The union made some big wins at Berkeley High on Tuesday. Except that the students were acting as both management and labor and the cash was just play money. 

Juniors and seniors got together in the school library for a crash course in negotiation—courtesy the California Federa-tion of Teachers (CFT). 

The day-long session was part of CFT’s Collective Bargaining Education Project (CBEP), which was held for the first time at the BHS campus. Based on the popular education techniques of Paolo Freire, the CBEP provides students with a range of labor history and contemporary union organizing and collective bargaining role-plays for the high school classroom. 

“It’s a way of teaching them conflict resolution in the workplace. In this case, we have picked a hospital,” said Fred Glass, communications director for CFT. 

“We took kids from a couple of classes and divided them into two teams—the management, which represented the hospital administration, and the labor, which represented the hospital workers. The issues in the negotiations are wages, medical benefits, health and safety, seniority and child care. The smaller teams are having caucuses—they are either talking about labor or management.” 

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT), was heading one of the management caucuses. 

“It feels good to be on the other side of the table for once,” said Fike smiling. 

Glass told the Planet that the high school curriculum did not have extensive information on unions. “We feel it is important to fill the gap in educating our children. They need to know that unions provide protection. If it wasn’t for the union, we wouldn’t have things like minimum wage, a 40-hour work week or even a weekend. And yet very little of those are actually reflected in history books.” 

As the students grappled with their fact sheets and figure charts, Fike pointed out that this lesson was helping them use their math skills. 

“I am also a teacher,” he said, “and it gives me great pleasure to see the kids learning through real life experience. The project started off slow. It took the kids some time to understand the dynamics of the issue. This is the best kind of learning, except it’s close to the real world.” 

As negotiations were brought to the table, future leaders unfolded. Breanna Cantwell—a Berkeley High senior who looked confident enough to argue on Donald Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice—emerged as the toughest negotiator on Fike’s management team. 

“She asked the most questions. She wanted to know what the union would do with the money,” quipped Zoe Adkins, another senior. 

“This project taught me that you can’t manage a company on your own. You have to give and take. You have to think of both sides,” Zoe said. 

“There should be no room for ambiguity. If you are not specific with how you will spend your money then people start getting suspicious of your motives,” said Breanna. 

The project coincided with the current curriculum of the high schoolers, said BHS English teacher Alan Miller.  

“They are learning about the Great Depression. That’s where the minimum wage and other little things we take for granted today come from. It’s also great because it teaches them argumentation and evidence gathering techniques. They are reading Machiavelli’s The Prince to see what it is like to apply those principles in real life,” he said. 

Mark Greenside, a teacher at Merritt College, told the groups that every relationship involved negotiations. 

“It just doesn’t apply to work, but also to life. Who gets the best office, the best typewriter ... who gets to take out the trash, walk the dog. The list is endless.” 

As the negotiations were completed, the teams led by Fike and Mark Leach, who was representing the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), congratulated the students on the results. 

Both sides agreed to a 5.5 percent wage increase, 100 percent medical benefits and partial childcare. 

The most difficult issue, members of the labor team said, had been chasing the medical benefits. 

“It was difficult for the management because they had to fit it into a budget. It was difficult for us because we wanted more money,” said twelfth grader Will Henderson. Henderson is hoping to study film at San Francisco State University in fall. 

“One question you want to think about is whether the people you are representing at the table are going to be happy with the results or not,” were Leach’s parting words of advice to the group. 

“In collective bargaining if the union membership say no, then you come back to the table.”

Rich Robbins of Wareham Development, Inc. has a vision for the seven-story West Berkeley building he recently bought for around $20 million.  

Robbins is doing work to the tower at 10th and Parker streets, known best as the Fantasy Building—improving the lobby, adding a fountain, upgrading the heating system and more. “He’s going to turn that building into a world class media center,” Robbins’ representative Darrell de Tienne told the City Council at a special council session that followed the regular Tuesday meeting, called to address Wareham’s steep rent hikes that tenants say will destroy their arts community. 

The 50 or so mostly filmmakers and their supporters were asking for council help negotiating what filmmaker Ashley James called “a stay of execution” of rent hikes of 40-to-100 percent over three years and the immediate eviction of a few. They are already a world-class community of award-winning artists and don’t need the extraneous upgrades they have to pay for, the artists told the council. 

After listening to the filmmakers, their supporters and the developer’s representative, the council decided to pursue negotiations with the developer. 

Eric Hayashi, executive director of the San Francisco-based Film Arts Foundation, told the council that it was no accident that there had been 13 Academy award nominees from that one building. “It’s not 13 in the state; it’s not 13 in the Bay Area, it’s not 13 in Berkeley. It’s 13 companies in one building … It’s independent filmmakers relying on each other, building something greater than themselves,” he said. 

Speaking to the council as a representative of the community, Ashley James of Searchlight Films, a tenant in the building since 1995, said that the filmmaker community has “supported, sustained and, at times, employed us.”  

While James thanked Mayor Tom Bates for his efforts to talk to Robbins, he said there ought to have been representatives of the artist community participating in the discussions. “You were in there alone with Wareham,” he said, “What we want, what we need and what we deserve is a reasonable negotiating period to work on basic terms of the leases.” 

Filmmaker Rick Goldsmith told the council that Wareham’s claim that the artists are not now paying market rents is false. Rents were raised from around $2 per square foot to $3 or $3.25 per square foot in 2005 and now Wareham is asking for $4-to-$6 per square foot, he said. “West Berkeley rental levels are not more than $2 per square foot,” he added.  

Wareham spokesperson Tim Gallen did not dispute that the rents were high, but underscored in an earlier interview with the Planet that the rent hike was due to the amenities, such as the two small theaters at the site undergoing renovation and views of the Golden Gate Bridge from some  

studios. 

While the artists said Robbins’ insistence that they negotiate one-on-one and not collectively was a divide and conquer technique, Wareham representative de Tienne addressed the issue: “You’re going to have to negotiate one-on-one. I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that simple. Being a business and being an artist you still have the responsibility to stand up and talk for yourself and do what you need to do,” said de Tienne, adding that he is an artist himself. 

When Councilmember Linda Maio tried to ask de Tienne why the artists had different rates for similar studios, he cut her off: “Let me stop you. This life is not egalitarian,” he said. The audience groaned.  

Representing West Berkeley Artisans & Industrial Companies, woodworker John Curl told councilmembers that they should play hardball with the developer. 

“Council should tell the building owner in no uncertain terms that he must treat these tenants in a decent and responsible manner,” Curl said, reading from a prepared text. “Tell him that that is a price of doing business in Berkeley. This landlord depends heavily on the city being cooperative with his projects and developments. Tell him that, if he expects the city to cooperate with him, he needs to cooperate for the betterment of the city.” 

In fact, Robbins has at least one project under consideration in the city—the Garr building at 740 Heinz Ave. in West Berkeley—and has talked to various city staff about another he says he wants to build on the parking lot at the Fantasy Building. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington addressed the issue: “If the developer wants to get something done, it’s far better to get out on the table what you want to do and work things out,” he said, adding, “This type of greed is not acceptable.” 

Counclmember Dona Spring argued that the West Berkeley Plan protects artists, but Land Use Manager Mark Rhodes countered that the space is protected as arts space, but the individual artist is not protected. Lower income filmmakers could be forced out and replaced by those who can pay the higher rents—“There’s no commercial rent control,” Rhodes said. 

In a separate interview with the Planet, Jed Riffe of Jed Riffe Films said that the loss of the artist community is more than a loss of creativity to Berkeley. Riffe said he just finished a documentary for which he spent $1 million in Berkeley. That included renting equipment, hiring a local editor and crew, copying costs, and “feeding a small army of people,” he said. 

Berkeley Arts Festival Director Bonnie Hughes had her own take on the situation, telling the council that unless they act, history books will say Berkeley was once known as “the home of free speech and artistic innovation until it was invaded by greedy hordes of carpetbaggers.” 

Hughes laid out the dilemma: “Carpetbaggers come to make millions; artists come to make art; to whom will you dedicate our city?” 

Photograph by Judith Scherr 

Filmmakers working in the Fantasy Building ask the City Council Tuesday to help them in negotiations with new landlord Wareham Development, Inc. In the front row are (l - r) Wareham tenants Jeb Riffe, Susan Starr and Rick Goldsmith.

A $100,000 process to write a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, approved by the City Council in February, will be carried out inside city government—with staff hired for the purpose—and not outsourced to Sustain-able Berkeley, as the Council directed last month. 

“There are some legal questions [on the relationship] between Sustainable Berkeley and CESC [the Community Energy Services Corporation],” Neal De Snoo, energy officer in the city’s Energy and Sustainable Development Division, told the Energy Commission at its meeting Wednesday evening. “The implementation is on hold until there is a legal interpretation,” he said. 

However on Thursday, City Manager Assistant Arrietta Chakos told the Planet the city “would be taking a look at Measure G [the voter-approved advisory initiative asking the mayor to work with the community to develop a greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan] programs across department lines.” Chakos called back to say a person hired for a new position in the city’s energy division would be working on the plan. 

Sustainable Berkeley is an organization whose steering committee is made up of nonprofit corporations, healthcare professionals, UC Berkeley staff and consultants. It is not incorporated. The organization’s fiscal agent is CESC, a nonprofit that partners with PG&E and other entities and was created by the city. Its board of directors is the Energy Commission, selected by the councilmembers and mayor. Commissioners (and therefore board members) serve at the pleasure of appointing councilmembers. 

The new interim executive director of Sustainable Berkeley is Catherine Squire, who moved from the Sustainable Berkeley executive committee into the position of interim executive director. She is a recent employee in the city’s energy division. While affirming that the position is salaried, Joel Kreisberg, Sustainable Berkeley chair, declined to disclose Squire’s rate of pay. “Kate is working on a grant to make this thing go,” he said. 

Kreisberg is the executive director of Teleosis, which describes itself on its website as “A leadership training program guiding health professionals towards greater sustainability in their health care practice.”  

Writing the Measure G plan will no longer be under Sustainable Berkeley auspices because the organization is still “building its infrastructure and capacity,” Kreisberg said. 

One of the questions that the community and the Daily Planet had asked those involved with Sustainable Berkeley was about the degree to which the organization, most of whose meetings are closed to the public, would be transparent. The questions were raised because writing the plan to implement Measure G, authorized by council and funded by the city, would have been executed behind closed doors with staff hired without a search process. 

“We’d like to be transparent,” Kreisberg said. “We’re trying to get ourselves organized.” 

Sustainable Berkeley never got the $100,000 that was originally to have been directed toward it (through its fiscal agent) to write the plan. Still, the group hired Timothy Burroughs to begin work getting community input on the plan, the Daily Planet was told at the time. Since the contract was never executed, Burroughs has been doing other work with Sustainable Berkeley, Kreisberg said. 

Among the questions that had been raised was the appointment of Burroughs to the post without an open process. “Timothy Burroughs was hired by Sustainable Berkeley without a recruitment process since he is a nationally recognized expert in GHG [greenhouse gas] Reduction and the position is temporary through December 2007,” Kreisberg said in a letter to the Daily Planet published on March 16. 

The city will release a job description today (Friday) for a person who will execute the plan, Chakos said. The job description forwarded to the Planet is vague, however, saying that the six-month temporary position is for an “Associate Management Analyst” in the energy division. It says nothing about the candidate having special expertise in greenhouse gas reduction—or even about the need for training in environmental questions. 

The city’s new Public Information Officer Mary Kay Clunies-Ross told the Planet that according to City Manager Phil Kamlarz, it will not be necessary for the council to execute a new vote to have the $100,000 redirected to the new city position, rather than the Sustainable Berkeley position.  

“The council does not have to act separately,” she said. In April, staff will go to the council and inform them of the change, she said.

The Berkeley Board of Education voted to eliminate sixth grade from Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) Wednesday. BAM was the only elementary school in the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) that offered sixth grade to its students. 

A group of current and former parents of BAM students requested that the board not eliminate the sixth grade, saying that it provided a smoother transition to students specializing in the arts. 

“The sixth grade at BAM has several advantages,” said David Schweidel, a Berkeley resident. “The sixth graders often act as mentors to the younger children; they are a model of mastery. Also, many children are not ready to go on to the middle school level from fifth grade.” 

Diane Douglas, a parent who has had two sixth graders at BAM, said that the permanent loss of the sixth grade would not have a positive impact on the school. 

“BAM has been recognized several times for its various arts programs,” she said. “Careful consideration should be given before we dismantle some of these important programs and take away the sixth grade.” 

School Board Vice President John Selawsky told the group that the decision to eliminate the sixth grade from BAM was not something the district was doing “gladly or happily.” 

“It has been several years in the making. There has been a decline in the number of students picking the sixth grade at BAM over the last three or four years,” he said. “This is not something I relish doing.” 

According to a staff report, the number of students requesting the sixth grade at BAM has fallen from twenty-two (43 percent) in 2003 to six (12 percent) in 2007. The school had fifty-one fifth graders in 2003; the current number is 50. 

“There is need for the school to come together to look at what BAM is,” said School Board Director Karen Hemphill. “I would urge the parents to come together to look at what Arts Magnet would look like without a sixth grade and develop a curriculum. More of a community feeling would help the school evolve toward a successful future.” 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence said that students needed to have a variety of exposure at the sixth grade level. 

“When students are eleven years old they need exposure to different kinds of arts. It’s not in their best interest to choose a part of the program,” said assistant superintendent Neil Smith. 

Students who chose to stay at BAM for the sixth grade have been offered spaces at Longfellow or their respective zone middle school. 

Architect Approved for King CDC, FPN 

The board approved the hiring of WLC Architects—one of the four firms in Berkeley Unified’s architect pool—at a cost of $500,000 for remodeling the King Child Development Center (CDC) and Franklin Parent Nursery (FPN). 

Temporary classrooms throughout the district have been planned and staff have supported the idea, despite the fact that they will be displaced for over a year. 

The board also approved advertisements to solicit bids for the King dining equipment; modernization of the King Gym; heating, ventilation and air conditioning at Oxford and Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) Elementary schools and Jefferson kitchen phase II.  

The King Gym modernization project is part of BUSD’s Long Range Development Plan. The campus itself was recently remodeled for $20 million. 

Peanut Policy 

The board unanimously approved its policy on Peanuts/Nuts/Nut-Derivative Products in School Lunch Menus at Elementary, Middle Schools and High School. 

The new policy states that “there will be no nuts or nut-derivative products in any of the food items prepared or available in any form at the elementary school level. Nuts or nut-derivatives will not be used in menu items at middle or high school unless they are clearly labeled and students are informed of the ingredients in such dishes. Peanuts may be available in vending machines or sold as packaged, separate items.” 

Lawrence added that although peanut/ nut products would not be included in the school menus, parents whose children had nut allergies had to be educated about it for awareness outside school. 

Re-enrollment 

The board took a first look at a proposal to re-enroll Berkeley Unified students at the sixth and ninth grade levels. 

The recent board elections and the parcel tax campaign led to an increase in discussions about out-of-district students who enroll in Berkeley schools illegally. 

A committee comprising central office administrators and secondary level school staff met to address the logistics, implications, and feasibility of re-registering all or specific grade levels of students to give further verification of residency. 

“The current policy states that a student is returned to his/her district of residency if it is determined that the parent has submitted false information of residency. That’s pretty harsh and in practice not enforced,” said director Shirley Issel. 

“This is primarily because we like our kids and our inclination is to work with our kids. We should offer amnesty to those who are willing to ’fess up and provide them with ample opportunity to provide the correct information. As long as we have room in our schools, we want to welcome everybody.” 

Lawrence suggested that a change of policy would require extensive parent outreach which would need a minimum of a year. 

“We give careful consideration to each case. We do not follow up on anonymous phone calls. We are not the immigration office,” she said. 

“We consider the grade level and the time of the school year. To remove a student in the middle of the school year is outrageous. We then give the student a permit and evaluate their behavior. If attendance and grades are satisfactory they are automatically granted a chance to remain.” 

The board decided that more work was needed to improve the report and sent to the policy subcommittee for review. 

Grant approval 

The board approved the Adult Education Grant which consists of the Workforce Investment Act, Adult Education and Family Literacy funds. They also approved the participation in the NSF Grant on Teaching Energy in grade 4-8 Science, the 21st Century Grants ($1,245,000 per year for five years)—which provide funds for after-school programs—and the Neil Soto Grant ($7,500 per year for 2007-08 and 2008-09) which provides funds for parent/teacher involvement. 

Deferred Maintenance Plan 

The board voted to approve the Five-year Deferred Maintenance Plan in order to be eligible for deferred maintenance funds from the state. This year, slightly over $400,000 was allocated by the State and $400,000 was allocated from the Bond for the fund. Carryover funds also exist.

Student assignments are in. Parents suffering from sleepless nights and frenzied nerves over their toddler’s kindergarten placement were finally able to rest in peace when the last of the 560 school assignment letters were mailed out from Berkeley Unified’s Office of Admissions and Attendance earlier this month. 

Some, such as incoming Rosa Parks parent Lori Opal, were even able to enjoy a birthday party. “Everyone at the party was talking about their child’s kindergarten assignment. And not everyone was elated,” she told the Planet on Wednesday. 

“Some had gotten their second or third choices and that made me really nervous. I kept calling my husband to see if our mail had arrived. Thankfully I got the news that we had got Rosa Parks, our first choice. Everything was great after that.”  

Opal, like a lot of other parents, had chosen Rosa Parks because of its excellent Spanish Immersion Program.  

At a “coffee, tea and treats” get-together hosted by Rosa Parks PTA president Tracy Hollander on Sunday, incoming parents got to ask questions. 

“Sometimes non-Spanish speaking parents are concerned about the logistics of the Immersion Program. Talking to parents who have experienced that with their children in the past helps a lot,” Hollander said. 

She added that there were also parents who had not listed Rosa Parks as a first choice. 

“There are always disappointments, but the job of the PTA is to help parents get over those and to have as smooth a transition to kindergarten as possible.” 

Robin Gadient, parent of a kindergartner at Rosa Parks, had listed the school as a third choice last year. 

“We had wanted Thousand Oaks or Jefferson,” she said. “We don’t hang out in the area where Rosa Parks is located. But we were seventh on the waiting list for Thousand Oaks and way down on the list for Jefferson. That was definitely disappointing.” 

A year later, Gadient has no complaints. “Everything changed when we got to meet our child’s excellent kindergarten teacher, Tracy Iglehart. She’s an environmentalist and a literacy specialist,” she said. “I just love the vibrant and amazing community at Rosa Parks. I am glad I stayed on.” 

A small section of parents were not happy with their kindergarten assignment this year, said Francisco Martinez, manager of attendance and admissions for BUSD. 

“I have met with the families and heard their concerns. I have asked them to get in touch with the teachers and principals at the respective schools and to not make a decision based on urban myth,” he said.  

If families aren’t happy with their child’s placement then they can have the child’s name added to the waiting list of the school they desire. “If they don’t register their students in a school between April 10 and May 10,” he continued, “then their [original] assignments are taken away and they are given a chance from the waiting list” of the school they hope to enroll in. 

Thousand Oaks Elementary School—which has the most number of spaces with four classrooms—saw an enrollment of 72 students this year. Rosa Parks, which has three and a half classrooms, was assigned close to 70. 

Emerson, John Muir, Oxford and Jefferson—which have two classrooms per school—took in forty students each. 

The assignment system lets parents put their first, second and third school choices and then the computer runs a lottery to give the final placement. 

“The chances of getting a school out of your zone is very slim,” said BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan. The lottery takes into account factors such as race, ethnicity, student background and parental income and education. 

“People often don’t want to put a certain school as their first choice. Ironically one of the biggest places we used to see that was Rosa Parks,” he said. 

“Rosa Parks was quite a distance away from where most families lived and it was falling behind state standards in the past. It has been a Program Improvement School for the last five years. But we have put huge resources into making it better and I am proud to say that more parents want to put their kids into Rosa Parks today.” 

Shana Rocklin, who had applied for the Immersion Program at Rosa Parks said that although there had been hesitancy about the history of the school, their doubts were cleared after extensive discussion with other parents. 

“My son is coming home speaking sentences in Spanish and we are learning from him as well,” she said excitedly. 

Hollander attributes the success of the school to its principal, Pat Saddler. “She is ‘Berkeley’s Best,’ and knows every child by name.” she said. “I could not be more happy with the education my first grader is receiving. It’s a positive learning environment for both the children and the community,” she said proudly.

Finally, the Berkeley Planning Commission has elected a new chair, though the last one still fumed that Wednesday’s election wasn’t needed. 

It was the panel’s third election in two months, and the man who provoked it all—David Stoloff—cast the sole dissenting vote against revoking the last election. The end result was the same, with the election of James Samuels and Larry Gurley as chair and vice-chair. 

The outcome leaves the developer-friendly five-member majority in charge, as demonstrated by the next vote, a measure that eases changes of use for Telegraph Avenue’s commercial properties and may spell the beginning of the end for Berkeley’s business quotas.  

The vote followed the five-four split that has pitted Samuels, Gurley, Susan Wengraf, Harry Pollack and Stoloff against Helen Burke, Roia Ferrazares, Gene Poschman and Mike Sheen. 

If Stoloff has his way, the action will be the first step in eliminating any quotas on the types of enterprises allowed in the city’s three business improvement districts. 

Dave Fogarty of the city’s Office of Economic Development, told commissioners that the Telegraph Avenue district was created in 1985 after state legislators voided the city’s commercial rent and eviction control ordinances, with the Telegraph Avenue quota system created effective January 1, 1988. 

While the first ordinance—a city-wide measure passed in 1978 which expired in 1980—was prompted by rent hikes that threatened the beloved Ozzie’s soda fountain in the Elmwood, the Telegraph Avenue measure was prompted by controversy over the pending demise of Espresso Roma, a very popular coffee house run by two students. 

Fogarty said the owners had done such a good job running the business—“they were making money hand over fist”—that the building owners had decided to force them out at the end of their lease and take over the business. 

While creation of the Telegraph Avenue ordinance in 1985 temporarily saved the business with its provision barring evictions for subsequent occupancy by a building’s owner, Fogarty said the landlord went to the Legislature and succeeded in winning passage of an ordinance striking down the law effective Jan. 1, 1988. 

The ban also ended rent control in  

the Elmwood district, which had  

been implemented three years before the Telegraph Avenue ordinance was passed. 

Quota history 

The Berkeley City Council responded by passing amendments creating a quota system for Telegraph Avenue businesses, the system that the commission modified Wednesday. 

Similar systems exist for the Elmwood, North Shattuck Avenue and Solano Avenue, and merchants on Euclid Street north of the UC Berkeley campus are asking for a similar quota program. 

The Telegraph Commercial District runs along the avenue from Parker Street to Bancroft Way, and along Durant Avenue to the Bowditch Street intersection and along Bancroft from just east of Dana Street to the Bowditch intersection. 

The existing code sets limits on the number of barber and beauty shops (10) and three types of eateries: carry-out service (19), quick serve (30) and full service (29), and limits the sizes of quick-serve restaurants to 1,500 square feet. While there is no quota number for gift and novelty shops, they are limited to 3,000 square feet. 

Some business types are over their quota numbers, either because they were grandfathered in when the law was created or because the Zoning Adjustments Board allowed use permits with variances. 

The two quota-busters are barber/ beauty shops, which total 11, and quick-serve restaurants, now numbering 43. 

Two quick-serve establishments have been added to Telegraph Avenue recently, a Peet’s coffee shop at the southeast corner of Dwight Way and a Smart Alec’s at the northwest corner of Durant Avenue. 

The existing law required the Zoning Adjustments Board find that variances were merited by unique physical circumstances of the property, Fogarty said, which could lead to somewhat laborious justifications. 

To award the variance to Peet’s, which wanted seating that would have been otherwise prohibited, the board found their way to granting a variance by declaring the use justified because it helped preserve a landmark building, and in the case of Smart Alec’s, the board held that the eatery would discourage drug dealers and other reprobates who congregated under the building’s overhang. 

Backed by Fogarty, Planning Manager Mark Rhoades and Telegraph Avenue Association Executive Director Roland Peterson, the revisions would dramatically ease the requirements for exceeding the numerical limits by requiring only that ZAB determine that the new use would “result in positive enhancement” to the district without causing parking and transportation problems that couldn’t be mitigated. 

Fast dollars 

Quick-serve restaurants are the most financially profitable uses on Telegraph for the city, said Fogarty, pointing to  

a staff report from his boss, Michael Caplan, showing that they generated annual taxable sales of $5,473  

per square foot, compared to $233 for  

full-service restaurants and $255  

for retailers. 

While total sales tax revenues on the Avenue have basically remained flat since 1990, once inflation is taken into account, the total has fallen in terms of 1990 dollars from $1.4 million a year to less than $1 million. 

In the two years between the third quarters of 2004 and 2006, the only significant rise in tax revenues has been from restaurants, followed by a lower increase from clothing stores. Retail in general has fallen.  

But Gene Poschman said he worried that making use changes easier would drive other retailers off the avenue. 

“Look at the five retailers. The question is, which one do we want to lose to a restaurant?” he said. “We should also look at the language being proposed” for the findings, he said, and suggested something might be adopted closer to what is required for variances in the Elmwood, where neighborhood residents’ and merchants’ support and marketing surveys are needed as justification, or other information that showed nearby residents would patronize the new businesses. 

“I don’t believe quotas serve any purpose,” said Stoloff, who said that the lack of any public speakers in opposition showed no support for continuing the ordinance in its present form.  

It was only after passing the proposal as written following the now typical 5-4 vote that Pollack and Wengraf indicated they might be willing to reconsider the findings. 

As a compromise, the board voted unanimously to hold more discussion on the findings at their only meeting in April—the board having voted to cancel their scheduled meeting on April 11 because many members will be out of town. 

Barring any more changes, the amendments will head back to the City Council, the source of impetus for the change. 

The one point of agreement was that the city could do little to halt chains that want to move in, especially when they fit an approved use. 

Rhoades cited the case of the application for something called “the Red Cafe, a very Berkeley-sounding name.” Soon after the approval, calls began coming in to report that deliveries to the store at 1600 Shattuck Ave. bore the dreaded Starbuck’s logo, and sure enough, it was a green logo, and not a red one, that ended up on the coffee shop. 

Wengraf, for one, doesn’t mind. “I find it to be a real asset to the community,” she said.  

Last election? 

Wednesday also witnessed what should be the commission’s third and final election for the year, though Stoloff remained adamant that none was needed. 

Stoloff, who had been elected chair last month in another 5-4 vote that denied then-Chair Helen Burke the customary second of two one-year terms usually handed to chairs, had resigned after the coup stirred bad feelings. 

Vice chair James Samuels had been elected to fill the post, and Gurley was elected vice chair, despite protests from Poschman and Mike Sheen that the meeting hadn’t been properly noticed. Though Planning Manager Mark Rhoades had sided with Stoloff, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque later intervened, forcing another election Wednesday. 

Before the vote for what was a foregone conclusion, the commission first had to formally rescind the earlier vote. 

“Point of order,” declared Stoloff as Samuels called for a vote. “I don’t understand the action being suggested by the City Attorney and the reasons put forward.” He then recited from Robert’s Rules of Order, a document that doesn’t deal with the legal public notice requirements imposed on civic body elections by the California Open Meetings Act. 

“David, I think the City Attorney has ruled against your interpretation,” said Burke, who said the commission needed to vacate the earlier vote. 

“So I’m vacating my resignation, too?” he replied. 

“I really want to sympathize with David,” said Poschman, declaring that he found it odd to be agreeing with Albuquerque for once. 

Stoloff cast the only vote opposing the measure to rescind the earlier election, and following that vote, Samuels was again elected on a 6-0-3 vote, with Poschman, Sheen and Burke abstaining. 

Susan Wengraf nominated Gurley as vice chair, and called for the question before Roia Ferrazares could nominate Sheen. The vote went 5-4.

Over objections raised by the city’s police union, the City Council voted 8-0 at its meeting Tuesday to add its support to Assemblymember Mark Leno’s bill, AB1648, which would re-open police complaint procedures statewide. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was absent. 

The council also approved sports fields at the Eastshore Park and heard a report saying the Oxford Plaza project is on track. 

Council supports open police hearings 

Complaint procedures were closed to the public in some jurisdictions and suspended completely in Berkeley after the state Supreme Court ruling in Copley Press v. San Diego led to the conclusion that police discipline is a personnel concern and therefore private. 

“Unlike all other public employees, the public is prevented by state law from learning about serious police misconduct and any discipline that came as a result of misconduct,” wrote Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, who introduced the resolution.  

“This prevents the public from learning about the extent to which problems exist within the Police Department [and] also from learning about how management addresses misconduct when it occurs,” Capitelli wrote. 

Addressing the council in favor of the item, Michael Diehl, chair of the city’s Mental Health Commission, said, “We need to protect the rights of those that are basically powerless.”  

Mark Schlosberg, police practices policy director for the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union and former PRC commissioner wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Planet: “Berkeley’s Police Review Commission is the longest continually functioning civilian review board in the country. The public should not be closed out of this important process.” 

Sports fields 

The council unanimously approved a sports complex 25-year lease from the East Bay Regional Parks District for sports fields that will be built on Eastshore Park land at the foot of Gilman Street. 

Berkeley is the lead agency in the five-city group that will lease the sports fields. Albany, El Cerrito, Emeryville and Richmond are also participating. The project is funded with $5 million in state grants and $2 million from an agreement with an outdoor billboard company. 

Last week hundreds of parents and their youngsters paraded through the council chambers calling for council support of the deal. 

Discussion of the project took place only after Councilmember Kriss Worthington pointed out that the council had just received the previous day the 149-page contract, not available when the council received its background reports the previous week and that council rules call for special council approvals before discussing late items. All councilmembers present voted to go forward with the item. 

Appeal for 2701 Shattuck Ave.  

The council voted unanimously to hold a hearing to appeal the Zoning Adjustments Board’s approval of a five-story project at 2701 Shattuck Ave.  

Before the hearing, however, Councilmember Max Anderson will work with the developer, Rev. Gordon Choyce and the project’s neighbors, who say the building will overshadow their residences. 

Oxford Plaza/Brower Center OK 

Housing Director Steve Barton gave a presentation to the council on the Oxford Plaza/Brower Center housing and environmental nonprofit complex slated for Oxford Street and Allston Way, saying that the project “has met the preconditions you set.” 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz added a caveat, saying, “There are still a few loose ends.” 

Mayor Tom Bates commented that the project, which has taken some seven years to get all the various funding and approvals needed, is “the most complicated project in the history of the city.”

AC Transit bus riders and drivers seeking to halt the Transit District’s purchase of more Van Hool buses got a distinctly chillier reception this week from the Metropolitan Transit Commission than they did when they first brought the issue to the MTC earlier this month. 

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who two weeks ago expressed concern over the purchase, said Wednesday “it sounds like AC Transit is taking the complaints seriously. Any effort the district makes to improve the situation, I will appreciate, and I will be satisfied.” 

And Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who had earlier said that he was not in favor of purchasing from the Belgian-based Van Hool when there was an American bus manufacturer—Gillig—headquarterd in Hayward, sharply lectured the AC Transit dissenters that their proper forum was not the MTC, but the AC Transit Board of Directors. 

“We don’t control the bus routes, and we don’t control AC Transit,” Haggerty said. “I hope these people are as engaged with the AC Transit Board as they are with us. That’s where the decisions are made. Those are your elected representatives. Because AC Transit is in the district I represent, I almost feel like I have to apologize to my fellowing commissioners for having to deal with issues that should properly be before AC Transit.” 

That was a far cry from the March 2 MTC meeting, when Van Hool dissenters said they were surprised by the favorable commission reception to their concerns. 

“The commissioners chickened out,” Oakland architect and citizen activist Joyce Roy said following the meeting. Roy is one of the leaders of the ad hoc group protesting the Van Hool purchase. 

After the March 2 meeting, MTC commissioners put the AC Transit bus purchase on Wednesday’s agenda so that the transit district could have the opportunity to respond in writing to the complaints. 

AC Transit has already signed a contract with the Belgian-based Van Hool company to purchase 50 new 40-foot buses and last week the AC Transit Board of Directors approved a staff request to trade in 10 of the district’s currently operating buses five years ahead of their scheduled retirement date in order to purchase 10 more Van Hools. The new buses, which will be modified versions of the 40-foot Van Hools currently operated by AC Transit, are still being built in prototype. 

Because of a complicated funding formula for the buses involving switching federal and local money, the purchase must be approved by the Metropolitan Transit Commission. 

The MTC plans and coordinates transit policy in nine counties surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as funnelling state and federal money to the transit districts within their area. The 19-member governing commission is made up of members representing various governing bodies within the nine county area. Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty represents Alameda County and serves as vice chair. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates represents the cities of Alameda County. 

A small group of AC Transit riders—many of them elderly or disabled—and company drivers are seeking to stop the Van Hool purchase, saying that the current Van Hools are unacceptable, and the improvements in the newly designed buses will not make them much better. 

This week, AC Transit General Manager Rick Fernandez wrote the MTC saying that the concerns over the Van Hools expressed at the MTC meeting earlier this month “have been expressed by most of these same people to the AC Transit Board of Directors and to AC Transit staff. As a result of these complaints and more than four years of experience in operating these buses, modifications in the design of the buses have been made that address the specific complaints made before your commission.” 

Fernandez listed what he said were five design modifications in the new Van Hool purchase that will address rider and driver complaints, including having fewer seats that require a step-up from the floor platform, widening the front door entry “by several inches,” adding grab handles and handholds for passengers who have to stand, and adding more stop-request buttons. 

The AC Transit General Manager listed rear-facing seats in its list of design modifications, but from Fernandez’ letter, the district does not appear to have made any modifications to the several seats in the Van Hools that face away from the direction the buses are traveling, with some in a four-seat cluster that face each other. Instead, Fernandez wrote that “it is true some passengers do no like rear-facing seats; it is also true that there are many who do like them. These seats allow us to maximize the seating on the bus. Facing seats are liked by many people, especially those traveling in groups, especially parents with small children.” 

AC Transit officials maintain that the Van Hool buses are generally liked by AC Transit riders. 

