Thirty-nine custodians and their supporters—including City Councilmember Max Anderson —sat down at the intersection of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue Wednesday afternoon to make the point that UC Berkeley custodians should receive wages equal to wages earned by others in the area doing similar work. 

Berkeley police swiftly cited the protesters for obstructing traffic and released them. 

“The union [American Federa-tion of State, County and Muni-cipal Employees, AFL-CIO 3299] knows the resources are there,” Anderson said in a phone interview Thursday, explaining why he joined the protest. “It is probably the most richly endowed public university in the world.” 

Some 250 people—custodians, union allies, students and public officials—converged on lower Sproul Plaza to hear brief speeches, then marched around the campus before the smaller group sat down in the intersection. 

Victoria Garcia is a custodian who has worked at the university for six years. She addressed the rally in lower-Sproul Plaza, telling protesters that when she began work, she earned $11.22 per hour and now makes $11.83.  

“The cost of living is going up; we have to get a second job to afford groceries,” said Theodora Gonsalez, a seven-year custodian, speaking to the crowd through a translator. 

AFSCME says the legislature approved funds especially for the custodians’ raises, but the university, in a statement faxed to the Daily Planet, said: “Contrary to AFSCME’s assertions, UC’s final 2006-07 state budget did not contain additional funds for special raises for AFSCME-represented employees.”

If Merrilie Mitchell were elected to replace 14-year incumbent Linda Maio as District 1 councilmember, she said she would continue the nuts-and-bolts activism she’s known for: peddling her bicycle throughout Berkeley and attending every city meeting she can. 

If elected, however, Mitchell would be speaking from the council dais and not the speaker’s podium, where she is frequently found. 

“I’m going to solve problems. I’m not going to do any political posturing,” Mitchell said in an interview Wednesday. 

Both Maio and Mitchell attend the various candidate nights but neither is mounting a traditional campaign—neither is collecting funds, walking precincts or putting out expensive mailers. 

Maio is continuing her round of neighborhood problem-solving meetings. For example, she said she is working with the Westbrae neighborhood on traffic-calming strategies for the east-west streets in that area. 

“If you live on one of those streets the traffic volume is real high, the speed is real high. It’s not safe to let your kids go out and play,” Maio said. 

The plan, still in the making, includes planting street trees and narrowing driving lanes, using bulb-outs, “so people don’t think it’s a speedway,” she said. 

Another element in the plan is speed tables, which Maio describes as slight mounds in the road to slow drivers. These are not the humps the disability community criticized because they cause pain to some people when they are traversed, she said. Maio plans to propose the speed table plan to the Commission on Disabilities. 

An example of situations Mitchell said she would address if elected is one she found not long ago when six streetlights were out on Sacramento Street, near Berkeley Way. “It’s an area that was very dark and very creepy (without the lights),” she said.  

The solution? “I would have a policy in the city of having someone go out and check if the lights are out,” Mitchell said. 

And she would make sure that overgrowth does not become a place to shield criminal activity. “There are areas in Cedar and Rose Park where shrubs need to be cut back,” she said. 

Pacific Steel Casting 

There are three lawsuits in progress that take aim at noxious emissions coming from Pacific Steel Casting in the western part of Maio’s district. 

Maio said she plans to talk to the city attorney about filing a friend of the court brief on the Bay Area Air Quality District suit against the plant. The suit charges the company with failing to meet legal deadlines for reporting air emissions. 

The Community for a Better Environment suit claims that the plant exceeded emissions limits. Maio said she is looking into the scientific argument of the charge. “We’re glad to have the pressure,” she said, “but I can’t sign off on it until I know there’s a sound scientific basis.” 

As for the neighbors who are going up against the plant in small claims court, Maio said: “We’ll see where it goes. The neighbors have suffered a lot.”  

Asked why she didn’t provide more leadership around odor complaints that are more than a decade old, Maio said the complaints were not verified at the time. “Because the emissions were fleeting, the interest would come and go and the air district didn’t have committed staff to do this work,” Maio said.  

More recently, people in the area have organized to get consistent reporting of emissions, she said: “Our contribution was to get the air district to commit to inspectors 24/7.” 

At that point the district had hired a new director who is more environmentally conscious, Maio said. 

Mitchell said she is also concerned about the emissions. The carbon filter system that will be installed takes out the smell but doesn’t take out all the toxins, she said, “It’s not adequate.”  

Moreover, she said, unlike some of the neighbors, “I don’t want to say, just wipe out the company. They’ll go to Oakland or they’ll go to China and be polluting there.” 

She said that perhaps the city or university could help by designing better technology. 

Measure J 

Maio said she is not supporting Measure J, the Landmarks Preservation ballot measure. Carrie Olson, Maio’s appointee to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, worked on a compromise ordinance with Mayor Tom Bates. Maio said it is a good ordinance. (It was taken off the table when Measure J got enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.)  

“I want to preserve structure of merit,” Maio said, referring to the landmark designation often given to altered structures. The compromise ordinance also includes hiring a staff member knowledgeable in historic preservation. 

“We used to have that and it worked really well,” Maio said. 

Is there a guarantee that the compromise that had been on the table would be back before the council if Measure J fails? “Tom (Bates) will honor that. I will honor that,” Maio said. 

Mitchell, on the other hand, supports Measure J. “It protects our homes in the flatlands,” she said.

Willard Park area residents want a safe, quiet place to live, they told mayoral and City Council candidates at a Tuesday candidates’ night, sponsored by the Willard Neighborhood Association, that drew more than 80 people. 

The peace of the tree-lined blocks that encircle the park once known as Ho Chi Min Park is broken by a daily incursion of tens of thousands UC Berkeley students and staff on their way across town; it is also impacted by elevated property crime, and by a disproportionate number of homeless people that frequent the area, said area residents gathered in the Willard Middle School Auditorium. 

After short statements, mayoral and Districts 7 and 8 candidates put aside stump speeches and answered questions from the floor. (On Tuesday, the Daily Planet will report on the mayoral portion of the event. ) 

District 7 

With challenger George Beier’s war chest brimming with $44,000 (including $18,000 in loans), according to an Oct. 5 filing, and incumbent Kriss Worthington—who has raised less than half that amount—the District 7 race is perhaps the hardest fought of the four council races. 

Residents asked the candidates about their plans to blunt the massive traffic onslaught of university-bound traffic. 

Worthington, who doesn’t own a car, has championed bike lanes and the student bus pass that allows free rides to students who sign up for the program. The system is funded through student fees. 

“Starting in November, we’re going to be doubling the number of buses, having a rapid bus that comes every 12 minutes,” said Worthington, noting that he had worked with various agencies to get millions of dollars to fund the project. 

Worthington took the opportunity to correct an error in Tuesday’s SF Chronicle; he asserted that he does not support an AC Transit proposal to remove automobile lanes and replace them with dedicated bus lanes. “I have never in my life, ever, supported taking away lanes of traffic on Telegraph,” he stated. 

Beier also opposes dedicated bus lanes: “If the bus lane is there, people are going to take alternate streets, which we’ll have to call ‘Hillegraph,’ [a play on the street name Hillegass] when that day comes,” he said. 

Crime 

Fighting crime is a priority, Beier said. He promised to begin “cleaning up” People’s Park by creating a city-university task force. Fighting crime also means drug and alcohol treatment, said Beier, who serves on the Options for Recovery board. 

Making the park safe means increasing its use by adding amenities such as a café or museum, he said. “Let’s make (People’s Park) beautiful. We can do this with a little imagination,” he said. 

Worthington said he’s fought for increased policing and social services in the area. 

“I am the one who wrote the proposals to put more cops on Telegraph Avenue” to restore cuts made by a previous vote of the council majority, Worthington said. It took the closing of Cody’s to get the council to convince the council majority to add back the bike patrols and social service teams for Telegraph, he said. 

And there should be a person with a pager on duty 24 hours a day to respond to complaints in the Telegraph area, Worthington said: “Every shopping mall in America has this.” 

People’s Park activist Dan McMullan asked Beier why he was “demonizing” People’s Park. “Wouldn’t it be better if the university stopped telling students to stay out of the park because it’s dangerous?” he asked. 

Beier agreed, but said the area is truly dangerous: “It’s not the perception of crime, it’s the actual crime.”  

In addition to creating the task force to reduce crime, Beier touted his role in getting the university to fund a $100,000 study on what to do with the park. 

Worthington, however, scoffed. “Why are we celebrating another study?” he asked. “I am not so naïve as the other candidate to say that the fact that UC is putting $100,000 into another study will solve the problem. We have so many studies sitting on the shelves gathering dust that aren’t being implemented.” 

Housing 

Developing four-to-five story buildings of housing above retail along Telegraph could impact both crime and traffic. “UC employees could walk to work,” Beier said. “The more eyes we have on Telegraph, the more ownership we have of Telegraph, the safer it’s going to be.” 

But Willard area resident Lisa Newhall said she was concerned about increasing the area’s already dense population. “It would make it a great deal more urban than it is now,” she said. 

Beier responded, saying new housing would be limited to the first five blocks of Telegraph south of campus and include both condominiums and apartments that would attract long-term residents. 

Worthington disagreed: “Building a bunch of yuppie condos on Telegraph Avenue—one of [Beier’s] top three priorities in the short term—will devastate the businesses on Telegraph,” he said, explaining that construction will disrupt the area for five years.  

Worthington said he supports building a “reasonable” number of units with real affordability and added that he had sponsored most of the legislation for affordable housing during his council term. 

District 8  

By the time the District 8 candidates stepped onto the auditorium stage, there were just about a dozen members of the community left in the audience. Still incumbent Gordon Wozniak and challenger Jason Overman spoke and responded to questions.  

Wozniak, who has raised $34,000 in campaign funds compared to Overman’s $14,000 (with $10,000 in loans), touted his endorsements from police and firefighter unions, as well as Mayor Tom Bates and Assemblymember Loni Hancock. 

Overman pointed to his endorsement by the Alameda County Central Committee of the Democratic Party, the Alameda County Central Labor Committee AFL-CIO and Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring and Max Anderson. 

Both candidates addressed public safety, with Wozniak pointing to his demand that police present quarterly crime statistics and to their promise to reduce property crime by 10 percent each year. 

“Now we need to give them the resources they need,” Wozniak said, adding that he’s supported increases in the public safety budget by $5 million per year. 

Overman said he would insist on ending rotating fire station closures, instituted as a budget-cutting measure, and blasted Wozniak’s suggestion to create another commission in a city which, he said, has too many commissions. 

“I don’t think the answer is creating a Public Safety Commission,” Overman said. “We don’t need more bureaucracy, we need dollars.” 

Overman further criticized as a “band-aid” Wozniak’s plan to spend public dollars for putting vehicle tracking devices on cars. “He said it’s a more efficient use of city money than having police patrol,” he said, arguing the city should put more funds into community policing. 

Wozniak countered that the cost of each new police officer at $200,000 makes his plan cost efficient.  

On housing issues, area resident Sharon Hudson asked how the neighborhood can attract more long-term residents. 

“Only 25 percent of the staff lives in Berkeley,” Wozniak answered. “We’ve got to provide workforce housing so people can live in Berkeley.” He also called for city subsidies to first-time homeowners. 

Overman, elected to the Rent Stabilization Board two years ago, agreed there should be subsidies for first-time buyers but criticized Wozniak for not opposing Measure I, which would permit conversion of up to 500 apartments to condominiums annually. 

Conversion, which would reduce the number of apartments available for rent and cause the eviction of tenants who cannot buy their units, would be “on the tenants’ backs,” Overman said.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal on Monday to review a ruling that allows the City of Berkeley to deny the Sea Scouts a free dock at the Marina because of its discrimination against gays and atheists could spell the end for the 74-year-old sailing group. 

“The city is choosing to punish us for something that is no fault of ours. The power to tax is the power to destroy,” said Gene Evans, skipper of the Sea Scout Boat at the Berkeley Marina.  

The city however denies that it is punishing anyone. 

“If the city is going to fund a community program for the public, then we have a right to require that the program does not discriminate against anyone,” said Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. “The Sea Scouts are part of an organization which requires that you exclude gays and atheists. They were not able to demonstrate that they did not discriminate against these two groups and were therefore denied free access to the berths.” 

The Sea Scouts are bound to the policies of their parent body, the Boy Scouts of America, which mandates that gays and atheists be excluded from the organization. 

“We are so far down the chain,” Evans said. “We don’t even have the hope of ever having any effect on the Boy Scouts’ policies. The Boy Scouts of America is a huge non-profit corporation and the board of directors make all the decisions. We have absolutely no control over it.” 

Although the city had allowed the Sea Scouts free birth space since the 1930s, its subsidy was revoked after the city adopted a nondiscrimination policy on the use of the marina in 1997.  

Monday’s ruling on the case, titled Evans v. City of Berkeley, allows Berkeley to treat the Sea Scouts differently from other non-profits because of their ban on atheists and gays. 

“It’s just not fair that the Sea Scouts are being excluded from the use of a public program because of ideological reasons,” said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Harold Johnson, who is co-counsel to the case. “According to the First Amendment and equal protection law the government cannot prohibit them from participating in public programs on equal basis with other non-profits. The Berkeley Sea Scouts have never been accused of excluding anyone from their group. Their only crime is that they are associated with the Boy Scouts and refuse to disavow their policies. They are the ones being discriminated against.” 

Albuquerque defended the city’s decision to deny funds to the group. 

“The first Amendment does not require us to fund groups which practice discriminatory policies, be it racial, religious or sexual,” she said. “If the Sea Scouts can demonstrate to us in writing that they will not discriminate then the city is ready to fund them. But they are not able to do so.” 

Evans said it was sad that the city would treat the Sea Scouts this way since it had helped put the Berkeley Marina together in the first place.  

“Way back in 1936, during the Great Depression, Berkeley was going through a terrible economic growth,” Evans said. “The Berkeley City Council decided to use funds from the National Recovery Organization to build a Marina that would give local citizens some work. They had funds to pay the workers but no funds to buy rock. The city negotiated with the Boy Scouts and agreed to give them six berths in exchange of 80,000 tons of rock to build the Marina. The Boy Scouts never changed their policy even though Berkeley adopted a non-discrimination policy on the use of the marina. Somehow we got caught up in the controversy and since we are close to the Boy Scouts the city chose to punish us.”  

Ever since the city began charging the Sea Scouts for the berth at the Marina, Evans has been paying $500 a month. 

“The overall enrollment has been affected by the cost of the berth,” he said. “Earlier we had been able to afford outreach programs where we could support kids who weren’t able to pay the membership fees. But we cannot do that anymore. We hold no hard feelings against anybody and respect everybody’s ideas. However, this has been an effort by a small group of boys to try to provide a service to the city and we have had tremendous opposition through no fault of our own.” 

“Politics can be fun” was the message Berkeley City Council candidate George Beier sent out to UC Berkeley students and young Southside residents during his campaign party at Blakes on Telegragh Wednesday. 

Organized and sponsored by Students for George Beier—an UC Berkeley campus organization—this free party for youth voters, which advertised a $1,000 bar tab, managed to raise some eyebrows and ruffle a few feathers. 

“It’s preposterous,” said Igor Tregub, who was rallying for Beier’s opposition, councilmember Kriss Worthington, in front of Blake’s that night. “George Beier’s excessive tactics to intoxicate young voters into supporting him isn’t going to work.”  

By 8 p.m., counter demonstrators, predominantly supporters of Worthington, had gathered outside the bar and were handing out campaign literature endorsing Worthington to those attending the party.  

“We are here to see if people can be bought for beer,” said Dave Blake, ZAB commissioner and Worthington supporter who was also rallying outside Blakes. “Evidently they can. At least one young man told me today that he was going to vote for Beier because he was buying him free drinks.” 

But Beier, who was busy all evening chatting with students inside Blakes, said he was trying innovative ways to reach out to people. 

“Everybody knows that you can’t buy votes,” he said. “I am here to meet the young people who fall under my constituency and answer any questions they have.” 

Some who showed up to protest the event said that Beier, who is a board director of Options for Recovery, should know better than to invite students for free beer on a school night. 

“Doesn’t he know that alcohol related deaths are on the rise in American campuses?” asked Patti Pink, a mother of two college children in Berkeley. “I am sure parents of UC Berkeley students will be alarmed to hear about this.” 

Beier however said there was a world of difference between substance abuse and simply having a beer while talking politics. 

“The $1,000 bar tab was a bit too excessive to have been advertised, I agree,” Beier said. “But that happened because of a few overzealous campaign staffers who put it out there before I could see it. But we are being very strict about IDs, no underage drinking allowed. 

“Berkeley needs to be reminded how to have fun. Students need to forget their worries sometimes and have some fun,” Beier said. “The heart of my campaign is Telegraph Avenue and I want to make it a place people frequent a lot more than they do now.” 

Cambria Scalapino, a UC Berkeley student, admitted that the free food and drinks had been the main attraction and added that she found nothing wrong with the concept itself. 

“There’s free candy for kids during student council elections in high school,” she said. “Free beer is just an extension of that.” 

Lee Cortez, a senior in Berkeley, said that although it was a way to draw a crowd, it wasn’t necessarily a good idea.  

“It’s definitely getting the name out,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s getting the important election issues out. But then I guess it’s the name that matters these days.” 

Chris Devoe, a District 7 resident who was going to vote for Kriss Worthington this year, said he attended the party because he was curious about Beier. 

“It’s a weird way to attract people to vote but it’s a nice gesture nevertheless,” he said. “I just hope that American college kids are smart enough to make their own decisions instead of getting carried away.”  

Robby Kauffman, one of the event organizers, said that 20 students had registered to vote at Blake’s that evening.  

Worthington, who had also turned up that evening outside Blakes, said that he didn’t need to throw an event to attract young people.  

“I work with them all the time,” he said. “Why would I need to buy them free beer to talk to them?” 

Ralitza Dieneva, a UC Berkeley student, spoke to Beier at Blakes about the changes she wanted to see on Telegraph Avenue. 

“I live close to People’s Park and it would be great to actually be able to walk to the park without having someone jump out of the bushes at you” she said. “I think George will help bring out some positive changes. I am 20 years old, and can’t drink. I didn’t come here for the beer, I came here to talk politics and I think this is a great way of doing it.”

It took a week of intense negotiations, with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli moving back and forth between developer Jim Hart and neighbors of Hart’s proposed five-story mixed-use project at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue, for the two sides to come to what appears will be a compromise agreement.  

“It’s a good project and the neighbors want to see it built,” said Prakash Pinto, project neighbor and architect, speaking to the Daily Planet after a special meeting of the Berkeley City Council on Monday. Neighbors had appealed the zoning board’s approval of the project, saying it was too high and too dense for the neighborhood. 

The agreement will be formalized only after neighbors sign off on the final drawings of Hart’s development. The project will be discussed again at Tuesday’s regular council meeting. 

Hart compromised with the Harrison and San Pablo appellants by reducing the building by three units to 27 and increasing parking by 9 spaces. He also rescinded a letter whose conditions would have made it very difficult for the council to deny the project.  

Neighbors had wanted to tie traffic control measures to their approval of the project, but City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said traffic control measures had to be considered separately. 

“State law says we have to do an environmental review,” Albuquerque said, arguing that the city and not the developer is charged with traffic control.  

“I can make the case that the diverters are related (to the project); the two issues are combined,” Pinto said. 

Hart’s attorney, Rena Rickles, called for the council to take a half-hour break so that Hart’s architect and the appellants could go over the new sketches.  

“Every time we walk away from the table, we get multiple changes,” Rickles argued. 

But Pinto said he wanted to see the formal plans so that there would be “no misinterpretation.” 

All finally agreed that final plans will be ready by today (Friday) and all the 13 neighbors who signed the appeal would sign off on the plans before the next council meeting. 

“We have to put it on the fastest track we can put it on,” Councilmember Max Anderson said.

Citizens helping to create a new downtown plan for Berkeley turned their attention to one of the city center’s perennial conundrums Wednesday night: street  

people. 

The occasion was a session on social issues and housing, that featured a panel that included city housing officials, a non-profit developer, an advocate for the poor and homeless and the executive director of the Berkeley YMCA. 

But it was clearly the issue of the poor and the homeless who frequent, sleep and panhandle along downtown streets that most concerned the members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

Created as a result of the settlement agreement ending the city’s lawsuit against UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020, DAPAC is charged with making a new plan for an expanded downtown area that will include a million square feet of new university uses. 

Jane Micallef, who coordinates the Shelter Plus Care program for the city Housing Department, said one goal of the new plan should be a call for increased cooperation between the university and city on housing issues involving the poor and homeless. 

A model, she said, could be the extensive research and survey work conducted by the University of Pennsylvania for Philadelphia, “which makes it much easier to argue for funds.” No such alliance exists between Berkeley and UC, she said, though she acknowledged later that “we haven’t done as much outreach as we could.” 

Micallef said other priorities for the new plan should include: 

• setting a priority on the need for housing and social services in the downtown; 

• calling for a costly seismic retrofit and improvements at the Veterans’ Memorial Building at 1931 Center St., where many services for the homeless are now located; and 

• adding more incentives for developers to create housing for the homeless and extremely low-income tenants, possibly through expediting the city approval process for projects that include the units. 

Street reality 

The reality of street life in Berkeley is more complex than simple stereotypes would suggest, committee members learned. 

For one thing, many of the downtown panhandlers who seek the change of passers-by along Shattuck Avenue and other downtown streets aren’t homeless. 

“People who are housed are twice as likely to be involved in panhandling and recycling activity,” said Micallef. “They may look a lot like homeless people but they are actually housed.” By recycling activity, Micallef said she meant the people who rummage through curbside recycling bins. 

Peter Chong, executive director of the downtown YMCA, said aggressive panhandling is a real problem for people who visit the Y, as panhandlers sometimes pursue intended marks for blocks. 

Berkeley’s homeless population is unique, in part because the city has 40 percent of Alameda County’s chronically homeless, largely single males, Micallef said. One reason may be the perception that Berkeley is friendlier to the down-trodden. 

“There are fewer homeless families in Berkeley because there are slightly more resources for single people while other communities have slightly more resources for families,” said Boona Cheema, executive director of Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS), a program that provides services and job training for those at society’s margins. 

DAPAC member and BOSS economic development program director Winston Burton said, “People feel a lot safer on the streets here than in communities like East Oakland,” especially those with mental problems. 

“Berkeley is a community of tolerance,” he said.  

“Homeless people here are really committed to staying in Berkeley,” Micallef said. “You hear people saying that Berkeley police are a lot more respectful.” 

Another attraction, she said, is that Berkeley has its own mental health program, “and people who are mentally ill feel more comfortable here than anywhere else.” 

But the city also spends a disproportionate amount of funds on emergency services for the homeless, Micallef said, adding that those costs would probably drop if more housing could be found. 

Is there something Berkeley is doing that is attractive to the chronically homeless? asked DAPAC Chair Will Travis. 

“Yeah,” said Billy Keys, DAPAC member and Berkeley High School Safety Officer. “We have poured in a lot of services, and it is socially acceptable to be homeless here.” 

DAPAC member Patti Dacey said the state psychiatric hospital in Napa used to give discharged patients bus tickets to Berkeley, “because they knew there would be services and support.” 

Housing 

“What the homeless need most is housing,” said Dacey, but others noted that getting that isn’t simple. 

For one thing, Berkeley doesn’t have many of the vacant buildings that can be transformed into a single room occupancy (SRO) residence, with shared kitchen and bath facilities, or other types of housing, Cheema said. And another reality is the long time lag between approving new housing and its eventual opening. 

“Imagine today if we decided to build an SRO,” Cheema said, “and that we had all the money and land and no neighborhood opposition.” 

Even then, she said, it would be anywhere from five to seven years before doors opened. “The real challenge for those of us who provide social solutions and who are being asked to come up with a strategy for housing is that those units don’t exist now,” she said. 

Another problem is money—not only funds to build new units but the cash to help their tenants make the transition from street life. 

Housing alone isn’t a solution without social services to support the needs of a population with chemical dependency, mental health and other issues, said Cheema, “and we can’t be sure the money will be there for services by the time we have the housing.” 

Chris Hess, director of resident services for affordable housing developer RCD, agreed, noting that his Berkeley-based non-profit has been forced to cut social service positions at projects they have developed. 

“People need support to make the transition from homelessness,” he said. 

RCD affordable housing projects have expanded from Berkeley to Oakland and the three East Bay counties—Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano. They are the developers of the Oxford Plaza project, which will add 97 units of affordable housing in the heart of downtown Berkeley and six other projects in the city, including the Margaret Breland Homes scheduled to open Nov. 1. 

Other issues  

Accessibility was also an issue, especially for those with disabilities and parents of disabled youths who use special programs at the Y. 

Other issues raised by Y clients included dirty streets, especially along Allston Way, difficulty in parking and the perception that downtown streets are dangerous, particularly at night. 

DAPAC member Rob Wrenn said he didn’t feel particularly threatened downtown, “maybe because I’m a male,” and he asked if crime was more a question of perception than reality. 

Matt Taecker, the planner hired by the city with UC Berkeley funds to help prepare the plan, said that police figures show that downtown is a hotspot for crime. 

Because of the concentration of the homeless and panhandlers in the downtown area, Judy Chess, a planner who is a UC Berkeley ex-officio DAPAC member, said the best solution is to create more diversity in the center by attracting more people. 

“We have to broaden the range of people so that” the behaviors of some of the downtown denizens “is not so defining a feature.”

The long-running saga of the house at 1610 Oregon St. took another twist Tuesday morning with the backyard shooting of a 19-year-old San Leandro man. 

It was the second violent crime at the home this year. 

Identified by Berkeley police in court testimony as a haven for drug dealing, the home has been the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits by neighbors who charge that it is a public nuisance. 

Tuesday’s shooting, which left the young man with a wound that didn’t endanger his life, was first reported to police at 10:28 a.m. when a 911 caller reported hearing a single gunshot. 

Officers and paramedics arrived moments later to find the shooting victim in the rear yard. As some officers—including at least one armed with an assault rifle—searched the neighborhood for a shooter, others worked the crime scene and talked to the injured man and neighbors. 

Owner Lenora Moore, 76, was not home at the time of the shooting, neighbors said, but arrived several minutes after officers arrived. 

“The victim’s injuries were not life-threatening,” reported Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. “He said he didn’t see who shot him. He only heard the shot and felt it.” 

The injured man was taken by paramedics to a local hospital, the officer said, “and he should be home today,” Galvan said Thursday afternoon. 

The officer said the injured man was a regular visitor at the Moore house, “but I don’t know if he’s part of the family.” 

As a reporter snapped photographs of the scene, one of the occupants of the house, a younger woman, stormed out, threatening violence until a police officer intervened. 

On Feb. 8, police arrested a 17-year-old woman, a relative of Moore, after she allegedly stabbed her boyfriend in the back of the head. Those injuries were also non-lethal. The woman was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and domestic abuse. 

Moore has been sued repeatedly by neighbors who have contended that she allows the home to be used by drug dealers, claims supported by police testimony, including one investigator who called the home “the most notorious drug house in southwest Berkeley.” 

Police have made numerous arrests of  

Moore’s relations for drug deals outside the house, and neighbors contend the house is a magnet for violence. 

Plaintiffs won their small claims court actions against Moore, most recently in January, when Alameda County Court Commissioner Jon Rantzman awarded 14 of them $5,000 apiece—a total of $70,000. 

While Moore had avoided payment of an earlier judgment by declaring bankruptcy, neighbor and plaintiff Laura Menard said she had taken out a new mortgage and was paying off the judgment from the most recent suit.

When a Berkeley police bicycle officer spotted a couple of youths brawling in the 2100 block of Shattuck Avenue Tuesday noon, he didn’t expect he’d be joining the fray. 

But a gaggle of other students was watching the dustup, and when the officer attempted intervention, the crowd turned on him. 

“He was assaulted by a large number of Berkeley High School students,” said Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. “He was hit and kicked, and during the fight he injured his arm and shoulder.” 

Police estimated that about 10 students of both sexes were involved in the fight, and several were taken into custody and brought to the police station. Galvan said he didn’t know the cause of the original fight. 

In lieu of criminal charges, Galvan said it is possible the students may be referred back to the high school for administrative discipline. 

Galvan said the injured officer was expected back at work soon.

Three propositions on the November ballot—83, 85, and 90—would make significant changes to the California Constitution or California law. 

Below are summaries of what these propositions would (or might) do. 

Proposition 83—Sex Offenders and Sexually Violent Predators 

In 1994, in response to the brutal kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas by convicted felon Richard Allen Davis while Davis was on parole from another violent crime, California voters passed Proposition 184, the “three strikes” law. If one can read the mind of an entire electorate, the reason Prop. 184 passed was because of its promise to keep violent criminals off the streets. 

But critics have argued that small-print “technicalities” in Prop. 184 made it have another effect entirely, giving out-of-proportion sentences to people who were once violent but whose recent crimes have been non-violent and who were not the danger to society that the voters envisaged. Had the legislature passed the three strikes law, the legislature could have looked at the results and then gone back and made adjustments to put the law on its intended course. But because Prop. 184 was made law by citizen vote, once it passed judicial review only a citizen vote can overturn or amend it, a difficult thing to do. And so, Californians are stuck with both the bad and the good of it. 

In seeking to crack down on sexually violent predators, November’s Proposition 83 provides the same dangers. 

In its ballot summary, the California Attorney General’s office says that Prop. 83 “increases penalties for violent and habitual sex offenders and child molesters. Prohibits residence near schools and parks. Requires Global Positioning System monitoring of registered sex offenders.” 

Sounds simple enough, and it’s hard to make a case in favor of “violent and habitual sex offenders and child molesters” or to argue that we shouldn’t be protected against them. But does Prop. 83 provide that protection? Difficult to say. 

In order to have its desired effect, the initiative makes a dizzying amount of changes to the state penal code, a full twelve pages of it, with references and cross-references that almost no voter will bother to look up. In one provision, it mandates prison rather than probation for “lewd and lascivious acts.” They sound really bad, but what exactly are “lewd and lascivious acts?” While they are mentioned several times in the state Penal Code, it is difficult to find a definition, and for that, one might possibly have to look to judicial decisions. Could they refer to something like being seen masturbating in public—and do voters want to punish such offenses by mandatory prison sentences—or do they involve something more intrusive and serious? You be the judge, literally. 

In addition, the language of Prop 83 calls for additions to the state’s Penal Code such as this: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, when any person referred to in paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 3000 has been released on parole from the state prison, and has been on parole continuously for six years since release from confinement, the board shall discharge, within 30 days, the person from parole, unless the board, for good cause, determines that the person will be retained on parole. The board shall make a written record of its determination and the department shall transmit a copy thereof to the parolee.” 

Why is this paragraph in the initiative? It’s not clear. How would it affect violent sexual predators in California? Would it make it safer for us from them? Or would it be a loophole through which they easily slip? Would it—as Prop 184 did—end up cracking down on nonviolent sex offenders in a way not advertised in the initiative, or intended by the voters? It appears as if the average voter might have no idea, and that to vote for this initiative they would have to trust that the authors of the initiative know exactly what they are doing and can foresee all possible outcomes. 

Proposition 85—Waiting Period And Parental Notification Before Termination Of Minor’s Pregnancy. Constitutional Amendment. 

This proposition has all of the battlelines of the right to life/right to choice wars, with the added complication of protecting parental authority over their minor children vs. protecting minor children from abusive parents and/or guardians. 

Under current California law, a teenage girl can receive an abortion without the consent of her parents or guardians. 

Proposition 85 would change the California Constitution so that the parents or guardians would have to be notified by the attending physician before an abortion could be performed on any teenage girl who is unmarried, not in the military, and has not been declared “emancipated” by the court from her parents or guardians. The proposed new law would not require parental consent for that abortion—just notification—though it is difficult to foresee many circumstances where a teenage girl didn’t want to tell her parents about an abortion because they might be opposed but would go ahead and have an abortion once her parents were notified and expressed that opposition. Given that this initiative is supported by anti-abortion activists, it seems doubtful that its main purpose is to bring parents and guardians into the mix so that they can provide emotional support for ending a teenage pregnancy. 

Prop. 85 also provides for waivers of the notification requirement. A physician could declare that a medical emergency necessitated the immediate abortion, making any delay for the purpose of parental notification life threatening or a risk of substantial bodily harm to the pregnant teenager. Parents could pre-approve any possible abortion of their teenage daughters (though it is hard to believe that such parents would not, thereafter, approve an actual abortion, so it is difficult to envision the circumstances in which their daughter would not inform them herself that an actual abortion was pending). Another waiver to the parental notification requirement could be done by the court upon petition by the teenager. How many teenage girls would actually exercise this option of simultaneously hiding a proposed abortion from her parents while also going to court to ask for judicial approval of a proposed abortion? Hard to say. 

In the end, it would seem that there are several questions that voters need to ask to make a decision on Prop. 85. Is this merely a backdoor way to erode women’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, and to establish a precedent that could lead, for example, to both parental consent and/or consent from the embryo’s father? Does it protect vulnerable teenage girls from make a life-changing decision on their own by helping them to bring in the advice of the people who raised them? How many caring and nurturing parents/guardians are currently left out of that decision under current law versus abusive and/or predatory parents/guardians to whom the girls might be further exposed if the proposition is passed? Is it contradictory—as Prop 85 proponents argue—that teenagers cannot be given minor medical treatment, such as an aspirin by a school nurse, without parental consent, while the major medical treatment of an abortion can be approved on a teenager’s consent alone? Is abortion such a significantly different procedure—touching on so many social and moral directions—that it justifies such a different treatment? Is Prop 85 the only way for the proposed law’s stated goals to be realized, or are there alternative, better ways? 

Tough choices for a tough issue. 

Proposition 90—Government Acquisition And Regulation Of Private Property. Constitutional Amendment. 

The immediate impetus for this proposition came from the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v. City of New London in which the court ruled that it was constitutional for a city to use eminent domain to seize private homes and turn the property over to a private developer, so long as the city had ruled that the development proposed would benefit the public good. Up until the New London ruling, it had been common for governments to use eminent domain to take private property for the use of public projects such as highways or libraries or hospitals. But the new ruling made it possible for cities to take a home and turn it over to Wal-Mart, on the theory that the jobs Wal-Mart provided would be better for the public good than the homes being taken. 

Rare in these days of Bush Republicans, the New London ruling united conservatives and liberal/progressives across the country on the proposition that government ought not to have the authority to arbitrarily transfer private property from one private owner to another. 

Proposition 90 seeks to “correct” the Supreme Court New London ruling, putting language in the California Constitution that “bars state/local governments from condemning or damaging private property to promote other private projects, uses.” Had the initiative stopped at this point, there probably would have been little controversy, and far less opposition to its passage. 

For some reason, however, Prop. 90 went further, adding language that “limits government’s authority to adopt certain land use, housing, consumer, environmental, workplace laws/regulations.” 

Specifically, Prop. 90 requires the paying of property owners for economic losses resulting from future land-use decisions by state or local governments. The law would give a broad definition to private property owners to include homes, buildings, land, cars, and the ownership of businesses (separate from the buildings or land on which that business is housed). Compensation to these owners would be required if the state or local government passed laws that reduce the amount of development permitted on a land parcel or limit the height permitted for a building, two actions that are commonly in the purview of local zoning ordinances. 

The proposition would also increase the amount that would be paid in compensation to owners under these circumstances, changing the current provision of “just compensation” for the property’s “fair market value” to a standard that would place the owner “in the same position monetarily” as if the property had not been taken. This could mean that the courts could rule, for example, that under Prop. 90, if the cities of Oakland or Berkeley limited the height of a proposed development to three stories rather than five, Oakland or Berkeley would have to reimburse the owner for the profit the owner would have made on the two extra floors. 

Taken together, the proposed compensation provisions of Prop. 90, if passed, would appear to put an end to city zoning, making it economically impossible for cities to carry forth such actions, and letting property owners decide, for themselves, what should or should not be done with their property. 

Those who think complete freedom of property rights is a good thing—even if it involves the rights of the person owning the property next door to you—should vote yes on Prop 90. Those who think that government should have a role in the planning process of how cities and rural lands are used should vote no, and come back and correct the perceived mistakes of the New London ruling in another way.

Three propositions on the November statewide ballot seek to raise taxes to support various state programs. Proposition 86 would tax cigarettes to support health projects, Proposition 87 would tax oil producers to fund and encourage alternative energy sources, and Proposition 88 would increase educational spending through a parcel tax. 

Proposition 86—Tax On Cigarettes 

This ballot measure would add an additional state tax of $2.60 per cigarette pack to “fund new and expanded health services, health insurance for children, and expand tobacco use prevention programs.” 

State tax on individual cigarette packs are currently 87 cents, most of the money earmarked for early childhood development programs, tobacco education and prevention, and health care for low-income uninsured people and approved by voters under previous propositions. With California cigarettes currently selling at approximately $4 per pack, the tax would bring the cost of a pack of cigarettes in this state to $6.60. If the proposition is passed, existing state law would require the state Board of Equalization to increase taxes on other tobacco products—snuff and chewing tobacco, for example—by a comparable amount. 

The mechanism for spending the money proposed to be collected under Prop. 86 is somewhat complicated. 

Forty-two percent would go into something called a Health Maintenance and Disease Prevention Account, which would split the money between the expansion of existing children’s health coverage, health education programs aimed at specific diseases or conditions such as colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer, heart disease and stroke, obesity, and asthma, and a public relations campaign aimed at encouraging citizens either to reduce smoking or not take up smoking at all. 

But assuming that a combination of the stiff increase in taxes and anti-smoking campaigns would result in a decrease in the use of cigarettes, 53 percent of Prop 86’s money would go toward making up of the loss of income for programs that were dependent on money earmarked from the existing cigarette tax. 

In some ways, therefore, Proposition 86 is a schizophrenic measure, not seeming to be sure whether its purpose is to raise taxes to fund health programs or to reduce smoking. The more it reduces smoking, the less taxes are raised and, therefore, the less tax money can go to fund health programs. 

The proposition is supported by representatives of such groups as the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association, under the obvious banner that cigarette smoking is bad, and anything that curtails it is good, and that more money for state health programs is even better. 

