Reorganization of the Nutrition Services Department, a progress report from the B-Tech, and a presentation by the Life Academy at Berkeley High School were highlights of the BUSD Board meeting on Wednesday. 

Ann Cooper, the Director of Nutritional Services, BUSD, who was hired and funded by a three year financial grant from the Chez Panisse Foundation in October 2005, presented a staffing plan and a budget model to restructure the Nutrition Services Department that would better serve the Wellness/Nutrition Policy. 

Cooper informed the board that since she was not likely to remain a long term director, it was important to approve the reorganization of the Nutrition Services Department at this point in order for her to have time to hire or train new staff so that they continued to meet the new standards the BUSD was bringing to school lunches.  

Cooper stressed that the modifications to the structure would help to bring about better evaluation and supervisory relationships. “Currently, the Director and the Nutrition Services Manager evaluate and supervise more than 55 employees who are working at 16 different sites. This relationship makes the oversight, training and development of staff very difficult and limits accountability,” she said. 

Six new positions were recommended which included an executive chef, three sous chefs, an accountant and an administrative assistant. 

The executive chef would be responsible for overseeing district wide daily food production and would also open and oversee the King Dining Commons. Housed at the Central Kitchen, the high school and Nutrition Services Warehouse respectively, the sous chefs would help to meet the demand of the current menu of fresh foods.  

“Since we are now using whole fresh foods, it requires knowledge of not only specific cooking techniques, but of purchasing, receiving and distribution models, as well as food safety protocols,” Cooper said. 

Director Nancy Riddle and Board V.P. Joaquin Rivera asked Cooper to provide more detail about the dollar value of each of these positions.  

According to the current report, by collapsing five vacant positions the department will save $133,000. The increased revenues from the Meals for Needy cost of living increas and the increase in food sales, all of which are reflected in the current budget, would also make up the difference needed to cover the increase in payroll costs of approximately $187,000. 

Cooper stressed the fact that this reorganization would bring about no impact to the general fund. “We have created these positions keeping in mind the lowest salary levels. The accountant position would be funded equally by the CNN Grant and Nutrition Services,” she said. 

Rivera commented that the budget that was allocated for the cafeteria had already encroached on the general fund. 

“If we are going to have the good quality food that we are giving our kids right now, provide them with fresh food, organic food, then it is going to be expensive,” said BUSD Superintendent Michelle Lawrence. “The board has approved the budget each year that has indicated these encroachments,” she said, adding that it was important to monitor these encroachment dollars at the same time. 

Board director John Selawski said that it was not entirely realistic to expect that these six positions would come in at the lowest salary level.  

Cooper replied that while making the recommendations they had kept in mind more of a middle range figure. “I’ll do what I need to do to not ask for more money,” she said. 

“The program is trying to move us in the right direction,” said Director Shirley Issel. “We have had very good reviews and it is not just because we increased prices. The students and their parents are very excited about the work being done in the nutrition services.” 

BUSD President Terry Doran echoed her words and said that even if the reorganization meant an increase of $187,000 it would not be a problem. “The cafeteria budget is not an encroachment on the general fund, it is part of the general fund. I for one am thoroughly convinced that better nutrition is an important part of improving the school district. The state funds are not enough for this. It will only get our children ketchup and fatty foods.” Doran added that it was important to keep in mind sustainability and to be cost-effective at the same time. 

“Given the current financial position, the addition of any new position is always a matter of concern for us,” said Riddle. “When we were passing the budget we knew that we were spending several hundred thousand dollars more than other school districts do on their cafeterias. It would really help to have the details on the cost of individual positions so that we can watch the budget carefully.” 

In the end the amendment was approved by the board with the amendment that BUSD would be provided with a spreadsheet containing the budget break-down for the individual positions. Director Rivera voted in opposition. 

B-Tech Report 

Principal Victor Diaz of Berkeley Technology Academy presented board members with an informational report on the school. Diaz informed the board that B-Tech’s Acedemic Performance Index (API) had increased from 370 in 2005 to 532 in 2006. “We have had a 162 point API growth, the second highest in the county.’ he said.  

B-Tech’s CAHSEE pass rate has also improved from 18 percent to 40 percent in Math and 255 to 47 percent in English Language Arts during the same year. The school has currently set a goal of 100 percent pass rate on CAHSEE for all 11th and 12th graders 

Diaz also spoke about “Relationships, rigor, and relevance,” the new three R’s for B-Tech.  

“We are expecting to increase enrollment compared to last year and our attendance levels are already improving. Students are taking an active interest in classes such as gender studies and there is an awareness about language usage and behavior on campus,” he said.  

Diaz added that community building was an important focus for the school. “The students are also talking about lunch-time movies that would help keep students inside school during recess. We have also started after-school dance classes and a student store and student government body are in the works. However we feel the need for parent involvement and vocational educational options. More physical activities, and after school programs such as music and art are also required to help change the culture of the school,” 

Life Academy 

Teachers and students of the Life Academy at BHS gave the board a presentation of their program that has met with tremendous success since its inception last September. 

“Life Academy’s average attendance and average G.P.A. is higher than that of other Berkeley High 9th graders,” said BHS Principal Jim Slemp. 

Life Academy helps students transition to high school and is dedicated to bringing about academic success through rigorous and engaging teaching standards.  

The program includes interdisciplinary teaching and has a project-based curriculum. The classrooms have a total of 17 students instead of the 28 students in the other BHS classrooms, which students said helped them concentrate and spend more time with teachers. 

Since 1973, the Berkeley community has been able to air complaints in public against its police officers and compel them to respond. But a recent California Supreme Court decision may have knocked the teeth out of the ordinance that created Berkeley’s Police Review Commission. 

Earlier this week, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque directed the Police Review Commission to cancel all complaint hearings through the end of October. The commission was scheduled to meet in closed session yesterday (Thursday) evening to discuss ramifications of the court decision. Oakland and San Francisco have similarly canceled their citizen’s review board hearings on police complaints. (Albuquerque was out of town and unavailable to comment. Other city attorneys did not return Daily Planet calls for comment.) 

The decision, Copley Press v. San Diego County, says that a state law that keeps disciplinary records of law enforcement officers confidential also applies to proceedings before local boards. 

Oakland City Attorney John Russo called the ruling “breath-takingly broad,” and said that perhaps the only way public police review hearings can resume is through new legislation. 

Russo said the key will be: “Can we show that the review board doesn’t meet the definition of an employing agency?” He says his staff is continuing to review that question. 

The legal case addressed by the court has to do with a newspaper’s request for records kept by an agency that employed a law enforcement officer; this agency both heard the officers’ appeals and meted out discipline.  

Berkeley attorney Osha Neumann, a PRC commissioner for many years, argues that Berkeley’s PRC, unlike the San Diego commission in the case reviewed by the court, is independent of the employer. It investigates and rules on complaints, but does not have disciplinary rights, as an employing agency would. 

Neumann, who connects the court decision to a “right-wing push by police unions challenging police review,” said he urges the PRC to continue its hearings, even if they must be temporarily closed to the public. “My concern is that the PRC exercise courage and advocate for continuing what the voters voted for – oversight of the police.” 

PRC Chair Sharon Kidd said open public police review hearings are critical. “It is the right of the community to come and observe what is going on [in the hearings],” she said. 

The Berkeley Police Officers Association did not return a call for comment before deadline. 

Prakash Stephen Pinto wants the deserted glass-strewn lot at San Pablo Avenue and Harrison Street near his Stannage Avenue home replaced by shops and new housing, but he told the City Council Tuesday night that the project before them “is a serious detriment to the neighborhood.”  

“From the point of view of the neighborhood, the (proposed) scale and density is disproportionate,” Pinto said. 

The meeting was the first after the council’s long summer break and included discussion of several land-use issues and city-wide street sweeping. 

Pinto was among more than a dozen neighbors, who had come to the council meeting to appeal an April Zoning Adjustments Board decision approving the proposed five-story 30-unit condominium project, with six “affordable” units built above commercial space. 

Having received the developer’s modifications to the project just before the meeting, the council voted unanimously to delay a decision until next week. 

“I have a question—what project are we considering?” Capitelli asked not without sarcasm, referring to the various iterations of the proposal strewn on the desk before him.  

“I just got this at 5 p.m. today,” added Councilmember Linda Maio, in whose district the project is proposed. “People need to know what’s going on.” 

The modifications included moving the fourth floor farther from neighboring residences, while adding height to the fifth floor, adding 18 parking spaces bringing the total to 56 and creating a more equal distribution of lower-income units. 

Project neighbors said they had told the developer they would accept a compromise proposal, a design that would include building three stories near existing residences and five stories on San Pablo Avenue. This solution was rejected by developer Jim Hart. It would make three levels of bridges between the units and three levels of stairs, project architect Don Mill told the council. 

Touting the benefits of the development, Hart said the units would be priced as “starter housing” at $300,000 to $500,000. Bringing more people to the area, “it will provide security on San Pablo,” Hart said, noting, moreover, that he had agreed to hire 50 Berkeley residents from the Berkeley First employment program. 

Build up, talk to your neighbor 

Harriet Berg’s neighbors built a large addition to their home in the Berkeley hills. “It’s offensive; it blocks my view of the bay” she said, urging the council to modify the city’s zoning ordinance governing major residential additions.  

“It’s reasonable to have limits on height,” she said. “It should be the subject of review.” 

In an effort to ease neighborhood tensions—especially with respect to what a letter from hill resident Margaretta Mitchell called “Intrusive second additions”—the body approved the revision 7-2, with Councilmembers Darryl Moore and Max Anderson, who represent flatland districts, voting in opposition.  

Now, additions of up to 499 square feet can be built “by right,” that is, with an easily-obtained across-the-counter permit. 

The new rules will permit people to build larger additions—up to 600 square feet or 15 percent of the lot area—but height restrictions that vary according to residential district have been added. 

Not everyone agreed the proposed changes are beneficial. Councilmember Moore pointed out that remodel costs will be raised significantly. “There need to be shadow studies, solar analyses and property-line surveys,” said Planning Manager Mark Rhoades. 

“For some people the choice is building up or getting out,” Moore said. 

The council added a sunset clause to the revised ordinance: if Proposition 90 passes, the ordinance will sunset in one year. According to the legislative analyst, Proposition 90 would “require government to pay property owners for substantial economic losses resulting from some new laws and rules.” 

City-wide street sweeping—maybe 

Moore was a member of the Public Works Commission nine years ago when the City Council approved the commission’s proposal to stop allowing neighborhoods to opt out of the city’s street-sweeping program. But the neighborhoods which previously opted out still have not been brought into the monthly program that keeps debris—some of it toxic—out of the storm water system. 

“It’s a question of equity,” Moore said, calling for city-wide inclusion in the program. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz said he would tackle the problem—which includes finding funding for additional personnel and machinery—and report back to council in a couple of months. 

Governing the housing authority 

Deemed a “troubled” agency by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the BHA is looking at various new governance structures, such as oversight by a commission that could spend more time working with the agency than the council can do at present, when it sits as the BHA. 

“There are so many things on the agenda, it’s hard (for the council) to focus,” said City Manager Phil Kamlarz  

Public housing recipients came to the BHA meeting, which preceded the council meeting, worried that the agency would be taken out of Berkeley hands if it does not show improvement.  

“Our first goal is to keep the Housing Authority in the city of Berkeley,” Kamlarz said..

With the specter of Proposition 90 lurking in the wings, Berkeley’s City Council Tuesday passed a conditional new law governing the sizes of apartment and condominium buildings. It attempts to reconcile conflicts between size bonuses offered by the state of California and the City of Berkeley as a reward for the provision of affordable housing. 

The new ordinance will be valid for only two weeks if California voters reject Prop. 90, but will remain in force if they pass it. 

While billed as a measure restricting the eminent domain powers of state and local government, the proposition, which takes effect immediately after the election, strips governments of almost all regulatory powers over land use. 

The measure’s key consequence doesn’t involve eminent domain, a practice in which governments take land from owners for new public and private uses, which it would also limit. Its real impact comes from provisions that allow owners to sue for any potential loss of revenues from any new legislation that in any way restricts the use of their property from what was allowed at the time of the measure’s passage. 

Opponents say they fear governments would be reluctant to impose any tightening of zoning or other restrictions on land use. Passage, Mayor Tom Bates told the council, “would be terrible. It would limit our ability to make any changes. To limit height or density would become extremely costly.” 

As a result, the council wanted something in place before the election, but just what was open to question. 

Members had their choice of two ordinances, one drafted by a joint subcommittee of the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) and the Planning and Housing Advisory commissions and a rival measure prepared by city planning staff. 

In the end, the council opted for the staff version—part of nearly 1,000 pages of documentation—without hearing from either members of the joint commission subcommittee or from the staff. 

The decision 

Betty Olds moved approval of the citizen subcommittee’s proposal, winning a second from Linda Maio. 

Before the vote, Spring said she was concerned that passing a measure that contained a provision to terminate the legislation if Prop. 90 failed could result in a legal challenge if the ballot measure passes. 

Wozniak said he was reluctant to vote on a measure for which he had just received “a thousand pages” of supporting materials the day before. “I don’t think the council has had time to absorb this,” he said. 

Maio said the subcommittee recommendations were “a good starting point, but I don’t feel comfortable” adopting them for the long term without more of a public process. 

Planning commissioners had agreed with Maio’s critique in rejecting the subcommittee proposals, while ZAB members had voted to approve. 

“We have had a public process,” said Olds, who then moved adoption of the citizen panel’s proposal, with Maio offering a second and joined by Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington in support. 

Bates and Councilmembers Darryl Moore and Laurie Capitelli voted no, while Max Anderson and Gordon Wozniak abstained, dooming the measure, since five votes were needed to pass. 

Wozniak then moved adoption of the rival staff ordinance, with Capitelli offering a second. Olds opposed, Worthington and Anderson abstained and the remaining councilmembers voted in support.  

If adopted at its second reading at next Tuesday’s council meeting, the ordinance would become effective Oct. 25. If Prop. 90 failed in the Nov. 7 election, the ordinance would die the following day. 

Avenue impacts 

The main difference between the two versions will be felt along San Pablo Avenue, where the planning staff’s version as passed by the council would effectively allow five story buildings. 

The rival version, drafted by the joint citizen subcommittee, would have kept the structures a story shorter. 

“There was no need to sacrifice the city’s poorest homeowners to the planning staff’s True Belief in Smart Growth,” said Steve Wollmer of PlanBerkeley.org. 

Wollmer’s group focuses on developments along the University and San Pablo Avenue corridors, and has been sharply critical of five story projects abutting residential streets immediately parallel to major arteries. 

Wollmer criticized the council for failing to hear testimony from the subcommittee, which has spent a year-and-a-half formulating the proposal rejected by the council. 

“The staff are sellouts,” said David Blake, a ZAB member who served on the subcommittee, who agreed that the new ordinance’s greatest impacts would be on the CW zones along San Pablo Avenue and on Ashby and University avenues west of San Pablo. “CW zoning is also found along Telegraph Avenue, but there are far fewer project sites available there, so south of campus impacts should be relatively limited,” Blake said. 

Another key difference between the rival ordinances is the degree to which developers can provide mandatory open space on building rooftops and terraces rather than as ground-floor courtyards and yards.  

While the subcommittee wanted a maximum of one third of the mandatory yard space to be permissible atop project roofs, the staff proposal allows up to three-quarters of the total to be allotted above the ground floor. 

Density bonus 

The underlying issue is the so-called density bonus, an incentive which allows developers to exceed the sizes of buildings otherwise allowed by zoning ordinances and city codes in exchange for reserving 20 percent of their units for lower income tenants/buyers. 

Such units are mandatory for all projects of five or more dwellings. 

Half of the qualifying units must be affordable to those making 50 percent of the area median income and the other half for those earning no more than 80 percent. 

As compensation, builders are allowed to add units for rent or sale at market rates to recoup losses incurred in providing the mandated units—although under another measure adopted earlier this year developers can now pay fees in lieu of offering below-market units, with the funds going for building new affordable housing projects elsewhere, or rehabilitating existing structures. 

It is the additional density bonus spaces that would allow four-story “base” buildings in CW zones to rise to five floors under the staff ordinance once the compensatory units are included. 

The three-floor alternative under the subcommittee measure would have allowed for a total of four floors.

In an effort to bring public awareness to the issues involved in critical contract talks between the City of Oakland and the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association, members of the Black Elected Officials of the East Bay sponsored a public forum Wednesday night on the contract negotiations. 

Representatives of the city showed up. Representatives of the Police Officers Association did not. 

In their absence, a packed City Council chambers heard presentations from Oakland Chief Wayne Tucker and federal court monitors about the state of Oakland’s police department, as well as statements and questions about police and crime conditions in the city from audience members. City Administrator Deborah Edgerly also answered audience questions. 

The current City of Oakland/OPOA contract expired in June. 

The OPOA could not be reached for comment for this article. 

“It is imperative that we change the existing police contract,” Councilmember Desley Brooks said following the meeting. “The contract has a direct impact on the services that the police department can give to residents. If we don’t change both the management structure of the department and the way in which our officers are deployed, we are always going to be behind the ball.” Brooks, a member of the Black Elected Officials group, was one of the major organizers of Wednesday night’s meeting. 

Waving a copy of Chief Tucker’s March, 2006 “Vision And Plan Of Action To Reduce Crime And Improve Accountability,” Alameda County Board of Supervisors Keith Carson, the chair of the Black Elected Officials organization, said “We’re in a pivotal time in Oakland’s history. If we think that the current setup with the police department is all right, then it’s our duty to let the City Council know this. As for me, I embrace the chief’s plan for changing the department. And from what I’ve heard him say during the mayoral campaign, our mayor-elect (Ron Dellums) supports it, too. Others who feel the same way should let their Oakland elected officials know that they want the chief’s plan to be a model for the way the department operates.” 

One of the major components of Tucker’s plan is a change in the redeployment of the Oakland Police Department. Under the current deployment plan, Oakland police operate in four- day, 10-hour shifts, a deployment the chief called “one of the least efficient,” and under which, Tucker said, “we are spending millions of dollars on overtime as a standard practice, more than is healthy. We’re managing the department on an overtime basis, but you can’t run a police department on overtime. It doesn’t make good fiscal sense. It doesn’t make good administrative sense. And it isn’t good for the citizens we are serving.” 

Tucker said that 265 officers are needed to run the current 10 hour shifts, while only 200 would be needed if the shifts were set at 8 hours, and 178 if the shifts were set at 12 hours. With longer shifts, he said, a smaller number of officers is needed to be on duty each shift to patrol the city, even though the actual number of officers on patrol remains the same. 

Tucker said OPD regularly schedules 180 overtime shifts every three weeks, which “we would all but eliminate if we took more efficient deployment.” The savings in overtime that would come from adopting a 12 hour deployment plan, he said, could be used either to enhance police operations or be returned to the city’s general fund. 

Following the meeting, Brooks said that almost every other police department in Alameda County operates under the 12 hour shift. “The OPOA says that we can’t do it here,” she said. “If so, why are they able to do it in other cities?” 

Tucker also complained that a clause in the current contract that allows the OPOA to call for immediate dispute resolution a maximum of five times a year, suspending any policy the OPOA doesn’t like, “essentially paralyzes me from making an unpopular decision.” The chief said that clause, and another which automatically includes in the contract terms any “past district practices that have been beneficial to union members,” has “tied us to a management practice that does not allow us flexibility.” He says that because of the restraints in the current union contract, “we are restricted to mostly patrol services and responses to 9-1-1 calls. We’re not doing timely follow up investigations. We’re not working on youth and family services. We’re not doing a good job in following up on property crimes.” 

The chief said because of the confidentiality clause of the negotiations, he could not speak directly about what issues were dividing the union and the city. 

One of the most dramatic moments of the meeting came in an exchange between Tucker and Minister Keith Muhammad of the Nation of Islam’s Muhammad Mosque 26 in Oakland. 

Praising Tucker for his actions since becoming chief of Oakland’s police department 20 months ago, Muhammad said that there was still a crisis of violence in the city. “Some of us may feel that martial law is the solution,” he said, referring to an earlier speaker who suggested the National Guard be brought in to deal with Oakland’s violent crime wave. “But that was not the solution to the problem in Iraq, putting more guns on the street. It won’t work in Oakland, where there is an atmosphere of fearlessness against the police among some people in our city.” 

Staring directly across at Muhammad from the Council podium, Tucker admitted that there were problems in the police department, but said that “the department is changing. I know we still have a lot of warts and carbuncles that inflame the community. But we’re going to get there.” Tucker said that the Oakland Police Department “has lost the capacity to connect to young people. That’s a huge hole in the department we have to fix. We don’t know the community very well. That only happens when you’re out in the community and learning the community, and when you’re reflective of the people in the community. That’s what we have to do.” 

Other presentations at the meeting were made by Kelli Evans and Charles Gruber, members of the federal court-appointed monitoring team overseeing the negotiated settlement in the landmark Allen v. Oakland police misconduct case. 

Gruber said that “cultural changes” were needed in the way Oakland police do business, saying that such cultural changes meant “the department has to have all of its policies updated consistent with modern police practices and upholding constitutional rights. Many of the members of the police department have embraced these cultural changes. Those who have not will be dealt with over time.” 

Gruber praised OPD’s reforms instituted in the 20 months since Tucker became chief. “We’ve seen remarkable progress in those 20 months,” he said, adding that “there’s still more to do, however.” 

Evans, an Oakland resident, said that the reforms being initiated by the settlement agreement will lead to an improved law enforcement climate in the city. “The most effective policing has to be constitutional policing,” she said. “These reforms will improve the crime-fighting ability of the Oakland Police Department.” 

Berkeley should be ready to boost downtown parking prices for a host of reasons, declared members of the panel charged with developing a new plan for downtown Berkeley Wednesday night. 

Following up on a joint meeting earlier this month with the city Transportation Commission, members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) endorsed recommendations by a UCLA professor and added a few of their own. 

UCLA planning Professor Donald Shoup recommended setting higher on-street meter parking prices to discourage cruising for parking spots, as well as adopting flexible parking rates that would change at different times of the day. 

Additional revenues raised could be used to fund improvements in the city center (possibly through the Downtown Berkeley Association), to provide incentives for walking, bicycling and using public transit, and to discourage shoppers form parking in surrounding residential neighborhoods. 

Other suggestions included: 

• Pricing eight-hour parking at least 20 percent higher than the most distant round trip BART fare to Berkeley; 

• Eliminating monthly parking permits at the Center Street garage to free up more spaces for short-term parking; 

• Keeping meter prices at least as high as rates for garage parking; 

• Implementation of discount transit pass programs for employees of downtown businesses; 

• Adding new payment technology, including a system to discourage meter-feeding by downtown employees. 

The vote was non-binding, what one member described as a straw poll. 

“I’m really asking to give downtown stakeholders, the business district, a say in how the parking revenues are spent,” said former City Councilmember Mim Hawley. 

“I would support that if a portion went to transportation services,” said Wendy Alfsen. 

Transportation Commissioner Rob Wrenn said that despite frequent complaints, there is always plenty of parking available downtown—and he offered to accompany any skeptical DAPAC members at peak hours to prove his case. 

Emerging vision 

As DAPAC nears the end of its first year, a vague outline of the shape of the new plan is starting to emerge—though the devil remains in details yet to be articulated. 

The committee was formed as a condition of the settlement of a suit the city filed challenging UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan through 2020. 

The settlement spelled out a downtown area enlarged beyond the boundaries of the city’s existing downtown plan.  

Members spent most of Wednesday night’s meeting discussing a compilation of their own visions for the downtown, defining areas of both agreement and tension. 

Matt Taecker, the planner hired to help draft the plan, asked DAPAC members to submit statements of their visions for the downtown, and 12 of the group’s 21 City Council and Planning Commission appointees and UC Berkeley’s three ex officio members and two official representatives complied. 

Working with the statements, Planning Director Marks and Taecker drafted a 19 page report, distilling the results into a one-paragraph consensus statement: 

“An economically vital ‘green downtown’ that is the heart of the city, is based on sustainable development practices, celebrates and conserves its historic roots, is oriented towards pedestrians with plazas, tree-lined streets and other amenities and is accessible to all segments of the community. Downtown is also a high-density residential neighborhood in its own right, with a highly diverse housing stock serving all segments of the community, with safe streets and supporting services.” 

Planning Commission Chair Helen Burke faulted the document for failing to include a recommendation by her commission’s Hotel Task Force to create a pedestrian plaza along Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

Environmentalist Juliet Lamont said the report should give environmental sustainability at least as much weight as economic viability. 

Retired UC Berkeley administrator Dorothy Walker said there’d be no money for environmental programs without increased economic vitality.  

“We can’t have a green downtown unless we have economic development,” said Hawley. 

Berkeley High School Safety Officer Billy Keys said more emphasis was needed on diversity, and attracting people of all backgrounds to participate in the downtown. 

“Transit is missing as a clear cut goal,” said Wrenn. 

Patti Dacey said the document needed to emphasize that there is no inherent conflict between the goals of sustainable development and protection of the area’s historic buildings. 

Steve Weissman said the report failed to stress the need to create a sense of place, a quality that attracts people to the downtown and makes them want to spend time there. 

Themes and scenarios will continue to dominate the committee’s agenda, with a session on preliminary scenarios scheduled for Oct. 4, and a revisit to themes and scenarios on Nov. 1. 

A preliminary draft of the plan is still months away, with a final draft due to the City Council in November, 2007. 

The full report as well as other documents generated in the planning process are available on DAPAC’s web site at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/dap/reports.htm 

Some library activists have been watching the search process for a new library head and say they don’t like what they see. 

“It’s very exclusive,” said Jim Fisher, a member of SuperBOLD, Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense. To date, the library board chair has hired a professional “head hunter” and established an ad hoc committee of library directors to begin the search.  

While Fisher says the community is being left out of the mix, Board of Library Trustees Chair Susan Kupfer counters that such fears are unfounded. 

“There will be lots of input from the community,” Kupfer told the Daily Planet. “The community can interview the candidates and rate the candidates very early in the process.”  

The ad hoc committee that Kupfer has put together consists of current and former library managers and includes directors from Oakland and San Francisco and the interim Berkeley director. “The purpose of using the expertise of library directors is that they are people who have run libraries,” Kupfer said. 

The ad hoc committee will help in the recruiting process, as will the search firm Kupfer has hired, Dubberly Garcia Associates, Inc. of Atlanta. 

In addition to concerns expressed by Fisher and SuperBOLD, the library union, Service Employees International Union 535, has concerns, particularly because the union was often at odds with former embattled director Jackie Griffin. 

“The brochure [announcing the job] should say something about working collaboratively with labor unions and line staff,” said Andrea Segall, SEIU 535 shop steward. 

The brochure announcing the position, posted on the Dubberly-Garcia website, does not address “collaboration,” but says: “The ideal candidate…has the ability to work effectively in a collective bargaining environment.” It goes on to say that the director is responsible for “supervising and evaluating the activities of professional and support staff.” 

The brochure speaks to the importance of working collaboratively with the library board, the Friends of the Library and the Berkeley Library Foundation. 

The city’s Human Resource Department has not yet advertised the position, which, according to the Dubberly-Garcia website, closes on Oct. 18. 

Charged with creating a community process, Library Trustee Ying Lee said that at the Tuesday trustee’s meeting she will propose an inclusive process for interviewing the finalists. According to her plan, there would be four interview panels: one would consist of the library professionals group already functioning; one would be made up of library staff; a third would be a panel of community leaders including representation from SuperBOLD, the Friends of the Library, the Berkeley Library Foundation, the Berkeley School Bboard and others. The fourth panel would be made up of the Board of Library Trustees, which would make the final decision.  

(As mandated by the City Charter, the Board of Trustees consists of five people, four of whom are appointed by the board itself, with confirmation by the City Council, and one—Darryl Moore—who is a councilmember appointed by the council.) 

The individual selected “should be able to work with shelvers to supervisors,” said Lee, underscoring the importance of director-staff relations. “A happy staff is vested in sustaining the library. A lot is riding on the new director.”  

The next meeting of the library board will be Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Hearst Avenue. 

A Federal Court in San Francisco denied a request by Oakland-based environmental nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) on Wednesday for a preliminary injunction against Berkeley-based Pacific Steel Casting (PSC) citing insufficient evidence that CBE would prevail on the merits of its arguments.  

The CBE lawsuit alleges that West Berkeley-based PSC violated the Air District’s permit with respect to the amount of emissions from the steel foundry in Berkeley. 

In an eight-page order denying preliminary injunction, Federal Magistrate Bernard Zimmerman wrote: “I cannot conclude that plaintiff demonstrates a likelihood of success in proving a permit violation.”  

With respect to CBE’s claim of serious health effects attributable to PSC emissions, Zimmerman wrote that although CBE establishes a potential for some harm to the community if an injunction is not granted, “the harm is not the type that would normally impel a court to grant the plaintiff’s request.” 

The judge further stated that although CBE alleges a link between defendant’s emissions and potentially serious health risks to those in the surrounding community, there was “little evidence to suggest that the consequences attributed by plaintiff to defendant’s emissions have materialized.” 

The judge also wrote that with respect to the complaint about odors from PSC’s operations, there was nothing to establish that the odorous emissions posed an “immediate threat to the environment to warrant a preliminary injunction likely to change the status quo.” 

Both parties were instructed by the magistrate to prepare for an “expedited” trial that he said could take place before the end of the year. 

Alan Ramo, an attorney with the Golden Gate University School of Law Environmental Law and Justice Clinic, representing CBE, said that although the court had not been ready to grant the injunction, it had spoken favorably for CBE. 

“The judge will be holding a status conference in a week’s time and we will get to know more about the trial then,” Ramo said. 

Pacific Steel spokesperson Elisabeth Jewell, of Aroner, Jewell and Ellis Partners, said that PSC had a union workforce of over 500 employees, 200 of whose jobs would have been eliminated had CBE prevailed. Jewell also said that based on what CBE had requested in its proposed order, PSC would have been forced to close down Plant 3 immediately. 

“Our workers and their families are relieved that the judge clearly saw they had no facts to back up their claims,” stated PSC Vice President Joe Emmerich in a statement. 

“Notwithstanding this significant victory, Pacific Steel is moving forward to install the carbon adsorption filter at Plant 3 as quickly as possible,” he said. 

Environmental groups such as cleanaircoalition.net, however continue to support CBE’s endeavors. 

“We have read the Court's decision, and while the immediate shut-down of Pacific Steel Casting (PSC) was denied, the Court agrees that the health and manufacturing issues in this matter are valid. We were there at the start of this suit and will continue to support CBE as they go to trial - with the watchful eyes and solid support of many citizens in Berkeley, El Cerrito and Albany,” commented cleanaircoalition.net founder Willi Paul, adding that watchdog groups were getting together for a mass protest and educational event against PSC in a few weeks. 

Environmental activist Steven Ingraham spoke about continued community support on the issue. “The community has several strategic organizational aspects to its plan to bring Pacific Steel Casting Co. to full compliance with all regulations. We are continuing to meet with and be advised by Bradley Angel of Greenaction. I also had a phone conference with Jack Broadbent of the Air District and we are awaiting the details on the community air testing funding.” 

Opponents of Oakland’s massive Oak to Ninth development project have amended their California Superior Court complaint against the project, asking that the court invalidate the City Council’s approval of the project because the final version of the project agreement was never available to the council or the public at the time of the council vote. 

The Oakland City Council voted to approve an agreement earlier this summer with developer Oakland Harbor Partners for a 3,100-residential-unit, 200,000-square-foot commercial space development on the 64-acre parcel of land on Oakland’s estuary south of Jack London Square. 

The approval sparked several responses from opponents, including two lawsuits, one on alleged California Environmental Quality Act violations and one to attempt to preserve the historic Ninth Avenue Terminal Building, which would be all but destroyed in the proposed Oak to Ninth development.  

Last month, members of the Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee members submitted more than 25,000 signatures on petitions calling for a referendum on the development proposal, asking citizens to block the development. 

Shortly afterwards, Oakland City Attorney John Russo directed the Oakland city clerk to invalidate petitions calling for a referendum on the massive Oak to Ninth project, stating that “the Referendum Committee omitted maps that would have disclosed to voters the public access in the project and attached the wrong ordinance to the petition. Under California Elections Code, these actions automatically disqualified the petition.” 