And Jaimie Levin, AC Transit Director of Marketing and Alternative Fuels Policy, told commissioners that “we put a tremendous amount of work into the Van Hool buses. These are the best buses AC Transit has purchased in its history. We do not bury our heads in the sand. We’ve heard the issues raised. And future buses will have more of these issues addressed.” 

At Wednesday’s meeting, AC Transit made two of the existing Van Hools available outside the MTC headquarters near the Lake Merritt BART station in Oakland for Commissioners to inspect. But during her testimony before the Commission, Roy complained that “somehow AC Transit managed not to bring their low-floor [American-made] NABI buses, which we think are good, so that you can see the difference.” Roy added that better buses than the European-made Van Hools are available from American manufacturers. “American-made buses are what the European bus makers are copying,” she said. “We are the leaders.” 

Roy said her loosely-organized group would continue to monitor and oppose the Van Hool purchase.

With no opposition and support from the Oakland Police Department and the offices of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Oakland City Council Public Safety Chairperson Larry Reid, the California State Senate Public Safety Committee unanimously approved this week a bill that would reinstate the 30-day confiscation of cars who police say are involved in Oakland sideshows. 

One committee member, Sen. Gilbert Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) said that the penalties should be more severe. Citing the fact that police can currently impound a car for 30 days if it is driven by an illegal immigrant, Cedillo said, “I’m not sure 30 days is appropriate for the sort of offenses described” in Perata’s sideshow car impoundment bill. “Maybe it should be a total seizure.” 

While some Oakland activists and public officials have expressed opposition to the sideshow car seizure law, none came to the Senate Public Safety Committee hearing to express it. Perata’s office has said that they have received no correspondence in opposition to the bill. 

Existing California law allows California police to seize the cars driven in a “motor vehicle speed contest” and hold them for 30 days, without a hearing and solely on the word of the police officer that the car was involved in a street race, with the registered owner of the vehicle responsible for the towing and storage fees. 

The car owners can challenge the seizure and get their cars back early and without charges if they can prove they were not responsible for the car being in the street race, when the hearings are held before hearing officers who are employees of the cities who confiscated the cars, rather than before state-paid judges in civil or criminal courts. 

In 2002, under a bill sponsored by State Senator Don Perata (D-Oakland), the 30-day car impoundment law was expanded to include “reckless driving on a highway” and “reckless driving in an offstreet parking lot,” offenses which both Perata and Oakland police and city officials said was designed to apply to Oakland’s illegal street sideshows. 

Perata’s 2002 bill had a five-year “sunset” provision attached, with Oakland officials required to come back to the Legislature during the 2006 session to justify its continued use if they wanted it to be extended beyond the scheduled January 1, 2007 ending date for its application to sideshow activities. But both Oakland officials and Senator Perata’s office failed to renew the sideshow car confiscation provisions in 2006, and they lapsed. In January, Perata introduced new legislation, SB67, to renew the provisions, asking that the law be reinstated on an “urgency basis” “in order to protect the public from the consequences of reckless driving on a highway or in an off-street parking facility and exhibitions of speed on a highway at the earliest possible time.” 

Because the bill is being moved on an expedited urgency basis, a two-thirds vote is required for passage in both the Senate and the Assembly. 

On Tuesday, OPD Captain David Kozicki, who oversaw Oakland’s sideshow crackdown for most of its years, told Senate Public Safety Committee members that the renewal of the law was necessary as a deterrent. “The law hasn’t been used that much in Oakland,” Kozicki said. “Maybe 25 times since it was passed. But people know that the law is there, and that stops many of them from participating in sideshows in Oakland.” While Kozicki said that the sideshow problem “hasn’t been significant in Oakland lately,” he cited an incident a week ago in Oakland where he witnessed a driver “spinning his car in the intersection of Foothill and Seminary while he was standing on the running board steering and the passenger was stepping on the gas. A small group of people were on the sidewalk, watching.” Kozicki said that the van had already been impounded by Oakland police a week before that, but police could not hold the vehicle because the sideshow car seizure law had expired. “We could have taken the vehicle off the street if the law had been in effect,” Kozicki said. 

Jennifer Thompson, who said she was appearing on behalf of the administration of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, said in a brief, one-line statement that Dellums supported SB67 “because he believes it has a great deterrent effect.” 

Also speaking in behalf of Perata’s SB67 was 2002 Skyline High School graduate Sean Conner, former student body president at Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, who said that although he was away at college he was aware of the sideshow problem in Oakland, linking sideshows to drug use and sexual assaults. “Homicides have resulted, as well.” 

Oakland City Council Public Safety Chairperson Larry Reid, a vocal opponent of sideshows and a supporter of Perata’s original 2002 bill, was represented at the hearing by his chief of staff, who read a letter from Reid urging senators to pass the renewal bill. 

The bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it is scheduled for an April 16 hearing. If passed, the bill will go to the full Senate and then to the Assembly

NEW YORK—The recent scandal involving the firing of eight U.S. attorneys by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has yielded mostly silence from the country’s pre-eminent Latino organizations. 

Gonzales is the first Latino Attorney General in U.S. history and many of those same Latino organizations heavily endorsed him when he was up for confirmation. 

The silence among the mostly Washington, D.C.-based organizations contrasts strikingly with testimony in Senate hearings, press conferences and other public statements in support of Gonzales when he was nominated by President Bush in 2005. 

“We have not taken a public position on the firing controversy,” said Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the Office of Public Information at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latino advocacy group in the country.  

But during his confirmation hearings, NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía wrote in a letter to then Senate Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter: “Not only is Judge Gonzales a compelling American success story, it is also clear that few candidates for this post have been as well qualified.” 

During the same hearing, Ray Velarde, then national legal advisor to the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the oldest Latino civil rights organizations in the country, stated that, “there is no question that he (Gonzales) is as eminently qualified, balanced and principled a nominee as the Senate is likely to see.” 

But when contacted this week, Lizette Olmos, communications director with the League said that her organization had, “not taken a position on the [controversy], but will discuss it at a board meeting.”  

Dallin Lykins, communications specialist with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than two million Latino-owned businesses in the United States, said, “At this time we really don’t have comments to make about that issue.”  

During his confirmation hearings, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s then-president and CEO, Armando Ojeda, praised Gonzales as an “inspirational example of what is possible to achieve in this great country.”  

During the recent controversy, the Chamber released a statement asking Congress not to rush to the judgment of Gonzales, praising him for “his patriotic and devout service to justice, legal equality and the administration of our laws.” Calls to the Latino Coalition, a conservative Latino civil rights organization, went without response as did calls to the National Hispanic Bar Association. 

The silence on the part of major Latino organizations with regard to Gonzales’ scandal is a “sad comment on national Latino leadership,” says Antonio Gonzalez, President of the William C. Velásquez Institute, a research and public policy organization focusing on Latino leadership.  

The Institute has come out in support of further investigation into the recent allegations around the firing of the prosecutors. “We have to have a standard that applies to Latinos and non-Latinos, one that’s rooted in ideals like constitutionality, justice, equality and freedom. If, in fact, these allegations are true, then he needs to resign,” says Gonzalez, whose organization remained neutral on the Attorney General nomination because of “concerns about the allegations involving the (legal) facilitation of torture.”  

The one national Latino organization that didn’t support Alberto Gonzales before or after the current controversy, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was unavailable for official response. 

“We can’t just celebrate the good times,” Gonzalez says. “We also have to be willing to speak when things are bad.” Despite the lack of response from Latino leaders around the calls for the Attorney General’s resignation, Gonzalez of the Velázquez Institute believes that it’s not too late. “I call on my colleagues to take a position. They need to take their heads out of the sand. I’m confident that they eventually will.”

There is a special force that appears from time to time and steers imminent harm or danger away from me, like a proverbial guardian angel. I’ve never seen this force, and I cannot count on it coming, but it has happened too often for me to ignore it.  

Even though some people imagine that the force is visible—with embroidered wings and a soft touch—I can only see its presence in the effect it has. The force seems to reveal itself at the moment it acts, and then it instantly disappears. It’s certainly tempting to attribute it to magic or supernatural powers.  

Many cultures and religious traditions have their own “savior,” which can serve as defender, protector, guide. In German folklore, the mountain spirit Rübezahl keeps children lost in the woods safe from harm. Robin Hood, Zorro, and the Lone Ranger represent such a protective being, though not a supernatural one. Caped superheroes serve a similar function in popular culture, along with teenaged wizards. Today’s larger-than-life wizards—high profile, high tech, and comfortable with high finance—may appear as Bill and Melinda Gates or Oprah. Other “angels,” from Doctors without Borders to rescue dogs, wear any sort of attire. 

Biblical stories are replete with the notion of angels. It seems that in the distant past the Lord made appearances and discussed things with humans, much more frequently than is now the case. The child Moses was tested by Pharaoh’s magicians. His life was spared when he chose red hot coals over gold—guided, so the story goes, by a guardian angel. When Abraham was ordered by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, an angel intervened. And there are plenty of stories where a religious symbol protects the wearer from a bullet or some other assault, thereby contributing to a supernatural expectation.  

Many of us have had health scares that we’ve managed to survive (until, of course, we don’t). Some of us have had frightening experiences while flying. Most of us have also had at least one close call when driving. Once I was riding in a car when the driver dozed off just before a sharp curve in the Berkeley hills. I felt the wheels losing ground, and we faced the prospect of a freefall into a deep ravine. Suddenly the driver woke up, in time to sharply turn the wheel. We seemed to float over the canyon for a moment and then all the wheels hit the ground. To me it was clear that an extraordinary force—a guardian angel, if you will—prompted the driver to make the correction when it was critical.  

As a child growing up in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains during World War II, I was personally rescued on more than one occasion. Because of the resourcefulness of my mother, we arrived five minutes late for the transport that was to take us to the concentration camp. The German officer in charge of the train depot was apparently so indignant we were late that he forbade us to board the train. He ordered us to pay the Romanian bus driver for gasoline and to ride the same bus home. 

Near the end of the war, neighbors gathered in a cellar hideout, justifiably fearful. We sat there in total darkness silently clutching our belongings and each other. Heavy boots approached. The trap door to the basement opened. Two German soldiers in combat uniform, holding submachine guns and flashlights, came down the steps. They were very young with pale pink cheeks. I sensed a catastrophe only a trigger finger away. Even the babies seemed to know the danger and kept quiet. The soldiers could easily have shot us all, and it would have been just another nameless incident, but they pushed the trap door open and left. No one said a word until first light when, dazed, we all climbed out of the cellar.  

I have not forgotten those two young soldiers, and I will never know exactly what happened that night, why we survived.  

Some might say that a supernatural entity comes to the rescue. A more mundane explanation is the well-known fight-or-flight response. When something threatens or attacks, we call forth a strength, a certain agility that we didn’t know we possessed—and don’t, except in an emergency. Every muscle, every function of the body is mobilized and synchronized, and we’re capable of feats unimaginable without that added thrust. We can reach a little higher, run a little faster, shout a little louder than we had previously thought possible.  

It may be more satisfying to have been rescued by a special being with ornate wings than to be saved through a physiological process. But whether we are rescued as a result of prayer or meditation, by intense psychic concentration, purely by chance, or by mustering all our resources, it is reassuring to know that we possess a power that can be called forth to provide a protective shield, defy the odds, do the “impossible.”  

I myself have benefited from the actions of a “guardian angel” more than my share, and for that I am grateful. When any of us has a close call and then gets a reprieve, it compels at least a moment of thankfulness, an assessment of priorities, a peek into our “soul.”

Six hundred and eighty six students were represented on the walls of the Berkeley Arts Center (BAC) Wednesday as part of the Berkeley Unified School District’s annual Youth Arts Festival. 

Running through April 15, the visual arts exhibit showcases budding talent from all eleven Berkeley public schools to celebrate the 7th Alameda County March isArts Education month. 

“It’s a way of reminding the community that arts is education,” said Suzanne McCulloch, program supervisor, visual and performing arts for BUSD. 

“The festival is really important for students. They actually get to see their work up on the walls of a museum. How empowering is that!” she told the Planet excitedly. 

The opening reception at Live Oak Park drew more than nine hundred children and their families who had come to compare, admire or just take a look at the range of creativity. 

“The children could see the changes in the drawings in the different grades. Kindergarten paintings were more traditional and made from cut paper or crayons. The older kids had more photography, because that’s something they learn at the high school level,” said McCulloch. 

Chalk renderings by students of Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) and Cragmont Elementary School were among the most admired artwork. 

“I think one of the great things about the exhibit is that it is public. It gives people in the Berkeley community a chance to come and see what Berkeley Unified kids are doing,” said BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan. 

“People often hesitate to visit school sites. This collaborative effort between the Berkeley Arts Center and the school arts community reaches a broad spectrum of people. Also, the kids love the fact that their art is being shown in a public forum.” 

The Berkeley Arts Center has been hosting the event for the last fifteen years, said BAC Executive Director Jill Berk Jiminez, who took over from Robben Henderson recently. 

A San Francisco native, Jiminez has been a museum curator for the last decade, most recently at the Tampa Museum of Art. 

“It’s just fabulous, inspiring and beautiful to see the range of work the students put up and the world through their eyes,” said Jiminez. 

“The 250 pieces help us to know what is going on in their mind. Science and studies have shown us how important art is. But more importantly, art is an outlet for children, especially since everything around us today is a received image. We really believe in the power of art. We want to support public school children and give them a form to shape their work and express themselves.” 

After schools were informed about the March exhibit in January, art teachers selected the displays and hung them up on the walls themselves. 

“The most exciting part was to highlight art which is getting squished out from academics,” said Barbara Vogel, art teacher with John Muir Elementary School, who worked with regular students as well as two of the hearing impaired classrooms for the project. 

“We selected from art that was done throughout the school year in a balanced way,” she said. 

Funding for the visual arts exhibit comes from the City of Berkeley. Apart from the exhibit, BAC will also be hosting the Berkeley High School concert band, a poetry workshop and a youth concert on April 1, 5 and 8 respectively. 

Music 

A thousand people gathered in the Berkeley Community Theater Sunday to hear the results of a strong music education in the Berkeley schools. The Performing Arts Showcase—also part of the Youth Arts Festival—gave parents and community members a chance to see all levels of student performance in one afternoon. 

“If you have younger students, this is a chance to see all that awaits them in our middle and high schools, and if your children are older, this is a great way to look back at your own wonderful memories,” said Coplan. 

Performances by the chorus, orchestra and jazz bands from the different schools entertained the audience throughout the day with pieces as varied as Tchaikovsky’s Opus. 48 (string serenade) and Mark Williams’ “Fiddles on Fire.” 

Sponsored by the BUSD music department, the event allowed advanced school students from each grade level to perform together. 

“I think the teachers are all doing a wonderful job of guiding students and helping them hone their skills,” said McCulloch. “The one thing I would like to see at Berkeley High is a choral music program. They have chorus at the elementary and middle school levels and it would be great if students got to continue that in high school.” 

On Wednesday, March 21 the Richmond City Council voted 8-1 to have Mayor Gayle McLaughlin ask the California State Lands Commission (SLC) to require Chevron to allow San Francisco Bay Trail access to land on the south side of the I-580 corridor near its Richmond refinery.  

The trail, begun in 1987, now has acquired more than 260 miles of the 500 miles needed to allow bicyclists and pedestrians to circle the bay without competition from automobiles. The Chevron property would add a vital Richmond link, crossing I-580 at Point Richmond near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.  

Chevron has used homeland security considerations as its excuse for not following through with a trail completion plan recommended in a 2001 feasibilty study. 

With the recent completion of the last addendum to an environmental impact report (EIR) from the Chambers Group of Irvine, the SLC is set to review the renewal of the company’s latest 30-year lease on tidal lands beneath the Chevron Long Wharf.  

Councilmember Tom Butt said he moved the council resolution “to put Richmond on the record as supporting a Bay Trail right of way as a condition of the lease’s renewal.” 

The city has long had what former Richmond mayor Rosemary Corbin has called “a complicated relationship” with Chevron, which provides more than 1,200 jobs at the 2,900-acre refinery. 

Chevron established the Richmond refinery in 1901 and built the Long Wharf in 1902 on submerged tidal lands that belong to the state, though the wharf is off-limits to the public. The Lands Commission has leased the property to Chevron since 1947. 

Tankers at the Long Wharf unload crude oil and feedstock chemicals that travel through pipelines into the refinery. Finished products—gasoline, jet, and diesel fuels and lubricating oils—are piped back out to ships. The Richmond plant has the capacity to refine up to 240,000 barrels of crude oil per day, said Chevron communications specialist Camille Priselac. 

Priselac confirmed on Monday that Chevron paid for preparation of the Long Wharf EIR, but she said that the SLC chose the Chambers Group which prepared the report. 

To the dismay of the Richmond City Council and Bay Trail supporters, the EIR concluded that the SLC cannot require Chevron to allow the Bay Trail to cross its property as a mitigation of the Long Wharf’s environment impact because the proposed trail routes lie outside the Long Wharf area. 

So for the moment, only hope connects the Long Wharf and the Bay Trail. 

The San Francisco Bay Trail was authorized by state law in 1987 to create a 500-mile route around San Francisco and San Pablo bays, going through nine counties and 47 cities. The trail provides hikers, bikers, and others with recreation opportunities and alternative routes for avoiding car traffic. By the end of 2006, more than 260 miles of the trail were complete. 

Richmond contains 24 miles of completed trail, with 17 miles still in the works. Public agencies, businesses, environmental groups and residents are working to close the gap. 

Some of the Richmond shoreline, inland from the submerged tidelands where Chevron’s Long Wharf is located, is part of a proposed Bay Trail spur from Point Richmond on the south side of I-580 to Western Drive north of the freeway. The spur would continue up the San Pablo peninsula to Castro Point, Point Molate, and the Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor. 

Existing Caltrans bike trails that cross the freeway near the Richmond-San Rafael bridge are far from ideal for a family outing. 

One trail allows cyclists to travel west from Point Richmond’s Castro and Tewksbury streets to Western Drive north of the bridge, but cyclists must ride part-way on the freeway shoulder. 

Bicyclists Dan Weinstein and Dan Doellstedt were riding on that shoulder when a car going 65 miles per hour plowed into them in September 2006. Weinstein died, and Doellstedt suffered a severe spinal injury. 

Another Caltrains bike trail runs under the bridge just west of the toll plaza, connecting the freeway’s north and south sides. 

Bruce Beyaert, steering committee chair of the Trails for Richmond Action Committee (TRAC), is passionate about closing the 17-mile gap in Richmond’s Bay Trail. Beyaert was a Chevron employee for 33 years, holding jobs that included working as worldwide environmental planning manager, and retired from Chevron in 1992. 

According to Beyaert, “Six years ago, Chevron was very cooperative and co-funded with the city a feasibility study to plan Bay Trail access to Point Molate. Now they disavow the study and refuse to cooperate.… They dug in their heels, and they’re hiding under the skirts of homeland security.” 

Beyaert is skeptical of the homeland security argument. 

He cited numbers from a Caltrans study of average daily traffic in 2005 at the bridge’s toll plaza. “We’re adding bikes and pedestrians alongside a freeway corridor with 77,000 vehicles going by, and Chevron’s saying that pedestrians and cyclists pose a grave risk to the refinery’s security. We don’t see it that way. It’s only an incremental contribution compared to 77,000 vehicles. It’s insignificant. 

“If al Qaeda comes to shoot a rocket launcher at Chevron’s Long Wharf and its pipeline,” said Beyaert, “it’ll more likely come on a panel truck than a bicycle.” 

The 2001 feasibility study identified four options for creating Bay Trail access between downtown Point Richmond and Western Drive north of I-580. Beyaert suggested that if Chevron is concerned about security, it could build Bay Trail access on its property and simply install security measures to protect the refinery.  

Priselac of Chevron said on Monday that “we continue to advocate for the trail on the north side of the freeway for safety and security reasons, and we’re happy to work with the Bay Trail and others to come to a conclusion that helps us with our safety and security.” 

Councilmember Tom Butt seemed dubious: “In 2001, Chevron objected stridently to having the trail on the north side of 580, and they agreed that the south side was the right place for it. The costs and impediments to putting the trail on the north side are considerable, but quite frankly, as long as Chevron is willing to pay for it and put it in, we won’t object.” 

Asked why Chevron preferred a southside route in the 2001 study but now prefers a northside route, Priselac said, “The discussions in 2001 were prior to 9/11, and since 9/11, the refinery’s had to comply with new safety and security regulations that we’re following from the U.S. Coast Guard. So we’re advocating for the north side of the freeway, which is already the established access.” 

Priselac explained that both the south and north routes would travel over Chevron pipes, but the southside route would “come onto the refinery property and go through an operating area.” Chevron wants to work on improving the existing Caltrans access. 

What does the Richmond City Council want from the SLC?  

Councilmember Tom Butt explained it this way: “We’re looking at the possibility of two potential actions from the SLC. They can make the right of way a mitigation requirement under the EIR, but both Chevron and the SLC’s in-house legal counsel have said that this is not possible. 

“Or the SLC can simply make the Bay Trail right of way a part of the lease. In return for leasing public lands to Chevron, the state would ask for whatever amount of money, whether $1 per year or more, plus [asking Chevron to] dedicate part of the land to public use as the Bay Trail.” This solution is the one he thinks might work. 

In a March 11 e-mail update to constituents, he encouraged locals to support Richmond by writing to California SLC members lieutenant governor John Garamendi, state controller John Chiang, and finance director Michael C. Genest to ask them to make sure the Bay Trail route is built into the renewed Chevron Long Wharf lease. 

To read about Chevron’s Richmond refinery, go to www.chevron.com/products/about/richmond. 

To read the Chambers Group EIR, see the State Lands Commission website at www.slc.ca.gov/Misc_Pages/Project_Updates_Home_Page.html. 

To learn more about the Bay Trail in Richmond, see TRAC’s Web site at www.pointrichmond.com/baytrail/trail.htm. 

To read Councilmember Tom Butt’s March 11 comments on the Chevron Long Wharf EIR, go to www.tombutt.com/forum/2007/070311.htm. 

A four-story condominium-over-retail complex may soon be rising at the corner of two of Berkeley’s busiest streets. 

That’s the hope of veteran Berkeley developer Ali Kashani and a San Francisco firm who have launched a joint plan to build a four-story building on a three-quarter-acre lot at the southeast corner of San Pablo and Ashby avenues. 

The building as currently conceived will feature up to 100 condos built over ground floor commercial space on a 34,200-square-foot lot. 

“We just closed escrow,” Kashani said Monday. 

The founder of Berkeley’s non-profit Affordable Housing Associates and now a commercial developer, Kashani has teamed with Rawson, Blum and Leon (RBL) of San Francisco. 

Kashani said the developers waited for two years while Shell Oil cleaned up the site from contamination caused by leaking tanks during the property’s earlier incarnation as a gasoline station. 

“We didn’t start until we had an agreement from Shell that they would clean up the site and agree to clean up anything that might be found in the future,” Kashani said. 

With the site clean and escrow closed, the next stage is hiring an architect and figuring out exactly how many units will go into the building. 

Berkeley architect Kava Massih “has done some studies that show the site could handle a hundred units, but we don’t know yet what the final number will be,” he said, but Massih has not been formally hired to design the project. 

“We’re a little behind on getting the design done, and we will hire an architect soon. Our hope is to get the design started in the next two to three weeks, and then develop some preliminary designs and massing studies we can show to the public two months after that.” 

One major incentive for rapid movement are the high carrying costs for holding undeveloped land, he said. 

The site is currently zoned West Berkeley Commercial, which would allow for a four-story, 50-foot-high building, Kashani said. 

Another consideration in design is the fate of the city’s density bonus ordinance, which is now undergoing revisions. But as currently planned, one-fifth of the condos will be made available at reduced rates affordable to buyers who make up to 120 percent of the area median income, Kashani said. 

RBL owns a half-billion in projects, located mostly on the West Coast, and Kashani’s Oakland-based Memar Properties is a growing force in the East Bay development scene. 

According to an RBL press release, the project will feature 100 condominiums built atop a ground floor base featuring 12,000 square feet of retail space, but Kashani stressed that those numbers weren’t final. 

Other condos 

The city will be also be getting another 53 condos, but not from new construction. 

Berkeley’s Planning and Development Department posted a list of 11 existing properties on its web site Monday identifying properties given preliminary approval for changing from rental to condominiums. 

The largest is a 12-unit building at 1901 Parker St. at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way, followed by a 9-unit property at 1200-1214 Spruce Street at the corner of Eunice Street. The others range in size from 2 to 6 units. 

Selection is just the first of three stages in the approval process under which the city can convert a total of 100 rental units to ownership status every year. 

After selection, owners must file forms to apply for zoning inspections to ensure the buildings comply with city zoning law, and once declared in conformance, the properties must then be approved for a new map that provides the legal groundwork for final conversion. 

On properties with four or fewer units, city planning staff can approve the maps, but properties with more units must be approved by a vote of the city Planning Commission. 

A complete list of the properties is posted on the web at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/planning/landuse/CondoConversion/default.html.

The decision by the administration of newly elected Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums to delay going forward with an Oakland Planning Commission staff plan to alter industrial zoning in portions of West Oakland is the result of a political climate shaped by lobbying from Oakland housing advocates and positions taken by Mayor Dellums’ Housing Task Force, as well as by long-term efforts of one of Dellums opponents in last year’s mayoral race, West Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel. 

And at the heart of the conflict is a proposed 13-acre redevelopment of industrial property on the corner of Mandela Parkway and West Grand. 

Last December, members of Just Cause Oakland, a local housing and jobs advocacy organization, sponsored a “gentrification bus tour” of West Oakland, in which top Dellums advisors and representatives of the local news media were invited to make stops at several West Oakland locations where tour organizers said low-income local residents were being pushed out in favor of higher-income newcomers. According to a Just Cause e-mail announcing the event, “the tour [was] meant to bring new decision-makers up to speed on the rapid changes under way in West Oakland and to highlight the crisis these changes are causing among low-income African-Americans and other members of the neighborhood.” 

One of the stops along the tour was the massive, abandoned, 102,000-square-foot Pacific Pipe Factory on Mandela Parkway near West Grand Avenue. 

Developers want to turn the Pacific Pipe Factory building, and the grounds of the adjacent 240,000-square-foot abandoned American Steel Building, into a 13.3-acre mixed use development. Under the name Mandela Grand Mixed-Use Project, the development proposes “a mixed-use/mixed-occupancy project that would contain a residential, custom industrial/commercial, light industrial, and retail commercial activities in a cluster of buildings on the project site,” according to the report from the Planning and Zoning Services Division of Oakland’s Community and Economic Development Agency. The project proposes light industrial uses on the first two floors of the proposed eight buildings, with 1,600 high-density residential units rising above it, among them three 300-foot residential towers. 

According to the city staff report, the project proposes “custom industrial and public access commercial uses in all ground floor spaces that would be suitable for retail, light industrial/commercial uses, custom manufacturing, artisan activities, support industries, and similar enterprises.” For the existing Pacific Pipe Building, city staff said, the project intends to develop “retail facilities such as food services, boutique shops, indoor markets, and neighborhood-serving offices on a mezzanine level.” 

Architect for the project is Hannum Associates of San Francisco. 

The project is scheduled to be built in four phases over approximately 15 years, with completion contemplated for 2022. 

But to build the project, the developers would need changes to Oakland’s zoning to allow a mixed-use project on a site that is currently zoned for industrial use. 

It was these proposed changes that were at the heart of the Planning Division staff report that was pulled from consideration by the Planning Commission subcommittee meeting last week. 

Under a timeline published by the city staff members last January, the Mandela project was scheduled for a final environmental impact report to be published in April, public hearings before the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board, the Planning Commission, and the West Oakland Project Area Committee in April and May, and hearings on both the project and the proposed zoning changes before the City Council in June and July. It is not certain how the withdrawal of the zoning change recommendation will now affect that timetable. 

Last December, Councilmember Nadel told a crowd gathered at the Just Cause tour stop at Pacific Pipe Building site that she considered the proposed development “a problem of incompatible mixed use. Mandela Parkway is being transformed in a way that is driving out long-term residents. Most of the existing residents don’t have the capital to buy the live-work spaces that are being proposed, or to set up small businesses in the spaces that are being offered.” Nadel also criticized the developers for “not being committed to any affordable housing” in the Mandela Grand Project. 

Among the listeners was former World Bank senior economist Dan Lindheim, then working on Dellums’ transition team, now serving as his budget director. Lindheim also monitored the discussion and presentations at last week’s Planning Commission subcommittee meeting where the new zoning proposals were to be presented. 

Nadel reiterated her concerns in a telephone interview earlier this month. 

“To be a healthy city, you should have a range of available development options,” Nadel said. “But Oakland only has 3 percent of our land left that is designated for industrial use in the General Plan.” Saying that was “not nearly enough,” Nadel said that the erosion of industrial land in a city that was once known for its industrial jobs threatens to “turn us into a bedroom community for San Francisco. We don’t want to be that.” 

Nadel said that it is a common belief that the manufacturing industry is dead in the United States, “but that is not true.” She named a number of growing manufacturing industries that would be desirable for Oakland, including biomedical supplies, the production of “high-end food products” such as chocolates, health food, and expensive bread, and the manufacture of solar panels and wind-turban machines. “West Oakland in particular has the large sites available that these industries need,” she said. “We need to preserve them.” 

The preservation of Oakland’s industrial land was one of the most popular issues considered by Dellums’ Housing Task Force, with task force members voting 19 to nothing (7 members abstaining) to recommend that the Dellums Administration “develop and review an industrial land conversion policy to prioritize industrial retention and prioritize rezoned industrial to residential land for affordable housing.” 

The Housing Task Force’s industrial zoning report focused specifically on the area surrounding and including the Pacific Pipe Building and American Steel Building, proposing that the city “prohibit conversions of land in the Mandela Parkway and San Leandro corridors other than in exceptional circumstances in order to ensure that Oakland retains enough industrial land to provide badly needed jobs in those areas.” 

The Task Force recommended that the city protect industrial sites that either contain existing businesses or have “high potential” for attracting such businesses, and that conversion to residential use should be allowed only if light industrial uses compatible with housing are preserved, and at least 25 percent housing is available in the conversion for low-to-extremely-low income residents. 

The staff-proposed West Oakland industrial zoning changes that were withdrawn last week included references to the industrial zoning recommendations from the Dellums Housing Task Force report, including the section concerning Mandela Parkway. 

But the Planning Division staff added that “staff believes that the proposed land use strategy for Sub-Area 16 [of West Oakland] is not in conflict with [the Housing Task Force] guidelines. Residential land uses are not replacing industrial land uses, nor is industrial land being converted to residential uses.” The staff report said that what it was proposing was consistent with the Task Force recommendation that conversion of industrial to residential be permitted if it retains residential-compatible light industry. 

But during testimony before the Zoning Update Committee last week, Housing Task Force member Andre Spearman, who served as Dellums’ campaign manager last year, accused the staff of “cherrypicking” the task force’s report to support an industrial zoning change that the task force itself did not support. 

“The staff report left out our primary recommendations and just picked up what sounded convenient,” Spearman said. Saying that the proposed zoning change would primarily benefit “one large developer,” Spearman said that “we have to look at who is driving this issue? Who is moving it?” 

While David Stoloff is out as Planning Commission chair, there’s no successor yet—despite the group’s election earlier this month. 

That’s the ruling from Berkeley City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, who said the election was void because it violated noticing provisions of the Brown Act, which governs meetings of public bodies. 

That means James Samuels is still vice chair, and not chair—despite the vote March 14. 

Albuquerque’s ruling affirms objections raised the night of the vote by members of the commission’s minority faction, who said that the agenda failed to provide the legally mandated notice. 

Stoloff—elected chair in a controversial election less than two months ago—quit after sharp criticism for the way the election came about. 

Albuquerque said his attempt to get the commission to accept vice-chair James Samuels as his automatic successor was invalid, despite the backing of city Planning Manager Mark Rhoades. 

Albuquerque said Samuels would preside at the start of Wednesday night’s meeting until there is an election of officers and a successor to Stoloff is voted into office.  

Wednesday night’s vote will be the commission’s third election of a leader in less than six weeks, probably a record. 

There’s little doubt the results will be the same—Samuels as chair and Larry Gurley as vice-chair—given the clear-cut divisions that have marked crucial commission votes. 

Stoloff was elected chair Feb. 14, defeating incumbent Helen Burke on a five-four vote. In recent years, chairs have been elected to two successive one-year terms, but Burke served only one and had expected re-election as a matter of course. 

The day following her surprise ouster, Burke, an environmental activist, charged that Stoloff had lied to her and said he supported her re-election. While he denied telling an outright lie, Stoloff said he allowed Burke to have “a misunderstanding which I did not correct.” 

Stoloff said, “I wanted to be chair because I have a vision of what the Planning Commission can do and I believe I can be the most effective in implementing it.”  

Even Mayor Tom Bates was blind-sided by the election, said his chief of staff, Cisco DeVries, the day after the election. 

Vote challenged 

The only hint of what was coming at the March 14 commission meeting was the single item listed under the heading of Chairperson’s Report, “Reconsideration of election of Commission officers.” 

Announcing his resignation at that session, Stoloff said, “I believe I can be more effective as a member than as one of its officers. I resign effective at the end of the meeting. I expect that Jim Samuels will become chair.” 

Two members of the commission minority immediately raised challenges. 

“Because this is agendized as a reconsideration, is it appropriate to hold an election without public notice?” asked Mike Sheen, a member of the minority. 

“Because it’s an internal matter, it needs no more notice,” Stoloff replied. 

“As I understand it, David is resigning,” said Gene Poschman, another member of the minority. “I am confused that Jim Samuels automatically takes over as chair. As I read the commissioners’ handbook, the chair and vice chair have to be elected. There is no succession.” 

“Resignation is not covered in the handbook, so Roberts Rules [of Order] prevails with the vice chair taking over,” Stoloff replied. 

“Staff believe the language is appropriate and plain on its face,” said city Planning Manager Mark Rhoades, who backed Stoloff’s contention that because a resignation and replacement weren’t covered by the city’s commission manual, Roberts Rules prevailed. 

