A controversial revision to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance will be on the City Council agenda Tuesday. However, the city attorney’s office said Friday afternoon that it had the wrong landmarks ordinance revision posted on its website, but would have the revision posted late Friday. (It’s not likely to be identified differently than the one on the current website, according to a staff secretary.) The ordinance is available on the agenda site at http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agendaindex.htm

Yonas Mehari did not live to attend the second meeting of the Ethiopian Eritrean Students Union (EESU) he had helped established at Berkeley High, but his friends were there to carry on the dream he had left behind. 

“Exactly one week ago, Yonas and I were standing in this very spot, Room No. 309 in Building C,” said Raheil Drar, a sophomore and president of the EESU, Wednesday. “Yonas was disappointed about the turnout for the first meeting but I told him that there’s always next week. One day later he was shot.” 

Yonas, 17, his mother Regbe Baharengasi, 50 and sister Winta Mehari, 28, were killed by gunfire in their Keller Plaza Apartment complex in North Oakland on Thanksgiving Day.  

According to police reports, two of Winta Mehari’s brothers-in-law had shot the three family members in order to avenger the death of their brother Abraham Tewolde, who had been married to Ms. Mehari. 

Two of Mehari’s brothers were also wounded in the attack.  

One, a 22-year-old, was shot in the foot. The other, 20, is currently undergoing treatment at the hospital for breaking his back while jumping out of the third-floor-apartment to avoid getting shot. A Berkeley High parent at the meeting said that there was a possibility he could be paralyzed. 

The suspected gunman, identified as Asmeron Tewolde Gebreselassie, 43, and his brother, Tewodros Tewolde Gebreselassie, 39, who police reported helped plan the shooting, have been arrested and charged on three counts of suspicion of murder. Both brothers have admitted their roles in the shooting, according to police. 

Students at the meeting expressed disbelief at the incident and shared fond memories of Yonas. 

“When I first heard about this, my first reaction was to discontinue with the EESU,” Raheil said. “Yonas was the guiding light. He was the one who always got everything organized. It’s hard to imagine this without him. But I decided to take over as president from him and continue his work because this is what he would have wanted.” 

Students also talked about setting up a scholarship fund for Eritrean Ethiopian students at Berkeley High and in the East Bay. 

“Once a year the cities in the Bay Area pay you money if you turn in your guns to the government. If we can lobby the cities of Richmond, Oakland and Berkeley to do this for a few more days it would be really great,” said Abdul Shemse, a junior who came to the United States from Ethiopia in 1996. “The money could help students who have experienced violence in their lives and help them have a future.” Abdul will be co-presiding over the union with Raheil. 

Abdul told the Planet that one of the reasons Yonas had wanted to create the EESU was to try and bridge the gap between Eritreans and Ethiopians. 

“Our countries are in dispute over land,” he said. “But it’s our respective governments who are creating this conflict. Eritrean and Ethiopian students work together, eat together and play together under the same roof in Berkeley High. And the club is a way to continue to make that happen.” 

The EESU will be visiting Yonas’ family on Friday to hand over the donations and the condolence messages that hundreds of students had written for Yonas at school. 

“We have collected $3,200 so far,” Abdul said. “We would like Yonas’ family to use it toward medical expenses, which are over $50,000.” 

There are also plans to collect money for the rural regions of Ethiopia and Eritrea—something that Yonas wanted to do, and also set up a fund for Children Aid Ethiopia (CHAD-ET) which works with sexually exploited children in Addis, Ethiopia’s capital. 

Besides being active in student clubs, Yonas was also was a member of the BHS varsity soccer team and excelled in academics. 

According to his tutor, Carlos Bustamante, Yonas wanted to become a doctor. 

“He wanted to study medicine at UC Davis. He had a great math mind and helped to tutor kids,” Bustamante said. “I was aware of the drama going on with his sister and her in-laws, but he was making such great progress in school that it was hard to imagine there could be any violence lurking in the background at all.”  

Yonas’ soccer coach, Eugenio Janu Juarez, told the Planet during a memorial service at the Berkeley High football fields on Monday that the shooting did not come out of the blue. 

“There has been a long time festering between the families over Abraham Tewolde’s death,” he said. “Abraham’s family thinks that he was poisoned and this was their way of taking revenge. What happened is horrible.” 

Juarez dedicated the 2006-2007 soccer season to the memory of Yonas.  

University of California Regents are expected to approve Tuesday an environmental document authorizing 451,000 square feet of new construction at and around UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium. 

The Regents are scheduled to adopt plans for a controversial high tech athletic training center adjacent to the landmarked stadium. 

“They will be meeting to vote to certify the EIR (environmental impact report) and approve the design,” said UC spokesperson Jennifer Ward.  

Word of the meeting came two days after the stadium itself was named to the National Register of Historic Places, a federal listing maintained by the National Parks Service. 

But the newest honor accorded the building—which was also recently designated a City of Berkeley landmark—affords no new leverage for opponents of UC Berkeley’s massive expansion plans in the area, say state and local officials. 

“It doesn’t change much,” said Berkeley Planning and Development Director Dan Marks, who is spearheading the city’s opposition to the scope of the projects outlined in the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP) plan. 

Stephen Miksell, California’s Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, agreed. 

“The most protections that would be afford would be through the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and the university acknowledged the stadium’s historic properties in their CEQA documents,” he said. 

Michael Kelly of the Panoramic Hill Association (PHA), which along with the city is preparing to file a lawsuit if the EIR is approved, said one of the most significant aspects of the federal listing is its inclusion of a threatened oak grove at the training center site. 

CEQA mandated the preparation of the EIR which the regents’ Grounds and Building Committee is expected to approve Tuesday, Ward said.  

That document includes not just the Student Athlete High Performance, but a complex of projects and massive new construction at and near the stadium. 

The meeting will take place over the phone at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, and area residents may attend electronically by appearing at the UC San Francisco Mission Bay campus Community Center, 1675 Owens St., San Francisco. 

Marks said a city representative would attend. 

Committee approval of the EIR guarantees that one and possibly two lawsuits will be filed in the following 30 days, the statutory period for filing legal challenges once an EIR is approved. 

City Councilmembers voted Nov. 14 to sue if the EIR was approved, and the PHA, representing neighbors who live on the hillside above the stadium, has also retained an attorney. 

Kelly said the association has a crucial role to play in litigation because the area was recently designated a National Historic District because it includes many historic dwellings designed by renowned architects, including Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, Ernest Coxhead, John Hudson Thomas and William Wurster. 

He said representatives of other neighborhood groups are planning to attend, along with many advocates who oppose destruction of the stand of trees at the training center site, which include coast live oaks. 

The National Register application was drafted by John English, a retired planner who also drafted the city landmark nomination. Both include the oak grove. 

Paul Lusignan, the National Register historian responsible for listings in the Western U.S., said the listing became official Monday. 

“It’s a very good example of an early 20th Century large-scale athletic stadium, one of the few remaining examples in the state and in the country,” he said. “It has great architectural and engineering qualities,” he said. 

One of the most controversial elements in the EIR slated for approval Tuesday is a plan to build additional rows of seats above the stadiums eastern rim and to add a press deck and a row of luxury sky boxes above the western rim. 

Proof that historic designations don’t bar similar additions comes from two well-known stadiums where even more radical vertical additions have been authorized—Soldier Field in Chicago and Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 

Both stadiums have been accorded the highest national historic designation, that of one of the fewer than 2,500 National Landmarks. By contrast, there are more than 79,000 entries on the National Register. 

Berkeley has two federal landmarks—the First Church of Christ, Scientist and Room 307 of Gilman Hall on the UC Berkeley campus—compared to 57 National Register listings, some including multiple buildings. The room was named because within those walls in 1941 the element Plutonium was first identified, leading directly to the first nuclear weapon ever detonated. 

Any objection from a property owner blocks a listing under National Parks Service rules, but UC officials didn’t act. 

The 142,000-square-foot training center and office complex the regents are expected to approve Tuesday is four stories tall in places, but all beneath the base level of the landmark stadium building.  

All of the estimated $112 million in construction costs would be paid from corporate and private donations and grants. Regents have already approved the project budget and authorized using up to $12 million in standby financing if needed during fund-raising. 

Other projects included in the EIR raise the total construction costs to over $300 billion, and include a nearby 912-car underground parking lot, an even larger new building joining functions of the UC Berkeley law and business schools and streetscape changes for Piedmont Avenue/Gayley Road—itself a city landmark. 

UC Berkeley officials told the regents earlier this month that approval was essential by January at the latest so preliminary excavations wouldn’t interfere with the coming fall football season. 

City officials and neighbors have argued that impacts of the projects, along with the heavy traffic they would generate both during and after construction, would place an intolerable burden on already heavily trafficked streets and the city’s overburdened infrastructure.

A rally to save oaks is not where you’d expect to find a guy who makes his living cutting down trees. 

But Tuesday evening Ric Costales, who calls himself a timberfeller, stood microphone in hand on the steps of Berkeley’s Old City Hall, supporting some 40 people who had come to a rally called by Save the Oaks at the Stadium to rescue 38 oak trees from the UC Berkeley ax.  

The university, which is not obliged under state law to follow local regulations such as the ordinance against removing oak trees without a permit, plans to cut down an oak grove to make room to expand the football stadium and build an athletic training facility.  

“When we cut trees, they grow back, but in an area like this, you cut them down and they’re gone,” said Costales, who lives and works near the California-Oregon border and learned of the pending uprooting of the trees while visiting a Bay Area relative during the Thanksgiving holiday. 

“It seems like a university could figure out how to save the oaks,” he said, calling for a rational process through which discussions could be carried out with the university. “We should all know what rules we’re playing by. We’ve got to engage in intellectual debate.” 

Emma Fazio of the Student Coalition to Save the Oaks also spoke: “I don’t want to pay tuition to a university that looks at a woodland and sees a place to put a gym.” 

Before the rally Fazio told the Daily Planet that the students were preparing for training by Rainforest Action on tree-sitter rights. 

Doug Buckwald who helped organize the rally told protesters the university was playing a public relations game, saying it would plant three trees for every one removed. “You cannot replace the eco-system with gardening projects,” he said. 

Former mayor Shirley Dean also took a turn speaking to the rally. She called on the “number one public university in the world” to abide by the local oaks ordinance. 

“We are a diverse group of people,” she said. “The University of California has united us.” 

University spokesperson Marie Felde underscored that no trees will be cut until the Regents of the University of California certify the environmental impact report on the stadium project. A Regents’ subcommittee that can certify the report will meet Tuesday. 

Buckwald told the Daily Planet that he is encouraging people to speak out at the subcommittee meeting, which will be conducted via phone. The public can join the meeting electronically at 4:30 p.m. at the UC San Francisco Mission Bay Campus Community Center, 1675 Owens St., San Francisco. 

To reach the Save the Oaks group, email: info@saveoaks.com or call 510-841-3493. 

Former mayor Shirley Dean speak to crowd opposing UC’s plan to cut the Oaks. Photograph by Judith Scherr. 

Mayor Tom Bates vowed Thursday to do everything in his power to reverse the impending move of the city’s traffic and small claims courts to Oakland. 

City officials are still struggling to determine the impact of the move, which was revealed only Monday following a tip from a Daily Planet reader. 

Starting today (Friday) all tickets issued in Berkeley, Albany and within the boundaries of the East Bay Regional Parks District will call for appearances at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland. 

Other agencies affected with be BART Police of the California Highway Patrol, said Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

Also moving south will be the court’s small claims calendar, which handles lawsuits for plaintiffs not represented by attorneys and seeking damages of less than $7,500. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz said he first learned of the court move in a phone message from a reporter Monday afternoon. 

“There’s usually much better communication,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on.” 

“This will have a potentially huge impact,” said Officer Galvan. 

In addition to extended travel times for law enforcement officers summoned to testify in traffic cases, parking will also be a problem—especially for defendants and small claims litigants. 

“There’s no place to park within blocks except for the parking structure,” which is not inexpensive, Galvan said. 

Kamlarz said the city had just finished refurbishing the courthouse and is in the midst of negotiating a new lease contract with the courts. 

One of the immediate challenges the city faces is to see if there is a way to “bundle” citations for individual officers so their court appearances can be concentrated in specific periods. 

Without bundling or some similar process, an appearance for one traffic citation could cost between an hour and an hour and a half of an officer’s time, compared with the 10 to 20 minutes it now takes. 

Cisco DeVries, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates, said news of the move had come as a surprise to him and the mayor. “We were all surprised,” he said. 

Bates said the move probably resulted from the City Council’s rejection six years ago of a county plan to build a new courthouse in Berkeley. 

Five councilmembers rejected a plan to build the facility at the site of the Pacific Gas & Electric building at the northeast corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Center St., and an alternative location between the Berkeley Public Library and the High School, which is now occupied by the Library Gardens apartment complex , was rejected by the property owners. 

“When the council decided not to put in the full courthouse, the court probably decided to start phasing out operations here,” Bates said. 

First to go was the court’s criminal division. The move of small claims and traffic will leave only one civil court, which Alameda County Superior Court Executive Officer Pat S. Sweeten said will remain in Berkeley. 

Bates said the move of the criminal court to Oakland has been costing the city $100,000 a year, while the move of the traffic court could cost even more. 

“I am going to do everything I can to fight this, and if it goes through, I am going to do everything within my power to get it back,” Bates said. “The people of Berkeley need to have this court here.” 

Another foe of the move is Assemblymember Loni Hancock, the mayor’s spouse. “Loni’s prepared to do whatever she can,” Bates said. 

The mayor said he has already called Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson to enlist his help. 

While tickets issued this morning will call for appearances at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse at 661 Washington St. in Oakland after the first of the year, the court itself will be moving between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and will be open for business at its new location on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

One of the enduring legends of both Oakland and the Black Panther Party is that Oakland’s Merritt College was the birthplace of the party, and that it was formed in 1966 by two Merritt students—Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. 

Merritt was certainly a swirl of radical political activity in the mid-’60s, with its campus and students prominent in the mix of the Black Power, black nationalist, civil rights, Free Speech, and anti-Vietnam War movements. 

Merritt, in fact, was the birthplace of one of the first black student unions in the country—the SoulStudents Advisory Council (SSAC)—of which Newton and Seale were active members. 

While many of the ideas that later became the founding principles of the Panther Party were hammered out in Merritt’s cafeteria or on the college’s front steps—where students regularly held heated political debates—it is likely that the party itself was officially formed in Bobby Seale’s North Oakland house, which was located within walking distance of the college 

In addition, while the old Merritt College building still exists on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the college itself has gone literally upscale, moving some years ago out of the North Oakland flatlands community where it was born and up into the Oakland hills, where it commands a breathtaking view of the San Francisco Bay. 

Still, as Merritt English instructor John Drinnon says, “Merritt is still Merritt,” and this year being the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Panthers in October of 1966, Drinnon’s English 5 Critical Thinking class held what it called a “belated birthday celebration” on the campus this week. 

Two of the three featured former Panther members scheduled for the scheduled two-hour long panel discussion and question-and-answer session did not show. 

Mary Williams was represented by her daughter, Theresa Williams, a professor at Merritt, who spoke briefly from the audience about her experiences growing up in the party. 

The featured speaker, Billy X (formerly Billy Jennings), who joined the party while at student at Laney College in 1968, simply did not appear. Drinnon said that he had spoken with Billy X by telephone on the morning of the event, and had expected him to attend. “I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I’m disappointed.” 

That left the burden of the presentation, with some 150 students in attendance in a cavernous room in Merritt College’s A Building, on Kevin Johnson, a Merritt teacher’s aide. Johnson’s association with the Panthers began when he was 9 or 10 years old, when the Panthers international headquarters on Shattuck Avenue was next door to his parents’ home. 

“There was a hair parlor down the street where the pimps used to get their hair done,” the soft-spoken Johnson said. “And they got into a clash with the Panthers, which ended up in a firefight in our backyard. That’s when my father decided we needed to move.” 

But Johnson said he was inspired by the image of the Panthers—young, armed black men with pistols and rifles in their hands, wearing their inner city uniform of black berets and black leather jackets—and said he used to march around in his new back yard and repeat the familiar Panther chants, “Bobby Is Free,” and “Free Huey.” 

Eventually he joined the party, with several other relatives. One brother, Fred Noldan, was killed on Shattuck Avenue in 1988, with Johnson saying he had a “sneaking suspicion that it was the work of the police.” A cousin, Don Cox, eventually went into exile with Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, first to Algeria, and then to France. 

“To this day, if he steps foot on United States soil, he will be arrested on various charges” stemming from his days with the Panther Party, Johnson said. 

While Johnson praised the work of the Panthers, saying how armed party members patrolled the streets of West Oakland “looking out for the people,” and called the organization’s free breakfast program “genius,” he also did not shy away from the errors that led to the group’s eventual downfall. 

“Huey had a drug problem, and that led him into malaise and downfall,” said Johnson, who admitted that he had to beat a 37-year drug habit himself. “That was a problem with a lot of the Panthers. They had a great idea and they attacked a giant monolith of an enemy, but eventually, many of them became their own enemies.” 

Much of the question-and-answer session of the mixed-age group ranged back and forth between older students who remembered the Panther days, and younger students eager to know how it was and what it meant. 

Pointing to a handout of a recent Laney College Tower newspaper article that reprinted a 1970 picture of Huey Newton speaking at Merritt College in 1970, one older man who identified himself only as Ron said that he had attended that 1970 meeting, and was a longtime follower of the Panthers. 

“It was more of an exciting experience for me than fearful,” he said. “It was exciting seeing the Panthers going up to the state capitol with guns, seeing black men standing up.” 

Speaking directly to the younger students, he said, “We paved the way for y’all to have everything you have now. All the little freedoms you have, don’t take them for granted. It came with a cost.” 

Following the meeting, Drinnon, a ‘60s era Berkeley activist himself, said that he was pleased with the event. “It turned out fantastic,” he said. 

Noting that two semesters ago, his class organized a teach-in at Merritt on the Iraq War, Drinnon said that “if the opportunity presents itself” to do a another, similar event “I would love to do that.” 

Kevin Johnson, a Merritt teacher’s aide and former member of the Black Panther Party, speaks to the students at the party. Photograph by  

Ted Overman/ Progressive MediaWorks 

Despite the community’s pleas asking the City Council to solicit new applications for the post, the City Council Tuesday night approved 8-1 Terry Powell’s bid for a second four-year term on the Board of Library Trustees, with only Councilmember Kriss Worthington voting in opposition. 

Also at the Tuesday meeting, the council upheld the Landmarks Commission’s designation of a structure of merit at 2411 Fifth St., sustained re-inspection fees for rental safety inspections for landlord Vijay Lakireddy and upheld votes on the Creeks Ordinance revision and Zoning Ordinance amendment. 

The call for new blood and a more open library trustee selection process was not a reproach to Powell, speakers said, but directed to the five trustees in general, who self-select fellow board members to recommend for city council approval in a closed process. The exception is one City Council-appointed trustee, who is a city councilmember.  

“I’m asking you not to go ahead and appoint the trustee,” Gene Bernardi of SuperBOLD, Berkeleyans Organized for Library Defense, told the council before they discussed the issue. “Change is needed. There’s a lot of turmoil at the library.” 

Bernardi said the nomination should go back to the trustees, with a request to solicit applications. “Ask for someone with experience in working with unions,” she said. Powell would be considered among the other applicants. 

The library has had three years of difficult times, library worker Roya Arasteh told the council, similarly urging an “open process” soliciting new applications. That would “restore trust and confidence of the staff,” she said. “Our concern is the ‘public’ part of the Berkeley Public Library.” 

While Trustee Chair Susan Kupfer spoke in glowing terms of Powell’s work as a trustee, she agreed with the community speakers. “We should try to design a new process,” she said, calling for the creation of a committee of two trustees and two councilmembers to study the question. 

Councilmember Betty Olds favored the reappointment. “We should give people respect [and reappoint them] if they’re doing good during their first term,” she said. “Terry Powell has done an outstanding job.” 

But Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that during Powell’s tenure, a library tax measure failed. Further, there’s been an “enormous negative reaction to the way librarians are treated,” he said. “It’s time to open this up and consider multiple people.” 

Councilmember Darryl Moore, who also sits as a library trustee, shot back with uncharacteristic vehemence that it was the council’s fault that the 2004 library tax measure hadn’t passed, because they put a number of tax measures on the ballot at the same time. (Moore was not yet elected to the council.) 

Moore said, however, that he planned to bring to the council the creation of a trustee/council committee of four to formulate a new trustee-selection process. 

Creeks, zoning ordinance revisions move forward 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli had hoped to make some changes in the newly adopted Creeks Ordinance—which came back to the council for a first reading in its final format—and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance, which came back to the council for a second reading.  

The councilmember was concerned that creeks and culverts were being addressed in the same ordinance and that the Zoning Ordinance amendment gave a property owner the right to rebuild a structure of four units or fewer when the destruction was involuntary. Capitelli wanted to remove the distinction between voluntary and involuntary. 

The Council, however, approved both items as originally written. The second reading of the zoning ordinance amendment passed 8-1, with Capitelli in opposition, and the first reading of the revised Creeks Ordinance was approved 6-1-1, with Capitelli abstaining, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak voting in opposition and Councilmember Betty Olds absent. 

Structure of merit upheld 

Despite pleas from the owner of a home at 2411 Fifth St., calling for the City Council to overturn a structure of merit designation by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the council voted 9-0 to uphold the designation.  

“It’s a dangerous structure,” owner Laura Fletcher told the council. “It’s a public taking of a private property,” she said, arguing that the structure cannot be repaired. 

But neighbor and architect Erick Mikiten argued that the structure of merit designation included “a lot of development potential” and that repairs were possible. 

Upheld fines for Vijay Lakireddy 

The council turned down a request from landlord Vijay Lakireddy to reduce fees for slow compliance in fixing violations under the city’s Rental Housing Safety Program in 47 of 60 units he owns at 2033 Haste St.  

Lakireddy argued that because he had so many repairs to do he should be given some leeway. “A lot of items were flagged. We did our best,” he said. 

“When a property owner has far flung real estate holdings, he bears some responsibility for upholding safety laws of the city,” Councilmember Max Anderson responded. 

Mayor Tom Bates addressed Lakireddy directly: “We hope this is a wake up call.” 

On Wednesday, Dale Rich was where he can often be found, crouched on a slope bordering the south side of People’s Park, wrestling the weeds away from the flowering plants; songbirds chatted noisily in a tree over the head of the volunteer gardener.  

“If you didn’t read the papers, you’d think the park was a little bit of heaven,” he said. “It can be enjoyed by the wealthy or poor—it’s a savior for some.” 

The mound where Rich was working and others nearby could be flattened. A People’s Park Community Advisory Board meeting will be held Monday addressing crime and drug use at park by modifying vegetation and berms. (A berm is a mound or wall of earth.) The meeting is at Trinity Methodist Church 2362 Bancroft Ave. 7-9 p.m. 

University and Berkeley police chiefs believe that by eliminating the mounds and thinning the trees, they could get a better view of what’s going on in the park and decrease drug dealing and use. 

According to Nov. 13 Advisory Committee minutes, the concept, introduced by Berkeley Police Chief Doug Hambleton, is called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, CPTED. The goal is to remove obstructions so that police can see what’s going on in the park from their patrol cars. 

At the woodsy west end of the park, a reporter was engaged in conversation with three men, one of whom had a pit bull on a leash. A UC Berkeley bike cop rode up, smiling and amiable: “It smells like marijuana here,” she said, then joked with the men in a friendly way.  

Asked what she thought about cutting back the vegetation and getting rid of the mounds to see better into the park, the officer, who declined to give her name, commented: “that’s lazy policing,” then sped off on her bike. 

Unperturbed by the officer’s brief presence, the men continued to chat among themselves and with the reporter. Asked what they thought of the plan to cut back vegetation and remove the hills, one man, who identified himself only as a park regular, said he thought it should be kept as it is. 

“This is a real natural place to get away from the city,” he said, pointing to a squash and green tomatoes half-hidden under thick leaves nearby. “It’s a nice, quiet space.” 

After Cody’s on Telegraph shut its doors last summer, city government focused on Telegraph Avenue problems. Some—particularly City Council candidate George Beier, a member of the People’s Park advisory board—pointed to People’s Park as a magnet for criminals and the fundamental reason for vacant storefronts on Telegraph Avenue. 

Led by Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Mayor Tom Bates, the council voted to restore bicycle police patrols and mental health services to the Telegraph area. 

“Violent crime in the park is down slightly over the previous year, but liquor violations and simple assaults are up,” according to Nov. 13 advisory committee minutes. 

Terry Compost, longtime People’s Park volunteer gardener and supporter, differentiated between perceived and actual personal safety. Many of the park users are homeless or have mental health issues. “A lot of them make (other) people very nervous,” Compost said.  

She fears the university is taking advantage of the current debate over park safety to take over the space the community has fought to preserve over some 40 years. 

“The university jumps on every opportunity to try to take control, to get rid of vestiges of community control. It’s sad that growing out of fear, people are willing to give up freedoms,” Compost said. 

There is little disagreement that the best thing for the park is use, said Community Relations Director Irene Hegarty. There’s a chess tournament on Sunday. Music events, literary readings and theatre have been suggested both by Compost and the university. 

On Wednesday, around noon, the park was well-used. Some 35 people scattered around the park. Two men slept on the stage, about 10 university-looking young men were playing basketball, small groups of people sat scattered on the grass or on blankets reading books or newspapers, chatting, eating or sleeping.  

A couple of moms pushed toddlers through the park in strollers; Thomas, who declined to give his last name, was selling the newspaper Street Spirit. One man was putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle over near the park office.  

“There are no puzzles that cannot be solved,” he said. 

With Area 1 (Alameda) trustee Bill Withrow widely expected to take over as board president in December, the Peralta Board of Trustees will have a decidedly different character and look in the coming year than it had as recently as two years ago. 

After years at the center of scandal and turmoil, the Peralta Board has seen a complete turnover in two years, with only Area 5 (Oakland hills) trustee Bill Riley as the lone holdover from the years when former chancellor Ron Temple ran the district. 

Current board president Linda Handy won her Area 3 (Central East Oakland) seat in 2002 against incumbent Brenda Knight, a Temple supporter, and four of the current board members—Withrow, Marcie Hodge, Nicky Gonzalez-Yuen, and Cy Gulassa—came on in 2004 when the incumbents in their districts chose not to run. Area 7 (Downtown/West Oakland) trustee Alona Clifton lost her seat to challenger Abel Guillen in the election earlier this month. Guillen does not take office until mid-December. 

Meanwhile, beginning with Handy’s election in 2002, the board began to tighten up operations at the four-college district, firing Temple and replacing him with Elihu Harris. Those reforms escalated following the 2004 election, with added fiscal oversight and controls slowly put into place. 

While several board members contacted for this story called Withrow the odds-on-favorite to become the new board president, the election to replace Withrow as the board’s vice-chair was still up in the air on Thursday, with Cy Gulassa considered the front runner, but not a lock for election. 

Handy, whom Withrow is expected to replace as board president, called Withrow “one of the best members of the board. He has the time to put into the district. He’s a really smart guy, with a vast amount of experience.” 

Withrow, one of the leaders of Peralta’s fiscal reform movement, says he intends to continue that work in the next year as the expected head of Peralta’s board. 

“We’re reaching the end of the strategic planning process,” Withrow said, explaining the district’s goal of reducing its plans and projects to a single document. “The top priority will be its implementation. We want it to be a living document. We don’t want it just to sit on the shelf.” 

A second goal, Withrow said, will be to begin spending the money from the district’s $390 million Measure A facilities construction bond, which was passed overwhelmingly by area voters in June but has recently come under criticism from board members and staff for a lack of clearly-stated projects. 

“The building programs authorized by the bond need to get underway,” Withrow said. With the exception of the newly-completed Berkeley City College, he noted that “our colleges are in dire need of refurbishment and restructure so that they fit the needs of today, rather than the needs of 40 years ago.” 

While Withrow said that the Peralta district should be praised for slightly increasing enrollment at a time when enrollment in most of California’s community colleges is declining, “we’ve got to have a concerted effort to increase it.” 

Withrow noted that while the population from which the City College of San Francisco draws its enrollment is almost identical in number to Peralta’s, 675,000, CCSF has an enrollment of 125,000, while the four Peralta colleges total only 30,000. 

“There’s no simple answer as to why there is such a difference between the two,” he said. 

One of the ways Withrow believes Peralta can increase enrollment is by recruiting area students earlier in the process. “We need to brand Peralta at the middle school level,” he said. “If we can convince 20 percent of the students attending middle schools in our service area to entertain postsecondary education, there is no doubt that it will encourage more of them to get through high school, and some of those will make their way to the Peralta schools.” 

A final goal, Withrow said, is the reduction of book costs for students. “We already have a tremendous tuition cost,” he said, noting that by “tremendous” he meant “good for the students.” “Our students average $600 a year for a full course load, compared to a $3,000 national average for two year institutions. Given the student population we serve, $600 is a lot of money, but California has by far the cheapest two year institution tuition in the country. Nobody else comes close to us.” 

But Withrow said that the cost of textbooks tends to be higher in California than in other states, citing the fact that some Peralta students can pay between $250 and $350 for a single textbook. 

The problem, he added, is not with the textbook companies. “It’s not a very profitable industry,” he said. “There’s not a lot there to squeeze.” 

Instead, Withrow said that he wants Peralta to cut book costs by such methods as contracting with books-on-demand publishers, or by limiting the number of book titles that can be assigned in a different course area, giving more opportunity for students to be able to purchase used books. He admitted that this would be a “controversial area,” since “faculty members want to be able to choose their own books.” 

The future of historic buildings in downtown Berkeley is gradually taking shape as members of two city panels work to hammer out the details. 

A struggle over the fate of older downtown buildings may be shaping up in the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), the body helping city staff develop a new plan for an extended downtown area. 

While the existing downtown plan, created in 1990, places a strong emphasis on preserving the downtown’s historic character, some DAPAC members—most notably retired UC Berkeley executive Dorothy Walker—had stressed their beliefs that some older buildings need to make room for taller, newer structures. 

Others in DAPAC, like former Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) Patti Dacey, argue strongly for preservation, while expressing a willingness to modify existing historic buildings. 

The new plan at the center of the struggle was mandated in the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the university’s expansion plans through the year 2020, which call for massive growth of university space within the confines of the downtown. 

Members of a subcommittee formed from members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) met Wednesday night to examine the work done by consultants hired to assist on the plan’s section on historical resources. 

Architectural Resources Group (ARG) of San Francisco is the same firm that is working on a restoration of Berkeley’s landmarked First Church of Christ, Scientist. 

Subcommittee chair Jill Korte represented the LPC Wednesday, along with Lesley Emmington and Robert Johnson. Dacey and Wendy Alfsen attended for DAPAC, and have both indicated support for the preservationist position. 

Not present Wednesday were DAPAC members Raudel Wilson and Carole Kennerly, whose previous statements at DAPAC have indicated more sympathy for Walker’s position than Dacey’s. LPC member Steven Winkel was also absent.  

ARG senior associate Bridget Maley presented the subcommittee with a preliminary draft of context statement that will provide the framework for calling out specific buildings and features. 

“It is very good and very helpful,” said John English, a preservationist who belongs to neither body but has been faithfully attending the meetings of both. 

The document presented Tuesday doesn’t deal with specific buildings as much as with patterns and themes of development, mentioning individual buildings only as examples. 

Later, more details will be added on individual structures, and maps identifying the individual historical structures within the planning area, as well as those structures identified as notably historical by public and private agencies. 

Wednesday’s subcommittee was notably harmonious for a Berkeley meeting dealing with old buildings—especially in light of the heated battle that ended earlier this month with defeat of the preservationist-backed Measure J after a barrage of negative campaign mailers bankrolled by the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee. 

The subcommittee plans at least one more session Dec. 13 before bringing its work to a joint meeting of its two parent bodies on Jan. 17. 

The final document will identify buildings that are significant in their own right, along with buildings that contribute to the historic significance of the downtown and—probably—a list of potential historic districts within the planning area.

The Zoning Adjustments Board continued the hearing for the Trader Joe’s building project on 1885 University Ave. until Dec. 14 because city staff requested more time to prepare the staff report, findings and conditions.  

The modified project—after being approved by the Design Review Commission—had been returned to ZAB on Nov. 9. At that meeting, Berkeley-based developers Evan McDonald and Chris Hudson had asked the board to give preliminary consideration to a design of a mixed-use development with 14,390 square feet of retail, and 157 parking spaces in a two-level parking garage. 

ZAB members have asked staff to prepare a report outlining density bonus options and a traffic analysis as well as provide conditions for approval of the project. Member Dean Metzger had requested more details of the project, including areas of commercial space and usable open space.  

Residents opposing the project had expressed concerns about how the city would apply the state’s affordable housing density bonus statute to the project and address issues related to traffic and building size.  

Those in favor of the project had said that it would reduce the number of daily car trips by a large margin and provide much-needed affordable housing in Berkeley. 

BUSD bus depot 

The ZAB also heard a request from the Berkeley Unified School District for a use permit to establish a bus depot at 1325 Sixth St. (including bus and staff/visitor parking, office and classroom space, and a mechanical shop). 

Eric Smith, deputy superintendent for the BUSD, said that the proposed transportation facility included the construction of a 4,100-square-foot single-story administrative office building with a classroom, a 6,550-square-foot single-story mechanical shop, a vehicle washing station and associated surface parking area. 

The surface parking would provide space for 19 large school buses, 13 small school buses, a district van, and 37 staff and visitor parking spaces. The proposed classroom space would be used for teaching bus drivers emergency and other safety techniques. 

West Berkeley neighbors who appeared in opposition to the project cited air quality, noise, pollution and traffic issues and said they did not want to see another “industrial facility” in the area. 

“West Berkeley is not the best place for this,” said Gary Parsons, a neighbor. “This was not the long range vision plan for this corridor. In a neighborhood that is battling with Pacific Steel Casting, here we are facing a lot of diesel everyday.” 

Smith told the body that the school district had selected the site after deliberation with the city staff. 

“When we look at it from an operational point of view there is no alternate site,” he said. “We are traveling on several of those streets right now. So as far as the traffic is concerned, it is already there.” 

The board asked the staff and the applicant for the exact number of buses that would be running on diesel but a definite number could not be given. Staff said that they would be coming back with the relevant findings at the next meeting. 

Residential units 

ZAB members continued the request for a use permit for a proposed project at 2701 Shattuck Ave./2100 Derby St. to Dec. 14. 

Todd Jersey, the architect for the project, described the plan as a 34,894-square-foot, five-story mixed-use building with 24 residential units (five inclusionary), 3,198 square feet of commercial floor area within up to 4 ground floor tenant spaces (to include a 2,000 square foot quick-service food use) and 24 parking spaces. 

Metzger said that he was interested to know how the design would impact the neighborhood. With the exception of the 60-foot-tall UC Storage building at the corner of Ward Street, the predominant architecture of the immediate vicinity is made up of one to three story buildings. 

