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Former Vice President Al Gore shakes hands with Berkeley residents at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Monday. He was in town to urge support for Prop. 87. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
Former Vice President Al Gore shakes hands with Berkeley residents at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Monday. He was in town to urge support for Prop. 87. Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee.
 

News

Flash: UC Stadium Gets Landmarks Status

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday October 24, 2006

UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium will get local landmarks status as designated June 1 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, a unanimous City Council said Tuesday night. 

In an Oct. 24 report to the council, city planning staff had called for a delay of the designation, calling for the question to be sent back to the commission. However, in an 11th-hour reversal, planning staff asked the council to uphold the commission’s designation of the stadium as a local landmark. 

Landmarks status is critical at this time, according to advocates of the designation, because the university is planning a number of controversial building projects in southeast Berkeley where the stadium is located, which will include remodeling the stadium. UC Regents are expected to vote on the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects at their Nov. 15-16 meeting. 

The council unanimously supported the recommendation, made orally by Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin. 

The local landmarks status had been called into question by Irene Hegarty, UC Berkeley’s community relations director, who pointed out discrepancies between the local and national applications for landmarks status. The City Council called for a public hearing to resolve the discrepancies.  

While the half-dozen members of the public who addressed the landmarks question at the public hearing favored the staff reversal, they asked why the designation process did not happened months earlier. 

Janice Thomas, a resident of Panoramic Hill, next to the stadium, noted that the Landmarks Preservation Commission made its decision on June 1 and asked “Why the delay? The public would like answers.” 

While Councilmember Kriss Worthington voted to support the staff reversal, he objected to the process, in which the council was being asked to make a decision based on an oral report.  

During the council discussion, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque responded to an e-mail she received that afternoon from former Mayor Shirley Dean. Dean argued that the council had not taken correct steps in scheduling the public hearing on the landmarking decision. 

“As the Council did not ‘certify’ the action there is no appeal before the council at this time,” Dean wrote. 

In a her written response to Dean, Albuquerque said Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan had “listened to the tape [of the council meeting] and it was absolutely clear that the council was asked to (and did) set this for hearing, in order to resolve discrepancies between the city’s … and National Register designation.” 

The Daily Planet is waiting for a city staff explanation on how and why the last-minute reversal came about. 

 


Gore Urges Berkeleyans to Vote Yes on Proposition 87

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Former vice president Al Gore came to Berkeley Monday to support the “Yes on 87” campaign. 

Prop. 87 promises to end California’s dependence on foreign oil with cleaner, cheaper alternatives such as wind, solar and biofuels that will improve the economy and reduce air pollution that causes asthma, lung disease and cancer. At the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park rally, Gore emphasized that half of California’s foreign oil comes from the Middle East. 

“I am pretty tired of depending on oil from the Middle East,” he said, after arriving at the rally in a hybrid vehicle. “It’s not good for us because a lot of the money for oil is siphoned off to finance terrorist groups. And it’s not good for them to build up their economy predominantly from oil. This has got to stop.” 

On Oct. 9, Gore appeared in his first ad since he last ran for office in 2000 in order to endorse the oil tax initiative, sparking speculation that he was considering running for president again.  

Gore, known for advocating environmental issues, this year released a documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. 

“We want Gore,” and “Gore for President,” supporters chanted, a large number of whom were students from Berkeley High and UC Berkeley. Gore was joined by Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Mayor Tom Bates, both of whom urged citizens to vote yes on Measure 87. 

“I urge you not to be carried away by the deceptive ads on the other side,” Bates said, adding that the measure has major ramifications for the economy and for the future of energy. “One of the reasons for me to care so deeply about this was because of the inspiration I received from Gore. I think it’s a fantastic idea.” 

The word of the day, Gore told the crowd, was “crisis.” 

“We are filling up the air with toxic gases every day,” he said. “How much more evidence do we need before we sit up and take notice? How many more catastrophes? It’s time for us to take control of our own future and we are going to start by passing Measure 87.” 

Opponents of Prop. 87 have reportedly spent more than $52 million to campaign against the oil tax initiative, which would impose up to $485 million a year in taxes on companies extracting oil from California land. They argue that a tax on oil revenues would increase gas prices in California. 

The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to endorse Prop. 87 earlier this year. 

“If we are going to change the way we do business, this is the best way to start,” said Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, who was at the rally. 

Gore also spoke about the Katrina Hurricane disaster and how the Bush administration failed to address it.  

“Look around the world,” he said. “There are disasters everywhere. The genocide in Darfur, the child warriors and the rape of our forests and rivers—these are not just political problems, these are everybody’s problems. If the government back in Washington, D.C., is paralyzed, then it’s up to citizens to take up the leadership to save our planet.” 

 

Rio Bauce contributed to this report


Mayoral Candidates Tackle City Issues in Neighborhood Debates

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Before the Le Conte Neighborhood Association’s Thursday evening candidates night, secretary Jerry Miller was undecided about whom he’d pick for mayor. But after listening to the three candidates—incumbent Mayor Tom Bates, former Planning Chair Zelda Bronstein and community activist Zachary Running Wolf, Miller told the Daily Planet: “I could really see the difference between the candidates. I don’t think I’m unclear now.”  

Some 60 people came to the LNA forum at the LeConte School auditorium. Earlier in the week, about 80 people had attended the Willard Neighborhood Association evening in which mayoral and District 7 and District 8 City Council candidates spoke and fielded questions. (Candidate Christian Pecaut did not attend either event.)  

Questions from residents in the two nearby neighborhoods reflected similar concerns: housing, homelessness, the impact of the university and preservation of neighborhoods. 

 

Development 

“What is the need for all this development? What is in it for the citizens of Berkeley?” one Le Conte area resident asked the candidates. 

Bates responded that allowing high-rise buildings to abut residences is a problem created by the city’s faulty zoning laws. “We need to respect the neighborhoods,” he said. 

There is need for more development to reverse Berkeley’s shrinking population, Bates said. Development at transit hubs can provide housing, while keeping people out of their cars. The housing created must be “workforce” housing—condominiums and apartments. “People who work here can’t live here. People in our police department, fire department, nurses and teachers don’t live here,” he said. 

But Bronstein argued that people “are not going to move into the little Calcutta-size apartments that are being built on the thoroughfares in Berkeley. They want yards for their children to play in.” 

Furthermore, she argued that when Bates talks about “workforce housing,” he lumps together firefighters, police and UC clericals. “Excuse me,” Bronstein said, “the police in this city are averaging $124,000 per year.”  

Most of the housing being built is not available to working people, she said, adding that the city needs to make housing genuinely affordable. 

But Bates, who claimed that 500 “workforce” housing units and 300 low-income units were built in the city during his term in office, argued the city needs to take a regional perspective when looking at developing low-income housing. 

“We need a broader vision for affordable housing,” he said. It can be in one of the neighboring cities and not necessarily in Berkeley, he said.  

Bronstein further criticized Bates for proposing housing at Ashby BART, arguing that the city applied for a planning grant without first proposing the project to the City Council. The grant was denied, yet, “Mayor Bates continues to ram this project through South Berkeley,” she said, pointing to $40,000 funded through the city’s general fund to support a task force on the project. 

Bates responded that prior City Councils have said there should be housing at the Ashby station. “Ashby BART is a planning grant, you guys,” he said. 

While the original grant proposed 300 units, the project is not yet defined, Bates argued. “This is not a fait accompli,” he said. 

Ellin McGovern, who lives near UC Storage at Shattuck Avenue and Ward Street, opposes the cell-phone antennae which owner Patrick Kennedy wants to install there. She and her neighbors appealed the zoning board’s approval, which the council has remanded to the zoning board for further discussion. McGovern asked the candidates how they would approach the problem. 

Bates declined to discuss specifics because, as mayor, he may have to vote on the question. Instead, he pointed to state and federal legislation which makes it difficult for municipalities to have control over locating antennae. “We have to fight back against this,” he said. 

Bronstein responded that the zoning board approval was a good example of the mayor and City Council not giving the Planning Department good direction. She acknowledged, however, that federal law does not allow people to bring health issues into play when considering the placement of antennae. The city should do whatever it can to protect the neighborhood, she added. 

 

UC-city agreement 

At the LNA event, Bates accused Willard neighborhood resident Doug Buckwald of repeating his questions about a UC-city settlement agreement at various candidates’ nights. 

“You’ve asked this question at three different forums,” Bates said, then added, “Nice to see you again, by the way.”  

The city sued the university over its development plans and over the fees it pays for various city services. In July 2005 the city settled the suit—that settlement was the basis of Buckwald’s questions. 

“The mayor has been telling people that the city has control of planning as a result of this agreement,” Buckwald said at the Willard candidates’ night. “That is not true. In fact the city gave up its control over planning in downtown as the agreement states.”  

He further argued that when the mayor says he’s gotten the university to pay the city $22 million, “what he doesn’t say is that’s $22 million over 15 years.” 

As mayor, Bronstein said, she would rescind the agreement. By approving the settlement “the mayor and the City Council majority voted to give up the rights that the city had,” she said. The agreement forces the city to get university approval on whatever is planned downtown, she said.  

But Bates objected. “If we don’t like what they plan, we can go our own way,” he said, noting that would mean that the city would simply lose $100,000 of the $1.2 million the university is paying in annual fees for city services. 

Further, he said, Berkeley “got the best deal any city in California has ever gotten with any public university (given that) the university is a sovereign body not subject to our laws.”  

Buckwald also challenged Bates on having settled the lawsuit behind closed doors. Bronstein added that the confidentiality agreement was signed even though the mayor had promised to make the terms of the agreement public before a council vote. “I do not believe that every settlement involves a confidentiality agreement,” she said. 

But Bates argued: “Any lawyers will tell you that when you get a settlement agreement, you end up having a confidentiality statement where you can’t talk about what goes on in the settlement agreement.” 

 

Running Wolf’s challenge 

Community activist Running Wolf has not solicited endorsements or campaign contributions, but has debated Bronstein and Bates at numerous neighborhood forums. Like Bronstein, Running Wolf says he will rescind the UC-city agreement if elected. “On Nov. 7, we’ll decide if this is Berkeley or UC Berkeley,” he said. 

He opposes criminalization of the homeless, and the anti-sleeping and lying ordinances that both the mayor and Bronstein support. “We’re slipping down a slippery slope, with too much policing,” he said, promising to address homelessness by getting people into job training and housing them in unused buildings.  

On creating new parking slots, he said one student asked him what he is going to do about parking. He said he answered,” Absolutely nothing,” and called on young people to give up their cars and ride bicycles, as he does. 

Explaining that his culture considers seven generations when making planning decisions, Running Wolf addressed the antenna question saying, “I wouldn’t allow cell-phone antennas at all.”  

 

The end 

While the candidates presented themselves and fielded questions at Willard for just under an hour, sandwiched in between the District 7 and District 8 candidates, the closure of the Le Conte event was somewhat controversial. 

At 8:30 p.m. the chair said that there had been an agreement that closing statements would be made at 8:30 p.m., but Bronstein argued that the event should be extended. “It seems like there’s been hardly any questions,” she said. 

After the three candidates gave closing statements, Bates and most the audience left; Bronstein and Running Wolf stayed to field additional questions. 

 


Waterfront Development Frames Albany Election

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 24, 2006

If there’s a single issue dominating the race for Albany’s vacant city council seats, it’s the now-you-see-them, not-you-don’t plans of a Canadian race track mogul and a Southern California shopping mall magnate for the city’s waterfront. 

While developer Rick Caruso announced he was giving up on Albany and looking for a new site elsewhere in the East Bay, the mall remains a hot issue in part because no one really believes Caruso has given up on one of the last remaining prime waterfront sites located next to a major freeway exit. 

The four candidates running for the two at-large seats are divided precisely across the fault lines that formed after Golden Gate Fields owner Magna Entertainment and megamall developer Caruso Affiliated Holdings unveiled plans for an upscale mall on the racetrack’s northwestern parking lot. 

While all four candidates are registered Democrats, the two who won the endorsement of the state and county party as well as Rep. Barbara Lee and Assemblymember Loni Hancock are running as the “Save Our Shoreline” anti-mall team of Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile. 

Wile and Atkinson played leading roles in the signature drive that led to a fourth of Albany’s registered voters signing petitions to place an initiative on the November ballot that would have blocked the Magna/Caruso mall while creating a planning process to plot the future of waterfront lands. 

An Alameda County Superior Court judge voided the initiative because backers hadn’t conformed to all the public notice requirements before circulating their petitions. 

Their opponents are Caryl O’Keefe and Francesco Papalia, with Papalia the more outspoken of the two development advocates. 

 

Papalia, O’Keefe 

“When organizations whose constituency is outside of Albany are given the power to make decisions, all accountability is lost,” declares Papalia, a salesman with the Daniel Winkler & Associates real estate brokerage in Albany. 

Campaigning under the slogan “Albany First,” Papalia sees waterfront development as a means to reduce the proportionate share of the tax burden that falls on homeowners and a way of generating new revenues—through taxes and developer concessions—to fund schools, emergency services and parks. 

For Papalia the waterfront development issue is clear-cut: The Sierra Club is exerting massive pressure to restrict development not on a natural site, but on artificial bay fill in a move that would take away the city’s prime potential source of new tax revenues while forcing property taxes on the owners of residential property. 

“If the Sierra Club has its way, over 50 percent of the land in the city would be tax-exempt,” said Papalia, who charges that the club’s goal is the eventual closure of Golden Gate Fields and the site’s transformation into still more exempt parkland for which the overwhelming majority of users would not be Albany residents. “I will stand up to the Sierra Club at any cost,” he said. 

He said the lot where the mall was proposed was perfect for development because of declining attendance at the track because of off-track betting—which yields no revenue for the city unlike bets at races held at the track that are place by attendees in the stands. 

O’Keefe, who served for 35 years as an economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a member of the Albany Library Board, the Friends of Five Creeks and the Albany Waterfront Coalition. She charged that the Save Our Shoreline proposals would result in the loss of more than a half million dollars in property taxes to Albany schools, “and I can’t reconcile that with their statement that their proposals would not affect out schools.” 

She also faulted the slate for calling for a ban on waterfront development while at the same time calling for an open and democratic process to determine the fate of the shoreline, stands she said were contradictory. 

O’Keefe said the Albany City Council also needs candidates with a broader range of skills at dealing with the wide range of issues facing city government. 

“I see nothing in their campaign materials about streets, sewers, open space and the other problems that take up the majority of the council’s attention,” she said.  

 

Atkinson, Wile 

Atkinson said, “We decided to run as a slate because we both came out of Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (the group sponsoring the abortive initiative). I was chair and Joanne was on the executive committee. We share expenses, and that gives us double the impact.” 

Rather than a shopping mall close to the waterfront as the Magna/Caruso proposal sought, Wile said she and Atkinson favor new revenues raised through creation of a model “green” hotel closer to the freeway on track-owned land, and a program to encourage new alternative energy firms to locate on Cleveland Avenue. 

The impetus for the energy firms would come from legislation signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in August that calls for placing a million solar panels on the roofs of state houses, schools, public buildings, farms and businesses over the next 12 years. 

“We’re in an ideal location because of our proximity to UC Berkeley,” Wile said. 

Atkinson said she and Wile have complementary expertise and abilities. 

“Joanne has a background in public health and mental health and is very aware of environmental and health issue, and my forte has been more on community activism and connections in the Democratic Party,” she said. “We are both very concerned with the future of Solano and San Pablo avenues, we both have excellent relations with Loni Hancock and we both have a depth of contacts that will be very helpful for Albany.” 

Wile spent 10 years as Director of Community Services for the San Francisco Public Health Department and serves on the Albany Parks and Recreation Commission. Atkinson has taught in Albany schools for 16 years and has served as vice president of the Albany Teachers Association, president of the local chapter of the California School Employees Association and president of the Albany High School Site Council and is co-president of the Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville Democratic Club. 

“Albany needs to have a citizen-driven plan for the waterfront,” said Wile. The goal should be to plan for generations to come, using environmentally friendly practices for “developing effective ways to increase our tax base, revitalize our downtown and fund our school, library and emergency services.” 

 

Websites 

While O’Keefe and Papalia maintain separate web sites — carylokeefe4albany.com and albanyfirst.org — Wile and Atkinson maintain a joint site, www.saveourshorelineteam.com. 


Santa Cruz Action Challenges Another UC Long-Range Plan

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Stephan Volker, the lawyer handling a lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s long-range plans, filed a similar action Monday in Santa Cruz. 

The Oakland lawyer filed a suit on behalf of nine Santa Cruz County residents challenging the environmental impact review for the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) for that campus. 

Volker is waging a similar action in Alameda County Superior Court that challenges a settlement reached by the university and the City of Berkeley after the city filed a legal challenge to UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan through 2020. 

Daily Planet Arts and Calendar Editor Anne Wagley is one of four plaintiffs in that action. 

In an announcement from his office, Volker said the UC Santa Cruz plan, which would almost double the size of the campus over the next 15 years, “failed to provide essential environmental reviews, thwarting informed public agency review and comment.” 

Among the arguments raised, the suit alleges that the university failed to provide an adequate baseline for evaluating impacts, failed to disclose that the university system was concentrating growth at the UCSC campus rather than at other nearby campuses, deprived the public of meaningful information on transportation and housing impacts and failed to offer meaningful mitigations. 

The action asked the court to issue a writ of mandate setting aside the LRDP and its environmental documents until the university complies with all provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act, which governs the impacts of new developments. 

The City of Berkeley’s challenge to the UC Berkeley LRDP ended in a settlement, negotiated and agreed to in secret, that resulted—among other things—in the creation of a new downtown plan for the city. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee is currently laying the foundation for the plan.


Committee Approves Projects That Will Change City’s Face

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Architects and developers of buildings that promise to transform the face of Berkeley watched and listened Thursday as a city panel tweaked their plans. 

Present for the meeting of the Design Review Committee (DRC) were developers of major projects at 700 and 1885 University Ave., 2020 Addison St., 2929 Ashby Ave., and 2701 Shattuck Ave. 

 

700 University 

The 700 University project—a two-building project on the block that holds the landmarked Southern Pacific Railroad Station—will feature 171 units of housing over retail frontage that will extend the Fourth Street shopping scene south of the city’s main east/west thoroughfare. 

The number of units was reduced from the 212 specified in initial plans by architect Kava Massih. 

Dan Diebel of Urban Housing Group brought along a new financial partner and their architect to unveil new plans for the project, which they bill as the city’s new gateway landmark. 

The new partner is real estate investment trust (REIT) Essex Property Trust, represented at Thursday night’s meeting by Josh Corzine, the firm’s director of acquisitions for the East Bay and Marin County and the son of New Jersey Democratic U.S. Sen. John Corzine. 

The new partner is a corporate kin of Urban Housing Group, which is in turn a subsidiary of Marcus & Millichap Company, a leading national real estate investment brokerage firm, headquartered in Palo Alto and with offices across the country. Corporate chair George M. Marcus serves as an advisor to the Haas Real Estate Group of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. 

Marcus is also chairman of the board of Essex, and the first director listed after him on the firm’s web site is William A. Millichap—as in Marcus & Millichap. 

According to the firm’s media kit, before joining with Urban Housing, Essex owned 27 apartment complexes in the Bay Area, with a total of 6,626 units, including the Regency Tower in Oakland and 13 San Marcos in Richmond. 

Half of the firm’s properties are located in Southern California, with another quarter in North California and the rest in the Seattle, Wash., area and Portland, Ore. 

Before the new partner was added, Urban Housing had brought in new architects, Christiani & Johnson, replacing Massih. 

“The design has changed dramatically,” Corzine told the DRC, which is charged with approving plans before they go to the Zoning Adjustments Board. 

And DRC members loved the changes, which bring the height of the complex to within the 50-foot West Berkeley limit, and broke up the structure so that the two buildings look like more. 

Architect David Johnson said the design “will focus on cultural icons, the train station and Brennan’s.” 

Brennan’s Irish Pub, a cultural if not legal landmark, occupies a building at the northeast corner of the lot which will be demolished to make way for the project. Current plans call for the pub to be relocated in the train station, which was declared a city landmark in 2001. 

The new design is a faux industrial scheme, designed to make the new construction resemble conversions of older industrial buildings, complete with large expanses of corrugated metal and wood siding. 

“The loudest and clearest concern I heard was that (the previous design) wasn’t representative of West Berkeley,” said Johnson. The new version, he said, “is more eclectic and more free-form in the way we have handled the massing.” 

“I’m frankly amazed,” said Bob Allen, DRC chair and a ZAB member and architect himself. “I didn’t think I’d see a project here I was going to get excited about. I think it’s terrific.” 

“It’s handsome, exciting, playful,” said architect Burton Edwards, a DRC member and one of two representatives from the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). 

“I agree,” said the DRC’s landscape architect Charles McCulloch. “It’s really great.” 

“I also was pleasantly surprised,” said Carrie Olson, the LPC’s other representative to design review. 

The only qualms from members concerned the addition of a functionless tower on one of the structures, an example of what Olson called false historicism. David Snippen, the Civic Arts Commission representative to the DRC agreed, though he too had praise for the overall concept. 

The loudest sour notes came during the public comment period came from Adolfo Cabral and Sarah Satterlee. 

Cabral, a member of the West Berkeley Project Area Commission, faulted the city for considering a primarily residential project ”when the use is not even legal.” Cabral also said that the plans fail to carry through the historic character of the station. 

Satterlee and other activists who created West Berkeley’s only landmarked historic district a block south of the project—the Sisterna Historic District 106—have criticized the plans as out of scale and inappropriate for the neighborhood and with creating the potential for traffic, parking and other problems.  

The site contains another one-time landmark, the building at the southeast corner of the lot that houses Celia’s Mexican Restaurant. 

A structure of merit designation bestowed on that building by the LPC was subsequently overturned by the City Council. 