Harry Pollack, a member of the majority, then moved for an election “to avoid ambiguity.” 

“I said I expect Jim Samuels as vice chair to become chair,” Stoloff said. 

Sheen made a substitute motion, calling for a publicly noticed election for chair and vice chair “in the interest of good government.” 

Poschman seconded, but the motion failed. 

Then came a motion to “confirm” Samuels as chair, which passed on a six-three vote. 

Two candidates were then nominated for vice-chair, Gurley and Sheen, with Gurley winning five-four. Roia Ferrazares, who voted with the majority to confirm Samuels, had nominated Sheen and cast her vote with the minority. 

But following questions from Sheen, Albuquerque intervened, and the result is carried as item five on the agenda for Wednesday night’s meeting under the heading Chairperson’s Report. 

Members are being asked to vacate the March 14 election and conduct new elections “of chair and possibly vice chair if cice chair is elected chair...” 

The reason? As the next paragraph makes clear, “The city attorney has advised that the agenda description...was unclear because it failed to advise of the chair’s resignation and the need to conduct a new election.” 

Albuquerque “advised the Commission” to void the earlier election and conduct new nominations and elections. 

“The chair and vice chair have to be elected,” said Albuquerque Monday afternoon. “No one automatically assumes office.” 

Because the earlier vote was only mentioned obliquely as a reconsideration of the election and not as a resignation and new election, the Brown Act required that results of the earlier vote had to be vacated. 

Other business  

The only other significant items on Wednesday’s agenda are a hearing on zoning amendments for Telegraph Avenue to change business hours and the size and nature of commercial uses . 

The changes will allow businesses to remain open longer, allow subdivision of existing commercial spaces into smaller units and allow some changes in the number and types of businesses permitted in the avenue’s commercial district. 

Commissioners will also weigh in with their comments on the mandatory quotas for new residential unit permits for Berkeley outlined in the Association of Bay Area Government’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment. 

The quotas are one of the driving forces behind the city staff’s “hypothetical” proposal to consider adding 3,000 new units downtown now being considered by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. 

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

With screaming pink banners and a clear message demanding an end to the war in Iraq, from three to 50 Code Pink women and their supporters could be found over the past two weeks camped out in Pacific Heights in front of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s home. 

“People were feeling a need to express their frustration,” Bay Area Code Pink spokesperson Cynthia Papermaster told the Daily Planet, speaking by phone from her Berkeley home on Monday morning. “We’ve been betrayed by the Democratic Party.” 

While the daily vigil in front of Pelosi’s house has ended, protesters will return on weekends until Pelosi meets with the group, Papermaster said. 

Pelosi’s push to get the House Democrats to pass the $100 billion supplemental war-spending package infuriated these activists. “That’s giving Bush exactly what he wants,” Papermaster said, contending that by using a “signing statement”—through which the president rejects parts of bills passed by Congress—Bush can justify ignoring the timetable for troop withdrawal. 

Code Pink is at www.bayareacodepink.org. 

Stiff penalties for Iraq protesters 

While Camp Pelosi protesters were able to avoid arrest, Berkeley resident Sally Hindman has been arrested four times with other members of a religious coalition when they have blocked San Francisco Federal Building doors during their monthly protest. 

“I feel very strongly [against the war in Iraq] out of my Quaker faith,” Hindman said, noting the hundreds of thousands who have been killed, injured and maimed. “I feel like I have to make a statement with my body.” 

The prosecution in federal court in San Francisco, however, has also made a statement. While people committing civil disobedience are usually given the choice of paying a fine or doing community service if they plead guilty without trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Owens has disallowed community service, said Hindman, who has collected four $125 tickets.  

“They’re trying to discourage protests,” says the group’s attorney Dennis Cunningham, famous for representing protesters at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and more recently, Earth First activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their civil rights suit against the FBI.  

The cases of the arrestees, among whom are Carolyn Scarr of Berkeley and Fr. Louis Vitale of San Francisco, may end up in court, Cunningham said.  

The next San Francisco “die-in” to protest the war will be April 5 at the San Francisco Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Ave. 

Barbara Lee votes against war spending 

Rep. Barbara Lee, Berkeley-Oakland, voted Friday against the billion dollar spending bill to fund the war in Iraq, passed by her Democratic colleagues at the insistence of Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Also opposing the bill were Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Diane Watson, Los Angeles, Lynn Woolsey, Petaluma, Dennis Kucinich, Ohio, John Lewis, Georgia, Mike Michaud, Maine and Michael McNulty of New York. Two Republicans, Ron Paul of Texas and John Duncan of Tennessee also opposed the bill. 

“As someone who opposed this war from the beginning, I have voted against every single penny for this war and found myself today in the difficult position of having to choose between voting against funding for the war or for establishing timelines to end it,” Lee said in a written statement. 

“While as a matter of conscience I cast my vote against the funding, I hope that the passage of this bill marks the beginning of the end of the Iraq war, but the real fight still lies ahead.” 

The Berkeley Board of Education will vote on Wednesday on hiring an architect to design the Berkeley Unified School District’s pre-kindergarten projects. 

BUSD currently has three pre-kindergartens—located at King Child Development Center (CDC), Hopkins CDC and Franklin Para Nursery on Fourth Street—which need to be remodeled, said school district spokesperson Mark Coplan. 

“The design team will help to modernize the schools and bring them up to date with the current pre-school model,” he said. 

The board will also approve advertisements to solicit bids for the King dining equipment; modernization of the King Gym; heating, ventilation and air conditioning at Oxford and Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) Elementary schools and Jefferson kitchen phase II. 

The King Gym modernization project is part of BUSD’s Long Range Development Plan. The campus itself was recently remodeled for $20 million. 

Grade 6 elimination at BAM 

The board will vote on eliminating grade six from Berkeley Arts Magnet. At the March 16 school board meeting, the board discussed in detail the possibility of an elimination. BAM is the only elementary school in the district which offers a sixth grade. 

Although 50 students are enrolled in fifth grade at BAM, only six have requested to stay at BAM for the sixth grade. 

Peanut Policy 

The board will also hear the policy on allergies to peanuts. Currently, BUSD does not serve peanuts in its food, said Coplan. 

“Berkeley High might be an exception, but even then the nuts are identified. Children in high school are more aware of what they are allergic to than at the elementary or middle school levels.” The new policy, he said, would enforce the practice of not serving peanuts at the elementary school level and identifying food items that include peanuts at the high school level. 

Grant approval 

The board will approve the Adult Education Grant which consists of the Workforce Investment Act, Adult Education and Family Literacy funds. They will also approve the participation in the NSF Grant on Teaching Energy in grade 4-8 Science, the 21st Century Grants—which provide funds for after-school programs—and the Neil Soto Grant which provides funds for parent/teacher involvement. 

Public hearing on deferred Maintenance Plan 

The board will hold a public hearing on the Five-Year Deferred Maintenance Plan. It will then vote on approving the plan in order to be eligible for deferred maintenance funds from the state. 

Re-enrollment 

The board will also hear a proposal to re-enroll students in grades 6 and 9. BUSD has been working to enforce a valid registration system that will keep out-of-district students from registering as Berkeley residents illegally. 

Coplan said that proof of residence at grades six and nine would be a good way of verifying whether a student lived in Berkeley or in another city. 

Contract extension 

BUSD will approve the extension of the contract with the firm Vavrinke, Trine, Day & Co. to provide independent audit services for the BUSD for Fiscal Years 2006-07, 2007-08, and 2008-09. 

There’s a contradiction often built into the job of public official—one I’ve observed over some 15 years reporting on various local governments in the Bay Area. 

Elected officials—often dedicated folks without nefarious motives—may sprint straight ahead with a passion to move a project forward. But in their rush to get the job done, the official may trample on the citizens’ right to know what government is doing and their right to give input into the process. 

Last Tuesday, the City Council met in a 5 p.m. workshop with a group of “sunshine” advocates and experts to look at how Berkeley’s government can become more transparent than California’s open meeting and public records laws require. San Francisco, Oakland, Benicia, Riverside, Milpitas, and Contra Costa County have adopted “sunshine” laws. 

Panelists included Terry Francke, an attorney from Californians Aware who has advised cities on sunshine laws; Mark Schlosberg, police practices policy director with the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union, a Berkeley resident and former member of its Police Review Commission; Jinky Gardner president of the Berkeley-Emeryville-Albany League of Women Voters. I participated on the panel as the representative of the Freedom of Information Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California chapter. 

Panelists underscored the significant progress Berkeley has shown by having made a host of documents available on its website. Ironically, the draft sunshine law presented at Tuesday’s meeting and its earlier 23 iterations had not previously been accessible to the public. It can now be found on the city’s website by going to the March 20 special work session City Council agenda. Links to the draft are also on the Daily Planet website, along with a model San Jose ordinance—not yet adopted—and the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance.  

During discussion of the draft document, Councilmember Darryl Moore said city staff should have involved the council. “I’ve not been part of the discussion nor any of us here on the dais,” he said, noting the council first asked staff to begin work on a sunshine ordinance in 2001. “That bothers me and disturbs me greatly; it shouldn’t take six long years,” he said. 

On April 24, the council will discuss an expanded process for adopting a Berkeley sunshine law that would include input from both open government experts and the public. 

The panel, the council and 10 or so members of the public who commented at the workshop agreed the draft ordinance needs more work. Councilmember Kriss Worthington engaged in debate with the city attorney about whether all the issues raised in 2001 had been addressed in the draft, such as creating a time certain for public hearings, writing clear council and commission agendas, and how settlement agreements discussed in closed session were to be made public before council approval. 

A key concern of panelists and some members of the community was that the draft places the city manager in the position of responding to complaints about violations of the ordinance.  

While some said a commission should be set up to oversee the ordinance—with the League’s Gardner commenting that she never thought she’d advocate for one more commission—City Manager Phil Kamlarz said that such a commission would have no teeth unless the measure was put before the voters as a charter amendment, which was done in Oakland and San Francisco. 

“Those whose actions are in question cannot be deciding what is or is not public knowledge,” said Berkeley resident Peter Sussman, also a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Freedom of Information Committee. 

But Mayor Tom Bates disagreed, saying: “If you have a commission that’s only advisory, it seems like a waste of time.” 

Gardner elaborated: “When I say an advisory commission, I think you would listen. If none of the boards and commissions has final authority and you override them all, why do we have any of them?” 

While the draft ordinance says a member of the public can take an alleged violation of the ordinance to court, Schlosberg noted that the ordinance does not provide for a successful complainant’s attorney’s fees to be paid by the city if it loses, as they are in other cities. 

Schlosberg also addressed the city’s guidelines for release of police records. A problem he noted is that they include no provision for releasing records showing the type and frequency of the use of force.  

“Getting that kind of aggregate information allows us to look at whether there’s a pattern of a certain type of force being used in ways that may not be in conformance with the way the community would want such things to be used,” Schlosberg said, adding that another omission in the guidelines was that dispatch tapes should be released to show whether calls are handled properly.  

The Oakland League of Women Voters played a critical role in writing Oakland’s sunshine ordinance and Gardner promised the assistance of the League in the Berkeley process, particularly in bringing citizens together to give their input and, after the law is drafted, to write a handbook making the laws easily understandable to the citizens.  

“After all, the public is probably the biggest stakeholder,” Gardner said. 

Model Sunshine ordinance from SJ Mercury News: 

http://www.mercurynews.com/sunshinelaw/ci_5242267 

San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance 

http://www.cfac.org/content/sunshine/sf.php 

Draft 24 - Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance 

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/2007citycouncil/packet/032007/03-20wa.htm

Some 50 filmmakers, radio producers and writers renting studio space at the seven-story tower at Tenth and Parker streets hope that they will come away from the special City Council meeting tonight (Tuesday) with hope of minimal rent increases over six months or a year, rather than the significant increases the new landlord is demanding. 

There is a special council meeting tonight on the tenant-landlord situation at the tower best known as the Fantasy Building, slated to begin at 8:30 p.m. At the regular meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. the council will address a resolution supporting an open police complaint process, hear an appeal on a proposed five-story building at 2701 Shattuck Ave., listen to an update on the Oxford Plaza/David Brower Center and more. 

Filmmakers vs. landlord at council 

The situation at the West Berkeley property known as the Fantasy Building, as described by the tenants—mostly independent filmmakers who have rented space in the building for more than two decades—is that the new building owner, San Rafael-based Wareham Development, is jacking up the rents 40-to-100 percent, something tenants say they cannot afford.  

The proposed rent hikes are on top of rents raised about a year ago when the former owner was preparing to sell the building, tenants say. Current rents are about $3-to-$3.25 per square foot; the increase will bring rents to $4 per square foot and more. 

While tenants say the increase is unfair, bringing rents above other artist studio rents in the area, Tim Gallen, spokesperson for Wareham, says that is comparing apples to oranges.  

“Who in their right mind would treat this like any other office space?” Gallen wanted to know. There are two theaters in the space and the towers provide a view of the bay, he said.  

Robbins “doesn’t have a lot of latitude,” Gallen said. “We have to upgrade the theater if we want to attract people doing work for Hollywood people.” 

Reached by phone on Monday and asked to react to Gallen’s comments, filmmaker Rick Goldsmith, a tenant in the building, said that the small screening theaters are “absolutely adequate for my purposes as a working filmmaker.”  

Gallen’s statement shows that Wareham is looking for a different kind of tenant for the building, he said, people whose films “have nothing to do with the social issues that affect real people’s lives,” which are the documentaries that the artists at the building produce. 

In related developments, Mayor Tom Bates, Councilmember Darryl Moore, Susan Wengraf, aide to Councilmember Betty Moore and planning commissioner, and Calvin Fong, aide to the mayor, met with Robbins and Chris Barlow of Wareham Friday to discuss the leases, according to an e-mail from Fong. The meeting clarified certain portions of the leases, including parking, utility operation costs, supplementary property taxes, right to terminate the lease by the tenants, relocation within the project and security deposits, Fong said, noting that Wareham said they would put the clarifications in writing.  

Support for open police hearings 

In other matters, the council will discuss Councilmember Laurie Capitelli’s resolution to support AB1648, which would open the police complaint process, closed after the California Supreme Court said police personnel records could not be made public. The issue, on the March 13 consent calendar agenda—normally passed without discussion—was pulled for deliberation by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, after the Berkeley Police Association president asked the council not to support the bill. 

Oxford Plaza presentation 

Housing Director Steve Barton will make a presentation on the status of the Oxford Plaza/David Brower Center project proposed for Oxford Street and Allston Way, a complex project that includes low-income family housing, retail and office space for nonprofit environmental organizations. 

Also the council will decide whether to hear an appeal of a five-story 24-unit project the zoning board approved for 2701 Shattuck Ave. Neighbors say the development is too high and should be stepped down from neighboring residences. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington is asking the council to approve a resolution calling for the adoption of a Cesar Chavez National Holiday. 

Last week was designated the Week of Service by Berkeley High School’s (BHS) student government. It was created to give students the opportunity to give back to their community. Friday was another Red and Gold Day with the Barbecue Club and the Baking Club at lunch. The Barbecue Club is a group of BHS male seniors who cook really good barbecue. Everyone at BHS likes it. A newer addition is the Baking Club, a group of BHS female seniors who make baked goods. The money raised will go to support charities. For those of you who don’t know, Red and Gold Day has traditionally occurred sometime in October once every school year, where students dress up in their school colors and show school spirit. It is typically followed by a homecoming rally. 

Leadership decided to have another Red and Gold day, a decision that met mixed reviews, but without a rally. Some people liked the idea of another spirit day, but others thought it made the day less important by having it twice. 

Monday was school cleanup day. Students met after school to clean up the courtyard and the school’s buildings. Our school looks a little cleaner. Tuesday was Tutor Tuesday. Students went over to Washington Elementary School to tutor kids in a variety of subjects. This was a godsend to many BHS Honors Math students eager to complete their tutoring requirements by today (the end of the third quarter). Wednesday was hailed as Club Day. During lunch, more than 30 school clubs had tables in the courtyard advertising their respective clubs. Some clubs included Engineering Club, Junior Statesman of America, Key Club, Chess Club, among others. The day was wildly successful. Many clubs started or expanded their membership. Thursday was the Blood Drive. Kids who were at least seventeen were allowed to donate blood. While some people were skeptical, many offered to donate and give back to the community. 

I think that having another Red and Gold day was a great idea. Anything that brings us together as a school is good. Oftentimes many kids feel lost and unconnected to one another. After all, we have 3,200 kids at our school and that number is growing every day. People come to BHS because it's a great school. It has great kids, great classes (including many APs), great sports, et cetera. Events like the Week of Service bring all types of people together—the “parkies,” the goths, the punks, all the social groups united behind a common theme. 

Whenever there are community activities, it really is beneficial for us. With that, Happy Week of Service and thanks to everyone who participated. 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent apology for his country’s involvement in the abduction of thousands of Asian women for use as prostitutes during World War II has drawn a swift response from Asian Americans. The issue has been a point of tension between Japan and its neighbors for decades, and many here question Abe’s sincerity. 

Kai Ping Liu, editor at the Chinese-language the World Journal in San Francisco, says the apology is not enough. “Japan’s imperial forces killed more than 35 million Chinese over the course of eight years, atrocities that should never be forgotten.” He says if Japan is sincere in its regret, it should sponsor the construction of a memorial to the victims of Japanese aggression similar to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. 

Tae Soo Jung, editor at the Korean-language daily Korea Times in Oakland, questions the timing of Abe’s apology. He says it reflects Japan’s overwhelming concern with Western opinion and its disregard of the opinion of neighboring Asian countries. “Abe’s actions seem to be a gesture towards the West to avoid bad press there more than a sincere apology to Japan’s neighbors.” Like Liu, Jung says more needs to be done, including the payment of reparations and the revision of Japanese history textbooks that currently omit the country’s wartime past.  

Asian media in the United States has followed the issue closely, as many here have relatives who were affected by the war. Chinese and Korean media covered protests in Seoul and Taipei, where former South Korean and Chinese comfort women gathered at the Japanese embassy to denounce Abe’s earlier statements. In the United States, more than 70,000 Korean Americans signed a petition in support of a House bill calling for Abe to apologize for Japan’s wartime atrocities, according to the Korean-language Korea Daily. 

The non-binding resolution, sponsored by California Congressman Mike Honda, a Japanese American, urges the Japanese government to offer an official apology for the forced sexual enslavement of thousands of Asian women during WWII. In an interview with the Nichi Bei Times, Honda said it was important for Japan to reconcile with her neighbors. “Out of the 200,000 women victimized there are only about 300 left. Every day is a day that we lose an opportunity to get them an apology.” 

Harry Bang is a Korean American who has been working in conjunction with community groups in the Bay Area around the issue of comfort women. He says Abe’s apology might be a move to stop the resolution sponsored by Congressman Honda from passing. As far as what Japan must do now, Bang says Abe’s statements should be made official by the Japanese Parliament, which should then vote to pay compensation to the families of the victims.  

Seattle resident Chizu Omori, a columnist for Nichi Bei, said because most of the surviving victims are in their 80s and 90s, Japanese politicians believe time is on their side. “They think the problem will just go away in a few years,” she says, “but they are misjudging the temper of the times.” 

Los Angeles resident Kyu Sang Won, 77, scoffs at Japan’s earlier denials. He says he remembers seeing Korean women forced into the sex trade by Japan. “I saw them with my own two eyes, and I remember when they came back after the war. Their lives were ruined.” Won says an apology won’t be enough and agrees that Japan must offer reparations in the name of its victims.  

Won’s sentiments are echoed across the Asian American community. Sung Park is a Korean student studying acupuncture and integrative medicine in Berkeley. She calls Abe’s previous denials humiliating, saying, “Like the holocaust, the memory of what Japan did cannot be wiped away.” 

Shinzo Abe, who was born after the war, is Japan’s youngest prime minister ever. Masahiro Miyata, 37, a Japanese living in the United States, says Abe’s earlier denials are a reflection of his generation’s understanding of WWII. Miyata says he himself did not learn about the sex slave issue until coming to the U.S. “History classes in Japan don’t mention things like this.” He says that education is key to a better understanding between Japan and her neighbors. 

In addition to Chinese and Koreans, victims of Japanese abuses included many Filipino women taken as sex workers for the Japanese military. An editorial in the Philippine News says that while Abe’s apology may not be enough, it is a start. Referring to the Philippines’ own history under the military dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 80s, the author writes that Japan’s wartime activities should serve as a reminder to the present generation of the dangers of a militarized state. 

“That regime which lasted all of two decades was capable of committing heinous crimes against its own citizens. History should teach us lessons so that the sins of the past may never be repeated.” 

Hye Rin Seok is a Korean woman who has lived in Tokyo for the past 20 years. She says the issue of sex slaves during WWII tends to be ignored by the Japanese government and the press there, and that people follow suit. Those aware of the issue insist Japan has already apologized, and that no further action is necessary. 

Peter Schurmann, a student at UC Berkeley in Asian Studies, says the issue goes beyond Asia and World War II. “As conflicts erupt in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of Africa, women are at the frontlines of the violence. They are abused by opposing sides, inciting further hatred.” Schurmann says Japan must play a part in advocating for women’s rights today if it wants to show its sincerity. 

Virginia Silber was born in New York City on August 30, 1943. She died at her sister’s home in Berkeley on March 16, 2007, from metastatic lung cancer. Between those two dates lived a remarkable woman: a loving mother of Adam, a creative early-childhood teacher in the Oakland School District, and a sister, relative and friend who will be missed more than words can convey.  

Gina went farther afield after high school than the other two of us kids—to New Mexico. She lived there for 10 years, getting her BA degree and working for a while for the Bernalillo County Health Service. She adored New Mexico and made many friends there who remained in touch to her last days. She also took some time to work for Vista for a couple of years and again made life-long friends there. 

Her politics were always firmly on the left, a family tradition for our parents and for me as well. Thus we attended lots of demos, where we would each get to meet each other’s friends on the picket line. She became an honorary Grandmother Against the War recently, and would wear her button with pride. Over the years she attended the civil rights March on Washington in 1963, and alway worked for reproductive rights, Native American and Middle East justice, and much more. She continually and loudly spoke out against the Bush administration and all they represent. 

She taught for over 20 years at Hintel Kuu early-childhood center in Oakland. (This is one of the centers that are part of the Oakland School District.) Her love of the children and her interest in Native American struggles and history made this center a perfect place for her. She made close friends with the teachers, and was a Union rep for a few years at the OUSD meetings. 

Gina lived at Peace Gardens in Oakland with her son Adam. This is a Northern California Land Trust property, and the community of people who live there have been immensely important to Gina. Adam may stay in the cottage where they lived, and would know that he would be supported with love and friendship. 

Since her death, I have heard many people say that they never heard Gina say mean or critical things about others. Her cheerfulness and smile were known everywhere, and her optimistic outlook on life was contagious. The number of friends she has maintained since early childhood is astounding. A tribute to her deep friendships is the number of old friends who came out to visit when they heard she was gravely ill. We will be always grateful to them and to her Oakland, Berkeley and Santa Cruz friends for their unswerving support and love. 

Lorie Brillinger is the sister of Virginia Silber.

Oakland—When Erick Gaines leaves home for work in the morning, he makes sure he leaves with his inhaler. Gaines is a trucker and he likes it. He loves being able to set his own hours, and he enjoys the independence his job gives him. But he wishes driving a truck wouldn’t take such a heavy toll on his lungs.  

“The soot and exhaust come from everywhere; your breathing gets affected,” the 45-year-old father of four says, pulling out an inhaler from his trouser pocket, as he stands beside his truck outside one of the busiest parts of Oakland’s ports, SSA terminal. “In the last two years, I have been hospitalized two times. You get hit with pollutants from the trucks and from the terminal equipments.” 

Indeed, the strong smell of diesel fumes coming out of the long line of trucks that are inching their way into the terminal on this cool spring day fills the atmosphere. The gridlock is an all too familiar sight at California’s three largest ports, in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland, where many truckers ignore the signs telling them to turn off their engines while idling. Just a short distance away in the harbor, a thick plume of black smoke rises in the air, belched out by a ship that has just come in. 

“The ships run their engines while they are docked, for perhaps 12 hours, maybe even two days,” observed Diane Bailey, a scientist with the Bay Area chapter of the national, non-profit advocacy group, Natural Resource Defense Council. “And they run their engines on bunker fuel,” which she described as “the bottom of the barrel kind of fuel.”  

Gaines is one of several hundred truckers, most of whom are immigrants from Latin America, South Asia and Africa, who move millions of dollars in merchandise through the Port of Oakland—the nation’s fourth largest—each year. Some 2,500 trucks enter the port each day, and make a total of 10,000 truck trips. 

He is also among many who pay with their health for spending hours on what one researcher called a “sweatshop on wheels.” Without a union to represent them, and with take-home earnings that are unenviable, very few truckers can afford health insurance, said Bill Aboudi, owner of AB Trucking in Oakland. Aboudi is one of those rare truck owners who pay their drivers hourly wages, as well as health benefits. 

“When (terminal operators and port officials) hear the word, ‘trucker,’ they don’t think of a human being,” he said. “They don’t care about what all this pollution is doing to our health.” 

Study after study has shown that air emitted from the ports causes a variety of respiratory problems, and even cancer to people living in their vicinity. The Bay Area Environmental Collaborative last month released a study that documents that people living near large toxic releases bear the highest health risks. And a University of Southern California children’s health study indicates that children growing up around ports, refineries and freeways have low lung capacity. 

“Exposure to diesel particulate matter leads to high incidence of cancer,” asserted Peter Greenwald, a senior policy adviser with South Coast Air Quality Management District in Southern California, while addressing members of California’s ethnic media at a clean air workshop earlier this month in Riverside, CA.  

Citing figures from research, Greenwald said the consequences from air pollution in California are alarming. Each year, 2,400 premature deaths can be traced to goods movement, and each year, 8,200 people die prematurely from exposure to particulate matter. 

Rachel Lopez, campaign director with the Riverside County-based Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, said that “death caused by, or contributed by, pollution to Californians is more than that caused by murders, car accidents and AIDS combined.” 

Jesse Marquez, executive director of the Coalition for a Safe Environment, an activist group that seeks to reduce pollution from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, said that the cost of air pollution in California is $200 billion. If nothing is done soon to reduce it, the cost will spike significantly. His uncle, a Southern California resident, died of lung cancer three months ago “and he never smoked a day in his life.” 

In 1999, West Oakland neighborhood groups sued the Port of Oakland for polluting the area. The port agreed to use the out-of-court settlement money of $9 million for “air quality mitigation” programs. As of now, 40 trucks have benefitted from the port’s truck replacement program, with six more in the pipeline, according to Roberta Reinstein, the port’s manager of Environmental Programs and Safety. 

That figure does not impress environmental justice advocates, or the truckers themselves. They maintain the port is not doing enough, has been too slow in spending the settlement money for what was promised, and is being unrealistic in expecting truckers to upgrade their trucks. 

“At the end of the day, there’s no financial incentive for the truckers to upgrade their vehicles,” asserted Bobbie Winston, who has been covering the Port of Oakland for his publication, Bay Crossings, for years. 

Bailey agrees. “The reason why these trucks are so dirty is the drivers make so little money,” she said, noting that the average trucker clears no more than $20,000 per year. “It’s difficult to require the independent owner to bear the cost of cleaning up their trucks by either retrofitting or upgrading their trucks. The industries that are making the money from the freight transport—the shipping companies, the Wal-Marts and the ports themselves need to pick up the tab.” 

Aboudi said the prohibitive cost of retrofitting the 12 trucks he owns discourages him from doing it. “It would cost me around $30,000 to retrofit each truck, and that is more than what I paid for the used truck,” said Aboudi, who uses every opportunity to lobby port officials for better conditions for Oakland’s truckers. 

The California state assembly last year approved a “container fee” bill introduced by Senator Alan Lowenthal that would have slapped a $30 fee on containers handled by Southern California ports to reduce congestion, speed goods movement and reduce air pollution. Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying the bill should have included the Port of Oakland. Now Lowenthal has introduced a revised version of his container fee bill, this time including the Port of Oakland.  

This bill is designed to generate more than $525 million annually to help pay for improvements to the road and railway infrastructure, as well as add funding to promote clean-air programs tied to port trade throughout the state. 

The container fee is strongly opposed by retailers and ocean carriers, who fear it would divert cargo to nearby, cheaper ports in Mexico and the Pacific Northwest, as well as drive up prices on consumer goods.  

Marquez has played a lead role in forcing port officials at Long Beach and Los Angeles to agree to hold off on plans for expanding terminals at the two ports until port-generated emissions are brought down by at least 50 percent. Some of the money for the clean up will come from the $1 billion the public committed last November from a $20 billion ballot measure. 

In a few weeks, port officials are expected to unveil plans to lower the pollution levels at the two ports. One of the proposals will require ships to turn off their engines once they reach port and plug into the land power grid. Bailey said the U.S. Navy has done this with their vessels for decades. 

Trucking companies in Oakland are hoping the Port of Oakland will follow suit before more truckers succumb to the pollution. But some truckers are not overly optimistic. 

“These terminal operators think it’s their own little kingdom inside these fences. There’s no due process,” said Aboudi. 

It is idle to imagine that growing one’s own food saves money. Regardless of factoring in one’s time, the average Berkeley back yard is not sufficiently large and sunny to grow enough food for one person, let alone a family. 

Add a few food-producing animals and the cost rises accordingly. I once calculated that the cost of home-raised eggs is $7 a dozen. Admittedly my poultry eat well: organic wheat and tofu, tomatoes, lettuce, bread and milk—Wonderbread only. All other kinds are spurned, and even the price of that has tripled. 

However, the one feature of one’s own grown fruits and vegetables that is always superior to anything grown commercially, even organically, is, to state the obvious, flavor. There is simply nothing like a few peas popped from the pod as they grow, a nectarine warm in the hand and juicy between the teeth, even a freshly pulled beet. 

Then there is the watching of all this growth. Can anything compare to gazing at deep pink blossoms against a Berkeley blue sky? Checking daily on those dark green leathery leaf-rosettes that herald new potatoes? For these aesthetic and gastronomic pleasures, gardeners are willing to toil from sunrise to sundown and, a sign of the truly obsessed, after dark too. 

If they are successful vegetable growers, sooner or later they will encounter a problem, the surplus. There are two responses to one’s efforts to give it away. First of all, if one has too many zucchini (the stereotypical example), so has everyone else; it is not a surplus, it is a glut. Second, and far more surprising, is the average consumer’s mistrust, even fear, of anything home grown. 

Before I met a wonderful neighbor who trades snails for eggs (I have not seen these useful providers of protein since I acquired my first hen), I tried hard to give eggs away. There were many complaints. The eggs were too large, the shells too strong, and a funny color (blue-green). The yolks were too bright, too orange, the whites were too thick, not nice and watery like supermarket ones. And the flavor was too rich.  

Too bad! In fact, tragic. 

In spite of all the hard work, there is a carefree element to growing one’s own. Take those beets, for instance. Last year mine were sown late, in June. By the time of our Indian summer they looked horrible, as though they had some vile disease, leprosy perhaps, that caused their leaves to change from green to mottled buff and khaki. Not being a commercial grower, I could snip off these offending leaves. During the winter rains an abundance of new growth appeared. By March, on this very day in fact, a tasty crop is ready, including a few golf-ball-sized roots. Rushed to the stove, these leaves provide a whopping amount of Vitamin A and useful amounts of practically every other nutrient necessary for health, including fiber. The beet’s downside is its capacity to bind up some minerals, preventing their absorption. Eating a dairy product at the same time is recommended. 

The beet, Beta vulgaris, in the family Chenopodiaceae, is related to quinoa, Swiss chard, lamb’s quarters, epazote and spinach (which shares the same binding characteristic), among other plants. The common name for this family is goosefoot, for the shape of its leaves. It is a biennial, setting seed in the second year of growth. Every so often a virus strikes, causing crop failure. This is not for the home gardener the disaster it would be for the commercial grower. It is simply to be expected from time to time. There is no financial loss where it counts, at harvest time, no increase in cost to be passed on to the consumer, just an expenditure of time and energy that keeps the gardener’s weight down. If vegetable gardening is not at the top of the list of aerobic exercises, it should be. I do not remember ever meeting a gardener who is overweight. Crop failure can be a reminder to pay attention to crop rotation. In my rotation plan, beets follow potatoes, because potatoes leave behind deep, friable soil ideal for root vegetables. This year I hope to get the beets in earlier, by May at least. Potatoes keep for months if refrigerated, so I will harvest them all at once. 

Beet seedlings come up in clusters because three or so seeds are in each seed capsule. It is possible to separate these before sowing, so that thinning is not necessary, and soaking the seeds for a day probably speeds germination. I tend not to save their seed, as the parent plant takes up room in limited space. Beet seed is viable for several years, making the purchase of a package worthwhile 

Perhaps because they are biennials, beets survive the heavy frosts which arrive in my low-lying garden in late November and recur until February, unlike my peas, which, planted in good time for a change, and sporting beautiful flowers and lush stems, were stricken and although not destroyed, depleted. In a previous article I described the challenge of protecting peas from birds by using wire. This was a recommendation that I found exasperating and ineffective and wished I had not written it since the peas grew through the wire and the birds were waiting outside. Now I use a whirligig from Mr. Mopps. This fragile toy with aluminum sails and a handle made from a drinking straw, priced at a little over a dollar, has survived two winters tied to the top of the pea trellis and so far has given total bird-protection. But how to protect against frost? There’s always some new challenge in the vegetable plot, it seems. 

Prehistoric man is said to have cultivated the beet for the medicinal properties of its leaves. Native to the Mediterranean region, their roots as well were enjoyed by Romans. According to Internet sites (HungryMonster.com and viable-herbal.com) early Russian homeopaths touted beets as a cure for toothache and tuberculosis, while their ladies rouged their cheeks with the impermanent juice. Aphrodite indulged in them for the sake of her beauty, and if a couple should share the tasting of a beet, they will fall in love. 

