City Council to continue to support the center, she would be on board. 

“I would certainly support that,” commented Olds. 

Anderson could not be reached for comment by deadline.  

Donations may be sent to the New Light Senior Program, 2901 California Street, Berkeley, 94703. For more information on the program, call 549-2666. 

When filings closed for Berkeley’s incumbents in the mayoral, City Council, city auditor and School Board races Friday, four would-be candidates had dropped out. 

Non-incumbents still have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to file for school and rent stabilization boards. 

The city’s namesake candidate, would-be Mayor Richard Berkeley, abandoned the field, but incumbent Tom Bates and three other challengers—former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein, recent Stanford graduate Christian Pecaut (who moved to Berkeley just to run for the job) and Native American activist Zachary Running Wolf—turned in their papers Friday. 

Potential mayoral candidate and former Mayor Shirley Dean also dropped out, declining to return the papers taken out on her behalf by Merrilee Mitchell. 

All three remaining mayoral candidates filed their nomination papers Friday.  

Another dropout was Joshua May, who took out papers on July 13 to challenge incumbent Kriss Worthington for his District 7 City Council seat. Worthington and his remaining challenger, George Beier, both filed Friday. 

The fourth dropout was Berkeley Unified School District board member John Selawsky, who opted not to return papers he’d taken out in mid-July to challenge Berkeley’s popular and well-respected City Auditor Ann Marie Hogan, who returned her papers Wednesday. 

With Selawsky’s withdrawal, Hogan will be the only incumbent to run in November without opposition. 

District 1 City Councilmember Linda Maio, who filed Thursday, faces a challenge from grandmother, teacher and self-described do-gooder Merrilee Mitchell, the Friday filer who had also taken out mayoral papers for Shirley Dean. 

District 4 Councilmember Dona Spring filed for reelection Thursday, as did her lone challenger, Mechanics Bank branch manager Raudel Wilson. 

District 8 incumbent Councilmember Gordon Wozniak filed Friday, along with his challenger, Rent Stabilization Board Commissioner Jason Overman. 

By the close of filing Friday afternoon, all five prospective candidates who had taken out nomination papers for three seats open on the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) board had filed their papers. Incumbent Shirley Issel filed her nomination papers Tuesday, and fellow incumbent Nancy Riddle filed Wednesday. The third seat was held by board Chair Terry Doran, who is not seeking reelection.  

David Baggins filed his nomination papers Wednesday, Norma Harrison followed on Thursday and Karen Hemphill filed Friday. Unlike the City Council, School Board members are not elected by district but on an at-large basis. 

Rent Stabilization Board member Robert Evans didn’t return the nomination papers he took out earlier, meaning he’s out of the race. Vice Chair Pinkie Payne didn’t bother taking out papers at all, and incumbent Selma Spector is being forced out by term limits, said Acting City Clerk Sherry Kelly. 

Challenger Howard Chong has filed his papers for the Rent Board, as did Pam Edwards. 

Non-incumbents for the school and rent stabilization boards have until the close of business Wednesday to file. 

Other cities 

Two City Council seats are up for grabs in El Cerrito, with incumbents Janet Abelson and Sandi Potter facing David Boisvert and Andrew Ting. Candidates run at large, with the top two vote-getters taking home the prize.  

Two Richmond councilmembers, Gayle McLaughlin and Gary Bell, are challenging incumbent Irma Anderson in the mayor’s race. 

In the Richmond City Council races, incumbent Tony Thurmond is running unopposed for a two-year term. Candidates for the four-year terms will pit incumbents Richard Griffin, Jim Rogers and Maria Viramontes against Cortland “Corky” Booze, James Jenkins and Ludmyrna Lopez. Those races are city-wide. 

In Albany, incumbent City Attorney Robert Zweben was the only candidate to file for that seat, for which nominations closed Friday, said City Clerk Jacqueline Buchholz. 

Four candidates have had filed for the Albany City Council through Monday afternoon, including Marge Atkinson, Joanne Wile, Francesco Papalia and Fred O’Keefe. Incumbent Mayor Alan Maris was forced out by term limits and Councilmember Robert Good did not file for reelection.

A year after Jerry Brown was elected mayor of Oakland, San Francisco publisher Phil Bronstein introduced him at a luncheon of the American Society of Newspaper Editors as a politician who was trying to get big money out of politics. 

“[H]e took over the [California] Democratic Party chairmanship, but quit complaining very bitterly about the influence of money in politics,” Bronstein said of Brown. “In ‘92 he ran for president again, beating Bill Clinton in six state primaries, and was the only other candidate to make it all the way to the convention. In those races, as in his run for mayor of Oakland last year, he refused contributions over $100.” 

Three years later, at a convention of the economic think-tank Miliken Institute in Los Angeles, Brown was asked if he supported the position of Republican Bill Simon, who was running against Gray Davis and attacking the incumbent governor for his massive political fund-raising activities. 

“Obviously,” the Sacramento Bee quoted Brown as saying. “I’m the guy who limits my contributions to $100. I’m definitely concerned about the political process and how it’s become profoundly distorted by money.” 

Running in the November general election for California attorney general, these distortions no longer seem to bother Jerry Brown. The $100 figure is mentioned on Brown’s campaign contribution website (https://jerrybrown.org/contribute?amount=) but only as the lowest suggested donation amount. 

An analysis reveals that in the two months between June 10 and Aug. 10, Brown collected $658,000 in contributions of $5,000 or more. Of those, 55 came from individuals contributing between $5,000 and the legal individual limit of $5,600 to Brown’s attorney general campaign. In the same period, Brown’s Republican opponent collected $167,525 in contributions of $5,000 or more. 

As of last week, Brown had collected $4.473 million since the first of 2005, with $4.4 million on hand as of the end of May. In contrast, Poochigian had collected $2.2 million in contributions since January of 2005, with $3.2 million on hand as of the end of May. 

A recent Field Poll shows that Brown’s lead in the opinion polls mirrors his lead in fund-raising, with Brown preferred over Poochigian 54 percent to 33 percent by Californians likely to vote in the November election. 

The analysis shows that Brown’s financial support is broad-based, with large contributions coming from unions, corporate interests, law enforcement associations and law corporations, and casino interests, as well as individuals. That ability to attract money from both ends of the political spectrum is evident in the mayor’s contributions from two widely varied state political action committees in the past two months: Brown received $5,600 apiece from Oakpac, the Oakland political fund that promotes business interests, and the Los Angeles County Council on Political Education, an AFL-CIO-based fund which said its purpose was “promoting working families issues” in its filing papers with the state as a political action committee. 

Brown’s single largest interest group support in the last two months was from unions, from which he took in $192,300, the largest coming from labor organizations connected with the building trades industry. Brown has led a residential building boom in Oakland during his two terms as mayor, a policy that has benefited building trades unions. 

Meanwhile, Brown’s most controversial contributions came from gambling interests, with $16,800 from casinos, and another $5,600 from the California Tribal Business Alliance State Candidate PAC. 

The fight over control of California’s gambling industry between the traditional card clubs and the Native American-sponsored tribal land casinos has grown into enormous proportions in recent years, with the attorney general’s office expected to have influence over their eventual outcome in the next term. 

Brown once proposed backing Muwekma Ohlone tribe for a casino at the old Oakland Army Depot, an idea that eventually fell through. 

Brown took in $55,400 in contributions from corporations in the last two months, including $5,600 apiece from the Bank of America PAC in Atlanta, Kroger Supermarkets in Los Angeles, and the Hilton Hotels Corporation in Tennessee. 

In the past two months, $26,700 went to Brown’s campaign from law corporations, and $16,200 from law enforcement associations. In contrast, Poochigian’s single largest contribution came from the California Republican Party, which gave him $32,125 of the $174,525 Poochigian’s campaign received in the past two months. 

Jerry Brown’s top campaign contributions in the past two months 

California State Pipes Trades Council Political Action Fund: $11,100 

California Teachers Association: $11,100 

International Union of Operation Engineers Local 12: $11,100 

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 11: $11,100 

Northern California Carpenters Regional Council: $11,100 

Pipe Trades District Council #36: $11,100 

Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 447 Federal Political Action Fund: $11,100 

Plumbers & Steamfitters Local No. 467: $11,100 

Political Action for Classified Employees of California School Employees: $11,100 

SEIU United Healthcare Workers West: $11,100 

Southern California Pipe Trades Council #16: $11,100 

State Building & Construction Trades Council of California: $11,100 

United Food and Commercial Workers Region 8 States Council: $11,100  

Chuck Poochigian’s top campaign contributions in the past two months 

California Republican Party/Victory 2006: $32,125 

California Restaurant Association PAC: $5,600 

Consulting Engineers & Land Surveyors PAC: $5,600 

Allergan Corporation (drug manufacturers): $5,600 

Fieldstead & Company (conservative fund): $5,600 

Duane R. Roberts (Owner, Chairman and CEO, Entrepreneurial Capital Corporation, Newport Beach): $5,600 

Hilary Poochigian: $5,600 

Richard J. Riordan (former Los Angeles Mayor and California Secretary for Education): $5,600

The UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund will distribute $200,000 in Berkeley this year in the form of grants which will support 15 projects through partnerships between local community groups and the university. 

Established by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, the fund is part of a 2005 agreement between the campus and the city following the adoption of the UC Berkeley 2020 Long Range Development Plan. The annual amount is being counted by the mayor’s office as part of the $1.2 million total compensation the city receives from the university for its impacts on city services. 

