A 76-year-old man died early Thursday as flames did more than $1 million in damage to his North Berkeley home. 

Marion Knight was pronounced dead at the Summit Alta Bates Medical Center emergency room after firefighters rescued him from the second floor of the family home at 660 Vincente Ave. in Thousand Oaks. 

He suffered from severe burns and from inhaling smoke and fire, according to a preliminary investigation by the Alameda County Coroner’s office. 

Knight’s spouse and adult son were able to escape the fire, though the son was treated at an emergency room for cuts to his hands, said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth. 

“We got the call at 1:14, and the first unit arrived at the scene at 1:19,” said Orth. 

Knight was found on the second floor, and firefighters took him out by ladder through a bedroom window, Orth said. 

Paramedics performed CPR as they rushed Knight to the emergency room where he was subsequently pronounced dead. 

After the rescue, a partial roof collapse and the collapse of much of the second floor level forced crews out of the building. 

“We had to adopt a defensive position, fighting the fire from outside the house, which is always harder,” said Orth. “It was a stubborn fire.” 

By the time the flames were finally controlled about 5 a.m., the fire had gone to three alarms and was using every firefighter and piece of equipment in the city. 

“The Oakland and Albany fire departments covered the rest of the city,” Orth said. 

The home, a stucco-sided flat roofed dwelling built in the 1930s, rises from two stories on the street level to a third story in the rear. 

Damage to the structure is estimated at $1 million, with the loss of contents placed at $150,000. Investigators have pinpointed the area where the fire began, where it may have been triggered by an electric heater, Orth said. 

Apartment fire 

Another fire last Friday ignited when the recent cold snap triggered and set fire to a rug and a bed which had been placed over the heater in a one of the four units of an apartment building at 2425 Virginia St., Orth said. 

“The call came in at 3:01 a.m.,” Orth said, and it soon went to a second alarm. “The tenant had just returned from overseas and he went to bed. He was awakened by the smoke detector and left the apartment, but he didn’t call 911 right away because of some cultural differences and misunderstandings. By the time we arrived, the fire had had some headway.” 

When the fire began, the mercury had dropped to 37 degrees, and brought the inside temperature low enough to trigger the thermostat on a floor heater. 

It took 25 firefighters 45 minutes to bring the blaze under control, and during that time the rest of the city was again covered by the Albany and Oakland departments. 

Most of the residents of the other apartments were students and still out of town when the blaze occurred. The fire did an estimated $200,000 in damage to the building with a $40,000 loss to the contents, Orth said.

In two dramatic votes Wednesday, members of Berkeley’s Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) adopted a preservation-oriented platform and called for transforming a block of Center Street into a pedestrian plaza. 

The two votes, both opposed by DAPAC Chair Will Travis and one of them by downtown business interests, largely followed lines drawn in earlier meetings. 

Travis, retired UC Berkeley administrator Dorothy Walker, former city councilmembers Mim Hawley and Carole Kennerly, Planning Commissioner James Samuels and Jenny Wenk were among the most outspoken members of the opposition. 

Travis and Juliet Lamont, the mayor’s two appointees, typically take opposite sides on make-or-break issues. 

On the winning side of the votes was a coalition of environmentalists including Planning Commission chair and Sierra Club activists Helen Burke and creeks advocate Juliet Lamont, preservationists like Patti Dacey, neighborhood activists such as Wendy Alfsen and Lisa Stephens and transportation advocates exemplified by Rob Wrenn. 

Preservation vote 

DAPAC didn’t hand preservationists an unconditional endorsement, approving seven of the ten recommendations of a subcommittee formed from members of DAPAC and the LPC. 

The majority sent three policies back to the subcommittee with a call to prepare a final report on: 

• the role of historic districts in downtown districts where historic buildings are concentrated; 

• continuation of design guidelines from the previous 1990 Downtown Plan, and 

• a call to reject “façadism,” a development style in which high-rise are clad in only the street facades of historic buildings demolished to make way for the taller structures. 

The same motion by Transportation Commissioner Rob Wrenn called for adoption of seven other recommendations as background and policy directions for the plan, which must be completed by the end of the year. The vote endorsed policies to: 

• establish and adopt a definitive survey of historic buildings in the downtown planning area; 

• enhance cultural tourism by celebrating the downtown’s historic character through planning, civic improvements and ongoing activities and programs; 

• consider use of wide-ranging policy tools including tax credits, streamlined permits, historic districts, design guidelines, transfer of development rights, grants and loans to restore facades and special easements for conservation. 

• enhance awareness of downtown’s historic character, especially as a unique, progressive university town with a pedestrian-oriented downtown transit hub. 

• acknowledge that downtown retail space tends toward high ceilings and rents affordable to small business; 

• acknowledge that development can occur at many downtown parcels that have no historic structures, and 

• recognize that historic preservation and rehabilitation of older buildings uses less resources and creates less waste for landfills. 

Following the 12-7 vote in favor of the truncated recommendations, LPC members left and DAPAC turned its attention to another controversial issue. 

Center Street 

Travis began the discussion with an acknowledgment that he had opposed creation of the DAPAC committee which was about to make its recommendations, then praised its chair, Rob Wrenn. 

“I opposed it because I thought it would be a waste of our time,” he said. 

In the end, he also opposed adoption of its recommendations, which passed by a margin of 11 to 8. 

Public opposition came from two downtown restaurateurs, Mark McLeod of the Downtown Restaurant, 2102 Shattuck Ave., and Hope Alper of Ristorante Raphael, 2132 Center St. 

“An attempt to adopt one alternative without a full public hearing will seriously compromise DAPAC in the eyes of the community,” McLeod said. 

Also speaking in opposition was Deborah Badhia, executive director of the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA), a city-sponsored group that advocates for downtown interests. 

McLeod, who serves as president of the DBA, called for more meetings including representatives from all stakeholders, but Wrenn and Planning Commission Chair Helen Burke, who made the original motion to create the subcommittee, noted that the issues had been discussed at length during the months of meeting of another city task force. 

DBA representatives and others had been present not only for the DAPAC subcommittee meetings but for the months of meetings conducted by a Planning Commission task force appointed to make recommendations following the announcement by UC Berkeley of its intent to sponsor development of a high-rise hotel at the northeast corner of the intersection of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

The UC Hotel Task Force originated most of the ideas adopted by DAPAC Wednesday, including the closure of Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck. 

Two major UC-related developments will rise on the block’s southern edge, the 22-story hotel, condo and conference complex to the west and the new building now being designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito at the eastern end to house the university’s Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA). 

Some of Wednesday’s questions came from BAM/PFA Executive Director Kevin Consey, just appointed by the university as one of that institution’s non-voting representatives after Assistant Vice Chancellor Steve Lustig resigned from a DAPAC seat. 

As a UC representative, Consey serves in an ex officio capacity and cannot vote. 

The subcommittee report was divided into two key parts—two pages of recommendations that all of its members could accept and another page spelling out three alternative scenarios for full or partial street closure. 

A move by Dorothy Walker to table any decision until DAPAC’s next meeting failed 8-9, as did a substitute motion from Victoria Eisen that would have allowed an eastbound traffic lane for drop-off of passengers. 

One of those who sided with the majority was architect Jim Novosel, the committee’s newest member, replacing Raudel Wilson, who moved from the city after losing his race for Dona Spring’s City Council seat in November. 

Novosel, who has designed three major downtown projects, cast his vote with the majority, and moments before the vote, Consey said the museum also supported the street closure option favored by the majority. 

As adopted, DAPAC’s first critical planning decision calls for the maximum possible restrictions on vehicle access to Center Street, largely limited to after-hours deliveries and emergency vehicle access, while incorporating the largest possible “water feature.” 

While subcommittee members had ultimately rejected creation of a full-scale channel and rerouting of the now-buried Strawberry Creek—which flows in an underground culvert a block to the south—the measure approved calls for the option dubbed “Maximum Possible Creek.” 

That plan calls for a channel that would be about eight feet deep and 25 to 30 feet wide. 

The resolution specifically endorses the 22-story hotel project and the BAM/PFA building, while calling on architects to adapt their designs to the existing streetscape. 

Other features of the adopted report include: 

• retention of Center Street as the primary pedestrian corridor between downtown and the university; 

• creation of some significant water feature in the event a more extensive creek channel should prove impractical; 

• a call for architects to include modulated edges and open space pockets in the museum and hotel designs; 

• the use of permeable ground coverings to accommodate storms and natural water filtration; 

• adoption of policies favoring housing on the block with ground floor commercial uses on both sides of the plaza; 

• modification of the existing plan’s height limits to allow the hotel tower to rise; 

• adoption of an 80-foot preference as the maximum height of walls along the immediate street frontage, with a slender hotel tower offset from the frontage height constraints on buildings on the southern street edge to preserve solar access for sidewalks and the plaza; 

• support for shared use parking at the museum and hotel underground lot, and 

• access from Shattuck Avenue to the hotel/museum underground parking lot. 

“For 20 years I’ve dream of a public space in downtown Berkeley that really would be the center of our public life,” said Novosel shortly before the vote. “I told my wife I was not going to say anything, but here I am.” 

Photograph by Richard Brenneman 

James Samuels, center, chats with Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Steven Winkel, left, and Will Travis, chair of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee before Wednesday night’s joint meeting of two bodies. Samuels, a former landmarks commissioner, now sits on DAPAC and the Planning Commission.

As the Berkeley Landmarks War heads for a second showdown at the ballot box, preservationists opened a second front in the courts Tuesday. 

The newly formed Neighbor-0hood Preservation Organization (NPO) petitioned the Alameda County Superior Court to order the city to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) on the recently passed law that’s already being challenged in a referendum. 

“The referendum is an excellent partner for this process,” said Patti Dacey, NPO’s spokesperson and preservationist who serves on the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

Dacey had served on the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission until she was removed last year by Council-member Max Anderson, a supporter of the ordinance targeted by the NPO legal action. 

At issue is the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance passed by the City Council in December. Passage triggered a referendum drive, which resulted in the collection of enough signatures to block enforcement when the law was scheduled to go into effect Jan. 12. 

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters has until Feb. 11 to verify the signatures, and if at least 4,092 of the 5,908 submitted belong to registered Berkeley voters, then the law is stayed until an up or down vote in the next city-wide general or special election. 

The petition filed Tuesday by Sonoma County attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley asks the court to issue a writ of mandate overturning the council’s adoption of the LPO submitted by Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli until the city can prepare an EIR that considers the new law’s impacts on the city’s historic buildings and offers alternative proposals and mitigations for the law’s impacts. 

At the July 11 meeting where councilmembers approved the first reading of an earlier version of the LPO, they also adopted a Negative Declaration on the ordinance, a statement prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) which contains a key finding that the project “could not have a significant effect on the environment.” 

The accompanying environmental initial study (EIS) included the specific finding that “there is no evidence that” the revised ordinance and accompanying zoning changes “would have a significant adverse effect on the City’s ability to protect historic or cultural resources.” 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said the petition failed a crucial legal test because it wasn’t filed within 30 days of the EIS adoption. 

“I advised the council when it adopted the ordinance that any suit would be untimely since it should’ve been filed months ago when the CEQA determination was made,” Albuquerque said. “I have not changed my opinion.” 

Before the vote, Anne Wagley, who is the Daily Planet Arts and Calendar Editor, read out a letter from Brandt-Hawley declaring that “the proposed new LPO needlessly focuses on PSA (state Permit Streamlining ACT) issues in a manner that overshadows and defeats the very goals of its landmarks program.” 

Brandt-Hawley also raised the specter of a lawsuit should the council adopt the ordinance at that meeting. 

Dacey said Wagley is one of the core NPO activists along with LPC member Lesley Emmington, Peace and Justice Commissioner Elliot Cohen and others. 

Wagley is also a principal figure in another suit, an action challenging the city’s settlement of a lawsuit filed against UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan growth projections through 2020. 

That settlement resulted in creation of the DAPAC, which is inching toward a preservationist stance in the new downtown plan mandated by the settlement. Dacey has been an outspoken advocate of preservation on the committee. 

The key issue cited in the action Brandt-Hawley filed this week is the most controversial feature of the now-stalled LPO, the request for determination (RFD). 

The RFD gives property owners a two-year exemption from landmarking efforts if the panel fails to make a declaration within 60 days, and no citizens’ petition for landmarking is filed in the following 21 days. 

Once granted, neither citizens nor the LPC would be able to make any effort to preserve existing buildings or features until the end of the 24-month “safe harbor.” Developers supported the RFD, and gave heavily to the campaign to defeat Measure J, the failed November ballot petition that would have preserved the key features of the current LPO while adding minor tweaks to bring the law fully into conformity with other state ordinances. 

Because the owner isn’t required to file development plans at the same time an RFD is sought, critics of the law charge that neighborhoods may not grasp the potential impact of the request for determination until a developer is given permits for a building or buildings that could changed the face of the surrounding community. 

The RFD “may have a potentially adverse impact on the City’s historical resources and neighborhoods,” Brandt-Hawley wrote, and “denies the opportunity for initiation or designation of a local historic resource even if new information surfaces demonstrating historic merit” during the safe harbor period. 

A spokesperson for Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque wasn’t sure if the lawyer had seen the filing.

Those who may have thought that Ron Dellums would alter his political positions before the business community now that he has entered Oakland’s City Hall, or that the business community would be less than favorable to Dellums’ previously announced positions, got a sense they may be wrong at the San Francisco Business Times’ Annual Mayors’ Economic Forecast breakfast at the San Francisco Hilton on Wednesday morning. 

Dellums told more than 1,200 business representatives virtually the same thing the newly installed mayor has been saying throughout Oakland for the past week: while he believes that advancing an agenda of one or two items is a “cop out”, his focus in the immediate future in Oakland will be to reduce the city’s staggering crime rate, and to work to make health insurance available to Oakland citizens who do not currently have it. 

He said that the interests of the business community and Oakland’s city officials were intertwined, both groups looking for a prosperous city. 

“Everyone in this room is bright enough to know that there is no demarcation between the public and the private sectors,” Dellums said. “We’re joined at the hip.” 

Also speaking at the two-hour breakfast gathering was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. 

In a follow-up question and answer session, a SF Business Times editor told Dellums “there was an undercurrent during last year’s mayoral election campaign that Ron Dellums was anti-business. I don’t know where that perception came from. I know it surprised you. It certainly surprised some of us who knew your background.” 

In answer, Dellums said that during the campaign he was often asked if he was for or against development. 

“That’s an unintelligent question,” he said. “The real question is, what community values are going to drive that development, and who will it serve?” 

Dellums also repeated a criticism he made in last week’s inaugural address, that the current state of American politics concentrates more on the personalities of who is being elected than it does on a discussion of what the candidates propose to do. 

“It leads to the position by voters that ‘I’m for this person’ or ‘I’m for that person,’ and that’s all, and ‘I don’t care what you stand for.’ It’s a burlesque of politics. To assume that one is a peace activist or a social activist and therefore cannot understand the needs of business is an insult, and I’ll leave it at that.” 

His answer was met with applause throughout the audience. 

Dellums also sketched out some of his economic development goals for Oakland, saying that he is working to create a global trade center in the city, and said he expects to host “a major economic summit” in Oakland this spring. 

He reiterated his support for former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown’s program to increase business in downtown Oakland by bringing in 10,000 new residents, calling it a “common sense” approach. “If you put a thousand people out in a hot field, someone is going to come out and sell them sno-cones. I understand the logic of the program. My only question is, will 10K alone get you where you want to go?” 

He predicted that many Californians who moved to the suburbs and exurbs in previous decades would be returning to the state’s cities for convenience, and that it will be the challenge of cities to accommodate that growth. 

But in answer to a question from the Business Times, Dellums said he did not believe that the Oakland A’s baseball team will remain part of Oakland’s commercial future. 

“In hindsight, building a downtown stadium would have made sense, and would probably have kept the A’s here,” Dellums said. He added, however, that this was no longer a possibility, and that “the likelihood of the A’s staying here is very slim.” 

He called the proposed move to Fremont “a large endeavor,” however, and said that “in any deal as large as that, things can go wrong. So I think the door may be slightly open” for the A’s to remain in Oakland. 

While sticking to his immediate policy goals of lowering crime and ensuring the health of Oakland citizens, Dellums sought repeatedly to convince the business community that it was in their interest to join him in achieving them. 