Beets to my taste are delicious simply boiled in their skins for twenty to forty minutes, depending on size, left to cool in their liquid, peeled and eaten plain and warm as a side dish. A pressure cooker cuts this time in half. Cooked peeled beets sliced and dressed with red onions and vinegar make a piquant salad, as do raw beets, peeled and grated. As for borscht, without the beet it would be an undistinguished vegetable soup. 

Beets are a particularly spectacular addition to a creamy potato salad, turning the whole thing pink. Since potato salad is always a winner, the next time you are invited to a potluck, try taking this version along. Just be careful who shares it with you.  

Berkeley’s robbery rash still soaring 

Berkeley’s ongoing spate of robberies continues, according to police reports—an epidemic that has seen a rash of heists hitting targets of convenience. 

Robbers have been partial to victims with electronic gear, police say, especially those small but costly digital music players of which Apple’s iPod is the best known. 

The highest numbers logged on the Berkeley Police Department’s Community Crime View website came on the 14th, when seven robberies were reported. 

Five stick-ups were on the 12th, one on the 15th, three on the 16th, one each on the 17th and 18th, two on the 19th, three on the 20th and two on the 21st, the last date for which information was posted. 

Police report 70 robberies had occurred in January and February, compared to 47 in the same two-month period last year. 

The crime spree accelerated in March, and by the 21st had reached an average of two a day, with exactly 42 robberies logged on the web site for the first three weeks of the month.  

The March total to that date brings the yearly total to 112, and most of the crimes are concentrated on or near the city’s thoroughfares. 

Earlier this month police cautioned Berkeley residents to record serial numbers of their valuables, engrave identification numbers on expensive high-tech devices and make certain all their gear is registered with manufacturers so serial numbers can be linked with legal owners. 

Police departments typically encourage citizens to mark gear with their driver’s license number. Social Security numbers shouldn’t be used because they are not generally accessible to law enforcement. 

Berkeley police have also cautioned iPod owners to switch from the distinctive white ear pieces sold with the iPod, because they alert robbers to the presence of the gear. 

“Use old-style headphones that appear to be from low-cost or other equipment,” warned the department in a public notice issued earlier this month.

Well, it’s “whither journalism” time again. Straws in the wind: Thursday’s Chronicle, with the top story, over the fold, complete with big picture, about our friend Jane Stillwater, whose comments sometimes appear in these pages. Jane’s off to Iraq, trying to get herself embedded in an army unit, and her saga will undoubtedly be reported in exquisite detail on her blog, as are other events in her never-dull daily life. The jump headline says it all: “64-YEAR-OLD BERKELEY BLOGGER OFF FOR IRAQ.” This story has everything: “elderly party still full of beans,” “beloved-tho-quirky Berzerkly hasn’t changed,” “elderly newspaper HAS changed: now it reads blogs” and “foreign news is OK if it has a local angle.” More power to Jane for capturing the zeitgeist, perhaps finally getting the attention of anyone who doesn’t already know that there’s a mess over there. Maybe a 64-year-old Berkeley blogger can clean it all up. Or if not, at least it makes entertaining copy for the Comical. 

And on the back page of the Chron’s diminished Datebook section, often transplanted inside to make way for a big ad, Jon Carroll and Leah Garchik, two intelligent and thoughtful people, try to hang in there. On Tuesday Garchik inserted a poignant reflection on the Iraq insanity into what is supposed to be a gossip column. On Thursday Carroll abandoned his recent jolly-grampa posture for an incisive reminder that even when Bush is gone the damage he’s done will linger. Both of them deserve thanks and praise for keeping their eyes on the prize in difficult circumstances. It’s not that readers don’t enjoy chit-chat and schmalz occasionally, but it’s too bad that these have become the staple offerings in the only big paper in the Bay Area not controlled by Media News. 

Plus ça change, plus la même chose. The more things change, the more they’re the same. That staple proverb, remembered from the dictation exercises in my high school French class, never leaves my mind. (In fact, when I Googled it to get the accents right, one of the first hits was one of my own editorials of a couple of years ago.) That’s what Carroll’s column was exploring: even if Bush goes, will anything change? 

And the corollary question du jour is whether print newspapers make a difference anymore. Does telling people the truth make them free?  

We recently had a visit from a bright young cousin, the object of a bidding war among top graduate chemistry programs around the country and also politically admirable (she runs a soup kitchen for homeless people in her spare time). She’s been in school in St. Louis, the home of what was once one of the great papers, the Post-Dispatch. We asked what paper she reads. Well, she said, she’s busy, but she occasionally skims the New York Times on the web. That’s it.  

And no, she wouldn’t read a print paper more often if it featured ever-larger pictures of celebrities and more human interest stories on the front page. Intelligent young people like her are not looking for dumbed-down papers, contrary to urban legends, nor do they watch much broadcast television. If anything, she said, the reason she avoids the local metro daily is because of how much junk and how many ads she’d have to wade through to find the tiny bit of news still left. 

Markets are not always as wise as some economists would have you believe, but they’re speaking clearly now on what’s happening to newspapers. According to a Bloomberg report yesterday, a rich developer’s recent takeover bid to buy the Tribune Company (owner of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times) shows that investors’ view of the value of newspaper shares is dropping. The buyout offer on the table for Tribune is equal to 9.2 times the company’s 2006 earnings, while newspaper companies sold for 11.5 times to 13.5 times earnings between 1995 and 2005. Mind you, that’s not a bad return on investment, but it’s down. Still, we should be so lucky.  

Share prices of course tell us nothing about whether the truth will make us free. It’s the Joshua question that matters: If we sound the trumpet, will the walls come tumbling down? Recently the media in all its manifestations has been trying harder to sound the trumpet about the disasters now besetting this nation, but the Washington Follies continue. 

Here at the Planet we continue to sound the truth trumpet as often as we can. We’re proud that we’ve been the first paper to report on many significant stories which were then copied by big media: the push to build casinos on the Richmond shore, concealed toxic threats on building sites, plans to sell off Oakland School District property to developers, the secret sweetheart settlement of the city of Berkeley’s lawsuit against UC, the downside of the university’s deal with British Petroleum and more. We’ve reported the local stories too, like the recent attempts by Berkeley’s Mayor Bates and Councilmember Capitelli to purge dissident commissioners. (That one has stalled for now, but the targets shouldn’t be complacent.) 

What’s sometimes discouraging is what doesn’t change, despite exposure. When the latest crusade against street beggars was announced at City Hall, a friend unearthed the clippings from the previous round, now 13 years ago, including a handsome full-page ad which ran in the newspapers, back in the bad old days before the Planet when you had to pay money to express your opinion. Signers warned that the city of Berkeley’s proposed course of action was unconstitutional, but Then-and-Now City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque forged ahead at taxpayers’ enormous expense until a federal judge set her straight. And now she and Mayor Bates want to do it all over again. When will they ever learn? Will having a free public forum make a difference? One would hope so, but probably not. 

Many in the Berkeley Bubble still manage to ignore the news, even when the Planet presents it to them on a silver platter absolutely free of charge. Citizens caught up in one of the now-inevitable struggles with a Berkeley city administration in thrall to developers always seem shocked to learn that it’s happened before. Case in point: The Fantasy tenants, intelligent persons all, appeared not to know that the West Berkeley Plan, designed to protect people like them, is under siege, and that it’s the city that leading the charge.  

Coming up on Sunday is the fourth anniversary of this endeavor. Every year at this time a variant of J. Alfred Prufrock’s question comes to mind: Will it have been worth it after all? If the clever young no longer read newspapers, do they still read T.S. Eliot? Late in life, he described what we’ve tried to do here: 

...Trying to use words, and every attempt 

Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure 

Because one has only learnt to get the better of words 

For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which 

One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture 

Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate 

With shabby equipment always deteriorating... 

Have we accomplished anything? Have any walls come tumbling down? Who knows? Eliot’s answer:  

For us, there is only the trying. 

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved a mixed-use project at 700 University Ave. Thursday. 

Applicant Urban Housing Group/Essex Property Trust of San Mateo had requested a use permit to 1) demolish Celia’s Restaurant and Brennan’s Restaurant buildings along Fourth Street; 2) construct a mixed-use development with 171 dwelling units (31 below-market), 9,995 square feet of new commercial floor area and 213 vehicle parking spaces; and 3) rehabilitate and reuse the former Southern Pacific train depot—a city landmark—as the new location for Brennan’s. 

The applicant first applied for a permit on June 17, 2004, and has appeared before numerous Design Review Commission (DRC), West Berkeley Project Area Committee (WBPAC) and ZAB meetings since then. 

The approximately two-acre site of the proposed project is located within a designated commercial node in the West Berkeley Plan, and is bounded by an elevated portion of University Avenue on the north, Addison Street on the south, Fourth Street on the east, and the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks on the west. It is surrounded by older industrial and commercial buildings and some single-family residences. Currently, the Read Building mixed-use project is under construction along Fourth Street.  

The Aquatic Park Connection Streetscape Improvement Project—which includes streetscape improvements along Fourth and Addison streets adjacent to the project—is being planned by the Berkeley Redevelopment Agency to connect the Fourth Street retail area to the city’s facilities at Aquatic Park, the Marina and Eastshore State Park.  

The West Berkeley Shellmound, which was designated as a city of Berkeley landmark in 2000, “includes several parcels and portions of the public right-of-way to the north of the project site,” according to a Planning Department staff report. 

“I support Brennan’s moving into a historic building,” testified Elizabeth Wade, daughter of Brennan’s founder John Brennan. “I am comfortable with the project and the parking. I look forward to 171 new residents who will be like a breath of fresh air.”  

“700 University will be an asset to the community,” said Dave Johnson, of Christiani Johnson Architects in San Francisco, the firm responsible for the project design. 

“It will eliminate an unattractive parking lot and focus on two historic institutions—Brennan’s and the train station. It will build two new public plazas and provide a gateway to Berkeley from the University Avenue exit and a gateway to Aquatic Park from West Berkeley. The project provides development as well as shopping opportunities and new jobs for everybody,” he said. 

Johnson stressed that the new design created a direct view of the former railroad station, which was constructed in 1913 and landmarked in 2001. 

Area residents had been concerned in the past about potential impacts on archeological and historic resources, and about building height, massing and design as well as noise, traffic and parking.  

The applicant told the board that traffic caused by the development would be mitigated by a fair-share payment of $10,600 toward the cost of a new signal at Fourth Street and Hearst Avenue. 

Nick Samuelson, landscape architect for the project, said that the materials used for landscaping would complement the eclectic nature of the project. “The restoration will help to bring together the old and the new,” he said. 

Board member Terry Doran, a former school board member and teacher, asked if the 31 below-market dwelling units would be offered to city and school district employees before they were offered to the general public. 

“It is important that civil employees live in the city,” he said. The applicant remarked that a strategy would be developed to inform school employees during the pre-leasing phase. 

Board member Dave Blake said that the project was a residential project in an important commercial zone which would only add 20 percent commercial space. 

“I lament that the project is not adding any significant retail space,” he said. “I think it’s a bad use of the zoning area.” 

“When the project first came into the news, I couldn’t picture a project I could support,” said board member Bob Allen. “But I was blown away at the Design Review Commission. This is the best Berkeley could have ever seen. This is one of the few residential projects we have seen that has usable open space. It will be a wildly successful development.” 

Board member Jesse Arreguin said that he did not support the project because it was not adding to the commercial vitality of Fourth Street or providing affordable housing for families. 

“There is a need in Berkeley for affordable housing and that means three bedrooms, not one or two,” added board member Sara Shumer. 

“Yes, we do need housing for people with children in Berkeley. I hope developers stop thinking about making money and wake up to that,” said board member Jesse Anthony. “I am going with this project this time, but I am not going to go anymore.” 

Board member Michael Alvarez-Cohen remarked that he was surprised by the lack of neighborhood opposition. 

“On the other hand, the neighbors and the city are for it,” he said. 

ZAB Chair Christiana Tiedemann said that more neighborhood opposition was usually seen in the case of larger retail use projects. 

The zoning board also approved the following: 

• Request for a use permit modification by Rachel Hamilton, which allows the construction of a new single-family residence, to include the expansion of an exterior third deck, and the reconfiguration of the adjoining stairs, which encroach into the required side yard along the south property line, as well as the construction of several keystone retaining walls within the front yard at 1231 Grizzly Peak Blvd. 

• Request for an administrative use permit by Kathryn Rogers and Debbie Kim, Sogno Design Group of Albany, to convert an existing duplex to a single-family dwelling and construct a new 608-square-foot accessory building with one garage parking space and habitable home office space at 2224 Roosevelt. 

• Request for a use permit modification by Berkeley Bowl Produce to modify approved plans for a “full-service grocery marketplace,” including increasing building footprint, changing configuration of retail and storage areas, and changing parking layout, without creating any new traffic or other environmental impacts at 920 Heinz. 

• Request for a use permit by Philip J. Anderson to legalize an existing 1,036-square-foot dwelling unit at the rear of a commercial building on a 8,000-square-foot lot with 6 parking spaces, thereby creating a mixed-use development at 2948 Sacramento St. 

• Request for a use permit by Lorin Hill to convert a portion (63 square feet) of an attic to habitable use by increasing the ceiling clearance with a dormer-style “pop-out,” and reconfiguring windows at the upper story; to horizontally expand an attached garage that encroaches into a required side yard setback; and to demolish a carport in the front yard setback at 6 Nogales St. 

• Request for a use permit by Carol L. Cooper to establish a pet grooming use with an outdoor use component at 1442 Sixth St. 

The board continued the appeal of a administrative use permit to construct a 1,434-square-foot addition, via raising the existing structure approximately six feet to create habitable space on the ground level, and by expanding the footprint of the building, thereby creating a two-story, west wing appendage to the building at 2008 Virginia. 

Applicant Meskerem Tsegaye withdrew her request for a use permit modification to increase alcohol service at the Ethiopia Restaurant, at 2953-2955 Telegraph, by adding service of distilled spirits to existing service of beer and wine, and by increasing operating hours.  

GROCERY BAGS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I never cease to be amazed at how many presumably environmentally conscious people at places like Monterey Market and the Berkeley Bowl I see put two onions into a plastic bag, or three potatoes or other small amounts of items which obviously do not need them, the whole mess goes into more plastic or paper or both. I take a cardboard box. Everything goes into the box which rests in the trunk without danger of falling over or sliding. Do so many people really not care? 

Then there is the matter of so many people gullibly and glibly buying water in endless cases of plastic bottles. Do they have any idea of the toll on the environment the manufacture of these bottles takes, along with disposing of them (Nestle being the biggest producer)? The water from my tap is more thoroughly tested while blind taste tests show that most people can’t tell the difference, and if they can detect a difference they tend to prefer tap water. Ask Alice Waters if the water she serves is inferior to the silly costly bottled water! 

SL Rennacker 

• 

RESPONSE TO DAVIDSON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Lynn Davidson’s March 23 letter supporting taxpayer financing of political campaign propaganda and junk mail as the only way to fight political corruption and enact single payer health insurance makes no more sense than did invading Iraq to fight al Qaeda. 

Her contention that the lack of an “affordable, universal health care system” is evidence of political corruption in California is much less plausible the two alternative explanations: potentially huge cost overruns, and the complications from overlapping federal programs (e.g. ERISA, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.).  

Ironically, it seems that Ms. Davidson and Assemblywoman Hancock want to corrupt the democratic process themselves by reviving AB 583 in the Legislature, giving legislators another chance to use taxes to pay for their reelection campaigns. Voters rejected this legislation’s twin, Prop. 89, by a 3-to-1 margin, in last November’s election.  

Let me suggest an alternative means of financing political campaigns that may not be as objectionable to the voters. Suppose candidates for a particular office were required to pay a fee equivalent to at least half of the expenditures they made in excess of a specified limit, based on the number of registered voters eligible to vote for them. This fee would be redistributed equally to all political candidates for that office. This alternative financing mechanism would avoid involuntary financing by taxpayers since only candidates and their donors would end up paying for it. It would help level the political campaign playing field. And last, but not least, it would provide an incentive for candidates to reduce their expenditures, to avoid contributing to their rivals’ campaigns. Your readers who like this idea should e-mail Ms. Hancock and let her know she needs to change her course of action.  

Keith Winnard 

• 

UC-BP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I find it interesting that Cal is the proposed recipient of this great new project with BP for alternative fuels since it appears Cal does not understand the importance of preserving one of the only living things that uses carbon dioxide—their stand of oak trees near the athletic field. One would think some of the great Nobel scientists up there on the hill would speak up. While it may appear to be a bunch of “nuts” sitting in those trees, the loss of those trees will affect quality of life in Berkeley. Those people care. I cannot personally estimate how much CO2 the leaves of those trees use, but when they are gone, I do know that the CO2 in that area will hang in the air for the students to breathe. Geez, don’t they get it either? 

Jackie Fay 

• 

BERKELEY ICELAND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m writing to make sure the public knows about the efforts to save historic Berkeley Iceland, due to close after 67 years at the end of the month. This is a beloved community resource for recreation and socializing used by every type of Bay Area citizen, literally generations of children, teens and adults of all ages from young to seniors. Most of the press seems to have Iceland dead and buried without a mention of how much people care or even that there is any sort of effort to save it (on-going even after the 31st). Iceland is a very special place and it would be a true shame if the community permanently lost this unique and irreplaceable treasure. Here is the website to find out more: www.saveberkeleyiceland.org. 

M.J. Bernal 

• 

JFK’S LEGACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent letter criticizing the Iraq war mentioned that President Kennedy used good judgment and patience in successfully handling the Cuban Missile Crisis. That is ridiculous. Kennedy CAUSED the Cuban Missile Crisis. His very presence caused it. The Soviets regarded him as a light-weight nobody and immediately took steps to move their agenda. In 1961 they built the Berlin Wall. No reaction. JFK proved them right again by mishandling the Bay of Pigs fiasco. They confidently followed by putting missiles in Cuba. They withdrew them but at a great price, including our removal of similar missiles in Europe and our agreement to allow the cancerous communist infestation in Cuba to remain on our doorstep where it distributes its venom in Latin America to this day. A miffed JFK, out to show the communists they could not push him around, quickly put 16,000 troops in Vietnam thereby getting us into that stupid war. In summary: the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the Berlin Wall are the true legacy of JFK. None of them would have occurred if Eisenhower had remained president.  

John Locke  

• 

LOOKING FOR RELATIVES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to get in touch with my cousins and their families in Berkeley. All I know of my Uncle Cyril Gray is that he emigrated to California in the 1930s and took American citizenship. He died in the 1960s. His wife Elizabeth was a Scotswoman. I last heard from her in 1985, when she was living in Berkeley. Cyril and Elizabeth Gray had two sons, Donald and Peter who were born in the 1930s. I believe that my cousins both had sons. 

I have been doing some family history on the Gray family and would be pleased to share it. If anyone reading this knows where my cousins are then please could you get in touch with me at 4 Aylestone Road Cambridge CB4 1HF England. 

Joan Gray 

• 

THE MYTH OF API SCORES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sometimes the lumbering train of bureaucracy runs into the brick wall of human nature. Such, I fear, is the saga of API scores. These are the scores, based on standardized tests, that determine if a school has succeeded or failed. They have again been made public, reminding the schools of how they rank. 

We believe all students can do well, that they are all basically smart. They are. There are, however, different nuances of smart. All students have basic smarts, sometimes known as “street smarts.” Using these smarts, students conclude that these tests don’t affect their individual grades, that it has something to do with the school, the state, and the feds. 

Some students in high achieving schools have been made to understand the ramifications of their school coming out on top. There’s perhaps a bit of the competitive thing going on, along with the knowledge that success comes with money for the school. These smarts may prompt them to try a bit harder on these tests. 

At other schools that level subtlety may not be completely understood. There are few things more boring than sitting around, bubbling in answer sheets, particularly when the questions are dull and unconnected with your own life. Add to this that some students are not fluent in English and have to work harder to understand the questions. Now, going back to the knowledge that these scores don’t determine if you pass English or Math, why rack your brain trying to do a good job. Why not bubble in any answer, turn the miserable test in, and get it over with? When you’ve seen answer sheets with bubbles tracing a regular zig zag pattern down the page, you know that this really does happen. After all, these kids are smart enough to know they’ll never compete with the uptown kids who have two professional, well educated parents and their own college fund at age 10. This is the human nature brick wall. 

Naturally, a whole industry has built up around creating these tests, norming them, printing them, giving them, scoring them, and plotting the results. Then there are the people who use them to decide who gets money. This is the lumbering train of bureaucracy. In any collision involving enough mass, inertia and force, something gets vaporized. In this case it may well be the true spirit of education. 

Meade Fischer 

• 

CALL IT WHAT IT IS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My dictionary tells me treason is an action against one’s country but it doesn’t help me decide whether a program against one’s country is also treason.  

The program I have in mind looks like politics as usual, that old “king of the mountain” game. The Republican Party, while representing a minority of voters, leaped into the majority in the 1994 Congressional elections. This stunning victory sprang from a comprehensive political statement titled “Contract with America” followed shortly by “The K Street Project,” a clever solidarity game plan that secured power atop the mountain. Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay shared MVP honors but they couldn’t have won without star players Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and others.  

After Bush was appointed, the Republican Party sought ways to make its power permanent and seized upon the confusion and fear following 9/11 as an opportunity to do whatever it wanted. Often it pushed reality aside and created a reality of its own which it did with superb theatrical flair on May Day, 2003 with “Mission Accomplished,” a drama starring Bush II as Viking co-pilot Commander-in-Chief. Following that high jinks the Republican majority stumbled and began a bumpy downhill slide prompting it to react with crude and illegal defensive measures—manipulating the press, punishing critics, wire-tapping, suspending habeas corpus, skipping due process, dis-ing allies, disregarding international conventions and trampling on human rights.  

Today, Party leaders struggle to survive a relatively minor miscue involving the firing of eight pesky uncooperative federal prosecutors.  

Therefore, to make their power permanent the Republican program ignored checks and balances, blurred the separation of powers and invested the president with wartime powers based on a bloody and costly military action that can be called war only in the metaphorical sense because the deadly un-uniformed enemy has no chain of command and carries no flag. Thus, these actions are, collectively, a program against constitutionally established government.  

Call it what it is. Treason!  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

ANNA NICOLE SMITH’S 

AUTOPSY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The list of drugs found in Anna Nicole Smith’s body during her autopsy is awe-fully sad: anti-anxieties, pain relievers, muscle relaxants, sleeping pills, and anti-smoking medications. Apparently, she was wracked by pain, anxiety, tension, nervousness, and disease. Beautiful, rich and famous, Anna seems to have found no happiness, just increasing pain. The need for buzzing paparazzi, to always wear a public face, the desire for expensive gee-gaws, surrounding attendants and supplicants that comprise such a “lifestyle” cost her an awful toll to maintain.  

What does her death tell us about our ideal of “celebrity?” What are the personal characteristics, acquisitions, and achievements that we “celebrate?” 

Perhaps the satisfactions of being present in each moment, of being authentic in relationship with others, and of caring for and repairing our world are more celebratory. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

MITT ROMNEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Has Mitt Romney, GOP presidential contender for 2008, sold his soul to gain the support of conservative activists and religious right-wingers? Romney is sporting a new anti-abortion look, has shifted his language on gay rights and has become less green. Why do all Republican presidential hopefuls have to pass a fundamentalist litmus test? 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley 

Recent Daily Planet stories on Association of Bay Area Governments housing quotas, transit-oriented developments, so-called “affordable housing,” “inclusionary housing,” and, most egregious of all, “Sustainable Berkeley” are all just local manifestations of the Agenda 21 policy document. Agenda 21 was adopted at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development, by more than 170 nations in 1992. President Clinton implemented this document in the United States by executive order with no congressional debate or involvement. Since the adoption of this policy, all across the country’s local councils, “visioning councils,” “working groups,” “charrettes,” et al have been set up with no voter input and have been given the power to transform communities using “smart growth,” transit-oriented developments (TOD), “transit villages,” “urban growth boundaries,” “traffic calming,” and “pack ‘em and stack ‘em” government housing projects which are built by private developers who get preferential development agreements with local government subsidized by your tax dollars.  

The overriding principles are that single family homes and the automobile are to be slowly eliminated and urban living near to mass transit is to become the norm—nothing more, nothing less than the “Europization” of America. Only the most wealthy elite will be able to have homes with any surrounding land and private property will eventually become a thing of the past as it, as the automobile, is deemed “unsustainable.” In the past, high density “affordable” (government) housing” has been built in New York, Chicago and other large cities and become the ghettoes of today; many of these “projects” have been torn down due to crime and uninhabitable living conditions. 

“Central planning,” our controllers of today, claim that the public consensus is that land use should be controlled. They use scare tactics and phony population projections to justify their unconstitutional power over our lives and ability to own and use private property. The Bay Area’s regional government entity, ABAG relies on population projections from their own hired consultants to justify the housing quotas they impose on local communities. Patti Dacey’s recent letter to your paper entitled “Housing Quotas” rightly states “ABAG’s manipulations of these civic virtues [to build “affordable housing and provide decent public transportation] to demand the degradation of our quality of life is reprehensible.” Ms. Dacey is correct but there is little that can be done because local elected government is fast becoming a thing of the past and is being replaced by unelected appointed regional government bodies and councils that have vast power over the way we live. As with Sustainable Berkeley, the average citizen will be completely shut out of the process and large amounts of grant money will be spent for vague and high sounding purposes with no accountability to the citizenry. 

In his piece entitled “Agenda 21 and the United Nations,” Henry Lamb, writer and executive vice president of Eco-Logic states: 

“Agenda 21 is a 300-page, 40-chapter, ‘soft-law’ policy document adopted by the delegates to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The document is not legally binding; it is a set of policy recommendations designed to reorganize global society around the principles of environmental protection, social equity, and what is called “sustainable” economic development. At the heart of the concept of sustainable development, is the assumption that government must manage society to ensure that human activity conforms to these principles.” 

Some excellent downloadable pamphlets on the benign sounding concept of “sustainable development” can be found at the Freedom 21 Santa Cruz website, www.f21sc.net. These pamphlets should be given to every public official to alert them to the overriding schemes they are implementing or to—at the very least—let them know you are on to what they are up to. 

“Sustainability” as mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is based on their stated belief that: “Humanity’s collective imperative now is to shift modern society rapidly onto a sustainable path or have it dissolve of its own ecologically unsustainable doings." In fact, the concept of “sustainability” rests on the false belief that the world is on the fast track to destruction and will soon run out of non “renewable” resources. In his excellent book entitled A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth,” author Wilfred Beckerman of the Independent Institute in Oakland refutes the concept of sustainable development and demonstrates that government interference actually creates the problems it purports to solve.  

Redevelopment is another tool used by planners to usurp local land use authority. In my small unincorporated community of El Sobrante I became aware of the virtual takeover of the major corridors—by a large redevelopment plan including the power of eminent domain—when I was elected to the Municipal Advisory Council in 2002. Massive public opposition has so far caused Contra Costa County officials to back off of their original plan, but now they are “updating the general plan” of the same area included in the El Sobrante redevelopment plan. This is nothing more than an end run around redevelopment and will result in the same tightly controlled land use policies that would have come about had the original redevelopment plan been implemented. 

I urge the citizens of Berkeley to hang tough and oppose “transit villages,” “affordable housing” projects, and small business-busting, planning monstrosities such as the “North Berkeley Plaza.” Try to attend the “Sustainable Berkeley” meetings and hold the bureaucrats accountable for their plans for your city. 

Marilynne Mellander is a 37-year resident of El Sobrante, and is the coordinator of saveelsobrante.com, a property rights activist, and a member of Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform (MORR).

In response to the March 23 letter from Shirley Douglas of the Water Transit Authority: It is very encouraging to read that the two new 25-knot 149-passenger ferries on order for the Water Transit Authority (at $8 million each) are not intended for the Berkeley/Albany route. These vessels are unnecessarily fast, high-powered and expensive for the 5.6 mile distance from the Berkeley Marina to San Francisco. It is also good to learn that WTA has reversed its early decision to comply with the IMO High Speed code, and instead is going to stay with the much more appropriate 46 CFR Subchapter T regulations. 

The underlying problem that remains, however, is that the consultants evaluating the four candidate terminal sites are only looking at half of the system: Optimal site selection is intimately tied to vessel design—or at least it should be. 

WTA claims that the Berkeley Ferry has not been designed, and that the two ferries on order are spares. Yet when asked at the scoping session how deep the channel would need to be, the reply was definite: The ferry will draw six feet if water. If the Berkeley ferry has not been designed yet, how do they know the draft? 

This is more than a fine point. The “spare” catamaran ferries may draw six feet, but if anyone is to make a rational decision about terminal location in areas surrounded by shallow water, then vessel draft must be considered as one of the critical variables. A terminal site that requires transiting shallow water dictates different design priorities. For example, a shallow-bottom monohull propelled by surface-piercing propellers or waterjets might only need three feet of water. It could be built for no more expense, and probably significantly less, than the catamarans now on order. The cost of dredging and maintaining a channel would be dramatically reduced and an otherwise infeasible site might become the optimal choice. 

But if this design parameter is arbitrarily fixed early in the process, then the terminal siting decision faces an unnecessary constraint and the wrong site might be chosen for the wrong reasons. 

This is an example of the penalty we pay for failure to use the “whole systems” approach to the new ferry service. 

Design speed is another important variable. The 25-knot boats have far more power and speed than needed for the short Berkeley run, apparently because they are designed to serve longer and less economically viable ferry routes in other parts of the Bay. 

We also have to ask why WTA believes it is necessary to add substantial cost, weight and complexity in order to exceed the new EPA emissions standards by 85%. The Bay is traversed daily by many thousands of marine horsepower with no emissions controls at all. It would seem to be a much more cost-effective public policy to begin to bring all the existing fish boats and commercial vessels into compliance with current EPA standards, rather than spend public money to exceed these standards by such a wide margin on only two new vessels. 

Again, designing for a slower speed appropriate for the shorter route is a better way to build a cleaner ferry. But the consultants working on the site selection study can’t put the proper value on minimizing the route distance unless they know the true cost of speed in terms of dollars, efficiency and emissions. If we arbitrarily insist on “85 percent better than required” instead of actually looking at the amount of pollution produced as a function of route length and speed, then part of the cost of speed is hidden and we are likely to end up with the wrong terminal location for the wrong reasons, and maybe even more pollution than if speed and power had been allowed as a site selection variable. 

In defense of WTA, it has to be recognized that public transportation agencies always have and always will have a very hard time doing things right. Perhaps we are expecting too much, considering the many unseen constraints they are under. Given this reality, what this all points to is a strong incentive to minimize risk. The new terminal should be sited where it costs the least, makes the most use of existing infrastructure and requires the lowest operating subsidy. 

The Doubletree Hotel location inside the Marina, where we already have a ferry terminal serving several large Hornblower vessels, is the only candidate site that meets these requirements. This is an inevitable result of WTA’s cart-before-the-horse ferry acquisition strategy; All we know for certain about the new ferry service is that WTA is likely to get some of it wrong. 

If we are serious about making the ferry a permanent amenity, then we have to keep the initial investment in the terminal small enough so that we can fix the mistakes after we find out the hard way what they are. 

Paul Kamen is a naval architect who serves on the Berkeley Waterfront Commission. 

Dear Senator Boxer, 

I am writing to you in your capacity as chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. I am a retired resident of Berkeley. I live at Strawberry Creek Lodge, named for the creek which flows through the University of California Berkeley campus and also through our back garden. 

Recently our local paper, the Daily Planet, has been reporting on a proposed deal between the university and BP, formerly known as British Petroleum. The oil company will give the university $500 million. The university is to build a laboratory (in Strawberry Creek Canyon) where university scientists and BP researchers will work on developing biofuels from biomass—probably using an Asian grass. The process will use genetically modified organisms, both to promote the growth of the biomass and to turn it into fuel. 

The concerns with this deal are threefold: 1) GMOs—genetically modified organisms—are a threat to the natural web of life that sustains us all. The fear is that by altering the DNA of plants and animals, we risk poisoning our food supply, inviting plagues of biological pests and upsetting natural balances we do not fully understand. 2) a more immediate threat is that by accepting the money, UCB will distort its own mission. Previous deals between research universities, including this one, and giant corporations have led to a curtailing of free inquiry and outright corruption. The terms of the BP deal would have BP scientists working side-by-side with university researchers, with only a shadowy line on an organization chart and a two-sided floor plan in the physical plant to protect the traditional community of scholars from becoming part of a corporation with a reputation for ruthless pursuit of profit. 3) Strawberry Canyon is a scenic area, with wildlife and air-cleansing forest. It is used by many for recreation. Strawberry Creek flows through it. Putting a large building, a parking lot and utilities into it will decrease its natural and recreational value, and will make run-off problems in the creek worse.  

On Thursday evening, March 21, the Sierra Club sponsored a forum on the BP-UCB deal. The speakers included Professor Ignacio Chapela, who became a hero to many on campus when he survived an attempt to deny him tenure because he exposed an earlier UCB deal with Monsanto that promoted research into GMOs for big agriculture at the expense of research into sustainable and organic farming. Chapela, in the brief time allowed him at the forum, demonstrated that the production of fuel from biomass is inherently inefficient, and also showed that the process would necessarily spell further disaster for rural people in Indonesia and the Amazon, where forests would be cut to grow the grass the project anticipates using. Already these people are being driven to suicide by the destruction of their farms and forests, as Chapela’s slides showed.  

This is an issue that may seem remote from our concerns at the Lodge. But we are downstream from the proposed project—literally in the case of Strawberry Creek. Our food supply is threatened by the spread of GMO technology. We are also endangered because the BP-UCB approach to the energy crisis and global warming pre-empts the sort of research and action that is needed. It is essentially a business-as-usual approach which tries to solve the problems of the oil companies while ignoring the imperative need to learn how to live in harmony with the earth, its natural processes, and the other people who live on it. We need more than a nice attitude toward nature, we need to change the way we live and the way decisions are made. If our hope is that the intellectual power of the university will be brought to bear on this problem, the Sierra Club forum raised a huge doubt that the current UCB administration can be trusted to do the right thing. 