 

1885 University 

Plans for this 148-apartment five-story residential-over-commercial structure, variously known as the Kragen Auto Part project (for the retailer now located at the site( and the Trader Joe’s building (for the prospective major ground floor tenant) have been a constant lightning rod for criticism by residential neighbors. 

Located at the corner of University and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, the site faces two major thoroughfares, with a residential street, Berkeley Way, immediately behind to the north. 

Developers Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald stepped the structure back on the northwest side in response to criticism that the original plans would literally overshadow nearby homes, and propose a traffic barrier near the western edge on the property on Berkeley Way. 

The barrier was a response to complaints from neighbors on Berkeley Way and Grant Street that locating the entrance to the building’s commercial parking lot on Berkeley Way would create a major increase in traffic and crowd already scarce parking slots on their streets. 

While some neighbors said they were pleased with the changes, others said they weren’t enough. 

And while DRC members had some criticism of details of the plans, the overall scheme proved much to their liking—save for Carrie Olson, who said, “I think we’ve all been steam-rolled.” 

But DRC approved the designs, with minor changes, and sent them on the ZAB, which will conducted a public hearing Nov. 9. 

 

2701 Shattuck 

Another project to win DRC approval was the five-floor mixed-use condominium complex planned for 2701 Shattuck Ave. 

The owner is the Choyce Family Trust, the creation of Rev. Gordon Choyce Sr., pastor of the Missionary Church of God in Christ and head of low-income housing builder Jubilee Restoration. 

The original plans for 2701 Shattuck, a for-profit project, were rejected by DRC and ZAB, going through multiple changes before the version presented Thursday. The building approved Thursday is a major change from the original plans, which called for a nondescript boxy structure. 

After going through multiple redesigns and rejections, the structure DRC approved resembles an ornate, turn-of-the-last century creation—adorned with what project spokesperson Krystelle Guzman called “a tremendous amount of detail.” 

But the detail was too much for DRC member, who ordered a scaling back, along with changes to the facade along Derby Street, which marks the property’s northern boundary. 

The resulting structure will still present perhaps the most complex facade of anything built in the city in recent years. 

“We’re going to make it a landmark building, a classical turn-of-the century apartment building,” said architect Todd Jersey. “I’m excited about the building.” 

DRC members ordered Jersey to abandon the ornate color stencil paintings of flowers planned for the exterior and simplify the ornate balcony railings. But the approved design still contains multiple elevations, both vertical and horizontal. 

 

2929 Ashby 

The committee got its first look at developer/realtor John Gordon’s plans for his building at 2929 Ashby Ave., just east of the College Avenue intersection in the Elmwood Business Improvement District. 

Partly vacant, the structure features a variety of storefronts and uses, including a garage and Dream Fluff Donuts. 

Gordon told DRC he plans to unify the front architecturally, with final plans to be determined by the number of eventual tenants, which he said could range from one to seven. 

The developer said he had run into some conflicts with other Elmwood merchants, “who want us to solve all the parking problems in the neighborhood.” 

Rather than adding a underground parking lot some merchants want, Gordon’s plans from architect Jim Novosel call for a waiver from providing three parking spaces. 

Gordon said he also faced the problem of finding tenants who would fit in with the quota system the city has in place in the district. 

Principal Planner Debra Sanderson urged the DRC to approve the project in a way that allowed Gordon the flexibility to alter the frontage according to the number of final tenants. 

“In this case, we are trying to give some flexibility as if it were a new building,” she said. 

DRC will give the plans more review before acting. 

 

2076 Ashby 

Because of a feud with the owner of a neighboring gas station owner, developer Athan Magannas was forced to resort to a middle-of-the-night, descent-from-the-rooftop stucco application rather than apply the siding in his original plans. 

Magannas brought the project to DRC for retroactive approval of the change, which he got. But members didn’t like other things they saw, including the colors he chose and the fact that utility meters were out in the open instead of in a closed closet as had been the case in the plans they had approved earlier. 

Magannas said the colors had been approved by a city planning staffer, now on maternity leave. 

DRC members approved the stucco, held back on the color schemes till a check could be made with the staff member and ordered the meters enclosed. 

 

Image: An artist’s rendering shows architect David Johnson’s plans for a 171-unit apartment and retail complex at 700 University Ave., which won high praise from the Design Review Committee Thursday. Plans call for the project to carry the Fourth Street retail shopping area south of the University Avenue overcrossing. This view looks west at the project from near the corner of Fourth Street and University.  


Commission Investigates Push Poll Against Measure J

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday October 24, 2006

The Fair Campaign Practices Commission decided on Thursday that it will begin an investigation of the anonymous phone poll that was conducted throughout Berkeley in July 2006. 

Roger Marquis, who serves as treasurer of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance 2006 Update PAC-LPO 2006, had complained to the FCPC on Oct. 11 that reportable expenditures had been made for the anonymous telephone poll against Measure J but that no committee had disclosed the expenditures on the first pre-election statement. 

According to Marquis’ complaint, the calling operators had indicated that they worked for Communications Center, Inc., a 19-year-old polling firm with calling centers in Washington, D.C., Spokane, Wash., and Lakeland, Fl.  

Caller ID had identified the calls made to Berkeley residents to be coming from the Spokane area code. 

The complaint stated that several people, including Berkeley resident Sharon Hudson, had received calls from CCI and on recording one or more of the questions had concluded that it had been a “push poll” designed both to gather information and campaign against Measure J, the Landmark Preservation Ordinance Initiative. 

When CCI operations manager Judy Goodrich was contacted by the Daily Planet to verify this information and request the name of the person or organization who had purchased this poll, she acknowledged that her firm was conducting the poll but refrained from revealing their client’s name. 

During public comment, Marquis noted that this particular activity/expenditure should have been reported by the Oct. 5 filing deadline as per BERA and FCPC regulations but that as of Oct. 11 no entity had submitted the required campaign finance documentation. 

“I believe this is a violation of both the city and state election law and request that BERA and/or the FCPC investigate the matter,” he said.  

Kristy van Herick, FCPC secretary and staff counsel, said that no staff investigation had been carried out. She also said that so far the only investigation on the issue had been carried out by the Daily Planet, and that the staff did not have much to add to that. 

Marquis said that push polls had been conducted in the past by Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy, Mayor Tom Bates and former mayor Shirley Dean and that the Berkeley School District had also conducted polls to judge the support for certain school taxes. 

“What is unusual about the July push poll is that no one is disclosing who is doing it,” he said. 

FCPC chair Eric Weaver pointed out that if hiring an out-of-state polling company helped people to hide what they were doing, this could turn into a tremendous loophole for fair campaign practices.  

Commissioner John Denvir suggested that it might be a good idea to call up people who could have possibly benefited from this poll and ask them point blank if they were behind it. 

“If we ask them directly, then they might be reluctant to say no,” he said.  

Weaver stressed that it was important for the commission not to take names from the Daily Planet and turn into an investigative arm for the newspaper.  

“If Patrick Kennedy has made a donation, he should be asked. If Tom Bates has opposed it, he should be asked. But we shouldn’t go fishing for every name in the paper,” he said.  

Denvir replied that there was nothing wrong with asking people questions to get to the bottom of the matter and that he assumed people would cooperate.  

In the end, the board unanimously passed a motion to direct the staff to carry out an investigation which would involve questioning both opponents and proponents of Measure J, as well as those who were on the Chamber of Commerce PAC list. If nothing is disclosed, then staff would call up CCI and ask them to disclose the name of the party or organization who had asked them to carry out the poll, and if CCI refused to do so, FCPC would come back to them with a subpoena. 

The commission also said that the Oct. 26 election filings would be looked at to see whether anyone listed the polling expenditures on them, although these expenditures should have been reported in the first filing itself. 

 

 

 

 

 


Stadium Landmarking in Peril as UC Prepares for Key Vote

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Why is city staff pushing to overturn landmark status for UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium in the final weeks before UC Regents meet to decide the fate of the historic coliseum? 

“That’s a good question,” said John English, the retired planner who drafted the application approved by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). 

City Councilmembers will consider overturning the designation at tonight’s meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

While the memorandum from Planning Manager Mark Rhoades doesn’t call for permanent rejection of the landmark designation, it does call for overturning the version passed by the LPC June 1 until a new version can be drafted. 

That would leave the stadium without a formal landmark designation at the very time the University of California Regents are scheduled to vote on a quarter-billion project for redeveloping the stadium and adjacent properties. 

Regents are scheduled to meet at UCLA Nov. 15-16, where they are expected to approve the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects. If the council does as Rhoades recommends, regents would be able to act with no designations in place. 

English also drafted another, similar application for a national designation, but that application is pending. 

The request to overturn the designation came in a July 11 email from UC Berkeley Director of Community Relations Irene Hegarty, sent at 4:11 p.m., less than an hour before the close of the appeal period. 

Hegarty charged the city-approved designation “carries forward many misrepresentations” not present in English’s subsequent application for national landmark status. 

English said that he met with a city planning staff member in a meeting in which no changes were advocated, but consisting instead of preparation of an account of things which could be changed. 

Rhoades’ account, English said, misrepresents the meeting “by making it sound like I’m advocating for the changes.” 

If the council overturns the designation and sends it back to the LPC, “it would probably take a couple of months before the commission could act,” said commission Secretary Janet Homrighausen. 

“Action would require a public hearing, and it’s now too close to the commission’s Nov. 2 meeting to give the public notice” required before a hearing, she said. “The earliest they could act would be the Dec. 7 meeting.” 

With action by the keeper of the National Register of Historic Places some months away, the stadium will not appear as a designated local, state or federal landmark—which English says could potentially pave the way for actions by the regents that might not be possible were a designation in place. 

“It’s a gray area,” said Homrighausen. City action would be forestalled because an application was pending, but that might not be binding on another, independent agency, she said. 

While the university contends it wants the changes “for scholarly reasons,” English said, he suspects the real reasons might be different and related to the upcoming regents meeting. 

“The differences between the two versions are largely subjective,” English said, “and not matters of objective fact.” 

Neither federal law nor the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Ordinance requires the two to read identically, he said. 

English said a preferable alternative would be for the council to leave the current designation in place and refer the differences back to the LPC for review and future action. 

The university plans a quarter-billion-dollar building project at and around the stadium, including a 132,500-square-foot Student Athlete High Performance Center immediately west of the stadium, installation of a press box and luxury sky boxes above the stadium rim, a 325,000-square-foot multi-level underground parking garage northwest of the stadium and a new 186,000-square-foot building that would join offices and functions of the university’s law and business schools. 

The city has already threatened legal action challenging the project’s environmental impact report (EIR) for failing to give adequate consideration of the massive changes the construction and its aftermath could bring to the surrounding city. 

Planning Director Dan Marks wrote a blistering 54-page critique of the EIR, which he characterized as fundamentally flawed, and councilmembers voted Sept. 26 to hire an attorney to pursue action.


Council Considers Gaia, Harrison Project, Solar Panel Fees

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Questions on whether a lecture on religion is a cultural use of the Gaia Building and whether Sunday church services are considered culture will be among the issues facing the City Council at tonight’s (Tuesday) meeting. 

The questions arose because builder Patrick Kennedy was allowed to build the mixed-use housing-cultural development at 2116 Allston Way two stories higher than the city would have otherwise permitted, in return for providing dedicated cultural uses in the first two stories of the building. 

Also on the council agenda are the proper housing of dogs left outside, the proposed housing-retail project at Harrison Street and San Pablo Avenue, waiving solar panel permit fees and considering building permits for a house on Miller Avenue. 

Anna de Leon, owner of Anna’s Jazz Island, located in the Gaia Building, said she doesn’t have a problem with religious forums. But she questions whether an Oct. 21 lecture on theology and Christ Church’s Sunday services should be deemed cultural uses of the building. 

The lecture addressed the issues, “Can science disprove the existence of God? Is there a conflict between mainstream science and Christianity?” 

Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin told the Daily Planet that lectures such as the Oct. 21 event are deemed cultural events, but, she said, “Sunday morning services are not cultural.”  

Similarly, in an Oct. 18 letter, de Leon wrote to the council: “Although the Christ Church of Berkeley continues to use the theater, this religious assembly use, clearly defined in our zoning ordinance, is not an approved [cultural] use.”  

In a phone message to the Planet, Kennedy argued, however: “I don’t think there is a bright line between something that is cultural and spiritual, nor would I think there’s a reason to make that distinction.” 

He further contended that the church services are a boon to the city, bringing 150 people downtown who would not otherwise be there.  

The issue has come to the City Council several times over the last few months and been delayed each time. At today’s meeting, staff will ask the council to approve a new proposal by Kennedy to make cultural use a priority, with most weekend dates reserved for cultural use and one-third of the days of the year scheduled for cultural use. 

 

Housing dogs 

Animal control officers often get calls from people concerned about conditions in which dogs are left outdoors. But since there are no clear standards for housing and feeding these pets, animal control can do little. So the Citizens Humane Commission is asking the City Council to approve an ordinance which states the kind of shelter a dog must have if kept outside, as well as the food and water that must be accessible to the animal.  

Housing people: Harrison and San Pablo project 

The proposed five-story, 27-unit project of housing above retail will be back on the table for discussion today. Last week the developer and the neighbors who had appealed the zoning board’s approval of the project, agreed, in concept, on a modified project. They will take next steps to formalize the agreement today. 

 

In other business, the council will consider: 

• Waiving permit fees on solar panels. This item, introduced by Councilmember Dona Spring, is intended to encourage use of solar electricity in Berkeley. Waiving the fees will cost the city about $20,000 annually, according to City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

• Affirming or overturning the zoning board’s approval of a large dwelling at 1017 Miller Ave., in the North Berkeley hills. Sixteen neighbors have appealed the zoning board’s approval of the project, saying it obstructs their views, is not compatible with the neighborhood and does not protect trees. 

• Opposing new Homeland Security rules that would hold employers liable for violating immigration law if they continue employment of workers with letters from the Social Security Administration saying their Social Security numbers don’t match the names or numbers they have on file. Under current law, the employer simply provides the worker with the “no match” letter. 

“The new rule would create burdensome, inappropriate, and unclear new requirements for employers by forcing them to act as agents of the federal government to enforce immigration law,” says the council item authored by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

 

 


Planning Commission Tackles Creeks Again

By Richard Brenneman
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Once again, Berkeley’s Planning Commission will look at the Creeks Ordinance this week. 

That controversial bit of legislation, ordered by the City Council to handle legal questions surrounding the city’s miles of above-ground and buried waterways, goes back before the commission again Wednesday night. 

Commissioners considered the ordinance during its last session two weeks ago but were unable to reach consensus on a final version. 

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

 


Peralta Candidates Get Facts Wrong on Key Issues

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday October 24, 2006

With two weeks to go in the hotly contested Area 7 Peralta Trustee race, two predominant issues have emerged. 

The first is over procedures and priorities for spending the Peralta Community College District’s recently passed Measure A facilities bond. The second is over the aborted proposal by Oakland developer Alan Dones to put together a development plan for Peralta administration and certain Laney College lands. 

In both of these issues, both two-term incumbent Alona Clifton and her challenger, Abel Guillen, appear to have gotten significant facts wrong. 

The West Oakland/North Oakland-based area 7 also includes the Lake Merritt and Chinatown areas, as well as small portions extending into East Oakland to 14th Avenue. Laney College is the only Peralta college within its boundaries. 

Last June, area voters overwhelmingly passed Peralta’s facilities bond Measure A, giving the district authority to issue $390 million in bonds to construct and upgrade facilities at the district’s four colleges, as well as the district’s project at the Alameda Air Facility, the district headquarters and districtwide services and projects. 

At candidate forums at Laney College and at Oakland City Hall earlier this month, Guillen questioned how that bond money will be spent, and said that the community and Peralta staff and students should be brought in to set priorities. 

At the Oct. 17 Laney College candidates forum, where questions came directly from an audience made up primarily of Laney faculty, staff, and students, Guillen said that Peralta “doesn’t have a plan for the spending of that bond money, just a laundry list of projects.” He added that even though the district is in the process of setting up an oversight committee to oversee the spending of the Measure A monies, “the oversight committee doesn’t have the power it should have. It doesn’t set priorities. I want to involve students to decide where that money goes.” 

At the Oct. 13 League of Women Voters forum at Oakland City Hall, where questions were screened by the League leadership, Guillen was more specific, saying that “before we spend that [Measure A bond] money I want to conduct an open community process where we invite alumni, students, staff, and community members to ask them what is their vision for the community college district and let them have some input into the decision-making of how we spend that $390 million.” 

In fact, other than deciding which projects go first, neither the Peralta Board of Trustees, the chancellor’s office, or the Measure A Oversight Committee has any discretion in deciding where the Measure A bond money is spent. 

Unlike past Peralta bond measures, Measure A was passed under the authority of California’s Proposition 39, passed by voters in 2000, which requires that projects using the bond money be limited to those projects listed in the ballot language and approved by voters. 

And, in fact, as it appeared on the June ballot, Peralta’s Measure A listed the projects for which the bond money must be spent. In addition, Proposition 39 sets up the state requirements for oversight committees for bond measures, like Measure A, set up under its authority, limiting them to reviewing actions approved or taken by the district trustees or administration, and charged only with making sure that the bond money spent is in conformance with the projects listed on the ballot. Based on the Proposition 39 guidelines, the seven-member Measure A Committee will consist of one representative apiece of local business, senior citizens, and taxpayers organizations, one enrolled student, one individual active in an organization supporting the community college district, and two members selected at-large. All of the members will be recommended by the chancellor and approved by the trustees. 

But despite the fact that she voted along with other trustees to approve the Measure A projects before they were put on the June ballot, Clifton appeared unaware at the Laney forum how the bond projects had been divided. 

After Laney students and faculty members asked repeated questions indicating they felt Laney had been shortchanged in Peralta’s facilities budget, Clifton gave the impression that the Measure A bond money had to be spread evenly across the district’s four colleges. 

“We have to work on the basis of an economy of scale,” Clifton said. “The board has the responsibility of making sure that all colleges operate at the same level. I appreciate the fact that Laney wants the lion’s share, but we have to have equity in our spending practices. We have to work on behalf of all of the colleges.” 

In fact, Laney is scheduled to get the lion’s share of the Measure A bond expenditures. 

Last summer, in a list of $518.6 million in Measure A projected capital improvement projects (the figure included the $390 Measure A bond money plus matching state and federal funds), the district noted that 44.5 percent of the amount ($234.9 million) would go towards Laney building renovation and modernization projects, including $22 million for the Administration Building, $22 million for the college library, $22 million for the student center, $15 million for the college theater, and expenditures between $15 million and $27 million for the college’s A, B, F and G buildings. 

Berkeley City College, on the other hand, will get less than 1 percent of Measure A facilities funds, with Merritt and the College of Alameda getting 28.2 percent and 16.5 percent, respectively. 

During the campaign for Measure A last June, Peralta Chief Financial Office Tom Smith justified the project expenditures, saying that Berkeley City College (formerly Vista College) had taken the bulk of Peralta’s previous construction bond money in the building of the college’s new downtown facilities, and that Laney had the district’s oldest facilities, with the greatest need for renovation. 

Peralta has spread the bond measure money evenly in its first round of expenditures, scheduling roughly $50 million apiece for projects at Laney, Merritt, and the College of Alameda in its recently-released five-year construction plan. That money includes funds still left over from Measure E, the construction bond measure passed by local voters in 2000 under the pre-Proposition 39 bond allocation rules. 

In both the League of Women Voters and Laney College debates, challenger Guillen said it was the proposed 2004-05 Alan Dones deal that first gave him the idea of running for the trustee board against Clifton. 

“The reason I got involved in this election was that I was opposed to the sale of nine acres of land by the Peralta Colleges,” he said at both candidate forums. 

The reference was to the controversial exclusive negotiating agreement with Oakland developer Alan Dones, which was authorized by the board of trustees in November of 2004 and that was voluntarily withdrawn by Dones himself in May in 2005 of the next year after intense media criticism and heavy lobbying against the proposal by Laney faculty and students. 

The Dones proposal, however, never spelled out the sale of any Peralta administrative or Laney College property, but only involved authorizing Dones to present a proposal for the development of that property. Both the board and the office of Chancellor Elihu Harris reserved the right to approve or disapprove the actual development proposal, which was never produced by Dones. 

“In the eight years I have been on the board, there has never been a proposal before the board to sell any educational land,” Clifton said at the League of Women Voters forum. “The proposal was only for district administrative land and for the [Laney College] parking lot next to [the Peralta administrative headquarters].” 

However, although Dones eventually indicated that he was only interested in preparing a development proposal for the lands that Clifton indicated, the original November 2004 agreement—for which Clifton voted—was ambiguous about which Laney lands it referred to, and Dones himself offered various interpretations at various times. At the November 2004 board meeting he indicated that he would prepare a proposal for the development of the Laney College athletic fields, but after fierce opposition emerged to that idea, Dones backed off, saying that he had been misinterpreted, and only wanted to ehance the athletic field land for athletic uses. Under the authority of the exclusive negotiating agreement, Dones met with Laney college faculty, staff, and students in February of 2005, urging them at one point to call for the delay of the pending construction of the Laney Art Annex so that the land could be included in Dones’ development plans. Laney representatives present at that meeting refused to call for such a delay, and the Art Annex was eventually built, completed in the summer of 2006. 

For his part, at the League of Women Voters debate, challenger Guillen criticized the board procedure under which the Dones contract negotiations were originally authorized. The item had been on the agenda as an information item, which would not have resulted in action, but trustees voted at the November 2004 meeting to move it to an action item and immediately voted to approve the Dones negotiation agreement. 

Clifton defended that decision, saying that it had been “passed under the rules of the board [that were in existence] at that time.” 

Guillen said that if elected, he “won’t be a proponent of switching an informational item to an action item where the public didn’t even know they had the chance of coming to speak on an item. That’s the policy of the board. I would change that policy.” 

Trustees have already instituted that reform, changing Peralta board meeting policy so that action cannot be taken on information only items. 