In the area of health care, Dellums said that “every human being has the right to a healthy life. You of all people know the value of a healthy citizenry. You want a healthy work force because it enhances your productivity. A healthy citizenry enhances the productivity of the cities.” 

He called for a “public-private partnership” to bring this about. He also praised Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for bringing for bringing forth a plan to expand health insurance coverage for California citizens. “Whether you agree with the governor or not, he has moved the ball forward. That’s important.” 

Dellums called crime and violence “a national epidemic,” adding that “it is my greatest concern. In the past, it has mostly been confined to the hood and the barrio, but that is true no longer, and it can no longer be ignored by the larger community.” 

The Oakland mayor said that while the “overwhelming role of police is currently in prevention,” “the police cannot solve the problem of crime alone. They are only a ‘thin blue line.’ To the extent that they are effective, they have to partner with the community to prevent crime.” 

He said that in the past, Oakland’s crime-fighting policy has been to “send police in large numbers into the high-crime areas that, for historical reasons, are mostly low-income or of certain ethnic backgrounds.” Because of the way those police come in, Dellums said, “the view in those communities is that the police are more like an occupying force.” 

In order to build trust for police within communities most affected by Oakland’s crime rate, Dellums said that “we have to get the police out of their cars” and “move towards community policing.” 

The Berkeley school board voted unanimously on Wednesday to accept the Berkeley High School environmental impact report on the Berkeley High School South of Bancroft Master Plan and to approve the Master Plan project. 

With the approval begins the process of selecting a committee to hire an architect for the proposed construction of the South of Bancroft project.  

The Master Plan involves the southern part of the campus at 1980 Allston Way and the adjacent school-district-owned parking lot on Milvia Street. 

Supporters of the warm water pool, which is currently located in the Berkeley High School Gym, asserted the importance of saving the pool, which is a lifeline for the disabled community in Berkeley. 

“The warm pool will provide more than life-saving opportunities,” said Berkeley resident Anne Marks. “It’s not just the elderly, but also the disabled students who benefit from it. Lease it, sell it, give it, but work with the city to acquire land for the pool.” 

Daniel Radman, a disabled community member, quoted from “Soakin’ the Blues Away, Voices of the Warm Pool,” a manuscript written over the last five months at the pool. 

“The book has 170 separate testimonials from people whose lives have been saved by the pool. Every page illustrates why closing it could endanger the lives of many,” Radman said. 

Dedicated to Fred Lupke, who fought to save the warm pool until his death, the collection tells the stories of people of all ages who depend on the pool. 

Allen Miller, a BHS teacher and treasurer of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, told the board that approving the EIR was critical since it would enable construction. 

“Teachers are sharing classrooms. BHS classes are being held at portables across from Washington Elementary and in the wings of the Community Theatre. These are not proper teaching conditions. The situation has got to improve,” Miller said. 

“There is a way that you can build a pool and have all the facilities constructed as well. You don’t need to pit the teachers against the community,” said BHS soccer coach Eugenio Janu Juarez amidst applause from community members. 

“The board is not your enemy,” School Board Director John Selawsky told the audience. 

He added that Phase I of the construction timeline would take up to three to four years during which the pool could be used by the community, while the city and the district worked on a solution. 

“If we can’t solve the problem in three to four years, we can never solve it. I am willing to meet with the city and the community to talk about the issue. But currently there are no funds that can be used toward moving the pool,” Selawsky said.  

Wendy Markel, President of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), submitted a letter to the board which stated that “discussion of alternatives in the final EIR had not been adequate,” especially after the Carey & Co. consultant report that the “old gym was a significant historic resource” 

Lew Jones, Director of Facilities for the BUSD, told the board that although the proposed demolition of the old gym would impair its architectural significance, it would be less expensive than rehabilitating it. 

“It’s not just a seismic issue, there are other deficiencies with retaining the gym. A full rehabilitation of the building would cost $25 million,” Jones said.  

The plan includes a building program with construction of approximately 69,000 square feet of building space, to be carried out in at least three phases. 

The proposed construction includes athletic and physical education facilities, classrooms, space for Facilities Department services and storage, surface parking and possible structured parking, and changes to campus landscaping. 

The proposed project would require demolition of the existing old gym on Milvia Street and would provide the City of Berkeley an opportunity to construct a replacement warm water pool on district-owned property.  

A draft EIR for the project was issued by the district on Sept. 26 through November 9, 2006, and a Responses to Comments report was prepared to respond to public comments received on the draft EIR which is available for review at the Berkeley Main Library. 

According to the report submitted by the school board, the project would enable BHS to provide 10 to 15 new classrooms to replace the 17 classrooms lost after the demolition of Building B and it would increase the amount of on-campus outdoor physical education space, specifically providing a regulation-size softball field and a flexible outdoor athletic quadrant. 

Other Matters  

The board also unanimously approved the recommendation of the Surplus Facilities Committee to declare the entire BUSD-owned Hillside site surplus to the district’s educational needs. 

With this approval, the district can now seek purchasers or long-term tenants for the site. 

After Hillside—one of the first schools to be built in Berkeley—was closed down because it was built atop seismic fault traces, BUSD has been renting out the property to a Montessori House for the last fifteen years. The Field Act prohibits classroom structures from being built on earthquake faults. 

The board also approved the South Berkeley Community Mural Project that will place murals along the fence at Malcolm X Elementary School and congratulated its participants. 

Vavrinek Trine Day & Co. presented an Independent Audit Report and Financial Statements for the BUSD for fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, which the board accepted. 

The district’s net assets were $52.3 million and $37.2 million for the fiscal years ending June 30, 2006 and 2005 respectively. The report showed that the district had an unrestricted fund balance of $3.6 million on June 30, 2006. 

District Superintendent Michele Lawrence informed board members on Wednesday that BUSD’s legal representative would be defending the Berkeley Board of Education’s position on the School Assignment System in Court on January 31. 

In 2006, the BUSD Student Assignment Plan had come under attack when the Pacific Legal Foundation had 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.” 

Some called proposals the Berkeley City Council debated Tuesday evening on commission restrictions “good government,” but others said imposing limits on the number of years commissioners can serve on one commission and on the number of commissions they can serve on at one time was a political move aimed at squelching the voices of commissioners who question large development projects. 

In a 4-5 vote, with Councilmembers Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington, Max Anderson and Linda Maio dissenting, the council approved the content of an ordinance the city attorney will draft for approval in March. The code revision will take effect three months after its final passage, and will apply only to the Zoning Adjustments Board, the Planning Commission, the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Housing Advisory Commission. It will restrict commission terms to eight years out of any ten years and will prohibit commissioners from serving on more than one of these commissions at a time.  

Other commissions will have no term limits and will not have restrictions on serving on more than one commission. 

The original concept as put forward by Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Betty Olds would have prohibited commissioners on all 40 city commissions from belonging to more than one commission and would have restricted them all to eight-year terms over a ten-year period. A loop-hole currently allows commissioners to quit for a few months after serving seven-plus years, then to be reappointed for a new eight-year term.  

“There’s a tendency to confuse longevity with knowledge,” said Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, arguing in favor of term limits. “To get advice, it’s not important that [the commission] be a group of experts.” 

Capitelli added to the argument for the legislation that “ex-commissioners aren’t going to go away” and are free to add their expertise to commission discussions as members of the public. 

Councilmember Darryl Moore also weighed in on the side of limits, arguing that the question was less about the limits themselves than about “closing illegal loopholes” in the ordinance that allows people to serve more than eight-year terms. “I agree with the League of Women Voters that the item before us is good government,” he said. 

Addressing the issue of diversity on commissions, Moore, an African American, noted angrily that “having people of color serve on several commissions is tokenism.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring, however, said the proposal targets three commissioners whose votes often favor residents over developers: commissioners Jesse Arreguin, Dave Blake and Gene Poschman. They regularly vote in the minority, Spring said. “These people raise good points. Now they don’t want us to have a voice at all.”  

Arreguin serves on the Housing Advisory Committee and the Zoning Adjustment Board. Blake has served on the ZAB for more than eight years total and Poschman has served on the Planning Commission for more than eight years. Both resigned after they had served seven years and were later reappointed. Susan Wengraf, long-time aide to Councilmember Betty Olds, a sponsor of the changed rule, has also used this method to serve on commissions for more than eight total years. 

Commissioners willing to put time into the research necessary to serve on commissions should not be eliminated, Spring said. “They tend to be the most hard-working people,” she said.  

“My commissioner [Poschman] works the hardest and knows Berkeley the best,” Spring said, noting that it was Poschman’s work on the University Avenue Strategic Plan that limited the height of buildings and “infuriated developers.” 

Councilmember Max Anderson added that it takes “political courage” to remove commissioners during their terms. “Sometimes people do think they have their positions for life,” he said, arguing that it’s up to the councilmember to take them off the commission when their service is no longer required. 

Anderson further argued that the proposal was without substance. “We haven’t vetted this to analyze whether we have a problem,” he said. 

Also arguing against the motion, Councilmember Linda Maio said, “I absolutely depend on my appointment to ZAB [and other commissions] for institutional memory. It’s not trivial—it’s a very hard job. For me, I have to have confidence in the person who does the work at that level. I’m concerned about being forced to terminate somebody before I’m ready.” 

Maio added in a phone interview Thursday, however, that she is planning to remove Dave Blake, her appointee to ZAB, after his work on the Density Bonus Subcommittee is completed.  

Addressing the council, Steven Wollmer, a member of the Housing Advisory Commission, argued that councilmembers’ right to appoint people who would represent their interests would be violated by the ordinance. 

Former League of Women Voters President Sherry Smith spoke to the council in favor of the measure, saying it was a “good government” issue, enforcing the eight-year term limits already in place.  

She also argued against individuals serving on more than one commission. Smith said the commission she serves on—the Police Review Commission—includes an individual who serves on two commissions and “wastes commission time” by bringing in things from the other commission. 

But Michael Sherman, the commissioner to whom Smith was referring, said in a phone interview Wednesday, that by serving on both the Peace and Justice Commission and on the PRC, he has been able to bring the concerns of both the groups together on various occasions.  

For example, the PRC is currently looking at regulating situations where the Berkeley police are asked to collaborate with agencies such as Homeland Security. This is a question that is necessarily addressed by both the Peace and Justice Commission and by the PRC, Sherman said. 

“Cross-fertilization of ideas of different commissions should be encouraged,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who has appointed student and affordable housing advocate Jesse Arreguin to both the housing and zoning commissions. 

In an interview Wednesday, Arreguin agreed, explaining that he has been able to bring his expertise in low-income housing issues that he’s gained by serving on the HAC to commissioners on the ZAB. 

“I interviewed 22 people and decided who to appoint to the [Zoning Adjustment Board],” Worthington said, arguing that Arreguin was the most qualified among them.  

“I think I have the right to appoint the most qualified person,” he said. The proposal “is thoroughly undemocratic. It’s not good for the city of Berkeley.” 

Membership in the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce underscores the city’s desire to promote business, Chamber Executive Director Rachel Rupert told the council Tuesday, arguing against a resolution that would have the city cancel memberships in organizations that participate in electoral politics. 

The resolution was briefly addressed even though it had been pulled off the agenda for the second time by its author, Councilmember Dona Spring, who said she is waiting for backup materials on the question. 

At the Tuesday council meeting, the body also addressed issues at Allston House, a low-income housing apartment complex, and funding the winter shelter program. 

Chamber Membership 

Even though the item was pulled from the agenda, the chamber’s Rachel Rupert and Roland Peterson, the chair of the Chamber Board of Directors, chose to address the council on the issue. 

The city belongs to the chamber through the City Manager’s Office and the Fire Department, both of which have paid memberships, according to Tracy Vesely, the city’s budget manager. (Rupert says only the Office of Economic Development, which is part of the manager’s office, has a paid membership.) 

The membership is advantageous because “we work very closely with the Office of Economic Development,” Rupert told the council.  

“The Office of Economic Development and the Chamber have the same mission, to improve the business climate,” Peterson added. 

Rupert noted that this past election was the first time the chamber had endorsed candidates, although it has endorsed against ballot measures in the past as it did in the November election. The chamber endorsed Mayor Tom Bates, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak and the challengers to Spring and Councilmember Kriss Worthington, as well as opposing Measure J, the Landmarks Preservation ballot measure. 

Berkeley resident Nancy Carleton, treasurer for the Worthington council campaign, called on the city to withdraw its membership from organizations that endorse candidates for office. “It is inappropriate for our taxpayer dollars to go to such groups, and contrary to democratic principles,” she wrote. 

While Spring’s resolution targets the chamber only and not its political action committee, Rupert brought the PAC into the discussion. (The PAC put about $100,000 into funding support for and against the same candidates and measure that the chamber had endorsed.) “The PAC is separate from the Chamber,” she said. “The PAC has its own agenda.” 

Worthington took the opportunity to ask Rupert and Peterson for the names of the PAC board of directors, something he has been unable to obtain. Peterson has told the Planet that the PAC chair is realtor Miriam Ng, Councilmember Darryl Moore’s appointee to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the treasurer is Stacy Owens. Rupert promised to send the information to the council and to the Daily Planet. (On Thursday, the Planet learned that because Ng is out of town, the information will not be available for a few days.) 

Allston House 

A city loan to Affordable Housing Associates, which manages low-income housing at Allston House at 2121 Seventh St., sparked a discussion around safety issues at the property. Councilmember Dona Spring said she had met with tenants and AHA to talk about ensuring security with security cameras and an improved security gate. 

“People can jump over the gate—it’s not a security deterrent,” Spring said. Tenants have alleged that there is drug dealing in the building and that it is not safe. 

Housing Director Steve Barton said he thought there was adequate security, but added, “We can have someone take another look.” 

The conversation did not sit well with Councilmember Darryl Moore, in whose district Allston House is located. Not without sarcasm, he thanked Spring for her attention to the property and noted that he had walked the building with a police officer. 

“I believe even a nine-foot gate could be scaled,” he said. “I don’t want to see barbed wire and I don’t want to start micromanaging the project.” The council approved the loan unanimously. 

Winter Shelter 

The council also unanimously approved an added $7,000 for the Oakland Army Base winter shelter, and City Manager Phil Kamlarz noted that the city has been able to house everyone who wanted shelter during the cold snap the city has been experiencing. 

The city had been prepared to open up one of its gyms if necessary, but it was not, according to Andrew Wicker, a city community services specialist, speaking in a separate interview. “The mobile crisis team was able to contact people and take them to shelters,” Wicker said. 

While legislative term limits prematurely ended the assembly career of Oakland area representative Wilma Chan, it has helped to immediately boost her successor, Sandré Swanson, up the leadership ladder. 

The California Assembly’s constitutional three-term limit forced Chan from the 16th Assembly District seat at the end of last year after six years in office, and after Chan rose to the post as Assembly Majority Leader. 

Chan’s forced retirement cut in half Oakland’s powerful legislative leadership team, which also included Oakland-based Don Perata as president of the state senate. 

But this week, Swanson’s office announced that only days after being sworn into office following the November elections, the Oakland Democrat has been appointed chair of the powerful Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. 

According to Swanson’s office, the Assembly Labor Committee has jurisdiction over employment discrimination, workplace health and safety, workforce development, and wages, including minimum wage, overtime pay, and the prevailing wage. 

In a prepared statement, Nuñez said that “Sandré’s extensive background and experience working with labor organizations and issues made him a natural and easy choice for the chairmanship.” 

Such an elevation would never have happened in the days before term limits, when legislators often had to wait years to even obtain positions on coveted committees. 

Swanson says that one of his priorities will be “ensuring affordable and comprehensive healthcare” for all working Californians. 

Health care has suddenly become a hot topic in California, with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposing a state program to expand insurance for presently uninsured citizens, and the mayors of both San Francisco and Oakland developing similar initiatives in their respective cities. 

In addition, Swanson said that he will use his position as committee chair to “continue the fight for livable wages that allow workers to be treated with dignity. We will work to protect pensions when workers leave the workforce, and to protect their health and safety while on the job. 

“Guaranteed retirement benefits and pensions are promises which must not be broken. One of our most important tasks is to revisit the recent worker’s compensation reforms and ensure that the promises to injured workers are being met.”

One week after George W. Bush told the nation he would commit 20,000 additional troops to fight on the ground in Iraq, the Bay Area peace community got the bold response it wanted to hear. 

