As Anuradha Biswa Karma waits for her grade-four textbooks in an obscure part of the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, little does she know that there is someone working in Berkeley to send her the money to buy them. 

Like Anuradha, there are 125 other children at Modern Preparatory Secondary School in Itahari, a town sandwiched between Kathmandu and Dharan, who depend on restaurateur Rajen Thapa for their education every month. 

“Itahari is but a tiny dot in the world map,” said Thapa, who owns Taste of the Himalayas in North Berkeley. “But I want to make each of these children a world-class citizen. I want to give them the confidence and the means to become successful.” 

Thapa is not the only business owner in North Berkeley who wants to make a difference in the lives of economically challenged children. There are others, such as the brother and sister duo of Narong and Tuanchai Sapsuwan, of the organic restaurant Thai Delight on Shattuck Avenue , who send money back to Tak, Thailand to support Karenese children every year. 

And then there is David Hahn, who has joined Thapa and the Sapsuwans to host a fundraising dinner and performance on April 26 in Berkeley that will benefit hundreds of children all over the world. 

“For me, nutrition is the most important thing children need,” said Sapsuwan, founder of Thai Delight, who goes by the name A. “If they don’t have nutrition, good clothes on their body and a warm place to sleep in, how will they study?” 

A, an immigrant from Bangkok, started her career as a waitress at Berkeley’s Plearn Thai Cuisine 20 years ago. “It was hard work,” she said, “but it helped me save money to open my own restaurant in Berkeley.” A handed over ownership of Thai Delight to her brother Narong Sapsuwan last year.  

Narong, 43, started off as a wood exporter and co-founded the Joint Venture Company in Bangkok, which exported woodchips to Japan, where he worked as director and general manager for more than a decade. 

“I came to make my fortune in this land of opportunity and freedom,” his sister told the Planet outside Thai Delight Friday. “But I am always reminded that there are so many people in this world who still need help and support. I don’t have any children of my own, and I want to give each of these Karenese children the same opportunity that came my way.” 

The Karenese, a minority group who call the mountain ranges at the border of Thailand and Myanmar their home, are fighting the rule of the Myanmar government for over four decades. 

“It was my brother Dr. Vachara Sapsuwan who told me about these kids when he went to take care of them five years ago,” said A. “They don’t have medicines, or clothes and live in deplorable conditions. We want to teach them organic farming for self-sustenance but first we have to feed them. There are 200 Karenese children in Tak right now, $2 can feed seven children per day.” 

Some ten thousand miles away in El Salvador, 9-year old Walter Rodriguez is getting fed, clothed and educated because 63-year-old David Hahn wants him to see him happy.  

“I look back at my life and all the experiences I have had and I want to give back to those who have had no access all their lives,” he says. 

Hahn—a third-generation American—was born in Springfield, Minn. He went on to get his teaching credentials from Mankato University in Minnesota and moved to the Bay Area in 1989 to work in the College of Education at Cal State East Bay. 

“My outreach to the homeless began through the Berkeley-based Night on the Streets, a Dorothy Day House affiliate,” he said. “I became involved in developing countries after I met the Rev. Nestorio Agirembabazi of the Apostles of Jesus during his sabbatical year in Berkeley. After I visited Africa at his request, I became involved with the Computers for Library Project in Nairobi, Kenya.” 

Hahn hopes that the money from the fundraiser will help turn the library into a major resource center. 

“I see potential to really help change the system in Nairobi,” said Hahn. “We hope the library becomes a vehicle for that. Our goal is to construct 20 workstations. The cost of one computer in Kenya is $825. We need $18,000 to reach our goal.” 

Thapa, the mind behind the fundraiser, hopes to hand over $750 to Hahn and $1,250 to Modern Preparatory School and the Karenese children.  

Tickets for the April 26 event, which will feature dinner at Taste of the Himalayas and Thai Delight and Thai and Nepalese cultural performances at Yogakula, cost $25.  

“The money will go a long away in providing scholarships to the kids in the school,” Thapa said, pointing at pictures of students taken from the last time he was in Nepal. “$1 is 75 Nepalese rupees. That could buy 11 pounds of rice, which is a lot.” 

Thapa elaborated that $500 went to support a single student every year. The school, which was founded by Thapa in 1993 within the confines of his residence, serves 800 children. 

“I make sure that every child gets the best education,” he said. “The money that we make in fees supports the 125 children who come from the lower castes and can’t pay for themselves.” 

A scholarship student himself, Thapa was educated at a private boarding school in Darjeeling, West Bengal.  

“My parents worked in a tea garden, plucking tea leaves,” he said. “There was no way I could have become a teacher if I hadn’t received the scholarship. As a result I want to give back to the community in the same way. Allow someone else to excel and become a better person.” 

Single-payer universal health care advocates in California begin their second try in two years to make their cause state law when the state Senate Health Committee holds a hearing in Sacramento this Wednesday afternoon on state Sen. Shirley Kuehl’s (D-Santa Monica) SB 840. 

Kuehl is chair of the Senate Health Committee. 

Calling it the “gold standard for health care reform,” Kuehl said at a February press conference announcing the reintroduction of her bill that “SB 840 genuinely empowers consumers, because it allows each of us uninterrupted access to the doctors we trust. We will be free to move on from our jobs, start a business, start a family continue our education and change our residence, knowing that our health care will follow us. SB 840 offers genuine affordability, because our premiums will be based on income and each of us will pay our share, as would employers. SB 840 offers a genuinely competitive medical marketplace because all healthcare providers will be in competition for patients based not on a race to the bottom but on the quality and efficiency of their service.” 

Kuehl’s bill easily passed both houses of the state legislature last year (25-15 in the Senate, 45-33 in the Assembly) but was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said that the measure would create a “vast new bureaucracy” and would “cost the state billions and lead to significant new taxes on individuals and businesses, without solving the critical issue of affordability. I won’t jeopardize the economy of our state for such a purpose.” 

But health care coverage has becoming an increasingly visible issue in California and state politics since then, and with the governor himself now calling for at least a limited expansion of health care coverage in California, and both Republican and Democratic legislative leaders coming out with health care bills of their own, advocates are hoping for a better result this year. 

The California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA), the state affiliate for the AFL-CIO retired workers’ organization, is taking several busloads of advocates from the Bay Area to Wednesday’s hearing, including representatives of Oakland-based Vote Health Organization and San Francisco-based Senior Action Network. In addition, the national organization Health Care Access has set up a 365-city campaign in the state under the name OneCareNow (www.onecarenow. org) to promote passage and signing of SB 840. 

Oakland’s Vote Health organization, East Bay advocates for increased health care protections, says in its latest newsletter that momentum for SB 840 is building. 

“Last August’s rally to demand that Schwarzenegger sign SB 840 only attracted a modest crowd,” the newsletter reported. “When Senator Kuehl held her press conference in February to introduce her bill, busloads of supporters packed the State Capitol hearing room.” 

Citing concerns about the health care crisis voiced by such corporations as IBM, Costco, General Electrics, and Kelly Services, the organization said that “the clearly increasing sense of urgency among business leaders to find a genuine solution to our health care crisis can’t help but contribute to our momentum.” 

Kuehl’s bill would provide health care coverage for all Californians through a single, state-developed health care system, the so-called “single payer” system. 

According to the 88 page bill’s language, SB 840 “would establish the California Universal Healthcare System to be administered by the newly created California Universal Healthcare Agency under the control of a Universal Healthcare Commissioner appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate.  

The bill would make all California residents eligible for specified health care benefits under the California Universal Healthcare System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services.  

The bill would require the commissioner to seek all necessary waivers, exemptions, agreements, or legislation to allow various existing federal, state, and local health care payments to be paid to the California Universal Healthcare System, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds.” 

Last year, Kuehl’s bill did not include a mechanism for how this universal health care would be funded, with the Senator only calling for a commission to determine the financing once the bill became law. 

This year, Kuehl has introduced tax increase legislation (SB 1014) that would fund universal health care. While the original bill, SB 840, only requires a majority vote in both houses of the legislature for passage, the tax revenue SB 1014 bill requires a two-thirds vote for passage. That means it will need support from at least some legislative Republicans, who account for more than one-third of the legislature. 

State Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) have introduced separate health care coverage expansion bills themselves, Perata under the California Health Care Coverage and Cost Control Act (SB 48) and Nuñez under the Fair Share Health Care Act (AB 8).  

Neither bill calls for universal health care coverage in California. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have introduced their own bills to expand health care coverage. Last January, Senate Republicans introduced a bill under the name Cal CARE that would, not surprisingly, take a market-based approach, among other things “creat[ing] more consumer options and cultivate marketplace competition by eliminating regulatory hurdles,” “provid[ing] new incentives for hospitals and private industry to increase the number of clinics,” and “increas[ing] the number of Californians with health coverage by offering incentives to employers who offer health care coverage for their employees.”  

Assembly Republicans have introduced 19 separate bills addressing the health care crisis. 

Perata said at a health care town hall meeting in Oakland last month that he and Nuñez would be meeting during the legislative year to work out the differences between their two bills.  

“I will make sure we have at least one Democratic-backed bill and one Republican bill to consider in the conference committee,” Perata said. 

The State Senate president added that while “ultimately a single-payer system is the best way to proceed,” he was hoping to get a law passed and signed this year “which will at least provide accessible and affordable health care for adults in working families in the state, as well as for all children. I don’t know how much we will be able to get done. But I want to get something passed this year rather than nothing.” 

Nuñez agreed at last month’s Oakland forum that while “our goal is universal health care, we don’t have the two-thirds vote necessary to pass a single-payer health care plan. Before we get to the perfect, I want us to get to the possible.” 

UC Berkeley faculty will cast their ballots Thursday on competing resolutions triggered by the largest corporate grant in the history of the American university. 

Questions about the nature of academic freedom, faculty hiring, the increasing reliance on corporate funds and the secrecy shrouding patent-directed research will culminate in an unusual two-hour special session that begins at 1 p.m. in Booth Auditorium at Boalt Hall. 

The key issue is whether or not to create a blue-ribbon committee to oversee the half-billion-dollar research program that BP pl.c.—previously British Petroleum—is now negotiating with university administrators. 

On April 5, student activists in StopBP-Berkeley.org forced university officials to release the previously secret appendices to the winning proposal that led the giant oil firm to pick UCB as the recipient of a complex 10-year funding package. 

Release of the documents sparked a sharp April 12 letter from John M. Simpson of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.  

Simpson charged that some of the scientists listed as participants were opponents of the deal and “were shocked to discover that their names and resumes were included,” and accused Birgeneau of a “fundamental mischaracterization” in describing the grant process as open. 

In an earlier letter to the foundation, Birgeneau had said the proposal “was developed in an open, not a secretive way,” citing announcement of the proposal’s formulation in emails to all faculty before it was drafted as well as notification of the academic senate. 

Pie charts 

Included in the recently released appendix were two pie charts, the first listing startup companies that had arisen from UC Berkeley by their departments of origin, and the second listing the startups by their commercial sectors. 

The largest two sectors of origin were the Departments of Molecular and Cell Biology with 21 percent of the startups and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with 20 percent, followed by Chemistry with 15 percent and Bioengineering with 14 percent. 

Collectively, the departments which have given rise to academic entrepreneurialism were heavily over-represented among signatories backing the petition against the special oversight committee, while departments absent from the robes-to-riches pie charts were heavily represented in petitions calling for oversight. 

The Energy Biosciences Institute that BP’s funds will endow will conduct both open research and two parallel tracks of proprietary research, one conducted exclusively by BP scientists and aimed at creating patents that will belong solely to the company and a second, joint track conducted jointly by BP and university researchers that will lead to patents on which the company will have the right of first refusal and share royalties with the university. 

A third track, consisting of research conducted only by university scientists, will yield patents solely to the school. 

Letters 

The newly released appendices show that university officials sought and won extensive support from local business associations, as well from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who addressed a Nov. 20, 2006 letter to Lord John Browne, BP’s CEO. 

Feinstein wrote to “wholeheartedly support” the two proposals presented by UC campuses (UC San Diego had also fielded a proposal of its own). “BP is to be commended for creating a center that will focus on developing new more efficient biofuels as a way to combat climate change,” she wrote. 

Two joint endorsement letters to BP came from corporate organizationa, one from regional business and economic development alliances and the other from BayBio, an interest group of regional biotechnology firms. 

“There is no other region in the world,” the first declared, “that matches the Bay Area’s depth and breadth of research excellence, entrepreneurial vigor, and technological advancement. 

The 15 signatories to that first letter included leading officials of the San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Rosa chambers of commerce, as well as the Solano Economic Development Council, the Contra Costa Council, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the Bay Area Council, the East Bay Economic Development Alliance, the San Francisco Center for Economic Development, the Tri-Valley Business Council, the Bay Area Economic Forum and the Napa Valley Economic Development Council.  

The BayBio letter pledged the support of “investors, entrepreneurs and industry executives dedicated to bringing clean energy technologies to the marketplace.” 

One of the 32 signatories to the BayBio letter was Neal Gutterson, president and CEO of Mendel Technology. Geneticist Chris Somerville, whose controversial hire by UCB Chancellor Robert Birgeneau is one of the reasons critics sought Thursday’s academic senate meeting, chairs the firm’s board of directors and is its leading scientist. 

Somerville is expected to play a leading role in EBI, as is LBNL/UCB academic entrepreneur Jay Keasling, a founder of Amyris Biotechnology—the firm that hired BP’s American fuels operations president John G. Melo while the university was bidding for the half-billion-dollar grant. 

Another, separate letter, from Cisco Systems Vice President Patrick Finn, promised the computer network firm’s support for the EBI and its programs. 

The appendix also included “Five Universities You Can Do Business With,” a February 2006 article from Inc. Magazine. Author Carl Schramm described five schools “that constitute the elite of the technology transfer world. They are Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford, MIT, and Wisconsin.” 

Half of the appendices consists of resumes, both detailed and brief, of scientists who have signed on to participate in the research and descriptions of the labs where work will be conducted until a special-purpose facility can be built, partly with the help of $40 million in state funds promised by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

The document is now available at the EBI’s web site at www.ebiweb.org/proposal.htm. 

Faculty critics 

Critics fear that accepting a grant of unprecedented scale from Big Oil without special oversight could lead to a wide range of consequences, and contend that special oversight is needed to weigh the agreement’s impacts both with the campus and outside. 

Some, like agricultural specialists Miguel Altieri, Ignacio Chapela and Andrew Paul Gutierrez, say they fear that production of crops for conversion to fuel—the cornerstone of the BP-funded project—could wreak severe consequences in lesser-developed countries, including replacement of food crops with plants grown to fuel the cars of U.S. motorists. 

Chapela is also a leading critic of the handling of genetically modified organisms (GMO), including the crops with tweaked genes that form one of the central elements in the BPI proposal. His research found genes from GMO corn invading the genomes of native species deep in Mexico, a country that bans import of GMOs. 

Somerville, the recently hired UCB/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory geneticist, has ridiculed GMO fears, contending that the worst result that’s ever happened “has been a mild rash.” 

Other concerns raised by critics have included the broader questions involving the increasing reliance of public universities on corporate funding, and its impacts on the shaping of the curriculum, the availability of funds for research programs, the relative pay of faculty across departments and the impacts on students. 

The university’s Graduate Assembly has passed a resolution calling for the same type of oversight that faculty critics seek, and is asking for two seats on the panel as well as independent funding for a research program to examine the “ethical, geopolitical and environmental impacts of biofuels.

To Alan P. Rudy, the furor surrounding the developing half-billion-dollar research pact between BP and UC Berkeley is deja vu writ large. 

“I’ve been following it closely, and lo and behold, it reminds me of something I have seen before. It seems like the same players as before. It’s striking,” he said. 

A professor of sociology, Rudy was one of nine Michigan State University researchers hired by Berkeley’s Academic Senate four years ago to review Berkeley’s previously most controversial corporate/academic research grant. 

Their widely publicized 188-page report, issued on July 13, 2004, examined the research agreement between Novartis, a Swiss agricultural and chemical industry giant, and the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology (PMB) of the College of Natural Resources. 

While concluding that the worst fears of critics hadn’t been realized, the MSU team concluded that massive corporate grants posed vexing problems for academia, and recommended special steps to avoid them—recommendations which one MSU researcher said provoked only “a sort of resounding silence after we handed them in.” 

Among nine specific recommendations, the first three are strikingly resonant with the ongoing controversy over the BP grant, which involves 40 times the money and many more faculty: 

“1. Avoid industry agreements that involve complete academic units or large numbers of researchers. 

“2. Reassess in a comprehensive fashion the implications of non-financial and institutional conflicts of interest. 

“3. Encourage broad debate early in the process of research agendas.” 

With the Novartis agreement, the investigators concluded, “debate came too late for some participants to exercise meaningful degrees of freedom.” In the future, they concluded, Berkeley faculty and administrators may wish to engage in timely reviews of institutional commitments to the dominant paths of scientific research in their formative years, especially when faced with public controversy.” 

Novartis 

On Nov. 13, 1998, the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute and the university signed a five-year, $25 million funding agreement, of which two-thirds would go to PMB and the remainder to covering indirect costs. 

Critics voiced fears that by signing on a whole department the university risked losing autonomy to a corporate funder which could—among other things—control research into channels that were profitable for the company while ignoring other research that might be more beneficial to others but less profitable to corporate stockholders. 

Criticisms of the Novartis agreement led first to an internal review on campus, and then the hiring in early 2001 of the team of researchers from Michigan State’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Standards to examine the agreement, its impacts and its implications. 

Lawrence Busch, a Distinguished Professor of sociology at MSU, was named principal investigator, and Rudy and four other colleagues were chosen as co-principal investigators, aided by three research assistants. 

Their study concluded that the worst fears of critics hadn’t materialized, but they warned that Novartis affair had raised profound questions about Berkeley—and about all public universities—in the changing political and economic environments of the early 21st century. 

The lack of response to the Michigan State study wasn’t in itself terribly surprising, said Rudy, now a professor at Central Michigan University. 

“If Derek Bok, who had been president of Harvard University, can be ignored when he writes a book that says ‘hold on, we’re doing a lot of things at American universities that can have real consequences,’ then it’s not that surprising.” 

Bok’s critique, Our Underachieving Colleges, was published in December 2005. 

Rudy said he wasn’t surprised that most media coverage has ignored the key role played by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the university’s proposal to BP. 

“The places for open conversation on these issues have not followed through,” he said. 

One result of the MSU team’s research has just borne new fruit. 

The authors of the Novartis study have revised their original report and expanded it to cover the broader issues raised for American academia. Universities in the Age of Corporate Science: The UC Berkeley-Novartis Controversy was published in January by Temple University Press. 

“One of the things our report concluded was that this kind of agreement was most likely to happen at a place like Berkeley, but it’s also particularly most likely to be resisted at a place like Berkeley,” Rudy said. 

“If it happened at an institution of significantly lower status, the resistance would be much lower,” he said. “But one of the things that was attractive to Novartis is the great faculty.” 

One issue of concern, he said, could be shared governance—the delicate balance struck between faculties and administration in tenure and other key decisions. 

Another issue is proprietary research and the restrictions it poses on sharing information at an institution with a primary responsibility to teach, to share information rather than hoard it. 

Engineering departments, he said, have solved the problem to a greater degree than many other specialties. “They found it quite an impediment to good science, and they have moved away from privatization” of research and away from exclusive agreements—though corporations are still willing to fund the departments, he said.  

“That’s a different model of corporate science. That’s a suggestion, but I don’t know if it’s right for biotech and agroecology,” he said. 

Another, and potentially deeper structural problem lies in a political environment where both left and right have raised neo-libertarian critiques of government. The future of the state-supported university is in flux, he said. 

“Michigan is in a severe fiscal crisis,” he said, “but in no way can anyone talk about new taxes. Government is held to be evil and the market is the solution. Yet people also get upset that their garbage isn’t being picked up and their streets aren’t being cleaned.

Assemblymember Loni Hancock sponsored her second major public gathering in her assembly district in two months, holding a town hall meeting on global warming at Berkeley City College that attracted several hundred participants and presentations from several local and state agencies.  

The event was an early kickoff in Berkeley for International Earth Week, an environmental education event that runs through Friday. 

Last month, Hancock sponsored a town hall forum on health care reform at Oakland City Hall. Hancock has been active on both issues in Sacramento, but is stepping up her visibility in her East Bay district in part in anticipation of a possible run for the California State Senate in 2008. 

“Climate change is the truly great scientific, ethical, economic, and political challenge of our time,” Hancock said in her opening remarks to a packed BCC auditorium crowd, adding that to combat the rising tide of global warming “is going to require a cultural shift.” 

Berkeley, which shifted culturally several decades ago, indicated that it is already leading the way. 

Several of the day’s presenters—including California Public Utilities Commissioner Dian Grueneich and Bay Area Air Quality Management District Director of Planning and Research Henry Hilken—said that they lived in Berkeley, and Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates noted that the number of Berkeley residents who were working in local and state agencies and specializing in environmental protection concerns showed how Berkeley was leading the way on such issues. 

“This is an issue that Berkeleyans can work together on to put aside all of our differences,” Bates said. 

That prompted presenter Lynda Deschambault, vice mayor of Moraga, to note, “I’m glad to say that I’m not from Berkeley.” 

The crowd grew silent, not quite understanding what she meant, but the mood eased considerably when Deschambault explained, “we need to have a diverse representation from different communities on this issue. We can’t tackle it only in one location.” 

The day began with a brief presentation by Sierra Club Deputy Executive Director Bruce Hamilton on the “consequences of inaction.” He said he had the “unenviable task of scaring you out of your socks.” 

Hamilton noted that because of its geographical location, the United States “will not be hit as hard as other areas” if a major environmental disaster sparked by global warming occurs.  

Instead, Hamilton said the tropics and the area of both poles will witness the most environmental damage. Hamilton called that “ironic, because the United States is the biggest polluter of the planet.” 

He predicted that up to a million separate species “could become extinct” in a global warming catastrophe, more than half of the 1.8 million species so far identified and named by scientists. 

With that information familiar to most in the environmentally-savvy crowd, most of the day’s presentations were made up of a series of brief reports on how well California is doing in leading the nation in battling global warming, and referring to website links with detailed reports on how, and in what specific areas, the state can do better. 

“California spends $900 million per year on energy efficiency; we are head and shoulders above other states,” said PUC Commissioner Grueneich, who called herself “the lead commissioner on energy efficiency.” 

She said that area of activity was “the key to success for global warming. It’s the only one which saves money. For every dollar spent on energy efficiency, you save two dollars in energy costs.” 

Will Travis, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, warned of the consequences of rising bay waters if action is not taken, with the possibility of the swamping of several low-lying developments.  

Travis said that with a three-degree rise in world temperature by the year 2100, the most optimistic projection, the bay will rise five inches. With a 10-degree temperature rise, the most pessimistic, the bay will rise three feet. Travis called that ironic, since it would return the bay to the water volume it had in 1849, prior to decades of landfill and development along its shores.  

But he said that could wipe out several key facilities and communities that have developed along the bayshore, including both the San Francisco and Oakland airports and one-quarter of the city of Richmond. The bay water rise would also alter the salinity in the lower delta where California gets much of its drinking water supply, making some of that water undrinkable. 

“It’s too late to prevent climate and sea rise,” Hamilton said. “Nothing we do will stop that over the next two decades. We’re like the captain of the Titanic. Once he saw the iceberg, it was too late to turn around. But we can soften the blow.” 

Hamilton said that no one state agency has the authority to impose flood plans on Bay Area communities, which are covered by 26 municipal or county governments. He said that while there is a movement to have these government entities come up with their own plans, “my fear is that we will have 25 good flood plans, and one that isn’t.”  

With a reference to Katrina and New Orleans, he noted “and as we know, all it takes for a flood to occur is if you have one bad levee. We need to develop regional cooperation.” 

Hancock said that California is taking the lead in the newly-invigorated environmental movement. Referring to AB 32, California’s landmark greenhouse gas emission curb legislation that was signed into law last fall, she said, “California was not sitting around on our hands, waiting for the federal government to act. Truly, the whole world is watching California right now.”  

But with the state now charged with meeting a statewide greenhouse gas emissions cap by the year 2020, Hancock said that “the difference between a dream and a pipe dream is in the implementation. That’s the phase we are in now.” 

Meanwhile, the threat of global warming is causing a return to some solutions long thought dead, at least in the progressive East Bay. Daniel Kammen, director of the UC Berkeley Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, suggested that the need to curb carbon emissions means “we are going to need to discuss the possibility of discussing a return to the building of nuclear power plants; that’s going to make some people uncomfortable.” 

Hancock reported that there was already a bill to lift the current ban on more nuclear power plants (AB 719, Assemblymember Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine), which was scheduled for debate on Monday in Hancock’s Natural Resources Committee.  

“We don’t want to trade one poison for another,” Hancock said. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) will make a second try Wednesday at revising a report on city policies regarding UC Berkeley’s plans for the city center. 

The Subcommittee on City Interests in UC Properties presented its report initially on March 7, and the version to be considered this week incorporates revisions made at that meeting. 

DAPAC members will face one new item of business Wednesday: The first draft of the plan’s Environmental Sustainability Element, which outlines the issue committee members have agreed will provide the plan’s overarching theme. 

The 25-page document was drafted by three professional planners—Matt Taecker, hired by the city with university funds to work on the new plan, and UC Berkeley planners Judy Chess and Jennifer McDougall—and Berkeley environmentalist Juliet Lamont. 

Nine primary objectives are identified, ranging from promoting development of and cooperation among local and regional environmental management programs to reducing solid and hazardous wasters, conserving water and restoring creeks, maintaining trees and natural habitat, supporting sustainable regional agriculture and reducing use of nonrenewable energy consumption. 

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

Helios in Greek myth was the sun god who drove a chariot daily from east to west across the sky and sailed across the ocean each night in a huge cup. 

KyotoUSA, a volunteer group which encourages cities to work with their governments to reduce greenhouse emissions, is all set to redefine the word in its own way.  

“The HELiOS project stands for Helios Energy Lights Our Schools,” said Tom Kelly, a Berkeley resident and member of KyotoUSA who spoke in favor of a solar project at Washington Elementary School at the Berkeley Board of Education meeting last week. “The Washington school project is our way of demonstrating that we can achieve even more than personal reductions in Green House Gas emissions and do it in a way that has many important benefits.” 

The Berkeley Unified School District estimates the cost of the project to be $1,250,000, which takes into account the cost of putting in photovoltaic panels as well as replacing the current roof. 

The board refrained from approving the project Wednesday, putting on hold an opportunity for staff to apply for $750,000 in funds from the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) and ratification of an application for $305,000 in PG&E funds. 

The school bond Measure AA would contribute $195,000 toward the cost. The OPSC funds could also be used for other construction needs at Washington, but the district would first have to identify funds to make the 40 percent match. 

“We had not thought about the new roof or the soft costs when we first came up with the project,” Kelly said. “As a result we had calculated the cost of the project to be $800,000. But I guess the roof is old and needs to be repaired.” 

School superintendent Michele Lawrence told the Planet Monday that repair of the roof at Washington Elementary had been long pending. 

“The solar project is a good project, but we have many good projects. That is the most difficult part,” she said. “We have provided the board with a lot of information and they need to deliberate how the HELiOS project falls in line with the others.” 

Kelly said that KyotoUSA had discussed the possibility of carrying out the HELiOS project at several Berkeley school sites but had finally decided on Washington Elementary. 

“KyotoUSA is made up of volunteers, not financial moguls or energy experts,” he said. “We want to start with a small project. We also need a school with a good roof, one that gets a lot of sun and does not have a lot of things on it. Washington also has a single meter for the main building which is what we are looking for.” 

Kelly said that Berkeley High School would also be a great location for the project but would be more expensive. 

School board directors were divided in their opinion about the solar project and asked staff to come back with a comprehensive report on payback figures. 

“It’s a pilot project because solar systems are something that public as well as private entities will need to look at sometime in the future,” said BUSD Facilities Manager Lew Jones. “The Washington project is risk-free as it will allow us to leverage several sources of capital without using the General Fund.” 

Kelly told the Planet that the $3,054 cost to secure the PG&E rebate fund had already been paid by KyotoUSA donors. “We have 60 days from April 16 to submit the next ‘Proof of Project Milestone’ or the rebate reservation expires.” 

School board director John Selawsky stressed the same point at the meeting. 

“If we don’t do this in the next six months, the $305,000 in funds is going to become $225,000,” he said. “We are not inventing the project. It has been done before.” School districts in San Jose and San Diego and some individual schools in Marin have installed solar in their schools in the past. 

Benefits of the HELiOS project to the district and the community claimd by proponents include: 

• Significant cost savings to the district over the life of the system 

• Environmental benefits including reduction in fossil fuel use, cleaner air and reduced GHGs 

• Educational benefits that will flow from the presence of a PV system. 

• Bringing in new donors and volunteers to assist in expanding the project beyond Washington School and the City of Berkeley 

• Giving students tangible evidence that adults were taking climate change seriously and are doing something about it 

Washington consumed approximately 170,560 KwH in energy and paid around $25,505 in electricity costs in 2006.  

The size of the proposed PV system is 100KW (manufacturer’s rating), and it would produce 154,000 KwH annually—enough to cover 100 percent of the main building’s electricity needs. There is also a 25-year-old warranty on the panels. 

“$25,000 will be saved in electricity bills in the first year and it will be more after that as energy costs will increase by 5 percent every year,” said Kelly. “Whatever the savings are, the district can put it into their General Fund or the Bond Fund.” 

KyotoUSA proposed a model to the BUSD that allows the community to raise money to make the project “cost-neutral.” 

“Cost-neutral means that the district will simply pay a lender for the PV system instead of paying PG&E for electricity,” said Kelly. “We are addressing questions that the school board brought up at the meeting—such as payback, rebates and matching funds—right now. This project is a necessity. We need to find ways to change from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy and we need to do it soon.”

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) set the appeal of an application for an administrative use permit for 933 Keeler Ave. for public hearing at the board meeting Thursday. 

Applicant Ken Winfield was denied a permit for construction of a second story atop an existing one-story detached garage, set back five feet from the property line abutting the street and two feet from the property line to the north, with an average height of 24 feet and a maximum height of 26 feet. 

The zoning officer denied the permit because: 

• The project was inconsistent with the existing pattern of development in the neighborhood; 

• The height of the proposed building exceeded the development standards for an accessory building and would shadow an adjacent neighbor; 

• The conditions necessary to exceed the height and story limit in the Hillside Overlay District were not present. 

The site—which is located at the corner of Keeler Avenue and Forest Lane, one block west of Grizzly Peak and one block south of Marin—is situated in a neighborhood that mostly consists of single-family homes ranging from one to three stories. 

According to the staff report, “garages and accessory buildings within required yard setbacks are not uncommon. However, there is not a pattern of two-story accessory buildings within the required front yard setback in the neighborhood.” 

According to Winfield’s appeal: 

• There is a pattern of two-story accessory buildings within required setbacks and fronting the public right of way in the neighborhood 

• The development would not in-crease shadowing to the adjacent neighbor due to existing trees 

• The subject property meets the conditions necessary to support an exception to exceed height and stories outlined in the purposes of the Hillside Overlay District 

The board continued an appeal for a permit to allow construction at a single-family residential building at 2008 Virginia St. to May 24. 

Applicant Lorin Hill had requested the permit to construct a 1,434-square-foot addition, raising the existing structure approximately six feet to create habitable space on the ground level, and expanding the footprint of the building to create a two-story west wing. 

Neighbors are appealing the AUP because they are concerned that the additional height will block air and light. 

On Jan. 25, ZAB board members had asked the applicant to put up story poles at the site of the building so that the ZAB and neighbors could get a better visual representation of the project. Staff reported that during this process the applicant had modified the proposed project in a way that could satisfy the appellant’s concerns. 

The applicant and the appellants are in the process of discussing modifications to the original project design. 

The board approved a request for a use permit from Jeff Stein of Berkeley to construct a second-story addition to an existing single-family dwelling unit at 1625 Berkeley Way that would be non-conforming in lot coverage and west (left) side yard setback.  

Some neighbors were concerned about the additional story, which they said would block sunlight and air and invade their privacy. 

The board also approved the request for a use permit from Chris Williams of Oakland to establish a yoga studio with incidental retail sale of yoga accessories in an existing, 800-square-foot tenant space at 3320 Adeline St. Staff recommends approval of the project. 

Somebody should ask Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (or whoever takes his job) about Petrona Tomas. 

At age 11, the little girl was sold by her father to a man in their native Guatemala. Fearing for her life, three years later she was smuggled out to live with her brother in Lake Worth, Florida, where she was sold out by law enforcement authorities. 

Speaking English and Spanish—both incomprehensible to Petrona Tomas—officers allowed her father to waive her Miranda rights. She was charged as an adult with the first-degree murder of the 2.8-pound premature infant she delivered on the bathroom floor. And they imprisoned her for one-and-a-half years in a jail for adults while she awaited trial. 

The only facts that were clear from the start in 2002, until the case was well underway, was that Petrona Tomas received neither medical nor legal communication in a language she spoke or understood. And that federal law defines this as discrimination and that the U.S. Department of Justice is supposed to oversee and enforce that law—Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

The teenager, who was illiterate and understood little more than a Mayan dialect, was headed for possible life in prison. A month after Petrona’s arrest, a group of women from her remote mountain village wrote a letter to the U.S. government pleading for justice for the child. They had it translated into English and delivered to an American lawyer vacationing in the area. Once home, the tourist passed it to Isabel Framer, a recognized consultant on court interpreting. The following month, Framer filed a discrimination complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice against the Lake Worth police and sheriff’s departments and the Palm Beach [County] Circuit Court. 

Ask the attorney general of the United States why it took three years to forge an agreement with Lake Worth police to develop a language plan that should have already been in place. A small city in Palm Beach County, Lake Worth has a large Latino population and enough Mayan languages to be considered a Mayan village. Guaranteeing accurate communication for a population of significant size in a community is the heart of Title VI. 

Ask Gonzales why the agreement last month was signed three days before Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general of his Civil Rights Division, addressed the division’s first national conference on language access. Kim called the agreement an example of “doing the right thing.” 

Ask the attorney general why the investigation is described as “ongoing” by his department spokesmen. 

Presumably, this is because agreements with the sheriff’s department and court have yet to be reached. In the view of Bruce Adelson, a civil rights attorney who left Justice last year, the Petrona Tomas case was “so egregious,” it should have been taken care of “quickly and firmly, to send a message to law enforcement everywhere.” 

The lesson came too late for Lake Worth police, who evicted eight Guatemalan families from their building one night last year, allegedly using a ruse of code violations and giving them 30 minutes to clear out. The Florida Equal Justice Project has filed a discrimination lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida against the city of Lake Worth, claiming selective code enforcement under the Fair Housing Act. A trial is set for next August. 

Petrona, who had run away because the man she lived with in Guatemala beat her, thought Lake Worth police were going to hit her during their interrogation. So when they nodded their heads, she nodded hers. This and other behavior added up to a confession to police. To them, it meant that she had delivered a premature daughter in a breach birth, stuffed a wad of toilet paper down her throat, another wad in her ear, and put her in a plastic bag in the bathroom garbage can. Petrona’s brother’s wife and the wife’s mother had found the teen unconscious in a pool of blood and called 911. They were never deposed for court, and the older woman reportedly returned to Guatemala. 

Ask Alberto Gonzales where civil rights under Title VI rank with the leadership of the Department of Justice. Title VI is perhaps the least known and most powerful section of the Civil Rights Act. A person with limited or no ability to speak or understand English is guaranteed free, “meaningful” access to language assistance wherever medical outlets and law enforcement receive federal funding. 

Timely response to complaints with aggressive enforcement are absent in most cases at both Justice and at the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which investigates medical interpreting issues. Health’s regional office in North Carolina is among the few known for living up to its promise. Only recently, an investigator at the Health Department’s regional office in Dallas reported that new information has been requested in a seven-year, “active investigation” into lack of medical interpreting at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. 

“I could care less at this point—seven years later—what the feds do,” says Gail Evans, senior attorney at the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. Its attorneys filed the complaint on behalf of a group of non-profits that represent limited-English-proficient patients. “We’ve never had a response from the feds to our calls and letters. We finally moved forward through the courts ourselves, and then the hospital wanted to work it out. We now have a community committee of hospital administration and advocates that meets every week. They’ve been taking huge steps in solving the problem and are doing some really good stuff.” 

In this world of policy, “good stuff” requires understanding that interpreting is a profession that demands study and has standards. It involves educating medical and legal professionals how to comply with Title VI, such as using trained interpreters instead of family members who don’t know medical terminology and are too close to the patient. The bulk of Justice and Health civil rights work today involves conducting such workshops. But administrators of top law enforcement and medical facilities should have known what they are expected to do about language access since 2000. That year, then-President Clinton signed an executive order putting Justice in charge of written federal guidelines to spell out Title VI compliance standards. 

It is Mayan custom to prepare a body for burial by putting cloth in orifices. Later—much later—Petrona Tomas communicated that she did not stuff tissue down her newborn’s throat, which the autopsy ruled killed her. Petrona said that she did not even know she was pregnant until she delivered. She said that during the month’s dangerous travel from Guatemala to Lake Worth with a group led by smugglers, she was raped by the “coyote,” chief smuggler, and assumed the baby was his. 

In the lingo of Gonzales’ Civil Rights Division, enforcement is complaint-driven, as in the case of Petrona Tomas, and the statutes demand that investigators seek “voluntary compliance.” The agency has the authority to insert itself into any Title VI investigation, but chooses to avoid stepping on the toes of other agencies, especially the Health Department. In 2003, that department’s civil rights department watered down its Title VI guidelines by changing words like “must”—called for in Justice’s guidance—to “may.” Justice was silent. Because it has authority over Title VI, the Justice Department could have forced the issue, and by doing nothing confused many program leaders around the country about the agencies’ mixed compliance messages. 

For nearly the last decade, limited-English-speaking patients at the Maine Medical Center could have used aggressive oversight of Title VI by the Department of Justice. Center administrators signed an agreement in 1991 to provide medical interpreting in two languages and to add more languages as time went by. 

In 1997, an activist filed a complaint with the Department of Health under Title VI. For the next nine years, local advocates reported in vain to investigators that the agreement had fallen apart. Last year, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services signed a new agreement pledging to provide trained interpreters to people who receive Medicaid, child welfare and other social services. 