I am writing to you in the hope that you will find a way to influence the university not to accept the BP deal. Understandably, the dean who represented the university at the forum described above was delighted with the money it promises, and was ready with organization charts that did little to allay fears that the university researchers will be, in effect, employees of BP. The influence of corporation money within the university is already a problem. We need the university to research real solutions to the problems of global warming and energy. The BP deal will create a focus exclusively on solutions that benefit BP, to the detriment of objective research. Also, the BP approach threatens the livelihood of farmers wherever it is used, making more enemies for the US worldwide. 

I realize that this is far afield from your main responsibilities, but I think it is of far reaching importance and I hope that you will be able to bring some pressure to bear on the university not to sell out the public interest in this critical area. 

Sincerely, 

Jane Eiseley  

Regarding the draft environmental impact report for UC Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its Long-Range Development Plan: The plans are not right or honest in presenting the whole of your intentions and impacts. 

Here is a short list of suggestions re obvious problems with the plans:  

• We must not venture into new planet-endangering projects like this “Bio-energy Research.” Especially not one like this biofuels project which is gigantic and rushing in disastrous directions for profit, politics, and growth, and which uses concepts that have already brought us to the edge of extinction. We must all begin to do everything we can to ameliorate damage to our planet and to heal and protect our natural environment to stop destroying our earth. We must clean up our act. 

• The original charter for the UC Labs was for research in electricity and energy efficiency. This relatively benign research has been wonderful and seemed safe enough to conduct near the university and our dense population. But radiation, nanotech, synthetic biology research and so forth, should not occur near the university or in populated areas. On an earthquake fault zone is unbelievable. 

• It is time for “Less is More!” Time to downsize. We can’t be planning to grow corporations, universities, or populations. That is madness, selfishness, and greed. But we can clean up our act and there is huge profit in it! And brilliance, benevolence, survival, and Nobel Prizes too! 

• The Helios Computer should stay in Oakland where it is wanted and needed. Moving it to Strawberry Canyon will pollute the air with diesel and other toxic particulates while moving, demolishing, and redeveloping. Moving it to Berkeley would pollute the university’s own nest. The move would pave the earth in a delicate environmentally sensitive zone, and deforest in a wooded canyon at a time when our earth needs the cooling effects of every tree. 

• The UC Lawrence Berkeley Labs should not do this BP/ DOE, Synthetic Biology / commercial venture in Strawberry Canyon or any populated or large-scale area. Yet the planning is already underway for huge wet labs, dry labs, and offices all over Berkeley, and beyond! It is wrong to completely overwhelm a small city like this, and unbelievably wrong for powerful people with shortsighted plans to be fiddling with nature when they know our planet is beginning to burn.  

Merrilie Mitchell is a community watchdog and former candidate for City Council. 

STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We have to blame the downtown problem on something other than the street people or parking. I go to the San Francisco Symphony regularly, and always encounter street people as we walk from BART to Davies Hall. None of my fellow symphony-goers seem terrified by these encounters; we aren’t even bothered by the regulars who ask for spare change at the top of the BART escalator. There sure are a lot of symphony patrons who don’t require parking; there’s always a big crowd of symphony and transit patrons waiting for BART to take us home to the East Bay. 

Steve Geller 

• 

SMART GROWTH  

PARADOX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) has been using its resources to hold workshops with the purpose of selling “smart growth” to politicians and community people. In conjunction, they have recently handed down a quota for new housing units they prophetically expect Bay Area cities to produce. The expectations for Berkeley were so high that even our city’s planning director protested. Berkeley’s downtown planners might heed the consequences experienced by the following cities.  

As reported in the Jan. 7 New York Times, the city of Vancouver has experienced an urban housing renaissance. Their “living first” motive is similar to “new urbanism” and “smart growth.” With encouragement from city planners, developers have built clusters of high density/high-rise residential towers near downtown jobs. However, the profitable use of city center land for high-rise housing has encroached on sites that should have been used for future commercial “job space.” Vancouver is now faced with the prospect of “thousands of people jumping in a car in the morning and heading off to the suburbs for a job.” 

A recent stay in Chicago revealed another twist in “smart growth.” Unrented high-rise office towers have been converted to living spaces; the resulting condos were purchased as second homes by wealthy suburbanites. They use them during the work week, but keep their suburban homes as a weekend getaway from the tumult of the city. Thus concentrating density in the central district has not created open space or farm lands. Chicago is a city with no height limit. One would think that the taxes on 60-90-story high-rise buildings would finance excellent infrastructure; this is not the case. The sidewalks are in poor shape, street signs are missing at intersections, the sewers are smelly, and the subway is dirty, noisy, and a rough ride through a 60-year-old tunnel.  

Here in Berkeley the Downtown Plan Committee is attempting to envision the dimensions and density of our civic center, while aware of the powerful influence of the University that holds a trump card veto. Beyond these factors we have the mighty Hayward Fault that has been of late reminding us of its existence.  

Modest growth reflecting the context of existing buildings, respect for historic sites, preservation of the adjacent neighborhoods, humane living conditions with amenities and necessities should be the goals for the future. The pressure from developers is great. Check out the thousands of dollars they have contributed to defeat land use measures placed on ballots by citizens in the last three elections. 

Let’s learn from other cities such as Vancouver and Chicago and be forewarned of the probable consequences of their actions.  

Martha Nicoloff 

Co-author, Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance 

• 

BOOK PRICES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I, too, feel sad to see the neighborhood bookstores go. Please understand that many people, myself included, cannot go into a bookstore and buy a new book for $25 or more. It is a luxury that I cannot afford more than once or twice a year. When I want something special, I can go online and find a book sometimes for as little as $1 or less. You have to pay for postage, and they’re not new books, but it is a way for everyone who loves books to get them. I am sorry for the stores, but it is bound to happen. 

Barbara Henninger  

• 

ALAMEDA TRAFFIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Mega-projects cause mega-traffic headaches, a fact that Alameda’s city officials don’t recognize or won’t admit. City officials insist on hamstringing our island with a potpourri of large, inappropriate projects that our island’s transportation infrastructure won’t support. If serious action isn’t taken—soon—Alameda residents will find themselves stuck in hour-long traffic jams when leaving the island.  

A regional mall at South Shore, Alameda Point, and Northern Waterfront are just a few of the City’s mega-projects.  

Alameda’s estuary crossings are at capacity. Traffic queues at the tubes are already significant. At the head of the queue, Catellus will get priority, and the new traffic signal installed at Tinker and Webster Street will delay everyone else on Alameda Island. Council has told residents along Otis Drive they must sacrifice their curb space for a bus route to service Alameda Point, yet those living in the new subdivisions won’t have to contend with buses on their own neighborhood streets. Once again, established Alameda residents get the short end of the stick. 

We could learn a lot from other cities, like Pleasanton and Walnut Creek, where careful traffic planning maintains peaceful neighborhood streets, and Target stores are located far away, near freeway off-ramps.  

Alameda Island will have its moment of truth—a day when there won’t be enough money to mitigate all the traffic congestion spawned by out-of-control growth. When that day comes, there will be no turning back. Our fragile quality of life will be gone forever. 

Plain talk is where truth resides. Yet, city officials overwhelm taxpayers with reams of complex documents on projects like Target that stymie even me, a professional traffic engineer. Those at the helm of Alameda city government seem bent on keeping the citizens confused. Why make it so difficult for residents to judge whether a regional mall is a good idea? Could it be that they don’t want you to know the true effects of these projects?  

Eugenie P. Thomson  

• 

LIBRARY’S  

NEW TAPESTRY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to Zelda Bronstein and the Planet for a great article about the new and wonderful tapestry in the Children’s Story Room at the Central Library. It really is a beautiful representation of all that’s great about our city and we encourage the community to come down to the Central Library and enjoy it themselves. 

Linda Schacht Gage 

President, Berkeley Public Library Foundation 

• 

UNDERCURRENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing regarding the Friday, March 23 column by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor (“Barack Obama and the Long, Winding Road of Race”). I found his piece thought-provoking, fascinating, horrifying, and, yes, heartbreaking. I’m glad that he wrote it and equally glad that I read it. I’m also glad that he writes for the Daily Planet. I hope he will continue to work for the Planet, both as a journalist and as a columnist, for a long time to come.  

Cheers to Mr. Allen-Taylor and the Planet. 

David Mitchell 

• 

THE HOMELESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is in response to two of the letters in the March 23 Daily Planet regarding the homeless. (One of these letters is headed “Public Parasitism” and the other is titled “God Bless” and applauds Mayor Bates for “finally eliminating the vermin that pollute downtown Berkeley.”)  

It is really quite amazing that even in Berkeley one can find such ignorance about the current condition which has caused homelessness. Many of the people who are on the street are either mentally or physically ill and are obviously unable to work. Many of those who have mental problems would have been in psychiatric hospitals, if President Reagan had not closed them. Others are unable to find work, because of our economy going downhill and businesses closing. President Clinton “modified” Public Assistance, so that those who need it are unable to receive any funds after they have been on assistance an aggregate of five years, total! When we still had public assistance, those in need used to be able to get a room and food stamps. 

Many years ago before all of the above happened, we hardly ever saw any homeless on the streets, not because the homeless have changed basically, but because laws of the land have become more brutal since those days! There will always be those who are more disadvantaged for one reason or another and it is up to us citizens to see to it that our laws will once again become more humane and that our more disadvantaged citizens are cared for. I do hope that the “good citizens” who wrote these letters will never find themselves in the position in which the homeless are. It can’t be much fun! 

Ilse Hadda 

• 

MASTERFUL SATIRE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Interesting pair of letters about the homeless in the last issue. Two letters so similar in tone and yet so different in intent. Which of the two, (a) expressed the writer’s true feelings, (b) was a well-crafted piece of satire? Was Andrew Ritchie, annoyed that the police couldn’t “get rid of the guy,” expressing his true feelings (maybe there is a homeless landfill somewhere), or was it Evan Magers, thanking the Mayor for finally “eliminating the human vermin that pollute downtown Berkeley”? Please reread both letters and give your answer. I’ve already made my choice and all I have to say is that Andrew Ritchie had better be a master satirist, because otherwise he ought to be ashamed of himself. On the other hand Evan Magers gets my vote for the Jonathan Swift Award if there is such a thing in the Bush era. 

One other important matter: I want to offer high praise for the work of J. Douglas Allen-Taylor and Conn Hallinan. Undercurrents and Dispatches From The Edge contain some of the finest writing on the most interesting subject matter to be seen anywhere. Thank you Daily Planet for supporting their work. 

Peter Josheff 

El Cerrito 

• 

THE BERKELEY ZOO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley is a nice place not to have a home—assuming that you have to be homeless. That was the opinion of a homeless former employee of mine. He is single, 31 years old, articulate, HIV-positive, periodically drug-addicted, occasionally arrested, and for three years chronically homeless. Indeed, the attraction of Berkeley to persons with this demographic profile was confirmed in the 2004 Alameda County-wide Shelter and Services Survey, which found that 41 percent of the entire chronically homeless population of Alameda County received services in Berkeley. Berkeley Homeless Policy Coordinator Jane Micallef reportedly explained this excessively large percentage as a result of (1) availability of services, (2) the community’s relative tolerance of homeless people, and (3) the safety that homeless people feel in Berkeley. My former employee, Jason (not his real name), added a fourth reason: “It’s fun.” He approvingly referred to Telegraph Avenue as “the zoo.” 

Getting Jason off drugs and the street has been a struggle. He refused to move to a socially dull area such as western Washington state where housing was offered to him. In the past four years, I have given him between $4,000 and $5,000 cash in small amounts to provide temporary housing, drug treatment, and encourage productive activities because this young man has so much potential. The outcome of my efforts, and that of numerous public and private agencies, is uncertain. 

Being homeless is far from pleasant. But my experience suggests that a lax attitude toward loitering and inappropriate street behavior increases the probability that more people like Jason will find Berkeley a relatively fun place to be. The present situation that makes walking on Telegraph Avenue or downtown Berkeley unpleasant or unsafe is not a sacrifice that citizens should make in order to help the homeless. I support Mayor Bates’ proposal for a “Public Commons for Everyone.” 

Robert Gable 

• 

MARCHING AGAINST THE WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to Becky O’Malley for her wonderful March 20 editorial. I have gone to numerous peace marches myself—with or without my family. They are useful but only have a limited effect in changing the course of the war and there is less attendance from those of us who passionately believe we have to take some action to end this senseless slaughter. I am also grateful to Becky for her previous endorsement of Jerry McNerney. I am convinced that the best way to make changes in this administration is to support and elect candidates in future elections such as Jerry McNerney who are totally dedicated in representing us in the House and Senate. I am adding the McNerney’s envelope to my bills to pay. We will get a lot in return. 

Andree Leenaers Smith 

• 

ANOTHER DAY IN  

SOUTH BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’d just like to relate a little scene I witnessed today, so contrary to the recent letter you printed lauding the restrained behavior of the Berkeley Police Department. 

So I’m riding my bike down Sacramento when a kid runs in front of me across the street. It then becomes apparent that he’s being chased by two Berkeley cops, a woman followed a few steps behind by a beefy guy. The woman is running pretty much full speed, while the man is chuckling as he hustles after her, apparently in response to some comic aspect of the chase. 

I ride on, chalking it up to just another day in the ‘hood. But wait; there’s more. 

As I continue on down Sacramento, not 30 seconds later the first of four—count ‘em—four cop cars comes screaming towards me on the opposite side, lights flashing. Four cars to chase one teenage kid. (From what I saw, my guess would be that he was probably not armed, just a frightened kid vainly trying to outrun the law.) Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on criminology or the details of police work, but it does strike me as a tad bit overkill to have a small armada of police cars zooming to stop what? a poor hapless kid, running from the cops? By the time I left the scene, the kid had run into someone’s back yard. The chances that he was going to get away were pretty small. My point: Is it really necessary for the police to respond with such overwhelming force to the slightest provocation? I remember seeing much the same scene several years ago when I went to gas up my car and found the gas station crawling with police: six or seven Oakland cop cars. When I asked someone there what was going on, I was told that it was “a fight.” While I do appreciate having the police show up in a timely manner should I need them, with enough force to handle the situation, I question the need to ratchet up the level of response to what seem like petty infractions that could easily be handled with far less deadly force. The same goes for police chases, especially high-speed chases, such as the one I witnessed not long ago in West Berkeley; I intend to write on this subject separately soon. 

And I don’t mean by this to impugn any individual officers: that laughing cop seemed to have a pretty good grasp on the dimensions of the situation. As the other letter writer stated, I’m sure there are decent men and women on the force. I would suspect that the problem is really systemic, coming from the top command levels. And it’s certainly not confined to Berkeley, but seems to be standard police practice in the United States. What’s needed is a demilitarization of our civilian law enforcement agencies, and a serious reevaluation of their response to various recurring situations like the one I witnessed. 

David Nebenzahl 

North Oakland 

• 

PLACES OF SELF-DISCOVERY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am preoccupied with the question of how we can make elementary school classrooms places of self-discovery for our children. Two things are lacking: a supply of teachers who love to teach, and training in restoring the self-confidence of children who come from stressful family situations. How shall we encourage the idealism of teachers? How shall we recognize the imperfect character of the home environment for many children? We want all our children to become self-learners. More is needed to achieve such goal than the No Child Left Behind Act. 

Romila Khanna 

• 

BARBARA LEE, SEAN PENN  

AND KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the well-attended Barbara Lee’s Townhall meeting featuring a live speech by special guest of the congresswoman, Sean Penn on Saturday, March 24 at the Grand Lake theatre in Oakland. The next two days saw coverage of this event and/or Mr. Penn’s speech all over the Planet, so to speak. The one voice I did not hear was that of KPFA, our radical radio station in the KPFA. 

(As an aside, KPFA is in the midst of a debate whether programmers are even allowed to advocate for political candidates, rallies or protests during their particular program or even if ads can advocate political issues or candidates. This debate, mind you, is taking place right this week in Berkeley, the heart of advocacy in the state of Caifornia and possibly, the whole country.) 

Meanwhile, the Lee rally-like event that took place in Oakland, which is next door to Berkeley, had scores of television and radio people set up before the beginning of the program. Because I had been the time-keeper for several of the speakers, I had been at the program an hour before watching these media people get ready for the event. Where was KPFA? At the end of the program when Ms. Lee was being escorted out she was stopped by several media people, and one of them was a reporter from KPFA. This is all that KPFA is going to report on? Several remarks from Ms. Lee? Why wasn’t KPFA there to tape the entire program for its audience? Why are we forced to go elsewhere for important political and social information given out at events such as this one held by Ms. Lee? This is an annual event since the war on Iraq began and Ms. Lee has consistently been the leader in this country in voting against this horrible war and national outlets give her more coverage than our local radical radio station. Why is this? We as listeners have to demand more accountability from KPFA. The world is going absolutely nuts and one just wants to turn on the local alternative, radical news station to find out what is going on and what we get most of the time is world music.  

KPFA, you look so provincial. When C-SPAN is more informative about local situations than you are, then we have to reconsider the trust we have in you to keep us informed! 

Nancy Keiler 

San Francisco  

While we were still stunned and unguarded, 

Our troops were deployed, then departed. 

Will the crooks in denial 

Be forced to face trial, 

Admitting our leader’s retarded? 

—O.V. Michaelsen

The law of the jungle is survival of the fittest; the law of civilization is cooperation! 

I had walked by the same one-story office building in Hayward for over a year on my way to work, often waving good morning to the occupants, but only rarely getting a wave back. One day a woman ran from that building to my office, which was down the street, screaming, “Help! Help! He stole my purse!” “Who?” I said. She pointed to a white male running down the street. I took off in hot pursuit. He was not slowing down. He zigzagged through traffic, tried to hide behind bushes and jumped over a number of fences. I continued to follow. Eventually he jumped over a fence and I heard the sounds of dogs barking. I stopped. I was eight blocks away from where I started, out of breath and figured I had done enough. In a few minutes the women whose purse was stolen pulled up in a police car. I told the officer which direction the assailant was running and got in the back seat of the police car. He drove us back to the street we worked on. As we pulled up in front of her job, her co-workers started yelling excitedly “You got him! You got him!” Pointing at me in the backseat of the car!  

Community courage is about personal courage. It has taken individual courage to achieve the gains we’ve achieved through the civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights and ultimately the human rights movements that state we don’t want to be segregated, but welcome and encourage multi-ethnic, racial, cultural and religious participation. If we want to live in a society like that, we need to all be involved. If not in this nation, at least in Berkeley! I may be mistaken, but I thought that’s what Berkeley was all about! But here we go again!  

Now—about the Public Commons for Everyone Initiative (PCEI).  

Community standards should not just be about how the have-nots, can-nots and will-nots should and don’t behave, but also how we who are housed, well educated, well fed and paid should behave to protect the lessors if we care about an integrated and free society. 

He was grabbing her by her hair, kicking her and punching her in the face. My friend and I who were walking by grabbed him and shoved him against a wall. The women he was beating turned to us and said “Get your hands off my husband.”  

I remember Selma, Alabama, dogs, hoses, Montgomery bus boycott, sit-ins, beatings, and it all happened in my lifetime. So please don’t blame me if I sometimes question the authorities who were agents of my discrimination, and my government that sanctioned it, and who made it the law of the land. When it comes to deciding how the public should behave and who is right and who is wrong. I think America’s track record is tainted.  

She must have been close to 80 years old with a walker alone on Shattuck Avenue, near Oscar’s hamburgers. Someone she didn’t know ran up screaming in a psychotic rage, “You bitch you owe me.” She was terrified. I intervened and said, “Back off man.” Now his rage was directed at me. We argued. A car pulled over and four guys jumped out, and in a few minutes a crowd formed, and for no reason, was convinced I was harassing an old woman on the street. Fortunatelyf before I was attacked, she convinced the crowd (mob) that I was the good guy! 

Let’s call it what it is! If you don’t want to see poor people begging on the streets or if that embarrasses you to out- of-town visitors, you can’t hide it under the rug by penalizing bad behavior in one part of town but not the other. It should be a community standard, supported by community courage. If you want to stop panhandling, maybe we need to stop poverty or redistribute the nation’s wealth and stop blaming the victims. How can three people dictate the lives of 50! It’s a lack of courage, it’s our fault. If you see bad behavior, resist it, report it, and sometimes you may have to intervene. We don’t need new laws. We need each other! Community courage does not mean you have to chase people down the street or wrestle with evil doers. We need to take more interest in things beyond our selves and our immediate family. Fear is our enemy, not poor people! 

To me, public safety is not threatened by a person with a cup on a corner. And even though when I have intervened to help people in the past and been accused of being the wrongdoer, that’s the price of freedom in America and I’m willing to pay the price—are you? I’ve got your back! Do you have mine? 

Winston Burton is a member of the Downtown Plan Committee. 

By Diane Douglas, David Schweidel, Rachel Greenberg, Sunny Solis, Darryl Dickerhoff and Lori Simpson 

Wednesday night, the Berkeley School Board plans a vote on the elimination of sixth grade at Berkeley Arts Magnet elementary school (BAM). We believe that this action has serious implications for the viability of the arts program at BAM, in addition to the academic and social success of some students. 

The unfortunate fact is that only six fifth-grade families have requested BAM for sixth grade next year. BUT there is more to the story than the school district’s stated decline in interest in the sixth grade model at BAM. 

For nearly 20 years, BAM has offered an arts-intensive educational experience for children, called “Artist Time.” This program has been supported significantly by voter-approved BSEP/Measure A parcel tax funds. From kindergarten through third grade, BAM students pursue four art forms through the week—drama, dance, percussion, and visual art. In fourth grade, some arts specialization begins, and by the fifth and sixth grades, students make their choice to pursue one art form throughout the entire year. Many students who may be struggling with math and literacy skills demonstrate a profound ability to focus and concentrate on a particular art form, and they often experience a level of success that translates to better learning habits and improved academic performance.  

This year, our new school principal made sweeping changes to the Artist Time program by removing the component of specialization—without consulting the school’s BSEP committee of parents and teachers. The option of choice for the older children was removed. The fifth and sixth graders were devastated to find out on their first day of school that they would not be able to choose a specialization after working toward that end since their early days at the school. 

There are many parents and teachers who believe that having at least one elementary school in the district with a sixth grade is important. Not all children are developmentally ready for the larger middle school setting—some children benefit from an extra year of familiar surroundings. As parents of BAM sixth graders and BAM graduates, we can tell you that our sixth-grade curriculum has been as rigorous as that at the middle schools, and BAM students come to seventh grade well-prepared to succeed.  

Superintendent Michele Lawrence has said that there is data indicating that students who begin middle school in Berkeley in sixth grade do better than students who enter middle school in seventh grade. It is unclear how to interpret this statement, given that there are a large number of students coming from outside BUSD at this grade level. Nonetheless, we would be surprised if BAM’s sixth graders did not show equal or superior academic performance entering middle school as seventh graders. If you look at outstanding graduates at Berkeley High in any recent year, you will find that BAM has had more than its share. 

Many families and teachers have chosen BAM because of its strong commitment to the arts and to academics. We are concerned that our Artist Time program is being targeted as an obstacle to academic achievement, when there is abundant evidence that the arts foster achievement. When BAM was a California Distinguished School, we had high achievement and a great arts program.  

Our school went through two lengthy and wide-ranging assessment processes in recent years. There was a very broad consensus among parents and teachers about the importance of maintaining and developing a strong arts program; working to close the achievement gap; building community among students, parents, teachers, and staff; and establishing a school-wide program for resolving conflicts and promoting understanding. That extensive body of work appears to have gone by the wayside. 

The shortfall of enrollees in the sixth-grade program at BAM for next year is certainly in part a result of many decisions that have weakened our arts program and hindered communication within the school. Sixth grade at BAM may not be the choice for all but we would like to see it remain as a choice.  

We are holding a rally outside of Old City Hall before the board meeting to show our support for BAM’s unique programs. At the meeting, we plan to ask the School Board to consider a one-year moratorium on the sixth-grade program at BAM. If, next year, fifth graders are allowed to choose an arts specialization, and if teachers are allowed more voice in the direction of the school, then BAM and its sixth grade can flourish. Otherwise, we’re in danger of losing many of the teachers and families who chose BAM in part because of its thriving arts program and its superior sixth grade. The sixth grade is one of the many aspects of BAM that makes this school unique and deserving of everyone’s support. 

Diane Douglas, David Schweidel, Rachel Greenberg, Sunny Solis, Darryl Dickerhoff and Lori Simpson are parents of BAM students, and represent current and former PTA and BSEP committee members. 

Ten years or so ago, the new-born Downtown Berkeley Association flexed its taxpayer-funded muscle and pressured the City Council to pass a raft of laws against “problematic street behavior,” widely touted as responsible for local economic decline. 

The citizen panel empowered by the City Council to share the responsibility for the obvious unconstitutional aspects deferred to the city attorney, civil libertarians predictably revolted, hundreds of people wasted thousands of hours working on referendums, the issue finally floated into court, where more taxpayer-funded hours were spent arguing on behalf of, arguably, the richest people in town versus the poor. Why are we here again? The University of California has again hired an expensive consultant group, MKThink, to waste $100,000 of public funds trying to “design” the poor out of People’s Park, and Mayor Tom Bates, following in his wife’s, former mayor Loni Hancock’s, shoes, is ready for another pound-on-the-poor proposal to either ticket them, jail them, or move this already exhausted group from one part of town to the other, probably criminalizing sitting on a milk crate in the bargain. The proposal is called, ironically enough, the “Public Commons for Everyone Initiative.” 

We’re here again because the current City Council majority would rather waste the money than take a stand for civil liberties, a stand which might be construed by their constitutionally impaired business constituencies as “soft” on panhandlers, milk crate sitters, and lost kids caught between a hardened, often brutally violent home and whatever comes next. 

The current council majority doesn’t mind if local, state, or federal legal protections for the poor are manicured by the courts once again in favor of profit. That costs nothing, if you don’t count staff time dreaming up the exotic language needed to skirt constitutional protections. The payoff is looking as if you care to the business groups, such as the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA), which have no patience with people who suggest that their customers should share the streets with the poor. They know their Rodeo Drive-style patrons have trouble spending $400 on shoes anywhere near people who obviously need new ones. 

The payoff is also in not having to look at or implicate the skyrocketing rents being asked by the DBA’s often absentee property owners, which have driven anchor businesses out of town or out of business altogether after decades of serving Berkeley’s public. The DBA property owners are the group least likely to blame themselves for making it impossible to do business in Berkeley. And the people who need their campaign funds are the least likely to point it out. It’s easier, much easier, to point a finger at the poor. 

Be assured, as this foolish raft of business-driven prohibitions takes wing, that politicians are adept at walking the delicate path required to imitate support for the local economy while simultaneously imitating respect for human rights. But don’t expect anyone along the way to ask the real questions, chief among them, “how much money is enough?” Property owners who drive out long-standing businesses with sky-high rents are less visible but do much more damage than the down-and-out fellow asking for spare change. 

Carol Denney is a Berkeley musician and activist.

Regarding the current battle at the Fantasy Building, where its new owner, San Rafael-based Wareham Property Group, is threatening Berkeley’s community of independent filmmakers with skyrocketing rents and odious-termed leases: 

Chris Barlow of Wareham had the nerve to stand up before the Berkeley City Council last Tuesday and falsely state that Wareham’s proposed 40-100 percent rent increases would “bring rents up to market level” after years of the filmmakers benefiting from the “patronage” of former building owner Saul Zaentz. Hogwash. I am a filmmaker who has rented office and editing space in the Fantasy building for the past 16 years. These are the facts: 

In early 2005, the standard room with a window in the Fantasy Building was renting for $2 per square foot, which was at or slightly above market level at the time. In May 2005, in preparation for the sale of the building, rents for those same rooms were raised across the board, to $3 per square foot for some of the rooms—a 50 percent increase—and $3.25 for others—a 63 percent increase. Today, the proposed rent increases by Wareham, to begin April 1, bump those already inflated rents, in steps, to (at a minimum) 10 percent, then 25 percent, then 40 percent, and (Wareham’s increases seem to be arbitrary) for some to as much as 100 percent of what they are now, all in as few as 18 months. The new 2008 rates would reach $4.06-$6.08 per square foot. Is this “up to market level” as Barlow claims? More like double or triple. Current market rate for similar space in West Berkeley runs about $1.50-$2 per square foot. 

Why don’t we all just move if the rates are so far above market? We will have to if the situation doesn’t change. But what we are trying to do is to keep our unique and close-knit community together. Among us, we are writers, editors, producers, directors, camerapeople, sound artists, radio producers and a non-profit agency providing media and advocacy for the deaf. We trade resources and equipment, give each other feedback on rough-cuts, provide sound design, mixing, narration and graphic design, re-write and critique, and collaborate in ways too many to mention. It is not an accident that 14 Oscar-nominated documentary films were produced by our Fantasy community, from Berkeley in the Sixties to Daughter from Danang, from Freedom on My Mind to Forever Activists: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Our productions regularly appear at Sundance and other prestigious film festivals, win Cine Eagle, Peabody and Emmy awards and get national TV exposure, including two American Experience PBS broadcasts in the next three weeks. 

If we are forced to disperse, Berkeley will lose a valuable community, one that has put Berkeley on the filmmaking map with the nation’s leading social-issue documentaries. We will look for a new home together, but may well have to settle on little enclaves, perhaps in Emeryville, Oakland, El Cerrito, Richmond or San Francisco. The collaborative juice—the heart of our filmmaking community—would be diminished.  

And it would be a black eye for Berkeley. What a shame to see that happen just because one out-of-town developer wants to make a buck. We need the help and support of Berkeley’s city government as well as the people of Berkeley to ensure that does not happen.  

A special session of the Berkeley City Council has been called by mayor Tom Bates to deal with this issue at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 27. Join us there. 

Rick Goldsmith is a Berkeley filmmaker. 

When the Bush administration recently unveiled its new African military command—AFRICOM— Deputy Assistant Sec. of Defense Teresa Whalen said that the initiative was aimed at “promoting security, to build African capacity to build their own environments and not be subject to the instability that has toppled governments and caused so much pain on the continent.”  

And yet hardly was the announcement made when the Bush administration organized the overthrow of the first stable government Somalia has had since 1991, stirring up a hornet’s nest of regional rivalries in the strategic Horn of Africa. 

When the Ethiopian Army stormed across the border in late December to support the besieged and isolated Transitional Federal Government (TFG), it was accompanied by U.S. Special Forces. The United States also provided the Ethiopians with “up-to date intelligence on the military positions of the Islamic figures in Somalia,” Pentagon and counterterrorism officials told the New York Times.  

The target of the invasion was the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which over the past year had brought a modicum of peace to the warlord-riven country. Since the poorly armed ICU militias were routed, fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, has sharply escalated. 

The situation here [Mogadishu] is out of control,” Ali Said Omar, chair of the Center for Peace and Democracy, told the Guardian.  

The ostensible reason for U.S. participation in the invasion was the ICU’s supposed association with al Qaeda, a charge that has never been substantiated. United States warplanes and ships shelled and rocketed parts of southern Somalia where, according to Oxfam and the UN Refugee Center, 70 civilians died and more than 100 were wounded.  

But the White House’s plans for Africa reach far beyond the Horn, and are part of a general militarization of U.S. foreign policy. A recent Congressional report found that “some embassies have effectively become command posts, with military personnel in those countries all but supplanting the role of ambassadors in conducting American foreign policy.”  

The U.S. is already pouring $500 million into its Trans-Sahel Counterterrorism Initiative that embraces Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria in North Africa, and nations boarding the Sahara including Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Chad and Senegal. The United States currently has a major base in Djibouti that houses some 1,800 troops and which played an important role in the Somalian invasion.  

A major focus of AFRICOM will be the Gulf of Guinea, with its enormous oil reserves in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola and the Congo Republic. It is estimated that by 2015, Africa will provide a quarter of all U.S. oil imports.  

Some of those countries are plagued by exactly the kind of “instability” that AFRICOM was created to deal with. A year ago, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) shut down one fifth of Nigeria’s oil production through a series of attacks on pumping stations and oil rigs.  

“Though all the eyes of the public seem focused on the atomic ambitions of Iran, Nigeria is at the greatest risk of oil disruption today,” Peter Tertzakian, chief energy at ARC Financial Corporation told the Financial Times. Nigeria is the world’s eighth largest oil exporter. 

General James L. Jones, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supreme commander, says the U.S.-dominated military alliance is “talking” about using its forces to protect oil tankers off the west coast of Africa and to provide security, according to the Associated Press, for “storage and production facilities in areas such as the oil-rich Niger Delta.”  

NATO is doing more than talking. In June of last year, NATO troops stormed ashore at Vila Dos Espargos on the Cape Verde Islands. The war game modeled intervening in a civil war over energy resources.  

If NATO were to “provide security” in the strategic Niger Delta, it would find itself in the middle of an enormously complex political situation that pits local people fighting for a bigger slice of the resource pie against corrupt elites allied with transnational oil giants like ExxonMobile, Chevron, Shell, France’s Total, and Italy’s ENI. 

A spokesman for MEND, Jomo Gbomo, charged that “oil is the key concern of the United States in establishing its African command,” and warned “we will fight everyone who goes on the side of the Nigerian government, regardless of who.” 

While the United States says its focus is on “terrorism,” Nicole Lee of TransAfrica, the leading African American organization focusing on Africa, says “This [AFRICOM] is nothing short of a sovereignty and resource grab.” 

It’s also about the new energy-hungry kids on the block. China has invested $4 billion in the Nigerian oil infrastructure and is pouring money into Gabon, Angola and Chad. India, Malaysia and South Korea have also joined the oil rush, along with competing for copper from Zambia, platinum from Zimbabwe, timber from the Congo, and iron ore from South Africa. In a strange reversal of the 19th century, former colonies are going head to head with their old masters in the race for raw materials. 

The Bush administration has long considered the control of resources like oil to be a strategic issue. In 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney’s National Energy Policy Development Group recommended that the administration “make energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy,” a blueprint the White House has religiously followed.  

In 2002, the administration also rolled out its “West Point Doctrine,” which in essence said that the United States would not permit the development of a major economic, political or military competitor. 

