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Children’s Community Center Celebrates 80th Anniversary

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 27, 2007

Freedom is what pre-schoolers at Berkeley’s oldest nursery will inherit on their first day of class—freedom to learn and grow through play, by getting their hands wet and their feet muddy and by letting their imaginations soar.  

When preschoolers—both past and present—and their parents and teachers come together Saturday to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Children’s Community Center (CCC), memories will be exchanged and stories told about this unique facility tucked away in one of the greenest corners of North Berkeley. 

“Berkeley had no pre-school before the CCC was founded in 1927,” said Andrea Lampros, who has sent her three children there. Lampros’ husband John Fike is also a proud alumnus of CCC. “Original records indicate that it’s not only the oldest preschool in the city, but also the oldest co-operative preschool west of the Mississippi.” 

The first thing that hits you about CCC is the space. Massive airy classrooms open onto an undulating and lush green playground. 

What makes CCC even more special is the fact that it is directed and managed by parents, in cooperation with a professional teaching staff. 

“There is no hired administration,” Lampros said, as she volunteered at the school Wednesday. “The co-op owns the land. Teachers do the curriculum and parents do everything from cleaning the grounds to creating a budget. We have volunteers who are on the board of directors, but they are made up of parents and teachers as well.” 

Twenty-seven mothers—mostly wives of UC Berkeley professors—garnered financial support from the university’s Institute of Child Welfare and founded CCC 80 years ago. They brought in the institute’s premier early childhood educator Katharine Whiteside Taylor, who was named the school’s founding director. 

“Katherine believed that parents and children learn together through shared life in both home and school. We still believe in that today.” said Lampros. “The mothers wanted their children to have the freedom to play in a natural environment. They felt the need to be involved in their children’s education and to create a community of mothers.” 

If it’s the “dressing up” or the morning cooking project that makes CCC parent Shirley Brewin send her daughter Alden to the frontyard program in the morning, it’s the painting and the music lessons that attract others. 

Allyssa Lamb, who teaches the Front Yard younger kids and is an alumna herself, spoke of bonds she made in 1971 at the center that still exist today. 

“I remember my mother and my grandmother volunteering and making connections with other families. My mother still remembers all the names,” she said, taking part in an obstacle course with 3-year-old Delia Falliers. The program helps kids transition from one stage to the other by letting them eat pretend meals before joining the older group in the Back Yard. 

“Back then it was more moms participating,” she said. “It was all about women. We have quite a few dads now, which is great.” 

Lamb, who studied Early Childhood Education at Contra Costa College, said her best training came from watching the children. 

“I want them to have a voice, to put words to feelings,” she said. “This is where kids form their base before they go into formal education. Simple stuff such as what happens to water when you pour it or to you when you jump into a mud hole is basic to adults but not to 3- and 4-year-olds. At CCC we stress communication and conflict-resolution and value diversity and creativity.” 

As 3-year-old Devin—Lampros’s son—worked on a race track, his friends Lilah and Solomon splashed about in the water table. 

“Your bridge is going all hokey pokey,” Brian Fitch, a backyard teacher, told Devin. Fitch, a San Francisco resident, who fell in love with CCC 17 years ago. 

“It’s such a magical age,” he said. “They are vocal but still innocent in so many ways. It’s difficult not to be drawn into their world or to satisfy their curiosity. In this age of technological invasion, kids still remain pretty much the same. Toys and TV shows have changed, but the thing that hasn’t changed is a child’s need to play.” 

Water, Fitch said, was an essential play component for kids at CCC. “It’s an incredible curriculum, a teaching tool all by itself,” he said. “A child who is not aware of the physical world is moody and sleepy.” 

Lilah and Devin are perfect opposites of that child. As they struggled to create a Lego tower taller than Brian, their effort was a fine example of what CCC stands for—competence, self-confidence and co-operation. 

 

CCC 80th Anniversary Gala  

Includes silent auction, food, libations and music. 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. $15 in advance, $20 at the door.  

 

CCC party and reunion 

June 10 at 114O Walnut St., Berkeley. 528-6975. www.cccpreschool.org.


Berkeley Lab Seeks Funds For 2nd Biofuel Project

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 27, 2007

While Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) officials were pitching their role in the half-billion-dollar grant from British oil giant BP, they were also bidding for a second, similar but federally funded program. 

Aiding in the effort has been a coalition of regional business and economic groups, city officials from Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond and Emeryville and Economic Development Alliance for Business (EDAB)—a powerful but little-known agency that unites the interests of council chambers and corporate boardrooms. 

The Berkeley Daily Planet learned of the bids under the second program, which have not yet been made public, from documents received from the City of Berkeley in response to a California Public Records Act request.  

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson confirmed the information in the documents, as did some employees of the Department of Energy and the city of Berkeley who were not willing to go on the record at this time. 

The $125 million Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) would be one of three national centers created by the DOE, each funded for up to $25 million a year over the course of five years. 

The local application is a joint proposal from Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national labs, Carson said. LBNL has been playing the lead role. 

Announcement of the final selection could happen as early as June, according to the U.S. Department of Energy official who would speak only on background. 

While no site was listed in the grant application, documents provided under the California Public Records Act request show that strong interest has focused on the Marchant Building at 6701 San Pablo Ave. 

Both the massive “UC/BP” project and the federal program target the same goal—keeping cars on the road in a petroleum-starved world by turning plants into “biofuels.” 

“We see the biocenter as a focus for research and development of alternate resources for energy needs that are going to be increasing,” Carson said. He said the need is especially great given diminishing global oil reserves and the anticipated growth of the U.S. population by 100 million over the next 12 years.  

The principal focus of the project would be creation of ethanol from cellulose, said the DOE representative who would speak only on background.  

Key players who figure in both pitches are a pair of scholars-cum-entrepreneurs who have managed to carve out careers in both the academic and business worlds. 

Both Jay Keasling, listed as project director on the JBEI grant application, and Chris Somerville, a principal investigator, also have leading roles in the BP-backed Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI). 

Somerville is the LBNL scholar proposed to serve as director of the EBI, which is slated to receive most of a $500 billion grant fund by BP p.l.c.., the company formerly known as British Petroleum.  

Officials from the four cities, working with officials from Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, EDAB, the Bay Area Economic Forum, the Bay Area Council and LBNL, have been actively lobbying for the JEBI proposal, working with property owners and brokers, according to the documents obtained from the city of Berkeley. 

The effort is spearheaded by the Economic Development Alliance for Business (EDAB), a private alliance of corporate and government leaders who work to make life easier for businesses to locate and operate in the East Bay. 

EDAB Technology and Trade Director Robert Sakai has been coordinating the effort to enlist local governments in the cause of luring the JEBI—in part because of the promise of corporate startups generated by the researchers and their projects. 

While the proposal submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was written without mentioning a particular site, the written documentation and emails focus on the Marchant Building, also known as the Smith-Marchant Building and sometimes referred to as the “Marchand” building in the documents. 

The building and surrounding lot fall within the boundaries of three cities, Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville, and the mayors of all three cities co-signed a letter to Under Secretary of Energy Ray Orbach in support of the LBNL grant application. 

Now owned by UC Berkeley, the property would be sold to the consortium of three national laboratories headed by LBNL which have teamed up for the project. The university would lease back part of the structure for continuing research. 

The federal funding specifically precludes using any of the money for buying or building a structure to house the research, said the federal official. 

 

Evolution of the project 

While the DOE announced plans to fund the centers last August, the earliest mention of the project in the documents provided under provisions of the CPRA is in a Nov. 3 email from Robert Sakai to Michael Caplan and Patrick O’Keeffe, the city economic development directors of Berkeley and Emeryvillle. 

“Our local consortium of research institutions is now competing for a $125 M institute, refocused on biofuels and renamed the Joint Bio-Energy Institute (JBEI—pronounced J-Bay). The JBEI committee has decided to propose to site the facility in either Berkeley or Emeryville,” Sakai wrote.  

In the same email he also revealed a second point: “British Petroleum is planning to establish a $500 M, 10-year Bioenergy program at a major research institution ... After a site visit a few days ago they said one strike against Berkeley is the high cost of living.” 

Sakai said he was working on mortgage assistance packages to help make the region more attractive, and urged the two cities to offer homeowner incentives to the oil company researchers. 

On Nov. 13, Caplan notified Calvin Fong, an aide to Mayor Tom Bates, that Doug Herst, owner of the old Peerless lighting factory site in West Berkeley, had expressed interest through developer’s representative Darrell de Tienne in luring the project to his site. 

Four days later, Sakai wrote to Caplan, O’Keeffe and Eileen DeGuzman, who works on housing issues for Alameda County, reporting that the JBEI application was a joint effort by the three national labs under the guidance of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). 

Sakai stressed the importance of offering incentives to the DOE to match those offered by other regions also competing for the lab. “The labs feel we have an edge in infrastructure and personnel, but obviously, the better the return on investment they can demonstrate, the better we can compete,” he wrote. 

Caplan responded 19 minutes later, telling Sakai he had discussed the proposal “with the Mayor, the City Manager and a representative of several large property owners in West Berkeley” (de Tienne), and noting that one owner, presumably Herst, had a site near the freeway and the Fourth Street shopping district. “The Mayor, the CM and I all agree that the bio-energy focus would be a terrific fit for this project ... and could catalyze much secondary and tertiary economic development in the vicinity.”  

One voice of dissent came a half hour later in an email from Dave Fogarty, the second member of the city’s economic development team: “I think it would be more advantageous to convince the University to host the tax-exempt facility on its existing property, maybe on Oxford, and have the incubator space in West Berkeley. I hate to see more commercial property go off the tax rolls.” 

Caplan met with Don Yost and John Norheim, two prominent West Berkeley commercial property brokers, on Dec. 7, and the next day Sakai emailed officials Caplan, O’Keeffe and Richmond Economic Development Director Steve Duran, reporting that a Richmond site would also be considered. 

A Dec. 8 memorandum, recounting a discussion with Doug Lockhart of LBNL’s planning staff, laid out some of the facility’s requirements, including 18,000 square feet of office and conference space, two 13,000-square-foot spaces for dry and wet labs and 8,000 square feet for research support. The project would employ an operational staff of 15 to 20 and house $15 million in technology. 

The ideal site according to Lockhart would be on property now owned by Bayer in West Berkeley, adjacent to the space now rented by the lab’s Life Sciences and Physical Biosciences program in the Wareham Development-owned office building at 717 Potter St. 

The lab also expressed interest in the Peerless Lighting site. 

The lab’s second choice would be in Emeryville, but the proposed site—also owned by Wareham—was perceive to be too costly to adapt. 

Another possible site viewed with less enthusiasm was at Marina Village in Alameda, but Lockhart reportedly said the site was small, too far from Potter Street, and would cost about $300 per square foot to bring up to lab standards.. 

Two sites in Richmond were also under consideration, but one—the Campus Bay site adjacent to the university’s Richmond Field Station—was ruled out because traces of toxins evaporation from industrial waste buried at the site would “undoubtedly get into the building itself, which is unacceptable.” 

Another Bayer-owned site in Richmond, the site of the recently closed Bayer Berlex facility, was also being considered. 

At least two meetings followed with officials from the cities, the lab and brokers and developers. 

The second meeting on Jan. 4 focused on the Marchant Building, which would require a joint powers agreement involving the three cities. 

Finally, on Jan. 3, the application was sent off to Under Secretary Orbach, accompanied by the joint letter from the three mayors. 

As work on the application progressed, a partnership of two Michigan developers—Redico of Southfield and Signature Associates of East Lansing—signed a contract to buy the building from the university, according to a Feb. 20 letter from Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates to LBNL Director Chu. 

The last document provided was a March 22 email from UC Berkeley Community Relations Director Irene Hegarty to Bates and Caplan outlining the agenda for a March 26 “Chancellor’s Dinner with East Bay Mayors.”  

In addition to mayors Bates, Ron Dellums, Nora Davis of Emeryville and Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, the event featured Keasling and, Hegarty and UCB Associate Chancellor John Cummins, Birgeneau’s chief of staff. 

The purpose of the meeting: to share plans for the EBI “and other related research at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the potential contribution to regional economic development as well as to local energy policy and practices.”  

The aggressive nature of the research goals of both projects has been emphasized by LBNL Director Steven Chu, who compared the BP biofuel program to the Manhattan Project during a campus forum held by project supporters in late March.The Manhattan Project was a massive secret federal program directed by UC Berkeley physicist Robert Oppenheimer which led to the creation of the atomic bomb. 

Both seem to advance a deeper political agenda for the Bush Administration: using biofuels as political and economic weapons against disfavored regimes, both the oil-rich lands of the troubled Mideast and the nation of Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez, the charismatic populist president, has emerged as a leading critic of the American president.  

 

Next week, the Planet will run a second installment of this story, focusing on the Bush administration’s agenda on biofuels.


UC Student Senate Urges Caution on BP Contract

By Richard Brenneman
Friday April 27, 2007

Members of the Associated Students of UC Berkeley’s Senate voted Wednesday night to urge administrators to hold off on signing a $500 million contract with BP (British Petroleum) until their concerns have been addressed. 

The grant would create and fund the Energy Biosciences Institute, to be staffed by scientists from the university, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in a push to create transportation fuels from plants. 

Students asked campus administrators not to sign unless the agreement received “a thorough and ongoing external review by experts who have considerable professional and academic expertise in the fields of ethics, intellectual property rights, public-private conflicts of interest, and the social and environmental impacts of the proposed research.”  

The students also asked that the results of the review be published before any contract was signed with the British oil company. 

Their vote contrasts sharply with the two-to-one majority of faculty members attending the April 19 Academic Senate meeting who resisted a similar call for oversight. 

That vote specially barred any mention of the recommendations of the review of the university’s last controversial academic/corporate contract, the 1998 Novartis Agreement. 

Microbiologist Randy Schekman, sponsor of the winning Academic Senate resolutions, provided for an oversight group comprised of four of the senate’s committee chairs. 

That committee would serve in an advisory capacity, reporting to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, the project’s most outspoken backer and a harsh critic of any effort to rein in corporate funding of university research. 

Their charge is also much less specific than that called for by the students. 

The student senate resolution was adopted without opposition, said Jamie Tzeng, a member of the student group StopBP-Berkeley.org, who attended the meeting. 

A similar resolution had already been passed by the students in the university’s Graduate Assembly April 7, which also sought to have graduate students included on the panel. 

Meanwhile, critics of the BP proposal continue with their program of teach-ins and other activities. One teach-in was held Thursday night and another is planned for next Wednesday (May 2) at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 

That meeting will feature presentations by science journalist Jennifer Washburn, three UC Berkeley faculty—Professors Ignacio Chapela, Carl Hayden and Jean Lave—and, by phone from Brazil, James Thorlby of the Pastoral Land Commission and Hillary Lehr, a student and slam poet.


Tussle Erupts Over Library Trustee Board Appointment

By Judith Scherr
Friday April 27, 2007

The tradition of reappointing library trustees for their second and final four-year terms without considering new applicants is being challenged by a trustee. 

At the Library Board of Trustees’ April 18 meeting, Trustee Ying Lee, a former councilmember and retired congressional aide, argued against the “flawed and misleading” practice, saying the reappointment of a trustee should be seen as analogous to an elected official running for a new term in office. 

“At the end of a term, an incumbent runs and has many advantages—but runs,” Lee said, arguing against automatic reappointment, in which new applicants are not considered.  

(Not present at the April 18 meeting, the Daily Planet reviewed the library’s recording of the meeting.) 

Unlike other Berkeley boards and commissions, the five-member library board is created by the City Charter. The council representative is appointed by the City Council and sitting trustees recommend new or returning board members—there is a two-term limit—who are confirmed by the council. 

At issue immediately is the reappointment of Library Board of Trustees Chair Susan Kupfer, whose four-year term ends on May 13.  

Despite a call for applicants to be present at the April 18 meeting, the board voted 3-1 to recommend Kupfer’s reappointment. Lee voted in opposition and Kupfer recused herself. The City Council has the final word. 

Kupfer did not return a call for comment. 

In an interview Tuesday, Trustee/Councilmember Darryl Moore, who serves as the board’s City Council appointee, argued that incumbents should be given a second term unless they have performed poorly. 

“She’s worked hard as director—she deserves another term,” Moore told the Daily Planet.  

Trustee Terry Powell agreed. Speaking at the April 18 meeting, she said, “Our past practice should be respected” and adhered to until a new process is developed. 

In the past, the City Council has traditionally approved the board’s choices without discussion. After several controversial years in the library in which the board decided to implement a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag system to check out books—unpopular with some members of the staff and the public—and during which a conflict erupted between staff and the former director, ending with the director’s resignation under pressure, the City Council and library board agreed that a new system for choosing trustees should be considered.  

An “Ad Hoc Committee for ‘sunshining’ the Selection of Library Trustees” formed “to establish a more open and transparent process for selecting Library Board members,” according to the March 13 council resolution that established the body. 

The committee met for the first time April 17. It is tasked with writing procedures for a more inclusive and open selection process. Trustee members are Kupfer and Lee; councilmembers are Betty Olds and Kriss Worthington.  

At the trustees’ April 18 meeting, Lee called on fellow trustees to extend Kupfer’s term by allowing the ad hoc committee to do its job and create an orderly process for the incumbent to reapply for the office and for new applicants to apply as well. No other trustee spoke in favor of this proposal. 

Adding to the confusion around the reappointment of Kupfer was a May 13 press release authored by Alan Bern, community relations librarian, calling for applicants who wish to fill the “vacancy.” 

Bern declined to tell the Daily Planet who directed him to publish the release. Library Director Donna Corbeil was out of town and unavailable for comment. 

The release advises the community of a number of things, including the April 17 ad hoc committee meeting and the possibility that Kupfer would be asked to serve a second term at the April 18 board meeting. At almost the end of the press release, one reads: “The City of Berkeley is currently soliciting applications to fill this upcoming vacancy on the Board of Library Trustees … The deadline for submitting completed applications by e-mail to [the city clerk] is 2 p.m. on April 18, 2007.” 

The last paragraph of the release advises applicants that they must be at the trustees’ meeting to be considered for the seat. 

Applicant Helen Wheeler, who holds a master’s degree in library sciences and has served as a professional in the field, put in her bid for the seat in March through the city clerk’s office. She told the Daily Planet Tuesday that an email from the library directing her to be at the Wednesday meeting was sent on Sunday, April 15. At that point she said she concluded, because of the short notice, that the application process was not serious and she withdrew her name. 

Applicant Pat Cody, co-founder of Cody’s books, was present at the April 18 meeting. She was not called on by the board. 

“The press release was a farce,” Gene Bernardi, a member of SuperBOLD, Berkelyans Organizing for Library Defense, told the trustees at the meeting, asking how the general public would have known there was a “vacancy.” 

The question of Kupfer’s reappointment has not yet been scheduled for the City Council. The appointment process will be discussed in committee May 1, 6:30 p.m., South Berkeley Library, 1901 Russell St. 


OUSD Local Control Bill Passes Committee

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday April 27, 2007

Assemblymember Sandré Swanson’s AB 45 Oakland school local control bill overcame its first legislative hurdle this week, passing the Assembly Education Committee on a 7-2 party line vote (Democrats voting aye, Republicans voting no), but in a vastly modified form that drastically changes the terms under which local control would be restored. 

“I am extremely pleased with today’s outcome.” Swanson said in a prepared statement following the vote. “AB 45 provides a structured and orderly process for the return of all administrative and fiscal operations to the Oakland Unified School Board. It is necessary for a pragmatic and sustainable transfer of governance and to ensure that parents can hold their elected School Board accountable for the educational decisions of their children.” 

With state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announcing his opposition to the bill, several Oakland residents, activists, and officials traveled to Sacramento for Wednesday’s public hearing to voice their support. If they were critical of the changes to Swanson’s bill, none of them voiced it publicly to the committee on Wednesday. 

Oakland’s public schools have been under state control since 2003. Fulfilling a promise made during last year’s election campaign, Swanson introduced his Oakland school local control bill as his first piece of legislation, on the day he was sworn into office. 

On Wednesday, Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), an Assembly Education Committee and one of several AB 45 co-authors, called the bill “fair and thoughtful,” and said it “sets out a framework for an orderly return to local control.” 

Under Swanson’s original legislation, power would have been immediately transferred from the state superintendent’s office to the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education in four of the five areas of concern being monitored by the state-authorized Fiscal Crisis Assistance Management Team (FCMAT). Those operational areas would have been community relations and governance, facilities management, personnel management, and pupil achievement. The state superintendent’s office would have continued to retain control over the fifth area of operation-fiscal management-under Swanson’s original bill, although some local school activists and officials, including Oakland Education Association President Betty Olsen-Jones during her testimony at Wednesday’s hearing, have said they wanted Swanson’s original bill amended to include return of local fiscal control as well. 

The day before the hearing, however, Swanson introduced an amended version of his bill that took out the immediate return provision, substituting a provision that would return local control in each operational area only upon FCMAT’s recommendation. Under the current law governing the OUSD takeover, the state superintendent has the final say over return to local control, and can ignore FCMAT’s recommendation. In fact, FCMAT has recommended since September of 2005 that local control be restored to the Oakland School Board in the area of community relations and governance, but Superintendent Jack O’Connell has so far failed to do so. Swanson’s amended bill would make that return mandatory, rather than at the State Superintendent’s discretion, following the FCMAT recommendation. 

FCMAT has come under severe criticism at several Oakland school board and community meetings for its oversight activities, and activists who have worked for return to local control questioned Swanson on Wednesday both before and after the hearing about the necessity of keeping the local control decision in FCMAT’s hands. 

Swanson said he would use his oversight authority in the state Legislature to ensure that FCMAT gives a “fair evaluation” to Oakland Unified, and said the amendments adding FCMAT recommendations for restoration of local control were necessary in order to ensure passage and enactment of the bill. 

“I don’t just want to get a bill passed, I want to get it signed by the governor into law,” Swanson said. He said that because AB 45 would set a precedent on how local control is restored to California school districts taken over by the state, staff members of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially, were concerned about having some independent authority decide when that local control would take place. 

Swanson told bill supporters that the state legislature was “a tough place,” and said he “wanted to craft a bill that could not be refuted by a simple statement.” 

That was in reference to a statement read into the record at Wednesday’s hearing by California Education Department staffmember Andrea Ball announcing O’Connell’s opposition to the bill. 

While the statement said that ‘the state superintendent would like nothing more than to return the operation of the Oakland school district to local control,” O’Connell said that “although the Oakland USD has made progress in fiscal responsibility and academic achievement, more work needs to be done,” and that he opposed AB 45, in part, because it “would make fundamental change to the role of FCMAT in making recommendations and reports on district progress” and “would set up a new bureaucratic process that would blur lines of responsibility.” 

O’Connell’s statement added that “the state superintendent will not return authority to the board until the district is on sound footing to recovery and the state can be assured that the district can sustain its gains and not be at risk of its authority being returned to state control.” [See excerpts from O’Connell’s full statement in a sidebar to this article.”] 

Following the hearing, Swanson was critical of O’Connell’s actions over the bill. 

“I met with the Superintendent as I was preparing this bill, and asked for his input,” Swanson said. “I even offered to have his office write a bill themselves that gave guidelines and timetables for a return to local control. I got back not one suggestion. Until now, they have remained neutral on the bill. This is the first time they have said that they were in opposition.” 

OUSD Board President David Kakishiba said that “if you take over something that you do not intend to hold permanently, you’ve got to nurture and support a plan for succession of the new leadership. If the State Superintendent had done that, this bill would not have been necessary. We never heard clear expectations and areas of our responsibility and time frames for return to local control from the superintendent’s office.” 

Acknowledging that Swanson “had to make changes” in order to ensure passage, Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan, who was serving on the Oakland School Board at the time of the takeover, called Swanson’s bill a “smart bill” and told local control supporters “we all have to tell Don Perata that we have to get it through the Senate, as well. We need to send him letters of love and support.” 

That elicited groans from the Oakland activist crowd, many of whom have criticized Perata for the original OUSD takeover. But Quan said that “we need to let him know how we stand on this. He’s a smart politician.” 

AB 45 would also provide money for yearly FCMAT evaluations of the Oakland school district until the full restoration of local control. Under the original takeover legislation, money has run out for FCMAT evaluations, making it currently impossible for the district to officially demonstrate progress. 

In addition, Swanson’s bill would restore pay to school board members as each area of local governance is restored. The original 2003 OUSD takeover legislation stripped school board members of their pay. 

 


Cuts Proposed for Some Agencies Serving Needy

By Judith Scherr
Friday April 27, 2007

Start the day with a good breakfast. “That’s what our moms always told us,” said Bert Johnson Wednesday morning over hot cereal, a cup of java, a couple of slices of day-old bread and the company of friends.  

Johnson, who sleeps on the streets around town, has been getting a free no-frills breakfast for about a year at the Dorothy Day House breakfast program at Trinity United Methodist Church at Dana Street and Bancroft Way. 

The six-day-a-week offering that serves 100-to-150 meals each day is facing a proposed cut of $8,000, about one-fourth of the $31,800 the program got last year from the city’s general fund.  

“I don’t know if people doing the budget have seen the program,” Johnson said. “They stretch every penny.” 

 

Providers weigh in 

At Tuesday evening’s meeting, the City Council heard from more than 60 service providers and recipients and reviewed about 175 programs for which several commissions and city staff have proposed spending almost $9.4 million in federal and city funds, down from slightly more than $9.5 million from last year. The city’s entire budget is around $350 million. 

The council is slated to vote on the approximately $5.3 million federal funding portion at its May 8 meeting and will address the approximately $4.2 million from the city’s general fund in June. 

The city funds about one-third of the Trinity breakfast program; grants and donations fund the other two-thirds. The $8,000 cut means 8,000 fewer meals will be served, program director Jill Messing told the Daily Planet, pointing out that the program is more than simply about food. 

“We treat the homeless with a high level of respect,” Messing said. “The clients trust us a lot.” 

Program cuts are a result of a 3 percent cut in federal funds, most of which comes from Community Service Block Grants. City staff has identified some funding that is slated to make up for 1 percent of the lost funds, leaving the city with a 2 percent overall cut in community agency allocations for the 2008 fiscal year. 

Funding levels were recommended by the Housing Advisory Commission, the Homeless Commission, the Community Welfare Commission, the Parks and Recreation Commission and city staff. 

Commissioners and staff said they believe that in some cases the agencies facing cuts could make up the difference with grant funds or donations. 

 

Some get more 

Many programs won’t feel the pinch at all and some will see enhanced funding, such as Options for Recovery Services and the Emergency Services for Disabled Transportation Program.  

While most of the agencies under consideration provide services to people in need, some are categorized as providing economic development. The city manager recommended, for example, that the Berkeley Convention and Visitors Bureau, which received $241,667 from the general fund in fiscal year 2007, get $277,333 next year.  

Another city-funded program will see a cut, however. The Community Energy Services Corporation, a nonprofit whose board of directors is the city Energy Commission, is facing a decreased CDBG grant, going from about $338,000 in fiscal year 2007 to $320,000 next year. CEAC provides services such as home rehabilitation and seismic retrofit services for low-income Berkeley residents and services for businesses to help them become more energy efficient. 

Notwithstanding the cut, CEAC is slated to receive the largest among Berkeley’s CDBG grants. 

 

Providers: cuts will hurt 

Many of the providers and service recipients who filled the council chambers and stairwell outside it Tuesday evening face funding cuts. Through the Looking Glass is a program that supports the parenting of people with disabilities. The proposed cut from fiscal year 2007 to 2008 is from $31,500 to $28,300. “We’re the only group in the county doing parenting with disabled people,” Judi Rogers, pregnancy and birthing specialist at the agency, told the council. 

Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency is facing cuts to several of its programs that serve homeless individuals and families, including a cut at the multi-service center from $193,800 in 2007 to next year’s proposed $165,000. 

Winston Burton, a BOSS staff person, told the council that the center is doing its job by serving the most difficult to serve population. “Of 119 new intakes, 33 percent are chronically homeless,” he said, noting that over the last year BOSS put 66 people into permanent housing. 

Cuts from $92,100 to $80,000 at Lifelong Medical Center’s acupuncture detox clinic means 2,000 fewer visits, a spokesperson told the council. Among a number of other agencies to lose some funding are New Bridge Foundation, Rebuilding Together (formerly Habitat for Humanity) and the Japanese-American Services of the East Bay senior program. 

While the presentation to the council by category of need—disabled, senior, health, etc.—was organized and orderly, the process leading up to the recommendations drew criticisms from various quarters. 

Marie Bowman, chair of the Housing Advisory Committee, said staff had been inappropriately lobbied by low-income housing developers and that the commission’s request to ask council to look for additional funds for Lifelong Medical’s housing needs was ignored in a staff report. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said the process was driven by the agencies rather than by a more thorough knowledge of the various needs in Berkeley. 

 

Lights out for seniors 

Seniors from New Light Senior Center came out in force to lobby the council to save their three-day-a-week organic meals program. City staff has recommended defunding the program and moving it from the South Berkeley YMCA on California Street to the South Berkeley Senior Center, but the program’s last day is today (Friday). 

According to Councilmember Max Anderson, the program has no insurance, despite the city’s having given it $18,000 for that purpose, and staff has no workers’ compensation. Moreover, Anderson said, the YMCA, which owns the building, wants the space to expand its youth program. 

Former Executive Director Jackie DeBose, however, said in a phone interview Thursday that liability and auto insurance are paid up and that the funds from the city were spent on back rent and staff salaries. DeBose said budgetary problems at New Light stemmed from the 30 percent funding cuts the city made to the program in recent years. 

New Light seniors at the council meeting told the Daily Planet that they don’t mind moving the program to another venue, but want to keep the community they’ve formed and their unique organic meals program intact. Former Councilmember Maudelle Shirek was instrumental in creating the program and continues to eat there three times a week, they said. 

“These cuts are painful,” said Councilmember Dona Spring toward the end of the council meeting. “These programs do so much with so little.” 

 

Photograph by Judith Scherr. 

Bert Johnson starts his day with the Dorothy Day House breakast program, one of the many city funded programs facing possible cuts.


Effort to Save Iceland Rink Reports Some Progress

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 27, 2007

SaveBerkeleyIceland.org—the community based organization that came forward in January to preserve the 67 year-old historic ice-rink at 2727 Milvia St.—has so far raised $90,000 from six weeks of fundraising. 

Berkeley Iceland, which was recently landmarked, closed its doors on March 31 due to dismal profits over the last few years. It has been on sale for over a year with a price tag of $6.45 million. 

“We are still fundraising and proceeding with our plan to purchase the building and reopen the rink,” said Elizabeth Grassetti, president, University Figure Skating Club and a SaveBerkeleyIceland.org volunteer. 

“Our aim is to turn Berkeley Iceland into a community center. Make it a destination attraction to draw visitors to South Berkeley,” she said. “We want to create activities that families, skaters and other athletes can enjoy. ” 

University Figure Skating Club is an adult recreational ice-dancing club which used Berkeley Iceland before it closed down. Grassetti and her group now use the Oakland Iceland, which she said was more expensive. 

Donations are being accepted through the organization’s website. Information about preservation efforts is also being published in publications such as the Cal Alumni Newsletter. 

“A lot of former UC Berkeley students have used the rink to skate or play broomball on and have fond memories of the place,” said Grassetti. “The newsletter is a logical place to reach them.” Fundraising was also carried out in front of the rink before it closed. 

Tom Killilea, president of Bay Area Blades, told the Planet that the majority of donations had come from individuals rather than groups. 

“We are getting a lot of help from former rink users, a lot of whom want to remain anonymous,” he said. “We have had close to 1000 individual donations and the highest among them was for $5000. Kids are donating their allowance money and emptying out their savings accounts. One of our benefactors sent us money from Idaho because that’s the only thing her grand-daughter wanted for her birthday.” 

Killilea added that there had been a significant increase in figure skating at the Berkeley Iceland last year. 

“Iceland was in the news a lot in 2006. That at least helped people know that it existed,” he said. 

Killelea and other volunteers met with the owners of Berkeley Iceland Tuesday for the first time. “We know there are multiple bidders,” Killilea said, “but we are optimistic. A lot depends on the decision of owners.” 

SaveBerkeleyIceland.org has also met with Mayor Tom Bates in the past to discuss funding options. 

“We are not asking for a grant but for a loan,” said Grassetti. “Mayor Bates told us that a loan might be available. However, we have to do more work and give our plans better shape.” 

In an e-mail to the Planet, chief-of-staff to the mayor Cisco DeVries said that Bates had held a number of conversations with people interested in preserving Iceland. 

“It is the mayor’s position that our priority should be to try and preserve the rink,” he said. “The mayor believes it would be quite difficult for the City to purchase the rink outright, but that it may be possible for the City to be a partner with other organizations in that effort.”  

DeVries added that the “city has no specific funds identified to put towards Iceland at this time.”  


Council Says No to Chicks in Cages and Yes to Draft Resisters

By Judith Scherr
Friday April 27, 2007

Opposition to chicks in cages, support for draft resistors and getting rid of plastic shopping bags were among the items approved by the Berkeley City Council Tuesday. 

Although the council voted unanimously on March 20 to discuss the process on April 24 for writing a “sunshine” ordinance to make government more transparent and accessible, the issue failed to appear on the agenda. 

In his remarks to the City Council, City Manager Phil Kamlarz took responsibility. “It was a screw up,” he said, promising to bring the question to council May 8.  

In the city attorney’s draft ordinance discussed in March, citizen complaints on violations of a sunshine ordinance would go to the city manager, something a number of citizens, including Mark Schlosberg of the American Civil Liberties Union, objected to at the time. 

 

Cage-free chicks  

The city drew praise from the United States Humane Society on Wednesday for its unanimous passage Tuesday of a resolution, authored by Councilmember Dona Spring, condemning the confinement of egg-laying hens in tiny cages. The society called the practice “one of the most notorious factory farming practices: the intensive confinement of egg-laying hens in tiny wire battery cages.” 

Lindsay Vurek did more than speak against the confinement during the council’s public comment period Tuesday. He brought along a tiny cage and five stuffed chicks to show the circumstances in which some chickens spend their short lives. 

“Sometimes a dead chicken is in the cage,” Vurek told the council. 

Councilmember Betty Olds called for a resolution with teeth. 

“This is such an important item,” she said. “We would like to do more.” Olds and Spring said they would bring back stronger legislation in the future. 

 

Getting rid of plastic 

Also passing unanimously was a referral to the Zero Waste Commission and the Community Environment Advisory Commission to look at adopting an ordinance similar to the one passed in San Francisco that would ban large grocery stores and chain drug stores from using non-compostable plastic shopping bags. 

Speaking during the public comment period, Jan Lundberg said the goal was to replace the plastic, not to use less harmful kinds of plastics.  

 

Resisting War 

The council voted 8-0-1 to support a resolution from the Peace and Justice Commission declaring May 15 of every year Conscientious Objector and War Resister’s Day. Councilmember Gordon Wozniak abstained. 

