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Chef Ann Cooper prepares spaghetti sauce from scratch at Jefferson Elementary School on Thursday morning. Phtograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
Chef Ann Cooper prepares spaghetti sauce from scratch at Jefferson Elementary School on Thursday morning. Phtograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
 

News

Chef Stirs Up Fancy Food For Berkeley School Kids

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Two turkey hot dogs, Tater Tots, canned fruit and chocolate milk—that was what lunch meant for Berkeley public school students a year ago. 

Today, kids are served “made from scratch” nutrient-based lunches, such as rotini with fresh tomato sauce, roast herb chicken or tofu, fresh fruit and low-fat milk, choices which are a far cry from the prepackaged heat-and-serve frozen lunches they got before. 

“I banned transfats, preservatives, refined flour, sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, white bread, generic hot dogs and hamburgers and too salty foods when I started out last fall,” said Ann Cooper, who marked her first anniversary as the nutrition services director for the Berkeley schools on Oct. 1. 

“It’s been a challenge, and cooking for school children is no chef’s fantasy, but I have enjoyed every minute of it,” she said. “What is important is that the kids are finally getting to eat healthy and the project is getting a lot of good press.” 

Cooper, a former celebrity chef and author of Lunch Lessons, was hired and funded by a three-year financial grant from the Chez Panisse Foundation last October to rebuild the nutrition services in the schools. 

“I wanted to not only improve the food, but also come up with some kind of a blueprint for changing school lunches nationwide,” she said. “I worked on menu cycles, recipes, ordering guides, and staffing changes. The school board recently approved a staffing reorganization which will help the Nutrition Services to function in this way even after I leave, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.” 

The ride, however, hasn’t been smooth. 

“Berkeley’s Renegade Lunch Lady,” as Cooper is fond of calling herself, has met obstacles including elementary school tantrums about pizza toppings, dilapidated kitchen infrastructure, staff shortages and a tight public-school budget. 

“The kids hated the corn, zucchini and other vegetarian toppings,” said Alicha Byrd, a satellite operator for the Malcolm X Elementary School cafeteria. “The meat eaters thought that they were being forced to become vegetarian and they would just toss the slices into the trash.” 

Malcolm X fifth-grader Iyaunti Yancay said even with the addition of meat toppings, the new pizza is still not to her liking. 

“The pizzas we get now are just bread, sauce and cheese, and the pepperoni is sometimes uncooked, I still toss mine into the trash. I want real toppings,” she said wrinkling up her nose during lunch on Wednesday. She added that she craved hamburgers, nachos, and hot dogs and missed chocolate milk. 

Her friend Sana Khan said that the food had improved since last year. 

“At least we eat it now,” Sana said. “Earlier we used to toss it around and lie to our teachers that we had eaten it. But I wish we could have some sort of a dessert,” she said, over her lunch of teriyaki meatballs, veggie lo-mein and stir-fried vegetables. 

“Change is hard for the kids but in this case it is for the best. Dessert, however, is an absolute no-no,” said Cooper firmly, as she ordered her staff around the Central Kitchen at Jefferson Elementary School around 7 a.m. on Thursday.  

“Most adults don’t have dessert for lunch, even if they say they do,” she said. “So why should kids? They do get fresh fruit for dessert, which is healthy. They also get grass-fed hot dogs once every month. I have banned chocolate milk, fried food and vending machines. It’s tough, I know, but the kids have to get used to it.” 

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Cooper’s background lies in cooking for cruise ships and celebrities as varied as Hillary Clinton and The Grateful Dead. Her only experience in cooking for hungry school children comes from consulting for charter and public schools in New York, and most recently from working as a chef for the privately owned Ross School in East Hampton. 

At Ross, Cooper had 27 employees for 500 diners and spent $12 a day on each child for breakfast and lunch. In Berkeley, however, she feeds 4,000 hungry children on a staff of 53 and a budget of $3.50 for the same two meals. 

Cooper said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which uses the commodity program to buy up farm surpluses and stabilize prices, is responsible for the imbalance in the meat and dairy products and vegetables that are sent to school cafeterias annually.  

“I want to sue the USDA for all the unhealthy food it keeps on feeding school children every year,” she said. 

When the USDA visited the Berkeley Nutritional Services Department in March, they noted that the food was “very high quality and was visually pleasing as well as tasty,” but wanted Cooper to follow a “nutrient-based menu planning.” 

“We are following USDA guidelines and entering every recipe into a USDA- approved database so that their ingredients can be broken up into vitamins, proteins and minerals. We are getting ready for the USDA’s visit in November,” said Cooper. 

With the help of the Chez Panisse Foundation, Cooper is trying to document the changes that she is bringing into the school district’s Nutrition Services system. The foundation is also funding a study by the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health that will gauge the emotional, physical and academic effects of this project on children over a period of four years, she said. 

“Right now we buy differently, cook differently and feed differently. Kids will always crave junk food, but we are the adults, the caregivers,” Cooper said. “If we educate them about healthy choices, they are sure to take it up.” 

However, for Berkeley High students Kimberly Moreno and Vanessa Gonzales, street food takes preference over the freshly cooked cafeteria fare every day. 

“We are used to junk food,” Kimberly said. “We don’t care about the new lunches even if they taste better. The cafeteria lines are way too long.” 

“Plus we get healthy options outside too if we want it,” Vannessa added, as they joined their friends inside Peiking Express, a Chinese fast-food joint on Center Street. 

The BHS cafeteria offers up to four different food stations everyday with choices including a farm-fresh organic salad bar and a rotating Asian, American, Mexican and Italian food counter. Starting today (Tuesday), a healthy snack store will open in the campus cafeteria. 

“We are in competition with all the bad stuff that is available on Shattuck Avenue,” said the school district’s Executive Chef Margarite Larau, who joined Cooper’s team last fall. “Kids in high school have the freedom to just walk outside the door and eat what they want. No matter how good the school lunches are, it is a little difficult to attract kids because we are an open campus. There are 3,000 students in BHS but we serve only 300 to 400 meals every day.” 

Last Friday was burrito day at BHS. Filled with a choice of either bean and cheese or chicken, the All Star burritos were fresh and transfat-free. 

Standing in line with his students was BHS Principal Jim Slemp. “I eat at the different stations every day,” Slemp said. “They provide good choices for everyone. I am glad to see that the kids are finally enjoying their food.” 

Meg Veitch, a sophomore at BHS, said that the quality of cafeteria food had improved since last year. “Most people are happy with the healthy choices offered. But the fruits are not very fresh. By the time we get them, they get all soft and yucky,” she said. 

Rio Bauce, a junior at BHS, chair of the Berkeley Youth Commission and occasional writer for the Daily Planet, said that he had noticed longer lines at the school cafeteria recently. 

“The new lunch project hasn’t created a major buzz among the students yet, but it’s slowly getting noticed,” he said. “Most of us eat out or bring our own food, so it will be sometime before all the different healthy options get sampled. Till then Top Dog and Extreme Pizza get first preference.”


Plans Unveiled for Gourmet Ghetto Plaza

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Backers of a pedestrian plaza along North Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose streets are ready to seek funds for the project, the project’s leading proponents say. 

David Stoloff and Helene Villet, chair and vice chair of North Shattuck Plaza Inc., will formally unveil project plans Sunday at the Spice of Life Festival.  

The festival, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., will be held along Shattuck from Virginia to Rose streets. 

A community meeting will follow on Oct. 26 to seek comments and critiques to be used in hammering out a final design, said Stoloff, a retired planner who sits on Berkeley’s Planning Commission. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 

“If all goes well and we find all the funding, the plaza could open by next summer, although that’s probably too optimistic,” said Stoloff. 

The project would radically transform the streetscape in the heart of the Gourmet Ghetto, closing off Shattuck between Vine and Rose and turning the current angle parking and access lane along the eastern side of the avenue into a 50-foot-wide pedestrian walkway with landscaped plantings, two rows of shade trees and benches. 

The walkway would also include more outdoor seating for restaurants along the new plaza. 

The block-long stretch of Shattuck between the triangular Shattuck Commons shopping complex on the west and the Longs Drug parking lot on the east would be transformed into a parking lot, replacing the lost angle parking spaces while still allowing northbound vehicles to travel to Rose Street, albeit at reduced speed. 

“Everything in the plan is on the public right-of-way,” said Stoloff, “and all the parking spaces are replaced. We have met with all the owners and merchants and they’re pretty much on board.” 

The North Shattuck Association, which administers the city-sanctioned business improvement district, put up the funds to update the design and created a designer selection committee from members of the association and the newly formed corporation, which was created in January. 

“We sent invitations to all Berkeley urban and landscape architectural firms,” Stoloff said, ultimately selecting landscape architects Meyer & Silverberg to create the plan. 

“The estimated project cost is $1.5 million,” he said, “but that’s a guesstimate. The designer will have a better number soon.” 

The costliest single item is likely to be a kiosk that would be built between Longs and the avenue near the entrance to the new parking lot, which would feature a food vendor, storage of moveable furniture and a restroom that would be supervised by the vender, Stoloff said. 

“The idea is to have eyes on the plaza with the vendor there,” said Villet. 

 

Merchant concerns 

While the plan has won the approval of most merchants, Longs still has concerns, Stoloff concedes. 

Fred Shokouh, who owns the Bel Forno cafe in Shattuck Commons, has concerns as well, including vehicle access along the current stretch of Shattuck that would be transformed into a parking lot, and with the kiosk restroom, which he fears could become a magnet for the homeless. 

“What surprises me the most is that they haven’t done a traffic study,” Shokouh said. “This is very surprising. If I wanted to put a nail in the wall of my restaurant, I’m sure they’d want a study. But for this, they haven’t done a study.” 

Shokouh noted that after he installed an automatic teller machine for the convenience of customers, city officials ordered him to remove it because he hadn’t obtained a use permit. 

“They told me it would cost $3,000 and give notice to everyone in the neighborhood and then I would have to go before the City Council, which could turn me down,” he said. “But this was approved in 2001 without a traffic study. But overall, I’m not against it if they are not taking away from my business, especially the parking.” 

Assistant City Manager for Transportation Peter Hillier said that because vehicles can still travel north through the parking lot, there should be no significant changes. 

“That area is already closed off when the Farmers Market is held, and this project will have less impact than that, so there probably isn’t any need,” Hillier said. 

The one aspect Hillier said might require a study is the impact of closing off the Shattuck Avenue entrance to the Longs parking lot, a concern of the retailer’s as well, Stoloff acknowledged. 

As for the farmers’ market, Villet and Stoloff said vendors would probably be accommodated on the new enlarged pedestrian area south of the new lot. 

 

Project history 

Stoloff said the project has been in the works since the late 1990s, when the city was undertaking major improvements on the avenue itself, fundlargely with federal grant money. 

“They did some cosmetic improvements on the sidewalks and set up an advisory committee of merchants and residents to help formulate a long-range improvement plan for North Shattuck,” Stoloff said. 

The city hired a North Shattuck consultant to do the plan, Design Community & Environment, which drafted a plan for North Shattuck that extended all the way south to Hearst Avenue, with the target area between Vine and Rose. 

The city approved the plan in 2001, but without committing the needed funding. 

“So the plan was shelved until June 2005, when I talked to Heather Hensley, the executive director of the North Shattuck Association, at the Live Oak Fair. She said they had some money they could commit to the project, but not enough. I suggested setting up a citizens’ group to refine the plan in cooperation with the association and then to find the money,” Stoloff said. 

Villet said she has met with enthusiastic responses from Hillier and city Neighborhood Services Liaison Michael Caplan—hardly surprising since the City Council resolution passed last year endorsing the plaza concept was jointly submitted by Councilmembers Dona Spring and Laurie Capitelli, who are frequently at odds on other issues. 

Capitelli serves on the corporation’s board, along with former councilmember Mim Hawley, Hensley, CPA Judith Bloom, attorney and former school board member Lloyd Lee, Walnut Square owner Laszlo Tokes and Margo Lowe of M. Lowe & Co. Jewelers. 

“The project was inspired by the fact that this used to be the terminus for the F Train and light rail,” said Villet, a retired architect. “We’re looking at using wooden planking to recapture the feel of that era.” 

Villet and Stoloff said they wanted the greenest possible design, and one key ingredient is replacing a lot of asphalt and concrete with permeable surfaces that will allow rainwater to seep into the soil rather than burden the city’s already overtaxed storm drains. 

“We’re looking at an organic garden, too—perhaps for children, like Alice Waters is doing with the schools,” Villet said. Waters, Berkeley’s most famous restaurateur, serves on the plaza project’s advisory board. 

More information may be found on the corporation’s website, www.northshattuckplaza.org and on the website of Councilmember Capitelli at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/council5/NSPlaza.html.


Pickets Call For Emeryville Hotel to Honor Minimum Wage

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday October 03, 2006

While housekeepers waved white sheets from the Emeryville Woodfin Suite Hotel balconies early Friday morning, some 80 people—Emeryville residents, religious leaders, trade unionists, and immigrant rights activists—circled the sidewalk in front of the hotel calling on management to implement Measure C, Emeryville’s minimum wage law for hotel workers.  

Not a law some might think would emerge amidst the tiny town’s big boxes, card clubs and glitzy Bay Street, Measure C, approved by voters in November 2005 and in effect since December, offers worker protection for employees in hotels of more than 50 people. Specifically, it requires a minimum wage of $9 per hour, and an $11 per hour average wage, and says that if housekeepers are asked to clean more than 5,000 square feet of floor space per day, they must be paid overtime. It also requires pay for jury duty and requires a 90-day employee retention period if the hotel changes management. 

Brooke Anderson, organizing director with East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, which organized the Measure C campaign and is monitoring its implementation, said that not only is the hotel refusing to implement the measure, it is harassing immigrant workers by demanding they complete new forms showing they have a right to work in the United States, even though they already had completed these forms when they were hired. 

“That’s highly suspicious,” said Anderson, who argued that a demand for renewing the paperwork was retaliation for worker support for organizing efforts to implement Measure C. 

“Workload protections are important, housekeeping is one of the most dangerous jobs,” she said. “There are more giant fluffy beds and the rooms (at the Woodfin) are all suites. Housekeepers suffer from exhaustion and repetitive stress.” 

As demonstrators, armed with buckets and brooms, were calling for the hotel to “clean up its act” outside, inside the hotel, Woodfin attorney Heather Sager of Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger told the Planet she had met with the protesters, “none of whom represents the employees,” she said. 

She also said she has spoken to city officials and they said the city is “the sole entity in charge of compliance,” she said. 

Sager also denied that employees were being asked to fill out new forms that showed they had a right to work.  

“If the city found we were outside compliance, they would pull our permit,” Sager said, adding that the demonstrators “should get their facts before making allegations.” 

Sager contended that the Woodfin Hotel requires a lower volume of work compared to comparable hotels. 

To back up their claims more thoroughly, organizers say they need access to documents that detail wages and square-footage of rooms. In a phone message, City Attorney Michael Biddle said the hotel had submitted documents the city had requested. Organizers say they have submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the city to obtain copies of these documents. 

The state enacted legislation in the early 1990s permitting minimum wage laws within cities, according to Howard Greenwich, research director for the East Bay Alliance. San Francisco passed a minimum wage law for the entire city two years ago and Santa Cruz has a minimum wage law on the Nov. 7 ballot. Greenwich said the minimum wage law movement has grown out of the living wage movement, in which “living wages” are tied to city contracts. Berkeley has a living wage ordinance and one is moving through Emeryville’s City Council process. 

Berkeley Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he proposed a minimum wage ordinance that went to the city Labor Commission more than a year ago. The commission was waiting for the state to pass its minimum wage law, according to commission secretary Delfina Geiken, and will likely revisit the issue now that it has done so. 

Organizers are not only holding protests at the Woodfin, they filed a lawsuit on Thursday alleging the hotel has not paid the overtime for workers who clean more than 5,000 square feet in a day, and has unfairly retaliated against workers by cutting their hours. 

Sager said she had not reviewed the lawsuit and could not comment on it. 

Reached by phone on Friday, Emeryville City Councilmember John Fricke said he supports the efforts on behalf of the workers. 

“I have a strong belief in the right of labor to organize,” he said. In a phone message Mayor Ruth Atkin said she was the lone councilmember to endorse Measure C and strongly supports its implementation. 


Critics Question Closed-Door Discussion of Police Disciplinary Hearings

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Today (Tuesday) the City Council and Police Review Commission are scheduled to discuss whether the city can hold public inquiries to investigate complaints against Berkeley Police Department officers as they have in the past. 

But the public won’t be privy to the discussion, which is to be held behind closed doors. 

The issue of public inquiry into police conduct is not officially on the closed-door meeting agenda, but is related and likely to surface in discussion, according to PRC Officer Victoria Urbi, who staffs the commission. 

The item posted for the closed-door session is a meeting which will include the PRC, the City Council and their attorneys, concerning a lawsuit filed in 2002 by the Berkeley Police Officers Association. The complaint says that, given that disciplinary actions are private personnel matters, mandatory appearance of Berkeley police officers at public hearings “violate(s) the statutory and contractual rights of the officers who are subject to these inquiries.” 

Urbi explained that the closed-door discussion will center around the relationship between the Berkeley officers’ lawsuit and an Aug. 31 California Supreme Court decision, Copley Press vs. San Diego County, which broadens the scope of privacy laws that protect police from the disclosure of disciplinary records maintained by police departments. 

They will talk about “if we need to close our hearings,” Urbi said. 

In response to the Copley decision, the city attorney, in mid-September, canceled the PRC’s inquiry boards through the end of October. The inquiry boards, made up of three PRC commissioners, investigate complaints against police officers and either sustain or dismiss the complaint. The police chief can take the PRC ruling into consideration when disciplining an officer, but is not obliged to do so. 

The question of suspending the inquiry boards has not been discussed in public session. 

Shutting out the public on this issue concerns PRC Commissioner Sherry Smith, who said the city ought to divide the question, addressing the BPOA lawsuit in closed session and talking about the Copley ruling and the future of the police review hearings in open session. 

That is also the position of PRC Commissioner Bill White, who told the Planet: “Discussion of the Copley decision should not be handled in closed session. If we’re going to discuss the Copley decision, it’s a public discussion.”  

White said Police Review Commission hearings should never have been suspended in response to the Supreme Court decision. “I don’t feel that the Copley case and the Berkeley PRC process are related,” White said.  

The difference is that the PRC does not discipline officers, he said. The Supreme Court decision turns around San Diego’s Civil Service Commission, which, unlike the PRC, is responsible for disciplining officers. 

Urbi said a public discussion of the hearing process should be held separately in the future. 

In a phone interview, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque argued that discussion in closed session is entirely appropriate under the state’s open meeting laws. In light of the BPA lawsuit and the Copley decision, the council and PRC will discuss “if the current (PRC) procedures are legally defensible or not.”  

If the council and PRC decide the procedures are legally defensible, then the boards of inquiry will resume as in the past. Consideration of future changes will take place at a future date in open session, Albuquerque said, contending that holding Tuesday’s meeting in open session would give the BPOA an unfair advantage by learning the city’s strategy with respect to its lawsuit. 

The closed-session meeting, preceded by public comment, is at 5 p.m., at the city administrative building, 2180 Milvia St. 6th floor. 

 


Former Library Director Heads for Ventura County

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Embattled former Berkeley Library Director Jackie Griffin, whose attorney threatened to sue the Berkeley Public Library if its trustees fired Griffin, is poised to become the next director of the Ventura County library system. 

Today (Tuesday) the Ventura Board of Supervisors is slated to approve an employment contract with Griffin for $141,804. (Her annual salary in Berkeley was $131,494.) Ventura County will also provide Griffin with a housing allowance not to exceed $25,000 and reimbursement of moving expenses up to $7,000. She will also receive a benefits package and a car allowance, the amounts of which are not stipulated in the contract. 

In an agreement with the Berkeley Board of Library Trustees, signed in June by both Griffin and her attorney Jonathan Siegel, Griffin promised not to sue the city. She was permitted to stay on the city payroll using accrued vacation time until the end of June. And she was paid $34,000, equal to three months salary, given airfare and hotel expenses for a library conference in New Orleans for $1,500 and received medical benefits for six months equal to $6,200.  

Jim Fisher of SuperBOLD, Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense, a critic of Griffin’s push for RFID (radio frequency identification chips embedded in books for check-out purposes), said he thought it was interesting that Griffin would go from Berkeley to a conservative area such as Ventura. 

“If they’re looking for a technician, that’s what they’re going to get,” he said. 

 

 

 

 


UC Projects Featured on Downtown Panel Agendas

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Some members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will face back-to-back meetings this week as the full committee meets Wednesday night, followed by a second session Thursday for members who sit on a subcommittee looking at developments on Center Street. 

Wednesday’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. with public comments, followed by a presentation by Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive Director Kevin Consey on the $120 million museum complex planned for the west end of the block between Center and Addison streets along Oxford Street. 

The university plans a hotel and convention center complex at the western end of the block. 

The meeting will segue into a discussion of a set of draft scenarios about land use and design elements for the new plan, which was mandated by the city’s settlement of its lawsuit filed last year challenging the UC Berkeley Long Range Development Plan outlining projects through 2020. 

DAPAC members who also belong to the panel’s Center Street Subcommittee will be back in the same North Berkeley Senior Center meeting room at 7 p.m. Thursday. 

The downtown planning committee voted overwhelmingly to form the subcommittee in July despite opposition from Chair Will Travis and member Dorothy Walker, a retired UC Berkeley executive. 

With current Transportation and former Planning Commission Chair Rob Wrenn serving as interim chair, the meeting will focus on recommendations to be presented at the next DAPAC meeting in November. 

Items for discussion include: 

• The height of the planned hotel, previously cited as being as much as 12 stories, seven more than the current downtown base maximum height. 

• Options for Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue, with options including two-lane traffic, a pedestrian plaza, green space and a possible open waterway rechanneling Strawberry Creek from its current underground culvert beneath Allston Way. 

• Parking and vehicle access to Center Street. 

• Coordination of the museum and hotel complexes. 

• The role of Center Street in the overall downtown area. 

• Selection of a chair for the subcommittee’s next meeting. 

Both meetings begin at 7 p.m. in Rooms A and B on the second floor of the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.


ZAB Addresses Residential Use Permits

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday October 03, 2006

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) addressed issues concerning residential use permits on Thursday. 

Neighbors of 157 and 161 Vicente Road spoke against the two single-family dwellings that were being proposed at these addresses in the Berkeley Hills, stating concerns such as privacy, views, security and fencing between homes and noise and light disturbances from the garages. 

“We are totally against the proposed box-like structure. We prefer something floating,” said Alyssa Wang, a resident of 151 Vicente.  

Georgia Wright, who has lived at 105 Vicente since 1967, spoke about the valuable view and privacy that would be lost if the construction took place.  

“For us across the street who don’t have too much of a view, the creek’s vegetation provides our only delight,” she said. “The size of the proposed houses would take that away. Add to that the constant car doors slamming, the engines roaring and the headlights blaring into our rooms. We want the board to reject this design.” 

A resident of 95 Vicente Road stated that the building design did not blend in with the rest of the neighborhood’s character and said he was concerned about the high noise levels and light visibility that would result from the project.  

Board member Bob Allen said that he could not find enough credibility in the neighbors’ objections. “It looks like a typical Berkeley music chair where the last one gets ganged up upon,” he said. 

The board approved the construction of the two single-family residential units but requested an addition of a six-feet high fence that would separate the property from 151 Vicente.  

The project on 1628 Carleton St. was continued to the next ZAB hearing. The owner, Darrell Rupe, wanted a use permit to demolish an existing single-family dwelling and construct a new one, but the board decided that it did not have the appropriate variance findings to grant the bearings for it. 

 

 


Fire Department Log

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Unwatched pot 

A watched pot may never boil, but an unwatched one can burn, as a Vassar Avenue resident learned last Thursday evening. 

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said the resident had forgotten that pot of water they’d left on the burner until flames started and smoke started boiling up. 

A panicked call to 911 at 9:14 p.m. brought firefighters to the scene at 429 Vassar, where they found the kitchen cabinetry fully aflame. 

It took but a few minutes to knock down the flames, but by the time the smoke cleared, an estimated $25,000 in damage had been done to the dwelling and another $10,000 to the contents, said Orth. 

“Pots can burn,” Orth said, explaining that once the water boils off, heat can melt the metal, or the pot can radiate heat that catches nearby plastics ablaze or triggers grease caught up by range hoods. 

“In this case, the fire got up the hood and spread to the cabinets,” he said.  

 

Candle culprit 

It may be better to light a candle than curse the darkness, but Chief Orth said it’s better not to light them at all—and certainly not if you’re planning to leave the room. 

A resident of a three-story dwelling at 2833 Regent St. discovered that a candle left burning in a bedroom at the rear of the second floor had ignited a blaze that was soon roaring. 

An effort to smother the flames resulted only in second- and third-degree burns to the hands, followed by a call to 911. 

“It went to a second alarm as soon as the first units arrived because the rear of the structure was already heavily involved,” Orth said. 

The blaze spread into an adjacent deck and into the ceiling above a third-floor attic that had been converted to a bedroom, he said. 

Firefighters arrived at 2:12 a.m., five minutes after the call, and it took them until 3:20 to control the fire. “We were still knocking down hot spots a couple of hours later,” Orth said. 

The blaze gutted the bedroom, a converted sun porch, as well as a deck and part of the roof. 

Damage to the structure was estimated at $400,000, with loss of contents topping $10,000, Orth said.


Ralph S. Hager, 1939-2006

By Susan Parker, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Ralph S. Hager, Oakland resident, retired physicist, and quiet activist for the disabled community, passed away at Alta Bates Hospital on Friday morning, Sept. 29.  

Ralph lived passionately and enthusiastically throughout his life. When a bicycling accident on Claremont Avenue on April 27, 1994, left him permanently paralyzed below the shoulders, Ralph took the energy he dedicated to his favorite activities, (skiing, mountaineering, bicycling, home-brewing, cooking meals with eclectic menus, stained-glass making, listening to and playing jazz and classical music), and threw himself into new pursuits. 

For 11 years Ralph was a committed board member with the Center for Independent Living, serving at various times (and sometimes simultaneously) as president, vice president, and chair of the programs committee. He rarely missed a meeting, and on the days when he was confined to his bed or in a hospital, Ralph made certain he was connected to his fellow board members via telephone.  

Ralph was born in Minneapolis, Minn., on Feb. 5, 1939, the son of Vivian and Walter Hager. Ralph and his identical twin brother, Richard, graduated as salutatorians from Washburn High School. (They had perfect attendance, but both received a C in art which they vehemently resented). The brothers enrolled together at the University of Minnesota, both graduating in 1961, Ralph with a degree in physics, Richard with a degree in mathematics.  

After graduation Ralph moved to California and continued his education at the California Institute of Technology, earning a Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1966, followed by two years of post-doctoral work. Ralph then joined the staff at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories. He remained there for the next 25 years in a big-time, scientific-think tank-type position that his wife, Susan Parker, never really understood, but accepted. 

Ralph was a fervent sports fan, with a particular fondness for the Oakland A’s, San Francisco Giants, UCLA and UC Berkeley basketball teams, and anything to do with his beloved Golden Gofers. After the accident Ralph developed passionate interests in collecting, including baseball memorabilia, film noir videos, antique advertising signage, antique stained glass lighting fixtures, blues music cds, and jokes. Recently he had become fascinated with movies that featured tap dancing, beginning a new collection of videos that are still arriving, via UPS and USPS, to his home. 

Ralph was often featured in essays his wife wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, the East Bay Express, and the Berkeley Daily Planet. Ralph enthusiastically supported her writing, although he was quick to point out a grammatical error or innocent exaggeration. Ralph was a man who liked order and the scientific method. Caps on pens were always replaced, borrowed items returned, scissors put with the pointed tips down. But after his accident, Ralph was able to leave behind his old life and forge a new way. It was not easy, but he never looked back or lamented what he had lost. He only looked forward and rejoiced in what he had gained.  

Ralph is survived by his children, Mindy and Jeff Hager, his sister Phyllis Brown, his brother Richard Hager, his wife, Susan Parker, five nieces, extended family, devoted friends and caregivers.  

A private service will be held in his honor on Oct. 15.  

For a glimpse of Ralph, see www.rshager.com. 

Donations in Ralph’s name can be made to the following two organizations that he loved and supported: 

The Center for Independent Living, 2539 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704. 841-4776, www.cilberkeley.org. 

Center for Accessible Technology, 2547 8th St., 12-A. Berkeley, CA 94710. 841-3224, www.cforat.org. 

 

 

 

 


Chinese Principals Visit BHS

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday September 29, 2006

“Berkeley schools are big but schools in China are bigger,” was the observation made by the delegation of 17 school principals from the TangGu district of Tianjin in China, who were visiting Berkeley High School on Wednesday. 

The visit, a collaboration between the China American Business and Education Center (CABEC) of Cal State East Bay and the Educational Bureau Office of TangGu, TianJin, was organized to observe the differences between the Chinese and the American education systems, and to see how schools are administered in the United States. 

“The center has been doing training programs for Chinese government officers for quite some time now,” said Nancy Mangold of the CABEC, who was hosting the delegation. “We usually work with bankers, business and other government officials. Principals from elementary, middle and high schools in China are visiting us for the first time. We are interested to see their reactions.” 

The delegation was given the same tour prospective BHS parents are given. Berkeley High parents Vicky Elliot and Toby Kahn took the Chinese principals around the new administrative building, the career center, library, swimming pool, classrooms and the other areas of the campus. 

The principals said they were impressed by the school cafeteria and listened intently as BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan talked about the new school nutrition program. 

“We put a lot of effort into school nutrition as well,” said Xing Zhibai, vice director of the TanGu TianJin Educational Bureau.  

“We have a dietitian who specializes in nutrition,” he said. “Children are given a rice, a vegetable, a meat and a dairy meal. Noodles and steamed buns are also very popular. No junk food is allowed into the schools. Chinese food is traditionally very well balanced and we try to stick to the old ways. Therefore children grow up thinner than most kids in the U.S.” 

At the career counseling center, headmaster Guo Qingwen of the No. 1 Secondary Specialized School in TangGu asked about the percentage of students who went on to college. Qingwen said there is immense competition among students in China to get into the best colleges. 

According to Mangold, the education system in China is more rigid. 

“It is all about getting into a good college,” she said. “Students are mainly taught to pass tests. The focus is on academics and there is a lack of extracurricular like art and music. The visiting principals want to take a look at extracurricular in the U.S. school system and get some ideas from there. Berkeley High is known for its arts, drama and sports programs. However, how much of all this they will be able to implement we will know once they return to China.” 

The principals pointed out that education in China was also carried out at a much larger scale.  

“We have a large population, therefore the population in schools is also larger. Middle and high schools have more than 5,500 children at times,” said Lieu Yin, director of the Education Bureau. “The behavior of the kids when classes get over is however pretty much the same,” he added smiling as a group of seniors passed him talking loudly. 

The delegation also visited Berkeley High’s Chinese Mandarin language class, which was introduced this school year, and asked the students questions in Mandarin. 

Other than the Mandarin class, Mangold translated for the principals during their tour. “Because of the presence of the communist government in China they had to learn Chinese and Russian at that time,” Mangold explained. “Students however learn English in schools now.”


UC Hires Architect for Downtown Museums

By Richard Brenneman
Friday September 29, 2006

They came, they watched, they listened, they noshed, and for the most part, they liked. 

The occasion was the beginning of what promises to be a full-court press by UC officials and boosters as they seek funds and approval for “a place where ideas run free and wild,” a $120 million complex in the heart of downtown Berkeley. 

The place so described by trustee Jane Metcalfe is the new home of the Berkeley Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), which if all goes as planned, will begin rising in the eastern half of one city block between Center and Addison Streets and Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street. 

If all goes as planned, the new facility will open its doors in five years. 

The architect picked to design the new structure is Toyo Ito of Tokyo, chosen from among the 140 applicants who responded from six continents, said Director Kevin E. Consey. 

Known for his highly conceptual and often whimsical designs, Ito “is a world class architect known for his sensitive environmentally conscious designs” that incorporate innovative technology, said Noel Nellis, president of the BAM/PFA Board of Trustees. 

Ito’s designs, featured on the Internet at www.c-channel.com/c00088/index_en.html, are anything but conventional and would create a radical departure from the otherwise relatively sedate character of downtown Berkeley. 

His design, Nellis said, “will indeed transform the museum and the community in the process.” 

“I am hoping the citizens of Berkeley will be so excited you will open up your wallets and help it out, because it’s going to do a lot of good for your community,” said Barclay Simpson, the 85-year-old Orinda manufacturer who has the deepest pockets of the museum’s financial angels. 

Chair of the board of trustees, Simpson said “this is one project that it is going to be very difficult for Berkleyans to object to.” Laughter followed. 

 

Praises sung 

Tuesday’s meeting was the first of many planned to win over the hearts, minds and wallets of Berkeley residents. 

And there were, indeed, few discouraging words to be heard Tuesday. 

“Without seeing the details, I’d say it looks like it would be a fabulous addition to the downtown,” said Mayor Tom Bates, who arrived late for the meeting. 

“This is a great project,” said real estate broker and developer John Gordon. “I was in a focus group on the project three years ago, and I like it.” 

“I hope it will do for downtown Berkeley what Frank Gehry’s museum did for Bilbao,” said developer Patrick Kennedy, referring to the celebrated design for the Guggenheim Museum in that Spanish city—a strikingly modern metal-clad structure that has become a major tourist attraction. 