But according to local preservation activist Joyce Roy, a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits and one of the organizers of the petition drive, the ordinance included with the petitions came from a city website link provided by the Oakland city clerk’s office (an earlier Daily Planet article erroneously said that the clerk provided the petitioners with a copy of the ordinance). 

This week, Roy and attorneys for plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM), added amendments to their original lawsuit alleging that the absence of a final version of the ordinance invalidated Council approval of the Oak To Ninth development agreement. 

“The adoption of the ordinance for the development agreement between the city and Oakland Harbor Partners is invalid and must be set aside [because] two readings are required before an ordinance can be adopted,” Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee members said in a press release following the filing of the amendments. The committee said that the agreement voted on by councilmembers at the July council meeting was substantially different from the one approved in the June meeting, even though Oakland’s City Charter requires that substantial amendments cannot be made after the first reading of an ordinance. In addition, the referendum committee members said, “since [the] July 18 [Council approval vote], the development agreement has been materially altered numerous times without going back to the City Council for approval as required by the City Charter.” 

Roy and CALM are being represented by the law offices of Brian Gaffney. 

The Oakland city attorney’s office has not yet filed an answer to the amended complaint.

A 15-year-old Berkeley High School student was assaulted Tuesday afternoon near Planet Juice in downtown Berkeley. 

The attack happened at 1:50 p.m. at 2200 Shattuck Ave., when the youth was battered by several unknown suspects, according to Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Ed Galvan.  

“From the report we can say that the attack was non-life threatening and therefore the Berkeley Fire Department was not called [to provide emergency medical assistance],” Officer Galvan said. 

The report was made by the victim on Tuesday at Berkeley High but no suspects have been identified so far or taken into custody. 

Galvan commented that attacks such as this are quite common in Berkeley.  

“Some are handled by school resource officers and some by counselors. It depends on how badly the person has been hurt. Sometimes the victim himself does not want anything done and the case remains unsolved. In the case that the attacker is identified and is 14 or 15 years old, the worst that can happen to him is probation. Or he might just be asked to explain his behavior and get away with an apology.” 

Galvan also said that if fights take place between Berkeley High School students, it is not difficult for the victim to go back to school, open a high school yearbook and identify the victim.  

“But in most cases they are too scared to do so. Some of these cases never get solved because we never get cooperation,” he said. 

Reporting incidents of youth violence was identified as a top priority by the police and school district at a recent meeting between the city and the district. Efforts have begun to distribute literature about how to report crimes to students and parents at Berkeley High School. 

The case is still open and is being handled by the Berkeley High School resource officer. 

Berkeley police are offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer of a 23-year-old Oakland man who was shot in Berkeley Sept. 4. 

The body of Wayne Drummond Jr. was found at the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house, 2311 Prospect St., following a 911 call at 1:40 a.m. 

Officers believe he was shot at another location and either walked or was driven to the sorority. 

Drummond had been seen shortly before on Telegraph engaged in a low key argument with another man, the last sighting before his body was discovered. 

“We’ve talked to lots of people, but so far no one’s been able to provide the information we need,” said police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

The officer asked anyone with information to call homicide investigators at 981-5900. Callers may remain anonymous, he said. 

The plight of artists seeking to live and work in West Berkeley is the subject of a special meeting to be held this afternoon (Friday). 

Called by the city’s Civic Arts Commission, the meeting will host an open forum from 1 to 2 p.m. on the plight of the artists seeking live-in studios in the most affordable part of a gentrifying city. 

The meeting comes in the wake of last month’s eviction of the Nexus collective and the eviction last year of the artists who lived and worked in the Drayage. 

Both structures housed an eclectic gathering of painters, sculptors, woodworkers and other arts and crafts folk. 

The meeting will be held in the conference room of the old Peerless Lighting building at 2246 Fifth Street. 

Upside the head 

A Sept. 5 dispute between a 57-year-old Berkeley man and a house guest who’d overstayed his welcome ended in arrests for both, reports Officer Galvan. 

When the resident’s rhetorical powers proved inadequate to induce his 59-year-old visitor to leave his abode in the 3200 block of Ellis Street, he resorted to the proverbial blunt instrument—in this case, a skillet. 

Police were summoned at 7 a.m., and promptly clapped cuffs on the pan-wielder, busting him on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. But a quick computer check ended in an arrest for the victim as well, who turned out to be the subject of a plethora of arrest warrants. 

Son bashes dad 

A 62-year-old Berkeley man was hospitalized on the 5th after he was beaten by a young man armed with a section of pipe. 

A caller who reported seeing “a man covered in blood” summoned police to the 1300 block of Hearst Avenue at 7:05 p.m. 

Officer Galvan said the man had been apparently been attacked by his 18-year-old son, who fled the scene in a white sedan. 

The victim was taken to an emergency room for treatment of his injuries. 

Robbery bust 

An 18-year-old Berkeley man was booked on suspicion of robbery after he purportedly strong-armed a small amount of cash from a 32-year-old San Francisco man in the 2100 block of Shattuck about 30 minutes after the pipe attack. 

Heist by punch 

An early morning pedestrian received an unpleasant surprise as he was walking near the corner of Derby and Fulton streets minutes after 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 9—a punch in the eye . 

The blow was inflicted by a woman who had just sprung out of her car before striking the 25-year-old Santa Barbara man. 

She then robbed him of his wallet, cell phone and keys before driving off. 

Rat pack heist 

A gang of four or five young men, each clad in a hoodie, forced an 18-year-old UC Berkeley student to hand over his wallet when they strong-armed him as he walked near the corner of Durant Street and Dana Avenue just before 2:30 a.m. on the 9th.  

Pushy bandit 

A 68-year-old Berkeley woman was shoved to the ground by a woman who then absconded with her purse. 

The incident happened on Addison Street near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way about 2:30 p.m. on the 10th. 

The woman was taken to an emergency room for treatment of minor injuries sustained in the attack. 

At knife point 

A 49-year-old homeless was man was robbed by a knife-brandishing 30-something bandit clad in jeans and a white T-shirt outside the Shattuck Cinemas about 3:50 p.m. on the 11th, said Officer Galvan. 

Rat packers again 

Another rat pack crew, this one consisting of four fellows ages 14 and 15, stole the purse of a 55-year-old Berkeley woman as she walked along the 500 block of Hazel Street at midnight on the 13th. 

The woman said two of the crew were clad in the inevitable hoodies. 

Cried for help 

Alarmed to hear a woman calling for help, a citizen called police a minute after midnight on the 14th. 

Moment later, officers found a 19-year-old Berkeley woman who had just been relieved of her wallet and cell phone by a strong-arm robber. 

A quick search turned up not only a suspect—a 47-year-old Richmond man—but the young woman’s missing property as well. 

The suspect was cuffed and carted off to contemplate his sins in the city lockup. 

Campus carjacking 

A pair of carjackers packing at least one pistol robbed two UC Berkeley students parked behind Memorial Stadium Tuesday night, then made off with their car. 

According to a crime alert issued by UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria L. Harrison, the couple—a 20-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman—were sitting in the car about 11:30 p.m. when the bandits appeared on either side of the car. One pointed a pistol at the man, who was sitting behind the wheel, and ordered him out of the car, then demanded his valuables while the second bandit, sans pistol, did the same with the young woman. Valuables in hand, the pistol-packer told the pair to start walking down the hill. Both suspects were clad in hoodies.

UC Berkeley police are investigating the death of a graduate student whose body was discovered Friday evening in the same residential co-op where 16 residents were treated at local hospitals a week earlier after consuming cannabis-laced cookies. 

Fre Hindeya, 26, was pronounced dead at the 2600 Ridge Road building after his body was discovered about 6 p.m., reports the Alameda County Coroner’s office. 

An autopsy was scheduled to be performed Monday, but hadn’t commenced by mid-afternoon. “We have five homicides we have to do today,” explained a coroner’s spokesperson. 

While there was no immediate indication of foul play, campus police treated the room at the Cloyne Court Co-op as a crime scene pending the outcome of the medical exam. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan said his department wasn’t involved in the investigation, and campus police didn’t return calls from a reporter. 

Two residents of the UC Berkeley-owned building declined to comment about Hindeya or his death. 

“I’m sorry we can’t help you,” said one. “We’ve all suffered.” 

Another resident was busily sweeping up broken glass from beer and other bottles in the courtyard of the landmarked building, containers apparently smashed against a rear concrete retaining wall. 

The debris was collected in a blue plastic tarp that took three students to empty in a rubbish bin. 

After the City Council and mayoral candidates fielded questions on workers rights, affordable housing, a closed-door city-university lawsuit settlement, the city’s (convicted and alleged) criminal police, the use of city resources to fight terrorism and more, some 60 Berkeley residents participated in the Berkeley Progressive Coalition Endorsement Convention Saturday, choosing to endorse Zelda Bronstein for mayor and Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Jason Overman for City Council. 

All Berkeley residents attending the convention were permitted to vote. 

The convention also heard School Board candidates speak on issues that included closing the achievement gap between whites and racial minorities and the importance of empowering parents. They endorsed Karen Hemphill and Nancy Riddle. 

The Berkeley Citizens Action Endorsement Meeting is scheduled for 3-6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24, at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Hearst Avenue. 

District 1 

Fourteen-year incumbent Linda Maio faced tough questioning from the audience at the Berkeley Progressive Coalition Endorsement Convention and, while winning 54 percent of the vote, failed to capture the 60 percent needed for a coalition endorsement. 

Much of the questioning was directed at a May 2005 closed-session settlement agreement between UC Berkeley and the city, ending a city lawsuit over proposed university expansion and fees the city collects from the university for services such as sewers.  

Calling her vote for the settlement a “betrayal,” neighborhood activist Carl Friberg challenged Maio: “You voted for the secret settlement, which cost the city $15 million each year” in services it provides to the university. 

Maio responded that the city got as good a deal as it could. “The university has a lot of power in Sacramento,” she said. 

Community activist Merrilie Mitchell, running against Maio for the seat, picked up about 20 percent of the convention votes (with “no endorsement”—a separate voting category—garnering 23 percent). What is needed is “clear growth boundaries” for UC Berkeley, Mitchell said. 

District 4 

There was little contest between incumbent Dona Spring and challenger Raudel Wilson, a Mechanics Bank manager in downtown Berkeley, with Spring winning the endorsement with 81 percent. 

Convention rules allowed candidates a chance to question one another. Noting that downtown business is not doing well, with “other areas of Berkeley having more tax revenue than the downtown,” Wilson asked Spring what she would do to improve the business climate. 

Spring responded that this was an area of concern, but said property owners needed to take some of the blame. “Radston’s left, because they jacked up the rent,” she said, referring to the almost-century-old downtown stationery business that recently closed its doors. 

Spring asked Wilson why he supported the city-university settlement agreement. (Spring was among three councilmembers who opposed it.) Wilson said that while he did not support the secret way it had been done, its outcome would bring business downtown, such as the new UC Hotel and Conference Center.  

Spring contended that these projects had been on the books long before the settlement agreement was signed. 

District 7 

Incumbent Kriss Worthington was the overwhelming favorite, picking up 83 percent of the votes in District 7.  

Pointing to high crime and drug use in People’s Park, challenger George Beier, president of the Willard Neighborhood Association, alleged Worthington had neglected the district. Worthington responded that he had fought and lost the battle to retain social services and bike cops on Telegraph Avenue during budget cuts a few years ago. These have now been restored. 

District 8 

Rent Stabilization Board Member Jason Overman, who won the convention endorsement with 86 percent of the votes, used his opening statement to define his opponent, incumbent Gordon Wozniak, as a moderate. 

He attacked Wozniak for failing to support funding a new warm pool or the David Brower Center, which will house very low-income people, and failing to take a position on Measure I, the condominium initiative, which Overman opposes. Further, Overman chastised Wozniak for voting against a council attempt to put public financing of city elections on the ballot and his lack of support for Claremont Hotel workers on strike. 

Rather than respond to most of the charges, Wozniak painted himself as a longtime progressive. “I met my wife registering voters for (former Berkeley City Councilmember) Ron Dellums,” he said, adding that he had been among the founders of the progressive April Coalition.  

Addressing Measure I, the ordinance which will permit converting up to 500 apartment units to condominiums under certain conditions, Wozniak said that while not supporting it, he liked the fact that it gives a sitting tenant 5 percent discount on the purchase price. He said that city policies focus on helping tenants, but the city needs to do more to help them buy homes. 

“We do nothing much to transition to home ownership,” he said. 

Overman also attacked Wozniak’s use of a picture of himself and Rep. Barbara Lee on a campaign flyer since Lee does not support Wozniak. Wozniak explained that the pictures he uses on campaign flyers are not necessarily of people who endorse him. 

Mayor 

In a four-way race for the mayor’s seat former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein captured the convention endorsement with 64 percent of the vote. (Candidate Christian Pecaut, who moved to Berkeley to run for mayor, was the only candidate for office who did not appear at the convention.) 

Bronstein challenged Mayor Tom Bates to lead the effort to rescind the city-UC settlement agreement. She asked why the mayor had promised to push for a settlement that was more beneficial to city, accusing him of then backing away from a fight. 

Bates responded by arguing that the city, though in a weak position, was benefiting from the agreement, getting about three times what it had previously received for services. 

On the “secret” agreement, Bates contended that both sides pledged to keep the settlement confidential. 

Challenger Zachary RunningWolf asked the mayor what he thought about the “police out of control.” He was referring to the three officers—Sgt. Cary Kent, convicted of stealing drugs from the police evidence room, another officer reportedly caught in an FBI sting that showed criminal behavior, and a third allegedly inebriated officer arrested last week after shooting his service revolver in the air. 

“It’s unbelievable, what happened,” Bates responded. “I’ll do whatever I can to get together with the council (on this). This is not acceptable.” 

Asked by an audience member about using city money for anti-terrorist work, RunningWolf said he was opposed to the RFID tags in library books and red-light surveillance cameras on street corners.  

And Bates said: “There’s no way we’re going to turn the police and fire departments into spies.”  

Bronstein said open government is important in safeguarding people’s rights. Addressing another audience question on an open-government ordinance that will soon come to the council, she asked: “Does it have teeth? Will it include the possibility of suing the city?” 

School Board 

While there are three open seats, the Progressive Coalition endorsed only two candidates: Karen Hemphill, parent activist and administrator for the city of Emeryville, and incumbent Nancy Riddle. It did not endorse incumbent Shirley Issel nor two other challengers, Cal State East Bay professor David Baggins and Peace and Freedom Party activist Norma Harrison. 

Hemphill talked about empowering parents at school sites and how that affects the children and their work. She hammered home her commitment to closing the achievement gap between white students and African Americans and Latinos and challenged Baggins to address the issue of students from outside the district. 

Baggins said the achievement gap is due to the large number of “at-risk” students coming from out-of-district. 

Incumbent Shirley Issel responded saying, while there is a staff person who verifies students’ residences, “Berkeley is not in favor of going around, spying on our families, making our children feel bad,” to determine who is not here legally.  

“All students are at risk,” Issel added. 

Incumbent Nancy Riddle focused her comments on district solvency and passing Measure A, a continuation of the school tax. 

Norma Harrison, who underscored her dislike of capitalism, said she is running to “teach for transformation, not replication.” 

Other endorsements 

Convention endorsements also included support for Measure H, impeaching Bush and Cheney; Measure J, landmarks preservation; Measure G, greenhouse gas emissions; and opposition to Measure I, condominium conversion. 

Supporters of the Milo Foundation urged the Zoning Adjustments Board last week to authorize the animal adoption agency’s continued use and plans for 1575 Solano Ave. and 1572 Capistrano Ave., as other neighbors called the business a nuisance. 

According to the proposal, the buildings would not expand and the exterior changes would be limited to a new door, window and landscaping on the Capistrano facade, a new driveway gate, an open space area, and new windows on the Solano facade. 

Some area residents asked ZAB to deny the request and not allow the Milo Foundation to continue its operation, arguing that it fouled the area with dog feces, drainage problems and barking at all hours. 

ZAB postponed the matter until Oct. 12 when the foundation can return with concrete plans for the changes. ZAB members also said they wanted the delay to assess how the foundation responds to the neighbors’ concerns. 

The Planning Department had granted a zoning certificate to the Milo Foundation in February 2005 for a “dog/cat adoption service” at 1575 Solano with “no boarding.” However, neighbors informed city staff in June that the previous pet store never sold dogs or cats.  

As a result, the city told the Milo Foundation that a use permit would be required to allow dogs and cats on the premises and instructed it to file for the additional use permit within 60 days.  

City staff also decided that “boarding” refers to the temporary lodging of others’ animals, and “the keeping of dogs and cats for the purpose of sale or adoption is not considered ‘boarding’ and is not specifically prohibited in the neighborhood commercial district.” 

The building on Capistrano Avenue includes a dwelling unit on the second floor occupied by Lynn Tingle, the foundation’s director and founder. Tingle said that the project would bring about positive changes to the foundation as well as the neighborhood. 

“We will be working on drainage, soundproofing, indoor loading and unloading and odor control. We have applied for three off-street parking spaces,” she said. “Hot water distribution will also be increased which will help clean the sidewalks.” 

Zachary Pine, who lives three blocks away from the Milo Foundation, said that the neighborhood had become cleaner since Milo started its operations there.  

“I have volunteered for over a year now and have spoken to a lot of neighbors who feel the same way as I do,” he said. “The volunteers pick up not just their dogs’ mess but also that of other dogs. We have definitely seen an improvement.” 

However, there were also neighbors who spoke against the foundation’s operations and about 15 complained to the board about the noise from barking dogs, odors, use of the rear driveway, drainage and parking. 

“Twenty-eight dogs is just way too many. These dogs are walked thrice a day and the dog walkers leave fecal matter and urine all over my front yard. This is just too much,” said Christine Schnepp, adding that the low-density commercial nature of the neighborhood made it a very challenging situation for the neighbors. 

“We are not an area for a dog pound. My yard was quiet an year ago but after the Milo Foundation moved in I have been unable to work from home,” said Melissa Penn, a neighbor. “They have a non-existent drainage system, improper waste management and lack sustainable solutions. Milo speaks of how much of a good neighbor it wants to be but in reality it hardly makes any effort to listen to the neighbor’s problems.” 

Jeremy Franklin, a resident of Peralta Avenue, said that if the business continued to grow it would impact the neighborhood negatively and proposed that the business be moved to a different location. 

“Why are we even discussing mitigation when we have an out of control operation here?” asked board member Bob Allen. “Milo continues to ignore the neighbors, ignore the health risks and ignore the hours of operation in their use permit. ... I am appalled that we have dogs and cats crapping on driveways. This operation should be closed.” 

Board member Jesse Aragon objected to Allen’s characterization. 

“Milo is making a good effort,” he said. “If they reduce the number of dogs, work on drainage, install soundproofing and provide emergency contact numbers to neighbors then the majority of the problems would be significantly reduced.” 

Board member Sara Shumer described Milo as a community asset. 

“Nothing seems to be out of control,” she said. “There are also neighbors who don’t find feces on their sidewalk, who are not disturbed by the noise. I think educating volunteers and mitigating at the location would certainly help the situation.” 

Raudel Wilson asked the Milo Foundation to come back to the ZAB with some concrete details about how long it would take to complete the project and how they were going to finance it. 

“Solano is a funny neighborhood to have a thing like the Milo Foundation in it, but where else in Berkeley can we put it?” asked board member Rick Judd. 

Judd suggested ordering a professional noise analysis and considering possibilities such as having the dogs walked at a different location and overnighting them somewhere else. 

Other matters 

The request to allow the expansion of the South Berkeley Police Substation on 3192 Adeline St. for employee lockers and vehicle storage was continued to ZAB’s Sept. 26 meeting. 

The request by the City of Berkeley Public Works Department, Engineering Division, to change a required condition of approval and mitigation measure to allow emergency-activated flashing yellow warning beacons in front of the Hills Fire Station instead of a required traffic signal was also carried over.

The appearance of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell in Oakland on Friday morning to announce the selection of a new state administrator for the Oakland Unified School District shows how far OUSD School Board members are being kept out of the loop in the running of Oakland’s schools. 

O’Connell announced the appointment of Kimberly Statham to the post vacated by former administrator Randolph Ward at a press conference held at the new ACORN Woodland/EnCompass school campus on 81st Avenue in East Oakland. Statham, who previously served as OUSD academic chief under Ward, has been serving as interim state administrator since Ward’s departure in August. 

A Friday afternoon press release from the OUSD public information office said the press conference “was attended by Board of Education members Alice Spearman, Kerry Hamill and Gary Yee, Teachers Union President Betty Olson-Jones, Oakland Unified administrators and community leaders.” 

But while representatives of the news media were sent an e-mail announcement of the 11 a.m. Friday press conference on Thursday evening and then a follow-up announcement on Friday morning, members of the School Board said they were not notified of the press conference until shortly before it was scheduled to take place. 

Spearman said she received a call about about 9:30 a.m. and Board President David Kakishiba, who did not attend the press conference, said he only learned of it “about an hour before the event.” Both said they were notified by Statham’s office. 

Following Ward’s resignation, several board members had complained publicly that they were being kept in the dark by O’Connell’s office about who was being considered for Ward’s replacement. 

Meanwhile, in an impromptu question-and-answer session with community members and some press representatives following the formal press conference, O’Connell said that he expected a state administrator to be in place in Oakland “for at least five years,” according to local education activist Henry Hitz. 

“That was something of a shock,” Hitz said. “We have all been expecting that state control would end somewhat sooner.” 

Hitz, who said he managed to make it to the press conference after hearing about it only ten minutes in advance through a board member, said that during a brief discussion with a handful of gatherers following the press conference, O’Connell promised an “open process” in his upcoming decision over the controversial proposed sale of downtown OUSD properties, adding that “the process will be very inclusive.” 

According to Hitz, O’Connell told the group that he had “been in touch with the incoming mayor about the proposed sale.” 

Mayor-elect Ron Dellums, who takes office in January, has not yet taken a public position on the proposed sale. All eight members of the Oakland City Council have gone on record opposing the sale until local control is returned. Both the Oakland School Board and the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees have passed resolutions opposing the sale. 

OUSD Board members have complained that O’Connell has failed to keep them informed about the ongoing negotiations with the east coast developer team of TerraMark/UrbanAmerica over the proposed sale. 

Hitz, coordinator for the Oakland Parents Together community group and one of the leaders of the Ad Hoc Committee seeking to restore local control to the Oakland public schools, said he and Ad Hoc Committee member Pamela Drake followed O’Connell to his car following the press conference, asking the superintendent questions along the way. 

“I asked him why he didn’t use the opportunity of the appointment to move towards local control,” Hitz said. “He told us that he’d already answered that question. He said that you’ve run up a $100 million debt, and you’ve got to take some responsibility for that. He was kind of huffy about it. I had to remind him that Oakland Unified only ran up a $65 million debt, and that the remaining $35 million was borrowed by the state administrator.” 

Drake added that O’Connell also indicated in his discussion that the final decision of the OUSD property sale would be “up to the Oakland City Council. I’m not sure what he meant by that.” 

While any proposed development of the OUSD property would have to come before the Oakland City Council for approval, the council has no legal say over the actual sale itself. 

Meanwhile, both school board members David Kakishiba and Alice Spearman said they were pleased by Statham’s appointment. 

“My reaction is good,” Kakishiba said. “I’m glad he made that decision. A big part of my concern is that this district needs continuity. We don’t need upheaval in our leadership. This appointment provides a leader from within the district. We expect a collaboration between the board and her.” 

“Her focus is going to far different from Randy Ward’s,” said Spearman.” Ward had to come in and put his foot down and stop a lot of the past practices of the district. He had to take some risks.” 

Under Statham, she said, she expected that the district “is going to do some assessments of what has taken place under the three years of state control. Our enrollment is down 2,000 students again this year, but we are still creating small schools, which means more drain on the budget. We’ve had significant gains in test scores, but we were far below basic to begin with, so that’s just been a move from the sub-basement to the first floor.”  

In his Friday press statement, O’Connell said, “Dr. Statham offers significant expertise and stability to the district, and also brings a collaborative, cooperative spirit to the crucial effort to improve Oakland schools.” 

Hitz was more guarded. 

“I’m withholding judgment on the appointment,” Hitz said. 

He added, however, that he has “been noticing already that there seems to be a more open attitude since her appointment as interim administrator. Two principals and some other employees have been speaking out publicly about problems in the district who wouldn’t normally have spoken out under Ward’s sometimes intimidating regime. So that’s a good thing.” 

With growing community concerns over what some local media outlets are calling the “shocking escalation” in Oakland’s murder rates, Oakland officials are trying to settle a simmering dispute between the city’s two major citizen law enforcement advisory groups and its police department over the allocation of scarce police resources. 

On one side of the dispute is the 15-member Community Policing Advisory Board (CPAB), formed by the City Council in 1998 “for overseeing, monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the city’s community policing policy.” 

On the other side is the 11-member Violence Prevention and Public Safety Oversight Committee, formed to monitor implementation of Oakland’s 2004 Measure Y anti-violence ordinance. 

In addition, Oakland Police Department officials form a third faction in the dispute. 

At issue is how the police department will allocate the 63 additional police officers authorized and funded by Measure Y. 

On Saturday, the advisory board and the oversight committee held a joint retreat at Niles Hall in Preservation Park to try to iron out some of the differences. Also attending were several representatives of the Oakland Police Department, including Chief Wayne Tucker. 

Under Measure Y, the 63 new “community policing” officers were to be divided between Oakland’s 57 community policing of beats, with one neighborhood beat officer assigned to each beat, with the remaining officers assigned to school safety, OPD’s crime reduction team, and domestic violence and child abuse intervention. 

Former Oakland City Councilmember Danny Wan, who drafted the language that eventually became Measure Y, said that the number of new officers funded in the measure was taken by subtracting the 14 police officers assigned to a specific police beat in 2004 from Oakland’s 57 police beats. 

“That meant we needed a minimum of 43 additional officers in order to completely staff all of the beats,” he said. “We figured that 20 officers over that figure would meet the other needs called for in the measure.” 

But Oakland police, trying to spread an understaffed department over a city that is erupting in murderous violence, are chafing at the restrictions in Measure Y that officially restrict the community policing officers to each of the 57 beats “assigned solely to serve the residents of that beat to provide consistent contact and familiarity between residents and officers, continuity in problem solving and basic availability of police response in each neighborhood.” 

One police sergeant told Saturday’s retreat participants that the one officer per beat rule is unrealistic. 

“The reality is, every call must be done in two’s,” the sergeant said. “That’s how our officers are trained; that’s how they operate for safety purposes in order to secure a scene. A beat officer can answer telephone calls and do paperwork, but doing effective work in their beat requires bringing in another patrol officer from somewhere.” 

OPD Captain Dave Kozicki said that meant that the police department “needs some flexibility in our deployment of officers, which we don’t presently have.” 

Last June, in explaining the position of the CPAB on community policing in a local blog, CPAB Vice Chair Colleen Brown wrote that “the CPAB understands that the police department is understaffed and may need to have focused enforcement or assignments to patrol. However, don’t call it community policing and/or have Measure Y funds pay for it. Patrol needs to be paid for out of general funds. PSOs [Problem Solving Officers, the official name of the Measure Y officers] are working where OPD wants them, not necessarily the community. Finally, OPD should not be able to change the definition of community policing or the roles and responsibilities of PSOs as defined in Council Resolution 72727 [the 1998 resolution originally defining community policing] at will or without negotiating with the larger community. The current staffing situation is short term but once OPD is allowed to change the definitions, roles, or responsibilities, community policing will be lost.“ 

Meanwhile, members of the Violence Preventation and Public Safety Oversight Committee say that while they also support flexibility, they are charged with making sure the city and the police department implement the terms and language of the measure as it was passed by the voters. That language, they said, sometimes brings them into conflict with the wishes of community members or police officials who may want the police deployed in a manner different from what committee members believe is called for in the measure. 

Saturday’s retreat was not intended to reach a resolution of the conflict but, according to retreat organizers, was to bring the various sides together “as a first step.” Among other things, members of the two oversight committees and representatives of the police department suggested regular meetings in the future to try to resolve the differences. 

Berkeley Police Chief Douglas Hambleton announced Monday that he has suspended two of his officers pending the outcome of internal investigations. 

While no one in the department was available for comment on the nature of the Internal Affairs Division probes late Monday, the Daily Planet has reported that one officer is under investigation about complaints of stolen funds. 

In a press release issued Monday afternoon, Hambleton said the two cases are not related to each other, or to “any misconduct by other current and former employees.” 

That remark apparently alludes to the case of former BPD Sgt. Cary Kent, who 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. 

Kent was allowed to resign from the department before his plea. 

Fresh from summer break, the Berkeley City Council will jump into the fray with a public hearing tonight (Tuesday) on a controversial five-story project proposed for the corner parcel at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue. 

Neighbors are appealing the Zoning Adjustments Board approval of the Harrison and San Pablo project proposed for 30 units, including six units of affordable housing, five commercial units and 38 commercial spaces. 

Neighbors appealing the project, say it is too high and situated too close to residences.  

Beefing up street sweeping 

A decade ago the City Council decided to mandate street sweeping across the city, but has failed to follow through. A staff report from Jeffrey Egeberg, the secretary of the Public Works Commission, asks how to move forward on this question. 

Some neighborhoods once permitted to “opt out” of the program don’t want to be forced to participate. “Only a portion of the city is bearing the total obligation to meet regulatory requirements,” according to Egeberg’s report. 

Also, it will be difficult to expand the program due to a lack of funding needed for staff and equipment, as well as the additional cost of signage and a public notification program. 

Adding back neighborhoods that have “opted out” of the street sweeping program would reduce debris that clogs the storm drain system, reduce toxic pollutants that go into the bay and more.  

“There are blocks that opted out a few years ago,” said Ken Emeziem, supervising civil engineer in the Public Works Department. “The whole idea is to phase them into the program.” 

Also on the agenda 

The council will also be asked to approve a resolution to support Lt. Ehren Watada, who faces a court marshal because he has refused to fight in Iraq.  

Also on the council agenda are two separate items related to building height and density issues. Staff reports for both items were unavailable by press time. 

The City Council meeting is scheduled to open with the pledge of allegiance, which the council recites once a year, having dispensed with saying the pledge at every meeting a number of years ago. 

New Housing Authority governance 

The Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA), made up of the City Council plus two public housing residents, is currently deemed a “troubled” agency by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The BHA is exploring various forms of governance, such as becoming a commission appointed by the council or mayor.  

The Housing Authority meets at 6:20 p.m. and the Council meets at 7 p.m. at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The meetings are video-streamed at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/video, broadcast on KPFB, 89.3-FM and available on Cable B-TV, Channel 33, which rebroadcasts the meetings Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m. 

We have had many inquiries about whether or not the Planet will endorse candidates for the November election. Election day is a little over six weeks away, and mail-in ballots (formerly known as absentees) will be out in little more than a week. More and more voters are going to be voting by mail, so the campaign is winding up right now. Last-chance political efforts, sponsored by MoveOn.org and others, are underway across the nation and in this area.  

So it’s time for us to present our first endorsement. We strongly support Jerry McNerny for Congress. And no, most of you won’t be able to vote for him. Jerry is the candidate in California’s 11th Congressional District, a roughly C-shaped area carved out of non-coastal Northern California that goes east beyond Manteca and south beyond Morgan Hill. It’s now one of the few usually-Republican districts in the Bay Area, and it’s currently represented by the execrable Richard Pombo, who never met an environmental protection law he didn’t try to destroy.  

It’s possible—barely—that Jerry McNerny can beat Pombo this time. Jerry McNerney is his own man, and we don’t just like him because he’s a hard-headed Irishman. He’s also an environmental engineer who first ran for Congress in 2004 because his son, who joined the Air Force after 9-11, told him it was his duty to change the country’s direction. He got 39 percent of the vote in that election without any support from the sluggish state or national Democratic Party.  

But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, late to the party as usual, has just named Jerry one of their “emerging candidates,” which means that their polls show that he’s close enough to winning that they’ll deign to send money. This is, of course, after they wasted a lot of bucks supporting a more tractable candidate against him in the primary, who lost two-to-one.  

Evidently the Repugs and their pollsters think McNerney’s doing well too, because they’ve already spent over a quarter of a million dollars on fancy mailers against him, with much more to come. Here’s what his campaign manager, A.J. Carrillo, says on his website about the influx of national Republican dollars: “Lots of money. Little impact. With Pombo’s internal poll numbers in apparent free-fall and his astroturf field campaign virtually dead, Pombo is now pulling a very risky rabbit out of his cowboy hat—a fancy fundraiser with George W. Bush on Oct. 3 in Stockton.” This should be fun. The McNerney people plan to spend their much-less-abundant money trying to tie Pombo as close to Bush’s falling star as possible, which shouldn’t be hard since he voted with Dubya at least 83 percent of the time.  