Both of these policies are increasingly running up against China, the fourth largest economy in the world. When the United States pressured the International Monetary Fund to withhold loans to Angola, the Chinese stepped in with $2 billion. When the United States ringed the Sudan with sanctions over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, China invested $4 billion in the East African country’s oil industry. Sudan may have the largest untapped reserves in Africa and exports about 200,000 barrels a day to China.  

The Sudan is one of those places where the good guys and the bad guys seemed clearly etched. But up close, things are considerably more complex. The tragedy unfolding in Darfur is fueled in part by competition between nomads and agriculturalists. But it is also a proxy war between Sudanese elites in Khartoum as well as an arena for regional competition between Sudan, Chad, and Niger. Lost in the images we have of burned villages and destitute refugees is the issue of oil. 

The vast bulk of Sudan’s oil is in its south, where a long-running civil war is currently dormant. But in 2011 the south will hold a referendum to decide whether it will remain part of Sudan or become independent. Will western oil companies that pulled up stakes in the 1980s and decamped to Chad push southerners to vote for independence so they can move back in? Will Khartoum really accept a breakup of the country? 

The bottom line is that Sudan, like Somalia, Nigeria, and most African countries, are complex places, where military solutions are likely to cause problems, not solve them. There is also fear, according to Nigerian journalist Dulue Mbachu, “that increased U.S. military presence in Africa may simply serve to protect unpopular regimes that are friendly to its interests, as was the case during the Cold War, while Africa slips further into poverty.” 

“There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house,” Lewis Carroll writes in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, “and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea in it; a Dormouse was sitting between them… The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it. … Alice … sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. … ‘I want a clean cup,’ interrupted the Hatter [after they had eaten for a while]: ‘let’s all move one place on.’ He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouse’s place, and Alice rather unwillingly took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any advantage from the change; and Alice was a good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate.” 

And so Jerry Brown, our particular version of the Mad Hatter, has moved on from his previous job as Mayor of Oakland to a new “clean spot” in the state attorney general’s office, while we who remain behind must straighten up the mess he has left in his wake. 

In the last few days comes news of two more such political brownfields left by Mr. Brown, one whose effects will be felt immediately, one whose residue will linger throughout the ages. 

First, the immediate mess. 

In a March 23 article in the Oakland Tribune, reporter Heather MacDonald writes that “less than a year after reveling in a $16 million surplus, the City Council must grapple with a projected budget deficit of nearly $13.5million.” 

The article’s headline says that the projected $13.5 million deficit is for the next fiscal year; it’s actually projected for the next budget cycle, which is for a two-year period. Still, that’s a lot of money to be in the hole, even over a two-year period, and a big swing from the surplus fiscal year 2005-07 budget. And, in fact, there are rumors circulating around Oakland City Hall that the actual budget shortfall—rather than the one reported to City Council and the mayor’s office by the city administrator’s office—could be considerably higher, a nasty surprise given to the incoming Dellums Administration in its first days in office. But that’s a story for another time. 

As for the official $13.5 million two-year budget deficit, how did the city get so deep in the hole so quickly? 

The Tribune’s Ms. MacDonald speculates it is City Council’s fault, writing in her second paragraph that “the council spent the surplus on a host of programs, including tree-trimming and roof repairs. In addition, each council member got $250,000 to spend as they wished on projects and programs in their districts.” 

Even if that explains how the surplus got eaten up—and we’re not yet sure it does—it doesn’t reveal why the city has failed to take in the tax and fee revenue that it was raking in only a year ago. Ms. MacDonald moves on to that issue in the next paragraph of her story, where she writes that Oakland’s tax base withered with the cooling off of the housing market. “Because Oakland has few shops and stores,” she says, “the city’s budget relies heavily on property and real estate transfer taxes, leaving it vulnerable to the highs and lows of the housing market. Most large cities in California get a much larger percentage of their total revenue from sales tax than Oakland does, officials said.”  

Actually, the way city tax revenue is structured by law in the post-Prop 13 era is that cities make money on retail, and lose money on housing. That’s why California cities are always battling over new retail development. Only Oakland, in its strange wisdom, seems to be giving gobs of subsidies away to attract housing developers. 

Meanwhile, in her article on Oakland’s budget dilemma, Ms. MacDonald goes on to quote or refer to several city officials and citizens in her article: Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Pat Kernighan, Mayor Ron Dellums, Mr. Dellums’ Budget and Policy Director Dan Lindheim, even Budget Advisory Committee member Mike Petouhoff, all of whom talked about how the potential budget deficit can be closed. But one name left conspicuously out of the article is probably the one person whose policies are most responsible for that gap: Jerry Brown. 

We’ve walked this particular ground several times before, so it is remarkable how quickly this is forgotten. 

Mr. Brown swept into the mayor’s office in 1998 in part on his dazzling 10k plan promise to revitalize Oakland’s downtown retail core. The plan was always thin on the endgame details—Mr. Brown always said, for example, that retail would build in downtown once the 10,000 new residents moved in, but we were always expected to take that on faith rather than being shown a plan or solid commitments on paper. Meanwhile, 10k was such a catchy phrase, and poor Oakland, like the actress Sally Fields at the Academy Awards, was so starved for someone from the outside who actually acted like they liked us, that the skeptics and our doubts were swept away in the general euphoria and fits of expectation that Mr. Brown was going to “put Oakland on the map.” 

Mr. Brown has come and gone, his 10,000 people are either already living in downtown Oakland or soon to be here, the retail has not yet followed, and the map of the Bay Area looks pretty much the way it did eight years ago. We are told that the Forest City uptown project will be the answer, and the commercial revenues will come flowing as soon as that project is completed. But we’ve been told a lot of things before, and while construction is booming in the uptown area, a single quarter has yet to be dropped into a store cash register as a result of that development. So we will wait and see. 

But budget shortfalls come and go, and Oakland will get through this one, as we have gotten through all the others. The second revealed mess we recently learned Mr. Brown left behind will not be so easily cleaned up, however. That would be the discovery that on his way out the door at Frank Ogawa Plaza, Mr. Brown’s staff either took or destroyed some amount of office records from his two four-year terms. Nobody outside of Brown’s staff knows which records, or how many, although only a handful have reportedly been discovered and recovered, so far. 

“We got rid of all the stuff that we thought was electronically backed up,” the Tribune reported one of Mr. Brown’s former aides as saying. “A lot of things were thrown away, Raiders documents, things like that.” 

And according to the Tribune, a current Brown aid in the Attorney General’s office, Nathan Barankin, “said Brown is a notoriously poor record-keeper, that he didn’t generate many records to begin with and that copies of any destroyed documents were likely available elsewhere in city government. Barankin, who did not work for Brown in Oakland, said that after looking into the issue for several days he believed that no crime occurred. ‘Copies are around. It ought to be all findable,’ he said. ‘No records were improperly disposed of.’” So says Mr. Barankin. 

But why were records from Mr. Brown’s terms as mayor disposed of at all? Two possible reasons might be suggested. 

The first is that Mr. Brown was being tidy, and wanted to leave a neat, clean office for the new occupant. Only Lewis Carroll, at his best absurdity, would try to assert that this was the case, however. 

The second possible reason for the wholesale records disposal is that there was something in the records that Mr. Brown did not want us to see, either documents which show something which he did, or documents which demonstrate how little he did on Oakland business while he was in office. Perhaps both. Public records requests stemming from the time before the documents turned up missing, for example, showed that Mr. Brown spent considerable time raising money for his private schools, when we were paying him to work on city business. 

And some people wonder why I keep writing about Jerry Brown. 

But this is speculation, why the mayoral records were taken or destroyed, and in the end, this is a point-story, and that is not the point. The records of a mayor are the property of the citizens of the city and taking them or destroying them is a criminal act, in the same way that embezzling city money would be a criminal act, or chipping out some of the marble from the City Hall stairway on your way out the door and slipping it into your pocket. It robs Oakland of its history, and cripples our ability to document the actions of our city government over the past eight years, actions for which we paid with our tax money. In lawsuits and the confusions generated by our inability to understand the roots of various city policies generated during Mr. Brown’s terms, we will probably continue to pay, many times over, for many years to come. 

Part of the lost records, for example, might explain how Oakland went from a budget surplus to a budget deficit in the last year of Mr. Brown’s second term. Who knows? 

In Alice In Wonderland, Alice walks away from the Mad Hatter’s tea party in disgust, leaving the Hatter and his friends to their madness. In real life, it has been the opposite, with the Hatter himself—Mr. Brown—walking away from the mess. But there is an irony to the Oakland situation that Mr. Carroll—the master of political absurdity—would have appreciated. If anyone wants to determine whether the former mayor of Oakland committed a crime in disposing of city records on his way out the door, whose office do you suppose would be the logical stop for such a legal determination? If you guessed the office of the California Attorney General, where Mr. Brown now sits, you win a prize.  

On February 23, 1924, the weekly newspaper The Courier announced that the rapidly expanding American Bank, headquartered at 16th Street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, had purchased the College National Bank of Berkeley. American Bank was headed by Phillip E. Bowles, a University of California alumnus and regent from 1911 to 1922. Bowles Hall, UC’s first student residence hall, would be endowed by his widow in his name. 

Bowles’ equivalent at College National Bank was Frank Ernest Heath (1866–1951), the leading dairyman in these parts. Having begun as a cable-car gripman and streetcar conductor in San Francisco, Heath bought a small Alameda dairy in 1900. After acquiring several Oakland dairies, in 1906 Heath purchased Berkeley Farm Creamery on Allston Way, current site of the Gaia Building. 

Initially a small plant, Berkeley Farm Creamery was transformed by Heath into one of the largest in the west, with seven hundred milk cows producing 8,000 gallons a day and gross sales of $2,750,000 in 1927. 

The College National Bank was organized in 1919 under charter No. 11495. Like hundreds of other small California banks, it printed its own national currency banknotes. By 1923, the bank had expanded to such an extent that it was able to construct its own building on the northwest corner of Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street in downtown Berkeley. 

The site where the new bank building was to be erected was not empty. For several decades, it had been occupied by a three-story building with window bays along its two facades. Topped by a conical witch’s hat, its round corner turret served as companion to the corresponding domed turret on the Francis K. Shattuck Building across Addison Street. On the ground floor, this building contained three storefronts that varied over the years from picture-framing and paint stores to a candy factory. Upstairs there were offices and rooms.  

In January 1923, the Courier announced the completion of the wrecking of the site for the College National Bank, and excavation for the new building began the following month. 

The new edifice, opened in December 1923, was a temple of commerce in appearance as well as in function. It was designed by Oakland architect Charles W. McCall, who had built the Mission Revival Webb Block on the corner of Ashby and Adeline in 1905. This time, McCall used a hybrid modernist-Greek Revival style, executed in concrete. The traditional Greek triangular pediment was replaced by a flat parapet, and the Addison Street facade featured seven two-story-high windows separated by plain concrete columns. Along the Shattuck Ave. facade, four Doric columns stood guard over the recessed entrance. 

The building may have been designed to last forever, but its life was remarkably short. Possibly as a result of the Great Depression, College National Bank vacated its home. In December 1931, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that the Berkeley Municipal Christmas Tree Committee had opened temporary quarters in the vacant building in order to collect shoes, stockings, and warm underwear gifts for underprivileged children and needy elderly folk. 

Enter Samuel Henry Kress (1863–1955) and his five-and-dime empire. Established in 1896, S.H. Kress & Company is described in the Kress Foundation’s history as having “operated a chain of distinctive, elegant buildings purveying cheerful, low-priced notions and durable household wares. Designed to exacting company standards, the handsome Kress stores were cherished no less as prominent local landmarks than for their quality merchandise. In an age of civic boosterism, the downtown ‘Kress’s’ were celebrated beacons of prosperity and progress, exemplars of urban art, and magnets of municipal pride.” 

Alone among the five-and-dime chains that clustered on America’s Main Streets, Kress began building its own stores in 1909, relying on an in-house architectural division that employed at its peak nearly 100 architects and designers. 

In 1931, Kress announced that it was going to build in the new style and modernize Main Street. Two years earlier, the company had hired Brooklyn-born Edward Frederick Sibbert, Jr. (1899–1982), who would become Kress’s chief architect and design more than 50 stores in 25 years. 

Fortunately for Berkeley, Kress decided to build here when Sibbert was already on board. His Art Deco buildings are the most distinctive and the best remembered of the Kress stores. 

Kress apparently acquired the College National Bank site in 1932. In July of that year, The Architect & Engineer announced plans for a new three-story, $100,000 building, but two months later the Berkeley Progress reported that the company was planning to remodel the existing bank building. The decision was finally made to build from scratch. In May 1933, the Berkeley Progress reported that the new two-story-plus-basement building would be erected by Dinwiddie Construction Co. at a cost of approximately $100,000, that it would have a steel frame, with a frontage of 55 feet on Shattuck Avenue and 150 feet on Addison Street, and that the walls would be of concrete faced with pressed brick and a brick veneer. The building was being constructed with foundations that could carry additional stories when needed. 

The building permit issued in June 1933 was for a two-story, four-room, $55,000 store measuring 55 feet by 100 feet, with a height of 52 feet. Like many other Sibbert-designed Kress stores, it is sleekly fashioned in the Zigzag Moderne style, with strong verticals and vaguely Mayan terracotta ornaments. Even the fire escape on the Addison Street side is patterned in Art Deco style. 

Curved glass display windows led the shopper through heavy bronze doors into a long, elegant sales floor offering thousands of inexpensive items. The salesladies’ tan and ivory uniforms blended with the pale walls. 

In 1964, S. H. Kress & Co. was bought by Genesco, Inc., which began closing down the stores in 1980. About one hundred of the Kress buildings survive and are treasured for their beauty. Many have been designated landmarks and adapted to other uses. The Berkeley store, designated a city landmark in 1981, is currently home to Half Price Books, the Jazz School, and the Aurora Theatre Company. 

In 1997, the National Building Museum mounted the exhibition “Main Street Five-and-Dime: The Architectural Heritage of S. H. Kress & Co.” The announcement card and the exhibition brochure featured a 1933 photograph of the Berkeley store. 

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

Photograph by Daniella Thompson 

The Kress Building is the third major commercial structure built at the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street. 

Having had the unhappy occasion to take an airline flight recently, I got to feast my jaded eyes on something called “Skymall.” This is a catalogue one finds stuffed along with the airline’s house magazine and a leftover napkin into the pocket of the seat ahead, pressing on one’s sore knees even if one is, as I am, built like a fireplug.  

The catalogue encompasses offerings from a number of companies, including the likes of Sharper Image and Hammacher Schlemmer. One can expect gadgets from such sources that push the limits of ingenuity well into the territory of weirdness. One can still be surprised.  

Presumably, somewhere in the world (or perhaps just above it) people are buying travel toothbrush sanitizers, license plate frames with scrolling customizable LED-lettered messages, motorized tie racks, and pop-up hotdog cookers. Whatever else the late-capitalist era is, it’s entertaining—rather like California elections.  

There are garden tchotchkes in the catalogue too, if you really want a glass-topped table with a “resin” (i.e. plastic) base in the shape of a sumo wrestler, a really dumb face to nail to an innocent tree, or a radio-controlled swimming robot shark for your koi pond. Wait, that looks pretty cool; maybe I want one.  

But gardeners have a longstanding tradition of spending winter evenings curled up with seed and bulb catalogues, where we find ingenuity and weirdness of a different sort. These are so entertaining, we don’t need to confine them to being winter wishbooks; I picked up a few at the San Francisco Garden Show just to keep track of what’s new—and what’s old. 

My favorite comes in the mail, because I’m a member of Native Seeds/SEARCH. That Tucson-based nonprofit sends a holiday catalogue that emphasizes NS/S’s other offerings—great nonstandard culinary chiles, chile powders, beans, and other foodstuffs; basketry and carved implements; books and clothing.  

The spring seedlisting is for the optimistic few in the fog zone, or for those of us with reliable sun and heat, mostly east of the hills. NS/S gathers and grows out rare varieties of such desert staples as beans and peas, melons, corn, squash, chilipeppers, gourds, okra, onions, amaranth and sorghum, tomatoes, greens, and tobacco. 

More locally, Annie’s Annuals has a colorful and jolly catalogue, and the two Annies and their confederates certainly come up with new and gorgeous flowering plants, natives, exotics, and hybrids. Their catalogue includes the dates of the nursery’s several annual parties—the next one’s April 13, 14, and 15—and some good garden advice too. 

You can find Kitazawa seeds on the racks in garden shops and places like the Berkeley Bowl, but the company catalogue has more varieties in it than any display can hold, and recipes too. Kitazawa, based in the Bay Area, started out selling vegetable seeds to a largely Japanese-American clientele, seeds of goods like daikon and pak choi that they couldn’t easily find in the markets 90 years ago.  

The current expanded inventory includes all that and seven Thai basil varieties, tomatoes including the sweet ‘Odoriko’ variety, Armenian cucumbers, and Egyptian molokhia.  

Order these catalogues and see other offerings at www.nativeseeds.org, www.anniesannuals.com and www.kitazawaseed.com.  

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. “Green Neighbors,” her column on East Bay trees, appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.

I recently visited Tokyo. What a wonderful experience in so many ways. Too many to touch on in a single article, but one thing that did strike me again and again was the use of and respect for space. Japanese people tend to live in much smaller spaces than we take for granted and they endeavor to use each space as efficiently and richly as possible. It alters the aesthetic. Also, there’s no shame in packing things in to these tight spaces. On the contrary, I think that the Japanese view a waste of space or living in unnecessarily large quarters as egregious misconduct. 

Given the cost of homes today, this sensibility regarding space seems to be growing among us as well. Perhaps we’re all turning Japanese in a small way and I think it’s a good thing. There are few things that bother me more than seeing a family of two living in a 4,000-square-foot house. Waste is unattractive and small is nice, smart and respectful. I also see more and more people taking an interest in developing their attics, as an alternative to either moving or building on. While sensible, in the use of space, attics do pose some issues which must be considered prior to a serious emotional or physical commitment (this sounds like a column for the lovelorn). 

Attics are not generally built for living. They are lacking in features that modern building concepts demand for living space but these need not always be major impediments. Nonetheless, they should be given due consideration. 

Let’s start with ingress and egress, the construction words for stairways and other means of escape. Stairs are really, really, important. They provide safe travel between levels and should accommodate physical disability and instability. When looking at stairs and railings I like to imagine a drunken woman in heels (or a drunken man in heels if you prefer). Stairs are treacherous, as any ER doctor can tell you, and we should do all we can to control their perils. 

Developed attics often rely on ladders of various kinds and these almost never meet modern building standards and are genuinely dangerous. Some attic development projects become prohibitively complex or expensive when stairs are taken into the equation, but from my own experience I’d say that safe stairways are the baseline criterion for attic habitability. Stairs take up quite a bit of space and require roughly 9-10-inch treads and no more than about 8 inches on risers (codes vary but his is a good rough picture). Stairs also need to be 3 feet wide, although my own perspective is that this is a bit stringent and I’d like to see the codes loosen up to allow some stairways to be narrower than this. 

Here come more difficulties. If an attic is to function as a living space, the floors need to meet some minimum “live load” requirements and many do not. Most attics are framed to support the weight of the ceiling below and end up far too slender to adequately support active bodies and furnishings. Of course, this is based on our western concept of inflexible floors and not on the ability of the floor to bear weight. A floor of 2x4s can generally bear the weight of a small office and a couple of occupants but modern codes demand much greater rigidity that generally demand the use of 2x8s or 2x10s for floor joisting. A 2x4 floor can be augmented in strength but this will usually require removal of everything above it and sometimes the ceiling below. This also bites into the total remaining ceiling height, which can be a serious matter when we’re wrestling for inches. 

If the ceiling can be made sufficiently rigid and a stairway and landing can be installed to meet modern standards, you’re well on your way. I do see a few old houses that already look like this and if you’re lucky, your attic may be ready for you and the baby grand. 

Next is the issue of ceiling height. To take my tiny pulpit for just a minute, I want to say that the presence of rules regarding ceiling heights in the code is just plain silly and a needless waste of governance and money. If I want to build a house with 5-foot ceilings and live in it, it ain’t nobody’s business but mine. If I want to build a house for a couple who are both under 5 feet in height, there is no reason to build it to suit people who are 6-foot-4. If you go shopping for houses and see one that’s too short inside, you won’t buy it, right?  

There is one exception that I agree with and that is doorways and stairways where people tend to get smacked. Setting some minimum heights is not a bad idea to prevent harm but I still think that there are many items far more critical and deserving of code enforcement that ceiling heights. That said, your city official will want you to have a ceiling that is substantially 7-foot-6. There are exceptions that allow for sloped or beamed ceiling and one can get away with 7-foot ceilings for at least a part of most attics. The formulas are too complex to present here and codes and local enforcement varies quite a bit so let’s leave it a little vague. If you’re trying to tackle this issue, take a sketch to your local building department and talk it over with them. If you’re afraid of getting caught, talk to an architect. 

Although attics often have wonderful and useable wedges of space right down to the eaves, they don’t count as living space when calculating minimum room dimensions. A room, if it is to function as a bedroom, has to be at least 70 square feet with neither dimension less than 7 feet. Now remember that this is allowing for at least 7 feet on a sloping ceiling. Now balance this cup on your nose and grab these pliers with your teeth and stand on this ball. Tough, eh? Yes, this is not simple but to meet code requirements you’ll have to somehow figure this stuff out. But wait, we’re not done. There’s plenty more. 

Backing up to structural issues for a moment, I’ll throw you a real doozy. It’s the foundation. Many building departments consider the legal development of the attic as the addition of another floor (at least partially so). This can mean, if they choose to enforce it, that your foundation now needs to meet a higher standard and may need to be either replaced or at least modified to carry the extra weight of people and furnishings on this newly anointed level. While this may be a relatively minor issue for a small room, it’s definitely a serious issue for large attic conversions that add a suit of rooms. 

So now we’ve hit stairways, floor strength, ceiling height and possible foundation issues. These are the big and complex ones that end up nixing so many remodeling jobs and if you’ve tackled these you’re basically there. There are, however, some niggling issues that are worth a mention. Having a second means of escape is required in most cities but a window can usually suffice. This means that at least one window has to open to some minimum size. Usually 20 inches wide and 24 inches tall, but, again, check with your local official. This window can also provide required ventilation and light for the space (both are code requirement and both make sense, although a skylight can substitute for these.  

Heat is also required for all living spaces and while this does make sense, I would lobby for attic living spaces to be exempt on the basis of physics. Since heat rises, attic rooms are rarely the coldest and often the warmest. This means that it makes a lot of sense to insulate as much of the attic ceiling as possible. Attic floors are often insulated in undeveloped spaces and, while that’s still fine for your developed attic, the ceiling of the attic should be insulated if you’ve made this into a practical living space. 

There’s a lot more to say about attic conversion as well as the removal of ceiling and inclusion of the attic space in the volume of living space below, so watch this spot. I’ll devote another column to this soon. 

Attic conversions are complex and anticipating all the issues that can arise in this sort of project is trying. If you venture this way, get good advice from contractors and architects before you invest money in actual remodeling and expect people to be wrong and to make mistakes. The Japanese would say: Saru mo ki kara ochiru—even monkeys can fall from trees. I think they mean “fall from attics,” but hey, I don’t speak Japanese.

“We need a music teacher,” said the woman on the telephone in charge of hiring substitute teachers. “You know anything about music?” 

“Not really,” I said. 

“Doesn’t matter,” she answered. “The music teacher has left lesson plans.” 

“What grades?” I asked. 

“Kindergarten through fifth,” said the woman. “How hard can that be?” 

I was up for the challenge. I quickly scribbled down the school’s address and got ready. I tried to remember the theme song for Working Girl. I wanted to dress for this assignment as Melanie Griffith had done in the opening credits: sleek, tight suit and sneakers. Sneakers, I’ve got, but alas, no suits.  

While driving to the school, I went through the scales, then thought about my personal history with music. Piano lessons at seven. Drop-out by nine. But I had read the autobiography of Tina Turner (Ike was a wife beater), and the life story of B.B. King (sex at age eight and a lot of time on a tractor). Additionally, I’d seen Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Canned Heat, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Four Tops and a host of others in live performances. Most recently I’d attended a stadium concert given by the Rolling Stones, and then there was that horrible night at The Independent with The Tubes. I’d seen the movies Lady Sings the Blues, Ray, Walk the Line and Dreamgirls. I thought I knew every lick and lyric performed by Elvis and The Beatles. How hard could today’s assignment be? 

School started at 8:30 a.m. but because I was a “Specialist” I didn’t have class until nine—15 minutes with the morning kindergarten class. By the time I found the classroom, set up my CD player, and met the children, class was almost over. We did a few wiggles and jumps and then I gave them their coloring assignment.  

“We’ve done this before,” they shouted when I handed out the Xerox sheets of cars, buses, turtles and snails. (What thing is fast? What thing is slow?). “You’ll have to do it again,” I said. Then it was time to go. 

Back to the teachers lounge for a 15- minute break, then on to first grade, where we wiggled and jumped again, but this time for thirty minutes instead of fifteen. When I handed out the same Xeroxed sheet of cars and trains, the kids complained. “We already did this,” they said. “Do it again,” I replied as nicely as possible. 

Returning to the teacher’s lounge for a thirty-minute break, I learned that my next two classes, second and third grades, were canceled. It was School Spirit Day. Classroom teachers and their charges would be upstairs in the auditorium listening to student council speeches. The other “Specialists” and I got to stay in the lounge. I read the newspaper and ate free popcorn. 

When the assembly was over, it was time for lunch. Classroom teachers had thirty minutes to gulp down their food, but as a “Specialist” I had an hour to kill.  

I did crossword puzzles and ate more popcorn. 

The next class was fourth grade. I knew what they would say when I started the lesson. “Been here and done it,” they shouted as I gave them the hand-outs, this time pictures of animals. “Color them anyway,” I said, “while you listen to the music.” 

On to fifth grade where I taught a lesson that made no sense, but we struggled through it. Since they had done it before, they were actually a big help. Then it was a rush to meet the afternoon kindergarten class, set up the CD player, wiggle for fifteen minutes and give out the coloring assignment.  

Two forty-five. School was to end at three.  

“What should I do now?” I asked the school secretary.  

“Now,” she said. “You can go home.”  

If you’re walking down University Avenue, or driving up the freeway to the Richmond Bridge, or taking a car or bike jaunt up around Clear Lake, you’ll have noticed that the redbuds are blooming. We’ve borrowed specimens of this gorgeous scarf that the Central Valley wears around its eastern and western foothills. Good idea, for landscape and ornament in the cities and for the most difficult spots along roads. 

The Tilden Park Botanic Garden has a splendid group of redbuds right along its perimeter fence, poking through sometimes as if wanting to escape, for inspiration if you need it. 

In its native habitat it’s a frequently-seen roadside tree thriving in the oddest rocky bits of soil, inching right up onto the gravel road shoulder, balancing on defiant tiptoe over a streambed gorge: Cercis occidentalis, cousin to T.S. Eliot’s and Katherine Anne Porter’s Flowering Judas.  

Our redbud has an Eastern North American cousin, Cercis canadensis; there are Asian species too, and lots of hybrids and cultivars in the nursery trade. I have a fondness for ‘Forest Pansy’ with its burgundy leaves, but that’s best for places that are more like an Eastern forest—in part shade, with good drainage but deep loamy soil and plenty of water.  

If you want a true Western redbud, look for it in a nursery that specializes in natives, or wait for one of the native-plant spring sales listed below.  

Buy as small a tree as you can stand to, say a seedling in a one-gallon nursery can or pot. It will be easier to plant because it needs a smaller hole, and will catch up to its bigger brethren who’ve been planted at the same time because it will experience less of the standard transplant setback than one that’s already older. 

Dig a broad, shallow hole for your tree, then pile some of the dirt back into the center of the hole. Don’t amend the soil. If you have serious clay, rough out the edges of the hole with your spade, so you’re not making a clay pot to confine the roots.  

Remove the tree from the can, gently spread the roots out so they won’t grow in a circle, and rest it in top of the pile in the hole. Then backfill, tamping the soil down gently. When it’s planted, the tree should be a bit higher than the ground around it, for better drainage; be sure the roots are covered, though.  

You probably won’t need to stake it. Dig a shallow moat around the edges of the hole and pile that dirt around the outside for a temporary watering basin. This should erode away within a year.  

When you have the tree happily situated, it will need water regularly for at least a year or two; after that it’s drought-tolerant.  

It grows into a small, airy tree, about dogwood-sized, and like a dogwood a sculpture of planes when in leaf. It will want full sun, especially west of the hills; it likes the sort of environment that would fry that dogwood. You’ll get more flowers if your tree lives in a slightly severe climate, particularly one with a cold snap in the winter, and cold winters bring out the best in its fall foliage, too: As Marjorie Schmidt enthuses in her seminal book Growing California Native Plants, “...the heart-shaped leaves look like valentines strung along the stems.” You’ll also get more blooms as the tree gets older.  

Redbuds rarely need pruning, but if you get ambitious or artistic, remember that they bloom on old wood and do your work just after flowering or you’ll lose next year’s show. Study your tree in winter, when the leaves have given way to the ascetically handsome red branches, to imagine its best possible shape. There’s a good chance the tree will imagine its own best form if you leave it alone. 

NATIVE PLANT SALES 

Marin Chapter, California Native Plant Society 

Tiburon Audubon Center and Wildlife Sanctuary 

376 Greenwood Beach Road, Tiburon.  

Saturday Apri 14, 9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.  

Regional Parks Botanic Garden  

Tilden Park, near the Brazilian Room 

Saturday, April 21, 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Jepson CNPS Plant Sale 

Benicia Community Garden 

Military East and E. 2nd St, Benicia 

May 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

This redbud’s for you, on University Avenue.These pea-like blooms appear before the heart-shaped leaves in spring. 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Green Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in the Planet’s East Bay Home & Real Estate section.  

FRIDAY, MARCH 30 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” Fri and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through April 1. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553.  

“Clown Bible” acrobatic theater based on man’s relationship with God, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Willard Middle School Metal Shop Theater, 2425 Stuart St. Tickets are $15-$20. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company “unconditional” A movement/theater piece Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20 sliding scale for adults and $6 for youth under 18. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Masquers Playhouse “She Loves Me” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $12. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

Shotgun Players “Blood Wedding” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through April 29. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Virago Theatre “Orphans” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at BridgeHead Studio, 2516 Blanding Ave, Alameda, through March 31. Tickets are $10-$15. 415-439-2456.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

“Memories in Beads” Beaded garments, handbags and decorative pieces on display at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at 2982 Adeline St. 843-7178.  

FILM 

“The Greater Circulation” A film by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Cost is $6 .464-4640. www.verticalpool.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chris Hedges talks about “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 559-9500.  

Steven Hockensmith reads from “On the Wrong Track” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

African Alkhemic Spoken Word at 7 p.m. at Black New World, 836 Pine St., West Oakland. Tickets are $25. For reservations call 444-2907. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Li Chiao-Ping Dance “Home Works” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 925-798-1300. 

Phoenix Rising: A Piano and Flute Duo at 7:30 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 868-0695. www.bayareabach.org 

Different Strokes Jazz Duo with Yehudit Lieberman, 5 string violin and Beth Snellings, 'cello at 8 p.m. at the Giorgi Gallery 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $112-$15. 848-1228. 

Carmen Prieto and Lichi Fuentes, original and traditional Latin American songs, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$18. 849-2568.  

“Almost Famous” jazz musical performed by Cathi Walkup and Shana Carlson at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. www.hillsideclub.org 

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Stompy Jones at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. East Coast swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Jill Knight, singer/songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Chookasian Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ira Marlowe and Stevie Barsotti at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Panhandle, 86, The Shut-ins at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Locust, Daughters at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

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

Will Bernard/Will Blades Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Roy Hargrove Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 

CHILDREN  

East Bay Children’s Theater “Rumplestiltskin” at 10:30 a.m. and 1 pm. at James Moore Theater, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. Tickets are $7, children under 2 free. 655-7285. 

Farmyard Stories and Songs with Tara Reinertson at 11 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

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

Ravioli the Clown celebrates National Reading Month Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Botanicals and Beasties” Photographs and drawings by Neil Tierney. Reception at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“88 Pieces of Me” A photo memoire by Keba Armand Konte. Catalogue signing at 5 p.m. at Guerilla Cafe, 1620 Shattuck Ave. 845-2233. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company “unconditional” A movement/theater piece at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20 sliding scale for adults and $6 for youth under 18. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Inti-Illimani at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Li Chiao-Ping Dance “Home Works” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 925-798-1300. 

Puerto Rican Women “La Bomba es nuestra” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

Mal Sharpe Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Celu with Molly Thomas and Friends at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Dave Lionelli and Nomi at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Women in Song “Local Treasures” with Beth Robinson, Audrey Auld Mezera, Elaine Dempsey, Megan McLaughlin Patty Espeseth at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

The Acid Reggae Xperience at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Kurt Ribak Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

Greg & Esperanza Pratt, folk and swing, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

The Highway Robbers, Blue Mire, Carrie Clark & the Lonesome Lovers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

David Jeffrey’s Fourtet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Forced March, Absolute Rulers at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Line Drawings of Oakland Landmarks” by Daniel Ling at . at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave., through April 30. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

“A Gathering of Greatness" Allegorical photographs of famous people in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, by Dorothy Levitt Mayers. Reception at 1 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

DuEwa M. Frazier, Aimee Suzara and Ellen Hagan read their poetry at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Poetry Flash presents Betsey Andrews reading from “New Jersey” and Brian Teare reading from “The Room Where I Was Born” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Measha Brueggergosman, soprano at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $42. 642-9988.  

Twang Cafe presents a night of all bluegrass with The Mountain Boys, 5 Dollar Suit, Wagon at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $10. www.twangcafe.com 

“Highland, Heath and Holler” Celtic music’s voyage to Appalachia at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-9988.  

Bandworks Concert at noon at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5, children under 12 free. 525-5054.  

Reptet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Conflict, Scarred for Life, Anima Mundi and others at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. 

Philips Marine Duo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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

MONDAY, APRIL 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Clemens Stark reads at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with California Poet Laureate Al Young at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players “Berkeley New Music Project” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. 

