Less than a day after an Oakland judge refused to order the eviction of protesters at the Memorial Stadium tree-in, UC Berkeley police staged a pre-dawn raid Friday, evicting supporters of the tree-dwellers and leveling their encampment. 

There were no arrests. 

“We’re trying to restore the area back to its natural state,” declared Mitch Celaya, assistant chief of campus police. There was no hint of irony in his voice or expression. 

Shortly after 6 a.m., Celaya said, “about 10” uniformed officers arrived. “It’s a public safety issue,” he said. “We’re trying to get things back to normal before students return.” 

The officers were reinforced by two front-end loaders, a stake-bed truck, a dump truck and a contingent of campus building and grounds workers. 

Giving the protesters less than three minutes to evacuate, officers surrounded the heart of the grove with yellow crime scene tape while the protesters made frantic calls to supporters, who began to gather as the officers set to work. 

As grounds crew workers in yellow vests gathered up scattered belongings and demolished shelters which had housed the volunteers who were helping the six protesters camped out in the branches overhead, the growing crowd of demonstrators briefly broke into a chant:  

“Thieves! Thieves! Thieves in the Night. 

“The trees aren’t going down without a fight.” 

Another supporter called out, “Hang in there, tree people.” 

One passer-by was less supportive, muttering a sotto voce, “Get out of the trees, guys. Oak trees are everywhere in California.” 

At least six volunteers were camped out on the ground when the police staged their predawn raid, including Richard Goodreau, who was asleep under a plastic tarp and missed by the officers on their initial search. 

“I heard yelling and I peeked out, and they had already driven everybody else out. So I gathered all my stuff and quietly stuffed my sleeping bag into my pack and ran down the hill,” he said. 

Others weren’t so lucky, including one volunteer who lost a personal computer and another who said he lost prescription medications. 

An officer told them their possessions could be reclaimed later after they’d been booked into evidence—as long as they could prove they owned them. 

Celaya said the material was being taken into evidence, but the material wasn’t tagged or marked as is usually the case at crime scenes, nor was any effort made to keep items separate—typical measures to prove the chain of custody critical before material can be admitted into evidence in court cases. 

The raid came on the year’s coldest morning to date and on the last day of the sixth week since former mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf began the protest by climbing into the branches of a redwood before dawn on Big Game Saturday. 

After sitting out a seven-day stay-away order Running Wolf was back in the redwood Friday—the day after a judge refused to give campus attorneys permission to chop it down. 

Doug Buckwald, who is coordinating support for the protesters, said that as a result of increasing police action, “we can no longer be open about the names of people in the trees, because the police are using the information to entrap and cite people.” 

Police maintained a heavy presence at the scene on the day of the raid, forcing protesters to leave about 20 of their number behind while another 40 or so marched on California Hall, where UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has his offices. 

”We knew he wasn’t in the building, because someone had seen him leave minutes earlier, and he kept looking over his shoulder as he walked across campus,” Buckwald said. 

Acting on a report that he’d headed to the Faculty Club, protesters followed, only to be met by an unsmiling contingent of police blocking each access to the building. 

Meanwhile, he said, supporters continue to bring food and more warm clothing for the trees-sitters, as well as a batch of still warm home-baked bread that arrived Monday morning. 

The tree-in is being staged to protest university plans to chop down a grove of California Live Oaks, the redwood and other trees to make way for a four-story, $125 million gym complex along the stadium’s western wall. 

Four lawsuits have been filed by the city and private organizations challenging university development plans in the area, and another suit is being planned—this one alleging civil rights violations in the Friday morning raid, said Buckwald. 

The action came a day after an Alameda County Superior Court Presiding Judge George Hernandez had ordered the suits transferred to Judge Barbara Miller in the court’s Hayward Branch.  

It was Hernandez who rejected the university’s plea to order the protesters and tree-sitters out of the grove and to allow campus authorities to fence off the trees they plan to ax to make way for a $125 million gym complex along the western wall of the landmarked Memorial Stadium. 

The university also failed to win approval of a call for bids for felling the trees. 

That denial came during a hearing on lawsuits filed by the City of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association and the California Oaks Foundation who are challenging the university’s approval of massive expansion plans around the stadium. 

Those actions and a fourth suit filed by advocates of Tightwad Hill, the slope above the stadium where for decades ardent fans have gathered to celebrate and watch Cal Bears games for free, have now been consolidated into the single case that will be heard by Judge Miller Jan. 24.

“No UC campus has paid its fair share for identified off-campus mitigation measures,” concludes a just-released report by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). 

Though official policy of the University of California requires campuses to negotiation financial agreements to pay for the impacts of expansion on surrounding community, the policy has failed to yield a single agreement. 

That failure is just one of several reasons the highly regarded non-partisan office concluded in a just-released report that state lawmakers needs to exert more control over the University of California’s long-range planning practices. 

While the report didn’t look specifically at UC Berkeley’s controversial Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) for 2020, author and Cal grad Anthony Simbol said that the planning process varied from campus to campus. 

“We found a lack of standardization, and public participation in the planning process wasn’t the same at each campus,” he said. 

While some campuses invited members of the public and local government representatives to participate on committees that worked on the LRDPs, he said others did not. 

One problem identified in the report will have strong resonance in Berkeley: the failure to implement the University of California’s policy, adopted in 2002, which calls on campuses “to voluntary negotiate in ‘good faith’ with local governments regarding a monetary contribution to mitigate off-campus impacts” of campus growth. 

It took a lawsuit by the City of Berkeley to force UC Berkeley to the bargaining table, resulting in an agreement which has itself become the target of another lawsuit filed by Berkeley residents [including the Daily Planet’s arts and calendar editor Anne Wagley]. 

In his report, Simbol wrote that the Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) required of each LRDP have generally included since the 2002 policy “a general statement that the campus will work with the appropriate jurisdiction and contribute its fair share of the improvements needed to mitigate the impacts.” 

But “the EIR generally does not define UC’s fair share contribution and does not include a time frame in which UC would make any such payments.” 

The report also cited the July, 2006, decision of the California Supreme Court in a lawsuit the City of Marina filed against the trustees of California State University concerning impacts of the new CSU campus at the site of the abandoned Fort Ord army base. The justices ruled that EIRs that fail to mitigate identified impacts are legally insufficient. 

Simbol, who received his master’s degree in public policy from UC Berkeley, said he didn’t include his alma mater as a focus of the report. The three UC campuses selected for review were Davis, Riverside and Santa Cruz, along with UC’s Office of the President. 

Growth questions  

Another problem with the LRDP process concerns the future size of student bodies on UC campuses. 

“After 2014, the population group between the ages of 18 and 24 will decrease, and will be reflected a decline in the number of projected high school graduates,” Simbol said. 

But graduate enrollment will continue to rise until the last of the population spike crests—meaning that most of the remaining growth will occur in graduate and professional schools, Simbol said. 

“And there are ways to accommodate these changes without growth” of physical facilities, he said.  

One solution that would require less intensive building programs might rethinking class scheduling, including an increased emphasis on holding classes courses during the summer terms and encouraging year-round enrollment. 

The report offers three possible measure to increase enrollment in summer months, including financial incentives, a requirement to attend high-demand classes during the summer term and making high-demand classes more accessible during the term. 

Other legislative action could include revisions to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the legislation that spells out the rules and policies for evaluating the impacts of development on the environment. 

The law’s best-known feature is the EIR, a document required of every LRDP. 

Simbol’s report recommends legislation to clarify portions of the law through providing clear definitions and better guidelines for defining the mitigations to development impacts and the alternate projects required in EIRs. 

He also recommends that the university make a full report to legislators on steps needed to reach accords with local agencies on mitigation of impacts. 

“There are a lot of issues the legislature should be aware of,” Simbol said, “because they will have to find the funding to support the priorities. The legislature needs to know what campus plans are to see if the legislature is going to be interested in funding them. 

“The role of the legislature is important, and it’s important to provide oversight,” he said. 

“We’re not critical of the universities. We’re just saying the university needs to provide more oversight, and it needs to have greater involvement if it is to fulfill its role.” 

Copies of the report are available online at www.lao.ca.gov/2007/uc_lrdp/lrdp_011007.htm

The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce took a stand endorsing various candidates and measures on the November 2006 ballot. City Councilmember Dona Spring says it’s fine for the organization to support candidates of its choice—but she objects to the city paying dues to the chamber and other organizations that make endorsements.  

Spring’s resolution, on the council agenda tonight (Tuesday) calls on the city to withdraw its membership from the chamber and any other organization that endorses candidates for office. 

Tonight the council will also address restricting the number of years people can serve on commissions and limit commissioners’ service to one commission at a time. The council will also look at adding funding to the winter homeless shelter program, funding a loan for a low-income housing rehabilitation project and funding a study for a roundabout at Gilman Street and the I-80 freeway. 

The City Council meets at 7 p.m. at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

Commissioner restrictions 

Hundreds of Berkeley citizens get involved in the nitty-gritty life of the city through commissions—it could be looking at equipment for tot lots, investigating campaign spending irregularities or questioning whether it’s appropriate to develop a five-story structure on a particular site. But because some commissioners serve on more than one commission and others have served more than an eight-year commission term, Councilmembers Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli are asking the council to approve a revision of the city code that would limit the time councilmembers serve on commissions and limit their service to one commission at a time. 

“It’s the best way to get people involved in city government,” said Councilmember Betty Olds. By imposing limits, “you get more people involved,” Olds said. 

There are some 40 commissions, most consisting of nine members, each appointed by a councilmember or the mayor. Currently, about 15 people sit on two commissions at once and a number of people have served on commissions more than eight years. (These people have gotten around the eight-year limit rule by quitting the commission after seven plus years, then getting reappointed to the commission a couple of months later.) 

However, there are 50 commission vacancies, according to Councilmember Kriss Worthington. 

Worthington argues that people such as Gene Poschman—serving on the Planning Commission from December 1996 until November 2004 and reappointed in April ‘05—bring institutional memory to their jobs. 

“Laurie’s [Laurie Capitelli] real motive is to stop people with land-use knowledge,” Worthington said, arguing that Capitelli wouldn’t care if someone serves both on the Child Care Commission and the Labor Commission. “It’s in land-use that it’s very important to have people who know what happened five or ten years ago,” Worthington said. 

Olds, however, said people like Poschman could stick around to give advice without being on the commission, underscoring that the reason behind the revision is “not to ‘get’ somebody.”  

While Worthington said it is hypocritical for councilmembers who do not support term-limiting themselves to support term limits for commissioners, Olds, in the middle of serving her third council term, said she supports a three-term limit for councilmembers. 

Capitelli did not return calls for comment on Monday. 

Winter Shelter 

The councilmembers are being asked to kick in an additional $7,000 for an emergency shelter program at the Oakland Army Base, the city’s share in rehabilitating a warehouse at the base used to shelter homeless Berkeley and Oakland residents during the winter months. The city’s winter shelter program will cost $156,979 if the $7,000 request is approved. 

Allston House funds 

The city is proposing a $789,546 loan to Affordable Housing Associates-managed Allston House, a 47-unit low-income housing apartment complex at 2121 Seventh St. to rehabilitate and acquire the property. But at least one Allston House resident says the city should do a better job of monitoring how the funds are spent.  

“We’re not getting the things we were promised,” said resident April Green, who wants to see better security and more experienced management.  

Councilmember Dona Spring said she would like the city to prepare a contract with AHA. “I want to see what the money is going for,” Spring said. 

No one answered the phones at Affordable Housing Associates on Monday. 

Moving the Roundabout  

The roundabout at the Gilman Street interchange at I-80 was planned a couple of years ago, but took some time for CalTrans to have the plans peer-reviewed. Due to the time lapse, CalTrans is requiring new documentation, including a new traffic volume analysis with a timeframe that extends to 2030 rather than 2025. CalTrans is involved because the roundabout is being built to redirect traffic from the freeway exit, as well traffic from Frontage Road, the racetrack and Gilman. 

A resolution on the council agenda calls for hiring a consultant for $77,649 to perform this analysis. 

“That’s typical CalTrans with its back and forth,” said Councilmember Linda Maio, in whose district the proposed roundabout is located. “It’s one of the more inefficient agencies we deal with.” 

In 2006, the city received $1.2 million federal funds earmarked for the Gilman roundabout. However, because of the increase in construction costs, “The earmarked federal funds and required local match will probably not be enough to construct the project,” according to a report written by Peter Hillier, the city’s assistant public works director. The city will request project funds from the Alameda County Congestion Management Authority, the report says. 

With members of the Oakland Unified School District’s powerless advisory board of trustees renewing their call for an immediate return to local control of the Oakland schools, incoming Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums used the platform of the joint city-school inauguration at the Paramount Theater last week to issue his strongest statement to date on the subject. 

“I want to tell the members of the school board that you are not hanging out there by yourself,” Dellums said to a packed inaugural audience and school board members sitting on the Paramount stage near the speaker’s stand. “Whenever democracy is interrupted, we should be nervous. We should be loud, boisterous, and active in supporting it. There has been an attack on public education that is like dropping a bomb on democracy. Public education and democracy go hand in hand. We are prepared to be partners with you in restoring both.” 

Oakland’s public schools were taken over by the state in 2003 following the district’s request to the state for a $100 million line of credit in the wake of a projected $50 million budget shortfall. The district’s schools have since been run by an administrator hired by California Superintendent for Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. 

There have been increasing calls in recent months for a return to local control of the city’s schools, with the latest effort a bill introduced by newly elected District 16 Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland), a former Dellums aide, for local school control in most areas of operation. 

Last summer, Dellums met privately with O’Connell to discuss the Oakland school situation as well as to voice his opposition to O’Connell’s controversial plans to sell 8.25 acres in downtown area property owned by the school district, including five schools and the district’s administrative headquarters. That sale proposal has been put on long-term hold while O’Connell continues private negotiations with an East Coast development partnership. 

Speaking at last week’s inauguration ceremonies, re-elected school board president David Kakishiba said that in “very fundamental ways,” the district was better off now than it was four years ago when the state assumed control. 

“We have established a balanced budget, and by the end of the year, we will have re-established our rainy day budget reserve,” Kakishiba said. “Last year we passed a $430 million bond measure that allocates money for critical construction needs. All across the board, we have had steady yet incremental gains in student test scores.” 

But Kakishiba said that in other ways, state control has seen the district take a significant downturn, in part because of the continued distruption of the school district. 

“We have had a tremendous loss of student population,” he said. “At the same time, over 60 percent of our students perform below grade level in math and English. Many of our young people have been lost to the streets, where they have lost their lives. Many more have had their spirits poisoned.” 

Kakishiba said that the time has come “to put a proper closure to state receivership.” In addition, in order to bring the district up to standard, he called for a longer school day and year for elementary students, “integrated careeer and college programs” in the high schools, increased compensation for district teachers, and “real relief from bureaucratic federal, state, and local regulations that have acted as roadblocks and stifled the ingenuity of our district to meet our responsibilities.” 

The OUSD board president said that with OUSD sponsoring one of the largest proliferations of charter schools in the state, with 7,000 students now enrolled in Oakland-based charters, “the charter school movement has now come full circle. The district’s publicly-run schools must now become competitive and beat the charter schools” in the drive to attract city students. “We must take on that challenge,” Kakishiba said. “We can’t bury our heads in the sand.” 

Other board members used the inaugural occasion to renew the call for local control. 

“We seek to restore local authority not because of power or personal pride, but because local schools are better run by a school board with authority that is accountable to the citizens,” re-elected board member Gary Yee said. 

And Christopher Dobbins, who replaced retiring trustee Dan Siegel on the board, said that “during my election campaign, I promised to bring back local control, and we’re going to do that.” 

Re-elected City Councilmember Jean Quan, a former school board member, also joined the local control chorus, saying in her inauguration speech that “we need to return to local control. We can make Oakland the Athens of America, just as the city’s Founding Fathers envisioned 100 years ago.” 

Carrying posters, placards and “No to Cell Phone Antennas” signs to the Zoning Adjustments Board meeting on Thursday, a group of South Berkeley residents questioned the need to construct a new wireless telecommunications facility that will host 18 cell phone antennas and related equipment atop the UC Storage Building at 2721 Shattuck Ave. 

A remand from the Berkeley City Council, the item has met huge opposition from area residents in the past who have cited concerns related to health, parking and loading docks. 

Neighbors fear that the radio frequency produced by telecom antennae could cause cancer and interfere with medical devices. 

“This is a storage facility, that is what it is meant for. How can the city of Berkeley just allow developers to get away like this,” said Ward Street resident Ellen McGovern, who has lived in the area for 16 years. “We do not need eighteen cell phone towers to give service to the hills,” she added. 

Nextel and Verizon, the applicants of the proposed project, have argued in letters to ZAB that the companies need the antennas in order to fill “holes” in their system. 

According to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, local governments are prohibited from rejecting wireless facilities based on health concerns as long as the stations conform to Federal Communication standards. 

Board members voted unanimously to continue the item to its Jan. 25 meeting, since staff requires additional time to finalize and report on a third-party engineering review of the project. 

Trader Joe’s Project 

The Trader Joe’s Project—also known as the Kragen’s Project—at 1885 University Ave., which will allow construction of a mixed-use development with 148 dwelling units, 14,390 square feet of retail, and 155 parking spaces in a two level parking garage, once again came up at the ZAB meeting on Thursday.  

At the Dec. 14 meeting, the board closed the public hearing, voted to approve the project and instructed staff to prepare revised findings for the board to adopt. 

Staff reported that the findings had been revised to “address the board’s direction that the findings reflect the superior design and benefits of the 148-unit project as proposed, rather than simply as an acceptable alternative to the 183-unit project.” 

The staff also reported the revised condition regarding construction hours which states that construction would be limited to between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Certain construction activities, such as the placement of concrete, would be performed in a continuous manner and could require an extension of the work hours. 

The project would also not be allowed more than 10 extended working days, and at least a week’s notice would be provided to the Zoning Officer and the residents of all properties within 500 feet of the project site when construction activity will exceed the designated hours. 

The board also voted to modify an existing condition on parking according to language supplied by area resident Stephen Wollmer. 

The modified condition states that the “residents of the project shall not be permitted to participate in the City’s Residential Parking Permit program.”  

The board approved a use permit for beer and wine sales at Trader Joe’s, independent of the Alcohol and Beverage Control (ABC) license. 

The ZAB voted on the findings and the conditions and the amendments proposed. 

Wright’s Garage Building 

Berkeley Developer John Gordon appeared in front of the ZAB to request a use permit for the conversion of an existing commercial building (The Wright’s Garage Building) into a multi-tenant commercial building at 2629-2635 Ashby Ave. 

The proposed project is in the Elmwood District just west of the College and Ashby intersection. It consists of a two-story commercial structure (17,045 square feet with mezzanine) with one apartment unit (1,150 square feet) on the second floor, above the commercial space. 

“The building has been on the market for a little over a year now,” Gordon told board members. “It’s difficult trying to get people to come down the street.” 

Commissioner Rick Judd asked Gordon if he had specific tenants in mind, to which Gordon replied no, adding that he had a tenant mix in mind. “I need some ability to plan this development. Without some ability to extend the quotas it’s difficult to get people to move there,” Gordon said. 

Residents of Willard and the Bateman Mall neighborhood said that there would be serious problems if the ZAB approved the permit before knowing what kind of businesses would move in there. 

David Salk, president of the Elmwood Theater, said that the development would mean an opportunity for the neighborhood but cited concerns about parking that could mar the success of the revived Elmwood theater. 

“People who come to the theater already find it too difficult to park,” he said. “We don’t oppose the project but want the ZAB to recognize the important issues.” George Beier, president of the Willard Neighborhood Association, also stated that parking was the main concern of area residents. 

Some area residents said that they would prefer a small restaurant that would close by 11 p.m. 

“We have got an old building which has been out of the loop of usage,” declared ZAB Commissioner Bob Allen. “ A lot of the comments we are hearing have to do with the major impacts from the restaurant. We need staff to do a simple study of the building.” 

The board voted unanimously to continue the item to the next ZAB meeting. 

Supporters of the warm water pool are getting ready to assert the importance of saving the pool, now located in Berkeley High School’s old gymnasium building, at the School Board meeting on Wednesday. 

At Wednesday’s meeting, the board will vote on approving a resolution to accept a Berkeley High School environmental impact report (EIR), which includes the site of the current warm water pool. It will also vote on the BHS South of Bancroft Project. 

If the EIR is approved, construction can begin on the South of Bancroft Project. 

Although voters approved funding to rehab the warm pool in 2000, the school district has since made tentative plans to demolish the pool and the building that houses it and build another structure on the site, with other more tentative plans to allow the city to construct a new warm pool and lockers on a site across Milvia Street from the current one. 

The BHS South of Bancroft project includes tearing down the old gym and building a combination of classrooms and exercise rooms. The stadium on the football field will be rebuilt and the parking lot inside the grounds will be torn down, with the resulting space used only for athletic purposes thereafter. 

According to BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan, the part of the gymnasium which houses the warm water pool will not be affected until the last phase of construction. “That will give time to pool users to keep using the facility until the city comes up with a bond to help rebuild it,” Coplan said.  

The Warm Pool Committee, which will be present at the meeting Wednesday, has received a copy of the final EIR which was commissioned by the Berkeley Unified School District. Committee members say they have been disappointed by the district’s attitude toward their concerns. 

Other matters 

The board will also vote to approve the recommendation of the surplus committee for the BUSD-owned Hillside Committee. Hillside, one of the first schools built in Berkeley, was closed down because it was built on an earthquake fault. According to state law, schools can be built near earthquake faults, but not on them. 

BUSD has been renting the property to a Montessori school for the last 15 years. The lease on the current property currently runs month to month. In order to create a longer contract, BUSD is required to go through a surplus process. 

The board will also review and vote to accept an Independent Audit Report and Financial Statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, which will be presented by Vavrinek Trine Day & Co.  

The board will also receive the 2005-06 Student Assignment Plan report on Wednesday.  

In 2006, the BUSD Student Assignment Plan came under attack when the Pacific Legal Foundation charged BUSD with a lawsuit which charged the school district with “violating California’s Proposition 209 by using race as a factor to determine where students are assigned to public schools and to determine whether they gain access to special educational programs.” 

The board will also approve a proposal by the South Berkeley Community Mural Project to place murals along the fence at Malcolm X Elementary School. The South Berkeley Senior Story Project will depict the history of the people of South Berkeley. 

The demand for new Berkeley housing embodied in tentative plans of regional government “boggles even the most ardent smart-growther’s mind,” Mark Rhoades warned last week. 

As the city’s planning manager, Rhoades is a favorite target of opponents of what planners call smart-growth philosophy, which emphasizes new housing growth within existing cities, typically along transit corridors. 

The figures Rhoades was citing to members of the city Planning Commission were those embodied in draft guidelines prepared by the Association of Bay Area Government (ABAG). 

That draft calls for Berkeley to add 2,712 new housing units over the next seven years, compared to the goal of 1,269 ABAG had imposed for 1999-2006. 

“We are continuing to work with ABAG on this, and we’ll continue to do so over the next few months,” Rhoades said. 

“400 units a year over the next seven years is quite a bit,” said Commissioner James Samuels. “The most we ever had was 150.” 

While the quotas are rarely met, a significant failure to come close can result in the reduction or loss of critical state funds. 

Marks said another complicating factor would be the unwillingness of many residential neighborhoods to accept significant increases in density—which would then place most of the burden for new units along major transit corridors (about 40 percent of the total) and in the downtown (another 30 percent).  

“Can you imagine the political pressure if we tried to double the number in the neighborhoods,” he asked. “We are going to have to put very, very high numbers in the downtown and along the BART corridor.” 

Another complicating factor for adding units along BART is the lack of high-density zoning around the North Berkeley BART station and the mobilization of angry neighbors over plans to place a high-density project on the Ashby BART station’s main parking lot. 

BART is also a major factor in Berkeley’s higher quota, Rhoades said, because the state—which sets the criteria for local government—is steering the regional agencies toward siting new housing “on significant infrastructure like BART.” 

Rhoades said the city’s greatest concentration of jobs in downtown and in West Berkeley, and the three possible options are no density increase, a moderate change and a significant increase by building 10-story mid-rise housing buildings in the downtown area. Another problem is the need for very low- and low-income housing, said Rhoades. 

Because of lack of funds, one way to increase the number of units for lower income residents is by approving projects for market-rate tenants, which are required either to include units for rent or sale of lower-income tenants or to pay fees that can be used to provide new or renovated housing elsewhere in the city. 

But while the city has been able to fulfill its market-rate quotas, units for residents who make less than 80 percent of the area’s median income haven’t kept pace. Neither has housing for so-called moderate-income tenants, those earning between 80 and 120 percent of the median. 

One of the reasons for the lack of moderate housing is that builders get bigger density bonuses—they’re allowed to create even bigger buildings—if they include units for the low and very low income categories. “The moderates get short-changed,” Rhoades said. 

Berkeley has fulfilled 80 percent of its goals for very low income tenants and about 60 percent for the low income category—but only about 30 percent of the moderate income quota. 

However Commissioner Gene Poschman called the moderate category “a shuck. It goes to 120 percent a year. In some ways, moderate is above market rate.” 

Commissioner Susan Wengraf asked if any city had ever met its ABAG goals. 

“Emeryville,” said Rhoades, “but we’re close to meeting our overall goals.”  

Today (Tuesday) at 5 p.m. a Police Review Commission subcommittee will take its first look at recommendations from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, the organization that reviewed how Berkeley Police deal with their drug evidence. 

The police chief requested the report after former Berkeley Police Sergeant Cary Kent pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the locked evidence vault he was supposed to be guarding. 

This will be the PRC’s first look at the commission report. Andrea Prichett of Copwatch lauded the report that recommends separating those that guard the evidence from the police who collect it.  

“I’m still interested in talking about the failure of the department administration” in the Kent case, said Prichett, who will sit with PRC members on the subcommittee. 

The meeting will be held at 1947 Center St., third floor, Tupelo Conference Room. 

Members of two city panels will gather Wednesday to discuss the fate of downtown Berkeley’s historic buildings. 

A joint meeting of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) and the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will consume the first part of the meeting, after which the LPC will leave and DAPAC alone will consider options for the future of Center Street. 

A joint subcommittee of the two bodies has been meeting since August to develop recommendations for the new Downtown Area Plan mandated in the settlement of the city’s lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s plans for downtown expansion. 

The university’s Long Range Development Plan 2020 proposes the addition of 800,000 square feet of university uses in the city center, and the city filed suit on the ground that the university’s Environmental Impact Report failed to provide adequate documentation of and mitigations for the resulting impacts on the city. 

The new plan covers a larger area than the existing downtown plan, and includes many buildings which have either been declared official city landmarks or are considered potentially eligible for landmark status.  

Wednesday night’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way, with the joint meeting scheduled to begin 15 minutes later. 

Following the joint meeting, DAPAC’s own Center Street Subcommittee will ask its parent body to approve their recommendations for development of the block of the thoroughfare between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

That block draws the heaviest pedestrian traffic in the city, drawing both on the university at the eastern end and the BART station and related mass transit access at the western end. 

It will also house two major university-endorsed projects, the projected 19-story hotel, condo and conference center complex at the Shattuck end and the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive building at the Oxford Street end. 

The subcommittee is urging DAPAC to call for closing Center to traffic “in a way that does not degrade transit service quality” while maximizing open space for pedestrians and the disabled and adding amenities including foliage, benches and public art. 

Hotel architects have designed the auto entrance to the complex on Shattuck in anticipating a street closing. 

While the subcommittee decided against calling for a full-scale “daylighting” of the now buried Strawberry Creek along this block of Center, some members have called for using some of the flow to provide a “water feature” for the pedestrianized streetscape.

The newly reconstituted Peralta Board of Trustees faces an old controversy—facilities bond money spending—when it meets for the first time in the new year tonight (Tuesday) in the library of the College of Alameda. But one of the trustees who helped delay close to $15 million in Measure A material and equipment requests during a contentious December board meeting believes that the matter will now go more smoothly this time around. 

“We’re making improvement in the process,” Trustee Nicky Gonzalez Yuen said in a telephone interview this week. “It’s just going to take us a while to get on track” with what the trustee called “proper planning and documentation of spending requests.” 

District voters approved the $390 million Measure A bond last June. 

On Tuesday night, trustees are being asked to approve $14.8 million in Measure A money spread out among the district’s four colleges and “for the procurement of instructional equipment, furniture, computers, ADA-compliant equipment, and library materials.” 

Tuesday’s request is some $1.2 million less than was requested last December, with the significant reduction coming from Berkeley City College’s request (now down to $700,000 from the $1.6 million requested last month). All of the other college requests have been slightly reduced except for Merritt College, which slightly increased its request by $1,600 to $5.3 million. 