Tuesday morning’s meeting included a video tour of one of his structures, the Mediatheque in Sendai, Japan. 

The only sour note was sounded by Becky O’Malley, executive editor of the Daily Planet, who mused at the meeting that Ito’s “trendy high concept style” could grow old fast. 

The 65-year-old Ito “is far from a trendy type of person,” Consey said, adding that Ito was known for creating sustainable designs. 

O’Malley also asked why the existing landmarked UC Press building couldn’t be retrofitted and used for the museum and archive. Consey said the costs of retrofits were “25 percent to 50 percent more expensive than new construction.” 

 

Global search 

Tuesday’s meeting was a critical moment in a lengthy development process, Consey said. 

“We have had a long and continuing dialog with interest groups that began three years ago,” he said. “We have had 45 focus groups, including citizens of Berkeley, people from the university and other groups.” 

The result was a detailed program statement that was used as the basis for recruiting an architect. 

That process began with solicitations for suggestions to about 100 art museum directors, symphony directors and cultural leaders around the country. Then letters were sent to architects to see if they wanted to compete, drawing more than 140 responses, Consey said. 

Two committees winnowed the candidates down to an eventual five, four of them from Japan. Committee members visited each of the five in their studios and toured some of their buildings. 

Then a final three were summoned for final interviews and “forced to walk around downtown Berkeley,” Consey said, drawing laughter from the audience. 

With Ito’s selection, museum officials are now choosing a licensed California architect, as required by state law, who will serve as Ito’s technical supervisor. During the application period which closed Monday, 25 Bay Area firms submitted letters of intent, and the final choice will be made at the end of October. 

Consey said Ito likes to work by walking the streets of the communities where his designs will be built. 

“We imagine there will be periods of time where we see him sitting in the Bank of America parking lot, or sitting in a restaurant across the street from the site, thinking about how the building will relate to its surroundings,” he said. 

 

Seismic, green issues 

The primary impetus for the new structure was a campus seismic survey that determined the existing museum and PFA complex on Bancroft was unsafe and “will probably collapse like Legos falling apart” in the event of a major quake, Metcalfe said. 

The widely lauded design, created by Bay Area architect Mario Ciampi, is featured in many texts. 

Ito is familiar with seismic issues in part because Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active nations, Consey said. 

He is also a specialist in sustainable, green buildings—structures that incorporate environmentally friendly materials and embody energy conserving materials and principles. 

One possible obstacle that may prevent the structure from winning the highest level of environmental certification under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is the need for energy intensive climate controls essential for preserving the delicate artwork and films the complex will house, Consey said. 

Still, Consey promised, the new complex “will be the greenest art museum and film archive in the United States.” 

 

Heavy hitters 

The BAM/PFA board includes some of the Bay Area’s financially heavier hitters, a critical fact given that all funds for the project must come from private donors and grants. 

To date, the board has raised about $40 million. 

Metcalfe is co-founder—with partner Louis Rossetto—of Wired magazine and now heads with Rossetto a Berkeley-based investment firm specializing in real estate, media and technology. 

Nellis is a partner in Orrick, an international law firm based in San Francisco that specializes in arranging the finances of global real estate deals. He also serves as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at UCB’s Haas School of Business. 

Board President Simpson is chair and 10 percent owner of Simpson Manufacturing, a Dublin-based international firm which netted $846 million in sales last year. He also owns an art gallery and is a major patron of arts schools and student scholarships.


City Prepares To Sue UC Over Stadium Expansion

By Richard Brenneman
Friday September 29, 2006

In an 8-1 vote, Berkeley city councilmembers voted Tuesday to hire a lawyer to prepare for legal action challenging UC Berkeley’s massive stadium area expansion plans. 

The lawsuit would target the environmental impact report (EIR) on the project, which the university plans to release 10 days before the Nov. 15-16 meeting of the UC Board of Regents. 

The city contends that the document fails to adequately address project impacts, fails to offer critical mitigations, and was prepared without offering the city and public critical information that the university had failed to disclose. 

A victory in court “could kill the project,” said Mayor Tom Bates after the closed-door session in a sixth-floor conference room in City Hall, “but it’s a crap shoot.” 

Bates said the cost of legal counsel could run more than $250,000. 

The mayor contrasted the litigation to last year’s litigation challenging details of the university’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) through 2020. 

“Unlike that suit, this one could stop the stadium projects,” said Bates. 

Because the EIR is slated for consideration and probable adoption at the Nov. 15-16 meeting of the UC Board of Regents in Los Angeles, the council needed to act quickly, said City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

Should the regents vote to accept the controversial document, the city would be forced to file a legal challenge within 30 days. 

“Conceivably the university could break ground right after it’s adopted, so it was critical to act,” said Bates. 

UC Berkeley Director of Community Relations Irene Hegarty said she wasn’t surprised at the council’s decision. 

“We understood that the city has some strong concerns,” she said. 

Should the city sue, Hegarty said the response will be determined by the UC Office of the President. “Sometimes they use our own attorneys, and sometimes they hire outside counsel who are environmental specialists,” she said. 

 

Lone dissent 

The council’s action carried on an 8-1 vote, with Kriss Worthington in opposition. 

The dissenting councilmember said he was unwilling to vote to hire a lawyer and incur the additional expenses for taxpayers when nothing in existing city ordinances blocked a possible secret settlement agreement. 

The city’s last suit against the university—the LRDP litigation—was resolved by a settlement approved by the council in a closed session before the terms were shown to the public. 

“I don’t want to repeat that ever again,” Worthington said. 

He said that he would like to see language included in the sunshine ordinance scheduled to be presented to the council at their next meeting that would mandate presenting all proposed settlements to the public at least 10 days before council action. 

Worthington said he had proposed similar language in 2001 when the council voted to ask the city attorney and city manager to draft an ordinance for council consideration. 

“It’s a principle of good government to let the public know,” Worthington said, “and right now there’s nothing that would prevent another secret settlement.” 

 

The fault issue 

In addition to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which mandates the EIR process, the city is also considering filing under the Alquist-Priolo Act, which governs construction on or adjacent to active earthquake faults. 

“There are not that many cases that have been filed under the law, so we don’t know what our chances are,” Bates said. “Part of the problem is that the law is pretty vague.” 

The Alquist-Priolo Act governs structures built within 50 feet of active faults, and bars construction of new facilities that are occupied 2,000 or more hours a year. 

Among the significant unavoidable impacts cited in the draft EIR released in May is the “risk of loss, injury or death resulting from rupture of a known earthquake fault” and similar dangers resulting from “strong seismic ground shaking” even if the fault were not ruptured. 

No mitigations could eliminate the danger, the report stated. 

In addition to a major seismic retrofit and refurbishing of Memorial Stadium itself, the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP) addressed in the EIR include a proposed multi-level parking structure immediately adjacent that would house at 911 vehicles and a 132,500-square-foot Student Athlete High Performance Center planned adjacent to the stadium’s western wall. 

While the center itself—scheduled for use throughout most of the day—would be more than 50 feet from the fault, the structure would be physically connected to the stadium itself, raising questions about whether or not it would be impacted by the law. 

 

Other impacts 

The EIR covers projects totaling more than $250 million, including the stadium retrofit, the training center, the parking garage, an office and meeting complex joining function of the university’s law and business schools. 

The report included a 15-page section listing potentially adverse impacts, many affecting surrounding residential neighborhoods and other parts of the city as well as the campus itself. 

Among impacts cited are: 

• Increased demands on the city’s wastewater collection and treatment systems. 

• An increase in noise and traffic for nearby residents caused by the addition of seven more events a year held at the stadium. 

• Demolition of two historic landmarks, the alteration of a third, the stadium itself, and the demolition of a fourth potential landmark, the Calvin Laboratory. 

• Significant adverse change to the landmarked Gayley Road streetscape. 

City Planning and Development Director Dan Marks drafted two blistering critiques of the EIR and its precursor documents. Both were adopted by the City Council.  

The EIR was drafted by Design Community & Environment, the Berkeley consulting firm that drafted the controversial LRDP. 

 

United stand 

During the brief public comment period before the doors closed on the council discussion, councilmembers were presented with a letter endorsing action submitted by a coalition of community and neighborhood groups. 

Presented by Joanna Dwyer, the letter bore signatures of representatives of the Sierra Club, Urban Creeks Council, Berkeleyans for a Livable University, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, United We Stand & Deliver, Council of Neighborhood Association and the Claremont-Elmwood, Dwight-Hillside, Daley’s Scenic Park and Panoramic Hill neighborhood associations. 

“That includes all the neighborhood associations for the impacted areas,” said Dwyer. 

Dwyer is also active on another stadium issue: preservation of the stand of native California coast live oaks that would be hacked down to make way for the training center near the western stadium wall. 

“We’ve been handing out leaflets at all the home football games,” she said. 

Save the Oaks at the Stadium (SOS) has enlisted the support of the Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society and environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill. 

They have a web site at www.saveoaks.com.


Wozniak, Overman Face Off in District 8 Race

By Judith Scherr
Friday September 29, 2006

Upstart UC Berkeley student Jason Overman, 21, catapulted late into the District 8 race by announcing his decision to run only last month. Campaigning with the vigor of a youthful attack dog, the Washington, D.C., transplant has picked up a fistful of endorsements. 

The race is a study in contrasts. Incumbent City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, 62, a retired research scientist and adminisrator at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, has a history of 35 years in Berkeley. In contrast to Overman, though winning few of the prized organizational endorsements, Wozniak is piling up contributions to support his race. 

The mandatory July 31 campaign finance report, which covers the first six months of 2006, showed that Wozniak netted $24,000, while Overman hadn’t collected any campaign funds at all. Wozniak spent $72,000 in his successful 2002 race.  

While Wozniak seems to have Overman beat on the money side—new campaign finance statements come out next week—the organizational endorsements often bring with them troops on the ground to staff phone banks or knock on doors. 

Overman’s endorsements include the Alameda County AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee, and all the local Democratic clubs except the Berkeley Democratic Club. Overman is also supported by councilmembers Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson and 18 senators of the Associated Students of the University of California. 

While Wozniak has picked up the endorsements of only the Firefighters Association and the “moderate” Berkeley Democratic Club, he’s captured the support of some high-ranking public officials, including state Sen. Don Perata and Assemblymember Loni Hancock. He has the local endorsements of Mayor Tom Bates, former mayor Shirley Dean and councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Betty Olds.  

On the campaign trail, Overman, elected to the Rent Stabilization Board in 2004, speaks more about what he characterizes as his opponent’s failures than his own achievements or plans.  

Wozniak says of Overman: “He’s young, he’s bright, he’s articulate—it’s good to have a challenger. It makes you work harder.” 

In separate interviews, the Daily Planet queried the candidates about their accomplishments and positions on specific issues.  

Asked what he sees as one of his most outstanding achievements during his four-year term, Wozniak points to his efforts to attack the high rate of work-related injuries among city employees.  

Wozniak asked the city manager for quarterly reports on the question to focus attention on it. “It was a joint effort,” he said. Supervisors were trained and management paid more attention to the issue. Injuries have gone down by about a third and city savings this year are around $500,000 to $1 million, he said.  

As his major accomplishment during his tenure on the Rent Stabilization Board, Overman points to his efforts helping to craft the city’s Condominium Conversion Ordinance, a law that limits conversion of rental apartments to condos to 100 each year and provides tenant protections. 

 

Housing issues 

Overman is a fierce opponent of Measure I, a ballot measure that would replace the new condominium ordinance he helped to write; up to 500 units each year could be converted.  

“That would have a devastating effect,” Overman said, arguing that only about 15 percent of sitting tenants would be able to purchase the units they live in.  

“It’s creating homeowner opportunities for a limited number of people on the backs of tenants” (whose rents would likely rise due to limited supply), he said, criticizing Wozniak for refusing to oppose the measure. 

Wozniak said he likes neither the existing condominium law—he voted against it when it came to the City Council—nor Measure I.  

The existing law went overboard on tenants’ rights, he said. “I didn’t like the idea of a lifetime tenancy. I thought it was too sweeping.”  

On the other hand, he said, Measure I goes too far in the other direction. He said he doesn’t like the fact that the measure would eliminate all tenant protections.  

There are elements in the measure that Wozniak said he likes, especially the 5 percent given to the tenants for the down payment. He thinks the measure could go further. “I think the city should match that,” he said. 

And rather than allowing for 500 conversions annually, Wozniak said he thinks conversion of 200 to 250 would be better. 

Helping low income people get housing is important, Wozniak said, but middle class people also have unmet housing needs. New UC staff and faculty cannot afford homes in Berkeley. 

“We have the jobs here, but not the housing,” he said, adding that if they could live in Berkeley, that would cut down on traffic.  

Criticizing Wozniak for not fully supporting low-income housing, Overman points to two developments Wozniak voted against which Overman said he would have supported. 

Wozniak explained his vote against the downtown Oxford Plaza. The units were too expensive, costing $350,000 each to build, he said. Despite the cost, Wozniak said he had voted to approve early funding of the project, but when the developer asked the council to forgive property taxes for seven years, he could no longer support the mounting costs. 

Wozniak said his opposition to the senior housing at Sacramento and Blake streets was because the project will house people with Section 8 (federal) vouchers. This will not have house new people, but transfer the locations where they live, Wozniak said. 

“I don’t think that’s a good bang for your buck,” he said.  

Overman said he understands Wozniak’s concerns, however, “He didn’t provide a creative alternative. I would have said: ‘If there’s a way to make it more cost efficient—absolutely.’” 

 

Settlement agreement with the university 

Wozniak voted to sue the university over its development plan and fees paid to the city which the city deemed insufficient, but he also voted to approve a closed-door settlement agreement.  

“We got the best deal we could,” Wozniak said, contending that to continue with the lawsuit would have cost the city at least $500,000. The agreement gave the city “substantially more than we had got in the past” and opened the door to working together on a downtown plan, he said. 

Moreover, “To fight the university on everything and never compromise is not a good strategy,” Wozniak said, arguing that the state should give the city funds to compensate any detriment the university brings. 

In contrast, Overman said he would have voted against the settlement, holding out for a better deal. And he would have strongly protested settling the suit behind closed doors.  

“It shut out the community from the development process,” Overman said. “We need to let the sunshine in. If this city values open government and transparency, it was wrong for the city attorney to keep the public and council away from the bargaining table.” 

Wozniak agreed that the process should have been more open. 

“This was an oversight on our part,” he said. “Our attorney’s office basically asked the university that neither side would disclose the terms of the settlement.” 

Later, the city said it changed its mind about disclosing the agreement, but the university refused the request. 

 

Clean money and IRV 

The candidates see the mechanics of getting public financing of elections in Berkeley differently, though both say they support it. Overman said he would have voted to put a measure on the Berkeley ballot to let the voters decide; Wozniak voted against it. 

“People are desperate to live in a country where elections will no longer be bought or sold,” Overman said.  

Wozniak said he supported Berkeley’s clean money initiative two years ago, which lost by a wide margin. The proposed ballot measure was substantially the same, he said, arguing that it was too soon to go back to the voters with the same plan.  

Similarly, Overman said he is a strong advocate for Instant Runoff Voting and Wozniak has questions about the way it is practiced in San Francisco—and could be practiced in Berkeley—with people limited to ranking three choices, rather than having to rank all the candidates. 

 

Campaign information is at: www.Wozniakforcouncil.com and www.jasonoverman.com


Council Sends UC Storage Issues Back to ZAB

By Judith Scherr
Friday September 29, 2006

Ward Street neighbors flocked to the City Council meeting Tuesday night to oppose plans for 18 antennas atop the UC Storage building at Ward and Shattuck Avenue.  

But other concerns with the building owned by developer Patrick Kennedy—questions of parking and loading docks—as well as concerns about the antennas caused city staff to recommend, and council to agree, that the entire project go back to the Zoning Adjustments Board for review. 

At the meeting, the council also considered funding a neighborhood crime watch program near UC Berkeley, and gave approval after the fact for an inadvertent partial demolition of a historic building, as well as delaying a decision on a controversial commercial-residential project at San Pablo Avenue and Harrison Street. 

 

UC Storage 

In the end, it wasn’t the Ward Street neighbors’ objections to the cell phone antennas that got planning staff attention. 

“We need to straighten out parking and loading issues,” Planning Manager Mark Rhoades told the council, calling for concerns associated with the building to be sorted by the Zoning Adjustments Commission. 

“It’s an old legal non-conforming building,” he said. 

Asked to explain the issues, Rhoades told the Daily Planet there was a question of how many parking spaces and loading doors can be situated on Ward Street. The cell phone antennas issue will continue to be on the table, he said. 

Ward Street neighbors had other questions as well, which ZAB may consider. Writing to the council, Suzanne Masuret and Jim Hultman said they are concerned with double parking on Ward Street, placement of a “giant” billboard atop the building, the use of a large, noisy generator as early as 6 a.m. and continuing, at times, all night and “non-stop” work going on in the building, without the neighbors having been alerted. 

During the time set aside for public comment at the meeting—and before staff asked to remand the project to ZAB—nearby neighbors spoke against installation of the 18 cell phone antennas.  

“South Berkeley is a neighborhood,” said Ellen McGovern, who lives close to the building. 

She said that when ZAB made its decision to approve the project, the board considered the antennas as if they were not intended for a residential neighborhood. She argued that there has been no seismic review of the building and no independent third-party assessment of “need” for the antennas. 

Nextel and Verizon, the two carriers proposing the project, argued in letters to ZAB that the companies needed the antennas in order to fill “holes” in their system. 

Bo Schonberger, also a UC Storage neighbor, contended: “City staff failed to verify the need. They accepted the (Nextel and Verizon) information at face value.” 

He described a study he had done independently, making 150 calls with Nextel phones and 150 with Verizon from “all over Berkeley.” 

“There’s not one area with no service,” he said.  

 

Harrison Street and San Pablo ruling delayed 

Neighbors of a proposed project at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue have been before the City Council a few times before, arguing that the project is too high and too dense to fit into the adjoining neighborhood. 

Developers had proposed modified plans at the Sept. 19 council meeting and made further changes before the Tuesday meeting, causing the council to vote 7-1-1 to hold review of the project over until Oct. 10, with Councilmember Betty Olds in opposition and Councilmember Gordon Wozniak abstaining. 

 

Campus watch considered 

A campus neighborhood watch program, to target the high rate of property crime in the campus area, proposed by Councilmember Kriss Worthington at a cost of $7,500, will come back to the council at its Oct. 10 meeting. 

The program, which would include students and permanent residents, will have a trash pick-up component to address the annual dumping of mattresses and other belongings as students move out of their temporary homes.  

Councilmember Betty Olds pointed out that the other neighborhood watch groups operate without city funding. “It’s done by volunteers,” she said. “That’s what’s good about it.”  

Pointing to a preliminary budget offered by students from the ASUC that included $1,600 for refreshments, Olds advised: “Just bake brownies.” 

UC Berkeley students who had come to the council to pitch the program said the ASUC would put $6,000 into the program, which would include 15-20 blocks, much larger than a normal residential crime watch program. It would also offer classes in self-defense and emergency preparedness. 

The 8-1 vote, with Olds dissenting, approved a resolution calling on the city manager to meet with the students to help refine their budget and to look at what in-kind assistance the city could offer. Mayor Tom Bates will write a letter to UC Berkeley asking for matching funds.  

 

Sixth Street project gets OK 

Neighbors of a condominium project at 2104 Sixth St. did not get the council to agree on a complete environmental review of the project, as they had hoped. 

The owner, Gary Feiner, and his representatives, along with the handful of neighbors that came to the Tuesday evening public hearing, said that removal of a roof and trimming of a historic building at 2104 Sixth St. had been a mistake. 

“This is the 23rd public hearing on the matter,” said the owner’s attorney John Gutierrez. Feiner had agreed to replace what had been removed with similar materials and needed the council nod to finish work on the project. 

Speaking for the appellants, Jano Bogg, who lives next door to the site, called unsuccessfully for a complete environmental review that would have included addressing problems with backyard parking, a fence that had been destroyed, raising the level of the backyard and questions around how the development—two renovated homes that would probably be sold as four condominiums—fits into the Oceanview-Sisterna Historical District. 

In the end the council voted 8-3 to reject the neighbors’ appeal and to allow the project to move forward. Councilmembers Darryl Moore, Kriss Worthington and Linda Maio voted in opposition.


Voting Isn’t Just for Election Day Anymore

By Judith Scherr
Friday September 29, 2006

Traditionally, on the first Tuesday in November on even-numbered years, voters head to the polls. 

But with the increasing popularity  

of absentee and early voting, that has changed. 

According to Acting Alameda County Registrar of Voters Dave Macdonald, 42 percent of the voters in Alameda County are registered as permanent absentee voters and in the June election more than 50 percent of the county voters cast their votes absentee.  

In Berkeley, about 40 percent of the voters are registered as permanent absentee voters. 

“The county has been vigorously promoting absentee voting for the last five years,” said Guy Ashley, spokesperson for the county registrar’s office. 

In addition to voting absentee—which one can do for the upcoming election beginning Oct. 9—the county sets up early voting stations. These stations have been less successful than absentee voting in attracting voters, Macdonald said. 

In June, only about 1,500 people voted at these polls, located at city halls, and so the county is trying to set up additional sites for future elections.  

“The whole idea is getting as many people to vote as possible,” Macdonald said. 

In Berkeley, early voting sites are clustered in the downtown-Telegraph area: 

• Oct. 16 to Nov. 7, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., City Clerk Office, 2180 Milvia St. 

• Sat., Oct. 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Berkeley Main Library Community Room. 

• Wed., Oct. 18, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Center for Independent Living, 2539 Telegraph Ave. 

• Thurs., Nov. 1, Nov. 2, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. ASUC Student Union Building, on UC Berkeley campus. 

Both Councilmembers Max Anderson and Darryl Moore said they have concerns about where the early voting is slated to take place. 

“We should increase the turnout in all the districts in the city,” said Anderson, who represents South Berkeley. 

Similarly, Moore, who represents southwest Berkeley, said he would have liked the county to find early voting locations in that quadrant of the city. 

Asked why the early voting stations were not spread around the city, Macdonald responded: “There’s no science to doing this. If somebody has a suggestion for additional sites, it’s not too late,” he said. 

District 7 Councilmember Kriss Worthington said his campaign is encouraging people to vote early on campus and to vote by mail. His campaign is trying to get people not to call the process “absentee” voting, which Worthington said makes people think that one has to be out-of-town to vote by mail. 

“Vote-by-mail is more cost-effective,” Worthington said, “and there’s a clean paper trail.” 

Worthington’s challenger George Beier declined to address the subject, saying it is proprietary campaign information.  

While early voting is an opportunity to increase the vote, it can be challenging for some. 

“We’re facing the dilemma of getting our materials out,” said Sherry Smith, former president of the Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville chapter of the League of Women Voters.  

To vote in the Nov. 7 election, one must register by 5 p.m. Oct. 23. Oct. 31 is the last day to request absentee ballots. To request an absentee ballot online, go to www. acgov.org/rov/absentee.pdf or write to PO Box 24224, Oakland CA 94623, stating the address to which the ballot must be mailed and include a signature. Requests can be faxed to 272-6982.


Judy Walters Named Head Of Berkeley City College

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday September 29, 2006

The Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees confirmed Judy Walters as the first head of Berkeley City College Tuesday night, but not without some contention and controversy. 

Following an extended closed session that delayed the normal 7 p.m. meeting opening time by an hour, trustees announced that Walters had been selected for the position by a narrow 4-3 vote. 

There was no indication of which board members voted for Walters’ hiring and which board members voted against it. 

And unlike in other personnel hiring announcements, trustees did not immediately disclose Walters’ salary. When Service Employees International Union Local 790 chief steward Greg Marro later asked in the board’s public comment section why the salaries of two other hired employees had been announced that evening but not Walters’, Peralta Board Chair Linda Handy ruled that the board could not reply to questions asked at public comment. 

Peralta Director of Communications Jeff Heyman said by telephone later this week that Walters had been hired at a salary of $152,010, the same salary for which she had been working on an interim basis. Heyman said that because the salary did not change, Walters’ exact salary schedule information was not in front of Peralta Chief Financial Officer Tom Smith at the time of the board announcement, and so, Heyman said, Smith chose not to reveal anything rather than give out an incorrect amount. 

“Our salaries are all public information,” Heyman said. “There’s nothing to hide, here.”  

Following the meeting, Walters said that she was “thrilled to be the first president of Berkeley City College. I’m really thankful for all of the support I’ve gotten from the faculty, staff, and students and from the Berkeley community.” 

Walters served for the past two years as interim president of the former Vista College, which changed its name to Berkeley City College in connection with this summer’s move into its newly constructed campus on Center Street in downtown Berkeley. 

During Tuesday night’s trustee meeting, Board President Handy apologized to the meeting audience for having to wait an hour for the meeting to begin, saying only that trustees had a “full agenda.” By California’s open meeting law, public bodies must provide an agenda for any items to be discussed in closed session, but are only required to report on actions taken. 

Aside from labor negotiations and a long list of pending court cases—which normally appear on every Peralta Trustee closed session agenda—also listed on the closed session agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting were the appointments of three employee positions, including Walters’, and evaluation and contract extensions for Chancellor Elihu Harris and Inspector General Gail Waiters. No announcement was made of any action taken on either Harris or Waiters. 

The only hint of what may have occurred in closed session Tuesday night came from one trustee who emerged from the meeting to discover that the air conditioning had accidentally come on in the main meeting room because of a faulty thermostat. While others in the meeting room were complaining that it was suddenly too cold, the trustee remarked, “It feels good,” and, then, gesturing back toward the lounge where the closed session had just broken up, “It was pretty hot back there.” 

In other action at Tuesday’s meeting, trustees unanimously adopted a $98.9 million final budget for the 2006-07 fiscal year that raised salaries by more than $2 million, cut benefit costs by $3.5 million, left $5.2 million unallocated, and a reserve fund a half a percentage point over the state-required 5 percent. 

In remarks to the board explaining the budget, Peralta Chief Financial Officer Tom Smith called last year “a remarkable year,” noting that enrollment in the four college districts grew slightly, “while many other community college districts in the state had declines.” 

Other highlights of the year, Smith said, included an agreement reached with the Alameda County Medical Center and Merritt College for nurse training for Highland Hospital, the issuance of bonds to fund employee health benefits in the district “while other districts are shifting those costs over to their employees,” and the opening late this summer of both the new Berkeley City College campus and the new Laney art building.


Ashby BART Task Force Back in Planning Mode

By Richard Brenneman
Friday September 29, 2006

The revitalized Ashby BART Task Force, charged with planning development on the transit station’s western parking lot, meets Tuesday night to draft a statement for an application to seek state funding. 

A similar application was rejected earlier this year by the California Department of Transportation after a storm of controversy erupted over the proposal. 

In July, the Berkeley City Council then awarded its own funds to the task force, mandating that the group should lay the groundwork for a new Caltrans grant application next October. 

Under the new work plan, the panel will conduct a series of public workshops and public meetings through the end of February, along with what is described as “a public visioning exercise.” 

A preliminary report is scheduled to be completed by the end of March, with a final recommendation slated to go to the City Council’s first meeting in May. 

BART will participate in preparing the final application. 

Tuesday night’s meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Community Room of St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church, 2024 Ashby Ave. 

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission announced Wednesday that it is awarding $2 million for creation of pedestrian access enhancements for the Ed Roberts Center. 

That center, which will provide a home for offices and programs serving the needs of the disabled community, is to be built on the BART station’s eastern parking lot, immediately across Adeline Street from the site under consideration by the task force.


Creeks Ordinance Deadline Nears

By Richard Brenneman
Friday September 29, 2006

As the long-running battle over the future of Berkeley’s Creeks Ordinance nears a climax, tensions remain high—evidenced by Wednesday night’s Planning Commission meeting. 

Questions were flying and tempers rising, at one point stirring a mild rebuke from commissioner Mike Sheen, who cautioned his colleagues about raising their voices. 

At issue is a council-mandated revision of the city ordinances governing building on Berkeley’s many miles of creeks both on the surface and buried underground as they flow from the hills to the bay. 

Wednesday’s meeting featured discussions both of the proposed ordinance—drafted by a task force appointed by the City Council—and of proposed changes in the city’s zoning ordinance needed to implement the changes spelled out in the draft. 

Planning Commission Chair Helen Burke handed the gavel over to colleague David Stoloff for the discussion, since she also serves as chair of the Creeks Task Force. 

It was an interruption by Burke, an environmentalist who belongs to the Sierra Club, that prompted the raised voice of colleague Harry Pollack, followed minutes later by Sheen’s mild rebuke, which, in turn, elicited a grimace from Pollack. 

City councilmembers are scheduled to vote on both pieces of legislation on Nov. 14, preceded by Planning Commission action on Oct. 11, though some members wanted to reserve the right to hold a final vote over until Oct. 25. 

On hand for the meeting were Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin and Betsy Strauss, an environmental attorney hired by the city as a special consultant on the project. 

 

Critics 

The meeting began with public comments from several members of Neighbors on Urban Creeks (NUC), a property owners’ group, which has been highly critical of the existing ordinance and of the proposed revisions as well as the city’s handling of public notice to the more than 2,000 property owners potentially affected by the measures. 

“The Creeks Ordinance does not reflect what the City Council asked for,” said Barbara Allen. “Please take some time and make some sense out of it.” 

Martha Jones said she was especially concerned about potential effects on neighborhoods, given that the city “has no accurate map of creeks and the properties affected,” a point the city concedes. 

One of the major problems is that no one knows exactly where many of creeks flow, those specifically buried in concrete-enclosed culverts as the city developed. Many property owners have structures built over and near creeks and don’t know it, she said. 

“Culverted creeks are as much storm drains as they are creeks, but the vast majority of owners with culverts on their property were unaware of them when they bought, yet they bear the entire responsibility for upkeep expenses,” said former mayor Shirley Dean. 

Mischa Lorraine, a member of the task force and of NUC, said the city attorney’s office and the task force have inserted language that is “increasingly restrictive to property owners,” creating unacceptable pressures. 

NUC members said they are particularly concerned with provisions governing rebuilding of homes destroyed by natural disasters, including fire, flood and earthquakes. 

 

Less restrictive? 

But the proposed ordinance is actually less restrictive, Cosin said. Under the existing ordinance, a structure can be rebuilt as it was before the disaster only if less than half the structure was demolished. Anything more, and the building must follow new building and zoning codes. 

The proposed revisions would allow for full reconstruction of structures of three residential units or less. 

Similarly, when it comes to additions or new construction, the proposed revisions would allow owners to breach mandated setbacks for height, side and front yards in exchange for keeping construction away from mandated setbacks from waterways with the grant of a use permit rather than a most costly and time-consuming zoning variance. 

Planning Commissioner Gene Poschman said the city should approach the ordinances with great care. 

“My nightmare is what happened after the Oakland Hills fire,” he said, referring to the 1991 firestorm that demolished 2,886 homes and apartment buildings. “There were two disasters. One was the fire and the other was the rebuilding. The hills vanished in a wave of mansionization.” 

Commissioner Susan Wengraf said her main concern was the lack of notice to property owners of the upcoming commission meeting where a vote on the ordinance was scheduled. Cosin agreed to send notice to the 2,000 or so owners of the city’s list of affected properties. 

Whether or not the City Council intended the new regulations to cover buried creeks was another sore point with Wengraf, who said she believed they did not. 

 

Telegraph Avenue 

The commission voted unanimously to set an Oct. 11 public hearing on the Telegraph Avenue Economic Development Assistance Package, legislation sponsored by City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniak designed to spur a revitalization of business along the troubled thoroughfare. 

Principal Planner Allan Gatzke said the draft ordinance includes provisions to ease the establishment or change of business use at commercial locations and simplify the process of winning of approval for subdividing larger spaces to allow for more and smaller business. 

Mike Sheen, Worthington’s appointee to the commission, said the measure had as part of its goal promoting small and locally owned business, one of the key reasons for permitting the conversion of larger spaces into multiple smaller ones. 

The proposal would also ease the process for winning permits to open restaurants, commercial classes and training, gyms and health clubs, fast food service, and amusement machines. 

Poschman said he was skeptical of enacting changes without any hard figures on vacancies, rents and existing tenants along the avenue, as well as of loosening the existing business quota system. 

“We have become not just the planning commission but essentially the commission on economic development,” he said. “What bothers me is acting without any data.” 

While Several UC Berkeley students had addressed the commission complaining that the ordinance would force earlier closing hours, Gatzke said they had misread the ordinance, which actually makes it easier for business to remain open later.


Cop Stops Rape in Progress, Suspect Arrested After Hunt

By Richard Brenneman
Friday September 29, 2006

An alert Berkeley Police officer caught a rapist in the act Wednesday afternoon, leading to a chase and manhunt that ended with the suspect’s arrest. 

Officer Katie Smith was patrolling the Santa Fe Railroad tracks about 3:30 p.m., responding to citizen complaints of homeless encampments in the area, said department spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

Smith was walking just north of the Addison Street crossing when she saw a man atop a struggling woman. Spotting the officer, the rapist got to his feet and began running with Smith in pursuit. 

The officer radioed for assistance and about 20 officers responded, sealing off the surrounding area as they began a manhunt. 

The suspect was finally located hiding under a car near a grocery outlet near University Avenue, said Officer Galvan. 