Happy Trails Benefit for the Halleck Creek Riding Club for the Disabled at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Smyrna Time Machine at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Conflict, Scarred for Life, Anima Mundi and others at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Tito Y Su Son De Cuba at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 3 

FILM 

Anthology FIlm Archives: Recent Preservations with archivist Andrew Lampert at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Arlene Blum on “Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Rebecca Griffin at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Along the Five” Works by Tyrell Collins and others opens at Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St., and runs through May 13. 549-1018. 

THEATER 

Opera Piccola’s ArtGate Program “365 Days/365 Plays” at 7 p.m. at Oakland Metro Theater, 201 Broadway. Pay what you can. 658-0967. www.opera-piccola.org 

FILM 

Film 50: History of Cinema “Cléofrom 5 to 7” at 3 p.m. with a lecture by Marilyn Fabe at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ken Kuhlken, mystery writer, introduces his new novel “The Do-Re-Mi” at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Main Library, 125 14th St., Oakland. 238-3134. 

Erika Mailman reads from her historical novel “Woman of Ill Fame” about a Gold Rush prostitute, at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Bandworks Concert at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5, children under 12 free. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Kurt Ribak Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Uday Bhawalker with Manik Munde at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Gonzalo Rubalcaba Group at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, APRIL 5 

EXHIBITIONS 

“ultra deepfield” Bay Area artists look at urban locations in transition. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhitition runs to May 12. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“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. 

FILM 

“Antonini: The Vision That Changed the Cinema” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free First Thursday. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Joanne Kyger at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library, in the Doe Library, UC Campus. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

Seth Lerer on “Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Tourettes without Regrets at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $8. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Betty Fu & Ben Stolorow Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Plum Crazy, Trevor Garrod at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Martin Locke, singer/songwriter, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mike Lee and Amber at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

FRIDAY, APRIL 6 

THEATER 

“Clown Bible” acrobatic theater based on man’s relationship with God, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Willard Middle School Metal Shop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., through April 14. Tickets are $15-$20. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Masquers Playhouse “She Loves Me” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $12. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

Shotgun Players “Blood Wedding” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through April 29. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Marga Gomez “Laugh Baby Laugh” at 8 p.m. at La Lesbian @ La Peña, Tickets are $20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“City of Walls, City of People” The urban experience in Oakland, CA, and Venice, Italy, a collaboration with California College of the Arts, and Istituto Universitario di Architettura, Design e Arti, in Venice. Reception at 6 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

“New Works by Judith Hoersting and Judi Miller” Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Mercury 20 Gallery, 25 Grand Ave. at Broadway. Exibition runs to April 28. mercurytwenty@gmail.com 

“Collaboration of Poetry and Painting” Works by Louis Delsarte and Ntozake Shange opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs through April 30. 465-8928. www.joycegordongallery.com 

“Jarring Realities” Paintings and sculptures by Scott Hove, Donna Mendes and Marty McCorkle opens at the Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., and runs through April 30. 444-7411. www.estebansabar.com 

David Gentry: Conserved Constructs featuring mixed-media sculptures. Reception at 6 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

FILM 

“Tropical Malady: Shot-by-Shot” with Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sadiya Hartman introduces “Lose Your Mother: A Journey Across the Atlantic Slave Route” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

John Moir describes “Return of the Condor: The Race to Sve Our Largest Bird from Extinction” at 7 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St., Oakland. 238-2200. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Free Jazz Fridays with Woman's Worth, Sword & Sandals, Vholtz at 8 p.m. at 1510 Eighth St. Performance Space, Oakland. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. 415-846-9432. 

Resmiranda Vocal Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 the Alameda. Tickets are $20-$25 at the door. 

Michael Zilber Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Caribbean Allstars, Kalbass at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jack Gates Ensemble, Latin jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Marley’s Ghost at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Pat Johnson & The New Sheiks, Penelope Houston, Julia Dawn at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Cabrillo Beach Boys, Dirty Looks, Neverending Party 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. 

Dave Stein Hub-Bub at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Les Nubians at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $25. 548-1159.  

The Sonando Project “Musica de su Mente” The Latin Side of Stevie Wonder at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Tommy Gun and the Bullets, Lincolms at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Gonzalo Rubalcaba Group at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $10-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

ADVENTURES OF THE YOUNG CESAR CHAVEZ 

Manzi: The Adventures of the Young Cesar Chavez, a play for children age 5 and over, will be performed by Active Arts Theatre for Young Audiences on Chavez’s birthday this Saturday, March 31, at 11:30 am, at the Cesar Chavez Branch of the Oakland Public Library, as well as Tuesday, April 3 at 2 p.m. at the Central Berkeley Public Library (free admission), before beginning a run April 14-15 and 21-22 at the Julia Morgan Center on College Avenue. Directed by Dina Martinez, familiar to theatergoers from El Teatro Campesino and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Active Arts is a very active company indeed, specializing in socially aware theater for young people. www.activeartstheatre.org. 

‘MEMORIES IN BEADS’ AT LACIS MUSEUM 

“Memories in Beads,” an exhibit of beaded garments, handbags and decorative pieces reflecting the exuberance of the 1920s are on display at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., together with an exhibit of historical bridal laces, satins and tulles. An opening reception for both exhibits will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 30. The museum is open from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 843-7178. 

PFA SCREENS  

ANTONIONI CLASSICS 

Pacific Film Archive continues its series of films by Michelangelo Antonioni with Blow Up at 7 p.m. Friday, one of the seminal films of the 1960s, followed at 6:30 p.m. Saturday of Le amiche, one of the director’s earlier films. At 2 p.m. Sunday PFA will screen the first of two programs of Antonioni’s short films, made betweeen 1943 and 1965, followed by I vinti at 3:45. $4-$8. 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

In the Beginning—of the Clown Bible, at least, according to Ten Red Hen at Willard Metalshop Theater—God Herself was inscribed in silhouette in a circle of light above the stage. She seemed to be cooking up something—though was that a music box being cranked over the pot, not a peppergrinder? Cut to past the seventh day or so, when a shy, polite Adam and Eve plucked red noses, not the usual Forbidden Fruit, from the boughs above, carelessly putting them on ... God cried out through a bullhorn, like a surly ringmaster, and the newly-minted clowns were afraid—and hid themselves. 

Such is the Genesis of a creation which, like its real-life model, is hopefully still a work-in-progress, worthy of more revelations, as the Ten Red Hen tribe literally renders scripture into an unauthorized but inspired version that is Fundamentally Clown. Though there’s no apparent reformer’s zeal to the artful slapstick of the exegesis, it’s not really so far from Erasmus of Rotterdam’s “Praise of Folly,” that humane screed of the Renaissance that put what mankind has made of religion into the mouth of the Biblical Fool, leaving it to foolish human beings to sort out that which is Caesar’s from that which is the Lord’s—or, for Erasmus, the Son of Man. 

What’s more, the plucky little Hens not only translate The Word into the flesh of physical comedy, but gather it up into a musical comedy revue. Alongside Erasmus, George M. Cohen, a progenitor of both the revue and burlesque melodrama, must be looking on in eternity with astonishment—and amusement.  

With a bright little orchestra (under the baton of composer Dave Malloy, who—doubling as Job—acts out his own Sorrows: his piano, then accordions, finally a pitchpipe taken from him) cooking away alongside the familiar tableaux of the recalcitrantly naughty generations of our race, the audience—or are we a flock, a congregation?—witnesses Laughing Sarah (Alexis Wong) inflated by God with a bicycle pump to give birth to the generations of the Israelite Clown Nation that wiggle and crawl forth; a tap-dancing, stammering Moses (Issabella Shields), working overtime to please God and curb the appetites of her people; a wide-eyed, grinning action hero of the Israelites (Will Howard, singing “I’m Samson; I’m crazy ... Get out of my way, so I can do my hair!”) vamped by a kitschy femme fatale, the Philistine Delilah (Shields again); a mute Saul (Ned Bauer) trying to act out the verses which finally condemn him, as recited over a Walkman, later soothed by David’s music (Andre Nigoghossian, strolling over from the orchestra with his guitar); Solomon (George Michael Chan) with a banjo, explaining in an intimate sing-a-long how he got wise, then asking in song: “Where’s my cubit stick?” to build a temple resembling a gazebo of milkcrates, lit up by Xmas tree lights, only to strip it for love of a not-so-kosher pole-worshipping Queen of Sheba (Kazumi Kusano) ... 

In one of the few truly apocryphal passages, a ticked-off Job takes a swing at the Lord, descended from shadowplay heaven to confront him, furiously face-to-face, thus somehow provoking the Incarnation: the jealous, vengeful, self-justifying “I Am That I Am” God sent sprawling into a creche scene as a bawling babe—both persons of godhead played with brilliant intensity, physical and vocal, by the divine Jane Chen. 

The ensemble itself is due full, heartfelt praise as well, as is Ten Red Hen founder Maya Gurantz, for a truly collaborative show that brings out each red-schnozzed player (including the other actor-musicians: Daniel Bruno, Sig Hafstrom and Conrad Seto) polyphonically, contributing to the unique style and flavor of this bravura piece that wends its own way through the desert of so much stale theatrical pacing--a veritable tabernacle of prat-fall praise to the greater glories of the Theater of the World (amen). 

Clown Bible doesn’t degrade scripture, but elevates the quietly sad or manically grinning countenance of the clown, as did the medieval Miracle Plays and strangely humorous decor of cathedrals, where sacred stories seem to get sent up on sacred occasions and in sacred places. Following that more modern, secular phenomenon, The Bible-As-Literature, Ten Red Hen has taken the next step in vaudevillizing these stories anew that have languished, relatively humorless, for centuries in the public domain. As a friend said when told of the play’s premise, “The Marx Bros. had to come from somewhere!” 

Ten Red Hen, as fishers of Man’s Folly, has ventured out, aboard the ship of fools, on the uncharted waters of White Humor. In contradistinction to more celebrated Black Humor, which overinflates the strange, the scary, the shocking to the breaking point of explosive laughter, its polar opposite (and complement) plays the humor of the ordinary off a spectacular rhetoric, spotlighting in bold onstage little, quirky details, until spasms of laughter are replaced by a smile of wonder at the ineffability of the ordinary. Its exemplars include Erasmus’ contemporary, Rabelais, and the idol of both from antiquity, Lucian; Tristram Shandy; Erik Satie (of whom poet Cesar Vallejo said, “He makes Music itself clown around!”) and Buster Keaton, whose Three Ages spoofed the scriptural cadences of D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance. 

Clown Bible may not be an eschatological event, but it is a theatrical one, of real magnitude. So I exhort you: follow that gold gummed star, which you should be placing on your calendar, to the Willard Metalshop, apt manger for the epiphany of The Son of Clown. 

CLOWN BIBLE 

Presented by Ten Red Hen at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through April 14 at Willard Middle School Metal Shop  

Theater, 2425 Stuart St. $15-$20.  

www.brownpapertickets.com.

With The Grbavica: Land of My Dreams, director Jasmila Zbanic has fashioned a thoughtful and moving film about characters defined by the past while yearning to break free from it.  

Esma, a single mother, works two jobs while struggling to raise her 13-year-old daughter Sara amid the ruins and wreckage of Sarajevo’s Grbavica neighborhood, an area that functioned as a death camp during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. The understated photography and camerawork emphasize the battered and worn buildings and streets. Like the people who inhabit it, Grbavica is a work in progress, a neighborhood in ruins awaiting reconstruction.  

Mass graves are unearthed on a seemingly regular basis, and Esma is among the survivors who venture each week to the coroner’s office in an effort to identify the remains of lost loved ones in hopes of finding closure. This is a community of survivors still stunned by the enormity of the tragedy they have suffered; they cling to the past yet are eager to move on, to make sense of what remains.  

Actress Mirjana Karanovic, as Esma, has the ability to convey a wealth of emotions with just a glance. Her face is haunted and weary, struggling in vain to mask the pain and anxiety that shapes her daily life. She’s not sure she can trust people, and she has even less faith in her own ability to judge them. In every interaction Esma seems to be running through myriad interpretations of every word and gesture; she is not able to simply have a conversation, but instead weighs and measures the significance of every nuance before embarking on a reaction, a reaction which isn’t natural or instinctive but rather an only partially convincing re-creation of a natural reaction. 

Esma is defined by her experiences during the war, yet she keeps her painful memories bottled up, as though hoping that by denying them she may one day come to believe they never happened. She is not in therapy; she’s not ready for that yet. She only turns up for support group meetings once a month, when government checks are doled out.  

Her daughter Sara, meanwhile, has problems of her own. Luna Mijovic portrays the budding teenager as a tomboy, aggressive, moody and mean. The absence of a father and the increasing strain on her mother and thus their home life only compound her troubles. She too looks to the past to shape her identity, taking great pride in her status as the daughter of a shaheed, a war martyr, using this knowledge as both a badge of honor as well as a convenient excuse for bad behavior when she finds herself facing discipline at school. Sara’s identity depends on a past that precedes her birth, and when, eventually, doubt is cast on that narrative, she reacts swiftly and angrily.  

But this very revelation, the exposure of lies devised as protection for both daughter and mother, brings with it a new and perhaps more powerful narrative of the past, one that grants the mother the overdue credit of a survivor—credit she has long denied herself—and that grants the daughter perhaps, in a curious way, an even more exalted status. For she can now take pride not in the vague tales of a long-lost heroic father, but in the everyday reality of being the strong, blossoming, fierce daughter of a living, breathing—and ultimately heroic—mother, a survivor of war and its depravities, a woman whose strength is all the more admirable and dignified for the fact that it endures.  

Both women have seen their lives turned inside out not so much by tragedy as by the deceptions used to conceal that tragedy. And when a bit of truth manages to break through those barriers, they find themselves at long last on the road to recovery.  

GRBAVICA: THE LAND OF MY DREAMS 

Written and directed by Jasmila Zbanic. Starring Mirjana Karanovic and Luna Mijovic. 90 minutes. Not Rated. Playing at Shattuck Cinemas.

Forbidden Hollywood, a new three-disc DVD set from Turner Classic Movies, sheds light on one of the most fascinating eras of film history.  

The Pre-Code era, running roughly between 1930 and 1934, saw American filmmaking venture into frank and sometimes scurrilous examinations of the shadier side of life. They pushed the envelope, a bit too far in fact, causing the Hays Office to finally begin enforcing the Code Hollywood had thus far managed to evade. 

Red-Headed Woman (1932) is a fairly wild tale, featuring Jean Harlow as a ruthless gold digger and home-wrecker who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. The film would likely go over well today in a theater with a live audience, but on video it seems to lack what many films of the early 1930s lack: a sophisticated use of sound. Without effective music and rhythmic editing, long silences between lines of dialogue appear awkward and strained.  

Also included on the set is director James Whale’s version of Waterloo Bridge (1931), the story of a down-and-out showgirl in war-torn France who is forced to turn to prostitution to make ends meet. It’s a sympathetic portrayal of a prostitute, a plotline the Code would later render impossible on the screen, even if she does come to a tragic end. 

The film features Mae Clark and Douglass Montgomery as star-crossed lovers who find each other amid the air raids and destruction of World War I. The performances are strong and the special effects, though rudimentary, manage to lend an element of stirring if surreal tragedy to the proceedings despite the transparency of the techniques.  

But the real value of this set is the inclusion of not one but two versions of Baby Face (1933), probably the most notorious and best of the Pre-Code classics. The film was released just as the Code came into full effect, and thus it was heavily edited, and for 70 years the original, uncensored version was thought lost. However, a print was finally discovered a few years ago and toured the country in theatrical release (see review, Daily Planet, May 26, 2006).  

The film is one of the most gleefully salacious of the era, following Barbara Stanwyck as Lilly Powers as she sleeps her way to the top, literally floor by floor up the ranks of a New York bank.  

The Turner release allows viewers to see both versions side by side, revealing that the attempts to tone down the film were more varied, more numerous and more hilariously inept than previously thought. The print that circulated last year was accompanied by a few additional scenes after the closing credits to give a sense of some of the changes made to the film, but the DVD release reveals much more. There must be more than a dozen edits in the first 20 minutes alone: excised words and lines, trimmed shots that jump awkwardly from one to the next, clumsy inserts covering other deletions. It’s like trimming every other word from a Lenny Bruce monologue, or removing all the innuendo from a Groucho Marx routine—take out a few pieces and the whole structure falls apart.  

The cover labels this as the just the first volume in a series of Pre-Code releases from Turner, though no word yet as to what lies in store. The project promises to shed much-needed light on one the most fascinating eras of American filmmaking, when an industry found that its morals and mores were greatly at odds with a puritan government. 

FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD 

Red-Headed Woman (1932), Waterloo Bridge (1931), Baby Face (1933).  

TCM Archives. $39.98.

On February 23, 1924, the weekly newspaper The Courier announced that the rapidly expanding American Bank, headquartered at 16th Street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, had purchased the College National Bank of Berkeley. American Bank was headed by Phillip E. Bowles, a University of California alumnus and regent from 1911 to 1922. Bowles Hall, UC’s first student residence hall, would be endowed by his widow in his name. 

Bowles’ equivalent at College National Bank was Frank Ernest Heath (1866–1951), the leading dairyman in these parts. Having begun as a cable-car gripman and streetcar conductor in San Francisco, Heath bought a small Alameda dairy in 1900. After acquiring several Oakland dairies, in 1906 Heath purchased Berkeley Farm Creamery on Allston Way, current site of the Gaia Building. 

Initially a small plant, Berkeley Farm Creamery was transformed by Heath into one of the largest in the west, with seven hundred milk cows producing 8,000 gallons a day and gross sales of $2,750,000 in 1927. 

The College National Bank was organized in 1919 under charter No. 11495. Like hundreds of other small California banks, it printed its own national currency banknotes. By 1923, the bank had expanded to such an extent that it was able to construct its own building on the northwest corner of Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street in downtown Berkeley. 

The site where the new bank building was to be erected was not empty. For several decades, it had been occupied by a three-story building with window bays along its two facades. Topped by a conical witch’s hat, its round corner turret served as companion to the corresponding domed turret on the Francis K. Shattuck Building across Addison Street. On the ground floor, this building contained three storefronts that varied over the years from picture-framing and paint stores to a candy factory. Upstairs there were offices and rooms.  

In January 1923, the Courier announced the completion of the wrecking of the site for the College National Bank, and excavation for the new building began the following month. 

The new edifice, opened in December 1923, was a temple of commerce in appearance as well as in function. It was designed by Oakland architect Charles W. McCall, who had built the Mission Revival Webb Block on the corner of Ashby and Adeline in 1905. This time, McCall used a hybrid modernist-Greek Revival style, executed in concrete. The traditional Greek triangular pediment was replaced by a flat parapet, and the Addison Street facade featured seven two-story-high windows separated by plain concrete columns. Along the Shattuck Ave. facade, four Doric columns stood guard over the recessed entrance. 

The building may have been designed to last forever, but its life was remarkably short. Possibly as a result of the Great Depression, College National Bank vacated its home. In December 1931, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that the Berkeley Municipal Christmas Tree Committee had opened temporary quarters in the vacant building in order to collect shoes, stockings, and warm underwear gifts for underprivileged children and needy elderly folk. 

Enter Samuel Henry Kress (1863–1955) and his five-and-dime empire. Established in 1896, S.H. Kress & Company is described in the Kress Foundation’s history as having “operated a chain of distinctive, elegant buildings purveying cheerful, low-priced notions and durable household wares. Designed to exacting company standards, the handsome Kress stores were cherished no less as prominent local landmarks than for their quality merchandise. In an age of civic boosterism, the downtown ‘Kress’s’ were celebrated beacons of prosperity and progress, exemplars of urban art, and magnets of municipal pride.” 

Alone among the five-and-dime chains that clustered on America’s Main Streets, Kress began building its own stores in 1909, relying on an in-house architectural division that employed at its peak nearly 100 architects and designers. 

In 1931, Kress announced that it was going to build in the new style and modernize Main Street. Two years earlier, the company had hired Brooklyn-born Edward Frederick Sibbert, Jr. (1899–1982), who would become Kress’s chief architect and design more than 50 stores in 25 years. 

Fortunately for Berkeley, Kress decided to build here when Sibbert was already on board. His Art Deco buildings are the most distinctive and the best remembered of the Kress stores. 

Kress apparently acquired the College National Bank site in 1932. In July of that year, The Architect & Engineer announced plans for a new three-story, $100,000 building, but two months later the Berkeley Progress reported that the company was planning to remodel the existing bank building. The decision was finally made to build from scratch. In May 1933, the Berkeley Progress reported that the new two-story-plus-basement building would be erected by Dinwiddie Construction Co. at a cost of approximately $100,000, that it would have a steel frame, with a frontage of 55 feet on Shattuck Avenue and 150 feet on Addison Street, and that the walls would be of concrete faced with pressed brick and a brick veneer. The building was being constructed with foundations that could carry additional stories when needed. 

The building permit issued in June 1933 was for a two-story, four-room, $55,000 store measuring 55 feet by 100 feet, with a height of 52 feet. Like many other Sibbert-designed Kress stores, it is sleekly fashioned in the Zigzag Moderne style, with strong verticals and vaguely Mayan terracotta ornaments. Even the fire escape on the Addison Street side is patterned in Art Deco style. 

Curved glass display windows led the shopper through heavy bronze doors into a long, elegant sales floor offering thousands of inexpensive items. The salesladies’ tan and ivory uniforms blended with the pale walls. 

In 1964, S. H. Kress & Co. was bought by Genesco, Inc., which began closing down the stores in 1980. About one hundred of the Kress buildings survive and are treasured for their beauty. Many have been designated landmarks and adapted to other uses. The Berkeley store, designated a city landmark in 1981, is currently home to Half Price Books, the Jazz School, and the Aurora Theatre Company. 

In 1997, the National Building Museum mounted the exhibition “Main Street Five-and-Dime: The Architectural Heritage of S. H. Kress & Co.” The announcement card and the exhibition brochure featured a 1933 photograph of the Berkeley store. 

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

Photograph by Daniella Thompson 

The Kress Building is the third major commercial structure built at the northeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Addison Street. 

Having had the unhappy occasion to take an airline flight recently, I got to feast my jaded eyes on something called “Skymall.” This is a catalogue one finds stuffed along with the airline’s house magazine and a leftover napkin into the pocket of the seat ahead, pressing on one’s sore knees even if one is, as I am, built like a fireplug.  

The catalogue encompasses offerings from a number of companies, including the likes of Sharper Image and Hammacher Schlemmer. One can expect gadgets from such sources that push the limits of ingenuity well into the territory of weirdness. One can still be surprised.  

Presumably, somewhere in the world (or perhaps just above it) people are buying travel toothbrush sanitizers, license plate frames with scrolling customizable LED-lettered messages, motorized tie racks, and pop-up hotdog cookers. Whatever else the late-capitalist era is, it’s entertaining—rather like California elections.  

There are garden tchotchkes in the catalogue too, if you really want a glass-topped table with a “resin” (i.e. plastic) base in the shape of a sumo wrestler, a really dumb face to nail to an innocent tree, or a radio-controlled swimming robot shark for your koi pond. Wait, that looks pretty cool; maybe I want one.  

But gardeners have a longstanding tradition of spending winter evenings curled up with seed and bulb catalogues, where we find ingenuity and weirdness of a different sort. These are so entertaining, we don’t need to confine them to being winter wishbooks; I picked up a few at the San Francisco Garden Show just to keep track of what’s new—and what’s old. 

My favorite comes in the mail, because I’m a member of Native Seeds/SEARCH. That Tucson-based nonprofit sends a holiday catalogue that emphasizes NS/S’s other offerings—great nonstandard culinary chiles, chile powders, beans, and other foodstuffs; basketry and carved implements; books and clothing.  

The spring seedlisting is for the optimistic few in the fog zone, or for those of us with reliable sun and heat, mostly east of the hills. NS/S gathers and grows out rare varieties of such desert staples as beans and peas, melons, corn, squash, chilipeppers, gourds, okra, onions, amaranth and sorghum, tomatoes, greens, and tobacco. 

More locally, Annie’s Annuals has a colorful and jolly catalogue, and the two Annies and their confederates certainly come up with new and gorgeous flowering plants, natives, exotics, and hybrids. Their catalogue includes the dates of the nursery’s several annual parties—the next one’s April 13, 14, and 15—and some good garden advice too. 

You can find Kitazawa seeds on the racks in garden shops and places like the Berkeley Bowl, but the company catalogue has more varieties in it than any display can hold, and recipes too. Kitazawa, based in the Bay Area, started out selling vegetable seeds to a largely Japanese-American clientele, seeds of goods like daikon and pak choi that they couldn’t easily find in the markets 90 years ago.  

The current expanded inventory includes all that and seven Thai basil varieties, tomatoes including the sweet ‘Odoriko’ variety, Armenian cucumbers, and Egyptian molokhia.  

Order these catalogues and see other offerings at www.nativeseeds.org, www.anniesannuals.com and www.kitazawaseed.com.  

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. “Green Neighbors,” her column on East Bay trees, appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.

I recently visited Tokyo. What a wonderful experience in so many ways. Too many to touch on in a single article, but one thing that did strike me again and again was the use of and respect for space. Japanese people tend to live in much smaller spaces than we take for granted and they endeavor to use each space as efficiently and richly as possible. It alters the aesthetic. Also, there’s no shame in packing things in to these tight spaces. On the contrary, I think that the Japanese view a waste of space or living in unnecessarily large quarters as egregious misconduct. 

Given the cost of homes today, this sensibility regarding space seems to be growing among us as well. Perhaps we’re all turning Japanese in a small way and I think it’s a good thing. There are few things that bother me more than seeing a family of two living in a 4,000-square-foot house. Waste is unattractive and small is nice, smart and respectful. I also see more and more people taking an interest in developing their attics, as an alternative to either moving or building on. While sensible, in the use of space, attics do pose some issues which must be considered prior to a serious emotional or physical commitment (this sounds like a column for the lovelorn). 

Attics are not generally built for living. They are lacking in features that modern building concepts demand for living space but these need not always be major impediments. Nonetheless, they should be given due consideration. 

Let’s start with ingress and egress, the construction words for stairways and other means of escape. Stairs are really, really, important. They provide safe travel between levels and should accommodate physical disability and instability. When looking at stairs and railings I like to imagine a drunken woman in heels (or a drunken man in heels if you prefer). Stairs are treacherous, as any ER doctor can tell you, and we should do all we can to control their perils. 

Developed attics often rely on ladders of various kinds and these almost never meet modern building standards and are genuinely dangerous. Some attic development projects become prohibitively complex or expensive when stairs are taken into the equation, but from my own experience I’d say that safe stairways are the baseline criterion for attic habitability. Stairs take up quite a bit of space and require roughly 9-10-inch treads and no more than about 8 inches on risers (codes vary but his is a good rough picture). Stairs also need to be 3 feet wide, although my own perspective is that this is a bit stringent and I’d like to see the codes loosen up to allow some stairways to be narrower than this. 

Here come more difficulties. If an attic is to function as a living space, the floors need to meet some minimum “live load” requirements and many do not. Most attics are framed to support the weight of the ceiling below and end up far too slender to adequately support active bodies and furnishings. Of course, this is based on our western concept of inflexible floors and not on the ability of the floor to bear weight. A floor of 2x4s can generally bear the weight of a small office and a couple of occupants but modern codes demand much greater rigidity that generally demand the use of 2x8s or 2x10s for floor joisting. A 2x4 floor can be augmented in strength but this will usually require removal of everything above it and sometimes the ceiling below. This also bites into the total remaining ceiling height, which can be a serious matter when we’re wrestling for inches. 

If the ceiling can be made sufficiently rigid and a stairway and landing can be installed to meet modern standards, you’re well on your way. I do see a few old houses that already look like this and if you’re lucky, your attic may be ready for you and the baby grand. 

Next is the issue of ceiling height. To take my tiny pulpit for just a minute, I want to say that the presence of rules regarding ceiling heights in the code is just plain silly and a needless waste of governance and money. If I want to build a house with 5-foot ceilings and live in it, it ain’t nobody’s business but mine. If I want to build a house for a couple who are both under 5 feet in height, there is no reason to build it to suit people who are 6-foot-4. If you go shopping for houses and see one that’s too short inside, you won’t buy it, right?  

There is one exception that I agree with and that is doorways and stairways where people tend to get smacked. Setting some minimum heights is not a bad idea to prevent harm but I still think that there are many items far more critical and deserving of code enforcement that ceiling heights. That said, your city official will want you to have a ceiling that is substantially 7-foot-6. There are exceptions that allow for sloped or beamed ceiling and one can get away with 7-foot ceilings for at least a part of most attics. The formulas are too complex to present here and codes and local enforcement varies quite a bit so let’s leave it a little vague. If you’re trying to tackle this issue, take a sketch to your local building department and talk it over with them. If you’re afraid of getting caught, talk to an architect. 

Although attics often have wonderful and useable wedges of space right down to the eaves, they don’t count as living space when calculating minimum room dimensions. A room, if it is to function as a bedroom, has to be at least 70 square feet with neither dimension less than 7 feet. Now remember that this is allowing for at least 7 feet on a sloping ceiling. Now balance this cup on your nose and grab these pliers with your teeth and stand on this ball. Tough, eh? Yes, this is not simple but to meet code requirements you’ll have to somehow figure this stuff out. But wait, we’re not done. There’s plenty more. 

Backing up to structural issues for a moment, I’ll throw you a real doozy. It’s the foundation. Many building departments consider the legal development of the attic as the addition of another floor (at least partially so). This can mean, if they choose to enforce it, that your foundation now needs to meet a higher standard and may need to be either replaced or at least modified to carry the extra weight of people and furnishings on this newly anointed level. While this may be a relatively minor issue for a small room, it’s definitely a serious issue for large attic conversions that add a suit of rooms. 

So now we’ve hit stairways, floor strength, ceiling height and possible foundation issues. These are the big and complex ones that end up nixing so many remodeling jobs and if you’ve tackled these you’re basically there. There are, however, some niggling issues that are worth a mention. Having a second means of escape is required in most cities but a window can usually suffice. This means that at least one window has to open to some minimum size. Usually 20 inches wide and 24 inches tall, but, again, check with your local official. This window can also provide required ventilation and light for the space (both are code requirement and both make sense, although a skylight can substitute for these.  

Heat is also required for all living spaces and while this does make sense, I would lobby for attic living spaces to be exempt on the basis of physics. Since heat rises, attic rooms are rarely the coldest and often the warmest. This means that it makes a lot of sense to insulate as much of the attic ceiling as possible. Attic floors are often insulated in undeveloped spaces and, while that’s still fine for your developed attic, the ceiling of the attic should be insulated if you’ve made this into a practical living space. 

There’s a lot more to say about attic conversion as well as the removal of ceiling and inclusion of the attic space in the volume of living space below, so watch this spot. I’ll devote another column to this soon. 

Attic conversions are complex and anticipating all the issues that can arise in this sort of project is trying. If you venture this way, get good advice from contractors and architects before you invest money in actual remodeling and expect people to be wrong and to make mistakes. The Japanese would say: Saru mo ki kara ochiru—even monkeys can fall from trees. I think they mean “fall from attics,” but hey, I don’t speak Japanese.

FRIDAY, MARCH 30 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Ismail Khaldi, Deputy Consul General of Israel in SF on “Pluralism in Israel Today” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

What is Wheat Gluten in our Foods Doing to Us and our children if it is killing cats and dogs? Free documentary screening by Ann Marks at 1 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 528-6267. 

“This Black Soil” a film about the struggles of an impoverished community in Virginia, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Finding Your Roots on the Web” a class on genealogy research at 11 a.m. in the Berkeley History Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. To register call 981-6148. 

Oaxaca & Chiapas Report Back at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists 1924 Cedar St. Donations accepted. 528-5403. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 8 p.m. at Hillside Coommunity Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Potluck supper at 7 p.m.. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Introduction to Meditation at 7 p.m. at New Dahrma Meditation Center, 1056 60th St., Emeryville. Cost is $15-$25, no one turned away. 547-3733. 

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 

“The Art of Beekeeping in Your Backyard” A presentation by the Alameda County Beekeepers Association at 10 a.m. at 2418 California St. Cost is $10, reservations required, call Jim at 845-2419 or Heiko at 549-3377. 

Berkeley Youth Alternatives Community Barbeque and Orchard Tree Planting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1255 Allston Way. 845-9010. 

Farmyard Stories and Songs with Tara Reinertson at 11 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Native Plants, Native Americans and the Spanish” A walk and discussion of the encounter between the two cultures from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, 2465 34th Ave., Oakland. 532-9142. 

Outdoor Gardening with Cacti and Succulents from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $25-$30. Registration required. 643-2755, ext. 03. 

Solo Sierrans Walk in Codornices Park Meet at 3:30 p.m. at the top of the Berkeley Rose Garden on Euclid Ave. Walk lasts about 1.5 hours and includes some steps. Rain cancels. 647-3513. 

Mt. Wanda Wildflower Walk Join a Park Ranger for a walk in the hills where John Muir took his daughters. Terrain is steep, wear walking shoes and bring water. Rain cancels. Meet at 9 a.m. at the Cal-Trans Park and Ride lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. 925-228-8860. 

Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women Summit with Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Nancy Pelosi and workshops on domestic violence, breast health, and women in politics. From 1 to 6 p.m. at the Fremont Marriott, 46100 Landing Parkway, Admission is free, but registration required. 259-3871. 

Zoo Ambassador Training Orientation The Oakland Zoo is looking for volunteers to help teach visitors about the zoo and the animals. Training from 9 to 1 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. For information call 632-9525. 

CopWatch Know Your Rights Training Movie Night Learn your rights with the police and police observation from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Understanding Chronic Fatigue at 11:30 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

“Preserving Home Ownership Forum” Learn how to avoid defaults, forclosures and protect your credit at 9:30 a.m. at Preservation Park, Ginn House Meeting Room, 660 13th St., Oakland. Sponsored by the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. 339-2121. 