When the four college presidents and district administrators put in their request for $21 million in Measure A equipment money last December, trustees turned down all but $5 million of the request on a 4-3 vote, with trustees on the prevailing side requesting more documentation before releasing the remaining money. The issue sparked one of the sharpest trustee meeting debates of the year, with Marcie Hodge accusing fellow trustees of “micro-managing,” Laney College Faculty Senate President Shirley Coaston saying that faculty members at her college “have cynicism about how this money is going to be spent,” and both Hodge and trustee Linda Handy walking out of the meeting before it ended. 

Hodge, Handy, and Bill Riley supported allocating the full $21 million, while Yuen, Cy Gulassa, and newly installed board president Bill Withrow supported the motion to send back the remaining $16 million for further documentation. The swing vote in the decision was provided by Abel Guillen, who defeated two-term incumbent trustee Alona Clifton in last November’s elections. 

Yuen, who recently replaced Riley as head of the board’s Facilities And Land Use Planning Committee, now downplays the controversy. 

Referring to the 73 pages of staff-generated backup documents that he had cited as “inadequate” last December, Yuen said this week that he believed it was “nobody’s intention to deceive or hide the expenditures. Staff is overworked, and they’re perpetually trying to catch up. They’re busy plugging all of the leaks in the system, so when you ask them for documentation and information, they often simply don’t have time for it.” Yuen also said that district staff may also have been reacting to past district policies where extensive reports and recommendations were written, but then shelved. “There’s a reticence to working on new reports when staff members think those are going to be ignored, as well,” Yuen said. 

Yuen, who was a persistent critic of the way Peralta spent the Measure E construction bond money that preceded the Measure A facilities bond, and who criticized the Measure A project list as “a slush fund” when it was approved by trustees last February for placement on the ballot, says while he doesn’t “want to hold up bond money spending for immediate and critical needs, I don’t want us to do a whole lot of spending until we develop a proper spending plan integrated with an overall policy plan.” 

The district has been working on an Educational Master Plan which Yuen says is expected to come before trustees sometime in the fall, and is expected to guide the overall development of the district. Trustees and district officials hope to that the Educational Master Plan process will turn debate within the district from financial affairs and various controversies to setting educational goals for the district. 

“Once that plan is in place,” Yuen said, “the board can begin setting bond spending priorities that are tied to the district’s strategic goals, rather than simply coming to us as individual expenditure requests.” 

Meanwhile, glitches in the public information process continue to plague Peralta. Backup materials for the request were not included in the regular trustee meeting agenda packet mailed out to reporters prior to the meeting. A memorandum on the Measure A request signed by Peralta Vice Chancellor for General Services Sadiq Ikharo noted that “detailed backup information to this report is available at the Peralta website. Though “Measure A Instructional & Furniture Needs Allocations 2006-2007” appears on a link from Peralta’s General Services Department webpage, no documents were available online as of Monday afternoon. 

A list of Measure A bond projects was pulled from the General Services website last year after the Daily Planet reported significant discrepancies in the list. Peralta trustee meetings are currently being held in colleges throughout the district while the district’s boardroom is undergoing extensive renovation work. 

A second community meeting about the East Campus playing fields was held Thursday to give residents another chance to comment on the plan to possibly close Derby Street for the installation of a regulation-size high school baseball field and the proposal to keep the street open with the “curvy Derby plan,” which would bend the street to accomodate the field. 

Michael Parenti, a neighbor of the proposed development, proposed that the school district should alter the dimensions of the baseball field to keep the street open. 

“You could have a baseball field if you move home plate up 15 feet,” said Parenti. “It would save money, leave Derby open, and would prevent taking trees out from King CDC’s space.” 

Doug Fielding, chairman of the Association of Field Users, responded, “You have to have a 315 feet field to have a home game on the field. Otherwise, the team can’t play.” 

Peter Waller, co-architect of the Curvy Derby plan, presented the plan to the audience, many of whom were not present at the last community meeting. He reiterated that two-thirds of Derby would stay the same, but the last third would curve through the space currently occupied by King CDC. 

Waller further explained, “I live on Carleton. Our block is currently 70 feet wide, much wider than necessary to accommodate two-lane traffic. This plan would extend the field 30 feet into the 1900 block of Carleton.” 

Betsy Thaggard, a member of the East Campus Neighborhood Association (ECNA), an association of neighbors surrounding the proposed playing fields, presented a list of 12 conditions that must be met for the fields to have its support. 

These conditions include integrating community input prior to an enivronmental impact report, keeping the Derby Street famers’ market on the site, banning field lights and loudspeakers, limiting hours of operation, maintaining the field and building restrooms. 

School Board Member John Selawsky, who attended the meeting, commented on the conditions, “I think most of them are reasonable. I’m torn on the issue of providing public bathrooms. Not only is the initial cost high, but the maintenance is high too. If it isn’t well maintained, it could create a public nuisance. I think this issue needs a comprehensive public discussion.” 

Victor Diaz, principal at B-Tech, across the street from the field, raised concerns about what aspects of the field will be tossed out by the board when money is not available. 

“Prioritizing of what gets built on the site is important to me,” said Diaz. “For example, the baseketball court won’t be built in phase one. Basketball courts are important to our students.” 

Fielding responded, “The likely thing they will phase out are restrooms like at the Gilman fields. The next thing would be perimeter landscaping. I think you are going to have a hard time saying you can’t build a field unless you have restrooms.” 

These conditions caused a small debate over whether they were realistic or whether they had already been agreed to previously. 

Mark Coplan, public information officer for the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD), reiterated that if people want a field to be built and most of these conditions met that there needs to be a big fundraising drive. 

“The field is going to have to be put in phases,” said Coplan, arguing against one of ECNA’s condition. “The district does not have the money to build a field at this point. We have to do some major fundraising. By the time the money is raised, we might not have enough money to do everything, because the cost will go up. It will definitely have to be phased in.” 

Selawsky thought that whether the conditions will be agreed to is up to the board. 

“I thought it was premature,” said Selawsky.”Mark [Coplan] is not a policy maker. I don’t think he should be negotiating this publicly. The board makes the decision.” 

Coplan responded, “I was merely giving my opinion on the conditions.” 

The school board will take up this issue at their Feb. 21 meeting, which starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Oakland’s original designation as the “Athens of the Pacific”—favorably comparing the city’s education system to that of the legendary Mediterranean civilization—was clearly somewhat different from Oakland Councilmember Jean Quan’s stated vision for a quality public school system. 

In her 1982 volume on Oakland’s history, Oakland, The Story of a City, historian Beth Bagwell noted that “from about 1860 until the turn of the [20th] century, Oakland claimed the title of ‘the Athens of the Pacific’ because of its schools.” 

However, Bagwell noted that at the time “this was not because of the public schools, however. It was because of the large number of private schools that attracted boarding pupils from all over the West and even Hawaii.” 

“Not everybody went to school,” in Oakland in the late 1800’s, Bagwell wrote. “Free public education was not yet the law, and there were plenty of people who did not believe in it. Others who wanted their children to go to school were turned away because of the overcrowding. Even in the 1890s, thousands of Oakland children had no school at all.” 

Bagwell concluded that while “Oakland, probably, deserved its early reputation as ‘the Athens of the Pacific’” because of the proliferation of quality private schools in the city during the late 1800’s, “it is well to remember that in Athens, too, the glory belonged to the fortunate few in contrast to the lot of the forgotten many.” 

Less than a day after an Oakland judge refused to order the eviction of protesters at the Memorial Stadium tree-in, UC Berkeley police staged a pre-dawn raid Friday, evicting supporters of the tree-dwellers and leveling their encampment. 

There were no arrests. 

Shortly after 6 a.m., “about 10” uniformed officers swooped in, backed up by two front-end loaders, a stake-bed truck a dump truck and campus building and grounds workers. 

Giving the protesters less than three minutes to move out, officers surrounded the scene with crime scene tape and the protesters made frantic calls to supporters. 

“It’s a public safety issue,” said Mitch Celaya, the department’s assistant chief. “We’re trying to get things back to normal before students return.” 

As campus workers in yellow vests gathered up scattered belongings and leveled the shelters which had housed the ground support volunteers who were helping the six protesters camped out in the branches overhead a growing crowd of demonstrators briefly broke into a chant:  

“Thieves! Thieves! Thieves in the Night. 

“The trees aren’t going down without a fight.” 

Another supporter called out, “Hang in there, tree people.” 

Another passer-by was less supportive, saying, “Get out of the trees, guys. Oak trees are everywhere in California.” 

At least six volunteers were camped out on the ground when the police staged their predawn raid, including Richard Goodreau, who was asleep under a plastic tarp and missed by the officers on their initial search. 

“I heard yelling and I peeked out, and they had already driven everybody else out. So I gathered all my stuff and quietly stuffed my sleeping bag into my pack and ran down the hill,” he said. 

Others weren’t so lucky, including one volunteer who lost a personal computer and another who said he lost prescription medications. 

An officer told them their possessions could be reclaimed later after they’d been booked into evidence—as long as they could prove they owned them. 

Celaya said the material was being taken into evidence, but the material wasn’t tagged or marked as is usually the case at crime scenes, nor was any effort made to keep items separate. 

The raid came on the year’s coldest morning and on the day of the sixth week since former mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf began the protest by climbing into the branches of a redwood before dawn on Big Game Saturday. 

After sitting out a seven-day stay-away order Running Wolf was back in the redwood Friday—the day after a judge refused to give campus attorneys permission to chop it down. 

Doug Buckwald, who is coordinating support for the protesters, said a rally is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday (today) at the site. 

The tree-in is being staged to protest university plans to chop down a grove of California Live Oaks, the redwood and other trees to make way for a four-story, $125 million gym complex along the stadium’s western wall. 

Four lawsuits have been filed by the city and private organizations challenging university development plans in the area, and another suit is being planned—this one alleging civil rights violations in the Friday morning raid, said Buckwald.  

Photograph by Richard Brenneman. 

Two UC Berkeley workers dump the remains of the shelter that once housed protesters at the stadium grove into a front-end loader after campus police raded the site before dawn Friday, evicting protestors and destroying their encampment.

The battle between developers and Berkeley preservationists appears to be headed back to the ballot box. 

Foes of a developer-backed City Council revision of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) turned in 5,947 signatures Thursday on petitions to freeze implementation of the new law pending a public vote. 

The signature drive, backed by many of the same activists who failed in November to win voter endorsement of a rival ordinance designed to update the existing LPO, culminated Thursday afternoon when activists presented the petitions to City Clerk Pamyla C. Means. 

“We’re just totally, totally happy,” said Julie Dickinson, one of the two chairs of the signature drive. “We pulled a lot of people together, and we’re very pleased that so many people signed.” 

The petitions included 1,816 more signatures than the required 4,092, a figure based on the required 10 percent of the turnout in the last mayoral election. 

In November, 40,914 Berkeleyans voted in the race in which incumbent Mayor Tom Bates handily defeated four other foes by capturing 62.8 percent of the vote. Those same voters rejected measure J by a 57-43 percent margin. 

After Dickinson and her allies handed over the petitions, Means said, “We’re doing a prima facie examination now, and if it is passes, we’ll deliver them to the Registrar of Voters tomorrow. They’ll have 30 days to verify them.” 

The county registrar is required to examine a minimum of 3 percent of the signatures to determine if they were made by eligible Berkeley voters. 

Asa Dodsworth, a neighborhood activist who worked on the campaign, said the referendum supporters had aimed to gather at least 20 percent more than the required figure to make up for signers who might be rejected. 

Dickinson said the campaign relied on a core group of about a dozen activists. “They brought in their friends, so the effort was dispersed, like a spider’s web,” she said. 

Under Article XV of the City Charter, voters can block enforcement of a City Council ordinance if they gather the needed signatures within 30 days after the council’s last vote on the ordinance. 

The measure is then stayed until the next regularly scheduled statewide general or special election. The next California primary will be held in June 2008 followed by a general election in November. 

Means said that City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque has also said that the City Council could call a special election on its own. 

Referendum backers fear the new law, sponsored by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, will pave the way for neighborhood-changing demolitions. 

The most controversial aspect of the mayor’s ordinance is the Request for Determination, or RFD. 

That procedure allows a property owner to demand an LPC decision either to landmark the property or to decline to make that designation. Failure to designate would give the owner a two-year exemption from any further landmarking efforts. 

Developers say the measure is needed because landmarking has been used by neighborhood activists to block projects that would otherwise be allowed by city codes. 

Critics charge that by granting the exemption before a project is floated, neighbors are stripped of a crucial tool to block projects that will alter their communities and destroy crucial neighborhood landmarks. 

The new ordinance does include the structure of merit category, which developers had wanted out because designations of less-pristine buildings had been used to delay and, in one case, block projects. 

Developer appeals to overturn structure of merit designations raised after projects had been proposed were granted by city councilmembers in recent cases, but the delay in the case of one project at 2901 Otis St. led developers to abandon the project even though they had won a favorable council vote. 

If the signatures are valid and a referendum is held, the vote will be all-or-none—either voters accept or reject the new law in its entirety. 

Any effort to challenge only parts of the law, specifically the RFD, was blocked by a last-minute change of language that made it unseverable—a referendum could not be used to stop only part of it. 

Measure J was defeated in an election in which the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee served as a conduit for large sums of developer money that targeted the measure and the two city councilmembers most critical of development projects, Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington.

Black Oak Books is up for sale and could close as soon as this summer if no buyer is found.  

If the owners decide to renew the lease, they said it will likely mean an end of author book readings at the store and a reduced staff. 

A sign on the independent bookstore’s website informs visitors that the Berkeley store at 1491 Shattuck Ave., as well as the 630 Irving St. store in San Francisco, have been put up for sale. 

“Yes, Black Oak Books is for sale but we haven’t decided what to do yet. We have a lease coming up for renewal on June 30, 2008, which we may or may not renew. But we are looking into all the possibilities,” said Don Pretari, one of the co-owners of Black Oak. 

Known for keeping many rare and signed first edition and out-of print titles, Black Oak has offered an eclectic selection of “new, used and antiquarian” books to Bay Area readers for more than two decades. 

Pretari said that the business has suffered heavy losses in the last few years and blamed slow foot traffic, the rise of the Internet and big chain bookstores. 

He added that the owners were required to inform the landlord about not renewing the lease a year in advance and that was why the search for possible investors in the store started in January. 

“We have a choice of renewing our lease in June and carrying on. We would probably have to bring about some organizational changes but we will try and keep the essence of the store as what it is, a general scholarly new-and-used book store.” 

Pretari said the organizational changes could include lay-offs and getting rid of readings. 

“The events at the bookstore are free,” he said. “True that it brings in people who buy our books but we don’t get any financial assistance for hosting book readings. It’s more like a community service and we are losing money because of it.” 

Store hours would also be reduced from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. to 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Pretari said that the selection of books at the store would not change. 

“I am committed to selling the kind of books that we are selling right now,” he said. “I am not interested in selling other kinds of books at Black Oak.” 

Bob Brown, one of the partners of Black Oaks, echoed Pretari’s thoughts and said it was becoming harder and harder to run the independent bookstore. Pertari, Brown, Herb Bivins and Jeanne Baldock opened Black Oak Books in 1983 and have operated the bookstore together since then. 

“Black Oaks is still viable as a bookstore but it’s becoming increasingly harder to be successful,” Pretari said. “I am getting tired of it. One of my partners is 68 years old. He could easily retire. We once had lucrative health plans at the store which we had to end.” 

The second option the owners have decided on is to sell the store to someone who would want to invest in it before the lease ran out. 

Pretari and Brown said that it was difficult to zero in on an exact figure for the price of the store but added that so far they had five responses from interested parties. 

The current lease on the bookstore is for $16,000 per month. 

“We hope the buyer continues to run Black Oaks as an independent bookstore, but in the end what they do with it is up to them,” said Pretari. 

The last option would be not to renew the lease and to close down the business between July 2007 to July 2008.  

When asked if Black Oak’s customers had been disappointed by the news, Pretari talked about the lack of supportive customers. 

“We have had a lot of valuable customers in the last 23 years, but the important question to ask today is that are there enough people who value this kind of business? Far too many people are using the bookstore just as a showroom. They come in and browse the titles but when it comes to buying them from the store, they prefer getting the discounted versions either online or somewhere else.” 

With Cody’s Books on Telegraph Avenue going out of business in July, Black Oak Books could become the second independent bookstore in Berkeley to close if its owners decide that they do not want to continue with the business. 

Pretari said that if the community really cared about independent book stores going out of business, not enough was being done to show that. 

“Large publishers have also become extremely tough to deal with. They are not as lenient with credit or payment of bills as they used to be,” he said. 

At a recent meeting about the North Shattuck Plaza in October, an employee from Black Oak books had expressed concern about the Plaza taking away parking spaces and decreasing foot traffic.  

Pretari added that although plans for the plaza had not been responsible for the current situation, the plaza would not help the store.

After months of conflict with Berkeley’s Zoning Ordinance and some neighbors, the Milo Foundation has decided to close the doors at its 1575 Solano Ave. pet adoption store on June 1 and move to another location. 

News of the closure was posted on the Milo Foundation website Tuesday morning and visitors are being greeted by a similar message displayed on their store window. 

“We have told city officials that we won’t have any dogs in the store as of June 1,” Lynne Tingle, founder and director of the Milo Foundation, said Tuesday. 

Tingle added that although they were closing down the Solano Avenue location, the pet store was not going to disappear. 

Milo first approached the Zoning Adjustments Board in September 2006 to authorize the animal adoption agency’s continued use and plans for 1575 Solano Ave. and 1572 Capistrano Ave. 

According to the proposal, the exterior changes would have been limited to a new door, window and landscaping on the Capistrano facade and a new driveway gate, open space, and new windows on the Solano facade.  

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

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque deemed the adoption store’s current use a “kennel” under the zoning ordinance in November—something that is prohibited on Solano Avenue.  

An amendment to the zoning ordinance governing pet adoption facilities was being considered by the City of Berkeley Planning Department in November, but nothing further has been done since then. 

“After Manuela Albuquerque called us a ‘kennel’ instead of a ‘pet store,’ it made the business illegal under the current zoning ordinance,” Tingle said. “Albuquerque hasn’t backed down from her ruling and with the innumerable restrictions that are being imposed on us, it’s becoming very difficult to carry on.” 

She said, “We can’t overnight dogs and we can’t take them out to the backyard. We weren’t able to do any of the improvements on the building we had hoped to do so far. We could go on fighting the city and the neighbors for a year and a half, and we’d probably win, but I think that’s distancing us from the real mission, which is rescuing animals.” 

Tingle said that the foundation would be looking at one or two locations in a commercial district that had open space and would allow overnighting of dogs.  

“We are looking at Emeryville, El Cerrito and Marin but we are not ruling out Berkeley either,” she said. “We have made lots of friends in the city, in the Berkeley City Council, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) and the City Planning Department and that means a lot to us.”  

The news has shocked friends of Milo in Berkeley who have sent dozens of e-mails to the foundation calling the decision a loss for Solano Avenue and Berkeley. 

ZAB commissioner Dave Blake said that it was unfortunate that the Milo pet store backyard was in a residential neighborhood. 

“They had a bad history with the neighborhood and although they did a lot to clean up their act, it wasn’t really helping the situation,” Blake said. “There’s a hole in our ordinance that doesn’t allow us to deal in a normal fashion with pet stores that deal in dogs. The existing ordinance only covers dog boarding which we call kenneling and that is not allowed in their district. It’s lamentable because they perform such a valuable service.” 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, in whose district the Milo adoption store is located, told the Planet that although he was sorry to see Milo leave Solano, it had been a difficult fit for that particular commercial district. 

“It wasn’t just a pet store. It was a hybrid,” he said. “It wasn’t just puppies and kittens, it was adult dogs and cats that were living there and there was no place to walk the dogs. I don’t think Milo thought of some of the difficulties and challenges they would have to face at that location. The neighbors had some serious concerns and I don’t think they could have been addressed.” 

Capitelli added that he hoped the decision to close down would not damage Milo in the long run. 

Michael Sandroff, a Solano resident and a member of the Solano Avenue Neighborhood Association—a group that has protested against Milo’s operations—told the Planet that the news had taken most of the neighbors by surprise. 

“It alleviates the problem for us but it definitely wasn’t what we had expected to happen,” Sandroff said. “However, we respect the decision.” 

He added that the inherent problem some SANA members had had with Milo was that the organization had wanted to have a large number of animals in the store. 

“The noise and smell impacted us greatly,” Sandroff said. “Legally, businesses on Solano Avenue are not supposed to have an impact on the neighborhood. In fact, none of the other businesses do.”

With a tentative date for a hearing on an injunction to impose a freeze on UC Berkeley construction plans at Memorial Stadium set for Jan. 23, attorneys were negotiating Thursday to define terms for an interim agreement. 

Meanwhile, the tree-in protest by opponents of the university’s plans to fell a stand of native Coastal Live Oaks next to the stadium entered its 42nd day today (Friday). 

In a ruling issued Tuesday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ordered consolidation of three of the four lawsuits challenging the $300 million-plus in UC Berkeley development projects planned at and near the stadium. 

A second hearing Thursday morning ended with the county court’s Presiding Judge George Hernandez setting the Jan. 23 hearing before Judge Barbara Miller in the court’s Hayward Branch. 

Attorney Stephan Volker, who represents the California Oaks Foundation, said the judge rejected a request by UC Berkeley attorneys to issue a court order demanding the removal of protesters who are camped out in the branches on trees slated for demolition if the projects are approved. 

“They wanted to be able to erect a fence around the trees and to remove a redwood tree and to announce the contract for removal of the trees,” Volker said. “They want all the protesters out of there.” 

The tree-in has drawn national media attention, most recently with a major article in Thursday’s USA Today. 

The redwood in question is the current abode of Zachary Running Wolf, the former Berkeley mayoral candidate who launched the tree-in Dec. 2 by ascending the branches of a redwood in the grove adjacent to Memorial Stadium’s western wall. 

The activist was cited last month and ordered off-campus for a week, but he returned last week and reclimbed the redwood—where he is currently one of a half-dozen protesters inhabiting the foliage of the grove. 

It is that same tree the university asked Judge Hernandez for permission to ax. 

“They also asked for permission to prune the trees, and we’re negotiating that,” Volker said.  

“I’m still here,” Running Wolf said Thursday afternoon, speaking by cell phone from his plywood platform high up in the threatened redwood. 

Told that the university had singled out his perch for destruction, the activist replied, “Of course. They know it’s our power base.” 

As attorneys for the City of Berkeley, the Panoramic Hill Association and the California Oaks Foundation negotiate with university officials, the protesters are continuing to organize. 

UC Berkeley students from Lothlorien Hall, a vegetarian coop at 2405 Prospect St., have joined the protest are occupying one of the six trees. 

“We are hoping to get more coops involved, and we are going to be organizing among students when they return on the 15th,” Running Wolf said. 

The protesters have also strung lines between five of the six trees they occupy that will allow quick traverses from one tree to another if university officials attempt to remove them from the branches, Running Wolf said. 

“We’re really excited. We want to used the protest as an educational tool for understanding the importance of trees in the environment and the need to preserve old growth,” he said. 

While the media’s attention has been drawn to the arboreal environmentalists, more pragmatic concerns have driven the city’s lawsuit, which charges that the university failed to consider all of the environmental impacts of a set of projects that will cost at least $330 million and result in massive loads of outgoing excavated earth and incoming building materials on crowded city streets.  

Another concern is the impact on city emergency services and surrounding neighborhoods in the event of a disaster affecting projects built on or near the Hayward Fault, rated by federal geologists as the likeliest site of the next major Bay Area earthquake. 

All of the suits allege the university violated both the California Environmental Quality Act and the Alquist Priolo Act, which governs construction on active faults. 

A fourth suit, relying on similar grounds, was filed by fans of Tightwad Hill, the slope above the stadium where fans watch games for free. Volker said he expects that action to be joined with the others. 

Levelling the grove is the crucial first step to develop the first of the university Southeast Campus Integrated Projects—construction of a 132,500-square-foot, four-story gym and office complex demanded by Cal Bears football coach Jeff Tedford before he would accept a seven-figure contract to coach what had been a losing team. 

Another demand, for renovations of the stadium itself, is slated to occur later in the course of the projects.

The war over Berkeley’s architectural legacy, waged at the polls in November and in the current referendum effort, continues on another front in the struggle to create a new downtown plan. 

Just what role should historic buildings play in a city center being shaped, in part, by the increasingly heavy hand of a powerful and expanding university? 

That question has dominated the meetings of a small committee formed to advise the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) about the role of historic buildings in the new plan. 

Comprised of members of DAPAC and the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the subcommittee has been preparing the first comprehensive review of downtown’s historical heritage in more than a decade. 

As the chief player in the downtown development game, UC Berkeley is funding DAPAC as a condition of the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the institution’s Long Range Development Plan 2020—or LRDP. 

The perimeters of downtown planning were expanded over those of the earlier 1990 plan, largely to encompass the scope of the university’s plans to occupy an additional 800,000 square feet of off-campus space in the city’s core. 

One key issue that emerged early on is the future of downtown’s array of buildings erected before World War II, some by well known local architects. And while Berkeley voters may have minimal regard for “old buildings,” the citizen commissioners and committee members appointed by the officials they elect seem to value preservation. 

Matt Taecker, the planner hired by the city—with university funds—to manage the planning process conceded as much during a recent DAPAC meeting. 

Subcommittee members early on rejected the city’s planned approach to the subject—a quick survey followed by a collection of individual reports on 30 buildings—and insisted on a more detailed survey without the 30 reports. 

Unlike many city meetings where public comment is tightly controlled and limited to two- or three-minute pitches, the subcommittee has opened itself to a free-flowing dialog with the handful of community members who attend its sessions in an upstairs room of the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

“This has been a pretty free dialogue,” said chair Steven Winkel, “an interchange without being a free-for-all.” 

As a result, the city-commissioned survey has gradually emerged as a cooperative effort, with the key players being subcommittee members, the city-hired consultants from Architectural Resources Group (ARG) of San Francisco and local preservationists, most notably John English, a retired planner who has emerged as Berkeley’s leading preservation policy wonk. 

A diminutive man with unruly hair and a matching full white beard, English sits in the audience, offering frequent, polite comments and serving as the group’s de facto fact-checker, pointing out errors and flaws in documents and maps and making suggestions that are greeted with respect. 

(It was English who prepared the documents leading to city and national recognition of Memorial Stadium as a historic site, a move that followed the university’s announcement of major building plans at and near the stadium.) 

The resignation of City Council hopeful and DAPAC member Raudel Wilson after his move from the city following his defeat in November has left the subcommittee with only one serious critic of the preservationist majority, Carole Kennerly—though her attendance has been irregular. 

Wilson’s replacement on DAPAC is Jim Novosel of Bay Architects, who has worked on the adaptive restoration of several historic buildings as well as the construction of new in-fill apartment developments . 

The results of the subcommittee’s work will be presented to a joint meeting of the full memberships of DAPAC and the LPC when they meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the senior center at 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

During Monday night’s subcommittee meeting, the last before the joint session, two members of the public—graduate planning student and Livable Berkeley board member Jennifer Phelps-Quinn and architectural historian Sally Woodbridge—urged greater density downtown. 

Woodbridge urged planners to “make a deliberate and serious examination of one- and two-story buildings downtown, even if they are landmarks and structures of merit or not,” referring to the city’s two classes of officially designated historical resources. 

Phelps-Quinn called for adding density “in a positive way that will make it (downtown) an interesting place to be for young single women like myself.” 

John Parman, who has written about Berkeley’s downtown architecture for design 1, an online architectural journal, said the city center density could be increased, but only by buildings of architectural merit and without demolishing significant historic structures. He faulted some recent developments downtown and along the city’s major thoroughfares for adding excessive density without quality. 

Another voice from the audience belonged to DAPAC member James Samuels, an architect who also sits on the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board. 

Samuels urged the committee to bear in mind their possible impacts on economic revitalization of downtown “and the effects on attracting or discouraging private capital from investing in downtown.” 

Rhoades urged the creation of guidelines specific enough to allow projects that meet them to sail through the permit process. 

Matrix, maps, ideas 

One result of the subcommittee’s efforts has been the creation of a still-imperfect but extensive matrix of properties within the planning area, listing such categories as age, architects (when available), relative integrity, alterations, relative significance and inclusion in other surveys and reports. 

Data from the matrix can be displayed on the charts in a process that city Planning Manager Mark Rhoades described as “the most difficult mapping project” since he started work for the city. 

Some of those maps will be presented at Wednesday’s joint meeting, including one prepared with the significant help of English. 

As critical for the emerging downtown plan as locating historic structures may be, the maps also identify development sites: parcels without notable structures which could be developed without raising preservation issues. 