If we here in the Urban East Bay can’t vote for McNerney, what can we do?  

1. Send money. Details are on his excellent website: jerrymcnerney.org. You can use your credit card onsite. Or mail a check made out to “McNerney for Congress” to: McNerney for Congress, P.O. Box 12022, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Include your phone number so they can call you for reporting details. 

2. Volunteer. Local feuds stop at the district’s edge, so an amazing assemblage of people who ordinarily glare at one another got together in Berkeley last Saturday for a fundraiser and pep rally, where you could sign up to go out to the 11th District (just an hour or two away) and work precincts, or to telephone from home. Again, check the website for details, or call the Dublin campaign office at (925) 833-0643.  

This one’s a no-brainer. But what about Planet endorsements in other races? Well, here’s what we’re doing for starters. There will be one day for each contested race when candidates will be allotted a generous amount of space in the Planet’s opinion section to say whatever they want the voters to know. No-shows will be indicated by a blank. We’ll run shorter rebuttals and reader comments on a space-available basis, with some attempt to be fair and overflow on the website. Several candidates have already had comments printed, but that won’t be counted against them for the future. (There will also be days for contested ballot proposals.) 

After candidates have had a chance to speak for themselves, and their friends have had a chance to speak for them, we at the Planet may or may not add our heavy thumb to the scale if we feel strongly about a particular race or proposal. Actually, and this should come as no surprise to anyone, the executive editor will exercise her executive privilege right now to tell Berkeleyans that they’d be crazy not to vote for Measure J, to re-enact our Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which has for more than 20 years worked well to preserve our beautiful urban environment.  

They used to say in Chicago, “Vote Early and Often,” but “Vote Early” is a better choice these days. One good thing about voting early is that you use a paper ballot, since many are suspicious of the voting machine alternative. 

But don’t wait for us to tell you what to think. Read our opinion pages and the news pages as well, make up your own mind, and just vote. Just do it.

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will take up the price of parking when they meet Wednesday. 

The group is charged with advising city staff in preparing the document that will guide the growth of the expanded downtown area mandated in the agreement. Committee members are scheduled to arrive at a policy on parking prices in the downtown. 

The goal is setting a pricing structure designed to regulate access to parking and encourage downtown visitors and workers to use alternative means of transit, including buses, BART and bikes. 

City staff under the direction of Matt Taecker, hired by the city to help in drafting the plan, will present a draft synopsis of members concerns and themes to be developed in the new plan. 

Finally, staff will report on the progress of the joint DAPAC-Landmarks Preservation Commission subcommittee formed to explore issues involving historic structures in the city center. 

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

SUNSHINE ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley needs a comprehensive and effective Sunshine Ordinance to promote openness in government and participation of all members of the public. Many other Bay Area cities, including San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond, already have such legislation on the books. Mayor Tom Bates has promised that a Sunshine Ordinance will be a reality. 

Currently, there is a danger that the city council may adopt a weak, watered-down draft ordinance, authored by the city attorney. Councilmember Kriss Worthington has dubbed it the “Twilight Ordinance.” A truly effective Sunshine Ordinance would, among other things, require disclosure of settlement agreements prior to vote by the council. Such disclosure would have made the City’s secret deal with University of California impossible. 

Other benefits would be to: 

(1) Move public meetings to larger venues to accommodate citizens otherwise shut out by the police or by lack of access for the disabled. 

(2) Increase opportunities for public comment so that parents, working people, the disabled, and other members of the public may participate. It shows lack of respect for those who attend these meetings at considerable time, trouble, and expense if they cannot be heard. 

(3) Make copies of last-minute submittals of documents at public meetings available to the general public. 

Now is the time for the citizens of Berkeley to demand a Sunshine Ordinance that lives up to the name. Under the “Twilight” version, complaints have no remedy, and there is no provision for enforcement of the ordinance. We encourage everyone concerned with a genuine Sunshine Ordinance for Berkeley to attend the Sept. 26 City Council meeting, Old City Hall, at 7 p.m. 

Please sign up (prior to 7:00) to speak out for open government and full public participation. 

Gene Bernardi, Jim Fisher,  

Helen Wynne and Jane Welford 

for SuperBOLD 

• 

SCHOOL LUNCHES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Although Becky O’Malley seems interested in Berkeley students getting a better lunch at their schools, I’m afraid she doesn’t have enough information on which to judge what is happening with Food Services at BUSD (Berkeley Unified School District). Her editorial was probably motivated by the Sept. 4 New Yorker article by Burkhard Bilger, in which Ann Cooper, head of food services at BUSD, was described as working hard to change the meals to what our school district’s food policy says should be “fresh, organic whenever possible, and locally grown” (August, 1999). As a member of BUSD’s “Child Nutrition Advisory Committee” for eight long years, I want to tell you that our children ARE different from when your kids went to school with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and here’s why it matters so much. 

First, about half of the elementary school children get a free or reduced lunch at their school every day, which is terrific if a family is trying to make ends meet in this expensive Berkeley world in which we live. They always have a vegetarian choice on the menu if the entree has meat in it, fruit and milk. They need this lunch even more when you realize many kids come to school with no breakfast at all (or, possibly a bag of chips and a coke! some nutritious start to the day!). It was appalling to many of us on the Committee that none of the food was ever cooked at the Central Kitchen; it was only taken from one frozen container and put in another metal, small container that was then heated up for each student. Ann Cooper has changed that. She is actually cooking real meals like meat loaf (with Allan Lyman, the cook at Central Kitchen), and ordering real, whole wheat bread and organic lettuce for the salad bars (now at all 15 BUSD schools). Please take a break and go have lunch at your nearest elementary school, Longfellow or Willard middle schools, or the High School, to judge for yourself: the meals are so much better than a year ago, and in particular, I think, the salad bars are delicious, with at least 9 choices to put on your lettuce! 

Second, it is not “a bit silly” to be caring about the food that our children eat at school. We have an obesity crisis in this country that cannot be ignored. (Millions of dollars are spent in our state alone to deal with this.) Daily, there is direct pressure from the fast food industry to persuade our children to have at least one meal a day from their high fat, high sodium, high in calories restaurants. (And if you talk to the students as I have, as all our teachers have, you will conclude this industry is winning.) But Berkeley children are now learning in their garden and cooking/nutrition classes (thanks to the California Nutrition Network grant monies that BUSD receives from Sacramento) how to eat and live a healthier life. I like to say, “If they grow it, if they cook it, they will eat it!” We want our children to learn how to sustain themselves better, as well as learn that sustainable agriculture is important to the health of our planet. 

Beebo Turman 

Project Director, Berkeley Community  

Gardening Collaborative 

• 

NEW CO-OP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing in response to the article that was run in the Daily Planet earlier this month about the prospects of the new food co-op opening up in Berkeley. I am curious as to why there is no interest in bringing this co-op to our neighbors in West Oakland where 35,000 people reside, 70 percent of whom are below the poverty level, and there is only one major grocery store. While Berkeley is saturated with “gourmet grocery stores,” residents of West Oakland are hard pressed to find anything short of a liquor store to purchase their vittles. If the founders of the Co-Op are sincere in their statements about not making healthy food “elitist” and increasing access to affordable health food, they would consider offering this promising cooperative and community-based business to an underserved community in the Bay Area.  

Shamir Chauhan 

Oakland 

• 

BERKELEY AND SANTA ROSA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was in Santa Rosa last week, and got a chance to stroll around the downtown area. I was pleased and surprised to discover a fine transit mall. Yes, it can be done. Santa Rosa has a beautiful and lively downtown with a central park. Downtown looked like a destination. In the park there is a statue of Charlie Brown. On a park bench, a sign showed the presence of an Internet hot spot. 

I saw one guy sleeping on a park bench, and getting gently hassled by a local cop. I didn’t get panhandled while I was there. The Santa Rosa transit mall is a single street, about like Center between Oxford and Shattuck, or Telegraph between Durant and Bancroft. The whole street was dedicated bus lanes. Buses entered from a major arterial, similar to Shattuck. 

Multiple bus lines serve the mall. Besides the local Santa Rosa City Bus (I saw signs for 16 lines) there is Golden Gate Transit and Sonoma County Transit. 

There were several bus shelters and signs identifying which buses come to what stops. There was even a nice public toilet, part of one of the buildings. 

I rode Golden Gate Transit No. 80 to make my trip. On the way back south, the bus passed through Petaluma. A beautiful creek runs through it, with a river-walk. 

Steve Geller 

• 

THE POPE’S COMMENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Having read the entire text of the pope’s recent speech, I found myself trying to understand why he made any reference to Islam at all. The words the pope quoted had little, if anything, to do with the main thrust of the pope’s speech. If the pope truly wants to foment “dialogue” between Christians and Muslims, then he should start by putting some universally acknowledged facts on the table. In my opinion, the pope’s speech should have more or less said the following: “In the great central tradition of Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, Jesus has been and continues to be worshipped as the one and only Son of God. Jesus, as revealed in the Bible, is indeed God Himself, who became a fully human man, lived a sinless life, died on a cross to pay the penalty of God’s holy wrath against sinful humanity, and rose from the dead. Jesus is Lord of all and reigns over all the earth at the right hand of God. This is central to Christian revelation, to a Christian understanding of history, and to the nature of Christ himself.  

In the great central tradition of Islam, whether Sunni or Shiite, Jesus is generally held in high esteem as a great prophet, and yet is not held in the same esteem as Muhammad, the last and greatest prophet of Allah. Muslims do not even consider the possibility of actually worshipping Jesus, and they most certainly do not believe that Jesus was or is God incarnate; for God would never condescend to become a man as far as Islamic teaching is concerned. For Muslims, Jesus is not the Savior of the world, nor is he Lord over all creation, as in Christianity. Whether Islam is, at present, a violent religion is an altogether separate discussion (though one worth having, if people are truly interested in truth). But again, the main point is clear and must be dealt with: Christianity and Islam may share many things, but on the most important matter, namely, the nature of Christ and of God’s revelation to humankind, we are talking about two radically different faiths. All ‘dialogue’ must start here.”  

This is the message the pope should have made clear, whether it would be well received or not. Truth will out! 

Michael Duenes 

• 

HEIGHT OF HYPOCRISY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Robert Lieber and Brian Parker were the only two candidates in the 2004 City Council election who chose not to abide by Albany’s voluntary limit on campaign spending. Backed by The Sierra Club, Citizens for an Eastshore State Park (CESP) and Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS), they exponentially outspent their opposition. Lieber won a seat on the council while Parker—who spent an astronomical $10,350 or so if memory serves—did not. While it is routinely asserted by Sierra Club, CESP and CAS spokespersons like Parker that Albany must be protected from corruption by “pro-development” dollars, nothing in fact could be further from the truth. Albany has already been corrupted by mega-spending “environmentalists.” 

This hypocrisy reached new heights at the Sept. 18 council meeting when Lieber—the sole councilmember who has failed to put his money where his mouth is in local elections!—asked the council to support Proposition 89, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act. While this proposition may in fact make good law, it’s rather silly of the council to involve itself in such matters, and downright laughable that Lieber suggested it. 

In the current race for City Council, only Caryl O’Keefe has had the courage to agree to abide by Albany’s spending limit, and to accept contributions exclusively from Albany individuals. One can only wonder, by contrast, where the “Save Our Shoreline Team” of council candidates—Joanne Wile and Marge Atkinson—are getting their campaign dollars. The catchy tagline makes their priorities clear, and their endorsement by Lieber and Parker speaks volumes on the campaign financing issue. 

Paul Klein 

Albany 

• 

VIOLENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rosemary Reuther criticized the pope for implying that the penchant for Islamic violence voiced by a 14th century Byzantine leader was still with us today. But while Jews and Christians are villified daily by religious letters throughout the Islamic world, you don’t see the targets of their wrath responding as Muslims have to the pope’s commentary. After the pope’s statement, the world has seen bullets and firebombs violating five non-Catholic churches in the West Bank and Gaza by those fine, tolerant champions of the Berkeley left, the Palestinians, a 70-year-old nun was murdered in Somalia, and Islamic religious leaders calling for assaults on non-Muslims throughout the world. 

Gee Ms. Reuther, I guess the pope was indeed inaccurate in his assessment of the continuum of historic violence springing from Islam, wasn’t he? 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

BEIER CAMPAIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is a shame that Cynthia Johnson’s letter of support for Kriss Worthington just can’t help trashing George Beier. George is running a positive, hopeful campaign with a real vision of what People’s Park, Telegraph, and the entire district can become. Frankly, after 10 years in office, I have yet to hear Worthington’s vision. Instead of a different future for what People’s Park can become, Ms. Johnson claims the past conflicts over the use of the park have been “healing and improving”—suggesting that the status quo is desired. This will certainly be contested by the neighbors, businesses, and crime victims (many of them students and the homeless) who live and work in the area. Johnson mentions Worthington’s work on restoring police to Telegraph, but I have yet to hear what he envisions for the future of the Telegraph Avenue district. It seems to me that this is a reasonable expectation from the voters, and I believe George has done an outstanding job of spelling out his vision, which is available for review on his website: www.georgebeier.com  

Here’s a novel idea—how about we find out the real visions and ideas both candidates have about Telegraph Avenue, People’s Park, development, crime, student representation, and other issues instead of supporting “our candidate” by trashing the “other candidate”? That would be a unique campaign in Berkeley politics! I hope George Beier’s supporters will continue to follow his lead and join him in his positive campaign for the future of District 7, and Berkeley as a whole.  

Gregory S. Murphy 

Willard Neighborhood Resident 

• 

MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ms. Corcos and others questioning the tax consequences of Measure A have only to refer to the campaign literature: $0.228 per square foot of residential property. Her school tax of $1440.50 suggests that she lives in a rather grand 6315-square-foot house. May I suggest she probably benefits from a generous federal Schedule A deduction bringing her net liability to approximately $100 a month (a nice dinner out for two with wine?). Other than a good meal, what do BSEP funds represent? For starts, support for a respected school district that contributes to high property values. More important, it provides an excellent education for our children. Without Measure A funds, deteriorating pedagogic quality would find concerned parents pondering private school tuition. I believe most would agree that BSEP is a bargain! 

As for the short-sighted suggestion the tax be renewed every four years, since a third of the funds go to class size reduction, imagine the insecurity and potential havoc of rearranging classrooms and hiring/firing teachers every four years, depending on what funds would be available with the fate of each measure.  

No Ms. Corcos and your BeSMaart short-thinkers flunk; the correct answer to this problem is Yes on Measure A. 

Tedi Crawford 

• 

FOOD POLITICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It seems the author of the Sept. 15 editorial has little respect for the good work of Alice Waters or of the fine journalists Gladwell and Pollan and that she actually has a vendetta against them. Her anger would be better vented on the industrial agribusiness than on people making a difference in the quality of food available to all. And while organic foods cost more, I rather think of pesticide-ridden foods as costing less—with good reason—they are shown in numerous studies to be worth less nutritionally. In her position, Ms. O’Malley’s could help see to it that everyone gets clean food, not just those who can afford it, as well as helping them to understand the difference that noncontaminated food can make. 

I wish it were true that merely washing produce removes the pesticides. But the synthetic chemicals used in industrial agribusiness actually affect the way the whole plant grows at the genetic level. It’s a great mistake to think that a little soap and water will make everything OK again after being drenched in poison, or even worse, being genetically engineered. 

Pesticide residues on crops exist at levels that have measurable affects on the human endocrine system. And while people eating this food don’t normally get sick immediately, there are ample data highlighting the possibilities such as steadily increasing rates of cancers; increasing problems with conceiving a child; rampant mental disabilities and developmental problems that are among a very long list of ailments that become evident long after the hit of poison. In general, the viability of the human species is diminishing at an observable rate with disorders in every area of the body on the rise. Many nonprofits with stated goals of curing said diseases have ties to the very industries that cause those same diseases.  

The cold hard fact is that diseases such as cancers will remain uncured until the poisons that cause them are removed from our lives. Pointing at one of them as “The Cause” is a mistake because they all act together in ways that humans will never fully understand. This is not to diminish the value of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers as causes of diseases because they play major roles in the list of characters that are bringing us to our knees.  

Paul Goettlich 

• 

PARKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Charles Siegel misses the point in his Sept. 19 letter about parking in downtown Berkeley. He cites Elizabeth Deakin’s figures showing (among other things) that only 20 percent drove to their shopping destination. No wonder the number is low—it’s caused by the percentage of people who chose not to come to downtown Berkeley at all!  

Revan Tranter 

• 

PRAISE FOR RUETHER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kudos to the Daily Planet for the great commentary by Rosemary Radford Ruether, “What the Pope Should Have Said to the Islamic World.” As a practicing Catholic I would like to humbly apologize to my Islamic brothers and sisters for the disrespect to their beliefs voiced, by the titular head of my church, not because I have any idea of why he chose such an offensive quote, but because I believe that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. To paraphrase my sainted grandmother, “If you (supposed Christians) had provided a better example, perhaps you might not have this problem now.” 

Mary Vivian Zelaya 

• 

GANDHI 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The White House issued a message acknowledging the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi starting satyagraha, the non-violent movement in South Africa. It was dated Aug. 11, and was devoted moreto the 59th anniversary of India’s independence and its democracy. 

Nowhere was the Gandhian 9/11 mentioned.  

On that day, hundreds of millions celebrated, including Gandhi’s grandson, Arun, who has the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis. He commemorated the day at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.! With Representative John Lewis (D. Ga.), among others. 

To the best of my knowing, it was not reported in the Washington Post or New York Times, or even on Democracy Now, who interviewed Arun the week before but failed to note the Lincoln Memorial assembly, or report of it. If you like, the White House message can be seen by going to Gandhi Foundation USA. 

In the ongoing celebrations of the 100th anniversary of satyagraha, nonviolent soul force, Peace for Keeps will hold the first annual Gandhi Birthday (Oct. 2, 1869) Poems and Performances for Peace, Sunday, Oct. 1, 1-6 p..m., at the Gandhi statue behind the south end of the San Francisco Ferry Building on the Embarcadero. Come one, come awe!  

Arnie Passman 

• 

SOLANO AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was disappointing to see the Daily Planet giving such prominent first-page coverage to the grumblings of a few folks on North Solano. You know, I don’t live within hearing distance of Milo, but there’s some awfully barky dogs on my block, too. A pair on each side, actually and sometimes they drive me nuts. Is this really the most important thing when 500-plus creatures have been saved from untimely death, hundreds of people have brought new pet friends into their lives, and every week dozens more families volunteer together, visit together and build community?  

If you haven’t visited this place on a weekend afternoon, you should. You’ll see people coming to Solano Avenue in vast numbers from other parts of the Bay Area and more foot traffic than in stores three times its size. Yes, it is challenging to transform a facility from a pet supplies store to an animal shelter, and fundraising to make changes to the facility takes time, because there isn’t any profit margin caring for homeless animals. But isn’t this Berkeley, where we’ve made a decision that we value community-building and public service over Walnut Creek-style pristine isolation, where we meet only in the wide aisles of air-conditioned chain stores? How Berkeley can you be? Not very, apparently. Let’s try to assert our civic values here, instead of putting profit margins on $750,000 bungalows above all.  

Tracy Rosenberg 

Albany 

• 

MORE ON REUTHER, POPE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rosemary Radford Reuther, in a commentary carried in the Sept. 19 Daily Planet, chides the pope for his characterization of Islam as a warlike religion, and reminds us of Christian warfare through the crusades. She says, “... tendencies to war are deeply aggravated when religion and the name of God are wrongly used to foment violence and hatred between peoples. God desires peace and love, not war...” 

Setting aside the fact that neither she, nor the pope, nor all the priests and mullahs can possibly know what “God desires” (they can’t even know that “God” exists), she turns the nature of religion on its head by repeating a notion widely voiced by good liberals of many religious stripes—that religion is distorted or perverted whenever it promotes violence or warfare. In fact, our distant ancestors formed from their dark primal fear and mysticism the idea of a powerful force or supreme being that singled out their tribe to be the subject of its concern and protection. This idea evolved precisely as a stimulus to violence and warfare to preserve the integrity of the tribe from attack by outsiders, just as it does today. 

The persistence of this idea despite the lessons of history is attributable to the fact that it universally embraces another concept—that this force or being also watches over the individual person, protecting him/her not only through the vicissitudes of life, but beyond it. The human ego slavishly seizes on this monumental lie. The deep congenital flaw in the human psyche is the pathological refusal to accept the great centering, liberating and obvious truth of our existence: we live a while in the sun, then we die. After that... nothing!—no angels with harps, no virgins with sexual favors, no loved ones with welcoming arms... mere oblivion. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

MEASURE Y 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your report, “Oakland Grapples with Measure Y Police Deployments,” went into a controversy over “how the police department will allocate the 63 additional police officers authorized and funded by Measure Y.” Readers should know that Oakland has not added even one of the 63 police authorized by Measure Y. When the measure was on the November 2004 ballot, councilmembers and other supporters of the proposal promised there was a floor—the 739 officers that the City almost had at the time. Citing this figure in the text of Measure Y, they insisted that the 63 officers paid by Measure Y would add to the roster, not substitute for general fund hirings. 

In fact, Measure Y money is being spent on officers while the city has 698 officers (as of Sept. 4). The city has hovered under 700 officers since April 2005. Measure Y revenues, collected as a regressive parcel tax, are simply being used in place of general fund money while the city is unable or unwilling to hire enough police. Instead, officers are so overworked because of understaffing that the quit rate is rising. For more information, see the website of our organization at www.orpn.org. 

Charles Pine 

Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods 

• 

GUIDING YOUNG CHILDREN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Children need guiding from their youngest years. Parents and early childhood teachers have a great responsibility towards the newest citizens of the nation. It is important for children to receive the best from their family members and their teachers. 

Somehow, this does not happen every time. Many children hear abusive language and incorporate it in their own speech. Roughness and coarseness become habits. We know that young children try to imitate their parents and teachers. We know children are deeply affected by the media or environment around them. We may not be able to control what the media offers children but as parents and teachers we can practice restraint in our own lives. If we are conscious that our slackness will travel down generations we may choose polite language and civilized behavior over acting it out. 

Let our message to our children be: Do as I do. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

OAKLAND COVERAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As an introduction, I would like to admit that I have not been a reader of your Daily Planet paper, and have only stumbled upon your skewed articles thanks to a recent news search which prompted me to peruse your archives. While there are many issues that I’d love to discuss, I will limit myself to only a couple.  

It’s obvious to me that your reporter J. Douglas Allen-Taylor writes his derogatory articles to pertain only to Oakland, perhaps, for lack of more positive local city news—after all, you are the Berkeley Daily Planet, correct? There is an underlying negative tone in particular when he mentions Jerry Brown and anything whatsoever pertaining to him. Additionally, Mr. Allen-Taylor reports on the Oakland crime situation, and the police in a very derogatory tone. I guess I must ask—is he specifically assigned to Oakland? and the bashing of Oakland? I would recommend that you look to your own backyard, and the insidious crimes within your own town. As a lifelong resident of Oakland, I resent your condescending opinions of the state of our city, and what we are doing to correct the problems. I have personally heard from my own boss, a Berkeley resident, of some particularly appalling crimes of assault and worse that happen quite frequently. Additionally—perhaps in the name of community fraternal concern—you might loan some of your police to assist us in our times of trouble, lest they migrate to your Emerald City. 

Cara Kopowski 

Having just gone through the process of accepting that Cody’s on Telegraph would be no more, I found the sale of Cody’s Fourth Street and San Francisco stores to a Japanese buyer something of a further shock. As well as an important reality check. Let us never forget, I thought to myself when I learned of the sale, that business is about money.  

A recent visit to the 4th St. store had shown just how real the money issue still was. I expressed surprise to the staff about the continuing lack of inventory. I had thought the distribution of the Telegraph inventory would have bulked up the Fourth Street shelves. I was told that the store had been in arrears with many of its publishers and distributors, and these financial problems were still very apparent. I was appreciatively thanked for my purchase and my continued support, and I left hoping for the best for the store.  

But now this sale to a Japanese buyer. The fiscal realities, responsibilities, and available options weren’t mine to wrestle with, so I am in no position to second-guess the choices and decisions owner Andy Ross and his partner Leslie Berkler have made. But to say I wasn’t disconcerted by this latest turn of events would be untrue.  

Now we have a former local store—a local icon, even—financially directed and controlled by a company based an ocean away with a CEO reportedly jet-setting between Tokyo and New York. True, Yohan, Inc. CEO Kagawa’s words to Andy Ross — “Keep raising hell” — sounded promising enough given that raising hell when hell needs to be raised is certainly a Berkeley trademark. According to the Chronicle, “Yohan, Inc. is a privately held firm with 120 employees and $80 million in revenue. The firm’s primary business is distributing English-language books and magazines in Japan.” Yohan’s coterie of businesses also includes “a Japanese publisher of books teaching English; Stone Bridge Press, which specializes in books about Japan; and 18 bookstores, including several that focus on works in English.” Like Ross, Kagawa is a book lover who also loved Cody’s when he first visited the Telegraph store more than 20 years ago. 

Still, there are issues. Most important, assuming there are profits, where do those profits go? Do they stay in the community or do they go to Japan? Same problem as with chains—where does the money go? Where are the decisions made? And based on what criteria? Statistics show vast differences in the amount of community investment between locally-owned and non-locally-owned businesses. From the standpoint of community strength and development, independent bookselling is not one and the same with locally owned independent bookselling. And that puts this new iteration of Cody’s in a different category from other San Francisco and East Bay independent booksellers where both finances and decision-making remain in local hands. I suppose that’s what bothered me about this news. It automatically shifted one of my favorite A-list locally-owned stores into a different B-list non-locally-owned category.  

Further, Japanese and U.S. cultures represent nearly opposite ends of a long pole, with the Japanese reconsidering aspects of their intense focus on group and communal values and the United States just beginning to reconsider its long-standing hyper-individualism. Kagawa’s desire to “consciously break with the narrow national focus of most other Japanese publishing companies” fits right in with efforts to re-balance Japanese cultural leanings, but is it what is needed here at the other end of that cultural pole?  

Even Andy Ross is talking about being able to go global now. It’s not entirely clear what that means. However popular or successful international selling may currently be, just the shipping issues alone are a problem—dependence on oil and externalized environmental costs entailed in worldwide shipping matter. Like many other book buyers, even when I do order a (used) book online, I now make every effort to purchase from a California seller even if the price is a little higher, just to cut down on the transportation distance.  

The fact that the “little guys”—whether small-business owners or individual customers—contribute but a drop in the bucket to environmental problems compared to the big boys doesn’t make any of it less serious. The quickly increasing awareness of these issues, however, creates an opportunity for a nascent venture such as this one to consider creative alternatives to the climate-changing global bandwagon even if cash makes such an option possible.  

Consumer choice is one of the few areas in which buyers and customers have an opportunity to “vote” economically. What goes into those choices increasingly includes not just loyalty to individuals like Andy and Leslie, great inventory and programs, price, service, etc., but a conscious “vote” for businesses that recognize their participation—desired or not—in a global economic paradigm that is environmentally bankrupt and largely rootless and that therefore take bold steps to counter its effects. Shortening supply chains and concerted community investment are two of those essential steps. For customers, it’s like choosing to pay a bit more for locally-grown organic produce, going a little out of the way to support local farmers, or shopping at locally-owned stores. 

Becoming a non-locally owned bookseller is obviously a done deal in this instance. Because I believe that strengthening locally based economies worldwide is one of the most promising options we have to counter the serious environmental- and community-busting effects of globetrotting, free-floating capital, the fact that Cody’s is no longer locally-owned will indeed affect my decisions about where to shop and order books.  

Nevertheless, I still hope that Andy Ross and Hiroshi Kagawa will find ways to do something different with their international cash—perhaps going “regional” instead of “global,” or following some of the many other ideas expounded, for example, in Michael Shuman’s new book (which they might find on their own shelves!), The Small-Mart Revolution. With the amount of press they have received, they would have a chance to make a significant difference by using their current flush of excitement and creativity to become leaders in the kind of environmentally-aware and community-building economic thinking that is intensely globally sophisticated but rooted in concrete local and regional solutions.  

Anne Blackstone is an Oakland resident. 

Opinions expressed in Daily Planet commentary and letters to the editor are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Daily Planet or its staff.

As a BUSD parent who has been working on improving the food that the district serves for the past 10 years, I think that there is basic level on which Ms. O’Malley misses the point about the food project at the Berkeley schools. 

Ms. O’Malley admits that she has never tried the food at the schools. I have. I imagine that Ms. O’Malley’s concept of school lunches is based on her own experience, or that of her now grown children, which consisted of the “lunch ladies” making spaghetti or meat loaf every day and serving it on those famous hospital trays. Those days are long gone. 

When I started out, the issue was not a choice between good and varied food and the plain but adequate food advocated in the editorial. The choice was between really bad food and no food at all. The food served in the schools consisted of “grilled cheese sandwiches” that were made in a factory, put in little plastic bags, frozen for months, and then heated in a steamer. Mushy and rubbery. The “peanut butter and jelly sandwiches” were some sort of cracker with a little peanut butter and jelly that was handed out like really bad snack bars. “French toast” was french toast sticks. Imagine french toast turned into a chicken tender. Then imagine the whole dreary mess served on a cardboard box with a “spork” (spoon/fork combo) that breaks under the slightest pressure.  

This is not my refined Berkeley food sensibilities speaking either. Much of this “food” went straight to the garbage after a few disappointed bites. Beebo Turman, was the BUSD’s recycling coordinator at the time. She conducted a survey of the garbage generated in the cafeterias to see what the recycling needs were and was appalled to find that 40 percent of the food served went straight to the garbage. She came to the next food committee meeting. The struggle all along has been to develop a menu that children like, is good for them and that they will actually eat.  

There is a strong social justice component to this effort. More than 40 per cent of the children in the Berkeley Schools are entitled to free breakfast and lunch. In 1946, the federal government promised disadvantaged families that it would provide their children with nutritious food at school. During the Reagan administration, the government ceased funding the programs at an adequate level and the result has been a 25-year slide to where were are today. We think that the government should keep its promise and fund the program adequately for the benefit of our children. Ann Cooper, the food service director, calculates that the current reimbursement of $2.50 per day (ever try to eat on that?) could be raised $1 per day for each child in the program across the county for about $5 billion per year. That’s two to three days of the ongoing cost of the war in Iraq. 

Ms. O’Malley is right to be concerned about the cost of Berkeley’s project. However, a few points of clarification are in order. When I started working, the then BUSD officials responded to our concerns by telling us that they knew the food was bad but that at least the Nutrition Services Department was solvent and had even built up a surplus of $1 million. I am not an accountant, but I looked at the books out of curiosity before the now—not so new—superintendent arrived. It only took me two hours to figure out that the books were so incompetently kept that it was impossible to know the actual financial condition of the department. I wrote a detailed report that I presented to the School Board alerting it to that fact. Once the current superintendent arrived, FCMAT confirmed my rough guess and found that the department was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and there was no “surplus.” In the past five years, the department has introduced an accurate and current bookkeeping system that accurately reflects the true cost of the food program, a necessary first step to financial sustainability. 

Although much press attention has focused on the “organic” part of the Berkeley food policy, those who actually read the policy note that goal number two provides that “The board will ensure that an economically sustainable meal program that provides a healthy nutritious lunch is available to every student at every school so that students are prepared to learn to their fullest potential.” As taxpayers, the members of our committee have always balanced the ideal of organic food with the brutal reality of the inadequate funding the government provides the district. We want to create a program that any school district in the country can follow. We know that a “boutique” program will not be adopted elsewhere.  

Will the Food Service ever break even in the absence of an increase in federal/state funding? Probably not unless the District goes back to selling high profit items such as candy, chips and sodas. Was it breaking even before the new effort? Absolutely not. But the current deficit can be greatly reduced if participation increases. However, as every successful businesswoman knows, if you want to increase your sales you first have to invest in developing a high quality product. Moreover, it is ultimately cheaper to feed kids food they actually eat that costs a bit more than to feed them cheaper food that goes straight to the garbage. 