“The suspect refused to identify himself,” said Galvan. Another officer involved in the pursuit described him as extremely combative. 

The struggles continued after the man was driven to the county jail at Santa Rita. 

Police obtained a warrant to search his clothing and body for evidence that could link him to the victim, described as a Berkeley woman about 40 years old. 

“It took about five or six officers to hold him down,” said one officer who asked not to be named. Galvan confirmed that account. 

“We still don’t have his ID,” the police spokesperson said Thursday afternoon. 

Both Galvan and the unnamed patrol officer praised Smith for her alertness. 

“It was a one-in-a-million thing, catching a rape in progress,” Galvan said. 

“It was a great job of police work,” said the patrol officer. 

The suspect has been booked on suspicion of rape. 

Galvan said the tracks are usually patrolled by the railroad, which has its own private police force. Citizen complaints resulted in the foot patrol assignment that brought Officer Smith to the tracks Wednesday and led to the arrest.


Berkeley Hills Fire Causes $1.3 Million In Damage

By Richard Brenneman
Friday September 29, 2006

A blaze triggered by a faulty water heater demolished a $1.3 million home in the Berkeley Hills early Tuesday morning, reports Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. 

“The building was completely destroyed,” he said, and the loss of contents added another $150,000 to the cost of the fire, first reported at 3:30 a.m. 

When firefighters arrived at the home at 98 Avenida just below Grizzly Peak Boulevard, the whole structure was ablaze. 

“The owner said he tried to call three times on his cell phone, but the call was dropped each time,” Orth said. “The house is located in a very bad area for cell phone coverage.” 

By the time another caller got through, flames had spread throughout the structure. 

About 25 firefighters using five engines and two trucks battled the flames, but they were unable to save the residence. 

“It was very impressive fire,” Orth said. “There was a lot of fire and a lot of fuel. The upper two floors collapsed into the basement, and all that’s left are parts of a couple of walls.” 

While the flames ignited some of the surrounding vegetation, the trees surrounding the home were redwoods and didn’t catch. 

Unlike pines, which often “flash” in moments into flames which engulf all of the needles, redwoods are much harder to ignite, he said. 

The fire did minor damage to a deck and hot tub of the neighboring home at 100 Avenida, he said. 

There were no injuries.


P.E. Practices in Berkeley Elementary Schools Questioned

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday September 29, 2006

At least two elementary schools in Berkeley have stopped hiring physical education teachers through their discretionary funds and are using the money for other programs, leading some parents to question whether their children are receiving adequate exercise. 

The California Department of Education (CDE) recently released a report indicating that the Berkeley Unified School District was among more than half of school districts in the state which failed to meet the mandated elementary school P.E. requirement for the past two school years. The state requires 200 minutes of P.E instruction every ten days. 

However, BUSD officials say the state report is wrong. 

“[The CDE] picked one elementary school in Berkeley—Le Conte. They found that the supplementary P.E. instruction at Le Conte in the form of Sports for Kids was not addressing California standards for P.E. education,” said BUSD Deputy Superintendent Neil Smith. “The kids at Berkeley elementary schools are getting 200 minutes of P.E. every two weeks.” 

According to state law, P.E. is part of the elementary school curriculum and should be taught primarily by the classroom teachers who are certified in it.  

Supplementary P.E. instructors, who do not need P.E. certification from the state, have been hired out of the elementary schools’ discretionary funds, said BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan. These supplementary instructors work with children in the presence of the classroom teacher. 

Jefferson Elementary and Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) elementary school recently stopped using supplementary P.E. teachers and are using their site funds on other programs. 

“My child is getting restless in class,” said Laurie Young, a Jefferson parent. “Judy Doyle used to do P.E. with the kids at Jefferson but they don’t have her anymore.” 

According to Coplan, Jefferson was unable to find someone to fill the P.E. spot after Doyle left and decided to use the funds for a science program instead.  

“The principals in these schools don’t think this is a really big issue as the kids are running around and getting exercise, even with these supplementary P.E. teachers gone,” he said. 

Barbara Steuart, whose children attend BAM, said she was upset by the loss of their P.E. instructor, Joe Phillips. 

“I regret that we don’t have Joe, our enthusiastic, energetic and playful P.E. teacher, anymore,” said Steuart. “I am concerned that parents were not informed that there would be no replacement for Joe. I had to go online and get it from the grapevine.” 

Calls to BAM and Jefferson from the Daily Planet for comment on this issue were not returned. 

The California Center of Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA), who released the CDE report (and are behind the banning of junk food from public school premises starting July 2007) also found that school districts did not receive any penalty for lack of compliance of state guidelines. 

BUSD president Terry Doran told the Planet that elementary school physical education had not come up at board meetings recently and therefore he would not be able to comment on the matter. 

“Coach Don Burl is the P.E. teacher for K–5 at John Muir and we use different budgets to make that possible,” said Principal Gregory John of John Muir Elementary School. “Every school has some amount of discretionary funding through which certain things are made possible. Cragmont has dance, we have a fitness program and Coach Don is just fantastic with the kids.”  

Burl, who works two days full-time and two days part-time every week at John Muir, is also the P.E. teacher for Washington Elementary. 

Octavio Hernandez, one of the intra-mural coaches at Malcolm X, was busy organizing a relay race for the third graders during recess last week. 

“I work with kids from each class for 20-25 minutes during their respective lunch recesses,” he said. “We play Dodge Ball, Ga Ga Ball and other games.” 

Although most elementary schools have games such as kick ball, dodge ball, four square, and tetherball during lunch recess or P.E., these activities are not considered appropriate P.E. activities under the state guidelines. 

The CCPHA report includes national recommendations which suggest that “school-age youth should participate daily in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity that is developmentally appropriate, enjoyable, and involves a variety of activities.” 

The report further states that federal initiatives such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 is a threat to the amount of time available for P.E. as it focuses on student achievement in defined core academic subjects, making P.E. a low priority. 

Rosa Parks also has a Sports for Kids program, through which funds from the PTA and the BSEP brings in Darryl Jones to help teach P.E. to the students. 

“Sports for Kids is a non-profit which provides schools with site co-ordinators like myself to help out during recess,” Jones said. “The program mostly caters to schools which do not have P.E. coaches. Our main goals is to keep the kids active.”  

Although Jones is not certified in P.E. he said he receives training from his supervisors every year. 

Tracy Hollander, current PTA president at Rosa Parks said she would like it if each class got to work with Jones more than twice every month, but acknowledged that lack of funds was always an issue. 

“It’s a shame that without the Sports for Kids program my son would hardly get any P.E. at all,” said Ben Piper, whose son Zane plays after school soccer through the Sports for Kids program at Rosa Parks. 

“There is increasing evidence that kids are suffering from obesity” he said. “They need at least an hour’s vigorous exercise everyday, not just 15 minutes of running around.” 

 

 


Committee Formed to Fight Pacific Steel Fumes

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday September 29, 2006

East Bay Area neighborhood watchdog groups, environmentalists and community members got together on Wednesday to form the first Pacific Steel Protest Committee to heat up efforts to stop the west Berkeley-based steel foundry from emitting noxious fumes. 

“We formed the committee to rally folks who want to deliver a direct and loud message to PSC,” said Willi Paul, director of Cleanaircoalition.net. “We hope to enlist the old guard and new activists in the fight to clean up the factory and our communitites. There are many groups in this struggle; some are pursuing a diplomatic approach, while a third group is working the courts.” 

A federal court in San Francisco recently denied Oakland-based environmental nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment’s (CBE) request for a preliminary injunction against Berkeley-based Pacific Steel Casting. But CBE is hopeful that it will go on to win the actual trial, said staff attorney Philip Huang. 

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.


Free ‘Museum Day’ Debuts This Saturday

By Steven Finacom, Special to the Planet
Friday September 29, 2006

Local museum enthusiasts—particularly the impoverished, the penurious, or the simply thrifty—have a welcome opportunity this Saturday to visit several local scientific and cultural venues without paying regular admission. 

Museums around the country are participating in a one-day free “Museum Day” program, previously available only to Smithsonian Magazine subscribers. 

Most of the top-tier culture and art museums in the Bay Area are not participants, but there are several good museums in the program within reasonable day-tripping distance of Berkeley. 

These include: the California Academy of Sciences, the Exploratorium, and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco; the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley and the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland; the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose; the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas; and the Blackhawk Museum in Danville. 

All are waiving admission on Saturday for those presenting a “Museum Day Admission Card” which you may obtain online from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ museumday/articles/what-is.php 

The Cantor Museum at Stanford is also participating. Admission is regularly free there, but for the day they’re offering some special discounts to Museum Day participants in their bookstore. 

The purpose of most of the museums listed above should be obvious from their names. If you’re not familiar with them, the Museum Day website offers thumbnail descriptions and links to websites. 

The Blackhawk Museum is, for instance, featuring some 90 “historically significant and artistically inspired automobiles from the very earliest to the contemporary.”  

There’s a free tour at 2 p.m. on weekends and a visiting exhibit, “Industrial Drawings from the Smithsonian” that looks more interesting in images than it sounds. 

If you want to travel further afield, the Point Arena Lighthouse and Museum on the Mendocino coast is also a participant, along with numerous museums in Southern California, including the Bunny Museum in Pasadena, with “over 21,000 unique bunny items,” plus some live lapins.  

Once you open the website, click on “Download the Museum Day Card.” Print out the form that looks like one of those subscription cards that always fall out of magazines. 

Click on “Participating Venues” and go to “California” to see the list that includes the Bay Area participants. 

The Museum Card gives admission for two people to one participating museum. Print out extra cards if you want to go to more than one place or if your party numbers more than two. 

The card looks like it should be filled out with your contact information, but if you read the fine print, you can decline; present the card, blank, for admission and save yourself from going on more mailing lists. 

Although the card gets you in the door, you have to pay for any inside extras like special exhibits and films. 

Still, if you have time on Saturday, it’s a deal worth taking, and worth thanking the always-free Smithsonian for thinking up.


Opinion

Editorials

Act I & II Landmark Bid Tops Commission’s Agenda

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 03, 2006

As members of a Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) discuss the future of Center Street in a meeting room upstairs, Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) members will meet Thursday downstairs to consider a proposed new Center Street Landmark. 

The proposed landmark is the Ennor’s Restaurant Building—better known to latter-day Berkeleyans as the old Act I & Act II Theater at 2128-2130 Center St. 

Recently acquired by developer Patrick Kennedy, the building had housed a small multiplex theater closed earlier this year by operator Landmark Theaters. 

Preservationist John English worked on the proposed landmark designation the commission will consider at its 7:30 p.m. meeting in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Meeting upstairs in a session that starts a half-hour earlier is DAPAC’s Center Street Subcommittee, which is considering planned UC Berkeley developments along with other elements of the future of the one-block stretch of Center between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street. 

Other hearings scheduled for the LPC meeting include the proposed landmarking of 1340 Arch St. and another in the many hearings slated on unauthorized repairs to a landmarked home at 147 Tunnel Road. 

Two previews are planned that won’t require any action. In the first, owner Tad Laird will give the LPC a look at his proposal to restore the exterior of his just-landmarked Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware Building and add three living units on a new second floor. 

The building is located at 2149-2151 College. 

The second project preview will feature developer Ed Levitch’s plans for the Martin Building, a Queen Anne cottage at 2411 Fifth St., which was designated a structure of merit in August over the owner’s ojections. 

The commission will also discuss proposed amendments to the Zoning Ordinance about the Zoning Adjustments Board’s Design Review Committee, regulations that clarify the body’s role and limit appeals from its decisions. 

City redevelopment staff will discuss measures planned to mitigate construction impacts from the Aquatic Park Connection project, particularly as it impacts the landmarked Berkeley Shellmound.


Editorial: Finding the Real Progressives in City Elections

By Becky O’Malley
Friday September 29, 2006

It seems too early, with the September hot spell still upon us, to be thinking about the November local election, but it’s here. Vote-at-home ballots will be mailed out next week, and consultants will be directing calls to frequent voters urging them to vote NOW. The local campaigns, such as they are, are almost over. 

In Berkeley we’re seeing what looks like a monumental shift in political alignments. The disappearance of rent control as a meaningful political yardstick against which candidates can be measured seems to be creating an issues-free “politics by cronyism.” Mayor Tom Bates, formerly considered a progressive, has firmly joined the ranks of the Dead Armadillo party by endorsing the most conservative candidate in this year’s race, old crony incumbent Gordon Wozniak, instead of progressive Rent Board Commissioner Jason Overman. Wozniak does a fine job of upholding the interests of the upscale Claremont District where he lives, but a notably poorer job for the students in his gerrymandered council district. He’s not much help either for the permanent residents living near campus, both renters and homeowners, whose lives are continually impacted by UC’s unchecked expansion. Wozniak’s a retired university administrator, and on many key votes his sympathies seem to be with his old bosses at the U rather than with his beleaguered constituents.  

And now Bates has even been caught covertly dissing the most stalwart progressives still on the council, Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring, both up for re-election. East Bay Express gossip columnist Will Harper managed to disguise himself well enough to be a fly on the wall at the meeting which launched the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee’s effort to influence the November elections. (I wish I could manage to be so inconspicuous.) He says that Bates allowed as how he didn’t plan to endorse either Worthington or Spring, and that the mayor even made snide remarks about their personal qualifications. 

Worthington and Spring are the councilmembers most likely to speak up for the poor, for the homeless, and for the beleaguered residents of their flatlands districts who are bearing the brunt of Bates’ pro-development push in their neighborhoods. Their opponents are a pair of hale-fellas-well-met, jolly Chamber-of-Commerce types with big-bucks backing who’d like to remake Berkeley in their own image. It’s no wonder that today’s affable Bates, now the very model of a middle-aged burgher, would feel closer to them than to the outspoken defenders of progressive causes they’re running against. (And by the way, the Bates-endorsed Wozniak is even sharing campaign headquarters with Worthington’s opponent.) 

Dona’s tenacious defense of what she thinks is right, regardless of who disagrees with her, has been particularly annoying to Bates ever since he was elected, despite the fact that she was a prime mover in persuading him to run. Reviewing old videos of council meeting shows many unattractive occasions where he’s cut her off in mid-sentence in a remarkably patronizing fashion. Worthington is more discreet, less outspoken, but equally tenacious. He made a sincere effort to get along with Bates at the beginning, but has been poorly rewarded for his pains. 

Many of the old warhorses who showed up for the BCA endorsement meeting last Sunday didn’t seem to know what’s going on in Berkeley any more. They didn’t see the contradiction in simultaneously endorsing Bates and the councilmembers with whom he’s most often at odds. Many of them are also comfortable middle-aged burghers with houses now worth close to a million dollars who tend to assume that the causes and controversies are still the same as when they were eager graduate students living in the flats. BCA’s mailing and membership lists are as ancient as the members: They’re still mailing meeting invitations to one of my daughters who went away to college in 1980 and now lives in another city.  

The firebrands in the old BCA would have noticed that a large hunk of Bates’ current endorsers are from the faction formerly known as moderate, old foes of rent control and other causes dear to the BCA heart. They might also have noticed that though BCA endorsed Bates in the last election, he didn’t mention that endorsement anywhere in his 2002 campaign mailings. Yes, he’s “a uniter, not a divider”—but we know what mischief Dubya did with that slogan. 

The new progressive issues which are replacing now-defunct rent control are not as easy to identify. A recent op-ed columnist in the San Francisco Chronicle took it for granted that opposition to inappropriate development and ugly densification is a core progressive issue, but much of Berkeley hasn’t caught on yet. Randy Shaw, who lives in Berkeley but runs the Tenderloin Housing Clinic in San Francisco, does understand what’s going on, and laid it out clearly in these pages. 

But in response to his op-ed, a recent letter writer, an old BCA pol, criticized Shaw and lauded Mayor Bates because Berkeley “was one of the few to be given an ‘A’ for meeting its state-required “fair share” of affordable housing.” That’s exactly the point: There’s now enough housing in Berkeley which meets the generous state affordability standard that we don’t need to continue mindlessly overbuilding enormous buildings which harm residents on adjacent streets (both renters and homeowners) just to secure a token trickle of tiny “affordable” units in each ugly box. If we want to build genuinely inexpensive housing suitable for low-income families in order to preserve Berkeley’s traditional income and racial diversity, we should do that, upfront, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves that anything at all that’s good for builders is de-facto good for Berkeley.  

A signature effort of the Bates term has been his inexplicable crusade to destroy the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which has been responsible for retaining a substantial portion of Berkeley’s existing older housing stock. It’s well-documented that when older housing is demolished to make way for new, the new units almost always are smaller and cost more to rent than the old ones. And many developers see Berkeley’s owner-occupied flatlands bungalows as ideal demolition candidates. Bates’s appointees to land-use boards and commissions have all been on the side of the building industry, not on the side of the neighborhoods. 

Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington, unlike Bates, understand the nuances of what it means to be a progressive councilmember in today’s Berkeley, now a bedroom community increasingly dominated by a well-off majority. They’re proud of standing up for underdogs. Jason Overman has shown himself to be equally aware of problems faced by lower-income Berkeleyans and others living near UC, and as a student will bring a fresh perspective to an increasingly elderly City Council. Voters who want the best representation for both students and neighborhood residents should choose the real progressives: Dona Spring in District 4, Kriss Worthington in District 7 and Jason Overman in District 8.  


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday October 03, 2006

FOR MCNERNEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am pleased and grateful for your excellent article endorsing Jerry McNerney in his race against Richard Pombo in the 11th Congressional District. I am an 83-year-old man who is postponing starting treatment for prostate cancer until Nov. 8 so that I will be free to travel to Tracy so that I can do precinct work for Jerry McNerney. I have also been contributing to his campaign and hosted a fundraiser in my home for him. 

If you live on Planet Earth you will be affected by the outcome of this election. There is no one in Congress who has done more to damage this little planet than Richard Pombo. At every opportunity he has used his power as chairman of a vital congressional committee to benefit those who are engaged in reckless exploitation of the environment motivated entirely by personal greed. In exchange they have helped Pombo to become very rich while in office and have made huge contributions to his campaigns. 

Because of the change in the national mood there will never be a better opportunity to rid ourselves of this corrupt enemy of the earth and replace him with an honest, progressive environmentalist. It will take money and most of all dedicated workers, please join us in this good fight! 

Dan Julian 

Kensington 

 

• 

THE LEAST DEMOCRATIC CITY IN THE BAY AREA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The City of Berkeley hides under cover of a progressive reputation it has, unfortunately, long ago outlived, if ever met, in the matter of honoring all members of the public’s First Amendment rights to speak at City Council, Library Board and commission meetings. 

Under threat of lawsuit, and abandoning equal opportunity, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates has changed from the limit of 10 speakers (at three minutes each) selected by lottery, to around 15 speakers (at two minutes each) selected in secret. He may then ask if there is anyone who completed a speaker card who would like to speak to an agenda item not yet covered. Only two such speakers per item are chosen by the mayor to speak, providing one is pro and one is con. His latest experiment calls for anyone who would like to speak to an item on the Consent Calendar, prior to the council’s approval of this calendar. If there should be any takers (there were not on Sept. 19) it is unknown how he would choose those speakers and how many. 

Over 30 Bay Area cities, unlike Berkeley, apparently have a greater understanding of California’s Ralph M. Brown Act, as they allow all willing individuals the right to speak, not only during an open forum, but prior to each agenda item (Chaffee v. S.F.Library Commission). In Richmond anyone who wishes to address the City Council on items appearing on the agenda must file a speaker card with the City Clerk prior to the council’s consideration of the item. Each speaker is allowed three minutes. Individuals may also file a speaker card to speak during open forum on issues not on the agenda. Time allowed for each speaker is as follows: 15 or fewer, two minutes; 16-24 speakers, 1.5 minutes; and 25 or more speakers, one minute. 

Oakland’s rules of procedure clearly indicate that members of the public may speak on any number of agenda items, providing the individual completes a speaker card for each item. They may speak during open forum as well. You are allowed two minutes for each agenda item and one minute during open forum. 

Earlier this year Livermore city councilmembers agonized over whether they should continue to allow speaker cards be accepted on a particular agenda item once discussion on that item has begun. Councilmember Reitter stated “I’m more concerned about someone who honestly decides after hearing public comment, that they want to participate.” Councilmember Kamena opined maybe they shouldn’t have cards and “suggested the council explore mechanisms to allow someone who didn’t sign a card but has something urgent to say to do so....” (“Council’s cards still shuffled,” West County Times, Jan. 25.) 

Do you think that Berkeley should comply with the Brown Act? Do you want to be heard at City Council, board and commission meetings? If so, come to a City Council meeting. Complete a speaker card prior to 7 p.m. (and hope you’ll be called!). Demand a legal and equitable public comment procedure be included in a Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance. 

Ordinance yes! Wish list no! 

Gene Bernardi 

SuperBOLD 

 

• 

MEASURE J 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was pleased to see the Berkeley Daily Planet support the Landmark Initiative Ballot Measure J. To add my opinion to your opinion: I also support a yes vote on Measure J. I am all in favor of the preservation of the unique Berkeley architectural heritage, and having traveled recently to other cities I realize that it is our good luck. And that this has come about not without some forethought and consideration by citizens in the past. (We can all conjure up in our minds the terrible houses and building of some other city!) It is my understanding that a similar citizens’ initiative was passed in 1973 (the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance) when the city faced excessive residential demolitions. Our Preservation Ordinance of today is now under pressure, but luckily there are citizens in our midst today who worked hard on our behalf and gave us this opportunity to vote yes again to preserve our wonderful neighborhoods and exceptional collection of architectural treasures. I support Measure “J” and I would suggest every Berkeley voter do the same—or maybe we will no longer have such jewels as the library! The Victorian “Boudrow” house! The First Church of Christ, Scientist! The elegant gates of the Claremont Court! And many of our Berkeley brown shingles and little bungalows. 

I personally, loudly and clearly vote yes on Measure J. 

Wendy P. Markel 

 

• 

AIMEE ALLISON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is just over a month until the November elections. Please join me in supporting Aimee Allison for Oakland City Council. I will be volunteering a Aimee Allison’s headquarters every Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. at 3208 Grand Ave., next to the Grand Lake Theater. Other volunteer opportunities are below or call 277-0182 to help in other ways. 

After seeing Aimee Allison debate Pat Kernighan recently at Laney College it is clear that Aimee is a deep, inspiring and powerful young leader. She is someone who is in touch with the needs of low and no-income communities of color in Oakland. Like Ron Dellums, she will inspire others to take action and will bring a sense of movement and true democracy through participation. 

She had a fantastic knowledge of how Jerry Brown and those connected with him played a significant role in pushing out poor people of color from Oakland and what is needed to change this trend. She also showed deep connections with community organizations working for justice in Oakland; she was able to reference campaigns of organizations that I work with and care about deeply; groups like All of Us or None and the Ella Baker Center. 

In contrast Pat Kerninghan while a good person, has shown that she is often not willing to stand up against her wealthy campaign contributors or the Perata machine to stand with the people who need her support. I was present for her very first vote at City Council. We had organized with a group of youth to speak out against their criminalization for side shows, saying that the city needs to provide young people with activities, rather than incarcerating them because they don’t have anything to do. Because so many young people were there a motion was made to move the item on sideshows earlier on the agenda. Pat was the deciding vote and she voted no, making it so all the youth present were not able to speak (the item didn’t end up coming to the floor until after midnight!) Right after her first vote as a Councilmember a baby in the room started to cry. Aimee not only would have voted yes, she has shown that she would have lead the youth into council, speaking out at their rally beforehand. 

Particularly astounding to me at yesterday’s debate was that both in our one-on-one conversations and in front of the crowd Pat continuously stated that she was powerless to change the problems of Oakland, that it was the state and federal government that needed to make the changes. It made me wonder: Why was she running for City Council?? 

I asked her during and then again after the debate if, as a former civil rights activist and someone who says she believes in equality, if she would drop out of the race to support a young person of color. I explained that this was especially significant because it was clear from polling that if poor people in Oakland voted at the same rate as rich people that she would have no chance at winning. She recognized that this was true!! However, still stated that she was going to run and that is was our responsibility to unseat her. Let’s take that challenge!! 

This campaign, just like Ron Dellums’ campaign is not about Aimee Allison, it is about our movement and about the voice of the people of Oakland.  

Please get involved in Aimee’s campaign, stop by their headquarters: 3208 Grand Avenue next to the Grand Lake Theater or call at 277-0182 or go to www.aimeeallison.org.  

Jonah Zern 

 

• 

ALAMEDA CITY COUNCIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It isn’t every day that a successful professional decides to devote as much time to a community as it takes to hold local office. In Alameda, however, engineer Eugenie Thomson is running for city council to do just that. What an opportunity for Alameda! 

In working with Eugenie on traffic issues related to a proposed Berkeley development, I found her to be impeccably honest and straightforward. She created a credible infrastructure analysis that required the city to dig for information instead of letting a project slide through on superficial assurances. She understands how to protect natural environments and neighborhoods and won’t sacrifice quality of life. 

Eugenie can analyze development situations both quickly and accurately. She cuts through the blather with tact. She maintains a calm atmosphere during discussion of controversial issues. Most importantly, she formulates creative strategies and suggests policies that can provide for the best interests of all parties.  

Eugenie will be a refreshing presence and constructive force working for the public good. If Alameda residents elect her, they will be glad.  

Mary Lou Van Deventer 

on behalf of Urban Ore, Inc. 

 

• 

TELEGRAPH AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I agree with Richard Walkings’ assessment that the quality of life on Telegraph Avenue had deteriorated in recent years (“Back in the Mix,” Sept. 15), but that is not because of Kriss Worthington. Rather, it’s in spite of him. 

Worthington voted against cuts to police and social workers on Telegraph Avenue. Although he was outvoted that time, he correctly predicted that defunding these crucial services would lead to exactly the kinds of problems Walkings’ enumerates. But guess who voted FOR these cuts? George Beier’s main endorsers on the City Council: Betty Olds, Laurie Capitelli, and Gordon Wozniak. 

To his credit, Worthington continued to fight for this money and spearheaded a successful campaign to restore it. Telegraph Avenue is now beginning to turn around. Worthington is also working to simplify the labyrinthine process involved in issuing business permits, so that vacancies on Telegraph Avenue, or anywhere else in Berkeley, can be quickly filled. 

Beier presents himself as a progressive, using many of Worthington’s bedrock platforms as his own. In his campaign literature, he promises that he will work to “increase drug and alcohol addiction outreach” and “build long-term affordable rental housing,” two things that Worthington has not only passionately advocated, but successfully implemented. 

But aside from the origin of “his” proposals, does Beier really mean what he says? If you look at three of his most enthusiastic supporters—the landlord lobby, the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce president, and the Berkeley Property Owners’ Association president—this question answers itself. Beier is allied with the most conservative forces in Berkeley. Believe what you see, not what he says. 

Judy Shelton 

 

• 

VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The alternative to San Francisco’s version of instant runoff voting (IRV), in which people are limited to ranking three choices, is not “having to rank all the candidates” as stated in your Sept. 29 article on Jason Overman’s challenge to incumbent city council member Gordon Wozniak. Instead, without this limitation—which is a matter of voting machine design rather than policy—voters can rank as many or as few candidates as they wish. 

Among the places where IRV and choice voting (IRV’s sibling for multi-seat elections) are used, the only one I know of that requires you to rank all the candidates is Australia. 

Bob Richard 

Californians for Electoral Reform 

Kentfield 

 

• 

OUT OF TOUCH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Where has George Beier been? He has suggested building a cafe in People’s Park. Most neighbors remember the Catholic Worker Cafe trailer that was in the park for about a year. It was an interesting experiment but I don’t think million-dollar businessman George is talking about an actual FREE cafe that helps people. There are plenty of commercial cafes and vacant buildings in this neighborhood and very few parks. It would be foolish to choose our open green space to plop down a cafe. Our current local businesses need support and a good councilperson would work to defend them rather than take business from them. Also any citizen with a little historic memory would realize that building on People’s Park is the last way to bring peace and prosperity to our community. 

Douglas Foster 

 

• 

WORTHINGTON VS. BEIER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Nov. 7, voters in Berkeley City Council District 7 face a very stark candidate choice: between incumbent Councilmember Kriss Worthington and repeat challenger George Beier. District 7 encompasses the neighborhoods directly south of the UCB campus stretching to the Oakland boundary. 

Mr. Beier’s considerable dot-com era-generated wealth has apparently enabled him to launch a second campaign attempt against Councilmember Worthington. Eight years ago, in 1998, Mr. Beier sought unsuccessfully to defeat the current incumbent.  

The 2006 City Council election provides District 7 voters with a clear, explicit contrast: between a Councilmember who strongly supports—and vigorously defends—rent control and affordable housing, and his opponent who has significant associations with Berkeley’s local real estate industry.  

It is no coincidence that on the very day that Mr. Beier formally announced/launched his 2006 City Council candidacy, he was the featured speaker at the Berkeley Property Owners Association’s (BPOA) annual dinner event in May. The BPOA is the city’s largest and most powerful rental property owner/real estate organization. 

The reason this association is significant is because the BPOA has been traditionally hostile to Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (rent control) since the ordinance’s 1980 passage by Berkeley voters. In fact, the BPOA has opposed nearly every affordable housing policy—even the very existence—of the elected Rent Stabilization Board and its corresponding oversight agency. 

The city’s rent control program regulates nearly 19,000 renter households across Berkeley providing tenants with a shield against arbitrary, unanticipated or unwarranted rent increases, including “no fault” eviction protections (eviction without a reason). The Rent Stabilization Program is the city’s largest and single most important affordable housing public policy. 

BPOA members and associates are also responsible for initiating, collecting signatures and currently campaigning for passage of Berkeley Measure I on the Nov. 7 ballot. 

In a nutshell, Measure I, if passed, would potentially convert thousands of affordable rental units into expensive condominiums leading to the eviction of renters and families from their homes (in the current market, Berkeley condos sell for an average price of $500,000). 

On Nov. 7, District 7 voters have a very straightforward choice: Councilmember Worthington or Mr. Beier. 

Chris Kavanagh 

 

• 

QUESTION ENDORSEMENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mal Burnstein insinuates that Zelda Bronstein’s failure to get certain endorsements, including that of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, says something about her qualifications to be Berkeley’s next mayor (Letters, Sept. 19). 

As a former member of the WDRC, I can tell you that the club’s endorsement of Tom Bates says far more about WDRC’s disdain for Berkeley politics than anything about Zelda’s credentials. Few Wellstoners take any interest—much less any part—in Berkeley public life. That may explain why they thoughtlessly endorsed the incumbent, whose stock campaign speech is mostly devoted to his long-ago record in the state Assembly. 

In 2002 many of us supported Tom, based on his Sacramento reputation. In fact, we had little idea of how he really operated. Now we’ve had a good look at his political style and at what our city means to him. It remains to be seen whether he will be held accountable for his failure to live up to his promises, to run an open and honest government, and to include the people’s interests in his dealings. 

Those of us who care about Berkeley’s future would do well to question the endorsements of groups that slight democracy at home. 

I’m voting for Zelda Bronstein. 

Bonnie Hughes 

 

• 

MCCNERNEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For five years Berkeley citizens, clergy and politicians overwhelmingly supported the local chapter of UNITE HERE (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees) in its successful boycott of the Claremont Resort. San Francisco just celebrated the conclusion of similar boycotts there. 

During this same period, the union has been contributing tens of thousands of dollars to the Congressional campaigns of anti-labor and anti-environment Republican Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy. No contributions were made to Democratic or other party candidates. They are the only union to contribute to Pombo’s campaign (www.OpenSecrets.org).  

Project Vote Smart (www.vote-smart.org) rates Pombo poorly on labor and the environment. 

While it is true that Pombo chairs the Congressional committee that regulates Indian gaming, and that casino workers make up a significant number of UNITE HERE members, it is short-sighted and destructive to support someone so blatantly against the interestes of members and other workers. 

UNITE HERE should contribute to Democratic opponent Jerry McNerney’s campaign (JerryMcNerney.org). McNerney is in favor of raising the minimum wage and other pro-labor positions. Those who supported this union during the Claremont boycott can contact: UNITE HERE, Local 2850 Oakland, Jim Dupont, International Vice President/President at 893-3181. Ask that a matching contribution be made to Jerry McNerney’s campaign. 

C Gilbert 

 

• 

PROPOSITION 90 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Proposition 90, advertised as a cure for misuse of eminent domain, is a fraud. Marketed and sold as “necessary” after a bad U.S. Supreme Court decision, the proposition does cure some misuse of eminent domain. Unfortunately, items attached to the law also have a host of other side effects that make the cure worse than the disease. 

Poisoned by right-wing backers, Prop. 90’s redefinition of “taking” is reminiscent of the redefinitions of “freedom,” “prisoner” and “warrant” that have become popular of late. Under Prop. 90, any law of decision that affects the potential profit of a business or value of property is considered “taking” and requires that payment be made to those who claim that they would have made more money in the absence of the law. 

The most obvious effects are those related to real estate. A law limiting coastal oil drilling—either a new one or an old one which requires that government make a decision to enforce it—would require that taxpayers pay developers the profit that could have been made via sale of oil from the property. 

While this is bad, the worst effects of Prop. 90 stem from its not being limited to real estate law. Under Prop. 90, an anti-identity theft measure that prohibits businesses from selling social security numbers to potential identity thieves would force taxpayers to pay the data brokers for what they would have made by selling their information. Ditto car lemon laws and the like. 