The subcommittee has reached several specific conclusions, including: 

• a call for preserving the city’s existing downtown design guidelines; 

• refining the architectural survey with the participation of both LPC and DAPAC; 

• development of guidelines for alterations and new construction in areas of the downtown where historic buildings are concentrated; 

• development of a spectrum of policies to enhance good development, including tax credits and incentives, historic districts, loans and grants, facade improvements and transfer of development rights, and 

• rejection of redevelopment. 

Other policies would focus on 

• using preservation to revitalize community life, encourage restoration as a green policy; 

• developing programs to celebrate the downtown’s historic character to improve tourism;  

• enhancing opportunities for small business; 

• encouraging suitable development of one- and two-story historic buildings with projects that add height and density while preserving historic facades. 

Photograph by Richard Brenneman.  

Matt Taecker, the city planner charged with preparing a new downtown plan, talks with Planning Manager Mark Rhoades (center) as their boss, Planning and Development Director Dan Marks, listens during Monday night’s meeting of a subcommittee of the DAPAC and the Landmarks Preservation Commission that is formulating proposals for the future of historic buildings in the new plan.

Acting Alameda County Registrar of Voters Dave Macdonald, who led the county through the June and November elections that included the implementation of the new scanned paper-ballot voting system, has been named the county’s permanent registrar by the county board of supervisors. 

At the same time, voting rights activists in the state received a significant boost to their efforts to slow down the move to electronic voting with reports that newly-inaugurated California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen has named one of their own—Berkeley attorney Lowell Finley—to the post of Deputy Secretary of State for Voting Systems Technology and Policy. 

Last March, the Daily Planet reported that Finley, a member of the non-profit election watchdog organization Voter Action, was the lead attorney in a California Superior Court lawsuit in Superior Court seeking to halt the use of the Diebold paper trail electronic voting machines in California. Finley has been a persistent critic of electronic voting in California and the nation. 

In his capacity as deputy secretary of state, Finley will oversee the approval of new voting systems in the state. 

Meanwhile, county officials spoke out in praise of Macdonald, with Board of Supervisors President Keith Carson issuing a statement that the decision to hire Macdonald on a permanent basis “reflects this board’s belief that he performed exceptionally well in leading Alameda County through both the June and November elections,” and County Administrator Susan Muranishi adding that “Dave’s technological expertise helped us greatly as we made the transition to a completely new voting system.” 

Macdonald had been serving as Alameda County’s Director of Information Technology when he was named acting registrar in May 2006 to replace the outgoing Elaine Ginnnold.

A leading California hotelier will unveil plans Feb. 1 to transform the ailing Shattuck Hotel into a“three or four star” accommodation, reports city Planning Manager Mark Rhoades. 

Preliminary plans for the first phase of renovations will be presented by Palo Alto-based BPR Properties on that date to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). 

“The overarching goal is to create an upscale hotel, and to add conference facilities in the future,” said Rhoades. 

If all goes as officials expect, the Shattuck Hotel would become the second major upscale hotel and conference center on Shattuck Avenue in the heart of downtown Berkeley—joining the Berkeley Charles, the planned 19-story hotel at the northeast corner of Shattuck and Center Street. 

Initial construction at the Shattuck Hotel would focus on the interior of the building, a city landmark that was, for a time, the longest building in Northern California after it opened on Dec. 15, 1910. 

Fireproof and built of heavy, reinforced concrete, the building was constructed in response to the disastrous 1906 earthquake that left much of San Francisco a smoking ruin. 

“The first phase will reduce the number of rooms and redo the ground floor restaurant and bar area and create a grander lobby,” Rhoades said. 

Most of today’s 205 hotel rooms are small, and many lack baths, Rhoades said. “They want to reduce the number to 150 so they can enlarge the rooms.” 

In a second phase of construction, the developer would add an additional 100 rooms. Plans also call for creation of conference facilities. 

Rhoades said any additional construction would preserve the existing facade. 

BPR Properties owns nine California hotel properties, eight operating under the Best Western Inn banner. The company’s flagship hotel and the site of its corporate offices is the Crowne Plaza Cabana in Palo Alto, where the firm restored a long-vacant hotel built by actor Doris Day and future Caesars Palace casino tycoon Jay Sarno. 

On Nov. 29, BPR president Bhupendra B. Patel—a native of India who holds a masters degree in mechanical engineering from Villanova—filed papers creating BPR Properties Berkeley, LLC, a limited liability corporation formed to own and operate the Shattuck Hotel. 

“Unlike previous owners, this company is experienced in operating hotels,” said Rhoades. 

Developer Roy Nee, who bought the hotel two years ago and announced plans for similar renovations, was unable to complete the project. 

“We knew he was in trouble when he came to us two months later and said he needed $8 million from the city,” said Rhoades. 

Parimal “Perry” Patel, son of the corporate chief, is development manager for the Shattuck Hotel project, said city officials. 

A graduate of UC Berkeley, he obtained a master’s in hotel administration from Cornell University. 

Sale of the property is currently pending, with escrow expected to close within a month, said one city official who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Dave Fogarty of the city’s Office of Economic Development said the city “can easily absorb two four-star hotels downtown. Many of the people who stay in Emeryville hotels would love to stay in downtown Berkeley.” 

As the Bay Area’s number two visitor destination after San Francisco, Berkeley is a major draw for parents of UC Berkeley students and the frequent conferences held at the university, he said. 

Fogarty said he and Mayor Tom Bates met with the Patels and toured their flagship hotel in Palo Alto. 

“The (Crowne Plaza Cabana) was vacant for many years and they renovated it into a very successful hotel,” said Fogarty. 

The Cabana advertises itself as California’s first green hotel, the only one in California powered by solar energy.

The Live Oak Coordinices Creek Neighborhood Association will be holding a community meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at the Live Oak Park Recreation Center to develop a neighborhood alternative to the North Shattuck Plaza plan. 

The plan, proposed by Councilmember Laurie Capitelli and North Shattuck Plaza Inc. Chair and City Planning Commissioner David Stoloff, seeks a $3.5 million transformation of Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose streets. 

The focus of the neighborhood meeting, organizers said, will be on what area residents and merchants want to see happen on North Shattuck. So far, about a dozen merchants have opposed Stoloff’s and Capitelli’s plans and they will be showing up at the meeting. 

The North Shattuck Plaza, Inc. and the North Shattuck Association are sponsoring a site tour and a series of community workshops over the next few months to plan the North Shattuck Plaza 

At the last community meeting in October, residents and merchants expressed concerns over parking, the selection of trees and access for the elderly and the disabled. 

Neighbors also said that moving the parking northward would not help to solve the problem of already struggling independent stores—such as Black Oak Books—because customers would have to walk some distance to get to them. 

Black Oak Books recently announced that the bookstore was going up for sale and could close as soon as this summer if no buyer could be found. 

Although Black Oak co-owner Don Pretari said that plans for building the North Shattuck Plaza had not led to the bookstore being put up for sale, he acknowledged that the plaza would not help the business either. 

Stoloff told the Planet on Thursday that concerns from independent stores would be addressed at the different meetings. 

“I have heard that Black Oak Books is up for sale but it’s not because of the proposed North Shattuck Plaza,” he said. “There are a lot of businesses who are backing the project. The meetings are being held to make the design better, to hear what people would like to see there.” 

Stoloff added that Peter Hillier, Berkeley’s assistant traffic engineer, address traffic concerns and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli would answer questions about panhandling and other neighborhood issues. 

The Live Oak Coordinices Creek Neighborhood Association Community meeting is Wed., Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Live Oak Park Recreation Center (Shattuck & Berryman).  

The North Shattuck Plaza, Inc., and the North Shattuck Association will hold a site tour on Sat., Jan. 20, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Participants will meet on the sidewalk in front of Bel Forno Bakery Café, 1400 Shattuck Ave. RSVP to help us prepare for the tour at info@northshattuckplaza.org. 

A workshop will be held Wed., Feb. 7,  

7-9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. The impact of a pedestrian plaza on traffic, parking, and panhandling will be the primary issues to be discussed. Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, Transportation Director Peter Hillier and design consultants David Meyer and Ramsey Silberberg will be available to answer questions.  

A second workshop is scheduled for Wed., March 7, 7-9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center. Alternative design approaches and concepts will be discussed. 

A third workshop will be held Thurs., April 19, 7-9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center. Presentation and review of the preferred design.  

For more information: email info@north shattuckplaza.org or call (510) 558-0860.

More than four years after Oakland voters overwhelmingly passed the $198 million Measure DD water and recreation bond, Oakland city officials are learning a truism: Spending city money can sometimes be far more difficult than obtaining it. 

In the fall of 2002, backed by an impressive coalition of city officials, environmentalists, and public parks advocates, Measure DD was approved by an 80 percent to 20 percent vote of city residents. 

Aside from setting aside more than $88 million for restoration and water quality improvements for Oakland’s “crown jewel,” Lake Merritt, the bond included a grab bag of popular expenditures, including $53 million for ensuring public access to the long closed-off Oakland Estuary waterfront, $10 million for restoration of creeks and waterways throughout the city, and another $20 million for building or upgrading public recreation facilities. 

$70.5 million of the $198 million has already been issued in city bonds. 

Measure DD’s most dramatic and signature projects were penciled in for the bottom of Lake Merritt, where the lake waters look across to the city’s Kaiser Convention Center. The bond language proposed to completely narrow and restructure the freeway-wide 14th Street-12th Street interchange that currently divides Lake Merritt from the Convention Center grounds. 

According to the project description on the city’s Measure DD website, “12th Street will be redesigned into a tree-lined boulevard with signalized intersections and crosswalks and a landscaped median. The redesign would create significant new parkland at the south end of Lake Merritt Park, remove unsafe and unsightly pedestrian tunnels, provide safer and continuous access for pedestrians and bicyclists along the perimeter of Lake Merritt, and improved access between the Kaiser Convention Center and Laney College.” 

In addition, the bond set aside $27 million for opening up the Lake Merritt Channel, which drains the lake waters into the estuary through a hidden culvert running under the interchange. In practical terms, the two projects on the lake’s western edge would extend the Lake Merritt park land all the way into the public lands abutting the Oakland Unified School District administrative properties and the Peralta Community College District and Laney College athletic fields, as well as effectively extend Lake Merritt itself, through the Lake Merritt Channel, all the way out into the estuary. 

Oakland had not seen such a dramatic public works water project since the mid 1800’s when what we know as the present Lake Merritt was created out of its original tidal estuary marshland. 

Even before a single shovel of dirt had been turned, at least one of Measure DD’s proposed projects has already had a profound effect on Oakland’s political landscape. The prospect of opening up the now all-but-hidden Lake Merritt Channel resulted in a sudden and dramatic rise in value for the public property surrounding the waterway, leading to intense pressure to turn the property over to private development. 

In late 2004, members of the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees authorized negotiations with Oakland developer Alan Dones to come up with a development plan that included channel-abutting lands owned by the district and Laney College. Intense opposition from the Laney College community and unions representing Peralta workers led to a scuttling of the deal, but the controversy contributed to the defeat in last November’s elections of Peralta Trustee Alona Clifton, who was closely associated with Dones. In addition, a federal grand jury looking into corruption in Oakland politics has issued subpoenas to Peralta, seeking details of the Dones deal. 

Meanwhile, California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, in his capacity as legal operator of the state-seized Oakland Unified School District, is currently negotiating a contract with an east-coast development team to purchase OUSD administrative and school properties bordering on the Lake Merritt Channel.  

Acknowledging how the Measure DD money had suddenly transformed what once had been an obscure part of Oakland’s landscape, the school district’s 2005 Request For Proposals on its downtown-area property said that the district was “seeking a real estate development team to enhance the value of several parcels in the highly desirable Lake Merritt Channel Area.” 

That proposed deal has resulted in a rare unity of Oakland politicians in opposition, with newly-elected Mayor Ron Dellums and newly-elected Assemblymember Sandré Swanson as well as the Oakland City Council, the OUSD Advisory Board of Trustees, and the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees all coming out in opposition to the proposed sale.  

But while developers wheedle and wrangle with local politicians over how to get some financial benefit from the Measure DD makeovers, many of the Measure DD projects have stalled despite their general popularity, delayed by citizen protest and lawsuits, as well as higher-than-expected costs. 

City officials have issued $9.5 million in bonds to finance the 12th Street renovation portion of the Lake Merritt project, an EIR was completed and bids were put out last November, with construction scheduled to begin this winter or spring. 

But with construction bids coming in some 25 percent higher than expected, Oakland’s Department of Public Works has put the 12th Street renovation project on hold while the city seeks $10 million in federal highway money to meet the project’s higher-projected budget. Instead of a projected construction completion date of the 12th Street renovation by the end of 2008, city officials are now saying that the city will not even be ready to put out bids for the project again until the end of this year. 

In the summer of 2006, landscaping of the Lake Merritt parkland called for in Measure DD was halted when members of the Friends of the Lake organization filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court blocking the removal of more than 200 trees that were part of the renovation. Residents along Grand Avenue have also loudly complained about another facet of the project, the proposed paving over of a meadow near the Lake Merritt Boathouse, turning it into a parking lot to accommodate a new restaurant. 

As a result of the delays and citizen complaints, city officials are working on a second Environmental Impact Report to supplement and expand upon the original EIR issued after the bond measure was initially passed. Officials hope that the new EIR will answer the complaints, help win the lawsuit, and address National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) concerns necessary to obtain federal monies. 

A scoping session for the new EIR was held by the City Planning Commission last week, with the comment period for written statements from the public now extended to the close of the business day on January 22. 

Meanwhile, work on another Measure DD project, construction of the 150,000-square-foot Oakland Family and Aquatics Center in East Oakland, is also stalled. A pet project of District Seven Councilmember Larry Reid, the proposed indoor sports and swimming pool recreation complex proposed for Edes Avenue between 98th and 85th has yet to either get off the ground or spend much of its allotted money.  

$1 million of the $10 million East Oakland center’s allocation was set aside in the city’s initial round of bond issuance and $3 million in state money was granted in 2003, but a plan to enlist the Salvation Army to run the center has fallen through, and the Measure DD official project status summary says only that “other options are now being considered.” 

For his part, Measure DD Project Manager Joel Peter is philosophical about the delays. 

“You win some and you lose some,” Peter says in a telephone interview, adding that “we’re moving ahead on several of the [Measure DD] projects,” including renovation of the Studio One Arts Center (one of the two recreation centers named in the measure), restoration of the municipal boathouse, new construction at Children’s Fairyland, and restoration of creeks outside of the Lake Merritt watershed. 

Meanwhile, Peter says that, perhaps as karmic compensation for the overbid of the 12th Street project, bids for the Measure DD extension of the estuary waterfront trail near the Fruitvale bridge came in lower than expected, and construction on that portion of the project is expected to begin this spring.  

And Measure DD bond money is having a spin-off effect on various other areas of city life seemingly unrelated to the bond’s original goal of water quality restoration and creek daylighting, with the City Administrator’s office, for example, estimating that the bond “will generate approximately $2.8 million for public art projects pertaining to Measure DD.” 

Details of Measure DD, including the bond measure’s original ballot language and a spreadsheet of project status, is available on the City of Oakland’s website at http://www.oaklandpw.com/Page794.aspx. 

Mayor Tom Bates said Friday he has no intention of calling a special election on the referendum that threatens to block implementation of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) approved by the City Council last month. 

“It looks like they turned in more signatures than were required,” he said. “That means a likely pause in implementing the new LPO, which was six years in the making.”  

“That very interesting,” said Julie Dickinson, co-chair of the referendum campaign. “We’ll see if something else pops up, but if they’re not calling a special election on the referendum alone, that’s good news.” 

Foes of the ordinance Thursday gave City Clerk Pamyla Means petitions with signatures from 5,908 Berkeley residents on petitions to freeze implementation of the new law pending a public vote. 

After a cursory check by the clerk’s office Thursday, the petitions were forwarded to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office, which has 30 days to verify that backers had obtained enough valid signatures to land the issue on the ballot. 

Under the city’s election code, implementation of a council-passed ordinance can be blocked if opponents gather valid signatures totaling 10 percent of the turnout in the last mayoral election. 

Based on the total votes recorded in the mayoral race that ended with Bates’s reelection in November, referendum backers needed 4,092 valid signatures. “It looks like they have them,” said Bates. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque has ruled that the council could call a special election to decide the referendum, Means said. 

But Bates said the measure he and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli had sponsored will remain on hold until the next election—which could include a special election called to decide other issues. 

“I like the ordinance we approved because it gives certainty, a time frame and standards for integrity, but if people want to continue this struggle, I look forward to the election,” said the mayor. 

Dickinson said she also welcomes the election and the educational campaign that will come before Berkeley citizens head to the ballot box. 

“We’re ready,” she said. 

Voters rejected Measure J in November, which would have kept—with minor fixes—the existing ordinance the council’s measure would have superseded. That law will remain in force until voters decide on the referendum.

The consultant who will help improve People’s Park in the coming months will be selected from a list of three finalists at a closed panel interview session on Friday (today). 

MKThink (San Francisco), Campbell & Campbell (Santa Monica) and The 106 Group (St. Paul, Minn) were the three consulting firms selected from a list of seven. 

“We will be looking for someone who is interested in the rich history of the park, is familiar with its documents and who can combine construction and design with community outreach,” said Irene Hegarty, director of community relations at UC Berkeley. 

At the People’s Park Advisory Board meeting on Monday, a People’s Park Advisory Board Selection Subcommittee, comprising of board members John Selawsky, Sam Davis, Joe Halperin and Ionas Porges-Kiriakou (a UCB undergraduate), selected the top three finalists along with a few other members and UC Staff. 

Speaking to the Planet, board member and School Board Director Selawsky said that he was happy with the way the process of selecting the main consultant was going so far. 

“I think we have three viable candidates,” he said. “Friday’s interview will play an important role in deciding who will be the most capable in coming up with ideas that will benefit People’s Park and the community.” 

Friday’s interview will go on for most of the day and will be closed to the public. Apart from the People’s Park Advisory Board Selection Subcommittee, two other advisory board members—George Beier and Lydia Gans—as well as Hegarty and a few other UC Berkeley staff members will be part of the panel. 

“There will at least be 10 to 12 people on the panel. And it’s a job interview, therefore it’s closed to the public,” said Selawsky, adding that the panel was scheduled to meet at a university-owned facility on University Avenue. 

“I would like to see how they would take into consideration current and potential uses of the park,” said Selawsky. “How they would make it more open to neighbors, families and UC students. I think most of us agree that the park is underutilized by residents. I would like to see it become a place for the community, a real urban center.” 

Both Hegarty and Selawsky said although the panel would come to a consensus Friday on which consultant would be hired, the decision would not be announced right away. 

“There are background and reference checks that need to be done and that would take some time,” said Hegarty, adding that the consultant was scheduled to start work from March 2007. 

People’s Park user and community gardener Terri Compost expressed her displeasure with the selection process. 

“It’s very disappointing that the advisory board gave up the decision-making and it was narrowed down to a sub-committee and a few UCB staff. A broader committee and community input would have been welcomed,” she said on Thursday.  

“It’s discouraging that they are hiring a landscape architect instead of a community person to decide about the future of the park,” Compost said. “It’s already atypical to hire an expert for People’s Park. They are saying that they are hiring an expert to see what the community wants, but there’s no broad community input in the selection process itself. I hope this process will involve all the voices and not pit people against one another. I am not sure it’s going to do that. We require vigilance to see that it doesn’t turn out be just a corporate design.” 

Selawsky told the Planet that the board had been narrowed down to a subcommittee as the process of having each of the ten advisory board members go through all the proposals would have been unnecessary and time consuming. 

Among the criteria that the People’s Park advisory board used to review proposals and evaluate prospective planning consultants were professional experience (which includes landscape architecture/design, community planning, sustainable design, urban parks and environmental approach to social issue), political process experience (which included controversial issues, diverse stake holders, widely divergent viewpoints and facilitation), creativity and appreciation of park history. 

The criteria for evaluation during interview included objectivity, patience, and a sense of humor. 

Porges-Kiriakou, a cognitive science and computer science major at UC Berkeley, and a homeless activist who helps run the Suitcase Clinic, described the selection process as “good.” 

“I’d like to see the park be something more than a landscape project,” he said. “It’s important for it to have a good image. More students should be using it. I will be looking for a consultant who can open up a dialogue between the different groups in the community and who can bridge the gaps. I think communication between people will play an important role in making this project successful.” 

Hegarty also told the Planet that at the last meeting, the board had brainstormed and identified a list of People’s Park planning community stakeholders, which includes just about every community group or subgroup who would have an interest in the planning process for People’s Park. 

The first draft of the list included current park users (students, regular participants of park events, gardeners/activists and homeless service providers), UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and related departments, city officials, neighbors, nearby merchants and property owners, nearby churches and institutions, alumni of the late ’60s/park founders, students from Berkeley and Maybeck high schools, the Berkeley Historical Society, members of the Ecology Center and many others.

MODEST PROPOSAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is a win-win solution for Cal, the City of Berkeley, the neighborhood, and the 42 Oak trees at Memorial Stadium that are slated to be “removed.” My suggestion is for the university to build its $125 million student athlete training facility on People's Park (save one end of the garden for memories) with the 900-space parking garage underneath rather than up in the crowded stadium area by the Hayward Fault. 

First, this means that the City of Berkeley and the neighborhood can drop their lawsuits against Cal. It will also save the oaks. Cal athletes won't have to worry about working out on the Hayward Fault. Combining these two projects and locating them on People’s Park will substantially reduce crime and drugs in the Telegraph area, transforming it back into the flourishing commercial area it once was. We gain 900 parking places near Telegraph to park, shop, and attend Cal events. After all these years of worrying about what to do with People's Park, Cal will finally have the courage to bring about a wonderful solution. And, most important, this will allow Berkeley's citizens to have peace in our time. 

Martha Jones 

• 

DISCONNECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I lived in Berkeley for a short time in the sixties. Coming back a year and a half ago, I looked forward to living in the city known for its activism. 

Tonight, I came home from the downtown BART station after participating in a rally to protest the escalation of troops being sent to Iraq—a rally that only drew approximately 200 people on a cold night. The average age of the participants was seniors—the tried and true protesters of previous rallies. A handful of parents with kids about 8 to 12 years were also in attendance. Hardly a young adult could be counted. I keep asking myself—why this disconnect? Why have we failed to hand the baton over to younger protestors? Do they really feel that disenfranchised with our present day government and just shrug their shoulders in disinterest or from a sense of helplessness? 

I believe one of the factors of this disconnect is the fact that without present daily dining, we are missing the dramatic pictures shown on our TV sets of body bags and injured returning to our shores. 

This has become a hidden war. A war that the populace can too easily dismiss. I think our efforts should now be focused on insisting that the reality be shown on our news programs. We should protest against those news agencies that refuse to broadcast and interview the injured returning from this debacle. Our next rally should be for news “truthiness.” 

Alyss Dorese 

• 

WITNESSING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yesterday I stood in a circle of dozens at North Berkeley BART, braving the cold as long as we could to protest any escalation of the war in Iraq. While it may not have been apparent to passers-by, we were reading out loud the names of dead California soldiers and Iraqi civilians. In our frustration with Bush, many of us started yelling when people came out of BART, “Call your congresspeople! Tell them your opinions! Stop the war!,” and the like. 

My dear neighbors: I am sorry for shouting at you. But I am struck that no one I knew was on that list of dead, and more than half the names of California casualties were clearly Latino. How easy it can be to turn a blind eye and go on with our lives, if we don’t let in the reality of what we’ve been supporting with our taxes. I pray that we will all take some kind of action. And I pray that as a peace movement we will find many ways to make a creative and powerful witness, one where our means are consistent with our ends. 

Many thanks to all who turned out for the demonstrations yesterday. 

Lisa Hubbell 

• 

PLAZA PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Despite some merchants’ worries about the idea of North Shattuck Plaza, I fail to see what negative impact this park is likely to have on their profits. 

Instead of a dreary stretch of concrete in front of their stores, they would have an attractive green area with benches and trees. Where would you rather shop? 

Instead of doing my errands and hurrying home, I’d have a chance to socialize with friends in a pleasant park. Where would you rather shop? 

Instead of a few tiny tables, there would be comfortable space to have Saul’s sandwich or Toyo’s bento box or Masse’s sinful tart. Where would you rather eat? 

There would be just as many parking places as there are now. True, sometimes I'd have to walk a further 150 feet after I park my car. (150 feet! not miles!). If I could not park along Shattuck in the same spaces that are there now, I would walk more safely from the new parking lot to one of the shops along a greensward. Elderly people could be dropped off —just as they are now, except in a pretty area.  

Please note: Longs Drugs has experienced an “increase in sales” on the days when the farmers' market displaces a lot of parking spaces near the store, presumably because of increased foot traffic. 

This proposed new park would be an improvement of the urban landscape—mine and the merchants’. It would be a greening of our corner of Berkeley. 

Susan Klee  

• 

BLACK OAK BOOKS 

Editors, Daily Planet 

As someone closely associated with Bob Baldock, and a former member of Black Oak Books’ staff, I hated to see Bob’s key role in the store written out of history as happened in your recent article. The store’s founders were not exactly as stated. The three original founders in 1983 were Bob Baldock, Bob Brown and Don Pretari. Herb Bivins was later brought in, and although Jeanne Baldock was actively involved in the store from the beginning, she did not become a shareholder until much later. Both the idea for the bookstore and its location in North Berkeley came from Bob. 

The concern now is the store’s survival. I certainly hope there will be an outpouring of support for it, and that the present owners will succeed in their effort to find the right buyer, as any other outcome would be a great loss. Thank you, Daily Planet, for covering this unfolding story. 

Kathleen Weaver (Baldock) 

• 

MILO FOUNDATION 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I am a Berkeley resident, a small business owner and a supporter of the Milo Foundation. 

I am saddened and disappointed to learn that Milo, after successful operation on Solano Avenue, has decided to leave. Why? Let’s be clear: they were forced out by a group of ‘activist’ neighbors who, in the guise of progressive politics and grass-roots organizing, were advocating for one thing: Not In My Back Yard. 

I have followed this issue closely. I watched, amazed, when one so-called neighborhood activist invoked individuals who are infected with HIV, stating that such individuals were at risk from the Milo operation. As an HIV positive gay man who has visited the Milo facility, I cannot stomach such fear tactics in the name of liberal, progressive activism. “Let’s say it’s bad for queers! That’ll make the city back down!” 

Shame. Shame on them, shame on the zoning board, shame on Berkeley, shame on you for staying out of the fray, shame on the counsel, shame on everyone involved. Shame on the inflexibility of the bureacracy, shame on the neighbors, shame on the business community. And, let’s be clear, Milo was good for business. It brought people to the neighborhood and those people spent money. I know—I’m one of them. I furnished my entire office from a furniture store just down the street from Milo and I have the receipts to prove it. 

I am certain that Milo has not been Mary-Poppins-Practically-Perfect-in-every-way, but then, non-profit samaritans on a mission rarely are. These people truly are in it for the good of the community and yet they have been chased out of town by a mob of maligners, all because of a couple of clumps of kitty crap. Only in Berkeley would an organization that rescues countless animals, sacrafices thousands of service-hours and works daily to make our lives better, be run out of town on a rail, followed by a mob of puppy-burning progressives, hiding their torches (and property values) behind their Green Party Membership Cards and K.P.F.A. sitckers. 

So, here we are. There is one less organization in Berkeley to offer crucial pet rescue services, one more organization fleeing the city for more pleasant pastures. 

My question to the mayor and City Council is this: What do you plan to do now? What can you offer to Milo that will avoid NIMBY and yet retain a crucial service that our city needs? Now is the time to lead. We voted for you because was asked for that leadership—that vision. We are waiting. 

Tom Swift 

• 

COMMISSION CHANGES 

Editors, Daily Planet 

I think we all agree that the primary objective in defining commissioner eligibility should be expertise. As an employer I use similar performance-based measures for selecting among job applicants. This has proven to be the only way to get skilled and motivated people. 

What I have not yet heard is a logical case being made for these newly proposed criteria. How many other cities place similar limits on their commission appointees? None that I know of. Has anyone cited specific examples of commissioners who sit on multiple boards or have served for more than the maximum period who are not experts in their commission's field? I have not seen such examples cited by Capitelli or other proponents. To say that this smells of a hidden agenda would be an understatement. 

In my opinion, the quality of Berkeley government and the honesty of city staff is at an all time low. Do we really want to continue following the lead of cities like Richmond and Oakland? 

C. Carpenter 

• 

XXXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily PlanetWhile reading J. Douglas Allen-Taylor (01-12-07) piece entitled something about Oakland density I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere during the read. I could tell, because I found myself in the midst of stuff about murders and politics that just may have led elsewhere. 