More than 23 million people residing in the United States have little or no English skills. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which accredits about 80 percent of U.S. hospitals, spent the past three years studying 60 [unidentified] hospitals across the country through the lens of language access. Considering that half of the hospitals are the most experienced at serving diverse communities, some of the study’s conclusions were a letdown even to the authors. Besides offering mostly telephonic interpreting services that some hospital staff report difficult to use, the majority of the hospitals still rely on bilingual staff as interpreters. They may be adept at colloquial speech, but untrained in the profession of accurate medical interpreting, which can make the difference between life and death. 

The Joint Commission released another study within the past month about the differences in negative medical outcomes (from moderate physical harm to death) between English-speaking and limited-English-speaking patients. According to that study conducted over seven months in 2005 in six hospitals, 49 percent of patients with limited English skills had negative experiences. Some involved physical harm. Only 29.5 percent of English-speaking patients had experiences resulting in physical harm. Communication errors were responsible for more than half the negative experiences for patients without English skills. They were tracked at 36 percent of the reasons for English speakers’ bad medical experiences. 

In his beltway speech to more than 300 interpreters, advocates and government workers on Title VI issues from across the country, Assistant Attorney General Kim proudly announced the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Division. He invoked the memory of John Doar, the fourth U.S. Assistant Attorney General for civil rights. It was Doar who literally lived with James Meredith in 1962 to ensure his safety as the first African-American student to enroll at the University Mississippi. It was Doar who led the investigation and prosecution of the murder of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi. 

It’s too late to rewrite the Johnny-Come-Lately role of DOJ in the case of Petrona Tomas. To earn its anniversary celebration of the legacy of the Civil Rights Division, the Department of Justice must enforce Title VI with the integrity and zeal of John Doar. 

There is a movie in the works on the life of Petrona Tomas. Due to relentless advocacy for Petrona by immigration attorney Aileen Josephs and Sister Rachel Sena, director of the Maya Ministry for the Palm Beach Diocese, local newspapers published stories about Framer’s complaint to Justice. 

Only after Lake Worth realized the Department of Justice was involved was Petrona released from jail into the safekeeping of Linda and John Taft, a retired Vermont couple who winter in Palm Springs County. They legally adopted Petrona last year. 

Active in Catholic social service work in Lake Worth, the couple spent their careers working with delinquent and dependent children and social policy. John Taft spent five years as director of the Vermont Law Enforcement Training Council. Although they came into Petrona’s life late in her legal struggle, they wonder why it took the Department of Justice three years to take a judicial stick to Lake Worth. John Taft says his biggest regret is recommending that Petrona accept the plea offer to juvenile child endangerment that included probation. He was afraid that Petrona would fail to receive justice in a Lake Worth trial. Petrona’s probation ended on Dec. 14, 2004, with the judge saying that Petrona had done “everything the judicial system can expect of her.” 

For the Tafts, the question now is what Petrona failed to get from the justice system. 

“I told Petrona when police signed the agreement with the Justice Department that maybe it will make things better for other people in the future,” says Linda Taft. “She doesn’t feel as badly as I do. No one came to my daughter and said, ‘We didn’t give you what you needed.’ I am very disappointed and angry.’” 

At 19, Petrona visits the grave of the newborn she named Angela. She graduated in the top third of her high school class and speaks Spanish and English. Besides studying, she works with mothers, infants and toddlers at the Maya Ministry Center. In the summer, the Tafts love to watch her run like a child through the peaceful, Vermont landscape. 

Hilary Abramson, a contributing editor for New America Media, researched language access on a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

How strong is your commitment to the environment? Is it strong enough to make you alter your lifestyle, switch from favored products or seek out and support environmentally conscious businesses? 

Many Berkeley businesses believe it is. In accord with their own philosophies, rather than as a marketing ploy, they have complied with county environmental regulations to achieve Green Business Certification. Working through Green Business Programs, Thimmakka and other third-party certification programs, nearly 100 Berkeley businesses market environmental products and services and maintain eco-efficient operations. 

Their efforts to conserve natural resources, prevent pollution and divert tons of waste from landfills move all of us closer to a society whose “development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (from the World Commission on Environment and Development report, 1987.) 

Who are these leaders of sustainability? What’s their motivation, their rewards? Regardless of area of commerce, size of business and cultural background, Berkeley’s Green Businesses have blazed a clear, easily followed trail, not across arduous mountains, but through a serene, verdant valley. A path easily followed. 

Green certification focuses on four areas of conservation and prevention—water, energy, solid waste and hazardous materials. Of the seven businesses interviewed for this article, a few were required to undertake major changes while others were already “greenish.”  

Cassie Cyphers, Sustainability Associate at Clif Bar, praised Berkeley and Pam Evans of the Alameda County Green Business Program for “reaching out to businesses, walking them through the program and finding the resources to make necessary changes.” She said, “They look at what you’re doing and what you need to do for certification.” Bob Gerner, General Manager of the Natural Grocery Store concurred: “The program encourages retailers and provides the guidelines.” 

“REI worked with East Bay Mud and installed aerators on all water faucets,” reported Amber Hoffman, from REI’s Green Team. “We decreased water usage by 2-gallons per minute.” Ruta Primlani, Executive Director of Thimmakka, works with restaurant owners. She explained how one device, the pre-rinse spray nozzle “can save a restaurant up to $1200 yearly.” Critical to many businesses, Primlani noted, “The nozzle is available free and is installed for free.”  

PG&E is the go-to for energy-saving, usually in the form of low mercury lighting. “The major change Inkworks Press took for certification was the lights,” explained Bernard Marszalek, Marketing Manager. “We were already compliant because many of our customers are environmentalists.”  

“Clif Bar has formed a partnership with Native Energy, buying credits to build new wind farms,” said Diana Simmons, Sustainability Manager. 

One of the greatest ecological benefits is in the area of solid waste disposal. REI worked with Berkeley in creating a pilot program that takes huge quantities of plastic wrapping and makes them into bales. Through Thimmakka, Green restaurants can recycle and compost 83 percent of their solid waste. 

The use of post-consumer recycled paper also has a significant impact. Inkworks Press contracts with New Leaf Paper, offering customers 100 percent post-consumer paper for uncoated and 50 percent for coated printings. Marszalek explained, “The post-consumer content is critical; that’s saving landfill.” Post-consumer paper is also utilized by Clif Bar, Natural Grocery and REI. 

Reducing hazardous materials is another Certification requirement. Inkworks and Clif Bar rely on vegetable-based inks for printing, eliminating isopropanol, a source of volatile organic compounds. 

If you’re still in need of an ecological boost, look no further. Examining the basic philosophies behind Berkeley’s Greens is a breath of clean air. Take Pedal Express, described by co-owner Keeeth Kohler. “We’re a stereotypical message service, hauling everything from a sheet of paper to 800 pounds. Being green is inherent in what we do. We were a green business before the term was invented.” 

Being pre-green also resonated with Vital Vittles’ Kass Schwin. “Our whole mission, philosophy and reason for starting our mill and bakery 30 years ago were rooted in green principles.” Echoed Natural Grocery’s Gerner, “Becoming green goes along with our core philosophy of offering organic produce.” “Sustainability is part of Clif Bar’s philosophy,” re-echoed Simmons. 

Green Certification has brought a range of benefits to the queried businesses. Both REI and Clif Bar noted how being green has encouraged employees to continue the process. REI’s Hoffman noted, “Our sensitivity to green issues has been heightened and all our employees are really excited about it.”  

Clif Bar’s Simmons said, “Employees have generated great ideas that have made a deep impact on our business. They feel empowered to bring ideas to the table.” As an example, Simmons explained how plastic shrink-wrap used around boxes was eliminated, a savings of 90,000 pounds for 2003. 

Inkworks sees certification as a goal for other people to attain. Marszalek said, “It’s making a commitment and demonstrating responsibility to the community.”  

Natural Grocery’s Gerner concurred, “Our clientele appreciate we are a Green Business, following through on our basic principles. It makes people feel good about shopping here.” 

Thimmakka’s Primlani sees certification as a means for empowering immigrants. “Though immigrants enter the United States with a predisposition to environmentalism, they don’t know the systems here.” 

In keeping with the concept of sustainability, the green process is ongoing. REI is creating a paper-towel composting program along with educating its customers through printed material. Clif Bar has switched to bio-diesel and is bringing green principles to the public at their sponsored events. 

Those considering certification need look no further than these environmental leaders. Hoffman concluded, “Having environmental practices incorporated into your business makes for a better business solution—you’re helping the environment and cutting your costs.”  

The trail is clearly marked with Green Business logos. Berkeley’s businesses have done their work and their progress toward sustainability continues. Success is in the hands of your commitment. In the words of Ruta Primlani, “Green Businesses deserve to be rewarded, brought up to the front.” Clif Bar encourages everyone to take that first step. Simmons explained, “It’s always a journey.” 

Photograph: REI, a Berkeley Certified Green  

Business, makes plastic wrapping into bales.

In 1943 Robert Oppenheimer left the University of California at Berkeley to become director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, where the first atom bomb was built. He maintained a connection with the university for several more years but never really returned. Instead, he became director of Princeton’s Center for Advanced Study and a consultant to the government on issues raised by atomic weapons. After his political “disgrace” for supposed disloyalty in 1954, he devoted himself to writing, producing essays and books, notably Science and the Common Understanding. President Kennedy cleared his name and “rehabilitated” him in 1963.  

The foregoing hardly suggests Oppenheimer’s historical importance. It is unlikely that anyone else could have performed his role at Los Alamos so successfully. Many of his colleagues considered him, more than any other individual, responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II. If he had not been there, they believe the atom bomb would not have been developed until after the war.  

Two atom bombs ended the war abruptly and made a profound difference in how the subsequent Russian-American rivalry played out. Because they knew what atom bombs can do, the leaders of the superpowers resisted the perpetual temptation to treat the bombs as just another weapon. The devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused American and Russian leaders to hold back from the ultimate confrontation. Oppenheimer, who had worked so passionately and with such tunnel vision to create the bombs, came to believe we faced the possibility of nuclear annihilation.  

This extraordinary man was born into a wealthy Jewish family in New York city in 1904. His parents, members of the non-sectarian Ethical Culture Society, sent him to the Society’s school in 1911. His teachers recognized him as a gifted polymath who studied mineralogy and composed poetry with equal enthusiasm. His friendship with the literary critic Francis Fergusson began at the Ethical Culture School.  

Oppenheimer continued writing poetry for many years but after he came under the influence of Professor Percy Bridgman, science became his primary interest. He wrote of Bridgman as “a wonderful teacher because he was never really quite reconciled to things being the way they were... He was a man to whom one wanted to be an apprentice.”  

Oppenheimer’s letters show that his personality was clearly developed by the time he graduated from Harvard. He cultivated a wide range of interests in science and the arts. He had a real gift for friendship, but would speak with wounding sarcasm to people who failed to measure up to his standards. He made close friends and permanent enemies. Physically, he had endurance which enabled him to work hard for extended periods of time. Professor Bridgman described him as a “well set-up young man, with a rather engaging diffidence of manner.”  

When Oppenheimer decided to study physics in Europe, Bridgman recommended him to Sir Ernest Rutherford. Urging the English scientist to find a spot for him at the Cavendish Laboratory, Bridgman wrote, “It appears to me that it is a bit of a gamble as to whether Oppenheimer will ever make any real contributions of an important character, but if he does make good at all, I believe that he will be a very unusual success... .”  

His experience at Cavendish taught Oppenheimer that he had a vocation for physics but not for laboratory work. His problems with experimental equipment appear to have driven him to the edge of a nervous breakdown that manifested itself in erratic behavior. But Rutherford introduced him to Niels Bohr and Max Born. Bohr inspired Oppenheimer, as he wrote, “to learn the trade of being a theoretical physicist.” And Born gave him the opportunity by inviting him to study in Germany at the University of Gottingen.  

Germany was simultaneously liberating and disquieting for Oppenheimer. He recovered his balance and completed his Ph.D. in 1927. He also met Werner Heisenberg and other young German scientists, acquiring real respect for their work. He fell in love with Charlotte Riefenstahl, a fellow student, and courted her unsuccessfully. (Thinking him too self-absorbed, she turned down his proposals and married another physicist instead.) He also encountered the Nazi Party. Its presence at Gottingen gave him personal experience of Nazism long before most Americans ever heard of it. His anger at the Nazis became a constant; he described it as a “smoldering fury.”  

Oppenheimer was living and learning in the midst of some of the most astonishing political and scientific developments of the 20th century. Percy Bridgman, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Max Born and Werner Heisenberg—and others of his acquaintance—all won Nobel Prizes. By the time he left Europe he knew “it was an unusual time, that great things were afoot.”  

In the spring of 1929 he traveled to his family’s ranch in New Mexico to recover from tuberculosis. He actually enjoyed his convalescence, finding the desert awesomely beautiful. He wrote, “I have two loves, physics and the desert. It troubles me that I don’t see any way of bringing them together.”  

He began teaching in Berkeley in 1930. Of the university he said, “There was no theoretical physics [there] and I thought it would be nice to try to start something.” Within a few years, he turned Cal into the major American center for the study of theoretical physics. When he taught graduate students, Wendell Furry wrote, he “transmitted ... a feeling of the beauty of the logical structure of physics and an excitement in the development of the science ... His students emulated him as best they could. They copied his gestures, his mannerisms, his intonations. He truly influenced their lives.”  

Oppenheimer and Ernest O. Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron, became close friends. They formed the habit of taking long walks together and discussing problems in physics, casually bridging the gap that separated many theoretical and experimental physicists. Lawrence came to rely on Oppenheimer’s judgment on theoretical questions; in turn, he helped Oppenheimer to a better grasp of applied physics. According to David Sloan, Oppenheimer “learned to see the apparatus and to get a feeling for its experimental limitations.... When you couldn’t carry it any farther, you could count on him to understand and to be thinking about the next thing you might want to try.” Oppenheimer’s own studies concerned the theory of nuclear structure, the quantum theory of electrons, collapsing suns, and cosmic ray showers. Jeremy Bernstein considers him to have been a physicist of the highest caliber who, if he had lived longer, might well have been awarded his own Nobel Prize.  

In 1933 Hitler began driving non-Aryan scientists out of Germany and actively persecuting the Jews. Oppenheimer’s personal response was to begin contributing to a fund for the benefit of displaced German scientists. He also began working to get his relatives out of Germany.  

Oppenheimer began a serious relationship with Jean Tatlock in 1936. They came close to marriage but realized they were not temperamentally suited and ended their affair in 1939. A member of the Communist Party, she introduced him to other Berkeley people with left wing sympathies, and he began to make regular contributions to Spanish War Relief and similar causes. In November 1940, he married Katherine Harrison. Looking back on this period of his life many years later, Oppenheimer said, “I liked the new sense of companionship, and at the same time felt I was coming to be part of the life of my time and country.”  

Along with other physicists, Oppenheimer was alarmed by the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938. He realized it made the development of atomic weapons inevitable, and he feared what would happen if the Nazis got them first. In 1939 he began to make rough calculations of critical mass (the amount of uranium necessary to cause an atomic explosion). After the collapse of the Spanish Republic he began looking for a way to defeat fascism that would succeed.  

In 1941 he accepted an invitation from Arthur Compton, the director of the government’s nuclear research project, to attend a special meeting of the National Academy of Sciences at which the military applications of atomic energy would be discussed. Afterward Compton asked him to direct a small program to plan, for the first time as a practical problem, how to produce an atom bomb.  

In the summer of 1942 Oppenheimer and a group of scientists met secretly in Le Conte Hall on the Cal campus. Edward Teller later said Oppenheimer “showed a refined, sure, informal touch” in leading the group’s deliberations. They concluded that “the development of a fission bomb would require a major scientific and technical effort.” An unanticipated problem arose when some of Teller’s calculations indicated that a nuclear explosion might burn up the planet’s atmosphere.  

This was so alarming that Oppenheimer traveled across the country by train to confer with Arthur Compton about it. Compton wrote of their meeting, “We agreed there could be only one answer. Oppenheimer’s team must go ahead with their calculations. Unless they came up with a firm and reliable conclusion that our atomic bombs could not explode the air or the sea, these bombs must never be made.” Further work by Hans Bethe convinced the physicists that an atomic explosion would not destroy the world.  

So the work resumed. Oppenheimer’s involvement increased and, when production was ready to begin, he suggested Los Alamos as the site for the atomic bomb laboratory. His immensely hard work there culminated in the successful test of a bomb at Alamogordo. Thus, he brought his love of physics and the desert together. But in the sober aftermath of the war, while he was still being saluted as a national hero, he said, “I felt as though I had blood on my hands.”  

It’s the school bus from Neverland. And yet it sends a message to the powers-that-be in a way that could never have been imagined. 

“Topsy,” the topsy-turvy yellow school bus that was born in an Oakland warehouse not too long ago, was launched in front of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall by the Priorities Campaign Wednesday. 

A project of marketing guru Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, Topsy demonstrates upside-down federal budget priorities. 

“It’s the first bus of its kind,” Cohen told the Planet while aboard Topsy at Channing Way. “It shows how the federal budget is different from what people of the country want. We want to educate people about where their tax dollars go.” 

The unveiling of the bus was scheduled to be a part of the Hip Hop Caucus National Tour to end the Iraq War and focus on upside-down budget priorities. A message from Rep. Barbara Lee’s office about the continuing labor dispute involving janitors at the UC campus led to the rally being canceled. 

“I wish it hadn’t been called off, but I support it at the same time. Our janitors need decent wages,” said UC freshman Suman Gupta who volunteers for Berkeley Stop the War Coalition. 

“I am excited to see the bus. It feels like magic,” she said, waving it down in front of Sproul Hall.  

Cohen says the project was part of the Priorities Campaign run by Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, a group of 700 business executives, retired pentagon officials, admirals and generals who want to increase federal investment in education, healthcare, energy independence, job training and deficit reduction by reducing funding for outdated Cold War-era weapons. 

Topsy—two school buses, one welded atop the other—was stopping traffic and turning heads across the Berkeley campus while it was parked there. And the curiosity wasn’t just about the incredible artwork. 

If you looked closely enough, the rear and left side of the bus had pie charts illustrating the federal budget breakdown. The Pentagon took the largest slice. 

“The United States is contributing money to the Pentagon at the same rate as when we were fighting the Soviet Union,” said Cohen.  

“That’s $60 billion being wasted. That’s enough money to rebuild all of America’s schools, provide healthcare to children and reduce our need for oil by fifty percent. We always hear that there is no money to do these things, but the reality is we do have the money. We just spend it in the wrong way.” 

Stefan Sagmeister, a famous New York graphic artist who also designs for the Priorities Campaign, drew out the idea of the bus five years ago. Cohen hired Bay Area artist Tom Kennedy—who has designed and ridden art cars such as Ripper the Friendly Shark, whales and Cheshire cats—to build the bus last fall. 

“We want to think of ourselves as fabricator elves,” said Kennedy, gesturing toward his teammates. His partner Haideen Anderson helped with putting in the nuts and bolts, as did his friends who design sets for the Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. 

“This bus is art car magic. It will act as a magnet for people. I am concerned that no political candidate is willing to talk about the federal budget. We have 12,000 nukes which is enough to blow up every major city in the world ten times. Let’s reduce that to four times.” 

As students, tourists and even faculty flocked to admire and photograph Tom’s creation, there were others, such as Bay Area musician Josh Gary who dedicated his song “Yellow Bus” to Topsy. 

“The idea is to spend the most of next year in Iowa and New Hampshire, the big presidential states,” said Kennedy. “We want to take advantage of the early voting in those two states. We will invite people to watch a 10-minute video on the Priorities Campaign and urge them to sign a petition asking presidential candidates to start a dialogue about federal spending priorities during the presidential campaign.” 

The bus, which has a complicated structure, is under the 13.6 feet height limit. 

“The thing about ice cream is that people have a lot of fun associating with it. But the national budget is something dull and boring,” said Cohen. “We have to make ways for people to pay more attention to it. This is where the bus comes in,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. 

Cohen, however, is not the only one having fun with the bus. Until late Tuesday night Kennedy and his merry crew were busy welding wheels onto the top bus. 

“It needs to have the paneling put back on the ceiling and get a sealed roof,” said Anderson, traces of yellow paint on her shirt. “Then there’s some detail painting left, which is the fun part for me.” 

Shaping the bus, Kennedy said, had been a great way to channel his anger at the current state of politics. “It’s been a great learning experience,” he said. “We still need to fix a few things on the bus. Some stuff is temporary but it’s safe. We should be ready to roll by April 17.”

In a decision that will mean public access to in excess of 15,000 pages of documents from Wal-Mart corporation, a California Appeals Court has ruled that an Alameda County Superior Court judge erred in sealing thousands of pages of documents in an employment lawsuit against the retail giant. 

But at same time, the appeals court denied attorneys’ fees to the Berkeley Daily Planet, which brought the motion to inspect the Wal-Mart documents, meaning the newspaper’s legal bill for the right to look at the papers could be substantial unless this part of the opinion is overturned on appeal. 

“It’s a great victory for the public,” Daily Planet attorney Dave Rosenfeld of the Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld firm of Alameda said. “It means that the courts can only seal documents filed in a lawsuit if they follow strict rules.” 

Berkeley Daily Planet Executive Editor Becky O’Malley said that the recent trend toward excessive and unnecessary sealing of court documents in lawsuits threatens to substantially impair the public’s right to know and understand what’s going on in government and society as a whole.  

“It’s the job of the press to make every effort to find out what corporations like Wal-Mart are doing, and to tell citizens about it,” she said. 

Included in the documents are Wal-Mart’s labor guidelines and staffing formula, pay and incentive guidelines, “STAR” reviews and documents describing the review process, internal audit procedures, the “SMART” timekeeping system, and information concerning its employees. 

Exactly what documents will be made available, and how many pages that will involve, is not known by the Daily Planet attorneys. 

“We know the amount that was filed with the Appeals Court, but there are other documents involved as well that Wal-Mart will have to produce,” Rosenfeld said. 

The dispute grew out of a 2001 California class-action lawsuit by Wal-Mart employees charging that the company had denied meal and rest breaks to thousands of employees (Andrea Savaglio, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.). As part of that lawsuit, Wal-Mart was compelled to produce company documents that were put under conditional seal by the court. Under court rules, in order to have those records permanently sealed by the court and unavailable to the public, Wal-Mart would have had to file a special motion to permanently seal the documents shortly after the documents were presented to the court. But Wal-Mart attorneys said that in 2002 it worked out an off-the-record agreement with the trial court judge that such documents would be considered permanently sealed unless one of the parties to the case filed an objection. 

The Alameda County trial court kept the Wal-Mart documents sealed, but when the Berkeley Daily Planet sought the records in 2004 they had been filed, unsealed, with the Appeals Court. Wal-Mart immediately filed a motion to permanently seal the documents. In 2005, Alameda Judge Ronald Sabraw granted Wal-Mart’s motion to seal the most sensitive of the documents, but the three-judge appeals court overruled that decision in this week’s ruling. 

“The [trial] court had no power under the Rules of Court to entertain a grossly untimely motion to seal,” the Appeals Court ruled, adding that “Wal-Mart’s conduct was so inconsistent with an intent to enforce its rights to obtain sealed records under the Rules of Court as to induce a reasonable belief that it had relinquished such right … Wal-Mart could not reasonably think that the trial court had sealed the documents submitted with the writ petitions, because Wal-Mart had not moved for an order sealing the record; had not submitted points and authorities and a declaration justifying sealing; and there was no court order granting the nonexistent motion … Nor could Wal-Mart reasonably think that it could operate under a parallel legal universe, outside [the] rules.” 

The Appeals Court continued that the California Constitution requires the courts “to broadly construe a statute or court rule ‘if it furthers the people’s right of access’ and to narrowly construe the same ‘if it limits the right of access’… The rules for sealing records are mandatory, furthering the presumption and constitutional interest in open records.” 

The Appeals Court denied the Daily Planet’s request for attorneys’ fees for bringing the motion in court on narrow procedural grounds, saying that no attorneys’ fees were due because the newspaper did not file a separate lawsuit to have the documents released, but only filed a motion within the original employees’ lawsuit. 

Rosenfeld said that the Daily Planet “could have intervened as a party to the original lawsuit, but that wouldn’t have made sense.”  

Rosenfeld said he is currently discussing the feasibility of an appeal of the attorneys’ fees ruling with the Daily Planet’s owners. He said while he has no direct knowledge of whether or not Wal-Mart will appeal the document production ruling, “being Wal-Mart, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.” 

But for the moment, Rosenfeld called it “a fantastic victory, overall. I can’t complain.”

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) emerged victorious in the American Civil Rights Foundation vs. Berkeley Unified School District lawsuit when Judge Winifred Y. Smith of the Alameda County Superior Court ruled in favor of the school district Monday. 

Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) sued Berkeley Unified School District on behalf of the American Civil Rights Foundation in October, charging it with violating California’s Proposition 209 by racially discriminating among students during placements at elementary schools and in programs at Berkeley High. 

“The judge ruled that the student assignment system that we apply in our elementary schools is legal and that our integration system is fair and legal,” said school superintendent Michele Lawrence tto the Planet Tuesday. 

“I think her ruling is consistent with the earlier ruling which had also been in our favor. I hope that Pacific Legal Foundation will now leave Berkeley alone.” 

Berkeley Unified was sued in 2003 by PLF on behalf of a parent who charged the district with race-based assignment of students in a different and earlier Berkeley program.  

The case was dismissed by Judge James Richman who said that voluntary desegregation plans or ‘race-conscious’ school assignment systems were not specifically prohibited by Prop. 209. 

The assignment system in BUSD lets parents register their first, second and third school choices, and then a computer lottery gives the final placement. The lottery takes into account factors such as race, ethnicity, student background and parental income and education. 

PLF attorney Paul J. Beard said in a statement in October that concerns were the elementary student assignment plan for Berkeley Elementary Schools, the admissions policy for Berkeley High School’s small schools and academic programs, and the admissions policy for Berkeley High School’s AP Pathways Project.  

The lawsuit alleged that BUSD “uses race as a factor to determine where students are assigned to public schools and to determine whether they gain access to special educational programs.” 

“These plans and policies use student’s skin color to help determine how individual students will be treated,” said Beard in the statement. “That’s unfair and transmits a harmful message to our kids that skin color matters—and, under Proposition 209, it also happens to be illegal.” 

Proposition 209, a provision of the California Constitution, was enacted by California voters in 1996 and “prohibits discrimination or preferences based on race or sex in public education, employment, and contracting.” 

“BUSD won two of the three claims,” Beard said in a telephone interview Thursday. “We won the third claim which concerns the admissions policy for the AP Pathways Project. We will go forward with that in the Alameda County Superior Court. Once the trial court adjudicates that we can appeal on the claims we lost. We are confident we will get a victory on the appeals.” 

PLF’s complaint on the Pathways Project alleges that “only students who are African-American, Latino or from a low-income household are selected to the Academic Pathways Project, and students who are not from one of these categories are ineligible.” 

It states that the above allegations are in violation of “Section 31’s ban on discrimination or preference on account of race.” 

The attack on BUSD by PLF last year had come on the 10th Anniversary of Prop. 209.  

Speaking to the Planet in an interview in October, Lawrence said that PLF had used the Berkeley schools to make a “public splash” during the anniversary. 

“BUSD stands firmly by its elementary student assignment plan for Berkeley elementary schools,” she said. 

The school district was trying hard to pass Measure A, a school parcel tax, at that point. 

At the school board meeting Wednesday Board members congratulated each other on the victory. 

“I am pleased that the judge—who went to Berkeley High—ruled in our favor,” said director Nancy Riddle. Board Vice President John Selawsky thanked the law firm of Keker & Van Nest for their pro bono work. which he described as  

“stellar.” 

Members of the Homeless Commission slammed Mayor Tom Bates’ Public Commons for Everyone initiative as “mean spirited,” “punitive,” “vindictive,” and too vague to address effectively. 

“We’re concerned about him running our constituents out of town,” said Commissioner Kokavulu Lumukanda, speaking at the commission’s Wednesday evening meeting at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

Bates’ proposal is strongly supported by members of the business community, who came to the March 13 City Council meeting to say its implementation would help make commercial districts more attractive to shoppers by getting people with “problematic behavior” off of the city’s commercial corridors, through a combination of laws and services. 

Some of the proposed regulations were spelled out in the mayor’s initiative and the city manager’s work plan, but most of the recommendations were stated in a general way, such as the manager’s direction to staff to “develop a proposal for new diversion services.” 

“We have so little information—we don’t understand how this will help people,” said Commissioner Betsy Strode. 

“The intent is vague—it will divide and polarize people,” added Commissioner Ken Moshesh. 

The commission agreed unanimously to ask the mayor to address a joint meeting of the Homeless, Human Welfare and Mental Health commissions to answer questions on the proposal. It also recommended that the council delay its scheduled May 8 vote on the proposal until it can be more clearly articulated and until it is clear that money for services is available. The commission also asked that it be regularly consulted. Commissioners agreed they would not support the proposal until they receive more information. 

Addressing the proposal that would presumably have police cite individuals and then get them into services, such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation, Commissioner Paula Hollowell said her concern was that under the new laws people would get fined, then not be able to pay the fine. She said she did not understand how the initiative would move an individual from the point of receiving a citation to accessing services. 

Jennifer Vasquez, secretary to the commission, defended the proposal’s inexact language. “It’s vague because the city manager’s staff did not have a lot of time,” she said, noting the proposal had come to the council March 13 and is slated to return there May 8—perhaps for action. The mayor had asked for an evaluation of the proposal from the Homeless, Mental Health and Human Welfare commissions for the May 8 meeting. 

Reached by telephone on Thursday, Assistant City Manager Jim Hynes said he understood the commission’s reaction to the vagueness of the proposal. “I don’t blame them. It is vague,” he said. “They gave us pretty vague directions about the diversion we’re talking about.”  

He added, however, that if council decides to proceed with the initiative on May 8, staff will ask in the June budget process for an employee to work on the plan. As for paying for new services, that might not happen until the mid-year or next year’s budget, he said. 

While the proposal speaks in vague terms about services, commissioners said they have very clear ideas about what services are needed: housing, drug and alcohol treatment and a drop-in center, topped their list. 

“Services need to be in place first,” Strode said. 

Attorney Osha Neumann, who often defends homeless and indigent people, was in the audience and blasted the proposal as a “thinly disguised carrot and stick” approach that was, in reality “all stick.” 

But Commissioner Joe Halperin said it is too early to dismiss the proposal. “It might provide meaningful services,” he said, advocating for housing. 

Among regulations detailed in the city manager’s report are: adoption of “a new law to allow for citations specifically for public urination and defecation,” and revision of “traffic regulations governing personal possessions in the public right of way,”  

“I can’t see punishing people for sitting on the street or for urinating where there are no public bathrooms,” said Annemarie Heineman, vice-chair of the commission. 

“I understand the concerns about loud and aggressive people on the streets,” Heineman added, “But it sounds like we have laws to penalize behavior like that.” 

The city manager’s work plan says new services will be addressed in a second phase by December as well as “changes to rules regarding sitting/lying on sidewalk[s]….” It also calls for hiring a new employee to work on the plan. 

In support of the proposal, Vasquez argued that it is “not targeting homeless people; it’s targeting problematic behavior.” 

Some commissioners and members of the public attending the meeting, however, disagreed strongly.  

“To say it’s not aimed at the homeless—that’s all it’s aimed at,” responded Dan McMullen, an advocate for the homeless and a former homeless person. 

Calls to the mayor were not returned by deadline. 

The Mental Health Commission will discuss the initiative at its all-day Saturday meeting at a 3 p.m. session, at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St., Room 451A.

The City of Berkeley scored a first-round legal victory when a judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the City Council’s agreement with UC Berkeley that paved the way for the new downtown plan. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jo-Lynne Q. Lee signed her opinion April 3 and filed it two days later, but the lawyers for both sides only received notice Tuesday. 

“We’re real happy about it,” said Deputy City Attorney Zach Cowan. “It was not one of those one-liner decisions that simply says ‘we find for the defense.’ It was a very long, careful decision, and she cited everything.” 

Stephan Volker, the attorney who represented the citizens who challenged the settlement, said he will appeal as soon as a final decision is signed by the court. “We have reviewed the court’s ruling and we feel it is profoundly flawed,” he said. 

The plaintiffs—including Daily Planet Arts and Calendar Editor Anne Wagley—had challenged the legality of the agreement that ended the city’s own lawsuit challenging the legality of the university’s latest Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). That plan covers university expansion plans through 2020. 

The plaintiffs did win one element of their case when Lee rejected the city’s claim that any legal challenge to the settlement was premature prior to the adoption of the new downtown plan. 

But on the key point, the claim that the city council illegally surrendered its land-use regulatory and police powers, Judge Lee ruled that the May 25, 2005, agreement didn’t violate the city’s powers because the city has no ability to regulate development on university-owned land downtown. 

She also ruled that the university’s veto power over the revised Downtown Area Plan (DAP) now in preparation wasn’t unlawful but merely a recognition that the plan “must meet the ‘joint’ needs of the parties” and noted that the city could prepare a plan on its own if the joint plan doesn’t meet with their approval or university acceptance. 

Nothing in the agreement, she wrote, “suggests that the joint DAP will not be subject to the full panoply of public hearings and proceedings required of any land-use decision or project undertaken by the City.” 

While Wagley and co-plaintiffs Dean Metzger, Jim Sharpe and Carl Friberg charged that the city violated the Brown Act, which governs public meetings in California, Lee ruled that nothing in the negotiations and deliberations violated the law because the plan resulting from the settlement will be subjected to the full statutory range of hearings and reviews before it can be adopted. 

The judge also ruled that the settlement doesn’t violated city code governing adoption of plans, because the law allows the City Council to direct the Planning Commission to propose and prepare a plan. 

Lee also held that the plaintiffs didn’t prove their claim that the city violated the state Public Records Act by denying or unreasonably delaying their requests for documents. 

After reviewing the documents in questions, she held that all the withheld documents either fell under attorney/client privilege or had been simply overlooked and were provided later. 

The decision doesn’t become final until the city prepares a formal judgment for Lee to sign. Once she signs, Volker said, he will begin preparing the appeal. 

He cited three possible grounds for appeal “off the top of my head”: 

• The agreement violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it gives the university veto power over the environmental impact report required before a new downtown plan can be approved. 

• The settlement agreement that ended the city’s legal challenge of the LRDP violates the Berkeley City Charter and state planning law because it gives UCB veto power over the adoption of a new Downtown Area Plan. 

• The settlement agreement violates CEQA requirements for a state-owned university to pay local agencies to mitigate the costs of police, fire, traffic, parking, sewer and other public services required to serve university off-site developments. 

A recent state supreme court ruling in the case of City of Marina v. Board of Trustees of the California State University requires payments to local governments when they are the only realistic means of mitigating the impacts, Volker said.  

Cowan rejected the notion that the city had given up its sovereignty. “How could anyone think that?” he said, recalling his reaction when he first saw the suit. Lee “is a very smart judge,” he said, “and she spent a great deal of time going through the issues in great detail.” 

Simply because the city and university met civilly to resolve the issues in discussions leading up to the settlement didn’t mean the city was giving up anything, he said. “You have two grown-up agencies trying to act like grown-ups rather than fighting for the sake of fighting,” Cowan said. 

The notion that the city would capitulate needlessly is disproved by the ongoing legal battle between the city and the university over the impacts of the university’s plans for major development projects in the stadium area, he said.

The Berkeley Board of Education refrained from approving a resolution that would have allowed staff to move forward with the Solar Project at Washington Elementary School at the school board meeting Wednesday. 

The approval would have meant an opportunity for staff to apply for $750,000 in funds from the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) and ratification of an application for $305,000 in PG&E funds. 

Kyoto USA, an all-volunteer project that encourages cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), is assisting BUSD in its efforts to put together a pilot solar project at Washington. It estimates the cost of the project at $800,000.  

Staff approximates the total cost of the project to be $1,250,000, which takes into account roof replacement. Measure AA would give $195,000 in construction funds. 

“We were disappointed that the board did not give staff the OK,” said Tom Kelly, who represented Kyoto USA at the meeting, in an email to the Daily Planet. 

“We do understand their need for more information and we intend to provide it to them over the next few days. We are confident that the Board will see the incredible financial benefits to the District of this project and the long-term environmental benefits that represent our community’s contribution to creating a healthier planet.” 

Kyoto USA volunteers Greg Rosen from PowerLight and Mark Frye from Berkeley Solar Electric also showed up at the meeting to express support for the idea, which has been named the HELiOS Project (Helios Energy Lights Our Schools). 

Board members discussed and debated the benefits of photovoltaic systems at Washington for a good portion of the meeting but opinions remained divided. 

Staff advised that while it could result in operational savings for the district, payback could also be a lengthy process. 

“It’s not a project that has been done here before,” said Director of Facilities Lew Jones. “As a result it’s important to do it in a conservative way.” 

“Is this a practical purpose?” asked student director Mateo Aceves. “Are the students going to benefit and learn from it?” 

School Board director Karen Hemphill said she had received several emails from the BUSD community who expressed concern about the educational benefits of the program. 

“We are talking about facilities and energy use right now,” said School Board Vice President John Selawsky, who helped expedite the project with the district. “There is a huge potential for putting this in the curriculum, but that is in the future. If we don’t do this in the next six months, the $305,000 in funds is going to become $225,000. We are not inventing the project. It has been done before.” 

Selawsky added that the solar panels at Washington would create all the energy that Washington needed and put an end to the $25,000 annual electricity bill. 

“The assumption is that fossil fuel energy will be with us forever. But fossil fuels are going to run out soon,” he said. 

“The beauty of solar energy is that it’s self-generating. I think solar is going to pay for itself. We are not going to depend on PG&E and outside facilities.” 

Director Hemphill said there were many at Washington who had learned about the project a week ago. “I want to know whether it’s a project that the school has embraced or something that is being superimposed.” 

“It doesn’t surprise me that they don’t know about it,” said school superintendent Michele Lawrence. “When we want to put in new flooring in the schools, we don’t solicit what kind of flooring we want from people. The $25,000 electricity bill comes to the district, not to the school.” 

Director Nancy Riddle stressed that it was important to take a closer look at the payback figures and asked staff to come back with a detailed report. 

API Rankings 

The California Department of Education (CDE) recently released the statewide and similar school ranks for all schools based on the schools’ Academic Performance Index (API) scores.  

This information shows where a school ranks based on its API score on a scale of one (low) to ten (high) compared with other schools statewide, as well as compared with 100 other schools that have similar demographic characteristics. Staff notes that the rankings are primarily based on student performance on one assessment: the California Standardized Tests (STAR tests).  