 


Berkeley High Beat: Spirit Week at Berkeley High

By Rio Bauce and Jacob Horn
Tuesday October 24, 2006

If you were in Downtown Berkeley last week, you may have seen Berkeley High School students dressed in red and gold clothing or as celebrities and said to yourself “What’s going on?”  

Every year, Berkeley High School (BHS) students of all ages and grades come together and unite to celebrate one thing: school spirit. The week was widely successful, despite the last-minute commotion with the departure of the student activities director. 

“I think it’s been wonderful,” commented BHS Principal Jim Slemp. “Students have used great judgment. It was perfect from my point of view.”  

To prevent disorderly conduct which plagued the celebration in past years, BHS Vice Principal Pasquale Scuderi, prior to the events, sent out an e-mail detailing the guidelines for the week: 

1) Any student engaged in hazing, vandalism, or physical or verbal abuse of another student will be suspended. 

2) Students found intoxicated or in possession of any illegal or controlled substance will be suspended. 

3) Students inappropriately dressed will be sent home (too revealing, drug imagery, profane slogans, etc.). 

4) No boom boxes or sound systems may be used without administrative clearance. 

5) The staff encourages all students to enjoy spirit week and to celebrate in a safe and positive manner.  

Some students had a different take on the student conduct during the week, in sharp contrast to Slemp. 

“I don’t think it’s a huge issue,” said an anonymous junior, “but I felt a little unsafe when there were some kids around me drinking and getting high. The halls smelled like alcohol and marijuana.” 

For the past month, student government helped plan activities for the week and voted to establish the theme for each day. The days were: Superheros & Villains Day (Monday), Celebrity Day (Tuesday), Western Day (Wednesday), 80’s Day for seniors and Pajama Day for all other classes (Thursday), and Red & Gold Day (Friday). 

“We decided on the days collectively as a group,” said Connie Chan, BHS junior and ASB Club Commissioner. “After Ms. McKnight-Johnson left, the seniors in leadership changed the days, going against the vote of all of leadership. Thursday was intended to be Celebrity Day for underclassmen and Tuesday was supposed to be Tropical Day. They didn’t want to be upstaged by underclassmen.” 

Many students were dissatisfied with the themes, which were very different from previous years. However, students still found a way to celebrate regardless of the lackluster themes.  

“I didn’t think they were particularly good,” said Ilan Gonzalez, BHS junior, “especially Celebrity Day. They were very unimaginative in my opinion.” 

Some students even made their own days. For example, some underclassmen who attended Willard Middle School dressed up in Willard paraphernalia on Thursday. Some seniors dressed up as hicks on Western Day. 

Before Slemp’s arrival, spirit week had been cancelled due to a combination of disorganization and unorderly behavior. Slemp felt that it was important to happen again. 

“I tried to make it happen again,” remarked Slemp,”because it was very important for the students. Mostly all students in all different social groups were involved in their own way [this year]. That was what was really cool.” 

As exemplified in previous years, Red & Gold Day had the biggest student showing. After school, an optional spirit rally, held in the Donahue Gym, provided most of the excitement for the week. 

During the rally, each class elected a Homecoming King, Queen, Dutchess, and Duke to represent them. Additionally, each class choreographed a unique dance to urge on their class to show school spirit. 

“The rally went really well,” said Maddie Tien, BHS sophmore. “It was so much fun. Everyone was really spirited and all the dances were amazing. Best day all year.” 

Many students in the class of 2009 were upset that their class’ dance performance was disqualified, alleging that the class of 2010 “stole” their dance. 

“The freshmen stole our dance and won’t admit it,” said Geoff Mahley, BHS sophomore. “Because of that, we got disqualified too. This is a perfect example of how immature this year’s freshmen are.” 

All in all, despite the minor complications, the overall attitude of the students was positive, and they are hoping that the [BHS] administration will continue the celebrations next year.  

“I was blown away by the enthusiasm of the students to participate during the week” said BHS senior Peter Angell. “I hope that the administration will continue Spirit Week in the future.” 

 


Berkeley City Council Candidate Statements: District 1: Linda Maio

By Linda Maio
Tuesday October 24, 2006

We love our special city, and for good reason. Berkeley is a remarkable place, admired and even envied by people around the globe. We of course want it to keep it at its best and work to make it even better. 

When I raised my children here as a single parent, Berkeley was a quieter place. Artists, writers, musicians, bookstore and grocery clerks, teachers and bus drivers could find affordable places to live. Traffic seemed manageable. Lives were slower and people seemed less pressured. 

It’s not merely nostalgic to remind ourselves of such values, of those qualities of life that we once took for granted. I have learned in my work on the Council that most of my neighbors long to strengthen those values of neighborhood and community life.  

I encounter this desire at every community meeting I hold in my district. I believe we are moving in that direction, and I intend to continue doing all I can to accelerate that movement, working with other City officials and staff, residents, community leaders, and businesses to achieve the highest possible quality of life for everyone who lives in our city.  

Berkeley now has fewer residents than it had 20 or 30 years ago, but we have more and faster cars. How can we reduce our overwhelming traffic volumes? In problem-solving with residents, I approach traffic impacts with four strategies. One offers immediate improvement while the others are longer-term: 1.traffic calming, 2. securing affordable housing for our workforce so people don’t have to commute into Berkeley, 3. encouraging people to use alternatives to cars, and 4. lobbying at regional and state levels for better public transit.  

We discuss all four strategies at our neighborhood meetings, but mostly we focus on traffic calming through street design and installations that slow traffic. We’ve had some solid successes 

throughout the district. Working together, I’m confident there are many more to come. 

Berkeley is lucky to have savvy residents who are committed to careful planning and who follow through with action. My work with residents and City staff has been among my most gratifying efforts because we see significant improvements relatively quickly. 

Because Berkeley has many more jobs than housing units, a longer-term traffic-reduction strategy requires that we secure permanently affordable housing for our workforce, helping address our jobs/housing imbalance. Infill housing in a built-out city like Berkeley must be very carefully planned and sited, to ensure that it respects adjoining neighborhoods. On the major transit corridor a half block from my home, several relatively dense housing structures have been constructed in recent years. Some are assets to their neighborhoods. Some, like the bulky and uninspired building at Acton and University (which I opposed, and which was approved by former Mayor Dean and not by Mayor Bates), looms over adjacent homes, reminding us 

how important it is to insist on architectural quality and respect for neighbors. 

Because District One includes an industrial sector, we have air quality issues. Residents have frequently been subjected to unpleasant industrial odors. This past year, responding to community complaints, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District identified one of three plants operated here by Pacific Steel Casting as the major odor source. Relatively idle for many years, this plant recently increased production. But, amazingly, until this month it had no pollution controls. Finally responding to pressure from myself, the Mayor, and the community, the company is currently testing a four-million-dollar carbon adsorption system, which should measurably reduce odors and other emissions. At my urging, the City has contracted with an independent consultant to provide expert scientific advice, and the Air District will conduct 

ambient air monitoring and analysis. Mayor Bates’ appointment to the Air District board will undoubtedly strengthen our efforts to press for additional improvements. We must insist that Berkeley industry meet the strictest air quality standards. 

I treasure Berkeley’s historical heritage and will fight to preserve it. Because our landmarks process is flawed and exposes Berkeley to litigation, a cross-section of strong landmark advocates has carefully crafted the needed changes, with the Mayor, to ensure that our landmarking process meets state requirements while fully protecting our historic resources. Measure J on the ballot won’t provide the needed legal safeguards and undercuts those needed changes. That’s why I oppose it. 

It has been a privilege to serve on the Council. If re-elected, I will continue to work diligently and actively on my City’s behalf. I will continue to advocate for securing affordable housing, particularly for our workforce, for improving our neighborhoods, balancing the budget, strengthening our economy, and focusing the City’s efforts on our youth. As a strong 

environmentalist, I will do all I can to advance Berkeley’s pioneering role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting environmental education, and developing renewable energy sources. 

 

 


Berkeley City Council Candidate Statements: District 1: Merrilie Mitchell

By Merrilie Mitchell
Tuesday October 24, 2006

When I was a little girl, my mom would stop traffic when ducks were crossing the road. No one else seemed to do such things then, but in time, I too became a crosser of ducklings, turtles, and a doer of deeds needing doing.  

Now, having lived in Berkeley for many years, I’m considering the problems of problem solving in our unique city. I understand too much to shrug and say, “You can’t change City Hall!” We must!  

To me our city’s “Powers that Be” are a lot like those small fishes that swim together pretending to be one big, rather intimidating fish. Amazingly they maintain form when changing direction, and move on, baffling all with their performance. But what if the leader makes a mistake?  

Wouldn’t it be great if little fishes of a different perspective, could warn of trouble, and not just helplessly go through motions?  

In Berkeley we have many solvable problems that are getting worse! Here are examples from the heart of our city. 

Our Downtown is filthy and dangerous. It needs to be sparkling clean and safe for all of us. We have the resources to clean it up and we have money for bike and walking cops who help keep the peace. But the BPD has been understaffed with shrinking numbers of sworn officers especially since Tom Bates became Mayor.  

A way to pay for public safety, besides the usual sources of general fund and grant monies, is with $2 million set aside for overtime (at time and a half.) This money should be used instead for hiring needed officers. Overtime means tired, easily stressed- officers, not what we need for a safe, peaceful and happy city!  

Our Mayor, whose slogan is “Berkeley at it’s Best!” walks to work through the downtown and sees how filthy, littered and scary it is there, but does not fix the problems. His brewing plans include “economic development,” Bus Rapid Transit, and Transportation Services Fees, which hurt business or discourage businesses we need. It seems that Bates and his associations are deliberately trying to destroy our historic downtown to actively promote redevelopment, transit villages, and highrises. 

We need satellite parking and a shopper shuttle for downtown. Our surface parking lots at Oxford/ Alston and Berkeley Way/ west of Shattuck belong to the city and are perfect for satellite parking. But the Mayor and current city council majority are using and planning development on these lots for their purposes. They tell us to walk or take a bus. As a biker, I know how disheartening it can be to bike/ walk/ bus downtown through polluted air and noise and how hard it is to carry items and children. Shopping and visiting would be fun on a shoppers’ shuttle. But the Mayor and company plans make Downtown noisier, filthier, and darker/colder. “Berkeley at it’s Best!” 

Another problem downtown is that the environment isn’t good for our High School student’s lunch. It is dangerous, with open drug use, and not enough bike and traffic cops. But the High School provides only 300 meals for 3,000 students!  

We could close the block of Allston Way to Civic Center Park during lunchtime. Favorite healthy foods could be delivered by local businesses and a fruit and healthy snack stand, smoothie-maker, healthy ice cream and frozen fruit/ yogurt bars be provided. The School District should have available for all students at reduced cost, a version of the O’Malley lunch, in a recent Berkeley Daily Planet Editorial-sandwich, fruit, milk, and a healthier dessert. Note, our teenagers are not given dessert at Berkeley High but research shows a little sugar is calming and helps concentration! 

Many enjoyable activities should be available for our youngsters at lunchtime. Workout in the YMCA, classes at Vista College that count toward a degree or job training, bike touring, jogging, and rollerblading on slow street and greenways, auto shop, mural painting and restoration, Curves workout/ with singing performance, etc. 

Folks may wonder why I write about Mayor Bates and not Linda Maio, our 14-year incumbent in District 1. The reason is that Linda is a facilitator for Bates and Linda was a friend of mine. She had been a wonderful friend. But it took about 10 years of bending her into form before BCA would allow her to run on their ticket for City Council. Even then they were all controlling and would sometimes threaten to run Boona Cheema, of BOSS (Berkeley-Oakland Support Systems) for Linda’s seat if she didn’t tow the Party line. I loved the old Linda before the bending process. 

BCA (Berkeley Citizens Action) has a chilling effect on democratic participation in other ways. A good example occurred when a prominent commissioner came to a Berkeley Independents meeting way back when, seeking endorsement for City Council. She was impressive, down to earth, but as we were about to vote the door opened and an activist named Pancoast rushed in. He said, “She lied to us, and she’ll lie to you!” He explained that the candidate had screened with BCA and their process included agreement that one not run for office unless chosen by BCA. Poor woman! What was done to her, and many others, is like pinning a live butterfly by a wing, to my thinking. It should be a violation of our democratic rights because it discourages candidates, and encourages a ruling political machine, power by few, and all that goes with that. 

My website, in progress, is merrilie.org.  


Berkeley City Council Candidate Statements: Disctrict 8: Jason Overman

By Jason Overman
Tuesday October 24, 2006

I’m honored that a diverse coalition of senior citizens, environmentalists, neighborhood leaders, students, tenants, and homeowners asked me to give our community a viable alternative to the out-of-step District 8 Councilmember in this election. 

As the only candidate in this race to earn the endorsement of The Democratic Party and this newspaper, The Berkeley Daily Planet, I’m grateful to have widespread support from all segments of our community, including the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council; Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA); the Berkeley Progressive Coalition; a host of local democratic clubs; Councilmembers Max Anderson, Dona Spring, and Kriss Worthington; neighborhood leaders like former Panoramic Hill Neighborhood Association President Janice Thomas; and an endless list of student leaders. 

But this campaign isn’t about me; it’s about our efforts together to defend our community’s values—values that haven’t been upheld by our Councilmember. 

 

Defending our values 

I was shocked when the incumbent was the only Councilmember who voted against a Council resolution that opposed Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ridiculous, wasteful, and blatantly anti-union Special Election. It’s no wonder the Democratic Party endorses my candidacy in this race. 

Throughout our campaign, I’ve heard so many express a clear desire for change from an incumbent so clearly out of step with the mainstream values and priorities of our community. Our campaign is about positive change and defending our values—voters will soon have the opportunity to choose between two vastly different visions for our community. 

Like many, I’ve been deeply troubled by the incumbent’s unapologetic support for the secret, backroom settlement deal with UC. This surreptitious deal completely shut city residents out of the entire process and thwarted genuine democratic government of the voters, resulting in a deal that dumped tons of traffic and pollution into our neighborhoods and increased our tax burden by over $1 million citywide. 

This deal was marked by a cloak of secrecy that I would make illegal. I’ll push to re-negotiate—but this time, in the open air where Councilmembers don’t keep the public away from the bargaining table. 

We deserve positive leadership that that invites the public into the process. But it goes much further—the incumbent’s voting record has been deeply troubling on an entire range of issues. 

 

Protecting our community 

Like many of my neighbors, I was outraged when the incumbent closed down our fire stations for 286 days out of the year and cut 19 positions from the police and fire departments. 

Cutting police and fire resources is not just irresponsible, but cause for great fear among many. After cutting this funding, the incumbent conspicuously proposed creating a “public safety commission.” But we don’t need mere studies and bureaucracy, we need dollars. 

As a Community Service Officer for the police department, I patrolled our neighborhoods and helped keep them safe. I know first-hand just how critical these decisions are.  

Public safety isn’t just some abstract public policy discussion—the police or fire department’s response time can mean the difference between life and death. That’s why my first act in office would push to restore funding he slashed. 

And since disaster preparedness is crucial, why has the incumbent just begun campaigning on this? 

At the same time he was cutting funding for vital public services, he’s made it increasingly difficult to afford living in our community. 

It’s troubling that, by increasing homeowners’ sewer fees, the incumbent voted to increase the tax burden on everyday families. I would do the opposite. 

And to add insult to injury for those not yet able to afford a home, he’s proposed seven specific ways that would increase tenants’ rents. Yet in four years on the Council, he’s refused to put a dime into the affordable housing trust fund from the city’s general fund. As an elected official, I’ve consistently supported affordable housing without allowing inappropriate development; and I’ll continue this strong record. 

I’ll continue to lead the fight against potentially devastating proposals like Measure I, which would allow 500 evictions per year just to give landlords lucrative condo conversions. I’m proud that Mayor Bates, Assemblywoman Hancock, and Councilmember Capitelli have joined us in our opposition to Measure I. Why is my opponent, the District 8 incumbent, not among them? 

In addition to unapologetically supporting the settlement deal that will dump tons of new traffic right into our neighborhoods, the incumbent has taken no steps to ease traffic congestion—simple, concrete things I’ll do as soon as I’m elected. 

For example, we should demand origin-destination studies, reclaim Ashby from Caltrans, and oppose expansion of the Caldecott Tunnel. And let’s stop the cheap talk about pushing UC and major employers to provide a free, traffic-reducing EcoPass—let’s actually do it. It’s not just a quality-of-life issue, but also an environmental one. 

 

A positive new vision 

Our campaign is about a bold vision that shares our community’s values. I’m running to provide leadership that will be stronger on all our issues, that will bring together our diverse community, that will invite everyone back in who has felt left out, and that will provide action that reflects this commitment. 

It’s shameful that in a study released last year, the incumbent had appointed zero African Americans, zero Latinos, one Asian American, and just one student out of his 35 commissioners. He was also the lone vote against supporting the statewide commission on Asian American Affairs. And in addition to neglecting, rejecting, and disrespecting students, he has ignored the concerns of seniors at Redwood Gardens who have been asking to have their bus shelter repaired for years. We deserve leadership that doesn’t just represent a small sliver of the community—because I’d never make senior citizens stand in the rain. 

The incumbent is out of step with our values—and we deserve better. Join The Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO, The Berkeley Daily Planet, and so many others in supporting new leadership that will defend the values of our community, fight for a positive vision that includes everyone, and work tirelessly to resolve the issues that affect us all. www.jasonoverman.com  

 


Berkeley City Council Candidate Statements: District 8: Gordon Wozniak

By Gordon Wozniak
Tuesday October 24, 2006

In 2002 I ran as an independent who could bridge the gap between the two often-warring factions on the City Council. Council meeting were acrimonious and often ran into the wee hours of morning. Under the leadership of Mayor Bates, the City Council has developed a more collegial manner while addressing difficult issues. I am proud to have played an important role in this transformation. 

 

Budget 

During the last four years, the Council has addressed a serious structural budget deficit, due to a combination of increased pension & salary costs and weak business revenues. The Council eliminated a $20 million deficit by implementing a hiring freeze, reducing the City’s workforce by 10 percent, delaying wage increases and raising fees. The workforce reductions were done via normal attrition (7 percent/year) so that no employees were laid off. With stronger revenues, pension costs leveling off and all of the City’s labor contracts up for renewal, we have a unique opportunity to eliminate the City’s structural deficit, decrease its unfunded liabilities ($160 million), and put its finances on a firm footing without resorting to new taxes.  

 

Workers’ Compensation 

Although it is popular to bash the City for its many perceived failings, it has an impressive success story with regard to workplace injuries. When I joined the Council, I was surprised to learn that injury rates of 20 percent/year were not uncommon. These high injury rates cost the City over $6 million a year in workers compensation costs.  

Since I believe that the City has an obligation to provide its employees a safe working environment, I requested the City Council to ask for quarterly reports on Employee Safety and Workers’ Compensation. In addition, the City implemented a safety bonus program, where employees received a year-end bonus, if they met certain safety goals. During the next three years, medical and indemnity claims dropped by a half and a third, respectively. In addition, workers compensation costs have dropped significantly, with projected savings of up to $1 million in the current fiscal year. This is a great success story that the City, its employees, and its citizens should be proud of. 

 

Crime 

In the summer of 2005, I requested that the City Council ask for quarterly crime reports. These quarterly crime reports have been well received by Council. In response to my questioning, the police department has adopted a goal of reducing property crime by 40 percent in the next five years. In addition, the crime maps showed hot spots where the crime rate can be ten times larger than the rate in other parts of the City.  

I believe that all residents of Berkeley deserve a safe environment, free of crime. To make a major reduction in crime in Berkeley, we need to engage the community to come up with innovative solutions. To this end, I have proposed the creation of Public Safety Commission to work cooperatively with the police department on the goal of making all Berkeley neighborhoods safe. Recently, Vince Casalaina, a resident of District 8, put forth an innovative proposal for reducing auto theft in Berkeley (www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/council8/AutoTheft.pdf). The auto theft rate in Berkeley is 50 percent higher than the rate in Alameda County and 100 percent higher than the rate in California. My Office is currently working with the Mayor’s office to implement a pilot auto theft prevention program during the current fiscal year. 

 

Promoting local businesses 

Early in my tenure on the City Council, business in the Elmwood Business District was undergoing hard times. The Avenue Books store closed, Nabolom’s and Ozzie’s announced that they were closing, and there were a number of empty storefronts. Today, the Elmwood has turned around. We have a great new bookstore (Mrs. Dalloway’s), Jeremys has expanded, Nabolom and Ozzie’s have been revitalized and a new ice cream store (Ici) has recently opened. 

During the last two years, my office has worked with the merchants and neighbors to organize semi-annual Elmwood cleanup & beautification days. This summer my office hired a summer intern to recruit local businesses to participate in Caltopia and to promote the Elmwood to 30,000 Cal students. Thousands of students stopped by the booth and sampled pastries from Nabolom, curry dishes from The House of Curry, and beauty products from Body Time. Hundreds of brochures promoting the Elmwood, discount coupons from Elmwood Hardware, and literature from Mrs. Dalloway’s were passed out. Almost 700 students signed up for a raffle with gift certificates donated by Elmwood Merchants. 

 

Improved town/gown relations 

With the advent of the settlement agreement between the City and the University, Town & Gown relations have greatly improved. Currently, my office is helping to implement a pilot program to improve disaster preparedness in the Greek Community, which is especially close to the Hayward fault. In addition, we helped facilitate a pilot program featuring additional trash pickups both before and after games days. I have also proposed that the City and the University work together to extend the AirBears network off campus so that students can access wireless in their residences. Finally, my office worked with the University, the Telegraph business community to help construct a new website: www.telegraphlive.com to promote businesses in the Telegraph area to students. 

 

Communication with constituents 

Each year, my office host’s dozens of community meetings on different topics from traffic to problem properties. We publish a regular electronic newsletter to keep constituents informed on City issues and events. Recently, we have used the Internet as a tool to promote citizen participation in municipal decision-making. In particular, we have worked with KitchenDemocracy (www.kitchendemocracy.org) on local and citywide issues.  