The height of the proposed building is 54 feet. Members of the LeConte neighborhood association expressed concerns about the height, density and shape of the building. A neighbor objected to the project especially because it was a dwelling unit close to the eighteen cell phone towers that have been proposed to be located on top of UC Storage. The board continued the project to Dec. 14. 

The board declined the request of Jim Novosel of The Bay Architects for a use permit to demolish an existing single-family dwelling and construct four new dwelling units. The City Council had directed ZAB to consider the project subject to inclusionary housing requirement. The applicant had requested a variance from these requirements, which the board denied. 

Bookstore to crisis unit 

ZAB also approved a use permit for the City of Berkeley Mental Health/ Health and Human Services Division to change the use of an existing commercial tenant space on 2433 Channing Way from a retail bookstore to administrative office space for the City of Berkeley’s Health and Human Services mobile crisis team. 

Food services 

ZAB approved a use permit for the Hummingbird Cafe to operate a carry-out food service store (no seating) in an existing commercial space at 1842 Euclid Ave. with no off-street parking.  

ZAB also approved a use permit for the Vanessa Bistro on 1715 Solano Ave. to add the sales of spirits to the existing sale of beer and wine in the existing full-service restaurant and provide to outside seating, but denied a variance to allow it to close at midnight.

Countless lives have been touched by Dr. Mike Alcalay who died Nov. 18 in Oakland from a rare and aggressive leukemia, after surviving AIDS for more than 20 years. 

“He was not a person to be defeated by the obstacles of life. In fact, they became a creative hurdle,” said his friend Sherry Gendelman.  

Born into a working class family in Los Angeles in 1941, Alcalay won full scholarships to UC Berkeley and UCLA medical school. He served as a military doctor for a year in Vietnam, where he became radicalized, according to an obituary written by Alcalay’s family and his longtime friend Charlie Hinton. 

Hinton writes: “Mike played the saxophone and spoke Spanish. He was a gay man who transcended gay politics; a Jew who demonstrated against the Israeli occupation of Palestine two months before he died; a doctor who asked to be called ‘Mike,’ because he thought the title ‘doctor’ separated him too much from his patients, a generous anarcho-communist who grew marijuana to give it away, and enrolled more than 1,000 patients for medical cannabis, never asking a penny in return.” 

In the 1970s he founded a clinic in a Watsonville storefront that has grown into the clinic Salud Para la Gente, serving Pajaro Valley farmworker families and the poor. Today, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the clinic gets 100,000 patient visits each year. 

“Anyone who was disadvantaged through no fault of his own, he took under his wing,” Gendelman said. 

Alcalay was diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-1980s and in 1987 began to produce the KPFA radio show “AIDS in Focus,” which aired through 1993. “He made sure people were aware of the issues around HIV,” said Berkeley resident Gerald Lenoir, board chair of the HIV Education & Prevention Project of Alameda County, on which Alcalay also served. 

Lenoir, former director of the Black Coalition on AIDS, said that at a time when it was hard to find a way to educate people about HIV, Alcalay provided access to the airwaves. And Alcalay wasn’t afraid to tackle difficult issues such as “exposing the government’s role in the lack of funding for AIDS,” Lenoir said. 

Jeff Jones, co-founder and executive director of the Oakland Cannabis Buyer’s Cooperative, recalls that Alcalay first came to the clinic—when it was dispensing medical marijuana before legal issues arose to prevent it from doing so—for personal use of the medicine to combat nausea brought on by AIDS drugs. 

He became the co-op’s medical director and a spokesperson for medical marijuana. “He looked at medical marijuana as a civil rights problem,” Jones said. 

In a 1998 opinion piece published in The San Francisco Chronicle: “The 57-year-old Alcalay is a good advertisement for the medical benefits of marijuana. He is on a harsh regimen of protease inhibitors. He takes 40 to 60 pills a day, including three experimental drugs, and he credits pot for keeping him alive and healthy. 

“’It’s hard to define how because it helps in so many modes,’ [Alcalay] says. ‘It gives you an appetite, eliminates queasiness, nausea and helps with pain. I call it a wonder drug.’”  

Alcalay also worked with the Santa Cruz Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, where he wrote recommendations for the medicine for seriously ill patients. “He never charged his patients for visits,” said Wo/Men’s Director and Co-founder Valerie Corral, describing Alcalay as “one of the few physicians who really lived the Hippocratic oath.” 

Oakland attorney Robert Raich worked with the doctor on legal issues around medical marijuana. Raich remembers him especially for daring to work with children. “He broke through the barrier preventing children from having access to medical marijuana,” Raich said, noting that now numerous pediatricians recommend the medicine.  

“He was so selfless,” Raich said. “He could have tried to make a lot of money—not Dr. Alcalay—he was committed to social justice.” 

Outspoken AIDS activist John Iversen recalls that in 1998, Alcalay was instrumental in forcing Alameda County to renovate a new AIDS ward at Fairmont Hospital. “I have lost a friend and a true ally,” writes Iversen in an email sent from out-of-town. 

“Just a week before his death Mike got a call from Nick [Lazaredes], inviting him to work with the new English language Al Jazeera network. Mike wanted to do this … and so much more,” writes Charlie Hinton and Alcalay’s family. “He fought and refused to accept death until, always the doctor, he read his own diagnosis in the hospital after completing his fourth round of chemo and understood he was not going to make it. He died five days later.” 

Alcalay is survived by twin sons, Nolen and Aaron Edmonston, his mother Charlene Herbert, stepfather Alvin Lau, two brothers and a sister. 

A memorial celebration will take place Sunday, Jan. 14, Vista Room at Lake Merritt’s lakeside Park Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. 2-10 p.m.  

In the global fight against the AIDS pandemic, Africa is the most high profile battleground. Southern Africa is particularly hard hit. 

Swaziland is a small kingdom about the size of the state of Massachusetts. One in every five Swazis is HIV positive, according to the United Nations. That amounts to some 200,000 men, women and children infected with HIV—twice the population of Berkeley. 

As World AIDS Day observances propel the plight of Swaziland into the global conscience, volunteers from the Bay Area are traveling there to address the issue themselves.  

They call themselves Project Comm“Unity.” On Dec. 1, they will begin a 30-day visit to Southern Africa. During this trip, they hope to secure the land they will use for an ambitious project benefiting Swazi children affected by HIV and AIDS. 

Project Comm“Unity” was founded by Kim Vereen, of Salinas, and her sister, Beth Kane, of Columbia, South Carolina. Last December, they made their first trip to Swaziland. 

The sisters knew the need was great when they began their journey. However, once they arrived, they were overwhelmed by the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS, particularly on the children orphaned by the pandemic. 

United Nations statistics show 69,000 children in Swaziland have lost their parents to AIDS. By 2010, the number of AIDS orphans is expected to reach 120,000. 

After their trip to Swaziland, Vereen and Kane started making plans to build an entire community devoted to Swazi families affected by AIDS. Their plan includes building an orphanage for 5,000 children, along with schools, a health care complex, and a hospice center where dying parents can maintain contact with their children. 

“The children lose everything once their parents die,” said Vereen. “They need everything.” 

The Project Comm“Unity” Africa team consists of 14 volunteers in the Bay Area and in South Carolina. With the help of the Ethiopian Christian Fellowship Center in San Jose and Celebration Worship Center in Salinas, the volunteers are working to raise $70 million over the next five years. So far, they have raised about $30,000. 

One fundraising effort encourages Bay Area school children to help build the Swazi schools one brick at a time, by raising money in $10 increments. The school that raises the most money will have a Swazi school named in its honor. 

Anindya Kar, of Oakland, is one of the volunteers heading to Swaziland this week. 

The 33-year old UC Berkeley alumnus has always been active in community service. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Oakland and has worked as a mentor with Girls, Inc. However, this is Kar’s first foray into service on a global scale. 

Kar said she’s not sure what to expect. 

“I’m just sort of going because I know I’m supposed to,” she said. “I’ve actually kind of kept myself in the dark.” 

Kar said her knowledge about the pandemic in Southern Africa consists mainly of what she’s read in the newspaper or seen on television. Since she joined Project Comm“Unity,” Kar said she has intentionally limited her exposure to news from the region. 

“I think if I knew too much, it might scare me a little. Just the idea of housing 5,000 kids, that’s huge,” she said. “I think the more I knew before going the more my feet would drag.” 

Kar said the Swaziland project is just the beginning for Project Comm“Unity.” 

“It’s planting those initial seeds in me about what’s necessary and how we can really help and then carrying that vision beyond where we start in Swaziland to other parts of the world.” 

Kar said the group’s next project likely will be in Calcutta, India, where her parents were born. 

“We are a nation that’s very blessed in our resources, in our infrastructure, in our modern conveniences, and most of the world doesn’t have that,” she said. “So, if we can share some of that with other people then I think that’s our responsibility to do that.” 

For details on Project Comm“Unity” see www.freewebs.com/sisters05. 

Choked, punched 

Two teenagers choked, punched and robbed a 63-year-old Berkeley man as he walked along Fulton Street near the corner of Stuart Street a few minutes before 7 p.m. on the 21st, 

The two youths, both tall and clad in dark hoodies, were last seen walking north on Fulton. 

Strong-arm trio 

Three teen toughs robbed a 23-year-old Berkeley man of his wallet as he walked along Shattuck Avenue just north of University Avenue at midnight on 20th, reports Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan. 

Police arrived on the scene moments later, and spotted one of the three walking along Shattuck at Center Street. After an identification by the robbed man, police took the youth into custody. 

Stabs self 

An anguished South Berkeley mother called police just after 9 a.m. last Thursday to report that her 16-year-old daughter was holed up in her bedroom with a knife, having just stabbed herself in the leg. 

Officer Galvan said officers spent a long time talking through the closed door before they convinced the young woman to come out. 

She was taken to a mental health facility for evaluation, he said. 

Clubbed 

A bizarre attack by a gang of club-and-bat-swinging gang of teens in the Hs Lordship’s parking lot moments before midnight last Friday left a 23-year-old El Sobrante man more shaken than injured. 

The man—backed up by several witnesses—said he had been sitting in his car when one of the youths suddenly swung his club, shattering the window and striking his shoulder. 

The youths then fled in a white van and a car believed to be a blue Chevrolet Cavalier. The El Sobrante man said he didn’t need help from paramedics, said Officer Galvan. 

Two crimes solved  

When a young Berkeley man called police to report that he’d just been robbed, the officers who responded found themselves solving two crimes at once. 

The call came in at 10 p.m. Saturday from near the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Bancroft Way.  

The 17-year-old victim said he’d just been robbed of his sweatshirt, cell phone and CD player by a pair of bandits who threatened to pound him to a pulp unless he forked over his goodies. 

Police searched the area and found two young men with the missing items, one from Oakland and the other from Alameda. 

But they also had other belongings, including identification belong to a 19-year-old Berkeley woman had called police 23 hours earlier to report that she’d just been robbed by a pair of hoodie-clad bandits near the corner of Parker and Regent Streets. 

Police promptly booked them for that offense as well. 

Peet’s heist 

Two masked men, each wearing a baseball cap and waving a pistol, stormed into the Peet’s Coffee at 2916 Domingo Ave. at 5:18 Monday morning and demanded cash. 

The gunmen, both tall and thin, gathered up the cash and fled. 

Odd wheels 

A three-bandit team, two in a brown sedan and a young teen riding a moped, robbed a 22-year-old Berkeley woman of her cell phone as she walked along Telegraph Avenue near the corner of Haste Street just before 10 a.m. Sunday. 

Flees with Flea funds 

A lone gunman, clad all in black—including his hoodie—burst into the offices of Community Services United at 1937 Ashby Ave. Sunday morning and demanded cash. 

When he got what he wanted, he fled on foot. 

Community Services United is the nonprofit organization that administers the Berkeley Flea Market, held every weekend on the parking lot of the Ashby BART station. 

Rape 

A 36-year-old Berkeley woman called police At 7 a.m. Saturday, reporting that she had just been raped by a former acquaintance, said Officer Galvan. 

She was taken to a local emergency room and identified a 22-year-old suspect to the officers. The investigation is continuing. 

The Bateman Mall Park has been restored, but drainage problems at the site continue. 

Some residents of Prince and Colby streets, tired of having water clog the newly constructed grass park, took matters into their own hands on Sunday and tore out clumps of grass to allow water to pass into the drains. 

“The water was damming up at the beginning instead of damming up at the end,” said a resident of Colby Street who had shoveled away the grass and did not want to be named. “It was rotting the grass and the smell was driving the neighbors insane. There was at least five inches of standing water and the leaves were getting stuck.” 

Lorin Jenson, supervising civil engineer for Berkeley, said that the drainage problem was caused because the grass never got a chance to root. 

“The temperature and weather conditions at the moment are such that the grass is going straight into hibernation,” Jenson said. “If this was not the case, the original plan would have allowed the water to drain.” 

The city had allowed Alta Bates Hospital to construct a temporary road through the Bateman Mall Park earlier this year, which neighbors said had caused further disruptions in addition to the Alta Bates Emergency Room remodeling project, which brought the area residents months of noise, traffic disruptions, water drainage and light pollution. 

The neighborhood had been working with the city and the hospital since April to develop an acceptable plan to restore the mall. Neighbors had wanted the park, where the access way was to cross it, to be grass surfaced as it had been before the temporary road. 

But after the construction was completed, the neighbors complained that the grass was too high. 

“It’s retaining water on a constant basis,” said Bill Cain, a resident of Prince Street and the designated representative of the neighborhood for the Bateman Mall Restoration. 

Jenson, the city engineer, admitted that the contractor (Alta Bates Summit Medical Center) had made a mistake and that the gutter at the cul-de-sac was poured more than two inches too high.  

“I was not there, nor am I normally, when a pour occurs,” Jenson said in a letter to neighbors. “I don’t know what happened. I expressed the importance over and over again with the foreman in the field of meeting that elevation. That mistake will be corrected.” 

Cain also claimed that the criteria that the park must be able to handle a storm as strong as one that typically hits every 15 years was not met and that flooding would occur two to three times a year. 

“The capacity of the access way gutter is not sufficient to pass the 15-year storm,” he said. 

Jenson however said that Cain’s analysis and statements were not correct. 

“To ensure I was meeting the 15-year flow design criteria I checked the capacity, momentum, and water surface profile, which are all dependent on the slopes and materials of the cul-de-sac, grass pavers road and pipes,” he said. “Mr. Cain and I agree on the 15-year flow quantity. Mr. Cain is not taking the water surface profile into account in his analysis.” 

Neighbors of the Bateman Mall are scheduled to meet with Jenson this week to decide how to solve the current drainage problem. 

“If the neighbors want the grass then something temporary like gravel can be poured to allow the water to pass,” Jenson said. “In spring we can kick out the gravel and re-plant the grass so that it gets time to root. The other option would be to kick out the grass and build a concrete gutter on the side.” 

Cain said that the neighborhood was working with the city to come up with a plan that would suit all the residents.  

“The city is trying its best to listen to the neighbors,” he said. “But the hospital continues to discharge water everyday. They say that they need to over-water to help the landscape and make it grow but we don’t believe it’s true.” 

Residents walking their dogs or commuting through the Bateman Mall on Monday complained about the puddles created by the standing water. 

“It’s not just the rotting grass I can smell, it’s dog poop, too,” said Kathy Brady, who lives a block away. “I get it every time I bring my dog here and it’s gotten worse in the last few days.”  

Berkeley’s traffic court is moving to Oakland as of Jan. 1, taking eight jobs and Court Commissioner Jon Rantzman along for the ride. 

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Osha Neumann, an attorney who represents the poor, both said they’re outraged at an action they say will prove costly to the city and its citizens. 

Also headed south is small claims court, the real-life version of the People’s Court where citizens can argue their suits directly with each other if the total amount sought is $7,500 or less.  

Judge Wynne Carvill will remain in Berkeley to handle suits for larger amounts and other non-criminal trials in the Berkeley court facilities at 2120 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 

Criminal cases had already been moved to Oakland in 2002. 

And starting Friday, all tickets issued for infractions in the city will require appearances at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse at 661 Washington St. in Oakland, said Sweeten. 

The actual move will occur during the holiday lull between Christmas and New Years. 

“We’re trying to manage the courts appropriately with the limited amount of resources available,” said Alameda County Superior Court Executive Officer Pat S. Sweeten. 

“They’re telling us this at the end of November?” declared Worthington. “This has dramatic potential costs to us as a city, because I assume they aren’t going to be covering the costs that will fall on the jurisdictions and the public. 

“On the face of it, it sounds like this will be a very expensive proposition.” 

Osha Neumann, an attorney who represents the indigent and homeless through the East Bay Community Law Center, said the move will be disastrous for his clients, as well as a major burden to the Berkeley Police Department. 

“It’s going to have a really negative impact on Berkeley from all points of view,” he said. 

The change of venue will prove especially hard on the poor, and on the homeless, many of whom aren’t willing leave their shopping carts and dogs, he said. 

“I estimate that 45 percent of the people who make appearances are poor and indigent defendants,” Neumann said. 

Sweeten said she didn’t have specific numbers of citations or cases now heard by the Berkeley court. 

While Sweeten said the move will be convenient to Berkeley residents because parking is more accessible at the Oakland courthouse and BART and bus access is convenient, Neumann said that’s not the case for his clients. 

“Many can’t even afford the fares,” Neumann said. “It was bad enough before, but this will be a major inconvenience.” 

The same will be true for police, he said, and for others who can afford transit fares or drive and pay for parking.  

“Right now, all the police have to do is walk out of the door a few steps from the Public Safety Center to the courthouse. But now they’ll be driving to Oakland, and they’ll have to wait around the courthouse for their appearances,” he said. “There will be a lot of lost time when they could be out on the streets.” 

The officers will also have to take their tickets there to file them, yet another source of lost time, Neumann said. 

Because of the added time and the press of other duties, some officers could wind up missing court appearances, he said. 

Worthington said he was also surprised to hear that tickets issued Friday will reflect the change of venue. “The court appearance location is printed on the tickets,” he said, “so they must have already ordered them before telling us.” 

“I would really like to get some kind of notice of why this is happening, and what kind of options were considered,” he said. 

A representative of Police Chief Douglas Hambleton said late Monday afternoon that Berkeley’s top cop had just learned of the move and wasn’t ready to comment yet. City Manager Phil Kamlarz and Mayor Tom Bates did not return calls from the paper. 

The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee may have violated local election laws, according to Councilmember Dona Spring who says she is preparing a formal complaint against Business for Better Government Berkeley Chamber of Commerce PAC.  

Spring plans to submit the complaint for consideration at the next Fair Campaign Practices Commission meeting, which is in January. 

In a separate challenge to Chamber politicization, Spring intends to ask the City Council Dec. 12 to request a legal ruling on the viability of city membership in the Chamber, because of the Chamber’s endorsement of local candidates and measures. 

Spring alleges that the Chamber PAC skirted local election law that restricts donations to individual candidates to $250 and prohibits corporate donations. “They did not report according to Berkeley election law,” Spring said. 

The Chamber PAC raised and spent about $100,000 to defeat Measure J, oppose Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring (and thus support Worthington challenger George Beier and Spring challenger Raudel Wilson) and to support Mayor Tom Bates, according to city and county election records. 

As an independent committee—independent from any candidate or measure—the Chamber PAC files reports with the county, thus reserving the option of supporting candidates outside of Berkeley, according to PAC treasurer Stacy Owens. And the PAC, unlike a candidate committee, is obligated to file in Berkeley only at the time it makes expenditures for Berkeley candidates or measures, she said: During the period in September and October during which the PAC raised the bulk of its money, but spent none, it was obligated to file its reports only with the county. 

But Spring argues the PAC does not function as a truly “independent” committee. According to California law, independent expenditure committees support or oppose candidates or measures “not in coordination with the candidate or his or her campaign committee.” 

Spring argues that, by all appearances, Raudel Wilson’s campaign coordinated with the PAC. Literature sent out by the PAC and by Wilson resemble each other closely, she says—both pieces, for example, criticize Spring in similar ways as causing the closure of Radston’s, a downtown stationery store.  

“It’s too close to be a coincidence,” Spring said. 

Moreover, Spring points out that PAC treasurer Owens was also Wilson’s campaign treasurer. During the campaign, Wilson told the Daily Planet that he had known Owens for years and there was no relationship between her work as his treasurer and as the Chamber PAC treasurer. Wilson also said at the time that his attendance at a September PAC fundraiser had no relationship to his campaign. 

Spring also argues that it was improper for the PAC to lump all its contributions into one pot. Contributions should have been segregated to indicate how much as designated from each contributor to each candidate or measure, Spring said. 

For example, the public does not know if Berkeley resident George Battle’s $14,000 PAC contribution went toward defeating Measure J, attempting to defeat Spring or Worthington, or supporting Bates. 

Chamber President Roland Peterson said in a brief Nov. 16 interview that the PAC has noted, internally, the intent of each of the contributors.  

This year, the Berkeley Chamber, in an action the organization says was distinct from the PAC campaigning, endorsed candidates Bates, Wilson, Beier and District 8 Councilmember Gordon Wozniak in addition to endorsing against Measure J.  

But, noting that Richmond recently quit its chamber for reasons of conflict of interest, given that the Richmond Chamber endorsed candidates, Spring said she thinks Berkeley is in a similar position. Its Office of Economic Development, the Police Department and the Fire Department are listed as Berkeley Chamber members. She will bring the issue to the council Dec. 12. 

Jesse Arreguin, rent board commissioner active in the Worthington re-election campaign, says he will go to the state, since the local Fair Political Campaign Practices Commission ruled Nov. 16 that, while a Chamber of Commerce PAC omission of sender identification on a campaign mailer was a violation, it was a simple mistake.  

“The local FCPC wasn’t willing to enforce the law,” Arreguin said, adding that he and others will consult an attorney who specializes in campaign law to help write the complaint. 

“I’m very disappointed with the local commission’s action,” he said. “They were not willing to investigate the issue of willful intent. I hope the state will be more diligent.” 

A recently released report on young men of color by a national commission chaired by the incoming Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums may provide a roadmap to priorities and policies in the city for the next four years. 

With murders in Oakland projected to reach 150 for the year, most of them young men of color, and the city’s public school system in a downward spiral after three years of state receivership, such a roadmap could come none too soon. 

One of the report’s major recommendations, for universal health care, was a key part of Dellums’ platform in his successful run for Oakland mayor earlier this year. 

In a report released earlier this month in Washington, D.C., the Dellums Commission of the national Joint Center For Political And Economic Studies Health Policy Institute concluded that national policies of the past 35 years, including “punitive and ineffective drug laws, educational inequities, anti-union government interventions, regressive tax policies, stagnation of the minimum wage, disinvestment in social and legal services, and discriminatory housing policies, including the abandonment of public housing” have “devastated communities of color,” striking American youth of color particularly hard. 

Saying that youth has become “a minefield of trip wires for males of color,” the report noted that “misguided” national policies addressing troubled youth of color “compound the problem … [forcing] schools, police, courts, and juvenile authorities to adopt practices that result in marginalization, exclusion, confinement, and punishment instead of constructive solutions.” 

The report called such conditions “unacceptable in a democracy with the resources and capabilities of the United States.” 

Giving examples of positive programs addressing the problem already in place across the country, the report lists specific local, state, and national solutions in the areas of health, education, workforce and economic development, family support and child welfare, juvenile and criminal justice, and the portrayal of youth of color in the media. 

Noting that “the diminished life options and outcomes that young men of color confront in today’s America is not a natural phenomenon,” Health Policy Institute Director Dr. Gail Christopher said in a prepared release that during its 18 month long study, the Dellums Commission “uncovered a series of policy decisions over the past three decades that have had a harmful impact on the way minority youth develop in our society. We have a duty to stop them now and reverse course. We cannot give up on our youth, and we must ask that they not give up on us.”  

Joint Center chairman Elliott Hall called it “the first time in our nation’s history that an esteemed group of scholars, public officials, community activists and legal experts have investigated the problems faced by youths from every large minority group in the U.S.” 

The full report and 12 accompanying background papers by national experts are available on the Joint Center’s website at www.jointcenter.org. 

Dellums called the 27-page report and background papers “a guidebook for legislators, community wellness advocates, concerned citizens, and the private sector” for “a large and growing body of knowledge and expertise about what works to combat this growing blight on America.” 

The report did not specify, however, exactly how the projected solutions and policies would be advocated or carried out. 

Founded in 1970 by black intellectuals and professionals at a time when African-Americans were just beginning to win positions in large numbers in cities, state legislatures, and in the national House of Representatives, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is a national, nonprofit research and public policy institution organized initially to provide training and technical assistance to those newly elected black officials. It has since grown into a Washington D.C.-based think tank investigating public policy areas of particular concern to African-Americans and other communities of color in the country. 

The Dellums Commission was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.  

The report put a good deal of blame of poor perception of youth of color on the media, which it said often perpetuates “pervasive negative stereotypes that engender popular fear, anger, and misunderstanding of minority youth. Mainstream news organizations help to cultivate these attitudes mostly by what they omit: context.” 

The report called on state, county, and city governments to help facilitate discussions of negative news coverage between media outlets and community groups, as well as calling for media reform activists, foundations, and other nonprofits to “create outlets for young men of color to tell their own stories in alternative media.” 

On the federal level, the report called for the Federal Communications Commission and Congress to repeal the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which the report said “paved the way for more consolidation in media ownership,” and to restore the Fairness Doctrine that “required broadcast station coverage of controversial issues to be balanced and fair.” The report also asked media outlets to “provide more air time to the subjective voices and perspectives of young men of color.” 

Among the commission’s other policy recommendations: 

• In the area of education, the report recommended that local school districts “aggressively and creatively” stem the high dropout rate among young men of color, and called for the elimination of “the policy of zero tolerance for behavioral offenses in schools.” The report also called for equity in school funding, “ending the common practice of shortchanging urban centers or rural communities where students of color live,” and blasted President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, which it said “makes it virtually impossible for low-performing schools to improve.” 

• In the area of economic development, the report called for the raising of the minimum wage on both the federal, state, and local levels and for state and local government to “encourage banks and other lending institutions to expand operations—at fair, non-predatory terms—in underserved areas.” In addition, the report called on local governments to “promote … economic development opportunities in distressed communities by providing access to capital to establish viable business initiatives”  

If instituted by Dellums in Oakland, that policy alone would be a marked departure from that of his predecessor, Jerry Brown, who concentrated economic development into the creation of new neighborhoods in Oakland—the Jack London Square loft district, the Forest City Uptown project, and the Oak to Ninth development—rather than rehabilitating existing ones. 

• In juvenile and criminal justice, the report called on the “expan[sion of the] use of youth courts, drug courts, and community-based counseling as alternatives to incarceration for youth, the majority of whom are low-risk, nonviolent offenders.” The report also said that states should “mandate standards for legal counsel for young men of color, who are often poorly represented by counsel or provided no counsel in the juvenile justice system.” 

• In the area of health, universal health care should be instituted, the medical care industry should be encouraged to develop “culturally competent medical professionals,” and state and local governments should develop early intervention into potential health problems. The report also recommended that “local governments should fund school-based health care and/or provide incentives for insurers, health care providers, and other business sponsors to participate in these programs at the K-12 level.” 

The report noted that San Francisco’s youth-initiated Wellness Centers, which it said were located in seven high schools in the city, “demonstrate that public schools can be innovative, practical sites for health care services.” While the City of Berkeley was not mentioned specifically in the report, Berkeley’s city-run health department runs a successful student health clinic at Berkeley High School. 

The report noted that in 2005, the state of Illinois ”extended health care coverage to all uninsured children through the age of 18.” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently set universal health care for the state’s youth as a “goal” for his administration in his next four-year term. 

While its musical form, an arpeggio, consists of the notes of a chord played in rapid succession, the progress of the Berkeley Arpeggio has been anything but speedy. 

And ditto for the still unspecified but equally controversial project proposed for western parking lot of the Ashby BART station. 

That less-than-apt Arpeggio moniker refers to the project once known as the Seagate Building, once hailed as the tallest building planned for downtown Berkeley since the Power Bar edifice hulked upwards at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street. 

A combination of bonuses granted for providing cultural space and setting aside some units for the less than affluent led city planning staff to declare that the building was entitled to 14 floors, nine more than the basic downtown maximum. 

That in turn triggered a review of the whole bonus process and a hastily enacted ordinance passed by the City Council which became void the day after the Nov. 7 election because Proposition 90 didn’t pass—a ballot initiative that would have hamstrung new regulations on development. 

Construction of the Arpeggio had once been slated to commence in September, but the only work to occur to date happened in June on the site on Center Street west of Shattuck that faces the new Berkeley City College building. 

Bulldozers and crews leveled the existing buildings on the site, with a company representative promising work would begin in August on the posh, 186,000-square-foot, nine-story condo complex. 

All that exists of the project today is an expanse of bare earth where excavating equipment will begin carving out a rectangle of earth to house the project’s 160-car, two-level underground parking lot. 

In addition to 149 luxury condos, the 2041-67 Center St. Arpeggio also would house a small amount of ground floor commercial space, a public art gallery plus the 9,000-square-foot full-time performance and rehearsal venue run by the non-profit Berkeley Repertory Theatre. 

The project was known originally as the Seagate Building after the name of the first developers—the company that also owns the Well Fargo tower immediately to the east—who bought the land and won the necessary permits from the city. 

That package was sold in May 2005 to SNK Captec Arpeggio, a limited liability corporation created by an Arizona development firm and a Michigan finance firm. Seagate retains an interest in the project. 

Construction of the college building stalled the project for fears that building two massive structures just across from each other on a narrow city street would overwhelm traffic in the area. 

Shortly after the purchase, project representative Darrell de Tienne said construction would start no later that July 2005.  

Then came the promise of September 2006. 

But City Planning Director Dan Marks said Monday the project is still working its way through the building permit process. “There are some issues still to be resolved,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the Seagate’s status as Berkeley’s tallest building project in decades has already been eclipsed, with the unveiling of plans by a Massachusetts developer to build a 19-story hotel and conference center at Center and Shattuck that would become the city’s tallest building—through still well short of the Campanile on the UC Berkeley campus.  

Ashby BART 

Another and possibly even denser project proposed for the main parking lot of the Ashby BART station appears to be stuck in legal limbo. 

Originally proposed as a project with more than 300 apartments built over ground floor commercial spaces, the project stalled after angry neighbors protested and the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) rejected in May a city-sponsored application for a $120,000 project planning grant. 

Meanwhile, the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Council (SBNDC)—the city’s chosen oversight agency—had appointed a task force, partly in response to criticisms from worried neighbors. Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Max Anderson said they wanted to keep the task force in existence regardless of the outcome of the grant application. 

After CalTrans killed the original grant application, the City Council responded in July by coughing up $40,000 of its own funds to keep the task force going and to expand the suggested scope to include not only the lot but Adeline Street as well. 

Bates had suggested moving the weekend flea market that meets at the parking lot onto Adeline on the weekends and closing the street on those days—a notion later rejected in a city-funded traffic study. 

The task force was last scheduled to meet Oct. 3, but the meeting was called off by the city attorney’s office in response to questions from Task Force Co-chair John Selawsky and others about the legal status of the meetings in light of the Brown Act, which governs open meetings of government agencies. 

The main reasons for the legal questions revolve around the use of city’s funds and the task force’s role in formulating a proposal. 

“Lots of people had questions,” Selawsky said, “and you would think that the city attorney’s office could come up with the answers in two months.” 

Ed Church, the planning consultant hired by the SBNDC to shepherd the process, said he hadn’t heard anything new from the city since the request to call off the October meeting.  

“I’m still waiting to hear from them,” he said. 

So was the Daily Planet when deadline rolled around late Monday afternoon without a call back from the city attorney’s office. 

While the City Council passed an updated Creeks Ordinance in concept Nov 14, approval is back before the council tonight (Tuesday), so the body can vote on the formal ordinance, said City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli. 

That could, however, re-open deliberation on a matter that has been under discussion for two years. 

Also before the council is the re-appointment of a library trustee, an appeal of a landmarked property at 2411 Fifth St., and a hearing for Vijay Lakireddy’s nonpayment of rental property inspection fees. 

Creeks 

After the approval of the ordinance two weeks ago, Capitelli, who abstained on the matter, sent a letter to his council colleagues criticizing them for their “rush to approve the CTF [Creeks Task Force] recommendations….” Capitelli argued that at the meeting there were several council members “not given the opportunity to fully comment, ask questions and explore the possibilities of unintended consequences.”  

While approval of the formal ordinance is on tonight’s council consent calendar—a list of routine items the council generally passes without discussion—Capitelli said he plans to “pull” the Creeks Ordinance revision, allowing opportunity for further discussion.  

Among the issues still outstanding for Capitelli is whether culverts and creeks should be regulated together as they are in the revised Creeks Ordinance rather than addressing culverts separately as part of the city’s storm-drain system.  

Library trustees 

The normally routine reappointment of a library trustee is before council tonight.  

There are five trustees. Four of them are selected by the existing trustees. A councilmember selected by the council also sits as a trustee. 

But in recent years, the public has called for greater input into the library. Recently, the library staff’s conflict with the previous director in part caused her resignation. And the community has been vocal over library decisions made with minimal public input, particularly around the controversial radio frequency identification markers placed in books for easy checkout. 

“Selection by internal nomination (can be) a recipe for an institution well insulated from outside influences,” Jim Fisher of Berkeleyans Organized for Library Defense (SuperBOLD) said in an e-mail to the Planet. “If the Board’s philosophy could be articulated, I think it would be that the public interest is best served when the public itself is kept at a measurable distance from policy-making.” 

Fisher concludes that the answer could be a new way of selecting the trustees, something that would have to be instituted through a charter change: “Would the public be better served by an elected board or one directly nominated by City Council members? It’s an issue on which the public really should speak up.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he intends to pull the item from the consent calendar. He said he didn’t want to target trustee Terry Powell, who is up for re-nomination, but “we definitely need fresh perspectives,” he said. 

Landmarks designation at 2411 Fifth St. 

In August, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 2411 Fifth St. a structure of merit.  

Under current law, a structure of merit is a fully recognized historic building, which, while altered, still reflects fundamental elements of the original structure and is considered worthy of preservation. 

The owner of the Queen Ann Victorian Cottage-style structure, Laura Fletcher, is appealing the landmark designation. She says the house is in such poor condition that it is too expensive for her to renovate. She wants to sell it and has advertised that the sale would be a good investment to a developer who would “rebuild it or begin anew.” 

Fletcher argues in a letter to the council that by designating the house a structure of merit, “…the Commission not only made it all but impossible to develop the property in accordance with the zoning for this area, but also greatly devalued my property.” 

Sixty-six neighbors have petitioned the council to uphold the designation. Architect Erick Mikiten, writing to the council, says that the structure of merit designation “essentially requires the front of the building to remain, but allows raising it up, relocating it, removing the garage, and changing the stairs …. It is possible with almost any 115-year-old historical resource to nit-pick and find details that have been replaced or repaired. But the overall historic character and quality of this building is still intact.”  

Hearing: Lakireddy lien for nonpayment of housing inspection fees 

To recuperate $7,800 in Rental Housing Safety Program (RHSP) inspection fees owed the city, the housing department wants to put a lien on 2033 Haste St., owned by Lakireddy Bali Reddy.  