Berkeley Technology Academy (B-Tech, formerly Berkeley Alternative School) received a score of 1 out of a possible 10 on the statewide ranking. Since the API score for B-Tech was based on fewer than 100 valid STAR test results, the school was not given a similar school ranking. 

Berkeley High School (BHS) did not receive an API score at all this year because of lack of student participation on the STAR tests, which are optional.  

King placed first among the three middle schools with a state rank of 7, but its similar school score was only 4, while Willard’s state score was 4 and its similar school score was 1. Longfellow’s similar school score was much higher than Willard’s at 7, though its state score was the same, 4. 

John Muir and Oxford topped the list of elementary schools with a state rank of 9 out of a possible 10. John Muir’s similar school rank was 10, while Oxford’s was 4. Two schools (Rosa Parks and Longfellow) gained one level in the state rankings, and four schools—Muir, Oxford, Washington and Willard—lost one level compared to the previous year. 

Three schools—Jefferson, Rosa Parks and Berkeley Arts Magnet—made gains in the similar school ranking while five schools (Cragmont, Emerson, Malcolm X, Oxford and Washington) dropped from the previous year. 

“The disparity between the school state rankings and the similar schools ranking is glaring,” said Selawsky. “Half the schools have low similar school rankings.” 

Hemphill said that the ranks provided only one snapshot of the big picture. “Before we start putting band-aids we need to look at each of the schools comprehensively and see what’s going on,” she said. “We need to figure out where we need to put our resources and our money.” 

Riddle pointed out that the state had reshuffled the way it did similar school rankings recently. “It’s hard to know what rates were used this time,” she said. “We need to take a careful look at this.” 

Academic Performance Index (API) School Rankings 

Rankings are based primarily on student performance on one assessment: the California Standardized Tests (STAR tests) 

Similar  

School State Rank SchoolRank 

1. Cragmont 7 3 

2. Emerson 7 6 

3. Jefferson 8 7 

4. LeConte 4 1 

5. Malcolm X 7 8 

6. John Muir 9 10 

7. Oxford 9 4 

8. Rosa Parks 4 3 

9. Thousand Oaks 6 3 

10. Washington 6 2 

11. Whittier/Arts Magnet 6 3 

12. King 7 4 

13. Longfellow 4 7 

14. Willard 4 1 

15. Berkeley High *** *** 

16. B-Tech 1 N/A

The tree sitters at the Memorial Stadium Oak Grove got a visit from the UC Berkeley Police Department once again Wednesday. 

Protestors—who were cleaning up the area when the Planet reached the grove that afternoon—said the raid had taken place around 11 a.m. 

“They came with an arborist,” said Thomas Skotarek, who helps the tree-sitters with food and lodging. “The arborist went up three of the trees which had no people in them and took down the platform from one. He took off dream catchers, hammocks, ropes, sleeping bags and buckets from the others. This is a legal protest, you know. They are infringing on civil rights.” 

Redwood Mary—a former tree-sitter who now provides support to the tree people from the ground—said that they had also taken away hearts and ribbons that she had decorated the trees with. 

“They did that on Sunday too. Took away the Easter decorations,” she said with a forlorn expression. “When I asked them why they were doing this, they said it was for evidence of a crime. Can you imgaine ribbons as being evidence for crime?” 

Mary said she cleans the trash at the site regularly along with Skotarek. 

Empty beer cans and bottles littered the place, waiting to be picked up by the two of them. “We try our best. But sometimes it gets out of hand,” said Skotarek. 

The tree people in the oaks seemed to be in their own world, some napping, others enjoying a smoke.  

“They are taking advantage of the rain,” said Burlap (tree name), who was sitting in one of the oaks smoking. “We just sit here in the trees peacefully and protest the cutting of the trees. We are going to continue doing this to save the grove permanently.” 

Wednesday marked the protest’s 132nd day.

The upbeat voice that greets callers to Longfellow Middle School belongs to Barret Donahue, school secretary with the Berkeley schools for 10 years—and with San Diego Unified for 10 years before that. 

In between phone calls, Donahue acts as assistant to the principal and vice principal, preparing the school budget and payroll, ordering supplies, coordinating field trips, keeping track of staff attendance. When she can’t complete the pile of work before her by the end of the day, she sometimes stays to complete it.  

“There’s no overtime or comp time,” she says. 

The skyrocketing cost of living has pushed school workers to demand what they say is theirs by right—a salary increase to meet the Bay Area’s exorbitant basic living costs as well as the completion of a study that places all the secretaries, clerks and instructional assistants correctly in their job classifications. 

The state gave a 5.92 percent increase in funding to the Berkeley Unified School District last year, but school secretaries and instructional assistants haven’t seen any of it—and teachers say they haven’t been given enough of it. 

Both teachers and other school workers regularly receive annual cost of living raises. “We thought we’d get it before October when the premiums went up for medical and dental,” said Tim Donnelly, president of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees, American Federation of Teachers Local 6192, AFL-CIO. 

The teachers got a 4.8 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) last year, but they’ve been given new information and now say they should be getting more money. 

The classified union has been in negotiations with the district over cost of living wage hikes since September of last year. In December, the union declared an impasse and a state mediator has come in to conduct negotiations in which the two sides talk to one another through a mediator. 

The classified employees have also asked for a reclassification study that is underway, according to school spokesperson Mark Coplan. This study, which hasn’t been done in a decade, determines what people do on the job and determines whether their job titles are correct.  

“Merit rules specify that all positions be reviewed every three years,” Donnelly said. “The district is way out of compliance on that.” Donnelly said he anticipates that two-thirds of the classified positions will be upgraded in the new study. 

Donahue said that part of the problem in getting the study done in a timely way is that both directors in the human resources department—one for classified (non-teaching) and one for certificated (teaching) employees—left the district at the end of the school year along with a number of employees in the department.  

Passing through the state increase to employees is not automatic, district spokesperson Mark Coplan told the Planet.  

“Everyone has rising costs; we have to meet the needs of the district and the employee needs,” Coplan said, citing, in particular, the increasing cost of fuel. “There’s not any money in the coffers,” Coplan said, noting the district has “just come out of financial straits.” 

Coplan added that while the budget is now balanced, there is no source of revenue to address the employees’ demands. There is some non-recurring money that can be used for one-time expenses, but not for ongoing salaries, he said. 

The teachers’ union, Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT), accepted a 4.8 percent COLA raise based on wrong information, BFT President Barry Fike told the Daily Planet. The union had believed BUSD had to take 20 percent of the state allocation increase to place in its reserve fund, but, after meeting with County Superintendent Sheila Jordan, Fike said he understood that parcel tax money can be used instead to make up the 20 percent for the reserve fund. 

“Berkeley is falling way behind,” Fike said, noting that only three districts in Alameda County have a lower salary scale than Berkeley—Hayward (currently on strike), the city of Alameda and Oakland. 

About 100 certificated and classified staff came to the school board meeting on Wednesday evening to call for adequate cost of living wage hikes. 

Donnelly addressed the board on the question of reclassification. “One Instructional Assistant has been doing attendant work since September that entitles her to a 10 percent salary differential,” he said. “We’ve been asking for that salary adjustment since November.” 

And Fike spoke on behalf of the teachers, reminding the board members that when they refused to reopen negotiations on the full COLA increase, “BFT responded by filing an unfair labor practice with PERB [Public Employment Relations Board]. And we are all here tonight as a further response to persuade, to express our anger and to respectfully request that you reconsider your position. Now.” 

“We are feeling devalued. Some BUSD employees are looking for other jobs,” Anita Johnson, a member of the classified employees union, told the board. “Some are working two jobs to support their families. I know the district has the money. But where is the money?” 

Riya Bhattacharjee contributed to this story. 

Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee 

Berkeley school district workers demand pay raises to meet the basic cost of living in the Bay Area.

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) meets Monday night to finish up work they weren’t able to finish by the mandatory midnight closing time last week. 

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1920 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

One item not on the agenda is the LPC’s most controversial piece of unfinished business—a decision on whether or not to landmark the old Berkeley High School Gymnasium at 1920 Allston Way. 

Created by two of Berkeley’s most notable architects—Walter Ratcliff Jr. and William Hays—the gym embodies architectural elegance, said Wendy Markle, president of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association during last week’s meeting. 

The structure also houses the only warm-water therapy pool in the East Bay, which is frequently used by disabled people to practice motions and exercises that would otherwise be impossible.  

The Berkeley Unified School District hopes to demolish the building and use the site for new classrooms and athletic facilities, said Nicolie Bolster, who is a member of the school’s stakeholder and staff facilities committee and the parent of a 10th grader who attends the school. 

Bolster said the high cost of making needed repairs made demolition a more reasonable alternative, but preservationist and retired planner John English pleaded, “Please help save this important building.” 

Bolster was the only one of eight speakers to call for demolition. No one from the school district was present for the public comment on the proposal, though school board member John Selawsky had been present earlier. 

While LPC members had originally hoped to be able to reach a decision on the gym at the upcoming meeting, city ordinances require a 10-day advance notice, so their verdict will come instead at the regularly scheduled May 3 meeting. 

On the agenda for Monday night are: 

• Reviews of a building permit application for 2747 San Pablo, a former used car lot now being considered as the site for an environmentally friendly mixed-use condominium complex; the commission may also set a May hearing on an application to landmark a building on the site. 

• A look at plans for a remodeled facade for the building at 2369 Telegraph Ave., a structure on the state Historic Resources Inventory. The building had housed a grocery store, the Berkeley Market. 

• A decision on who will be the commission’s representative on the joint subcommittee working out the role of historic buildings in the new plan being drafted by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. 

• A look at plans to demolish a two-story gas station at 3001 Telegraph Ave.

In the wake of a multi-million dollar employment discrimination lawsuit settlement by the City of Emeryville and charges of further, widespread racial discrimination in City of Emeryville employment, the Mayor of Emeryville is defending her city’s minority hiring policies, and is rejecting a proposal that one councilmember hopes will solve employee disputes before they go to court. 

“The City of Emeryville has worked hard to put into place policies that treat all of our employees equitably and fairly,” Mayor Nora Davis said this week in a telephone interview. “But I don’t like to address the issue of race. We are all working together to restore this city from the destroyed industrial wasteland it once was. It’s unfortunate that these charges have been brought in such a way to divide people in Emeryville, black against white. It’s unfortunate that the city is being unfairly put in such a bad light.” 

Last week, after members of the Concerned Citizens for Change of Emeryville told the Emeryville City Council that African-American city workers were being discriminated against, asking for a full Council discussion of the issue, Councilmember Ken Bukowski had the matter placed on the Council’s May 1st agenda. 

One of the former employees presenting the request and discrimination information was former Emeryville City Planning Technician Leslie Pollard, who received a $3.6 million settlement from the city last month in her wrongful termination lawsuit. 

But Davis, in her telephone interview, said that the city is being unfairly charged. 

“Look at the composition of our city workforce,” she said. “Over 40 percent is African-American, even though only 18 percent of the city’s population is African-American. If people looked at the actual figures, they would see that the city is not discriminating in our hiring policies.” 

Davis said that other city actions show that Emeryville is paying attention to the needs of all races within the city. 

“Over the past several years, the City Council has been working very closely with the Emeryville Unified School District Board to improve our schools,” Davis said, citing a city land deal that helped Emery Unified pay off its debt to the state and get out-of-state receivership. “98 percent of the school district is minority, and an enormous amount of resources have come from the city to help the district out. We’re certainly not thinking about whether those students being helped are black, white, Latino, Asian, or anything else.” 

“Crying racism about Emeryville city government is not a true statement,” she said. 

Davis also threw cold water on Councilmember Bukowski’s proposal to have the City Council hear employee grievances after they have reached an impasse in the city manager’s office. Currently, such grievances go directly to arbitration, which can then lead to litigation. Bukowski said he believes the council could work out some of those differences before they got to court. 

“Mr. Bukowski does not seem to have a true appreciation of the council-manager form of government under which Emeryville operates,” Davis said. “Under our system, it’s the council’s job to set policy, and the city manager’s job to implement that policy, including personnel matters. When you begin to get politicians involved in personnel decisions, that’s where you start to get corruption. Mr. Bukowski knows my position on this. I’ve told him that, many times.”

If oil and water don’t mix, what about oil and academic freedom? 

That’s the issue confronting Berkeley’s Academic Senate next Thursday afternoon when a divided faculty will consider competing resolutions about a proposed agreement between their internationally renowned university and a transnational oil firm. 

The company is an acronym soup called BP plc, with BP being the rechristening of British Petroleum and plc standing for “public liability company,” British legalese for a publicly traded corporation. 

Behind closed doors, negotiators for the English petroleum giant and one of America’s most prestigious universities are working to hammer out details of a half-billion-dollar agreement which could become the largest single corporate funding pact in the history of the American academy. 

Beyond the lucrative cash stream and the visions of even richer patents, a more profound question may be at stake—the very definition of academic freedom itself, and whether it is an individual right backed by a passionate administrator or a commons jointly owned by all the faculty. 

Whose freedom? 

While Chancellor Robert Birgeneau portrays academic freedom as an individual right, those like Robert Post who have made a study of the issue define the concept as a collective right of faculty governance. 

Birgeneau outlined his position during a forum called by Academic Senate Chair William Drummond in March: 

“The idea that any person in our community would try to prevent Jay Keasling and his post-docs and graduate students—or Dan Kammen or Steve Wong at the University of Illinois—prevent them from doing their research because of the source of their funding, I consider that abhorrent and to represent a violation of the most basic principles of academic freedom. So this is about academic freedom ... it’s about the freedom of our faculty to pursue the research that they want to pursue.” 

As defined by UC Berkeley’s chief administrator, the unvoiced corollary to a researcher’s right to seek funds anywhere is the corporation’s freedom to seek out any academic willing to fulfill its research agenda. 

To Robert Post, a former Berkeley faculty member and now David Boies Professor of Law at Yale, the chancellor’s words ring hollow. 

One of the nation’s leading experts on academic freedom, as well as a 20-year-veteran of the Boalt Hall faculty and a former member of Berkeley’s Academic Senate Budget Committee, Post said Birgeneau’s interpretation was “unfortunate.” 

In a paper presented to the Academic Freedom Forum in 2003, Post traced the origins of the movement in the U.S. to the firing of Stanford economist Edward Ross, who was fired in 1900 by Jane Stanford, widow of the university’s founder, for his heretical views on immigrant labor and for backing a silver standard for currency. 

Shock waves from that incident continued to reverberate. The American Association of University Professors tracing its founding 15 years later to the Ross dismissal. 

From its inception, Post said, the essence of the concept of academic freedom is not an individual faculty member’s right to seek funds, but a collective right, concerned with “the faculty’s decisions about who should be tenured, and about the quality of their work.” 

And such decisions, he said, should be made either by the faculty or by the administration “only with very strong consultation” with faculty. 

The lack of consultation with faculty when Birgeneau hired two faculty members specifically to work on the EBI proposal was the principal reason Post signed the petition calling for further review by the Academic Senate. 

Hirings, review 

Post said Birgeneau’s unilateral decision to hire two new faculty members to work with the EBI proposal without consulting the senate “was contrary to the concept of shared governance.” Chris Somerville, a world-renowned plant geneticist and corporate founder, was hired from Stanford and the Carnegie Institute, along with his spouse, Shauna, to work on EBI projects. 

Somerville has appeared for campus discussions of the project. 

Post also described as unfortunate comments in February by Academic Senate Chair William Drummond, in which he stated that no further review of the BP proposal was needed by the senate beyond the previews of the proposal given to two of the Senate’s committees. 

“I doubt if we get a preview of the contract,” said Drummond on Feb. 15. “The terms will be proprietary information as far as the university and BP are concerned.” That review, he said at the time, was sufficient. 

But many faculty members have since gone on record as declaring that the senate needs to play a more active roll in supervising the proposed $500 million contract that would bind the university and one of the world’s largest oil companies over the span of a decade. 

Others who side with the chancellor’s position see their research threatened by meddling faculty members who would interfere with work funded by the fastest growing sector of financial support for research—patent-hungry corporations. 

Their competing resolutions will be presented to members of Berkeley’s Academic Senate at their special meeting next Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. in Booth Auditorium at Boalt Hall. 

Two cultures? 

Both sides are invoking the cause of academic freedom in support of their position, but lines are drawn with almost surgical precision betwen faculty most likely to win corporate funds and those who rely on the more traditional sources of government and private foundations. 

The split evokes the “Two Cultures” described by British molecular physicist, novelist and critic C.P. Snow in a memorable 1959 lecture in which he decried the split between the hard sciences and humanities. 

Molecular and cell biologists and chemists dominate the signatories of the petition calling for the BP agreement to move forward as it is, while humanists and the human sciences dominate those calling for more oversight. 

Ardent supporters of the proposed UC/BP agreement are backing a resolution proposed by Randy Schekman, a professor of molecular and cell biology who serves as chair of Birgeneau’s Advisory Committee on Biology. 

Of the 153 faculty who signed his on-line petition between Monday and Thursday morning, all but two—an economist and a political scientist—come from the hard, patent-rich biological and physical sciences. 

At least 19 signatories are specifically cited as project leaders and members in the university’s winning proposal to BP.  

Schekman’s campaign for signatures was launched with an email to all faculty senate members which began: “I would like to bring to your attention a serious threat to our academic freedom that could have adverse consequences to our reputation and operation of our campus,” he wrote in an email to fellow faculty members. 

“A few faculty have petitioned” the senate “to restrict the right of faculty to obtain research funds. This effort is shortsighted and could have disastrous consequences for Berkeley’s reputation and tradition of collegiality.” 

His resolution, posted on the Internet at epmb.berkeley.edu:8080/freedom/ vote. php, declares that “professors have the obligation to respect and defend the free inquiry of their colleagues,” and to oppose resolutions that are “seeking to deny public or private resources to individual faculty or groups of faculty.” 

Neither of the other two petitions calls for an outright rejection of the proposed half-billion-dollar pact that would fund the Energy Biosciences Institute—and some of the same signatures are affixed to both. 

They share in common a call for creation of a “blue ribbon ad hoc committee” of senate members who haven’t been involved with the BP agreement who are “free of any real or perceived conflict of interest” to review any aspects of the contract that might infringe on the senate’s prerogatives and provide ongoing oversight. 

The committee would also be charged with formulating protocols to govern any future contracts between the university and profit-making research funders. 

Rival petition 

In the 10 days between March 12 and 22, 130 professors—overwhelmingly drawn from the humanities and the human sciences—signed another petition posted on the Internet at www. 

facultysharedgovernance.org. 

Their specialties run the gamut from history to English, journalism to psychology, physics to geography, law, anthropology and mathematics. 

Michael Pollan, a best-selling author and member of the journalism faculty, said he signed “because I have a real issue with transparency, and I am in favor of anything that will increase the amount of information that is available for evaluation and for input from the faculty.” 

While he said he has concerns about whether ethanol is the appropriate solution to energy problems, “my first concern is with transparency and how a proprietary project fits into a university founded on the basis of the free exchange of information.” 

Other well-known signatories include Ignacio Chapela, who figured prominently in the Novartis controversy, anthropologist Laura Nader, linguist and “framing theory” advocate George Lakoff, art historian Timothy J. Clark, and agroecologist Miguel Altieri. 

Historian Martin Jay said he was concerned about the potential for erosion of faculty governance through the senate’s budget committee. 

“I am troubled by the procedural issues for faculty governance, which if it was not ignored, was not fully acknowledged and presented as a fait accompli.” 

Jay said he’s not opposed to the university being benefited by support from corporations, “but it needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.” Similarly, he said, research aimed at providing alternate fuels “seems laudable.” 

But Berkeley “has a strong tradition of faculty governance,” he said, sparked in part by the existence of an autocratic administration in the 1920’s, and the specter of two faculty hires made without consultation of the senate is cause for concern. 

Perhaps the most surprising signature came from Yuen-Ron Shen, a professor of condensed matter physics and particle science who holds dual appointments at the university and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where support for the proposal is the strongest, starting with lab director and Nobel Laureate Stephen Chu. 

Shen said he had signed after receiving an email from a friend while he was away from campus. 

“Apparently the budget committee and a number of other committees  

didn’t known much about it, and it was suggested that the issue should be considered more carefully by a newly established committee. I felt that was reasonable,” he said. 

Asked he if had faced any criticism from colleagues because of his signature, Yuen said “Steven Chu talked to me about it, and I talked to him, and he understands. I think everybody understood.” 

Only one of the proposed BP participants has signed the opposing petition that led to calling the upcoming meeting of the senate. 

David Winickoff, a law school graduate who serves as assistant professor of bioethics and society in the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management of the College of Natural Resources, is listed as a collaborator of the EBI’s Social Interactions and Risks Laboratory. 

Winickoff signed the petition calling for Thursday’s Academic Senate meeting and has called for a committee to monitor the EBI grant. In an email to colleagues, he said he was disturbed by the strident tone of Schekman’s email and “its mischaracterization of the ...petition as an attack on academic freedom and an attempt to restrict the right of faculty to receive research funds.” 

Other resolutions 

At least two other petitions have circulated, one endorsed by the graduate assembly and available online at http:// ga.berkeley.edu/delegates/meetings/Apr07/Final%20BP%20Resolution.pdf. 

That resolution was adopted at the assembly meeting last Friday, and in addition to repeating the call for an oversight committee, the measure asks that two graduate students be appointed to the body. 

An online petition is also being circulated by the student group StopBP-Berkeley.org on their website. Signatories, many of them anonymous, can be viewed at www.thepetitionsite.com/ takeaction/147963846?ltl=1176402916.

Joy Holland—artist, poet, scholar, actor, fashion designer, neighborhood activist—died peacefully in her sleep April 3. She always declined to disclose her age, but she was a grandmother and great-grandmother. 

“Her spirit was so beautiful and inspirational. She was very spiritual,” her daughter Ava Coaxum said.  

Tajmal Payne, Holland’s son, said he was inspired by her artistry. “We would go driftwood hunting at the Bay or the ocean,” he said. His mother would turn the objects brought home into candleholders or frames in which she would place her drawings. 

Born and raised in Berkeley, Holland took care of her parents as they aged. She responded to the difficulty of that task through activism—she set up a support group for care-givers at the Over 60 Clinic, Coaxum said.  

“She always gave to others.” That is the thread that runs through all her varied activities, Coaxum said. 

Holland grew up in the family home where she died, across the street from the YMCA, where her parents founded the New Light Senior Center in 1968. The South Berkeley YMCA was a refuge for people of African descent in the still-segregated Berkeley of the time, said Shirley Brower, director of the South branch YMCA, noting that the Holland family brought social clubs, movies and celebrations of black history to the YMCA. 

“Joy was a beautiful community leader,” Brower said. 

Holland continued to bring her energy and artistry to the YMCA and had told Brower of her plan—the last time she saw her—to create a big Easter bunny for the holiday. 

Many people knew Holland through her B-TV show JoyTime, in which she showcased local artists, black history and more. 

Councilmember Max Anderson recalls Holland’s activism around the move of the original Berkeley Bowl to its present site. “She helped resist the McFrugal’s at the site,” he said. “She cared so much about us having a nutritional source of food.” 

Noting that Holland served on a number of city commissions including the Civic Arts Commission and the Human Welfare Commission, Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that even after talking to Holland about large problems, “when you finished talking to her, you would feel uplifted, inspired.” 

Holland included this poem—reproduced in part—in a booklet she wrote on the history of the New Light Senior Center. 

Life is a Message of Celebration  

And 

Every day is a lesson 

Satin dust and Velvet dreams 

Like the lyrics of poetry  

Surrounded by memories 

Of other folks’ Spirit 

That gently touch those left  

Behind … 

In addition to her daughter and son, Holland is survived by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her daughter Barbara Payne and parents Lena and Kemper Holland. 

Services are at 11 a.m. at the McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St.

Contributed photo  

Accompanied by music from the Brass Liberation Orchestra, hundreds of people marched from the Emeryville City Hall to the Woodfin Suite Hotel on Tuesday to demand justice for workers embroiled in a labor dispute over Emeryville’s Measure C, a living wage ordinance for hotel workers.

The recent passing of former Berkeley City Council Member John Denton, who served on the Council from 1975 through 1986, calls for remembering his enormous contribution to civic life. John Denton was an informal leader of the many Berkeley residents who cared about preserving Berkeley’s unique character and livability, and who did not strictly identify with either the Berkeley Citizens Action—BCA/left/progressive—or Berkeley Democratic Club—BDC/moderate/conservative—political factions. John was never politically correct enough to please many on the left, while the moderate/conservative faction tended to view him as a pro-tenant radical. But to his many supporters in the community, John was the conscience of the City Council.  

I had the privilege of being a City Hall aide to John Denton in 1985–1986, and of working on issues with him from time to time before then and after. His commitment to protecting and enhancing the Berkeley community was unmatchable. He was very devoted to the Berkeley community.  

I specifically remember John’s efforts from 1980 to 1982 to keep the University of California from seizing the California School for the Blind and California School for the Deaf site in southeast Berkeley – now the Clark Kerr Campus. Originally known as the School for the Blind and Deaf, it had occupied the site since the 1870’s and was Berkeley’s oldest state institution. The University of California had coveted the site for decades. John fought an ultimately unsuccessful battle against a University bent on expansion and against a City Council majority that was prepared to let UC grab the historic site.  

From 1982 through 1986 John worked steadfastly to protect the Berkeley Waterfront from the massive development plans of the Santa Fe Railroad Corporation, the owner of the land at the time. At first John was the only City Council voice for waterfront open space preservation, with both the progressive/ left and moderate/conservative factions on the Council prepared to let the Santa Fe Corporation substantially have its way. As chairperson of the City Council’s Waterfront Committee, John worked relentlessly to preserve waterfront open space. 

As the rest of the City Council slowly began to adopt positions in favor of waterfront open space preservation, John kept pressing ahead, challenging the Council to make it as difficult as possible for Santa Fe to develop its waterfront land. John was so committed to protecting the Berkeley Waterfront that he gave priority to campaigning for a waterfront open space preservation initiative in the fall of 1986 over campaigning for his own re-election to the City Council. John’s efforts to preserve the Berkeley waterfront have generally not been recognized.  

John Denton came close to being Mayor of Berkeley. In January 1979, he and Gus Newport competed for the BCA endorsement for Mayor to run against incumbent Warren Widener. At a well attended and tense nominating convention, John led Gus Newport by an increasingly large margin after each of several rounds of voting, but failed by a few votes to get the 60% needed for nomination. Finally, the convention adjourned for one week, after which time there would be one ballot, with only a simple majority needed for the nomination. Confident of victory, John spent the week working to heal the wounds from the hard fought nomination battle. When the final vote occurred, Gus Newport won the BCA nomination by four votes (as best as I remember), and then went on to be elected mayor. A neighborhood coalition urged John to run for Mayor as an independent. He declined, and instead won re-election to the City Council on the BCA slate.  

John Denton was not easily pigeonholed. He was a relentless critic of excessive spending by City Hall, and opposed increases in City Council salaries. At the same time, he was always a strong defender of Berkeley’s Rent Control law, and a strong defender of Berkeley’s homeless and down-and-out population. If my memory is correct, John also was the first one to suggest having a public comment period at City Council meeting.  

John Denton was always generous with his time. In the fall of 1986, when he was in the midst of a tough re-election campaign, it seemed that half the students in the UC Journalism School were calling John’s office to interview him for a class assignment. Even though he should have been out campaigning to save his City Council seat, John would patiently let every student who called interview him, even though the interviews would not appear outside of a term paper. John’s City Council office was always open to anyone who had a gripe about city government or a gripe about life in general.  

It would be unfair to say that John Denton cared only about local issues. He devoted considerable efforts in 1985 and 1986 to raising funds for Mexico earthquake relief. And he did pro-bono legal work for Guatemalan refugees threatened with deportation.  

The law of unintended consequences cost John Denton a fourth term on the City Council. Public anger over positions taken by the BCA majorities on the City Council and School Board—positions which John invariably did not support—resulted in voters approving a District Elections initiative on the June 1986 ballot. As a long time resident of the Claremont neighborhood, John was forced in November 1986 to run for re-election in the new affluent and conservative District 8. Although John had spent years battling with the BCA council members over major development projects and other controversial issues, his District 8 opponent kept repeating that John Denton was BCA, and John’s defeat was thus insured. Had District Elections not taken effect, John would most likely have been elected to a fourth term on the Council.  

After leaving the City Council, John served as president of the Berkeley Council of Neighborhood Associations(CNA), and wrote a regular column for the Association’s monthly newsletter. John kept up his civic involvement into his late 80’s. 

John Denton’s focus was the City of Berkeley and its residents, not the interests of the Chamber of Commerce, not the interests of the University, and not an internationalist agenda. He cared about preserving the physical character and natural environment of Berkeley, and about improving the lives of the people who lived here. John and his late wife Ruth, a charming and outgoing woman, will be missed by many.

The digging of a vegetable bed of all gardening activities seems to elicit a passion like no other in the bosom of the horticultural writer. 

True, it is hard work, unless one is Ruth Stout, who, having put quite a few years towards her allotted span, gave up digging altogether. With considerable gusto she advocated her alternative, the piling of salt hay on to the vegetable beds to a consistently maintained height, after which she never raised a shovel again. The ground beneath the hay became over time permanently soft, friable and enriched. 

Salt hay sounds what it is, peculiar to the East Coast, along with salt box architecture, salt water taffy and so forth. I even heard an East Coaster once preach the benefits of sprinkling salt crystals directly on to the earth, but she was after all a priestess, and judging from the magnificence of her robes, groveling in dirt was not on her high-priority list. 

At the other extreme there are people like John Seymour, who recommends the wretched practice of double-digging. The very thought of this labor-intensive, literally back-breaking activity is enough to put any normal person off gardening altogether, and goodness knows we’re short enough as it is of the sane. 

Seymour, author of The Self-Sufficient Gardener, conceals the nature of this horrid chore behind such important-sounding terms as The French Intensive Method. Seymour says that Peter Chan, noted horticulturist mentioned in a previous article, even “wrote a book about it.” In this book, Better Vegetable Gardens the Chinese Way, Chan actually says, in his Introduction, quite the opposite, that “The French Intensive Method…is just too much work for the home gardener.” Which shows how desirable it is to mistrust all words, written or spoken, especially when they concern our gardens. It is so much more rewarding to get out into nature and enjoy its non-verbal communication, to try to tune into what the garden actually needs at any given moment, to become more sensitive and observant. 

This might work well with humans, too. 

Nevertheless, without recourse to books, one would miss many pleasurable by-ways. Freya Stark, noted traveler in Arab lands, describes in her 1937 Baghdad Sketches (readily available through our admirable public library Link network) the digging in Iraq of vegetable beds. It is, or was, carried out by three men, one of whom operates the spade. The other two hold a rope attached to the spade, pulling it out of the ground when the digger indicates his readiness for this. Stark says this enables them “to do the work of one man in double the time.” Perhaps she meant half the time, or twice the work, for there is no questioning her empathy for and partiality to the Arab world. Fortunately she soon goes on to tell us that her mathematical education was neglected. Not so her socio-political acumen: even at that time she had noticed that Progress, as she ironically put it, would soon walk hand in hand with Oil. 

In any event, we can no longer put off the moment for digging our pre-measured plot. So we insert a regularly shaped spade along the middle of our marked rectangles, plunge it up to the haft only, just in the way that Chan describes; we lift it, and turn the earth. Having repeated this from one end to the other, now we take a straight-edged spade and define the perimeter. The result is a raised bed. 

Chan has more to say about this single-digging method. As he lucidly points out, unless one is growing vegetables with long roots, like parsnips, salsify or in his case, certain varieties of radish, one shovel of depth is enough. Roots are perfectly capable of finding more depth for themselves, if necessary. For his long vegetables, he simply makes a localized exception, and digs deeply. 

After reading this, gardener’s guilt palpably fell from my shoulders. 

Having achieved a sufficient number of raised beds, which devoid of plant life look like so many burial plots, soon to be the scene of resurrection we hope, one can loosen and deepen the earth with a stick. It is a mystery to me why the epithet “digger” is considered pejorative. It is now deemed impolite to refer to Pinus sabiniana as the Digger Pine for fear of offending native American Indians, whose forebears had the enterprise and knowledge to eat the delicious nuts and to garden with sticks. More power to them, for surely after the hand, sublimest of tools, comes the stick. What, apart from sending the world to hell in a herring basket, have we Westerners achieved with our so-called high technology, that can compare with such simplicity and common sense? 

Whatever its name, P. sabiniana uniquely heralds the approach to the Sierra Nevada, since it is native to the foothills. Its sparse, feathery branches and stately isolation are unmistakably easy to spot and elevating to the spirit. It is comforting to know that when we have completely run out of fuel, we can still walk from the East Bay to see them as John Muir did, carrying a wool blanket and tin box of matches. Better still, these days we can bicycle there, giving us plenty of time to admire and taste the pine’s magnificence, instead of whizzing past in a polluted and polluting frenzy. Interestingly, in traffic the motorist inhales more toxins than does the cyclist beside him.  

Since Sunset’s Western Garden Book describes this pine as thriving in Seattle as well as being very drought-resistant, we could grow our own source of its fruits. The best-known use of these pine nuts is in pesto (Genoese) or pistou (Nicoise), in which they are pounded with olive oil and cheese, and sometimes basil, to enrich an otherwise bland vegetable soup. In French Provincial Cooking Elizabeth David uses them whole in a sweet omelet. Heat them first in butter, but take care, she says, because they burn in a twinkling. 

Like all nuts, pine nuts are also great for snacking, packing a nutritional wallop for their size, high in protein and healthy fats. Almost feather light, they are a practical food to take hiking, backpacking and cycling. Stopping often for brief snacks is particularly important for cyclists. Indeed, such is the body’s need to take time and energy to digest meat, it is a short step from the bicyclist to the vegetarian, and thence to the ecologist, and the digger who gardens without pesticides. Light, easily-digested fresh foods, oxygenated air, and clean mineral-rich water that burnishes our teeth as it whistles past our tonsils—well, perhaps that’s going too far. But the human engine does need those things to function optimally, things in Stark’s words that are ordinary, and indispensable. 

Let us hope it is not too late. 

Editor’s Note: In early April, a South Korean cab driver set himself on fire in protest of the new free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea. The trade agreement, opposed by most Koreans according to a recent poll, would have a negative impact on working class Americans as well argues Christine Ahn, a policy analyst with the Korea Policy Institute and the national coordinator of Korean Americans for Fair Trade. 

On April 1, as trade negotiators from the United States and South Korea were finalizing a trade agreement, 54-year-old taxicab driver Heo Seowook poured 1.5 liters of gasoline on his body and set himself on fire outside the Hyatt Hotel in Seoul. His body engulfed in flames, he screamed, “Stop the Korea-U.S. FTA negotiations!” 

Heo’s sacrifice didn’t stop negotiators from signing the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (Korus FTA). 

Although this FTA is poised to reshape the landscape of South Korea and become the United States’ second largest trade deal after NAFTA, Americans have heard virtually nothing about it. The few times it has been discussed, trade ministers have framed it as a commercial agreement that will make trade between countries easier by eliminating complicated government codes and regulations that stifle innovation and commerce. 

But this generic and abstract appeal breaks down as soon as we get into the specifics of how corporate interests will use the FTA in ways that will dramatically influence the lives of ordinary Americans and Koreans. The agreement will eliminate major industries and jobs in both countries while emboldening the rights of corporations to undermine public laws meant to protect ordinary workers, farmers and the disadvantaged. 

Take, for example, access to medicine. South Korea has a universal healthcare system that reimburses people for medicine on a “preferred drug list,” largely generics and lower priced drugs. Wendy Cutler, the chief U.S. negotiator, has argued that this system “would end up discriminating against and limiting the access of Korean patients and doctors to the most innovative drugs in the world.” 

In other words, a governmental policy that tries to manage spiraling pharmaceutical costs in order to provide access to medicine to as many people as possible is considered a barrier to trade. 

Over 40 American states use a “preferred drug list” for Medicaid purchases. If the FTA is passed and South Korea’s “preferred drug list” is abolished, the Korean government could bring a lawsuit against the federal government alleging noncompliance by U.S. states under international treaties. 

This may be exactly what the pharmaceutical industry, a supporter of the trade agreement, wants. According to Sean Flynn, professor at American University, “the pharmaceutical industry may achieve in stealthy trade negotiations what it has failed to do through millions of dollars spent opposing and challenging the country’s most effective drug spending control measures.” 

In response to an op-ed co-authored by Flynn and Maine State Legislator Sharon Treat, one American wrote, “My wife and I are both disabled, and as it is, almost one third of our SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) income goes to out-of-pocket medication expenses. This could put us on the street—for my wife especially, her medications are her life. And there are a LOT of us out here.” This American could easily be speaking for the millions of Koreans whose access to drugs will be controlled by pharmaceutical giants rather than their own government. 

The auto industry represents another example where the rhetoric of free trade founders on the shoals of the reality of people’s everyday lives. Detroit automakers have argued that South Korea’s tariffs and higher emission standards block American cars from reaching Korean consumers. 

However, the rhetoric of the free trade agreement insists that U.S. tariffs be eliminated as well. According to Inside U.S. Trade Magazine, “the FTA would phase out the U.S. tariff for certain cars immediately and the 25 percent truck tariff over 10 years.” This could be potentially devastating for the U.S. auto industry since there is already a tremendous disparity in trade. Last year South Korea sold 700,000 vehicles in the United States while the United States sold just 4,000 cars in Korea. This mounting trade deficit could force the layoff of U.S. autoworkers and pressure wages downward as U.S. auto companies try to compete. 

The United Auto Workers (UAW) predicts that “tens of thousands” of U.S. autoworkers will lose their jobs. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow released a statement after the deal was signed, saying, "The automobile industry built the middle class in this country, and by supporting this agreement the administration has turned its back on our working families." 

The UAW has been urging Congress to reject the deal, citing the industry’s experience with NAFTA. Under that agreement, liberalized trade with Mexico, that, like Korea, had a well-developed auto production infrastructure, led to a surging U.S. auto trade deficit. 

Meanwhile, South Koreans will have a tougher time breathing while contributing to global warming. Under the FTA, South Korea has to lower its emission standards to ease the entry of U.S. autos into Korea. 

Millions of Americans feel a quiet desperation due to spiraling health costs, an-xieties over wages and job security, and other factors out of their control. South Koreans know this desperation only too well. 