“I am very happy to see the university reach out to the community,” Mayor Tom Bates said. “I understand that some of the grants will be matching grants which will help in economic development as there will be public as well as non-profit companies who will come forward to match the amounts. This is a boost towards the good will of the city.” 

The mayor’s office, however, played no role in the selection of the grant recipients, which was handled entirely by the Community Partnership Fund Advisory Board.  

The advisory board, which is comprised of community leaders and representatives from both the city and UC Berkeley, includes UC Berkeley Associate Chancellor John Cummins; UC Berkeley Community Relations Director Irene Hegarty; Carolyn Henry-Golphin, chair of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors; Assistant City Manager Jim Hynes; and Julie Sinai, senior aide to Tom Bates, among others. 

Sinai called the experience of serving on the advisory board very exciting and added that the huge number of applications that the board had received had made the process challenging.  

“We received $900,000 in applications and made $200,000 in grants. It was very hard to prioritize because all the applications were compelling,” Sinai said. She added that the response in terms of applications was very positive, given that it was the grants’ first year, though the University of California has made previous grants to East Bay organizations. “What was great about this is that the grant acted like a catalyst for the university’s partnership with the community,” she said. 

As a result of this partnership, UC students are getting trained to do community outreach. “The purpose of this grant is really to engage the intellectual and research capacity of the faculty and the students to help the local community,” said Sinai. “A perfect example of this is the Berkeley High Student Court partnering with the Center for Social Justice at the Boalt School of Law. The first year has seen a positive start in building crucial partnerships such as this and we hope to do more such good work in the future.” 

After developing the goals, criteria and process for awarding the partnership grants and reviewing and recommending the grant awards, the advisory board chose 15 winning projects from 45 grant proposals. Chancellor Birgeneau had the final say in all the selections. 

“Nine of the grantees are community support and service projects which will enhance the economic, social or cultural well-being of Berkeley residents, and seven are neighborhood improvement projects that will enhance the physical environment of Berkeley neighborhoods or of facilities,” said UC Berkeley Community Relations Director Irene Hegarty. 

According to Hegarty, the following community service projects will be receiving funding for 2006-2007 which total $94,260: 

• Berkeley High Student Court ($10,000), which will provide a positive alternative to suspension for Berkeley High School students facing disciplinary action. 

• WriterCoach Connection Literacy Support for Berkeley Middle Schools ($5,000), which will extend an existing program that pairs trained writers with 7th and 8th grade students at Longfellow Middle School 

• Cal in the Classroom Partnership ($10,000), in which UC Berkeley graduate students in the sciences will enhance the science curriculum for elementary school students through outreach and presentations.  

• West Berkeley Outreach Project ($20,000), an outreach to West Berkeley parents through recreational and educational activities and mental health services. The project will engage parents more effectively in their children's well-being and education and support the development of healthy families.  

• Poetry Flash Community Poetry Series ($8,000), which will expand and improve accessibility to nationally recognized poetry readings and help fund a Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival. 

• Youth Emergency Assistance Hostel Volunteer Coordination Expansion ($21,260), which will fund a volunteer coordinator to recruit and train UC Berkeley students to become peer mentors to homeless youth and expand community volunteer participation.  

• Dorothy Day House Homeless Breakfast & Shelter Project ($5,000), which will support a breakfast program and emergency storm shelter for homeless people, including the recruitment of student volunteers and interns.  

• Housing Opportunities Ex-panded (HOPE) Project ($10,000), in which students will be trained and will assist chronically homeless clients to access permanent housing and social services. 

• Jazz Masters Workshop Series ($5,000), which will offer hands-on workshops for young Berkeley musicians taught by selected professional artists scheduled to perform in Cal Performances’ 2008-2009 season.  

The following neighborhood improvement projects will also be receiving funding, which will total $103,871.  

• Piedmont Avenue Landscape Rehabilitation Plan ($30,000), a draft plan for historic Piedmont Avenue between Dwight Way and Gayley Road based on the original design by Frederick Law Olmsted.  

• Halcyon Commons Rejuvenation Project ($13,640), which will add two new elements to this community-designed and -built park in South Berkeley. 

• Berkeley Orphaned Monuments Project ($15,000), which will conserve, preserve and restore Berkeley’s public architectural features and is a first phase of a larger project to inventory, map, assess and document historic features such as walls, stone pillars, steps and walks.  

• Kingman Hall Creekside Amphitheater Restoration ($15,000), the first phase of a larger project which will include vegetation management and planning for total restoration of a community amphitheater and creekside. 

• Rebuilding Together: Energy, Green & Earthquake Teams ($11,000) will expand home and facility safety projects for elderly and disabled people to include specialized environmental and earthquake teams.  

• Greening Berkeley Hands-on ($19,000), a program to recruit volunteers and buy materials for restoration of people-friendly, biodiverse green spaces in several Berkeley neighborhoods. 

The remaining $1,869 will be carried over to 2007. 

At the end of this month, a new free, public charter school open its doors in Oakland. Funded primarily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the California Department of Education, Urban Renaissance School of Arts & Technology (often referred to as Urban but not to be confused with the San Francisco private school of the same name) is committed to preparing kids for college and having a small school community. Urban is dedicated to small class sizes, with no more than 25 students per class. The high school is open to students in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. 

“We want our kids to go to college,” said Co-Principal John Oubre. “All of our classes are aligned with the UC and CSU standards.” 

Urban is a member of Envision Schools, a group of Bay Area public charter high schools. The mission of Envision Schools is to create high-performing high schools that meet college requirements and that provide an ideal learning environment.  

Urban students will be assigned an advisor, who will aid them in their journey from high school to college.  

“Each student at Urban will have an advisor who works with no more than 18 students,” said Co-Principal Alcine Mumby. “It is the task of the advisor not only to support the academic needs, but also to help with the psychological and social challenges—especially as students transition into high school.” 

For the school’s first year, Urban plans to start with a ninth-grade class of 125 students. Every year they will add a grade until, by 2009, they hope to have a full high school of grades 9 through 12. 

Oubre says that student safety will be a number one priority.  

“This campus will be safe,” Oubre said, because we have chosen it to be so. I like young people. We need to work with them as long as we can.” 

Urban is a little different from other schools. Rather than being focused on nightly homework, it is centered on projects, the reasoning being that projects combine work in the classroom with real-life experience to give students a more balanced education. 

As its name states, the focus at Urban is technology and the arts. Art is not an elective at this school but a required course, with students allowed to choose anything from music to computer design. Technology is implemented into the school curriculum as well. Urban prides itself on the low computer-to-student ratio of 1:3. The entire campus will have free wireless Internet service. 

Oubre tells the Daily Planet that parents of prospective students are showing a strong interest in Urban. 

“Everyday, we receive four to five calls inquiring about Urban,” says Oubre. 

Urban receives its charter from the Alameda County Office of Education. Envision Schools originally applied to the Oakland Unified School District for their charter but were turned down. 

Urban was awarded $405,000 from the California Department of Education, which will be dispersed over a period of two years, and $360,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation over a period of three years. 

Asked what effect might this charter school have on arts programs in the Oakland schools, like those at Skyline High School and Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), Oakland Unified School District Communications Director Alex Katz said, “In one sense, it will make competition, which can be good. We only exist to serve the students. If that school can do a good job serving students, we don’t want to stand in the way.” 

Steven Goldstine, a consultant at OSA, speculates how a school like Urban got such a large grant from the Gates Foundation. 

“It’s very unusual to get a large grant for something that doesn’t exist yet, unless they know someone in the Gates family,” said Goldstine. 

However, Goldstine thinks that it’s better for the students to succeed rather than focusing on competition. He noted that “the graduating class at OSA went on to some remarkable institutions.” Urban will be hosting an open house every Thursday from 6:30 to until 7:30 p.m. through Aug. 24.  

Urban Renaissance School of Arts & Technology will open its doors at 967 Stanford Ave. in Oakland later this month. Photo by  

Rio Bauce.

Investigation continues 

The investigation of a Berkeley police officer suspected in the theft of evidence continues, reports department spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

“Since it’s an ongoing investigation, I can’t comment about who’s involved,” Galvan said. 

The officer, reportedly the son of a high-ranking official, was the subject of official searches by agents of the Department of Justice, sources have reported. Galvan declined to confirm or deny those reports. 

Rape reported 

A 16-year-old San Leandro girl told police she was raped by an acquaintance near the corner of Prince and Tremont streets—near the Ashby BART parking lot—about 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 2. 

The young woman identified the suspect, and an investigation is continuing, reports Officer Galvan. 

Boy robs boy 

A 15-year-old called police just after 9 p.m. on July 27 to report he’d just been relieved of his cell phone and cash by another youth, 17 or older, who made his getaway on a shiny red bike with chopped handles. 

The incident took place near the corner of Dwight Way and San Pablo Avenue. 

Now that’s mean 

That’s the judgment Officer Galvan pronounces on the mean-spirited man who robbed a 19-year-old Irish tourist of his wallet, cell phone and glasses near the corner of Bancroft Way and Shattuck Avenue about 11:30 p.m. on the 27th. 

“I guess he didn’t want him to see where he was going,” said Galvan. “But the poor guy is going to be thinking about that every time he remembers his trip to Berkeley.” 