Reddy’s son Vijay Lakireddy is appealing the fees. 

The RHSP was initiated in 2001 to respond to tenant complaints and to randomly inspect buildings where violations have been frequent. The Haste Street property was inspected because of frequent past violations. 

“The inspection found one or more housing code violations in the common area as well as 47 of the 60 rental units,” a report by Housing Director Steve Barton says. Most the violations were fixed but 13 had to be inspected twice. One violation remains outstanding, according to city reports. 

Reddy owns numerous apartments in Berkeley. In 1999, Chanti Jyotsna Devi Prattipati died in one of his apartments at 2020 Bancroft Way from carbon monoxide poisoning due to a blocked wall heater vent. The death was ruled accidental but led to the revelation that Reddy and his sons were involved in bringing minor girls to the U.S. for sex and work. The elder Reddy is serving a seven-year prison sentence. Vijay Lakireddy served a two-year sentence for conspiracy to commit visa fraud. 

The council will also discuss traffic-calming and parking enforcement policies. 

Two city land use meetings are scheduled for Wednesday night, both at the same time—7 p.m.—and in the same building—the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

The Planning Commission, which meets on the ground floor, has three hearings scheduled, including two that concern tweaks to the ordinance governing the Design Review Committee. 

The legislation would eliminate the requirement for the chair of the Zoning Adjustments Board to sit on the committee, reduce number of lay members and eliminate appeals to the city council of final design review findings. 

The other legislative change eliminates legal conflicts in the city attorney’s office in hearings on nuisance abatements. As currently drafted, the process requires two attorneys, who are then barred from communicating with each other; the proposed change would eliminate the conflict and allow the process to be handled by a single lawyer. 

The commission will also hear a report on the methods used by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) to prepare the Regional Housing Needs Assessment for 2007-14.  

As a regional agency, ABAG can impose standards on municipalities within its jurisdiction, and the housing assessment has been a controversial issue because of the way UC Berkeley students are considered in assessing the demands placed on the city for creating new housing. 

Also up for discussion—but not action—is the City Council’s Nov. 14 directive to the commission to create zoning amendments to allow small dealerships for electric cars to open in the central Shattuck Avenue business district. 

The change is needed because currently the addition of any new car dealerships is barred by city ordinance, and the council wants to support electric car sales. 

Downtown landmarks 

The second meeting focuses on the role of historical buildings in the upcoming new downtown plan, now being prepared by city staff working with the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

Comprised of four members each from DAPAC and the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the panel will meet upstairs at the senior center. 

The committee is slated to review drafts of historical context statements prepared by the Architectural Resources Group consultants hired by the city to assist in preparing the historical building sections of the new plan. 

The statements concern patterns of history in the downtown as reflected in the architecture of existing buildings in the area. 

The new downtown plan, which covers a larger area than the current 1990 plan, was mandated in the settlement of last year’s city lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020. 

DAPAC was created to advise the city on the plan, and the subcommittee was created after landmarks commissioners insisted they be given a role in the planning process, citing city and state legislation.

A forum to discuss how Berkeley public schools can be more welcoming toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families in the community will be held at the Berkeley Technology Academy today (Tuesday). 

Coordinated by the Parent Outreach Office, the discussion aims to initiate a support network among LGBT families. 

“We also hope to talk about how to make our schools safer and more inclusive, how to work with the parent community and how to incorporate these issues into overall anti-bullying work,” said Lisa Warhuus, who works with the Parent Outreach Office. 

Warhuus added that that the forum was a follow-up initiative of a group of administrators who had recently attended a conference on supporting LGBT families in elementary schools. 

Judy Appel, director of Our Family Coalition in San Francisco, will be the discussion facilitator. 

BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan said the event was part of the district’s goal to bring communities together.  

“We want to give the LGBT community the same opportunities as other families,” he said, and added that the forum would also bring up issues affecting LGBT students. 

The forum begins at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Technology Academy, 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

A family feud over a brother’s death likely led to the Thanksgiving Day shooting in an Oakland apartment complex that killed two women and one man and injured two more, Oakland Police Department spokesman Roland Holmgren said. 

On March 1, 2006, Winta Mehari called 911 and told dispatchers that her husband, 42-year-old Abraham Tewolde of Berkeley, was having difficulty breathing, the Alameda County Coroner’s Office reports. 

Tewolde had no history of drug use, was athletic and had no health issues, said Deputy Sheriff Mike Bitle. According to Bitle, Tewolde’s death was not considered suspicious, but its cause could not be determined. 

On Thursday, police suspect Tewolde’s brothers, Temodros and Asmeron Gebreselassie, burst in on 28-year-old Winta Mehari of Berkeley, her 17-year-old brother Yonas Mehari and their mother Regba Baharengasi, both of Oakland, and shot and killed them before fleeing to a neighboring apartment. 

Yonas was a student at Berkeley High where he was a member of the football team. 

Holmgren reports that the shooting was likely the result of a family feud between the victims and the two Gebreselassie brothers over just exactly how their brother Abraham Tewolde died. 

According to Holmgren, officers were called to the third-floor apartment 305 at 5301 Telegraph Ave. at 3:10 p.m. Thursday after receiving reports of broken glass and screaming. 

Holmgren said when officers arrived, the three victims shot at the Keller Plaza apartment had already perished. 

Holmgren reported one man in apartment 305 escaped the haze of bullets unharmed. A 22-year-old man was shot in the foot and a 28-year-old man was shot in the arm and broke his back after he escaped the gunfire by jumping from a third-story window.  

Holmgren said the 28-year-old remains in the hospital and will likely be paralyzed.  

Red Cross spokesman Alan Tobey said police called the Red Cross to the apartment complex at 8 p.m. to provide shelter and mental health services to the 200 people who were evacuated from the apartment complex and stood on the street for hours as SWAT teams scoured the area for the shooters.

A 19-year-old Oakland man was sentenced Monday to nine years in state prison for shooting to death a Berkeley man who was hosting a party for his three children and their friends in March. 

Antonio Harris, who originally was charged with murder and attempted murder and faced a possible sentence of life in prison, pleaded guilty on Oct. 23 to the lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm for the March 25 death of 36-year-old Aderian Gaines at his home in the 1500 block of Prince Street. 

Nathaniel Daniel, a friend of Gaines, was wounded in the incident. 

Prosecutors said they thought it would be difficult to convict Harris of murder and attempted murder because witnesses’ statements varied widely and the party was crowded and dimly lit. 

Co-defendant James Freeman, 29, was sentenced last week to two years in state prison for his role in the incident. 

Freeman, who has previous convictions for armed robbery and assault with a firearm, pleaded guilty on Oct. 23 to being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. 

After the guilty pleas by Freeman and Harris last month, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Greg Dolge said he allowed Harris to plead guilty to lesser charges because “after a thorough review of the case and talking to witnesses, there were some significant questions that we’ll never get an answer to.” 

Gaines and his wife, Afeni Gaines, were hosting a party for their three children and their friends. They charged $2 for admission and searched guests for weapons. The party was the fourth they had hosted in an effort to give their children something to do on a weekend night, according to Berkeley police. 

Dolge said Gaines disarmed Harris and kicked him out of his house after discovering that Harris had a gun. But he said Harris was able to get his gun back and return to the party. 

Dolge said the prosecution’s case was complicated by the fact that Gaines had a rifle with a fixed bayonet in his house that was prominently displayed and was in the possession of three different adult chaperones, including Gaines, at various times during the party. 

“The unanswerables were significant enough to make me less confident that we could prove the murder and attempted murder charges beyond a reasonable doubt,” Dolge said.

On a divided vote, Richmond city councilmembers last week approved a contract to provide services for a casino planned for unincorporated North Richmond. 

Pressured by community groups eager for promised jobs and enticed by the promise of substantial new revenues, the council approved a pact that will give the city $335 million over 20 years, primarily in return for providing police and fire services. 

With the city agreement in hand, all the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo-speaking Native Americans needs now are federal approvals of their plans to buy the 29.87-acre site on Richmond Parkway and to build a 225,000-square-foot, 1,940-slot Las Vegas-style gambling parlor. 

One key element of the Richmond council’s action offered a major step in that direction in the form of a guarantee that the city would support the tribe’s bid for federal approval. 

One of three votes against the measure came from Councilmember Tom Butt, who, unlike fellow opponents Mayor-Elect Gayle McLaughlin and Councilmember Tony Thurmond, said he is not an outright opponent of gambling. 

“I just thought the city ought to get something up front,” he said. While he thought a $3 million good faith payment was probably a good figure, he settled on $1 million—but couldn’t get a second. 

“It’s typical in real estate deals to put up some money up front as an option payment or a deposit,” he said. “We’re being asked to wager on the ‘come,’” he said, referring to a bet on a craps table. “I thought we ought to get something even if the come doesn’t come.” 

Assemblymember Loni Hancock, who represents the district encompassing the casino sites, lamented the decision, invoking biblical imagery. 

“They’re selling out their birthright for a mess of pottage,” she said. 

What remains to be determined is if the Bureau of Indian Affairs will grant the tribe permission to establish a reservation on land to which critics say it has no historic ties. 

While the state has little statutory power to stop the casino, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has written a letter of opposition, and Hancock, the East Bay Democrat, is a stalwart foe of all urban casinos. 

Hancock’s opposition includes both the second, and far grander casino resort planned inside Richmond city limits at Point Molate, as well as the existing machine gambling at Casino San Pablo. 

If the two pending applications are approved, the East Bay would have three casinos within six miles of each other. 

The Point Molate project is the grandest of the trio, and would feature a luxury hotel, an upscale shopping center and a major entertainment venue. Though it combines the resources of a Berkeley developer, a powerful Washington lobbyist and Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s preeminent gambling company, the project may rest on a shakier footing, given its environmentally sensitive location and a pending buyout offer for Harrah’s by Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management. 

The lobbyist, Republican William Cohen, was Secretary of Defense for President Bill Clinton and now runs a well-connected political persuasion business—the Cohen Group—in the nation’s capital. 

Their tribal partner and ultimate owner of the reservation would be the Guidiville Rancheria band of Pomos. 

Harrah’s is a preeminent name in the ranks of modern casinos, while Noram Richmond LLC is a special purpose corporation formed by Alan H. Ginsburg of Maitland, Fl., a wealthy but little know figure who has become a major player in the world of tribal gambling. 

Unlike the Sugar Bowl developers, Upstream and its partners have paid Richmond $3.75 million to date for their option on the former naval refueling base, with another $3 million payment due in mid-January. 

“We’ll see if they make it,” said Butt, who said he doubts the Molate casino will win federal approval. 

Hancock said she is less certain. “There is so much money in play,” she said. “Tribal gambling interests are now major political contributors in California, with two-thirds of their money going to Republicans.” 

But James D. Levine, the Berkeley developer who launched the project, said the project is moving foward with a draft einvironmental impact statement due in the spring. “We’ve already presented all the data on the Guidiville ethnohistory to the National Indian Gaming Commission.” 

Harrah’s remains the one question. “You never know with these big companies,” he said. 

The shift of both congressional houses from red to blue could help with pending legislation from Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and John McCain (R-AZ) aimed at stopping so-called reservation shopping by tribes looking for lucrative casino sites.  

San Pablo gold 

Tribal casinos can become powerful players in local government, as can be seen in neighboring San Pablo. 

Casino San Pablo had been the subject of a proposed compact between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Lytton Rancheria band of Pomos that would have allowed 3,500 Vegas-style slot machines and a monopoly on Bay Area casino play. 

But when the deal foundered on strong opposition from state and local legislators, the tribe took advantage of a legal loophole and installed “bingo machines” that look and play a lot like the prohibited slots. 

The one key difference between the two types of machines is that players who feed the bingo slots play against each other rather than the house, as is the case with traditional slot machines.  

The National Indian Gaming Act loophole made the tribe and the impoverished city vastly richer than the legal card room play which had taken place at the club. 

The fast-paced machines play more like slots than the slow business of playing traditional bingo with its cards, markers, spinning ball cages, and number callers. 

For that reason, critics have called for slowing down the play, as well as for reducing the hefty house take from each game. Revisions now being considered by the National Indian Gaming Commission have prompted proposing tighter rules on the Class II bingo machines. 

One outspoken critic of the proposed changes is San Pablo Mayor Genoveva Garcia Calloway, who sent the commission a letter of opposition on Sept. 25. 

“The Tribe has been able to provide significant financial support to ... assist with law enforcement, provide programs for the city’s neediest citizens and to reduce taxes for all the City’s citizens. Currently, 67 percent of the City of San Pablo’s general fund comes from money received from the tribe,” she wrote on Sept. 25. 

The Sugar Bowl, which would be built between Parr Boulevard and Richmond Parkway in North Richmond, would offer stiff competition to Casino San Pablo with the more conventional gambling machines and table games. 

San Pablo Finance Director Bradley Ward said casino funds rose from less than $2.5 million before the bingo machines were installed to $10 million. 

“Basically, it’s enabled the city to stay alive,” Ward said. 

Before the machines were installed, city officials had discussed ending the city’s incorporation and reverting to being part of the unincorporated area of Contra Costa County. 

The casino revenues, which amount to 7.5 percent of the gross betting “handle,” almost equal the entire amount of the city’s $10.9 million police budget, and the money has enabled the city to pay down unfunded pension liabilities and other unfunded retiree benefits. 

Another piece of proposed federal legislation could torpedo plans to turn the San Pablo casino into a full-scale casino by reversing a special rider to a Bureau of Indian Affairs funding bill that backdated the grant of the casino. 

Reversing that legislation would force the Lyttons to undergo the normal reservation granting process, essentially starting anew.

The Dijon mustard that was called for in the brussel sprouts recipe was in my garage. I couldn’t get to it because the cops posted outside my 53rd Street duplex had ordered me to “Stay inside, Lady.” Their drawn revolvers convinced me to obey. I did, for the next few hours on Thanksgiving Day, as a huge tragic drama unfolded across the street at the Keller Plaza apartments.  

So near and yet so far. I’d heard a woman’s shrieking wails earlier but dismissed them. A lot of screams are heard in this topsy-turvy, drug-dealing Temescal neighborhood. Gunshots, too. But I didn’t hear those precede this woman’s screams on Thanksgiving Day. Perhaps I was whirring cranberries and oranges in the Cuisinart as revenge was being exacted on two Eritrean women and a teenager across the way. 

The unrelenting helicopter buzz told me something bigger than usual was going down, but I just kept cooking, with an occasional crawl out into the living room to check out the scene on our cul-de-sac. Same four cop cars blocking the Keller Plaza garage. Same cops standing around. Probably a drug incident, common enough over there, this one perhaps with more violence than usual. Whatever. 

Cranberries and brussel sprouts almost done, ready to pack up and transport to dinner in Moraga. Have to leave out that Dijon mustard, though, what with the police presence outside. Fellow guests will understand: she lives in Oakland, Murder Capital—when it’s not just also a terrific place to live. More terrific for some than others. 

The disenfranchised young black men have another story to tell, one that doesn’t feature deprivation of fancy mustard. Many immigrant groups have less rosy tales to tell too, with pressures of language, money and different cultures pressing heavily on daily life. In some cultures, revenge is honorable. The rule of law in the United States, however, does not excuse or protect avengers. This may have been the case for the Eritrean brothers who murdered their dead brother’s widow, her mother and her young brother across the street this Thanksgiving Day.  

Only as I drove out of 53rd Street did I begin to realize the enormity of the afternoon’s events: police blockades on Shattuck, Telegraph and the nearby cross streets; news trucks everywhere; crowds gathered on street corners; people wrapped in blankets; yellow police tape even on my own side windows. What the hell is going on? I learned from media bits later that the men I’d seen being backed out of the apartment directly across from mine were two brothers who had just executed three people on this most American of holidays, a holiday originating from another group of immigrants facing life in an unknown, inhospitable environment.  

Until arriving in Moraga, I had no idea that three of my neighbors had been executed as I whirred cranberries and missed mustard across the way. Thousands of miles and years of history separated us.

The Planet’s not the only publication that gets letters from obsessive people. The big metro daily is more concerned than we are about filtering them out, but a few fanatics sneak into their letters columns too. Thursday they ran a letter from a guy down the peninsula who’s annoyed that Berkeley-based national columnist Robert Scheer continues to spotlight the lunacy of the national administration. His beef with Bob: 

“Is it my imagination, or does Robert Scheer write about the same thing week after week? Every Wednesday, it seems the thrust of his column is that Iraq is a disaster and Bush is a fool and a liar. Aren’t there any other subjects to write about?” 

The obsessive correspondent even put his computer to work as a critic, running a program that counted how many times various words were used in 54 Scheer columns. Discarding small grammatical connectors, the computer confirmed his direst suspicions about Scheer’s topics: “….the word ‘Bush’ ranks way up there as No. 13 (used 324 times or an average of six times per column). Also high on the list are ‘Iraq’ (ranked No. 16), ‘president’ (No. 24), ‘war’ (No. 32), ‘U.S.’ (No. 33), and ‘administration’ (No. 41).”  

Well, yes, Scheer does write about Bush a lot. Bush is still, unfortunately, the president of the United States, last time we checked, and he’s still screwing up on a daily basis, in Iraq in particular, which might explain why that country’s name is also high on Bob’s topic list.  

In contrast, the national columnists who live and work inside the Beltway in Washington are fascinated by the small-town gossip aspects of their local legislature, somewhat in the same way the Planet might seem to be fascinated by the interlocking shenanigans of Berkeley’s developers, Chamber of Commerce and councilmembers. The “who’s up, who’s down” aspect of political bodies (will Nancy and Steny play well together? Is Darryl in Tom’s pocket?) is the thinking person’s sports page. But over the long haul the pundits who are supposed to be tracking the national and international scene (including the Planet’s own Conn Hallinan and Bob Burnett) must pay special attention to old No. 43, the administration. It’s tempting, with the Democrats poised to take over in Congress next month, to think that a big rain’s gonna come, that justice will rain down like water in 2007. Not much, however, will change in the next two years, in Washington, in Sacramento, or in Berkeley. It’s the administrations—the folks on the ground—who will still be calling the shots, and the new electeds won’t be able to do much about it in two years. 

The word “administration” has taken on a dual meaning in recent years. It covers both the permanent bureaucracies which run the country at the national, state and local levels and the increasingly small percentage of government executives who are elected or are appointed by elected officials. The power of the professional bureaucratic class grew in the twentieth century because of the perceived misdeeds of political appointees in executive jobs, so that now things are mostly run by people who aren’t held accountable in elections.  

This change was spearheaded by the “Goo-Goos,” a grand old epithet revived in Tom Wolfe’s delicious send-up of New York’s impotent Landmarks Preservation Commission in last week’s Sunday Times. He defined Goo-Goo as “an old City Hall term for believers in Good Government, by which the regulars meant idealistic lightweights whose feet seldom touched the ground.” 

Term limits is Sacramento’s Goo-Goo problem, coupled with the results of gerrymandering. Thanks to “reforms,” every couple of years a new class of naifs shows up, and the savvy old legislators join the ranks of the permanent lobbyists. That’s why we have ex-senator Dion Aroner now fronting for Pacific Steel Casting, while her ex-boss, ex-representative now-mayor Tom Bates, has been appointed to the regulatory body which seems unable to clean up PSC and his wife the ex-mayor now-assemblymember keeps things under control in Sacramento. Outsiders don’t stand a chance against such well-oiled and experienced machines, the likes of which are operating all over the state. Calling these slick organizations machines does not mean that they’re taking graft, of course, but simply that they’ve optimized the process of producing the right results for the right people.  

The Goo-Goos in California long ago got rid of partisan elections for local office. The result is that you don’t really know what you’re voting for, so elections turn into beauty contests and the professionals continue business-as-usual regardless of who wins. The Green Party has been trying to change this scenario, with some recent successes, particularly in Richmond, but in most places staff rules. 

Anyone masochistic enough to watch the Berkeley City Council in action (or more properly The Berkeley City Council Inaction) can see the results of the leave-them-alone school of governance. Staff delivers, sometimes at the council meeting itself, lengthy (and costly) reports which should form the basis for votes, but in subsequent council discussions it’s painfully apparent that most of the participants haven’t even read their weekend packets, let alone the last minute submissions. Nevertheless—surprise, surprise—what the staff endorses almost always passes with few changes. 

The recent byplay over the Creeks Ordinance was a good demonstration of how councilmembers miss the action. The new ordinance was passed in concept a week or so ago with the usual late-night fancy footwork by the mayor, but then three councilmembers, presumably after hearing from irate constituents, charged that they wuz robbed and wanted to start over. They don’t seem to have understood what was on the table, nor did they seem to get it the second time around. Sadly, this is far from unusual.  

Not too long ago the Planet received a letter from a reader asserting that E.Y. Harburg, the author of “Happy Days are Here Again,” was once a Republican. The writer is a frequent and cordial correspondent, and we didn’t want him to embarrass himself in public, so instead of running the letter we wrote back respectfully and said that we were positive that Yip Harburg, whose son we had known, was never a Republican. We didn’t cite sources, since we didn’t have any on hand, but we urged the writer to check his. After a bit of back and forth, he discovered that the author of the Democratic fight song “Happy Days” was indeed a Republican, but that Yip Harburg (a noted leftist) didn’t write it. Case closed. 

This exchange prompted some thought about the question of whether the opinion pages should be open to supposedly factual assertions that the editors know to be untrue. It’s no favor to readers to fill their heads with pseudo-facts, and it’s a disservice to the reputation of the erring writer. Ah, but how do we decide what’s not true? And if we think it’s untrue, when do we find time to research what we remember? The editor’s memory is aging like the rest of her—last week I relocated Illinois to Ohio, for example.  

But in some cases, where we’ve been part of the action ourselves, it’s hard to let misstatements of fact slip by. This is the case with the remarkable string of untruths and half-truths which were ginned up and published by the Chamber of Commerce as part of their successful campaign to defeat Measure J. In several cases letter writers probably didn’t know they were repeating a manufactured falsehood, but that doesn’t make their statements any truer. For example, last week we printed an update of a commentary by a West Berkeley property owner and developer which had been submitted too late for pre-election publication. It purported to recount the history of six years of attempts to revise the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, a subject which I know in painful detail since I was on the Landmarks Preservation Commission for four years of the six.  

The author said that “In a clear case of anti-democracy in action, initiative backers sought to supersede six years of community dialogue and compromise. While anti-growth activists repeatedly referred to Landmarks Ordinance revisions under consideration by the City Council last summer as ‘the Mayor and Councilman Capitelli’s draft,’ that is a distortion. In fact, the revisions are the product of extended discussions between homeowners, preservationists, businesspeople, and city planning staff dating back to 2000.” 

Well, no. In 2000 the city manager and the council simply charged the LPC with amending the LPO to correct a purported conflict between the ordinance’s timetables and the state of California’s permit streamlining act, which had been passed after the LPO was written. As the only attorney on the LPC, and an inactive one at that, it took me a while to figure out, with the help of outside legal advice, that one very simple change of wording would have accomplished that goal, and quickly. I repeatedly brought this fact to the attention of City Attorney Zac Cowan, who was charged with drafting the needed amendment, and he never denied it. But he had his own agenda.  

For the whole time the ordinance was under consideration, Cowan was an officer or board member (now he’s vice-president) of Greenbelt Alliance, an advocacy organization which promotes “smart growth”—filling in open spaces within cities in hopes of preserving open spaces (“greenbelts”) outside of cities. Its goals are laudable, but some of its ideas are now viewed as naïve. (How many homebuyers will pass up suburban single-family homes with yards in favor of condos on South Shattuck in Berkeley?) 

In retrospect it seems clear to several of us—who participated in good faith and made numerous compromises in the LPC’s four-year effort to produce an acceptable draft of a revised ordinance—that Cowan’s successive drafts were designed to make it easier to tear down older buildings and replace them with denser infill. His personal espousal of the Smart Growth ideology was the motivation for the language he recommended, a clear conflict of interest. 

The opinion commentator continued: “Recall that back in 2000 the City Council requested a review of the ordinance in response to a spate of complaints about LPC malfeasance…In a number of instances commissioners ‘protected’ properties with no historical merit in order to block development, when the city’s other land-use processes were not expected to generate the outcome desired by anti-growth extremists or hostile neighbors.” 

In fact, from 2000 to 2004 complaints were few and far between, and almost always from property owners who wanted to tear down genuinely historic properties in order to build new developments. In every case that I can recall, such property owners eventually got their way, since the LPC was usually overruled by a developer-funded City Council. But the pro-growth extremists wanted more. 

When Tom Bates took over as mayor in 2003, one of his first acts was to launch a Task Force on Permitting and Development, chaired by Laurie Capitelli. It was dominated by developers, major contributors to Bates and Capitelli’s recent campaigns, with only one neighborhood activist included as a member. Virtually its only product was a mandate for city planning staff to produce a new LPO draft, which eventually materialized. 

Opponents of Measure J, including the opinion commentator, made much of the final “endorsement” of the resultant draft, quite properly ascribed to Bates and Capitelli, by the Landmarks Preservation Commission which was in office at the time it was finished. But that endorsement was engineered by the time-honored technique of packing the panel.  

The process started with the mayor’s first appointment to the LPC when he took office: branding guru Steven Donaldson, now known to be the author of the Chamber PAC’s notoriously mendacious postcard campaign against Measure J. But Donaldson showed little interest in preservation—he never came to a single meeting, and was eventually replaced by another of Bates’ longtime political allies. As the time came for the LPC’s final vote on the draft, Max Anderson replaced Maudelle Shirek’s LPC appointee with Burton Edwards, an architect and District 8 resident with no ties to Anderson’s flatlands district, and Bates buddy Darryl Moore appointed realtor-developer and Chamber PAC Chair Miriam Ng to the commission. These changes were enough to carry the LPC vote on Bates-Capitelli. 

And those “extensive discussions” of the new ordinance which started under the Bates regime? In the last year many meeting with all sorts of people, including credulous preservationists, were held Sacramento-style, behind closed doors in the mayor’s office, but these produced few homeowners or preservationists willing to endorse the product at the public hearings held after the draft was submitted to council. 

How long does it take to get true facts in front of voters, especially in the face of a well-funded disinformation campaign? Forty-three percent of them in the last election supported Measure J, remarkable under the circumstances. The last 8 percent needed to put it over the top were probably hornswoggled by the Donaldson/PAC postcards, and might have changed their minds if they’d known the postcards were phony. Is two years long enough to educate these voters to change their choice? If a referendum goes on the ballot, we’ll find out. 

DOWNTOWN PLANNING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Some cities around the United States have turned their declining downtowns into vigorous, exciting places including pedestrian malls. It is inspiring to read their stories. Success seems to follow a long sustained collaboration of citizens, merchants and government. Trust seems to have been a vital ingredient, from the start. 

How different is the cast of our downtown design “play.” A “commission” of appointed citizens—perhaps chosen because they have no personal stake. The small downtown merchants—with great personal stake—granted “voice” limited to the three minute “public comment period.” The city elite mostly looking on mutely with fingers crossed. 

Setting aside whether such an arrangement can yield a better downtown, what is on my mind is this discrepancy of “voice” and “stake.” No one charged with these decisions is subject to any cost for what they recommend. Every person makes their living by means independent of downtown’s viability. Perhaps this assures there is not bias due to self-interest. But it inevitably becomes a game. “Let’s close Park Place to cars.” “Let’s try this radical, high-risk Feature on Boardwalk.” “Ask the city to do a ‘land swap’ on Marvin Gardens.” This is fun! When the game concludes all walk away with no real-world liability. 

But this isn’t a game for a class of people among us—the small merchants whose livings depend upon the viability of commerce in downtown. The small merchants will pay with real money—with potentially their all—for casually considered moves in the Monopoly game of which they are not players. 

Bruce Wicinas 

• 

PARKING PATROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Friday after Thanksgiving, just minutes after 4 p.m., I noticed a couple of tow trucks and a Berkeley parking enforcement scooter on Oxford, just north of Hearst. While I did not stop to watch, I assume they were towing cars. There is no parking from 4-6 p.m. Yet, it was a long holiday weekend, at least at UC. There was no traffic to speak of. Why tow? As far as I could see it was completely pointless. The poor souls, the owners of the cars towed, ended up with nothing but grief, wasted time, and expense and for what? This mindless enforcement of rules is part of what generates much animosity and gives parking enforcement staff (and other bureaucrats) a well deserved bad name. 

Chuck Smith 

• 

PROPAGANDA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Chris Kavanaugh’s Nov. 28 propaganda piece for the Green Party, touting the number of party members elected to office in California, omits one critical factor. Candidates for local office in our state must, by law, run on a nonpartisan basis—not as Democrats, Republicans, Greens or anything else. Dona Spring in Berkeley and Gayle McLaughlin in Richmond no more won because they were members of Kavanaugh’s party, than Aimee Allison in Oakland lost. They won or lost as individuals, just as all their colleagues did. 

Why anyone would boast about the Green Party is beyond me. It was their candidate for president of the United States who in 2000 handed victory in the Electoral College to George W. Bush, bringing about the disasters of the past six years. Another six years isn’t enough to forgive them. Two thousand would be about right. 

Revan Tranter 

• 

A FEW YEARS AHEAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding the surreal reality-check of Ernest Grouns, a Bloomington, Indiana reader, comparing Berkeley folks to Jim Jonesers and Branch Davidians (Letters, Nov. 21): 

Perhaps our Midwestern friend missed the Nov. 10 article from the bigoted Berkeley Sea Scouts asking for donations for dock space rental. The city of Berkeley Legal Department and the U.S. Supreme Court both agree that the Boy Scouts don’t deserve the free ride since they discriminate against gays and atheists. 

Contrary to national impression, we’re not all politically correct here in Berkeley. Neither are we Jonestowners or Davidians. More like you, Ernest, only a few years ahead. 

Joe Kempkes 

• 

HELP SAVE THE OAKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It took a lot of effort, but we were finally able to find out when and where the UC Board of Regents committee will meet to determine the fate of the oak grove by Memorial Stadium—as well as the entire portfolio of six other massive projects that UC plans to inflict on the southeast part of campus and the adjoining neighborhoods. The meeting of the committee will be held at 4:30 p.m. Tuesay, Dec. 5 in San Francisco at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus in the Community Center building at 1675 Owens St. 

Many Berkeley citizens are, understandably, very concerned about the implications of these proposed projects, and they would like to offer public comment about them.  

Why has it been so difficult to find out the time and place of the meeting? 

Why is the meeting at a time when most people will still be at work? 

Why is the meeting about the oak trees in Berkeley being held in San Francisco? 

Answer: Because they don’t want us to show up! 

What should we do? Show up! Let’s all go and tell the Regents how we feel about this plan to destroy a beautiful, healthy grove of oaks that are between 80 and 200 or more years old. How dare they suggest that they will destroy the last remaining oak woodland in the entire lowland area of Berkeley! In fact, let’s all go early and have a “Celebration of the Trees” before the meeting. We can share stories, songs, poems, and anything else that shows how much we value the trees in our community. Please come. Stand up for the oaks! 

Doug Buckwald 

• 

NON-PROLIFERATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to voice my concern about the Department of Energy’s new plan called “Complex 2030.” This plan redesigns and rebuilds every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal. 

We have no need for such an investment in this destructive weaponry. We have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world as of today. Instead, we need to hold to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, setting an example for other nations to cease developing nuclear weapons. 

There will be public hearings on Complex 2030 on Dec. 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Robert Livermore Community Center, 4444 East Ave., Livermore and also on Dec. 12 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Tracy Community Center, 950 East Street, Tracy. 

Attend these public hearings! Speak out against our tax dollars going into a dangerous, polluting project! 

Joanna Katz 

• 

LIBRARY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Now that we have had a few weeks of respite from the prolonged uproar about the privacy invasion and health risks of the RFID program installed by departed Berkeley Public Library director Jackie Griffin, we are faced with another potential dilemma. Instead of a return to the more harmonious operation of our beloved library we may find ourselves dealing with a new director whose selection was anything but transparent or participatory or in sympathy with our local culture. 

As noted in the recent Peter Warfield/ Gene Bernardi Commentary piece in this paper’s Nov. 17 issue, the four candidates presented for public interviewing on Nov. 18 turn out to be the selection of a seven member advisory committee of librarians whose libraries either have or are advocating the use of RFID tracking devices. It is worth noting that no members of the reading public, no BPL staff members, no members of the SuperBOLD group were involved in this candidate selection process. Sound familiar? AND Dubberly and Garcia, the search firm that selected all the potential candidates, is owned by the two principals Ron Dubberly and June Garcia who are connected with Library Services and Systems, Inc. a company involved with outsourcing employees for libraries (and company profit). 

So now it appears that not only is it probable that we will have to continue to do battle over the removal of RFID tags on the books, magazines, videos and DVDs in the library but we also have to consider that the further dismantling of the professional and dedicated library staff, their union—and their union wages—will be a possibility while providing a profit to the company that sends in the outsourced. In Berkeley there is no controversy about the imperative of a first class public library staffed by local professional librarians. Our citizens pass almost every money measure for the library and raise still more funds through the Friends of the Library and the Foundation. 

What is happening to our culture that even public libraries, the honored legacy of over a century, have to be corporatized—even in Berkeley. Haven’t we all noticed that a corporatized medical system doesn’t work, that charter schools are rarely superior to our tattered public schools, that privately run for profit enterprises are no less bureaucratic than inefficient government agencies? Why must we repeat the merry go round of finding out the hard way that the systems we have had in place for decades to provide basic human services for the common good are a far better way to maintain and expand a democratic society? 

If Berkeley folks can’t see the folly of these trends—and reject them—we have most certainly lost our minds and our civic soul. 

Joan Levinson 

• 

GETTING IT STRAIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Councilmember Dona Spring needs to get her stories straight. It was indicated in a recent article that she would bring the issue of city agencies being part of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce because of the recent action against the Richmond Chamber.  

Councilmember Spring was referring to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle which stated that the Richmond Chamber spent $5,000 from their general fund to lobby against a particular local measure. Because of this conflict of interest, the Richmond City Council voted to drop its membership from the chamber. 

If Councilmember Spring had made a simple phone call to the Berkeley Chamber office, she would have found out that no money was ever spent from their general fund for political purposes. Membership dues that Berkeley Chamber members pay are used exclusively for the betterment of the membership. This was affirmed by an e-mail directed to all chamber members by Chamber President Roland Peterson the day after the Chronicle article came out. 

Is there such a thing as a “sore winner”? Councilmember Spring has won the election but continues to accuse the Berkeley Chamber of unverified information. The election is over. It is now time to get on with running the city and working together to ensure that Berkeley strives to be a great place to live and a viable place to do business. Other council members get the picture. Councilmembers Gordon Wozniak and Kriss Worthington recently attended a chamber sponsored mixer at the Rose Garden Inn. Information from the chamber office states that Councilmember Spring has hardly ever attended any function that the chamber sponsors. I would think that all members of the City Council would want to work and support the Berkeley Chamber to improve the business atmosphere in our city. 