Coincidentally, I used to live in the Adam's Point neighborhood the author cites. And in a building with less parking spaces than units. So I know firsthand about some of that issue, there. Parking did get a bit... shall we say "competitive". Also coincidentally, I happen to currently live "in the 80's" of Oakland, which the author also highlights. But I live at the other end of the 80's, up by Macarthur Blvd. instead of down near International. It's not so dense right around here, really. Traffic is mostly just fine, other than when that whole Castlemont to-and-fro school action is going on, that is. But they're also sprucing up the Boulevard around there nicely. And a buncha' new homes, condos and the like have recently gone in just blocks away, without seeming to precipate critical density just yet. 

And parking is relatively plentiful, really. 

The building I'm in now not only has way more offstreet parking spaces than are needed or wanted (most are empty) but there's usually room right out at the curb, too. And this is on a block with well over 100 homes, in apartments and houses. 

But then, street parking incurs another danger, if not quite murder (around here, other things risk that quite more). Why, just the other day one person got a bright, dayglo sticker plastered on their windshield for, allegedly, parking for more than 24 hours in the same spot. How diligent of parking control is that? It wasn't even true. Must be a crack team, so to speak. 

The vehicle owner was a bit distraught about that, since they'd only recently had the same vehicle mysteriously vanish from a different street... for the same reason. It had been towed. For parking technically too long like that in a not-dense parking area not-begging for spaces. 

Of course, this incurred the usual pocket-gouge for the towing and the stowing -- once they figured out what had happened to the car and realized it wasn't stolen, after all. That was probably good for adding another day's stowage charge, right there. Then there was some curious $70 additional charge. Some sort of bureaucratese termed "fee" or another. Pretty expensive parking in the spacious, available zone around here. For some reason. 

And the vehicle had been moved to the current spot, in order to avoid getting that dayglo sticker plastered on it for being in the spot it had been parked. Just can't win for law-abiding anymore, it seems. 

What does all this have to do with urban density? I'm not sure, frankly. Just as I wasn't when reading Douglas-Taylor's thing, all told. But, hey, at least this might be about something more people can relate to, or are experiencing, than murder. Let's hope so, regarding the latter, while hoping not, regarding what immediately precedes it. 

Christopher Kohler 

Yesterday, Jan. 12, 2007, will long be remembered as one of the most ignominious days in the history of UC Berkeley politics. The day after the county court refused to immediately allow the university to send in the chain saws, exactly 40 days after the tree sitters began their protest, and on one of the coldest days of the year with freeze warnings and weather forecast for record or near record cold lows in the 20s and 30s for the coming night, the UCB administration sent in their own police force to remove the ground support for the Memorial Oak Grove tree sitters. 

The ground support was neatly housed under a blue tarp below the trees and provided such amenities as communication, food and even hot coffee, the latter much welcomed by those spending the night on a small wooden platform some 50 feet up in a tree, protected by only their own small tarp and a sleeping bag, amid temperatures plunging as low as the 20s. These brave and deeply committed individuals are trying to preserve the last grove of specimen native live oak trees in the Berkeley flatlands, and they deserve our support. There are many reasons why this magnificent grove of oak and redwood trees should be preserved. 

1. Both the Sierra Club and the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) support their preservation. CNPS states that “this site is of great value as a gene bank for the Coast Live Oak,” and because of the habitat that such groves provide for various plant, animal, bird and insect life, considers such groves “ecologically significant,” and an “invaluable venue for environmental education.” 

2. A recent series of temblors of magnitude up to 3.7 on the Richter scale reminds us that the Hayward fault is alive and well. The oak grove is literally a stone’s throw from the California Memorial Stadium which overlies the Hayward fault. Although a football stadium would never be built today over the California fault considered by geologists to be the bay area fault most likely to create the next major destructive earthquake over the next 29 years (30 percent probability), the chance of injury is mitigated by the fact that only six home games are played in the stadium each year. 

Not so for the proposed 125 million dollar Student Athlete Training Center which will be used by many students and staff on a daily basis. Berkeley Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth called the stadium project “a disaster waiting to happen.” There are also questions concerning the legality of this project as it may be in violation of the Alquist-Priolo Act limiting construction of large projects within 50 feet of a fault line. 

3. The stadium was dedicated in November 1923 in honor of the UC students and to all Californians who gave their lives in the service of our country in World War 1. On the day of the stadium’s dedication, UC Comptroller Robert Sproul, who later became UC President, declared: “Deep rooted in the eternal hills, this memorial to the honored dead, here devoted to the service of the living, raises its noble crown into the clear California sky and stands in simple dignity, beauty and strength.” 

Those of you who have visited the Memorial Oak Grove know that these trees likewise “raise their noble crowns in the clear California sky and stand in simple dignity, beauty and strength.”  

Most of these trees were planted in 1923 in the year of the stadium’s dedication and although not specifically cited by Sproul during the dedication ceremony, I like to think that the stadium architect and the landscape architect complemented each other in creating a memorial to the fallen California servicemen, the one creating an architectural gem modeled after the Coliseum in Rome, the other planting a living memorial of California live oak trees. 

For the past 83 years this grove of trees has been enhancing our environment by providing us with fresh oxygen, badly needed in an urban environment, has provided a place of solace for UC students and others, and has made the stadium even more magnificent by standing by its side in its own simple unadorned beauty. It would be a shame and a desecration of this memorial to destroy these hallowed trees so that more concrete can be poured into the earth. 

Ronald H. Berman is a Berkeley resident. 

The Warm Pool Committee has received a copy of the final environmental impact report (EIR) commissioned by the Berkeley Unified School District. It consists of the EIR issued in September, copies of responses to that EIR, and the School District’s answer to those responses. Needless to say, their position regarding the warm pool is literally beyond belief. Their attitude is expressed in the following quote: 

“If the closure of the pool were to occur, it would be a major disappointment and inconvenience to the group of people who use the pool, but would not constitute a significant environmental impact under CEQA.” 

As we all know, with us it was never about environmental issues but more about being honest, decent and caring about the welfare, health and well-being of our children, seniors and disabled community. Approximately 400 people use the pool each week, ranging in age from 18 months to 88. 

For the school district to trivialize our need for a warm pool is unconscionable, and to consider its loss to us as a mere “disappointment and inconvenience” reveals just how lacking they are in caring, compassion and understanding. 

Though we realize they are a public business entity, in the above statement they have reduced our pain, suffering and desperate need for relief to a matter of insignificance. As long as no CEQA laws are broken, it seems as if they feel free to destroy the current warm pool without any moral responsibility to help us acquire a new facility such as the one proposed on the tennis court site.  

In the late 1990s former BUSD Superintendent Jack McLaughlin was a very positive force. But since then there have been years of empty rhetoric, continuing all the way to the present time, despite out-going School Board Chairman Terry Doran’s repeated assurances that he and the School District would fight for the Warm Pool. Moreover, the BUSD never used any of the $3.2 million bond voted for in 2000, mandated to renovate the Warm Pool. Thus, this valuable sum of money, which cannot be used towards building a new facility, has so far been wasted. Their justification was that the structure was not seismically secure. The recent EIR, however, not only challenges this conclusion, but recommends that the building be retained and renovated as a historical landmark. 

The BUSD often cites lack of funds to justify their intransigence, but they didn’t have a problem putting up money for the newly built cold water pool, which continues to remain underutilized, or for financing another two sports fields, one on Derby Street, the other on Milvia. 

Why isn’t the warm pool worthy of the attention given to athletic teams, computer education classes, and the renowned jazz program? We believe that a lack of funds is not the only explanation for their behavior. The BUSD sees us as different than themselves.  

They view us as the “other” and therefore not worthy of attention. But luck is all that separates us. A simple twist of fate. As Joan Baez used to sing, “There but for fortune go you or I … you or I.” If the superintendent and/or school board members took sick, got injured and needed warm water therapy, or if that happened to their spouses, siblings or children, I’m sure we’d have a completely refurbished Warm Pool, or a new one in a heartbeat. 

The Warm Pool is the only heated public pool in the East Bay! 

You would think that the school district would take pride in supporting this unique community, which is a lifeline for so many people. You would think that they would do everything in their power to provide for seniors and disabled who are always under-served, if not ignored. You would think that elected officials entrusted with the education of our students would model the ancient wisdom that we are all part of each other. 

We all need to join together at the public meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17 to assert our case. Even though one can easily surmise which way the wind is blowing we must let the BUSD know how irate and disappointed we are regarding their continuing lack of honesty. The pool-using community has endured years of duplicity, without any resolution. In the name of just plain, old, human decency, this charade needs to end. Enough is enough! 

The main issues to keep in mind are the following: 

• If the BUSD is determined to destroy the site of the present Warm Pool why won’t they negotiate in good faith with the City for the use of the old tennis court site? Are they willing to give us the land, lease it, or sell it? 

• There needs to be an agreement that there will be no closure of the current pool until there is a new pool or at least one underway. 

• There must be a reevaluation of how our tax dollars are spent. We must change our priorities, so that sporting activities, etc. are not given so much more importance than the health and well-being of the children, seniors and disabled members of the community that depend on the Warm Pool, in some cases, for their very survival. 

Daniel Rudman and Juanita Kirby are warm pool users. 

Kathleen Cha’s brief explanation of ABAG’s (Association of Bay Area Governments) proposal to Bay Area cities, that they must develop new multilevel and multifamily housing (for 634,000 new residents regionally, 4,200 in Berkeley by 2015) [BDP, 1/5/07], is responding to concerns in the pages of the Planet initiated by an earlier article on that subject [12/5/06]. Cha’s growth estimates remain unattributed; she does not suggest what plans for the future they represent. Indeed, ABAG’s webpage projects population increases of a million in the next 20 years, and a Chronicle article [12/15/06] puts it at 2 million. The Chronicle advises us to simply reconcile ourselves to becoming “high density cities.”  

Where the Planet article had characterized ABAG as “a powerful but little-known regional government,” a “layer of government between Bay Area city and county governments and the state,” Cha states that ABAG works with the state government to plot housing needs for the region, but with no authority to impose its proposals on cities. She is being less than candid in saying so.  

The problem is precisely the authority for the given total, as well as for how “allocations” of “housing needs” will be distributed to cities and counties. After all, “allocation” is a topdown concept. Though the plan was presented two months ago for “public review and comment,” no public ability to modify, participate, or refuse was offered. Also, state Housing Element Law, according to Cha, requires each city and county to revise its own laws to “accommodate the housing allocations they receive.” This is quite topdown in structure. Let me suggest what I think it means for us. ABAG’s webpage explains that it is a council of governments that addresses issues transcending local borders. It is governed by a General Assembly composed of delegates from each of the nine Bay Area counties and their 99 cities. Though the webpage states, “As an advisory organization, ABAG has limited statutory authority,” Cha admits that state law requires compliance with ABAG’s allocations. One way this is enforced is by withholding state and federal funds for city projects and needs. ABAG is then an intermediary power, able to interfere with state and federal funding if its development policies are not followed—like a trade embargo on another country or the withdrawal of federal education funds for an “underperforming” school under “No Child Left Behind.” To comply, cities must change their regulations, their fiscal incentives, their tax systems, and their regulations for land use.  

However, ABAG recognizes that there is a hard sell ahead: “Altering decades of fiscal and regulatory tradition will require a major shift in thinking and the creation of new inducements for smarter development patterns.” “Smart growth strategy” is their logo.  

But what is ABAG’s plan, the gist of its projections? I won’t go into the way education funds and housing development get played against each other between state and county; it is too complex and too projective to discuss intelligibly here. ABAG’s primary focus seems to be housing, but its subtext, its underlying meaning, is to “reduce the need for long commutes.” Cha confirms this; ABAG’s focus, she says, is reducing urban sprawl and freeway congestion.  

As Gene Poschman had said, in the earlier article, ABAG’s Housing Methodology Committee, “is totally dominated by the outer rim” of communities outside the region’s urban core. And we know that the urban rim suffers from the traffic glut of those passing through on their long commutes. ABAG’s plan begins to look like a callback from the suburbs to a certain percentage of those who had relocated out there in the past to get away from “in here.” If ABAG’s housing allocations are to correct the adverse effects of road glut, they do not represent growth but an economic shrinkage into high-density urban concentration.  

In addition, ABAG projects growth that is greater than that of current trends. The earlier Planet article quotes data that Berkeley’s population has actually dropped since the early 70s. Indeed, to project growth of a million new inhabitants in the next 20 years is counter-intuitive, given the deflation of the housing bubble and the decline of the dollar. In other words, ABAG’s projections are based on something other than extant trends.  

In an economy like ours, large-scale growth occurs through investment. For a governmental agency like ABAG to project growth, it must be projecting investment. That is, they know something is on the boards in that category. And today, any such long-range plan of corporate investment would probably be in terms of its relation to global corporate development. The Pacific Rim economy is a factor that has not been in the news as much as before the invasion of Iraq. But the Pacific is shaping up as a theater of intense economic and political conflict. If this is the context for ABAG’s “smart growth scenario,” then it is projecting shoehorning a million new inhabitants into the Bay Area in the next 20 years to make it a hub for Pacific Rim economic and political purposes.  

If we are not willing to surrender our quality of life, there is a participatory question to be addressed. ABAG represents a topdown shift in political structure, abducting decision-making to another more distant political stratum. City and county governments are hard enough to influence or participate in as it is. But ABAG shifts policymaking away from anything that might count as our political space. So the question for us is not simply that of dealing with imposed plans, but of our own construction of alternative political structures for ourselves in response.  

Steve Martinot is a Berkeley resident and author of The Rule of Racialization.

BROWER CENTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The sound of the Brower Center sucking more and more money from the city should come as no surprise since the City Council signed a blank check when they approved the project. The least the council can do is change the name of the project to the Black Hole Center. 

Frank Greenspan 

• 

FREE-BOXES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Riya Bhattacharjee’s lovely “Local Davids Battled Goliaths in 2006” erred in one small respect: the “Wishing Well” free-box is not the only one in Berkeley. There are two currently on Monterey, another one behind the Monterey Market, another near the tunnel on Henry, and several along San Pablo Avenue. Many neighborhoods use this innocent, practical method of exchange. The University of California’s effort to erase this tradition in People’s Park is quite comic in contrast. 

Carol Denney 

• 

RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Kris Martinsen says “the state itself is the most conservative, unproductive, and parasitic fossil in existence,” a claim that in my opinion places him firmly into the ranks of the reactionaries. Then he calls my distinction between reactionary and conservative “absurd,” while preferring to call himself a libertarian. Libertarians, he states, “do not want to conserve the New Dealish status quo.” 

My Illustrated Oxford Dictionary says reactionaries “oppose change and advocate return to a former system.” My American Heritage Dictionary says reactionaries “oppose progress or liberalism.” These conceptual shoes seem to fit Mr. Martinsen’s sentiments pretty well, so why not wear the label? 

Interestingly, his phrasing betrays a dislike of conservatives, too. This animus bordering on contempt by reactionaries toward conservatives was part of the point I made in response to Bob Burnett’s column on how it’s time for victorious liberals to “kill conservatism.” That point was: far from killing conservatism, liberals should help conservatives shuck off the reactionaries who have taken over their party. Then both liberals and conservatives should go back to the business of creating an enjoyable, just, inclusive, and sustainable culture here on earth, giving our young’uns a platform from which they can go off and explore the galaxies together.  

Liberals need conservatives like a car needs brakes. Reactionaries can probably be useful someplace, but not in the drivers’ seat. 

Dan Knapp 

Richmond 

• 

QUARTZITE MINING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the article about the Spaceship Earth statue (“Brower Sculpture Comes to Ignominious End,” Jan. 9) I would like to point out that while not environmentally sustainable yet, quartzite mining is not the worst kind of dig in Brazil. For one, the quartzite is not extracted from the rainforests as the article quoted as “fact.” Quartzite, regardless of color, is gleaned either from alpine deposits or cavernous areas. It’s a metamorphic rock, and as such can be found where high temperatures and pressure meet (e.g. volcanoes, mountain ranges, magma tunnels, etc.). Secondly, shallow tin and gold mining, along with petroleum, represent more of a problem than the 30 or so stone and tile companies currently digging in Brazil. 

Matthew Mitschang 

• 

LANDMARKS ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Richard Brenneman’s story on the anti-LPO referendum petition shows precisely why it is misguided: “Critics like Bright, one of the two sponsors of Measure J, said the council ordinance could allow for a massive wave of new development that would destroy the character of the neighborhoods, especially in the Berkeley flats.” While the nature and quantity of future new development is a very relevant question for the city, that is not a question that the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance—either the old or the newly passed version—addresses. The LPO only allows the Landmarks Preservation Commission to decide if nominated properties meet specific defined criteria for designation as landmarks or structures of merit, and allows the LPC to control the alteration or demolition of established historic resources. The LPO does not allow the LPC to consider the relative merits of a proposed project vs. an existing property it would replace—only the merits of that property on its own.  

Development policy, in general and in specific, is governed by the General Plan, administered by the Planning Commission and City Council. Opponents of further development in Berkeley, however, have long seized on the current LPO as a last-ditch weapon—contrary to its intention and its actual provisions—to increase the cost of some proposed projects by injecting months or years of delay into the permitting process. The fact that they now admit to doing so at least clarifies their motivations. The referendum simply continues a years-long anti-democratic effort by a fanatical band of hyper-preservationists to deny the will of the City Council and the vote of the people in favor of an appropriately updated new ordinance. The much-feared “request for determination” provision of the new law presents a danger not to preservation but only to the misuse of the LPO for unintended anti-growth purposes; we should look forward to its enactment. 

Alan Tobey 

• 

CELL PHONE  

TOWER GRIEF 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Patrick Kennedy claims in Making Waves (East Bay Daily News, Friday, Jan. 5) that he has “gotten nothing but grief from neighbors.” His proposed installation of 18 cell phone antennas 500 feet from my home on top of his newly acquired U.C. Storage building has given me nothing but grief as well. 

Ever since I heard about the project, I have been doing research on the issue. It is not a pretty picture. Epidemiological studies indicate clusters of childhood leukemia, as well as other forms of cancer, found around cell phone towers. Scientific studies done in reputable research facilities in Europe show cell damage and carcinogenic effects in mice when exposed to radio-frequency (RF) emissions. Rather than debunking health concerns, these studies raise a red flag. Studies conducted by the Food and Drug Administration conclude that low frequency, non-thermal, cumulative, radio frequency emissions are carcinogenic. Now add anger to my grief and fear. Ponder these facts: South Berkeley already has 15 locations with an unknown number of antennas at each one, all emitting RF radiation continuously, whereas North Berkeley has only two and the Berkeley hills have none. Is this the zoning practice of a city committed to equity? I hope Mr. Kennedy is sleeping better than I am. I am up into the wee hours worrying about my son who grew up in South Berkeley, worrying about my neighbors and their children, worrying about the youth pressing cell phones up against their heads hour upon hour. 

Grief is arguing with my husband about moving before our property value deteriorates, knowing it will break our hearts to leave the home we have ever-so slowly fixed up, closet by closet, window by window, tree by tree, over the last 22 years. Grief is knowing that although the humane path is precaution, we continually come up against industry-driven laws and developers who profit as we suffer the health consequences. Kennedy goes home each night to his house in Piedmont, where I would wager, there are no cell phone antennas radiating his home and family or blocking his view with ugly towers or adding new industrial noise into the peace and quiet of his environment. The Berkeley Neighborhood Antenna Free Union (BNAFU) is calling for: 

1) A renewed moratorium on cell phone antennas. 

2) Measurements of emissions from operating antennas to determine safe setbacks. 

3) A rational plan for placement of antennas in Berkeley away from places where people live and work. 

4) A city-initiated forum to study and discuss health issues related to wireless technology. 

Laurie Baumgarten 

• 

BUSH’S WORDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“Surge” is another word for “escalation.” “Iraq” is another word for “Vietnam.” After successfully invading Iraq, the incompetent Bush-Cheney administration has botched winning the peace for four years. Every opportunity for success has been squandered; unrepairable damage to our cause has been self-inflicted, repetitively. Bush’s so-called “new strategy” is more of the same. Compulsive denial has blinded their ability to make rational correction. This is the last-ditch desperate act of an obsessive gambler. The stakes are more American lives; yet, since Abu Ghraib, the game has already been lost. There are no aces in the hole; no magic bullets; only delusion. 

For four years, the Republican-led Congress failed to oversee and prevent this catastrophe. To be fair, it took time for the depth of incompetence to become fully apprehended. Now, Democrats have Congress and the opportunity to restrain further madness. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Since when has election season become a year-round event? Sen. Joe Biden says he will run for president; Sen. John McCain stakes his 2008 presidential bid on a buildup of more troops in Iraq (Bush lite). Obama and Hillary are in the hunt and there all those wannabees tossing their hats in the ring. 

I like a good political tyrst as well as the next person but we’ve just finished the 2006 midterm elections. It’s not even spring of 2007 and these political jockeys are at it again. 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

Councilmember Wozniak recently removed his appointee, Dean Metzger, from the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB). Since Mr. Wozniak has not publicly thanked Mr. Metzger for his ZAB service, I would like to do so—on behalf of many. In addition, Mr. Metzger has served his community on the Transportation Commission and through his neighborhood association (CENA), Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA), and Berkeleyans for a Livable University Environment (BLUE), among others. All these organizations and the city have profited greatly from his intelligence, integrity, and hard work.  

Mr. Metzger would be the first to acknowledge that three years on the ZAB was barely enough time to become comfortable in the bizarro world of Berkeley’s zoning ordinance and its ever-more-fantastic manifestations. Peeling away the layers of deception, manipulation, and “creativity” on the part of the planning staff and developers is a permanent full-time job, as neighborhood leaders know.  

Mr. Metzger also spent 18 months on the density bonus subcommittee. His attempt to quantify the application of the bonus, to create predictability for both developers and the public, was opposed by planning staff, which views the law as a kind of interpretive dance in which buildings can leap at will to intoxicating heights and densities. Does it benefit the public to lose Mr. Metzger’s expertise on that very complex matter, after eighteen months of intensive education? 

Long-term commissioners are effective commissioners. Yet the council is poised at its January 16 meeting to ensure that commissioners can serve on a commission no more than eight years in 10, and to prevent simultaneous service on more than one commission. This proposal might seem reasonable if, in fact, Berkeley had lots of capable individuals clamoring to serve on commissions. But we do not. Very few Berkeleyans are willing and able to devote as much time and energy to the service of their fellow citizens as Mr. Metzger. This is why there are now 50 commission vacancies.  

The January 16 council item is intended to remove “trouble-makers” from powerful commissions, those who have served long enough to think independently and question staff. The targets are old-time progressives who champion public input and neighborhood livability, unlike today’s pseudo-progressives who prefer government of, by, and for developers and planners. It is an unseemly attempt by some council members to prevent other council members from re-appointing commissioners who effectively stand up for the public. Others support it because they are “tired” of certain long-term commissioners. I was tired of President Bush about fifteen minutes after he was elected, but I don’t advocate limiting presidential terms to fifteen minutes. The public is best served by experienced policy makers. 

So a better idea would be to eliminate commission term limits entirely until Berkeley comes up with at least 50 more people to fill commission vacancies, and several more to replace the effective commissioners we would lose to term limits. And if you want effective commissioners working on your behalf—challenging the status quo, the local bureaucracy, and moneyed interests—I recommend that you contact the council to oppose the January 16 council item.  

Commissioners serve at the pleasure of their council appointers, who deserve both credit and blame for their appointments, actions, and removals. Council members usually try to appoint competent people who share their philosophies, and then let them make independent decisions. However, commission members make critical decisions that impact the lives of thousands, and our elected officials are ultimately responsible for them. 

Council members who know their commissioners will be in the minority usually try to maximize the impact of their appointees by leaving them in place long enough to acquire experience and knowledge, and thereby influence with their colleagues. In land use issues, it is equally important to have the self-confidence to question staff. 

So why did council member Wozniak appoint Mr. Metzger to the ZAB, permit him to serve without interference for three years, and then summarily dismiss him as his influence increased? For the answer, let’s look at Mr. Wozniak’s history on land use issues.  

Mr. Wozniak’s first significant action, when elected to the council in 2002, was to effectively oppose the proposed neighborhood-busting development by the American Baptist Seminary of the West on Benvenue Avenue. I and the Benvenue neighbors will always appreciate Mr. Wozniak’s assistance on that project—the only large damaging project to have been defeated in Berkeley in recent memory.  

However, I am very sorry to say that since then, although Mr. Wozniak has done useful work on some other issues, like the budget and public safety, on land use issues his record is dismal. When faced with a choice between neighborhood livability and developer interests, he votes for the latter. Most significantly for his own district, when faced with a choice between assisting the university or protecting the neighborhoods of his constituents, he always represents university interests—vigorously. These pro-development, pro-university leanings have made it easier for Mr. Wozniak to fall in line with the Bates agenda, although sometimes against his better judgment, as with the Brower Center, Downtown’s sacrifice to political correctness. 

Appointing Mr. Metzger to the ZAB was one of Mr. Wozniak’s few neighborhood-friendly actions, for which he deserves full credit. However, Mr. Metzger probably never reflected Mr. Wozniak’s land use philosophy, especially as Mr. Wozniak has moved steadily to the “right.” Given his experience in neighborhood organizations, Mr. Metzger entered the ZAB as a development skeptic. And as a principled person, the more Mr. Metzger learned while on the ZAB, the more he had to oppose Berkeley’s current damaging developments. 

Nonetheless, Mr. Metzger’s appointment was good politics for Mr. Wozniak. For years the pro-neighborhood members of the ZAB had been in a 3-6 minority. As long as Mr. Metzger’s vote did not threaten to create a pro-neighborhood majority, Mr. Wozniak could get “credit” for his neighborhood-friendly appointee without risk to the development agenda, or of alienating colleagues like Bates and Capitelli. But as more ZAB members began to express occasional concern about bad planning, raising the possible threat of an enlightened pro-neighborhood majority, Mr. Wozniak had to remove Mr. Metzger. Now with the ZAB back to 6-3, the council can again feel entitled to refuse to reconsider ZAB decisions. 

The imminent cause of Mr. Metzger’s dismissal was his opposition to the Kragen project (1885 University), for the reasons he stated in his Planet commentary (“Trader Joe’s—For Whom?” Jan. 5). That project needed another vote to pass, so a few days before the vote, Mr. Wozniak replaced Mr. Metzger with a newcomer who voted for the project. This is similar to the recent last-minute shuffles on the Landmarks Preservation Commission, designed to make it appear that the LPC overwhelmingly endorsed the Bates revision of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

Experienced commissioners are a valuable commodity that add efficiency to government. Finding and educating new commissioners takes the time and resources of staff, council members, citizens, and other commissioners. Ideally, council members should draw on the specialized knowledge of their commissioners instead of throwing it away. Although council members have every right to disagree with their commissioners and overturn their decisions, it is not good for public policy or for taxpayers when council members use commissioners cynically and wastefully. 

Most commissioners from comfortable neighborhoods like CENA (and even some from poorer ones) are all too eager to vote in lockstep with staff and the pro-development agenda. Kudos to those few who, like Dean Metzger, care enough about others to try to help those bearing the burdens of density and bad development. They are precious few, and we cannot afford to lose them, to either term limits or political games.  

Sharon Hudson is active in Berkeley land use issues and is a member of Berkeleyans for a Livable University Environment (BLUE), www.berkeleyblue.org. 

When the Democrats obtained a congressional majority in November’s midterm elections, it sent a message to the White House, and to all of America, that people are ready for change. Change in Iraq, change in the power of the presidency, change in foreign policy, and change in the way citizens are treated at home. But, in the throws of such a heated election, at least one important issue was left largely unaddressed—what America’s role should be in quelling the genocide in Darfur.  

As hundreds of thousands of refugees struggle to survive, time is running out for the American government to get serious about Darfur, and it is imperative that the American people themselves catalyze Washington to take on this effort.  

When the Democrats took office Jan. 4, they outlined a grueling agenda for the first few weeks of the new congress. But with a disaster to clean up in Iraq, a Social Security crisis to fix, and relations with several key nations to repair, the plight of a far off African nation seems to fall by the wayside in congress. It is not that American politicians don’t care or want to help, but the nation’s plate is quite full already, and policy makers prefer to focus on issues that will make an impact on their constituents. In the game of American politics, reelection is always a top priority, even the week after a new congress is inaugurated. Office holders need to be able to show voters that they are making positive changes on the voter’s behalf, and no matter how you look at it, Darfur policy doesn’t fit this mold.  

Politicians will take on such an issue, however, if their constituents coax them to do so. Thus, it is crucial that voters urge both their congresspeople and senators to put the Darfur issue on the agenda.  

Berkeleyans can be a pioneering force in this effort. Taking a step in this direction, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who has consistently pressed for congressional action in Darfur since the genocide began in 2003, introduced a resolution urging the League of Arab States to acknowledge the Sudanese genocide on the first day of the new congress.  

But Lee cannot single handedly make Darfur a top congressional priority. Our politicians cannot make headway on this issue unless we encourage such efforts. While it is easy to reprimand Congress for failing to place humanity before politics, it is far more difficult to admit the fault in oneself. The old cliché is true: unless an individual is actively doing his part, he is a part of the problem.  