Beatdown heist 

A 16-year-old Berkeley boy staggered into a liquor store near the corner of Eighth Street and Allston Way at 7 p.m. July 28 to report that he’d just been slugged in the face and robbed of his cash by another youth. 

Boxcutter attack 

A 50-something man armed with a boxcutter slashed a 21-year-old Berkeley man outside the UA Theater about 9 p.m. on the 28th. 

Paramedics took the injured man to the emergency room for a neck injury sustained in the attack. The suspect had already departed and was last seen headed south of Shattuck Avenue. 

Van flight 

A 34-year-old Forest Knoll man was robbed by a pair of bandits as he walked along the 3100 block of Telegraph Avenue just after 2 a.m. on the 29th, said Officer Galvan. 

The baddies boogied in a white car with a sliding door, said their victim. 

Razor slasher 

A 48-year-old Oakland man was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon after he slashed a 36-year-old Berkeley woman with a razor blade on July 29. 

Officers arrived in the 1200 block of 10th Street just before 5 p.m. in response to reports of a fight between a man and a woman inside a parked car. 

The car sustained a broken window and the woman received a minor cut, which paramedics treated at the scene. The man was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. 

Armed robber 

A young gunman with a black pistol robbed an Oakland couple of their valuables as they walked along Channing Way near the corner of Ellsworth Street shortly before 11 p.m. on the 29th. 

The victims, ages 77 and 74, lost a wallet, a purse and cash. 

Rat pack 

A gang of six teenagers surrounded and robbed a 60-year-old Oakland woman as she walked along the 2100 block of San Pablo Avenue just after 11:30 p.m. on the 29th. 

The woman said none of the robbers appeared to be more than 15 years old. 

Trash arson 

After firefighters responded to a series of trash can fires near the corner of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue at 5:30 a.m. on the 31st, a cabbie flagged down an officer to report that he’d seen a homeless man set the blaze. 

The nomadic torch remains at large. 

Felony shoes 

A gunman robbed Bows & Arrows, a boutique in the 2800 block of Telegraph Avenue, of both the contents of the till and four pairs of sneakers—often dubbed “felony shoes” by the badge-and-gun set because of the preference shown them by fleet-of-foot felons. 

The robber, who pulled off his caper just after 2 p.m. on the 31st, had extricated himself from the scene before the first prowl car arrived. 

Smash and grab 

She couldn’t say whether the robber hit her with his fist or the long silver gun he was packing, but the blow was enough to convince her to give the man her wallet and cell phone after he attacked her in the 1300 block of Hopkins Street at 9:30 p.m. on the 31st, said Officer Galvan. 

Rec Center arson 

Someone smashed a window at the San Pablo Recreation Center late in the evening of July 31st, dumped something fluid and flammable on a couch and set it ablaze. 

While the fire did little damage to the concrete structure itself, the smoke and the water sprayed by firefighters did significant damage to the contents, said Officer Galvan. 

Fourth Street heist 

The last clerk to lock up at a trendy shop in the 1800 block of Fourth Street found herself in a confrontation with a pair of bandits as she was locking the descending storefront grate in place just before 2:30 a.m. on Aug 1. 

Unable to rob the shuttered store, they settled for her purse and wallet. 

Home invasion 

A pair of thugs forced their way into a home in the 2600 block of Sacramento Street just before 11 a.m. on Aug. 2, forcing the two occupants to hand over their cash before the two suspects, one aged about 25 and the other about 35, fled in the direction of Longfellow Elementary School. 

Robbers thwarted? 

Police stepped up surveillance of a section of West Berkeley after a series of armed robberies in late July and early August, apparently convincing the bandits to head for safer pastures, reports Officer Galvan. 

In each of the stickups, a pair of bandits, one armed with a black pistol, would approach their marks, then make their play. 

The first incident was reported just after midnight on the 1st, when a woman was robbed of her purse and lunch box in the 1300 block of 10th Street. 

Similar crimes followed in the Walgreen’s parking lot just off the corner of University and San Pablo avenues and in near the Pik ‘N’ Pak market. 

Million-dollar cigarette 

The careless disposal of a smoldering cigarette butt is the probable cause of the three-alarm fire that caused heavy damage and injured firefighters last Wednesday. 

Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth said one of the tenants had been smoking, and the discarded butt ignited the blaze that caused more than $1 million in damage to a five-unit apartment at 2626 Hillegass. 

Six people were injured in the blaze, none seriously. 

Orth said two firefighters are still recovering from their injuries. Those injured were hurt by flames, molten tar dripping from the roof, heat and exhaustion. Two firefighters were treated for injuries at a local emergency room, though no one was hospitalized, Orth said. 

Wiring fire 

A wire crimped during the recent installation of a pool maintenance system at UC Berkeley’s Recreational Sports Facility caused a fire that did $5,000 damage late Thursday afternoon, Orth said. 

The fire erupted after the wire overheated because it had been crimped against the wall during the installation of heaters atop the carbon dioxide tanks used to equalize the pH of water in the facility’s pool, Orth said.  

The system was installed in a room underneath the pool in the complex at 2351 Bancroft Way. 

Dorm fire 

Firefighters responded to UC Berkeley’s Unit 2 dorm at 3:39 a.m. Saturday, catching a trash blaze before it could do more that $250 in damage, said Orth. 

The fire broke out in a trash chute, he said.

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.”

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.” 

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.”

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.” 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Members of two city panels will gather tonight (Tuesday) in an effort to resolve issues surrounding the role of historic buildings in the future of downtown Berkeley. 

Four members each from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will meet at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center at 1901 Hearst Ave. 

The issue at hand represents the newest front in the long-running struggle being waged between pro-development interests and preservationists. 

Tonight’s meeting will focus on the survey of historic resources and structures to be carried out in conjunction with the creation of a new plan for an expanded area of downtown Berkeley. 

That plan was mandated in the settlement of the city’s lawsuit that challenged elements of UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan covering expansion plans for the university campus and pro-jects planned for the city center. 

Members of the two bodies will hear a presentation by the Architectural Resources Group (ARG), a San Francisco architecture and consulting firm retained to help city staff prepare the survey of downtown historic assets. 

The ARG team is scheduled to present an overview of state and federal criteria for historic resources, to describe criteria used by other California communities and to present an overview of the survey process. 

Chair Robert Johnson and fellow commissioners Lesley Emmington, Jill Korte and Steven Winkel will represent the LPC, while Wendy Alfsen, Patti Dacey, Carole Kennerly and Raudel Wilson will represent DAPAC. 

Dacey served on the LPC until earlier this year, when she was removed from the post by City Councilmember Max Anderson. She and Emmington were the commission’s most ardent preservationists, while Korte was more closely aligned with them than with Johnson and Winkel, if past votes are any guideline. 

Several DAPAC members, most notably Dorothy Walker, a former UCB official, have called for the demolition of some historic structures to make way for larger, new structures. 

The subcommittee will carry out its work during the run-up to the November elections, when Berkeley voters will decided on a ballot initiative that would keep—with minor changes—the city’s tough landmarks law. 

If that measure fails, the City Council could then enact a rival measure from Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli that preservationists contend represents a threat to the city’s historic character. 

Pro-development activists contend the current law blocks creation of needed affordable housing, and that the Bates/Capitelli measure protects developers and property-owners from NIMBY responses to individual projects.

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. 

NIMBYISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My backyard is a special place, so you can put me on the NIMBY list. In my yard over the years I planted fruit trees in all directions while my husband cautioned that someday I might not be able to find my way back. And beyond the harvests, what better place for kids to be in, what better place to host the annual party “to verify our existence”? 

Another yard I’m keen on is one nearby labeled Wild Life Habitat, which is full of trees and greenery of all kinds to harbor its namesakes. As I stood at the gate marveling at this unexpected find, a whirr of wings emerged out of the yard’s green recesses to fly up and away. 

There are other backyards to preserve. To deprive them of their growing, present or future, would be far worse than being a NIMBY. It would be criminal. 

Dororthy V. Benson 

• 

PECAUT’S FAUX PAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We were disturbed to read the inaccurate and mean-spirited letter from Christian Pecaut (Daily Planet, Aug. 11). Mr. Pecaut, who was completely unknown to any of us at the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, sent an e-mail requesting the club to include him in our endorsement process for mayor of Berkeley. We invited him and allotted him equal time with Zelda Bronstein and Tom Bates. Zelda is a member of our club and a long-time activist, and Tom has been a friend of the progressive community during more than 30 years of public service. Although we assumed that club members would be choosing between them, in the sprit of democratic inclusiveness, we decided to invite Mr. Pecaut as well. 

After each candidate had spoken and answered questions for the same length of time, and the time allotted this point on the agenda had been exhausted, the chair (Jack Kurzweil) closed this part of the endorsement session and began to move the agenda to the next item. There was a protest against this, and a motion was made to suspend the agenda and allow the candidates further time to question each other and respond in depth to all the issues raised. The overwhelming majority of the club members voted against the motion and to move on.  

Mr. Pecaut clearly did not like the results of that vote. That’s the funny thing about democracy. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. Does Mr. Pecaut think that democracy means that his viewpoint prevails? We take votes in the Wellstone Club and we respect the outcome of those votes. 