Also, in an editorial during the election, it was suggested that Berkeley residents should show their concerns about political actions by the Berkeley Chamber by rethinking doing business with chamber members. People need to realize that the Business For Better Government PAC is a separate entity from the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. Both groups have separate Boards, budgets, rules and organizational structures. The Berkeley Chamber is more about business than about politics. 

And, if readers of this newspaper want to protest the actions of the Berkeley Chamber by withholding their patronage of Berkeley Chamber members, advertisers in the Daily Planet might want to know that, according to the chamber web site, the Berkeley Daily Planet is a member of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. Conflict of interest? 

Richard Hom 

Chamber Member 

• 

POLICE INVESTIGATIONS SHOULD REMAIN PUBLIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The boundaries crossed by police officers at the University of California, Los Angeles on November 16 should remind all of us of the need for a public accountability process that ensures fair and professional standards for the administration of Justice. 

Last Thursday, a UCLA student was tazed multiple times for not showing a student ID card in the library, as shown on the YouTube.com website and news reports. When a few of the several dozen witnesses asked police to stop, police threatened to taze them too. 

What is unique about this incident is the distribution of video evidence made possible by a cellular phone camera and the Internet. The overwhelming majority of our police do not engage in any miscarriage of justice. Northern Californians far too often remember “Fajitagate,” and the Riders case in addition to Los Angeles experiences of the Rampart scandal and Rodney King beating as the most publicly visible examples of police abuse of authority. Like some of those cases, this incident involves allegations of racial profiling, heightening the importance of ensuring public trust in police conduct. 

These abuses are by far the exception rather than the rule, but it is easy to see in light of these scandals why the accountability process must be conducted in public in addition to internal investigations. The California Supreme Court recently decided in Copley Press v. County of San Diego Civil Service Commission that police disciplinary records are confidential and not available to the public, denying public records access to the San Diego Union-Tribune. 

What this means for cities with citizen police review commissions, including Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco, is that some cities need to evaluate the institutional structure to ensure that they do not conduct disciplinary proceedings, which must now be done in private, and that they focus on investigations. 

Even so, these cities face police association lawsuits for upholding their public mechanisms for police accountability. Positive developments in Oakland and Berkeley to research or revamp the situation to ensure the cities can function outside of the Copley decision mean that local leaders see the importance of the public’s right to know. 

Secondly, the legislature should act to close technical ambiguities in the Copley decision before these institutions are threatened with legal action. As we should learn from the six shocking minutes that the student was tazed multiple times, we can’t afford to sacrifice open and public review of police conduct. 

Keith Carson 

President, Alameda County  

Board of Supervisors 

• 

ELECTRIC CARS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have two minor responses to Richard Brenneman’s Nov. 28 item on the Planning Commission. First, on the City Council’s directive for a zoning change to allow Shattuck dealerships for electric cars: These are cars that must be plugged into electrical outlets to be recharged. And where does the council think that electricity comes from? Mostly from coal-burning generating plants, far more polluting than cars. Of course, it does move the pollution somewhere else, rather than Berkeley—but we all share the global warming. 

Second, a little quibble, but a pet peeve. “Comprise” is a wonderfully economical word—it means “to be made up of.” As it came into vogue in recent years, it was immediately wasted by journalists whose lack of imagination did not grasp its economy and who simply substituted it for “compose,” thinking it sounded more literate. Thus the line, “Comprised of four members each ...” should read, “Comprising four members each ...” Nitpicking, I know, but maybe the Planet can help save this word. If you’re going to use it, try to use it correctly. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

UC ARCHITECTURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I completely agree with Eric H. Panzer’s letter on UC Berkeley’s architecture. The School of Environmental Design, ironically, is the most hideous building on campus, especially now that its grim, gray exterior is badly stained. It reminds me of photos of Soviet and East German apartment blocks. 

UC hasn’t put up a truly beautiful building since World War II. 

Nancy Ward 

• 

SUMMIT HEALTH CENTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If you were to pay a visit to the Summit Adult Day Health Center here is some of what you might experience. Abundant laughter and lively conversation coming from a group of seniors sitting around having a second cup of coffee or hot chocolate and discussing their lives, the news in the paper or the art of getting themselves up and going each day. The program aides are serving them up a snack while the PT/OT staff takes a few of them to the exercise room for some much needed exercise.  

Mid-morning, an entertaining adult educator comes in and does a class/session with them sometimes music, dancing, telling stories interactive games and conversation. The RN provides valuable health screening, prevention, ongoing assessment with daily BP checks, blood glucose monitoring, skin checks and liaisons with doctors. There is a full-time social worker who may have a drop-in group that day for wheelchair clients or provide a myriad of other social service needs.  

A hot meal is served at noon with dietary needs and restrictions followed. After lunch, another session with the Program Director or a cooking class or sewing project with terrific teachers. 

Mid-afternoon, the clients ride on vans to their doors helped by a cheerful and friendly bunch of drivers. Down the hall in the Alzheimers/Dementia unit a similar scene takes place toned down to suit the limitations of their clients while meeting their emotional needs, their need for socializing and their health concerns.  

The program is excellent, well-organized, well-attended and the staff “just can’t do enough for you.” 

Of course, when you do something this good, what happens? It gets cut. Just in time for the holiday season, in what Alta Bates Summit Medical Center is calling a “cost-cutting move” the program will shut its doors. 

The center is a valuable community asset serving low-income, underserved predominately African-American seniors. There are only two comparable programs: one in Berkeley and one in East Oakland and they cannot begin to absorb the numbers displaced. 

Is Alta Bates Summit going broke? Or are they choosing to put money towards areas which increase profit, not areas of greatest need? 

This is a heartless decision affecting the lives of a fragile and oft neglected population and the lives of their families and caretakers. Many will be placed in nursing homes as a result of this closure. 

There is also the matter of the employees themselves and their lost jobs, but I think they would all say it is more about the clients. 

We need media attention now—so community leaders, political activists, neighborhood organizations step up and take action. 

Nora Ultreya 

Oakland 

• 

PASSMAN’S RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If it ain’t been explained before, the Semites are peoples—both Arab and Jew—of southwest Asia, i.e., those of the “compromised land?” So to be anti-Semitic is a wide-ranging hit, and I believe only our great nosed satirist Darryl Henriques can twistedly straighten this all out; let’s send him over.  

A semite is fun! da? mentally a descendant of Shem (the good, the renowned. . . ) even a virgin birth, like Jesus or Perseus, first or second son of Noah.  

I do confess to be a veteran anti-Zionist and absolute absurdist, but certainly not anti-underdog as the response to my “You Can’t Visit Any Other Country” haikus of Nov. 14 connecting the snots and the war machine between the Bushits, the religious right, and Israel could be permuted or transmuted. (And yes, how could I leave out the bloody Brit source of Middle East madness!). In some event, somewhere between the mess in messenger and the gel in angel, I can only confoundly caution:  

Behind Borat, Dem 

Rout, religious right preys: 

“Bye, bye Jew Zionists.”  

Arnie Passman 

• 

THIEVERY AND MURDER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If our elected representatives, who are supposed to be our “public servants” placed in office by the consent of the electorate (massive ongoing election theft by Diebold, ES and S and Sequoia notwithstanding) ignore the blatant violation of American laws, international law and our constitution by not immediately investigating this administration then we are sending a signal to the world that our country has become a rouge nation operating outside of any sense of conscience or lawful conduct. 

As an American I am deeply ashamed of the incredible thievery and murderous conduct of our leaders and can only hope that an agressive investigation followed by impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate will set the stage for our nation to start the process of reclaiming our stature by turning over this criminal administration to the world court for proper prosecution on war crimes charges. 

If we, the American people, allow the crimes of this president and his accomplices to go unpunished then we not only cease to be a nation of laws but we are telling the world that any American president may act with absolute impunity to all consequences for any criminal behavior. 

If we do not now act to reclaim the lost morality in our government then we risk losing all that our great nation has strived to achieve during the two centuries prior to the darkness that enveloped us six long years ago! 

Allen Michaan 

Oakland 

• 

OPEN LETTER TO THE  

110TH CONGRESS 

My Fellow Americans: 

Our 220-year-old republic is in critical condition and you will soon be in position to nurse it back to health, or watch it decline further.  

Recall that your founding document, the Constitution, was written in response to post revolutionary conditions and by providing for a new way of governing it not only healed but infused the republic with enough strength to survive wars, civil and foreign, economic ups and downs, westward expansion, and failed domestic policies.  

It may be that the republic has out-grown those daring principles—separation of powers, checks and balances; it can no longer activate them. Perhaps the Constitution is worn out; separation too slow, checks weakened, justice out of balance all on account of new technologies, global supremacy, military deployments. Whatever the cause, history will judge how much you helped or hindered the republic’s recovery.  

Your job, Congresspersons, is heavy. Your new majority party holds a mandate for change. Congressperson Pelosi, House Speaker-in-waiting, proclaimed “a new direction” and enumerated some initial en route markers—minimum wage, Medicare drug prices, student loans, and alternative energy.  

However, the republic’s condition requires more than these band-aid measures and voters expect you to reverse the assaults of the 108th and 109th that brought on the current malady.  

Legislate surgically, delete recklessness in the Patriot Act, restore Habeas Corpus, eschew torture, cut illegal wiretapping, restrain military spending, abandon occupation in Iraq, and above all expose and punish liars.  

When a building is on the verge of collapse it is wise to check its foundation. So should you, therefore, reexamine the list of rights from which, in a sense, the Constitution sprang. Be born again. Reaffirm and strengthen your commitment to the rule of law, to open governance, to equality and justice among all the nations of the world.  

Do this as you conserve without being conservative, persuade rather than bully, lead rather than push. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo

I was at a book party not long ago when Randy Cohen, who writes the New York Times Magazine’s “Ethicist” column, walked up to New York Governor George Pataki and said, “Please, Governor, where’s New York City’s school aid program? You’ve got to fund that!” Pataki, upon learning of Cohen’s place of employ, said something like, “Yes, the Times would complain about school funding,” and walked away. End of conversation.  

You see, the Times editorial page strongly opposes Pataki’s stonewalling of court-ordered increases in education funding. Pataki therefore feels he can blithely blow off a guy who writes an advice column in the newspaper’s Sunday magazine.  

Why am I telling you this story? Pataki was obviously full of it. He knew that the author of a paper’s Sunday advice column is no more responsible for the opinions expressed on its editorial page than the guy who drops it off at my doorstep each morning. But being a politician, Pataki was also aware that the Times editorial page gives the paper its reputation as a “liberal” newspaper—no matter how sympathetic its reporters try to be to the likes of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney (and no matter that, in fact, the Times editorial page endorsed Pataki himself in his last campaign). Because of this reputation, Pataki thought he could ignore a question from anyone associated with the newspaper without paying a price. And here, unfortunately, he was probably right.  

Fred Hiatt, who heads the Washington Post editorial page, admits that “endorsements by the editorial page can make life difficult for our colleagues who report and edit the news, though in fact we operate totally independently from each other.” Despite this independence, he recognizes that “some readers and campaign workers will always be skeptical of that separation, and the doubts can be a burden on Post political reporters.”  

In the case of the Post, the dynamic is somewhat different. Its editorial page has rushed so far right of late, it has come to mimic the work of the self-described “wildmen” of the Wall Street Journal. Post editorialists apparently feel they are free to ignore inconvenient facts reported in the paper’s news section, and misuse others, to justify the Bush Administration’s campaign against Joe Wilson and other critics—as a careful Media Matters for America report has demonstrated.  

While reporters and editors would like to believe that their readers are fully aware of the split between the news and editorial desks, in fact the distinction matters only to the minuscule minority who read the paper the way journalism professors would wish. Most news consumers do not know or care enough to make such distinctions. The Times is recognized as a “liberal newspaper” because it has a generally liberal editorial page. (For the first time in modern memory, the Times endorsed virtually all Democrats this year.) The Wall Street Journal is seen as the opposite. As a result, Journal reporters are apparently less terrified than their Times colleagues of appearing to confirm suspicions of “liberal bias” in their stories, so they feel slightly freer to tell the truth.  

Hiatt is on to something then, but he flatters himself when he claims endorsements are one of a newspaper’s “most important responsibilities.” In my judgment this importance exists largely in the minds of editorial and campaign staffs. This year strong endorsements by the Times of Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman and Democrat Diane Farrell over moderate Republican Chris Shays in Connecticut failed to sway exactly the kind of voters one would expect to swear by the Times. And it’s hard to imagine a Washington Post editorial swaying many votes in the District of Columbia, where Democrats always win, no matter what. Perhaps the Post editors’ views are of interest to a few Maryland or Virginia voters, though the Post’s endorsement of Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich Jr. apparently failed to impress there as well. And just why the Post board found itself reaching into the Lieberman primary remains a mystery. Who, among Connecticut Democrats, takes orders from a newspaper with no stake whatever in the community?  

Of course, editorial writers would argue that their authority rests not on any inherent influence, but on the power of their prose to persuade. But if so, why not sign your name to your argument? Lord knows, nobody reads committee-written and vetted editorials for their scintillating prose. Too often, the stentorian voice of the collective editorial acts as a condom against effective communication—a prophylactic against the accidental conception of wit or irony.  

Sure, it’s fun to pretend to be powerful and influential and to have politicians play along. But sadly, readers see editorials touting certain policies and politicians and assume the entire paper--including the news columns--is slanted the same way. For Murdoch’s New York Post or the Moonies’ Washington Times (or, um, The Nation) that’s fine, because they are. But in the so-called objective press, editorials taint the reporting in the minds of many readers. And while I can’t prove this, I think this leads reporters and editors to bend over backward to prove they don’t share the biases of their editorial boards, which in a time of “faith-based” public policy-making by Republicans, makes said reporters look increasingly “liberal” merely for taking reality into account.  

Wouldn’t most papers be immediately improved by dropping their editorial page and increasing the ideological range and informational expertise of their contributing columnists? I’ll go even further. Why not heed the examples of Britain’s universally admired (liberal) Guardian and (conservative) Economist and drop the frequently phony distinction between “fact” and “opinion”? Why not just let reporters tell us what they know to be true and how and why they know it? Such a solution would borrow what’s most engaging from the blogosphere without sacrificing the crucial function of newspapers in a democratic society. What’s more, it would offer the potential to re-engage people in a (Deweyite) discussion and debate without dumbing down their sources of (Lippmann-like) information.  

Have a better solution? Let’s hear it.  

This article first appeared in the Nov. 27 edition of The Nation. Reprinted with permission.

The proponents of North Shattuck Plaza (NSP) seem to think there’s something wrong with the idea that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” in relation to Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose streets (Daily Planet, Nov. 24). They view the area as “ugly and wasteful.”  

This only shows how out of touch they are with the community. For what the developer-dominated plaza board doesn’t realize is that the vast majority of North Berkeley residents like the area pretty much as it is. They think it may benefit from some minor sprucing up, but the overwhelming reaction from neighbors has been “we like it just the way it is,” and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

What most concerns residents is the loss of the angled parking between Black Oak Books and Long’s Drugs and the effect this would have on the local, neighborhood-serving businesses located there. The owner of one of these stores told me recently that the projected nine month construction period to build the plaza “would put me out of business.”  

At an October community meeting, a Black Oak representative expressed “great concern” about the project. Neighbors worry that if the plaza is built, the local businesses would be driven out and replaced by high-end establishments, and North Shattuck will become another Fourth Street. 

A written question submitted at the NSP-sponsored meeting asked if the project would attract more cars, more people and therefore create more congestion. The answer on the NSP website was, “Perhaps, but most of the users will be the ones already there.” Is that doublespeak, Bushspeak or just an incomprehensible non sequiter? 

The NSP meeting was indicative of that group’s mentality. As we walked in there was a uniformed Berkeley police officer standing conspicuously in the back, and we were told only written questions, selected by the convenors, would be answered. Fortunately, Berkeley’s free speech tradition prevailed and questions shouted from the audience were often answered, but seldom satisfactorly.  

Most questions expressed serious concerns about parking and traffic problems, but there was no indication from the NSP people that they would be willing to make modifications to their plan to alleviate them. One written question asked how disabled people would deal with the lack of parking near the shops.  

That question was not answered at the meeting, but the NSP website response weeks later was that the owner of Saul’s Deli said most of his disabled customers are dropped off in front of the restaurant and the drivers then leave and park elsewhere. But it is one thing to drop a disabled person off on a limited access side road 12-14 feet from a store, and quite another to have to double park on busy Shattuck Avenue and drop them off 50-55 feet from their destination as the NSP plan would require. 

Plaza proponents assert that a 50-foot wide sidewalk is necessary to accommodate tables and benches, etc. for their proposed walkway. Yet Center Street between Shattuck Avenue and Oxford Street which accommodates several outdoor eating areas, as well as heavy foot traffic between BART and the UC campus, is only about 22 feet wide. 

The proponents say my deduction that the plaza is a stalking horse for high-rise development is untrue, because the walkway is to be built on public right-of-way, not private property. But some 16 years ago, councilmember/realtor Laurie Capitelli, a prime mover of the plaza project, annexed a stretch of city property into his condo development on Hearst Street between Milvia and Henry streets. At about the same time, the apartment building on the northeast corner of Shattuck and Rose Street also annexed a part of the public right-of-way. This could easily happen again with our pro-development City Council. 

Right now, the Jewish Community Center at Rose and Walnut streets is planning to partially demolish its landmarked building and rebuild with three or four stories of housing above it. And one city official has indicated that City Hall envisions highrises running from University Avenue to Rose Street all along Shattuck Avenue. 

Anyone who knows the area forsees serious traffic problems on Rose Street where the already difficult ingress and egress from the Long’s lot already produces backups and near accidents, which a second lot close by as envisioned by NSP, will only exacerbate. Yet the Plaza developers baldly assert that a 2000 traffic study done for a far different proposal in 2001 will suffice in 2007, with only minor updating by the pro-development city planning staff.  

And they further maintain that they need not go before the Planning Commission again despite the fact that their new plan is far more drastic than the 2001 version. Nor is there any indication that their new proposal conforms to the North Shattuck Area Plan, built with real community participation some 25 years ago.  

Another major problem with the NSP proposal is that it does not provide parking for the trucks that bring in produce for the Farmers’ Market, and it will remove 40 parking spaces while the market operates. The NSP website acknowledges that it has not solved these problems. Neighbors fear the trucks and displaced cars will clog nearby streets on market days.  

The proposed new, treeless, parking lot between the Bel Forno Café and Long’s will have about forty spaces aligned perpendicular to the sidewalk. There will be lanes from Shattuck Avenue running in both directions through this lot, as drivers pull in and back out. More accidents waiting to happen.  

Finally, the question of what will happen to the drive-up mailbox, now located on the access road and heavily used by seniors and disabled people has not been addressed. NSP says it is up to the Post Office, meaning it has no plan for it. 

It seems obvious that the Plaza proposal creates many more problems than it solves. It reflects the narrow interests of the small group of developers, merchants and realtors who drew it up and not the desires of people who live nearby.  

Fortunately, this is Berkeley and neighbors are talking about a real community meeting in January to come up with a neighborhood alternative to the seriously flawed plan put forth by North Shattuck Plaza, Inc. 

Art Goldberg is a 30-year resident of North Berkeley. 

I love the Big Game, even though I haven’t gone to one since Cal won “The Play.” I figure that even Stanford will keep their band under control to forestall such a disaster again. I love the Big Game because I am an alumnus of both schools, so no matter who wins I can cheer. I love watching the old Stanford alums in their red pants and little kids in their blue and gold caps and T-shirts walking by my house on the way to Memorial Stadium. But I think the idea of spending $110 million to renovate the stadium is an appalling idea.  

Forget for a moment the beautiful oak trees that will go as part of the project. Forget that the stadium will still be on top of an earthquake fault which the experts promise will give us the “Big One” (plus 7.0 on the Richter scale) in the next 30 years. All this is discussed and whitewashed in the University’s Environmental Impact Report. Instead, think for a moment of what $110 million means. If that amount were put into the University’s endowment, it would generate enough income to provide full tuition scholarships for 735 Berkeley students every year, forever. If that amount were given to UC’s newest and neediest campus in Merced, it would be enough for a school of management building, with money left over to endow a full tuition scholarship for every freshman expected next year.  

Why are we spending $110 million renovating the stadium? Presumably it’s because Stanford, with no fault to contend with and a lot of rich alumni, just spent $90 million on their stadium. What kind of scholarship help would an endowment of $90 million have created? I figure that even at Stanford tuition rates it would have been enough for 365 full tuition scholarships, forever. 

What we are facing here is simply an Athletic Arms Race, and it’s just as immoral as any other arms race. Sure, there are billionaires out there who may be ready to pay millions for the vanity of a stadium but not for a scholarship endowment. (Will it be renamed for one of them, thus forgetting the World War I dead which it now commemorates?) Sure, the tax code will give them a big break. But my question is: Is it moral to even propose spending this kind of money for this kind of purpose?  

Enjoy the game. May the best team win! (I can cheer whomever.) May the Big One wait until at least the day after the Big Game. But don’t rebuild the stadium. 

Christopher Adams is an architect and city planner who has lived for many years in Berkeley. 

I was shocked and disturbed by an article I read in the Nov. 28 issue of the Berkeley Daily Planet. In this issue I read that Councilmember Dona Spring was planning to file a complaint against the Business for Better Government Berkeley Chamber of Commerce PAC. I know that Ms. Spring has every right to file a complaint against the PAC and she feels that her personal reputation and integrity was put at risk by the mailers sent out during the last week of the election. What I was disappointed to see is Ms. Spring’s allegations against me in the paper.  

Ms. Spring accuses me of collaborating with the Chamber PAC to coordinate mailers and messages. I want to publicly set the record straight that I ran a positive, clean, and independent campaign. At no time did I discuss campaign tactics or strategies with members of the Chamber PAC. My mailer was designed by volunteers and myself and was printed by a local union printer. Ms. Spring also points to the fact that my campaign treasurer, Stacy Owens, was also the treasurer for the Chamber PAC. I have known Ms. Owens for five five years and when she found out that I was going to run for office she approached me and offered to her professional services. Ms. Owens works for a local CPA office and is a professional political campaign treasurer. During all the times that I met with Ms. Owens she never discussed the campaign efforts of the Chamber PAC. I know Ms. Owens to be an honest person who maintains confidentiality among her clients. Furthermore, it is insinuated that my attendance at the Chamber PAC’s Fundraiser on September 21st means that we were collaborating campaign efforts. The night of Sept. 21 I had my own personal campaign fundraiser at a neighbor’s home. I arrived at the Chamber PAC’s fundraiser around 7 p.m. when more than 50 percent of the guests had already left. I stayed and mingled with guests for about 30 minutes before everyone left.  

The day after the election I called Ms. Spring and congratulated her on her success and I told her that I hoped we could work together to help make District 4 and the City of Berkeley a better place. I continue to serve on the Zoning Adjustments Board and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. It seams that instead of Ms. Spring accepting her victory and moving forward to improve Berkeley she has decided to spend her time filing frivolous complaints. What I think Ms. Spring has to consider is why did the Chamber PAC launch such a large and concentrated campaign against her. Whether or not you decide to blame Councilmember Spring for the downtown’s problems the fact remains that over the past 14 years the downtown area has become the lowest generator of tax revenue for the entire City of Berkeley. 

Instead of filing a complaint against the Chamber PAC maybe Dona should reach out to the Chamber and find out why they have lost confidence in her. Maybe Dona should take the time to sit down with members of the business community and hear their concerns. We need to remember that encouraging business growth helps generate tax revenue that allows the city to provide social services, fix infrastructure, provide adequate fire and police coverage, affordable housing, ect. Dona’s district should be the driving force behind our tax base. Instead it is dead last. Dona wants to know why it was pointed out that small businesses are leaving our downtown. It is because downtown merchants (I have worked on Shattuck Avenue since 1997) are tired of seeing business after business leave our downtown. We are tired of watching storefronts stay empty for years. Concerned business leaders want Berkeley to provide a fair chance for businesses to survive and grow in this city. They also want to know that they have the support of their local representative. If Dona is ready to move Berkeley forward and help improve her district’s lagging tax revenue then she should accept her victory and spend her time to mend relationships that have long been ignored.  

Raudel Wilson was a candidate for City Council. 

The University of California’s SCIP project—the new stadium, training center, business conference center, 911 car parking garage and the Boalt Hall hotel project, all on the Hayward fault zone—is a serious and permanent threat to the safety and livability of the whole city. The city has developed a very strong lawsuit to stop this massive development. To defend itself, Berkeley has no alternative but to follow through with this lawsuit. Secret negotiations like were done over the LRDP to get a few concessions in exchange for dropping that suit would be wrong on all counts. This suit is the only chance to defend the city now and for the next twenty years. 

Alquist-Priolo, which bans state development on earthquake faults is a fundamental law for California. Until now the wisdom of the law has been self-evident and the state has avoided building on fault zones. Suddenly, UC is saying that the law is really only a “technicality” and should not stand in the way of the university concentrating more than a million persons a year on the fault. Beyond all of these lives put at risk, the city will be burdened with the liability of this additional risk and the public safety of all of Berkeley will be compromised. When (not if!) the earthquake happens, there will be serious damage to all of Berkeley. But surely, with the thousands of additional people brought to the fault, the loss of life and injury at the stadium vicinity will be even worse. Inevitably, police and fire services will be diverted from the rest of Berkeley and sent to the stadium area. Just when we need our police and firemen the most, they won’t be available to the rest of us. 

The university intends to make the new stadium a major entertainment venue. Along with moving the football games to night-time starts, there will be seven “Paul McCartney” scale concerts and an unlimited number of events with less than 10,000 spectators. The city will be required to ban parking on the arteries leading to the stadium and ban all parking in the adjoining neighborhoods. These events could happen every weekend for half a year. Again, over one million spectators a year! There will be traffic gridlock, partying with all the underage drinking and the subsequent misery for the residents along with the hits on property values. The garage will bring hundreds of additional cars daily along with the 1,000 cars coming to the new Underhill parking facility. The traffic impacts will spread throughout Berkeley. 

The construction impacts will be massive, citywide and will last 10 years. The city will have almost no control over these construction impacts. For example, just for the excavation of the parking garage, there will be 20,000 trips of double-trailer semi trucks seven days a week clogging the roads of Berkeley. These problems will be compounded when UC’s downtown projects overlap with SCIP.  

The environmental impact report produced by the university for SCIP is deceptive, deficient and in violation of the law and must be redone. For example, the EIR claims that the training facility that the university wants to start construction on immediately is not a part of the stadium project. In fact, the training facility is the first phase of the foundation for the new stadium. That explains why it is sited along the west wall of the stadium and why it costs $125 million. The university’s assessment of the survivability of the new stadium is doubtful, but the EIR withholds the necessary information. The EIR also tries to hide the real impacts on the grove of live oaks. The EIR refuses to even consider an earthquake retrofit of the stadium without lights, luxury boxes and PSL seating. The Oakland Coliseum is now looking for another tenant and would be an excellent alternative for Cal football. The university needs to seriously consider this alternative. No honest negotiations can occur without an honest EIR. 

The university is trying to pressure the city into a quick negotiated settlement. They have spread the rumor that Jeff Tedford, the Cal football coach, will leave if the training facility is not started this year. That rumor is simply not true. Tedford has never said that he would leave. There is no clock ticking. He has only said that new weight rooms would be helpful to recruit out-of-state players. As it is, the current weight rooms haven’t stopped him from recruiting top talent or building an excellent team. 

Nothing in SCIP is to further the educational mission of UC. This is no more than a large, multifaceted commercial project. The sole driving force for each of these individual projects is the millions of dollars they will return. With the continuing scandals of misappropriation of funds, it is obvious that the system of governance of UC is broken. As long as UC believes that it should “try to get away with as much as possible and disclose as little as possible” (UC President Robert Dynes) the city should not expect to find common ground with UC through negotiations.  

The UC spokeswoman has stated clearly that UC has no interest and has no need to accommodate the needs of Berkeley. Our only leverage is with our lawsuit—which is on very strong legal grounds. Any decision taken by the city concerning the suits should take place in an open and transparent manner. There is no rush! A city that has called for President Bush’s impeachment cannot turn around and thumb its nose at the basic tenants of democracy and make secret deals. And there is no reason for any deals to be made because there is no reason that the citizens of Berkeley should have to sacrifice their sanity, safety, property values and fiscal health so that UC can make millions in profit. 

Hank Gehman is a Berkeley resident. 

Dubberly Garcia Associates brought the library director search to Berkeley’s public the week before Thanksgiving, complete with what appeared to be carefully-rehearsed performing library administrators and happy-talk statements that were short on verifiable facts such as positions held where and when. Subsequent research showed the candidates’ experience as library directors is brief to none.  

Dubberly Garcia is the search firm that the Board of Library Trustees (BOLT) hired to help find a new library director. We think this work is so important that the Trustees should do it themselves, with the help of library or other city employees.  

The public saw the candidates on Saturday, Nov. 18 at the main library from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with no lunch hour. Each candidate had 45 minutes, including questions, then the public had a 15-minute break. 

They final candidates are: Donna Corbeil, deputy director at Solano County Library; Gerry Garzon, deputy diirector at Oakland Public Library; Valerie J. Gross, director of Howard County (Maryland) Library; and Rivkah Sass, head of Omaha Public Library. 

Corbeil and Garzon have never been library directors; they are first-time deputy directors with two years and one year of experience, respectively. The two other candidates are first-time library directors, Sass with only about three years’ experience and Gross having five.  

Candidate connections  

Corbeil was chief of Branches under former San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) head Susan Hildreth for about five years until Gov. Schwarzenegger appointed Hildreth state librarian in mid-2004. Hildreth sits on BOLT’s library directors panel. Garzon currently works for Carmen Martinez, head of Oakland Public Library, and she also is a member of BOLT’s library directors panel.  

Publicity lacking 

There was no publicity about the presentations outside the library. Inside, there was a single flyer announcing “presentations by the finalists,” but nothing about candidate presentations in the November, 2006 edition of “What’s Happening Here,” billed as the “Newsletter of the Berkeley Public Library.”  

Getting started 

June Garcia of Dubberly Garcia, energetic, vigorous, grinning cheerfully, ran the day’s program, and made the introductions. BOLT chair Kupfer announced the special 3 p.m. meeting of BOLT, without mentioning what was on the agenda—action or discussion on the directorship—or that public comment would be taken prior to going into closed session. How much public comment? “Proposed 20-minute limit, with speakers speaking for two minutes each,” said the agenda. 

Comment forms omit books, unions 

Garcia invited the public to take two-page candidate statements and Comment Forms, which included 27 criteria and a rating scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high).  

There was nothing at all about books or collections.  

The only two items mentioning staff said “Staff and staff development—values,” and “Visible and accessible to staff”—nothing about working successfully with staff or unions.  

Some criteria seemed redundant: “Service—focuses on responsiveness,” and “Service orientated.”  

And there were two criteria at least arguably related to privatization: “Fundraising—knowledge of,” and “Nurtures Friends and Foundation organizations.”  

I asked Garcia about the criteria. Her answer was surprising. They were standard things that they had thrown in, in no particular order, she said. Yet—the list of criteria was important enough to carry a copyright notice. Dubberly Garcia’s website advertises “opinion surveys and customer research” as one of its services, so one would expect any survey to provide criteria tailored with great care to the qualities sought and to evaluation priorities. 

RFID waffling 

Two to four different people asked each candidate questions indicating concern with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID was recently installed in BPL’s books and materials despite opposition from the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Library Users Association, and many other groups and individuals, primarily because of the multiple privacy threats as well as potential health risks, high cost, and other problems posed by RFID.  

Yet none of the candidates expressed concern with these issues, although Garzon said he had pulled RFID from Oakland’s only branch because the technology did not work well. (After the presentation he identified the vendor as Libramation.) 

As a retired librarian friend of mine said, “All four of them accepted RFID more or less, or didn’t want to talk about it too much. I cannot imagine that they did not know more about it.” 

Instead of resumes, each candidate had prepared a two-page statement. It was unclear who had specified to the candidates what to do.  

Gerry Garzon 

Gerry Garzon wrote, “if we’ve been invited to interview for this job, we’ve all got a number of accomplishments over our professional lives and I won’t detail those here.” Why not? He included more information about positions and dates than the others, but combined two positions in each of his last two libraries, making it impossible to know how long he held each one. 

Valerie Gross 

Valerie Gross’s statement had the fewest specifics, trumpeting at the top in large type, “A New Direction for a Great Public Library.” The first sentence: “These are exciting times for public libraries!”  

Rivkah Sass 

Rivkah Sass’s statement didn’t mention the names of the libraries she has worked at or for how long, instead naming the states of “Washington, Maryland, Oregon and Nebraska.” Subsequent research indicated that Dubberly Garcia brought her to Omaha in September, 2003.  

Donna Corbeil 

Full disclosure: as someone who follows the San Francisco Public Library closely, I know more about her than the other candidates. 

Corbeil’s statement says under the heading “Fiscal Management” that she “managed all aspects of developing a tool-lending center and the ongoing oversight of the operation by contract with a local nonprofit agency.” That agency would be SLUG, San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, and whatever Corbeil’s role, it ended abruptly when SLUG apparently failed to show up one day and left the SFPL holding the bag. SFPL’s Minutes for Aug. 21, 2003, say City Librarian Susan Hildreth “lauded Donna Corbeil” and the heads of finance and facilities “for quickly and efficiently responding to the unexpected difficulties of SLUG.”  

The city librarian’s report, also provided in the Minutes, says SLUG “stopped operations” in July “due to fiscal difficulties; and the Tool Center temporarily ceased operation. Library staff retrieved tools that were being used and secured all city assets at the Tool Center.” The Library Commission never put a discussion of what happened on its agenda, and there was no formal library investigation. We do not think the library or Corbeil did anything wrong, but to list the SLUG experience under “Financial Management” seems ill-advised. 

Summary 

We think that BOLT should start over and do this important job on its own, with a much more public process, more public input, and and greater clarity about desirable qualities including leadership experience. That way there would be no question about who is responsible and whose interests are being served. 

Peter Warfield is executive director of the Library Users Association. 

TRADER JOE’S 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I second Alice Jurow’s Nov. 21 letter. With a new Trader Joe’s plus residents, traffic on University and MLK will be unbearable! When I lived in San Francisco I was fortunate I could walk to the T-J at Geary and Masonic, both of which are heavily used. They do employ uniformed Traffic Directors to keep drivers and pedestrians relatively road-rage free. Even so, whatever the hour of day or night, it was usually an obstacle course to weave through idling cars bumper to bumper, waiting to pounce on, or eject from, a parking space. 

Nancy Chirich 

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BAD IDEA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Putting a Trader Joe’s at the corner of University and MLK is a really bad idea. Anyone who lives in that area or drives that stretch of MLK knows that traffic there is already a big problem. That is where MLK reduces down to two lanes of traffic. It already causes a bottleneck that sometimes backs up traffic for blocks during peak hours—especially someone makes a left turn off of MLK. Trader Joe’s will change an area with already bad traffic into a driving nightmare. Parking will also be a major problem. No matter how many parking spaces are promised, there will not be enough. This project will have an extreme negative effect on those who live, work or drive in this neighborhood. 