Just as importantly, a loophole-closing decision or minor action required to enforce an existing law could trigger Prop. 90 and put taxpayers on the line for billions. It also encourages questionable lawsuits by banning judges from forcing lawsuit abusers to pay both sides’ attorneys’ fees. Oregon, which passed its own version of Prop. 90 (without looking) is struggling with this right now. Over 4 billion dollars worth of lawsuits have been filed in just a few months. Let me remind you that 4 billion dollars is about 80,000 teachers or 40,000 firefighters. 

Prop. 90 is being marketed as a cure for eminent domain abuse. Unfortunately, the things attached to it make the cure worse than the disease. While eminent domain abuse does happen, it is rare in California (we have plenty of ways to recall elected officials when they do something wrong). Odds are that we will have another special election in 2007 to cover the new propositions that come up. Lets cancel Prop 90 and run a real property rights initiative for the next election. 

Tom Angelton 

 

• 

RESPONSE TO BHS COLUMN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While the complaints and concerns addressed in the recent Berkeley High Beat column titled “Berkeley High Beat: Start of the New Year Worries” reflect the experiences of many students at Berkeley High School, I feel that many of these concerns were based on incomplete or incorrect information. As a senior at Berkeley High School I have had my fair share of schedule mishaps, but this past year I had a unique opportunity to work with Berkeley High’s Master Schedule Advisory Group on the master class schedule for this year. In this capacity I learned a great deal about the complexities and challenges of the master scheduling process.  

To begin with, I will briefly review the actual scheduling process. Because of the sheer number of students enrolled at BHS (approximately 3200), the school uses a program called SASI to assign classes. Because this is primarily an automated system scheduling errors inevitably occur. For example, many upper level language classes and general electives are only offered for one or two periods because of the small number of students who have signed up for these classes. If a student signs up for one of these classes in the spring, the computer moves the rest of their classes around in order to accommodate this request. If requested classes are scheduled during the same period the computer will attempt to prioritize the classes for the student and will drop one of the classes. For example, last year I requested AP Art in the spring and discovered in the fall that this one specific class request had disrupted my entire schedule. Once I dropped AP Art the rest of my course requests fell into place. 

The second concern raised by the Daily Planet column was the issue of student access to counselors. Berkeley High has a severe dearth of counselors—eight to be exact, or approximately one counselor for every 400 students. Given these limited resources, I feel that our counseling staff does the very best that they can. As mentioned in the Jacket article, the 180 students without schedules at the start of the school year had first priority with the counseling staff. However, the article failed to mention that the majority of these students were without schedules not because of any human or technical error, but rather because they were late registration or transfer students.  

Once every student has some kind of schedule, the school begins to process the swelling piles of student course change request forms. This year alone, Berkeley High’s eight counselors had to process approximately 2400 schedule change requests. Apparently, the reason why everyone had to sit around in their undesirable classes for so long wasn’t because of the “dysfunctional system” at all—it was because three out of four students at Berkeley High weren’t happy with the schedules they had requested and received. The number of courses offered, and the number of teachers hired, is entirely determined by the classes students register for in the spring. If students are unhappy with schedule delays at the start of the year, they should recognize the fact that these delays are a direct result of their own indecision. It is impossible for a school the size of Berkeley High to be as flexible and as responsive as we all would like. There are just too many students and too many variables in the equation to make this a simple process.  

Theo Wilson 

Senior, Berkeley High School


Commentary:Casino Would Meet Albany’s Long-Term Needs

By Tony Caine
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Robert Cheasty’s recent Daily Planet commentary correctly points out Magna’s strong desire to obtain a casino. He portrays this a negative in that it would be used to subsidize the continuation of the racetrack. But there is also a flip-side to all this: Magna’s desire for a casino can be used as leverage to convince Magna to quickly close the track and create a very large park in its place. 

We need to take a long term view of Albany’s needs when planning the waterfront. Since 1995 we have voted $10 million in new property taxes and we can conservatively expect to need $10 million more through 2016 (plus another $4 million inflation adjustment on current taxes). Ten years ago these measures easily passed by 25 percent. Currently they squeak by with only a one percent margin. Consider the pressures of a slowing economy, higher mortgage rates, falling home prices, and voter burnout. These tax measures will likely begin to fail. If the money does not come from taxes it can only come from the waterfront or by cannibalizing our small town ambiance with large scale development within Albany. It would take 20 Target stores along Solano and San Pablo to generate $10 million. Even the Caruso project’s $2 million is a drop in the bucket against a $10 million tab. 

Combining everyone’s wish lists, the ideal waterfront project should: free up 75 percent of the land for a large park, bring five to 10 million dollars additional income for Albany, have minimal effect on freeway traffic, not compete with Solano Avenue businesses, and create a strong incentive for Magna to close the track quickly. Environmentalists will block anything that doesn’t involve a large park and the fiscally oriented will block anything that doesn’t bring millions of additional income. The essence of a successful compromise is choosing a project not currently associated with any faction that meets enough of everyone’s needs to let us all get on with our lives. Like it or not, the only project which accomplishes all these goals is downsizing the racetrack to a casino plus a large park. 

Many have strong feelings against gambling. Usually the greatest fear is the unknown: how gambling will affect a community, will our community lose or profit? In Albany’s case there isn’t much unknown. We have had waterfront gambling for 60 years. In its heyday the racetrack brought 19,000 visitors while Albany maintained one of the lowest crime rates in the area because track income allowed us to overstaff our police department. Albany’s reputation never suffered for having a racetrack. It can be argued that Albany’s unique small town ambiance is a result of waterfront gambling which removed the need to build within Albany and enabled a lower crime rate than surrounding towns. 

Emotion-based public policy decisions are usually bad decisions. The similarity between Prohibition and the current anti-casino sentiment is striking. Prohibition argued that alcohol was addictive and that addictive behavior put a burden on society and family relationships, basically the same arguments for banning casinos. Prohibition failed disastrously because alcohol was widely popular, remained easy to get from criminal sources and the great majority did not become addicted. Internet gambling will remain easily available and grow rapidly no matter how hard the government tries to stamp it out. The government may even join in to get the revenue. Better these gamblers, addicted or not, should have an honest game available instead of dealing with many crooked Internet sites and return some of their spending to local communities. Gambling in California continues to grow. San Pablo and Richmond casinos are just the beginning. Like it or not, if we dig in our heels we will be surrounded by casinos in nearby towns, and left with a dilapidated racetrack, no park, and meager income. Our sacrifice will likely be in vain. 

Here are some questions an objective analysis might ask: Is a more “politically correct” project that exacerbates rush hour traffic and makes many drivers arrive home angry and stressed a worse influence on families than a casino which (because of its 24-hour operation) has little effect on rush hour traffic? Does never achieving a waterfront park that benefits the whole region make a worse impact than a casino which quickly brings one about? Would sacrificing our small town ambiance along Solano be better than a casino at the waterfront? Would the additional millions in our pockets to spend in Solano Avenue stores compensate for a casino? 

A casino could be configured to look much like the CESP hotel plan which was considered very attractive by many. It could be surrounded by trees and made invisible from the waterfront. It might possibly be made accessible only from the freeway, preventing direct access to and from Albany. A temporary casino to provide income during the transition could be put inside the racetrack building while constructing a permanent one. 

A casino is not an end in itself but leverage to do what we really want with the other 75 percent of the property. In a complex situation like this we cannot plan successfully through wishful thinking. We need to be practical and realize that we must each sacrifice some of our preferences in order to get our most important needs met. Above all, we need flexible thinking from our politicians. So far they have all opposed the casino plus racetrack concept but nobody has had the political courage to explore the casino-as leverage concept. It might be the only practical solution. 

 

Tony Caine is an Albany 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.


Commentary: Another View of Golden Gate Fields

By Trevor Grayling
Tuesday October 03, 2006

I must protest the entire page given over to Mr. Cheasty’s Sept. 26 commentary on Golden Gate Fields. The CAS/CESP/Sierra Club group are at it again with their by-now-familiar list of scare tactics and misstatements. I think you owe it to your readers to correct the record. Let’s look at just a few of those scare tactics and misstatements: 

• The Caruso plan offered a “minimum amount of privatized open space.” The reality: The Caruso plan offered a new park at Fleming Point and a new Shoreline Park, with restored beaches, public restrooms, completion of the Bay Trail, and a restored fishing pier, for a total of 17 continuous acres of parkland along the shoreline. It also offered restored—and expanded—wetlands north of the race track, a YMCA building, a Farmers’ Market, plus open-air public meeting space and a public amphitheater.  

• A “mall” on the waterfront would “sap the economic vitality” out of Solano and San Pablo avenues. The reality: The Caruso plan called for upscale retail and upscale restaurants. These would not be a threat to the budget restaurants, nail salons, realtor offices, apartment buildings, medical offices, gas stations, and so on, that make up the businesses on Solano and San Pablo avenues. In addition, the planned shuttle between El Cerrito BART, the development, and Solano Avenue would have brought more foot traffic to Solano. It’s interesting to note that the Albany Chamber of Commerce did not oppose the Caruso plan. 

• A mall would “saddle the community with a traffic nightmare on Gilman Street.” The reality: No one knows what the effect on traffic would be, either due to the Caruso development or the CAS/CESP/Sierra Club development. Let’s not forget that their proposal includes development also! If the Albany City Council had guaranteed the completion of an environmental impact report (paid for by Caruso), we would have known the reality about traffic impact, both for the Caruso plan and the CAS/CESP/Sierra Club plan. 

• It places a racino on the shoreline. The reality: The Caruso plan included no gambling. Gambling is covered by state law, not local law, and the people of California have handily defeated any and all attempts to increase casino gambling in California. This scare tactic simply isn’t relevant to the discussion. 

• CAS supported development would “easily provide greater revenue to Albany than the track currently does.” The reality: It’s interesting to note that, for the past year, the CAS/CESP/Sierra Club group has only offered to replace existing revenue from the racetrack (currently about $1.6 million). Suddenly, they—plus their two candidates for City Council—are in unison saying that their development would increase revenue. They offer no details whatsoever to support this assertion. 

• A hotel/conference center “would bring in more tax revenue to Albany (both city and school district) than the current track operation, including the property tax revenue.” The reality: Do they just make things up as they go along? Regarding a hotel, a study commissioned by the city in 2004 was ambivalent—at best—about the viability of a hotel in that location. Regarding a conference center, again, there are simply no facts provided to support the idea that this would be viable. And do we really want a thousand cars all trying at the same time to get into a conference center parking lot at 8:30 on a weekday morning for a conference that starts at 9? Talk about a “traffic nightmare” on I-80! 

My blood runs cold when I think of how reckless and cavalier the CAS/CESP/Sierra Club people are regarding the financial well-being of Albany. We have streets full of potholes, storm drains that overflow, fewer trees every year, an unfunded five-year Capital Improvement Plan, unfunded school programs, a structurally weak Veteran’s Building, and so on, and so on. I can only hope that the new city-run waterfront-planning process will smoke out once and for all the appalling weaknesses in the ideas emanating from CAS, CESP, the Sierra Club, and their two candidates for City Council. 

 

Trevor Grayling is a member of the Albany Waterfront Coalition and the Sierra Club. 

 

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.


Commentary: Instant Runoff Voting Gone Bad

By John Curl
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Tom Bates’ mayoral campaign sent out an e-mail this week boasting that Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA) members endorsed Bates’ re-election by “an overwhelming 69 percent vote.” What wasn’t mentioned in the e-mail was that the crucial five votes that appeared to put Bates over the endorsement threshold were cast by BCA members who actually preferred his opponent, Zelda Bronstein. Those votes should never have been reallocated to Bates. Without those votes BCA would have voted no endorsement. 

Welcome to the exciting world of instant runoff voting (IRV) and its many opportunities for abuse. 

I should say that I have not endorsed any of the candidates for mayor, and I have not decided how I will vote on election day. As well, I can proudly say that I have known all of the people involved in the botched vote-counting decision for a long time, and I can vouch for their fairness and integrity. My concern is solely for the integrity of our endorsement process and for the disenfranchised members.  

IRV arose to respond to costly and low-turnout run-offs and to encourage people to vote their conscience beyond the two-party system without feeling that they are wasting their vote or helping the opposition win. Past BCA endorsement meetings have gone to multiple ballots. With most of the people gone, only a handful of diehards were casting the deciding votes, which was unfair. So this year we decided to use IRV. Everyone could listen to the speakers and vote and be free to leave, their preferences preserved on their single ranked ballots for each candidate or issue. 

On the count of all the first-place votes for mayor, Bates fell one vote shy of the 60 percent needed for an endorsement. Bronstein got 28 percent; Zachary Running Wolf, two votes; Christian Pecaut, one vote. There were nine votes for no endorsement. On the next round Pecaut and Running Wolf’s votes were dropped off and the second choices on those ballots were distributed between the two remaining candidates. That done, Bronstein gained two, “no endorsement” rose by one, and Bates still had the 44 votes he’d started with, leaving him the same one vote shy he was on the first round. 

At that point the vote counters did not agree about what should happen next. Two counters insisted that the correct way to proceed was to eliminate the second-place candidate, Bronstein, and give all of the number 2s on her ballots to the leading candidate, Bates. I argued that the two remaining candidates should both get the totals of number 1 and number 2 choices. Otherwise, only the leading candidate could ever win and the other finisher could never win in an instant runoff. Confusion reigned. Our resident IRV “expert“ was called in (literally, by cell phone, he’d left), and pronounced the Bronstein elimination appropriate. 

In retrospect I understand that the correct IRV procedure was to stop when it was down to two candidates, and if neither got 60 percent after the lowest candidates’ ranked votes have been added, the decision should be “no endorsement.” That is also the way BCA has always done it; when more than 40 percent wanted either the second-place finisher or no endorsement, then the decision was No Endorsement. The IRV provision that was used was a method designed to force a final decision, a useful provision for a general election, where you need to produce a winner, but inappropriate for an endorsement vote, where No Endorsement is a perfectly valid outcome. 

I still haven’t explained how Bates claimed 69 percent of the BCA endorsement votes. He undoubtedly got there by imagining a final “vote” where he got his 49 votes from the last ballot and Bronstein got her 20 from the second-to-last. In this fictitious vote, 49 out of 69 total votes (ignoring the 10 “no endorsement” votes) is 69 percent. No such vote ever occurred, or is legitimately derivable from the ballots.  

I’m sure there was no conscious bad intent in this sad travesty. But right now there’s hardly a more potent issue, nationally and worldwide, than the sanctity of the electoral process, and in Berkeley we must have maximum transparency. Berkeley Citizens Action has for many years been the conscience of the city, fighting to elect candidates who stand up for social justice. We need to stand up for it now. 

I respectfully request that the ballots be sequestered, that a full and open discussion take place over the correct way to count the ballots, that a recount be conducted, and the full tallies be made public. 

 

John Curl is a Berkeley 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.


Commentary: Helping Vulnerable Youth of Color

By Sally Hindman
Tuesday October 03, 2006

Some years back, the San Francisco Chronicle published a graphic photograph of a young African American man hanging from the guard railing of the Golden Gate Bridge, his arms stretched out so that, remarkably, he appeared to be dangling in a crucifix position. The youth had attempted to commit suicide. As a Caucasian Quaker chaplain and someone involved in the interfaith religious community for most of the last 20 years, and also as a mother and longtime Berkeley resident, that photo has haunted me. I have not been able to erase the image of that anguished young man from my mind, and have continued to ponder the questions: What can we do to empower and offer needed support to vulnerable older youth of color in our community? Aren’t we all his parents? How are we “crucifying” or by neglect leading our older young men of color to suicidal despair and a sense of hopelessness? 

In 1996 and for three years following, the Chaplaincy to the Homeless and member agencies of the Alameda County Youth Collaborative received over $500,000 in funds from the City of Berkeley and HUD to start and run a drop-in center and other programs for homeless runaway youth in the Telegraph Avenue area, with the support and leadership of District 7 Council Member Kriss Worthington. In efforts at understanding the challenges faced by those mostly white youth, City staff hired veteran social worker Wendy Georges to carry out a study of the problems faced by homeless runaway youth, and providing recommendations for next steps that might be taken in dealing with youth concerns.  

One of the critical recommendations Georges developed from her research was that a parallel study needed to be carried out of the problems and challenges faced by equally homeless “couch surfing” youth in South and West Berkeley. Georges pointed out that in South and West Berkeley as many as 400 African American and Latino youth, ages 18-25, were struggling each year with a culturally different, but equally serious sort of “homelessness,” and just as badly needed attention as did the mostly white Telegraph Avenue youth. 

Despite prodding for over two years by South and West Berkeley clergy involved in the Berkeley Ecumenical Strategies Team (BEST), that recommended study was never carried out by the City. 

Nonetheless, knowing well the struggles faced by older South and West Berkeley youth, and the need for services supporting them, in 1999 BEST, and its more than a dozen partner congregations, applied to HUD for funding to open three satellite, congregation-based sites focused on meeting the special needs of these at-risk young people. The plan envisioned by local pastors, included significant street outreach to programs at these locations. AIDS and STD testing and information, jobs and computer training, and recovery and support for staying out of the jail system were the themes conceptualized for the three sites, respectively.  

In their funding proposal, and in subsequent communication with City Council members, the clergy drove home that these hard to reach 18-25-year-old youth of color are at a phenomenally high risk of incarceration, recidivism and three strikes convictions, of joblessness, drug and alcohol addiction, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and consequent related mental health challenges. 

In 2000, led by Missionary Church of God in Christ’s Jubilee Restoration Inc., and with equally strong leadership from Phillips Temple AME, BEST received a $100,000 grant to initiate this program. Supportive funds in the $30,000 range followed from the City of Berkeley. Unfortunately, as events unfolded that vision was not able to be realized. Ultimately the grant was returned to HUD and the needs of these older youth in South and West Berkeley continued to go largely unmet. 

In June of 2004, my toddler daughter and I witnessed the shooting murder three blocks from our South Berkeley house of an African American youth 20 years old riding a bicycle, by a group of his peers on bicycles, most presumably drug related. Still, despite a vigil held by local clergy at the time, no increased services were able to be made available by the city addressing the needs of vulnerable youth of color. Government purse strings were simply too tight. 

Without these empowering services and outreach, I have watched as police cars day in and day out relentlessly roam the streets of our neighborhood. They come on motorcycles, in cars, and in groups of five cars, skidding ‘round the corners. The police are ever-present patrolling the streets of South Berkeley. All that our vulnerable youth need to do is make one wrong move and the police are there to arrest them. Yet I have never seen an outreach worker so much as approach the street corner of Ellis and Fairview near our house, where large groups of these older African American youth congregate. 

Meanwhile, this last year as the South Berkeley community has pondered a transportation hub at Ashby BART, whether we need more parks and open space, whether to move the South Berkeley library to the developing Ed Roberts Campus, and whether the police should expand their site on Adeline Street, the specific needs of at-risk older youth in South and West Berkeley have continued to be unaddressed.  

The past five years have for sure been cash-strapped as our state and local governments have struggled with a diminished pool of funds to distribute for social services and other competing programs reaching out to those in need. But with a brighter economic horizon and newly available monies for homeless outreach programs through the State’s Proposition 63, Berkeley is finally blessed with having resources available to potentially support at-risk older homeless youth in our community. With an upcoming Proposition 63 Request for Proposals, community organizations with the capacity to serve youth in South and West Berkeley will have a new opportunity to apply for funds to meet the needs of these young people. 

Kriss Worthington has again taken a leadership role in addressing the needs of homeless Telegraph Avenue youth for supportive services, as has Mayor Tom Bates. Hopefully, at long last, additionally the City of Berkeley will be able to pony up and earmark new funds generously supporting programs for South and West Berkeley’s “homeless” youth.  

Further, the City of Berkeley is in the process of contract negotiations with Alameda County for Mental Health Services Act money for transition age youth which could provide an additional stream of available youth serving funds—if properly earmarked. 

My prayer for Berkeley as we approach the fall “season of giving,” is that as people of diverse faith traditions and beliefs we find a way to gravitate away from our own concerns and problems and remember those still struggling on our streets…the people “hanging from the bridge,” as it were. Not all homeless people hold up cans begging for money! We need to do everything we can both as a City and individually to support empowering programs and services, as well as community organizing toward justice and equal opportunities for all. The disgrace of homelessness in all forms, in all age groups and among all races, has simply got to end! 

To let the City of Berkeley know you support programs for 18-25-year-old South and West Berkeley youth, contact: Mayor Tom Bates, 2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704. Call: 981-7100. E-mail: Mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

To donate: Some of the local agencies and programs currently serving and organizing with/for homeless youth include: 

 

Youth Emergency Assistance Hostel (YEAH) 

c/o Lutheran Church of the Cross 

1744 University Ave. 

Berkeley, CA 94703 

www.yeah-berkeley.org 

 

Boss Community Organizing Team 

c/o BOSS 

2065 Kittredge St., Suite E 

Berkeley, CA 94704 

www.self-sufficiency.org 

 

Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) 

c/o Coalition on Homelessness 

2940 16th St., Room 200-2 

San Francisco, CA 94103 

 

Street Spirit 

c/o AFSC 

1515 Webster St., #303 

Oakland, CA 94612 

www.thestreetspirit.org 

 

Sally Hindman is a former executive director of Berkeley’s Chaplaincy to the Homeless. She is the co-founder of Street Spirit with Terry Messman. 

 

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.  

 

 

 

 

 


Commentary: Albany Shoreline: Private vs. Public Interests

By Michael Marchant
Tuesday October 03, 2006

In the United States, consumerism is becoming a social disease. Billions of dollars is spent annually on advertising campaigns designed to delude people into spending huge sums of money on things they don’t need, many of which are harmful. From cosmetics, to “fashion” products, to household cleaners, to SUVs, people are consuming more and more, and at every turn, ingenious advertisers are coaxing us along. And the never-ending search for the wider TV screen, the bigger car, the most effective anti-aging cream, and the best household disinfectant, has left us distracted from those things that truly matter to us, and less able to affect meaningful change in our lives.  

While opinion polls show that a majority of Americans favor universal healthcare, our current for profit system is in shambles. While a majority of Americans oppose the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, the country is plunged into civil war, the death toll mounts, and the likelihood of another attack against the United States increases. And while most Americans support strengthening our public schools and public retirement systems, state and federal governments go about dismantling both. Those who care about democracy should be alarmed by the widening gap between our opinions on vital issues such as health care and war, and the direction in which our elected “leaders” are taking us. 

In other words, we seem to be moving from a society based on citizenship and democracy to one based on consumerism. 

This shift toward consumerism has been enabled by the privatization of our public, or common, spaces. When public space is turned over to private interests, the behaviors and attitudes of the people inhabiting those spaces change. Ever wonder why people hanging out at the mall are not discussing our healthcare crisis? Or the polluted air we breathe? Or violence in our communities? After all, they aren’t prevented from doing so. Well, I think its because those who own the malls have designed them in such a way that at every turn we are deluded into buying something. The last thing mall owners want is for people to be distracted from their designated role in life (namely, as consumers) by paying some attention to those matters that actually concern them.  

It is therefore imperative that we protect and expand our public spaces—those sacred spaces that cannot be penetrated by advertisers—where people are free to think for themselves. 

In Albany, there is an effort underway to protect the shoreline from private development and to expand the Eastshore State Park in the process. About a year ago, Rick Caruso, the Southern California developer hired by Magna Corp to bring a mega-mall (and most likely a casino) to the Albany shoreline, rolled into town intent on winning the approval of Albany residents. But to Caruso’s surprise, Albany residents, with leadership from the Sierra Club and The Citizens for the Albany Shoreline, mobilized against the proposed development, collecting signatures and turning out en masse to City Council meetings to ensure that the Council heard loud and clear from the community on this issue. Eventually, after he was denied special treatment from the City Council, Rick Caruso packed up and left town. 

And I couldn’t have been more pleased. We don’t need more malls. Corporate advertisers don’t need yet another venue from which they can delude us into buying more useless stuff. Instead, we need more public spaces: more parks; more open space, more community centers; and more town hall meetings. It is in these public spaces that we are free to connect with one another and work together to affect real positive change in our lives and communities. 

I appeal to readers to oppose any mall or big commercial development on the Albany Shoreline. Instead, please consider supporting the Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (website by the same name), and supporting Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile for the Albany City Council, both of whom will continue to fight for open, public space at our shoreline. 

 

Michael Marchant lives in Albany. 

 

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.  


Letters to the Editor

Friday September 29, 2006

• 

SPINELESS DEMOCRATS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a disgusted Democrat who’d now vote for almost any third party that could get on a primary ballot, I agree with Arthur Blaustein’s Sept. 22 commentary—with the exception of his apparently boundless faith in the Democrats we elected to represent us. 

By their spinelessness, Dems seem just as willing as the GOP to shred our still valid Constitution. In the few days before Nov. 7, it’s doubtful they’ll suddenly rise up en masse against the Bush administration. 

I have tried in vain to understand their cowardly waffling! Everything Bush does, no matter how “secret,” can to be found on record somewhere. Why wait until inevitable post-election “leaks” to do what Dems must know is right for this country? Why not put their cadre of “intellectual elites” into momentary “blue-collar” mode to attack Republicans directly? 

What’s so hard about unanimously backing John Conyers and his cohorts to impeach all high-ranking members of the Bush team for their many thoroughly documented impeachable offenses?  

The results of this election will affect us all, including Congress and their families and cronies and the rest of the known world.  

If the Dems don’t pull together immediately to act forcefully with common sense, no one in this “democracy” will even have a vote after another Republican majority in Congress and two more years of Bush. 

Nancy Chirich 

 

• 

PRESERVING THE ARTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The West Berkeley development plan (Daily Planet, Sept. 26) presented to the Civic Arts Commission by Doug Herst and Darrell de Tienne is an amazing opportunity to preserve an arts community in Berkeley and to begin the process of revitalizing that area. Because it proposes a small sector of more dense residential construction as well as artist workspace, both requiring added height, it will meet some resistance from a few diehard obstructionists who seem determined to keep West Berkeley the wasteland of shanties and scrapyards that much of it now is. (A member of the commission cited a survey that found 25 acres of West Berkeley virtually unused). 

Brenneman’s article mentions my urging that it’s time to rezone parts of West Berkeley. (I’m not, by the way, an artist, as he calls me, in the usual sense—I’m a retired Equity actor with a history of performances at Berkeley Rep, Berkeley Jewish Theater, CCCT and others.) I think it’s important to readjust the divisions of the West Berkeley Plan, as well as some zoning constraints, to make more flexible use of that area without sacrificing the overall balance embodied in the Plan. In an effective trade-off, the proposed creative center could give artists and artisans a stimulating community with adjacent live/work spaces (the ultimate goal in traffic reduction) and allow pockets of land near the freeway access points at Ashby, University, and Gilman to be developed for car dealerships and big box retail, providing our city the commercial revenue it desperately needs to survive. Telegraph and Shattuck are dying as a commercial tax base, and every year Berkeley residents spend millions of dollars in Emeryville and El Cerrito because that’s where the stores are. If Berkeley doesn’t provide competitive venues near the freeway we face a slow economic death.  

Jerry Landis 

 

• 

OCTOBER SURPRISE RALLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There will a free October Surprise Peace Concert-Rally from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8 at People’s Park. It will be a united front around saying no to the Iraq war, a draft, nuking or bombing Iran, and torture. Many bands and speakers are lined up. Bush and all have in the past elections used some kind of October Surprise to win the last three elections. The fix might be already in with re-districting and the voting machines. Another problem the democrats probably will sit on there hands if they win. Also the Navy is getting in place to block Iran’s ports to provoke an incident so Bush can start bombing. So on the following Tuesday at 8 a.m., we will march from Telegraph and Bancroft to Professor Yoo’s class and try to do a citizen arrest for war crimes against the Geneva Accords which is the law of our land because of signed Treaties. Hope to see you at both events.  

Michael Delacour 

 

• 

DISTRICT 2 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you, Daily Planet and Becky O’Malley, for your wonderful editorial and endorsement of Jerry McNerney who is running against despicable Richard Pombo in District 2. Even though it is out of our district, we also feel that we all live in Pombo’s district and he must be defeated. Jerry has an excellent chance to win and with all our help, he can. My partner Dan and I have been traveling to Tracy, Pombo’s hometown, an hour away, to help with canvassing Pombo’s hometown. Tracy has an excellent precinct coordinator, Martha Gamez (gamezm@comcast.net) who would love to hear from you if you have any time to help. We all must find time to do this. This current administration must be defeated and the only way to do this to regain control of Congress is to defeat execrable congressman such as Pombo and replace him with a wind engineer who is totally supportive of environmental policies and replace corrupt politicians with someone who has the integrity and courage to speak out and fight. 

Andree Leenaers 

 

• 

PET ADOPTION STORE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The emotional heat generated by some of neighbors of The MILO Foundation’s Pet Adoption Store continues to rise. They have genuine concerns but these are sometimes clouded by their exaggerations and misinformation. When you have a case, why taint it? 

No one at MILO, and none of their supporters, including me—a former MILO board member, and current Berkeley Humane Commissioner—deny the impact of the store. And no one at MILO is cavalier about the need for change and adjustment. But to be vilified, screamed at, have your legally parked vehicle red tagged by neighbors, and have Animal Services and the Parking Division used as tools against the Pet Adoption Store is plainly disheartening. 

As to the Zoning Adjustments Board—true, they are not there to judge the moral value of a project. Too bad. Perhaps that would ensure that the kind of life enriching and community enhancing businesses and artisan projects so dear to our hearts could really flourish in Berkeley, instead of Dollar Stores and cell phone providers. 

But ZAB does make adjustments, obviously. In fact, ZAB had to make a zoning adjustment for the whole of Berkeley after the 2002 election. Berkeley residents passed Bond Measure I, which I initiated, to build a new Berkeley Animal Shelter to replace the disgraceful cinder block building on Second Street. At that time, we discovered that no area in Berkeley was zoned for kennels/shelters. Assuming that a new shelter would be built in a mixed-use light-industrial area (MULI), then-Deputy City Manager Phil Kamlarz wrote the zoning change to allow kennels/shelters in Berkeley. 

The code which Mr. Mattingly quotes about where kennels can be placed was written almost 40 years ago, and like much of Berkeley animal code is inappropriate for modern conditions and community standards. Ironically, with a live/work space right next door to the Berkeley Municipal Animal Shelter on Second Street our own city shelter is also in violation of this law. But new shelters are increasingly being built directly adjoining housing developments because it is understood now that animal welfare and pet ownership are an integral part of contemporary family life. 

But perhaps no one has noticed. It is almost four years since Measure I passed—the only successful tax measure in the East Bay that election season—and where is our new shelter? Nowhere. And why? Perhaps it’s because there are many in this city who continue to see animal shelters as the dirty little secret down by the railroad tracks, and that includes some in City Hall who shouldn’t be talking of any development in West Berkeley that does not include the new animal shelter as a vital community enriching component. 

As a committed MILO supporter, I would love to see the project succeed—and as a property owner in Berkeley I am enormously empathetic with neighbor complaints. But to hurl insults and to suggest as one neighbor has, that pregnant women and HIV positive individuals are at risk from MILO is not only ignorant but malicious. The whole debate of how and where we place animal shelters, pet adoption stores, kennels and animal friendly businesses is linked—and perhaps these bright, concerned and well informed residents could join forces with me and others like me to find solutions and further enhance Berkeley’s reputation as progressive and innovative. 

Jill Posener 

 

• 

GOOD SAMARITAN  

NEEDS A GUITAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Aug. 9, there was an apartment fire on the 2600 block of Hillegass Avenue. As reported on the local news channels, the fire injured six people, including a good Samaritan. 

That good Samaritan’s name is David Anderson. He’s 44 years old, from Chicago, he’s a musician, and he’s homeless. For the past several years he has lived in Willard Park. Some nights he stays in the men’s shelter on Center Street, across from Civic Center Park in downtown Berkeley. I got to know David through Alice Kurpiewski, a retired social worker who lives on Hillegass Avenue, just across from Willard Park. She had heard my name from some of my neighbors and called me up. Alice told me of David’s heroism in the Hillegass fire, his subsequent hospitalization and the theft of his acoustic guitar while he was in recovery. The three of us met a couple of weeks ago. I am writing this letter today in search of another good Samaritan who might have a new or used guitar to give to David. 

David first noticed the fire a little after 4:30 in the afternoon. He ran to the fire and blew his whistle as loud as he could to alert any people inside that they were in danger. There were no firefighters or police yet on the scene. To alert anyone remaining in the building, he started throwing bricks through the windows on the side of the building. He then ran around to the front of the house and noticed a woman inside the building, staring at the fire. A man was with her and yelled at her to get out of the building as soon as possible. Both of them tumbled down the stairs inside the building. David ran up the stairs to make sure that there was no one left in the building. He kept shouting as loud as he could to tell people to get out of the building. He saw a locked door and did his best to kick it down. There was a shattering of wood and glass and David realized that he had injured himself. He extricated himself from the broken door and made his way down the stairs.  

I’ve seen his scar. It goes from his ankle to the middle of his thigh. At the San Leandro trauma center, David received 27 stitches and 14 staples. He is thankful to Dr. Lee for doing such a good job of patching him up, though he’ll probably have permanent pain in his leg for the nerve damage that he suffered. 

It was during his hospital stay that his guitar was stolen. He kept it with his other belongings at Willard Park. Alice and I asked him about what it was like to live in the park. He said that most of the time he feels safe but that from time to time some hoodlums come through the park and rough them up and steal their belongings. David finds solace in his music. He writes music, plays the guitar and piano, and sings. He’s also frequently seen attending services at the West Street church in Oakland.  