But respect is not Mr. Pecaut’s strong suit. We have no problem with Mr. Pecaut being critical of the policies of any other candidate. However, hearing Mr. Pecaut, who admitted in the question period that he had lived in Berkeley for only four months, arrogantly savage others who have long and proven track records of serving this community, leads us to suggest that he should look for another line of work. America has more than its quota of mean-spirited politicos. 

We knew nothing about Mr. Pecaut when we invited him to speak. Now we do.  

Matthew Hallinan 

Jack Kurzweil 

Wellstone Democratic  

Renewal Club 

• 

MISLEADING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Stevie Corcos, in her letter to the Daily Planet, makes several false or misleading claims, and I’d like to address just three of them. 

She says that she “is opposing the new parcel taxes BUSD is seeking,” when she must know that in November we will be voting to renew existing parcel tax funding for our schools, at rates already approved by Berkeley voters. BUSD is not proposing any new taxes or any tax increase. 

Furthermore, she claims that “Berkeley pays the highest parcel taxes in the state for education.” This is also flat-out false. I did just a little checking on EdData, the state’s website on education, and quickly found at least two school districts with far higher parcel taxes for education than ours. In Piedmont, it’s $1559/parcel, and in Palo Alto it’s currently $1014 per parcel, while my own 2004-2005 property tax statement shows that I paid $222.80 for “Berkeley School Tax.” Our parcel tax is calculated by house size, and mine is probably about average size for Berkeley. Some people have much larger houses and pay more, but not many can be five to seven times the size, which is what they’d have to be to pay what every parcel is charged in Palo Alto or Piedmont. 

In addition, she repeats a charge printed in an article in the Daily Planet, stating that Berkeley has “the highest achievement gap” in the county. This is true, but misleading. Piedmont Unified, for example, has no economically disadvantaged students or English-language learners; their small “achievement gap” is between white students and Asian students. Oakland Unified also has a narrower gap between the highest performing group (white), and lower performing groups (economically disadvantaged, English language learners, African American, Hispanic, etc.), but only because their white students do not perform as well as Berkeley’s white students. Berkeley’s excellent public schools attract more children of well-educated white households than do public schools in many, if not most, diverse urban areas. Our teachers and administrators are dedicated to improving student learning at every level. Let’s work together to renew local BSEP funding for our Berkeley Schools, and continue to support academic achievement for all of our students. 

Julie Holcomb 

• 

LESS THAN RELIABLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Once again the Daily Planet shows itself as a less then reliable source for facts by simple sloppy reporting. I refer to Richard Brenneman’s piece on the LPC’s Aug. 3 meeting in which he writes “...Commissioners delayed acting on Gale Garcia’s petition to landmark Iceland, acting on a request of the owners’ attorney, Rena Rickles...” While Gale has been an active supporter of landmarking Berkeley Iceland, I think she would be surprised to know she is the petitioner. A simple search of your own archived articles would have shown that the LPC itself moved to designate Berkeley Iceland as a Landmark ( Daily Planet, April 14) and a look at the application for landmarking, a public document, would have shown that Elizabeth Grassetti and I submitted the necessary paperwork. 

The article also fails to mention that Elizabeth and I, as the applicants, supported the owners request for a continuance. We know from our communication with both the owners representatives and the city officials that serious talks on the future of the rink are taking place. We would rather have the limited management resources of Berkeley Iceland focused on these talks rather then landmarking. By getting facts wrong and incomplete on facts that are easy to confirm, it makes one wonder about facts in articles that are less familiar to the reader. 

Tom Killilea 

SaveBerkeleyIceland.org 

• 

SENIOR LUNCH PROGRAM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Due to budget cuts and rising costs, the South Berkeley Senior Center will be forced to discontinue the senior lunch program at the end of August. Balanced lunches have been available to Seniors on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a number of years. Dora (in her eighties) has called the lunches her main meal of the day. The lunch attendants have bonded and made the occasion a social and supportive event looked forward to. The closing will be a very sad event.  

Harry Gans 

• 

PROGRESSIVE  

CATCHPHRASES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Koenigshofer’s recent commentary argued that “blind endorsement of progressive catchphrases and associated programs (smart growth, affordable housing, rent stabilization) lead us down a road of unintended consequences.” True enough, but the dilemmas that are at the heart of the problem bear closer examination. Many, perhaps most, of the opponents of current building development trends agree that Berkeley needs more housing and that it’s sensible to place larger residential buildings along major transit corridors or downtown. The problem is the excessive bulk, density and/or height of many of the new buildings already in place or in the works. This feature increases visual and other impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. Who wouldn’t be a NIMBY when faced with some of these buildings as a neighbor? 

The excess bulk partially results from the tool progressives have crafted as an alternative to rent control (which the state Legislature effectively quashed years ago). This tool is the requirement for provision of below-market units in new buildings. As Berkeley and other progressive cities in California moved in this direction, however, the more developer-friendly state legislature enacted provisions to require cities to give builders something in return—more units than local zoning would otherwise allow. The result is that some lucky tenants (or condo buyers) benefit, the neighbors lose, and the developers come out more or less even. 

The unfortunate reality in a town like Berkeley is that, for people of modest means, affordable housing equals below-market housing. And in a market economy, private developers are not too keen on providing such housing without something in return. Progressive cities can try to shift some of developers’ profits into subsidies for below-market housing, but the power of developers (and their fellow travelers in construction unions) at the state level will likely limit such tactics. The tough question that requires some honest discussion is this: how do we make housing in Berkeley affordable for the less well-off without unfairly harming residents who live near the areas earmarked for new buildings? 

Steve Meyers 

• 

WASTEFULNESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am very concerned about the wastefulness and destructiveness of our American way of life. We consume far more than our share of the world’s resources, thus contributing greatly to pollution and global warming. I want to help form a “network for responsible living” to support one another in caring, sharing, and being ecologically mindful. Interested people can contact me at: arthurgladstone@hotmail.com. I would be glad to have comments and suggestions.  

Arthur Gladstone  

• 

TERRORIZED BY THREATS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was taught growing up that one’s character is measured by the smallest thing that arouses one’s anger.  

Arrests in England and Pakistan of young men plotting mass murder dominate not only headline news but cause authorities to disrupt everyday life for hundreds thousands of travelers. Is our courage measured by the things that frighten us? 

Not only is the union of nations impotent to stop massive state and non-state destruction but our future prospects as individuals are frozen in myopic fear. Safety trumps sanity. Are we, as a nation, no bigger than the couple of dozen obsessed young men who might have committed mass murder?  

Given human-on-human bloodletting on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, spoliation of our habitat, global poverty, crime and disease, etc. our reaction to a threat of what might have happened hardly does us credit.  

On the tree of life we rank high, “…a little below the angels...” it says in Psalm 8, verse 5. Yet, we succumb to an all encompassing fear, we abandon the “crown and glory,” the enabling courage, extolled in the Psalm. 

Is state security what we have in mind when we ask “God [to]bless America”?  

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo  

• 

EDUCATION AND TRUTH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If anything can save our earth from it’s own human destruction, it will be our new vast world-wide network of education. Lies, propaganda, ignorance, are probably inescapable, but now the truths are as well.  

Thank you, Berkeley Daily Planet, for being an important part of this process. 

Gerta Farber 

• 

FREE SPEECH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a working member of the press (Laney Tower), I applaud the free speech perspective expressed by Becky O’Malley in her Aug. 11 editorial “The Importance of Protecting Free Speech.” I encourage all interested in free speech to participate in the California First Amendment Coalition’s First Amendment Assembly to he held in Berkeley Sept. 29-30. It’s free of charge if you register early at www.CFAC.org.  

Joe Kempkes 

Oakland 

• 

CUBAN FIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet 

On Aug. 9, 2005, the Atlanta 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the unjust convictions imposed on five Cubans. Arrested in 1998, these men were monitoring terrorist groups in Miami. Although the five were fighting terrorism, the same administration that has launched the so-called “war on terrorism” has kept them imprisoned. These courageous men are not criminals; they were only defending their country from terrorist acts. Groups operating out of Southern Florida have caused the death of more than 3,500 Cubans. The U.S. government has not just turned a blind eye to these terrorist groups but has supported, trained, sponsored and financed them from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to the Bush administration. Why is it that while the five are languishing in U.S. prisons, these terrorists walk the streets of Miami free? One year has passed since the reversal of their convictions, but they are still imprisoned. The world demands justice for the Cuban Five. It is time for them to go home. 

Alicia Jrapko 

Oakland 

• 

WHAT TO DO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I need advice!  

I have lived at Savo Island Co-operative Homes, Inc. for 26 years. I moved in on the day before my son was born—and he will be 27 years old in October. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter pushed legislation through Congress that gave every city and town in America a HUD housing development exactly like ours. So far so good. 

But here’s the problem: After 26 years, the place is falling apart. The roofs leak. The cedar shingles are falling off the sides. The drainage system sucks eggs. We need a rehab! But it appears that not only are we not getting one, we will be facing foreclosure as well. 

Why? 

Because, after years of resistance to this rehab project from three of our market rate co-op board members (we are a totally project-based Section 8 housing co-op) because they are afraid that a rehab loan might cause their rent to go up, we still haven’t gotten the rehab. And the board members on market rate and their allies are still stalling the rehab—even though they know that if their rent goes up too much they will then be eligible for Section 8. 