Why not put Trader Joe’s in a commercial area that is designed for such heavy traffic and parking? They chose such areas for the Trader Joe’s in Emeryville, El Cerrito Plaza and Lafayette. Surely there is a better location in Berkeley for Trader Joe’s. 

Debbie Dritz 

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NEW LIBRARY DIRECTOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read recently that the Berkeley Public Library is searching nation-wide for a new chief librarian. They need to look no further than within the current system. I think that the board should identify the person who is responsible for the excellent online catalog and automated check-out system. All the patrons I have encountered at the library love these systems. Whoever is responsible for the development and implementation of these high-tech innovations should be commended, rewarded, and considered for the highest position in the library system. These changes allow the librarians to cease being clerks and to return to what they do best—being librarians. 

Tom Burns 

• 

UNIVERSITY PROJECTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many thanks to Richard Brenneman for his illuminating “City Challenges UC’s Stadium-Area Project” piece in the Nov. 24 Daily Planet. 

The slow-motion conversion of the oldest student residential hall within the UC system into a Haas School of Business Executive Education venue adds a new wrinkle to the university’s age-old “Decide — Announce — Defend” strategy for introducing new projects to the public. 

First, we had the stigmatization of those rowdy Bowles Hall men and their wild parties. 

Last year we had the Lobotomization phase: only first-year men were admitted as Bowles Hall residents, effectively erasing decades of in-house memory and tradition. 

Now, it appears that we’re entering the corporatization phase.  

Will another chapter follow? That’s up to potential litigants and the courts. Call it the litigation phase.  

Note that the final EIR boundaries for the university’s massive bundle of southeast quadrant projects (known as SCIP), now before the UC Regents, conveniently skips over any mention of renovations at Bowles Hall.  

The last I heard, project “piecemealing” is still a no-no under CEQA case law. 

Jim Sharp  

• 

LIKE SOME FEUDAL LORD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m sick of the University of California acting like a feudal overlord that can loot and pillage whatever it wants of Berkeley; Panoramic neighborhood, our downtown, the ancient Oak Grove, People’s Park, Bowles Hall, Strawberry Canyon, Gill Tract. How can they be allowed such unpopular reign in a democracy?? Kudos to elements in the Berkeley city government trying to stop them. I sure hope our next mayor will have more backbone. UC owns and does not pay taxes on a full one third of Berkeley’s land and Berkeley is the only host city not to receive payment for our services to UC. It’s time to consider major structural changes. No taxation without representation. We need real democracy now! 

Jonathan Jackson 

• 

IMPENETRABLE, OUT OF TOUCH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Kenyon’s Nov. 24 article on modern design on the UC Berkeley campus left me flabbergasted. Kenyon’s often impenetrable piece revealed a perspective completely out of touch. The very buildings he trumpets—the MLK Student Union, Stanley, Wurster—face receptions ranging from indifference at best, to outright revulsion. Wurster may have been a “breakthrough,” but most now regard this structure as the ugliest on campus, challenged only by the hulking Evans Hall. The campus’s most cherished buildings remain the regal monuments of Doe Library and Wheeler Hall, and modern rejection of Neoclassicism is generally seen as a mistake. Many view the nearly-finished Stanley as another blunder in the university’s foray into an incongruous green-slate-sea-monster style of architecture. Sure, the art museum’s cantilevered concrete has a certain gee-whiz factor, but it doesn’t change the popular view that it’s a bulky, gray deathtrap. If the Art Museum achieves landmark status, will it sit as a seismically unsound—pray empty—tribute to a building style that’s had its day? Pure modernism, with its no-frills baldness and repudiation of context, has been discarded as an unfortunate architectural misstep. Rather than continuing to add discordant buildings, the university should look towards a union of contemporary design and Neoclassical heritage, as is being done with the new Tien Center for East Asian Studies. Architecture should incorporate bold new ideas, but we need to acknowledge when these ideas fail functionally, aesthetically, and in the court of public opinion. 

Eric H. Panzer 

Environmental Science Major, 

City Planning Minor, 

UC Berkeley 

• 

RETRO KENYON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Kenyon’s views of UC’s architecture are retrograde. He has never moved beyond the modernist dogmas of the 1950s and 1960s. 

Kenyon apparently considers himself a daring critic of the status quo because he attacks neo-classical architecture and admires the breakthrough architecture of the University Art Museum and Wurster Hall. But neo-classicism was the status quo a century ago, and the architecture he admires was considered a breakthrough a half-century ago, when modernists decide that buildings should be designed as a sort of modern abstract sculpture. 

Since the 1960s, the modernist architecture that Kenyon admires has become the status quo, and it has transformed American cities dramatically for the worse. Kenyon is so busy criticizing the status quo of the early 20th century that he apparently has never thought critically about today’s status quo. 

Kenyon seems to be unaware that a new architectural humanism has emerged since the 1970s, which says that the modernist establishment creates inhuman architecture because it designs buildings as sculptural objects rather than designing buildings that are good places for people to be. One of the most important theorists of the new humanism is Berkeley’s own Christopher Alexander, and I suspect that Alexander’s ideas were stimulated by the ugly brutalism of Wurster Hall. 

Kenyon should stop thinking of architecture as a sort of modern sculpture meant to impress us by how new and different it is, and he should start thinking about what it takes to design good places for people. If he did, he might begin to appreciate the original neo-classical design of the UC campus. He might even move beyond the cliches of mid-20th-century modernism. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

PARKING COSTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his Nov. 24 commentary, Charles Siegel gives a great summary of Donald Shoup’s ideas about the disadvantages of low-cost parking. Shoup may be a professor, but his ideas about parking sure are based on practical experience. 

If we have to accommodate everyone who comes to Berkeley in a car, then we ought to ask the car drivers to pay for their parking privilege. Collecting high enough parking fees gives the additional benefits of funding downtown improvements—and ensuring that drivers will nearly always find parking available. 

If visitors can depend on finding parking, then they won’t spew pollution while they search for a slot, and they will enjoy coming to Berkeley to shop, eat or do business. 

Aren’t these benefits worth asking people to pay a little more for parking? 

Steve Geller 

• 

“NO ON I” CAMPAIGN NOT FINISHED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Rent Board commissioners, City Councilmembers and neighborhood activists who care about tenants met in August to put together a city-wide campaign to defeat Measure I, the “condo conversion” initiative. Put on the ballot by a small group of landlords and disguised as a “home-ownership opportunities” initiative, Measure I would have reduced the number of tenants under rent control and with protection from eviction by about 500 every year. 

By winning by almost a 3-to-1 margin, we proved once again that Berkeley voters (1) can read past simple sound bites, and (2) value the welfare of their fellow residents more than windfall profit opportunities for a small group of landlords. For resoundingly defeating the most anti-tenant ballot measure of the past decade, thank you Berkeley! 

We made sure each voter heard our message, but even with scrimping and a 100 percent volunteer effort a $6,000 debt remains. Even though my annual income is only $24,000, I’ve given the most ($1,000) and will give more if necessary. Please help me retire this debt. Contributions should be made out to the Committee to Defend Affordable Housing (CDAH), 2007 Stuart St., Berkeley 94703. 

Thanks for pitching in. 

Howard Chong 

Tenant, Student and  

Rent Stabilization Board Chair 

• 

RACIST REMARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want Glen Kohler, the author of the Nov. 17 commentary piece entitled “A Glimpse at What It’s Like To Be Homeless,” to realize that his words—“walking down the street like ragged gypsies”—are racist toward the Romany people (also called Gypsies). In fact, even the term “Gypsy” is derogatory toward Romany people, since they are not Egyptians like Europeans assumed they were when they became a significant population in Europe after arriving from India. Thanks. 

Adam Silber-Becknell 

Oakland 

• 

ARIZONA TALES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Susan Parker’s Nov. 21 column, “A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes.” 

Your visit to Scottsdale sure brought back memories. 

Moving from this “cult”...er Berkeley, to the Valley of the Sun was cultural whiplash. That was in the ’70s and ’80s, and I’ve been wondering if it’s changed much, aside from sprawl. 

My wife (Marin) and I made our home in Tempe. Winter weather there was delightful, but getting lost as a pedestrian where all roads led to a Circle K can be fatal. Under that sneaky dry sun, a person could be dead hours before being aware of it. 

I wore shades there a lot, but it wasn’t so much because of the pounding sun, but in defense against the glare of white belts and white shoes from the retirees and tourists. I hope I never see another Izod sport shirt. It’s a personal problem. 

At the time, the Phoenix area could be compared to El Paso and L.A.—a little of both with nothing in between. It was nicknamed “the City of Beige”—a color invented by the Phoenician artist philosopher Mediocrites. 

Isn’t it great being back in good ol’ Berkeley? Home isn’t necessarily where the heat is. 

O.V. Michaelsen 

• 

PARKING TICKET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to share with your readers the following letter that I have sent to Dwayne Williams, City of Berkeley Parking Meter Enforcement Supervisor: 

Dear Mr. Williams: 

On Oct. 31, I received what I regarded as an unfair parking citation. In my anger, I placed the ticket under the epaulet of the parking enforcement officer’s jacket. Although I wrote to the officer that same day apologizing for my behavior, I have subsequently come to a much fuller understanding of the extraordinary pressures and tensions that the job of parking enforcement officer entails. It is an understanding I did not have immediately after the incident, when I wrote a description of my experience following the parking citation that was published on Nov. 7 in the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

My wife, who is presently a City Councilmember, was quoted in the press agreeing with a police spokesman who said: “We will not accept the community or any suspect going hands on with any city employee.” Of course they are right. And I have come to recognize that even placing the ticket under the officer’s epaulet could, under the routine circumstances of her work, constitute a highly alarming act. I am especially chagrined that others, purporting to write in support of my behavior, have invoked the notion of doing “something worse to a meter maid than [sticking] something in her epaulete.” 

I have retained Don Jelinek, a highly regarded attorney and former member of the Berkeley City Council, to represent me in upcoming court proceedings. He has brought to my attention a report that he authored in 1990 on the subject of “Abuse of [City] Staff,” which makes it clear that many of our city employees have regularly faced various forms of abusive behavior from angered citizens, some of it truly violent. I attach a copy of the report. Such behavior is deeply abhorrent to me, and I am disheartened to think that anyone might in any way associate me with such behavior.  

In my commitment to understanding and avoiding inappropriate and disrespectful responses on my part, I have enrolled in a series of eight workshops on the subject of anger management (through Options Recovery Services), the second of which I will attend this week. I will also make this letter public, in hopes of helping our community understand both my sincere regret and disapproval of my action and, more importantly, the challenging conditions that our enforcement staff must contend with on a daily basis.  

I hope you will express my sincere apologies to the members of your department, particularly to the officer who issued my ticket, and assure them that at least one Berkeley citizen will be writing and speaking against anyone emulating my errant behavior. 

Rob Browning 

• 

HUNGER AND FOOD SECURITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has officially eliminated 11 million hungry Americans. No, god has not imparted the secret of multiplying the “fishes and the loaves” to his good friend, George W. Instead the USDA will no longer use the word “hunger” when referring to people who do not have enough to eat. Who says the Bush administration does not come up with creative solutions to large problems? From now on the USDA will refer to “people formerly known as hungry” as people with “very low food security.”  

During the last five years of the Bush regime the number of hungry (I mean people with very low food security) people in the United States has increased. According to the USDA, 35 million people “could not put food on the table at least part of last year.” Eleven million of these people reported being hungry due to the inability to afford food. 

But do not worry. According to Forbes magazine between 2005 and 2006, the four hundred richest billionaires increased their collective wealth by $120 billion, to a total of $1.25 trillion. Most of this wealth was due to Bush tax cuts and other favorable policies of the Bush regime. Just one relevant example—in 2005, the USDA gave out $23 billion in farm subsidies, with most of the money going to the corporate farmers. I am sure the 35 million Americans who have trouble putting food on the table appreciate this. 

How much longer will we put up with an administration that does not eliminate problems, but rather finds ways to conceal them? The world can’t wait until the Bush regime leaves office in 2009. It must be driven from power now. For more information on how to do this, please see worldcantwait.org. 

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland 

During the next 15 years, southeast Berkeley will be radically transformed by the realization of the 2020 Long Range Development Plan (2020 LRDP), the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP), the Underhill Parking Lot, and the proposed development at and near Bowles Hall. The long range plan and parking lot are already approved; SCIP approval which includes another parking lot is imminent, while the Bowles Hall expansion and reuse proposal is a cumulative impact and inevitable byproduct of all that precedes it.  

On a mundane level, the scope of these proposed developments will add new sources of noise pollution, light pollution, additional commuter traffic, additional special event traffic and additional construction vehicle traffic. Already bad traffic on Gayley and Piedmont Roads will make travel from the north Berkeley Hills to the south Berkeley Hills appreciably more tedious and time-consuming having the effect of shifting more traffic to the Fulton-Oxford north-south arterial.  

On a more philosophical level, the project scope will shift the values toward commercial enterprises and revenue-generating activities and away from sustainability and protection of natural and cultural resources. The change in value orientation will create an environment less able to support stable residential communities and more able to accommodate visitors with their need for attendant services and commodities. Some visitors will be in the form of service providers, e.g. vendor operators; others will be short-term guests, e.g. heads of state and corporate executives; still others will be spectators, e.g. for football and other capacity events.  

The mundane and the philosophical intersect at the point of traffic. When the university was a place dedicated to education, traffic was primarily limited to faculty, staff, and student commuters. As the university becomes more corporate, more “professional” and more financially self-sufficient, even more traffic is the natural byproduct of this enlarged university role and function.  

Although the topography of the southeast area creates natural barriers and development limitations, UC will eliminate natural and cultural resources to the extent possible in order to squeeze in the oversized SCIP development. The Cheney Houses located at what was once the end of College Avenue will be demolished. The vast majority of the mature Coast Live Oaks in the west Memorial Grove will be “removed”. The stadium rim will be raised on the west and east sides blocking views of the game from Tightwad Hill, views of the Bay from Rim Road and Panoramic Hill, and views of Strawberry Canyon from inside the stadium itself.  

The footprint of the SCIP project is a tight fit at the mouth of a canyon in an area already identified as subject to landslides, penetrated by the active Hayward Fault, and underlain by the largest creek in Berkeley, i.e. Strawberry Creek. Low impact uses have been the prevailing wisdom for the past 83 years of the stadium’s life span with only occasional lapses in judgment. In 1960, for example, Memorial Stadium was leased to the Oakland Raiders but the area-wide impacts were so detrimental that the use was ultimately abhorrent to university administrators and not just Berkeley citizens.  

The constituency of football fans and alumnae is well-resourced both in terms of organization and money. Whether these resources translate into good decision-making is another matter. Certainly the university has used these resources to its advantage so as to move forward even in advance of CEQA-mandated citizen participation. The result would seem to be expedient rather than well-reasoned.  

Planning assumptions have been guided predominately by fundraising and revenue-generating considerations rather than sustainable development policies. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the public discussion of the seismic issues where hardly a word has been said about public liabilities from the “risk of loss of life, injury, or property”. Although individuals may estimate their individual risks as low, administrators have the responsibility of confronting collective risks that should influence policy.  

As various entities prepare to sue, it has become increasingly obvious to cognoscenti that the project reach extends far beyond the project area. The veritable planning debacle pushes development into an area dense in cultural and natural resources while Telegraph Avenue is left wanting for an anchor tenant of substance and sophistication. Likewise the development of downtown amenities will be truncated to the extent the development center of gravity is shifted east.  

When all is said and done, the area will be transformed by intensified use, additional uses, destruction of the existing, construction of the new. Whether Mother Nature transforms the setting back to its earlier form may or may not occur in any of our lifetimes. Meanwhile, the broad interest in the grove of coast live oaks west of the stadium and east of Piedmont Avenue is a visceral response to an anticipated taking informed by a history of taking pieces of Berkeley. The first step in the physical transformation of a larger landscape begins there.  

Janice Thomas is a Berkeley resident. 

The November election results represented an important political breakthrough for the Green Party of California. Nationally, including California, the Green Party fielded 375 candidates for 66 different elected offices in 38 states. Prior to the November general election, the party held at least 223 local, municipal, county and state elected offices nationwide. 

In a dramatic election development, Green Party of Contra Costa County candidate Gayle McLaughlin stunned local Bay Area political observers by capturing the City of Richmond mayor’s office. 

In terms of population and significance, Richmond is one of Northern California’s largest cities after San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento and Oakland. Mayor-elect McLaughlin defeated a sitting Democratic Party incumbent mayor seeking re-election—by any measure, a remarkable and nearly unprecedented electoral accomplishment. 

Ms. McLaughlin’s victory against incumbent Richmond mayor Irma Anderson—who brazenly accepted $110,000 from Chevron Oil, Pacific Gas and Electric and other corporate interests during her campaign—sent a political shock wave across the Bay Area by highlighting the Green Party’s organizational maturity and strong progressive values. True to her Green Party principles, Ms. McLaughlin refused corporate contributions during her campaign. 

Meanwhile in Oakland, Green Party City Council candidate Aimee Allison received a solid 46 percent vote total in an unsuccessful but spirited effort to topple incumbent Councilmember Pat Kernighan, an establishment politician backed by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and corporate real estate developer interests. 

Along with Oakland mayor-elect Ron Dellums’ earlier election victory, Ms. Allison’s strong progressive campaign has arguably transformed Oakland’s political landscape: the progressive movement centered around Ms. Allison’s campaign has injected new political energy and space into Oakland that is now acting to counter—and confront—the entrenched political forces that have operated in Oakland with impunity for decades. 

In a testament to the political momentum generated by Ms. Allison’s campaign, during the City Council campaign’s final weeks, Ms. Allison’s Democratic Party opponent desperately repackaged herself as a progressive candidate in her literature, and attempted to distance herself from her closest City Council ally, Ignacio de la Fuente, whose Council office is currently under FBI investigation for corruption. 

In Berkeley, incumbent City Councilmember Dona Spring—the longest serving Green Party City Councilmember in the nation—won re-election with a 70 percent vote margin. An unprecedented four Green Party candidates (seeking five open seats) won commissioner seats on the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board. 

In Sonoma County, the City of Sebastopol maintained its Green Party City Council majority by re-electing Larry Robinson. Green Party City Councilmembers have served as a majority in Sebastopol for six consecutive years, since 2000. 

In San Francisco, Green Party Board of Education candidate Jane Kim captured first place out of 15 total candidates seeking three open School Board seats. A second Green Party candidate won a city Community College Board seat. 

Outside of California, Illinois Green Party governor candidate Rich Whitney captured 11 percent of the statewide vote, a historic margin matched only by a third party candidate 86 years ago. Mr. Whitney’s vote total enabled the Green Party to receive ballot status in Illinois, the first time a national third party has achieved ballot status since 1920. 

Meanwhile, Maine Green Party governor candidate Pat LaMarche won 10 percent of her state’s vote, another historic vote total. Also, Green Party-supported or promoted ballot measures calling for US troop withdrawal from Iraq passed in at least 150 municipalities and cities across Wisconsin, Illinois and Massachusetts, including the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee. 

The 2006 election was an unqualified success for the Green Party as the party continues to make important gains in membership, political recognition and ballot access both in California and nationally. 

Chris Kavanaugh is a Berkeley resident.

Now we’re told (Daily Planet, Nov. 24) that the misleading Chamber PAC mailer violated state and local election laws by omitting the identity of the groups who got it out to Berkeley voters just days before the election. Three of the potential four perpetrators have weighed in with denials: the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce (we’re not the PAC); the Chamber PAC (we outsourced the work and didn’t proofread prior to mailing); and the printer/mailer company (we just print and mail the stuff we’re given). That leaves the company that supplied the content and artwork, Brand Guidance/Design Intelligence, and its chief hooter Mr. Steven Donaldson.  

Unfortunately, Steven was out of town and unavailable at press time. I hope the Daily Planet continues to press its inquiry, because this fellow seems to specialize in misleading hit pieces just prior to big decisions affecting his friends.  

I have firsthand knowledge of this. In the Daily Planet’s June 13 issue, he said something false, misleading, and damaging about my reuse and recycling company, Urban Ore. Here is what he said: 

...And special thanks (for killing the West Berkeley Bowl) to the owners of Urban Ore, the City of Berkeley subsidized business that has put up the good fight to keep their business operating with a positive cash flow from your taxes and who has continually opposed the Berkeley Bowl locating in West Berkeley.  

First off, far from being killed, the Big Bowl sailed right through the council with only three abstentions. With Steven’s connections to wealth and power in Berkeley, he probably knew full well which way the council vote was going to go, but rather than defend the project on its merits he chose to attack its critics, including me and my wife Mary Lou Van Deventer.  

Next, Urban Ore is not “subsidized” with “positive cash flow from...taxes.” Urban Ore is a free-standing independent business. A full 99 percent of our income derives directly from our primary service to Berkeley’s businesses, individuals, and institutions: keeping resources from being wasted at Alameda County’s few remaining permitted landfills. We receive discarded materials all day long at Seventh and Ashby from many sources, then sort, process and sell them either for reuse or recycling. This is an important disposal service, for which there is no direct cost to Berkeley at all. In fact, we pay lots of taxes: sales taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, and business license fees, which is one reason our books have to be so accurate. Berkeley receives a share of our income, via fees and taxes, which we are glad to pay.  

Just 1 percent of our revenue is a direct payment from the City of Berkeley, but it is service fees that are paid us, not tax dollars. The distinction is important. Right now it costs $100 per ton for anyone to dispose of mixed discards at the City of Berkeley transfer station. The city collects this money and uses it to finance its site operations. Overall, the city’s waste management service is profitable: about $4 million per year on revenues of over $26 million. Urban Ore makes a direct contribution to this profit amounting to about $50,000 per year. How? Urban Ore is licensed to provide salvagers at the city’s transfer station every day whose job is to recover usable materials from this incoming supply. These employees work hard, and come back home to the Urban Ore Ecopark each night with weight slips amounting to from two to six tons saved from landfill. For this service we are paid $28 per ton. Again, these are not tax dollars, but a share of disposal service fees paid at the transfer station fee gate. The city gets to keep $72 per ton for all of our tons because they don’t have to haul these materials to landfill. We salvage over 750 tons per year currently; at $72 per ton that’s worth over $50,000 to the city. If we bring anything back next day, we pay $100 per ton to dump it, just like any hauler, so there is no subsidy there, either.  

We got two business loans from the City of Berkeley, which paid for leasehold improvements to the old Pacific Pipe Company building we occupy at Seventh and Ashby. We’re working hard to pay these loans back early, with interest, so the city can recycle the money to other deserving businesses. Loans aren’t subsidies, and cities commonly provide various kinds of financial assistance to businesses they want to retain or attract. These loans were preceded by a unanimous Council resolution directing staff to work to retain Urban Ore in Berkeley when we were forced out of properties at Sixth and Gilman by our landlords’ decisions to sell back in 1999. Council called us a “Berkeley Treasure” at the time.  

And the last falsehood: Urban Ore was very careful never to oppose the original plan for the West Berkeley Bowl, which would have been a store the size of Andronico’s or Whole Foods. We opposed tripling its size, which we thought and still think will cause triple-sized traffic impacts that all Berkeley citizens will subsidize with their time and patience while stuck in the Ashby, Seventh Street, and San Pablo Avenue traffic trying to get to and from this new regional draw. Nevertheless we, like all the other nearby business opponents, were continually smeared with the charge that we were opposed to any neighborhood grocery store in our vicinity.  

Interestingly, the notorious Chamber PAC mailer also targeted Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring for defeat in the just-concluded election . They were two of the three abstaining votes on the Big Bowl council decision, and the only ones up for re-election. This pro-development bunch punishes their opponents, and they brook no opposition, even from the truth.  

Dan Knapp is president of Urban Ore, Inc.

The outgoing administration of Jerry Brown-its time left in office now measured in days rather than years or months—continues to recede into the background of Oakland’s consciousness as the city and the region focuses on the excitement of the incoming new mayor. 

That’s a mistake. There were assumptions made and things which occurred in the last eight years which Oakland citizens ought to examine, now, while they are fresh in our minds, to see what was done right and what was done wrong, both how, and why. 

One of the most insidious aspects of the Brown administration—[insidious: 1. characterized by treachery or slyness; crafty; wily 2. operating in a slow or not easily apparent manner; more dangerous than seems evident]—was its masking of its own failure to mount a serious attack on the root core of many of Oakland’s problems by attacking, instead, citizens who were trying to solve those problems themselves. 

To quote a popular ‘70s term, the Brown administration was especially adept at the practice of “blaming the victim.” That was never more on display than in Mr. Brown’s relationships with Oakland’s African-American community. 

Oakland is awash in violence, and the African-American sections of the city is a particular battleground. Mr. Brown never developed or articulated a coherent, organized, comprehensive anti-violence strategy. Instead, he appeared to embrace quick, headline-grabbing solutions at points where the publicity got too bad and/or when his future political goals demanded it. Often that meant attacks on citizens or groups who, in the course of trying to provide alternatives to violence, became victims of violence themselves. 

Most of this is old ground, often covered in this column before. 

One of these instances was with the now-defunct annual Carijama Festival, which once filled North Oakland-West Oakland’s Mosswood Park every Memorial Day weekend with a celebration of Caribbean, African, and African-American culture. Carijama stopped in 2005 after several years of violent incidents. Everybody involved—festival organizers, police and city officials—agreed that there was nothing about the festival itself that promoted violence. Quite the opposite. The festivals were family and community-friendly, giving citizens a free place to go during he holiday, and my memories of the events will always be people sitting or stretched out on blankets across the Mosswood Park lawn, barbecue pits sending out luscious smells, some folks up dancing, children playing in the trees, young men and women exchanging smalltalk and cellphone numbers, and the ever-present Caribbean music coming off the park stage. The violence—and, again, this was agreed to by everyone involved—occurred with young people who came to the events late, almost as they were breaking up, who then got into disputes either among themselves or with police who tried to get them to leave the area. 

Was there a way to prevent the violence by latecomers while preserving the festival itself? I don’t know, because there never appeared to be a concerted effort by the Brown administration to do so. Instead, it was easier to take actions which eventually ended with the closing of Carijama for good. 

That was also the case with Oakland’s downtown African-American club scene. Two of the area’s longstanding clubs—Geoffrey’s Inner Circle and Sweet Jimmy’s-have either severely curtailed their activities or gone out of business entirely because of problems associated with the city’s response to violence near the clubs. Neither Geoffrey’s nor Jimmy’s catered to a crowd or a type of music normally associated with Oakland’s street violence. The two clubs were longstanding anchors of Oakland’s downtown scene, with Geoffrey’s especially bringing positive, national fame to the city as the regular stopover for celebrities and sports figures when they visited Oakland. Despite the fact that both clubs invested heavily in security measures, problems of violence sometimes developed in or around their facilities, as problems of violence often develop around many Oakland events run by responsible, non-violent entities (the arrests at Raider games regularly top at over a hundred, for example). 

Did Mr. Brown recognize that Geoffrey’s and Jimmy’s both provided positive places for people to go downtown at night—supposedly a goal of the Brown administration—and work with the owners to keep the both establishments open while keeping down the violence? They didn’t, if you listen to the owners themselves, who said that police and city officials continuously cracked down on them to do something about violence that was not emanating from their establishments, and that they had no control over. Jimmy’s, sadly, went out of business entirely, and Geoffrey’s eventually dropped his club openings to one night a week, a loss to Oakland’s downtown scene that will be difficult to overcome. (By way of full disclosure, the owner of Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Geoffrey Pete, is my cousin.) 

As you can imagine, what the Brown Administration treated badly in regard to organizations catering to people not usually associated with Oakland’s violence—Carijama, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, and Sweet Jimmy’s—was distinctly worse when it came to areas of the community where the violence was centered. 

Nothing illustrated this failure more than Oakland’s sideshow policy in the Jerry Brown years. 

Although the history of the sideshows has been obscured—often deliberately—a minimum of searching easily reveals what happened. Sometime during the 90’s, young African-Americans on Oakland’s east side sought safe places to gather in the midst of the city’s violent-prone street, club, and concert scene. Initially, they gathered after hours in the parking lot at Eastmont Mall, where sometimes several hundred people assembled in their cars to play music, dance, exchange telephone numbers, and, yes, engage in that old-time East Oakland sport of spinning donuts. 

Two things stand out from those early, parking lot sideshow days. The first is that during one of Oakland’s most intensely-violent periods, little violence was associated with the original events. The second is that there was little or no complaint from the community about the events, since they were away from a residential neighborhood, and not taking place in the middle of the street. 

Why and how did the sideshows move from the relatively violence-free, non-obtrusive events of the Eastmont days to the often-violent street events of today? 

The first thing to remember in this sad tale is that it wasn’t the wish of the sideshow participants themselves. Instead, the sideshows were pushed out into the streets by Oakland police, who broke up the events at Eastmont, and then again when they relocated to the Pac’n’Save parking lot lower down on Hegenberger. Once on the streets, the sideshows suddenly became a massive problems within the communities in which they were operating, leading to increased police crackdowns, including mass ticketings, arrests, and towing of cars. This contributed to a downward spiral, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in which the police actions drove away many of the saner sideshow participants who were in it for the socializing rather than the illegal aspect. They were gradually replaced by participants to whom the game of running from the police was more attractive. That led to more police crackdowns, tipping the balance in the participants further and further away from the responsible to the irresponsible, leading us to our current mess. 

More than once, former Oakland Police Chief Richard Word said that breaking up the parking lot sideshows had been a “mistake.” Unfortunately, that bit of information got consistently drowned out in the clamor and din to shut the sideshows down. 

A group of the original sideshow participants—led by documentary filmmaker Yakpasua Zazaboi—approached the Brown administration several times with requests for the city to set up a legalized sideshow. That may have been the solution to shutting down the illegal, street sideshows and providing a safe, sanctioned, and legal outlet for many of Oakland’s forgotten youth. Or it may have been unworkable. So far we don’t know, since the proposal was never addressed in an adult, responsible way by the Brown administration. Instead, the original sideshow participants—the young African-Americans who had suffered the most under Oakland’s violence and who had tried to find a place in Oakland to gather where violence wasn’t happening—were rebuffed and dismissed by Mr. Brown and his associates, criticized from the chairs around City Council, in the press, and by many adults in the neighborhoods without ever sitting down and meeting these young people, or listening directly to what they wanted. 

Mr. Dellums has started out on a different foot, with one of his neighbor-to-neighbor meetings scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday, December 1 at Claremont Middle School) aimed specifically at listening to the concerns and ideas of young people in Oakland. Perhaps the sideshow issue will surface then, from a different perspective. 

As my father used to say, there is a many a slip between the cup and the lip. But the Dellums administration, thankfully, appears to be trying to drink from Oakland waters that are far removed from where Mr. Brown used to quench his thirst. Let’s hope he keeps it up. 

Few Berkeley landmarks are as repeatedly and unjustly maligned as the Hillside Club Street Improvements in the Daley’s Scenic Park Tract. Designated in 1983, this system of public improvements forms a continuous line that stretches over at least six blocks of Berkeley’s Northside. 

Comprising concrete street dividers, planted median strips, stairways, pillars, elevated sidewalks, and retaining walls, the system is invariably derided by opponents of the 1974 Landmarks Preservation Ordinance as “The Wall” and cited as an example of inappropriate designation. 

The most recent instance of such intentional tunnel vision appeared in this newspaper on Nov. 21, when reader Adam Block wrote: “Most citizens would agree that the crumbling retaining wall on Le Conte […] do[es] not merit protection.” 

Block was parroting the decade-long harangues of realtor-developer Mary Hanna. In 1996 (13 years after the Hillside Club Street Improvements were designated a City of Berkeley Landmark), Hanna bought the Bentley property at 2683 Le Conte Avenue for development and resale. Her plans included excavating the hillside on which the house stands and replacing a 30-foot stretch of the street-side retaining wall—part of the designated landmark—with a large garage. 

Hanna thought she was entitled to disfigure a designated public resource for private profit. The neighbors disagreed. The Landmarks Preservation Commission disagreed. The Berkeley City Council disagreed. Hanna sued the City of Berkeley and lost. She appealed the verdict to a higher court and lost again. 

Yet despite having failed to sway the neighbors, the city, and the courts into believing in the justness of her cause, Hanna had no trouble convincing some of the press. Journalists who apparently did not find it necessary to check the facts came out charging against “The Wall.” 

Ten years later, “Wall” rants continue to pop up as ammunition for weakening the LPO. 

So what’s the real story behind “The Wall”? 

It goes back to 1891, when Charles Keeler and Bernard Maybeck met on the 5 o’clock commuter ferry from San Francisco to Berkeley. Keeler, then a 20-year old ornithologist, had dropped out of UC Berkeley to work at the California Academy of Sciences. Maybeck, 29, was employed by the fashionable architect A. Page Brown. 

Four years after their first meeting, Maybeck designed Keeler’s home—the first house on Highland Place, near the northeastern edge of the university campus. It was clad in shingles and surmounted by a series of steep cascading roofs that blended into the surrounding landscape. 

The new homeowner was worried that the house’s effect would “become completely ruined when others come and build stupid white-painted boxes all about us.” 

Maybeck had a solution. “You must see to it,” he told Keeler, “that all the houses about you are in keeping with your own.” 

This was the germ of the Hillside Club, founded in 1898. Its mission was “to protect the hills of Berkeley from unsightly grading and the building of unsuitable and disfiguring houses; to do all in our power to beautify these hills and above all to create and encourage a decided public opinion on these subjects.” 

Among the Hillside Club’s members and supporters were Northside property owners, including the developer of Daley’s Scenic Park, Frank M. Wilson; artists such as the painter Wiliam Keith and the photographer Oscar Maurer; key university officials, among them UC President Benjamin Ide Wheeler and Supervising Architect John Galen Howard; and cultural leaders like Maybeck and Keeler. 

All these people believed that “There is a need of realizing civic pride and making sacrifices for it, sinking personal prejudices for the benefit of the whole.” 

In 1903, the Hillside Club appointed a committee of its members, including Maybeck and Almeric Coxhead, “to draw up plans for laying out the intersection of Bonte [now La Loma] and Le Conte Avenues and to submit same to the Board of Trustees.” At the time, the Northside was still sparsely developed and lacking paved streets. The club strongly advocated using “what is there. Avoid cutting into the hill; avoid filling up the hollow.” 

By 1905, the committee had surveyed Le Conte Avenue from Le Roy to La Loma and the intersecting blocks of La Loma “as a basis for an artistic treatment of grades and retaining walls, which would take into consideration the preservation of the live-oaks and involve as little alteration as possible of the present topography. […] In addition to preparing a charming plan for these two streets, providing for a small bridge across the creek, etc., the committee has interviewed the interested property owners and has obtained the cooperation of practically all who are most directly concerned in the improvement.” 

The committee’s plans were submitted to the City Engineer, who executed them in 1909. 