There are so many aspects of David’s story that we could talk about – but right now what we really need is a guitar! If anyone has one, Alice and I know it would be very much appreciated. Please call me at 848-9451. Thank you, Berkeley! 

George Beier and Alice Kurpiewski 

 

• 

DEMOCRAT DISHONESTY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have been a registered Democrat for several decades, however, recent events have given me reason to question this party affiliation. In particular a presentation recently made by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. 

The topic in question was the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which Mr. Bates hopes to repeal. His efforts are not the reason for my concern so much as how he is going about it. Mayor Bates detailed one case I am familiar with by virtue of being a neighbor, of 2901 Otis St. This little house represents, in my opinion, everything right with the Landmarks Ordinance. It was built a century ago, not significantly altered since that time, and though it has been neglected is a compliment to its South Berkeley neighborhood. 

Two years ago a small group of developers purchased the property and applied for permits to demolish the house and build a three story apartment/condo in its place. They also applied for zoning exemptions to pave the yard for parking. Despite the inappropriateness of this type of building to its neighborhood, permits were approved by the Planning Department contingent on Zoning and Landmarks commission approval. It was not acted on by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, apparently because commissioners did not have time to perform a review and schedule a hearing. Eventually the neighborhood figured out what was going on, no thanks to Planning Department notices, and quickly gathered the 50 signatures needed to initiate the property for structure of merit designation. Despite turnout of the entire neighborhood against this demolition Planning Department Director Dan Marks denigrated our effort calling the house unremarkable. Worse, City Council sided with Marks and developers and overturned our landmarking effort. Despite this wholly undemocratic process the story does have a happy ending. A hero from the neighborhood stepped up and purchased the property from the group of real-estate speculators before it was torn down. 

At the presentations in question Mayor Bates made a number of outright false statements, but I will mention just the most outrageous. He said “the owner almost went broke.” In fact there was not one but four owners, real-estate speculators from out of town, who not only were never out of pocket more than a few mortgage payments but ended up taking home $80,000 in profit when they sold the property. That’s right, $80,000 each, for doing nothing but threatening the neighbors with a butt-ugly flying cottage. 

Mayor Bates also said that his proposed LPO revisions would not impact neighborhoods but only University Avenue, San Pablo Avenue, and other major transit corridors. That’s self-serving speculation at best. It ignores the many apartments built 40 years ago. More recent examples include 2901 Otis, Milvia and Rose, and several others in working class neighborhoods, traditional neighborhoods, not along transit corridors. 

Perhaps I’ve just been naive for 50-plus years but I have never seen such bald faced dishonesty, from a Democratic public official to a Democratic group, and they didn’t even question him on it. What is our city coming to? 

John Felix 

 

• 

DETAINEE RIGHTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Congress recently cut a deal with the Bush regime that will continue torture and limitations on basic legal rights for detainees in the “war on terror.” Bush proclaimed, “I had a single test for the pending legislation…: Would the CIA operators tell me whether they could go forward…to question detainees to be able to get information… I’m pleased to say that this agreement preserves…the CIA program to question the world’s most dangerous terrorists and to get their secrets.” 

In June the Supreme Court ruled that Bush’s secretive military tribunals for detainees were unconstitutional. These tribunals conducted without oversight, would allow evidence obtained through torture, and convict detainees with hearsay and “classified evidence” they would not be able to see. The Bush regime then decided to work with Congress to legalize the tribunals. When Republican senators McCain, Graham, and Warner, opposed Bush’s proposed legislation, some thought that Bush’s tribunals would be halted. Those hopes were dashed against the rocks in a deal worked out in Dick Cheney’s office on Sept. 21. 

The compromise bill for trying “enemy combatants” agreed upon by the administration and the “opposition” Senators will: Allow coerced evidence if the tribunal judge decides it’s reliable or relevant; give torturers immunity from prosecution for torture carried out before the legislation; prevent detainees from using the Geneva Conventions to challenge detention or seek civil damages for being tortured; with the exception of a few “grave breaches,” allow the president to decide what is considered a Geneva Convention violation; make the prosecution provide redacted or a summary version of secret evidence to the defense; and maintain the president’s ability to declare anyone an “enemy combatant” and hold them without charges indefinitely. 

This entire process illustrates that halting the torture, secret detentions, and the denial of basic legal rights, will not be stopped through official political channels. We are at a defining moment, where before the world’s eyes the U.S. Congress is poised to legalize torture in our name. If Americans remain silent, the world will see us as complicit in torture. 

End the silence! On October 5th people will walk out of school, take off work, and come to different locations. From there, we will go through the streets and call on many more to join us - making a powerful statement: “No! This regime does not represent us! And we will drive it out.” For more information, see worldcantwait.org. 

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland 

 

• 

SMEAR CAMPAIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It never ends with the Daily Planet and its unrelenting campaign to smear Zionism and promote hatred of Israel. The Sept. 26 commentary by Carl Shames is the latest installment, and it is riddled with disinformation. Forget about God and Covenants—the Jews lived in Israel some 1,700 hundred years before any Arab ever set foot in it. And there have been Jews living in that land continuously for more than 3,000 years. 

Secondly, on what evidence does Shames claim that racism was the reason the Jewish state was established in Palestine rather than being carved out of Germany? Jewish settlement had been going on steadily for 65 years in Palestine by the end of World War II. Jewish settlers had purchased land from indigenous and absentee Arab landowners, drained swampland, and made the land more prosperous than it had been in centuries. As a consequence, many Arabs settled there to take advantage of economic opportunities spurred by the Jews. Also, the Jewish settlement in Palestine saved about 500,000 Jewish lives, who otherwise would have perished in the Holocaust in Europe. 

It was totally impractical to establish a Jewish state in Germany when the Jewish state already had 65 years of development in Palestine. 

Thirdly, I would like to ask Mr. Shames if he thinks he is a racist by virtue of the fact that he lives in California on land that was stolen twice—first from the indigenous Indians and then from the Mexicans. By his reasoning, if he lives in America, he is complicit in the imperialism and genocide that made California part of the United States. The same can be said for almost every country in the world. The indigenous peoples of every European country and most others have been vanquished and conquered. The indigenous Celts in England were first conquered by the Romans, then later the Anglo-Saxons, who in turn were conquered by the Normans. Israel has fought numerous wars of survival against unrelentingly hostile foes determined to exterminate it. And it has triumphed each time. Everyone wishes it could have been another way, but unfortunately those were the choices that were made. That is the way of the world. By their sacrifice in blood in all those wars, Israelis have purchased their legitimate claim to the land twofold, just as America and England and hundreds of other countries (including the Arab ones) have done before it. Stop promoting this twisted, bigoted, and demented hatred of Israel and the Jews. 

Marvin Harrison 

Oakland 

 

• 

SHAMES’ FACTS ARE WRONG 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Just because Shames is Jewish doesn’t mean he represents the majority of the Jewish community or even a facsimile of the truth. Shames’ claim that the founding of Israel was based upon “an alleged covenant with God, and the Holocaust” does not agree with facts. Theodor Herzl, the visionary of Zionism, saw the future state of Israel as a modern, European-style enlightened society. Israel was to be neutral and peace-seeking, and more importantly, secular. No covenant of G-d here. 

Despite being ridicule from Jewish leaders at the time, Herzl convened six Zionist Congresses between 1897 and 1902. It was here that the tools for Zionist activism were forged. Since the Holocaust was still decades in the future, I am not sure how this could have influenced Herzl’s efforts. What did motivate Herzl was his conclusion that anti Semitism was a permanent factor in human society, which assimilation did not solve. He concluded that Jews could gain acceptance in the world only if they created a political (not religious) entity of their own. 

Jonathan Carey 

San Francisco 

 

• 

VIOLATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To those who keep harping on Israel’s right to take position permanently of lands taken in war, please remember that Israel stands in defiance of repeated UN resolutions (beginning with Resolution 242) demanding that it withdraw from the territories it occupied during the 1967 Six Day War. The resolutions are expressions of the Geneva Accords of 1949, which, ironically, to prevent a repetition of Nazi wartime appropriations, forbid annexation of territories gained in war.  

Estelle Jelinek 

 

• 

SHAME ON SHAMES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to thank Carl Shames for exposing the misguided narrative that allows a “left-wing, non-Zionist Jew” to maintain his hatred for the state of Israel regardless of the facts. I have no doubt that this erroneous narrative informs his entire view of the Middle East conflict.  

Because of space limitations, I will address just one of the many half-truths, factual omissions and outright falsehoods this world-view contains. 

Carl alleges that the UN considers Zionism to be racism. Wrong. 

Shames is correct that the UN General Assembly passed resolution 3379 by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions) in 1975. Yet, he fails to mention that the General Assembly rectified that error in 1991 with resolution 4686 revoking the determination that Zionism is racism. Resolution 4686 passed by a vote of 111 to 25 (with 13 abstentions). Whether he agrees with it or not, the revocation of that determination passed with a much larger majority of the nations of the world. 

Regardless of this UN action, some might still claim that Zionism is racism. To test that assertion, let’s look at the UN’s definition of racism from Resolution 3379. 3379 says that “any doctrine of racial differentiation or superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous.” 

The reality is that there is no doctrine of racial differentiation or superiority in Israel. People of any race can and often do become Jewish and Israeli. 

Anyone who has been to Israel knows this is true. People from the Middle East and Africa represent a majority of Israel’s population. And more than 20 percent of Israel’s citizens are not Jews, yet have full rights of citizenship. Israelis come in all colors, from blonde haired, blue-eyed Europeans, to brown skinned Arab Jews (no, that is not an oxymoron) to black Africans. In fact, Israel rescued tens of thousands of black, Ethiopian Jews from persecution and starvation and transported them to Israel. 

This multiculturalism is in sharp contrast to other countries in the region where Christians and Jews are either second class citizens or not allowed to be citizens at all. 

Carl Shames clearly does not let these facts intrude on his blind hatred for Israel. 

Hilda Kessler 

 

• 

A QUESTION FOR CARL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Carl Shames conveniently fails to mention, or perhaps doesn’t know, that in the same era that the state of Israel was created as a homeland for the Jews, the state of Trans-Jordan (now Jordan) was created and given to the minority Hashemites. 

Iraq was created to be ruled by the minority Sunni Moslems. The modern state of Syria was created and then seized by the minority Alawites. Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Gulf States also came into being in the last century. 

None of these nations was created by a vote of its people, yet only Israel’s legitimacy is regularly questioned. 

Why is that, Carl? 

Jerry Weintraub 


Commentary: Deception Underlies Propostion 90

By Randy Shaw
Friday September 29, 2006

As a vocal critic of redevelopment agencies, I was pleased to learn that a petition was circulating that would curtail the use of eminent domain. Unfortunately, when I read the measure (which is now Proposition 90 on the November ballot) I learned that the initiative’s backers sought to capitalize on rising anti-eminent domain sentiment by inserting a sentence jeopardizing the future enactment of most land use laws, including amendments to local rent control ordinances. This sentence—which allows property owners to sue government entities over any new law that reduces their property values—is so destructive that it overwhelms the good part of the initiative. Prop. 90’s specific language limiting eminent domain made this broad sentence unnecessary, raising questions about the motives behind November’s “Protect our Homes” initiative.  

Section 19(b)(8) of Prop. 90 authorizes litigation if government actions cause a substantial economic loss to ANY property. There is an exception for governmental actions to protect public health and safety, but no exception for the public welfare, environmental protection or economic regulation. 

This is crazy. Instead of simply putting forth an initiative to help rid California of eminent domain, backers of Prop. 90 are using anger over the government’s seizure of property to prevent inclusionary zoning, the protection of old growth forests, or land-use restrictions on Wal-Mart and other “big-box” stores. 

Prop. 90 would even prevent Los Angeles and other cities from enacting restrictions on condominium conversions. Thousands of rental housing units have been converted in Los Angeles alone over the past five years, with thousands of tenants being displaced from their homes. A broad, citywide coalition of tenants, labor unions and neighborhood activists has emerged to support legislative restrictions on such conversions. But under Prop. 90, Los Angeles would have to pay real estate speculators for not being able to convert rental housing.  

Since Los Angeles and other cities could not afford to pay such costs, Prop. 90 would effectively ban any new tenant protection measure from being enacted. This is exactly the wrong way to address the abuses of eminent domain. 

Prop. 90 would also effectively bar future changes to the destructive state Ellis Act, which allows real estate speculators to evict elderly tenants so they can convert their apartments to tenancies in common. Again I ask: Why is an initiative designed to deal with eminent domain restricting future tenant protection measures? 

The fact that Prop. 90 goes far beyond restricting eminent domain does not appear to be a drafting error. Rather, it is consistent with the anti-regulatory zealotry of Howard Ahmanson, who, along with wealthy New York real estate developer Howard Rich, are the leading funders of the initiative. 

In Berkeley, height limitations are a big issue. But Prop. 90 takes height restrictions as well as all zoning decisions out of local control, and makes them subject to state law. With California’s population steadily increasing, more and more cities are going to want to enact development restrictions But cities will be unable to do so for fear of having to reimburse all existing property owners for lost profits as required by Prop. 90. 

Nobody needs to convince me of the evils of eminent domain. But Prop. 90 is not the answer. By preventing local governments from passing laws to help working people and the poor, Prop. 90 hurts the very populations it claims to help. 

 

Randy Shaw is the editor of  

BeyondChron.org.  

 

 

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.  

 

 


Commentary: Arnold, Union Organizer

By Russell Kilday-Hicks
Friday September 29, 2006

Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley, in the Sept. 8 edition, bemoans the California prison guard union’s endorsement of Angelides. Well why not? For all his liberal stances (and there are a few significant ones at least, like campaign finance reform and the public financing of elections that cut against the grain of DLC policy) Angelides supports the draconian “eye-for-an-eye” social policy a.k.a. capital punishment (“those with the capital don’t get the punishment”). But there is more going on here that’s worth examining. The relationship between the prison guard union and Angelides is not exactly the one they had with the former Gov. Davis. 

While it’s true the CCPOA selfishly supports building prisons over schools and other ultra-conservative stances, and possibly they feel the Angelides campaign needs them more (and they may get some of what they want under Arnold anyway), Arnold has stated in very uncertain terms, he hates unions. That’s all unions—even the bad ones. As powerful as they may seem (Arnold’s favorite myth of the “union bosses” running California), a right-to-work agenda is a threat to them as well. 

The union movement is not monolithic. There are some very real differences between the AFL/CIO and the rebellious Change To Win, for example. But when Sweeney ordered the AFL-based labor council system to give the CTW unions the boot they balked, especially in California, because that would weaken us before our common enemy. My chapter (305 of SEIU 2579, staff employees at San Francisco State) has a special charter that Sweeney was forced into, allowing us to remain part of the local union movement (unfortunately it expires in December, and maybe it will take the re-election of Arnold for it to be renewed). 

Local musician Hali Hammer’s parody of the “Solidarity Forever/Battle Hymn of the Republic” song refrains: “Arnold union organizer, Arnold union organizer, Arnold union organizer, for he’s made the unions strong.” That union strength, such as it is, helped defeat Arnold’s agenda last November. (Remember that? We all paid the first bill to feed Arnold’s ego, and working folk paid the second bill to put him back in his place.) The prison guard union helped with that as part of the Alliance for a Better California. That was a first. Previous to that the CCPOA was not really part of the greater union movement, playing into the divide-and-conquer strategy often used to great affect against union influence (the myth of union solidarity).  

On the capital steps last year in a huge rally against the governor’s “special election” agenda, the president of the California Teacher’s Association introduced the crowd to her “new best friend,” the president of CCPOA, and announced they were going to tour California schools and prisons together. That was a powerful moment that puts some truth to Hammer’s parody.  

Maybe O’Malley expects too much of the Democratic Party (but please let’s all of us not lower our expectations). Can pure principles trump dollars in California elections, or for that matter, any election? Sometimes, but that’s unfortunately the all too rare exception. In our very undemocratic world of elections, the reality is you need tons of money, especially to run against the likes of Arnold, who criticized Davis for being pay-to-play and promised us he would be different. Well, he’s different all right. Davis just looked like a Boy Scout for the photo opps, but compared to Arnold, Davis was a mere tenderfoot when it comes to corruption from “special interests.” Angelides needs the unions, but union support will not guarantee victory or that he will be “in our pockets.” 

The worst of the union movement is when they are insular and run on a corporate model. The best is when unions fight for the rights of all workers. There is an internal struggle right now to rid American unions of the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover-era “business” model imposed on unions (which history calls McCarthyism, but he was just a patsy). For the CCPOA to change models they need to be part of the larger union movement and support the civil rights of all.  

Right now, the fox is in the henhouse of state. That fox is looking more like a chameleon at the moment, trying his best to blend in with the Democratic majority in the statehouse, but make no bones about it, post election day, if we the people of Cal-e-for-nee-yea return Arnold to his project, the agenda is going to take (once again) such a right-hand turn the state will need medical treatment for whiplash.  

Do us all a big favor: Fire my boss, please! 

 

Berkeley resident Russell Kilday-Hicks is president of Chapter 305 of the California State University Employees Union at San Francisco State University. 

 

 

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.


Commentary: BSEP Replaced School Funds Lost to Prop. 13

By Mary Hurlbert
Friday September 29, 2006

“Please take a minute to fill out a survey!” I was strolling through the hallway of Jefferson School on a May evening in 1986. It was Open House night. My son Andy would start school there in the fall, and we were checking out the kindergarten classrooms, getting a feel for the place. I glanced down to see a card table manned by Jefferson moms. I picked up a survey and read: 

 

Please rank in order what is most important to you for your child’s school: 

• Smaller classes 

• Library books 

• Windows that don’t leak 

• Heated classrooms in the winter 

• A P.E. class 

• Science classes 

• Music at assemblies and in the classroom 

• Art 

• Field trips 

 

The list went on and on. My jaw dropped. All of these things were “most important” to me. I couldn’t rank them. I remembered the scary warnings about the taxpayer revolt of Proposition 13, about how cutting local property taxes would be devastating to our schools, but bringing my oldest child to Jefferson was my first in-your-face experience of what had happened. 

Voters had passed Prop 13 in 1978, property taxes had fallen, and for a few years the state lived on its considerable budget surplus--imagine that! But by 1986 that surplus had long since dried up, and California’s once tip-top public schools (the ones I had proudly graduated from in the ’60s) had fallen on really hard times. Efforts to make budget cuts as far from the classroom as possible had resulted in decrepit school buildings and playgrounds. Educational essentials that we had taken for granted when I was a student, like P.E., art, music, and electives had become “extras” that were barely affordable. Once something was eliminated from a school budget it was “off the radar,” as if it had never existed. 

Into the fray marched Berkeley parents, who didn’t want to send their kids to private school, and weren’t satisfied with the alarming conditions in our public schools. Those were the survey takers I met that evening at Jefferson School. 

The results of hundreds of such surveys, and of dozens of neighborhood and community meetings were gathered and synthesized into a brand-new local tax measure, called the “Berkeley Public Schools Educational Enrichment Act of 1986,” or BSEP for short. Squeezed into a tiny hole in Prop. 13, BSEP called for a Berkeley property tax based on the square footage of buildings instead of the property’s assessed value. As a property tax, BSEP required a two-thirds vote to pass. Berkeley voters rose to the occasion, passing the measure in November 1986 with a 76 percent yes vote.  

Passage of the BSEP tax measure in 1986 began a sea change in our public schools. With dollars specifically targeted to address the most pressing needs (to keep classes as small as possible and to provide high school electives, to provide new books and materials, to repair buildings and grounds, and to enable each school to have its own enriching programs), change was immediate. In the first year of BSEP: 

• So many windows were replaced that four glass companies had to be hired to do the work—it was too much for a single company. 

• Thousands of beautiful new library books were put into our school libraries, while embarrassingly obsolete books, like the one that said “Some day man will walk on the moon” were discarded. 

• Individual schools were able to offer a wide variety of enriching programs, ranging from Science and P.E. classes to hands-on Art and Music to field trips and guest performers. 

• Class sizes were kept as small as possible, while teachers received much-needed raises. 

• A district-wide Planning and Oversight Committee, made up of parents from each school, was established to ensure that the funds were spent in compliance with the measure. 

In subsequent years the momentum begun with BSEP did not let up. Berkeley voters passed two school bonds to completely renovate and earthquake-strengthen our schools. The original 1986 BSEP measure had a duration of eight years. In 1994 the measure was reconfigured slightly to address changing conditions (instrumental music was added, the “E” in BSEP was changed from “Enrichment” to “Excellence,” and the measure’s duration was increased to twelve years) and was approved by the voters with a resounding 82 percent vote. And in 1998 an amazing 92 percent of Berkeley voters reaffirmed their support for BSEP! 

Most recently, in 2004, after years of increased fixed costs (especially health coverage and salaries) a two-year measure “bridge measure” (Measure B), was passed, to enable the dollars generated by BSEP to accomplish what they were intended to. School libraries and classroom technology were strengthened, and funds were designated for professional development and program evaluation. The combined BSEP and Measure B taxes now generate $18-plus million dollars, nearly 20 percent of the district’s annual budget. The “E” in BSEP could really now stand for “Essential.” Without BSEP, life as our schoolchildren know it would not be the same! 

Twenty years later it is hard to remember just how shaky things were after Prop. 13. BSEP was the life preserver that allowed Berkeley schools to move forward and thrive. My son Andy, now 25 years old, and his entire generation of Berkeley schoolchildren, were the beneficiaries of those die-hard parents who said “this is not acceptable,” and dared to ask for decent schools for their children. We owe them a debt of gratitude. 

BSEP and Measure B both expire at the end of the 2006-07 school year. A new BSEP Measure (Measure A), combining the priorities of BSEP and Measure B, will be on the ballot this November, and we Berkeley voters will once again be given the opportunity to protect our public schools and to continue the tremendous momentum that began in 1986. Today’s incoming Kindergarteners are counting on us. 

 

Mary Hurlbert is a Berkeley 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.


Columns

Fritillaries, Passionvines and Chemical Warfare

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 03, 2006

One person’s ornamental is another’s weed. Like many other exotic plants, passionvine grows weedlike all over the Hawai’ian islands. It’s so much a part of the landscape that it has acquired a local name: lilikoi. Its fruit flavors the local specialty shave ice, and Queen Liliuokalani was so fond of it that she had a special set of dinnerware with a passionfruit motif. 

The butterfly whose caterpillars feed on the leaves of the passionvine is a big showy job, flame-orange with silvery spots like a spatter of mercury on the underside of its hindwing. On the mainland it’s called the Gulf fritillary, although it’s actually a longwing rather than a true fritillary. Someone has proposed renaming it the silver-spotted flambeau: to Hawaiians, sensibly enough, it’s the passionvine butterfly. 

By whatever name, it’s one of the few North American members of a mostly tropical group. Common in the Southeast (hence the Gulf part), its range is limited by that of its host plants. One form of passionvine gets as far north as Arkansas, where we called it maypop and made jam from it, and there are a bunch of wild species in Florida. The butterflies can’t tolerate cold winters, and those at the northern end of the range stage mass southward migrations. 

California has no native passionvines, though, and the Gulf fritillary didn’t establish itself here until they had been planted as ornamentals. It’s not clear when the butterflies first turned up; one lepidopterist speculated they followed the Southern Pacific tracks, but they might have wandered up from Mexico. After colonizing Southern California, they followed their food plant north to San Francisco. 

The larvae are picky about their food. When the adult butterflies emerge in spring, there’s a brief courtship in which the male fans his wings to give his mate a heady dose of pheromones. Then she lays her barrel-shaped eggs—on stalks, so ants and other small predators can’t get at them—on a passionvine leaf. The caterpillars hatch out and begin to munch. 

Flowering plants have a many-sided relationship with animals. A passionvine needs to have its flowers pollinated, its seeds distributed, and its leaves left the hell alone. So it’s evolved colorful fragrant blossoms to attract pollinating insects, and tasty fruit enclosing seeds that will hopefully be deposited somewhere away from the parent vine. And several lines of leaf defense have been developed. 

One tropical passionvine has hook-shaped hairs that puncture the soft bodies of caterpillars. Some resort to trickery: their leaves have projections that look like fine places to lay an egg but that are jettisoned by the plant once an egg is deposited. Still others have nectar glands that attract ants, which eat the longwing eggs or larvae, or faux eggs that make the leaf appear to have been preempted. 

The most common defense, though, is chemical. Passionvine leaves contain substances called cyanogenic glycosides, precursors of cyanide. This is enough to deter most leaf-eaters, but the evolutionary arms race hasn’t gone far enough to make the leaves unpalatable to the larvae of longwing butterflies. 

The butterflies get an advantage from their toxic diet. Experiments show that birds find Gulf fritillaries and other longwings distasteful. And it’s in the butterfly’s interest to advertise this. Gulf fritillaries may have evolved their vivid colors for the same reason that deer hunters wear Blaze Orange vests: to maximize their visibility. 

That would only work for predators with color vision, of course, which happens to include birds. The idea is that an inexperienced bird will take a bite of fritillary, go “Feh!”, and avoid big orange butterflies from then on. The learning process takes its toll of a few individuals, but the species benefits. 

Gulf fritillary caterpillars are also fairly gaudy, at least in their later stages: orange with menacing-looking black spines. The chrysalis, in contrast, is a cryptic object that looks like a curled-up dead leaf. 

Other butterflies publicize their bad taste in similar ways: the monarch, whose caterpillar stores up milkweed toxins, white butterflies that feed on mustard, the pipevine swallowtail whose larval diet is, guess what? And there’s an advantage to being orange, or whatever warning coloration: a bird that had tried to eat a fritillary might also pass up monarchs, and vice versa. 

This is where mimicry comes in: palatable butterflies which have evolved a protective resemblance to the distasteful ones. In the tropics this gets really complex, as most things do: there’s a whole raft of passionvine-feeding longwing species whose colors and patterns have converged to better spread the message, and free riders pretending to be poisonous. 

Warning coloration is not just a butterfly thing: it occurs in amphibians, sea creatures, and at least one bird, the hooded pitohui of New Guinea. It’s a nice bonus that the colors that function as keep-away signals to predators are also pleasing to humans. If you have room and a sunny exposure, you might consider planting your own passionvine to attract Gulf fritlliaries. Just remember not to eat the leaves. 

 

 


Column: Undercurrents:A Few Clues in the Oakland School Sell-Off Mystery

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday September 29, 2006

One of the things you learn in the business of journalism is that in trying to uncover the real meaning and purpose of a particular public policy, you rarely come across a smoking gun. 

The “smoking gun” analogy, for those who don’t know, describes coming into a room so soon after a murder took place that smoke is still coming from the gun held in the murderer’s hands. Next to actually being in the room and seeing the shooting yourself, that’s about as conclusive eye-witness evidence as it gets. 

Few things in politics and public policy are so conclusive. Politicians are so gifted at hiding their actions and motives these days that mostly we are only barely able to see them dimly, as through a glass, darkly, as the Apostle Paul once said. 

Every so often you get a breakthrough in understanding, so that even if you are not able to reach a conclusion and a complete understanding, you are able to narrow your field of questions. So it was this week when I finally got a chance to see a video of the May 21, 2003 meeting of the California Assembly Appropriations Committee and its deliberations on SB39, the legislation that led to the state takeover of the Oakland Unified School District. 

The May 21 Appropriations Committee meeting is important to understanding the proposed sale of 8.25 acres of prime, Lake Merritt area Oakland Unified School District property currently being negotiated between California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and the east coast development team of TerraMark/UrbanAmerica. As I wrote in an August 11, 2006 Berkeley Daily Planet article entitled “The Curious History of the OUSD Land Sale As Told in the Legislative Record,” the provision allowing the sale or lease of OUSD property was mysteriously taken in and out of State Senator Don Perata’s bill while it passed through the legislature. But it was in the Assembly Appropriations Committee that the provision was significantly changed, with someone taking out the language that would have allowed a lease of any property to help pay off the state debt, as well as taking out that language that the property must be declared surplus before it could be sold. In addition, the Appropriations Committee took out language that would have authorized the sale “only [for] surplus property that is currently used to house administrative services or used as warehouse space.” 

The surplus language may have been taken out to avoid conflict with Section 17387 of the Education Code, which requires community involvement in the sale, lease, or rental of excess school property, including the setting up of a community advisory committee. 

And unless you believe in accident or inadvertence, the lease provisions were almost certainly taken out so that the Oakland school district (or, actually the state superintendent, who is legally in charge of the Oakland school district) would only have the option to sell—rather than merely lease—any OUSD property in order to bring down the debt. It also hardly seems accidental that someone took out the provision that limited the property sale to administrative or warehouse property. 

The question has always been, who took the lease and surplus property provisions out of SB39 and expanded the scope of the property that could be sold when the bill went to the Assembly Appropriations Committee back in 2003? Asking questions of that individual would be helpful in determining how much the idea of the sale of the Lake Merritt properties was a factor in the Oakland school takeover. 

The tape of the May 21, 2003 Appropriations Committee does not reveal who actually put those amendments into Senator Perata’s bill. Sacramento Assemblymember Darrell Steinberg, then Appropriations Committee chair, only said that the bill contained “two minor technical corrections.” These were hardly minor, but it is unclear whether Steinberg knew it at the time, or whether he was simply taking someone else’s word for it. Meanwhile, an Appropriations Committee Clerk said this week that the legislative analyst who worked on SB39 is no longer employed by the committee, and there is no record as to who actually took the lease and surplus language out, as well as the language limiting the sale to administrative and warehouse properties. “It could have been the legislative consultant, or it could have been Mr. Perata himself,” the clerk said. 

The administrative and warehouse property limitation language deletion is important, considering the fact that if that language had remained in the bill, State Superintendent O’Connell would not be able to sell the property containing five OUSD schools as is currently happening. 

Meanwhile, the review of the tape of the May 21, 2003 Appropriations Committee hearing was not altogether unproductive, because it revealed an interesting comment by State Senator Perata concerning the sale provisions. 

“We have included a provision that would allow the Oakland school district to sell specific pieces of non-classroom property for the purposes of buying down or paying down the debt,” Mr. Perata told committee members.  

Mr. Perata said this, even though the form of the bill that was then being considered by the committee had been stripped—by someone—of the provision that would have prevented the sale of classrooms. 

One is led to one of two conclusions. Either Mr. Perata deliberately misled appropriations committee members in his statement, or he was unaware of things which were being put into and taken out of his own bill. Here, as we said earlier, there is no smoking gun. Only a narrowing of the scope of the questions. 

What is clear is that at least some appropriations committee members believed that the bill would limit any possible sale to non-classroom OUSD properties. Committee member Jackie Goldberg, who also served as chair of the Assembly Education Committee, mentioned that belief moments before committee members voted on the bill, and no-one contradicted her. 

But what Mr. Perata said immediately following his “non-classroom” assertion is equally probative, as they say in the courtrooms. 

“Basically,” he added, “there could be the ability of the district to pick up a third of that hundred million dollars [the amount of the state line of credit included in the bill] in that fashion. And that, frankly, is the only way we’re going to save this district from further troubles with educating the kids.” 

Now how, exactly, was Mr. Perata able to put an approximate dollar figure on the possible proceeds of a sale of OUSD property pursuant to his SB39 state takeover bill? SB39, after all, never identified any particular piece of property, it only mentions “property.” Recently, OUSD Board President David Kakishiba has said that the district has several pieces of surplus property around the city, mostly warehouse space, which could be considered for sale to help pay down the debt. 

Did Mr. Perata have some particular piece of property to be sold in mind during the time the state takeover bill was going through the state legislature in 2003? Was that piece of property the OUSD administration building, the suddenly-valuable parcel that sits on what will soon be the extension of Lake Merritt? 

I can’t answer that. But if anyone else can, I’m welcome to hear from you. Perhaps Mr. Perata’s office can explain. 

Finally, there was one other bit of interesting information taken from the review of the May 21, 2003 Assembly Appropriations Committee hearing. 

During the discussion, Assemblymember Goldberg remarked that while she was supporting the SB39 bailout of OUSD, she was concerned about the provisions that stripped all power from the district school board. She said that AB1200, the state law under which school district takeovers are authorized in California, was “flawed,” in that it did not make a difference between districts which were clearly guilty of mismanagement (such as having board members use district credit cards for unnecessary trips, Ms. Golberg explained), or, as was the case with Oakland, a district that was simply unable to meet its budget. In the latter case, Ms. Golberg suggested, while the school board ought not to lose all of its powers, AB1200 gave the legislature no choice but to remove them. Ms. Golberg said that she and other legislative leaders were looking into changes to AB1200 to allow the state to make such differences between outright malfeasance and mere economic difficulties. 

“If the change is ever made in that policy,” Appropriations Chair Steinberg said, “we can always revisit the question of Oakland.” 

It would seem that both a change and a revisiting are long overdue. 


Playing The Updating Game: Part Two

By Jane Powell
Friday September 29, 2006

If there is a phrase found in a real estate listing that fills me with even more horror than “updated kitchen,” it has to be “new dual-pane windows.” Dual-pane windows are probably one of the biggest scams ever foisted off on an unsuspecting American public. The lies and half-truths promulgated by window replacement companies should be right up there with other famous lies like “The dog ate my homework” and “Only one glass of wine with dinner, officer…” 

Most houses built before the 1960s, with a few exceptions, had wooden windows, built with close-grained old-growth wood. Wooden windows, if maintained, can last hundreds of years. Many buildings on the East Coast that date to the 17th or 18th centuries still have their original windows, and in Europe, buildings older than that retain their historic sash windows. 