All of us board members just got a letter from our bank’s loan officer. It said, “...we request [the board’s] approval in extending [an agreement with Savo Island’s management company] through at least the permanent loan closing,” approximately two years from now. “Should [the contract] not be extended through at least this time period, we may not be in a position to provide a positive underwriting review.” That’s banker talk for we won’t get the loan. And then HUD will foreclose on Savo Island. And I’ll be living in a cardboard box under the freeway. 

At a board meeting on Tuesday night, the board voted to table approving the new management contract “for further study.” HUD is getting very antsy. Our lender is getting ready to back out of the deal. Our roofs are decaying. The drainage is bad. This next rainy winter is going to be our doom. We can’t get rid of the board because some of the market rate board members won’t be up for re-election until January. And by that time it will be too late! 

What should I do? 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

TELEGRAPH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

First, what great news to hear that the hard work of Telegraph Area Association’s (TAA) Neighborhood Partnership on Homelessness has resulted in the creation of a bona fide detox center for Alameda County. Bravo to Bill Riess for his determination to see this through for Telegraph and to the countless other “unlikely allies” who came together to make this story a success. 

Second, thanks for the report on the new focus on addressing Telegraph’s community and economic development issues. However, I need to make several corrections for the record. I have not been hired by the City of Berkeley as a consultant to address Telegraph issues. I have been retained by TAA’s Executive Committee to address TAA’s financial and operational issues only. Once those issues are addressed, TAA’s Board of Directors will then decide whether to disband TAA, reorganize TAA, or propose that TAA’s non-profit shell be utilized by others with a similar mission to revitalize the area. Lastly, I appreciate the time the reporter took to explain how low-income college neighborhoods are not necessarily seen as low-income by necessity but by choice when applying for grants. I’m not sure if this is implied or not, but there are many people living in the Southside, who are not students, who are near the poverty level and who live in the Southside out of necessity—not choice. For these residents, who cannot afford to pick up and move on a whim, it’s critical that neighborhood concerns be quickly addressed so that they too can enjoy the quality of life that more prosperous areas have. 

Kathy Berger 

San Anselmo 

• 

BERKELEY JOB LOSSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many of the neighbors that I have been talking to on the campaign trail are increasingly frustrated over the number of businesses leaving Berkeley. Cody’s, Habitot, Power Bar, Radston’s, Gormans, Clif Bar —the list is getting longer by the day. I was particularly vexed over an article I saw in the Berkeley Daily Planet regarding the departure of Power Bar. The first paragraphs of the story focused on how gleeful some residents were that the PowerBar sign would be coming down from the building. Wait a minute...the sign? We’re going to lose 100 jobs and we start off talking about the sign? Come to think of it, it was kind of irritating that the employees of Cody’s on Telegraph were hogging up the coffee shops during their work breaks and all those noisy toddlers from Habitot—can’t we get those young-ins to keep quiet? And if only the Berkeley Rep or the Aurora would go away so I could get a table at Downtown or La Note on a Saturday night. 

Seriously, Berkeley needs to wake up to all of these jobs lost. Loss of business revenue drives up taxes and fees. I volunteer for a drug and alcohol rehab center from time to time. The other day one of our house managers—with no income at all—got a $200 ticket for riding his bike on the sidewalk. Good grief. Losing hundreds of job is not progressivism. It’s nihilism.  

It’s become trendy to beat up on the university, and it’s sometimes justified. What the clattering class should realize, however, is that, as businesses leave, soon Uncle Charlie will be the only business we have left.  

If you’d like to join the conversation, please check out www.georgebeier.com/blog. 

George Beier 

Candidate for Berkeley City Council, District 7 

Some politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and anti-Castro activists in Florida have been waiting so long for the passing from the scene of Cuban president Fidel Castro, that now that he has actually ceded power, it remains to be seen whether or not they can restrain themselves from attempting to provoke an event or series of events that would force Cuba to turn to its military for political stability and military defense during this transition period.  

As far as Cubans likely are concerned, of all the circumstances that could have initiated the transition of political power, the one currently unfolding is best. By ceding power to Raul Castro, Fidel’s younger brother, presumably while Fidel is still alive, the government has given time for the Cuban people to psychologically prepare for a new leader.  

Having been born since the advent of the Cuban Revolution the majority of the population has known no other political leader. As they wait to hear a definitive statement on Fidel’s health the emotional tension now must be overwhelming. The military waits as well.  

Contrary to prevailing wisdom in the U.S. press, this is not the first time Fidel has ceded power to Raul. In the 1970s Castro underwent another medical situation and temporarily handed power to his brother. Then the mood was not nearly as somber as now.  

Correctly the U.S. press has focused on four men whom are considered to be top candidates to replace Fidel. The four, Raul Castro, Foreign Minister Felipe Roque, National Assembly head Ricardo Alarcon and Cuba’s top economist Carlos Lage are all eminently qualified and politically skilled. Of the four, however, it would seem Roque, just 41, is the one who has been most diligently groomed for the job. In addition he commands the most passion among Cubans.  

Many consider Roque the most likely long term replacement. He is a former head of the Young Communist organization and in the Cuban perspective is considered politically sound. Raul Castro on the other hand has often been considered to the left of Fidel and he is a sterner person. He does not generate emotion in the people in the way his brother does.  

But for the time being Raul Castro is the head of the Cuban government, not because his brother says but because the Cuban Constitution says. Therefore now Raul is not only the head of the Cuban state but he is also head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.  

Raul Castro is not the head of the Cuban armed forces the way George Bush is head of the U.S. armed forces. Raul, as a youth was a member of the Cuban Communist Party’s Young Communist League and broke party discipline to join the armed July 26 Movement that brought his older brother to power. He is now a highly trained and more importantly highly experienced militarist, having attended numerous advanced military courses in the former Soviet Union and overseeing Cuba’s highly successful military expeditions in Angola and Ethiopia. Most often in public he is seen wearing his uniform.  

Furthermore, Cuban are comfortable with the army in their midst. Unlike the United States where most military units are confined to military reservations and are seen only on television or in parades, the Cuban army is integrated into the people’s everyday life. The army, in particular, is seen everywhere from doing security work at office buildings and large apartment complexes to working in agricultural enterprises. In Cuba the RAF are mostly self-sustaining and control nearly 11 percent of the economy. It participates in the tourist sector of the economy by running hotels and in agriculture by operating sizeable and productive farms.  

In addition to all this the Cubans are already organized into a paramilitary organization that has access to arms, the Committees to Defend the Revolution. Most Cubans participate in the CDRs, many even donning uniforms on special occasions, especially when they feel threatened by war sounds coming from Washington. Georgina Chebou, a leading member of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee told this writer not long ago, “We’ve always felt if we were ever to solve our energy problems, Washington would invade us.” 

One would be hard pressed to convince Cubans they are all paranoid conspiracy theorists. As far as they are concerned all their enemies are real. History would seem to bear them out. Fabian Escalante, a long time head of Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior (in charge of state security) recently revealed he believes there have been in excess of over 600 assassination attempts against Fidel.  

Also, this writer, as a guest of Cuban general Arnaldo Tomayo, has been inside the fortified tunnels that surround the U.S. naval installation at Guantanamo. Reportedly the existence of these tunnels is not unique in Cuba. Clearly any military incursion the U.S. might launch into Cuba would create a far, far more complicated and militarily ferocious response than what took place during 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.  

No one in Cuba in their right mind would want the military to take over the Cuban government, unless the United States creates the conditions to warrant it.  

The best course for everyone involved, especially the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and Florida, is to keep their distance and to allow this uniquely Cuban transition of power to continue peacefully. 

Jean Damu can be contacted at jdamu2@yahoo.com  

I would like to clarify just a few of Mr. Katz’s misstatements that relate to the David Brower Center: 

Mr. Katz’s May 26 commentary begins by acknowledging that the Brower Center/Oxford Plaza development project is indeed two separate projects, The David Brower Center (non-profit offices/conference facilities/restaurant/gallery) and Oxford Plaza (affordable family housing), but the ensuing torrent of mischaracterization fails to distinguish between the two projects. The distinction is quite important because each of these worthy projects has separate ownership, developers, management, mission, and financing. 

Psuedo-ecological name: Really? The Brower Center project was discussed with and approved by David Brower himself before his death in 2000. Ken Brower, David’s oldest son, is a board member of the David Brower Center, which is the project’s non-profit owner. Shirley Richardson Brower, Executive Director of the South Berkeley YMCA, has appeared at numerous times at public events to speak in support of the Brower Center. Indeed, all Brower family members are in full public support of the project. 

Greenwash by making exaggerated claims: The Brower Center is on track to be built at a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Standard, the highest possible Green Design standard established and monitored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The USGBC is an independent certifying authority and there are only a handful of LEED Platinum buildings in the entire USA. Please visit www.browercenter.org for detailed information about the innovative green design features planned for the David Brower Center. 

Land for free: An offer was made to purchase the property from the city, in which case the city would have had cash but no parking lot, and no control over the development. The City Council decided instead to retain control through a Development and Disposition Agreement (DDA) that has resulted in attracting over $22 million of downtown investment for the Brower Center alone ($10 million of private philanthropic donations, which leverage $12 million in conventional financing, tax credit financing, and program related loans from Foundations) while also creating employment opportunities, conference facilities that support the entire non-profit sector, and a vibrant center that will attract international attention while serving the progressive non-profit community through the coming decades, plus Oxford Plaza’s 96 units of sorely needed, cost-effective affordable/workforce family housing. In addition, the city also gets to keep its parking lot. Mr. Katz seems to believe that just having a parking lot is a better deal. 