The Hillside Club Street Improvements can be seen along the 2600 block of Le Conte Ave.; La Loma Ave. between Cedar St. and Ridge Rd.; Le Roy Ave. between Hilgard Ave. and Ridge Rd.; the 2700 block of Virginia St.; the 1700 block of La Vereda Rd.; and the 2600 block of Hilgard Ave. Street improvements in the same style and materials but not included in the Landmark designation stretch along portions of Hearst Ave. and Arch Street. 

Daley’s Scenic Park and the Hillside Club are forever linked—the former being the locale where the First Bay Region Tradition in architecture had its first major expression, the latter being the First Bay Region Tradition’s major advocate. 

Since advocacy was the club’s principal mission, it began as soon as the club came into being. In June 1899, club founder Madge Robinson (later Mrs. Oscar Maurer), published the article “The Hillside Problem” in The House Beautiful, in which she provides practical design solutions to building on a hillside. During the same period, Maybeck, was spreading the word locally. The Berkeley World-Gazette of 28 April 1899 announced that Maybeck would lecture on “Hillside Architecture” for the Hillside Club at the home of Frank Wilson on Ridge Road.  

In 1904, Keeler published the book The Simple Home, followed in 1905 with Hillside Club Suggestions for Berkeley Homes. In 1906, Maybeck published the illustrated booklet Hillside Building. 

Thanks to the efforts of the Hillside Club, the streets of Daley’s Scenic Park were soon lined with shingled redwood homes surrounded by informal gardens, and the term “living with nature” entered the lexicon. The architectural heritage of the Northside had a profound influence not only on the way houses were built in Berkeley and the rest of the Bay Area but on design theory and practice internationally. 

In 1923, the Berkeley Fire wiped out more than half the homes in Daley’s Scenic Park. After World War II, institutional expansion and development pressures began taking their toll on the surviving historic structures in this fragile neighborhood. 

Three seminal Maybeck houses on Highland Place and Ridge Road were torn down in the 1960s to make way for apartment blocks. The same fate befell the house of Mary McHenry Keith (William Keith’s widow) at 2701 Ridge Road. The house of Mrs. Keith’s brother-in-law, Rear Admiral Charles Fremont Pond, formerly at 2621 Ridge Road, was replaced by a modern Beta Theta Pi chapter house, now the Jesuit School of Theology’s Chardin Hall. 

Twelve buildings, representing two-thirds of the block between Ridge Rd., Le Roy Ave., and Hearst Ave. were demolished for the construction of UC’s Etcheverry Hall and the eventual building of Soda Hall. A UC parking structure and lot replaced the historic Newman Hall and College Hall on La Loma Ave. between Hearst and Ridge. 

The pre-fire structures that remain on the Northside represent some of Berkeley’s most precious cultural resources, and for that reason they were all placed on the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s priority list for initiation in 1990. 

Which brings us back to “The Wall.” 

In Daley’s Scenic Park, public amenities and private homes form a harmonious whole by design. This remarkable legacy—the most important in Berkeley’s architectural history—is ours to enjoy and pass on to future generations. 

Today as much as ever, “There is a need of realizing civic pride and making sacrifices for it, sinking personal prejudices for the benefit of the whole.” If the Hillside Club legacy does not merit protection, is there anything in Berkeley that does? 

Photograph by Daniella Thomspon 

The “crumbling wall” in front of the Bentley House, 2683 Le Conte Ave. Note the gracefully curving stairs, a feature found in several properties on this block.

Joe found an interesting book over at the Mechanics’ Institute Library: a Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “All-Region Guide,” Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants by C. Colston Burrell. The BBG puts out lots of informative short books; this one is a double-sized volume, with lots of color photographs.  

The book is a constructive move toward controlling a serious problem. You’ve probably heard or read lots of carrying-on about invasive exotics. Here in California they’re a real threat to wild places and the unique life these support, even as all wonderful diversity this is being backed over extinction’s cliff by our habits and industrial methods and our sheer numbers. In a Q-and-A preface to this book, the author cites a journal study to say, “About 42 percent of the species on the U.S. List of Endangered and Threatened Species are at risk primarily because of nonnative invasives.” 

Some utter nonsense gets aired when this subject comes up. Just to get past it here: No, advocating for native plants, animals, and ecosystems is not at all like racism. (Some of us have noticed that humans are all one species.) No, fostering natives in their original habitats doesn’t somehow threaten biodiversity.  

In fact, those pretty broombushes and pampas grass and cotoneasters and the others that we gardeners have introduced and allowed to invade wildlands and elbow out natives are what threatens biodiversity. The species that are being pushed out, starved, threatened—they exist nowhere else in the world. If our populations die, that’s it. Gone. Extinct. The invasives, on the other hand, have home ranges where they’re adapted and they thrive with and feed the rest of their habitats. Where they pay their taxes.  

This book was written for gardeners across the country—and, interestingly, for land managers including highway departments. The role of roads and railroads in spreading invasives is one of those odd things. Partly it’s that they’re responsible for “disturbed ground” on which so many weeds thrive; partly it’s that they’re corridors of seed distribution; partly it’s that invasives have been planted along roadsides for erosion control. 

The BBG names nearly 150 villains and where they’re invasive, and adds photographs, descriptions, and growing tips for native substitutes—often more than one for each invasive, to duplicate the characteristics people plant them for. More substitutes are noted in many listings, and the Garden’s website is added there too, with notes to look there for more. Good idea, allowing constant updating.  

The native substitutes I recognized were well handled. We have more local sources here, such as the California Invasive Plants Council’s leaflet and nursery card, and advice from the California Native Plant Society. Many of the invasive plants in the BBG’s book aren’t a problem here—yet—and many of their alternatives are exotic here. It’s the same old problem we Californians have with most general-geographic-interest garden books.  

I’d suggest sending this book to friends and relatives back East, but thumb through it first and note what’s invasive here, and what works in gardens instead. The glossy stock it’s printed on won’t show fingerprints, and everybody will learn something useful.  

Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants 

by C. Colston Burrell 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides 

240 pages, trade paperback 

$9.95

My friend Lisa seems to be the Maven Plus Grande de Berkeley. Everybody’s query-girl (although she’s happily married to a fella). She even gets calls about contractors, which she confesses isn’t exactly her area of greatest expertise. So we’re hanging out and she plays me a message from her friend (We’ll call her Mildred) and it goes something like this: 

“Lisa, I’ve had three bids for contractors and I just can’t decide on which one to take. I told them each that I was getting bids from the others and they seem to be in a bidding war now. What should I do now?” Beeeeep. 

Turns out this is all about hiring someone to install a furnace. So what could go wrong here? First, competitive bidding is all well and good but as I am so often heard to say “You get what you pay for….if you’re lucky.” Low bids are, all too often, followed by low quality. Now this isn’t true 100 percent of the time but it is definitely a principle that’s worth observing since it’s true much of the time. Also, the lower you drive your contractor, the less eager they’re going to be to try to do their best work. Like all of us, they’re going to see the dollars on the table, look at their time and sweat and try to minimize their losses. Of course, there ARE other principles are work here. 

One is the principle that I’ll call “Inherent Programming Rarely Fails” or Bunnies usually hop and rarely slither. Obsessive-compulsive, perfectionist tradespersons don’t do sloppy work just because the pay is lousy. They tend to work the way they feel internally driven to work. Also, slobs have trouble cleaning up, no matter how much you pay them. You may have noticed that this principle expresses itself in our relationships. No matter how much you cajole, wheedle or beg, you partner is probably going to continue to engage in that annoying behavior that drives you batty for ever and ever. Smoker’s get diagnoses of lung cancer and go right on smoking. Go figure. 

But, and this is a big one, the really talented person, probably won’t do your job when you start trying to get them for cheap or start getting everyone involved in this bidding war. They’ll just walk away seeking “greener” pastures because they know (or believe) they’re worth it. Now the contractor who works fast and loose and leaves messes behind will take what they can get and will try to suck up every job they can. This person will play bidding war with you and guess who losses. Right. You do. You just drove off the one person you want to have do the job and invited all the bottom feeders to your party. 

The person who seeks out the low bidder in this fashion is usually the same person who will try to get the incompetent contractor to come back and fix the work they screwed up. 

Now why would you want to hire (or even accept work for free) from a person who’s already demonstrated for you in graphic terms that they are incapable of doing something properly. You also have to assume, unless you’re an expert in the relevant trade, that you don’t even know the full depths of their undesirability. For every item that you were able to discern as screwed up, there were probably a handful of others that you know nothing about. But I digress. 

Bidding on work should rightly involve more than just an evaluation of costs. In fact, it should be pretty low on the list. If you get three really good furnace installers to bid on the same furnace and everyone agrees on the methods to be used (which they’re more likely to do anyway since you’ve picked very knowledgeable people), the cost difference between the three isn’t likely to vary by more than 10 percent or 20 percent, may be $1,000. Now I realize that money doesn’t grow on trees (although it Xeroxes pretty well!) but that sum gets to looking really good when you’ve just spent your bargain fee and discovered that something about it was botched and you have to figure out how to gain restitution or, more importantly, to get the thing done properly. Paying to do a job twice is really expensive and paying a little extra to do it once with confidence is a bargain.  

Also, the more expensive contractor almost always has some perks in his/her work that you won’t see in the low bid. When I compare the work and think about the hours involved, the higher bid usually ends up looking as though that contractor made less per hour than the “cheap” fellow/gal. No joke. I see this a lot. The better and higher priced person has figured out what has to be done, has streamlined the process and also wants to prevent call-backs that cost money, hurt their reputation and violate their inherent programming.  

Now, it’s true and I hate to say it but from time to time, you will find a really capable individual who will be cheap. I’ve met ‘em, I’ve hired ‘em and I’ve tried to find them 6 months later only to find that they were either out of business (because they couldn’t make it pay) or they had taken a job with someone else. Also some stick it out, raise their prices and become higher end tradespersons. But in almost no case does this person stay cheap and whey should they. After a little while they get to know who the competition is, what that work looks like and how they rank in the pecking order. If you knew that your peer group was charging, on average, twice what you were getting, wouldn’t you raise your rates. Of course you would. 

So back to Mildred and here dilemma. I have to confess to a certain lack of compassion for this person’s situation. Sorry. I’m not very nice. Maybe too many years in the trades. I feel as though this bidding process corrupts everyone. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to getting several bids on a single job. Actually, I think it’s a good thing, although I feel that the players should know what the playing field looks like and should thus be informed that they’re being asked to be the 12th bidder on the furnace. 

They might want to turn it down and it’s their right to do so if they wish. I do think that you should take each bid on its own merits and not try to wrestle them to the ground by getting them to compete with the bids from other. For one thing, you may be asking a person who does A+ work to compete with a price from a C- contractor. You might just drive them away but you might also get them to lower their quality. It’s good to demand quality and good performance but it’s also good to pay for it.  

When we engage in this cheapening process repeatedly, we lower the quality of all work being done and this is exactly what has happened over the past 50 years. People say “ You just can’t get good help these day” and it’s our own damned fault. We’ve set it up this way and it’s an all McDonalds world now. Lisa say to get three bids and take the middle one. Well, I’m not sure I would always agree but it’s interesting that this is well known as the European model. In the U.S. the model is to get three bids and take the low one. The think is, so much poor quality work is done today that I don’t think that our middle bid is the same as the Italian middle bid.  

Whether you take the top bid or the middle bid (or even the low bid when appropriate), I suggest that you take a good look at the individual. Get reference and call them. Go visit them for heaven’s sake. What’s two hours compared with having a lousy contracting experience? 

Pick someone for their savvy, their chemistry with you and their being “right sized” (a two-person crew might be more right for you than a 30 person crew). Pick someone you’re willing to give a key to your home to. Someone you’d trust your kids with and someone you’ll want to know when it’s all over. If you’ve done all that with three people and you like them all I don’t care who’s the cheapest (and I’ll bet you won’t either!). 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

It’s time to submit your essays, poems, stories and photographs for the Daily Planet’s annual holiday reader contribution issue, which will be published on Dec. 29. Send your submissions, up to 1,000 words, to holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com. The deadline is 5 p.m. on Dec. 20.

On the heels of the GOP’s resounding defeat in the mid-term elections came news that only 31 percent of Americans approve of President Bush’s handling of Iraq. This will increase pressure on the new Congress to do something about Iraq.  

Democrats should resist the temptation for quick fixes. They must step back and take a broader view: acknowledge America has lost the war in Iraq and is in danger of losing the “war” on terrorism. 

Americans aren’t used to defeat. We envision ourselves the number one country and, in many ways, we are. Nonetheless, the premiere military power in the world has failed in Iraq. Moreover, the United States has a dysfunctional national security policy that’s not proving effective at curtailing terrorism. 

Recently, there’s been a wave of books about the failure of the Iraqi occupation. They range from Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor’s authoritative Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq to Bob Woodward’s tell-all State of Denial. Beyond the technical details—not enough troops were sent to handle the occupation, the military chain-of-command failed to recognize the rise of the Iraqi insurgency—these books paint an appalling picture of White House leadership. 

Of course, no one who studied the career of George Bush should be surprised that he was ill prepared to serve as commander in chief. Nor that Dick Cheney was poorly equipped to be Bush’s second in command. But, what’s disturbing is how weak their team has been: Apparently, Colin Powell had no influence on Bush and Cheney. 

It’s said that Condoleezza Rice is completely out of her league, totally unprepared for the terrorist threat and the resulting turmoil in the Middle East. And Donald Rumsfeld, supposedly the most seasoned member of Bush’s team, became increasingly dysfunctional: turned into an egotistical martinet who wouldn’t hear criticism and, therefore, neutered the Joint Chiefs of Staff and surrounded himself with sycophants. 

The disturbing truth is that America is stuck with this failed leadership for two more years. This has ominous consequences: the war in Iraq will probably drag on. Get worse. Meanwhile, al Qaeda is making a comeback in Afghanistan and the Iraq war is fueling terrorism in the Middle East. 

This grim reality provides the context for the 110th Congress: a failed administration, a lost war, and an increasingly dangerous world. Thus, Democrats have two huge challenges: First, they must propose a new strategy for combating global terrorism. Then, they have to find a way to move their plan forward in the face of Bush’s unwillingness to consider anything but “staying the course” in Iraq and his national security policy. 

On March 29, Democratic leaders unveiled their own national security strategy, “Real Security: The Democratic Plan to Protect America and Restore Our Leadership in the World.” “Real Security” has five components: military preparedness, the war on terror, homeland security, Iraq, and energy independence. We can expect the Democratic majority to pass legislation mandating some of these changes. 

Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi promises to focus on homeland security from the beginning hours of the 110th Congress. The Democrats’ homeland security plan has four aspects. 

It begins with a promise to “Immediately implement the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission including securing national borders, ports, airports and mass transit systems,” something that the Bush administration has neglected, and which Pelosi plans to address in “the first 100 hours” of the new Congress. A vital component is screening of all containers and cargo bound for the US. Another essential is the safeguarding of “America’s nuclear and chemical plants, and food and water supplies.” 

Nonetheless, many of the failures of the Bush administration will be difficult to address from Capitol Hill. This dilemma is dramatically apparent in the matter of WMDs. “Real Security” promised that Democrats will “Secure by 2010 loose nuclear materials that terrorists could use to build nuclear weapons or ‘dirty bombs.’ ” MIT Professor Stephen Van Evera noted, “Amazingly, in the two years after 9/11 no more loose nuclear weapons and materials were secured than in the two years prior ... This policy lapse is among the worst failures of government in modern times.” Unfortunately, Democrats can’t force the Bush administration to address the WMD problem. 

The new Congress will be able to address some of the administration’s national security failures. And, Democratic leaders will have improved access to the bully pulpit. Realistically, these changes are unlikely to move the president from his dysfunctional policies towards Iraq and national security. 

What Democrats must do is begin the 2008 presidential campaign in January of 2007. Candidates such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should challenge the president on national security and tie these failures to the GOP and begin a national debate on the failures of a Republican administration. 

President Bush has lost the war in Iraq. That doesn’t mean we have to lose the “war” on terrorism. 

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

I have received a lot of advice since Ralph passed away. It has been given with good intention and compassionate concern.  

Many people have made suggestions that involve money and lawyers, stocks and bonds, taxes and creative loopholes.  

“Have you got your finances figured out yet?” my dad asks everyday.  

“Have you thought about getting a job?” asks Mom.  

“I think you should move,” suggests a neighbor.  

“No,” says another. “I think she should stay right here for the next six months.”  

“At least a year,” argues a third person.  

“What’s her hurry?” asks someone else.  

“Get your hair styled differently and go on a long vacation,” says my friend, Amy. “To India,” she adds. “That’s where you should go. You’ll get some perspective and see how your own problems don’t matter.”  

“Have you seen a therapist?” asks Karen.  

“Are you taking your meds?” inquires Corey.  

“When are you finishing your MFA?” asks Pearl.  

“Have you thought about getting a job?” repeats Mom.  

Andrew insists I go wireless. “You only need a cell phone and a modem,” he says, then looks at my face and changes his mind. “Better get cable,” he adds. “You know, in case you need something to do.”  

Ann from Idaho suggests I follow a raw vegan diet. “No meat, cheese or eggs.” she recommends. “Eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed nuts at the same time each day, but never in combo with one another.”  

“Drink only bottled water,” adds her husband, Tom. “And maybe an occasional beer.”  

“Drink only dirty martinis,” says Dad. “Make sure you use good vodka, and olives with a bite.”  

“Everything in moderation,” cautions Mom. “Have you thought about getting a job?”  

“Get the house professionally cleaned, the windows washed, and the weeds pulled,” instructs Suzanne. “Plant daffodil and tulip bulbs so you’ll have something to look forward to in the spring.”  

“Join a gym,” says my brother, Bill, “and work on those abs.”  

“Join a country club,” says my sister-in-law, Chris, “and take up golf and bridge.”  

“Come up to Tahoe and ski with us,” invites Diane.  

“Come to Bend and ski here,” counters Patrick.  

“Come out to Crested Butte and ski with me,” insists Jill.  

“Don’t go anywhere,” says Mom, “until you get a job.”  

“What about a cute little pet?” asks my nephew, Bryce, holding something fuzzy and wiggly close to his chest, “My hamster just had babies.”  

“Here, drink this protein shake,” demands Taffy during a visit with her over Thanksgiving. “And take these special vitamins.”  

She hands me a large glass full of yogurt, brewer’s yeast, and wheat grass, then rips open a small sealed cellophane bag and spreads five large white capsules on the table in front of me. “These are special,” she says again.  

“How?” I ask.  

“I had them custom-made.”  

“Explain that,” I say, staring down at the pills. They look like plastic bullets.  

“I sent a urine sample and a large check to a lab in Chicago and they did some tests and came up with a formula based on what they found. Then they put it into powder form, stuffed it into capsules, and shipped it off.”  

She smiles. “One-of-a-kind,” she says. “Or in this case a thousand. It was a very big check.”  

“Do you really think vitamins created especially for you will work for me?” I ask.  

Just then Taffy’s husband walks into the kitchen. “Whose vitamins are you taking?” he interrupts. “Yours or mine?”  

“Mine,” says Taffy. “But tomorrow we’re taking yours.”  

I listen to every piece of advice I am given. I consider each new recommendation and proposal. I shake my head up and down and side to side, and smile with cautious resignation. I take Taffy’s special pills on Sunday, and Gary’s special pills on Monday, but I turn down, with regret, the generous offer of a free hamster. Next week, perhaps, I’ll start looking for a job.

I’m stretching the boundaries of “East Bay” because I just like this odd tree. I first encountered it a few years back, along a dirt road east of Fairfield, where we look for mountain plovers. I spotted a number of unlikely objects on the grassy shoulder: Osage oranges, hedgeballs, Indiana brains, Maclura pomifera fruit. They were strewn along the roadside for yards, under a row of little deciduous trees.  

The trees didn’t look like much: short, scruffy, a bit thorny, nearly bald. The fruit on the ground was a startling contrast. Each was a bit bigger than a softball, densely textured in little geometric fissures, bright limey-chartreuse. When I picked up a few, they were slightly sticky, heavy, and had a mild citrus scent with just a hint of sour latex. The stickiness was odd, but I found them pleasant to handle. I brought some home just to look at. 

They’re notorious for having little use; “not worth a bushel of hedgeballs” is one of those Midwesternisms that William Least Heat-Moon quotes in his chapter on the tree in PrairyErth. Some small animals will chew through the pulpy fruit to get at the seeds, but nothing seemed to have been interested in the lot I saw lying unmolested on the road. Herein lies a puzzle.  

Plants need not only pollinators but seed dispersal agents. They can use wind (thistles, maples, cattails) or water, but many use animals, by attaching burrs to our hides or inviting burial in caches by birds, or by hitching a ride through digestive tracts via fruit.  

Some horses will eat Osage oranges, though supposedly cattle choke on it, and nothing here seems to like it. All that pulp, so biologically expensive to make—what’s it for?  

Connie Barlow, in The Ghosts of Evolution, advances a pretty notion: It’s among the North American plants whose seed dispersers, our missing megafauna, are extinct.  

North America used to have horses, long before Europeans brought them back. We—well before there was “we”—had elephants and rhinos, or something like them, and all manner of super-hyenas and saber-toothed beasties and outsized thingatheriums. Some were equipped to bolt Osage oranges (and avocados, and pawpaws) and leave whole seeds in their dung, far from the parent plant.  

When they died out, the plants that had evolved with them found themselves in reduced circumstances, their former broad estates shrunk pitifully. Osage orange was a hot trade item among native Americans because its tough and resilient wood made excellent clubs and bows (it’s also called bois d’arc, or, phonetically, “bowdark”) and it grew only in a small part of the southern Midwest.  

The live tree regained it some of its former range because it makes a good hedge, “pig-tight, horse-high, bull-strong,” in places without enough forest for fence rails or stones for walls. Before barbed wire, it was the best and cheapest barrier available, and it thrives far north and west of its pre-European range—in Indiana, for example. And, as a souvenir of someone’s Midwestern roots I guess, in Solano County. 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

A few Osage orange fruits persist on thorny winter-deciduous branches.

FRIDAY, DEC. 1 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “ The Man Who Saved Christmas” at holiday family musical Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Dec. 17. Tickets are $15-$18. 523-1553.  

Aurora Theatre “Ice Glen” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 10. Tickets are $38. 843-4822.  

Berkeley Theater Troup “Pirate Winter Fest” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Tickets are $15-$25. Fundraiser for the January musical. 647-5268. 

Berkeley Rep “All Wear Bowlers” at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through Dec. 23. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. 

Berkeley Rep “Passing Strange” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through Dec. 3. Tickets are $45-$61. 645-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “And Then There Were None” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Dec. 9. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132.  

Impact Theater “Jukebox Stories” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Dec. 10. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468.  

Masquers Playhouse “Company” by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Dec. 16.. Tickets are $18. 232-4031.  

Naked Masks “Far Away” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club. Tickets are $10-$20. Runs through Dec. 17. 883-9872. www.nakedmasks.org 

Shotgun Players “The Forest War” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Jan 14. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The 99 Cent Show” Reception at 7 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 295-8881. 

“Small Works: A Members’ Show” opens at 6 p.m. at Mercury 20 Gallery, 25 Grand Ave. at Broadway, Oakland.  

FILM 

Janus Films: “The Rules of the Game” at 7 p.m. and “Samurai Rebellion” at 9:10 at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Blue Collar Poems-Journeyman Songs” with Armando Garcia-Davila and David Madgalene, bilingual poetry and prose, at 7:30 p.m. at PSR Chapel, Pacific School fo Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 707-836-9586. 

“California as Muse: The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews” A walk through the exhibition with curator Harvey L. Jones at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“How We Almost Lost the Marais” A slide-show with Leonard Pitt on the historic district of Paris, at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Jennifer Abrahamson will discuss her new book, “Sweet Relief: The Story of Marla Ruzicka” the human rights activist who was killed by a road-side bomb in Iraq, at 7:30 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$12 at independent bookstores. 415-255-7296 ext. 253.  

Sabrina Orah Mark and Susan Maxwell, poets at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble Fall Concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High School campus. Tickets are $3-$10, available only at the door, Free for BHS students and staff. 528-4074.  

Tallis Scholars at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way Pre-performance talk at 7 p.m. Tickets are $46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Hasta Cuando?” The Other Face of Mexico” with singer, stroyteller and activist Francisco Herrera at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker School, Marian Hall, 2nd flr., 2125 Jefferson St. (Not wheelchair accessible). 845-4740. 

Young Musicians Program Sing-Along Messiah at 7:30 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $15. 642-2686. 

Jesse De Natale at 3 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Carne Cruda at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$7. 849-2568.  

Jim Ryan in Trio at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. Donation $5-$15. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Culture Shock and Miss Kim’s World Hip-Hop Showcase at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$18. 800-521-8311. 

John Santos Quartet “Standards the Latin Way” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kenny Washington & His Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Albany Music Fun Benefit with Rhythm Bound and Albany High School Jazz Band at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Patrick Landeza, Hawaiian Christmas celebration at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Chow Nasty, The Dead Hensons at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Nels Cline Singers, Rova Saxaphone Quartet at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Taj Mahal Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, DEC. 2 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Los Mapaches, traditional songs from the Andes, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Dinosaur Alphabet” with author Harry S. Robins at 1 p.m. at the Junior Center of Art & Science, 558 Bellevue Ave, off of Lake Merritt, Oakland. 839-5777. 

Fratello Marionettes “The North Pole Review” at 2 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Montclair Branch, 1687 Mountain Blvd. 482-7810. 

“Chain Letter” Illustrator Doug Dworkin will tell stories and teach you how to create a linking chain, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Museum of Children’s Art, 538 Ninth St., Oakland. Free. 465-8770. www.mocha.org 

“Little Nemo in Circusland” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $8-$14. 925-798-1300. www.juiamorgan.org 

Elmwood Theater Matinee Benefit for local schools showing “Sponge Bob Square Pants” at 10 a.m. and noon, and noon on Sun. Cost is $2. Sponsored by Elmwood merchants. 843-3794. 

Andy Z with musical pirates, squirrels, dinosaurs and more at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 10th St. Cost is $6. 526-9888. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Winter Bright” ceramic sculptures by Elizabeth Orleans, and acrylic paintings by Rosalie Cassell and Diane Rusnak. Reception at 4 p.m. at the Community Art Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. Exhibit runs through Jan. 5. 204-1667.  

THEATER 

Living Arts Playback Theater at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Sliding scale $12-$18. Reservations recommended. 655-5186, ext. 25. 

FILM 

Janus Films: “Beauty and the Beast” at 5 p.m. and Jacques Rivette “La belle noiseuse” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lisa Robertson, Stephen Ratcliffe, Marvin White and others read at 2 p..m. at Small Press Distribution Open House 1341 7th St. at GIlman. 524-1668. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading at 3 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge dining hall, 1320 Addison St. Park on the street, not in Lodge parking lot. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Dulcimates, dulcimer music at 3 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Free. 228-3218.  

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra presents Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Copland’s “American Songs” and others at 8 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations welcome. www.bcco.org 

The Maybeck Trio, Roy Zajac, clarinet, Elaine Kreston, ‘cello, Jerome Kuderna, piano, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. TIckets are $8-$12. 549-3864 www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Bach’s complete “Christmas Oratorio” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$67. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Parranda Navideña, with the Venezuelan Music Project at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Zoe & Dave Ellis at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Anoush’s Last Farewell Dance with Brass Menazheri at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Culture Shock and Miss Kim’s World Hip-Hop Showcase at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$18. 800-521-8311. 

Sotaque Baiano, Brazilian, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

David Serotkin and Brad “The Dudeboy” Rogers at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Fishtank Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Kenny Washington Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

Ben Adams Jazz Group at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Mirthkon, Kids & Hearts at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jean White and Friends, folk, blues, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Dekoiz, The Abuse, 2nd Class Citizen, Violation at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, DEC. 3 

CHILDREN 

“Little Nemo in Circusland” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $8-$14. 925-798-1300. www.juiamorgan.org 

Freddi Zeiler introduces “A Kid’s Guide to Giving” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Los Hilos de la Vida: Threads of Life” Latina themed folkloric story quilts by women and children from Anderson Valley opens with a reception at noon at Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery, 5741 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. 

“Generations in Wood” Art Exhibition at Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. Sidewalk reception at 4 p.m. Exhibition runs to Jan. 14. 981-7541.  

“The Gift of Art” Group show of small art works through Jan. 7 at Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St. www.cecilemoochnek.com 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 1 and 3 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Beat-Era Cinema “Tarzan and Jane Regained ... Sort Of” at 2 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Yiddish Films “Mamele” at 3 p.m. and “Kitka and Davka in Concert” at 4 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Pen Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Awards, hosted by Tennessee Reed and Lucha Corpi, at 2 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, West Auditorium, 125 14th St. Free. 228-6775. 

Aurora Script Club with Paul Heller and Lauren Grace on Chekov’s “The Seagull” at 7:30 p.m. at The Aurora Theater. 843-4822. 

“Ira Nowinski’s San Francisco” a panel discussion with Jack Hirschman, Malcom Margolin and Ira Nowinski at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Readings of New Books from Zeitgeist Press at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Flash with Jennifer K. Sweeney and Clare Rossini at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra presents Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” Copland’s “American Songs” and others at 4:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations welcome. www.bcco.org 

The Temescal Trio “Music for Marfan” Benefit Concert, chamber music at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 415-665-7244. 

Sorelle, woman’s vocal ensemble performs choral selections at 3 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Free. 228-3218.  

California Bach Society “In Dulci Jubilo” at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. TIckets are $10-$35. Receptionfollows. 415-262-0272;. www.calbach.org  

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Bach’s complete “Christmas Oratorio” at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$67. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble “Voices in Peace” music from the Americas at 3 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. 531-8714. www.vocisings.com 

Cantare Con Vivo performs Bach, Gabrieli, Boito and Grieg at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 27th and Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$32. 925-798-1300. 

The Takacs Quartet at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Pre-performance talk at 2 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Handel’s “Messiah” Sing Along at 6 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Suggested donation $10. 525-0302. www.uucb.org 

Mercury Dimes, Pat Nevin and others in a benefit for the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 1305 Shattuc Ave. Cost is $8. 548-3113. 

Twang Cafe featuring Brian Joseph and Lila Nelson at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10, all ages welcome. www.twangcafe.com 

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

Bill Jackman Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Jeannie Cheatham at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Boots Riley, Ise Lyfe, Ras Mo and others at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7-$10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sam Misner & Megan Smith at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, DEC. 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Quarterly at Latham Square” Work by Raymond Haywood, in the lobby at Latham Square, 1611 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Open weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 763-9425. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gregory M. Franzwa on the transcontinental road from Manhattan to San Francisco “The Lincoln Highway” at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

Actors Reading Writers “Christmas Past,” works by Truman Capote and Dylan Thomas at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Amy Gorman will talk about “Aging Artfully: 12 Profiles: Visual and Performing Women Artists Aged 85-105” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Last Word Poetry Series with Janell Moon, Jeanne Wagner and Alice Templeton at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Poetry Express with Hassan Jones-Bay and Jamie K at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

TUESDAY, DEC. 5 

EXHIBITIONS 

“eARTh MATTERS” A exhibition of environmental art opens with a reception at 4 p.m. at the June Steingart Gallery, Laney College Campus, Tower Bldg, 900 Fallon St. and runs through Dec. 22. 841-0588. 

FILM 

Radical Closure “War: The Visible Signs” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Piri Thomas reads from “Stories from El Barrio” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Frank Portman reads from “King Dork” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Janell Moon, poet, and Kaylah Marin, singer/songwriter, at Works in Progress Women’s Open Mic, at 7:30 p.m. at Montclair Women's Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $10. 276-0379. 

Sandor Katz on “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Canadian Brass at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman Trio and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Jazzschool Tuesday at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Eddie Palmieri y La Perfecta II at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6 

CHILDREN 

Fratello Marionettes “Peter and the Wolf” at 7 p.m.. at Oakland Public Library, Main Library Children’s Room, 125 14th St. 238-3615. 

THEATER 

Azeem’s “Rude Boy” Wed.-Thurs. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh, 2120 Allston Way, through Dec. 14. Tickets are $15-$22. 415-826-5750. www.themarsh.org 

FILM 

“Shadya” a documentary of a young Muslim girl in Israel who becomes a karate champion at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Still Kicking” a documentary on six older women who are still performing at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Benefit for the Over 60 Health Center. Donation $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Switch Off” A documentary on the struggle of Chile’s indigenous people to control their water at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Julia Scheeres describes growing up in a Christian fundamentalist family in “Jesus Land” at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way at Telegraph. 848-1196. 

Richard Abrams discusses “America Transformed: Sixty Years of Revolutionary Change 1941-2001” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Chamber Chorus and University Chorus “A Child Was Born” at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Music for Advent with Ron McKean, organist, at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

WomenSing “Welcome Yule” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $18-$20. 925-974-9169. www.womensing.org 

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $6. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Lost Weekend at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Western swing dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rumbache, at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Mysterioso, Gypsy and Klezmer tunes, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

“Music as an Expression of Universal Harmony” Concert and lecture with Chris Caswell and Jon Schreiber at 6 p.m. at the Breema Clinic, 6201 Florio St., Oakland. 428-1234. 

THURSDAY, DEC. 7 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Fresh” New work in a variety of media. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Runs through Jan. 27. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Whitework Embroidery” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. Runs through Feb. 5. Hours are Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. Free. lacismuseum.org 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Montclair Artists Group Exhibition Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Montclair Gallery, 1986 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-4286. 

THEATER 

Checkov International Theatre “Twelfth Night” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $65. 642-9988. 

FILM 

“Intensive Care” short works from the Middle East on the emotional response to violence and conflict at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thursday. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

M. Nevin Smith on “Native Treasures: Gardening with the Plants of California” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

Michael Lewis talks about his new novel of football “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Christina Hutchins, poet, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Lunch Poems with Jack Marshall at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library, in the Doe Library, UC Campus. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Tom Laird reads from “Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

MLK Jr. Middle School Jazz Band and The Potentials Annual Winter Jazz Concert and Fundraiser at 7:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School Auditorium, 1781 Rose St. at Grant. Admission is free, donations requested. 

Marlon Asher & The Ganja Farmer, from Trinidad, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is tba. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Cris Williamson with Teresa Trull and Barbara Higbie at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Eddie Palmieri y La Perfecta II at 8 and 10 p.m. Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Voodoo Economics, Plot Against Rachel, Farwell Typwriter at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Everyday Stranger, Deep Hello at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

THE STORY OF A HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST 

Jennifer Abrahamson will discuss her new book, Sweet Relief: The Story of Marla Ruzicka, the human rights activist who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Hillside Club. Tickets can be purchaced for $10-12 at local independent bookstores. 2286 Cedar St. (415) 255-7296 ext. 253. 

50 YEARS OF CLASSIC ARTHOUSE CINEMA 

Pacific Film Archive will continue its tribute to Janus Films with screenings of two French clasics. Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game (1939), considered by many to be one the greatest films ever made, shows at 7 p.m. Friday, and Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946) shows at 5 p.m. Saturday. $4-$8. 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS WITH BACH 

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will perform Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and again at 7 p.m. Sunday at the First Congregational Chuch. $29-$67. 2345 Channing Way. (415) 392-4400. www.philharmonia.org. 