Wood windows are the most vulnerable of historic building elements—millions are being dumped in landfills every year. And that is an absolute travesty. The multi-billion dollar window replacement industry would like you to believe that single-glazed wooden windows are drafty, not energy efficient, don’t work well, and require constant maintenance. Almost every week the newspaper is filled with ads for replacement windows, with headlines like, “Are your windows costing you money?” or, “Whole house window replacement—only $2995!”  

PG&E will give you a rebate for ripping out your original windows to put in dual-pane replacements. Often the local building code demands insulating windows in new construction or remodeling. Go back and consider the phrase “multi-billion dollar”—with that much money at stake, do you think these companies have your best interests at heart? They Are Lying, and when they aren’t lying outright, they are conveniently failing to mention numerous pertinent facts. Here’s a list from one internet replacement window site about when or why you should consider window replacement: 

“Don’t bother to fix a window that has cracked glass, rotted or otherwise damaged wood, locks that don’t work, missing putty, or poorly fitting sashes. 

“ Homeowners with windows over twenty five years old should consider replacing them … A home is an ideal candidate for a window replacement if its windows are sealed or painted shut or the sash cords are broken…” 

Okay, I’m gasping with disbelief here, but let’s take these one at a time: 

1. Cracked glass. On a single glazed window, cracked glass can be replaced using items readily available at the local hardware store, costing maybe $25, tops, if you do it yourself. If you pay a glazier, maybe $100—still cheaper than a new window. If the glass in a double glazed sash cracks, you have to buy a whole new glazing unit (assuming the company is still in business) which will cost $100 or more, and then pay a glazier to install it, because it’s not a do-it-yourself thing. 

2. Rotted wood. This most likely place for this is the joints of the bottom sash. If not far gone it can be dug out and the hole filled with wood putty or even Bondo. If farther gone, it can be repaired with epoxy consolidants. This is also true of rot in the frame. If it’s so far gone that the bottom rail falls off when you raise the window, there are several companies in town that can make you a new custom sash- average cost, maybe $150, depending on size. (Look in the Yellow Pages under “Windows, Wooden” for companies.) 

3. Locks that don’t work. Are these people kidding? Buy a new lock at the hardware store. Cost? About $3. 

4. Missing putty. A quart can of Dap 33 window glazing: about $6.50. 

5. Poorly fitting sash. Many reasons for this, but if it’s not structural, then weatherstripping works wonders. 

6. Windows sealed or painted shut, or broken sash cords. Easily fixed with a few simple tools and some labor, or if you don’t want to do it yourself, Wooden Window (893-1157, www.woodenwindow.com) will be happy to do it for you. If you want to do it yourself, I highly recommend the book Working Windows by Terence Meany ($14.95 at your local bookstore). 

Those who’ve been around since the Sixties may remember the bumper sticker “Eschew Obfuscation.” When window replacement companies aren’t lying outright, you better believe they are obfuscating.  

 

Obfuscation #1. Replacement windows will significantly reduce heating /cooling costs. 

Okay, this is math, so take notes… there will be a quiz! 

Only 20 percent of the heating loss (or cooling gain) in a building is through the windows. The other 80% is lost through roofs, walls, floors, and chimneys, with most of it going out the roof. And most of the cold air is sucked in through the floor from the basement or crawl space. Reducing the heat loss through the windows by 50 percent (double-glazing) will only result in a 10 percent reduction in the overall heat loss. So let’s say you pop for the $2995 window special.  

That’s only ten windows—the smallest bungalow I ever owned had 20 windows. Misleading the public about actual costs is one of the sleazy tactics employed. So you’re really going to have to spend more like $5,990 for twenty windows. (or about $32,000 for aluminum-clad wood.) Let’s also say that your utility bill averages $200 a month. A 10 percent reduction on the heating bill amounts to $20 a month or $240 a year. At that rate it would take about 25 years to recoup the $5990 investment (Payback on the more expensive windows would take 133 years.) 

But wait, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, 40 percent of the average household energy bill goes to heating and cooling. So at $200 per month, only $80 goes to heating and cooling. Saving 10 percent on that would only be $8 a month, putting the payback time at 62 years for the vinyl or 333 years for the aluminum-clad. For the same amount of money (or less!) that replacement windows would cost, you could insulate the attic and the walls and install a damper on the chimney and get an 80% reduction in heat loss.  

Or you could spend that money on storm windows. A recent study conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory using actual wooden windows (removed from a house that was being demolished) showed that the addition of storm windows reduced air leakage by a considerable amount. They used a double-hung window with loose sashes, no weatherstripping, gaps between the sashes and frame, missing caulk, cracked glass, and dry rot in the frame. The second window was a dual-pane double hung window with loose sashes and no weatherstripping. For storm windows, they used non-thermally broken aluminum storms with operable sashes and no weatherstripping. 

Interestingly enough, the addition of storm windows to both windows reduced the energy flow of the single glazed window substantially more than the dual-pane window. Using a measurement which took into account both air infiltration and conduction through the glass, without storm windows, and with a wind speed of 7 m.p.h., the single glazed window lost about 565 BTU’s per hour, while the dual-glazed window lost 644. With the storms added, the single-glazed window lost 131 BTU’s per hour, while the dual-pane window lost 256.  

Then they removed the storm and weatherized the first window, which involved squaring up the frame so the sashes fit more tightly, replacing rot in the frame, re-glazing the panes, caulking cracks in the frame, installing a sweep at the bottom of the lower sash, and installing a new window lock to improve closure- then ran the tests again. At 7 m.p.h., heat loss for the weatherized single glazed window was 256 BTU’s, compared with 131 for the unweatherized window with a storm. By comparison, the dual-pane window WITH A STORM also had a heat loss of 256. They didn’t compare weatherstripping PLUS a storm window, but clearly, a storm window gives you more bang for the buck (about a 75% reduction in heat transmission) and weatherizing alone gives the same reduction as a double-glazed window.  

 

Obfuscation # 2. Maintenance-free exterior- no painting or staining required.  

No painting or staining POSSIBLE, in the case of vinyl. What if you get tired of the color? And you know how funky that cheap resin outdoor furniture looks after a couple of years? That’s what the vinyl or vinyl-clad window will look like. And you know how plastic has static electricity that attracts dirt? As for aluminum, even an anodized coating doesn’t last that long, at which point you have to paint it. If it’s not anodized, then it corrodes and turns white. And what if you get tired of the color? 

 

Obfuscation # 3. Extremely durable and long-lasting.  

I guess that depends on your idea of what constitutes long-lasting. A vinyl window has a life expectancy of approximately 20 years, aluminum about 10 to 20 years, a new wood window from 20 to 50 years. An original wood window that is consistently maintained and kept painted can last as long as 200 years, if not more. Part of the reason that an old wood window lasts longer than a new one is that old windows are made of old-growth timber, which grew very slowly and is extremely close-grained and dense, whereas new wood windows are made from second-growth wood, much of it from fast-growing trees harvested from tree farms, where the growth rings are much further apart. The softer sapwood resulting from fast growth is far less durable. 

But here’s the thing they’re really hiding: the average lifespan of a double-glazing unit is TEN YEARS OR LESS. The seal around the glazing can fail within ten years, causing the glass panes to fog. And the plastic and neoprene seals used to hold the panes in new windows degrade in ultraviolet light. Imagine trying to find a replacement gasket after the window company has gone out of business. 

 

Obfuscation # 4. Insulates against noise. 

Sure, till you open it. Actually, a single-glazed window has an STC (Sound Transmission Class) rating between 20 and 27, depending on how thick the glass is and how airtight the window is. In a dual-pane window, the STC rating is governed somewhat by the distance between the two panes- the larger the distance, the better the rating. (This suggests a storm window might be better than double-glazing, being further away.) 

For each doubling of the airspace between the panes, the STC increases by about 3. If the panes are close together, the rating may actually be lower than for a single pane, because the airspace acts like a spring and transfers vibration from one pane to the other. Triple glazing provides the same noise reduction as double glazing, unless the spacing between panes is quite large. On average, dual-pane windows have an STC rating of 28-35. A single layer of _” laminated glass (which has a layer of plastic in the middle) has an STC rating of 33, which suggests that it might be better to replace the glass in a single-glazed window with laminated glass if noise is an issue, instead of wasting the money on new windows. 

In addition to all the reasons above, the fact is that double-pane windows just do not look the same as single-pane windows. The necessary spacer between the panes is hard to disguise, so even if you pay extra for “true divided lights,” the spacer makes the muntins too thick (muntins are the pieces of wood that divide the panes of a multi-light window). 

Nor will the new windows have the wavy antique glass that gives old windows their charm. So save yourself some money, save the architectural character of your house, and don’t send your perfectly good windows to the landfill. Whenever I see a real estate ad that says “new dual-pane windows” I always think, “ Yeah, architectural integrity destroyed”- wouldn’t you rather the ad for your house read “original charm maintained?” 

 

Jane Powell is the author of six books, including Bungalow Details: Interior, all available at www.bungalowkitchens.com. She can be reached at hsedressng@aol.com. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


About the House: A Partial Upgrade for Reluctant Showers

By Matt Cantor
Friday September 29, 2006

This is one of those subjects that is both important and a real snoozer. If you’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, stop now, rip this page out and take it to bed with you. Guaranteed snoring in 10 minutes or less. 

Many of our 80-something houses have lousy water pressure. Not all but many and if you’re one of the unlucky ones, I’m sure you’re sick of not being able to take a decent shower. 

That’s really it, isn’t it. The shower. Most people can live with the sinks having sluggish flow but almost everyone really likes a nice skin-scouring shower. A real follicle ripper. If the shower pressure has you trying every shower head from the Water-pik shower massage to those little military style ones and everything in between, you’re the person who needs to read on.  

Although complete plumbing replacement is easy to recommend and certainly appropriate for some houses, I’d like to talk about partial upgrades and what they can, and cannot, do because they can save money and, if done properly, make a huge difference. In fact, they might be a good enough fix for your flow problems that you’ll abandon, perhaps for many years to come, any plan for a complete upgrade. 

Now, before I launch, full steam into a description of how to go about this, let me say that I would always use certain situations to remove all older steel piping. If you have recently bought a house with a weak shower or have serious flow issues, you want to ask yourself how much other work you’re planning on doing in the near future. If you are planning on a kitchen and bath remodel or other work that might expose the piping, do as much of this work as you can at the time. 

If you have an older home with galvanized steel piping (looks sort of like pewter and has threaded fittings at the joints) and you’re planning on remodeling the bath, kitchen or other plumbed area, please, take the galvy out and put in copper. Even if things seem like they’re working alright, do it. You won’t want to be getting into these areas again … ever. And the replacement of piping when the wall is open is really quite easy and not particularly expensive. If you’re gutting the interior of a house, always replace the old steel pipe with copper. 

Over time, galvanized steel reacts with the contents of the water and becomes encrusted internally with minerals. It’s like arteriosclerosis. Eventually, you can cut out a foot long section of pipe and be unable to see from one end to the other. 

The cave-like interior can be so small that the meandering of the remaining vessel keeps light from passing from one end to the other. This encrustation also creates friction and slows the flow of water greatly. In some of these situations the pressure remains quite high but the physical state of the piping prevents more than a trickle from flowing from one end to the other. 

Another thing is happening simultaneously. In addition to the infilling mineralization, the old pipe is rusting through at the narrowed threaded fittings and leaks can commence. This happens more on hot pipes than cold but eventually, it happens to most piping. Nonetheless, the filling in is the big problem. If you’re lucky enough to have a house with 3/4” galvy, it might be just fine. There’s a lot more room in those pipes for mineral encrustment to accumulate than in the typical 1/2” piping of the first 40 years of the 20th century. 

Practices varied but typically, I’ll see 3/4” steel coming in around 1940 and those houses are far more likely to have good flow today. It’s the houses from the 00’s and 20’s that seem to be the worst, so let’s look at what can be done. 

My experience is that the most heavily encrusted portions of these pipes tend to be the lateral pipes. The ones that are lying down. Also, in one-story houses (even those with a high basement or garage below the house) the piping, or most of the piping is lateral and there are relatively short “risers” that climb up to the shut-off valves leading to the sinks, toilets, showers and tubs. These risers are certainly implicated in some cases of occlusion but I find this far less often than those cases in which replacement of the laterals solves much of the problem. So, this means that we have a strategy for a partial replacement. 

If you can gain access to the lateral pipes in the basement, crawl space or garage (remember to replace the firewall in the garage if you remove any of the plaster or gypsum board), you can replace them with copper lines. As a rule, it’s best to go with 3/4” piping, although 1/2” lines will work well for single branches, those leading to just one device, such as a toilet. 

If you’ve got a line that’s going to a whole bath or kitchen it’s best to stick with a 3/4” line. Remember, you’re also trying to fight an uphill battle against what’s left in the risers, so don’t skimp. The cost of the larger pipe is quite small. As usual, labor is the primary expense. By the way, learning to “sweat” (or solder) copper pipe isn’t impossible and I’ve seen more than a few homeowner jobs that looked quite good. 

If you replace the line between the main shutoff and the array of risers, you’ll still be coping with whatever’s left in the main run to the curb. This might leave you short of satisfaction, but the main run can be done later if you’re still not getting a decent shower so leave it for last. 

When you put in copper you’ll need to observe a special protocol in which you keep the copper and galvanized metals apart. You see, copper and galvanized piping joined together and filled with water make a battery and the sacrificial anode (no I don’t have a cold) is the galvanized steel piping. This means that the steel is being slowly torn apart, atom by atom due to the direct contact with the nobler metal, copper (snotty metal, copper). Therefore you will need to keep them apart by use of some type of di-electric device. 

The method I like the best by far is to use a nice big brass nipple. Brass prevents the ionic exchange and minimizes damage to the steel. It also maintains the grounding that your electrical system needs. We use our water piping system for the grounding of our electrical system and if you use that “other” dialectic device which employs a plastic sleeve for separation of the metals, you decrease the ground by a large measure (the water will carry some but not enough). 

The last thing to do is to make sure to strap the new piping thoroughly to minimize noise and wear on the system. 

If you do this right, you can gain flow without tearing up the bath, the kitchen or just about any part of the house. There’s also no real downside since copper can solder or “sweat” onto more copper almost anywhere with relative ease, so if you decide that you need to replace more piping, you’ll just finish the job you started without having wasted any effort. There is a certain amount of trial and effort involved in this method but it is often quite successful. 

Lastly, when you finally get around to the long delayed bath remodel, you’ll just remove the brass fitting below the floor along with the steel piping and connect right onto the copper lines.  

So, if you’re still awake, I apologize. I occasionally have trouble falling asleep myself. Maybe a nice shower will do the trick. 

 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com. 


Garden Variety: A Transitional Season: Late September in the Garden

By Ron Sullivan
Friday September 29, 2006

This is a season that confounds naming, a season that also confounds immigrants, especially gardeners from eastern North America, who can be heard to complain, “There are no real seasons here.” Some of us figured out right quick that there are indeed seasons in coastal Northern California. After 33 years here I still haven’t come up with adequate names or even a satisfactory number for them, though.  

Is it Fire Season? Yes, certainly. Since 1991 I’ve shuddered at the scent of smoke at midday, in spite of my love of barbecue. Don’t we all hang over the wildfire news and calculate how close the fires come to the places we love? Some years I don’t even notice the suspense I’ve been until it dissipates under the first real rains.  

And it’s Stink Season: storm sewers, especially in San Francisco, exhale an unwholesome sulfurous miasma when it’s been months since the last rain, and when the wind’s right we’re treated to a twice-daily blast from the late-summer algae bloom and die-off in the Bay, served up for our delectation at low tide. We get a special helping of it when the weather’s September-hot and so we have all the windows open, too. 

It’s Dust Season, and every stroll along a park trail or even the garden path stirs up those particulate drifts 

In the garden we get to choose between dust and mud, but the occupants of wilder spaces just have to bear it and choke until October or November.  

There’s the genius of the season. No matter how much we know the rains and gray weather will bring us down, we long for it all anyway. It’s a natural transition season in the wilds and in the garden.  

It’s time to hang up most of the tomatoes, leaving a few just to see if they’ll be ripe for Thanksgiving. Time to compost the greens that bolted, and to sit on our hands for a couple of weeks and not plant seedlings that will probably also bolt in the September heat spell. (Still a good time to start seeds in flats, if you’re a procrastinator like me.) 

Watering everything is getting boring. If you want to plant natives, it’s about time. You’ll have to water them for a summer or two, depending on their preferences and the weather, but after that you can trust them to their own climate. If you already have natives, resist watering at least until the soil temperature’s gone down. Lots of pathogens thrive in warm/wet soil conditions, and you don’t want to encourage them.  

This is the season when zone planting—water-loving plants in one area, usually closest to the house, and droughty plants farther out—shows its usefulness. Planting things that need irrigation—non-natives and the more thirsty natives, those that live along streams in the wild, for example—all in one zone makes watering easier as well as keeping the plants that prefer dry summers safe from rot.  

The best place for the wet zone is near the house or a hose bib, even if you set up an automatic system. Another consideration: in this dusty dry season, the irrigated zone is where you’ll want to rest among cool green leaves, so put some seating and open a bit of view there. 

 

 

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.


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday September 29, 2006

Do You Know Your Elderly Neighbors? 

 

Developing an emergency after-quake plan with your neighbors is a great idea, and we’ll talk about it in a later QuakeTip. With our elderly neighbors, we especially want to know who: 

1. is mobility impaired 

2. cannot operate their gas shut-off if necessary 

3. has an emergency supply kit 

4. has relatives/friends they can go to if necessary  

After the coming serious quake, we will feel so much better if we have this information before hand, plus we may be able to help someone who will truly be helpless without us. 

 

 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299 or see www.quakeprepare.com to receive semi-monthly e-mails and safety reports.  


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday October 03, 2006

TUESDAY, OCT. 3 

CHILDREN 

Gretchen Woelfle reads from “Animal Families, Animal Friends” at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tania Katan will read from her memoir, “My One-night Stand with Cancer” at 7 p.m. at Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Avenue at 58th St., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. 

Mary Gordon reads from “The Stories of Mary Gordon” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. 

“Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets” an anthology by Linda Zeiser at 7:30 p.m. at Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $5. 276-0379.  

Agi Mishol, Israeli poet, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Joe Gores introduces his latest political thriller, “Glass Tiger” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

RebbeSoul, world beat, Jewish roots music at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. 841-JAZZ.  

Jimmy Bosch at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 4 

THEATER 

“The Secret Circus” Wed. and Thurs. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, through Oct. 19. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. 800-838-3006 www.themarsh.org  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wild About Birds” paintings by Rita Sklar opens at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

FILM 

Pirates and Piracy “A High Wind in Jamaica” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ellen Ekstrom reads from her new novel, “The Legacy” at The Friends of the Albany Library Annual Meeting at 7:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 

Paola Gianturco, photographer, on “Viva Colores! A Salute to the Indomitable People of Guatemala” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Daniel Goleman explores “Social Intellegence: The New Science of Human Relationships” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Terracotta Warriors, Chinese dance, music, martial arts and acrobatics at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre of the Arts, 2025 Broadway, Oakland, through Oct. 8. Tickets are $45-$95, discount for children. 625-8497. 

Wednesday Noon Concert: Classical Percussion 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 

Creepy, Sugar Eater, Stonecutter at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100.  

K23 Orchestra, CD release party at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054.  

Rumba Cafe at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Dave Stein Bubhub at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Bruce Molsky at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Maraca and The New Collective at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 5 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Colors” A group show by East Bay Women Artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Royal Ground Gallery, 2058 Mountain Blvd., Montclair, Oakland. Exhibition runs to Jan. 7. 451-2661. 

“Never Again” Photographs of the physical and human consequences of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki opens at 5 p.m. at the Bade Museum of the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. Open Tues. and Thurs. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Exhibition runs to Oct. 16.  

FILM 

Discovering Syrian Cinema “Shadows and Light” at 5:30 p.m. and “Today and Everyday” at at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Les Murray at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library, in the Doe Library, UC Campus. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Susan Snyder talks about and shows slides on “Past Tents: The Way We Camped” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Camille T. Dungy, poet, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Bruce Wagner and James Ellroy read at at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

George Rabasa reads from his novel “The Cleansing” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Richmond Arts and Culture Commission Youth Performance in celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month. Spoken word, dance, and song presented by youth from East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Masquers Playhouse, Familias Unidas at 5:30 p.m. at the Richmond Convention Center, 403 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6952.  

“King Arthur” by Henry Purcell, directed by Mark Morris at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus, through Oct. 7. Tickets are $42-$110. 642-9988.  

Ancient Vision 3, with Wadi Gad, Malika Madremana, Arkangel, We A Dem Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Noah Grant at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Daniel Ho, Keoki Kahumoku and Herb Ohta, Jr. at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Boneless Children Foundation, Midline Errors, The Young Has Beens at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

The Swamees, Hollywood 

dopesick, Hobo Jungle, southern and folk rock, at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. 

FRIDAY, OCT. 6 

THEATER 

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 

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 

Masquer’s Playhouse “A Walk in the Woods” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $10. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

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 

UC Dept. of Theater “Suburban Motel” six plays by George Walker at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $8-$14. For schedule see http://theater.berkeley.edu 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Whitework Embroidery” Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. Runs through Feb. 5. Hours are Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. Free. lacismuseum.org 

“The Secrets of Ousiders” Mixed media paintings by Diego Rios, oil paintings by Bernadette Vergara Sale and acrylic paintings by Liz Amini-Holmes. Reception at 5 p.m. at the Estaban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St. at Telegraph, Oakland. Runs through Nov. 1. 444-7411. www.estebansabar.com 

“Quilombo” Youth Graffiti Exhibition opens at Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, at 7 p.m. Includes music, breaking cyphers and Capoeira rodas. www.weekendwakeup.com 

New Work by Travis Browne, Jerry Chang, Nat Chua, Michael Eli, Jose Guinto, and Ajene Zapp Moss. Reception at 7 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 295-8881. 

FILM 

Berkeley Film and Video Festival at the Oaks Theater, 1875 Solano Ave., through Oct. 8. Three day pass is $20-$25. http://berkeleyvideofilmfest.org  

Discovering Syrian Cinema “The Dream” at 7 p.m. and “The Night” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

James Fallows describes “Blind into Baghdad: America’s War in Iraq” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Robert Olen Butler reads from “Severance” fictional monologues, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Aya de Leon and “Generation Five” spoken word at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Falso Baiano Trio, Brazilian jazz choral group, at 8 p.m., at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $15. 845-1350. www.hillsideclub.org  

Linda Rose Stonestreet, Tricia Godwin, and Irina Rivkin at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music, 1839 Rose St. Donation $5-$20 sliding scale. To RSVP call 594-4000 ext. 687. www.rosestreetmusic.com 

Free Jazz Fridays with Damon Smith, Spirit, drums, and Jon Raskin, saxophone, at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Oakland Arts Clash, music, dance and visual arts by local Oakland artists at 7 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center Theater, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. All proceeds will benefit youth dance programs in Oakland. 

Terracotta Warriors, Chinese dance, music, martial arts and acrobatics at 2 and 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre of the Arts, 2025 Broadway, Oakland, through Oct. 8. Tickets are $45-$95. 625-8497. 

Oakland Opera “Les Enfants Terribles” Fri. - Sun. at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro Opera House, 201 Broadway, through Oct. 22. Tickets are $32-$36. www.oaklandopera.org 

On the Last Day, Karate High School, Four Letter Lie at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Doug Arrington & Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Flux, Baba Ken & Afro-Groove ConneXion at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Baguette Quartette at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Bobbe Norris & the Larry Dunlop Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Jessie Turner and Megan McLaughlin at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Hellouts, Huckleberry Flint, Dave Hanley Band, Barefoot Nellies at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Decry, Retching Red, Z.B.S. at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Dave Ellis & Zoe Ellis at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

Seventeen Evergreen, Minmae, Pants Pants Pants at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Bitches Brew at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Maraca and The New Collective at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, OCT. 7 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Gerry Tenny singing silly songs at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dashka Slater tells stories from “Firefighters in the Dark” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

THEATER 

“Meet Julia Morgan” A one-woman show performed by Betty Marvin at 2 p.m. at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Past/Present/Future One year anniversary of the Living Room Art Gallery. Music by Antarctica Takes It, Social Studies and The Pets at 8 p.m. at 3230 Adeline St. 601-5774. www.thelivingroomgallery.com 

“Can We Spare Some Change?” An art exhibit of paintings by Milton Bowens and kick-off of a recruitment campaign to increase the number of African American bone marrow donors opens at 6 p.m. at the African American Museum & Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

20th Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 5630 Bay St., through Oct. 29. Free. 652-6122. www.EmeryArts.org 

FILM 

Ousmane Sembéne “Black Girl” at 6:30 p.m. and “Mandabi” at 8:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Film and Video Festival at the Oaks Theater, 1875 Solano Ave., through Oct. 8. Three day pass is $20-$25. http://berkeleyvideofilmfest.org  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading, from 3 to 5 p.m., at Strawberry Creek Lodge, dining hall, 1320 Addison St. Park on the street. Free. 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com.  

Lewis Lapham, editor emeritus of Harper’s Magazine, in conversation with Harry Kreisler, at 8 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $12-$15. Benefit for KPFA and Global Exchange. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Four Seasons Concerts, with Leon Bates, piano, at 7:30 p.m. at Regents Theater, Holy Names University, Oakland. For tickets call 601-7919. 

Oju Eegun, Afro-Cuban ritual, music, song and dance at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$18. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Callaloo Steel Drum Band with Jeff Narell at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Zydeco Flames at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Sotaque Baiano, Brazilian music, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

John Craigie and Kurt Huget at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

House Jacks at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Sitting Duck at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Dayna Stephens Quintet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Caroline Chung Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

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

Shiloh, hip hop, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Two Ton Boa, The Thrones, Year Long Disaster at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Tippy Canoe, Naked Barbies Dandeline at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Jim Dangles at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Love Equals Death, Lucky Stiffs, Sugar Eater at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 8 

CHILDREN 

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day” at 2 p.m., and Mon. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$18. 925-798-1300. 

Derek Anderson on friendship in the forest at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Photo Exhibit of Foster Children and Youth sponsored by the Bay Area Heart Gallery on display at the Berkeley Public Library central lobby, 2090 Kittredge St. and Downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way, through Oct. 31. www.bayareaheartgallery.com 

Works by Paul Veres opens at 2 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

THEATER 

“Shorts ‘N Champagne” eight short comedies from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Gaia Bldg., 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $35. 704-8855. 

FILM 

The Mechanical Age “Steel Beast” at 3:30 p.m. and “La bete humaine” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Architecture Tour of the Oakland Museum of California Tour of the building and gardens with architect Kevin Roche and landscape architect Dan Kiley. Meet at 1 p.m. at the koi pond on the first level. www.museumca.org 

Salim Lamrani on “Superpower Principles” at 5 p.m. at Casa Cuba Resource Center, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. 219-0092. 

Poetry Flash with Robin Ekiss and Thomas Heise at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gospel On High from 2 to 6 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. 238-3052.  

Prometheus Symphony Orchestra performs Rimsky Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or suite and Dvorak’s Symphony #9 at 8 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 116 Montecito St., Oakland. Free, donations requested. 

Maxim Vengerov, violin, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Charles Hamilton Band at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Venezuelan Music Project with Aquiles Baez & Gonzalo Teppa at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Wayne Wallace at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $25. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Pine Leaf Boys, Cajun, Zydeco at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Brook Schoenfield at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Americana Unlpugged: The Shots at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

7 Generations, Eye of Judgement, Gather, Time for Change at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, OCT. 9 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Matthea Harvey and Cort Day, poets, read at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Steven Vincent and Charles Faulhaber introduce “Exploring the Bancroft Library: The Centennial Guide to Its Extraordinary History, Spectacular Special Collections, Research Pleasures, Its Amazing Future & How it All Works” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Express with Terry McCarty from Los Angeles at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Blue Monday Jam at 8 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Khalil Shaheed, all ages jam, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Tomasz Stanko Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 


Shotgun Tells Story of South Berkeley District

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 03, 2006

From an Ohlone woman’s menage with a zoot-suited Coyote, through a Japanese ex-houseboy and his picture bride eating pickled plums while awaiting relocation, a pair of Cain-and-Abel brothers who end up as Black Panther and strung-out Vietnam vet to the hip-hop kid of an interracial couple who bought a fixer-upper amid the drive-bys, the Shotgun Players’ premiere of Marcus Gardley’s Love is a Dream House in Lorin employs a cast of 30 to play 40-some characters that personify the story of the South Berkeley district in something like the narrative style of a WPA mural, all chromatic persona and event, motifs overlapping in time and space, recurring in gesture and song. 

The elaborate and engaging show, a true group effort to reflect a community’s reemergent identity, reads like a staged mission statement for the Players, who have called the Ashby Stage home just over two years. 

It began right after Shotgun had settled in, when Aaron Davidman, artistic director of San Francisco’s Traveling Jewish Theatre (who directs Dream House), a resident of Lorin in the early 1990s, read Melody Ermachild Chavis’s neighborhood memoir Altars in the Streets, and approached Shotgun founder Patrick Dooley about working together on a show that featured the community itself. Oakland-born Yalie playwright and Columbia U. teacher Marcus Gardley was comissioned last year, local people’s stories were gathered by the Shotgun team, Gardley’s many drafts of the play that he workshopped with the cast during his residency swelled (“We told him, let your imagination run wild,” said Dooley), and an exultant yet fiery public reading and discussion of a late version in July set the stage for last week’s triumphant opening night. 

Dream House, with its broad spectrum of present-day and historical (and mythic) local characters, its elliptical leaps between interlocking events from all eras, its language that ranges from Sunday sermon to rhymed street talk to song, sprawls—yet is tightly interlaced in all its vignettes and incidents, completely coherent, until at the end the crowd of previously divisive locals steps forward to tell their stories, their spirit eliciting a glowering gunman to put down his piece, have his say, and join them. 

“In some ways it was a lot easier than writing a play from my own imagination,” Gardley told Shotgun’s literary manager Liz Lisle. “For one, the stories were already rich and moving; I just had to thread them together.” 

But Gardley’s script is indeed rich with imagination, following a pattern he saw emerge from the research: a place where all kinds of people came to live, all with dreams they watched crumble. “’This land is cursed,’” Gardley recalls saying out loud, adding, “It wants to be healed.” 

Whatever they see in it, the stories Dream House provides a mirror to stimulate imaginations of locals and visitors alike, touching on both the dreams and hard times, and just suggesting current controversies. It’s an evening-long paean to that time-honored but neglected injunction, “Love Thy Neighbor.” 

Across the board—cast of 30, all ages and levels of performing experience, and production team of half that size—everybody has delivered to the best of their considerable abilities, costumed variously and choreographed across a set of a house undergoing remodelling under a backdrop of hills and swirling clouds, with quick, dramatic changes in light and sound. 

It would be unfair to single out anyone without naming all of them. Or maybe provoking a roll call of Lorin itself, past and present—of which only a dozen or so residents came to greet the opening of the Ashby Stage two years ago, but as of now, according to Dooley, “the biggest zipcode in our database is South Berkeley.” 

 

 

Love is a Dream House in Lorin 

8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday through Nov. 5 at the  

Asbhy Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. $15-$30.  

841-6500, www.shotgunplayers.org.


Oakland Opera’s ‘Les Enfants Terribles’

By Jaime Robles, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 03, 2006

The Oakland Opera Theater opens this Friday its third Philip Glass opera—the compelling dance opera Les Enfants Terribles. This final opera of his trilogy based on the work by French artist Jean Cocteau, Les Enfants Terribles has been described by Glass as Cocteau’s “tragedy”: 

“If Orphée is Cocteau’s tale of transcendence and La Belle et la Bête his romance, then Les Enfants Terribles is his tragedy. Like the others, it articulates Cocteau’s belief in the power of imagination to transform the ordinary world into a world of magic. But unlike the two previous works, in which transformation leads to love and transcendence, Les Enfants Terribles takes us to the world of Narcissus and, ultimately, Death.” 

The opera, which is sung in French with a narration in English, tells of a teenage brother and sister, Paul and Elizabeth, who after the loss of their parents strive to live in a fantasy world they call “playing the game.” Increasingly isolated, they pass the days acting out their bizarre imaginings.  

Two friends—Gerard and Agathe—join them to form an oddly four-sided love triangle. When Paul falls in love with Agathe, Elizabeth connives to have Gerard marry Agathe. By ensuring that her brother will never leave her, Elizabeth leads them both into destruction. 

Although the original story was set in Paris, director Tom Dean has moved the setting to 1954 French Indochina. Placing the story amidst the turmoil of war, Dean gives the opera a context that lends motivational logic to the characters’ escapism. It also restages the piece as a commentary on the self-reflective nature of colonialism. The children of the story are adopted, just as in Indochine, French couples found it fashionable to adopt Vietnamese children who were then treated as someone (or something) between a child and a servant.  

Soprano Joohee Choi makes her Oakland Opera Theater debut in the principle role of Elizabeth. Choi recently completed a two-year residency with the Los Angeles Opera, and was acclaimed for her performances in Aida, Romeo et Juliette, Der Rosenkavalier, and Falstaff.  