Heo’s act of setting himself on fire in protest was a very real, concrete response to an abstract rhetoric that relentlessly denies his personal experience as an ordinary worker simply trying to survive and provide for his loved ones. 

In his will, Heo wrote, “Although the government is always giving lip service to participatory democracy, in fact that never happened when it unilaterally decided to expand the Pyongtaek U.S military base and to launch the Korea-U.S. FTA negotiation. Do not ridicule the dignified people anymore.” 

Just as in the rest of the world, anti-American sentiment in South Korea is growing. Recent polls by the Korean Broadcasting Service found that 70 percent of Koreans felt the FTA would be more beneficial to the United States than to South Korea. 

Just 31 percent of Korean lawmakers polled—mostly members of the conservative Grand National Party and the President’s Uri Party—supported ratification. Lawmakers, supported by farmers, comprised the 23 percent who said they would oppose the FTA. The remaining 42 percent of National Assembly lawmakers remain undecided. 

According to a 2003 Pew Global Attitudes Survey, 22 percent of South Koreans responded to the U.S.-led Iraq War by organizing the largest popular boycott of American goods outside of the Muslim world—one that is likely to grow if the FTA is passed.

Ah yes, parking. Glad you asked. Today we’re exercising a little-used editorial prerogative, reading an opinion submission before it’s published and responding in the same paper.  

We’ve noted the approach of Earth Day, and been heartened by the number of letters on environmental topics which have accompanied our Earth Day special issues. And of course number one on the list of What Can We Do About It items is the damage done by emissions from conventional gasoline engines.  

Our regular correspondents have continued their usual vigorous exchanges about buses: are buses the answer, or would they be if they worked better? It seems that the most avid riders of buses are their strongest critics, particularly when it comes to the comfort and performance of the particular models AC Transit is currently buying. The consensus which seems to be emerging is that buses MIGHT be the answer, but only if they worked better than they do now. A similar dialogue about the usefulness of ferries is in progress, also with no clear answer as yet. 

And in the meantime, how are people who live in the “large areas of Berkeley [and El Cerrito and Albany and Richmond and Oakland] which are not served by transit” supposed to get their groceries, their books, their movies and their clothes? I agree with Councilmember Capitelli that it’s a hugely complicated question.  

I do think he slightly misunderstood my remarks about parking in my editorial about not scapegoating street behavior for the woes of downtown Berkeley. I didn’t actually say that there is not enough parking downtown. I did say that “shoppers still expect to find a free parking space right in front of the store of their choice”.  

The problem is not how many parking spaces are available, but how many shoppers think there are, and how hard it is to find them. It will never be possible, in older downtowns like Berkeley’s, to recreate the El Cerrito Plaza experience of parking at the front door of the store—even new malls like Emeryville’s Bay Street have had to turn to big garages (or so I’m told, since I confess I’ve never been there.)  

UCLA’s parking theory guru Donald Shoup has pointed out that sensible parking schemes should charge much less for spaces in parking lots and garages, and much more for on-street parking, in order to encourage rapid turnover for people with short errands downtown. This seems to be working well even in places like Pasadena, which already had parking problems when I was in high school there in the fifties. In Santa Cruz you can park in garages off the main street for as little as $2 or even free, but the meters on Pacific are very expensive and patrolled seven days a week until 8 at night. You can almost always park on the street just long enough to pick up a pizza if you’re willing to drop a quarter or two in a meter. In contrast, Berkeley doesn’t have any well-organized parking hierarchy downtown. 

But there’s still enough parking in the downtown-Telegraph area—if you can find it. The Transportation Demand Management Study of a few years ago confirmed that. It’s a question of perception: If you go downtown expecting to be able to park, you will find your spot eventually, though not necessarily at the door of your destination. Spaces in garages are seldom filled up. The TDMS recommended better signs directing cars to available spaces, and some have been put in place, but many more are needed.  

A major problem—one the DAPAC should be addressing—is UC, which controls a large fraction of the available spaces in the downtown-Telegraph area and is reluctant to share them. The huge garage next to Zellerbach is often empty at night, so empty that I’ve seen cheerleaders practicing marching drills in there. Wouldn’t it be great to provide free parking in the Zellerbach Garage with a shuttle bus for downtown moviegoers? Yet UC plans to build still more parking spaces for its commuting workers and students which will be off-limits to shoppers, and DAPAC doesn’t seem to be able to stop them.  

Those who have regular commutes to UC, both workers and students, should be using the available transit options, imperfect though they might be. UC should provide financial incentives: charging more for parking single-occupancy vehicles, reducing prices for carpools, paying for passes. The city of Berkeley should do the same for its own parking garages and lots. 

Transit advocates are indeed sometimes self-righteously unrealistic about the groups Councilmember Capitelli cites: “seniors, young parents, and disabled who rely on single occupancy vehicles for basic transportation.” A lot of people just can’t use bicycles or buses, but a well-designed parking plan could take that into account. Special parking permits could be provided not just for disabled people, but for anyone who can show that they need to use cars sometimes, for example parents who have to pick up kids from childcare.  

Building more parking lots and garages is not the answer to the problems of the downtown retail segment’s problems, however. Like rousting street people, it’s a simple “obvious” solution—much too simple, in fact. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Capitelli’s choice of words: Solutions must be “nuanced, balanced and negotiated”.  

Donald Shoup suggests that parking revenues should go directly to the areas where they are collected: What people pay to park downtown should be used to add amenities for shoppers. That could include making public parking more user-friendly, employing pleasant humans as parking attendants and security guards instead of relying on automated systems that are hard to use. But this alone will not bring the right mix of stores to downtown Berkeley. 

I quizzed one of the best-informed experts on Berkeley retail about how business is doing these days: the Planet’s senior advertising account executive. Since she’s talking to business proprietors every day in the interest of selling them ads, she has a very clear idea of what’s working and what’s not. She reports that downtown businesses tell her they’re paying ultra-high rents, hoping for walk-in traffic.  

Unique stores like Games of Berkeley do attract both walk-in and regional customers. Restaurants are hard work and have narrow profit margins, but they are successful for independent owners. Student-oriented specialty businesses, especially clothing, books and music stores, continue to do well on Telegraph, but not if they’re too expensive for the average student. Mall-type chains—which have been welcomed with open arms by the city’s ever-optimistic economic development department, desperate for any kind of sales tax revenues—come and go with surprising rapidity. . 

Single-owners malls (even Berkeley’s Fourth Street) have a great advantage over heterogeneous older shopping areas, in that they can control the mix of retail tenants to create the right “shopping experience”. Business improvement districts don’t work well when they’re controlled by property owners with votes allocated on a square-footage basis, since high rents are a major cause when retail fails. 

In some cities the economic development department is well-enough funded and organized to seek out the right independent retailers and to help them succeed. That’s not the case in Berkeley. A coordinated city plan for salvaging downtown, funded by parking revenues, must include people who have a long track record of mentoring successful stores.  

Planet Public Eye columnist Zelda Bronstein articulated a wide range of possible remedies for Berkeley’s small businesses during her unsuccessful mayoral campaign. She’s had a long-time interest in independent retail because her family operated a music store in a small-town downtown when she was growing up. We’ve now asked her to begin a series of columns on retail in the urban East Bay, taking a hard look at what works and what doesn’t.  

Making our traditional shopping districts work again is in everyone’s best interest. Successful local businesses help the Berkeley Daily Planet by generating advertising revenues, and they help Planet Earth by making it possible for more and more people to meet their basic needs without driving long distances. We appreciate Councilmember Capitelli’s contribution to what should be a continuing dialogue on what will help our downtown succeed. 

So let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. 

—President John F. Kennedy 

These words are from Kennedy’s first inaugural address. That speech marked a generation, my generation. Nancy Pelosi, a politically aware woman of my own age, like me a college student in 1961, cannot have escaped hearing that speech and being influenced by it all of her adult life, as we all were. The attitude it embodied ultimately resulted in the end of a repressive regime in the former Soviet Union, without the atomic war that many in 1961 thought was inevitable. Kennedy described the belief system he hoped to counter: “[B]oth sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind’s final war.” Kennedy and his successors made many mistakes along the way, but his assertion that negotiation was the only way to end the balance of terror and avoid the atomic Armageddon which threatened to destroy the planet paid off in the end. 

Pelosi, now a grandmother like me, is continuing to follow Kennedy’s advice by visiting leaders of potentially warring nations in the Mideast and urging negotiations. Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor in Congress, is going along. Her credentials as a supporter of Israel, like his, are rock-solid, but no matter, the twerps are nipping at their heels.  

Dick Cheney, briefly emerging from his undisclosed hidey-hole, led the attack, which has now trickled down to lesser-con luminaries like columnist Debra Saunders. The most foolish version of all this was Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s suggestion that Pelosi shouldn’t have worn a headscarf when she visited a mosque. “I just don’t know what got into her head, to be completely honest with you,” he said. “Her going to a state which is, without question, a sponsor of terror, and having her picture taken with Assad and being seen in a head scarf and so forth is sending the wrong signal to the people of Syria and to the people of the Middle East.” 

Perhaps Romney, who is a Mormon, doesn’t knew that when Nancy and I were growing up Catholic women were always required to cover their heads in church, and that even Protestant princesses (there were no women Speakers in those days) donned veils when calling on the Pope. As a mayor’s daughter she’s undoubtedly grown up seeing politicians of all faiths bobby-pin yarmulkes to their heads when courting Jewish voters. Wearing a scarf is no big deal. 

Lantos has even suggested that a trip to Iran should be the next item on the agenda, a proposal which Pelosi’s political staff quickly rejected, but don’t bet against it nevertheless. The time for talking to all parties is now, as sensible Israelis and Americans, even some Republicans, are starting to admit. Pelosi carried what she thought was a peace message to Syria from Israel, only to have clueless Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert deny that he’d intended any such thing, probably under pressure from the Bush White House.  

But the time has come to talk. George Soros, international financier, philanthropist and determined advocate of what he believes to be human rights imperatives, came out of the political closet with a piece in the April 12 New York Review of Books.  

He said that “The Bush administration is once again in the process of committing a major policy blunder in the Middle East, one that is liable to have disastrous consequences and is not receiving the attention it should. This time it concerns the Israeli–Palestinian relationship. The Bush administration is actively supporting the Israeli government in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, which the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization. This precludes any progress toward a peace settlement at a time when progress on the Palestinian problem could help avert a conflagration in the greater Middle East.” His statement was dated March 15, before Pelosi’s trip, but its endorsement of the necessity of negotiation certainly applies to talking to Syria as well. 

With a great deal of trepidation, remarkable in someone with as much influence and even power as Soros has, he zeroed in on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as one of the principal obstacles to peace:  

“I am not sufficiently engaged in Jewish affairs to be involved in the reform of AIPAC; but I must speak out in favor of the critical process that is at the heart of our open society. I believe that a much-needed self-examination of American policy in the Middle East has started in this country; but it can’t make much headway as long as AIPAC retains powerful influence in both the Democratic and Republican parties. Some leaders of the Democratic Party have promised to bring about a change of direction but they cannot deliver on that promise until they are able to resist the dictates of AIPAC.” Even though Soros is himself Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel, he knows that he is exposing himself to personal attacks for taking this position. 

Pelosi, like many Democratic politicians in the Bay Area including Lantos, Assemblymember Hancock and Mayor Bates among others, has in the past been a vocal and visible supporter of AIPAC. That puts her in a good position to jump boldly into the negotiating process, just as Nixon’s history of anti-Communism put him in a good position to open negotiations with China. Even so, it has taken a considerable amount of courage for her to do so, and for Lantos and Congressman Henry Waxman to get her back as she does. It’s not too much to ask that other Democratic political leaders, especially those in safer-than-safe Northern California seats, should now demonstrate similar courage in resisting AIPAC’s undue influence on American and Israeli policy and speaking out in favor of open negotiations with all parties in the Middle East.  

CORRECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Please note that in an otherwise factually correct summary of our project (“Zoning Adjustments Board Weighs Use Permit Appeals, April 10), there is one significant error: This is and will remain a single-family residence. To my knowledge this has never been identified as a multi-family residence. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

Lorin Hill  

Architect 

Oakland 

• 

SUPPORTERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When I first started to “be political” in Berkeley, Berkeley Citizens Action (BCA)—not always John Denton’s best friends—was the only political organization that spoke to my passion. Two very significant people came to my assistance, John Denton and John George and they were smart enough to see the potential of a young immigrant with a hot fire in her belly. I will never forget the time when John Denton signed my papers for running for council and John George was at the BCA convention where I was trying to run as an independent. The opposition in slate politicals was fierce and also the outcome had already been worked out in backrooms, a skill I have never learned. If it wasn’t for John Denton and the love that Ruth gave me , and the constant John George message “you are the one just do it” I know I could not have come close to what I have been able to work on in partnership with the homeless. 

As I remember John Denton and his annual change bucket that he brought to Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) every year, sometimes in the hundreds of dollars, I also have to remember John George who put me on the first Alameda County Homeless Plan, it was a great plan that holds up to the bigger and larger plans of today. It’s my great respect for the two amazing and very different heroes of the homeless movement that tonight I bow to their grace, their compassion and the time they found to guide encourage and trust me. 

Oh I know John Denton and John George that you are proud of me and I know that we don’t make them like you anymore, but we try to walk in your shadows as tall as the current politics will let us. 

Ruth was like a mother, she realized and saw my loneliness and always found time for me, Josh over the years has kept me informed, thank you great family and thank you for great leadership. In my heart a flower is blooming tonight and the tears are of great gratitude. 

All my love to both the families and more courage to those of us who have not mainstreamed and carry your legacy with pride and without shame. 

Boona Cheema 

Executive Director, BOSS 

• 

MORAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It always scares the hell out of my when I hear someone advocate public policy because it is “the moral thing to do.” It scares when such moral pronouncements comes from the far right and from the far left. 

This country has gone down the wrong road more than once lead by moral crusaders of all stripes. 

And should anybody disagree with such a moral crusade they are banded as immoral. 

In the most recent Daily Planet (April 13) Fred Foldvary declares “taxing pollution is the morally right thing to do...” and Charles Siegel writes “there is a clear moral imperative to support Bus Rapid Transit.” 

With all due respect to both men I may disagree with your viewpoints on both issues and be just as moral as you are. 

These issues are certainly worthy of public debate and consideration. 

But let that debate be on more practical and realistic level. Saying it is “moral” does not guarantee it will work. 

We must be able to listen to all sides of any issue and not brand only one viewpoint as “moral.” 

Otherwise there is no debate. And that is truly “immoral.” 

Frank Greenspan 

• 

EARTH DAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Earth Day...and person’s day. Please, people...so much toxicity coming from your cars and so many of us being so very ill with cancer. Somehow, in the very real urgency of saving the earth, there is not as much mentioned about saving us—from many diseases, cancer being foremost. We breathe it in but we can’t assimilate that ugly stuff. What is absorbed becomes very abrasive to how very tender we all are. Oil belongs in the earth. It is the blood of the earth. 

Certainly we can’t all give up our cars but we can think about doing it. We can begin to think maybe we can protest by just not buying petroleum-burning fuel-driven cars. Like, striking against this unfair condition being forced upon us. Hybrids are good but solar is better. There is not one single need to burn even minute amounts of petroleum except to make the owners of it richer. The sun is really all we need. 

My birthday is in April. Earth Day is in April. So, I have a certain momentum regarding life and the desire to reach out. Call me what you will. Don’t drive their cars anymore. The sooner, the better. 

Iris Crider 

• 

TIPPING POINT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am absolutely convinced that if all of us who care about healing ourselves and the planet—both the light-footed and our more heavily stomping kin—focus our moments of muse on our ailing mother (as is happening and must simply happen more broadly), there will be a tipping point, and then, seemingly effortlessly, we will be in that future we dream. It will suddenly be breathtakingly simple. “Oh, yes,” we will say, as we bring our prunings to our neighborhood composting site, returning home with compost to feed the soil. “Of course,” we’ll think, as we return our communal electric vehicle to one of our local recharging posts; or as we help mount additional solar panels onto our neighborhood staging area to meet expanded community need. I mean, we have folks who know how to use mushrooms to clean contaminated soil, for goddess’ sake! We have the talent. So what’s missing? 

There’s a coffee house owner in Kirkland, Washington, Ervin Peretz—have you heard about him?—who “wanted to attract customers who couldn’t afford Starbucks. So when he opened his doors last November, he decided not to list any prices. Instead, customers pay whatever they feel like for their drinks, sandwiches, and other menu items. So far, the ‘voluntary payment’ experiment is working, with the more well-off customers essentially subsidizing those who can’t or won’t pay more. ‘People want something different,’ said Peretz. ‘They want to contribute to something.’” (The Week, Feb. 23) 

And just today, on KPFA, I heard that an herbalist, Pam Fisher, is opening a free—yes, that’s what she said—free herbal medicine clinic right here in Berkeley called the Ohlone Center of Herbal Medicine (540-8010), where you can be seen by appointment either on Mondays 1-5 P.M. or the first Saturday of every month. 

Could it be Marx had something? You know the bit about “from each according to his abilities and to each according to his need”? Since we are one collective heart, is it beyond the realm of possibility that those with plenty of time or money or inspiration all on their own give a bit more to the general good than those less well-endowed and etc. etc. ... until... simply because if the collective heart beats stronger their particular piece of it will also? 

“[People] want to contribute to something,” Whether the experiment endures forever is not the point. The point is it happened. It can happen again. It will happen again. Because the spirit is afoot. It’s running. And jumping on its back is simply too big a blast not to. 

Pamela Satterwhite 

• 

SIDESHOWS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Commenting on the “sideshow” statute first proposed by the City of Oakland five years ago, columnist J. Douglas Allen-Taylor, in the April 13 edition, notes: 

“Neither the City of Oakland nor State Sen. Perata came to the legislature last year to ask for renewal of the original bill in time to meet the sunsetting deadline, which would be an indication that neither the city nor the senator thought the law was all that important.” 

Actually, more odorous circumstances surround Oakland’s failure to track the sunset and renewal process. 

The City of Oakland has lobbying firm Townsend Public Affairs on contract to take care of its business at the Capitol. Last October the owner Chris Townsend contributed $2,500 to councilmember Jean Quan’s campaign to pass Measure N, a $148 million bond issue to finance a new palace library downtown. Why would Townsend, headquartered in Irvine, care this much about an Oakland library building? In any event, the city and its contracted lobbyist dropped the ball on the sideshow law. As a reward, however, the city just renewed Townsend’s lobbying contract without putting it out for bid! 

Councilmember Quan accepted more than a dozen such large donations for Measure N from businesses holding or seeking city contracts. Whether you favor, oppose, or do not care about the sideshow law, the obvious potential for corruption should be condemned. The practice of soliciting city contractors for campaign donations to council ballot measures should stop. 

Charles Pine 

Oakland Residents for  

Peaceful Neighborhoods 

• 

OLD HAT OR NEW HAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Ad-hoc Committee for “Sunshining” Selection of Library Trustees, approved by the City Council on March 13, will have its first meeting today, April 17, at 5 p.m. at the South Berkeley Branch Library. Members of the Committee are Councilmembers Betty Olds, Kriss Worthington, and Library Trustees Ying Lee and Susan Kupfer, whose first four year term expires May 13. 

The City Charter gives the authority to the City Council to appoint Library Trustees. However, the practice for some years has been for the council to rubber-stamp the recommendation of the Library Trustees’ Board for successive Trustees including automatic reappointment of a first-term trustee. This practice has been criticized by many community members. It is felt the City Council should take back its power of appointment and bring new life and outlook into the governance of the Library. 

Trustee and chair Susan Kupfer’s first four-year appointment ends on May 13. Is it not a conflict of interest for her to be a member of the committee considering the process for the selection of trustees, when the very next day the Board of Library Trustees will be deciding whether to reappoint her for a second term or appoint a new trustee? Should not the City Council call for applications and review prospective applicants, one of whom is Pat Cody? Attend the committee meeting at 5 p.m. today, and the trustees’ meeting tomorrow at 7 p.m. and express your opinion. 

Gene Bernardi  

Berkeleyans Organizing for  

Library Defense 

(SuperBOLD) 

• 

FRIENDLINESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

At the present time of unrest in domestic and International affairs I see more tolerance and friendliness as the way forward. No two nations or people have identical priorities for developing their resources. We can express our need for safety. We can express our concern over the way other countries allocate their resources or manpower. But we cannot force other countries to follow our directions. Instead we have to begin a fresh conversation by acknowledging the languages, cultures and beliefs of others. Let us bring about peace by holding conferences and debates in which others can be honest about their fears, concerns and problems. We should let other nations run their own governments but deepen our links through shared conversation. 

Now is the time to reach out to other nations in friendliness so that friendliness comes round to us as well.  

Romila Khanna 

• 

LONI HANCOCK’S  

TOWN HALL MEETING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Loni Hancock put on a great town hall meeting about global warming; there was an overflow crowd. It’s a global problem, which needs global solutions, but Berkeley and the Bay Area may provide a great example to the world. Most of the speakers mentioned public transit as the way to reduce car use. Motorized transportation generates about half the greenhouse emissions around here. But after I left the meeting to catch my bus home, I saw the usual crowd of honking cars on Shattuck; the bus had to honk at one of them to get out of the bus stop. Berkeley has a way to go in transit use, but at least the UC students throng the buses. 

Steve Geller 

• 

THE CAR PROBLEM 

Charles Siegel’s letter (April 13) is a destructive influence upon those who want to solve our car glut problem. He is so fixated upon his pet solution, the bus, that he went ballistic when I wrote in the Planet that solving our clean-air/transportation problem requires more than the bus. I in no way meant to imply that BRT would not be useful in solving the problems. I suggested we need to address how job specialization has led to situations where people travel to see a doctor in one city, a surgeon in another and a shrink in a third. Rather than accepting my call for policies that would keep travel short, promote local mom and pop stores, etc., he wrote to the Planet to accuse me of not understanding how the car is a horrible machine. 

Charles, this is Berkeley, where we try to think through issues and build coalitions. It appears that you just want to get people into buses. Would it not be better if we tried a comprehensive approach to the car problem, and press policies which made people travel shorter distances, be their travel by bus or automobile? 

Ted Vincent 

• 

OUR OWN DER FUHRER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would dearly love to know who are all those foolish people comparing our wonderful President Bush to Adolph Hitler. Have you ever heard of anything more outrageous? Where do they get those preposterous ideas? 

We know very well that Hitler was a perfectly dreadful man, who started World War II by invading small countries, leaving them in ruins, destroying houses of worship, and killing innocent civilians.  

Then, with his war going to hell in a hand basket, this obstinate man refused to admit defeat! 

Oh, dear! Come to think of it, there are similarities, aren’t there? 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

• 

WARM POOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your wonderful article about Daniel Rudman’s book about the warm water pool, and your comments about the pool itself. One thing that was not mentioned is that the pool is open every Wednesday evening from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. for family public swim. 

Mary Ann Brewin 

• 

TOXIC DISPOSAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Did you know that there is a safe, easy and local disposal available for a wide range of toxics? 

The collection site at Gilman and Second will accept mercury products, household (non-automotive) batteries and electronics. More details are availabel from 981-7270. and 524-0113. 

Two of the greatest threats to our bay and our groundwater table are mercury (thermometers and yes, compact flourescents bulbs) and unused medications that must no longer go down the toilet. 

If the neighbors on a block can collect all thier toxics together, just one trip to Gilman will do the trick nicely. 

Senta Pugh Chamberlain

In her March 16 editorial regarding the mayor’s Public Commons for Everyone initiative, the owner/editor of the Daily Planet suggested the woes of our commercial districts, particularly the downtown, have little or nothing to do with inappropriate street behavior alienating otherwise eager patrons. Heck, that happens in all our other commercial districts and it doesn’t appear to have any negative effect. The problem instead boils down to two things: “Parking and stores . . . And that’s the main reason the retail stores have largely departed from downtown Berkeley, both Telegraph and Shattuck, and will continue to depart.” 

Though I do believe that inappropriate street activity and aggressive panhandling do deter shoppers (we have plenty of e-mails from Berkeley citizens who testify to that fact, but let’s save that for another letter), I agree with Ms. O’Malley. I dare say the mayor does as well, acknowledging in his PCEI referral to the city manager that “throughout the city, merchants and community members cite a variety of issues including a lack of parking, an onerous permitting process, regional economic and shopping trends, slumping sales due to Internet activity, and the physical and social deterioration of our streets.” The PCEI is an attempt to deal with one aspect of our retail climate. 

But let’s get back to parking. A timely topic since the Oxford lot has recently been wiped clean of metered off-street parking, the Center Street lot is overdue for seismic rebuilding, and the Downtown Area Planning Advisory Committee is currently wrangling with UC’s proposal for additional downtown parking. I would encourage Ms. O’Malley to reaffirm her assessment about downtown parking—that there is not enough—loud enough for DAPAC members to hear. (Of course, I am assuming that Ms. O’Malley considers the flight of retail stores from the downtown a bad thing, and something we should be actively addressing.) It will surprise some, as Ms. O’Malley has, in the past, publicly opposed increasing parking downtown. But perhaps her change of heart will alert others to a situation that is worsening with each parking space taken out of commission. 

I do empathize with Ms. O’Malley’s virtual teeth clenching about parking. For a whole variety of reasons, my priority would be to encourage alternative means for coming downtown or for venturing anywhere around Berkeley. I too shudder at the car-oriented L.A. model. But the reality is more complicated: large areas of Berkeley are not served by transit. We have large populations of seniors, young parents, and disabled who rely on single-occupancy vehicles for basic transportation. And finally, we have potential shoppers, many who live within our borders, who choose their shopping destinations based upon ease of parking. El Cerrito, Emeryville, Walnut Creek—here they come. 

It is a complicated issue, one that can be nuanced, balanced and negotiated without selling our environmental souls. UC already has the go-ahead to build a significant amount of new parking. The city should be working with them to locate that parking where it can serve all its residents—and more—not just those who attend or work at UC. That’s why we created the DAPAC. 

So let’s be proactive regarding our community’s business partners. A vibrant, busy economy downtown will not only benefit the businesses, but the increased sale tax revenue will provide the resources for services for those forced to live on the streets. 

Thank you, Becky, for stating the obvious. Please say it again. 

Laurie Capitelli represents District 5 on the Berkeley City Council. 

In thinking about what I ought to tell you regarding these dark days various clichés come to mind: I see no light at the end of the tunnel. The American dream is a nightmare. The American experiment failed. Pride precedeth the fall. 

To witness the death of our representative form of government is to feel some of the stages of grief identified by Dr. Kubler-Ross in her landmark study: disbelief, anger, despair… acceptance. 

I found it unbelievable that our republic would spill out into the entire globe and, repeating the life-cycle of empires like Rome and Great Britain, our unmatched strength, confidence and conceit would lead to a sense of invincibility from which we stumbled, matured, grew old and collapsed.  

Halfway through my eighth decade a surge of books came out that I encourage you to access on your PCs for they contain the reasons for my incredulity. Collectively they describe a nation in deep trouble; the ship of state constructed around the time of the first steam engine could not hold course in capricious modern winds driven by personal enrichment, societal neglect and king-of-the-hill foreign policies. For example, in a category on ominous forebodings of our global entanglements you can download Chalmers Johnson’s trilogy, Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire, and Nemesis and in a different class you can scan Noam Chomsky’s densely crafted Hegemony or Survival in which sharp facts strip naked the current administration’s born-again royal clothing, or click onto Jeremy Scahill’s revelations that a large mercenary army assisted in the catastrophic occupation of Iraq, unregulated and unconstrained.  

In general, the nation failed so often and so shamelessly to live up to the promises of its birth that it adjusted those lofty promises bit by bit to fit the nefarious goals it pursued on the back of an almighty “military-industrial complex.” Abandon republican ideals and you abandon republican government. 

And if you go further into our past you will notice that our new way of governing—three separate and independent branches held together by checks and balances—though interesting and admirable was not effective or practical. The government prescribed by the Constitution failed its first critical test; it could not solve the problem of slavery peacefully, and thus we slipped into a civil war that nearly destroyed us. The residue of that bloodiest of all our wars still exists, and the Katrina disaster’s racial one-sidedness and the government’s ineptitude intensified my anger. 

You might also notice that the impracticality of our new form of governing explains why most new nations formed after World War II did not copy us but formed governments of a parliamentary nature. 

That the United States called itself America, contrary to geographical fact, foretells its overarching self-regard. We replaced the Monroe Doctrine with a program to convert the world to our ideals and eventually to dominate and rule it. Republicanism and imperialism are incompatible. 

There were subtle warning signs. At the same time that terrorists replaced communists in the fear-mongering, “barbarians at the gates” instrument for tightening regulations and controls, the government’s infatuation with security caused unprecedented and pervasive secrecy, and secrecy is toxic because governance that is not open is not republican. 

There were more explicit signs. Less than half of eligible voters bothered to do so, their customary indifference being validated when, despite having received half a million fewer votes than his opponent, the 43rd president attained office by virtue of one vote by a Supreme Court judge. Despair arrived the day Bush II was elected to a second term—“How could 59 million voters be so stupid?” headlined the UK Daily Mirror—and depression set in when international rules against torture were deemed “quaint” and outdated. 

Other harbingers of danger included the expanding economic chasm—the poor grew poorer, the well-off grew richer and the rich got super rich. (CE0s of top companies were compensated 475 times more than their employees, on average.) Faith, more than deeds, became the hallmark of morality. Reason was subdued by religion, and science was subverted by it. Everything of value had monetary value. Lobbyists with deep pockets outnumbered legislators two to one. Every problem prompted a legislative solution and every solution was ultimately sanctioned, or not, by the courts. Any person with superior marketing apparatus and enough money could be elected to any office at any level (and thereby improve his/her lot, financially).  

Every day my depression was deepened by the repeated and unqualified use of the term “war”—“war on terror,” “War Powers Act,” “war crimes,” “war zone,” etc. Sure, we have a well equipped military force occupying Afghanistan and Iraq. Our troops are killing and being killed. But how could there be a war when the enemy had no uniform, no flag, no unified command and whose most devastating weapons were improvised human and home-made non-human explosive devises? 

Finally, life and liberty, once believed to be unalienable rights endowed by our Creator, were destroyed by two laws enacted by the 109th Congress: the renewal of the perversely named Patriot Act and the barbaric Military Commissions Act; the former silenced domestic dissenters and the latter dealt with foreign dissenters as “enemy combatants” denying them both legal and human rights. 

The early weeks of the 110th Congress, for a variety of political reasons, sounded the death knell of the republic. Let the following stand for the multifaceted disintegration I have just summarized; it is the source of my depression and the reason for this letter. 

In early spring 2007, both houses of Congress passed resolutions, just barely, that urged but did not require the president to prepare to withdraw our troops from the catastrophe he’d created in Iraq. Democratic party leaders boasted that they were taking back powers ceded to Mr. Bush when his party held a majority of seats.  

The media feigned alarm—a constitutional crisis! legislative branch versus executive branch!—and delighted in speculations regarding the high political price of confrontation—who will win, what are the loses? Meanwhile, Bush, on the defensive, bullied his opponents, called them irresponsible and accused them of interfering; they dishonored our soldiers, he declared, and emboldened our enemies. 

Often appearances hide the truth and just as often a small victory hides a large defeat.  

Properly understood, both the nay and yea votes on resolutions setting a time-table for withdrawal from Iraq implicitly concede that the nation’s honor (if there was any) was worth deaths and dismemberments in the tens of thousands, casualties bound to accumulate while Congress and the White House squabbled. Nothing in my time signaled the demise of the republic as surely as this, as if more blood would restore our honor.  

Reviewing what I have written, I confess that I have not achieved acceptance, the final stage of grief, and, truth be told, I don’t ever expect to.  

Marvin Chachere is a San Pablo resident.

In 1944 Roosevelt’s call to plant a Victory Garden was answered by 20 million Americans. Amazingly,these gardens in a short time produced 40 percent of all vegetables consumed in this country. (The rest was grown mostly by local farms) Gardens grew in backyards, in empty lots, and on rooftops or public gardens in cities. Even some portion of Golden Gate park was alloted to community gardens.) 

We can do this again. We can create a belated replacement for Roosevelt’s Victory Gardens, in our backyards and in our communities. And we can do this in the name of Peace, because after all, the only real victory is peace. Here is my suggestion. Plant a vegetable garden, a peace garden. Plant it for Earth Day. Plant it for your children or your grandchildren. Do it because it is a centuries old task and is profoundly satisfying. Do it because it will improve your health both to work in it and to eat from it. And do it because it is a practical step we can all take to promote peace.. inching our way away from corporate food to real food, from an oil-based food system to an independent, local food system. 

Vegetable gardening is not difficult. There are hundreds of books on the subject, but all you need is good soil, lots of good soil. You can make that yourself with the vegetable waste from your kitchen sink and those rotting leaves you didn’t get around to raking last fall. Stop using the garbage disposal and compost the old broccoli and coffee grounds. If that’s all you do this spring, you are on your way. Worms will arrive to work on your broccoli and leave castings for you that will help anything grow. Good bacteria will gather to increase the health of the soil. (think of the science projects there!) 

Let this all age until it looks and smells closer to the earth than broccoli, and you are ready. Spread the compost, working it in with a pitchfork to loosen old soil. That’s it. Lots of compost=good soil=the healthiest veggies on the planet. 

Like good wine, good compost does need to age, so start that process and then to jump start the whole thing, buy some good organic compost for your early vegetables. Use seeds or a mix of seeds and organic vegetable starts. Plant creatively with flowers and vegetables mixed together. And don’t worry about perfection. Nature is set up to make things grow. Your garden will produce something even if your time there is limited and you think you dont know a thing about gardening. Just enjoy it. Raising some of your food is an act of peace, and you will be amazed at how much is returned to you from that act.  

Happy Spring Gardening! Peace. 

Questions on getting started? Write to peacegardens@pacific.net. 

Barbara Wentzel is the proprietor of Traditions furniture store in Berkeley.

We say that global warming is the result of the burning of fossil fuels, but it might also be said that global warming has happened because the human species has not recognized that all systems on the earth are mutually related, alive and sacred. 

It would also be fair to say that if we humans regarded ourselves as an intimate part of the earth’s whole fabric—miracles within a Miracle rather than its masters, we might never dream of creating economies that annually took down millions of acres of natural forest to make wood pulp for the paper industry. 

The problem, folks, is us—you and me. We’ve got to change our minds, and quickly. As a writer who has just published her eighth book, I did the calculations and figured out that several dozen trees had been felled over the years for the printing of my books—and more for all the books, magazines, newspapers, catalogues etc. I have read during that time!  

Here are some statistics that made my hair stand on end: 

• The most diverse forests in North America, which are in the Southern United States, contain the largest paper producing region in the world. 

• Each year, 20 million trees, or five acres of natural forest, are cut down to make paper. 

• Of the global wood harvest, 42 percent goes to paper production. 

• Printing and writing paper accounts for almost 27,000 tons of wood pulp a year. 

• The global production of pulp, paper and publishing is expected to increase 77 percent by the year 2020. 

• The United States is claimed to have six times the per capita consumption of paper over the world average. 

• The paper industry is the third highest emitter of industrial greenhouse gases to the air in the world, and the fifth highest emitter of industrial toxic waste to water. 

• The planet is exposed to 250,000 metric tons of toxic pollutants from paper manufacturers each year. 

There are alternatives to cutting down our forests, and here are some of them: 

Tree farms 

• Replacing natural forest with tree farms creates a relatively reliable source of wood pulp, but reduces by 90 percent the number of species contained in a natural forest. 

• The conversion of forests to tree farms leads to a radical loss of freshwater, air quality, soil cohesion and animal, insect, bird and plant species. 

• Rural communities in and around these tree farms and their paper mills tend to be degraded economically and socially. 

• South American “paper forests,” as they are called, are expected to grow 70 percent by the year 2012.  

Recycled paper 

Paul Hawken, co-founder of the Green Press Initiative has said that if all books were printed on recycled paper, the act of publishing and reading would begin to heal our forests and promote sustainable economic activity. 

• Currently, recycled paper represents less than 8 percent of the entire printing and writing market, because publishers claim it is not cost effective. However, market pricing analysis shows that switching from virgin fibers to 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper would equal an increase of about 20 cents per book. Many readers polled claimed a willingness to spend and extra dollar for books printed on recycled paper. 

• It takes an estimated one ton of recycled stock to make one ton of paper, while it takes an estimated two to three and half tons of virgin trees to make that same ton of paper. 

• One ton of recycled paper can save the equivalent of 24 trees of 40 feet in height and six to eight inches in diameter. 

• One ton of recycled paper can save the equivalent of 7,000 gallons of water; 60 pounds of air pollution; and 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity. 

Alternative, annual crops used for papermaking 

Kenaf, which grows well in the Southeastern United States, has a three to five times greater yield than the Southern pines which grow in the same region. Related to the hibiscus, it is originally an African plant which can grow up to 14 feet tall in under five months.  

• Industrial hemp, related to, but not the same plant as, marijuana grows up to 16 feet tall in four months, producing an estimated 10 tons an acre. It is not (yet) legal in the US. 

• Straw, the agricultural residue of a multitude of plants, goes underutilized every year in the United States by an estimated 150 tons. 

So I took a deep breath when I learned all this, and decided that the simplest thing I could do was to find a tree-planting organization to work with, and to encourage all my friends and neighbors to join us in the rather joyful effort of planting trees to replace the trees felled for paper. 

And thus was born Books Into Trees, a collaborative project with TreePeople of Los Angeles that, since being started by a teenager in 1973, has planted over two million trees in the Los Angeles area in its work to help nature heal our cities. Having one of the nation's largest environmental education programs, TreePeople offers sustainable solutions to urban ecosytem problems including water, air quality, energy conservation and flood prevention. It is one of the most innovative, comprehensive and people-friendly environmental groups in the United States. 

Ultimately, though, it all comes down to how we choose to live our lives and how we use our creative imaginations. Do we accept the current definitions of reality that have gotten us into this unprecedented mess, or do we start to shift how we see the world? To me, it’s fairly obvious that if I live as if everything is interconnected, miraculous and alive, then my spirits are lifted instead of being depressed, creative ideas pop up one after the other, and I tend to laugh a lot. Not a bad way to live.  

And of course, in such a mood, it would never occur to me that destroying forests was the only way to make paper; killing other people was the only way to find peace; or sacrificing other peoples’ children was the only way to feel safe. 

Carolyn North is a Berkeley writer, healer and social activist whose latest book, Ecstatic Relations: A Memoir of Love has prompted this action to collaborate with TreePeople to protect the forests that are sacrificed daily for the printing of her books, and all the books we all read. 