QUILTS EXHIBIT TELLS LATINA STORIES 

“Los Hilos de la Vida: Threads of Life,” an exhibit of Latina-themed folkloric story quilts by women and children from Anderson Valley, will open with a reception at noon Sunday at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery. 5741 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-4040 ext. 111.

Anselm Kiefer was born in Germany in 1945, a few months before the end of World War II. The horror of the Nazi regime and the divided nation in which he grew up find stronger response in his work than it has in many of his contemporaries. In fact, it is the most powerful work to come out of Germany, Kiefer delves into history and mythology—Greek, Nordic and especially the Bible and the Kabbala. He is well versed in modern poetry as well as art and its history. 

The superb exhibition, entitled “Heaven and Earth” deals with grand themes of life on this planet, which is dark. But earthly destruction, in Kiefer’s universe, is allied to heavenly knowledge. The artist made many beautiful paintings of battlefields after the war when the earth was scorched and its surface ashen.  

In “Falling Stars” (1995) a man—his own likeness—naked from the waist up, is stretched out on the earth, the sky and its innumerable stars. In ancient myths celestial bodies determined human destiny, which was “written in the stars.”  

In other canvases, such as “In the Beginning” (2003) and “Melancholia” (2004) we see geometric figures in grey skies above turbulent seas. The polyhedron in the latter refers to the famous “Melancholia” by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Durer. As Michael Auping, the curator of this exhibition writes in the catalogue, in “Im Anfang” and “Melancholia” Kiefer pits the rational architecture of the mind against the potentially unformed nature of the cosmos, imagining one explanation for our origin.  

He has said “It is the artist’s job to imagine the most impossible things. There are no answers. They are just possible entries into hidden things.” 

Kiefer’s canvases are painted with thick heavy materials. He may use combinations of oil, shellac, acrylic, straw, semen, achieving a powerful solidity that confronts the viewer and makes him/her stop in astonishment in front of these mural-like paintings. And the three-dimensional objects in the show are made of lead.  

The monumental “Wings” (1992-94) is a massive tome, which lies open on a high lectern. It has majestic wings which spread out to a width of 13 feet. Or “The Secret Life of Plants” (2001) is more than six feet high. He has said that ancient forests and plants “may contain secret knowledge.” He is fond of double meanings that may provide entry to the mysteries of the world. In his mysterious field of stars on the lead pages of the heavy book he has added the NASA identification numbers. 

This amazing fusion of mythology and science is essential to Kiefer’s work. Many of the sheets of lead were taken from the roof of Cologne Cathedral’s building which has played a significant role in German history and folklore. Lead, of course, was the material which the alchemists hoped to transform into gold. They also believed that this transformation could lead to higher consciousness, which of course, is the ultimate function of art. At this time, with the market rather than the artists’ work driving the art world, we rarely encounter such transcendence. Anselm Kiefer is one of the few living artists who accomplishes this task with the utmost painterly skill and with fervent passion. 

ANSELM KIEFER: HEAVEN AND EARTH 

Through Jan. 21 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 151 Third St. San Francisco. (415) 357-4000. www.sfmoma.org. 

Photograph: Sternenfall (“Falling Stars”) (1995). (1992-94).

Pacific Film Archive will present a series of seven samurai films beginning today and running through Dec. 17. 

Most of the films come courtesy of Janus Films, the great American distributor of foreign arthouse cinema whose 50th anniversary PFA has been honoring in another ongoing series.  

But the samurai series ain’t quite as highbrow as all that. Not on the surface, at least. These are popular entertainments, full of action and humor. But look closer and you’ll see films full of art and artistry, of complex themes and human struggle worthy of the highest forms of art, here dressed in violent period melodrama. 

Of course no samurai series would be complete without the best samurai film of them all, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954). Seven Samurai gave rise to an American version, The Magnificent Seven, but the western version pales in comparison to the original. Kurosawa takes his time with each character, presenting a fuller, richer, more engaging ensemble than the swaggering icons played by Yul Brynner et al.  

Kurosawa is represented in the series by two other films as well: Throne of Blood (1957), his samurai adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Yojimbo (1961), a brilliant and funny film inspired by American westerns and later remade as a western, albeit an Italian western: Sergio Leone’s Fistful of Dollars. 

But most enlightening films in the series are the lesser-known classics of the genre.  

The series starts with this weekend with two films by Masaki Kobayashi, Samurai Rebellion (1967) and Harakiri (1962). 

Harakiri is a stunning film, a gradually unfolding tale of heartbreak and misfortune that builds toward a climactic act of revenge. Most of the film consists of conversations in which the characters play out a tense, strategic battle of wills, yet now and then the slow-burning tone is punctuated with scenes of sudden violence. 

Kobayashi and photographer Yoshio Miyajima establish themselves quickly as masters of interiors with an opening credits sequence of slow tracking shots which delineate the architectural splendor of a great mansion. The pattern continues throughout the film with beautiful but discreet compositions and graceful tracking shots through corridors and into rooms, with pillars and doors and windows and figures arranged perfectly like stones in a garden.  

Kobayashi often maintains a certain distance from his subjects, unobtrusively watching them as they go about their business. But when the action starts and the tone shifts, so too does the camera, zooming in like a Sergio Leone telephoto shot or tilting toward canted angles a la Orson Welles, signaling a shift in the dramatic action as well as the strategic repositioning of characters within fragile alliances. But Kobayashi also demonstrates his talent for outdoor shots with a one-on-one battle on a windswept plain that contains echoes of Bergman.  

The plot concerns the requisite lone samurai, this time seeking to destroy the facade of nobility and honor maintained by a great clan, and he does so, for the most part, without action but with words. It is like one of those extended endgame scenes in a James Bond movie where the villain stops the show to explicate in great detail for the hero’s benefit the machinations of his nefarious scheme. Only here it lasts two hours and results in a tour de force of swordfight choreography as Tatsuya Nakadai takes on the house’s company of samurai and by extension the entire feudal system. He smashes down doors, breaks through walls, smears the house insignia with the blood of his enemies and dismantles the interiors that Kobayashi had photographed with such care throughout the film, the architecture that had sustained the house and masked its cowardice.  

The series also features two films by director Kihachi Okamoto: Kill! (1968) and Sword of Doom (1966).  

While Kobayashi’s work embodies much of what of what is best in the samurai genre, the films of Kihachi Okamoto elaborately deconstruct these elements in gleeful parodies that, like the Italian westerns of Leone, are equal parts satire and homage. Okamoto’s Kill!, made just six years after Harakiri, picks apart the genre’s stock features and embellishes its humor-laced plot with a score that deconstructs the genre’s musical themes as well, combining Japanese instrumentation with the cartoonishly grand orchestrations of the spaghetti western scores of the 1960s. 

For more information on the samurai series, see Pacific Film Archive’s website: www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

Two new documentaries opening today at Shattuck Cinemas depict complementary aspects of America’s social conscience. The first, Wrestling With Angels, examines the artistic side of social and political engagement in the person of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. The second, Beyond the Call, tracks a more grounded, more blue-collar form of humanitarianism by tracking the exploits of a man named Ed Artis who, along with two comrades, stages his own missions to war-torn nations, providing food and supplies to the needy.  

Wrestling with Angels director Freida Lee Mock won an Academy Award for Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision, a portrait of the designer of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement memorials. Her new film follows Tony Kushner around the country during three busy years in his career, from New York to Chicago to Louisiana and even to Berkeley, where Homebody/Kabul played at the Berkeley Rep. It’s an engaging film because Kushner is an engaging man, but viewers hoping to glean deeper insight into his work or into the circumstances of its creation may leave disappointed, for the film provides plenty of details about the man but surprisingly little insight into the artist.  

We hear much about what is great in his work by way of testimonials from friends and actors and from footage of performances, but we hear little criticism. We do hear that there is criticism—in fact, we hear that from Kushner himself—but we hear virtually nothing of its contents.  

What we do learn is that Tony Kushner is an all-around good guy. We know his work gives him great anxiety, and has at times driven him to the consolation of overeating, but the Kushner we see on screen is always smiling, rarely showing signs of inner turmoil or artistic struggle. What elements of his work does he struggle with? What does he see as his weaknesses? What do his critics see as his weaknesses? These questions go unanswered. We hear much of his strengths, much of his successes, but only passing mention of mixed reviews, leaving us apparently to assume that his critics are simply wrong-headed, that they have failed to understand his work. We do not hear the views of detractors, nor of fellow playwrights. What we’re left with is something just slightly more enlightening than a reality show, a glimpse into the lauded life of a man at the peak of his fame. It’s good, but it’s slight. 

Beyond the Call takes a different approach. Adrian Belic, director of the acclaimed Genghis Blues, brings us the tale of less likely heroes, of men whose names you’ve never heard and which you likely won’t remember. This film shows the more practical, pro-active side of social conscience. There is no art or artifice here, no curtain calls, no Pulitzer Prizes or commencement addresses. It is the story of a 50-something man named Ed Artis who decided to apply his talent and determination to the procurement of food and supplies for those who suffered under the Taliban in Afghanistan. This was before 9/11. Yet it was just after the attacks, when most westerners were getting out, that Ed and cohorts Jim Laws and Walt Ratterman went in.  

And they didn’t stop there. This was just the first of many missions that continue today. Knightbridge, as they call themselves, seeks out the most troubled spots on the planet, bringing money, food, tents, medical supplies and even solar equipment to those whose needs have gone unmet by the traditional providers of aid. The trio works by their motto: “High Adventure and Service to Humanity.” They do not engage in proselytizing; there is no agenda. As Artis himself puts it, “We’re not here to change anybody’s politics, we’re not in the God business, and we pay our own way.” 

These are not perfect men by any means. They’re salt-of-the-earth types with the vernacular to back it up. These are simple, behind-the-scenes kinda guys, can-do men of great competence and courage, men with no hesitation or fear. Their achievements and dedication are enough to make you want to put in your notice, sell off all your possessions and join the good fight, the one that doesn’t involve guns or politics or ideology, but merely struggles to ensure the simple dignity of humanity.  

Sure, these are proud men. Sure, they enjoy the attention of the camera. And sure, they get caught now and then in minor acts of grandstanding or patriarchal posing. But they’re easily forgiven. If each one of us had just a fraction of the dedication and follow-through of Ed, Jim and Walt there wouldn’t be half as many problems in this world in need of solutions. And if that knowledge results in a few demonstrations of pride, so be it. They’ve more than earned it. 

Photograph: Ed Artis and Jim Laws travel the world providing humanitarian aid in Beyond the Call.

A pair of derbies sit alone in the light on stage at Berkeley Rep, visually out of line, but syncopated. After a pause, they skitter off under, it seems, their own power, and a movie projection begins on the white screen upstage from where the hats so coyly posed ... 

Titles scroll, then two figures appear in the branches of a great bare tree, both in derbies. Shades of Godot! But these two-dimensional creatures leave the screen, after wandering down a dusty road, and appear before the audience, covered with stagy chalk dust, as fully-rounded stage clowns Earnest and Wyatt (aka Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford), surprised—even aghast—at the crowd they find themselves before, but whom they cajole, threaten, trample and constantly interact with throughout All Wear Bowlers, directed by Aleksandra Wolska. 

The show proceeds like a Slinky’s ungainly downstairs tumble through an outpouring of routines—and indeed, the clowns themselves credit David Shine for telling them they needed more characterization for their original compendium of bits. They raise holy hell onstage and off, finally literally bringing down the house, otherwise sitting back on a brace of seats stolen from under two spectators to observe the aftermath of their mayhem. 

Gimmicks are standard enough: a ladder, a fire extinguisher, an endless baker’s dozen of eggs (or is it only one or two?), a spoon to tap them with, a handkerchief, the ubiquitous bowlers of the title. When things really get going, it’s an old-fashioned Chinese Fire Drill of clown schtick by two very talented present-day practitioners. 

The problem seems to be with the hook, not the old vaudeville method of getting a ham offstage. Their original instincts more than half-right, the talented team took their preshow development criticism too much to heart, and have tried a little too hard, as the head to an interview in the program put it, at “turning something into nothing.” 

That “nothing” is an homage to Absurdism, which the dramaturg’s notes define by dictionary and link to Existentialism. “Theatre of the Absurd,” the term stuck to Beckett’s plays (as well as Ionesco’s and others, like Genet and Adamov), was coined by Martin Esslin of Stanford (also noted) as an English rough equivalent of “Theatre nouveau,” meaning a recycling of older, often surrealist techniques in postwar drama. 

All Wear Bowlers makes reference, or homage, to that, as well as Buster Keaton’s astonishing film, Sherlock, Jr., in their play with onscreen-offscreen (and onstage) movement—very creative technically, but a little bit awkward, like an absurd fish out of water, with its framing device. Buster returned in triumph to performing with baldly unexplanatory clown routines, which were nonetheless full of character—and recently a local troupe, Mugwumpin, improvised a show out of a nervewracking audition for clowns, red noses the only hook in sight. 

Earnest and Wyatt prove a good team, through composite bits, strings of old chestnuts that start to come alive, like a presumably dead (and overly flexible) body, victim of partner’s manslaughter, who revives as rebellious, ukelele-playing ventriloquist dummy, then morphs into a Wray-o-phage King Kong—or bits of playful stage magic with eggs to mouth, guns from frisked spectators. A quick nod to Magritte works well enough, because it’s quick. But Beckett’s pauses weren’t looking back over the shoulder, or at the audience for a response, for recognition. 

Unfortunately, the archness, not the showmanship gets telegraphed. Two Laurels to somebody else’s (the audience’s?) Hardy, the pair are straitjacketed by the conceit of the show from exhibiting the unabashed freedom, the salutary destructiveness that the silent comedians—as well as the Marx Brothers and recent comics like Dick Shawn—launched into, using the theme as a pretext to take off from, even to tear up—not to exhibit for approval. The original Absurdist plays—like Arthur Adamov’s Ping-Pong, maybe the most relentlessly slapstick-y, show how to deploy the old music hall and burlesque routines and poses to achieve, not quote, profundity. 

ALL WEAR BOWLERS 

Through Dec. 23 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2900. www.berkeleyrep.org

A reader wrote in to complain about what he perceptively referred to as “crossed wires” in the Nov. 28 preview of holiday concerts.  

Referring to the Philharmonia Baroque’s “A Bach Christmas,” (to be performed this Saturday and Sunday at the First Congregational Church), I crossed the title of “The Christmas Oratorio” with “The St. Matthew Passion” (the passions, as our reader points out, is “ar-guably the other towering Eastertide monument,” rivaling “The Messiah”).  

I saw “A Bach Christmas,” and made the slip of title. I hope no-one was misled, and quote our reader again as to the significance of these performances: 

“Bach’s full ‘Christmas Oratorio’ is staged so infrequently in this country. I know of only two full Bay Area productions in the past 20 years; whereas the passions, one or both, and the B-Minor Mass are reliable annual staples. The ‘Christmas Oratorio’ contains a wealth of joyful trumpet-and-drum choruses, tuneful arias, and rich orchestral color. Philharmonia Baroque and maestro McGegan deserve our gratitude for offering us the complete six-section masterwork, and deserve SRO audiences ...” 

Few Berkeley landmarks are as repeatedly and unjustly maligned as the Hillside Club Street Improvements in the Daley’s Scenic Park Tract. Designated in 1983, this system of public improvements forms a continuous line that stretches over at least six blocks of Berkeley’s Northside. 

Comprising concrete street dividers, planted median strips, stairways, pillars, elevated sidewalks, and retaining walls, the system is invariably derided by opponents of the 1974 Landmarks Preservation Ordinance as “The Wall” and cited as an example of inappropriate designation. 

The most recent instance of such intentional tunnel vision appeared in this newspaper on Nov. 21, when reader Adam Block wrote: “Most citizens would agree that the crumbling retaining wall on Le Conte […] do[es] not merit protection.” 

Block was parroting the decade-long harangues of realtor-developer Mary Hanna. In 1996 (13 years after the Hillside Club Street Improvements were designated a City of Berkeley Landmark), Hanna bought the Bentley property at 2683 Le Conte Avenue for development and resale. Her plans included excavating the hillside on which the house stands and replacing a 30-foot stretch of the street-side retaining wall—part of the designated landmark—with a large garage. 

Hanna thought she was entitled to disfigure a designated public resource for private profit. The neighbors disagreed. The Landmarks Preservation Commission disagreed. The Berkeley City Council disagreed. Hanna sued the City of Berkeley and lost. She appealed the verdict to a higher court and lost again. 

Yet despite having failed to sway the neighbors, the city, and the courts into believing in the justness of her cause, Hanna had no trouble convincing some of the press. Journalists who apparently did not find it necessary to check the facts came out charging against “The Wall.” 

Ten years later, “Wall” rants continue to pop up as ammunition for weakening the LPO. 

So what’s the real story behind “The Wall”? 

It goes back to 1891, when Charles Keeler and Bernard Maybeck met on the 5 o’clock commuter ferry from San Francisco to Berkeley. Keeler, then a 20-year old ornithologist, had dropped out of UC Berkeley to work at the California Academy of Sciences. Maybeck, 29, was employed by the fashionable architect A. Page Brown. 

Four years after their first meeting, Maybeck designed Keeler’s home—the first house on Highland Place, near the northeastern edge of the university campus. It was clad in shingles and surmounted by a series of steep cascading roofs that blended into the surrounding landscape. 

The new homeowner was worried that the house’s effect would “become completely ruined when others come and build stupid white-painted boxes all about us.” 

Maybeck had a solution. “You must see to it,” he told Keeler, “that all the houses about you are in keeping with your own.” 

This was the germ of the Hillside Club, founded in 1898. Its mission was “to protect the hills of Berkeley from unsightly grading and the building of unsuitable and disfiguring houses; to do all in our power to beautify these hills and above all to create and encourage a decided public opinion on these subjects.” 

Among the Hillside Club’s members and supporters were Northside property owners, including the developer of Daley’s Scenic Park, Frank M. Wilson; artists such as the painter Wiliam Keith and the photographer Oscar Maurer; key university officials, among them UC President Benjamin Ide Wheeler and Supervising Architect John Galen Howard; and cultural leaders like Maybeck and Keeler. 

All these people believed that “There is a need of realizing civic pride and making sacrifices for it, sinking personal prejudices for the benefit of the whole.” 

In 1903, the Hillside Club appointed a committee of its members, including Maybeck and Almeric Coxhead, “to draw up plans for laying out the intersection of Bonte [now La Loma] and Le Conte Avenues and to submit same to the Board of Trustees.” At the time, the Northside was still sparsely developed and lacking paved streets. The club strongly advocated using “what is there. Avoid cutting into the hill; avoid filling up the hollow.” 

By 1905, the committee had surveyed Le Conte Avenue from Le Roy to La Loma and the intersecting blocks of La Loma “as a basis for an artistic treatment of grades and retaining walls, which would take into consideration the preservation of the live-oaks and involve as little alteration as possible of the present topography. […] In addition to preparing a charming plan for these two streets, providing for a small bridge across the creek, etc., the committee has interviewed the interested property owners and has obtained the cooperation of practically all who are most directly concerned in the improvement.” 

The committee’s plans were submitted to the City Engineer, who executed them in 1909. 

The Hillside Club Street Improvements can be seen along the 2600 block of Le Conte Ave.; La Loma Ave. between Cedar St. and Ridge Rd.; Le Roy Ave. between Hilgard Ave. and Ridge Rd.; the 2700 block of Virginia St.; the 1700 block of La Vereda Rd.; and the 2600 block of Hilgard Ave. Street improvements in the same style and materials but not included in the Landmark designation stretch along portions of Hearst Ave. and Arch Street. 

Daley’s Scenic Park and the Hillside Club are forever linked—the former being the locale where the First Bay Region Tradition in architecture had its first major expression, the latter being the First Bay Region Tradition’s major advocate. 

Since advocacy was the club’s principal mission, it began as soon as the club came into being. In June 1899, club founder Madge Robinson (later Mrs. Oscar Maurer), published the article “The Hillside Problem” in The House Beautiful, in which she provides practical design solutions to building on a hillside. During the same period, Maybeck, was spreading the word locally. The Berkeley World-Gazette of 28 April 1899 announced that Maybeck would lecture on “Hillside Architecture” for the Hillside Club at the home of Frank Wilson on Ridge Road.  

In 1904, Keeler published the book The Simple Home, followed in 1905 with Hillside Club Suggestions for Berkeley Homes. In 1906, Maybeck published the illustrated booklet Hillside Building. 

Thanks to the efforts of the Hillside Club, the streets of Daley’s Scenic Park were soon lined with shingled redwood homes surrounded by informal gardens, and the term “living with nature” entered the lexicon. The architectural heritage of the Northside had a profound influence not only on the way houses were built in Berkeley and the rest of the Bay Area but on design theory and practice internationally. 

In 1923, the Berkeley Fire wiped out more than half the homes in Daley’s Scenic Park. After World War II, institutional expansion and development pressures began taking their toll on the surviving historic structures in this fragile neighborhood. 

Three seminal Maybeck houses on Highland Place and Ridge Road were torn down in the 1960s to make way for apartment blocks. The same fate befell the house of Mary McHenry Keith (William Keith’s widow) at 2701 Ridge Road. The house of Mrs. Keith’s brother-in-law, Rear Admiral Charles Fremont Pond, formerly at 2621 Ridge Road, was replaced by a modern Beta Theta Pi chapter house, now the Jesuit School of Theology’s Chardin Hall. 

Twelve buildings, representing two-thirds of the block between Ridge Rd., Le Roy Ave., and Hearst Ave. were demolished for the construction of UC’s Etcheverry Hall and the eventual building of Soda Hall. A UC parking structure and lot replaced the historic Newman Hall and College Hall on La Loma Ave. between Hearst and Ridge. 

The pre-fire structures that remain on the Northside represent some of Berkeley’s most precious cultural resources, and for that reason they were all placed on the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s priority list for initiation in 1990. 

Which brings us back to “The Wall.” 

In Daley’s Scenic Park, public amenities and private homes form a harmonious whole by design. This remarkable legacy—the most important in Berkeley’s architectural history—is ours to enjoy and pass on to future generations. 

Today as much as ever, “There is a need of realizing civic pride and making sacrifices for it, sinking personal prejudices for the benefit of the whole.” If the Hillside Club legacy does not merit protection, is there anything in Berkeley that does? 

Photograph by Daniella Thomspon 

The “crumbling wall” in front of the Bentley House, 2683 Le Conte Ave. Note the gracefully curving stairs, a feature found in several properties on this block.

Joe found an interesting book over at the Mechanics’ Institute Library: a Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “All-Region Guide,” Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants by C. Colston Burrell. The BBG puts out lots of informative short books; this one is a double-sized volume, with lots of color photographs.  

The book is a constructive move toward controlling a serious problem. You’ve probably heard or read lots of carrying-on about invasive exotics. Here in California they’re a real threat to wild places and the unique life these support, even as all wonderful diversity this is being backed over extinction’s cliff by our habits and industrial methods and our sheer numbers. In a Q-and-A preface to this book, the author cites a journal study to say, “About 42 percent of the species on the U.S. List of Endangered and Threatened Species are at risk primarily because of nonnative invasives.” 

Some utter nonsense gets aired when this subject comes up. Just to get past it here: No, advocating for native plants, animals, and ecosystems is not at all like racism. (Some of us have noticed that humans are all one species.) No, fostering natives in their original habitats doesn’t somehow threaten biodiversity.  

In fact, those pretty broombushes and pampas grass and cotoneasters and the others that we gardeners have introduced and allowed to invade wildlands and elbow out natives are what threatens biodiversity. The species that are being pushed out, starved, threatened—they exist nowhere else in the world. If our populations die, that’s it. Gone. Extinct. The invasives, on the other hand, have home ranges where they’re adapted and they thrive with and feed the rest of their habitats. Where they pay their taxes.  

This book was written for gardeners across the country—and, interestingly, for land managers including highway departments. The role of roads and railroads in spreading invasives is one of those odd things. Partly it’s that they’re responsible for “disturbed ground” on which so many weeds thrive; partly it’s that they’re corridors of seed distribution; partly it’s that invasives have been planted along roadsides for erosion control. 

The BBG names nearly 150 villains and where they’re invasive, and adds photographs, descriptions, and growing tips for native substitutes—often more than one for each invasive, to duplicate the characteristics people plant them for. More substitutes are noted in many listings, and the Garden’s website is added there too, with notes to look there for more. Good idea, allowing constant updating.  

The native substitutes I recognized were well handled. We have more local sources here, such as the California Invasive Plants Council’s leaflet and nursery card, and advice from the California Native Plant Society. Many of the invasive plants in the BBG’s book aren’t a problem here—yet—and many of their alternatives are exotic here. It’s the same old problem we Californians have with most general-geographic-interest garden books.  

I’d suggest sending this book to friends and relatives back East, but thumb through it first and note what’s invasive here, and what works in gardens instead. The glossy stock it’s printed on won’t show fingerprints, and everybody will learn something useful.  

Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants 

by C. Colston Burrell 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides 

240 pages, trade paperback 

$9.95

My friend Lisa seems to be the Maven Plus Grande de Berkeley. Everybody’s query-girl (although she’s happily married to a fella). She even gets calls about contractors, which she confesses isn’t exactly her area of greatest expertise. So we’re hanging out and she plays me a message from her friend (We’ll call her Mildred) and it goes something like this: 

“Lisa, I’ve had three bids for contractors and I just can’t decide on which one to take. I told them each that I was getting bids from the others and they seem to be in a bidding war now. What should I do now?” Beeeeep. 

Turns out this is all about hiring someone to install a furnace. So what could go wrong here? First, competitive bidding is all well and good but as I am so often heard to say “You get what you pay for….if you’re lucky.” Low bids are, all too often, followed by low quality. Now this isn’t true 100 percent of the time but it is definitely a principle that’s worth observing since it’s true much of the time. Also, the lower you drive your contractor, the less eager they’re going to be to try to do their best work. Like all of us, they’re going to see the dollars on the table, look at their time and sweat and try to minimize their losses. Of course, there ARE other principles are work here. 

One is the principle that I’ll call “Inherent Programming Rarely Fails” or Bunnies usually hop and rarely slither. Obsessive-compulsive, perfectionist tradespersons don’t do sloppy work just because the pay is lousy. They tend to work the way they feel internally driven to work. Also, slobs have trouble cleaning up, no matter how much you pay them. You may have noticed that this principle expresses itself in our relationships. No matter how much you cajole, wheedle or beg, you partner is probably going to continue to engage in that annoying behavior that drives you batty for ever and ever. Smoker’s get diagnoses of lung cancer and go right on smoking. Go figure. 

But, and this is a big one, the really talented person, probably won’t do your job when you start trying to get them for cheap or start getting everyone involved in this bidding war. They’ll just walk away seeking “greener” pastures because they know (or believe) they’re worth it. Now the contractor who works fast and loose and leaves messes behind will take what they can get and will try to suck up every job they can. This person will play bidding war with you and guess who losses. Right. You do. You just drove off the one person you want to have do the job and invited all the bottom feeders to your party. 

The person who seeks out the low bidder in this fashion is usually the same person who will try to get the incompetent contractor to come back and fix the work they screwed up. 

Now why would you want to hire (or even accept work for free) from a person who’s already demonstrated for you in graphic terms that they are incapable of doing something properly. You also have to assume, unless you’re an expert in the relevant trade, that you don’t even know the full depths of their undesirability. For every item that you were able to discern as screwed up, there were probably a handful of others that you know nothing about. But I digress. 

Bidding on work should rightly involve more than just an evaluation of costs. In fact, it should be pretty low on the list. If you get three really good furnace installers to bid on the same furnace and everyone agrees on the methods to be used (which they’re more likely to do anyway since you’ve picked very knowledgeable people), the cost difference between the three isn’t likely to vary by more than 10 percent or 20 percent, may be $1,000. Now I realize that money doesn’t grow on trees (although it Xeroxes pretty well!) but that sum gets to looking really good when you’ve just spent your bargain fee and discovered that something about it was botched and you have to figure out how to gain restitution or, more importantly, to get the thing done properly. Paying to do a job twice is really expensive and paying a little extra to do it once with confidence is a bargain.  

Also, the more expensive contractor almost always has some perks in his/her work that you won’t see in the low bid. When I compare the work and think about the hours involved, the higher bid usually ends up looking as though that contractor made less per hour than the “cheap” fellow/gal. No joke. I see this a lot. The better and higher priced person has figured out what has to be done, has streamlined the process and also wants to prevent call-backs that cost money, hurt their reputation and violate their inherent programming.  

Now, it’s true and I hate to say it but from time to time, you will find a really capable individual who will be cheap. I’ve met ‘em, I’ve hired ‘em and I’ve tried to find them 6 months later only to find that they were either out of business (because they couldn’t make it pay) or they had taken a job with someone else. Also some stick it out, raise their prices and become higher end tradespersons. But in almost no case does this person stay cheap and whey should they. After a little while they get to know who the competition is, what that work looks like and how they rank in the pecking order. If you knew that your peer group was charging, on average, twice what you were getting, wouldn’t you raise your rates. Of course you would. 

So back to Mildred and here dilemma. I have to confess to a certain lack of compassion for this person’s situation. Sorry. I’m not very nice. Maybe too many years in the trades. I feel as though this bidding process corrupts everyone. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to getting several bids on a single job. Actually, I think it’s a good thing, although I feel that the players should know what the playing field looks like and should thus be informed that they’re being asked to be the 12th bidder on the furnace. 

They might want to turn it down and it’s their right to do so if they wish. I do think that you should take each bid on its own merits and not try to wrestle them to the ground by getting them to compete with the bids from other. For one thing, you may be asking a person who does A+ work to compete with a price from a C- contractor. You might just drive them away but you might also get them to lower their quality. It’s good to demand quality and good performance but it’s also good to pay for it.  

When we engage in this cheapening process repeatedly, we lower the quality of all work being done and this is exactly what has happened over the past 50 years. People say “ You just can’t get good help these day” and it’s our own damned fault. We’ve set it up this way and it’s an all McDonalds world now. Lisa say to get three bids and take the middle one. Well, I’m not sure I would always agree but it’s interesting that this is well known as the European model. In the U.S. the model is to get three bids and take the low one. The think is, so much poor quality work is done today that I don’t think that our middle bid is the same as the Italian middle bid.  

Whether you take the top bid or the middle bid (or even the low bid when appropriate), I suggest that you take a good look at the individual. Get reference and call them. Go visit them for heaven’s sake. What’s two hours compared with having a lousy contracting experience? 

Pick someone for their savvy, their chemistry with you and their being “right sized” (a two-person crew might be more right for you than a 30 person crew). Pick someone you’re willing to give a key to your home to. Someone you’d trust your kids with and someone you’ll want to know when it’s all over. If you’ve done all that with three people and you like them all I don’t care who’s the cheapest (and I’ll bet you won’t either!). 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

It’s time to submit your essays, poems, stories and photographs for the Daily Planet’s annual holiday reader contribution issue, which will be published on Dec. 29. Send your submissions, up to 1,000 words, to holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com. The deadline is 5 p.m. on Dec. 20.

FRIDAY, DEC. 1 

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 Jon Rosenberg, M.D. on “Infectious Diseases.” 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.  

“Hasta Cuando?” The Other Face of Mexico” with singer, stroyteller and activist Francisco Herrera at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker School, Marian Hall, 2nd flr., 2125 Jefferson St. (Not wheelchair accessible). 845-4740. 

Berkeley Theater Troup “Pirate Winter Fest” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Tickets are $15-$25. Fundraiser for the January musical. 647-5268. 

“The Motorcycle Diaries” at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Bay Area Green Health Care Awards at 7:30 p.m. at McKinnon Institute, 2940 Webster St., Oakland. Tickets are $15. RSVP to 558-7285. 

ASUC Benefit Art Sale from noon to 5 p.m. at ASUC Art Studio, Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Campus, through Dec. 2. 642-3065. 

Bay Area Homeschoolers’ Craft Fair from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Donation of $3 and up goes to the Daytime Women’s Drop In Shelter. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 2 

Help Restore Cerrito Creek Plant natives and help to control erosion. Meet at 10 a.m. at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara St., El Cerrito. Wear clothes that can get dirty and shoes with good traction. Heavy rain cancels. 848-9358.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Holiday Crafts Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way with local craftspepole, live music and prepared food. Benefits the Ecology Center. 548-3333.  

American Indian Child Resource Center Pow Wow with Native singing, crafts, foods and activities for children arem 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and SUn. from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Laney College Gymnasium, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. 208-1870. www.aicrc.org 

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant’s Crafts Fair Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Proceeds benefit local refugee work, women’s coops in Central America, Africa and Asia, and street children in Haiti. 540-5907. 

Palestinian Handicraft Sale From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Friends' Meeting, 2151 Vine, with embroidery, olive oil, olive woodcrafts, hand blown glass and ceramics, soaps, honey, textiles and more. 548-0542. 

Fungus Fair, a celebration of wild mushrooms from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “Historic Claremont Hotel and Gardens” at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. To register call 848-0181.  

“How to Prune and Divide Perennials” With Aerin Moore at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave., off Seventh St. 644-2351. 

“Lead Safety for Remodeling, Repair, and Painting” This class leads to a Notice of Completion in training and meets the minimum training requirements for some federally assisted housing including Section 8. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Main Office, 2000 Embarcadero, #300, Oakland. Call for cost and to register. 567-8280. www.aclppp.org/ledtrain.shtml 

Sick Plant Clinic Dr. Robert Raabe, plant pathologist, and Dr. Nick Mills, entomologist, will diagnose plant illnesses and recommend remedies. Bring a piece of the plant in a securely sealed container. A zipperlock bag is ideal. From 9 a.m. to noon at Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. 

Small Press Distribution Open House from noon to 4 p.m. with music and author readings and book sale, 1341 7th St. at GIlman. 524-1668. 

Healing Circle for Animals at 4 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $25. 525-6155. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, DEC. 3 

Richmond Art Center Holiday Arts Festival with silent art auction, art and craft sale, art activities for children and more, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave. at 25th St. 620-6772. www.richmondartcenter.org 

Fungus Fair, a celebration of wild mushrooms from noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Recycled Craft Sale sponsored by The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. 548-3402.  

Benefit for Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters with live music and buffet at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 1305 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-3113. 

People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet honoring organizations and leaders for peace, equality, labor and immigrant rights, at 2 p.m. at the Snow Building, 9777 Golf Links Rd., Oakland. Cost is $40, reservations required. 251-1050.  

“The Divine Feminine in the World’s Religions: Hinduism and Buddhism” with Anna Matt of the GTU at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “Sacred Tibet” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, DEC. 4 

The People’s Park Community Advisory Board meets at 7 p.m. at Trinity Methodist Church, 2362 Bancroft at Dana, to discuss the removal of the buffer mounds and trees on the edges of the Community Gardens in People’s Park. People concerned about preserving the natural environment and volunteer history of this famous Park should attend.  