Greedy developers: Mr. Katz characterizes the Brower Center owners as greedy developers pulling hidden strings for their own enrichment. So who are these demons? The building owner is the David Brower Center 501c(3) non-profit, which in turn is controlled by its board of directors. A visit to www.browercenter.org will give interested parties the complete list of board members and their biographies. What you will find are dedicated individuals who have devoted their working lives to improving environmental and social conditions for the whole community, which includes Mr. Katz. Apparently the few computer keystrokes required to call up that website were beyond the effort or imagination of Mr. Katz. 

The mission of the David Brower Center is to inspire and nurture current generations of activists and to build a foundation for future generations. That’s what we agreed with David Brower to do, and that is what we are building. Building for the future. 

Peter K. Buckley is the chairman of the David Brower Center.

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 

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.

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

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. 

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. 

Summer is here! Vacation time! Where shall I go? Usually I head straight for the wilderness—where I have spent much of my life—far from electricity, running water, indoor plumbing, and the teeming masses. But since I have spent even more of my life in one of the highest density parts of Berkeley, the more interesting question is: What has enabled me to stay in town most of the time? 

When I moved to north Willard, it was a green place graced by rows of towering elms, and was far enough from the university to be relatively peaceful (UC has crept much closer now). It was close to interesting activities, and I could satisfy almost all my daily needs by foot. Since then, however, almost all the nearby amenities have disappeared. Meanwhile, small tree species have replaced our giant elms, huge UC buildings have blocked out the hills, new UC staff fill our neighborhood parking spaces, and thousands more students pack our sidewalks (with cell phones, so even solo pedestrians now make noise). The new dorms send continuous mechanical drone into my bedroom window, car alarms proliferate, and clattering recycling and garbage pickups have doubled. The unending roll of UC construction trucks, which may last another decade or forever, tops it off. 

What led to this deterioration? Or more accurately, why does the city not view this as deterioration? Because this change was not caused by lack of planning; instead it exemplifies our planning, and it is as much our city’s “urban plan” as it is the university’s. For example, in 2002, the Planning Department and Zoning Adjustments Board supported replacing two of our residential street’s few remaining historic single-family homes with a six-story building containing UC classrooms. The planning staff insisted that this would have “no significant impact” on our struggling neighborhood, and the developer claimed it was “smart growth.” This is typical.  

But what’s “smart” about destroying neighborhoods? Why are those who try to improve civilized life vilified as NIMBYs? Why are self-proclaimed “environmentalists” trying to destroy our urban environment? How did saving “greenspace” translate into destroying Berkeley?  

Americans have a changing relationship with the natural environment. For the colonists, the wilderness was a dangerous wasteland to be feared and avoided. But by the late 1800s, the dangers of the frontier had receded and more people had been exposed to the spectacular American landscape, which was now considered to reflect the “sublime” face of God. The first national parks were designated, and heroic paintings celebrated the Western wilderness, initiating a wave of nature tourism—ironically, more or less coinciding with the foreseeable disappearance of the very landscape that people were coming to see. This urgent sense of simultaneous discovery and loss was not unlike what many of us experience today regarding exotic ecosystems.  

Already imbued with Rousseau’s romanticization of the “primitive,” the wilderness came to embody the American identity, the rugged individualist. It was viewed as noble, pristine, wild, free, and true, while civilization came to be viewed as corrupt, polluted, artificial, restraining, and false. Even though the “wilderness” had shared space with native Americans, missionaries, frontiersmen, and farmers for centuries, in the urban mind, only an entirely uninhabited, untouched wilderness could be “sublime.” 

Thus emerged a dualistic view of man and nature, separate and unequal: nature as pure and noble, and man and everything he touches as defiled. Over the 20th century, this philosophical duality increasingly became an earthly reality. Industrial America treated the landscape as a soulless resource to be mined, dammed, polluted, paved, logged, and plowed over, destroying irreplaceable ecosystems, and ultimately, perhaps, the planet as we know it. No wonder, then, that people of conscience who came of age in recent decades are likely to view human beings, subconsciously at least, as a loathsome plague upon the planet.  

After several years of analyzing the deterioration of neighborhoods, and watching “smart growth” extremists lionize urban life while simultaneously destroying it, I realized that the dualistic environmental model is at the heart of our problems. It has created “environmentalists” who, astonishingly and without irony, despise the urban environment—even though Urbania is the primary ecosystem for the most populous species on the planet. Self-contempt, shame over mankind’s planetary abuse, and Berkeley’s omnipresent “liberal guilt” combine forces to create unproductive extremism in urban and transportation planning. Berkeley “environmentalists” would never advocate marginal, artificial environments for other species, but for humans they propose an unpleasant and inhumane urban environment, devoid of aesthetic and spiritual sustenance and often even the basic requirements of good health. People who love and respect themselves or others would not be so misanthropic and punitive.  

The fact that almost all the pain falls on the shoulders of those with lesser means and few choices might, in other times, have given good liberals pause. But hysteria over the shortage of “affordable housing” has trumped that concern, making inhumane warehousing for the poor (“it’s better than no housing”) fashionable once again. But unless we want to forfeit both our democracy and our freedom, any policy based on forcing people who do have choices into unpleasant surroundings and behaviors is doomed. If we do not want our species to head toward the greener grass of Suburbia and beyond, we must lovingly create a physically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually attractive and sustainable urban environment for ourselves.  

Urban planners must never forget that human beings are animals; our animal nature is part of our human nature. We evolved in a natural environment and gain a profound tranquility from the sights, smells, sounds, and feel of the natural world. People cannot drive off into the wilderness every time they want to connect with their humanity; it’s not practical, ecological, or even possible for many. We must connect with our humanity where we live, every day, in an urban ecosystem that is nourishing and fulfilling. We should think of this as our vital “minimum daily requirement” of nature. Only by building into Urbania a connection to nature—which is our own nature—can we create sustainable urban health and “livability.”  

And this approach is most likely to ultimately preserve the wilderness as well. Urban children must be the future stewards of our natural environment. But I have known urban teenagers who have feared to take a step into the woods. I knew a young man from Hong Kong who was delighted to finally have a tiny vegetable garden in Berkeley, and then chopped the entire garden to the ground after being traumatized by a tomato worm. Will those who do not feel “at home” in nature have a passion to maintain the natural world for their children and grandchildren? I fear not. 

Environmentalist William Cronon writes: “Idealizing a distant wilderness too often means not idealizing the environment in which we actually live, the landscape that for better or worse we call home. . . . [P]eople should always be conscious that they are part of the natural world, inextricably tied to the ecological systems that sustain their lives. Any way of looking at nature that encourages us to believe we are separate from nature . . . is likely to reinforce environmentally irresponsible behavior. . . . Home, after all, is the place where finally we make our living. It is the place for which we take responsibility, the place we try to sustain so we can pass on what is best in it (and in ourselves) to our children.” Amen. 

Sharon Hudson is a 35-year Berkeley resident with a special interest in land use issues. 

I was not a writer before my husband Ralph had a bicycling accident that left him paralyzed below the shoulders. I worked at an international adventure travel company (located in Berkeley), leading bicycling trips to exotic locations like Tasmania and Bali. The only things I wrote were postcards, grocery lists, and, occasionally, copy for the company’s travel brochures. But in the spring of 1994 after Ralph’s accident, all writing, with the exception of completing medical and legal forms, became obsolete. I spent my days dealing with doctors, therapists and social workers. At night, I lay in bed alone, wondering what would happen to us.  

While Ralph was still in ICU fighting for his life, a friend advised me to write down everything that was happening to us. He thought that I might need these notes for a lawsuit. He bought me three spiral notebooks and a pen, and I dutifully jotted down what I saw, heard, smelled, and thought. This may have been the beginning of my writing career, but once Ralph returned home, I never referred back to the notebooks. Years later, when I found the books in the corner of a messy closet, I threw them away without looking at them. I knew they were full of bleak, depressing thoughts.  

Six months after we returned home from the hospital, I began to keep a journal. I scribbled down the things that happened to us—what I saw with my new eyes as a stay-at-home caregiver; who I met; how the world reacted to our new status as a disabled man and his helper. I was encountering people who I never would have run into before: neurologists and psychiatrists, acupuncturists and kinesiologists, out-of-luck-home-health-aides—the folks I had come to depend on for Ralph’s care, and for my own sanity.  

We were in and out of the emergency room so often that I started to think of it as my office. Waiting there took an average of seven hours. But I always had a notebook and pen with me. The ER became my home away from home.  

I had plenty to write about, and oddly enough, I found the time to write: late at night and early in the morning when Ralph was asleep, during prolonged stays in the hospital, and in the waiting rooms of doctors and counselors. Since we didn’t have much of a social life, and I no longer did the activities I used to do such as running, biking and skiing, I substituted writing for friendship, exercise, and sex.  

I didn’t show my writings to anyone for a long time. A year after Ralph’s accident, Leah Garchik, a columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, asked her readers for stories about “serendipity.” I sent her a description of a serendipitous experience Ralph and I had had. The ambulance driver who had driven Ralph to the hospital after his accident had tracked us down. He came to our front door bearing carnations. He told us that Ralph had been very brave as he lay in the middle of Claremont Avenue unable to move. He explained that he had not thought Ralph would survive. My essay about this unexpected meeting was too long for the newspaper, but Leah encouraged me to keep at it, and 12 years later, I still am.  