Californians have a commendable track record when it comes to Darfur activism. Last summer, a Darfur awareness march was held in San Francisco. Students at California colleges and universities have worked tirelessly to bring awareness and aid to the Darfur crisis, and have the potential to invoke even more action.  

As a student at Pomona College, in Claremont, California, I have been both invigorated and disheartened by on campus Darfur activism. Many students have taken the responsibility to stay informed and raise money and awareness for Darfurian refugees, and hundreds of letters have been signed and sent to the White House. But as life goes on normally each day, I cannot help but feel that we should be doing more. If students can become educated and inspired to mobilize their local communities, groups of voters around the country can begin urging their representatives to take on Darfur. Similarly, if California residents can motivate their elected officials to put Darfur on the congressional agenda, other states may lead by example. A grassroots movement of this kind would be an effective way to get Washington to take serious action. 

America, of course, is not, and should not be solely responsible for the Darfur effort. As a world power however, the U.S. has a responsibility to lead in this endeavor, and in order to be effective, our policy makers must be at the forefront of the effort. 

At a rally for Darfur in Washington, D.C. earlier this year, Samantha Powers, Harvard professor and leading thinker and activist on human rights policy, said, “Some people think that the politicians are the leaders, but the people are the leaders. If you keep leading, we will keep following.”  

No statement could better capture the stance that we, as voters, as global citizens must take; if we lead, we can get our congressional leaders—and hopefully our president—to follow. And together, we can work towards policy and change. 

Rachel Hamburg is an Oakland resident and a student at Pomona College. 

INDEED, IT IS APARTHEID 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Matthew Taylor’s excellent commentary on President Carter’s courageous book is just what this country needs to bring peace to the troubled Middle East. It is no help for anyone to deny what is before our very eyes. These echo the thoughts of Shulamit Aloni, former Minister of Education under President Rabin who wrote a recent editorial in the popular “Yediot Acharonot,” Israel’s largest circulating newspaper. Aloni also affirmed the truthfulness of Carter’s words.  

How do we as Americans respond? This next June marks the 40th anniversary of the illegal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. We expect tens of thousands to converge on Washington DC to say a resounding NO to continuing U.S support for the occupation. We need all people of goodwill across the nation to be a part of this effort. We the people stopped US support of South Africa Apartheid, when most politicians were reluctant to oppose the status quo. This June we will again make history. See www.endtheoccupation.org for more information. 

Jim Harris 

• 

LEFT-WING LUNACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Imagine if you would a former U.S. president prior to World War II supporting the people and government of Germany during the era of the Third Reich, a tyranny based upon demonization of Jews. Now leap forward to ex-president Jimmy Carter’s support of the Palestinians, a people who freely elected Hamas, a party which like the Nazis advocates Jewish genocide, a political organization similar to its predecessor Fatah in its dedication to the destruction of Israel. 

Moreover, that Carter would appropriate the term “apartheid,” heretofore only ascribed to Israel by the lunatic left, is as disgusting as it is inappropriate. Twenty per cent of Israel’s citizenry are Palestinians and other than not being permitted to serve in the army, they have all the rights and privileges of Israel’s Jewish populace. Indeed, if Israel’s Arab populace were so oppressed, why do they not move a few miles to live with their Arabic brethren in Palestinian-ruled Gaza or the West Bank? 

There is not sufficient space in a letter to detail all the flaws and outright lies in Carter’s screed. Since the book’s publication, the former head of the Carter Center has eviscerated the ex-president for the manifest inaccuracies within the tome and Dennis Ross, Clinton’s chief envoy to the Middle East and a mediator in the meeting between Clinton, Arafat and Barak, has scoffed at the untruths Carter has penned about peace talks during the Clinton presidency. 

And now we see an absurd op-ed in the pages of this publication by one Matthew Taylor. Without any substantiation, Taylor parrots Palestinian propaganda spouting allegations that “many” Arab women have given birth to stillborn babies because they couldn’t get through Israel’s protective barrier (which has saved countless lives by its deterrance of suicide bombers). And that Israel has some “plan” to “force” thousands of Palestinians to emigrate. Couple this with absurd allegations of “ethnic cleansing” because Israel has bulldozed houses hiding tunnels for arms-smuggling, a fabricated quote supposedly from Ariel Sharon, the cartoonish notion of Israeli usurpation of water for swimming pools while Palestinians scrounge for enough to barely subsist, and other such inanities, and one wonders what opiate Mr. Taylor has been smoking. 

Well, one need not wonder too much as Taylor is identified as a “fifth year Peace and Conflict Studies” student at UC Berkeley. He hails from a department infamous for its politically simplistic student-initiated courses and those taught by some of Berkeley’s most ideologically-driven faculty. Most responsible UCB professors laugh at this department and those I know tell me that PCS students are not the “sharpest nails in the shed.” Indeed, Mr. Taylor affords ample evidence of this in his commentary. 

Yes, Mr. Taylor, Carter is right when he says there is apartheid in the Middle East. But President Peanut Brain mislocates its source. For it is the Palestinians who are the true practitioners of odious societal fissures, be it third class citizenry for women, the brainwashing of children taught to become homicidal martyrs, the honor murder of young women, the brutalization of homosexuals, or the suppression of intellectuals. In sum, if one truly cares about the violence of discrimination, one must first look to the Palestinians whose practices are sickeningly at odds with any semblance of a civil and progressive social order. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

WHY I’LL READ CARTER’S BOOK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

No doubt Matthew Taylor’s defense of Jimmy Carter’s Palestine Peace Not Apartheid will be met with the same condemnations that greeted Carter, (and I quote) “rigidity of thought,” “apologist for terrorists,” “one blatant falsehood after another,” “warped sense of history,” “malice and error,” “delivered from on high and believed on faith,” and, of course, “anti-Semite” (in Taylor’s case I suppose “self-hating Jew” might be added). I have not yet read Carter’s book, nor am I well enough informed to evaluate every bit of it or of Taylor’s article. Yet, I feel I ought not to be silent as the usual avalanche of furious letters hits the Daily Planet. Jimmy Carter does not need my defense. His worldwide stature is so secure that these attacks may only sell more books. Bill Cosby could not be destroyed by attacks following his speech before the NAACP about the dangers to his people from within black culture. Turgenev survived the attacks from the Leftist rebels, worse than from Czarist police, after publishing Fathers and Sons (though he had to leave Russia to live in peace). Hardy stopped writing novels after the reaction to the truths he wrote about English poverty, marriage law, sex, and education in Jude the Obscure, but he always wanted to go back to writing poetry anyway. Orwell’s career was almost nipped in the bud when his Homage to Catalonia detailed how he saw the Stalinist communists killing anarchists during the Spanish Civil War, barely escaping with his own life, but he bounced back with savage fantasy satires like 1984 that have never stopped selling. 

The greater danger is the effect of such attacks on writers or public servants who are not so famous as to live safely above the fray. Only one example: Kate Chopin, whose The Awakening (1900)—with its very delicately expressed story of female sexuality overruling “sacred” motherhood—wrecked her career. Chopin (widowed mother of six) died young, forgotten until feminists revived her work in the 1970s. How many other expressions of denied realities are murdered at birth by hostile social, religious, or political special interests? Like the exhibit of the Enola Gay (the plane that carried the atom bomb to Hiroshima) canceled by the Smithsonian Aeronautical and Space Museum (1997), when veterans’ groups united and lobbied legislators to protest captions whose wording failed to portray the Japanese as complete devils? How many beginning writers, seeing attacks on famous leaders like Carter, will risk being attacked in this way before they even get started? Or will write a controversial book that no publisher would touch? Why write it? Why support someone who has the guts to write it? Play it safe. Keep quiet. Back in 1999, in the New York Times, Margot Jefferson described a PEN-sponsored panel discussion by prominent writers titled, “Blasphemy: What You Can’t Say Today in America.” According to Jefferson the panelists did not talk about being ostracized for something they had written. They talked about fear of being ostracized, about “what happens when one is left alone with the constraints the psyche imposes, and with anxieties about how one’s audience will respond.” In other words, they talked about what they were not writing, out of fear of their readers. 

If this doesn’t scare us, it should. That’s why I believe it is important for me to buy Carter’s book, to thank Matthew Taylor for his defense of it, and to thank the Daily Planet for printing Taylor’s piece. 

Dorothy Bryant 

• 

CARTER DESERVES CREDIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for publishing Matthew Taylor’s commentary in the Berkeley Daily Planet on the new book by Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, in which Mr. Carter has correctly described what is happening in the Occupied Territories. Anyone who has traveled to Gaza or the West Bank cannot but be shocked by what crimes are being committed quite openly by the Israeli army and Jewish settlers. It is a situation which is worse than Apartheid, and although this term still seems to be taboo in the United States, even critical Israeli journalists, writers and soldiers and reservists who have served in the Army are writing and speaking constantly and honestly about it. It is a pity that this criticism is hardly ever found in U.S. media. 

I have been to Israel and the Occupied Territories 14 times, and have seen the situation for myself, as Mr. Taylor has done. Mr. Carter deserves great credit for being truthful and courageous in writing this book and thanks are also due to Mr. Taylor for his commentary on the book and the situation. It is to be hoped that the fact that such a high-ranking person as Mr. Carter, a former President and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been brave enough to publish this book will have an impact on U.S. media and on the current, tragic situation in the Occupied Territories, a situation which is having a terrible effect on Palestinian life and society but will undoubtedly affect Israeli society itself in an adverse way if it is allowed to continue. Indeed, it is already doing so. 

No military solution and no military means will bring peace; only an end to the occupation and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis will bring peace to this troubled and tragic area. 

Paula Abrams-Hourani 

Vienna, Austria 

• 

FINDING OUR VOICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Free speech is one of the most important values of progressive people. Speaking out against abuse or apathy is a core force for creative change and the betterment of people everywhere. But sometimes speech can be hurtful or even hateful. It is possible to promote free speech while drawing the line against hateful speech, but this careful balance must be subject to ongoing debate and scrutiny. Speech that is racist, homophobic, sexist, or violence-inciting needs to be dealt with effectively. 

Many progressive activists are concerned about the increase in hate speech against Jews. At a recent Bay Area antiwar rally, some protesters were chanting in Arabic, “Jews are our dogs.” At another local event, someone toted a sign with a Jewish star engulfing a swastika. A Hollywood figure notoriously accused Jews of “starting all the wars.” Even in this very newspaper, a letter was submitted accusing Jews of being responsible for their own oppression. These incidents need to be challenged, as the editor of this paper did in her op-ed denouncing anti-Semitism in response to the aforementioned hateful letter. 

Sometimes hate speech against Jews emerges from discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but there is much confusion about where political discourse ends and anti-Semitism begins. Criticizing the decisions and actions of the Israeli government is not anti-Semitic. Sympathizing with the plight of Palestinians is not anti-Semitic. Plenty of Israelis and Jews do both of those things. However, referring to Jews as dogs or comparing them to Nazis is hateful, anti-Semitic and uninformed.  

Many progressives are looking for ways to constructively address this kind of anti-Semitism. Sometimes it emerges from ignorance and misinformation. Sometimes it is a product of a lack of good communication or general anger. Sometimes, as with racism, anti-Semitic perspectives are the result of deep-seated historical and cultural prejudice against an entire group of people.  

A group of grassroots progressive activists are organizing a conference to help progressives deal with anti-Semitism in a constructive rather than confrontational manner. The conference is called Finding Our Voice. Finding Our Voice, January 28th, 2007, in San Francisco will bring together a number of diverse organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the New Israel Fund, and Americans for Peace Now united with the common cause of addressing this important issue. Our goal is to create a healing dialogue and a safe forum to address difficult issues in a proactive and helpful way. Non-Jewish progressive allies are very welcome. Speakers will include many thought-provoking activists, politicians, media professionals, and scholars, and there will be break-out sessions focusing on addressing the needs of feminists, queer activists, youth, and people of color. To register or to see a complete list of session, speakers, and co-sponsors visit: www.events.org/findingourvoice.  

This conference is not about Israel. It is not about the suffering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict causes on both sides. It is not about American foreign policy or Iraq. Instead, we are talking about the anti-Semitism that can surround these issues. By increasing awareness, we aim to inspire, educate and empower attendees with practical knowledge and tools to voice their opposition to hatefulness and direct their positive energy toward creating peace and justice.  

Tami Holzman 

ADL Assistant Director 

Oakland Resident 

As I move toward the conclusion of my first year as president of the Downtown Berkeley Association Board, I can look back with satisfaction on a number of partnerships we have formed in recent months which I think have made DBA increasingly influential as a molder of public policy in the downtown. One of the most important, I believe, has been the relationship we have crafted between the DBA and the group known as Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)—an innovative economic development organization.” 

The Business Alliance For Local Living Economies (BALLE) is a growing alliance of businesspeople around the United States and Canada who are committed to building strong, sustainable local economies. At the present time, there are almost 40 networks with a membership of over 11,000 members. Businesspeople organize into local business networks—each fully autonomous, with its own name, mission, and initiatives. 

All networks share a commitment to Living Economy principles, including: 

• Living economy communities produce and exchange locally as many products need by their citizens as they reasonably can, while reaching out to other communities to trade in those products they cannot reasonably produce at home. 

• Living economy public policies support decentralized ownership of businesses and farms, fair wages, taxes and budget allocations, trade policies benefiting local economies, and stewardship of the natural environment. 

• Living economy consumers appreciate the benefits of buying from living economy businesses and, if necessary, are willing to pay a price premium to secure those personal and community benefits. 

• Living economy investors value businesses that are community stewards and as such accept a “living return” on their financial investments rather than a maximum return, recognizing the value derived from enjoying a healthy and vibrant community and sustainable global economy. 

• Living economy businesses are primarily independent and locally owned, and value the needs and interests of all stakeholders, while building long-term profitability. 

BALLE is an incubator of sorts which works to catalyze, strengthen, and connect these local business networks dedicated to building Local Living Economies. The long-term vision is to build a sustainable global economy that builds long-term economic empowerment and prosperity through local business ownership, economic justice, cultural diversity, and environmental stewardship. 

BALLE members around the country, including the DBA, staged Shop Local First campaigns in December 2006. DBA encourages our community to shop locally and multiply the value of every dollar spent by keeping it circulating within the Berkeley economy.  

Mark McLeod is a managing partner of downtown restaurant. 

After recently going through my first election cycle as chair of government affairs, I wanted to offer a few thoughts on the Great ’06 Berkeley Political Struggle. I recently finished reading 1776 and John Adams by David McCullough and Founding Brother’s: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph Ellis, and so was able to experience this election cycle in the context of political history. Then, as now, the political bickering and posturing began before and lasted long after the actual votes were counted. There is a major difference however, the bullhorns are much larger today. 

Today, a single sentence may be spoken; then that sentence may be repeated ad nauseum. It will be commented on and analyzed in print, on radio, on television and on the internet. Thankfully, in most places, while there are obvious opinions, there are at least attempts to be journalistically objective. Not in Berkeley where our dubiously self-proclaimed “second most read paper” avoids even an attempted veil of objectivity. 

I believe in things, I have opinions and I admit that freely. I am, quite obviously, involved in the Chamber and, perhaps less obviously, an enormous advocate and proponent of business in Berkeley. I believe in the Chamber of Commerce and I believe in the businesses the Chamber represents. The Chamber is an amazingly open institution where ANY member may serve on the Government Affairs (GA) Committee. All Chamber political positions start in the GA Committee (about 25 members). Every political issue starts with research and work that is done by members of GA who bring to the table different understandings and opinions and different research capabilities and expertise. The GA committee makes recommendations to the Board (about members), who bring even more breadth, depth and often times passion to the discussion and who ultimately decide upon the positions the Chamber will take publicly. 

Contrast the Chamber’s decision-making process to a privately held newspaper subject to little or no checks and balances. It would be extremely seductive to take one’s millions (assuming one had millions) and buy a “news”paper to print one’s own opinion and hire private eyes to dig up dirt (or manufacture it when it is otherwise unavailable) and hire shills to write articles that support that opinion and tear down opposing views. It may be tempting, but it does not make for a better world. Everyone knows there is a bias in the “Second most read paper”; not everyone knows the enormous amount of money that stands behind that bias. Thankfully, Berkeley is a thinking town and I am certain I am not the only person wondering if their unrelenting front-page “articles,” editorials and ultimate doorstep delivery (first time in history) pushes them over the line from “news”paper into sneaky vehicle to dodge campaign finance rules and support their hegemony? 

The Chamber of Commerce freely admits that we have an interest in the economic development and the commercial success of Berkeley. Someone has to pursue this end and I am simply baffled that we don't all have an interest in it? What's more, we are in business for ourselves and so know a thing or two about how we could improve the business climate in Berkeley. We believe the commercial success of Berkeley leads to, among other things, more purchases from other local merchants (success breeds success), more and better jobs, new business formations, gifts for non-profits, more well-funded arts institutions and increased tax revenues that ultimately feed city services. Wouldn’t these be good things? 

While I don’t expect a repeat of the 1804 Burr-Hamilton pistol duel in Berkeley, a duel may be a more civil way to deal with our differences than the interminably nauseating barrage of absurdity that wafts from the “Second most read paper’s” pages. At least, if we did it the old fashioned way and we lost to their much larger and more well-financed bullhorn, we wouldn’t have to be around to listen to it anymore. 

Jonathan DeYoe is chair of the Government Affairs Committee of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. 

I’ve gotten many kind and thoughtful letters since Ralph’s death, but none more poignant than the missive I recently received from Tim Murray, who once lived in the East Bay and was active in South Berkeley politics.  

I hadn’t heard from Tim, or his partner Tom, in a long time, and when I saw the Minneapolis address on the outside of the thick envelope, I wasn’t quite prepared for the flood of emotions the words inside would evoke. 

“Dear Suzy Parker,” Tim’s letter began. “The day I learned Ralph had died, I felt a pang of homesickness for the Bay Area that I hadn’t experienced in months. I had a momentary vision of standing in your backyard again, and how right it would feel to hug you and have a good cry.  

“Once again I’ve let the strand that connects me to you stretch as slender as a spider’s filament. I hope that I haven’t, through my carelessness, allowed it to snap. 

“I want to tell you about the little piece of Ralph I came to know. I only met him once before the accident. It was a summer evening when I walked into your house with you. Ralph was in the kitchen, leaning against the sink with his arms crossed. He’d just showered after a bike ride and he looked as if he hadn’t quite cooled down yet. His silvery hair was brushed back wet, and sweat still beaded up on his forehead. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, but his long white feet were bare. In his hand was a grownup brown bottle of microbrew and he took a swig right as I came into the room. 

“His eyebrows shot up like he was studying the situation. He reached to shake my hand, and gave me a sharp blue-eyed look that said ‘If Suzy likes you then I’m curious … and if you ever touch her I’ll kill you.’ Meanwhile his mouth spoke the words, ‘Nice to meet you.’ 

“Years passed. I’d almost lost track of you, but when we finally reconnected it was time for me to meet Ralph again. I braced myself. When I walked into your living room Ralph was in his elaborate wheelchair. The same sharp intelligence fired his eyes and the fight was still there, but something else vied for attention. ‘I haven’t seen you in a long time,’ he said, as if nothing else was amiss, and his incredible sense of humor made me smile. I reached out and grabbed him on the shoulder, told him finally—years too late—how glad I was he was alive. Ralph wheeled around to show me his new setup, with the desk and computers at the front window. He was proud and welcoming, like a kid who has a friend over to his house after school for the first time. 

“This is the Ralph I will choose to remember, the sea glass Ralph, whose sharp edges and defenses had been tumbled away to form a nugget that seemed soft and vulnerable on the outside, but utterly incapable of being broken into any more pieces. Having survived not just the accident but all that came after, Ralph stood taller than anyone in the room and carried himself with guts and grace. 

“When Dave died it took me years to reach the other side of grief. There was no tap-dancing my way around it. One day, three months into it, I found myself on the Bay Bridge listening to NPR. Someone interrupted the programming to announce that Pat Nixon had died. I burst into tears and had to pull over at the first exit and sit. Pat Nixon! I didn’t even remotely like Pat Nixon, but my sorrow was so close to the surface, the barest scratch bled buckets. 

“I’m in no position to give advice, but impossible as it seems, you will someday look back from the shore that seemed beyond reach and be glad for the experience, I shit you not. Love, Tim.” 

Among other signs of impending geezerhood, I keep noticing that some birds that used to be common are harder and harder to find. I can remember winters when the bay seemed to be paved with surf scoters. 

But these odd ducks, and their relatives the white-winged scoter and the black scoter, seem to be in trouble; populations of all three species have declined since the late 1970s. The biologists aren’t sure why, although there’s a whole Orient Express parlor car full of suspects. 

You can see the trends if you go to the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count website and play around with the graph-making function. On the Oakland count, which includes Berkeley, surf scoter numbers have always fluctuated, but in the last decade or so the highs have been a lot lower. 

The Point Reyes count used to record white-winged scoters in the thousands on Tomales Bay. Last year there was only one. 

So what’s going on? It’s probably not overkill by duck hunters; none of the scoters are prized game birds, at least on this coast. They’re not among the tastier ducks. I have a couple of New England scoter recipes that appeared in Field and Stream in 1924. 

In one procedure, you boil the scoter and an anvil in a large pot. When you can stick a fork in the anvil, the scoter is done. Alternatively, you can nail the duck to a plank, leave it in the sun for a week, and then throw away the scoter and cook the plank. You get the idea.  

One concern is that scoters are picking up contaminants on their wintering grounds that interfere with reproduction. Scoters, like sea ducks in general, aren’t prolific breeders. They’re slow to mature and may not nest every year. So relatively small perturbations could have a disproportionate effect on population trends. 

Wintering scoters feed primarily on mollusks, supplemented by herring roe during spawning runs (they’ll pull up roe-encrusted eelgrass by the roots). And clams and mussels from San Francisco Bay, where over three-quarters of North America’s surf scoters spend the winter, are loaded with mercury, selenium, and cadmium. 

Those elements enter the Bay from runoff from old mines, irrigation drain water, discharges from oil refineries. In the 1980s, surf scoters in the Bay had higher mercury and selenium concentrations than any other species of waterfowl. 

The Bay’s changing ecosystem could be a factor in the ducks’ increased contaminant loads. The exotic overbite clam is a super-concentrator of selenium, at rates three times higher than other local clams. Changes in the prey base may also affect the scoters’ general condition. If they don’t return to the breeding grounds with the right ratio of protein to fat or the right body mass, they may forego nesting. 

There used to be huge gaps in our knowledge of the surf scoter’s life cycle: where and when it nests, where it stops over during migration. 

That’s changing rapidly, though, with ongoing studies in San Francisco Bay, Baja California, Puget Sound, and the Strait of Georgia. 

U.S. Geological Survey researchers have used satellite telemetry to track scoters from the Bay to nests in the Canadian Northwest Territories and sample their eggs for contaminants. 

The ducks may also bear the brunt of changes in the Far North. More than 80% of the population of all three scoter species breed in wetlands surrounded by boreal forest. 

Their decline is paralleled by that of other boreal nesters. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Bonaparte’s gull, a graceful bird that, unusually for a gull, nests in trees. The rusty blackbird, formerly abundant in the East in winter, 

has also crashed. 

In all, 303 bird species, 43 percent of the North American total, nest in the Alaskan and Canadian boreal zone. It’s particularly important for migratory songbirds: flycatchers, sparrows, warblers. In the grand scheme of things, the boreal forest may be as crucial a habitat for North American birds as the tropical rainforests where other migrants spend the winter. And it may be just as vulnerable. 

According to the Boreal Songbird Initiative, only 8 percent of the Canadian boreal forest has any kind of formal protection. 

About a third has been earmarked for logging and energy development; millions of acres are clearcut every year. The current Conservative government in Ottawa is likely to exacerbate that trend. 

Logging aside, there’s our old friend global warming. A 1997 study found that the Mackenzie Basin in the Northwest Territories had warmed an average of 3.1 degrees F over the past hundred years, three times the global rate, and that Great Slave Lake, the deepest lake in North America, had reached its lowest measured water levels.  

For more on boreal birds and their environment, and suggestions for action, check out BSI’s website: www.borealbirds.org. Despite its name, the organization isn’t just about songbirds. Ducks, gulls, and shorebirds are also on its agenda. 

Surf scoters aren’t considered endangered—yet. But preventing that will likely take coordinated attention to both their Pacific Coast wintering grounds and their northern breeding territories.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan  

A drake surf scoter near Oakland's Arrowhead Marsh.  

Walking around my old neighborhood—it is also my current neighborhood, as well, having returned to the place where I grew up—used to be a pleasure, but in recent years it has become something of an obstacle course, with most blocks having at least one car pulled up on the sidewalk, lengthways or crossways, blocking the way.  

I used to think this was terribly inconsiderate of the owners, making pedestrians walk around their cars and out into the street, but I have since come to realize that this is a necessity. There simply is not enough room on our neighborhood streets to park all of the cars owned and operated by the people who live in the neighborhood. Residents who want to be able to keep their eyes on their vehicles at night—a necessary practice hereabouts—and who also don’t want to have long walks in the dark to get to and from them. Even in Deep East Oakland, virtually untouched by the dotcom housing boom of the last decade, we are slowly but steadily running out of room in which to live. 

You see the phenomenon in other small ways, as well. Driving up to a stop sign on International Boulevard from any one of the back streets in the avenue ‘80s in the middle of the day, it is virtually impossible to make an immediate left turn because of the oncoming traffic. I have learned to be patient in my eldering age, but for young drivers it must seem interminable, waiting for the long line of cars to go by, and so you have to be constantly vigilant as you drive the International Boulevard corridor to watch for the cars suddenly darting into traffic, not to joyride, but simply to get where they are trying to go.  

At the same time, in some of the rare stretches of International that have experienced the recent boom, such as the Fruitvale, traffic virtually comes to a standstill during the “rush” hours. It can sometimes take you as much as twenty minutes just to navigate the six blocks between 29th and 35th avenues, making any attempt to avoid the 880 gridlock pretty much meaningless.  

Meanwhile, my good friend, journalist Sanjiv Handa, is fond of pointing out that the people who put those sleek new double-length AC Transit buses on our streets neglected to also provide for the lengthening of the bus stops where the buses are supposed to pull out of traffic, so that the buses routinely block one lane while they hover at the stops, and instead of helping to eliminate the city’s traffic problems, the new buses tend to exacerbate. Sigh. 

There are other, many examples, which you can think of yourself, if you travel Oakland’s streets for any length of time. It is almost as if someone in City Planning either forgot to plan for these things, or thought them not important enough to bother with. For the little frogs in our particular pot of water, the temperature slowly rises over the years, tensions build, and sometimes boil over. 

It is said that enough material passes by you in the course of an hour or two to fill several good-sized novels, the trouble being that it’s all jumbled together like a ball of grandma’s old yarn, so that the individual storylines are hardly recognizable, one from the other. Let me pull out a couple of revealing recent bits of string for you, in case you missed them or their connection. 

On Tuesday of this week, both of our local daily newspapers reported a similar conclusion, that Oakland’s third murder of 2007 occurred following a dispute over a parking space. “Cops say man killed over a parking space,” reads the headline in the Oakland Tribune. “Oakland man killed over parking-space argument,” says the Chronicle. According to papers and police, Samuel Navarro was shot and killed by a fellow tenant at his Adam’s Point apartment building near Lake Merritt after a car Navarro was riding in pulled into the parking space reportedly set aside for the suspected shooter. 

The Chronicle quoted investigating homicide sergeant Tony Jones as saying getting killed over a parking space was “just silly,” but by the time he got to the Tribune, Mr. Jones had modified that diagnosis to concluding that “this is just madness,” the police sergeant adding that the shooting was “almost unbelievable … It was a parking space. A parking space.” 

Of course, no one gets shot and killed only over a parking space, just as nobody ever got killed only over a watermelon, despite what the old segregation-era Southern papers used to assert in their nigger-stories about hot-times in old darky-town. What eventually triggers the violent act is only the last in a long series of events and pressures and buildup, few of which get bothered to be investigated or fully reported by the local media. Even the Oakland police admit that there may be more to the story than a parking space murder, with the Tribune noting that “since the suspect has not been arrested yet, [Sgt.] Jones did not want to get too specific as to the details, like whose car was involved or if the men knew each other.” 

But let’s accept, for the sake of advancing the discussion, that tensions over parking played a significant immediate part in Mr. Navarro’s murder. That is given a bit more context by the Chronicle, which wrote that “there are only eight spaces for the apartment complex [in which Mr. Navarro was killed] and there sometimes are tensions over parking. [The apartment complex] is [in] an area known for its lack of street parking.” 

Which, of course, one might say for most parts of Oakland, which has seen a steady increase in automobiles over the past years, but little increase in spaces to put them. 