The proposition is opposed, predictably enough, by cigarette manufacturers but also by a coalition of taxpayers organizations, local chambers of commerce and law enforcement agencies. The law enforcement agencies make the most novel argument against—that the increased cigarette tax would encourage smuggling operations, thus having a ripple effect on crime in the state. 

Proposition 87—Oil Production Tax To Fund Alternative Energy 

This proposition seeks to reduce petroleum consumption in California by creating a $225 to $485 million annual program that would encourage the use of energy sources that are not oil-based. The program would be funded by a tax on California oil producers. California oil producers, obviously, are not particularly pleased with this idea. 

It was a little-known fact—until this proposition was put on the ballot—that California is the third-largest oil producing state in the nation (behind Texas and Alaska, naturally), with a 12 percent share of United States production. While oil companies pay state income tax on profits earned in California, as well as a 6.2 cents per barrel fee on all oil pumped at gas stations located in California, apparently, unaccountably, they pay virtually little in oil drilling fees in the state. Oil companies in oil-friendly Texas and Alaska, on the other hand, reportedly pay billions a year in such fees. 

Prop. 87 would authorize the collection of such oil drilling fees for oil produced inside California (in a formula that’s about as complicated to explain and understand as anything in the energy production field), the money to be deposited in something called the California Energy Independence Fund. 

That money, in turn, would be disbursed to individual accounts with impressive-sounding names (58 percent to the Gasoline and Diesel Use Reduction Account, 27 percent to the Research and Innovation Acceleration Account, 10 percent to the Commercialization Acceleration Account, and 4 percent to the Public Education and Administration Account), each of which, in their own particular way, would encourage or facilitate the use of various “clean energy” alternatives to oil and its cousin, gasoline. 

While the proposition prohibits these proposed new oil production taxes to be passed on to consumers through higher gasoline prices in California, someone in the state Legislative Analyst’s Office with a sense of the understatement and a knowledge of energy industry executives writes, a little drily, that “it may be difficult to administratively enforce this provision [emphasis in the LAO’s original analysis].” 

The proposition is supported by, among other organizations, Americans For Energy Independence, Public Citizen, the American Lung Association, the Sierra Club, and former President Bill Clinton (be sure to turn down the volume on your computer if you click on the www.yeson87.com website; Mr. Clinton’s talk-to-the-folks-in-the-last-row voice can make you jump, coming unexpectedly at you like that). 

Their argument? Oil should pay its fair share in California as it does in Alaska and Texas and other oil-producing states. Funding clean energy alternatives to oil is good, and making the oil producers themselves pay for the competition is, well, somehow appropriate. 

Prop. 87 is opposed by the oil companies themselves, of course (what would you expect?), but also by a long and disparate list of major California newspapers, starting with the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Sacramento Bee. There appears to be a dual opposition argument: the proposed tax will decrease overall taxes coming from a booming and important California industry, the oil producers, and that the tax will result in higher prices for California crude, thus encouraging refineries to turn to foreign oil. 

Proposition 88—Real Property Parcel Tax For Educational  

Funding 

Amends the California Constitution to impose a $50 tax on most real property parcels (elderly and disabled homeowners are excepted) to provide additional public school funding for kindergarten through grade 12. 

Up until now, while the state allocates some $38 billion out of its budget for K-12 education across California, that money comes out of general tax revenues, not a state parcel tax. Parcel taxes, which impose an annual fee on individual properties, are used by local school districts to supplement state money (Berkeley voters have approved such a local school parcel tax, as well as voters in Oakland). 

Proposition 88 would now create a state education parcel tax. The proposed tax would raise approximately $450 million annually, with some $30 million going to the state General Fund to “offset a decline in state income tax revenues,” $1 million going for county administrative expenses, and the rest divided among the schools. 

There is little doubt that public school systems are woefully underfunded all across California, and local districts—be they affluent or low-income or in between—would all be able to put added money to good use. The question is, is a state parcel tax the best way to collect that money? 

Critics argue that parcel taxes are regressive. For those who missed economics and civics classes, progressive taxes (such as federal income taxes, at least in the days before Bush II) are designed to impose an increasingly heavier rate from the lower-income to the higher-income on the theory that the higher-income folks are better able to absorb net losses to their income. Regressive taxes, such as a parcel tax, charge everybody equally, regardless of income. That is often perceived as unfair, since $50 to a low-income family might mean cutting back on essentials, while a high-income family might lose $50 in change between the sofa cushions and never miss it. 

Another argument against a parcel tax is that because local school districts use that form of taxation to supplement the educational funding already coming from the state, having the state get into the parcel tax game puts the state in direct competition with the local school districts. At some point—no-one could predict when—even the most education-supportive taxpayers (such as those in Berkeley), would be expected to say “enough,” at which point it would be the local school bond measures that would most likely suffer. 

In rebuttal, proponents say that local schools need more money, and a state parcel tax is the method to ensure that they get it. “Local superintendents, principals and teachers,” proponents say, “will decide where these resources can be most effective, instead of leaving those important decisions to politicians or bureaucrats in Sacramento.” 

Prop. 88 is supported by a collection of progressive organizations (Working Assets, San Francisco Young Democrats, Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club, the San Francisco Bay Guardian), but notably missing are representatives of folks who usually line up to support increased money for schools: school boards, PTA or teachers. They are on the other side. Prop 88, in fact, has lined up about as diverse a collection of opponents that you can imagine, people who normally are never on the same side of an issue: the California State PTA, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Democratic Party, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Republican Party, the California Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California School Boards Association, the Small Business Action Committee, the California Taxpayers Association, the League of Women Voters… This is beginning to sound like piling on. 

Sat., Oct. 21 

Meet the Berkeley Candidates for Mayor and City Council and learn about measures A, I and J, from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. at St. John’s, Sproul Conference Room, 2727 College Ave. 

Sun. Oct. 22 

Berkeley Election Forum with candidates for Mayor and City Council, and discussion of ballot measures, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 528-5403. 

Wed., Oct. 25  

Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association Candidates Night with Mayoral and Disctrict 8 candidates at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Church, Fireside Room, College and Garber. 

All are welcome. For details, see www.claremontelmwood.org 

Also on Wednesday: Telegraph Merchants’ Association District 7 candidates’ debate at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant. 

With a newly negotiated contract in hand, Doubletree Hotel employees will return to familiar seats at the bargaining table next week. 

Although they signed a contract with Boykin Lodging at the end of August—after working without a contract for eight months—they’ll be sitting across the table from new owners, Canadian-based Westmont Hospitality Group, when negotiations begin next week. 

Westmont Hospitality, which owns and manages more than 400 hotels in the United States, Canada and Europe, took over ownership of the Berkeley waterfront hotel on Sept. 20. 

“Next week, we start negotiating for the next three- to five-year contract,” said Wei-Ling Huber, Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Local 2850 president. The contract signed with Boykin will remain in force until a new contract is signed, according to Huber. 

In August, the union completed successful bargaining with Boykin, winning a salary hike of 40 cents per hour across the board and getting the employer to agree to absorbing increased health-care costs, Huber said. 

The contract is retroactive to January 2005. 

In May, Boykin announced it would be acquired by Braveheart Holdings LP, an affiliate of 30-year-old Westmont Hospitality Group and Cadim, Inc. for $416 million, according to a May 22 article on Hotel Online.  

Westmont Hospitality has recently expanded into Japan via a joint venture with an investment firm owned by financier George Soros, according to Yahoo Finance.

A 19-year-old Berkeley man was shot Tuesday morning in the backyard of a controversial Oregon Street home that has been the subject of repeated public nuisance suits by neighbors and identified by Berkeley Police as a hot spot for drug dealers. 

The victim was struck in the back yard of the house owned by Lenora Moore at 1610 Oregon St. The owner was not home at the time. 

“The victim’s injuries were reported to be non-life threatening,” reported Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan in a written statement. 

The injured man was taken by paramedics to a local hospital, the officer said. 

Police received a report of a single gunshot at 10:29 a.m. and responded to the scene. 

As some officers searched the neighborhood, at least one armed with an assault rifle, others worked the crime scene and talked to the injured man and neighbors. 

Homeowner Moore, 76, arrived several minutes after the shooting. 

She has been sued repeatedly by neighbors who have contended that she allowed the home to be used by drug dealers, claims supported by police testimony. 

Neighbors won the actions, most recently in January, when Alameda County Court Commissioner Jon Rantzman awarded 14 neighbors $5,000 a piece—a total of $70,000. 

One of the plaintiffs who was present on the sidewalk across form the house Tuesday morning said Moore had paid off the judgments.

It took a week of intense negotiations, with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli moving back and forth between developer Jim Hart and neighbors of his proposed five-story mixed-use project at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue, for the two sides to come to what appears will be a compromise agreement.  

“It’s a good project the neighbors want to see it built,” said Prakash Pinto, project neighbor and architect, speaking to the Daily Planet after a special meeting of the Berkeley City Council on Monday. 

Neighbors had appealed the zoning board’s approval of the project, saying it was too high and too dense for the neighborhood. 

The agreement will be formalized only after neighbors sign off on the final drawings of Hart’s development. The project will be discussed again at next Tuesday’s regular council meeting. 

Hart compromised with the Harrison and San Pablo appellants by reducing the building by three units to 27 and increasing parking by 9 spaces. He also rescinded a letter whose conditions would have made it very difficult for the council to deny the project.  

Neighbors had wanted to tie traffic control measures to their approval of the project, but City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said traffic control measures had to be considered separately. 

“State law says we have to do an environmental review,” Albuquerque said, arguing that the city and not the developer is charged with traffic control.  

“I can make the case that the diverters are related (to the project); the two issues are combined,” Pinto said. 

Hart’s attorney, Rena Rickles, called for the council to take a half-hour break so that Hart’s architect and the appellants could go over the new sketches.  

“Every time we walk away from the table, we get multiple changes,” Rickles argued. 

But Pinto said he wanted to see the formal plans so that there would be “no misinterpretation.” 

All finally agreed that final plans will be ready by Friday and all the 13 neighbors who signed the appeal would sign off on the plans before the next council meeting. 

“We have to put it on the fastest track we can put it on,” Councilmember Max Anderson said. 

The Milo Foundation returned to the Zoning Adjustments Board on Thursday with a set of proposed use permit conditions for approval which included: a maximum number of four dogs overnight, no boarding or kennel use and changes in its driveway usage.  

The board decided that since most of Milo’s immediate neighbors on Solano and Capistrano avenues hadn’t had a chance to review these last-minute conditions, the matter would be continued until the next ZAB meeting on Oct. 25. 

At a Sept. 14 ZAB meeting, board members had reached a consensus that the adoption service might be deemed acceptable with limits on the number of dogs, soundproofing, and installation of a sanitary sewer connection and had asked Milo to come back with a plan that reflected this. 

City Staff later came across a section of the Berkeley Municipal Code that states that no more than four dogs over the age of six months may be kept within 25 feet of residential property. 

As a result, Milo had to limit the maximum number of overnight dogs to 4 in its current proposal. 

Solano Avenue residents—who want ZAB to shut the adoption service down because of noise, odor, hygiene and traffic problems—accused Milo of putting on a “cute face” in front of the public while being unmindful of the problems of its neighbors. 

“You know they [Milo] are wrong, and yet you go on ignoring them. You are like the Bush administration,” Melissa Penn, a Milo neighbor, told the board members. 

Dorothy Alridge, a volunteer at Milo, spoke in defense of the adoption service. 

“The place may be chaotic at times, but it’s definitely not out of control,” she said. “If neighbors have indeed been having problems with Milo’s operations then why haven’t we received any complaints on the private number that had been handed out after the September 14 ZAB meeting. All we get are crank calls on it.” 

Milo’s director Lynn Tingle outlined the changes the adoption service was ready to implement in order to get the use permit.  

She said that a maximum of four dogs and 12 puppies (under 6 months of age) would be allowed to stay at the Milo Pet Adoption Store overnight for the purpose of adoption for up to of 14 days.  

A maximum of seven adult cats and 25 kittens would be kept overnight at the store. The store would also keep a daily log of animals who were overnighting, which would be available for inspection. 

Board member Gene Poschman asked Tingle how she had arrived at the duration of 14 days, to which Tingle said that it had been random. 

The adoption service also agreed not to board privately owned animals for compensation or to “intake” new animals.  

“We will only accept delivery of animals that have been registered, observed for an appropriate period and assessed for adoptibility at an appropriate off-site facility. We may accept direct ‘owner surrenders’ from the local area, but will be transferring the animal to an off-site location for observation within 24 hours,” Tingle said. 

According to the new conditions, the adoption store driveway would not be used to contain any dogs until it was improved to provide appropriate physical separation and drainage to the sanitary sewer. Then no more than three dogs would be allowed simultaneously and would be supervised. The driveway would be washed with an “environmentally friendly” cleanser and the outdoor area would be “power washed” at least three times per week. 

Referring to the use of water spray bottles on dogs as noise control measures for continued barking, board member Rick Judd asked Milo to come up with a better alternative. 

Board member Jesse Anthony urged neighbors to read the new conditions put forward by Milo on Thursday for the Oct. 25 public hearing. 

Other matters 

An appeal of East Bay Iceland’s temporary administrative use permit to install a temporary outdoor refrigeration system on the southern side of its property at 2727 Milvia St. for the existing ice skating rink was continued to the Oct. 26 hearing.  

City staff have received numerous noise complaints from neighbors about the temporary outdoor refrigeration system. 

The board granted the use permit but denied a variance to demolish an existing single-family dwelling with a non-confirming front setback and construct a new dwelling with front yard on 1628 Carleton St. 

The board approved the use permit for 1645 Fourth St. and 725 Virginia St. to legalize changes in a non-conforming use.  

A use permit and variance to demolish three existing one-story mini-storage buildings totaling 28,070 square feet on 1120 Second St. and replacing them with a new four-story 95,771-square-foot mini-storage building was also approved.

A steady stream of latte drinkers and Internet users moved in and out of the Royal Ground Café on Shattuck Avenue and Channing Way last week, creating a backdrop hum for a lunch-hour interview with Raudel Wilson, the District 4 City Council candidate, challenging 14-year incumbent Councilmember Dona Spring. 

Spring, the only Green Party member on the Berkeley council, was interviewed mid-afternoon on the tranquil tree-lined deck of her home, some eight blocks west of the downtown buzz. 

The locations chosen by candidates for their interviews reflect two distinct parts of District 4: a business area noted for its restaurants and cafes, but lacking a solid retail mix; and a nearby residential district of single-family homes and low-rise apartments whose community fiercely guards itself against incursions from a downtown that includes businesses, a growing number of UC Berkeley facilities, and the city and schools administrative buildings. 

The district runs roughly from Dwight Way on the south to University Avenue on the north below Grant Street, and extends north to Vine Street above Grant; it runs more or less between Sacramento Street on the west and Oxford Street on the east. 

Downtown 

Downtown is key to the city’s revitalization, said Wilson, who manages the Berkeley branch of Mechanics Bank, was former president of the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) and has the endorsement of the Chamber of Commerce. A healthy downtown will boost Berkeley’s sales tax base and pay for the social services and low-income housing that people want. 

“We don’t have to go back and ask (residents) for more taxes,” he said. 

“Right now, downtown Berkeley is the lowest generator of tax revenue in the entire city. I think it’s embarrassing and unacceptable. Downtown should be the driving engine of the entire city,” Wilson said. 

Economic realities bear some of the blame for the lagging downtown: both Eddie Bauer and Gateway Computers gave up brick and mortar stores for internet sales, Wilson said. Also, the university pays neither property nor sales taxes. 

As he’s gone door to door campaigning, Wilson said people ask him: “What’s the point of going downtown?” Downtown revitalization would take an aggressive business retention and attraction program, he said, placing some of the blame on the city’s two-person Economic Development Division: “Maybe it’s four (people needed); maybe it’s five. It can’t be one or two,” he said. 

Spring says Wilson ought to have been more proactive when he was head of the DBA.  

As councilmember she said she encouraged the DBA to create the Business Improvement District. She also obtained funding for a downtown façade improvement program.  

To promote a better mix of businesses, Spring spearheaded a moratorium on fast-food restaurants downtown.  

The councilmember, endorsed by the Sierra Club, further says she’s been a long-time advocate of the UC hotel-conference center downtown, now in the planning stages. She said she attended meetings on the concept over a decade ago with environmentalists Richard Register and Sylvia McLaughlin, as well as university representatives. 

“So the seeds for that were planted over a decade ago and that’s coming to fruition,” Spring said. 

Spring addresses health issues 

Spring, who is disabled and uses a motorized wheelchair, has frequently attended council meetings via telephone in the recent past. 

Spring said she discussed the issue of her health with others when weighing whether to run again, and they told her: “It’s what you do and say that matters.”  

“I’m participating in community events as much as ever, at least two each week,” Spring said. “By not overdoing it on Tuesday nights, I have the energy to get out into the community.” 

Spring pointed out that the council chambers are poorly set up for people with disabilities. It’s difficult to manipulate a wheelchair through the crowd that gathers outside the council chambers; she injured her hand one day when someone opened a bathroom door that swings out as she passed; the dais where the council meets is narrow and difficult to maneuver in a large electric wheelchair and, worst of all, there is no heat control. Spring said she has gotten ill going from the extreme heat of the council chambers to the chill of the evening.  

Still, Spring says, “When there’s an important district issue, I’ll go to the meeting to talk to (the people) and guide them through the council process.” 

Police issues 

Making sure the police have an adequate compensation package is high on his priority list, said Wilson, who is endorsed by the Berkeley Police Officers Association. 

Comparing Berkeley to other cities its size, Wilson said the city does not spend enough money on its police, explaining that the concerns came from the police union. Wilson was unable to elaborate, but promised: “If I get the job, I’ll do that kind of research.” 

(A quick Internet search reveals: starting Berkeley police officers compensation is $76,248 to $94,896; in Richmond, a city of 103,000, about the size of Berkeley, starting police officers receive $68,556 to $79,104 and in Hayward, population about 145,000, the starting salary range is $72,672 to $87,708.) 

Among her public safety accomplishments, Spring points to added bike patrols on Shattuck, won as part of last year’s budget process. With all the attention going to the Telegraph area after Cody’s Books on Telegraph closed, Spring said she pushed for a funding package where Shattuck Avenue, like Telegraph, would get two more bicycle police officers as well as more outreach by social services to homeless people and the use of a new sidewalk-cleaning green machine. 

Measure J 

Spring and Wilson are on opposite sides of the Landmarks Preservation Measure that will appear on the ballot as Measure J. 

“The current landmarks ordinance needs to be reviewed. If we vote for Measure J, we won’t get that chance to look at the ordinance,” said Wilson. 

Spring said the importance of Measure J is the structure of merit designation. The designation does not guarantee preservation of these structures, Spring said. Its significance is that “there is an educational process that happens.” It buys time for discussion, she said. 

Candidates’ charges 

Calling himself a “consensus builder,” Wilson, endorsed by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, claims Spring is ineffective, often voting in the minority. 

“If you’re bringing items to the table that are always being shot down, or if you’re always voting ‘no’ when others are voting ‘yes,’ it seems like you’re on the wrong side, you’re not in touch with the City Council or the residents who elected you,” he charged. 

Spring, who counts Councilmembers Darryl Moore, Max Anderson and Kriss Worthington among her endorsers, points to projects that have taken years to catch on. She was alone in 1993 when she first introduced Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), the process by which voters rank their choices. The citizens approved IRV in 2004 by 72 percent. 

Spring notes her work on the Oxford Plaza housing development. “I started working on the Oxford lot in 1999,” she said. Developers wanted to purchase the site, but Spring said she lobbied and got the city-owned site reserved for the public use of low-income housing. 

Wilson also supports the project. 

Spring points to funding she got for the traffic island at California and Dwight. “That’s another one that took over a decade,” she said. 

Spring accuses Wilson of misleading voters in the voters handbook saying he has “worked and lived in the fourth district for nine years.” 

Wilson acknowledges he moved to Berkeley two years ago, but said he wrote the statement in that way to conserve words, since candidates are allowed only 150 word statements.

With incumbent Councilmember Dona Spring raising $13,000 and challenger Raudel Wilson raising just under $12,000 as of Sept. 30, the District 4 candidates have more modest and more equal campaign war chests than candidates in the Districts 7 and 8 races, where funds raised by challenger George Beier mount to $44,000 and funds raised by Councilmember George Wozniak are at $34,000. Their challengers Kriss Worthington and Jason Overman, according to the Oct. 5 reporting, raised about $19,00 and $14,000 respectively. 

Spring raised about $4,000 during the reporting period of July 1 to Sept. 30. Wilson raised about $7,000 during the same period. Wilson raised 20 of 42 contributions in donations of $200 to $250 and Spring raised more of hers in the lower figures—13 of 24 contributions were $1 to $99. 

Berkeley has a $250 contribution limit. 

A bank manager, Wilson underscores that his contributions from realtors and developers are not as significant as his neighborhood and non-profit support. Contributions from realtors and those listing their occupations as property owners each contributed $250. They include: William McNab, self-employed property owner; James Mitchell of Gordon Commercial; Miriam Ng, Roman Fan and Robert Richardson of Korman & Ng real estate, and Richard Robbins of the Warsham Property Group. 

Downtown developer Patrick Kennedy contributed $250. 

Residents of District 4 who contributed to the campaign include Jon Vicars, a property manager, Edward Peters, a construction manager, Stephen Lakatos, a pilot and Sherry Markwort, owner of Paperworks. 

Persons working in non-profits include Robert Dixon, administrative director of the YMCA, Phyllis Montz, database manager at the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, and Gina Moreland, executive director of the Habitot Children’s Museum. 

Spring’s contributions include two organizations: the East Bay Auto Machinist Local No. 1546 and the Progressive Democrats of the East Bay.  

Among the District 4 residents contributing to the campaign are: Transportation Commissioner Wendy Alfsen, writer Marianne Robinson, journalist Jean Tepperman, retiree Anna Marie Taylor and Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Jill Korte. 

Contributors working at the university include Alan Gould, a UC educator and Carol Jan David, a UC benefits counselor.  

Spring’s endorsers include the Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Green Party of Alameda, Supervisor Keith Carson, Assemblymember Wilma Chan, Berkeley Unified School District directors Joaquin Rivera and John Selawsky and District 4 residents Chloe Choudry, Jill Peale, Claire Bove and Stephen Wollmer. 

Wilson’s endorsers include the Berkeley Democratic Club, and the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee. District 4 residents supporting Wilson include Michael Cappon, owner of Kitchen on Fire, Peter Levitt, owner of Saul’s Restaurant and Deli, Molly Gales, owner of Classroom Matters, Bruce Tanaka, mechanic and Jane Jansen, restaurant manager. 

State officials have ordered UC Regents and two chemical manufacturing multinationals to clean up toxic wastes at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station (RFS). 

Barbara J. Cook, chief of Northern California cleanup operations for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), announced the order at a Thursday night meeting of the Richmond Southeast Shoreline Area Community Advisory Group, which is advising her agency on cleanups along the southeast Richmond shoreline. 

The 45-page document cites the danger of “actual and threatened release of hazardous substances” as the basis for mandating the cleanup of the university research site located on the San Francisco Bay shoreline. 

The notice was served to the Regents of the University of California, Zeneca, Inc. and Bayer CropScience and calls for the creation and execution of plan designed to clean up at least 13 hazardous metals and compounds at the 152-acre site owned by the university for the past 56 years. 

The two chemical firms are the corporate successors to the operators of plants at the adjoining Campus Bay site, where sulfuric acid plants dumped toxic-laden cinders on the site now owned by the university. 

The order, signed Sept. 15, calls on the university and the corporations to identify all immediate and potential health threats at the site and to create and execute a plan that renders the site safe or places restrictions on its use. 

A similar order was issued that same day for Campus Bay and issued to Cherokee Simeon Venture 1, current owners of the property, as well as to the Regents and the two chemical firms. 

Contamination levels at the 86-acre Campus Bay site have been recorded in soil and groundwater at levels far higher than at RFS. Plans for a 1,330-unit high-rise condominium and apartment complex at Campus Bay have been placed on hold pending the outcome of cleanup operations. 

RFS contaminants 

Before the university acquired the RFS in 1950, the site itself had housed plants that manufacturing explosives and blasting caps using mercury-based compounds now known to be lethal in large doses and capable of causing birth defects and nervous system and other ailments in smaller quantities. 

Mercury soil levels have been detected measuring up to 13 times the maximum allowable limits, with groundwater levels nearly twice the maximum. 

Compounds on the site are known to cause cancer and many diseases, with the most serious cases leading to death.  

Besides endangering RFS workers, the order states that others “who could potentially come into contact with contamination at the site include recreational users of the San Francisco Bay Trail and adjacent residents of the Marina Bay complex,” a residential community that begins 200 feet southwest of the RFS property. 

Regulatory change 

The presence of contamination at RFS had been known for years, and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board had been allowing the university to conduct its own cleanup operations. 

But the state Environmental Protection Agency ordered oversight transferred to the DTSC in May 2005. 

UC officials vigorously opposed the oversight change, a move demanded by campus unions and a coalition of activists who had organized to protest the board’s handling of cleanup operations at the adjacent Campus Bay site. Cherokee Simeon had resisted that takeover as well. 

While most of the site is used to house university-based research, part of the research facility is leased to private corporations and to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Two years ago, the university released plans to transform much of the site into a corporate and academic research park, but those plans were derailed with the regulatory handover. 

The Sept. 15 order cites documents prepared by the water board during its oversight, but says that DTSC “does not intend to imply that it is in agreement with the contents or conclusions set forth in these reports or otherwise approves of them.” 

While the university performed some remediation under the water board regime, other work remains, the order notes, and there has not been a comprehensive report looking at the whole site. 

The order requires the preparation of a new survey that identifies and fills in gaps in previous surveys, as well as the preparation of a baseline health and environmental risk assessment that looks at possible risks to all segments of the populace and to the area ecology. 

The resulting information will be used to prepare a work plan to clean up the site, including a revised plan for public participation.  

DTSC cleanup chief Cook told the community advisory group members Thursday that the agency would be reporting back to them on the cleanup plans. 

“This doesn’t change our overall cleanup plans, but it does allow us to move ahead,” said Greg Haet, UC Berkeley’s associate director of environmental protection. Haet said the university’s cleanup efforts had been “basically on hold since the regulatory change” from the water board to DTSC.

Just how much radiation is there in southern Richmond, and how dangerous is it to residents and folks who work there? 

Members of a state advisory panel heard two conflicting versions Thursday night—and while both sides seemed to agree on the numbers, the interpretations provoked stark conflict. 

At issue was the meaning of levels of Radium 226 found in the soils adjacent to Campus Bay, the site of a century of chemical manufacturing, and at nearby Booker T. Anderson Park. 

Michael J. Esposito, a retired scientist from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, charged that the numbers were alarming, averaging 40 times higher than federally recommended standards for cleanups at the site of residential developments. 

But Robert Daveny, an engineer for the consulting firm hired by the site’s owners to evaluate the data, said that the numbers were in fact well within averages for soils found throughout the country. 

Daveny said at least one other federal cleanup guideline was well above typical levels of contaminants found in naturally occurring soils. 

But the Emeryville consultant probably didn’t help his case with the two comparative examples he first used. 

“I called colleagues from sites nearby,” said Daveny, one in the Berkeley hills and the other in the Altamont hills. 

“The Berkeley hills site wouldn’t happen to be Lawrence Berkeley Lab, would it?” asked Eric Blum, a business owner whose firm is located near the sites. 

“Yes,” acknowledged Daveny, adding that the radiation levels recorded there “are actually at the low end of the national range” for so-called “background radiation” from radium naturally occurring in soils, water and air. 

Those data were collected by a lab at UC Davis primarily from farmlands across the country, he said. 

The Altamont hills site was, in fact, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—which, like LBNL, has a long history as a center of research dealing with highly radioactive compounds. 

But the levels at both sites, Daveny said, were “very typical for exposures for any other location in the U.S.” 

Daveny was addressing the Community Advisory Group (CAG) appointed to advise the state Department of Toxic Substances Control about hazardous waste sites in southeast Richmond. 

Radiation has long been the concern of community activists—and now CAG members—like Sherry Padgett and Ethel Dotson, both current members of the CAG. 

Both had attributed their battles with cancer to exposure to hazardous compounds at the site. Padgett works at a firm immediately adjacent to Campus Bay and Dotson grew up in a long-vanished housing complex near the site. 

The issue of radiation was raised at Thursday night’s CAG meeting because of Esposito’s comments on a report Daveny’s firm produced about the Campus Bay in which the park was used as a comparative “control” for evaluating radiation readings from Campus Bay. 

Padgett and CAG Toxic Committee Chair Jean Rabovsky, herself a retired state toxicologist, question the use of the park as a control because it is downwind from Campus Bay and thus potentially shares the same contaminants. 

Daveny said the data from the park argued against contamination because levels were consistent down to 10 feet below the surface, while windblown contaminants would accumulate on the surface and thus should be higher closer to the surface if radiation-laced dust had blown onto the site. 

Presence of radionuclides—isotopes created by the decay of radioactive material—was suspected in part because of some experiments with radioactive materials known to have been conducted at the Campus Bay site and because chemical plants there produced phosphate fertilizers, made from ores that typically contain higher than normal amounts of radioactive elements. 

Barbara J. Cook, the DTSC’s chief of Northern California cleanup operations, said her agency will look more closely at the data when results of a second survey now in progress have been submitted. 

“I don’t gain a lot of confidence when I hear we’re on a par with the Lawrence Livermore lab,” said Blum. 

Following the meeting, Steven J. Levitas, an attorney from Raleigh, NC, who represents Cherokee Investment Partners—codevelopers of Campus Bay with Bay Area developer Simeon Properties—buttonholed Esposito, asking “Are you aware that the radium levels are one-third of the national average?”

What is the definition of a “test”? 

Alameda County voting activists put that issue to its own test last week at the regular meeting of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, telling supervisors that the vulnerability assessment produced on the new Sequoia Voting Systems earlier this month was not the “test” called for in the supervisors’ resolution authorizing the Sequoia contract last June. 

Only one supervisor—Board President Keith Carson—agreed with them, however, with the remaining four supervisors voting that the Sequoia test was adequate to meet their security concerns. 

Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner and voting rights activist Phoebe Anne Thomas Sorgen said that activists were “disappointed” by the decision, but Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker said that “the consultants did what we asked them to do” and says that the Alameda County Registrar of Voters has established an “excellent protocol” for establishing the safety of the November vote. 

The non-profit Voter Action organization has already filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Oakland against the county and the registrar of voters office, claiming that independent security testing had not been done on the new Sequoia voting machines as required by county supervisors. 

Last June, supervisors approved a $13 million contract with Oakland-based Sequoia Voting Systems to provide scanners and touchscreen voting machines for Alameda County elections. 

Until last June’s primary, elections in Alameda County had been conducted for several years on Diebold touchscreen voting machines. Changes in state law and changes in community attitudes caused Alameda County to adopt a different system this year, with most voters beginning in November voting on paper ballots, with computerized touchscreen voting machines available at each voting place for disabled individuals who need to use them and any other voters who wish to use them. 

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters office is estimating that the cost to the county for the new system will end up being virtually nothing, between reimbursements from the federal government and selling back the Diebold machines—which cannot be used in California because of the state’s paper audit requirements but can still be used in several other states. 

Under the new system, voters using paper ballots at the polling place will be able to feed their paper ballot themselves into a scanning machine on-site, which will count the votes. At the end of the voting day, counters holding the vote totals from each precinct will be brought to county election headquarters in Oakland to be totaled by computer. 

Last June, at the insistence of local voting activists, supervisors approved the Sequoia contract only with the provision that county staff would “conduct independent security vulnerability testing prior to paying for the electronic voting system.” 

“I think that the voting advocates wanted us to open up the machines and see what was in there,” Supervisor Lai-Bitker said in a telephone interview this week. 

But Lai-Bitker said that “what we wanted was to ensure that there could be no manipulation of the vote or fraudulent vote as we have seen with the use of electronic voting machines in other states. I believe that with the protocols established, it is very unlikely that someone could open these machines and mess up the vote.” 

Lai-Bitker said the Pacific Design Engineering assessment was ‘what I had in my mind” when she voted last June to require testing on the system. 

Lai-Bitker represents the cities of Alameda, San Leandro, and a portion of Oakland on the Board of Supervisors. 

But voting activist Sorgen called the Pacific Design Engineering report “a whitewash” and only an assessment of Sequoia and Alameda County’s security provisions, rather than an independent test of the machines themselves. 

“Last June, we succeeded in having them include security and hack-testing, and that’s not what was ultimately done” by the consultants. The problem, Sorgen said, remains with the electronic touchscreen voting machines which are part of the system, which are required by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the use of disabled persons, and which Sorgen calls “hackable.” 

“There will only be one hackable machine per precinct,” she said, “but that could be enough to throw an election. We are all in favor of giving disabled persons private access to the vote, but that shouldn’t be on a machine that is hackable.” 

Sorgen said that voting activists in the county will be urging citizens not to use the touchscreen machines “unless they have to for disability reasons.” 

In its Oct. 4 report, Pleasanton-based Pacific Design Engineering said that “no practical, realizable vulnerabilities were uncovered” during its assessment of the Sequoia voting system, and concluded that the system “along with the processes and countermeasures planned by Alameda County for Election Day can be considered secure.” 

While condo conversions and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance represent the bread and butter issues of municipal politics, Berkeley voters will also get to weigh in on matters of national and global significance when they cast votes on two ballot measures. 

One of those is purely symbolic, while the other could end up incurring potentially significant costs—though just how much and when is a matter for conjecture.  

Two other measures are more tightly focused and strictly pragmatic—one endorsing a park and the other authorizing an alternative to costly elections to fill unexpected vacancies on the city’s Rent Stabilization Board. 

Each of the four measures landed on the ballot after receiving a unanimous vote from the City Council. 

Impeachment, gas 

Measure H, titled “Impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney,” asks Berkeley voters to decide whether to call for the figurative heads of the nation’s top elected officials on the grounds they “have committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors” meriting impeachment. 

Signing the ballot argument in favor were Berkeley’s own First Political Family, Mayor Tom Bates and spouse and Assemblymember Loni Hancock, along with Peace and Justice Commission Chair Steve Friedkin, Constitution Summer President and Co-founder Geoffrey King and Rabbi Jane R. Litman. 

The measure also won the endorsements of Berkeley’s two most famous anti-war activists, Cindy Sheehan and Daniel Ellsberg. 

The opponents, most of whom identify themselves as victims of or witnesses to crimes, counter that Berkeley officials should abandon symbolic gestures and concentrate on solving the city’s own problems, starting with crime and schools. 

Measure G is titled simply “Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” and calls on voters to set a municipal goal of reducing the city’s output of planet-heating gases by 80 percent by 2050 and adopting a plan that spells out the steps to achieving that goal. 

As the city attorney’s analysis notes, “Actions to implement the plan will have a cost, which are [sic] unknown at this time and will depend on the nature of the plan developed by the mayor, in concert with the community, and adopted by the council.” 

The measure attracted only one foe willing to author opposition arguments, Fred Foldvary, co-director of the Civil Society Institute, a libertarian think tank based at Santa Clara University. 

Foldvary says the best solution is to replace income and sales taxes and taxes on improvements with taxes on pollution, congestion and land value and leave the details to the invisible hand of the market. 

Fields, vacancies 

Measure F, “Gilman Street Playing Fields,” essentially asks voters to rubber stamp a fait accompli, the creation of five sports fields on East Bay Regional Parks land west of Interstate 80 at the foot of Gilman Street. 

The measure locks in the new use and carries no costs. No one submitted an opposing argument.  

Measure E, “Rent Board Vacancy,” similarly attracted no opposition, and would change the way vacant seats are filled on the city’s Rent Stabilization Board. 

Under the current regime, a costly special election would be needed to fill an unexpected vacancy on the board. Measure E allows other board members to elect a replacement who would serve until the next November general election. 

In addition to a unanimous council vote, the proposal also won a unanimous endorsement from the rent board.

6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17: 

Willard Neighborhood Association Candidates Forum featuring the candidates for the mayoral, District 7 and District 8 City Council races at the Willard Middle School Auditorium, 2425 Stuart St. 

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18: 

South Berkeley mayoral debate at B-Tech Academy auditorium, 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Derby. 849-4319. 

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19: 

Mayoral candidate debate Between Tom Bates and Zelda Bronstein in the Le Conte School cafeteria (Russell Street entrance). Sponsored by the LeConte Neighborhood Association. All are welcome. www.neighborhoodlink.com 

UC Berkeley officials have issued a call for a consultant to lead the process that could end with major changes for the most hotly contested piece of real estate in Berkeley history, People’s Park. 

The university posted a Request for Qualifications on its website to conduct a study of the park, assess community needs and “provide concept planning for the park.” 

UCB Director of Community Relations Irene Hegarty said the recommendation came from the park’s Community Advisory Board in June and won approval from campus officials last month. 

The university posted a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) last week seeking a planning consultant to work with the community on a needs assessment and plan for the park. That document is posted at the UCB website at www.cp.berkeley.edu/RFQ.html. 

While the RFQ includes one phrase that should offer some comfort to park activists—“UC Berkeley’s 2020 Long Range Development Plan confirms the park’s continue use as recreational open space”—the following sentence offers a qualification: “Specific site functions, however, must take into account a wide range of stakeholders from both campus and community.”  

Hegarty said the proposal to hire the consultant came from an advisory board subcommittee that includes school board member John Selawsky, UCB faculty member Sam Davis, neighbor Joseph Halperin and UCB student Ionas Porges-Kiriakou. 

“It came as a recommendation to engage in a comprehensive needs assessment and community planning process to engage the wider community,” Hegarty said. 

The RFQ contains words that alarm long-time People’s Park activists, who see the university as an imperial force with malevolent designs on the last remaining symbol of Berkeley’s 1960’s activism. 

The university has owned the site since June 22, 1957. It has been the scene of dramatic confrontations between police and activists, including the May 15, 1969, shootings by Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies that left one bystander dead and another blinded. 