The Food Service has a long way to go but it has also come a long way. Ms. O’Malley, if you want to go for lunch at a public school and see for yourself what we are trying to do, just let me know. I will be glad to meet you there. 

Eric Weaver is the former chair of the Child Nutrition Advisory Committee. 

Opinions expressed in Daily Planet commentary and letters to the editor are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Daily Planet or its staff.

ANTI-SENSUALIST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Becky O’Malley’s Sept. 15 editorial on Berkeley’s efforts to improve the quality of food in our schools: I’m uncomfortable with the anti-sensualist strain in her words. As if the general dumbing down/de-sensitization of our palates is a good thing. Her argument sounds oddly akin to those in favor of spanking children (and, yes, I know she is not). The age of the blunt instrument is behind us. 

And, since I’ve got pen in hand, to Mr. David Baggins: Can you understand that a patronizing tone with parents will not endear you to them? 

Pamela Satterwhite 

• 

THE WONDERS OF  

WONDER BREAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was heartened that Becky O’Malley champions the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I do have one disagreement with her husband’s recipe. Whole wheat bread is out! Machine-sliced white Wonder Bread is imperative. The Virginia Bakery white loaf is a good substitute. It has the pillow-soft texture of Wonder Bread but lacks the exquisite silkiness. I have never frozen a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I’m afraid it might destroy the delicacy of Wonder Bread. In my mature years I have been converted to Acme bread by various hashslingers at Chez Panisse. 

I think Chez Panisse food is home cooking as it ideally should be. The simplicity of the dishes is one of the appealing qualities at Chez Panisse. When I went to my pen pal party at King School I was served strawberries on warm shortcake right from the oven made from scratch by the students in the Alice Waters-inspired kitchen. 

Sam Craig 

• 

TAXES FOR SCHOOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There has been some public questions regarding exactly how much are Berkeley’s property taxes for schools. One letter to the editor opined that the average property taxes for the schools in Berkeley came to about $222 a year. This really piqued my interest. After considerable rummaging around, I found my 2005-06 tax bill. On my tax bills there are actually four separate taxes for Berkeley public schools. 

The left-hand column lists one tax which says “School Unified,” and the right-hand column lists three more called “Berkeley Schl Tax”; “School Maintenance,” and “School 2004 Meas BB.” The grand total on my bill is: $1,440.50, which is a very hefty amount. If Berkeley’s school taxes are not the highest in the state, then they must be close to the top. The school district has also written their new tax Measure A to be a 10-year tax so voters don’t get to have a say for 10 years. BeSMaart recommends the normal four-year term for this tax with some way for us to know whether the money reached the children in the classroom. Vote no on Measure A in November. Ask the School District to write a better measure. 

Stevie Corcos 

• 

GENEVA CONVENTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush, noted for his eloquence and command of the English language, favors modifying the Geneva Convention Treaty, thus easing the ban on torture of prisoners. What next? A re-write of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights?  

Dorothy Snodgrass 

• 

CAMPAIGN  

ENDORSEMENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m a bit surprised you have not covered the latest endorsements in the Berkeley mayor’s race. As you may know, Zelda Bronstein has been on the Board of the National Women’s Political Caucus (Alameda North) and the Coordinating Committee of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. Yet both organizations have now declined to endorse her for mayor. The NWPC (which cannot endorse men under it’s rules) voted no endorsement; and the Wellstone Club (home of local progressives) voted overwhelmingly to endorse Tom Bates for re-election. Draw your own conclusions. 

Mal Burnstein 

• 

SUPPORT KRIS  

FOR THE REAL THING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kriss Worthington has served the Southside neighborhood actively and honestly, representing the interests of students and neighbors alike. He busily attends meetings and gatherings and has an open ear. Unlike George, his challenger, who smiles pretty as your words go right through his head, Kriss is attentive and concerned and willing to get involved in real issues. 

George Beier is running on a platform trying to stir up antagonism over People’s Park. He advertises the park as a haven for drug users and dealers and then brags about working with UC to hire consultants to redesign People’s Park. Anybody with any sense of history of this neighborhood would know that such an approach is completely unworkable and will only lead to conflict over an issue that has been gradually healing and improving. Any redesigning of People’s Park must come from the community; from the students, neighbors, and people in the park. A democratic and participatory process is required in order to avoid the horrible conflicts we lived through when UC implemented volleyball courts in the early 1990’s. The Southside needs someone who is willing to protect the neighborhood from UC’s encroachment, not invite them in. 

George wants more cops, spy cameras and less parties. Don’t fall for the smile that hides the knife. Kriss is about finding the right solutions with the community. Re-elect Kriss, a rare honest politician. 

Cynthia Johnson 

• 

THE MAYORAL RACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to Randy Shaw for cutting through the spin to the dismal reality of Tom Bates’ mayoral administration (“Berkeley Mayor’s Race Reflects a City in Twilight,” Sept. 6). 

Actually, it’s even worse than Shaw says. Bates has not “had to pull back in response to community resistance” to the high-density, market-rate housing he’d like to build at the Ashby BART station. Despite eight months of intense grass-roots protest, he continues to ram this controversial project through south Berkeley. In July he got the council to approve $40,000 to fund a task force that was selected under secretive conditions by a private corporation. Shaw calls Bates “a strong housing advocate.” Make that high-end housing. The incumbent has repeatedly tried to weaken Berkeley’s affordable housing laws. In January 2004 he told the Council: “I don’t like those kind of constraints. I’m sorry. Maybe I’m a free market person.” 

Still, I wish Shaw had given my mayoral campaign as discerning a treatment as he gave the current administration. After noting that I am “Bates’ chief opponent” in the November election, he writes: “Bronstein has scored points against Bates’ record on land use and economic development issues, but is perceived by some as anti-business.” Perceived by some? How about the reality? 

The reality is that the “some” who see me otherwise are the very people Shaw assails—the big developers and their friends in City Hall. My “Pro-Business, Pro-Berkeley Agenda,” posted on my campaign website, www.zeldaformayor.com., is filled with proposals for supporting the sort of businesses that make Berkeley Berkeley—independent, locally owned and operated enterprise, artists and artisans, and light industry. As a planning commissioner, I drafted the Economic Development Element of the city’s new General Plan. I also helped convene and then served on the UC Hotel/Conference Center Citizen’s Advisory Group, whose recommendations have been praised by the project developer. By drawing customers who are now staying in Emeryville and Oakland, the hotel will bring the city much-needed revenue and stimulate downtown commerce. As a journalist, I have written many articles promoting Berkeley business, including an admiring profile of the director of the Berkeley Visitors and Convention Bureau (tourism brings bucks to Berkeley). I’ve even written a few Berkeley Christmas shopping pieces. 

Also needing correction is Shaw’s portrait of a community totally sunk in political apathy. My endorsers include leaders of almost every major neighborhood association in town. It’s the neighborhoods who have put up the resistance to the developer-driven machine, and it’s neighborhood activists who are going to spur Berkeley’s next political renewal. My campaign for mayor is the start. 

Zelda Bronstein 

• 

PARKING IN  

DOWNTOWN BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mary Oram claims, in her Sept. 15 letter to the editor, that Donald Shoup’s plan for pricing parking cannot work in downtown Berkeley, because most customers come by car and will stop coming if we raise parking prices. 

Ms. Oram apparently is unaware of the facts about how customers get to downtown. The best figures we have are from a survey of downtown Berkeley shoppers directed by Elizabeth Deakin of the UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies, which found that only 20 percent drove to their shopping destination, 28 percent took public transportation, and 42 percent walked to their shopping destination (many walking from work or school). 

Ms. Oram apparently is also unaware of the details of Donald Shoup’s proposal. Shoup says we should raise parking-meter prices to the point where some on-street parking spaces are available, and we should use most of the extra revenue for improvements to the shopping district that attract more customers. This has been tried in Old Pasadena: it has made it easier for shoppers to find short-term metered parking, it has reduced the congestion caused by people cruising around looking for cheap on-street parking, and it has increased business because the improvements have drawn many new customers. 

Finally, Ms. Oram apparently is unaware that automobiles are the number-one source of greenhouse-gas emissions in California. Imagine what the global environment will be like at the end of this century if the rapidly growing middle-classes of India, China and the rest of the world follow her advice and drive their cars every time they go shopping! 

If Ms. Oram does not care about whether we leave a livable world to our children and grandchildren, then she should keep driving to shop amid the ugliness of Emeryville. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

CARE FOR THE  

ELDERLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs) and nursing homes around the country are in desperate need of assistance. Aides and nurses, even LVNs and RNs, are paid far below their colleagues in hospitals. Even at Salem Lutheran Home, the certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and registered nurses (RNs) do not make the wages quoted in Carol Polsgrove’s otherwise excellent article in the Aug. 4 edition of the Daily Planet. The patient and painstaking care these assistants provide is even more remarkable considering there are no nursing ratios. CNAs must respond to emergency calls, reassure anxious residents and tend to numerous other demands while assisting with scheduled baths and medications. Assignments may include 12-20 residents, depending on intensity of care needed.  

Volunteers are needed to help provide care for this vulnerable population. Simply walking with a resident can promote well-being and protect him or her against a fall. Many residents need someone to sit and chat with them. All staff members spend time with residents, but often more urgent duties call them away. 

Residential care facilities for the elderly are regulated by the Department of Social Services. Rules meant to protect residents sometimes conflict with the resident’s right to independence and autonomy. For example, RCFEs need written medical orders for provision of all over-the-counter medications, and specific instructions to allow residents to keep them at bedside or in the room. Removing such controlled items as multivitamins and Eucerin cream takes away yet another thing that the individual did for his or herself and may increase the sense of loss and helplessness. Staff need the understanding and assistance of medical professionals to obtain orders that will recognize the individuals emotional needs while promoting his or her well-being.  

Families are also an important part of the older adult’s support system. Providing shoes with good soles, taking the individual shopping, and respecting the individuality of the older adult aids him or her in coping with decreased abilities and ongoing losses. Family and friends provide a link to the world and greatly affect one’s mental well-being. A huge thank you to all the caregivers that help to make the older years truly golden. May we all work together to make the older years truly enjoyable ones. 

Petrice P. Kam, RN, GNP 

• 

SIERRA CLUB IS NOT ALWAYS RELIABLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Some have been saying that the Sierra Club is a “special interest group,” especially when it comes to the Albany waterfront. That point is well-illustrated by an article in the current issue of the Sierra Club Yodeler. The article reports on the court’s action taking the waterfront initiative off the ballot. It also contains a number of misstatements, probably specifically crafted to misinform its members/readers. However, many members have actually read both the initiative and the court’s judgment, and they know better. 

In the first place, the ruling was based on an accurate reading of State law, which was apparently beyond the faculties of the initiative’s sponsors. They themselves are responsible for failing in their promise to signers to get their initiative on the ballot because of the way they chose to publicize it. The real reason that “the voice of more than 25 percent of Albany voters” was “silenced” was that the sponsors didn’t want to make the text of the initiative properly available, as State law requires, for all to read and understand.  

Another striking misstatement in the article is the claim that one of the “major goals of the initiative” was to have an “open planning process” for the future of the Albany waterfront. On the contrary, it was designed to take over the planning process, cut the City Council, commissions and committees out of the process, and give total control and “final” decision-making to a “task force” that would not be accountable to Albany voters. 

Most of those who signed the initiative did so because of the reputation of the Sierra Club. They didn’t question whether they were getting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth when they were urged to sign, because the Sierra Club is reputed to be a leading environmental protector.  

It is now obvious that the club is not worthy of our unqualified trust. Neither their leadership nor their local representatives took the trouble to examine the content of the initiative nor the impact it would have on our community as a whole, let alone taking the trouble to read State law. Let’s not be so easily swayed next time and show some skepticism when the Sierra Club asks for our signatures or our votes. 

Jean Safir 

Albany resident and Sierra Club member 

• 

SOUTH BERKELEY POLICE SUBSTATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley Police Department Traffic Office is proposing to renovate and expand their office at 3192 Adeline St., the commercial street in South Berkeley’s historic Lorin District. A year or so ago the meter officers (aka parking enforcement officers) wanted their own designated and prime parking spots around the 3100 block of Adeline. Public opposition by neighbors and merchants got them to back off. The meter officers complained they didn’t want to park their cars on side streets because of a high number of auto break-ins in our neighborhood. In the end, a compromise plan gave the parking officers parking spots across the street near the Adeline post office a while back.  

Some neighbors feel that since crime around the so-called “police substation” is ignored by parking enforcement officers, this encourages a “free zone” for crime which exacerbates problems. The area around the substation is the worst for loitering, dumping and littering, apparent drug dealing and public drinking in the area. Police officers on Harleys and meter officers go in and out of the parking lot seemingly oblivious to what is going on under their noses. The parking officers have said publicly that they don’t want to report crime taking place around them. A surveillance camera is close by, but aimed at red light runners to earn revenue and enhance traffic safety, not deter other types of crime nearby.  

Now, the substation has an even more ambitious plan to expand and take over most of the 3100 block of Adeline for the traffic substation. An expansion of the use permit was discussed at a recent Zoning Adjustments Board meeting. Local merchants spoke up in opposition, and ZAB proposed police should work out concerns with neighborhood members who were present at the ZAB meeting. Two meetings were held but the police department had to cancel on short notice. Now a larger presentation is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21 at the South Berkeley Senior Center.  

With an AC Transit bus stop in front of the substation, two short blocks walk from BART to the substation and designated parking across the street, why should parking enforcement take up a good portion of a commercial block on Adeline? Our neighborhood area has great potential with historic buildings, cafes, antiques, and arts and may be on the verge of a renaissance. Let them move the substation to an industrial area of Berkeley. The exercise averse parking enforcement employees could have plenty of parking if they don’t want to use public transit. They should not be allowed to take more space and hamper the rebirth of our commercial historic district. They wouldn’t even try this in other commercial areas of Berkeley. Is it any wonder sales tax revenue is down in Berkeley? Is this a wise use of our commercial district?  

The Lorin District already houses a large number of social services and low income housing. Let us have a chance for a healthy commercial district that can provide jobs, sales tax revenue and a pleasant atmosphere. We have a voice in South Berkeley if we will make it heard.  

Robin Wright 

• 

THANKS TO 

JOHN SANTORO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a member of the staff of the Pre-K Early Child Care Development Department in BUSD, for which I have worked in since 1980. During these 26 years it has been a great privilege to work with and for first head teacher, and later as principal, Mr. John Santoro, until his leaving our beloved department for a less stressful environment in the Oakland School District; we have lost a sincerely dedicated principal, co-worker, and friend. In our line of work, where we are the first to introduce children and parents into the school environment we teach many things more than just ABC, 123. We teach manners, communication vs. hitting, laughing rather than crying, along with the required state mandates and testing we partake in—and we teach these things to not only the children, but to some of the parents as well through example. We as staff learned this from our principal, John Santoro. You do not find people of his caliber in many places anymore. He is missed. Perhaps the next administrator will not have to do the job of three people as Mr. Santoro had to. As he told us at his Sept. 13 goodbye party, “You do the most important job there is, and you do it with dedication and love....You’re the best.” Needless to say, there were a few teary eyes that evening, and rightly so. I hope BUSD finds the next qualified administrator to lead this department with a sincere motto that “kids come first, all else second”—for that is truly how we feel in this school and in this department. Thank you, John. 

Mark K. Bayless

As a Berkeley teacher, I have followed the recent discussion about out-of-district students with interest. 

As the students in question use false addresses, it would seem that no one knows exactly how many there are, where they live, or what their test scores are, even Mr. Baggins, though he claims without evidence that these students are responsible for our achievement gap. 

The following are some of my observations about out-of-district students, based on my 12 years of teaching in BUSD: 

• Many of our students do live in other cities. While they come in all races and classes, the majority of them are people of color whose families have lower incomes than many Berkeley families. 

• Most of our out-of-district children have a strong connection to Berkeley. Many of them and their families used to live in Berkeley, some for generations, and have been forced out by high housing prices. The students quite often have extended family (e.g. grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) in Berkeley and are often cared for by these extended family members after school.  

• It is impossible to generalize about Berkeley residents or out-of-district students when it comes to behavior or achievement. There are white, middle class Berkeley residents who are violent, disruptive and chronically tardy, and out-of-district, high-achieving African-American and Latino students who come to class every day on time with their homework complete and whose behavior is exemplary. 

Like undocumented workers in the US, our non-Berkeley resident students contribute a lot to our schools. Aside from many of these students’ great attitudes and diverse perspectives on life, BUSD receives state money for every student attending our schools; in fact, I read in the Daily Planet a few years ago that at the elementary and middle school level these students represent a net gain in funding for BUSD. 

Furthermore, our excellent cooking and gardening programs (in place at all Berkeley elementary and middle schools) are funded by a grant which depends on each school having a certain percentage of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. Without our lower income out-of-district students, I suspect that BUSD would have to drop these programs. 

Those who are arguing for getting rid of out-of-district kids should be aware of the other consequences that this will bring: 

• Our schools will be significantly less diverse racially and economically, thereby impoverishing the educational experience for all of our students. 

• Our popular Spanish Immersion programs may have trouble finding enough native Spanish speakers to continue functioning. 

• Fewer students will mean less funding, possibly leading to lay-offs, program cut-backs and even the closure of schools, as has happened in Oakland and San Francisco. 

Besides being a teacher, I am a Berkeley homeowner who willingly pays the extra taxes to keep our schools strong. Were I to worry about my tax dollars being misspent, I would be much more concerned about the billions of dollars that are being used to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan and enrich the executives at Halliburton and Bechtel than I would be about the few dollars I may pay to enhance the education of kids whose families can no longer afford to live in Berkeley, if indeed these students represent a financial burden to the district, which I doubt. 

At my school’s fifth grade graduation ceremony two years ago, each student shared a dream for their future. Many shared dreams of becoming athletes, veterinarians or video-game designers. Out of over 60 graduates, only one student shared a dream that explicitly involved making the world a better place for everyone: He was a quiet, studious, well-behaved boy from Oakland (whether attending my school “legally” or “illegally,” I don’t know.) But as far as I’m concerned, we could use a little more of his spirit of selflessness and generosity here in Berkeley. 

Terry Fletcher is a teacher in the Berkeley public schools.

On Sept. 12 Pope Benedict XVI aroused the fury of the Islamic world with a speech given at the University of Regensburg in which he assailed the Muslim concept of holy war as a violation of God’s will and nature. The pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who derided Islam and the Prophet Muhammad for introducing “things only inhuman and evil,” such as spreading the faith by the sword. The pope held up (Catholic) Christianity, by contrast, as a model religion that promoted a “profound encounter of faith and reason.”  

From many parts of the Islamic world there were angry reactions to the pope’s words, reminding the pope of the evil history of Christian crusades. Although Western Christians may think the crusades are ancient history, these medieval wars in which Christian crusaders slaughtered Muslims and established crusader states in Palestine are vivid memories for Muslims. Current Western threats against Islam and invasions of Islamic countries, such as Iraq, are seen as a continuation of the crusades. The United States and other Western nations who promote such wars are regularly referred to as “crusaders” in the Muslim press.  

The pope’s words condemning Islam and the Prophet for holy war, while holding up Christianity as innocent of any such warlike tendencies, has infuriated Muslims and deeply damaged Catholic-Muslim relations. In using a Byzantine emperor to assail Islam, the pope also failed to reckon with the fact that the Fourth Crusade (1201-4), called by Pope Innocent III, was diverted into an assault on the capital of the Byzantine empire, Constantinople. The Crusaders pillaged and occupied the city, leading to a weakening of the Byzantine world and its eventual fall to the Muslims 

Although the Vatican has not invited me to be a papal speech writer, I would like to suggest what the pope should have said about holy war that would have won Muslim good will and opened up new dialogue between these embattled worlds. The pope might have opened with some generalities deploring the current state of war and violence in the world. Then he would remark that such tendencies to war are deeply aggravated when religion and the name of God are wrongly used to foment violence and hatred between peoples. God desires peace and love, not war, he might have said.  

The pope would then turn to the history of the crusades and acknowledge with sorrow that Christianity has often been wrongly used to promote hatred and violence against others, perhaps quoting some pithy statements of popes who called for crusades against Islam. He would then declare that Christians must repent of such religiously inspired war-making. He would ask for forgiveness from “our Muslim brothers and sisters” for having wronged them in the past by calling for crusades against them. He would end with a call for all peoples to unite to overcome war and violence, and to reject any use of religion to promote violence.  

This speech, I suggest, would have won the hearts of Muslims around the world and would have made the pope welcome in Turkey for his planned visit there on Nov. 28 of this year rather than putting this trip into jeopardy. Catholic-Muslim dialogue would have been put on a new and positive footing by having the “leading cleric” of the Western world publicly repent of the errors of the crusades. It would also have put Christians in the United States and elsewhere on notice that the language of promoting Western “anti-terrorist” wars against the Muslim world in the name of a “crusade” (the term George W. Bush actually proposed for his wars against Afghanistan and Iraq) is not acceptable.  

Some more historically aware advisors of the Bush administration realized the volatile nature of this term and warned him against his use of it. But Christians need to do more than not use the term “crusade,” while continuing the reality of such war and warlike God-talk. We need to confront the questionable history of such wars against the Muslim world and the use of Christianity to promote such wars.  

Is it too late? Although my influence in Vatican circles is limited, there is no reason why other Christian bodies, Catholic and Protestant, might not come together to publicly issue an apology to the Muslim world for the crusades and to call for a rejection of militarist responses to terrorism and the use of religious language to justify such militarism. 

Rosemary Radford Ruether is a renowned Christian feminist theologian.

When Tom Bates ran for mayor of Berkeley four years ago my daughter Gracie and I occasionally volunteered at the Bates campaign office to work the phones. It was tedious work but Bates was running for mayor on a promise to improve education and Gracie would be attending Berkeley High School soon so it seemed like a good way to introduce a 12-year-old to local politics and civic affairs. 

Now Bates is up for re-election at a time when many high school-age students are learning that the U.S. military is monitoring their MySpace pages and targeting potential recruits. The plight of soldiers like Lt. Erhen Watada, the first commissioned officer to go AWOL from duty in Iraq, has also triggered fears that a national draft could be reinstated if the number of volunteer enlistments continue to decline as the war threatens to widen. 

Progressive Berkeley City Councilmember Dona Spring’s effort to pass a resolution in support of Lt. Watada is important because if it succeeds the city will have deepened its stance against the war and candidates for mayor will have heard the message: Sanctuary for war resisters is a local issue that no serious candidate for mayor can evade.  

But how do the four candidates running for the mayor’s office differ in terms of what each promises to do to aid Berkeley residents who find themselves in a situation like Lt. Watada who is facing the possibility of a seven-year prison term for refusing to serve in Iraq? 

In the mid 1960s, long-shot progressive candidates running for local office discovered they could defeat entrenched incumbents by linking their campaigns to the growing anti-Vietnam war movement. The three challengers trying to unseat Tom Bates fit the description of long-shot candidates, at the moment, but any one of them could leap frog ahead of the pack to win the race by generating a plan to aid resident war resisters. The massive amount of negative press likely to follow in the conservative mainstream media will win the candidate precious name recognition and the respect and trust of Berkeley voters eager to register their dissent for the war. 

All candidates running for local office should be developing plans to help our local war resisters. Zelda Bronstein said she would consider it and Bates said he could think of at least three churches in Berkeley that might offer sanctuary for draft resisters. 

After the Watada resolution is passed it will be interesting to see how the contending candidates for mayor propose to demonstrate their resolve. If Bronstein’s sanctuary plan implies that it is a soldier’s duty to disobey an illegal order, Fox News will be quick to demonize her as a traitor worse than Cindy Sheehan. If Zachary RunningWolf’s policy requires the police to arrest military recruiters it will enflame the right wing spin machine into branding him more treasonous than Ward Churchill. If Christian Pecaut advances an ordinance banning the ROTC from teaching students how to commit war crimes, Bret Hume will report the story as a fifth column attack inspired by Michael Moore. Worse things can happen to a candidate for mayor of Berkeley than to be compared to Cindy Sheehan, Ward Churchill or Michael Moore on network TV. Wouldn’t Cindy Sheehan be the next mayor of Berkeley were her name on the ballot? 

If Tom Bates sits still for too long on this issue a relatively unknown candidate, willing to be cursed as an enemy combatant on major network television, could very quickly overtake the incumbent mayor in name recognition in his own home town. 

But Bates can preempt his opponents by directing the city attorney to assist in the legal defense of any Berkeley High graduates in the military who choose to go AWOL. He can direct the city manager to help arrange sanctuary for residents who may need it. Bates can borrow the UC Greek Theater for a candidates debate to consider contending plans for helping Berkeley residents honorably refusing to serve in an illegal war. 

If the mayor moves quickly to identify his candidacy with a courageous grassroots movement to refuse local participation in an illegal war, Tom Bates can earn much more than a second term. He can also earn our respect for restoring a long and honorable reputation for acting locally to change the world. 

Berkeley resident George Coates blogs at www.betterbadnews.com.

A little over 10 years ago, just after the explosive launch of the Internet information age, I wrote a feature-essay for Metro newspaper in San Jose called “W.W.W.—World Without Wisdom.” (The essay was all mine; the idea for turning the “world-wide-web” initials into “world without wisdom,” however, was the Metro editors’—I’d always wished I’d thought of that.) 

In the essay, I wrote about a 1994 book called The Gutenberg Elegies by American essayist Sven Birkerts, which talked of the problems involving the blossoming revolution in electronic/digital communication—most especially, the loss of wisdom in all this clutter of information. 

"Wisdom has nothing to do with the gathering or organizing of facts--this is basic," Mr. Birkerts wrote. "Wisdom is a seeing through facts, a penetration to the underlying laws and patterns. It relates the immediate to something larger… To see through data, one must have something to see through to. One must believe in the possibility of a comprehensible whole. ... And this assumption of ends is what we have lost. It is one thing to absorb a fact, to situate it alongside other facts in a configuration, and quite another to contemplate that fact at leisure, allowing it to declare its connection with other facts, its thematic destiny, its resonance." 

What is missing in the modern information age, Mr. Birkerts lamented, was not information, but context within which to put it. In the avalanche of facts, understanding of those facts often gets buried, putting us at the mercy of the latest spin. 

Thus, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stands on the dais at the United States a day after United States President George Bush, crosses himself, and says, "the devil came here yesterday. He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world. It still smells of sulphur today," even the most vigorous of American Bush critics were left momentarily speechless, while our conservative brethren were quick to the attack Chavez’ words as unbecoming clownishness.  

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John R. Bolton called it a "comic-strip approach to international affairs" and Fox News’ Neil Cavuto opened an interview with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe by asking "Do you think Hugo Chavez is a nut?" 

But if calling George Bush the devil is nutty, then what must we think when George Bush informs us that he gets his political instructions from God, or invokes the identical diabolical imagery in describing countries he considers to be America’s enemies? (Where do you think the concept of evil—as in “the Axis of Evil”—is linked? If you can’t figure it out, just add a “d” to the beginning and that will be a nice clue.) 

Putting it in this context, the only difference in what Mr. Chavez and Mr. Bush has said lies in which of them you believe has the best insight into the nature of the universe and the mind of God. 

But at least on a national and international level, we have—thank God—commentators and analysts like Keith Olbermann and Noam Chomsky and Jon Stewart to give us a pot in which to stew this bewilderment of facts and events and information. 

Closer to home, we often just get lost for lack of a guide. 

In the California Progress Report, a daily online review which bills itself as “the water cooler around which progressive Californians gather daily for news, politics, policy, and progressive action,” blogger Frank D. Russo (an Oakland attorney and Democratic Party activist) writes recently about the California Attorney General’s race between Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and Republican State Senator Chuck Poochigian.  

“The state AG is an office touted as being the ‘top cop,’ for the state and [Mr. Poochigian] is trying to find a hook with the voters by playing one note: their fear of crime and the fact that his well known opponent, Jerry Brown, is from Oakland, a city that has crime problems,” Mr. Russo says. “It doesn’t matter that in the 8 years Brown has been Mayor, crime has been down from the level it was before he took office. Details get lost in campaigns.” 

Details sometimes get lost in blogs and political columns, as well. 

The “crime is down under Jerry Brown” note is a common theme in the Brown campaign, a way to convince voters that even though Oakland’s soaring murder rate seems horrendous and almost out of control, it is actually better than it has been. 

Details of the Brown defense were spelled out in a September 11 USA Today article “Veteran Calif. Politician eyes ‘top cop’ post,” by reporter John Ritter, in which Mr. Ritter explains that “Brown says the average annual murder count since he took office in 1999 is down 30% from the eight years of his predecessor, Elihu Harris, the most violent period in the city's history. In 1992, a record 165 were killed.” 

But to understand the significance of these numbers to Mr. Harris and Mr. Brown, you must first understand the difference between the Harris and Brown eras in Oakland. In 1992, we were operating under the weak-mayor/strong-city manager form of government. Mr. Harris, unlike Mr. Brown, was only the symbolic leader of Oakland, with little more power in the Council than any other councilmember, and with no independent control of the police department. One of the major difficulties of those years was that both the city manager and the police department responded to the needs and requests of individual councilmembers, leading to police action and policies in different parts of the city that often seemed at cross-purposes with itself. It was under this system that we institutionalized the idea that open air drug dealing would be unofficially tolerated in some areas of the city, while fiercely pursued and eradicated in others, a policy that left large, festering pockets out of which Oakland’s current violence is flowing, overspilling now into the rest of the city. If Mr. Harris is to blame for that, he shares the blame with eight other Council colleagues. 

Mr. Brown has no such excuse. He came into office in January of 1999 with full control of the police department, and the power to set its citywide direction. Mr. Brown squandered that authority, appointing the personable, popular, but wholly ineffective Richard Word as chief of police, who meandered for several years before he was replaced, once, oddly and famously, seeing the banning of citizen street shrines for murder victims as a method for preventing more murders. 

It’s only in the selection of Wayne Tucker to replace Mr. Word that we have begun to see some direction at the upper levels of the Oakland Police Department, and a sense that the department is beginning to understand the nature of Oakland, crime in Oakland, and its own abilities and inabilities. Mr. Brown’s choice of Mr. Tucker was a good one. The problem is, he took so long to do it. 

Meanwhile, as if we needed confirmation, we learn from the USA Today article that Mr. Brown puts Oakland’s crime problem on Oakland itself, not on his lack of leadership and use of the strong mayor powers we entrusted him with eight years ago. Mr. Ritter writes that “violence is endemic in Oakland, Brown says, the product of a thriving illegal drug trade, lack of opportunities for poor black and Latino youth and the easy availability of guns.” 

I didn’t go to all the various schools that Mr. Brown attended. But I learn through the Webster’s New World College Dictionary that something which is “endemic” is either “native to a particular country, nation, or region” or that it is “constantly present in a particular region.” Violence, Mr. Brown tells the world with a throwing up of his hands, is in Oakland’s blood. He has done the best he could. It’s now time for him to move on to other challenges, leaving Oaklanders with the job of cleaning up behind our own mess. And the world, not understanding the context, tends to believe him. 

There is much to the administration of Jerry Brown in Oakland that is similar to the administration of George W. Bush in Washington. Both are highly secretive, guarding their activities jealously, even though the business they are conducting is actually the public’s business. Both tend to blame problems on nameless, faceless enemies who are easy targets with no public sympathy and little ability to come forward and defend themselves. In Mr. Bush’s case it is the “terrorists.” In Mr. Brown’s case, it’s the “poor black and Latino youth” in Oakland as he identifies them in the USA Today article. Mr. Brown knew enough not to use such direct phrases while speaking to media that would be printed or broadcast in Oakland; in those cases, he resorted to euphemisms, going after the sideshow participants, for example, in a series of crackdowns that have left portions of our city void of the normal Constitutional guarantees. In the absence of the drumbeat of context that tells us when Republicans attack Constitutional rights it is wrong, Oakland acquiesces, thinking that no-one will notice that the shine on our progressive mantle has been left soiled, and the mess left to be cleaned up is that much larger. 

Scare the hell out of the American people. That, in a nutshell, is the Republicans’ fall congressional campaign strategy. If you doubt it, consider the following: George W. Bush launched a propaganda offensive in the run-up to the 9/11 anniversary with a speech in which he called Islamic terrorists “successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century”; Donald Rumsfeld in turn likened administration critics (read Democrats) to those who appeased Nazi Germany in the 1930s; Dick Cheney, appearing on Meet the Press, accused opponents of the war of inviting more violence; Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in August released a hyped report on the supposedly grave threat to US national security posed by Iran—one strikingly similar to the hyped intelligence documents the administration used to build its case for war in Iraq. 