Let’s pick up, now, the second thread in the story. 

On the day before the murder of Samuel Navarro in an Adams Point apartment complex parking lot, the Chronicle reported on the inauguration to the post of California Attorney General of the man who served as mayor of Oakland over the past eight years: Jerry Brown. 

During his inaugural address, Mr. Brown spoke of a number of things, including how his views on urban development have been by his experiences as mayor of Oakland, some of which touch on the present matter.  

“There are people who try to block density in built-up urban areas,” the Chronicle quoted Mr. Brown as saying, “so the attorney general may consider joining on the side of intensified density. We have a lot of lawsuits in Oakland trying to block what I consider intelligent development. If you want to protect the open spaces and the far reaches of California, you've got to have more people living in other areas, it's that simple.” 

We have seen development in Oakland over Mr. Brown’s eight-year tenure. Whether or not it was intelligent, I suppose, depends upon one’s point of view. 

But one of the criticisms of Mr. Brown’s development binge, such as it was, is that in trying to pack more and more people into the finite geographic space that is the Oakland city boundaries, not enough attention was paid by city officials to what effects that packing in was going to have, and how to mitigate those effects so that the city remains livable. Scientists concluded long ago that this is not a wise course of action even when it involved crowding monkeys into a cage, and we are more restless than monkeys. “Elegant density,” Mr. Brown used to call his development policies, in one of those cutesy flying phrases so loved by the press, but void of meaning in the real world. There is nothing elegant about packing more and more people into confined spaces, until the spaces become unbearable, and the people explode. 

Does this mean that Jerry Brown is ultimately responsible for the shooting death of Samuel Navarro in the parking lot of his Adams Point apartment complex? That would be true, only if this were a novel. But this is real life, our lives, and Oakland’s task now is to understand the mistakes of the past years, and to slowly correct them and make sure they are not repeated. 

Fundraising for the modern university is increasingly dependent on skyboxes and suchlike mammoth public structures where the golden deal can be clinched amid resplendent surroundings. But it wasn’t always so. There used to be a time when personal magnetism was enough to accomplish the goal. 

When Benjamin Ide Wheeler was president of the University of California, his most constant fundraising partner was the indomitable UC regent and benefactress Phoebe Apperson Hearst. During their 20-year joint reign, from 1899 until 1919, Wheeler and Hearst were an unbeatable team. For close to ten of those years, they owned adjoining houses on what has come to be known as Holy Hill. 

On May 12, 1900, about six months after Wheeler’s inauguration, the university officially broke ground for the President’s Mansion—the first building sited under the new Phoebe Hearst Architectural Plan for the campus. Now called University House and occupied by the UC Chancellor, the mansion was designed by the distinguished San Francisco architect Albert A. Pissis. Some of Pissis’ better-known buildings are Hibernia Bank (1892), the Emporium (1896), the James Flood Building (1904), the Mechanics Institute (1909), and the Crocker Bank Building (1910). 

The President’s Mansion exterior was completed in 1902, but the university ran out of resources to finish the interiors, and Wheeler would not occupy his official residence until 1911. In 1900, he had a private house built at 1820 Scenic Avenue, just north of the campus. Designed by architect Edgar A. Mathews, the brown-shingle box is now the home of New Bridge Foundation, a substance-abuse recovery center. 

Supervising the construction of Wheeler’s house was Daley’s Scenic Park’s chief landowner and developer Frank M. Wilson, who lived across the street at 2400 Ridge Road. At about the same time, Wilson also initiated the building of a university reception hall adjacent to Wheeler’s house at 1816 Scenic Avenue. This building was financed entirely by Phoebe Apperson Hearst. It was designed by Ernest Coxhead, who also created for Mrs. Hearst a residence at 2334 Le Conte Avenue, abutting the reception hall. The residence and the reception hall were connected in the rear via a covered passage. 

A true VIP, Mrs. Hearst was never listed in the Berkeley city directory or in the assessor’s records. The 1900 U.S. census listed her address at 1 Third Street (the Examiner Building) in San Francisco. With several homes in northern California—including Hacienda del Pozo de Verona in Pleasanton and Wyntoon in McCloud, Shasta County—it is doubtful that she spent a great deal of time in her Berkeley house. 

This house is an oddity in Coxhead’s body of work. A plain Colonial Revival box blown up to freakish size, it has little to distinguish itself save the two mock-Ionic columns supporting a broken scroll pediment. Coxhead was one of the leading lights of the First Bay Region Tradition and a pioneer in the use of clinker brick and brown shingles. His clinker brick-clad Allenoke Manor (1903) at 1777 Le Roy Avenue radiates all the visual excitement that the Hearst house lacks. 

Phoebe Hearst was an architectural patron par excellence. It was at her bidding that Bernard Maybeck designed the revolutionary Hearst Hall. Her Pleasanton hacienda, designed by A.C. Schweinfurth in the mid-1890s, was a great, innovative building. So why was her Berkeley house so drab? 

It’s possible that Mrs. Hearst wished her residence to be inconspicuous and in keeping with Wheeler’s house. She is said to have planned a much larger, palatial house at the top of the hill, where the Pacific School of Religion now stands. (Across the street, Frank Wilson also planned to build a more lavish home but remained in his srown shingle, originally intended as the barn, for the rest of his life. That site is now occupied by the Graduate Theological Union Library.) 

Whether she planned for opulence or not, Mrs. Hearst disposed of her Berkeley house after less than a decade’s ownership. She may have done so because Wheeler was soon to move to the President’s Mansion on campus. 

The reception hall was sold in 1908 to Astronomy Professor Armin O. Leuschner, who hired William C. Hays to put a second story upon it. Like the Wheeler house, this building is now occupied by the New Bridge Foundation. 

The Le Conte Avenue house was sold in 1909 or 1910 to George and Louise Reed. George Walter Reed (1856–1921) was a self-made millionaire. Born in Maine and a carpenter by trade, he became a major coffee planter in Colombo, Guatemala, where he lived for nearly 40 years. His wife, Louise Matilda Reddan (1868–1948) was born in Yuba County, CA. The 1900 U.S. census listed her as an actress living with her parents in San Francisco. 

The Reeds spent several months each year on their plantations in Guatemala. In January 1921, tragedy struck them when Reed got into an argument with two of his workers. According to Reed family lore, the two Guatemalan brothers, Modesto and Adrian Santos, were riding the boss’s private mules without permission, for which Reed reprimanded them. Being quite drunk, Modesto pulled out a gun and shot the unarmed Reed. The death report from the American Consular Service determined the cause of death as “Shot to death by Modesto Santos, an employee. Three revolver bullets entered body—first through heart. Body lay where it fell for six hours.” 

The murderers fled to Mexico, where they were spotted working in the petroleum industry under assumed names. 

On March 8, 1921, the Oakland Tribune devoted a front-page article to Mrs. Reed when she returned with her husband’s body aboard the Pacific Mail liner Golden State. Mrs. Reed told the newspaper that she had been driven from the plantation and was threatened by “influential friends of the murderers.” 

Mrs. Reed also reported that Guatemalan President Carlos Herrera y Luna was “making special efforts to run down Reed’s slayers.” However, the two were never apprehended. 

Within a few years, Louise Reed had married the Berkeley realtor Charles E. Grigsby, fifteen years her junior. They made several trips to Guatemala and eventually sold the plantations. The proceeds were invested in East Bay real estate. Grigsby’s green thumb soon turned the garden at 2334 Le Conte Avenue into a showplace. 

The house, along with the Wheeler house and the former reception hall, was one of just a few structures in the vicinity that survived the 1923 Berkeley fire. In the late 1920s, when land was cheap, religious seminaries wishing to build near the campus snapped it up. As a result, the neighborhood’s character changed from residential to institutional. 

Following Louise Reed Grigsby’s death in 1948, her property (now renumbered 2368 Le Conte Ave.) was sold to the Mormon Church. The garden was replaced by a large featureless building, but the original house is preserved largely as it used to be. The only discernible physical difference is the paint on the once natural stucco, but without a spacious garden to offset it, the fomer Hearst residence looks more than ever like an overblown tract house. 

Daniella Thompson edits berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson  

The former Hearst-Reed house at 2368 Le Conte Ave. has been occupied by the Mormon Berkeley Institute of Religion for nearly six decades.  

It has come to my attention that the hard freeze predicted (as I write this) for late this week is the first some of my fellow Berkeley denizens have experienced here. If it happened on time, you’re reading this in the Retrospectroscope, that scientific instrument that gives us 20-20 hindsight. Still, this might be useful. 

First: Don’t panic. If you have plants already hurt by frost, don’t rush out and start whacking off the damaged bits. Leave them alone until you see new growth. Some things will be OK under it all, and the dead tissue you leave on the plant can insulate the growing points against further damage. The brown stuff looks ugly but it won’t harm and it might help.  

Second: Don’t despair. If there was a freeze and you didn’t get your plants covered and there’s another night of frost on the horizon, cover them. Preventing more damage will give them a better chance to recover. 

Third: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you can’t quite do it right, protect your plants as well as you can. I’ll explain this more, below. 

Fourth: Get out there early the morning after and uncover those plants, especially if you’ve used plastic sheeting over them. That stuff works as a solar oven in the daytime, and your poor plants can get cooked.  

Plants typically freeze when the night is clear and the air is still. A decent breeze will decrease the peril – that’s why you see those big propeller-looking fans in Napa Valley vineyards—and cloud cover will moderate the temperatures. Your garden’s in more danger if it’s at the bottom of a hill, because cold air drops and warm air rises.  

If you have tender plants—tropicals and subtropicals, generally—in pots, bring them under the eaves, into the garage, or onto the porch. Anything overhanging them will help. Also, the thermal mass of a building, the heat it’s absorbed from the sun all day, will moderate temperatures near it.  

If you can’t move it, cover it. Blankets, old curtains, sheets – some extremists use the old down sleeping bag the dog peed in last summer. In Britain, they sell lengths of synthetic fleece for plant cozies.  

Plastic sheeting is a classic here. To best protect the plants, build a framework to hold the sheet. This can be as simple as three garden stakes around the plant, or a tipi of poles with a garbage bag pulled over it. The idea is not to let the cover touch the plant, because where it touches will be damaged.  

If you can’t avoid that, though, just throw the sheet over. Better to lose a few leaves than the whole plant.  

Experts advise watering plants before a frost, because frostbite is mostly dehydration. Maybe, but there’s one big exception: cacti and succulents. I’ve had a cactus explode—really; pieces were scattered over three feet or more—when a freeze hit it. Water expands when it freezes and turgid cells burst. Spectacular, but fatal.  

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

I am something of a purist when it comes to our older housing stock. Well actually, let me revise that. What I really am is a lover of old houses and all the bits of antiquity that inhabit our cities. Buildings, signage, concrete sidewalk stamps and vintage cars.  

I guess I’m just permanently nostalgic and in love with a time before my birth. It’s not fair, really. I don’t genuinely believe that the past was uniformly preferable and Polio was no walk in the park. But there is something sweeter, more innocent and more cherishing of who we are that seems to inhabit the articles of our past. Modern buildings don’t seem to care who they sell to, who lives in them and whether they’re burned for firewood or just e-traded in on some junk bonds. A 1920s house would refuse such a sale. It would just lock itself up and grow vines. 

Ah, but as usual, I utterly digress. The reason I make the point about older homes is that I do, in point of fact, believe that portions of them tend to need revision. Despite the umbrage the old girl might take, I think that there are a few innovations that might make her a smidge more habitable. 

The one I’d like to tackle today is the matter of lighting. As anyone who’s ever owned a home from before 1940 will tell you, the built-in lighting leaves much to be desired and owners of older homes often salivate amidst soirées in modern homes. While the fenestration (window placement) in older homes is often quite good, electric lighting was quite new in the first half of the 20th century and builders didn’t know much regarding what could or should be done with this newfangled stuff. Most houses from before 1950 have a single junction box at the center of each ceiling and thus rely upon the single fixture to provide for all the needs of a room, large or small.  

A few homes featured wall-set junction boxes that allowed for, mostly simple, sconces to be placed upon walls. These fixtures usually had their own switches and lacked any sort of wall switch to operate them singly or in groups. Wall switching did come along after a while and the occasional clever electrician did manage to add well-placed switching. In the 1950’s an odd thing happened and ceiling lamps went missing altogether. 

I’m not sure if someone misplaced them, forgot to put them in or simply decided that nobody of any aesthetic metal would stoop to installing a fixture on that serene white speckled landscape. I fear the latter must have been the case. Those houses were fitted with switchable outlets where standing lamps could be installed and, clever as that was, the absence of a permanently installed overhead light source was soon recognized for it’s inherent retardedness and rectified by nearly all subsequent parties. 

One nice thing about old houses is that, with a little respect for their dignity and richness, many modern accoutrements can be added without deeply damaging their appeal. I’ve seen many fitted with sprays of recessed lighting to very good result and have a particular favor for this choice. The latter requires access to the ceiling space and is easiest when installed below an attic of moderate size. 

If installed in the ceiling below another floor, the ceiling will generally have to be removed to accommodate the installation. Wires can be pulled through joist spaces but this is quite difficult and often not worth the hardship. In my experience, it’s better to remove the drywall or plaster from a trapped ceiling prior to the installation of more than one or two lighting fixtures. By the way, replacing a single ceiling with drywall is not all that difficult or expensive and is hugely liberating in terms of the work that one can do in a short period of time when things have been opened up. 

Even if you’re not in the mood for the more arduous task of adding a field of cans to your ceiling there are so many ways to improve lighting without touching a single foot of Romex. Simply changing the fixtures on the ceilings or walls can increase luminosity, improve the directing of light and add some flair for amazingly little cost and complexity. This is actually a job that many individuals can manage on their own. Here are a few tips: 

Changing a light fixture usually involves the simple removal of a pair of screws on the old fixture, disconnecting a pair of wires and reversing the procedure with a new fixture. There are some problems to expect. First, removing the old screws often means clearing the paint from the screw heads. I have found that a slotted screwdriver and a small hammer work well to “drive” the wafer of paint out of the slot of an old slotted screw. Place the screwdriver on a steep angle and tap sharply to force the paint free. Once done, it’s a simple matter to remove the screw. I suggest running a utility knife with a fresh blade around the base of the fixture if it is also painted into place (most very old light fixtures have both these problems). This will allow the fixture to practically fall into your hands. Careful with the blade knife. They’re particularly well suited to slicing hands wide open. 

Regarding ladders; If you’re a cheapskate like moi and are still using that rickety fright of a wooden ladder. Get down, bust it into pieces and go spend 50 bucks on a nice ladder. It’s best to do electrical work on a fiberglass ladder since it can’t conduct electricity and deprive your darling children of that parent they so badly need. Go borrow Ed’s ladder. He’s not using it and you can buy him a bottle of Chianti when you’re done. 

Replacement fixtures don’t always have the screw holes spaced the same as the original but there are a range of solutions. The best one, in most cases, is to use an adapter that allows for this difference. The adapter gets screwed onto the old junction box in the walls first and then has several screw holes in the adapter itself to allow the fixture to be screwed into it. This works well for lightweight fixtures but not for behemoths. If you have something huge, get help. That’s not the beginning course.  

The adapters come in different types but all require a second set of screws that are the right length. A nice trick to know is that many wire splicing tools have a screw cutting feature. This proves quite handy in this particular situation wherein you may need a screw of a specific length to get the fixture to lie nicely against the ceiling (or wall). This is the central problem with these adapters. If not used properly or if used with a certain type of fixture, they can result in a fixture that doesn’t lie flat. Not to worry. Most problems resolve themselves with a bit of head-scratching and this is a very worthwhile starter project that more than earns its worth despite the few difficulties that are sure to arise. 

When you swap the fixture, you’ll want to be damned sure that the power is off. I’d acquire a non-contact voltage tester. They’re commonly available at most hardware stores for roughly 15 bucks and they make a sound (most do) when they’re near hot current. They don’t need to be on the hot wire. When you turn off the power, you can use this device to be sure that the wire is actually dead before handling it. I’d test it against a known hot wire just to be sure it’s working. I’d also use a common wire tester before handling any wire. 

When you replace the lamp, use a new pair of wire nuts and be sure that the old and new are nice and tight. 

When you replace a light fixture, consider the total wattage of the fixture as compared to the original one. Most wiring is not suitable for a fixture that adds several powerful bulbs. Try to keep your fixture down to 200 watts or less, unless you’ve checked with an electrician. That means 3-60 watt bulbs or a pair of hundreds at most. Low voltage halogens rate in a different way but you can just read the package to see the total wattage.  

This brings me to my last tip, that being an upgrade to something high-tech for your senescent dandy (your house, not your husband). I’ve seen cable lighting in older homes (and done this myself) and it can look just great in the right room. Aside from being really fun, it’s pretty easy to install and most kits are pretty low in total wattage. Ikea has some nice sets for a pittance. They have quite a range of lamps for very small sums, not that I’m trying to push Ikea. There are lots of great places for fixtures. 

Our own Metro Lighting of Berkeley makes delicious lamps, many of which harken back to our own Craftsman roots and fit our Bay Area style with great aplomb. They’re on the web at metrolighting.com if you want to take a look. 

Lighting is such a bargain and certainly one of the first things I’d do to any old house if I were pinching pennies. If you’re looking to spruce up or to try a first project, add some lighting to your old gal. She’ll just glow with pride. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net. 

Matt Cantor owns Cantor Inspections and lives in Berkeley. His column runs weekly. 

Copyright 2006 Matt Cantor

TUESDAY, JAN. 16 

FILM 

Yoko Ono: Imagine Film “No. 4” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival at 6:15 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland, followed by panel discussion on California’s Clean Air Campaign. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“True West” Actors Ensemble director, Paul Shepard, will discuss the play at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

Alan Deutschman talks about his latest book, “Change or Die” at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 527-0450.  

Poetry Flash with Natalie F. Anderson, Jessica Fisher and Lisa Coffman at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. 

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

Rafaela Castro reads from “Provocaciones: Letters from the Prettiest Girl in Arvin” at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Fishtank Ensemble at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $TBA. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Different Strokes, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Spencer Day at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200.  

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, and runs through April 15. 642-0808. 

FILM 

“Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Byron Hurt’s documentary at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Panel discussion with the filmmaker follows. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

History of Cinema “Introduction to Film Language” at 3 p.m. and “Free to Be ... You and Me Invitational” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peter Sussman reads from “Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford” at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio discuss “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10.  

Stanley Brandes introduces “Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and Beyond” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Crucible’s Fire Ballet “Romeo and Juliet” Wed. - Sat. at 8:30 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland, through Jan. 20. Tickets are $30-$55. 444-0919. 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

No Ordinary Noise! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Bernard Anderson & The Old School Band at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. West Coast Swing dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Mo’ Fone at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Paul Manousos at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Preston Reed, guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Whicked Oystahs at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Ledisi at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, JAN. 18 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Shanghai Alleyways” Photographs by Jianhua Gong opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at the IEAS Gallery, 2223 Fulton St. 642-2809. 

Oakland Art Association Juried Show Reception at 4 p.m. at the MTC Offices, Bort MetroCenter, 3rd floor, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to March 30. 817-5773. 

FILM 

“Touch of Evil” Film series with David Thomson at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival at 6 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tony Bellaver, Barbara Foster and Scott Serata will give a gallery talk about their works in the exhibition “Interventions” at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Exhibit runs to Feb. 10. 644-6893. 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Curator’s talk by Constance Lewallen at 12:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“New Media and Social Memory” A symposium to discuss strategies for preserving digital art from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Free but regitration requested. bampfa.berkeley,edu/ciao/avant_garde.html 

Christopher Moore reads from “You Suck: A Love Story” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Rudy Rucker reads from his newest novel “Methematicians in Love” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Utah Phillips at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

“The Math of Music” Suites for solo cello by J.S. Bach performed by Tanya Tomkins on Baroque cello at 5:30 p.m. in the Simons Auditorium, 17 Gauss Way, near the intersection of Centennial Dr. and Grizzly Peak Blvd. Free. 642-0143. www.msri.org 

Soul Majestic, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Teed Rockwell at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Likewise, Keith Varon at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. 

FRIDAY, JAN. 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

Don Clausen Oil Paintings Abstract and Portaits at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., #4. Runs through Feb. 4. 421-1255. 

“What is This Place?” Open House at 7 p.m. at the Fourth Street Studio, 1717d 4th St. 527-0600. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “True West” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through Feb. 17. Tickets are $12. 649-5999.  

Altarena Playhouse Rogers and Hammerstein’s “A Grand Night for Singing” Fri and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Feb. 17. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553.  

Azeem’s “Rude Boy” at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way and runs Thurs.-Sat. through Jan. 27. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006. 

Berkeley Rep “The Pillowman” at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Feb. 25. Tickets are $33-$61. 647-2949. 

Masquers Playhouse “Arsenic and Old Lace” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., though Feb. 24, at 105 Park Playhouse, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “The Tempest” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at The Metal Shop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., behind Willard Middle School. Runs through Feb. 17. Tickets are $15-$25. 800-838-3006.  

Rough and Tumble “43 Plays for 43 Presidents” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Eucid Ave. through Jan. 27. Tickets are $15-$20. 499-0356.  

Shotgun Players “The Forest War” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., extended through Jan 28. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Starlight Circle Players “Dead Men Tell No Tales” A piratical musical at 8 p.m. Fri.-Sun., at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Tickets are $10-$25. 647-5268. 

FILM 

The Lubitsch Touch “Madame Dubarry” at 7 p.m. and “Angel” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash presents Roxane Beth Johnson and Chad Sweeney at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. 

Anne Finger reads from “eledy for a Disease: A Personal and Cultural History of Polio” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley High Dance Production 2007, the best of hip hop, jazz and modern, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. in the Little Theater, BHS Campus. Tickets are $10, students $5. Come early as shows sell out.  

“A Musical Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr” including “Black Suite Blues” with the Oakland East Bay Symphony at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $20-$62. www.oebs.org 

The Crucible’s Fire Ballet “Romeo and Juliet” Wed. - Sat. at 8:30 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland, through Jan. 20. Tickets are $30-$55. 444-0919. 

Dangerous Rhythm, jazz players jam at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $15 at the door. www.hillsideclub.org  

Pat Carroll Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373.  

Pamela Rose & Her Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Chelle! & Friends at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568.  

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

D’Armous Boone’s Improv Consortium at Free Jazz Fridays at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St. Performance Space, Oakland. Cost is $5-$15. 415-846-9432. 

Ray Cepeda, Latin rock, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Bob Franke at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Jenny Ferris Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Abel Mouton and Dave Hadley at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Monster Squad, Whiskey Rebels, Static Thought at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Sol Spectrum at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Ethiopian Epiphany Timkat Celebration at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15-$20. 548-1159.  

The Brothers Goldman at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Tartufi at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100. 

Ledisi at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JAN. 20 

CHILDREN  

Drawing Techniques with Elisa Kelven at 2 p.m. in the Story Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6224. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“100 Families in Oakland: Art & Social Change” Exhibition opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland, and runs through April 22. 238-2200. 

“Transforming Vision: The Wood Sculpture of William Hunter, 1970-2005” Exhibition opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland, and runs through March 18. 238-2200. 

“Hands in Motion” Works by Adekunle Kabir Adejare. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Float Art Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place # 116, Oakland. Benefit for Paths of Native Africa. Exhibition runs through Feb. 12. 535-1702. 

B & W Archival Ink Prints by Thomas Lavin Reception for the artist at 6 p.m. at Photolab, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibition runs to Feb. 24. 644-1400. 

Fifth Anniversary Celebration at at 7:30 p.m. at the Fourth Street Studio, 1717d 4th St. 527-0600. 

FILM 

“Madame Broutte” Moussa Sene Absa’s film of a Sengalese widow at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Third flr. Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6139. 

The Lubitsch Touch “Sumrun” at 6:30 p.m. and “Trouble in Paradise” at 8:40 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival at 5 p.m. and Sun. at 4:15 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Robert Scheer will discuss his new collection of political writings and presidential interviews at the Alameda Public Affairs Forum at 7 p.m. at the Home of Truth Center, 1300 Grand St., Alameda. 

Jacqueline Golding discusses “Healing Stories: Picture Books for the Big and Small Changes in a Child’s Life” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“Japanese Modern Literature & Cinema” with Prof. Frederick Hsia at 1:45 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6136. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Flauti Diversi “Bach to Bach” at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18. 527-9840. 

American Bach Soloists perform works from 18th century Leipzig at 8 p.m. at First Congregatioanl Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $16-$42. 415-621-7900. rg 

Potaje, contemorary music rooted in Flamenco and Latin styles at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

Peking Acrobats at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988.  

Terrain “WinterDances 2007” Sat. and Sun. at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 Eighth St. 848-4878. 

Dark Funeral, Enslaved, Abigail Williams at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $25-$28. 763-1146.  

Upground, Latin reggae, ska, cumbia and funk, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$10. 849-2568.  

Eric Swinderman Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

A Night in Havana with Pellejo Seco at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Damond Moodie and Deborah Crooks at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Du Uy Quintet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Los Cenzontles, traditional Mexican music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Rocket, all-girl punk, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Hamir Atwal Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Heather Lauren Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Don Villa & Friends, country blues, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Dark Funeral, Enslaved, Abigail Williams at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $25-$28. 763-1146. w 

Comadre, Parasites Go, Defiant Voice at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Ledisi at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, JAN. 21 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Berkeley: 75 Years Ago” opens at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Hours are Thurs.-Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. Exhibit runs through March. 848-0181.  

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Guided tour at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“Tilden Sublime” a reception for artist Sheila Sondick at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

FILM 

“Shellmound” A documentary followed by speakers and drum circle at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5. 525-5054.  

The Lubitsch Touch “Die Flamme” at 2 p.m. and “The Oyster Princess” at 4:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sal Glynn will discuss “The Dog Walked Down the Street: An Outspoken Guide for Writers Who Want to Publish” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. 

Susan Snyder describes “Past Tents: The Way We Camped” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Leonard Pitt reads from “A Small Moment of Great Illumination: Searching for Valentine Greatrakes, the Master Healer” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sandra Soderland “Preludes and Fugues from Four Centuries” at 4 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. Donation $10-$15. 525-0302. 

Anton Schwartz, saxophonist, at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Peidmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10, children under 12 free. 228-3218. 

Peking Acrobats at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988.  

Oberlin Jazz Septet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Steve Taylor-Ramirez, Meli Rivera, and Silvia Parra in a concert dedicated to the women victims of violence in Latin America at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

Paul H. Taylor & The Montera Mountain Boys at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Natasha Miller Ensemble at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. 

John McCutcheon at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.

BLACK SUIT BLUES 

To commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Oakland East Bay Symphony will present the West Coast premiere of “Black Suit Blues” on Friday. Written by local composer Nolan Gasser and premiered by the Memphis Symphony, “Black Suit Blues” is based on a poem by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. about the impact Martin Luther King, Jr. has had on this country. The work, which draws heavily on blues and gospel styles, depicts the intense emotions following King’s assassination. The second half of the program will feature Schubert’s “Symphony No. 9, The Great.” Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland, 8 p.m. Tickets $20-$62. For details, www.oebs.org. 

INTERVENTIONS 

Tony Bellaver, Barbara Foster and Scott Serata will give a gallery talk Thursday on their work in the exhibition “Interventions” at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., 6:30 p.m. Selected from the January 2006 Members’ Showcase, the artwork of Bellaver, Foster and Serata—presenting disparate media: installation, prints, collage and photography— respond to human intervention upon nature. The exhibit continues to Feb. 10. For details, 644-6893. 

THE MATH OF MUSIC 

The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute invites the public to attend its final concert in a series, part of the “Mathematics + Music” concert series, presenting “One Is One and All Alone,” the solo music of J. S. Bach and Eric Zivian on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Institute’s Simons Auditorium at Chern Hall, 17 Gauss Way, near the intersection of Centennial Drive and Grizzly Peak Boulevard. Suites for solo cello will be performed by Tanya Tomkins on Baroque cello. Composer-pianist Eric Zivian will be present to talk to the audience about his cello composition based on the works of Bach. Free admission. For details, 642-0143 or www.msri.org.

“What led me to a life of piracy on the high seas? ... It wasn’t a woman; it was a book!” 

It really is a book, “an old sea journal,” that causes Eliza (Stacy Dulan) and her old salt grandfather-with-a-brogue (Shea R. Williams) to “find themselves transported aboard an 18th century pirate ship, The Sea Hawk,” with grandfather made young again, eyes glittering, as he takes on the persona of Capt. Tom Flint—and Eliza finds herself unhappy in cabin boy garb as “Eli”—among the rough corsairs on deck, under the Jolly Roger, in Starlight Circle Players’ production of Lauren Renee Hotchkiss’ original pirate musical, Deadmen Tell No Tales, at the Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists on Cedar at Bonita (rendezvous point coordinates: N37 52’ 40, 18’’ W122 16’ 21.55’’ according to the program) running next Friday through Sunday. 