“People’s Park should be given to the people who have been taking care of it for the last 37 years,” said Danny McMullan, a veteran park activist. “It’s unique; it’s a landmark created by the Berkeley community. It’s the only open space in the entire area.” 

While McMullan and others say that say the main problem with the park is the university’s ongoing efforts to develop it, the RFQ states that the park “although, at times, successful as a recreational resource, is also plagued by urban problems. The Advisory Board’s goal is to mark the park safer and more widely used by a broad range of community members.” 

One member of the board that supports the RFQ is George Beier, who is running for the City Council seat that represents the district—a seat now held by Kriss Worthington, who is seeking re-election. 

Worthington and McMullan both declare that the park’s alleged lack of safety has a lot more to do with the university’s constant admonitions to students than with reality. 

McMullan insists the park is safe—“My kids play there, and I would never put them in harm’s way.” 

“I think it would be far more productive for the university to work with the city and the community and the park users, but that hasn’t been the pattern unfortunately,” said Worthington. 

The deadline for applications is Nov. 6, with the goal of creation of the study itself by next April 30. 

Hegarty isn’t saying how much the university plans to spend on the study, but when told Worthington had heard an estimate of $100,000, she acknowledged, “That would be the upper limit.”

A five-person panel will present their views Wednesday night about the role of social services, homelessness and new housing in a new plan for downtown Berkeley. 

The following evening, the Design Review Committee will examine plans for a series of projects that will make major changes in the Berkeley streetscape. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) meets Wednesday to hear from Berkeley YMCA Executive Director Peter Chong; Chris Hess, director of resident services for affordable housing developer RCD; Boona Cheema, executive director of Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency; and Steve Barton and Jane Micallef of the city Housing Department. 

DAPAC was created by the settlement of the city’s lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020 and must create a new plan for an expanded downtown area. 

Following a discussion about the panel presentation, DAPAC’s Center Street Subcommittee will present a report focusing on their discussions of planned developments on the downtown street with the heaviest pedestrian traffic. 

That thoroughfare is the site of two major UCB-backed developments—a hotel and convention center complex at the northeast corner of the Shattuck Avenue intersection and a university museum and film complex at the northwestern end of the block. 

Developer Patrick Kennedy also plans a project across the street to the west, where he is acquiring the old Act I and Act II Theater. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Design Review Committee 

Developers will present their designs for several new projects when the Design Review Committee meets at the same center starting at 6 p.m. Thursday. 

Among projects to be examined are plans for: 

• The new Freight & Salvage showroom at 2020 Addison St. 

• Developer John Gordon’s plans for transforming an 18,195-square-foot garage at 2929 Ashby Ave. into a retail, office and restaurant complex. 

• Plans for a 44,080-square-foot housing and retail complex at 2701 Shattuck Ave. at the site of a used-car lot. 

• Developers Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald’s plans for a controversial five-floor, 148-unit residential complex at 1885 University Ave., which the developers say will house a ground floor Trader Joe’s market. 

• Plans for a five-story, two-building, block-square housing-over-commercial complex at 700 University Ave. featuring 173 dwelling units and 212 parking spaces.

The question of how to deal with out-of-district students in the Berkeley public schools has become a major issue for school board candidates in this election. 

Although re-registering students when they enter high school level was a solution that had initially been suggested by school board candidate David Baggins, it has been taken up by some of the other candidates as well. 

Three of the five school board candidates who are running for election this year told the Planet that re-enrolling students when they enter Berkeley High School could help enforce the residency requirement for registration in Berkeley public schools. 

“I like to believe that a convergence of factors as well as my candidacy caused many people who already understood that the schools were suffering from the consequences of false registration a chance to speak out,” said Baggins. 

School board director Shirley Issel who is running for re-election this year and supports re-registration, said the school district has taken steps over the last five years to strengthen its Office of Admissions and Attendance. 

Currently, eighth-grade students go directly to Berkeley High from the middle schools without requiring an updated proof of residency. 

Karen Hemphill, a school board candidate who supports re-registration, said the unknown number of falsely registered students made the issue complicated. She cautioned against taking extreme measures to root out out-of-district students. 

“It’s important to find out just what the impact of falsely registered students may be on our schools’ resources before we take extreme measures,” she said. “Random bed checks could harm a child in a lot of ways, including invading his privacy.” 

Baggins, however, feels that if information technology didn’t help the school district to come up with the false addresses, it was important to use home inspection. 

School Board candidate Norma Harrison blamed the district’s problem on the “dysfunctional school system” rather than registration. 

“The alienation of people using school causes disruption and dismay; not the actual home address of the student,” she said.  

School board director Nancy Riddle, running for re-election, did not return repeated calls for comment. 

According to Baggins, issues such as the achievement gap, Measure A and the recent Pacific Legal Foundation lawsuit against the school district were among the factors that made the community take notice of the problem of students in the schools who didn’t belong in the district. 

“Critics of the schools were vocally focused on the achievement gap,” he said. “This seemingly unfixable problem caused many to wonder how BUSD achieved so much more at-risk population than its general public exhibits. Measure A caused many to wonder why the priority of spending in the district is to service out-of-district students and whether passage of long-term extra funding would be interpreted by the schools as an acceptance that BUSD did not intend to fix the broken registration system. The suit against quotas in the schools causes a broad realization that the district is discriminating against residents and taxpayers for the benefit of a substantially falsely registered population.” 

Issel said that although some families registered their children under false pretenses at Berkeley schools, this was becoming more difficult with the tightening of the admission process. 

“New positions have been added to support a more careful registration process, including home visits when necessary to contact parents or verify residence,” Issel said. 

School superintendent Michele Lawrence told the Planet that if the school board voted for re-registration, the issue could be brought up at the board meeting as early as spring. 

“Currently, if we find that a student is studying illegally at a Berkeley school, we put him on a legitimate permit and watch his behavior carefully,” she said. “It’s not a good practice to yank a child away in the middle of the semester. They are returned back to their own school district at what we think is an appropriate time to make that move.”

Butter knife bandits 

A pair of teenage bandits, one armed with a butter knife, robbed an Oakland youth at Thousand Oaks School shortly before 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 7, school officials told police the next day. 

Chemical attack, salsa style 

What’s listed on the Berkeley Police Department website as an aggravated Assault-Chemical wasn’t a case of WMD, but instead was your basic run-of-the-mill salsa attack. 

Officer Galvan said the incident took place at Via Taqueria in the 2900 block of Russell Street just before 4:30 Wednesday afternoon, when an unknown assailant hurled the hot sauce in the eyes of a 23-year-old Alameda man who was dining at the eatery. 

The saucy assailant fled in a silver compact car, possibly a Honda, while the victim was busy washing out his eyes. He declined medical aid. 

Bandit team 

Two robberies that occurred less than 15 minutes apart and within blocks of each other on Oct. 7 may have been perpetrated by the same team of bandits, said Officer Galvan. 

The first unsuccessful heist occurred just before 11:40 p.m. in the 2200 block of Dwight Way, when a 30-year-old Berkeley man reported he was approached by a pair of men in their 20s who made an unsuccessful attempt to force him to part with his valuables. 

The second try 18 minutes later and a block to the east proved successful when a pair of the same description, now accompanied by a third man, robbed a 23-year-old Los Angeles woman of her diamond earrings. 

Late report 

A 58-year-old San Pablo man told police Monday, Oct. 9, that he’d been robbed the night before on Shattuck Avenue near the corner of Prince Street. A fellow armed with a small-caliber pistol relieved him of his wallet, keys and check book, said Officer Galvan. 

Kick attack 

Police arrested a 27-year-old homeless man at 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9, after he allegedly kicked a Berkeley woman repeatedly in the 2300 block of Blake Street. 

The suspect was booked on suspicion of aggravated assault. 

Hoodie hoods 

A pair of young bandits, both wearing hoodies and one packing a silver-colored pistol, robbed an Albany man of his wallet near the corner of Los Angeles Street and The Alameda just after 9 p.m. Oct. 9. 

Flee in SUV 

A bandit with a pony tail and driving a Ford Explorer robbed a 22-year-old Berkeley man as he was walking along Milvia Street near Allston Way Monday, Oct. 9. 

After the victim handed over a small amount of cash, the bandit sped off and was last seen heading south on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, said Officer Galvan. 

Fourteen former El Cerrito mayors have endorsed me, since I will bring fresh ideas to the city council and I understand to prioritize how we spend our city’s limited funds.  

Record high property values, retail sales, and utility bills have increased city revenues by 38 percent over the past three years and city spending unfortunately kept pace. It is in 2008, when the city will have to comply with state laws in regards to generous retirement benefits that the chickens will come home to roost.  

I have the experience we need to protect our community, invest in our city infrastructure, and promote development projects that are harmonious with neighborhoods. I serve on the El Cerrito Financial Advisory Board where I help review the budget and other fiscal matters of the city. I consistently question and probe the economic issues to protect taxpayer monies. I am also a homeowner, and I am a graduate of public schools. I have an MBA in management, and I am a scientist with a Ph.D. from Yale. Two years ago I helped start a local business with $32 million in venture capital funding that is developing treatments for cystic fibrosis, asthma, and eczema.  

The unprecedented rise in tax revenues should have been used to: (1) Fix our failing streets before spending money on pet projects; (2) Reduce our alarming crime rate; (3) Protect our public spaces, and; (4) Finalize a plan to build and fund a new library and senior center. 

An accessible and cooperative government 

The goal of the city council should be to make sure that basic services are provided and to encourage individuals and businesses to invest in our city. I would be the representative of the people of El Cerrito and a representative of our existing businesses. I would facilitate decisions that are harmonious with our community and neighboring communities. I would avoid creating parking problems, blocking views, and building high-density housing on or nearby environmentally sensitive areas.  

An honest budget  

El Cerrito should be a city that residents and businesses can trust. I want to lift the fog and let the people know how their money is being spent and how any new taxes would be spent. The residents recently rejected a new Lighting and Landscaping tax (LLAD tax) because many recognized the city’s shell game of saying the tax was for public spaces, although the tax would not be used to provide additional lighting and landscaping services. This year the council voted to cut funding to the LLAD. I understand that residents want to see the parks maintained, and they want adequate lighting for their safety. 

I believe the city should maintain a budget that provides a pay-as-you-go approach. The current plan of deficit spending through bond measures saddles the city with future interest payments, doubles the cost of every project, and potentially limits future services.  

Safety 

We need to reduce the crime rate. El Cerrito, neighboring communities, the state parole board, and the school district should be encouraged to work together to reduce crime as well as providing more opportunities. I would balance policing with community development and education. It is a well-known fact that a city that does little to reduce petty crimes becomes a haven for serious offenses.  

The city should make it a priority to provide paramedic services at all fire stations, including the station on San Pablo Avenue. Fast response times save lives when a life-threatening emergency. Unfortunately, during the last four years 17 of the 32 firefighters left El Cerrito, which is the highest attrition rate in California.  

In the event of an emergency such as a chemical leak, a crime spree, or a fire, the city should maintain a voluntary emergency contact list to notify residents of eminent dangers. An automated notification system would be a cost-effective solution to prevent loss of life and reduce crime. 

Improving efficiency 

By working together we can prioritize our projects, control our spending, and increase city revenues through continuous community improvement. For many residents and businesses electronic notification and online forms will makes El Cerrito an easier place to live and do business at a lower cost. I would also encourage a better use of our boards and commissions. When appropriate, boards and commissions should offer their recommendations as part of the staff report to the council. For example, the Economic Development Board was not consulted on the Cerrito Theater that cost the city $7.4 million to build and at least $150,000 annually to pay for the debt.  

I would also work to improve the El Cerrito recycling program. The council recently voted to increase taxes to pay for recycling to levels higher than the rate of inflation. Currently, residents pay double for curbside recycling, once for an unused sorting facility in Richmond and once for sorting at the drop-off center. Potential savings could be used to fund a new drop-off center.  

Natural resources 

El Cerrito parks, creeks, trees and exceptional bay views are resources that add value to our community. I would work to improve the safety and restore the natural splendor to our open spaces by guiding the city towards a plan to replace Monterey pines and eucalyptus trees in our parks with native species. The city should not obstruct views with industrial-sized streetlights in residential areas, 

Honoring the El Cerrito tradition 

I promise to comply with El Cerrito’s time honored traditions and relinquish office after two terms. For decades every El Cerrito Mayor and Councilmember has voluntarily stepped down after two terms. Term limits cultivate new ideas and spawn fresh perspectives, so I will make it my duty to train potential successors to run for local office.  

Closing remarks 

I have a track record of working cooperatively with dedicated staff, council members, and the residents. I have been participating in developing a ten-year plan for infrastructure catch-up. I want to continue planning for a new library and senior center and find ways to fund these projects. I know these can be done with current revenues if expenditures are properly managed. I will continue to ensure high quality services consistent with responsible spending.  

Visit ForElCerrito.com for additional information.

My name is Janet Abelson. I’m the mayor of El Cerrito and I appreciate this opportunity to tell you about my background, my accomplishments on the El Cerrito City Council and my plans for the future. 

I have an MBA in Management from San Francisco State University and I worked for many years at UC Berkeley as a systems analyst.  

My husband and I have been homeowners in El Cerrito for over 30 years. Our children all attended El Cerrito public schools. The youngest now attends El Cerrito High School.  

I’ve been active in the schools and local community groups for many years. I am the long-time chair of El Cerrito’s Earthday Event. I was a member of the planning commission that developed the current general plan.  

I’ve also been active in the transportation field. I’ve served on advisory committees at BART, AC Transit, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission where I helped to formulate the successful Transportation for Livable Communities Program now known as TLC.  

I received a state transportation award known as a “Tranny” for my advocacy efforts. I currently represent West County on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. Last year I served as chair. 

Earlier this year I was honored by the State Assembly in Sacramento when Assembly Member Loni Hancock selected me as Woman of the Year for my work in education, transportation and the environment. 

I became a council member so I could make El Cerrito a better place to live. My goal was to make El Cerrito a destination - a place where people wanted to live, work, shop, and play. 

This was not an easy task. When I joined the council, El Cerrito, along with most other cities in California, was coming out of a long period of financial stress. We have worked hard to turn things around, and we’ve accomplished a lot. 

I appreciate the cooperation of the many community members and city staff who have worked with the city council to make El Cerrito what it is today. They are contributing to its future. Our success is attributable to the strength of our team effort.  

El Cerrito is a diverse community with many needs. All are important. In fact, our city has the oldest population in the county. That’s why I supported adding paramedics to all of our fire stations, reducing response time and saving lives. 

We have a high crime rate. That’s why I voted to increase police department staffing by 23 percent over the last five years. I supported the addition of two motorcycle officers to aid in traffic enforcement and speed reduction, as well as two school resource officers for the high school. 

El Cerrito needed more recreation facilities. We now have a new swim center, a new playfield at Canyon Trail Park, and new playgrounds at Cerrito Vista, Canyon Trail, Arlington, Central, Tassajara, and Castro parks. We have new recreation programs for all ages. We even have a robust program for preschoolers, our fastest growing population. 

I’ve worked hard to protect our environment and I appreciate having the endorsement of the Sierra Club. I supported and promoted the recently completed creek restoration projects at Cerrito Creek and Baxter Creek. As mayor I asked the council to support the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement to reduce global warming. I also voted in favor of using green building practices in new city buildings.  

There are major improvements in our city infrastructure. We are building a new city hall with no new taxes. Fairmount Avenue has had a major face lift. The Cerrito Theater is about to open. We also spent over five million dollars on street repaving and sidewalks. El Cerrito Plaza has been successfully rebuilt. Working together as a team, our city successfully recruited Trader Joe’s.  

Our financial house is in order. During my time on the council, we implemented new computer and financial systems and earned several awards for our financial reports. We built a very healthy reserve. 

I have worked hard within El Cerrito and at a regional level to make this happen. My experience and ability to work with others in the region has helped us be successful in obtaining grants to fund the projects we want to improve our community. 

Now it’s time to build for the future and there is more work to be done. I have the knowledge and background to move forward on critical city issues.  

I decided to run for re-election because I want to build on my experience, knowledge, and regional position to make El Cerrito an even better place to live. The learning curve is steep. I have the experience. I will continue to work to attract funding and resources to El Cerrito so we can tackle our toughest challenges—street repair and facilities maintenance. 

Some of the projects I want to see to fruition include the new city hall, a new senior center and library, and continued improvements to our parks. We are about to begin a 6.7 million dollar facelift on San Pablo Avenue, from the north end of town to the south end.  

For me, it’s all about building a better community. And that’s why I ask for your support on Nov. 7th. 

I was elected to the City Council in El Cerrito in 2002 and I’m now running for my second term. I have been serving my community for 10 years, first as a member of the Redevelopment Advisory Committee, than as a Planning Commissioner, and for four years on the City Council. I proudly served as Mayor in 2004-2005, representing our City on the West County Mayors and Supervisors board; on the Contra Costa Conference of Mayors; and on regional boards, such as the Association of Bay Area Governments. I also have extensive experience volunteering in our public schools. I have lived in El Cerrito with my husband—Phil Martien— raising our two daughters who have attended Madera Elementary, Portola Middle School and El Cerrito High School. I served on school site councils at Madera and Portola and currently represent El Cerrito on the West Contra Costa Unified School District Citizen Bond Oversight Committee. 

A few weeks ago as I was driving along San Pablo Avenue I caught my first sight of the Cerrito Theater sign. It was an amazing feeling. To see the sign, so new and shiny, and in beautiful shades of blue. Our dream has finally become a reality. We’ve succeeded in restoring our historic theater and an El Cerrito landmark. The word “CERRITO” in neon is the physical manifestation of this community working together for a common goal. Our path was not without challenges or sacrifice. Together we raised money, pulled weeds, solved design problems, negotiated lease agreements, and restored the theater. We can all be proud, knowing that so many El Cerrito residents have contributed to the city’s success that our families are able to enjoy. 

While we may not always agree, we always work together and this City Council has worked hard to build a sense of community. This Council has been able to achieve many successes that in prior years had seemed unattainable. Together we have consistently approved a balanced annual city budget with appropriate reserve funds; rebuilt infrastructure such as parks, roads, and city buildings; hired new police officers—including two dedicated school resource officers at El Cerrito High School; and supported economic development and enhancements on San Pablo and Fairmont Avenues. 

As a Councilmember and Mayor, it was my personal goal to create a more accessible, responsive, and open government. I work collaboratively with our excellent staff and treat my fellow council members, the public, and guests in our community with respect.  

Four years ago I campaigned to make improvements to San Pablo Avenue. Since then we have made great progress, established an unprecedented level of cooperation from both Caltrans and the City of Richmond, planted many new trees on Fairmont and San Pablo, improved businesses, added banners, and are working to install new gateway and destination signs. I led the efforts, with my fellow volunteers on the Arts and Culture Commission, to require developers to contribute 1 percent of their project costs to public art. 

We’ve worked with the state, received grant funds and support form the Costal Conservancy and restored Cerrito and Baxter creeks. My long career as an environmental geologist and my record in El Cerrito shows my commitment to environmental stewardship, parks, the Ohlone Greenway and to preservation of our hillside and creek natural resources 

I would like to continue on the City Council to see construction of our new civic center and city hall building. As a member of the design subcommittee, I have worked to make sure that the project incorporated “green elements” to help protect the environment. The civic center, like the theater project, will be a culmination of over a decade of community vision, past and current City Council funding, and our effort towards creating a city center, a landmark where people can gather and where visitors will know—this is El Cerrito—you have arrived! 

I would also like to continue to explore funding and development of a new library, with expanded hours, and a renovated senior center to the diverse needs of our community.  

In many communities we see political battles that stymie constructive dialogue and forward progress. We don’t have that in El Cerrito. We have a Council with people of various backgrounds, different ages, and of different political parties but we all work together to get things done. The Council’s work is an extension of our volunteer efforts and together with community members and volunteers equally as dedicated, we will get things done in El Cerrito. 

I am honored to have the support and endorsement of Senator Tom Torlakson, Assembly Member Loni Hancock, and Supervisor John Gioia, my fellow council members, several School Board Members, and many respected members of the community. In addition I am endorsed by the United Professional Fire Fighters Local 1230, El Cerrito Democratic Club, Sierra Club, Central Labor Council of Contra Costa County, West County Business & Professional Association, and Planned Parenthood. 

I ask for your vote so together we can achieve our goals for El Cerrito’s future. Thank you. 

I, Andrew W. Ting, have lived in El Cerrito since 1987. I graduated from El Cerrito High in 1991. I earned my bachelor degrees in Music and Economics from U.C. Berkeley in 1995. Go Bears!!! From 1995–1997, I went to University of Minnesota to pursue my masters of music with an emphasis in Orchestral Conducting. After coming back to El Cerrito, I realized that my passion has always been in education. I began teaching in the public schools under West Contra Unified School District in 2000 while attending California State University, Hayward to obtain my teaching credential. 

In the five years I have been with the school district, I taught band, orchestra, math and ELD. I have also served as the varsity coach in football and track & field for El Cerrito High from 2001-2003. Currently I am teaching math and music at De Jean Middle School in Richmond.  

In the spring of 2005, I started my own business, Pacer Sport Inc. (www.pacersport.com) in El Cerrito. I understand the difficulty and frustration of starting a new business. I am in support of promoting our local businesses. Positive growth in local businesses will certainly help our city to achieve economic stability. I am currently a member of the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce. I am quite honored to join this group of business owners in serving our greater El Cerrito community.  

Having gone through and benefited personally from the public school system throughout my entire educational career, I wanted to give back and devote my time to my community especially to our children so they too can realize their dreams. I want to encourage our city to promote arts and music for our youths. We need to focus our attention in educating our youths for they are our future.  

As an elected council member, I will listen to the public voice. Your concerns are my priority. While dealing with taxpayers’ hard earned money, I want our city to make sensible financial decisions. As we are faced with an increasing amount of crime rate in our city, I demand that our public safety be improved. Furthermore, instead of spending our limited budget on unnecessary projects, let’s shift our attention on fixing our damaged roads and other deteriorating public works that have been neglected for some time now. Lastly, let’s not put any more financial burden on our residents by raising sales tax and property tax in order to generate more funding for our city. Instead, let’s make our city more business friendly so we can attract more healthy businesses to invest and operate in El Cerrito. Once our local businesses began to prosper and flourish, more funding will naturally be generated for our city via sales tax.  

As a long time El Cerrito resident, I believe our city hall needs a fresh voice. Let’s work together to make El Cerrito a better place for all of us to live in. We deserve the best people to work for El Cerrito. Therefore, I sincerely ask and seek for your support for my candidacy. Please elect Andrew Ting for El Cerrito City Council.  

For more information, please visit www.andrewting.org or write to me at support@andrewting.org. Remember to vote on Nov. 7. 

Someone called us this week to complain that the depiction of mayoral candidate Zelda Bronstein in Tuesday’s cartoon was, to put it kindly, very unflattering. The caller opined that she and two (female) friends thought that the cartoonist must be a misogynist at heart, since he always seems to draw Bronstein harshly. Well, probably that’s not the explanation. 

Bronstein (although quite attractive looking in real life) is a caricaturist’s dream. She has a head full of springy curls, glasses, a mobile, active face with a big mouth and lots of vivid facial expressions reflecting her many opinions. Her opponent Tom Bates, on the other hand, is a cartoonist’s nightmare. What hair he has left is now white and flat. His countenance is bland and regular, sometimes with a pleasant smile, often with neutral affect. A picture of Bates is apt to look just like any other old white guy, even when you draw an (uncharacteristic) scowl on his face for cartoon purposes. That’s just how it is, and the cartoonist’s attempt to show the two of them debating resulted in a recognizable if plug-ugly Bronstein and a Bates who could be AnyGuy getting grouchy. 

Another caller thought that the cartoon was trying to be a nasty dig at dumb young people. The candidates on the podium were spouting acronyms at a heavy rate—EIR, ZAB and such—and a young listener was saying that they weren’t speaking her language. That one could have been intended to cut either way—the cartoonist might also have been saying that the candidates ought to be spending their time on the big picture with more universal non-planning topics, presumably saying things like “give peace a chance,” “impeach George Bush” or “a chicken in every pot.” I don’t know what he intended, since he doesn’t clear his topics with me.  

On the other hand, both District 7 candidates, George Beier and Kriss Worthington, are gifts to cartoonists. Worthington, a very sincere fellow indeed, looks a lot like cartoon detective Dick Tracy, with his square jaw, angular head and determined expression. Beier, a self-made millionaire, is the spitting image of Daddy Warbucks, the millionaire patron of cartoondom’s Little Orphan Annie, with his round bald dome.  

And really, it’s impossible to caricature candidates better than they caricature themselves. Case in point: several volunteers in Kriss Worthington’s campaign gave the Planet copies of an invitation to a party Wednesday night staged by his opponent George Beier. It promised attendees free drinks at Larry Blake’s (“$1000 bar tab”), a ticket in a raffle of a game machine, and featured a grinning bobblehead Beier photo superimposed on a Cal football player’s tiny body. “FREE BOOZE!” “FREE FOOD!” it said. Registering to vote at the door was one way to earn your spot on the guest list. 

One of our older staffers worried that since the party was also advertised on myspace.com, a near riot was likely to ensue as thirsty students lined up for the free liquor. Another thought it was a mistake for Beier to sponsor this kind of possibly rowdy drinking party since a big feature of his resume is his service on the board of an addiction recovery charity.  

I took a look at Beier’s MySpace slide show which advertised the event, and I wasn’t even a little bit worried about a deluge of students looking for a big blast. The background music, just for starters, was the Cal band playing what seemed to be a football song of some sort. Here I must confess that never in my undergraduate career or subsequently have I attended a Cal football game. I don’t know the statistics, but I’d take almost any bet that the percentage of University of California at Berkeley students and/or alumni who care passionately about football has not gotten above 25 percent in the last 40 years. Today’s students are even more serious, if that’s possible, than they were in my Beatnik-wannabe crowd.  

Perhaps typical MySpace viewers are more likely than average to be in the school-spirit segment, but other resident voters in the district Beier hopes to represent often regard Cal games and their fans as a nuisance. And they too can look at MySpace if they want to. The Worthington campaign is busy circulating the URL to all comers: www.myspace.com/votegeorge. 

And the pictures they’ll see there! The first one shows George with his arms outstretched around three charming specimens of what used to be called “gorgeous co-ed cheerleaders.” Unwitting viewers might be tempted to think “dirty old man,” unless they knew that George is actually a happily-partnered gay guy. Another picture shows him with a toothy smile standing in front of a nice display of what used to be called “bongs” or “hash pipes.” In the olden days such implements were used to inhale controlled substances, and as such would also seem to conflict with George’s substance abuse board membership, but perhaps nowadays students use them instead for legal herbals or just for medicinal inhaling. And the title of the slideshow? “Oski is One of My Biggest Supporters!” The overall impression is that George Beier is an overgrown version of the kind of rah-rah undergraduate more sophisticated students (and there are still plenty of them in Berkeley) try hard to avoid.  

We remember that when Mayor Elihu Harris offered Oakland voters free chicken dinners he was widely criticized. We also remember the splendidly named Vanzetti Hamilton, candidate for district attorney, saying on one Michigan election night that “the other side’s offering voters five bucks a carload to vote for their guy!” What can we do about it? asked the ever-present straight man. “Well, of course, we have to pay 10!” Vanzetti said. (In case he’s still alive somewhere and reading this, he was joking, of course.) 

The Larry Blake’s party took place as scheduled on Wednesday night. (The Planet sent our youngest reporter, and she’ll have the inside story in today’s paper.) We stopped by the door of Blake’s briefly on our way to pick up a murder mystery at Moe’s. The Worthington people were bearding would-be party-goers at the door with a handout that reproduced for student enlightenment a bowdlerized version (Kriss is a very proper guy) of the late California Assembly boss Jesse Unruh’s legendary take on how to deal with lobbyists: 

“If you can't take their money, drink their booze, eat their food, screw their whores, and still look them in the eye and vote against them, you don't belong here.” 

At a glance, it looked like very few students had shown up to take that advice—there was no unruly crowd beating down the door and offering to trade votes for free booze. We were not surprised. Some students are party animals and some are political activists, but there’s not much overlap between the two groups. 

In the mail this week, a flood of glossy brochures, soliciting votes for the upcoming election. If you’re confused by them, you’re not alone. 

Case in point: the one mailed with “Issel for School Board” as its return address. On the front: a photo of candidates Issel, Riddle and Hemphill, wearing yellow “Yes on A” t-shirts, accompanied by (and wearing a matching t-shirt) Tom Bates. Maybe you didn’t know that Tom was running for school board? Or that the mayor of Berkeley in general couldn’t control school spending? Or maybe you thought that the other two school board candidates also supported Measure A? 

Inside, toothy photos of all four plus cute pictures of kids. 

And on the back, on a big yellow square:  

On Nov. 7, vote for our children’s future!  

3YES on A.  

3 Mayor Tom Bates.  

BERKELEY SCHOOL BOARD: 3Karen Hemphill 

3Shirley Issel 

3Nancy Riddle. 

You might be excused for thinking that the supporters of Measure A have also endorsed Bates for mayor and are backing the three other candidates listed.  

This does no good for Measure A. The obverse conclusion is that if you don’t like Bates, you should vote against A. Tying what should be a non-partisan vote on a tax measure to partisan city government politics, or for that matter to selected school board candidates in a contested race, does immeasurable harm to the measure’s chance of passing.  

Bates’s opponent Zelda Bronstein is also a strong supporter of Measure A. Since it needs a two-thirds majority the measure will need her voters as well as his, and there’s just no reason to alienate them.  

And in fact, it looks like those chickens are coming home to roost. The board of the North East Berkeley Association has just come out against Measure A, as have the neighborhood association umbrella groups BANA and CNA. Others who have some reason to dislike Bates (or the three School Board candidates) will be tempted to vote no on A too. 

You can’t really tell who manufactured this particular dirty little piece. It lists the addresses of all four candidates in microprint on the bottom of the back page, but also has, in large print, www.BerkeleyMeasureA.org. But this website says nothing about Measure A supporters’ endorsements for mayor or school board, though it does list some of the politicians who endorse A, among them Bates and ex-Mayor Shirley Dean, but not (significantly or oversight) Bronstein.  

This technique is one we’ll see more of in the next few weeks. My guess, if I were forced to guess, would be that if we could trace the funding for this mailer, the link would go back to Tom Bates’ campaign war chest. It’s traditional in California politics, particularly with the Sacramento crowd where he and his friends have been hanging out, to try to grab the coattails of the person or program that’s likely to be a winner. In Berkeley, school taxes are more popular than motherhood or apple pie, both of which have many local detractors.  

But we’ll never be able to trace it, of course. Last week we learned that the much vaunted Berkeley Election Reform Act is not worth the yellowing paper it was written on back in the idealistic early seventies. In the course of trying to track the nefarious activities of the Chamber of Commerce political action committee Business for Better Berkeley and the various hats it hides under, we discovered that BERA is full of loopholes ready to be exploited by old pros like Bates. A 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Buckley v. Valeo, severely limited government ability to control campaign spending, as did subsequent cases following it. The Berkeley city attorney panicked and excised from BERA any provisions she thought might not follow Buckley, and as a result it’s as full of holes as a hunk of Swiss cheese.  

It’s likely that in the next couple of weeks, and especially in the last week before the election, we’ll be seeing a lot of last minute hit pieces with murky provenance like this one. Even if sponsors might eventually claim authorship, it now won’t have to be until after the election, since the first reporting period has come and gone. The second one isn’t over until October 26, and there are plenty of chances for late filing with few penalties. Business for Better Berkeley PAC had its hand very lightly slapped by Berkeley’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission for transgressions in the 2000 election. In the 2002 election BBG turned $8500 of its proceeds over to the organization which was the precursor of Livable Berkeley, the pro-development lobbying group, with no need to account for the source of the funds. They paid for some effective last-minute hit pieces against Measure P, a height limitation measure opposed by the development industry. The thousands of dollars collected at BBG’s Sept. 21 fundraiser this year have yet to be reported, but it’s a sure bet that this kind of money is destined to be funneled into some kind of last minute propaganda piece released under shadowy auspices. Measure J, re-enacting the Landmark Preservation Ordinance, is one likely target. 

Here’s what the Planet can do to help with this problem: Anyone who gets any kind of suspect hit piece in the waning days of the campaigns should send it immediately to us by mail to 3023A Shattuck Ave. (or if it’s in the last couple of days before the election, bring it by our offices). We’ll scan it and put it on the web as a PDF file, and we’ll give the “hittee” a chance to respond either on our website or in our print edition if time allows. If everyone in Berkeley who cares about good government functions as a collective truth squad, we might let a little sunshine into this election.  

THE DAILY PLANET  

ENDORSES: 

Mayor: Zelda Bronstein 

District 1: No endorsement 

District 4: Dona Spring 

District 7: Kriss Worthington 

District 8: Jason Overman 

Measure A: Yes 

Measure I: No 

Measure J: Yes 

More to come... 

GOLDEN GATE FIELDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recently, Peter Tunney, president of Golden Gate Fields, wrote a letter to the citizens of Albany. I would like to reply. 

Because the letter attacks two City Council candidates, I believe it constitutes an illegal corporate contribution to the other candidates. 

Mr. Tunney asserts that Magna Corporation is not proposing a casino in Albany. While technically true, Magna has recently funded initiatives and pushed legislation to legalize racetrack-casinos in California, and has installed casinos in its racetracks where legal. 

If the track is not closing, despite its long-term woes then we do not need replacement revenue to maintain our current city services.  

The letter states that Golden Gate Fields has worked “for several years” to complete the Bay Trail. I see no Trail, and I must conclude that they are holding completion of the Bay Trail hostage to their commercial plans. 

As I understand it, Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile speak of planning for the shoreline, a municipal zonings process, and do include input from the landowner. Whether Golden Gate Fields stays or not, the main issue is the possibility of massive development on the waterfront. 

I urge the voters of Albany not to be taken in by half-truths promulgated by a corporation with mega-millions of dollars at stake. 

Vote for Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile. 

Sarita Mathiasen 

Albany 

• 

CURL’S CLAIMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his Oct. 13 letter, John Curl decries Mayor Bates’ intent to “convert the west Ashby and Gilman corridors into Emeryville-style shopping centers” as if this were a bad idea. He seems to ignore the fact that Emeryville is rolling in money while Berkeley’s infrastucture is crumbling. He says this “would create disastrous traffic jams at the freeways, draw business from our other shopping centers, and damage our light industrial and arts and crafts community.” Emeryville demonstrates that by immediately diverting exiting traffic from Powell into the shopping areas through a modern traffic control system, no disastrous traffic jam is created. Berkeley has no “other shopping centers” in any real sense, but if he means Shattuck and Telegraph, business has already been drawn from them by—guess what?—Emeryville and El Cerrito! We can’t ignore them—we must compete. As for damage? Much of his cherished West Berkeley is an industrial blight—a little investment can hardly damage it. 

Mr. Curl blames Bates for his “failure to maintain the health of our existing commercial centers, resulting in decreased tax revenues.” Nonsense! Whatever one may think of Bates’ political style, he’s not responsible for the fact that in recent years the entire nature of commerce has changed dramatically. People do not shop “downtown”—not downtown Berkeley, not downtown Oakland. If they know what they want, they order it online, and a big brown truck delivers it. If they really want to shop they go where there is ample free parking surrounded by dozens of stores—a shopping mall. 

Mr. Curl asks what it means to be a Berkeley “progressive” today. My answer is that if he includes himself and his political cohorts in that group, they are not progressive at all, but stubbornly re-gressive, and their constant mantra is change nothing, build nothing, do nothing. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

DISHONORABLE MAYOR  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates personally stole 1,000 copies of a newspaper endorsing his opponent on the eve of his 2002 election. And he lied, for over a month denying any involvement with the crime, then his apology for his act was “on behalf of myself and my supporters.” And his apology was greatly insufficient; he had desecrated freedom of speech, but he faintly called it “inappropriate...I jumped offsides.” 

The honorable thing would have been to acknowledge the full magnitude of his appalling wrong, and resign to enter a re-vote. He took the papers from kiosks on Sproul Plaza, home of the Free Speech Movement. I had been a big fan of his, but it’s bad enough what President Bush does to our freedoms, we don’t need to accept it on the left and in Berkeley. 

Bill Kristy 

• 

BATES MOTEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The big difference between Zelda Bronstein and Tom Bates is that Bronstein actually knows something about city planning. Unlike Bates, Bronstein is willing to listen to the people and preserve our neighborhoods, which would be a refreshing change in City Hall. Bronstein’s support of Measure J tells me that she envisions a habitable and environmentally friendly Berkeley in our future, and not developers feasting on a banquet of historic homes. When Bronstein says that she opposes government by fiat, she’s talking about how most of us feel when we go to the City Council and try to be heard. How often does the council reduce our heartfelt concerns to the hyperbole of mere citizens?  

Nobody is fooled by Alan Tobey’s fairy tale that the council behaved democratically when it ignored the pleas of so many people not to replace our Landmarks Ordinance with one that gives developers free rein to buy opinions about which homes can be destroyed with impunity. What shall we call the edifice built when a historic home is destroyed? The Bates Motel? I bet it’ll be a chain. 

Gus Lee 

• 

THE TRUTH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s too bad that Alan Tobey, author of the recent commentary, “Preservation and Democracy: the Case Against Measure J,” didn’t write the truth. Tobey would like you to believe that the mayor’s so-called “reforms” to our 32-year-old Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) are the result of six years of discussions and that these “reforms” were some sort of compromise. This is sheer spin to dress up a dangerous proposal that will make it easier for Tobey’s fellow Livable Berkeley board members to do their developer dance with the mayor and the City Council. 

Tobey criticizes Measure J as never being available for community discussion. Hello Alan—you need to be reminded that Measure J is Berkeley’s 32-year-old LPO with only six minor changes suggested by the state Office of Historic Preservation. That’s a lot of experience compared to almost anything but particularly to the closed door sessions regarding “reforms” that the mayor held in his office with last minute proposals being distributed the same day as people were expected to vote or comment on them. Throughout all the discussions, Berkeley citizens raised multiple objections to the Mayor Bates/Councilmember Capitelli proposals. They were totally ignored. No one wanted to go to the ballot, but it became absolutely clear that there would be only two choices given to people: Either live with the significantly weakened Bates/Capitelli proposals or go to the ballot box to protect the LPO we already have. 3,000 residents signed up in about two weeks to put it on the ballot, the most democratic process in the world. Tobey blithely claims that the Landmarks Preservation Commission supports rejecting Measure J. He completely neglects to state that councilmembers had to make changes to their appointments in order to gain Commission approval of these bogus LPO “reforms.” 