On Wednesday Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland-Berkeley, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-San Rafael and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives the Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act that would get U.S. troops out of Iraq within six months. 

“The longer the U.S. stays in Iraq, the worse things get,” Lee told the Daily Planet in a brief phone interview Wednesday.  

More than 3,000 U.S. troops and more than 34,000 Iraqis have died, she said. “We need to bring home our troops. We won’t leave young men and women in harm’s way like this president has done.”  

The bill, supported by 12 co-sponsors, goes beyond the bills introduced separately Wednesday by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to halt deployment of more troops to Iraq. 

The Lee-Woolsey-Waters bill would: 

• Repeal the authorization to use force against Iraq passed by Congress in 2002; 

• Require the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors within six months of the enactment of this bill; 

• Turn security activities and military operations in Iraq over to the elected Iraqi government within six months of enactment; military facilities built by the United States will be turned over to the Iraqi government; 

• Prohibit the U.S. from establishing permanent bases in Iraq; 

• Accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi military and security forces;  

• Pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy;  

• Provide assistance to the Iraqi government in recovering archeological, cultural and historic artifacts that have been lost since the U.S. invasion;  

• Fully fund veterans’ health care.  

• Prohibit U.S. access to Iraqi oil production prior to the Iraqi government’s establishing clear rules for foreign ownership and participation. 

While Woolsey and Lee are co-chairs of the 62-member Progressive Caucus and Waters is the co-chair and founder of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Lee said she and her co-authors need the help of the local community: “Contact other members of the California delegation. They need to come in as co-sponsors.”  

And go to demonstrations, she said: “Keep up the street heat. E-mail. Make phone calls. Our community leads all the time.” 

None of the local peace activists contacted by the Daily Planet—members of Grandmothers Against the War, the UC Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission, the Watada Support Committee, Peace Action West—thought the proposed act would bring an end to the bloodshed on its own, but all saw it as an opening. 

“I hope it gets attention and discussion,” said Steve Freedkin, who chairs Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission and hosts the internet site Progressive Portal. 

“It’s not likely to pass,” Freedkin added, putting the burden of stopping the war on the community. “It’s our job to create the political climate” where bills such as this can be approved, he said. Individuals need to lobby fellow citizens and legislators beyond Berkeley, he added, where citizens voted by 70 percent to impeach Bush in November. 

Grace Shimizu, spokesperson for the newly-formed Watada Support Committee/APIs (Asian Pacific Islanders) Resist! called the draft act a “wonderful bill.”  

“Finally the Democrats in congress have a response to the demand of the American people to put an end the occupation in Iraq,” she said, noting that it would not only bring the troops home in six months, but also fund their health care, “recognizing the trauma they’ve been under and the injuries they’ve faced.” 

Shimizu added praise for Lee, Waters and Woolsey. “It is no surprise that it is these three congresswomen who are posing a challenge to their colleagues. I hope Congress steps up to the plate.” 

Helen Isaacson of Berkeley and 150 of her friends—Grandmothers Against the War from 21 states—are in Washington, D.C. lobbying Congress to end the war in Iraq. Speaking to the Planet by phone on Wednesday Isaacson said that, while the “grannies brigade” is visiting mostly the offices of senators, the four grandmothers from California planned to visit the office of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, on Thursday and would add the Lee-Woolsey-Waters bill to their anti-war lobbying efforts. 

Erin Sikorsky, state political director with Berkeley-based Peace Action West called the proposed legislation an “excellent bill.” Peace Action has long supported “full withdrawal,” she said. “Barbara Lee has been out front for a long time.” 

Legislation such as this bill could have the effect of “pushing Congress further and further to withdrawal,” she said. “It can change the debate in Congress.” 

Over the years, anxious parents taking the first step toward admitting their children to school have found a guiding light in the Berkeley Unified School District’s Kindergarten Fair. 

In its twelfth year, the fair will be hosted by LeConte Elementary School on Russell Street this Saturday. 

The event familiarizes parents with district-wide curricula and the assignment system and introduces them to parent representatives from all eleven elementary schools as well as child-care providers. 

“It’s the district’s way of introducing the elementary schools to parents,” said LeConte principal Cheryl Wilson.  

“It’s pretty much the parents and the PTA who take charge but LeConte will have teachers from our Farming Garden who will talk to people about the program. I will help set up a visual representation to show parents why they would want to choose LeConte for their child,” Wilson said.  

BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan said Francisco Martinez, BUSD’s Manager for Attendance and Enrollment, would also be giving a presentation at the fair. 

“Francisco is in charge of calculating the enrollment numbers every school year, and his predictions have always been 99 percent accurate,” Coplan said. 

Matinez told the Planet that he expected 600 to 620 students to enroll in kindergarten this year. 

“Last year we had an enrollment of 610, five years ago it was 670. There is really no specific pattern to explain this. We use statistical analysis to help us calculate.” 

With 438 students, Thousand Oaks has the largest enrollment. Cragmont comes in next with 400, followed by Malcolm X (382) and LeConte (314). 

“Our largest is probably the average in other districts, but Berkeley built smaller schools because that was what the community needed at the time,” said Coplan. 

Martinez added that the fair allowed families to go around and get a flavor of each of the schools which helped them to select the top three schools of their choice.  

“Sometimes parents realize that the things they have been hearing about a particular school is not always correct. It really helps that parents get to interact with other parents,” he said. 

Marie Joiner, student admissions specialist for the office of admissions at the BUSD, said that the fair also attracted returning parents who haven’t had much exposure to the school district. 

“Last time 140 families signed up for the fair,” she said. “Parents are interested to know about how they should apply, the transport options and the after school and enrichment programs available. Instead of going to each school individually, this is a great way of learning about them.” 

The deadline for submitting the form with the top three school choices is Feb. 9, after which the computer makes the final selection based on a variety of demographic criteria such as race, income, and parents’ education.  

“Planning for school is exciting for families and the fair is a lot of fun for the kids as well,” Joiner said. 

“It’s interesting to see the schools competing with each other but at the same time it’s also a rare opportunity for them to be together under the same roof,” Coplan said. 

Cary Sanders, PTA president at LeConte said that parents were preparing hard to host the fair on Saturday.  

“The PTA is organizing the tables and the displays. There will be other PTAs as well. We are planning to take people around the school and show them the materials and some of the exciting programs,” Sanders said. 

“We continue to have a farming garden program and the cooking/nutrition program goes hand in hand with that. There is also a two-way immersion program in Spanish which kids love. Our job is to take those and communicate them to parents.” 

Sanders added that all the schools were focusing on narrowing the achievement gap. 

“There might be a little competition at the fair but we are all unified overall. Our main goal is to let people know that the Berkeley Public School system works and that it has great programs,” she said. 

A planned Saturday afternoon protest and celebration of the Memorial Stadium tree-in aims at recruiting returning UC Berkeley students to the cause of the six branch-sitters and their allies. 

The protest, underway since Dec. 2, challenges university plans to level the grove of California Coastal Live Oaks, a redwood and other trees along the stadium’s western wall to make room for a $125 million gym. 

A raid last Friday swept away the shelters, food and other supplies assembled by supporters of the arboreal activists, but it hasn’t dampened the spirits of organizers. 

UC Berkeley professor Ignacio Chapela is one of the campus activists who has joined the cause. 

Chapela said eliminating the grove and replacing it with a four-story complex would severe a vital pathway used by native wildlife. 

“Closing this corridor would reverberate across those wild landscapes from the Berkeley Hills all the way to Pinole and Chabot and beyond to the rest of the parks that make the East Bay the envy of the world,” said the professor, who fought and won a legal battle for tenure. 

Saturday’s events, which get underway at the grove starting at 1 p.m., will feature statements by Chapela and others, a performance by Berkeley’s own activist songwriter in residence County Joe McDonald and others, as well as acorn-bobbing and a chance to taste acorn meal pancakes.  

As the Global Exchange tour bus makes its way out of Caracas, our Venezuelan guide explains that what we are passing—an extensive array of makeshift dwellings on both sides of the highway—is the largest shantytown in Latin America, rivaled only by the slums of Rio De Janeiro. 

I compare what I see to shanties I have seen outside of Johannesburg, noting that the South African dwellings are on relatively flat terrain, while the Caracas suburbs are on steep hillsides. My suspicion that they would offer stunning views of the kind that inflate real estate prices in the United States is confirmed later in the trip when we are taken to witness up close an effort of the Government of Hugo Chavez to raze shanties and replace them with “living quarters worthy of human habitation.” 

I was one of several Cal State East Bay professors who, together with a handful of Bay Area architects and city planners, constituted the core of the tour group. It was an exciting opportunity to view a social movement in progress dubbed “The Bolivarian Revolution,” and critically discuss what we saw, from the diverse perspectives of group members. 

The Child of the Sixties was resurrected in me as I revisited lessons learned as a participant in the Black Freedom Movement. I was particularly struck by the high level of consciousness displayed by persons we encountered; consciousness of participating in a revolution aimed at transforming the lives of the poor.  

Participatory democracy, and the idea that Chavez is the symbolic leader of a movement directed by the collective will of the people were recurring themes of presentations by leaders of cooperatives and economic missions. While Venezuela still has a long way to go on the road to being a perfect society, I saw a number of welcome indications that democracy is valued and freedom of expression is not only tolerated but vibrant. 

One of the first indications of freedom of speech that we witnessed was in Caracas at a housing cooperative in which our guide and his mother reside. The mother responded candidly and at length to a member of our group who asked what she thought of Chavez. She said, in essence, that he talks a good game, but does not follow through with action. 

The president of the housing cooperative made the first of several expressions of the view that Chavez is a symbol of a pervasive people’s movement. In the discussion that followed we were told how the cooperative runs the housing development with funds provided by the central government, which, thanks to an ample stream of oil revenue, seem to be endless. We frequently heard bureaucracy and bureaucrats blamed for failures of promised resources to materialize. 

Although our guide by his own admission is not a follower of Chavez, our itinerary featured projects, programs and spokespersons of the Bolivarian Revolution. We also had opportunities to interact with representatives of the opposition and hear their point of view. A common criticism of the proliferation of cooperatives was the claim that opportunistic individuals and groups were gaining funding for cooperatives, which they proceeded to operate as individual enterprises. 

One indication of the strength of the opposition was seen in spontaneous expressions of outrage towards Chavez’ presidency from persons encountered in a public park in an upscale section of Caracas. A frequently expressed complaint concerned a list allegedly maintained by the Chavez regime of participants in an opposition-led general strike, used to block listed persons from appointment to government jobs. Their anti-Chavez feelings were openly and energetically voiced.  

We got a sense of the nature of the organized anti-Chavez movement from a representative of the opposition political party, who espoused a clearly capitalist ideology. She was highly critical of BanMujer, a government funded banking cooperative that boasts of its success in empowering poor women financially, claiming that it had mismanaged funds and fallen into bankruptcy. She lambasted poor Venezuelans for their lack the financial knowledge and personal initiative, insisting that government loans extended to help them buy homes or establish cooperatives were a waste of precious resources.  

The bus eventually took us to Barlovento, center of the Afro-Venezuelan Network. The poverty of the region was starkly brought to our attention by, among other things, the fact that the hotel where we stayed turned off the water pump from six o’clock in the evening until early the next morning. We got used to taking cold showers, unless it was late enough in the day for the outside air to heat the pipes through which the water flowed. Some of the signs of change we saw were community colleges training teachers and nurses to work in rural communities, health clinics with second story apartments in which Cuban physicians resided, and cooperatives to process raw cacao, traditionally raised there, into candy and other products. 

We were treated to cultural performances of drumming, dance, storytelling and song reminiscent of common elements of populations of African descent in diverse locations: polyrhythmic cadences, call and response, and artistic lyrics replete with earthy language. While we saw many planned cultural performances, one of the most memorable was a funeral procession strikingly similar to the New Orleans “Second Line” tradition that happened to cross our path one morning. 

Four men carrying the coffin of the deceased on their shoulders would ritualistically move two steps forward and one step back to the tune of a jazz dirge by brass and woodwind players. We were told that the pallbearers’ movements represented the indecision of the deceased to leave the present world and move on to the next. We didn’t see the internment, but I would not have been surprised to hear it followed by an up-tempo version of “When the Saints go Marching In.” 

Afro-Venezuelan leader Luis Perdomo explained how efforts to reawaken pride in and appreciation of their cultural traditions served to build a network that eventually seeks to improve the socioeconomic plight of Afro-Venezuelans and call attention to a racism of which the larger society is in denial. One indication of the depth of that denial is the fact that although the Venezuelan constitution provides explicit recognition of women and indigenous peoples, efforts are still under way to incorporate explicit recognition of persons of African descent. 

The denial of racism, not only in Venezuela but throughout Latin America takes many forms, including the claim that Negrito and Negrita are used as terms of endearment by all segments of society, and by calling attention to the commonplace phenomenon of interracial dating and marriage. One member of our delegation noted an indication of racism in the expression of a white Venezuelan woman that she did not care to go to the beach because the suntan would diminish the advantages she derived from light skin color. 

One of our Afro-Venezuelan hosts claimed that he had been told on a trip to Cuba that Castro is ready to amend the Cuban constitution to deal with the taboo issue of race. 

We learned of two other issues besides race that still pose problems for the Bolivarian revolution. Abortion is illegal and homophobia is rampant. Our itinerary included a discussion with representatives of an organized gay rights movement. Chavez has recently been engaged in active consultation with priests from the liberation theology wing of Catholicism, in what appears to be a strategic effort to counter the effect of conservative Catholic beliefs on such issues as abortion.  

Near the end of our ten days in Venezuela we met with Eva Golinger, author of The Chavez Code, a book that uses information from US government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to describe extensive ongoing efforts to destabilized the Chavez government using methods similar to those that successfully brought down the Sandanista regime in Nicaragua. 

The revolutionary consciousness displayed by representatives of the projects and programs we visited appears to be so firmly embedded in the Venezuelan masses that no amount of planned destabilization is likely to reverse the course upon which the Chavez government is presently embarked, and a more rational direction for U.S. foreign policy seems to lie in diplomatic initiatives to further national interests in a new Latin America in which the Monroe Doctrine is passé and Chavez’ brand of democratic socialism is a growing reality. 

More than 15,000 customers of Amazon.com have signed my online petition threatening to close their accounts and take their business elsewhere if the Internet shopping site continues to present a new book by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in an unusually negative light.  

The petition, posted at www.petitiononline.com/Amazon07, accuses Amazon of treating Carter’s Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid unfairly by posting a lengthy and unabashedly hostile review on the page where it lists the book, in a section normally reserved for short, even-handed descriptions of the title in question.  

In the book Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to bring about a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, points to Israel’s 40-year-long occupation of the Palestinian territories as the key obstacle to peace in the region. He compares Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian population to the brutal apartheid system that once kept South African blacks subjugated.  

The review that provoked the petition, written by New Yorker staff writer and former Israeli prison guard Jeffrey Goldberg, labels the book “cynical,” disparages Carter’s understanding of the conflict as “anti-historical,” and accuses him of being “easy on Arab aggression and Palestinian terror.” The review originally appeared in the Washington Post. 

I began this petition not to challenge Amazon’s right to post a negative review but to demand the same kind of non-discriminatory treatment most books get on the site. The Goldberg review appears on the Amazon page under the heading “Editorial Reviews,” a section that on most Amazon book pages contains only one- or two-paragraph synopses from book-listing services such as Publishers Weekly or the American Library Association’s Booklist, or descriptions by the book’s publisher or by Amazon itself. 

Currently, the “Editorial Reviews” section on Amazon’s U.S. site includes a one-paragraph, 198-word blurb from Publishers Weekly followed by the full, 20-paragraph, 1,636-word text of Goldberg’s totally negative review. 

The petition, which is addressed to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, suggests several possible remedies: removing the Goldberg review, moving it to a secondary page Amazon already uses for additional material on the book, or “restor[ing] a semblance of balance by giving comparable space and prominence to a more positive evaluation of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”  

If Bezos doesn’t choose one of these options by Jan. 22, petition signers pledge to stop shopping at Amazon, to completely close their accounts, and to urge friends, family, and associates to do likewise. 

We’re not asking Amazon to endorse the book, just to be even-handed. I wish they would stick to their usual formula and post only brief, more or less neutral descriptions on the main page for any book, but if they insist on including Goldberg’s attack piece on the U.S. site, then they owe it to their customers—as well as their shareholders—to put something more positive alongside, something that mentions the many merits of the book. 