Along the way on the voyage, a Spanish ship is taken and almost scuttled (saved by the pleading of a damsel in distress, English consul’s daughter Elizabeth Greyson [Amy Muzingo]); there’s a near-mutiny (over Elizabeth’s charms) and a near walking the plank; a storm at sea with lightning flashing; brawling in a buccaneer’s bar on Tortuga with an order of “Rum and Gunpowder” flambeed at pistol-point; duels with swordfish; a ventriloquist parrot, The Admiral; a treasure map; and two swashbuckling ghosts, one skull-faced, in gauze, the other a full-blooded, hirsute Blackbeard. 

There’re also some nice touches: a budding romance middecks (though the Captain substitutes sea lore for sweet talk over sherry), a comradery (and duet) between Elizabeth and girl pirate Bonny Reed (Celeste Paradise) as they plot landing their intended corsairs, Eliza’s numbers in which she longs to return to the 21st century when “a girl can be a girl,” pacing out the treasure hunt around the audience and a neat role-reversal with the Captain ready for domestication and his would-be spouse caught up with pirate fever and lust of the sea. 

The Unitarian Fellowship has taken on the aspect of the deck and bridge of a ship and writer-composer Lauren Renee Hotchkiss leads a lusty band of guitars (including acoustic bass guitar), fiddles, recorders and drums, with a musical saw and parrot squawkings with a folky sound (there’s a version of “Fifteen Men on a Deadman’s Chest”), the composer taking on the name, in part, of Irish piratess Grainne O’Malley (in the program, everyone, down to bookkeeper “Dominica Lafitte,” is dubbed with a nom de filiboustier) and popping up everywhere in the program, cofounder with Lezlie Kinyon of the troupe and co-director of the show, with Paul Jennings. 

The Starlight Circle Players are a young troupe, brand-new and with their own twist on community theater, apparently committed to producing originals (a new play, by a different author, is due this spring in Oakland). 

They have energy and intend to have fun and take the audience along with them. Sometimes the lines get lost, due in part to the acoustics of the hall and full sound of the band, in part to the inexperience of some of the players (though the roguish crew is mostly in good voice: Martin Linhart as a Pegleg who gets bored and switches legs for his peg sometimes; Michael Fallon, with a deadman’s hand up his sleeve; Jerry Tomlinson; Nils Skudra; Richard Dromgoole and Jonathan Aclan). Besides, this merry crew really expresses itself in the songs, which sometimes seem nonstop. 

Deadmen Tell No Tales is a wry sort of family show, in a way, a block party kind of festivity—if block you live on is, in imagination, Moultrie Island in Charleston Bay, where Edgar Allan Poe set the treasure hunt of “The Gold Bug,” or outlined by the map of Treasure Island, which, according to some, is in the shape of Point Lobos, near Monterey, where Robert Louis Stevenson lived while dreaming up the book. 

Deadmen Tell No Tales 

The Starlight Circle Players 

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 

Fri.-Sun. 8 p.m., $10-$25 

647-5268  

www.fortlangley.ca/Stars/Home.html 

Among other signs of impending geezerhood, I keep noticing that some birds that used to be common are harder and harder to find. I can remember winters when the bay seemed to be paved with surf scoters. 

But these odd ducks, and their relatives the white-winged scoter and the black scoter, seem to be in trouble; populations of all three species have declined since the late 1970s. The biologists aren’t sure why, although there’s a whole Orient Express parlor car full of suspects. 

You can see the trends if you go to the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count website and play around with the graph-making function. On the Oakland count, which includes Berkeley, surf scoter numbers have always fluctuated, but in the last decade or so the highs have been a lot lower. 

The Point Reyes count used to record white-winged scoters in the thousands on Tomales Bay. Last year there was only one. 

So what’s going on? It’s probably not overkill by duck hunters; none of the scoters are prized game birds, at least on this coast. They’re not among the tastier ducks. I have a couple of New England scoter recipes that appeared in Field and Stream in 1924. 

In one procedure, you boil the scoter and an anvil in a large pot. When you can stick a fork in the anvil, the scoter is done. Alternatively, you can nail the duck to a plank, leave it in the sun for a week, and then throw away the scoter and cook the plank. You get the idea.  

One concern is that scoters are picking up contaminants on their wintering grounds that interfere with reproduction. Scoters, like sea ducks in general, aren’t prolific breeders. They’re slow to mature and may not nest every year. So relatively small perturbations could have a disproportionate effect on population trends. 

Wintering scoters feed primarily on mollusks, supplemented by herring roe during spawning runs (they’ll pull up roe-encrusted eelgrass by the roots). And clams and mussels from San Francisco Bay, where over three-quarters of North America’s surf scoters spend the winter, are loaded with mercury, selenium, and cadmium. 

Those elements enter the Bay from runoff from old mines, irrigation drain water, discharges from oil refineries. In the 1980s, surf scoters in the Bay had higher mercury and selenium concentrations than any other species of waterfowl. 

The Bay’s changing ecosystem could be a factor in the ducks’ increased contaminant loads. The exotic overbite clam is a super-concentrator of selenium, at rates three times higher than other local clams. Changes in the prey base may also affect the scoters’ general condition. If they don’t return to the breeding grounds with the right ratio of protein to fat or the right body mass, they may forego nesting. 

There used to be huge gaps in our knowledge of the surf scoter’s life cycle: where and when it nests, where it stops over during migration. 

That’s changing rapidly, though, with ongoing studies in San Francisco Bay, Baja California, Puget Sound, and the Strait of Georgia. 

U.S. Geological Survey researchers have used satellite telemetry to track scoters from the Bay to nests in the Canadian Northwest Territories and sample their eggs for contaminants. 

The ducks may also bear the brunt of changes in the Far North. More than 80% of the population of all three scoter species breed in wetlands surrounded by boreal forest. 

Their decline is paralleled by that of other boreal nesters. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a Bonaparte’s gull, a graceful bird that, unusually for a gull, nests in trees. The rusty blackbird, formerly abundant in the East in winter, 

has also crashed. 

In all, 303 bird species, 43 percent of the North American total, nest in the Alaskan and Canadian boreal zone. It’s particularly important for migratory songbirds: flycatchers, sparrows, warblers. In the grand scheme of things, the boreal forest may be as crucial a habitat for North American birds as the tropical rainforests where other migrants spend the winter. And it may be just as vulnerable. 

According to the Boreal Songbird Initiative, only 8 percent of the Canadian boreal forest has any kind of formal protection. 

About a third has been earmarked for logging and energy development; millions of acres are clearcut every year. The current Conservative government in Ottawa is likely to exacerbate that trend. 

Logging aside, there’s our old friend global warming. A 1997 study found that the Mackenzie Basin in the Northwest Territories had warmed an average of 3.1 degrees F over the past hundred years, three times the global rate, and that Great Slave Lake, the deepest lake in North America, had reached its lowest measured water levels.  

For more on boreal birds and their environment, and suggestions for action, check out BSI’s website: www.borealbirds.org. Despite its name, the organization isn’t just about songbirds. Ducks, gulls, and shorebirds are also on its agenda. 

Surf scoters aren’t considered endangered—yet. But preventing that will likely take coordinated attention to both their Pacific Coast wintering grounds and their northern breeding territories.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan  

A drake surf scoter near Oakland's Arrowhead Marsh.  

TUESDAY, JAN. 16 

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 Claremont Canyon. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Berkeley Garden Club meets at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. The topic will be “The Treasures of Mount Diablo” with Seth Adams, Director of Land Programs. 845-4482. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 594-5165, blackstonea@usa.redcross.org 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival Films on environmental justice at 6:15 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland, followed by panel discussion on California’s Clean Air Campaign. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

“Discover Your Inner Healer” with Jerry Zeiger, clinical hypnotherapist, at noon at Maffly Auditorium, Alta Bates Summit, 2001 Dwight Way. 644-3273. 

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. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Discussion Salon on Modern China at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about our feathered friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Tilden Mini-Rangers An afterschool programfrom 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. for ages 8-12 on conservation and nature-based activities. Dress to get dirty. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code ELEPHANT) 

“Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Byron Hurt’s documentary at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Panel discussion with the filmmaker follows. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

Albany Library Evening Book Club meets to discuss “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson at 7 p.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

New to DVD “The Descent” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Balinese Music & Dance Workshops in gamelan angklung begins at 5:15 at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. # 290, Oakland. Cost is $12 per class or $40 per month. To register call. 237-6849. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JAN. 18 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about our feathered friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Bringing the Condors Home” a lecture by Joe Burnett, senior wildlife biologist at the Ventana Wildlife Society, at 12:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival at 6 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

“Wings in the Night: A Celebration of Bats” with Patricia Winters of the California Bat Conservation Fund at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, between Solano and Marin. Sponsored by The Golden Gate Audubon Society. 843-2222. 

Teen Book Club meets to discuss the most boring and most shocking books we’ve read at 4:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6107. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755.  

FRIDAY, JAN. 19 

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 

Understanding the Realities of War A community meeting to help service members cope with returning from combat, at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Free for veterans and their families, $10 for others. Full day workshop for veterans and families on Sat. 415-387-0800. 

“Tales of the San Joaquin” A documentary on this hardworking and abused river, and “Affluenza” on American’s use of global resources at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 acccepted. www.HumanistHall.net 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at UCB Unit 2 Dorms, Recreation Room, 2650 Haste. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code UCB) 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dr. Linnard-Palmer on “Religion and the Medical Treatment of a Minor” 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.  

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Key to Life Ministries’ Annual Crab Feed and Fundraiser at 6 p.m. at Richmond Memorial Convention Center, 403 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. Tickets are $37. 525-0500. 

Movies that Matter “Chicago” at 6:30 p.m. at Neumayer Residence, 565 Bellevue St. at Perkins, Oakland. Free. 451-3009. http://joyfulharmony.org  

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 20 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 6-9 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Dress to get dirty. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Save the Oaks Welcomes Back Students with music, art, food, games and fun at noon at the Oak Grove, on Piedmont Ave., in front of Memorial Stadium.  

Family Bird Walk at the Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Learn birding basics with naturalist Bethany Facendini on this 2 mile walk. For information and meeting place call 525-2233. 

Wildcat Canyon/Alvarado History Walk Join Berkeley Path Wanderers and East Bay Park District Naturalist Dave Zuckermann exploring the historic Alvarado Park section of Wildcat Canyon Park on a 2.5 mile moderately paced walk. Meet at 10 a.m. at the park staging area off of Park Ave., 0.1 mile off McBryde Ave., in Richmond. Bring water and snack; dress in layers and be prepared for mud. www.berkeleypaths.org  

Understanding the Realities of War Free workshop for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Free for veterans and their families, $10 for others. 415-387-0800. 

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay 2007 Planning Meeting at 11:30 a.m. at the Fireside Room, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar and Bonita St. All welcome. 636-4149 www.pdeastbay.org 

“Playing President: My Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, and Clinton—and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush” with author Robert Scheer at 7 p.m. at the Alameda Public Affairs Forum, Home of Truth Center, 1300 Grand St. Alameda. 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival on Oil, Energy and Global Warming at 5 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

“Scientists Look at Love” A discussion of the latest research on the brain’s response to romance, arousal and heartbreak, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant Ave. Free, but registration required. http://plaisir.berkeley.edu. 

“Which Way the West?” How the 2006 elections will affect the public lands, water and communities of the American West, with former Interior Department solicitor John Leshy, Sierra Club conservation director Bruce Hamilton, Hewlett Foundation environmental program officer Rhea Suh and High Country News publisher Paul Larmer at 7 p.m. in the Krutch Theater, Clark Kerr Campus, UC Campus. RSVP to 800-905-1155. 

California Writers Club meets to discuss “To Be Somebody Else” with Peter Beagle at 10 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

Financial Planning Seminar for Women at 2 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

Piedmont Choir Placement Auditions for beginners and experienced singers aged 6-10. To schedule an audition call 547-4441.  

Developing a Personal Yoga Practice Series of four classes begins at 9:30 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200.  

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.  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

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, JAN. 21 

“Berkeley: 75 Years Ago” opens at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Hours are Thurs.-Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. Exhibit runs through March. 848-0181.  

Gone Tracking Find tracks and make a plaster cast of a racoon, fox, rabbit or deer that you can take home. All materials provided. Meet at 10:30 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $3. 525-2233. 

“Open Garden” Join the Little Farm gardener for composting, planting, watering and reaping the rewards of our work, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cancelled only by heavy rain. 525-2233.  

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, on Telegraph Ave. between Derby & Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival on Protecting Our Native Lands at 4:15 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

“Tilden Sublime” a reception for artist Sheila Sondick at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism “Tibetan World Peace Ceremony” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JAN. 22 

“The Motherhood Manifesto” A documentary film based on the book by Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, about the need for true family-friendly social policies, at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. 658-6177. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 2 to 3 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

“Having a Healthy Heart” with Cathy Luginbill, Coordinator of Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs at Alta Bates Summit, at 12:30 p.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. Brown-bag lunch event. 526-3720. 

Introduction to Meditation at 6:45 p.m. at Bay Zen Center, 315 Alcatraz Ave. Donation $10. To register call, 596-3087. 

ONGOING 

Berkeley Winter Campaign for Cats We are providing free trapping assistance and spay/neuter to feral and homeless cats in Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and Piedmont, through March 2007. The cats will be spayed/neutered, vaccinated, treated for fleas and returned safely back to their neighborhoods. To report a neighborhood in need or to volunteer, please contact Caitlin at 908-0709. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Jan.16, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed.,Jan. 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601.  

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Jan. 17, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7550.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Jan. 17, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed. Jan. 17, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Kristen Lee, 981-5427.  

Board of Library Trustees meets Wed. Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at the South Branch Library, 1901 Russell St. 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 644-6128 ext. 113.  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thurs., Jan 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs. Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5400. 

FRIDAY, JAN. 12 

THEATER 

Azeem’s “Rude Boy” at 8 p.m. at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way and runs Thurs.-Sat. through Jan. 27. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006. 

Rough and Tumble “43 Plays for 43 Presidents” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean Theater, 1834 Eucid Ave. through Jan. 27. Tickets are $15-$20. 499-0356. www.randt.org 

Shotgun Players “The Forest War” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., extended through Jan 28. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Starlight Circle Players “Dead Men Tell No Tales” A piratical musical at 8 p.m. Fri.-Sun., through Jan. 21, at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Tickets are $10-$25. 647-5268. 

FILM 

The Lubitsch Touch “Lady Windermere’s Fan” with Bruce Loeb on piano at 7 p.m., and “The Shop Around the Corner” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash presents Sandra M. Gilbert reading from “Belongings” and Willa Schenberg reading from “Storytelling in Cambodia” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Arias From “X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X” in honor of the inauguration of Ron Dellums at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro Operahouse, 201 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $20. www.oaklandopera.org 

The Crucible’s Fire Ballet “Romeo and Juliet” Wed. - Sat. at 8:30 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland, through Jan. 20. Tickets are $30-$55. 444-0919. www.thecrucible.org 

Ras Midas & Root Awakening in a MLK Day Reggae Celebration at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dan Zemelman Quartet, original and traditional jazz 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $15 at the door. www.hillsideclub.org 

Julian Pollack, pianist, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

E.W. Wainwright Tribute to Max Roach at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Atmos Trio, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Rebecca Griffin Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

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

Victor Krummenacher, Jonathan Segel, Mia & Jonah at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Arnocorps, Judgement Day, Cookie Mongoloid 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. 

A Night of Voices with stories by Matt Holdaway and music by Cervantes, Isabellas, River of Rust at 9:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Low Red Land at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Sunhouse at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159.  

Wayward Monks at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Gerald Albright at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, JAN. 13 

CHILDREN  

Storytelling Worshop on “Abuela” by Arthur Dorros, for ages 7-10 at 2 p.m. in the Story Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6224. 

Andy Z at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 10th St., at Gilman. Cost is $7. 526-9888. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Can We Spare Some Change? - A Change in Attitude” Paintings by Milton Bowens. Exhibition Closing Reception at 6:30 p.m. at African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St. Oakland. 637-0200. 

“New Beginnings” The art of Vesta Kirby and others opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. Gallery hours are Wed.-Sat. noon to 5 p.m. 644-4930. 

Deborah Muse “Paintings and Quilts” Reception for the artist at 4 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Exhibition runs to Feb. 24. 849-2568. 

“Passages and Packages: Messages of Our Mothers” opens at 7 p.m. at Rock Paper Scissors, 492 23rd St., Oakland. www.weekendwakeup.com 

“Fire in the Heart” Paintings by Foad Satterfield influenced by African art. Reception at 4 p.m. at the Community Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. Exhibition runs through March 2. 204-1667. 

“Watercolors of Oakland” by Alan Leon Reception at 2 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Lakeview Branch, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. 

FILM 

“Dodes Ka-den” Akira Kurosawa’s 1970 film of Tokyo slum dwellers, at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Third flr. Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6139. 

A Theater Near You “Le cercle rouge” at 5:30 p.m. and “Army of Shadows” at 8:20 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Storytelling in Cambodia” with Willa Schneberg at 4 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Dream of a King” Music, song and stories with Diane Ferlatte in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at 2 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 238-2220. www.museumca.org 

Berkeley Symphony “Hold On” Music by Stravinsky, Sibelius, Locke and Wilson, with George Thomson conducting, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$56. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Musica Pacifica performs “Jácaras!” The Spanish Baroque and the New World at 8 p.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College at Garber. Tickets are $10- $25. 528-1725 or www.sfems.org 

The KTO Project at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568.  

Jazzalicious at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ.  

Beausoleil with Michael Doucet at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $18-$20. 525-5054.  

Moment’s Notice Improv music, dance and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Ticets are $8-$10. 847-1119. 

Capricornicopia II at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Atmos Trio, jazz, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Jinx Jones Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Steve Seskin, Craig Carothers & Don Henry at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Beep with Michael Coleman Jazz Trio at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. 

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

El Capitan Axton Kincaid, Robber Barons at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Lucky Stiffs, Nothington, Those Unknown 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. 

Gerald Albright at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, JAN. 14 

CHILDREN 

“Life at the Little Farm” A puppet show and sing along for the whole family at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Benicia Gantner “Recent Work” and Charles Labelle “Bldgs Entered, 1997-2007” Exhibitions open at the Traywick Gallery, 895 Colusa Ave. and runs through March 31. Gallery hours are Thurs.-Sat. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. by appointment. 527-1214. 

FILM 

The Lubitsch Touch “Ninotchka” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sandy Florian and Arielle Greenberg, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Ross King describes “The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oak, Ash & Thorn, a capella at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

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

Richter Scales & Roshambo, a capella, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568.  

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373.  

SoVoSo at 7 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Diablo’s Dust at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Gerald Albright at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, JAN. 15 

FILM 

“The Mind is a Liar and a Whore” A new film by Antero Alli at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Arts Center, 2118 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 464-4640. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bill Berkson and Lyn Hejinian read from their new poems at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

PlayGround Six emerging playwrights debut new works at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $18. 415-704-3177.  

Poetry Express Annual “Other People’s Poety Night” at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anne Feeney, on tour with Western Workers Labor Heritage Foundation, at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. Tickets are $15-$20. 848-6397. 

Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a youth talent show from 2 to 5 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. 238-7217. 

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Greg Pratt &La Wanda Ultan, blues, jazz, country folk, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

The Robert Stewart Experience, A Dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, JAN. 16 

FILM 

Yoko Ono: Imagine Film “No. 4” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival at 6:15 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland, followed by panel discussion on California’s Clean Air Campaign. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“True West” Actors Ensemble director, Paul Shepard, will discuss the play at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

Alan Deutschman, senior writer for Fast Company magazine will talk about his latest book, “Change or Die” at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 527-0450.  

Poetry Flash with Natalie F. Anderson, Jessica Fisher and Lisa Coffman at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. 

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

Rafaela Castro reads from “Provocaciones: Letters from the Prettiest Girl in Arvin” at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Fishtank Ensemble at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $TBA. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Different Strokes, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Spencer Day at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20. 238-9200.  

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, and runs through April 15. 642-0808. 

FILM 

“Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Byron Hurt’s documentary at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Panel discussion with the filmmaker follows. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

History of Cinema “Introduction to Film Language” at 3 p.m. and “Free to Be ... You and Me Invitational” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peter Sussman reads from “Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford” at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio discuss “Hungry Planet: What the World Eats” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10.  

Stanley Brandes introduces “Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and Beyond” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Crucible’s Fire Ballet “Romeo and Juliet” Wed. - Sat. at 8:30 p.m. at 1260 7th St., Oakland, through Jan. 20. Tickets are $30-$55. 444-0919. 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

No Ordinary Noise! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Bernard Anderson & The Old School Band at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. West Coast Swing dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

La Verdad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Mo’ Fone at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Paul Manousos at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Preston Reed, guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Whicked Oystahs at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Ledisi at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, JAN. 18 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Shanghai Alleyways” Photographs by Jianhua Gong opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at the IEAS Gallery, 2223 Fulton St. 642-2809. 

Oakland Art Association Juried Show Reception at 4 p.m. at the MTC Offices, Bort MetroCenter, 3rd floor, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to March 30. 817-5773. 

FILM 

“Touch of Evil” Film series with David Thomson at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival at 6 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tony Bellaver, Barbara Foster and Scott Serata will give a gallery talk about their works in the exhibition “Interventions” at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Exhibit runs to Feb. 10. 644-6893. 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Curator’s talk by Constance Lewallen at 12:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“New Media and Social Memory” A symposium to discuss strategies for preserving digital art from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Free but regitration requested. bampfa.berkeley,edu/ciao/avant_garde.html 

Christopher Moore reads from “You Suck: A Love Story” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Rudy Rucker reads from his newest novel “Methematicians in Love” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Math of Music” Suites for solo cello by J.S. Bach performed by Tanya Tomkins on Baroque cello at 5:30 p.m. in the Simons Auditorium, 17 Gauss Way, near the intersection of Centennial Dr. and Grizzly Peak Blvd. Free. 642-0143. www.msri.org 

Soul Majestic, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Utah Phillips at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

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

Teed Rockwell, touch style guitar, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Likewise, Keith Varon at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Selector: Jazz Mafia Unit at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277.

ARIAS ABOUT MALCOLM IN HONOR OF RON 

Arias from X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, will be performed in honor of the inauguration of Ron Dellums as mayor of Oakland at 8 p.m. tonight (Friday) at the Oakland Metro Operhouse, 201 Broadway. $20. www.oaklandopera.org. 

HITCHCOCK CLASSICS IN EL CERRITO 

The Cerrito Theater continues its series Hitchcock thrillers this weekend with Rear Window (1954), starring Jimmy Stewart as a man who becomes obsessed with the possibly murderous actions of his neighbors. 9 p.m. Friday, 5 p.m. Saturday and at 5 p.m. Sunday. Later films in the series include North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). 10070 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito.picturepubpizza.com. 

CURATOR’S TALK AT 

BERKELEY ART MUSEUM 

Curator Constance Lewallen will present a discussion of the work of Bruce Naumann entitled “A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Naumann in the 1960s” at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18 at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

PARAMOUNT CLASSICS 

Oakland’s  

Paramount Theater will screen the  

film noir classic Double Indemnity (1944) at 8 p.m. tonight (Friday). The program features vintage cartoons, trailers and newsreels, as well as Dec-O-Win, a prize give-away game. Patrons are invited to show up as much as an hour ahead of showtime to stroll through the restored Art Deco theaters lavish lobbies and mezzanine and to enjoy a cocktail at the downstairs bar. 2025 Broadway, Oakland. 465-6400. www.paramounttheatre.com.

Though Eve A. Ma traveled the world, she spends much of her time trying to bring that world back home to the rest of us. Ma is the entrepreneurial force behind Palomino Productions, a Berkeley-based company producing DVDs and television programs on the art of dance.  

As a writer, professor, dancer and now as a producer and director, Ma has devoted years to honoring and promoting diversity in the arts. Her latest work, Improvising Jerez-Style, will be screened at 8 p.m. tonight (Friday) at La Peña Cultural Center in South Berkeley as part of a program of film and live performance. The evening’s entertainment will include a second film, Arts That Cross Borders, a compendium of previous Palomino programs about Mexican, Afro-Peruvian and Ecuadorian performers living in the Bay Area. Live entertainment will include the Afro-Peruvian group de Rompe y Raja, Mexican dance troupe Grupo Folklorico, and Ma herself dancing flamenco.  

Though Palomino is a relatively recent creation, Ma has been involved with diversity in the arts for some time. Her resume includes a Ph.D in modern Chinese history, and stints as a historical researcher for the Golden Gate National Recreational Area and the Army Corp of Engineers, as well as a stint as a professor of Chinese and Japanese history at Mills College and the former Cal State Hayward. She has published several books and more than two dozen articles and is a member of the state bar association. 

Ma also founded and served as executive director for six years for a Contra Costa County cultural nonprofit, Celebrating Culture and Community. 

In 2004, with little experience in the field, Ma created Palomino Productions and essentially learned the ropes of film and video production through trial and error. “I just made enough mistakes so that I learned how to do it,” says Ma. 

She soon launched a six-part series on rural music and dance entitled “The Languages of Sound and Movement,” co-directed by Richard R. Lee. The series examines Afro-Peruvian, southern Indian, Tahitian, Thai, Mexican and West African music and traditions. The first film in the series, Of Beauty and Deities: Music and Dance of India, is hosted by Ma and spotlights the artistry of rural Indian dance, with performances interspersed with interviews with the dancers and musicians, including a Berkeley group called Kalanjali: Dances of India, led by K.P. and Katherine Kunhiraman. The film was honored at the Berkeley Film and Video Festival and also received a Western Access Video Excellence award. It was screened at the annual conference of the UNESCO-sponsored Center for International Dance in Athens, Greece, in addition to several airings over Peralta TV and KCCC TV in Contra Costa County. The film is available, along with another Palomino title, Weaving With Spanish Threads: The Spanish Immigration to Hawaii and California in the Early 1900s, through the company’s website: www.PaloPalomino.com. 

Her most recent work, Improvising Jerez-Style, takes a look at Jerez-style bulerias, a fast-paced improvised dance often considered the quintessential flamenco form, known for its passion. The film was shot in the city of Jerez in southern Spain and includes interviews with dancers such as Moralito Chico and Antonio de la Malena.  

“In ‘the good old days,’ you learned to dance it in the community,” says Ma in her notes on the film. “This meant you learned by watching other people in your family, at fiestas, and on the street corners. ... But when modern times came to Spain and the southern Spanish city of Jerez, life changed. Around the same time, flamenco also began to be seen around the world. Now, in addition to the thousands of flamenco academies in almost every country imaginable, many hundreds of foreigners come to Jerez every year to learn the dance form and find out more about flamenco. 

“Our show was filmed in Jerez where bulerias is taken very seriously—so seriously, that there are two forms of it in today’s Jerez, related to the two historically Gypsy (gitano) neighborhoods in the old city. The show gives us lots of professional level dance footage as well as the all-important singing, interviews with famous flamencos, historical videos, classroom shots and vistas of this city which gave birth to and still inspires the art form.” 

The primary interview subject in the film is famed bulerias teacher Ana Maria Lopez. Ma explains: “Since the art of dancing bulerias can no longer be learned in the community, it has now become a gift from a very small number of specially talented teachers. There are a few, select dance masters in Jerez who have developed a way of teaching how to improvise in this exciting solo dance without going outside of its essential form and losing the tradition.” 

IMPROVISING JEREZ-STYLE 

8 p.m. tonight (Friday) at La Peña Cultural Center, . $10-$12. 3105 Shattuck Ave.  

849-2568. www.lapena.org.

Berkeley composer and retired UC Berkeley professor Olly Wilson’s Symphony No. 3, Hold On, which sets and responds to the old African-American spiritual of that name, celebrating its sense of spiritual tenacity and persistence, will be featured as George Thomson returns to the podium of the Berkeley Symphony, 8 p.m. this Sat. at Zellerbach Auditorium, with an eclectic program including Stravinsky’s Concertino for Twelve Instruments, Sibelius’ Violin Concerto and Matthew Locke’s Restoration era theater music for The Tempest.  

Wilson described his symphony shortly after a talk to fourth graders at Rosa Parks Elementary School on African American music and spiritual traditions, part of Berkeley Symphony’s educational program that culminates in the spring with a concert where, as the Symphony’s Kevin Shuck put it, “the Symphony plays as back-up” to student participants.  

Wilson’s Hold On Symphony’s three movements go from an initial address, not of the spiritual itself, but of “capturing that notion, that ability to maintain focus against incredible odds, which goes back to slave culture, but becomes universal.” 