I could go on, but you get the idea: The GOP is dusting off a strategy that’s worked wonders for them these past five years—one single-mindedly and cynically designed to increase public fear of terrorism. 

Republicans running for the House and Senate in marginal districts and swing states have a problem. They’re just like Tony Blair, fatally weakened in Britain and derided in Europe as “Bush’s poodle” for rolling over for the US president’s every policy demand. Republicans in Congress, however much they may try now to distance themselves from a deeply unpopular president, are in trouble for having stood on their hind legs and jumped through hoops every time the White House has fed them a new policy biscuit. Thus, the policies of George Bush and his administration are—and well should be—the defining issue of this campaign. 

No wonder the White House and Congressional Republicans are so desperate and have gone on the offensive: they read the August opinion polls, which demonstrated that the American people had finally come to believe that Mr. Bush’s war of choice—which has killed nearly 2,700 Americans, wounded and maimed many more, cost our national treasury over $420 billion, killed or wounded tens of thousands of Iraqis, and seems to degenerate each day—might just be a mistake, and one to be corrected at the voting booth. 

In fact, in the mid-August polls, just prior to the Bush administration’s spin offensive, 53 percent of Americans were convinced that “going to war was a mistake,” 62 percent believed that “events were going badly in Iraq,” and 58 percent “disapproved of [Bush’s] handling of the economy.” 

Republicans will do almost anything to keep control of Congress. And no wonder. As long as they hold a thin majority in the House, they have the absolute power of chairing all committees, power they’ve used to freeze out the Democrats. The Republican chairs hire staff, set legislative priorities, issue subpoenas, decide on the issues, and determine when to hold investigations, press conferences, and hearings. The White House wants to keep it that way. Hoekstra, for example, would no more undertake a serious investigation of the White House’s manipulation of flawed intelligence since the run-up to the Iraq war than he would turn down a fat corporate campaign contribution. 

Legislative oversight and accountability under GOP leadership has become a wink, a nod, and a whitewash. Hoekstra happens to represent a safe district, but he knows only too well, as does the president, that if Republicans lose the House he will lose his chairmanship to a Democrat. There will be hearings and investigations of executive policies, just as there will be by other committees: Armed Services, Homeland Security, Financial Services, Government Reform, and Judiciary. This is downright scary to an administration that has turned executive secrecy and abuse of power into an art form, with the collusion of a cover-up Congress. 

Bush, the Republican leadership, and Karl Rove are convinced that fear of terrorism is their best—indeed their only—trump card. It won the midyear elections for them in 2002 and the White House in 2004. They’re counting on using it to win again. What else do they have to run on? Not their handling of Hurricane Katrina, not health care, not education, not urban policy, not Social Security, not energy policy, not the environment, and certainly not jobs and economic security. 

The political prospects 

From now until Nov. 7, the American people can count on a high-stakes and brutal battle for control of Congress. This is undoubtedly the most important midterm election in a generation. If the Republicans win and maintain control of Congress, the nation will be faced with another two years of Bush’s policies. If the Democrats win the House, the Senate, or both, these policies will come under serious scrutiny and some might well be reversed. 

In the Senate, the Republicans now have a 55-44 advantage, with one Independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Though the odds favor the Republicans retaining control of the Senate—18 Republican-held seats, 15 Democratic-held seats, and one open seat are up for re-election—Democrats have a long shot at gaining control. They have a good chance of winning seats in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Montana, and Ohio. They then have to pick up two additional seats in tougher races in Tennessee, Virginia, Missouri or Arizona to gain a majority. 

The House is where the Democrats have the best shot at winning. Democrats must pick up 15 additional seats to win control of the House, where all 435 seats are up for grabs. At present, the composition of the House is 231 Republicans, 201 Democrats, one Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, and two vacancies. 

In the upcoming election, only about 40 House seats are in play. Because of recent redistricting, most incumbents have safe seats. If the election were held today, of the 40 contested seats, the Democrats would likely pick up 28—mostly in the Northeast and Midwest—and the Republicans 12. That would give the Democrats a razor-thin two-vote majority. But it would be enough to change the dynamics of national politics and put the White House on the defensive. 

It comes down to this: If the Democrats keep the election focused on the Iraq debacle and economic insecurity, they will win. If unforeseen events occur and the Republicans can frame the debate nationally around terror and/or the hot-button issue of immigration, the outcome could change. 

The issues 

For the past five and a half years, the president and his party have cooked up the ultimate recipe for keeping political power. A nation in a constant state of anxiety—over the threat of terrorism, or at war—is a nation off balance. And that insecurity is the perfect cover to divert public attention from the country’s serious domestic problems and the administration’s reactionary political agenda. 

The “Bush doctrine” opens the door to a series of preemptive wars against “evil” regimes. The ostensible goal is to protect the United States and bring security, stability, safety, and democracy to the citizens of Damascus, Tehran, and Pyongyang, as the president claims to be doing in Baghdad and Kabul. Meanwhile, the administration and Republican congressional leaders show little or no concern for the security, stability, and safety of the citizens of New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York City, Cleveland, or thousands of other cities and small towns across America, who are facing enormous economic and social difficulties. 

Just like in The Wizard of Oz, when we finally get to see who is operating the smoke-puffing machine, we find a consummate pitchman. In Bush’s case, the man behind the screen is a flag-waving, antiterrorist smear- and fear-monger who labels his opponents anti-patriotic. Bush has done a clever job of manipulating the mass media, but in reality his smooth imagery and down-home personality are severely undermining America’s values. While he composes hymns to patriotism, individualism, Sunday piety, trickle-down economics, “staying the course,” and family values, he is trying to gut every program providing for social, economic, and environmental justice. America’s families need less pious rhetoric, and more policies geared toward a healthy economy, secure jobs, decent health care, affordable housing, quality public education, renewable energy, and a sustainable environment. Bush seems unable, or unwilling, to grasp that the government has an important leadership role in this. In fact, providing tax giveaways for the rich and for corporate America is the only policy that seems to energize Bush and the Republicans in Congress. 

At present, an air of suspended belief hangs over the radical changes of the past five and a half years. That is because Bush’s economic policy has been obscured by the events of September 11, the nation’s focus on terrorist alerts—which seem to occur whenever Bush takes a nosedive in the polls—and the Iraq war. But layoffs, shutdowns, cutbacks, outsourcing, gas prices, local tax hikes, and reduced paychecks are taking a huge toll. Bush’s economic policy, which in turn determines social policy, is much like the iceberg waiting in the path of a steaming Titanic. 

Bush does not seem to understand that, while it is not a sin to be born to privilege, it is a sin to spend your life defending it. John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt understood that. They knew the narrowness privilege can breed. This administration, despite its early pledges of “compassionate conservatism,” has in fact adopted policies that amount to a war against the poor and the middle class. 

The Bush tax and budget cuts were not made in order to jump-start the economy or balance the budget; they were simply massive cash transfers. Social programs are being slashed to pay for the war in Iraq, tax giveaways for the wealthy, and new defense contracts for arms makers who just happen to be big Republican campaign contributors. 

Moreover, the administration has not provided the American people with a strategic vision as to how the war in Iraq and this excessive and bloated arms buildup fits into our larger defense, antiterrorist, and foreign policy. Is it in the national interest to relegate our most precious assets—our human, natural, and financial resources—to the junk pile? Is it in the national interest to throw more lives and money into the quagmire in Iraq? To increase the pace of an arms race where overkill has long been achieved and is useless, militarily, in land wars? 

Thomas Jefferson warned us that we could be free or ignorant, but not both. We have not taken that warning to heart. We have not had a serious national debate about the Bush administration’s policies, because the Republican leadership in Congress has engaged in a massive cover-up and the mass media have treated politics—as well as economic and social policy—as entertainment: a combination of hype and palliative. The moral, political, and economic life of this country has suffered. As a consequence, we have lost our moral compass, as well as our intuitive sense of what is significant in both our national and public institutions. 

Foreign policy: the Iraq war and national security 

Since Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush want to invoke history, let’s look at real-world history, instead of the mindless drivel they are peddling. The Bush spinmeisters desperately want to undermine the simple truth that most Democrats understand history and complexity, particularly in regard to the most important decision a president can make: that of taking our country to war, with all its drastic consequences in terms of human lives and the expenditure of national treasure. 

Bush does not seem to understand that those who do not learn from history are condemned to make the same mistakes. Both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, in leading the victorious WWII allies in the war against fascism, understood the suffering, the human costs, and the scourge of war. (Note that Bush kicked off his propaganda offensive with a speech at an American Legion convention. One wonders if there were any Vietnam vets in the audience who thought to themselves, “Oh yeah, this guy has a lot of experience in fighting for freedom. While I was getting shot at and dragging my sorry ass through the muck and mire of Vietnam jungles, he was doing drugs, getting drunk, and practicing his golf swing at Houston country clubs. Ditto for that freedom-fighting draft-dodger Cheney.”) Roosevelt and Churchill understood only too well the need for international cooperation, both diplomatic and military. They understood the critical need for the exchange of intelligence and multinational action by and among traditional allies. They understood the need for strategic alliances that every single president since then, Republican and Democrat, has understood, with the glaring exception of Bush. That’s why he is dangerous and why we need a Democratic Congress to hold him accountable. 

Roosevelt, before his death, was quite clear. He said that the United Nations was the place to go not to end wars, but to end the beginnings of wars. And Churchill was just as explicit when he warned us, “The United Nations is an imperfect institution that is a reflection of an imperfect world. Its purpose is not to lead us into an ascent to heaven but to prevent us from going into a descent to hell.” Those words are just as true and prescient today as they were in the aftermath of WWII. The Democrats understand what they mean. Bush either isn’t interested, or he’s too arrogant to grasp their meaning. 

Saddam Hussein was a despicable tyrant, but overthrowing him and invading Iraq did not lessen the threat of terror; it increased it. It did not strengthen American military capability; it weakened it. It did not make Americans at home or abroad safer; it had the opposite effect of increasing recruitment and support for Al Qaeda and other anti-American militant groups throughout the world. Invading Iraq did not increase international cooperation for antiterrorist efforts or the respect for America’s diplomatic leadership that is indispensable to the war on terror; it diminished them. 

For five and a half years, I have listened carefully to the president and his chief advisers. All of it has reminded me of a passage in The Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad put it this way: “Their talk was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight. . .in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world.” 

Conrad’s words capture the political machinations of the Bush administration’s years in Washington. They reflect the mood and the moral nullity of the reactionary enterprise that seeks to tear apart the public good at home and to promote the neoconservative fantasy of world domination that led us into a risky and tragic preemptive war in Iraq. The Bush administration just doesn’t get it. No country can sustain itself, much less grow, on a political fare of one-liners, secrecy, rerun ideas, deliberate distortions, arrogance, paranoia, and official policy pronouncements borrowed from Orwell’s 1984—where recession is recovery, war is peace, and a social policy based on aggressive hostility is compassion. 

The stakes 

Finally, let me leave you with 25 reasons as to why this election is important and why you should get involved. They are: 

1. Iraq. 

2. Woman’s choice. 

3. Global warming. 

4. Public education. 

5. Civil liberties. 

6. Decent jobs at livable wages. 

7. Affordable housing. 

8. National health insurance. 

9. Torture and human rights abuse. 

10. Separation of church and state. 

11. Soaring federal deficits. 

12. The Supreme Court and federal judges. 

13. Increase in poverty and homelessness. 

14. Assault weapons back on the street. 

15. Social Security. 

16. Consumer protection. 

17. Huge national debt. 

18. Preemptive wars and national security. 

19. Mercury and acid rain. 

20. Disaster preparedness and Hurricane Katrina. 

21. Maldistribution of wealth. 

22. Resumption of nuclear testing. 

23. Homeland security—ports, mass transit, and chemical plants. 

24. Renewable energy and gas prices. 

25. Pervasive corruption, cronyism, manipulation and incompetence. 

You could probably add a number of reasons of your own. What’s of paramount importance though, is that the issues are basic, the choices are stark, the stakes are high, and the consequences could be devastating. 

It’s your country! 

Arthur I. Blaustein is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches community development, public policy, and politics. His most recent books are Make a Difference: America’s Guide to Volunteering and Community Service and The American Promise: Justice and Opportunity. He served on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities under Bill Clinton and was chair of the President’s National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity under Jimmy Carter. 

Reprinted from MotherJones.com with permission of the author.

At 10 a.m. every Friday, Mary Ann Broder opens the Friends of the Library Bookstore for business. She’s been doing that since 1998 when the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library first moved into their present location in the Sather Gate Mall housed in the public parking structure a half block below Telegraph Avenue, between Channing Way and Durant. 

By the time she, or one of the other volunteers, opens the door, people are already gathered outside. Some are looking through the cart of give-away books, while others are eager to get inside to see what new treasures have arrived or maybe what’s been marked down. Book dealers come regularly, looking for bargains. “We’re delighted when a pre-school class arrives, crocodile style with each child holding on to a cloth handle. Escorted by their teachers, they descend on the children’s corner, each selecting a book to buy,” says Broder.  

The generous space, located three blocks from the UC Campus, is a favorite with the university community and houses donated books from private collections, and even from publishers and other stores. Tables display new arrivals, bookcases hold foreign language books, collectibles, fiction, biographies, reference books, cook books, art books, history books, books on computers—you name it and you can probably find it there, in good condition and at amazingly reasonable prices.  

Aside from getting a good deal and maybe a book that isn’t easily available elsewhere, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that the proceeds go to fund library programs that might not get funded otherwise—programs like the children’s summer reading program, music programs including the wonderful annual live jazz series, and such life-changing opportunities as the adult literacy programs. 

The Friends are able to respond to about $100,000 worth of library requests each year because the books are donated and sold in stores by volunteers. In addition to the Sather Gate Store near Telegraph Avenue, the Friends operate a second store in an elegant little space created at the time of the Central Library’s renovation in 2002. Located on the main floor near the elevators, the Central Library Store has a full range of books, but the emphasis is on fiction and children’s books, most of which are in ‘mint condition,’ lightly touched by small hands. 

The store is popular with library patrons and especially with parents and their kids who sometimes discover the store on their way up to the Children’s Room on the fourth floor. With books averaging $2 each, kids often assemble an impressive stack of books—which won’t have to be returned in three weeks. Teachers are also regular customers because in this era of tight budgets they often have to make personal purchases to enrich their classrooms (yes, the Friends give teachers a discount). 

Upstairs, in the Friend’s workroom, volunteers gather each Monday to sort and price books. Sayre Van Young, recently retired after 36 years as a reference librarian with the Berkeley Public Library, works alongside veteran volunteers like Mary Anne Broder, Rose Watada, Gaby Morris, and Joan Haefele. Once the books are ready, volunteers stock the two stores, though at the Sather Gate Store sorting and pricing are an ongoing activity with books donated directly to that location.  

Though operating two stores is recent, the Friends have been around since the mid-1950s when, in the style of the times, they hosted elegant teas for the library staff. The Friends began selling books outside the Central Library at an annual—and very popular—three-day book sale. Friends volunteers remember how book dealers often would line up along the second-level of the old Hink’s parking lot with binoculars in hopes of scoping out titles that they would grab up when the sale began. 

Though it’s been eight years since the last outdoor sale, people still call and ask about the date of next sale. But the volunteers don’t miss working in the musty, dim basement of the old library where books were kept and sorted. And now books are available to prospective buyers year-round. 

The Friends welcome book donations at both locations. If you have lots of books or need help, a volunteer can arrange to pick-up your donations. (Call the Sather Gate Store at 841-5604). Books need to be in good condition, and encyclopedias should be recent. And don’t forget your old maps, audiotape, CDs, videos and DVDs as they are always in demand. 

If volunteering at one of the two stores for two or three hours a week sounds interesting, come in and talk to the volunteers. You will meet interesting people on both sides of the counter. And if book buying or browsing is your passion, check out the Friends’ book stores. And you can justify your acquisitions by knowing you are supporting one of the community’s most beloved and venerable institutions—the Berkeley Public Library. 

Photograph by Lynn Brown: Mary Ann Broder and Miles Karpilow talk books at the Sather Gate store. 

One of the largest residential parcels in the Berkeley, the John Hopkins Spring Estate, commonly known as the Spring Mansion, occupies 3.25 acres in the Southampton area of the north Berkeley Hills. The property is so large as to require three addresses: 1960 San Antonio Ave., 1984 San Antonio Ave., and 639 The Arlington. 

Modeled after Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s Achillion Palace in Corfu, the estate is a scheme of broad balustraded terraces sloping down toward the west. As late as 2005, the grounds were planted with shrubbery, redwood, eucalyptus, pine, and palm trees and ornamented with a fountain and a reflecting pool. On the upper slope stands an imposing two-story mansion designed by John Hudson Thomas. The exterior is primarily Beaux Arts-influenced, while the interiors display the architect’s eclectic influences, including Vienna Secessionist, Arts & Crafts, and Egyptian motifs. 

Measuring 80 ft. by 83 ft., the 12,000-square-foot house, built entirely of concrete, has two main entrances. The eastern entrance in the rear features a rectangular portico and serves the driveway, while the western entrance boasts a semi-circular portico, opening onto the garden terraces and commanding a sweeping vista of San Francisco Bay. This entrance leads to a vaulted passage running along the western length of the building, connecting the dining room in the northwest corner to the living room in the southwest. 

At the heart of the building is a 30-foot high atrium surmounted by a skylight. Four hefty Tuscan columns support the second-floor corridor balconies surrounding the atrium. The upper floor is reached via a grand, 15-foot wide staircase. At the center of the atrium, a slender Italian fountain strikes a Mediterranean note. 

The majestic public rooms are placed on the ground floor along the north and south sides of the house, opening directly into the atrium. These include a living room, dining room, and billiard/sitting room featuring tapestry-covered walls, enormous fireplaces, and rich oak moldings. 

The house was built in 1912–14 by the Spring Construction Company, one of the holdings of landowner and entrepreneur John Hopkins Spring (1862–1933). Born in San Francisco to a New England family, Spring received his real-estate training at his father’s and uncle’s firm, which was involved in various East Bay land ventures. 

In 1897, after the death of his father, Spring moved to Oakland and built a showcase residence by the Sausal Creek in Fruitvale. Following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, he bought a lot in Union Square and built what would become the city’s first department store, City of Paris. 

In the first years of the 20th century, Spring teamed up with Berkeley real-estate developer Duncan McDuffie and capitalists Louis Titus (1872–c.1947) and Wigginton Ellis Creed (1877–1927) in the Berkeley Development Company and the North Berkeley Land Company. He was also a business associate of Francis Marion “Borax” Smith (1846–1931) and Frank Colton Havens (1848–1918), especially in the East Bay real-estate ventures of their Realty Syndicate and its holding company United Properties. 

In 1904–05, Spring acquired J.J. Dunn’s quarry on the former Berryman ranch in north Berkeley. With Creed and Titus as partners, he formed the Spring Construction Company. The company quarried rock at its Spruce Street facility in the La Loma Park and Codornices Park area, and later at the Arlington facility in Cerrito Canyon. Construction vehicles and equipment were maintained at a depot on the old Boswell Ranch site (now the Solano and Peralta junction). In 1906–07, Spring purchased a 142-acre tract around El Cerrito Hill and laid out the subdivision that would become the city of Albany. His best-known venture was the Thousand Oaks subdivision and the shopping district along Solano Avenue, begun in 1909. 

Spring was one of the investors in the Claremont Hotel Co. founded by Louis Titus, though his role in this joint venture has been obfuscated by several contradictory legends. The Landmark Application for the Spring Estate, written in 2000, states: 

“Spring’s first venture into Berkeley real estate was in the Claremont District. ... Before long, Spring had two other partners in the Claremont Tract, Frank Havens and W.P. Mortimer, a Berkeley capitalist. The partners financed the grand Hotel Claremont but construction was slowed down due to financial stringency resulting from the 1907 Panic. 

In 1910, Spring approached his partners with a proposal to play a game of dominoes with the hotel property as the stake. Spring first played Mortimer and beat him. Later he played Havens and lost. It was Spring who planned the lovely garden terraces around the hotel that became known as the ‘Jewel of the East Bay.’” 

Another version is told on the Claremont Hotel’s website: 

“The property … fell into the hands of Frank Havens and ‘Borax’ Smith, a famous miner. They planned to erect a resort hotel on the property with trains running directly into the lobby. Unfortunately, these plans were abandoned. One night, Havens, Smith and John Spring, a Berkeley capitalist, played a game of checkers in the old Athenian Club of Oakland with the stakes being the property, and Havens won. 

He began building in 1906, but the panic of that year interrupted construction. After trying again in 1910, Havens lost heart, and in 1914 allied himself with Eric Lindblom, who had struck it rich in the Klondike. The sprawling Mediterranean hostelry was completed in 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. In 1918, Lindblom took complete control of The Claremont until he sold it in 1937 to Mr. And Mrs. Claude Gillum, who virtually rebuilt it from the foundation up, and completely refurbished the interior.” 

Yet another variant, this time by Oakland architectural historian Annalee Allen, omits Spring altogether: “Legend has it that Havens retained sole interest in the project when he and Smith decided one night to play a game of dominoes (some say checkers) and Smith lost.” 

In 1997, Spring’s son told BAHA’s Lesley Emmington that his father did participate in the game, which was either blackjack or poker, the sole opponent having been “Borax” Smith. The interview notes don’t reveal the identity of the winner. 

Perhaps closest to the truth is the account by longtime Berkeley Gazette columnist Hal Johnson, published on Jan. 29, 1943: 

“It was Spring all-year round in Albany and in Northbrae and Thousand Oaks for some years before the San Francisco fire until January 1920—John Spring, pioneer developer of large residential tracts, road builder and capitalist. The late John Spring was a gambler, not at the card table or at roulette but on the East Bay Area. He won when he backed Berkeley and Albany. Later he lost heavily—in the millions—when he bucked the stock market. 

John Spring—the man who plunged into great financial undertakings and into growing rare flowers and shrubbery—passed out of the world picture April 16, 1933, at the age of 70. He left a seemingly permanent monument here in the Spring mansion, San Antonio Ave., now Williams College. Spring built that massive structure of 12 great rooms, including six bedrooms, each with a private bath, in 1914. 

He erected the great house of reinforced concrete at the time of his lowest ebb financially—when he owed more than a million dollars and was land poor. He had sold thousands of dollars worth of home sites in that vicinity on the strength that he would build his own home there. And he kept faith with buyers. 

The Spring mansion is probably the only residence in the East Bay which has a reinforced concrete roof. That area then was outside of the city limits and there was no fire protection. 

Growing there still are stately pines brought from Norway and Irish yew trees. When Spring lived there he had a great rose garden with all varieties that would grow in Northern California. On Avis Rd. you can still see some of the imitation rocks which were part of the foundation of the large greenhouses.  

John Spring was born in San Francisco Dec. 13, 1862. His father, Francisco Samuel Spring, and his uncle, John Spring, came to California about 1852. Capt. John Hopkins Spring, old New England sea captain, brought his two sons to California on his own boat. They went into the real estate business and John Spring followed in their footsteps. 

Spring saw a future for the East Bay Area. As late as 1915 he owned practically all of Albany, except the Gill tract at San Pablo Ave. and Buchanan St., all of Thousand Oaks and Arlington Heights and a large part of Northbrae. Some 3,500 homes since then have been erected on his original holdings.  

He was an athlete as a young man and won medals for swimming and for bicycle racing. His three daughters are Mrs. George Friend of 120 Hillcrest Rd., Mrs. Noble Newsome of 410 Pala Ave., Piedmont, and Miss Dorothy Spring, now a WAAC stationed at Sacramento. His son, Frank Spring, is chief designer for the Hudson Automobile Co. and lives in Michigan. Mrs. Charlotte Montgomery of San Francisco is his sister. She is the widow of Dr. Douglas Montgomery who died while they were in South America soon after they had made their escape from Shanghai. 

John Spring took chances but as long as these chances were in real estate they were winning ones. When San Francisco was burning, the day following the April 1906 earthquake, he offered $400,000 for the lot and steel structure of the proposed new Spring Valley Water Co. building and the offer was quickly accepted. 

He formed the Union Square Improvement Co. with East Bay capital and erected a large building. In 1915 the structure was sold to the Hooper Lumber Co. for more than $1,250,000—a handsome profit. The building, Stockton and Geary Sts., has been occupied by the City of Paris since it was built. 

Spring gradually acquired tidelands from about where the Key Route Pier was built to near the Ford plant in Richmond. These were sold in 1925 to the Santa Fe Railroad for $700,000. 

He cashed that check with the late Phillip M. Bowles, president of the American Bank in Oakland and associated with Spring in many financial deals. “Why John, that check is for $700,000,” exclaimed Bowles. “Where did you get the money?” “I just sold those tidelands on which you wouldn’t loan me $50,000 a few months ago,” replied Spring. 

Between 1926 and 1929 John Spring lost more than a million when the bottom fell out of the stock market. He paid dollar for dollar, took his loss with a smile and went down the peninsula to live. 

There was one time when John Spring figured he won when he lost. He was associated with the late F.M. (“Borax”) Smith and Frank C. Havens in the plans for Hotel Claremont. Spring wanted to have near Berkeley a hotel on a peer with the Del Monte. He was responsible for the beautiful Claremont Hotel gardens.  

About 1912, the Hotel Claremont had been started, but was a long way from being finished. Taxes, interest on investment and care of the gardens were eating into the finances of the combine that had undertaken to erect the hotel. 

One by one they dropped out until Spring and Frank Havens were left holding the sack which contained a $400,000 mortgage. Spring and Havens played a game of dominoes at the old Athenian Club in Oakland with the hotel property as the stake. Havens won the game and the unfinished Claremont Hotel.” 

Spring’s own home was completed in 1914, but he didn’t enjoy it for long. At Christmas 1915, he left his wife Celina for another woman. In 1918, Celina Spring sold the estate to the Cora L. Williams Institute of Creative Development (later Williams College), a tony elementary and secondary school known for its focus on languages, poetry, music, and literature. 

Famous guest lecturers such as Mark Twain and psychologist Alfred Adler taught courses there. Interpretive dance inspired by Isadora Duncan was taught, and Institute students danced with the Boyntons at the Temple of Wings and with Duncan colleague Vassos Kanellos at the Hearst Greek Theater. One of the students, Helen Bacon Hooper, went on to dance with Martha Graham. The Williams Institute’s most celebrated alumnus was probably Irving Wallace (1916–1990), author of The Chapman Report. 

The school occupied the mansion for five decades. In 1975, the Spring estate was purchased by real-estate investor Larry Leon, who made the mansion his home for the next 30 years. The estate was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 2000. Last year Leon sold the property to a consortium of investors who were planning to establish a conference center on the site. They have since cleared the grounds in preparation for building additional structures. 

Everyone has something particularly annoying about their job. I’m sure yours has at least one (I can see the heads nodding). O.K. It’s more than one. Me too. I’ve got a few and one of these serenity-busters that bugs me the most is being asked which building code justifies an item that I’ve called-out during an inspection. 

Now, I’ve actually gotten quite a bit better at finding things in the code book in the last year or two and to discuss the finer points that come out of their study, but to be frank, it’s not that relevant to what I do.  

The building code really doesn’t apply much to looking at old houses. Now, on the face of it, that seems like a reasonable statement but, in the search for something to hang our ideas upon, people still keep running down the cognitive ravine to the what seems as though would be found at the root of what’s right or wrong about a house, i.e., the codes. 

There are a bunch of problems with this thinking and it really messes with my day, if you know what I mean. How do I justify the things I have to say about a house.  

Does the code tell me what’s wrong or right? Can I say that something is wrong because it didn’t follow the code? No. I can’t and here’s why and get ready because it’s quite an onslaught. 

First, many of the building I see were built before the first building code even existed. While building protocols or practices DID exist, there was nothing written down as to what you could and couldn’t do. The first building code book came out in 1917 and even this was a very slender pamphlet. The majority of buildings I see (those from the 1920’s & 30’s) were built with some codes in force but were, again, largely the result of good practices and not enforced rules. 

Since everything old we see is grand-fathered, or adopted as acceptable unless changed in some way, there’s almost nothing the code has to say about these much older buildings. 

For the sake of argument we can talk about a building from 1970 and say that many modern codes would have applied to it but here again, there are a range of problems. What city were we in at the time of construction? What version of the code was being used on the dates of the inspections? 

Who was the site inspector for the inspections and what local additions to the code were being practiced by the city for this type of construction at the time? Also, what were the zoning practices for this site at the time of construction? 

This mass of conditions makes it virtually impossible to say what rules would have applied to a particular building at the time of construction over a wide range of issues including set-backs, specific electrical codes, building height, the steepness of stairways and the requirement for smoke detectors. The list is huge.  

One thing that’s very important to realize is that, not only were the city policies and adopted codes relevant to each condition, but the specific site inspector was and is much like a judge in each case. 

No matter what the code book may say, the site inspector has the authority to call things as they see fit. Of course if they wander too far afield, we can “appeal” to the chief inspector or higher government official but it usually doesn’t work. 

So, how can I say that a stairway would have violated the code in 1966, when, for all I know, the city inspector stood there on that day, looked at his 1964 copy of the Uniform Building Code and his local Oakland amendment sheet and decided that these didn’t apply to what he (yes it was a guy) thought of as a servant’s entrance. You see, there’s just too much “noise” between that event in the past and today to be able to say much of anything about what the right call would have been at the time of construction. 

Even construction from the very recent past has problems of this sort, although this can more easily sorted out, if you’re serious about it and willing to do a lot of calling around. 

However, the important thing in my line of work isn’t to say what the site inspector or the plan checker would have said at the time but what I, as an observer, can say based on what I know and see today.  

That’s the nitty gritty of the job. I’m not a code checker and if I were, you can see how woefully hobbled I would be in performing it. I never know, for certain, which code was in force (they’re constantly being revised), what presiding official’s would have said at the time and also, how much has changed since that time.  

That’s is one more thing that makes code checking virtually impossible on older building. They’re being changed all the time. Many houses I see have been remodeled, and remodeled and remodeled. Little thing here, big thing there, tear this out, put this here. By the time I come along, it can be quite a trial to tell, even broadly, what the original building looked like and when each change came to pass. 

Nevertheless, I’ll confess that I do spend a lot of time looking at this aspect of the houses I see. I do, in part because it’s a puzzle and sort of irresistible. Partly, because it can help to ferret out mistakes that might be important. 

One oft-seen case in which it’s relevant is the one where a wall or other load bearing member has been moved or re-moved. If I don’t think about what the building would originally have looked like, it’s easy to miss something of this sort which might be truly vital. So I try. 

Once again, the point I wanted to make has required that you slog through all this stuff and so you have my gratitude and apology. And here it is. 

Home inspectors are not code checkers because the code says so very little about buildings. This may seem nutty to say but it’s really quite true. You can’t design a building using the codes and as code experts are so fond of saying, the code is a MINIMUM standard, not a recommended formula for construction. The code also says almost nothing about the way in which things wear out, decay and fail. 

Amazingly, there’s no code for seismic retrofitting, so you can’t say that there aren’t enough bolts in your retrofit based on that book.  

The code doesn’t say when the paint job or the leaky window needs fixing and it doesn’t say that you have to have x number of smoke detectors in your old building (unless you are doing a remodel and they make you put some in). The code doesn’t prevent many places where slips and falls occur and also doesn’t point out the myriad improvement and upgrades that time and technology have provided. 

In short, I’d say that the most of what I’m doing in my job has almost nothing to do with the code. It’s there all the time as a reference, lurking just out of sight, and I like to invoke it where it says something of value but that’s very different from “calling something” as a violation.  

As you can see, I just can’t do that, ever. All I can do is to say that some current codes say such and such a thing and that this may be in violation of one of them. However, I can say that something is a problem, that something is dangerous (in my view). That something is a bad idea (all too often…) and might lead to harm or distress. And let me tell you, friend, you can sure fill up a day with that stuff. 

When we start thinking good thoughts about rain, it must be the peak of fire season. That means fall planting season is coming soon, and it’s time to start looking for plants to fill in (or overcrowd) our gardens. Especially California natives, because this is a good time to plant them, to take advantage of the winter rains. Even drought-loving plants need a bit of watering help in their first year.  