“If you want to see what a normal review looks like, you have only to go to the Amazon UK treatment of Carter’s book,” said Paul Larudee, who worked with me to publicize the petition. “It is a single paragraph, mildly promotional, but not grinding any particular political ax. By comparison, the North American site is hatchet job.”  

Other international Amazon sites also present the book even-handedly, according to reports by signers of the petition. So does the U.S. site of Amazon’s chief competitor, barnesandnoble.com. 

Before creating the petition, we sent e-mail directly to Bezos, objecting to Amazon’s one-sided treatment of the book and suggesting several favorable assessments—from publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Nation—that could be added. 

Unfortunately, Bezos turned us all down flat. Responses from Amazon’s “Executive Customer Relations” staff suggested that the letter writers post their own reviews. In fact, Amazon does display reader reviews on its book pages, and in the case of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, a large majority of the posted reviews are positive about the book. Reader reviews, however, are not displayed as prominently on the page as “Editorial Reviews,” and they may not carry as much weight with potential buyers.  

Our petition also complains that Amazon does not include information customers need in order to evaluate Goldberg’s attack on the book—such as the fact that he volunteered to serve in the Israeli military and served as a military policeman guarding Palestinian detainees in a prison camp notorious for its harsh conditions.  

The petition was first posted on Jan. 10, when it garnered 84 signatures. The next day 693 more customers signed on, and since then the total has climbed steadily. Signers come not only from the U.S., but from all over the world. Many added comments expressing admiration for Carter’s book, disappointment over the site’s apparent bias against it, and determination to follow through on closing their accounts if Amazon doesn’t correct the situation. The petition will be sent to Bezos later this week.  

In another sign of Amazon’s apparent bias, its version of the latest New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list initially omitted Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid altogether, even though the book actually ranks fifth on the list—Amazon’s list jumped directly from number 4 to number 6! This extraordinary “mistake” persisted for days, until two hours after I alerted scores of reporters and publications.

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.” 

As a non-card-carrying but nonetheless proud Old Blue (I think that’s what University of California at Berkeley graduates are still called), from the class of ’61, back in the days when the local campus was called simply “Cal,” never “Berkeley,” I’m delighted to see that the school is still following its traditions. Well, “delighted” might be a bit strong. “Bemused” would be more like it. The tradition I’m referring to in this instance is acting with utter stupidity when anything approaching public relations is concerned. 

We spent the exciting years of the ’60s in Ann Arbor, from 1961 to 1973, so we had the chance to observe another way of doing university business close at hand. While our friends in Berkeley were enjoying riots and demonstrations of all kinds—the Free Speech Movement, People’s Park, the anti-war movement—we in Ann Arbor enjoyed relative tranquility. It wasn’t that nothing was going on: Students for a Democratic Society was founded in Ann Arbor, and someone burned down the naval ROTC building, among other excitements. But the phlegmatic reaction of the University of Michigan administration to any and all provocations avoided the massive confrontations that defined Berkeley in the ’60s. As Carol Denney is fond of observing, Berkeley is not the home of the Free Speech Movement because the campus had so much free speech, but because the clueless UC administrators did their best to stifle it, with predictable results. 

The stupidity tradition started even before the ’60s. When I arrived on campus in the fall of 1959 Fred Moore was fasting on the steps of Hearst Gym because the University of California still required all male students, even pacifists like Fred, to be members of ROTC. The previous spring members of the first student political party, Slate, had been disciplined for holding a rally under a campus oak tree supporting the state’s fair housing ordinance. Not too many years before several faculty members had been fired for refusing to sign a loyalty oath. Cal administrators knew how to provoke a confrontation even in the fifties.  

Which brings us to the present case, the university’s expressed desire, in the course of an expensive and vulgar redesign of the formerly charming football stadium, to build an establishment for the care and feeding of the hired gladiators who now seem to be an inevitable part of campus life.  

The emphasis on big sports at Cal is a new tradition, or at least new to me. As I remember it, in the late ’50s we were proud of the poor quality of our football team, which we believed was directly associated with the high intellectual caliber of our students. This must be wrong, though, because one of Berkeley Mayor Bates’ proudest memories is playing in the Rose Bowl game in 1959. We must have lived in different worlds in those days. 

Now Bates and I do agree on one thing: the utter and complete stupidity of the university’s desire to locate the grandly named Student Athlete High Performance Center right smack on top of the Hayward Fault, on a two-lane road hemmed in from all directions by impenetrable traffic. It’s one thing to have a football stadium, used for only six home games a year, in that location—the probability that the big one will come while it’s in use could be considered acceptably small.  

But the proposed Gladiator’s Gym, intended for heavy day-and-night use, is another matter entirely. Even the timorous Berkeley City Council is against it. They usually confine their condemnations of bad behavior to far-away follies, but they’ve approved a law suit challenging the duplicitous environmental impact report which UC submitted for the project. At Tuesday’s council meeting, someone suggested that the city should contact UC’s big bucks donors to let them know that a can of worms has been opened, but Councilmember Wozniak, a retired UC lab administrator, was horrified at that prospect, as were others. 

The promoters have announced that the mega-gym will be named for one Barclay Simpson, a Danville resident who started a company which makes parts used in big construction projects. Simpson is also the chair of the board of the University Art Museum, where he’s well thought of, and has been the president of the California Shakespeare Festival, another worthy institution. Berkeley City Council members might balk at contacting all of the deep pockets that UC taps, but perhaps just Simpson would like to meet with them to discuss their objections. If he values his brand, he might want to think twice before allowing his name to be used for such an unpopular project, one which has so far attracted four lawsuits.  

At an ungodly hour last Friday morning we went up to the oak grove which will be destroyed if the gym goes in. We were just in time to see the construction shovels scooping up the worldly goods of the campers who were there to support the tree-sitters and tossing them in a dump truck. I asked the fellow who seemed to be the head cop why he was doing this. Evidence, he said. Of what? Trespassing, he said. Don’t you have to warn them first? Nope, he said, citing a code section, special for the university, which undoubtedly had a genealogical connection to the Free Speech Movement. I asked how confiscated stuff could be used as evidence of wrongdoing if it were picked up by a machine and all jumbled together. What about chain of custody? I asked, remembering O.J. He looked a bit pale, and changed the subject. 

Of course it was nothing but bullying, a characteristic power play in the hallowed UC tradition of stupid actions. It seemed particularly poor given that a judge, just the day before, had denied the university lawyers’ request to approve some similar muscle moves. And last week the state’s legislative analyst’s office blasted UC’s poor record of dealing with local governments in the cities where its branches are located. 

The top cop told me that they wanted to get the campers out of the way before the students came back this week, but that didn’t work, and now everyone’s even madder than they were. A Welcome Back Students party is scheduled for this Saturday at noon at the grove. It will be interesting to see if once again the pig-headed folks still calling the shots at my alma mater will manage to turn a brush fire into a firestorm.  

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.

‘UNIVERSAL’ MEANS SINGLE PAYER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

All the smoke and mirrors about solving the crisis in health care is as real as the phony insurance company front groups that keep writing letters to the Chronicle on the subject. Our state Legislature spent three years studying alternatives and came to the conclusion that only a single payer insurance system works. Eliminating the insurers can save billions. And it can discipline uncontrolled profit centers—such as giant pharmaceuticals and other major system suppliers. That’s why the Legislature passed Single Payer last year. But it didn’t happen. Although many corporations want Single Payer because improved health care will improve their own workers’ efficiency, they aren’t prepared to start a war with Blue Cross, Blue Shield and the other major insurers. As a physician who works with/for the uninsured and underinsured, I’d bet anything that California will not now offer a system that guarantees equal and quality health care for all with free choice of doctors and hospitals. Only single payer will do that, but eliminating the insurance company middleman would also take hundreds of billions in profits out of Wall Street. Would Arnold go against Wall Street?  

Marc Sapir 

• 

IT AIN’T THE ONLY OAK GROVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Week after week I see this lie published about the scraggly oaks next to Memorial Stadium being the “only grove in Berkeley” or “in the flatlands.” It ain’t true For openers, just stroll directly west from the stadium down the long, wide walk to the large, nice grove of oaks just south of the old LSB building where one can sit on the old marble bench as I have done for some 50 years. Unlike the so-called stadium “grove,” one does not fall on your ass trying to walk around on a leaf-covered, down-slopping grade and fall on the sidewalk, with cars around and steel fences. The best thing that could happen up there would be to take all the oaks out and thereby allow full view of a truly magnificent architectural display. By the way, there are more than 250 varieties of trees alone on the Berkeley campus. Pick up a guided tour at the Forestry Department. 

Jack Chamberlain 

• 

TRADER JOE’S BUILDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Can it be that opponents of the “Trader Joe” apartments will have to live for the rest of their lives bemoaning their unwanted building on University Avenue, all because Councilmember Gordon Wozniak “fired” his appointee to the Zoning Adjustments Board just days before the vote, allowing his new appointee to cast the crucial fifth vote to approve the project? 

Those who read the informative recent articles in the Daily Planet by the dislodged ZABber Dean Metzger and by our ever-watchful Sharon Hudson might come to that conclusion, even though neither author discussed the consequences of the ZAB approval of that project. 

If Mr. Metzger had stayed on the board to prevent that fifth and deciding yes-vote, would the final results be any different? In my opinion, probably not. 

The plain fact is that all bitterly contested high-rise buildings are appealed to the City Council no matter whether they are approved or turned down by the ZAB. At which point the same people will wait many hours to repeat their same testimony (often word for word). It is the City Council which always has the final say, usually based on the same facts and opinions already heard months ago at the ZAB. 

In the Trader Joe case, Mr Wozniak will have his real vote, regardless of the way his appointee voted on the ZAB. The City Council has to look for its own fifth vote (either up or down) to decide the fate of this, and any, project. (Las Vegas betting odds seem to favor Council approval.) Thus does a prior ZAB decision, whatever it be, go for naught. 

Residential ZAB decision only rarely get overturned by the council, but apartment houses and commercial properties are somewhat more prone for overturn and therefore are worth an appeal. This suggests to me a way we can save our tax-payers and our concerned citizenry both money and testimony duplication, and save the ZAB members hours and weeks of preliminary shadowboxing. We just need to create a mechanism for agreeing that a contentious large project we all know is destined to be appealed be sent straight to the City Council in the first place. 

The vast majority of ZAB decisions are not appealed. The ZAB will still have plenty of traditional work to do. But we will all be spared enduring complex zoning argument in months-long duplicata. 

Victor Herbert 

• 

GRATEFUL FOR GRATITUDE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Given the empty store fronts on Shattuck Avenue and the threatened loss of Black Oaks Books, it might appear that downtown Berkeley is rapidly going to hell in a hand basket. Hold on—not so fast. There’s a bright new star on the horizon; namely a new restaurant, Cafe Gratitude at 1730 Shattuck Ave. Granted, we need new stores much more than another restaurant in the Gourmet Ghetto. But Cafe Gratitude is a unique, funky-type place—several large rooms, brick walls, long wooden tables where diners are encouraged to sit together, plus a friendly, laid-back staff. It’s worth dropping in just to read the witty, imaginative Bill of Fare, where each item has a fanciful name.  

For example, “I Am Bright-Eyed,” one of the breakfasts; “I Am Bountiful,” for an appetizer; “I Am Fulfilled” for a salad. An entree might be identified as “I Am Abundant” or “I Am Flourishing.” Milkshakes bear the intriguing description, “I Am Eternally Charismatic.” Organic teas boast “I Am Triumphant,” while fruit juices claim, “I Am Compassionate.” There’s even a prayer on the Bill of Fare: “Great Spirit, thank you for all the beings that contributed to this meal and for the vitality of this food. We relish our bounty and revere your creation.” I ask, at what other restaurant do you get a blessing? For Cafe Gratitude, let’s be grateful!  

Dorothy Snodgrass 

• 

NORTH SHATTUCK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I see there is talk of a major renovation and change for North Shattuck Avenue (Daily Planet, Jan. 12). My question: Why? 

I moved here in 1965 and have seen creative and positive growth along North Shattuck. Here is a neighborhood that, by itself, has spawned such great places as the Cheeseboard, Peet’s, Chez Panisse, Earthly Goods, Black Oak Books, the Juice Bar, Poulet, Vintage Wines, and the Walk Shop, to name a few. 

Why does the City of Berkeley want to mess with that? Haven’t we all seen enough harm done by the city’s planning staff and politicians to Telegraph Avenue and Berkeley’s Downtown?The best thing the city could do to North Shattuck would be to leave the area alone, and not let greedy developers mess it up. 

Barry Wofsy 

For the Milvia/King Alliance 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The media has been recently been touting a physician-funded report that U.S. cancer deaths have fallen for the second year in a row. They paint a pretty picture of success on paper. Anyone with one eye can see a quite different reality. Although cancer deaths have dropped, the quality of life for those living with cancer continues to decline. Although western medicine and modern science have figured out how to extend life (up to five years) of those living with cancer, the symptoms associated with the treatment often make for a living hell. The focus is always on diagnosis and treatment, never on diet or lifestyle that causes cancer. The current mindset that blames genetics and environment while ignoring personal responsibility is part of the problem, not the solution. 

Michael Bauce 

• 

TREASURED ISLAND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have lived in Alameda all my life. I am extremely concerned about the future of our “Treasured Island.” Our peaceful piece of the planet is at high risk. 

We citizens of Alameda overwhelmingly passed a City Charter Measure (Measure A) in the mid ’70s that stated nothing larger than a duplex could be built in Alameda. The current and extremely crucial issue for Alameda and its residents is possible overturn/amendment to the cited City Charter Amendment. That possible overturn/amendment would solely be to accommodate future development projects. Those projects would not benefit Alameda as a whole. Business/real estate and corporate interests would surely benefit, but the quality of life for residents current and future who enjoy living here would suffer in perpetuity.  

Here is a brief history of what was going on during the 1970s. Land speculators were buying up our Victorians, demolishing them and using the land for multiple housing. As a result we now see a multitude of cement-square multiples of tasteless, cheaply constructed, architecturally incompatible apartment complexes sandwiched between Victorians and older homes of equal beauty and historic value. The result has been disastrous! Not a pretty sight. As this greedy land grab progressed in the 1970s the citizenry gathered forces and passed Measure A to put a halt to this destruction. For the past 30 plus years that Measure has served Alameda and its residents well. 

Now, the grabbers and their affiliates are again on the offensive. Due to the closure of the Naval Air Station in the 1990s (acreage now called Alameda Point) that prime property is up for grabs. Developers continue to descend in droves. In conjunction, other spuriously affiliated organizations are behind a push to either overturn/amend Measure A to accommodate multiple housing, possible big box retail and the like on that beautiful land. 

If this push is allowed it will effect every square inch on our city. Some of these factions are using the ill-described “affordable housing” as their hue and cry. I defy anyone to describe with any accuracy precisely what is “affordable housing.” It is subjective. Is my description of affordable housing the same as yours? No.  

The unalterable fact is that Alameda is but a 10.4-square-mile island with limited ingress and egress. We have two tubes and four bridges. Our city leaders are definitely not in tune with the residents. They continue to OK nearly every proposed development...or as they term, “improvement” of our city. The lure of property and retail tax dollars dictate their decisions. Our city is not poor. It is not suffering financial catastrophe...but I fear it may soon experience that result if our leaders do not face the future with any intelligently processed reality.  

Each new development requires city services to accommodate incoming population and business. Will the projected dollars ultimately result in absorbing those financial commitments? I have my doubts.  

Name wittheld 

• 

AC TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is in response to several recent letters about AC Transit. 

I think bus service in Berkeley is OK. I regularly ride the 51, and also use the 7, 9, 19, 40, 43, 52 and 72. Before I retired, I regularly bought a 31-day pass for $70, which I thought was a great deal. Now I carry a senior pass, and I think $20 is dirt cheap for unlimited bus rides during a month. I think AC Transit should stop issuing transfers, and tell all regular riders to buy a pass. People who ride buses only occasionally might want to buy a 10-ride ticket, to avoid digging for change, but a pass is the only way to go for regular riders. I ride a bus for nearly all my trips in and around Berkeley. I never have to dig for change or get a transfer, because I pay my (fixed) fare once a month. 