“Corte Madera Watershed” with Charles Kennard at the Friends of Five Creeks meeting at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Free and open to all. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

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

Sleep Soundly Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Lakeview Branch, 550 El Embarcadero.  

TUESDAY, DEC. 5 

UC Regents Meeting in SF to decide the fate of the oak trees in Berkeley. Save the Oaks at the Stadium will arrange carpools to the meeting, scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus in the Community Center building, 1675 Owens St. in SF. Contact us for information and to share rides info@saveoaks.com or 841-3493.  

The Future of Lower Codornices Creek is in Your Hands The Codornices Creek Watershed Council is sponsoring a meeting so that the public can learn about restoration plans for the lower portion of Codornices Creek above Frontage Road and I-80 to the Union Pacific railroad tracks. It will include a presentation by Far West Restoration Engineering on restoration designs and land use scenarios for this area. From 7 to 9 p.m. at Four Corners Room, University Village Community Center, 1123 Jackson St., Albany. Enter UC Village from 8th St. 452-0901. 

“Surviving the Next Pandemic: Bird Flu and Other Emerging Infectious Diseases” with Michael Greger, M.D. at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but RSVP requested. 925-487-4419. 

“When the Environment and Politics Collide: Recent Developments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta” With Mike Taugher, environmental raporter, Contra Costa Times, at 5:30 p.m. at Golman School of Public Policy, Room 250, UC Campus. 642-2666. 

Senior Strength Training at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. Free and open to the public. To register call 848-6834, ext. 502. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Wreath Making Workshop from 7 to 9 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $25-$30. Registration required. 643-2755. 

Discussion Salon on Homeland Security at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. In case of questionable weather, call around 8 a.m. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991.  

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6  

Wreath Making Workshop from 7 to 9 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $25-$30. Registration required. 643-2755. 

“Liberty and Leviathan” An evening with Robert Higgs discussing his new book “Depression, War and Cold War” and Thomas S. Szasz. Reception at 6:30 p.m., program at 7 p.m. at The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Cost is $10-$15. 632-1366.  

“The Role of Petroleum in the International World of High Finance” with Al Goldman at 1 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

“Skiing Colorado’s 14ers” with free skier Chris Davenport at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

New to DVD “40 Up” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

“Shadya” a documentary of a young Muslim girl in Israel who becomes a karate champion at 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Red Cross Blood Drive from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m at UCB Fiji fraternity, 2395 Piedmont Ave. To schedule an appointment see www.BeADonor.com 

Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 10 a.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

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.  

THURSDAY, DEC. 7 

Returning the Oakland School Oakland School District to Local Control, with Sandre Swanson, Betty Olson-Jones, Dan Siegel and others, at 7 p.m. at OUSD, 1025 Second Ave., Oakland. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud's Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@avatar. 

freetoasthost.info 

ONGOING 

UN Association’s UNICEF & Fair Trade Gift Center Closing Sale, Tues.-Sat. noon to 5 p.m. to Dec. 16, 1403 Addison St. 849-1752. 

Holiday Food Drive Sponsor a Food Drive. Help the Food Bank reach its goal of collecting food for families in need during the holiday season. 635-3663, ext. 318. www.accfb.org  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Mon. Dec. 4, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Dec. 4, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5158.  

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Dec. 4, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5510.  

City Council meets Tues., Dec. 5, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Dec. 6, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Gil Dong, 981-5502.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Energy Commission meets Wed., Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434.  

School Board meets Wed. Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. 644-6320. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419.

TUESDAY, NOV. 28 

CHILDREN 

First Stage Children’s Theater, “The Month Maker’s Magic” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $5 at the door. www.juiamorgan.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Burning Man” Photographs and artifacts on display at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. to Dec. 26. 981-6100. 

“Honors Show” at the Worth Ryder Gallery in Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. Reception at 4 p.m.. Runs to Dec. 7. Gallery hours are Tues.-Fri. 1 to 4 p.m.  

FILM 

“Ici et ailleurs” with film curator Akram Zaatari in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sarah Katherine Lewis talks about “Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It as a Girl for Hire” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Emily Gottreich on “Mellah of Marrakesh: Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco’s Red City” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

“Korean Painting: Its Aesthetics and Technique” with Min Pak at 4 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 6th Flr., 2223 Fulton St. 642-2809. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ and the Bob Vivants at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 29 

THEATER 

Azeem’s “Rude Boy” Wed.-Thurs. at 8 p.m. at The Marsh, 2120 Allston Way, through Dec. 14. Tickets are $15-$22. 415-826-5750. www.themarsh.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Don Halnon Johnson presents “Everyday Hopes, Utopian Dreams” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Stanley H. Brandes describes “Skulls of the Living, Bread to the Dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and Beyond” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Bob Perelman and Mia You, poets, at 6:30 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. holloway.english.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with Janine M. Dresser, Stewart Florshein and Marc Hofstadter at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Javanese Gamelan at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

U.C. Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $6. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Orquestra Universal at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Joshua Eden at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 30 

EXHIBITIONS 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

FILM 

“Indies under Fire” A doumentary about independent bookstores, followed by a conversation with the director, Jacob Bricca, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

“Best of the Fest Films & Videos with Michael Rhodes” at 7 p.m. in the Chapel at the Pacific School of Religion,1798 Scenic Ave. Free. 707-836-9586. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mitchell Schwarzer introduces “Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area: A History & Guide” at 7:30 p.m. at Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St. 845-6874. 

Dylan Schaffer on “Life, Death & Bialys: A Father/Son Baking Story” at 6:30 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $10-$12. 549-6950. 

Georgina Kleege discusses “Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Spoken Word Swap Meet at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Russell, roots country troubadour at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Kingsbury/English, modern folk, rock at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

R & D, Joseph’s Bones at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

Steve Taylor-Ramírez at 7:30 p.m. at Prism Café, 1918 Park Blvd., Oakland. Donation $2-$5. 251-1453.  

Taj Mahal Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

FRIDAY, DEC. 1 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “ The Man Who Saved Christmas” at holiday family musical Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Dec. 17. Tickets are $15-$18. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre “Ice Glen” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 10. Tickets are $38. 843-4822.  

Berkeley Theater Troup “Pirate Winter Fest” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Tickets are $15-$25. Fundraiser for the January musical. 647-5268. 

Berkeley Rep “All Wear Bowlers” at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through Dec. 23. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. 

Berkeley Rep “Passing Strange” at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. through Dec. 3. Tickets are $45-$61. 645-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “And Then There Were None” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Dec. 9. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132.  

Impact Theater “Jukebox Stories” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Dec. 10. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468.  

Masquers Playhouse “Company” by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Dec. 16.. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

Naked Masks “Far Away” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club. Tickets are $10-$20. Runs through Dec. 17. 883-9872. www.nakedmasks.org 

Shotgun Players “The Forest War” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Jan 14. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The 99 Cent Show” Reception at 7 p.m. at Boontling Gallery, 4224 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 295-8881. 

“Small Works: A Members’ Show” opens at 6 p.m. at Mercury 20 Gallery, 25 Grand Ave. at Broadway, Oakland.  

FILM 

Janus Films: “The Rules of the Game” at 7 p.m. and “Samurai Rebellion” at 9:10 at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Blue Collar Poems-Journeyman Songs” with Armando Garcia-Davila and David Madgalene, bilingual poetry and prose, at 7:30 p.m. at PSR Chapel, Pacific School fo Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 707-836-9586. 

“California as Muse: The Art of Arthur & Lucia Mathews” A walk through the exhibition with curator Harvey L. Jones at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“How We Almost Lost the Marais” A slide-show with Leonard Pitt on the historic district of Paris, at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Jennifer Abrahamson will discuss her new book, “Sweet Relief: The Story of Marla Ruzicka” the human rights activist who was killed by a road-side bomb in Iraq, at 7:30 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$12 at independent bookstores. 415-255-7296 ext. 253. www.globalexchange.org  

Sabrina Orah Mark and Susan Maxwell, poets at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble Fall Concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High School campus. Tickets are $3-$7, available only at the door, Free for BHS students and staff. 528-4074.  

Tallis Scholars at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way Pre-performance talk at 7 p.m. Tickets are $46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Hasta Cuando?” The Other Face of Mexico” with singer, stroyteller and activist Francisco Herrera at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker School, Marian Hall, 2nd flr., 2125 Jefferson St. (Not wheelchair accessible). 845-4740. 

Young Musicians Program Sing-Along Messiah at 7:30 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $15. 642-2686. 

Carne Cruda at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jim Ryan in Trio at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. Donation $5-$15. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

Culture Shock and Miss Kim’s World Hip-Hop Showcase at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$18. 800-521-8311. 

John Santos Quartet “Standards the Latin Way” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kenny Washington & His Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Albany Music Fun Benefit with Rhythm Bound and Albany High School Jazz Band at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Patrick Landeza, Hawaiian Christmas celebration at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Chow Nasty, The Dead Hensons at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Nels Cline Singers, Rova Saxaphone Quartet at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Taj Mahal Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, DEC. 2 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Los Mapaches, traditional songs from the Andes, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Fratello Marionettes “The North Pole Review” at 2 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Montclair Branch, 1687 Mountain Blvd. 482-7810. 

“Little Nemo in Circusland” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $8-$14. 925-798-1300. www.juiamorgan.org 

Elmwood Theater Matinee Benefit for local schools showing “Sponge Bob Square Pants” at 10 a.m. and noon, and noon on Sun. Cost is $2. Sponsored by Elmwood merchants. 843-3794. 

Andy Z with musical pirates, squirrels, dinosaurs and more at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 10th St. Cost is $6. 526-9888. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Winter Bright” ceramic sculptures by Elizabeth Orleans, and acrylic paintings by Rosalie Cassell and Diane Rusnak. Reception at 4 p.m. at the Community Art Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. Exhibit runs through Jan. 5. 204-1667.  

THEATER 

Living Arts Playback Theater at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Sliding scale $12-$18. Reservations recommended. 655-5186, ext. 25. 

FILM 

Janus Films: “Beauty and the Beast” at 5 p.m. and Jacques Rivette “La belle noiseuse” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lisa Robertson, Stephen Ratcliffe, Marvin White and others read at 2 p..m. at Small Press Distribution Open House 1341 7th St. at GIlman. 524-1668. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading at 3 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge dining hall, 1320 Addison St.Park on the street, not in Lodge parking lot. 527-9905. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Dulcimates, dulcimer music at 3 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Free. 228-3218.  

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra presents Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Copland’s “American Songs” and others at 8 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations welcome. www.bcco.org 

The Maybeck Trio, Roy Zajac, clarinet, Elaine Kreston, ‘cello, Jerome Kuderna, piano, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. TIckets are $8-$12. 549-3864 www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Bach’s complete “Christmas Oratorio” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$67. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Parranda Navideña, with the Venezuelan Music Project at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Zoe & Dave Ellis at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Anoush’s Last Farewell Dance with Brass Menazheri at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Culture Shock and Miss Kim’s World Hip-Hop Showcase at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$18. 800-521-8311. 

Sotaque Baiano, Brazilian, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

David Serotkin and Brad “The Dudeboy” Rogers at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

Kenny Washington Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Ben Adams Jazz Group at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Mirthkon, Kids & Hearts at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Jean White and Friends, folk, blues, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Dekoiz, The Abuse, 2nd Class Citizen, Violation at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, DEC. 3 

CHILDREN 

“Little Nemo in Circusland” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $8-$14. 925-798-1300. www.juiamorgan.org 

Freddi Zeiler introduces “A Kid’s Guide to Giving” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Los Hilos de la Vida: Threads of Life” Latina themed folkloric story quilts by women and children from Anderson Valley opens with a reception at noon at Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery, 5741 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. 

“Generations in Wood” Art Exhibition at Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. Sidewalk reception at 4 p.m. Exhibition runs to Jan. 14. 981-7541.  

“The Gift of Art” Group show of small art works through Jan. 7 at Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St. www.cecilemoochnek.com 

Semina Culture: Wallace Berman and His Circle Guided tour at 1 and 3 p.m. in Gallery 2, Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Beat-Era Cinema “Tarzan and Jane Regained ... Sort Of” at 2 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Yiddish Films “Mamele” at 3 p.m. and “Kitka and Davka in Concert” at 4 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Pen Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Awards, hosted by Tennessee Reed and Lucha Corpi, at 2 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, West Auditorium, 125 14th St. Free. 228-6775. 

Aurora Script Club with Paul Heller and Lauren Grace on Chekov’s “The Seagull” at 7:30 p.m. at The Aurora Theater. 843-4822. 

“Ira Nowinski’s San Francisco” a panel discussion with Jack Hirschman, Malcom Margolin and Ira Nowinski at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Readings of New Books from Zeitgeist Press at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Flash with Jennifer K. Sweeney and Clare Rossini at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra presents Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” Copland’s “American Songs” and others at 4:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations welcome. www.bcco.org 

The Temescal Trio “Music for Marfan” Benefit Concert, chamber music at 3 p.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 415-665-7244. 

Sorelle, woman’s vocal ensemble performs choral selections at 3 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Free. 228-3218.  

California Bach Society “ In Dulci Jubilo” at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. TIckets are $10-$35. Receptionfollows. 415-262-0272;. www.calbach.org  

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra performs Bach’s complete “Christmas Oratorio” at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$67. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble “Voices in Peace” music from the Americas at 3 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. 531-8714. www.vocisings.com 

Cantare Con Vivo performs Bach, Gabrieli, Boito and Grieg at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 27th and Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$32. 925-798-1300. 

The Takacs Quartet at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Pre-performance talk at 2 p.m. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Handel’s “Messiah” Sing Along at 6 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Suggested donation $10. 525-0302. www.uucb.org 

Mercury Dimes, Pat Nevin and others in a benefit for the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 1305 Shattuc Ave. Cost is $8. 548-3113. 

Twang Cafe featuring Brian Joseph and Lila Nelson at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10, all ages welcome. www.twangcafe.com 

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

Bill Jackman Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Jeannie Cheatham at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Boots Riley, Ise Lyfe, Ras Mo and others at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7-$10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sam Misner & Megan Smith at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, DEC. 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Quarterly at Latham Square” Work by Raymond Haywood, in the lobby at Latham Square, 1611 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Open weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 763-9425. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gregory M. Franzwa on the transcontinetal road from Manhattan to San Francisco “The Lincoln Highway” at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

Actors Reading Writers “Christmas Past,” works by Truman Capote and Dylan Thomas at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 

Amy Gorman will talk about “Aging Artfully: 12 Profiles: Visual and Performing Women Artist Aged 85-105” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Last Word Poetry Series with Janell Moon, Jeanne Wagner and Alice Templeton at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Poetry Express with Hassan Jones-Bay and Jamie K at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

MUSIC FROM THREE GREAT COMPOSERS 

The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra will present Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Aaron Copland’s American Songs and the world premiere of Julian White’s She Walks in Beauty, as well as excerpts from The Children’s Hour and Five Parables, at 8 p.m. Saturday at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. www.bcco.org. 

BAY AREA ARCHITECTURE 

Author Mitchell Schwarzer will discuss his new book, Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Are: A History and Guide, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St. 845-6874. 

CLASSICS IN EL CERRITO 

The Cerrito Theater continues its series of weekend classics with Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain (1952) at 6 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday. All ages welcome. 10070 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. www.picturepubpizza.com. 

INDY BOOKSTORES 

‘UNDER FIRE’ 

A documentary about the plight of independent bookstores, Indies Under Fire, will be screened and followed by a discussion with director Jacob Bricca, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday Nov. 30 at Black Oak Books. The film tells the stories of three stores fighting for survival: In Capitola, a developer’s plans for a new Borders prompts fierce debate; in Palo Alto, the closing of Printers Inc. Bookstore prompts a local citizen to mortgage his house to save the store, and in Santa Cruz, protests and vandalism ensue when a new Borders moves into town. 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. 

As the holidays begin, so do the special performances that feature the kinds of song associated with the season, and other musical events that accent its profundity. This coming Sunday, Dec. 3, is Advent Sunday; many concerts are scheduled, some spilling over into the following week. All are an antidote to the canned Christmas music that provides a soundtrack to the rounds of shopping. 

If you’re a singer, and Davies Hall is too vast, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Road, is hosting their Messiah Sing-A-Long this Sunday evening at 6 p.m., something of a local tradition. Led by musical director Brian Baker, who oversees a distinguished music program throughout the year, with orchestra and new organist Chris Nordwall accompanying, the church invites all to join in an ensemble to sing Handel’s masterwork. Bring scores or borrow them at the Sing-A-Long for this more intimate local event that also features plenty of free parking.  

East Bay favorite Cantare Con Vivo will combine two children’s choirs from their after-school musical programs with their Chamber Ensemble and 40-voice chorale, accompanied by full orchestra, at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the First Presbyterian Church, 27th Street and Broadway, Oakland, and at 7:30 p.m. Monday, at the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church, in a program including Gabrieli’s “Jubilate Deo,” Bach’s “Singet dem Herrn,” The Credo from Robert Ray’s “Gospel Mass,” selections from Grieg, Howells, Poulenc, Rutter, Carol Jennings, Mervyn Walter and others--and, by popular demand, a repeat performance of last year’s “A Musicological Journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas.” And the audience is invited to join choirs, orchestra and organ in singing carols and other seasonal songs. 

The other towering monument of choral music for Christmas, rivalling Handel’s “Messiah,” Bach’s “Passion According To St. Matthew,” will be the basis for the Philharmonia Baroque’s “A Bach Christmas,” featuring the Bay Area’s premiere early music ensemble playing period instruments, conducted by artistic director Nicholas McGegan, with the Philharmonia Chorale, directed by Bruce LaMott, Saturday and Sunday Dec. 2 and 3. 7 p.m., at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, with soloists Suzanne Ryden (soprano), Elizabeth Turnbull (mezzo-soprano), Michael Colvin (tenor, The Evangelist), Thomas Cooley (tenor), and Nathaniel Watson (baritone). 

The California Bach Society will present In Dulci Jubilo, music by Charpentier and Buxtehude, English carols, French noels and German Wemachtslieder, Sunday at 4 p.m. at St. Marks, 2330 Bancroft Way. Conducted by artistic director Paul Flight, the program features Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s “Mess de Minuit pour Noel,” based on noels. 

Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Jude Navari, will perform their sixth annual Voices In Peace, “Music of Passion, Mystery and Joy from the Americas,” on Sunday at 3 at the Lake Merritt United Methodist Church and Friday Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal, 2330 Bancroft Way, featuring Villa-Lobos’ “Mass in Honor of St. Sebastian,” traditional Latin carols, shape note hymns from North America, and premieres of local composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s newly-arranged “Shouts and Lullabies, American Folk Songs for Christmas.”  

The Takacs Quartet, whose Decca recording of Beethoven’s cycle of quartets was just hailed by Gramophone magazine as “a modern-day benchmark,” will perform Quartet in A Minor, Opus 18, Number 5; Quartet in C Minor, Opus 18, Number 4; and Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132, at 3 p.m. Sunday in Hertz Hall on the UC campus, presented by CalPerformances ($42; discounts available. 642-9988 or calperfs@uc.berkeley.edu). Founded by students of the Franz Liszt Academy in Hungary in 1975, the Quartet has been in residence at the University of Colorado at Boulder since 1983, and presently features cofounders Karoly Schran (violin) and Andras Fejer (cello), as well as Edward Dusinberre (violin) and, newly appointed on viola, Geraldine Walter, long principal with the San Francisco Symphony. 

Temescal Trio—Madeline Prager (viola), Karen Wells (clarinet), John Burke (piano)—will perform a benefit, Music For Marfan, Sun. Dec. 3, 3:15 p.m. at St. John’s Church, 2727 College Ave., with selections from Shostakovich, Brahms and Mozart, followed by a dessert buffet. Marfan is an inheritable condition that affects the connective tissue in one in five Americans. Admission for concert and buffet, $20. (415) 665-7244. 

Altarena Playhouse on High St. in Alameda is presenting an unusual Christmas musical, The Man Who Saved Christmas, Fridays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. through Dec. 17. With book, music and lyrics by Ron Lytle, who wrote last year’s local smash hit, Oh My Godmother!, The Man Who Saved Christmas tells of toy baron A. C. Gilbert, who manufactured Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, and his crusade against a World War One government ban on toy sales. (Tickets $15-18. 523-1553.) 

The second weekend of Advent, Dec. 8-10, features the California Revels at the Oakland Scottish Rite Theater by Lake Merritt, with a program featuring song and dance of 19th century Quebec, and the Revels’ popular singalong and line dancing. The Berkeley Ballet Theater presents The Nutcracker Dec. 8-10 at The Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave.  

And in San Francisco, Other Minds, founded by former KPFA programmer Charles Amirkhanian, presents their 12th Festival of New Music at the Jewish Community Center, featuring Emeryville composer Daniel David Feinsmith, as well as composers from Australia, Scandinavia and France, and instrumentalists and ensembles from the Bay Area (Del Sol String Quartet, Feinsmith Quartet) and around the world. For more information, see www.otherminds.org or call (415) 292-1233. 

Photograph Courtesy of Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble  

Members of the Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble preparing for the Voices In Peace holiday concert this Sunday at the Lake Merritt United Methodist Church and on Friday, Dec. 8, at St. Mark’s Episcopal in Berkeley. 

PEN Oakland’s 16th Annual Josephine Miles Literary Awards and 10th Annual Literary Censorship Award will be presented this Sunday at the Oakland Public Library. 

The event, hosted by authors Tennessee Reed and Lucha Corpi, is free and includes reception and booksigning with the authors.  

In addition to the literary awards, a lifetime achievement award will be given to Joyce Jenkins, publisher of the Bay Area’s Poetry Flash, and a Censorship Award to author and television news journalist Bill Moyers. 

“We started these awards because we noticed that many of the literary awards were not multi-cultural and mainly were given to men, and we wanted our awards to represent the Bay Area,” said Kim McMillon, PEN Oakland board member. “Some of the best writing talent in the world comes out of the Bay Area, and especially Oakland, with Jack London, Ishmael Reed, Gertrude Stein and many other women writers and people of color.” 

The award-winning authors, who come from various parts of the country, were chosen by the PEN Oakland board. 

This year’s award winners include four books of poems: 

• Mona Lisa Saloy’s Red Beans and Ricely Yours, which chronicles the author’s life in the 7th Ward in downtown New Orleans; 

• Jennifer Bishop’s Remain; 

• Richard Silberg’s Deconstruction of the Blues, and; 

• A.D. Winans’ This Land is Not My Land, which presents a soldier’s-eye view of American imperialism in Panama. 

“There is a real strong emphasis on poetry this year,” McMillon said. “You always go to the bookstores and try to find poetry and hear that poetry doesn’t sell. We wanted to focus on poetry because it’s not about selling, it about representing American literature and the excellence of multi-cultural literature. It is about looking at what is happening in America and our place in the world. It is a really wonderful opportunity to say hello to a lot of different genres and look at how we feel about life here.” 

Other award winners this year include: 

• Dave Hilliard’s Spirit of the Panther, which examines the life of the cofounder and leader of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton; 

•Gerald Haslam’s Valley, which explores racism and environmental issues in California’s Central Valley; 

• Mike Madison’s, Blithe Tomato, which offers a view of the food industry from the viewpoint of a small-scale farmer in the Sacramento Valley; 

• Eric Gansworth’s Mending Skins, a novel. 

Joyce Jenkins will be honored with the group’s first ever Pen Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on behalf of the local and national literary community through Poetry Flash.  

“I’ve known Joyce Jenkins for 12 years and I know how hard Poetry Flash struggles,” McMillon said. “It’s in our backyard and it’s the best place we have to know what’s going on in the poetry scene. It’s a beautiful publication and it’s a shame that something so beautiful has to struggle so hard.” 

PBS television journalist Bill Moyers will receive the PEN Oakland Censorship Award for his work through attacks on his objectivity on the PBS program “NOW with Bill Moyers.” 

PEN Oakland, a Bay Area Chapter of the International Organization of Poets, Essayists, and Novelists was founded in 1989. Josephine Miles, in whose honor organization’s literary awards are presented, was poet, critic, and professor of English at the UC Berkeley.  

PEN Oakland’s 16th Annual Josephine Miles Literary Awards and 10th Annual Literary Censorship Award will be presented Sunday, Dec. 3, from 2 p.m.–5 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library Main Auditorium, 125 14th St., Oakland. 

FOR DADDY V 

By Mona Lisa Saloy 

My Daddy 

loved three families 

ours was the second. 

He outlived two wives, 

buried them in a flow of 

tears and beer 

long as the Mississippi. 

Mostly, I remember lots of 

hugs and kisses, snuggling 

next to Daddy during the  

nightly news on TV after 

dinner daily, or him 

dancing with my dark chocolate Mother 

all night at the Autocrat Club 

on St. Bernard Avenue. 

On Fridays in season, we had crawfish 

by the pound, oyster loaves, or 

hot sausage sandwiches at Mulés Restaurant 

with draft beer we took home in 

a stainless steel pot that 

sealed like a canning jar. 

Springtime brought cawain, 

and daddy’s expert taking of its head, 

then gently removing the neck gland— 

a purple thing of poison if burst. 

He hung the headless turtle, it still 

kicking for three days on the wooden fence, 

even its head snapped for hours in the grass. 

Never lost a cawain, its 21 meat flavors tasting 

of beef, pork, fish, and then some. 

The turtle eggs, Mother’s favorite, promised 

youth, health, and sexy eyes, Daddy said. 

When he shooed aunts, uncles, and Mother 

out of the kitchen, he blended herbs for 

sauté and his special roux before stewing. 

Big Sunday breakfasts with galait— 

stove-top shortening bread—and homemade 

cocoa, omelets whipped just so, to let Mother  

sleep late 

then wake us for church. he wouldn’t come, 

just said “pray for me, and I’ll get to glory.” 

Go long so. 

From Mona Lisa Saloy’s Red Beans and Ricely Yours, recipient of a 2006 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award.

I’m stretching the boundaries of “East Bay” because I just like this odd tree. I first encountered it a few years back, along a dirt road east of Fairfield, where we look for mountain plovers. I spotted a number of unlikely objects on the grassy shoulder: Osage oranges, hedgeballs, Indiana brains, Maclura pomifera fruit. They were strewn along the roadside for yards, under a row of little deciduous trees.  

The trees didn’t look like much: short, scruffy, a bit thorny, nearly bald. The fruit on the ground was a startling contrast. Each was a bit bigger than a softball, densely textured in little geometric fissures, bright limey-chartreuse. When I picked up a few, they were slightly sticky, heavy, and had a mild citrus scent with just a hint of sour latex. The stickiness was odd, but I found them pleasant to handle. I brought some home just to look at. 

They’re notorious for having little use; “not worth a bushel of hedgeballs” is one of those Midwesternisms that William Least Heat-Moon quotes in his chapter on the tree in PrairyErth. Some small animals will chew through the pulpy fruit to get at the seeds, but nothing seemed to have been interested in the lot I saw lying unmolested on the road. Herein lies a puzzle.  

Plants need not only pollinators but seed dispersal agents. They can use wind (thistles, maples, cattails) or water, but many use animals, by attaching burrs to our hides or inviting burial in caches by birds, or by hitching a ride through digestive tracts via fruit.  

Some horses will eat Osage oranges, though supposedly cattle choke on it, and nothing here seems to like it. All that pulp, so biologically expensive to make—what’s it for?  

Connie Barlow, in The Ghosts of Evolution, advances a pretty notion: It’s among the North American plants whose seed dispersers, our missing megafauna, are extinct.  

North America used to have horses, long before Europeans brought them back. We—well before there was “we”—had elephants and rhinos, or something like them, and all manner of super-hyenas and saber-toothed beasties and outsized thingatheriums. Some were equipped to bolt Osage oranges (and avocados, and pawpaws) and leave whole seeds in their dung, far from the parent plant.  

When they died out, the plants that had evolved with them found themselves in reduced circumstances, their former broad estates shrunk pitifully. Osage orange was a hot trade item among native Americans because its tough and resilient wood made excellent clubs and bows (it’s also called bois d’arc, or, phonetically, “bowdark”) and it grew only in a small part of the southern Midwest.  

The live tree regained it some of its former range because it makes a good hedge, “pig-tight, horse-high, bull-strong,” in places without enough forest for fence rails or stones for walls. Before barbed wire, it was the best and cheapest barrier available, and it thrives far north and west of its pre-European range—in Indiana, for example. And, as a souvenir of someone’s Midwestern roots I guess, in Solano County. 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

A few Osage orange fruits persist on thorny winter-deciduous branches.

TUESDAY, NOV. 28 

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 the Crockett Hills. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Anti-Torture Teach-in and Vigil with Gregory Wood at 12:30 p.m. at Boalt Hall, School of Law, UC Campus. 649-0663. 

Save the Oaks at the Stadium will hold an emergency protest at 6 p.m. before the city council meeting. Meet in front of Old City Hall, at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and Allston Way. Bring signs. Stand up for the oaks! 841-3493. 

Self-Acupressure Techniques for holiday stress relief at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Center for African Studies, Graduate Student Fall Lecture at 4 p.m. at 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-8338. 

ASUC Benefit Art Sale from noon to 5 p.m. at ASUC Art Studio, Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Campus, through Dec. 2. 642-3065. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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, NOV. 29 

“We Voted! Now What?” with State Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. Sponsored by the Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

“Sikh-Americans and 9/11: Five Years Forward, a Hundred Years Back” with Jaideep Singh of the Sikh American Legal Defense Fund at 2 p.m. at the Bade Museum, Holbrook Bldg., Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 849-8244. 

Woman’s Snowshoe Workshop at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

New to DVD “An Inconvenient Truth” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Video Games for Grandmas and Grandchildren Sponsored by the American Association of University Women at 7 p.m. at Claremont House, 500 Gilbert St., Claremont Ave., Oakland. 531-4275. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 3 to 4 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Healthy Eating Habits Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave. 465-2524. 

Dream Workshop at 1 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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, NOV. 30 

“Indigenizing the Museum” with Majel Boxer, UC doctoral candidate and member of the Sisseton/Wahpeton Dakota at 7 p.m. at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, UC Campus. 643-7649. 

“Indies under Fire” A doumentary about independent bookstores, followed by a conversation with the director, Jacob Bricca, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Best Of The New Way Media Fest Films & Videos With Michael Rhodes at 7 p.m. at PSR Chapel at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. 707-836-9586. 

“Military Build-up in Guam” A report on issues of cultural preservation, environment, indigenous rights, self-determination, and efforts to address how US military realignment and corporate globalization schemes impede attempts to decolonize, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave.Cost is $5-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Project BUILD Holiday Party to support youth empowerment in under-resourced communities at 5:30 p.m. at Sequyah Country Club, 4550 Heafey Rd., Oakland. RSVP to 650-688-5846. 

Parenting the Highly Sensitive Child at 6 p.m. at Habitot Children’s Museum. Registration required. 647-1111, ext. 14. 

Natural Holiday Gift Wrapping Bring a small gift in a box and learn how to wrap without tape, at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

FRIDAY, DEC. 1 

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 

“Hasta Cuando?” The Other Face of Mexico” with singer, stroyteller and activist Francisco Herrera at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker School, Marian Hall, 2nd flr., 2125 Jefferson St. (Not wheelchair accessible). 845-4740. 

Berkeley Theater Troup “Pirate Winter Fest” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Tickets are $15-$25. Fundraiser for the January musical. 647-5268. 

“The Motorcycle Diaries” at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Bay Area Green Health Care Awards at 7:30 p.m. at McKinnon Institute, 2940 Webster St., Oakland. Tickets are $15. RSVP to 558-7285. 

ASUC Benefit Art Sale from noon to 5 p.m. at ASUC Art Studio, Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Campus, through Dec. 2. 642-3065. 

Bay Area Homeschoolers’ Craft Fair from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Donation of $3 and up goes to the Daytime Women’s Drop In Shelter. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 2 

Help Restore Cerrito Creek Plant natives and help to control erosion. Meet at 10 a.m. at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara St., El Cerrito. Wear clothes that can get dirty and shoes with good traction. Heavy rain cancels. 848-9358.  

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Holiday Crafts Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way with local craftspepole, live music and prepared food. Benefits the Ecology Center. 548-3333.  

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant’s Crafts Fair Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Proceeds benefit local refugee work, women’s coops in Central America, Africa and Asia, and street children in Haiti. 540-5907. 

Palestinian Handicraft Sale From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Friends' Meeting, 2151 Vine, with embroidery, olive oil, olive woodcrafts, hand blown glass and ceramics, soaps, honey, textiles and more. 548-0542. 

Fungus Fair, a celebration of wild mushrooms from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “Historic Claremont Hotel and Gardens” at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. To register and learn meeting place call 848-0181. www.cityofberkeley.info/histsoc/ 

“How to Prune and Divide Perennials” With Aerin Moore at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave., off Seventh St. 644-2351. 

“Lead Safety for Remodeling, Repair, and Painting” This class leads to a Notice of Completion in training and meets the minimum training requirements for some federally assisted housing including Section 8. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Main Office, 2000 Embarcadero, #300, Oakland. Call for cost and to register. 567-8280. www.aclppp.org/ledtrain.shtml 

Sick Plant Clinic Dr. Robert Raabe, plant pathologist, and Dr. Nick Mills, entomologist, will diagnose plant illnesses and recommend remedies. Bring a piece of the plant in a securely sealed container. A zipperlock bag is ideal. From 9 a.m. to noon at Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. 

Small Press Distribution Open House from noon to 4 p.m. with music and author readings and book sale, 1341 7th St. at GIlman. 524-1668. 

Healing Circle for Animals at 4 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $25. 525-6155. 

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

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction 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, DEC. 3 

Richmond Art Center Holiday Arts Festival with silent art auction, art and craft sale, art activities for children and more, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave. at 25th St. 620-6772. www.richmondartcenter.org 

Fungus Fair, a celebration of wild mushrooms from noon to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

Recycled Craft Sale sponsored by The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. 548-3402.  

Benefit for Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters with live music and buffet at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 1305 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-3113. 

People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo Banquet honoring organizations and leaders for peace, equality, labor and immigrant rights, at 2 p.m. at the Snow Building, 9777 Golf Links Rd., Oakland. Cost is $40, reservations required. 251-1050.  

“The Divine Feminine in the World’s Religions: Hinduism and Buddhism” with Anna Matt of the GTU at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “Sacred Tibet” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, DEC. 4 

“Corte Madera Watershed” with Charles Kennard at the Friends of Five Creeks meeting at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Free and open to all. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

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

Sleep Soundly Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Lakeview Branch, 550 El Embarcadero.  

ONGOING 

UN Association’s UNICEF & Fair Trade Gift Center Closing Sale, Tues.-Sat. noon to 5 p.m. to Dec. 16, 1403 Addison St. 849-1752. 

Holiday Food Drive Sponsor a Food Drive at your business, school, place of worship or community center. Help the Food Bank reach its goal of collecting food for families in need during the holiday season. 635-3663, ext. 318. www.accfb.org  

Magnes Museum Docent Training Open to all interested in Jewish art and history. Classes begin Jan. 18th. For information contact cultural.arts@sbcglobal.net 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 28, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Nov. 29, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Janet Homrighausen, 981-7484.