Now I can’t imagine not writing. It’s the first thing I do in the morning before leaving my bedroom, and the last thing I do at night before falling asleep. The art of writing has taught me a new way to look at the world; it has provided me with new friends, new goals, and many wonderful opportunities. It’s brought me closer to my family, united me with strangers and lost acquaintances, made me feel worthwhile and useful.  

We’ve got lots of troubles here at my house, and many obstacles to overcome. But still, there is no doubt—writing has saved my life.  

Hovering over the shallows in search of a fish, the Forster’s tern embodies grace and elegance. Its long, pointed wings and forked tail combine aerodynamic function and esthetic appeal. John Reinhold Forster did not deserve this bird. 

Forster was one of the naturalists on board the Resolution during Cook’s second Pacific voyage in the 1770s. The botanist Joseph Banks, who had accompanied Cook on the Endeavour, had planned a repeat trip, but Cook couldn’t accommodate Banks in the style to which he felt entitled, and Banks called it off. A mutual friend recommended Forster as a substitute, and he joined the expedition with his 17-year-old son George.  

The elder Forster was a Prussian minister who had lost his church and attempted to make a secular living first in Russia, then in England by publishing pamphlets on zoology and botany. Cook could have used a Darwin or a Huxley, but that wasn’t what he got.  

Cook’s biographer J. C. Beaglehole describes Forster as “dogmatic, humourless, suspicious, censorious, pretentious, contentious, demanding.” He didn’t get on with Cook, who once had to throw him out of his cabin; with Cook’s lieutenant Charles Clerke, who threatened him with arrest; with the master’s mate, who knocked him down on one occasion; or with the crew. Forster was always muttering about complaining to the King; the men mocked him. 

George Forster, on the other hand, seems to have been a nice guy, perhaps trying to compensate for his difficult father. But it was the father after whom Thomas Nuttall named the tern, in recognition of John Forster’s treatise on the birds of Hudson Bay, which, as far as I can tell, Forster had never visited.  

The tern has another dubious distinction that’s a bit more serious than being named for an unpleasant man. Forster’s terns in San Francisco Bay have been found to have higher levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers—PDBEs—in their tissues than any other wildlife species sampled, anywhere in the world.  

PDBEs have been in use as chemical flame retardants for about 30 years. They’re in children’s pajamas, computers, hair driers, coffee makers, building materials, and polyurethane foam carpet padding.  

The North American market demand for the stuff in 2001 was 33,100 metric tons. California’s flame retardant standards are the strictest in the US, and the state presumably leads the nation in PDBE use. Health effects are still being explored, but PDBEs appear to harm the brain and reproductive organs during development, and have been shown to disrupt the thyroid and estrogen hormone systems in rodents. 

Like other problematic chemicals, PDBEs bioaccumulate in fatty tissues, and biomagnify. Tiny planktonic creatures take in small quantities, fish eat the plankton, birds, marine mammals, and humans eat the fish, and PDBE levels increase as you go up the food web. By the time you get to the Forster’s tern, the concentration, as measured in tern eggs, is 63 parts per million. That tops the previous record holder, the peregrine falcon, with 39 ppm. 

The tern’s diet has not been studied as intensively as that of the endangered California least tern and the larger Caspian tern, which has an unfortunate taste for salmon and steelhead. One study in Monterey Bay found shiner perch, anchovy, and arrow goby to be the predominant prey species. All three are abundant in San Francisco Bay. 

How do PDBEs get into the bay? Municipal wastewater appears to be a major source. Landfill leaching, storm drains, and industrial effluent discharges also contribute. PDBEs are likely to be with us for a while, joining the array of what pollution-control folks call “legacy pollutants.” So far, concentrations are highest in the lower South Bay. 

That’s also the part of the Bay that has historically had the largest Forster’s tern nesting colonies. (History in this instance goes only as far back as 1948, when the terns were first detected breeding inside the bay. They had previously nested in freshwater marshes in the Central Valley and on the Modoc Plateau.) The birds’ numbers have declined in recent years, and various culprits have been suggested: disruption of nest sites by California gulls, whose population has burgeoned; predation by introduced red foxes and feral cats; fluctuating water levels within the South Bay salt ponds; disturbance during levee maintenance. But since PDBEs are hormone disruptors, you have to wonder if the terns’ chemical load is affecting their reproductive success. 

This isn’t just about the birds, of course. The researchers—toxicologist Jianwen She and colleagues—who reported the elevated PDBE concentrations in tern eggs had another disturbing finding: women in the Bay Area have some of the highest PDBE levels ever reported in humans. I am reluctant to drag that overworked canary through the coal mine one more time, but it does serve to reinforce that we’re all in this together. 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

What’s in that fish? A young Forster’s tern (left) accepts dinner from its parent.

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.

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. 

“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.

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 

THEATER 

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. 

FILM 

Kenji Mizoguchi “Osaka Elegy” at 7 p.m. and “Ugetsu” at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Friends of African Film Mama Africa Series will show three films of modern Africa by women film makers at 7:30 p.m. at 464 Van Buren, at Euclid, Oakland. friendsofafricanfilm@yahoo.com 

“Darshan: The Embrace” a documentary on Amma, “The Hugging Saint” opens at Elmwood Theater, 2966 College Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 649-0530. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Bronzes Sculptures by Rey Hernandez Artist reception at 5:30 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Gallery hours Tues. - Sun. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 848-1228. 

“My Life in FLamenco” Flamenco dance paintings by Roberto Zamora opens at 6:30 p.m. at Temescal Cafe, Telegraph Ave. at 51st. 595-4102. 

“Blue Side of Town” New Orleans art by Craig Fairburn at Julie’s Garden, 1223 Park St., Alameda, through Aug. 30. 865-2385. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Impeachapalooza Open Mic at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Cafe, 2475 Telegraph. Donation $5-$20, no one turned away. RSVP to nfoster@alamedanet.net  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Vladimir Vukanovich, Peruvian guitarist, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568.  

Ben Harper After Party at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Aaron Bahr Jazz Quintet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Bruce & Lloyd’s Tri Tip Trio Binghi Ghost with Donny Dread & Nubian Natty, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mamadou and Vanessa, Mali blues, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

“Secret Life of Banjos” with Jody Stecher and Bill Evans at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Doug Arrington Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Splintered Tree and Sean Brooks at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

20 Minute Loop, Memoir at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Tenebre, The Martyr Index, Holy Ghost Circuit, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Atman Roots, from New Orleans, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Lee Ritenour with special guests Dave Grusin & Friends at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $15-$26. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 

THEATER 

San Francisco Shakespeare “The Tempest” Free Shakespeare in the park at 4 p.m. at Lakeside Park at Lake Merritt, corner of Perkins and Bellevue, Oakland. Sat. and Sun. through Aug. 27. 415-865-4434. 

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.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“deja vu” Photography and sculpture by Janeyce Ouellette and Kelly Steinauer. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116, located in the front of the historic cotton mill studios, Oakland. 535-1702. 

FILM 

Frank Borzage “Three Comrades” at 6:30 p.m. and “The Mortal Storm” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema “The Joy Luck Club” at dusk on Ninth St., between Broadway and Washington. Limited seating, bring your own chair or blanket. Free. 238-4734. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

BHS Jazz Qurtet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Old Puppy at 10 a.m. at Nabalom Bakery, 2708 Russell St. 845-BAKE. 

Junius Courtney Big Band, featuring Denise Perrier, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568.  

Big Business, Replicator, The Ettes at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100.  

Audrey Auld Mezera and Tamra Engle at 8 p.m. at Left Coast Cyclery, 2928 Domingo Ave. Donation $15. 204-8550. 

Candido Oye-Oba, West African, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Danny Allen and Val Esway at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Oak, Ash & Thorn at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Ben Harper After Party at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Gaucho at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473.  

Dave Matthews BLUES Band at 4 p.m. on the stage at Harbor & MacDonald Ave., Richmond. 236-4050. www.richmondmainstreet.org 

Gram Rabbit, 86, Luca at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

The Regiment at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

S.M.D., Weekend Nachos, Until the Fall at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 20 

FILM 

Frank Borzage “Desire” at 5:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Judy Stone reads from “Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World” at 6:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Abby Wasserman on “Tosca’s Paris Adventure” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave.  

Elmaz Abinader, Lebanese poet, reads at 3 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Songs & Stories from the ‘20s & ‘30s, featuring Dave Shank on the piano at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St., Point Richmond. Suggested donation $10. 236-0527. 

Tryte, Duct Tape Mafia at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mark Spoelstra at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Americana Unplugged with The Donner Mountain Bluegrass Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Claudia Calderón and the Piano Llanero at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568.  

Philips Marine Duo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 21 

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 

Poetry Express with Julia Vinograd at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Hovering over the shallows in search of a fish, the Forster’s tern embodies grace and elegance. Its long, pointed wings and forked tail combine aerodynamic function and esthetic appeal. John Reinhold Forster did not deserve this bird. 