I don’t think we need a “shuttle” downtown. I know how to use the bus lines mentioned above to get to each and every shopping district, school, medical facility and restaurant in Berkeley and the neighboring parts of Albany, El Cerrito and Oakland. Free shuttles are already available to Kaiser and Children’s Hospital, from MacArthur BART. People can also ride the UC campus buses. 

There are a few residential areas in Berkeley which I can’t get to on a bus. For some of them, I can walk, for the rest I take a taxi, catch a ride with somebody, or use my City CarShare membership to borrow a Prius for a while. These are rare situations. Besides buses, there are other alternatives to driving alone—car-pooling, jitney service (limited routes and times) and park-and-ride. 

I realize there are downsides to bus riding. Buses can be late, crowded and some riders can be noisy, smelly and abusive. Some riders drop garbage on the buses and talk loudly on cell phones. But in my experience these are only occasional problems, which I can put up with for a short time. I prefer such problems to dealing with traffic jams, road rage and hunting for a parking space. I really enjoy the freedom when I get off my bus downtown and proceed directly to my destination, instead of roaming the streets searching for a place to park. 

Steve Geller 

• 

JIMMY CARTER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I began my graduate studies at UC Berkeley and will never forget a history professor there saying that President James Polk was so dishonest that he lied in his own diary. Well, Jimmy Carter goes Polk one better, lying about events in which he himself was a major participant. Dr. Kenneth Stein, once one of Jimmy Carter’s closest confidants and the first director of the ex-president’s Carter Center (1983-85) castigated Carter’s new book for, among other things, this reason. Although Carter has insisted in several interviews that his book contains no factual errors, Stein said the president misrepresents the wording of key security council resolutions and negotiated documents, including the Camp David Accords, which Carter himself negotiated! 

"History gives no refunds, no do overs,” Stein said in his class at Emory University on the Arab-Israeli conflict, where he expanded upon his critique Carter’s book. “You have to take what is and build on it. You can’t bend the [facts] to suit a need.” 

In sum, imagine misrepresenting to the public resolutions which you yourself negotiated! That’s our exalted Jimmy Carter. 

Following Dr. Stein’s condemnation of Carter, fourteen members of the Carter Center in Atlanta resigned in the past week to protest the former president’s book blaming Israel for the failure of Middle East peace efforts. The group wrote Carter that he had abdicated his role as peace broker in favor of “malicious partisan advocacy,” portraying the conflict as a “purely one-sided affair” which Israel bears full responsibility for resolving. 

“This is not the Carter Center or the Jimmy Carter we came to respect and support,” the letter said. “Therefore it is with sadness and regret that we hereby tender our resignation from the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center effective immediately.” 

In yet another critique of the Carter book, the following commentary appeared recently in the New York Times written by President Clinton’s chief administrative envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross: “To my mind, Mr. Carter’s presentation badly misrepresents the Middle East proposals advanced by President Bill Clinton in 2000, and in so doing undermines, in a small but important way, efforts to bring peace to the region.” 

Finally, two letter writers whose drivel supporting Carter appeared in the Jan. 12 edition of the Daily Planet should have revealed their affiliations so that readers could trace the genesis of their manifest biases. Jim Harris is a longterm member of the ISM, a group which not only justifies Palestinian acts of terrorism but which has actually hidden homicide bombers prior to their crimes. And Paula Abrams-Hourani, who hails from Vienna, is a member of the Austrian wing of the pro-Palestinian propaganda group, Women in Black. Little wonder these ideologues find solace in the excrement penned by Carter. 

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington 

• 

THE LESS FORTUNATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How should we live so that those who are less fortunate than us are included in our actions? We come from many nations in the world but all of us have the same basic wants. We need food and shelter, of course, but all of us, rich and poor alike, want respect from others. The general attitude in our society is that the poor are guilty of some sin: they are lazy or distracted or unwilling to learn English. We feel that they do not deserve the respect we give to full human beings. I think it is high time that we take care of others’ needs and share our comforts with those who are less fortunate. Let us treat them with the utmost respect. We might save our money and time fixing societal breakdown later if we can improvise small local ways to help our less fortunate neighbors now. 

Romila Khanna

This is the season for taking stock of the year that has just passed and making resolutions about the one that has just begun. It is a time of ambitious lists. Under the heading “Civic Affairs,” here is mine. 

Top priority: Carry out my campaign goals that were endorsed by 94 percent of Berkeley voters on Nov. 7, 2006.  

That’s right—94 percent: The 31 percent who voted for me plus the 63 percent who voted for Tom Bates on the basis of the issues he “borrowed” from my platform at the last minute: 

• Seek a fair-share relationship with UC. 

• Promote Berkeley’s neighborhood shopping districts and independent businesses. 

• Ensure that new development respects neighborhood integrity. 

• Pass a strong Sunshine Ordinance. 

• Protect West Berkeley’s artists and artisans. 

I declared my candidacy for mayor in late March. For the next seven and a half months, Bates treated me the way shrewd incumbents seeking re-election always treat their challengers: He tried to act as if I didn’t exist. During his entire campaign, he might have mentioned my name once. 

But two weeks before election day, it became evident that the mayor and his advisers had been paying close attention to what I was saying. On Oct. 26, his campaign mailed out a brochure in the form of a political “To Do List.” Half of the 10 “chores” on the list were new to his platform; they were also goals he had either ignored or actually opposed during his first term as mayor:  

#4. Hold Cal accountable. 

#6. Strengthen neighborhood shopping districts. 

#7. Protect neighborhoods from inappropriate development. 

#8. Pass a strong Sunshine Ordinance. 

#10. Expand the arts and crafts in West Berkeley. 

Adding to the hypocrisy of this last-minute agenda, the passage of a strong Sunshine Ordinance had been a plank in Bates’ first (2002) mayoral platform—and a goal he’d utterly failed to pursue after taking office. 

Imitation is indeed the highest form of flattery. Bates had decided that these five issues had enough traction with Berkeley voters for him to claim them as his own, his record to the contrary. “Our” platform was endorsed by the 94 percent of the Berkeley electorate who voted for either one of us.  

As a first step in carrying out this mandate, I call on Mayor Bates to keep his campaign promises—not just the five noted above, but all 10 of them. The others on his list were:  

#1. Make Berkeley America’s Greenest City. 

#2. Revitalize Berkeley’s downtown. 

#3. Provide universal quality after school programs. 

#5. Reduce homelessness. 

#9. Build new sports fields and a warm water pool. 

To show that he’s serious about his campaign agenda, the mayor should publish a timetable detailing the specific steps he plans to take toward realizing his re-election platform over the next two years. I ask members of the community to join me in monitoring his progress.  

I also pledge to carry out the other mandate I received on Nov. 7, the one I was handed by the 12,652 Berkeley citizens who gave me their vote. That charge included the first five goals listed above and more:  

• Protect and upgrade essential services—police, fire, sewers, storm drains. 

• Create truly affordable housing by deepening official levels of affordability. 

• Help neighbors of problem properties by creating a Neighborhood Law Corps like Oakland’s award-winning program. 

• Make city permit processes transparent, efficient and equitable. 

• Retain and attract light industry. 

• Build a new animal shelter, whose funding was approved by 68 percent of Berkeley voters in 2002. 

Since these goals have been ignored (when they weren’t being undermined) by the Bates council, their accomplishment will require an exceptional effort on the part of the public. The last time Berkeley citizens made such an effort was in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Then, as now, the city was ruled by an entrenched political elite whose foremost constituency was big business, and whose foremost concern was staying in power, even in the face of rising discontent at the grass-roots. A revitalized democratic politics replaced that elite with leaders responsive to the community at large. The sad irony is that Tom Bates’ closest advisers include leaders of that long-ago uprising. They have become what they started out fighting. 

Last item on my 2007 civic to-do list: Honor Berkeley’s tradition of democratic political renewal by laying the groundwork for the victory of community-based candidates in the November 2008 municipal elections.  

Zelda Bronstein is a former chair of the Planning Commission and ran for mayor in 2006.

Much has been written in the past several months about Berkeley’s troubled Housing Authority. Much more devastating news is likely to emerge in the coming months. 

On Jan. 10, a hundred or so public housing authorities, primarily on the East Coast, held a Day of Silence to protest the draconian HUD funding cuts that could wreak havoc on the nation’s public housing system, threatening to create a new wave of homelessness across the country. 

Housing Authorities from east to west are reeling at HUD’s shameless under-funding of subsidized housing. Ray Maier, of a Pennsylvania Housing Authority, expresses the simple and shocking truth: “People should understand that if this continues, their grandmother or their grandfather might not have a place to live in three years.” Dale Gravett, Maier’s colleague adds: “Some form of protest is certainly called for, because the level of budget reductions is just absolutely unacceptable.”  

Across the country, HUD funding for housing in 2006 was at 85 percent of operating costs. In 2007 it is now set to slide to 76 percent, and the downward trend will continue if not vigorously opposed immediately. The Bush administration has created so much chaos and confusion country wide, few seem to notice the determined action of HUD Director, Alphonso Jackson, who is step-by-step gutting the country’s public housing programs. In short, New Orleans is tragically becoming a “model city” for housing our nation’s poor. 

Among the organizers of the Day of Silence is Carl Payne, Executive Director of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Housing Authority: 

“These funding cuts are devastating our ability to provide adequate public housing for our elderly and low-income clients who have no place else to turn. The [Bush] administration apparently has made a political decision that it’s OK to slash the safety net that public housing offers to those most in need—seniors, the disabled, veterans, and families with children.” 

As in New Orleans (and Iraq for that matter), no discernible effort is being put into an exit strategy for this national disaster in progress. Will the aged and disabled soon be seen sleeping on our streets? Will poor families with children vie for a street corner to call their own? Along with thousands of displaced innocents—the elderly, disabled, veterans, children—will come a daunting increase in crime and disease that will strain our already overwhelmed police, health, and fire services. 

Thom Hartmann, prolific author and talk-show host, believes we are at a point now where the people must take the initiative. We the People must speak up loudly and clearly, so that our leaders will follow. Even the new Democratic Congress, it seems, does not realize the severity of this situation, as do the people close to it—those of us on the verge of losing our housing and those who know people at risk. There is in the making now a rich/poor gap so great it could undermine the very foundation of our nation, ripping apart the fabric of our treasured Constitutional Democracy. 

Civilization itself requires the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. Without that, our once great country will descend more and more into a pit of lawlessness, chaos, and tragedy we never expected could “happen here.” 

Congress will be voting on HUD funding in mid-February. We need to make our voices heard now and let our Congressional leaders know how dire this situation has become, and how essential it is to return funding to reasonable levels, if outright catastrophe is to be avoided.  

As for our local situation, the Berkeley Housing Authority has just canceled its Jan. 30 meeting, having already postponed it once before. The next public meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27, which falls after the Congressional vote. Several Section 8 renters have reported that our Housing Authority is now weeks and even months behind in processing annual recertification papers, and telephone inquiries yield no explanations. The official fate-in-progress of Berkeley public housing renters seems to be hidden and jealously guarded somewhere in a closed and darkened chamber of City Hall. 

The Berkeley Housing Authority, unlike their counterparts who participated in the National Day of Silence, does not appear willing to advocate for its clients, but rather opts to polarize with them. It’s strange that the City of Berkeley, with our progressive reputation and our recent vote for impeachment, does not stand with its clientele in protest against the unrelenting and inhumane neoconservative defunding of our nation’s public housing.  

Frances Hailman has been a Berkeley renter since 1962. 

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.

Is Israel, supported by the Bush administration, preparing to launch an atomic war against Iran? That is a question being asked in the wake of a Jan. 7 report by the London Sunday Times that claims the Israeli government is planning to attack Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.  

While the Israeli government denies the story, recent statements by top Israeli officials and military figures—along with recent White House threats against Iran and Syria and a shuffling of American commanders in the Middle East—suggest the possibility is real.  

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calls Iran an “existential threat,” and Deputy Minister of Defense Ephraim Sneth recently said, “The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.” An Israeli Defense Force (IDF) official told the Jerusalem Post Nov. 12 that “Only a military strike by the United States and it allies will stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.” 

Brigadier General Oded Tira, former commander of the IDF’s artillery units, not only urges an attack on Iran, but because “President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran,” Israel and its supporters “must lobby the Democratic Party and U.S. newspaper editors” to lay the groundwork for such an attack. Tira says that if the Americans don’t act, “we’ll do it ourselves.” 

According to the Times, the attack will use a combination of conventional laser-guided bombs and one kiloton tactical nuclear “bunker busters.” The targets would be the centrifuges at Natanz, a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan, and the heavy water reactor at Arak.  

One source told the Times, “As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished.” 

Bombast to scare the Iranians? Maybe, but a number of pieces have fallen into place over the past month which suggest the Bush administration is also seeking to widen the Middle East conflict, and that the sands may be running out for Iran 

In his Jan. 10 speech announcing an escalation in Iraq, the President singled out Iran and Syria as aiding “terrorists,” and warned, “We will seek out and destroy the networks” which are training and arming “our enemies in Iraq.” According to the New York Times, it was the President himself who ordered the recent raids aimed at Iranian diplomats and advisors in Iraq. 

While the last election was a repudiation of the neo-conservatives’ policies of aggressive militarism, many of those neo-conservatives are steering the current escalation in Iraq. President’s Bush’s “new way forward” is lifted directly from a policy paper by Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the neoconservative think tank that pushed so hard for the initial invasion of Iraq.  

Kagan—along with William Kristol, editor of the neoconservative Weekly Standard—designed the plan that will send more than 20,000 troops to Iraq. 

But is the escalation just about Iraq? According to Robert Perry, author of Secrecy and Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, and former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter, “one source familiar with high-level thinking in Washington and Tel Aviv said an unstated reason for the Bush troop ‘surge’ is to bolster the defenses of Baghdad’s Green Zone if a possible Israeli attack on Iran prompts an uprising among Iraqi Shiites.” 

If the United States does intend to hit Iran, or to support such an attack by Israel, then it has appointed the right man to do the job. The new head of Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees the Middle East, Admiral William Fallon, is the former head of U.S. Pacific Command and an expert on air war. Fallon commanded an A-6 tactical bomber wing in Vietnam, a carrier wing, and an aircraft carrier. As U.S. Navy Commander Jeff Huber writes in Pen and Sword, “If anybody knows how to run a maritime and air operation against Iran, it’s ‘Fox’ Fallon.” 

Fallon is also close with the neoconservatives and attended the 2001 awards ceremony of the Jewish Institute for National Security (JINSA), a think tank that strongly pushed for the war in Iraq and currently lobbies for attacking Iran. Vice-President Dick Cheney and ex-United Nations Ambassador John Bolton are both former members of JINSA. The organization sponsored a 2003 conference entitled: “Time to Focus on Iran—The Mother of Modern Terrorism.” 

The White House has also secretly formed a policy unit called the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group (ISOG) to influence U.S. media, funnel covert aid to Iranian dissidents, and collect information and intelligence. One former U.S. official told the Boston Globe that the group’s goal in Iran was “regime change.” ISOG is headed up by two neoconservative hawks, James F. Jeffrey and Elliot Abrams. 

Abrams formally worked for rightwing Israeli ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and helped to write the policy paper, “A Clean Break,” which advocated attacking Syria, Iran and Hezbollah and unilaterally imposing a “settlement” on the Palestinians.  

According to the Inter-Press Service, during last summer’s war in Lebanon, Abrams carried a message from the Bush administration encouraging the Olmert government to attack Syria. 

Perry suggests that one explanation for recent meetings between Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Olmert is joint planning on how to widen the war in the Middle East to include Iran and possibly Syria. 

Olmert’s government is deeply unpopular, Blair is leaving office this spring, and Bush can’t get much lower in the polls without hitting negative numbers. In a sense, Perry suggests, there is nothing to lose if all three “double-down” their gamble on the Iraq War. 

If the Israelis do decide to go through with the attack, initially there would be little Iran could do about it. Given Israel’s hundreds of nuclear warheads, any direct retaliation by Tehran would be suicidal. 

An Iranian attack on two U.S., carrier groups—Bush just added a third— currently deployed in the Gulf would be equally self-destructive, as would any attempt to close off the Straits of Hormutz. 