Don’t be fooled by the web woven by Mr. Tobey to entice you into rejecting a basic protection for every neighborhood in Berkeley or by the election mailers paid for by undisclosed developers that according to another article in the Planet are sure to follow. The Yes on Measure J campaign is a grassroots effort courageously standing toe-to-toe against big developer bucks. 

Mickey Hayes 

• 

MORE ON GOLDEN GATE FIELDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As an Albany resident for 34 years, I have seen three racetrack owners attempt to push massive development plans for the waterfront onto the citizens of Albany—first there was Santa Fe Railroad (renamed Catellus), then Ladbroke Racing, and now Magna Entertainment which is based in Toronto, Canada. 

All these years, the majority of Albany residents have kept the vision of a park for this magnificent setting and have not been seduced by the lure of easy money through mega malls built by the racetrack owners.  

Once again, the dominant issue in the election for city councilmembers this November is the waterfront and the amount of commercial development that may or may not be built there at some point in the future.  

All of the candidates running for City Council this November are open to some commercial development on land owned by the track. The difference is “how much” development. Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile are the two candidates who firmly oppose a Caruso style mega mall and that is why I support them. 

How much income-producing development does Albany need at the waterfront? Quality of life is not based on money alone. The desirability of our town would be greatly enhanced by a generously sized park at the waterfront with its world-class vistas of the Bay, San Francisco, and the Golden Gate Bridge. As population and congestion in the East Bay increase in the future, parkland and open space will become even more valuable and desirable. 

We can’t be discouraged by the time it takes to achieve a result at the waterfront we all can be proud of. Recent newspaper articles about the East Shore State Park and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area inspire me. It took many, many decades and a determined citizenry for these parks to become a reality.  

As always happens in city council campaigns, the rhetoric in “Dear Neighbor” letters and leaflets at our doorsteps is heating up. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball. Electing Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile this November will convey the message once again that we oppose a mega mall at the waterfront. 

Anne Foreman 

Albany 

• 

NOT SMAART ENOUGH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

BeSMaart, an organization that cannot even spell its name right, and the North East Berkeley Association (NEBA), an organization that is soon likely to have new leadership, can’t seem to make a coherent argument against Measure A.  

Take the issue of class size. Yolanda Huang of BeSMAART, in a KitchenDemocracy.com debate in May/June of this year, stated: “BeSMaart advocates that 26:1 (elementary) and 28:1 (secondary) class sizes based upon a district wide average be the commitment to which BUSD is held. A district average standard provides enough flexibility at individual schools.” However, in her recent Daily Planet opinion piece she criticizes Measure A for using the average class size as a basis for class size limits: “The measure also does not contain any ceiling or limit on how large a class can be. It takes to achieve a result at the waterfront we all can be proud of. Recent newspaper articles about the East Shore State Park and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area inspire me. It took many, many decades and a determined citizenry for these parks to become a reality.  

As always happens in city council campaigns, the rhetoric in “Dear Neighbor” letters and leaflets at our doorsteps is heating up. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball. Electing Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile this November will convey the message once again that we oppose a mega mall at the waterfront. 

Anne Foreman 

Albany 

• 

NOT SMAART ENOUGH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

BeSMaart, an organization that cannot even spell its name right, and the North East Berkeley Association (NEBA), an organization that is soon likely to have new leadership, can’t seem to make a coherent argument against Measure A.  

Take the issue of class size. Yolanda Huang of BeSMAART, in a KitchenDemocracy.com debate in May/June of this year, stated: “BeSMaart advocates that 26:1 (elementary) and 28:1 (secondary) class sizes based upon a district wide average be the commitment to which BUSD is held. A district average standard provides enough flexibility at individual schools.” However, in her recent Daily Planet opinion piece she criticizes Measure A for using the average class size as a basis for class size limits: “The measure also does not contain any ceiling or limit on how large a class can be. It talks about averages.”  

NEBA bests BeSMaart by managing to contradict itself in the same piece of literature. In a recent newsletter, NEBA “cannot support pursuing the single tactic to reduce the student teacher ratio...” Elsewhere, NEBA refuses “to support a measure requesting 200 million dollars that ‘may’ or may not be used for smaller classrooms.” From what I read, NEBA wants a guarantee for something they don’t even want. 

Of course, these two organizations do make an important point in their concern for the priority of reducing academic achievement: Where’s the warm pool!?! It’s just disgraceful at how much harm the foot-dragging on this issue is causing our students! (Could the inclusion of this issue in all the anti-Measure A arguments have anything to do with one of the sponsors being the “president” of the “United Pool Council”?) 

Elsewhere, within the complexities of the Measure A debate, Ms. Huang questions whether the superintendent of BUSD is qualified because she was trained as an art teacher. The arguments spiral down from there, reaching the bottom when NEBA states that a decently written measure would guarantee that there would be no “pretend guns in the classroom.” Even my Berkeley High School 11th grader had a laugh at that.  

C. A. Gilbert 

• 

ELECTION THEFT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You can steal some elections all of the time, and all elections some of the time, but you can’t steal all of the elections all of the time. 

Harry Gans 

• 

NO ON MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I too am voting no on Measure A. I fully support the thoughts and comments of J. Haven’s Oct. 13 letter to the editor with respects to the Berkeley Unified School District’s mismanagement practices, their only high point is a chef, Ms. Ann Cooper who is paid from a “grant” and not from BUSD budget clearly demonstrates to me the (low) priorities this current administration has for children, and running said educational institution—they do not demonstrate to me that they really care about all these kids —but rather in their own narcissistic salaries. How many lunches would the salaries of administrators Mr. Neil Smith and Ms. Lisa Udell (= 134,931.00 x 2) pay for? How many pencils and crayons for the kids? How many tricycles and kick balls would it pay for? How many raises for those hard-working teachers would it provide? How much bleach for the custodians would it pay for? More than they have now. These afore-mentioned items directly affect the kids today—not some administrator sitting in some posh office downtown thinking about where the next state money will be coming from. Clearly BUSD does not know how to spend the money it has now—so why give them more. Vote no on Measure A. 

Karl Jensen 

• 

MEASURE I 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Can anyone shed some additional light on Measure I? Reading section 21.28.070 it is unclear how the property price is calculated. If the landlord is free to set any terms, s/he need only set the asking price at $1 billion to exclude the tenant from accepting (thereby saving 3 percent). If the property value is determined by the market, the tenant could match the top offer and immediately flip the property for 5 percent cash (rather than 2 percent). I’m also not clear who would bid on a unit against a -5 percent trump card. 

John Vinopal 

• 

UNION-APPROVED? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What’s up with the Berkeley Democratic Club? 

One of the axioms of California politics has been that you can always tell when campaign literature comes from a Democrat by the union bug printed near the return address. 

A typographical symbol, usually oval in shape, the bug is filled with tiny type that identifies the union local whose workers printed the mailer. But the Berkeley Democratic Club doesn’t have a bug, unlike almost all the other literature that’s been stuffing my mailbox these days. 

What’s up? Did the club resort to a non-union shop? If so, pretty odd. I note that literature from candidates the club didn’t endorse—Dona Spring and Zelda Bronstein, for example—carries the bug, and even the candidates they do endorse, like Bates and Wozniak, have bugs on their mailers. Is the party forgetting its roots? They should remember that old song, “Look for the union label. . .” 

Anne Wagley 

• 

FOR MIRIAM WALDEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am voting for incumbent Miriam Walden, and candidates Jamie Calloway and John Kindle for the Albany School Board. All three have impeccable records. All three have children in the schools, and have direct and extensive experience serving the Albany schools and community, consistently, tirelessly and effectively, giving of themselves to help make the Albany schools what they are today. All three firmly stand for equity and fairness as well as curricular vibrancy and financial solvency. 

John Kindle carries his wisdom up his sleeves, readily rolling them up to dive in and help wherever it’s needed, with care, attention and knowledge. Jamie Calloway is a fearless visionary, devoting her life to learning and advocating for youth, especially youth at risk. And thanks to Miriam Walden’s vision, bold initiatives, hard work, and eloquent reasoning, the Albany School District is able to modernize its buildings, restore librarians and counselors, expand its programs (including the arts, sports, English Language Learners, and vocational training), begin the overhaul of school lunches, and give staff the salary increases they so deserve—all without going in the red. Their record is clear: voting for all three candidates to the school board puts Albany in the best of hands.  

Nadine Ghammache 

Member, Albany Board of Education 

• 

OUT-OF-DISTRICT STUDENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After all the recent letters and editorial comment about the effect out-of-district students may have on Berkeley’s public schools, I can recall no expression of concern about the reverse—i.e. the consequences our own policies may have on our neighbors. Knowledgeable insiders readily admit the obvious: that BUSD’s registration policies (as administered in practice) are a good deal more lax than those of our neighbors. 

Oakland’s school district, now under state administration, needs all the help it can get. It certainly doesn’t receive any from Berkeley, if its caring parents, whose involvement in and support for the Oakland district is desperately needed, receive our encouragement to transfer their children here instead. Surely we owe our neighbors better than that. 

Revan Tranter 

• 

FOR MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is to clarify that I support and endorse Measure A for Berkeley's children. 

I want to inform the residents and voters of Berkeley that though my name is on the ballot argument against Measure A, the public school parcel tax here in Berkeley, it was initially misrepresented to me and upon further research and discussion, I have now rescinded my original position and in fact now both endorse and fully support Measure A. 

It is unfortunate and troubling to me that there are people even here in Berkeley who will distort the facts to suit their own agendas. 

I hope that this letter can do some benefit toward ensuring that Measure A passes on November 7, and that discussions take place based on the facts of the measure and the school district’s needs. 

Please vote to support our public schools, vote YES on Measure A. 

Johnnie Porter 

Former president, Berkeley NAACP 

• 

MEASURE J 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Measure J foe Alan Tobey has an odd conception of democracy. Over 3,000 people signed petitions to put Measure J on the ballot, many more than were needed. If Mr. Tobey doesn’t see that as a broad-based exercise in democracy, then he doesn’t understand government by the people, for the people. Berkeley residents want a voice in determining the future of their neighborhoods, which includes preserving the appealing vintage homes and small-scale apartment buildings that make Berkeley so unique. Many of us value our open space and small-town feel. 

Who’s really anti-democratic? We’ve heard that the Chamber of Commerce PAC will spend a lot of money to get neighborhoods to vote against their own interests. Therefore, a few might succeed in buying the means to influence the many. If the Chamber of Commerce PAC is so interested in democracy, why doesn’t it file a complete accounting with City Hall, as Measure J supporters have? Many Berkeley voters expect a barrage of negative ads at the last minute, when there is no time to respond to falsehoods. Maybe in Mr. Tobey’s eyes, that’s the best democracy that money can buy, but I’d rather have a law written for the benefit of our whole community. 

Dan Silva 

• 

SCHOOL BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Selawsky’s letter criticizing the North East Berkeley Association is interesting, as an example of how the School Board broaches no criticism. I know because I am a former member of the school district’s Maintenance Oversight Committee. When the Oversight Committee (formed to review the expenditures from parcel tax Measure BB) became too vocal in its criticism over the district’s handling of the funds and the department, the School Board summarily dissolved that committee, and selected new acquiescent members who don’t raise a peep. Today, as a result of the School Board’s actions, more than six years since parcel tax Measure BB’'s passage, the school district’s maintenance department is a complete mess. The staff is demoralized, and the work isn’t getting done. That has been another $20 million-plus debacle. 

The problem is that the School Board does not engage the community in honest discussion over the genuine issues that the schools are dealing with. Instead, BUSD tries to quash dissent, which is why the School Board doesn’t mention its maintenance department in public, nor the poor use of the funds from parcel tax measure BB. 

As a former employee of the school district, I have seen first hand the waste, the inefficiency and the inadequate supervision provided by management. And having read the actual language of the Measure A, I’m inclined to vote no. The school district should rewrite the ballot measure so it is more specific on what the funds will be spent on, have no loop holes, and include performance evaluations for management. 

Sally Reyes 

• 

MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I realize that adherents of local tax measures are oft times motivated to name their opponents as deceitful, but as far as the local Berkeley school tax Measure A is concerned, the primary reason that I and so many of my neighbors will be casting a no vote is that it is a 10-year tax.  

The fact that the dollars generated by this tax will be overseen by a Citizens Planning and Oversight Committee composed of parents/guardians, staff members, students, residents, or community members brings little confidence to this voter. Such a committee will obviously be the school district judging itself. 

Bruce McMurray 

• 

TRUTH SQUAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The mayor handed out a flier called “Strengthening the Landmarks Ordinance” at a recent candidates’ forum which contains so many falsehoods it could win a prize for imaginative fiction. 

One would have to have slept through the last two years to avoid knowing that Tom Bates has spent his years as mayor trying desperately to weaken the Landmarks Ordinance, both by populating the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the city staff with anti-preservationist voices, and by trying to change an ordinance that is hailed nationwide as a standard for protecting the fragile remnants of our history.  

Development doesn’t have to be hostile to preservation of historical buildings. The best, award-winning plans honor the history and respect the flavor of distinctively designed buildings, or buildings in which significant events occurred.  

Developers, on the other hand, love a clean slate. The “careful reforms” promoted by the Tom Bates and sadly, albeit not unanimously, instituted by the commission and the council, are efforts to weaken, not strengthen, the Landmarks Ordinance.  

Measure J is a grass-roots revolt against the mayor’s efforts to undermine the protection of our neighborhoods, our history, and our respect for public process. Measure J keeps the Landmarks Ordinance strong. 

The deceptive hit piece handed out Tuesday, Oct. 17, at the Willard Neighborhood Association candidates forum will be the first of many efforts to fool people, well-meaning but busy people with little time to follow often tedious political issues.  

Don’t be fooled. Berkeley doesn’t have to abandon its historical character to have development. “The process is too tedious” will always be the developers’ song. It is our job to make sure it doesn’t drown out the songs of our immigrants, our laborers, and our history.  

Carol Denney 

EDITOR’S NOTE: A copy of the flyer in question, which is unsigned in an apparent violation of campaign law, can be seen on our website: www.berkeleydailyplanet.com.

Four years ago I entered the race for mayor with a simple promise—that we would turn a new page in Berkeley’s political history by setting aside the old political divisions and working together to make Berkeley the very best it can be. We have been remarkably successful—governing with civility, supporting our kids and schools, making Berkeley an environmental leader again, and creating affordable housing. 

But we are just getting started. I have worked with people throughout Berkeley and I believe we share a common vision for our future. I am running for re-election to help make the vision of a healthy, vibrant, and green city a reality.  

I am very proud of the unprecedented breadth of support for my re-election, including Congresswoman Barbara Lee, 15 current and former City Council members, three former mayors, Berkeley firefighters and police, the Berkeley Democratic Club, Berkeley Citizens Action, Cal Democrats, and the Wellstone Democratic Club. 

Making Berkeley the greenest city 

in America 

We will redouble our aggressive efforts to be the greenest city in the country with cutting edge environmental policy, expanded parks and playing fields, and a thriving “green” economy. Berkeley was already named the third most sustainable city in the United States in a recent peer reviewed study. Our pioneering efforts to use biodiesel fuel, share our fleet of hybrid cars with the public, implement free transit passes, build green buildings, and provide healthy food choices have all been replicated around the country. We are now on the verge of pushing the green envelope even further with ballot Measure G. If passed in November, Measure G will direct the City to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% over the next 30 years.  

I am honored that my environmental leadership has been recognized with an endorsement by the Sierra Club and many environmental leaders. 

Supporting kids and families  

In 2004 the Wellness Foundation named Berkeley the #1 Teen Healthy City in California—but we can’t stop there. Academic and long-term success for our kids means providing them with the support they need to lead healthy and active lives. In my first four years as mayor I tackled these issues by strengthening the partnership between the City and the School District and by helping to raise over $500,000 in federal, state and private funding for new initiatives.  

I launched Project BUILD—working in partnership with UC Berkeley and our health departmentcto provide literacy tutors, nutrition education and physical activity to low-income elementary and middle school children during the summer months. I helped expand public health and social services in the schools and raised $5 million for the development of a new sports field complex on Gilman Street near I-80, soon to be providing thousands of children and families valuable playing space. 

In my next term I will work with the community to develop a Healthy Berkeley Kids report card so that we can set clear and measurable goals and hold ourselves accountable to give every child in Berkeley the help they need to succeed. 

I am honored to have the endorsement of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, a majority of the Berkeley School Board, Chair of the Berkeley Parks and Recreation Commission, and leaders in early childhood education and health. 

Build a strong, vibrant economy 

This is perhaps the most exciting time in downtown Berkeley in a generation. During my first term, I helped initiate efforts to create a world-class hotel, museum, and public plaza at Center Street. Those projects are now well underway. In my next term I will continue to support these efforts with the goal of bringing as many as 400,000 new visitors a year to the downtown and doubling the size of our successful arts and entertainment district.  

Our neighborhood shopping districts are community gathering points and an economic engine for the city. I vow to cut the red tape, making it easier for new businesses to open in existing storefronts. I will ensure that my nine-point plan to revitalize Telegraph Avenue is fully funded and fully implemented.  

I am honored that my efforts to build our economy have been recognized by the endorsement of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce and business leaders from across the City. 

Protect neighborhoods from inappropriate development 

New development is bringing vitality and energy to our downtown and major transit corridors as well as reducing traffic by allowing people who work in Berkeley to live in Berkeley. To ensure that new development does not negatively impact the residential neighborhoods nearby, we will continue to restrict major new development to main transit corridors, improve our rules to ensure new buildings “step down” to abutting homes, and insist on excellent design. Next year, I plan to ask the City Council and the planning commission to craft “neighborhood conservation zones” creating unique standards to protect the character of our low-density residential neighborhoods. 

As part of this work we will continue to hold UC Berkeley accountable for being a good neighbor. We benefit greatly from having the world’s best public university in our midst, but we must ensure they live up to the partnership we signed last year. This includes taking the University to court if necessary to stop the planned massive new underground parking garage and sports training facility on Gayley Road.  

I am honored that my efforts have been endorsed by over 300 people from every neighborhood in Berkeley. 

I am proud to serve as your mayor and I ask for your support for another term. For more information or to get in touch, please go to my website at www.tombates.org. 

Since June, I’ve been going door-to-door talking to Berkeley voters all over town. I’ve now visited thousands of households, and everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve encountered dissatisfaction with the current mayor and his administration. The details vary, but one theme is constant: In Berkeley, of all places, people feel that they have lost control of their local government. My campaign is about reclaiming City Hall for the community. 

Again and again, I’ve heard concern about the empty storefronts in Downtown and on our major thoroughfares. Tom Bates told the Contra Costa Times he’s not worried about business closing and leaving Berkeley. Yet in the past four years, we’ve lost Cody’s on Telegraph, Clif Bar, Power Bar, Radston’s, and other unique businesses. The City’s Office of Economic Development has stopped doing business attraction and retention. As Mayor, I will ask the Council to cut the red tape and to revive the OED, with a focus on promoting locally owned and operated enterprises. To make Berkeley business more accessible, I will push for a free shoppers shuttle that would circulate throughout the city’s neighborhood commercial districts. I will also ask UC to make its parking lots Downtown and near Telegraph easier for the general public to use. 

The current administration balanced the budget with a lawnmower, making random, across-the-board budget cuts and eliminating mostly vacant positions, instead of pruning carefully to preserve vital services. That’s one reason why the Office of Economic Development stopped doing business attraction and retention. We should craft a City budget by targeting community needs. Our sewers are crumbling, our storm drains—where we even have storm drains—are falling apart, and our fire stations are closed on a rotating basis. A modern city needs a first-rate infrastructure. We need to monitor our current spending more closely and then commit ourselves as a community to funding our essential services. 

One important source of budgetary relief would be a genuine fair-share relationship with the University of California. Our taxes are among the highest in the state, in part because the university pays for only $1.5 million for the $15 million worth of city services—sewers, fire and police—that it uses each year. Berkeley taxpayers are locked into this inequitable arrangement for 15 years, thanks to the disastrous secret agreement that settled the city’s 2005 lawsuit over UC expansion. Mr. Bates was the city’s lead negotiator for that agreement. He’s telling Berkeley voters that he got the University to pay the City $22 million. What he’s not saying: that’s $22 million over 15 years! 

The City Council has the authority to void the settlement agreement. As Mayor, I will ask the Council to do just that and then to re-open negotiations with Chancellor Birgeneau. If negotiations fail, we should sue again. We should also follow the lead of the Santa Cruz City Council and place UC sustainable growth measure on the ballot; UCSC has responded by scaling back its planned expansion. To prevent future secret deals, I will ask the Council to pass a strong Sunshine Ordinance that gives citizens the legal right ot know how decisions are made in City Hall. 

A vital economy requires change, but change must respect Berkeley’s unique character and enhance its quality of life. Today our flatlands neighborhoods are suffering from overdevelopment. The incumbent brushes off neighborhood concerns about “vertical sprawl” and traffic congestion. I will meet with and support residents who are working for responsible development. Another constant refrain in my door-to-door canvassing is that City permit processes are arbitrary and aggravating. I will with the City Manager and his staff to ensure that the City’s processes are transparent, efficient and fair.  

My name appears in the voters pamphlet in support of Measure J, the updated Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. Measure J is the community’s response to Tom Bates’ developer-driven effort to undermine the city’s protections for its architectural heritage. Its passage will ensure adequate community input into preservation decisions and the same time preserve real affordable housing. 

Gentrification is undermining Berkeley’s rich social and economic diversity. Many of the hundreds of new housing units that are officially affordable to low and very low income individuals are actually beyond the reach of those who cannot get into the market. I will ask the Council to deepen Berkeley’s levels of affordability. In January, 2004, Tom Bates tried (and failed) to weaken the city’s affordable housing laws and then told the Council: “I don’t like those kinds of constraints. I’m sorry. Maybe I’m a free market person.” 

Public safety is a growing issue. We need fair and effective street safety and civility programs, not just on Telegraph but throughout town. In a major abdication of government responsibility, the incumbent mayor told the neighbors of a longtime drug house in April that the City would not help them. I will ask the Council to create a Neighborhood Law Corps modeled on Oakland’s award-winning program. Lawyers from the City Attorney’s office will build cases against the owners of problem properties—drug houses, abandoned buildings—and if necessary, take them to Superior Court. 

I will bring to the Mayor’s office skills honed through many years of community service and leadership. I sat on the Planning Commission from 1997 to 2004. Two years in a row I was unanimously elected commission chair. As a planning commissioner, I initiated and then helped guide the community planning process that led to the city’s first new General Plan in 25 years. And I helped convene and then served on the UC Hotel/Conference Center Citizens Advisory Group, whose recommendations have been praised by the project’s developer. The Downtown Berkeley Association gave me its President’s Award for “exceptional leadership and consensus-building.” As a former professor who has taught at UC Santa Barbara and at Cal, I will approach the University administration in a spirit of unintimidated collegiality. 

My supporters are Berkeley citizens looking for a mayor they can trust. I invite you to join them. For more information, please see my campaign website www.zeldaformayor.org.

Landlords: Remorseless, lying, blood-sucking parasites. More property, more vicious. Give back every dollar stolen from the tenants, immediately, in cash. Rent is Theft. 

Bates: That ghoulish “smile” betrays your duplicity. Giggles like an idiotic school boy when he can’t lie his way out of responsibility. City Manager Phil Kamlarz does the same when caught ripping off the public and lying about it. Real estate profiteering is payoff to Tom and his BCA cohorts for 34 years of fucking Berkeley over. 

District 7: Kriss Worthington’s “apologies” cover for legal (non-profit) money laundering through the Housing Authority. I asked him, “If I can get the support of the people of Berkeley, will they accurately count the votes?” He said No. I sat in grave silence. George Beier paid some “Democratic” Party mercenaries to tell him what to say and do. 

District 4: Saw a Diebold truck parked at the Mechanics Bank on Shattuck. Met VP Raudel Wilson. “What’s a Diebold truck doing at the Mayor’s bank?” I asked. “They do our alarm systems,” he replied with that family man smile. Oh, that too. Dona Spring refused to even look at proof of corruption in the Housing Authority. 

District 1: Merillee Mitchell is the most principled and courageous landlord in Berkeley. Vote for Merrille! 

UC Berkeley: 90% of the students are conniving cruel imbeciles. Spoor of a big ascendant nazi-bourgeiosie. Extermination disease programs called “cancer research” and “synthetic biology”. Save Darfur campaign is fake bred there: China’s oil supplies are the real target. 

Environmentalism: Earth Day inaugurated by Richard Nixon to celebrate Laos and Cambodia burning. Lenin’s birthday same day. COINTELPRO Jackpot! 30+ Years Strong. Enshrined mechanically here in Berkeley with the solar powered parking ticket dispenser. 

Diversity: Public Works Director Claudette Ford was hired because she was black, female, and obedient to the shadow appropriations scam. Anyone who criticizes her controller’s malfeasance is racist! Same with Taj, the City Manager’s anti-democracy stooge who covers up for the Ashby Takeover Force and the BHA racket. 

Police: A blunt spoon gouge of cruelty, incompetence, arrogance, and systemic theft-punishment, with growing slush funds from the drug trade and nouveau Gestapo. Stacked wih torturers and murderers trained in Iraq. 5%+ pay increase every year for 5 years = $80,000 starting salary. 

Impeachment: Begging the Republican Party to remove the man they put in illegally to distract us while they set-up 9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan. COINTELPRO: Funny how those big headlines are all the same. Always. East Bay Daily News. Oakland Tribune. SF Chronicle. Epoch Times. Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. Psychic Times. Scientology. 

Anti-War: Every single opposition group, without exception, is controlled by the US Military and their paramilitary/propogandist thugs. Directly in the case of ANSWER and World Can’t Wait. Everyone else indirectly through uncritical acceptance of official counter-intelligence propoganda. Besides the spontaneous protests in 2003, there has been zero genuine organized resistance to the war in the United States. Zero. Lockdown. 

Progressive Convention: Didn’t attend because I already exposed the whole operation as illegitimate in my last commentary, “I Will Put an End to Fake Democracy in Berkeley”. No one dared or bothered acknowledge or respond. Everyone went to the forum. No reporter or anyone else bothered to remember or care. Why attend? 

Daily Planet: Your decision to censor my letter describing the CIA/Mossad gun barrel resting on the Democratic Party leadership’s temple that enforces silence on the WTC/Pentagon high treason was not cowardice but stupidity. Your 22,000 readership, led by editors who proudly assert the obvious truth, would be enough to create the crisis we need, and is the only line that will accomplish your foreign policy goals. I reprint the letter below so that the readers can judge for themselves the irresponsiblity of your choice. 

“Look, the reactionaries in the American and Israeli spy-agencies worked together to plan, execute, and sell the killings of September 11, 2001. Since then, top Democrats in the United States have had a gun to their head to stay silent about the whole affair. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people tortured to death in the global War of Terror has blackmailed them into going along ever worse and more proudly broadcast atrocities. 

That’s the straight truth, and now is it’s moment, for Mayor Bates, Gavin Newsom, Phil Angelides, Barbara Lee, and every other high-level Democrat in the country. The stakes are the highest, and responsibility is everywhere, especially in the more powerful. 

Lies kill, the everyday social lies, and the high level lies, kill, big time, just as sure as gas and bullets. In fact, it is lies and lying that drive the bullets. It also drives 95% of teenage suicide. A lie, ANY lie about anything, is, quite literally, THE social nazification procedure. And those who most heavily promote those patterns in others, are the deadliest nazification militants of all. 

Which brings me to UC Berkeley. There will be no principled protest coming from the students there. That “university” turned Nazi-Republican once Schwarzenegger was made President of the UC Regents by Stanford’s Hoover Institution three years ago. Just sit in a student café around Berkeley and hear for yourself: “biology” and “public health” means pharmaceutical and biological warfare research, “environmental design” means high-profit development scams, and “history” means getting forced to lie about how current society is the only way people ever have or ever will live. 

Thank you, Daily Planet, for again accurately reporting the high-level principles of the Paradigm from California, www.imaginenine.com. You neglected to mention, however, that Bill and Hillary Clinton are the exclusive owners of the copyrights to all the charts and writings therein contained. And yes, indeed, it is the only cure for the human-harming human problem ever devised – and thereby, the only way out of this escalating, worldwide, and final Holocaust. To reduce the solution to one rule: One should encourage and enable others to accurately figure out whether or not any person is deliberately and consciously misreporting their own perceptions. (By the way, the main writer was Jewish, and you can read and hear his views on the Israeli State at www.BerkeleyMayor.org, in the paper “Accuracy-Based Politics”)” 

Join the campaign! 845-0955. 

Come Run with the Running Wolf 

The mayoral race of Berkeley pits four candidates, who have substantially differing views about the best policies for the city. However, there is a more serious problem afoot that demands vigilance on the part of the voter. Essentially, the broader picture reveals that serious consideration must be directed towards policies of the state and national government as well. After all, those policies have the impetus to affect us in unacceptable ways. Indeed, given the ugly state of politics in this country, it is imperative that we must become actively involved in national affairs whether we like it or not. Otherwise, we face the growing possibility of allowing political terrorism and fascism to replace our cherished democracy. By now, many of us have heard the complaints about how corrupt our politicians have become. It follows that this election marks a time when the voter alone can send those corrupt politician into early retirement.  

As a native American leader, who values honesty, freedom and good leadership skills, I, Zachary Running Wolf, have decided to throw my feathers into the race to change the course of politics from the bottom to the top. It has become painfully obvious to me that our country is headed in the wrong direction. Everywhere one looks corporate greed is at an all time high. Even the board members of the University of Berkeley have given themselves an undeservedly high pay hike ($300 million in perks alone). Plainly, it would be detrimental to our city if these board members are allowed to decide in what manner the growth of our city will proceed. Therefore, it is instructive to ask: How then can they be trusted to spend our monies wisely after exhibiting such unbelievable greed? Surely, their greed will force them to spend in a manner that will not be in the interest of Berkeley‘s residents? 

It is obvious that the university has gained too much power. Under normal circumstances, this would not have been an unacceptable state of affairs. However, the control of the University diminishes the role of the Berkeley residents. Especially with matters related to deciding the future development, Berkeley residents may soon discover that they have little or not right to voice their input. Therefore, I am not only supporting the current lawsuit against the University. Nay, I am also demanding that the University negotiate with the residents in good faith. The truth of the matter is that the projects that benefit the University has little to do with the welfare of the residents. Yet, the residents will have to pay billions in taxes to support these projects. For this reason I plan to undertake an hunger strike if the University disregards the wishes of the people of Berkeley. 

Next, there seems to be little or no effort on the part of the Berkeley officials to address the number one problem on this planet - global warming. Instead one discovers that Mayor Tom Bates has scrapped a promise to fully implement a much needed bio-diesel program. Global warming - as Al Gore has correctly pointed out - is an unmistakable reality. This problem will be solved when cities such as Berkeley take the lead in showing the world a way out. So far, the solution is not forthcoming because the mayor is not fully committed. I can guarantee that global warming will receive the highest priority when I become the mayor. My native American heritage compels me to value the gifts of nature. Therefore, it is only natural that I give my life’s blood to ensure that future generations will enjoy a planet that is committed to eradicating pollution. 

Then there is the issue of an out of control President. Clearly, the Bush administration has sought to deprive us of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. There can be no doubt that any President who wishes to make a citizen disappear will want to have complete control over our police forces. Therefore, it is imperative that we have control over our local police force. Generally, the local police is under the control of the mayor. However, our police force is not only out of control but is also hardly under the control of the mayor. One witnesses that our police officers have on two occasions stolen drugs. We are compelled to ask therefore: Who are they selling these drugs to? Is it to our kids? Furthermore, the police are also involved in other criminal activities including stealing monies in what turned out to be an FBI sting. The current mayor, Tom Bates, has done little to address the situation. Instead, at a time when we should be screaming for oversight, the Bates administration has scrapped the Police Review Commission. How then will innocent citizens be protected? How indeed would corrupt officials be prosecuted? This situation takes on added importance especially since the Bush administration’s push to eradicate the right to habeas corpus? As we have witnessed in South Africa, the corrupt police departments were that best institution to violate rights of the citizens.  

The residents of Berkeley can be assured that a vote for me will ensure the return of complete transparency in city governments. Consequently, there will certainly not be any backroom deals which in the past have worked in the favor of big corporations. For this reason I strongly support the Sunshine Ordinance. I also support the right of every resident to approach city officials with their complaints. In addition, resident can be assured that anyone who wishes to address the City Council must and will be able to do so. 

Furthermore, I support the following: 

A) instant runoff voting 

B) Clean money initiative 

C) Return to 100 percent bio-diesel use 

D) Safeguarding the Ashby flea market 

E) Banning genetically altered foods in Berkeley 

F) opposing RFID in Berkeley libraries 

G) Supporting the Landmark Ordinance - Measure J 

Among my achievements I am proud to list my efforts in changing the Columbus School to Rosa Parks School. In 1999 I led a drive to prevent UC Berkeley from dropping its ethnic studies. Probably, my greatest victory came when I spearheaded a drive to force A C Transit to use bio-diesel. Consequently, there will be at least 700 buses that will no longer spews dangerous carbon into our atmosphere. When I am mayor I will work to retrofit all city vehicles with the latest innovations such as hydrocarbon or electrical engines. Very definitely fossil fuels will become a thing of the past in Berkeley. Among all the issues that bear watching, it is evident to me that Bates has sold out to the University of Berkeley. It is no wonder that we now need a lawsuit to correct the situation. In addition, Zelda Bronstein’s plan to engage the city attorney to rescind the University’s plans is a non-starter It ought to be understood that the city attorney is the chief culprit in assisting the University in the first place. It is doubtful that he will help her to find a remedy for the problem. Therefore I ask the voters to choose carefully if he or she wants to stop these corrupt people. We must preserve the flavor of Berkeley by implementing our solutions.  

For more info: www.runningwolfformayor.org 

The Daily Planet is publishing candidates statements in each edition in the final weeks before the Nov. 7 election. In the next couple of weeks we will print statements for the following local races:  

• Berkeley City Council, Districts 8 and 1  

• Albany City Council  

• Richmond City Council 

• Mayor of Richmond  

• Oakland City Council, District 2

Mayor: Zelda Bronstein 

District 1: No endorsement 

District 4: Dona Spring 

District 7: Kriss Worthington 

District 8: Jason Overman 

Measure A: Yes 

Measure I: No 

Measure J: Yes 

More to come...

The City of Berkeley, by casually, sans permit, allowing Milo Foundation to introduce, in a deliberate and concerted effort, unknown and diseased animals to our neighborhood, has exhibited gross negligence in the administration of their duties to protect and serve the residents of our community. This community includes neighbors, volunteers and visiting public to the locations surrounding the 1575 Solano and 1572 Capistrano Ave. addresses. The cavalier and uninformed lack of control over these conditions puts the City of Berkeley at great risk for potential lawsuits from individual and groups most at risk for these diseases, that is, the entire public. 

Inadequate facility 

The widespread deposit of fecal matter and urine on our neighborhood streets, in the use of the shared driveway, and across the public sidewalk, presents a legitimate risk to our neighborhood dogs, children, and adult populations. More than 400 dogs a year, by Milo’s estimate, are rescued from throughout Northern California shelters (and elsewhere) and quickly brought to the Solano Avenue store. This has been occurring at this location for at least a year or more, without a permit, and in violation of the BMC limit on four dogs per address. 

Milo has no facilities or manner for properly disinfecting publicly exposed areas of the driveway and sidewalk due to the adjacency of nearby storm drains, an inability to properly manage disposal of outside wastewater, and the risk of contaminating Bay water and killing fish. So they have not been using veterinarian or CDC prescribed agents to clean these areas. We think this is unacceptable and puts our community at risk.  

Until Milo can create the functional means to maintain their facility as other professional shelters (City of Berkeley, East Bay Humane Society) do, they should not house animals, bring them in numbers exceeding the existing zoning laws (four), or walk them in our neighborhoods. Since Milo’s founder houses four of her own dogs at these premises, most likely with known immunizations, we think the number of dogs should be limited to this. Elsewhere in this document, we will address other viable options for rescue efforts at this location. We are not trying to shut Milo down or limit their positive effect on our community. 

Dogs fall ill 

“Dogs get sick from parasites, viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungus. In some cases, these diseases and infestations are fatal unless caught early and treated. Sometimes they sow the seeds of death or debilitation years down the road by causing chronic illness or damaging organs. Fortunately, veterinary researchers have developed drugs and treatments that reduce the occurrence and effects of many diseases and parasites, but they do not eradicate the scoundrels—they only hold them at bay. Rabies, distemper, parvovirus, hepatitis, parainfluenza, and coronavirus are major viral diseases affecting dogs. Lyme disease, leptospirosis, and a type of kennel cough are bacterial diseases. These infections are not limited to dogs—all are found in other animal populations and rabies, Lyme, and lepto also infect people. ” 

Since some of these diseases can be prevented with vaccinations, it is important to isolate dogs with unknown histories until administered vaccines can be proven effective. Even if Milo Foundation administers vaccines to newly arriving animals at the Solano location, the efficacy of these immunizations cannot be demonstrated in some cases for several weeks or months. In the interim, the animals are being walked and housed in areas frequented by the public and volunteers, including small children, immuno-suppressed adults, seniors, and others at risk. Older neighborhood dogs, and dogs at the end of the effective periods of their own immunizations, are also at risk. 