MORE INFORMATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kudos to Richard Brenneman for his clear, precise articles on development and sales of the new apartment buildings in Berkeley. But there’s always a bit more I am craving to know—what size are the rooms? What is the rental or condo price for apartments of various sizes? What is considered low-income rentals? Are they the same size apartments as the others? What are the occupancy/vacancy rates in the newer and older buildings? Who pays what kind of taxes on these building? And finally, who lives in them? 

I know many others who read the Planet would like to know these details. 

Joan Levinson 

• 

JOHN DENTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On behalf of the Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement (BAHIA Inc.), I would like to express our sadness in the passing of John Denton. As a councilmember and then as a retired community advocate, John Denton was always an advocate of our program that provides bilingual child care development services to low income families in Berkeley. Our organization celebrates 32 years of service this year on April 25, a milestone for a Latino non-profit organization. We will always remember our dear friend John Denton as helping us make the dream come true of serving families and their young children and providing this service bilingually. 

On many occasions John and Ruth spoke fondly of their summer or winter travels to Ajijic, Mexico where they had a community and an adopted family. They would drive to Mexico in a very beat up station wagon with piles of clothes and supplies to give to needy families in their town. They enjoyed living and immersing themselves in Mexico, speaking Spanish, eating tortillas, frijoles and chile, this was their diet and their sustenance in more ways than one. Together they had a passion and a mission to represent and serve the underserved communities, be that on a reservation, the other side of the border or within their own community. John Denton was a loving and kind advocate for the community. We will miss John very much as we miss Ruth. Together they will remain in our memory as the “abuelos” (grandparents) of our organization for generations to come.  

Beatriz Leyva-Cutler 

Executive Director, BAHIA, Inc. 

• 

U.S. INTERVENTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Conn Hallinan’s April 10 column assumes that just because we might strongly disapprove of the violent history, contemptuousness, and opinions of Elliot Abrams, we should oppose his endorsement of U.S. military intervention in Darfur (or anywhere else that Eliot Abrams advocates U.S. military intervention). 

Unfortunately, Hallinan’s article provided no other strategy for intervention in Darfur, no clear arguments that the human rights abuses there will stop without some kind of intervention, and no discussion of the fact that there are people on the left who share the desire to see U.S. or U.N. military intervention there and that the Christian Right is joined by many on the left in urging a U.S. recognition of the genocide and an active response. 

I think it is a little overblown to attack Abrams for “levering U.S. forcing policy away from a concern for poverty toward a focus on “religious persecution” in Abrams’ capacity as the director for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (CIRF). From the title of the agency, it sounds like Abrams was doing his job. 

I’m looking for a more informative discussion of the situation in Sudan and Darfur than that presented by Hallinan. I understand the situation is horrible there, and has gone on too long and, up until this point, has not been resolved internally in any humane or stable way (i.e. the mass killings continue). What should be done? 

Bob Sarnoff 

• 

NO RESPONSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In late March, I wrote to Betty Olds’ office to report an impassible section of sidewalk in her district, which had resulted in me being overturned in my wheelchair. The street, Euclid, is divided at that point, so crossing the street is not an option. Going out into the street, around the parked cars and into traffic moving fast behind me on the curves was not safe. I sent the location of the sidewalk and suggested that it be repaired. 

I received no response. Two days later, I resent the e-mail with a note stating that I had been amazed and disappointed not to have received confirmation of its receipt. I received no response. 

I wonder just whom Ms. Olds thinks pays her salary, and what she thinks her duties consist of? On the few occasions that I’ve written to my own council person, Laurie Capitelli, I’ve received from his competent office staff, prompt, polite and complete responses to my queries, and follow-up when necessary. 

I wonder, in general, what other people in the city expect from their elected representatives to the City Council, and whether they receive it? 

Susan Fleisher 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ted Vincent makes an obvious logical error in his letter attacking Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). He says that some trips cannot conveniently shift to the bus—for examples, trips to buy groceries or drop off children—and so he concludes that no trips will shift to the bus. 

But their are also many trips that could conveniently shift to the bus and that would shift if there were better bus service—for examples, one-to-the car trips to work, to school and to appointments. We will have better numbers when the environmental impact report comes out, but the figure I have heard is that BRT will shift 10,000 trips per day from cars to the bus, reducing congestion through the East Bay and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Does Ted Vincent know that motor vehicles are California’s number-one source of greenhouse gas emissions? Does he know that Americans burn 45 percent of all the gasoline that is consumed in the world each year, almost as much as the entire rest of the world combined? Does he know that the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, adopted by 130 nations, says that. unless we act dramatically to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, droughts will kill hundreds of millions of people during this century? 

I am sure Ted Vincent does not know that a recent study published in the Journal of Public Transportation found that, of all the possible investments we can make in transportation, the one that is most effective in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is Bus Rapid Transit. 

Since motor vehicles are Berkeley’s our number one source of greenhouse gas emissions, and since BRT is the most effective investment we can make to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles, there is a clear moral imperative to support Bus Rapid Transit. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

IMMIGRANTS AND DEPORTATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As I read Judith Scherr’s article about the tragedy in the deportation of the Espinoza family, a parallel came to mind.  

The Espinozas, back in Mexico, live in a town with no gas and stagnant water. Their boys are sick. Scherr’s suggestion is that Berkeley be made a sanctuary city, or more sanctuaried, to allow more protection against deportation for the undocumented immigrants. The parallel that came to mind is the situation of a lost or feral pet..it no longer lives with the love of its owner, it is neglected, it may be sick and cold and lonely. Some people seeing this will gather all these lost animals up and keep them in their house. But one house cannot hold all these needy animals. Keeping too many of them in one place causes problems. Similarly with immigrants. Immigrants from the south have proved to so often be such diligent workers and friendly, beautiful people. It is the heart’s natural movement to want to help and protect them. But the condition of the house must be kept in mind as well. Only so many feral animals can be collected into one household before the whole atmosphere disintegrates into ferocity and squalor. Only so many refugees can be accepted into a refugee facility before the facility loses its ability to care for any of them.  

Are we concerned about the ecological, economic, sociological, psychological and other effects of overpopulation in this country? If we wish to take the stand that overpopulation is a serious problem, and that it matters how many people we crowd into our state, city, or apartment, then we have to draw lines somewhere, we can’t just allow anyone who walks across the border to set up house here. In my opinion, many of the undocumented immigrants would make much better citizens than some of those who’ve been here for generations. However, the many millions of Mexicans who have come here in disregard for the formal process of citizenship, now put pressure on our government, if it gives serious consideration to the problem of overpopulation within its borders, to exclude from potential citizenship more applicants from other nations than it would have formerly. This cannot be fair to those who desire to become citizens through legal means. If we were to naturalize many more individuals from Mexico than from anywhere else, that would also bring up questions of bias and racism, in that it would show an unacceptable preference to one group. In our process of naturalization, I believe that as a nation we can’t afford to be passive, handing papers to whoever decides to walk in, but ought to apply to the process of naturalization the wisdom of a larger view. What that wisdom ought to be, is rightly discussed among us all.  

While it is natural to want to help those who suffer, bringing them all into our house isn’t necessarily the best solution. Better would be to find ways of helping them where they live, so that our success as a nation doesn’t become our undoing when overpopulation finally frays too many nerves and causes too many other problems. We must accept the limits inherent in our ability to help, or else our limits will catch up with us.  

Deborah Cloudwalker 

Oakland 

• 

THE WAR PRESIDENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush has made it clear that there will be no compromise or negotiation with Democrats when it comes to his disaster in the desert. Bush got us into this mess in Iraq and now won’t let us extricate ourselves. 

Hell or high water, the “War President” is going to have it his way or no way. 

Here is a man who has lied and deceived Americans for the past six years—put impeachment on the table—democracy is not a one-man show. You will never appease this dogmatic ideologue set in his ways. 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

• 

WHO PROFITS? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In this land that prides itself on freedom of speech a few words spoken freely last week generated a five-day media whirlwind. 

No one wants sympathy, compassion, forgiveness or even tolerance for Mr. Imus and everyone with the briefest opportunity to speak has condemned, criticized, and cursed him. The whole country seems to have forgotten how harmless words are when compared to sticks and stones. 

Mr. Imus is very good at what he does; he insults people. That’s why he gets paid so handsomely. He a gifted equal opportunity verbal abuser. My peeve is not with this benighted, low-brow middle-aged white man but with his employers. Does anyone doubt that Imus, his critics and, of course, Rutgers but most of all the networks will come through this better off than before?  

Surely, the media moguls should not be allowed to increase their profits by hiring, suspending and rehiring anyone of Imus’ ilk. These moguls do not own the airwaves. We do. The networks may not use our space without permission and ought not use it any way they wish. We are to blame for allowing the broadcast of such uncivil, insensitive, uncouth, ill-mannered words.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

FATE OF PUBLIC ART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Becky O’Malley’s April 10 editorial, the decision to deaccession Wassilij Vereshchagin’s Solomon’s Wall was made, after a great deal of careful consideration, by the director and curators at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), with the unanimous support of the Board of Trustees and the university. 

While many have been able to enjoy the painting while it has been on long-term loan to the Magnes Museum, which is a private institution, our primary responsibility is to ensure that the university’s collections are utilized in a way that is of greatest possible benefit to the university, its faculty, staff, and students, and to the tens of thousands of local and international visitors who come to BAM/PFA each year. 

The deaccessioning of works of art from a collection is a difficult but necessary and responsible practice of museums around the world. In keeping with American Association of Museum policy, funds received from this sale must and will be reinvested back into the acquisition of art, ensuring the continued vitality and coherence of the museum’s overall collection. 

Since I began as BAM/PFA director in 2000, the museum’s acquisition program has been as active as any institution in the United States. Over the past seven years BAM/PFA has acquired more than 2,000 works of art, and 4,000 films and videos, ensuring our continuing excellence among university museums in the United States. Recent acquisitions have included an important collection of 50 Chinese paintings, part of an exceptional collection of more than 700 works of art from Tibet, and more than 900 photographs from the late nineteenth and early 20th century. Numerous gifts and acquisitions have followed our groundbreaking exhibition program featuring some of the most influential artists of our generation. In addition, funds have also been raised to establish the Edith R. Kramer Film Collection. 

We don’t take lightly our significant responsibility for stewardship of the university’s art collections. Let me assure you that our consideration of this matter has been sensitive to the sometimes competing interests of all who feel deeply about the university, its museums, and collections. We recognize and accept, with regret, that some will disagree with our approach. 

Kevin E. Consey 

Director, Berkeley Art Museum 

• 

ROSA PARKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your recent coverage of kindergarten assignments in Berkeley. Our school, Rosa Parks, was featured in a positive light, finally. However, the article seemed to focus on the Dual Immersion Program as the only reason that parents would be happy with being assigned to Rosa Parks. Unfortunately, the wonderful English only program was not highlighted as equally rewarding. True, our school has had its ups and downs in the past. True, we have had to endure negative press and a negative reputation.  

Nevertheless, our school is a diverse environment where every child is equally rewarded with a wonderful education, whether in the Dual Immersion Program or in the English Only Program. As a parent of children in each program, I can attest that every part of our school is fantastic. We have amazing, experienced, and dedicated teachers, staff, and a Principal who have made all of Rosa Parks a great place to learn for all children. We look forward to more positive reporting in the future! 

Sally Torrez 

• 

WATER CHALLENGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I recently attended the World Water Challenge meeting and was part of more than a hundred community members challenging the bottled water industry. I was delighted to hear that Mayor Newsom is supportive of the Think Outside the Bottle campaign and am grateful that he is protecting San Francisco’s public systems by moving the city away from bottled water. The keynote speaker, Jared Blumenfeld, presented extremely relevant points concerning our society’s massive necessity for water and alternatives in order to challenge the corporate takeover of water. Specifically, the companies Coke, Pepsi and Nestle are using their massive revenue to manipulate our society’s confidence in public water systems. 

It is mind boggling that we live in a city which offers some of the best drinking water in the nation, and yet Californians drink more than twice the national average in bottled water. If our water is safe and can be had for pennies to the gallon, why are we paying more for bottled water than we do for gasoline? 

Alison Bayley 

UC Berkeley student 

• 

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Werner Kluge, the Metromedia billionaire, just gave $400 million to Columbia specifically for financial aid. This is in addition to his $100 million Scholars Program. Shouldn’t the corporations and private individuals who have bought UC’s research services be expected to donate generously to its scholarship programs and financial aid? Isn’t research a secondary purpose of a university? What ever happened to education as the primary purpose of a state endowed, publicly funded educational institution that obtains all kinds of benefits (like not having to pay property tax) from its status in the state? From what I have been reading in the news recently, the UC system is making lots of money by engaging in private enterprise schemes—like building hotels and bombs, making fuel from food, and hawking athletic performances while student fees keep going up, the cost of living in places like Berkeley has become prohibitive and the people who do the real educational work, like the teaching assistants, get peon wages. Isn’t this a bit like the tail waging the dog? 

Joanne Kowalski 

If corporations are threatened to be taxed or regulated by the government in ways that may reduce their profits, they use their riches to invest on K Street (otherwise known as “Lobbyist Boulevard”) in Washington. Currently, there are over 34,000 lobbyists in the United States. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the Citizens for Tax Justice, and Public Campaign, “41 companies (including GE, Microsoft, and Disney) ‘contributed’ $150 million to political parties and campaigns for U.S. Federal candidates between 1999 and 2001, and enjoyed $55 billion in tax breaks in three tax years alone.” The pharmaceutical industry employs the highest number of 3,000 lobbyists and has spent $759 million to influence 1,400 congressional bills between 1998 and 2004.  

The United States emits approximately 25 percent of all greenhouse gases (GHG). Over the course of the 20th century the United States has emitted 50 percent more GHG than all of the world’s developing countries combined. Three influential stakeholders in the U.S. against the Kyoto Protocol are the oil, gas, and coal industries. Therefore, U.S. corporations influenced the government more than 141 other countries that signed the treaty. It is outrageous that the world’s economic leader and largest polluter was influenced by the size of corporate checks instead of the economic, environmental, and social welfare of their own citizens.  

The Center for Public Trust found that the oil and gas industry has spent more than $354 million on lobbying activities between 1998 and 2004, pushing hard on everything from a new national energy policy to obscure changes in the tax code. The top contributor was Exxon-Mobil with a total of $51 million in lobbying expenditures. Spending $24 million was British Petroleum, a controversial “green-washer.”  

Greenwashing is a term used to describe the activity of giving a positive public image to putatively environmentally unsound practices. Typically, it is a marketing technique used to distract the consumer from the company’s lack of transparency as it relates to their sustainable business practices. Companies become more transparent through their corporate social responsibility reports. These can usually be found on public companies’ websites along with their financial statements. I encourage you to look at them to see how green they really are compared to their public relations campaign.  

Without pressure from civil society and government, corporations have very little incentive to protect the environment. We as citizens need to speak up and fight the lobbyists’ influence if we want natural resources to be available for future generations. Send your local, state, and federal government officials letters to tell them you are concerned about sustainability and that you want change now. Use your dollar power to convince corporations that you want more environmentally friendly products and services. Boycotting unsustainable businesses will let their shareholders know that you are not in favor of their business practices.  

Let us tell the government, corporations, and K Street that we want the United States of America to be a leader in the sustainability movement.  

Emeryville resident Jules Macaluso is a sustainable management MBA student from the Presidio School of Management.  

Mark Sapir’s angry April 6 commentary about KPFA includes the following sentence: “When people...behave provocatively and are unwilling to clarify and negotiate over their differences within the institution, this advances the surreptitious attack on KPFA.” 

I am curious to know what steps Sapir took to “clarify” and “negotiate” before penning his rambling attack on the station, its staff, and its Program Director. Did he pick up a phone to call Sasha Lilley before comparing her to Mary Frances Berry and insinuating that she’s a “COINTELPRO type”? Did he attempt to verify any of the vague allegations he uses to smear KPFA? 

Sapir’s letter says Lilley is a “staff union representative”—in fact, she is not even a member of KPFA’s staff union. Sapir refers to a letter from Nancy Keiler to allege KPFA did not “cover” a Barbara Lee-Ron Dellums event at the Grand Lake Theater. Had he read the letter in its entirety, Sapir would have discovered (in addition to the correct spelling of Keiler’s name) that the KPFA News Department did, in fact, have a reporter at the event. 

Sapir states that KPFA’s live coverage of things like Congressional hearings is “collapsing”—in fact, there has been a sharp uptick in such coverage since Lilley became Interim Program Director. Under her leadership, KPFA has spearheaded network-wide live broadcasts of Election Night 2006, hearings on the confirmation of Robert M. Gates as secretary of Defense, the House Judiciary Committee’s interrogation of Alberto Gonzales, and demonstrations marking the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. 

Sapir states that KPFA’s listenership is falling. In fact, the last year’s worth of Arbitron numbers show its radio listenership holding steady, while its internet listenership climbs—no small feat when radio as a whole, and public radio in particular, are losing audience. At a time when falling donations at other public radio stations in our area has forced them to extend their on-air fundraising marathons, Sasha Lilley led KPFA through a Winter fundraising marathon—her first as interim program director—that exceeded its goal, and did so in less time than last year’s. 

Sapir’s letter claims that Lilley has issued a new “edict” against “advocacy”—in fact, there is no such rule. What exists is a decades-old policy, recorded in KPFA’s staff training manuals since at least the 1980s and shared by community radio stations across the nation, prohibiting what the Federal Communi-cations Commission describes as “Call to Action” language when announcing an event. Programmers at KPFA are welcome and often encouraged to tell our listeners when and where a given demonstration is—we just can’t use phrasing like “be there.” (Such language, can, under the right circumstances, get the station sued, fined by the FCC, or in trouble with the IRS.) 

Irony is lost on Sapir: He accuses Lilley of perpetuating “internal chaos” even as he attacks her for advising the station’s staff to comply with existing policies. Prior to Sasha Lilley, KPFA had been without a Program Director for nearly seven years—her promotion to the position of interim program director is an important milestone in the return to stability at KPFA after the real chaos that engulfed the station during Pacifica radio’s civil war in 1999 and 2000.  

How, Sapir asks, will KPFA be “a useful tool for the GI resisters’ movement, the immigrants’ rights and sanctuary movements, the prison reform and opposition movements, the new sds (already at 160 chapters), the Single Payer health care movement, the anti-state torture and death penalty activists, if such edicts are upheld?” 

Perhaps Sapir doesn’t listen much to the radio station he maligns. Clearly, he wasn’t listening the week Aaron Glantz traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington, to produce up-to-the minute reports on the failed court martial of First Lieutenant Ehren Watada. Sapir must not have been listening to his radio on May 1st, when KPFA spearheaded nationally-syndicated, on-the-ground coverage of the history-making immigrants’ rights protests. He must have his radio off when Christopher Martínez, KPFA’s Sacramento reporter, delivers what are easily the most comprehensive news reports on health care policy on any California broadcaster. Sapir presumably hasn’t heard Martínez’s reports on death penalty moratorium legislation either, or KPFA’s live broadcasts of vigils at the gates of San Quentin. And Sapir likely didn’t hear the hour-long interview devoted to the new SDS that aired on “Against The Grain”—a program Sasha Lilley co-founded—last month. 

It’s understandable Sapir didn’t hear all those things—not everyone can listen to their radio all the time. And it must be particularly difficult to focus on what’s on KPFA when you’re busily churning out a 1,500-word polemic describing a fantasy KPFA where the station’s staff are actually on the payroll of the FBI. Facts would just get in the way.  

Brian Edwards-Tiekert is a KPFA news reporter and treasurer of the KPFA Local Station Board. 

The superior court’s decision should ensure that the UC-City settlement continues to receive deserved examination, both legally and politically. That is because one premise of the court’s judgment—that the city could lawfully cut the public out of the settlement of a significant CEQA case—conflicts with the leading appellate decision on that subject, and thus deserves its own appellate review.  

Yet another of the court’s bases for decision—that the city did not surrender its land use authority by agreeing to share it with UC in the downtown area—should haunt both the city and university with this overriding question: if Berkeley can agree to share its land use authority with UC on city-controlled land, should not the university in the exercise of its constitutional “sovereignty” also voluntarily agree to share its authority over campus development with the City of Berkeley?  

Because I believe the superior court correctly ruled that the city could enter into the downtown plan agreement, and the city won that point, Berkeley citizens can now rightfully urge their government to insist that UC grant the same shared prerogative over campus lands. In the end, such a voluntary agreement by both town and gown to honor and harmonize each other’s land use plans—a goal that the County of Merced has partially achieved in development of UC Merced and its surrounding community—will produce wiser decisions and make both better neighbors.  

But none of this litigation would have been necessary had Berkeley’s leaders kept their promise to subject the CEQA settlement to public review before it was submitted for final approval by both parties. In 1984 the Sacramento Court of Appeal made clear in the County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles water dispute that with important public rights at stake, the individual parties were not free “privately” to settle their CEQA case without involving the greater public. Berkeley’s mayor, city council, and city attorney violated the Inyo principle in asserting that UC “forced” them to keep the settlement private until it was too late for citizens to intervene and force public review. By ruling against the four individual petitioners in the present case, the superior court has enabled them to enforce the Inyo principle on appeal. 

Antonio Rossmann has practiced land use and water law for 35 years, including the Inyo and Merced examples cited here, and teaches those subjects at Boalt Hall. 

It is indeed exciting for an alumnus of UC Berkeley to read in the Daily Planet stories related to citizens’ concern for greener and sustainable development in Berkeley city, particularly the stories on Sustainable Berkeley and the People’s Park renovation.  

As a former resident of Berkeley, I welcome these initiatives. However in order to achieve positive results there is a need to reduce emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to achieve sustainable development. Perhaps the only way that is possible is by decreasing the burning of fossil fuel (coal) for generating electricity. The United States generates more than 60 percent of its electricity by burning coal, hence the federal government is reluctant to reduce generating electricity from coal, and consequently the government has been delaying its commitment to comply with the Kyoto declaration, which has called upon all nations to reduce emission of GHGs by 80 percent by the year 2050. 

However it is very essential for each country to decrease emission of carbon dioxide and harmful gases to save themselves from the harmful affects of climate change, and these practices should be taken up immediately by progressive cities like Berkeley and its citizens. The City Council must come forward to make people aware: how by their little efforts they can reduce emission of GHGs, such as restricting use of private cars (cars on Berkeley streets have definitely increased as I observed during last summer) and using public transport (the city of Berkeley is in the process of discussions of introducing bus rapid transit routes as read in the Planet earlier). Operating air-conditioners and heating systems for a minimum time of the day during hot and cold seasons should be followed to save energy and minimize emission of greenhouse gasses.  

Instead of generating heat by burning fuel, passive heating by solar energy and solar-heated hot water panels can be used. Such solar hot water panels are being extensively used in Israel. 

While the world has to cut down GHG emission by 26 percent to 32 percent by 2020, as is being complied with by the UK, the EU and other countries, the Bush administration is yet to make a firm commitment to the Kyoto protocol and specify the reduction that would be made by 2020. Delay in making a firm policy decision by the USA is affecting the world environment. 

On the other hand, recent reports in the press indicate that the U.S. government has sent out notices to officials going abroad not to speak on polar ice melting or on polar bears being an endangered species. Such pronouncements on behalf of the government are very unfortunate for the future of the United States and the world community. A leaked memorandum issued by a regional director of the U.S. Department of the Interior states that the officials within the United States Fish and Wildlife Service should limit their discussion when traveling in countries bordering the Arctic region because of sensitivities about climate change (Steve Connor, Los Angeles Indepen-dent, March 11, 2007). 

On Feb. 15 the United States and seven other wealthy countries, along with China, India, Mexico and Brazil, met in Washington to discuss the ways and means of establishing global legislation by which the countries around the world will be required to take steps to reduce emission of GHGs in order to save the earth’s major area from being drowned by seas within another 50 years, which is the prediction of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change. The new Global Legislative Organization for Balanced Environment is expected to replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2012. 

It is also very encouraging to read stories on People’s Park where landscape architect MKThink has been assigned to prepare a proposal to develop the project. The professional firm will definitely follow their experience and knowledge to the best of their ability. 

However, People’s Park is no ordinary park; it is located in a very important spot and is likely to be used by the community of students and neighbors. However, there are some inherent problems which inhibit this park, so that it is not as popular as other parks, such as Golden Gate Park, as stated by one of the city officials at the meeting  

Consequently, the consultant will need to do more in-depth study to make this park more attractive to the student community; there is a need to talk to them and to involve them in the design process. Students and representatives from the community can be invited to put their ideas in sketches and notes as to how they want their park to be. Some of the basic attractive elements of park are: it must be easily accessible for different groups and those who are challenged; it must be safe and well-lighted in the evening; there must be spaces for group activities and also for individuals to rest; innovative recreational facilities are most essential. 

It is essential to involve the local citizen and student community to develop the most attractive design for the proposed People’s Park. There could be no appropriate People’s Park without the involvement of the people. Most important, this green area must be preserved at any cost as the city must maintain all available green spaces to establish “Sustainable Development.” 

At the world level, it has been observed during my travel across the world (from Singapore to Canada via the United States last summer) that people and city councils are now more aware of preserving green spaces and maintaining them. Singapore can be called a green city; starting from the airport (which is filled with orchids and tropical plants) and along the expressway leading to the city and even at the city center (Orchard Street ), you can see green trees and plants all the way.  

In San Francisco, the public spaces within the city have been landscaped meticulously and different levels have been introduced wherever possible. Vancouver too has pockets of green spots within the downtown area which are indeed attractive.  

In Calcutta, there is a large green park similar to Central Park in New York, which was in the process being en-croached upon. In January this year, the citizens protested about such encroachment on a green area and filed a court case. The court directed the state that these greens must be preserved. This is a victory for the environmental groups and they must unite across the world to protect the environment and minimize climate change the world over. 

Krishna P.Bhattacharjee is an architect and city planner and an alumnus of UC Berkeley.

If Berkeley is to lead the world in greatly reducing emissions, the city needs to set a target year of 2020 rather than the 2050 of Measure G. The looming crisis of climate change requires swift action. We can reduce emissions most effectively with a green tax shift. 

There are three basic ways to reduce pollution: regulation, permits, and pollution charges. The first two impose big costs on enterprise and will needlessly reduce living standards and our freedoms. Restrictions and permits costs will be hardest on the poor, as they will have less economic opportunity in a shrinking economy. 

The third method of reducing pollution is to make the polluters pay a tax in proportion to the damage caused. Unlike permits and regulations, a tax on pollution brings in revenue to the government. 

Several countries levy such charges on emissions. Germany taxes emissions that go into its waterways. Western Germany, along the Rhine River, has a lot of chemical factories, and yet, the rivers are quite clean, because of the stiff charge on emissions. 

We can measure the pollution from car exhaust with remote sensing using existing technology. Remote sensors at intersections and freeway exits would be able to detect the emissions from car tailpipes with infrared beams. A camera would record the license number of the vehicle. The devices are inexpensive and would enable the city to charge those who exceed some level of emissions. There would then be no need to regulate the number of cars or amount of driving. 

General taxes, like income and sales taxes, impose what economists call a deadweight loss or excess burden on society. This is the misallocation and waste of resources caused by arbitrarily raising the cost of goods, reducing the quantities produced and reducing investment, and so reducing growth and future wealth. A pollution charge does not have this deadweight loss because the pollution itself is a social cost. If there is no pollution charge, in effect the polluter gets subsidized. The polluter does not pay the full cost of his production. 

The excess burden of taxation in the United States has been calculated by economists as at least a trillion dollars a year. This deadweight loss is a bad thing, but we are living in a unique time in human history, when the deadweight loss of present-day taxation can save humanity from increasing and escalating global warming. It gives us a historic opportunity do make a great leap of fate. It enables us to implement the green tax shift. 

If governments at all levels levy swiftly escalating charges on pollution while simultaneously reducing taxes on income, sales, and buildings, this revenue neutral shift would efficiently reduce pollution while also reducing the deadweight loss of taxes on labor and enterprise. Pollution charges would not be able to replace all the taxes on income, sales, and buildings, so a complete green tax shift would also require a tax on land value or land rent. 

Since land has a fixed supply, a tax on land value does not reduce the supply of land, and so there is no deadweight loss. Landlords cannot pass on the land tax to tenants, because if they try, they get fewer tenants, and vacancies. Moreover, land cannot hide from the tax collector, and land cannot run away to Brazil. There is no way to evade a tax on land if all land is treated the same, taxed in proportion to its potential market value in its highest and best use, regardless of actual use. A land tax is also simple to implement, because the owner does not have to keep complicated records. The title holder gets a bill and pays it, like a utility bill. 

So a complete green tax shift would eliminate taxes on income, sales, and property improvements like buildings, and instead tax pollution and land value. There would also be user fees when a government service has specific beneficiaries. 

The complete green tax shift would increase productivity while greatly reducing pollution. The shackles of paying taxes and keeping records and getting audited would be lifted from the worker, from the entrepreneur, from savings accounts, from merchants selling goods, from consumers, indeed from all beneficial economic activity. We would be taxing something bad—pollution— instead of something good, like labor and enterprise and goods. 

Even the landowner would not have any tax burden after the transition to land-value taxation. A tax on land value reduces the price of land. The owner keeps less of the rent so he bids less for the land. After the transition, what a new owner pays in land tax, he saves in not having to pay for land, and not having to pay so much mortgage interest. 

Taxing pollution is the morally right thing to do and is really the only effective way to swiftly reduce pollution in a big way. It’s good for developed countries, and for developing countries such as India and China. The green tax shift would help all economies. 

We can have it all. We can take advantage of today’s big deadweight loss to do a green tax shift. If we don’t do a green tax shift, if we try regulating and permit trading instead, we will not eliminate the excess burden, but rather increase the costs of enterprise, and this will create political resistance, and pollution will get worse, and ruin our planet. 

The City of Berkeley can lead the way to limiting global warming with its own green tax shift. Tax polluters, and reduce taxes on utilities, business, and buildings. We would have a better economy, a higher standard of living, and much less pollution. Berkeley’s success would inspire others to do likewise. Tell our city council that we need the green tax shift, now!  

Fred Foldvary teaches economics at Santa Clara University and lives in Berkeley. 

The latest Gallup Poll indicates that Americans continue to be deeply divided about Iraq. What’s been ignored in this bitter debate is the issue of political stability: How long should the United States stay in Iraq if the elected government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fails to meet its commitments? Most Americans believe that while the United States should bolster Iraqi security, the government of Iraq must function on its own. The commander of U.S. Forces General David Petraeus acknowledges this: “A military solution to Iraq is not possible;” there has to be a political solution. The key to the future of Iraq is the Bush administration’s willingness to hold the Iraqi government accountable. 

Accountability has been a prominent theme in the speeches of President Bush and conservative dogma. In his 2006 State of the Union address Bush observed: “Raising up a democracy requires the rule of law, and protection of minorities, and strong, accountable institutions that last longer than a single vote.” Unfortunately, Bush has not applied these standards in Iraq.  

The Bush administration refuses to hold the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accountable for essential decisions: electoral reform, a formula for sharing oil revenues, control of militias, and stabilization of Iraq security forces. Writing in the New York Times, Iraq Study Group member Leon Panetta observed: President Bush “must make the Iraqi government understand that future financial and military support is going to depend on Baghdad’s making substantial progress toward the milestones Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has publicly committed to... Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, little progress has been made.” 

Panetta goes on to list the specific milestones that have been missed. Many of these have to do with democratic reforms, provision for regional elections and constitutional amendments. A key issue still to be determined is regulation of the Iraqi oil industry and oil revenue sharing among the provinces. All the reconciliation issues have yet to be resolved: for example, the pending de-Baathification law to permit former members of the Baath party to participate in public affairs. There’s been no progress on laws controlling militias. And, on the vital issue of security the results have been similarly dismal; the Iraqis have not taken over control of the Iraq Army and seem unlikely to meet two key 2007 milestones: taking over civil control of all provinces and achieving “total security self-reliance.” 

Rather than frame the Iraqi debate on how long our troops should stay in Iraq, it’s better to ask: When will the government of Iraq be functional? When will they be able to keep their commitments? President Bush is unwilling to view Iraq from this perspective; he continues to define “victory” as military success rather than as a function of the viability of the al-Maliki government. 

Two weeks ago, the House and Senate passed military appropriations bills. The public debate focused on whether these bills went too far—restricting President Bush’s conduct of the war—or not far enough—denying funds for “surge” forces. Lost in this cacophony was the fact that these bills also call upon President Bush to hold the Iraqi government accountable for the reforms they promised. 

The House Bill, HR 1591, directs the president to report to Congress by July 1 on three issues: militias, reconciliation, and “whether the government of Iraq and United States Armed Forces are making substantial progress in reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq.” By Oct. 1, President Bush must certify that the government of Iraq has met five milestones: “a broadly accepted hydro-carbon law that equitably shares oil revenues among all Iraqis;” establishment of “provincial and local elections;” new laws guaranteeing fair treatment of former members of the Baath Party; amendments to the Iraqi constitutions that guarantee the rights of women and human rights, in general; and the Iraqi government must begin to spend “$10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects.” If President Bush finds that some of these efforts have not taken place, or if he fails to make the certification, “the secretary of Defense shall commence the redeployment of the Armed Forces from Iraq and complete such re-deployment within 180 days.” 

The fundamentals of accountability are clear: negotiate with the other party in good faith; arrive at a set of measurable objectives; agree on what will happen if either party fails to keep their commitments; measure the results; and honor the terms of the agreement. The United States has negotiated an agreement with the government of Iraq. If the elected Iraqi leadership fails to meet its commitments then we have no choice but to hold them accountable and withdraw US forces. That’s what the Congressional legislation specifies and that’s what most Americans expect. 

Nonetheless, President Bush remains unwilling to hold the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accountable. No wonder, because Bush is unwilling to be held accountable for his own mistakes. That’s why Congress must intervene to ensure that someone is held accountable for the tragedy of Iraq. 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net. 

March 20, 2007 

Re: R. Hager Estate, Account #xxxxxx 

To Whom it May Concern: 

I am forwarding you the enclosed paperwork at the request of Cassandra Yeman. 

Today’s phone call was one of many interactions I have had with your company in the past six months. Each time I speak to a representative I get different instructions on how I am to close my deceased husband’s account. In October I was told to download the forms from the E-Trade website. I called back because I had questions. After being transferred numerous times, I was put in touch with an “expert” on account closure. We went over the information. The forms she was using were different from those I had downloaded, but she said it did not matter, that they were essentially the same.  

A few days later I spoke to another representative to confirm that I had completed the information correctly. Her name was Sheri Medina. Among other changes, she informed me that the company address listed on the paperwork was wrong. Perhaps you should remove 10911 White Rock Road Rancho Cordova, CA from your website. 

I sent a death certificate and notarized information to you on Nov. 13. I heard nothing, so I called your company in January and was told that the paperwork was in process and I would be receiving a check soon. I called again today because it has been two months and I have not received the funds. I was informed that you needed a new notarized Letter of Instruction because the original notarized Letter of Instruction was worded incorrectly. Additionally, a new account must be created in my name in order to close the old account.  

I get the distinct impression that no one in your company wants to close an account, or knows how to do so. 

I hope the enclosed paperwork and letter from my lawyer will put an end to this dilemma and that I will receive my husband’s funds soon.  

Sincerely, 

Susan Parker 

(Response letter received April 12, 2007) 

Hello Mrs. Hager, 

Please notarize the form and also fill out the individual account application in order for us to transfer the account in your name. 

Thank you. 

Cassandra. Yeman 

April 13, 2007 

To Whom It May Concern: 

What kind of company sends out four new forms to an individual and asks them to get one of them notarized but does not specify which one? Who sends out a business letter that is not dated, has no return address, and does not have a contact telephone number so that one can follow up? How do I get in touch with Cassandra Yeman to learn how to complete the new forms she has sent me, and to determine which form to notarize? Why is there a period after Cassandra? 

Today I spoke with Olive Martin. She said it didn’t matter which boxes I checked in the enclosed Investment Account Application. She instructed me to complete the forms, notarize the Declaration, and send it to the general E-Trade mailbox. Upon receiving the paperwork a new account in my name would be created. I could then withdraw the money by calling E-Trade. 

Please forward my complaints to Mr. E-Trade. Tell him that the message on his company answering machine about avoiding excessive paperwork in order to save the environment is ludicrous, and that only the first half of the E-Trade marketing slogan, We Keep Challenging the Ordinary to Help Investors Be Extraordinary, is correct.  

Sincerely, 

Susan Parker  

P.S. Please see Trust, Estate, and Conservatorship Account Application (pages 9 and 11), Letters of Instruction (1 and 2), Death Certificate, Investment Account Application (pages 1 and 3), Affidavit of Domicile, March 20, 2007 letter, and Declaration (from lawyer) for the correct spelling of my name. Thanks!

I know: another corvid column. But bear with me. Every now and then I trawl the technical literature at the UC library, and this time I found a jay-and-crow story in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology that’s too good to keep. 

You may have read about the clan of chimpanzees in West Africa who have been reported as using weapons to obtain their favorite meal of bushbaby-on-a-stick—a step beyond previous observations of tool use. Now Russell Balda has documented an apparent case of weapon use by not just one, but two species of birds—a Steller’s jay and an American crow. Balda, not just any feederwatcher, is an authority on the pinyon jay and runs the Avian Cognition Laboratory at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, a site of cutting-edge research into corvid intelligence. 

A word on nomenclature: yes, it’s “Steller’s,” not “stellar.” Everybody seems to get that wrong. Although this crested black-and-blue jay could be said to have a certain star quality, it was named for its discoverer, the 18th-century Russian naturalist Georg Steller. Steller, one of the few survivors of the ill-starred Bering Expedition to the North Pacific, had a short and tragic life, and the least we can do in his memory is get the names of his jay, his sea lion, and his eider (among other species) right. 

So Balda, on an April morning three years ago, is in his office outside which is a meter-square feeding platform. A crow is on the platform eating sunflower seeds. Two jays—maybe a pair; it’s hard to tell with jays—land in a nearby mountain mahogany bush. The jays seem annoyed by the crow’s presence. One flies to the platform and scolds the larger bird, which fails to react. The jay feints toward the crow with its bill; the crow feints back. The jay flies up to the roof of the building, then divebombs the crow. The crow keeps eating. End of Round One. 

Then the jay does something remarkable. It goes back to the mountain mahogany and breaks off a twig from a dead branch. Holding the twig in its beak, pointed end forward, it returns to the feeding platform and lunges at the crow. It’s a near miss. The crow lunges in its turn, startling the jay, which flies up and drops the twig onto the platform. 