But the long-term impact of a nuclear strike on Iran is likely to be catastrophic, and not only because it would enrage Shiites in Iraq. Perry suggests that neighboring dictators backed by the United States might find themselves facing unrest as well. If Hezbollah rocketed Israel, Tel Aviv might decide to invade Syria, igniting a full-scale regional war. It is even possible that Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf might fall, says Perry, “conceivably giving Islamic terrorists control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.” In that event, India would almost certainly intervene, which could spark a nuclear war in South Asia. India and Pakistan came perilously close to such an exchange in 1999. 

“For some U.S. foreign policy experts,” writes Perry, “this potential disaster for a U.S.-backed Israeli air strike on Iran is so terrifying that they ultimately don’t believe Bush and Olmert would dare implement such a plan.” 

They may be right, but many Democrats are as gung-ho on attacking Iran as the Republicans. New House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told the Jerusalem Post that a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable, and when asked if he would support a military strike, replied, “I have not ruled that out.” Add heavy lobbying by the AEI, JINSA and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, coupled with “cooked” intelligence that claims the Iranians are on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon, and dare they might.

It has been said that on the eve of the World War II-era allied D-Day invasion of France, allied commander Dwight Eisenhower put in his pocket two separate statements for possible dissemination at the conclusion of the next day’s battle—one announcing victory, the other defeat. 

We can say with absolute certainty that the allied command had also worked out detailed plans for the withdrawal of soldiers from the Normandy beaches in the event of defeat—how their evacuation would be protected by covering fire, how they would be transported back across the channel, recovery centers within England where they would be initially deployed and protected from German counterattack. 

But beyond that, though there may have been endless D-Day defeat scenarios, they would have been of doubtful immediate military value. Military strategists—of which I am not among—will tell you that wars cannot be so precisely plotted in advance. Much would have depended on how many of the allied soldiers survived and how much recovery time it would have taken to make them fit for further combat, the condition of the allied naval and air fleets following the battles, and comparable assessments of the condition and deployment of the axis forces. It is entirely possible that the D-Day invasion would have turned out to be a one-shot deal, with the possibility of a defeat so devastating and complete that it depleted the allied armies, exposed and wiped out the French resistance, allowed the Germans to turn their full attention east and therefore causing the Soviets to do another reverse and re-establish the Russian-German pact, ending with the fall of the Churchill government and forcing, finally, Great Britain to have to bow and sue for peace in order to prevent a counter-invasion. 

On the eve of the D-Day invasion, who knew whether or not these events might occur or, if occurring, what the Anglo-American action should be in response? 

Would our conservative and Republican friends—had they been around in the ’40s—clamored for Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and Churchill to call off D-Day because of the great possibilities of failure, and no detailed fallback contingency plan existed? That is merely speculation. 

However, we do know that this is exactly what our conservative and Republican friends have done to our newly-empowered Democrats in regards to the plans for the withdrawal of United States troops and forces from Iraq. As Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and Churchill would have done in June of 1944, Democrats should do today, and respectfully refuse to fall into this political trap. 

Let us set aside—for the moment, only, and only for the limited sake of this discussion—the question of how we got into this situation, and focus, instead, simply on defining the situation we are in and how to get out of it. 

Let us also set aside any original goals for the American invasion, since events on the ground in Iraq have long since rendered them moot and unattainable in any practical sense. The national consensus—made particularly evident in the November elections—is now that United States military forces should as soon as possible, some say immediately, end their combat role in the Iraqi conflict. Many—most?—of our conservative and Republican leaders are now saying such a withdrawal of United States military forces should only be done in a manner that leaves a stable and defensible Iraqi nation in its wake. 

That is certainly a worthy goal. The question, however, is whether or not it is possible for anyone within the United States to guarantee such a result, given the present circumstances. 

We are caught in the middle of a political-military dilemma of the largest possible dimension. 

The current U.S. policy of limited military deployment in Iraq—and it is, in fact, “limited,” if you compare it to the vast potential of personnel and material that is at our disposal but presently untapped—is not working, is not winning, and, by general consensus by every serious military and political strategist, cannot work and will not win. The current number of troops deployed appear to be just enough to help fuel the insurgency and attract military attack, but not enough to either put down the insurgents completely or even hold them off. 

President George Bush has recently responded with announced intentions for a limited “surge,” a slight increase in the number of U.S. troops on the ground, with the stated intention of subduing rebellious neighborhoods, pacifying them, and turning them over to newly-trained members of the Iraqi national forces. 

But how can we expect that such a limited “surge” will do anything but draw more American opponents into the fight, merely escalating the attacks against U.S. troops and widening the war? 

How large a “surge” would be necessary to give some assurance of success of Mr. Bush’s current military goal? Who knows? But like the theory that the speed of light can never be surpassed because the faster an object goes the more it weighs and therefore the more power it must generate to pull its own weight in order to reach incrementally faster speeds—or the more popular assertion by Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” movie that “the more the emperor tightens his grip, the more the rebellion will slip through his fingers”—we may be facing a situation in which, up to a certain point, the more United States troops are brought into Iraq, the more they will draw opposition forces and attacks into the war against the U.S., thus continuing the current balance of violence-without-end. 

Perhaps an overwhelming influx of United States troops, for an extended period of time, would completely damp out the Iraqi fire and allow for the space in which the Iraqi Army could be train and deployed and made to take over the U.S. role. Perhaps. But even if that were true in theory, in Iraq, it does not seem at all possible to accomplish from the U.S. end. That would almost certainly require a military draft and vast new expenditures. No serious force in America, not even our conservative and Republican friends, are willing to go that far. 

So if the United States cannot come into Iraq with force great enough to ensure victory—either because there is no force great enough for us to ensure victory, or else we don’t have the ability to field such a force if, in fact, it were theoretically possible to do so and “win”—and if the present staying of the course is untenable and impossible to maintain, then, of course, the United States must leave. 

Orderly retreats are the most difficult and, indeed, heroic, of all military maneuvers, and getting the United States military forces out of harm’s way in Iraq would and will be no easy task. There is no telling exactly what would fill the vacuum. Bloody sectarian violence? Full-scale civil war, with each side fielding uniformed armies, forming governments, and claiming territory? The break-up of Iraq into ethnic-religious states, Shi’a and Sunni and Kurds pulling apart into sovereign national territories whose boundaries we can now only dimly imagine? The annexation of current Iraqi lands by powerful adjoining nations such as Syria, Iran, or Turkey? The escalation—precipitous or a slow slide—into a wider Middle Eastern war involving Israel and, possibly, European states? That might mean, at some point, the reintroduction of United States troops. 

All of these are possible. But it is also possible that the withdrawal of United States forces could lead to a lowering of the Iraq tensions that would allow some other powers to intercede and broker some element of peace. The truth is, nobody knows to any degree of certainty what may follow a U.S. withdrawal. Like Eisenhower surveying the coming chaos at Normandy, we can only plan for contingencies, not predict actualities. 

There is a certain poignancy when you watch the interviews of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and hear their almost plaintive complaints that those who counsel a U.S. military withdrawal have no faith in the ability of U.S. soldiers to “get the job done.” It recalls the blasphemy we used to recite out of hearing of our Sunday School teacher, “can God make a rock so large that it is too heavy for God to pick up?” One has to finally admit that there are some things that are out of reach of even the most powerful, no matter how much some of us may otherwise wish, 

Let us leave Iraq in an orderly and dignified a manner as we can, not, as Mr. Reagan once did in Lebanon, strafing the hills with artillery fire on our way out, frustrated that the locals did not show us proper respect, but in a manner that allows us some positive influence on the ultimate difficulties that will follow. 

Any other way courts madness, my friends. 

By Jane Powell 

Of all the things you will ever have to do to your house, deciding what color to paint the outside is one of the most difficult. While some people just don’t care what color their house is, I think many owners are so overwhelmed by the whole thing that they simply opt for the default color: beige. And that makes for a very boring streetscape.  

While beige is inoffensive, at the other end of the scale, people who pick their own colors (from paint chips) have saddled their neighborhoods with houses painted bright blue, orange, or purple. Picking exterior colors is hard, and I say this as someone who does it professionally. But I’m not going to explain the whole color wheel thing—instead, I am going to offer some rules to follow, and some tried-and-true color combinations that will look good on almost any building. Think of this as What Not To Wear for your house—follow the rules and your house will look better. No, you will not get a $5,000 VISA card. (If you still can’t handle it after this, I’ve included contact information for some color consultants at the end.) 

There are three main things to be painted on the average house: the body, which is what’s on the walls (siding, stucco, shingles, etc.); the trim, which is all the wooden moldings around the windows and doors, as well as the edge of the roof and various other brackets, moldings and such; and the sash, which is the movable part of the windows.  

Rule #1: No picking colors from paint chips without trying them on the house.  

Paint chips can be used to narrow down to color combinations that you like, so that you can then buy quarts and try them out on the house. The fifty bucks you spend on quarts will be well worth it. 

Rule #2: Trim should be the lightest color, sashes should be the darkest, with the body color somewhere in between. 

This means there will be at least three colors on the house. Some painters balk at this. Don’t let them—the windows need to be a different color. And don’t do it the other way around, with dark trim and light sashes- it makes the façade look busy. Pick the body color first- it’s the hardest, and there’s going to be a lot of it. 

Try out colors around a window or door, so that you can see how they look together. I generally use the front of the house, which brings us to: 

Rule #3: Ignore the neighbors. 

As you try colors, your neighbors will give their opinions, which will mostly be that the color is “too dark”, “too light”, “too yellow”, or whatever. Occasionally your neighbors will be right, but if you have picked the right color combination, they will rave about the color they didn’t like once the house has been painted. 

Rule #4: Things which are not painted or meant to be painted (shingles, bricks, stonework, concrete) should not be painted, unless they have already been painted.  

If already painted, it’s best to paint them a color which resembles the color they would be if they weren’t, such as raisin or grey-brown for shingles, a reddish color for brick, gray for stone. This is not permission to paint the bricks bright red and the mortar joints bright white like a cardboard Christmas fireplace!  

Rule #5: NO BLUE! 

Blue is the most difficult color to use outdoors, so don’t even go there. If you must, don’t go for bright blues- use teal, midnight, or grey-blue, and only on the sashes. Another difficult color is terra-cotta, which can be lovely when it’s right, but a salmon pink or tomato soup disaster when it’s wrong. 

Rule #6: If you see a paint job with good colors, copy it. 

Well, maybe not if it’s your next door neighbor. Also, the paint companies have tried their best to make up lovely color combinations for you. Most companies have historic palettes with period-appropriate colors.  

Here are some (limited) color combinations that seem to work on most houses—you can mix and match. 

Body Trim Accent 

Chamois Cream Forest green 

Sage Green Burgundy 

Olive Green Eggplant 

Butterscotch Dark Teal 

Beige 

The colors will not be called that, of course, since the paint companies have their own names. My personal favorite paint color name is Corporate America. Yup- it’s gray. So buy some quarts and try them out. If you are still overwhelmed, hire a color consultant. An attractive paint job will increase your home’s value and enhance your street as well.  

Iliumarts- Jeanette Sayre 

www.iliumart.com 

(510) 451-7046 

The Color Doctor- Bob Buckter 

www.drcolor.com 

(415) 922-7444 

Arthur Deco Color 

(510) 849-3568 

Photograph by Jane Powell 

Forest green sashes (Benjamin Moore Essex Green) and cream colored trim draw attention to the arched front window of a Maxwell Park bungalow at 5539 Brookdale, Oakland. The stucco is painted a butterscotch tone which changes with the light. This home is featured on the cover of Bungalow Colors by Robert Schweitzer. 

First of all, let’s get our terminology right. Pergo is one brand of laminate flooring and not, by any stretch, the onsly one. There are many brands of laminate flooring, Pergo was just the first. Actually, even that isn’t wholly accurate and why not be accurate? Pergo, a Swedish company, first applied laminate technology to flooring in 1994 and has, in an amazingly short while, completely changed the face of the flooring business. This stuff is everywhere. 

So what is a laminate? Well, for ease of cognition, it’s Formica. That’s also a fair use of the eponym since Formica was the first form of laminate and also it’s greatest proponent. Formica was invented in 1912 by a couple of guys working at Westinghouse and was originally intended as an electrical insulator (that’s what Westinghouse did, they built electric stuff and were led by that strangest of scientists, Nicola Tesla). 

Mica had been the gold standard in insulators up to that point which explains the name. For-Mica found great popularity as a countertop material for decades and is still popular today for a range of functions. There are designers who go nuts with the stuff and put it on everything; cabinets, walls, doors, partitions. It IS admittedly, a very practical material, if somewhat stilted in its appearance.  

I did find it both amusing and smart when the boomerang pattern, so popular in the 1960s started making a comeback about 10 years ago. That’s the fun thing about Formica, the application of it as sense-memory. All those milk-shakes slurped at lunch counters, the whole of our youths spent doing dishes and wiping down those smooth glassy surfaces. 

Now it’s on floors everywhere you go and it’s not surprising given the low cost and ease of installation. Whether it’s Pergo, Wilsonart, Mannington, Alloc or Wiltex, this flooring is very easy to adopt. Now, I have to confess that my response to it, when I first encountered it was a sort of high-handed dislike.  

I’m very old fashioned. I like scratched old wooden floors. I like stained concrete and brick. I’m not a fan of plastic houses or plastic people. I like what feels real. Gritty, broken, smelly and old, but hey, that’s just one point of view. I also like renting cars. I like the clean carpet, the fact that all the parts work, that there are 12 airbags and no scratches at all. It’s a very political debate, I end up having with myself. Old and real, vs. new, fake and shiny. I’m simply undecided. 

There could be a solution to my conundrum and that might be to take the new thing and turn it on it’s head. The thing that bothers me about laminate flooring is that it’s usually used as a fake version of something real. It’s a photograph (literally) of wood instead of wood. Well, how about letting it be what it really is; plastic.  

I’d be much more likely to use this material if it employed some of the weirdly amusing patterns that Formica adopted over the last 60 years. How about a bright red plastic floor or one that looks like a field of stones or perhaps the surface of water. (Care to take a short walk on water?). I’m waiting to see someone use a mixture of wood patterns in a Pergo floor just to make the point that it ISN’T real. There are so many possibilities with this material and there are really good reasons to use it if and when you can get the oeuvre over-easy. 

One is that it’s durable as heck. If you’ve installed it properly, its can end up lasting an awfully long time with almost zero maintenance.  

Most of these floors are finished with a coating of aluminum oxide. That’s the same thing that rubies and sapphires are made of. Incredibly tough and scratch resistant. The weak link is the core, which is made from wood particle, but they seem to have impregnated most brands with enough resin or wax to help them hold up, even under damp conditions. Given the low cost, the lack of any need for finish and the fact that most are installed over a plastic closed-cell foam that you roll out in advance of placing the floor, I think it’s ideal for finishing a basement. 

If your concrete gets even a little damp, it’s probably best to seal the concrete and then add a plastic layer before installing the floor. Some of these floors come with their own felt backing and I’d avoid those ones in the basement. They’re fine over wood on the main floor but they may tend to decay and act as a growth medium. Some have a polypropylene backing and that’s probably safer. 

Another cool thing about laminate flooring is that nearly all install with a click-lock tongue and groove system. They just snap together. If you’re concerned about dampness, such as in the case in a kitchen, there are sealants that can be added along the tongue prior to snapping them together (and I think it’s a good idea).  

If you’re thinking about a damp area, go for a higher quality product. Many manufacturers have a lower and higher end line but this isn’t a major issue. 

One cool thing about a cheap, fast flooring job like this is that you can think about places you’ve avoided finishing. Put a floor in the basement, put one in the attic where you have that office the city doesn’t know about. Put one in the playhouse. If you have a space with air infiltration between the floorboards (as some wooden basement floors do), it’s a way to cover the gaps.  

Prices seem to be about 7-10 bucks per square foot installed but I think that price represents a highly finished job. This stuff can be bought for as little as a dollar a square foot and if you do the job yourself, a small room can be done for 100 bucks. That’s nothing in the world of construction. 

All the excitement aside, I would strongly encourage owners of older homes to avoid the plastic look and consider refinishing their wooden floors instead. Even a modular bamboo floor seems more appropriate in an old craftsman bungalow and there are a huge number of real wood and veneered modular floor (the veneer is a thin layer of real wood) in the marketplace and there’s no need to settle for plastic when something more natural or authentic is called for. 