Roundworm and ringworm are persistent parasites that routinely break out, usually on average yearly, at our local Berkeley and Oakland animal shelters. This occurs despite these facilities following prescribed protocols for disease prevention and control, administered by professional staff, in settings that are designed for cleaning and waste disposal. These diseases are very transmissible to humans, especially children, who lack effective hygiene and cannot be supervised at all times by adults, to prevent transmission. This is especially critical in areas where animals, such as Milo’s storefront and rear driveway area, are in direct contact with the public. In areas such as these, the American Association of Veterinarians and the CDC prescribe very exacting standards of space design interface for areas that transition between public and animal housing, work, and exhibit areas for public and volunteer contact. 

E.Coli: Transmission of extra-intestinal and enteral pathogenic E. coli between dogs and humans has been reported. “Data demonstrate that canine ExPEC strains are similar to, and in some instances essentially indistinguishable from, human ExPEC strains, which implicates dogs and their feces as potential reservoirs of E. coli with infectious potential for humans. ” Fingers, feces, food and flies are the vectors for the spread of disease. All of these are routinely present in the 25-foot radius of Milo’s Solano Ave. locations. E. Coli has been tested as communicable from deposits made three to six months prior to transmission to humans. The only efficacious barrier to this transmission is the use of prescribed protocols, such as the use of bleach, left on all contaminated surfaces, for 10 minutes or longer, prior to further rinsing. Since this methodology is simply impossible, given Milo’s current configuration and reliance on outdoor space, all housing of animals at this location should be discontinued until proper protocols for wastewater and waste elimination can be controlled in the manners prescribed by the CDC. 

Milo Foundation, until now, has not had the professional experience, training or setting, to encounter these issues, prior to their opening for business on Solano Ave. It is this newly established physical durable public setting that creates these new public health risks. 

Jane Tierney is a Berkeley resident.

Until recently, I held the naïve belief that only objective language would be used in official voters’ materials. But I was wrong. Unlike the state attorney general, our city attorney is not legally required to use impartial language to explain ballot measures to the public. As a result, Berkeley voters do not have an absolute right to unbiased presentations of municipal measures. 

In the case of Measure J, a citizens’ initiative updating and continuing our 1974 Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO), the ballot summary is far from objective. That’s because the same person who wrote the ballot language for Measure J is also the principal author of the competing Revised LPO, championed by Mayor Tom Bates and passed by the City Council on first reading. Deputy City Attorney Zac Cowan, who has been working to reduce the protections of our LPO for over six years, wrote the final ballot language for Measure J and submitted it to the City Council just minutes before the vote to approve it.  

Consequently, there was no time for councilmembers to study the text or for the public to respond. Still, this didn’t stop a majority of councilmembers from approving Cowan’s language over the dissenting voices of Betty Olds, Dona Spring, and Kriss Worthington. Thus, the official presentation, purporting to explain Measure J to the public, was written and approved by officials who actually oppose Measure J.  

In an effort to give the public the truth, some members of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association wrote alternative ballot language and submitted it to the city; which promptly rejected it. So Measure J supporters filed a Writ of Mandate in Superior Court in an attempt to have fully truthful language placed on the ballot. But since falsehoods in the council-approved version were not deemed egregious enough, the city’s language remains on the ballot. The judge did not rule that the city’s version was accurate; he said, “while the statements [in the city attorney’s version] were misleading, they were not misleading enough” to order them removed.  

While current law may require higher levels of deception before a court can remove language from our municipal ballots, that doesn’t answer one very simple question. Is language that is misleading, but not misleading enough, what Berkeley voters deserve from City Hall? In the long run, a strong Sunshine Ordinance may address this issue, but, today, we have to fight for the simple right to get truthful information to cast an informed vote.  

The people of Berkeley deserve to see the language that the city rejected on their behalf. Had the alternative language been allowed, Berkeley voters would have voted on the question, below: 

Proposed TITLE  

Shall a Landmarks Preservation Ordinance be adopted:  

1) continuing the existing provisions and protections in the current state certified ordinance;  

2) establishing professional qualifications for landmarks commissioners;  

3) adding historic “integrity” to criteria for designation or alteration of landmarks, structures of merit and historic districts;  

4) providing the Landmarks Preservation Commission authority to disapprove demolition of historic resources;  

5) authorizing the city in an emergency to deny without prejudice, up to 180 days, applications affecting an historic resource,  

6) and extending the time the city is prohibited from acting on applications to demolish some nonresidential buildings over 40 years old?  

Financial implications: none 

The city attorney’s analysis of Measure J is as deceptive as his ballot title. Although our LPO was certified by the state to be consistent with all applicable state and federal laws and updates to it were those suggested by the state Office of Historic Preservation, the council-approved analysis completely omits this. Instead, the city’s version says exactly the opposite; it asserts potential conflicts with state law, where there are none. That’s either an extremely careless mistake or an outright fabrication, designed to Swiftboat Measure J. 

Furthermore, Cowan’s language does not properly explain how Measure J would update our LPO with modern preservation practices and laws. One new provision would “establish professional qualifications for at least four of nine landmarks commissioners.” A second would “add historic integrity to the criteria used by the commission when reviewing applications for designation and alterations of historic resources.” The city attorney omits both of these points in his analysis. Finally, the Landmarks Preservation Commission would be able to deny (and not just suspend) demolitions of historic resources to preserve them for future generations. (This is in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that saved New York’s Grand Central Station from demolition.) 

Why wouldn’t the council majority want Berkeley voters to have this information? Maybe it’s because they don’t want citizens to know how much power they’d lose under the council’s revised ordinance. A yes vote on Measure J puts the power where it belongs—with the people. 

Judith Epstein is a Berkeley resident. 

Twice during the past few months, the Planet has published articles proclaiming a “new vision” for Shattuck Avenue north of Vine Street, where the Farmers’ Market is located. The promoters of this “vision,” almost exclusively realtors, developers, architects and merchants, would like you to believe they will be creating a pedestrian plaza with lots of greenspace and trees. 

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. If the plan being pushed by North Shattuck Plaza, Inc. is ratified, North Berkeley residents will be stuck with two treeless, barren, asphalt parking lots separated by a thin pedestrian walkway, bordered by small, slow-growing trees.  

Gone will be the three old Buckeye trees that currently provide shade for the Farmers’ Market and the beautiful liquid amber trees on the east side of Shattuck Avenue. The Buckeyes will have to go to create a second parking lot, a few yards west of the Long’s lot, and the liquid amber’s don’t fit the new design pattern. 

In addition, people now parking in front of the Laundromat, Black Oak Books, Lobelia, and the restaurants on Shattuck Avenue will find that side lane closed to create a 50-foot wide sidewalk, both for the so-called “promenade”and more outdoor restaurant seating. There will be no access to the Long’s parking lot from the south. 

Most off-street parking is to be jammed into a second lot just east of the triangular Shattuck Commons building. The original intent was to close this part of Shattuck to traffic entirely, but the Fire Department objected, so traffic will have to pass through this busy lot as cars pull in and back out. 

Those who frequent the area know the Long’s lot often creates traffic problems on Rose Street. The new lot, will greatly intensify those problems, yet the project promoters adamantly refuse to do a traffic study, or an environmental impact report.  

The promoters also intend to build a kiosk, near where Shattuck curves, just to the west of Long’s. What’s to be sold there is yet to be determined, but one function of the kiosk is to store the benches that are to line the walkway. Why do the benches have to be stored? It is feared that some of the many homeless people who sleep in nearby Live Oak park would find permanent benches inviting. 

With so many obvious drawbacks, why is this plan being pushed with such urgency? There have been no calls from the nearby community for any change in the present street configuration. 

Developer David Stoloff, who lives in the neighborhood and has an office less than a block from the proposed project is spearheading the reconfiguration drive, along with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, whose real estate brokerage, Red Oak Realty is a few blocks away on Solano Ave. Both have built small condominium projects in North Berkeley in recent years. In addition, Stoloff is Mayor Tom Bates’ appointee to the Planning Commission.  

Stoloff claims he merely wants to improve the area which he walks through almost every day, as do I. He is bothered by Shattuck Avenue dividing at the curve and thinks the area can be improved. He and his associates believe their pedestrian walkway will attract more people to the Vine-Rose part of Shattuck, and induce them to carry their take-out food north, rather than congregate in the Vine-Cedar block. 

If that is truly the case, there are better, less complicated ways to create more greenspace in the area than the drastic plan that Stoloff’s “non-profit” has put forth. Why eliminate the parking in front of the businesses on the east side of Shattuck? Why force most of the parking on to the Rose Street end? Why is a 50-foot sidewalk necessary? 

After attending two meetings of Stoloff’s North Shattuck Plaza, Inc., I think I have some answers. When I suggested that removing all the parking in front of Black Oak, the Laundromat, etc., would have a negative impact on all those stores, one steering committee member said, “We’ll just have to get different businesses there.” Further attempts to modify the parking removal were either ignored or shouted down. That tells me that contrary to their claims, North Shattuck Plaza group really isn’t interested in improving conditions for locally owned businesses.  

At another point, former Councilmember Mim Hawley, also a steering committee member said, “We should build some housing above those stores.” Anyone looking at the shops from across the street can plainly see that they would have to be demolished before anything could be built above them. 

That, I believe, is the real goal of North Shattuck Plaza, Inc. The pedestrian walkway is only a stalking horse for a major high-rise condominium development at the corner of Vine and Shattuck, that will obliterate the locally-owned businesses there now. Imagine what condos in the Gourmet Ghetto a half block from the Cheeseboard and Chez Panisse would sell for. Never mind that it would forever change the character of the neighborhood, and make it unaffordable for those who live there now. 

That’s probably why they are so attached to a 50-foot sidewalk. At some point in the planning process for a new high-rise, the developer will claim the 50-foot sidewalk is too wide. He’ll then propose incorporating 20-feet or so of sidewalk into the new development. Skeptics should note that something similar happened about 16 years ago when the apartment building at the corner of Rose Street and Shattuck Avenue was built. The developer, in collusion with planning department officials, was given five feet of public property along Shattuck Avenue to incorporate into the building. 

Other members of Stoloff’s steering committee besides Capitelli and Hawley include Laszlo Tokes, the owner of Walnut Square, located directly across Vine Street from where the new condos would rise, Margo Lowe, owner of the expensive jewelry store next to Chez Panisse, Judith Bloom, a CPA, Lloyd Lee, an attorney, Helene Vilett, an architect, and Heather Hensley, executive director of the North Shattuck Association. I doubt that any of these people actually live in the area, nor were any area residents consulted when the plan was formulated. I happened upon a meeting by accident. 

The North Shattuck Plaza group is holding a “public meeting” on Thursday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. I suspect it will be little more than a “dog and pony show.” This group is not particularly interested in real public input. However, it is important that people who care about North Berkeley show up and state their objections to this disastrous, and unaesthetic plan.  

People interested in preserving the area as it is, or presenting an alternative, less intrusive, more neighborhood-oriented plan could link up at the meeting and set up a truly democratic, resident-oriented planning process. Interestingly, the flier the North Shattuck group distributed at the recent Spice of Life Festival does not show the second parking lot. Instead, the diagram, labels the new parking area as the “Farmers’ Market.” The Farmers’ Market operates four hours a week. For the other 164 hours it will be a parking lot. That’s developer speak at its finest, gleaned from the Karl Rove playbook.  

It’s also important that city councilmembers be contacted, because shortly after the election, I expect this group to approach the council for approval of their plan, despite the fact that the public has had very little time to consider it.  

Art Goldberg has been a north Berkeley resident for 30 years.  

If all four bond measures, Propositions 1B to 1E, pass, the State’s bond debt would almost double. With constant economic growth, we might afford it, but in a downturn or even if State’s revenue is flat, we will have to increase taxes, cut services, or borrow even more money to pay for the Bonds. Worse, some of the bond funds would be used in a socially inequitable manner, failing to produce long-term benefits or improve our quality of life, environment and economy. Measures 1C and 1D seem worthwhile, but 1B and 1E do not. 

Prop. 1B at $19.9 billion includes costly highway projects such as the fourth Caldecott Tunnel and widening Highway 4 and Vasco Road, improving Interstates 80, 580, 680, and 880, supposedly to relieve congestion. After 30 years of paying off the bonds, these projects are likely to be congested and polluting our air. The BART extensions sounds good, but are very expensive per rider, and other transit investments would be more cost-effective.  

Prop. 1B primarily benefits those who make long commutes, drive more and increase congestion. These trips are made more by the affluent while inner-city local transit is used by more of the lower-income, seniors and disabled who really need and use transit, but local transit is hardly considered. 

We need to coordinate land use development with transportation; more highways only repeat the pattern of sprawl and congestion. 

We also need to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Vehicles are the major generator. America uses one third of the world’s total petroleum and our vehicles emit about 40 percent of our GHG, the most in the world. Measure 1B Bonds will subsidize even more vehicle use. Almost all scientists agree that increased GHG is causing rapid, adverse climate change and global flooding. Studies conclude sea levels rising up to 20 feet. Rising water would flood over levees, make our present harbors useless and millions of people would be affected. 

Prop. 1B would force non-drivers and low-mileage drivers to pay for highways for high-mileage drivers. Highways instead should be paid for by the beneficiaries, by increasing fuel tax. Encouraging greater auto use is not benefiting our environment, health, or economy. 

Prop. 1E allots $4.1 billion primarily to fortify Delta Levees where farm products are grown. Originally, these farms were small private farmers but now most are large corporate farms. Farmers have historically invested their own funds to maintain the levees. With perpetual cultivation, the lands have subsided and levees require strengthening and are now far more expensive to strengthen. Additionally, to make matters worse, some cites are permitting development in flood prone areas, but not requiring the developers to upgrade the levees. State taxpayers should not pass Bonds to bail out local jurisdictions and farmers who need to do the job themselves. 

Prop. 1A is another problem. It will channel the Sales Tax on fuel, a general Tax, to be used only for to transportation, while all other Sales Tax goes into State’s General Fund. We have the Gas Tax that is used for highways, but it has not been raised for more than a decade, and the cost to build and maintain roads has doubled. Shouldn't auto users pay more of their cost rather than take funds needed for health, education, correctional facilities, the environment, family services, and general government? Over the years, we have passed the regressive local Sales Taxes for transportation, Prop. 1B will use Bonds that will be paid by everyone and now Prop. 1A would prevent the Sales tax on Fuel from helping the general fund even in an emergency. 

Most other developed counties have a fuel tax that is four to 10 times greater than that of the United States. Additionally, they impose taxes to reduce auto use since cars create environmental damage, increase health cost, and decrease livability. Some cities impose a toll just to enter city center. Also, several countries’ direct their gas tax into their general fund first. Moreover, somehow, they are still competitive in the world’s economy. Addicted to gasoline, we are doing the opposite, diverting general funds to transportation. 

Encouraging more auto use is clearly detrimental. If public fund is to be allocated for transportation, it should require an integrated development plan that will foster greater transit and less auto use before fund is issued. This will be a better way to improve our quality of life, environment, and economy in the long term. 

Roy Nakadegawa is a Berkeley resident.

IN SUPPORT OF MAYOR BATES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Local Berkeley politicos are speculating about why the Berkeley Democratic Club overwhelmingly endorsed Tom Bates for mayor this year. After several discussions with members, the following themes emerged as most important.  

First, Tom Bates has done a good job of creating a civil and cooperative atmosphere on the Berkeley City Council. Tom worked hard to heal the wounds between the various factions on the City Council and to hammer out consensus solutions. Many of us feel strongly that Tom’s re-election is an opportunity to turn the page on the divisiveness of years past and establish a civic dialogue based on mutual respect.  

Second, Tom’s ability to work across the old political divisions has helped the city deal with a number of challenges. Perhaps the most important and impressive was his leadership in working with the council and the community in balancing four straight city budgets during the state’s budget crisis. Similar results are evident in his work to support children, the schools, the environment and other issues. 

Third, Tom is a positive thinker. He wants a healthy Berkeley, with a vital downtown and a strong economic base. The BDC shares Toms’ concerns and agrees that something needs to be done now!  

Lastly, club members were impressed with the mayor’s ability to work effectively with our neighboring cities. For example, in 2004 he and Mayor Gavin Newsom founded a Bay Area-wide regional homeless task force. Last year, as president of the Alameda County Conference of Mayors, Bates led the creation of a countywide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that includes 10 cities and the county itself.  

So, if anyone out there is still thinking about it, let’s accept the fact that there is a new day in Berkeley. Bates is doing a good job and The Berkeley Democratic Club thinks that he deserves another two years to actually get some more things accomplished! 

Susan Wengraf 

President, Berkeley Democratic club 

• 

BATES’ TRANSGRESSIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Tom Bates breaks the rules as he sees fit. Always remember: 

Tom Bates first act as mayor was to steal copies of the Daily Cal college newspaper because they endorsed an opponent. 

Tom Bates personally was involved in stealing and destroying the yard signs and other literature of his opponents, including City Council members or candidates, with whom he disagreed. 

Tom Bates has created a massive public eyesore throughout the City of Berkeley by placing his campaign signs on street lamps and utility poles throughout the city. This is a brazen violation of a city ordinance, which is not being prosecuted. 

Tom Bates campaign should be fined and sanctioned, and he must be ordered to remove the offending matter immediately. 

This is consistent with the actions of a career politician, who never responds to constituent correspondence. As mayor, Bates has run the office in an imperial manner that is totally unresponsive to citizen concerns and complaints. Indeed, his chief of staff spoke to me like a bad dog or juvenile delinquent, when I followed up on a series of e-mails, to which the mayor had failed to respond. 

By the way: Tom Bates embraces local organizations that engage in brazen union busting, such as the Berkeley YMCA.  

Tom Bates’ imperial tendencies do not reconcile with Berkeley’s liberalism. 

My endorsement: anybody but Bates.  

H. Scott Prosterman 

• 

DONE THAT, WHAT’S NEW? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After reading Gregory Murphy’s and Faith Fuller’s letters (Oct. 6) about District 7 City Council candidate George Beier’s detailed platform, I picked up George’s handout, which lays out his positions on Telegraph Avenue, student issues, crime, affordable housing, and homelessness. 

The handout contains a lot of worthy-sounding ideas and goals: more housing, better outreach, studies, councils, commissions, collaboration, cooperation, enforcement, compassion. But many are essentially “motherhood” goals that no one would oppose and aren’t possible to implement, and most of the rest have an odd ring of familiarity, because they’re things that our Councilmember Kriss Worthington either accomplished long before George started his campaign, or has been working hard on for years. 

Our district’s problems are complex, and they can’t be solved by a wave of a wand. Issues like teenage runaways and Internet competition for Telegraph retailers originate far outside District 7 and Berkeley. 

We all want solutions. But “appoint a commission” is neither a bold new idea nor a rallying cry of leadership. I don’t see why we’d want to swap an effective and responsive Councilmember like Worthington for someone like Beier, who’s playing me-too and catch-up. 

Patti Dacey 

• 

BAD IDEAS AND FEAR TACTICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Greg Murphy disapproves of my letter pointing out that George Beier is running a campaign of bad ideas and fear tactics, by claiming George is running a “positive campaign.” Not so positive that his campaign office doesn’t resort to name-calling on the window signs.  

I happen to really love this neighborhood that I live in. It is creative and interesting. I don’t want a representative who thinks it is horrible here, that calls People’s Park “gross,” and that wants to sterilize our vibrant community. George was involved in shutting down the best student co-op because it was in his neighborhood. He wants to destroy the trees and gardens in People’s Park. He is working against improving the bus system. George is harming our businesses and community by exaggerating the crime and problems which scares away shoppers and visitors.  

Let’s keep Kriss Worthington as our representative, he actually likes our neighborhood.  

Cyndi Johnson 

• 

TOBEY’S COHERENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to commend you for Alan Tobey’s Oct. 13 opinion piece on Measure J. It’s the only coherent description I have read of the current controversy over architectural preservation in Berkeley.  

Sandy McCoy 

• 

A LITTLE TRUTH PLEASE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ll address only a couple of the numerous inaccuracies and untruths in Alan Tobey’s Oct. 13 commentary about “Preservation and Democracy.” 

The six-year process Mr. Tobey refers to was not a “community-wide effort” by any means. It was an effort to gut our landmarks ordinance led by Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan. Also involved was our city Planning Department, which receives its funding, not from the general fund, but largely from developer fees (no conflict of interest there!). 

For much of the last year Mayor Tom Bates, who never met a big building he didn’t love, had his staff working on the revised ordinance. The goal was the same as the earlier versions, to weaken our time-honored preservation laws in order to pave the way for more development. 

At the Feb. 14 City Council meeting, 41 members of the Berkeley community, many representing neighborhood associations, spoke against the mayor’s version of the ordinance. Six developers or employees of developers, most of whom live outside of Berkeley, spoke for the mayor’s version.  

The final draft of the mayor’s revisions came before the City Council only a few minutes before they voted on it, hardly an example of an ordinance based on “consensus of the whole community.” Yet Mr. Tobey refers to this extremely unpopular set of revisions as the “community-compromise” ordinance—not once, but nine times in one article. Repetition does not make a lie true; it simply makes it more outrageous.  

We are waiting to see the campaign against Measure J, which apparently will be funded in part by the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. I think we can count on it to be very slick, and utterly truth-free. Vote yes on Measure J. 

Gale Garcia 

• 

MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Measure A is one of the most important school tax measures to be on the ballot this November. 

It is the renewal of a tax which Berkeley taxpayers have already been paying, it is a continuation of that tax and has not increased the percentage to heighten the burden on the people of Berkeley. I don’t like taxes anymore than my neighbors around me! 

The North East Berkeley Association (NEBA), a once influential political group from the hills, has bee persuaded by a woman who entertains herself by trying to destroy the school district. 

She needs to have her history investigated so that her motives can be assessed and evaluated. 

Until that happens, I feel a desperate need to inform voters to support Measure A. It is a vital agent to encourage young people to enjoy a full education which can not be provided to them because of a limited general purpose budget to fund things such as a vital art, music and choral program, this is only part of the monetary provisions. Lives are enriched thus keeping youngsters from elementary schools to high school in class to learn math, science and history. These things are important to me and to children who blossom while participating in the art world. I have a grandson who has discovered drama, choral singing and dance production in the fourth grade just because voters in the past have supported raising these dollars. He thinks of being a director as a profession. 

The fund has been guarded by parents and was formerly chaired by a brilliant woman who is now on the School Board, Nancy Riddle. The committee doing this supervision is open to the public and anyone may attend its meetings to observe its devotion and ethical correctness to the children of Berkeley. Those of you who know me, know my devotion to the school children of Berkeley and I continue in this support by letting you know that Measure A is fully worthwhile and needs your positive understanding and support. 

Barbara Wittstock 

• 

NEBA NOT NEIGHBORLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The North East Berkeley Association does not represent me or many other North Berkeley residents I know. 

I am embarrassed to say that I fell under the delusion that joining NEBA would give me the opportunity to at least state my views on issues addressed by the group. NEBA had no trouble cashing my dues check. It seems however that the NEBA board feels free to stake out positions on issues of important public policy in the name of NEBA without actually seeking membership input. For example, the board put itself on record against Measure A, the renewal of the parcel tax for Berkeley public schools on next month’s ballot, but it never raised the issue for membership consideration.  

While I would think Measure A deserves support just on the basis of supporting our children and society, I am especially surprised that a homeowners group would go out of its way to stake a position that, if it were to prevail, would certainly depress property values. Loss of the programs that would be maintained through Measure A would put a major dent in the quality of Berkeley public schools by decimating such important programs as music, libraries and class size reduction. I am surprised the NEBA boardmembers do not see the connection between maintaining quality public schools and maintaining the property values of their houses. Many Berkeley residents paid a premium to live in Berkeley over similar houses in less costly neighboring cities on the basis of public school reputations. How can a group, which purports to promote neighborhood welfare oppose Measure A? Indeed, how can an organization with such unneighborly process and views be called a neighborhood group? NEBA’s anti-tax-at-all-costs action belies such a purpose. 

Robin E. Miller 

• 

BESMAART NOT SMAART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yolanda Huang argues that because Berkeley schools are not performing at a level that meets some poorly-defined standards, we should thus oppose Measure A and seek a “better” measure in March.  

Ms. Huang provides no sense of what this better measure would be, but implies she is for smaller class sizes and a more effective system. This, she argues means opposing Measure A.  

Ms. Huang’s premise is that the school board and administration will misspend the tax revenues and we the people will have no recourse for the next 10 years (the term of Measure A). 

Ms. Huang’s group, BeSmaart, simply opposes taxes. She avoids the real issue—Berkeley schools need money. Her issues regarding the district’s performance are addressed almost daily in meetings by such varied bodies as the board of education, school and distict PTA, school site councils and numerous other volunteer groups in the city too numerous to mention. The solutions that these varied groups are trying to apply in Berkeley need money. 

Ms. Huang’s group is not Smaart—they oppose taxes without insight or offering alternatives. A March measure is a false hope—now is the time to show you care about young people in our city and support Measure A. 

Paul Lecky 

• 

HUANG’S ANALYSIS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s interesting that Yolanda Huang included the table “Dropouts by Ethnicity” in her recent commentary piece opposing Measure A. It’s the data on which she based her earlier letter to the Planet expressing great alarm about the “whopping 33 percent dropout rate” of Pacific Islanders at Berkeley High School—and the data in this table show she’s talking about a total of ONE student dropout. Why didn’t she report the zero percent dropout rate among Berkeley’s Native American students and Filipino students? Are those numbers somehow less significant than the data she does quote, or do they just not fit her agenda of casting our Berkeley schools in the worst possible light? 

The use of this data is typical of the campaign to defeat Measure A by misinforming the public. You don’t have to study the data or even to read the actual measure’s precise specifications for the use and oversight of its funds (although you should) to realize that this opposition group has an enormous credibility deficit. If our schools are as bad as they would like us to think, why do so many students from other districts want to attend them? If out-of-district students are a problem, defeating Measure A would certainly remove their incentive to come here, but would it be rational to ruin the schools for our own children, just to get rid of someone else’s? 

Do opponents of Measure A really think their Voter Information Pamphlet claim that “average BUSD teacher compensation” is “$87,000” will fool anybody? Average teacher salary is obviously much less than that, in fact, it’s about $57,000 a year. The $87,000 figure is even more than the district’s cost per teacher, including health and retirement benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes, which is about $80,000 a year. Isn’t it equally absurd for them to claim (also in the Voter Information Pamphlet) that we could replace the 20 percent of our district’s budget that would be lost if Measure A fails to pass by the savings from things like “enforcing attendance” and “stopping cafeteria food overproduction?” 

Could any reasonable person buy their argument that devastating cuts to school funding would actually result in improved student achievement? Increasing class sizes and eliminating school libraries, parent outreach, and elementary and middle school music programs would remedy the achievement gap? 

After all this, do they have any credibility at all when they say they “support children” and “support public school education?” Please vote yes on Measure A to renew existing school funding. Don’t be fooled into a “no” vote, which would drastically cut funding for our Berkeley public schools. Remember, Measure A must pass by a two-thirds majority, so opponents only need to win more than 33.3 percent of the vote to defeat this well-written, essential measure for the continued support of our public schools. 

Julie Holcomb 

• 

INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am very happy that Measure O, which would bring instant runoff voting (IRV) to Oakland, is on the ballot. This is a needed election reform. By eliminating a runoff election, Oakland could move its local elections to November, when turnout is nearly 60 percent higher, on average. A ranked choice ballot would also encourage people to vote sincerely, instead of having to worry about “wasted votes” or “spoilers.”  

I did take issue with statements made by the opposition to Measure O in the Oct. 6 Daily Planet article. The article states: “Opponents say that it is unfair to ask voters to make a second or third choice of candidates, when all they want is to pick their top choice.” This is simply false. Under Measure O, voters have the option of ranking as many candidates as they want or can choose to only vote for one candidate. Opponents also claim that IRV will confuse voters, but offer no evidence to back up this claim. Two exit polls conducted after San Francisco and Burlington (VT) held their first IRV elections found that around 90 percent of voters reported understanding IRV. 

Nicolas Heidorn 

Oakland 

• 

OAKLAND SCHOOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mr. J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s Oct. 13 column (“Oakland Wants to Win Back Control of its Schools”) column shows that there is no logic in keeping the Oakland School District under state administration. However, I doubt if State Superintendent Jack O’Connell will pay attention. 

And, Mr. Allen-Taylor’s comments pointing to the dismal record of Oakland State Administrator Randolph Ward at financial recovery will also, most likely, be ignored by State Superintendent O’Connell as Dr. Ward has left. 

The state administration has been unable to meet the FCMAT team’s standard of fiscal management over the three years of the take-over. And, because the district’s financial records are unreliable and incomplete the state administration has been unable to pass an audits by the state’s office of controller. These facts support the view that the district’s budget has been out of control. 

I had experienced an Oakland school budget out of control for most of the 37 years I taught in Oakland. The lack of control over the budget was signified by the Oakland School District tradition of freezing its budgets in December. That action of course met that savvy school principals and teachers spent the maximum of their budgets by December. FCMAT reports have called for establishing internal audit process and position control to gain budget control. Position control concept means putting a system in place so that for every person hired there is a dedicated amount of the budget to pay that person’s salary. The position control concept was finally implemented this year but it will take time to see if it is working. Internal audit is another important FCMAT recommendation for gaining control over the district’s budget. An internal audit function seeks to halt spending more than is budgeted. The internal audit function is suppose to be put in place in this the fourth year of the take-over.  

Whether or not local control is returned to Oakland schools the issue of control over the district’s budget must be addressed. And, that is why it is disturbing that the FCMAT report states “The reforms undertaken by the district have not always been compatible with the goal of fiscal recovery and the return of local governance.”  

Because FCMAT report makes clear that under the Dr. Ward’s administration of the Oakland schools reform of the district’s administrative structure is in conflict with the goal of “fiscal recovery and the return of local governance,” the question becomes will the new State Administrator Kimberley Stratham change direction and make fiscal recovery, and the return of local governance, her priority?  

Jim Mordecai 

Oakland 

• 

CLEAN MONEY IN ALBANY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is gratifying to find that the City of Albany has, virtually, its own “clean money” ordinance in place. No City Council candidate may, under penalty of perjury, accept funding from organizations or groups; nor more than $100 from any individual. 

Candidate Caryl O’Keefe has geographically narrowed this rule to permit herself the acceptance of campaign money only from Albany voters. If her claim in her leaflet is accurate, then the other three candidates legally receive donations from within and beyond Albany, under the same frugal monetary specifications. Or does Ms. O’Keefe intend to say that she alone assumes any limitations at all? 

The “Shoreline” candidates, Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile, have inherited the round-robin stigma of “outsiderism” from the days of the Shoreline Protection Initiative and the rigors of its lawsuit, when revolution was in the air and it seemed the skies were falling. In particular, certain correspondents in these pages seem to have imagined the Sierra Club as a malignant outsider octopus, gnarling and snarling, flexing its tentacles and spewing filthy lucre upon naive causes: surely an urban myth! 

Only the rankest xenophobe would scorn the pro bono accolades conferred on the Shoreline campaign through endorsements by the following outside individuals: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, Supervisor Keith Carson, Nancy Skinner of the Board of the East Bay Regional Parks District, and Andy Katz, Board Member Elect of East Bay MUD. Or by organizations such as the Sierra Club, the California Democratic Party, the League of Conservation Voters of the East Bay, and the Green Party of Alameda County. 

These persons and groups for the most part do not vote within our borders; but we are within their (federal, state, county, regional) jurisdictions. In discouraging the erection of a kitschy “lifestyle center” a scant 200 feet away from the water’s edge, they may feel, as we do, that when Nature is being threatened anywhere, it is a concern for people everywhere. Or, to paraphrase a recent saying by Congresswoman Lee: we all live in Nature’s district. 

Anne Richardson 

Albany 

Over the summer I read What’s the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank. Kansas voters regularly vote to humiliate and destroy their state, enriching and empowering the privileged class, and weakening and impoverishing regular folk. We Berkeleyans are too smart to fall into that trap. Or are we? 

We will see when we vote on Measure J, the ballot initiative that will preserve our existing Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO), a mainstay of citizen power in Berkeley since 1974. The alternative to Measure J is an LPO rewrite that weakens our landmarking procedures, orchestrated by Mayor Bates in alliance with frustrated developers. So a no vote on Measure J means a yes vote for Mayor Bates’ LPO revision.  

Our current LPO is a profoundly progressive law that has done its job for three decades. The LPO hasn’t prevented more than 1,400 units of new housing units from being approved and built in Berkeley in the past four years. Nobody ever went broke because their property was landmarked (landmarking increases property values). No “hysterical preservationists” ever landmarked anything that a majority of the council did not support. In fact, although it’s easy to trivialize unusual landmarkings, most Berkeleyans are quite happy with their landmarking protections, and even skeptics rarely disagree with landmarks once they know the facts. The LPO has never violated state law (as some opponents claim), but the state has suggested several minor improvements, which are incorporated into Measure J.  

If you aren’t interested in the details, when the glossy disinformation starts arriving, just ask yourself: Who has the motive and resources to champion and finance a campaign to weaken our LPO by defeating Measure J? Your neighbors? No. “Moderate” preservationists? No. It’s a small group of developers and realtors who stand to get much richer, much quicker, without it. Do they have your interests at heart? Hmmm, let’s see…  

The Bates revision substantially reduces the public’s opportunity to landmark properties and respond to developments. One damaging provision is called the “request for determination” (RFD). In this new process, developers can, without revealing that they intend to propose an unwelcome development, hire “experts” to argue that their existing property has no historical value to the community. If someone from the community fails to step forward to prove otherwise, which requires 40-plus hours of unpaid labor, nobody may landmark the property for two years. By the time the public realizes a demolition is intended, or understands how an existing building may contribute to the historical fabric of their neighborhood, they will be helpless to stop the wrecking ball. 

Preservationists oppose RFD, because they understand the difficulty of educating citizens about their neighborhoods, and motivating them to undertake landmarkings. No other city in America has such a provision, because the inevitable outcome is unexamined demolitions. But this seems to be exactly what the Bates revision intends, because staff first omitted, and then opposed, making sure the public would know about its impending loss of landmarking rights in time to exercise them—even in cases where there was no deadline, no project to delay, and no hurry. The council did not remedy this. Please ask yourself why.  

Who is to be trusted here? Who will administer the Bates revision and the RFD? It will be the same city staff that opposes, shrinks, and trivializes timely and comprehensive noticing. The same staff that regularly obstructs citizen efforts to protect historic properties. The same staff that once tried to enable an illegal demolition by keeping a landmarking secret from the Zoning Adjustments Board. The same staff that obstructed the Landmark Preservation Commission’s attempts to update the LPO. This staff has very little respect for citizens, and it has a zealous antagonism to historical preservation, which is partly institutional: the planning department is financed by fees for developments requiring demolitions. It would be foolish to give them new, tricky mechanisms to disarm the public. 

Some preservationists tried hard to make the Bates revision acceptable. Only when backed by the threat of referendum or initiative were preservationists able to make headway. But unfortunately, the improvements were inadequate and perhaps impermanent. The council’s unwillingness to remove or improve the RFD, which is incompatible with community-based landmarking, verified that their intent is not to “improve” landmarking, but to undermine it. Therefore, I decided to support Measure J. 

Initiatives occur when the public loses trust in government. Most citizen initiatives are written and publicized by amateurs, and most initiatives fail. And relying on the ballot in a city where most residents are too comfortable to pay much attention to activities across town is a huge gamble. So God help us. Let’s hope we’re smarter than the people in Kansas. 

Measure J was written by several experienced Berkeley preservationists, guided by the state’s suggestions. Some opponents criticize Measure J because it was drafted “privately,” while thousands of hours of “democratic” work went into the Bates revision. It is true that several commissions had their fingers in the Bates revision (one reason it was such a mess), but they were all preservation and development insiders. Almost nobody else in Berkeley knew that their LPO was being overhauled. Did you ever receive a public notice about it? When the public finally spoke, over 90 percent of them opposed the Bates revision, but the council approved it anyway. What’s “democratic” about that? On the other hand, initiatives are, in theory, as democratic as you can get, although in practice, underfunded citizen initiatives are often defeated by monied interests.  

It’s unfortunate that so many people wasted so much time on the Bates revision, but it’s entirely irrelevant to voters. While the petulant developers PAC their war chest, and the fissiparous preservationists argue about “integrity” (of both buildings and people), regular folk need to wake up and smell the brown shingles. They have two choices: 

Behind Door No. 1 is Measure J, an improved version of the current LPO, a perfectly fine law that empowers the public. A yes vote on Measure J guarantees that special interests cannot hack our LPO to death again without the consent of the governed.  

Behind Door No. 2 is the open-ended Bates revision, which reduces the public input and control that has helped keep Berkeley charming for 30 years. If Measure J is defeated, the development community and City Council will assume that most Berkeleyans want a handful of developers to redesign our historical cityscape. Development proposals will become even more arrogant. At any time the Bates LPO could be revised to weaken our landmarking rights even further. For Berkeley voters to disempower themselves this way would be insane. Kansas, anyone? 

Please vote yes on Measure J if you believe in historical and neighborhood preservation. Please vote yes on Measure J to maintain your current power over the cityscape of Berkeley. Please vote yes on Measure J if you believe in self-government and not government by insiders. Keep your power, or vote it away: that’s the choice.  

If Berkeleyans are foolish enough to diminish their own influence over the look, feel, and cultural assets of their community, in a few years someone may write a book called What’s the Matter with Berkeley? And there may be plenty to write about. 

Sharon Hudson 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.

Lately there has been much discussion about how to help the Berkeley public schools thrive. 

The North East Berkeley Association’s board considered the Berkeley Unified School District tax and took a historic position voting against Measure A. Before the vote, the board discussed and debated many issues at the core of public education funding, accountability and asked if A would result in better instruction and smaller classrooms. Many different opinions were expressed. 

The first BSEP parcel tax created in 1986 passed three consecutive times—in 1986, 1990 and 1994—each time with a four-year renewal period, oversight including community input. Then the term increased to eight years. Last fiscal year BSEP, a $10 million tax, brought in an extra $970,000 because of high property values. Now the school district proposes combining BSEP and another “supplemental” tax while extending the renewal horizon to every 10 years for both taxes. Measure A’s oversight committees don’t require broad involvement from parents, staff students, residents and community since it uses “or” instead of “and” supporting exclusivity (5.B.i&ii). 