In other actions, the council unanimously approved: 

• Funding greenhouse gas reduction through the city at $100,000; 

• Crisis intervention training for police officers; 

• Support for State Senate bills advocating universal health care; 

• Accepting a $120,000 grant from Alameda County Waste Management Authority to start a residential food-scrap composting program. 

 

 

 


Peralta Trustees Delay Safety Report, Look at Finances

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday April 27, 2007

The recent Virginia Tech University mass shooting tragedy has led to widespread discussion and debate across the nation about school safety. 

At this week’s Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees meeting it led to a postponement of discussion. 

The board had been scheduled to hear a presentation on disaster preparedness by district Risk Manager Joanne Baldinelli, but a notation in the board’s agenda said that “in view of the recent events at Virginia Tech and an ongoing evaluation of Peralta’s campus security measures, the report will be expanded and presented at the May 8, 2007 Board meeting.” 

At the same meeting, board members heard a report on the outside audit of the district’s finances for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, which auditor Heidi White, representing the Vavinek, Trine, Day & Co. called “very tough” and Peralta CFO Tom Smith said was the “hardest audit I’ve been involved with in my career.” 

Both White and Smith credited the difficulties to its occurrence during the transfer over to the district’s PeopleSoft computerized management system. 

“PeopleSoft conversion is difficult under the best of circumstances,” White said, “and you probably didn’t have the best of circumstances.” White said that at some points reconciliation of the books had to be done manually. 

The audit found no irregularities, saying that the district’s financial statements “represent fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Peralta Community College District,” which White called an “unqualified opinion.” 

Board President Bill Withrow said that the unqualified opinion issuance by the outside auditors “is not just esthetics. It could have great, favorable impact on our quest to get additional money for the district.” 


Berkeley School Board Looks at ‘Curvy Derby’ Plan

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 27, 2007

The Berkeley Board of Education approved $20,000 Wednesday to hire WLC Consultants to officially study the Curvy Derby Plan and further develop it. 

Berkeley High School (BHS) baseball players turned up with community members to voice their support for the plan, which would keep Derby Street open, but bend it to accommodate a regulation-size high school baseball field. The plan, although much discussed for the past year, was presented to the board for the first time at the meeting. 

In the past other plans reviewed by the board to develop the Berkeley Unified School District’s (BUSD) East Campus Field included a design that would require the closing of Derby Street to fit the baseball field as well as a plan that would leave the street untouched for a smaller park without a baseball field. The school board had indicated that the “closed” Derby plan was the preferred option. 

Since it is not within the authority of the board to close the street, it requested that the city share in the expense of the environmental study of the plan. The City Council agreed, provided the district held additional community meetings so that neighbors could voice their opinions about the issue. 

The Curvy Derby plan united some members of the two opposing factions of the community, those who wanted Derby open and whose who wanted it closed. 

Curvy Derby, designed by Berkeley residents Susi Marzuola and Peter Waller, proposes to extend the field north into Carleton Street allowing Derby Street to remain open. It takes out a few trees and some playing space from the King Childcare Development Center (King CDC) across the street from Iceland and curves Derby Street through that space. 

“It’s been over 10 years and very little has progressed,” said school board president Joaquin Rivera. “I hope this will give it the push it needs to make things happen.” 

Board vice-president John Selawsky said it was pertinent to set up a site committee for the field as early as possible. 

“I have received some concerns from neighbors about whether the gates and fences to the field will remain locked to the community. Will Berkeley residents have access to it?” he asked. 

“It’s a field that is getting ready for athletic use,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. “At the moment, if someone else wants to use it, they take out a facility use permit. But it’s obvious that if neighbors have a field in front of their house they’ll want to use it. I think it is a complicated issue and we have to handle it in a sensitive way.” 


Commission Looks at Closed-Door Police Complaint Process

By Judith Scherr
Friday April 27, 2007

A sparsely attended public hearing to consider how to conduct closed-door complaint hearings was held Wednesday evening by the Police Review Commission. 

Following the California Supreme Court case Copley Press v. San Diego, Berkeley suspended its public police complaint boards of inquiry during which, traditionally, the complainant and the subject police officer answer questions from a three-person panel to determine whether or not the board will sustain a complaint. 

The Supreme Court decision and a recent decision in favor of the Berkeley Police Association, in BPA v. City of Berkeley, determined that complaint procedures may not be conducted in public because that violates the police officers’ right to privacy in personnel matters. 

Under discussion at the Wednesday public hearing were regulations drafted by the city attorney for eventual closed-door hearings on complaints.  

The commission took no action, but voted to have the city attorney take comments into consideration and come back to the commission with a new draft.  

Commissioners were frustrated by the fact that they have held no boards of inquiry since August. There are 51 complaints pending. “If we keep waiting, we have no way to proceed. We have to adopt something to keep the process toddling along,” said Commissioner Sherry Smith. 

At the heart of the new regulations is a requirement that the complainant, the subject officer, staff and the hearing board sign statements saying they will keep the “substance of the proceedings before the board or evidence submitted to it [confidential and will not] reveal the identity of the officer(s) or any witnesses.” 

Commissioner Michael Sherman commented on the section that read “Commission members shall not make any public comment on any complaints.” Sherman said, “This seems to be very restrictive.” 

“You can’t comment on an individual complaint,” responded City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. “All records must be confidential—not just the name [of the subject officer],” Albuquerque said. 

Commissioner Jack Radisch commented that the rule doesn’t make sense. He pointed to a fictional example where the complainant would have already gone to the press and named the officer.  

“The complaint has been published in the press, then the complainant goes to the PRC and makes a formal complaint,” Radisch said. “A hearing is conducted. A reporter approaches me [after the closed hearing] and I cannot say what has happened,” he said. 

The city attorney affirmed that was correct, to which Commissioner Michael Sherman replied, “If I had any doubts that we should appeal this all the way, my doubts have been removed.” However, the complainant can describe publicly the incident as he sees it “that is not derived from the hearing,” Albuquerque said. 

The commission also addressed additional regulations governing the closed hearing process drafted by PRC Officer Victoria Urbi, who staffs the commission. The PRC officer “will act as the hearing officer and rule on objections and may make objections,” Urbi wrote. 

PRC members were unanimous in saying that they did not want staff serving in that capacity. “Staff should not be part of the deliberating process,” said Commissioner Bill White. Urbi said she would remove that language. 

In other matters, Urbi lobbied the commissioners to go to the councilmembers and ask for additional PRC staff to investigate complaints. “We’re behind in some very big projects,” she said. 

The commission will look at the revised regulations May 9, 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Sr. Center, 2939 Ellis St. The PRC subcommittee looking at issues related to the police officer who stole drug evidence will meet May 3, 5:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Hearst Avenue, to question Police Chief Doug Hambleton. 


City College Event Examines ‘Crisis of The Commons’

Friday April 27, 2007

The “Crisis of the California Commons” is the subject of a conference being held this weekend at Berkeley City College. 

The theme statement says that “the bountiful commons Californians once enjoyed as a gift of nature and fruit of public efforts” is threatened today: “Our resources are degraded, our services privatized, and our public spaces increasingly pre-empted.” 

The opening reception is Friday at 7 p.m., with panel discussions Saturday and Sunday ending at noon on Sunday. 

Among the speakers are U.C. Berkeley faculty members Grey Brechin, Iain Boal, Ignacio Chapela and Dick Walker, and Berkeley authors John Curl and Ruth Rosen. 

On Saturday at 8 p.m. Country Joe McDonald will present “The Musical Commons: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie” at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley.  

(This conference has no relationship to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates’ “Public Commons for Everyone” initiative, his proposed attempt to regulate street behavior.)


Police Blotter

By Rio Bauce
Friday April 27, 2007

Gun robbery  

In the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, a Berkeley resident called the police to report that he had been robbed at gun point at the intersection of Garber Street and College Avenue. The gunman stole a credit card, laptop computer, cellphone and keys.  

 

Car thief 

On Tuesday, a woman called in at 7:31 a.m. to report that her 1997 Honda Acura had been stolen from her house on the 1600 block of La Vereda Road. The victim reported that it had been taken sometime between 6:30 p.m. the previous night and 7:30 a.m. that morning. There are no suspects in the case.  

 

Forgetful car prowler 

On Tuesday, at around 7:42 a.m. on the 1600 block of Walnut Street, a female victim phoned the police to say that somebody had broken into her car during the night. The suspect left a bag behind in the car. The victim is unsure of what was taken. The suspect hasn’t been identified.  

Auto smash 

At 8:14 a.m. on Tuesday, a woman visiting from Nevada called the Berkeley Police Department to report that her car window was smashed. The burglar took her laptop computer and case during the night.  

 

Car tire vandal 

On Tuesday at 8:33 a.m., a woman called the authorities to report that somebody had unscrewed all four of her tires, letting all the air out. The tires were not cut or slashed. No suspect has been identified.  

 

Vandalism via brick 

A female victim called in at 7:08 a.m. Tuesday from the 2700 block of Garber Street to report that somebody had thrown a brick through a window. She said she was at home during the incident, heard the window break, looked outside, but didn’t see anyone. No one was injured.  

 

Burglary at Best Western 

An auto burglar took a male victim’s laptop computer via lock pry. The victim was visiting from Placerville and staying at the Best Western University Inn on the 900 block of University Avenue. He called in this report at 7:17 a.m. on Tuesday morning. There are no suspects yet in this case.  

 

 

 


Car Crash

Tuesday April 24, 2007

Photo by Gar Smith 

As car crashes go, this one on Sunday on Miramonte Court was both spectacular and nearly pristine. No shattered glass; no rubble in the roadway. One car totaled, one barely scratched. One neighbor lost control of her car, tried to hit the brakes but hit the gas pedal instead and hit a neighbor’s parked car across the street. The driver was not hurt. The neighbors gathered, along with curious passersby, chairs were set up on the lawn and a mini-block party ensued while the two car owners waited for the police to arrive. One neighbor remarked: “This is a fitting way to celebrate Earth Day—taking two cars off the road.” 

—Gar Smith


Council Hears New Plan for Greenhouse Gas Reduction

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday April 24, 2007

The mayor and city manager will propose, at tonight’s (Tuesday) City Council meeting, a shift in tactics for writing Berkeley’s greenhouse gas reduction plan.  

The council will also discuss a proposal to eliminate plastic shopping bags and to recycle food scraps. It will hold a public hearing on community service agency funding and will consider purchasing new weapons for police, creating a day to honor conscientious objectors, instituting programs at the Willard Park clubhouse and more. Preceding the council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m., the Berkeley Housing Authority will meet at 6 p.m. to discuss the status of its operations. 

 

City to address greenhouse gas reduction  

The council decision to write a greenhouse gas reduction plan follows an 81 percent voter approval of Measure G in November 2006, a measure that calls on the mayor to work with the community to develop a local plan to reduce greenhouse gases.  

In February, the council voted to have Sustainable Berkeley (SB) hire an individual to write the city’s greenhouse gas reduction plan. SB is an organization of consultants, UC Berkeley representatives, nonprofit administrators and “green” health-related professionals.  

However, after criticism from some community members, councilmembers and the press, alleging the strategy lacked transparency, the mayor and city manager are now proposing to place the implementation of Measure G within city government.  

“Upon further evaluation of the issue, I think it preferable to use city staff and the existing public input processes for this purpose,” Assistant City Manager Arrietta Chakos wrote in an April 24 staff report.  

“The creation of the plan by city staff instead of by an outside agency will be more efficient and will allow more transparency and public access to the plan development process,” Chakos wrote, noting further that in February the council had allocated $100,000 to Sustainable Berkeley, but that the agency “is not a corporate entity with which a contract can be signed.” 

The new process to develop a citywide plan will include input from a number of commissions, a community meeting, and an interim report to the council before summer break.  

According to a memo written by Mayor Tom Bates, the new process will also include a request for funding above the $100,000 already allocated to the plan. The report does not indicate how much the mayor will ask for and what he wants to spend the funds on. 

The city has already advertised for an individual to implement the plan.  

 

No sunshine 

Despite a unanimous vote (with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli absent) on March 20 calling for the council to address on April 24 (today) how it plans to move forward in creating a sunshine ordinance—a law that would make Berkeley government more transparent and accessible to the public—the ordinance is not on tonight’s agenda. 

According to city spokesperson Mary Kay Clunies-Ross, the city manager plans to report orally to the council on the progress of redrafting the ordinance presented on March 20. 

At the March 20 meeting Bates had said he would call upon open government experts Terry Francke of CalAware and Mark Schlossberg of the American Civil Liberties Union, both of whom had volunteered to work on the ordinance. As of last week, neither had been contacted. 

The council will not be permitted to discuss the city manager’s oral report because it is not on the agenda. Asked who was responsible for leaving Sunshine off the agenda, given that the council voted to discuss the process, City Clerk Pamyla Means said it could have something to do with the city attorney’s vacation.  

“This is the mayor’s baby,” she added. 

As for the item not being on the agenda, Councilmember Kriss Worthington quipped: “After six years of delay and obfuscation [of the ordinance] two more weeks is almost like the blink of an eye.” 

 

Plastic bag ban proposed 

Plastic shopping bags cause the felling of more than 14 million trees, the use of more than 12 million barrels of oil and the death of more than 100,000 marine animals from entanglement, according to San Francisco’s recently passed Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance.  

If the mayor has his way, Berkeley will follow in San Francisco’s footsteps and adopt an ordinance that would stop large grocery stores and chain pharmacies from using petroleum-based plastic shopping bags. 

If the resolution is approved by the City Council tonight, the city’s Zero Waste Commission will weigh in on the question and advise the council on whether to adopt a similar ordinance. 

Dave Heylen, spokesperson for the California Grocers Association, said the association would like the city to wait to see how the implementation of the San Francisco ordinance is going. Implementation of the ordinance begins in six months. 

“Give the ordinance a chance. Monitor it and see if it’s an effective program,” Heylen said. 

Another factor in delaying a decision is passage of AB2449, Heylen said. The bill requires larger grocery stores across the state to provide recycling bins for plastic bags. 

Heylen said his organization encourages the reuse of plastic bags around the house. “We see more and more retailers selling reusable bags,” he said. 

Mayor Tom Bates declined to comment except by e-mail for this story. 

Chamber of Commerce President Roland Peterson told the Daily Planet his organization has not taken a position on the question. 

 

Food scrap recycling 

Another effort to “green” Berkeley is a proposed food scrap recycling program. The city already has a commercial food scrap recycling program, but lags behind other cities in implementing a residential plan. Details on the plan were not available at press time. 

 

New weapons for police 

With police service revolvers more than 15 years old, the department is asking council for 225 new weapons at a total cost of about $101,000. “[T]he present police service weapon, the Smith and Wesson 4006, was beginning to fail and … replacement parts were difficult to obtain,” says an April 24 police staff report. 

Old service weapons will be crushed or melted. “It is the policy of the department to ensure firearms that are no longer used for law enforcement purposes do not resurface,” the report says. 

The weapons will be purchased from Claremont-based All State Police Equipment Company, which was the low bidder and paid for through the Asset Seizure Funds.  

According to Berkeley Police Capt. Bobby Miller, Asset Seizure Funds come from the sale of property seized during arrests in drug-related cases. The property could include automobiles, houses or household goods, Miller said. 

 

Hearing on allocation of CDBG and other funds 

The council will hold a public hearing on $5.2 million of federal money available for community services from Community Development Block Grants, Emergency Shelter Grants and Community Service Block Grants. This is 3 percent less than the city received last year.  

The council will be asked to make recommendations on these grants tonight. During the regular budget session in May or June the council will consider $4.7 million in community service grants from the city’s general fund, which is the same amount as last year.  

The proposed funding includes the arts, childcare, community media, disability programs and more. Among the projects that are recommended for increased funding are the Berkeley Food and Housing Project (BFHP) Men’s Overnight Shelter Program and the Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center. New funding is recommended for the BFHP Russell Street Residence and BFHP’s Section 8 residential support.  

At the same time the manager is recommending cuts in the BFHP’s Multi- Service Center Drop-In Center and BOSS’ family and singles shelters, among others. 

The council will also address: 

• Increasing a grant for artwork for the bike bridge. 

• Renewing military leave compensation for city employees deployed overseas. 

• Creating a day—May 15—to honor conscientious objectors and war resisters. 

• Housing trust fund allocation. 

• Supporting youth programs at Willard Park clubhouse. 

• Programs at Willard Clubhouse. 

• Training police in crisis intervention. 

 

 

 


Oak-to-Ninth Dispute Moves Forward in Superior Court

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday April 24, 2007

The massive Oak-to-Ninth development project continued its various journeys through the state court system last week, with lawyers for the Oakland Heritage Alliance filing its opening brief in a lawsuit challenging the City of Oakland’s CEQA findings on the 180,000-square-foot Ninth Avenue Terminal. 

OHA sued the City of Oakland after developers Oakland Harbor Partners, a joint venture of Signature Properties and Reynolds & Brown, won staff and City Council approval last year to build a joint commercial-residential development on a 64-acre parcel along the Oakland Estuary waterfront just south of Jack London Square. Included in that parcel is the historic Ninth Avenue Terminal, the most visible part of the parcel. Oakland Harbor Partners is proposing to demolish more than 90 percent of the building, leaving only the façade and shell. 

“The Oak to Ninth Project holds great promise for Oakland,” OHA said in a prepared release announcing the filing of its brief. “OHA’s intention is to improve the project for this City and for its generations to come. The Ninth Avenue Terminal is a symbol of pride for our port and our city. It is in a class with City Hall as emblematic of our city’s distinctive heritage. Oakland remains an industrial port city. It has been since its founding nearly 150 years ago. The terminal is an enduring monument to this historic and still defining character.” 

OHA President Valerie Garry added in the release that, “bringing this lawsuit is not something our organization takes lightly—it is an enormous undertaking that taxes our resources as a non-profit. But our mission is to protect Oakland's historic resources and when a major piece of Oakland maritime history is blithely proposed for demolition on what we believe is a thin pretext, we are left no choice. We want to see this historically significant warehouse reused. Oakland’s history is inextricably tied to the estuary. This last remaining breakbulk terminal provides historic context and a unique sense of place along the Bay Trail.” 

A hearing on the OHA lawsuit is scheduled for July 26 in Superior Court in Oakland. 

The OHA action is one of three separate lawsuits filed against some portion or all of the Oak-to-Ninth Project. OHA’s lawsuit is distinct from the other two in that it only challenges the destruction of the Ninth Avenue Terminal building. 

The OHA lawsuit has been joined with one filed by Oakland environmental advocate Joyce Roy and the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt (CALM), which is based on grounds that the entire 64-acre project violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as well as on calls for the invalidation of the council vote last year approving the Oak-to-Ninth project because the council may not have had the final version of the development agreement in front of it when it took its final vote. 

And after Oakland City Attorney John Russo invalidated petitions by the Oak-to-Ninth Referendum Committee that would have placed the development agreement before the voters for approval or disapproval, the referendum committee filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Oakland challenging that invalidation. In December, a Superior Court judge ruled against the city attorney’s motion to throw the lawsuit out without a trial, ruling that a hearing on the merits will have to take place. 

Also complicating the issue, a parallel proposal which would save the Ninth Avenue Terminal building and turn it into a winery and tourist destination has received a favorable hearing before the city’s Landmark Preservation Advisory Board, and is currently scheduled for consideration by the Planning Commission next month. 

“It’s kind of insane,” OHA Board member Naomi Schiff said by telephone, trying to explain how the city is now considering a building restoration that it has officially ruled “infeasible.” “The original CEQA finding was that keeping the Ninth Avenue Terminal building intact would make the entire 64-acre project ‘infeasible.’ When that came out last year, we met with city representatives and asked that they back off that finding of infeasibility and issue a new RFP [request for proposals] for development and use of the Ninth Avenue Terminal. They didn’t back off that finding of infeasibility, but they did issue a new RFP which told developers that developing the terminal was not feasible, but will you send in a proposal. They got one response, from Ninth Avenue Partners to turn the building into a winery, so now the xity is considering a proposal that says keeping the terminal is feasible.” 

The earlier decisions by city staff to approve the original Harbor Partners proposal and forward it to City Council were made under the administration of former Mayor Jerry Brown. Schiff said she had no idea how any decisions have been affected, or will be affected, by the newly elected administration of Mayor Ron Dellums. 

OHA President Garry agreed that it’s not yet possible to determine how the change in mayoral administrations will affect the outcome of the battles over the Ninth Avenue development. 

“I suppose at some point that may come into play,” Garry said by telephone. “But right now, it’s a legal matter. And there are a lot of legal hurdles that have to be resolved.” 

In separate interviews, Schiff and Garry emphasized that Oakland Heritage Alliance is not seeking to stop the entire Oak-to-Ninth Project.  

“Nobody wants to completely sink this deal,” Schiff said. “We just want to fine-tune it to resolve some of the complexities.” 

And Garry said, “We’re not opposed to the project per se. We want to see something worked out to everyone’s satisfaction. We just hope to save as much of that building as possible. There are a lot of buildings being torn down in the United States every day. This doesn’t have to be one of them.” 

 


Local Bus Manufacturer Refutes AC Transit Assertions

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday April 24, 2007

With AC Transit rapidly expanding its purchase of Belgian-based Van Hool buses, the senior vice president of a Bay Area bus manufacturing company is refuting a key reason why AC Transit officials say the European-manufactured buses are more desirable than American-made ones. 

At an AC Transit District Board of Directors meeting earlier this month, district Executive Director Rick Fernandez said that the European Van Hools are preferable to American buses because Van Hool “is willing to make changes in the design of their buses” when requested. In response to rider and driver complaints, and board and staff concerns, Van Hool is currently making several design changes to 50 40-foot buses recently ordered by AC Transit. 

That willingness to make modifications to its bus design “is different from American bus manufacturers,” Fernandez told board members. “They just make a bus, and you have to take it or leave it.” 

That is flat-out not true, according to Brian Macleod, senior vice president of the Hayward-based Gillig Corporation, which advertises itself as the second largest bus manufacturer in the country. 

“Our transit buses are a custom-built product,” Macleod said last week in a telephone interview. “We get a list of specifications from the customer, and that’s what we build from.” 

Included in the typical specifications requested by purchasers of their buses, Macleod explained, are such things as the number of seats and their configuration, the type of air conditioning to be installed or no air conditioning at all, and the number, style, and tint of windows. In addition, he said, some transit agencies request wheelchair access for both the front and rear doors, which he said Gillig accommodates. 

Macleod said the type of specifications Gillig is able to comply with “has to be within reason, of course. We manufacture our buses to American transit standards and to American road conditions. Within those parameters, we are flexible.” 

At the April 4 board meeting in which Fernandez made his assertion about the inflexibility of American bus manufacturers, the board authorized the sale of 10 more 40-foot North American Bus Institute (NABI) buses five years short of their federally recommended 12-year life, and their replacement with 10 comparable buses from Van Hool. 

That brings to 20 the total number of 40-foot NABIs the board has authorized to trade in for Van Hools, half of the NABI fleet currently owned by AC Transit. The transfer was approved at the April 4 meeting on a 4-1-2 vote, with Board President Greg Harper (Ward II, Emeryville, Piedmont, and portions of Berkeley and Oakland) voting no, and Board Vice President Rebecca Kaplan (At Large) and Ward III Board Member Elsa Ortiz (Alameda and portions of Oakland and San Leandro) abstaining.  

AC Transit recently renewed a five-year contract with Van Hool to purchase 50 new 40-foot buses, with an option to purchase 1,500 more. The 20 additional buses bring the authorized purchase of Van Hools to 70. Prototypes of the new buses are currently being manufactured. AC Transit currently operates 175 Van Hools out of the district’s total fleet of 682 buses. 

Executive Director Fernandez told board members at the April 4 meeting that “when you have the chance to turn over your fleet with a new product, it’s a no-brainer.” 

But key information concerning the NABI-Van Hool swap, including bottom-line figures detailing how much it will either cost or save the district over the long run, was not presented in Fernandez’ two memos recommending the trade. In his first memo, issued March 21, Fernandez said only that “the proposed early [NABI] bus replacement will result in a $1.2 million savings to the region,” but no figures were included to tell how that savings would occur.  

The two memos do not provide a line-item budget for the transfer, only background narratives that are sparse on figures. 

Also, because the NABI buses were bought, in part, with federal funds that were based on a 12-year use life by the district, the swap involves a complicated financial transaction in which the federal interest in the remaining five years of the NABIs must be approved for transfer to another AC Transit asset. It is unclear from documents presented by AC Transit staff to the board and public how that federal asset transfer will ultimately affect the cost of the swap to AC Transit. 

The lack of information was one of the reasons Board President Harper said he did not want to commit himself to continuing approval for these types of swaps. 

“I trust the general manager that he’s getting more than these [NABI] buses are worth,” the former Emeryville mayor said in a telephone interview. “And for the small amount of numbers we are trading right now, I can see some board members wanting to get that money up front.”  

But asked if the board has been provided a detailed analysis of the full cost of the trade-in, including comparing the projected maintenance costs of the NABIs over the final five years of their 12-year life with the cost of purchasing new buses five years early, Harper said no. “I imagine that we have a NABI maintenance schedule and the projected costs, but that wasn’t provided to the board.” Harper said that “if we’re going to [trade in old buses before their 12-year life] on a regular basis, we’ll need those figures.” 

And board member Ortiz said that she abstained on the NABI-Van Hool trade because of the recent community complaints voiced about the Van Hool buses. “I’m waiting to see the modifications that Van Hool is making on the new buses.” 

In addition, as a new board member elected last November, Ortiz said, “I am familiarizing myself with the history of the Van Hool purchase” as well as the details of the NABI-Van Hool swap. “I need to understand what is going on. I understand the need to replace buses before they burn out, but I’m still learning about this issue.” 


I-House Spring Festival Celebrates Diversity, Tolerance

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 24, 2007

As Virginia Tech struggled to recover from the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, residents of International House at UC Berkeley came together in a riot of colors to celebrate unity in diversity Saturday. 

The annual Edith Coliver Festival of Cultures—known as SpringFest—was a burning example of how peace was still possible in a globalized turbulent world. Of how, in these difficult polarizing times, tolerance is more important than ever. 

“It wasn’t easy that the attacks took place the week we were busy preparing for SpringFest,” said Dr. Liliane C. Koziol, director of programs at International House. “But we knew that we had to make the festival a success. Everyone was in a state of shock. Students felt vulnerable because the same incident could take place any time, anywhere. An Asian student came to me fearing backlash on his community. Finally I-House issued a statement saying that we were with all students and would provide them with counseling at any time. There was no way we could just sit there and act as if nothing had happened.” 

Koziol said that I-House had always had a history of cultural festivities such as the one on Saturday.  

“However, between 1960 and 1990, there was a hiatus,” she said. “In 1991 I wanted to revive the spirit of celebrating different cultures once again. When we started out, there were only ten booths. We have definitely come a long way since then.” 

Edith Simon Coliver—an I-House alumna—stepped in then to fund the event, Koziol said. Considered a “woman of the world,” Coliver was fluent in German, French and Spanish, and conversant in Tagalog, Portugese and Mandarin. She was the first woman field office director for the Asia Foundation as well as the first woman to serve as vice president of the World Affairs Council of Northern California. 

On Saturday, thousands gathered at the I-House to share world cultures which were represented by a kaleidoscope of sights, sounds and smells. Flamenco musicians rubbed shoulders with young Turks while wiras—Indonesian warriors—shared a joke with Chilean huasos (cowboys). 

“In spite of what happened last Monday, the spirit is upbeat,” said Koziol.  

“Both Luca and Anna are Italian but they are dressed in kimonos for the show,” said I-House Executive Director Joe Lurie. “Bao is Vietnamese but he’s wearing a Tibetan costume. Therein lies the essence of I-House. Everybody gets a chance to not only see other cultures but also experience them.” 

The first coeducational, interracial residence west of New York, Berkeley’s I-House attracted controversy and raised fears in the community about “mixed marriages” in the ‘30s. 

“It’s possible to celebrate differences, to co-exist and to appreciate different cultures. We make that theory live,” Lurie said. 

As Ah-Rom Lee and Jaeran Song—both exchange students from South Korea—practiced steps from a traditional Korean fan dance, their friends cheered them on. 

“We are really sorry for the victims at Virginia Tech,” Ah-Rom, a psychology major said. “We were scared that we would be singled out because the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, was Korean. But then this is Berkeley and people here understand that the attack had nothing to do with nationalities. Cho had a mental problem. Koreans on the whole are not aggressive.” 

Haas MBA student Kim Nguyen, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam in 1975, said she has felt the sting of racial discrimination at times.  

“Not in Berkeley, but it has happened in the subway in New York,” she said, delicately arranging spring rolls at the Vietnamese student booth. “As for me, I bear no ill will toward Americans because of what happened in the Vietnam War. It’s in the past. America provided us with a home and I am grateful for that.” 

Christina Lnu, an Indonesian student from Jakarta, said that she had feared a backlash toward her community because of events in the news as well. “People here often associate Indonesia with terrorism because it’s a Muslim country,” she said, showing off ethnic artifacts to visitors. “I want to change that perception, make people aware that there is more to my country then just terrorists and Bali.” 

Jeremy (another Indonesian student who did not want to give his last name) said that he had been affected greatly by the shooting. 

“It had taken place in a engineering building and I am a physics major at Cal,” he said. “I am in a college campus as well. The good part about being scared is that you become more aware of the people around you. You want to reach out to them and help them if they are in trouble.” 

As the afternoon progressed, a melee of sounds—Sufi strains, African thumb pianos, dried Caribbean bamboo sticks—could be heard echoing throughout the building. 

“You wonder whether what happened last Monday in Blacksburg will happen here,” said Adeeti Ullal, an Indian student. “But then you look around and you see SpringFest. You see people having an open dialogue. You realize that there’s always going to be something bad but that today is an example of something good.” 

 

 

 

Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee  

Jaeran Song and Ah-Rom Lee, UC Berkeley exchange students from South Korea, discuss dance steps with their friends before performing at the I-House SpringFest Saturday. 

 

 

 


School Board to Vote on Curvy Derby

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 24, 2007

The Berkeley Board of Education is scheduled to vote on development of the Curvy Derby Plan for the Berkeley Unified School District’s (BUSD) East Campus field Wednesday. 

“Staff is going with the assumption that the board will approve the Curvy Derby plan,” said BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan. “The board could either stick to the Closed Derby Street plan or listen to the community and allow the Curvy Derby plan to move forward.” 

Coplan said that the original plan had mandated that in order for a regulation-size baseball field to be constructed at the East Campus field, Derby Street would have to be closed. 

“However the neighbors objected to this and came up with a new plan,” he said. “This conceptual plan extends the field north into Carleton Street so that Derby Street can remain open. The board’s approval will allow up to $20,000 in funds toward developing the Curvy Derby plan.” 

WLC Consultants will be hired to look into the development of the plan. 

In January, proponents and opponents of a nearly decade-long dispute over the playing field construction at East Campus came to an agreement about the Curvy Derby plan, which was created by Berkeley residents Susi Marzuola and Peter Waller. 

 

WASC accreditation 

The school board will receive a presentation from Berkeley High School (BHS) staff regarding the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation update and a report on the small schools. 

In 2006, BHS was accredited by WASC for a period of six years, said Coplan. 

 

Black Tour report 

The board will also hear a presentation from administrators who recently participated in the Black College Teacher Recruitment Tour. 

“This was the first time that BUSD sent out a group to search for African-American applicants,” said Coplan. “We expect the report to be positive. The group specifically visited universities who cater to African American students.” 

Coplan added that schools all over the nation were struggling to hire more teachers of color in their schools. 

“Big corporations also want to hire people of color and as a result schools often lose out,” he said. “Public education just doesn’t have the same kind of money corporate America does. This tour was undertaken to get out there and recruit the best African American teachers.” 

 

MLK track 

The board will vote to approve an advertisement to solicit bids for the resurfacing of the track at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School during the summer. 

The track—which is largely used by the community—will remain closed from June 15 to the end of August. 

 

Mural projects 

The board will also approve a Tile Mural Project at Oxford Elementary School and a Centennial Tile Mural Project at Jefferson Elementary School. 

 


David Halberstam Killed in Car Crash

Bay City News
Tuesday April 24, 2007

MENLO PARK (BCN)—Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author David Halberstam was killed this morning in a three-vehicle crash near the Dumbarton Bridge in Menlo Park, the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office reported. 

According to a spokeswoman with the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Halberstam left Berkeley this morning and was on his way to an interview in the South Bay about a new book he was working on about the Korean War. Halberstam was being driven to the interview by a graduate student at the journalism school. 

Halberstam had given a lecture Saturday at an alumni conference at the school, the spokeswoman said. 

Halberstam, 73, of New York City, was a passenger in one of the vehicles and was the only fatality, according to Deputy Coroner Michelle Rippy. 

The crash was reported shortly after 10:30 a.m. on the westbound Bayfront Expressway at Willow Road, according to Menlo Park police Public Information Officer Nicole Acker. Menlo Park Fire District units also responded to the crash. 

According to Fire District Chief Harold Schapelhouman, emergency units arrived to find Halberstam trapped in the passenger side of a red Toyota Camry and the car’s motor compartment on fire. 

While the fire was extinguished, emergency crews worked to free Halberstam from the passenger side of the vehicle, which had been caved in about 18 to 24 inches by the impact of the collision, Schapelhouman said. 

Halberstam was extricated but had no pulse and was not breathing, according to Schapelhouman. Life-saving measures were not successful and Halberstam was pronounced dead at the scene, he said. 

According to the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism spokeswoman, the male driver of the car in which Halberstam was riding is a student at the journalism school and was taken to Stanford Medical Center. He is believed to be “doing OK,” the spokeswoman said. 

Two other cars were involved in the crash, Schapelhouman said, the primary one a late-model, green Infiniti. Its driver was taken to Stanford Medical Center, he said. The female driver of the third vehicle, a silver Nissan coupe, was uninjured, according to Schapelhouman. 

Police are still looking for witnesses to help in their investigation, Acker said. Anyone with information about the collision is asked to call Menlo Park police at (650) 330-6300. 

Halberstam is widely known for his coverage of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement and also penned several books on sports. He was born in New York City and received the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Vietnam War. 


ZAB Hears Sacramento St. Drug Problem Reports

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 24, 2007

The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) is scheduled to hear a nuisance proceeding Thursday. 

The City of Berkeley Code Enforcement Division has requested ZAB to hold a public hearing to consider recommending to the City Council that the property at 2973 Sacramento St. be declared a public nuisance because of alleged drug activity at the location. The discount store which operates on the site is called B-Town. The property is owned by the Chul J. Kim family and is managed by the son, Joo H. Kim, a San Francisco police officer, and is leased to Nayef Ayesh, the owner and operator of B-Town, according to the Zoning Adjustments Board staff report. 

The report states that the Berkeley Police Department had originally pursued the nuisance designation in 2004 with the incorrect belief that the a discretionary permit was required and had not been obtained for the retail use. However, the Planning Department has since concluded that this was not the case, so the report now recommends that the City Council order abatement by termination of use.  