 

Group endorsements: 

Berkeley Fire Fighters Association, Berkeley Democratic Club, and Berkeley Chamber of Commerce 

 

Elected officials: 

California State Senator Don Perata, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, Mayor Tom Bates, Former Mayor Shirley Dean, Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Betty Olds, ASUC Executive Vice President Jason Chu , School Board members Shirley Issel, Nancy Riddle, and Joaquin Rivera 

For a complete list of my 500 endorsers go to: www.wozniakforcouncil.com/ 

 

 

 

 

 


UC Workers, Allies Arrested at Protest for Custodian Wages

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 20, 2006

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.”


Mitchell and Maio Battle for Future of District 1

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Council Candidates Spar in Willard Debate

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Sea Scouts Might Fold After High Court Passes

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday October 20, 2006

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.” 

 


Beier’s Pub Event for Students Draws Attacks and Praise

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday October 20, 2006

“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.”


Compromise Proposed for Harrison Street Development

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Downtown Planners Confront Homeless, Housing Need

By Richard Brenneman
Friday October 20, 2006

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.”


Man Shot at Troubled Oregon Street Residence

By Richard Brenneman
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


BHS Students Attack Officer Trying to Stop Youth Brawl

By Richard Brenneman
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Props. 83, 85 and 90 Seek to Change California Laws

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


State Props. 86, 87 and 88 Look to Use New Taxes

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Upcoming Candidate Events

Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Doubletree Hotel Employees Get New Contract, New Owners

By Judith Scherr
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: Vote Yes on Measure A — Really!

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Mohammed Ali, the iconoclastic boxing champion originally known as Cassius Clay, used to describe his technique this way: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” We’ve tried to take that as our motto for the editorial column of this publication, but evidently we’ve overdone it on the butterfly side. I got an anguished call last week from my old friend the Marxist Tax Accountant, who surprised everyone by becoming the father of twins just about the time the rest of us were seeing our kids off to college.  

“Lies,” he said. “They’re telling lies about Measure A.” He was referring to the pronunciamentos emanating from North East Berkeley (translation: top of the hills) about the school tax measure that’s on the November ballot, which may or may not have been authorized by that area’s homeowners’ association.  

He implored the Planet to endorse Measure A. “We did endorse Measure A already.” I said. “We need a big headline saying Vote YES on Measure A,” he said.  

And to back it up, I got an also-anguished e-mail from another old friend, our erstwhile soccer reporter, a former Washington policy wonk who’s moved back to Berkeley to raise the kids in a place where they could attend excellent public schools. He offered to load me up with statistics for a new editorial that would really knock the socks off opponents.  

Well, a few facts never hurt any argument, so let’s start out with a few good ones not debated by either side: 

Measure A replaces the two expiring parcel taxes: BSEP (from 1994) and Measure B (from 2004) at existing rates. It is neither a new tax nor a tax increase. It extends the expiring BSEP (12-year measure since 1994) and Measure B (two-year BSEP supplemental measure since 2004) for an additional 10 years. 

The Measure A tax rate is the exact sum of the expiring BSEP and Measure B tax rates (22.8 cent per square foot residential; 34.36 cents commercial—square footage means of building, not lot). The “typical” 1,500-square-foot-home owner pays $343 per year (actually closer to $220 since this is a deductible property tax). 

The current BSEP and B account for: 

• About 25 percent of the operating budget of the district.  

• About 30 percent of all classroom teachers. 

• The entire elementary and middle school music and library programs.  

• “Site funds” allocated by parent/staff committees at each school.  

• A small amount for parent outreach, teacher training, and evaluation. 

Measure A continues the same allocations as BSEP and B except that a small capital projects fund was eliminated and replaced with additional teacher training, outreach, and evaluation. 

Opponents’ beefs about the way the Berkeley Unified School District don’t dispute any of these facts. Instead, their criticism of BUSD has taken the form of complaints about outcomes, primarily which ethnic or socioeconomic group is doing well or poorly, and of their suspicions that the extra money raised by local taxes only makes it possible to spend foolishly in other areas, especially for administrators’ salaries. Some of their substantive complaints about the way the district is run have real merit, but they’re devalued by being used to oppose Measure A. Such arguments compare apples and oranges.  

No one seriously questions the notion that Berkeley’s school kids need the items which the extra taxes are supposed to pay for. No one has seriously argued that anyone’s stealing the money, or even that the oversight committee has been lax as regards the use of the extra funds. Very few Berkeley property owners would claim that three hundred dollars a year more or less is crucial to making ends meet.  

Opponents contend that a ten-year term is too long. That’s nonsense: there’s no credible reason to believe that needs will go down instead of up. It didn’t happen during the 12-year term of the original BSEP, and it won’t this time either. Some school districts even make the supplemental taxes they need permanent. Elections are costly, especially when needs don’t change. If Bill Gates decided to bestow a billion dollars on BUSD, any unneeded taxes could be repealed then, but don’t hold your breath waiting for that. 

The only real criticisms Measure A’s opponents can come up with are of management choices regarding allocation of available funds, and, as we’ve said before, a vote on taxes is not the right way to express your opinion on that topic. To use a well-worn metaphor, it’s throwing out the baby with the bath water.  

One more time, clearly: Vote yes on Measure A because the schools simply can’t run without that extra money. There are better ways to offer them management advice.  

And don’t be put off by the shameless attempt of some candidates (not clear which ones) to grab Measure A’s coattails to help their own campaigns. The two likely suspects continue to be Shirley Issel, whose return address was on the mailer which used this tactic, and Tom Bates, whose countenance was plastered all over it. All the other candidates, including Zelda Bronstein, also running for mayor, support Measure A too.  

Absent major scandal (none has been suggested) it seems likely that current school directors Issel and Nancy Riddle will be re-elected. But anyone who’s really unhappy with the way the schools are now being run has the option of voting against one or both incumbents to express their sentiments.  

Among the new candidates, Karen Hemphill seems to have an excellent grasp of the issues which the School Board will face, and useful relevant experience as a African-American parent of a BUSD student. We endorse her candidacy. 

David Baggins, Ph.D., on the other hand, is trying to make a big deal, with absolutely no credible data to support his allegations, of the malign influence of the presence of a finite number of students who don’t have a fixed Berkeley address in the public schools. And voters who dance to his tune are not worrying about students seeping over the border from Rockridge or Kensington.  

Dr. Baggins uses academic double-talk, social-science-speak, to thinly disguise what looks to this one-time English major like either old-fashioned racism or newfangled classism: “A one-third underperforming cohort generates more negative force than intervention can hope to alter. Only half this cohort is predicted from the census to reside in Berkeley.” In other words, if you don’t think your kids are doing well enough in school, blame those trashy Oakland and Hayward kids in their classes. No footnotes for this charge, however. Uh-huh. We recommend that you don’t vote for Baggins. 

Three seats will be filled in this election. If you think that on average the school directors have been doing a good job, you should vote for the incumbents plus Karen Hemphill. If you think they need to be told to make some changes, you can vote for Hemphill and one of the other candidates. If you don’t like what the Baggins campaign stands for, you should cast your protest vote for Norma Harrison, who’s a breath of fresh air, approaching education from an original perspective consistent with her perennial Peace and Freedom Party support at the state level.  

Let’s just make it perfectly clear one more time. If you care about public schools in Berkeley, and everyone should, here are the Planet’s firm endorsements: Yes on Measure A, Karen Hemphill for one school director slot. You’re on your own for the other two seats.  

 


Editorial: Political Parties Aren’t for Everyone at Cal

By Becky O’Malley
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday October 24, 2006

NEBA DEFECTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Effective this week we are former members of the board of directors of the North East Berkeley Association (NEBA). We were deeply disturbed by the inaccuracies in the recent Daily Planet commentary by Eleanor Pepples on behalf of our association. We believe that the vote by the NEBA board to oppose Measure A was based on faulty information, and that the arguments put forward by its president in the NEBA Newsletter and the Daily Planet do not reflect our views or those of the our North East Berkeley Neighborhood. When the NEBA board refused to reconsider its vote this past week or to reconsider faultily presented information, we decided to resign. 

We are writing to express our complete support for Measure A. We agree with its purposes and recognize it as a proper replacement for existing BSEP and Measure B funds. Its allocation of funding is clear. Mechanisms for auditing, oversight, and accountability are built not only into the measure, but are mandated by state Assembly Bill 1200 as administered by the Alameda County Office of Education.  

Berkeley public schools are an important institution in the life and fabric of the City of Berkeley. Over the last five years they have improved dramatically, due to the efforts of a new Superintendent, a less politicized Board, better teacher support and the devoted work of many volunteers. BSEP and Measure B funds have been vitally important to this steady progress and stability. Our schools have depended on the financial support that BSEP and Measure B have provided and that Measure A will continue. 

We still believe that neighborhood associations can provide crucial information on the issues and provide a forum for many points of view.  

Please vote yes on Measure A. Our schools need everyone’s support. 

Ann Plant 

Robert Remiker 

Kathryn Snowden• 

GEORGE BEIER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

OK, so I am not impartial. George Beier is my life partner of almost 18 years. Nevertheless I thought I could add to the dialog by telling you some things about George that you might not know: 

George is kind. He is always the first one to reach out to family and friends in time of need. He also has compassion for those in need in our community. Just ask the folks at Options Recovery Service, where he regularly volunteers, and they will tell you what I mean. 

George loves people. When he comes home from a long trip, he usually tells me the life stories of the people who sat next to him on the plane. And often to my frustration, George is stopping and savoring discussions with strangers, as well as acquaintances, that we happened to encounter in our day-to-day lives. 

George is smart. Whether he is doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, solving a programming bug, or working on a neighborhood plan, he does it all! And I can tell you if you are going to engage him in an argument, make sure you have your ducks in a row. 

Finally, George is passionate about life. I think anybody who has met him can attest to his intense love of life, people, work, family, friends, neighborhood, community, and Berkeley. As my sister Phoebe told me when she first met George, “Life with George will never be boring.” Boy was she right! 

John Caner 

 

• 

AN OUTRAGED ALUMNUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Several hundred UC Berkeley custodians protested last week the callous and highly immoral treatment they are receiving from the administration. Would you believe it!—though the custodians won money from the state to increase their poverty level earnings, the university has refused to release the funds. Why? Because the administrators, undoubtedly with a nod from the Board of Trustees, are withholding the money as a bargaining chip to compel the Union, AFSCME Local 3299, to make concessions on the pension plan that would further erode their take home wages.  

So Berkeley Councilmember Max Anderson’s remarks at the rally, that giving these workers a living wage “is a matter of will, not finances” is right on. Reflecting a typical situation, one custodian complained that her wage increased in the last six years from her starting wage of $11.22 an hour to $11.83 cents. Although custodians now begin with $11.34, the starting hourly rate at Chabot Community College is $18.89. Both the starting and top hourly rate for custodians are substantially higher at other state funded colleges. 

As an alumnus of the university, I am appalled at the message they are communicating to the understaffed and overworked custodians. It is a serious affront to their dignity as human beings. And what kind of education are they giving to its students by implying that those who clean their rooms deserve to be treated in a shoddy and contemptuous manner. Max Anderson gave some very good advice to the university administrators—the custodians clean the rooms, now “the university should come clean.” 

Harry Brill 

 

• 

HEMPHILL FOR SCHOOL BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

More than a century ago, the American educator and philosopher John Dewey wrote: “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must be what the community wants for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.” Although the Berkeley Unified School District has a long way to go to realize the ideal of providing the best possible education for all of our children, there are many wise and compassionate individuals in our schools working to achieve this goal. One of these individuals is School Board candidate Karen Hemphill. From working with her and observing her leadership at Washington Elementary and at Berkeley High School (Karen and I were co-presidents of the BHS PTSA in 2005-2006) I know that she is passionately committed to fostering schools where all students are challenged and supported. In addition, her education and practical experience in public administration have given her the skills necessary to find new resources for our schools and to manage our resources wisely. Most important, Karen has demonstrated her ability to bring together people from differing backgrounds (and sometimes with opposing viewpoints) to work productively for common goals. We need Karen Hemphill’s leadership on the Berkeley School Board. 

Carol S. Lashof 

 

• 

BEIER BRINGS NEW IDEAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

George Beier offers new ideas and planning objectives for revitalizing Telegraph Avenue, and this is one reason I support his candidacy for City Council in District 7. Another reason is George’s remarkable ability to get people involved at the neighborhood level in quality-of-life activism. Through the Willard Neighborhood Association he has organized trash cleanup days, volunteer gardening on neglected city-owned spaces, informal neighborhood watch activities, and very successful street fairs which have brought students and long-term residents together in ways we haven’t seen before. His commitment to public dialogue takes tangible shape in ways we can all see and which allow for participation at whatever level people are comfortable . 

To paraphrase JFK, George encourages people to ask, “What can I do for my city, to make it better for all of us?” and then organizes ways for that sense of commitment to find useful expression. I think he will be an excellent representative for District 7. 

Rebecca Tracy 

 

• 

“LEADERSHIP” 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Under what passes for the “leadership” of Berkeley City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Dona Spring and Linda Maio, their respective districts have seen commercial enterprises go bankrupt or move elsewhere and crime escalate. They provide no stimulus to Berkeley’s economic well-being. On the contrary, their actions in this realm have been utterly counterproductive, their obstructionist politics doing the city grave harm.  

Of course, where this otherwise torpid trio have been most active is the arena of international politics, wasting Berkeley citizenry’s time and money on issues where the city has absolutely zero influence. By so doing, they perpetuate Berkeley as just plain laughable in the eyes of the rest of the country. 

In sum, it’s time for a change. In the upcoming election, those who wish to see Berkeley’s betterment in an improved economic climate and reduction of crime should vote these inert ideologues out of office. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

 

• 

MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding your Oct. 17 editorial, the Measure A campaign has endorsed no candidate nor ballot measure other than Measure A itself. 

Measure A is endorsed by every elected official (representing Berkeley) and every serious candidate for public office. This includes among others: 

• Zelda Bronstein and Tom Bates, and all other candidates for mayor, as well as the previous Mayor Shirley Dean. 

• Councilmembers Linda Maio, Darryl Moore, Max Anderson, Donna Spring, Laurie Capitelli, Betty Olds, Kriss Worthington, and Gordon Wozniak and Council candidates Raudel Wilson, George Beier and Jason Oberman. 

• School Board Directors Nancy Riddle, Shirley Issel, Joaquin Rivera, Terry Doran, and John Selawsky, and candidates Karen Hemphill, and David Baggins. 

• Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Senator Don Perata, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, and Superivsor Keith Carson. 

• Measure A is also supported by the Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters, the Berkeley Association of Realtors, the Berkeley Democratic Club (BDC), Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA), the Green Party, the Central Labor Council, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, the Berkeley PTA Council, the National Women’s Political Caucus, Sierra Club, Berkeley NAACP, and many more organizations and individuals. 

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify Measure A’s position of not endorsing any candidate or other measure. 

Dan Lindheim 

Co-Chair, Yes on Measure A 

 

• 

NORTH SHATTUCK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Really, Mr. Goldberg, someone must have put something unpleasant in your breakfast cereal to cause such a negative and just plain grouchy invective against proposed improvements for the north end of Shattuck supported by many of the local business owners and North Berkeley residents alike (Commentary, “Myopia, Not Vision, in North Shattuck Plan,” Oct. 20). I recommend that you look again at the conceptual sketch provided at www.northshattuckplaza.org, and you will see that your mistaken vision has nothing to do with the proposed design. At least, I do not see a major high rise condo project there, as you have imagined.  

This portion of Shattuck Avenue, a tangle of arterials, cross streets and a block-long secondary traffic and parking aisle, has been crying out for a sensible re-design and configuration that would put pedestrian safety and comfort first, and the automobile second, since the railroad tracks were removed a half-century ago. As someone who had a little bit to do with the nearby Sonoma/Hopkins/Josephine Triangle project recently, I strongly endorse private initiatives to replace areas of unnecessary asphalt roadway with attractively landscaped public spaces such as the North Shattuck Plaza proposal. Just think of the potential good that might be done, rather than all of the negative scenarios you have dreamed up. And then, have a bowl of Quaker Oats for good measure.  

David J. Snippen 

 

• 

LANDMARKS ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the debate around whether to vote Yes to keep the city’s 30-plus-year Landmarks Preservation Ordinance or to vote no so that the mayor can have his way to weaken that ordinance, I can’t help but thinking the neighborhoods that will bear the brunt of this decision are in the flatlands. 

No one is going to demolish a genuine Maybeck or Morgan in the hills. What about the Maybeck that sits on the corner of Berryman and Martin Luther King? What about mowing down that stately row of turn of the century homes across from the South Berkeley BART Station in the mayor and City Council’s zeal to build a transit village? What about the wonderful old home on Virginia that’s just across from the North Berkeley BART station, an area in the sights of developers for increased density? What will come down around Sacramento and Dwight Way to build more of the four stories that went up on the corner of Blake and Sacramento? Everything on San Pablo Avenue is at risk—even the nice single-story commercial buildings that currently house the Sierra Club. Come on guys you, support five stories up and down the avenue. How about replacing the quaint old buildings on the north side of Vine at Shattuck in the new plan to redevelop the Gourmet Ghetto? 

Who will miss these places? I will and everyone who loves Berkeley will. Everyone should vote yes on Measure J and send our mayor and council a message to stop listening to their developer contributors and start hearing the people who live here. 

Katie Morgan 

 

• 

DISTRICT 7 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Alan Selsor wrote a letter last week arguing that Telegraph Avenue is “not fun or funky”—it’s depressing. I wholeheartedly agree. What’s worse is that the demise of Telegraph is infiltrating the surrounding neighborhood.  

Robbery, home-invasion, auto theft, and drug-related crimes are up, according to the Berkeley police community liaison for my south campus neighborhood, which encompasses Telegraph Avenue and People’s Park. In fact, these types of crimes are more concentrated in District 7 than in any other district in Berkeley.  

Kriss Worthington has represented the district for 10 years. In that time, business on Telegraph has declined by a whopping 30 percent, according to a San Francisco Chronicle article published Oct. 16. Worthington says he’s been working hard on the problem—but after 10 years, we should expect to see some results. Instead, 20 storefronts remain empty on what could and should be one of Berkeley’s most vibrant economic and community centers. 

District 7 needs new leadership. It needs economic revitalization. And it needs a committed focus on crime reduction and public safety. That’s why I support George Beier. He is not an ideologue, but rather a committed and progressive community activist who will work with all his constituents and stakeholders to revitalize our flagging neighborhood. 

Kristine Dixon 

 

• 

PECAUT’S SLUR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mayoral candidate Christian Pecaut begins his statement as follows, 

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

Recently, the Daily Planet and its editor were criticized for publishing a rant that many in Berkeley saw as anti-Semitic. I’m not writing to criticize Becky O’Malley for printing Pecaut’s statement—actually, she did us all a service by letting him parade his views. What I want to point out is that his opening remark is exactly like the anti-Semitic slurs that were so reprehensible to this community a few months ago.  

Indeed, what is striking about his remark is how its language parrots that of tyrants from decades past, like Mao and Stalin. It’s the language their followers used as a prelude to seizing property from its owners and imprisoning or murdering them in the name of “the people.” German and Austrian Jews of course suffered a similar fate from Hitler and his cohorts—following attacks and slurs put forward with identical phrasing.  

As a property owner, I will be interested to see who else chimes in with me to condemn the language and implications of Pecaut’s remark. He has the right to say it, and Becky O’Malley to publish it, but it is indefensible, especially in light of all we know about its past use. Actually, it’s mind-boggling to me that Pecaut could still believe it, but I guess that proves the point that those who don’t understand history are doomed to repeat it.  

John Parman 

 

• 

MILO FOUNDATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was shocked and distressed to read the article on the Milo Rescue Store on Solano Avenue in the Daily Planet. There was not one word of acknowledgment for the incredible work the Milo Foundation has done over the years. Nor was there acknowledgment for the many people in the community who donate their time to working with Milo and the animals. Nor were there suggestions on how to help remedy the sanitation problems the shop is facing. 

Thousands of homeless animals have been rescued by Milo. Milo ranks with the best of non-kill shelters in the country. The writer seemed unaware of all of this and referred to the owner and her four dogs. Incredibly discouraging piece of writing. I felt like I was reading something by the Bush administration. 

Please do a real piece on Milo—research the foundation and see how we can find ways to help them. 

Arlen Stahlberg 

• 

BEER OR HOUSING? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

George Beier’s offer to buy $1,000 worth of beer for students in dorms shows just how out of touch he is with the real needs of the student community. Sure, everybody likes free beer, but soon these students will need off-campus housing. Kriss Worthington works hard everyday to keep housing affordable to students, to appoint them to commissions, and to act on their concerns. 

Worthington is not flashy. He wouldn’t offer beer for votes, even if he could afford it, because that would be crossing an ethical line that Beier doesn’t even see. Worthington knows the issues, responds to his e-mail, and works very hard, so hard that we’ve come to take him for granted. He almost makes it look easy, and that could cost him the election. Beier’s fortune may give voters the impression that he can solve their problems as easily as he can buy them drinks, but it won’t make him a better public servant than Worthington. 

Lenny Chen 

• 

KRIS WORTHINGTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When I got a copy of the Berkeley Democrat, the Berkeley Democratic Club’s election guide, I was disappointed to see that they are supporting the challengers to the progressive members of the City Council. For years Kriss Worthington has been a great help to the community peace and justice work while working to make Berkeley a better place. Phone calls to his office are always returned promptly and responded to, whether it is to find out how to get a permit for an event or about stop signs at tricky intersections. Dona Spring is an important voice on the City Council. 

The Planet reports that Beier is outspending Kriss two to one. Can it be a coincidence that the club is taking no position on Proposition 89, the Clean Money Proposition which would limit contributions and expenditures in political campaigns? I was frankly shocked to read that George Beier’s campaign attempted to buy students’ votes with a beer party. 