Petite Pooches Playgroup for small dogs from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., one block north of Solano on Ensenada at Talbot. 524-2459. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 1 

Specialty Nursery Plant Sale, sponsored by California Horticultural Society, with thousands of rare and unique plants, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland, off Grand Ave., beside Lake Merritt. Cost is $3 for park entrance, free admission to plant sale. www.calhortsociety.org 

Family Exploration Day at the Oakland Museum of California with information on the peregrine falcon recovery efforts and special family tours of the Bringing the Condors Home exhibition, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Oak and 10th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class from 1 to 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Free, but registration required. 444-8511. 

“Creating Collaborative Resistance to the Israeli Occupation” with Dr. Dalit Baum, Israeli peace activist, at 2:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public LIbrary, Third Flr Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. Suggested donation $10, no one turned away. www.bayareawomeninblack.org 

“How Can We Get the Health Care We Need?” A Peace and Freedom Party forum on competing plans for health care and health “coverage,” with presentations and discussion, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Spud's Pizza, corner of Alcatraz and Adeline. 845-4360. 

Health Care Reform: Acts for Justice as a Spiritual Practice Soup supper at 5:30 p.m., program at 6:15 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins. Sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. Free, but RSVP requested. 267-7131. 

Holistic Pet Evaluation from 1 to 4 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, appointments required. 525-6155. 

Easter Egg Painting from 2 to 3 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to keep your bike in excellent working condition through safety inspections, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

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 with Santosh Philip on “Advanced Kum Nye: The Joy of Being” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, APRIL 2  

Help with the Frog Survey Learn to recognize frog calls and help with Friends of Five Creeks’ every-other-year frog survey, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin, Albany. For information call 848 9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams, 4341 Piedmont Ave., 2nd Flr., Oakland. To register call Lori at 531-2665. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code UCB) 

TUESDAY, APRIL 3 

“Housing the Homeless and Low Income in Berkeley” with Stephen Barton, City of Berkeley Housing Director, brown bag lunch from noon to 2 p.m. at the Albany Library. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. 843-8824. 

“Health and Stress” with Dr. Jay Sordean, Oriental Medical Doctor at 7 p.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 526-7512. 

Free Legal Assistance the first Tues. of the month at 6 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Advance registration required. 526-3720, ext. 5. 

Discussion Salon on Incarceration vs Education at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704. 

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. 548-3991.  

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, APRIL 4 

Teach-In and Vigil Against American Torture every Wed. at noon at Boalt Hall, Bancroft Way at College Ave.  

Walk, Talk, Buck the Fence What’s at stake in the Ecology of Berkeley’s Strawberry Canyon A walk at 5 p.m. every Wed. with Ignacio Chapela and expert guests to discuss what is at stake in the proposed steps for the filling of the Canyon by the UC-LBL Rad-Labs, and now British Petroleum. http://canyonwalks.blogspot.com  

Volunteer at the Native Nursery in Oakland in plant propagation and transplanting, watering, and other maintenance associated with growing native wetland plants. From 1 to 3 p.m. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland. RSVP to 452-9261. 

Oakland Public Library Book Sale at The Bookmark, 721 Washington St., Oakland, through April 7. Benefits Friends of the Oakland Public Library. 444-0473. 

ReelVenezuela, Venezuelan films at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$9. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Arctic Warming” with author and filmmaker Jonathan Waterman at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Forum on the Solutions to Math and Science Education Lag at 5 p.m. at Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, 17 Gauss Way. Sponsored by the East Bay Community Foundation. 836-3223. 

New to DVD: “Volver” at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland Advanced sign-up is required; phone Anne at 594-5165.  

“Avalokitesvara is Everybody: Disguise As Skillful Means in Sanskrit Mahayana” with Dr. Will Tuladhar-Douglas at 6:30 p.m. at Jodo Shinshu Center, 2140 Durant Ave. Sponsored by the The Institute of Buddhist Studies. RSVP Requested 809-1444. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center.www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, APRIL 5 

ReelVenezuela, Venezuelan films at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$9. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Finding Inspiration from Wild Places for Your Native Garden” A presentation by Pete Veilleux, of the native landscape firm “East Bay Wilds” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220 ext. 233. 

Free Diabetes Screening from 8:15 to 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Do not eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand. 981-5332. 

“The Eight-Circuit Brain in Theory and Practice” with Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at the Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St., near University. Cos tis $8. 464-4640. 

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.  

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud's Pizza, 3290 Adeline. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

ONGOING 

Tax Help at the Berkeley Public Library Sat. from 11:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the South Branch. Call for appointment. 981-6260. Also every Tues. and Thurs. at the West Branch from 12:15 to 3:15 p.m. Call for appointment. 981-6270. 

Berkeley Youth Alternatives Girls Basketball Age 15 and under league begins April 11 and 18 and under begins April 13. From 5:30 to 8:30 at Emery High School, 1100 47th St. Emeryville. Cost is $175 per team. 845-9066.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., April 4, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Tasha Tervelon, 981-5190.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed., April 4, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., April 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5400. 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs., April 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., April 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406.  

TUESDAY, MARCH 27 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell on on Tuesdays Storytelling 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.  

Irvin Muchnik, with special guest Josh Kornbluth, talks about “Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Death, Sex, and Scandal” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Laury Hammel, co-founder of Business Alliance for Local Living Economy will read from his new book at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 528-3254. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zizoo at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

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

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman, and Michael Fox present “Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Georgann Brennan reads from “A Pig in Provence” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Writing Teachers Write, monthy reading at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on harpsichord at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

WomenSing Chorus at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$20. 925-974-9169. 

Pat Metheny with Brad Mehldau Trio at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$58. 642-9988.  

Echo Beach at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Karabali 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.  

The Flux at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Nicole and the Sisters in Soul at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Roy Hargrove Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, MARCH 29 

THEATER  

Dell’Ate Group “Second Skin” a one-woman show by Joan Schirle at 7:30 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St. Free. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Berkeley, Her Land, Her Gift of Early Neighborhoods” an illustrated lecture with Richard Schwartz at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $15-$20. 848-4288. 

Lionel Shriver reads from “The Post-Birthday World” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Tom McNamee reads from “Alice Waters and Chez Panisse” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Elline Lipkin and Sandra Lim, poetry, at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pierre Bensusan at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Modesto Bresenio Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Julie Lloyd, singer/songwriter, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

BeatBeat Whisper, Snowblink, All My Pretty Ones at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Pachanga Primavera, benefit for Chicano Latino scholars at UC Berkeley, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$7. 849-2568.  

Headnodic & Raashan Ahmad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

Built for the Sea, Minipop at 8:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. 

FRIDAY, MARCH 30 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” Fri and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through April 1. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553.  

Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company “unconditional” A movement/theater piece Fri. and Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20 sliding scale for adults and $6 for youth under 18. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Masquers Playhouse “She Loves Me” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $12. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

Shotgun Players “Blood Wedding” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through April 29. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Virago Theatre “Orphans” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at BridgeHead Studio, 2516 Blanding Ave, Alameda, through March 31. Tickets are $10-$15. 415-439-2456.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” Opening Reception at 6 p.m. at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

“Memories in Beads” Beaded garments, handbags and decorative pieces on display at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at 2982 Adeline St. 843-7178.  

FILM 

“The Greater Circulation” A film by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. Cost is $6 .464-4640. www.verticalpool.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chris Hedges talks about “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 559-9500.  

Steven Hockensmith reads from “On the Wrong Track” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

African Alkhemic Spoken Word at 7 p.m. at Black New World, 836 Pine St., West Oakland. Tickets are $25. For reservations call 444-2907. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Li Chiao-Ping Dance “Home Works” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 925-798-1300. 

Phoenix Rising: A Piano and Flute Duo at 7:30 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 868-0695. www.bayareabach.org 

Different Strokes Jazz Duo with Yehudit Lieberman, 5 string violin and Beth Snellings, 'cello at 8 p.m. at the Giorgi Gallery 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $112-$15. 848-1228. 

Carmen Prieto and Lichi Fuentes, original and traditional Latin American songs, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$18. 849-2568.  

“Almost Famous” jazz musical performed by Cathi Walkup and Shana Carlson at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. www.hillsideclub.org 

Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Stompy Jones at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. East Coast swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jill Knight, singer/songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Chookasian Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ira Marlowe and Stevie Barsotti at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Panhandle, 86, The Shut-ins at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Locust, Daughters at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

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

Will Bernard/Will Blades Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Roy Hargrove Quintet at 8 and 10 p.m. through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 

CHILDREN  

East Bay Children’s Theater “Rumplestiltskin” at 10:30 a.m. and 1 pm. at James Moore Theater, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. Tickets are $7, children under 2 free. 655-7285. 

Farmyard Stories and Songs with Tara Reinertson at 11 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

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

Ravioli the Clown celebrates National Reading Month Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Botanicals and Beasties” Photographs and drawings by Neil Tierney. Reception at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company “unconditional” A movement/theater piece at 7:30 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$20 sliding scale for adults and $6 for youth under 18. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org 

Inti-Illimani at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Li Chiao-Ping Dance “Home Works” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 925-798-1300. 

Puerto Rican Women “La Bomba es nuestra” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mal Sharpe Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Celu with Molly Thomas and Friends at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Dave Lionelli and Nomi at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Women in Song “Local Treasures” with Beth Robinson, Audrey Auld Mezera, Elaine Dempsey, Megan McLaughlin Patty Espeseth at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

The Acid Reggae Xperience at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Kurt Ribak Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

Greg & Esperanza Pratt, folk and swing, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

The Highway Robbers, Blue Mire, Carrie Clark & the Lonesome Lovers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

David Jeffrey’s Fourtet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Forced March, Absolute Rulers at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Line Drawings of Oakland Landmarks” by Daniel Ling at . at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave., through April 30. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

“A Gathering of Greatness" Allegorical photographs of famous people in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, by Dorothy Levitt Mayers. Reception at 1 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

DuEwa M. Frazier, Aimee Suzara and Ellen Hagan read their poetry at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Poetry Flash present Betsey Andrews reading from “New Jersey” and Brian Teare reading from “The Room Where I Was Born” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Measha Brueggergosman, soprano at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $42. 642-9988.  

Twang Cafe presents a night of all bluegrass with The Mountain Boys, 5 Dollar Suit, Wagon at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $10. www.twangcafe.com 

“Highland, Heath and Holler” Celtic music’s voyage to Appalachia at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-9988.  

Bandworks Concert at noon at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5, children under 12 free. 525-5054.  

Reptet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

Conflict, Scarred for Life, Anima Mundi and others at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. 

Philips Marine Duo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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

MONDAY, APRIL 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Clemens Stark reads at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with California Poet Laureate Al Young at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players “Berkeley New Music Project” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. 

Happy Trails Benefit for the Halleck Creek Riding Club for the Disabled at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Smyrna Time Machine at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Conflict, Scarred for Life, Anima Mundi and others at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Tito Y Su Son De Cuba at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. 

BERKELEY’S LAND AND EARLY NEIGHBORHOODS 

The Berkeley History and Architecture Series begins this week with Richard Schwartz, author of Berkeley 1900 and Earthquake Exodus 1906, speaking on “Berkeley: Her Land and Her Gift of Early Neighborhoods” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. The series will continue every other month, on the last Thurday of the month. $15-$20 for each reading; $45-$60 for the series. For information call Arlene Baxter at 848-4288. 

DESTINY ARTS  

YOUTH PERFORMANCE 

Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company’s new movement theater piece combines hip-hop, modern and aerial dance, rap and spoken word in the exploration of issues of family, gun violence and global warming. Performances are Friday and Saturday at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. $12-$20, sliding scale for adults and $6 for youth under 18. 597-1619. www.destinyarts.org. 

PFA SCREENS DISNEY’S SILLY SYMPHONIES 

Russell Merritt, author of Walt  

Disney’s Silly  

Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series, will introduce a program of Disney’s Silly Symphonies at 3 p.m. Saturday at Pacific Film Archive as part of PFA’s ongoing Matinees for All Ages series. Merritt will be available to sign copies of his book, which will be on sale at a discount for PFA patrons. Tickets: $4-$8. 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

A career-spanning exhibit of the gorgeous and haunting photographs of Henry Wessel, documenting his visions of the landscape, people and light of California and the West, is on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through April 22. 

Wessel, a New Jersey native, borrowed a Leica camera and fell in love while he was a psychology student at Pennsylvania State University. He opened a portrait studio in 1967, the year after he graduated, and soon after was heading west, photographing the journey.  

He arrived in California in 1970 and soon after moved to Point Richmond, where he could afford to buy a house. “For the next 30 years I made all my photography expenses against the house,” he said with a chuckle. “I now have a large mortgage on a house I once bought outright.” 

Wessel, 64, said his approach is simple: He looks for things that interest him and he takes a picture. 

“I’m a still photographer, which means that what you see in my photographs exists in the physical world. I am just recording what I’m standing in front of with as much fidelity as the medium allows,” he said. “It’s my pleasure, it’s how I make sense of the world and get through my day. For me, the most interesting place is the physical world. It’s like if we took a walk and I pointed out to you the things I see that interest me—that’s what I do with my photographs.” 

So how does he know when he sees something that will make a good photo? 

“I don’t know,” Wessel said. “If it’s something in the world that I can’t ignore, that catches my attention, I take a picture of it. Of course, 99 percent of the time what I do is a failure, it doesn’t work out. I have to wait to see how it comes out as a photo, because then it’s no longer the world itself, but a photo of it.” 

The SFMOMA exhibit comprises more than 80 prints spanning Wessel’s entire career, including some early photographs being exhibited for the first time. 

“I plan to work another 40 years so I don’t want to think of it as a retrospective; I call it a survey,” he said. 

Over the years, he said, his approach to photography has changed little. 

“It’s to record the physical world, light on surface,” he said. “I want my style to be transparent. I don’t want people who see the show to think about my style, but to just see the image on the wall, to just see it and have a physical reaction.” 

Wessel still shoots with a Leica film camera, just like the one with which he began his career. He doesn’t object to digital photography and has tried shooting with a digital camera, but said he prefers making photographs the way he always has. 

“As long as I can still get film and paper, I’ll use them,” he said. “What differentiates a photographer is not the equipment, it’s not the quality of the print, but the distinctness of the insight that is manifest in the photograph. It’s about establishing a connection and having that present in the work.” 

HENRY WESSEL: PHOTOGRAPHS 

On display through April 22 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St., San Francisco. www.sfmoma.org. 

Photograph: Courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art  

Henry Wessel’s San Francisco, 1977 is on display as part of a survey of the photographer’s work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

With surprisingly little fanfare to date, the dry winter of 2006/2007 has brought two important new books exploring the character of the Berkeley community. 

Jonathan Chester’s Berkeley Rocks: Building With Nature, and Jon Sullivan and Contee Seely’s Berkeley One and Only both deserve accolades for their sensitive, creative, and particularly well illustrated portraits of local life and scenery. 

Berkeley Rocks is a smart, handsome volume. It’s an intelligent read and an elegant coffee table book. 

Once visually prominent on undeveloped hillsides, most of the curious rock outcroppings in the eastern part of Berkeley were later absorbed into backyards, pocket parks, gardens and even basements, and can take a bit of searching to locate.  

Chester draws on the expertise of—and gives well-deserved credit to—several local experts and geologists who have parsed out the natural and human history of these remarkable works of nature. 

An early chapter on the origins of the rocks shows the interesting muddle—igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary—underlying the Berkeley landscape.  

Far from being from one geological family, Berkeley’s rocks represent a baker’s dozen of types from “Meta Graywacke” to “Claremont Chert,” all tossed about and shaped by tectonic uplift, local volcanoes (yes, there were several of those), and the inexorable shaking and shifting along the Hayward Fault. 

The natural history section and early photographs of the rocks are first rate but Chester’s primary theme is not how the rocks came to be, but what humans have done with them, particularly when early practitioners of the “Bay Region” architectural tradition began to embrace Berkeley’s boulders rather than blast them out of the way.  

In fascinating and affectionately crafted chapters he guides the reader from native Californian uses of the rocks, to the spread of American-era streetcar suburbs in the early 20th century, to the work of present-day architects and artisans who continue to shape Berkeley’s rock environment. 

The heart of the book is a beautifully photographed series of portraits of Berkeley homes, old and modern, showing how their past and current residents have used and appreciated the rock outcrops that erupt in their yards, driveways, garages, stairwells and even—in one case—bathroom and shower. 

Berkeley Rocks is an elegantly conceived and executed book. The contemporary photographs are crisp and striking and there are readable maps and nicely selected historical images, and an inviting, page-turning, layout.  

If Berkeley Rocks is a polished tribute, Berkeley One and Only is more of a homemade valentine.  

I mean that in a most positive way. Photographer Jon Sullivan clearly loves Berkeley and spent several years documenting not only fixed beauties but ongoing events and ephemeral occasions. 

The interwoven themes of the hefty volume range from The Big Game to in-studio portraits of several local artists and their works to Berkeley neighborhoods in the spring.  

There’s a chapter devoted to aerial photographs of Berkeley, shot by Sullivan from the open window of a small plane. That section alone makes the book worth getting if you want to peer down on the ever changing local landscape from on high. 

A number of Berkeley’s most important architectural edifices and landmarks are fittingly portrayed, but Sullivan also turned his camera on humble homes, one-car garages, cement hoppers, and the innards of complex experimental equipment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

Several pages expansively vignette the annual How Berkeley Can You Be? parade, while local murals—including several now vanished—receive their own lavish photo documentation, including no less than four gorgeous pages picturing the monumental and landmark “People’s Bicentennial History of Telegraph Avenue” on Haste above Telegraph. 

Berkeley One and Only might be considered primarily a picture book, but short chapter introductions and detailed captions provide a fair amount of commentary and background information. 

Neither a panorama of half the city nor a close-up of a picturesque fallen leaf in the UC Botanical Garden escape Sullivan’s camera.  

And he has an eye for turning a mundane setting—a stairwell at the Downtown Berkeley BART station for instance, or the fading paint of the “ghost advertisement” on a brick wall—into surprisingly poignant images. 

Sullivan is catholic in his portrayal of not only the physical character, but also the special cultural life, of the Berkeley community. In the future, this book will serve as important documentation of several aspects of Berkeley’s life half a decade to either side of the turn of the century. 

People—Berkeley High School athletes and graduates, local park and library patrons, the late “Waving Man,” BART commuters, a City Council public hearing audience, churchgoers, teenagers sitting on the curb on Telegraph—figure vividly into his Berkeley tapestry.  

From the upper Russell Street Halloween extravaganza, to the Berkeley Flea Market, to a group of pregnant women exercising in the Downtown YMCA pool, here is Berkeley in all of its quirkiness and special character. 

One small discomfort with Berkeley One and Only has to do with the printed character of some of the color photographs. Here and there colors seem a shade off or too saturated—the oranges too reddish, the greens overly vivid, for example.  

I’m neither a photographic nor a printing expert, but my guess is that something about the production process didn’t measure up to the quality of the original photographs. This may bother some readers. 

Also, I try to be a stickler for local historical accuracy, and neither book passes completely unscathed.  

Both get elements of early UC history mixed up, a fault as correctable as it is unfortunately common in local histories. 

I’m disappointed Jonathan Chester didn’t note or describe three of the most important early rock walls in Berkeley which lie at the edges of the UC campus: Le Roy and Hearst below Memorial Stadium and Dana and Bancroft.  

All are prominent 19th century creations and the third one embraces the old First Unitarian Church, where several of Berkeley’s bohemians and early rock enthusiasts worshiped.  

Including them and their history along with a more thorough treatment of William Smyth, whose Fernwald estate at the top of Dwight Way was one of the earliest and most important places Berkeley rocks were used in landscape architecture, would have made Berkeley Rocks a more complete treatise. 

I hasten to add, though, that none of these flaws is fatal. 

Both of these are fine books, and I anticipate they will represent the current decade well in the future libraries of local history as well as on the bookshelves of today’s Berkeleyans. 

Berkeley One and Only 

By Jon Sullivan with Contee Seely. 

Command Performance Press, Berkeley. Hardcover, $35. 

Berkeley Rocks: Building With Nature By Jonathan Chester.  

Ten Speed Press. Hardcover, $35. 

Much of the North Berkeley rock-integrated territory covered by Berkeley Rocks will also be the special focus of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) annual house tour this coming May.

“Stop in the Name of Love, or, Until the War Is Over, Nobody Gets Over.” The subheads of the African-American Shakespeare Co.’s production of Lysistrata say it all—as director Rhodessa Jones amplifies, “Lysistrata is a cry for peace by women driven to change the world using the ultimate weapon!” 

Aristophanes’ ancient bawdy comedy has long been the rallying cry of civilian peace movements in the West, especially since the time of the Popular Front in the 1930s. Its tale of women conspiring to withhold their charms from their warrior husbands until peace (and love) are sued for is sampled by Jones and her crew at San Francisco’s Buriel Clay Theater in the African-American Art and Cultural Complex in a string of vignettes from the old masterpiece with tableaux in shadow-play, riding on a wave of music. 

“I did it for myself,” confesses Jones during her pre-show remarks. “If you like it, tell your friends; if you don’t—mind your own business!” 

This Lysistrata-ish attitude is aided and abetted by an array of performers, including a jazz singer (Cheryl Bennett Scales in the title role), an actor-playwright (Maikiko James as the Goddess of Peace), a stand-up comedian (Shareef Allman as the hapless camoflage-clad Cinesias), a musical theater performer (Viessa Keith-Queen as Lampito), a couple of shadow puppeteers (Sheila Devitt and Nicole Podell) and other performers from around the Bay and the country (Tamika Kai Chenier as Myrrhine, Leslie Ivy as the Koryphaios, Karen Marek as the Old Woman and Desiree Rogers as the Magistrate). 

The combination of these various backgrounds and levels of stage experience, coupled with the “bitty” nature of the show, one routine after another, give it the spirited quality of a kind of vaudevillized pageant, rather than a full staging of a venerable classic. The cast, like the director, is having fun—but for a purpose. Action and language switch back and forth from references to the classical Greek, specifically Athenian, state of things, and arise out of a swirl of present-day popular culture, the miasma of Iraq, well-represented by shadow images and live actors in silhouette. 

The music and singing is both recorded and live, coming from a variety of sources, from James Brown to Jimi Hendrix’s stratospheric bending of the national anthem, from Middle Eastern song to the very apt recessional, Aretha’s “Do-Right Woman.” 

The music leads to some funny business, as the warlike men in shadow-play (the puppetry mentored by I Made Moja, a collaborator with Larry Reed’s brilliant ShadowLight Productions) find their awkward military strutting reduced to a kind of funky-chicken walk in their unsatisfied desperation before they throw in the towel. 

There are a few moments when the text of ancient comedy wryly becomes sit-com-ish, as when Shareef Allman as Cinesias and Tamika Chenier as Myrrhine get into it. Cinesias demands—then pleads for—his connubial rights, “right here on the ground” (in front of the Parthenon?) as his sly wife eggs him on, finds excuses, and dances away to other things, as her fraught spouse cries out her name in anguish, sounding like “Maureen! Maureen!”  

So it all could be right next door, which is one purpose of the show. The other is demonstrated, literally, by the speeches and chants against the present Iraq debacle, some authored by the cast. This Lysistrata succeeds because of its own exuberance, but the play has always been a rallying cry, and that’s how this version works best.

If you’re walking down University Avenue, or driving up the freeway to the Richmond Bridge, or taking a car or bike jaunt up around Clear Lake, you’ll have noticed that the redbuds are blooming. We’ve borrowed specimens of this gorgeous scarf that the Central Valley wears around its eastern and western foothills. Good idea, for landscape and ornament in the cities and for the most difficult spots along roads. 

The Tilden Park Botanic Garden has a splendid group of redbuds right along its perimeter fence, poking through sometimes as if wanting to escape, for inspiration if you need it. 

In its native habitat it’s a frequently-seen roadside tree thriving in the oddest rocky bits of soil, inching right up onto the gravel road shoulder, balancing on defiant tiptoe over a streambed gorge: Cercis occidentalis, cousin to T.S. Eliot’s and Katherine Anne Porter’s Flowering Judas.  

Our redbud has an Eastern North American cousin, Cercis canadensis; there are Asian species too, and lots of hybrids and cultivars in the nursery trade. I have a fondness for ‘Forest Pansy’ with its burgundy leaves, but that’s best for places that are more like an Eastern forest—in part shade, with good drainage but deep loamy soil and plenty of water.  

If you want a true Western redbud, look for it in a nursery that specializes in natives, or wait for one of the native-plant spring sales listed below.  

Buy as small a tree as you can stand to, say a seedling in a one-gallon nursery can or pot. It will be easier to plant because it needs a smaller hole, and will catch up to its bigger brethren who’ve been planted at the same time because it will experience less of the standard transplant setback than one that’s already older. 

Dig a broad, shallow hole for your tree, then pile some of the dirt back into the center of the hole. Don’t amend the soil. If you have serious clay, rough out the edges of the hole with your spade, so you’re not making a clay pot to confine the roots.  

Remove the tree from the can, gently spread the roots out so they won’t grow in a circle, and rest it in top of the pile in the hole. Then backfill, tamping the soil down gently. When it’s planted, the tree should be a bit higher than the ground around it, for better drainage; be sure the roots are covered, though.  

You probably won’t need to stake it. Dig a shallow moat around the edges of the hole and pile that dirt around the outside for a temporary watering basin. This should erode away within a year.  

When you have the tree happily situated, it will need water regularly for at least a year or two; after that it’s drought-tolerant.  

It grows into a small, airy tree, about dogwood-sized, and like a dogwood a sculpture of planes when in leaf. It will want full sun, especially west of the hills; it likes the sort of environment that would fry that dogwood. You’ll get more flowers if your tree lives in a slightly severe climate, particularly one with a cold snap in the winter, and cold winters bring out the best in its fall foliage, too: As Marjorie Schmidt enthuses in her seminal book Growing California Native Plants, “...the heart-shaped leaves look like valentines strung along the stems.” You’ll also get more blooms as the tree gets older.  

Redbuds rarely need pruning, but if you get ambitious or artistic, remember that they bloom on old wood and do your work just after flowering or you’ll lose next year’s show. Study your tree in winter, when the leaves have given way to the ascetically handsome red branches, to imagine its best possible shape. There’s a good chance the tree will imagine its own best form if you leave it alone. 

NATIVE PLANT SALES 

Marin Chapter, California Native Plant Society 

Tiburon Audubon Center and Wildlife Sanctuary 

376 Greenwood Beach Road, Tiburon.  

Saturday Apri 14, 9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.  

Regional Parks Botanic Garden  

Tilden Park, near the Brazilian Room 

Saturday, April 21, 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Jepson CNPS Plant Sale 

Benicia Community Garden 

Military East and E. 2nd St, Benicia 

May 5, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

This redbud’s for you, on University Avenue.These pea-like blooms appear before the heart-shaped leaves in spring. 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Green Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in the Planet’s East Bay Home & Real Estate section.  

TUESDAY, MARCH 27 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Briones Regional Park. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Women: America’s Greatest Untapped Natural Resource Lecture and discussion with Jerri Lanfe at 1 p.m. at Laney College Forum, 900 Fallon St. Oakland. Part of Women HerStory Month. Cost is $7-$12. http://laney.peralta.edu/womensherstorymonth 

“Maquilopolis” Screening of the documentary on globalization through the eyes of Tijuana’s factory workers at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St.  

“Forced Displacement and the Merowe Dam: The Other Human Rights Crisis in the Sudan” with Ali Askouri, Sudanese human rights activist at 7 p.m. in the Morgan Lounge, Morgan Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by International Rivers Network. 848-1155. 

“Finding Your Roots on the Web” A class on genealogy research at 7 p.m. in the Berkeley History Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. To register call 981-6148. 

Zoo Ambassador Training Orientation The Oakland Zoo is looking for volunteers to help teach visitors about the zoo and the animals. Training from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. For information call 632-9525. 

Free Diabetes Screening from 8 a.m. to noon at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Do not eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand. 981-5332. 

National Nutrition Month Cooking Demonstrations at 3 p.m. at the Tuesday Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Derby St. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 548-3333. 

Glucometer Demonstration from noon to 3 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from noon to 1 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Berkeley Home Safety and Repair Program presentation at 1:15 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

“Across the Atlas Alaskan Adventure” A video by Pietro Simonetti and Greg Cook at 7 p.m at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St., near the corner of Eunice St.  

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. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

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

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

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28 

Teach-In and Vigil Against American Torture every Wed. at noon at Boalt Hall, Bancroft Way at College Ave.  

“Health Care for Everyone: Plans or Scams” with Jessica Rothhar of Health Access at the Gray Panthers Membership Meeting, North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 548-9696. 

Walk, Talk, Buck the Fence What’s at stake in the Ecology of Berkeley’s Strawberry Canyon A walk at 5 p.m. every Wed. with Ignacio Chapela and expert guests to discuss what is at stake in the proposed steps for the filling of the Canyon by the UC-LBL Rad-Labs, and now British Petroleum. http://canyonwalks.blogspot.com  

“How to Shop Consciously: The Better World Shopping Guide” with Dr. Ellis Jones at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way. 548-3402.  

“The Aging Eye” a free lecture with Dr. Erich Horn, opthamologist, at 9:30 a.m. at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Cafeteria Annex B and C, 350 Hawthorne St., Oakland. 869-6737. 

New to DVD: “Children of Men” at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Games People Play” By eric Berne at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito. 433-2911. 

El Grupito, a group for practicing and maintaining Spanish skills, meets at 7:30 p.m. at Diesel Books, 5433 College Ave., Oakland. 653-9965. 

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. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, MARCH 29 

“Berkeley, Her Land, Her Gift of Early Neighborhoods” An illustrated lecture with Richard Schwartz at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $15-$20. 848-4288. 

“Fight in the Fields” A doumentary on Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers’ struggle at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220. 

Teen Book Club meets to discuss the books we could not live without at 4:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. Bring a book to share. 981-6107. 

Family Story Time for children ages 3-7 at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, at Hopkins. 981-6107. 

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, MARCH 30 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Ismail Khaldi, Deputy Consul General of Israel in SF on “Pluralism in Israel Today” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

What is Wheat Gluten in our Foods Doing to Us and our children if it is killing cats and dogs? Free documentary screening by Ann Marks at 1 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 528-6267. 

“This Black Soil” a film about the struggles of an impoverished community in Virginia, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Finding Your Roots on the Web” a class on genealogy research at 11 a.m. in the Berkeley History Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. To register call 981-6148. 

Oaxaca & Chiapas Report Back at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists 1924 Cedar St. Donations accepted. 528-5403. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 8 p.m. at Hillside Coommunity Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Potluck supper at 7 p.m.. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 

“The Art of Beekeeping in Your Backyard” A presentation by the Alameda County Beekeepers Association at 10 a.m. at 2418 California St. Cost is $10, reservations required, call Jim at 845-2419 or Heiko at 549-3377. 

Farmyard Stories and Songs with Tara Reinertson at 11 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Native Plants, Native Americans and the Spanish” A walk and discussion of the encounter between the two cultures from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, 2465 34th Ave., Oakland. 532-9142. 

Outdoor Gardening with Cacti and Succulents from 9 a.m. to noon at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $25-$30. Registration required. 643-2755, ext. 03. 

Solo Sierrans Walk in Codornices Park Meet at 3:30 p.m. at the top of the Berkeley Rose Garden on Euclid Ave. Walk lasts about 1.5 hours and includes some steps. Rain cancels. 647-3513. 

Mt. Wanda Wildflower Walk Join a Park Ranger for a walk in the hills where John Muir took his daughters. Terrain is steep, wear walking shoes and bring water. Rain cancels. Meet at 9 a.m. at the Cal-Trans Park and Ride lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. 925-228-8860. 

Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women Summit with Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Nancy Pelosi and workshops on domestic violence, breast health, and women in politics. From 1 to 6 p.m. at the Fremont Marriott, 46100 Landing Parkway, Admission is free, but registration required. 259-3871. 

Zoo Ambassador Training Orientation The Oakland Zoo is looking for volunteers to help teach visitors about the zoo and the animals. Training from 9 to 1 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. For information call 632-9525. 

CopWatch Know Your Rights Training Movie Night Learn your rights with the police and police observation from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Understanding Chronic Fatigue at 11:30 a.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

“Preserving Home Ownership Forum” Learn how to avoid defaults, forclosures and protect your credit at 9:30 a.m. at Preservation Park, Ginn House Meeting Room, 660 13th St., Oakland. Sponsored by the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. 339-2121. 

Petite Pooches Playgroup for small dogs from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., one block north of Solano on Ensenada at Talbot. 524-2459. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 1 

Specialty Nursery Plant Sale, sponsored by California Horticultural Society, with thousands of rare and unique plants, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland, off Grand Ave., beside Lake Merritt. Cost is $3 for park entrance, free admission to plant sale. www.calhortsociety.org 

Family Exploration Day at the Oakland Museum of California with information on the peregrine falcon recovery efforts and special family tours of the Bringing the Condors Home exhibition, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Oak and 10th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class from 1 to 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Free, but registration required. 444-8511. 

“Creating Collaborative Resistance to the Israeli Occupation” with Dr. Dalit Baum, Israeli peace activist, at 2:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public LIbrary, Third Flr Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. Suggested donation $10, no on e turned away. www.bayareawomeninblack.org 

Health Care Reform: Acts for Justice as a Spiritual Practice Soup supper at 5:30 p.m., program at 6:15 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins. Sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. Free, but RSVP requested. 267-7131. 

Holistic Pet Evaluation from 1 to 4 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington, behind Ace Hardware. Free, but appointments required. 525-6155. 

Easter Egg Painting from 2 to 3 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to keep your bike in excellent working condition through safety inspections, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

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 with Santosh Philip on “Advanced Kum Nye: The Joy of Being” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, APRIL 2  

Help with the Frog Survey Learn to recognize frog calls and help with Friends of Five Creeks’ every-other-year frog survey, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin, Albany. For information call 848 9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams, 4341 Piedmont Ave., 2nd Flr., Oakland. To register call Lori at 531-2665. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code UCB) 

ONGOING 

Tax Help at the Berkeley Public Library Sat. from 11:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the South Branch. Call for appointment. 981-6260. Also every Tues. and Thurs. at the West Branch from 12:15 to 3:15 p.m. Call for appointment. 981-6270. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., March 27, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., March 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Energy Commission meets Wed.,March 28, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., March 28 , at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed., March 28 at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.