The report provides a detailed summary of information from the Berkeley Police Department regarding drug activity in and around B-Town from 2003 through February 21 of this year. Police allege that drug dealers were hanging out in front of the building and using it as a place to carry out drug transactions. After a series of discussions with the owners in 2004, the report says that the problem momentarily stopped, but that it began again in 2005 and has been going on ever since. 

In March, the City Council passed a resolution which stated that ZAB would act only as an advisory board to the council in nuisance cases. The ZAB now can recommend the case to the City Council and the council will decide how to abate the nuisance. 

 

New hearings 

• MG Pacific, Inc. will request the modification of a use permit to change the use of an approved restaurant addition from a waiting area to a reception/cocktail lounge at Chester’s Bayview Cafe at 1508 Walnut St. 

• Robert Gaustad of San Rafael will request a use permit to add wine and beer service and live entertainment to Bobby G’s at 2072 University Ave.  

• Chris Worthen, a Berkeley resident, will request a use permit to add windows, skylights and a door to an existing house, to replace the foundation, and to raise the building 2.5 ft., from 18.25 ft. in average height to 22.75 ft., in order to create a habitable basement level with a garage on a parcel that is non-conforming for minimum front and side yard setbacks, minimum building separation, maximum residential density and lot coverage at 1740 Addison St. 

• Peter David Gilbert of Oakland will request a use permit to construct a single-family dwelling and accessory dwelling unit with an average height of 37.75 feet, 3,546 square feet of floor area and two parking spaces on a vacant lot of 6,717 square feet at 482 Michigan Ave. 

 

Consent items 

• Peter David Gilbert of Oakland will request a use permit to correct discrepancies in the approved plans for a single-family dwelling on a vacant lot, and to conform to arborist recommendations for redwood trees along the south property line at 122 Avenida Dr. 

• Adeline Studios of Emeryville will request a use permit to modify the plan approved by a earlier use permit to replace a proposed entry lobby with two off-street parking spaces at 2750 Adeline St. Off-street parking spaces would occupy the former loading area. 

• Affordable Housing Associates of Berkeley will request a use permit to modify the plan approved by an earlier permit to remove four projecting bays on the south elevation, to vary open space dimensions and to replace the paving of the plaza along Ashby Avenue with asphalt at 1001 Ashby Ave.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Commission Discusses Closed Police Misconduct Hearings

By Judith Scherr
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Since September, due to a California Supreme Court decision, the Police Review Commission has not held any inquiries into police misconduct. On Wednesday, the commission will hold a public hearing on new regulations for closed hearings.  

The public hearing is on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center at Hearst Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

“We need to get started on the inquiries,” said PRC Chair Sharon Kidd. “We have 50 cases pending.”  

At issue in the Supreme Court Case, Copley Press v. San Diego, was the notion that police personnel concerns are private matters and may not be discussed in public. A bill, SB1019, has been introduced in the State Senate that would allow hearings to be public. 


High School Students Become College Students for a Day

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 24, 2007

About 250 UC Berkeley students were shadowed last Thursday, but it was all for a good cause. 

The Berkeley YWCA 17th Annual Shadow Day saw 250 high school students from Oakland, Richmond, Emeryville, and El Cerrito get paired up with Cal students to experience a day in the life of a college student. 

“These kids are not academically ‘college-tracked’ and are under-represented in the UC System,” said Jenny DeRuntz, who coordinates the program at the UC Berkeley YWCA campus. “Our aim is to bring high school students from the East Bay to a college campus and give them an opportunity to see what college could provide them with.” 

DeRuntz said that applications were received from both Cal as well as high school students. 

“We match them according to a variety of factors,” she said. “It can range from general interests, hobbies, majors and genders. We try our best to match by ethnicity, but that doesn’t always happen. It’s also important that their schedules match because each Cal student has class at different times.” 

Sponsors for the event included YWCA Berkeley, UC Berkeley and the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC). 

Students check in as early as 8 a.m.—a time DeRuntz referred to as “slightly chaotic.” 

“Close to 500 students have to find their match. So there is a lot of running around and talking while people look for name tags,” she said. “Once morning registration, shadow pick-up and breakfast are over, the high school students leave with their mentors to go to class or participate in other activities. Then they have lunch at Crossroads, which is followed by a UC Berkeley/Community College Admissions discussion at the YWCA. Once that’s over, it’s pretty much an open schedule until it’s time to leave at 3.30 p.m.” 

High school students also get college material and “Shadow Day” T-shirts. According to DeRuntz, 90 percent of the applications are from Oakland. 

“We don’t bring in Berkeley students as they already get a lot of opportunities,” she said. ‘It’s often the Oakland and Contra Costa communities that don’t get much attention.” 

The YWCA student volunteer board—a group of 23 UC Berkeley students—also helps organize the event. 

“Cal students want to do it because they want to share their experiences with these kids,” said Sharon Ma, a student volunteer. “We want to encourage students to look at the future and show them that college is a viable option.” 

Ma, who mentored students in November, said she had been able to relate to her shadow mentees in a lot of ways. 

“We were both from the Bay Area and there was a lot we could talk about,” she said. “Kids are curious about how college works, about how our schedules differ and about extra-curricular activities. They want to know about our majors, study abroad and funding for college. We in turn get to learn from them and make new friends. It’s a rewarding experience for both.” 

When the students are not sitting with their mentors in class, they are taken for a tour of the Campanile, Memorial Stadium and Telegraph Avenue. 

“They even go into the classrooms, the dorms and the frats. They come here in the morning really shy and at the end of the day they have this new-found energy,” said DeRuntz. “We are really trying to promote higher education. Not everybody can get into Cal, but we can at least try.” 

DeRuntz said that there have been students from McClymonds High School in Oakland who have been admitted to UC Berkeley in the past. 

“We have received excellent feedback from high school counselors who have said that this event has motivated students tremendously and has helped improve grades,” she said. “The kids understand that we are just like them and that they too can go to college. It’s definitely a rewarding experience for everyone.”


Police Blotter

By Rio Bauce
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Wet Seal chase 

On Thursday at around 5:30 p.m., an employee from Wet Seal, a business on the 2300 block of Telegraph Avenue, phoned the authorities to report that two men stole an iPod and some cash from the employee area. 

 

Cal auto burglary 

On Thursday at 12:08 p.m., a man called in to report that somebody had smashed open the driver’s window of his car and had stolen his backpack. The incident took place between 11 p.m., the previous day, and 8:30 a.m. that morning. No suspects have been taken into custody. 

 

Late night restaurant vandal 

After the French restaurant, Le Bateau Ivre, located on the 2600 block of Telegraph Avenue, closed Wednesday night, an unidentified person sprayed graffiti paint between the fence and the external walls. No suspects have been identified. 

 

Residential burglary 

On Tuesday, April 17, at 5 p.m., a woman who lives on the 1200 block of Oxford Street called to report that her house had been broken into the previous day at around the same time. She reported that the thief pried the window open and stole money and a phone charger. The police have not identified a suspect in the case. 

 

Whole Foods thief 

Before midnight on April 16, a man in his late fifties attempted to steal wooden pallets from the rear of Whole Foods Market at Telegraph and Ashby avenues. When apprehended by Whole Foods staff, he fled the scene of the crime. 

Assault 

On April 16, at 11:23 p.m., a woman called in a report that somebody hit her in the face with a bottle while she was walking down the 1600 block of Ashby. No other information is available. 

 

Burglary 

On April 15 at 6:15 p.m., a homeowner on the 1700 block of Prince Street reported that a burglary had occurred at their house. They came home, the alarm was ringing, and the window was open. Contents of their wallet were missing. There are no suspects. 

 

Assault 

On April 14 at 1 a.m., a man assaulted another man. The victim showed up at a local hospital and reported the attack, according to Berkeley Police Department Spokesperson Ed Galvan.


Legislative Briefs

Tuesday April 24, 2007

SB67  

Vehicles: speed contests and reckless driving (the so-called sideshow car confiscation bill) (State Senator Don Perata, D-Oakland) 

Passed the Senate April 16 on the voice-vote consent calendar as a “non-controversial” matter. Currently on first reading in the Assembly. Held at the desk, not yet assigned to committee. 

 

AB45  

Oakland Unified School District: Governance (to restore some measure of local control to OUSD) (State Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, D-Oakland) 

Currently in the Assembly Education Committee, scheduled for hearing Wednesday, April 25, 1:30 p.m., Room 4202 in the State Capitol Building, Sacramento.


West Berkeley Residents Monitor Pacific Steel Emissions

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 24, 2007

A group of West Berkeley residents have set up an air monitor to detect emissions from Pacific Steel Casting (PSC) Monday. 

Setting up an air monitor has been the goal of community members for a long time. Denny Larson, director of the non-profit Global Community Monitor (GCM)—an organization that promotes environmental justice and human rights for communities—helped acquire funds for the project from the Bay Area Air Quality District (BAAQMD). 

He was joined in his effort to install the monitor by environmental activists including Steven Ingraham, LA Wood and Peter Guerrero. 

“We are putting it up to verify what is in the air,” said Ingraham, a Berkeley resident who tested the equipment. “The community has a right to know.” 

Located at 1333 Second St., PSC produces steel castings that are used in different industries. Area residents have complained for years about noxious odors and emissions which they feel impose a health risk. 

Ingraham added that the exact location of the air monitor would not be disclosed because it might be tampered with.  

“This is an Airmetrics, Mini-vol monitor. It’s state-of-the-art battery-powered and has an electronic programming model which was recommended by the district,” he told the Planet Monday. 

“The grant's collaboration parameters have given Denny information on the use, and some of their staff came by to check out our site this morning. We have a rooftop platform which the unit is mounted into and the program was set to begin catching a sample for lab analysis.” 

The group hopes to get definite data over the next six months and carry out surveys of illnesses in West Berkeley that have been linked to long-term exposure to chemicals. They are currently looking for more funding. 

 


The Rise of Blackwater

By Sandip Roy, New America Media
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Four of the employees of Blackwater USA, one of more than three dozen private military companies operating in Iraq, were murdered, burned and left hanging on a bridge in Fallujah in 2004. Jeremy Scahill, a contributor to The Nation magazine and a correspondent for Democracy Now!, has written a book about how a company that is barely 10 years old rose from the swamp of North Carolina to become the world’s most powerful mercenary army, controlled by one man. Scahill recently spoke to Sandip Roy on the program “Your Call on KALW” about his book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. 

 

Roy: With the many private contractors in Iraq, why is Blackwater special? 

 

Scahill: Most people believe that Blackwater is on contract with the U.S. military. It is actually on contract with the State Department. Since June 2004, the U.S. State Department has paid Blackwater some $750 million to protect senior U.S. diplomats in Iraq. I call it the Praetorian Guard of the war on terror because it’s literally guarding the senior officials on the frontlines of the occupation of Iraq. Forty percent of every dollar being spent in Iraq is going to contractors. 

 

Roy: But what’s wrong with a private company performing duties like providing bodyguards or protecting movement of kitchen equipment? 

 

Scahill: The active duty military, in the words of Colin Powell, is just about broken. The Bush administration relies on these secretive private forces, which no effective laws govern, to engage in these offensive operations. It also really impacts the morale of active duty U.S. forces. I was talking to a young solder in Fort Hood who said he was making $28,000 a year. Now, he is making $40,000 in Iraq. But that’s the monthly take for some of the better-paid mercenaries from Blackwater. This kid looks at the Blackwater guys making six-figure salaries with better weapons and body armor and probably has one of two reactions—I hate them or I want to be like them. In fact, now if you leave the military and go into the private sector in Iraq, the slang is “going Blackwater.” 

Blackwater is now lobbying heavily to be sent to Darfur as an anti-genocide force and are using phrases like “Janjaweed be gone.” 

 

Roy: If the American military cannot protect the people of Darfur, what’s wrong with Blackwater doing it? 

 

Scahill: We have enough trouble monitoring official forces in the so-called war on terror. Blackwater has repeatedly refused to turn over documents related to deadly incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was extraordinary to see a private company telling Henry Waxman, chair of the Government Oversight Committee, that they cannot provide him with documents because they are classified. 

One of the great concerns in Darfur is much of the violence in Sudan is attributed to militia violence. So adding another armed private force is a cause for serious concern. 

 

Roy: Have you found instances that their Christian ideology affects their work? 

 

Scahill: We have heard Blackwater operators referring to Iraqis as hajis. In April 2004, when they opened fire into a crowd of Moqtada al-Sadr supporters they called them “f---ing niggers.” Some guys sign up because they think they are doing their patriotic duty. But I think there are some frightening guys who just want to go and kill Muslims. 

 

Roy: How did Blackwater get to be so powerful? 

 

Scahill: A decade ago Blackwater was no more than a 5,000-acre plot in North Carolina. Its secretive founder, Erik Prince, grew up in Michigan where his father ran a company called Prince Manufacturing, which serviced the auto industry. Erik Prince saw his dad use the business as a cash-generating engine to fuel the rise of the religious right in this country. He gave the seed money to Gary Bauer to found the Family Research Council. Erik Prince was an intern there. They were significant bankrollers of James Dobson and his Focus on the Family. Erik had been one of the wealthiest people ever to join the Navy SEALS. When he opened Blackwater, its stated purpose in 1996-97 was to anticipate government outsourcing of training and firearm-related activity. 

 

Roy: But, like Halliburton, did they have a champion in White House or Congress? 

 

Scahill: Interestingly, its rise happened during the Clinton administration. That’s when Blackwater was actually given its contract to become an official vendor to the U.S. government. The Clinton administration was very enthusiastic about privatization but it wasn’t until 9/11 that Blackwater’s moment arrived with the Republicans in total control. 

 

Roy: Has Blackwater actually gotten away with murder? You say no security contractor has been prosecuted for crimes in Iraq? 

 

Scahill: Only one contractor has been indicted in Iraq since March of 2003 and he wasn’t a mercenary—he was a regular contractor who stabbed someone in a kitchen. There is almost no transparency to operations of Blackwater. There are scores of reports of Blackwater being engaged in firefights with Iraqis. Blackwater would say they are only engaged in defensive operations. 

 

Roy: Has it been helpful to be given the name of contractor instead of mercenary? 

 

Scahill: It’s part of a sophisticated re-branding operation. The mercenary trade association has the very Orwellian name of International Peace Operations Association and its logo is a cartoon lion. When you are talking about Blackwater you are talking about mercenaries. 

 

Roy: What does it mean that now they are regarded as part of the “U.S. total force”? 

 

Scahill: In February 2006 Donald Rumsfeld issued the Pentagon’s quadrennial review which lays out the Pentagon’s vision for years to come. There he classified Blackwater and other contractors as a legitimate part of the total force making up the U.S. war machine. This was legitimacy that they could not have dreamed of. Now Blackwater has taken that designation and used it in two wrongful death suits filed against it— one for the incident in Fallujah and one for a plane crash in Afghanistan. They have said they should be immune from civilian legislation inside the United States because they are essentially part of the U.S. national security apparatus. At the same time it lobbies against placing its men under the US court-martial system. 

 

Roy: What are Blackwater’s activities in the USA? 

 

Scahill: In New Orleans during Katrina, I encountered Blackwater mercenaries on Bourbon Street—burly guys with flak jackets and M-4 machine guns. They said their mission was to stop the looters. It came out that the Department of Homeland Security had hired Blackwater to the tune of $240,000 dollars a day to provide security. At one point they had 600 men there. The Blackwater men said they were making $350 a day per man. But they were billing the government $950 per day per man. 

Last year Blackwater representatives met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about doing earthquake disaster response in California. They are planning to open a private military base, they’d call it training facility, near San Diego. It has a new base in Illinois. 

 

Roy: Are there public hearings being held by people like Speaker Pelosi? 

 

Scahill: When Nancy Pelosi goes to Iraq she is protected by Blackwater. The Democrats’ plan for withdrawal from Iraq doesn’t mention private contractors. So there could be 40,000 actual soldiers in Iraq in late 2008 per the Democrats plan, and you could just supplement it with 160,000 private contractors. 

The congressional initiatives are all aimed at oversight and transparency. No one with the exception of Congressman Dennis Kucinich is framing this in concept as the radical privatization of war. 

Blackwater represents the life’s work of not just Rumsfeld but also Dick Cheney. One of the last things Cheney did as George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense during the first Gulf War was to commission a study from Halliburton as to how to further privatize the military bureaucracy. 


Follow the Carquinez Strait to Port Costa and Crockett

By Marta Yamamoto, Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 24, 2007

From Franklin Trail in Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline Park spread panoramic views ranging from Martinez and Benicia nearby to the far reaches of Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tam and the Lower Delta. Anchoring the two ends of this trail are the small, strait-side towns of Port Costa and Crockett. Plan a glorious getaway exploring parkland, browsing antique shops and eclectic boutiques and sampling intriguing eateries.  

Bordering Carquinez Scenic Drive, almost 2,800 acres of coastal hills, wooded ravines, shaded meadows and river shoreline comprise Carquinez Regional Park. Communities of native grasses; oak, bay, buckeye and eucalyptus woodland; and coastal shrub provide habitat for western meadowlark, bluebird, red-tail hawk, American kestrel, Great horned owl, golden eagle, gray fox, mule deer and Botta’s pocket gopher. 

Separated into two sections by private land, the Bull Valley Staging Center offers access to the western portion of the park with its spacious picnic areas and 280-foot Eckley Pier, as well as some regional history. 

Emerald grasses, newly budding shade trees, bird calls and the whistle of a train greeted my recent post-rain visit. Weathered brick and rusted iron give voice to past inhabitants—brickworks, grain wharf and resort. All blend into a sharp portrait of man’s reclamation of the land. Popular Eckley Pier stretches into the strait’s deep channels for migrating sturgeon. One twelve-foot-long monster was discovered by divers laying cable along the bottom.  

Franklin Trail is ideal for exploring the park, offering an easy hike through various natural communities and 750-foot high, 360-degree views, all in less than three miles round trip. From the picnic area the trail climbs steeply through tuck-and-roll grassland and then levels out. Strategic benches offer respite and a chance to take in the encompassing scenery. 

From open expanses, the trail dips into shade-providing woodland, alive with bird conversations, then opens to a bluff above the town of Port Costa. From my grassy perch I absorbed the life surrounding me—raptors soaring with the winds, breezes riffling eucalyptus leaves, a ship gliding through the strait amid tugboats and pleasure craft. Across the canyon, atop a towering hill, is one lone oak, its bare branches festooned with mistletoe and silhouetted against the sky. 

From this point on Franklin Trail, two options are available. One is to retrace your steps back to the starting point. The other is to follow a downhill trail and residential streets into the quaint town of Port Costa, definitely worth a visit. 

In 1879, deep water channels along the Carquinez Strait led to the founding of Port Costa as a major grain port for merchant sailing ships. During peak seasons, town warehouses, saloons and hotels housed over 3,000 sailors, stevedores and railroaders. 

Today this timeless town of 250 residents boasts well-tended historic homes and gardens along Canyon Lake Drive. Towering trees attest to its longevity, as does cavernous Warehouse Café. Inside, saloon ambience is in full swing among dark-toned wood, shaded light fixtures and memorabilia decorating every surface. The large bar and gaily covered tables enhance the mood. 

Across the street resides the other half of the town’s restaurants, the well-known Bull Valley Inn. Its elegant American cuisine, sporting generous portions and robust flavors, also touches back to Port Costa’s lively past. 

At the opposite end of Carquinez Regional Park is the town of Crockett, visually dominated by the California & Hawaiian Sugar Factory and the Carquinez Bridge. Here small-town spirit lives on. From the eclectic mixture of homes to activities including town meetings, town-wide yard sales and barbecues, a strong community spirit unites Crockett’s residents, both old-timers and newcomers. 

Toward the end of the 20th century the sugar refining industry, both beet and cane, took hold in Crockett. By 1906 Hawaiian sugar dominated; since then C & H has been in operation every year. In 1908, they took over town improvements, gaining Crockett the reputation of a company town. 

The Crockett Museum, at Rolph and Loring Avenue, is the place to re-visit Crockett’s past. Occupying the full length of the former train station, each room is themed with a different aspect of Crockett’s history, documenting military experiences, home life, C & H memorabilia, 78 years of graduation pictures and a 9-foot, 460-pound sturgeon. The museum appears to be a repository for generations of garage and attic potpourri, creating a charming glimpse of a varied and interesting past. 

Crockett is a walking destination. Take the time to explore broad, shaded streets lined with brick and clapboard homes and some of C & H’s improvements. Along Loring Avenue, against the backdrop of the massive brick refinery, attractive historic buildings house private residences and the Odd Fellows Hall. Rithet Park, developed in 1912, is a lovely expanse of tended lawns and gardens with lanes dedicated to the town Bocce League. 

The main commercial area at Pomona Street and Second Avenue offers shops for browsing, eateries for sampling and bars for sipping. Toot’s Bar shares Second Avenue with Here, There and Everywhere, the Healing Touch and The Fireplace. The front window display at What’s On Second Antiques reflects the cornucopia of the Museum’s artifacts. Next door the former A. Ghioldi Jewelry store is now home to Crockett Pottery. Watch your step on Crockett’s raised sidewalks while ogling architectural details and one-of-a-kind merchandise. 

Along Pomona Street, Buffalo Run Leathers features hand-crafted motorcycle saddle bags while Romari’s beaded jewelry displays tempt your interest. Eats are plentiful. The Valona Deli offers soups, sandwiches and espresso drinks at tables topped with brightly colored oilcloth before expanses of glass overlooking the street. At Los Arcos American breakfasts and authentic Mexican burritos and conchas can be enjoyed inside or on the shaded patio. 

Fill out your excursion with a visit to the waterfront. Here you can re-experience views from atop Franklin Trail at water-level. Linger awhile at The Nantucket, sampling calamari and crab cakes, both Nantucket specialties. Watch fishing boats return and unload their catch. Marvel at the soaring metal framework of the Carquinez Bridge. Reflect on this area’s historic past while savoring the delights of its present.  

 

Getting There: Take Hwy 80 to Hwy 4, exit at Cumming Skyway and drive north. Turn right onto Crockett Blvd. and drive to Pomona St. in Crockett. Turn right onto Pomona; this becomes Carquinez Scenic Drive. Follow Carquinez Scenic Drive to the Bull Valley Staging Area entrance on the left. Continue down the drive to the picnic area and Eckley Pier. Approx. 25miles one way. 

Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline: No day-use fee, no pet charge. Dogs allowed off-leash on trails. No fishing license required for pier fishing, license is needed for shore fishing. East Bay Regional Park Headquarters 925 228 0112. www.ebparks.org/parks/carquin. 

 


Ten Questions for Councilmember Linda Maio

By Jonathan Wafer, Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 24, 2007

1. Where were you born and where did you grow up, and how does that affect how you regard the issues in Berkeley and in your district? 

I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the tail end of the World War II in a largely Italian American community. My father was a factory worker and in all of the families we knew well, there was never enough money for everything. A lot of people didn’t have cars. What I remember is we didn’t have enough money for regular medical care and my family, particularly my mother, was always scrambling to figure out where the money was going to come from. So that left me with a deep impression: that it’s critical to have a family supported in the basic ways, basic ways having food, clothing, housing and medical care. So that’s what a lot of my focus since I’ve been on the council and have actually done, political work has been in affordable housing and basic services to keep the family healthy and the community healthy. And really that goes back to my Italian-Catholic background. 

 

2. What is your educational background, and how did that help prepare you for being a councilmember? 

I sort of came to my formal education later. I graduated from high school back in New York and came out here and started junior college at what was Grove Street College. Way back when, where the Black Panther Party actually, I think, came out of Grove Street College. When I started at Grove Street College, it was sort of at the tail end of all of that political activity. But the college district was about to close that campus down and move it to the hills. It really needed to stay rooted in the community where education was something that was definitely needed and people were not going to travel up into the hills. It was a really important resource in the community. So I kind of cut my teeth then on getting involved with the students at Grove Street College to try and save the school. And I worked with Maudelle Shirek back then on that as well. So I came through that period really getting an education in two things: getting my AA degree but also at the same time understanding what local politics is all about. So I transferred out from Grove Street College to UC Berkeley where I got my bachelor’s degree in 1979. And then I went on to get a teaching credential the following year. 

 

3. What are the top three most pressing issues facing your district (District 1)? 

Right now one of the biggest issues in my district is environmental health. There are two sources that are a concern to me. One is the large amount of diesel particulate that comes from largely truck traffic from the freeway which flows because the winds come from west to east largely, pushes a lot of the particulate to well into West Berkeley and that has definite links to cancer and asthma. So we know that we’ve seen high incidents of asthma hospitalizations paralleling the freeway. We now know that a lot of the diesel particulation is not only linked to asthma but also linked to cancer. And then we have the second source of emissions that are quite foul in odor from Pacific Steel Casting industry there. So that’s one issue.  

The second is affordable housing for families that can’t afford to get into this market. You cannot buy a house in Berkeley for less than a half a million dollars but largely it’s on the other end. So it’s important for me. And I’ve been working on this for years to make sure there are affordable housing options for families. So that’s number two.  

The third issue is really kind of a nexus of two issues which is preservation of the arts in Berkeley and the arts and crafts. There are a lot of places in West Berkeley where artists have found little affordable niches in order to live and work. With more and more gentrification happening in West Berkeley that’s a lot less possible now. There are a couple of arts magnets in west Berkeley that are really kind of hanging on by their fingernails through the good graces of whoever owns the building. And so we need permanently affordable arts space which is actually a very good neighbor with industrial uses. And making sure we have good incubator space for green businesses to start up in Berkeley because we have the intellectual resources in Berkeley. We have to help develop that and create places for new startups to happen, particularly green business and biotech. That will take some real muscle on the part of the city through zoning and its mitigation programs to make sure that we get the kinds of businesses we want and we have permanent affordable spaces for the arts to flourish because it’s a very big part of what Berkeley is all about. 

 

4. Do you agree with the direction the city is heading in. Why or why not? 

There’s been a lot of effort in environmental issues. In education as well. We’ve made a lot of headway. We are quite prominent, particularly in the environmental area. 

Development is the big issue in Berkeley--what happens to Berkeley’s future? So where does development go? What does it look like? How does it interface with the neighbors? We’re still shaping that. We’ve had some experiences which have helped us realize that we have to have better interface between neighbors and new development. We also have to make sure that when new development comes down the pipe it gives us something we really need and want. And the arts is one of the areas that I talked about. Affordable housing is another. So personally I feel that we’ve charted out a good course. Now we just have to make sure that we realize it properly. 

 

5. What is your opinion of the proposal to develop a new downtown plan and the settlement with the University of California over its LRDP? 

You have to realize at the get-go that the university is tantamount to a state agency; it doesn’t have to follow the city of Berkeley’s rules. Now, we would like to change that, but right now we can’t change that. So they can act autonomously if they choose to do that. And the downtown plan and getting the university to come to the table to work on a downtown plan together, which was part of the settlement agreement, gives us the ability to actually work with them to steer their development in the right direction and not just basically be the victim and say, “Oh my God, they’re doing it to us again.”  

So, I know there’s a lot of concern and misrepresentation that we sold out to the university, but in fact the reverse is true in that the university has agreed to work with us in developing the downtown and steering future development in the downtown through this planning process. So I support the DAPAC process. It’s a big community process. Very public. And I think it’s going to be a good plan. 

 

6. How do you think the mayor is doing at his position? Are you considering running for mayor, and if so, what changes would you try to make? 

I think the mayor’s doing an excellent job. He’s got his hands full. He’s on a number of commissions. He’s steering the city in terms of the environment and education and green business. I myself have been asked to run for mayor a number of times, but it’s not on my horizon at this time. 

 

7. Has Berkeley’s recent development boom been beneficial for the city? What new direction, if any, should the city’s development take over the next decade?  

A lot of the new development has been quite handsomely done. There have been a couple of developments that are problematic. And I point particularly to the one at Acton and University that is not an attractive building in my opinion. It doesn’t respect the neighborhood as it should have when it went up. It really kind of points to all of the things that people can look at and say, hey, we don’t want anymore of that. And I agree, we don’t want anymore of that. But there are other developments in and around the downtown that have come out quite nicely. So that’s the direction we need to go.  

Steering development downtown is something that really makes sense. The Brower Center should be coming on line in four or five years. Kittredge and Oxford will be housing and a landmark environmental building. We know what we really like and we have to make sure we steer development that’s attractive and that provides good amenities to the city, such as affordable housing and places for the arts. 

 

8. How would you characterize the political climate in Berkeley these days? 

Well, I’ve been on the council for 14 years now. And I will say that it’s much more congenial on the council now. Ever since I’ve been on the council there have been tensions in the City of Berkeley between people who want different things and see the city’s future differently. But we work them out over time and we really try and do our best to remain candid while we do that. 

 

9. What is your favorite thing about Berkeley? 

The variety of wealth and treasures embodied in the people in this town. They make things happen in their own way. They’re creative. They’re smart. They’re humane. And it’s really about the people. The environment is wonderful to live in. It’s got a great historic fabric. I appreciate all of those things. When it comes right down to it, it’s the people I’m glad to be among. 

 

10. What is your least favorite thing about Berkeley? 

I think the sniping is my least favorite thing. When you’re on the council, people can insult you, they can attack you verbally, they just get very angry and worked up, and they forget about just civil discourse. It’s not that frequent, but when it does happen, it doesn’t feel great. People who think about running for political office worry about the fact that this happens, but really they shouldn’t because it doesn’t at all outweigh all of the positive aspects of serving your city.


More Korean Reactions to Shooting Rampage

By Kapson Yim Lee, New America Media
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Korean-Americans’ fear of a backlash from the campus massacre at Virginia Tech eased a bit when mainstream news media began focusing on issues that concern all Americans, such as mental illness, gun control and campus security, rather than the ethnicity of the gunman. 

Their anxiety, however, was understandable. Koreans cannot forget the nightmares that resulted from the 1992 Los Angeles riots, in which they were targeted and more than 2,000 Korean-owned businesses were destroyed. 

On April 17, when the news about the gunman Seung-hui Cho broke, Seung-wook Lee, president of the Korean Students Association, convened an emergency meeting to prepare Korean students emotionally for possible verbal abuses or physical attacks. 

Korean students attending Virginia Tech were on edge. “We are hesitating to go to the school’s cafeteria for fear of possible retaliation,” a student said. “We gather in threes or fours when we go out. Some stayed in their dormitory all day long.” Some who came from Korea were thinking about returning to Korea, Lee said. Some 1,000 Korean students, including hundreds from Korea, are enrolled at Virginia Tech, he said. 

At Westfield High School in Chantilly, Virginia, the gunman’s old school, tension was evident. Several Korean students reportedly were deliberately hit with backpacks. 

In Los Angeles, several Korean students were physically attacked at a junior high school near Koreatown, according to Jenny Kim, a parent of an eighth-grader. The school authority told the parents they were investigating the report, she said. 

In Korea, the anxiety level is running just as high. Many students who were preparing to apply for colleges in the United States are rethinking their plans. At a consulting agency in Seoul which specializes in helping Korean students find a foreign school, some students withdrew their applications for study in the United States, even though they had already paid the deposit of $2,000. 

At the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, only a dozen Koreans showed up on April 19 to apply for a U.S. visa. The line of people waiting each day outside the office used to average about 100 yards long. 

The Korean Tourism Organization (KTO) said it pulled its “Sparkling Korea” television advertisements off CNN after the shootings. “It would be inappropriate to air the 30-second ads featuring images of Korea’s culture and natural beauty in between the news reports of a shooting rampage by a Korean-born student,” said Park Young-Kyu, an official at the KTO branch in New York. 

In an extreme case, the Kangwon Ilbo, a daily newspaper based in Korea, published a series of interviews with government officials to calm local fears that the Virginia Tech shootings might have a negative effect on local efforts to host the 2014 Winter Olympics at the region’s ski resort in Pyeong Chang. 

Lee Tae-shik, the Korean ambassador to the United States, came under fire from the Korean media. While speaking at a Korean church in Washington, D.C., he suggested that Korean American Christians fast for 32 days to mourn the 32 people Cho killed.


Opinion

Editorials

Editorial: We’ll Have to Make Our Own Sunshine

By Becky O’Malley
Friday April 27, 2007

We’d like to thank our good friends at the Bay Guardian (where several of us here cut our journalistic teeth) for their persistent advocacy for sunshine in government. In case their lively publication isn’t on your usual reading list (it should be) here’s what they have to say about what’s going on in Berkeley: 

 

At long last the city of Berkeley is talking seriously about adopting a sunshine ordinance. That’s the good news, and it’s overdue: Councilmember Kriss Worthington asked City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque to start working on this six years ago.  

The bad news is that Albuquerque has drafted a law that’s full of holes.  

The biggest problem with the proposed ordinance is its lack of effective enforcement. Although the law sets (some) standards for open records and open meetings, any complaints about secrecy would go to the city manager. That won’t work: if we’ve learned one thing in covering politics for more than 40 years, it’s that city officials can’t police themselves on sunshine issues. What happens if the city manager is the biggest offender? What happens if the city manager doesn’t want to take on the mayor or the council members? What if the city manager winds up protecting city employees (who may be violating the ordinance with impunity)?  

The ordinance needs a few other things - for example, mandatory time for public comment at City Council meetings ought to be written into the law instead of being left as a council rule that can change any time. There ought to be clear language stating that all requests for information are to be treated as public records requests, even if they aren’t in writing and didn’t come through the City Manager’s Office.  

But if this ordinance is going to make any difference, it needs real enforcement—and that means having an outside, independent panel or commission that can handle complaints. In San Francisco, the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force does that job - and the city still lacks decent enforcement. If Berkeley wants to adopt a real landmark ordinance, it should follow what Connecticut has done and create an open records commission with the authority to order city departments, agencies, and officials to release documents and open up meetings.  

Worthington is a strong supporter of an independent enforcement body and has been struggling to get Mayor Tom Bates and Albuquerque to go along.  

At this point, Worthington and the sunshine advocates would be better off letting Terry Franke of Californians Aware and Mark Schlosberg of the American Civil Liberties Union—both of whom have offered their time and expertise—simply write another draft. It should include a new sunshine commission, with teeth. Worthington says that might require a charter amendment and thus a vote of the people, and he’s prepared to push the entire package onto the ballot if necessary.  

That threat alone ought to get Bates and Albuquerque in line—and if it doesn’t, the voters of Berkeley should have the final say. 

 

We couldn’t agree more. It has indeed been six years since then Daily Planet Editor Judith Scherr, former Chronicle editor and Society of Professional Journalism (SPJ) activist Peter Sussman and Councilmember Kriss Worthington started the ball rolling, and it’s gone exactly nowhere. Things have actually gotten worse. Former City Clerk Sherry Kelly was a great believer in sunshine, and on her own put many technological reforms in place in her office which have greatly helped citizens find out what government is up to. On her way out the door she worked on a draft of a model sunshine ordinance with citizen advice, but her draft has disappeared. It was replaced, after a lot of hemming and hawing, by the dreadful Albuquerque draft which the Guardian skewers so well.  