What’s interesting about the NEBA board’s decision is that the Council for Neighborhood Associations and the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations quickly followed suit voting no on Measure A. Is it fair to label these citizen groups as elitist reactionaries? They’re saying that you have to draw a line in the sand when you see the schools asking for $200 million without explicitly guaranteeing that the majority of the money will be spent on smaller classrooms, books, music and art supplies and teacher education. 

Some neighborhood boards are troubled by what’s going on in Berkeley’s public school system. Even critics agree, we have the largest achievement gap in the county. Many children are denied access to the “academic choice” lottery which gives some families the opportunity to pick which school their children can attend. One parent told me only 25 percent get picked, while the lion’s share is locked out. The existence of the lottery suggests that parents know some of our public schools are much better than others. Many ask why hasn’t the school district let the city bond approved in 2000 to improve a warm water pool for students, teachers and the disabled? Others want to revise A while BUSD collects an extra 11 percent from the state about $8,244 per student this fiscal year (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 1). 

These boards see the term of the measure increasing and the schools within the district not benefiting equally. They wonder whether the accountability and oversight will correct inefficiencies in they way the money is (or isn’t) being spent. Every student deserves to have the same materials from the day class starts until graduation day and strong core curriculum including music and art.  

Will Measure A support what it claims? Clearly administrators salaries are increasing while student achievement scores are below average; enrollment is declining along with other key indicators like low graduation rates.  

None of us have the all the answers, and school officials care too, but these neighborhood leaders are asking the right questions. There not questioning the efficacy of school taxes since 1986, but are instead concerned whether due diligence been performed to guarantee Measure A will go to the areas indicated.  

CNA, BANA and NEBA want a revised Measure in March 2007 to guarantee every student has equal access to the best education money can buy in a safe environment. They want stronger guarantees about where the money is going and a shorter horizon than 10 years. The fine print in the full text of Measure A uses the word “may” numerous times in relation to how the revenue of Measure A can be spent (3.A.iv, 3.B.i.a, 3Bib, 3Bid).  

NEBA, C.N.A. and BANA are not elitist reactionaries, but voices crying out citywide saying “wait, let’s do this right.” Students who could benefit from this money are not in a position to protect and guide where the money will go. Informed voters must make sure the money is well spent to guarantee smaller classrooms, materials, instruction and supplies. Is it wise to keep supporting a system and extend these taxes with loopholes if accountability for academic achievement is an issue? Perhaps the critics of NEBA will answer these questions for themselves and the rest of us.  

Please vote on Nov. 7 or by absentee ballot. Our children’s future depends on you.  

Eleanor Pepples is president of the North East Berkeley Association. 

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.  

The administration is in denial. The “dumb” growth advocates are into defeatism: “... nothing we do in Berkeley’s land use will have any noticeable impact on climate change.” (Sharon Hudson, Daily Planet, Aug. 8). It is an easy type of excuse that is too sweeping in its scope. Why protest the war, when nothing you personally can do will stop it? Why not cheat on your taxes? Lots of people do it and your taxes are probably insignificant in the total budget. 

On the global stage, the effects of lifestyle changes of any one person, or city, are indeed insignificant. However, there are some changes which can be significant if done by enough people (or cities). It is the willful failure to act in this type of situation, in the absence of mitigating reasons, which gives Nimbyism its definition as a selfish, and potentially harmful, shirking of responsibility. 

Is Berkeley a special case? Although Ms. Hudson writes extensively on the problems growth can cause, she has not shown, nor attempted to show, that Berkeley is in any way special with regards to these problems, or any less fit to deal with them. Other cities have trees they want to keep, and problems with traffic and noise. There is a sign in Escalon (population 7,000) in the Central Valley that asks whether Escalon really needs 459 (I think that is the number I saw) new houses. Expansion in such areas eliminates part of their attraction in the first place. In Tucson I once overheard a lady complain that when she had moved into her new development a few years ago she had the last house on the block, but now a new development had been put in and now she no longer had immediate access to the desert. She seemed to have no sense of the irony implicit in her complaint. Yes, there are some older cities in Pennsylvania and other states that have lost population and would probably be better off gaining some of it back, but most cities in California are not in this situation.  

Would “smart” growth have an insignificant effect even if was widespread? Ms. Hudson does not even discuss why environmentalists think it has any effect. A main focus of “smart” growth is higher density and centralized growth. This slows down habitat loss, reduces water demand, and reduces energy demand. The reason for the first effects are obvious, while the last effect is mainly due to lower space heating and cooling use in multi-family residences (apartments) due to their lower surface to volume ratios, and less use of vehicular travel because destinations are closer together, and alternative options (transit, bike and walking) are more feasible. 

San Francisco data from 1990-1995 shows that in areas at the fifth percentile in density (three households/acre) personal vehicle use per capita (corrected for differences in income) was 40 percent higher than for areas at 95th percentile (10.5 households/acre). This is not a dramatic effect, but it is not insignificant either. Furthermore, there was no significant pressure in the 1990s to reduce vehicular traffic. In dense center city areas your chances of being able to car pool, ride transit, or even walk or bike, are much better than if you live in an outlying suburb or a sprawling city such as Houston or Los Angeles. It is therefore reasonable to expect that the potential density effect is much larger than the current effect. This holds for growth, as well existing households. 

Reducing emissions while our population is still growing is already a very difficult task, and “dumb” growth will make it even harder. Environmentalists have good reason to feel that promoting growth in the central valley, instead of the central cities, is irresponsible and self-centered. Nimbyism is not something to be proud of. But this does not mean one has to abandon all restraints on what goes into one’s back yard. “Smart” growth means a hierarchy of densities: dense urban centers, a buffer of medium rise buildings, and then less dense residential areas with yards. Berkeley does not have a dense downtown. If the building height to street width ratio was as high in Berkeley as it is in downtown San Francisco, the buildings on Shattuck near Center would be 150 stories high, and other downtown areas would have 30 to 50 story buildings. Berkeley is not the central city in the Bay Area, but the University is a major center. Twenty stories and perhaps more would seem to be reasonable given these circumstances. 

Berkeley’s current low limits (five stories plus limited bonus stories for low income housing) are counter-productive even for Nimbys. If developers can’t meet demand in the central core, then they try to expand into the lower density surrounding areas. If we block that, then we run the risk that the university will step in and build it anyway, and will remove tax dollars as an added insult to the injury. Higher core densities provide a safety valve for population growth in the city that can help preserve the residential neighborhoods. 

Ms. Hudson prints such a dire picture of life in high density areas that it is a wonder that anyone would voluntarily live in a big city. Planning for Berkeley’s future is serious task with long-term consequences. It deserves better than this type of commentary. 

Robert Clear 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.  

Since the war on drugs began some $47 billion a year is reserved from federal, state, and local treasuries to combat the so-called menace that encompasses the trafficking, sales, and use of drugs directly affecting the citizens of the United States of America. This obviously reflects the government’s view on the subject of drug abuse and related activities as very grave indeed. It is apparently serious enough to lawmakers who deem it necessary to spend that insane amount of tax money, and commit entire agencies of human resources annually in an attempt to try and bring the problem to a halt. The trouble is that through all the searches and seizures, television campaign ads, and mandatory minimum sentencing there is no end in sight and it seems to have fueled a kind of evolution in the world of mind altering substances. 

Has the use and proliferation of drugs actually come anywhere near to being reduced one may ask? It seems that there is still a rampant desire to obtain these illicits among the public with no short supply of those who are more than willing to supply these people who have become victims of psychological addiction, possibly brought on by the need to self-medicate in a society that breeds depression and despair among many socioeconomic levels. Perhaps the resources that are available due to the taxes paid by many of these citizens should be applied to mental health outreach programs or even simply making information available on the root causes of unhappiness and depression in various degrees of life that we all go through. Instead it appears that a majority of people are left to the wolves and are sometimes “forced” to obtain what they perceive as medication from much easier sources than “appropriate” channels that are not accessible to the common public. 

So then there we are back to the arrest and incarceration of many users who have never been involved with any sort of violent crime, which one would think only fuels the fire of hopelessness and despondency that caused them to medicate in the first place due to the harsh conditions in the jails and prisons of the nation supposedly devoted to the “rehabilitation” of these lawbreakers. 

A recent article in USA Today offers the point of view that most television ads over the years have actually convinced the youth population that “taking drugs is normal” through information gathered from the Government Accountability Office. The GAO is sanctioned by Congress and their job is to research whether or not programs initiated by the legislature are accomplishing the goals that they were designed to do, or perhaps convalescing into colossal failures. One instance of failed policy seems to be the stubbornly coordinated “War on Drugs” that although has the best of intentions has missed the mark entirely.  

This most recent report covers the $1.4 billion spent on attempts to curb the rise in use of MDMA more popularly known as “ecstasy”. The GAO spent an additional $43 million on the investigation on the validity of the ads just to find that they were not useful tools in dissuading young people from taking these pills. 

The office of current drug czar, John Walters, has disputed these findings based on the fact that the ads were used almost two and a half years ago (which strangely seems to be the time it takes to gather information on the results). They also countered through a survey conducted by the University of Michigan in 2005, that there has been a 5 percent decline in 10th graders who reported having used illicit drugs in the last year compared to statistics from 1998. Wow, seven long years of work involved in dissuading high schoolers to say no to drugs have really paid off, haven’t they? 

I think that drugs are certainly responsible for a portion of society’s ills and we cannot let their black market run amok, unchecked by law enforcement officers on the beat, but how much evidence must we see in order to come to the conclusion that there needs to be a shift in strategy here? I don’t know what positive effects might have occurred as a result of the seizures of large amounts of various drugs over the years. I would imagine however that this pressure has caused steep increases in the value of said product and the higher stakes involved have brought forth more violent means of control of this lucrative market. It also goes to reason that there would be less armed robberies and burglaries to pay for the high prices placed on the backs of those already addicted to the menace of crack cocaine and heroin through the free black market.  

Perhaps the $600 per second that the federal government spends on its failing and unwavering strategy could be used more effectively when those in power no longer fear to admit that past reasonings on the issue were not perfect and should not be continued on the basis of ego issues that they most be the most proper simply because they were instigated by those who are in charge.  

Travis C. Ash is a Richmond 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.

Two Sundays ago, on Oct. 8, I rose before dawn (way before) to drive a friend to Ocean Beach in San Francisco and take part in Ma’afa, what turned out to be an extremely moving ceremony marking the estimated 100 million African ancestors who perished during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, commonly referred to as the Middle Passage.  

Close your eyes, if you will, and picture hundreds of black folks all dressed in streaming white cloth gently tossed by the breeze blowing in from the bay as they/we silently, reverently listen to the prayers, acknowledge the suffering, witness the libations, answer the calls for songs and poetry in remembrance of the men, women and children who came before us—ripped from each others’ arms, languages and cultures; crammed into the hulls of filthy wooden ships: raped, beaten and murdered—all of these sad, searing memories accompanied by the steady rhythm of African drummers lifting us, carrying us through daylight and a short walk to the water’s edge where we toss our flowers and prayers into the receding waves. 

Ma’afa is a Kiswahili term that means great catastrophe or disaster; a holocaust of tremendous, life altering proportions. The American involvement in the African slave trade was just that; its residual affects, while greatly in evidence, have been largely unaddressed. Many black people, particularly hopeless young men, seem to be on a mission of self-destruction that too often includes taking innocent people down 

with them. Their lives have become so devalued that they neither seek nor find value in the lives of others. Standing on the sandy shore that Ma’afa Sunday, I wished that these troubled young men were there with me, listening and learning about a history not taught in most public schools. I wished that they could witness the elders walking through the crowd with a natural sense of dignity and grace; who were treated with such reverence you could swear they wore crowns. I wished these young men and women whose only allegiance seems to be to a fractured sense of self defined by turf and trifles, could be a part of this huge village family where the children were obviously 

wanted, loved and nurtured and no one hesitated to offer a helping hand.  

Close to 300 black people gathered together on Ocean Beach and there was no fear, no need for security, no foul language, no screeching cars, no blaring radios and no garbage left behind. As I soaked in the warmth, compassion and beauty of all of these various brothers and sisters, I felt overwhelmed with love and appreciation for who we are, who we were and who we are yet to become.  

“This is who we are,” I thought to myself as I looked around me. “This is who we are. Not the robbers and murderers we are depicted as in daily media. Look at this. At these people. The public never sees this side of us.”  

While new to me, this was the 12th anniversary of Ma’afa, founded by Wanda Sabir, a Bay Area educator and journalist. Her face was glowing as she circled through the crowd, directing one group and embracing another. Through collective memory, documentation and storytelling, Ms. Sabir is doing her part to contribute not only to the healing of African descendants in this country but to those left behind on a continent decimated by the loss of manpower, brainpower and resources that took place during a 

period of over 400 years.  

“More people should know about this,” I commented to my friend as we prepared to leave. “They should do more advertising.” 

“No,” he disagreed. “I think they have the people here who need to know about it. I think they’re doing just fine.” 

And I thought, perhaps he was right. Ma’afa is a unique event which draws particular people to it, for specific reasons. It isn’t about entertainment. It doesn’t need to be on television or the front page of any newspaper. It is a ceremony of remembrance and 

acknowledgment for historians and for healers; for teachers and for families who choose not to follow the norm—a norm which is generally unhealthy and full of holes. The Ma’afa community is growing a new kind of African American community based upon one of the world’s oldest civilizations.  

“The whole world doesn’t need to witness this,” I realized. “That would probably detract from its significance. We see it. We know it. We feel it, deep in our bones. And perhaps that is how it is meant to be. And that is enough.” 

In honor of the Black Holocaust, there are numerous cultural activities and healing events taking place this month. Most notable is an upcoming panel addressing the role of fathers in healing the black community on Oct. 26 at the Malonga Center Theatre in Oakland. For more information, see www.maafasfbayarea.com. 

It’s rare these days that I find myself in agreement with Mayor Jerry Brown’s attorney general campaign consultant and spokesperson, who specializes in the kind of fighter pilot/attack dog responses you would expect from someone named Ace Smith. But when Mr. Smith calls it “pathetic and desperate” a recent threat by Republicans to file a lawsuit challenging Mr. Brown’s attorney general credentials, he’s right on target. This is a matter for the voters to decide, not the judges. 

The chairmen of the Contra Costa and Yolo County Republican parties are saying that Mr. Brown “is ineligible to serve as attorney general, because he does not meet the minimum qualifications for the office as set forth in California law.” That opinion is based upon an obscure part of the law which reads that a California attorney general must have “been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office.” Brown passed the bar in 1964, but went on inactive status, by his own choosing, for several years, reactivating his bar status three years ago. 

In such overtly political cases, judges tend to rule in the direction their own particular political winds are blowing. A Superior Court judge once allowed State Senator Don Perata, for example, to sidestep the term limit laws and serve two-and-a-half terms in the State Senate—rather than the legally-limited one-and-a-half—because Mr. Perata voluntarily chose to stay away from Sacramento a couple of days into his first half-session and thus got to work late. Only in politics, it seems, are slackers directly rewarded for their slackerness. That being the case, I think that it is highly likely that a Superior Court judge take a brief, amused glance at the Republican County Chairs’ lawsuit and return the attorney general’s race back into the hands of the electorate, where it belongs. 

State Senator Chuck Poochigian, Mr. Brown’s Republican opponent, could have made Mr. Brown’s overall fitness and temperament an issue in the attorney general’s race. Goodness knows, there’s enough material in Oakland on which to judge. Instead, Mr. Poochigian has narrowed the race to strict law-and-order, criticizing Mr. Brown because he once famously opposed the death penalty and because of Oakland’s soaring, virtually out-of-control crime problems. As to the death penalty, Mr. Brown says that, yes, he has his doubts, but will willingly follow the law, and that has settled that. On the issue of Oakland crime, predictably (at least, long-predicted in this column), Mr. Brown has sighed, rubbed his fingers knowingly across the back of his hand, and said it is Oakland, after all, and California voters—not expecting much out of Oakland—give understanding nods of agreement and grant Mr. Brown points for a good try in a hard spot. 

All of that is bull, of course—the part about Mr. Brown having tried very hard to solve Oakland’s problems—but Mr. Poochigian is hampered by the laziness of the various state newspapers, which appear to have taken Mr. Brown at his word about Oakland without doing the requisite digging themselves. 

In a recent Los Angeles Times articles, as one of many examples, staff reporter Eric Bailey praises Mr. Brown for fulfilling his 10K promise, notes that ‘condos are sprouting [in Oakland] and business capital is pouring into a city long in the shadow of glittery San Francisco across the bay,” points out that Mr. Brown has “embraced the Police Department” (not sure what that means, but Mr. Bailey seems to think it’s a good thing) and has been endorsed by the California Police Chiefs Association, and buys Mr. Brown’s apples-and-oranges comparison that “serious crime has fallen 30 percent [in Oakland] during his tenure compared to [Mr. Brown’s] predecessor.” 

As his sole expression of dissent to all this Oakland success and prosperity, Mr. Bailey only says that the mayor has “irked some African American leaders who were bothered that he didn’t apply progressive tactics to boost job opportunities for troubled youths.” 

There have been far more serious and articulate criticisms of Mr. Brown by African-American leaders in Oakland, as well as from various other segments of the Oakland community. The LA Times’ Mr. Bailey, however, has not seemed to be able to find them. 

The Times is by no means by themselves. In an editorial endorsing Mr. Brown for attorney general, the lesser-known Los Angeles Daily News wrote that despite the fact that Mr. Brown opposes the death penalty, “what matters is not whether the attorney general supports every law in the state, but whether he has the integrity to enforce even the ones he doesn’t. No one seriously disputes Brown’s integrity. He has demonstrated it over the course of his political career.” Mr. Brown, the Daily News concludes, is “straightforward, honest, sensible, down-to-earth.” 

That is surpassed only by the legal newspaper, The Recorder, where reporter Cheryl Miller tells us earlier this week “Brown runs his Oakland office with the smallest staff of any mayor that’s ever served the city, said former aide John Betterton … The mayor works long hours, … he said.” Ms. Miller did not come back with the obvious question to Mr. Betterton: “yes, but at what?” 

There is an old joke about the woman who kept standing up and peering into the casket at a funeral to determine, she explained, whether or not the man they were burying was the same one the minister was praising from the pulpit. The fellow she remembered was distinctly less admirable. But the attorney general’s race not being a funeral but becoming more like a hero’s reception, flower garlands and all, perhaps that’s not appropriate. 

In fact, the only California newspaper which seems to be taking a critical look at Mr. Brown’s actual Oakland record is, you guessed it, the Berkeley Daily Planet. We have that on the authority, not of our own observation, but of the Wall Street Journal. 

In an October 14 interview with Mr. Brown, syndicated columnist Jill Stewart writes that “these days, just about the only newspaper regularly whacking [Mr. Brown] is the leftist Berkeley Daily Planet. In response, Ms. Stewart says that Mr. Brown “promptly slams the Daily Planet, saying the paper repeatedly and wrongly reported that he tried ‘to remove the black leadership of Oakland,’ and they have always quoted or used that description against me, that my efforts were a racist move! In order to try to get me! … The … guy who writes about me [at the Planet] is nothing! He’s nobody!” 

Readers with a long memory or a good google may already know that the black leadership quotation actually came from the Wall Street Journal itself, an August, 1999 article in which WSJ staff reporter Peter Waldman wrote “In his [1998] campaign for mayor, Mr. Brown … promised to dismantle the African-American-dominated political machine that presided over much of the city’s decline since the 1970s.” 

And, actually, while I did later write about that remark, I didn’t call it a “racist move.” In fact, I said just the opposite. 

In a July, 2005 column comparing Mr. Brown with former Congressmember Ron Dellums—who was then just beginning to consider a run for mayor of Oakland—I wrote that Mr. Brown “did ride the wave of underlying feeling in some areas of Oakland [in the late 90’s] that there had been enough of black rule.” I pointed out, however, that although Mr. Brown fired some prominent black staffmembers when he was first elected, he “retained some of the black presence within Oakland government that was there under Mayor Elihu Harris,” and that “it cannot be said that [Mr. Brown] swept Oakland’s decks clean of black faces.” While saying that Mr. Brown’s actions as Oakland mayor “have not been overtly anti-black, they have often strayed very close to the edge in their appeal to anti-black stereotypes,” my conclusion back in 2005 was that “Mr. Brown is not accused of being an anti-black racist, if by that term we mean someone who either hates black people, or thinks they are not his equal. (Mr. Brown probably thinks that few people are his equal, but that makes him arrogant and elitist, not racist, which is another thing altogether.)” 

Our experience with Mr. Brown has been that when he has been unable to win a political argument on its merits, he simply alters what his critics or opponents actually said, argues forcefully and brilliantly against these manufactured statements, and walks away, triumphant. Thus saying he is not racist is turned into having said he is racist. This injudicious temperament of Mr. Brown’s (a tendency to alter facts to fit a pre-determined conclusion) is what Mr. Poochigian should have, but failed to, highlight to the voters as Mr. Brown’s chief lacking for a post that requires, well, judicious judgment. 

Helped by a curious lack of curiosity by my journalistic colleagues, however, Mr. Brown more often than not gets away with these various transgressions, and appears poised to get away with them again, all the way through the November canvass. If so, we will revisit this issue a year or so from now, with a “Don’t Blame Oakland, Y’all; We Tried To Warn You” post-it reminder memo stuck on the side of the computer. 

Esther Owens was born Esther Frances Wagner in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, on March 13, 1898, the last of Anna and Max Wagner’s three children. While on a visit home from singing in a light-opera road company, Esther met her future husband, Forest John Maynard, originally from Vermont. After several moves because of Forest’s work, the young couple eventually settled in the Bay Area, first in Berkeley, then in Oakland. 

In 1939, Forest died suddenly in his office in San Francisco, leaving Esther to raise two young daughters. In May 1940, Esther married Jack Owens, an old friend and widower from Oklahoma City, where she and her children then moved. Sadly, in February 1941, Jack suffered a massive heart attack and died soon after.  

During the next years, Esther worked as a USO Hostess in Oklahoma City. She and her daughters remained in Oklahoma until the summer of 1946 when they relocated to Oakland. 

Since the war-time housing shortage was still in full sway, they initially had to live in a bachelor apartment belonging to Esther’s nephew who was still in the service. Her ingenuity came into play when she saw a new seven-unit apartment arising at the top of Broadway and noticed it was not progressing. Finding out the owner was missing a necessary construction component without which he could not proceed, Esther bargained with him. If she could get him what he needed, could she have an apartment, all of which had already been spoken for? With an affirmative answer, she made the contact she already knew she had, procured the material and soon had a nice new home for the family. 

In order to educate her daughters and support the family, Esther worked at Kahn’s Department Store, situated in downtown Oakland’s Rotunda building. Later, she became receptionist, then eventually treasurer at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield while moonlighting at Kahn’s. After 17 years, Esther was hired by Msgr. Pierce Donovan to be secretary/bookkeeper for Corpus Christi Parish in Piedmont. Retiring from there at 80, Esther began 13 years of service as a Providence Hospital Volunteer, eventually earning a 4,000-hours pin. 

Meanwhile, In 1950, Esther and her daughter Marna moved into their Rose Street home in Berkeley and soon joined St. Mary Magdalen Parish where she remained to the end, serving as lector and Eucharistic minister until the age of 95. Each year the parish honored Esther’s birthday at the closest Sunday Mass, with extra special celebrations at 100 and 105. Each time, she was completely surprised.  

Every transition decision, including when to stop driving, Esther made on her own with no prompting from either daughter. This seems to have been true to a certain extent with her final transition to new life. She lay down her burden of years and for a week waited quietly and patiently for God’s call, which finally came very peacefully about 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 13, after 108-and-a-half years of life. 

Here is an impressive resume of those many years: Esther lived in three centuries and survived 19 American presidents, nine popes, six major wars, two husbands and four pet Sheltie dogs. And all the inventions we take for granted came in her lifetime: the automobile, airplane, radio, moving pictures, television, the computer, and space travel, with all that each of them has brought. 

What a life!

Killing yourself isn’t as easy as it used to be. You used to be able to get in your 8,000 pound Buick, pull into the garage, tune in KNBR and slowly pass into unconsciousness to the strains of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” as the disappointments of the world faded softly into nothingness. Wow, that was dark. But it’s a reality that carbon monoxide has been widely used to end it all for many decades, maybe a hundred years. 

The sad thing for me is that a whole lot of people who have no such intentions end up dying each year as a result of this odorless and colorless gas. By the way, cars are now so efficient that you aren’t going to have an easy time ended it all by running your car in the garage. The catalytic converter has largely put an end to that. 

Carbon monoxide, or CO is a sister molecule to carbon dioxide but has some very different traits. The one that should concern us the most is the fact that it bonds with Hemoglobin very effectively and strongly. It also hangs around for a-long time and is cumulative as exposure increases so that the longer you hang out in an environment with a source of CO, the more build-up you get. 

By bonding with hemoglobin on the surface of red-blood cells, the sites that would normally grab oxygen are all filled up like the spaces on a train. The train leaves the station with less and less oxygen and eventually the brain and other organs asphyxiate despite your best effort to take full breaths. Your blood simply can’t grab and deliver oxygen.  

CO bonds with hemoglobin 240 times more strongly than oxygen so it can take a while for it to leave. Therefore, it’s best to stay away from the stuff in the first place. 

Now where does CO come from and how can we protect ourselves? First, CO is generally a faulty product of combustion. Coal fires are big sources of CO and this is why you never want to build a coal fire inside. Keep the BBQ outside, please.  

Wood fires also produce significant amount of carbon monoxide, which is why you want to a) make sure your fireplace has a good healthy draft and b) make sure you don’t go to sleep with the fire still burning else you might not wake up for that 6 a.m. run with the dog. 

But these aren’t the most common causes. Gas appliances which tend to run day and night and which are not operating properly are the most common causes of CO poisoning. 

If you are currently using a kerosene heater in your living space, consider giving it up in favor of a vented gas heater such as a wall furnace or central heating system. 

If your water heater isn’t venting to the outside, get some professional help and make sure the exhaust pipe that comes off the top of the unit is exiting the living space. Believe it or not, I see a couple of water heaters without any vent pipe attached to them each year. Many are in basements but these basements often interconnect with the living space thus polluting and endangering the occupants. 

I was in a live-in attic many years ago that housed an unvented furnace. The furnace had a cold air intake (to pick up and pump this gas around the inside of the house) not far from the exhaust outlet and looked truly forboding. It turned out that the occupant had been bed-ridden and increasingly ill for some years without any clear cause. 

After reading the report on this dangerous condition and putting two and two together she got a blood test and discovered that she has dangerously high levels of CO in her bloodstream.  

She was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. CO poisoning won’t just kill you; it will, at lower levels make you sick (and you might not even know it). It affects the heart, lungs and brain and can rob you of your health and vitality at a range of levels. 

At low levels it caused dizziness and headaches that can persist for as long as exposure continues (all winter when shared with the wrong furnace?). At higher levels it can cause a range of problems including tachycardia (rapid heart-rate), hypertension, skin lesions, speech or visual difficulties and even dementia. 

Oxygen is a wonderful thing. I like it a lot and try to get some every day but when there’s something inside of me that keeps me from getting it to my brain and vital organs, I get cranky. That’s why I keep a CO tester in my house running at all times. 

Carbon Monoxide testers have come down in price over the last few years and are now in the 20-30 range, well within reach of virtually everyone who pays a mortgage or rent. 

I would strongly advise anyone who rents an apartment (or 40 apartments) to get them for their tenants and to service them regularly. Given the down-side, there’s no good reason not to get these little miracles. They also make a fabulous gift. Christmas is coming up and nothing says “I need you alive and oxygenated” like the gift of a CO tester. You can get them at almost every hardware store in the United States. 

Now, in all my research, the one thing I couldn’t find was this. How many people in the United States (or the world for that matter) have low-level CO poisoning and don’t know it. How may have persistent headaches or dizziness but manage to get by, not realizing that they’re operating at 1/2 speed. They may also be slowly manifesting some of the other long range health effects. These people may also be infants, children or the elderly. 

The woman I mentioned earlier, the one who got the blood-test, started doing better just as soon as she got the furnace vented properly. She got out of bed and started singing in clubs again and got her life back. So do as she did: get your furnace checked, get a CO tester and spend more time singing. 

How’s Your Earthquake Knowledge ? (Part 2) 

Rate yourself: Are the following statements true, or false? 

1. In an earthquake, a home built on bedrock will suffer more, since the rock will transfer the shaking. Conversely, a home on soft soils will fare better, since the soft soil “deadens” the shaking.  

2. At home during a serious quake, go quickly to the safest room in the house. 

3. In general, a doorway is the safest place to be in a quake.  

4. East Bay city building codes (especially since 1990) address seismic retrofitting as a special section of the code. 

5. After a quake, grants from FEMA to homeowners will cover a maximum of $50,000 for damage not covered by any insurance.  

The answer to each of the above is “false.” 

1. The situation is just the opposite.  

2. The less moving around you do the better. The house is shaking! 

3. You can be seriously injured by a swinging door. 

4. No retrofit code has been adopted by any city in the Bay Area. 

5. You can’t get a FEMA grant unless you don’t qualify for a loan. The average grant is less than $15,000. All the more reason to have your seismic retrofit checked! 

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

Here’s another field trip, in case you’re not busy enough with all the October nursery sales and native-plant fests. Morningsun Herb Farm has a few natives, but its focus is garden herbs in the vernacular sense of the word: useful culinary, medicinal, and fragrant plants.  

The place is on the edge of Vacaville, though Vacaville’s one of those places whose edges are ever expanding; if you read this a year from the publishing date you might find the place next to a Generican shopping mall. 

That would be a shame, too. The road it’s on is frequented by weekend motorcycle riders including the sort who think they’re making movies, but is otherwise peaceful and scenic. The nursery itself will relax you.  

Don’t skip the demo gardens that surround the small gravel parking lot and expand to its right. 

On a hot Vacaville day the path leading under tall shrubs and trees including that area’s ubiquitous old walnuts is quite inviting, and the understory’s full of birds.  

Lots of salvias greet you with blue, purple, red, and/or yellow flowers depending on what’s blooming. It’s not misleading: we counted 45 kinds of sage, no, wait: 53; no, here’s more: it’s 57, like Heinz. 

We probably missed a few too. Salvia is one of those genera that have lots and lots of species, and some of its species have lots of cultivars because they taste good or smell good or, sometimes, just because they look so good. There’s one there, Salvia vanhoutii, with gorgeous velvety deep-crimson flowers at about a foot tall. Betsy Clebsch wrote a whole book about salvias.  

Morningsun’s habit of stocking herbs in infinite variety doesn’t stop with sage. There were 21 lavenders, 11 kinds of rosemary, half a dozen echinaceas; I lost count of the oregano varieties, and the penstemons and the thymes. 

There were more basil cultivars there last spring; that’s reasonably a seasonal thing, since most basils are annuals. But Morningsun has African blue basil right now, and that is perennial in Berkeley gardens and, get this, keeps going all winter.  

Aside from unusual varieties in things one sees here and there, the place has stuff I couldn’t resist because I hadn’t seen it anywhere else. 

Vetiver is a grass with fragrant roots; you know what it smells like because you can’t stand in line or ride public transit without having met some popular vetiver-based cologne. It’s cedarish, with a hint of citrus.  

Morningsun has lemongrass and something new to me, “vanilla grass,” with a strong and restful scent under the sun. 

Unusual pond plants too; winter veggies; seeds, dried herbs, pretty things including amusing garden art. Fall/winter classes—e.g. wreathmakings, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2, $45.00 including materials. A “blowout” sale (does anybody stop to picture that when they use the word?) starts the day after Thanksgiving.  

For details, archives of the interesting newsletter, and more news visit their website. To get there, take I-80, exit Pena Adobe Road, left on Cherry Glen, right on Pleasants Valley Road.  

Morningsun Herb Farm 

6137 Pleasants Valley Road, Vacaville 

Tue.–Sun. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. 

Starting Nov. 1: Wed.–Sat. 11 a.m.–4 p.m. 

Closed Thanksgiving Day and Dec. 24–Jan. 26. 

(707) 451-9406 

http://morningsunfherbfarm.com 

The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials announced this week that the Oakland Housing Agency has won a national award for its Mandela Gateway Mixed-Use Housing Development. 

“This is the first time that the Oakland Housing Authority has won a national award of this type and we are proud that the project has been recognized as a prototype for urban revitalization,” Oakland Housing Authority Executive Director of Property Operations Sharon Coffy said. “This is a big step in the continued revitalization of West Oakland.” 

The project is one of 24 honored by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials this year for improving living conditions in their communities. 

The redevelopment of Mandela Gateway began in October 2004 and was completed in March 2005. The development is now home to 168 families. 

The $51.5 million project combines a $10.1 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development with $34.6 million raised through a tax credit equity program. 

The project replaces what was once a distressed public housing unit with a mixed-use, mixed-income housing development that includes 168 units, a town square, green space, playgrounds and retail space, according to NAHRO. 

It consists of rental flats and townhouses and was developed with “green” principals in mind, such as using recycled construction materials and installing energy-efficient lighting and water systems. 

Mandela Gateway is also considered a “transit-oriented” development in that it was built within easy access to the West Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit Station. 

NAHRO is a membership organization of housing and redevelopment agencies and professionals whose mission is to create affordable housing and safe communities. Representatives from the Oakland Housing Authority will accept the NAHRO award in a ceremony to take place Tuesday in Atlanta, Ga. 

Paris: We invite our French friend to visit us and he says, “I’m afraid to go to America.” It’s a common response: the French are curious about the United States, understand it’s a beautiful, complicated country, but are nervous about visiting. Of course, since 9/11, it’s a lot harder to get a visa. But underneath the security-related paperwork looms a more ominous reality: America is no longer seen as a welcoming place. It’s viewed as unpredictable. Savage. 

The news reports reinforce the impression that the United States is a dangerous, brutal country. Every day there’s an item about Iraq: more troops are needed, sectarian violence rages, occupation forces are accused of atrocities, and George Bush stubbornly defends his policies. This news is accompanied by disturbing American vignettes: a gunman kills five children at a Pennsylvania school, a Congressman is said to be a sexual predator, and the Republican Congress gives their President the power to deny human rights to suspected terrorists. The cumulative effect of the media coverage is corrosive. Europeans believe the United States is becoming less civilized. 

Our French friends ask: What happened to America? We respond defensively: Say the U.S. is a wonderful country. Claim the media emphasizes the negative, where there are many positives. Argue that President Bush does not speak for all Americans. But they know he represents a large segment of American society. And his base believes in him. Supports his vision of savage America. 

As we scramble for an answer to what has happened to the U.S., we explain that the brutalization of America is the product of three separate factors: The first is historical. America is a young country and the people who founded it, the pioneers, were a hardy group. They didn’t always play by the Marquess of Queensbury rules. A fair number of American folk heroes—Kit Carson and Andrew Jackson, to name two—engaged in conduct that today’s standards would view unfavorably. As the borders of America crept westward, explorers often were a law unto themselves. On the frontier, the strongest set the rules. 

American culture treasures the memory of the frontier. Venerates entrepreneurs, today’s version of the pioneers. Accepts a moral code where winners not only take all, but also define the rules of the game. As a result, American society is sometimes governed by a morality more concerned with money than justice. This is the savage America revered by economic conservatives. 

Paradoxically, another element that contributed to the brutalization of American life was Christianity. Fundamentalist Christians have been a factor in our society from the beginning. They came here to escape religious persecution in Europe. Sought religious freedom. Wanted to be left alone. And, initially, treasured the separation of church and state. As a result, for most of our history, Americans were privately religious, but publicly secular. Until the last 30 years. 

1974 saw the birth of the Religious Right. A group that’s become a powerful political force in the US: the core of George Bush’s support. A movement that advocates theocracy; believes much of secular society to be evil. A major segment of American society that’s aggressively dogmatic and narrow-minded. Intolerant, even hateful, towards non-believers and foreigners. That wants America to be a “Christian” nation. Is willing to sacrifice human rights to obtain their goal: a nation of true believers. This is the image of savage America coveted by social conservatives. 

The final factor that accounts for the brutalization of America is the philosophy of the Bush Administration. George W. Bush and his closest advisers—Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condoleezza Rice—see the world as a jungle, where it is every person for his or herself. They believe survival in such a world requires the construction of fortress America: a society where the primary actor is the President as commander-in-chief and the primary instrument of public policy is the military. A nation where human rights are minimized in the interest of “national security.” An America that subjugates freedom to order. 

The Bush Administration believes not only that the President is above the law, but also that he defines the law. That the office of the President prescribes American reality. While giving lip service to democracy, they disdain majority rule, seek to form a plutocracy. This is the savage America revered by political conservatives. 

These three circumstances, and three somewhat different political philosophies, combined to produce the savage America the French and other Europeans fear. A brutal, crude America governed by one rule: might makes right. 

It’s hard to see this America. It helps to be outside the country, as we are at the moment, and to look at the United States from a distance. Still, it’s difficult to admit that the U.S. is on the decline while much of the first world is the ascent. Nonetheless, philosophers teach that ignorance is the inability to see things as they really are. And, the truth is that the United States has become a savage nation. A country that’s not only abandoning democracy, but also civil society. 

It will surprise no one, I’m sure, that the unofficial tree maven of the Berkeley Daily Planet is coming out against the clearcutting of a grove of senior live oaks in the city to make way for the construction of a yet another new University Sportspalast. I’ll even add that quite a few of the trees slated for destruction look sturdy enough to sit in. Oaks tend to be trustworthy to bear the weight of a human being.  

Whether human beings can be trusted to live in a civilized manner alongside such beings is once again open to question. Veteran environmental writer Harold Gilliam expressed doubts on the currently ruling state of mind at UC Berkeley in an opinion piece in the Sunday, Oct. 8 San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote mostly about the tension between unfiltered market values and all other values, including the academic, pointing out in particular how the salaries of the university’s administrators are ten to 15 times those of the “bottom-tier”—that is, front-line—employees and double the average of the faculty’s salaries. Student tuition, meanwhile, has gone from zero (with only a $27 registration fee) in Gilliam’s time there to $30,000 for the four undergraduate years; students’ other costs—lodging, books, materials fees—have risen similarly.  