The California Native Plant Society has made a big change in one tradition. The East Bay Chapter’s reliable October sale won’t happen at the Merritt College hort department this year, as the department has some expansion plans and wants the ground it lent the chapter in return for help with the department greenhouse. (Yikes. This must be what it feels like to watch your parents go through an “amicable” divorce.) 

Instead, the Native Here Nursery will host the Native Plant Fair on Saturday, Oct. 28, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 29, noon to 3 p.m. Very local plants from NH –the chapter’s restoration nursery—as well as “horticultural natives” from around the state will be for sale, along with seeds, bulbs, books, art, and other wares; experts and CNPS honchos will talk and answer questions, too. 

Lots of plants, says the sales committee, so enjoy a leisurely and informative weekend. More info and schedules to come on the chapter’s Web site, www.ebcnps.org—or you could volunteer by showing up on Friday or Saturday mornings between now and the sale, or contact the nursery, nativehere@ebcnps.org for other times.  

The other half of the erstwhile couple, Merritt College’s Landscape Horticulture Department, is having its fall sale on Oct. 7. There are always natives there, too, as well as fall-plantable veggies, annuals, perennials, bulbs, trees, who knows what? I find something weird and wonderful every year at my alma mater. You can grab coffee and pastries or a nice lunch burger (veggie or otherwise) and hear live music, buy art or tools, or just schmooze. 

There will be smart and friendly folks to tell you what you need to know about Aesthetic Pruning—the coming thing in tree care, combining traditional Japanese lore with recent discoveries about how trees work—and about flower arranging, Permaculture, garden and landscape design and construction, soils, bugs, plant diseases, and more.  

Here’s a new one: The Watershed Nursery’s Fall Open House & Native Plant Sale, Oct. 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., features 20 percent off all plants (except clearance items.) Watershed specializes in natives for habitat restoration, and has recently started having drop-in hours for the public, so you can get a look beforehand. 

Maybe you’ll want to scout the place out anyway; here are the directions from its Web site, www.thewatershednursery.com: “Head east (towards UC Berkeley) on University. Turn left on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Turn right on Cedar. After you begin to go uphill, turn left on Euclid, right on Hawthorne Terrace. Left on Le Roy Ave. Stay on winding road. It will turn into Tamalpais Rd. You will see a small sign 155 with an arrow to the left and down. Please park on the street and walk down the driveway. The nursery is located in a fenced-off area to your right past the pond.” 

Don’t fall in!  

Native Here Nursery 

101 Golf Course Road (across from the golf course entrance) Tilden Park, Berkeley 

Merritt College 

12500 Campus Drive, Oakland (Rte. 13 to Redwood Road exit; uphill to Campus Drive, turn right; up Campus Drive to, guess what? the campus) 436-2418  

The Watershed Nursery 

155 Tamalpais Road, Berkeley 

548-4714 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet.

How Much Food and Water? 

If you’re someone who wants to be prepared for the major quake in our future, you’ve probably done something about having food and water available for you and your family.  

Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

1. Some disaster preparedness groups recommend having three days worth of food and water (1 gallon per person per day). I agree with the ones that say be ready for a full week (think Katrina). 

2. I’ve never seen an emergency kit (including ours) that has enough food or water. You really need to supplement the kits. 

3. The best plan for water is a 55 gallon barrel with a siphon, which you treat with bleach so it will last at least 5 years.  

4. Have plenty of canned foods, which need to be regularly used and replaced.  

5. Some folks have found a source on-line for MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), similar to the military products. We might add these to our web site in the future. 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.

Democrats continue to gain momentum in their bid to wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans. According to veteran DC prognosticator, Charlie Cook, there are now 46 House seats in play. In order to prevail, the Democrats will have to win 15 of the 36 tenuous GOP seats. And hold onto 10 shaky Democratic seats. 

Here’s the latest look at 16 races where Democrats have good shot at taking a Republican Congressional seat: 

Arizona 8th district: Republican Jim Kolbe is retiring. The Sept. 12 primary determined that conservative Republican Randy Graf will battle Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. She’s favored. 

California 11th: Democrat Jerry McNerney is running for the congressional seat occupied by arch-conservative Republican Richard Pombo. The district leans Republican, but there is great dissatisfaction with Pombo; the most recent poll shows him trailing his opponent by several percentage points. This promises to be the most expensive California Congressional contest. Pombo has a 4:1 advantage in terms of “cash-on-hand.” 

Colorado 7th: Republican incumbent Bob Beauprez is running for Governor. Democrat Ed Perlmutter won the Aug. 8 primary and will run against Republican Rick O’Donnell. Perlmutter trails O’Donnell in the money race. 

In Connecticut two Republican Congressman are vulnerable in districts that have traditionally voted Democrat. In the 2nd district, incumbent Rob Simmons is getting stiff opposition from Democrat Joe Courtney. In the 4th district, incumbent Chris Shays is having trouble with Diane Farrell. So far, both Democratic challengers are keeping pace with the incumbents in terms of fundraising. Some experts say that these races will be affected by the turnout for the Lamont-Lieberman Senatorial contest: Republicans may go to the polls for Lieberman. Who wins will depend upon which party turns out their vote. 

Florida 22th: Incumbent Republican Clay Shaw will face Democrat Ron Klein. This promises to be a very expensive race. 

Illinois 6th: Republican Henry Hyde is retiring. The contest will pit Republican Peter Roskam versus Tammy Duckworth, a retired Army pilot who lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq. While this is a slightly Republican district, Duckworth has run a strong campaign. The race continues to be even. 

It’s an indication of the trouble the GOP is having that three of their Indiana seats are vulnerable. In the 2nd district challenger Joe Donnelly is neck and neck with incumbent Chris Chocola. In the 8th district, incumbent John Hostettler is getting the race of his life from County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth. In the 9th district, incumbent Mike Sodrel is having a tough time with Democrat Baron Hill. Ellsworth has raised much more money than his opponent. Hill is holding his own. Donnelly is behind. The Dems might pick up two here. 

Iowa 1st: Republican Jim Nussle is retiring to run for Governor. Democrat Bruce Braley will face Republican Mike Whalen in a district that leans Democrat. This is another close race that the Dems may win. 

Kentucky 4th: Republican Geoff Davis is facing stiff competition from the former Democratic incumbent Ken Lucas. Although this district has traditionally voted Republican, the last poll showed Lucas ahead. Davis has a 2:1 money advantage. 

New Mexico 1st: Republican Heather Wilson is facing stiff competition from New Mexico Attorney General Patsy Madrid. Polls show that this interesting race is a dead heat. Wilson has had fundraisers with Bush and Cheney. Nonetheless, Madrid remains close in “cash-on-hand.” 

New York 24th: Republican incumbent Sherwood Bohelert is retiring. Democrat Michael Arcuri has run a strong campaign against Republican Ray Meier. 

North Carolina 11th: Former pro-football quarterback Heath Shuler is challenging Republican Charles Taylor. Shuler has the lead in both money and the polls. 

There’s a lot going on in Ohio in this election. In the 18th district, incumbent Republican Bob Ney unexpectedly abandoned his reelection bid because of persistent rumors about his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While Republicans fumble to find a replacement for Ney, Democratic challenger Zack Space is running an unexpectedly strong race. 

Pennsylvania 6th: Republican Jim Gerlach appears to be falling behind Democratic challenger Lois Murphy. So far, she’s raised more money than he has. 

Texas 22nd: Republican Tom Delay resigned, or so he thought. However, the courts determined that his name must stay on the ballot. The big winner will be former Democratic Congressman Nick Lampson. 

Virginia 2nd: Republican incumbent Thelma Drake is running a terrible campaign. She may lose to Democratic challenger Phil Kellam even though she’s raised more money. 

The eight Democratic Congressional incumbents who face tight races are: Jim Marshall (Ga.-8), John Barrow (Ga.-12), Melissa Bean (Ill.-8), Leonard Boswell (Ia.-3), Charles Melancon (La.-3), John Spratt (S.C.-5), Chet Edwards (Texas-17), and Alan Mollohan (W.V.-1). In Ohio 6th, Charlie Wilson is ahead in the competition to keep a Democratic seat. In Vermont, Democrat Peter Welch leads the race to keep the seat being vacated by Bernie Sanders. 

It seems to be a foregone conclusion that the Democrats will pick up seats. Whether they will win enough to wrest control from the GOP is likely to come down to two things: money and national security. Republicans will spend lots of money to retain the seats where their incumbents are threatened. 

Polls show that President Bush’s only strength is national security: the perception that he is “strong on terrorism.” Could it be that Osama bin Laden will step forward to help Dubya at the last moment? 

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

On Thursday I bought three pints of Haagen-Dazs ice cream for Ralph, Andrea, and me. We were planning on watching “Survivor” together. It was the 188th episode, the beginning of the most controversial season yet. Real life-like explosive racial stereotyping, the news reports said.  

But that afternoon real life got in the way. Our dog Whiskers became ill. She was weak, lethargic. There was blood in her mouth and under her fur. I rushed her to the VCA Animal Hospital on Shattuck Avenue. 

“We’ll do some tests,” said the veterinarian, taking Whiskers from my arms. “Come back after 6.” 

I went home, straightened up the house, paid an overdue bill, prepared dinner.  

That evening I returned to VCA. “Something is very wrong,” said the doctor. “Whiskers’ blood isn’t clotting. You need to take her to the emergency pet clinic on University Avenue. I’ve contacted them and they’re expecting you.”  

I called Andrea and told her she’d have to give Ralph dinner. I was going to miss “Survivor.”  

“Do what you have to do,” said Andrea. “Me and Ralph’ll be just fine.”  

At the clinic someone whisked Whiskers away. While I waited in an outer room a woman came by and picked up two rabbits. A man left with a meowing cat. A couple sat quietly in plastic chairs holding between them a sad little Chihuahua. 

“Whiskers has lost a lot of blood,” said a new doctor. “We need to give her a transfusion immediately.” 

“Okay,” I said. Carefully I added, “No heroic efforts.” I had been rehearsing those words for the last half hour. “She’s almost 14 years old,” I said. “I know she can’t survive forever.” 

“Yes,” said the vet, “but let’s see how she responds. We’ll keep her overnight and run more tests. You can pick her up tomorrow morning.” 

In a flash, my false bravado abandoned me. “I can’t take her home? She’s my best friend. She’s—” 

“She’s too sick to go home with you,” interrupted the doctor. “She could bleed to death.” 

I left Whiskers there. I didn’t want to be one of those people who fell apart when their dog dies. But at the thought of Whiskers’ death, I had to pull into a gas station on MLK and wait until my vision cleared.  

It was dark and quiet at home. Ralph’s oxygen machine hissed. Andrea’s bedroom door was closed. I did a crossword puzzle. I read an article about Snakes on a Plane. 

In the morning I drove to the clinic. The transfusion wasn’t finished and it hadn’t gone well. Whiskers and I returned to VCA with a plastic bag full of dark red blood and a large brown envelope containing her x-rays. A technician told me to come back at 6 p.m.  

I kept myself busy at home. I made an appointment for Ralph. I called the wheelchair people to find out why they hadn’t fixed Ralph’s chair. I went to the pharmacy to get Ralph’s medications. I watered the garden. I wrote a letter for Andrea’s sister, Noonie, demanding that her ex-landlord return her furniture. I tried to ignore Whiskers’ food and water bowls.  

At 6 I went to VCA. Whiskers was better. I carried her, ensconced in thick pink gauze, to the car. At 8 we rushed back. The dressing was drenched in blood. At 9 we went home again. Whiskers was now wrapped in thicker bandages.  

During the night, I heard Whiskers wander through the house. At 7 a.m. I scrubbed blood from the living room, dining room, kitchen, and bedroom floors. At 7:45 we waited for the front doors of VCA to open. At 9 I held Whiskers in my arms as the doctor gave her a final injection and put her to sleep. 

I went home and got into bed. For the first time in almost 13 years I tried to fall asleep without a miniature Schnauzer wrapped, like earmuffs, around my head. 

On Sunday I ate two pints of Haagen-Dazs and Andrea ate one. We realized we didn’t know what had happened on “Survivor.” We didn’t bother to find out.  

By Ron Sullivan 

Special to the Planet 

A reader wrote to ask me to discuss the sad state of the elm species. Since threatened trees are much in the news locally, and have deserved even more attention than they’ve had, I’m glad (for fairly scratchy values of “glad”) to mention this, one of the native American marvels whose destruction has been so thorough and so forgotten that we’re generally oblivious to our own impoverishment.  

The first species to die off in such devastating fashion was the American chestnut. That was a keystone species of the eastern forests, and when chestnut blight did it in so completely, the whole flora and fauna changed. Oaks took over the niche, but acorns and chestnuts aren’t quite the same, and dependent populations shifted or vanished in the interim between die-off and replacement.  

The blight that struck American elms, starting around the 1930s, had had as much effect on the ecology of cities as on forests.  

Elms, particularly Ulnus americana, had long been the mark and pride of civilization. Their great size in maturity and their regal vase-like form made them logical as landmarks and meeting places long before streets and buildings cluttered up the early transit hubs—river fords, trail crossings, routes between settlements—and newcomers followed the examples of the first residents in revering the tree. It was a short step between founding a town around a distinctive tree and planting the town’s streets and squares with its descendents and brethren.  

One of my favorite tree plantings ever was a great double row of elms on Market Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Harrisburg, Pa. It was a sylvan feeling, indeed, that the great trees conferred on the street—three broad traffic lanes plus parking, roughly as broad as Berkeley’s University Avenue—as they arched almost all the way across the pavement, up the hill past my high school. They were especially breathtaking in autumn, when they turned brilliant gold. 

It’s been decades since I saw the elms last—most of my family moved to Florida, so we meet there—and I haven’t had the heart to ask if they’re still alive. Certainly they were senior trees when I left, 33 years ago.  

Dutch elm disease is a fungus, variously called Ceratocystis ulmi or Ophiostoma novo-ulmi or Ophiostoma ulmi, that clogs the tree’s vascular system; the leaves wilt and die because the water from the roots can’t get to them, and the whole tree follows. The fungus evidently got here from Europe, where it was ravaging elms, in a shipment of veneer lumber. It’s spread by two beetle species, the native bark beetle Hylurgopinus rufipes and the European elm bark beetle, Scolytus multistriatus, and directly from tree to tree when roots meet and “graft” to each other, as many kinds of tree roots commonly do.  

One thing that accelerated the epidemic in cities was precisely the strategem that planners and landscapers had used to get that stately allee effect: effectively, they’d planted a monoculture. Individual elms and regional varieties might have more resistance to the fungus, but all these close cousins—even seed-grown trees in the nurseries were likely to be from seeds of one or a few selected handsome or historic trees—didn’t stand a chance.  

American elms were even less resistant to the new fungus than European elms had been; no surprise, in a completely unexposed population. Humans have experienced similar disasters.  

Arboreta and laboratories have been working for decades to breed fungus-proof American-type elms, using parents from different populations or hybridizing American elms with Siberian elms and other related species. 

We have quite a few Chinese elms, Ulmus parvifolia, also used in this effort, as street trees in Berkeley. I like those; they’re graceful and have interesting bark patterns (“lacebark elm” is an alternate name) and are easier to prune than you might suppose if you look just at some of our more grotesquely handled specimens.  

But they’re not the same sort of tree as American elm. (Not to be all parochial about it: Other North American elms like the wahoo and the slippery elm, while also nifty in their own right, aren’t in the same league either.)  

Replacement plantings have carried their own problems; many, like fruitless mulberry, are ridiculously allergenic. None has quite the place in history as American elm, and we’re poorer for having lost so much of the species.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan.  

This Chinese elm is a bit mopheaded; careful thinning would improve its looks. The species resists Dutch elm disease, but doesn’t fill the grand-old-tree niche of American elm.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 22 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “The Foreigner” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St, Alameda, through Oct. 1. Cost is $12-$15. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “Mother Courage” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addison St., through Oct. 22. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “As You Like It” 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 Oct. 15. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

“Church House, Dope House, Dream House” a one-woman show by Yehmanja, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $25. www.churhchousedopehousedreamhose.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “The Orchid Sandwich” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Oct. 21. at 951 Pomona Ave. El Cerrito. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theatre “Colorado” A dark comedy about celebrity worship, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. Runs through Oct. 28. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Masquers Playhouse “Diary of a Scoundrel” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond across from the Hotel Mac. Through Sept. 30. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Looking for Hope” Photograhs by Matt O’Brien with text by students in the Oakland Public Schools opens at the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park Museum Gallery, 2465 34th Ave. Gallery open Thurs.-Fri. 4 to 6 p.m. and Sun. noon to 4 p.m. 532-9142. www.peraltahacienda.org 

“The Halloween Show” Mixed media group show. Reception at 7 p.m. at Eclectix, 7523 Fairmont Ave., El Cerrito. Runs through Nov. 4. 364-7261. 

FILM 

The Cinema of Jea-Pierre and Luc Dardenne “La promesse” at 7 p.m. and “Je pense a vous” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Oakland S.O.U.P.: Sing, Open Up, and Poetize, with Jan Steckel at 6:30 p.m. at Temescal Café. 4920 Telegraph Ave. selene@matchlessgoddess.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Deep Roots Dance “Envoi” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio Theater, 2525 8th St. Cost is $10-$15.  

Toshi Reagon at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Savion Glover, tap dancer, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $28-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Tom Peron/Bud Spangler Interplay Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Pele Juju with the Shelley Doy Extet at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$17. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Amy Meyers and Judea Eden at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Storyhill, contemporary folk duo, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Matt Renzie Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Johnny Reyes and Amy Obenski at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Guerilla Hi-Fi, Double Stroke, Myles Boisen’s Past-Present-Future at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Allegiance, Ceremony, Acts of Sedition, benefit for the American Cancer Society, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Native Elements, live roots reggae, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7-$9. 548-1159.  

San Pablo Project at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Lava Nights, One in the Chamber at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100.  

Karrin Allyson at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Face of Poetry” Photographs by Margaretta Mitchell. Artist talk at 3 p.m. in the Community Room 3rd Flr., Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., through Oct. 30. 981-6100. 

“Flowers and Foliage” watercolors by Joanna Katz. Reception at 3 p.m. at Back in Action Chiropractic Center, 2500 Martin Luther King Jr Way. 

“Symbols and Myths” Chinese Hill Tribe Batiks and Embroideries. Reception at 5 p.m. at Ethic Arts and Red Gingko, 1314 10th St. 527-5270. 

FILM 

The Cinema of Jea-Pierre and Luc Dardenne “Rosetta” at 6:30 p.m. and “Falsch” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peter Phillips, Dennis Loo and others talk about “Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Robert Harris describes “Imperium” the story of Marcus Cicero’s rise to power, at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Brian Daffern introduces his new fantasy-adventure “The Ambient Knight” at 2 p.m. at the ASUC Bookstore, Bancroft and Telegraph.  

Rhythm & Muse features Upsurge! with jazz poets Zigi Lowenberg and Raymond Nat Turner, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. 644-6893.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concerts presents Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St., between Durant and Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$12. For reservations call 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

One Soul Sounding Concert and Ritual Autumn Equinox Celebration at 7:30 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$22. www.lisarafel.com  

Bryan Baker, piano and Rod Lowe, tenor, at 8 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensingon. Tickets are $15-$50. 525-0302. 

“A Walk by the Sea” World dance and music performance by Mahealani Uchiyama and guests, at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $20. 845-2605. www.mahea.com 

“Movements of Bliss” Sacred dance of India by the Odissi Vilas Dance Company at 7 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-456-2799. 

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988.  

Bird by Snow, Spencer Owen, and James Moore at 8 p.m. at The Living Room, 3230 Adeline St. Donation $2. 601-5774. 

Los Boleros at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568.  

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Cyndi Harvey and Johnny Mac at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

David Jacobs-Strain, progressive roots and blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. 

Ken Berman Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Living Remix at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100.  

The Ravines at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

KC Booker & Big Soul, Rock ‘n’ Roll Adventure Kids, Little Boy Blue, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Matt Morrish & Trinket Lover at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Tinkture, Toast Machine at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 

THEATER 

African-American Shakespeare Company “Taming of the Shrew” at 4 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd. Oakland. 238-7275.  

EXHIBITIONS  

“The Whole World is Watching” Peace and Social Justice movements of the 1960’s & 1970’s documentary photographs. Reception at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

Judith Corning “Parklands” Reception with the artist at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Trent Burkett “New Work in Salt and Wood” at Trax Ceramics Gallery, 1812 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Oct. 15. 540-8729. www.traxgallery.com 

“Measure of Time” Guided tour at 2 p.m. lecture by Linda Dalrymple Henderson at 3 p.m at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

FILM 

The Mechanical Age “Sherlock Jr.” at 4 p.m. and “The Man with a Movie Camera” at 5:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Annual Grito de Lares Celebration from 4 to 7:30 p.m. p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568.  

“9/11 & American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out” at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. School. Tickets are $15 in advance. 486-0698.  

Murray Silverstein reads “Any Old Wolf” and “Patterns of Home” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Benefit Classical and Jazz Concert to restore the 1909 Steinway at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, from 2 to 6 p.m. at 1924 Cedar. Donation $5. 841-4824. 

Rolando Villazón, tenor, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $68. 642-9988.  

Tilden Trio at 7 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost ia $10-$15. 845-1350. 

Opera at the Chimes: Scenes from Carmen at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$22, includes reception. 836-6772. 

Sundays at Four Concert with oboist Laura Reynolds, clarinetist Bruce Foster, and the Sor Ensemble Series at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $18, children under 18 free. 559-2941.  

Crosspulse Rhythm Duo at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $7.50-$12.50. 925-798-1300. 

Vern Williams Memorial Concert at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

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

Americana Unplugged: The Whiskey Brothers at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Kenny Werner Trio at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. 

Nate Lopez at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Zoe Ellis Group at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

MONDAY, SEPT. 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ayun Halliday reads from “Dirty Sugar Cookies” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“The Myths and Reality of the Near-Death Experience” with author PMH Atwater at 7 p.m. at Unity, 2075 Eunice St. Donation $10. 523-4376. 

Poetry Express theme night on favorite poems at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Khalil Shaheed, all ages jam, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Musica ha Disconnesso at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Sarah Manning at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

TUESDAY, SEPT. 26 

FILM 

Alternative Visions “Charming Augustine” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson talks about the mental and emotional loves of animals at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Maybeck Trio at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20. 525-5211. www.berkeleychamberperform.org 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun Zydeco dance lesson a 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Beth Custer’s Clarinet Thing at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Larry Coryell, Victor Bailey, Lenny White Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Colors” A group show by East Bay Women Artists opens at Royal Ground Gallery, 2058 Mountain Blvd., Montclair, Oakland. Exhibition runs to Jan. 7. 451-2661. 

FILM 

Celebrate Oaxaca! “Sketches of Juchitan” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Pirates and Piracy “Sonic Outlaws” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Writing Teachers Write” featuring Amy Brooks at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

John Stauber describes “The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“Iranian Voices in Diaspora” with Iranian writers including poets Persis Karim and Mahnaz Badihian and Persian-inspired music by Aleph Null at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with University Symphony Orchestra at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Arwen Castellanos & Jorge Liceaga, film and concert celebrating Oaxaca at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Tribute to the Conga at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

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

Maria Kalaniemi Trio at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Larry Coryell, Victor Bailey, Lenny White Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 28 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “Love is a Dream House in Lorin” by Marcus Gardley, inspired by true stories of Berkeley’s historic Lorin District, Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Nov. 5. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Civic Center Art Exhibition 2006-2007 Opening ceremony at 3 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Courtyard, 2180 Milvia St. RSVP to 981-7541. 

FILM 

The Mechanical Age “The Serial and the Mechanical Age” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nomad Spoken Word Night at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Vangie Buell reads from her memoir of growing up in the Philippines “Twenty-five Chickens and a Pig for a Bride” at at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Laurence Juber, guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Wayward Monks at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Omar Ait Vimoun, Algerian Berber music on mandol and oud, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Is, The Bluegrass Revolution, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. 

A Tribute to Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua Group, at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Film was the dominant art form of the 1920s, an international cultural phenomenon which, in the days before sound, was considered a universal language.  

No one seemed to have more fun with the form and its potential than the Germans, who exploited every camera angle, every trick of light, every effect—technical, psychological and otherwise—that the medium had to offer. 

Two rare German silents have been released by Kino that illustrate the point beautifully. Asphalt and Warning Shadows, masterpieces of Expressionism, take vastly different approaches to the form while reveling in its indulgences. 

If, as Godard said, the history of cinema is men photographing women, these two films fit the mold. Both feature luminous beauties in the lead roles, with the men around them driven nearly to ruin by desire and lust.  

Asphalt starts with a cinematic bang, with a rush of images merging and hurdling by in a stunning montage of the throbbing city, the hustle and bustle, the energy and the vice. Then, about 20 minutes in, it takes a step toward melodrama, but beautifully constructed and artful melodrama, with every furtive glance, every emotion, every moment drawn out for maximum effect. The plot is remarkably simple, and could be explained in 10 seconds. But it is not the story that matters so much as the manner in which it is conveyed. Director Joe May constructs the film like a master musician playing just a few notes but playing them with such virtuosity that a few notes are all that are needed.  

Warning Shadows is slightly less accessible but no less remarkable in its achievement. It is a purely visual film, with no intertitles to convey plot or dialogue—beyond the opening credits, that is, which feature each actor appearing on a proscenium, each introduced along with his shadow, for shadows prove to be characters as much as the people who cast them.  

The story concerns a woman and her husband. They are hosting a dinner party of her suitors. A traveling entertainer crashes the party and proceeds to put on a show of shadow puppetry, a show that plumbs the depths of each character’s consciousness. The shadows take on the semblance of reality, acting out a passion play that, in the best Expressionist fashion, gives shape to the tensions and desires in the minds of the party’s hosts and their guests. The husband, overcome with jealous rage, seeks revenge on his flirtatious wife and her ardent suitors, while her beauty and careless allure lead the men to destroy first her and then each other.  

The film was photographed by Fritz Arno Wagner, the famed cinematographer who also shot F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and Fritz Lang’s M. 

Expressionism can be an acquired taste, but it holds many of the same pleasures as American film noir: the overwrought emotion, the heightened reality, the dark shadows and shady characters. And these two films play up those qualities, creating strange, twisted, fever-pitched realities. It is an art that celebrates its own artifice. 

Fritz Lang is best known today for Metropolis, the 1927 science fiction classic that recently screened at Pacific Film Archive. The film has been tremendously popular throughout the decades, and the fact that much of the film has been lost, cut by censors and misguided studios, has only added to its allure. 

But the unfortunate result is that a misconception has developed over the years, leaving many modern viewers with the notion that Metropolis represents not only the best of Lang, but the best of silent cinema. 

As fine an achievement as Metropolis is, it is by no means the best film of its time. Not even close. Influential, yes. Enjoyable, yes. Well made, yes. But for the most part it is influential primarily in its own genre.  

Lang was hardly devoted to science fiction. In fact, he was primarily interested in realism; he wanted to tell stories rooted in the realities of Germany life. But Metropolis does contain many typical Lang characteristics: It is full of the sort of grand production values and plots that Lang could indulge in when backed by Ufa, the powerful and financially flush German studio that produced most of Lang’s early films.  

Lang made several long, somewhat overblown films for Ufa in the 1920s, including Die Nibelungen (1924), Spies (1928) and Woman in the Moon (1929), all of which have been previously released on DVD by Kino in excellent editions based on restored prints. But the best film he made in the silent era precedes all of these.  

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922) catches Lang before his visions became quite so grandiose. It is pure Lang in so many ways: a pulpy, somewhat lowbrow story; a lengthy running time; an obsession with grand, symmetric imagery. Kino has just released the film in a newly restored version on DVD, tracking down more previously missing footage to make this the most complete version yet. The visual quality is spectacular, and the scoring is also excellent. And Kino has placed the two parts on two separate discs, reinforcing a detail that has been glossed over in some presentations: Dr. Mabuse is actually two films, released separately over a short period of time—the original Kill Bill. 

The only drawback is that the set contains no extra features. The previous DVD incarnation, released by Image Entertainment, boasted an excellent commentary track with historical background and insightful criticism. For those interested in delving deeper into this classic, that edition is still indispensable.  

The opening scenes of Mabuse quickly and brilliantly set the tone, establishing Mabuse’s master-of-disguise persona before diving immediately into intrigue with a sequence in which a government document is stolen and used by Mabuse to manipulate the stock market. It is a complex bit of choreography that features great use of Lang’s favored symmetric compositions, the most striking image being a trestle bridge that crosses the screen, framing beneath it a road on which a speeding automobile hurdles toward the camera, contrasting the horizontal rush of the train with the rapidly approaching vertical movement of the car. 

The sequence ends with the final result of the theft: a decimated stock exchange, empty except for the ominous superimposed face of the supercriminal Mabuse.  

Lang was bold and brash with his scope and subject matter—even more so with his own public persona—but despite these few examples, he was rarely daring in a technical sense. His camera rarely moves, his shots are rarely dynamic; indeed, they contain little of the style and flourish typical of German films of the period. Instead he holds the camera still, creating mostly static compositions, relying on character and context to hold the viewer’s attention. The idea was that surprising angles and compositions were too easily undermined by their overuse. Therefore a more restrained style would increase the impact of more experimental shots. However, when the actors are weak, the weakness of the technique reveals itself, especially when Lang chose to employ another of his vacuous paramours. But with Rudolf Klein-Rogge in the title role, Lang had found his true muse, an actor who could hold the camera’s attention.  

Those static, symmetric shots have their own power, but Lang overuses them. In fact, it can come as something of a relief when he veers from them, for then the film develops a more dynamic energy. Shots of the Excelsior Hotel, for instance, are photographed dead-on from the outside, the revolving door and sign center screen. Likewise the Andalusian nightclub. Until, that is, the maitre d’ takes Inspector Van Wenk out the back door to lead him to the illicit gambling den. Here Lang, just for a moment, embraces the Expressionist aesthetic of the era with an excellent composition: straight ahead, a balcony runs across the top of the screen, with a dark, shadowy staircase running down the right side of the frame. In the foreground, a decaying archway and pillars with peeling paint frame the scene as the two men traverse the frame from left to right, through the archway, behind the pillar, up the stairs and through a doorway. It is simple but immensely effective, taking what could have been a perfunctory moment and transforming it into something much more dramatically compelling. 

And this is where Lang truly excels: In taking relatively mundane, pulpish subject matter and elevating it to the point of artful melodrama. When he takes things too seriously he fails. Die Niebelungen collapses under the weight of its own gravity; Metropolis, which for the most part consists of fun, melodramatic silliness, is diminished by its trite, tacked-on message (“The mediator between Head and Hands must be the HEART!”). With Spies, Lang returned to the Mabuse mold, with Klein-Rogge again playing a criminal mastermind, but the film is somewhat less successful than the Mabuse films.  

Mabuse is pure schlock, but it is schlock of a high order. It was meant to reflect the tawdry side of the waning days of the Weimar Republic, but that intellectual aspect is hardly necessary to enjoy the movie. Indeed, it seems more like an after-the-fact rationalization for a wild, silly tale. In fact, the film really has more of the feel of a serial, and this may in fact be the best way to enjoy it, watching just a couple of acts at a time, as each act without fail ends with a cliffhanger. 

Eventually Lang would find himself on a tighter leash. Without Ufa’s backing—lost in part due to Metropolis’ extravagant budget—Lang was no longer able to indulge his every whim. The result were films in which he displayed remarkable economy and ingenuity, overcoming small budgets and limited resources with innovation and improvisation. The first of these, M (1931), Lang’s first sound film, is his best work. And this was followed by another Mabuse film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1932). Both films catch Lang at his peak, with taught, economical visual storytelling combined with innovative use of sound. Lang counterpointed his sound effects with sequences of absolute silence, evincing a confidence and sophistication rare in the early sound era. These two films have none of Lang’s heavy-handed, plodding story development and few of his mind-numbing symmetric compositions, but instead transform their minimal resources into movies of maximum effect. Both have been previously released in excellent DVD editions by the Criterion Collection.  