And while our city government has been fiddling around, Rome is burning. When we in Berkeley started thinking about a sunshine ordinance, San Francisco and Oakland were well on the way with theirs, as was Contra Costa County and even San Jose. Six years ago the Contra Costa Times was a big proponent of open government, as was the San Jose Mercury News, then owned by Knight-Ridder. The Mercury even drafted its own model sunshine ordinance for San Jose. But since then almost all the papers in the Bay Area, in a doughnut-shaped mass ringing San Francisco and Berkeley, have been swallowed up by Dean Singleton’s Media News, a right-wing corporation which seems to have little interest in open government. 

So there aren’t many of us left to complain. And in the meantime governments, Berkeley’s included, continue doing their best to conduct business with no scrutiny from the voting and taxpaying public. A few recent instances here: 

• The secret settlement of the city’s lawsuit against UC on terms which turn out to be very bad for Berkeley. Some citizens are challenging it in court after the fact, but if we’d had a sunshine ordinance they might have had a chance to complain before the damage was done. 

• The scheme for creating a massive development on the parking lot of the Ashby BART station, with a grant proposal already written before citizens knew anything about it. Planet reporter Richard Brenneman documented most of the action with the aid of citizen sources, so it’s been slowed down a bit.  

• The mayor’s attempt to transfer a couple of hundred thousand dollars in city funds to the amorphous Sustainable Berkeley conglomeration, with the assignment of writing its own plan for implementing Measure G and then selling it to the citizens. Little details like the process for choosing the director and how much he was to be paid were being kept quiet. Thanks to the eagle eye of Planet reporter Judith Scherr, that deal seems to be off, so the work will now go on in the public eye, where it belongs. 

But all of these are part of a worrisome trend on the part of the current local administration to turn public functions over to non-governmental organizations which can operate behind the scenes with no chance for input from the taxpayers who are expected to supply the funding. In these three cases, much of the truth eventually came to light, if too late, but there’s probably much more going on that the public will never find out about.  

So we agree with the Guardian that it’s time for the press and the citizens to draft their own sunshine ordinance for Berkeley, one with not only teeth but backbone this time. The City of Berkeley has had its chance, and it’s dropped the ball.  

Tuesday’s City Council meeting was particularly embarrassing. The city manager announced apologetically that his staff hasn’t even been able to come up with a plan for working on fixing the unsatisfactory draft—the first step in a process that was supposed to have started last October. It’s been postponed again, until May 8, but enough is enough. 

We Berkeleyans should just get to work on our own ordinance. The Mercury News’ model ordinance can still be found on the Internet—that would be one way to get started. There are several organizations that would be a big help: Californians Aware, the California First Amendment Coalition, the First Amendment Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the SPJ …it’s a substantial list. When we have a good ordinance ready, we can offer the do-nothing council one last chance to adopt it, but if they can’t get moving we should just put it on the ballot, as citizens did in San Franscisco. Getting the voters to pass it shouldn’t be hard. 


Editorial: It’s Too Easy Acting Green, and Other Arias

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of imported tschotchkes, have a house full of them. (For the Yiddish-challenged, that’s all the little bits of useless decorative stuff you either love because your mother didn’t let them into your childhood home, or hate because she did.) But still, in the context of our PC-plus city’s Earth Day festival on Saturday, I did wonder. The Planet had a table there, and we spent an hour or so alternately sitting and walking around, chatting with vendors and visitors. We noticed quite a few stalls with merchandise which originated in Asia or Latin America which was delivered in big vans, panel trucks or SUVs. What’s wrong with that, you might ask?  

Well, energy consumption—all the stuff that we love to bring in from far away, but at what cost? Even our local pols see no contradiction in jetting around the world on their long vacations, presumably to study sustainability. Of course I’m no saint myself—I bought some lovely earrings at the fair (beads from China, assembled nearer to home.) 

And one visitor groused at great length about the seeming need for mega-amps of loud music at an Earth Day event, and I must admit I agreed with him. Whatever happened to the concept of noise pollution? Silent Spring was about not being able to hear the sounds of the birds, but even if we’re no longer killing as many of them with DDT we’re drowning them out with human-produced sounds at every outdoor opportunity. Or masking them with personal seemingly-embedded earbuds playing synthetic songs. At least the organizers could have hired mariachis, an endangered species, to entertain the crowd—acoustic of course.  

Which brings us round to the whole uncomfortable subject of green-washing, a topic which has enormous potential for embarrassment whenever it comes up. For starters, there’s that nice new office building which is being built downtown for “environmental organizations.” We’ve printed a lot of their letters, their explanations about why the founding father for whom the building is named is smiling down on their project from heaven or wherever, but no one has explained to my satisfaction why it wouldn’t be “greener” just to re-use the several existing buildings downtown with thick walls and windows that open, built of never-to-be-replaced old-growth wood.  

And then there’s the question of why, just as jobs are moving apace to the suburbs, housing is being crammed into older cities. Or, the other way round, why are many trying to re-zone cities like Oakland and Berkeley, which still have a good number of light industries, to drive out jobs just as people are moving back in? (There was a good article by Eyal Press in a recent Nation about this conundrum.) The standard explanation is that people will live downtown and walk to services, but—reality check—there’s still no major inexpensive supermarket near Center and Shattuck in Berkeley, nor will there be in our lifetime. Whole Foods will be the first “supermarket” to locate in Oakland in 25 years and—well—it’s Whole Foods, not priced for the working stiff. Also few jobs which will support families, even in subsidized housing. 

The big green-washing event of the quarter has been the Faustian spectacle of UC’s science faculty enthusiastically selling their souls to the British Petroleum devil. Watching it unfold has been fascinating. The first, non-voting meeting of the faculty senate offered ample material for a terrific opera, with actual and potential beneficiaries of the BP largesse falling all over each other to explain why it’s really really fine. They would make a perfect quartet, male and female voices, all full of passion. Berkeley’s own John Adams used the Dr. Faustus motif to great effect in Dr. Atomic, and here we have the ideal sequel: Dr. Bionic perhaps? Or Dr. Genomic? 

The latest act in the epic was last week, when 186 faculty members out-voted 82 of their colleagues to pass a pre-fabricated compromise endorsing the half-billion dollar contract with faint praise while promising token oversight. Some 2200 (or 1400, depending on how you count) tenure-track and emeritus faculty members were eligible to vote, but only 268 of them bothered to exercise the franchise. Many if not most of the pro voters would have been barred by the conflict of interest rules which govern the Berkeley City Council and other bodies, since they expect to profit financially from the contract.  

We had the opportunity over the weekend to talk to one of the “no” voters, an emeritus professor from a scientific field who had previously been part of the unsuccessful attempt to disengage the University of California from nuclear weapons research, along with the late Nobel Prize winner Owen Chamberlain and others. Most of his vote-no fellows last week were from the humanities or the soft sciences, not the hard sciences.  

He said that in the earlier case, as in this one, most of the support for retaining the contracts which were challenged on an ethical basis came from researchers who were afraid of losing their own funds, including some in different fields. But even he is not completely convinced that the BP deal will turn out badly, since he worries about global warming and hopes some science somewhere will provide a solution. 

The official university administration argument was that academic freedom is now defined as the freedom of academics to take anyone’s money. This is a curious recent gloss on the old idea of libido sciendi, lust for knowledge, to which Christopher Marlowe attributed Dr. Faustus’s downfall. There’s an equation in here somewhere, I’m sure. Knowledge is power, but also money is power, so maybe there’s an added touch of libido dominandi, lust for power, in what the pro-voting scientists want.  

And for some of course, money is just money, and what’s wrong with that? 

In fact, not all money is good money. We’re on the email list of a German organization, Coalition Against Bayer Dangers (CBG), devoted to exposing the history of another contributor to the local economy, the Bayer corporation. Here in a nutshell is what they charge on their web site:  

“Bayer has a long history of giving profits precedence over human rights and a sound environment. During the First World War the company invented Chemical Warfare (moisture gas) and built up a School for Chemical Warfare. Bayer was part of the conglomerate IG Farben, which worked closely with the Third Reich. IG Farben exploited several hundred thousand slave workers to build up their plant in Auschwitz, took over companies all over Europe and used human guinea pigs for pharmaceutical research. IG Farben’s subsidiary Degesch manufactured Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the gas chambers. In the late ’30s organophosphates (sarine, tabun) were introduced, after the war marketed by Bayer as pesticides (E 605, Folidol, Nemacur, Fenthion). IG Farben’s managers were convicted as war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. After the war IG Farben was broken up into BASF, Bayer and Hoechst (now called Aventis), and the three firms still cooperate closely and exert a large influence on German and European politics.” 

We have no first-hand knowledge of Bayer’s current policies and politics, though perhaps we should, but the IG Farben story is well-documented. Its research funding during the second world war was the very definition of “bad money,” and the German academics who took it were clearly in the wrong.  

There are now several similar advocacy organizations devoted to collecting and exposing what they consider to be British Petroleum’s environmental crimes. It’s at least a theoretical possibility that they’re on to something, that BP money is bad money. The token oversight created by the official compromise won’t provide much of a barrier in the very likely case that the researchers’ libido sciendi gets out of hand. We’ll probably have to wait for Dr. Bionic see how this particular Faustian bargain turns out. 

 

 


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Friday April 27, 2007

CELL ANTENNA EQUITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sometimes I like to imagine living in a fair and equitable city. I think about a just and rational solution to the cell phone antenna dilemma. I make a leap of faith and believe that this community actually supports equity and, in order to enjoy the convenience of cell phones, is willing to share the risk of living near antennas with their emissions of potentially dangerous RF radiation.  

This is what I imagine: a city-owned municipal cell phone company which installs, roughly equal distance apart, low wattage single antennas placed on tall poles in vacant lots created for this purpose throughout Berkeley. I imagine an educational campaign that teaches young and old alike the pros and cons of using cell phones, and publicizes all the latest research. I imagine a government that supports individual choice by keeping our land lines repaired and inexpensive and that puts back corner telephone booths, painted in bright colors with flower boxes containing ivy, sweet peas, and geraniums. I imagine more and more people relegating their cell phone usage to emergencies-real emergencies-and that slowly, neighborhood by neighborhood, the city is able to dismantle many of these antennas. I imagine people being fair and supporting affirmative action on this issue and shutting antennas down first in those neighborhoods that have suffered from this pollution the longest. Finally, I imagine antenna-free neighborhoods. Maybe, just maybe, we could decrease rates of cancer and autism. A healthy environment for all is worth a little inconvenience. 

I am not an electrical engineer. My fantasy may not be the best way to establish a safe wireless system. What do you think is the right way? On May 8 at 7 p.m. at Old City Hall our City Council will have a chance to practice the progressive values they claim to stand for. Join us at 2134 MLK Jr. Way to see how our elected representatives vote. For further information, e-mail BNAFU at JLLIB2@aol.com  

Laurie Baumgarten  

Berkeley Neighborhood  

Antenna-Free Union  

 

• 

WAL-MART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Congratulations to the Berkeley Daily Planet for your California Appeals Court victory which will allow the public to see 15,000 pages of documents pertaining to the employment lawsuit that Wal-Mart faces. These documents will help shed more light on Wal-Mart’s “labor guidelines and staffing formula, pay and incentive guidelines....” 

In that April 13 article I was struck by the comment of your executive editor, Becky O’Malley: “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.” Absolutely! 

Our citizen’s group, Iowa City Stop Wal-Mart, recently concluded a successful 17-month fight to prevent Wal-Mart from building a SuperCenter on 23 acres that our city council had agreed to sell them. I was so upset by the coverage of our local newspapers that I called the Columbia Journalism Review and proposed a freelance article on the plethora of inaccuracies, omissions, and misleading comments that emanated from our newspapers. I was turned down by one of CJR’s editors, because, as she said, “This kind of poor coverage is all too typical of newspapers these days.”  

So, again, kudos to the Berkeley Daily Planet. 

Gary Sanders 

Chair, Iowa City Stop Wal-Mart 

 

• 

A MODEST PROPOSAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Reading Tuesday’s editorial, I believe I can solve a number of downtown Berkeley’s ills with a very few steps. 

First, the Arpeggio nee Seagate building is a ludicrous waste at nine stories. It is half a block from BART and next to the two tallest buildings in Berkeley. It should be at least 16 stories. 

Likewise, similar spots for downtown living should include the ever vacant Eddie Bauer/Gateway building/flophouse and the Constitution Square. Both of these buildings cry for the wreckers ball. The footprint of the Bauer (new project name: “Bower”) should be suitable for a mid-size grocery. What, you don’t like trees? 

Furthermore, downtown Berkeley needs another cocktail lounge (perhaps in the courtyard of the Arpeggio) as Jupiter is far too crowded on weekends. Finally, as a concrete measure for the mayor’s “Public Commons” the city should take a cue from Singapore and mandate caning for public expectoration. 

With a stroll down a loogie-free sidewalk to a drink and a deluxe apartment in the sky, I believe Berkeley will be a far finer place.  

John Vinopal 

 

• 

RODEOS AND CHARREADAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Proponents of animal welfare and fair play will be pleased to know that Assembly Bill 1614 passed the Assembly Arts and Entertainment Committee last week by a vote of 6-0. The bill will next be heard on May 2 before the Assembly Appropriations Committee, chaired by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), then the Assembly floor. This humane legislation was introduced by Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Moorpark), and co-authored by Assemblymen Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) and Joe Coto (D San Jose). Mr. Coto is also chair of the 26-member Latino Caucus. Heartfelt thanks to all for this bipartisan effort. 

California boasts the best rodeo animal welfare law in the country (Penal Code 596.7). Sadly, by definition, it does not cover “charreadas,” the Mexican-style rodeos common throughout the state. AB 1614 would correct this inequity. It’s a matter of fairness. Current law requires either an on-site or on-call veterinarian to care for injured animals; restricts the use of the electric prod; provides for a conveyance to move injured animals; and requires that the attending veterinarian submit an injury report to the State Veterinary Medical Board within 48 hours of the rodeo’s conclusion. Seems reasonable, no? 

Support letters are needed. All legislators may be written c/o The State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814. 

Eric Mills, coordinator, 

Action for Animals (bill sponsor) 

Oakland 

 

• 

GRAFFITI 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Graffiti is out of control in Berkeley. There are many reasons for this. One reason is that Berkeley juries are reluctant to convict graffiti taggers, even when they are caught red-handed. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in Berkeley who think of graffiti tagging as a victimless crime, which it isn’t. Berkeley homeowners, businesses, and the city spend millions of dollars every year on graffiti removal.  

Fortunately, there are some things you can do about graffiti: 

1. Remove or paint over graffiti immediately. By immediately, I mean the same day it appears. Graffiti attracts more graffiti. Taggers have a competitive ethic. If one tagger puts his mark on your building, a rival will want to put his mark there as well. Graffiti taggers like to see their work and show it off to others. If it’s not there when they return, they will move on to other properties, places where the owners don’t remove graffiti. 

2. Keep paint on hand that matches the exterior surfaces of your building that are most accessible to graffiti taggers. Water-based paints are the easiest to work with and easiest to clean up afterwards. Keep a can of Kilz or similar sealer on hand, in case a graffiti tagger uses paint or ink that bleeds through your cover-up paint. 

3. If graffiti is sprayed on enameled metal or other impermeable surface, like glazed tile, furniture finisher and Scotch pads will usually remove paint and ink. Don’t breathe the stuff and wear rubber gloves. 

4. Graffiti is usually impossible to remove from brick and stonework, short of sandblasting. You may be able to remove some of the graffiti with a wire brush, but you probably won’t get it all off. If you have exposed brick, stone, or masonry walls; consider coating them with clear anti-graffiti coating, available at most paint stores. If you want to see what anti-graffiti coating looks like before deciding whether to use it or not, go to the Ashby BART station. Most of the concrete retaining walls in the parking lot are covered with anti-graffiti coating. 

Mark Tarses 

 

• 

BEING GREEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I liked the headline of Becky O’Malley’s latest editorial “It’s Too Easy Acting Green...” Players on the local, state and federal scene have bent over backwards to appear “green.” Scientists, politicians and citizens are lining up to jump on the bandwagon of curing global warming by rearranging chairs on the Titanic. How many are willing to make changes in their own diets?  

The destruction of our planet that we are now experiencing has more to do with our modern diet than anything else. The Worldwatch Institute reported, back in July of 1991, that overgrazing, deforestation, water pollution and methane emissions from livestock production were the main cause of global warming. Their calls for decreased meat and poultry production went unheeded.  

In addition, it takes a huge amount of the world’s energy to transport and store foods that are not grown locally. People around the world starve to death because their country’s land is used to grow beef, bananas, coffee, sugar and more for Americans. It could be used to grow food for the people who live in those lands. 

The single most important thing you can do to avert global warming and restore the natural order is to change your diet from a meat-centered one, to a plant based, local one. It may not grab headlines, but it will certainly be more effective than rearranging those chairs once again. 

Michael Bauce 

 

• 

WAR IN IRAQ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The House and Senate have exercised their legal prerogative to affect U.S. policy by placing timetable restrictions on continued funding of the Iraq war. President Bush has mischaracterized this action as “micromanaging.” Indeed, it would be micromanaging if Congress told the generals “how” to fight the war, but it is Congress’ duty to tell the generals “whether” we should fight this misconceived, dishonestly promoted, incompetently managed failure. 

Bush threatens to veto the Iraq funding bill because of Congress’ restrictions. If he does veto, funding for current operations will begin to run out. If Congress refuses to pass another, unrestricted funding bill, how bad is that? Our military will have to use its remaining funding to secure a safe withdrawal from Iraq. 

Of course, Bush will blame the Democrats for “loosing” Iraq, and the Democrats will take credit for extracting us from a quagmire. Meanwhile, there will be no more killing on account of American occupation. Looks like a win-win situation to me. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

 

• 

LETTING UP ON BUSH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“Oh, for Pete’s sake, when are you going to let up on President Bush?” my friends ask, some in exasperation, others in amusement. Well, dear friends, I’ll let up on George Bush when there are no more growing lists of American military killed in Iraq, no flag-draped coffins arriving at airports, no soldiers, only recently recovered from serious injuries, being sent back for another 12 months of duty. 

I’ll let up on Bush when innocent Iraqi citizens are no longer blown to bits in market places, when there are no haunting images of small children in hospital beds, their heads or limbs swathed in bandages. 

I’ll let up on Bush when our country is no longer viewed across the world with scorn and indignation because of this president’s 

“cowboy diplomacy.” 

I’ll let up on Bush when he no longer stubbornly defends an inept, untruthful District Attorney Alberto Gonzales, in the face of opposition by Republicans and Democrats alike, thus diminishing that office. 

I’ll let up on Bush when he no longer staunchly advocates the rights of citizens to bear arms, while tearfully extending condolences to the families of victims of mass shootings—all the while invoking the name of God. 

I’ll let up on Mr. B. when he can express a simple thought coherently and intelligibly. (I’m not hopeful on this.)  

And I shall joyfully let up on George Bush when legislators and fed up citizens have the guts to demand the impeachment of a president who’s thrown this nation and much of the world into chaos since declaring HIS war! 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

 

• 

CELL ANTENNA EQUITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On May 15, the Alameda City Council will hear whether the Planning Board overstepped their authority in appointing an ad-hoc committee to plan a forum to discuss the charter amendment known as Measure A. 

Some background for your readers: In 1973, when Alameda had developers pushing to develop high density housing and many Victorians were being torn down, residents gathered the required signatures to place a simple proposition on the ballot. Measure A reads, “their shall be no multiple units built in Alameda.”  

The measure passed overwhelmingly. It was later expanded on to say that duplexes were allowed and that lots needed to be 2,000 square feet. As a result, a planned development of 10,000 homes was reduced to 3,000. This simple act saved Alameda from being overdeveloped. In 2002 there was a forum held to discuss Measure A which was very well attended. The response was that we needed to keep this measure in place to protect us from developers and politicians that can’t be trusted. 

In 2007, we once again have a developer friendly City Council and a Planning Board who both want high density housing. The biggest problem, of course, is that Alameda is an Island. All the bridges and our one tube are already at capacity. This seems to not make much of an impression on our city leaders. Traffic is a huge problem, with little thought or plans to solve those problems. It is apparent the big money is in town—Lennar and Catellus are two of the largest developers in the country, so us little guys have quite a task before us, just as they did in 1973. I do believe that when the facts are known, the residents of Alameda will rise and take control of our community. 

Unfortunately, we also have local print newspapers that are merchant dependent, and political yes men, so it will be difficult to get the word out. The local high density advocates seem to have all the time in the world to lobby the Planning Board and have the money to hold a forum themselves, but prefer that the taxpayers pay for the forum that they want. They cannot get the required signatures to place the issue on the ballot, so lobbying the Planning Board and City Council to place a measure on the ballot to usurp Measure A is a short cut they have been trying to put together for years. 

While I am no fan of Mayor Beverly Johnson, there might be a glimmer of hope considering she ran on a “Protect Measure A” platform in her recent re-election campaign. All who are interested to learn more can go to www.KeepMeasureA.org. 

Pat Bail 

 

• 

WAR OF WORDS ABOUT WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Words are the sole product of politicians, journalists, scholars and comedians. This might lead you to think such folks schooled in meaning and skilled in assessing the value of words, would be very careful in their use. In the case of politicians (and most journalist) you’d be wrong because politicians use words either as shields to protect their authority or as weapons to defeat their opponents.  

This is aptly illustrated in the current war of words between the White House and Democratic congressional leaders. The squabble is centered on when to withdraw the “dogs of war” in Iraq.  

It is heartbreaking to read and watch humans by the hundreds getting killed and maimed daily, tragic that some killing is done by our own troops and obscene that many are killed by suicidal young people longing for paradise. “Cry havoc.” but it is not war.  

In Iraq our soldiers dressed in sophisticated gear and backed up by helicopter gun ships, fighter planes, artillery, tanks and surveillance drones fight an enemy in civilian clothes who possess no military training, operate under no established chain of command, fly no flag and are equipped with only the weapons they can carry and only the explosives they can improvise. Call it whatever you like but it is certainly not war.  

What you name a situation has a huge impact on how you deal with it. A military occupation is not a war. So long as the branches of our government see it as war they will continue to quarrel…and the killing will go on. 

We, the people who matter because we pay in lives and treasure, see it for what it is, an unprovoked, bloody and unnecessary catastrophe. And we want out. Now! 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

 

• 

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To any American who happens to have even noticed, Israel’s killing last weekend of nine Palestinians and this week’s resumption of rocket fire by Hamas most likely looks like the usual they’re-always-at-it eternal-warfare-in-Israel-Palestine model . 

But it isn’t. The Palestinians have been making a heroic attempt for a long time now to refrain from violence and to use other methods to pursue justice, including legal redress, international support, and creative nonviolent resistance. None of this has been of much avail, but they have persisted. 

The Israelis meanwhile, have been badly needing Palestinian violence in order to justify their refusal to negotiate. Last weekend’s murders were a deliberate, and apparently successful, attempt to provoke it. 

There are so many things to feel terrible about right now. My worst of the week, I guess, is Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s announcement that if rain doesn’t fall soon, the government will be forced to cut off irrigation water to the farmers in the Murray-Darling river basin, who produce 40% of Australia’s food, in order to have drinking water for people in the cities. 

Given that Australia may soon become Earth’s first continent (large island, whatever) to become completely uninhabitable, that the government of Israel is cynical enough to solicit violence against its own citizens seems like an issue beneath notice by comparison. 

But, believe me, they are trying for a suicide bombing. And it is to such a country that we have pledged our most undying devotion. Should the bomb go off—and I pray it doesn’t—remember that you read it here. Before it happened. 

Joanna Graham 

 

• 

OBAMA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On April 23, presidential candidate Sen. Obama delivered a major foreign policy speech. Those that hope Obama will be an agent of positive change should not be deluded by his proposals.  

He outlined a foreign policy to make U.S. domination of the world more effective for U.S. imperialist interests. He proposed to “build a 21st century military” by expanding it by 92,000 troops. He wants to “garner the clear support and participation of others” when the U.S. uses force “to protect...our vital interests.” In other words, he wants to involve other nations in the crimes of the U.S. when it launches war so that the U.S. is more likely to succeed. But “multi-lateral imperialism” is no better than Bush’s “unilateral imperialism.” 

For Obama, the problem with the Iraq war is not that the war’s aims are fundamentally unjust or it has led to unimaginable suffering for Iraqis. In his book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream in describing the “dire” consequences of the war, he mentions only the toll on U.S. troops and never mentions the 650,000 Iraqis killed and 3 million refugees forced to flee the ongoing carnage. For Obama the war is a mistake because it threatens to turn into a strategic debacle that threatens to weaken U.S. power and dominance. He believes that U.S. strategy must now shift and American forces should be redeployed to better protect U.S. interests. 

Obama’s proposal to expand the military is reprehensible. Already under the Bush regime the U.S. spends more money on its military than the entire rest of the world combined. The U.S. military is in 130 countries with 700 bases. U.S. armed force is utilized to enforce U.S. global domination. The Bush administration has already attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and is planning to attack Iran as you read this. We do not need to make U.S. aggression more effective, we need to end it. The vital interests of U.S. imperialism are not in the interests of humanity.  

In order to halt the horrors of the Bush regime we need to drive it from power, but we can not replace it with another “more effective style of imperialism” like that proposed by Obama. The world can not afford to wait until Bush leaves office in 2009. To learn how to rid the world of the Bush regime, see worldcantwait.org. 

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland 

 


Commentary: The Peace Symbol’s Golden Year is Here

By Arnie Passman
Friday April 27, 2007

Two thirds into the winter of 1957-58, Gerald Holtom was feeling 66.6 percent-ish as he agonized over the design. That February 21, as the artist was to explain the genesis of his idea in greater, more personal depth later to Peace News editor Hugh Brock, he was “in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself the representation of an individual in despair with arms outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing with a line and put a circle around it.”  

The two lines down were the British semaphore signal for N(nuclear) and the one line up for D (disarmament). And so did professional designer and artist Holtom, a graduate of the Royal College of Arts and World War II conscientious objector, bring the peace symbol to the world.  

A week later, he showed his preliminary sketches to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of several smaller organizations that came together to set up the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). 

The now universal symbol reached the masses for that spring’s Easter weekend first ever anti-nuclear march from London to Aldermaston where nuclear weapons were and still are manufactured. Five hundred cardboard lollipops were made—half black and white, half white on green. 

This was an improv on the church’s original liturgical colors change over Easter—winter to spring, death to life, white and green Easter Sunday and Monday. 

Said Jackie Cabasso, director of the Western States Legal Foundation: “The first badges, made of fired pottery, were distributed with a note explaining that in the event of nuclear war, they would be among the few human artifacts to survive the nuclear inferno. From the CND website.” 

On the march was the American pacifist Bayard Rustin, a confidant of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought the symbol back for the growing civil rights and U.S. anti-nuclear movements. Rustin was a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR)—created by two men in 1914 to try to prevent war in Europe. The group had encouraged conscientious objectors in World War II; after that war, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO) was founded. 

Sometime during 1958, pacifist Albert Bigelow and crew attempted to sail their Golden Rule into the Enowetok nuclear test site, during which time the U.S. government declared the journey illegal. At one point in their widely publicized on-again, off-again efforts, they flew the peace symbol flag. 

Into the early ’60s, the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA) and Women’s Strike for Peace (a highly effective thrust that foreshadowed the feminist lysistratagems at the decade’s end) gave the symbol prominence in anti-nuclear actions. During that time, the peace symbol could be worn with one prong up for unilateral disarmament, two up for bilateral.  

In 1960, a University of Chicago freshman Philip Altbach went to England as a delegate of the Student Peace Union. Said Altbach, now a professor at Boston College: 

 

I was in the UK to speak for the national Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was impressed by their symbol—the peace symbol. . . I put a few of the buttons and little flags in my pocket and brought them back to SPU headquarters in Chicago. I managed to convince—there was some reluctance—the SPU officers to let us print up 20,000 buttons as a first try. 

We distributed them to our chapters, sold them at meetings, and ‘the rest is history.’ My guess is that SPU probably printed at least 100,000 little pins.  

 

The Committee for Nonviolent Action in Chicago and probably FOR used the symbol before SPU, but SPU, which was the largest progressive student organization in the United States at the time, brought the symbol to wide attention.  

By 1965, the anti-nuclear movement was slip-sliding away as the anti Vietnam War breakthrough, via the communist and pacifist left, ascended to critical mass into the last years of the ’60s. With its student beginnings, the peace symbol spread far and wide from ’66 on. 

As the peace symbol was deliberately never copyrighted, this meant it was displayed on everything from earrings to record jackets, roach clips to the Peace Dress — a 1968 San Francisco mini-dress covered with the symbol below a dipping bosom line. (It paralleled an anti-war cry, “Girls Say Yes To Boys Who Say No!”)  

A paradigm shift in values, endemic to the ’60s, took place. Older activists decried the peace symbol’s commercialization, as in perhaps thong panties with the symbol in crystals across the butt.  

The huge numbers of baby boomers, however, with their TV, LSD and maturing rock ‘n’ roll culture, were thoroughly behind its popularization.  

Still, through Vietnam’s war end, the anti-nuclear and Central America demos of the ’80s, and current ongoing Iraq war protests since 1990, the peace symbol has been on hand. Highly visible protests against its display have also taken place, including great multi-body peace symbols on beaches, lawns. . . with the creation four years ago with the beginning of the Iraq War of International Peace Symbol Day, March 17.  

Last holiday season, a couple in Paragosa Springs, Colorado put up a wreath of the peace symbol on their home. They were asked to take it down by their homeowners’ association. When they refused, they were fined $25 a day by the board’s chairman. The entire board then resigned in support of the couple. 

Within a week, the controversy was the second most popular story on CNN but soon after, the fine was rescinded. A newspaper poll showed 95.7 percent of people supported the peace sign. Similar battles have taken place in Odessa, Texas and Missoula, Montana—claiming it was anti-Christian and a “sign of the devil.” 

Before Vietnam, conscientious objectors needed a rock-solid religious belief and backup to stay out of the military. Mainly these were simple living members of the Mennonite, Amish and Quaker communities. Such experiences were to begin to support many more draft resisters—with the help of the War Resisters League (WRL) and the CCCO.  

In his very good ’60s novel, Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King describes the arrival and upheaval of the peace symbol at a Maine college campus, circa 1966, at a meeting of students and deans called by a right-wing proctor. He said:  

 

Stokely Jones wears a coat with a very particular symbol on the back. . .This symbol. It was invented by the Communist Party shortly after the end of the Second World War. It means ‘victory through infiltration’ and is commonly called the Broken Cross by subversives. . . I hardly think it takes a rocket scientist to—  

“David, that is such bullshit!” Nate said, standing up. Dearie looked stunned. I suppose the last person he expected trouble from was Nate Hoppenstan. 

“That symbol is based on British semaphore and stands for nuclear disarmament. It was invented by a British philosopher. I think he might even be a knight (Sir Bertrand Russell). To say the Russians made it up! Goodness sake! Is that what they teach you in ROTC? Bullshit like that?” 

 

The peace symbol had been quickly denigrated as a Communist or devil symbol, even, it was claimed, back into the early Christian era as a flipping of the cross. As war resistance increased, it was called “the chicken tracks of the American coward.” Ironically, the like Mercedes-Benz hood ornament, first used in 1937, for arguably the best made car in the world, is emblematic of a technology that evolved through the Nazi war machine. 

Currently, the symbol is being further flipped—from outer space. Uber UFOers Michael Horn and the Meier Contacts are spreading the word that the symbol is a deep subconscious death (and resurrection?) zap sent by space aliens. Others maintain the unilateral symbol resembles a missile, a raised sword “the hanged man;” no, a contained missile true believers argue, even the tree of life itself (which it can stand for both ways).  

In its Golden Jubilee year (right behind last 9/11’s 100th anniversary of Gandhi creating the pledge of satyagraha—soul force), the peace symbol has weathered numerous wars — and the best marketing opportunities money can buy. Facing today’s horrors of Asian wars, increased nuclear disfunction, global warming, racial injustice, the irreversible military-industrial complex?. . ., it still calls from great city protests and hamlets to all Earth’s colors and creeds for nonviolent resistance (peace marches between the 7 or 8 Gandhi statues—from Boston to San Francisco?) and civil disobedience (sit-ins at the largest defense contracting congressional districts?).  

And all from the mind of one person that deep ’50s, dead winter day in grimy ol’ London Town—and the pioneering march through the English countryside to mad western science’s Aldermaston.  

 

Arnie Passman is a Berkeley writer. He is the author of The Deejays (Macmillan, 1971), two plays about black radio history and has appeared in The Realist, Rolling Stone, Anarchy, L.A. Free Press, The-Edge.  


Commentary: Time to Re-Name the University

By Dale Becknell
Friday April 27, 2007

In the spirit of cities rolling out the welcome mat for private stadiums, a la Pac Bell Park and McAfee Coliseum, sometimes at the expense of funding such secondary needs as schools, let’s have a contest for renaming the UC Berkeley. British Petroleum has made a strong bid for renaming the school the University of British Petroleum. But that’s a little over the top—maybe we should just put department names up for sale, and at least keep the UCB acronym for the present.  

But in deference to the university PR department (funded by little ol’ you and me and the students) working feverishly to get the half-billion-dollar BP contract, perhaps something like “University for Corporate Bidding” would entice more special interests to fund academic freedom, as defined by shill man Randy Scheckman. He’s the guy who, in the upstanding tradition of Joseph McCarthy, would misconstrue something a colleague critical of the oil company deal said, and have him fired. Having proclaimed this (according to the Daily Planet’s 4-20-07 article) at the Academic Senate meeting rubber stamping the contract with BP, whatever it says, Scheckman reportedly got a round of applause from those faculty heroically defending academic freedom (for those toeing the line anyhow, or “bottom line” from the boardrooms, as it were). It seems Mr. Scheckman took offense at Professor Ignacio Chapela referring to the oil company research deal as prostitution. As a scientist disciplined in reporting data accurately, Scheckman found it more convenient to interpret Mr. Chapela’s comment as calling the chancellor a prostitute. I know its been a while since all you rational professors took the SAT, so I looked it up...“prostitution” means “base or unworthy use, as of talent or ability.” Let’s brush up on our analogies here, too: a person is to selling her/his body as a university is to selling its...? You’re right. Not applicable—a “working” person makes no pretense as to what she/he is doing.  

Another candidate for renaming would be “University of Corrupt Boneheads.” Reportedly it takes about as much energy to convert plants to liquid fuel as it yields, slightly less or even more depending on how comprehensive you choose to be in your analysis. I don’t have a PhD, but I was awake during arithmetic class. If we burn one energy unit of oil to make one energy unit of ethanol, we get one minus one, or zero energy gain. Then we can take our unit of ethanol and burn it to make another unit of ethanol, which we’ll need to burn to produce another unit, ad infinitum. Is there a quicker way to burn more energy to heat the atmosphere than this? Of course it will require a gargantuan expenditure of capital to get there, but who needs more windmills or solar tech? Then there is the matter of converting food crops to ethanol crops, which will necessitate getting any remaining rain forests out of the way and using any unfarmed waterways for new corporate monocultures of artificially mutated plants. More petrochemical fertilizers will be needed to replenish newly depleted soils, and new roads and fleets of trucks to transport it all. Presumably what microbiologist Scheckman and his new bosses think will make all of this work will be to create genetically engineered bugs that release enzymes that will break down plants far more aggressively than any that nature saw fit to evolve. Thank you, God and independent researchers, but you’ve done your part, and you’re fired! BP and associates will take it from here. 