What Californians could once regard as a birthright, an education from their tax-supported university system, has become the property of the wealthy, with bits allotted to those who could jump through the right hoops and/or go into debt for years. The money’s flowing faster than ever, but where?  

Administrators are facilitators. Their job is to set things up and keep them running so that the avowed purposes of the university, education and research, can be done efficiently and well. UC Berkeley brags justly about its “tradition of Nobel prize winners,” and the school’s researchers do plenty of great work that doesn’t get gold-starred, and hooray for them.  

Lately it does rather appear that a greater proportion of the research getting funds is stuff directly linked with high-profit corporate enterprise. The tangled connections between tax-funded academia and corporate profits have produced some comical situations, with patent suits and countersuits and intrigues finding their way into the news. The tangles themselves are great fun to trace if you have nothing better to do; the things that get disclosed obfuscate as much as they illuminate.  

In the main, though, one suspects that this high-stakes—that is, high-profit—stuff is what these high-paid administrators are being paid so highly to facilitate. The purported academic traditions, all that excellence and enlightenment and pure science and sublime art that hallow the hallowed halls, not so much.  

So, in a similar vein, UC’s profitable sports get overblown subsidies, and the intramural stuff gets a new facility thrown in. Is this a new library, a new field biology facility? No, we’ll pretend that Mens sana in corpore sano calls for lots of “character–building” team sports and bloated space and budgets for spectator sports, because that corpus isn’t sano enough unless it’s being watched by people in school colors, right? And we’ve learned not even to see anything that’s in the way of the bleachers unless it’s in a mascot costume.  

What about those oaks?  

Many are old—at least one is supposed to be 200 or so, and the younger set got planted in the early 1920s when the current stadium was built. Along with the senior trees are several younger ones and a few seedlings—the right configuration for the continuing life of a grove, young trees replacing their parents. 

Before that stadium, what was there was a waterfall, probably at the point where Strawberry Creek ran over the Hayward Fault scarp, and a meadow that was a favorite picnicking and strolling spot for students and other citizens. The creek, in one of our local landscaping grotesqueries, now runs under the swimming pool and tennis courts as well as the stadium.  

The oaks are in good shape, too, especially for city trees. UC consulted tree experts who pronounced most of them healthy and many of specimen quality; many also officially have high historic value. There is, wonder of wonders, a healthy old “California” peppertree on the fringe of the kill zone. The grove includes huge Atlas cedars, Hinoki cypress, redwoods, Western yew, and Port Orford cedar; those last two are California species in danger of extinction in the wild.  

A 20-minute stroll through the grove, at noon in a slow season, revealed a pair of Nuttall’s woodpeckers, Steller’s and scrub jays, juncos, plain titmouse, chickadees, ruby-crowned kinglets, California towhees, vireos, and some warbler I never did identify—we hadn’t bothered to bring binoculars. A youth-gang of crows rumbled around and harassed the raven pair who happened through, a spectacular skydance that went on for ten minutes.  

That’s just one short visit. No classroom could provide as much instruction.  

The EIR for the project is available in the public library or online at www.cp.berkeley.edu—look for the “campus and community” info area. There’s a group trying to save the grove: SOS, at www.saveoaks.com. It includes UC students and Berkeley citizens and has support from the Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society, and the likes of Julia Butterfly Hill. I’ll be following the story over the next few months.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

These oaks, among other trees, are target for clearcutting to make way for UC Berkeley’s new stadium complex. 

FRIDAY, OCT. 20 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Hedda Gabler” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Nov. 18 at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. Tickets are $12. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “Merrily We Roll Along” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St, Alameda, through Nov. 12. Tickets are $15-$18. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Antenna Theater, “High School” An interactive theatrical walking tour of Berkeley High, 1980 Allston Way. One audience member enters the show every minute. Walk lasts about 45 minutes. Tickets are $20 adults, $8 students. Reservations required. Runs through Oct. 29. 415-332-9454. www.antenna-theater.org/highschool.htm 

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

Central Works “Andromache” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. through Nov. 19. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. 

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 

Fusion Theater “Beauty and the Beast” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $3-$10. 464-3544. 

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 

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 

“Beyond the Ribbons” Art by people with life-threatening ilness. Reception fo rthe artists at 7 p.m. at WCRC GAllery, 5741 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

Ousmane Sembene “Emitai” and 6:30 p.m. and “Moolaade” and at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Grudin reads from “American Vulgar: The Politics of Manipulation Versus the Culture of Awareness” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Harvey Pekar and Anne Moore introduce “The Best American Comics 2006” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Miss Marjorie’s Mysteries Join three local mystery writers, Kirk Russell, Cornelia Read, Tony Broadbent and our host, Miss Marjorie, for a night of scary stories, at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 1855 Solano Ave. 525-6888. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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 

Savage Jazz Dance Company “Everything's Everything” Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $14-$20. 415-256-8499. savagejazz.org 

Berkeley Music Coop Players perform works of Falla, Beethoven, Scriabin at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 848-1228. giorgigallery.com 

Free Jazz Fridays with Howard Wiley and Laurie Buenafe Krsmanovic at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Ojala & Melanie de More, African American folk music, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568.  

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan ”Wild Cursive” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46. 642-9988.  

Linda Kosut and Max Perkoff, songs of Oscar Brown, Jr., at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ.  

JGB with Melvin Seals and Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Chris Smither at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Ned Boynton Quintet with Jules Broussard at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Mariospeedwagon and Lemon Juju at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Tempest, Avalon Rising at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082.  

Life Long Tragedy, Silence Kills the Revolution, Robot Eyes at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Grease Traps, Raw Deluxxe, funk, fusion, soul, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

Parallel 23, electro Cuban funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 21 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Rafael Manríquez, children’s songs in Spanish, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Laura Numeroff talks about “When Sheep Sleep” at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

THEATER 

“Astarte’s Scream” improvisational theater and performance to build understanding about Middle Eastern cultures at 8 p.m. at The Epic Arts Tea Room, 1923 Ashby Ave at MLK. Tickets are $5-$10 at the door. 704-1404. 

FILM 

Ousmane Sembene “Guelwaar” at 6:30 p.m. and “Faat-Kline” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Filipino Author Celebration with Evangeline Canonizado Buell, Peter Jamero, and Pati Navalta Poblete at 1 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore discuss “Deconstructing Tyrone” at black masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation at 6:30 p.m. at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 652-2344. 

Elana Dykewomon, Linda Zeiser, Jan Steckel, Trena Machado, Janell Moon and Maria Kaylib read from the new anthology “What I Want From You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets” at 7:30 p.m. at Laurel Bookstore, 4100 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 531-2073. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“A Hideous Ghost” Johann Sebastian Bach and the Violin performed by John Holloway, solo violin, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College at Garber. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725.  

Trinity Chamber Concerts Ted Brinkley’s Electric Florid-ians at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan ”Wild Cursive” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Cascada de Flores, son and song of Mexico and Cuba at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Robin Gregory & Bill “Jazz Professor” Bell at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kotoja, Afrobeat, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Damond Moodie and Jamie Jenkins at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

David Jeffrey’s Fourtet, featuring Kasey Knudsen, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

April Vetch at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Rebeca Mauleon Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Pete Yellin Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Mark Twang & Suzanne Fox, acoustic folk, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Grand 58, Howdy, Seconds on End at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Arnocorps, Smogtown, Reagan SS, Rock ‘N’ Roll Adventure Kids at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 22 

CHILDREN 

Asheba at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Body Language” Paintings and sculpture opens at the Addison Street Windows, and runs through Nov. 29. 981-7533. 

FILM 

The Mechanical Age “2001: A Space Odyssey” at 3 p.m. and “Crash” at 6 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joyce Maynard reads from “Internal Combustion: The Story of a Marriage and a Murder in the Motor City” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Ideas From the Past About Keyboard Instruction” A workshop with Sandra Soderlund at 2 p.m. at A Cheerfull Noyse, 1228 Solano Ave. Free, but RSVP requested. 523-0411. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alaine Rodin, soprano, at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $20-$32. 925-798-1300. 

Donna Lerew, violinist, performs works of Bach, Wienawski, Shostakovich at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $9-$10. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Emanuel Ax, piano, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$58. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Chamber Music Sundaes with Scott Pingel, bassist, at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$22 at the door. 415-753-2792. 

“Sacred Harp Suite” Premier of new work by Rod McKean at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland. Suggested donation $10. 444-3555. 

Celebration and Benefit for Chiori Santiago, with music by Jane de Cuir, Unity Nugyen, Keenan Webster and the Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble at 5 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Ben Stolerow Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ.  

Americana Unplugged: Jeanie and Chuck’s Country Roundup at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Frederick Hodges, solo piano, at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. 

Hal Dinsratz at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Ceremony, The First Step, The Helm, Bad Reaction at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Earl Klugh at 7 and 9 p.m., at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, OCT. 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein disccuss “The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman discuss “Ethical Realism: A New Vision for America’s Role in the World” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin” at 5:30 p.m. at Chern Hall’s Simons Auditorium, at MSRI, 17 Gauss Way near the intersection of Centennial Drive and Grizzly Peak Blvd. Part of the “Mathematics and Music Series” 642-0448. 

West Coast Singer’s Open Mike at 7:30 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761.  

Khalil Shaheed, all ages jam, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Nguyen Le, Tiger’s Tail Quartet with Art Lande, Paul McCandless and Patrice Heral at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, OCT. 24 

CHILDREN 

“Three Witches of the Oakland Public Library” scary stories and songs for ages six and up at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

FILM 

Alternative Visions China’s Cutting Edge: New Video From Shanghai at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Donald Rothberg describes “The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Jeff Biggers introduces his new book, “In the Sierra Madre” about Mexico’s Copper Canyon, indigenous Mexico and environmental concerns, at 7 p.m. at 118 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by Dept. of Ethnic Studies/Chicano Studies. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Glass Half Full in a benefit for Breast Cancer Fund and SHARE, featuring Laurie Lewis, Jennifer Berezan, Barbara Higbie and others, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

NoMeansNo, The Freak Accident at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

Michele Rosewoman and Quintessense at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25 

CHILDREN 

“Three Witches of the Oakland Public Library” scary stories and songs for ages six and up at 4 and 7 p.m. in the Chilrens Room, of the Main Library, 125 14th St. 238-3615. 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “Passing Strange” opens at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. and runs through Dec. 3. Tickets are $45-$61. 645-2949.  

FILM 

“Freedom’s Fury” and “Journey Home” films about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution at 6 p.m. at 22 Warren Hall, UC Campus. http://hungarianuprising.org  

Pirates and Piracy “Pirated Copy” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Henry Chang reads from “Chinatown Beat” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Bill Scher on “Wait! Dont’t Move to Canada: A Stay and Fight Strategy to Win Back America” at 6 p.m. at 2221 Broadway at Grand Ave., Oakland. 

Writing Teachers Write with Marty Williams and Chuck Forester at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

William Kittredge introduces his novel,”The Willow Field” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, 20th century music for the flute, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

Wynton Marsalis at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$68. 642-9988.  

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

D.O.A., 5 Days Dirty, Freex at 8 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. All ages show. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Orquestra Sensual at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Deep Hello at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Kurt Rosenwinkle, Toninho Horta Group at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 26 

EXHIBITIONS 

“At Thadeus Lake” by Sherri Martin, winner of the 2006 Kala Board Prize. Reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs to Nov. 25. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Educate to Liberate: A Retrospective of the Black Panther Community News Service” Exhibition in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party, on display in the Oakland History Room at the Oakland Main Library, 125 14th St. 238-3222.  

“The Face of Poetry” Photographs by Margaretta Mitchell on display at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., through Oct. 30. 981-6100. 

“Looking for Hope” Photograhs by Matt O’Brien with text by students in the Oakland Public Schools opens at the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park Museum Gallery, 2465 34th Ave. Gallery open Thurs.-Fri. 4 to 6 p.m. and Sun. noon to 4 p.m. to March 31. 532-9142. www.peraltahacienda.org 

“Geographic Premonitions” Group show of fifteen emerging artists, at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. Exhibition runs through Nov. 11. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

FILM 

Ousmane Sembene “The Camp at Thiaroye” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

California Tiles: Arts & Crafts Principles Revive the Golden Era, with Riley Doty and Joe Taylor, at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10. 

Annie Leibovitz describes “A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Michael Sternberg and Larry Rothe describe “For the Love of Music: Invitations to Listening” music at 7 p.m., reading at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Talking About Macdonald” performances based on community recollections of Richmond’s downtown at 6:30 p.m. at East Bay Center for the Performing Arts Winters Building, 339 11th St., corner of 11th and Macdonald, Richmond. 540-6809. www.ci.richmond.ca.us 

World Without End, Bob Frank & John Murry at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Juke Joint Jazzers at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Oogog, The Brass Menagerie at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Jazz Mine at 6:30 p.m. at King Tsin Chinese Restaurant, 1699 Solano Ave. 525-9890. 

Kurt Rosenwinkle, Toninho Horta Group at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Three Piece Combo, Mirkthon, Biran Kenney Fresno, progressive rock, at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Showtime @ 11 Hip Hop at 10 p.m. at the Golden Bull, 412 14th St. at Broadway, Oakland. 893-0803. 

A veiled woman enters a long chamber by the near door, kneels in a patch of light, tosses back her veil and mutters some kind of devotional, eyes heavenward. Another veiled woman hurries in and spirits the first away through the far door. A robed man enters, goes to the far door, but falls to the floor in tears, crying out “Andromache!” A sword-bearing man enters, whispers to the prostrate man, and they leave. A young man in a tattered robe enters. 

The entrances and exits—and quick, occasional glances—through the three doors into (and out of) the salon in the Berkeley City Club where Central Works is playing a revival of cofounder Gary Graves’ “radical adaptation” of Racine’s Andromache are accorded the status of events, as befits theater derived from the great poet and classicist, whose works combine closely interlocked dialogues as allies, antagonists and lovers meet. 

But the combinations of movement in and out are never so silent as at the start. The story begins to flow, weaving a web of complications, ever-changing in its fascinating complexity. It seems to reach deeper and deeper, the further the figures of the play are torn from their original positions. The contradictory relations of each character to the others are made up of what R. D. Laing called double-binds, but these bonds are tied to the axis of a greater world beyond the relationships within the chamber, around which revolve the greatest moral, social and metaphysical issues.  

Pylades (Sean Williford), the young man in the tattered robe, meets another entrant, his old friend Orestes (Paul Rodrigues), son of Agamemnon. They had been separated by shipwreck, Pylades beached on Lemnos, now a servant in the palace. 

Orestes, revenged upon his mother, who murdered Agamemnon on his return from Troy, has come on a mission from Argos. He comes to witness the marriage of dead Achilles’ son, Pyrrhus (Alex Klein) to Menelaus’ daughter, Ermione (Meera Rohit Kumbhani). He also demands the young son of Hector, who Achilles slew, and Andromache (Leontyne Mbele-Mbong), given to Pyrrhus as a war prize. 

But Orestes loves Ermione. Ermione tries to forget her passion for the blood-soaked Orestes and loves Pyrrhus, who in turn wants only Andromache, bound to the dead Hector by an oath of lifelong fidelity and cold to her captor. 

These principals are attended on and in some ways doubled by their confidants. Besides Pylades for Orestes, there’s Andromache’s maidservant Sephissa (Karuna Tanahashi), Ermione’s nursemaid, Kleone (Susan Allen) and Pyrrhus’ captain of the guard, formerly Achilles’ bodyguard Phoenix (Ken Ingram), who begins as a kind of gray eminence, keeping the distraught Pyrrhus in line with his obligations as a Greek conqueror, to marry Ermione and secure the ties with the homeland, but whom Pyrrhus countermands as his truer intentions strengthen into resolve. 

But Orestes, following what he takes to be Ermione’s nudge towards Greek honor (and her love), strikes out, seeming to rashly cut out the heart of the joint dilemma in a new effusion of blood, but paradoxically freeing its most passive cypher to take command. 

Roland Barthes, whose On Racine is the great post-war (World War II, not Troy) exposé of the dark tangle of passions behind the rhetoric of the dramatist’s pure Alexandrine couplets, calls Andromache a drama of transition between old and new orders: an older, jealous dispensation, and a newer, consentual one. The older order rules by sacred vows and bonds, by contract and by enclosure, a perfect set-up for a tightly wound chamber drama, in which Pyrrhus experiences a kind of conversion. 

The cast is an exceptional ensemble, each cutting a fine figure. Graves’ adaptation (he also directs the play) retains the story structure, but concentrates an impressionistic reworking of the dialogue into often witty contemporary prose. It gives a sense of the nuclear density of Racine’s tragic spirit, writing it down into a more human, psychological drama without losing its sense of myth and the desire to escape the myth. 

ANDROMACHE 

8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 5 p.m. Sundays through Nov.19. $9-$25. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 558-1382.

So-called “indie” cinema is supposed to break away from the tired formulas of Hollywood filmmaking. Yet indie films themselves have lapsed into their own formulas, generating just as many clichés as the Hollywood blockbusters at which they so haughtily sneer. Unfortunately, Michael Kang’s The Motel embraces far too many of them.  

A certain style has developed in the past few years, one that was used to great effect recently in Little Miss Sunshine but that is probably best exemplified by the films of Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, etc.): quiet, understated acting, dry humor, and a certain brand of self-conscious quirkiness, a facet underscored by the prominent use of off-beat pop songs in the soundtrack.  

The Motel has all these hallmarks and revels in this low-budget, less-is-more aesthetic. The film was produced by the same folks who brought us solid independent features like Chuck and Buck and Me, You and Everyone We Know, films which contain many of the same characteristics as The Motel but manage to pull it off, due to the sure hands of their directors. The Motel is instead an imitation, one that hints at the ability to examine interesting and rich themes but unfortunately does not.  

We’ve seen countless coming-of-age, puberty-sucks stories, but this one sheds little light on the topic, instead merely setting the tale in a new location. The film is at its best when it delves into its very Asianness, a mantle it does not want but should reconsider, for the problems of a chubby, pubescent Chinese kid living in an hourly-rate motel on the fringes of small-town America could have and should have been a deep well to draw from. But unfortunately Kang is content to simply imitate the stylistic concerns of other directors, eschewing the stronger elements of his story in favor of lighter, more predictable fare in an effort to replicate the formula that has become indie cinema’s surest path to a sleeper hit. 

THE MOTEL 

Directed by Michael Kang. Starring Jeffrey Chyau, Samantha Futerman, Sung Kang. Playing at Shattuck Cinemas. 

Kang will be on hand to take questions after the 5:20 showing on Saturday,  

Oct. 21. 76 minutes. Not rated.

One film that did not make it on the fall film festival circuit this year is The Life and Times of John Sinclair. A documentary with plenty of smoke that mirrors the protest movement, it’s the story of the man who jump started John Lennon’s political career, John Sinclair.  

One of the problems with promoting his new movie is “a scene near the end where people in Amsterdam are laughing and smoking one ounce joints. This isn’t what they are looking for. They like films about people who are f.....up. They don’t want people who are unrepentant. I don’t think the movie will be a success. The grandfather of recreational drugs is not what they are looking for today.”  

A father figure in the ’60s underground press movement, founder of the Detroit Artists Workshop, the Rainbow People’s Party and the White Panther Party, he also managed rock groups like the MC-5 and led the movement to legalize marijuana. Sinclair received a 9 1/2 to 10 sentence in 1969 for giving two joints to an undercover agent. 

John Lennon, who had also been set up on a marijuana bust in England, agreed to headline the Free John Now Rally that packed Ann Arbor’s Crisler arena with a crowd of 15,000 in December 1971. His song “It Ain’t Fair, John Sinclair” was the highlight of a knockout show that included Stevie Wonder, Allen Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Jerry Rubin and Bob Seger.  

Among the rock critics on hand were a matched pair of FBI agents who wrote in a confidential memo to J. Edgar Hoover that Yoko Ono “can’t even remain on key.” They suggested that the song “probably will become a million seller... but it is lacking Lennon’s usual standards.” 

Apparently this view was not shared on the Michigan Supreme Court bench in Lansing. Three days after Sinclair’s super rally, the justices struck down the state’s “unconstitutional” marijuana laws, reversed the conviction and ordered his release. 

The Ann Arbor rally opens the U.S. vs. John Lennon and forms the centerpiece of the film’s political story. It was here that leaders of the anti Vietnam war movement formatted their plan for a series of protest concerts that would culminate in three day event at the 1972 Republican political convention. The FBI’s presence documents the White House’s anxiety over Lennon’s star power and the ability of musicians to become political Pied Pipers for the left. 

Now in post production, The Life and Times of John Sinclair is produced by Steve Gebhardt known for his documentaries on the Rolling Stones and John Lennon). It is a cultural overview of the ‘60s and the decades most famous marijuana bust.  

An earlier Gebhardt project, Ten for Two, focused on the 1971 Free John Now Rally in Ann Arbor. Although that film was briefly released in Britain, it was never shown in America because of legal worries over the INS effort to deport Lennon. After raising $50,000 in completion funding, the producers are busy marketing The John Sinclair Story for a 2007 release.  

Sinclair is arguably the hardest working man in show business He is on the road six months of year at clubs, concert halls, bar and college venues reading poetry backed up The Blues Scholars: “I’ve spent ten years trying to figure out how to do it.”  

The result is a considerable distance from rap music which he dismisses as “third grade Mother Goose rhymes done with a machine gun. Walt Whitman got rid of rhymes a hundred and 50 years ago.” 

Although he left America for Amsterdam following the 2000 election, Sinclair returns home frequently to perform and visit family. 

During a recent American tour that included Berkeley, Sinclair, a tall man with a stylish white goatee, was eager to reconnect with old friends. An important whistle stop was his hometown, Davison, Michigan, which has given the world two other media superstars, Sheryl Leach, the creator of Barney, and Michael Moore.  

In town for the I Chews The Blues Festival, Sinclair spoke enthusiastically about his life as an expatriate blues scholar. In Amsterdam he has broadcast online radio shows from local cannabis clubs. The poet has also found a welcoming audience for his work across Europe in clubs and art galleries. And in his eyes, permissive Dutch drug laws are the bomb. 

Although he has been ahead of his times in many ways, Sinclair has never been a slave to popular culture. The former president of the University of Michigan Flint’s film society seldom sees movies. “They aren’t making the old kind of Fellini, Goddard films, interesting movies about life.” The last feature film he took in was Clint Eastwood’s Bird, the 1988 Oscar-winning story on the life of jazz legend Charles Parker. 

Turning to the crowd, a lively mix of kids, teens, college students, families and friends, Moore feels at home in his hometown:  

“This is my idea of a great festival. People who you never heard of playing and having fun. This isn’t about business, it’s about playing music for your friends. No one is making a million. I don’t give a ..... about someone who has a million because they are different. They worry about their taxes. I am still focused on how I get dinner just like the average person in America.”  

Roger Rapoport’s new book Citizen Moore: The Making of An American Iconoclast will be published in December. 

Editor’s note: The preview for the 24th Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival which ran in the Oct. 17 issue of the Berkeley Daily Planet gave the wrong lineup. It repeated the list of last year’s festival performers. Below is the corrected information about the kick-off of this year’s festival. The preview of the rest of the festival will run next week. 

The 24th annual SF Jazz Festival begins tonight (Friday) with tenor saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins and continues for another 31 events through the Nov. 12 concert of Latin percussion great John Santos and the Machete Ensemble. This will be the most concentrated amount of great jazz available in the Bay Area all year. 

Without a doubt, the hottest ticket of the festival has got to be the Sonny Rollins kick-off concert at 8 p.m. at the Masonic Center. 

While still a teenager, Rollins was playing in New York with bop pioneers Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Miles Davis. By the early ‘50s, in a group with Max Roach, Clifford Brown and Richie Powell, he was ushering in the hard bop era. From 1959-61 he retired from music spending a large part of that time woodshedding on the Williamsburg Bridge. 

Since then, he has recorded an enormous amount of great music, yet often seems stymied in studio settings. In live concert performances, though, his ability to allow free reign to his improvisatory skills really shines. At 76, his physical and imaginative strength are undiminished. Whether he plays a standard like Dietz and Schwartz’ “I See Your Face before Me,” one of his classic hard bop originals like Oleo or one of his infectious calypsos like “Don’t Stop the Carnival,” he delights everyone with his swinging ability to vary tunes through subtle accentual shifts, harmonic genius and romantic lyricism. 

For more information on the SF Jazz Festival call (415) 788-7353 or visit their website at www.sfjazz.org.

Soprano Alaine Rodin, Berkeley native, a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory and the Juilliard School, has made an international career for herself as an opera singer. 

She has sung on Broadway opposite Patti LuPone’s Maria Callas in Master Class, garnering praise from the New York Times for singing Verdi’s aria, “Vieni t’affretta,” from Macbeth in Terence McNally’s play. 

This Sunday, she returns home for a solo recital, “Music’s In The Air,” 2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center on College Avenue. The program includes selections from Dvorak, Verdi, Rachmaninoff and Puccini. 

The recital will be Rodin’s first formal performance in Berkeley since she left for Juilliard. 

“I’m excited about it,” she said. “It’s nice to sing in your hometown, to stand up and sing beautiful music. Choosing music for a recital setting is the only time I can say I’m going to sing this, just because it’s pretty and I like it. The Rachmaninoff, for instance, isn’t heavy or deep, just gorgeous.” 

Rodin, a ballet dancer “from three years old to 18,” came late to singing as a college student, “but dancing to great music gave my ear firm grounding.” The stint in the featured role opposite LuPone was “the most fun I ever had on stage. I went from Chicago Lyric Opera’s young artist program to doing eight shows a week in New York, singing that big fat mama of an aria in every one.” 

“Rodin’s lush soprano,” critic Kitty Montgomery wrote of her Tosca performance at the Bellayre Music Festival. “Her vocally glorious rendition of Verdi’s defiant ‘Vissi d’arte’ aria is sung as a calm and lovely prayer.” 

Killing yourself isn’t as easy as it used to be. You used to be able to get in your 8,000 pound Buick, pull into the garage, tune in KNBR and slowly pass into unconsciousness to the strains of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” as the disappointments of the world faded softly into nothingness. Wow, that was dark. But it’s a reality that carbon monoxide has been widely used to end it all for many decades, maybe a hundred years. 

The sad thing for me is that a whole lot of people who have no such intentions end up dying each year as a result of this odorless and colorless gas. By the way, cars are now so efficient that you aren’t going to have an easy time ended it all by running your car in the garage. The catalytic converter has largely put an end to that. 

Carbon monoxide, or CO is a sister molecule to carbon dioxide but has some very different traits. The one that should concern us the most is the fact that it bonds with Hemoglobin very effectively and strongly. It also hangs around for a-long time and is cumulative as exposure increases so that the longer you hang out in an environment with a source of CO, the more build-up you get. 

By bonding with hemoglobin on the surface of red-blood cells, the sites that would normally grab oxygen are all filled up like the spaces on a train. The train leaves the station with less and less oxygen and eventually the brain and other organs asphyxiate despite your best effort to take full breaths. Your blood simply can’t grab and deliver oxygen.  

CO bonds with hemoglobin 240 times more strongly than oxygen so it can take a while for it to leave. Therefore, it’s best to stay away from the stuff in the first place. 

Now where does CO come from and how can we protect ourselves? First, CO is generally a faulty product of combustion. Coal fires are big sources of CO and this is why you never want to build a coal fire inside. Keep the BBQ outside, please.  

Wood fires also produce significant amount of carbon monoxide, which is why you want to a) make sure your fireplace has a good healthy draft and b) make sure you don’t go to sleep with the fire still burning else you might not wake up for that 6 a.m. run with the dog. 

But these aren’t the most common causes. Gas appliances which tend to run day and night and which are not operating properly are the most common causes of CO poisoning. 

If you are currently using a kerosene heater in your living space, consider giving it up in favor of a vented gas heater such as a wall furnace or central heating system. 

If your water heater isn’t venting to the outside, get some professional help and make sure the exhaust pipe that comes off the top of the unit is exiting the living space. Believe it or not, I see a couple of water heaters without any vent pipe attached to them each year. Many are in basements but these basements often interconnect with the living space thus polluting and endangering the occupants. 

I was in a live-in attic many years ago that housed an unvented furnace. The furnace had a cold air intake (to pick up and pump this gas around the inside of the house) not far from the exhaust outlet and looked truly forboding. It turned out that the occupant had been bed-ridden and increasingly ill for some years without any clear cause. 

After reading the report on this dangerous condition and putting two and two together she got a blood test and discovered that she has dangerously high levels of CO in her bloodstream.  

She was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. CO poisoning won’t just kill you; it will, at lower levels make you sick (and you might not even know it). It affects the heart, lungs and brain and can rob you of your health and vitality at a range of levels. 

At low levels it caused dizziness and headaches that can persist for as long as exposure continues (all winter when shared with the wrong furnace?). At higher levels it can cause a range of problems including tachycardia (rapid heart-rate), hypertension, skin lesions, speech or visual difficulties and even dementia. 

Oxygen is a wonderful thing. I like it a lot and try to get some every day but when there’s something inside of me that keeps me from getting it to my brain and vital organs, I get cranky. That’s why I keep a CO tester in my house running at all times. 

Carbon Monoxide testers have come down in price over the last few years and are now in the 20-30 range, well within reach of virtually everyone who pays a mortgage or rent. 

I would strongly advise anyone who rents an apartment (or 40 apartments) to get them for their tenants and to service them regularly. Given the down-side, there’s no good reason not to get these little miracles. They also make a fabulous gift. Christmas is coming up and nothing says “I need you alive and oxygenated” like the gift of a CO tester. You can get them at almost every hardware store in the United States. 

Now, in all my research, the one thing I couldn’t find was this. How many people in the United States (or the world for that matter) have low-level CO poisoning and don’t know it. How may have persistent headaches or dizziness but manage to get by, not realizing that they’re operating at 1/2 speed. They may also be slowly manifesting some of the other long range health effects. These people may also be infants, children or the elderly. 

The woman I mentioned earlier, the one who got the blood-test, started doing better just as soon as she got the furnace vented properly. She got out of bed and started singing in clubs again and got her life back. So do as she did: get your furnace checked, get a CO tester and spend more time singing. 

How’s Your Earthquake Knowledge ? (Part 2) 

Rate yourself: Are the following statements true, or false? 

1. In an earthquake, a home built on bedrock will suffer more, since the rock will transfer the shaking. Conversely, a home on soft soils will fare better, since the soft soil “deadens” the shaking.  

2. At home during a serious quake, go quickly to the safest room in the house. 

3. In general, a doorway is the safest place to be in a quake.  

4. East Bay city building codes (especially since 1990) address seismic retrofitting as a special section of the code. 

5. After a quake, grants from FEMA to homeowners will cover a maximum of $50,000 for damage not covered by any insurance.  

The answer to each of the above is “false.” 

1. The situation is just the opposite.  

2. The less moving around you do the better. The house is shaking! 

3. You can be seriously injured by a swinging door. 

4. No retrofit code has been adopted by any city in the Bay Area. 

5. You can’t get a FEMA grant unless you don’t qualify for a loan. The average grant is less than $15,000. All the more reason to have your seismic retrofit checked! 

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

Here’s another field trip, in case you’re not busy enough with all the October nursery sales and native-plant fests. Morningsun Herb Farm has a few natives, but its focus is garden herbs in the vernacular sense of the word: useful culinary, medicinal, and fragrant plants.  

The place is on the edge of Vacaville, though Vacaville’s one of those places whose edges are ever expanding; if you read this a year from the publishing date you might find the place next to a Generican shopping mall. 

That would be a shame, too. The road it’s on is frequented by weekend motorcycle riders including the sort who think they’re making movies, but is otherwise peaceful and scenic. The nursery itself will relax you.  

Don’t skip the demo gardens that surround the small gravel parking lot and expand to its right. 

On a hot Vacaville day the path leading under tall shrubs and trees including that area’s ubiquitous old walnuts is quite inviting, and the understory’s full of birds.  

Lots of salvias greet you with blue, purple, red, and/or yellow flowers depending on what’s blooming. It’s not misleading: we counted 45 kinds of sage, no, wait: 53; no, here’s more: it’s 57, like Heinz. 

We probably missed a few too. Salvia is one of those genera that have lots and lots of species, and some of its species have lots of cultivars because they taste good or smell good or, sometimes, just because they look so good. There’s one there, Salvia vanhoutii, with gorgeous velvety deep-crimson flowers at about a foot tall. Betsy Clebsch wrote a whole book about salvias.  

Morningsun’s habit of stocking herbs in infinite variety doesn’t stop with sage. There were 21 lavenders, 11 kinds of rosemary, half a dozen echinaceas; I lost count of the oregano varieties, and the penstemons and the thymes. 

There were more basil cultivars there last spring; that’s reasonably a seasonal thing, since most basils are annuals. But Morningsun has African blue basil right now, and that is perennial in Berkeley gardens and, get this, keeps going all winter.  

Aside from unusual varieties in things one sees here and there, the place has stuff I couldn’t resist because I hadn’t seen it anywhere else. 

Vetiver is a grass with fragrant roots; you know what it smells like because you can’t stand in line or ride public transit without having met some popular vetiver-based cologne. It’s cedarish, with a hint of citrus.  

Morningsun has lemongrass and something new to me, “vanilla grass,” with a strong and restful scent under the sun. 

Unusual pond plants too; winter veggies; seeds, dried herbs, pretty things including amusing garden art. Fall/winter classes—e.g. wreathmakings, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2, $45.00 including materials. A “blowout” sale (does anybody stop to picture that when they use the word?) starts the day after Thanksgiving.  

For details, archives of the interesting newsletter, and more news visit their website. To get there, take I-80, exit Pena Adobe Road, left on Cherry Glen, right on Pleasants Valley Road.  

Morningsun Herb Farm 

6137 Pleasants Valley Road, Vacaville 

Tue.–Sun. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. 

Starting Nov. 1: Wed.–Sat. 11 a.m.–4 p.m. 

Closed Thanksgiving Day and Dec. 24–Jan. 26. 

(707) 451-9406 

http://morningsunfherbfarm.com 

The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials announced this week that the Oakland Housing Agency has won a national award for its Mandela Gateway Mixed-Use Housing Development. 

“This is the first time that the Oakland Housing Authority has won a national award of this type and we are proud that the project has been recognized as a prototype for urban revitalization,” Oakland Housing Authority Executive Director of Property Operations Sharon Coffy said. “This is a big step in the continued revitalization of West Oakland.” 

The project is one of 24 honored by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials this year for improving living conditions in their communities. 

The redevelopment of Mandela Gateway began in October 2004 and was completed in March 2005. The development is now home to 168 families. 

The $51.5 million project combines a $10.1 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development with $34.6 million raised through a tax credit equity program. 

The project replaces what was once a distressed public housing unit with a mixed-use, mixed-income housing development that includes 168 units, a town square, green space, playgrounds and retail space, according to NAHRO. 

It consists of rental flats and townhouses and was developed with “green” principals in mind, such as using recycled construction materials and installing energy-efficient lighting and water systems. 

Mandela Gateway is also considered a “transit-oriented” development in that it was built within easy access to the West Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit Station. 

NAHRO is a membership organization of housing and redevelopment agencies and professionals whose mission is to create affordable housing and safe communities. Representatives from the Oakland Housing Authority will accept the NAHRO award in a ceremony to take place Tuesday in Atlanta, Ga. 

FRIDAY, OCT. 20 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with David Brains on “Life in the Solar System” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society Annual Beardless Iris Auction and sale at 7:30 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. 277-4200. 

“Iraq for Sale: the War Profiteers” Part of the Conscientious Projector film series, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $10, no one turned away. 528-5403. 

“Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” A new documentary by Robert Greenwald, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 

Teen Read Week pizza party at 3 p.m. at the The Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. for ages 9 - 17. 524-3043 

Movies That Matter “Coach Carter” at 6:30 p.m. at 565 Bellevue St., at Perkins, Oakland. Free, discussion follows. 451-3009. 

Animal Healing Cicle, a guided meditation to send healing energy to pets at 5 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave. Suggested donation $5. 525-6155. 

Meher Baba Introductory Meeting with video and discussion at 7:30 p.m. at 6923 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. AvatarMeherBaba.org  

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 21 

Meet the Berkeley Candidates for Mayor and City Council and learn about measures A, I and J, from 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. at St. John’s, Sproul Conference Room, 2727 College Ave. 

Oakland/Berkeley Firestorm 15th Anniversary from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Remembrance Ceremony at noon at the Rockridge BART Station. 238-7388. www.Oaklandnet.com/WildfirePrevention 

Early Voting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public's Central Library, 2090 Kittredge Street, the 3rd floor Community Meeting Room. 

Help Restore Cerrito Creek meet at 10 a.m. at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara St., El Cerrito, just north of Albany Hill. Wear clothes that can get dirty and shoes with good traction. Heavy rain cancels. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Plant Parenthood Party Help transplant seedlings of native plants and prepare for fall planting into West Stege Marsh, from 9 a.m. to noon at 1327 South 46th St., Richmond. Registration requested. 665-3689. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Recycled Arts Halloween Mask-Making Learn the stories behind this ancient holiday, and turn that old junk into a new mask, from 1 to 3 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 Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Bay-Friendly Gardening for Wildlife” Learn how to attract birds, butterflies and beneficial insects that add color, movement and interest to your landscape, from 9 a.m. to noon at El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser, El Cerrito. 665-3546. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Fall Fruit Tasting at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, Center St. at MLK, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cooking demonstrations at 11 a.m. 548-2220. 

“Deconstructing Tyrone” A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation with authors Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore at 6:30 p.m. at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 652-2344. 

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. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

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

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. 22 

Berkeley Election Forum with candidates for Mayor and City Council, and discussion of ballot measures from 1 to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 528-5403. 

Community Celebration for the Days of the Dead with crafts, demonstrations, music, dance, ceremonia and food from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

8th Annual Sisters of Fire Awards Ceremony honoring editor of ColorLines magazine Tram Nguyen, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland City Center, Oakland. Sliding scale entrance fee of $35-$75 includes brunch. Benefit for the Women of Color Resource Center. 444-2700. www.coloredgirls.org 

Dia de los Muertos with craft activities, demonstrations, music, dance, food and a Mercado from noon to 4 p.m. at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center's Markstein Cancer Education and Prevention Center, 10th and Oak St., Oakland. 869-8833. 