Axel Van Chee returns to Oakland Opera Theater in the role of Paul. Recently described by Opera News as a “resonant baritone with striking stage presence,” Chee performed Captain Valentine in Oakland Opera Theater’s Johnny Johnson. 

Mezzo-soprano Cary Ann Rosko plays Agathe. Tenors Ben Johns and Johathan Smucker alternate in the role of Gerard.  

Soprano Choi says she had doubts about singing the part of Elizabeth. Although she wanted to add Glass’ work to her repertoire, she was taken aback by the piece’s difficulty. At first glance, she says, the music looked simple: “just a piano line.” Further study revealed the opera’s difficult tones and disharmonies.  

Baritone Chee agrees, describing the music as a game of cat and mouse: “The singers are the cat and the notes are the mice. You have to keep chasing them.” 

The music layers an intense rhythmic drive with a melodic line that Chee describes as “very romantic.” There are no duets or trios within the opera; the singers continuously switch from line to line, the music making slight shifts between singers. Because the music is minimalist, however, the smallest shift can sound huge. 

The singers agree that the melodic lines are lovely. In contrast, Chee remarks, this “very interesting and beautiful” melody provides the setting for a disturbing text. The story is a classic tragedy, with the characters fated to die, unaware that their obsessiveness will ultimately destroy them.  

The original score was written so that the singing line could be played on one piano; second and third pianos enrich the music by adding subtle complexity. Oakland Opera has engaged four of the Bay Area’s top accompanists—Skye Atman, Paul Caccamo, Daniel Lockert and Kymry Esainko—to perform the three-piano score under the musical direction of Diedre McClure.  

Dance, integral to the opera, is woven in from play’s beginning to end, and represents the children’s fantasy world. Each singer has his or her dance double, and must dance as well.  

The eight dancers working with the singers on stage are from the Oakland-based Nguyen Dance Company. Choreographer Danny Nguyen was recently recognized as one of the seven best creative choreographers in the Bay Area at Paul Taylor’s annual choreographic symposium in San Francisco. 

The sets, painted by Garrett Lowe, represent the house the characters inhabit, and like the music and the realities the children inhabit, are built in many levels like an intricate labyrinth. 

Once again Oakland Opera is offering a unique and fascinating theatrical experience with excellent singers, musicians and performers. The company’s increasing recognition for its innovative performances of 20th and 21st century operas is well earned and deserves the best of the community’s support.  

Oakland Opera Theater presents three operas per year, two fully staged and one in concert. Thanks to Jo Vincent Parks, a new member of the board of directors, the theater will launch a concert series this year that will include recitals and instrumental music. 

 

Les Enfants Terribles 

8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays from Oct. 6 to Oct. 22 at the Oakland Metro Operahouse,  

201 Broadway, Oakland (one block from Jack London Square). 763-1146, www.oaklandopera.org. 

 


Fritillaries, Passionvines and Chemical Warfare

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 03, 2006

One person’s ornamental is another’s weed. Like many other exotic plants, passionvine grows weedlike all over the Hawai’ian islands. It’s so much a part of the landscape that it has acquired a local name: lilikoi. Its fruit flavors the local specialty shave ice, and Queen Liliuokalani was so fond of it that she had a special set of dinnerware with a passionfruit motif. 

The butterfly whose caterpillars feed on the leaves of the passionvine is a big showy job, flame-orange with silvery spots like a spatter of mercury on the underside of its hindwing. On the mainland it’s called the Gulf fritillary, although it’s actually a longwing rather than a true fritillary. Someone has proposed renaming it the silver-spotted flambeau: to Hawaiians, sensibly enough, it’s the passionvine butterfly. 

By whatever name, it’s one of the few North American members of a mostly tropical group. Common in the Southeast (hence the Gulf part), its range is limited by that of its host plants. One form of passionvine gets as far north as Arkansas, where we called it maypop and made jam from it, and there are a bunch of wild species in Florida. The butterflies can’t tolerate cold winters, and those at the northern end of the range stage mass southward migrations. 

California has no native passionvines, though, and the Gulf fritillary didn’t establish itself here until they had been planted as ornamentals. It’s not clear when the butterflies first turned up; one lepidopterist speculated they followed the Southern Pacific tracks, but they might have wandered up from Mexico. After colonizing Southern California, they followed their food plant north to San Francisco. 

The larvae are picky about their food. When the adult butterflies emerge in spring, there’s a brief courtship in which the male fans his wings to give his mate a heady dose of pheromones. Then she lays her barrel-shaped eggs—on stalks, so ants and other small predators can’t get at them—on a passionvine leaf. The caterpillars hatch out and begin to munch. 

Flowering plants have a many-sided relationship with animals. A passionvine needs to have its flowers pollinated, its seeds distributed, and its leaves left the hell alone. So it’s evolved colorful fragrant blossoms to attract pollinating insects, and tasty fruit enclosing seeds that will hopefully be deposited somewhere away from the parent vine. And several lines of leaf defense have been developed. 

One tropical passionvine has hook-shaped hairs that puncture the soft bodies of caterpillars. Some resort to trickery: their leaves have projections that look like fine places to lay an egg but that are jettisoned by the plant once an egg is deposited. Still others have nectar glands that attract ants, which eat the longwing eggs or larvae, or faux eggs that make the leaf appear to have been preempted. 

The most common defense, though, is chemical. Passionvine leaves contain substances called cyanogenic glycosides, precursors of cyanide. This is enough to deter most leaf-eaters, but the evolutionary arms race hasn’t gone far enough to make the leaves unpalatable to the larvae of longwing butterflies. 

The butterflies get an advantage from their toxic diet. Experiments show that birds find Gulf fritillaries and other longwings distasteful. And it’s in the butterfly’s interest to advertise this. Gulf fritillaries may have evolved their vivid colors for the same reason that deer hunters wear Blaze Orange vests: to maximize their visibility. 

That would only work for predators with color vision, of course, which happens to include birds. The idea is that an inexperienced bird will take a bite of fritillary, go “Feh!”, and avoid big orange butterflies from then on. The learning process takes its toll of a few individuals, but the species benefits. 

Gulf fritillary caterpillars are also fairly gaudy, at least in their later stages: orange with menacing-looking black spines. The chrysalis, in contrast, is a cryptic object that looks like a curled-up dead leaf. 

Other butterflies publicize their bad taste in similar ways: the monarch, whose caterpillar stores up milkweed toxins, white butterflies that feed on mustard, the pipevine swallowtail whose larval diet is, guess what? And there’s an advantage to being orange, or whatever warning coloration: a bird that had tried to eat a fritillary might also pass up monarchs, and vice versa. 

This is where mimicry comes in: palatable butterflies which have evolved a protective resemblance to the distasteful ones. In the tropics this gets really complex, as most things do: there’s a whole raft of passionvine-feeding longwing species whose colors and patterns have converged to better spread the message, and free riders pretending to be poisonous. 

Warning coloration is not just a butterfly thing: it occurs in amphibians, sea creatures, and at least one bird, the hooded pitohui of New Guinea. It’s a nice bonus that the colors that function as keep-away signals to predators are also pleasing to humans. If you have room and a sunny exposure, you might consider planting your own passionvine to attract Gulf fritlliaries. Just remember not to eat the leaves. 

 

 


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday October 03, 2006

TUESDAY, OCT. 3 

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 Arrowhead Marsh. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Torture Teach-in and Vigil with Father Louis Vitale at 12:30 p.m. at the fountain on UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 649-0663. 

Environmental Links to Breast Cancer at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Discussion Salon on Clean Money and Campaign Reform at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Sleep Soundly Seminar A free class on how hypnosis can help you sleep at 6:30 p.m. at 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. To register call 465-2524. 

Guitars in the Classroom Free music and guitar classes for public school elementary teachers, beginners at 5:30 and intermediate at 6:30 p.m. at Lakeview Elementary School, 746 Grand Ave., Oakland. Classes run for 8 weeks. Advanced registration is required. 848-9463. 

Albany Library Homework Center is open from 3 to 5 p.m., Tues. and Thurs. for students in third through fifth grades. No registration is required. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

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. For information call 525-5497. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 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, OCT. 4  

Dedication of the Eastshore State Park at 11:30 a.m. at Berkeley Meadow, Frontage Road, between University and Gilman. A picnic lunch in the park and optional interpretive walks through the restored meadow will follow the program. For information contact the East Bay Regional Parks District, 544-2208. 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Association’s Fall Leaf Walk An easy stroll to enjoy falling leaves, ending with making leaf prints. Meet at the picnic area with the large fireplace in Live Oak Park, between Shattuck and Walnut, north of Rose. 524-2383. www.berkeleypaths.org  

Neighborhood and Community Green Space with David Dobereiner on “The Legacy of Karl Linn” at 1 p.m. in Wurster Hall, Room 315A, UC Campus. 

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. 

Friends of the Albany Library Annual Meeting with local author Ellen Ekstrom reading from her new novel, “The Legacy” at 7:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Friends of the Oakland Library Booksale at The Bookmark Bookstore from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to Oct. 7 at 721 Washington St. 444-0473. 

Youth Media Council’s “Unplug Clear Channel” Party at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $3-$5. 849-2568. 

“Know Your Rights: What Employers Don’t Want You to Know” with author Carol Denise Mitchell at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, West Auditorium, 125 !4th St. 238-3134. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. For information call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon. Various East Bay opportunities available. Advanced sign-up is required; please call 594-5165.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

“Living with Ones and Twos” Practical advice for parents with Meg Zweiback, nurse practitioner at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Advance registration requested. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.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, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. To register call 752-6150. If you need child care, at $5 per child, call 658-7353.  

New to DVD “Off the Map” Film and discussion at 7 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237, ext. 132. 

Current Events Discussion Group meets at 7 p.m. at the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. 597-4972. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, OCT. 5 

North East Berkeley Association Candidates Night for Mayor and School Board at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 

First Thursdays at Fruitvale Village A street fair and farmer’s market with music, arts and crafts, stone fruit tastings, and activities for chidren from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Fruitvale BART.  

“Maquilapolis” A documentary on lives caught in the border-zone of the globalized economy, by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre at 8:30 p.m. at Transmissions Gallery, 1177 San Pablo Ave. 558-4084. www.transmissions-gallery.com  

Workshop for Educators “More Than Your Standard Garden” Your school garden can be an outdoor classroom for science, math, or language arts. Learn how to develop standards-based lesson plans and link existing activities to California Content Standards. From 4 to 6 p.m. in Oakland. Cost is $25, scholarships available. 665-3546. www.thewatershedproject.org  

“Never Again” Photographs and discussion of the physical and human consequences of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at 5 p.m. at the Bade Museum of the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave.  

Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival at 7 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science. Tickets are $13-$15. 530-265-6424.  

Environmental Film Series “Life + Debt”on the effects of globalization on Jamaica and on the world’s developing countries at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from noon to 3 p.m. For information call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

Drop-in Health Clinics from 9 to noon at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

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. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 a.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. Free, all are welcome. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, OCT. 6 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

Berkeley Sustainability Summit with presentations on sustainability projects in Berkeley from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Krutch Theater, Clark Kerr Campus, 2601 Warring St. Cost is $25. RSVP to 548-2220 ext. 235. 

Job and Resource Fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the garden of the Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, with presentaions by local companies, workshops and resume clinics, and information on seasonal employment opportunities. www.jobtrain.info 

The Path of Transformation: Heal from Domestic Violence from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave., Oakland. Cost is $25-$50, financial aid and scholarships available. 869-6763. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with a debate between Dennis Kuby and Lisa Fullam on “The Morality of Legalizing Physician Aid in Dying” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

“Can We Spare Some Change?” An art exhibit of paintings by Milton Bowens and kick-off of a recruitment campaign to increase the number of African American bone marrow donors opens at 6 p.m. at the African American Museum & Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

“An Inconvenient Truth” Al Gore’s environmental documentary, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free. 482-1062. 

“An Inconvenient Truth” Al Gore’s environmental documentary, at 7 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. 236-4348. 

“An Inconvenient Truth” Al Gore’s environmental documentary, at 6:30 p.m. at 565 Bellevue St., at Perkins, Oakland. 541-3009. 

Friends of the Oakland Library Booksale at The Bookmark Bookstore from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to Oct. 7 at 721 Washington St. 444-0473. 

Moonrise, Sunset Hike A 3.5 mile nature hike over varied terrain. Meet at 5:30 p.m. at the Big Springs Staging Area, Tilden Park. Bring flashlight, layered clothing, water and a sack dinner. For information call 525-2233. 

Autumn Harvest Festival at Habitot Museum with storytelling and crafts, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111.  

“Investing in Emerging Markets: China, India, Russia” Conference from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business, UC Campus. ww.haas.berkeley.edu/ 

HaasGlobal/emergingmarketsconference.html 

Mid-Autumn Festival at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, OCT. 7 

11th Swim a Mile for Women with Cancer Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mills College, Trefethan Aquatic Center, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 180. www.wcrc.org/swim/index.htm  

Berkeley Path Wanderers Association leads a free walk exploring Pt. Richmond’s quaint and curious architecture, hillside staircases, and spectacular new waterfront viewpoints. Meet at 10 a.m. at the statue in the triangle bordered by E. Richmond, Park Place, and Washington Avenue. Wear comfortable shoes; dress for all weather; bring water. Optional no-host lunch at local restaurant follows walk. 848-9358. www.berkeleypaths.org 

“Criminal Folly of the Bush Administration: A Casre for Impeachment” with Lewis Lapham, editor emeritus of Harper’s Magazine, in conversation with Harry Kreisler, at 8 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $12-$15. Benefit for KPFA and Global Exchange. 559-9500. 

“The Big Buy: Tom Delay’s Stolen Congress” A documentary by Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck, 7:30 p.m. at The Oaks Theater, 1875 Solano Ave. 843-3699. 

Solar Richmond Tour of solar installations in Richmond from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Meet at Richmond Main Library, Richmond Civic Center, corner of Macdonald Ave. and Civic Center St. Free, but please register in advance. 758-1267. www.solarrichmond.org  

Autumn Arachnids Learn about the mysteries of the spider, and look for orb weavers, jumping spiders and more, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 7-12 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

An Evening with Lewis Lapham in conversation with Larry Bensky at 8 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Benefit for KPFA and Global Exchange. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-255-7296, ext. 244. 

Benefit Bazaar for the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Sat. from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 1:30 to 6 p.m. at 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. 540-8721. 

Black Panther Party 40th Anniversary with Elbert “Big Man” Howard, from Black Panther Party Minister of Information at 3 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5011. 

East Bay Environmental Training Program on Sat. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Nov. 11 at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $75-$150 sliding scale. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

“The Overlooked Second Generation: Children and Transnational Families in the Global Economy” with Rhacel Salazar Parreñas Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Davis at 2 p.m. at Berkeley City College, Room 51. 

“Enchantment: The Unique Relationship with the Guru” with Bill Gottlieb at 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. RSVP to 415-703-0330. 

“Solar Electricity for Educators” A workshop on the global energy situation, the range of solar education projects, and how to address state curriculum standards with these projects, for teachers of grades 4-12. Teachers will receive a $150 stipend, materials, curriculum, and follow-up support. From 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Rising Sun Energy Center, 2033 Center St. 665-1501 ext.13. www.risingsunenergy.org 

“Basic Gardening Techniques Make for Amazing Gardens” Learn about soil preparation, planting techniques, mulching choices and more at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Introduction to Buddhist Teachings and Meditation with Richard Shankman, co-founder of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, at 9 a.m at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Donation $20. To register call 547-0757. 

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

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Bilingual Storytime Stories in English and Spanish for toddlers and preschoolers at 10:30 a.m. in the Edith Stone Room at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“In God’s House: Asian American Lesbian & Gay Families in the Church,” A documentary at 7 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8260. 

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

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

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.  

Spiritwalking: Aqua Chi(TM) at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Also Wed. at 3:30 p.m. Cost is $5.50, $3.50 seniors & disabled. Bring your own towels. 526-0312. 

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, OCT. 8 

Spice of Life Festival in North Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto with food, culinary demonstrations, live music and more from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m on Shattuck Ave. from Virginia to Rose. 

Architecture Tour of the Oakland Museum of California Tour of the building and gardens with architect Kevin Roche and landscape architect Dan Kiley. Meet at 1 p.m. at the koi pond on the first level. www.museumca.org 

A Day of Peace in People’s Park from 12:30 to 5 p.m. with music and speakers on stopping the war in the Middle East, and the war against civil liberties at home.  

Indigenous People’s Day at Habitot Museum. Learn about the native peoples of California with performances and crafts, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111. www.habitot.org 

Desgin Charrette for Halcyon Commons Rejuvenation Project community workshop from 2 to 5 p.m. in the park on Halcyon Ct. at Prince St. In case of rain, meet at 3044-A Halcyon Ct. Free. 644-0172. 

“Green Sunday: Why Should Greens Be Interested In the Upcoming KPFA Local Station Board Election?” Speakers and discussion at 5 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th in North Oakland. 

Turtle Time Meet Tilden’s turtles then walk to Jewel Lake to see the wild turtles that live there, from 11 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

The Joy of Rats Learn about basic guardianship of rats with Bay Area Rat Rescue at 2 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 525-6155. 

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 do a safety inspection from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Pancake Breakfast and Fleet Week Events from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship, in Richmond Harbor. Take the Canal Blvd exit off 580 and follow signs to the ship. Cost is $6, children under 5 free. 237-2933. 

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 

Kickabout at Codornices Park Soccer for all, skill and talent not required. For more information contact cambour@hotmail.com  

“A Generous Life” with Bill Hamilton-Holway at 9:30 a.m at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Robin Caton on “Living Fully” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 9 

Reduced City Services Today Call ahead to ensure programs or services you desire will be available. 981-CITY. www.cityofberkeley.info 

National Organization for Women, Oakland/East Bay Chapter with Dana Spatz, executive director of Lifeline, an advocacy program to boost higher education outcomes among mothers on welfare, at 6 p.m. at the Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. 287-8948. 

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. 

Men’s Health Series: Prostate Cancer at 3 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Safety and Self Defense Seminar for Women at 7 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $5. 848-0237. 

“Osteoporosis: Risk, Detection and Prevention” with Beverly Tracewell at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 981-7487. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/dap 

School Board meets Wed. Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 5, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Iris Starr, 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley


Arts Calendar

Friday September 29, 2006

FRIDAY, SEPT. 29 

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 

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. 

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 

UC Dept. of Theater “Suburban Motel” six plays by George Walker at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $8-$14. For schedule see http://theater.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

The Cinema of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne “The Son” at 7 p.m. and “The Child” at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Taiwan Film Festival “Murmer of Youth” at 3 p.m. at Pacific Fim Archive, and “Tigerwomen Grow Wings” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum Theater, 2621 Durant. 642-2809. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Frankie Holtz-Davis reads from “Mahrynie Red - The Journey” at 6 p.m. at the African American Museum & Library, 659 Fourteenth St., Oakland. RSVP to 637-0200. 

David Kamp describes “The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Free Range, Extra Virgin Story of How We Became a Gourmet Nation” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Genieve Abodo discusses “Mecca and Main Street: Being Muslim after 9/11” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Aging Artfully” with Amy Gorman at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 527-4977. 

Brian Morton reads from his new novel “Breakable You” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jon Fromer, Francisco Herrera and the Molotov Mouths at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$25. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Finless Brown at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Taylor Eigsti/Dayna Stephens Duo at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Joel Dorham Latin Jazz Octet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Grapefruit Ed, with Bill Cutler and the Hounds of Time at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. m 

Sam Bevan at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Bill Kirchen, rockabilly, dieselbilly at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Oh Yeahs! at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Pockit, Ubzorb, Precise Device at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

La Plebe, Inspector Double Negative, Static Thought 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. 

Marcus Shelby Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

The Girlfriend Experience, The Hundred Days, Charmless, indie rock, at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

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 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 30 

CHILDREN  

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day” at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$18. 925-798-1300. 

THEATER 

“Happy Days” Beckett’s last play at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $9-$25. 415-531-8454. 

FILM 

“Special Circumstances” the story of Héctor Salgado, Chilean political prisoner, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Discussion with filmmakers will follow. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Mechanical Age “The Magic Lantern and the Mechanical Age” 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

“Milarepa” from Tibet. Benefit screening at 6:30 p.m. at Wheeler Hall Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $15. 877-697-2998. 

Taiwan Film Festival “Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring” at 2:30 p.m. and “How High is the Mountain” at 4 p.m at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-2809. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John Brady Kiesling discusses “Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Joe Quirk reads from his book “Sperm Are From Men, Eggs Are From Women” at 10 a.m. at C’era Una Volta, 1332 Partk St. at Redwood Square, Alameda. 769-4828. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“King Arthur” by Henry Purcell, directed by Mark Morris at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus, through Oct. 7. Tickets are $42-$110. 642-9988.  

Faye Carroll and her Trio featuring Frederick Harris on the piano at 8 and 10 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054.  

Evelie Posch and Brook Schoenfield at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Bulk at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Dougie MacLean at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Cost is $27.50-$28.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Omnesia, Holden, Future Action Villans at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Jarrett Cherner Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Arlington Houston Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Dangerous Rhythm: Tim Fox at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Misner & Smith, acoustic rock, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Deep Hello, Alexis Harte, Steve Taylor-Ramirez at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $6. 841-2082.  

While it Lasts, See it Through, New Soldiers at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St.Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

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 

SUNDAY, OCT. 1 

CHILDREN 

Circus for Arts in the Schools with Jeff Raz, clown, and much more at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Ave., between Oak and Walnut Ave., Alameda. Tickets are $10-$12.50. Children under 3 free. 587-3399. 

Bongo Love Band at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$18. 925-798-1300. 

THEATER 

“Pagbabalik” A Filipino-American multi-disciplinary play at 7 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. www.lapena.org 

FILM 

Taiwan Film Festival “Viva Tonal-The Dance Age” at 7:30 and “The Strait Story” at 9:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Durant Ave. 

The Mechanical Age “Pandora’s Box: The Engineer’s Plot” and “The General Line” at 2:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mutabaruka, dub poet, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Four Flavors of Jazz, new talent from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and veterans from 2 to 6 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. 238-3052.  

Live Oak Concert with Rebecca Rust, ‘cello, Friedrich Edelmann, basson, and Vera Breheda, piano at 7:30 pm. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893. 

Brand Nubian at 9 p.m. at 2232 MLK, 2232 Martin Luther King Blvd, Oakland. Cost is $10-$12. 384-7874.  

Shooglenifty at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Jonathan Kreisberg Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ.  

Vegitation, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10, or $20 including 8 p.m. poetry reading with Mutabaruka. 525-5054. 

Paul H. Taylor & The Montara Mountain Boys at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Hernan Gamboa, Venezuelan folk music, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

MONDAY, OCT. 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Whitework Embroidery” opens at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. and runs through Feb. 5. Hours are Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. Free. lacismuseum.org 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: Works by Bay Area Student Visionaries at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Last Word Poetry Reading with Patricia Edith and Jan Steckel at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

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

Neil Gaiman reads from “Fra- 

gile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders” at 7 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $10. 559-9500. 

Readings from “The Womanist” Mills College Literary Journal at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Khalil Shaheed, all ages jam, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

TUESDAY, OCT. 3 

CHILDREN 

Gretchen Woelfle reads from “Animal Families, Animal Friends” at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tania Katan will read from her memoir, “My One-night Stand with Cancer” at 7 p.m. at Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Avenue at 58th St., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. 

Mary Gordon reads from “The Stories of Mary Gordon” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. 

“Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets” an anthology by Linda Zeiser at 7:30 p.m. at Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $5. 276-0379.  

Agi Mishol, Isreali poet, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Joe Gores introduces his latest political thriller, “Glass Tiger” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

RebbeSoul, world beat, Jewish roots music at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. 841-JAZZ.  

Jimmy Bosch at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 4 

THEATER 

“The Secret Circus” Wed. and Thurs. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, through Oct. 19. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. 800-838-3006 www.themarsh.org  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wild About Birds” paintings by Rita Sklar opens at the Lakeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

FILM 

Pirates and Piracy “A High Wind in Jamaica” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ellen Ekstrom reads from her new novel, “The Legacy” at The Friends of the Albany Library Annual Meeting at 7:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 

Paola Gianturco, photographer, on “Viva Colores! A Salute to the Indomitable People of Guatemala” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Daniel Goleman explores “Social Intellegence: The New Science of Human Relationships” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Terracotta Warriors, Chinese dance, music, martial arts and acrobatics at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theatre of the Arts, 2025 Broadway, Oakland, through Oct. 8. Tickets are $45-$95, discount for children. 625-8497. 

Wednesday Noon Concert: Classical Percussion 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 

Creepy, Sugar Eater, Stonecutter at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100.  

K23 Orchestra, CD release party at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054.  

Rumba Cafe at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Bruce Molsky at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Maraca and The New Collective at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 5 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Colors” A group show by East Bay Women Artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Royal Ground Gallery, 2058 Mountain Blvd., Montclair, Oakland. Exhibition runs to Jan. 7. 451-2661. 

FILM 

Discovering Syrian Cinema “Shadows and Light” at 5:30 p.m. and “Today and Everyday” at at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Les Murray at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library, in the Doe Library, UC Campus. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Susan Snyder talks about and shows slides on “Past Tents: The Way We Camped” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Camille T. Dungy, poet, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Bruce Wagner and James Ellroy read at at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

George Rabasa reads from his novel “The Cleansing” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Richmond Arts and Culture Commission Youth Performance in celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month. Spoken word, dance, and song presented by youth from East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Masquers Playhouse, Familias Unidas at 5:30 p.m. at the Richmond Convention Center, 403 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6952.  

“King Arthur” by Henry Purcell, directed by Mark Morris at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus, through Oct. 7. Tickets are $42-$110. 642-9988.  

Ancient Vision 3, with Wadi Gad, Malika Madremana, Arkangel, We A Dem Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Noah Grant at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Daniel Ho, Keoki Kahumoku and Herb Ohta, Jr. at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Boneless Children Foundation, Midline Errors, The Young Has Beens at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

The Swamees, Hollywood 

dopesick, Hobo Jungle, southern and folk rock, at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. 


Moving Pictures: Tracing Childhood’s Alternate Realities

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday September 29, 2006

Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) is one of the most influential and iconic of Spanish films. Set “somewhere on the Castillian plain” in 1940, just after the Spanish Civil War, Erice’s film conjures a remote village where the echoes of war and repression resound in the lives of an increasingly fragmented family.  

Criterion has just released the film on DVD in an excellent edition which faithfully renders the film’s honey-colored lighting and evocative score. The two-disc set also includes informative extra features, including an interview with Erice and a documentary about the film in which Ana Torrent, the child actress, returns to the village as an adult. 

Torrent plays a young girl, also named Ana, just 6 or 7 years old, who becomes mesmerized when she and her older sister attend a screening of James Whale’s Frankenstein, an experience that inspires a series of thoughts, emotions and free associations which haunt her and dramatically transform her interpretation of the world in which she lives. 

The two girls live with their parents in a shell of house, a hollowed-out Faulknerian manor that stands like a decaying relic of a long-lost past. And contained within that house are likewise faded, hollowed-out people, seemingly damaged by years of conflict, both personal and political. I say seemingly because Erice never spells anything out with any degree of certainty; he merely suggests, presenting his characters as they exist in the present, their withdrawn behavior providing the only intimation of what happened in the past.  

Distance and space are major themes. The horizon of the plain is high and far, with fields stretching for miles in all directions. And the distances between people seem greater still. The parents, for instance, are rarely shown in the same shot, and each frequently seems to have no idea where the other has gone. The wife bicycles off to the train station to deliver a letter, and we get the feeling she has done it surreptitiously. She stands for a moment on the platform, watching with detachment as soldiers on the train gaze at her through the windows as they briefly pass in and out of her world. Meanwhile the father returns home from his beekeeping tasks and settles himself in a chair in his study, facing away from the door and toward a window as he puts on headphones to listen to a short-wave radio. Their connections with each other and with the outside world are tenuous; the world, for whatever private reasons, is held at arm’s length. 

In one extraordinary shot, Erice keeps the camera trained on the wife’s face as she feigns sleep when her husband enters the room and fumbles his way into bed. He never enters the frame; he is but a vague, shapeless shadow on the wall behind her. And when he finally settles in, she opens her eyes again and simply stares straight ahead until the fadeout. Her husband is no longer a partner and companion, but merely something she lives with, a regularly occurring event she has ceased to even acknowledge.  

The film is based primarily on the childhood memories of Erice and his co-screenwriter Ángel Fernández Santos. It began, Erice says, with the image of the Frankenstein monster and the little girl together at the water’s edge in the 1931 movie. That image, he said, conveyed to him all one could ever wish to express in an image. But the cinematic influences on Spirit of the Beehive go further than Frankenstein. In fact, the film is full of subtle references to other films, for its premise is based on the dreamlike qualities of the cinematic experience. The scene at the train station is staged to resemble one of the Lumiere brothers’ earliest films; many of the wide shots of the plain suggest the panoramic drama of American westerns; and the scene in the cinema, with the faces of enthralled children gazing in rapt attention, is reminiscent of the scene in Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows when the young protagonist skips school and takes in a Punch ‘n’ Judy show at the local amusement park. 

There is a crucial moment in the cinema scene that sets the stage for the rest of the film. The children, including Ana, were in fact watching Frankenstein while Erice and his cameraman staked out a spot off to the side and filmed them with a hand-held camera, capturing the reactions on their faces. It was a gamble and it paid off, for Erice got exactly what he was looking for: At the moment when the monster kills the little girl, Ana’s face changes; her eyes widen as she leans forward and appears to catch her breath. She has clearly identified with the characters on the screen and is seeking to understand the monster, his lumbering, primitive form something of a reflection of the walking dead around her. It is the magic of cinema, just as Erice remembered it from his own childhood.  

Thus begins a subtle and complex inner drama as Ana, too young to distinguish between fantasy and reality, internalizes the story, becoming deeply concerned for the ostracized monster. Her older sister tells her that the monster is not really dead, that he lives nearby in an abandoned well. Eventually Ana makes the trip out to the well alone, and finds in the adjoining farmhouse an escaped freedom fighter. And when the fighter is later discovered and executed, screen fantasy and daily life become inextricably linked in her mind; she confuses the freedom fighter with the monster, his death with the monster’s death, the film’s vengeful townfolk her own townfolk.  

And here again we see the brilliance of Erice’s use of long takes. Previously they had been used to emphasize the spaces between people and the slow passage of time. But with Ana they express much more, dramatizing that stretch of time between a child’s absorption of events and her final synthesis and interpretation of those events, the melding of disparate experiences into a new and private reality.  

 

 

Photograph: Ana Torrent (left) plays a young girl haunted by the free associations that stem from a screening of James Whale’s Frankenstein in Victor Erice’s Spirit of the Beehive (1973). 

 

THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973) 

$39.99. 99 minutes. Criterion. www.criterionco.com.


Moving Pictures: The Evolution Of an Artist

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday September 29, 2006

Even today, 30 years after his death and nearly 100 years since he first stepped before a motion picture camera, Charlie Chaplin is still one of the most recognizable people in the world. The dandified Tramp, with his brush mustache, ill-fitting clothes, wicker cane and derby hat, is an iconic figure, but one whose familiarity has to some extent undermined his art. Chaplin today has become something of a two-dimensional figure, a static icon that means little to those born in the decades since his heyday; he exists as a fully formed entity, a known quantity, and is therefore just as easily ignored, an image from the past that no longer requires our attention.  

A new four-disc 90th anniversary edition DVD set of the 12 films Chaplin made for the Mutual Film Corporation has recently been released by Image Entertainment, featuring new restorations, complete with previously missing footage, and brand new scores by Carl Davis. Image released these films on DVD about 10 years ago, but this new set, in addition to superior image quality, has many other features that distinguish it, the best of which is the arrangement of the films in chronological order, providing the viewer with a glimpse of the arc of Chaplin’s art at a crucial stage in his development.  

The image of the Tramp is so ingrained in our consciousness that it is hard to imagine that he had to be invented, and that film comedy itself had to be invented. But that’s essentially what Chaplin did, and he did it, for the most part, single-handedly. He took the crude, knockabout, ensemble comedy of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios and zeroed in on character and personality, forging a strong individual identity as well as a unique bond with his audience.  

Once Chaplin broke away from Keystone he went to work for the Essanay company here in the East Bay. (The studio, in what was once known as Niles, near Fremont, is now a museum that offers screenings of silent films every Saturday night.) He made 14 short films for Essanay, firmly establishing himself as the most popular performer in the movies.  

But it is in the next group of films, made for the Mutual Corporation, where Chaplin finally realized his potential. The Mutual films represent the first blossoming of his comic genius. He was already enormously famous, the first international superstar, and his comic exploits had made him something of a populist hero. But it is the Mutual series that truly endeared him to his fans, for it is in these 12 two-reelers that he delved deeper into the nature of the tramp character: his fastidious habits, his contempt for authority, his longing for beauty and love, his artistic temperment.  

With films such as Easy Street and The Immigrant, Chaplin depicted the poverty and strife of his childhood while taking his first steps toward a more rounded cinematic ouvre with forays into social commentary.  

Later, of course, Chaplin would more completely incorporate drama and commentary into his work, drawing complaints from fans and critics alike that Chaplin was abandoning his comedic roots in the pretentious pursuit of Art. But in the Mutual films, the Tramp retains the rambunctious, anarchic, irrepressible humor that Chaplin’s detractors found lacking in his later, more sentimental work. 