The second movement frames the spiritual itself, introduced in the middle—(“Nora said, You’ve lost your track/Can’t plow straight while looking back/Keep-a your hand on-a the plow/Hold on, hold on ...”)—with more ethereal music, “a dynamic between two ways of thinking--one more direct, precise, straight forward; the other, vague, imprecise ... the emergence of a more spiritual provenance, the more reflective Sorrow Song type of spiritual.” 

Orchestrally, Wilson “attempts to imitate vocal gestures in the context of a 20th century orchestra, evoking the commonality of the singing, the collective moans and grunts, sometimes a combination of different languages from Africa, that were unintelligible to the slaveholders, according to early chroniclers.”  

The third movement moves from the practical and determined, then inward and sorrowful phases of the second, into the celebratory Jubilee Song, “music you have to move to, driving, upbeat; riffs against changing harmonics with strong rhythmic impetus; flashbacks to the first two movements, and finally four or five riffs building polyphonically to a big climax.” 

“It’s a phenomenon you find all over the African diaspora, the same way of doing things, varying in the way things get done, and by what’s there” Wilson said of the tradition he’s drawing from. “Music’s the causal agent, essential, obligatory. Before Christianity, in African pantheism, you call forth the deity only by music. I’ve reinterpreted all this, living in Berkeley and writing music for a 20th century orchestra, through my own personal prism, which includes African American culture.” 

Wilson, who retired from the UC Berkeley Music Department (which he has chaired, also serving as assistant chancellor) in 2002 after 32 years, still lives in Berkeley. A native of St. Louis, he came from a musical family with four siblings, his father “an excellent amateur singer, who wanted all of us to study music when young, as he did later. There were piano lessons; he could always use an accompanist!” 

Wilson and his sister were the ones who went on studying and playing, “in pop music when I was a teenager, then jazz.” After receiving a scholarship for his clarinet playing, Wilson thought of becoming a band leader, but “I had pretty broad taste even as a youngster, and by the end of my sophomore year, after all I’d been exposed to in music—and all I transcribed, before there were so many fake books!—I understood” what his career was to be. After studying at Oberlin and the University of Illinois, he took his PhD. at Iowa. 

Of his long academic career, Wilson comments, “The musician’s patron in the 20th century has been the university.” 

Of the other diverse pieces on the program at Zellerbach, the selection from Matthew Locke’s 1674 score for a Restoration “modernization” of The Tempest features an oboeist, and is a short musical description of the storm itself. 

“The Locke piece is a curtain-raiser for Olly’s Symphony,” commented George Thomson. “It’s a little wild, unusual for a 17th century piece, and very brief, ending quietly, so it adumbrates the beginning of Olly’s stormy piece. It’s scene-setting; we’ll allow just enough time between for the sound to clear.” 

Indeed, the eclecticism of the program wasn’t “schematically-oriented,” according to Thomson, but constructed around the sound of Wilson’s Symphony. “The Stravinsky has a strong rhythmic, almost jazzy, element that ties it to Hold On; it’s a miniature concerto followed by a proper one. With a big, big contemporary piece, programming a concerto is typical, and with the other pieces, there’s a balance that’s good for both audience and orchestra. From our position today, we can make connections between pieces calling to each other over centuries.”  

The Berkeley Symphony presents George Thomson conducting Stravinsky, Sibelius and Olly Wilson’s Hold On at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13 at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. 841-2800, www.berkeleysymphony.org.

Silent film star Mary Pickford famously described director Ernst Lubitsch as a “director of doors,” a man more at home working with the choreography of entrances and exits than with actors and emotions. This acerbic remark, uttered in the awake of an ill-fated collaboration with the director on Rosita, his first American production, has a grain of truth but should be taken with a grain of salt as well.  

Pickford was one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood and not inclined to accept a secondary role in a film’s creation. But Lubitsch’s films were not so much vehicles for stars so much as they were vehicles for Lubitsch, for his subtle and distinctive wit, both with images and later with dialogue.  

A viewing of Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925) shows the truth behind both sides of the argument. The film shows tonight (Friday) at Pacific Film Archive as part of a month-long career-spanning retrospective of the director’s work entitled “The Lubitsch Touch.” The series runs through Feb. 16 and tracks the legendary director’s career from his early German silent films to his much-celebrated American comedies of the sound era. 

Lady Windermere’s Fan is an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde play that brazenly tosses out the words of Wilde in favor of sly visual humor and cues, replacing Wilde’s verbal wit with Lubitsch’s visual wit. The actors do good work, but clearly the director is in control, for the performances are not inspired but are instead matched meticulously to the staging and camerawork. There’s very little dialogue; most of the information is imparted to us simply through facial expressions, mannerisms and editing. 

Many stars appeared in Lubitsch’s films, but Lubitsch himself was the true star of his productions, a noted auteur who guided the performances of his actors down to the smallest detail. Like Chaplin, he acted out each role and instructed his actors to mimic him, and, as with Chaplin again, this at times led to rather stilted performances. The actors were not permitted much leeway in plying their trade. However, the fact that the technique so often found such great results was a testament to Lubitsch’s unique talents.  

One scene in particular illustrates Pickford’s dissent perfectly: Lubistch, in order to quickly and comically expresses the increasing intimacy between a couple, gives us two scenes of the suitor approaching the front door of his lady’s apartment. A close-up shows just his hand as he starts to ring the doorbell, things twice, hesitates, pulls out a pocket mirror, replaces it, then rings the bell and politely offers his coat and hat to the maid while waiting to be introduced. A second scene, taking place some weeks later, shows the hand again ringing the bell, this time with no hesitation. The man then walks brusquely through the door and past the maid, hanging his hat and coat without her help before bursting into the lady’s rooms unannounced. All necessary information is conveyed through intertitles, camerawork and editing. The acting is almost superfluous; it’s Lubitsch’s performance through and through. 

His technique is not exactly subtle; in fact, Lubitsch’s presence can almost always be felt in his films, and this is a mixed blessing. Just as it is difficult to read Wilde without marveling at his wit, one cannot view a Lubitsch film without being made acutely conscious of the wit and style of the director. At its best it is a seductive technique, one that draws the viewer into an alliance with the director, making one feel as if one is in on the joke, sharing in the sense of superiority toward the objects of that wit; but at times it has a tendency to drain a film of drama and impact, maintaining a cynical distance from characters who are reduced to mere pawns in the director’s cinematic game. 

The result is that Lubitsch’s films, though often just as entertaining today as they were in their time, are less art than entertainment, fun for their two-hour span but with little impact beyond the moment the theater lights come up. The “Lubitsch touch,” though deft, is a light touch, one that only lingers playfully amid the more complex, underlying themes of the story, rarely delving deeply into character, motivation or import. He won’t change your life but for two hours he’ll take you for a fun and stylish ride. 

Other films in the series include Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, Angel, Heaven Can Wait, Trouble in Paradise, The Marriage Circle, Rosita, The Love Parade and The Smiling Lieutenant. The series runs through Feb. 16.$4-8. 2575 Bancrot Way. 642-5249. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

Photograph: Ernst Lubitsch’s Lady Windermere’s Fan shows tonight at Pacific Film Archive.

Fundraising for the modern university is increasingly dependent on skyboxes and suchlike mammoth public structures where the golden deal can be clinched amid resplendent surroundings. But it wasn’t always so. There used to be a time when personal magnetism was enough to accomplish the goal. 

When Benjamin Ide Wheeler was president of the University of California, his most constant fundraising partner was the indomitable UC regent and benefactress Phoebe Apperson Hearst. During their 20-year joint reign, from 1899 until 1919, Wheeler and Hearst were an unbeatable team. For close to ten of those years, they owned adjoining houses on what has come to be known as Holy Hill. 

On May 12, 1900, about six months after Wheeler’s inauguration, the university officially broke ground for the President’s Mansion—the first building sited under the new Phoebe Hearst Architectural Plan for the campus. Now called University House and occupied by the UC Chancellor, the mansion was designed by the distinguished San Francisco architect Albert A. Pissis. Some of Pissis’ better-known buildings are Hibernia Bank (1892), the Emporium (1896), the James Flood Building (1904), the Mechanics Institute (1909), and the Crocker Bank Building (1910). 

The President’s Mansion exterior was completed in 1902, but the university ran out of resources to finish the interiors, and Wheeler would not occupy his official residence until 1911. In 1900, he had a private house built at 1820 Scenic Avenue, just north of the campus. Designed by architect Edgar A. Mathews, the brown-shingle box is now the home of New Bridge Foundation, a substance-abuse recovery center. 

Supervising the construction of Wheeler’s house was Daley’s Scenic Park’s chief landowner and developer Frank M. Wilson, who lived across the street at 2400 Ridge Road. At about the same time, Wilson also initiated the building of a university reception hall adjacent to Wheeler’s house at 1816 Scenic Avenue. This building was financed entirely by Phoebe Apperson Hearst. It was designed by Ernest Coxhead, who also created for Mrs. Hearst a residence at 2334 Le Conte Avenue, abutting the reception hall. The residence and the reception hall were connected in the rear via a covered passage. 

A true VIP, Mrs. Hearst was never listed in the Berkeley city directory or in the assessor’s records. The 1900 U.S. census listed her address at 1 Third Street (the Examiner Building) in San Francisco. With several homes in northern California—including Hacienda del Pozo de Verona in Pleasanton and Wyntoon in McCloud, Shasta County—it is doubtful that she spent a great deal of time in her Berkeley house. 

This house is an oddity in Coxhead’s body of work. A plain Colonial Revival box blown up to freakish size, it has little to distinguish itself save the two mock-Ionic columns supporting a broken scroll pediment. Coxhead was one of the leading lights of the First Bay Region Tradition and a pioneer in the use of clinker brick and brown shingles. His clinker brick-clad Allenoke Manor (1903) at 1777 Le Roy Avenue radiates all the visual excitement that the Hearst house lacks. 

Phoebe Hearst was an architectural patron par excellence. It was at her bidding that Bernard Maybeck designed the revolutionary Hearst Hall. Her Pleasanton hacienda, designed by A.C. Schweinfurth in the mid-1890s, was a great, innovative building. So why was her Berkeley house so drab? 

It’s possible that Mrs. Hearst wished her residence to be inconspicuous and in keeping with Wheeler’s house. She is said to have planned a much larger, palatial house at the top of the hill, where the Pacific School of Religion now stands. (Across the street, Frank Wilson also planned to build a more lavish home but remained in his srown shingle, originally intended as the barn, for the rest of his life. That site is now occupied by the Graduate Theological Union Library.) 

Whether she planned for opulence or not, Mrs. Hearst disposed of her Berkeley house after less than a decade’s ownership. She may have done so because Wheeler was soon to move to the President’s Mansion on campus. 

The reception hall was sold in 1908 to Astronomy Professor Armin O. Leuschner, who hired William C. Hays to put a second story upon it. Like the Wheeler house, this building is now occupied by the New Bridge Foundation. 

The Le Conte Avenue house was sold in 1909 or 1910 to George and Louise Reed. George Walter Reed (1856–1921) was a self-made millionaire. Born in Maine and a carpenter by trade, he became a major coffee planter in Colombo, Guatemala, where he lived for nearly 40 years. His wife, Louise Matilda Reddan (1868–1948) was born in Yuba County, CA. The 1900 U.S. census listed her as an actress living with her parents in San Francisco. 

The Reeds spent several months each year on their plantations in Guatemala. In January 1921, tragedy struck them when Reed got into an argument with two of his workers. According to Reed family lore, the two Guatemalan brothers, Modesto and Adrian Santos, were riding the boss’s private mules without permission, for which Reed reprimanded them. Being quite drunk, Modesto pulled out a gun and shot the unarmed Reed. The death report from the American Consular Service determined the cause of death as “Shot to death by Modesto Santos, an employee. Three revolver bullets entered body—first through heart. Body lay where it fell for six hours.” 

The murderers fled to Mexico, where they were spotted working in the petroleum industry under assumed names. 

On March 8, 1921, the Oakland Tribune devoted a front-page article to Mrs. Reed when she returned with her husband’s body aboard the Pacific Mail liner Golden State. Mrs. Reed told the newspaper that she had been driven from the plantation and was threatened by “influential friends of the murderers.” 

Mrs. Reed also reported that Guatemalan President Carlos Herrera y Luna was “making special efforts to run down Reed’s slayers.” However, the two were never apprehended. 

Within a few years, Louise Reed had married the Berkeley realtor Charles E. Grigsby, fifteen years her junior. They made several trips to Guatemala and eventually sold the plantations. The proceeds were invested in East Bay real estate. Grigsby’s green thumb soon turned the garden at 2334 Le Conte Avenue into a showplace. 

The house, along with the Wheeler house and the former reception hall, was one of just a few structures in the vicinity that survived the 1923 Berkeley fire. In the late 1920s, when land was cheap, religious seminaries wishing to build near the campus snapped it up. As a result, the neighborhood’s character changed from residential to institutional. 

Following Louise Reed Grigsby’s death in 1948, her property (now renumbered 2368 Le Conte Ave.) was sold to the Mormon Church. The garden was replaced by a large featureless building, but the original house is preserved largely as it used to be. The only discernible physical difference is the paint on the once natural stucco, but without a spacious garden to offset it, the fomer Hearst residence looks more than ever like an overblown tract house. 

Daniella Thompson edits berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson  

The former Hearst-Reed house at 2368 Le Conte Ave. has been occupied by the Mormon Berkeley Institute of Religion for nearly six decades.  

It has come to my attention that the hard freeze predicted (as I write this) for late this week is the first some of my fellow Berkeley denizens have experienced here. If it happened on time, you’re reading this in the Retrospectroscope, that scientific instrument that gives us 20-20 hindsight. Still, this might be useful. 

First: Don’t panic. If you have plants already hurt by frost, don’t rush out and start whacking off the damaged bits. Leave them alone until you see new growth. Some things will be OK under it all, and the dead tissue you leave on the plant can insulate the growing points against further damage. The brown stuff looks ugly but it won’t harm and it might help.  

Second: Don’t despair. If there was a freeze and you didn’t get your plants covered and there’s another night of frost on the horizon, cover them. Preventing more damage will give them a better chance to recover. 

Third: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you can’t quite do it right, protect your plants as well as you can. I’ll explain this more, below. 

Fourth: Get out there early the morning after and uncover those plants, especially if you’ve used plastic sheeting over them. That stuff works as a solar oven in the daytime, and your poor plants can get cooked.  

Plants typically freeze when the night is clear and the air is still. A decent breeze will decrease the peril – that’s why you see those big propeller-looking fans in Napa Valley vineyards—and cloud cover will moderate the temperatures. Your garden’s in more danger if it’s at the bottom of a hill, because cold air drops and warm air rises.  

If you have tender plants—tropicals and subtropicals, generally—in pots, bring them under the eaves, into the garage, or onto the porch. Anything overhanging them will help. Also, the thermal mass of a building, the heat it’s absorbed from the sun all day, will moderate temperatures near it.  

If you can’t move it, cover it. Blankets, old curtains, sheets – some extremists use the old down sleeping bag the dog peed in last summer. In Britain, they sell lengths of synthetic fleece for plant cozies.  

Plastic sheeting is a classic here. To best protect the plants, build a framework to hold the sheet. This can be as simple as three garden stakes around the plant, or a tipi of poles with a garbage bag pulled over it. The idea is not to let the cover touch the plant, because where it touches will be damaged.  

If you can’t avoid that, though, just throw the sheet over. Better to lose a few leaves than the whole plant.  

Experts advise watering plants before a frost, because frostbite is mostly dehydration. Maybe, but there’s one big exception: cacti and succulents. I’ve had a cactus explode—really; pieces were scattered over three feet or more—when a freeze hit it. Water expands when it freezes and turgid cells burst. Spectacular, but fatal.  

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

I am something of a purist when it comes to our older housing stock. Well actually, let me revise that. What I really am is a lover of old houses and all the bits of antiquity that inhabit our cities. Buildings, signage, concrete sidewalk stamps and vintage cars.  

I guess I’m just permanently nostalgic and in love with a time before my birth. It’s not fair, really. I don’t genuinely believe that the past was uniformly preferable and Polio was no walk in the park. But there is something sweeter, more innocent and more cherishing of who we are that seems to inhabit the articles of our past. Modern buildings don’t seem to care who they sell to, who lives in them and whether they’re burned for firewood or just e-traded in on some junk bonds. A 1920s house would refuse such a sale. It would just lock itself up and grow vines. 

Ah, but as usual, I utterly digress. The reason I make the point about older homes is that I do, in point of fact, believe that portions of them tend to need revision. Despite the umbrage the old girl might take, I think that there are a few innovations that might make her a smidge more habitable. 

The one I’d like to tackle today is the matter of lighting. As anyone who’s ever owned a home from before 1940 will tell you, the built-in lighting leaves much to be desired and owners of older homes often salivate amidst soirées in modern homes. While the fenestration (window placement) in older homes is often quite good, electric lighting was quite new in the first half of the 20th century and builders didn’t know much regarding what could or should be done with this newfangled stuff. Most houses from before 1950 have a single junction box at the center of each ceiling and thus rely upon the single fixture to provide for all the needs of a room, large or small.  

A few homes featured wall-set junction boxes that allowed for, mostly simple, sconces to be placed upon walls. These fixtures usually had their own switches and lacked any sort of wall switch to operate them singly or in groups. Wall switching did come along after a while and the occasional clever electrician did manage to add well-placed switching. In the 1950’s an odd thing happened and ceiling lamps went missing altogether. 

I’m not sure if someone misplaced them, forgot to put them in or simply decided that nobody of any aesthetic metal would stoop to installing a fixture on that serene white speckled landscape. I fear the latter must have been the case. Those houses were fitted with switchable outlets where standing lamps could be installed and, clever as that was, the absence of a permanently installed overhead light source was soon recognized for it’s inherent retardedness and rectified by nearly all subsequent parties. 

One nice thing about old houses is that, with a little respect for their dignity and richness, many modern accoutrements can be added without deeply damaging their appeal. I’ve seen many fitted with sprays of recessed lighting to very good result and have a particular favor for this choice. The latter requires access to the ceiling space and is easiest when installed below an attic of moderate size. 

If installed in the ceiling below another floor, the ceiling will generally have to be removed to accommodate the installation. Wires can be pulled through joist spaces but this is quite difficult and often not worth the hardship. In my experience, it’s better to remove the drywall or plaster from a trapped ceiling prior to the installation of more than one or two lighting fixtures. By the way, replacing a single ceiling with drywall is not all that difficult or expensive and is hugely liberating in terms of the work that one can do in a short period of time when things have been opened up. 

Even if you’re not in the mood for the more arduous task of adding a field of cans to your ceiling there are so many ways to improve lighting without touching a single foot of Romex. Simply changing the fixtures on the ceilings or walls can increase luminosity, improve the directing of light and add some flair for amazingly little cost and complexity. This is actually a job that many individuals can manage on their own. Here are a few tips: 

Changing a light fixture usually involves the simple removal of a pair of screws on the old fixture, disconnecting a pair of wires and reversing the procedure with a new fixture. There are some problems to expect. First, removing the old screws often means clearing the paint from the screw heads. I have found that a slotted screwdriver and a small hammer work well to “drive” the wafer of paint out of the slot of an old slotted screw. Place the screwdriver on a steep angle and tap sharply to force the paint free. Once done, it’s a simple matter to remove the screw. I suggest running a utility knife with a fresh blade around the base of the fixture if it is also painted into place (most very old light fixtures have both these problems). This will allow the fixture to practically fall into your hands. Careful with the blade knife. They’re particularly well suited to slicing hands wide open. 

Regarding ladders; If you’re a cheapskate like moi and are still using that rickety fright of a wooden ladder. Get down, bust it into pieces and go spend 50 bucks on a nice ladder. It’s best to do electrical work on a fiberglass ladder since it can’t conduct electricity and deprive your darling children of that parent they so badly need. Go borrow Ed’s ladder. He’s not using it and you can buy him a bottle of Chianti when you’re done. 

Replacement fixtures don’t always have the screw holes spaced the same as the original but there are a range of solutions. The best one, in most cases, is to use an adapter that allows for this difference. The adapter gets screwed onto the old junction box in the walls first and then has several screw holes in the adapter itself to allow the fixture to be screwed into it. This works well for lightweight fixtures but not for behemoths. If you have something huge, get help. That’s not the beginning course.  

The adapters come in different types but all require a second set of screws that are the right length. A nice trick to know is that many wire splicing tools have a screw cutting feature. This proves quite handy in this particular situation wherein you may need a screw of a specific length to get the fixture to lie nicely against the ceiling (or wall). This is the central problem with these adapters. If not used properly or if used with a certain type of fixture, they can result in a fixture that doesn’t lie flat. Not to worry. Most problems resolve themselves with a bit of head-scratching and this is a very worthwhile starter project that more than earns its worth despite the few difficulties that are sure to arise. 

When you swap the fixture, you’ll want to be damned sure that the power is off. I’d acquire a non-contact voltage tester. They’re commonly available at most hardware stores for roughly 15 bucks and they make a sound (most do) when they’re near hot current. They don’t need to be on the hot wire. When you turn off the power, you can use this device to be sure that the wire is actually dead before handling it. I’d test it against a known hot wire just to be sure it’s working. I’d also use a common wire tester before handling any wire. 

When you replace the lamp, use a new pair of wire nuts and be sure that the old and new are nice and tight. 

When you replace a light fixture, consider the total wattage of the fixture as compared to the original one. Most wiring is not suitable for a fixture that adds several powerful bulbs. Try to keep your fixture down to 200 watts or less, unless you’ve checked with an electrician. That means 3-60 watt bulbs or a pair of hundreds at most. Low voltage halogens rate in a different way but you can just read the package to see the total wattage.  

This brings me to my last tip, that being an upgrade to something high-tech for your senescent dandy (your house, not your husband). I’ve seen cable lighting in older homes (and done this myself) and it can look just great in the right room. Aside from being really fun, it’s pretty easy to install and most kits are pretty low in total wattage. Ikea has some nice sets for a pittance. They have quite a range of lamps for very small sums, not that I’m trying to push Ikea. There are lots of great places for fixtures. 

Our own Metro Lighting of Berkeley makes delicious lamps, many of which harken back to our own Craftsman roots and fit our Bay Area style with great aplomb. They’re on the web at metrolighting.com if you want to take a look. 

Lighting is such a bargain and certainly one of the first things I’d do to any old house if I were pinching pennies. If you’re looking to spruce up or to try a first project, add some lighting to your old gal. She’ll just glow with pride. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net. 

Matt Cantor owns Cantor Inspections and lives in Berkeley. His column runs weekly. 

Copyright 2006 Matt Cantor

FRIDAY, JAN. 12 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dr. Warren Winklstein, “Science and the Heavy Hand of Government” 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.  

“China Blue” Screening of the documentary which won the Amnesty International Human Rights Award, at 7:30 p.m. with post-film discussion with director Micha Peled, at The College Preparatory School Buttner Auditorium at 6100 Broadway, at Brookside, Oakland. 658-5202. 

“Wind Over Water” A documentary on the offshore wind farm proposal for Cape Cod, and “Out of Balance” the impact on climate change of ExxonMobil, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation of $5 acccepted. www.HumanistHall.net 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

“Problems and Decisions” Learn about how indecision causes stress at 7 p.m. the Berkeley Dianetics Center, 63 Shattuck Square. 280-4690. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 13 

African American Health Expo with free health screenings, healthy cooking demonstrations, information on services for youth and seniors, and more, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Oakland Mariott City Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland. 763-7270. www.babuf.org 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Bare Root Roses for Bay Area Gardens” with Sandy Morrill at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways Books, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Nature on an Urban Fringe Explore the Berkeley Meadow of the Eastshore State Park on a 2.5 mile hike from 2 to 4:30 p.m. For information and meeting place call 525-2233. 

Solo Sierrans Bike Trip at the Marina Join us for an easy 4 mile round trip bike ride on a paved trail. All levels of riders welcome. Meet at 1 p.m. in front of Emeryville Clipper Club, 5 Captain Dr., Emeryville. RSVP to 923-1094. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “Healthful Resolutions” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45, plus $5 materials fee. To register call 531-2665. www.compassionatecooks.com 

“Hearing Each Other, Hearing Ourselves” with Quaker Sara Wolcott sharing her election work in Ohio during the 2004 election at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

Great War Society East Bay Chapter meets to discuss “Alsace-Lorraine, 1914-18” by Robert Denison at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

“How to Avoid Sabotaging Your Financial Success” from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.at Piedmont Adult School, 800 Magnolia Ave., Piedmont. Cost is $40. To register call 595-8173. www.piedmontadultschool.org 

Seminar on Osteoarthritis of the Knee at 9:45 p.m. at Mercy Retirement & Care Center, 3431 Foothill Boulevard, Oakland. Free. 534-8540. 

“Weigh to Be” Understanding your metabolism at 10 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Studio Rasa Open House with drop-in classes and live music at 933 Parker St. Cost is $20 for the day. 843-2787. www.studiorasa.org 

Berkeley Bears Girls Fast Pitch Softball Tryouts, Sat. and Sun. at Clayton Valley High School in Concord. For details call 682-3759. www.berkeleybearssoftball.com  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Petite Pooches Playgroup for small dogs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., one block north of Solano on Ensenada at Talbot. 524-2459. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m. 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, JAN. 14 

“An Evening with Barbara Becnel” Anti-death penalty activist at Green Sunday at 5 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave at 65th, Oakland.  

“Open Garden” Join the Little Farm gardener for composting, planting, watering and reaping the rewards of our work, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cancelled only by heavy rain. 525-2233.  

“Life at the Little Farm” A puppet show and sing along for the whole family at 11 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Winter Wildlife Hike Join naturalist Tara Reinertson to look for winter birds and explore the pebble beaches and salt marshes of Pt. Pinole, from 2 to 4 p.m. For meeting place call 525-2233. 

El Cerrito Historical Society Annual Meeting with speaker Wayne Westover, retired Contra Costa County Superior Court judge. Pot luck lunch at 1 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, located behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 526-7507. 

Balinese Dance for Children begins at 11 a.m. at Ashkenaz Community Center, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $7 per class. 237-6849. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Motivation to Change” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JAN. 15 

“A Day On, Not Off” A guided walk along the shoreline with opportunity to help with planting and restoration at 8:30 a.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Garretson Point off Edgewater Drive, Oakland. 521-6887.  

Embracing the Dream Father and Son Breakfast at 9 a.m. at the Eastside Club, McAfee Coliseum, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. Cost is $20, with opportunities to sponosr a young man For information call 633-5133. 

“Make the Dream Real” at 10 a.m. at Taylor Memorial Methodist Church, 1188 12th St. at Adeline, Oakland. 652-5530. 

Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a youth talent show from 2 to 5 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. 238-7217. 

Celebrate Martin Luther King Day with activities from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge. Cost is $6 per child, $5 per adult. 647-1111. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, JAN. 16 

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 Claremont Canyon. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Berkeley Garden Club meets at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. The topic will be “The Treasures of Mount Diablo” with Seth Adams, Director of Land Programs. 845-4482. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave. Registration required. 594-5165, blackstonea@usa.redcross.org 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival Films on environmental justice at 6:15 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland, followed by panel discussion on California’s Clean Air Campaign. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

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. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Discussion Salon on Modern China at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about our feathered friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Tilden Mini-Rangers An afterschool programfrom 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. for ages 8-12 on conservation and nature-based activities. Dress to get dirty. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code ELEPHANT) 

“Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Byron Hurt’s documentary at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Panel discussion with the filmmaker follows. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

Albany Library Evening Book Club meets to discuss “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson at 7 p.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

New to DVD “The Descent” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Balinese Music & Dance Workshops in gamelan angklung begins at 5:15 at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St. # 290, Oakland. Cost is $12 per class or $40 per month. To register call. 237-6849. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/ 

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, JAN. 18 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about our feathered friends from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

“Bringing the Condors Home” a lecture by Joe Burnett, senior wildlife biologist at the Ventana Wildlife Society, at 12:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival at 6 p.m. at Laney College, Oakland. Free. www.peralta.edu/sustainable 

“Wings in the Night: A Celebration of Bats” with Patricia Winters of the California Bat Conservation Fund at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, between Solano and Marin. Sponsored by The Golden Gate Audubon Society. 843-2222. 

Teen Book Club meets to discuss the most boring and most shocking books we’ve read at 4:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6107. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755.  

ONGOING 

Berkeley Winter Campaign for Cats We are providing free trapping assistance and spay/neuter to feral and homeless cats in Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and Piedmont, through March 2007. The cats will be spayed/neutered, vaccinated, treated for fleas and returned safely back to their neighborhoods. To report a neighborhood in need or to volunteer, please contact Caitlin at 908-0709, Winterspay2006@yahoo.com 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Jan.16, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed.,Jan. 17, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601.  

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Jan. 17, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7550.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Jan. 17, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed. Jan. 17, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Kristen Lee, 981-5427.  

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6195. 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 644-6128 ext. 113.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs. Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5400.