Carolyn Scarr 

 

• 

BBEMA FOR MEASURE A 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There has been a considerable amount of dialogue, conversation and debate surrounding the renewal of Measure A. And rightly so. No matter what side of the issue one stands, the future of our children is at stake. Here we all stand at an impasse, staring the most significant issue of our city squarely in the face. It is clear to us that African-American children in our district are performing well below average. It is also very clear that there is much work to be done to find new strategies and implementation processes to address these gaps of achievement in our community.  

However, as pastors representing every major black church in this city, and many of the families and urban communities affected most by this achievement gap and other debilitating and paralyzing social ills, we are convinced that the best way to reach this goal is not by eliminating $20 million of resources the district has come to rely upon. The Berkeley Black Ecumenical Ministerial Alliance (BBEMA) has been in ongoing dialogue with the superintendent to constructively address these issues. As we make progress in our strategic plans and implementation, we will need the resources of Measure A to bring to bear upon factors contributing to the achievement gap. 

As we support Measure A, it is our expectation that BUSD will work to increase the Math and English scores of African-American students. It is our expectation that BUSD will recruit, hire and retain more African-American administrators and teachers. It is our expectation that BUSD will create alternative programs to deal with the high number of suspension/expulsions and special education problems indicative across multiple grade levels. We believe that if we commit ourselves to our children’s future, by passing Measure A and continuing our collaboration, BUSD can provide African-American students the access necessary for attaining the hope, tools and possibilities every child is entitled to and deserves. BBEMA urges everyone to vote yes on Measure A! 

Pastor Michael McBride for BBEMA 

 

BBEMA is comprised of African-American congregations including: Church By the Side of the Road, Covenant Worship Center, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, Church of the Good Shepherd, Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church, McGee Avenue Baptist Church, Phillips CME Church, Progressive Missionary Baptist Church, Rock of Truth Baptist Church, St. Paul AME Church and The Way Christian Center. 

 

• 

A NEW SLOGAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks ever so much for continuing to entertain the masses with the mirthful musings of jocular journalist Richard Brenneman. Until encountering his cutesy crime chronicles in your pages, I failed to focus on the fun in felonies or the alliterative amusement of misdemeanors. Some may carp and cavil about Mr. Brenneman’s jokey jottings and criticize them as prosey preciousness or doltish drivel. Ignore their nay-saying and nattering. Scrawl on uncensored, say I. Next time I come face to face with a “beefy bandit,” a “dangerous duo,” or any of the other colorful criminals who people Brenneman’s Berkeley, I’ll chuckle as I turn over my wallet, imagining how he might describe the scene. 

Dan Brekke 

 

• 

SUPPORT PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a parent I am so appreciative of the forward-thinking people who went before me and built a school system in Berkeley to be proud of. My question to you if you are against Measure A is: Why would you want to hurt the children? I’m hearing that there’s no oversight. That is just not true. There is a ton of oversight for this money with regular, independent audits. Measure A is a great investment. Good Schools = Good Neighborhoods = Good Property Values. Even if you don’t have kids or even if they go to private schools, it still benefits you to have excellent schools in the community.  

Come on, people of Berkeley! Continue to care! It’s not a new tax. It just continues what we have. Vote yes on Measure A for the children and for our community, and help get out the vote! 

Cathryn Bruno 

 

• 

ALBANY CITY COUNCIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The campaign for the Albany City Council election is turning ugly. Specifically the “Concerned Albany Neighbors” (CAN) have issued flyers personally attacking Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile. Though the contributors to CAN are certainly entitled to their opinions, under the city’s election law they are not legally allowed to donate more than $99 per candidate. They have spent far more than that producing their hit pieces and pushing their pro-mall candidates, Francesco Papalia and Caryl O’Keefe, and are likely to spend more still. The city attorney has refused to investigate these illegal contributions. 

Citizens should know that CAN’s assistant treasurer, Alan Riffer, is O’Keefe’s husband, and that they hosted the representatives of the mall developer Rick Caruso for a neighborhood “coffee” in their home to promote the proposed mega-development at the shoreline. 

CAN has demonstrated its contempt for both the spirit and the letter of the Albany campaign law. Watch for more last minute hit pieces, rumors, and innuendo. And ask yourself where the money is coming from. The choice to Albany voters is clear—Atkinson and Wile will protect the shoreline—Papalia and O’Keefe will sell it to the highest bidder. 

John Dyckman 

Albany 

 

• 

CARYL O’KEEFE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Contrary to her claim that she abides by Albany’s campaign finance limitations, City Council candidate Caryl O’Keefe has accepted illegal contributions from a front group, “Concerned Albany Neighbors” (CAN). 

CAN has distributed numerous flyers personally attacking O’Keefe’s opponents, Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile, and endorsing O’Keefe and candidate Francesco Papalia. These flyers do not disclose that O’Keefe’s husband, Alan Riffer, is CAN’s assistant treasurer, and O’Keefe does not declare CAN’s flyers as campaign donations. 

Having CAN attack her opponents allows O’Keefe to create an appearance of being ethical and even-handed while using swift-boat tactics against her opponents. 

The city has declined to investigate these illegal contributions. What is the point of Albany’s campaign finance law if it is not enforced? 

Meanwhile, how many more “hit pieces” on Atkinson and Wile are in the pipeline designed to sway votes to the pro-mall candidates at the last minute? How many attacks will be funded by Golden Gate Fields, racetrack owner Magna, or L.A. developer Caruso, who would all like nothing better than to see pro-mall candidates O’Keefe and Papalia elected? 

Caruso spent large sums to elect candidates favorable to his developments in other cities. Will we allow Albany’s democracy to be hijacked in the same way? 

Diana Sloat 

 

• 

LAST-MINUTE SMEARS COST $$$ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve noticed more flyers than usual arriving at my doorstep as the election approaches, each attacking the Save Our Shoreline Team, Joanne Wile and Marge Atkinson. In one case, Golden Gate Fields sided with the Caruso/Magna developers, stating that there were no plans to develop a casino because gambling is against California law. What wasn’t mentioned was that when gambling is legalized, and there is a movement on to pass such a law, then these developers can easily install the new video slot machines, which these developers have already installed elsewhere. What are their future plans in this case? Will they sign a contract that no gambling of any kind will ever exist at the waterfront, even if it is legalized? 

From what I understand, there is evidence that Caryl O’Keefe’s campaign finances are being overly funded by Concerned Albany Neighbors (CAN) where her husband is assistant treasurer. Why are the city attorney and city council not investigating the evidence and making this issue public, one way or the other? This is a question, not an attack.  

One way to sway the public vote is to bombard the public with false information right before an election. Don’t be taken in by the last minute smearing tactics. Remember, Joanne Wile and Marge Atkinson are local residents who have and are dedicated to serving their community. They represent the Albany residents who want a reasonable development on the waterfront to bring in revenue for Albany, while preserving as much open space as possible. 

Wynette Weaver 

Albany 

 

• 

ILLICIT STUDENT ENROLLMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to commend Professor David Baggins for raising the issue that falsely registered students constitute a serious problem in terms of utilization of resources and safety. 

I reside and work across from Berkeley High, and regularly take various public transportation in the mid-afternoon from Berkeley to different points in the East Bay. I frequently witness a large number of Berkeley High student’s exodus to homes in other cities. I offer this fly-on-the-wall generalization: some of these students behave well, some are less-well mannered, and a small number behave horrendously. 

It is my understanding that there is frequently violence at Berkeley High and in the surrounding area after school. It is commonly believed that a high percentage of the trouble comes from out-of-district registrants, but there is no firm data available. Most recently, a police officer intervening in two student’s brawl on Shattuck was himself then assaulted and injured by approximately 10 students. Because it is not ‘officially’ known which students are illicitly registered, concerned citizens will again not be informed whether those taken into custody are or are not residents. Unless we begin asking repeatedly, starting right now. 

Illicitly enrolled out-of-district students are essentially Berkeley’s guests. And if out-of-district students are committing acts of violence, officials should have an obligation to returned those students to their home districts. Some self-styled progressives feel that the most violent students are examples of those who are most at-risk, and require more, not less, of our attention. But surely there are some actions we should be unwilling to tolerate from a non-resident student. This isn’t punitive: There is an obligation to provide a safe atmosphere, and one conducive to learning, for the rest of Berkeley High students, whether resident or illicitly enrolled. 

I assume the vast majority of illicit out-of-district enrollees are good kids, who also prefer less violence at school. And I understand that out-of-district parents are enrolling their children with the best intentions. Some Berkeley residents feel social justice requires that BUSD should act as a safety net for the problematic school systems in the region. Many also recognized the unintended consequences of illicit enrollment include disproportionate utilization of resources for remedial needs, and depriving funding from neighboring districts that desperately need it. 

Many feel that when it was a smaller number of students, it was acceptable. It has now been estimated that approximately 20 percent, or 600 Berkeley High students, may be wrongfully enrolled. There comes a point when our generosity can exceed our limited resources, and we begin sacrificing our obligation to Berkeley’s own residents. Education administration has recently acknowledged that resources are indeed dramatically and disproportionately utilized to service a large number of out-of-district student’s remedial needs at the expense of Berkeley’s own average and remedial students. 

It is good that this issue has entered the public discourse this election season. And, I ask, am I the only one who suspects that the district will soon return to ignoring the problems caused by illicit registration unless David Baggins wins a seat on the School Board? 

Michael Cohn 

 

• 

MEMORIAL STADIUM OAKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sit in, on, around and under them oaks. Hello, might as well block the roadway while we’re at it. Think they’ll call the cops or the football team? Join us, ol’ Bear Bates? Which furhrer is behind this, the football coach, the athletic director. . . 

Arnie Passman 

 

• 

AGAINST MEASURE G 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Global warming can only be slowed down if there is a worldwide movement to greatly reduce greenhouse gasses. The reason the world has not moved swiftly to avoid an ecological catastrophe is that people fear the economic consequences: a great reduction of production and therefore massive unemployment. There is only one way to eliminate pollution without harming the economy: the “green tax shift.” Make polluters pay for the damage they cause, and simultaneously reduce taxes on wages and goods. 

Taxes on sales, wages, and business profits cause great economic damage. The reduction of these taxes would greatly increase enterprise and employment. That would offset the cost of pollution charges. A revenue-neutral green tax shift is win-win for the environment and the economy. 

But instead, the proponents of Measure G have said they would impose regulations and require sacrifices and lifestyle changes. Command-and-control regulations impose big costs for little benefit. They would not lead the world in a global movement to reduce greenhouse gasses. Dictating what kinds of cars we can own, when we may drive, how many cars a family may own, or mandating mileage standards for cars imposes hardships on folks who may pollute very little. 

Anyone who advocates “sacrifices” is really saying that we will impose hardships for little social benefit. The green tax shift does not require sacrifices. If we fine a person who litters, the fine is a penalty, not a sacrifice. Pollution taxes are compensation for committing damage. Those who pollute may then either pay the charge or else make adjustments such as using more public transit or car pooling or walking; it’s their choice. 

Measure G timidly sets the 80 percent reduction goal in 2050. By then it may be too late, as global warming could accelerate due to feedback effects. No, we and the world need to cut emissions to 80 percent in 10 years, by 2017. We can do this effectively with minimal economic damage with pollution levies that rise every year, while the city reduces taxes on utilities, improvements, and enterprise. 

Voting no on G is a vote for an effective and swift green tax shift and a rejection of authoritarian commands and controls. Voting yes on G means giving the city government a signal to issue restrictive regulations which will have large costs and little effect. A no vote is sophisticated, rejecting only an “anything goes” signal. A yes vote is simplistic, seeming to favor greenhouse gas reductions, but in reality giving a go-ahead to futile policies. 

Will Berkeley voters be sophisticated enough to vote no on G? Or will they take the lazy way out and vote yes just because the politicians endorse it? We can boldly lead the planet towards a swift, effective reduction of emissions by 2017, or strangle ourselves with futile regulations that, even if they reduce greenhouse gasses by 80 percent in 2050, will be way to late to do the world much good. 

Fred Foldvary 

 

A RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Laurel Leichter’s Oct. 13 letter (“Action, Not Invective”) characterizing me as an “attack-chihuahua” was not only impolite but also revealed what I would have to describe as misdirected frustration. 

I can only presume that Ms. Leichter assailed me because I stated (in an Oct. 3 letter) that District 7 City Council candidate George Beier—whom Ms. Leichter supports—was the featured speaker at the Berkeley Property Owners Association’s (BPOA) special dinner event on May 18. This is the very same day that Mr. Beier announced his City Council candidacy. 

The BPOA is the city’s largest and most powerful real estate industry/rental property owner organization. 

In my Oct. 3 letter, I listed the BPOA’s well known political agenda: consistently hostile to rent control and opposed to most of the Rent Stabilization Board’s affordable housing policies and decisions. 

BPOA members are also responsible for initiating, collecting signatures, and currently campaigning for Berkeley Measure I—the condominium conversion initiative—on the Nov. 7 ballot. 

If passed, Measure I would enable rental property owners—over the next several years—to convert literally thousands of affordable rental units across Berkeley into expensive condominiums, evict hundreds of renter and family households, and subsequently sell the converted units for a windfall profit. The current market price for a Berkeley condominium is roughly $500,000. 

Incumbent District 7 City Councilmember Kriss Worthington is perhaps the Council’s strongest supporter of rent control and affordable housing, and is opposed to the BPOA’s historical political agenda. 

Chris Kavanagh 

 

• 

BATES’ SLOGAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was walking home from the library yesterday afternoon when I saw a yard sign in support of Tom Bates for mayor of Berkeley. The sign read, “Mayor Tom Bates — Berkeley at its Best.” As I continued walking, I decided that I should help Mr. Bates along and suggest a contest for his campaign! People could send suggestions to Tom on how to make his slogan even better than that one.  

Here are some of my entries into the contest. How about “UC Berkeley at Its Best”? Or “Walnut Creek at Its Best”? Or my personal favorite, “High-Rent Housing at Its Best.” 

“Berkeley at Its Best” is something that happened 40 years ago. Let’s help bring Tom bring his campaign slogan more up to date! 

Jane Stillwater 

 

• 

MEASURE J 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After reading Sharon Hudson’s commentary, “What the Matter with Berkeley?” in which she advocated for Measure J, I sat down with my voter pamphlet, spent an hour digesting the ordinance and the arguments pro and con, and decided to vote against it. Knowing and respecting signers on both sides, I had to rely on my own experience as a West Berkeley resident for the past 27 years. 

Measure J does not maintain the existing Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) but revises it, making it easier to landmark buildings, other structures, and sites. Evidently the authors are reacting against a council revision in the opposite direction. 

Landmarks preservation is an admirable and necessary tool for saving the historical character of a municipality. I saw the importance of such an ordinance last year when I returned to my hometown, Port Jervis, N.Y., which has no such provision and has suffered major damage to its Victorian red brick roots, whereas nearby Milford, PA has dedicated itself to preserving its Colonial charm and has prospered doing so. 

But Berkeley is no small town, and the brown shingle homes in the hills or the stucco craftsman cottages in the flatlands are not the buildings in current contention; it’s the commercial development of West Berkeley and the downtown that’s at stake. We have a choice. We can approve the construction of new well designed buildings, which may entail the demolition of others and the cleaning up of contaminated lots, or we can erect barriers to such development. 

We who live in West Berkeley face a different landscape than those who inhabit purely residential neighborhoods. It’s not so charming down here. We live among rubble and litter, ugly multiplexes, poisoned ground, decaying industrial buildings, crime, and traffic. But we also have the waterfront, diversity, all kinds of creative business ventures, and a vibrant spirit of enterprise. I can’t envision how Measure J would enhance the positive and decrease the negative elements in this environment. 

Much of the damage to West Berkeley’s architectural heritage was done before the passage of the original LPO. But now that these ticky-tacky apartments, decrepit factories and warehouses, and cheap boxy stores are over forty years old, should they be eligible for preservation? They are, after all, representative of the historic post-war era. Under Measure J just 25 people with an ax to grind could stop the demolition of structures that deserve to be replaced. 

Landmarks preservation should be used not to contradict or inhibit the zoning and planning process or to frustrate investment but to enhance the urban environment and support our economy and tax base. I’m voting against Measure J because it will be an impediment to the improvement of West Berkeley.  

Toni Mester 

 

• 

BATES’ POSTERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This past weekend, I couldn’t help noticing all the Bates posters stuck up high on the telephone poles around my friend’s place on Roosevelt Street. My friend said she had been disturbed by a loud mechanical noise and looked out to see a guy in a cherry picker quickly putting up the signs while hunkering down as if he didn’t want to be identified. 

My first thoughts were to question the propriety as well the legality of putting signs on telephone poles. Both of us wanted to take the signs down simply because they’re neighborhood eyesores. However, signs put up via a cherry picker are too high to be easily removed. This (expensive) mechanism of self-promotion strikes me as another strategy aimed at winning by any means—e.g., spiriting away newspapers that promote your opponent—in this case, by being able to outspend the competition. 

Such high-rise papering obviously isn’t about informing the public of Bates’ worthiness for re-election. Those of us who are paying attention already know enough about how Mr. Bates acts in the office of mayor to have formed an opinion. In my West Berkeley neighborhood at least, we are daily exposed to the many cheap-looking in-your-face high-rise shanties that have sprung up since his term of office began. I’m also very, very displeased by both the number of business that have recently left town (yes, I am one who is forced to shop in Emeryville, El Cerrito, and San Francisco because there’s nothing to buy in Berkeley) as well as how architecturally ugly Berkeley is becoming. As I see it, the destructive trends we’ve been experiencing lately should not be allowed to continue. I hope everyone will vote in favor of the November ballot measures that could stop them and save what’s left of our once-vital and beautiful town. 

Nicola Bourne 

 

• 

SHATTUCK COMMONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I can’t believe the city would spend a dime or even a minute on the new Shattuck Commons idea. There are so many other neighborhoods in Berkeley that need attention. The Shattuck/Rose neighborhood has a farmers market on Thursdays while the Curtis/Hearst neighborhood has the Needle Exchange on Thursdays. Shattuck/Rose has nice restaurants, a bookstore, and clean sidewalks. University/San Pablo has filthy sticky sidewalks and empty littered lots and empty storefronts. Shattuck/Rose is fine as it is. “Berkeley at it’s Best” should be about raising the quality of all of Berkeley, not just the fancy parts. 

Teal Major 

 

• 

MEASURE A IS ESSENTIAL 

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 0 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/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


Letters to the Editor, continued

Tuesday October 24, 2006

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On the heels of the NEBA Newsletter piece against Measure A, comes the justification written by NEBA president Eleanor Pepples. Like the newsletter it is nonsense from beginning to end, and raises only the question, why is anyone with such a defective knowledge of our school system working so hard to bring it down? 

How can BSEP, which is a square footage tax, have “brought in an extra $970,000 because of high property values.”? How can a 12-year tax be “extended” to 10 years? 

Past BSEP measures have not been, as stated here, for four years. The 1986 BSEP parcel tax was for a period of eight years, the second, in 1994, for 12 years. This is a point much belabored, but it may still be worth, for once, getting right. 

She says that BUSD will collect “an extra 11 percent from the state, about $8,244.” In fact, we are getting something in the neighborhood of 4 percent. Some additional funds will be distributed by the county; but it appears that the money will be mostly restricted in use and one-time only. It is wonderful to have, but it is not the stuff of multi-year budgets, even in the bizarre world of NEBA. 

What is this “academic choice lottery which gives some families the opportunity to pick which school their children can attend” …to which “many children are denied access”? Could this be a description of the highly regarded BHS Academic Choice program, as seen from Mars?  

Everyone who wants to gets in the lottery—just as with the other small schools at Berkeley High—but, as in most lotteries, not everyone’s name is drawn. The system which sorts the children at BHS into small schools isn’t perfect, but it is also not yet two years old. A lot of people don’t like the system, but Ms. Pebbles is so far the only person who has suggested that taking away 25% of the budget and hurling the district into insolvency would be a good way to fix the problem. 

“It is interesting,” she writes, “that the Council for Neighborhood Associations (CNA) and the Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations have also come out against Measure A. No, what is interesting is that both BANA and CNA are dominated by the same small group of people, and these are the same people—neither NEBA members nor board members—who provided the inaccurate anti-Measure A information to the NEBA board. When NEBA was contacted with the offer to have a speaker familiar with school finance available to them, the offer was declined. 

As for the old insinuations about accountability, loopholes, and money diverted to administrators salaries, I can only say, read the Measure, read the report of the independent auditor.  

Ms. Pepples offers no useful suggestions as for improving the Measure, no information that is not hopelessly garbled, no facts that are not howlingly wrong. But, to be fair, she has a closing worthy of Monty Python, in which she begs the reader, almost tearfully, to vote against school funding—for the sake of the children.  

Laurie Snowden  

 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Eleanor Pepples opinion piece in the Oct. 17 issue of he Daily Planet doesn’t really explain much about her opposition to Measure A, the renewal of the Berkeley School Excellence Project (BSEP), other than the fact she doesn’t seem to understand the measure. For the past 20 years, BSEP has enabled Berkeley students to go to less crowded classrooms, enjoy books in the school library, and have the opportunity to learn to play real musical instruments. Measure A does nothing but renew the Citizen’s of Berkeley commitment to the education of ALL our children by continuing the funding of BSEP at current rates. As a parent of a 5th grader in Rosa Parks School, a school with one of the poorest populations in the district, it is hard to imagine what our school would be like without this enhanced funding. 

Rather than debate it among the NEBA board members, they should have visited the schools themselves and talked to the parents at the sites - especially those who don’t have the resources to send their children to anything but a public school and those involved in the oversight of BSEP funds. At Rosa Parks School it has meant that teachers have more time with their students and students with special needs get help necessary to keep up; teacher skills have been enhanced in language skills and math through attendance at training courses funded by BSEP; discipline and respect are taught on the play yard by coaches who are contracted using BSEP funds; and an Environmental Science Magnet School can actually have a full time science teacher. 