 

Dale Becknell is a Berkeley resident. 


Commentary: A Warm Water Pool Needs Land and Money

by Terry Doran
Friday April 27, 2007

A warm water pool in Berkeley is a truly desirable and important amenity to Berkeley residents, and a boon to the greater East Bay. The article in the Daily Planet on Tuesday, April 10, “Voices of the Berkeley Warm Pool,” is a remarkable tribute and reminder about the benefits of a warm water therapeutic pool for everyone in our community. However, the reality is that the existing pool is very old, deteriorating at a rapid clip, and may soon be unusable. And then where will we all be? 

So, what is the answer to our need for a usable, self-sustaining warm water therapeutic pool? It is, in fact, in leadership that exists with past and present School Board members and the community that developed the School District’s South of Bancroft master plan adopted by the School District last year. 

This Plan specifically calls for a dedicated location for a “new” warm water pool at Berkeley High School on the east side of Milvia Street (formerly the tennis courts), across the street from the old gym. The Plan pointedly states that the “old” pool would not be torn down for many years while badly needed new football stands are built first. Our community, during this time, could then seek funds for a new pool on School District land and facilitate a smooth transition from the “old” to the “new” pool without interrupting the availability of warm water hydrotherapy. 

I respectfully contend that those most concerned about this issue are presently being led astray, being used for partisan purposes unrelated to the pool, and are following a course of action that guarantees failure.  

The goal of some misguided souls to designate the old gym and warm water pool as a Berkeley historical landmark and preserve them at their present location would significantly delay the School District from following its adopted plans for Berkeley High School and thereby increase costs tremendously. The old gymnasium and warm water pool have outlived their usefulness for a modern High School and badly needed additional classrooms and updated athletic facilities are slated to be built on part of the land now occupied by the old gym and pools. The School District plan recognizes the significance of the Old Gym and is committed to preserve historical pictures and documents of the buildings by a qualified professional in consultation with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.  

First of all, why should anyone expect a School District that is strapped for money to spend its precious funds to rehabilitate an antiquated, regional facility, used mainly by adults in Berkeley and the greater East Bay? It just will not happen if the Berkeley School District is forced to change its master plan for improving the south campus of Berkeley High School. They will do nothing to keep the “old” pool going. The pool will die where it stands because the funds are not there and remain empty and unused in very short order with everyone loosing.  

The stakes are high and unless everyone unites around a viable course of action and works together we will never have a warm water pool in Berkeley because we will loose the present Berkeley Unified School District help.  

Just consider one consequence of following a path of trying to renovate the existing pool, which may cost more than building a new pool. Where will people swim and enjoy the therapeutic benefits of the warm water during the years of work renovating the old pool?  

We must all push to support the School District’s South of Bancroft master plan, in its entirety. We must lobby the district to fast track the surplusing of the Milvia Street parking lots, a first step in this process, so a regional pool can be built on this School District property.  

We must then advocate a joint planning process between the School District and the city to develop a plan for joint use and management of this property. These joint use agreements between the School District and the City already exist with the other public pools in Berkeley.  

And then we must raise funds like crazy, perhaps even going again to the voters of Berkeley and the wider East Bay for construction bonds. It is this approach I believe, that has a chance of success. Any other spells disaster. 

The pool and the sorely needed additional classroom space will not be built if the district is prevented from moving forward. Why would the district donate millions of dollars worth of land for a regional facility, land that could be used for other educational purposes, if it cannot proceed with the rest of the building plans 20 years in the making? And why would the School District work with warm water pool advocates to renovate a pool perceived by everyone in the School District to be a grand waste of money on a pool right in the middle of a newly designed school facility.  

Again, this is not an either/or situation. There is a win, win solution. But in order to get there we have to immediately start working towards the solutions I have outlined above. As a disabled person, a disability rights activist, a personal friend of the late Fred Lupke who worked tirelessly for a “new” warm water pool, as a former school board member, and a consistent friend of the warm water pool, I say we can’t throw this opportunity away by being diverted by advocates of keeping the old gym and pool.  

It is a suicidal mission that will be a painful lesson we will never forget or overcome, and the pool will be lost, maybe forever.  

 

Terry Doran is a former School Board member and current member of the Zoning Adjustments Board.


Commentary: AIPAC’s Legion of Supporters

By John Gertz
Friday April 27, 2007

Becky O’Malley begins her latest foray into the Middle East with noble sentiments. She endorses Pelosi’s and Lantos’ recent peace mission to Syria, and condemns the Bush administration for obstructing it. Then, as usual, our local editor severely strays. She starts by calling Israeli Prime Minister “clueless” for denying that Pelosi was bringing a peace message from him to Syrian President Assad, when everyone knows that Olmert is quite anxious to make peace with Syria, has said so often, and yes, of course Pelosi was bearing a message of peace to the Syrians from Olmert. No one has ever seriously called Olmert “clueless.” What a clueless insult. O’Malley, herself, concedes that, in order to send a peace message to Syria through Pelosi, Olmert had to disregard an explicit order from Bush not to do so. Olmert was in a tough position, since defying a bully like Bush cannot be a good thing for little Israel. Then O’Malley incoherently tries to tie AIPAC into this, as though somehow AIPAC is standing in the way of peace with Syria, citing Soros’ recent criticism of that organization. O’Malley quotes Soros as saying that he is “not sufficiently engaged in Jewish affairs,” and yet O’Malley nevertheless touts Soros as “a strong supporter of Israel.” Soros is right and O’Malley wrong. Soros has never been identified with Jewish causes or with Israel. He does not have much of a history of either support or detraction. His main focus of activity has been Eastern Europe. As for AIPAC, it did not in this case, and never would lift a finger to obstruct an Israeli peace initiative, but, more typically, in a case like this its role would be to help smooth over any bad feelings created between Olmert and Bush on his matter. O’Malley offers not a shred of evidence that AIPAC played or plays any obstructive role in the peace process, or in any way works against the interests of either the United States or Israel. Because AIPAC serves America’s interests as well as Israel’s, it is so highly regarded by politicians across the political spectrum, from Tom Bates to Tom Delay, and almost every politician in between, including Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Lee and Tom Lantos.  

Let me readily concede to O’Malley that AIPAC is an influential lobby. So are lots of other lobbies, some of whom I may agree with (Sierra Club, Americans for the American Way, MADD, etc.), and some with whom I may not (e.g., NRA). From where does AIPAC’s influence derive? Since, by law, AIPAC can neither raise money for candidates nor endorse them, it must be something else. First, polls consistently show that Americans support Israel over its Arab neighbors by very wide margins. It is never hard to be an effective lobby when you represent a majority viewpoint. Second, AIPAC is a vital resource of information. Let me offer an example. I once published an op-ed in the SF Chronicle. Two hours before going to press on the piece, the editor called me saying that he was going to challenge the veracity of one sentence in my piece. If I could not bring forth supporting sources before press time, the sentence would be struck (sadly, this kind of fact checking would never happen at the DP, at least when it comes to the Middle East). I told him that the factoid in question came from AIPAC. His response startled me: “If you got it from AIPAC, then it must be correct.” This is just one reason why AIPAC is so popular in Washington. Every member of the House and Senate knows that when they need information about the Middle East, they can get it fast, accurate, and unvarnished from AIPAC. Third (let’s get it out there), AIPAC members are largely Jewish, and Jews are, on average, more educated and politically involved than the overall population. This applies to Jews who are hypercritical of Israel as well. However, since nationwide (though not in Berkeley) such Jews are as rare as hens’ teeth, these hypercritical Jews have little effect nationally. I once met the head of AIPAC’s political division and asked him how much influence our locally vocal critics of Israel such as A Jewish Voice for Peace and the Tikkun Community had in Washington. His surprising response was that he had never heard of either group, and stressed that since he had been on the job for 20 years, that if these groups had even the slightest influence in Congress he would know of them. 

So, Ms. O’Malley let’s admit it, Jews have influence. What do you propose? Since influence largely derives from education, perhaps we can go back to the system, popular in the first half of the last century, of placing quotas on the number of Jews who could be accepted to the best colleges. It may be that Jews are more civically involved per capita. For example, there are currently eleven Jewish senators (i.e., 11 percent of senate seats), when only about 2% Americans are Jews. Perhaps we should then ban Jews from elective office. Perhaps we should dust off those good ol’ Nuremberg Laws. Maybe the DP should bring back that “Iranian living in India” pundit for his deep wisdom on the matter. 

 

John Gertz is a Berkeley resident and owner of the Zorro trademark.


Letters to the Editor

Tuesday April 24, 2007

OPPENHEIMER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for Phil McArdle’s April 17 article on Robert Openheimer. It was my good fortune to attend a lecture Openheimer gave after his retirement in which he said that mathematics can prove that the ultimate unit of reality is a particle or else energy. He said he believed there is something existing between these two polarities and he would now spend time seeking that other thing. 

Karl Kasten 

 

• 

CAPTAIN AHAB 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I couldn’t agree more with J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s April 6 column up to a certain point. I too was struck by the resemblance of our leader to Captain Ahab when I saw Moby Dick on Channel 9 a couple of weeks ago. Allen-Taylor’s assessment of the danger of “walking backwards” out of Iraq makes sense. However, the lineup of American casualties on the PBS Newshour (12-plus almost every day) indicates that our non-mercenary troops are in gravest danger right now—not to mention thousands and thousands of Iraqi dying, and traumatized children orphaned. 

The fastest way to get out of this mess: Impeach the Bush administration now! Think of the damage they can still do with further crimes and misdemeanors! 

No one can blame Nancy Pelosi for not wanting the job, but she would be an excellent interim president during the 18 months, 78 weeks, and 549 days remaining in the current regime. 

Nancy Chirich 

• 

BLACK PANTHERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Going to the Black Panther exhibit in the city last spring, I came away with my closest memories of their operation. Rockets were exploding to celebrate the A’s 3rd straight world chamiponship in 1974, as I entered the doors of the Oakland Community School on E. 14th St., and was greeted by the stunning sight of a 52-piece youth jazz orchestra. 

The Panthers had brought in jazz drummer and teacher Charles Moffett, who was a close friend of Ornette Coleman, to create a jazz curriculum. Inspiring to me that kids were being given the opportunity to learn the heights of their improv-infused culture, I became friends with Charles (he died in 1997) and his family, got him some gigs, and even a tour of Japan. 

I believe there is an incredible story to be told about what has become of those 52 kids. As a documentary, it could have a Moffett family sound track (all five are musicians, and Charnett is an acclaimed bass player). I have been talking about this for a few months, have made and re-made good connections, although not a list of the Moffett 52.  

With Ron Dellums becoming mayor, ripe seems the time. As well as talking this up with long-time friends of the creative free jazz scene locally. Any ‘n’ all who would and can help on this, hey, be my quest. 

Arnie Passman 

 

• 

IMPEACH NOW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The world faces a grave emergency. The Bush administration is carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity in your name. These include the Iraq war, legalized torture, kangaroo courts posing as trials, warrantless spying, and now plans for war against Iran. The very nature of U.S. society and its relationship to other countries are being reshaped. 

Yet the Democratic-led Congress refuses to act in any meaningful way to stop the Bush regime, declaring that impeachment is “off the table” in the words of Nancy Pelosi. Democrats have voted to authorize $100 billion more for the Iraq war while pretending they are trying to stop it. To quote historian Howard Zinn, “It’s as if, before the Civil War, abolitionists agreed to postpone the emancipation of the slaves for a year, or two years, or five years, and coupled this with an appropriation of funds to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.” 

Each day the situation grows more urgent as Defense Secretary Gates extends the duty tours for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and aircraft carrier task forces maneuver near Iran poised to launch attacks on the president’s order. The torture, the spying, the attacks on abortion, the scapegoating of immigrants, and the unprecedented undermining of habeas corpus—all continuing.  

Silence can be complicity. On April 25, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, actress Olympia Dukakis, writer Chris Hedges, musician Tom Morello, reporter John Nichols, lawyer Michael Ratner, and Cindy Sheehan are inviting other prominent citizens to convene on Capitol Hill to demand Congress begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush.  

On April 28, World Can’t Wait—Drive Out the Bush Regime and other organizations are calling for people to make the demand for impeachment visible everywhere. 

Big changes are possible. Bush will soon veto a war appropriations bill. His regime defends the firings of U.S. attorneys, and it is besieged over opposition at the World Bank to Paul Wolfowitz. Bush’s Supreme Court has just taken the first steps to outlaw the right of choice.  

Millions oppose the Bush regime, but we will have to manifest that sentiment in ways that cannot be ignored—to have a chance of stopping it.  

If not now, when? If not you, who?  

Kenneth J. Theisen 

Oakland 

 

• 

BURY OUR HEADS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

NBC is trashed for showing a killer’s rants on its airwaves. By all means, let’s bury our heads in the sand and maybe the menace will go away. Why know what sends an unstable person into a rampage? Might we find out it is society’s own materialism and selfishness that feeds this frenzy? 

About the Supreme Court decision to uphold the antiabortion doctrine. What did you expect when Bush installed two more like-minded religious icons on the Supreme Court? Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito are fulfilling the fringe right’s fondest desire; forcing their intolerant and minority viewpoint on women of America. 

Give these diehard abortion opponents an inch and they’ll take a mile, watch! 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

• 

GUNS NO ANSWER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wonder why I haven’t heard anyone discuss these obvious questions?: Thirty people in a classroom should be able to simultaneously attack and subdue one person with a gun, either hitting him with chairs or using their bare hands. Why couldn’t they do that? Are we too individualistic as a culture, and not used to working as a team? Was everyone thinking about how to protect themselves, and not how to protect the group as a whole? The teacher who barred his door seems to have had the right idea, perhaps because of his prior experience with violence. 

We frequently hear about guns being used to commit crimes (including the crime of unilaterally attacking Afghanistan and Iraq). Why don’t we ever hear about guns being used (other than by the police) to do something good, such as defend people against criminals? It appears to me that, whatever the reason for allowing people to own guns, it isn’t working! The Second Amendment is either obsolete, or has been misinterpreted. 

Who can answer these questions? 

Mike Vandeman 

San Ramon 

 

• 

WORLD WATER CHALLENGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the World Water Challenge last week, and was inspired as I shared in a dialogue with more than 100 participants about the importance of protecting our water supply both abroad and here in our own community. The San Francisco Director of the Environment, Jared Blumenfeld spoke about the many ways in which we can conserve and care for the excellent water that we have access to in the Bay Area. I was pleased to hear that Mayor Gavin Newsom (SF) seems to really support the proposal to at least phase out contracts with bottled water companies, who seek to turn water into a for-profit commodity, and yet cannot even promise a product that has a better quality than the water that comes straight from our taps. The event was both informative and encouraging, especially as a diverse group of people simultaneously pledged to take personal actions to preserve water as a basic human right.  

Hanna Jacobsen 

 

• 

DISREGARDING THE LAW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Totally ignoring the Berkeley Public Library’s April 13 press release announcing the “upcoming vacancy on the Board of Library Trustees” (which gave potential candidates two and a half business days to apply by 2 p.m. on April 18), Trustees Darryl Moore and Laura Anderson, at the April 18 board meeting, proclaimed that there was actually no vacancy. This, despite the fact that applicant Pat Cody was present at the meeting, in accord with the vacancy announcement’s requirement that candidates must be present if they wished to be considered for the opening. However, since there was a predetermined outcome the board chose not to subject her to a pro forma interview. 

By a 3-1 vote, with Trustee Lee voting no, (Kupfer had recused herself) Trustee Susan Kupfer was recommended for reappointment for a second four-year term. 

The Berkeley Municipal Code (BMC sec.3.04.010) reads “The term of office of the members of the board shall be four years.” When that is up, the term expires. It seems clear that when a term expires it creates a vacancy. By recommending an automatic renewal of trustees’ first term appointments, essentially creating eight-year terms, the library board has refashioned the BMC to insulate themselves and nurture a self-perpetuating fraternalistic country clubish board. Any actual change in Berkeley’s laws is the job of the City Council, and the Council must take back its authority and see that the current applicable code, a four-year term for library trustees, is respected by announcing the current position opening widely, in an appropriate manner and allowing a reasonable time for potential candidates to apply. The council, under its City Charter mandate, must then appoint a trustee to fill another four-year term. 

The Library has weathered two years of strife. While the climate has changed for the better under the new director, we must heed the devastating 3.21.07 report to the board by SEIU local 535 on the failures and costs of the radio frequency identification system (RFID). Some $108,000 in addition to the $111,000 loan payment was spent in fiscal year 2006 on RFID materials. Now, additionally, a maintenance contract is being considered. The cost of this so-called labor saving system has resulted in a shortage of workers needed to reshelve a backlog of books. Can the current Board, with a vested interest in RFID, face up to the downsides of this malfunctioning system? 

Gene Bernardi 

Jane Welford 

Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense (SuperBOLD) 

 

• 

A GREEN GARBAGE COMPANY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We at the Ecology Center deeply appreciate the efforts of the Alameda County Green Business Certification Program in helping local businesses achieve significant environmental improvements in their operations and practices. As a member of the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board, I am especially pleased to see dramatic reductions in wasting. We applaud the Berkeley Daily Planet for highlighting these businesses through the targeted advertising they have done around earth week. However, it is very important to recognize a few important distinctions when considering where to spend your dollars and what this certificate really means.  

First, there is a fundamental difference between an enterprise (for profit or not for profit) that is mission driven and one that is primarily driven by the bottom line. For example, transnational garbage company Waste Management Inc., has repeatedly demonstrated, in spite of their multi-million dollar ad campaign to the contrary, that their primary goal is to provide profit to their senior management, Board, and stockholders by burying or burning garbage (Google: SEC, Arthur Anderson, Waste Management Inc). Waste Management Inc.’s recycling activities began opportunistically as public relations efforts not from their core mission or values, and are a sideshow to their real business ventures. No matter how much they clean up garbage dumps and incinerators, they will never be a “green”, simply because of the volume of valuable resource they waste. In no way can one compare such a “green" business to a community based recycling enterprise, driven by an environmental mission.  

Second, it is important to understand that while the Green Business Certification represents an important series of initial steps that any business can and should take, the standard for certification is really low. There should be some distinction recognizing some of the businesses who have come the furthest, made the greatest actual impact, or do it from the start because they are driven by a mission. A bronze, gold, and platinum standard for example could help significantly to raise the bar. 

Finally, as a member of Sustainable Berkeley I must remind readers that green only has two e’s. When we talk about sustainable economic development and sustainable businesses we use three e’s—a triple bottom line to evaluate practices: Economic Success, Environmental Responsibility, and Social Equity. Without equity no enterprise can truly be sustainable. 

To find more green certified businesses and information on how to become one, or what it means to be one, check out www.greenbiz.abag.ca.gov/ShopGreen.html. For a directory of local enterprises, businesses, organizations, and agencies providing environmental information, products, and services check out the Ecology Center’s online EcoDirectory. It represents 35 years of information gathering and community engagement with mission driven and sustainable enterprises. www.ecologycenter.org/ecodirectory 

Martin Bourque 

Executive Director 

Ecology Center 


Commentary: The Proposed West Berkeley Community Benefits District

By Rick Auerbach
Tuesday April 24, 2007

With almost no public examination a private, developer-driven organization with $10,000 in funding from the city has targeted a new property assessment for large swaths of West Berkeley. Bringing into question our foundational tenets of “one person, one vote,” and “no taxation without representation,” this effort appears to find its basis in that ever popular mutation of the golden rule: whoever owns the gold (property) makes the rules. 

The West Berkeley Business Alliance (WBBA), comprised mostly of West Berkeley’s largest and most active development and real estate interests is proposing: 

• A significant assessment on every piece of residential and commercial property in the industrial zones (including mixed-use residential) from University Avenue south to the Emeryville border in order to create a Community Benefits District (CBD); 

• That this taxpayer-funded district act as a lobbying organization to “give input on proposed zoning issues” and “advocate on land use conflicts”; 

• That this district be approved through a “weighted” petition and voting process where the “weight” of one’s vote is determined by how much property one owns; 

• That the approval process provide no vote for businesses who are tenants, yet they can be required to pay the assessment if their lease, as is common, allows taxes and assessments to be passed through; 

• That this district address issues that are arguably the responsibility of the city, including “security, parking, graffiti, sidewalk and street cleaning, tree planting, angled parking, storm system maintenance” and “social services to curb anti-social behavior in the public rights of way;” 

• That the governing structure, although open in theory to all property owners, be one that historically has proven to be dominated by the largest interests that can pay their representatives to consistently participate; 

• That instead of holding workshops to educate the public on an issue of such importance, the project be moved along rapidly with almost no community outreach  

The now-complete first stage of this process, a WBBA commissioned survey to gauge support for a Community Benefit District, was sent to West Berkeley’s industrial zone property owners in February. The survey’s WBBA authors were, among others, West Berkeley’s largest developer, Rich Robbins of Wareham Corporation, Steven Block, Don Yost and John Norheim, the most active commercial brokers in West Berkeley, and Doug Herst, whose Peerless development is presently being promoted. The survey posited that “security, parking, cleanliness, and infrastructure deterioration have all become… challenging,” and “in response to these challenges”…WBBA ”had settled on the assessment district model,” and went on to pose 10 questions regarding these issues. 

Interestingly, the survey did not address costs, but the little now known about them points to their being significant. Marco Li Mandri of New city America, the consultant hired by the WBBA to establish the proposed district, declined to give a figure of what a commercial or industrial property owner might pay, but said that a typical 1,000-square-foot house on a 3,000-square-foot lot would pay $180-$360 a year. Steven Goldin of the WBBA stated that $150 would be typical for a residence. These amounts may seem trivial to some, yet are significant sums for many residents in the mixed-use residential (MUR) zone who bought homes when these were affordable, working-class neighborhoods but could never dream of buying in now. 

The results of the survey, the approval process’s first stage, revealed so much opposition north of University Avenue that this area has been excluded from the proposed district. In the next stage, all property owners within the WBBA’s “finalized” boundaries will receive a petition. Here the process becomes curiouser and curiouser. According to Mr. Li Mandri, this petition is mandated by the California constitution to be “weighted,” where the more property one owns the more “weight” one’s signature receives. The exact “weight” is determined by a formula (created by the WBBA’s CBD steering committee) potentially involving lot and building size, use, and linear feet of street frontage. If over 30 percent (by “weight,” not number) of property owners sign the petition, the City Council will vote on whether to conduct the third and final stage, a mail-in ballot vote. Having already given the WBBA $10,000 to jump-start the process, this approval would seem foregone. With the final vote also “weighted,” one property owner’s single vote, let’s say Wareham (with tens of acres and hundreds of thousands of square feet of built space) can take precedence over hundreds of residents and small property owners, requiring whole neighborhoods that might vote no on the assessment to pay it against their will. Another crucial point left unmentioned in the survey is that many businesses who rent, with no say in the approval process, will nevertheless be required by their commercial leases to pay the assessment. 

The proposal that this taxpayer-funded CBD act as a lobbying entity on land use and development issues is highly unusual. Of the 43 districts that Li Mandri has been involved with, only two concern themselves with these issues which are outside the traditional concerns of these districts, cleanliness, beautification and security. Land use in West Berkeley is a hotly contested subject with varied opinions on the efficacy and future of the West Berkeley Plan. Through their advocacy and membership the WBBA has consistently demonstrated the perspective of development and real estate interests. This is their right, but asking taxpayers to fund these efforts is not. The following list of some of the WBBA’s activities would seem a reasonable indication of their future efforts and highlights the question of whether the public funding of an entity under control of this advocacy group is proper or in the public interest.  

• When 37 businesses along Ashby Avenue, together with the vast majority of residents in the immediate vicinity of the West Berkeley Bowl, requested that the city and Bowl consider traffic mitigations and a store no larger than other Berkeley supermarkets, the WBBA insisted the Bowl be approved as proposed, with no concern for the economic, safety, and traffic issues raised.  

• WBBA played a seminal role in efforts to change the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance to more easily facilitate development by reducing its ability to protect historic structures. 

• Against the interests of 100 industrial and artisan business and their 2,000 employees along the Gilman and Ashby corridors, the WBBA supports changing the zoning to retail, potentially further endangering the economic health of the city’s struggling retail districts. 

• WBBA members have been involved in the eviction of the Durkee tenants, the threatened eviction of the Fantasy filmmakers, and played various roles in the situations that resulted in the loss of the Nexus and Drayage artists.  

Though the structure of the CBD appears democratic, the demonstrated history of such entities reveals a different story. Controlling authority lies in a non-profit management corporation overseen by an open (to assessed property owners) advisory board, but experience shows that those with the largest stakes, like development interests, pay their representatives to consistently participate, thus assuring organizational control. Average citizens with family and work have little time or energy to consistently volunteer, making their participation sporadic and ineffectual. The WBBA’s confidence in ultimate control of the CBD is evidenced by their investment of tens of thousands of dollars (beyond allocated city monies) in its creation and their control of the process through their CBD steering committee. 

Though the CBD states it will fund services “over and above those currently provided by the city,” all proposed services, save transportation, are already within the city’s purview. Would newly harvested monies be better directed to the city where there already exists a transparent, democratic process in place for their allocation? Except for the controversial “social services to curb anti-social behavior in the public rights of way,” the cleanliness, beautification and security concerns are valid, but do most West Berkeley property owners see them as deserving of more of their hard earned dollars than they already pay the city for such services? Security is an ongoing concern, but unlike a gated community, West Berkeley has requested more police as a solution, not security guards with questionable training, background, and no real public oversight.  

Most assessment districts are traditionally structured as Business Improvement Districts (BID), where the businesses are similar and thus share similar concerns. This CBD encompasses such a large, diverse area that any homogeneity is precluded and structural conflict is the likely result. Finally: 

Should a taxpayer-funded, developer inspired private organization be empowered to lobby the city on development issues?  

Who pays and how much? 

Who gets to vote on the CBD’s creation, and is that vote fair?  

Should a private organization or the city be responsible for the proposed tasks?  

Is organizational and fiscal control of the proposed CBD truly democratic?  

This commentary is hopefully just the beginning of a much-needed discussion to answer these and other questions. On a topic with potentially profound economic and social consequences for our community one might expect the sponsoring organization to hold interactive educational public workshops, but this hasn’t occurred. WEBAIC, West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies, representing the interests of hundreds of businesses and their thousands of employees in West Berkeley, calls for slowing down this process enough to allow for a full and transparent examination of the proposed Community Benefits District. Berkeley deserves no less. 

 

Rick Auerbach writes on behalf of WEBAIC, a non-profit trade organization representing West Berkeley industry, artisans, and artists, originally created with assistance from the city of Berkeley. WEBAIC receives no funding from any governmental source.  


Commentary: Doing Whatever We Can to Stop Gun Violence

By Marian Berges
Tuesday April 24, 2007

I’ve been thinking about the violence at Virginia Tech, and about a violent man I once met. He was the boyfriend of a friend of mine. She brought him over to visit one afternoon, but his vibe was so repellent, so dangerous, that I didn’t want him near my kids, near me, nor in my home. I remember him sitting in my kitchen, his eyes moving over the furniture, the fixtures, evaluating everything, sizing everything up. My friend sat a little in the background, not saying much, anxious for us to like him. She was something of an innocent. She owned her own house, had a job, but (and this is my own interpretation; I can’t speak for her) felt she needed a man, a baby, and so invited this man into her home. He had come out of nowhere, had no job—she met him in a café. Over the next few months I often thought of calling her, of warning her about him, and my only excuses for not doing so was that I was pretty sure she wouldn’t listen to me, and moreover that I couldn’t imagine that it would end the way it did. It was obvious that he had all the power, had taken the reins. This is what violence, or the threat of violence does; it trumps good sense, good intentions. So I didn’t call her and he killed her. 

I probably wouldn’t have been a hero even if I had got to warn her; other friends, closer to her than I, had warned her repeatedly and she had cut off contact with them. She isolated herself with this rabid dog, this madman, and didn’t want to listen to her friends: she didn’t want to believe in the worst. In No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy’s last book but one, there is a killer who stalks his victims as implacably as death—and so defies comprehension, at least to the characters in the book, until he is right in front of them, and then they have to believe. I can see why, on that bucolic campus in Virginia, no one acted on the warnings. We can’t protect ourselves from people like Cho Seung-Hui, not completely, because the blessedly sane, the peaceful, don’t really believe in violence, don’t want to believe in it. The only thing to do, unless we want to live in eternal lockdown, is to mitigate its effects. That’s why we need gun control. 

After the deaths in Virginia, I thought of how we can’t believe in the worst, and then I thought of my friend. She was a sweet woman, she traveled widely, she loved dinner parties, she thought deeply about the world, and none of these details can bring her back. Nor will the stories about the people who died in the classroom; this one’s favorite book was “Little Women,” this one a holocaust survivor. To tell these stories, to read them and to cry over them is to pay the victims a little tribute. It’s all one can do, after the fact. But everybody who was afraid of or for Cho, who saw the violence in him, who knew something wasn’t right and spoke up, the Cassandras, they have already done what they could do, what all of us should do. Because when someone speaks out, it is always possible that a paper will be filed, someone notified, a law passed, a gun taken out of a sick man’s hand. 

 

Marian Berges is a Berkeley resident.


Commentary: Were KPFA Comments Red-Baiting, Or Is That a Red Herring?

By Marc Sapir
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Some publicity hound—maybe it was Al Capone—once quipped, “You can write anything you want about me as long as you spell my name right.” Having read about myself in the pages of the Planet lately I can’t say that I have much sympathy for that idea. Maybe it’s my age, but this grandfather of six doesn’t have quite the thick skin he had at 30 when jousting with the windmills of imperialism’s hubris. I actually don’t see why any critic about Berkeley would enjoy being flattered as a writer of “hit pieces,” a “red baiter” or an “agent baiter.” I’ll accept that my piece on KPFA was hard-hitting, but I had thought of that in figurative terms. Sure, I expected some wrathback. Still, those responses helped make my point.  

Brian Edwards-Tiekert and Sasha Lilley managed to avoid the key issues of my article on KPFA, despite their own incendiary brilliance. I stressed the history of the way that paid staff have fought tooth and nail to prevent community, in the form of elected station boards—first advisory and later governing—from influencing changes (be they positive or negative) at this supposedly community-controlled radio station. How they helped push out two general managers to the effect of placing their own loyalists at the top. The not-named focal individual in my article who has been most galling at using the fine points of Roberts Rules of Order to frustrate open dialogue and collective decision-making on the station board is the same Brian Edwards-Tiekert. Folks who have followed this saga may remember back over a year to my revealing in these pages the e-mail from Brian to his allies suggesting they discuss how to undermine or disband the station board.  

There are a goodly number of elected members of station boards who can relate the sordid details, the level of their frustration and the degree of disrespect Brian, a staff rep, has shown over the past few years. I don’t go to those meetings because I can’t handle the dissonance—not all Brian’s fault by any means. I had tried to avoid provoking Brian by name because—though a major actor in the drama—he’s not the issue I was addressing.  

But the memo by Sasha Lilley to Miguel Molina warning against advocacy is a central issue. It’s part of the larger project by paid staff, their appointed-from-their-own “interim” management, and a group of community allies, to move away from, rather than toward incorporating new programs from the vital growing grassroots movements resisting many aspects of capitalist crisis—in the military, prisons, undocumented communities, New Orleans etc. The “professional” staff has not challenged the assertion that they oppose bringing those types of advocacy programs (what I called “the barbarians”) onto the airwaves. Instead they changed the subject to tout ongoing coverage of peace demonstrations and occasional reportage on aspects of the movements to which I refer. It’s as if Brian’s mention that KPFA covered Lt. Ehren Watada’s court martial trial (for which they deserve thanks) is equivalent to helping organize an ongoing show of, by and for the very important GI movement in resistance. It’s not. I think that what they do do is a shadow of what they might do, if they weren’t resisting advocacy journalism and change. That is why the memo to Miguel Molina is telling. I agree that KPFA can’t be only about advocacy, but it must encourage and support it.  

Brian’s style betrays staff’s subterfuges. In response to my mention of Sasha as a union rep Brian slaps me down, asserting that she is not a union rep and is not even a member of the staff union. But who can dispute that as union rep Sasha Lilley helped organize staff to refuse to even meet with then Station Manager Campanella? That her ascendancy into management required her union resignation allows Brian to suggest that I just don’t know what I’m talking about? This is semantic license—what some used to call “parsing” the language when they were after Bill Clinton for lying about sex with Monica. Brian wrote that I claim Sasha “issued a new ‘edict’ ” against advocacy. Edict is his word, mine was “memo,” yet he puts edict in quotes to suggest my “angry” writing. Almost Rovian. Both Brian’s and Sasha’s articles claim I intimated that Sasha or other staff are FBI or COINTELPRO agents. Can anyone honestly draw such a conclusion from the following: “The problem...is that when people—both staff and those who are critics of KPFA management and staff behavior—behave provocatively….this advances the surreptitious attack on KPFA.”  

Suggesting I am an ignorant, misinformed, hostile enemy of KPFA is the innuendo these folks do best, and, not coincidentally, why I wrote that they could easily wreck the station’s base within the eclectic radical populist movement of the Bay Area. I’m not an enemy of KPFA. I’m an avid listener. I’ve been on the air numerous times. I give KPFA enough money, sometime help with phones at fundraisers, give out and wear the bumper sticker. I preached to the Coalition for a democratic Pacifica years ago that they not go head on against the paid staff but begin to work with them inside the station to avoid fostering defensiveness. Brian should know this because I told him. Sasha considers my April 6 Daily Planet commentary red baiting because I found her self-characterization as a socialist, Marxist, feminist ironic. But it was she who presented those credentials (and her father’s) while defending her hostility toward the former station manager she helped select. Twas a public witnessed discussion we had. Red baiting or red herring? My earlier piece stands on its merits.  

 

Marc Sapir currently works for the ambulatory care division of Alameda County Medical Center and directs the Retro Poll group at www.retropoll.org. He founded the Berkeley High School Health Center (1989), negotiated free confidential HIV testing for Berkeley (1988) and has some experience as a radio programmer.  


Commentary: Contracting Out the Troop Death Tolls

By Jane Stillwater
Tuesday April 24, 2007

On my plane flight back from Iraq, I was cogitating on what I had learned while I was there and, in between the in-flight movie and the rubber chicken, I started remembering what one female Parliamentarian I had interviewed kept saying to me. “The number of American troops that have died over here is much higher than reported because they do not count the contractors.” 