The series begins with films that are not much different from his Essanay work and steadily progresses from there, with increasing complexity, finely tuned comedic timing, and brilliantly choreographed action sequences. In One A.M., Chaplin performs a solo tour de force, the film’s 20 minutes entirely devoted to a drunk man’s efforts to get home and into bed; in The Rink, Chaplin demonstrates his remarkable physical agility, tangling with his rival in an elaborate rollerskating sequence; and in The Immigrant, Chaplin makes one his first overtly political statements, as a boatload of immigrants gazes in awe at the Statue of Liberty before being roughly herded behind a restraining rope. So much for liberty. 

Too often forgotten in appreciations of Chaplin is the fact that he was not just a great comedian, but a great actor. In Easy Street he summons both drama and comedy—an innovation at the time—in the depiction of an unflinching portrait of poverty, crime and drug use while never compromising his comedic instincts. And again in The Immigrant, Chaplin creates one of his best depictions of the rapture of love, with the Tramp and the girl (Edna Purviance) finding the silver lining by getting married during a rainstorm.  

With these early masterpieces, Chaplin set the standard for the comedians who would follow in his wake: Roscoe Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon. Arguably some would surpass him, in inventiveness, in direction, staging and camerawork, even in pure laughter. But no one ever came close to matching his enormous talent, his instinctive sense of pathos, or the unique and affectionate bond between the performer and his audience. 

Some say the Mutuals are his best period; certainly he was never again so free from self-consciousness, so anarchic and inventive. But a sound argument can be made that the Mutual period represents the artist’s adolescense, with his full artistic maturity expressed most clearly in his features of the ’20s and early ’30s: The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus and City Lights.  

But though those later films are more fulfilling and emotional, it is the casual, careless fun of the Mutuals that lends them to repeated viewings, that entices us to immerse ourselves again and again in the madcap adventures of a newly famous, newly wealthy 27-year-old comedian who had suddenly found himself on top of the world. 

The set also includes two documentaries. The Gentlemen Tramp (1975) is a fuzzy, hagiographic film by Richard Patterson that is more content to deify the man than understand him, and Chaplin’s Goliath (1996), an appreciation of the all-too-brief career of Eric Campbell, the huge Scottish actor who played the heavy in most of Chaplin’s Essanay and Mutual films until his life was cut short by a car accident. Also included are essays by Chaplin historians and a gallery of rare still photographs of Chaplin at work on the Mutual films. 

 

 

THE CHAPLIN MUTUAL COMEDIES (1916-17) 

$59.99. Image Entertainment. www.image-entertainment.com.


The Theater: ‘Mother Courage’ at Berkeley Rep

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday September 29, 2006

On the wall was chalked:/They Want War./The man who wrote it/Has already fallen. 

 

Bertolt Brecht’s terse poem itself is scrawled in chalk on four doors painted black that stand on the Roda Stage as a visual prelude to Berkeley Rep’s production of Mother Courage, before the cast carries them off and begins the show. 

The dates and changing locations, and song titles, of the dozen scenes of the play are also inscribed, one after the other, and sometimes overlapping, like graffiti on the stage’s back wall, as Mother Courage and her children and hangers-on pull her cart across from Sweden across Poland and through Germany, following the armies which buy the good Mother’s wares and services. 

Brecht adapted Mother Courage from a 17th-century novel by Grimmelshaven about a petty war profiteer plying her goods amid the hellish cycles of battle and looting that engulfed Central and Northern Europe during the Thirty Years’ War. It was the leftist German playwright’s response to the 1939 invasion of Poland, a warning to Scandinavia, where he was living in exile, not to get embroiled. 

“To sup with the devil, you need a longhandled spoon,” as The Chaplain says to The Cook (the Mother’s rival hangers-on) and to Mother Courage herself, halfway through the play. 

Mother Courage and Her Children was the full title of the play, and the opening scene introduces the Courage brood: her two sons, Eilif the strong--and rapacious (Justin Leath), honest Swiss Cheese (Drew Hirshfield), and mute, compassionate daughter Kattrin (Katie Huard), already a traumatized victim and the only one in the family who hopes for peace. Each is from a different father. 

They’re introduced, and almost immediately begin to disappear. Playing a fortune-telling game to get a sergeant (Brent Hinkley)to pony up for more booze, Mother Courage (Ivonne Coll) has him draw a lot from his helmet; it has a black cross, signifying death. But her children all draw, too, and each lot is marked. Meanwhile, a recruiter (Marc Damon Johnson) has talked up Eilif, who runs off seeking martial glory and the spoils of war.  

There’s also a wayward hooker, Yvette (Katie Barrett), whose liaisons with doddering old officers move her up the social scale, as changes in costume (David Zinn’s designs), from bright plumage (the hat and blue high-heeled boots Kattrin craves) to embroidered heavy mourning as officer’s widow clearly indicate. 

The cast is quick and game—too quick, it seems. The production plan defuses their focus both as characters and ensemble by substituting vaudeville for Epic Theater, epic in the sense of telling a social tale, demonstrating the relations between characters under the unusual conditions depicted, bringing it to the audience as evidence to a jury that will be engrossed in deliberation. 

Brecht intended a show centered on scene after scene that demonstrated what he called “the social gest, which alone introduces the human element.” Mother Courage biting the sergeant’s coin, or haggling a bit too much in trying to save one son’s life at bargain rates are examples of the social gest. But in this production, these are glossed over, as the cast races about, tossing off the lines from British political playwright David Hare’s remarkable translation like a series of burlesque routines. 

The songs (Gina Leishman’s music, which would be fine in another context) are a particular case in point. Perhaps the best moment of the show is Jarion Monroe’s delivery of “The Solomon Song.” Brecht’s lyrics were originally featured in his Threepenny Opera, with Kurt Weill’s caressing, disturbing melody. It became Lotte Lenya’s (Weill’s wife and the originator of several early Brechtian roles) touchstone number in cabaret. When Brecht recycled it for a different use in a play with music, the music had a different effect. 

Monroe as the cynical Cook serves it straight to the audience, and very well: “Wisdom, Courage, Honesty ... what else turns out to be not of much use? Ah, yes: Charity! ... You’re better off without!” But the tune is an oom-pah number now, accenting the barroom and carnivalesque senses that alternate and whirl away the choice, concentrated images, the “pregnant moments” of the songs and scenes. 

Ivonne Coll cuts a fine figure as Mother Courage; Monroe and Patrick Kerr are the right choices to play her self-absorbed “admirers;” Huard as Kattrin is admirable throughout. It’s the confusion between “putting on a show” in Brecht’s sense and the sketchy, song-and-dance divertisements of director Lisa Peterson’s conception that squanders this theatrical opportunity.  

 

 

MOTHER COURAGE 

Through Oct. 22 at the Roda Theater, 2025 Addision St. www.berkeleyrep.org, 647-2949.  

 


Playing The Updating Game: Part Two

By Jane Powell
Friday September 29, 2006

If there is a phrase found in a real estate listing that fills me with even more horror than “updated kitchen,” it has to be “new dual-pane windows.” Dual-pane windows are probably one of the biggest scams ever foisted off on an unsuspecting American public. The lies and half-truths promulgated by window replacement companies should be right up there with other famous lies like “The dog ate my homework” and “Only one glass of wine with dinner, officer…” 

Most houses built before the 1960s, with a few exceptions, had wooden windows, built with close-grained old-growth wood. Wooden windows, if maintained, can last hundreds of years. Many buildings on the East Coast that date to the 17th or 18th centuries still have their original windows, and in Europe, buildings older than that retain their historic sash windows. 

Wood windows are the most vulnerable of historic building elements—millions are being dumped in landfills every year. And that is an absolute travesty. The multi-billion dollar window replacement industry would like you to believe that single-glazed wooden windows are drafty, not energy efficient, don’t work well, and require constant maintenance. Almost every week the newspaper is filled with ads for replacement windows, with headlines like, “Are your windows costing you money?” or, “Whole house window replacement—only $2995!”  

PG&E will give you a rebate for ripping out your original windows to put in dual-pane replacements. Often the local building code demands insulating windows in new construction or remodeling. Go back and consider the phrase “multi-billion dollar”—with that much money at stake, do you think these companies have your best interests at heart? They Are Lying, and when they aren’t lying outright, they are conveniently failing to mention numerous pertinent facts. Here’s a list from one internet replacement window site about when or why you should consider window replacement: 

“Don’t bother to fix a window that has cracked glass, rotted or otherwise damaged wood, locks that don’t work, missing putty, or poorly fitting sashes. 

“ Homeowners with windows over twenty five years old should consider replacing them … A home is an ideal candidate for a window replacement if its windows are sealed or painted shut or the sash cords are broken…” 

Okay, I’m gasping with disbelief here, but let’s take these one at a time: 

1. Cracked glass. On a single glazed window, cracked glass can be replaced using items readily available at the local hardware store, costing maybe $25, tops, if you do it yourself. If you pay a glazier, maybe $100—still cheaper than a new window. If the glass in a double glazed sash cracks, you have to buy a whole new glazing unit (assuming the company is still in business) which will cost $100 or more, and then pay a glazier to install it, because it’s not a do-it-yourself thing. 

2. Rotted wood. This most likely place for this is the joints of the bottom sash. If not far gone it can be dug out and the hole filled with wood putty or even Bondo. If farther gone, it can be repaired with epoxy consolidants. This is also true of rot in the frame. If it’s so far gone that the bottom rail falls off when you raise the window, there are several companies in town that can make you a new custom sash- average cost, maybe $150, depending on size. (Look in the Yellow Pages under “Windows, Wooden” for companies.) 

3. Locks that don’t work. Are these people kidding? Buy a new lock at the hardware store. Cost? About $3. 

4. Missing putty. A quart can of Dap 33 window glazing: about $6.50. 

5. Poorly fitting sash. Many reasons for this, but if it’s not structural, then weatherstripping works wonders. 

6. Windows sealed or painted shut, or broken sash cords. Easily fixed with a few simple tools and some labor, or if you don’t want to do it yourself, Wooden Window (893-1157, www.woodenwindow.com) will be happy to do it for you. If you want to do it yourself, I highly recommend the book Working Windows by Terence Meany ($14.95 at your local bookstore). 

Those who’ve been around since the Sixties may remember the bumper sticker “Eschew Obfuscation.” When window replacement companies aren’t lying outright, you better believe they are obfuscating.  

 

Obfuscation #1. Replacement windows will significantly reduce heating /cooling costs. 

Okay, this is math, so take notes… there will be a quiz! 

Only 20 percent of the heating loss (or cooling gain) in a building is through the windows. The other 80% is lost through roofs, walls, floors, and chimneys, with most of it going out the roof. And most of the cold air is sucked in through the floor from the basement or crawl space. Reducing the heat loss through the windows by 50 percent (double-glazing) will only result in a 10 percent reduction in the overall heat loss. So let’s say you pop for the $2995 window special.  

That’s only ten windows—the smallest bungalow I ever owned had 20 windows. Misleading the public about actual costs is one of the sleazy tactics employed. So you’re really going to have to spend more like $5,990 for twenty windows. (or about $32,000 for aluminum-clad wood.) Let’s also say that your utility bill averages $200 a month. A 10 percent reduction on the heating bill amounts to $20 a month or $240 a year. At that rate it would take about 25 years to recoup the $5990 investment (Payback on the more expensive windows would take 133 years.) 

But wait, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, 40 percent of the average household energy bill goes to heating and cooling. So at $200 per month, only $80 goes to heating and cooling. Saving 10 percent on that would only be $8 a month, putting the payback time at 62 years for the vinyl or 333 years for the aluminum-clad. For the same amount of money (or less!) that replacement windows would cost, you could insulate the attic and the walls and install a damper on the chimney and get an 80% reduction in heat loss.  

Or you could spend that money on storm windows. A recent study conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory using actual wooden windows (removed from a house that was being demolished) showed that the addition of storm windows reduced air leakage by a considerable amount. They used a double-hung window with loose sashes, no weatherstripping, gaps between the sashes and frame, missing caulk, cracked glass, and dry rot in the frame. The second window was a dual-pane double hung window with loose sashes and no weatherstripping. For storm windows, they used non-thermally broken aluminum storms with operable sashes and no weatherstripping. 

Interestingly enough, the addition of storm windows to both windows reduced the energy flow of the single glazed window substantially more than the dual-pane window. Using a measurement which took into account both air infiltration and conduction through the glass, without storm windows, and with a wind speed of 7 m.p.h., the single glazed window lost about 565 BTU’s per hour, while the dual-glazed window lost 644. With the storms added, the single-glazed window lost 131 BTU’s per hour, while the dual-pane window lost 256.  

Then they removed the storm and weatherized the first window, which involved squaring up the frame so the sashes fit more tightly, replacing rot in the frame, re-glazing the panes, caulking cracks in the frame, installing a sweep at the bottom of the lower sash, and installing a new window lock to improve closure- then ran the tests again. At 7 m.p.h., heat loss for the weatherized single glazed window was 256 BTU’s, compared with 131 for the unweatherized window with a storm. By comparison, the dual-pane window WITH A STORM also had a heat loss of 256. They didn’t compare weatherstripping PLUS a storm window, but clearly, a storm window gives you more bang for the buck (about a 75% reduction in heat transmission) and weatherizing alone gives the same reduction as a double-glazed window.  

 

Obfuscation # 2. Maintenance-free exterior- no painting or staining required.  

No painting or staining POSSIBLE, in the case of vinyl. What if you get tired of the color? And you know how funky that cheap resin outdoor furniture looks after a couple of years? That’s what the vinyl or vinyl-clad window will look like. And you know how plastic has static electricity that attracts dirt? As for aluminum, even an anodized coating doesn’t last that long, at which point you have to paint it. If it’s not anodized, then it corrodes and turns white. And what if you get tired of the color? 

 

Obfuscation # 3. Extremely durable and long-lasting.  

I guess that depends on your idea of what constitutes long-lasting. A vinyl window has a life expectancy of approximately 20 years, aluminum about 10 to 20 years, a new wood window from 20 to 50 years. An original wood window that is consistently maintained and kept painted can last as long as 200 years, if not more. Part of the reason that an old wood window lasts longer than a new one is that old windows are made of old-growth timber, which grew very slowly and is extremely close-grained and dense, whereas new wood windows are made from second-growth wood, much of it from fast-growing trees harvested from tree farms, where the growth rings are much further apart. The softer sapwood resulting from fast growth is far less durable. 

But here’s the thing they’re really hiding: the average lifespan of a double-glazing unit is TEN YEARS OR LESS. The seal around the glazing can fail within ten years, causing the glass panes to fog. And the plastic and neoprene seals used to hold the panes in new windows degrade in ultraviolet light. Imagine trying to find a replacement gasket after the window company has gone out of business. 

 

Obfuscation # 4. Insulates against noise. 

Sure, till you open it. Actually, a single-glazed window has an STC (Sound Transmission Class) rating between 20 and 27, depending on how thick the glass is and how airtight the window is. In a dual-pane window, the STC rating is governed somewhat by the distance between the two panes- the larger the distance, the better the rating. (This suggests a storm window might be better than double-glazing, being further away.) 

For each doubling of the airspace between the panes, the STC increases by about 3. If the panes are close together, the rating may actually be lower than for a single pane, because the airspace acts like a spring and transfers vibration from one pane to the other. Triple glazing provides the same noise reduction as double glazing, unless the spacing between panes is quite large. On average, dual-pane windows have an STC rating of 28-35. A single layer of _” laminated glass (which has a layer of plastic in the middle) has an STC rating of 33, which suggests that it might be better to replace the glass in a single-glazed window with laminated glass if noise is an issue, instead of wasting the money on new windows. 

In addition to all the reasons above, the fact is that double-pane windows just do not look the same as single-pane windows. The necessary spacer between the panes is hard to disguise, so even if you pay extra for “true divided lights,” the spacer makes the muntins too thick (muntins are the pieces of wood that divide the panes of a multi-light window). 

Nor will the new windows have the wavy antique glass that gives old windows their charm. So save yourself some money, save the architectural character of your house, and don’t send your perfectly good windows to the landfill. Whenever I see a real estate ad that says “new dual-pane windows” I always think, “ Yeah, architectural integrity destroyed”- wouldn’t you rather the ad for your house read “original charm maintained?” 

 

Jane Powell is the author of six books, including Bungalow Details: Interior, all available at www.bungalowkitchens.com. She can be reached at hsedressng@aol.com. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


About the House: A Partial Upgrade for Reluctant Showers

By Matt Cantor
Friday September 29, 2006

This is one of those subjects that is both important and a real snoozer. If you’ve been having trouble sleeping lately, stop now, rip this page out and take it to bed with you. Guaranteed snoring in 10 minutes or less. 

Many of our 80-something houses have lousy water pressure. Not all but many and if you’re one of the unlucky ones, I’m sure you’re sick of not being able to take a decent shower. 

That’s really it, isn’t it. The shower. Most people can live with the sinks having sluggish flow but almost everyone really likes a nice skin-scouring shower. A real follicle ripper. If the shower pressure has you trying every shower head from the Water-pik shower massage to those little military style ones and everything in between, you’re the person who needs to read on.  

Although complete plumbing replacement is easy to recommend and certainly appropriate for some houses, I’d like to talk about partial upgrades and what they can, and cannot, do because they can save money and, if done properly, make a huge difference. In fact, they might be a good enough fix for your flow problems that you’ll abandon, perhaps for many years to come, any plan for a complete upgrade. 

Now, before I launch, full steam into a description of how to go about this, let me say that I would always use certain situations to remove all older steel piping. If you have recently bought a house with a weak shower or have serious flow issues, you want to ask yourself how much other work you’re planning on doing in the near future. If you are planning on a kitchen and bath remodel or other work that might expose the piping, do as much of this work as you can at the time. 

If you have an older home with galvanized steel piping (looks sort of like pewter and has threaded fittings at the joints) and you’re planning on remodeling the bath, kitchen or other plumbed area, please, take the galvy out and put in copper. Even if things seem like they’re working alright, do it. You won’t want to be getting into these areas again … ever. And the replacement of piping when the wall is open is really quite easy and not particularly expensive. If you’re gutting the interior of a house, always replace the old steel pipe with copper. 

Over time, galvanized steel reacts with the contents of the water and becomes encrusted internally with minerals. It’s like arteriosclerosis. Eventually, you can cut out a foot long section of pipe and be unable to see from one end to the other. 

The cave-like interior can be so small that the meandering of the remaining vessel keeps light from passing from one end to the other. This encrustation also creates friction and slows the flow of water greatly. In some of these situations the pressure remains quite high but the physical state of the piping prevents more than a trickle from flowing from one end to the other. 

Another thing is happening simultaneously. In addition to the infilling mineralization, the old pipe is rusting through at the narrowed threaded fittings and leaks can commence. This happens more on hot pipes than cold but eventually, it happens to most piping. Nonetheless, the filling in is the big problem. If you’re lucky enough to have a house with 3/4” galvy, it might be just fine. There’s a lot more room in those pipes for mineral encrustment to accumulate than in the typical 1/2” piping of the first 40 years of the 20th century. 

Practices varied but typically, I’ll see 3/4” steel coming in around 1940 and those houses are far more likely to have good flow today. It’s the houses from the 00’s and 20’s that seem to be the worst, so let’s look at what can be done. 

My experience is that the most heavily encrusted portions of these pipes tend to be the lateral pipes. The ones that are lying down. Also, in one-story houses (even those with a high basement or garage below the house) the piping, or most of the piping is lateral and there are relatively short “risers” that climb up to the shut-off valves leading to the sinks, toilets, showers and tubs. These risers are certainly implicated in some cases of occlusion but I find this far less often than those cases in which replacement of the laterals solves much of the problem. So, this means that we have a strategy for a partial replacement. 

If you can gain access to the lateral pipes in the basement, crawl space or garage (remember to replace the firewall in the garage if you remove any of the plaster or gypsum board), you can replace them with copper lines. As a rule, it’s best to go with 3/4” piping, although 1/2” lines will work well for single branches, those leading to just one device, such as a toilet. 

If you’ve got a line that’s going to a whole bath or kitchen it’s best to stick with a 3/4” line. Remember, you’re also trying to fight an uphill battle against what’s left in the risers, so don’t skimp. The cost of the larger pipe is quite small. As usual, labor is the primary expense. By the way, learning to “sweat” (or solder) copper pipe isn’t impossible and I’ve seen more than a few homeowner jobs that looked quite good. 

If you replace the line between the main shutoff and the array of risers, you’ll still be coping with whatever’s left in the main run to the curb. This might leave you short of satisfaction, but the main run can be done later if you’re still not getting a decent shower so leave it for last. 

When you put in copper you’ll need to observe a special protocol in which you keep the copper and galvanized metals apart. You see, copper and galvanized piping joined together and filled with water make a battery and the sacrificial anode (no I don’t have a cold) is the galvanized steel piping. This means that the steel is being slowly torn apart, atom by atom due to the direct contact with the nobler metal, copper (snotty metal, copper). Therefore you will need to keep them apart by use of some type of di-electric device. 

The method I like the best by far is to use a nice big brass nipple. Brass prevents the ionic exchange and minimizes damage to the steel. It also maintains the grounding that your electrical system needs. We use our water piping system for the grounding of our electrical system and if you use that “other” dialectic device which employs a plastic sleeve for separation of the metals, you decrease the ground by a large measure (the water will carry some but not enough). 

The last thing to do is to make sure to strap the new piping thoroughly to minimize noise and wear on the system. 

If you do this right, you can gain flow without tearing up the bath, the kitchen or just about any part of the house. There’s also no real downside since copper can solder or “sweat” onto more copper almost anywhere with relative ease, so if you decide that you need to replace more piping, you’ll just finish the job you started without having wasted any effort. There is a certain amount of trial and effort involved in this method but it is often quite successful. 

Lastly, when you finally get around to the long delayed bath remodel, you’ll just remove the brass fitting below the floor along with the steel piping and connect right onto the copper lines.  

So, if you’re still awake, I apologize. I occasionally have trouble falling asleep myself. Maybe a nice shower will do the trick. 

 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com. 


Garden Variety: A Transitional Season: Late September in the Garden

By Ron Sullivan
Friday September 29, 2006

This is a season that confounds naming, a season that also confounds immigrants, especially gardeners from eastern North America, who can be heard to complain, “There are no real seasons here.” Some of us figured out right quick that there are indeed seasons in coastal Northern California. After 33 years here I still haven’t come up with adequate names or even a satisfactory number for them, though.  

Is it Fire Season? Yes, certainly. Since 1991 I’ve shuddered at the scent of smoke at midday, in spite of my love of barbecue. Don’t we all hang over the wildfire news and calculate how close the fires come to the places we love? Some years I don’t even notice the suspense I’ve been until it dissipates under the first real rains.  

And it’s Stink Season: storm sewers, especially in San Francisco, exhale an unwholesome sulfurous miasma when it’s been months since the last rain, and when the wind’s right we’re treated to a twice-daily blast from the late-summer algae bloom and die-off in the Bay, served up for our delectation at low tide. We get a special helping of it when the weather’s September-hot and so we have all the windows open, too. 

It’s Dust Season, and every stroll along a park trail or even the garden path stirs up those particulate drifts 

In the garden we get to choose between dust and mud, but the occupants of wilder spaces just have to bear it and choke until October or November.  

There’s the genius of the season. No matter how much we know the rains and gray weather will bring us down, we long for it all anyway. It’s a natural transition season in the wilds and in the garden.  

It’s time to hang up most of the tomatoes, leaving a few just to see if they’ll be ripe for Thanksgiving. Time to compost the greens that bolted, and to sit on our hands for a couple of weeks and not plant seedlings that will probably also bolt in the September heat spell. (Still a good time to start seeds in flats, if you’re a procrastinator like me.) 

Watering everything is getting boring. If you want to plant natives, it’s about time. You’ll have to water them for a summer or two, depending on their preferences and the weather, but after that you can trust them to their own climate. If you already have natives, resist watering at least until the soil temperature’s gone down. Lots of pathogens thrive in warm/wet soil conditions, and you don’t want to encourage them.  

This is the season when zone planting—water-loving plants in one area, usually closest to the house, and droughty plants farther out—shows its usefulness. Planting things that need irrigation—non-natives and the more thirsty natives, those that live along streams in the wild, for example—all in one zone makes watering easier as well as keeping the plants that prefer dry summers safe from rot.  

The best place for the wet zone is near the house or a hose bib, even if you set up an automatic system. Another consideration: in this dusty dry season, the irrigated zone is where you’ll want to rest among cool green leaves, so put some seating and open a bit of view there. 

 

 

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.


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday September 29, 2006

Do You Know Your Elderly Neighbors? 

 

Developing an emergency after-quake plan with your neighbors is a great idea, and we’ll talk about it in a later QuakeTip. With our elderly neighbors, we especially want to know who: 

1. is mobility impaired 

2. cannot operate their gas shut-off if necessary 

3. has an emergency supply kit 

4. has relatives/friends they can go to if necessary  

After the coming serious quake, we will feel so much better if we have this information before hand, plus we may be able to help someone who will truly be helpless without us. 

 

 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing and kit supply service. Contact him at 558-3299 or see www.quakeprepare.com to receive semi-monthly e-mails and safety reports.  


Berkeley This Week

Friday September 29, 2006

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.  

SATURDAY, SEPT. 30 

2nd Annual Berkeley Juggling and Unicycling Festival Sat. and Sun. beginning at 10 a.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose Ave., with a show at 7:30 p.m. www.berkeleyjuggling.org 

Take Back the House with the Progressive Democrats of the East Bay and East Bay Young Democratic Club at 3 p.m. at Albatross Pub, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $30-$35. 601-6456. www.pdeastbay.org 

Community Reading of “Funny in Farsi” and “The Circuit” at 11 a.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6147. 

IMPACT Bay Area’s Advocates for Women Awards Luncheon and Auction from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant, Oakland. Cost is $65. www. impactbayarea.org 

“Untraining White Liberal Racism” An introductory workshop from 1 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley High School Library, 1980 Allston Way. Cost is $10-$50 sliding scale, no one turned away. 235-3957.  

“Positively Ageless: A Celebration of Art and Aging” Art auction and benefit for Adult Day Services of Alameda County from 6 to 8 p.m. at 4th Street Studio, 1717 Fourth St. Tickets are $25. For reservations call 577-3543. 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234.  

Don’t be Rattled Learn about the rattlesnake, one of the Bay Area’s most misunderstood inhabitants at 10:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Evergreen Shrubs for Structural & Architectural Solutions at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

“Creating An Ecological House” with Skip Wentz on natural building materials, solar designand alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610. 

“Special Circumstances” A film on Héctor Salgado, Chilean political prisoner, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Discussion with filmmakers will follow. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Circle Dancing Simple folk dancing for all, beginners welcome, no partners needed. At 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. at University Ave. Donation $5. 528-4253.  

The Asthma Walk at Lake Merritt supports asthma research & education. Check in at 9 a.m., walk starts at 10 a.m. For information and directions call 893-5474. www.alaebay.org 

Passport Fair with information from Lonely Planet authors about planning your next trip from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Oakland Main Post Office, 1675 7th St., Oakland. 

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

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

Animal Communication for healing or therapy at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave. Cost is $25 for 15 minute session, call for appointment. 525-6155. 

Spiritwalking: Aqua Chi(TM) at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Also Wed. at 3:30 p.m. Cost is $5.50, $3.50 seniors & disabled. Bring your own towels. 526-0312. 

Adult Fast Pitch Softball at noon. For location call 204-9500.  

Yoga for Peace at 9:30 a.m. at Ohlone Park, MLK at Hearst. Bring a yoga mat, warm blanket, and peace sign.  

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

SUNDAY, OCT. 1 

People’s Park Community Garden Day Come join other gardeners as we spiffy up the west end Community Garden in People’s Park from noon to 4 p.m. 658-9178. 

Tenth Anniversary Celebration of Halcyon Commons Park Block party between Prince & Webster, from 1 to 4 p.m. with music, fun activities for children, and a program on the history of the community-designed park. Free. 849-1969. 

Spinning a Yarn Learn how yarn is made on a spinning wheel and try your hand with a spindle from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Owls and Oaks Learn the folk legends and the true stories of owls at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Otsukimi Japanese Moon Viewing Festival at 5:30 p.m. at the Lakeside Park Garden Center, 666 Belleview Ave., Oakland. 482-5896. www.oakland-fukuoka.org 

Animal Day at the Kensington Farmers Market to support the work of local rescue groups, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave. at Amherst, behind Ace Hardware. 528-4346. 

Vernon Wenrich Memorial Picnic will be held at 1 p.m. to honor the life of a man who served as counselor at Berkeley High School for over 40 years, many of those as head counselor. For more details call Marjorie Wenrich at 206-355-5197.  

East Bay Atheists Annual Picnic from noon to 4:30 p.m. at Big Leaf Picnic Area, Tilden Park. Please bring a dish to share with everyone else. We will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks. Donation $8. 222-7580. 

Equal Partner Yoga from 2:30 to 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club Open House from 1 to 4 p..m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Volunteer at Lawrence Hall odf Science Open House for new volunteers from 2 to 3:30 p.m. For informati`on call 643-5471. 

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 

Kickabout at Codornices Park Soccer for all, skill and talent not required. For more information contact cambour@hotmail.com  

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “Sustained by Joy” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 2 

Evening of Conscience to Benefit World Can’t Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime with Daniel Ellsberg, Boots Riley, and Alice Walker at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave. Suggested donation $15-$50. 415-864-5153. 

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. 

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. 

Awakening Your Inner Healer An introduction to qi gong at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Lead Abatement Repairs Find out about funding for lead hazard repairs for rental properties with low-income tenants or vacant units, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 2000 Embarcadero, #300, Oakland. 567-8280. 

TUESDAY, OCT. 3 

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 Arrowhead Marsh. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Torture Teach-in and Vigil with Father Louis Vitale at 12:30 p.m. at the fountain on UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 649-0663. 

Environmental Links to Breast Cancer at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Discussion Salon on Clean Money and Campaign Reform at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Sleep Soundly Seminar A free class on how hypnosis can help you sleep at 6:30 p.m. at 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland. To register call 465-2524. 

Guitars in the Classroom Free music and guitar classes for public school elementary teachers, beginners at 5:30 and intermediate at 6:30 p.m. at Lakeview Elementary School, 746 Grand Ave., Oakland. Classes run for 8 weeks. Advanced registration is required. 848-9463. 

Albany Library Homework Center is open from 3 to 5 p.m., Tues. and Thurs. for students in third through fifth grades. No registration is required. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

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. For information call 525-5497. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 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, OCT. 4  

Berkeley Path Wanderers Association’s Fall Leaf Walk An easy stroll to enjoy falling leaves, ending with making leaf prints. Meet at the picnic area with the large fireplace in Live Oak Park, between Shattuck and Walnut, north of Rose. 524-2383. www.berkeleypaths.org  

Neighborhood and Community Green Space with David Dobereiner on “The Legacy of Karl Linn” at 1 p.m. in Wurster Hall, Room 315A, UC Campus. 

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. 

Friends of the Albany Library Annual Meeting with local author Ellen Ekstrom reading from her new novel, “The Legacy” at 7:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Friends of the Oakland Library Booksale at The Bookmark Bookstore from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to Oct. 7 at 721 Washington St. 444-0473. 

Youth Media Council’s “Unplug Clear Channel” Party at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $3-$5. 849-2568. 

“Know Your Rights: What Employers Don’t Want You to Know” with author Carol Denise Mitchell at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, West Auditorium, 125 !4th St. 238-3134. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. For information call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon. Various East Bay opportunities available. Advanced sign-up is required; please call 594-5165.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

“Living with Ones and Twos” Practical advice for parents with Meg Zweiback, nurse practitioner at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Advance registration requested. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.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, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. To register call 752-6150. If you need child care, at $5 per child, call 658-7353.  

New to DVD “Water” Film and discussion at 7 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $3-$5. 848-0237, ext. 132. 

Current Events Discussion Group meets at 7 p.m. at the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. 597-4972. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, OCT. 5 

North East Berkeley Association Candidates Night for Mayor and School Board at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 

“Maquilapolis” A documentary on lives caught in the border-zone of the globalized economy, by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre at 8:30 p.m. at Transmissions Gallery, 1177 San Pablo Ave. 558-4084. www.transmissions-gallery.com  

Workshop for Educators “More Than Your Standard Garden” Your school garden can be an outdoor classroom for science, math, or language arts. Learn how to develop standards-based lesson plans and link existing activities to California Content Standards. From 4 to 6 p.m.. in Oakland. Cost is $25, scholarships available. 665-3546. www.thewatershedproject.org  

Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival at 7 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science. Tickets are $13-$15. 530-265-6424.  

Environmental Film Series “Life + Debt”on the effects of globalization on Jamaica and on the world’s developing countries at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. Training session from noon to 3 p.m. For information call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

Drop-in Health Clinics from 9 to noon at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

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. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 a.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. Free, all are welcome. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

ONGOING 

Each One Teach One Mentoring Program of the Oakland Unified School District is curbing student absenteeism, decreasing suspensions and increasing student participation with the help of volunteer mentors like you. For more information call 495-4010, 495-4011.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon. Oct. 2, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Oct. 4, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 981-7487. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/dap 

School Board meets Wed. Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/housing 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs. Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/landmarks 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 5, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Iris Starr, 981-7520. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/westberkeley