Little of this would be possible and Rosa Parks School would not be making significant advances without the generous support of all Berkeley residents. These programs and many more at the other Berkeley schools are in danger if BSEP is not extended through the passage of Measure A. 

Many of the concerns about oversight and usage of the funds ignore the fact that his is an ongoing project with a history anyone can look at if they made the effort. BSEP has its own organization and independent audit trail, which is continued in Measure A. School Site Council meetings, which have oversight responsibility for BSEP funds at the individual schools, are open to anyone interested in attending. I know that the parents involved in the Site Councils take their responsibility seriously and would strongly resist and dilution of their oversight duties. Quarterly and annual reports are made to the BUSD board on income and spending of BSEP funds and are a matter of public record, a practice continued in Measure A. 

Typical of those who don’t understand what BSEP funds, Ms. Pepples brings up such irrelevant issues as the warm water pool, which has nothing to do with anything even related to Measure A, and the possibility that BUSD may get more money from the State this year, which probably won’t make up for the shortage of funding from the State in 2004 and 2005. Maybe I haven’t encountered the “academic choice” lottery yet, but anyone thinking that reducing the number of teachers would enhance any selection system is missing something. The attribution of increased revenues because of “high property values” shows that Ms. Pepples doesn’t even understand the funding mechanism; this is a parcel tax, based on size of the property, not the value.  

Something Ms. Pepples wrote everyone can agree with “...Every student deserves to have the same materials from the day class starts until graduation day and strong core curriculum..” BSEP goes a long way to achieve this goal. Approval of Measure A will keep this valuable project alive for all the students in Berkeley schools. 

Tom Killilea, Treasurer, Rosa Parks School PTA 

 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m writing about Travis C. Ash’s outstanding op-ed: “Do the benefits of drug war outweigh the costs?” (berkeleydailyplanet.com, Oct. 17). The obvious answer to this question is: No. 

So why does our obviously counterproductive war on drugs continue? Why do apparently intelligent people want to arrest and jail other people who use or sell easy-to grow weeds and other chemicals that harm nobody except the willing users themselves? 

Perhaps to understand the position of our drug war cheerleaders we should study the history of the United States.  

Alcohol prohibition. The notorious gangster Al Capone made most of his illegal money from alcohol prohibition. Capone often bragged that he “owned” the city of Chicago. Obviously, he didn’t own all of the city of Chicago; however, he had most or all of the politicians and police who ran the city on his payroll. Al Capone was a successful businessman and its not unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels of today are following his business model. 

Its also not unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels may have many high-level politicians and police officials on their payroll. Obviously, the type of politicians the drug cartels would have on their payroll are those who advocate the continuation of the status quo of drug prohibition, which is making the drug cartels so fabulously wealthy. I’m not saying that any specific so-called “drug warrior” is on the payroll of the drug cartels—just a little suspicious. I’m just a little suspicious of the motives of all of the drug war cheerleaders. 

Kirk Muse 

Mesa, AZ 

 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Travis C. Ash’s thoughtful Oct. 17th op-ed, the drug war is in large part a war on marijuana, by far the most popular illicit drug. Punitive marijuana laws have little, if any, deterrent value. The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future Study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that uses its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short- term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to many Americans. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, the U.S. government is subsidizing organized crime. The drug war’s distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand make an easily grown weed literally worth its weight in gold. The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who’ve built careers on confusing drug prohibition’s collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. The big losers in this battle are the taxpayers who have been deluded into believing big government is the appropriate response to non traditional consensual vices. Students who want to help end the intergenerational culture war otherwise known as the war on some drugs should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at www.ssdp.org. 

Robert Sharpe 

Policy Analyst 

Common Sense for Drug Policy 

Washington, D.C. 

 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wanted to write and complement your newspaper on the great articles that J. Douglas Allen-Taylor was been writing about the state takeover of the OUSD. 

I was I teacher at Skyline High School in Oakland from Fall 2003 to Spring 2005 then was laid off as part of the reduction in force. During my time in Oakland I saw that things could be very different. Since I left, I have been using Google News to stay informed about the goings on in OUSD. Through that I found J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s articles. I always felt that there where stuff going on that we where not being told. Thanks to your articles I feel enlightened about OUSD. 

Keep up the good work. 

Hank Postma 

 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the story called “ A Closer Look at State Bond Measures", in the edition of The Planet for October 13-16 

I was amazed to read that somehow with Prop 1B 19 BILLION dollars would be spent with only a 19.9 MILLION bond issue!! 

This is a trick which W. Bush and the his massive debt being accrued would be happy to learn. 

Max Macks 

 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

From the very first moment I saw Barack Obama interviewed on television, I said, “Now here’s a man I’d like to see in the White House. “But not now—he’s too young, too inexperienced and no way is this country ready for a black president.” But seeing him yesterday interviewed on the Charlie Rose Show, I thought, “Who says he’s too young?” Here’s a man of dignity, high intelligence, compassion, and one with a reasoned view of critical world issues (characteristics sadly lacking in Washington at the present). Democrats—don’t let Barack Obama get away. We need him!  

Dorothy Snodgrass 

 

• 

TRAFFIC SAFETY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This evening on my way home, I had a disturbing experience. I was driving down MacArthur Boulevard past the Emeryville border between Market and Telegraph. After the light turned green, I saw a couple of pedestrians on the opposite side of the median. I see one of them look in my direction and bolt across the street in front of me. The light had changed a few moments earlier, and I was traveling down the road around 25 mph. I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting the group of young people attempting run across the street. The first person in the group made it across, and I missed him by inches. The second person came to a sudden halt and ended up inches from the left side of my car. I was completely shaken after the near contact. I know as a driver it is my responsibility to give pedestrians the right of way. Unfortunately, these young people were attempting to cross the far away from the intersection and crosswalk in a darkly lit section of the street. I don’t want to cast blame here, but it was a miracle I didn’t hit one of them and cause severe injury to these careless pedestrians. I wish this was the only near miss incident I have had, but I see pedestrians running across this dark street at dusk or later every other week. To all of the drivers and pedestrians out there be careful, and be logical. To the pedestrians, cross at the crosswalk, look for oncoming traffic, and cross with the green light. To all of the drivers, look out for people coming from all directions and travel slowly on dark streets.  

Jame Ervin 

Oakland 

 

• 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

After reading the full text Of Measure H as outlined for the voter of California, in the Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet for the Nov. 7 election, I can not give my full support to the Measure. As a long-time Berkeley resident, I find that the attempt to impeachment President Bush and Vice President Cheney to be a mere distraction of important facts. 

Although I do agree with some parts of the full text version Section 2 Findings and Declaration as noted under section number 4 A thought B. I would like to note that a full investigation of Departments, persons who provided information regrading said matter may serve American and insure the integrity of information provided to future President and their administrations.  

I would like to note that the statement’s of support by person as noted with the Arguments In Favor Of Measure H are somewhat unfair and unwarranted. These types of accusation are best handle when persons and departments are held accountable for their actions. This may include but not limited to local, state and federal offices and a review of Prop 13 pay closer attention to the monitor of programs under prop 13. Other program such as the Program for Felons which give and outline of State and local government responsibilities and Possible Federal intervention which include monitoring. The status of Limitation clause as noted with Cold Cases from local and State agencies such and Police, Sheriff, CHP and California Justice departments also make provision for possible monitoring. Local funding Under Education 2000 and other programs in which the State Senate and California Voters support allow the Federal Government to Collect and Internet Usage, this may also be true do to case filed by with The Human Rights Office, cases of ID theft ( such information can be used to investigate fraud, etc). Funding for Education and research allotted the Children Hospital can allow for cross referencing of related documents and noted with funding clauses. 

The words Above The Law also seem out of context. considering cases currently in being held by said persons. 

I urge Berkeley to vote no on H! 

And asking your local Government for detail information on programs like No Child Left Behind and the supplements services. The teaching standard and requires for Public school and after school care. 

It may be time for California to find better political leadership! 

A. Charlene Matthews 

Sole Owner Of C.Y.A. InterPrizes


Commentary: What’s Right About Condo Conversion Measure

By John Koenigshofer
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Over the past few weeks, Chris Kavanagh and his comrades have flooded the Daily Planet with denunciations of Measure I, the citizen initiative that would allow a limited number of surplus rental units to be converted to condominiums. According to Kavanagh the measure is nothing but a conspiracy to evict thousands of tenants. Simply stated, the truth has not been told. 

Let me set the record straight. Measure I not only preserves existing protections enjoyed by Berkeley tenants, it adds to them. In the process, it addresses the most serious problem facing our city: the loss of our middle class due to a lack of entry-level housing. Workers and young families can’t pay $700,000 for a “starter” home. Our own children cannot afford to stay in the town where they grew up. Since few people want to remain tenants forever, they move away, leaving behind a city divided between real-estate haves and have-nots. 

We are becoming a city where the people who work here—teachers, firefighters, librarians and clerks cannot afford to live here. 

Our population becomes less and less diverse each year as enrollment in our public schools decline. This as rental vacancy rates have climbed from between 6-10 percent city-wide, double the norm of a healthy rental market! 

The City Council agrees there is a problem. Two years ago it passed a law encouraging the conversion of apartments into condominiums in an effort to create a form of affordable home ownership. But their law is not working. Their cap on conversions (100 per year) is too low, and their fee is far too high. 

Fourteen percent of the gross sale price of a converted condominium (12.5 percent conversion fee, plus 1.5 percent transfer tax) is paid to the city. None of this money goes to tenants who need and deserve a chance to become homeowners. Furthermore, these fees will simply inflate sale prices reducing the affordability of condominiums. While the actual statistics are hard to find, it appears that after two years, not one unit of converted housing has been created and no conversion fees have come into the city treasury. Lastly, a long-promised public workshop on the subject has been canceled or postponed indefinitely. 

 

What would Measure I do? 

Measure I would allow the conversion of a limited number of surplus rental units to be converted to condominiums, provided that the present owner: 

1. Pay a substantial fee to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund (about $8,000 for a typical unit). This fee must be paid up front, regardless of whether the unit is ever sold. Under current law an owner may obtain a subdivision map and not pay anything until and unless he sells to a third party. 

2. Give existing tenants a right to buy their own unit and cash equal to 5 percent of the purchase price (typically, about $20,000), thus covering part or all of the down payment. This redirects funds to tenant(s) that under current law goes to the city. No city in California has such an aggressive program to assist new homeowners. 

3. Observe all existing tenant rights under Berkeley’s rent control and “just cause eviction” laws. 

4. Agrees to pay tenants who choose not to buy their unit relocation benefits twice the amount they would receive under current law. 

5. Agrees not to exercise their right to evict under California’s Ellis Act until and unless the tenant’s lease has expired and all of the benefits described above have been offered and refused by the tenant. 

What about mass evictions?  

It cannot happen! Under Measure I conversions are limited to about 2 percent of the rental stock. If vacancy rates fall below 3 percent, conversions stop. Berkeley has about 20,000 rental units. If (conservatively) there is a 5 percent vacancy rate, the conversion of 500 units (about 2 percent of the stock) would return us to the current quota. The “thousands of evictions” threatened by Kavanagh are mathematically impossible. He is not merely incorrect but engaging in irresponsible scare tactics designed to obstruct affordable home ownership in Berkeley. 

The elephant in the corner (which Measure I opponents ignore) is the threat of conversion of rental units to tenants that is common (TICs). By court order, cities cannot collect fees on or limit the number of such conversions any longer. 

TIC ownership is complex, highly unregulated, does not generate city conversion revenues and provides no purchasing assistance to tenants. However, in the face of current condominium conversion restrictions, TIC conversions will occur to the detriment of the city, tenants and buyers alike. 

There are two different visions of Berkeley. One, a place divided between rich homeowners and permanent tenants who have no hope of climbing the ownership ladder. This is the “rich city, poor city” phenomenon that economists and sociologists warn of. That’s where Berkeley seems to be headed. The city has told the federal government that affordable home ownership is a “low priority” here and that our focus is rental housing. The results are all around us. Ownership is beyond the reach of all but the rich. Rental units are vacant or under-occupied yet more are being built. Older buildings decay and the tax rolls are filled with under-valued properties. Tenants who want to set down roots and raise families must go elsewhere. 

Measure I helps to solve these problems. It allows surplus rental units to be converted to affordable housing with fees paid up front. Measure I helps tenants become owners and increases tax revenues paid to the city. Measure I will keep young families in Berkeley, put more children in our public schools and allow more public safety workers to live alongside the people they protect. Measure I is good for tenants, homeowners, the city and everyone who hopes for the freedom and security that home ownership provides.  

Kavanagh and his ilk seek to keep tenants in a state of perpetual economic disenfranchisement. Measure I does the opposite. Measure I helps erase the line between the real estate haves and have-nots, creating a city of greater stability, equality and security. 

 

John Koenigshofer is a Berkeley landlord. 

 

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


Commentary: People’s Park from an Insider’s Perspective

By Dan McMullan
Tuesday October 24, 2006

By Dan McMullan 

 

George Beier’s recent letter to the Planet about David Anderson, the homeless man who was a hero in the Aug. 9 fire at 2600 Hillegass has got to be one of the most shameful exploitations I have seen in Berkeley politics in a long time. George portrays himself sitting with this poor man, listening sympathetically to his story and then crying out to us, “Is there any good Samaritan out there that can give our hero a guitar!” I mean, come on George, you’re a multi-millionaire for Pete’s sake. You probably spent more than the price of a guitar on your last bottle of wine and you let that man leave your meeting without one?  

For quite awhile I had been hearing, reading about and seeing the damage George has visited upon the less fortunate of our community. In his capacity as point man for the university, he has waged an unceasing war on the homeless and used his position as president of the Willard Neighborhood Association to help put into play the University of California’s most ambitious and audacious land-grab to date.  

It’s important to me to get my facts straight, so I called George and invited him to come out and take a ride on my wheelchair trailer. As we rode along, I asked him questions. I wanted to understand how someone that had so many blessings in his life could be so callous towards those that had so little. I asked him why he went after the young people at the Le Chateau student co-op housing. He told me that all the kids there were on heroin! I think their crime was that they allowed Food not Bombs to cook one meal there a week for the homeless and poor in People’s Park and were generally supportive to community efforts to help those in need. George said that he only helped organize the lawsuit and that it was his life partner John that was actually a plaintiff and got a monetary award.  

“But don’t you live three blocks away and around the corner,” I asked.  

“Well not really that far,” he answered.  

Then I asked him about his favorite scare tactic: the assertion that “We have found 1,000 hypodermic needles in People’s Park in the last eight months.” I call this the “Thousand Points of Fright” platform. In 20 years of working (and at one point living) in the park, I have found maybe three. I asked Terri Compost who has been doing the gardening almost daily for many years. She said she might have come across five, and my wife, who was born in Berkeley and has been playing in People’s Park since she was 8, said that she never has found one, but maybe has seen some caps that go on the needles. We bring our young kids to the park and childproof the area before we let them play and if there were needles there I’d be the first up in arms.  

His attacks on the free-box that brought clothes to many homeless and working poor have left many out in the cold, and has even left my family without enough clothes. And the promise to completely redesign the park to be “more like Willard” while not only being disrespectful of years of work of the people of this community is completely insane. Willard Park has like three trees!!! You would cut down the trees in People’s Park while the polar ice caps fall off into the ocean?  

And then there was the little business about the pamphlet put out by George and the Willard Neighborhood Association. The flyer distributed to students and renters in his neighborhood was titled “How to be a good neighbor” and schools the peasants on how to behave. It even points out the laws you could be breaking if you make too much noise or your car is ugly. George said that the flyer was actually written by Irene Hagerty, director of Community Relations at Cal. When I asked him didn’t he think it a little unethical to use a neighborhood association as a front for the university and a vehicle to gobble up the Southside neighborhood, he seemed perplexed. In an interview with Irene and George dated Sept. 21 by Kate MacMillan in NorthGate Online, an online newspaper put out by the Cal Graduate School of Journalism, Ms. MacMillan, who takes no pains to hide her revulsion of the lower classes, quotes Irene Hagerty as saying, “The university has no plans to build anything more substantial than a childcare center or rehab center in the park.” What will they be rehabbed for, their lack of greed and avarice? When asked about People’s Park, George says, “It’s gross, something has got to be done.” What is gross, George? All the trees? The green grass? Or is it the people that Ms. MacMillan describes as gray lumps?  

Sometime back someone wrote that if I use strong words like Nazi and fascist in my writing, what will I have to use when I am confronting real evil? What we tend to forget is that before the Nazis went full out evil on the Jews, they did a test-run on the homeless and the disabled. When not many cared to speak up, they figured they could get away with anything. Some people say that the ideals of the park are outdated and naive, but I feel that with a horrible war and our planet and the human race in dire peril from global warming, we have never needed the park and its message of a community united more. The politics of fear have always been used by those who lack the skill and vision to tackle the real problems. If you want to improve People’s Park, ask the university to stop demonizing the park and scaring away good people who would make use of it. In Ms. MacMillan’s article student Katie Solinberger is quoted as saying, “I always take a longer route to the park. They pretty much warned us about doing that during orientation. It would be nice to hang out there, but there are always cops there and it just seems like there is a lot of shady stuff going on.” But what Ms. Solenberger does not know is that the folks up in the UC have plans for the park and if she hung out there it would become much harder for them to bring that about.  

It’s been almost 15 years since I told Andy Ross at Cody’s that if he ran off all the characters on Telegraph, he would have to hire actors to play them. Our community and Cal students are not enough to sustain the businesses on Telegraph and their high rents. These rents are reflective of a place that is a tourist destination. So when you run people off, chase them around with green machines and deploy cops on every corner, it tends to put a damper on the scene those tourists are looking for. I was up on the Avenue the other night and there were two cops for every person out there. While they were harassing homeless people down by Haste, a young student got shot up on Durant. There is a lot of crime in that area, but it comes in the form of out-of-town people who see our students as rich and easy marks. Not from People’s Park, the free-box or the homeless. We need to address the reality of what is going on. Berkeley police spokeswoman Mary Kusmiss says about Telegraph and People’s Park, “The perception of crime has as much impact on a community as actual crime,” and she is right. Isn’t it time we came together and changed these perceptions, dust off the ideals that made this community a leader in doing the right thing for all people and admired throughout the world? Isn’t it time before the point is moot and our planet is irreparably damaged and we are all under water?  

 

Dan McMullan works with the Disabled People Outside Project. 

 

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


Commentary: An Open Letter to the Berkeley School Board

By Danniel Rudman
Tuesday October 24, 2006

On Aug. 23, 17 members of the Warm Pool attended the School Board meeting asking for your support. We were not just representing ourselves. We were representing approximately 400 people a week, in ages ranging from two months old to 88, who exercise, rehabilitate themselves, and gain strength and peace of mind at this valuable facility. Included in this group are the following: 

• 21-month-old Alejandro Gonzales, one of 30 other infants in the Parent-Tot classes that meet each week. He loves playing with his parents in the water and especially doing the Hokey Pokey.  

• 3-year-old Kamiko Schrader, one of fifty-five disabled children in Dori Maxon’s Special Needs classes. She’s blind with Cerebral Palsy, and the warm water drastically reduces her seizures and relaxes her enough to sleep at night.  

• Dr. Andrea Thatch, one of 200 who benefit from the Recreation Department’s Disabled and Senior Swim Program. She suffers from degenerative arthritis. Before coming here, she had to rely on a cane and on mind-clouding medications. Now her pain has decreased 80 percent.  

• Iris Gomez, one of a hundred men and women who attend Berkeley City College’s Disabled Swim classes. She has Lupus, Congestive Heart Failure, and Fibromyalgia. The warm water not only soothes her pain, but allows her to survive without a pacemaker. Without the pool, she wouldn’t be able to function. She might not be alive. 

I should also mention the 40 men and women who participate in Arthritis Movement classes, Fear of Swimming classes, and Spirit Walking Aqua-Chi classes.  

At the Aug. 23 meeting each of us got a turn to address the board. When the last person was finished, there was a surprising silence in the room. None of you asked a question, made a comment, or expressed an opinion, with the exception of your president Terry Dolan. He gave a stirring speech asserting how he’d always been a strong advocate of the Warm Pool, and would continue to do everything in his power to help us. I was about to leap out of my wheelchair and start doing cartwheels ‘til I caught his concluding sentence. “Unfortunately,” he said, “I will no longer be on the board after the election.”  

When I rolled out of the meeting later that evening, I’d had my fill of silent stares and passionate oratory. I wanted to hear some straight talk from the board, individually and collectively. I still want to hear it. Why were the rest of you silent? What do you stand for Joaquin Rivera? Nancy Riddle? John Selawsky? Shirley Issel? Superintendent Lawrence? 

Are you willing to commit yourself to the Warm Pool not just in words, but on paper?  

Are you, in fact, going to give the tennis court property to the city so that a new pool can be built there, or are you planning to sell it instead?  

Or will you refuse to do either, and wash your hands of the situation?  

Most importantly, are you prepared to assure us that the Warm Pool will be renovated in its present location or that a new one will be built before any demolition occurs?  

I believe these questions should be answered as soon as possible, preferably before the upcoming November elections. We’ve already waited too long for a resolution to this issue. 

I think part of the problem is that you underestimate how valuable this facility is, how essential it is to its constituents. The Warm Pool is not your average Berkeley pool. I cannot emphasize this enough. It is the only heated public pool in the East Bay. Unlike other pools, when it is closed we users are not merely disappointed, but suffer actual physical pain. Our bodies tighten up. Our muscles spasm. It becomes much harder to sleep. Does that happen to you when you miss a day of swimming? If you took the time to check it out for yourself you’d discover what a unique community it is, the most democratic community in Berkeley. The aged, obese, sick, and disabled who are still often discriminated against in our progressive city, are treated with compassion. The pool is a constant source of emotional support. Empathy. You can talk about your difficulties and people will pay attention, which itself is a therapeutic experience. It’s also a place to gain helpful information. New medications, alternative treatments, and the names of innovative doctors are shared. Each time we slide into the soothing waters we regain a tiny part of ourselves which had been taken away by disease, injury, or the unrelenting process of aging.  