I hope that designers and manufacturers will rise to the task and provide us with the sorts of wild or interesting choices that this new and promising material is capable of. Of course there will certainly be an ugly side to this resource and I doubt it’ll be long before we see a floor covered with those damned little Gucci symbols. Harrumph. 

Illustration: Pergo’s Pro-loc tongue and groove joint makes installation a snap. 

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

We’re still freezing and so are our gardens (My poor red–leaf banana!) and I’m telling you it’s time to think about irrigation? Yes indeed. 

We’re entertaining a theoretically brief water pinch right now as EBMUD does aqueduct repair. Take that raised consciousness and run with it. Setting down a good irrigation plan for your garden this summer will save time, water, plants, and maybe even money in the long run. Besides, it’s more fun than Tinkertoys.  

Here’s the rub: It’s more complicated than Tinkertoys or even that Erector Set. Sure, you’re basically threading your yard with black spaghetti and adding plugs and sprinklers and pop-ups and semicircular sprayers and drip emitters and T-connectors and Y-connectors and maybe timers and/or sensors and don’t forget the end of the line; you’ll need those plug dinguses there.  

That doesn’t sound right. What’s the plural of “dingus”? Dinguses? Dingusses? Dingi? Dingodes? Hardware?  

Anyway, you’ll need not only the stuff but the skill. The trickiest thing about it all is getting the water pressure right all along the system. Slopes and distances from the head faucet and soil types can make weird differences, and the average way to discover mistakes is to lose a few plants or run up the water bill with unnoticed leaks.  

The Urban Farmer Store’s Richmond branch can help with that. Sit down and sketch your garden. You don’t need great art here, but measuring dimensions is a must. Take photos and base your sketch on those if you’re as drawing-challenged as I am. Bring it all in to the Urban Farmers and, if you buy your parts there, they’ll help you with free irrigation and lighting plans.  

Urban Farmer isn’t just an irrigation store. There’s low-wattage outdoor lighting too—pathlights, uplights to make that queen palm a star, downlights to give your place a soft air of mystery at night. We don’t have lightning bugs here, so we have to make do.  

The other side of irrigation—drainage—needs attention in our clay soils too, so get your assorted pipes and landscape cloth, your grates and channels and drains and fittings here. You can get a load of drain rock or big gravel next door at American Soil products.  

Also: ponds. UF has pond liners, pumps, tubing, filters, fountain nozzles, algae control (including those ecogroovy barley-straw bundles) UV water clarifiers, and, Joe’s favorite, “The Muck Buster” pond vacuum cleaner. The staff would be good people to consult about ponds, too.  

There’s lots of ecogroovy stuff at UF besides those water-saving irrigation systems: biodegradable paper debris bags, burlap tarps (80”X 80”, perfect size for a work-catchall tarp), and people-powered push mowers. The Richmond store carries hand tools from Hida Tools, such as Tobisho and Felco pruning shears and Silky saws.  

UF runs free classes for landscaping professionals: sprinkler design on 1/27; drip irrigation, 2/8; waterscapes, 2/22; all at 7 p.m. Register at 524-1604 or www.urbanfarmerstore.com—click on “Classes.”  

The Urban Farmer Store 

2121 San Joaquin St., Richmond 

524-1604 

Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 

Saturday 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Sunday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Hours change seasonally; call to confirm.  

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’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.  

FRIDAY, JAN. 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Environmental Surrealism” works by Guy Colwell and Michelle Waters at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland, through Feb. 23. 444-7411. www.estebansabar.com 

“Whitework Embroidery” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St. Runs through Feb. 5. Hours are Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. Free. lacismuseum.org 

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. www.aeofberkeley.org 

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. www.altarena.org 

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. 

Black Repertory Group “Wild Roots” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St., through Feb. 4. 652-2120. 

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. www.raggedwing.org 

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., 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 

“Palestine Blues” A documentary on the repercussions of the Israeli Security Wall and Settlement expansion by filmmaker Nida Sinnokrot, followed by a discussion with the director at 7 p.m. at California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St., between Oxford and Shattuck. Cost is $6-$8.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash presents Roxane Beth Johnson reading from “Jubilee” and Chad Sweeney reading from “A Mirror to Shatter the Hammer” 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. www.jazzschool.com 

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

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

Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums with Ms. Carmen Getit at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

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., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

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

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. www.uptownnightclub.com 

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. 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibrí at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568.  

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. www.thefloatcenter.com 

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. Gallery hours are Mon-Fri. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat. 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 644-1400. 

Paintings by Allan Reynolds at the Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 3rfd flr., 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibition runs through March. 817-5773. 

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. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

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, “Playing President: My Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, and Clinton--and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush” 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, Third flr. Community Room, 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 Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $16-$42. 415-621-7900. american bach.org 

Potaje, contemporary 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. www.oaklandmetro.org 

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, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

A Night in Havana with Pellejo Seco at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Damond Moodie and Deborah Crooks at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Rocket, all-girl punk, at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

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. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Comadre, Parasites Go, Defiant Voice 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. 

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

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. Suggested donation $10-$15. 525-0302, ext. 309. 

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, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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.  

MONDAY, JAN. 22 

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 

“Looking at Jazz: America’s Art Form” with Dr. Dee Spencer at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241. 

Gary Gach and George Albon at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Wendy Lesser reads from “Room for Doubt” personal essays on the writing life, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Cris Beam discusses “Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Trangender Teens” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express with Tracy Koretsky at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

West Coast Songwriters Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Diablo Valley College Night Jazz Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, JAN. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Art of Living Black” Exhibition opens at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through March 16. 620-6772. www.richmondartcenter.org 

FILM 

Yoko Ono: Imagine Film “Rape” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Kala Fellowship Artist Talk with Karen McCoy and Daniel Ross at 7 p.m. at Kala Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977.  

Tell on on Tuesdays Storytelling with Brian M. Rosen, Allison Landa, Erica Lann-Clark, and Marijo, at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $8-$12 sliding scale. www.juiamorgan.org 

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

Dorothy Fall reads from “Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Robert Stone describes “Prime Green: Remebering the Sixties” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tri Tip Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

The Lovell Sisters at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

The Jazz Fourtet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Broken Teeth with Jason McMaster at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland.  

God Forbid, Goat Whore, MNEMIC, The Human Abstract at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $15-$18. All ages. 763-1146.  

Avance at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24 

FILM 

History of Cinema “From the Cinema of Attractions to Narrative Illusionism” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Carmen Yuen discusses “The Cosmos in a Carrot: A Zen Guide to Eating Well” Buddhist wisdom, nutritional information, and health advice at 5:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200.  

Colson Whtehead reads from “Apex Hides the Dirt” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

“Songs to My Beloved” with poet Charles Burack at 7:30 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10-$20, benefits Aquarian Minyan. 465-3935. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE. 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Karen Shinozaki Sor, violin and Miles Graber, piano at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Bobby McFerrin with Voicetra at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$62. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

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

Matt Heulitt Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

No Strangers at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

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

The Ale Moller Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Brian Auger at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JAN. 25 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“Pyramids and Smoke Signals—A Global Warning” Paintings by Herk Schusteff at Berkeley YWCA, Bancroft at Bowditch, through Jan. 223-8707. 

FILM 

“The Mind is a Liar and a Whore” A new film by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakland. Cost is $10. 464-4640. 

Film Series with David Thomson “Vertigo”at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Vladimir Guerrero, author of “The Anza Trail and the Settling of California” will speak at the Alameda County Historical Society Annual Dinner at 6 p.m. at Spenger’s Restaurant, 1919 4th St. Cost is $35. For information and reservations call 339-2818. www.alamedacountyhistory.org  

“Reading Chinese Buddhist Monastic Hagiographies: A New Approach” with Jinhua Chen at at 5 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St. 643-6536. 

“Conversations on Museums” with Anthony Platt at 6:30 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950.. 

Bocalicious Spoken Word Swap Meet at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra performs Telemann, Britten, and Schubert at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$42. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

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

Peter Anastos & Iternity at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Barry Syska, acoustic rock, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Rivkah Amado and Joel Siegal perform Jewish music from Medieval Spain at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

La Peña Latin Jazz Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Kenny Garrett with Bobby Hutcherson though Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$66. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

The Prids, Veil Veil Vanish, Red Voice Choir at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

75 YEARS AGO 

“Berkeley: 75 Years Ago,” an exhibit at the Berkeley History Center at the Veterans Memorial Building, will run from 1-4 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through March. 1931 Center St. 848-0181. 

‘PALESTINE BLUES’ 

Filmmaker Nina Sinnokrot will show and discuss “Palestine Blues,” a documentary examining the repercussions of Israel’s Security Wall and settlement expansion, at 7 p.m. Friday at the California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St. $6-8. 

BLACK SUIT BLUES 

The Oakland East Bay Symphony will present the West Coast premiere of “Black Suit Blues” at 8 p.m. Friday at Oakland’s Paramount Theater. Written by local composer Nolan Gasser, “Black Suit Blues” is based on a poem by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. about the impact of the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. The work, which draws heavily on blues and gospel styles, depicts the intense emotions following King’s assassination. $20-$62. Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. www.oebs.org. 

CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD IN RUINS 

Film critic David Thomson believes something strange and fascinating was going on with the movies toward the end of the 1950s and he wants your help in figuring just what it was. Thomson hosts “A Thousand Decisions in the Dark,” a film and discussion series, at Pacific Film Archive Thursday nights through Feb. 22. The series began last night with Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and continues next week with Hitchcock’s Vertigo. 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

The Arts and Crafts Movement, which started in England under the leadership of William Morris in the 1880s, advocated a unity of the arts in which architecture of the house and all aspects of its interior were in harmony and designed by craftsmen. It flourished in the Bay Area early in the 20th century with architects like Bernard Maybeck, John Hudson Thomas and many others.  

In painting and the decorative arts its great protagonists were Arthur and Lucia K. Mathews. The current exhibition at the Oakland Museum, the place that holds the largest collection of their work, provides a superb overview of their work: murals, easel paintings, furniture, interior design. It is accompanied by a scholarly catalogue by Harvey L. Jones, who also curated the show. 

Arthur Mathews (1860-1945) originally studied architecture before making a career as a painter. He went to Paris, enrolled at the Academie Julian, and was impressed, above all, by the Greek-inspired Symbolist murals by Puvis de Chavannes. After returning to San Francisco, Mathews painted a series of pictures of dancers, mostly women, in long sweeping gowns, rhythmically swinging their extended arms and often playing ancient musical instruments. They suggest the performances by Isadora Duncan, who inspired the building of the Temple of Wings in Berkeley. 

His painting Youth (c. 1917), set in a finely carved and decorated frame is a prime example of what is known as the California decorative style. 

Arthur Mathews also produced mythological paintings whose veiled eroticism reveal Victorian sentiments of the time. His portraits were incise depictions of his sitters, done with a vigorous brush. His later Tonalist landscapes, many of them of the Monterey or San Francisco Bay, were done with soft contours and muted colors and convey his painterly response to the sea, the sky, the black oaks and somber cypress trees. These paintings found an echo in the silent landscapes of his student Gottard Piazzoni, whose murals for the San Francisco Public Library are now housed in the new de Young Museum. 

Lucia Kleinhans Mathews (1870-1955) was Arthur’s student, business partner and an excellent painter in her own right. In 1889 she went to Paris where she studied with James Whistler and was surely aware of the work done by Gaugin and his Symbolist confreres as well as by the Nabis (prophets in Hebrew). Her landscapes, done around 1910 with their reductive flat rendering of space conform to precepts of Modernist painting. Her exquisite small oils on board, depicting people in Paris parks were, for this writer, the most pleasing works in the exhibition. 

In accordance with the practice of the Arts and Crafts Movement, the Mathews opened the Furniture Shop in San Francisco in 1906, an enterprise which produced custom-designed furniture and other objects for well-to-do clients of taste. These pieces were done with a great sense of craftsmanship and a fine feeling for decoration. Many of the paintings in the show are held in appropriate carved and painted ornamental frames which were an integral part of their work in which there was no distinction between art and craft. 

CALIFORNIA AS MUSE: THE ART OF ARTHUR AND LUCIA MATHEWS 

Exhibition runs to March 25 at the Oakland Museum of California, Tenth and Oak streets. 238-2200. www.museumca.org.  

Illustration: 

Youth (1917) by Arthur F. Mathews. Oil on canvas, 38 x 50 inches, with  

Furniture Shop frame. Collection of the Oakland Museum of California, gift of  

Concours d’Antiques, Art Guild. 

A treasure trove of rare European archival jazz footage has finally made its way to the United States and is being presented in the form of a film and discussion being hosted at 50 public libraries nationwide. 

Beginning Monday, Jan. 22, the Berkeley Public Library, one of only three California venues for the forum, will present the six-part series, running one session a month through June. The series, which the library is calling “Jazz on a Monday Afternoon,” is part of a the Looking at Jazz project, funded by National Video Resources, National Endowment for the Humanities, Jazz at the Lincoln Center and the American Library Association.  

The Berkeley Public Library was selected as one of 50 libraries in the country to receive a grant and access to the archival footage that will be shown throughout the series. 

“We have done a lot of jazz history programming here at the library,” says Art and Music Librarian Michelle McKenzie, “and so we were a natural choice for this opportunity.” 

The library’s lobby features an exhibit of photos and programs from past lectures on jazz held at the library over the past three decades. 

The Berkeley presentation, co-sponsored by the Jazzschool, will be hosted by San Francisco State University professor Dr. Dee Spencer. Spencer co-founded S.F. State’s jazz studies program and, in addition to teaching, she is a jazz pianist and vocalist who performs around the Bay Area. 

The series allows each venue’s host to tailor the materials to their particular preferences. Thus Spencer will eschew the official documentaries in favor of raw, unedited performance footage, most of it unseen in the United States, showing as many full performances as possible. Much of the footage comes from European television outlets, featuring music and musicians more often appreciated abroad than in their native land. Other segments are recent discoveries from private collections, neglected for years in long-forgotten vaults. 

“This is not a documentary; it’s a film series devoted to jazz musicians,” says Spencer. “There won’t be a lot of talking heads; we’re going to let the music speak for itself. 

“I am going to talk as little as possible about the performers because I don’t want to get in the way of the music, and I have so much music I want to present,” she explains. “We have a whole bunch of footage that has been sitting in a vault somewhere, a lot of it filmed in Europe and it has never been seen before in the United States.” 

Afterwards Spencer will take questions and demonstrate examples on the piano. “It is going to be very interactive,” she says. “We’re in a library, so if afterwards you want to do more research on an artist it will be right at hand, so you don’t need me to lecture. I see myself as guiding people, I don’t want to tell the people about it, I want to show them...I kind of think of myself as a jazz activist. I want to get people excited about jazz and out there supporting the music.” 

The footage includes early and exceedingly rare performances by Louis Armstrong and the Hot Fives and the Hot Sevens, Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton, as well as Ella Fitzgerald performing with Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones performing with Dizzy Gillespie, and even contemporary artists like Regina Carter. 

The first installment in the series, entitled “New Orleans and the Origins of Jazz,” runs from 2-4 p.m. Monday and will feature rare footage of the musical stylings that would give birth to jazz, including street cries, marching bands and funeral parades from the early 20th century.  

Since most of what survives of early jazz are studio recordings, it can be difficult to fully comprehend the influence of pioneers like Armstrong. The technologies of the time limited recordings in both length and quality. The official recordings of Armstrong, for instance, are usually just two minutes long, whereas the same songs in a live performance could run much longer, the musicians improvising new arrangements every night.  

The fidelity of the recordings is uneven as well. Armstrong’s trumpet playing was so forceful that it would cause the phonograph needle to skip when cutting the wax masters. The solution was to move him further back from the device, behind the band even. Thus in many of his early recordings Armstrong is actually standing as far 15 feet behind the band, greatly altering the sound. Spencer’s footage should give a more accurate account of the dynamics of Armstrong and his band in this era.  

“There is nothing like seeing artists when they are young and vibrant with the modern sound and format. We will get to see a young Louis Armstrong leading what is basically the first jazz ensemble ever,” says Spencer. 

By presenting full performances along with discussion and demonstration, Spencer hopes the series will give participants a more accurate reflection of the influence and range of these musicians, giving a better sense of the talents that conspired in the invention of “America’s music.” 