And the crow picks it up, again pointed end forward, and thrusts it at the jay. Whereupon the jay on the platform and its partner in the bush both fly off, pursued by the twig-carrying crow. 

Now, there’s a considerable literature on tool use in birds of the crow family, with examples from the Eurasian common crow and the blue jay of eastern North America, among others. Tool-making reaches its pinnacle in the New Caledonian crow, which constructs (you can’t really say a handless creature manufactures) various types of tools to extract insect grubs from rotten wood, and carries the tools around with it from foraging site to foraging site. Tool use seems to correlate to brain size, and corvids have the largest brains (in proportion to body weight) among birds, outscoring even parrots. 

Weapons are another story, limited to anecdotes about ravens and crows dropping objects on humans that got too close to their nests. 

But Balda is convinced that weapon-making and weapon use is what he saw: “Behaviors that are classically associated with lance or spear use were observed in this bout. The jay first selected and prepared an object that could readily be used as a spear, and then lunged at the crow with the spear … The crow retrieved the twig and possibly used it against the jay. The current report may be the first incident of a bird holding an object and using it in a weapon-like fashion during an aggressive action against another bird.” 

At this point nothing much a crow or jay could do would surprise me much, with the possible exception of text-messaging. If you have Steller’s jays or western scrub-jays at your own feeder, they’ll obviously bear watching.

Our conservative friends—the traditional ones, not the pretenders who currently set White House policy—have long cautioned us to be careful about making new law. It is often accomplished in haste, but repented at leisure. Sometimes, we should listen to our conservative friends. They are not always wrong. 

So it is with SB1489, recently revived and reincarnated as SB67, also known as the “U’Kendra Johnson Memorial Act,” also known as State Sen. Don Perata’s sideshow car confiscation bill. Passed in haste under false pretenses during Oakland’s sideshow panic in 2002—it was named after a 22-year-old Oakland woman whose death was directly caused by a high-speed police chase, not a sideshow—the law only had a five-year life, with a built-in provision to examine its impacts, to assess both its value and its dangers, and to contemplate its renewal. Unfortunately, Californians are currently rushing through the review—if you can call it that—quicker than the original enactment. 

The bill’s renewal, which has already passed the California Senate Public Committee unanimously and is currently set for an April 16 hearing before the Appropriations Committee, reads that when “a peace officer determines” that an individual is “engaged in reckless driving on a highway, reckless driving in an off-street parking facility, or an exhibition of speed on a highway,” the peace officer can seize that car, and the city or county involved can hold the car for 30 days. The legal owner can retrieve the car earlier under certain circumstances. Otherwise, aside from any other fines or criminal penalties, the owner is responsible for paying both the towing and 30-day storage fees. 

The average reader may ask why I have made such a big deal about this? If you listen for a moment, I’ll explain. 

The problem with Mr. Perata’s sideshow confiscation law is that it neatly reverses the presumption of guilt or innocence, a presumption which we thought was an integral and necessary part of American law, with deep roots in English common law. For that reason alone, we never should have allowed it. 

Under the American Constitutional standard of the presumption of innocence, a person charged with a crime must be brought to trial, before a court independent of the charging party, and found guilty before a sentence can be imposed. It is the foundation of American criminal law. 

But that is completely overturned in Mr. Perata’s sideshow confiscation law. 

Read the paragraph above, again, which tells how the law is triggered. Punishment—the confiscation of the car, and its impoundment for a 30-day period—begins when “a peace officer determines” that a crime has been committed. Thus, easily, fluidly, effortlessly, with barely a whimper in protest from conservatives or civil libertarians alike, what we thought was sacred to our Constitution is tossed and abandoned. 

But it gets worse, my friends. 

In Oakland, to meet the various exceptions that allows an owner to retrieve the car before the 30-day impoundment period is up, the owner must appear—not before an independent court headed by a judge—but before a hearing officer who works for the City of Oakland, the same city government which was responsible for seizing the vehicle in the first place. 

The sideshow car confiscation law also has a problem with defining the offenses which trigger that confiscation. When it was drafted by Mr. Perata in 2002, SB1489 (now reincarnated as SB67) piggybacked onto existing state law which already allowed 30-day impoundments for “motor vehicle speed contests.” Those things are easily defined and understood—we know them as “racing.” 

But as much as some people confuse the two, sideshows have never involved racing. Instead, the activity most associated with the events are what is called “siding” or “doing donuts,” in which drivers perform intricate, controlled car maneuvers in a confined space, with the engine torqued up, usually accompanied by smoke from the rubber burning off the tires, often leaving a dark pattern behind in the pavement. To bring this type of activity under the new law, Mr. Perata added the provisions “reckless driving” and “exhibition of speed” to the original “motor vehicle speed contest” offense which triggered the law’s penalties. 

That in itself seems impermissibly and fatally vague to leave to the sole discretion of a police officer’s judgment as to guilt or innocence, but Oakland, under the since-department administration of Mayor Jerry Brown—did not leave it there. 

In a memo to the city administrator entitled “Status Report from the Chief of Police on the Abatement of Cruising/Sideshow Activities in the Jack London Square/Lower Broadway Area,” issued in January of 2002, former Oakland Police Chief Richard Word defined sideshow activity as including “cruising, loud music, loitering, and various events designed to demonstrate the prowess of individual vehicles (e.g., spinning “donuts” and “laying rubber”).” And, in fact, it is this broader, more inclusive definition of the triggering event—playing loud music while riding in a car, for example—that at least some Oakland police have been using to enforce Mr. Perata’s sideshow confiscation bill. 

In the most well-known application of that expanded sideshow offense definition, 41-year-old African-American Oakland resident and basketball coach Eugene Davis had his van seized by Oakland police in the summer of 2005 in East Oakland while Mr. Davis was driving two of his team members home. His offense, according to the police? Playing his car radio too loud. Eventually, Mr. Davis got both his van and some of his money back from the impoundment lot, as well as a public apology from Police Chief Wayne Tucker. But that, perhaps, was only because Mr. Davis had the help of Oakland police monitors in the PUEBLO organization, and the fact that Mr. Davis’ activity—even if he was playing his van radio “too loud” while riding through East Oakland—did not remotely fit the category that state legislators intended when they passed Mr. Perata’s sideshow car confiscation ordinance. If Mr. Davis had been 23 instead of 41, most people hearing about his situation would have assumed that he was guilty. Solely on the word of an unknown, unnamed police officer. 

We also know of the most horrific result of the bill, the shooting of three Latino youth from Sacramento while the youth were walking through East Oakland streets in the early morning hours last September. The youth were walking on the streets because Oakland police had seized their car on the word of one of the officers that the youth had been doing donuts, leaving them to make their way out of Oakland on foot, the best way they could. This was a violation of Oakland police policy, which says that drivers and passengers should not be left out on the street after a car is seized, but that police should conduct them to a safe location. 

But these are just the two most publicized abuses of Mr. Perata’s sideshow car confiscation law. How many others are there? 

When the California Legislature originally passed Mr. Perata’s bill in 2002, it provided for a procedure for us to find out. The bill was scheduled to last only until the end of 2006, at which time Oakland, or any other interested city, could return to Sacramento and say that the law continued to be necessary, and ask that it be renewed. Inherent in that “sunset” provision would be that Oakland—which had originally requested the law—provide facts and figures in a detailed study as to how the law had been applied and what were its effects, as well as having officials present themselves for questioning by state legislators. 

So far, both Oakland officials and state legislators have failed to do that. 

Neither the City of Oakland nor State Sen. Perata came to the legislature last year to ask for renewal of the original bill in time to meet the sunsetting deadline, which would be an indication that neither the city nor the senator thought the law was all that important. And so the law expired, in January of 2007. But then came both the city and Mr. Perata, insisting that the law was important, so important that it must now be reinstated on an “urgency” basis, without the usual scrutiny that ought to be used when a basic Constitutional right is breached. 

How lax was that scrutiny? At the first hearing on SB67, held before the Senate Public Safety Committee last month, Captain David Kozicki, representing the Oakland Police Department and the man who has run OPD’s sideshow abatement program since its beginning, said that “the law hasn’t been used that much in Oakland. Maybe 25 times since it was passed.” “Maybe” 25 times in five years? Wasn’t he sure? Was there some report somewhere, either to the legislature itself or to the City of Oakland, to back that up? Anxious to get on the other business, the assembled State Senators did not ask Mr. Kozicki to clarify further. 

Myself, I’m not so anxious. I’ve put in a public records act request to the Oakland Police Department, asking for their records on the use of Mr. Perata’s sideshow car confiscation law over the last five years, how many times it has actually been imposed, for what offenses, and under what circumstances. 

If we are going to suspend parts of the Constitution in Oakland, which dearly treasures its progressive reputation, we ought to know why, and what for don’t you think? Or are you not interested because, after all, you believe it only involves people participating in sideshows? But if no one is asking the questions, how do you know that’s true? 

Facing Albany Hill at the extreme northwestern corner of Berkeley is the Thousand Oaks neighborhood, subdivided in 1909. Noted for its scenic beauty, Thousand Oaks is also the land of a thousand rocks. These silica-rich volcanic rocks, named Northbrae rhyolite by geologist Andrew Lawson, are scattered wherever the eye may fall. Some of the largest may be found in public parks donated to the city by the Mason-McDuffie realty company, but many more are hidden from view in private gardens or under houses. 

Thousand Oaks developer John Hopkins Spring sold lots in the new tract with the promise that he would build his own home there. Although he reputedly owed more than a million dollars at the time, Spring was true to his word. He engaged architect John Hudson Thomas, who had made a name for himself as a designer of imposing houses, and in 1912–14 erected a 12,000-square-foot mansion, built entirely of reinforced concrete. 

One of the earliest and largest homes built in Thousand Oaks in Spring’s wake was Villa della Rocca, the residence of Stephen Joseph Sill (1856–1930) and his wife, Victorine Grace Harlan Sill (1858–1944), constructed in 1913. 

Stephen Sill was president of S.J. Sill Co., the largest retail grocery concern in the East Bay. Both he and his wife were born in the Sacramento delta and grew up in Woodland, Yolo County. Their fathers were farm owners active in civic affairs. Stephen’s father sometimes doubled as public administrator, while Victorine’s father, the conservative Democrat Joseph H. Harlan, was elected to the state Senate in 1879. 

Married in 1886, the Sills moved from Woodland to Berkeley in 1900. Mr. Sill established a tony grocery store at 2201 Shattuck Ave. that catered to the town elite and grew in leaps and bounds. Within two years, Sill had added a second storefront and included delicacies and fruit in his merchandise. Two years later, the business was incorporated and occupied three storefronts on Shattuck and a fourth on Allston Way. By 1906, another store had been opened at 2447 Telegraph Ave. The 1908 directory now listed the Shattuck store address as 2201–2209, and the merchandise also included vegetables and hardware. Bakery goods followed. Fine teas and coffees were a specialty. 

In 1915, the store would move to 2145 University Ave. The new building was designed by James W. Plachek and constructed especially for Sill’s by William J. Acheson, who owned so many commercial structures along the north side of University Avenue that the stretch was known as the Acheson Block. 

According to Sill’s obituary, “For nearly a quarter of a century the business flourished largely due to the great personality of Stephen Sill.” A large share of the store’s revenues came from home deliveries, made first by horse and wagon and later by an Autocar delivery truck. 

When Sill retired in 1924, he sold the business to the Appleton Grocery Company, which made a point of advertising itself as the successor of Sill’s. The Sill’s building, a designated Berkeley Landmark, has been occupied by Berkeley Hardware since 1964. 

Victorine Sill was a graduate of Mills College and a prodigious club woman. Her associations included the Twentieth Century Club, the Oratorio Society, the Mills Club of Alameda County, and the San Francisco Art Association. Her husband was a member of the Masons, Knights Templar, and the Elks, as well as a leading member of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. Both were involved in Democratic Party politics, and in 1908 traveled to Denver to attend the national convention that nominated William Jennings Bryan as its presidential candidate (Bryan lost to William Howard Taft). Although Stephen Sill was the official delegate, it was his wife who made news by waving the California banner from a box occupied by the wives of the state’s delegates during the 80-minute ovation to Bryan. 

Mrs. Sill was also a well-known traveler, described by the Oakland Tribune as one “who gets more than the ordinary individual out of her journeying, and her experiences are always most interesting.” In 1907, following an extended tour of Europe, Mrs. Sill was asked by the Cap and Bells Club of San Francisco to deliver a paper on her “wanderings in the Old World,” featuring “a description of the various shopping methods and ideas employed by the women of European cities.” The Sills would make several trips to Europe and travel to the Far East, South America, and the Caribbean. 

The couple’s first Berkeley home was at 2224 Dana St., but within two years they moved to 2120 Kittredge, and by 1904 they were living above the store at 2209 Shattuck. They entertained regularly and lavishly. In May 1904, the Oakland Tribune reported that on the 10th of that month the Sills had entertained 85 guests at their beautifully decorated, spacious home. 

Eventually, fashion must have dictated a move away from downtown. In the wide-open Thousand Oaks, they selected a choice lot near the Great Stone Face. Taking their cue from John Hopkins Spring, they turned to John Hudson Thomas for the design of their home. 

A childless couple, the Sills nonetheless built a rambling residence on a lot extending from Thousand Oaks Boulevard (then called Escondido Avenue) to Yosemite Road. The house has entrances on both streets, with a garden on each side. No attempt was made to remove the rocks—one large rock juts directly out of the house wall on the west side. Sturdy buttresses and irregular massing of varying heights make the structure appear like a citadel. The Sills, who had encountered similarly situated structures while traveling in Italy, named their house Villa della Rocca (rocca is a rock-top fortress). 

According to Stephen Sill’s obituary, “the beautiful Sill estate” was “always open to the great hosts of friends of Mr. and Mrs. Sill.” The house boasts a ballroom unique to Berkeley—entirely wood-lined and informal in the living-with-nature tradition. A large stage can accommodate musical performances and amateur theatricals. Mrs. Sill used this ballroom to advantage; in March 1915, she offered a musical program to members of the Mills Club. The following October, the Sills hosted a dance for 60 guests from the Benedicts Club. In November 1919, it was the turn of the Five Hundred Club members to enjoy the Sills’ hospitality. 

In 1925, following Stephen Sill’s retirement, the couple sold the house and moved to Benbow, Humboldt County. After her husband’s death, Victorine Sill must have felt isolated in the north country and returned to Berkeley, where she took up permanent residence in the Berkeley Women’s City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Here she continued her rounds of social activities to a ripe old age. 

Villa della Rocca’s ballroom and rock-strewn garden will be open on BAHA’s Spring House Tour from 1-5 p.m. Sunday, May 6. 

Among the Rocks: Houses and Gardens in Thousand Oaks 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association Spring House Tour, 1-5 p.m. Sunday, May 6. $35; BAHA members $25. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com. 

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

Photograph: Daniella Thompson 

Villa della Rocca will be featured in BAHA’s May 6 Spring House Tour.

It’s a little off the gardening track, but who could resist a title like Flower Confidential? Actually, anything by Amy Stewart would be hard to resist. Her previous book, The Earth Moved, was a quirky introduction to the world of earthworms, touching on the giant worm of the Willamette Valley (three feet long and lily-scented) and Charles Darwin’s late-in-life fascination with worms (his long-suffering wife Emma played the piano for them; they were unresponsive).  

Flower Confidential (306 pages, $23.95 from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill) is maybe not all that quirky, but still a great read. A cut-flower aficionado, Stewart sets out to trace the travels of flowers from breeder to grower to auctioneer to florist to your table. For many of them, it’s been a long strange trip. 

Stewart, a semi-local writer (lives in Humboldt County and writes for the San Francisco Chronicle) introduces a few semi-local characters, like the famously eccentric breeder Leslie Woodriff who created the ‘Star Gazer’ lily; and Lane DeVries, the current head of Sun Valley, the growing operation that marketed it.  

But most of the action is overseas. Cut flowers are now a major Third World export commodity, with Colombia, Ecuador, and Kenya leading the pack. Stewart visited several growers in Ecuador (Colombia being a bit dicey these days), where working conditions and health and safety regulations are much different from California. 

Those gorgeous super-roses—“the floral equivalent of a Tiffany diamond, all polished and carved and styled to perfection”—have hidden costs. 

Flower Confidential isn’t quite a horticultural follow-up to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, though. Stewart seems almost as disturbed by what she encounters in the Netherlands, where she has been escorted through the Dutch-efficient Aalsmeer auction by a public relations person who confesses to being sick of flowers. At a company called Multi Color Flowers, she meets the Holy Grail of breeders, the blue rose: “Actually, it’s hard to compare this blue to any color you’d find in nature. It was more of a Las Vegas blue, a sequin-and-glitter blue. A blue you’d find in nail polish or gumballs, but not in a garden.” The blue rose, of course, has had a dye job. 

Stewart meets the flower inspectors of Miami airport, an unsung part of the Homeland Security task force; talks to upscale florists in Manhattan and street-kiosk vendors in Santa Cruz; and speculates on the future of the industry; she’s intrigued by a small chain called Field of Flowers that aspires to be the Home Depot of the cut-flower world. In an epilogue, she witnesses the Valentine’s Day rush at a flower shop in Eureka.  

In the end, you’re left with mixed impressions. What the global cut-flower industry does is remarkable, and so is the amount of jet fuel it burns in the process—and we’re not even talking about chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Critics of the American Way of Food have been talking about “food-miles”: the distances traveled from farm to plate. It might also be useful to think about “flower-miles.”

I don’t know about you but my eyes are often bigger than my stomach. It’s a constant problem. Well my column last week suffered for this malady and left so much unaddressed that I just have to devote another page to these worthy issues. 

Let’s take a look at heating. As houses progressed through the 20th century much changed. The earliest houses had coal burners in each room, although this was more common in 19th century houses. Aside from generating copious volumes of carbon monoxide and killing more than a few people, this was sooty and just plain hard work since one had to build and maintain coal fires 24/7 to keep body and soul in warmth. These coal burners can still be seen in the dining rooms of many of our earliest houses in the East Bay and are often mistaken for very small fire places. 

Coal gave way to natural gas or methane, the same flammable gas produced by all us mammals. At first natural gas was used without any oderant added and quite a few explosions resulted (and a few asphyxiations). A nasty odor was added to make us aware of it’s presence and a version of this is still in use today. Yes, that funny smell is added. Methane, like carbon monoxide is odorless.  

The first gas heaters (both central and floor mounted) had no pilot safety devices and relied upon the pilot to stay lit. If the pilot got shut off and one did not check prior to operation, a burner could fill a space with gas and….Kaboom. No more Victorian. By the time we move from our old Vicky to our 1930 Albany house we find a pilot safety device that would turn off the burner when the flame of the pilot blew out and would not operate until the device had been re-lit. Stoves from the 40’s also gained this feature as did early central furnaces. 

By the time the first El Cerrito houses were being built, forced air heating had arrived and floor furnaces began to slowly disappear. Richmond houses of the 50 ‘s and 60’s had smaller more efficient furnaces as well as wall heaters for the little houses. All of these were somewhat safer but all were and are vulnerable to cracked heat exchangers (the metal container that transfers heat from the noxious hot atmosphere above the burner to the clean interior atmosphere we breath). Today we have much more sophisticated heaters in the form of high efficiency “condensing” furnaces and the wondrous but rarely seen hydronic units that heat water and warm floors. 

Plumbing has advanced in a few ways over the last hundred years but, surprisingly, is largely the same. The major difference is in the piping material. Galvanized steel was used prior to 1900 and stood fast for at least 40 years. Around the beginning of the second world war, copper began to appear for hot pipes alone! We see this in El Cerrito houses and it’s a funny thing. Why would anyone use two kinds of piping in a house, two sets of methods, two sets of purchases. Very odd. The reason is that copper does not fill in with sediment, as steel is quite apt to do and hot pipes fill in much quicker than cold ones. So by 1940 the difference was well observed and some clever gal or guy suggested using that new (and surely expensive) copper pipe for the hot pipes.  

I’m certain that once a constituency of plumbers had learned the secrets of soldering pipe, it became evident that this was not only superior in terms of avoiding the corrosion and mineral infill that kills water flow but that this was substantially simpler and quicker to install. This is surely the reason that within a matter of just a few years, nearly all plumbing systems were solely copper. But if you keep your eyes peeled in E.C., you might just catch sight of one of these goofy systems. 

Many “galvy” systems had partial upgrades installed using copper and it’s always important that the two metals be kept apart because they form a battery that robs electrons from steel, the less noble metal (no offense intended). This effect can cause a great deal of corrosion resulting in a loss of pressure as well as leaks. This is commonly seen and cause for some attention, though nobody every died from an impoverished shower (and only Austin Powers dies from plumbing leaks). 

Berkeley and Oakland houses up through the thirties share these trials but by the time those World War II, El Cerrito tracts were going in, copper was used nearly everywhere. Richmond homes are also nearly all cupric and nary a one has a bad shower. 

CPVC (a stronger and more flexible version of the commonly seen sprinkler piping) is in use for water piping in many areas now and has just been approved for general use by California. Though we don’t see it around here now, we’ll be seeing a lot of it soon. 

Waste piping also makes a journey though the decades starting with cast-iron “bell & spigot” piping. The bell and spigot is the part where one end is swollen and the other end fits inside. The joint was packed with Oakum (a tarred fiber often made from hemp. Don’t even THINK about smoking this stuff) and filled with molten lead. Installing this proved so toxic to plumbers that by the 1960s the practice was eliminated in favor of “hubless” cast-iron, joined with a rubber and metal fitting. Just imagine breathing lead fumes all day. My liver hurts just thinking about it. 

Cast-iron systems began using steel threaded fittings for the small branches pretty early on but gave way to copper for small branches during those El Cerrito years. These may be the best systems in existence since cast-iron is very durable and copper is almost corrosion proof. Sadly, copper was too expensive and systems after 1960 began moving back to cast-iron and steel. But wait, Benjamin, I have one word for you. Plastics! (name that movie!) ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) piping arrived in the 1960’s and quickly ended the debate. ABS was so cheap and easy to install that nearly every house build after 1970 contains it (except where local authorities said no). Nearly every Richmond house has ABS and a few have defective piping due some bad batches made in the mid-’80s. 

I’ll finish with a brief climb to the roof. If you own a house from before 1920, it probably had one of two kinds of roofing. If the roof had a slight slope (often called a flat roof) it was almost certainly a tar and gravel roof. If the roof had a handsome slope, it was sure to be finished in wooden shingle. While tar and gravel is still in use, its days are sorely numbered having been confronted with a serious contender in the form of Modified Bitumen, which is sheet material that gets welded together and can last three decades.  

Wood shingle is no longer allowed here, or in many areas, due to its tendency to burn your house to the ground (one burning limb on your roof and it’s 1923 (or 1991) all over again).  

Composition or Asphalt shingles came along in the 1940s and were designed for use alone or as a covering over old wooden shingle. As a result it is not uncommon to see houses from the 1930 and earlier covered with two or more (I’ve seen four!) layers of asphalt shingle. This practice is undesirable as it adds a great deal of weight and will surely have an unpleasant “impact” when the big one hits.  

Well, once again, I’ve emitted a large volume of an inert non-combustible gas and left many subject untouched. Remember that we live in a history museum stretching from Oakland to Richmond (and out in all directions). Don’t forget to check out our lovely exhibits. The tours are free. 

Are you read to walk? 

When the Hayward Fault ruptures, if it’s a big one like the geologists say it well could be, we can expect that many roads will be impassable and, if you’re caught out in your car, driving home will not be an option. 

So it’s a great idea to have an emergency kit, a pair of sneakers or walking shoes, and some extra water in your vehicle. Depending upon where you are and how far from home (or other destination), you could be walking for a couple of days.  

Make this part of your plan and discuss with family members what will be your meeting location. After the quake, you won’t be talking on the phone—land line or cell—and you don’t want to be guessing about these things. 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.

TUESDAY, APRIL 17 

CHILDREN 

Marie Cartusciello Storyteller for ages 3 and up at 6:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

FILM 

“Anger Rising” The restoration of works by Kenneth Anger at UCLA, with film restorationist Ross Lipman at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Aya De Leon and Poetry for the People at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jerry Beisler reading and slide show from “The Bandit of Kabul” at 7:30 p.m. at Book Zoo, 6395 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 654-2665. 

Dana Whitaker describes the power of microfinance in “Upending the Status Quo” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $10. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Ledward Kaapana at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Kaspar/Sherman Jazz Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Music of Dharma Lecture with Reverend Hozan Hardiman at 7 p.m. at the Jodo Shinshu Center, 2140 Durant Ave., at Fulton. Cost is $10.  

Matt Wilson’s Arts & Crafts 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 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 

EXHIBITIONS 

“eyecatchers” A group show by East Bay women artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Royal Ground Gallery, 2058 Mountain Blvd., Oakland.  

FILM 

History of Cinema “After Life” at 3 p.m. and “8 Bit” at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Holocaust survivor Dora Apsan Sorell introduces her book “Tell the Children: Letters to Miriam” at 6:30 p.m. at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library. 981-6250. 

Cesar A. Preciado-Cruz and Timothy Mason read in honor of National Poetry Month at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, near Macdonald and 27th St., Richmond. 620-6561. 

Laura Flanders introduces “Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $5, available at Cody’s. 559-9500. 

Cafe Poetry hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donations accepted. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on harpsichord, improvisation on Native American ceremonial tunes, at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Berkeley Arts Festival: Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera: Terry Riley Four Hand Piano Music at 8 p.m. at 2323 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$20. 665-9496. fabarts@silcon.com 

Junius Courtney Big Band, Pete Escovedo & Friends in a fundraiser for music and arts in the Emeryville schools at 7 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound, Emeryville. Tickets are $50 and up. 601-4999.  

Omar Faruk Tekbilek and his Ensemble, Turkish/Middle Eastern at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18-$22. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

Taarka at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

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

Rushad Eggleston & The Butt Wizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Faye Carol Sings Billie Holiday at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, APRIL 19 

CHILDREN 

Yolanda Rhodes, Storyteller Stories from the African Diaspora at 1 p.m. at the Temescal Branch Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave. 597-5049. 

THEATER 

“The Other Side of the Mirror” written and performed by Lynn Ruth Miller at 8 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline. Cost is $10. 650-355-4296. 

FILM 

Film and Video Makers at Cal “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Mills College: The Architectural History of Walter H. Ratcliffe, Jr.” A lecture by Woodruff Minor at 5:30 p.m. at the Bender Room, Carnegie Hall, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. RSVP to 430-2125 cmilliga@mills.edu 

Jonathan Cohn describes “Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis and the People Who Pay the Price” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“Design for Ecological Democracy” with author Randolph Hester at 7:30 p.m. at the Builders Booksource, 1817 4th St. 845-6874. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

U.C. Berkeley The Movement Showcase Thurs and Fri. at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8 at the door. 

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

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

Diamante, Latin fusion, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mindx with Melvin Seals, Izabella, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is TBA. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sun House, Midnite Theory at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

The Cuban Cowboys at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Keiko Matsui at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Headnodic & Raashan Ahmad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

The Zoopy Show, The Violent High, Joshua Eagle at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

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

Machine Love at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 20 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Lysistrata” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through May 12. Tickets are $12. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “Private Jokes, Public Places” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 13. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. 

Barestage “Cabaret” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 72 Cesar Chavez Center, UC Campus, through April 28. Tickets are $8-$12. 642-3880. 

Berkeley Rep “Blue Door” at 8 p.m. at 2025 Addison St., through May 20. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “A Streetcar Named Desire” Tennesse Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning play opens at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Runs through May 12. Tickets are $8-$11. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

Impact Theatre “Measure for Measure” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through May 26.Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “She Loves Me” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through May 12.Tickets are $18. 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 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Four Decades of Bestselling Poetry” by Small Press Distribution, on display at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., to April 30. 981-6107. 

“Big World Little World” artwork by Emily Nachison and Robin Weinert. Opening reception at 5 p.m. at Transmissions Gallery, 1177 San Pablo Ave. Exhibition runs through May 31. 558-4084. 

“Un Lugar Solitario” Paintings by Michelle Ramirez. Exhibit closing at 7 p.m. at The Gallery of Urban Art, 1746 13th St., Oakland. 706-1697. 

“Partners in Paint - The Tuesday Drawing Group” exhibition opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at the Addison Street Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. 981-7533. 

FILM 

Aki Kaurismäki Film Festival “Man Without a Past” in Finnish with English subtitles, at 7:30 p.m., at Finnish Kaleva Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $5. 849-0125. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nancy Silverton describes “A Twist of the Wrist: Quick Meals with Ingredients from Jars, Cans, Bags, and Boxes” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Cristina Garcia reads from her new novel “A Handbook to Luck” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Dance Project 2007 “The Reception” choreography and tele-immersion technology at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$14. 642-9925. 

Oakland East Bay Symphony at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m.. Tickets are $15-$62. 652-8497. www.oebs.org 

University Chamber Chorus will perform the medieval version of Carmina Burana at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. 

Akosua Oakland based, Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter at 8 p.m. at Mills College Concert Hall, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 430-2255. 

National Jazz Appreciation Month Youth Music Extravaganza at 7 p.m. at Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. 836-4649.  

Dennis Edwards, piano, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $12-$15. 848-1221.  

Lura, Portuguese chanteuse at 8 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave. Tickets are $30. 642-9988. 

The Michetons, Wetbrain in support of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation at 5 p.m. at Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Campus.  

Friends of Deir Ibzi’a Benefit with the Georges Lammam Ensemble, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stephanie Ozer and Lorenzo Kristov at 8 p.m. at the Jazz 

school. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Eric Swinderman Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Pickpocket Ensemble, klezmer-jazz CD release party at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St Tickets are $10-$15. www.hillsideclub.org 

Albino, The Flux at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Judea Eden Band at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Patty Larkin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Crooked Roads Band and Derek See at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

John Howland Trio, Waywarad Sway, Joshua Eden at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Diskonto, Stormcrow, Catheter 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. 

Kevin Beadles Band at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Bayonics, Felonius at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7. 548-1159.  

Kapakahi at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Flatbush, Re:ignition at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Forrest Day’s 420 Party at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Keiko Matsui at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 21 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Melissa Rivera & Maria Fernanda at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Madeleine Dunphy describes “Here is the Southwestern Desert” and “Here is the Coral Reef” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Celebration of Children’s Literature Day with children's authors, illustrators, storytellers and entertainers, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tolman Hall, UC Campus. 642-0137. 

Active Arts Theatre for Young Audiences “Manzi: The Adventures of Young Cesar Chavez” at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$18. 925-798-1300. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Amazing Blooms” Group show of paintings, photography, sculpture and other media. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. Exhibit runs to June 1. 644-4930. www.expressionsgallery.org 

FILM 

Flamenco Film Screening “Enrique Morente: Alhambra Daydreams” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568 ext. 20. 

Aki Kaurismäki Film Festival “I Hired a Contract Killer” at 1 p.m., “Ariel” at 4:30 p.m., “Lights in the Dusk” at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Kaleva Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $5 for each film, or $15 for the series. 849-0125. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Traditional Zuni Fetish Carvings by Lena Boone on display Sat. and Sun. at Gathering Tribes, 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038. 

“Dreaming Nature” the works of QiRe Ching and music by Cornelius Boots at 6 p.m. at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, #116, Oakland. info@TheFloatCenter.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

A Conversation with Jim Campbell on his current interactive installation at noon at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“On the Wings of a Story: Second Annual Storytelling Festival” celebrates National Library Week with stories in words, dance, and song, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the West Oakland Branch Library, 1801 Adeline St. Sponsored by the Urban Librarians Project. 238-7352. 

Cara Black reads from her latest Parisian Mystery “Murder on the Ile St. Louis” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Dance Project 2007 “The Reception” choreography and tele-immersion technology at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$14. 642-9925. 

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra “The Devil Made Me Do It!” with the Mark Foehringer Dance Project at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Free. 248-1640. www.sfchamberorchestra.org 

Berkeley Broadway Singers “It Might As Well Be Spring” at 8 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman St. Free, donations appreciated. 604-5732. www.berkeleybroadwaysingers.org 

University Chorus will perform Carl Orff’s version of Carmina Burana at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

“Virtue and the Viper” Italian Thirteenth Century Music from the Court of the Visconti at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College at Garber. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

The Hats, a capella, at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Lloyd Gregory Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Resination, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Holler Town and Brad “The Dudeboy” Rogers at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Barbara Higbie & Friends at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Wil Blades, Scott Amendola at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

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

Mark Holzinger & Friends, guitar, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

4 one Funk, Band of Brotherz, Alphabet Soup at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $12. 451-8100.  

Antioquia, The Flux, Green Machine at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Skip Heller Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jefree Star, Order of the White Rose at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 22 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Constructions” Works by Jenny Honnert Abell, Marya Krogstad and Thomas Morphis. Opening reception at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Vanishing Victorians” opens at the Berkeley History Center at 3 p.m. at 1931 Center St. See examples of Victorian Gothic, Stick Eastlake, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Classic Revival, that can be found throughout Berkeley, as well as examples of those that were lost. Regular hours are Thurs.-Sat. 1 to 4 p.m. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

THEATER 

“The Earth is Humming” Dramatization of dreams at 2 p.m. at The Dream Institute, 1672 University Ave. 845-1767. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Vine and Fig Tree: Poetry and Music for Peace in the Middle East at 2:30 p.m. at Kehilla Community Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. 891-7197. 

George Mann, Roy Zimmerman and others, satirical songs and radical folk music, at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. Suggested donation $5-$10. 841-4824. 

Valerie Miner describes “After Eden” her novel on the meaning of home and homelessness at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Judith Taylor reads from “Tangible Memories: Californians and Their Gardens 1800-1950” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Paul D’Amato discusses “The Meaning of Marxism” at 5 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Flash with Barbara Ras and Robert Thomas at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Arts Festival “Music of Schoenberg and His Students” with Jerry Kuderna, piano and Nora L. Martin, vocalist at 8 p.m. at the former Fidelity Building, 2323 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyartsfestival .com 

Berkeley Dance Project 2007 “The Reception” choreography and tele-immersion technology at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$14. 642-9925. 

Chamber Music Sundaes with San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends at 3 p.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets at the door are $18-$22. 415-753-2792. www.chambermusicsundaes.org  

Berkeley Broadway Singers “It Might As Well Be Spring” at 4 p.m. at St. Augustine's Church, 400 Alcatraz, betw. Telegraph and College, Oakland. Free, donations accepted. 604-5732.www.berkeleybroadwaysingers.org 

Music in the Community Two concerts with various groups performing classical and jazz, at 4 and 7 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Suggested donation $20 per concert or $35 for both. 524-0411. 

Oakland Lyric Opera “Romantic Opera Scenes” at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $18-$20. Reservations requested. 836-6772. www.oaklandlyricopera.org 

University Wind Ensemble at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32. 642-9988. 

Melanie O’Reilly & Tir na Mara at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Prince Myshkins & The Fromer Family, political satire and music, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Trumpet Supergroup at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Battle of the Bands at 6 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

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

Shinehead at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15-$20. 548-1159.  

MONDAY, APRIL 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Art and the Old and New Downtown” with Kevin Consey, Director, Berkeley Art Museum and Jim Novesel, Architect and Planner at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6150. 

Aurora Theatre Staged Readings “Over the Mountain” by Brian Thorstenson at 7:30 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. For tickets call 843-4822. 

Felicia Luna Lemus and Aaron Petrovich read from their new novels “Like Son” and “The Session” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Average Dyke Band in a benefit for CodePINK at 6 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $23. For tickets call 524-2776.  

Megan Lynch and Mike Anglin, bluegrass, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

West Coast Songwriters Showcase at 7:30 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Musica Ha Disconnesso traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Chabot College at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

CAHILL, KUBERA PLAY RILEY’S ‘WALTZ’ 

Duo pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera perform vibrant, playful four-hand music by the innovative Bay Area composer Terry Riley, including the premiere of his  

Waltz for Charismas, at 8 p.m. Wednesday.  

This concert is part of the Berkeley Arts Festival, which continues for the next two months.The festival’s new home is the 1925 Walter Ratcliff-designed Fidelity building at 2323 Shattuck Avenue. Tickets for the Wednesday event are $10-$20. 665-9496. 

ANGER RISING: THE RESTORATION OF WORKS BY  

KENNETH ANGER 

Ross Lipman will present and discuss restorations of the avant garde films of cult icon Kenneth Anger at 7:30 p.m. today (Tuesday) at Pacific Film Archive. The program will include  

Fireworks (1947, 15 minutes), Rabbit’s Moon (1971, 16 minutes), Scorpio Rising (1963, 29 minutes) and Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965, 3 minutes), all courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. 

AYA DE LEON AND POETRY FOR THE  

PEOPLE 

Oakland writer/performer Aya de Leon, director of Poetry for the People at UC Berkeley, will read from her poetry at 7:30 p.m. today (Tuesday) at Moe’s Books. 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087.

After the audience has been seated in Live Oak Theatre to a medley of old hits arranged thematically, like “Prisoner of Love,” “It’s a Man’s World,” “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” and “I’m Glad That You’re Sorry Now” (as well as “Please, Please, Please,” particularly poignant), there’s a drumroll, some commotion behind—and strange glances under the hem of—the draped red curtain, then the entrance of the masked chorus, two young women who toss their masks into the audience with, “Okay, we’re, like, the chorus ... 411—a very bad year to be an Athenian. It’s sucky!” 

And translator Ellen McLaughlin’s version of Aristophanes’ ancient antiwar comedy Lysistrata shifts into gear, produced by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley as part of their 50th anniversary season. Playgoers may remember Aurora’s production of McLaughlin’s version of Aeschylus’ tragedy The Persians, in which the shattered armies of the Persian Empire return after their defeat at the hands of the Greeks. Lysistrata—long the premiere anti-war drama of the West, especially in modern times since the days of the Popular Front—is another event in her refashioning of the classics for use in the controversies over the war in Iraq. 

Lysistrata is clearly the more adapted of the two. The Persians emphasized a spare elegance, a lyrical complaint against the fate of warriors and the hubris of leaders that could reach and hold a modern audience. Lysistrata is pared down and played fast so that the racy comedy becomes updated and slangy, rife with half-references to the contemporary. 

“I hate women!” declares Lysistrata (Cristina Arriola). “Everything men say about us is true!” She’s summoned Greek women from the warring city states, two decades into a military deadlock that originally was touted to be “over in a few months.”  