I do appreciate the board’s willingness all these years to house the Warm Pool at the Milvia location. I’m grateful for your efforts to maintain it; fixing the broken windows, making sure the electrical doors work smoothly, keeping the locker rooms functional and clean. I also want to thank you for including the Warm Pool Committee in the Site Planning Process. Most of all, I want to express my gratitude to you for offering the tennis court property across the street as a possible new location for the Pool. 

There is some confusion, however, regarding this offer which I’d like clarified. For too long, a cloud of ambivalence has hovered over this subject. In 1996 Jack McLaughlin, the BUSD Superintendent, actively encouraged the Warm Pool Committee to participate in meetings with teachers and architects to convert the Old Gym building, into classrooms and athletic facilities. He repeatedly told us that the Warm Pool was definitely included in his plans.  

In 2000, when Berkeley voters passed a $ 3.2 million bond to finance the renovation of the pool, we assumed that McLaughlin’s promises would reach fruition. However, studies showed that the pool was seismically unsound. As a result, the BUSD decided to tear down the present building and replace it with new classrooms. That’s when assurances were given about the tennis court land. Lew Jones, the school district’s facility director, made promises to that effect. So did present board member Shirley Issel. And Terry Dolan has reiterated this on a number of recent occasions.  

The problem is that neither McLaughlin’s words, nor Ms. Issel’s, nor Mr. Jones, nor Mr. Dolan’s, nor the statements of any of their colleagues were ever made in writing. There are no legal documents.  

Kind words and promises only go so far. At some point, we need to see something definitive, something concrete that we can count on.  

That time is now.  

Your soon-to-be-ex-president, given his speech at the Aug. 23 meeting, is willing to work with you. The City Council is willing to work with you. We in the Warm Pool Committee are willing to work with you. I call on you to make a commitment, to join us in this effort. Anything less is a betrayal of all the voters who passed the $3.2 million bond, as well as the hundreds of us who regard the Warm Pool as our lifeblood.  

 

Daniel Rudman has been a Warm Pool user for 20 years. 

 

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

 


Letters to the Editor

Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Berkeley Mayoral Candidate Statements: Tom Bates

Tom Bates
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Berkeley Mayoral Candidate Statements: Zelda Bronstein

Zelda Bronstein
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Berkeley Mayoral Candidate Statements: Christian Pecaut

Christian Pecaut
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 

 

 

 


Berkeley Mayoral Candidate Statements: Zachary RunningWolf

Zachary RunningWolf
Friday October 20, 2006

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 

 


UPCOMING CANDIDATE STATEMENTS

Friday October 20, 2006

 

 

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


THE DAILY PLANET

Friday October 20, 2006

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...


Commentary: Milo Foundation Poses Health Risks for Neighbors

By Jane Tierney
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Commentary: The Swiftboating of Measure J

By Judith Epstein
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 

 

 


Commentary: Myopia, Not Vision, in North Shattuck Plan

By Art Goldberg
Friday October 20, 2006

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.  

 


Commentary: How State Bond Measures are Paid and Used

By Roy Nakadegawa
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Columns

Column: The Public Eye: Lights Out on Berkeley Transportation Planning?

By Michael Katz
Tuesday October 24, 2006

It’s worrisome enough that Berkeley has failed to maintain a relatively simple blinking crosswalk at the risky Ashby/Piedmont intersection, as the Daily Planet reported on Oct. 6. 

But it’s really disturbing that Berkeley transportation manager Peter Hillier hadn’t been told about this months-old hazard until the Planet called him. And that traffic engineer Hamid Mostowfi is evidently refusing to fix it, for no stated reason. 

This is just one of several complaints that I’ve recently read or heard about Berkeley transportation management. 

For example, recent Daily Planet issues have contained an ad from a neighborhood group calling itself “tscb.org.” Its members complain that the city abruptly declared their block a no-parking zone, despite overwhelming local opposition. Their Website explains the issue in some complexity. 

Easier to understand is the botched stoplight phasing at Oxford/Hearst. That signal was given separate turn phases to reduce delays. Yet somehow, everyone now seems to wait longer to get through the intersection—especially pedestrians. 

Still easier to understand are the unwarranted “No Turn On Red” signs that have sprouted at that intersection and others. They’re widely ignored, because they’re unnecessary—“Yield” signs would have worked fine. 

But more importantly, no one recalls any public process by which Berkeley residents decided to give up our God-given Californian right to turn right on red. 

Then there was the recent change in Claremont Avenue’s posted speed limit—reportedly in response to one individual’s request, with no consultation of other nearby residents. 

Most notoriously, there were the 22 car parking spaces on Telegraph Avenue that suddenly turned into motorcycle parking spaces. This wasn’t because the Harley-Davidson community had requested more chopper parking. 

Rather, one of the kids on the city’s Bicycle Commission—sorry, “Transportation” Commission—apparently came up with a creative reading of the state’s lane-width requirements. And sold that to a city traffic engineer, who decided to just restripe the lanes and narrow the parking spaces to motorcycle width. 

He never bothered to warn adjacent merchants, who were understandably livid. Councilmember Kriss Worthington has reportedly persuaded the city to undo the fiasco, at a roundtrip cost of perhaps $65,000. 

Three common threads run through these stories. First, the Transportation Office has evidently done odd things by following procedures so by-the-book as to produce absurd results. 

Second, Transportation has tended to do odd things based on requests from one or two individuals, without consulting other affected parties. 

Third, Transportation has been slow to undo odd things—and has failed to do needed things—because of a broader reluctance to consult with the public. 

It’s not just ordinary city residents who can’t tell what Hillier’s priorities or guiding principles are. Professionals at some other agencies say they’re just as mystified, because Hillier and his staff have withdrawn from some joint meetings. 

This is all a paradox. Hillier came to Berkeley from Toronto, a lively big city that runs so smoothly that actor Peter Ustinov once called it “New York operated by the Swiss.” 

The department under which Hillier’s Transportation Office has been placed, Public Works, is one of Berkeley’s most responsive. Claudette Ford and her crews seem to get potholes filled almost as soon as residents report them. 

Hillier himself is perfectly courteous in one-on-one communications. And I’ve heard of at least one neighborhood that’s as happy with his work as the folks with the website are displeased. 

Mostowfi, I should also acknowledge, promptly answered an inquiry from me last spring. (I had asked him about a bizarre new curb extension at the Le Conte/Hearst intersection that dangerously blocks bicyclists’ paths. He couldn’t explain to me why he’d built the thing, but I appreciated his taking the time to try.) 

Overall, Berkeley transportation management didn’t used to be such a black box. One of Hillier’s predecessors, Jeff Knowles, actively engaged the community. He wrote newspaper commentaries offering the public a menu of traffic-management options, and invited our responses. 

So if we assume that good people are now producing disappointing results, the question is: why? 

One theory is that the Transportation Office’s recent snafus and stonewalling reflect higher officials’ lapses in exercising real oversight. Back when Knowles was polling the public about how to manage everyone else’s cars, we still had real debates on the City Council and its advisory commissions. 

That was when commissions held wide-open public workshops (not hand-picked “task forces”), and welcomed members of the public to participate as equals. Zelda Bronstein’s Planning Commission even transformed the city’s General Plan revision from a cloistered staff function into a remarkable citywide exercise in participatory democracy. 

Now, under Mayor Bates, public meetings tend to be short and collegial. Because they’re meaningless—all the real decisions have been made ahead of time, in private. And because commissions are stacked with compliant yes-people. 

The message from City Hall now is: Trust us to run things from the top down, because we’re experts. 

Except they’re not, and we can’t. Just ask the Telegraph merchants whose customers can hardly park, because 22 parking spaces evaporated. Or the Ashby BART neighbors who almost ended up with a megadevelopment made to order for a few well-connected boosters. 

On the whole, Berkeley’s government runs uncommonly well at the staff level. But it ran best when there was scrappy argument, and public clamor, at the elected and commission levels—and two uncoopted factions kept a vigilant eye on each other. 

A second theory is that Berkeley’s current transportation problems are rooted deeper and further back. Until a staff reorganization midway through Shirley Dean’s mayoralty, transportation management was itself productively divided. There were transportation planners in the Advance Planning department, and an independent Traffic Engineer’s office. 

That separation of powers actually served the public well. The planners would promote all the latest fads about how to inhibit the movement of vehicles with more than two wheels. The traffic engineer would often push back, arguing for the mobility of vehicles with four or more wheels. (Fire engines, for example, have a whole bunch.) 

They’d often argue to a compromise. The result was a city where it was very easy for me to ride my bike, but where cars, buses, and ambulances still sort of moved. 

Maybe merging those two constituencies into a single office was inherently a mistake. Perhaps senior planners are best at supervising planners, and senior traffic engineers are most authoritative at supervising traffic engineers.  

Merging the two cultures may have squelched worthwhile professional debate that would otherwise be out in public. Out, for example, in the form of healthily conflicting recommendations to the Council and its commissions. Call the merger Berkeley’s counterpart to burying FEMA under, um, “Homeland Security.” 

In any case, transportation issues rile Berkeley residents as much as anything does. How those issues get managed shouldn’t be a mystery. 

In this election season, you might hope that everyone in city government—from top electeds down to crews on the street—might recognize the merit of letting more sunlight flow into and out of the Transportation Office. 

 

Michael Katz served on the Berkeley Traffic Commission. For one meeting. It was great. 


Column: Advice From Beyond

By Susan Parker
Tuesday October 24, 2006

The Alta Bates Emergency Room doctor gave Ralph 24 hours to live. An attendant wheeled Ralph, in a hospital bed, into the East Wing of ICU. The admitting doctor said Ralph probably wouldn’t make it through the night.  

Ralph’s eyes were open and he was struggling to breathe, but he wasn’t aware of my presence. “Take care of yourself,” everyone said, so I went home and lay down on the couch. The nursing staff promised to contact me if things got worse.  

At 11 p.m. they called and I went back to the hospital. I walked the six flights up to ICU, rang the security buzzer for admittance, sat beside Ralph’s bed for three hours and told him all the things I needed to say. He kept breathing, and his blood pressure rose. “Go home,” said the staff. “He’s gotten a little better.”  

Saturday went by and then Sunday. On Monday morning the doctors said they wanted to give Ralph a blood transfusion.  

I okayed the procedure, but issued a warning: “The last time Ralph had a transfusion, he almost got up and mowed the lawn. Be prepared for him to complain about food and cable TV.”  

“Your husband’s heart rate is dangerously high,” they said. “The transfusion could make him more comfortable, but the odds are 50/50 he’ll survive.”  

They didn’t know Ralph. By Tuesday he was asking for the sports page and preparing to watch the A’s on TV. The oxygen mask was removed from his face, revealing a huge, angry sore where the plastic edges had dug into his nose. He had a large black and blue mark on his neck caused by life saving measures in the ambulance. I couldn’t bear to pull down the sheet that covered the rest of his body.  

Late Tuesday night Ralph started to go down hill again. Wednesday morning Doctor Peterson said that Ralph would last only another 24 hours.  

Forty-eight hours went by before Ralph finally called it quits.  

But 26 days have passed and he still seems present. An autographed photo of Sandy Koufax arrived just the other day, an E-Bay purchase Ralph had secretly made when I wasn’t paying attention. Another package arrived soon after, a photograph of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, a small boy hoisted between them, all three smiling joyfully into the camera lens.  

Now comes the bills and the paperwork, the phone calls and the out-of-town guests, followed by cleaning and purging and a Social Security mess. I call the wheelchair people and tell them they are two weeks late on their follow-up appointment and the man who used the chair no longer needs it. Within record-breaking time someone returns my call and makes arrangements to pick up the chair. I wait around the house for hours but no one arrives. “Come get it now,” I shout angrily into the phone several days later, and they finally do.  

Funeral arrangements are made, credit card and bank accounts closed. The cell phone company needs an official death certificate in order to cancel our joint account. I’m not penalized for the closure, but I have to open a new one for myself, no breaks on the start-up fees.  

The Kaiser psychiatry department calls and explains they’ve gone through my records and notice that I haven’t seen a psychiatrist in over 10 years. Technically, they say, I shouldn’t be getting a prescription for anti-depressants without a yearly check-up. “You need to make an appointment ASAP before the prescription runs out,” they inform me. But the first appointment isn’t available until mid-January, and a quick glance at the pill bottle tells me I’ll need a refill long before then. “Can I get an extension until the appointment?” I ask. “No,” says the woman on the other end. “You can’t.”  

I decide not to argue with her. I can hear Ralph whispering in my ear. “You don’t need those damn pills anymore,” he says. I wonder what he’ll be telling me next.


Berkeley’s Barn Owls: The View From 1926

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Berkeley was a much different place 80 years ago. But then as now, it was prime barn owl territory. During the summer of 1926, E. Raymond Hall of UC’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology kept track of a family of owls nesting in the tower of the First Presbyterian Church that then stood at Dana and Channing. Hall, who habitually worked late, heard them calling while walking home from the museum between 10 p.m. and midnight. 

Curious about their diet, he persuaded the church custodian to give him and Professor G. L. Foster access to the tower. Beneath the perches of the two adults and five nearly fledged young owls was a treasure trove of pellets—the residual bones, fur, and feathers coughed up by the birds. 

Allen painstakingly teased apart the pellets, identified their components, and tabulated them by species. His results, published in the Condor, the journal of the Cooper Ornithological Society, in 1927, make interesting reading. (I am indebted to Lisa Owens Viani, founder of Keep Barns Owls in Berkeley, for discovering Allen’s article, and to the University of New Mexico, whose Searchable Ornithological Research Archive project has made the contents of the Condor, the Auk, the Wilson Bulletin, and other journals available on-line.) 

Of nine mammal species represented in the pellets, the California vole (“meadow mouse,” in Allen’s terminology) was by far the most abundant, with 276 individuals. Pocket gophers came in a distant second (84), followed by white-footed mice (52). Only 37 house mice and two Norway rats were identified. Other bits and pieces included the remains of two young brush rabbits, a shrew, a song sparrow, and two Jerusalem crickets. 

Allen noted that the church owls’ diet differed from that of barn owls in Wildcat Canyon, which Foster had previously analyzed, in representing a narrower range of prey species and fewer white-footed mice. “The greater number of House Mice found in the church tower is hard to explain,” he wrote. Well, as a Berkeley resident and occasional house mouse victim, I find that statement hard to explain. Maybe house mice were more discreet in 1926. 

The First Presbyterian barn owls, Allen figured, were hunting mostly in the Berkeley Hills. He had detected east- and west-bound owl traffic over his home on Panoramic Way, up to 17 in a single summer evening. A couple were seen carrying pocket gophers back to their urban nests. Allen figured the owls would have a particularly strong impact on the voles, or meadow mice; his own vole surveys detected a sparser population near the Berkeley city limits than farther east, along the crest of the hills.  

“[T]he utilitarian-minded will infer,” he wrote, “that this belt, with a relatively small meadow mouse population along the city limits, functions as a protection to the well-watered, green lawns in the city. These lawns the meadow mice would seriously damage during the dry season, if a sufficient population could exist in proximity to them. Thus a possible conclusion is that, in Berkeley, a sufficient population of Barn Owls is one factor in maintaining attractive lawns!” 

It’s hard to avoid a twinge of nostalgia for such innocent times when the main perceived rodent problem was meadow mice munching the lawn, not rats frolicking in city parks. But at least the barn owls are still on the job. 

Readers may recall that around the time the barn owl became Berkeley’s city bird, I invited readers to send in owl-inspired stories, poems, art, whatever. I can’t say that the response was overwhelming. However, I did get the poem by eight-year-old Jackson Kinder—a shaped poem, apparently—that accompanies this column. Thanks, Jackson, and my apologies for not getting it into print sooner. The same to Penny Bartlett, whose reminiscence of house-hunting barn owls will appear in a future issue of the Planet. 

And in other owl news, the estimable Hungry Owl Project is having a fund-raising event on October 26 at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, from 6 to 9 p.m. HOP’s second annual Evening with Owls will be hosted by Joe Mueller, biology professor at the College of Marin, and will feature a presentation on great gray owls by Jon Winters. (No, there are no great gray owls in Berkeley, more’s the pity. These are mountain birds, sparsely distributed in the Sierra). Live owls will be present. Tickets ($50) may still be available; call (415) 898-7721, or visit www.hungryowl.org.


The View

By P.M. Price
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Under Currents: Checking in on the Media’s Coverage of the AG Race

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday October 20, 2006

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 M. Owens 1898-2006

By Donna Maynard
Friday October 20, 2006

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!


About The House: The Dangers of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

By MATT CANTOR
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Quake Tip of the Week

By LARRY GUILLOT
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Garden Variety: Take the Thyme for a Jaunt To Morningsun Herb Farm

By RON SULLIVAN
Friday October 20, 2006

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 


Oakland Housing Authority Wins Award for Mixed-Use Project

Bay City News
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday October 24, 2006

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. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Jardiin” Imagined botanicals by Donna Duguay. Reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon and GAllery, 1887 Solano Ave. Exhibition runs to Jan. 21. 527-3100. 

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. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com  

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. www.yoshis.com 

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. www.codysbooks.com 

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 

East Bay Improv at 8 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, Adeline and Alcatrz. Cost is $7. 964-0571. www.eastbayimprov.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 

FRIDAY, OCT. 27 

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. Cost is $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 “Passing Strange” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through Dec. 3. Tickets are $45-$61. 645-2949. 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. 

Fusion Theater “Beauty and the Beast” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $3-$10. 464-3544. mtorres@peralta.edu 

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. 12. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

TheatreFirst “Criminal Genius” Thurs.-Fri. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Old Oakland Theatre, 481 Ninth St., at Broadway, Oakland, through Nov. 19. Tickets are $19-$25. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

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 

“Body Language” Paintings and sculpture. Sidewalk reception at 6 p.m. at Addison Street Windows. 981-7533. 

“Fiber 2006” Featuring eight Bay Area artists at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. to Nov. 4. 843-2527. 

FILM 

Claire Burch Film Festival with the filmmaker at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 528-5403. 

A Theater Near You “The Case of the Grinning Cat” at 7 p.m. and “Yang Ban Xi: The Eight Model Works” at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Isabel Stirling, biographer and Gary Snyder, poet, introduce “Zen Pioneer: The Life and Works of Ruth Fuller Sasaki” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Hiroko Shimbo demonstrates “The Sushi Experience” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pianist Sarah Cahill Concert for Berkeley Arts Festival: 8 pm Jazzschool 2087 Addison Street, $10-$20 www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Country Joe McDonald, with Pat Nevins and friends in a 1960s-style show at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Matt Renzi Trio, saxophone jazz at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley. Cost is $15. www.hillsideclub.org  

Bay Area Classical Harmonies “Sounds from the Underworld” in celebration of Halloween at 7:30 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 868-0695. www.bayareabach.org 

Lyon Opera Ballet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$58. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Gypsy Flamenco Stars at 5 and 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $65-$95, includes dinner. 287-8700. 

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

Moodswing Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Mixers at 9 p.m. at The Pub at Baltic Square, aka The Baltic, at 135 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. Cost is $5. 237-4782.  

Reverend Billy C. Wirtz at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Gerald Beckett Trio with Eric Swinderman at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Ravines at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Meliaquis, Diegos Umbrella at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Trainwreck Riders, Genghis Khan, Rum & Rebellion at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Aqualibrre, Los Pingous at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Brazuca Brown at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 28 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Betsy Rose, Halloween songs and activities, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

A Harvest of Peace An alternative Halloween Concert for children and families at 10:30 a.m. at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Please bring a fruit or vegetable of the season for the harvest altar. Food will be donated to a local soup kitchen. Also bring pictures or remembrances of grandparents, favorite pets or those you consider ancestors. Cost is $3-$4. 849-2568. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“California as Muse” The Art of Arthur and Lucia Mathews opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Nine at Gaia: A Group Show” Works by Carol Brighton, Helen Chellin, Debra Jewell, Tessa Merrie, Hearne Pardee, Sylvia Sussman, Sandy Walker, Christine Walter, Gina Werfel. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. 653-3433. 

Randy & Jan McKeachie Johnston “New Work” Reception at 5 p.m. at Trax Gallery, 1815 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Nov. 22. 540-8729. 

“Wheels” Works by Christopher Peterson, Harrod Blank, Philip Hall and Troy Paiva. Paintings and photographs of cars. Opening reception at 3 p.m. at Montclair Gallery, 1986 Mountain Blvd. 339-4286.  

FILM 

A Theater Near You “The Case of the Grinning Cat” at 7 p.m. and “The World” at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Watershed Envoronmental Poetry Festival from noon to 6 p.m. at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. Opening Creek Walk, with poetry writing and reading led by Chris Olander, Meet at 10 a.m. on the UC Berkeley Campus, Oxford and Center Sts. 526-9105. www.poetryflash.org 

“At Thadeus Lake” Conversation with the artist Sherri Martin, winner of the 2006 Kala Board Prize at 2 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs to Nov. 25. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Healing with Music” a lecture by Therese West at Berkeley Piano Club, sponsored by Four Seasons Concerts. Tickets are $25. 601-7919. 

“Braided Lives: A Collboration Between Artists and Poets” at 7:30 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Donation $5-$15. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Andrea Nguyen descrbes “The Vietnamese Kitchen: Ancient Foodways, Modern Flavors” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Douglas Kent discusses “Firescaping” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Harvest of Song with new compositions by Allen Shearer, Peter Joseff, Don Walker and others at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Cost is $10. 644-6893. www.berkeleysrtcenter.org 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Fall Concert at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Tickets are $12-$15. 849-9776. www.ypsomusic.net 

Kensington Symphony with Thomas Shoebotham, cello, performs Shostakovich, Lalo, Beethoven at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Donation $10-$15, children free. 524-9912. 