Counting contractors’ deaths? Was she talking about including the deaths of mercenary soldiers into the U.S. troop death count? I guess she was. But their deaths, although tragic, wouldn’t have made the troop death toll all that much higher. Or would it? 

Then, as my plane was cruising at 35,000 feet somewhere over Greenland, it finally hit me what she was talking about. “Contractors!” She wasn’t talking about the handful of mercenaries out doing battle on the front lines. She was talking about the 130,000 contractors (according to Defense News) doing battle on the chow lines, the truck lines, the supply lines and PX lines in Iraq.  

Everywhere you go in the Green Zone and on all the military bases in Iraq, you see “contractors” doing jobs that were formerly done by soldiers. In Vietnam, the soldiers themselves did all these jobs. The supply clerks were soldiers. The janitors were soldiers. The sentries were soldiers. There were soldiers on KP, in the motor pool, in the offices, on guard duty, manning checkpoints, on the road. Now all that work is being done by contractors. Yet, to paraphrase Shakespeare, “When you cut them, do they not also bleed?” 

“The reason there are significantly lower numbers of troop deaths in Iraq now than there were in Vietnam is because of our more efficient body armor,” everyone tells me. Hell, no. The reason there is a significantly lower number of troop deaths in Iraq now is because nobody counts the contractors’ deaths. Six hundred contractors are dead and 4,000 are wounded? But now we can’t count them because of semantics? Whatever.  

One contractor I met in Iraq said to me recently, “A friend of mine in the supply office got killed by a mortar last week.” And then she cried. 

Whether we officially count them or not, the price that “contractors” pay for our country is the same. And the costs of this “war” are just as enormous to their families and friends. By using contractors instead of soldiers and not counting their deaths and fiddling with the numbers, the Department of Defense tries to make this “war” a little bit more palatable. But guess what? I find this peekaboo game that the Defense Department is playing with dead people to be in “grave” error. 

 

PS: Contractors do not like to get killed. But our troops don’t particularly like getting killed either!  

 

PPS: Every time I talked with a soldier and he or she found out that I was a journalist, they would always say the same thing. “When you go back home, please tell people that our tours of duty have just been extended to 15 months and we are not happy campers about that!” You know, serving in Iraq isn’t all that bad—because of the work ethic, the comradeship and the can-do attitude of our troops and, yes, of our contractors too. Plus it’s a steady job. But still and all. It’s hot over there in the summer and people shoot at you! And despite help from the “contractors,” our troops are really stretched thin (and that idiot in the White House is talking about starting a war with Iran? With what troops?) Thus yet another extended tour of duty far away from spouses and family does not sit well with the troops.  

 

PPPS: Bush and Cheney’s failure of leadership have gotten us bogged down in disaster after disaster, including the World Trade Center, Katrina, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Israel/Palestine tragedy and Iraq. Bad concepts, bad planning and bad execution are their stock in trade. Let’s ditch these bums before they can think up something else to foul up! 

Iraqi citizens in the neighborhoods are truly sick of all this violence and they appear to be organizing at the neighborhood level to protect their own from the warring factions that rage above them -- at their expense. Listen up, guys. This is hopeful.  

I just got an e-mail from reporter Stewart Nusbaumer. He said, “You would love to be where I am now. The colonel here is damn sensitive, and is doing the right way. Let the Iraqis sort it out, help them. Don’t impose. Let them have their neighborhood watches, make them professionals slowly.  

“I’m in town now, it looks like a nuke was dropped here. Hit, the town, was a major insurgents stronghold, they ran the town. Then the people, evidently, said enough. Now the big thing is for the United States to help them create a police from local people.  

“Now, that is simplified, and things are not black/white, and the commander is taking a chance here in trusting locals, helping them out a little at a time. But the colonel knows he is leaving, that it is up to them....”  

So. If Americans throw Bush and Cheney in jail, then average Iraqis who are struggling so hard to bring order to their poor shredded country will see by example that Americans don’t tolerate gangsta behavior either. Throwing Bush and Cheney in jail just might be the exact token gesture to start bringing peace to Iraq! 

 

PPPPS: I met the most wonderful surgical tech at the Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. “I was trained by the Army for this job,” she told me. You shoulda seen her in action, stepping up to the plate and helping to save lives. The most important thing in the world one can possibly do is to save a human life. I envied her. I wanna save human lives too! And if you are just out of high school and jobless and are afraid to leave your sleazy boyfriend because he’s so needy and cute, here’s a recommendation from me: Join the Army and become a surgical tech. You will be helping out people far more needy than the cute boyfriend—plus the guys over here are all far more cute. 

And, like that wonderful surgical tech in Baghdad, let’s concentrate on helping to save lives in Iraq, not to destroy them. Iraq needs a Marshall Plan, not a “surge". Exxon doesn’t need all that extra oil money. But Iraq does. 3,000 Iraqi citizens meet violent deaths every month. Imagine the Virginia Tech tragedy times 100 every single month. That’s a hecka lot of post-traumatic stress.  

 

Berkeley resident Jane Stillwater, sponsored by the Lone Star Iconoclast of Crawford, Texas, blogged during her recent trip to Iraq. To read more of her posts, see http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com. 


Columns

Column: Dispatches From the Edge: Shiites vs. Sunni: The Pandora Strategy

By Conn Hallinan
Friday April 27, 2007

In 1609 a terrible thing happened. Not terrible in the manner that great wars are terrible, but in the way that opening Pandora’s Box was terrible: King James I of England discovered that dividing people on the basis of religion worked like a charm, thus sentencing the Irish to almost four centuries of blood and pain. 

If the Bush administration is successful in its current efforts to divide Islam by pitting Shiites against Sunnis it will revitalize the old colonial tactic of divide and conquer, and maintain the domination of the Middle East by authoritarian elites allied with the U.S. and the international energy industry.  

Its vehicle, according to the New York Times, is an “American backed alliance” of several Sunni-dominated regimes, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, “along with a Fatah-led Palestine and Israel.” 

The anti-Shiite front, according to the Saudi-owned news site, Elaph, will also include Turkey and Pakistan.  

The target is not simply Iran, but the so-called “Shiia Crescent,” a term first coined by King Abdullah of Jordan. The “Crescent” includes Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Alawai-dominated regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Alawites are of Shiia origin. Suddenly rhetoric like the “eastern tide,” and the “Persian menace” have begun appearing in official newspapers in the region, despite the fact that the average Arab does not view Iran as a threat. 

A recent Zogby International poll of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) found that close to 80 percent of those polled considered the United States and Israel the biggest threats to their security, while only 6 percent listed Iran. Further, fewer than 25 percent believe Iran should be pressured to halt its nuclear program, while 61 percent think Iran has the right to a nuclear program, even if it results in nuclear weapons.  

In fact, Iran’s opposition to the United States and support for the Palestinians is widely popular in the region. 

Writing in Al-Ahram Weekly, Omayma Abdel-Latif, project coordinator for the Carnegie Middle East Center, says, “The consensus in both Sunni and Shiia circles appears to be that attempts to emphasize Sunni-Shiia rivalries are intended to deflect attention from both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and continued Israeli aggression. That the United States is working to fuel such tensions is almost an article of faith for Muslims on both sides. In its attempt to create an anti-Iran alliance, they say, the U.S. is resorting to a strategy which aims to raise the specter of sectarianism across the Muslim world.”  

Abel-Latif is not alone in her analysis. “One might be forgiven for surmising that the current thrust of U.S. policy in the Middle East and through the Muslim world is to exacerbate and instrumentalize Sunni-Shiite divisions,” says Middle East expert and author Fred Reed. 

While much of the “Shiia threat” talk seems aimed at Iran, Hezbollah and Syria—the Shiite-dominated government in Iraq is generally excluded because it is allied with the current occupation forces led by the U.S. and Britain—the real target may be a good deal bigger. 

“Could it be that the U.S. endgame is to weaken Islam from within,” asks Lebanese writer Jihad Azine in An-Nahar, “and divert attention from targeting U.S. interests to targeting the Shiia?”  

One major concern for the U.S. is oil. While oil production in the United States, Mexico, and the North Sea is declining, U.S. consumption is predicted to increase by one-third over the next 20 years. By 2020, two-thirds of all U.S. oil will be imported, and since 65 percent of the world’s remaining oil reserves are in the Middle East, one doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude a strategy of divide and conquer is aimed at keeping strategic control of those resources.  

Keeping up tensions in the Middle East is also enormously lucrative for U.S. arms companies. Since 2006, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman have spent—or will over the next year— $138 billion on arms purchases. 

The division between Sunnis and Shiia dates from shortly after the Prophet Mohammad died in 632. But as London School of Economics Middle East expert Fred Halliday points out, the distinctions “are small, far less than those between Catholics and Protestants in Christianity,” and conflict between the two “is essentially a recent development, a product of the Middle East political crisis in recent decades.” 

Halliday argues that the wars in Kashmir and Afghanistan encouraged the division because militant Sunni groups were the heart of the resistance. The real divisions may be small, but religious conflict has always been a surrogate for something else. In Ireland it divided native Irish from Protestant settlers and kept the two at one another’s throats. In Egypt, the British manipulated Copts against Muslims; in Cyprus, Christian Greeks against Muslim Turks.  

In its campaign to divide and conquer, according to journalist Seymour Hersh, the Bush administration has ended up bolstering “Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.” 

Martin Indyk, a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, says, “The Middle East is heading into a serious Sunni-Shiite cold war. The White House is not just doubling the bet in Iraq; it’s doubling the bet across the region. This could get very complicated.” 

“Blowback” has already happened. As Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations told the New York Times, “Who cannot remember that to contain the so-called ‘Shiite Crescent’ after the 1979 revolution, the extremism of the fundamentalist Salafi movement was nourished by the West—only to transform into al Qaeda and the Taliban? Why should the same policy in the same region procure any different results now?” 

While the Shiia are represented as a single entity, in fact there are enormous differences among Shiia communities. They are a majority in Iran, but Persians are ethnically different than Arabs. The Shiia constitute the bulk of the Muslim population in Lebanon, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been sharply critical of Iraq’s Shiia government for working hand in glove with the U.S. occupation. 

In any case, Shiia make up only 12 to 15 percent of the Muslim world and, outside Iran and Iraq, constitute a majority only in Yemen. Traditionally they “are under represented,” according to Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Socially and economically, Shiia communities are more marginalized, less educated, and poorer.” 

The fact that Shiia communities—particularly in Lebanon and Iraq, but also in Saudi Arabia—are suddenly on the radar screen has less to with any kind of Iran-driven conspiracy than with growing resistance to the sect’s traditionally second-class status in the Middle East. The “divisions” are political and economic, not sectarian, says Abdel-Latif. 

According to Halliday, Shiites and Sunnis have intermarried and shared holy sites for centuries. “Actual and direct conflict between Sunni and Shiia (as distinct from suspicion and communal difference) has until recently been remarkable by its absence.” 

But as the Irish found out to their woe, small differences, if linked to a wider policy, can turn esoteric matters of theology into a life and death matter. “These fires, once lit, can destroy forms of co-existence that have existed for centuries,” points out Halliday. 

And no one can be certain where those fires will spread and who they will burn. 


Column: Undercurrents: The Dellums Disappearance Debate

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday April 27, 2007

Generals, so the theory goes, tend to fight the last war, and so my good friends in the local media—many of whom seemed to have missed the fact that the administration of Mayor Jerry Brown was one of the most secretive in our lifetime—have taken out, yard dog fashion, after his successor, Ron Dellums, on the same charge. 

Some of this is legitimate citizen concern. 

Grand Lake area political and business activist Pamela Drake—a former City Council aide and City Council candidate—writes this week in her column in the Grand Lake Guardian that Mr. Dellums needs to get out more. “[Mayor Dellums] told us he wasn’t Superman and some of us were OK with that. We were looking for a partnership—not a savior (admittedly, many will always look for a savior or a fixer to take care of things). So why now does it seem that our former congressman, our new mayor, our fighter for justice seems to have gone into a phone booth rather than out on the street, a sit-down with reporters, or a walk through the farmers’ markets? … Oaklanders need some reassurance. … We’re willing to open our doors as we’ve already opened our hearts but we’re also checking collars for lipstick smudges and looking for cryptic notes in pockets. We need a little face time, Mr. Mayor. We need a fireside chat here and there.” 

Fair enough to ask to see more of the mayor we elected. 

Not quite so fair, however, are two recent entries about Mr. Dellums by two different reporters in the East Bay Express. 

In an April 19 East Bay Express 92510 blog entry entitled “Poverty Pimp Alert” (“poverty pimp” being the name some use to accuse activist leaders of playing up the issue of poverty—usually race-based poverty—in order to line their own pockets), Chris Thompson takes out after the Dellums task forces. 

“So what brilliant ideas have the members of Oakland mayor Ron Dellums’ ultra-secret task forces come up with lately?” Mr. Thompson asks. “You know, the task forces that hid from the public while they debated the most important issues of the city? The task forces whose reports Dellums has been too busy reading to, you know, govern the city? What inspired policy has come out of this grand, clandestine project? Pep rallies.” 

Did the task forces “hide” from the public, as Mr. Thompson asserts? We’ll get to that in a moment. 

Meanwhile, this week in the Express print edition, Robert Gammon writes in his “Full Disclosure” column about what he calls Mr. Dellums’ “secret task forces”: “The mayor, who ran on a platform of transparency and open government, commissioned 41 citizen task forces that have been meeting for months behind closed doors to create his mayoral agenda. The groups, now in their second round of sessions, have been so secretive that the mayor has not even released their names publicly, let alone members’ names and affiliations. … One of the mayor’s top-secret task forces—whose meetings Dellums prohibits the press from attending—is named ‘Transparency in government, public ethics, making city procedures and policies understandable in plain language.’” 

Mr. Gammon, along with a number of other local reporters, has been trying to get the names and affiliations of the task force members for weeks. He reports in his column that “a City Hall source e-mailed Full Disclosure a list of the task-force names and their primary topics. … In a later phone conversation, Dellums’ spokeswoman Karen Stevenson asked Full Disclosure to keep the task-force names secret until mid-May, when the mayor plans to publish their initial results. Now Full Disclosure is not paid to keep secrets. You can find the names posted on our news blog.” 

It’s hard to say how Mr. Dellums’ citizen task forces got the name “secret.” It may have come from San Francisco Chronicle East Bay columnist Chip Johnson, who used to have insider access to Oakland City Hall during the Jerry Brown years, but lost his Oakland privileges under Mr. Dellums (a Pulp Fiction reference) for various reasons. Mr. Johnson tried to get information on the task forces from Mr. Dellums’ staff members last summer and, when he couldn’t, labeled the task forces “hush-hush.” “The people serving on those committees since Dellums’ election have not been announced,” Mr. Johnson wrote in a September 2006 column. “And while some of their meetings have been held on the third floor of Oakland City Hall, very little information has been released to the public—or to the media.” 

But how secret were the Dellums task forces? 

The Dellums Campaign began putting out word about the task forces—and invitations for people to join them—shortly after Mr. Dellums was elected in June of 2006. I can’t even remember how I learned about them, but it was common knowledge among Oakland political and activist circles in the summer of last year. From what I understand, more than 800 citizens signed up for 41 task forces, many of them people who had campaigned against Mr. Dellums in the mayoral election, and had goals and interests markedly different from his. Apparently, the task forces were open to anyone who came and signed up. Under those circumstances, how difficult would it have been for local reporters to get information on the task force membership or deliberations in a town, like Oakland, that dearly loves to gossip? Not very. So why didn’t they? 

One of the reasons may be that while there are many media outlets in the East Bay, all of them have been cutting their reporting staffs, or hiring younger and more inexperienced reporters, in corporate cost-saving measures. In addition, some of the area’s better reporters—the Tribune’s Alex Katz, for example—have been lured away to public relations duties, or in the case of Robert Gammon—who used to be with the Tribune before he came to the Express—have become spread so thin in trying to cover so many areas of concern that their work has suffered. So what should have been an easy job—getting information about the task forces from the task force members themselves—is now being made out to be difficult. 

I don’t know why the Dellums administration did not early-on release the names and affiliations of all of the task force members. It would have made things simpler, and the issue would long ago have vanished (how many people, after all, are going to read every name on the 41-task force roster that Mr. Gammon posted to the East Bay Express blog?) My guess is that the names were not earlier released by Mr. Dellums because there is some creative tension going on between the old campaign staffers who have now become city staffers—Dellums loyalists who worked on a volunteer basis during the period last year when the task forces were put together—and the administrative staff who came on after the January inauguration and may have different ideas about how the task forces—and the Dellums administration as a whole—should operate. In addition—or, maybe, as a result of that—the task forces are morphing from independent citizen bodies making recommendations to the mayor to semi-official bodies that help carry out the mayor’s agenda in various policy-interest areas, and there still seems to be some confusion about how that should, and will, operate. But I’m just speculating here, and the Dellums folks will have to answer for themselves. 

But at least the task force debate has some substance behind it. 

In a follow-up posting to his April 19 “Poverty Pimp Alert” blog, this one entitled “Poverty Pimp Alert II,” Mr. Thompson appears to drop over the critical edge. Reacting to a statement in a recent California Majority Report posting that “Dellums has allowed the community to ask a lot of him, but if anyone can harness support for large, institutional changes in Oakland, Ron is probably the man,” Mr. Thompson writes, “Apparently, Ron Dellums can sleep on the job for more than three months, create task forces to conduct secret meetings but do nothing more than draft toothless position papers, and generally piss away his time in office, and his ‘We Shall Overcome’ shtick still plays with people who should know better.” 

Is Mayor Dellums sleeping on the job and pissing away his time in office? We’ll wait for Mr. Thompson to provide more than just his opinion. 


Garden Variety: Use Your Garden Water Wisely and For Pleasure

By Ron Sullivan
Friday April 27, 2007

After driving past for months and months, I noticed an opportune parking space and misbehaved badly enough to get it, and so I finally got inside the Sahara Import shop on Ashby just east of Shattuck.  

I was greeted by a friendly young woman and the offer of Moroccan tea, which proved to be a little glass of mint tea just sweet enough to heighten the flavor. Lovely. Among the handsome jewelry pieces and lamps and even a small selection of clothing, I found a few garden or courtyard fountains. 

Made with that fantastically complicated, geometric-patterned tile that characterizes several kinds of Arabic architecture, these came in both wall-hung lavabo and ground-level central-basin styles, in blue-and-white and multicolor schemes. 

I’ve always thought the effect of these was refreshing and oddly restful, for something with so visually complicated a surface. The blue-and-white arrangement in particular dramatizes the effect of clear moving water in a hot dry place, declaring the place an oasis.  

Water, of course, actually does cool the immediate area around it. So do trees and other plants—measurably!—as they use energy in respiration and photosynthesis, and exhale water vapor along with oxygen.  

There’s generally a conflict in a California pleasure garden between water conservation—always a good thing, whether it’s an official drought year or not—and having a pleasant place to hang out on a hot day. We do get a few of those even on the west side of the hills, and it really is cheaper in terms of natural resources as well as money to have a green retreat than to air-condition a whole house.  

The classic strategy for allotting water to a garden seems to have been inspired by an aesthetic tactic that’s also happily useful for our nonhuman neighbors. This method concentrates the most manicured and/or exotic plants, the most clearly human spaces, in one area—usually close to the house—and lets the rest of the garden shift toward a looser, more natural look.  

The water equivalent gets the most use out of water by concentrating water-loving plants in one place—again, often nearest the house and the existing plumbing—and moving toward more drought-tolerant stuff farther out.  

It’s a bit counterintuitive, but a pond or pool or fountain—a “water feature” in trade jargon—is another way to get the most bang for your bucket. In fact, I’ve heard it said that a reasonably maintained swimming pool uses less water than an equivalent area of lawn, depending on where it’s sited.  

That’s defensible if you understand the radiator principle and evapotranspiration. Water vapor gets thrown off every blade of grass, which adds up to an area many times the evaporative surface of a pool.  

Most water plants are sun-lovers. If you want a water feature in the shade, it works well to have a decorative tiled pool or fountain like the ones you’ll see in Sahara Import and surround it with shade-loving plants in pots or in the ground.  

 

 

Sahara Import 

2110 Ashby Ave. 

295-4527 

Open daily 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

http://saharaimport.com 

 

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


About the House: The Question of Capping to Keep Pests Away

By Matt Cantor
Friday April 27, 2007

I guess I have to remember to stay off of my horse else be in danger of falling off and damaging my backside. The industry (if you can call it that) that I’m employed in is fairly new and often mistaken for other adjacent trades (e.g. a friend referred to me as an appraiser the other day) including, not surprisingly, the structural pest control industry (often referred to as termite inspectors).  

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like and respect many folks I know in this business. Some do extraordinarily fine work and provide a vital service, but sadly, this does not cover all comers. There are, in my never-humble opinion a couple of major problems in this industry and, while I’ll try to swerve away form a global analysis of this agglomeration of issues, I will pick one and do a little bit of damage. 

Pest officers, like cardiologist live in their own world with their own set of imperatives. The thing that they do for a living seems, from inside that box to be the center of the universe and the rules, activities and theories that apply to their livelihood appear, from their perspective to be the most important things that exist. While some cardiologist might occasionally admit that the oncologist has something of value to say, they will still think it essential for every patient they meet to have a stress test and an EKG. It’s just a feature of being human to have your eyes stuck on your own head and no one else’s.  

For pest control people, the pest report looks like the most important way to look at the house and the repairs recommended in their reports don’t say “fix the rotten wood but be sure to get to the wiring first because a fire is more dangerous than fungal rot,” right? They just say, fix the rot, treat the ground, replace the porch and so on. Part of the problem is also that, if you only meet a cardiologist, you only hear that perspective and if you only see a pest control report, you don’t get a chance to compare those issues to the many other significant ones that might be presented to you by other persons; including home inspectors (he said, polishing his nails on his vest).  

Again, I will find much to agree with on many a pest report but there’s one thing that seems to get included as a recommendation in many of these reports and has for many decades and that is a call for the “capping” of a foundation. 

Capping is analogous to the capping of a tooth. It’s a covering and enlargement that generally extends upward from the original footing and usually has only a very small amount of concrete extending down over the inside edge and rarely much if any on the outside edge. Now why is this done? A cap is done for the simple reason that moisture and insects can more easily get at the bottom wooden elements of the building when the foundation holds these portions up a very short distance off the ground. When this is the case, it doesn’t take much of an accrual of earth along the inside or outside of the footing to allow wood boring inspects to get at the foundation or for wet earth to allow funguses to propagate along the bottom wooden members leading to rot (and there’s nothing dry about it).  

If we can hold the bottom wooden pieces aloft some 6 inches or so from the ground, they tend to fare far better than when these same “mudsills” and other sticks of wood, sit on or near the ground. 

A lot of what we’re talking about relates to termites but they’re not the whole picture when we’re talking about “grade faults,” which is another term for the condition in which wood and earth are getting too intimate. When they’re actually touching each other, we call it earth-to-wood contact, which is, as they say, a bad thing. 

So when pest inspectors see this condition, they often call for a capping of the foundation as a fix for this excess of intimacy (for shame!). The problem is that they are also engaging in the modification of a major structural component of the house without any real consideration for the structural implications. If, the caps were fairly inexpensive and if they were typically built with earthquakes in mind it might not be such a big deal but neither of these things are true. I’ve looked at something in excess of a thousand pest reports (maybe two) in my career and would say that the bids for capping of foundations that I’ve seen are usually somewhere in the range of two-thirds to three-fourths the cost of foundation replacement for the portions of the foundation that were “called.” So this begs an analysis of the difference between a capped foundation and new one (again, we may only be talking about one side or the whole thing). 

Older foundation that get called for capping are generally quite small in overall dimension and have relatively small bearing areas. In other words, the bottom isn’t that broad and they tend to settle more easily as a result. These older foundations often lack metal reinforcement and good quality concrete. Many older footings are imbalanced, bearing too much to the inside and, as a result, tend to tip slowly to the outside (this is called rotation). So when one is capping, one is left with all of these features with only limited improvement. 

Many older caps were installed with little or no interconnection between the old foundation and the cap and rely upon a “cold joint” or friction to hold them together. Today, workmanship is better but the connection is still inferior to the basic demand that foundations be poured integrally so that they will not separate over time. 

I’m darned curious to see what will happened to these caps when an earthquake hits. It may be that the early ones that lack good connection will snap and drop walls with unhappy results. 

New foundations have better balance (usually being an upside-down T shape), well integrated bolting and very hard concrete throughout. So if you can get all of these things for an extra few thousand over an already costly cap, it seems to me a no-brainer. 

I don’t want to blow by that bolting thing too rapidly because, in our earthquake anticipation, it’s a real issue. Caps are often poorly bolted and almost never to the standard required for conventional foundations. Mudsills, those bottom sticks of wood that rest on the foundation often get stuck in the mud, as it were when they get installed in caps. That is to say that they often don’t sit on the concrete but get embedded in the concrete making bracing and some kinds of bolting more difficult. 

A new foundation (or footing section) is required to have at least a moderate number of bolts installed on each section of mudsill so this becomes one more reason to choose a new foundation (or section) over a cap. 

Now, in fairness, some installers will use what is called a “saddle” when beefing up an old foundation. This is cap with one side (or both) that has been dug out and integrated into the cap. This can result in much better bearing and overall strength and I’m certainly much happier when I see one of these (which is rare), but again, I always want to come back to the question of whether a new foundation, with all there is to recommend it, would have cost much more and the answer is usually no. 

`I was asked to comment on such a case the other day and said that I felt that the client would be better off getting a new foundation installed by a cheaper contractor than to take a cap from a better one. While I never really favor working with a lesser individual, the city oversight and the basic requirements on foundations are so stringent that I rarely see a new foundation that’s been done substantially wrong. We can grouse and moan about the code (and city inspectors) all day but this is one proof of their value. You don’t have to worry too much that a foundation will be done wrong, once the drawings and permits are on the table. 

That said, I’d recommend spending a little more and working with the better contractor. It’s an old saw that higher cost is soon forgotten but bad workmanship lives on day after day and I believe it. 

So, do get a pest inspection from time to time and if your pest guy or gal says that you have a “marginal” or “faulty” grade condition and need to cap, ask very nice if they might be willing to give you a comparable bid for new VS the cap. You won’t just be doing well, you’ll be doing good and here’s why. Every person that does this, pushes the marketplace a bit more in the right direction and eventually, we won’t have to sit around and complain about all those lousy contractors. 

 

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


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday April 27, 2007

Can You Stem the Water Tide? 

 

A faithful Quake Tip reader recently had an emergency at home which leads to this recommendation: check and see if your washer hot and cold manual shut-offs are working, as well as the hot water shut-off that should be on top of your water heater.  

If you have a broken water connection after the next serious quake, if you don’t have what’s called a “gate valve” near the house, you might thank yourself if you had on hand a plumber’s tool for shutting off your water at the meter, usually close to the curb or sidewalk. I’ve seen them in large hardware stores and places like Home Depot. They make it much easier than trying to shut off the water with an adjustable wrench.  

 

 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.


Green Neighbors: Welcome the Flowers That Bloom in the Spring

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Having ranted about the allergenic pollen from certain flowering trees—the sorts one might not even think of as “flowering” except in the taxonomic sense—allow me to spend a few inches on thanks and praise for their more conspicuous brethren. 

From January onward, we’re blessed by flowering trees on our streets and in our public and visible places. The first flowering plum I used to notice was one that stood behind the recycling center, now closed, at Dwight and Martin Luther King. I don’t know whether it was genetics or its situation—reflected light and heat from buildings or some such thing—but it always shone like a beacon to reassure me that winter really wouldn’t last forever this year either. 

I missed a lot of the plum blossom show this year, including the one in our own backyard, as I was in Florida having the opposite of fun. But despite the gloomy weather I came back to, the street trees were offering a welcome that looked good even after time in the semitropics, where something’s always blooming prolifically.  

We do pretty much have the best of several climatic worlds here, with flowering plums and peaches and quinces from northern places, crape myrtle and dogwood and magnolias from our own Southeast, tibouchinas and jacarandas from the semitropics, bottlebrush trees and paperbarks and New Zealand Christmas trees (those are the ones that look very like Hawai’ian ’ohia lehua) from over the South Pacific, pears and rhododendrons from Asia, and our own California native—if thus far underused—species of dogwood and cherry and ironwood.  

Big showy flowers evolved in plants—to risk a teleological metaphor—to attract pollinators more efficient, or at least more directed, than the wind. This isn’t to say that trees with big flowers are “more evolved”—less basal, as taxonomists say it, and more remotely related to ancestral forms—than birches and mulberries and oaks and such, the small-green-flowered kinds. In fact, magnolias seem (as of the last big analysis I’ve seen) to be among the oldest families of trees, and you’re hard put to find a more conspicuous flower.  

In fact, some of those magnolias flower not only before they leaf out, but before winter’s half over. Some of those are from Asia, and their distribution—southern North America, mid-Asia, and not a lot in between—speaks of an old, old line that has stood its ground while the ground was moving and changing climatically beneath it.  

One could argue, if one were to stay in that teleological groove, that fruit trees evolved not only to manipulate insects, birds, bats and such to move their genetic material around, but to further manipulate birds and mammals and fruit-eaters in general into moving their seeds around after they’d formed. (One would have to further stretch meaning to do that; as Joe pointed out similarly last week, one can’t strictly be said to manipulate if one lacks hands.)  

Strolling further along that line of thought, flowering plants of great beauty and adaptibility have managed to enlist humans to distribute their descendants all over the world. Look where those trees have come from; there’s not much chance they could’ve sent even so sturdy a seedcarrier as the coco de mer so far as northern California, never mind so far inland as even San Pablo Avenue.  

And consider trees like Franklinia alatamaha, whose survival is strictly a matter of ex situ conservation: The species, like the less showy but symbolic ginkgo, is long gone except where we’ve planted it. In neither case do we know, precisely, what caused the extinction, so we can’t blame ourselves for it. 

The spent petals of that metaphor are drifting around my head, and the plums and quite a few others have been stripped of flowers by time, wind, and rain over the past few weeks. But the flaxleaf paperbarks are starting to bloom, and the red horsechestnuts are balancing those gorgeous candles on their branches, and here come black locust blooms too. (As red horsechestnut has a white-flowered form, black locusts come in pink and white—the “black” refers to someone’s perception of their bark color.)  

Beauty as perceived by humans is adaptive for plants. Never mind all that; I’m grateful for it and rejoice in it as it softens the utilitarian edges of our cities. The trees seem to think we’re worthy of such pleasure, even if sometimes our fellow humans don’t.  

 

 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

Flowers on an Eastern dogwood in a North Berkeley garden.  

 


Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday April 27, 2007

FRIDAY, APRIL 27 

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. at 72 Cesar Chavez Center, UC Campus. 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 

Subterranean Shakespeare “Macbeth” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., near Rose in Live Oak Park, to May 26. Tickets are $12-$17. 276-3871.  

EXHIBITIONS 

Acrylics on Canvas by David Giulietti Opening reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon and Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. 527-3100. www.arbeatsalon.com 

“Touchable Stories: Richmond” A multi-media, oral history event created by the people of Richmond. Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 6 p.m. through May 13, at 1303 Canal Blvd., Richmond (the former Kaiser Shipyard Cafeteria). Cost is $6-$12. For reservations call 619-3675. www.touchablestories.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jonathan Chester presents a slideshow and lecture on “Berkeley Rocks” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. Some of the homes and gardens will be featured on Berkeley Architectural Heritage’s Spring House Tour on May 6. 704-8222. 

“Music and Message” with Sweet Honey in the Rock on the role of music in the Civil Rights Movement and social activism today at 2 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free.  

Strictly Speaking with David Sederis at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Returning to the Shore” Tribute to James Chaill, connoisseur of Chinese painting at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. all-day symposioum on Sat. 642-0808.  

Jazz Poetry Festival with Adam David Miller, Gael Lacock, Avotcja, Modupue and others at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $20. 848-3227. www.hillsideclub.org 

“The Music of Primes” with mathematician Marcus du Sautoy at 5:15 p.m. at the Valley Life Sciences Bldg., Room 2050, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. 642-0448. 

Marta Acosta reads from “Midnight Brunch” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

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. 

De la Canción Protesta al la Canción Propuesta with Holly Near, Linda Tillery, Lichi Fuentes and others at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Kimberly Jackson & “Urban Legends” at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ed Neumaster Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Sambada, Sage, Afro, Brazillian, funk, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Nearly Beloved, folk, country afrobilly, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Evelie Posch and Steve Taylor-Ramirez at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Pat Nevins & Ragged Glory, City Fritter at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Monster Squad, Ceremony 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. 

3rd Date at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Native Elements at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

Beatropolis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Marian McPartland at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200.  

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with magician Diana Shmiana at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stage Door Conservatory “The Hobbit” Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Tied Up On A Rainy Day” Paintings by Bill Jefferson, sculpture by Larry Baumiller. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at The Gallery Of Urban Art, 1746 13th St., Oakland. 910-1833. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Outdoor Poetry Reading at Berkeley Arts Magnet’s Allen Ginsberg Poetry Garden from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1624 Milvia St.  

National Poetry Month Celebration with readings by Denise Newman, Barbara Tomash, Brian Strang, Patrick Duggan, Chad Sweeney, David Holler, Ilya Kaminsky, Bruce Boston, and Martin Woodside at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Jeremy Scahill describes “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St, Oakland. Tickets $10 in advance, $15 at door, available at independent bookstores, or at 415-255-7296, ext. 253.  

“A Gathering of Greatness" Allegorical photographs of famous people in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, by Dorothy Levitt Mayers. Lecture at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, Candace Falk, Helene Goodwin, Kathy Johnson, PhoeBe ANNE (sorgen) discuss “Where is Feminism Now?” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books 486-0698.  

Rhythm & Muse Open Mic with Tracy Koretsky at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera Free Concert at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Harp Music with Chris Caswell Celtic, Latin and Middle Eastern music on hand-made harps at 4 p.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave., off Seventh St. 644-2351. 

Flauti Diversi “Bella Rosas” a program of renaissance and contemporary works for recorder trio at 8 p.m. at St Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18, reservations recommended. 527-9840. 

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. 

Kensington Symphony performs Smetana’s “Ma Vlast” at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Suggested donation $12-$15, children free. 524-9912. 

Ronnie Gilbert, Sandy Tolan, Charlie Varon, Jeff Halper, and more, at 7 p.m. at the Fontaine Auditorium, Samuel Merritt Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave., Oakland, in a benefit for Jewish Voice for Peace. Tickets $15-$25 sliding scale. 465-1777. 

Quinteto Latino Compositions by Latin American masters at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

Classical African Music and Dance at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. 

National Jazz Appreciation Month BMI & The Roster Super Company at 7 p.m. at Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. 836-4649.  