So far, none has shown up. In a little bit, they arrive, puzzled by Lysistrata’s urgency. She asks them if their husbands are away, fighting each other and if they live an existence both scared and bored, just sitting at home. Wouldn’t they give up anything to end the strife? Would they give up sex, at least until their husbands agree to peace? Not really, they say—”Why do you think we miss our husbands so much?” 

But Lysistrata’s convincing, and her conspiracy of abstinence prevails, as a troop of war widows takes the Acropolis and the Athenian treasury. A detachment of “geezers,” grotesquely deformed with age and complaining, fail to dislodge the female protestors, and are stared down by the widows, dressed as old crones. 

So another deadlock ensues, until the groans of the (literally, anatomically) overextended troops, come home to settle up with their better halves, sound out through Athens. Lysistrata’s mission is now to keep the equally anxious wives from breaking ranks and going AWOL, making excuses of shellfish beds to be harvested, wool yarn left at the mercy of moths to be saved. 

The cast is spirited, the action upbeat, though occasionally in ensemble scenes both the rhthym and vocal clarity are lost. But the best vignettes work well, with excellent sets and decor (hanging mobiles of what look like twisted paper pages, catching the light) by Paul Andrew Hayes, equaled by Helen Slomowitz’s elegant costuming, adding immeasurably to the effect. 

Best sequences include the standoff debate between Lysistrata and the old politico Magistrate (David Cohen): “Let’s talk about money, shall we? ... It turns out we have something you want.” She swears that until “peace breaks out,” the women will “bring no more children into the world as fodder for war.” To his outcry of “This is unnatural!” and further accusations of lack of patriotism, she replies, “we have no monopoly on excess and evil. There are assholes everywhere ... we must master our own egotism.” 

Later, soldier Cinesias pops in, wryly preceded by his distended ... get-up? rigging? cleverly fashioned of cinched and bulging balloons of the sort carnies make animals out of. (Later, in full battle gear, the erect Spartans were a bit reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley’s bawdy illustrations of Aristophanes, once condemned as pornographic.) 

Eden Nelson, as Cinesias’ wife, Myrrhine, is fine in portraying a woman who is torn between two intentions, increasingly upset and aroused as she leads on, teases (”I can’t get in the mood when there’s a war going on.”) and finally leaves her obviously agonized husband (Sean Kelly) in the lurch. 

Saltiest of all is the female chorus, Emily Broderick and Melissa Craven, disco-dancing mechanically or down on all fours, mimicking the women as cats in heat, as Lysistrata routs them with a spray bottle. 

“Life ... face it. It’s always been a female conspiracy.” When the accord’s reached, the celebration can begin, topped only by the curtain call, when the men bow, yet remain at attention. 

LYSISTRATA 

Presented by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley through May 12 at Live Oak Theatre.  

1301 Shattuck Ave. $12. 525-1620. 

www.oeofberkeley.com.

All serious readers, whether scholarly or general interest, place a special value on first-hand accounts of historical events. Memoirs, autobiographies, interviews of “regular people” who find themselves immersed in historic times bring that history to life as no author can. This is why the new book, Our History Is Still Being Written, has such an important role to play in modern Chinese history. 

The book is a series of interviews with three Cuban generals of Chinese descent who as young rebels in pre-revolutionary Cuba became heroic fighters in the battle to overthrow the despised Batista regime. In the almost 50 years since, they have each played invaluable roles in the Cuban military in international missions, each rising to the rank of general. 

They speak quite eloquently of the days of racial discrimination. Armando Choy, one of the interviewees, explained his experience as a youth trying to go to a dance. “When my friend and the girl tried to get in, they were turned away because they were Chinese. It was for whites only! That act of discrimination convinced me of the injustice prevailing in Cuba before the triumph of the revolution.” 

The generals also give a vivid picture of life for Chinese immigrants dating back to the 1800s, when many came as indentured servants. The detailed descriptions bring to life both the hardships and the contributions of the Chinese who settled in Cuba. Chinese fighters fought in Cuba, for example, in the war for independence against Spain in the 1860s and 1870s. 

But perhaps the most fascinating of the discussions in the interviews conducted are the first-hand accounts of the role of revolutionary Cubans in international actions from Angola to Nicaragua to Venezuela today. These generals are socialists and partisans of the socialist revolution in Cuba. They defend Cuba’s actions within its own borders and its internationalist missions around the world. 

They speak proudly of their relationships with Fidel and Raul Castro and their work with Che Guevera. In a discussion of the quality of leadership, Moises Sio Wong explained, “In our army the leader is an example. This was always a characteristic of Che, who was incapable of giving an order he himself was not prepared to carry out. And it’s equally true of Raul and Fidel.” 

Today each man still plays a critical role in Cuba. Although in their 70s, their positions of responsibility keep them young and busy. 

Armando Choy heads up the massive project to clean up the polluted Havana Bay and leads the modernization of the Port of Havana. 

Sio Wong is the president of the National Institute of State Reserves that involves both military defense and rapid response in the area of natural disasters. 

Gustavo Chui is head of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, an organization of more than 300,000 members that is responsible for the political education program found in schools and communities around Cuba. 

One additional noteworthy aspect of the book is the wonderful photo signature. 

A variety of maps, sketches, and previously unavailable photographs help the reader visually understand the times described by the generals. Archival photos display everything from mass meetings in Havana’s Chinatown in 1960 to Cuban doctors working among the Venezuelan poor in 1999. 

Reading this book gives the reader a glimpse of life in Cuba rarely visible in the United States today. And it tells a previously untold story—the Chinese of Cuba yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 

OUR HISTORY IS STILL BEING WRITTEN: THE STORY OF THREE CHINESE-CUBAN GENERALS IN THE CUBAN REVOLUTION 

Pathfinder Press. $20. 216 pages.

I know: another corvid column. But bear with me. Every now and then I trawl the technical literature at the UC library, and this time I found a jay-and-crow story in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology that’s too good to keep. 

You may have read about the clan of chimpanzees in West Africa who have been reported as using weapons to obtain their favorite meal of bushbaby-on-a-stick—a step beyond previous observations of tool use. Now Russell Balda has documented an apparent case of weapon use by not just one, but two species of birds—a Steller’s jay and an American crow. Balda, not just any feederwatcher, is an authority on the pinyon jay and runs the Avian Cognition Laboratory at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, a site of cutting-edge research into corvid intelligence. 

A word on nomenclature: yes, it’s “Steller’s,” not “stellar.” Everybody seems to get that wrong. Although this crested black-and-blue jay could be said to have a certain star quality, it was named for its discoverer, the 18th-century Russian naturalist Georg Steller. Steller, one of the few survivors of the ill-starred Bering Expedition to the North Pacific, had a short and tragic life, and the least we can do in his memory is get the names of his jay, his sea lion, and his eider (among other species) right. 

So Balda, on an April morning three years ago, is in his office outside which is a meter-square feeding platform. A crow is on the platform eating sunflower seeds. Two jays—maybe a pair; it’s hard to tell with jays—land in a nearby mountain mahogany bush. The jays seem annoyed by the crow’s presence. One flies to the platform and scolds the larger bird, which fails to react. The jay feints toward the crow with its bill; the crow feints back. The jay flies up to the roof of the building, then divebombs the crow. The crow keeps eating. End of Round One. 

Then the jay does something remarkable. It goes back to the mountain mahogany and breaks off a twig from a dead branch. Holding the twig in its beak, pointed end forward, it returns to the feeding platform and lunges at the crow. It’s a near miss. The crow lunges in its turn, startling the jay, which flies up and drops the twig onto the platform. 

And the crow picks it up, again pointed end forward, and thrusts it at the jay. Whereupon the jay on the platform and its partner in the bush both fly off, pursued by the twig-carrying crow. 

Now, there’s a considerable literature on tool use in birds of the crow family, with examples from the Eurasian common crow and the blue jay of eastern North America, among others. Tool-making reaches its pinnacle in the New Caledonian crow, which constructs (you can’t really say a handless creature manufactures) various types of tools to extract insect grubs from rotten wood, and carries the tools around with it from foraging site to foraging site. Tool use seems to correlate to brain size, and corvids have the largest brains (in proportion to body weight) among birds, outscoring even parrots. 

Weapons are another story, limited to anecdotes about ravens and crows dropping objects on humans that got too close to their nests. 

But Balda is convinced that weapon-making and weapon use is what he saw: “Behaviors that are classically associated with lance or spear use were observed in this bout. The jay first selected and prepared an object that could readily be used as a spear, and then lunged at the crow with the spear … The crow retrieved the twig and possibly used it against the jay. The current report may be the first incident of a bird holding an object and using it in a weapon-like fashion during an aggressive action against another bird.” 

At this point nothing much a crow or jay could do would surprise me much, with the possible exception of text-messaging. If you have Steller’s jays or western scrub-jays at your own feeder, they’ll obviously bear watching.

TUESDAY, APRIL 17 

Berkeley Garden Club Spring Tea and Floral Design Presentation at 1 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Howard Arendtson, owner of H. Julien Designs, will be our guest speaker. Tickets available at the door for $8. 845-4482 . 

Berkeley High School Red and Golden Girls Luncheon for BHS women graduates from the class of 1957 and before at 11 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club. Tickets are $35. 845-5858 or 526-3619. 

Tilden Mini-Rangers An after-school porgram for ages 8-12 to learn about conservvationand nature-based activities. Dress to ramble and get dirty. Cost is $6-$8. 636-1684. 

“Winning the Peace in Afghanistan: Challenges and Opportunities” with Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghan Ambassador to the US, Shamim Jawad, International Chair, Roots of Peace, at 1 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. 642-9407. 

Climate Protection Lunch for Berkeley Property Owners and Managers on how to take action against global warming at noon at Berkeley Civic Center, 2180 Milvia St., Redwood Room, 6th flr. RSVP to 520-5486. 

“Push and Pull: Free Trade and Immigration” A discussion with journalist David Bacon and Mexican activist Juan Manuel Sandoval, at 7 p.m. at Oakland Workers Center, 2501 International at 25th, Oakland. Suggested donation $10. www.globalexchange.org 

“Climbing the Seven Summits” A slide show with John Christiana who has climbed the highest peak on each of seven continents, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“A Game as Old as Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption” a discussion with Steven Hiatt, John Perkins, Antonia Juhasz, and others at 7 p.m. at Borders Books, 5903 Shellmound, Emeryville. 654-1633.  

Parent Voices Meeting to organize for Stand for Children Day at 6 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. 658-7353. 

Discussion Salon on The Job Market at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

“Myofascial Pain and Sleep Disorders and Auto-immune Diseases” with Dr. Janet Lord at noon at Maffley Auditorium, Herrick Campus of Alta Bates Medical Center, 2001 Dwight Way. 644-3273. 

Hunger Action Training with the Alameda County Community Food Bank Learn the issues and how to become a successful advocate. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Alameda County Community Food Bank, 7900 Edgewater Drive, Oakland. To register call 635-3663, ext. 307. 

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. 

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) 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Help support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. Advanced sign-up is required, call 594-5165.  

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 

“Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians” with Laura Flanders at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. TIckets are $5, available at independent bookstores. 848-6767, ext. 609. www.kpfa.org 

“Planning for Urban Wildlife” instead of past prectices of extrication and extermination at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall 315A, UC Campus. http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium#8  

International Day of Peasant Struggle with an update on Brazil’s Landless Movement at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donations welcome. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Antonia” A documentary on female rappers in the outskirts of Sao Paulo at 7 p.m. at 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. 

“Jesus Camp” A documentary about Evangelical Christians at 7 p.m. at the Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St., behind Andronicos. 548-9696. 

“24 Solo” A documentary sponsored by the NorCal High School Mountain Bike Racing League at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley High Campus. Tickets are $10-$12. 219-9460. www.norcalmtb.org  

“Crude Impact” A documentary on our dependence on fossil fuels at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., near Rockridge BART, Oakland. www.sfbayoil.org/ebpo/ 

New to DVD: “History Boys” at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Albany Library Evening Book Club meets to discuss “Devil in a Blue Dress” by Walter Mosley at 7 p.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Free Skool Class on Intro to Sign Language at 6:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Free, all welcome. thelonghaul.org 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 19 

Civic Berkeley Public Forum Navigating the Maze: Lessons We’ve Learned Speakers from eight different neighborhood groups will what works and what doesn’t in dealing with City Hall, at 7 p.m. at the B-Tech Academy, Multipurpose Room, corner of MLK, Jr. Way and Derby. 273-2496. 

“Africa, Islam & the War on Terror” with Dr. Abdi Samatar, Somali scholar from the Univ. of MN, at 6 p.m. at University Hall, 2199 Addison St. at Oxford. Sponsored by Priority Africa Network & the Center for African Studies. Suggesrted donation $5-$10. 238 8080 ext. 309. 

“Iraq, Iran and the Bush Agenda: The Danger of Wider War, the Challenge of Preventin gIt, and the Urgency of a New Global Dynamic” with Larry Everest at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

“Design for Ecological Democracy” with author Randolph Hester at 7:30 p.m. at the Builders Booksource, 1817 4th St. 845-6874. 

Paul Hawken on the Worldwide Movement for Social and Environmental Change at 7 p.m. at College Preparatory School, 6100 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 652-0111.  

“Mesoamerica Resiste! ... with the Beehive Collective” on their use of innovative graphics on corporate globalization at 7:30 p.m. at AK Press, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.beehivecollective.org 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets to discuss plans to improve People’s Park, business changes on Telegraph Avenue, new police procedures regarding loud parties, at 7:30 p.m. at LeConte School, enter from Russell St. 843-2602. 

“Key Employees: Engage Them or Lose Them” A talk by the Northern California Human Resources Assoc., at 7:30 a.m. at Room 231, The Promenade Bldg., 1936 University Ave. Cost is $30-$50. 415-291-1992. 

Simplicity Forum on “Growing Organic Food in Your Yard, Deck, Neighborhood” with Allie Sullivan, an intern with City Slickers Farm in Oakland, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 549-3509.  

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. 

Alcohol Screening from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Options Recovery Services, 1919 Addison St. #204. No appointment necessary. 666-9900. 

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. 

Poetry Workshop with Donna Davis, ongoing on Thurs. from 9 a.m. to noon at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $10 per semester. 848-0237. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info  

FRIDAY, APRIL 20 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dr. Fred Nachtwey on “Sleep” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

“Tales of Western Ornithologists” with Harry Fuller at 7 p.m. at the Live Oak Recreation Center. Sponsored by Golden Gate Auddubon Society. Cost is $10-$15. 843-2222. 

Oceans Awareness to bring awareness of the problem of plastic in our oceans at 5 p.m. at Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Campus. Sponsored by CALPIRG. 

Alcohol Free Weekend Can You Do It? Take the sober weekend challenge sponsored by UC Berkeley Health Services. For more information call 642-7202. 

“Tell the Truth and Run: Georges Seldes and the American Press” a film screening at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. Donation $10, no one turned away. 528-5403. 

“Life and Debt” A documentary about Jamaicans and their strategies for survival, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Power of Now Group meets to discuss the book “The Power of Now” for ages 50 plus at 7 p.m. at 1471 Addison St, behind 1473 Addison. RSVP sterkjohn@yahoo.com  

Red Cross Blood Drive From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at UCB Unit 2 Dorms, Recreation Room, 2650 Haste. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com  

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Conscious Movie Night “The Secret” at 7:30 p.m. at Center of Light, 2944 76th Ave., Oakland. 635-4286. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 21 

Berkeley Earth Day Fair from noon to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Park, MLK and Allston, with cultural performances, activities, food, craft and community booths. 654-6346. 

Earth Day Restoration & Cleanup Program at Eastshore State Park Meet at 10 a.m. behind Sea Breeze Deli off University Ave. and West Frontage Rd. Bring sunscreen, non-slip shoes or boots, gloves, pick. 544-2515. kfusek@ebparks.org 

Kid’s Garden Club for ages 6-9 to explore the world of gardening, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Springtime Pond Plunge See babies of dragonflies, phantom midges, frogs and maybe even newts. Use nets and magnifying glasses to study them up close before we return them to their watery home. Meet at 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Recycle Computer Equipment to help keep it out of landfills. Bring your items to Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. www.elephantpharm.com  

“The Woodpecker’s Tongue: Accuracy in Drawing Birds” with Dan Gleason at 10 a.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

“Introduction to Bio-Intensive Gardening” Learn how to feed your family from your own backyard, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Grandma Mary’s Organic Farm, 100 Behrens St., El Cerrito. Cost is $75. 527-9271. www.kleiwerks.org  

The 2007 Edith Coliver Festival of Cultures A celebration of cultural unity with dance, drama, food, arts, crafts, exhibits and children’s activities from around the globe, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. 642-9461. http://ihouse.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Room, 2727 College Ave. All welcome.  

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park Earth Day Celebration Join us to help clean up the park from 9 a.m. to noon. Meet the Archeologist from 11 a.m. to noon, followed by a community potluck. For information call 532-9142. 

Car Care Clinic for Women Learn how to avoid the scams and learn the basics of auto repair and maintenance, at 10 a.m. at Marty’s Motors, 10929 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. Free, but RSVP required. 235-6000. 

John Adams’ 60th Birthday Celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. 559-6910. jstrauss@crowden.org 

Rotary Club of Berkeley “A Night at the Races” with dinner, auctions and horse-races on large screen video, at 5:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $50, and funds raised benefit community projects in Berkeley. For reservations call 339-3801. jmasters@cencomfut.com 

Spring Blooming Perennials with Gail Yelland, landscape designer at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave., off Seventh St. 644-2351. 

California Writers Club meets to discuss action vs procrastination at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

East Bay Atheists meets to watch a video of Richard Dawkins speaking in Lynchburg, Virginia about his latest book, “The God Delusion” at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 3rd Floor Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 222-7580. 

Everyday Safety Skills for Children from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $60, scholarships available, Call to register and for location. 831-426-4407. www.kidpower.org 

Luna Kids Dance Spring Gala at 7 p.m. at Clif Bar Theater, 1610 5th St. Donations $35 and up. 644-3629. 

Musical Pizza Fest and Silent Auction to benefit Dandelion Cooperative Preschool at 4 p.m. at Northbrae Community Center, 941 The Alameda. 526-1735. 

Free Car Seat Check-Up Learn how to protect your children and make sure your car seat is installed correctly. From 10 a.m. to noon in the parking lot of St. Columba Church, 6401 San Pablo Ave., at Alcatraz. Free car seats provided to low-income families. For an appointment call 428-3045. 

Families Dealing with Dementia Seminar from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Mercy Retirement & Care Center, 3431 Foothill Blvd., Oakland. Free. 534-8547. www.mercyretirementcenter.org 

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 22 

People’s Park 38th Anniversary Celebration with music, food and activities for children from noon to 6 p.m. at Perople’s Park, just east of Telegraph Ave. on Dwight Way. www.peoplespark.org 

“Open Garden” Join the Little Farm gardener for composting, planting, watering and reaping the rewards of our work, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233.  

Wild and Native Hike Explore native plants in Wildcat Canyon on a brisk 7-mile hike. Bring lunch, liquids, and layers. Meet at 10 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Vanishing Victorians” at the Berkeley Historical Society general meeting from 3 to 5 p.m. at 1931 Center St. 848-0181.  

Restore Wetlands in Oakland Volunteer with Save the Bay in a wetland restoration project near the Oakland Airport, a home for many species, including the California Clapper Rail and Burrowing Owl. Volunteers assist our plant propagation efforts in our on-site Wetland Native Plant Nursery from 9 a.m. to noon RSVP to 452-9261 ext. 109.  

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay General Meeting on The U.S. and Iran: The Standoff, Its Origins, and Its Ramifications, with Shahram Aghamir, an Iranian and producer of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa on KPFA Radio; and Sepideh Khosrowjah, an Iranian playwright and peace and social justice activist, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at 2161 Allston Way. 636-4149. 

Earth Day at the Kensington Farmer’s Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington, behind Ace Hardware. 525-7232. 

Music for Babies, parent-led activities in rhythm, finger play, bubbles and more at 9 a.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. 658-7353. 

“Living Ship Day” with a commemoration of the “Doolittle Raid” from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Aircraft Carrier UCSS Hornet Museum, Pier 3, 707 W. Hornet Ave., Alameda. Cost is $14 for adults, and $6 for children. 521-8448. 

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Little Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Lama Palzang and Pema Gellek on “The Dharma in Asia” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, APRIL 23 

“The Energy Problem: What the Helios Project Can Do about It” with Steve Chu, Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater 2025 Addison St. 486-5183. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Public Library Ad Hoc Committee on Public Process for Potential Trustees meets at 5 p.m. at the South Branch Library. 981-6195. 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., April 18, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed., April 18, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., April 18, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5427. 

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., April 18, at 7 p.m. at South Branch Library, 1901 Russell. 981-6195.  

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., April 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., April 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950.

FRIDAY, APRIL 13 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Industrial Chic” Fashion from recycled and industrial materials by Bay Area artists and designers at 7 p.m. at The Crucible, 1260 7th St., Oakland. Tickets are $15, reservations suggested. 444-0919.www.thecrucible.org 

“Recovery: Man Over Matter” Group show on interpretations of transformation. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Exhibit runs to May 5. 843-2527. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Lysistrata” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through May 12. Tickets are $12. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “Private Jokes, Public Places” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 13. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. 

Barestage “Cabaret” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 72 Cesar Chavez Center, UC Campus, through April 28. Tickets are $8-$12. 642-3880. 

Berkeley Rep “Blue Door” at 8 p.m. at 2025 Addison St., through May 20. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “A Streetcar Named Desire” Tennesse Williams’ Pulitzer Prize winning play opens at 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. Runs through May 12. Tickets are $8-$11. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

Masquers Playhouse “She Loves Me” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through May 12.Tickets are $18. 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 

Wilde Irish Productions “The Cripple of Inishmaan” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through April 15. Tickets are $20-$25. 644-9940. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash Celebrates National Poetry Reading Month with Mary Mackey, Rochelle Ratner, Corrine Robins, and Eileen R. Tabios at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

National Poetry Month Readings with Lisa Fishman and Richard Meier at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

New Perspectives on East Asia Book Series with David Leheny on “Think Global, Fear Local: Sex, Violence, and Anxeity in Contemporary Japan” at noon in the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th flr. 642-2809. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

EnPointe Youth Dance Company performs orginal choreography in ballet, modern and hip hop at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $8-$12 at the door. enpointedance@gmail.com 

UC Jazz Ensembles Spring Showcase at 8 p.m. at Chevron Auditorium, International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $5-$10. 642-5062. 

Mills College Graduate Dance Thesis Concert with original choreography by Mary Bell, Janet Collard, Jan Jennings, Katie Michelle Rogers, Rebecca Anne Wilson, and others at 8 p.m. at Lisser Hall, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland. Tickets are $8-$10 at the door. 430-2175. 

Breath & Movement Dance at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 981-1710. 

Back Porch Pickers, bluegrass at 8 p.m. Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kendington. Tickets are $15, children $5. 526-9146. 

Suni Paz in Concert, music from Argentina at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Christy Dana Quartet plays the Jimmy Van Heusen Songbook at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Peron/Spangler Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Workingman’s Ed, J.C. Flyer at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

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

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

The Nomadics, jazz, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Matt the Electrician, Jason Kleinberg, AJ Roach at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082.  

Babyland, Bloody Snowman, 8 Bit 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. 

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

Extra Action Marching Band and others at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Gift of Gab at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Brazuca Dub Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Ron Carter Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square., through Sun. Cost is $14-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 14 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Argentinian Singer Suni Paz at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Active Arts Theatre for Young Audiences “Manzi: The Adventures of Young Cesar Chavez” Sat. at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$18. 925-798-1300. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“2 of a Kind” Prints by artists from the California Society of Printmakers and the NIAD Center for Art and Disabilities. Reception at 2 p.m. at 551 23rd St., Richmond. and runs through June 15. 620-0290. 

Industrial Art Show Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Crucible, 1260 7th St., Oakland. 444-0919. www.thecrucible.org 

THEATER 

“Judgement Day: Where Are You Gonna Run?” at 7 p.m. at the Black Repertory Theater, 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $15-$20. 478-3864. 

Peyvand Khorsandi “Generation Skip: Stand-up Comedy” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$25. 925-798-1300. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Art and Poetry by the Lake with Deborah Vinograd and Jan Steckel from 2 to 5 p.m. at Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, by Lake Merritt in Oakland. 238-7344.  

Small Press Distribution Poetry Readings with Juliana Spahr, Will Alexander, Dodie Bellamy, and Albert Flynn Desilver at 2 p.m. at 1341 7th St. 524-1668.  

National Poetry Month Readings with Linh Dinh and Graham Foust at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Jonatham Lethem will read from his new novel “You Don't Love Me Yet” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave., with special musical guests The Bye Bye Blackbirds. 849-2087. 

Peggy Orenstein reads from “Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, a Romantic Night, and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

EnPointe Youth Dance Company performs orginal choreography in ballet, modern and hip hop at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $8-$12 at the door. enpointedance@gmail.com 

Gamelan Sari Raras Javanese music and dance with guest dancer Eko Supriyanto at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. 

“From Broadway to Opera” music of Mozart, Puccini, Dvorak, Offenbach, Sondheim, Weill, Kern and others with Nanette McGuinness, soprano; Kindra Scharich, mezzo-soprano; Kathryn Cathcart, piano, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Mills College Graduate Dance Thesis Concert with original choreography by Mary Bell, Janet Collard, Jan Jennings, Katie Michelle Rogers, Rebecca Anne Wilson, and others at 8 p.m. at Lisser Hall, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland. Tickets are $8-$10 at the door. 430-2175. 

Moment’s Notice Improv Performances of music dance and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Tickets are $8-$10. 847-1119. 

Breath & Movement Dance at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 981-1710. 

The Dave Matthews BLUES Band at 9:30 p.m. at Baltic Square Pub,135 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. 237-4782. 

Verbal Abuse, 2nd Class Citizens, Self Inflicted at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $8. 763-1146.  

Tom Rush at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $29.50-$30.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Ravines at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

The Snake Trio, new directions in jazz and Venezuelan music, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mo’Rockin’ at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Diablo’s Dust and Ronnie Cato at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Nancy King and Steve Christofferson at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Larry Stefl Jazz Quartet at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Truxton, Voodoo Ecnomics at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

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

The Strange Angels, blues and jam, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Phoenix and Afterbuffalo, Free Peoples at 10 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

CV1 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

No Alternative, Midnight Bombers at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 15 

CHILDREN 

Women of the World with Jackeline Rago, Michelle Jaques and Kelly Tacunda Orphan at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Guided tour at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Native American Weaver Grace Smith-Yellow Hammer Exhibition of traditional Navajo rugs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Gathering Tribes, 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038.  

Works by Harry Liebermann at the Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St. through June 10. 845-4949. info@amesgallery.com 

“Recent Works of Changming Meng” Book signing at 3 p.m. at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., Suite 4 421-1255.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

National Poetry Month Readings with Evie Shockley and Barbara Jane Reyes at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Joel Westheimer and contributing authors discuss “Pledging Allegiance, The Politics of Patriotism in America’s Schools” at 7 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Sponsored by Black Oak Books. 486-0698. 

Brian Doherty describes “Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kronos Quartet performs Górecki’s Third String Quartet at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Ensemble AROW “The Teutonic Spirit” at 3 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Tickets are $10 at the door. www.arowmusic.org  

Michael McKean “Strictly Speaking” Comedian, actor, songwriter at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$38. 642-9988.  

Gil Chun’s Bay Area Follies with tap, hula, ethnic and musical comedy at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison st. Tickets are $12-$15. Gilchun@aol.com 

Remembering the Kid from Red Bank: A Tribute to William “Count” Basie featuring the Count Basie Tribute Orchestra in a fundraiser for the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music. Pre-concert conversation with Orrin Keepnews at 12:30 p.m., concert at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35 sliding scale. 836-4649. 

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Elana James with Whit Smith at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Latin All-Star Jam with Ray Obiedo & Mombo Caribe, Jose Chepito Areas, Jose Najera, Tony Mayfield and others in a benefit for the Children of Chaguitillo, Nicaragua, at noon Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Suggested donation $10-$25. 

Falso Biano Brazil at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ.  

Quake City Jug Band at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Flamenco Open Stage with Carola Zertuche at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Cecelia Long Quartet at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

Battle of the Bands at 6 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146.  

MONDAY, APRIL 16 

CHILDREN 

“Charlotte’s Web” Read-Aloud In honor of National Library Week, join us in reading “Charlotte’s Web” at 3:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch Library, 6833 International Boulevard, Oakland. 615-5728. 

FILM 

“A Forgotten Resistance: The Mosque of Paris” with Annette Herskovits who survived the Holocaust as a young child in France, at 12:30 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. Brown-bag lunch. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“No End in Sight” Documentary film on the months immediately before and after the toppling of Saddam, followed by a conversation with the director Charles Ferguso at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way. Sponsored by UC Berkeley's Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Art of Politics” with David Goines, artist and author and Eduardo Pineda, artist and Director, Museum of the African Diaspora at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6150. 

Aurora Theatre Staged Readings “American Whupass” by Justin Warner at 7:30 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. For tickets call 843-4822. 

Robert Hass reads from “Then and Now: The Poets Choice Columns, 1997-2000” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Daniel Alarcón reads from “Lost City Radio” at 1:15 p.m. at the Women’s Faculty Club, UC Campus. Hosted by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. 

PlayGround with Philip Kan Gotanda and Carey Perloff and the Emerging Playwrights Awards at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $75. 415-704-3177. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Classical at the Freight with Michael Taddai & Friends at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. 

Mo’ Rockin Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 17 

CHILDREN 

Marie Cartusciello Storyteller for ages 3 and up at 6:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

FILM 

“Anger Rising” The restoration of works by Kenneth Anger at UCLA, with film restorationist Ross Lipman at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Aya De Leon and Poetry for the People at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jerry Beisler reading and slide show from “The Bandit of Kabul” at 7:30 p.m. at Book Zoo, 6395 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 654-2665. 

Dana Whitaker describes the power of microfinance in “Upending the Status Quo” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $10. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Ledward Kaapana at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Kaspar/Sherman Jazz Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Music of Dharma Lecture with Reverend Hozan Hardiman at 7 p.m. at the Jodo Shinshu Center, 2140 Durant Ave., at Fulton. Cost is $10.  

Matt Wilson’s Arts & Crafts 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 18 

EXHIBITIONS 

“eyecatchers” A group show by East Bay women artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at Royal Ground Gallery, 2058 Mountain Blvd., Oakland.  

FILM 

History of Cinema “After Life” at 3 p.m. and “8 Bit” at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Holocaust survivor Dora Apsan Sorell introduces her book “Tell the Children: Letters to Miriam” at 6:30 p.m. at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library. 981-6250. 

Cesar A. Preciado-Cruz and Timothy Mason read in honor of National Poetry Month at 7 p.m. at the Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic CEnter Plaza, near Macdonald and 27th St., Richmond. 620-6561. 

Laura Flanders introduces “Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $5, available at Cody’s. 559-9500. 

Cafe Poetry hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donations accepted. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on harpsichord, improvisation on Native American ceremonial tunes, at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Berkeley Arts Festival: Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera: Terry Riley Four Hand Piano Music at 8 p.m. at 2323 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$20. 665-9496. fabarts@silcon.com 

Junius Courtney Big Band, Pete Escovedo & Friends in a fundraiser for music and arts in the Emeryville schools at 7 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound, Emeryville. Tickets are$50 and up. 601-4999.  

Omar Faruk Tekbilek and his Ensemble, Turkish/Middle Eastern at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18-$22. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Orquestra La Verdad 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.  

Taarka at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

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

Rushad Eggleston & The Butt Wizards at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Faye Carol Sings Billie Holiday at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, APRIL 19 

CHILDREN 

Yolanda Rhodes, Storyteller Stories from the African Diaspora at 1 p.m. at the Temescal Branch Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave. 597-5049. 

THEATER 

“The Other Side of the Mirror” written and performed by Lynn Ruth Miller at 8 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline. Cost is $10. 650-355-4296. 

FILM 

Film and Video Makers at Cal “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Mills College: The Architectural History of Walter H. Ratcliffe, Jr.” A lecture by Woodruff Minor at 5:30 p.m. at the Bender Room, Carnegie Hall, Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. RSVP to 430-2125 cmilliga@mills.edu 

Jonathan Cohn describes “Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis and the People Who Pay the Price” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“Design for Ecological Democracy” with author Randolph Hester at 7:30 p.m. at the Builders Booksource, 1817 4th St. 845-6874. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

U.C. Berkeley The Movement Showcase Thurs and Fri. at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8 at the door. 

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

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

Diamante, Latin fusion, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mindx with Melvin Seals, Izabella, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is TBA. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sun House, Midnite Theory at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

The Cuban Cowboys at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Keiko Matsui at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Headnodic & Raashan Ahmad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

The Zoopy Show, The Violent High, Joshua Eagle at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

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

Machine Love at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277 

‘CLOWN BIBLE’  

This is the last weekend for Ten Red Hen’s innovative Clown Bible, the very original show at Willard Metalshop Theater behind the Middle School on Telegraph Avenue, in which a troupe of clowns pluck red noses, not apples, from the Tree of Life, and re-enact Biblical stories as a vaudeville-like musical comedy revue, in a rather literal rendering of chapter and verse, anointed with circus shtick. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 2425 Stuart St. $15-20. www.brownpapertickets or tenredhen.net. 

EN POINTE DANCE CO. 

EnPointe Youth Dance Company performs at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Roda Theater in downtown Berkeley. These talented high school students not only dance classical ballet, modern and hip hop but choreograph their pieces, design their costumes and lighting, and do all their own fundraising and publicity. $8-12. 2015 Addison St. enpointedance@gmail.com or EnPointe Youth Dance Company on My Space. 

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH 

Mary Mackey, Rochelle Ratner, Corrine Robins, and Eileen R. Tabios read at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476.  

Poets Lisa Fishman and Richard Meier read at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. Deborah Vinograd and Jan Steckel read at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. Small Press Distribution hosts poets Juliana Spahr, Will Alexander, Dodie Bellamy and Albert Flynn DeSilver at 2 p.m. Saturday at 1341 Seventh St. 524-1668. Linh Dinh and Graham Foust read at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Evie Shockley and Barbara Jane Reyes read at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320.

When I was 5 years old my kindergarten class, for whatever reason, took a field trip to the home of one of my classmates. Too young to have any notion of the local geography, I had no idea where the house was located. It was only when I stepped out the back door of the boy’s house into his backyard that I recognized the yellow playhouse and battered metal slide and realized that this was the house directly behind my own. I peeked through a hole in the fence and saw my own backyard: the lawn, the patio, the rusted swingset, the family dog sniffing about in the tall grass, the soccer ball under a tree where I had left it the day before.  

It was a disconcerting experience to look back in on my life from another vantage point. For the first time I realized that to the boy who lived behind me, I was the boy who lived behind him. Thus I had to face the uncomfortable truth that I was not the center of the universe, but just one little boy from one family in one house in one neighborhood in a world of other little boys and families and houses and neighborhoods.  

It was a revelation for which I was not quite ready. But, being 5, I soldiered on. 

This notion of moving outward in order to look back in is the central theme of Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger, in both content and form, though the protagonist’s epiphanies are hardly as simple or as benign. The film screens at 8:50 p.m. Friday as part of Pacific Film Archive’s ongoing retrospective of the modernist director’s career. 

The Passenger stars Jack Nicholson, in one of his finest performances, as David Locke, an American journalist abroad who seizes an unforeseen opportunity to shed his life and identity in exchange for the life of Robertson, an acquaintance who has just died. Locke leaves behind a wife, a reputation, a home, everything, to take on the life of a man he barely knows. Using the man’s datebook to meet his appointments, Locke gradually unravels clues as to the life and identity of the man he has become, finding himself in more than a bit of trouble along the way.  

We get a hint as to the catalyst of this adventure in the form of documentary footage of the journalist at work. In the clip, Locke, during an interview, hands over his camera at the request of his subject, who then casts the camera’s gaze back at Locke and begins to question the questioner. The tables are turned, and Locke, squirming before the lens, has nothing to say. He has unexpectedly been given a glimpse of himself—his first, it seems, and just for a moment—and has no answer for what he sees. He grimaces in discomfort, looks about nervously, then reaches forward to take the camera back, suggesting that he is fundamentally ill-equipped to deal with the truth with which he has been presented.  

How much more resilient the 5-year-old who faces such a revelation, for he is unencumbered by the lifetime of assumptions and psychic inertia built up by the 35-year-old—a series of elaborate constructions each of which must be re-examined. The child’s epiphany is at least rooted in a sense of place; he sees a yard and a house, a family within the house and the house within a neighborhood—while Locke looks inward and finds nothing at all, or at least nothing he recognizes. 

Thus he takes the opportunity to adopt a new identity, to shed the dead skin of a life through which he has been sleepwalking and to usurp the life and identity of a dead man, to become a passenger on the road of another man’s narrative. The journey is both alluring and dangerous; Locke, as Roberston, picks up a young lover, negotiates with underworld thugs, and cruises scenic byways as he works his away across Europe. 

The closing sequence is a tour de force, a demonstration of bravura filmmaking for which the groundwork has been carefully laid over the preceding two hours. In a single, unbroken shot, Antonioni again employs the out-and-in motif, with Locke lying down on a hotel bed and turning away as the camera begins an extremely slow tracking movement toward the window. The movement and ambient sounds of the street draw our attention outside: Locke’s lover walks away, then returns; a boy throws stones; a trumpet sounds; cars pass by, stop, and move on; the two thugs arrive, and one walks toward the girl. All the while the camera steadily pushes forward until, just before it passes through the window, it pans slightly to the right to catch the faint reflection of the second thug entering the room, drawing his gun and using the rumbling of a passing car to mask the shot that kills Locke.  

The camera continues outward and into the street, following the arrival of the police and Locke’s estranged wife. And as she enters the hotel, the camera, still in one unbroken shot, turns back toward the building and pushes again toward the window, looking back in as she and the girl and the police enter the room. “I never knew him,” she says, when asked if she recognizes the man on the bed. “Yes,” says the girl, when the question is put to her. And Antonioni has left us with something of a metaphysical quandary.  

Who is this man? Is it Locke? Is it Robertson? Is it either, or is it anyone at all? Antonioni has forced us to look back in on our assumptions and re-examine the man we have come to know over the course of the film. Yet by the time the camera has made its journey outward, wheeled around and turned back in on itself, reality has shifted; Locke has ceased to exist. For that very act of introspection and the self-consciousness it requires permanently alters the man, the child or the moviegoer who experiences it, and in that long, lingering single shot, the film itself takes on the slow-motion processing of that self-awareness, stretching to contain not just action, but the mental processing of that action—the self-conscious preview, experience, re-play and analysis of its every facet.  