Lyon Opera Ballet at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$58. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Flamenco Halloween at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Hindustani Ragas by Teed Rockwell at 7:30 p.m. a Fourth Street Yoga, 1809 Fourth St., #C. Cost is $10. For reservations call 548-8779.  

Ellen Robinson & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Lost Coast and Dark Hollow, bluegrass, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Inspector Double Negative and the Equal Positives at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

David Gans at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Wake the Dead at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Radio Suicide, CD release, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Wil Blades and Brian Pardo at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Carl Nagin, flamenco, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

 

 

 

Murder Ballads Bash, songs of misery, murder and despair, at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Guru Garage at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Halloween Weekend Show with Minor Threat, Youth of Today, Negative Approach and others 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. 29 

CHILDREN 

Reading and Learning about Gardens for children at 1 and 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Muriel Johnson Storytelling at 2 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. 

FILM 

A Theater Near You “Neighborhood Watch” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Desperate Hours” at 7:30 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $5. 848-0237. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Celebrating Decca” readings from the newly published letters of Jessica Mitford by friends, family and distinguished authors in a benefit for KPFA at 8 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $15-$20. 848-6767, ext. 609. 

“The Furniture Shop and Its Legacy” The design and decoration of the furnishings of Arthur and Lucia Mathews at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Ghost Walk and Graveyard Tales with Bay Area mystery and crime writers Simon Wood, Hailey Lind, Camille Minichino at 7 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. 228-3207. 

Poetry Flash with Norman Fischer and Paul Naylor at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Representa! bilingual hip-hop and spoken word at 6 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Laughing Bones/Weeping Hearts” Gallery talk with artists Joe Bastida Rodriguez and Deborah Rumer at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Aili” by Matti Kurikka, dramatized reading in English of the 1887 Finnish feminist play at 2 p.m. at Finnish Kaleva Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Donation $5. 849-0125.  

Kevin Coval reads from “Slingshots (A Hip-Hop Poetica)” at 5 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Harvest of Song with new compositions by Allen Shearer, Peter Joseff, Don Walker and others at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Cost is $10. 644-6893. www.berkeleysrtcenter.org 

Susan Werner at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The English Concert at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

University Wind Ensemble at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Janet Oliphant Rossman and Carol Dechaine, showtime favorites at 7 p.m. at Latarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda. Benefits the Let The Music Play Fund. www.altarena.org 

Brazilian Soul at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Evelie Posch at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Americana Unplugged: The Saddle Cats, western swing, at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 655-5715. 

Clockwork, a cappella jazz, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Susan Muscarello Trio, Halloween jazz, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Susan Werner at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Yellowjackets at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, OCT. 30 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Wangari Maathai, founder of the Greenbelt Movement at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Suggested donation $10. 559-9500. 

Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium at 7:30 p.m. at the Center for New Media, 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. www. ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/lecs 

Poetry Express open mic theme night on “night poems” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Khalil Shaheed, all ages jam, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

“An Evening of Improvised Music” at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 

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

 

 

 


The Theater: Antenna Theater Brings Audience Back to ‘High School’

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 24, 2006

It’s not exactly High School Confidential, the interactive show Sausalito’s Antenna Theater is staging at Berkeley High through this weekend, but as an example of Antenna’s ‘Walkmanology,’ more of a tour through four years on campus compressed into 45 minutes, literally a walk-through of secondary education. 

High School has been staged twice before, at schools in Marin and San Francisco, in evolving, site-specific form, and is slated to continue at other schools throughout America. 

Chris Hardman, its creator (John Warren directed), is an alumnus of Snake Theater, probably the best-known “environmental” troupe of the ‘70s. 

More than 25 students are cast, seven in the student crew, and more than 50 voices, with tales from interviews swirling through an ambulatory auditor-spectator’s ears while strolling through the corridors and classrooms, confronted by masked (and sculpted) personnel, actual students, and a variety of conundrums to bring home the student experience. 

(The idea of High School took me back to my own—undisclosed—Bay Area alma mater, wherein with my gonzo guerrilla theater club, I put on—the operant term—a special Boot Camp for Freshman Orientation Day, with a suitably authentic Drill Sergeant, who took the incoming frosh through the wringer. The activities dean was not amused. Apparently, high school itself wasn’t meant to be theater, no matter how theatrical.) 

Antenna’s itinerary takes you from alarm clock and bus ride in the morning, to entering the doors of the campus--voices describing their thoughts on entering for the first time—through the Security Office (and an imposing cartoonish figure who escorts you out) and posing for an I.D. tag photo. Later you’ll glimpse gossipers out of the side of your eye as you stoop to open a locker, be lightly jostled by kids “cupcaking,” get mildly hazed in OCI (instead of detention) and witness through an upstairs window student brawlers with enormous 2-D arms broken up by the monolithic Security Guard. You’re taken all the way through to graduation, with the valedictorian asking, “What are you going to do with the rest of your life?” Remember? 

With the tidbits of real stories and students playing students amid the masks, I found it to be, though somewhat stylized, much more realistic than my old Boot Camp routine. Strange, I had the feeling at times of being on a game show, or of writing a sociology report, based on a simulation. 

And the freshmen voices were right about getting lost, too. I did. Mistaking a Walkman cue while standing at a stop sign for us spectators, one ambling through every two minutes, I went through a door someone left ajar—and got locked out. Standing on the pavement outside, I faithfully listened to the last few moments on tape, and returned by the street to square one. 

It served me right. Too long a passive onlooker, ensconced in a padded seat in the audience, taking notes. I couldn’t cut it as participant anymore; probably couldn’t even get cast as a spear carrier. 

They gave me my diploma, anyway. I felt much more awkward and teary than at my actual ceremony decades ago, though no-one played “Pomp and Circumstance.” Maybe you can’t go home again, but High School can really get to you. 

 

 

High School  

Presented by Antenna Theater through Oct. 29 at Berkeley High School, 1980 Allston Way. One audience member enters show every minute, walks lasts 45 minutes. $20 adults, $8 students. Reservations required. (415) 332-9454, www.antenna-theater.org.  


Harvest of Song Features Local Composers, Poets

By Jaime Robles, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 24, 2006

I am waiting for a rehearsal, held in the living room of a beautiful home, to begin. It’s the first time I will hear the pianist and soprano who are performing an aria that I wrote the libretto for. Earlier I saw the composer, Peter Josheff, going over the music with the pianist. He was totally focused. What he was telling her matters.  

After several singers and musicians have performed, the soprano gets up and says a few words about the aria: the character singing is Francesca da Rimini, the tortured soul doomed to the third ring of Dante’s hell where the damned, because they have been unable to resist the force of their desires, are blown about by an unrelenting wind.  

The aria is Francesca’s explanation of why she is in hell. It’s the first aria Peter and I have completed in our longer work-in-progress based on Francesca’s story in the Divine Comedy. Peter Josheff and I have collaborated on vocal music and improvisation for over 10 years. 

Even in collaboration, though, composing and writing are solitary processes.  

At the beginning of each project we develop, Peter tells me in general terms what he is looking for: the voices and instruments he wants to compose for, the length of the piece, its emotional content. I figure out an appropriate “story” and write a text. He then writes the music. Occasionally he’ll question words or the sense of a section of the text as he is writing.  

Although he has a clear idea of the piece in development, I only hear the finished product at the last moment: in final rehearsal or in performance. It’s in those moments that the work we’ve done changes, going from personal struggle in a solitary setting to a coherent event in a public setting. The collaboration between writer and composer has ended; the object created belongs to the performer and to the audience. 

Listening to Francesca’s aria, I evaluate our work. The music is ominous and gorgeous at the same time: the complexity of notes rising from the piano supports the intensely melodic line of the words, and surrounds the listener. It seems to blend with the light reflected from the walls of the room and the silence of the audience. 

You can hear the chilling despair of hell as well as the singer’s continuing desire for life and love; the soprano’s delicate interpretation is totally convincing. Peter has written this piece for her and he has woven the nuances of her voice into the music’s emotional threads. Though the aria will change once the rest of the opera is written, I find this version of “Francesca’s Complaint” perfect in and of itself. It has captured the constellation of meanings I endeavored to put into words and moved beyond them into something transformative. 

Each year Peter Josheff and Allen Shearer, two of the Bay Area’s most interesting and noteworthy composers, put together a concert of songs and premier them at the Berkeley Art Center as “The Harvest of Song.” They not only present their own new work, they also showcase the work of other Bay Area composers who write for voice and chamber ensemble; the music is played and sung by some of the most accomplished musicians in the Bay Area.  

We invite you to join us this year at the Berkeley Art Center. 

 

HARVEST OF SONG 

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28 and Sunday, Oct. 29. Pre-concert discussion at 6:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. 654-8651. 

Featured will be world premiere performances of new works by Allen Shearer, Ann Callaway, and the collaborative team of composer Peter Josheff and poet Jaime Robles, as well as recent works by Sue-Hye Kim, Dan Reiter, Mikako Endo and Don Walker. Also included will be a song from the 1930s workers’ musical Pins and Needles by Harold Rome. 

This program will feature performances by the Harvest of Song All Stars: Tod Brody, flute; Peter Josheff, clarinet; Karen Rosenak, piano; Ellen Ruth Rose, viola and Dan Reiter, cello; with vocalists Eliza O’Malley, soprano and Allen Shearer, baritone.  


SF Jazz Festival Underway

By Ira Steingroot, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 24, 2006

At the Friday night opening concert of the 24th annual SF Jazz Festival, Sonny Rollins performed a half dozen tunes for almost two hours with an astounding amount of passion, strength and nobility. 

He roared through the title tune of his new CD, Sonny, Please and his own “Nice Lady,” a lovely calypso, before getting into a groove with three standards, “Stairway to the Stars,” “Some Day I’ll Find You” and “They Say It’s Wonderful,” and then closed with an exciting version of his own “Don’t Stop the Carnival.” He seemed to have inherited Thelonious Monk’s mantle, shuffle-dancing across the stage while playing intensely focused and profound saxophone lines. This incredible beginning augurs great things from the rest of the festival. The following programs are just the top picks from a consistently great lineup: 

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, 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, 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 ’50s, he was playing on dates with Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. By his early 20s, 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 Coltrane 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 ‘60s. 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 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 see www.sfjazz.org. 

 


Berkeley’s Barn Owls: The View From 1926

By Joe Eaton, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 24, 2006

Berkeley was a much different place 80 years ago. But then as now, it was prime barn owl territory. During the summer of 1926, E. Raymond Hall of UC’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology kept track of a family of owls nesting in the tower of the First Presbyterian Church that then stood at Dana and Channing. Hall, who habitually worked late, heard them calling while walking home from the museum between 10 p.m. and midnight. 

Curious about their diet, he persuaded the church custodian to give him and Professor G. L. Foster access to the tower. Beneath the perches of the two adults and five nearly fledged young owls was a treasure trove of pellets—the residual bones, fur, and feathers coughed up by the birds. 

Allen painstakingly teased apart the pellets, identified their components, and tabulated them by species. His results, published in the Condor, the journal of the Cooper Ornithological Society, in 1927, make interesting reading. (I am indebted to Lisa Owens Viani, founder of Keep Barns Owls in Berkeley, for discovering Allen’s article, and to the University of New Mexico, whose Searchable Ornithological Research Archive project has made the contents of the Condor, the Auk, the Wilson Bulletin, and other journals available on-line.) 

Of nine mammal species represented in the pellets, the California vole (“meadow mouse,” in Allen’s terminology) was by far the most abundant, with 276 individuals. Pocket gophers came in a distant second (84), followed by white-footed mice (52). Only 37 house mice and two Norway rats were identified. Other bits and pieces included the remains of two young brush rabbits, a shrew, a song sparrow, and two Jerusalem crickets. 

Allen noted that the church owls’ diet differed from that of barn owls in Wildcat Canyon, which Foster had previously analyzed, in representing a narrower range of prey species and fewer white-footed mice. “The greater number of House Mice found in the church tower is hard to explain,” he wrote. Well, as a Berkeley resident and occasional house mouse victim, I find that statement hard to explain. Maybe house mice were more discreet in 1926. 

The First Presbyterian barn owls, Allen figured, were hunting mostly in the Berkeley Hills. He had detected east- and west-bound owl traffic over his home on Panoramic Way, up to 17 in a single summer evening. A couple were seen carrying pocket gophers back to their urban nests. Allen figured the owls would have a particularly strong impact on the voles, or meadow mice; his own vole surveys detected a sparser population near the Berkeley city limits than farther east, along the crest of the hills.  

“[T]he utilitarian-minded will infer,” he wrote, “that this belt, with a relatively small meadow mouse population along the city limits, functions as a protection to the well-watered, green lawns in the city. These lawns the meadow mice would seriously damage during the dry season, if a sufficient population could exist in proximity to them. Thus a possible conclusion is that, in Berkeley, a sufficient population of Barn Owls is one factor in maintaining attractive lawns!” 

It’s hard to avoid a twinge of nostalgia for such innocent times when the main perceived rodent problem was meadow mice munching the lawn, not rats frolicking in city parks. But at least the barn owls are still on the job. 

Readers may recall that around the time the barn owl became Berkeley’s city bird, I invited readers to send in owl-inspired stories, poems, art, whatever. I can’t say that the response was overwhelming. However, I did get the poem by eight-year-old Jackson Kinder—a shaped poem, apparently—that accompanies this column. Thanks, Jackson, and my apologies for not getting it into print sooner. The same to Penny Bartlett, whose reminiscence of house-hunting barn owls will appear in a future issue of the Planet. 

And in other owl news, the estimable Hungry Owl Project is having a fund-raising event on October 26 at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, from 6 to 9 p.m. HOP’s second annual Evening with Owls will be hosted by Joe Mueller, biology professor at the College of Marin, and will feature a presentation on great gray owls by Jon Winters. (No, there are no great gray owls in Berkeley, more’s the pity. These are mountain birds, sparsely distributed in the Sierra). Live owls will be present. Tickets ($50) may still be available; call (415) 898-7721, or visit www.hungryowl.org.


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday October 24, 2006

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. 

Debate on Proposition 87 Alternative Energy and Oil Tax at 7 p.m. in Evans Hall, Room 10, UC Campus. Submit questions to caldebateseries@gmail.com 

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. 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. Reservations can be made by calling 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. 

Debate on Berkeley’s Measure I, Condominium Conversion Ordinance at 8 p.m. at North Gate Hall, UC Campus. Submit questions to caldebateseries@gmail.com. 

“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. Heavy rain cancels. 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. 

North Shattuck Plaza Community Meeting to review the proposed plans for the area’s redevelopment at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Street. info@northshattuckplaza.org 

“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.  

FRIDAY, OCT. 27 

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 Dr. Lisa Feuchtbaum on “Newborn Screening” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

“Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties” A documentary by Robert Greenwald at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 

An Evening of Claire Burch Films, in appreciation and memory of Allen Cohen at 6 p.m. at Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. 547-7602. 

Haunted House at an historic English Tudor-style house, 2647 Durant Aven. Free to Berkeley and Oakland students from 4 to 6 p.m. 562-2506. 

UC Berkeley Asian Business Association’s Charity Fashion Show at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave: Cost is $10. jchea@berkeley.edu  

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, OCT. 28 

Native Plant Fair with Berkeley native plants, bulbs, seeds, books, art, and crafts for sale, talks by experts and fun activities for children, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sun. from noon to 3 p.m. at Native Here Nursery, 101 Golf Course Dr., Tilden Park. 496-6016. www.ebcnps.org  

Codornices Creek Watershed Tour Meet at 9 a.m. near the mouth of Codornices Creek at Albany Waterfront Trail, where Buchanan St. dead ends north of Golden Gate Fields, west of I-580. The tour will begin at the upstream end of the watershed and will consist of stops with different speakers along various points of the creek, ending at the mouth of the creek near the meeting point. 452-0901. 

The New School Halloween Bazaar, with face painting, children's games, rummage and books sales, haunted house, food and entertainment from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 606 Bonita Street, at Cedar. 548-9165. 

“Breaking the Silence” with former Israeli military commander Yehuda Shaul, founder of a group of ex-combatants who reveal how Israeli soldiers regularly violate the human rights of Palestinians while serving in the Occupied Territories, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Church Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Sliding scale donation $5-$20. 465-1777. 

Breast Cancer in Our Community with Lisa Bailey, MD, Medical Director of the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center at 11 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. Registration is required. 549-9200. 

Teens Touch the Earth learn how to protect the bay, wildlife and native plants, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Miller Knox. Community service credit available. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Fall Blooming Perennials & Shrubs” at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Harvest Festival, with activities for children and entertainment for adults from noon to 4 p.m. at Bay Street, Emeryville. 655-4002. 

Neighborhood Anti-War Rally at 1:30 p.m. at the corner Acton and University. Sponsored by the Tenants Association of Strawberry Creek Lodge. 841-4143. 

How Berkeley Came To Be Bring photocopies of photos, postcards and other memorabilia of your family’s arrival in Berkeley to create a community scrapbook at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, South Branch. For infromation call 981-6147. 

“Dias de los Muertos” Feast of the Angelitos at 2 p.m. and Procession of the Day of the Dead at 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207. arodman@lifemarkgroup.com 

Haunted Caves A spooky adventure for ages 3 and up from 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center. Cost is $3-$5. 525-2233. 

Talking Pumpkins, Birds and Trees with storytellers and an enchanted walk at 10 a.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Come in costume. Cost is $8-$10, $3 for each additional child. Registration required. 643-2755. 

O’Hallow’s Eve Fright Night from 1 to 8 p.m. at the Ashby Flea Market with music, games, dance contest, pie-eating contest, face painting and more.  

Halloween Face Painting for children Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Dog Training: Slow Down! Teach your dog to walk without pulling at 9:30 a.m. and “Come Spot Come” at 10:30 a.m. at Grace North Church, 2128 Cedar St. Cost is $35-$40. Registration required. 849-9323. www.companyofdogs.com 

Animal Communication, for healing, at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave. Cost is $25, for an appointment call 525-6155. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Berkeley Haunted House for all ages from 6:30 to 8:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Free, donations accepted. 845-6830, ext. 13. 

Monster Bash aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet Museum from 7:30 p.m. to midnight at 707 W Hornet Ave, Pier 3 in Alameda. Tickets are $10-$20. Proceeds will benefit the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet Museum. 521-8448, ext. 282. www.hornetevents.com 

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 every Wed. and Sat. 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.  

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. 29 

UCC-Toberfest with wine and beer tasting, silent auction, live music and food, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Piedmont Veterans Community Hall, 401 Highland Ave. Piedmont. Cost is $25. Benefits the Urban Creeks Council. 540-6669. 

Street Scare Halloween Block Party with pumpkin carving, bean-bag-toss, fun photos, crafts and more, from noon to 5 p.m. at 23rd St. and Telegraph. Sponsored by Rock, Paper, Scissors Gallery. 278-9171.  

Open House and Costume Party from 1 to 6 p.m. at Expressions Art Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930. 

Alameda Fall Festival with live music, cookout, children’s activities and more, from noon to 5 p.m. at Alameda Marketplace, Park St. parking lot, 1650 Park St. www.alamedamarketplace.com 

Haunted House at an historic English Tudor-style house at 2647 Durant Ave. Open to the public from 6 to 9 pm.. Cost is $3, and benefits The Green Stampede Homework Club. 562-2506. 

“Celebrating Decca” readings from the newly published letters of Jessica Mitford by friends, family and distinguished authors in a benefit for KPFA at 8 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets are $15-$20. 848-6767, ext. 609. 

El Cerrito Historical Society meets to discuss Historic Preservation at 2 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, located behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507.  

Beauty of Briones A moderate 5 mile hike through a spectaular park, led by naturalist Tara Reinertson. Meet at 10 a.m. at Bear Creek Staging Area. Bring lunch, sunscreen, and water. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Cybersalon with Steven Levy on “The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness” at 5 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10. whoisylvia@aol.com 

Home Greywater Workshop Learn about and help create the first permitted residential greywater system from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Berkeley Ecohouse, 1305 Hopkins St. Cost is $15 slidign scale, no one turned away. 547-8715. 

IRV Peace Meet-up and Rally at 1:30 p.m. at Splashpad Park, LakeShore and Grand Ave., Oakland. 644-1303. 

Get Your Freak On at the Kensington Farmers’ Market, tatoo booth, fortune telling, and more from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 

“Voodoo: The Authentic Legacy of Marie Laveau in New Orleans” with Carol Carlisle at 9:30 a.m at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Mark Henderson on “The Hidden Power of the Tibetan Prayer Wheel” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, OCT. 30 

Batopia Learn the truth about bats with Maggie Hooper and her flying friends at 7 p.m. at the Piedmont Ave. Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 160 41st St. 597-5011. 

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. 

CITY MEETINGS 

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. 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Oct. 25, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., Oct. 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Oct. 25, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

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. 981-7410.


Arts Calendar

Friday October 20, 2006

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. 

 

 


Theater: Central Works Brings ‘Andromache’ to City Club

By KEN BULLOCK
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


MOVING PICTURES: ‘The Motel’ Strives for Indie Credibility

By JUSTIN DeFREITAS
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Film: All We Are Saying is Give Grass a Chance

By Roger Rapoport
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Rollins Kicks Off SF Jazz Festival

Friday October 20, 2006

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.


A Homecoming For Alaine Rodin

By Ken Bullock
Friday October 20, 2006

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.” 


About The House: The Dangers of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

By MATT CANTOR
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Quake Tip of the Week

By LARRY GUILLOT
Friday October 20, 2006

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.


Garden Variety: Take the Thyme for a Jaunt To Morningsun Herb Farm

By RON SULLIVAN
Friday October 20, 2006

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 


Oakland Housing Authority Wins Award for Mixed-Use Project

Bay City News
Friday October 20, 2006

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. 


Berkeley This Week

Friday October 20, 2006

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