JAZZ ON A MONDAY AFTERNOON 

Jan 22: New Orleans and the Origins of Jazz  

Feb. 26: The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance  

March 26: Jazz Vocalists  

April 9: The Swing Era  

May 21: Jazz Innovators: From BeBop, to Hard Bop, to Cool and More  

June 25: Latin Jazz and Jazz as an  

International Music 

Admission to all presentations is free.  

For more information, call the Berkeley  

Public Library at 981-6100 or visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org or  

http://nvr.org/lookingatjazz. 

Photograph: The King and Carter Jazzing Orchestra, 1921.

By Jane Powell 

Of all the things you will ever have to do to your house, deciding what color to paint the outside is one of the most difficult. While some people just don’t care what color their house is, I think many owners are so overwhelmed by the whole thing that they simply opt for the default color: beige. And that makes for a very boring streetscape.  

While beige is inoffensive, at the other end of the scale, people who pick their own colors (from paint chips) have saddled their neighborhoods with houses painted bright blue, orange, or purple. Picking exterior colors is hard, and I say this as someone who does it professionally. But I’m not going to explain the whole color wheel thing—instead, I am going to offer some rules to follow, and some tried-and-true color combinations that will look good on almost any building. Think of this as What Not To Wear for your house—follow the rules and your house will look better. No, you will not get a $5,000 VISA card. (If you still can’t handle it after this, I’ve included contact information for some color consultants at the end.) 

There are three main things to be painted on the average house: the body, which is what’s on the walls (siding, stucco, shingles, etc.); the trim, which is all the wooden moldings around the windows and doors, as well as the edge of the roof and various other brackets, moldings and such; and the sash, which is the movable part of the windows.  

Rule #1: No picking colors from paint chips without trying them on the house.  

Paint chips can be used to narrow down to color combinations that you like, so that you can then buy quarts and try them out on the house. The fifty bucks you spend on quarts will be well worth it. 

Rule #2: Trim should be the lightest color, sashes should be the darkest, with the body color somewhere in between. 

This means there will be at least three colors on the house. Some painters balk at this. Don’t let them—the windows need to be a different color. And don’t do it the other way around, with dark trim and light sashes- it makes the façade look busy. Pick the body color first- it’s the hardest, and there’s going to be a lot of it. 

Try out colors around a window or door, so that you can see how they look together. I generally use the front of the house, which brings us to: 

Rule #3: Ignore the neighbors. 

As you try colors, your neighbors will give their opinions, which will mostly be that the color is “too dark”, “too light”, “too yellow”, or whatever. Occasionally your neighbors will be right, but if you have picked the right color combination, they will rave about the color they didn’t like once the house has been painted. 

Rule #4: Things which are not painted or meant to be painted (shingles, bricks, stonework, concrete) should not be painted, unless they have already been painted.  

If already painted, it’s best to paint them a color which resembles the color they would be if they weren’t, such as raisin or grey-brown for shingles, a reddish color for brick, gray for stone. This is not permission to paint the bricks bright red and the mortar joints bright white like a cardboard Christmas fireplace!  

Rule #5: NO BLUE! 

Blue is the most difficult color to use outdoors, so don’t even go there. If you must, don’t go for bright blues- use teal, midnight, or grey-blue, and only on the sashes. Another difficult color is terra-cotta, which can be lovely when it’s right, but a salmon pink or tomato soup disaster when it’s wrong. 

Rule #6: If you see a paint job with good colors, copy it. 

Well, maybe not if it’s your next door neighbor. Also, the paint companies have tried their best to make up lovely color combinations for you. Most companies have historic palettes with period-appropriate colors.  

Here are some (limited) color combinations that seem to work on most houses—you can mix and match. 

Body Trim Accent 

Chamois Cream Forest green 

Sage Green Burgundy 

Olive Green Eggplant 

Butterscotch Dark Teal 

Beige 

The colors will not be called that, of course, since the paint companies have their own names. My personal favorite paint color name is Corporate America. Yup- it’s gray. So buy some quarts and try them out. If you are still overwhelmed, hire a color consultant. An attractive paint job will increase your home’s value and enhance your street as well.  

Iliumarts- Jeanette Sayre 

www.iliumart.com 

(510) 451-7046 

The Color Doctor- Bob Buckter 

www.drcolor.com 

(415) 922-7444 

Arthur Deco Color 

(510) 849-3568 

Photograph by Jane Powell 

Forest green sashes (Benjamin Moore Essex Green) and cream colored trim draw attention to the arched front window of a Maxwell Park bungalow at 5539 Brookdale, Oakland. The stucco is painted a butterscotch tone which changes with the light. This home is featured on the cover of Bungalow Colors by Robert Schweitzer. 

First of all, let’s get our terminology right. Pergo is one brand of laminate flooring and not, by any stretch, the onsly one. There are many brands of laminate flooring, Pergo was just the first. Actually, even that isn’t wholly accurate and why not be accurate? Pergo, a Swedish company, first applied laminate technology to flooring in 1994 and has, in an amazingly short while, completely changed the face of the flooring business. This stuff is everywhere. 

So what is a laminate? Well, for ease of cognition, it’s Formica. That’s also a fair use of the eponym since Formica was the first form of laminate and also it’s greatest proponent. Formica was invented in 1912 by a couple of guys working at Westinghouse and was originally intended as an electrical insulator (that’s what Westinghouse did, they built electric stuff and were led by that strangest of scientists, Nicola Tesla). 

Mica had been the gold standard in insulators up to that point which explains the name. For-Mica found great popularity as a countertop material for decades and is still popular today for a range of functions. There are designers who go nuts with the stuff and put it on everything; cabinets, walls, doors, partitions. It IS admittedly, a very practical material, if somewhat stilted in its appearance.  

I did find it both amusing and smart when the boomerang pattern, so popular in the 1960s started making a comeback about 10 years ago. That’s the fun thing about Formica, the application of it as sense-memory. All those milk-shakes slurped at lunch counters, the whole of our youths spent doing dishes and wiping down those smooth glassy surfaces. 

Now it’s on floors everywhere you go and it’s not surprising given the low cost and ease of installation. Whether it’s Pergo, Wilsonart, Mannington, Alloc or Wiltex, this flooring is very easy to adopt. Now, I have to confess that my response to it, when I first encountered it was a sort of high-handed dislike.  

I’m very old fashioned. I like scratched old wooden floors. I like stained concrete and brick. I’m not a fan of plastic houses or plastic people. I like what feels real. Gritty, broken, smelly and old, but hey, that’s just one point of view. I also like renting cars. I like the clean carpet, the fact that all the parts work, that there are 12 airbags and no scratches at all. It’s a very political debate, I end up having with myself. Old and real, vs. new, fake and shiny. I’m simply undecided. 

There could be a solution to my conundrum and that might be to take the new thing and turn it on it’s head. The thing that bothers me about laminate flooring is that it’s usually used as a fake version of something real. It’s a photograph (literally) of wood instead of wood. Well, how about letting it be what it really is; plastic.  

I’d be much more likely to use this material if it employed some of the weirdly amusing patterns that Formica adopted over the last 60 years. How about a bright red plastic floor or one that looks like a field of stones or perhaps the surface of water. (Care to take a short walk on water?). I’m waiting to see someone use a mixture of wood patterns in a Pergo floor just to make the point that it ISN’T real. There are so many possibilities with this material and there are really good reasons to use it if and when you can get the oeuvre over-easy. 

One is that it’s durable as heck. If you’ve installed it properly, its can end up lasting an awfully long time with almost zero maintenance.  

Most of these floors are finished with a coating of aluminum oxide. That’s the same thing that rubies and sapphires are made of. Incredibly tough and scratch resistant. The weak link is the core, which is made from wood particle, but they seem to have impregnated most brands with enough resin or wax to help them hold up, even under damp conditions. Given the low cost, the lack of any need for finish and the fact that most are installed over a plastic closed-cell foam that you roll out in advance of placing the floor, I think it’s ideal for finishing a basement. 

If your concrete gets even a little damp, it’s probably best to seal the concrete and then add a plastic layer before installing the floor. Some of these floors come with their own felt backing and I’d avoid those ones in the basement. They’re fine over wood on the main floor but they may tend to decay and act as a growth medium. Some have a polypropylene backing and that’s probably safer. 

Another cool thing about laminate flooring is that nearly all install with a click-lock tongue and groove system. They just snap together. If you’re concerned about dampness, such as in the case in a kitchen, there are sealants that can be added along the tongue prior to snapping them together (and I think it’s a good idea).  

If you’re thinking about a damp area, go for a higher quality product. Many manufacturers have a lower and higher end line but this isn’t a major issue. 

One cool thing about a cheap, fast flooring job like this is that you can think about places you’ve avoided finishing. Put a floor in the basement, put one in the attic where you have that office the city doesn’t know about. Put one in the playhouse. If you have a space with air infiltration between the floorboards (as some wooden basement floors do), it’s a way to cover the gaps.  

Prices seem to be about 7-10 bucks per square foot installed but I think that price represents a highly finished job. This stuff can be bought for as little as a dollar a square foot and if you do the job yourself, a small room can be done for 100 bucks. That’s nothing in the world of construction. 

All the excitement aside, I would strongly encourage owners of older homes to avoid the plastic look and consider refinishing their wooden floors instead. Even a modular bamboo floor seems more appropriate in an old craftsman bungalow and there are a huge number of real wood and veneered modular floor (the veneer is a thin layer of real wood) in the marketplace and there’s no need to settle for plastic when something more natural or authentic is called for. 

I hope that designers and manufacturers will rise to the task and provide us with the sorts of wild or interesting choices that this new and promising material is capable of. Of course there will certainly be an ugly side to this resource and I doubt it’ll be long before we see a floor covered with those damned little Gucci symbols. Harrumph. 

Illustration: Pergo’s Pro-loc tongue and groove joint makes installation a snap. 

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

We’re still freezing and so are our gardens (My poor red–leaf banana!) and I’m telling you it’s time to think about irrigation? Yes indeed. 

We’re entertaining a theoretically brief water pinch right now as EBMUD does aqueduct repair. Take that raised consciousness and run with it. Setting down a good irrigation plan for your garden this summer will save time, water, plants, and maybe even money in the long run. Besides, it’s more fun than Tinkertoys.  

Here’s the rub: It’s more complicated than Tinkertoys or even that Erector Set. Sure, you’re basically threading your yard with black spaghetti and adding plugs and sprinklers and pop-ups and semicircular sprayers and drip emitters and T-connectors and Y-connectors and maybe timers and/or sensors and don’t forget the end of the line; you’ll need those plug dinguses there.  

That doesn’t sound right. What’s the plural of “dingus”? Dinguses? Dingusses? Dingi? Dingodes? Hardware?  

Anyway, you’ll need not only the stuff but the skill. The trickiest thing about it all is getting the water pressure right all along the system. Slopes and distances from the head faucet and soil types can make weird differences, and the average way to discover mistakes is to lose a few plants or run up the water bill with unnoticed leaks.  

The Urban Farmer Store’s Richmond branch can help with that. Sit down and sketch your garden. You don’t need great art here, but measuring dimensions is a must. Take photos and base your sketch on those if you’re as drawing-challenged as I am. Bring it all in to the Urban Farmers and, if you buy your parts there, they’ll help you with free irrigation and lighting plans.  

Urban Farmer isn’t just an irrigation store. There’s low-wattage outdoor lighting too—pathlights, uplights to make that queen palm a star, downlights to give your place a soft air of mystery at night. We don’t have lightning bugs here, so we have to make do.  

The other side of irrigation—drainage—needs attention in our clay soils too, so get your assorted pipes and landscape cloth, your grates and channels and drains and fittings here. You can get a load of drain rock or big gravel next door at American Soil products.  

Also: ponds. UF has pond liners, pumps, tubing, filters, fountain nozzles, algae control (including those ecogroovy barley-straw bundles) UV water clarifiers, and, Joe’s favorite, “The Muck Buster” pond vacuum cleaner. The staff would be good people to consult about ponds, too.  

There’s lots of ecogroovy stuff at UF besides those water-saving irrigation systems: biodegradable paper debris bags, burlap tarps (80”X 80”, perfect size for a work-catchall tarp), and people-powered push mowers. The Richmond store carries hand tools from Hida Tools, such as Tobisho and Felco pruning shears and Silky saws.  

UF runs free classes for landscaping professionals: sprinkler design on 1/27; drip irrigation, 2/8; waterscapes, 2/22; all at 7 p.m. Register at 524-1604 or www.urbanfarmerstore.com—click on “Classes.”  

The Urban Farmer Store 

2121 San Joaquin St., Richmond 

524-1604 

Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 

Saturday 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. 

Sunday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. 

Hours change seasonally; call to confirm.  

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.

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. 

“Palestine Blues” A documentary on the repercussions of the Israeli Security Wall and Settlement expansion by filmmaker Nida Sinnokrot, followed by a discussion with the director at 7 p.m. at California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St., between Oxford and Shattuck. Cost is $6-$8.  

“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) 

Womansong Circle with Betsy Rose A participatory circle of song for women at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Donation $15-$20 at the door. No one turned away for lack of funds. 525-7082. 

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. 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.  

North Shattuck Plaza Tour sponsored by the North Shattuck Design Committee. Meet at 9:30 a.m. on the sidewalk outside of Bel Forno Cafe and Bakery. 

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. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction 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.  

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.  

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. 

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. 

TUESDAY, JAN. 23 

Tuesday is for the Birds An early morning walk for birders through Bay Area parklands. Bring water, sunscreen, binoculars and a snack. This week we will visit the Albany Bulb. For meeting location or to borrow binoculars, call 525-2233.  

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult, at 3:15 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. We will learn about bird migration. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Berkeley High School Governance Council meets at 4:15 p.m. in the Community Theater Lobby. 644-4803. 

El Cerrito Democratic Club meets at 7:30 p.m. at Makemie Hall, Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury, El Cerrito. 526-4874. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St., near corner of Eunice. MelDancing@aol.com 

Pirate School Interactive Program for ages 3 and up at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. Free. 524-3043. 

MySpace Safety Program A discussion for parents at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Public Library, Dimond Branch, 3565 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland. 482-7844. 

Learn How to Tune and Wax Your Skis/Snowboard at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Copwatch Report Mailing Party Help mail out the Winter 06-07 Copwatch Report at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult, at 3:15 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. We will learn about bird migration. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Bobby Seale, a founder of the Black Panthers will speak at the Gray Panthers meeting at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. All welcome. 548-9696. 

The Stewardship Council Public Meeting to discuss the Land Conservation Plan and the Youth Investment Program from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at Preservation Park, 1233 Preservation Park Way, Oakland. 650-286-5150. www.stewardshipcouncil.org 

“Nanotechnology – The Power of Small” a production of Fred Friendly Seminars, will be taped at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Rep, Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St., for broadcast on PBS. Audience members should plan to be seated by 6:45 pm. Free but registration required www.smartscience.org/berkeley ffs registration.htm  

New to DVD “Eternity and a Day” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

THURSDAY, JAN. 25 

“Berkeley’s Economic Future” with Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, at 1 p.m. at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. Light lunch served at noon. RSVP to 981-7100. 

Tom Hayden, former California Legislator and peace activist will speak on “The Politics of Iraq in the Democratic Party” at the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club meeting at 7 p.m. at the Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. www.wellstoneclub.org 

YMCA Martin Luther King Community Banquet at 7 p.m. at 300 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oaklnad, to raise funds for YMCA programs. Tickets are $150. 451-8039, ext. 457. 

Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans A review of proposals for Alameda County at 5:30 p.m. at ACTIA, 426 17th St., Suite 100, Oakland. www.actia2022.com 

Easy Does It Emergency Services Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and thinking skills. Commit to 1-2 hours per week during the school day and work one-on-one with students in their English classes. Training from noon to 3 p.m. 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org 

Home Remodeling Seminar: How to Make it a Success, at 6:30 p.m. at Truitt & White Conference Room, 1817 Second St. Free, registration required. 653-7288. 

“Redefining Our Relationships” with Wendy O. Matick at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674A 23rd. St., Oakland. Cost is $10-$15, sliding scale, no one turned away. 208-1700. 

Storytime for Babies & Toddlers at 10:30 a.m. Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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 

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Jan. 24, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Gil Dong, 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., Jan. 24, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434. 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., Jan. 24, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., Thurs. Jan. 25, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Jan. 25, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410. 

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.