Ranging from a violent clash between brothers in a quiet orchard, to edgy life at court under the onus of a suspicious usurper, to philosophical exile in the Forest of Arden where the usurper’s own brother, the deposed duke, has fled with his retinue, CalShakes’ As You Like It, directed by artistic director Jonathan Moscone, spreads out from a series of situations and encounters into a big show (if not quite a spectacle), incorporating a gypsy band, vocal renditions of The Bard’s sublime songs, a rather modest drag act, a little Big Time Wrestling, a good deal of business and routines imported from cabaret, burlesque and sitcom ... in other words, something of an extravaganza, played out under an enormous moon waxing through the boughs of trees (all scenery) to the nighttime sound of crickets (very real), in the Bruns Amphitheatre, facing the hills over Siesta Valley near Orinda.  

The central focus is the love between Rosalind (Susannah Schulman) and Orlando (Stephen Barker Turner)—she the daughter of an exiled duke, banished herself by her usurping uncle (both men played by Peter Callender); he the wrongly disinherited son of the old duke’s retainer, who also flees to the Forest of Arden to escape the wrath of his brother. 

But as in many of Shakespeare’s comedies, each action, every predicament is mirrored or contradicted by another, the very words flying “like a white doe,” as Melville said of the Truth in Shakespeare, “from tree to tree in the woodlands,” striking strange chords from simple tunes, all resolved in the marriage of four unlikely couples. 

“One of Shakespeare’s most eloquent Romantic comedies,” says Moscone, and this production’s a breezy one, with quick scene changes, some overlapping. Quickly working through the various encounters that establish all the various interweaving complications, the action passes to the exiled duke’s habitat, where he lives “with many merry men in the Forest of Arden, like the old Robin Hood of England.” The ebullient exile is contrasted with his terse, cruel brother through lightning-quick costume changes as much as by manner.  

Here, in a sublunar Arcady, rustics pursue each other in love-play, and the love-lorn Orlando finds himself hanging leaves of verse on the bare branches, proclaiming his love for the briefly-glimpsed Rosalind (besides throwing them into the audience as reams of broadsides, as well as hoisting her name alphabetically on a display of banners, its cord finally cut by melancholic Jaques—a fine casting of Andy Murray—the humorist). Here, too, Orlando again meets his love, but unawares (“Does he know I am in this forest, and in man’s apparel?”)—and she slurs love itself to him, saying, “I would not be cured, youth! I would cure you if you come every day to my cot, and call me Rosalind and woo me.” 

It’s in the Forest that the music strikes up, Gina Leishman’s hot gypsy strains, played behind and in front of the action with brio by “The Band from Amiens,” Dan Cantrell, Lila Sklar and Djordje Stijepovic, on accordion, skirling violin and bass fiddle plucked and bowed. The show truly comes into its own then, with rousing group dancing, and song in unison, as well as a particularly good solo, almost chanson, by Julie Eccles (finely playing Celia, Rosalind’s cousin, who follows her into the Forest as “Aliena”) of “Under The Greenwood Tree.” “I like this place, and willingly could waste my time in it.”  

There are good, almost cracker barrel, burlesques in the comic routines that stand out: Dan Hiatt as a wonderful Touchstone, the Fool who follows the ladies from court into exile, lolling in a rocking chair he’s just rocked himself out of, exchanging drolleries with an astute shepherd (Rod Gnapp) and proposing to his match, rustic Audrey (“I do not know what poetical is!”). A drunken minister and an obtuse boyish bucolic cluelessly in love with Audrey are skillfully portrayed by James Carpenter, who also plays Adam, Orlando’s loyal retainer. Max Gordon Moore essays the parts of a foppish courtier frog who drops his accent for streetwise talk when he warns off Orlando from the usurper’s wiles and a gawking shepherd boy, whose cig-puffing intended Phoebe (Delia MacDougall) ends up pursuing cross-dressed Rosalind, even coming on with a torch song, in feather boa at a stand-up mic. 

The wedding at the end is grand, with a bride in topper and suspenders over white veil and ruffles. The threat from the usurper is gone through a Deus ex machina: an unseen religious man has turned him into an anchorite, and Jaques, who once was “ambitious for a motley coat,” flees the general happiness to join the converted villain in the hermitage. 

“And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, from hour to hour we rot and rot, and there hangs a tale ... and so I laughed.” Jaques the melancholy serves as counterpoint, and underlines the Bard’s sly logic—and strange dispassion—of love. When Andy Murray is reciting, or Julie Eccles is singing, they (and we) taste his words and the shadow of the world behind them. But sometimes the trimmings get too rich and run over, obscuring the geometry of the clear, clean lines moving in a coincidence of opposites. On Kris Stone’s marvelous set (well-lit by Alexander V. Nichols, with sound by James Ballen and wildly diverse costumery by Katherine Roth), the cast moves with alacrity (well-choreograhed and fight-directed by MaryBeth Cavanaugh and Dave Maier) and speaks well. “Say then good-bye, and you talk in blank verse!” 

But the showmanship can stir up the dust in the missed silences that dog the glib speech (“Why, it is good to be sad and say nothing!” exclaims Jaques), and also pile gesture upon gesture unto gesticulation. There are moments—belied by Audrey’s noodling a line from My Fair Lady—where one asks, “Is this Brigadoon or what?”  

But in any case, it really is, in Ed Sullivan’s words, a really big show. 

AS YOU LIKE IT 

7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Oct. 15 at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. $15 and up. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org.

At 10 a.m. every Friday, Mary Ann Broder opens the Friends of the Library Bookstore for business. She’s been doing that since 1998 when the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library first moved into their present location in the Sather Gate Mall housed in the public parking structure a half block below Telegraph Avenue, between Channing Way and Durant. 

By the time she, or one of the other volunteers, opens the door, people are already gathered outside. Some are looking through the cart of give-away books, while others are eager to get inside to see what new treasures have arrived or maybe what’s been marked down. Book dealers come regularly, looking for bargains. “We’re delighted when a pre-school class arrives, crocodile style with each child holding on to a cloth handle. Escorted by their teachers, they descend on the children’s corner, each selecting a book to buy,” says Broder.  

The generous space, located three blocks from the UC Campus, is a favorite with the university community and houses donated books from private collections, and even from publishers and other stores. Tables display new arrivals, bookcases hold foreign language books, collectibles, fiction, biographies, reference books, cook books, art books, history books, books on computers—you name it and you can probably find it there, in good condition and at amazingly reasonable prices.  

Aside from getting a good deal and maybe a book that isn’t easily available elsewhere, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that the proceeds go to fund library programs that might not get funded otherwise—programs like the children’s summer reading program, music programs including the wonderful annual live jazz series, and such life-changing opportunities as the adult literacy programs. 

The Friends are able to respond to about $100,000 worth of library requests each year because the books are donated and sold in stores by volunteers. In addition to the Sather Gate Store near Telegraph Avenue, the Friends operate a second store in an elegant little space created at the time of the Central Library’s renovation in 2002. Located on the main floor near the elevators, the Central Library Store has a full range of books, but the emphasis is on fiction and children’s books, most of which are in ‘mint condition,’ lightly touched by small hands. 

The store is popular with library patrons and especially with parents and their kids who sometimes discover the store on their way up to the Children’s Room on the fourth floor. With books averaging $2 each, kids often assemble an impressive stack of books—which won’t have to be returned in three weeks. Teachers are also regular customers because in this era of tight budgets they often have to make personal purchases to enrich their classrooms (yes, the Friends give teachers a discount). 

Upstairs, in the Friend’s workroom, volunteers gather each Monday to sort and price books. Sayre Van Young, recently retired after 36 years as a reference librarian with the Berkeley Public Library, works alongside veteran volunteers like Mary Anne Broder, Rose Watada, Gaby Morris, and Joan Haefele. Once the books are ready, volunteers stock the two stores, though at the Sather Gate Store sorting and pricing are an ongoing activity with books donated directly to that location.  

Though operating two stores is recent, the Friends have been around since the mid-1950s when, in the style of the times, they hosted elegant teas for the library staff. The Friends began selling books outside the Central Library at an annual—and very popular—three-day book sale. Friends volunteers remember how book dealers often would line up along the second-level of the old Hink’s parking lot with binoculars in hopes of scoping out titles that they would grab up when the sale began. 

Though it’s been eight years since the last outdoor sale, people still call and ask about the date of next sale. But the volunteers don’t miss working in the musty, dim basement of the old library where books were kept and sorted. And now books are available to prospective buyers year-round. 

The Friends welcome book donations at both locations. If you have lots of books or need help, a volunteer can arrange to pick-up your donations. (Call the Sather Gate Store at 841-5604). Books need to be in good condition, and encyclopedias should be recent. And don’t forget your old maps, audiotape, CDs, videos and DVDs as they are always in demand. 

If volunteering at one of the two stores for two or three hours a week sounds interesting, come in and talk to the volunteers. You will meet interesting people on both sides of the counter. And if book buying or browsing is your passion, check out the Friends’ book stores. And you can justify your acquisitions by knowing you are supporting one of the community’s most beloved and venerable institutions—the Berkeley Public Library. 

Photograph by Lynn Brown: Mary Ann Broder and Miles Karpilow talk books at the Sather Gate store. 

One of the largest residential parcels in the Berkeley, the John Hopkins Spring Estate, commonly known as the Spring Mansion, occupies 3.25 acres in the Southampton area of the north Berkeley Hills. The property is so large as to require three addresses: 1960 San Antonio Ave., 1984 San Antonio Ave., and 639 The Arlington. 

Modeled after Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s Achillion Palace in Corfu, the estate is a scheme of broad balustraded terraces sloping down toward the west. As late as 2005, the grounds were planted with shrubbery, redwood, eucalyptus, pine, and palm trees and ornamented with a fountain and a reflecting pool. On the upper slope stands an imposing two-story mansion designed by John Hudson Thomas. The exterior is primarily Beaux Arts-influenced, while the interiors display the architect’s eclectic influences, including Vienna Secessionist, Arts & Crafts, and Egyptian motifs. 

Measuring 80 ft. by 83 ft., the 12,000-square-foot house, built entirely of concrete, has two main entrances. The eastern entrance in the rear features a rectangular portico and serves the driveway, while the western entrance boasts a semi-circular portico, opening onto the garden terraces and commanding a sweeping vista of San Francisco Bay. This entrance leads to a vaulted passage running along the western length of the building, connecting the dining room in the northwest corner to the living room in the southwest. 

At the heart of the building is a 30-foot high atrium surmounted by a skylight. Four hefty Tuscan columns support the second-floor corridor balconies surrounding the atrium. The upper floor is reached via a grand, 15-foot wide staircase. At the center of the atrium, a slender Italian fountain strikes a Mediterranean note. 

The majestic public rooms are placed on the ground floor along the north and south sides of the house, opening directly into the atrium. These include a living room, dining room, and billiard/sitting room featuring tapestry-covered walls, enormous fireplaces, and rich oak moldings. 

The house was built in 1912–14 by the Spring Construction Company, one of the holdings of landowner and entrepreneur John Hopkins Spring (1862–1933). Born in San Francisco to a New England family, Spring received his real-estate training at his father’s and uncle’s firm, which was involved in various East Bay land ventures. 

In 1897, after the death of his father, Spring moved to Oakland and built a showcase residence by the Sausal Creek in Fruitvale. Following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, he bought a lot in Union Square and built what would become the city’s first department store, City of Paris. 

In the first years of the 20th century, Spring teamed up with Berkeley real-estate developer Duncan McDuffie and capitalists Louis Titus (1872–c.1947) and Wigginton Ellis Creed (1877–1927) in the Berkeley Development Company and the North Berkeley Land Company. He was also a business associate of Francis Marion “Borax” Smith (1846–1931) and Frank Colton Havens (1848–1918), especially in the East Bay real-estate ventures of their Realty Syndicate and its holding company United Properties. 

In 1904–05, Spring acquired J.J. Dunn’s quarry on the former Berryman ranch in north Berkeley. With Creed and Titus as partners, he formed the Spring Construction Company. The company quarried rock at its Spruce Street facility in the La Loma Park and Codornices Park area, and later at the Arlington facility in Cerrito Canyon. Construction vehicles and equipment were maintained at a depot on the old Boswell Ranch site (now the Solano and Peralta junction). In 1906–07, Spring purchased a 142-acre tract around El Cerrito Hill and laid out the subdivision that would become the city of Albany. His best-known venture was the Thousand Oaks subdivision and the shopping district along Solano Avenue, begun in 1909. 

Spring was one of the investors in the Claremont Hotel Co. founded by Louis Titus, though his role in this joint venture has been obfuscated by several contradictory legends. The Landmark Application for the Spring Estate, written in 2000, states: 

“Spring’s first venture into Berkeley real estate was in the Claremont District. ... Before long, Spring had two other partners in the Claremont Tract, Frank Havens and W.P. Mortimer, a Berkeley capitalist. The partners financed the grand Hotel Claremont but construction was slowed down due to financial stringency resulting from the 1907 Panic. 

In 1910, Spring approached his partners with a proposal to play a game of dominoes with the hotel property as the stake. Spring first played Mortimer and beat him. Later he played Havens and lost. It was Spring who planned the lovely garden terraces around the hotel that became known as the ‘Jewel of the East Bay.’” 

Another version is told on the Claremont Hotel’s website: 

“The property … fell into the hands of Frank Havens and ‘Borax’ Smith, a famous miner. They planned to erect a resort hotel on the property with trains running directly into the lobby. Unfortunately, these plans were abandoned. One night, Havens, Smith and John Spring, a Berkeley capitalist, played a game of checkers in the old Athenian Club of Oakland with the stakes being the property, and Havens won. 

He began building in 1906, but the panic of that year interrupted construction. After trying again in 1910, Havens lost heart, and in 1914 allied himself with Eric Lindblom, who had struck it rich in the Klondike. The sprawling Mediterranean hostelry was completed in 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. In 1918, Lindblom took complete control of The Claremont until he sold it in 1937 to Mr. And Mrs. Claude Gillum, who virtually rebuilt it from the foundation up, and completely refurbished the interior.” 

Yet another variant, this time by Oakland architectural historian Annalee Allen, omits Spring altogether: “Legend has it that Havens retained sole interest in the project when he and Smith decided one night to play a game of dominoes (some say checkers) and Smith lost.” 

In 1997, Spring’s son told BAHA’s Lesley Emmington that his father did participate in the game, which was either blackjack or poker, the sole opponent having been “Borax” Smith. The interview notes don’t reveal the identity of the winner. 

Perhaps closest to the truth is the account by longtime Berkeley Gazette columnist Hal Johnson, published on Jan. 29, 1943: 

“It was Spring all-year round in Albany and in Northbrae and Thousand Oaks for some years before the San Francisco fire until January 1920—John Spring, pioneer developer of large residential tracts, road builder and capitalist. The late John Spring was a gambler, not at the card table or at roulette but on the East Bay Area. He won when he backed Berkeley and Albany. Later he lost heavily—in the millions—when he bucked the stock market. 

John Spring—the man who plunged into great financial undertakings and into growing rare flowers and shrubbery—passed out of the world picture April 16, 1933, at the age of 70. He left a seemingly permanent monument here in the Spring mansion, San Antonio Ave., now Williams College. Spring built that massive structure of 12 great rooms, including six bedrooms, each with a private bath, in 1914. 

He erected the great house of reinforced concrete at the time of his lowest ebb financially—when he owed more than a million dollars and was land poor. He had sold thousands of dollars worth of home sites in that vicinity on the strength that he would build his own home there. And he kept faith with buyers. 

The Spring mansion is probably the only residence in the East Bay which has a reinforced concrete roof. That area then was outside of the city limits and there was no fire protection. 

Growing there still are stately pines brought from Norway and Irish yew trees. When Spring lived there he had a great rose garden with all varieties that would grow in Northern California. On Avis Rd. you can still see some of the imitation rocks which were part of the foundation of the large greenhouses.  

John Spring was born in San Francisco Dec. 13, 1862. His father, Francisco Samuel Spring, and his uncle, John Spring, came to California about 1852. Capt. John Hopkins Spring, old New England sea captain, brought his two sons to California on his own boat. They went into the real estate business and John Spring followed in their footsteps. 

Spring saw a future for the East Bay Area. As late as 1915 he owned practically all of Albany, except the Gill tract at San Pablo Ave. and Buchanan St., all of Thousand Oaks and Arlington Heights and a large part of Northbrae. Some 3,500 homes since then have been erected on his original holdings.  

He was an athlete as a young man and won medals for swimming and for bicycle racing. His three daughters are Mrs. George Friend of 120 Hillcrest Rd., Mrs. Noble Newsome of 410 Pala Ave., Piedmont, and Miss Dorothy Spring, now a WAAC stationed at Sacramento. His son, Frank Spring, is chief designer for the Hudson Automobile Co. and lives in Michigan. Mrs. Charlotte Montgomery of San Francisco is his sister. She is the widow of Dr. Douglas Montgomery who died while they were in South America soon after they had made their escape from Shanghai. 

John Spring took chances but as long as these chances were in real estate they were winning ones. When San Francisco was burning, the day following the April 1906 earthquake, he offered $400,000 for the lot and steel structure of the proposed new Spring Valley Water Co. building and the offer was quickly accepted. 

He formed the Union Square Improvement Co. with East Bay capital and erected a large building. In 1915 the structure was sold to the Hooper Lumber Co. for more than $1,250,000—a handsome profit. The building, Stockton and Geary Sts., has been occupied by the City of Paris since it was built. 

Spring gradually acquired tidelands from about where the Key Route Pier was built to near the Ford plant in Richmond. These were sold in 1925 to the Santa Fe Railroad for $700,000. 

He cashed that check with the late Phillip M. Bowles, president of the American Bank in Oakland and associated with Spring in many financial deals. “Why John, that check is for $700,000,” exclaimed Bowles. “Where did you get the money?” “I just sold those tidelands on which you wouldn’t loan me $50,000 a few months ago,” replied Spring. 

Between 1926 and 1929 John Spring lost more than a million when the bottom fell out of the stock market. He paid dollar for dollar, took his loss with a smile and went down the peninsula to live. 

There was one time when John Spring figured he won when he lost. He was associated with the late F.M. (“Borax”) Smith and Frank C. Havens in the plans for Hotel Claremont. Spring wanted to have near Berkeley a hotel on a peer with the Del Monte. He was responsible for the beautiful Claremont Hotel gardens.  

About 1912, the Hotel Claremont had been started, but was a long way from being finished. Taxes, interest on investment and care of the gardens were eating into the finances of the combine that had undertaken to erect the hotel. 

One by one they dropped out until Spring and Frank Havens were left holding the sack which contained a $400,000 mortgage. Spring and Havens played a game of dominoes at the old Athenian Club in Oakland with the hotel property as the stake. Havens won the game and the unfinished Claremont Hotel.” 

Spring’s own home was completed in 1914, but he didn’t enjoy it for long. At Christmas 1915, he left his wife Celina for another woman. In 1918, Celina Spring sold the estate to the Cora L. Williams Institute of Creative Development (later Williams College), a tony elementary and secondary school known for its focus on languages, poetry, music, and literature. 

Famous guest lecturers such as Mark Twain and psychologist Alfred Adler taught courses there. Interpretive dance inspired by Isadora Duncan was taught, and Institute students danced with the Boyntons at the Temple of Wings and with Duncan colleague Vassos Kanellos at the Hearst Greek Theater. One of the students, Helen Bacon Hooper, went on to dance with Martha Graham. The Williams Institute’s most celebrated alumnus was probably Irving Wallace (1916–1990), author of The Chapman Report. 

The school occupied the mansion for five decades. In 1975, the Spring estate was purchased by real-estate investor Larry Leon, who made the mansion his home for the next 30 years. The estate was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 2000. Last year Leon sold the property to a consortium of investors who were planning to establish a conference center on the site. They have since cleared the grounds in preparation for building additional structures. 

Everyone has something particularly annoying about their job. I’m sure yours has at least one (I can see the heads nodding). O.K. It’s more than one. Me too. I’ve got a few and one of these serenity-busters that bugs me the most is being asked which building code justifies an item that I’ve called-out during an inspection. 

Now, I’ve actually gotten quite a bit better at finding things in the code book in the last year or two and to discuss the finer points that come out of their study, but to be frank, it’s not that relevant to what I do.  

The building code really doesn’t apply much to looking at old houses. Now, on the face of it, that seems like a reasonable statement but, in the search for something to hang our ideas upon, people still keep running down the cognitive ravine to the what seems as though would be found at the root of what’s right or wrong about a house, i.e., the codes. 

There are a bunch of problems with this thinking and it really messes with my day, if you know what I mean. How do I justify the things I have to say about a house.  

Does the code tell me what’s wrong or right? Can I say that something is wrong because it didn’t follow the code? No. I can’t and here’s why and get ready because it’s quite an onslaught. 

First, many of the building I see were built before the first building code even existed. While building protocols or practices DID exist, there was nothing written down as to what you could and couldn’t do. The first building code book came out in 1917 and even this was a very slender pamphlet. The majority of buildings I see (those from the 1920’s & 30’s) were built with some codes in force but were, again, largely the result of good practices and not enforced rules. 

Since everything old we see is grand-fathered, or adopted as acceptable unless changed in some way, there’s almost nothing the code has to say about these much older buildings. 

For the sake of argument we can talk about a building from 1970 and say that many modern codes would have applied to it but here again, there are a range of problems. What city were we in at the time of construction? What version of the code was being used on the dates of the inspections? 

Who was the site inspector for the inspections and what local additions to the code were being practiced by the city for this type of construction at the time? Also, what were the zoning practices for this site at the time of construction? 

This mass of conditions makes it virtually impossible to say what rules would have applied to a particular building at the time of construction over a wide range of issues including set-backs, specific electrical codes, building height, the steepness of stairways and the requirement for smoke detectors. The list is huge.  

One thing that’s very important to realize is that, not only were the city policies and adopted codes relevant to each condition, but the specific site inspector was and is much like a judge in each case. 

No matter what the code book may say, the site inspector has the authority to call things as they see fit. Of course if they wander too far afield, we can “appeal” to the chief inspector or higher government official but it usually doesn’t work. 

So, how can I say that a stairway would have violated the code in 1966, when, for all I know, the city inspector stood there on that day, looked at his 1964 copy of the Uniform Building Code and his local Oakland amendment sheet and decided that these didn’t apply to what he (yes it was a guy) thought of as a servant’s entrance. You see, there’s just too much “noise” between that event in the past and today to be able to say much of anything about what the right call would have been at the time of construction. 

Even construction from the very recent past has problems of this sort, although this can more easily sorted out, if you’re serious about it and willing to do a lot of calling around. 

However, the important thing in my line of work isn’t to say what the site inspector or the plan checker would have said at the time but what I, as an observer, can say based on what I know and see today.  

That’s the nitty gritty of the job. I’m not a code checker and if I were, you can see how woefully hobbled I would be in performing it. I never know, for certain, which code was in force (they’re constantly being revised), what presiding official’s would have said at the time and also, how much has changed since that time.  

That’s is one more thing that makes code checking virtually impossible on older building. They’re being changed all the time. Many houses I see have been remodeled, and remodeled and remodeled. Little thing here, big thing there, tear this out, put this here. By the time I come along, it can be quite a trial to tell, even broadly, what the original building looked like and when each change came to pass. 

Nevertheless, I’ll confess that I do spend a lot of time looking at this aspect of the houses I see. I do, in part because it’s a puzzle and sort of irresistible. Partly, because it can help to ferret out mistakes that might be important. 

One oft-seen case in which it’s relevant is the one where a wall or other load bearing member has been moved or re-moved. If I don’t think about what the building would originally have looked like, it’s easy to miss something of this sort which might be truly vital. So I try. 

Once again, the point I wanted to make has required that you slog through all this stuff and so you have my gratitude and apology. And here it is. 

Home inspectors are not code checkers because the code says so very little about buildings. This may seem nutty to say but it’s really quite true. You can’t design a building using the codes and as code experts are so fond of saying, the code is a MINIMUM standard, not a recommended formula for construction. The code also says almost nothing about the way in which things wear out, decay and fail. 

Amazingly, there’s no code for seismic retrofitting, so you can’t say that there aren’t enough bolts in your retrofit based on that book.  

The code doesn’t say when the paint job or the leaky window needs fixing and it doesn’t say that you have to have x number of smoke detectors in your old building (unless you are doing a remodel and they make you put some in). The code doesn’t prevent many places where slips and falls occur and also doesn’t point out the myriad improvement and upgrades that time and technology have provided. 

In short, I’d say that the most of what I’m doing in my job has almost nothing to do with the code. It’s there all the time as a reference, lurking just out of sight, and I like to invoke it where it says something of value but that’s very different from “calling something” as a violation.  

As you can see, I just can’t do that, ever. All I can do is to say that some current codes say such and such a thing and that this may be in violation of one of them. However, I can say that something is a problem, that something is dangerous (in my view). That something is a bad idea (all too often…) and might lead to harm or distress. And let me tell you, friend, you can sure fill up a day with that stuff. 

When we start thinking good thoughts about rain, it must be the peak of fire season. That means fall planting season is coming soon, and it’s time to start looking for plants to fill in (or overcrowd) our gardens. Especially California natives, because this is a good time to plant them, to take advantage of the winter rains. Even drought-loving plants need a bit of watering help in their first year.  

The California Native Plant Society has made a big change in one tradition. The East Bay Chapter’s reliable October sale won’t happen at the Merritt College hort department this year, as the department has some expansion plans and wants the ground it lent the chapter in return for help with the department greenhouse. (Yikes. This must be what it feels like to watch your parents go through an “amicable” divorce.) 

Instead, the Native Here Nursery will host the Native Plant Fair on Saturday, Oct. 28, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 29, noon to 3 p.m. Very local plants from NH –the chapter’s restoration nursery—as well as “horticultural natives” from around the state will be for sale, along with seeds, bulbs, books, art, and other wares; experts and CNPS honchos will talk and answer questions, too. 

Lots of plants, says the sales committee, so enjoy a leisurely and informative weekend. More info and schedules to come on the chapter’s Web site, www.ebcnps.org—or you could volunteer by showing up on Friday or Saturday mornings between now and the sale, or contact the nursery, nativehere@ebcnps.org for other times.  

The other half of the erstwhile couple, Merritt College’s Landscape Horticulture Department, is having its fall sale on Oct. 7. There are always natives there, too, as well as fall-plantable veggies, annuals, perennials, bulbs, trees, who knows what? I find something weird and wonderful every year at my alma mater. You can grab coffee and pastries or a nice lunch burger (veggie or otherwise) and hear live music, buy art or tools, or just schmooze. 

There will be smart and friendly folks to tell you what you need to know about Aesthetic Pruning—the coming thing in tree care, combining traditional Japanese lore with recent discoveries about how trees work—and about flower arranging, Permaculture, garden and landscape design and construction, soils, bugs, plant diseases, and more.  

Here’s a new one: The Watershed Nursery’s Fall Open House & Native Plant Sale, Oct. 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., features 20 percent off all plants (except clearance items.) Watershed specializes in natives for habitat restoration, and has recently started having drop-in hours for the public, so you can get a look beforehand. 

Maybe you’ll want to scout the place out anyway; here are the directions from its Web site, www.thewatershednursery.com: “Head east (towards UC Berkeley) on University. Turn left on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Turn right on Cedar. After you begin to go uphill, turn left on Euclid, right on Hawthorne Terrace. Left on Le Roy Ave. Stay on winding road. It will turn into Tamalpais Rd. You will see a small sign 155 with an arrow to the left and down. Please park on the street and walk down the driveway. The nursery is located in a fenced-off area to your right past the pond.” 

Don’t fall in!  

Native Here Nursery 

101 Golf Course Road (across from the golf course entrance) Tilden Park, Berkeley 

Merritt College 

12500 Campus Drive, Oakland (Rte. 13 to Redwood Road exit; uphill to Campus Drive, turn right; up Campus Drive to, guess what? the campus) 436-2418  

The Watershed Nursery 

155 Tamalpais Road, Berkeley 

548-4714 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in East Bay Home & Real Estate. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet.

How Much Food and Water? 

If you’re someone who wants to be prepared for the major quake in our future, you’ve probably done something about having food and water available for you and your family.  

Here are a few things to keep in mind: 

1. Some disaster preparedness groups recommend having three days worth of food and water (1 gallon per person per day). I agree with the ones that say be ready for a full week (think Katrina). 

2. I’ve never seen an emergency kit (including ours) that has enough food or water. You really need to supplement the kits. 

3. The best plan for water is a 55 gallon barrel with a siphon, which you treat with bleach so it will last at least 5 years.  

4. Have plenty of canned foods, which need to be regularly used and replaced.  

5. Some folks have found a source on-line for MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), similar to the military products. We might add these to our web site in the future. 

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, SEPT. 22 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

Discussion of Artist Live/Work Space in West Berkeley with the Civic Arts Commission from 1 to 2 p.m. at 2246 Fifth St., conference room. For information please call 981-7533. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with John Sutter on “What is New in the Regional Parks?” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Declaration of Peace Benefit Dinner with panel discussion with Sarad Seed, Michael Eisenschauer, Margot Smith and Jim Haber at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation $25, no one turned away. 495-5132. 

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

Kol Hadash Humanistic Rosh Hashanah Service at 7:30 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 428-1492. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 23 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Old and New in the North Shattuck Neighborhood, led by Robert Johnson, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. To sign up and for meeting place call 848-0181. www.cityofberkeley. 

info/histsoc/  

Family Nature Hike to meet the creatures around Jewel Lake in Tilden Park. Meet at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Farm Friends Meet the latest additions to the farm and say hello to the established residents on an interactive tour at 2 pm. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Latino Art, Health and Community with vendors, support groups, social services and complementary treatments from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave., OAkland. 420-7900. 

Banned Books Week Celebration with a community read-aloud, for all ages, of Alvin Schwartz’s “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6133. 

Poison Oak Learn to identify, prevent and heal poison oak at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland Uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Solo Sierrans Hike in Tilden Park Meet at 5 pm at Lone Oak picnic area for an hour hike through the woods. Optional dinner afterward. 234-8949. 

Autumnal Equinox Gathering Led by Rabbi David Cooper at 6:15 at the Interim Solar Calendar, in Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. www.solarcalendar.org 

Free Market Day of Exchange from noon to 4 p.m. at People’s Park. Bring your extra things to give away, and find treasures from others. Everyone welcome. rachel@cathaus.org 

Know Your Rights Training and CopWatch Orientation from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

“The Fight for Immigrant Rights and Black Liberation” with Don Alexander, Spartacist League Central Committee, at 4 p.m. at the YWCA, 1515 Webster St., Oakland. 839-0851.  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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.  

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. 

Animal Healing Cicle, a guided meditation to send healing energy to pets at 5 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave. Suggested donation $5. 525-6155. 

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 of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 

Farm Stories and Songs Come clap your hands or your paws and sing along at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Bee Keeping in the City” A hands-on workshop from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. For information on what to bring call 547-8715. 

BCA Endorsement Meeting for candidates and ballot measures at 3 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 549-1208. 

Military Families & War Resisters Speak Out at 1 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, Oakland. Donation of $10 to $25 at the door, and $5 for students and seniors. 415-864-5153. 

“9/11 & American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out” with David Ray Griffin, Peter Dale Scott, and Ray McGovern at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King Middle School. Cost is $15-$20. Sponsored by KPFA. 848-5006. 

“Church House, Dope House, Dream House” a one-woman show by Yehmanja, at 3 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Coomunity discussion following the performance. www.churhchousedopehousedreamhose.org 

“Are We Still Dinosaurs? The Asteroid Test – Protecting the Earth from the Next Big Collision” at 4 p.m. at Chabot Space & Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$8, seating is limited. 336-7373. 

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  

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

Community Peace Tashlick, the start of the Jewish New Year at 3 p.m. at the Emeryville Marina Follow Powell Street towards the bay past the Holiday Inn and Watergate apartment complex. The road curves to the right. Follow it to the end and park. The event is a short walk from the parking lot. www.bayareawomeninblack.org 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Balinese Dance Class with Tjokorda Istri Putra Padmini at 11 a.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 237-6849. 

Kickabout at Codornices Park Soccer for all, skill and talent not required. For more information contact cambour@hotmail.com  

Ancient Tools for Successful Living Workshops in Meditation, the I-Ching, and Qi Gong begin at 5272 Foothill Blvd. Oakland. Cost is $8 per class. 536-5934. 

Fall Plant Sale at the UC Botanical Garden at 10 a.m. 643-2755. 