The Passenger is perhaps Antonioni’s masterpiece, the most successful merging of his patient, contemplative style and his somewhat grim world view, coalescing in the most tantalizingly inconclusive of conclusions. It is the dark side of rationalism: It is not “I think, therefore I am,” but “I think too much, therefore I cease to exist.” 

THE PASSENGER (1975) 

Screening at 8:50 p.m. Friday as part of  

“Modernist Master: Michelangelo Antonioni,”  

a retrospective of the director’s career running through April 22 at Pacific Film Archive. $4-$8. 

2575 Bancroft Way. 642-5249. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

Photograph: Jack Nicholson plays a journalist adrift in North Africa in The Passenger.

Manzi: The Adventures of Young Cesar Chavez will be performed by Active Arts Theare for Young Audiences at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 14, and 2 p.m. Sunday, as well as the following weekend, at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 

Active Arts took a shorter version of the show on tour around local schools and libraries, including Berkeley Main Library, during the week-long festivities for Cesar Chavez Day. At Thousand Oaks Elementary School, Chavez’s nephew spoke before the show, “then an actor appeared onstage, portraying Chavez’s brother, father of the man who just spoke,” said Nina Meehan of Active Arts, “The children—and the nephew!—saw him act out the part. It was one of the coolest things.” 

Meehan noted that the longer version that will play Julia Morgan “goes quickly—one scene, everybody’s swimming, then they’re under the stars; after that, in a car, then picking crops. One scene goes into another seamlessly.”  

At the Morgan, there are more advantages for the audience than just watching a fuller version of Chavez’s childhood story. “To see theater in a beautiful space like the Morgan, with the sense of space and the lighting, is so different,” said Meehan. “When they’re out under the stars, and the uncle tells about the father and his struggle with injustice, you can feel the desert evening in the darkness—especially compared to the fluorescent lighting in the libraries and schools!” 

The script is by Jose Cruz Gonzalez, an experienced writer for young audiences. “We began looking for a script for a touring show,” Meehan said, “Something thematic for Cesar Chavez Day, and found out about Jose Cruz Gonzalez, who’d written Tomas and the Library Lady about Tomas Rivera, that had toured in Arizona. It’s written in the style of El Teatro Campesino—and our director, Dena Martinez, has worked with El Teatro as well as the SF Mime Troupe, so with masks and signs that identify the characters and their situations, four actors play eight characters—plus, there are children in the play.” 

The show has original music, with one actor “gently underscoring” the action and words on guitar. “The Julia Morgan has such great acoustics,” said Meehan, “that we don’t need to mic’ guitarist or actors. There’s a natural feel to it.” 

There will be educational games and activities in the lobby, featuring the musical instruments, mask-making and bilingual games with words in both English and Spanish.  

“To see Chavez portrayed as a child is a terrific tool,” said Meehan. “When you bring 250 kids, kindergarten through 5th grade together in the audience, and they see young Cesar doing what they do, playing with toys and swimming, then when they see the family have to leave their farm or work in the fields and sing of that repetitive work, day in and day out, there’s that instant recognition which carries over to the more difficult or unfamiliar things. A 4-year-old saw it and really enjoyed it, as did her family.” 

“The kids start to identify with the young Cesar, so that by the end, when they see him grown up with the United Farm Workers, there’s a universal feel to it all. The point is made that Chavez wasn’t born a leader, he became one. So the question is posed, without being asked, what can a child, what can one person do? What can you do?” 

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others ... One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. 

—W. E. B. DuBois 

Playwright Tanya Barfield of Blue Door, which just opened at Berkeley Rep, quoted these lines of DuBois in an American Theatre magazine interview (reprinted in the Rep’s program), for which her protagonist’s dilemma is emblematic. Lewis (David Fonteno), a mathematics professor, opens the show saying, “I won’t go to the Million Man March—and my wife wants a divorce!” 

The audience laughs, and Lewis continues to tell of his loneliness during—and now after—his 25-year marriage, which his wife, who’s white, has told him made her lonely, too, that he cut himself off from his background, isn’t a whole person. Lewis compounds the issue: “I watch my wife leave, and I divorce myself from myself.” 

His reflections and insomnia provoke reveries in which his dead relations appear (all played by Teagle F. Bougere): great-grandfather Simon, Simon’s son Jesse, Lewis’ brother Rex, communing with him, telling him their stories (which he’s heard, but forgotten or blocked out, having known all but Jesse), challenging him. Lewis questions who his intended audience would be, whose theirs is ... but they are talking to him, just as his own stories show that he’s been talking to the white establishment at his school in his head. 

Bougere fluidly slips in and out of character, spanning a century and more of black history—of American history—in vignettes inspired by research into WPA interviews and other oral accounts, his actor’s persona allowing the dead to speak, their experience to coalesce in one living, moving body. And Fonteno, struggling with it all as Lewis, is the witness in this two-man show. He’s a witness who finally enacts the part of his own drunken, later rejected, father, beating his younger self, the young Lewis as played by Bougere. This leads the mathematician (author of a book on “the repudiation of time” as incidents unconnected with the present, who was put on mandatory sabbatical because he insulted a black student he misunderstood as saying “house nigger” to him rather than “Heidegger”) to experience a kind of epiphany. He realizes the bond between himself and his father, and with their forebears, who endured, suffering the outrages of slavery, Jim Crow, lynch law and attempted assimilation.  

“White people try; black people fail!” shouted Lewis’ father on “the day he stopped singing.” 

The playwright has also written songs for the show, which are remarkably effective, authentic sounding pieces well-delivered mostly by Bougere. They accent the lyrical quality of a script that ambitiously strives, through its dual character of reflection and of storytelling, to do in one evening what August Wilson aimed at, on a different scale, in his life’s work, the series of plays that covers the African-American experience, generation by generation. 

This quest is ably fleshed out by the excellence of the two actors, directed with care and inspiration by noted actor Delroy Lindo, an Oakland resident. Set and lighting design (Kate Edmunds and Kathy Perkins, respectively) complement the mathematical and literary themes that underpin Lewis’s reveries with a curved ramp that descends to his easy chair, offset by a bookcase that reaches to the stars. 

The admirable objectives of Blue Door are undermined, however, by an unfinished, even glib quality to the construction of the script, which never rises above a “bitty” collection of vignettes, in one sense parodying Lewis’s compartmentalized conception of Time, in another sense a touch melodramatic. The lyricism that describes the events of the stories often renders them more symbolic than original, as the ending demonstrates. And the volume of research undertaken for the background of the stories can’t explain historical improbabilities in their telling, like a slave learning how to read by (apparently) reciting Moby Dick or being told a poem by Emily Dickinson, neither of which was much read (Dickinson was essentially unpublished) until many years later. 

Given amplitude by its fine acting and direction, its songs and its crucial sense of humor (sometimes a salutary, dry humor), it’s unfortunate that the thoughtful playwright met in the interview in the program didn’t take the references (and gestures toward) the self-consciousness of characters and audience further, in a real Pirandellian sense, bringing her reflectiveness, which parallels Lewis’s, into the heart of the play, going deeper into the contradictions between the stubborn memory of oppression and the wish to stand alone, start anew—and discover “that sense of the opposite ... what you find instead of what you expect to find,” as Pirandello himself defined Humor. 

Photograph: Kevin Berne 

David Fonteno and Teagle F. Bourgere star in Berkeley Rep’s Blue Door, directed by Delroy Lindo.

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven made his mark in 1977 with Soldier of Orange, a film about the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. Now, after a 20-year-stint in Hollywood making films such as RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven has returned to Holland to make another World War II epic, Black Book. But unfortunately the director took home with him every unpalatable and hackneyed trick he’d picked up in his travels.  

Is there not enough drama, enough tragedy, enough evil and nobility and pain and sorrow in the story of the Holocaust? Apparently not, as Verhoeven and fellow screenwriter Gerard Soeteman have fashioned the raw material of history into a trite melodrama, attempting to merge the all-too-real horrors of the Nazi march across Europe and persecution of the Jews with the twists and turns of a swashbuckling thriller.  

Every overwrought and cliched B-movie device is use. It’s a veritable glossary of cheap and simplistic filmmaking: The suffering but enduring heroine, who has seen so much, suffered so much, that she cannot even cry...until she can; the milquetoast resistance-fighter sideman for whom the firing of a gun into a dirty Nazi Jew-killer would mean going against every Christian moral fiber in his body...unless that Nazi Jew-killer should heap insult upon crime against humanity by taking the Lord’s name in vain. Every symbol is underlined and in bold, used, overused and repeated in close-up: Witness the prized locket containing portraits of martyred Jewish parents, employed once as a key to gain admittance to the office of a sympathetic gentile, and later used, in dramatic close-up, as a tool to quite literally seal the fate of a traitor and—once again all-too-literally—for the beset-upon heroine to find closure...by locking the traitor in a coffin where he will suffocate along with the jewels and cash he looted from his victims.  

The score too adds to the mess, descending more often than not into camp Hollywood edge-of-your-seat spectacle. Villainous acts are underscored with ominous, Darth Vader-esque chords; suspense is heightened with blasts of the horn section and the staccato thrusts of plaintive violins. Every five minutes you get the feeling Indiana Jones himself is about to burst into the room, and what a welcome relief if he did.  

The villains of Black Book would be worthy of him. They dish out a wealth of sexualized cruelty in graphic scenes that have become a Verhoeven trademark. The head of the Dutch Gestapo doesn’t merely hold our heroine at gunpoint, but waits until she’s topless and points the gun at her exposed breast. And when an unruly mob assails her in a prison camp, they again make sure she’s half-naked before dumping a steaming cauldron of excrement over her head.  

There may be talent and skill at work in Black Book, but unfortunately it has been applied toward unworthy material. For no amount of directorial talent or photographic competence can make this film work; no cast of polished, handsome actors—no matter how lovely their period costumes—can rescue the turgid dialogue. Nothing can save Black Book from itself. Not even Indiana Jones.  

BLACK BOOK 

Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Written by Verhoeven and Gerard Soeteman.  

Starring Carice van Houten, Sebastian Kock, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn.  

145 minutes. In Dutch, German and Hebrew with English subtitles.  

Rated R for strong violence, graphic nudity, sexuality and language.  

Playing at Shattuck Cinemas. 

Photograph: Carice van Houten stars as a Jew infiltrating the Gestapo in  

Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book.

Facing Albany Hill at the extreme northwestern corner of Berkeley is the Thousand Oaks neighborhood, subdivided in 1909. Noted for its scenic beauty, Thousand Oaks is also the land of a thousand rocks. These silica-rich volcanic rocks, named Northbrae rhyolite by geologist Andrew Lawson, are scattered wherever the eye may fall. Some of the largest may be found in public parks donated to the city by the Mason-McDuffie realty company, but many more are hidden from view in private gardens or under houses. 

Thousand Oaks developer John Hopkins Spring sold lots in the new tract with the promise that he would build his own home there. Although he reputedly owed more than a million dollars at the time, Spring was true to his word. He engaged architect John Hudson Thomas, who had made a name for himself as a designer of imposing houses, and in 1912–14 erected a 12,000-square-foot mansion, built entirely of reinforced concrete. 

One of the earliest and largest homes built in Thousand Oaks in Spring’s wake was Villa della Rocca, the residence of Stephen Joseph Sill (1856–1930) and his wife, Victorine Grace Harlan Sill (1858–1944), constructed in 1913. 

Stephen Sill was president of S.J. Sill Co., the largest retail grocery concern in the East Bay. Both he and his wife were born in the Sacramento delta and grew up in Woodland, Yolo County. Their fathers were farm owners active in civic affairs. Stephen’s father sometimes doubled as public administrator, while Victorine’s father, the conservative Democrat Joseph H. Harlan, was elected to the state Senate in 1879. 

Married in 1886, the Sills moved from Woodland to Berkeley in 1900. Mr. Sill established a tony grocery store at 2201 Shattuck Ave. that catered to the town elite and grew in leaps and bounds. Within two years, Sill had added a second storefront and included delicacies and fruit in his merchandise. Two years later, the business was incorporated and occupied three storefronts on Shattuck and a fourth on Allston Way. By 1906, another store had been opened at 2447 Telegraph Ave. The 1908 directory now listed the Shattuck store address as 2201–2209, and the merchandise also included vegetables and hardware. Bakery goods followed. Fine teas and coffees were a specialty. 

In 1915, the store would move to 2145 University Ave. The new building was designed by James W. Plachek and constructed especially for Sill’s by William J. Acheson, who owned so many commercial structures along the north side of University Avenue that the stretch was known as the Acheson Block. 

According to Sill’s obituary, “For nearly a quarter of a century the business flourished largely due to the great personality of Stephen Sill.” A large share of the store’s revenues came from home deliveries, made first by horse and wagon and later by an Autocar delivery truck. 

When Sill retired in 1924, he sold the business to the Appleton Grocery Company, which made a point of advertising itself as the successor of Sill’s. The Sill’s building, a designated Berkeley Landmark, has been occupied by Berkeley Hardware since 1964. 

Victorine Sill was a graduate of Mills College and a prodigious club woman. Her associations included the Twentieth Century Club, the Oratorio Society, the Mills Club of Alameda County, and the San Francisco Art Association. Her husband was a member of the Masons, Knights Templar, and the Elks, as well as a leading member of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. Both were involved in Democratic Party politics, and in 1908 traveled to Denver to attend the national convention that nominated William Jennings Bryan as its presidential candidate (Bryan lost to William Howard Taft). Although Stephen Sill was the official delegate, it was his wife who made news by waving the California banner from a box occupied by the wives of the state’s delegates during the 80-minute ovation to Bryan. 

Mrs. Sill was also a well-known traveler, described by the Oakland Tribune as one “who gets more than the ordinary individual out of her journeying, and her experiences are always most interesting.” In 1907, following an extended tour of Europe, Mrs. Sill was asked by the Cap and Bells Club of San Francisco to deliver a paper on her “wanderings in the Old World,” featuring “a description of the various shopping methods and ideas employed by the women of European cities.” The Sills would make several trips to Europe and travel to the Far East, South America, and the Caribbean. 

The couple’s first Berkeley home was at 2224 Dana St., but within two years they moved to 2120 Kittredge, and by 1904 they were living above the store at 2209 Shattuck. They entertained regularly and lavishly. In May 1904, the Oakland Tribune reported that on the 10th of that month the Sills had entertained 85 guests at their beautifully decorated, spacious home. 

Eventually, fashion must have dictated a move away from downtown. In the wide-open Thousand Oaks, they selected a choice lot near the Great Stone Face. Taking their cue from John Hopkins Spring, they turned to John Hudson Thomas for the design of their home. 

A childless couple, the Sills nonetheless built a rambling residence on a lot extending from Thousand Oaks Boulevard (then called Escondido Avenue) to Yosemite Road. The house has entrances on both streets, with a garden on each side. No attempt was made to remove the rocks—one large rock juts directly out of the house wall on the west side. Sturdy buttresses and irregular massing of varying heights make the structure appear like a citadel. The Sills, who had encountered similarly situated structures while traveling in Italy, named their house Villa della Rocca (rocca is a rock-top fortress). 

According to Stephen Sill’s obituary, “the beautiful Sill estate” was “always open to the great hosts of friends of Mr. and Mrs. Sill.” The house boasts a ballroom unique to Berkeley—entirely wood-lined and informal in the living-with-nature tradition. A large stage can accommodate musical performances and amateur theatricals. Mrs. Sill used this ballroom to advantage; in March 1915, she offered a musical program to members of the Mills Club. The following October, the Sills hosted a dance for 60 guests from the Benedicts Club. In November 1919, it was the turn of the Five Hundred Club members to enjoy the Sills’ hospitality. 

In 1925, following Stephen Sill’s retirement, the couple sold the house and moved to Benbow, Humboldt County. After her husband’s death, Victorine Sill must have felt isolated in the north country and returned to Berkeley, where she took up permanent residence in the Berkeley Women’s City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Here she continued her rounds of social activities to a ripe old age. 

Villa della Rocca’s ballroom and rock-strewn garden will be open on BAHA’s Spring House Tour from 1-5 p.m. Sunday, May 6. 

Among the Rocks: Houses and Gardens in Thousand Oaks 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association Spring House Tour, 1-5 p.m. Sunday, May 6. $35; BAHA members $25. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com. 

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

Photograph: Daniella Thompson 

Villa della Rocca will be featured in BAHA’s May 6 Spring House Tour.

It’s a little off the gardening track, but who could resist a title like Flower Confidential? Actually, anything by Amy Stewart would be hard to resist. Her previous book, The Earth Moved, was a quirky introduction to the world of earthworms, touching on the giant worm of the Willamette Valley (three feet long and lily-scented) and Charles Darwin’s late-in-life fascination with worms (his long-suffering wife Emma played the piano for them; they were unresponsive).  

Flower Confidential (306 pages, $23.95 from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill) is maybe not all that quirky, but still a great read. A cut-flower aficionado, Stewart sets out to trace the travels of flowers from breeder to grower to auctioneer to florist to your table. For many of them, it’s been a long strange trip. 

Stewart, a semi-local writer (lives in Humboldt County and writes for the San Francisco Chronicle) introduces a few semi-local characters, like the famously eccentric breeder Leslie Woodriff who created the ‘Star Gazer’ lily; and Lane DeVries, the current head of Sun Valley, the growing operation that marketed it.  

But most of the action is overseas. Cut flowers are now a major Third World export commodity, with Colombia, Ecuador, and Kenya leading the pack. Stewart visited several growers in Ecuador (Colombia being a bit dicey these days), where working conditions and health and safety regulations are much different from California. 

Those gorgeous super-roses—“the floral equivalent of a Tiffany diamond, all polished and carved and styled to perfection”—have hidden costs. 

Flower Confidential isn’t quite a horticultural follow-up to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, though. Stewart seems almost as disturbed by what she encounters in the Netherlands, where she has been escorted through the Dutch-efficient Aalsmeer auction by a public relations person who confesses to being sick of flowers. At a company called Multi Color Flowers, she meets the Holy Grail of breeders, the blue rose: “Actually, it’s hard to compare this blue to any color you’d find in nature. It was more of a Las Vegas blue, a sequin-and-glitter blue. A blue you’d find in nail polish or gumballs, but not in a garden.” The blue rose, of course, has had a dye job. 

Stewart meets the flower inspectors of Miami airport, an unsung part of the Homeland Security task force; talks to upscale florists in Manhattan and street-kiosk vendors in Santa Cruz; and speculates on the future of the industry; she’s intrigued by a small chain called Field of Flowers that aspires to be the Home Depot of the cut-flower world. In an epilogue, she witnesses the Valentine’s Day rush at a flower shop in Eureka.  

In the end, you’re left with mixed impressions. What the global cut-flower industry does is remarkable, and so is the amount of jet fuel it burns in the process—and we’re not even talking about chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Critics of the American Way of Food have been talking about “food-miles”: the distances traveled from farm to plate. It might also be useful to think about “flower-miles.”

I don’t know about you but my eyes are often bigger than my stomach. It’s a constant problem. Well my column last week suffered for this malady and left so much unaddressed that I just have to devote another page to these worthy issues. 

Let’s take a look at heating. As houses progressed through the 20th century much changed. The earliest houses had coal burners in each room, although this was more common in 19th century houses. Aside from generating copious volumes of carbon monoxide and killing more than a few people, this was sooty and just plain hard work since one had to build and maintain coal fires 24/7 to keep body and soul in warmth. These coal burners can still be seen in the dining rooms of many of our earliest houses in the East Bay and are often mistaken for very small fire places. 

Coal gave way to natural gas or methane, the same flammable gas produced by all us mammals. At first natural gas was used without any oderant added and quite a few explosions resulted (and a few asphyxiations). A nasty odor was added to make us aware of it’s presence and a version of this is still in use today. Yes, that funny smell is added. Methane, like carbon monoxide is odorless.  

The first gas heaters (both central and floor mounted) had no pilot safety devices and relied upon the pilot to stay lit. If the pilot got shut off and one did not check prior to operation, a burner could fill a space with gas and….Kaboom. No more Victorian. By the time we move from our old Vicky to our 1930 Albany house we find a pilot safety device that would turn off the burner when the flame of the pilot blew out and would not operate until the device had been re-lit. Stoves from the 40’s also gained this feature as did early central furnaces. 

By the time the first El Cerrito houses were being built, forced air heating had arrived and floor furnaces began to slowly disappear. Richmond houses of the 50 ‘s and 60’s had smaller more efficient furnaces as well as wall heaters for the little houses. All of these were somewhat safer but all were and are vulnerable to cracked heat exchangers (the metal container that transfers heat from the noxious hot atmosphere above the burner to the clean interior atmosphere we breath). Today we have much more sophisticated heaters in the form of high efficiency “condensing” furnaces and the wondrous but rarely seen hydronic units that heat water and warm floors. 

Plumbing has advanced in a few ways over the last hundred years but, surprisingly, is largely the same. The major difference is in the piping material. Galvanized steel was used prior to 1900 and stood fast for at least 40 years. Around the beginning of the second world war, copper began to appear for hot pipes alone! We see this in El Cerrito houses and it’s a funny thing. Why would anyone use two kinds of piping in a house, two sets of methods, two sets of purchases. Very odd. The reason is that copper does not fill in with sediment, as steel is quite apt to do and hot pipes fill in much quicker than cold ones. So by 1940 the difference was well observed and some clever gal or guy suggested using that new (and surely expensive) copper pipe for the hot pipes.  

I’m certain that once a constituency of plumbers had learned the secrets of soldering pipe, it became evident that this was not only superior in terms of avoiding the corrosion and mineral infill that kills water flow but that this was substantially simpler and quicker to install. This is surely the reason that within a matter of just a few years, nearly all plumbing systems were solely copper. But if you keep your eyes peeled in E.C., you might just catch sight of one of these goofy systems. 

Many “galvy” systems had partial upgrades installed using copper and it’s always important that the two metals be kept apart because they form a battery that robs electrons from steel, the less noble metal (no offense intended). This effect can cause a great deal of corrosion resulting in a loss of pressure as well as leaks. This is commonly seen and cause for some attention, though nobody every died from an impoverished shower (and only Austin Powers dies from plumbing leaks). 

Berkeley and Oakland houses up through the thirties share these trials but by the time those World War II, El Cerrito tracts were going in, copper was used nearly everywhere. Richmond homes are also nearly all cupric and nary a one has a bad shower. 

CPVC (a stronger and more flexible version of the commonly seen sprinkler piping) is in use for water piping in many areas now and has just been approved for general use by California. Though we don’t see it around here now, we’ll be seeing a lot of it soon. 

Waste piping also makes a journey though the decades starting with cast-iron “bell & spigot” piping. The bell and spigot is the part where one end is swollen and the other end fits inside. The joint was packed with Oakum (a tarred fiber often made from hemp. Don’t even THINK about smoking this stuff) and filled with molten lead. Installing this proved so toxic to plumbers that by the 1960s the practice was eliminated in favor of “hubless” cast-iron, joined with a rubber and metal fitting. Just imagine breathing lead fumes all day. My liver hurts just thinking about it. 

Cast-iron systems began using steel threaded fittings for the small branches pretty early on but gave way to copper for small branches during those El Cerrito years. These may be the best systems in existence since cast-iron is very durable and copper is almost corrosion proof. Sadly, copper was too expensive and systems after 1960 began moving back to cast-iron and steel. But wait, Benjamin, I have one word for you. Plastics! (name that movie!) ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) piping arrived in the 1960’s and quickly ended the debate. ABS was so cheap and easy to install that nearly every house build after 1970 contains it (except where local authorities said no). Nearly every Richmond house has ABS and a few have defective piping due some bad batches made in the mid-’80s. 

I’ll finish with a brief climb to the roof. If you own a house from before 1920, it probably had one of two kinds of roofing. If the roof had a slight slope (often called a flat roof) it was almost certainly a tar and gravel roof. If the roof had a handsome slope, it was sure to be finished in wooden shingle. While tar and gravel is still in use, its days are sorely numbered having been confronted with a serious contender in the form of Modified Bitumen, which is sheet material that gets welded together and can last three decades.  

Wood shingle is no longer allowed here, or in many areas, due to its tendency to burn your house to the ground (one burning limb on your roof and it’s 1923 (or 1991) all over again).  

Composition or Asphalt shingles came along in the 1940s and were designed for use alone or as a covering over old wooden shingle. As a result it is not uncommon to see houses from the 1930 and earlier covered with two or more (I’ve seen four!) layers of asphalt shingle. This practice is undesirable as it adds a great deal of weight and will surely have an unpleasant “impact” when the big one hits.  

Well, once again, I’ve emitted a large volume of an inert non-combustible gas and left many subject untouched. Remember that we live in a history museum stretching from Oakland to Richmond (and out in all directions). Don’t forget to check out our lovely exhibits. The tours are free. 

Are you read to walk? 

When the Hayward Fault ruptures, if it’s a big one like the geologists say it well could be, we can expect that many roads will be impassable and, if you’re caught out in your car, driving home will not be an option. 

So it’s a great idea to have an emergency kit, a pair of sneakers or walking shoes, and some extra water in your vehicle. Depending upon where you are and how far from home (or other destination), you could be walking for a couple of days.  

Make this part of your plan and discuss with family members what will be your meeting location. After the quake, you won’t be talking on the phone—land line or cell—and you don’t want to be guessing about these things. 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.

FRIDAY, APRIL 13 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Amy Meyer on “Guardians for the Golden Gate” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Film Festival for Diversity “Crash” at 6:30 p.m. in the Longfellow Middle School Auditorium, 1500 Derby at Sacramento. Free, including dinner and child care. Presented by the Berkeley PTA Council. 644-6320. 

“Growing Democracy” A documentary on what people living outside the U.S. think about us, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Womensong Circle Participatory Singing led by Betsy Rose at 7:15 p.m. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $15-$20. 525-7082. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 14 

Rosa Parks Elementary School Rummage and Bake Sale Sat. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Multi Purpose Room, 920 Allston Way at 8th St. 848-9141. 

Berkeley Greens meet at 10:30 a.m. at the third floor meeting room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., to discuss an Earth Day booth, a solidarity event with the UC Oak Tree sitters, and a picnic/family day. 333-0539. www.acgreens.org/berkeley.html  

Marsh Creek Wildflower Walk Join Berkeley Path Wanderers on a 6-mile Morgan Territory wildflower loop led by naturalist Jim Hale. Call 549-2908 for carpool infromation and directions. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $3-$5. Registration required. 525-2233. 

Toddler Nature Walk, especially for 2-3 year olds, to learn about animal habitats. At 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Older Women’s League (OWL) on Current Nursing Home Issues with Prescott Cole, attorney for California Adocates for Nursing Home Reform, at 10:30 a.m. at the Berkeley Co-Housing Community Room, 2220 Sacramento St. 528-3739. 

“The Temperature is Rising” A town Hall meeting on Global Warming with Assemblywoman Loni Hancock at 9:30 a.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. Kisasi.Brooks@asm.ca.gov 

Step It Up - Submerged Shopping Center Day of Action Join First Congregational Church of Berkeley’s rally calling on Congress to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050, from noon at 3 p.m. at Christie Ave and Powell St, Emeryville. Free. www.fccb.org 

EarthDance Environmental Film Festival with documentaries, comedies, animation and family-friendly offerings from 10 am. to 11 p.m., and noon to 10 p.m. on Sun. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$40. 238-2063.  

9th Annual LGBT Family Night at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA from 6 to 9 p.m. at 2001 Allston Way. Dinner followed by swimming, kindergym, sports, crafts, resource tables, and much more. Cost is $3, $10 per family. 665-3238. 

Small Press Distribution Open House and Book Sale from noon to 4 p.m., with poetry readings at 2 p.m. at 1341 7th St. 524-1668.  

Iris Show and Sale The Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society Iris Show and Sale Sat. from 1 to 5 p.m. atn Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. 277-4200. 

Basic Composting Workshop from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “Simple, Healthful Japanese Cuisine” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45, plus $5 for food and materials. Registration required. 531-COOK.  

Mt. Wanda Bird Walk Join a Park Ranger for a walk in the hills. Terrain is steep, wear walking shoes and bring water and binoculars. Rain cancels. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Cal-Trans Park and Ride lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. 925-228-8860. 

The Great War Society meets to discuss “Allied Invasion in Russia After WWI” by Marvin Weisberger at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

“The Crisis in Africa: Oil, Islam and Darfur” with Professors Martha Saavedra, David Skinner and Barry Schutz at 7 p.m. at the Alameda Public Affairs Forum, Home of Truth, 1300 Grand St., Alameda. www.alamedaforum.org 

NAACP Meeting at 1 p.m. at 2108 Russell St. All welcome. 845-7416.  

Dramatically Speaking Toastmasters Club meets to discuss talking on television at 9 a.m. at 1950 Franklin St., Room 2F. RSVP required, ID needed to get into building. 581-8675. 

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Citibank, 4101 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 267-1915, ext. 500. www.hopalong.org  

“Critical Elements to Recovery from Trauma: a Case Study of Dissociation” Lecture by Priscilla Fleischer of the Sanville Insitute at 10 a.m. at a Berkeley home. Call for reservations and location. 848-8420. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 15 

Hike the History of the East Bay Regional Parks A 4-mile hike through Tilden’s canyons. Meet at 9 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Behind the Streams Meet the insects that call our streams home at 1 p.m. at Lone Oak Stagin Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Open Garden” Join the Little Farm gardener for composting, planting, watering and reaping the rewards of our work, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cancelled only by heavy rain. 525-2233.  

Holocaust Remembrance Day Event Co-sponsored by Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the East Bay and the City of Berkeley, and honoring survivors Eva Blustein and Rita Kuhn from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Berkeley City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Speakers include Diane L. Wolf and music by Judy Frankel and Delphine Sherman. 558-7800, ext. 257. 

Network for Spiritual Progressives hosts a teach-in at 2 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. 644-1200. 

Iris Show and Sale The Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society Iris Show and Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. 277-4200. www.spiritualprogressives.org 

Red Oak Victory Ship Pancake Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on board the ship in Richmond Harbor, 1337 Canal Blvd. Cost is $6, children under 5 free. 237-2933. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. info@eastbaylabyrinthproject.org 

Voices for Impeachment with Dennis Loo, Peter Phillips, Editors, Impeach the President; Debra Sweet, National Director, The World Can't Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime!; Elizabeth de la Vega, United States v. George W. Bush; Sophie deVries, National Impeachment Coordinator, Democrats.com, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at King Middle School. Donation $5-$25 sliding scale. 415-864-5153.  

“We Don’t Play Golf Here and other Globalization Stories” Saul Landau’s video on the impact of globalization in Mexico, at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Congressman Pete McCloskey, Jr. on “War or World Peace Through the Law?” at 12:30 p.m. at International House, Ida & Robert Sproul Rooms, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Sponsored by the Democratic World Federalists. Cost is $10. 415-227-4880. 

Teen Wild Guide Training at the Oakland Zoo Teen volunteers are needed to assist in the new Valley Children’s Zoo. Training from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. For information call 632-9525.  

Earth Day at the Oakland Zoo Learn how to live more lightly on the planet with activities for children and a visit to the newly restored Arroyo Viejo Creek, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 632-9525.  

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair flats from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Erika Rosenberg on “Seeing through Self-Images” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 16 

Tax Day Event Public granting of over $10,000 in resisted war taxes to community groups at 6:30 p.m. at 2220 Sacramento St. Potluck, bring something to go with soup. Free and wheelchair accessible. Everyone welcome. 843-9877. 

Earth Week A week long festival dedicated to celebrating the Earth and raising the community's awareness of environmental issues April 16-20 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sproul Plaza, UC Campus. earthweek.berkeley.edu 

“Improving Global Health: The Role of Universities” Panel discussion at 6:30 p.m. at West Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. abkhan@berkeley.edu 

“A Forgotten Resistance: The Mosque of Paris” A screening of the documentary with Annette Herskovits who survived the Holocaust as a young child in France, at 12:30 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. Brown-bag lunch. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“No End in Sight” Documentary film on the months immediately before and after the toppling of Saddam, followed by a conversation with the director Charles Ferguson, at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way. Sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. 

“Religion and Power” The 2007 McCoy Memorial Lecture, with Robert Bellah at 4:30 p.m. at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. Free, but RSVP requested. 849-8241. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Class at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams, 4341 Piedmont Ave., 2nd Flr., Oakland. To register call 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 call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE or go to www.BeADonor.com (Code: UCB) 

TUESDAY, APRIL 17 

Berkeley Garden Club Spring Tea and Floral Design Presentation at 1 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Howard Arendtson, owner of H. Julien Designs, will be our guest speaker. Tickets available at the door for $8. 845-4482 . 

Berkeley High School Red and Golden Girls Luncheon for BHS women graduates from the class of 1957 and before at 11 a.m. at the Berkeley City Club. Tickets are $35. 845-5858 or 526-3619. 

Tilden Mini-Rangers An after-school porgram for ages 8-12 to learn about conservation and nature-based activities. Dress to ramble and get dirty. Cost is $6-$8. 636-1684. 

“Winning the Peace in Afghanistan: Challenges and Opportunities” with Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghan Ambassador to the US, Shamim Jawad, International Chair, Roots of Peace, at 1 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. 642-9407. 

Climate Protection Lunch for Berkeley Property Owners and Managers on how to take action against global warming at noon at Berkeley Civic Center, 2180 Milvia St., Redwood Room, 6th flr. RSVP to 520-5486. 

“Push and Pull: Free Trade and Immigration” A discussion with journalist David Bacon and Mexican activist Juan Manuel Sandoval, at 7 p.m. at Oakland Workers Center, 2501 International at 25th, Oakland. Suggested donation $10. www.globalexchange.org 

“Climbing the Seven Summits” A slide show with John Christiana who has climbed the highest peak on each of seven continents, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“A Game as Old as Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption” a discussion with Steven Hiatt, John Perkins, Antonia Juhasz, and others at 7 p.m. at Borders Books, 5903 Shellmound, Emeryville. 654-1633.  

Hunger Action Training with the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Learn the issues and how to become a successful advocate. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Alameda County Community Food Bank, 7900 Edgewater Drive, Oakland. To register call 635-3663, ext. 307. 

Parent Voices Meeting to organize for Stand for Children Day at 6 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. 658-7353. 

Discussion Salon on The Job Market at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

“Myofascial Pain and Sleep Disorders and Auto-immune Diseases” with Dr. Janet Lord at noon at Maffley Auditorium, Herrick Campus of Alta Bates Medical Center, 2001 Dwight Way. 644-3273. 

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. 

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) 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Help support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. Advanced sign-up is required, call 594-5165.  

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 

“Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians” with Laura Flanders at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. TIckets are $5, available at independent bookstores. 848-6767, ext. 609. www.kpfa.org 

“Planning for Urban Wildlife” instead of past practices of extrication and extermination at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall 315A, UC Campus. http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium#8  

International Day of Peasant Struggle with an update on Brazil’s Landless Movement at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donations welcome. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Antonia” A documentary on female rappers in the outskirts of Sao Paulo at 7 p.m. at 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies. 642-2088. 

“Jesus Camp” A documentary about Evangelical Christians at 7 p.m. at the Gray Panthers, 1403 Addison St., behind Andronicos. 548-9696. 

“24 Solo” A documentary sponsored by the NorCal High School Mountain Bike Racing League at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley High Campus. Tickets are $10-$12. 219-9460. www.norcalmtb.org  

“Crude Impact” A documentary on our dependence on fossil fuels at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., near Rockridge BART, Oakland. www.sfbayoil.org/ebpo/ 

New to DVD: “History Boys” at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Albany Library Evening Book Club meets to discuss “Devil in a Blue Dress” by Walter Mosley at 7 p.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

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 548-9840. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 19 

Civic Berkeley Public Forum Navigating the Maze: Lessons We’ve Learned Speakers from eight different neighborhood groups will discuss what works and what doesn’t in dealing with City Hall, at 7 p.m. at the B-Tech Academy, Multipurpose Room, corner of MLK, Jr. Way and Derby. 273-2496. 

“Africa, Islam & the War on Terror” with Dr. Abdi Samatar, Somali scholar from the Univ. of MN, at 6 p.m. at University Hall, 2199 Addison St. at Oxford. Sponsored by Priority Africa Network & the Center for African Studies. Suggesrted donation $5-$10. 238 8080 ext. 309. 

“Iraq, Iran and the Bush Agenda: The Danger of Wider War, the Challenge of Preventing It, and the Urgency of a New Global Dynamic” with Larry Everest at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

“Design for Ecological Democracy” with author Randolph Hester at 7:30 p.m. at the Builders Booksource, 1817 4th St. 845-6874. 

Paul Hawken on the Worldwide Movement for Social and Environmental Change at 7 p.m. at College Preparatory School, 6100 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 652-0111.  

“Mesoamerica Resiste! ... with the Beehive Collective” on their use of innovative graphics on corporate globalization at 7:30 p.m. at AK Press, 674A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.beehivecollective.org 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets to discuss plans to improve People’s Park, business changes on Telegraph Avenue, new police procedures regarding loud parties, at 7:30 p.m. at LeConte School, enter from Russell St. 843-2602. 

“Key Employees: Engage Them or Lose Them” A talk by the Northern California Human Resources Assoc., at 7:30 a.m. at Room 231, The Promenade Bldg., 1936 University Ave. Cost is $30-$50. 415-291-1992. 

Simplicity Forum on “Growing Organic Food in Your Yard, Deck, Neighborhood” with Allie Sullivan, an intern with City Slickers Farm in Oakland, at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 549-3509.  

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. 

Alcohol Screening from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Options Recovery Services, 1919 Addison St. #204. No appointment necessary. 666-9900. 

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. 

Poetry Workshop with Donna Davis, ongoing on Thurs. from 9 a.m. to noon at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Donation $10 per semester. 848-0237. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info

CORRECTION 

The article “Manuscript Documents Voices of the Warm Water Pool” neglected to mention that the Special Needs Acquatic Program (SNAP) at the Berkeley High Warm Water Pool was founded by Dori Maxon.  

Additionally, the manuscript Soakin’ the Blues Away: Voices of the Warm Pool, which was compiled by Daniel Radman, also contains 45 pictures taken at the warm pool. 

For more information on the manuscript or to obtain a copy, contact Daniel Rudman at 849-4145.