Steve Mann and Friends at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Jesus Diaz & su QBA, Cuban timba dance music, at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Music on the Commons at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kotoja at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance leson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Rebecca Griffin at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Chris Zanardi Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Steve Forbert at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Juliet Green and Moodswing at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

David Feffrey’s Jazz Fourtet at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

The Pine Needles, skiffle band, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Captain Mike and the Sea Kings, Amy Lou’s Blues at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Born/Dead, Signal Lost at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory “The Hobbit” at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Works by Carla Van Slyke, Rita Sklar, Charlotte Britton and Jack Anderson Reception for the artists at 2 p.m. at Solano Grill, 1133 Solano Ave., Albany. 525-8686. 

“Celebrate the Earth” a show by members of the California Watercolor Association and hand-blown glass by Michael Sosin, on display at the Community Art Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. through June 8. 204-1667.  

“Jazz on High” Art Show and Jazz Vespers featuring the Art of Andres Guerrero and jazz by Dave Rocha & Quartet at 4 p.m. at High Street Presbyterian Church, 1945 High St, Oakland. www.highstreetpresbyterian.com 

“In Earth’s Shoe” drawings and prints by YaChin You and “The Prom Queen Series” paintings by Brooke Hatch. Artists’ reception at 7 p.m. at 1811 Carleton St. # A. 847-6272. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Amy Wachspress reads from “The Call to Shakabaz” at 6 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jacqueline Bautista reads from her stories about modern Spain, “Fiestas” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra features Gabriel Faure’s Requiem at 4:30 p.m. at Saint Joseph The Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations appreciated. www.bcco.org 

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. 

California Bach Society “A Madrigal History Tour” at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$25. 415-262-0272. www.calbach.org 

William Beatty, pianist, Marvin Sanders, flute at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893.  

Theater in Song Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano with music by Jake Heggie and Ricky Ian Gordon at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $62. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Ravi Shankar, sitar, at 7 p.m. at at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988.  

“Songs of Lesser Known Writers” Dave Shank, piano, at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St., corner of W. Richmond Ave., Point Richmond. Suggested donation $10. 236-0527. 

Healing Muses and Octangle, wind octet, at 4 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Novello Quartet “Spanish Masters” at 4 p.m. at Ridgeway Yoga Studio, 250 Ridgeway St., Oakland. Donations at the door. www.novelloquartet.org 

“Journey to the Heart of Israel/Palestine” with Linda Allen at 7:30 pm La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 849-2568. 

Ian Tyson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Gift Horse at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Balkan Folkdance at 1:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Battle of the Bands at 6 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Shotwell, Sonskull, Coming Up Roses, Shorebird at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 30 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Aurora Theatre Staged Readings “Happyslap” by Laura Jacqmin at 7:30 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. For tickets call 843-4822. 

“Art of the Book” with Malcolm Margolin, Publisher, Heyday Books and Amy Thomas, owner of Pegasus and Pendragon Books at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6150. 

Steven Bach Describes “Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl” Hitler’s filmmaker, at 7 p.m. at Cody’d Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Masha Hamilton reads from “Camel Bookmobile” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Express with open theme night on “secrets” with special guest Blair 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.  

Berkeley High School Jazz Bands at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, MAY 1 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Water and Light” Giclee photographs by Maris Arnold at Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave. 843-3236.  

“Inspiring Blooms” works in colored pencil by Bei Brown on display at the Tilden Environmental Education Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Visions of Peace and Justice: Over 30 Years of Political Posters” Book release party for Inkworks Press at 7 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. 

Dale Pendell reads from “Inspired Madness” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Daniel Farber discusses “Retained by the People: the Silent Ninth Amendments and the Constitutional Rights Americans Don’t Know They Have” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Brass Menagerie and Gamelan X at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Dale Ann Bradley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Avishai Cohen at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

Photo Montages by Fletcher Oakes opens at the It Club Gallery, 10070 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito and runs through May 30. www.touchablestories.org 

“Fleeting Moments in Nature and Life” Bronze sculptures by Elizabeth Dante, plein air landscapes by Barbara Ward, watercolors by John Kenyon and paintings by Paul Graf at the Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave., through June 3. 848-1228. 

 

 

 

 

FILM 

“Goodbye, Dragon Inn” with a lecture by Marilyn Fabe at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Constructions” Artists’ talk with Jenny Honnert, Marya Krogstad and Thomas Morphis at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Richard Walker describes the greenswards of the Bay Area in “The Country in the City” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Myra Melford UC Jazz Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Leftist Lounge Dance Benefit for grassroots organizations at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Zydeco Flames at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

In Harmony’s Way, a capella, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 644-2204.  

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

Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $29.50-$30.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mikie Lee and Amber at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Avishai Cohen at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, MAY 3 

EXHIBITIONS 

“My Ruling Planet” Sculptures, paintings and drawings by Rocky Rische-Baird, and “Traidor!” paintings by four Filipino artists. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland. 444-7411. 

FILM 

“Last Summer Won’t Happen” with fimmaker Peter Gessner in person at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free screening. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems Annual student poetry reading at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library, in the Doe Library, UC Campus. http://lunchpoems.berkeley.edu 

“Berkeley Rocks” An illustrated lecture on one of Berkeley’s unique neighborhoods by Jonathan Chester at 8 p.m. in the Chapel, Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Cost is $10. Presented by Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. BAHA’s house and Garden Tour of this Thousand Oaks neighborhood will take place on May 6. For information on the lecture and tour please call 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Michael Parenti on “Political Perception and Deception: How to Think about Empire,” at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Cost is $15. Benefit for Middle East Children’s Alliance. 548-0542.  

Dan Bellm, poet at 7 p.m. followed by open mic, at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

“Not for Mother’s Only: Contemporary Poems on Child-Getting and Child-Rearing” with contibuting poets Laynie Browne, Maxine Chernoff, Norma Cole, Brenda Hillman and Elizabeth Treadwell at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Patricia Vidgerman reads from “The Memory Palace of Isabella Stewart Gardner” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Judith Stone investigates apartheid in South Africa in “When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Dead Guise and Avalon Rising at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

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

Peter Anastos & Iternity at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Megan Slankard Band, Cyndi Harvell Trio, Adrienne Shamszad at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Nell Robinson & Red Level, bluegrass and country, at 8:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 644-2204.  

Quetzal at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Hiromi at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

 

 

 


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Friday April 27, 2007

POETRY READING TO HONOR GINSBERG 

 

An outdoor poetry reading in honor of Allen Ginsberg and National Poetry Month will be held from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at the Berkeley home where he wrote portions of his landmark “Howl!” The home, at 1624 Milvia St., is now the site of a poetry garden dedicated to Ginsberg. The event will feature poet/writer/teacher G Reyes.  

 

KEVIN BROWNLOW AT PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE 

 

Silent film historian, archivist and documentarian Kevin Brownlow will make the last of his three San Francisco International Film Festival appearances at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Pacific Film Archive, when he will present an introduction to silent film. The program will feature clips and short films from different genres, nations and eras within silent film, along with discussion of each and accompaniment by pianist Judith Rosenberg. $10-12. 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. www.sfiff.org. 

Brownlow, the author of the silent era oral history The Parade’s Gone By and producer of many documentaries, including Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, will also appear at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, where the festival will present him with the Mel Novikoff award, followed by a screening of Brownlow’s recent preservation of Douglas Fairbanks’ The Iron Mask; and at 9:15 p.m. Saturday at the Kabuki Theater, where he will present his new documentary about the life and career of legendary director Cecil B. DeMille.  

 

LIBRARY HOSTS FREE OPERA PERFORMANCE 

 

The Berkeley Opera will hold a free concert at 2 p.m. Saturday in the third-floor Community Room of the Berkeley Public Library. 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.


Moving Pictures: A Portrait of the Artist as a Bad Father

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday April 27, 2007

Architect Glen Small, feeling unappreciated, with no books or significant critical studies of his work in print, drafted his will and testament with a special request: He bequeathed to his middle daughter Lucia the task of writing his biography. His hope was that she would document his achievements and thus firmly establish his professional reputation once and for all. He wasn’t sick; he was just bitter, and wanted the story to be finally told. 

The assignment was strange for other reasons as well. Glen Small was closer to his oldest daughter, and his youngest daughter was a writer. So why had he chosen Lucia? 

Despite having no answer to the question, she took him up on the offer with the hope that the project might bring the two of them closer together. But she had two caveats: that she make a film rather than a book, and that it cover the man as well as the work. With some hesitation, her father agreed. 

The result, My Father the Genius, is amateurish, but in the best sense of the word: It’s a very personal film, with the feel of a home movie. With the exception of a few animations, there is little flourish or flare. Instead it presents a simple, eye-level portrait of a man and how his obsession with his work has affected his personal relationships.  

Glen Small was, by most accounts, a visionary architect in his younger years. He was a founder and faculty member of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and one of the principal proponents of ecologically sound design. His fantastically futuristic Biometric Biosphere combined eco-architecture with science fiction to create an arresting vision of the city of the future, a structure that would touch the ground in only a few places but could house 100,000 people.  

His more modest designs—the ones that actually got built—include houses, museums and commercial buildings that usually feature dramatic sweeping lines. “Sensuality,” as Small puts it, is his intent.  

But despite his talents, Small was brash, arrogant, rude, and at times downright stupid. He alienated his colleagues, jeopardized his career, undermined his own financial stability, and all but abandoned his wife and daughters. And, as we see in the film, he has apparently learned little from his mistakes. 

Small is presented as an aptly named man, one so self-centered and tunnel-visioned that he repeatedly fails as father, as friend, as husband and as lover. His world view allows for little that does not center on himself and confirm his self-image. Granted, when a camera is in your face you’re inclined to behave as though you’re the center of attention, but we get the feeling that Small believes there should always be a camera in his face, that he is just that interesting and important. And the irony is that this is precisely what makes him compelling, if not personable, as a subject. 

It is surprising and a bit disappointing that Lucia Small was unable to get better access to some of the buildings her father designed, and that there is little discussion of the merits of each structure, other than from Glen Small’s own perspective, which we at times suspect is an inflated view. But if you go into this film with only architecture in mind, or with the hope of finding an in-depth portrait of an artist, you’re bound to be disappointed, for My Father the Genius is only superficially concerned with these matters. Ultimately the film is not about whether Small is great or what he is like as a man; it is really Lucia’s story, the story of a daughter given a strange assignment, her willingness to take on that assignment, and the effects that assignment has on her relationships with her sisters and with her father.  

 

MY FATHER THE GENIUS (2005) 

Written, directed and produced by Lucia Small. Featuring Glen Small. 84 minutes. $29.95. www.myfatherthegenius.com. 

 

Photograph: Architect Glen Small, posing here with an early design for a solar-powered mobile home community, is the subject of his daughter’s documentary My Father the Genius.


‘Savage War of Peace’ Author Alistair Horne at The Hillside Club

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday April 27, 2007

Noted historian and author Alistair Horne, whose book A Savage War of Peace (1977), on the French war against Algerian rebels (1954-62), has been reprinted by the New York Review with a new preface that draws parallels with the War in Iraq, will lecture and be interviewed Monday, 8 p.m., at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., in a coproduction with Moe’s Books. 

Interest in a new printing of Horne’s book, with its familiar issues of torture and “asymmetrical” tactics, arose when American officers in Iraq began passing around copies and discussing its parallels, rather than those of the War in Vietnam, to Iraq, a situation officially conceived in completely different terms. 

Used copies of the book began selling on Amazon.com for as much as $150—an underground bestseller. The new paperback edition is $19.95, and will be available at the event for signing. 

The event was organized by Lewis Klausner, who coordinated the reading series at Black Oak Books for several years. 

“Lewis came by the store, after the announcement that Black Oak was for sale,” said Owen Hill of Moe’s, who organizes the reading series there. “Things were in a state of flux, and Lewis said he was interested in producing offsite events. Then he called, asking if we wanted to coproduce an Alistair Horne appearance! We jumped at the opportunity. We’d never done offsite events, but had been talking about it, and were grateful for Lewis’ expertise. He wants to make it something a little bit like a Berkeley version of City Arts & Lectures, and plans to interview Horne onstage after the lecture.” 

Horne, the author of a number of books on modern French history, draws several parallels between the Algerian War and the one in Iraq: the tactic of insurgents avoiding the occupying military and attacking police and civilian targets instead, in order to demoralize supporters of the occupation; premature declarations of the conflict being “virtually over,” “porous borders” that allowed rebels sanctuary, supplies and reinforcements from contiguous countries (Morocco and Tunisia in Algeria’s case); and, comparing American attempts to build an Iraqi army and police force to fight insurgency, the fact that more Algerians fought for the French than there were rebels—and yet France still lost after eight years’ struggle. 

Horne also emphasizes that “simultaneous internal ‘civil war’” often flares up alongside “a revolutionary struggle against an external enemy”—and that “torture should never, never, never be resorted to by any Western society,” quoting a French officer that when torture was taken up by the military, beyond the scope of civilian police use of it, “the honor of the nation” was involved. 

In a Washington Post book review of the new edition of Horne’s book, Thomas E. Ricks wrote, “As I wrote about the U. S. Army’s big ‘cordon and sweep’ operations that detained tens of thousands of civilian Iraqi males in the Sunni Triangle in the fall of 2003, I remembered Horne: ‘This is the way a administration caught with its pants down reacts under such circumstances ... First comes the mass indiscriminate round-up of suspects, most of them innocent but converted into ardent militants by the fact of their imprisonment.” 

“When we announced the event on the Moe’s website, we got a flurry of emails from customers,” Owen Hill noted, “who had read Horne’s book on the French Commune of 1871, and were intrigued with what he had to say about Iraq. It’ll be fascinating to see how he compares the different historical situations, speaking in person.” 

Admission is $5, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds. For more information, see www.hillsideclub.org, www.moesbooks.com or call 848-3227. 

 

 

 

 

 


Garden Variety: Use Your Garden Water Wisely and For Pleasure

By Ron Sullivan
Friday April 27, 2007

After driving past for months and months, I noticed an opportune parking space and misbehaved badly enough to get it, and so I finally got inside the Sahara Import shop on Ashby just east of Shattuck.  

I was greeted by a friendly young woman and the offer of Moroccan tea, which proved to be a little glass of mint tea just sweet enough to heighten the flavor. Lovely. Among the handsome jewelry pieces and lamps and even a small selection of clothing, I found a few garden or courtyard fountains. 

Made with that fantastically complicated, geometric-patterned tile that characterizes several kinds of Arabic architecture, these came in both wall-hung lavabo and ground-level central-basin styles, in blue-and-white and multicolor schemes. 

I’ve always thought the effect of these was refreshing and oddly restful, for something with so visually complicated a surface. The blue-and-white arrangement in particular dramatizes the effect of clear moving water in a hot dry place, declaring the place an oasis.  

Water, of course, actually does cool the immediate area around it. So do trees and other plants—measurably!—as they use energy in respiration and photosynthesis, and exhale water vapor along with oxygen.  

There’s generally a conflict in a California pleasure garden between water conservation—always a good thing, whether it’s an official drought year or not—and having a pleasant place to hang out on a hot day. We do get a few of those even on the west side of the hills, and it really is cheaper in terms of natural resources as well as money to have a green retreat than to air-condition a whole house.  

The classic strategy for allotting water to a garden seems to have been inspired by an aesthetic tactic that’s also happily useful for our nonhuman neighbors. This method concentrates the most manicured and/or exotic plants, the most clearly human spaces, in one area—usually close to the house—and lets the rest of the garden shift toward a looser, more natural look.  

The water equivalent gets the most use out of water by concentrating water-loving plants in one place—again, often nearest the house and the existing plumbing—and moving toward more drought-tolerant stuff farther out.  

It’s a bit counterintuitive, but a pond or pool or fountain—a “water feature” in trade jargon—is another way to get the most bang for your bucket. In fact, I’ve heard it said that a reasonably maintained swimming pool uses less water than an equivalent area of lawn, depending on where it’s sited.  

That’s defensible if you understand the radiator principle and evapotranspiration. Water vapor gets thrown off every blade of grass, which adds up to an area many times the evaporative surface of a pool.  

Most water plants are sun-lovers. If you want a water feature in the shade, it works well to have a decorative tiled pool or fountain like the ones you’ll see in Sahara Import and surround it with shade-loving plants in pots or in the ground.  

 

 

Sahara Import 

2110 Ashby Ave. 

295-4527 

Open daily 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

http://saharaimport.com 

 

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


About the House: The Question of Capping to Keep Pests Away

By Matt Cantor
Friday April 27, 2007

I guess I have to remember to stay off of my horse else be in danger of falling off and damaging my backside. The industry (if you can call it that) that I’m employed in is fairly new and often mistaken for other adjacent trades (e.g. a friend referred to me as an appraiser the other day) including, not surprisingly, the structural pest control industry (often referred to as termite inspectors).  

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like and respect many folks I know in this business. Some do extraordinarily fine work and provide a vital service, but sadly, this does not cover all comers. There are, in my never-humble opinion a couple of major problems in this industry and, while I’ll try to swerve away form a global analysis of this agglomeration of issues, I will pick one and do a little bit of damage. 

Pest officers, like cardiologist live in their own world with their own set of imperatives. The thing that they do for a living seems, from inside that box to be the center of the universe and the rules, activities and theories that apply to their livelihood appear, from their perspective to be the most important things that exist. While some cardiologist might occasionally admit that the oncologist has something of value to say, they will still think it essential for every patient they meet to have a stress test and an EKG. It’s just a feature of being human to have your eyes stuck on your own head and no one else’s.  

For pest control people, the pest report looks like the most important way to look at the house and the repairs recommended in their reports don’t say “fix the rotten wood but be sure to get to the wiring first because a fire is more dangerous than fungal rot,” right? They just say, fix the rot, treat the ground, replace the porch and so on. Part of the problem is also that, if you only meet a cardiologist, you only hear that perspective and if you only see a pest control report, you don’t get a chance to compare those issues to the many other significant ones that might be presented to you by other persons; including home inspectors (he said, polishing his nails on his vest).  

Again, I will find much to agree with on many a pest report but there’s one thing that seems to get included as a recommendation in many of these reports and has for many decades and that is a call for the “capping” of a foundation. 

Capping is analogous to the capping of a tooth. It’s a covering and enlargement that generally extends upward from the original footing and usually has only a very small amount of concrete extending down over the inside edge and rarely much if any on the outside edge. Now why is this done? A cap is done for the simple reason that moisture and insects can more easily get at the bottom wooden elements of the building when the foundation holds these portions up a very short distance off the ground. When this is the case, it doesn’t take much of an accrual of earth along the inside or outside of the footing to allow wood boring inspects to get at the foundation or for wet earth to allow funguses to propagate along the bottom wooden members leading to rot (and there’s nothing dry about it).  

If we can hold the bottom wooden pieces aloft some 6 inches or so from the ground, they tend to fare far better than when these same “mudsills” and other sticks of wood, sit on or near the ground. 

A lot of what we’re talking about relates to termites but they’re not the whole picture when we’re talking about “grade faults,” which is another term for the condition in which wood and earth are getting too intimate. When they’re actually touching each other, we call it earth-to-wood contact, which is, as they say, a bad thing. 

So when pest inspectors see this condition, they often call for a capping of the foundation as a fix for this excess of intimacy (for shame!). The problem is that they are also engaging in the modification of a major structural component of the house without any real consideration for the structural implications. If, the caps were fairly inexpensive and if they were typically built with earthquakes in mind it might not be such a big deal but neither of these things are true. I’ve looked at something in excess of a thousand pest reports (maybe two) in my career and would say that the bids for capping of foundations that I’ve seen are usually somewhere in the range of two-thirds to three-fourths the cost of foundation replacement for the portions of the foundation that were “called.” So this begs an analysis of the difference between a capped foundation and new one (again, we may only be talking about one side or the whole thing). 

Older foundation that get called for capping are generally quite small in overall dimension and have relatively small bearing areas. In other words, the bottom isn’t that broad and they tend to settle more easily as a result. These older foundations often lack metal reinforcement and good quality concrete. Many older footings are imbalanced, bearing too much to the inside and, as a result, tend to tip slowly to the outside (this is called rotation). So when one is capping, one is left with all of these features with only limited improvement. 

Many older caps were installed with little or no interconnection between the old foundation and the cap and rely upon a “cold joint” or friction to hold them together. Today, workmanship is better but the connection is still inferior to the basic demand that foundations be poured integrally so that they will not separate over time. 

I’m darned curious to see what will happened to these caps when an earthquake hits. It may be that the early ones that lack good connection will snap and drop walls with unhappy results. 

New foundations have better balance (usually being an upside-down T shape), well integrated bolting and very hard concrete throughout. So if you can get all of these things for an extra few thousand over an already costly cap, it seems to me a no-brainer. 

I don’t want to blow by that bolting thing too rapidly because, in our earthquake anticipation, it’s a real issue. Caps are often poorly bolted and almost never to the standard required for conventional foundations. Mudsills, those bottom sticks of wood that rest on the foundation often get stuck in the mud, as it were when they get installed in caps. That is to say that they often don’t sit on the concrete but get embedded in the concrete making bracing and some kinds of bolting more difficult. 

A new foundation (or footing section) is required to have at least a moderate number of bolts installed on each section of mudsill so this becomes one more reason to choose a new foundation (or section) over a cap. 

Now, in fairness, some installers will use what is called a “saddle” when beefing up an old foundation. This is cap with one side (or both) that has been dug out and integrated into the cap. This can result in much better bearing and overall strength and I’m certainly much happier when I see one of these (which is rare), but again, I always want to come back to the question of whether a new foundation, with all there is to recommend it, would have cost much more and the answer is usually no. 

`I was asked to comment on such a case the other day and said that I felt that the client would be better off getting a new foundation installed by a cheaper contractor than to take a cap from a better one. While I never really favor working with a lesser individual, the city oversight and the basic requirements on foundations are so stringent that I rarely see a new foundation that’s been done substantially wrong. We can grouse and moan about the code (and city inspectors) all day but this is one proof of their value. You don’t have to worry too much that a foundation will be done wrong, once the drawings and permits are on the table. 

That said, I’d recommend spending a little more and working with the better contractor. It’s an old saw that higher cost is soon forgotten but bad workmanship lives on day after day and I believe it. 

So, do get a pest inspection from time to time and if your pest guy or gal says that you have a “marginal” or “faulty” grade condition and need to cap, ask very nice if they might be willing to give you a comparable bid for new VS the cap. You won’t just be doing well, you’ll be doing good and here’s why. Every person that does this, pushes the marketplace a bit more in the right direction and eventually, we won’t have to sit around and complain about all those lousy contractors. 

 

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


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday April 27, 2007

Can You Stem the Water Tide? 

 

A faithful Quake Tip reader recently had an emergency at home which leads to this recommendation: check and see if your washer hot and cold manual shut-offs are working, as well as the hot water shut-off that should be on top of your water heater.  

If you have a broken water connection after the next serious quake, if you don’t have what’s called a “gate valve” near the house, you might thank yourself if you had on hand a plumber’s tool for shutting off your water at the meter, usually close to the curb or sidewalk. I’ve seen them in large hardware stores and places like Home Depot. They make it much easier than trying to shut off the water with an adjustable wrench.  

 

 

Larry Guillot is owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and kit supply service. Call him at 558-3299, or visit www.quakeprepare.com.


Berkeley This Week

Friday April 27, 2007

FRIDAY, APRIL 27 

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 David Ratner on “How Stock Markets Work” 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 “Making Whiteness Visible” 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. 

“Residues of the Cold War: Cross Straits and Korean Peninsula” A symposium from 1 to 5:30 p.m. in the Great Hall, Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way. Sponsored by the Institute of East Asian Studies. 642-2809. 

Circle Dancing simple folk dancing with instruction. Potluck at 7 p.m., dancing at 8 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Planning meetings for Dedication to denise brown will be on going every Friday at 2 p.m. at LeConte School, Room 104. Photos, videos and dvd's are welcome to be included in the event. For more information, contact Rita Pettit, PRitaAnn@aol.com, 559-4602. 

Family Pot Luck Shabbat at 6 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring dinner food appropriate for children and non-perisahble ffod for the needy. Sponsored by Kol Hadash. info@kolhadash.org 

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 

“Pursuing Justice in Israel/Palestine” The Jewish Voice for Peace National Conference begins at 7 p.m., followed by a day of speakers on Sun., at Samuel Merritt Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave., near 34th, Oakland. Cost is $25-$200. Advance registration recommended. 465-1777. www.JewishVoiceforPeace.org 

Open the Farm Meet and greet the animals at the Little Farm as you help the farmers with the morning chores. Meet at 9 a.m. at the Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bring Back the Natives Tour of School Gardens throughout the East Bay. Cost is $30. 236-9558. www.BringingBackTheNatives.net 

LeConte Elementary School Multi-cultural Spring Festival “Tastes of the World” from noon to 4 p.m. at 2241 Russell St. www.leconteonline.org 

Berkeley History Center Walking Tour “South West Berkeley Cultural Landscape” led by William Coburn at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. For information on meeting place and to register call 848-0181. 

Mt. Wanda Wildflower Walk Join a Park Ranger for a walk in the hills where John Muir took his daughters. Terrain is steep, wear walking shoes and bring water. Rain cancels. Meet at 9 a.m. at the Cal-Trans Park and Ride lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. 925-228-8860. 

City of El Cerrito Earth Day with volunteer work parties, food, music, an art show, composting demonstrations, an alternative fuel vehicle display, fun activities for children. Barbeque lunch at noon at the El Cerrito Community Center. For more information on the work parties, please contact earthday@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us or call Garth Schultz at 215-4351.  

“Where is Feminism Now?” Panel Discussion on the newly published Feminists Who Changed America by Barbara Love and Nancy Cott at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com  

“Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” with author Jeremy Scahill at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St, Oakland. Tickets $10 in advance, $15 at door, available at independent bookstores, or at 415-255-7296, ext. 253. www.globalexchange.org/events/blackwater 

Volunteers Needed for “Get Ready Berkeley” to distribute information on Pandemic Flu preparations at 10 a.m. at Frances Albrier Community Center, San Pablo Park. 981-5342. 

“Universal Healthcare-How Do We Get There?” A forum with Ron Adler, MD., Susan Bergman, Ann Munoz, MHA, at 10 a.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, Martin Luther King and Hearst.  

E-Waste Recycling for computers and monitors, cell phones, televisions, printers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Whole Foods Market, 3000 Telegraph Ave. 649-1333. 

Know Your Rights Training with Berkeley CopWatch Learn your rights when interating with police from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Cal Carnival for Children from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lower Sproul Plaza with games, prizes and food. CalCarnival@gmail.com 

Berkeley Public Library Teen Services Demonstration of Live Homework Help at 2 p.m. at the Electronic Classroom on the 3rd Floor of the Central Library, at 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6133. 

International Family Fair with games and activities for children, entertainment and food, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the New School od Berkeley, Bonita St. at Cedar. 548-9165. 

WriterCoach Connection Yard Sale and Fundraiser at 2447 Derby St. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The SAT or ACT? Which Test is Right for You? A free test assessment for high school students from 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at Princeton Review, 2176 Shattuck Ave. For information call 845-7900, ext. 111. 

Bolshevik Café “Putting the social in socialism, the comedy in communism and the peace in a piece of pizza” at 7 p.m. at Finn Hall, 1819 10th St. Cost is $5-$15. 415-863-6637. 

Film Screening of “Street Survivors” a Claire Burch film at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. 547-7602. 

Luna Kids Dance Open House from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Studio C, 2640 College Ave. kids@lunakidsdance.org 

Petite Pooches Playgroup for small dogs from 10:30 11:30 a.m., one block north of Solano on Ensenada at Talbot. 524-2459. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 

2nd Annual Children’s Day/Book Day Celebration with music, a magician and origami, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Children's Library, 4th floor, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6107. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Albany Spring Art and Music Festival with rhythm and blues, Taiko drumming, West African dance and more, children’s activities, food and community booths, from noon to 6 p.m. at Memorial Park, Washington at Carmel, Albany. www.albanyca.org 

“The Status of Education in Berkeley” with BUSD Directors Karen Hemphill and John Selawsky at 4 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 

“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.  

El Cerrito Historical Society Spring Meeting will show a video of Sundar Shadi in his home and walking around his garden as he talks about his annual exhibits and his flowers at 1 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507. 

CA Revels Mayday Zoo Event with a Maypole, the Deer Creek Morris Men and other activities at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. 632-9525.  

OakTown Blues & Bar-B-Que, St. Paul’s Episcopal School’s annual auction, will be held from 2 to 6:30 p.m. at Dunsmuir Historic Estate, 2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland. Call for more information and tickets 285-9614. 

“War & Peace: Israel and the New Regional Paradigm” with Israeli security analyst Eran Lerman at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. Cost is $10. 525-3582. 

Berkeley Playreading Group reads Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” at 2 p.m. at 1471 Addison St., cross st. is Sacramento, in rear of the 1473 building. Donation $5. 655-7962.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Ken McKeon on “Inside Inquiry” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 30  

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at the East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, Bancroft & Telegraph. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, MAY 1 

“Energy Policy in California: 2006 Study Results and Aftermath” a League of Women Voters Brown bag Lunch at noon at the Albany Library, Marin and Masonic Aves. 843-8824. 

Free Legal Assistance the first Tues. of the month at 6 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Advance registration required. 526-3720, ext. 5. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Discussion Salon on “Is Society Sick” at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut. 848-2995. 

Teen Babysitting Class An introduction to child development and practical babysitting hints from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. To register call 658-7353.  

“Bodhisattva” A lecture by Rev. Carol Himaka at 7 p.m. at the Jodo Shinshu Center, 2140 Durant Ave. at Fulton St. Registration fee is $10 for three lectures. 809-1460. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at UCB Fiji Fraternity, 2395 Piedmont Ave. To schedule an appointment call 415-531-8554. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. 848-1704.  

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

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

The UCB-BP Deal: Implications for the Public University with Jennifer Washburn, author of “University, Inc.”, Jean Lave, Ignacio Chapela and others at 7 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 

“Our History is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the uban Revolution” A panel discussion at 5 p.m. at the Heller Lounge, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. 

9th Annual Community Job Fair featuring representatives from more than 40 Bay Area employers from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the College of Alameda Central Quad, 555 Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway, Alameda. 748-2208. 

Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 10 a.m. to noon at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165. 

New to DVD: “The Queen” at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome. 548-9840. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, MAY 3 

“Berkeley Rocks” An illustrated lecture on one of Berkeley’s unique neighborhoods by Jonathan Chester at 8 p.m. in the Chapel, Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Cost is $10. Presented by Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. BAHA’s house and Garden Tour of this Thousand Oaks neighborhood will take place on May 6. For information on the lecture and tour please call 841-2242.www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Michael Parenti speaks on “Political Perception & Deception: How to Think About Empire” at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 501 Harrison St. Benefits Middle East Children’s Alliance. Tickets are $15. 1-800-838-3006. 

Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay Art Auction and reception to benefit ASEB's Adult Day Health Care Program, at 6:30 p.m. at Piedmont Community Hall, 711 Highland Ave., Piedmont. 644-8292. 

Living with Ones and Twos Practical advice for new parents with Meg Zweiback, nurse practitioner at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. To register call 658-7353.  

Baby and Toddler Storytime at 10:30 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

ONGOING 

Food Drive for Alameda County Food Bank Drop off canned goods, peanut butter, ceareal, powdered milk, beans, rice and pasta at Citibank, 200 Shattuck Ave. from May 1 to 15. Financial donations always welcome. 635-3663, ext. 318.


Arts Calendar

Tuesday April 24, 2007

TUESDAY, APRIL 24 

THEATER 

Tell It On Tuesday Solo performances at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$12 sliding scale at the door. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Honors Art Show Opening reception at 4 p.m. at the Worth Ryder Gallery, Kroeber Hall, UC Campus.  

FILM 

Academy Film Archive: Recent Preservations with Mark Toscano at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michelle Goldberg presents her new book, “Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism” at 6:30 p.m. in the 3rd floor Community Meeting Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kitredge St. 981-6107.  

Jacob Needleman talks about “Why Can’t We Be Good?” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Free, but donation of $10 suggested. 559-9500. 

A Conversation with Roger Scruton and Zaid Shakir on “Can We Talk About God? Devotion and Extremeism in the Modern Age” at 7 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. 582-1979. www.zaytuna.org 

Shawna Yang Ryan reads from “Locke 1928” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Stephen Prothero discusses “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—And Doesn’t” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Swamp Coolers 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. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Randy Craig Trio at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Sachal Vasandani at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 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 25 

EXHIBITIONS 

“When We Were Very Young” Photography by Nicole Beck Opening reception at 5:30 p.m. at North Gallery, 5231 College Ave. at Broadway, Oakland. Presented by California Colllege of the Arts. www.cca.edu 

FILM 

History of Cinema “An Injury to One” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash presents Robin Becker reading from “The Horse Fair” and Alison Luterman reading from “The Largest Possible Life” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Writing Teachers Write with Cyrus Armajani and students from “Write to Read” at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Roberta Maisel reads from “All Grown Up: Living Happily Ever After with Your Adult Children” at 7:30 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10-$20, benefits Aquarian Minyan. 465-3935. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit with Ron McKean on harpsichord at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

South Berkeley Youth Arts Summit with the Longfellow Middle School Jazz Band and Peace Choir, La Peña Children’s Chorus and The Lab Live Hip Hop Ensemble at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Salif Keita, griot music from West Africa at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

U.C. Jazz at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $6. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rumba Cafe 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.  

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

Brown Bums at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Beckett’s Family Reunion with Nicole and the Sisters in Soul at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Nels Cline Singers at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, APRIL 26 

THEATER 

Subterranean Shakespeare “Macbeth” opens at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., near Rose in Live Oak Park, and runs Thurs.-Sat. to May 26. Tickets are $12-$17. 276-3871.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Prayer for Peace” Mixed media works by Lucien Kubo. Reception at 6 p.m. at Oakland’s Asian Resource Gallery, 310 Eighth St., corner of Harrison. 287-5353. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Thousand Oaks” An illustrated lecture on one of Berkeley’s unique neighborhoods by Trish Hawthorne at 8 p.m. in the Chapel, Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Presented by Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Cost is $10. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

“Bernard Maybeck and the Hillside Movement” A lecture by Tim Holt at 7:30 p.m. at 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $5. 843-8724. 

An Evening with Greg Palast on “Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans: Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild” at 6:30 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$24 avalable from www.gregpalast.com  

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

Regan McMahon describes “Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family Life in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mo’ Phone at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is 85. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Teed Rockwell, touch-style fretboard and Hindustani ragas, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The Winter Blanket, The Trenchermen, Lindi Wiggins at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Rafael Manriquez in concert and celebrating his 60th birthday at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Marian McPartland at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Bombay Crawlers, The Privies, Attack Formation at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Headnodic & Raashan Ahmad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

FRIDAY, APRIL 27 

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. at 72 Cesar Chavez Center, UC Campus. 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 

Subterranean Shakespeare “Macbeth” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., near Rose in Live Oak Park, to May 26. Tickets are $12-$17. 276-3871.  