Holiday Gourd Crafting Learn the natural history of gourds and create a centerpiece for your holiday table, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Children 11 and older welcome. Cost is $20-$25, includes supplies. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring change of clothes, windbreaker, sneakers. For ages 5 and up. cal-sailing.org  

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

IRV Peace Meet-up and Rally at 1:30 p.m. at Splashpad Park, LakeShore and Grand Ave., Oakland. 644-1303. 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

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 

“A Theology of Hospitality” with Barbara Hamilton-Holway at 9:30 a.m at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Learning to Be” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 23 

Reading for Life Program providing one-on-one tutoring for incarcerated adults. A brown-bag lunch presentation by Lisa Harris at 12:30 p.m. at the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 

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  

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. 

Lead Abatement Repairs Find out about funding for lead hazard repairs for rental properties with low-income tenants or vacant units in Oakland, Berkeley or Emeryville, from 4 to 6 p.m. at 2000 Embarcadero, #300, Oakland. Sponsored by Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 567-8280. 

TUESDAY, OCT. 24 

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 Wildcat Canyon. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

United Nations 61st Anniversary and Global Citizen Awards honoring Danny Glover and Larry Brilliant at 6 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 643-8300. www.unausaseastbay.org 

“Election Pro and Cons” Sponsored by the League of Women Voters at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Berkeley High School Governance Council meets at 4:15 p.m. in the lobby of the Community Theater. Agenda items include Advisory Plan, WASC Plan, Attendance Policy and Homework Inequity. 644-4803. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 25 Dartmouth Rd. email id you need directions, rits@surfbest.net 

Depression Screening Day and Address Your Stress Festival from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at MLK Student Union, UC Campus. Free, public is welcome. www.uhs.berkeley.edu. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Volunteer at Emerson Elementary School Stop by any time from 8:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. or call 883-5247. 

“Canoe Expedition from the Canadian Rockies to Husdon Bay” with Michael Gregory at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140.  

East Bay Children’s Theater Auditions for male and female adult roles for “Rumplestiltskin” from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Kehilla Community Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave, Oakland. For details call 537-9957. 

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. 

Albany Library Homework Center is open from 3 to 5 p.m., Tues. and Thurs. for students in third through fifth grades. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Torture Teach-in and Vigil every Tues. at 12:30 p.m. at the fountain on UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 

Handbuilding Ceramics Class from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also Mon. from noon to 4 p.m. and Wed. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ashby at Ellis Sts Free, except for materials and firing charges. For information call Diana Bohn, 525-5497. 

Toddler and Me Discovery Group at 10 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25  

Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association Candidates Night with Mayoral and Disctrict 8 candidates at 7:30pm at St. John’s Church, Fireside Room, College and Garber. All welcome. www.claremontelmwood.org 

Preserve Police Accountability A rally and march to demand that citizen complaints continue to be heard. Meet at 6 p.m. at the Public Safety Building, MLK and Center St. to march to the North Berkeley Senior Center for the meeting on the future of the Police Review Commission. Sponsored by Copwatch. 548-0425. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, at 3:15 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/ 

walkingtours 

Cut Housing? You’ve Got to be Kidding? A discussion with Wanda Remmers of Housing Rights and Councilmember Linda Maio at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Sponsored by the Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

“Toxic Bust” A documentary on the relationship between breast cancer and chemical exposure at 7 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattck Ave. 849-2568. 

“Timor-Leste: A Candidate for State Failure?” with James Cotton, Professor of Politics, University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy at 4 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Floor. 642-2809. ttp://ieas.berkeley.edu/events 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan & the Missing 7 Trillion Dollars” by Peter Hartcher at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito. 433-2911. 

Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling A free introductory class to learn how to do safe renovations in you rolder home, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Emeryville Recreation Dept., 4300 San Pablo Ave., Emeryville. 567-8280. www.aclppp.org 

New to DVD “Thank You For Smoking” Film and discussion at 7 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, OCT. 26 

The Oakland Bird Club with Alan Kaplan, naturalist, retired from 33 years in the Interpretive Services division of the East Bay Regional Park District, on The History of Birding Field Guides, at 7:30 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Ave. 444-0355. 

“What are Americans Voting For?” Panel discussion with Joan Blades, George Lakoff, Markos Moulitsas, and Robert Reich, moderated by Bruce Cain at 7:30 p.m., Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Free. 643-4487. 

“Talking About Macdonald” performances based on community recollections of Richmond’s downtown at 6:30 p.m. at East Bay Center for the Performing Arts Winters Building, 339 11th St., corner of 11th and Macdonald, Richmond. 540-6809. www.ci.richmond.ca.us 

“Cancer in Your Cosmetics?” Discussion at noon at Alta Bates Summit, Peralta Pavilion, 450 30th St., Oakland. Bring products to examine. Free but registration required. 869-8833. 

Environmental Film Series “Bum’s Paradise” and “Up Close & Toxic” on the Albany landfill, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1744A University Ave., behind the Lutheran Church between Grant and McGee. All welcome. 845-5513. www.easyland.org 

Traveling with Children with Lonely Planet traveling mother, Robin Goldberg at 6 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, 125 14th St. 238-3136 

American Red Cross Blood Donations from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Metro Center Auditorium, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Call to schedule and appointment. 464-7712. 

Managing Type 2 Diabetes at 6 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

El Cerrito Toastmasters “Fright Night” Open House at 7:30 p.m. at the El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moser Lane. 860-7906.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Oct. 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5158. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/parksandrecreation 

Zero Waste Commission Mon., Oct. 23, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Tania Levy, 981-6368. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste 

City Council meets Tues., Oct. 24, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Oct. 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/civicarts 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Oct. 25, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Gil Dong, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/disaster 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Oct. 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/energy 

Planning Commission meets Wed., Oct. 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484. www.ci.berkeley. ca.us/commissions/planning 

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Oct. 25, at 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4960. 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Oct. 26, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning

TUESDAY, OCT. 17 

FILM 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Aftermath” large-scale photographs of post 9/11 destruction in New York by Joel Meyerowitz. Lecture at 7 p.m. at Sibley Auditorium, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Graduate School of Journalism. www.fotovision.org 

Isaiah Wilner reads at 7 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Rachel Whalen, Diana Murphy and Cheryl Cohen-Greene in a panel on Breast Cancer at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jeffrey Goldberg decribes “Prisoners: A Muslim and A Jew Across the Middle East Divide” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Swamp Coolers at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Super Heavy Goat Ass, The Distants at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Benefit for Oaktown Jazz Workshops with the Bay Area Music Educators Band and others at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $25. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18 

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 

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 

“Grapefruit” Yoko Ono’s instruction paintings opens at at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, and runs through March 28. 642-0808. 

Allen Ruppersberg “The Singing Posters” A tribute to Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. and runs through Dec. 10. 642-0808. 

Walter Berman and His Circle at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. and runs through Dec. 10. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Pirates and Piracy “The Pirates of the Great Salt Lake” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Wild Cursive and Modern Chinese Calligraphy, a panel discussion at 6 p.m. at the Women’s Faculty Club Lounge, UC Campus. 642-2809. 

Morton Felix will read from his novel, “In Quest of Another's Suicide” at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10-$20. 848-0237. www.brjcc.org  

Andy Stern, SEIU President, on “A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track” at 6 p.m. at 2221 Broadway at Grand Ave., Oakland. 

Emily Wu and Larry Engelmann describe growing up in Mao’s Cultural Revolution in “Feather in the Storm: A Childhood Lost in Chaos” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Peter S. Beagle reads from his book of stories “The Line Between” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, chamber music, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Acoustic Africa, featuring Vusi Mahlasela, Habib Koité and Bamada, and Dobet Gnahoré at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988.  

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Bernard Anderson and the Old School Band at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. West Coast swing dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is TBA. 525-5054.  

Sugar Shack, soul, R&B, funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Carpathian Folk Quartet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

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

THURSDAY, OCT. 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Secrets of Ousiders” Mixed media paintings by Diego Rios, oil paintings by Bernadette Vergara Sale and acrylic paintings by Liz Amini-Holmes at the Estaban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St. at Telegraph, Oakland. Runs through Nov. 1. 444-7411. www.estebansabar.com 

THEATER 

Fusion Theater “Beauty and the Beast” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $3-$10. 464-3544. 

FILM 

The Mechanical Age “Spinning Up, Slowing Down: Industry Celebrates the Machine” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Films by Jerry Abrams from the 1960s, including “Berkeley Peace March” at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $5-$15. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

George Lakoff introduces his new book “Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Monique El-Faizy describes “God and Country: How Evangelicals are Transforming America” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congragational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Suggested donation $10. 559-9500. 

“The Washington Post at War” with Rajiv Chandrasekharan, author of “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” and former Baghdad Bureau Chief for the Washington Post at 7 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $5. 642-9988. http://journalism.berkeley.edu 

John Moe discusses “Conservatize Me! How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Savage Jazz Dance Company “Everything’s Everything” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $14-$20. 415-256-8499. savagejazz.org 

Ba-Tu-Ke at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8-$10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Chris Smither at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Manuel Morena & Quejerema at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Danny Allen’s High Diving Horses, Liz Pappademas, Courtney Fairchild at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Selector: Petri Disk Showcase at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Showtime @ 11 Hip Hop at 10 p.m. at the Golden Bull, 412 14th St. at Broadway, Oakland. 893-0803. 

FRIDAY, OCT. 20 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Hedda Gabler” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Nov. 18 at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman. Tickets are $12. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “Merrily We Roll Along” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St, Alameda, through Nov. 12. Tickets are $15-$18. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Antenna Theater, “High School” An interactive theatrical walking tour of Berkeley High, 1980 Allston Way. One audience member enters the show every minute. Walk lasts about 45 minutes. Tickets are $20 adults, $8 students. Reservations required. Runs through Oct. 29. 415-332-9454. www.antenna-theater.org/highschool.htm 

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

Central Works “Andromache” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. through Nov. 19. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1382. 

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 

Fusion Theater “Beauty and the Beast” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $3-$10. 464-3544. 

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 

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 

Ousmane Sembene “Emitai” and 6:30 p.m. and “Moolaade” and at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Grudin reads from “American Vulgar: The Politics of Manipulation Versus the Culture of Awareness” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Harvey Pekar and Anne Moore introduce “The Best American Comics 2006” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Miss Marjorie’s Mysteries Join three local mystery writers, Kirk Russell, Cornelia Read, Tony Broadbent and our host, Miss Marjorie, for a night of scary stories, at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 1855 Solano Ave. 525-6888. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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 

Savage Jazz Dance Company “Everything's Everything” Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $14-$20. 415-256-8499. savagejazz.org 

Berkeley Music Coop Players perform works of Falla, Beethoven, Scriabin at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 848-1228. giorgigallery.com 

Free Jazz Fridays with Howard Wiley and Laurie Buenafe Krsmanovic at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Ojala & Melanie de More, African American folk music, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan ”Wild Cursive” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Linda Kosut and Max Perkoff, songs of Oscar Brown, Jr., at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

JGB with Melvin Seals and Grapefruit Ed at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Chris Smither at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ned Boynton Quintet with Jules Broussard at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Mariospeedwagon and Lemon Juju at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Tempest, Avalon Rising at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082.  

Life Long Tragedy, Silence Kills the Revolution, Robot Eyes 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. 

Grease Traps, Raw Deluxxe, funk, fusion, soul, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

Parallel 23, electro Cuban funk, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 21 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Rafael Manríquez, children’s songs in Spanish, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Laura Numeroff talks about “When Sheep Sleep” at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

THEATER 

“Astarte’s Scream” improvisational theater and performance to build understanding about Middle Eastern cultures at 8 p.m. at The Epic Arts Tea Room, 1923 Ashby Ave at MLK. Tickets are $5-$10 at the door. 704-1404. 

FILM 

Ousmane Sembene “Guelwaar” at 6:30 p.m. and “Faat-Kline” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Filipino Author Celebration with Evangeline Canonizado Buell, Peter Jamero, and Pati Navalta Poblete at 1 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore discuss “Deconstructing Tyrone” at black masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation at 6:30 p.m. at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 652-2344. 

Elana Dykewomon, Linda Zeiser, Jan Steckel, Trena Machado, Janell Moon and Maria Kaylib read from the new anthology “What I Want From You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets” at 7:30 p.m. at Laurel Bookstore, 4100 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 531-2073. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“A Hideous Ghost” Johann Sebastian Bach and the Violin performed by John Holloway, solo violin, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College at Garber. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

Trinity Chamber Concerts Ted Brinkley’s Electric Florid-ians at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan ”Wild Cursive” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Cascada de Flores, son and song of Mexico and Cuba at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Robin Gregory & Bill “Jazz Professor” Bell at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kotoja, Afrobeat, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Damond Moodie and Jamie Jenkins at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

David Jeffrey’s Fourtet, featuring Kasey Knudsen, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

April Vetch at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Rebeca Mauleon Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Pete Yellin Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Mark Twang & Suzanne Fox, acoustic folk, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Grand 58, Howdy, Seconds on End at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Arnocorps, Smogtown, Reagan SS, Rock ‘N’ Roll Adventure Kids at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 22 

CHILDREN 

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

EXHIBITIONS 

“Body Language” Paintings and sculpture opens at the Addison Street Windows, and runs through Nov. 29. 981-7533. 

FILM 

The Mechanical Age “2001: A Space Odyssey” at 3 p.m. and “Crash” at 6 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joyce Maynard reads from “Internal Combustion: The Story of a Marriage and a Murder in the Motor City” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Ideas From the Past About Keyboard Instruction” A workshop with Sandra Soderlund at 2 p.m. at A Cheerfull Noyse, 1228 Solano Ave. Free, but RSVP requested. 523-0411. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alaine Rodin, soprano, at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $20-$32. 925-798-1300 

Donna Lerew, violinist, performs works of Bach, Wienawski, Shostakovich at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $9-$10. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Emanuel Ax, piano, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$58. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Chamber Music Sundaes with Scott Pingel, bassist, at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$22 at the door. 415-753-2792 

“Sacred Harp Suite” Premier of new work by Rod McKean at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland. Suggested donation $10. 444-3555. 

Celebration and Benefit for Chiori Santiago, with music by Jane de Cuir, Unity Nugyen, Keenan Webster and the Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble at 5 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Peter Alsop at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ben Stolerow Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Americana Unplugged: Jeanie and Chuck’s Country Roundup at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Frederick Hodges, solo piano, at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Hal Dinsratz at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Ceremony, The First Step, The Helm, Bad Reaction 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. 

Earl Klugh at 7 and 9 p.m., at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein disccuss “The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman discuss “Ethical Realism: A New Vision for America’s Role in the World” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin” at 5:30 p.m. at Chern Hall’s Simons Auditorium, at MSRI, 17 Gauss Way near the intersection of Centennial Drive and Grizzly Peak Blvd. Part of the “Mathematics and Music Series” 642-0448. 

West Coast Singer’s Open Mike at 7:30 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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 

Nguyen Le, Tiger’s Tail Quartet with Art Lande, Paul McCandless and Patrice Heral at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

The 24th annual SF Jazz Festival begins this Friday, Oct. 20 with tenor saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins and continues for another 31 events through the Nov. 12 concert of Latin percussion great John Santos and the Machete Ensemble. This will be the most concentrated amount of great jazz available in the Bay Area all year. 

The performances are matched to beautiful locations like the neo-classical Palace of the Legion of Honor’s Florence Gould Theatre, the art deco Palace of Fine Arts, the splendiferous Great American Music Hall, and Herbst Theatre with its magnificent autumnal (thus Herbst) murals by Sir Frank Brangwyn.  

Besides straight ahead musical performances that range through urban blues, swing, bebop, hard bop, funk, fusion, avant-garde, nuevo tango, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Lusitanian fado, Indian, Mongolian throat-singing, African, Gypsy and Latin, this year there will also be Betty Boop cartoons, pre-concert talks like the classical folks do, and a jazz brunch cruise on the Bay. 

Not only is this year’s festival global in its dimensions, interestingly, about a third of the events feature women vocalists, instrumentalists and big bands as headliners. The following programs are just the top picks from a consistently great lineup: 

Without a doubt, the hottest ticket of the Festival has got to be the kick-off concert on Friday, Oct. 20, 8 p.m. at the Masonic Center, with jazz saxophonist extraordinaire Sonny Rollins. While still a teenager, Rollins was playing in New York with bop pioneers Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Miles Davis. By the early Fifties, in a group with Max Roach, Clifford Brown and Richie Powell, he was ushering in the hard bop era. From 1959-61 he retired from music spending a large part of that time woodshedding on the Williamsburg Bridge. 

Since then, he has recorded an enormous amount of great music, yet often seems stymied in studio settings. In live concert performances, though, his ability to allow free reign to his improvisatory skills really shines. At 76, his physical and imaginative strength are undiminished. Whether he plays a standard like Dietz and Schwartz’ I See Your Face before Me, one of his classic hard bop originals like Oleo or one of his infectious calypsos like Don’t Stop the Carnival, he delights everyone with his swinging ability to vary tunes through subtle accentual shifts, harmonic genius and romantic lyricism. 

Last year saw the death of jazz bass great Percy Heath, but his brothers, drummer Tootie Heath and saxophonist Jimmy Heath, will celebrate Jimmy’s 80th birthday in a concert on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m. at Herbst Theatre. The Heath brothers grew up in Philadelphia where they were high school friends of John Coltrane and Benny Golson. 

They were part of that generation of African-American jazz musicians from northern industrial centers who created hard bop. Jimmy started on alto, but soon picked up the tenor, soprano and flute. His original compositions, like CTA and Gingerbread Boy, have become jazz standards. Albert “Tootie” Heath is simply one of the greatest and most sensitive drummers in the history of jazz. Together the Heath brothers have recorded with almost every important jazz musician on a combined 900 albums. Young trumpet star Jeremy Pelt will join their fraternity for this performance. 

Pianist/composer Andrew Hill, who performs on Sunday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m. at Herbst Theatre, with his Anglo-American Quintet, represents the generation of jazz players who straddled the period of bop and free jazz. As a teenager in Chicago in the early Fifties, he was playing on dates with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. By his early twenties, he was working with Roland Kirk and Eric Dolphy. For this gig, he returns to material from his classic 1964 Blue Note album, Point of Departure. Also on the bill is six-string guitarist Nels Cline and his group playing fresh interpretations of Hill’s compelling compositions. 

The organ is the star on Friday, Nov. 3, with shows at 8 and 10:30 p.m. at the Great American Music Hall. Dr. Lonnie Liston Smith, joined by James Brown trombone alum Fred Wesley, kicks things off followed by young reed giant James Carter and his organ trio. Smith had a lot of success in the soul/funk/jazz world with his Cosmic Echoes group. 

Wesley takes in a lot of territory having not only worked with James Brown and George Clinton’s Funkadelic group, but replaced Al Grey with Count Basie. Carter can play anything from Djangoesque swing to screaming free jazz, but the organ format should bring out his nasty funky side.  

One of the great programming coups of this Festival is the concert Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m. at the Masonic Center, featuring pianist Alice and saxophonist/son Ravi Coltrane with bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Roy Haynes. Alice is the widow and last pianist of jazz giant John Coltrane. Ravi is their son and John’s saxophone heir. Haden, who comes from a country music family, played in Ornette Coleman’s early combos and is now acknowledged as one of the great jazz bassists. Haynes has played with everyone and among other accomplishments was the drummer on Coltrane’s greatest version of My Favorite Things performed live at Newport. This is one of only three American concerts that this quartet will be presenting. 

Trombonist Roswell Rudd has been at the center of the free jazz movement since the early ‘60. Before that he played the music of Thelonious Monk and in dixieland bands. He has been on key albums with Archie Shepp and John Tchicai as well as on Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra album. He recently began working with Mongolian throat-singers, the results of which can be heard on his 2005 disc Blue Mongol. Strangely, his warm, earthy, throaty trombone sound melds beautifully with the Badma Khanda Mongolian Buryat Band of throat singers and instrumentalists. They perform together on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2 p.m. at the Palace of the Legion of Honor’s Florence Gould Theatre. 

The festival comes to a close on Sunday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m. at the Palace of Fine Arts, with a farewell concert by John Santos and the Machete Ensemble. Afro-Latin percussionist John Santos is an educator and scholar as well as a major performer who has worked with Latin stars like Yma Sumac, Tito Puente, Patato Valdés, Armando Peraza, Lalo Schifrin, Santana, Cachao and Omar Sosa as well as jazz masters like Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Art Farmer, Bobby Hutcherson, McCoy Tyner and John Faddis. 

His knowledge and experience of Afro-Latin percussion traditions, rooted in family, community, tradition, study, practice and meditation, is profound. For this final concert by the Ensemble, Santos will be joined by Ray Vega, Maria Marquez and a number of other special guests. 

I only have room to breathlessly mention such promising concerts as blues harpist James Cotton (10/21), vibraphonist Stefon Harris (10/26), pianist Cyrus Chestnut (10/27), Astor Piazzolla pianist Pablo Ziegler, keyboard/reed/percussion phenomenon Peter Apfelbaum with the Kamikaze Ground Crew (11/1), and Django Reinhardt-styled guitar virtuoso Dorado Schmitt (11/12). For more information on the SF Jazz Festival call (415) 788-7353 or visit their website at www.sfjazz.org. 

Playwright and producer Lisa Marie Rollins was adopted as an infant and grew up in a white community on a three-acre organic farm in Washington state. In her new one-woman show, Ungrateful Daughter, directed by W. Kamau Bell, she stands on a bare stage, then tells us her parents are not the “hippie, pot-smoking” type of an organic farmer. They are white church-going Republicans. While the agency that placed Rollins had indicated to her parents that they were getting an “Asian-mix” baby, it is doubtful that with her kinky hair and cinnamon skin her parents got what they were expecting. Rollins thinks the agency “packaged” her without acknowledging the African American blood that clearly runs through her veins. 

I have to admit that when I heard about Ungrateful Daughter, which Rollins performed at the San Francisco Solo Festival early this month, I found myself wondering if my own daughter might grow up to be similarly disenchanted. My African American daughter was adopted by me six years ago, and I’m white. Rollins’ powerful performance underlies the message that in transracial adoption it is not okay to sweep our differences under the carpet. 

As Rollins’ hard-working parents raise her with little acknowledgment of their racial dissimilarities, her mother bustles about, busy with cooking, canning, gardening, and her church community. Rollins portrays her mother with grace and humor as a simple country woman who loves her daughter, but clearly doesn’t possess the tools that will help her navigate through life as a person of color. 

As Rollins begins to notice that she looks different from her playmates, she “transforms” into her 7-year-old self. But her mother seems resentful when she has to respond to her daughter’s forthright questions about her background. Sighing, Rollins’ mother locates the locked box that holds the adoption papers. I could visualize the table where they sat, cluttered with paring knives and fruit as the mother uncomfortably reads the agency’s description of Rollins as being part Mexican, part Filipino, and maybe “part-a-few-other-things.”  

Fast forward. It’s winter 2005, and Rollins is home for a visit. Feeling out of place, she wanders through the house but stops short when she notices that on a wall full of inspirational plaques has been added a new decoration: an Aunt Jemima figurine. As seamlessly as Rollins morphed into her other roles, she’s now Aunt Jemima, defending her right to sell pancake mix. She is Aunt Jemima, with a perpetually plastered-on smile, white teeth flashing. In the ensuing exchange Rollins alternates between Aunt Jemima’s voice and her own. She educates us, reminding us that Jemima’s “mammy” image is rooted in slavery, head wrap and all. The original Aunt Jemima character was based on an African American woman who likely kept house and watched the children of her “Massa.” When her mother comes back into the kitchen, Rollins feels tongue tied. Still, she tries to explain why she finds the figurine so offensive. 

Unlike my daughter, Rollins was adopted transracially before a group of African American social workers came out with the stance that children of color are better off with parents who share the same cultural values. Transracial adoptions then proceeded to dwindle until the late 1990s after Congress passed the Multi-Etchnic Placement Act, which makes it illegal to delay the placement of a child awaiting adoption in order to find a racially matching family. Since then the rate of transracial adoptions has been creeping back up. 

Rollins’ acting abilities are competent, and Ungrateful Daughter also shows off her comedic abilities, even if in this piece the humor feels laden with resentment. I think Rollins loves her parents, but obviously wishes they’d “get” it, and her message that shines through loud and clear is that being color-blind benefits no one. After the performance I talked with her and we agreed that the learning curve for people adopting transracially has to begin early, and it is a continual one.  

I left Rollins’ Ungrateful Daughter feeling both hopeful and disturbed. 

UNGRATEFUL DAUGHTER 

8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the Marsh Theatre (in the Gaia Arts Center), as part of the Secret Circus series of solo-theatre and spoken word performances. For more information, see www.themarsh.org. 

It will surprise no one, I’m sure, that the unofficial tree maven of the Berkeley Daily Planet is coming out against the clearcutting of a grove of senior live oaks in the city to make way for the construction of a yet another new University Sportspalast. I’ll even add that quite a few of the trees slated for destruction look sturdy enough to sit in. Oaks tend to be trustworthy to bear the weight of a human being.  

Whether human beings can be trusted to live in a civilized manner alongside such beings is once again open to question. Veteran environmental writer Harold Gilliam expressed doubts on the currently ruling state of mind at UC Berkeley in an opinion piece in the Sunday, Oct. 8 San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote mostly about the tension between unfiltered market values and all other values, including the academic, pointing out in particular how the salaries of the university’s administrators are ten to 15 times those of the “bottom-tier”—that is, front-line—employees and double the average of the faculty’s salaries. Student tuition, meanwhile, has gone from zero (with only a $27 registration fee) in Gilliam’s time there to $30,000 for the four undergraduate years; students’ other costs—lodging, books, materials fees—have risen similarly.  

What Californians could once regard as a birthright, an education from their tax-supported university system, has become the property of the wealthy, with bits allotted to those who could jump through the right hoops and/or go into debt for years. The money’s flowing faster than ever, but where?  

Administrators are facilitators. Their job is to set things up and keep them running so that the avowed purposes of the university, education and research, can be done efficiently and well. UC Berkeley brags justly about its “tradition of Nobel prize winners,” and the school’s researchers do plenty of great work that doesn’t get gold-starred, and hooray for them.  

Lately it does rather appear that a greater proportion of the research getting funds is stuff directly linked with high-profit corporate enterprise. The tangled connections between tax-funded academia and corporate profits have produced some comical situations, with patent suits and countersuits and intrigues finding their way into the news. The tangles themselves are great fun to trace if you have nothing better to do; the things that get disclosed obfuscate as much as they illuminate.  

In the main, though, one suspects that this high-stakes—that is, high-profit—stuff is what these high-paid administrators are being paid so highly to facilitate. The purported academic traditions, all that excellence and enlightenment and pure science and sublime art that hallow the hallowed halls, not so much.  

So, in a similar vein, UC’s profitable sports get overblown subsidies, and the intramural stuff gets a new facility thrown in. Is this a new library, a new field biology facility? No, we’ll pretend that Mens sana in corpore sano calls for lots of “character–building” team sports and bloated space and budgets for spectator sports, because that corpus isn’t sano enough unless it’s being watched by people in school colors, right? And we’ve learned not even to see anything that’s in the way of the bleachers unless it’s in a mascot costume.  

What about those oaks?  

Many are old—at least one is supposed to be 200 or so, and the younger set got planted in the early 1920s when the current stadium was built. Along with the senior trees are several younger ones and a few seedlings—the right configuration for the continuing life of a grove, young trees replacing their parents. 

Before that stadium, what was there was a waterfall, probably at the point where Strawberry Creek ran over the Hayward Fault scarp, and a meadow that was a favorite picnicking and strolling spot for students and other citizens. The creek, in one of our local landscaping grotesqueries, now runs under the swimming pool and tennis courts as well as the stadium.  

The oaks are in good shape, too, especially for city trees. UC consulted tree experts who pronounced most of them healthy and many of specimen quality; many also officially have high historic value. There is, wonder of wonders, a healthy old “California” peppertree on the fringe of the kill zone. The grove includes huge Atlas cedars, Hinoki cypress, redwoods, Western yew, and Port Orford cedar; those last two are California species in danger of extinction in the wild.  

A 20-minute stroll through the grove, at noon in a slow season, revealed a pair of Nuttall’s woodpeckers, Steller’s and scrub jays, juncos, plain titmouse, chickadees, ruby-crowned kinglets, California towhees, vireos, and some warbler I never did identify—we hadn’t bothered to bring binoculars. A youth-gang of crows rumbled around and harassed the raven pair who happened through, a spectacular skydance that went on for ten minutes.  

That’s just one short visit. No classroom could provide as much instruction.  

The EIR for the project is available in the public library or online at www.cp.berkeley.edu—look for the “campus and community” info area. There’s a group trying to save the grove: SOS, at www.saveoaks.com. It includes UC students and Berkeley citizens and has support from the Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society, and the likes of Julia Butterfly Hill. I’ll be following the story over the next few months.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

These oaks, among other trees, are target for clearcutting to make way for UC Berkeley’s new stadium complex. 

TUESDAY, OCT. 17 

Tuesday is for the Birds An early morning walk for birders through Bay Area parklands. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. This week we will visit Point Isabel. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Berkeley Garden Club “Georgeous Gardens Made Easy” with Kim Haworth, producer of KRON4’s “Henry’s Garden” at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-7296. 

Willard Neighborhood Association Candidates Forum featuring the candidates for the Mayoral, District 7 and District 8 City Council races at 6:45 p.m. at the Willard Middle School, Auditorium 2425 Stuart St. 

Fall Fruit Tasting at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, Derby at MLK, from 2 to 7 p.m. 548-2220. 

Week Without Violence Confront violence against women and empower women and people in the community, through Sat. at YWCA Berkeley, 2600 Bancroft Way at Bowditch St. 848-6370. 

“Saving the Animals in Afghanistan” with Pamela Constable, a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post in Afghanistan, who has helped stray dogs and cats in Kabul find shelter, veterinary care and happy adoptive homes, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Street. Donation $20. Reservations requested. 594-1613. ruphotos@earthlink.net  

“Rainwater Harvesting” Brad Lancaster explains tools and techniques for implementing sustainable water systems for your home, landscape, and community at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2240. www.ecologycenter.org 

“The Reality and Legacy of the Iraq War” with Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow at The Independent Institute and author of “The Empire Has No Clothes” and Mark Danner, author of “The Secret Way to War,” and Professor of Journalism at U.C. Berkeley, at 6:30 p.m. at The Independent Institute Conference Center, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Cost is $10-$15. For tickets please call 632-1366. www.independent.org 

Panel Discussion on Breast Cancer with Rachel Whalen, Diana Murphy and Cheryl Cohen-Greene at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Torture Teach-in and Vigil every Tues. at 12:30 p.m. at the fountain on UC Campus, Bancroft at College. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 6 to 8 p.m. Various East Bay opportunities available. Advanced sign-up is required; please call 594-5165.  

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Discussion Salon on Should Voting be Mandatory? 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. 

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 Diana Bohn, 525-5497. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18 

“A Glimpse of South Berkeley” with Belva Davis on “Newsroom and Beyond” at 7:30 p.m. at South Berkeley Community Church, 1802 Fairview St. at Ellis. Tickets are $10 and benefit the church’s restoration efforts. 652-1040. 

South Berkeley Mayoral Debate at 7:30 p.m. at B-Tech Academy auditorium, 2701 Martin Luther King Jr., Way at Derby. 849-4319. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Neighborhood and Community Green Space with Susan Schwartz on “The Santa Fe Rigth of Way” Meet at 1 p.m. at Spiral Gardens, 2850 Sacramento St. at Oregon.  

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll have our annual nature treasure hunt, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Kayaking the British Columbia Coast” with John McCormack at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Music in the Community Fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 444-6979. 

Workshop on Condominium Conversion at 6 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 525-3666. 

Current Events Discussion Group meets at 7 p.m. at the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. Oakland. 597-4972. 

Gray Panthers Movie Night showing “Wag the Dog” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Gray Panthers Office, 1403 Addison St. Berkeley Gray Panthers Office, 1403 Addison St. 

New to DVD “United 93 ” Film and discussion at 7 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes. 548-9840. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART station, followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, OCT. 19 

Mayoral Candidate Debate Between Tom Bates and Zelda Bronstein at 7:30 p.m. in the Le Conte School cafeteria, Russell St. entrance. Sponsored by the LeConte Neighborhood Association. All are welcome. www.neighborhoodlink.com  

“Global Warming: What Can California Do About It?” with Dr. Stephen Schneider of Stanford at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Clean up the Air Pollution from Pacific Steel with Lois Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health and the Environment at 7:30 p.m. at West Berkeley Senior Center, 6th and Hearst.  

“Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the Bay Area” is the subject of a talk and slideshow at 7:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, between Solano and Marin., presented by the Golden Gate Audubon Society 843-2222. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

“The Washington Post at War: Reporting From Baghdad” with a panel of reporters and editors from The Washington Post at 7 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Sponsored by The Graduate School of Journalism. Tickets are $5 available from 642-9988. http://journalism.berkeley.edu/events 

An Evening with Robert Scheer Author and columnist at 7:30 PM at the Piedmont Gardens, 110 41st St., Oakland. Sponsored by MGO Democratic Club. 834-9198. www.mgoclub.org 

“The Current Gandhian Movement in India” with Dr. M.P. Mathai, author of “Mahatma Gandhi’s World View” at 7 p.m. at 166 Barrows Hall, UC Campus.  

Breast Cancer Update Learn about the latest research in diagnosis and treatment at 6:15 p.m. at Summit Campus, Peralta Pavilion, Markstein Cancer Center, 430 30th St., Oakland. Registration required. 869-8735. 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll have our annual nature treasure hunt, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Environmental Film Series “Thirst” on corporate attempts to buy up local water supplies, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Simplicity Forum with Rachel Laws on “Neighbors: Celebrating the Folks on the Block” at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 549-3509. 

Community Shabbat with singer Gary Laplow at 6 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $12 adult, $5 chidren. 848-0237. 

Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby at 7:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at 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. 20 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with David Brains on “Life in the Solar System” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society Annual Beardless Iris Auction and sale at 7:30 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. 277-4200. 

“Iraq for Sale: the War Profiteers” Part of the Conscientious Projector film series, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Suggested donation $10, no one turned away. 528-5403. 

“Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers” A new documentary by Robert Greenwald, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 

Teen Read Week pizza party at 3 p.m. at the The Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. for ages 9 - 17. 524-3043 

Movies That Matter “Coach Carter” at 6:30 p.m. at 565 Bellevue St., at Perkins, Oakland. Free, discussion follows. 451-3009. 

Animal Healing Cicle, a guided meditation to send healing energy to pets at 5 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave. Suggested donation $5. 525-6155. 

Meher Baba Introductory Meeting with video and discussion at 7:30 p.m. at 6923 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. AvatarMeherBaba.org  

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 21 

Meet the Berkeley Candidates for Mayor and City Council and learn about measures A, I and J, from 9:45 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. at St. John’s, Sproul Conference Room, 2727 College Ave. 

Oakland/Berkeley Firestorm 15th Anniversary from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Remembrance Ceremony at noon at the Rockridge BART Station. 238-7388. www.Oaklandnet.com/WildfirePrevention 

Help Restore Cerrito Creek meet at 10 a.m. at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara St., El Cerrito, just north of Albany Hill. Wear clothes that can get dirty and shoes with good traction. Heavy rain cancels. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Plant Parenthood Party Help transplant seedlings of native plants and prepare for fall planting into West Stege Marsh, from 9 a.m. to noon at 1327 South 46th St., Richmond. Registration requested. 665-3689. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Recycled Arts Halloween Mask-Making Learn the stories behind this ancient holiday, and turn that old junk into a new mask, from 1 to 3 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 Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Bay-Friendly Gardening for Wildlife” Learn how to attract birds, butterflies and beneficial insects that add color, movement and interest to your landscape, from 9 a.m. to noon at El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser, El Cerrito. 665-3546. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Fall Fruit Tasting at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, Center St. at MLK, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cooking demonstrations at 11 a.m. 548-2220. 

“Deconstructing Tyrone” A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation with authors Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Y. Moore at 6:30 p.m. at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 652-2344. 

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. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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

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

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. 22 

Berkeley Election Forum with candidates for Mayor and City Council, and discussion of ballot measures from 1 to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 528-5403. 

Community Celebration for the Days of the Dead with crafts, demonstrations, music, dance, ceremonia and food from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

8th Annual Sisters of Fire Awards Ceremony honoring editor of ColorLines magazine Tram Nguyen, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland City Center, Oakland. Sliding scale entrance fee of $35-$75 includes brunch. Benefit for the Women of Color Resource Center. 444-2700. www.coloredgirls.org 

Dia de los Muertos with craft activities, demonstrations, music, dance, food and a Mercado from noon to 4 p.m. at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center's Markstein Cancer Education and Prevention Center, 10th and Oak St., Oakland. 869-8833. 

Holiday Gourd Crafting Learn the natural history of gourds and create a centerpiece for your holiday table, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Children 11 and older welcome. Cost is $20-$25, includes supplies. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club in the Berkeley Marina. Bring change of clothes, windbreaker, sneakers. For ages 5 and up. cal-sailing.org  

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

IRV Peace Meet-up and Rally at 1:30 p.m. at Splashpad Park, LakeShore and Grand Ave., Oakland. 644-1303. 

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

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 

“A Theology of Hospitality” with Barbara Hamilton-Holway at 9:30 a.m at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Learning to Be” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 23 

Reading for Life Program providing one-on-one tutoring for incarcerated adults. A brown-bag lunch presentation by Lisa Harris at 12:30 p.m. at the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Public Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 

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  

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. 

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 Aging meets Wed., Oct. 18, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. William Rogers, 981-5344. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., Oct. 18, at 7 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6195. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/library  

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Oct. 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/humane 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/designreview  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Oct. 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7010. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/transportation