Forster was one of the naturalists on board the Resolution during Cook’s second Pacific voyage in the 1770s. The botanist Joseph Banks, who had accompanied Cook on the Endeavour, had planned a repeat trip, but Cook couldn’t accommodate Banks in the style to which he felt entitled, and Banks called it off. A mutual friend recommended Forster as a substitute, and he joined the expedition with his 17-year-old son George.  

The elder Forster was a Prussian minister who had lost his church and attempted to make a secular living first in Russia, then in England by publishing pamphlets on zoology and botany. Cook could have used a Darwin or a Huxley, but that wasn’t what he got.  

Cook’s biographer J. C. Beaglehole describes Forster as “dogmatic, humourless, suspicious, censorious, pretentious, contentious, demanding.” He didn’t get on with Cook, who once had to throw him out of his cabin; with Cook’s lieutenant Charles Clerke, who threatened him with arrest; with the master’s mate, who knocked him down on one occasion; or with the crew. Forster was always muttering about complaining to the King; the men mocked him. 

George Forster, on the other hand, seems to have been a nice guy, perhaps trying to compensate for his difficult father. But it was the father after whom Thomas Nuttall named the tern, in recognition of John Forster’s treatise on the birds of Hudson Bay, which, as far as I can tell, Forster had never visited.  

The tern has another dubious distinction that’s a bit more serious than being named for an unpleasant man. Forster’s terns in San Francisco Bay have been found to have higher levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers—PDBEs—in their tissues than any other wildlife species sampled, anywhere in the world.  

PDBEs have been in use as chemical flame retardants for about 30 years. They’re in children’s pajamas, computers, hair driers, coffee makers, building materials, and polyurethane foam carpet padding.  

The North American market demand for the stuff in 2001 was 33,100 metric tons. California’s flame retardant standards are the strictest in the US, and the state presumably leads the nation in PDBE use. Health effects are still being explored, but PDBEs appear to harm the brain and reproductive organs during development, and have been shown to disrupt the thyroid and estrogen hormone systems in rodents. 

Like other problematic chemicals, PDBEs bioaccumulate in fatty tissues, and biomagnify. Tiny planktonic creatures take in small quantities, fish eat the plankton, birds, marine mammals, and humans eat the fish, and PDBE levels increase as you go up the food web. By the time you get to the Forster’s tern, the concentration, as measured in tern eggs, is 63 parts per million. That tops the previous record holder, the peregrine falcon, with 39 ppm. 

The tern’s diet has not been studied as intensively as that of the endangered California least tern and the larger Caspian tern, which has an unfortunate taste for salmon and steelhead. One study in Monterey Bay found shiner perch, anchovy, and arrow goby to be the predominant prey species. All three are abundant in San Francisco Bay. 

How do PDBEs get into the bay? Municipal wastewater appears to be a major source. Landfill leaching, storm drains, and industrial effluent discharges also contribute. PDBEs are likely to be with us for a while, joining the array of what pollution-control folks call “legacy pollutants.” So far, concentrations are highest in the lower South Bay. 

That’s also the part of the Bay that has historically had the largest Forster’s tern nesting colonies. (History in this instance goes only as far back as 1948, when the terns were first detected breeding inside the bay. They had previously nested in freshwater marshes in the Central Valley and on the Modoc Plateau.) The birds’ numbers have declined in recent years, and various culprits have been suggested: disruption of nest sites by California gulls, whose population has burgeoned; predation by introduced red foxes and feral cats; fluctuating water levels within the South Bay salt ponds; disturbance during levee maintenance. But since PDBEs are hormone disruptors, you have to wonder if the terns’ chemical load is affecting their reproductive success. 

This isn’t just about the birds, of course. The researchers—toxicologist Jianwen She and colleagues—who reported the elevated PDBE concentrations in tern eggs had another disturbing finding: women in the Bay Area have some of the highest PDBE levels ever reported in humans. I am reluctant to drag that overworked canary through the coal mine one more time, but it does serve to reinforce that we’re all in this together. 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

What’s in that fish? A young Forster’s tern (left) accepts dinner from its parent.

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. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 

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 

Friends of African Film Mama Africa Series will show three films of modern Africa by women film makers at 7:30 p.m. at 464 Van Buren, at Euclid, Oakland. friendsofafricanfilm@yahoo.com 

Conscientious Projector Series “A Case of Reasonable Doubt” on Mumia Abu- Jamal, capital punishment and the prison-industrial complex at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists’ Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donations welcome. 528-5403 

Impeachapalooza Open Mic at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Cafe, 2475 Telegraph. Donation $5-$20, no one turned away. RSVP to nfoster@alamedanet.net  

“Be Wise: Prevent Scams, Fraud and Identity Theft” a presentation by Elder Financial Protection Network and SAIF and Assemblymember Loni Hancock at 11 a..m. at Richmond Annex Senior Center, 5801 Huntington Ave, Richmond. RSVP to 559-1406. 

Urban Renaissance High School Open House from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 967 Stanford Ave., Oakland. 302-9199. www.envisionschools.org  

Circle Dancing Simple folkdancing in a circle, beginners welcome, at 8 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. at University. Donation $5. 528-4253. 

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. Live band and refreshments. Cost is $10. 925-934-9129. 

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

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 845-1143. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 

Ohlone Dog Park Cleanup at 10 a.m. on Hearst between MLK Jr. Way and Grant. www.phlonedogpark.org 

“Hizbollah, Syria and Iran: Partnership and Rivalry in a Dangerous Neighborhood” with author and professor Fred H. Lawson, at 7 p.m. at the Home of Truth Center, 1300 Grand St., Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

Vegetarian Cooking Class: Hearty Italian Cuisine from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45 plus $5 food/materials fee. Registration required. 531-COOK.  

Saturday Stories Listen to nature inspired stories in an outdoor setting at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Hunt for Bugs on Cerrito Creek Discover interesting bugs, learn how to photograph them, and learn which ones are useful in the garden. From 10:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Cerrito Creek at the foot of Albany Hill. All ages welcome, younger children must be accompanied by an adult. If you have them, bring a camera, hand lens, clear plastic container or net. Registration required. Donation of $2-$5 requested. 848-9358. 

Butterflies, Birds and Bees Search for winged pollinators on an easy 3-mile walk for the entire family. Meet at 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Plant Parenthood Party Volunteers needed to prepare seedlings for local restoration projects in EWest Stege Marsh. From 9 a.m. to noon at 1327 South 46th St., Richmond. 665-3689. 

Historical and Botanical Walking Tour at 10 a.m. at the Chapel of the Chimes 4499 Piedmont Ave, Oakland. Free 228-3207. 

Brooks Island Voyage Paddle the rising tide across the Richmond Harbor Channel to Brooks Island from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For experienced boaters who can provide their own canoe or kayak and safety gear. For ages 14 and up with parent participation. Cost is $20-$22. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Tomato Tastings from 10 am. to 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. Cooking demonstration at 11 a.m. 548-2220. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of Inner Elmhurst from 10 a.m. to noon. Meet at Arroya Viejo Recreation Center, 7701 Krause Ave., at 77th St. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Urban Releaf Tree Tour of Oakland and workshops in urban forestry that teach tree planting, maintenance, GIS/GPS systems, and community advocacy. For information call 601-9062. www.urbanreleaf.org  

Old Oakland Outdoor Cinema“The Joy Luck Club” at dusk on Ninth St., between Broadway and Washington. Limited seating, bring your own chair or blanket. Free. 238-4734. 

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

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

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

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 at noon. For location call 204-9500.  

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

SUNDAY, AUGUST 20 

Streamside Saunter An easy 3 mile walk along shady Wildcat and Laurel Creeks to discover diverse plant and animal communities. Meet at 10 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Oakland Heritage Walking Tour of Fruitvale “Mushroom City” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at the Fruitvale Hotel, 3221 San Leandro St. Cost is $5-$15. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Bike Tour of Oakland A leisurely two-hour trip covering about 5 miles, led by museum docents. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance of the Oakland Museum of California. Reservations required. 238-3514. 

Solo Sierrans Bike Ride from Emeryville to Berkeley Marina Waterfront. Meet at 3 p.m. in front of the Watergate Clipper Club, 6 Captain Drive, Emeryville. Registration required. 923-1094. 

“The Human and Legal Issues Surrounding Immigration” with a screening of “Dying to Live,” on the plight of migrants from Mexico and Central America crossing the Arizona desert, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. Sponsored by Progressive Democrats of the East Bay. 636-4149. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m., at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby & Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. 526-7377. 

Summer Reading Celebration with crafts, stories and music with Gary Laplow, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St. Free to children who completed the Summer Reading Program.  

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair flats from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Healthy Home An introduction to sustainable living at noon at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Summer Sunday Forum with Dr. Chris O’Sulivan on the Middle East at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Erika Rosenberg on “Opening to Feeling” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 21 

Summer Science Week for ages 9 to 12, covering biology and other natural science topis from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mon. - Fri. in Tilden Park. Cost is $160. Registration required. 636-1684.  

Community Conversations on the Crisis in the Middle East with Yitzhak Santis of Jewish Community Relations Council at 7:30 p.m. at JGate in El Cerrito, near El Cerrito Plaza and BART. 559-8140.  

“Discuss Your Values to Find Your Passion” monthly discussion group at 6:45 p.m. at Heartwalker Studio, 4920 Telegraph Ave. at 49th. Donation $15. 415-839-1074.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

ONGOING 

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 

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.

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.

“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.”

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

“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.

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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 

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.