EXHIBITIONS 

Acrylics on Canvas by David Giulietti Opening reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon and Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. 527-3100. www.arbeatsalon.com 

“Touchable Stories: Richmond” A multi-media, oral history event created by the people of Richmond. Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 6 p.m. through May 13, at 1303 Canal Blvd., Richmond (the former Kaiser Shipyard Cafeteria). Cost is $6-$12. For reservations call 619-3675. www.touchablestories.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jonathan Chester presents a slideshow and lecture on “Berkeley Rocks” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. Some of the homes and gardens will be featured on Berkeley Architectural Heritage’s Spring House Tour on May 6. 704-8222. 

“Music and Message” with Sweet Honey in the Rock on the role of music in the Civil Rights Movement and social activism today at 2 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free.  

Strictly Speaking with David Sederis at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Returning to the Shore” Tribute to James Chaill, connoisseur of Chinese painting at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. all-day symposioum on Sat. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Jazz Poetry Festival with Adam David Miller, Gael Lacock, Avotcja, Modupue and others at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $20. 848-3227. www.hillsideclub.org 

“The Music of Primes” with mathematician Marcus du Sautoy at 5:15 p.m. at the Valley Life Sciences Bldg., Room 2050, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. 642-0448. 

Marta Acosta reads from “Midnight Brunch” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

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. 

De la Canción Protesta al la Canción Propuesta with Holly Near, Linda Tillery, Lichi Fuentes and others at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Kimberly Jackson & “Urban Legends” at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ed Neumaster Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Sambada, Sage, Afro, Barzillian, funk, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Nearly Beloved, folk, country afrobilly, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Evelie Posch and Steve Taylor-Ramirez at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Pat Nevins & Ragged Glory, City Fritter at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Monster Squad, Ceremony 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. 

3rd Date at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Native Elements at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$12. 548-1159.  

Beatropolis at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Marian McPartland at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with magician Diana Shmiana at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stage Door Conservatory “The Hobbit” Sat. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Tied Up On A Rainy Day” Paintings by Bill Jefferson, sculpture by Larry Baumiller. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at The Gallery Of Urban Art, 1746 13th St., Oakland. 910-1833. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Outdoor Poetry Reading at Berkeley Arts Magnet’s Allen Ginsberg Poetry Garden from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1624 Milvia St.  

National Poetry Month Celebration with readings by Denise Newman, Barbara Tomash, Brian Strang, Patrick Duggan, Chad Sweeney, David Holler, Ilya Kaminsky, Bruce Boston, and Martin Woodside at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Jeremy Scahill describes “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St, Oakland. Tickets $10 in advance, $15 at door, available at independent bookstores, or at 415-255-7296, ext. 253.  

“A Gathering of Greatness" Allegorical photographs of famous people in the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, by Dorothy Levitt Mayers. Lecture at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, Candace Falk, Helene Goodwin, Kathy Johnson, PhoeBe ANNE (sorgen) discuss “Where is Feminism Now?” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books 486-0698.  

Rhythm & Muse Open Mic with Tracy Koretsky at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Opera Free Concert at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Harp Music with Chris Caswell Celtic, Latin and Middle Easterm muisc on hand-made harps at 4 p.m. at Magic Gardens Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave., off Seventh St. 644-2351. 

Flauti Diversi “Bella Rosas” a program of renaissance and contemporary works for recorder trio at 8 p.m. at St Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Tickets are $15-$18, reservations recommended. 527-9840. 

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. 

Kensington Symphony performs Smetana’s “Ma Vlast” at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Suggested donation $12-$15, children free. 524-9912. 

Ronnie Gilbert, Sandy Tolan, Charlie Varon, Jeff Halper, and more, at 7 p.m. at the Fontaine Auditorium, Samuel Merritt Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave., Oakland, in a benefit for Jewish Voice for Peace. Tickets $15-$25 sliding scale. 465-1777. 

Quinteto Latino Compositions by Latin American masters at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

Classical African Music and Dance at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988. 

National Jazz Appreciation Month BMI & The Roster Super Company at 7 p.m. at Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. 836-4649.  

Sweet Honey in the Rock at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Steve Mann and Friends at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Jesus Diaz & su QBA, Cuban timba dance music, at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Music on the Commons at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kotoja at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance leson with comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Rebecca Griffin at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Chris Zanardi Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Steve Forbert at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

 

 

 

 

 

Juliet Green and Moodswing at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

David Feffrey’s Jazz Fourtet at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

The Pine Needles, skiffle band, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Captain Mike and the Sea Kings, Amy Lou’s Blues at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Born/Dead, Signal Lost at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 

CHILDREN 

Stage Door Conservatory “The Hobbit” at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20 at the door. www.juliamorgan.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Works by Carla Van Slyke, Rita Sklar, Charlotte Britton and Jack Anderson Reception for the artists at 2 p.m. at Solano Groll, 1133 Solano Ave., Albany. 525-8686. 

“Celebrate the Earth” a show by members of the California Watercolor Association and hand-blown glass by Michael Sosin, on display at the Community Art Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. through June 8. 204-1667.  

“Jazz on High” Art Show and Jazz Vespers featuring the Art of Andres Guerrero and jazz by Dave Rocha & Quartet at 4 p.m. at High Street Presbyterian Church, 1945 High St, Oakland. www.highstreetpresbyterian.com 

“In Earth’s Shoe” drawings and prints by YaChin You and “The Prom Queen Series” paintings by Brooke Hatch. Artists’ reception at 7 p.m. at 1811 Carleton St. # A. 847-6272. 

 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Amy Wachspress reads from “The Call to Shakabaz” at 6 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Jacqueline Bautista reads from her stories about modern Spain, “Fiestas” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra features Gabriel Faure’s Requiem at 4:30 p.m. at Saint Joseph The Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations appreciated. www.bcco.org 

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. 

California Bach Society “A Madrigal History Tour” at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$25. 415-262-0272. www.calbach.org 

William Beatty, pianist, Marvin Sanders, flute at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893.  

Theater in Song Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano with music by Jake Heggie and Ricky Ian Gordon at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $62. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Ravi Shankar, sitar, at 7 p.m. at at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

“Songs of Lesser Known Writers” Dave Shank, piano, at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St., corner of W. Richmond Ave., Point Richmond. Suggested donation $10. 236-0527. 

Healing Muses and Octangle, wind octet, at 4 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Ian Tyson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Gift Horse at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Balkan Folkdance at 1:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Battle of the Bands at 6 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Shotwell, Sonskull, Coming Up Roses, Shorebird at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 30 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Aurora Theatre Staged Readings “Happyslap” by Laura Jacqmin at 7:30 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. For tickets call 843-4822. 

Alistair Horne will discuss “A Savage War of Peace” and the parallels between the Algerian War, the subject of his 1977 book, and the current Iraq War, at TIME at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Co-Sponsored by Moe’s Books. Donation $5. 848-3227.  

“Art of the Book” with Malcolm Margolin, Publisher, Heyday Books and Amy Thomas, owner of Pegasus and Pendragon Books at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6150. 

Steven Bach Describes “Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl” Hitler’s filmmaker, at 7 p.m. at Cody’d Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Masha Hamilton reads from “Camel Bookmobile” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poetry Express with open theme night on “secrets” with special guest Blair 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.  

Berkeley High School Jazz Bands at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

 


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Tuesday April 24, 2007

A TRIBUTE TO  

JAMES CAHILL 

 

UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus James Cahill’s collection of Chinese and Japanese paintings form the core of the Asian art collection at the Berkeley Art Museum. Former students and scholars in the field will gather for a conference in his honor on this weekend at the museum, beginning Friday at 5:30 and continuing all day Saturday. 

Known as the Ching Yuan Chai Collection, after Professor Cahill's studio name, this group of paintings has long been admired by scholars, the public, and most intently by the many students who studied with Cahill, many of whom consider to be among the most knowledgeable connoisseurs of Chinese painting in the 20th century.  

This installation, which continues through May 27, provides an overview of the Berkeley Art Museum's holdings of Chinese paintings. For more information, call 642-0808 or see www.bampfa.edu. 

 

TOUCHABLE STORIES 

 

A multi-media oral history exhibit is on display this Friday and Saturday in Richmond to challenge public perception of the city by telling the story directly from the people who are living it. Designed by a host of area artists, this 10-room tour is an intimate and interactive journey into the life and times of Richmond. Tours are one hour in length with an audience size limited to 15. The showings are the next three weekends: Fridays (April 27, May 4 and 11) at 8 p.m., and Saturdays (April 28, May 5 and 12) at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. 1303 Canal St. $12. Richmond residents/seniors/students $6. (Families: pay what you can. Tent City participants free) Reservations required: 619-3675.


Marian McPartland Embodies Jazz History

By Ira Steingroot, Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 24, 2007

If you’ve seen the film A Great Day in Harlem, you may have noticed that of the 57 jazz legends who showed up to be photographed by Art Kane standing on the stoop of a Harlem brownstone at 17 East 126th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues on an August morning in 1958, only three of them were women and only one of the three was white. 

The three women were the great Kansas City pianist, Mary Lou Williams, known as “the lady who swings the band” when she performed with the Andy Kirk orchestra; vocalist Maxine Sullivan, famous for swinging Loch Lomond; and Marian McPartland, originally from Berkshire, England, who has spent the last 64 years playing jazz piano and educating people all over the world about this quintessentially black American music. 

Besides being the only white woman in the photo, and the only player not born in the USA, McPartland is one of only six survivors from that photo shoot, along with Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin, Hank Jones, Horace Silver and Benny Golson. Golson’s presence, in what may be the most famous jazz photo of all time, led to his small but pivotal role in Steven Spielberg’s film, The Terminal. 

McPartland’s film career has been more limited than that, but her radio career has been astounding. Her weekly one hour public radio show, Piano Jazz, is the longest-running cultural program on NPR. Her first show aired in 1978 and over the years she has interviewed, featured and dueted with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Mary Lou Williams, Dorothy Donegan (a great jazz pianist otherwise given short shrift by jazz critics), Jay McShann and Johnny Guarnieri. 

Many of these shows are available on CD and they retain their musical and historical interest after repeated listening because, for once, the interviewer knows the true value of the music and musicians she is interviewing. She also knows what to ask them to play to showcase their lives and talents. When she joins her guests at the piano, the duets are spontaneous examples of the kind of telepathic communication plus virtuosity that only occurs at the highest level of jazz performance.  

I first heard McPartland at the Charcoal House in my hometown of Toledo, Ohio around 1965. She and her husband, cornetist Jimmy McPartland, an original member of Chicago’s Austin High School Gang, were playing the local restaurant. She was the pianist in Jimmy’s Dixieland band and when the band took a breather she continued to perform solo. Only it was not Dixieland, but bebop piano that she played between the band’s sets. Jimmy and Marian had met during WWII through the USO and, although her style was still evolving, they found a way to perform together without any of the rancor that was usually associated with Dixieland/bop confrontations. 

Her style has continued to evolve, but she still plays with the same crystalline clarity, spinning out flowing, articulate right hand melodic lines while backing them with inventive left hand harmonies and rhythmic accents. She has obviously learned from bebop pianists, but she also has a profound knowledge and understanding of the entire jazz keyboard tradition. That quality that makes her radio show so fascinating is rooted in her own curiosity and desire to learn about all the ways jazz can be played and swung on a keyboard. It is that combination of eagerness to learn, technical mastery, a brilliant mind still able to be amazed at what takes place during the jazz creative process and a soul overflowing with song that makes Marian McPartland one of the great living giants of jazz.  

 

 

Marian McPartland appears Thursday through Sunday at Yoshi’s, with shows at 8 and 10 p.m., except on Sundays when they are at 7 and 9 p.m. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com. 


The Theater: Aurora Production Satirizes Contemporary Architecture

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 24, 2007

A young Asian woman in a fashionable, low-cut black dress and high heels busies herself with last minute fussing over the white bulk of an architectural model, positioned on a table elevated enough so that she needs to climb above it on a high tech stepladder to reach down into its interior. 

Meanwhile, a video projection plays on the screen above and behind her, on a wall covered with floor plans, vying for attention with the other, occasionally outre’, architectural models positioned above the stage of the Aurora Theatre for the production of Oren Safdie’s aptly titled play, Private Jokes, Public Places. 

On the screen is the extreme close-up of a smiling, dark-haired Caucasian man with an almost decorative, ostentatiously foreign accent, addressing the camera in a relentless torrent of words: “ ... as if you created a dialectic ... most basic poetic structures ... allows for the true viscera without pusillanimity.” 

The camera pans tightly over what seems a panel, three men exuberantly spouting the most absurd meta-language that seems to refer to, qualify, judge or exalt stray citations of examples of architecture—or, more often, projects. The Aurora audience is already laughing, and in a moment will be pressed into service, literally as an audience, not of a play, but of an ideological brouhaha erupting out of a review by distinguished men of the profession of student projects. 

The panel disbands, the screen goes black, and the three men seen projected on it enter the third dimension through the opposite entrance into the theater, carrying chairs, routing a harried videographer, who sets up at the back of an aisle. The brightly lit Aurora house has now become the architectural school equivalent of an anatomical theater--or dissecting lesson--with one of the suited gentlemen, obviously the academic advisor, advising “those of you who have just joined us” that there will be “the tour of a hospital wing for anorexia ... followed by a picnic lunch,” but that, first, “Well, this is Margaret.” 

It seems we’re all on a first name basis in a breezy, friendly—if self-conscious—academic environment, the extended friendliness ricocheting back from the professional guests. But this is belied by Margaret’s very personal self-consciousness, expressed in many ways as she endeavors to present her project, a public swimming pool designed to scrupulously respond to private needs and fears, which she illustrates with anecdotes from personal experience. Margaret wants the pool and its surrounding structure to be a refuge, “but not claustrophobic.” 

This occasions a diatribe by Ehrhardt, the gangling professional European with a leer, all over the map with his mixed metaphors, far afield from Margaret’s obvious intentions. He waxes Nietzchean, neo-Freudian, post-modern with compelling ambiguity, fashionable yet fully adjustable: “Thanks to psychoanalysis, we only have to communicate visually ... to be one with God!—as an iconoclasic symbol, of course ... You see what I’m getting at; architecture is not about words; architecture is about what’s in here [his hand grazes Margaret’s breast] ... No, Margaret, don’t think architecture is about words!” 

And many, many words follow, ostensibly about architecture, swarming like bees, stinging with issues of class, gender and race (when told her ideas have “a Pei-like quality,” Margaret explodes: “He’s Chinese. I’m Korean!”)—which charmingly remind the learned gentlemen of the ’60s. 

Unlike other plays which use theoretical physics, fine art or poetry as a flimsy, discardable metaphor for social misunderstanding or personal passion, Private Jokes reverses the field and takes on metaphors as a means to misappropriate humanistic ideals for private preoccupation and gain. And it remains a comedy throughout, as directed by Barbara Damachek, an even more farcical tea party in which Mad Hatter Robert Parsons (as gangling professional-European-with-a-leer Erhardt), March Hare Charles Dean (as puckish-then-prissy Colin) and Dormouse Max Gordon Brown (nebbishy advisor William) drag Margaret, a disbelieving Alice, through the ruined place settings they’ve gleefully befouled. 

Through it all, M. J. Kang, for whom the part was written, defines Margaret contrapuntally with her distinctive voice and body language, her facial expressions ranging from melancholy to uncomprehending to furious, turning the tables on her inquisitors, but with a unique humor. 

As a farce, even tour-de-force, which has to top itself, the climax, in which the hilarity finally provokes a display of the men’s hysteria and Margaret’s naked pride and contempt, is a little bit hackneyed, very much like ‘60s memorabilia. But the brief denouement, of her looking down on her spurned model like a mother into a cradle, is good, and the play stands as a paradox, a wry and sanguine view of the aesthetics—no, metaphysics—of contemporary architecture and all that the shape of human dwelling places can possibly imply. 

 

 

PRIVATE JOKES, PUBLIC PLACES 

8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays through May 12 at the Aurora Theatre. $12. 2081 Addison St. 525-1620.


‘Price of Fire’ Spotlights Unknown History of Latin America

By Conn Hallinan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 24, 2007

There was a time in history when travel diaries were the way people in London, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam found out about the countries they had yoked to their imperial ambitions. India, Sumatra, and rural Donegal—the places that funneled raw materials and gold into the great imperial centers—came alive in journals and long letters to leading newspapers. Most of the diarists focused on the exotic, but not a few accurately predicted that no matter how many dragoons were sent to terrorize the Irish countryside, insurrectionary groups like the “Whiteboys” would appear in their wake to burn down a landlord’s house. Or divined that all the “khaki boys” in the British Army would never quell the fierce Pushtin tribesmen of the Northern Frontier. 

Benjamin Dangl, the author of The Price of Fire, is a sort of 21st century version of these 18th and 19th century commentators who disdained the colonial comforts of Dublin or Delhi to head off into the outback. He rides buses into Bolivia’s altiplano, chews coca leaves in a Potosi park, and gulps his coffee as a cloud of tear gas descends on him in Buenos Aires. His five-year odyssey took him though Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Argentina, all the while recording what might be called the death of the Monroe Doctrine. 

While the book is subtitled “resource wars and social movements in Bolivia,” Dangl covers most the countries that make up the Andes crescent. His thesis is that Bolivia’s “water war” of 2000 sparked similar uprisings in neighboring countries over the control of resources and resistance to the neo-liberal “Washington Consensus,” whose model of open markets and punishing austerity has plunged the southern hemisphere into economic chaos and bone-grinding poverty. 

Dangl sees “common threads” between land struggles in Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil, the seizure of Argentine factories by unemployed workers, and Venezuelan barrio members turning a prison into a community center. While these specific movements are of our time, the spirit that drives them is hardly new. A good part of the book chronicles the long history of resistance, first to the Spanish, than to the avaricious elites and rapacious corporations that followed in their wake. The current struggles, he points out, have deep roots on the continent, and are built on the memories—sometimes the bones—of previous generations.  

But each great struggle has a transforming moment: a Puebla, an Easter Rebellion, a Soweto. For Bolivia it was a war over water.  

The Cochabamba water war was sparked off when the World Bank pressured the Bolivian government into selling local water rights to the huge, California-based Bechtel Corporation. The sale was textbook neo-liberalism: private enterprise and the free market would come in, upgrade the water system and provide for all. Instead, Bechtel raised rates by as much as 200 percent, seized control of irrigation systems and rural wells and, in the words of author William Finnegan, “stole the rain.”  

This privatization mania—led by the two horsemen of global capital, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—swept through South America during the 1990s, turning the continent’s resources over to multinational corporations for pennies on the dollar. In one particularly egregious example, Argentina sold off its fleet of state-owned Boeing 707s to a French company for $1.40 apiece. The planes are still being flown.  

But in Cochabamba the people took a stand against both the largest construction company in the world and their own government. And they won. 

“There is no organizer like victory,” Ho Chi Minh once remarked. The water war triumph led to a similar campaign in Alto, Bolivia, and then spread to Argentina and Uruguay. It also brought the issue of water privatization to the attention of the international movement against globalization. In Bolivia it paved the way for the great Gas War of 2003, which in turn laid the groundwork for the election of the Movement Toward Socialism’s Evo Morales as president.  

Dangl argues that the Bolivian resistance resonated throughout the rest of Latin America. There is certainly truth in this, although in its battle against the IMF, Argentina also drew on its own history of a powerful trade union movement and strong left. In places like Paraguay and Uruguay there is little doubt that Bolivia set an example for others to follow. 

But the book is not about who should get credit for what, it’s about the fact that resistance produces concrete benefits, whether they be for landless campesinos in Paraguay, unemployed factory workers in Argentina, or illiterate barrio dwellers in Caracas.  

And all of these people come alive in the Price of Fire. Dangl’s reporting—which brings to mind John Reed’s “Insurgent Mexico”—is filled with images of what Daniel O’Connor once called “the great common people.” There is coca farmer Leonilda Zurita, dressed in traditional garb, chatting up a reporter from the BBC on her cell phone. There is a former soldier turned rapper earnestly explaining why he took up the fight against the IMF. And a chilling interview with a pair of right-wing students in Bolivia’s conservative and restive Santa Cruz Department. 

One of the book’s strong points is that, while the author celebrates the growing tide of resistance, he has no illusions about how difficult the future will be. The people of Cochabamba won the water war, but, as Dangl notes, “creating a successful public-run water system proved to be harder than many citizens imagined.”  

Dangl eschews rose-colored glasses, keeping a certain political independence about the current situation in Latin America. For instance, while he cheers on the growing power of the Left, he is also critical of Brazilian President Lula de Silva for reversing his support for land occupations by landless campesinos. He even has sharp words for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for seizing the land of indigenous people.  

Nor does he think the colossus of the north has been vanquished. Dangl warns that the U.S. is using the war on drugs as “a convenient way to continue post Cold War intervention in Latin American countries.” U.S. military spending in the region has more than doubled during the Bush Administration.  

His ability to balance embracing those involved in the struggle, with maintaining a certain analytical distance keeps the book from being just a well-written and engaging piece of anti-globalism cheerleading. 

While the book’s main focus is the current situation, Dangl packs a lot of history into its modest size, history about which most Americans haven’t the foggiest idea. Who knew that the bloody Chaco War (1832-35) between Bolivia and Paraguay was initiated by Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell? That may seem like esoteric history, but the bitterness left by the Chaco War played no little role in fueling the Great Gas War of 2003.  

The Price of Fire is about everyone from grassroots organizers to presidential candidates, and they all get a chance to have their say. It’s a book about big things, like the IMF, world trade, and international finance. But it is also about small moments that transform. Cochabamba grassroots organizer Oscar Olivera distills the formula that led to the water war victory: “we lost our sense of fear.” The Price of Fire is about how people lose their fear, and when the poor and the disposed of the world lose their fear, the pillars of empire tremble. 

 

Conn Hallinan is an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a winner of a Project Censored Award, and did his Ph.D. dissertation on the history of insurrectionary organizations in Ireland.


Green Neighbors: Welcome the Flowers That Bloom in the Spring

By Ron Sullivan
Tuesday April 24, 2007

Having ranted about the allergenic pollen from certain flowering trees—the sorts one might not even think of as “flowering” except in the taxonomic sense—allow me to spend a few inches on thanks and praise for their more conspicuous brethren. 

From January onward, we’re blessed by flowering trees on our streets and in our public and visible places. The first flowering plum I used to notice was one that stood behind the recycling center, now closed, at Dwight and Martin Luther King. I don’t know whether it was genetics or its situation—reflected light and heat from buildings or some such thing—but it always shone like a beacon to reassure me that winter really wouldn’t last forever this year either. 

I missed a lot of the plum blossom show this year, including the one in our own backyard, as I was in Florida having the opposite of fun. But despite the gloomy weather I came back to, the street trees were offering a welcome that looked good even after time in the semitropics, where something’s always blooming prolifically.  

We do pretty much have the best of several climatic worlds here, with flowering plums and peaches and quinces from northern places, crape myrtle and dogwood and magnolias from our own Southeast, tibouchinas and jacarandas from the semitropics, bottlebrush trees and paperbarks and New Zealand Christmas trees (those are the ones that look very like Hawai’ian ’ohia lehua) from over the South Pacific, pears and rhododendrons from Asia, and our own California native—if thus far underused—species of dogwood and cherry and ironwood.  

Big showy flowers evolved in plants—to risk a teleological metaphor—to attract pollinators more efficient, or at least more directed, than the wind. This isn’t to say that trees with big flowers are “more evolved”—less basal, as taxonomists say it, and more remotely related to ancestral forms—than birches and mulberries and oaks and such, the small-green-flowered kinds. In fact, magnolias seem (as of the last big analysis I’ve seen) to be among the oldest families of trees, and you’re hard put to find a more conspicuous flower.  

In fact, some of those magnolias flower not only before they leaf out, but before winter’s half over. Some of those are from Asia, and their distribution—southern North America, mid-Asia, and not a lot in between—speaks of an old, old line that has stood its ground while the ground was moving and changing climatically beneath it.  

One could argue, if one were to stay in that teleological groove, that fruit trees evolved not only to manipulate insects, birds, bats and such to move their genetic material around, but to further manipulate birds and mammals and fruit-eaters in general into moving their seeds around after they’d formed. (One would have to further stretch meaning to do that; as Joe pointed out similarly last week, one can’t strictly be said to manipulate if one lacks hands.)  

Strolling further along that line of thought, flowering plants of great beauty and adaptibility have managed to enlist humans to distribute their descendants all over the world. Look where those trees have come from; there’s not much chance they could’ve sent even so sturdy a seedcarrier as the coco de mer so far as northern California, never mind so far inland as even San Pablo Avenue.  

And consider trees like Franklinia alatamaha, whose survival is strictly a matter of ex situ conservation: The species, like the less showy but symbolic ginkgo, is long gone except where we’ve planted it. In neither case do we know, precisely, what caused the extinction, so we can’t blame ourselves for it. 

The spent petals of that metaphor are drifting around my head, and the plums and quite a few others have been stripped of flowers by time, wind, and rain over the past few weeks. But the flaxleaf paperbarks are starting to bloom, and the red horsechestnuts are balancing those gorgeous candles on their branches, and here come black locust blooms too. (As red horsechestnut has a white-flowered form, black locusts come in pink and white—the “black” refers to someone’s perception of their bark color.)  

Beauty as perceived by humans is adaptive for plants. Never mind all that; I’m grateful for it and rejoice in it as it softens the utilitarian edges of our cities. The trees seem to think we’re worthy of such pleasure, even if sometimes our fellow humans don’t.  

 

 

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

Flowers on an Eastern dogwood in a North Berkeley garden.  

 


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday April 24, 2007

TUESDAY, APRIL 24 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. at the Big Springs Staging Area off South Park Drive, Tilden Park. For information and to register call 525-2233.  

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult. We will explore the seasons from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

“Can We Talk About God?” Devotion And Extremism In The Modern Age with Roger Scruton, conservative British writer and philosopher, and Zaid Shakir, resident scholar at the Zaytuna Institute at 7 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. 582-1979. 

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. 

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

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St. MelDancing@aol.com 

“Hearing Spirit: Social Thresholds and Ears of the Heart” with David Elliot at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley, at the corner of McKinley and Bancroft. 527-2935. www.ahimsaberkeley.org 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25 

Teach-In and Vigil Against American Torture every Wed. at noon at Boalt Hall, Bancroft Way at College Ave.  

Walk, Talk, Buck the Fence What’s at stake in the Ecology of Berkeley’s Strawberry Canyon A walk at 5 p.m. every Wed. with Ignacio Chapela and expert guests to discuss what is at stake in the proposed steps for the filling of the Canyon by the UC-LBL Rad-Labs, and now British Petroleum. http://canyonwalks.blogspot.com  

Earth Day 2007: Will Unchecked Profiteering Kill our Planet? with Tod Brilliant, environmentalist, and Nina Rizzo of Global Exchange at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

New to DVD: “Notes on a Scandal” at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “What Do You Say After You Say Hello?” by Eric Berne, M.D. at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Coffee Shop, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, APRIL 26 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds, who may be accompanied by an adult. We will explore the seasons from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

“Thousand Oaks” An illustrated lecture on one of Berkeley’s unique neighborhoods by Trish Hawthorne at 8 p.m. in the Chapel, Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Presented by Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Cost is $10. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.com 

Biofuels: A Conversation between science, engineering, ecology, poitics and urban design at 7 p.m. at 750 Davis Hall, UC Campus.  

Greg Palast’s “From Baghdad to New Orleans” at 6:30 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$10. Sponsored by Speak Out and KPFA FM. 601-0182. 

“Know Your Rights to Break the ICE” An educational forum on immigrant rights at 6:30 p.m. at Rosa Parks Elementary School, 920 Allston Way. Sponsored by Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action. 665-5821. 

California’s Mental Health Oversight Commission Public Hearing to solicit input on personal experiences of mental health stigma and suggestions for policies to combat stigma, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Emeryville Hilton Garden Inn, 1800 Powell St., Emeryville. 916-445-1104. 

“Esoteric Buddhism During the Song Dynasty” with Prof. Charles D. Orzech, of UNC, at 6:30 p.m. at the Jodo Shinshu Center, 2140 Durant Ave.Free, but RSVP requested. 809-1444. 

Multicultural Dinner and Fundraiser for schools in Nepal, Thailand and Kenya at 5 p.m. at restaurants in Berkeley, followed by a cultural program at Yogakula. Tickets are $25. 849-4983 or 549-0611. 

Dining Out for Life to Fight AIDS at various East Bay restaurants. For a list of participating restaurants see www.diningoutforlife.org 

“Marxism and the Call of the Future: Conversations on Ethics, History, Politics” at 7 p.m. at 3335 Dwinelle Hall, UC Campus. 848-1196. 

Great Books Discussion Group meets to discuss “Wild Duck” by Henrik Ibsen, at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3700, ext. 16. 

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. 

Easy Does It Emergency Services Board of Directors' Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. All welcome. 845-5513. edi@easyland.org 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, APRIL 27 

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 David Ratner on “How Stock Markets Work” 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.  

Film Festival for Diversity “Making Whiteness Visible” 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. 

“Residues of the Cold War: Cross Straits and Korean Peninsula” A symposium from 1 to 5:30 p.m. in the Great Hall, Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way. Sponsored by the Institute of East Asian Studies. 642-2809. 

Circle Dancing simple folk dancing with instruction. Potluck at 7 p.m., dancing at 8 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Planning meetings for Dedication to denise brown will be on going every Friday at 2 p.m. at LeConte School, Room 104. Photos, videos and dvd's are welcome to be included in the event. For more information, contact Rita Pettit, PRitaAnn@aol.com, 559-4602. 

Family Pot Luck Shabbat at 6 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring dinner food appropriate for children and non-perisahble ffod for the needy. Sponsored by Kol Hadash. info@kolhadash.org 

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 

“Pursuing Justice in Israel/Palestine” The Jewish Voice for Peace National Conference begins at 7 p.m., followed by a day of speakers on Sun., at Samuel Merritt Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne Ave., near 34th, Oakland. Cost is $25-$200. Advance registration recommended. 465-1777. www.JewishVoiceforPeace.org 

Open the Farm Meet and greet the animals at the Little Farm as you help the farmers with the morning chores. Meet at 9 a.m. at the Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bring Back the Natives Tour of School Gardens throughout the East Bay. Cost is $30. 236-9558. www.BringingBackTheNatives.net 

LeConte Elementary School Multi-cultural Spring Festival “Tastes of the World” from noon to 4 p.m. at 2241 Russell St. www.leconteonline.org 

Berkeley History Center Walking Tour “South West Berkeley Cultural Landscape” led by William Coburn at 10 a.m. Cost is $8-$10. For information on meeting place and to register call 848-0181. 

Mt. Wanda Wildflower Walk Join a Park Ranger for a walk in the hills where John Muir took his daughters. Terrain is steep, wear walking shoes and bring water. Rain cancels. Meet at 9 a.m. at the Cal-Trans Park and Ride lot at the corner of Alhambra Ave. and Franklin Canyon Rd., Martinez. 925-228-8860. 

City of El Cerrito Earth Day with volunteer work parties, food, music, an art show, composting demonstrations, an alternative fuel vehicle display, fun activities for children. Barbeque lunch at noon at the El Cerrito Community Center. For more information on the work parties, please contact earthday@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us or call Garth Schultz at 215-4351.  

“Where is Feminism Now?” Panel Discussion on the newly published Feminists Who Changed America by Barbara Love and Nancy Cott at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com  

“Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” with author Jeremy Scahill at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St, Oakland. Tickets $10 in advance, $15 at door, available at independent bookstores, or at 415-255-7296, ext. 253. www.globalexchange.org/events/blackwater 

Volunteers Needed for “Get Ready Berkeley” to distribute information on Pandemic Flu preparations at 10 a.m. at Frances Albrier Community Center, San Pablo Park. 981-5342. 

“Universal Healthcare-How Do We Get There?” A forum with Ron Adler, MD., Susan Bergman, Ann Munoz, MHA, at 10 a.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, Martin Luther King and Hearst.  

E-Waste Recycling for computers and monitors, cell phones, televisions, printers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Whole Foods Market, 3000 Telegraph Ave. 649-1333. 

Know Your Rights Training with Berkeley CopWatch Learn your rights when interating with police from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Cal Carnival for Children from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lower Sproul Plaza with games, prizes and food. CalCarnival@gmail.com 

Berkeley Public Library Teen Services Demonstration of Live Homework Help at 2 p.m. at the Electronic Classroom on the 3rd Floor of the Central Library, at 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6133. 

International Family Fair with games and activities for children, entertainment and food, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the New School od Berkeley, Bonita St. at Cedar. 548-9165. 

WiterCoach Connection Yard Sale and Fundraiser at 2447 Derby St. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The SAT or ACT? Which Test is Right for You? A free test assessment for high school students from 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at Princeton Review, 2176 Shattuck Ave. For information call 845-7900, ext. 111. 

Bolshevik Café “Putting the social in socialism, the comedy in communism and the peace in a piece of pizza” at 7 p.m. at Finn Hall, 1819 10th St. Cost is $5-$15. 415-863-6637. 

Film Screening of “Street Survivors” a Claire Burch film at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. 547-7602. 

Luna Kids Dance Open House from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, Studio C, 2640 College Ave. kids@lunakidsdance.org 

Petite Pooches Playgroup for small dogs from 10:30 11:30 a.m., one block north of Solano on Ensenada at Talbot. 524-2459. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 

2nd Annual Children’s Day/Book Day Celebration with music, a magician and origami, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Children's Library, 4th floor, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6107. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Albany Spring Art and Music Festival with rhythm and blues, Taiko drumming, West African dance and more, children’s activities, food and community booths, from noon to 6 p.m. at Memorial Park, Washington at Carmel, Albany. www.albanyca.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. Cancelled only by heavy rain. 525-2233.  

El Cerrito Historical Society Spring Meeting will show a video of Sundar Shadi in his home and walking around his garden as he talks about his annual exhibits and his flowers at 1 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507. 

CA Revels Mayday Zoo Event with a Maypole, the Deer Creek Morris Men and other activities at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo. 632-9525.  

OakTown Blues & Bar-B-Que, St. Paul’s Episcopal School’s annual auction, will be held from 2 to 6:30 p.m. at Dunsmuir Historic Estate, 2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland. Call for more information and tickets 285-9614. 

“War & Peace: Israel and the New Regional Paradign” with Israeli security analyst Eran Lerman at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. Cost is $10. 525-3582. 

Berkeley Playreading Group reads Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” at 2 p.m. at 1471 Addison St., cross st. is Sacramento, in rear of the 1473 building. Donation $5. 655-7962.  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Ken McKeon on “Inside Inquiry” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, APRIL 30  

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at the East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, Bancroft & Telegraph. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., April 24, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., April 25, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. Gil Dong, 981-5502.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed., April 25, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., April 26, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.


Corrections

Tuesday April 24, 2007

In an April 13 story on labor relations in the Berkeley schools, a school employee’s name was misspelled. Her name is Anita Thomson. 

 

Leon Litwack’s name was misspelled in the April 20 story “Historian Leon Litwak Retires with Golden Apple.” Jimi Hendrix’s name was also misspelled. 

Litwack will give his last lecture for his course, History 7B, at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 7, in Wheeler Auditorium.