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

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Awareness, Self-Healing and Meditation” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 25 

“Encounter Point” A documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. www.encounterpoint.com 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at the Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. Appointments recommended. 773-2404. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people aged 60 and over meets at 9:45 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Donation $3. 524-9122. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Lead Abatement Repairs Find out about funding for lead hazard repairs for rental properties with low-income tenants or vacant units in Oakland, Berkeley or Emeryville, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 2000 Embarcadero, #300, Oakland. Sponsored by Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 567-8280. 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 26 

Tuesday is for the Birds An early morning walk for birders through Bay Area parklands. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. This week we will visit Point Pinole. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. For information contact 524-2319. writercoachconnect@yahoo.com 

“Encounter Point” A documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Q & A with the filmaker after the 7:30 screening. www.encounterpoint.com 

Albany Library Homework Center is open from 3 to 5 p.m., Tues. and Thurs. for students in third through fifth grades. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17.  

Torture Teach-in and Vigil every Tues. at 12:30 p.m. at the fountain on UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 

“Older and Wiser: Basic Legal Knowledge for Seniors” Estate planning for seniors at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

Choosing Infant Care A workshop for parents at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Handbuilding Ceramics Class from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Free, except for materials and firing charges. 525-5497. 

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. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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, SEPT. 27  

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about spiders, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, at 3:15 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Circus Circus with Lovee the Clown, face painting and more at 11 a.m. at Habitot, 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Discussion of the November Ballot Propositions Sponsored by the Berkeley Grey Panthers at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

“Help Democrats Take Back Congress” at Bay Area Political Forum at 7 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. 

“The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

League of Women Voters “California Clean Money Campaign” with Trent Lange, at 5 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Cost is $15. For reservations call 843-8828. 

“The Founding Fathers’ Religious Reasons for Separation of Church and State” with Barbara McGraw, Professor of Business Administration, Saint Mary’s College of California, at 4 p.m. at 110 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-1640. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11” by David Ray Griffin at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito. 433-2911. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session at 6:30 p.m. For information call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

Spirited Child Series Learn how temperament affects children’s behavior and how to best live and work with inborn traits at 7 p.m. at Bananas. To register call 752-6150. If you need child care, at $5 per child, call 658-7353.  

New to DVD: “Three Times” at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $3-$5. 848-0237. 

“Introduction to New Body–New Mind” with Robert Litman at 7 p.m. The Teleosis Institute, 1521 5th St., corner of Cedar St., Upstairs Unit B. Cost is $5-$10. RSVP to 558-7285. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes. 548-9840. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Current Events Discussion Group meets at 7 p.m. at the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. 597-4972. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 28 

Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors with Iraq War resister, Latino activist and former Navy Fire Controlman, Pablo Paredes at 6 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5-$10, no one turned away. 465-1617. 

Radio Zapatista Report back and benefit for health care in autonomous Zapatista Communities at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Shopping with the Chef All-organic shopping advice with Lucy Aghadjian at 4 p.m. at the North Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 548-3333. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1744A University Ave., behind the Lutheran Church between Grant and McGee. All welcome. 845-5513. www.easyland.org 

Free SAT Strategy Session from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 526-7512. 

Woman’s Heart Health Panel discussion at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Volunteer at Lawrence Hall of Science Open house for new volunteers at 2 p.m. or Sun. at 2 p.m. For information call 643-5471. lawrencehallofscience.org. 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 29 

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 

First Amendment Assembly Speakers include Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post; Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers; Judith Miller, former New York Times reporter; Gabriel Schoenfeld, Commentary Magazine essayist; and Dan Weintraub, political columnist for the Sacramento Bee Fri. from 3:15 to 8:45 p.m. and Sat. from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. at UC Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall. Cos tis $50. To register see www.cfac.org 

“Bridging the Chasm between Islam and the West” with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Founder & Director of the American Society for the Advancement of Muslims at 7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. www.uucb.org  

BOSS’s Homeless Graduation and the 60th birthday of Executive Director boona cheema at 6 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. For tickets and information call 649-1930.  

“East Asia in Transition: Comprehensive Security in the Pacific Rim”Conference from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Toll Room, Alumni House, UC Campus. 642-2809. http://ieas.berkeley. 

edu/events/2006.09.29.html 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Bart Ney of CalTrans on “Retrofitting the Bay Bridge.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Sept. 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5158.  

City Council meets Tues., Sept. 26, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6195.  

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Sept. 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Sept. 27, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., Sept. 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Sept. 27 at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Sept. 28 at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 19 

FILM 

Global Lens Film Festival “Thirst” at 7 p.m. at “Stolen Life” at 9:30 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. www.globalfilm.org 

Alternative Visions “Landscape Suicide” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Aging Artfully” with Amy Gorman at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Michael Zielenziger speaks on “Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation” at 5 p.m. in the Women’s Faculty Club Lounge, UC Campus. 642-2809. 

Jeffrey Meyers on “Modigliani: A Life” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Kelly Link describes “Magic for Beginners” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bruce and Lloyd’s Tri Tip Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kelly Joe Phelps at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Eldar, jazz pianist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

East Bay Women Artists “On the Move” Paintings by Nancy Pollack, Paula Powers and Rita Sklar. Reception at 4 p.m. at the LunchStop Cafe, Joseph P. Bort Metro Center, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Hours 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays to Nov. 30.  

FILM 

Palermo Hollywood: A Tale from Buenos Aires at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Global Lens Film Festival “Max and Mona” at 7 p.m. at “The Night of Truth” at 9:30 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. www.globalfilm.org 

Pirates and Piracy “Anne of the Indies” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

T Cooper and Adam Mansbach read from their new anthology, “A Fictional History of the United States with Huge Chunks Missing” at 7 p.m. at Diesel Bookstore, 5433 College Ave. 

“Strange Travel Suggestions” tales by Jeff Greenwald at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Philip Jenkins discusses “The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with vocal music by African-American composers at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Zealous at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Hip Bones at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Eldar, jazz pianist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 21 

FILM 

Flamenco Film “Rito y Geografía del Cante” at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Road to Damascus: Discovering Syrian Cinema “Everyday Life in a Syrian Village” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dr. Louann Brizendine talks about “the Female Brain” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Philip Jenkins examines “The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South” at 7:30 p.m. in the Large Assembly Room, First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Fareed Haque Group, raga inspired jam jazz at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Workshop at 7 p.m. Cost is $12-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Kiri Te Kanawa and Frederica von Stade at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48-$110. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Harry Manx, folk, world, blues guitarist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Terry Rodriguez Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

5 Cent Coffee, Hollertown at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Karrin Allyson at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 22 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “The Foreigner” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St, Alameda, through Oct. 1. Cost is $12-$15. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “As You Like It” 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 Oct. 15. Tickets are $15 and up. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

“Church House, Dope House, Dream House” a one-woman show by Yehmanja, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at the Thrust Satge, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $25. www.churhchousedopehousedreamhose.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “The Orchid Sandwich” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. through Oct. 21. at 951 Pomona Ave. El Cerrito. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theatre “Colorado” A dark comedy about celebrity worship, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. Runs through Oct. 28. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Masquers Playhouse “Diary of a Scoundrel” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond across from the Hotel Mac. Through Sept. 30. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Looking for Hope” Photograhs by Matt O’Brien with text by students in the Oakland Public Schools opens at the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park Museum Gallery, 2465 34th Ave. Gallery open Thurs.-Fri. 4 to 6 p.m. and Sun. noon to 4 p.m. 532-9142. www.peraltahacienda.org 

FILM 

The Cinema of Jea-Pierre and Luc Dardenne “La promesse” at 7 p.m. and “Je pense a vous” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Oakland S.O.U.P.: Sing, Open Up, and Poetize, with Jan Steckel at 6:30 p.m. at Temescal Café. 4920 Telegraph Ave. selene@matchlessgoddess.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Deep Roots Dance “Envoi” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio Theater, 2525 8th St. Cost is $10-$15.  

Toshi Reagon at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Savion Glover, tap dancer, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $28-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Tom Peron/Bud Spangler Interplay Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Pele Juju with the Shelley Doy Extet at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$17. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Amy Meyers and Judea Eden at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Storyhill, contemporary folk duo, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Matt Renzie Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Johnny Reyes and Amy Obenski at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Guerilla Hi-Fi, Double Stroke, Myles Boisen’s Past-Present-Future at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

Allegiance, Ceremony, Acts of Sedition, benefit for the American Cancer Society, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Native Elements, live roots reggae, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7-$9. 548-1159.  

San Pablo Project at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Lava Nights, One in the Chamber at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100.  

Karrin Allyson at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Face of Poetry” Photographs by Margaretta Mitchell. Artist talk at 3 p.m. in the Community Room 3rd Flr., Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., through Oct. 30. 981-6100. 

“Flowers and Foliage” watercolors by Joanna Katz. Reception at 3 p.m. at Back in Action Chiropractic Center, 2500 Martin Luther King Jr Way. 

“Symbols and Myths” Chinese Hill Tribe Batiks and Embroideries. Reception at 5 p.m. at Ethic Arts and Red Gingko, 1314 10th St. 527-5270. 

FILM 

The Cinema of Jea-Pierre and Luc Dardenne “Rosetta” at 6:30 p.m. and “Falsch” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peter Phillips, Dennis Loo and others talk about “Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Robert Harris describes “Imperium” the story of Marcus Cicero’s rise to power, at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Brian Daffern introduces his new fantasy-adventure “The Ambient Knight” at 2 p.m. at the ASUC Bookstore, Bancroft and Telegraph.  

Rhythm & Muse features Upsurge! with jazz poets Zigi Lowenberg and Raymond Nat Turner, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. 644-6893.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concerts presents Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St., between Durant and Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$12. For reservations call 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

One Soul Sounding Concert and Ritual Autumn Equinox Celebration at 7:30 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$22. www.lisarafel.com  

Bryan Baker, piano and Rod Lowe, tenor, at 8 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensingon. Tickets are $15-$50. 525-0302. 

“A Walk by the Sea” World dance and music performance by Mahealani Uchiyama and guests, at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $20. 845-2605. www.mahea.com 

“Movements of Bliss” Sacred dance of India by the Odissi Vilas Dance Company at 7 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-456-2799. 

Bayanihan Philippine National Dance Company at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988.  

Los Boleros at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568.  

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skilet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Cyndi Harvey and Johnny Mac at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

David Jacobs-Strain, progressive roots and blues, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. 

Ken Berman Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Living Remix at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100.  

The Ravines at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

KC Booker & Big Soul, Rock ‘n’ Roll Adventure Kids, Little Boy Blue, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Matt Morrish & Trinket Lover at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Tinkture, Toast Machine at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 

THEATER 

African-American Shakespeare Company “Taming of the Shrew” at 4 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheatr, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd. Oakland. 238-7275.  

EXHIBITIONS  

“The Whole World is Watching” Peace and Social Justice movements of the 1960’s & 1970’s documentary photographs. Reception at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

Judith Corning “Parklands” Reception with the artist at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Trent Burkett “New Work in Salt and Wood” at Trax Ceramics Gallery, 1812 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Oct. 15. 540-8729. www.traxgallery.com 

“Measure of Time” Guided tour at 2 p.m. lecture by Linda Dalrymple Henderson at 3 p.m at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

FILM 

The Mechanical Age “Sherlock Jr.” at 4 p.m. and “The Man with a Movie Camera” at 5:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Annual Grito de Lares Celebration from 4 to 7:30 p.m. p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568.  

“9/11 & American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out” at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. School. Tickets are $15 in advance. 486-0698.  

Murray Silverstein reads “Any Old Wolf” and “Patterns of Home” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Benefit Classical and Jazz Concert to restore the 1909 Steinway at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, from 2 to 6 p.m. at 1924 Cedar. Donation $5. 841-4824. 

Rolando Villazón, tenor, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $68. 642-9988.  

Tilden Trio at 7 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost ia $10-$15. 845-1350. 

Opera at the Chimes: Scenes from Carmen at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$22, includes reception. 836-6772. 

Sundays at Four Concert with oboist Laura Reynolds, clarinetist Bruce Foster, and the Sor Ensemble Series at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $18, children under 18 free. 559-2941.  

Crosspulse Rhythm Duo at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $7.50-$12.50. 925-798-1300. 

Vern Williams Memorial Concert at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

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

Americana Unplugged: The Whiskey Brothers at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Kenny Werner Trio at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. 

Nate Lopez at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Zoe Ellis Group at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

MONDAY, SEPT. 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ayun Halliday reads from “Dirty Sugar Cookies” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“The Myths and Reality of the Near-Death Experience” with author PMH Atwater at 7 p.m. at Unity, 2075 Eunice St. Donation $10. 523-4376. 

Poetry Express theme night on favorite poems at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Khalil Shaheed, all ages jam, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Musica ha Disconnesso at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Sarah Manning at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

From ancient geological ages through the present, plus selected eras in between, the heritage of Berkeley is on display this fall in six walking tours. 

Local rocks, robbers and the history of radiation highlight some of the two-hour strolls through Berkeley’s past, organized by the Berkeley Historical Society (BHS), from this Saturday, Sept. 23, through Saturday, Dec. 2. 

The series begins Saturday with “Old and New in the North Shattuck Neighborhood” led by Robert Johnson, current chair of the Berkeley Landmark’s Preservation Commission. 

Participants “will explore some of the historic resources of the North Shattuck area and how new development can fit into the historic neighborhood.”  

The second tour, on Saturday, Oct. 7, reaches further into the local past than any previous BHS event. Veteran BHS volunteer and community historian Paul Grunland will guide tourgoers on a unique walk of “The Rocks of Thousand Oaks.”  

Enormous, picturesque rocks dot much of hillside Berkeley, and the Thousand Oaks neighborhood in particular. 

Generally called Northbrae Rhyolite, these outcroppings and boulders are volcanic in origin, thrust to the surface and shifted about the East Bay landscape for millennia by tectonic forces. 

When development began to spread into the Berkeley Hills, many of the rocks were incorporated into the streetscape and built landscape. The tour will include the opportunity to “view rocks usually unknown and unseen in the yards of private homes.” 

Tour number three on Saturday, Oct. 21, is titled “The Peraltas of Codornices Creek”, and promises tales of “Evictions! Foreclosures! Fraud! Murder! Ruin! Lawsuits! Thievery! Speculators!”  

Fortunately most if not all of these episodes took place long ago in 19th century Berkeley as Spanish/Mexican and American eras collided. 

Led by Dale Smith and Carole Bennett-Simmons, the tour wends through Berkeley’s Westbrae district, the northwest quadrant of town that was the site of the homestead of Domingo Peralta, whose ranch encompassed most of today’s cities of Berkeley and Albany. 

As Gold Rush settlers, squatters, and speculators spilled into the East Bay in the 1850s the Peraltas had the worst of it, eventually losing their expansive holdings.  

The tour will revisit their time, as well as later developments including the Peralta Community Gardens, the Ohlone Greenway, and what the tour leaders are calling it Berkeley’s “Other Gourmet Ghetto,” the shopping district grouped around such local institutions as Monterey Market, Lalime’s restaurant, and Berkeley Horticultural Nursery. The fifth and sixth tours focus on a pivotal time in the University of California’s past—75 years ago.  

In 1931 the University’s Radiation Laboratory—now the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)—was founded on the Berkeley campus by the brilliant experimental physicist who later earned the first Nobel Prize to honor a UC faculty member. 

From that date, and through World War II and the Cold War, the “Rad Lab” burgeoned into a massive science research complex, leading the world in high-energy physics and encompassing 76 buildings and 183 acres on the slopes of Strawberry Canyon.  

Terry Powell from LBNL will lead a Friday, Nov. 10, tour by bus through the laboratory, visiting a selection of buildings and research facilities. 

The next UC-themed tour is a week later on Sunday, Nov. 19. The author will lead a walk through the main Berkeley campus, discussing the late 1920s and early 1930s when, despite the financial and economic impact of the Great Depression, the University of California experienced one of the most interesting and energetic eras in its history. 

Participants will see several campus buildings completed and opened about 75 years ago to provide facilities for new or expanded UC programs, from agricultural economics, to the life sciences, student activities, housing, and intercollegiate sports.  

During this period the architecture of the campus became exuberantly eclectic, departing from formal Beaux Arts classicism and instead drawing inspiration from Tudor manors, Spanish Missions, Art Deco, and perhaps even Hollywood. 

The last tour of the season is free and reserved for participants who have purchased tickets for at least three of the other tours. It takes in the landmark Claremont Hotel and its gardens on Saturday, Dec. 2. 

BERKELEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY WALKING TOURS 

All the tours start at 10 a.m. and end around noon and should take place rain, shine, or Berkeley fog. Two walks, “Rocks of Thousand Oaks” and the Claremont Hotel tour, are not wheelchair accessible.  

Attendance is limited to 30 per tour and most BHS tours do sell out. Individual tickets: $10 per tour for the general public, $8 for members of BHS. A season ticket for members only is $30. You can join BHS for $20/individual, $25 family. 

For reservations call 848-0181, or send a check and a list of the tours you wish to attend to BHS at P.O. Box 1190, Berkeley, 94701-1190, or visit the BHS at 1931 Center St. in the Veterans Memorial Building on most Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. Add your phone number (essential) and e-mail address (if you have one) to your ticket order. Attendees will be notified of gathering points for each tour. 

Photograph By Steven Finacom 

Both the towering building and gardens of the historic Claremont Hotel can be visited on one of this season’s Berkeley Historical Society walking tours.

“Both the theater and the circus are places where imagination thrives, springs up and flies high,” says Ismail Azeem, coproducer with Lisa Marie Rollins of The Secret Circus, to be presented by The Marsh Berkeley on Wednesdays and Thursdays from Sept. 20 to Oct. 19. “So to take all kinds of artists and put them together under one tent—it’s genius and magic all at once.” 

The tent is The Marsh’s theater in the Gaia Building just off Shattuck on Allston, where over 20 artists will collaborate in shows that will change weekly, to open “a futuristic window where solo theater, spoken word and live music join and implode.” 

The producers envision a space where artists who’d otherwise never work together will collaborate on new creations, as well as challenge themselves to do something different. 

This week, the first show of the series will feature poetry by James Cagney, “The Takeover” by Jasper (Jsun), Azeem’s “Rude Boy” and music by Soul Cat. In “Rude Boy,” directed by David Ford, Azeem plays Jamerican (Jamaican-American) Johnny Burke, in a struggle both comic and tragic that moves toward a shocking end. Azeem has performed the piece at New York’s Lincoln Center and The Redline in Chicago, as well as hip-hop festivals in the Bay Area. 

Next week will feature EyeCue’s “Uncle Sam’s Dark Side”; a film short by Gene Hwang, “Kick Bush”; poetry by Gabriela Erandi Rico and Lisa Marie Rollins; “Don’t Let Go of the Potato” by Todd Lejeune (“a Cajun boy’s memoir of coming of age in a Louisiana bayou ... tipping over porta-potties and visiting the trailer of his true love”); “f-stop” by DJ Watson and Reg E. Gaines; and Soul Cat’s music.  

Oct. 4 and 5 will see Julia Jackson’s “Turbulence” under the tent (“Introspection runs amok during a cross-country flight ... Sex, drugs, alcohol and movies are all fair game in this exploration of the nature of denial”)—with “Where My Girls Are At,” Micia Moseley’s comedic look at “the issues that connect and separate the myriad Black women’s communities in the Bay Area, and challenges the notion that there’s only one way to be Black or Queer in the 21st century.” 

The fourth week of The Secret Circus will feature a film short by Norm Maxwell, “The Osiris Project”; Chela Simons’ “First Degree Codependency;” poetry by Augustin Palacios; and “Hard Evidence of Existence, A Black Gay Sex (& Love) Show,” based on the writings of Bay Area authors Ranekon O’Arwisters, Stewart Shaw and Zakee McGill as adapted and staged by Cedric Brown, performed by Dr. Marlon Bailey, Robert Hampton and Da’Mon Vann. 

The Secret Circus folds its tent following the shows on Oct. 18-19, featuring coproducer Lisa Marie Rollins’ “Ungrateful Daughter,” a solo performance by James Cagney, a one-act by Agustin Palacios, and more music by Soul Cat. 

By Ron Sullivan 

Special to the Planet 

A reader wrote to ask me to discuss the sad state of the elm species. Since threatened trees are much in the news locally, and have deserved even more attention than they’ve had, I’m glad (for fairly scratchy values of “glad”) to mention this, one of the native American marvels whose destruction has been so thorough and so forgotten that we’re generally oblivious to our own impoverishment.  

The first species to die off in such devastating fashion was the American chestnut. That was a keystone species of the eastern forests, and when chestnut blight did it in so completely, the whole flora and fauna changed. Oaks took over the niche, but acorns and chestnuts aren’t quite the same, and dependent populations shifted or vanished in the interim between die-off and replacement.  

The blight that struck American elms, starting around the 1930s, had had as much effect on the ecology of cities as on forests.  

Elms, particularly Ulnus americana, had long been the mark and pride of civilization. Their great size in maturity and their regal vase-like form made them logical as landmarks and meeting places long before streets and buildings cluttered up the early transit hubs—river fords, trail crossings, routes between settlements—and newcomers followed the examples of the first residents in revering the tree. It was a short step between founding a town around a distinctive tree and planting the town’s streets and squares with its descendents and brethren.  

One of my favorite tree plantings ever was a great double row of elms on Market Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Harrisburg, Pa. It was a sylvan feeling, indeed, that the great trees conferred on the street—three broad traffic lanes plus parking, roughly as broad as Berkeley’s University Avenue—as they arched almost all the way across the pavement, up the hill past my high school. They were especially breathtaking in autumn, when they turned brilliant gold. 

It’s been decades since I saw the elms last—most of my family moved to Florida, so we meet there—and I haven’t had the heart to ask if they’re still alive. Certainly they were senior trees when I left, 33 years ago.  

Dutch elm disease is a fungus, variously called Ceratocystis ulmi or Ophiostoma novo-ulmi or Ophiostoma ulmi, that clogs the tree’s vascular system; the leaves wilt and die because the water from the roots can’t get to them, and the whole tree follows. The fungus evidently got here from Europe, where it was ravaging elms, in a shipment of veneer lumber. It’s spread by two beetle species, the native bark beetle Hylurgopinus rufipes and the European elm bark beetle, Scolytus multistriatus, and directly from tree to tree when roots meet and “graft” to each other, as many kinds of tree roots commonly do.  

One thing that accelerated the epidemic in cities was precisely the strategem that planners and landscapers had used to get that stately allee effect: effectively, they’d planted a monoculture. Individual elms and regional varieties might have more resistance to the fungus, but all these close cousins—even seed-grown trees in the nurseries were likely to be from seeds of one or a few selected handsome or historic trees—didn’t stand a chance.  

American elms were even less resistant to the new fungus than European elms had been; no surprise, in a completely unexposed population. Humans have experienced similar disasters.  

Arboreta and laboratories have been working for decades to breed fungus-proof American-type elms, using parents from different populations or hybridizing American elms with Siberian elms and other related species. 

We have quite a few Chinese elms, Ulmus parvifolia, also used in this effort, as street trees in Berkeley. I like those; they’re graceful and have interesting bark patterns (“lacebark elm” is an alternate name) and are easier to prune than you might suppose if you look just at some of our more grotesquely handled specimens.  

But they’re not the same sort of tree as American elm. (Not to be all parochial about it: Other North American elms like the wahoo and the slippery elm, while also nifty in their own right, aren’t in the same league either.)  

Replacement plantings have carried their own problems; many, like fruitless mulberry, are ridiculously allergenic. None has quite the place in history as American elm, and we’re poorer for having lost so much of the species.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan.  

This Chinese elm is a bit mopheaded; careful thinning would improve its looks. The species resists Dutch elm disease, but doesn’t fill the grand-old-tree niche of American elm.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 19 

Berkeley Garden Club “Dry Gardening” with Richard Ward, owner of The Dry Garden Nursery in Berkeley, at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-7296. 

“Making a Difference in Africa” with environmental justice activist Frank Muramuzi on big dams in Africa at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Sponsored by the International Rivers Network, 848-1155. 

Strike at Half Dome with Bob Madgic, author of “Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome” at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“Aging Artfully” with author Amy Gorman and music from Greg Young’s CD “Still Kicking” at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from noon to 3 p.m. and also 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. For information call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

Torture Teach-in and Vigil every Tues. at 12:30 p.m. at the fountain on UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 

American Red Cross Blood Services is holding a volunteer orientation in Oakland from 6 to 8 p.m. Various East Bay opportunities available. Advanced sign-up is required. 594-5165.  

Workshop on Wills for Parents with Paula Liebovitz, attorney and tax specialist at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Limited, on-site child care available. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org 

Discussion Salon on How to Stay Young at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Handbuilding Ceramics Class from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also Mon. from noon to 4 p.m. and Wed. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ashby at Ellis Sts. Free, except for materials and firing charges. For information call Diana Bohn, 525-5497. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20 

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 

“The Motherhood Manifesto” A documentary on the lack of support for families in the U.S. at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $5. Free for children. www.momsrising.org 

“Powerdown” a documentary on resource depletion and population pressures at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“When God is on Your Side” A film about the rise of the religious right at 7 p.m. at Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

Spirited Child Series Learn how temperament affects children’s behavior and how to best live and work with inborn traits at 7 p.m. at Bananas. To register call 752-6150. If you need child care, at $5 per child, call 658-7353.  

Prostate Cancer Screening from 7:45 -11:15 a.m. and Thurs. from 1:45 to 5:15 p.m. at Markstein Cancer Center, Peralta Pavilion, 450 30th St., Oakland. Free, but appointments required. 869-8833. 

New to DVD: “An Inconvenient Truth” at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $3-$5. 848-0237. 

Current Events Discussion Group meets on Wed. at 7 p.m. at the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. 597-4972. 

“Believing the Bible in a Global Context” with Philip Kenkins at the GTU Convocation, at 3:30 p.m. at 1798 Scenic Ave. Reception to follow. 649-2440. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes. 548-9840. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 21 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Berkeley After the “Big One” with local historian Richard Schwartz on how the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake changed Berkeley, at 7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 848-9358. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Solutions Salon on “Green-Collar Jobs” with Aya de Leon, Nancy Nadel, Van Jones, at 7 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon Street, Oakland. www.ellabakercenter.org 

“Maquilopolis” City of Factories A documentary by Vicky Funari and Sergio de La Torre at 7:30 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, Oakland. Benefit for the Wellstone Democratic Club and Global Exchange. Tickets are $10, available from 415-255-7296. 

LeConte Neighborhood Assn. meets at 7:30 p.m. in the LeConte School Cafeteria, Russell St. entrance. The agenda includes a candidates’ forum for District 7 between George Beier and Kriss Worthington, and other items on the Nov. 7 ballot. 843-2602. karlreeh@aol.com 

Diversity Films presents “Homeless in Paradise” at 7 p.m. at Ellen Driscoll Theater, Frank Havens School, 325 Highland Ave., Piedmont. Free. www.diversityworks.org 

“Ready or Not: The Consequences of a Pandemic Flu” with Dr. Arthur Reingold, M.D. and disaster planning expert, at 7:30 p.m. at The College Preparatory School, 6100 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50-$15. www.college-prep.org/livetalk 

Community Peace Vigil on the United Nations International Day of Peace at 7 p.m. at Indian Statue Park in downtown Point Richmond. 236-0527. 

Poetry Workshop with Donna Davis from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Offered by the Berkeley Adult School. 644-6130. 

Stress Reduction for Health and Peace of Mind an 8-week course at 7 p.m. in Berkeley. For information call 524-8833. MindfulnessforHealth.com 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755.  

FRIDAY, SEPT. 22 

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 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with John Sutter on “What is New in the Regional Parks?” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

Declaration of Peace Benefit Dinner with panel discussion with Sarad Seed, Michael Eisenschauer, Magot Smith and Jim Haber at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation $25, no one turned away. 495-5132. 

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

Kol Hadash Humanistic Rosh Hashanah Service at 7:30 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. 428-1492. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 23 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Old and New in the North Shattuck Neighborhood, led by Robert Johnson, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. To sign up and for meeting place call 848-0181. www.cityofberkeley 

.info/histsoc/  

Family Nature Hike to meet the creatures around Jewel Lake in Tilden Park. Meet at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Farm Friends Meet the latest additions to the farm and say hello to the established residents on an interactive tour at 2 pm. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Latino Art, Health and Community with vendors, support groups, social services and complementary treatments from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave., OAkland. 420-7900. 

Banned Books Week Celebration with a community read-aloud, for all ages, of Alvin Schwartz’s “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” at 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6133. 

Poison Oak Learn to identify, prevent and heal poison oak at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland Uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Solo Sierrans Hike in Tilden Park Meet at 5 pm at Lone Oak picnic area for an hour hike through the woods. Optional dinner afterward. 234-8949. 

Autumnal Equinox Gathering Led by Rabbi David Cooper at 6:15 at the Interim Solar Calendar, in Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. www.solarcalendar.org 

Free Market Day of Exchange from noon to 4 p.m. at People’s Park. Bring your extra things to give away, and find treasures from others. Everyone welcome. rachel@cathaus.org 

Know Your Rights Training and CopWatch Orientation from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

“The Fight for Immigrant Rights and Black Liberation” with Don Alexander, Spartacist League Central Committee, at 4 p.m. at the YWCA, 1515 Webster St., Oakland. 839-0851.  

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.  

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. 

Animal Healing Cicle, a guided meditation to send healing energy to pets at 5 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave. Suggested donation $5. 525-6155. 

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 of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 24 

Farm Stories and Songs Come clap your hands or your paws and sing along at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Bee Keeping in the City” A hands-on workshop from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Berkeley Eco-House, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. For information on what to bring call 547-8715. 

BCA Endorsement Meeting for candidates and ballot measures at 3 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 549-1208. 

Military Families & War Resisters Speak Out at 1 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, Oakland. Donation of $10 to $25 at the door, and $5 for students and seniors. 415-864-5153. 

“9/11 & American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out” with David Ray Griffin, Peter Dale Scott, and Ray McGovern at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King Middle School. Cost is $15-$20. Sponsored by KPFA. 848-5006. 

“Are We Still Dinosaurs? The Asteroid Test – Protecting the Earth from the Next Big Collision” at 4 p.m. at Chabot Space & Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd. Oakland. Tickets are $6-$8, seating is limited. 336-7373. 

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  

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

Community Peace Tashlick, the start of the Jewish New Year at 3 p.m. at the Emeryville Marina Follow Powell Street towards the bay past the Holiday Inn and Watergate apartment complex. The road curves to the right. Follow it to the end and park. The event is a short walk from the parking lot. www.bayareawomeninblack.org 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Balinese Dance Class with Tjokorda Istri Putra Padmini at 11 a.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. 237-6849. 

Kickabout at Codornices Park Soccer for all, skill and talent not required. For more information contact cambour@hotmail.com  

Ancient Tools for Successful Living Workshops in Meditation, the I-Ching, and Qi Gong begin at 5272 Foothill Blvd. Oakland. Cost is $8 per class. 536-5934. 

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

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Awareness, Self-Healing and Meditation” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, SEPT. 25 

“Encounter Point” A documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. www.encounterpoint.com 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group for people aged 60 and over meets at 9:45 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Donation $3. 524-9122. 

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. 

Lead Abatement Repairs Find out about funding for lead hazard repairs for rental properties with low-income tenants or vacant units in Oakland, Berkeley or Emeryville, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 2000 Embarcadero, #300, Oakland. Sponsored by Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 567-8280. 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 26 

Tuesday is for the Birds An early morning walk for birders through Bay Area parklands. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. This week we will visit Point Pinole. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. For information contact 524-2319. writercoachconnect@yahoo.com 

“Encounter Point” A documentary about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Q & A with the filmaker after the 7:30 screening. www.encounterpoint.com 

Albany Library Homework Center is open from 3 to 5 p.m., Tues. and Thurs. for students in third through fifth grades. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17.  

Torture Teach-in and Vigil every Tues. at 12:30 p.m. at the fountain on UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 

“Older and Wiser: Basic Legal Knowledge for Seniors” Estate planning for seniors at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

Choosing Infant Care A workshop for parents at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Handbuilding Ceramics Class from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also Mon. from noon to 4 p.m. and Wed. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ashby at Ellis Sts Free, except for materials and firing charges. 525-5497. 

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. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Sept. 19, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Berkeley Housing Authority meets Tues., Sept. 19, at 6:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Sept. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed., Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Sept. 20, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344.  

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Sept. 20, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7550.  

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed. Sept. 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Kristen Lee, 981-5427. 

Library Board of Trustees postponed to Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6195.  

Berkeley Unified School District Board meets Wed. Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. 644-6320. 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950.